Search results for: spatial variation of parameterization schemes over Uganda

Authors: Rahul Patel

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Ahmedabad, a city located in western India, is experiencing rapid growth due to urbanization and industrialization. It is projected to become a metropolitan city in the near future, resulting in various construction activities. Soil testing is necessary before construction can commence, requiring construction companies and contractors to periodically conduct soil testing. The focus of this study is on the process of creating a spatial database that is digitally formatted and integrated with geotechnical data and a Geographic Information System (GIS). Building a comprehensive geotechnical (Geo)-database involves three steps: collecting borehole data from reputable sources, verifying the accuracy and redundancy of the data, and standardizing and organizing the geotechnical information for integration into the database. Once the database is complete, it is integrated with GIS, allowing users to visualize, analyze, and interpret geotechnical information spatially. Using a Topographic to Raster interpolation process in GIS, estimated values are assigned to all locations based on sampled geotechnical data values. The study area was contoured for SPT N-Values, Soil Classification, Φ-Values, and Bearing Capacity (T/m2). Various interpolation techniques were cross-validated to ensure information accuracy. This GIS map enables the calculation of SPT N-Values, Φ-Values, and bearing capacities for different footing widths and various depths. This study highlights the potential of GIS in providing an efficient solution to complex phenomena that would otherwise be tedious to achieve through other means. Not only does GIS offer greater accuracy, but it also generates valuable information that can be used as input for correlation analysis. Furthermore, this system serves as a decision support tool for geotechnical engineers.

Keywords: ArcGIS, borehole data, geographic information system, geo-database, interpolation, SPT N-value, soil classification, Φ-Value, bearing capacity

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Authors: Fanny Soulard

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Today work environment is more multicultural than ever: spatial limits have been blown out, encouraging people and ideas mobility all around the globe. Indeed, opportunities to design with culturally diverse team workers, clients, or end-users, have become within everyone's reach. We enjoy traveling to discover other civilizations, but when it comes to business, we often take for granted that our own work methodology will be generic enough to federate each party and cover the project needs. This paper aims to explore why, by skipping cultural awareness, we often create misunderstandings, frustration, and even counterproductive design. Tree lighting projects successively developed by a French lighting studio, a Vietnamese lighting studio, and an Australian Engineering company will be assessed from their concept stage to completion. All these study cases are based in Vietnam, where the construction market is equally led by local and international consultants. Core criteria such as lighting standard reference, service scope, communication tools, internal team organization, delivery package content, key priorities, and client relationship will help to spot and list when and how cultural diversity has impacted the design output and effectiveness. On the second hand, we will demonstrate through the same selected projects how intercultural intelligence tools and mindset can not only respond positively to previous situations and avoid major clashes but also turn cultural differences into a key added value to generate significant benefits for individuals, teams, and companies. By understanding the major importance of including a cultural factor within any design, intercultural intelligence will quickly turn out as a “must have” skill to be developed and acquired by any designer.

Keywords: intercultural intelligence, lighting design, work methodology, multicultural diversity

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Authors: Shruti Malviya, Chris Bowler

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Environmental processes acting at multiple spatial scales control marine diatom community structure. However, the contribution of local factors (e.g., temperature, salinity, etc.) in these highly complex systems is poorly understood. We, therefore, investigated the diatom community organization as a function of environmental predictors and determined the relative contribution of various environmental factors on the structure of marine diatoms assemblages in the world’s ocean. The dataset for this study was derived from the Tara Oceans expedition, constituting 46 sampling stations from diverse oceanic provinces. The V9 hypervariable region of 18s rDNA was organized into assemblages based on their distributional co-occurrence. Using Ward’s hierarchical clustering, nine clusters were defined. The number of ribotypes and reads varied within each cluster-three clusters (II, VIII and IX) contained only a few reads whereas two of them (I and IV) were highly abundant. Of the nine clusters, seven can be divided into two categories defined by a positive correlation with phosphate and nitrate and a negative correlation with longitude and, the other by a negative correlation with salinity, temperature, latitude and positive correlation with Lyapunov exponent. All the clusters were found to be remarkably dominant in South Pacific Ocean and can be placed into three classes, namely Southern Ocean-South Pacific Ocean clusters (I, II, V, VIII, IX), South Pacific Ocean clusters (IV and VII), and cosmopolitan clusters (III and VI). Our findings showed that co-occurring ribotypes can be significantly associated into recognizable clusters which exhibit a distinct response to environmental variables. This study, thus, demonstrated distinct behavior of each recognized assemblage displaying a taxonomic and environmental signature.

Keywords: assemblage, diatoms, hierarchical clustering, Tara Oceans

Procedia PDF Downloads 189

Authors: Sung Uk Ryu, Byoung Gook Jeon, Sung-Jae Yi, Dong-Jin Euh

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In such passive safety injection systems in the nuclear power plant as Core Makeup Tank (CMT) and Hybrid Safety Injection Tank, various thermal-hydraulic phenomena including the direct contact condensation of steam and the thermal stratification of coolant occur. These phenomena are also closely related to the performance of the system. Depending on the condensation rate of the steam injected to the tank, the injection of the coolant and pressure equalizing timings of the tank are decided. The steam injected to the tank from the upper nozzle penetrates the coolant and induces a direct contact condensation. In the present study, the direct contact condensation of steam and the thermal mixing between the steam and coolant were examined by using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. Especially, by altering the size of the nozzle from which the steam is injected, the influence of steam injection velocity on the thermal mixing with coolant and condensation shall be comprehended, while also investigating the influence of condensation on the pressure variation inside the tank. Even though the amounts of steam inserted were the same in three different nozzle size conditions, it was found that the velocity of pressure rise becomes lower as the steam injection area decreases. Also, as the steam injection area increases, the thickness of the zone within which the coolant’s temperature decreases. Thereby, the amount of steam condensed by the direct contact condensation also decreases. The results derived from the present study can be utilized for the detailed design of a passive safety injection system, as well as for modeling the direct contact condensation triggered by the steam jet’s penetration into the coolant.

