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The study examines how sustainable energy transitions can meet freshwater needs in green hydrogen production. It proposes four configurations that combine polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis with renewable energy-powered desalination methods, capable of both continuous and intermittent operations. This study evaluates the capital expenditure (CAPEX) implications of integrating solar or wind energy with seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination to produce green hydrogen. It examines the capacities of renewable energy sources, the effectiveness of energy storage solutions, and the performance of various desalination methods, particularly their combined impact on economic viability and overall project costs. An SWRO system intermittently powered by wind energy is identified as the most cost-effective, reducing CAPEX by 46%. The results emphasize the practical benefits of integrating green desalination with green hydrogen production technologies. [Display omitted] • Introduces cost-efficient green H 2 production via renewable energy and desalination. • Analyzes CAPEX for solar/wind energy with SWRO and MED desalination methods. • Nearly 46% reduced CAPEX for intermittent operation than continuous mode. • Finds wind + SWRO in intermittent mode as most economical for H 2 production. • Highlights minimal CAPEX impact of desalination (<1%) on green H 2 plant costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Agriculturae Slovenica is the property of Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Agriculturae Slovenica is the property of Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigated the energy requirement for running desalination units coupled to cogeneration plants. Various cogeneration systems were explored using power- and heat-allocated approaches. The specific work and heat necessary for operating different desalination systems were determined. The investigation revealed that the specific work and heat remain consistent regardless of the desalination daily capacity. It was observed that the energy demand for operating a desalination system mainly relies on power plant efficiency. The investigation revealed that the energy demand for a plain multi-effect desalination system was lower than that for multi-effect desalination with thermal vapor compression. Additionally, the energy requirement for a multi-effect desalination system with preheaters was lower than that for plain multi-effect desalination. Comparisons also indicated that the energy demand of multi-stage flash exceeds that of different multi-effect desalination systems. Based on the primary thermal energy input, a universal performance ratio was used to evaluate the desalination unit performance. Furthermore, a new correlation was proposed to predict the universal performance ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces and analyzes an integrated energy system that may generate electricity and potable water at a low cost, speeding up the desired clean transition process. The proposed system uses flame-assisted fuel cells to improve upon the inefficiencies of traditional power generation setups by increasing fuel utilization and reducing waste heat. The product's energy cost and overall efficiency are improved by using fuel gas condensation combined with a multi-effect desalination process. The engineering equation solver software examines the feasibility of the proposed system using energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, environmental, and sustainability analyses. The parametric analysis also compares the effects of changing key design variables and performance metrics. Then, the genetic algorithm integrated with an artificial neural network model is applied to minimize the power cost while enhancing the exergy efficiency. According to the results, the proposed efficient hybrid system has an affordable energy cost of 0.123 $/kWh and an environmental impact of 524 kg/MWh. The parametric study demonstrates that increasing the current density improves potable water production while reducing the efficiency and increasing the unfavorable power costs. Also, it can be shown that the sustainability indices improve significantly when a lower fuel utilization factor and equivalence ratio are chosen. The results further reveal that the optimization achieves a higher exergy efficiency of 6.2% and a reduced power cost of 0.03 $/kWh than the design condition. The scatter dispersal of key variables indicates that the fuel utilization factor lacks effectiveness, and keeping the current density and fuel temperature close to their upper limits is techno-economically favorable. Due to the significant temperature increase, mixing of the fuel and air, and chemical interactions between the reactants, the irreversibility analysis shows that the mixer and the flame-assisted fuel cell have the greatest destruction rate under the optimal conditions. • A new hybrid system is introduced based on the flame-assisted solid oxide fuel cell. • The proposed system's feasibility is assessed from all aspects. • A genetic algorithm optimizer integrated with machine learning is applied. • Optimization achieves higher efficiency of 6.2% and a lower cost of 0.03 $/kWh. • Choosing a lower fuel utilization factor improves sustainability indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Textile Industry / Tekstilna Industrija is the property of Union of Textile Engineers & Technicians of Serbia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Central European Agriculture is the property of Journal of Central European Agriculture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This work proposes the design of a parallel cross-feed multi-effect desalination system with a twin-screw compressor, incorporating water injection to enhance system performance. The improvement is achieved by injecting water during the compression process to increase the isentropic efficiency of compression. The mathematical model is solved using Engineering Equation Solver software, and the resulting mass and energy balance equations are validated against literature data. The system is analyzed and evaluated from energy, exergy, and exergy-economic perspectives, and compared with the performance of the conventional configuration in terms of specific power consumption, exergy efficiency, and cost of produced water. The impact of various operating conditions, such as the number of effects, steam temperature, compressor efficiency, and injection pressure, on specific power consumption, exergy efficiency, exergy destruction, and final product cost, is examined in this study. Additionally, factors like interest rate, plant life expectancy, and electricity cost are investigated for their effect on the final product cost. The study demonstrates that replacing the normal compressor with a twin-screw compressor result in more than a 15 % reduction in specific power consumption, approximately 4 % less exergy destruction (indicating higher exergy efficiency), and a 14 % lower unit cost of freshwater.

