Search results for: urban dispersion

Authors: Ihtasham Hamza

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In the contemporary world, where the West is afflicted by the diseases of excess nutrition, much of the rest globe suffers at the hands of hunger. A troubling constituent of hunger is micronutrient deficiency, also called hidden hunger. Major dependence on calorie-rich diets and low diet diversification are responsible for high malnutrition rates, especially in African and Asian countries. But the dilemma isn’t immune to solutions. Highlighting the substantial cause to be sole dependence on staples for food, biofortification has emerged as a novel tool to confront the widely distributed jeopardize of hidden hunger. Biofortification potentials the better nutritional approachability to commonalities overcoming various difficulties and reaching the doorstep. The crops associated with biofortification offer a rural-based involvement that, proposal, primarily reaches these more remote populations, which comprise a majority of the malnourished in many countries, and then penetrates to urban populations as assembly overages are marketed. Initial investments in agricultural research at a central location can generate high recurrent benefits at low cost as adapted biofortified cultivars become widely available in countries across time at low recurrent costs as opposed to supplementation which is comparatively expensive and requires continued financing over time, which may be imperilled by fluctuating political curiosity.

Keywords: biofortified crops, hunger, malnutrition, agricultural practices

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Authors: Abdulkerim Ilgun, Ahmad Javid Zia

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In developing countries, the urban populations are increasing rapidly and with this increment the residential areas are experiencing major problems. Construction of high-rise buildings in confined spaces is one of the most practical solutions for this problem. However, by living in high-rise buildings and sharing common residential areas, residents will face many problems. Irritating sound problem which is known as noise is one of the major problems mentioned above. The second most important problem is the weight of the high-rise buildings which makes the structure more vulnerable to earthquakes. To decrease earthquake loads it’s very important to decrease the weight of the buildings. To solve the problem of noise and keep the building weight at minimum level, experimentally designed soundproof gypsum partition wall which has optimum thickness has been used in high-rise story building and the results have been compared with ordinary brick partition walls. In this compression the effect of weights of soundproof gypsum walls and ordinary brick walls in accordance to structural engineering have been investigated.

Keywords: cellubor, gypsum board, gypsum partition walls, light partition walls, noise, sound

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Authors: Phillip F. Kanokanga, Patrick W. Mamimine, Molline Mwando, Charity Mapingure

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Tourism development tends to follow anchor attractions, including cities and their surroundings, while marginalizing small towns and their environs. This is even though the small towns and their hinterlands can also offer competitive tourism products. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) gathers visitor statistics of major tourist destinations only thereby sidelining the density of tourist traffic that either passes through or visits the small towns in the country. Unless this problem is addressed, the tourism potential of small towns and their hinterlands will not be fully tapped for economic development. Using qualitative research methodology, this study investigated the opportunities for tourism development in the Greater Chinhoyi Area. The study revealed that the Greater Chinhoyi area had potential for heritage tourism, village tourism, urban tourism, educational tourism, dark tourism, recreational tourism, agrotourism, and nature tourism. There is a need to link the various tourism resources in the Greater Chinhoyi area to anchor attractions in dominant resorts, then develop and present the tourism products in transit towns as ‘appetisers’ or ‘appetisser attractions’ before one gets to the main destination.

Keywords: anchor attractions, appetisers, heritage tourism, agrotourism, small towns, tourism corridor, systems approach, hidden treasures

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Authors: Siamak Eskandari, Neda Ebadi

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After discovering and using Freon as refrigerant in refrigerators and air conditioners, researchers have been working hard to minimize massive environmental damage caused by this type of systems, including ozone depletion, heat production, and urban warming. However, there is a growing concern for global warming and climate change and its impacts on climates. Although gas air conditioners can provide comfort in short term, there are long-term consequences and effects, including global warming, polar ice melting, sea level rising, rising sea surface temperatures, reduction in seasonal precipitation, tropical storms, and drought. In this theoretical and practical study, Peltier electronic chip was used with no gas in the structure and operation. In fact, cooling and heating are based on bipolar electronics. With an innovative method, Peltier air conditioners provide cooling in warm seasons and heating in cold seasons in buildings. Such a system prevents ambient warming. The problem of air circulation between high buildings in large cities and draught will be considerably resolved through the use of the silent fan in the system. In addition, the system is designed and developed in accordance with international standards such as LEED and Energy Star.

