Search results for: increase%20heat%20transfer

Authors: Jasini Waida, Usman Rilwan, S. I. Ikpughul, E. I. Ugwu

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Carcinogenic substances are those that induce tumours (benign or malignant), increase their incidence or malignancy, or shorten the time of tumour occurrence when they get into the body through inhalation, injection, dermal application, or ingestion. Using X-Ray Fluorescence, this study reveals the accumulation of heavy metals in Jos East. The results of this study showed that the Geo-Accumulation Index (Igeo) of water for different heavy metals decreased in the order of Cd (0.15) > Cr and As (0.03) > Pb (-0.13) > Ni (-0.6). The soil content for different heavy metals decreased in the order of As and Cd (0.4) > Ni, Cr and Pb (0.2). The edible plants for different heavy metals decreased in the order of Cd (0.512) > As (0.25) > Pb (0.23) > Ni (0.01) > Ni (-0.06). 21% of these points are uncontaminated, except for a few points that are found within the uncontaminated to moderately contaminated level. It is possible to conclude that the area is uncontaminated to moderately contaminated, necessitating regulation. Hence, this study can be used as reference data for regulatory bodies like the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and the rest.

Keywords: heavy metals, soil, plants, water, contamination factor

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Authors: Kushal Kumar Chode, Remus Miahi Cirstea

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In recent times, the drive towards more efficient vehicles and the increase in the number of vehicle on the roads has driven the aerodynamic researchers from studying the vehicle in isolation towards understanding the benefits of vehicle platooning. Vehicle platooning is defined as a series of vehicles traveling in close proximity. Due to the limitations in size and load measurement capabilities for the wind tunnels facilities, it is very difficult to perform this investigation experimentally. In this paper, the use of chimera or overset meshing technique is used within the STARCCM+ software to model the flow surrounding two identical vehicle models travelling in close proximity and also during an overtaking maneuver. The results are compared with data obtained from a polyhedral mesh and identical physics conditions. The benefits in terms of computational time and resources and the accuracy of the overset mesh approach are investigated.

Keywords: chimera mesh, computational accuracy, overset mesh, platooning vehicles

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Authors: Stefano Zaninotto, Geoffrey Farrugia, Johan Debattista, Jason Gauci

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The need to reduce fuel and noise during taxi operations in the airports with a scenario of constantly increasing air traffic has resulted in an effort by the aerospace industry to move towards electric taxiing. In fact, this is one of the problems that is currently being addressed by SESAR JU and two main solutions are being proposed. With the first solution, electric motors are installed in the main (or nose) landing gear of the aircraft. With the second solution, manned or unmanned electric tow trucks are used to tow aircraft from the gate to the runway (or vice-versa). The presence of the tow trucks results in an increase in vehicle traffic inside the airport. Therefore, it is important to design the system in a way that the workload of Air Traffic Control (ATC) is not increased and the system assists ATC in managing all ground operations. The aim of this work is to develop an electric taxiing system, based on the use of autonomous tow trucks, which optimizes aircraft ground operations while keeping ATC in the loop. This system will consist of two components: an optimization tool and a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The optimization tool will be responsible for determining the optimal path for arriving and departing aircraft; allocating a tow truck to each taxiing aircraft; detecting conflicts between aircraft and/or tow trucks; and proposing solutions to resolve any conflicts. There are two main optimization strategies proposed in the literature. With centralized optimization, a central authority coordinates and makes the decision for all ground movements, in order to find a global optimum. With the second strategy, called decentralized optimization or multi-agent system, the decision authority is distributed among several agents. These agents could be the aircraft, the tow trucks, and taxiway or runway intersections. This approach finds local optima; however, it scales better with the number of ground movements and is more robust to external disturbances (such as taxi delays or unscheduled events). The strategy proposed in this work is a hybrid system combining aspects of these two approaches. The GUI will provide information on the movement and status of each aircraft and tow truck, and alert ATC about any impending conflicts. It will also enable ATC to give taxi clearances and to modify the routes proposed by the system. The complete system will be tested via computer simulation of various taxi scenarios at multiple airports, including Malta International Airport, a major international airport, and a fictitious airport. These tests will involve actual Air Traffic Controllers in order to evaluate the GUI and assess the impact of the system on ATC workload and situation awareness. It is expected that the proposed system will increase the efficiency of taxi operations while reducing their environmental impact. Furthermore, it is envisaged that the system will facilitate various controller tasks and improve ATC situation awareness.