Keywords: passive safety injection systems, steam penetration, direct contact condensation, particle image velocimetry

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Authors: Amit Kumar, Bhupendra Pratap Singh, Manoj Singh, Monika Punia, Krishan Kumar, V. K. Jain

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Ambient concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were investigated in order to find out temporal variations and their ozone forming potentials (OFP) at rural site in Delhi National Capital Region during summer 2013. Sampling was performed for continuous five days, to identify the differences in working days and weekend VOCs concentration levels. Sampling and analytical procedure for VOCs were done using National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) standard method. On each sampling day, VOCs samples were collected for 3-hours in the morning, afternoon and evening. There has been observed a noticeable contrast in the concentration of VOCs levels between working days and weekend. However, most of the VOCs showed diurnal fluctuations with higher concentrations in the morning and evening as compared to afternoon which might be due to change in meteorology. The results showed that mean toluene/benzene and m-/p-xylene/benzene ratios were higher in the afternoon while it was lower during morning and evening. The relative contribution of the VOCs to ozone formation, total propylene equivalent concentrations and OFP were calculated. Toluene was the most contributing organic contaminant to ozone formation as well as ambient VOCs concentrations. Results obtained in current study demonstrate that ozone formation at rural site in Delhi is probably limited by the emissions of VOCs.

Keywords: VOCs, rural, NIOSH, ozone forming potential, propylene equivalent concentration

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Authors: Hadas Sopher, Davide Schaumann, Yehuda E. Kalay

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This paper addresses the shortcomings of architectural computation tools in representing human behavior in built environments, prior to construction and occupancy of those environments. Evaluating whether a design fits the needs of its future users is currently done solely post construction, or is based on the knowledge and intuition of the designer. This issue is of high importance when designing complex buildings such as hospitals, where the quality of treatment as well as patient and staff satisfaction are of major concern. Existing computational pre-occupancy human behavior evaluation methods are geared mainly to test ergonomic issues, such as wheelchair accessibility, emergency egress, etc. As such, they rely on Agent Based Modeling (ABM) techniques, which emphasize the individual user. Yet we know that most human activities are social, and involve a number of actors working together, which ABM methods cannot handle. Therefore, we present an event-based model that manages the interaction between multiple Actors, Spaces, and Activities, to describe dynamically how people use spaces. This approach requires expanding the computational representation of Actors beyond their physical description, to include psychological, social, cultural, and other parameters. The model presented in this paper includes cognitive abilities and rules that describe the response of actors to their physical and social surroundings, based on the actors’ internal status. The model has been applied in a simulation of hospital wards, and showed adaptability to a wide variety of situated behaviors and interactions.

Keywords: agent based modeling, architectural design evaluation, event modeling, human behavior simulation, spatial cognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Rowane May A. Fesalbon, Greyland C. Agno, Jodel L. Cuasay, Dindo A. Malonzo, Ma. Rosario Concepcion O. Ang

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The Department of Energy of the Republic of the Philippines estimates that the country’s energy reserves for 2015 are dwindling– observed in the rotating power outages in several localities. To aid in the energy crisis, a national hydropower resource assessment scheme is developed. Hydropower is a resource that is derived from flowing water and difference in elevation. It is a renewable energy resource that is deemed abundant in the Philippines – being an archipelagic country that is rich in bodies of water and water resources. The objectives of this study is to develop a methodology for a national hydropower resource assessment using hydrologic modeling and geospatial techniques in order to generate resource maps for future reference and use of the government and other stakeholders. The methodology developed for this purpose is focused on two models – the implementation of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the river discharge and the use of geospatial techniques to analyze the topography and obtain the head, and generate the theoretical hydropower potential sites. The methodology is highly coupled with Geographic Information Systems to maximize the use of geodatabases and the spatial significance of the determined sites. The hydrologic model used in this workflow is SWAT integrated in the GIS software ArcGIS. The head is determined by a developed algorithm that utilizes a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-derived digital elevation model (DEM) which has a resolution of 10-meters. The initial results of the developed workflow indicate hydropower potential in the river reaches ranging from pico (less than 5 kW) to mini (1-3 MW) theoretical potential.

Keywords: ArcSWAT, renewable energy, hydrologic model, hydropower, GIS

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Authors: A. ElZawam, D. McLean, A. Tibary

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In alpaca, age at puberty is variable and the factors regulating the pattern of puberty and sexual maturation are a subject of controversy. Plasma testosterone level is often used as an indicator of sexual maturity. Our hypothesis is that hCG treatment will cause an increase in testosterone level that is correlated with animal age. The specific aim was to investigate the testicular tissue response to a single hCG injection by monitoring the serum testosterone concentration. Eighty four (n=84) males ranging in age from 6 to 60 months were used. Alpacas were grouped based on their ages into 15 groups. Each group had three to five male animals. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein before treatment with hCG and 2 hours after intravenous administration of 3000 IU of hCG (Chorulon®). The serum was harvested and stored at -20ºC until the analysis. The effect of age on basal testosterone level and response to hCG treatment was evaluated by Analysis of Variance. As a result, basal serum testosterone concentrations were very low (<0.1ng/ml) until 9 months of age. Although basal serum testosterone concentrations increased steadily with age there was a significant variation amongst males within the same age group. Administration of 3000 IU of hCG, resulted in an average increase of 50% (P<0.05) in serum testosterone concentration after 2 hours. The percentage increase in serum testosterone in response to hCG stimulation varied from 51 to 81%. There was no correlation between the degree of response and age. However, the response to hCG injection presented two modes of increase depending on the age of animals. The first mode occurred at ages 9 to 14 months and the second mode was observed between 22 and 36 months. In conclusion, our results suggest that testicular growth and sensitivity to LH stimulation may be bimodal in the male alpaca with a rapid increase in growth and sensitivity between 9 and 14 months of age and a second phase of increased responsiveness after 21 months of ages.

