bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quinoa Introduction For Food Security In The Gcc, North Africa And Near East
Authors: Piet Remi
Published: November 2013

Answering the global need to identify crops that have the potential to produce quality food while maintaining sustainable development, quinoa is a cereal that provides significant promises. Thanks to its nutritional characteristics and agronomic versatility, quinoa offers an interesting alternative to traditional crops. Its harvesting contributes to regional and global food security especially in the areas where the population has no access to adequate sources of protein or where food production is limited. Its limited need for water and high protein content make quinoa an ideal candidate for cultivation in food security seeking countries However, the introduction of this cereal holds also its set of challenges including structural changes to the food sector as well as social, economic and environmental factors. This paper analyzes the determinants of production in countries that traditionally produce quinoa (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru) and underlines the framework of a comprehensive and sustainable production in the Middle East, GCC and North Africa. This research aims at contributing to scientific cooperation, sharing past experiences for the development of this exogenous cereal cultivation at the regional and inter-regional levels, adapting current best practices to local agricultural development. Latin America, North Africa and the Near East share similar challenges as well as geographic, climate and social characteristics, therefore a cross cases analysis is highly relevant. Following a first field study led in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), this paper's objective is to provide a blueprint on how to gather the necessary conditions for a sustainable cultivation of this promising cereal. It also addresses the important capacity building component both at the local and regional level and the inclusion of quinoa within traditional cropping patterns and farming systems as well as national and regional sustainable strategy. More specifically it also focuses on the role the GCC and Qatar could play in fostering cooperation in food security in the Middle East as part of a FAO led scientific cooperation platform in the Greater Middle East. In line with on-going South-South Cooperation efforts, this paper proposes roads to promote not only the exchanges between academic experts from both regions, but also between agricultural cooperatives and traditional food importing countries including innovative financing mechanism.
Molecular Diversity In Date Palm Using Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (Issr) Markers
Authors: Ahmed Talaat
Published: November 2013

Total of 47 Date palm samples representing 15 cultivars from two germplasm collections (Rodat Alfaras Germplasm field and Germplasm field of Qatar University Experimental farm) were collected to study the genetic diversity among and within date palm cultivars grown in Qatar. 29 samples representing 11 varieties were collected from Rodat Alfaras Farm. Eighteen samples including six varieties were collected from Qatar University Experimental Farm. DNAs were extracted from fresh leaves by using commercial DNeasy Plant System Kit (Qiagen, Inc., Valencia, CA) Total of 18 (Inter Simple Sequence Repeat) ISSR single primers were used to amplify DNA fragments using genomic DNA of the 47 samples. First screening was done to test the ability of these primers to amplify clear bands using Date palm genomic DNA. All 18 ISSR primers successfully produced clear bands in the first screening. Then, each primer was used separately to genotype the whole set of 47 Date palm samples. Total of 4794 bands were generated using 12 ISSR primers for the 47 Date palm samples. On average, each primer generated 400 bands. The Number of amplified bands varied from cultivar to cultivar and differed from area to area for the same cultivar. The highest number of bands was obtained using Primers 2, 5 and 12 for the 17 cultivars over all locations (470 bands), while the lowest number of bands were obtained by Primers 1, 7 and 8 where they produced only 329 bands. However, variation within each individual cultivar as number of polymorphic fragments was considerably smaller than the inter-specific variation among the studied cultivars. Markers were scored for the presence and absence of the corresponding band among the different cultivars grown in different locations. Data were subjected to cluster analysis. A similarity matrix was constructed and the similarity values were used for cluster analysis.
A green solution: Molecular dynamic simulation study of wax inhibition through pour point depressant type inhibitor
Authors: Adam Fatmawati
Published: November 2013

Paraffin wax deposition from crude oils at low temperature is one of the critical and long standing problems in petroleum industry. An addition of pour point depressants (PPDs) has been proved to be an efficient way to inhibit the wax deposition. The chosen group of PPDs in this study are poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate(EVA)) and (Meth)acrylate Ester (MAE) polymers. The molecule geometry structures were labelled as illustrated in Figure 1. This research focuses on the investigation of van der Waals intermolecular interaction between the major wax component molecule C28H58, with the inhibitor molecules via molecular dynamics simulation (MD) technique in Material Studio 5.5 software Package. The simulation system has been equilibrated under NVE essemble at 200ps followed by NVT assemble. COMPASS force field is applied to analyse the desired structural property Radial Distribution Function (RDF). The results show that the functional groups introduced by EVA were benefit to inhibit the self-agglomerate of the wax crystal compared to MAE as reported in a published literature. Simulation output also provides a better understanding on the interaction between wax crystal and inhibitors. The oxygen atoms in EVA play a significant role to inhibit the wax formation through the van der Waals interaction between hydrogen atoms in n-Octacosane molecule. As a conclusion, MD is a promising tool method to recognise the wax-inhibitor intermolecular interaction which is much fast, environmental friendly and economic for further inhibitor screening work. Keywords: poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate(EVA)),(Meth)acrylate Ester (MAE) Polymers, COMPASS, van der Waals
The control of Gas Hydrate formation using ionic liquids
Authors: Khraisheh Majeda
Published: November 2013

