Search results for: fire weather index

Authors: Esmat Momeni, Shabnam Basari, Mohammad Beheshtinia

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The purpose of this study is to provide a symbolic explanation of the four elements in Zoroastrianism and sustainable ecosystems with an ecological approach. The research method is fundamental and deductive content analysis. Data collection has been done through library and documentary methods and through reading books and related articles. The population and sample of the present study are Yazd city and Iran country after discovering symbolic concepts derived from the theoretical foundations of Zoroastrianism in four elements of water, air, soil, fire and conformity with Iranian architecture with the ecological approach in Yazd city, the sustainable ecosystem it is explained by the system of nature. The validity and reliability of the results are based on the trust and confidence of the research literature. Research findings show that Yazd was one of the bases of Zoroastrianism in Iran. Many believe that the first person to discuss the elements of nature and respect Zoroastrians is the Prophet of this religion. Keeping the environment clean and pure by paying attention to and respecting these four elements. The water element is a symbol of existence in Zoroastrianism, so the people of Yazd used the aqueduct and designed a pool in front of the building. The soil element is a symbol of the raw material of human creation in the Zoroastrian religion, the most readily available material in the desert areas of Yazd, used as bricks and adobes, creating one of the most magnificent roof coverings is the dome. The wind element represents the invisible force of the soul in Creation in Zoroastrianism, the most important application of wind in the windy, which is a highly efficient cooling system. The element of fire, which is always a symbol of purity in Zoroastrianism, is located in a special place in Yazd's Ataskadeh (altar/ temple), where the most important religious prayers are held in and against the fire. Consequently, indigenous knowledge and attention to indigenous architecture is a part of the national capital of each nation that encompasses their beliefs, values, methods, and knowledge. According to studies on the four elements of Zoroastrianism, the link between these four elements are that due to the hot and dry fire at the beginning, it is the fire that begins to follow the nature of the movement in the stillness of the earth, and arises from the heat of the fire and because of vigor and its decreases, cold (wind) emerges, and from cold, humidity and wetness. And by examining books and resources on Yazd's architectural design with an ecological approach to the values of the four elements Zoroastrianism has been inspired, it can be concluded that in order to have environmentally friendly architecture, it is essential to use sustainable architectural principles, to link religious and sacrament culture and ecology through architecture.

Keywords: ecology, architecture, quadruple elements of air, soil, water, fire, Zoroastrian religion, sustainable ecosystem, Iran, Yazd city

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Arafan Traore, Teiji Watanabe

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Conakry, the capital city of the Republic of Guinea, has experienced a rapid urban expansion and population increased in the last two decades, which has resulted in remarkable local weather and climate change, raise energy demand and pollution and treating social, economic and environmental development. In this study, the spatiotemporal variation of the land surface temperature (LST) is retrieved to characterize the effect of urban growth on the thermal environment and quantify its relationship with biophysical indices, a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and a normalized difference built up Index (NDBI). Landsat data TM and OLI/TIRS acquired respectively in 1986, 2000 and 2016 were used for LST retrieval and Land use/cover change analysis. A quantitative analysis based on the integration of a remote sensing and a geography information system (GIS) has revealed an important increased in the LST pattern in the average from 25.21°C in 1986 to 27.06°C in 2000 and 29.34°C in 2016, which was quite eminent with an average gain in surface temperature of 4.13°C over 30 years study period. Additionally, an analysis using a Pearson correlation (r) between (LST) and the biophysical indices, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and a normalized difference built-up Index (NDBI) has revealed a negative relationship between LST and NDVI and a strong positive relationship between LST and NDBI. Which implies that an increase in the NDVI value can reduce the LST intensity; conversely increase in NDBI value may strengthen LST intensity in the study area. Although Landsat data were found efficient in assessing the thermal environment in Conakry, however, the method needs to be refined with in situ measurements of LST in the future studies. The results of this study may assist urban planners, scientists and policies makers concerned about climate variability to make decisions that will enhance sustainable environmental practices in Conakry.

Keywords: Conakry, land surface temperature, urban heat island, geography information system, remote sensing, land use/cover change

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Authors: Mehmet Tahir Dursun, Hilmi Rafet Yüncü

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In social life growing fast, not only people, but also, companies and regions are located in a struggle to provide continuity of life cycles. This struggle brings together an important competitiveness when considering environmental conditions. By emphasizing this point, being able to competitiveness notion comes out as a determiner of the struggle to exist. With the development of technology in tourism industry so as in all branches, it is seen that the companies and regions in different districts are in competitiveness and competitiveness ability is affected in assessing of marketing shares. A condition of competitiveness is to provide sustainability of all structured forms. In addition, environment and sensitiveness of environment are notions affecting directly the competitiveness ability of tourism destinations. It is claimed that providing the sustainability of environment gives competitiveness to tourism destinations. In this study, competitiveness and performances of tourism in Mediterranean countries are going to be compared by examining a variety of indexes related to the sensitiveness of environment. Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (T&TCI) (Environmental Sustainability and Natural Resources), Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Ecological Foot Print, Human Development Index (HDI), Climate Risk Index (CRI) will be used in this study. These Index data will be compared with international tourist arrivals, international tourism receives and expenses of per tourist of countries.

