Novel Pipeline Inspection Multiparametric Sensor

Harsh environmental-tolerant ZIF-8@polyphenylene sulfide membrane for efficient oil/water separation and air filtration under extreme conditions

Cultivation of Barley Under Harsh Environmental Conditions in Kuwait

Effect of silicate sodium and graphene nanoplatelets on morphology and rheology characteristics of new synthesized preformed particle gel (PPG) for water shut-off treatment

Adverse physicochemical environments are significant sources to recover the extreme actinobacterial communities. In these harsh environmental conditions, most mesophilic microbes perish because of the lack of adaptability. However, despite the harsh environments, few types of microbes can still be able to survive and even reproduce at different physicochemically limited conditions, and they are popularly known as extremophiles. The main reason behind this adaptation is due to their abundance in amino acid composition, which influences the protein folding capabilities of these microbes. The current chapter has revealed extreme actinobacteria communities in different hostile environments such as high or low temperature, high salinity, acidic or alkaline conditions, high pressure, and dry-desiccation conditions. One of the distinguishing features of the extremophilic actinobacteria is concerns about their propagation in a broader range of environments. Advancements have been made in developing L-strategy for categorizing the microbes under unfavorable conditions as either highly tolerant or resistant to environmental stress conditions.

Defense is the ability to fend off an attack .The oral cavity has several defense systems that can fend off different types of injuries. A variety of mechanical, chemical, and antigenic stresses are continuously applied to gingiva;some of these challenges are temporary, while others are ongoing. his study will go over various defense mechanism the gingiva uses to protect and prepare itself from the harsh environment. Defense e is ability to withstand the attack;the mouth cavity has many defense system that protect it from injuries.A vast range of mechnaical, chemical, and antigenic obstacles are continuously faced by gingiva. This study will go over the several defense mechanism how gingiva will protect from the harsh environmental.

The growing demand for high-quality protein sources, coupled with technological advancements, has recently created the need, and facilitated opportunities for offshore aquaculture in high-energy areas. Although based on experience gained through many years of practice in low-energy areas, aquaculture companies prefer to use traditional fish pens in high-energy regions, the short- and long-term performance of the pen and mooring components in harsh environments are not well studied. In this study, a numerical model of a slender fish pen is created in the Finite Element (FE) environment to study the pen’s response to harsh environmental loads, including currents and waves. To assess the reliability of the FE model, a validation exercise was conducted for both current-only and combined current and wave conditions, which led to good agreement between the published data and the modelling conducted in this study. The model is then employed in total of 1440 simulations to analyze various pen arrangements with different angles of attack of waves and currents concerning a range of current intensity and wave height. Further consideration is given to the performance of pens at high current velocity and wave height (e.g., 2 m/s and 3 m) while observing the volumetric changes of the pen and distribution of the tension load in mooring lines.

A set of garments capable of monitoring the physiological, activity-related and environmental parameters of emergency operators during their interventions was developed in a European Project called ProeTEX. This work reports the results of the field trials performed with the final prototype release at the APT international Fire Fighting Survival Training Centre in Italy. Four sessions of trials (warm-up, rescue intervention, outdoor fire-fighting intervention and smoky chamber route) were performed in harsh environment by 6 professional Fire-Fighters. The operators wore the ProeTEX prototypes and their Heart Rate (HR), Breathing Rate (BR), Body Temperature (BT), External Temperature (ET), Heat Flux (HF) and GPS speed have been acquired. Percentage of samples out of the physiological range (R<SUP>%</SUP>) of the HR, BR and BT, as well as percentage of samples showing high variability (V<SUP>%</SUP>) of the HR, BR, BT, ET and HF have been processed. Percentage of GPS samples showing artefacts of their ground speed (S<SUP>%</SUP>) have been also computed. The results on the HR, BR and BT signals showed a maximum R<SUP>%</SUP> of 2.0, 7.8 and 8.5 respectively, as well as a maximum V<SUP>%</SUP> of 14.0, 10.0, 0.2, respectively. Concerning the ET and HH data, a V<SUP>%</SUP> lower than 0.0 and 2.9, respectively, was found. Finally, the highest detected value of S<SUP>%</SUP> of the GPS speed was 3.5 in all the trials. On the whole these results showed the efficacy of the ProeTEX wearable system and its capability of real-time and continuously monitoring the rescuers while they perform even highly intense activities in harsh environmental conditions.

