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We criticize speculations to the effect that quantum mechanics is fundamentally about information. We do this by pointing out how unfounded such speculations in fact are. Our analysis focuses on the dubious claims of this kind recently made by Anton Zeilinger.

Pembangunan kesehatan masyarakat desa (PKMD) adalah rangkaian kegiatan mayarakat yang dilaksanakan atas dasar gotong royong dan swadaya dalam rangka menolong diri sendiri dalam memecahkan masalah untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya di bidang kesehatan dan di bidang

Pompa mer upaka n mes in fluida yang digunakan untuk memindahkan fluida cair dari suatu tempat ke tempat lainnya melalui sistem perpipaan. Pada prinsipnya, pompa mengubah energi mekanik motor menjadi energi aliran fluida. Penggunaannya sudah semakin luas, misalnya pompa untuk keperluan rumah tangga, pertanian, bahkan untuk keperluan industri-industri besar seperti industri perminyakan. Pada umumnya, pompa direncanakan untuk mengalirkan fluida satu fase cairan, namun dalam pengoperasiannya sering dijumpai adanya fase gas yang masuk ke dalam pipa isap pompa sehingga pompa akan bekerja pada aliran dua fase cairan-gas. Ketika pompa bekerja pada aliran dua fase cairan-gas, performansi pompa akan mengalami perubahan [1]. Subroto [1] melakukan penelitian tentang pengaruh aliran dua fase terhadap unjuk kerja pompa sentrifugal. Hasil penelitian tersebut diketahui bahwa unjuk kerja pompa menjadi menurun. Hal ini ditunjukkan oleh kurva head pompa yang dihasilkan lebih rendah daripada head pompa pada aliran satu fase. Selain itu, diketahui pula bahwa meningkatnya kecepatan udara akan berakibat menurunnya head pompa. Gambar 1.1. Karakteristik pompa aliran dua fase, Subroto [1].

In light of recent technological advancements over the decades especially with Information Technology (IT), the ‘Building Information Modelling’ (BIM) is one of those advancements that have attracted significant attention in UK construction industry. The UK government has acknowledged this trend and is joining the radical movement of adopting BIM by also making it a prerequisite for all those involved in public sector projects to have BIM ready by 2016. For Quantity Surveying (QS) profession, BIM presents huge challenges and opportunities, particularly in the area of cost estimating and quantity take-off. BIM offers the capability to automatically generate quantity take-offs and measurement directly from a digital model of a building, a process that traditionally is very time consuming for quantity surveyors. However, there is little evidence that BIM is systematically introduced in quantity surveying profession in UK largely due to majority of the BIM based cost estimating or take-...

Uncertainties in renewable energy resources are the main challenges in maintaining a high quality of supply in stand-alone Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES). Conventionally, a battery bank is used as an auxiliary source to reduce the vulnerability of HRES to the climate changes and maintain the desired quality of supply. Considering the uncertainties at the design stage would ensure appropriate sizing of the HRESs in order to improve their reliability under different operating conditions. This paper proposes a method in optimal sizing of a stand-alone wind turbine/PV/battery system considering uncertainties in renewable energy resources. The wind speed and solar irradiance variations are modelled by using time series analysis method. Performance of the design candidates is evaluated by using the Monte-Carlo simulation method. The analysis presented is supported by a case study for a typical household in the UK.

In the recent times with the increase in the population, the number of retail shopping environments has increased significantly in Dhaka city. But these shopping environments are developing into high consumption areas of electricity resulting from artificially light design approach. In this study, it was found that the energy consumption is rising because of the minimal or no use of daylight and natural ventilation. A field based case study was conducted to review the daylight inclusion in the design of retail shopping environments representing the historical periods

The scaled boundary finite element method caters well for soil-structure interaction problems, but the formulation does not cater for the presence of changing pore pressures with time, body loads and tractions. A detailed formulation is presented in this paper to consider the general 2D analysis case for modelling coupled consolidation, accounting for body forces and surface tractions in both the bounded and unbounded media. The advantages of this method compared to conventional methods are also explained in this ...