Multi-effect parallel feed desalination system (MED-PF) has emerged as an efficient technology for large-scale seawater desalination. Enhancing the system's performance ratio and incorporation of a thermal vapor compressor (TVC) have proven to be effective in previous studies. Notably, these studies have suggested that the optimal placement for the TVC is within the middle section. The current study explores the impact of a new component, a brine preheater, on the performance of multi-effect desalination system. The hot rejected brine is used to heat the feed seawater for systems with various number of effects. Results demonstrate that utilizing the rejected brine for feed preheating significantly improves the system's performance ratio among other important parameters. Comparative analysis also shows that utilization of heat associated with the rejected brine for feed preheating leads to a reduction in the cost of water produced in the range of 4.55–9.63%. For example, water production cost of 1.87 $/m3 for a 8-effect MED-PF system without brine preheating reduces to 1.69 $/m3 upon preheating the feed without an additional, external energy source. Nevertheless, this approach results in an improvement in the system's performance ratio (PR) in the range of 7.46% to 13.9%. The effect on the total heat transfer surface area (sA) and specific flow rate of cooling water is also taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honey plants are characterized by the specific chemical composition of nectar and pollen grains, which depends on the physiological characteristics of plant species, ecological conditions, and anthropogenic pressure. In total, 100 honey samples were analyzed according to the Rulebook on methods for the control of honey and other bee products of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The melissopalynological analysis included plant identification based on the micromorphological characters of pollen grains and the number of pollen grains for each identified plant. In total, 31,183 pollen grains were detected in melissopalynological profiles. Based on the micromorphological features, 48 plant species, including seven with allergenic potential, were identified. The proportion of pollen grains of allergenic plants was 18.01% (5,616 pollen grains). Both the quality and health of honey are reduced due to presence of allergenic pollen in it which can cause allergic reactions. Hence the choice of bee pasture concerning its floristic composition and its distance from the pollution source are crucial parameters for the honey quality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the energy requirement for running desalination units coupled to cogeneration plants. Various cogeneration systems were explored using power- and heat-allocated approaches. The specific work and heat necessary for operating different desalination systems were determined. The investigation revealed that the specific work and heat remain consistent regardless of the desalination daily capacity. It was observed that the energy demand for operating a desalination system mainly relies on power plant efficiency. The investigation revealed that the energy demand for a plain multi-effect desalination system was lower than that for multi-effect desalination with thermal vapor compression. Additionally, the energy requirement for a multi-effect desalination system with preheaters was lower than that for plain multi-effect desalination. Comparisons also indicated that the energy demand of multi-stage flash exceeds that of different multi-effect desalination systems. Based on the primary thermal energy input, a universal performance ratio was used to evaluate the desalination unit performance. Furthermore, a new correlation was proposed to predict the universal performance ratio.

