Search results for: second carbon and nitrogen source

Authors: Kehinde T. Kareem

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The need to increase the production of cucumber has led to the use of inorganic fertilizers. This chemical affects the ecological balance of nature by increasing the nitrogen and phosphorus contents of the soil. Surface runoffs into rivers and streams cause eutrophication which affects aquatic organisms as well as the consumers of aquatic animals. Therefore, this study was carried out in the screenhouse to investigate the use of a plant growth-promoting fungus; Trichoderma longibrachiatum for the growth promotion of conventional and in-vitro propagated Ashley and Marketmoor cucumber. Before planting of cucumber, spore suspension (108 cfu/ml) of Trichoderma longibrachiatum grown on Potato dextrose agar (PDA) was inoculated into the soil. Fruits were evaluated for the presence of Trichoderma longibrachiatum using a species-specific primer. Results revealed that the highest significant plant height produced by in-vitro propagated Ashley was 19 cm while the highest plant height of in-vitro propagated Marketmoor was 19.67 cm. The yield of the conventional propagated Ashley cucumber showed that the number of fruit/plant obtained from T. longibrachiatum-fertilized plants were significantly more than those of the control. The in-vitro Ashely had 7 fruits/plant while the control produced 4 fruits/plant. In-vitro Marketmoor had ten fruits/plant, and the control had a value of 4 fruits/plant. There were no traces of Trichoderma longibrachiatum genes in the harvested cucumber fruits. Therefore, the use of Trichoderma longibrachiatum as a plant growth-promoter is safe for human health as well as the environment.

Keywords: biofertilizer, cucumber, genes, growth-promoter, in-vitro, propagation

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Authors: Yantao Li, Jun Zheng

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Food poison caused by consumption of contaminated food, especially seafood, is one of most serious public health threats worldwide. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is emerging bacterial pathogen and the leading cause of human gastroenteritis associated with food poison, especially in the southern coastal region of China. To successfully cause disease in host, bacterial pathogens need to overcome the host-derived stresses encountered during infection. One of the toxic chemical species elaborated by the host is nitric oxide (NO). NO is generated by acidified nitrite in the stomach and by enzymes of the inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in the host cell, and is toxic to bacteria. Bacterial pathogens have evolved some mechanisms to battle with this toxic stress. Such mechanisms include genes to sense NO produced from immune system and activate others to detoxify NO toxicity, and genes to repair the damage caused by toxic reactive nitrogen species (RNS) generated during NO toxic stress. However, little is known about the NO resistance in V. parahaemolyticus. In this study, a transposon coupled with next generation sequencing (Tn-seq) technology will be utilized to identify genes for NO resistance in V. parahaemolyticus. Our strategy will include construction the saturating transposon insertion library, transposon library challenging with NO, next generation sequencing (NGS), bioinformatics analysis and verification of the identified genes in vitro and in vivo.

Keywords: vibrio parahaemolyticus, nitric oxide, tn-seq, virulence

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Authors: Büşra Durmaz, Füsun Curaoğlu

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While technology-oriented developments in the modern world change our perceptions of time and speed, they also force our food consumption patterns, such as getting pleasure from what we eat and eating slowly. The habit of eating quickly and hastily causes not only the feeling of not understanding the taste of the food eaten but also the inability to postpone the feeling of satiety and, therefore, many health problems. In this context, especially in the last ten years, in the field of industrial design, food manufacturers for healthy living and consumption have been collaborating with industrial designers on food design. The consumers of the new century, who are in an uncontrolled time intensity, receive support from small snacks as a source of happiness and pleasure in the little time intervals they can spare. At this point, especially chocolate has been a source of happiness for its consumers as a source of both happiness and pleasure for hundreds of years. However, when the portions have eaten cannot be controlled, a pleasure food such as chocolate can cause both health problems and many emotional problems, especially the feeling of guilt. Fast food, which is called food that is prepared and consumed quickly, has been increasing rapidly around the world in recent years. This study covers the process and results of a chocolate design based on the user experience of a university-industry cooperation project carried out within the scope of Eskişehir Technical University graduation projects. The aim of the project is a creative product design that will enable the user to experience chocolate consumption with a healthy eating approach. For this, while concepts such as pleasure, satiety, and taste are discussed; A survey with 151 people and semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 7 people during the experience design process within the scope of the user-oriented design approach, mainly literature review, within the scope of main topics such as mouth anatomy, tongue structure, taste, the functions of the eating action in the brain, hormones and chocolate, video A case study based on the research paradigm of Qualitative Research was structured within the scope of different research processes such as analysis and project diaries. As a result of the research, it has been reached that the melting in the mouth is the preferred experience of the users in order to spread the experience of eating chocolate for a long time based on pleasure while eating chocolate with healthy portions. In this context, researches about the production of sketches, mock-ups and prototypes of the product are included in the study. As a result, a product packaging design has been made that supports the active role of the senses such as sight, smell and hearing, where consumption begins, in order to consume chocolate by melting and to actively secrete the most important stimulus salivary glands in order to provide a healthy and long-term pleasure-based consumption.

Keywords: chocolate, eating habit, pleasure, saturation, sense of taste

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Authors: Ali Azam Talukder, Jamsheda Ferdous Tuli, Tanzina Islam Reba, Shuvra Kanti Dey, Mamoru Yamada

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Recent global warming created by various pollutants prompted us to find new energy sources instead of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are one of the key factors to emit various toxic gases in this planet. To solve this problem, along with the scarcity of the worldwide energy crisis, scientists are looking for various alternative options to mitigate the necessity of required future fuels. In this context, bioethanol can be one of the most suitable alternative energy sources. Bioethanol is a renewable, environment-friendly and carbon-neutral sustainable energy. In our previous study, we identified several bioethanol-producing microbes from the natural fermented sources of Bangladesh. Among them, the strain 4C encoded Saccharomyces cerevisiae produced maximum bioethanol when the fermentation temperature was 25˚C. In this study, we have established high-temperature simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process (HTSSF) by co-culturing of thermally adapted thermosensitive 4C as a fermenting agent and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (C7), as a saccharifying agent under various physiological conditions or treatments. Conventional methods were applied for cell culture, media preparation and other experimental purposes. High-temperature adaptation of strain 4C was made from 30-42ᵒC, using either YPD or YPS media. In brief, for thermal adaptation, the temperature was periodically increased by 2ᵒC, 1ᵒC and 0.5ᵒC when medium growth temperatures were 30-36ᵒC, 36-40ᵒC, and 40-42ᵒC, respectively, where applicable. Amylase activity and bioethanol content were measured by DNS (3, 5-dinitrosalicylic acid) and solvent extraction and dichromate oxidation method, respectively. Among the various growth parameters like temperatures (30˚C, 37˚C and 42˚C), pHs (5.0, 6.0 and 7.0), carbon sources (5.0-10.0%) and ethanol stress tolerance (0.0-12.0%) etc. were tested, maximum Amylase activity (4.0 IU/ml/min) was recorded for Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (C7) at 42˚C, pH 6.0 and 10% starch. On the other hand, 4.10% bioethanol content was recorded when the thermally adapted strain 4C was co-cultured with C7 at 37ᵒC, pH 6.0 and 10.0% starch for 72 hours at HTSSF process. On the other hand, thermally non-adapted strains gave only 0.5-2.0% bioethanol content under the same physiological conditions. The thermally adapted strain 4C and strain C7, both can tolerate ethanol stress up to 12%. Altogether, a comparative study revealed that our established HTSSF process may be suitable for pilot scale and subsequently at industrial level bioethanol production.