Keywords: air traffic control, electric taxiing, autonomous tow trucks, graphical user interface, ground operations, multi-agent, route optimization

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Authors: Aybike Ayfer Karadağ

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Today, the amount of water available is decreasing day by day due to global warming, environmental problems and population increase. To protect water resources, it is necessary to take a lot of measures from the global scale to the local scale. Some of these measures are related to spatial planning studies. In this study, the impact of water process analysis was assessed in the development of spatial planning for water conservation. The study was conducted in the Kovada sub-watershed (Isparta, Turkey). By means of water process analysis, the way to reach underground water of surface water in the study area is mapped. In this context, plant cover, soil and rock permeability were evaluated holistically with geographic information systems technologies. Then, on the map, water permeability is classified and this is spatially expressed. The findings show that the permeability of the water is different in the study case. As a result, the water permeability map needs to be included in the planning for water conservation planning.

Keywords: water, conservation, spatial planning, water process analysis

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Authors: Katharina Ninaus, Ralf Terlutter, Sandra Diehl

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Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become pervasive in all areas of modern life, both in work and leisure. Technological developments and particularly the ubiquity of smartphones have made it possible for ICT consumers to be constantly connected to work, fostering an always-on mentality and increasing the pressure to be accessible at all times. However, performing work tasks outside of working hours using ICT results in a lack of mental detachment and recovery from work. It is, therefore, necessary to develop effective behavioral interventions to increase risk awareness of a constant connection to the workplace in the employed population. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, this study aims to investigate the persuasiveness of tailoring messages to individuals’ chronic regulatory focus in order to encourage ICT consumers to set boundaries by defining fixed times for professional accessibility outside of working hours in order to contribute to the well-being of ICT consumers with high ICT involvement in their work life. The experimental study examines the interaction effect between consumers’ chronic regulatory focus (i.e. promotion focus versus prevention focus) and positive or negative message framing (i.e. gain frame versus loss frame) on consumers’ intention to perform the advocated behavior. Based on the assumption that congruent messages create regulatory fit and increase message effectiveness, it is hypothesized that behavioral intention will be higher in the condition of regulatory fit compared to regulatory non-fit. It is further hypothesized that ad believability and attitude toward the ad will mediate the effect of regulatory fit on behavioral intention given that ad believability and ad attitude both determine consumer behavioral responses. Results confirm that the interaction between regulatory focus and message frame emerged as a predictor of behavioral intention such as that consumers’ intentions to set boundaries by defining fixed times for professional accessibility outside of working hours increased as congruency with their regulatory focus increased. The loss-framed ad was more effective for consumers with a predominant prevention focus, while the gain-framed ad was more effective for consumers with a predominant promotion focus. Ad believability and attitude toward the ad both emerged as predictors of behavioral intention. Mediation analysis revealed that the direct effect of the interaction between regulatory focus and message frame on behavioral intention was no longer significant when including ad believability and ad attitude as mediators in the model, indicating full mediation. However, while the indirect effect through ad believability was significant, the indirect effect through attitude toward the ad was not significant. Hence, regulatory fit increased ad believability, which then increased behavioral intention. Ad believability appears to have a superior effect indicating that behavioral intention does not depend on attitude toward the ad, but it depends on whether or not the ad is perceived as believable. The study shows that the principle of regulatory fit holds true in the context of ICT consumption and responds to calls for more research on mediators of health message framing effects.

Keywords: always-on mentality, Information and communication technologies (ICT) consumption, message framing, regulatory focus

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Authors: Muhammad Taimoor Hassan, Kausar Abbas

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The Islamic Banking Services is one of the growing businesses in financial sector around the globe with 15 to 18 percent growth all over the world and 10-12 percent growth rate in Pakistan. This research study is aimed at measuring the impact of religiosity on the customer loyalty of Islamic Banking in Pakistan. The study has utilized cause and effect research design to assess the impact of religiosity on Islamic Banking. Data from 350 respondents have been collected to meet the purpose of the study. The results revealed that the religiosity has a significant impact on the customer loyalty of Islamic Banking through the customer attitude and customer trust on the sequential model. The results suggest that the religiosity, customer attitude, and customer trust are the interconnected variables which lead to customer loyalty in Islamic Banking of Pakistan. The study is useful in the setting of Pakistan to further increase the customer loyalty for Islamic Banks.