Keywords: energy, Building cooling and heating, peltier, leed, energy star

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Authors: Obiora E. Anisiji, Jeremiah L. Chukwuneke, Chinonso H. Achebe, Paul C. Okolie

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This work developed a mathematical model of a biogas plant from a mechanistic point of view, for urban area clean energy requirement. It aimed at integrating thermodynamics; which deals with the direction in which a process occurs and Biochemical kinetics; which gives the understanding of the rates of biochemical reaction. The mathematical formulation of the proposed gas plant follows the fundamental principles of thermodynamics, and further analysis were accomplished to develop an algorithm for evaluating the plant performance preferably in terms of daily production capacity. In addition, the capacity of the plant is equally estimated for a given cycle of operation and presented in time histories. A nominal 1500m3 biogas plant was studied characteristically and its performance efficiency evaluated. It was observed that the rate of biogas production is essentially a function of enthalpy ratio, the reactor temperature, pH, substrate concentration, rate of degradation of the biomass, and the accumulation of matter in the system due to bacteria growth. The results of this study conform to a very large extent with reported empirical data of some existing plant and further model validations were conducted in line with classical records found in literature.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, biogas plant, biogas production, bio-reactor, energy, fermentation, rate of production, temperature, therm

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Authors: Zhu Zhizheng, Huang Yong, Li Tong

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In the context of land and space development and resource environmental protection. Due to its special geographical location, mountain-plain transition zones are limited by many factors such as topography, mountain forest protection, etc., and their ecology is also more sensitive, with the characteristics of disaster susceptibility and resource gradient. Taking Dujiangyan City, Chengdu as an example, this paper establishes resilience evaluation indicators on the basis of ecological suitability evaluation through the analysis of current situation data and relevant policies: water conservation evaluation, soil and water conservation evaluation, biodiversity evaluation, soil erosion sensitivity evaluation, etc. Based on GIS spatial analysis, the ecological suitability and resilience evaluation results of Dujiangyan city were obtained by disjunction operation. The ecological resilience level of Dujiangyan city was divided into three categories: high, medium and low, with an area ratio of 50.81%, 16.4% and 32.79%, respectively. This paper can provide ideas for solving the contradiction between man and land in the mountain-plain transition zones, and also provide a certain basis for the construction of regional ecological protection and the delineation of three zones and three lines.

Keywords: urban and rural planning, ecological resilience, dujiangyan city, mountain-plain transition zones

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Authors: Jaypalsinh B. Parmar, Pintu Nakrani, Ashish Chaurasia

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Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is considered as an important data in GIS-based terrain analysis for many applications and assessment of processes such as environmental and climate change studies, hydrologic modelling, etc. Vertical accuracy of DEM having geographically dynamic nature depends on different parameters which affect the model simulation outcomes. Vertical accuracy assessment in Indian landscape especially in low-lying coastal urban terrain such as lower Tapi Basin is very limited. In the present study, attempt has been made to evaluate the vertical accuracy of 30m resolution open source Indian National Cartosat-1 DEM v3 for Lower Tapi Basin (LTB) from western India. The extensive field investigation is carried out using stratified random fast static DGPS survey in the entire study region, and 117 high accuracy ground control points (GCPs) have been obtained. The above open source DEM was compared with obtained GCPs, and different statistical attributes were envisaged, and vertical error histograms were also evaluated.

Keywords: CartoDEM, Digital Elevation Model, GPS, lower Tapi basin

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Authors: Bisi-Johnson, Mary A., Hamzart A. Oyelade, Kehinde A. Adediran, Saheed A. Akinola

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Geophagic and cosmetic clays are among potential nano-material which occur naturally and are of various forms. The use of these nano-clays is a common practice in both rural and urban areas mostly due to tradition and medicinal reasons. These naturally occurring materials can be valuable sources of nano-material by serving as nano-composites. The need to ascertain the safety of these materials is the motivation for this research. Physical Characterization based on the hue value and microbiological qualities of the nano-clays were carried out. The Microbial analysis of the clay samples showed considerable contamination with both bacteria and fungi with fungal contaminants taking the lead. This observation may not be unlikely due to the ability of fungi species to survive harsher growth conditions than bacteria. 'Atike pupa' showed no bacterial growth. The clay with the largest bacterial count was Calabash chalk (Igbanke), while that with the highest fungal count was 'Eko grey'. The most commonly isolated bacteria in this study were Clostridium spp. and Corynebacterium spp. while fungi included Aspergillus spp. These results are an indication of the need to subject these clay materials to treatments such as heating before consumption or topical usage thereby ascertaining their safety.

Keywords: nano-material, clay, microorganism, quality

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Authors: Bin Wang, Jian Kang

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After years of development, the study of soundscape has been refined to the types of urban space and building. Traffic complex takes traffic function as the core, with obvious design features of architectural space combination and traffic streamline. The acoustic environment is strongly characterized by function, space, material, user and other factors. Traffic complex integrates various functions of business, accommodation, entertainment and so on. It has various forms, complex and varied experiences, and its acoustic environment is turned rich and interesting with distribution and coordination of various functions, division and unification of the mass, separation and organization of different space and the cross and the integration of multiple traffic flow. In this study, it made field recordings of each space of various traffic complex, and extracted and analyzed different acoustic elements, including changes in sound pressure, frequency distribution, steady sound source, sound source information and other aspects, to make cluster analysis of each independent traffic complex buildings. It divided complicated traffic complex building space into several typical sound space from acoustic environment perspective, mainly including stable sound space, high-pressure sound space, rhythm sound space and upheaval sound space. This classification can further deepen the study of subjective evaluation and control of the acoustic environment of traffic complex.