Gas hydrates are crystalline solids consisting of three dimensional, hydrogen bonded water molecules (host), encapsulated with a guest molecule. [1] There are numerous possibilities for the molecules acting as the guests. The most common guests include methane, ethane, propane and carbon dioxide. They can be significantly problematic in the production of oil and gas. The 1930's marked the discovery, by Hammerschmidt, of the formation of hydrates in pipes. This formation can eventually cause a blockage in the pipeline, creating the risk of explosion, as the blockage may cause a high pressure and low pressure section of the pipe. This causes the hydrate to act as a high velocity solid which not only results in destruction to equipment but can also lead to loss of lives. [2] As the production of oil and gas moves to more extreme, hydrate favouring conditions, predominantly inhibition is the only viable option. Clathrate hydrate inhibitors are divided into three groups, thermodynamic inhibitors (THI), low dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHI) and ionic liquids (IL). Ionic liquids have the potential to act as inhibitors but previous research has been restricted by the lack of design on the ionic liquids being experimented e.g ionic liquids chosen due to their commercial availability. There are many advantages to using ionic liquids, but in increasing their field application certain design criteria should be followed. The Ionic liquids used should be water soluble, form hydrogen bonds with water, relatively non-viscous, low toxicity, biodegradable and have minimal halogen content. The main aim of this work is to Design, Synthesise and Characterise ionic liquids within the criteria that will perform as hydrate inhibitors and to test the ionic liquids as both thermodynamic and kinetic inhibitors in the high pressure view cell and compare the performance with current commercial inhibitors.The initials experiments were performed to ensure the equipment was fully working and so the literature data for the blank test with no inhibitor and methanol 5 and 10 wt% were reproduced to verify thisAs can be observed from the graph, the literature data has successfully been repeated. This is also shows that the equipment is working and is operating to the desired needs of the project. Frequently imidazolium cations, particularly EMIM, are observed in the literature featuring ionic liquids as inhibitors. The next stage was to look at how effective these ionic liquids are, however, exchanging the halogen anion. The properties mentioned before suggest alcohol or ketone groups on the anion in order to maximise hydrogen bonding effectively increasing inhibition ability. This change would also help in making the ILs more environmentally friendly and lower the toxicity of them.
Natural Gas Hydrate Equilibrium Experiments for Qatar Natural Gas Samples
Authors: Atilhan Mert
Published: November 2013

Qatar holds the world's third-largest reserves of natural gas at 890 trillion cubic feet according to proven reserves according the latest report in 2013. This plentiful natural resource makes Qatar being one of the most important key players in LNG business around the globe. Qatar's natural gas reservoirs are located 80 km off the shore in North Field. Qatar's LNG production is highly dependent on the reliable natural gas feed from the offshore wellheads to on shore processing facilities. Typical gas composition and pipeline operating conditions makes the flow assurance quite challenging in the North Field which causes unplanned shutdowns and jeopardizes the reliable LNG export to end users. Classical hydrate formation inhibition methods are used in order to prevent plugging of the pipelines however gas industry still suffers from hydrate formation conditions for changing gas concentration, determination of the total amount of inhibitors to be injected and the recovery of the injected inhibitors from the pipeline. These challenges make gas industry in Qatar dependent on the external resources in finding temporary solutions, which currently is not available locally in Qatar. This work presents recent investigation on natural gas hydrates for Qatari type natural gas mixtures with initiatives aimed at helping producers minimize costs, optimize operations, and prevent interruption of gas flow in offshore drilling and production. We present preliminary results and data from a newly commissioned high pressure hydrate autoclave. Calibrations of the autoclave with pure methane and carbon dioxide were compared with literature and Hydraflash software. Upon validation of the calibration data and determination of the apparatus uncertainty, results for hydrate formation equilibrium points for Qatar natural gas sample were collected and were compared with a theoretical data obtained from Hydraflash software.
Boiling Of Binary Hydrocarbon Mixtures On Water
Authors: Olewski Tomasz
Published: November 2013