The growth in world demand for infrared missile warning systems (MWS) has impelled the development of new technologies, in particular, special ruggedized cryogenic coolers. Since the cryocooler is a core component in ruggedized platforms, RICOR has met the challenge by developing new models able to withstand high ambient temperatures above 110°C, as well as harsh vibration levels, both derived from airborne fighter applications. One of the development efforts focused on a cryocooler regenerator and cold finger optimization, in order to achieve high cooling capacity at 95K FPA and the efficiency of about 5.3 % at 102 °C. In order to withstand harsh environmental vibration and high ambient temperature range, the mechanical parts of the cryocoolers were designed and tested for a high structural safety factor along with weight minimization. The electronic design concept was based on encapsulated controllers, the PCB of which has been designed with internal heat sinking paths and special components able to withstand ambient temperatures of up to 125°C. As a final stage of development, four cryocooler models (K544, K549, K527 and K508) were successfully qualified under harsh environmental conditions, both by RICOR and by system manufacturers. Also life demonstration tests were performed with these models. The cryocoolers were designed and tested successfully to meet requirements of military standards MIL- STD-704D, MIL-STD- 461E and MIL-STD-810F reflecting real mission profiles in harsh environment.

Wild plants and the associated microorganisms at the Qatari deserts and Sabkhas have many desirable traits for improvement of plant resistance and cope at various environmental stresses including salinity, drought, high temperatures, and pollution. Most of native plants are recognized and grouped under three main aspects: (1) water, (2) solutes, and (3) structures. Plants might have different abilities to absorb and store water, and to build and accumulate organic and inorganic solutes, as well as developing structures to regulate these components. Understanding the mechanisms of plant resistance to various harsh environmental conditions are of great importance in determining the traits these plants have, which can be considered as experimental materials for further modern and contemporary studies to develop crop plants with desirable traits and well adapted to those conditions. Native plants and their associated microorganisms at the Sabkhas and deserts are well equipped with various traits to deal with these harsh environments; these are the hidden gene banks for modern and contemporary future research. Native plants at the coastal line or in the desert of the Qatari peninsula can avoid drought and salinity either by storing water or efficiently absorbing it, succulent plants, for example, could have water cells in various plant organs to confer such mechanisms. Water spender plants, on the other hand, can avoid drought by producing extensive roots or intensive fibrous root system to increase the active root surface area. Salt regulation and organic solute accumulation in these plants is another pivotal area of research to exploit and improve some traits in crop plants. Organic solutes might play significant role to protect the membrane and machinery systems from severe stresses. However, developing transgenic plants by salt regulation might not feasible for crop plants, while the potential of accumulation of proline and/or glycine betaine in many native plants in Qatar could be a possible trait to be exploited to develop plants that are well adapted under dry and/or saline environments. The microorganisms associated with the native plants might play significant roles to introduce traits and confer these plants with many features against those harsh environmental stresses. Morphological and structural features of wild plants might be a good source of traits to be used in the modern gene technology. Some characteristics of cell walls, cuticle thickness and possibly the chemical composition of plasma membranes should be considered.

Temperature measurement is regarded to be straightforward by means of standard electronic sensors, however, it becomes considerably more challenging if the sensor is exposed to strong electromagnetic interference or harsh environmental conditions such as e.g. chemical agents. In some cases, the problem may be solved by remote sensors, as pyrometers, but their application is conditioned by the possibility of the direct object observation, which is often excluded. In this contribution a solution is presented which allows for the temperature tracking in the fiber optic system which facilitates temperature measurements of distant, subjected to the harsh environment objects by transferring their temperatures to the Peltier module. The idea of the system is to adjust the temperature of the reference FBG (at the measurement stage) to the temperature of the sensor FBG with the use of the Peltier module and thus recover its temperature to have it measured with an arbitrary method. As all electronic part of the system can be installed far from the harsh environment and the system consists of low-cost optical and electronic components, the idea may be found competitive with other methods of the temperature measurements in onerous applications.

Automated operations are widely used in harsh environments, in which position information is essential. Although sensors can be equipped to obtain high-accuracy position information, they are quite expensive and unsuitable for harsh environment applications. Therefore, a position soft-sensing model based on a back propagation (BP) neural network is proposed for direct-driven hydraulics (DDH) to protect against harsh environmental conditions. The proposed model obtains a position by integrating velocity computed from the BP neural network, which trains the nonlinear relationship between multi-input (speed of the electric motor and pressures in two chambers of the cylinder) and single-output (the cylinder’s velocity). First, the model of a standalone crane with DDH was established and verified by experiment. Second, the data from batch simulation with the verified model was used for training and testing the BP neural network in the soft-sensing model. Finally, position estimation with a typical cycle was performed using the created position soft-sensing model. Compared with the experimental data, the maximum soft-sensing position error was about 7 mm, and the error rate was within ±2.5%. Furthermore, position estimations were carried out with the proposed soft-sensing model under differing working conditions and the errors were within 4 mm, but the periodically cumulative error was observed. Hence, a reference point is proposed to minimize the accumulative error, for example, a point at the middle of the cylinder. Therefore, the work can be applied to acquire position information to facilitate automated operation of machines equipped with DDH.