Keywords: soundscape, traffic complex, cluster analysis, classification

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Authors: A. Pedro, T. Goldschmidt

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Dyspraxia affects approximately 5-6% of school aged children. Utilising an ecological framework, this study aimed to (1) explore the awareness and understanding of dyspraxia or similar disorders among preschool parents and (2) to explore what skills are required or sought after by parents of children presenting with dyspraxia. A qualitative methodological approach with an exploratory design was employed in this study. A total of 15 parents were purposively selected from urban mainstream preschools in the Cape Town metropole region. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically according to Braun and Clarke (2006). Participants were knowledgeable of their rights throughout the research process. The findings reveal that parents understanding of dyspraxia hinges on observable characteristics of their children’s abilities in comparison to typically developing children. Although parents are aware of ways to explore various avenues to better assist their child, they desire more social support and skills in terms of resources to inform them about their child’s difficulties as well as different techniques to better manage their child’s condition. Findings indicate that regular contact between preschool teachers and parents of children presenting with dyspraxia is an important factor in children’s academic success. The implications of the findings are related to the awareness of dyspraxia and similar learning disorders among both parents and teachers.

Keywords: awareness and understanding, dyspraxia, parents, preschool

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Authors: Kanzumba Kusakana

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently experiencing a general energy crisis due to lack of proper investment and management in the energy sector. 93, 6% of the country is highly dependent on wood fuels as main source of energy having severe impacts such as deforestation and general degradation of the environment. On the other hand, the major share of the electricity produced mainly from ill-conditioned hydro and thermal power stations is principally used to supply the industrial sector as well as very few urban areas. Nevertheless, DRC possesses huge potential in renewable resources such as hydropower, biomass, methane gas, solar geothermal and moderate wind potential that can be used for energy generation. Recently the country has initiated projects to build decentralized micro hydropower station to supply remotes and isolated areas; to rehabilitate its existent main hydropower plants and transmission lines as well as to extend its current generation capacity by building new hydropower stations able to respond to a major part of the African continent energy needs. This paper presents a comprehensive review of current energy resources as well as of the electricity situation in DRC. Recent energy projects, the energy policy as well as the energy challenges in the DRC are also presented.

Keywords: energy, biomass, hydro power, renewable energy, energy policy, Democratic Republic of Congo

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Authors: Harith Mohammed Benbouali

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The concept of sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in our society. The efforts of specialized agencies, cleverly portrayed in the media, allow a widespread environmental awareness. Far from the old environmental movement in the backward-looking nostalgia, the environment is combined with today's progress. Many areas now include these concerns in their efforts, this in order to try to reduce the negative impact of human activities on the environment. The quantitative dimension of development has given way to the quality aspect. However, this feature is not common, and the initial target was abandoned in favor of economic considerations. Specialists in the field of building and construction have constantly sought to further integrate the environmental dimension, creating a seal of high environmental quality buildings. The pursuit of well-being of neighborhood residents and the quality of buildings are also a hot topic in planning. Quality of life is considered so on, since financial concerns dominate to the detriment of the environment and the welfare of the occupants. This work concerns the development of an analytical method based on multiple indicators of objectives across the district. The quantification of indicators related to objectives allows the construction professional, the developer or the community, to quantify and compare different alternatives for development of a neighborhood. This quantification is based on the use of simulation tools and a multi-criteria aggregation.

Keywords: sustainable development, environment, district, indicators, multi-criteria analysis, evaluation

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Authors: S. O. Ekpo

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Environmental science deals with everyday challenges such as a cell for call for good and safe quality air, water, food and healthy leaving condition which include destruction of biodiversity and how to conserve these natural resources for sustainable development. Biodiversity or species richness is the sum of all the different species of animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms leaving on earth and variety of habitats in which they leave. Human beings leave on plants and animals on daily basis for food, clothing, medicine, housing, research and trade or commerce; besides this, biodiversity serves to purify the air, water and land of contaminant, and recycle useful materials for continual use of man. However, man continual incessant exploitation and exploration has affected biodiversity negatively in many ways such habitant fragmentation and destruction, introduction of invasive species, pollution, overharvesting, prediction and pest control amongst others. Measures such as recycling material, establishing natural parks, sperm bank, limiting the exploitation of renewable resources to sustainable yield and urban and industrial development as well as prohibiting hunting endangered species and release of non native live forms into an area will go a long way towards conserving biodiversity for continues profitable yield.

