Road transportation has become a significant part of human society and interactions, especially from an economic and social point of view. Road accidents represent major disruptions in this regard, ...and therefore, nowadays, road safety management is a critical topic. Sibiu county is located in a critical position in Romania, at the crossing of major North-South and East-West roads. Starting from these facts, the current paper aims to present an analysis of the road accidents that occurred in Sibiu county from January 1st, 2010 to December 31st, 2018, focusing on the number of victims but also on the causes generating or favoring the generation of these accidents.
Uncertainty quantification (UQ) in eruption source parameters, like tephra volume, plume height, and umbrella cloud radius, is a challenge for volcano scientists because tephra deposits are often ...sparsely sampled due to burial, erosion, and related factors. We find that UQ is improved by coupling an advection‐diffusion model with two Bayesian inversion approaches: (a) a robust but computationally expensive Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation algorithm, and (b) a more approximate but inexpensive parameter estimation algorithm combined with first‐order, second‐moment uncertainty estimation. We apply the two inversion methods to one sparsely sampled tephra fall unit from the 2070 BP El Misti (Peru) eruption and obtain: Tephra mass 0.78–1.4 × 1011 kg; umbrella cloud radius 4.5–16.5 km, and plume height 8–35 km (95% confidence intervals). These broad ranges demonstrate the significance of UQ for eruption classification based on mapped deposits, which has implications for hazard management.
Plain Language Summary
Volcanologists use ashfall deposits to estimate the magnitudes and intensities of past or unobserved eruptions. Different processes can affect the ash deposits during and after the eruption (e.g., burial, remobilisation, and erosion) resulting in sparse sampling of the deposit and uncertainty in the deposit thickness where it is sampled. Uncertain data results in uncertain estimates of erupted volume, plume height, and umbrella cloud dimensions, which are essential parameters used to estimate future volcanic hazards. Here we present two methods to quantify the uncertainty in these parameter estimates from deposit data. As a case study, we estimate eruption parameters for a sparsely sampled ashfall deposit from the 2070 BP eruption of El Misti, Peru. We find that for this sampled unit the mass of the erupted tephra was 0.78–1.4 × 1011 kg, umbrella cloud radius was 4.5–16.5 km, and plume height was 8–35 km. These ranges are 95% confidence intervals, giving a much better idea of the eruption magnitude and intensity than that is achieved from point estimates, such as reporting the erupted mass as a single value.
Key Points
Characterising volcanic eruptions based on incompletely preserved and sampled tephra deposits leads to uncertainty in classification
We couple a tephra forward model to two inversion techniques to quantify eruption parameter uncertainty
Results show uncertainty quantification is crucial for sparsely sampled deposits because range in eruption parameters can be substantial
Starting from the fact that the natural gas engineering profession is generally associated with a high occupational risk, the current paper aims to help increase the safety of natural gas wells and ...reduce the risk of work-related accidents, as well as the occurrence of professional illnesses, by applying an assessment method that has proven its efficiency in other industrial areas in combination with a computer-aided design software. More specifically, the paper focuses on two main research directions: assessing the explosion risk for employees working at natural gas wells and indicating areas with a higher explosion hazard by using a modern software that allows their presentation in 3D. The appropriate zoning of industrial areas allows to group the various functional areas function of the probability of the occurrence of a dangerous element, such as an explosive atmosphere and subsequently it allows also to correctly select the electrical and mechanical equipment that will be used in that area, since electrical apparatuses that are otherwise found in normal work environments cannot generally be used in areas with explosion hazard, because of the risk that an electric spark, an electrostatic discharge etc. ignites the explosive atmosphere.
SILYMARIN FOOD SUPPLEMENTS - ORAL SOLID DOSAGE FORMS Gligor, Felicia G; Dobrea, Carmen M; Georgescu, Cecilia ...
Scientific Study & Research. Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Food Industry,
01/2016, Letnik:
17, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Several tablet formulations containing silymarin were developed, in order to meet the requirements of different markets. Milk thistle - Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn - standardized extracts have ...proven their positive effect on liver functionality plus other health benefits. Lactose is a widely used excipient for the production of oral solid dosage forms. One important inconvenient of lactose is related to the lactose intolerant potential customers. Cellulose, isomalt and dicalcium phosphate have been selected as alternative possible tablet binders and diluents. Laboratory and pilot batches were studied for each excipient. The pharmacotechnical properties and silybin content of the tablets were measured and recorded in accordance to the European Pharmacopoeia. All pilot batches had results in the desired range of values in order to permit large scale compacting and blistering of the tablets. Currently the formulations containing isomalt and dicalcium phosphate that made the subject of this study are being produced on industrial scale.