Keywords: ecological foot print, environmental performance index, human development index, sustainability, travel and tourism competitiveness index

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Authors: A. Zeynolabedin, M. A. Olyaei, B. Ghiasi

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Drought is an inevitable part of the earth’s climate. It occurs regularly with no clear warning and without recognizing borders. In addition, its impact is cumulative and not immediately discernible. Iran is located in a semi-arid region where droughts occur periodically as natural hazard. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI), and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) are three well-known indices which describe drought severity; each has its own advantages and disadvantages and can be used for specific types of drought. These indices take into account some factors such as precipitation, reservoir storage and discharge, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration in determining drought severity. In this paper, first all three indices are calculated in Aharchay river watershed located in northwestern part of Iran in East Azarbaijan province. Next, based on two other important parameters which are groundwater level and solar radiation, two new indices are defined. Finally, considering all five aforementioned indices, a combined drought index (CDI) is presented and calculated for the region. This combined index is based on all the meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural features of the region. The results show that the most severe drought condition in Aharchay watershed happened in Jun, 2004. The result of this study can be used for monitoring drought and prepare for the drought mitigation planning.

Keywords: drought, GIS, intensity index, regional assessment, variation maps

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Authors: Beatriz Martinez-Pastor, Maria Nogal, Alan O'Connor

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During the last years, the number of extreme weather events has increased. A variety of extreme weather events, including river floods, rain-induced landslides, droughts, winter storms, wildfire, and hurricanes, have threatened and damaged many different regions worldwide. These events have a devastating impact on critical infrastructure systems resulting in high social, economical and environmental costs. These events have a huge impact in transport systems. Since, transport networks are completely exposed to every kind of climatological perturbations, and its performance is closely related with these events. When a traffic network is affected by a climatological hazard, the quality of its service is threatened, and the level of the traffic conditions usually decreases. With the aim of understanding this process, the concept of resilience has become most popular in the area of transport. Transport resilience analyses the behavior of a traffic network when a perturbation takes place. This holistic concept studies the complete process, from the beginning of the perturbation until the total recovery of the system, when the perturbation has finished. Many concepts are included in the definition of resilience, such as vulnerability, redundancy, adaptability, and safety. Once the resilience of a transport network can be evaluated, in this case, the methodology used is a dynamic equilibrium-restricted assignment model that allows the quantification of the concept, the next step is its improvement. Through the improvement of this concept, it will be possible to create transport networks that are able to withstand and have a better performance under the presence of climatological hazards. Analyzing the impact of a perturbation in a traffic network, it is observed that the response of the different links, which are part of the network, can be completely different from one to another. Consequently and due to this effect, many questions arise, as what makes a link more critical before an extreme weather event? or how is it possible to identify these critical links? With this aim, and knowing that most of the times the owners or managers of the transport systems have limited resources, the identification of the critical links of a transport network before extreme weather events, becomes a crucial objective. For that reason, using the available resources in the areas that will generate a higher improvement of the resilience, will contribute to the global development of the network. Therefore, this paper wants to analyze what kind of characteristic makes a link a critical one when an extreme weather event damages a transport network and finally identify them.

Keywords: critical links, extreme weather events, hazard, resilience, transport network

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Authors: S. Al-Sowayan

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The impact of selective excitation of circular helical modes of graded-index fibers on its capacity is analyzed using a model for propagation delay variation with launch offset and angle that resulted from misalignment of source and fiber axis. Results show that promising technique to improve graded-index fiber capacities.

Keywords: fiber measurements, fiber optic, communications, circular helical modes

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Authors: D. Jagath Kumari, K. Srinivasa Rao

