Switching Frequency Effects on the Efficiency and Harmonic Distortion in a Three-Phase Five-Level CHBMI Prototype with Multicarrier PWM Schemes: Experimental Analysis

The current climatic scenario requires the use of innovative solutions to increase the production of electricity from renewable energy sources. Multilevel Power Inverters are a promising solution to improve the penetration of renewable energy sources into the electrical grid. Moreover, the performance of MPIs is a function of the modulation strategy employed and of its features (modulation index and switching frequency). This paper presents an extended and experimental analysis of three-phase five-level Cascaded H-Bridges Multilevel Inverter performance in terms of efficiency and harmonic content considering several MC PWM modulation strategies. In detail, the CHBMI performance is analyzed by varying the modulation index and the switching frequency. For control purposes, the NI System On Module sbRIO-9651 control board, a dedicated FPGA-based control board for power electronics and drive applications programmable in the LabVIEW environment, is used. The paper describes the modulation strategies implementation, the test bench set-up, and the experimental investigations carried out. The results obtained in terms of Total Harmonic Distorsion (THD) and efficiency are analyzed, compared, and discussed.

Pre-monsoon and post-monsoon groundwater chemical analysis For Burdwan (West Bengal), India

This study has been carried out to find the groundwater quality of Burdwan district of West Bengal during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon. For this, the data of physicochemical parameters have been collected from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) website for the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season for the year 2017. It is found that during the post-monsoon season, the water quality of all the stations falls in the category of excellent, and during the pre-monsoon season, the water quality of most of the stations is good.

Trend Analysis of Sulphur Dioxide in Bangalore & Effectiveness of Control Measures

Bangalore is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. Many public sector businesses and R&D organisations, such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Indian Space Research Organisation, Airbus, Boeing, General Electric (GE), Nokia, Toyota, and others, are housed here. Bangalore is known as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’, as it is home to many information technology (IT) enterprises. It is classified as a ‘non-attainment city’, meaning that pollution levels do not match the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) criteria. A high-level computer language called PYTHON was used to draw the trends of the air quality data collected over a 15-year period (2004-2019). PYTHON was used to clean, group, sort and aggregate the collected data to obtain the exceedance factor and draw the trend graphs. The policies of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) were examined to better understand the pattern. Over the years, the CPCB and the KSPCB have established a number of policies and guidelines, and the success or failure of these policies was examined in order to gain a better knowledge of the control measures. This report lays the groundwork for future policy implementation in other cities.

Design of a Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D-printer

A Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D-printer was designed, for fabrication by using in part locally sourced materials. The printer design was based on the Replicating Rapid Prototyper (RepRap) open source. The print volume of the printer is 200mm × 200mm × 300mm and it uses the Melzi V2 printer control board, coupled with the Repetier-Host firmware. The designed 3D-printer consists of galvanized steel frame, stainless steel threaded rods and wooded supports. The Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis was carried out on critical supporting components. The results obtained for the stresses are below the yield strength of the materials and the displacements are within acceptable limits, for high precision machines. The total power required by the 3D-printer was evaluated to be 197.93 W and it utilizes two thermoplastic materials namely; the Polylactic Acid (PLA) and the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS).

Opioid availability statistics from the International Narcotics Control Board do not reflect the medical use of opioids: comparison with sales data from Scandinavia

Objectives Opioid analgesics are essential in clinical practice, but their excessive use is associated with addiction risk. Increases in opioid prescription rates have fuelled an epidemic of opioid addiction in the USA, making statistics on medical opioid use a critical warning signal. A dramatic 150% increase in Swedish opioid access 2001–2013 was recently reported based on data from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB; Berterame et al. 2016) in conflict with other studies of opioid use in the Nordic countries. This article aims to analyse to what degree published INCB statistics on opioids in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) reflect actual medical use and study the methodological reasons for putative discrepancies. Methods Data on aggregated total national sales of opioids for the whole population, including hospitals, were collected from the Swedish e-Health Authority. Total sales data for Denmark and drugs dispensed at pharmacies in Norway are publicly available through the relevant authorities’ websites. Results INCB opioid statistics during the period 2001–2013 were markedly inconsistent with sales data from Scandinavia, calling the reliability of INCB data into question. INCB-data were flawed by (a) over-representing the volume of fentanyl, (b) under-reporting of codeine, and (c) by not including tramadol. Conclusions Opioid availability, as expressed by INCB statistics, does not reflect medical opioid use. It is crucial to underline that INCB statistics are based on the manual compilation of national production, import and export data from manufacturers and drug companies. This is not the same amount that is prescribed and consumed within the health care system. Moreover, there are methodological problems in the INCB reports, in particular concerning fentanyl, codeine and tramadol. We suggest that INCB should carefully review the quality of their data on medical opioids.