Honey is source of energy for bees and natural sweet substance with many benefits in human consumption. It is also used as a part of apitherapy, because it is rich in carbohydrates enzymes, trace elements, organic acids, dextrins, phytochemicals (flavonoids, phenolic acids, essential oils), vitamins and even prebiotics oligosaccharides. The stated use of honey demands high quality and safety of honey and honey products. Criteria for quality of honey is precise and regulated in Codex Alimentarius, where are defined honey, types of honey and parameters for quality of honey. For European Union (EU) members Council Directive 2001/110/EC is in effect, for United States of America (USA) it is United States Standards for Grades of Extracted Honey Effective date May 23, 1985, for China it is National Standards of the People's Republic of China, GB 14963-2011, National Food Safety Standard, for Serbia Rulebook on quality and other requirements for honey, other bee products, preparations based on honey and other bee products (Pravilnik o kvalitetu meda i drugih proizvoda pčela („Sl. glasnik RS" 101/2015). Regarding microelements and toxic elements there are criteria for EU countries, similar to USA and China, defining criteria only for content of Pb in honey set to 1 mg/kg maximum residue level (MRL). National criteria for several microelements and toxic elements were present in our legislative, but over the time national criteria has been synchronized with EU criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Eskişehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Theology is the property of Journal of Eskisehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Theology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, a lossless image compression and encryption algorithm combining JPEG-LS, neural networks and hyperchaotic mapping is proposed to protect the privacy of digital images and reduce data storage space. Firstly, we design a new 2-Dimensional Logistic-Like Hyperchaotic Map (2DLLHM), which has more complex dynamics than some existing known chaotic systems, and can be used to build a good pseudorandom sequence generator. Secondly, to compress images efficiently, we design a new pixel predictor by combining the MED (Median Edge Detector) of JPEG-LS with MLP (Multilayer Perceptron). This predictor is called MMP. The MMP can effectively improve the prediction effect of edge texture area. On this basis, a threshold segmentation method is proposed. The method combined with MMP, run-length coding and Huffman coding can further improve the image compression ratio. Finally, to avoid some of the existing weak encryption designs, we construct a multi-round nonlinear diffusion structure with more excellent diffusion performance. Experiments show that the algorithm achieves a good compression ratio and can resist brute force attacks, statistical attacks, chosen-plaintext attacks and chosen-ciphertext attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years paying attention to the generation of clean and sustainable power and fresh water along with having lower cost and emission has increased. In the present research, a novel scheme for generating efficient power using the flame-assisted fuel cell is introduced, which has higher efficiency than ordinary fuel cells due to increased hydrogen concentration in the flame-rich combustion chamber. The waste heat is then introduced to a multi-effect desalination unit through a heat recovery steam generation unit to generate fresh, drinkable water. In order to make the system have higher efficiency, lower cost, and lower emission, the machine learning techniques are applied to optimize the operational conditions of the system, and find out the best solution point based on the cutting-edge algorithm of the grey wolf. Also, a complete techno-economic analysis and a parametric study are necessary to figure out the best solution point based on the TOPSIS method. The results indicate that the maximum value of exergy efficiency and drinkable water generation is 67.5% and 3.4 kg/s, respectively, while the minimum energy cost is 90.1 $/MWh. Moreover, results show that for the second optimization scenario considering the drinkable water production, energy cost, and pollution index as the objectives, the net produced power, energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and water mass flowrate improve by around 1059 kW, 5.1%, 1.3%, and 1.6 kg/s than the design condition. Besides, energy cost and emission index are reduced by about 22 $/MWh and 51.9 kg/MWh, respectively. • A new hybrid system driven by flame-assisted SOFC is presented. • The performance is comprehensively assessed from all aspects. • Machine learning technique is applied to reduce the optimization time by 79.16%. • An exergy efficiency of 67.5% with an acceptable cost of 90.1 $/MWh is achieved. • The optimization decreases energy costs and emissions by 22 $ and 52 kg per MW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean (MED) were reported as the sole vectors for tomato severe rugose virus (ToSRV), the prevalent begomovirus infecting tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L., Solanaceae) in Brazil. To improve our understanding on the interactions between B. tabaci and ToSRV, we studied the effects of the virus on the performance of MEAM1 and MED. Comparing adults' performance on non-infected and ToSRV-infected tomato plants, the number of hatched eggs and emerged adults decreased for both MEAM1 and MED in infected tomato plants. However, the negative effect was more evident for MED, where the emergence of adults was reduced by 90% on ToSRV-infected tomatoes. In addition, the developmental time and percentage survival of MED on ToSRV-infected plants were severely affected compared to non-infected