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Reinforced concrete column is an important structural element in a building. Concrete usually performs well in building fires. However, when it is subjected to prolonged fire exposure or unusually high temperatures, and then it will suffer significant distress. Because concrete pre-fire compressive strength generally exceeds design requirements, therefore an average strength reduction can be tolerated. However high temperature reduces the compressive strength of concrete so much that the concrete retains no useful structural strength. Therefore the residual strength and its performance of structure can be assed by NDT testing. In this paper, rebound hammer test and the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) are used to evaluate the residual compressive strength and material integrity of post-fire-curing concrete subjected to elevated temperatures. Also considering the large availability of fly ash in most of the countries, an attempt was made to study the effect of high volume fly ash concrete exposed to elevated temperatures. 32 RC column specimens were made with a M20 grade concrete mix. Out of 32 column specimens 16 column specimens were made with OPC concrete and other 16 column specimens were made with HVFA concrete. All specimens having similar cross-section details. Columns were exposed to fire for temperatures from 100oC to 800o C with increments of 100o C for duration of 3 hours. Then the specimens allowed cooling to room temperature by two methods natural air cooling method and immediate water quenching method. All the specimens were tested identically, for the compressive strengths and material integrity by rebound hammer and ultrasonic pulse velocity meter respectively for study. These two tests were carried out on preheating and post heating of the column specimens. The percentage variation of compressive strengths of RCC columns with the increase in temperature has been studied and compared the results for both OPC and HVFA concretes. Physical observations of the heated columns were observed.

Keywords: HVFA concrete, NDT testing, residual strength

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Authors: Chao-Linag Hsieh, Zheng-Wei Ye, Chen-Kang Huang, Yeun-Chung Lee, Chih-Hong Sun, Tzai-Hung Wen, Jehn-Yih Juang, Joe-Air Jiang

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Air pollution and climate warming become more and more intensified in many areas, especially in urban areas. Environmental parameters are critical information to air pollution and weather monitoring. Thus, it is necessary to develop a suitable air pollution and weather monitoring system for urban areas. In this study, a vehicle monitoring system (VMS) based on the IoT technique is developed. Cars are selected as the research tool because it can reach a greater number of streets to collect data. The VMS can monitor different environmental parameters, including ambient temperature and humidity, and air quality parameters, including PM2.5, NO₂, CO, and O₃. The VMS can provide other information, including GPS signals and the vibration information through driving a car on the street. Different sensor modules are used to measure the parameters and collect the measured data and transmit them to a cloud server through the LoRa protocol. A user interface is used to show the sensing data storing at the cloud server. To examine the performance of the system, a researcher drove a Nissan x-trail 1998 to the area close to the Da’an District office in Taipei to collect monitoring data. The collected data are instantly shown on the user interface. The four kinds of information are provided by the interface: GPS positions, weather parameters, vehicle information, and air quality information. With the VMS, users can obtain the information regarding air quality and weather conditions when they drive their car to an urban area. Also, government agencies can make decisions on traffic planning based on the information provided by the proposed VMS.

Keywords: LoRa, monitoring system, smart city, vehicle

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Authors: J. Valach, S. Pospisil, S. Kuznecov

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The paper deals with experimental estimation of future environmental load on medieval mosaic of Last Judgement on entrance to St. Vitus cathedral on Prague castle. The mosaic suffers from seasonal changes of weather pattern, as well as rains, their acidity, deposition of dust and sooth particles from polluted air and also from freeze-thaw cycles. These phenomena influence state of the mosaic. The mosaic elements, tesserae are mostly made from glass prone to weathering. To estimate future procedure of the best maintenance, relation between various weather scenarios and their effect on the mosaic was investigated. At the same time local method for evaluation of protective coating was developed. Together both methods will contribute to better care for the mosaic and also visitors aesthetical experience.

Keywords: environmental load, cultural heritage, glass mosaic, protection

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Yuliani Aisyah, Sri Haryani, Novi Safriani

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Nutmeg oil is one of the essential oils that have the ability as an antibacterial so it potentially uses to inhibit the growth of undesirable microbes in food. However, the essential oil that has low solubility in water, high volatile content, and strong aroma properties is difficult to apply in to foodstuffs. Therefore, the oil-in-water nanoemulsion system was used in this research. Gelatin, lecithin and tween 80 with 10%, 20%, 30% concentrations have been examined for the preparation of nutmeg oil nanoemulsions. The physicochemical properties and stability of nutmeg oil nanoemulsion were analyzed on viscosity, creaming index, emulsifying activity, droplet size, and polydispersity index. The results showed that the type and concentration stabilizer had a significant effect on viscosity, creaming index, droplet size and polydispersity index (P ≤ 0,01). The nanoemulsions stabilized with tween 80 had the best stability because the creaming index value was 0%, the emulsifying activity value was 100%, the droplet size was small (79 nm) and the polydispersity index was low (0.10) compared to the nanoemulsions stabilized with gelatin and lecithin. In brief, Tween 80 is strongly recommended to be used for stabilizing nutmeg oil nanoemulsions.