Keywords: bioethanol, co-culture, fermentation, saccharification

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Authors: Ogundele Lasun Tunde, Ayeku Oluwagbemiga Patrick

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Heavy metals are released into the sediments in aquatic environment from both natural and anthropogenic sources and they are considered as worldwide issue due to their deleterious ecological risks and food chain disruption. In this study, sediments samples were collected at three major sites (Awoye, Abereke and Ayetoro) along Ondo coastal area using VanVeen grab sampler. The concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn were determined by employing Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). The combined concentrations data were subjected to Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor approach for source identification and apportionment. The probable risks that might be posed by heavy metals in the sediment were estimated by potential and integrated ecological risks indices. Among the measured heavy metals, Fe had the average concentrations of 20.38 ± 2.86, 23.56 ± 4.16 and 25.32 ± 4.83 lg/g at Abereke, Awoye and Ayetoro sites, respectively. The PMF resulted in identification of four sources of heavy metals in the sediments. The resolved sources and their percentage contributions were oil exploration (39%), industrial waste/sludge (35%), detrital process (18%) and Mn-sources (8%). Oil exploration activities and industrial wastes are the major sources that contribute heavy metals into the coastal sediments. The major pollutants that posed ecological risks to the local aquatic ecosystem are As, Pb, Cr and Cd (40 B Ei ≤ 80) classifying the sites as moderate risk. The integrate risks values of Awoye, Abereke and Ayetoro are 231.2, 234.0 and 236.4, respectively suggesting that the study areas had a moderate ecological risk. The study showed the suitability of PMF receptor model for source identification of heavy metals in the sediments. Also, the intensive anthropogenic activities and natural sources could largely discharge heavy metals into the study area, which may increase the heavy metal contents of the sediments and further contribute to the associated ecological risk, thus affecting the local aquatic ecosystem.

Keywords: positive matrix factorization, sediments, heavy metals, sources, ecological risks

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Authors: C. Malça, N. Alves, A. Mateus

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This work was one of the tasks of the Manufacturing2Client project, whose objective was to develop a frontal deflector to be commercialized in the automotive industry, using new project and manufacturing methods. In this task, in particular, it was proposed to develop the ability to predict computationally the aerodynamic influence of flow in vehicles, in an effort to reduce fuel consumption in vehicles from class 3 to 8. With this aim, two deflector models were developed and their aerodynamic performance analyzed. The aerodynamic study was done using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software Ansys CFX and allowed the calculation of the drag coefficient caused by the vehicle motion for the different configurations considered. Moreover, the reduction of diesel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with the optimized deflector geometry could be assessed.

Keywords: erodynamic analysis, CFD, CO2 emissions, drag coefficient, frontal deflector, fuel consumption

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Authors: Zhiwen Yang, Jingyuan Li, Zhenkai Xie, Jian Ling, Jiguang Wang, Mengliang Li

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To reflect the effects of different emission control strategies, such as retrofitting after-treatment system and replacing with natural gas-fueled vehicles, on particle number (PN), particle mass (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions emitted by urban bus, a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) was employed herein to conduct real-world driving emission measurements on a diesel oxidation catalytic converter (DOC) and catalyzed diesel particulate filter (CDPF) retrofitting China IV diesel bus, a China IV diesel bus, and a China V natural gas bus. The results show that both tested diesel buses possess markedly advantages in NOx emission control when compared to the lean-burn natural gas bus equipped without any NOx after-treatment system. As to PN and PM, only the DOC+CDPF retrofitting diesel bus exhibits enormous benefits on emission control relate to the natural gas bus, especially the normal diesel bus. Meanwhile, the differences in PM and PN emissions between retrofitted and normal diesel buses generally increase with the increase in vehicle-specific power (VSP). Furthermore, the differences in PM emissions, especially those in the higher VSP ranges, are more significant than those in PN. In addition, the maximum peak PN particle size (32 nm) of the retrofitted diesel bus was significantly lower than that of the normal diesel bus (100 nm). These phenomena indicate that the CDPF retrofitting can effectively reduce diesel bus exhaust particle emissions, especially those with large particle sizes.

Keywords: CDPF, diesel, natural gas, real-world emissions

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Authors: Yanné Etienne

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The current climatic conditions necessarily impose the development and use of construction materials with low or no carbon footprint. The Far North Region of Cameroon has huge deposits of termite mounds. Various tests in this work have been carried out on these soils with the aim of using them as construction materials. They are mainly geotechnical tests, physical and mechanical tests. The different tests gave the following values: uniformity coefficient (4.95), curvature coefficient (1.80), plasticity index (12.85%), optimum moisture content (6.70%), maximum dry density (2.05 g.cm-³), friction angles (14.07°), and cohesion of 100.29 kN.m2. The results obtained show that termite mound soils, which are ecological materials, are plastic and water-stable can be used for the production of load-bearing elements in construction.

Keywords: termite mound soil, ecological materials, building materials, geotechnical tests, physical and mechanical tests

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Authors: Mira Ezora Zainal Abidin, Siti Fauzuna Othman, Zalina Harun, M. Hafiz M. Pikri

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In a fire incident involving a Nitrogen storage tank that over-pressured and exploded, resulting in a fire in one of the units in a refinery, lack of data and evidence hampered the investigation to determine the root cause. Instrumentation and fittings were destroyed in the fire. To make it worst, this incident occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, making collecting and testing evidence delayed. In addition to that, the storage tank belonged to a third-party company which requires legal agreement prior to the refinery getting approval to test the remains. Despite all that, the investigation had to be carried out with stakeholders demanding answers. The investigation team had to devise alternative means to support whatever little evidence came out as the most probable root cause. International standards, practices, and previous incidents on similar tanks were referred. To narrow down to just one root cause from 8 possible causes, transient simulations were conducted to simulate the overpressure scenarios to prove and eliminate the other causes, leaving one root cause. This paper shares the methodology used and details how transient simulations were applied to help solve this. The experience and lessons learned gained from the event investigation and from numerous case studies via transient analysis in finding the root cause of the accident leads to the formulation of future mitigations and design modifications aiming at preventing such incidents or at least minimize the consequences from the fire incident.