Keywords: Islamic banks, customer loyalty, attitude, Pakistan

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Authors: Scott Rawlings

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Victoria’s first State of the Bays report is an historic baseline study of the health of Port Phillip Bay and Western Port. The report includes 50 assessments of 36 indicators across a broad array of topics from the nitrogen cycle and water quality to key marine species and habitats. This paper discusses the processes for determining and assessing the indicators and comments on future priorities identified to maintain and improve the health of these water ways. Victoria’s population is now at six million, and growing at a rate of over 100,000 people per year - the highest increase in Australia – and the population of greater Melbourne is over four million. Port Phillip Bay and Western Port are vital marine assets at the centre of this growth and will require adaptive strategies if they are to remain in good condition and continue to deliver environmental, economic and social benefits. In 2014, it was in recognition of these pressures that the incoming Victorian Government committed to reporting on the state of the bays every five years. The inaugural State of the Bays report was issued by the independent Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability. The report brought together what is known about both bays, based on existing research. It was a baseline on which future reports will build and, over time, include more of Victoria’s marine environment. Port Phillip Bay and Western Port generally demonstrate healthy systems. Specific threats linked to population growth are a significant pressure. Impacts are more significant where human activity is more intense and where nutrients are transported to the bays around the mouths of creeks and drainage systems. The transport of high loads of nutrients and pollutants to the bays from peak rainfall events is likely to increase with climate change – as will sea level rise. Marine pests are also a threat. More than 100 introduced marine species have become established in Port Phillip Bay and can compete with native species, alter habitat, reduce important fish stocks and potentially disrupt nitrogen cycling processes. This study confirmed that our data collection regime is better within the Marine Protected Areas of Port Phillip Bay than in other parts. The State of the Bays report is a positive and practical example of what can be achieved through collaboration and cooperation between environmental reporters, Government agencies, academic institutions, data custodians, and NGOs. The State of the Bays 2016 provides an important foundation by identifying knowledge gaps and research priorities for future studies and reports on the bays. It builds a strong evidence base to effectively manage the bays and support an adaptive management framework. The Report proposes a set of indicators for future reporting that will support a step-change in our approach to monitoring and managing the bays – a shift from reporting only on what we do know, to reporting on what we need to know.

Keywords: coastal science, marine science, Port Phillip Bay, state of the environment, Western Port

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Authors: Ju-Na Hwang, Min-Hae Park, Kee-Joe Lim

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Many studies have been conducted on DC transmission. Of power apparatus for DC transmission, High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable systems are being evaluated because of the increase in power demand and transmission distance. Therefore, dc insulation characteristics of Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR), which has various advantages such as short curing time and the ease of maintenance, were investigated to assess its performance as a HVDC insulation material for cable joints. The electrical performance of LSR added to Nano-Aluminum Trihydrate (ATH) was confirmed by measurements of the breakdown strength and electrical conductivity. In addition, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) was used as a means of confirmation of nano-filler dispersion state. The LSR nano-composite was prepared by compounding LSR filled nano-sized ATH filler. The DC insulation properties of LSR added to nano-sized ATH fillers were found to be superior to those of the LSR without filler.

Keywords: liquid silicone rubber, nano-composite, HVDC insulation, cable joints

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Authors: K. Suheiti, P. Soni, Yardha

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Challenges ahead of Indonesian agricultural development include increasing rural welfare, food needs, and the provision of employment through resource optimization that are laid out in agribusiness system. The agricultural system also responsive to the changing strategic environment. However, mounting pressure of population increase and changes in land-uses, require intensive use of agricultural land with modern agricultural machinery. Similarly, environmentally friendly technologies should continue to be developed in an effort to build and develop a good farming practice model. This paper explains the development of agricultural mechanization in Indonesia, particularly on rice production. The method of the research was analyze secondary data, tabulation and interpretation. The result showed, there was a variety of tools and agricultural machinery that have been produced and used by farmers to support national food security. The role of mechanization was needed to support national rice production and food security achievement.

Keywords: farming, Indonesia, mechanization, rice

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Authors: Fatemeh Noughani, Seyd Mehdi Sadat

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Violence against women as a global problem is not confined to any geographical and cultural area. The thoughts and opinions propagating the violence are seen in many cultural beliefs of societies. However, the shape, type and nature of it is different in different cultures. Also, many Iranian women have experienced different dimensions of domestic violence in their lives. This experience may vary with the family economic situation and poverty. Therefore, this research had studied the effects of family economic situation (poverty) on the increase of domestic violence against women. The sample of this study includes 126 married women older than 8 years old and they were selected by stratified and quota sampling method. The results showed that there is a direct and significant between the family economic situation and employment situation of women and domestic violence against women. More precisely, having economic capital, financial ability, affects the couple’s relationship and will solve their many social problems and perhaps, it seem that in terms of economic violence, the men who have higher economic capital, exert the lowest level of economic violence against their wives.

