Search results for: urban cities

Authors: Cinthia Campoverde, Mateo Benavidez, Victor Arias, Milton Torres

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This article evaluates and compares three propagation models: the Okumura-Hata model, the Ericsson 9999 model, and the SUI model. The inclusion of vegetation attenuation in the area is also taken into account. These mathematical models aim to predict the power loss between a transmitting antenna (Tx) and a receiving antenna (Rx). The study was conducted in the open areas of the Livestock Department at the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH) University, located in the city of Riobamba, Ecuador. The necessary parameters for each model were calculated, considering LTE technology. The transmitting antenna belongs to the mobile phone company ”TUENTI” in Band 2, operating at a frequency of 1940 MHz. The reception power data in the area were empirically measured using the ”Network Cell Info” application. A total of 170 samples were collected, distributed across 19 radius, forming concentric circles around the transmitting antenna. The results demonstrate that the Okumura Hata urban model provides the best fit to the measured data.

Keywords: propagation models, reception power, LTE, power losses, correction factor

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Authors: N. P. Tsephe, S. D. Eyono Obono

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Rural tourism is usually associated with rural development because it has strong linkages to rural resources; but it remains underdeveloped compared to urban tourism. This underdevelopment of rural tourism serves as a motivation for this study whose aim is to examine the factors affecting the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists. The objectives of this study are: to identify and design theories and models on rural tourism satisfaction, and to empirically validate these models and theories through a survey of tourists from the Malealea Lodge which is located in the Mafeteng District, in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Data generated by the collection of questionnaires used by this survey was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and correlations in SPSS after checking the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire. The main hypothesis behind this study is the relationship between the demographics of rural tourists, the motivation, and their satisfaction of tourists, as supported by existing literature; except that motivation is measured in this study according to three dimensions: push factors, pull factors, and perceived usefulness of ICT's in the rural tourism experience. Findings from this study indicate that among the demographics factors, continent of origin and marital status influence the satisfaction of rural tourists; and their occupation affects their perceptions on the use of ICT's in rural tourism. Moreover, only pull factors were found to influence the satisfaction of rural tourists.

Keywords: digital world, motivation, rural tourism, satisfaction

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Authors: Rebekah Granger Ellis, Pat J. Austin, Marc P. Bonis, Richard B. Speaker, Jr.

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Using two psychometric instruments, this study examined social and emotional intelligence and moral judgment levels of more than 300 gifted and talented high school students enrolled in arts-integrated, academic acceleration, and creative arts charter schools in an ethnically diverse large city in the southeastern United States. Gifted and talented individuals possess distinguishable characteristics; these frequently appear as strengths, but often serious problems accompany them. Although many gifted adolescents thrive in their environments, some struggle in their school and community due to emotional intensity, motivation and achievement issues, lack of peers and isolation, identification problems, sensitivity to expectations and feelings, perfectionism, and other difficulties. These gifted students endure and survive in school rather than flourish. Gifted adolescents face special intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental problems. Furthermore, they experience greater levels of stress, disaffection, and isolation than non-gifted individuals due to their advanced cognitive abilities. Therefore, it is important to examine the long-term effects of participation in various gifted and talented programs on the socio-affective development of these adolescents. Numerous studies have researched moral, social, and emotional development in the areas of cognitive-developmental, psychoanalytic, and behavioral learning; however, in almost all cases, these three facets have been studied separately leading to many divergent theories. Additionally, various frameworks and models purporting to encourage the different socio-affective branches of development have been debated in curriculum theory, yet research is inconclusive on the effectiveness of these programs. Most often studied is the socio-affective domain, which includes development and regulation of emotions; empathy development; interpersonal relations and social behaviors; personal and gender identity construction; and moral development, thinking, and judgment. Examining development in these domains can provide insight into why some gifted and talented adolescents are not always successful in adulthood despite advanced IQ scores. Particularly whether emotional, social and moral capabilities of gifted and talented individuals are as advanced as their intellectual abilities and how these are related to each other. This mixed methods longitudinal study examined students in urban gifted and talented charter schools for (1) socio-affective development levels and (2) whether a particular environment encourages developmental growth. Research questions guiding the study: (1) How do academically and artistically gifted 10th and 11th grade students perform on psychological scales of social and emotional intelligence and moral judgment? Do they differ from the normative sample? Do gender differences exist among gifted students? (2) Do adolescents who attend distinctive gifted charter schools differ in developmental profiles? Students’ performances on psychometric instruments were compared over time and by program type. Assessing moral judgment (DIT-2) and socio-emotional intelligence (BarOn EQ-I: YV), participants took pre-, mid-, and post-tests during one academic school year. Quantitative differences in growth on these psychological scales (individuals and school-wide) were examined. If a school showed change, qualitative artifacts (culture, curricula, instructional methodology, stakeholder interviews) provided insight for environmental correlation.