Keywords: fire, transient, simulation, relief

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Authors: Keunhong Chae, Seokho Yoon

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Recently, the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) such as Galileo and GPS is employing more satellites to provide a higher degree of accuracy for the location service, thus calling for a more efficient signaling scheme among the satellites used in the overall GNSS network. In that the network throughput is improved, the spatial diversity can be one of the efficient signaling schemes; however, it requires multiple antenna that could cause a significant increase in the complexity of the GNSS. Thus, a diversity scheme called the cooperative signaling was proposed, where the virtual multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signaling is realized with using only a single antenna in the transmit satellite of interest and with modeling the neighboring satellites as relay nodes. The main drawback of the cooperative signaling is that the relay nodes receive the transmitted signal at different time instants, i.e., they operate in an asynchronous way, and thus, the overall performance of the GNSS network could degrade severely. To tackle the problem, several modified cooperative signaling schemes were proposed; however, all of them are difficult to implement due to a signal decoding at the relay nodes. Although the implementation at the relay nodes could be simpler to some degree by employing the time-reversal and conjugation operations instead of the signal decoding, it would be more efficient if we could implement the operations of the relay nodes at the source node having more resources than the relay nodes. So, in this paper, we propose a novel cooperative signaling scheme, where the data signals are combined in a unique way at the source node, thus obviating the need of the complex operations such as signal decoding, time-reversal and conjugation at the relay nodes. The numerical results confirm that the proposed scheme provides the same performance in the cooperative diversity and the bit error rate (BER) as the conventional scheme, while reducing the complexity at the relay nodes significantly. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the National GNSS Research Center program of Defense Acquisition Program Administration and Agency for Defense Development.

Keywords: global navigation satellite network, cooperative signaling, data combining, nodes

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Authors: Atikah Nurhayati, Asep A. Handaka

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Indonesia is a world’s major fish producer which can feed not only its citizens but also the people of the world. Currently, the total annual production is 11 tons and expected to double by the year of 2050. Given the potential, fishery has been an important part of the national food security system in Indonesia. Despite such a potential, a big challenge is facing the Indonesians in making fish the reliable source for their food, more specifically source of protein intake. The long geographic distance between the fish production centers and the consumer concentrations has prevented effective supply chain from producers to consumers and therefore demands a good logistic system. This paper is based on our research, which aimed at analyzing the fish supply chain and is to suggest relevant improvement to the chain. The research was conducted in the Year of 2016 in selected locations of Java Island, where intensive transaction on fishery commodities occur. Data used in this research comprises secondary data of time series reports on production and distribution and primary data regarding distribution aspects which were collected through interviews with purposively selected 100 respondents representing fishers, traders and processors. The data were analyzed following the supply chain management framework and processed following logistic regression and validity tests. The main findings of the research are as follows. Firstly, it was found that improperly managed connectivity and logistic chain is the main cause for insecurity of availability and affordability for the consumers. Secondly, lack of quality of most local processed products is a major obstacle for improving affordability and connectivity. The paper concluded with a number of recommended strategies to tackle the problem. These include rationalization of the length of the existing supply chain, intensification of processing activities, and improvement of distribution infrastructure and facilities.

Keywords: fishery, food security, logistic, supply chain

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Authors: G. Battistoni, F. Collamati, E. De Lucia, R. Faccini, C. Mancini-Terracciano, M. Marafini, I. Mattei, S. Muraro, V. Patera, A. Sarti, A. Sciubba, E. Solfaroli Camillocci, M. Toppi, G. Traini, S. M. Valle, C. Voena

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Accelerated charged particles, mainly protons and carbon ions, are presently used in Particle Therapy (PT) to treat solid tumors. The precision of PT exploiting the charged particle high localized dose deposition in tissues and biological effectiveness in killing cancer cells demands for an online dose monitoring technique, crucial to improve the quality assurance of treatments: possible patient mis-positionings and biological changes with respect to the CT scan could negatively affect the therapy outcome. In PT the beam range confined in the irradiated target can be monitored thanks to the secondary radiation produced by the interaction of the projectiles with the patient tissue. The Dose Profiler (DP) is a novel device designed to track charged secondary particles and reconstruct their longitudinal emission distribution, correlated to the Bragg peak position. The feasibility of this approach has been demonstrated by dedicated experimental measurements. The DP has been developed in the framework of the INSIDE project, MIUR, INFN and Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche 'E. Fermi', Roma, Italy and will be tested at the Proton Therapy center of Trento (Italy) within the end of 2017. The DP combines a tracker, made of six layers of two-view scintillating fibers with square cross section (0.5 x 0.5 mm2) with two layers of two-view scintillating bars (section 12.0 x 0.6 mm2). The electronic readout is performed by silicon photomultipliers. The sensitive area of the tracking planes is 20 x 20 cm2. To optimize the detector layout, a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation based on the FLUKA code has been developed. The complete DP geometry and the track reconstruction code have been fully implemented in the MC. In this contribution, the DP hardware will be described. The expected detector performance computed using a dedicated simulation of a 220 MeV/u carbon ion beam impinging on a PMMA target will be presented, and the result will be discussed in the standard clinical application framework. A possible procedure for real-time beam range monitoring is proposed, following the expectations in actual clinical operation.

Keywords: online range monitoring, particle therapy, quality assurance, tracking detector

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Authors: SeyedKeivan Nateghi, Jan Kaczmarczyk

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People nowadays spend most of their time in buildings. Accordingly, maintaining a good quality of indoor air is very important. New universal matters related to the prevalence of Covid-19 also highlight the importance of indoor air conditioning in reducing the risk of virus infection. Cooling and Heating of a house will provide a suitable zone of air temperature for residents. One of the significant factors in energy demand is energy consumption in the building. In general, building divisions compose more than 30% of the world's fundamental energy requirement. As energy demand increased, greenhouse effects emerged that caused global warming. Regardless of the environmental damage to the ecosystem, it can spread infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera, or dengue to many other parts of the world. With the advent of the Covid-19 phenomenon, the previous instructions to reduce energy consumption are no longer responsive because they increase the risk of virus infection among people in the room. Two problems of high energy consumption and coronavirus infection are opposite. A classroom with 30 students and one teacher in Katowice, Poland, considered controlling two objectives simultaneal. The probability of transmission of the disease is calculated from the carbon dioxide concentration of people. Also, in a certain period, the amount of energy consumption is estimated by EnergyPlus. The effect of three parameters of number, angle, and time or schedule of opening windows on the probability of infection transmission and energy consumption of the class were investigated. Parameters were examined widely to determine the best possible condition for simultaneous control of infection spread and energy consumption. The number of opening windows is discrete (0,3), and two other parameters are continuous (0,180) and (8 AM, 2 PM). Preliminary results show that changes in the number, angle, and timing of window openings significantly impact the likelihood of virus transmission and class energy consumption. The greater the number, tilt, and timing of window openings, the less likely the student will transmit the virus. But energy consumption is increasing. When all the windows were closed at all hours of the class, the energy consumption for the first day of January was only 0.2 megajoules. In comparison, the probability of transmitting the virus per person in the classroom is more than 45%. But when all windows were open at maximum angles during class, the chance of transmitting the infection was reduced to 0.35%. But the energy consumption will be 36 megajoules. Therefore, school classrooms need an optimal schedule to control both functions. In this article, we will present a suitable plan for the classroom with natural ventilation through windows to control energy consumption and the possibility of infection transmission at the same time.