Keywords: biodiversity, conservation, exploitation and exploration sustainable yield, recycling of materials

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Authors: Luis Fonseca, Filipe Cabral Pinto, Susana Sargento

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The increase of the world population, especially in large urban centers, has resulted in new challenges particularly with the control and optimization of public safety. Thus, in the present work, a solution is proposed for the prediction of criminal occurrences in a city based on historical data of incidents and demographic information. The entire research and implementation will be presented start with the data collection from its original source, the treatment and transformations applied to them, choice and the evaluation and implementation of the Machine Learning model up to the application layer. Classification models will be implemented to predict criminal risk for a given time interval and location. Machine Learning algorithms such as Random Forest, Neural Networks, K-Nearest Neighbors and Logistic Regression will be used to predict occurrences, and their performance will be compared according to the data processing and transformation used. The results show that the use of Machine Learning techniques helps to anticipate criminal occurrences, which contributed to the reinforcement of public security. Finally, the models were implemented on a platform that will provide an API to enable other entities to make requests for predictions in real-time. An application will also be presented where it is possible to show criminal predictions visually.

Keywords: crime prediction, machine learning, public safety, smart city

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Authors: Abubakar Abdullahi

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Large amount of human energy are spent gathering and collecting fuel wood in many parts of the world, most especially in rural areas. In Nigeria fuel wood serves million houses in both rural and urban centers for various energy needs. It’s a common scene in many places while passing by roads to see bunch of woods being sold by the road sides. Even though the resource serves millions of peoples energy needs it has serious consequences on our environment, thus sustainable environment. Majority of the rural areas who rely heavily on the firewood as a means of energy are not aware of the dangers associated with the uses of the products. The aim of this work is to look into the utilization of fuel wood among rural dwellers and their perception about the dangers associated with it and how to sustain our environment. The methodology used involves a structured questionnaire designed with the question about the utilization and perception. The questionnaire is administered to the people of Kashere, a rural area in Gombe state. The result clearly shows there is a high level of ignorance among rural dwellers on the dangers of using fuel wood and how it constitute the depletion of the immediate environment. However, what is surprising in the research is the people’s readiness for alternative energy sources. The research recommend that proper orientation and sensitization is required to create education and awareness to the rural dwellers as well as provide alternative energy that is available, environment friendly and accessible to address the problems.

Keywords: energy, rural dwellers, environment, fuel wood, resources

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Authors: Muhlisin, Moh. Sofyan Budiarto

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives based on charity and philanthropy have not alleviated many sustainable environmental issues, particularly in industrial towns. The collaborative governance strategy is seen to be an option for resolving difficulties of coordination and communication between businesses, the government, and the community so that the goals of urban environmental management can be met via collaborative efforts. The purpose of this research is to identify the different forms of environmental CSR implementation by corporate entities and to create a CSR collaborative governance model in environmental management. This qualitative investigation was carried out in 2020 in Cilegon City, one of Indonesia’s industrial cities. To investigate their support, a total of 20 informants from three stakeholder groups, namely the government, corporate entities, and the community, were questioned. According to the study’s findings, cleaner production, eco-office, energy and natural resource conservation, waste management, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, and environmental education are all examples of CSR application in the environmental sector. The environmental potential of CSR implementation is to create collaborative governance. The role of business entities in providing the beginning circumstances is critical, while the government offers facilitative leadership and the CSR forum launches institutional design. These three factors are crucial to the efficiency of collaborative governance in industrial cities' environmental management.

Keywords: collaborative governance, CSR forum, environmental CSR, industrial city

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Authors: Jalaluddin Abdul Malek, Mohd Asruladlyi Ibrahim, Zurinah Tahir

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This paper is to reveal developments in the areas of urban technology in Malaysia. Developments occur intend to add value intelligent city development to the ubiquitous city (U-city) or smart city. The phenomenon of change is called the development of post intelligent cities. U-City development discourse is seen from the perspective of the philosophy of the virtuous city organized by al-Farabi. The prosperity and perfection of a city is mainly caused by human personality factors, as well as its relationship with material and technological aspects of the city. The question is, to what extent to which human factors are taken into account in the concept of U-City as an added value to the intelligent city concept to realize the prosperity and perfection of the city? Previously, the intelligent city concept was developed based on global change and ICT movement, while the U-city added value to the development of intelligent cities and focused more on the development of information and communications technology (ICT). Value added is defined as the use of fiber optic technology that is wired to the use of wireless technology, such as wireless broadband. In this discourse, the debate on the concept of U-City is to the symbiosis between the U-City and the importance of local human e-participation (U-Society) for prosperity. In the context of virtuous city philosophy, it supports the thought of symbiosis so the concept of U-City can achieve sustainability, prosperity and perfection of the city.