Keywords: alpaca, testosterone, hCG, animal science

Procedia PDF Downloads 557

Authors: Kanika Taneja, V. K. Soni, Kafeel Ahmad, Shamshad Ahmad

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A severe dust storm generated from a western disturbance over north Pakistan and adjoining Afghanistan affected the north-west region of India between May 28 and 31, 2014, resulting in significant reductions in air quality and visibility. The air quality of the affected region degraded drastically. PM10 concentration peaked at a very high value of around 1018 μgm-3 during dust storm hours of May 30, 2014 at New Delhi. The present study depicts aerosol optical properties monitored during the dust days using ground based multi-wavelength Sky radiometer over the National Capital Region of India. High Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at 500 nm was observed as 1.356 ± 0.19 at New Delhi while Angstrom exponent (Alpha) dropped to 0.287 on May 30, 2014. The variation in the Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) and real n(λ) and imaginary k(λ) parts of the refractive index indicated that the dust event influences the optical state to be more absorbing. The single scattering albedo, refractive index, volume size distribution and asymmetry parameter (ASY) values suggested that dust aerosols were predominant over the anthropogenic aerosols in the urban environment of New Delhi. The large reduction in the radiative flux at the surface level caused significant cooling at the surface. Direct Aerosol Radiative Forcing (DARF) was calculated using a radiative transfer model during the dust period. A consistent increase in surface cooling was evident, ranging from -31 Wm-2 to -82 Wm-2 and an increase in heating of the atmosphere from 15 Wm-2 to 92 Wm-2 and -2 Wm-2 to 10 Wm-2 at top of the atmosphere.

Keywords: aerosol optical properties, dust storm, radiative transfer model, sky radiometer

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Authors: Halima Kilungu, Pantaleo, K. T. Munishi

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Climate and land-cover change affect nature-based tourism (NBT) due to its attractions' close connection to natural environments and climate. Thus, knowledge of how each attraction reacts to the changing environments and devising simple yet science based approaches to respond to these changes from a tourism perspective in space and time is timely. Nevertheless, no specific approaches exist to address the knowledge gap. The eco-parcel approach is devised to address the gap and operationalized in Serengeti and Kilimanjaro National Parks: the most climate-sensitive NBT destinations in Africa. The approach is partly descriptive and has three simple steps: (1) to identify and define tourist attractions (i.e. biotic and abiotic attractions). This creates an important database of the most poorly kept information on attractions' types in NBT destinations. (2) To create a spatial and temporal link of each attraction and describe its characteristic environments (e.g. vegetation, soil, water and rock outcrops). This is the most limited attractions' information yet important as a proxy of changes in attractions. (3) To assess the importance of individual attractions for tourism based on tourists' preferences. This information enables an accurate assessment of the value of individual attractions for tourism. The importance of the eco-parcel approach is that it describes how each attraction emerges from and is connected to specific environments, which define its attractiveness in space and time. This information allows accurate assessment of the likely losses or gains of individual attractions when climate or environment changes in specific destinations and equips tourism stakeholders with informed responses.

Keywords: climate change, environmental change, nature-based tourism, Serengeti National Park, Kilimanjaro National Park

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Authors: Jerzy Banski

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Small towns represent a key element of settlement structure and serve a number of important functions associated with the servicing of rural areas that surround them. It is in light of this that scientific studies have paid considerable attention to the functional structure of centers of this kind, as well as the relationships with both surrounding rural areas and other urban centers. But a preliminary to such research has typically involved attempts at classifying the urban centers themselves, with this also assisting with the planning and shaping of development policy on different spatial scales. The purpose of the work is to test out the methods underpinning three different classifications of small urban centers, as well as to offer a preliminary interpretation of the outcomes obtained. Research took in 722 settlement units in Poland, granted town rights and populated by fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. A morphologically-based classification making reference to the database of topographic objects as regards land cover within the administrative boundaries of towns and cities was carried out, and it proved possible to distinguish the categories of “housing-estate”, industrial and R&R towns, as well as towns characterized by dichotomy. Equally, a functional/morphological approach taken with the same database allowed for the identification – via an alternative method – of three main categories of small towns (i.e., the monofunctional, multifunctional or oligo functional), which could then be described in far greater detail. A third, multi-criterion classification made simultaneous reference to the conditioning of a structural, a location-related, and an administrative hierarchy-related nature, allowing for distinctions to be drawn between small towns in 9 different categories. The results obtained allow for multifaceted analysis and interpretation of the geographical differentiation characterizing the distribution of Poland’s urban centers across space in the country.

Keywords: small towns, classification, local planning, Poland

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Authors: Xiaohua Zhu, Lingling Ma, Yongguang Zhao

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Leaf Area Index (LAI) is a key structural characteristic of crops and plays a significant role in precision agricultural management and farmland ecosystem modeling. However, LAI retrieved from different resolution data contain a scaling bias due to the spatial heterogeneity and model non-linearity, that is, there is scale effect during multi-scale LAI estimate. In this article, a typical farmland in semi-arid regions of Chinese Inner Mongolia is taken as the study area, based on the combination of PROSPECT model and SAIL model, a multiple dimensional Look-Up-Table (LUT) is generated for multiple crops LAI estimation from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral data. Based on Taylor expansion method and computational geometry model, a scale transfer model considering both difference between inter- and intra-class is constructed for scale effect analysis of LAI inversion over inhomogeneous surface. The results indicate that, (1) the LUT method based on classification and parameter sensitive analysis is useful for LAI retrieval of corn, potato, sunflower and melon on the typical farmland, with correlation coefficient R2 of 0.82 and root mean square error RMSE of 0.43m2/m-2. (2) The scale effect of LAI is becoming obvious with the decrease of image resolution, and maximum scale bias is more than 45%. (3) The scale effect of inter-classes is higher than that of intra-class, which can be corrected efficiently by the scale transfer model established based Taylor expansion and Computational geometry. After corrected, the maximum scale bias can be reduced to 1.2%.