Keywords: nanoemulsion, nutmeg oil, stabilizer, stability

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Authors: Yoftahe Nigussie Worku

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This study focused on designing a Fire tube boiler to generate saturated steam with a 2000kg/h capacity at a 12bar design pressure. The primary project goal is to achieve efficient steam production while minimizing costs. This involves selecting suitable materials for component parts, employing cost-effective construction methods, and optimizing various parameters. The analysis phase employs iterative processes and relevant formulas to determine key design parameters. This includes optimizing the diameter of tubes for overall heat transfer coefficient, considering a two-pass configuration due to tube and shell size, and using heavy oil fuel no.6 with specific heating values. The designed boiler consumes 140.37kg/hr of fuel, producing 1610kw of heat at an efficiency of 85.25%. The fluid flow is configured as cross flow, leveraging its inherent advantages. The tube arrangement involves welding the tubes inside the shell, which is connected to the tube sheet using a combination of gaskets and welding. The design of the shell adheres to the European Standard code for pressure vessels, accounting for weight and supplementary accessories and providing detailed drawings for components like lifting lugs, openings, ends, manholes, and supports.

Keywords: efficiency, coefficient, saturated steam, fire tube

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Authors: Joseph Siani

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Over the last decades, dissatisfaction with global indicators of economic performance, such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita, has shifted the attention to what is now referred to as multidimensional poverty. In this framework, poverty goes beyond income to incorporate aspects of well-being not captured by income measures alone. This paper applies the totally fuzzy approach to estimate the fuzzy index of poverty (FIP) in fourteen Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data and explores whether pictures created by the standard headcount ratio at $1.90 a day and the fuzzy index of poverty tell a similar story. The results suggest that there is indeed considerable mismatch between poverty headcount and the fuzzy index of multidimensional poverty, meaning that the majority of the most deprived people (as identified by the fuzzy index of multidimensional poverty) would not be identified by the poverty headcount ratio. Moreover, we find that poverty is distributed differently by colonial heritage (language). In particular, the most deprived countries in SSA are French-speaking.

Keywords: fuzzy set approach, multidimensional poverty, poverty headcount, overlap, Sub-Saharan Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: Ivana Mokrá

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The article deals with modelling of the fire pragmatism in the area of military management and its experimental verification. Potential approaches are based on the synergy of mathematical and theoretical ideas, operational and tactical requirements and the military decision-making process. This issue has taken on importance in recent times, particularly with the increasing trend of digitized battlefield, the development of C4ISR systems and intention to streamline the command and control process at the lowest levels of command. From fundamental and philosophical point of view, these new approaches seek to significantly upgrade and enhance the decision-making process of the tactical commanders.

Keywords: military management, decision-making process, strike modeling, experimental evaluation, pragmatism, tactical strike modeling

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Authors: Vince Liégeois

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Language of immediacy and distance: Within their discourse theory, Koch & Oesterreicher establish a distinction between a language of immediacy and a language of distance. The former refers to those discourses which are oriented more towards a spoken norm, whereas the latter entails discourses oriented towards a written norm, regardless of whether they are realised phonically or graphically. This means that an utterance can be realised phonically but oriented more towards the written language norm (e.g., a scientific presentation or eulogy) or realised graphically but oriented towards a spoken norm (e.g., a scribble or chat messages). Research desiderata: The methodological approach from Koch & Oesterreicher has often been criticised for not providing a corpus-linguistic methodology, which makes it difficult to work with quantitative data or address large text collections within this research paradigm. Consequently, the Koch & Oesterreicher approach has difficulties gaining ground in those research areas which rely more on corpus linguistic research models, like text linguistics and LSP-research. A combinatory approach: Accordingly, we want to establish a combinatory approach with corpus-based linguistic methodology. To this end, we propose to (i) include data about the context of an utterance (e.g., monologicity/dialogicity, familiarity with the speaker) – which were called “conditions of communication” in the original work of Koch & Oesterreicher – and (ii) correlate the linguistic phenomenon at the centre of the inquiry (e.g., evaluation markers) to a group of linguistic phenomena deemed typical for either distance- or immediacy-language. Based on these two parameters, linguistic phenomena and texts could then be mapped on an immediacy-distance continuum. Pilot study: To illustrate the benefits of this approach, we will conduct a pilot study on evaluation phenomena in French television weather reports, a form of domain-sensitive discourse which has often been cited as an example of a “text genre”. Within this text genre, we will look at so-called “evaluation markers,” e.g., fixed strings like bad weather, stifling hot, and “no luck today!”. These evaluation markers help to communicate the coming weather situation towards the lay audience but have not yet been studied within the Koch & Oesterreicher research paradigm. Accordingly, we want to figure out whether said evaluation markers are more typical for those weather reports which tend more towards immediacy or those which tend more towards distance. To this aim, we collected a corpus with different kinds of television weather reports,e.g., as part of the news broadcast, including dialogue. The evaluation markers themselves will be studied according to the explained methodology, by correlating them to (i) metadata about the context and (ii) linguistic phenomena characterising immediacy-language: repetition, deixis (personal, spatial, and temporal), a freer choice of tense and right- /left-dislocation. Results: Our results indicate that evaluation markers are more dominantly present in those weather reports inclining towards immediacy-language. Based on the methodology established above, we have gained more insight into the working of evaluation markers in the domain-sensitive text genre of (television) weather reports. For future research, it will be interesting to determine whether said evaluation markers are also typical for immediacy-language-oriented in other domain-sensitive discourses.