plants, while no differences were observed for MEAM1. Preference assays showed that non-viruliferous MEAM1 adults preferred to settle on non-infected plants in initial times (from 1 h to 6 h) but did not show preference between non-infected and infected plants in other evaluated times (from 12 h to 72 h). Viruliferous MEAM1 adults did not show a preference for either ToSRV-infected or non-infected plants. In contrast, MED non-viruliferous and viruliferous adults preferred to settle on non-infected plants compared to ToSRV-infected tomato plants. Our results indicate that ToSRV differently influences the performance and behavior of the whitefly species MEAM1 and MED, negatively interfering with the life parameters of MED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se evalúa el modelo de elevación digital (MED) del Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) empleando datos del MED LiDAR de INEGI como referencia en la cuenca del Papaloapan (~58 000 km2) en México. Se seleccionaron tres regiones representativas: 1) una región montañosa con pendientes fuertes y elevaciones superiores a los 3 000 m; 2) una región transicional con pendientes relativamente más suaves y elevaciones alrededor de 1 000 m, y 3) una planicie de inundación con terreno plano y elevaciones menores a los 100 m. La comparación directa entre ambos MED muestra valores de elevación muy similares en las regiones montañosa y transicional. Sin embargo, en la planicie de inundación, la regresión muestra una forma parabólica, y los errores son relativamente más altos, en términos del rango de elevación. Esto probablemente se debe a errores sistemáticos en SRTM muy cercanos a las elevaciones bajas. Los mapas de errores sugieren una fuerte asociación con cuerpos de agua y el aspecto. Por ejemplo, en la región transicional, la mayoría de los errores negativos se encuentran en pendientes orientadas al este, mientras que la mayoría de errores positivos están en pendientes orientadas al oeste. Se estimaron histogramas tridimensionales de errores vs. rasgos topográficos (elevación, pendiente y aspecto). Los histogramas sugieren un error sistemático, lo cual implica que el SRTM podría mejorar con una calibración simple al menos en los presentes casos. Las evaluaciones de MED públicos de diferentes fuentes en México se consideran necesarias para identificar sus fortalezas y debilidades. Estas evaluaciones podrían constituir la base para la creación de MED mejorados en el futuro, ya sea mediante simple calibración o mediante MED compuestos provenientes de fuentes múltiples.

Background: There are limited data in the relationship between the minimal erythema dose (MED) of 308‐nm monochromatic excimer light (MEL) and 311‐nm Narrowband UVB (NB‐UVB). Objective: To establish a predictive model of the relationship between MEDs of both wavelengths. Methods: An MED test was performed on the back of 40 healthy Thai volunteers. One side was irradiated with 308‐nm MEL, and the opposite side was irradiated with 311‐nm NB‐UVB. The correlation and a predictive model of the relationships were then analyzed. Results: There was a positive correlation in the MED of both wavelengths (r = 0.82, p < 0.001). A predicted MED of 308‐nm MEL was based on Y = 62.421 + 0.439X, where Y and X were a predicted MED of 308‐nm MEL and an actual 311‐nm NB‐UVB, respectively. This model could predict an MED of 308‐nm MEL by using an actual MED of 311‐nm NB‐UVB with a root mean square difference of 13.64%, and a mean bias difference of 0.63%. Limitation: All volunteers were Fitzpatrick's skin phototype type IV. The predictive model might not generalize to other skin phototypes. Conclusion: We established a predictive model of the relationship between MED of 308‐nm MEL and 311‐nm NB‐UVB with acceptable accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a detailed thermo-economic analysis of unit water costs from dual-purpose cogeneration plants. The power levelized cost was first calculated for stand-alone steam, nuclear, and combined-cycle power plants. The cost of energy needed to operate the desalination systems connected to power plants was evaluated based on two different approaches: power- and heat-allocated methods. Numerical models based on the heat and mass balances of the power and desalination plants' components were developed and validated. Comprehensive and updated data generated using Desaldata libraries were correlated to estimate the capital, labor, overhead, and maintenance costs for different desalination systems. The levelized water cost produced by multi-effect distillation, multi-effect distillation with vapor compression, multi-stage flash, and reverse osmosis systems connected to different power plants was estimated. The impact of various controlling parameters, including the price of natural gas, nuclear power plant installation cost, and the desalination capacity on water cost, was investigated. For all simulated cases, the levelized water cost evaluated using the heat-allocated method was found to be lower by 25–30% compared to that estimated using the power-allocated method. The cost of water produced using reverse osmosis remains below that produced by other desalination technologies. However, using the heat-allocated method to estimate the levelized water cost narrows the gap between the costs of water produced by multi-effect distillation and that produced by seawater reverse osmosis. The results also show that the use of the multi-effect distillation process in a cogeneration configuration rather than multi-effect distillation with vapor compression can result in a lower water cost. The profit analysis shows slight differences between the profit of a power plant connected to a reverse osmosis system and the profit of a power plant connected to a plain multi-effect