Keywords: leaf area index (LAI), scale effect, UAV-based hyperspectral data, look-up-table (LUT), remote sensing

Procedia PDF Downloads 429

Authors: Andy Zhang, Awnik Roy, Trevor B. Chen, Bibik Oleksandar, Subodh Adhikari, Paul S. Hsu

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The durability of a combustor in gas-turbine engines is a strong function of its component temperatures and requires good control of these temperatures. Since the temperature of combustion gases frequently exceeds the melting point of the combustion liner walls, an efficient air-cooling system with optimized flow rates of cooling air is significantly important to elongate the lifetime of liner walls. To determine the effectiveness of the air-cooling system, accurate two-dimensional (2D) surface temperature measurement of combustor liner walls is crucial for advanced engine development. Traditional diagnostic techniques for temperature measurement in this application include the rmocouples, thermal wall paints, pyrometry, and phosphors. They have shown some disadvantages, including being intrusive and affecting local flame/flow dynamics, potential flame quenching, and physical damages to instrumentation due to harsh environments inside the combustor and strong optical interference from strong combustion emission in UV-Mid IR wavelength. To overcome these drawbacks, a compact and small borescope long-wave-infrared (LWIR) sensor is developed to achieve 2D high-spatial resolution, high-fidelity thermal imaging of 2D surface temperature in gas-turbine engines, providing the desired engine component temperature distribution. The compactLWIRborescope sensor makes it feasible to promote the durability of a combustor in gas-turbine engines and, furthermore, to develop more advanced gas-turbine engines.

Keywords: borescope, engine, low-wave-infrared, sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Mustafa Salman, Nurcan Cetinkaya, Zehra Selcuk, Bugra Genc

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The objectives of the present study were to estimate the microbial-N flow to the small intestine and to predict the digestible organic matter intake (DOMI) in grazing Karayaka sheep based on urinary excretion of purine derivatives (xanthine, hypoxanthine, uric acid, and allantoin) by the use of spot urine sampling under field conditions. In the trial, 10 Karayaka sheep from 2 to 3 years of age were used. The animals were grazed in a pasture for ten months and fed with concentrate and vetch plus oat hay for the other two months (January and February) indoors. Highly significant linear and cubic relationships (P<0.001) were found among months for purine derivatives index, purine derivatives excretion, purine derivatives absorption, microbial-N and DOMI. Through urine sampling and the determination of levels of excreted urinary PD and Purine Derivatives / Creatinine ratio (PDC index), microbial-N values were estimated and they indicated that the protein nutrition of the sheep was insufficient. In conclusion, the prediction of protein nutrition of sheep under the field conditions may be possible with the use of spot urine sampling, urinary excreted PD and PDC index. The mean purine derivative levels in spot urine samples from sheep were highest in June, July and October. Protein nutrition of pastured sheep may be affected by weather changes, including rainfall. Spot urine sampling may useful in modeling the feed consumption of pasturing sheep. However, further studies are required under different field conditions with different breeds of sheep to develop spot urine sampling as a model.

Keywords: Karayaka sheep, spot sampling, urinary purine derivatives, PDC index, microbial-N, feed intake

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Authors: Hamdi Beji, Toufik Kanit, Tanguy Messager

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This study aims to construct a predictive model proficient in foreseeing the linear elastic and thermal characteristics of composite materials, drawing on a multitude of influencing parameters. These parameters encompass the shape of inclusions (circular, elliptical, square, triangle), their spatial coordinates within the matrix, orientation, volume fraction (ranging from 0.05 to 0.4), and variations in contrast (spanning from 10 to 200). A variety of machine learning techniques are deployed, including decision trees, random forests, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors, and an artificial neural network (ANN), to facilitate this predictive model. Moreover, this research goes beyond the predictive aspect by delving into an inverse analysis using genetic algorithms. The intent is to unveil the intrinsic characteristics of composite materials by evaluating their thermomechanical responses. The foundation of this research lies in the establishment of a comprehensive database that accounts for the array of input parameters mentioned earlier. This database, enriched with this diversity of input variables, serves as a bedrock for the creation of machine learning and genetic algorithm-based models. These models are meticulously trained to not only predict but also elucidate the mechanical and thermal conduct of composite materials. Remarkably, the coupling of machine learning and genetic algorithms has proven highly effective, yielding predictions with remarkable accuracy, boasting scores ranging between 0.97 and 0.99. This achievement marks a significant breakthrough, demonstrating the potential of this innovative approach in the field of materials engineering.

Keywords: machine learning, composite materials, genetic algorithms, mechanical and thermal proprieties

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Authors: Rupita Ghosh, Ritwik Sarkar, Sumit K. Pal, Soumitra Paul

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The use of Hydroxyapatite bioceramics as restorative implants is widely known. These materials can be manufactured by pressing and sintering route to a particular shape. However machining processes are still a basic requirement to give a near net shape to those implants for ensuring dimensional and geometrical accuracy. In this context, optimising the machining parameters is an important factor to understand the machinability of the materials and to reduce the production cost. In the present study a method has been optimized to produce true particulate drilled composite of Hydroxyapatite Yttrium Phosphate. The phosphates are used in varying ratio for a comparative study on the effect of flexural strength, hardness, machining (drilling) parameters and bioactivity.. The maximum flexural strength and hardness of the composite that could be attained are 46.07 MPa and 1.02 GPa respectively. Drilling is done with a conventional radial drilling machine aided with dynamometer with high speed steel (HSS) and solid carbide (SC) drills. The effect of variation in drilling parameters (cutting speed and feed), cutting tool, batch composition on torque, thrust force and tool wear are studied. It is observed that the thrust force and torque varies greatly with the increase in the speed, feed and yttrium phosphate content in the composite. Significant differences in the thrust and torque are noticed due to the change of the drills as well. Bioactivity study is done in simulated body fluid (SBF) upto 28 days. The growth of the bone like apatite has become denser with the increase in the number of days for all the composition of the composites and it is comparable to that of the pure hydroxyapatite.