The boiling of binary hydrocarbon mixture on water exhibits a special immiscible liquid-liquid heat transfer phenomenon where the heat transfer parameters change rapidly in a short duration of time. The boiling of hydrocarbon mixtures involves a process called ageing where the vaporization of most volatile component takes place faster leaving behind the less volatile component. This process establishes a concentration gradient which changes with time. The boiling heat flux thus produced for mixtures is quite different from this of the pure component. In the boiling of a pure liquid the entire boiling process is heat transfer controlled. In contrast, when a multicomponent mixture boils, the vapor and liquid phases are present in different composition and boiling process is controlled by both temperature and concentration gradients. The boiling of two different binary mixtures of hydrocarbons comprising of methane-ethane and methane-propane was studied. Theoretical correlations for nucleate and film boiling, which takes into account the modified heat transfer coefficient and wall superheat heat, were used to determine the heat flux. The modified heat transfer coefficient called ideal heat transfer coefficient was found to be a function of the concentration of the light components. The ageing of the mixture was expressed as a ratio of heavier to the lighter hydrocarbons. Predicted heat flux values were compared against experimental data and showed moderate-good fitting with the model with some identified trends.
Optimal Policies For The Diffusion Of Renewable Energy Systems
Authors: Goodarzi Shadi
Published: November 2013

Climate change, caused by excess green house gas (GHG) emissions from human activities is becoming a pressing problem as the Earth's mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C since the early 20th century (America's Climate Choices, 2011). It is now widely accepted that investment in renewable energy sources is one of the most effective solutions to amend the emission of GHGs. Yet renewable energy technologies only account for a small fraction of the world's primary energy supply. Several technical, economical and behavioral reasons hinder market diffusion of these technologies; among these we note the lack, inadequacy or instability of the governmental policies to promote sustainable energy solutions. Various policies such as subsidies and tax reductions have been implemented to facilitate the diffusion of renewable energy systems. Yet, there is limited research on which policy is optimal, taking into account the complexities and externalities in the supply chain of such renewables as Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Using a stylized economical model, this research aims at identifying optimal policies for adoption of PV systems. We develop a model with a 3-player environment, which includes a grid operator responsible for meeting electricity demands, a PV manufacturer, and customers who are sensitive about their investment payback time with heterogeneous 'discount rate', reflecting their attitude toward the time value of money. The grid operator is responsible to meet all electricity demand, while aiming at increasing PV penetration. The PV manufacturer as well as the customers seeks to maximize their own profit/utility. The decision variable for the customers is whether or not to adopt the system, affecting profit of the two other parties by determining the demand as well as the amount and variation of the electricity fed into the grid using the PV systems. The decision variable for the PV manufacturer is the price to charge for each PV unit, while the grid operator decides on the incentive schemes for adoption including feed-in tariffs and subsides. We investigate the equilibrium outcome in this intertwined decision environment as a sequential game, where the manufacturer determines the price of PV units given the governmental incentive systems, and the customers determine demand. Using this equilibrium outcome, we then investigate the effectiveness of various incentive policies to maximize supply chain profit as well as PV penetration.
First Record Of Pseudoceramodactylus Khobarensis Haas, 1957 (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) In Qatar
Authors: Valdeón Aitor
Published: November 2013

The Gulf sand gecko (Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis Haas, 1957) is a nocturnal gecko endemic to the Arabian Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran). The species is easily recognizable, being a medium sized ground dwelling gecko with no enlarged tubercles on the dorsum nor lamellae beneath toes, like Stenodactylus species, but Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis has at least one pair of enlarged postmental scales, absent in Stenodactylus species. In this study we report the presence Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis in Qatar for the first time. We found the species on two islands (Al Aaliya and Al Saflia) and in the mainland (Abu Samra and two areas in Ras Laffan). The islands are the smallest where this species is known to occur. The habitat occupied by the geckos consists of salty coastal areas with shrubs. Our findings in this study bridge one of the current geographic gaps in the known distribution range of this species. We believe that this gecko species is more widely distributed in Qatar than we report here and an extensive inventory is required to map the full range of the species in Qatar and also in other countries of the Arabian Gulf. This abstract is a contribution for the Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference (QF-ARC-2013).
Characterization And Application For Qatalum'S First Cut Spent Spot Lining
Authors: Abdullah Aboubakr
Published: November 2013

Spent spot lining (SPL) is a graphite/ceramic waste that is produced from the aluminum industry. The rate of SPL production is expected to increase worldwide by 500,000 tons per year. SPL is considered as a hazardous material since it contains many contaminants e.g. fluorides, cyanides, lead and chromium in addition to flammable gases when it comes in contact with water e.g. ammonia, phosphine, hydrogen and methane. Hydrogen and methane accounts for approximately 99 percent of gases generated. These gases are released slowly for significant lengths of time which could present an explosion hazard in confined or poorly ventilated spaces. Furthermore, the SPL contaminants can diffuse to the water ground during storage. The aims of this work are to (i) design and verify a full analysis protocol for the SPL and (ii) find a suitable application for consuming the SPL waste. SPL was collected from Qatalum, grinded using a ball miller and then washed with water, conc. HNO3 and finally with conc. NaOH. The evolved gases in each stage were collected in gas collection bags and analyzed using gas chromatography. Also, the eluents from the different washing steps were collected for the induced coupled plasma (ICP) analysis to determine the concentration of the different trace metals. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis for the anions was done. Part of the graphite was transformed into graphene which later was was functionalized in two different ways to add acidic and basic moieties on its surface to trap basic and acidic gases, respectively which are evolved during the washing and chemical treatment of the SPL.
Isolation And Screening Of Hydrocarbon Degrading Bacterial Strains For Bioremediation Of Petroleum Pollution In Qatar
Authors: Al Disi Zulfa
Published: November 2013

