The non-invasive fetal electrocardiography (fECG) extraction from maternal abdominal signals is one of the most promising modern fetal monitoring techniques. However, the non-invasive fECG signal is heavily contaminated with noise and overlaps with other prominent signals like the maternal ECG. In this work we propose a novel approach in non-invasive fECG extraction using the swarm decomposition (SWD) to isolate the fetal components from the abdominal signal. Accompanied with the use of higher-order statistics (HOS) for R peak detection, the application of the proposed method to the Abdominal and Direct Fetal ECG PhysioNet Database resulted in fetal R peak detection sensitivity of 99.8% and a positive predictability of 99.8%. Our results demonstrate the applicability of SWD and its potentiality in extracting fECG of high morphological quality with more deep decomposition levels, in order to connect the extracted structural characteristics of the fECG with the health status of the fetus.
Previous studies showed inconsistent results with the effects of KT on muscle activity and dynamics of lower limbs. In these studies, no unified method nor exercise was defined. The effects of KT is important to validate on healthy individuals to validate the KT as a treatment to lower limbs and joints injuries for both sports and normal people populations. Even though the KT tape was invented in 1970s and had been used extensively since then, the studies to support its effectiveness initiated in 2008. In this study, we will investigate the effects of KT on muscle activity and dynamics of ankle and knee joints during 40degrees knee flexion. The assessment of changes is done using joint position test (JPT), which is considered a clinical measurement for assessing proprioception. In addition, the squatting exercise is a routine activity that is performed by healthy people in daily routine, not only in sports.
Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising thermally driven separation process, particularly for high salinity brines. However, it relatively high energy consumption, compared to RO, is considered as one of its main drawbacks. A major portion of energy consumption in MD systems goes to heating the circulating high saline feed. Challenges such as temperature polarization and the need for repeated replacement of the corroded coils in the thermal heaters, are raised from the same problem. The integration of self-heating (electro-thermal) membranes inside the MD module provide localized heating effect, which helps in eliminating the preceding mentioned challenges. Because of their high specific surface area, high chemical stability and reasonable microporous structure, carbon based materials such as CNTs are investigated in this study. The performance of electrically conductive MWCNT based membranes as self-heating (electro-thermal) membranes is studied. Here, CNT/PVDF composite membranes were fabricated using simple tape casting technique on different substrates
Date (phoenix dactylifera) fruits contain a high amount of monosaccharides (fructose and glucose). These naturally occurring simple sugar forms are easily assimilated by human metabolism. The extraction of these sugars from date fruit is showing potential as an appropriate and superior alternative to the commercial refined-sugar. The conventional date syrup extraction process has many challenges, such as low sugar recovery and low extraction efficiency. This study reports the production of liquid date sugar using the sub-critical water extraction technique. A maximum product yield of 29.3% was obtained at the optimal operating conditions of 140 ?C temperature, 20 min of extraction time, feed-to-solvent ratio of 15%, and 400 rpm agitation speed. This work defines a new technique for the fruit sugar extraction from dates which could be either used directly or further processed into soluble solid sugar product by an appropriate drying process.
Cu-doped TiO2 was prepared by a simple sol-gel process, where Pt nanoparticles were subsequently photodeposited for improved photocatalytic activity. Reduced graphene oxide was then impregnated onto the Pt/Cu-TiO2 to form the final photocatalytic nanocomposite. The properties of the graphene-impregnated Pt/Cu-TiO2 photocatalyst were characterized by a number of analytical and spectroscopic methods, including XRD, Raman, DRS, PL, TEM, STEM-EDX, BET, TPD, and FT-IR. The photocatalytic reduction of gaseous CO2 and liquid CO2 in the absence of a reductant and under UV light was investigated. The rate of product formation was found to be higher with liquid CO2 than with gaseous CO2. This is one of the very few studies performed on the photoreduction of liquid CO2.
steady-state simulation of the supercritical extraction of glucose and fructose from date palm fruit using supercritical carbon dioxide and water as a co-solvent has been studied using Aspen-Plus Software. The simulation was run at temperatures ranging from 32 to 84C, pressures of 254 to 308 bar, and carbon dioxide mass flow rates of 5000 to 31000 kg/h. The results indicate that the amount of glucose extracted increases as the extraction pressure is increased, while the amount of fructose extracted decreases as the extraction pressure is increased. The amount of sugar extracted was unaffected by increasing the extraction temperature. The amount of sugar extracted increased as the rate of supercritical carbon dioxide increased. The maximum amount of glucose and fructose extracted was obtained at a pressure of 308 bar, a temperature of 65C, and a carbon dioxide mass flow rate of 31000 kg/h.
In this paper, we report highly surface-functionalized mesoporous silica adsorbents developed for ethane/ethylene separation. Several porous adsorbents with selective ethane binding have been reported with promising results. These reverse selective adsorbents are anticipated to be selectively up-taking ethane due to their enhanced van der Waals interactions with the ethane molecules. Ethane selective ionic liquid 3-aminopropylammonium oleate was impregnated on SBA-15 to enhance its paraffin affinity. Ionic liquid-modified SBA-15 was developed for selective uptake of ethane and adsorption studies with mixture of gases have shown promising results.
Owing to high theoretical power density and storage capacity, non-aqueous Li-air battery have gained much attention among academia. However, its commercialization is halted by many obstacles, particularly low discharge capacity which is mainly due to the improper cathode design. Based on this, we have proposed novel hierarchical cathode architectures with distributed initial porosity and tortuosity. Among various tortuosity-based cathode designs, hierarchical cathodes with gradient tortuosity can improve discharge capacity approximately 20.9 %. In porosity-based cathode designs, hierarchical cathode structures with exponential distribution in initial porosity have shown maximum increase in discharge capacity, nearly 56 %. The underlying reason of improved capacity in hierarchical cathodes is due to enhanced effective oxygen transport, impregnation of electrolyte, alignment of pores, and formation of permeable and low crystalline aggregates of Li2O2. Hence, our design strategies could be handy for the fabrication of advance non-aqueous Li-air batteries with enhanced power density and capacity.
For many years, this technology has been utilizing aqueous amine solutions as absorbents for the capture of CO2. However, aqueous amine solutions exhibit several drawbacks such as, solvent degradation, and negative environmental impacts. Consequently, a new class of green solvents termed as deep eutectic solvents (DESs) has emerged in recent years to replace aqueous amines. Nonetheless, most of DESs have very high viscosities, which impede their use in many applications. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of the addition of water, as a low viscous ternary component, to amine based deep eutectic solvents during the preparation step, on the physicochemical properties, thermal stability and CO2 absorption capacity. The results revealed that the addition of small quantities of water such as 10% by weight, are capable of decreasing the viscosity of the resulting DESs by approximately 25% at room temperature, while maintaining high CO2 absorption capacity and high thermal stability.
In this contribution, the polar soft-SAFT equation of state, based on Statistical Thermodynamics, was used to model the chemical absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) in monoethanolamine (MEA)-based solvents formulated from the combination with either water, or polar solvents such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, and sulfolane. The chemisorption of CO2 in MEA-based solvents was described in terms of the formation of CO2 amine aggregates physically bounded by strong intermolecular association interactions. A maximum of two adjustable parameters (for each solvent) were sufficient to obtain an accurate representation of the CO2 solubility in the examined solvents. The developed models can be used in a predictive manner to compare solubility of the different solvents at representative conditions. These results demonstrate the reliability of the model as a solvent screening tool for CO2 capture, owing to its high level of accuracy, transferability and predictive capabilities.
