Ruma Arora Soni^1,*, K. Sudhakar^1,3,4,*, R. S. Rana²

Energy Engineering, Vol.118, No.4, pp. 1045-1056, 2021, DOI:10.32604/EE.2021.016082 - 31 May 2021

Abstract Spirulina is a sort of algae that grows in both fresh and seawater. It is considered the Earth’s most nutritionally dense food. Certain claims about Spirulina’s beneficial health properties are attributed to the relatively high protein content of the cells. Spirulina’s lipid, fatty acid profile, and biochemical composition have received little attention. The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and decomposition of spirulina biomass at various temperatures. In the present investigation, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and elemental analysis were used to study spirulina biomass biochemical characteristics. The optimal content of… More >

José María Esbrí^*, Alba Martinez-Coronado, Sofía Rivera Jurado, Eva García-Noguero, Pablo Higueras

Energy Engineering, Vol.118, No.4, pp. 1223-1235, 2021, DOI:10.32604/EE.2021.015781 - 31 May 2021

Abstract Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that is subject to strict regulations to reduce anthropogenic emissions. The production of energy represents an important activity that leads to Hg emissions into the atmosphere. Of all the systems used, IGCC plants are the most promising for reducing Hg emissions, since it is possible to remove Hg from syngas prior to combustion. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the presence of Hg in the main streams of an experimental IGCC plant (ELCOGAS, Puertollano) in order to quantify Hg emissions and investigate the possibility of reducing… More >

Simei Yao^1,2, Yu Jin^2,3, Limin Zhang², Ningfei Lei^1,*, Wei Xue^2,*, Jinsong Chen³, Qian Zhang², Feihai Yu^1,2

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.90, No.4, pp. 1259-1271, 2021, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2021.014968 - 27 April 2021

Abstract Soil nutrients are commonly heterogeneously distributed and earthworms are one of the most common soil organisms. While effects of both soil nutrient heterogeneity and earthworms have been well studied, their interactive effect on plant community productivity has rarely been tested. In a greenhouse experiment, we constructed experimental plant communities by sowing seed mixtures of four grasses, two legumes and two forbs in either a heterogeneous soil consisting of low and high nutrient soil patches or a homogeneous soil where the low and high nutrient soil patches were evenly mixed. The earthworm Eisenia fetida was either added… More >

Kangning Zhou¹, Yingying Zhang¹, Jiasen Wu¹, Chunying Dou^1,2, Zihao Ye¹, Zhengqian Ye^1,3,*, Weijun Fu^1,3,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.90, No.4, pp. 1217-1232, 2021, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2021.014951 - 27 April 2021

Abstract

The hyperaccumulator Sedum alfredii Hance (S. alfredii) may be employed for zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd)-polluted soil remediation. However, the low phytoremediation efficiency, related to the low biomass production, limits its use with that purpose. In this experiment, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) fertilizers, and organic manure were applied to investigate the phytoremediation ability of S. alfredii. Hydroponic and pot experiments were conducted using Zn-Cd polluted soil. The hydroponic experiment indicated that appropriate fertilizer application could increase (p < 0.05) the amount of accumulated Zn and Cd in S. alfredii. When N supply ranged from 0.5 to 2.5

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Xiaorui Zhang^1,2,*, Jiali Duan¹, Wei Sun², Tong Xu¹, Sunil Kumar Jha³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.127, No.1, pp. 117-133, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2021.012034 - 30 March 2021

Abstract The cutting simulation of soft tissue is important in virtual surgery. It includes three major challenges in computation: Soft tissue simulation, collision detection, and handling, as well as soft tissue models. In order to address the earlier challenges, we propose a virtual cutting system based on the mass-spring model. In this system, MSM is utilized to simulate the soft tissue model. Residual stress is introduced to the model for simulating the shrinking effect of soft tissue in cutting. Second, a cylinder-based collision detection method is used to supervise the collision between surgical tools and soft More >

Tianyu Liu¹, Chang Wen^1,2,3,*, Wenyu Wang¹, Kai Yan³, Yongjun Xia⁴, Rui Li³, Juan Liu⁴, Yang Zhang¹

Energy Engineering, Vol.118, No.3, pp. 473-485, 2021, DOI:10.32604/EE.2021.014870 - 22 March 2021

Abstract Pretreatment before biomass combustion is significant for its efficient utilization and that combined water washing and carbonization can be efficient. An agricultural processing residues sesame stalk was selected and carried out two pretreatments separately, i.e., water washing-torrefaction (W-T) and torrefaction-water washing (T-W), to explore the effect on the fuel properties, combustion characteristics and particulate matter (PM) emission. The obtained biochar was also combusted under air and oxy50 (CO₂:O₂ = 50:50) conditions for the sake of investigating the effect of pretreatment and combustion atmosphere. The results indicate that, W-T and T-W both not only have great effect… More >

P. Murugan¹, S. Dhanushkodi^2,*, K. Sudhakar^3,4,*, Vincent H. Wilson⁵

Energy Engineering, Vol.118, No.3, pp. 435-446, 2021, DOI:10.32604/EE.2021.013491 - 22 March 2021

Abstract The quality of the drying process depends mainly on the efficient use of thermal energy. Sustainable systems based on solar energy takes a leading role in the drying of agro-products because of low operating cost. However, they are limited in use during off–sun periods. Biomass dryer is one of the simplest ways of drying because of its potential to dry products regardless of time and climate conditions. The other benefit is that crop residues could be used as fuel in these systems. However, the major limitation of the dryer is unequal drying because of poor More >

Park Chan-Yeob, Hyun-Ro Jae, Jun-Yong Jang, Song Hyoung-Kyu^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.68, No.1, pp. 137-148, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.016108 - 22 March 2021

Abstract Linear precoding methods such as zero-forcing (ZF) are near optimal for downlink massive multi-user multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems due to their asymptotic channel property. However, as the number of users increases, the computational complexity of obtaining the inverse matrix of the gram matrix increases. For solving the computational complexity problem, this paper proposes an improved Jacobi (JC)-based precoder to improve error performance of the conventional JC in the downlink massive MIMO systems. The conventional JC was studied for solving the high computational complexity of the ZF algorithm and was able to achieve parallel… More >

Ji-Sung Jung¹, Won-Seok Lee¹, Yeong-Rong Lee¹, Jaeho Kim², Hyoung-Kyu Song^1,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.3, pp. 3057-3070, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.015673 - 01 March 2021

Abstract Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) has become essential for the increase of capacity as the millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication is considered. Also, hybrid beamforming systems have been studied since full-digital beamforming is impractical due to high cost and power consumption of the radio frequency (RF) chains. This paper proposes a hybrid beamforming scheme to improve the spectral efficiency for multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) systems. In a frequency selective fading environment, hybrid beamforming schemes suffer from performance degradation since the analog precoder performs the same precoding for all subcarriers. To mitigate performance degradation, this paper uses the… More >

Adeeb Salh¹, Lukman Audah^1,*, Qazwan Abdullah¹, Nor Shahida M. Shah², Shipun A. Hamzah¹, Shahilah Nordin³, Nabil Farah²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.3, pp. 3189-3214, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.014746 - 01 March 2021

Abstract Energy efficiency (EE) is a critical design when taking into account circuit power consumption (CPC) in fifth-generation cellular networks. These problems arise because of the increasing number of antennas in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, attributable to inter-cell interference for channel state information. Apart from that, a higher number of radio frequency (RF) chains at the base station and active users consume more power due to the processing activities in digital-to-analogue converters and power amplifiers. Therefore, antenna selection, user selection, optimal transmission power, and pilot reuse power are important aspects in improving energy efficiency in… More >