Keywords: economic situation , domestic violence, poverty, Iran

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Authors: M. Y. Ismail, M. Inam, A. F. M. Zain, N. Misran

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Progressive phase distribution is an important consideration in reflect array antenna design which is required to form a planar wave in front of the reflect array aperture. This paper presents a detailed mathematical model in order to determine the required reflection phase values from individual element of a reflect array designed in Ku-band frequency range. The proposed technique of obtaining reflection phase can be applied for any geometrical design of elements and is independent of number of array elements. Moreover the model also deals with the solution of reflect array antenna design with both centre and off-set feed configurations. The theoretical modeling has also been implemented for reflect arrays constructed on 0.508 mm thickness of different dielectric substrates. The results show an increase in the slope of the phase curve from 4.61°/mm to 22.35°/mm by varying the material properties.

Keywords: mathematical modeling, progressive phase distribution, reflect array antenna, reflection phase

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Authors: Daniella R. Mulinari, Araujo J. F. Marina, Gabriella S. Lopes

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Natural fibers are used in polymer composites to improve mechanical properties, substituting inorganic reinforcing agents produced by non-renewable resources. The present study investigates the tensile, flexural and impact behaviors of palm fibers-high density polyethylene (HDPE) composite as a function of volume fraction. The surface of the fibers was modified by mercerization treatments to improve the wetting behavior of the apolar HDPE. The treatment characterization was obtained by scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. Results evidence that a good adhesion interfacial between fibers-matrix causing an increase strength and modulus flexural as well as impact strength in the modified fibers/HDPE composites when compared to the pure HDPE and unmodified fibers reinforced composites.

Keywords: palm fibers, polymer composites, mechanical properties, high density polyethylene (HDPE)

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Authors: Gui Yang Wu, Bo Wang, Xin Wang

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Nowadays, 5G service-based interface architecture uses text-based payload like JSON to transfer business data between network functions, which has obvious advantages as internet services but causes unnecessarily larger traffic. In this paper, a new 5G application payload size reduction method is presented to provides the mechanism to negotiate about new capability between network functions when network communication starts up and how 5G application data are reduced according to negotiated information with peer network function. Without losing the advantages of 5G text-based payload, this method demonstrates an excellent result on application payload size reduction and does not increase the usage quota of computing resource. Implementation of this method does not impact any standards or specifications and not change any encoding or decoding functionality too. In a real 5G network, this method will contribute to network efficiency and eventually save considerable computing resources.

Keywords: 5G, JSON, payload size, service-based interface

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Mehdi Moeinaddini, Zohreh Asadi-Shekari, Muhammad Zaly Shah, Amran Hamzah

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Currently, planners try to have more green travel options to decrease economic, social and environmental problems. Therefore, this study tries to find significant urban travel factors to be used to increase the usage of alternative urban travel modes. This paper attempts to identify the relationship between prominent urban mobility indicators and daily trips by public transport in 30 cities from various parts of the world. Different travel modes, infrastructures and cost indicators were evaluated in this research as mobility indicators. The results of multi-linear regression analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between mobility indicators and the daily usage of public transport.

Keywords: green travel modes, urban travel indicators, daily trips by public transport, multi-linear regression analysis

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Authors: Naveed Ejaz, Liaqat Ali, Amer Nusair

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Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) serve as thermal barriers against the high temperature of the hot regions of the aircraft turbine engines keeping the surface of the turbine blades, vanes and combustion chamber at comparatively lower temperature. The life of these coatings depends on many in-service environmental factors. Among these factors, the behavior of the bond coat as well as the top coat at high temperature aggravated by the corrosive environments having S, V, Na and Cl plays a key role. The incorporation of the 5-15% CaZrO3 in YSZ coatings was studied after hot corrosion in vanadium oxide environment. It was observed that the reactivity of the V gradually switched from Y to Ca making CaV2O4 instead of YVO4; the percentage of CaV2O4 increased with the increase of CaZrO3 in YSZ. It eventually prevented leaching out of the Y from YSZ leaving the YSZ without any harmful phase change. The thermal insulation was found to be improved in case of CaZrO3 incorporated YSZ coatings as compared to only YSZ coating.