Keywords: corpus-based linguistics, evaluation markers, language of immediacy and distance, weather reports

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Ziyu Diao, Yanyan Zhang, Zhentao Liu, Ruidong Yan

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The update frequency of wear profile in main bearing wear prognosis of internal combustion engine plays an important role in the calculation efficiency and accuracy. In order to investigate the appropriate cycle index of the simplified working condition of wear simulation, the main bearing-crankshaft journal friction pair of a diesel engine in service was studied in this paper. The method of multi-body dynamics simulation was used, and the wear prognosis model of the main bearing was established. Several groups of cycle indexes were set up for the wear calculation, and the maximum wear depth and wear profile were compared and analyzed. The results showed that when the cycle index reaches 3, the maximum deviation rate of the maximum wear depth is about 2.8%, and the maximum deviation rate comes to 1.6% when the cycle index reaches 5. This study provides guidance and suggestions for the optimization of wear prognosis by selecting appropriate value of cycle index according to the requirement of calculation cost and accuracy of the simulation work.

Keywords: cycle index, deviation rate, wear calculation, wear profile

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Authors: Siti Khairunniza-Bejo, Yusnida Yusoff, Nik Salwani Nik Yusoff, Idris Abu Seman, Mohamad Izzuddin Anuar

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Most of the oil palm plantations have been threatened by Basal Stem Rot (BSR) disease which causes serious economic impact. This study was conducted to identify the healthy and BSR-infected oil palm tree using thirteen color indices. Multispectral and thermal camera was used to capture 216 images of the leaves taken from frond number 1, 9 and 17. Indices of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), red (R), green (G), blue (B), near infrared (NIR), green – blue (GB), green/blue (G/B), green – red (GR), green/red (G/R), hue (H), saturation (S), intensity (I) and thermal index (T) were used. From this study, it can be concluded that G index taken from frond number 9 is the best index to differentiate between the healthy and BSR-infected oil palm trees. It not only gave high value of correlation coefficient (R=-0.962), but also high value of separation between healthy and BSR-infected oil palm tree. Furthermore, power and S model developed using G index gave the highest R2 value which is 0.985.

Keywords: oil palm, image processing, disease, leaves

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Authors: Lu Anne A. Godinez, May Claudine I. Gador, Preacious G. Gumolon, Louiechi Von R. Mendoza, Neil Bryan N. Moninio

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Gender equality and women empowerment is the third of eight Millennium Development Goals. Understanding corruption’s linkages to gender equality issues and how it impacts women’s empowerment is part of the broader process of advancing women’s rights and understanding the gender dimensions of democratic governance. Taking a long view of political (corruption index) and the social (women empowerment) dimension — a view from 2015 to 2030, a context based forecast was conducted to forecast the ASEAN corruption index in the next 15 years, answering the question: “Does women political involvement decrease corruption rate index of ASEAN countries in the next 15 years?” The study have established that there will be an increase women political involvement in the ASEAN countries in the next 15 years that will cause a drop on corruption rate index. There will be a significant decline on corruption rate index in 2030. This change entails reform not only in the political aspect of progress, but to the social aspect as well. Finally, the political aspect is increasing at a constant rate however a double or triple increase of the social aspect is seen to be the key solution for corruption.

Keywords: women, women political involvement, corruption, gender equity index, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment, control of corruption, regulatory quality, rule of law, voice and accountability government effectiveness, political stability and corruption perception index

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Authors: Chiu-Wen Chang, I-Yun Chang, Wei-Ting Chen, Hui-Ping Ho, Chao-Ying Pan, Joh-Jong Huang