Keywords: Bioactivity, Drilling, Hydroxyapatite, Yttrium Phosphate

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Authors: Lucero Luciano, Cesar Celis, Jose Ramos

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Polygeneration improves energy efficiency and reduce both energy consumption and pollutant emissions compared to conventional generation technologies. A polygeneration system is a variation of a cogeneration one, in which more than two outputs, i.e., heat, power, cooling, water, energy or fuels, are accounted for. In particular, polygeneration systems integrating solar energy and water desalination represent promising technologies for energy production and water supply. They are therefore interesting options for coastal regions with a high solar potential, such as those located in southern Peru and northern Chile. Notice that most of the Peruvian and Chilean mining industry operations intensive in electricity and water consumption are located in these particular regions. Accordingly, this work focus on the design and integration of a polygeneration system producing industrial heating, cooling, electrical power and water for an industrial plant. The design procedure followed in this work involves integer linear programming modeling (MILP), operational planning and dynamic operating conditions. The technical and economic feasibility of integrating renewable energy technologies (photovoltaic and solar thermal, PV+CPS), thermal energy store, power and thermal exchange, absorption chillers, cogeneration heat engines and desalination technologies is particularly assessed. The polygeneration system integration carried out seek to minimize the system total annual cost subject to CO2 emissions restrictions. Particular economic aspects accounted for include investment, maintenance and operating costs.

Keywords: desalination, design and integration, polygeneration systems, renewable energy

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Authors: Constantin Haita

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The chalcolithic tell settlements from south-eastern Romania, attributed to Gumelnița culture, are characterised by a well-defined surface, marked often by delimitation structures, a succession of many layers of construction, destruction, and rebuilding, and a well-structured area of occupation: built spaces, passage areas, waste zones. Settlements of tell type are located in the river valleys –on erosion remnants, alluvial bars or small islands, at the border of the valleys– on edges or prominences of Pleistocene terraces, lower Holocene terraces, and banks of lakes. This study integrates data on the geographical position, the morphological background, and the general stratigraphy of these important settlements. The correlation of the spatial distribution with the geomorphological units of each area of evolution creates an image of the natural landscape in which they occurred. The sedimentological researches achieved in the floodplain area of Balta Ialomiței showed important changes in the alluvial activity of Danube, after the Chalcolithic period (ca. 6500 - 6000 BP), to Iron Age and Middle Ages. The micromorphological analysis, consisting in thin section interpretation, at the microscopic scale, of sediments and soils in an undisturbed state, allowed the interpretation of the identified sedimentary facies, in terms of mode of formation and anthropic activities. Our studied cases reflect some distinct situations, correlating either with the geomorphological background or with the vertical development, the presence of delimiting structures and the internal organization. The characteristics of tells from this area bring significant information about the human habitation of Lower Danube in Prehistory.

Keywords: chalcolithic, micromorphology, Romania, sedimentology, tell settlements

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Authors: Luh Eka Suryani, Purhadi

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Poisson regression is a non-linear regression model with response variable in the form of count data that follows Poisson distribution. Modeling for a pair of count data that show high correlation can be analyzed by Poisson Bivariate Regression. Data, the number of infant mortality and maternal mortality, are count data that can be analyzed by Poisson Bivariate Regression. The Poisson regression assumption is an equidispersion where the mean and variance values are equal. However, the actual count data has a variance value which can be greater or less than the mean value (overdispersion and underdispersion). Violations of this assumption can be overcome by applying Generalized Poisson Regression. Characteristics of each regency can affect the number of cases occurred. This issue can be overcome by spatial analysis called geographically weighted regression. This study analyzes the number of infant mortality and maternal mortality based on conditions in East Java in 2016 using Geographically Weighted Bivariate Generalized Poisson Regression (GWBGPR) method. Modeling is done with adaptive bisquare Kernel weighting which produces 3 regency groups based on infant mortality rate and 5 regency groups based on maternal mortality rate. Variables that significantly influence the number of infant and maternal mortality are the percentages of pregnant women visit health workers at least 4 times during pregnancy, pregnant women get Fe3 tablets, obstetric complication handled, clean household and healthy behavior, and married women with the first marriage age under 18 years.

Keywords: adaptive bisquare kernel, GWBGPR, infant mortality, maternal mortality, overdispersion

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Authors: Claus Bier, Dennis Binder, Alexander Gruenberger, Dagmar Drobietz, Dietrich Kohlheyer, Anita Loeschcke, Karl Erich Jaeger, Thomas Drepper, Joerg Pietruszka

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Light absorbing chromophoric systems are important optogenetic tools for biotechnical and biophysical investigations. Processes such as fluorescence or photolysis can be triggered by light-absorption of chromophores. These play a central role in life science. Photocaged compounds belong to such chromophoric systems. The photo-labile protecting groups enable them to release biologically active substances with high temporal and spatial resolution. The properties of photocaged compounds are specified by the characteristics of the caging group as well as the characteristics of the linked effector molecule. In our research, we work with different types of photo-labile protecting groups and various effector molecules giving us possible access to a large library of caged compounds. As a function of the caged effector molecule, a nearly limitless number of biological systems can be directed. Our main interest focusses on photocaging carbohydrates (e.g. arabinose) and their derivatives as effector molecules. Based on these resulting photocaged compounds a precisely controlled photoinduced gene expression will give us access to studies of numerous biotechnological and synthetic biological applications. It could be shown, that the regulation of gene expression via light is possible with photocaged carbohydrates achieving a higher-order control over this processes. With the one-step cleavable photocaged carbohydrate, a homogeneous expression was achieved in comparison to free carbohydrates.