distillation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opioids are commonly prescribed for chronic pain before spinal surgery and research has shown an increased rate of postoperative adverse events in these patients. This study compared the incidence of 2-year subsequent surgical procedures and postoperative adverse events in patients undergoing lumbar fusion with or without 90-day preoperative opioid use. We hypothesized that patients using preoperative opioids would have a higher incidence of subsequent surgery and adverse outcomes. A retrospective cohort study was performed using the Optum Pan-Therapeutic Electronic Health Records database including adult patients who had their first lumbar fusion between 2015 and 2018. The daily average preoperative opioid dosage 90 days before fusion was determined as morphine equivalent dose and further categorized into high dose (morphine equivalent dose >100 mg/day) and low dose (1–100 mg/day). Clinical outcomes were compared after adjusting for confounders. A total of 23,275 patients were included, with 2112 patients (10%) using opioids preoperatively. There was a significantly higher incidence of infection compared with nonusers (12.3% vs. 10.1%; P = 0.01). There was no association between subsequent fusion surgery (7.9% vs. 7.5%; P = 0.52) and subsequent decompression surgery (4.1% vs. 3.6%; P = 0.3) between opioid users and nonusers. Regarding postoperative infection risk, low-dose users showed significantly higher incidence (12.7% vs. 10.1%; P < 0.01), but high-dose users did not show higher incidence than nonusers (7.5% vs. 10.1%; P = 0.23). Consistent with previous studies, opioid use was significantly associated with a higher incidence of 2-year postoperative infection compared with nonuse. Low-dose opioid users had higher postoperative infection rates than did nonusers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Living Antiquity is the property of Faculty of Philosophy, "Ss. Cyril & Methodius" University in Skopje and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Persian Gulf hosts densely located desalination plants that represent 50% of the global seawater desalination. The salinity levels in this gulf, especially in Qatar, are very high because of constant brine discharge and the shallow seawater (∼35 m depth). With the growing population, more desalination plants need to be installed to meet freshwater demands. The rising salinity levels and the ambient and sweater temperature will raise the specific energy consumption to produce a unit distillate because of climate change. Furthermore, the brine discharge affects the marine ecosystem and deteriorates the soil and groundwater quality. Thus, it is imperative to design and innovate a low or zero liquid discharge (LLD or ZLD) desalination system to mitigate climate change impacts and guarantee a safe marine environment. One such ZLD system is proposed and assessed in this study. The multi-effect desalination (MED) with higher top brine temperature (75 °C) is integrated with humidification dehumidification (HDH) system for brine concentration. In the final stage, the salts are removed via an evaporative crystallizer using thermal energy. The performance ratio (PR) with top brine temperature and temperature difference across each evaporator is evaluated and discussed. Finally, the specific energy consumption of the ZLD system is analyzed for different operating conditions.

Summary: This paper presents a comparative study of novel energy integrations between Multiple‐Effect Desalination (MED) and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems for the simultaneous production of desalinated water and electric power. Two new MED/ORC configurations are proposed, where part of the sensible and/or latent heat of condensation of the ORC is used to potentiate the generation of steam in the last effect of the MED, taking advantage of the temperature levels present in the MED. A simulator of the proposals was developed and validated with experimental results reported in the literature. These configurations are compared energetically with the MED and ORC systems working individually and against another previously proposed configuration, also considering the impact of the integrations on the heat transfer area required by the systems. The results show a decrease in the thermal energy requirements for the activation of the MED system with the new integrations. The energy requirements of the MED are reduced by 28% when integrated into the first effect with the ORC evaporator. The utilization of the sensible heat of condensation of the ORC in configuration 3 did not present a considerable energy decrease compared to configuration 2, due to the limited sensible heat available for its recovery, of approximately 22 kW. The usage of the latent heat of condensation of the ORC in configuration 4 implies that increasing the condensation temperature and pressure of the ORC, decreases its efficiency by 1.8% and increasing the energy required by 221 kW provides the two services simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addition and multiplication are some of the most broadly adopted arithmetic operations in a wide range of applications. This paper proposes new structures of approximate multipliers to optimize the area, delay, and power without affecting the accuracy metrics. Multipliers and adders play a significant role in the functioning of any digital circuit or system. The overall performance of a processor highly depends on the speed of adders and the energy consumption. In this paper, two types of compact error-tolerant approximate adders are designed and used along with approximate 4:2 compressors to improvise the efficiency of the approximate multipliers. The proposed approximate multipliers show good results when compared to the existing structures in terms of area, delay, power, and accuracy. The approximate multipliers are applied to image sharpening and image multiplication applications. The error-tolerant adder's performance is evaluated in the practical domain using the image blending application. Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) performance and the structural similarity index metric (SSIM) are used to assess the modeled designs. The proposed approximate multipliers and adders exhibit better performance in terms of PSNR and SSIM and are found to be an optimized design to apply effectively in various error-tolerant image processing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Agriculturae Slovenica is the property of Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hybrid power and desalinated water generation systems with two Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) technologies and Reverse Osmosis (RO) are investigated for a combined-cycle power plant in this study. The generated steam enters MED from the low-pressure section of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) in the hybrid system. Seawater is divided into two sections after entering the MED condenser – one part is fed into MED and its process. The other is rejected after cooling in the condenser and turns back to the sea. A reverse osmotic desalination system is implemented in this study. In the present combined cycles, steam generated in the Low Pressure (LP) section enters the steam turbine. To reduce the generated power and increase desalinated water in MED and RO, exergy analysis and cycle optimization are required. The system is simulated and verified based on the available data on the model power plant. The results showed that by selecting 43 optimization parameters and applying constraints like acidification temperature, the integrated cycle's exergy efficiency could be raised by 50%. Under this condition, the water price is calculated to be 1.16 $/m3. Under hybrid conditions of the design power and freshwater cogeneration system, the present design's efficiency without optimization and its final cost is 48.8% and approximately 1.2 $/m3.

Copyright of Veterinarska Stanica is the property of Croatian Veterinary Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Visualizing the ultraviolet (UV) dose on skin serve as an intuitive approach to ensure appropriate sunscreen usage and reduce the risk of erythema. UV dose is determined by a number of external factors, such as properties of sunscreens, weather, and type of outdoor activity. We propose a framework for visualizing UV doses that considers various external factors. Materials and methods: First, the skin of a three‐dimensional human model was represented using triangular meshes, and various static postures and dynamic motions were simulated to express outdoor activities. Then, we evaluated the persistency and insufficiency properties of sunscreen, which are time dependent and directly affect the effectiveness of the sunscreen skin protection factor (SPF) during UV exposure. Finally, to calculate the UV dose in real time, we tracked the trajectory of the sun and motion of the skin while considering the time‐dependent properties of sunscreen. Results: An S/W system was implemented based on the proposed framework to visualize the distribution of UV doses through dynamic color changes in exposed skin areas. The color types include true colors, which represent the minimum erythema dose (MED), and pseudo colors representing states before 1 MED is reached. We devised various examples to discuss the usability of the proposed framework. Conclusion: The system conveniently displays the MED according to an individual's skin phototype. When the properties of a wide range of commercial sunscreens are added to the system database, it is expected that the rate of appropriate sunscreen usage by customers will increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is regarded as the cleanest among fossil fuels due to its lower environmental impact. In power plants, it emits 50–60% less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared to regular oil or coal-fired plants. As the demand for a lower environmental footprint is increasing, fuel cells powered by LNG are starting to appear as a promising technology, especially suitable for off-grid applications, since they can supply both electricity and heating. This article presents a techno-economic assessment for an integrated system consisting of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack and a micro gas turbine (MGT) fueled by LNG, that feeds the waste heat to a multi-effect desalination system (MED) on the Greek island of Patmos. The partial or total replacement of the diesel engines on the non-interconnected island of Patmos with SOFC systems is investigated. The optimal system implementation is analyzed through a multi-stage approach that includes dynamic computational analysis, techno-economic evaluation of different scenarios using financial analysis and literature data, and analysis of the environmental and social impact on the island. Specific economic indicators such as payback, net present value, and internal rate of return were used to verify the economic feasibility of this system. Early results indicate that the most sensitive and important design parameter in the system is fuel cell capital cost, which has a significant effect on the balance between investment cost and repayment years. The results of this study also indicate that energy production with an LNG-fueled SOFC system is a promising solution for non-interconnected Greek islands, as an intermediate carrier prior to the long-term target of a CO₂-free economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]