Pollution, due to activities related to the oil industry, represents a serious threat to the natural environment. The application of biotechnological methods provides much safer and sustainable alternatives for bioremediation of polluted areas, using microorganisms. Several techniques for the isolation of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria have been investigated and published worldwide. A wide range of biological activities was shown. However, local hydrocarbon degrading strains and the factors affecting bacterial and strains variability were not studied deeply. In this study, we showed that the isolation and screening strategy affected a lot, the selection of the strains. We combined the bacterial tolerance to hydrocarbon toxicity, assessed by the growth parameters, and the bacterial degradative activities, assessed by the degradation of a wide range of petroleum hydrocarbons via gas chromatography analysis. The main investigations and findings of the present work are:  A collection of 39 bacterial isolates from Qatari polluted soil was set up and a new isolation and screening program was proposed.  The growth conditions and the activity of pre-selected strains  Shift of the activity of the selected strains from a range of hydrocarbons to another by the effect of the nitrogen source, C/N ratio and organic nitrogen source  70% hydrocarbon removal, achieved with several strains in 2 weeks.  Amongst 12 identified isolates and by molecular ribotyping-DNA sequencing, 3 strains of Pseudomonas genus were isolated from a polluted soil in Qatar, are available for bioremediation of highly polluted soils, tolerating high toxicity and may be adapted to a variety of low or high molecular weight hydrocarbons.
Migration Of Phthalates Into Bottled Water
Authors: Alqassmi Noof
Published: November 2013

Migration of phthalates into bottled water
Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Pyrite For Removal Of Mercury
Authors: Han Dong Suk
Published: November 2013

Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Pyrite for Removal of Mercury
Spatial And Temporal Distribution Of Heavy Metals In Marine Sediment Along The Doha Bay
Authors: Al-Naimi Hajer
Published: November 2013

Abstract Concentrations of twenty five heavy metals (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Sr, V, Zn, and Hg) in surface sediment from ten transects each with five stations were studied. The sediment samples were collected in May and December 2012 in order to examine the spatial and temporal variation and investigate the pollution sources. Significant differences were observed in metal concentrations between the sampling locations and durations. Higher concentrations were observed in areas where there are a lot of anthropological activities. The distribution of selected metals were presented in contour maps showing the variation between the two periods. Moreover, it was observed that December 2012 sampling was significantly higher than May 2012. In order to further study particle size effect on metals uptake, two different grinding times were administered on four randomly selected samples and the results showed no significant difference on the analysis in the ICP-OES instrument. The overall results of metal analyses were within the international standards criteria and the results were comparable to the previous studies conducted around Qatar. A monitoring approach is recommended for the sediment quality assessment. Additional examinations were conducted using contour maps that show the distributions of the metals around Doha Bay during May and December 2012.
A High-Power Photovoltaic Power System based on Quasi-Z-Source Cascade Multilevel Inverter
Authors: Liu Yushan
Published: November 2013

I. INTRODUCTION The utility-scale Photovoltaic (PV) system experienced a tremendous growth to satisfy the fast increase of world's power demand. Nowadays, focus has been placed on innovative and cheap inverter solutions and system configurations. Among them, The Cascaded Multi-level Inverter (CMI) structure is more preferable to reach utility-scale power ratings and medium-voltage levels due to transformer-less, small size, high efficiency, high power density, and low cost. However, due to lack of boost function, the traditional CMI will lead to overrating the inverter by a factor of two to cope with wide (1:2) PV voltage variations. The recently proposed quasi-Z-source CMI (qZS-CMI) structure provides attracting improvement by combing the quasi-Z-source network into the traditional CMI. In addition to the advantages of traditional CMI, the qZS-CMI provides buck/boost function in a single-stage inverter topology, the independent dc-link voltage balance, and the one-third module reduction. All of those will bring positive effects on the system volume, efficiency, and cost. Contributions of this paper are proposing a high-power PV system based on qZS-CMI, which is 1-MW power and 11-kV voltage with 16 cascaded quasi-Z-source H-Bridge inverter (qZS-HBI) modules per phase. In this way, the high-power system can be fulfilled by low-power-low-frequency devices, aiming at the proposed PV system of low cost, high efficiency and reliability, and high performance-cost ratio, thus to improve the scientific and economic developments of Qatar. II. METHODS AND RESULTS The proposed system was simulated in MATLAB / Simulink by: 1) Sixteen cascaded quasi-Z-source H-Bridge inverter modules per phase. 2) Each qZS-HBI is fed by separate PV panels. 3) The phase-shifted sinewave pulsewidth modulation is applied to synthesize the multilevel voltage waveform. 4) Next step is to design the control scheme of the system with maximum power point tracking, grid-tie injection, novel modulation, etc.. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work was supported by NPRP-EP No. X - 033 - 2 - 007 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.
Household Laundry Wastewater Reuse For Food Production
Authors: Qiblawey Hazim
Published: November 2013