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Dengue is a ‘community disease’ or ‘environmental disease’, as long as the environment exist suitable container (including natural and artificial) for mosquito breeding, once the virus invade will lead to the dengue epidemic. Surveillance of vector density is critical to effective infectious disease control and play an important role in monitoring the dynamics of mosquitoes in community, such as mosquito species, density, distribution area. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship in vector density survey (Breteau index, Adult index, House index, Container index, and Larvae index) form 2014 to 2016 in Kaohsiung City and evaluate the effects of introducing the Breeding Elimination and Appraisal Team (hereinafter referred to as BEAT) as an intervention measure on eliminating dengue vector breeding site started from May 2016. BEAT were performed on people who were suspected of contracting dengue fever, a surrounding area measuring 50 meters by 50 meters was demarcated as the emergency prevention and treatment zone. BEAT would perform weekly vector mosquito inspections and vector mosquito inspections in regions with a high Gravitrap index and assign a risk assessment index to each region. These indices as well as the prevention and treatment results were immediately reported to epidemic prevention-related units every week. The results indicated that, vector indices from 2014 to 2016 showed no statistically significant differences in the Breteau index, adult index, and house index (p > 0.05) but statistically significant differences in the container index and larvae index (p <0.05). After executing the integrated elimination work, container index and larvae index are statistically significant different from 2014 to 2016 in the (p < 0.05). A post hoc test indicated that the container index of 2014 (M = 12.793) was significantly higher than that of 2016 (M = 7.631), and that the larvae index of 2015 (M = 34.065) was significantly lower than that of 2014 (M = 66.867). The results revealed that effective vector density surveillance could highlight the focus breeding site and then implement the immediate control action (BEAT), which successfully decreased the vector density and the risk of dengue epidemic.

Keywords: Breteau index, dengue control, monitoring method, vector density

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Authors: Alireza Zabihi, Saeed Peyghami, Hossein Mokhtari

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With the increasing deployment of renewable power plants, such as solar and wind, it is crucial to measure the harmonic situation of the grid. This paper proposes a global voltage harmonic index to measure the harmonic situation of the power grid with a focus on power transformers. The power electronics systems used to connect these plants to the network can introduce harmonics, leading to increased losses, reduced efficiency, false operation of protective relays, and equipment damage due to harmonic intensifications. The proposed index considers the losses caused by harmonics in power transformers which are of great importance and value to the network, providing a comprehensive measure of the harmonic situation of the grid. The effectiveness of the proposed index is evaluated on a real-world distribution network, and the results demonstrate its ability to identify the harmonic situation of the network, particularly in relation to power transformers. The proposed index provides a comprehensive measure of the harmonic situation of the grid, taking into account the losses caused by harmonics in power transformers. The proposed index has the potential to support power companies in optimizing their power systems and to guide researchers in developing effective mitigation strategies for harmonics in the power grid.

Keywords: global voltage harmonic index, harmonics, power grid, power quality, power transformers, renewable energy

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Authors: Ehsan Derikvand, Hamid Kaykha, Rooholah Mansoori Yekta, Taleb Javanmard, Mohsen Mehdi Zadeh

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Corrosion and scaling are one of the most complicated and costly problems of drinking water supply. Corrosion has adverse effect on general health and public acceptance of water source and drinking water supply costs. The present study aimed to determine the potentials of corrosion and scaling of potable water supply reservoirs of Ilam city in June 2013 and August 2014 by Langelier Index (LI) and Reynar. The results of experiments and calculations show that the mean index of LSI in the first and second sampling stages is 0.34, 0.2, respectively and the mean index RSI in the first and second stages of sampling is 7.15 and 7.22, respectively. Based on LSI index of reservoirs water in the first phase, none of stations are corrosive and only one station in the second sampling phase has corrosive tendency. According to RSI index, there is no corrosive tendency in two phases. Based on the results, the water of drinking water reservoirs in Ilam city has no corrosion tendency and the analyses and results of Langelier Index (LI) and Ryznar are in relatively good condition.

Keywords: corrosion, scaling, water reservoirs, langelier and ryznar indices, Ilam city

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Authors: Gregory Sullivan

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The evolution of global warming has escalated the number and complexity of forest fires around the world. As an example, the United States and Brazil combined generated more than 30,000 forest fires last year. The impact to our environment, structures and individuals is incalculable. The world has learned to try to take this in stride, trying multiple ways to contain fires. Some countries are trying to use cameras in limited areas. There are discussions of using hundreds of low earth orbit satellites and linking them together, and, interfacing them through ground networks. These are all truly noble attempts to defeat the forest fire phenomenon. But there is a better, simpler answer. A bigger piece of the solutions puzzle is to see the fires while they are small, soon after initiation. The approach is to see the fires while they are very small and report their location (latitude and longitude) to local first responders. This is done by placing a sensor at geostationary orbit (GEO: 26,000 miles above the earth). By placing this small satellite in GEO, we can “stare” at the earth, and sense temperature changes. We do not “see” fires, but “measure” temperature changes. This has already been demonstrated on an experimental scale. Fires were seen at close to initiation, and info forwarded to first responders. it were the first to identify the fires 7 out of 8 times. The goal is to have a small independent satellite at GEO orbit focused only on forest fire initiation. Thus, with one small satellite, focused only on forest fire initiation, we hope to greatly decrease the impact to persons, property and the environment.