Keywords: gifted and talented programs, moral judgment, social and emotional intelligence, socio-affective education

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Authors: Hammadi Larbi

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The treatment of wastewater in sewage plants usually results in the formation of a large amount of sludge. These appear at the outlet of the treatment plant as a viscous fluid loaded with a high concentration of dry matter. This sludge production presents environmental, ecological, and economic risks. That is why it is necessary to find many solutions for minimizing these risks. In the present article, the effect of hydrogen peroxide, thermal treatment, and quicklime on the characteristics of the activated sludge produced in urban wastewater plant were evaluated in order to avoid any risk in the plants. The study shows increasing of the dose of H2O2 from 0 to 0.4 g causes an increase in the solubilization rate of COD from 12% to 45% and a reduction in the organic matter content of sludge (VM/SM) from 74% to 36% . The results also show that the optimum efficiency of the heat treatment corresponds to a temperature of 80 ° C for a treatment time of 40 min is 47% and 51.82% for a temperature equal to 100 ° C and 76.30 % for a temperature of 120 ° C, and 79.38% for a temperature of 140 ° C. The treatment of sludge by quicklime gives the optimum efficiency of 70.62 %. It was shown the increasing of the temperature from 80°C to 140°C, the pH of sludge was increased from 7.12 to 9.59. The obtained results showed that with increasing the dose of quicklime from 0 g/l to 1g/l in activated sludge led to an increase of their pH from 7.12 to 12.06. The study shows the increasing the dose of quicklime from 0 g/l to 1g/l causes also an increase in the solubilization of COD from 0% to 70.62 %

Keywords: activated sludge, hydrogen peroxide, thermal treatment, quicklime

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Authors: Seyoung Kim, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

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A database that records average traffic speeds measured at five-minute intervals for all the links in the traffic network of a metropolitan city. While learning from this data the models that can predict future traffic speed would be beneficial for the applications such as the car navigation system, building predictive models for every link becomes a nontrivial job if the number of links in a given network is huge. An advantage of adopting k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) as predictive models is that it does not require any explicit model building. Instead, k-NN takes a long time to make a prediction because it needs to search for the k-nearest neighbors in the database at prediction time. In this paper, we investigate how much we can speed up k-NN in making traffic speed predictions by reducing the amount of data to be searched for without a significant sacrifice of prediction accuracy. The rationale behind this is that we had a better look at only the recent data because the traffic patterns not only repeat daily or weekly but also change over time. In our experiments, we build several different k-NN models employing different sets of features which are the current and past traffic speeds of the target link and the neighbor links in its up/down-stream. The performances of these models are compared by measuring the average prediction accuracy and the average time taken to make a prediction using various amounts of data.

Keywords: big data, k-NN, machine learning, traffic speed prediction

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Authors: Aroona Hashmi

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The prime motive for this endeavor was to explore the tenth grade English class students’ preferred learning styles studying in government secondary school so that English subject teachers could tailor their pedagogical strategies in relation to their students learning needs. The further aim of this study was to identify any significance difference among the students on a gender basis, area basis and different categories of school basis. The population of this study consisting of all the secondary level schools working in the government sector and positioned in the province of Punjab. The multi-stage cluster sampling method was employed while selecting the study sample from the population. The scale used for the identification of students’ learning styles in this study was developed by Grasha-Riechmann. The data collected through learning style scale was analyzed by employing descriptive statistics technique. The results from data analysis depict that learning styles of the majority of students found to be Collaborative and Competitive. Overall, no considerable difference was surfaced between male-female, urban-rural, general-other categories of 10th grade English class students learning styles.

Keywords: learning style, learning style scale, grade, government sector

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

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This paper developed a mathematical model of a commercial biogas plant for urban area clean energy requirement. It identified biodegradable waste materials like domestic/city refuse as economically viable alternative source of energy. The mathematical formulation of the proposed gas plant follows the fundamental principles of thermodynamics, and further analyses 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 1500 m3 power gas plant was studied characteristically and its performance efficiency evaluated. It was observed that the rate of bio gas production is essentially a function of 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: energy and mass conservation, specific growth rate, thermophilic bacteria, temperature, rate of bio gas production

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Authors: Libia Jiménez Chávez

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This is a study of freedom riders and their courageous journey for civil rights, but the year was not 1961. It was 2003. This paper chronicles the emergence of a new civil rights movement for immigrant rights through an oral history of the 2003 U.S. Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride (IWFR). During the height of the post-9/11 immigrant repression, a bloc of organizations inspired by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s mobilized 900 multinational immigrants and their allies in the fight for legal status, labor protections, family reunification, and civil rights. The activists visited over 100 U.S. cities, met with Congressional leaders in the nation’s capital, and led a rally of over 50,000 people in New York City. This unified effort set the groundwork for the national May Day immigration protests of 2006. Movements can be characterized in two distinct ways: physical movement and social movements. In the past, historians have considered immigrants both as people and as participants in social movements. In contrast, studies of recent migrants tend to say little about their involvement in immigrant political mobilizations. The dominant literature on immigration portrays immigrants as objects of exclusion, border enforcement, detention, and deportation instead of strategic political actors. This paper aims to change this perception. It considers the Freedom Riders both as immigrants who were literally on the move and as participants in a social movement. Through interviews with participants and archival video footage housed at the University of California Los Angeles, it is possible to study this mobile protest as a movement. This contemporary immigrant struggle is an opportunity to explore the makeup and development of a heterogenous immigrant coalition and consider the relationship between population movements and social justice. In addition to oral histories and archival research, the study will utilize social movement literature, U.S. immigration and labor history, and Undocumented Critical Theory to expand the historiography of immigrant social movements in America.

