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The present market trend of prioritizing safety and dependability at competitive rates has prompted the pharmaceutical and medical sectors to search more biocompatible, sustainable, and safe supplies. This paper seeks to achieve the most demanding criteria for pharmaceutical product safety, production capabilities, and performance standards. Hence, in order to avoid contamination, these sectors have set strict controls on the materials used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical and medical equipment. The purpose of this work is to introduce the FAHP-FTOPSIS technique, which offers an innovative and systematic way to selecting pharmaceutical bearing materials, filling research gaps, and enhancing pharmaceutical equipment design. The crucial issue of selecting appropriate bearing ring materials for pharmaceutical applications is addressed in this work. This research suggests the use of fuzzy logic as an innovative and successful technique to addressing this issue. Fuzzy logic is used to handle and evaluate linguistic data linked with the performance criteria of various materials such as PEEK, PTFE, Acetal, Stainless Steel, and Nylon6. A preference-based approach was used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of five commonly used materials for bearing rings. This included a direct comparison of different polymers, which are gaining favor in the pharmaceutical device sector, and stainless steel, that have traditionally been used for pharmaceutical equipment. The assessment was performed using the FAHP (Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process), which assigned performance weight criteria as follows: C1 (0.128, 0.153, 0.139), C2 (0.082, 0.041, 0.019), C3 (0.425, 0.107, 0.371), C4 (0.528, 0.215, 0.089), C5 (0.137, 0.072, 0.036), C6 (0.092, 0.153, 0.172), C7 (0.063, 0.049, 0.032), C8 (0.048, 0.25, 0.049), and so on. Then, the FTOPSIS (Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) was used to rank the alternatives, with the following results revealing the order: PEEK > Acetal > Nylon 6 > Stainless Steel > PTFE. This novel technology has the potential to improve the precision of material selection, therefore enhancing the overall efficiency and safety of pharmaceutical equipment and processes. The results clearly indicate that PTFE-based bearings surpass metallic ones in several aspects, including corrosion resistance, quiet operation, and minimal routine maintenance requirements. Remarkably, the calculated weight criteria align closely with the manufacturer's provided data. This innovative hybrid approach, combining FAHP (Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process) and FTOPSIS (Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), has the potential to simplify and optimize new product designs for pharmaceutical devices, reducing costs in the process. These findings highlight the efficacy of the FAHP-FTOPSIS technique in addressing the hitherto unexplored challenge of selecting suitable bearing component materials for specific applications. This approach offers a promising avenue for enhancing pharmaceutical device performance and reliability, marking a significant advancement in this field.

The heat exchangers are widely used in different industrial applications, such as chemical industry, petroleum, thermal power, and so on. Fluid corrosion and fouling frequently damage shell and tube heat exchangers, resulting in leaks. In order to prevent the fluid losses and increase the efficiency, it is proposed to optimize an old shell and tube heat exchangers (STHE) used in the petroleum field in order to cool down the produced Methanol in petroleum production. Thermal modeling was used to optimize the design of a shell and tube heat exchanger using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Its heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, and efficiency were calculated using the log-mean temperature difference (LMTD) method. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was performed to study the model of the inlet shell flow field. Our experimental findings show that the performance is around 35.29%. This means that the efficiency has increased by 9.6% of its previous efficiency and the pressure drops of the shell and tube side are 16.422 kPa and 54.262 kPa. The hot and cold fluid outlet temperatures, corrected LMTD and efficiency obtained from CFD simulations were in excellent agreement with experimental results, with an error of 3.6%.

Rain-fed fig culture is known to provide a good quality of dried figs, while almost no research has been reported so far on the enzyme activity comparisons of seasonal variations among terminal buds in this plant. Toward this goal, we evaluated the physiochemical changes of terminal buds of fig 'Sabz' and their micromorphology during the dormant season (November to April) using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis during two consecutive years (2016 and 2017). Results indicated that the highest contents of total sugars in terminal fig buds were registered in January and the lowest values were noticed in April. SEM analysis showed the presence of vegetative terminal fig buds during the dormant season and after bud-break in April. An increasing trend was observed for the protein content, length and diameter of terminal buds at the beginning of bud-break. In dormant buds, ascorbate peroxidase, peroxidase and catalase enzymes exhibited initially an ascending pattern, while it decreased from December. A second increase for these enzymes occurred during the dormant season until bud-break. Superoxide dismutase activity increased in buds during the dormancy season until bud-break. Proline content remained stable in buds from November to February, while it decreased rapidly until bud-break. Furthermore, a downward trend of the total phenol content in buds was observed between the onset and end of dormant period. In general, the dormant buds in ʻSabzʼ fig cultivar were metabolically active with a short dormant period under the rain-fed conditions.