Keywords: smart city, ubiquitous city, u-society, e-participation, prosperity

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Authors: Sifan Guo, Xuesen Zheng

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Visitors as the vital research group have been mentioned in high frequency in the field of museum studies. With the rise of the New Museology Movement, new challenges in the museum appeared, ranging from how to eliminate the cliché class prejudices in museums to how to make visitor-oriented museums more welcome. In line with this new situation, to create a successful visiting experience is the focus of museums in today. National museums as tourist attractions always attract flooded attention, however the local museums may have the different situations. The residents could be one of the main visitors to the local museums how to attract them returned should be considered here. There are various people with different cultural, education and religion backgrounds, it is necessary to keep the balance of the education and entertainment to reach visitors’ expectations. Regarding these questions, a mixed methods research approach has been adopted: observations, tracking and questionnaires. Based on analysing some museums’ cases in the UK, it can be argued that: 1) Audiences’ accessibility support their options and judgments during the visiting. 2) Highly inclusive architecture and narrative expressions could encourage the visitors to proceed deeply understanding and alleviate conflicts. In addition, the main characteristics of the local museums and the interlinks between museums and urban renaissance will be clarified. The conclusion informs not only practical suggestions for reachable characteristic design, but also potential future research subjects.

Keywords: accessibility, challenging visitors, new museology movement, visiting experience

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Authors: Gert Van Schalkwyk, Chris Cloete

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South Africa is experiencing a massive housing backlog in urban low-cost housing. A backlog in the transfer of low-cost housing units is exacerbated by various impediments and delays that exist in the current legal framework. Structured interviews were conducted with forty-five practicing conveyancers and fifteen deeds office examiners at the Deeds Office in Pretoria, South Africa. One of the largest, the Deeds Office in Pretoria implements a uniform registration process and can be regarded as representative of other deeds offices in South Africa. It was established that a low percentage of low-cost properties are freely transferable. The main economic impediments are the absence of financing and the affordability or payment of rates and taxes to local government. Encroachment of buildings on neighboring stands caused by the enlargement of existing small units on small stands also causes long-term unresolved legal disputes. In addition, as the transfer of properties is dependent on the proper functioning of administrative functions of various government departments, the adverse service delivery of government departments hampers transfer. Addressing the identified problems will contribute to a more sustainable process for the transfer of low-cost housing units in South Africa.

Keywords: conveyancing, low-cost housing, South Africa, tenure, titling, transfer

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Authors: Shlomit Paz, Meir Broza

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Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It has a short incubation period and produces an enterotoxin that causes copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given. In an epidemic, the source of the contamination is usually the feces of an infected person. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with poor treatment of sewage and drinking water. Cholera remains a global threat and is one of the key indicators of social development. An estimated 3-5 million cases and over 100,000 deaths occur each year around the world. The relevance of climatic events as causative factors for cholera epidemics is well known. However, the examination of the involvement of winds in intra-continental disease distribution is new. The study explore the hypothesis that the spreading of cholera epidemics may be related to the dominant wind direction over land by presenting the influence of the wind direction on windborn dissemination by flying insects, which may serve as vectors. Chironomids ("non-biting midges“) exist in the majority of freshwater aquatic habitats, especially in estuarine and organic-rich water bodies typical to Vibrio cholerae. Chironomid adults emerge into the air for mating and dispersion. They are highly mobile, huge in number and found frequently in the air at various elevations. The huge number of chironomid egg masses attached to hard substrate on the water surface, serve as a reservoir for the free-living Vibrio bacteria. Both male and female, while emerging from the water, may carry the cholera bacteria. In experimental simulation, it was demonstrated that the cholera-bearing adult midges are carried by the wind, and transmit the bacteria from one body of water to another. In our previous study, the geographic diffusions of three cholera outbreaks were examined through their linkage with the wind direction: a) the progress of Vibrio cholerae O1 biotype El Tor in Africa during 1970–1971 and b) again in 2005–2006; and c) the rapid spread of Vibrio cholerae O139 over India during 1992–1993. Using data and map of cholera dissemination (WHO database) and mean monthly SLP and geopotential data (NOAA NCEP-NCAR database), analysis of air pressure data at sea level and at several altitudes over Africa, India and Bangladesh show a correspondence between the dominant wind direction and the intra-continental spread of cholera. The results support the hypothesis that aeroplankton (the tiny life forms that float in the air and that may be caught and carried upward by the wind, landing far from their origin) carry the cholera bacteria from one body of water to an adjacent one. In addition to these findings, the current follow-up study will present new results regarding the possible involvement of winds in the spreading of cholera in recent outbreaks (2010-2013). The findings may improve the understanding of how climatic factors are involved in the rapid distribution of new strains throughout a vast continental area. Awareness of the aerial transfer of Vibrio cholerae may assist health authorities by improving the prediction of the disease’s geographic dissemination.