Laundering processes use significant amounts of water, including water-washing processes and dual-phase washing. These processes perform a separation process in which soil and stains are removed from a textile substrate. The most important ingredients of laundry detergents are bleach, water softeners and surfactants. Using laundry effluent into gardens and lawns was shown to be technically possible without treatment in many areas in Australia and USA. Among the various environmental concerns facing Qatar, the most pressing is linked to the country's most acute water scarcity according to Qatar's National Development Strategy 2011-2016 (QNDPS). Farming in Qatar continue to make heavy demands on Qatar's precious water resources. Laundry wastewater reuse for food production could make a significant contribution to redirecting Qatar's precious natural resources to higher value uses. Related issues like food safety, hygienic issues and possible ground water contaminations should be investigated in parallel with any step to be taken in this regard. The current study aims to evaluate the reuse of laundry wastewater from Qatari household in irrigating edible vegetables (Fig. 1). The wastewater is fully characterized. The analysis includes pH, EC (conductivity) and COD (chemical oxygen demand). In addition Total cations (Na, K, Ca, and Mg), total anions (HCO3, SO4, and Cl), and trace elements including Mn, Cu, Pb, Zn, Co, Fe, and Cd will be found. The same characterization is followed for the different parts of the plants; leaves, roots, stem, fruits and the planting soil itself. Irrigating with tap water is used as reference (Fig. 2). Plants and soil irrigated with tap water is subjected to the same chemical analysis as the wastewater. The project will shed light on the possibility for the reuse of this valuable wastewater stream. The study will compare the results with international standards and a statements about the suitability of using laundry greywater for irrigation will be withdrawn. The research will define the limitations and put recommendations and suggestions for further implementation. The results from this study are expected to support people working in water and safe food sector in Qatar.
Isolation, Identification And Characterization Of Soil Borne Fungi From Qu Field 2, Field 3 And Qu Farm
Authors: Al-Jassim Meaad
Published: November 2013

Meeaad Y. Al-Jassim1, Noof M. Al-Korbi1, Fatima A. Al-Naemi1 1Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar The mycobiota of soil was investigated in ninety soil samples collected from three different localities in Qatar, biology field2, biology field 3 and University farm. Biology field 2 and biology field 3 are located at longitude and latitude 549350.32 M.E and 2866180 M N 3 549812.00 ME and 2806702.93 M N respectively. Qatar University farm is located in Raodat Al Faras, about 60 km north of Doha (49° 25´ N, 20° 51´ E), 14.1 meters above sea level, with an area of 54.3 ha. Soil samples were collected under Zygophyllum quatarense, which was dominated in biology field 2 and 3 and from rhizosphere of fig, lemon, and date palm trees in QU farm. Twenty nine species of fungi belong to 9 genera were isolated from Biological field 2 and 3 at Qatar University. Whereas 19 fungal species belonging to 10 genera were isolated from QU farm. The distribution of soil borne was affected by the microclimate, physic-chemical propriety of soil and types of vegetation. The genus of highest incidence and their respective numbers of species was, Rhizopus ( 24 %, 3 species) isolated from biology field 2 and 3. The genus of lowest incidence was (Aspergillus (4.5 %, 2 species) islolated from biology field 2 and 3. Whereas, Aspergillus was the most common genera(43.78%, 18 species) isolated from QU farm followed by Rhizopus (13.4 %, 4 species) and Trichoderma (7.7 %, 2 species). Sixteen isolates were shown an antagonistic activity. Alternaria chlamydospora showed highest percentage of antagonistic activity against many species. In contrast, introduction of Rhizopus arrhizus led to approximately 62.5% reduction in Alternaria chlamydospra growth. Moreover, Penicillium griseofulvum inhibited the growth Alternaria chlamydospra by 10%. Keywords: Soil borne fungi, antagonist, microclimate, biological control
Measurement And Modeling Of Traffic-Related No2 Pollution In Doha, Qatar
Authors: AlNaimi Noora
Published: November 2013