The self-referential ͑SR͒ method incorporating thermodynamic integration ͑TI͒ ͓Sweatman et al., J. Chem. Phys. 128, 064102 ͑2008͔͒ is extended to treat systems of rigid linear bodies. The method is then applied to obtain the canonical ensemble Helmholtz free energy of the ␣-N 2 and plastic face centered cubic phases of systems of hard and Lennard-Jones dumbbells using Monte Carlo simulations. Generally good agreement with reference literature data is obtained, which indicates that the SR-TI method is potentially very general and robust.

Consumption of groundwater containing fluoride exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) 1.5 mg/L standard leaves people vulnerable to fluorosis: a vulnerability not well characterised in Malawi. To evaluate geogenic fluoride source and concentration, groundwater fluoride and geology was documented in central Malawi where groundwater supplies are mainly sourced from the weathered basement aquifer. Lithological composition was shown as the main control on fluoride occurrence. Augen gneiss of granitic composition posed the greatest geological fluoride risk. The weathered basement aquifer profile was the main factor controlling fluoride distributions. These results and fluoride-lithology statistical analysis allowed the development of a graded map of geological fluoride risk. A direct link to human health risk (dental fluorosis) from geological fluoride was quantified to support science-led policy change for fluoride in rural drinking water in Malawi. Hazard quotient (HQ) values were c...

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) systems are computer environments through which collaborative working can be undertaken. Although many CIC systems have been developed to demonstrate the communication and collaboration within the construction projects, the uptake of CICs by the industry is still inadequate. This is mainly due to the fact that research methodologies of the CIC development projects are incomplete to bridge the technology transfer gap. Therefore, defining comprehensive methodologies for the development of these systems and their effective implementation on real construction projects is vital. Requirements Engineering (RE) can contribute to the effective uptake of these systems because it drives the systems development for the targeted audience. This paper proposes a requirements engineering approach for industry driven CIC systems development. While some CIC systems are investigated to build a broad and deep contextual knowledge in the area, the EU funded research project, DIVERCITY (Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry), is analysed as the main case study project because its requirements engineering approach has the potential to determine a framework for the adaptation of requirements engineering in order to contribute towards the uptake of CIC systems.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is both valuable and harmful since it contains a large number of profitable and hazardous materials and elements at the same time. At component level, many parts of the discarded equipment are still functional and recoverable. Thus it is necessary to develop a distributed and intelligent system to support WEEE recovery and recycling. In recent years, the Cloud concept has gained increasing popularity since it provides a service-oriented architecture that integrates various resources over the network. Cloud Manufacturing systems are proposed world-wide to support operational manufacturing processes. In this research, Cloud Manufacturing is further extended to the WEEE recovery and recycling context. A Cloud-based WEEE Recovery system is developed to provide modularized recovery services on the Cloud. A data management system is developed as well, which maintains the knowledge throughout the product lifecycle. A product tracking mechani...

In the presented work, an effort has been put to clear up the theoretical interlink between local adhesion capacity and macroscopic fracture energies by bridging different length scales, such as nano-, meso-, and macro-scale. Crystal plasticity theory along with a cohesive modelling approach has been used during this work. The influence of different cohesive law parameters (cohesive strength, work of adhesion) on the macroscopic fracture energies for three different orientations of niobium/alumina bicrystal specimens has been presented. It is found that cohesive strength has a stronger effect on macroscopic fracture energies as compared to work of adhesion. In the last part a generalized correlation among macroscopic fracture energy, cohesive strength, work of adhesion and yield stress is derived. The presented results can provide a great help to experimentalists in order to design better metal/ceramic interfaces.

consider including shale gas extraction in their research programmes, and possibly a cross-Research Council programme. Priorities should include research into the public acceptability of the extraction and use of shale gas in the context of UK policies on climate change, energy and the wider economy. water returns to the surface over the lifetime of the well as it continues to produce shale gas ('produced water'). Although definitions vary, flowback water and produced water collectively constitute 'wastewaters' (EPA 2011). Hydraulic Fracturing Water table Sand keeps Well DoE (2011a), Subcommittee second ninety day report,