Keywords: Covid-19, energy consumption, building, carbon dioxide, energyplus

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Authors: M. N. Islam, B. Boswell, Y. R. Ginting

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The influence of canned cycles and cutting parameters on hole quality in cryogenic drilling has been investigated experimentally and analytically. A three-level, three-parameter experiment was conducted by using the design-of-experiment methodology. The three levels of independent input parameters were the following: for canned cycles—a chip-breaking canned cycle (G73), a spot drilling canned cycle (G81), and a deep hole canned cycle (G83); for feed rates—0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 mm/rev; and for cutting speeds—60, 75, and 100 m/min. The selected work and tool materials were aluminum 6061-6T and high-speed steel (HSS), respectively. For cryogenic cooling, liquid nitrogen (LN2) was used and was applied externally. The measured output parameters were the three widely used quality characteristics of drilled holes—diameter error, circularity, and surface roughness. Pareto ANOVA was applied for analyzing the results. The findings revealed that the canned cycle has a significant effect on diameter error (contribution ratio 44.09%) and small effects on circularity and surface finish (contribution ratio 7.25% and 6.60%, respectively). The best results for the dimensional accuracy and surface roughness were achieved by G81. G73 produced the best circularity results; however, for dimensional accuracy, it was the worst level.

Keywords: circularity, diameter error, drilling canned cycle, pareto ANOVA, surface roughness

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Authors: Sadi Ali, Yaser Kishawi

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As part of Palestine, Gaza Strip (365 km2 and 1.8 million habitants) is considered a semi-arid zone relies solely on the Coastal Aquifer. The coastal aquifer is only source of water with only 5-10% suitable for human use. This barely cover the domestic and agricultural needs of Gaza Strip. Palestinian Water Authority Strategy is to find non-conventional water resource from treated wastewater to irrigate 1500 hectares and serves over 100,000 inhabitants. A new WWTP project is to replace the old-overloaded Biet Lahia WWTP. The project consists of three parts; phase A (pressure line & 9 infiltration basins - IBs), phase B (a new WWTP) and phase C (Recovery and Reuse Scheme – RRS – to capture the spreading plume). Currently, phase A is functioning since Apr 2009. Since Apr 2009, a monitoring plan is conducted to monitor the infiltration rate (I.R.) of the 9 basins. Nearly 23 million m3 of partially treated wastewater were infiltrated up to Jun 2014. It is important to maintain an acceptable rate to allow the basins to handle the coming quantities (currently 10,000 m3 are pumped an infiltrated daily). The methodology applied was to review and analysis the collected data including the I.R.s, the WW quality and the drying-wetting schedule of the basins. One of the main findings is the relation between the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) at BLWWTP and the I.R. at the basins. Since April 2009, the basins scored an average I.R. of about 2.5 m/day. Since then the records showed a decreasing pattern of the average rate until it reached the lower value of 0.42 m/day in Jun 2013. This was accompanied with an increase of TSS (mg/L) concentration at the source reaching above 200 mg/L. The reducing of TSS concentration directly improved the I.R. (by cleaning the WW source ponds at Biet Lahia WWTP site). This was reflected in an improvement in I.R. in last 6 months from 0.42 m/day to 0.66 m/day then to nearly 1.0 m/day as the average of the last 3 months of 2013. The wetting-drying scheme of the basins was observed (3 days wetting and 7 days drying) besides the rainfall rates. Despite the difficulty to apply this scheme accurately a control of flow to each basin was applied to improve the I.R. The drying-wetting system affected the I.R. of individual basins, thus affected the overall system rate which was recorded and assessed. Also the ploughing activities at the infiltration basins as well were recommended at certain times to retain a certain infiltration level. This breaks the confined clogging layer which prevents the infiltration. It is recommended to maintain proper quality of WW infiltrated to ensure an acceptable performance of IBs. The continual maintenance of settling ponds at BLWWTP, continual ploughing of basins and applying soil treatment techniques at the IBs will improve the I.R.s. When the new WWTP functions a high standard effluent quality (TSS 20mg, BOD 20 mg/l and TN 15 mg/l) will be infiltrated, thus will enhance I.R.s of IBs due to lower organic load.

Keywords: SAT, wastewater quality, soil remediation, North Gaza

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Authors: Hatice Guzel, Imran Oral, Huseyin Isler

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In this study, elastic constants, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratios, and shear moduli of orthotropic composite materials, consisting of E-glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy, were calculated by ultrasonic velocities which were measured using ultrasonic pulse-echo method. 35 MHz computer controlled analyzer, 60 MHz digital oscilloscope, 5 MHz longitudinal probe, and 2,25 MHz transverse probe were used for the measurements of ultrasound velocities, the measurements were performed at ambient temperature. It was understood from the data obtained in this study that, measured ultrasound velocities and the calculated elasticity coefficients were depending on the fiber orientations.

Keywords: composite materials, elastic constants, orthotropic materials, ultrasound

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Authors: Noshaba Dilbar, Hina Ashraf

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Medicinal plants are considered as rich source of ingredients which can be used in drug development and synthesis. Moreover, these plants play a vital role in the development of human culture of using ayurvedic medicines around the whole world. Among all plants, dessert plants are being proved as effective source of ayurvedic medicines and remedy against many diseases. Considering the fact, two plant species Limium indicum and Euphorbia granulata were taken from Cholistan dessert of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Firstly, phytochemical screening was done by making dry and fresh plant extracts in five different solvents i.e Petroleum ether, benzene, chloroform, ethanol and methanol. Standard confirmation tests for all compounds were applied for analysis. Results revealed the presence of high range of bioactive compounds such as alakaloids, terpenoids, glycosides, steroids, flavonoids, saponins, phytosterols, oxalic acid, anthocyanin and quinone in both plants. Best results were obtained by methanolic, chloroform and petroleum ether extracts and methanolic, ethanolic and benzene extracts of Limium indicum and Euphorbia granulate respectively. Considering the results, methanolic extracts of both plants were further analysed for antibacterial activity. Plants were analysed against four pathogens including Escherchia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aruginosa using disc diffusion method. Limium indicum showed highly significant activity against all pathogens while Euphorbia granulata showed significant activity against Klebsiella pneumonia and Proteus vulgaris but lesser against Escherchia coli and Pseudomonas aruginosa. MIC of extracts against each positive bacterium was calculated and recorded. Present plants can be considered for making useful drugs but further studies are needed to isolate active agents from plant extracts for drug development.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, Euphorbia granulata, Limium indicum, medicinal plants, phytochemical screening