The United Nations (UN) estimated that over 600 million people in urban areas were exposed to dangerous levels of traffic-generated air pollutants worldwide. Currently, there is no published literature available on the levels of air pollutants, specifically NO2, due to traffic in Doha-Qatar. According to the recent reports there are more 800,000 cars registered in Qatar. This relatively high number of cars brings in problems associated with increased level of pollution. Therefore, in this study the levels of traffic related air NO2 pollution were investigated at six major intersections along C-ring road of Doha. NO2 is considered to be a marker of vehicular pollution, thus, its relationship was established with traffic volume in each intersection during December 2012 and March-April 2013. Significant differences were established between the pollutant concentration in each intersection. Higher concentrations were observed in areas with high traffic volume. Additionally, meteorological conditions were also found to influence the NO2 levels along with the topographical structure within the area. The CALINE 4 model employed during the study to estimate the effect of the measured NO2 concentration on the predicted value was only 31.12 %. The low percentage may have accounted for the uncertainties brought about the vehicle emission factor and non-availability of temporal dynamics during the time of sampling.
Valorization Of Industrial Wastes For Building Applications With The Added Benefit Of Carbon Sequestration
Authors: Ghouleh Zaid
Published: November 2013

With the world's current high output of industrial goods, hundreds of millions of tons of manufacturing by-products end up amassing in landfills each year. Steel-slag is not recycled to any significant degree, and even banned as a construction material in certain countries, such as Canada. Like many industrial waste residues, this limitation is mainly attributed to a lack in performance criteria permitting its economic and safe reuse. Moreover, the steel industry is a major contributor to anthropogenic CO2, and is subject to increasingly harsher regulatory codes that mandate heavier emission reductions. This project introduces a value-adding carbonation treatment that substantially enhances the waste slag's physical properties and, hence, its recyclable potential, while also presenting the added benefit of sequestering CO2. The end-use of the valorized slag as an aggregate replacement in concrete is explored. Considering that concrete is the world's most used construction material (> 9 billion tons per year), this project presents a sustainable building practice that fits within holistic environmental initiatives related to waste recycling, carbon mitigation, and resource conservation. In terms of practicality, an 8" concrete masonry block prepared in the prescribed manner will potentially sequester up to 2kg of CO2. The project ultimately seeks to demonstrate the possibility of implementing a closed loop system, for relevant industries, whereby waste streams and CO2 can be locally consumed at point source.
Bioinformatics Coupled With Tandem Mass Spectrometry For Unknown Compound Analysis In Shisha Water
Authors: Taj Sameem
Published: November 2013

Bioinformatics coupled with tandem mass spectrometry for unknown compound analysis in Shisha water
Cadmium Modulates Expression Of Vascular Alpha Adrenoceptors And Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells Phenotype
Authors: Aboujassoum Hamda
Published: November 2013

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of death worldwide, including Qatar. Hypertension is one of the most common CVDs that contribute to this mortality. Cadmium is a well-known pollutant that has been suggested to be a risk factor for hypertension. However, the underlying mechanisms are still lacking. Very little is known about the effect of cadmium on the expression of vascular alpha- 1 adrenoceptors in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). This study was therefore undertaken to determine the effect of cadmium on the expression of vascular alpha-1 adrenergic receptors in vitro. Along with that, there are several phenotypic changes could modulate the VSMCs function and contribute to CVDs including hypertension. These changes include hypertrophy, migration and senescence. The second objective of this study was to determine the effect of cadmium on VSMCs phenotype. Human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) were incubated with different concentrations of cadmium chloride for varying durations. The results indicated that cadmium (Cd) increases the expression of alpha -1 AR in HASMCs in a concentration and time dependent manner. To determine if cadmium modulates the transcriptional activity of alpha -1 AR, cells were pre-incubated with actinomycin D, a DNA-dependent RNA synthesis inhibitor. Interestingly, the cadmium-induced alpha1 AR protein expression was abolished by actinomycin D. Moreover, this expression of alpha- 1 AR was diminished when cells were pre-incubated with H89, a protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor. This indicates that PKA plays an important role in mediating the Cd-induced expression of alpha- 1 AR. To determine the effect of Cd on VSMCs phenotype, HASMCs were incubated with CdCl2. Our results show that cadmium induces hypertrophy, migration and senescence. Taken together, our results dissect a novel pathway employed by cadmium to increase expression of vascular alpha 1 ARs, a major player in hypertension and VSMCs phenotypic modulation. This new paradigm offers a better understanding and thus potential amelioration of pollution- related CVDs.
Modeling Of The Venting Of A Gassy System Under Runaway Conditions
Authors: Vechot Luc
Published: November 2013