Keywords: hot corrosion, thermal barrier coatings, yttria stabilized zirconia, calcium zirconate

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Authors: Jixiang Zhang, Yanhua Wang

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A dynamic of Bertrand duopoly game is analyzed, where players use different production methods and choose their prices with bounded rationality. The equilibriums of the corresponding discrete dynamical systems are investigated. The stability conditions of Nash equilibrium under a local adjustment process are studied. The stability conditions of Nash equilibrium under a local adjustment process are studied. The stability of Nash equilibrium, as some parameters of the model are varied, gives rise to complex dynamics such as cycles of higher order and chaos. On this basis, we discover that an increase of adjustment speed of bounded rational player can make Bertrand market sink into the chaotic state. Finally, the complex dynamics, bifurcations and chaos are displayed by numerical simulation.

Keywords: Bertrand duopoly model, discrete dynamical system, heterogeneous expectations, nash equilibrium

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Authors: Udit Mohanty, Mari Lundstrom

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Electrochemical investigation by cyclic voltammetry was conducted to explore the polarization behavior of reactions occurring in nickel electrowinning in presence of cationic impurities such as Ca2+ (0-100 mg/L), Na+ (1-10 g/L) and Mg2+ (10-100 mg/L). A comparative study was devised between industrial and synthetic electrolytes to observe the shift in the nucleation overpotentials of nickel deposition, dissolution and hydrogen evolution reactions at the cathode and anode respectively. Significant polarization of cathodic reactions were observed with concentrations of Na ≥ 8g /L and Ca ≤ 40 mg /L in the synthetic electrolytes. Nevertheless, a progressive increase in the concentration of Ca, Mg and Na in the industrial electrolyte demonstrated a depolarization behavior in the cathodic reactions related to nickel deposition and/or hydrogen evolution. Synergistic effect of Ca with Mg and Na in both the industrial and synthetic electrolytes induced a notable depolarization effect, also reflected in the peak currents.

Keywords: cationic impurities, cyclic voltammetry, electrowinning, nickel, polarization

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Authors: Samy M. Shaban, Ismail Aiad, Mohamed M. El-Sukkary, E. A. Soliman, Moshira Y. El-Awady

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In situ and green synthesis of cubic and spherical silver nanoparticles were developed using sun light as reducing agent in the presence of newly prepared cationic surfactant which acting as capping agents. The morphology of prepared silver nanoparticle was estimated by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the size distribution determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS). The hydrophobic chain length of the prepared surfactant effect on the stability of the prepared silver nanoparticles as clear from zeta-potential values. Also by increasing chain length of the used capping agent the amount of formed nanoparticle increase as indicated by increasing the absorbance. Both prepared surfactants and surfactants capping silver nanoparticles showed high antimicrobial activity against gram positive and gram-negative bacteria.

Keywords: photosynthesis, hexaonal shapes, zetapotential, biological activity

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Authors: L. Kamandulytė-Merfeldienė

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The paper deals with the main issues of methodology of the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian which was started to be developed in 2006. At present, the corpus consists of 300,000 grammatically annotated word forms. The creation of the corpus consists of three main stages: collecting the data, the transcription of the recorded data, and the grammatical annotation. Collecting the data was based on the principles of balance and naturality. The recorded speech was transcribed according to the CHAT requirements of CHILDES. The transcripts were double-checked and annotated grammatically using CHILDES. The development of the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian has led to the constant increase in studies on spontaneous communication, and various papers have dealt with a distribution of parts of speech, use of different grammatical forms, variation of inflectional paradigms, distribution of fillers, syntactic functions of adjectives, the mean length of utterances.

Keywords: CHILDES, corpus of spoken Lithuanian, grammatical annotation, grammatical disambiguation, lexicon, Lithuanian

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Authors: Chen Xi, LIU Xuebin, Kuan Sinman, LI Haofeng, Huang Hongming, Zeng Chengyu, Lao Xuerui

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Stray animals are on the rise in mainland China's cities. There are legal reasons for this, namely the lack of protection for domestic pets in mainland China, where only wildlife protection laws exist. At a social level, the ease with which families adopt pets and the lack of a social view of animal nature have led to the frequent abandonment and loss of stray animals. If left unmanaged, conflicts between humans and stray animals can also increase. This project provides an inexpensive and widely applicable management tool for urban management by collecting videos and pictures of stray animals captured by surveillance or transmitted by humans and using artificial intelligence technology (mainly using Yolov5 recognition technology) and recording and managing them in a database.