Keywords: cholera, Vibrio cholerae, wind direction, Vibrio cholerae dissemination

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Authors: Arundhati Devi Maibam, K. Ingocha Singh

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Cervical cancer is preventable if detected early. Determination of risk factors is essential to plan screening programmes to prevent the disease. To study the demographic risk factors of cervical cancer among Manipuri women, information on age, marital status, educational level, monthly family income and socioeconomic status were collected through a pre-tested interview schedule. In this study, 64 incident cases registered at the RT Dept, RIMS (Regional Institute of Medical Sciences), Imphal, Manipur, India during 2008-09 participated. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and the results were expressed in percentages. Among the 64 patients with cervical cancer, 56 (88.9%) were in the age group of 40+ years. The majority of the patients were from rural areas (68.75%) and 31.25% were from urban areas. The majority of the patients were Hindus (73%), 55(85.9%) were of low educational level, 43(67.2%) were married, and 36 (56.25%) belonged to Class IV socioeconomic status. In conclusion, if detected early, cervical cancer is preventable and curable. The potential risk factors need to be identified and women in the risk group need to be motivated for screening. Affordable screening programmes and health care resources will help in lessening the burden of the disease.

Keywords: cervical cancer, Manipuri women, RIIMS, socio-demographic risk factors

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Authors: Farhana Alam Bhuiyan, Saad Khan, Tanveer Hassan, Jhalok Ranjon Talukder, Syeda Farjana Ahmed, Rahil Roodsaz, Els Rommes, Sabina Faiz Rashid

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Breaking the shame’ is a 3 year (2015-2018) qualitative implementation research project which investigates several aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues for adolescents living in Bangladesh. Scope of learning SRHR issues for adolescents is limited here due to cultural and religious taboos. This study adds to the ongoing discussions around adolescent’s SRHR needs and aims to, 1) understand the overall SRHR needs of urban and rural unmarried female and male adolescents and the challenges they face, 2) explore existing gaps in the content of SRHR curriculum and 3) finally, addresses some critical knowledge gaps by developing and implementing innovative SRHR educational materials. 18 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 10 focus-group discussions (FGDs) with boys and 21 IDIs and 14 FGDs with girls of ages 13-19, from both urban and rural setting took place. Curriculum materials from two leading organizations, Unite for Body Rights (UBR) Alliance Bangladesh and BRAC Adolescent Development Program (ADP) were also reviewed, with discussions with 12 key program staff. This paper critically analyses the relevance of some of the SRHR topics that are covered, the challenges with existing pedagogic approaches and key sexuality issues that are not covered in the content, but are important for adolescents. Adolescents asked for content and guidance on a number of topics which remain missing from the core curriculum, such as emotional coping mechanisms particularly in relationships, bullying, impact of exposure to porn, and sexual performance anxiety. Other core areas of concern were effects of masturbation, condom use, sexual desire and orientation, which are mentioned in the content, but never discussed properly, resulting in confusion. Due to lack of open discussion around sexuality, porn becomes a source of information for the adolescents. For these reasons, several myths and misconceptions regarding SRHR issues like body, sexuality, agency, and gender roles still persist. The pedagogical approach is very didactic, and teachers felt uncomfortable to have discussions on certain SRHR topics due to cultural taboos or shame and stigma. Certain topics are favored- such as family planning, menstruation- and presented with an emphasis on biology and risk. Rigid formal teaching style, hierarchical power relations between students and most teachers discourage questions and frank conversations. Pedagogy approaches within classrooms play a critical role in the sharing of knowledge. The paper also describes the pilot approaches to implementing new content in SRHR curriculum. After a review of findings, three areas were selected as critically important, 1) myths and misconceptions 2) emotional management challenges, and 3) how to use condom, that have come up from adolescents. Technology centric educational materials such as web page based information platform and you tube videos are opted for which allow adolescents to bypass gatekeepers and learn facts and information from a legitimate educational site. In the era of social media, when information is always a click away, adolescents need sources that are reliable and not overwhelming. The research aims to ensure that adolescents learn and apply knowledge effectively, through creating the new materials and making it accessible to adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents, Bangladesh, media, sexuality education, unmet needs

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Authors: Abhijitsinh Gohil, Kaushal Wadhvaniya, Kuldipsinh Jadeja

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Road Safety is a multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional issue. An effective model can assess the risk associated with highway safety. A questionnaire survey is very essential to identify the events or activities which are causing unsafe condition for traffic on an urban highway. A questionnaire of standard questions including vehicular, human and infrastructure characteristics can be made. Responses from the age wise group of road users can be taken on field. Each question or an event holds a specific risk weightage, which contributes in creating an inappropriate and unsafe flow of traffic. The probability of occurrence of an event can be calculated from the data collected from the road users. Finally, the risk score can be calculated by considering the risk factor and the probability of occurrence of individual event and addition of all risk score for the individual event will give the total risk score of a particular road. Standards for risk score can be made and total risk score can be compared with the standards. Thus road can be categorized based on risk associated and traffic safety on it. With this model, one can assess the need for traffic safety improvement on a given road, and qualitative data can be analysed.