Keywords: civil rights, immigrant social movements, undocumented communities, undocumented critical theory

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Authors: Yoni Elviandri, Vivi Fitriyanti, Agung Surya Wijaya, Suryani Humayyah, Muhammad Alif Azizi

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The massive development of computing power and internet access nowadays is marked by audiovisual games and computers which are known as electronic games, one of the examples is online games. This kind of game can be found everywhere in Indonesia, both in the cities and even the villages. In the present time, online games are becoming a popular games in various layers of the community, one of them does happen to elementary school students. As the online games spread over, the traditional games gradually fade away and even thought as an old-fashioned game. Contrary, traditional games actually have the better and higher educational values such as patience, honesty, integrity and togetherness value which cannot be found in online games which are more to individualist. A brand new set of education tools is necessary to provide a convenience, safe and fun place for children to play around but still contains educational values. One interesting example goes to Cilulaba is an agricultural-based playground. It is a good place for children to play and learn as it was planned to entertain children to play around as well as introducing agriculture to them. One of the games is a 1990’s well-known traditional game which its name is Congklak. Congklak is an agricultural-based traditional game and it also introduces the home garden to the children. Some of the Cilulaba’s aims are to protect the existence of nation’s cultural inheritance through Congklak traditional game, as a tool to introduce the agriculture to the children through the methods of Congklak traditional game and giving explanation related to the advantages of a “healthy home garden” to the children. The expected output from this place is to deliver a good understanding about agriculture to the children and make them begin to love it to make an aesthetic home garden and enhance the optimalisation usage of home garden that will support the availability of various edible plants in productive and health households. The proposed method in this Student Creative Program in Society Service is Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) method.

Keywords: Cilubaba, Congklak, traditional game, agricultural-based playground

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Authors: Azad Khalid, Ime Akanyeti

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About 68% of the urban solid waste generated in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus TRNC is household solid waste, at present, its disposal in landfills. In other hand more than 3000 ton per year of sewage sludge produces in Nicosia waste water treatment plant, the produced sludge piled up without any processing. Co-composting of organic fraction of municipal solid waste and sewage sludge is diverting of municipal solid waste from landfills and best disposal of wastewater sewage sludge. Three 10 L insulated bioreactor R1, R2 and R3 obtained with aeration rate 0.05 m3/h.kg for R2 and R3, R1 was without aeration. The mixture was destined with ratio of sewage sludge: food waste: sawdust; 1:5:0.8 (w/w). The effective of aeration monitored during 42 days of process through investigation in key parameter moisture, C/N ratio, temperature and pH. Results show that the high moisture content cause problem and around 60% recommend, C/N ratio decreased about 17% in aerated reactors and 10% in without aeration and mixture volume reduced in volume 40% in final compost with size of 1.00 to 20.0 mm. temperature in reactors with aeration reached thermophilic phase above 50 °C and <40 °C in without aeration. The final pH is 6.1 in R1, 8.23 in R2 and 8.1 in R3.

Keywords: aeration, sewage sludge, food waste, sawdust, composting

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Authors: Lonna Mabandla, Godfrey Musvoto

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Transportation is a catalytic feature in cities. Transport and land use activity are interdependent and have a feedback loop between how land is developed and how transportation systems are designed and used. This recursive relationship between land use and transportation is reflected in how public transportation routes internal to the inner-city enhance accessibility, therefore creating spaces that are conducive to business activity, while the business activity also informs public transportation routes. It is for this reason that the focus of this research is on public transportation within inner-city areas where the dynamic is evident. Durban is the chosen case study where the dominating form of public transportation within the central business district (CBD) is minibus taxis. The paradox here is that minibus taxis still form part of the informal economy even though they are the leading form of public transportation in South Africa. There have been many attempts to formalise this industry to follow more regulatory practices, but minibus taxis are privately owned, therefore complicating any proposed intervention. The argument of this study is that the application of collaborative planning through a sustainable partnership between the public and private sectors will improve the social and environmental sustainability of public transportation. One of the major challenges that exist within such collaborative endeavors is power dynamics. As a result, a key focus of the study is on power relations. Practically, power relations should be observed over an extended period, specifically when the different stakeholders engage with each other, to reflect valid data. However, a lengthy data collection process was not possible to observe during the data collection phase of this research. Instead, interviews were conducted focusing on existing procedural planning practices between the inner-city minibus taxi association (South and North Beach Taxi Association), the eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA), and the eThekwini Town Planning Department. Conclusions and recommendations were then generated based on these data.