Keywords: space detection, wildfire early warning, demonstration wildfire detection and action from space, space detection to first responders

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Authors: Samaneh Abolli, Mahmood Alimohammadi

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The survey analyzed 71 bottled water brands in Tehran, Iran, examining 10 physicochemical parameters and 16 heavy metals. The water quality index (WQI) approach was used to assess water quality, and methods such as carcinogen risk (CR) and hazard index (HI) were employed to evaluate health risks. The results indicated that the bottled water had good quality overall, but some brands were of poor or very poor quality. The study also revealed significant human health risks, especially for children, due to the presence of minerals and heavy metals in bottled water. Correlation analyses and risk assessments for various substances were conducted, providing valuable insights into the potential health impacts of the analyzed bottled water.

Keywords: bottled wate, rwater quality index, health risk assessment, contamination degree, heavy metal evaluation index

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Authors: Sara Ali Alokley, Mansour Saleh Albarrak

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This paper investigates the dependency or clustering of extremes in the financial returns data by estimating the extremal index value θ∈[0,1]. The smaller the value of θ the more clustering we have. Here we apply the method of Ferro and Segers (2003) to estimate the extremal index for a range of threshold values. We compare the dependency structure of extremes in the developed and emerging markets. We use the financial returns of the stock market index in the developed markets of US, UK, France, Germany and Japan and the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China and Saudi Arabia. We expect that more clustering occurs in the emerging markets. This study will help to understand the dependency structure of the financial returns data.

Keywords: clustring, extremes, returns, dependency, extermal index

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Authors: Rachid El Aidani, Phuong Nguyen-Tri, Toan Vu-Khanh

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This study intends to show the influence of the hydrolytic degradation on the properties of the e-PTFE/NOMEX® membranes used in fire-protective clothing. The modification of water vapour permeability, morphology and chemical structure was examined by MOCON Permatran, electron microscopy scanning (SEM), and ATR-FTIR, respectively. A decrease in permeability to water vapour of the aged samples was observed following closure of transpiration pores. Analysis of fiber morphology indicates the appearance of defects at the fibers surface with the presence of micro cavities as well as the of fibrils. ATR-FTIR analysis reveals the presence of a new absorption band attributed to carboxylic acid terminal groups generated during the amide bond hydrolysis.

Keywords: hydrolytic ageing, moisture membrane, water vapor permeability, morphology

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Authors: Manish Pal, Rumi Sutradhar

Abstract:

Pavement surface unevenness plays a pivotal role on roughness index of road which affects on riding comfort ability. Comfort ability refers to the degree of protection offered to vehicle occupants from uneven elements in the road surface. So, it is preferable to have a lower roughness index value for a better riding quality of road users. Roughness is generally defined as an expression of irregularities in the pavement surface which can be measured using different equipment like MERLIN, Bump integrator, Profilometer etc. Among them Bump Integrator is quite simple and less time consuming in case of long road sections. A case study is conducted on low volume roads in West District in Tripura to determine roughness index (RI) using Bump Integrator at the standard speed of 32 km/h. But it becomes too tough to maintain the requisite standard speed throughout the road section. The speed of Bump Integrator (BI) has to lower or higher in some distinctive situations. So, it becomes necessary to convert these roughness index values of other speeds to the standard speed of 32 km/h. This paper highlights on that roughness index conversional model. Using SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Sciences) software a generalized equation is derived among the RI value at standard speed of 32 km/h and RI value at other speed conditions.

Keywords: bump integrator, pavement distresses, roughness index, SPSS

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Authors: Marcus Bellett-Travers

Abstract:

Different modelling approaches have been used to determine or predict yield of crops in different geographies. Central to the methodologies are the presumption that it is the absolute yield of the crop in a given location that is of the highest priority to those requiring information on crop productivity. Most individuals, companies and organisations within the agri-food sector need to be able to balance the supply of crops with the demand for them. Different modelling approaches have been used to determine and predict crop yield. The growing need to ensure certainty of supply and stability of prices requires an approach that describes the risk in producing a crop. A review of current methodologies to evaluate the risk to food production from changes in the weather and climate is presented.

Keywords: crop production, risk, climate, modelling

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Authors: Nissar Mohammad Karim, Norhayati Soin

Abstract:

To ensure fast switching in high-K incorporated Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) transistors, the results on the basis of d (NBTI) by incorporating SiO2 dielectric with aged samples of CuO sol-gels have been reported. Precursor ageing has been carried out for 4 days. The minimum obtained refractive index is 1.0099 which was found after 3 hours of adhesive UV curing. Obtaining a low refractive index exhibits a low dielectric constant and hence a faster system.