Keywords: urban planning, urban governance, artificial intelligence, convolutional neural network, machine vision

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Authors: Mehdi Abbasi, Masoumeh Majidi Zolbin

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Varicocele is one of the common causes of infertility in 30-50% of married men which occurs within the spermatic cord. It can be considered as an abnormal dilatation and stasis of veins of the pampiniform plexus that drain the testis. It occurs in 15-20% of the male population. Inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity has been frequently reported in varicose veins. Several studies have considered the relationship between varicocele and semen NO concentrations. NOS isoforms have been shown to regulate a number of functions, e.g., sperm motility and maturation and germ cell apoptosis in the testes. In adult patients with varicocele, the amount of NO levels in the varicose veins are 25 times higher than in serum of peripheral veins. The aim of this study was to review the effect of different antioxidant that we applied so far on sperm parameters as well as sperm DNA fragmentation. The findings of this study suggest that antioxidants improve sperm parameters which are associated with infertility in varicocelized rats, and treatment can reduce damage to sperm DNA and increase the chance of fertility.

Keywords: antioxidant, rat, sperm parameter, varicocele

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Delphine Mukaneza, Lin Qiao, Wang Pengxin, Li Yan, Chen Yingyi

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Human activities on land use make the land-cover gradually change or transit. In this study, we examined the use of Landsat TM data to detect the land use change of Kigali between 1987 and 2009 using remote sensing techniques and analysis of data using ENVI and ArcGIS, a GIS software. Six different categories of land use were distinguished: bare soil, built up land, wetland, water, vegetation, and others. With remote sensing techniques, we analyzed land use data in 1987, 1999 and 2009, changed areas were found and a dynamic situation of land use in Kigali city was found during the 22 years studied. According to relevant Landsat data, the research focused on land use change in accordance with the role of remote sensing in the process of urbanization. The result of the work has shown the rapid increase of built up land between 1987 and 1999 and a big decrease of vegetation caused by the rebuild of the city after the 1994 genocide, while in the period of 1999 to 2009 there was a reduction in built up land and vegetation, after the authority of Kigali city established, a Master Plan where all constructions which were not in the range of the master Plan were destroyed. Rwanda's capital, Kigali City, through the expansion of the urban area, it is increasing the internal employment rate and attracts business investors and the service sector to improve their economy, which will increase the population growth and provide a better life. The overall planning of the city of Kigali considers the environment, land use, infrastructure, cultural and socio-economic factors, the economic development and population forecast, urban development, and constraints specification. To achieve the above purpose, the Government has set for the overall planning of city Kigali, different stages of the detailed description of the design, strategy and action plan that would guide Kigali planners and members of the public in the future to have more detailed regional plans and practical measures. Thus, land use change is significantly the performance of Kigali active human area, which plays an important role for the country to take certain decisions. Another area to take into account is the natural situation of Kigali city. Agriculture in the region does not occupy a dominant position, and with the population growth and socio-economic development, the construction area will gradually rise and speed up the process of urbanization. Thus, as a developing country, Rwanda's population continues to grow and there is low rate of utilization of land, where urbanization remains low. As mentioned earlier, the 1994 genocide massacres, population growth and urbanization processes, have been the factors driving the dramatic changes in land use. The focus on further research would be on analysis of Rwanda’s natural resources, social and economic factors that could be, the driving force of land use change.

Keywords: land use change, urbanization, Kigali City, Landsat

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Authors: Mohsen Sanayei, Jerzy Szpunar

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The present study investigates the effects of deformation strain and annealing temperature on the formation of twin boundaries, deformation and recrystallization texture evolution and grain boundary networks and connectivity. The resulting microstructures were characterized using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) both immediately following small amount of deformation and after short time annealing at high temperature to correlate the micro and macro texture evolution of these alloys. Furthermore, this study showed that the process of grain boundary engineering, consisting cycles of deformation and annealing, is found to substantially reduce the mass and size of random boundaries and increase the proportion of low Coincidence Site Lattice (CSL) grain boundaries.

Keywords: coincidence site lattice, grain boundary engineering, electron backscatter diffraction, texture, x-ray diffraction

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Authors: Sharon Diaz Ruiz

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The population of Latinx adult English language learners (ELLs) in the United States will increase in the next few years and become even more racially and linguistically diverse. Our classrooms reflect these demographic changes; therefore, there will always be the need to identify language teaching practices that would allow educators to meet this linguistic diversity. This qualitative study explores Latinx adult English language learners' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching strategies. Participants in this study will be enrolled in an English developmental course for the Fall of 2022. The data collection process will consist of overt observation during five presentations/activities, including culturally inclusive readings and student reflections. The teaching materials selected will align with the course module's goals and objectives. The result of this investigation will shed light on the gap in the literature documenting the application of culturally responsive pedagogy to Latino adult language learners.