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Authors: Manoj Gujar

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The present paper is an attempt to interpret two Marathi translations of Khushwant Singh’s (1915-2014) novel Train to Pakistan (1956). The 20th century was branded as an era of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization. Different countries and cultures have enunciated interaction with one another in an unprecedented manner. The world is becoming multilingual and multicultural. The democratic countries such as the U.S.A., the U.K., and India have become pivotal centers of interlingual and cross-cultural exchange. People belonging to different nationalities showed keen interest in knowing the characteristic features of different languages and of their cultures. Here, ‘Translation’ plays an important role in such multilingual and multicultural contexts. Translation is not only translation of a language but a translation of a culture. However, in the act of translation a translator makes use of such procedures as borrowing, definition, literal translation, substitution, lexical creation, omission, addition as well as their various combinations. To him, a text produced in one linguistic and cultural context can reach other linguistic and cultural contexts through these processes of translation. A worthy work of art appeals many readers. India, being a multilingual country we find that there goes multiple translations of the same text in different Indian languages. But sometimes, if can be found that a same text appeals to different ages and the same text gets translated into the same language by the two or more authors. In this reference, the present paper is an attempt to study how different translations of the same text differ in terms of procedures and strategies during the process of the translation of culture. The source text is Khushwant Singh’s historical novel Train to Pakistan (1956). The novel was widely appreciated and so translated into different regional languages in India. The novel has two Marathi translations: Agniratha (1972) by Hidayatkhan and Train to Pakistan (1980) by Anil Kinikar. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the strategies and procedures in translation to analyze these two Marathi translations. Hidayat Khan made a lot of omissions of the significant details and distorted the original text to a large extent, whereas, Anil Kinikar has done justice to the Source Text by rendering it in Marathi as faithfully as possible.

Keywords: culture, multilingual, procedures and strategies, translation

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Authors: Vivek Nair

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The objective of this research is to find out happiness determinants in MBA student life. To figure out the factors influencing happiness in life is sorted by their personal profiles. This paper used survey method to collect data. The survey was mainly conducted among Management Students and is based on three hypothesis viz. Family relationship, Friendship and God as a source of happiness, and whether happiness is manageable and controllable. The statistics used for interpreting the results included the frequencies, percentages, and z test analysis. The findings revealed that family relationships and friendship have the same effect on individual happiness.

Keywords: happiness, family, MBA students, friends

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Authors: Manon Frédout, Laëtitia Bucari, Mathias Aloui, Gaëtan Duhamel, Olivier Rovellotti, Javier Blanco

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Ecosystems must be resilient to ensure cleaner air, better water and soil quality, and thus healthier citizens. Technology can be an excellent tool to support urban ecosystem restoration projects, especially when based on Open Source and promoting Open Data. This is the goal of the ecoTeka application: one single digital tool for tree management which allows decision-makers to improve their urban forestry practices, enabling more responsible urban planning and climate change adaptation. EcoTeka provides city councils with three main functionalities tackling three of their challenges: easier biodiversity inventories, better green space management, and more efficient planning. To answer the cities’ need for reliable tree inventories, the application has been first built with open data coming from the websites OpenStreetMap and OpenTrees, but it will also include very soon the possibility of creating new data. To achieve this, a multi-source algorithm will be elaborated, based on existing artificial intelligence Deep Forest, integrating open-source satellite images, 3D representations from LiDAR, and street views from Mapillary. This data processing will permit identifying individual trees' position, height, crown diameter, and taxonomic genus. To support urban forestry management, ecoTeka offers a dashboard for monitoring the city’s tree inventory and trigger alerts to inform about upcoming due interventions. This tool was co-constructed with the green space departments of the French cities of Alès, Marseille, and Rouen. The third functionality of the application is a decision-making tool for urban planning, promoting biodiversity and landscape connectivity metrics to drive ecosystem restoration roadmap. Based on landscape graph theory, we are currently experimenting with new methodological approaches to scale down regional ecological connectivity principles to local biodiversity conservation and urban planning policies. This methodological framework will couple graph theoretic approach and biological data, mainly biodiversity occurrences (presence/absence) data available on both international (e.g., GBIF), national (e.g., Système d’Information Nature et Paysage) and local (e.g., Atlas de la Biodiversté Communale) biodiversity data sharing platforms in order to help reasoning new decisions for ecological networks conservation and restoration in urban areas. An experiment on this subject is currently ongoing with Montpellier Mediterranee Metropole. These projects and studies have shown that only 26% of tree inventory data is currently geo-localized in France - the rest is still being done on paper or Excel sheets. It seems that technology is not yet used enough to enrich the knowledge city councils have about biodiversity in their city and that existing biodiversity open data (e.g., occurrences, telemetry, or genetic data), species distribution models, landscape graph connectivity metrics are still underexploited to make rational decisions for landscape and urban planning projects. This is the goal of ecoTeka: to support easier inventories of urban biodiversity and better management of urban spaces through rational planning and decisions relying on open databases. Future studies and projects will focus on the development of tools for reducing the artificialization of soils, selecting plant species adapted to climate change, and highlighting the need for ecosystem and biodiversity services in cities.

Keywords: digital software, ecological design of urban landscapes, sustainable urban development, urban ecological corridor, urban forestry, urban planning

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Authors: Ankit Chakraborty, Raj Shah, Prayas Variya

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Self-compacting geo-polymer concrete is a blended version of self-compacting concrete developed in Japan by Okamura. H. in 1986 and geo-polymer concrete proposed by Davidovits in 1999. This method is eco-friendly as there is low CO₂ emission and reduces labor cost due to its self-compacting property and zero percent cement content. We are making an approach to reduce concreting cost and make concreting eco-friendly by replacing cement fully and sand by a certain amount of industrial waste. It will reduce overall concreting cost due to its self-compatibility and replacement of materials, forms eco-friendly concreting technique and gives better fresh property and hardened property results compared to self-compacting concrete and geo-polymer concrete.