Keywords: probability of occurrence, questionnaire, risk factor, risk score

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Authors: Ioannis Andrianakis, Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos, Kyriakos Chatzidimitriou, Dimitrios Tampakis, Manolis Falelakis

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Live music, whether performed in organized venues, restaurants, hotels or any other spots, creates value chains that support and develop local economies and tourism development. In this paper, we describe PerformAnts, a platform that increases the mobility of musicians and their accessibility to remotely located venues by rationalizing the cost of live acts. By analyzing the event history and taking into account their potential availability, the platform provides bespoke recommendations to both bands and venues while also facilitating the organization of tours and helping rationalize transportation expenses by realizing an innovative mechanism called “chain booking”. Moreover, the platform provides an environment where complicated tasks such as technical and financial negotiations, concert promotion or copyrights are easily manipulated by users using best practices. The proposed solution provides important benefits to the whole spectrum of small/medium size concert organizers, as the complexity and the cost of the production are rationalized. The environment is also very beneficial for local talent, musicians that are very mobile, venues located away from large urban areas or in touristic destinations, and managers who will be in a position to coordinate a larger number of musicians without extra effort.

Keywords: machine learning, music industry, creative industries, web applications

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Authors: Jake Joshua C. Garces, Zandra O. Jarito, Leslie Ann T. Barriga, Froilen C. Domicelo, Nimfa R. Pansit

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The study was conducted in order to discover the medicinal and edible potentialities of different insect species in Baranggay Alambijud, Argao and Baranggay Lusaran, Cebu City, Cebu. In order to identify these entomological practices, a survey was carried out by the researchers in these key sites. Fourteen key informants were obtained and these were identified with the aide of two sampling methods- snowball technique and purposive sampling. Open-ended questionnaires were employed in order to obtain authentic and significant information from the key informants. Results portrayed that in the practice of entomotherapy, two insects were used as medicine namely: migratory locust (Locusta migratoria manillensis) and honey bee (Apis dorsata); and two insect by-products were utilized namely: feces of cockroach (Periplaneta Americana) and honey. White grub (Cotinis nitida) and bee eggs were also documented to manifest edible capability and were thus utilized in the entomophagic practices. After applying thematic analysis, it was determined that the causative factors of their entomological practices include their limited educational attainment, their inability to access urban societies and the influence brought about by their family and community.

Keywords: entomophagy, entomotherapy, entomology, key informants

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Authors: Fatemeh Torfi

Abstract:

Estimation of stochastic demand in physical distribution in general and efficient transport routs management in particular is emerging as a crucial factor in urban planning domain. It is particularly important in some municipalities such as Tehran where a sound demand management calls for a realistic analysis of the routing system. The methodology involved critically investigating a fuzzy least-squares linear regression approach (FLLRs) to estimate the stochastic demands in the vehicle routing problem (VRP) bearing in mind the customer's preferences order. A FLLR method is proposed in solving the VRP with stochastic demands. Approximate-distance fuzzy least-squares (ADFL) estimator ADFL estimator is applied to original data taken from a case study. The SSR values of the ADFL estimator and real demand are obtained and then compared to SSR values of the nominal demand and real demand. Empirical results showed that the proposed methods can be viable in solving problems under circumstances of having vague and imprecise performance ratings. The results further proved that application of the ADFL was realistic and efficient estimator to face the stochastic demand challenges in vehicle routing system management and solve relevant problems.

Keywords: fuzzy least-squares, stochastic, location, routing problems

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Authors: G.S. Patel

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In this research paper the discussion have been made on teachers work mental stress and coping strategies. Stress Measurement scale was developed for school teachers. All the scientific steps of test construction was followed. For this test construction, different factors like teachers workplace, teachers' residential area, teachers' family life, teachers' ability and skills, economic factors and other factors to construct teachers stress measurement scale. In this research tool, situational statements have been made and teachers have to give a response in each statement on five-point rating scale what they experienced in their daily life. Special features of the test also established like validity and reliability of this test and also computed norms for its interpretation. A sample of 320 teachers of school teachers of Gujarat state was selected by Cluster sampling technique. t-test was computed for testing null hypothesis. The main findings of the present study are Urban area teachers feel more stressful situation compare to rural area teachers. Those teachers who live in the joint family feel less stress compare to teachers who live in a nuclear family. This research work is very useful to prepare list of activities to reduce teachers mental stress.