Keywords: emergent bilinguals, adult learners, Latinx learners, ELL

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Authors: Ahmet Diken, Tahsin Karabulut

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The factor which developing countries are in need is capital. Such countries make an effort to increase their income in order to meet their expenses for employment, infrastructure, superstructure investments, education, health and defense. The sole income of the countries is taxes collected from businesses. The businesses should drive profit and return in order to be able to toll. In a world where competition exists, different strategies may be followed by business in developing countries and they must specify their target markets. İn order to minimize cost and maximize profit, SMEs have to concentrate on target markets and select cost oriented strategy. In this study, a theoretical model is suggested that SME firms have to act as cluster between each other, and also must be optimal provider for large scale firms. SMEs’ policy must be supported by public. This relationship can benefit large scale firms to have brand over the world, and this organization increases value added for developing countries.

Keywords: competitiveness, countries, SMEs developing, sustainability

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Authors: Azzouzi Fadoua

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This study focuses on the diagnosis of the dynamics of natural resources in a semi-arid mountainous weakened by natural vulnerability and anthropogenic action. This is evident in the forms of hydraulic erosion and degradation of agricultural land. The rate of this damaged land is 53%, with a strong presence of concentrated erosion; this shows that balanced and semi-balanced environments are less apparent to the Watershed, representing 47%. The results revealed the crucial role of the slopes and the density of the hydraulic networks to facilitate the transport of fine elements, at the level of the slopes with low vegetation intensity, to the lake of the dam. Something that endangers the siltation of the latter. After the study of natural and anthropogenic elements, it turned out that natural vulnerability is an integral part of the current dynamic, especially when it coincides with the overexploitation of natural resources, in this case, the exploitation of steep slopes for the cultivation of cereals and overgrazing. This causes the soil to pile up and increase the rate of runoff.

Keywords: watershed, erosion, natural vulnerability, anthropogenic

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Authors: Shree Laxmi Prashant, Subhash C. Yaragal, K. S. Babu Narayan

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Concrete is found to undergo degradation when subjected to elevated temperatures and loose substantial amount of its strength. The loss of strength in concrete is mainly attributed to decomposition of C-S-H and release of physically and chemically bound water, which begins when the exposure temperature exceeds 100°C. When such a concrete comes in contact with moisture, the cement paste is found rehydrate and considerable amount of strength lost is found to recover. This paper presents results of an experimental program carried out to investigate the effect of recuring on strength gain of OPC concrete specimens subjected to elevated temperatures from 200°C to 800°C, which were subjected to retention time of two hours and four hours at the designated temperature. Strength recoveries for concrete subjected to 7 designated elevated temperatures are compared. It is found that the efficacy of recuring as a measure of strength recovery reduces with increase in exposure temperature.

Keywords: elevated temperature, recuring, strength recovery, compressive strength

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Authors: Maher Z. Mohammed, Barry G. Clarke

Abstract:

As an alternative to stone column in fine grained soils, it is possible to create stiffened columns of soils using electroosmosis (electroosmotic piles). This program of this research is to establish the effectiveness and efficiency of the process in different soils. The aim of this study is to assess the capability of electroosmosis treatment in a range of composite soils. The combined electroosmotic and preloading equipment developed by Nizar and Clarke (2013) was used with an octagonal array of anodes surrounding a single cathode in a nominal 250mm diameter 300mm deep cylinder of soil and 80mm anode to cathode distance. Copper coiled springs were used as electrodes to allow the soil to consolidate either due to an external vertical applied load or electroosmosis. The equipment was modified to allow the temperature to be monitored during the test. Electroosmotic tests were performed on China Clay Grade E kaolin and calcium bentonite (Bentonex CB) mixed with sand fraction C (BS 1881 part 131) at different ratios by weight; (0, 23, 33, 50 and 67%) subjected to applied voltages (5, 10, 15 and 20). The soil slurry was prepared by mixing the dry soil with water to 1.5 times the liquid limit of the soil mixture. The mineralogical and geotechnical properties of the tested soils were measured before the electroosmosis treatment began. In the electroosmosis cell tests, the settlement, expelled water, variation of electrical current and applied voltage, and the generated heat was monitored during the test time for 24 osmotic tests. Water content was measured at the end of each test. The electroosmotic tests are divided into three phases. In Phase 1, 15 kPa was applied to simulate a working platform and produce a uniform soil which had been deposited as a slurry. 50 kPa was used in Phase 3 to simulate a surcharge load. The electroosmotic treatment was only performed during Phase 2 where a constant voltage was applied through the electrodes in addition to the 15 kPa pressure. This phase was stopped when no further water was expelled from the cell, indicating the electroosmotic process had stopped due to either the degradation of the anode or the flow due to the hydraulic gradient exactly balanced the electroosmotic flow resulting in no flow. Control tests for each soil mixture were carried out to assess the behaviour of the soil samples subjected to only an increase of vertical pressure, which is 15kPa in Phase 1 and 50kPa in Phase 3. Analysis of the experimental results from this study showed a significant dewatering effect on the soil slurries. The water discharged by the electroosmotic treatment process decreased as the sand content increased. Soil temperature increased significantly when electrical power was applied and drops when applied DC power turned off or when the electrode degraded. The highest increase in temperature was found in pure clays at higher applied voltage after about 8 hours of electroosmosis test.