Keywords: bacterial gene expression, biotechnology, caged compounds, carbohydrates, optogenetics, photo-removable protecting group

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Authors: Belgherbi Aicha, Bessaid Abdelhafid

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In the recent years a great deal of research work has been devoted to the development of semi-automatic and automatic techniques for the analysis of abdominal CT images. The first and fundamental step in all these studies is the semi-automatic liver and spleen segmentation that is still an open problem. In this paper, a semi-automatic liver and spleen segmentation method by the mathematical morphology based on watershed algorithm has been proposed. Our algorithm is currency in two parts. In the first, we seek to determine the region of interest by applying the morphological to extract the liver and spleen. The second step consists to improve the quality of the image gradient. In this step, we propose a method for improving the image gradient to reduce the over-segmentation problem by applying the spatial filters followed by the morphological filters. Thereafter we proceed to the segmentation of the liver, spleen. The aim of this work is to develop a method for semi-automatic segmentation liver and spleen based on watershed algorithm, improve the accuracy and the robustness of the liver and spleen segmentation and evaluate a new semi-automatic approach with the manual for liver segmentation. To validate the segmentation technique proposed, we have tested it on several images. Our segmentation approach is evaluated by comparing our results with the manual segmentation performed by an expert. The experimental results are described in the last part of this work. The system has been evaluated by computing the sensitivity and specificity between the semi-automatically segmented (liver and spleen) contour and the manually contour traced by radiological experts. Liver segmentation has achieved the sensitivity and specificity; sens Liver=96% and specif Liver=99% respectively. Spleen segmentation achieves similar, promising results sens Spleen=95% and specif Spleen=99%.

Keywords: CT images, liver and spleen segmentation, anisotropic diffusion filter, morphological filters, watershed algorithm

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Authors: Vijay S. Katta, Vinod Kushwah, Rudraksh Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Gaur, Priti Dimri, Ashok Kumar Sharma

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The formation process of seismic activities because of abrupt slip on faults, tectonic plate moments due to accumulated stress in the Earth’s crust. The prediction of seismic activity is a very challenging task. We have studied the changes in surface latent heat temperatures which are observed prior to significant earthquakes have been investigated and could be considered for short term earthquake prediction. We analyzed the surface latent heat temperature (SLHT) variation for inland earthquakes occurred in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh (32.5 N, 76.1E, M-4.5, depth-5km) nearby the main boundary fault region, the data of SLHT have been taken from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). In this analysis, we have calculated daily variations with surface latent heat temperature (0C) in the range area 1⁰x1⁰ (~120/KM²) with the pixel covering epicenter of earthquake at the center for a three months period prior to and after the seismic activities. The mean value during that period has been considered in order to take account of the seasonal effect. The monthly mean has been subtracted from daily value to study anomalous behavior (∆SLHT) of SLHT during the earthquakes. The results found that the SLHTs adjacent the epicenters all are anomalous high value 3-5 days before the seismic activities. The abundant surface water and groundwater in the epicenter and its adjacent region can provide the necessary condition for the change of SLHT. To further confirm the reliability of SLHT anomaly, it is necessary to explore its physical mechanism in depth by more earthquakes cases.

Keywords: surface latent heat temperature, satellite data, earthquake, magnetic storm

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Authors: Kanchan Negi

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Background: Modern and urban occupational culture have driven demands for people to work long hours and weekends and take work to home at times. Research on the health effects of these exhaustive temporal work patterns is scant or contradictory. This study examines the relationship between work patterns and wellbeing in a sample of women living in the metropolitan hub of Delhi. Method: This study is based on the data collected from 360 currently married women between age 29 and 49 years, working in the urban capital hub of India, i.e., Delhi. The women interviewed were professionals from the education, health, banking and information and technology (IT) sector. Bivariate analysis was done to study the characteristics of the sample. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the physical and psychological wellbeing across occupational characteristics. Results: Most of the working women were below age 35 years; around 30% of women worked in the education sector, 23% in health, 21% in banking and 26% in the IT sector. Over 55% of women were employed in the private sector and only 36% were permanent employees. Nearly 30% of women worked for more than the standard 8 hours a day. The findings from logistic regression showed that compared to women working in the education sector, those who worked in the banking and IT sector more likely to have physical and psychological health issues (OR 2.07-4.37, CI 1.17-4.37); women who bear dual burden of responsibilities had higher odds of physical and psychological health issues than women who did not (OR 1.19-1.85 CI 0.96-2.92). Women who worked for more than 8 hours a day (OR 1.15, CI 1.01-1.30) and those who worked for more than five days a week (OR 1.25, CI 1.05-1.35) were more likely to have physical health issues than women who worked for 6-8 hours a day and five days e week, respectively. Also, not having flexible work timings and compensatory holidays increased the odds of having physical and psychological health issues among working women (OR 1.17-1.29, CI 1.01-1.47). Women who worked in the private sector, those employed temporarily and who worked in the non-conducive environments were more likely to have psychological health issues as compared to women in the public sector, permanent employees and those who worked in a conducive environment, respectively (OR 1.33-1.67, CI 1.09-2.91). Women who did not have poor work-life balance had reduced the odds of psychological health issues than women with poor work-life balance (OR 0.46, CI 0.25-0.84). Conclusion: Poor wellbeing significantly linked to strenuous and rigid work patterns, suggesting that modern and urban work culture may contribute to the poor wellbeing of working women. Noticing the recent decline in female workforce participation in Delhi, schemes like Flexi-timings, compensatory holidays, work-from-home and daycare facilities for young ones must be welcomed; these policies already exist in some private sector firms, and the public sectors companies should also adopt such changes to ease the dual burden as homemaker and career maker. This could encourage women in the urban areas to readily take up the jobs with less juggle to manage home and work.

