Three-dimensional fluid simulation of a plasma display panel cell

In order to understand the discharge characteristics in an alternating current plasma display panel (ac PDP) and optimize it further, a three-dimensional fluid code (FL3P) has been developed. Using this simulator, various three-dimensional features of discharges are investigated in the sustain mode of PDP. First, the striations of wall charge are observed at both the anode and cathode side. Second, the local efficiency is obtained as a function of position. It is mainly divided into the anode region and the cathode region and highest near the anode center. Finally, the effects of various three-dimensional parameters are studied. As one of the examples showing the effect of electrode shaping, the discharge characteristics of a T-shaped electrode cell are compared with those of a conventional cell. The phosphor on barrier ribs contributes to over 44% of the total luminance, but barrier ribs themselves do not play an important role in the overall discharge efficiency. Address electrode width is not always proportional to the size of the discharge because of the wall loss of the particles to barrier ribs.open435

Sources, spatial distribution and characteristics of marine litter along the west coast of Qatar

The spatial distribution, sources and characteristics of marine litter (ML) from 36 locations spread over 12 beaches along the west coast of Qatar have been assessed. A total of 2376 ML items with varying sizes were found with an average abundance of 1.98 items/m2. The order of abundance of ML along the coast was as follows: plastics (71.4%) > metal (9.3%) > glass (5.1%) > paper (4.4%) > fabric (4.0%) > rubber (3.9%) > processed wood (2.0%). Locations in the south and northwest coasts of Qatar had significantly higher concentrations of ML. Surprisingly, nearly 47% of the beached polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles were derived from the countries bordering the Arabian/Persian Gulf (Gulf), and most of them were produced in the last 2 years. The plastic materials were drifted by winds and currents to the Qatar coast. Gulf circulation provides evidence to the pathways of ML beached on the Qatar coast.We acknowledge ORS, QU for awarding the Project (QUEX-ESC-QP-TM-18/19), funded by the Qatar Petroleum

Spatial distribution, structural characterization and weathering of tarmats along the west coast of Qatar

Oil pollution resulting from natural and anthropogenic activities in the Arabian Gulf as well as oil residue in the form of tarmat (TM) deposited on the coast is a major environmental concern. The spatial distribution, chemical composition and weathering pattern of tarmat along the west coast of Qatar has been assessed based on the TM samples collected from 12 coastal regions. The range of TM distribution is 0–104 g m−1 with an average value of 9.25 g m−1. Though the current TM level is thirty-fold lesser than that was found during 1993–1997 (average 290 g m−1), the distribution pattern is similar. The results of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy indicate that aromatic compounds are higher in the north (N) coast TMs than those found in the northwest (NW) and southwest (SW) coasts, and Carbonyl Index values indicate that TM of NW coast is highly weathered compared to those found in the N and SW coasts.ORS, QU Project (QUEX-ESC-QP-TM-18/19), funded by the Qatar Petroleum

Assessment of potential ecological risk of microplastics in the coastal sediments of India: A meta-analysis

Abundance, chemical composition and ecological risk of microplastics (MPs) in terrestrial and marine environments have merited substantial attention from the research communities. This is the first attempt to comprehend the ecological risk of MPs in sediments along the Indian coast using meta-data. Polymer hazard index (PHI), pollution load index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were used to evaluate the quality of sediments. Areas have high PHI values (>1000) due to the presence of polymers with high hazard scores such as polyamide (PA) and polystyrene (PS). According to PLI values, sediments along the west coast of India (WCI) are moderately contaminated with MPs (PLI: 3.03 to 15.5), whereas sediments along the east coast of India (ECI) are less contaminated (PLI: 1 to 6.14). The PERI values of sediments along the Indian coast showed higher ecological risk for the metropolitan cities, river mouths, potential fishing zones and the remote islands.Qatar University authors were partly supported by the IRCC International Research Co-Fund Collaboration Program of QU (Project No. IRCC-2019-002 )

Developing technologies to assess vascular ageing: a roadmap from VascAgeNet

Vascular ageing is the deterioration of arterial structure and function which occurs naturally with age, and which can be accelerated with disease. Measurements of vascular ageing are emerging as markers of cardiovascular risk, with potential applications in disease diagnosis and prognosis, and for guiding treatments. However, vascular ageing is not yet routinely assessed in clinical practice. A key step towards this is the development of technologies to assess vascular ageing. In this Roadmap, experts discuss several aspects of this process, including: measurement technologies; the development pipeline; clinical applications; and future research directions. The Roadmap summarises the state of the art, outlines the major challenges to overcome, and identifies potential future research directions to address these challenges

Characterization of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami induced deposits along the Chennai coast using magnetic and geochemical techniques

1378-1383<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:times;="" mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:ja;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">Present study is the applicability of rock magnetic techniques, coupled with geochemical (SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO, K2O, P2O5, and MnO) and texture size measurements, as a proxy tool to identify tsunami induced deposits in the core sediments from the Chennai coast, India. Down core profiles of mass specific magnetic susceptibility (), ARM and SIRM are similar in all sediment cores, and reflect changes in the detrital component mineralogy which is largely influenced by the tsunami event. To identify the connection between the tsunami deposit and different sedimentologic units present in the study area, textural, geochemical and rock magnetic data were processed by multivariate statistical analyses.</span