The recognition of dairy cow behavior is essential for enhancing health management, reproductive efficiency, production performance, and animal welfare. This paper addresses the challenge of modality loss in multimodal dairy cow behavior recognition algorithms, which can be caused by sensor or video signal disturbances arising from interference, harsh environmental conditions, extreme weather, network fluctuations, and other complexities inherent in farm environments. This study introduces a modality mapping completion network that maps incomplete sensor and video data to improve multimodal dairy cow behavior recognition under conditions of modality loss. By mapping incomplete sensor or video data, the method applies a multimodal behavior recognition algorithm to identify five specific behaviors: drinking, feeding, lying, standing, and walking. The results indicate that, under various comprehensive missing coefficients (λ), the method achieves an average accuracy of 97.87 % ± 0.15 %, an average precision of 95.19 % ± 0.4 %, and an average F1 score of 94.685 % ± 0.375 %, with an overall accuracy of 94.67 % ± 0.37 %. This approach enhances the robustness and applicability of cow behavior recognition based on multimodal data in situations of modality loss, resolving practical issues in the development of digital twins for cow behavior and providing comprehensive support for the intelligent and precise management of farms. • Modality Mapping Completion Network addresses multimodal data loss challenges. • Achieves 97.87 % accuracy and high robustness under varying data loss conditions. • Uses Transformers for effective cross-modal fusion of image and sensor data. • Adapts to real-world challenges like interference, occlusion, and harsh environments.

The dynamically positioned drillship, Chikyu, has performed riser drilling operations twice in high-current environments in the Nankai Trough, offshore Japan. The drilling site is located in a water depth of approximately 6, 361 ft (1, 939 m) and regularly experiences the Kuroshio Current. The mean surface current at the site is 3.5 knots, and the 1-year extreme current is 7.0 knots. In addition, the current is not seasonal and typically changes frequently during the day. The Nankai Trough site also experiences intense typhoons during the months of July to October and frequent cold fronts from November to January. Thus, all operational phases need to be analyzed thoroughly to account for these harsh environmental conditions. The following operational issues need to be carefully considered: riser deployment and retrieval, BOP/LMRP landing approach with vessel drifting, determination of watch circles, typhoon evacuation plans, hang-off operational criteria, evacuation plans for cold fronts, allowable riser tension range, and riser fatigue measurement with vortex-induced vibration (VIV) monitoring. Assessment of deepwater/high-current riser drilling systems provides a means for identifying critical stages of drilling operations and enables their successful execution. Feedback from two drilling campaigns (2012/2013) conducted in high currents are described in this paper. The actual riser response matched riser analysis results to a significant degree. Extreme operations including typhoon evacuation, drilling operations in up to 5.2 knot currents, BOP landing in 4 knots, and emergency disconnect sequences (EDS) due to a cold front were performed in 2012. VIV fatigue damage was extremely low, with a maximum of 1.5% fatigue damage in the entire riser assembly in 2012. In 2013, operational criteria for cold front events were reviewed again since the number of these weather events experienced in 2012 was 3 to 4 times greater than in a typical year. General guidelines and associated criteria are provided to evaluate a drilling riser system under high currents and approaching typhoons. This paper focuses and discusses the major operational concerns in these harsh environments. In addition, a riser fatigue monitoring system is described that has been used to track fatigue damage on riser joints both from VIV fatigue and wave loads.

High-sensitivity temperature sensor based on PDMS-coated photonic crystal fiber interferometer

Ultra-portability and compact design of laptop computers have made them more vulnerable to harsh environments. Hard disk drives (HDDs) in particular, are critical components in laptop computers whose read/write performance is severely affected by excessive vibrations. Here we take a system-level approach to design an optimal vibration isolator so as to minimize the transmitted vibration to the HDD while the laptop chassis is confined within an allowable vibration travel. The laptop is modeled as a 3-dof lumped-parameter system and the base excitation is assumed Gaussian random vibration with zero mean and uniform power spectral density over the frequency range [0–2000] Hz. The problem is cast as a constrained optimization problem with two decision variables, namely isolation frequency and damping. A combination of analytical and numerical approaches is utilized to solve the constrained optimization problem. It is shown that the optimized isolation system could reduce the transmitted root-mean-square acceleration to the HDD by a factor of over four compared to a rigidly-mounted laptop. Furthermore, the methodology presented here is not case-specific and could be applied to the isolation system design of a wide range of systems.