Keywords: occupational characteristics, urban India, well-being, working women

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Authors: Przemyslaw Nogly, Tobias Weinert, Daniel James, Sergio Carbajo, Dmitry Ozerov, Antonia Furrer, Dardan Gashi, Veniamin Borin, Petr Skopintsev, Kathrin Jaeger, Karol Nass, Petra Bath, Robert Bosman, Jason Koglin, Matthew Seaberg, Thomas Lane, Demet Kekilli, Steffen Brünle, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Wenting Wu, Christopher Milne, Thomas A. White, Anton Barty, Uwe Weierstall, Valerie Panneels, Eriko Nango, So Iwata, Mark Hunter, Igor Schapiro, Gebhard Schertler, Richard Neutze, Jörg Standfuss

Abstract:

Ultrafast isomerization of retinal is the primary step in a range of photoresponsive biological functions including vision in humans and ion-transport across bacterial membranes. We studied the sub-picosecond structural dynamics of retinal isomerization in the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin using an X-ray laser. Twenty snapshots with near-atomic spatial and temporal resolution in the femtosecond regime show how the excited all-trans retinal samples conformational states within the protein binding pocket prior to passing through a highly-twisted geometry and emerging in the 13-cis conformation. The aspartic acid residues and functional water molecules in proximity of the retinal Schiff base respond collectively to formation and decay of the initial excited state and retinal isomerization. These observations reveal how the protein scaffold guides this remarkably efficient photochemical reaction.

Keywords: bacteriorhodopsin, free-electron laser, retinal isomerization mechanism, time-resolved crystallography

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Authors: Nidal Dwaikat

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This work presents the development of alpha spectroscopy method with Solid-state nuclear track detectors using aluminum thin films. The resolution of this method is high, and it is able to discriminate between alpha particles at different incident energy. It can measure the exact number of alpha particles at specific energy without needing a calibration of alpha track diameter versus alpha energy. This method was tested by using Cf-252 alpha standard source at energies 5.11 Mev, 3.86 MeV and 2.7 MeV, which produced by the variation of detector -standard source distance. On front side, two detectors were covered with two Aluminum thin films and the third detector was kept uncovered. The thickness of Aluminum thin films was selected carefully (using SRIM 2013) such that one of the films will block the lower two alpha particles (3.86 MeV and 2.7 MeV) and the alpha particles at higher energy (5.11 Mev) can penetrate the film and reach the detector’s surface. The second thin film will block alpha particles at lower energy of 2.7 MeV and allow alpha particles at higher two energies (5.11 Mev and 3.86 MeV) to penetrate and produce tracks. For uncovered detector, alpha particles at three different energies can produce tracks on it. For quality assurance and accuracy, the detectors were mounted on thick enough copper substrates to block exposure from the backside. The tracks on the first detector are due to alpha particles at energy of 5.11 MeV. The difference between the tracks number on the first detector and the tracks number on the second detector is due to alpha particles at energy of 3.8 MeV. Finally, by subtracting the tracks number on the second detector from the tracks number on the third detector (uncovered), we can find the tracks number due to alpha particles at energy 2.7 MeV. After knowing the efficiency calibration factor, we can exactly calculate the activity of standard source.

Keywords: aluminium thin film, alpha particles, copper substrate, CR-39 detector

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Authors: Jiahua Zhang, Qing Chang, Fengmei Yao

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Studying on the response of vegetation phenology to climate change at different temporal and spatial scales is important for understanding and predicting future terrestrial ecosystem dynamics andthe adaptation of ecosystems to global change. In this study, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset and climate data were used to analyze the dynamics of grassland phenology as well as their correlation with climatic factors in different eco-geographic regions and elevation units across the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that during 2003–2012, the start of the grassland greening season (SOS) appeared later while the end of the growing season (EOS) appeared earlier following the plateau’s precipitation and heat gradients from southeast to northwest. The multi-year mean value of SOS showed differences between various eco-geographic regions and was significantly impacted by average elevation and regional average precipitation during spring. Regional mean differences for EOS were mainly regulated by mean temperature during autumn. Changes in trends of SOS in the central and eastern eco-geographic regions were coupled to the mean temperature during spring, advancing by about 7d/°C. However, in the two southwestern eco-geographic regions, SOS was delayed significantly due to the impact of spring precipitation. The results also showed that the SOS occurred later with increasing elevation, as expected, with a delay rate of 0.66 d/100m. For 2003–2012, SOS showed an advancing trend in low-elevation areas, but a delayed trend in high-elevation areas, while EOS was delayed in low-elevation areas, but advanced in high-elevation areas. Grassland SOS and EOS changes may be influenced by a variety of other environmental factors in each eco-geographic region.

Keywords: grassland, phenology, MODIS, eco-geographic regions, elevation, climatic factors, Tibetan Plateau

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Authors: Mehdi Moghimi

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Doctrines associated with situational prevention considers 'place of committing crime' as one of the fundamental elements of a crime. Meanwhile, with regard to causing or having effect on a crime situation, 'place' can be one of the pivotal indices in situational prevention analyses. This study aims at examining the role of place in construction of a crime situation and explaining the relationship between 'place' and situational preventive measures and procedures. Also, how to identify high-crime places, types of high-crime places and the factors influencing their creation are among the most important secondary objectives of this article. Concerning the purpose, it is a practical study whose material has been written through a documentary method using original sources (English), books and written and translated articles etc. This article is written in two main parts. In the first section, cognitive-conceptual issues about 'place' as one of the main causes of crime situation, and its effective interaction with situational preventive measures will be reviewed. The second part of this paper will focus on criminological examination of places and critical locations of crime and provide situational preventive measures to deal with the situation. 'Crime displacement' and 'geographical distribution of benefits'are also considered as the possible consequences of implementing preventive strategies. The results of the study suggest that the inventory of offenses is distributed according to the spatial characteristics. Moreover, according to the criminological characteristics governing region or location, offenders choose the place of crime based on a logical calculation. Therefore, some locations, regions or neighborhoods are permanent places of occurring lots of crimes. As a result, considering "place", preventive measures and procedures can be systematically directed, and using the most effective ways, limited preventive resources are utilized in the most critical places. Finally, some suggestions for further research and application are provided in line with more favorable promotion of situational preventive measures.