Keywords: collaborative planning, sustainability, public transport, minibus taxis

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Authors: Shahin Marjan Nanaje

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The present century is the time that social worker faced complicated issues in the area of their work. All the focus are on bringing change in the life of those that they live in margin or live in poverty became the cause that we have forgotten to look at ourselves and start to bring change in the way we address issues. It seems that there is new area of needs that social worker should response to that. In need of dialogue and collaboration, to address the issues and needs of community both individually and as a group we need to have new method of dialogue as tools to reach to collaboration. The social worker as link between community, organization and government play multiple roles. They need to focus in the area of communication with new ability, to transfer all the narration of the community to those organization and government and vice versa. It is not relate only in language but it is about changing dialogue. Migration for survival by job seeker to the big cities created its own issues and difficulty and therefore created new need. Collaboration is not only requiring between government sector and non-government sectors but also it could be in new way between government, non-government and communities. To reach to this collaboration we need healthy, productive and meaningful dialogue. In this new collaboration there will not be any hierarchy between members. The methodology that selected by researcher were focusing on observation at the first place, and used questionnaire in the second place. Duration of the research was three months and included home visits, group discussion and using communal narrations which helped to bring enough evidence to understand real need of community. The sample selected randomly was included 70 immigrant families which work as sweepers in the slum community in Bangalore, Karnataka. The result reveals that there is a gap between what a community is and what organizations, government and members of society apart from this community think about them. Consequently, it is learnt that to supply any service or bring any change to slum community, we need to apply new skill to have dialogue and understand each other before providing any services. Also to bring change in the life of those marginal groups at large we need to have collaboration as their challenges are collective and need to address by different group and collaboration will be necessary. The outcome of research helped researcher to see the area of need for new method of dialogue and collaboration as well as a framework for collaboration and dialogue that were main focus of the paper. The researcher used observation experience out of ten NGO’s and their activities to create framework for dialogue and collaboration.

Keywords: collaboration, dialogue, community development, empowerment

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Authors: Turkan Harmanbasi, Zeliha Busra Eryigit

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The Anatolian Seljuk State was established in Anatolia by the Seljuks and continued its existence between the 11th and 14th centuries. Iznik was the first capital of Anatolian Seljuks. With the conquest of Konya in 1086, this place was declared as the capital. The Anatolian Seljuk State, with its numerous cultural elements, has produced valuable and permanent works for more than two centuries. Most of the important and monumental works were built in Konya. Anatolian Seljuk Art that makes unique; the technique in his works is the difference in material and style. It has gained an important place in Islamic architecture with this feature. In this period, rich embellishment programs emerged with the use of geometrical ornaments, floral motifs and calligraphy belts. In the Anatolian Seljuks, decoration was mainly applied with façade, crown gates, doors, windows, mihrab, mimbar, cover, transition elements and minarets; built with stone, brick and wooden materials. The minarets are located adjacent to the mosques or outside, as a high place that can be reached by stairs, which is made to invite people to worship and to announce this to people. They are architectural elements that have always been important in Islamic architecture with their compositions, construction techniques and ornaments. In different countries where Islam has spread, it has gained different appearances with the influence of local traditions. In the Seljuk art, minarets have become indispensable architectural elements of mosques and masjids. Stone and brick are generally used as a material in the minarets, and in some examples it can be seen that the tile was accompanied by the material. Ornamental motifs are formed by bringing these materials side by side vertically or horizontally. The scope of this study, the decoration details of the minarets built during the Anatolian Seljuk period will be examined. As a study area, samples from various Anatolian cities, especially Konya, were selected. Aim of studying the decoration of the Anatolian Seljuk minaret can shed some light on one of the most important aspects of the Islamic architecture in Anatolia and the development of the minaret in the Islamic World.

Keywords: Anatolian Seljuk, decoration, Islamic architecture, minaret, ornament

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Authors: Mohsen Mohammadi, Toshio Fujimi

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High population and irregular urban development in Kabul city, Afghanistan's capital, are among factors that increase its vulnerability to earthquake disasters (on top of its location in a high seismic region); this can lead to widespread economic loss and casualties. This study aims to evaluate earthquake risks in Kabul's 13th district based on scientific data. The research data, which include hazard curves of Kabul, vulnerability curves, and a questionnaire survey through sampling in district 13, have been incorporated to develop risk curves. To estimate potential casualties, we used a set of M parameters in a model developed by Coburn and Spence. The results indicate that in the worst case scenario, more than 90% of district 13, which comprises mostly residential buildings, is exposed to high risk; this may lead to nearly 1000 million USD economic loss and 120 thousand casualties (equal to 25.88% of the 13th district's population) for a nighttime earthquake. To reduce risks, we present the reconstruction of the most vulnerable buildings, which are primarily adobe and masonry buildings. A comparison of risk reduction between reconstructing adobe and masonry buildings indicates that rebuilding adobe buildings would be more effective.

Keywords: earthquake risk evaluation, Kabul, mitigation, vulnerability

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Authors: Mohammad Rusdi Mohd Nasir, Ismail Hafiz Salleh

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Kota Bharu, as an Islamic City, represents a symbolic icon in the urban development of the Islamic state of Kelantan, Malaysia. This research seeks to provide a basis for new approaches to landscape planning that shows greater respect for the traditional vernacular landscape. In addition, this research also intends to distinguish the prospects for the future Kelantan Malay cultural landscape, building upon the multiple historical influences in the evolution of the cultural landscape using multiple methods including literature review, observation, document analysis and content analysis. The study of the Kelantan Malay cultural landscape is particularly important in view of its distinctive contribution to Malay heritage by identifying the elements, characteristics, history and their influences. As a result, this research recognizes the importance of incorporating the existing heritage alongside contemporary design as well as further research on the Kelantan Malay cultural landscape. Optimistically, there will be better landscape practices in the future to understand the past, the present and the future prospects of the vernacular tradition, in order to ensure that our architecture, landscape and urbanism practices express its values.