Keywords: geopolymer concrete, low cost concreting, low carbon emission, self compactability

Procedia PDF Downloads 226

Authors: Akbar Khodavirdizadeh, Ali Nemati Babaylou, Hassan Moomivand

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The history of human access to water technique has been one of the factors in the formation of human civilizations in the ancient world. The technique that makes surface water and groundwater accessible to humans on the ground has been a clever technique in human life to reach the water. In this study, while examining the water technique of ancient Iran using the Qanats technique, the water supply system of different regions of the ancient world were also studied and compared. Six groups of the ancient region of ancient Greece (Archaic 480-750 BC and Classical 223-480 BC), Urartu in Tuspa (600-850 BC), Petra (106-168 BC), Ancient Rome (265 BC), and the ancient United States (1450 BC) and ancient Iranian water technologies were studied under water supply systems. Past water technologies in these areas: water transmission systems in primary urban centers, use of water structures in water control, use of bridges in water transfer, construction of waterways for water transfer, storage of rainfall, construction of various types of pottery- ceramic, lead, wood and stone pipes have been used in water transfer, flood control, water reservoirs, dams, channel, wells, and Qanat. The central plateau of Iran is one of the arid and desert regions. Archaeological, geomorphological, and paleontological studies of the central region of the Iranian plateau showed that without the use of Qanats, the possibility of urban civilization in this region was difficult and even impossible. Zarch aqueduct is the most important aqueduct in Yazd region. Qanat of Zarch is a plain Qanat with a gallery length of 80 km; its mother well is 85 m deep and has 2115 well shafts. The main purpose of building the Qanat of Zārch was to access the groundwater source and transfer it to the surface of the ground. Regarding the structure of the aqueduct and the technique of transferring water from the groundwater source to the surface, it has a great impact on being different from other water techniques in the ancient world. The results show that the use of water technologies in ancient is very important to understand the history of humanity in the use of hydraulic techniques.

Keywords: ancient water technologies, groundwaters, qanat, human history, Ancient Iran

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Authors: Pesaru Vigneshwar Reddy, Parvathaneni Pavan

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Green organic chemistry which is the latest and one of the most researched topics now-a- days has been in demand since 1990’s. Majority of the research in green organic chemistry chemicals are some of the important starting materials for greater number of major chemical industries. The production of organic chemicals has raw materials (or) reagents for other application is major sector of manufacturing polymers, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, paints, artificial fibers, food additives etc. organic synthesis on a large scale compound to the labratory scale, involves the use of energy, basic chemical ingredients from the petro chemical sectors, catalyst and after the end of the reaction, seperation, purification, storage, packing distribution etc. During these processes there are many problems of health and safety for workers in addition to the environmental problems caused there by use and deposition as waste. Green chemistry with its 12 principles would like to see changes in conventional way that were used for decades to make synthetic organic chemical and the use of less toxic starting materials. Green chemistry would like to increase the efficiency of synthetic methods, to use less toxic solvents, reduce the stage of synthetic routes and minimize waste as far as practically possible. In this way, organic synthesis will be part of the effort for sustainable development Green chemistry is also interested for research and alternatives innovations on many practical aspects of organic synthesis in the university and research labaratory of institutions. By changing the methodologies of organic synthesis, health and safety will be advanced in the small scale laboratory level but also will be extended to the industrial large scale production a process through new techniques. The three key developments in green chemistry include the use of super critical carbondioxide as green solvent, aqueous hydrogen peroxide as an oxidising agent and use of hydrogen in asymmetric synthesis. It also focuses on replacing traditional methods of heating with that of modern methods of heating like microwaves traditions, so that carbon foot print should reduces as far as possible. Another beneficiary of this green chemistry is that it will reduce environmental pollution through the use of less toxic reagents, minimizing of waste and more bio-degradable biproducts. In this present paper some of the basic principles, approaches, and early achievements of green chemistry has a branch of chemistry that studies the laws of passing of chemical reactions is also considered, with the summarization of green chemistry principles. A discussion about E-factor, old and new synthesis of ibuprofen, microwave techniques, and some of the recent advancements also considered.

Keywords: energy, e-factor, carbon foot print, micro-wave, sono-chemistry, advancement

Procedia PDF Downloads 275

Authors: Yi-Chu Liu, Hsiu-Huei Hung, Li-Hui Yang, Ming-Jyh Chen

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introduction: To promote environmental sustainability, the hospital formed a corporate volunteer team in 2016 to build the Green Experiential Education Center. Our green creation center utilizes attic space to achieve sustainability objectives such as energy efficiency and carbon reduction. Other than executing sustainable plans, the center emphasizes experiential education. We invite our community to actively participate in building a sustainable, economically viable environment. Since 2020, the China Medical University Hospital has provided medical care to the Tgbin community in Taichung City's Heping District. The tribe, primarily composed of Atayal people, the elderly comprise 18% of the total population, and these families' per capita income is relatively low compared to Taiwanese citizens elsewhere. Purpose / Methods: With the experiences at the Green Experiential Education Center, CMUH team identifies the following objectives: Create an aquaponic system to supply vulnerable local households with food. Create a solar renewable energy system to meet the electricity needs of vulnerable local households. Promote the purchase of green electricity certificates to reduce the hospital's carbon emissions and generate additional revenue for the local community. Materials and Methods: In March 2020, we visited the community and installed The aquaponic system in January 2021. CMUH spent 150,000NT (approximately 5000US dollars) in March 2021 to build a 100-square-meter aquaponic system. The production of vegetables and fish caught determines the number of vulnerable families that can be supported. The aquaponics system is a kind of Low energy consumption and environmentally friendly production method, and can simultaneously achieve energy saving, water saving, and fertilizer saving .In September 2023, CMUH will complete a solar renewable energy system. The system will cover an area of 308 square meters and costs approximately NT$240,000 (approximately US$8,000). The installation of electricity meters will enable statistical analysis of power generation. And complete the Taiwan National Renewable Energy Certificate application process. The green electricity certificate will be obtained based on the monthly power generation from the solar renewable energy system. Results: I Food availability and access are crucial considering the remote location and aging population. By creating a fish and vegetable symbiosis system, the vegetables and catches produced will enable economically disadvantaged families to lower food costs. In 2021 and 2022, the aquaponic system produced 52 kilograms of vegetables and 75 kilograms of catch. The production ensures the daily needs of 8 disadvantaged families. Conclusions: The hospital serves as a fortress for public health and the ideal setting for corporate social responsibility. China Medical University Hospital and the Green Experiential Education Center work to strengthen ties with rural communities and offer top-notch specialty medical care. We are committed to assisting people in escaping poverty and hunger as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords: environmental education, sustainability, energy conservation, carbon emissions, rural area development