Fruit yield and quality in fig (Ficus carica L.) are highly influenced by mineral nutrition, especially Calcium (Ca) and potassium (K). In this study, the impact of soluble potassium sulfate (K2SO4) foliar application on yield, fruit quality, and leaf nutrient content was assessed during three consecutive years (2017-2019) on fig cv. 'Bouhouli' grown in Northwest Tunisia. Potassium sulfate was sprayed at 2% concentration on leaves of 'Bouhouli' trees twice each year during fruit development. This improved fruit weight by 29.5% and 34.9% in the first and second years, respectively, while yield and fruit quality were improved in 2018 only. The fruit ostiole-end cracking, which is one of the fruit quality criteria, was reduced under potassium treatment by 3-fold (17%) compared to the control (53%), in 2018. Also, potassium treatment increased significantly the content of total soluble solids in the fruits during the first two seasons. Besides, K leaf concentration significantly increased after the 2% K2SO4 treatment in 2018 and 2019. These results suggest that potassium sulfate foliar sprays could be used as part of an efficient and sustainable fertilizer program to improve fig tree yield and fruit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fig (Ficus carica L. cv. Sabz) fruit growth and development under rain-fed conditions differs from fig grown under irrigated conditions and responds differently to the growth regulators application. This study aimed to reveal how ethephon (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 mg L-1) and 2,4-D isopropyl ester (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 mg L-1) can accelerate fruit ripening in fig cv. 'Sabz'. Fruits were sprayed three times by foliar application at 15-days intervals for two consecutive years. The highest fruit ripening percentage occurred with the second time that ethephon (200 mg L-1) was sprayed. Application of 100 mg L-1 ethephon increased the total soluble solids with the second and third foliar spraying. Ostiole cracking in dry fig fruits became most prevalent when applying 50 mg L-1 ethephon by the third foliar spraying. The highest carotenoid content was caused by 100 mg L-1 ethephon by the second foliar application. Furthermore, the highest sugar content occurred in response to the second foliar spraying of 50 mg L-1 ethephon. The second 2,4-D isopropyl ester (10 mg L-1) foliar spraying significantly increased fruit diameter. Since the crop has asynchronous nature of ripening, harvesting continued for several weeks. Ethephon (200 mg L-1) accelerated fig harvesting and made it occur about 7 days sooner under rain-fed conditions. Therefore, accelerating fig fruits ripening can reduce the likelihood that fruits will be exposed to drought near the end of the season. Also, ethephon treatment can help prevent loss of fruit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to detect the relevance degrees of formal and informal institutions at the level of local regulation, as well as their effects on the local companies’ productivity. Indeed, by analyzing the territory of the Ksar-Hellal town, we noted that informal institutions, apprehended by trust and collective punishment, contribute with the formal penal institutions to channel the behavior of Hilalian companies but with less effectiveness. Similarly, the strong contribution of exogenous institutions in boosting productivity compared to that of the endogenous ones states that decision makers should improve the quality of formal regulation and this at the expense of any form of regulation built by values commonly shared by the local community.

This article aims to highlight the relevance of the territory in the experience of local development. Indeed, by an application on a Tunisian case, it was shown that the territory of Ksar-Hellal is implicated in the functioning of its local production system, specializing in textile and clothing. It turned out that the Hilalian territory is abundant in specific economic resources such as competition, complementarity, and non-economic such as cooperation, technological externalities and social values. Those resources that are specific to the Hilalian territory are essential to stimulate the local dynamics of the productive system in question.

This article aims to show that the impact of human activities on the ecosystem, measured by the Ecological Footprint, depends on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the population. Indeed, we confirmed our hypothesis by an empirical analysis on Tunisia, where it was revealed that the increase in its Ecological Footprint, is attributed mainly to massive consumption of goods, bad land management by building horizontal, and to a lesser extent, to the presence of polluting employments. The results suggest the adoption of targeted policies, according to the specific characteristics of population.

Domestic water heater corresponds to 25% of the house energy consumption and can play an important role to reduce energy house expenses. Solar energy offers a preferred renewable energy resource because of its economic and environmental advantages. It is considered the best alternative to reduce domestic water heater energy consumption cost. Converting solar energy into heat can be considered among the simplest used systems. Solar thermal conversion is more efficient than solar electrical direct conversion method. Solar water heater systems are particularly easy to use and to repair. The integrated conical solar collector water heater (ICSCWH) is so far the easiest among water heating systems. The ICSCWH converts directly and efficiently the solar flux into heat. In order to expand the utilization of ICSCWH systems, many design modifications have been examined and analyzed. This study provides an experimental investigation and mathematical simulation of an ICSCWH system equipped with a glass cover resulting in the increase of the maximum absorption. Integrating the cone-shaped heat collector with an aluminum spiral pipe flow system may enhance the efficiency of the proposed system. In order to maximize the solar radiation of the system, the solar water heater has been designed in a conical shape, which removes the need to change its orientation toward the sun to receive the maximum sun radiation during the day. In this system, the heating of water has been obtained using the spiral pipe flow without the use of the solar cells and mirrors in order to reduce the total cost. The storage water tank of this system is coupled with a conical solar collector. Based on the above design, the solar water heater has been fabricated and tested. In addition, an analytical modeling approach aiming to predict the flow rate within the conical integrated collector storage solar water heater (ICSSWH) and its efficiency, was developed. Modeling through a numerical simulation approach based on energy equations was performed. Considering the entire water amount and the total area of the cone, the amount of water (facing the sun per unit absorbing area in the two symmetrical parts of the system) is found to increase, which is expected to reach a maximum water temperature at a high performance. Our experimental findings show that the daily performance is around 32% and the highest water temperature of about 45°C is obtained in the system at 4 pm, according to seasons and weather conditions. An efficient and simple mathematical simulation approach for the new conical solar water heater is described then validates using experimental data.