The accidental or historic contamination of soils with hydrocarbons, in areas crossed by oil pipelines or where oil- or gas-extraction installations are located, is a major concern and has ...significant financial and ecological consequences, both for the owners of those areas and for the oil transportation or exploitation companies. Therefore it is very important to find the optimal method for removing the pollution. The current paper presents measures, mainly involving bioremediation, recommended and applied for the depollution of a contaminated area in Romania. While the topic of dealing with polluted soils is well-established in the Romanian speciality literature, bioremediation is a relatively novel approach and this paper presents important considerations in this regard. Contaminated soil samples were taken from 10 different locations within the targeted area and subjected to a thorough physical and chemical analysis, which led to determining a specific scoring table for assessing the bioremediation potential of the various samples. This has allowed the authors to establish for each of the sampled areas the best mix of factors such as nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), gypsum, microelements etc., that would lead to obtaining the best results in terms of the contaminants' biodegradation.
Taking into account the legal prescriptions which are in force and the new regulatory requirements that will be mandatory to implement in the near future regarding testing characteristics of ...automotive fuel tanks, resulted the necessity to develop a new testing methodology which allows to estimate the behaviour of the closing system of automotive fuel tank over a long period of time (10-15 years). Thus, were designed and conducted accelerated tests under extreme assembling and testing conditions (high values for initial tightening torques, extreme values of temperature and pressure). In this paper are presented two of durability tests which were performed on an optimized closing system of fuel tank: (i) the test of exposure to temperature with cyclical variation and (ii) the test of continuous exposure to elevated temperature. In these experimental tests have been used main components of the closing system manufactured of two materials variants, both based on the polyoxymethylene, material that provides higher mechanical stiffness and strength in a wide temperature range, as well as showing increased resistance to the action of chemical agents and fuels. The tested sample included a total of 16 optimized locking systems, 8 of each of 2 versions of material. Over deploying the experiments were determined various parameters such as: the initial tightening torque, the tightening torque at different time points during measurements, the residual tightening torque, defects occurred in the system components (fissures, cracks, ruptures), the sealing conditions of system at the beginning and at the end of test. Based on obtained data were plotted the time evolution diagrams of considered parameter (the residual tightening torque of the system consisting of locking nut and threaded ring), in different temperature conditions, becoming possible to make pertinent assessments on the choice between the two types of materials. By conducting these tests and interpreting the obtained results, it can be created a clear picture of the capacity of closing system of fuel tank to fulfil the functional requirements following the exposure to values of testing parameters significantly above the values that may appear throughout the entire service life of the vehicle. The proposed accelerated testing method shows the main advantage of simulation in a limited time all the situations which may be encountered in a much longer period of time, namely the service life of the vehicle.
This paper presents an inverse dynamic model estimation based on an artificial neural network of a complete new parallel robot manipulator prototype 6- PGK with six degrees of freedom, built at Petru ...Maior University of Tirgu-Mures. The model estimation of the parallel robot manipulator is performed with a feedforward artificial neural network. In the control engineering domain there are control structures that need the direct or inverse model of the process for ensuring the process control at the imposed performances. Usually, the determination of the direct/inverse mathematical model is a difficult or impossible task to be achieved. In these cases different non-parametric or parametric, off-line or on-line identification methods are used. A solution that may support the on-line parametric methods is represented by the feedforward artificial neural networks. By implementing feedforward artificial neural networks as a nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs, the authors investigate the possibility of choosing the optimum parameters that characterize the neural network so that it approximates as better as possible the model of the 6-PGK prototype robot. Finally an innovative algorithm is developed for obtaining the optimal configuration parameters set of the feedforward artificial neural network. The proposed algorithm helps in setting the optimal parameters of the neural network that offer high opportunities to provide satisfactory identification of the robot model. Experimental results obtained by a structure derived from the proposed solution demonstrate a good approximation related to the studied system, which is characterized by nonlinearities and high complexity.
The goal of this paper is to describe the development of an extension, such as markup language based on XML standard, called VIML-Virtual Instruments Markup Language. Therefore, author proposes to ...extend the XML standard for use in the field of virtual instrumentation. The paper intends to present a framework for generating and managing virtual instrumentation for WWW applications. Characteristics, features and conclusions of VIML using are presented.
This paper presents the results of experimental researches referring to the corrosion resistance of A541 class 6 steel with plasma nitriding treatment, steel used in the construction of auxiliary ...components for nuclear power plants. The polarization curves and Evans diagrams for electrode potential and for the intensity of the corrosion current of parts inserted into a 3% NaCl aqueous solution have been traced. The interpretation of the diagrams shows a good corrosion resistance of this steel, with a large passivation interval.
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