The paper is focused on analytical prediction of the effective bulk and shear modulus for particulate composites reinforced with solid spherical particles surrounded by graded interphase zone. A three-dimensional elasticity problem for a single inclusion embedded in a finite matrix is studied. The graded interphase zone around the inclusion is assumed to have power law variation of the shear modulus with radial coordinate , with Poisson's 1 ratio assumed to be constant and equal to that of the matrix. Following Hashin's approach, two boundary value problems are considered and stress and displacement fields in the interphase zone are determined. They are then used to calculate the elastic energy for the single inclusion composite under spherically symmetric state and pure shear state and derive closed-form expressions for the bulk modulus and the upper and lower bounds for the shear modulus. Numerical results for hard and soft interphase zones are presented and discussed for a range of the interphase zone thickness ratios.

Shale gas and coal-bed methane show remarkably similar opportunities for the in situ stimulation of microbial methane generation.  The vast literature available from bioremediation studies can significantly improve our understanding of microbial processes in unconventional gas systems.  Engineering technologies such as hydraulic fracturing may be adapted to stimulate biogenic gas production and favour positive microbial processes.  Managing microbial communities in unconventional gas systems have implications for both recovery practices and a sustainable development of unconventional resources.

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The lowest stationary quantum state of neutrons in the Earth's gravitational field is identified in the measurement of neutron transmission between a horizontal mirror on the bottom and an absorber/scatterer on top. Such an assembly is not transparent for neutrons if the absorber height is smaller than the ''height'' of the lowest quantum state.

Visualization and interpretation of the optic nerve and retina are essential parts of most physical examinations. To design and validate a smartphone-based retinal adapter enabling image capture and remote grading of the retina. This validation study compared the grading of optic nerves from smartphone images with those of a digital retinal camera. Both image sets were independently graded at Moorfields Eye Hospital Reading Centre. Nested within the 6-year follow-up (January 7, 2013, to March 12, 2014) of the Nakuru Eye Disease Cohort in Kenya, 1460 adults (2920 eyes) 55 years and older were recruited consecutively from the study. A subset of 100 optic disc images from both methods were further used to validate a grading app for the optic nerves. Data analysis was performed April 7 to April 12, 2015. Vertical cup-disc ratio for each test was compared in terms of agreement (Bland-Altman and weighted κ) and test-retest variability. A total of 2152 optic nerve images were available fro...

Emerging economies with rapidly growing population and energy demand, own some of the most expensive power plants in the world. We hypothesized that corruption has a relationship with the capital cost of power plants in developing countries such as Bangladesh. For this study, we analyzed the capital cost of 61 operational and planned power plants in Bangladesh. Initial comparison study revealed that the mean capital cost of a power plant in Bangladesh is twice than that of the global average. Then, the statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between corruption and the cost of power plants, indicating that higher corruption leads to greater capital cost. The high up-front cost can be a significant burden on the economy, at present and in the future, as most are financed through international loans with extended repayment terms. There is, therefore, an urgent need for the review of the procurement and due diligence process of establishing power plants, and for the implementation of a more transparent system to mitigate adverse effects of corruption on megaprojects.

This study investigates the effect of two important parameters (length of curing period and percentage of the added binder) on the strength of soil treated with OPC. An intermediate plasticity silty clayey soil with medium organic content was used in this study. This soft soil was treated with different percentages of a commercially available cement type 32.5-N. laboratory experiments were carried out on the soil treated with 0, 1.5, 3, 6, 9, and 12% OPC by the dry weight to determine the effect of OPC on the compaction parameters, consistency limits, and the compressive strength. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test was carried out on cement-treated specimens after exposing them to different curing periods (1, 3, 7, 14, 28, and 90 days). The results of UCS test were used to develop a non-linear multi-regression model to find the relationship between the predicted and the measured maximum compressive strength of the treated soil (qu). The results indicated that there was a sig...