Keywords: electrokinetic treatment, electrical conductivity, electroosmotic consolidation, electroosmosis permeability ratio

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Authors: Mustafa Mutahari, Nao Sugiki, Kojiro Matsuo

Abstract:

The four decades of war, lack of job opportunities, poverty, lack of services, and natural disasters in different provinces of Afghanistan have contributed to a rapid increase in the population of Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. Population census has not been conducted since 1979, the first and last population census in Afghanistan. However, according to population estimations by Afghan authorities, the population of Kabul has been estimated at more than 4 million people, whereas the city was designed for two million people. Although the major transport mode of Kabul residents is public transport, responsible authorities within the country failed to supply the required means of transportation systems for the city. Besides, informal resettlement, lack of intersection control devices, presence of illegal vendors on streets, presence of illegal and unstandardized on-street parking and bus stops, driver`s unprofessional behavior, weak traffic law enforcement, and blocked roads and sidewalks have contributed to the extreme traffic congestion of Kabul. In 2018, the government of Afghanistan approved the Kabul city Urban Design Framework (KUDF), a vision towards the future of Kabul, which provides strategies and design guidance at different scales to direct urban development. Considering traffic congestion of the city and its budget limitations, the KUDF proposes a BRT route network with seven lines to reduce the traffic congestion, and it is said to facilitate more than 50% of Kabul population to benefit from this service. Based on the KUDF, it is planned to increase the BRT mode share from 0% to 17% and later to 30% in medium and long-term planning scenarios, respectively. Therefore, a detailed research study is needed to evaluate the proposed system before the implementation stage starts. The integrated land-use transport model is an effective tool to evaluate the Kabul BRT because of its future assessment capabilities that take into account the interaction between land use and transportation. This research aims to analyze and evaluate the proposed BRT route network with the application of an integrated land-use and transportation model. The research estimates the population distribution and travel behavior of Kabul within small boundary scales. The actual road network and land-use detailed data of the city are used to perform the analysis. The BRT corridors are evaluated not only considering its impacts on the spatial interactions in the city`s transportation system but also on the spatial developments. Therefore, the BRT are evaluated with the scenarios of improving the Kabul transportation system based on the distribution of land-use or spatial developments, planned development typology and population distribution of the city. The impacts of the new improved transport system on the BRT network are analyzed and the BRT network is evaluated accordingly. In addition, the research also focuses on the spatial accessibility of BRT stops, corridors, and BRT line beneficiaries, and each BRT stop and corridor are evaluated in terms of both access and geographic coverage, as well.

Keywords: accessibility, BRT, integrated land-use and transport model, travel behavior, spatial development

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: L. Belkhiri, L. Mouni, A. Tiri, T.S. Narany

Abstract:

In the present study, the self-organizing map (SOM) clustering technique was applied to identify homogeneous clusters of hydrochemical parameters in El Milia plain, Algeria, to assess the quality of groundwater for potable and agricultural purposes. The visualization of SOM-analysis indicated that 35 groundwater samples collected in the study area were classified into three clusters, which showed progressive increase in electrical conductivity from cluster one to cluster three. Samples belonging to cluster one are mostly located in the recharge zone showing hard fresh water type, however, water type gradually changed to hard-brackish type in the discharge zone, including clusters two and three. Ionic ratio studies indicated the role of carbonate rock dissolution in increases on groundwater hardness, especially in cluster one. However, evaporation and evapotranspiration are the main processes increasing salinity in cluster two and three.

Keywords: groundwater quality, self-organizing maps, drinking water, irrigation water

Procedia PDF Downloads 240