Keywords: Malay culture, Malay heritage, cultural landscape, Islamic concept

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Authors: Isaac Diaka, Matsui Kenichi

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Ghana’s rice production has increased mainly because of increased cultivated areas. On this point, scholars who promoted crop production increase for food security have overlooked the fact that its per-acre yield has not increased. Also, Ghana’s domestic rice production has not contributed much to domestic rice consumption especially in major cities where consumers tend to rely on imported rice from Asia. Considering these points, the paper seeks to understand why smallholder rice farmers have not been able to increase per acre rice yield. It also examines smallholder rice farmers’ rice yield improvement needs, and the relationship that exist between rice farmers’ socioeconomic factors and their yield levels by rice varieties. The study adopted a simple random sampling technique to select 154 rice farmers for a questionnaire survey between October and November 2020. The data was analyzed by performing a correlation analysis, an independent t-test, and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. The results showed that 58.4% of the respondents cultivated popular high-yield varieties like AGRA and Jasmine. The rest used local varieties. Regarding respondents’ yield differentials, AGRA and Jasmine had an average yield of 2.6 mt/ha, which is higher than that of local varieties (1.6mt/ha). The study found untimely availability of improved seed varieties and high cost of inputs some of the major reasons affecting yield in the area. For respondents’ yield improvement needs, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance showed that access to improved varieties, irrigation infrastructure, and row planting were respondents’ major technological needs. As to their non-technological needs, the respondents needed timely information about rice production, access to credit support options, and extension services. The correlation analysis revealed that farm size and off-farm income exhibited a positive and negative association towards respondents’ yield level, respectively. This paper then discusses recommendations for providing with improved rice production technologies to farmers.

Keywords: Ghana, rice, smallholder farmers, yield improvement.

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Authors: Sofiya An, Akbota Kanderzhanova, Assel Akhmetova, Faye Foster, Chee K. Chan

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Healthcare, education and social support for children with autism in Kazakhstan has been evolving and transforming over the last three decades. There is still limited knowledge of the use of complementary and alternative medicine by families caring for autistic children in this post-Soviet region. An exploratory qualitative focus group study of Kazakhstani families was carried out to capture and understand their experiences of using complementary and alternative (CAM) medicine. A total of six focus groups were conducted in five cities across the country including Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Kyzylorda, Karaganda and Taraz. The perceived factors driving the availability, choice, and use of complementary and alternative medicine by families of autistic children in the country were distilled and evaluated. The data collected was analyzed using a framework analysis and themes and subthemes were developed. Two major themes stood out. The first was the “unmet needs”, which relates to the predisposing factors that motivate parents to CAM uptake, and the second was the “chasing hope”, which relates to the enabling factors that facilitate parents’ uptake of CAM. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a latent underlying motivation underscoring these two themes as well. Parents of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children in Kazakhstan have to deal with many challenges when seeking treatment for their children with ASD. They are prepared and resort to try out whatever CAM interventions available. The motivation and rationale of choice of use is driven by the lack of options and the hope of any potential positive outcome rather than from rational decisions based on efficacy or the evidence-based data of CAM. Parents get desperate and are willing to try CAM regardless of and independent of their cultural and belief systems and they do not want to miss out just in case it might work. This study also gives an international and cross-cultural perspective on the motives, choice and practice of parents with ASD children using CAM in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, Central Asia, complementary and alternative medicine, cross-cultural perspective, qualitative research

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Authors: Lei Liu

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Since the famous opening up and reform strategy of China, lots of migrants have flowed from rural areas to urban areas. In this paper, the author investigates the rural elderly left behind, which are defined aged people left alone at home while their adult children have to migrant outside. This phenomenon is a quite general and serious social problem that cannot be ignored, accompanied by the process of urbanization and regional transferring of rural labor. The Chinese internal migration not only exerts great influence to China’s economy and urbanization but also obviously reduces the labor and care to rural aged people. Contrary to assumptions in some migration and aging studies, which show the inevitable negative effects of migration upon the old age care, the author highlights unique features in their daily strategies of house holding to integrate into society with the analysis of the conception of social inclusion. Through life history interviews with elderly left behind in one rural village, this article sheds light on three different factors of social inclusion, namely, economic inclusion, social identity and political inclusion and shows its necessaries to fully understand the status of the social wellbeing of rural elderly left behind.

Keywords: labor migration, elderly left behind, social inclusion, rural China

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Authors: Usama Massoud, Abeer A. Kenawy, El-Said A. Ragab, Abbas M. Abbas, Heba M. El-Kosery

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Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and Transient Electro Magnetic (TEM) survey have been applied for characterizing the groundwater aquifers at El Sadat industrial area. El-Sadat city is one of the most important industrial cities in Egypt. It has been constructed more than three decades ago at about 80 km northwest of Cairo along the Cairo–Alexandria desert road. Groundwater is the main source of water supplies required for domestic, municipal, and industrial activities in this area due to the lack of surface water sources. So, it is important to maintain this vital resource in order to sustain the development plans of this city. In this study, VES and TEM data were identically measured at 24 stations along three profiles trending NE–SW with the elongation of the study area. The measuring points were arranged in a grid like pattern with both inter-station spacing and line–line distance of about 2 km. After performing the necessary processing steps, the VES and TEM data sets were inverted individually to multi-layer models, followed by a joint inversion of both data sets. Joint inversion process has succeeded to overcome the model-equivalence problem encountered in the inversion of individual data set. Then, the joint models were used for the construction of a number of cross sections and contour maps showing the lateral and vertical distribution of the geo-electrical parameters in the subsurface medium. Interpretation of the obtained results and correlation with the available geological and hydrogeological information revealed TWO aquifer systems in the area. The shallow Pleistocene aquifer consists of sand and gravel saturated with fresh water and exhibits large thickness exceeding 200 m. The deep Pliocene aquifer is composed of clay and sand and shows low resistivity values. The water bearing layer of the Pleistocene aquifer and the upper surface of Pliocene aquifer are continuous and no structural features have cut this continuity through the investigated area.