Fluid and melt inclusions are tiny pockets of fluid and melt trapped in natural and synthetic minerals. Characterizing the 3D distribution of fluid and melt inclusions within minerals, their shape and the volume fraction of their different phases is crucial for determining the conditions for crystal growth and paleostress analysis. However, their relatively small size (typically 5 to 100 μm), complex shape, heterogeneous content, the opaque nature of some host minerals and projection bias frequently hamper accurate imaging and volumetric reconstruction using conventional microscopic techniques. High resolution Xray computed tomography (HRXCT) is a non-destructive method which uses contrasts of Xray attenuation in a series of contiguous radiographs with different view angles to reconstruct the 3D distribution of areas of different densities within a large variety of materials. In this work, we show the capabilities HRXCT for: (i) imaging the 3D distribution of aqueous and hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions and silicate melt inclusions in a crystal; (ii) characterizing the shape of fluid and melt inclusions and (iii) reconstructing the total volume and the volume of the different phases (liquid, glass, crystal, vapor) of fluid inclusions and melt inclusions. We have used a variety of hand specimens and chips of transparent and opaque minerals (olivine, quartz, feldspar, garnet, emerald, wolframite), that we analyzed using three different HRXCT setups. When a resolution of ~ 1 µm 3 /voxel is achieved, HRXCT allows identifying > 5 µm fluid inclusions, and the identification and volumetric reconstruction of the different phases can be carried out with reasonable confidence for relatively large (> 25 µm) inclusions. Density contrasts are high enough to properly identify: (i) a silicate melt inclusion, and its different phases (glass, vapor and crystals such as clinopyroxene and spinel) in an olivine crystal; (ii) aqueous monophase (liquid) and twophase (liquid + vapor) fluid inclusions in transparent and opaque minerals (quartz, garnet, emerald, wolframite). In the case of hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions containing two liquid phases (oil and aqueous solution) and a vapor phase, the two liquid phases could not be distinguished from each other. Volumetric reconstruction of liquid and vapor phases of aqueous and hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions show compatible results with independent calculations using known pressure, temperature, molar volume and composition (P-TV -x) conditions of trapping or imaging using confocal laser scanning microscopy respectively. Collectively, our results show that HRXCT is a promising tool for non-destructive characterization of fluid and melt inclusions.

The importance of remanufacturing has been increasing since stricter regulations on protecting the environment were enforced. Remanufacturing is considered as the main means of retaining value from used products and components in order to drive a circular economy. However, it is more complex than traditional manufacturing due to the uncertainties associated with the quality, quantities and return timing of used products and components. Over the past few years, various methods of optimising remanufacturing outcomes have been developed to make decisions such as identifying the best End-Of-Life (EOL) options, acquiring the right amounts of cores, deciding the most suitable disassembly level, applying suitable cleaning techniques, and considering product commonality across different product families. A decision being made at one remanufacturing activity will greatly affect the decisions at subsequent activities, which will affect remanufacturing outcomes, i.e. productivity, economic performance effectiveness, and the proportion of core that can be salvaged. Therefore, a holistic way of integrating different decisions over multiple remanufacturing activities is needed to improve remanufacturing outcomes, which is a major knowledge gap. This paper reviews current remanufacturing practice in order to highlight both the challenges and opportunities, and more importantly, offers useful insights on how such a knowledge gap can be bridged.

Remanufacturing is the process of returning a used product to like-new condition with a warranty to match. The efficiency and effectiveness of this process greatly depends upon product design; there are certain product properties that may have a positive or negative effect on steps of the remanufacturing process. The concept of ‘design for remanufacture’ or ‘DfRem’ is a design task dedicated to improving the remanufacturability of a product. However, it would appear that very few products are currently designed for remanufacture and the reasons behind this have yet to be fully explored. This paper provides an overview of the problem and a discussion of some of the preliminary findings of a study aimed at improving designers’ ability to carry out DfRem. The findings provide an early indication of some of the factors affecting the integration of DfRem into the design process.

A model simulating the effluent nitrogen (N) concentration of treated animal farm wastewater in a pilot on-site constructed wetland (CW) system, using dewatered alum sludge cake (DASC) as wetland substrate, is presented. The N-model was developed based on the Structural Thinking Experiential Learning Laboratory with Animation software and is considering organic nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen (NH3) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) as the major forms of nitrogen involved in the transformation chains. Ammonification (AMM), ammonia volatilization, nitrification (NIT), denitrification, plant uptake, plant decaying and uptake of inorganic nitrogen by algae and bacteria were considered in this model. pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, precipitation, solar radiation and nitrogen concentrations were considered as forcing functions in the model. The model was calibrated by observed data with a reasonable agreement prior to its applications. The simulated effluent detritus nitrogen, NH4-N, NO3-N and T...