Challenges Faced By Strategic Partners in Driving Extension Programme: Lessons Learnt From Madzivhandila Agricultural College of Limpopo Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT The section on strategic partners and extension and partnerships at Madzivhandila College of Agriculture aims to identify key areas that require college intervention and to offer appropriate joint intervention strategies by strategic partners and extension and partnerships in the college. The purpose of the study is to clarify the roles of strategic partners and the extension and partnerships section at Madzivhandila College of agriculture. In this study, the authors have adopted a textual analysis to establish the roles of strategic partnerships. It is out of these roles that a broader recommendation, which could be followed by further research to determine their authenticity could be conducted. The authors discussed how stakeholder analysis was conducted, stakeholder selection, relevant partners, terms of references, and challenges faced by strategic partnerships. The findings in this study revealed that there are more than five strategic partners Madzivhandila Agricultural College entered into with; Westfalia, South African Avocado Growers Association (SAAGA), UNIVEG KATOPE, Citrus Growers Association (CGA), Citrus Research International (CRI), Pioneer Hi-Bred RSA (Pty) Ltd, Department of Correctional Services, Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB). PANNAR seed, Makhado Specialised oil Extract enterprise, Ross Breeders Association, Hygro-tech, and SAGA. The study concludes by suggesting a workable solution as a recommendation between the strategic partners and the college.

Three-dimensional inhomogeneous thermal fields of the “Photon-Amur 2.0” payload electronic board developed for nanosatellites

The thermal fields of the Photon-Amur 2.0 payload electronic board developed for nanosatellites were studied. The Photon-Amur 2.0 payload consists of an electronic control board with a casing mounted in a nanosatellite and a remote panel with experimental photovoltaic converters. A modified heat balance method was used for numerical simulation of the thermal fields of the control board and the casing. The constructed model and the obtained results of the numerical simulation were verified by comparison with the thermal diagrams obtained for the Photon-Amur 2.0 electronic board under normal operating conditions. For modeling the outer space operating conditions, it was assumed that there is a vacuum outside and inside the Photon-Amur 2.0 casing, and the thermal effect is transmitted from the nanosatellite racks to the payload electronic board through the fastenings. The thermal effect is of a periodic nature with amplitude of 45 to +80○C and a period of 96 min, which approximately corresponds to the motion of a nanosatellite in a 575 km-high orbit. It was demonstrated that with such composition of the payload module, its casing can work as a passive thermoregulator of thermal fields on the electronic board of Photon-Amur 2.0. The simulation showed that the casing helps to keep the temperature on the control board in the interval of 15C to +85C, which is acceptable for the electronic components used on the payload control board.

Automatic Grid Switch Control between Two Electrical Sources

This paper describes about the grid switch control system. The aim of the project is to provide a facility by which we can control the two power sources in the power grid. The purpose of the project is to provide a flexible system by which we can control the two DC power sources. Now days, there is a lot of requirements to control the appliances in an industry or in a home connected to the power grid when we are working. The main aim of the present project is to provide a facility by which we can control the DC power sources connected to the power grid. The only thing is we need to switch the button for a control board to the power control section. The control board which is attached to the power grid control section in the industry. This receives the commands to the microcontroller whenever there is a power cut from the main source. The microcontroller plays a major role in receiving the commands from the main source module and to switch from a Main DC source or from a Battery DC source which is fed to thee DC generator (Wind energy). The particular source is switched according to the command. Here in this project a power grid is connected to motor control unit. The project implements the design of a system by which we can control the power grid of two DC sources.

Multi-Touch Interaction Generation Device by Spatiotemporally Switching Electrodes

With the spread of devices equipped with touch panels, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops, the opportunity for users to perform touch interaction has increased. In this paper, we constructed a device that generates multi-touch interactions to realize high-speed, continuous, or hands-free touch input on a touch panel. The proposed device consists of an electrode sheet printed with multiple electrodes using conductive ink and a voltage control board, and generates eight multi-touch interactions: tap, double-tap, long-press, press-and-tap, swipe, pinch-in, pinch-out, and rotation, by changing the capacitance of the touch panel in time and space. In preliminary experiments, we investigated the appropriate electrode size and spacing for generating multi-touch interactions, and then implemented the device. From the evaluation experiments, it was confirmed that the proposed device can generate multi-touch interactions with high accuracy. As a result, tap, press-and-tap, swipe, pinch-in, pinch-out, and rotation can be generated with a success rate of 100%. It was confirmed that all the multi-touch interactions evaluated by the proposed device could be generated with high accuracy and acceptable speed.