Keywords: El Sadat city, joint inversion, VES, TEM

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Authors: Naiara de Almeida Rios

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The environmental education, from Tbilisi, is signaled as an important instrument for conservation and environmental management. However, the social, economic, political and environmental aspects of each place require an environmental management that corresponds to the reality to which they are inserted, as well as environmental education practices. The city of Belém, the capital of the State of Pará, is one of the most important cities in the Amazon Region, and its vast water dimension requires that its watersheds take a careful look at their socio-environmental management. The Estrada Nova Hydrographic Basin is considered as one of the most critical river basins in the city due to flooding, lack of basic sanitation and degradation of water bodies. In this context, environmental education is understood as one of the necessary conditions to reduce environmental degradation. Environmental education presents itself as an instrument of social transformation and conservation of natural resources (especially water resources), where thinking about the sustainability of natural resources is moving towards dialogue on the importance of building an environmental awareness. The commitment that environmental education proposes covers all spheres of society, since the main objective of the same is the transformation of thought and attitudes from the understanding of reality. Therefore, to analyze how the government is managing the basin, as well as the environmental education practices developed in it, is fundamental, so that government can be charged with improvements for the population and for the natural environment. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the influence of environmental education actions developed by local public authorities in the management of the Estrada Nova Hydrographic Basin, Belém/PA. For the accomplishment of this study, some methodological procedures will be used, like documentary analysis, bibliographical survey and fieldwork. If the multivariate statistical method is used to analyze the results obtained in the field. Unfortunately, public policies in the area of ​environmental education in Belém are still moving in short steps, since government interests have had very little dialogue with the socio-environmental problems that affect the Estrada Nova Hydrographic Basin. Both formal and informal environmental education has been poorly developed, hampering the continuous process proposed by water resources management.

Keywords: environmental education, environmental management, hydrographic basin, water resources

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Authors: Samuel Ibbi Ibrahim, Isaiah Ndalassan Ibrahim

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Accessibility and availability of good quality water have become a major concern among different users. This paper examines the caustic importance of water security in relation to people’s desire for survival. It observed the democratic ideology of national policy on domestic water supply and demand and its implementation for national and societal development. It used analogy on equilibrium approach to ascertain the household water security. In most communities, it is glaring that several public water management in operation for several years are hardly performing efficiently to reach equilibrium demand. Moreover most settlements being rural or urban lack effective public water system that could ensure regular supplies to the population. The terrain and gradual declining of efficient rainfall northward poses great challenge to the region in managing water supply and demand adequately. This study itemized the need for the government to get clear strategy for a sustainable development on better water efficiency. Partnership in providing workable policy on water security is considered apparently important. It is also suggested that water plant treatment should be established in every medium-sized towns in the country.

Keywords: good quality of water, water accessibility, water availability, water sustainable

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Authors: Hanan M. Taleb

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Energy consumption associated with buildings has a significant impact on the environment. To that end, and as a transaction between the inside and outside and between the building and urban space, the building skin plays an especially important role. It provides protection from the elements; demarcates private property and creates privacy. More importantly, it controls the admission of solar radiation. Therefore, designing the building skin sustainably will help to achieve optimal performance in terms of both energy consumption and thermal comfort. Unfortunately, with accelerating construction expansion, many recent buildings do not pay attention to the importance of the envelope design. This piece of research will highlight the importance of this part of the creation of buildings by providing evidence of a significant reduction in energy consumption if the envelopes are redesigned. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to enhance the performance of the hospital envelope in order to achieve sustainable performance. A hospital building sited in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has been chosen to act as a case study. A detailed analysis of the annual energy performance of the case study will be performed with the use of a computerised simulation; this is in order to explore their energy performance shortcomings. The energy consumption of the base case will then be compared with that resulting from the new proposed building skin. The results will inform architects and designers of the savings potential from various strategies.

Keywords: ASHREA, building skin, building envelopes, hospitals, Abu Dhabi, UAE, IES software

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Authors: Piyush Pal, Rahul Dev

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Water is essential for life and fresh water is a finite resource that is becoming scarce day by day even though it is recycled by hydrological cycle. The fresh water reserves are being polluted due to expanding irrigation, industries, urban population and its development. Contaminated water leads to several health problems. With the increasing demand of fresh water, solar distillation is an alternate solution which uses solar energy to evaporate water and then to condense it, thereby collecting distilled water within or outside the same system to use it as potable water. The structure that houses the process is known as a 'solar still'. In this paper, ‘Modified double slope solar still (MDSSS)’ & 'Modified double slope basin type multiwick solar still (MDSBMSS)' have been designed to convert saline, brackish water into drinking water. In this work two different modified solar stills are fabricated to study the performance of these solar stills. For modification of solar stills, Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and Acrylic sheets are used. The experiments in MDSBMSS and MDSSS was carried on 10 September 2015 & 5 November 2015 respectively. Performances of the stills were investigated. The amount of distillate has been found 3624 Ml/day in MDSBMSS on 10 September 2015 and 2400 Ml/day in MDSSS on 5 November 2015.