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Sadi Ali, Yaser Kishawi

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As part of Palestine, Gaza Strip (365 km2 and 1.8 million habitants) is considered a semi-arid zone relies solely on the Coastal Aquifer. The coastal aquifer is only source of water with only 5-10% suitable for human use. This barely covers the domestic and agricultural needs of Gaza Strip. Palestinian Water Authority Strategy is to find non-conventional water resource from treated wastewater to irrigate 1500 hectares and serves over 100,000 inhabitants. A new WWTP project is to replace the old-overloaded Biet Lahia WWTP. The project consists of three parts; phase A (pressure line & 9 infiltration basins - IBs), phase B (a new WWTP) and phase C (Recovery and Reuse Scheme – RRS – to capture the spreading plume). Currently, phase A is functioning since Apr 2009. Since Apr 2009, a monitoring plan is conducted to monitor the infiltration rate (I.R.) of the 9 basins. Nearly 23 million m3 of partially treated wastewater were infiltrated up to Jun 2014. It is important to maintain an acceptable rate to allow the basins to handle the coming quantities (currently 10,000 m3 are pumped an infiltrated daily). The methodology applied was to review and analysis the collected data including the I.R.s, the WW quality and the drying-wetting schedule of the basins. One of the main findings is the relation between the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) at BLWWTP and the I.R. at the basins. Since April 2009, the basins scored an average I.R. of about 2.5 m/day. Since then the records showed a decreasing pattern of the average rate until it reached the lower value of 0.42 m/day in Jun 2013. This was accompanied with an increase of TSS (mg/L) concentration at the source reaching above 200 mg/L. The reducing of TSS concentration directly improved the I.R. (by cleaning the WW source ponds at Biet Lahia WWTP site). This was reflected in an improvement in I.R. in last 6 months from 0.42 m/day to 0.66 m/day then to nearly 1.0 m/day as the average of the last 3 months of 2013. The wetting-drying scheme of the basins was observed (3 days wetting and 7 days drying) besides the rainfall rates. Despite the difficulty to apply this scheme accurately a control of flow to each basin was applied to improve the I.R. The drying-wetting system affected the I.R. of individual basins, thus affected the overall system rate which was recorded and assessed. Also the ploughing activities at the infiltration basins as well were recommended at certain times to retain a certain infiltration level. This breaks the confined clogging layer which prevents the infiltration. It is recommended to maintain proper quality of WW infiltrated to ensure an acceptable performance of IBs. The continual maintenance of settling ponds at BLWWTP, continual ploughing of basins and applying soil treatment techniques at the IBs will improve the I.R.s. When the new WWTP functions a high standard effluent quality (TSS 20mg, BOD 20 mg/l, and TN 15 mg/l) will be infiltrated, thus will enhance I.R.s of IBs due to lower organic load.

Keywords: soil aquifer treatment, recovery and reuse scheme, infiltration basins, North Gaza

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Antonio A. M. Laudani, Igor O. Golosnoy, Ole T. Thomsen

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Rotor blades of large, modern wind turbines are highly susceptible to downward lightning strikes, as well as to triggering upward lightning; consequently, it is necessary to equip them with an effective lightning protection system (LPS) in order to avoid any damage. The performance of existing LPSs is affected by carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) structures, which lead to lightning-induced damage in the blades, e.g. via electrical sparks. A solution to prevent internal arcing would be to electrically bond the LPS and the composite structures such that to obtain the same electric potential. Nevertheless, elevated temperatures are achieved at the joint interfaces because of high contact resistance, which melts and vaporises some of the epoxy resin matrix around the bonding. The produced high-pressure gasses open up the bonding and can ignite thermal sparks. The objective of this paper is to predict the current density distribution and the temperature field in the adhesive joint cross-section, in order to check whether the resin pyrolysis temperature is achieved and any damage is expected. The finite element method has been employed to solve both the current and heat transfer problems, which are considered weakly coupled. The mathematical model for electric current includes Maxwell-Ampere equation for induced electric field solved together with current conservation, while the thermal field is found from heat diffusion equation. In this way, the current sub-model calculates Joule heat release for a chosen bonding configuration, whereas the thermal analysis allows to determining threshold values of voltage and current density not to be exceeded in order to maintain the temperature across the joint below the pyrolysis temperature, therefore preventing the occurrence of outgassing. In addition, it provides an indication of the minimal number of bonding points. It is worth to mention that the numerical procedures presented in this study can be tailored and applied to any type of joints other than adhesive ones for wind turbine blades. For instance, they can be applied for lightning protection of aerospace bolted joints. Furthermore, they can even be customized to predict the electromagnetic response under lightning strikes of other wind turbine systems, such as nacelle and hub components.

Keywords: carbon fibre reinforced polymer, equipotential bonding, finite element method, FEM, lightning protection system, LPS, wind turbine blades

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Sadia H. Syeda, Zain H. Malik

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As systems continue to become more complex and the interdependencies of processes and sub-systems continue to grow and transform, the need for a comprehensive method of tracking and linking the lifecycle of the systems in a digital form becomes ever more critical. Digital Engineering (DE) provides an approach to managing an authoritative data source that links, tracks, and updates system data as it evolves and grows throughout the system development lifecycle. DE enables the developing, tracking, and sharing system data, models, and other related artifacts in a digital environment accessible to all necessary stakeholders. The DE environment provides an integrated electronic repository that enables traceability between design, engineering, and sustainment artifacts. The DE activities' primary objective is to develop a set of integrated, coherent, and consistent system models for the program. It is envisioned to provide a collaborative information-sharing environment for various stakeholders, including operational users, acquisition personnel, engineering personnel, and logistics and sustainment personnel. Examining the processes that DE can support in the systems engineering life cycle (SELC) is a primary step in the DE adoption and implementation journey. Through an analysis of the U.S Department of Defense’s (DoD) Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD’s) Digital Engineering Strategy and their implementation, examples of DE implementation by the industry and technical organizations, this paper will provide descriptions of the current DE processes and best practices of implementing DE across an enterprise. This will help identify the capabilities, environment, and infrastructure needed to develop a potential roadmap for implementing DE practices consistent with its business strategy. A capability maturity matrix will be provided to assess the organization’s DE maturity emphasizing how all the SELC elements interlink to form a cohesive ecosystem. If implemented, DE can increase efficiency and improve the systems engineering processes' quality and outcomes.