Keywords: stress measurement scale, level of stress, validity, reliability, norms

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Authors: Anurag Jha

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Dharavi is the largest slum in Asia, for which many redevelopment projects have been put forth, to improve the housing conditions of the locals. And yet, these projects are met with much-unexpected resistance from the locals. The research analyses the why and the how of the resistances these projects face and analyses these programs and points out the flaws and benefits of such projects, by predicting its impact on the regulars of Dharavi. The research aims to analyze various aspects of Dharavi, which affect its socio-cultural backdrops, such as its history, and eventual growth into a mega slum. Through various surveys, the research aims to analyze the life of a slum dweller, the street life, and the effect of such settlement on the urban fabric. Various development projects such as Dharavi Museum Movement, are analyzed, and a feasibility and efficiency analysis of the proposals for redevelopment of Dharavi Slums has been theorized. Flaws and benefits of such projects, by predicting its impact on the regulars of Dharavi has been the major approach to the research. Also, prediction the implementation of these projects in another prominent slum area, Anand Nagar, Bhopal, with the use of generated hypothetical model has been done. The research provides a basic framework for a comparative analysis of various redevelopment projects and the effect of implementation of such projects on the general populace. Secondly, it proposes a hypothetical model for feasibility of such projects in certain slum areas.

Keywords: Anand Nagar, Bhopal slums, Dharavi, slum redevelopment programmes

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Authors: Vladimir A. Basiuk, Laura J. Flores-Sanchez, Victor Meza-Laguna, Jose O. Flores-Flores, Lauro Bucio-Galindo, Elena V. Basiuk

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Noncovalent nanohybrid materials combining carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with phthalocyanines (Pcs) is a subject of increasing research effort, with a particular emphasis on the design of new heterogeneous catalysts, efficient organic photovoltaic cells, lithium batteries, gas sensors, field effect transistors, among other possible applications. The possibility of using unsubstituted Pcs for CNT functionalization is very attractive due to their very moderate cost and easy commercial availability. However, unfortunately, the deposition of unsubstituted Pcs onto nanotube sidewalls through the traditional liquid-phase protocols turns to be very problematic due to extremely poor solubility of Pcs. On the other hand, unsubstituted free-base H₂Pc phthalocyanine ligand, as well as many of its transition metal complexes, exhibit very high thermal stability and considerable volatility under reduced pressure, which opens the possibility for their physical vapor deposition onto solid surfaces, including nanotube sidewalls. In the present work, we show the possibility of simple, fast and efficient noncovalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with a series of 3d metal(II) phthalocyanines Me(II)Pc, where Me= Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn. The functionalization can be performed in a temperature range of 400-500 °C under moderate vacuum and requires about 2-3 h only. The functionalized materials obtained were characterized by means of Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), Raman, UV-visible and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM, respectively) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA suggested that Me(II)Pc weight content is 30%, 17% and 35% for NiPc, CuPc, and ZnPc, respectively (CoPc exhibited anomalous thermal decomposition behavior). The above values are consistent with those estimated from EDS spectra, namely, of 24-39%, 27-36% and 27-44% for CoPc, CuPc, and ZnPc, respectively. A strong increase in intensity of D band in the Raman spectra of SWNT‒Me(II)Pc hybrids, as compared to that of pristine nanotubes, implies very strong interactions between Pc molecules and SWNT sidewalls. Very high absolute values of binding energies of 32.46-37.12 kcal/mol and the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO and LUMO, respectively) distribution patterns, calculated with density functional theory by using Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof general gradient approximation correlation functional in combination with the Grimme’s empirical dispersion correction (PBE-D) and the double numerical basis set (DNP), also suggested that the interactions between Me(II) phthalocyanines and nanotube sidewalls are very strong. The authors thank the National Autonomous University of Mexico (grant DGAPA-IN200516) and the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT, grant 250655) for financial support. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Natalia Alzate-Carvajal (CCADET of UNAM), Eréndira Martínez (IF of UNAM) and Iván Puente-Lee (Faculty of Chemistry of UNAM) for technical assistance with FTIR, TGA measurements, and TEM imaging, respectively.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, functionalization, gas-phase, metal(II) phthalocyanines

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Authors: Minsung Kim, Hyunkoo Kang, Jinkoo Kim

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In this study, a hybrid energy dissipation device is developed by combining a steel slit plate and friction pads to be used for seismic retrofit of structures, and its effectiveness is investigated by comparing the life cycle costs of the structure before and after the retrofit. The seismic energy dissipation capability of the dampers is confirmed by cyclic loading tests. The probabilities of reaching various damage states are obtained by fragility analysis, and the life cycle costs of the model structures are computed using the PACT (Performance Assessment Calculation Tool) program based on FEMA P-58 methodology. The fragility analysis shows that the probabilities of reaching limit states are minimized by the seismic retrofit with hybrid dampers and increasing column size. The seismic retrofit with increasing column size and hybrid dampers results in the lowest repair cost and shortest repair time. This research was supported by a grant (13AUDP-B066083-01) from Architecture & Urban Development Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean government.

Keywords: FEMA P-58, friction dampers, life cycle cost, seismic retrofit

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