Keywords: contaminated water, conventional solar still, modified solar still, wick

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Authors: Guantao Bai

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Public space is an indispensable and important component of the urban built environment. How to more accurately evaluate the usage characteristics of public space can help improve its spatial quality. Compared to traditional survey methods, computer vision technology based on deep learning has advantages such as dynamic observation and low cost. This study takes the public space of Shaping Park as an example and, based on deep learning computer vision technology, processes and analyzes the image data of the public space to obtain the spatial usage characteristics and spatiotemporal characteristics of the public space. Research has found that the spontaneous activity time in public spaces is relatively random with a relatively short average activity time, while social activities have a relatively stable activity time with a longer average activity time. Computer vision technology based on deep learning can effectively describe the spatial usage characteristics of the research area, making up for the shortcomings of traditional research methods and providing relevant support for creating a good public space.

Keywords: computer vision, deep learning, public spaces, using features

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Authors: Jesse Rafeiro

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This paper discusses worldbuilding as a pedagogical approach to the first-year architectural design studio. The studio ran for three consecutive terms between 2016-2018. Taking its departure from the fifty-five city narratives in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, students collectively designed in a “nowhere” space where intersecting and diverging narratives could be played out. Along with Calvino, students navigated between three main exercises and their imposed limits to develop architectural insight at three scales simulating the considerations of architectural practice: detail, building, and city. The first exercise asked each student to design and model a ruin based on randomly assigned incongruent fragments. Each student was given one plan fragment and two section fragments from different Renaissance Treatises. The students were asked to translate these in alternating axonometric projection and model-making explorations. Although the fragments themselves were imposed, students were free to interpret how the drawings fit together by imagining new details and atypical placements. An undulating terrain model was introduced in the second exercise to ground the worldbuilding exercises. Here, students were required to negotiate with one another to design a city of ruins. Free to place their models anywhere on the site, the students were restricted by the negotiation of territories marked by other students and the requirement to provide thresholds, open spaces, and corridors. The third exercise introduced new life into the ruined city through a series of design interventions. Each student was assigned an atypical building program suggesting a place for an activity, human or nonhuman. The atypical nature of the programs challenged the triviality of functional planning through explorations in spatial narratives free from preconceived assumptions. By contesting, playing out, or dreaming responses to realities taught in other coursework, this third exercise actualized learnings that are too often self-contained in the silos of differing course agendas. As such, the studio fostered an initial worldbuilding space within which to sharpen sensibility and criticality for subsequent years of education.

Keywords: architectural pedagogy, critical pedagogy, Italo Calvino, worldbuilding

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Authors: Yehia Manawi, Ahmad Kayvanifard

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Membrane distillation is an emerging technology which has been used to produce freshwater and purify different types of aqueous mixtures. Qatar is an arid country where almost 100% of its freshwater demand is supplied through the energy-intensive thermal desalination process. The country’s need for water has reached an all-time high which stipulates finding an alternative way to augment freshwater without adding any drastic affect to the environment. The objective of this paper was to investigate the potential of using the industrial low grade waste heat to produce freshwater using membrane distillation. The main part of this work was conducting a heat audit on selected Qatari chemical industries to estimate the amounts of freshwater produced if such industrial waste heat were to be recovered. By the end of this work, the main objective was met and the heat audit conducted on the Qatari chemical industries enabled us to estimate both the amounts of waste heat which can be potentially recovered in addition to the amounts of freshwater which can be produced if such waste heat were to be recovered. By the end, the heat audit showed that around 605 Mega Watts of waste heat can be recovered from the studied Qatari chemical industries which resulted in a total daily production of 5078.7 cubic meter of freshwater. This water can be used in a wide variety of applications such as human consumption or industry. The amount of produced freshwater may look small when compared to that produced through thermal desalination plants; however, one must bear in mind that this water comes from waste and can be used to supply water for small cities or remote areas which are not connected to the water grid. The idea of producing freshwater from the two widely-available wastes (thermal rejected brine and waste heat) seems promising as less environmental and economic impacts will be associated with freshwater production which may in the near future augment the conventional way of producing freshwater currently being thermal desalination. This work has shown that low grade waste heat in the chemical industries in Qatar and perhaps the rest of the world can contribute to additional production of freshwater using membrane distillation without significantly adding to the environmental impact.