Exothermic reactions that undergo uncontrolled self-heating as a result of loss of cooling lead to a thermal runaway. Such reactions can present a serious hazard in the petrochemical (e.g. polymerisation processes) and chemical industries. They can reach excessively high rates of temperature increase, either due to production of gaseous reaction products, or the boiling of reactor contents. This temperature rise in effect leads to a pressure increase higher than the process equipment is made to withstand. Since the temperature rate rapidly increases (several hundred degrees per minute), a thermal explosion may occur followed by the release of toxic and flammable gases, if there is no venting mechanism to relieve the system of the excess pressure. The heat produced by a reaction is proportional to the volume of reaction mixture, while the cooling capacity however is a function of surface area. This has larger implications for industrial scaling, and is said to be the cause of accidents involving thermal runaways as in the well-known cases of Seveso in 1976, Bhopal in 1984 and more recently the T2 Laboratories in 2007. The prediction of the consequences of a runaway reaction in term of temperature and pressure evolution in a reactor vessel requires the knowledge of the reaction kinetics, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics inside the vessel during venting. Such phenomena and their interaction are complex and still to be fully understood, especially for those reactions in which the pressure generation is totally or partially due to the production of permanent gases (gassy or hybrid systems). Moreover, they cannot be easily determined by laboratory scale experiments. Computer modeling is a growing field of research necessary to develop methods capable of predicting the onset of a runaway reaction. Also, adequate vent sizing calculation methods are widely investigated for relief vent sizing emergency actions. The work described in this poster presents a dynamic model that simulates the behavior of a gassy system, specifically the decomposition of an 80% Cumene Hydro-Peroxide solution in aryl hydrocarbon during venting. The model provides the temperature, pressure, mass inventory and conversion profiles throughout the reaction. A sensitivity study of the model was performed in order to study the effect of various parameters on the resulting behaviour of the system before and after venting. The outcomes of this model provide a deeper insight into the improvement of emergency relief systems design for hybrid and gassy systems, where significant progress is still to be made both in the experimental and modeling areas.
Effect of Heat Treatment on the Corrosion Performance of Welded Al-6063 Alloy
Authors: Mohamed Adel
Published: November 2013

A large number of aluminum alloy plates, which are mainly used as the decks, the shell plates and the cabin reinforcing plates, are used in the construction applications. Al-6063 high strength aluminum alloy and its weldment are widely utilized in such applications due to the high specific strength, good fracture toughness, low cycle fatigue properties and easy-welding properties. The main aim of this article is to determine the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and the corrosion of welded AA6063 Al alloy at base, weld and heat affected zone. The laboratory immersion test technique were used to evaluate the effect of different environmental media, such as NaOH, NaCl, H2SO4 and H3PO4 on corrosion behavior of T4 and T6-temepered alloys. Mass loss and corrosion rate measurements were utilized as criteria for evaluating the corrosion behavior of the aged-hardened alloys. The corrosion rate was calculated for various immersion periods. The aged-hardened alloys were subjected to potentiodynamic polarization and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) testing. The result shows that the corrosion rate of the alloy was due to the nature of heat treatment given to the samples. It was found that the corrosion rate of the Al(6063) alloy was higher in the T4-tempered alloy compared to T6-tempered alloy. The corrosion behavior of welded alloys were differ one zone to another. The students would like to express their grateful acknowledgement for financial and in-kind support received from the Hydro Aluminum Company (HYDRO) and Qatalum Company and from Center of Advanced Materials, Qatar University.
Aerosol layer heights over Doha and their relation to Direct Normal Irradiance ground measurements
Authors: Bachour Dunia
Published: November 2013

Depending on their physical properties, aerosols in the atmosphere can scatter and/or absorb solar radiation and thus reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface. Under cloud free conditions, the extinction of the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) is primarily caused by aerosols in the atmosphere. DNI data in locations where ground measurements are not available can be derived or estimated using satellites. However, for areas characterized by high aerosol load like in Qatar, satellite data gives DNI values with high uncertainties related to the inaccurate determination of aerosols present on a particular day. Ceilometer devices, which are based on the Lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging) technique, when operated on a routine basis, are reliable tools for long-term observation and qualitative assessment of the vertical distribution of aerosols in the atmosphere. Indeed, ceilometer measurements combined with specific retrieval software enable the detection of the vertical structure of the atmospheric boundary layer. Based on this data, the height of aerosol layers can be determined. This study describes an analysis over Doha, Qatar (25.33° N, 51.43° E), of day-to-day variability of aerosol layer heights measured by a ceilometer around solar noon under cloudless conditions; the layer heights are compared with day-to-day variability of DNI measured at the same time and same location. Aerosol layer heights are obtained using a CL51 Vaisala ceilometer. Ground measurements of DNI are collected by a pyrheliometer mounted on a high-quality Kipp & Zonen solar radiation measurement station, equipped with a sun tracker. The results of measurements for clear sky conditions over several months during this year (2013) will be presented. The study of the relation between the daily variation of aerosol layer heights and the direct component of the solar radiation is part of the solar resource assessment project within the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute and represents a first insight before further investigating the correlation of ceilometer backscatter measurements with ground-measured solar radiation.
Advanced millimeter-wave concurrent 44/60GHz phased array for communications and sensing
Authors: Lee Jaeyoung , Huynh Cuong , Bae Juseok , Lee Donghyun , Nguyen Cam
Published: November 2013