Keywords: crime prevention, place, police crime, situational crime prevention

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Authors: Sung-Hyeon Park, Jin-Wook Jang, Hak-Sung Kim

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In recent years, Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) imaging method has been received considerable interest as a promising non-destructive technique for detection of internal defects. In comparison to other non-destructive techniques such as x-ray inspection method, scanning acoustic tomograph (SAT) and microwave inspection method, THz-TDS imaging method has many advantages: First, it can measure the exact thickness and location of defects. Second, it doesn’t require the liquid couplant while it is very crucial to deliver that power of ultrasonic wave in SAT method. Third, it didn’t damage to materials and be harmful to human bodies while x-ray inspection method does. Finally, it exhibits better spatial resolution than microwave inspection method. However, this technology couldn’t be applied to IC package because THz radiation can penetrate through a wide variety of materials including polymers and ceramics except of metals. Therefore, it is difficult to detect the defects in IC package which are composed of not only epoxy and semiconductor materials but also various metals such as copper, aluminum and gold. In this work, we proposed a special method for detecting the void in the IC package using THz-TDS imaging system. The IC package specimens for this study are prepared by Packaging Engineering Team in Samsung Electronics. Our THz-TDS imaging system has a special reflection mode called pitch-catch mode which can change the incidence angle in the reflection mode from 10 o to 70 o while the others have transmission and the normal reflection mode or the reflection mode fixed at certain angle. Therefore, to find the voids in the IC package, we investigated the appropriate angle as changing the incidence angle of THz wave emitter and detector. As the results, the voids in the IC packages were successfully detected using our THz-TDS imaging system.

Keywords: terahertz, non-destructive technique, void, IC package

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Authors: Rakesh Kumar Meena, Tanushree Chatterjee

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Okra (Abelmoschus esculentas L. Moench) or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop belonging to the Malvaceae family. Unfortunately, production and productivity of Okra are majorly affected by Yellow Vein mosaic virus (YVMV). The AO: 189 (resistant parent) X AO: 191(susceptible parent) used for the development of mapping population. The mapping population has 143 individuals (F₂:F₃). Population was characterized by physiological and pathological observations. Screening of 360 DNA markers was performed to survey for parental polymorphism between the contrasting parents’, i.e., AO: 189 and AO: 191. Out of 360; 84 polymorphic markers were used for genotyping of the mapping population. Total markers were distributed into four linkage groups (LG1, LG2, LG3, and LG4). LG3 covered the longest span (106.8cM) with maximum number of markers (27) while LG1 represented the smallest linkage group in terms of length (71.2cM). QTL identification using the composite interval mapping approach detected two prominent QTLs, QTL1 and QTL2 for resistance against YVMV disease. These QTLs were placed between the marker intervals of NBS-LRR72-Path02 and NBS-LRR06- NBS-LRR65 on linkage group 02 and linkage group 04 respectively. The LOD values of QTL1 and QTL2 were 5.7 and 6.8 which accounted for 19% and 27% of the total phenotypic variation, respectively. The findings of this study provide two linked markers which can be used as efficient diagnostic tools to distinguish between YVMV resistant and susceptible Okra cultivars/genotypes. Lines identified as highly resistant against YVMV infection can be used as donor lines for this trait. This will be instrumental in accelerating the trait improvement program in Okra and will substantially reduce the yield losses due to this viral disease.

Keywords: Okra, yellow vein mosaic virus, resistant, linkage map, QTLs

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Authors: Dembel Bonta Gebeyehu

Abstract:

In the study area, the impacts of deforestation for environmental degradation and livelihood of farmers manifest in different faces. They are more vulnerable as they depend on rain-fed agriculture and immediate natural forests. On the other hand, after planting seedling, waste disposal and management system of the plastic cover is poorly practiced and administered in the country in general and in the study area in particular. If this situation continues, the plastic waste would also accentuate land degradation. Besides, there is the absence of empirical studies conducted comprehensively on the research under study the case. The results of the study could suffice to inform any intervention schemes or to contribute to the existing knowledge on these issues. The study employed a qualitative approach based on intensive fieldwork data collected via various tools namely open-ended interviews, focus group discussion, key-informant interview and non-participant observation. The collected data was duly transcribed and latter categorized into different labels based on pre-determined themes to make further analysis. The major causes of deforestation were the expansion of agricultural land, poor administration, population growth, and the absence of conservation methods. The farmers are vulnerable to soil erosion and soil infertility culminating in low agricultural production; loss of grazing land and decline of livestock production; climate change; and deterioration of social capital. Their adaptation and coping strategies include natural conservation measures, diversification of income sources, safety-net program, and migration. Due to participatory natural resource conservation measures, soil erosion has been decreased and protected, indigenous woodlands started to regenerate. These brought farmers’ attitudinal change. The existing forestation program has many flaws. Especially, after planting seedlings, there is no mechanism for the plastic waste disposal and management. It was also found out organizational challenges among the mandated offices In the studied area, deforestation is aggravated by a number of factors, which made the farmers vulnerable. The current forestation programs are not well-planned, implemented, and coordinated. Sustainable and efficient seedling plastic cover collection and reuse methods should be devised. This is possible through creating awareness, organizing micro and small enterprises to reuse, and generate income from the collected plastic etc.

Keywords: land-cover and land-dynamics, vulnerability, adaptation strategy, mitigation strategies, sustainable plastic waste management

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