Keywords: membrane distillation, desalination, heat recovery, environment

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Authors: S. A. Khan, B. Mishra, O. Sherchan

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Background and Aims: Thyroid disorder is the most common endocrine disorder after diabetes mellitus. Females are more vulnerable to this disease, and old age is an important risk factor. This study was undertaken to investigate the burden of thyroid disorder in Nepalese postmenopausal women. Methods: In the present cross-sectional study, we included 271 post-menopausal women. Three ml of blood was collected following standard protocol after taking the written consent. Serum was separated and analyzed for free T3, free T4, and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) by Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (CLIA) method in Snibe Maglumi 1000 analyzer. Data obtained was analyzed in SPSS Version 21. P < 0.05 was set for statistical significant at 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Results: Majority of the participants belong to Janjati (46.5%) ethnicity, followed by Brahmin/Chhetri (41.7%), residing either in urban or suburban locality. Most of them were non-vegetarian, non-smoker, and non-alcoholic. Subjects were divided into hyperthyroid (TSH < 0.3 uIU/ml), hypothyroid (TSH > 4.5 uIU/ml), and euthyroid (TSH=0.3-4.5 uIU/ml) based on TSH value. We reported 10.3% hyperthyroid and 29.2% hypothyroid cases. TSH was significantly correlated with T3 (r=-0.244; p < 0.001) T4 (r=-0.398; p < 0.001); age (r=-0.138; p=0.023) and BMI (r=0.123; p=0.043). Multiple linear regression model for TSH reveals only T3 and T4 were significantly associated with TSH (p < 0.001; p=0.001). Conclusion: To conclude, nearly 39.5% of the postmenopausal women had thyroid disorder. Postmenopausal women are vulnerable to thyroid disorder; therefore, requires regular thyroid monitoring.

Keywords: thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, T3, T4, thyroid disorder

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Authors: Elida Cena

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Return migration is receiving increased attention as the phenomenon challenges assumptions of natural ‘homecomings’. This talk outlines preliminary findings from an ongoing PhD study which explores return migration of Albanian migrants (aged 30-50 years) and their children (aged 7-18 years). Participants (n=51) were purposively recruited from two Albanian cities with divergent social and economic conditions, and the majority had returned from Greece following the recent economic downturn in that country. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with respondents aged 13 years and above, and were augmented with focus groups and family case studies. Data collection for case studies was aided by photo elicitation, interviews and participatory techniques (drawing) were employed for children aged 7-12 years. Through a multidisciplinary perspective, findings will uncover experiences of migrants and children upon return, the quest to identify with the originating country and create a sense of belongingness. Narrative analysis reveals that the abrupt return was associated with ambivalent feelings and disillusionment about their (re)settlement for both younger and older participants. Faced with unexpected realities and lack of opportunities, particularly for the children of migrants, Albania is viewed as a ‘transit country’, a temporary solution to escape the crisis in the destination country and move to a more developed western country. Adult return migrants articulate lack of employment and insecurity for the future. Apart from school difficulties, children experience isolation and social exclusion, marked by stigmatized labelling from other peers which exacerbates their belonging. Such mobilities have had deeper effects in complicating family relationships as influenced by many disintegration factors. Feelings of alienation and being emigrant for the second time were common in participants' accounts. Findings concerning the difficulties of individuals (re)connecting with their ethnic background and the impact on their identities are discussed in relation to the literature on return migration and identification.

Keywords: return migration, belonging, identity, disintegration, integration

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Authors: Lazurca Liliana Gina

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Different time series analysis of yearly air pollution at Suceava County, Nord-East of Romania, has been performed in this study. The trends in the atmospheric concentrations of the main gaseous and particulate pollutants in urban, industrial and rural environments across Suceava County were estimated for the period of 2008-2014. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test was used to determine the trends in the annual average concentrations of air pollutants (NO2, NO, NOx, SO2, CO, PM10, O3, C6H6). The slope was estimated using the non-parametric Sen’s method. Trend significance was assumed at the 5% significance level (p < 0.05) in the current study. During the 7 year period, trends in atmospheric concentrations may not have been monotonic, in some instances concentrations of species increased and subsequently decreased. The trend in Suceava County is to keep a low concentration of pollutants in ambient air respecting the limit values.All the results that we obtained show that Romania has taken a lot of regulatory measures to decrease the concentrations of air pollutants in the last decade, in Suceava County the air quality monitoring highlight for the most part of the analyzed pollutants decreasing trends. For the analyzed period we observed considerable improvements in background air in Suceava County.

Keywords: pollutant, trend, air quality monitoring, Mann-Kendall

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Authors: Ajibade Adeyemo

Abstract:

The paper examined local terms used for spaces, forms and building practices in southwest Nigeria as cultural semiotics. Housing has more cultural meaning than mere shelter as shown in building terms such as ‘roof over my head’. The study is significant in the study area because its people were traditionally orally centered until ‘culture contact’ led to graphical presentation and appreciation in the form of drawings which is a modern language of architecture. This semiotic study will facilitate the understanding of the wholesomeness of traditional building practices and thoughts. This is in the culture of the traditional multi-sensory appreciation of architecture, urban design and the arts. It will analyze traditional aphoristic words and terms which are like proverbs which are significant in language because of their metaphorical essence. Many of such terms in the dominant Yoruba language of the study area are oftentimes phenomenal reducing universal terms like the earth and heaven to the simple module of housing. These words could be worth investigating because they are symbolic serve as codes which are cultural tool of regional ethnic significance. Sassure’s and Pierce’s concepts of Semiotics in line with Eco’s concept of semiotics of metaphor shall be deployed.

Keywords: traditional terms, spaces, forms, artifacts, cultural semiotics, southwest

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