Wireless communications and sensing have become an indispensable part of our daily lives from communications, public service and safety, consumer, industry, sports, gaming and entertainment, asset and inventory management, banking to government and military operations. As communications and sensing are poised to address challenging problems to make our lives even better under environments that can potentially disrupt them, like highly populated urban areas, crowded surroundings, or moving platforms, considerable difficulties emerge that greatly complicate communications and sensing. Significantly improved communication and sensing technologies become absolutely essential to address these challenges. Phased arrays allow RF beams carrying the communication or sensing information to be rapidly steered or intercepted from different angles across areas with particular amplitude profiles electronically, enabling swift single- or multi-point communications or sensing over large areas or across many targets while avoiding potentially disrupting obstacles. They are particularly attractive for creating robust communication links for both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) due to their high directivity and scanning ability. In this talk, we will present a novel millimeter-wave dual-band 44/60 GHz phased-array frontend capable of two-dimensional scanning with orthogonal polarizations. This phased array particularly resolves the "RF signal leakage and isolation dilemma" encountered in the existing phased-array systems. It integrates "electrically" the phased-array functions in two separate millimeter-wave bands into a single phased array operating concurrently in dual-band. These unique features, not achievable with existing millimeter-wave phased arrays, will push the phased-array system performance to a next level, while reducing size and cost, and enhance the capability and applications for wireless communications and sensing, particularly when multifunction, multi-operation, multi-mission over complex environments with miniature systems become essential. This phased array enables vast communication and sensing applications, either communication or sensing or both simultaneously - for instance, concurrent Earth-satellite/inter-satellite communications, high-data-rate WPANs and HDMI, and accurate, high-resolution, enhanced-coverage multi-target sensing.
Completely automated robust segmentation of intravascular ultrasound images
Authors: Chen Chi Hau
Published: November 2013

It is widely known that the state of a patient's coronary heart disease can be better assessed using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) than with more conventional angiography. Recent work has shown that segmentation and 3D reconstruction of IVUS pull-back sequence images can be used for computational fluid dynamic simulation of blood flow through the coronary arteries. This map of shear stress in the blood vessel walls can be used to predict susceptibility of a region of the arteries to future arteriosclerosis and disease. Manual segmentation of images is time consuming as well as cost prohibitive for routine diagnostic use. Current segmentation algorithms do not achieve a high enough accuracy because of the presence of speckle due to blood flow, relatively low resolution of images and presence of various artifacts including guide-wires, stents, vessel branches, and some other growth or inflammations. On the other hand, the image may be induced with additional blur due to movement distortions, as well as resolution-related mixing of closely resembling pixels thus forming a type of out-of-focus blur.. Robust automated segmentation achieving high accuracy of 95% or above has been elusive despite of work by a large community of researchers in the machine vision field. We propose a comprehensive approach where a multitude of algorithms are applied simultaneously to the segmentation problem. In an initial step, pattern recognition methods are used to detect and localize artifacts. We have achieved a high accuracy of 95% or better in detecting frames with stents and location of guide-wire in a large data-set consisting of 15 pull-back sequences with about 1000 image frames each. Our algorithms for lumen segmentation using spatio-temporal texture detection and active contour models have achieved accuracies approaching 70% in the same data-set which is on the high-side of reported accuracies in the literature. Further work is required to combine these methods to increase segmentation accuracy. One approach we are investigating is to combine algorithms using a meta-algorithmic approach. Each segmentation algorithm computes along with the segmentation a measure of confidence in the segmentation which can be biased on prior information about the presence of artifacts. A meta-algorithm then runs a library of algorithms on a sub-sequence of images to be segmented and chooses the segmentation based on computed confidence measures. Machine learning and testing is performed on a large data base. This research is in collaboration with Brigham and Women Hospital in Boston that provides well over 45,000 frames of data for the study.
Sonar placement and deployment in a maritime environment
Authors: Bora Selim
Published: November 2013

Given a water-terrain area of interest (waterways, ports, etc.), this paper attempts to efficiently allocate underwater sonars to achieve a reasonable amount of coverage within a limited budget. Coverage is defined as the capability of sonars to detect threats. Though total coverage is desired, priority is given to the criticality/importance attached to the location of an area of interest on a grid-based system. Unlike other works in the literature, the developed model takes into consideration uncertainty inherent in the detection probability of sonars. Apart from issues of sonar reliability, underwater terrain, with its changing conditions, is bound to affect detection probabilities. While taking into consideration the specific physics of sonars in the model development, the model also adopts a hexagonal grid-based system to ensure more efficient placement of sonars. Based on an initially proposed mixed-integer program, a robust optimization model also is proposed to take care of uncertainties. With smaller scale problems, the model works adequately within a relatively short time period. However, large scale problems require extensive memory, taking much longer. As such, a heuristic is proposed as an alternative to the proposed model. Experimental results indicate the heuristic works effectively under most circumstances and performs less effectively under a few limited scenarios.