The accurate and up to date measurement of work in progress on construction sites is vital for project management functions like schedule and cost control. Currently, it takes place using traditional building surveying techniques and visual inspections. The usually monthly measurements are error prone and not frequent enough for reliable and effective project controls. This paper explores the potential of using computer vision technology in assisting the project management task. In particular, it examines the development of an integrated building information system that aims to determine the progress of construction from digital images captured on site in order to semi-automate the work in progress measurement and calculation of interim payments as well as function as an early warning system of potential delays. The study focuses on the quantity rather than quality aspect of work and is limited to the superstructure of buildings.

Advancement of techniques for 3D reconstruction of the optic disc could lead to affordable objective detection of glaucoma. Applying computer stereo vision techniques to image pairs is particularly promising. More data, along with the stereo camera calibration parameters and ground truths required for validation, could aid development. This work presents a method to generate, using a virtual environment, synthetic stereo images of optic discs from images in the CORD database and obtain the corresponding stereo camera calibration parameters and ground truths. Our own reconstruction technique was tested using data created using this environment and quantitatively validated.

Scour is the leading cause of bridge failures worldwide. In the United States, 22 bridges fail every year, whereas in the UK scour contributed significantly to the 138 bridge collapses recorded in the last century. Monitoring an entire infrastructure network against scour is not economically feasible. This limitation can be overcome by installing monitoring systems at critical locations, and then extend the pieces of information gained to the entire asset through a probabilistic approach. This paper proposes a Decision Support System (DSS) for bridge scour management that exploits information from a limited number of scour monitoring systems (SMSs) to achieve a more confined estimate of the scour risk for a bridge network. A Bayesian network (BN) is used to describe conditional dependencies among the involved random variables, and it allows estimating the scour depth distributions using information from monitoring of scour depth and river flow characteristics. Data collected by SMSs...

With a growing number of elderly people in the UK, more and more of them suffer from various kinds of cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment can be divided into different stages such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and severe cognitive impairment like dementia. Its early detection can be of great importance. However, it is challenging to detect cognitive impairment in the early stage with high accuracy and low cost, when most of the symptoms may not be fully expressed. This survey paper mainly reviews the state of the art techniques for the early detection of cognitive impairment and compares their advantages and weaknesses. In order to build an effective and low-cost automatic system for detecting and monitoring the cognitive impairment for a wide range of elderly people, the applications of computer vision techniques for the early detection of cognitive impairment by monitoring facial expressions, body movements and eye movements are highlighted in this paper. In additional to technique review, the main research challenges for the early detection of cognitive impairment with high accuracy and low cost are analysed in depth. Through carefully comparing and contrasting the currently popular techniques for their advantages and weaknesses, some important research directions are particularly pointed out and highlighted from the viewpoints of the authors alone. Keywords: Cognitive impairment Á Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) Á Dementia Á Early detection Á Computer vision techniques Á Literature review

Reverse logistics network problems are accepted as sophisticated research areas in the existing literature due to difficulties of the prediction of the material flow in the network and the conflicting objectives of minimizing total cost and energy consumption while maximizing customer satisfaction and control of the pollution. There are different approaches to dealing with the difficulties of the problem, yet these approaches overlook the geographical aspect of the problems. In this paper, a reversed network of a governmental organization is evaluated, with spatial decision criteria taken into account. A methodology is proposed that integrates Analytic Hierarchy Process, Geographic Information Systems and integer programming to determine the locations of the return centers and to deal with the complicated structure. Population, airport locations, maritime facilities, railroad lines and highway lines are accepted as the decision criteria. Based on these decision criteria, suitability...

We definitively show, using an explicit and broadly applicable model, that local phase noise that is capable of eliminating state coherence only in the infinite-time limit is capable of eliminating nonlocality in finite time in three two-level systems prepared in the Bell-nonlocal tripartite states of the generic entanglement class.