Keywords: refractive index, Sol-Gel, precursor aging, aging

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Authors: Mehrdad Kamali-Sanzighi, Maziar Kamali-Sanzighi

Abstract:

The aim of this investigation is to study the phytoplankton and saprobic index at warm water fish ponds in the East of Golestan province, Gonbade Kavous city. Phytoplankton and ciliate sampling were done monthly during one season of culture. Finally, 39 genera from 7 classes of phytoplankton and 4 genera from the ciliate group were identified. Although, among different classes, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Charophyceae, Chrysophyceae, Dinophyceae, and Euglenophyceae had the highest and lowest frequency percent of phytoplankton community with 23, 21, 20, 14, 11, 6 and 5 percent respectively. The results show that there are no significant differences between the saprobic index of different ponds (P > 0.05). But there are significant differences between the saprobic index value of different months and seasons during season culture (P < 0.05). Also, in current research, the saprobic index indicated the ß-mesosaprob water quality level. There was a general tends of decrease in the saprobic index value from the beginning to the end of the culture season. Parameters such as biomass increase of grower fishes, an increase of introduced chemical fertilizer and manure sedimentation, uneaten fish feed, fish fecal, and no regular exchangeable water resources are some of these changes' reasons.

Keywords: fish pond, Golestan Province, saprobi index, phytoplankton, water quality

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Authors: A. T. Al-Isawi, P. E. F. Collins

Abstract:

The behaviour of structures exposed to fire after an earthquake is not a new area of engineering research, but there remain a number of areas where further work is required. Such areas relate to the way in which seismic excitation is applied to a structure, taking into account the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) and the method of analysis, in addition to identifying the excitation load properties. The selection of earthquake data input for use in nonlinear analysis and the method of analysis are still challenging issues. Thus, realistic artificial ground motion input data must be developed to certify that site properties parameters adequately describe the effects of the nonlinear inelastic behaviour of the system and that the characteristics of these parameters are coherent with the characteristics of the target parameters. Conversely, ignoring the significance of some attributes, such as frequency content, soil site properties and earthquake parameters may lead to misleading results, due to the misinterpretation of required input data and the incorrect synthesise of analysis hypothesis. This paper presents a study of the post-earthquake fire (PEF) performance of a multi-storey steel-framed building resting on soft clay, taking into account the effects of the nonlinear inelastic behaviour of the structure and soil, and the soil-structure interaction (SSI). Structures subjected to an earthquake may experience various levels of damage; the geometrical damage, which indicates the change in the initial structure’s geometry due to the residual deformation as a result of plastic behaviour, and the mechanical damage which identifies the degradation of the mechanical properties of the structural elements involved in the plastic range of deformation. Consequently, the structure presumably experiences partial structural damage but is then exposed to fire under its new residual material properties, which may result in building failure caused by a decrease in fire resistance. This scenario would be more complicated if SSI was also considered. Indeed, most earthquake design codes ignore the probability of PEF as well as the effect that SSI has on the behaviour of structures, in order to simplify the analysis procedure. Therefore, the design of structures based on existing codes which neglect the importance of PEF and SSI can create a significant risk of structural failure. In order to examine the criteria for the behaviour of a structure under PEF conditions, a two-dimensional nonlinear elasto-plastic model is developed using ABAQUS software; the effects of SSI are included. Both geometrical and mechanical damages have been taken into account after the earthquake analysis step. For comparison, an identical model is also created, which does not include the effects of soil-structure interaction. It is shown that damage to structural elements is underestimated if SSI is not included in the analysis, and the maximum percentage reduction in fire resistance is detected in the case when SSI is included in the scenario. The results are validated using the literature.

Keywords: Abaqus Software, Finite Element Analysis, post-earthquake fire, seismic analysis, soil-structure interaction

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Authors: Graciela Soares Marcelli, Elison Eduardo Jardim Bierhals, Luciane Teresa Salvi, Claudineia Brazil, Rafael Haag

Abstract:

The sun is a source of renewable energy, and its use as both a source of heat and light is one of the most promising energy alternatives for the future. To measure the thermal or photovoltaic systems a solar irradiation database is necessary. Brazil still has a reduced number of meteorological stations that provide frequency tests, as an alternative to the radio data platform, with reanalysis systems, quite significant. ERA-Interim is a global fire reanalysis by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The data assimilation system used for the production of ERA-Interim is based on a 2006 version of the IFS (Cy31r2). The system includes a 4-dimensional variable analysis (4D-Var) with a 12-hour analysis window. The spatial resolution of the dataset is approximately 80 km at 60 vertical levels from the surface to 0.1 hPa. This work aims to make a comparative analysis between the ERA-Interim data and the data observed in the Solarimmetric Atlas of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, to verify its applicability in the absence of an observed data network. The analysis of the results obtained for a study region as an alternative to the energy potential of a given region.

Keywords: energy potential, reanalyses, renewable energy, solar radiation

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