Keywords: digital engineering, digital environment, digital maturity model, single source of truth, systems engineering life-cycle

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Guillaume Soubeyran, Fabrice Micoud, Benoit Morin, Jean-Philippe Poirot-Crouvezier, Magali Reytier

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Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology is considered as a solution for the reduction of CO2 emissions. However, this technology still meets several challenges for high-scale industrialization. In this context, the increase of durability remains a critical aspect for competitiveness of this technology. Fortunately, performance degradations in nominal operating conditions is partially reversible, meaning that if specific conditions are applied, a partial recovery of fuel cell performance can be achieved, while irreversible degradations can only be mitigated. Thus, it is worth studying the optimal conditions to rejuvenate these reversible degradations and assessing the long-term impact of such procedures on the performance of the cell. Reversible degradations consist mainly of anode Pt active sites poisoning by carbon monoxide at the anode, heterogeneities in water management during use, and oxidation/deactivation of Pt active sites at the cathode. The latter is identified as a major source of reversible performance loss caused by the presence oxygen, high temperature and high cathode potential that favor platinum oxidation, especially in high efficiency operating points. Hence, we studied here a recovery procedure aiming at reducing the platinum oxides by decreasing cathode potential during operation. Indeed, the application of short air starvation phase leads to a drop of cathode potential. Cell performances are temporarily increased afterwards. Nevertheless, local temperature and current heterogeneities within the cells are favored and shall be minimized. The consumption of fuel during the recovery phase shall also be considered to evaluate the global efficiency. Consequently, the purpose of this work is to find an optimal compromise between the recovery of reversible degradations by air starvation, the increase of global cell efficiency and the mitigation of irreversible degradations effects. Different operating parameters have first been studied such as cell voltage, temperature and humidity in single cell set-up. Considering the global PEMFC system efficiency, tests showed that reducing duration of recovery phase and reducing cell voltage was the key to ensure an efficient recovery. Recovery phase frequency was a major factor as well. A specific method was established to find the optimal frequency depending on the duration and voltage of the recovery phase. Then, long-term degradations have also been studied by applying FC-DLC cycles based on NEDC cycles on a 4-cell short stack by alternating test sequences with and without recovery phases. Depending on recovery phase timing, cell efficiency during the cycle was increased up to 2% thanks to a mean voltage increase of 10 mV during test sequences with recovery phases. However, cyclic voltammetry tests results suggest that the implementation of recovery phases causes an acceleration of the decrease of platinum active areas that could be due to the high potential variations applied to the cathode electrode during operation.

Keywords: durability, PEMFC, recovery procedure, reversible degradation

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Jone Ibarruri, Mikel Manso, Marta Cebrián

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A high amount of food is lost or discarded in the World every year. In addition, in the last decades, an increasing demand of new alternative and sustainable sources of proteins and other valuable compounds is being observed in the food and feeding sectors and, therefore, the use of food by-products as nutrients for these purposes sounds very interesting from the environmental and economical point of view. However, the direct use of discarded fruit and vegetables that present, in general, a low protein content is not interesting as feeding ingredient except if they are used as a source of fiber for ruminants. Especially in the case of aquaculture, several alternatives to the use of fish meal and other vegetable protein sources have been extensively explored due to the scarcity of fish stocks and the unsustainability of fishing for these purposes. Fish mortality is also of great concern in this sector as this problem highly reduces their economic feasibility. So, the development of new functional and natural ingredients that could reduce the need for vaccination is also of great interest. In this work, several fermentation tests were developed at lab scale using a selected mixture of fruit and vegetable discards from a wholesale market located in the Basque Country to increase their protein content and also to produce some bioactive extracts that could be used as additives in aquaculture. Fruit and vegetable mixtures (60/40 ww) were centrifugated for humidity reduction and crushed to 2-5 mm particle size. Samples were inoculated with a selected Rhizopus oryzae strain and fermented for 7 days in controlled conditions (humidity between 65 and 75% and 28ºC) in Petri plates (120 mm) by triplicate. Obtained results indicated that the final fermented product presented a twofold protein content (from 13 to 28% d.w). Fermented product was further processed to determine their possible functionality as a feed additive. Extraction tests were carried out to obtain an ethanolic extract (60:40 ethanol: water, v.v) and remaining biomass that also could present applications in food or feed sectors. The extract presented a polyphenol content of about 27 mg GAE/gr d.w with antioxidant activity of 8.4 mg TEAC/g d.w. Remining biomass is mainly composed of fiber (51%), protein (24%) and fat (10%). Extracts also presented antibacterial activity according to the results obtained in Agar Diffusion and to the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) tests determined against several food and fish pathogen strains. In vitro, digestibility was also assessed to obtain preliminary information about the expected effect of extraction procedure on fermented product digestibility. First results indicated that remaining biomass after extraction doesn´t seem to improve digestibility in comparison to the initial fermented product. These preliminary results show that fermented fruit and vegetables can be a useful source of functional ingredients for aquaculture applications and a substitute of other protein sources in the feeding sector. Further validation will be also carried out through “in vivo” tests with trout and bass.

Keywords: fungal solid state fermentation, protein increase, functional extracts, feed ingredients

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Monir Ahmed

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This paper aims at discussing transcendence, spirituality, and well-being in light of the psychology of religion and spirituality. The main purpose of this paper is i) to demonstrate the importance of cognitive psychological process (thoughts, faith, and beliefs) and the doctrine of creation (‘creatio ex nihilo’) in transcendence, spirituality, and well-being; ii) to discuss the relationships among transcendence, spirituality, and well-being. Psychological studies of spiritual and religious phenomena have been advanced in the decade, mainly to understand how faith, spiritual and religious rituals influence or contribute to well-being. Psychologists of religion and spirituality have put forward methods, tools, and approaches necessary for promoting well-being. For instance, Kenneth I. Pargament, an American psychologist of religion and spirituality, developed spiritually integrated psychotherapy for clinical practice in dealing with the spiritual and religious issues affecting well-being. However, not much progress has been made in understanding the ability of transcendence and how such ability influences spirituality and religion as well as well-being. A possible reason could be that well-being has only been understood in a spiritual and religious context. It appears that transcendence, the core element of spirituality and religion, has not been explored adequately for well-being. In other words, the approaches that have been used so far for spirituality, religion, and well-being lack an integrated approach combining theology and psychology. The author of this paper proposes that cognitive-theological understanding involving faith and belief about the creation and the creator, the transcendent God is likely to offer a comprehensive understanding of transcendence as well as spirituality, religion, and their relationships with well-being. The importance of transcendence and the integration of psychology and theology can advance our knowledge of transcendence, spirituality, and well-being. It is inevitable that the creation is contingent and that the ultimate origin, source of the contingent physical reality, is a non-contingent being, the divine creator. As such, it is not unreasonable for many individuals to believe that the source of existence of non-contingent being, although undiscoverable in physical reality but transcendentally exists. ‘Creatio ex nihilo’ is the most fundamental doctrine in the Abrahamic faiths, i.e., Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and is widely accepted scriptural and philosophical background about the creation, creator, the divine that God created the universe out of nothing. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate theology, i.e., ‘creatio ex nihilo’ doctrine and psychology for a comprehensive understanding of transcendence, spirituality and their relationships with well-being.

Keywords: transcendence, spirituality, well-being, ‘creatio ex nihilo’ doctrine

Procedia PDF Downloads 126