Search results for: philippine stocks exchange index

Authors: Basant H. El-Refay, Nabeel T. Faiad

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Background: The high prevalence of obesity in Egypt has a great impact on the health care system, economic and social situation. Evidence suggests that even a moderate amount of weight loss can be useful. Aim of the study: To analyze the effects of lower body positive pressure supported treadmill training, conducted with hypocaloric diet, on body composition of obese children. Methods: Thirty children aged between 8 and 14 years, were randomly assigned into two groups: intervention group (15 children) and control group (15 children). All of them were evaluated using body composition analysis through bioelectric impedance. The following parameters were measured before and after the intervention: body mass, body fat mass, muscle mass, body mass index (BMI), percentage of body fat and basal metabolic rate (BMR). The study group exercised with antigravity treadmill three times a week during 2 months, and participated in a hypocaloric diet program. The control group participated in a hypocaloric diet program only. Results: Both groups showed significant reduction in body mass, body fat mass and BMI. Only study group showed significant reduction in percentage of body fat (p = 0.0.043). Changes in muscle mass and BMR didn't reach statistical significance in both groups. No significant differences were observed between groups except for muscle mass (p = 0.049) and BMR (p = 0.042) favoring study group. Conclusion: Both programs proved effective in the reduction of obesity indicators, but lower body positive pressure supported treadmill training was more effective in improving muscle mass and BMR.

Keywords: children, hypocaloric diet, lower body positive pressure supported treadmill, obesity

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Authors: Muhammad Faisal, Zai-Jin You, Muhammad Naeem

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Concerns about the environment, public health, and the economy are raised by the fact that the world produces around 6 trillion cigarettes annually. Arguably the most pervasive forms of environmental litter, this dangerous trash must be eliminated. The researchers wanted to get an idea of how much pollution is seeping out of cigarette butts in metropolitan areas by studying their distribution and concentration. In order to accomplish this goal, the cigarette butt pollution indicator was applied in 29 different areas. The locations were monitored monthly for a full calendar year. The conditions for conducting the investigation of the venues were the same on both weekends and during the weekdays. By averaging the metal leakage ratio in various climates and the average weight of cigarette butts, we were able to estimate the total amount of heavy metal leakage. The findings revealed that the annual average value of the index for the areas that were investigated ranged from 1.38 to 10.4. According to these numbers, just 27.5% of the areas had a low pollution rating, while 43.5% had a major pollution status or worse. Weekends witnessed the largest fall (31% on average) in all locations' indices, while spring and summer saw the largest increase (26% on average) compared to autumn and winter. It was calculated that the average amount of heavy metals such as Cr, Cu, Cd, Zn, and Pb that seep into the environment from discarded cigarette butts in commercial, residential, and park areas, respectively, is 0.25 µg/m2, 0.078 µg/m2, and 0.18 µg/m2. Butt from cigarettes is one of the most prevalent forms of litter in the area that was examined. This litter is the origin of a wide variety of contaminants, including heavy metals. This toxic garbage poses a significant risk to the city.

Keywords: heavy metal, hazardous waste, waste management, litter

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Terentes Printzios Dimitrios, Loanna Gourgouli, Vlachopoulos Charalambos

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Aims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) remains one of the major causes of stroke, heart failure, sudden death and cardiovascular morbidity. Ablation techniques are becoming more appealing after the latest results of randomized trials showing the overall clinical benefit. On the other hand, imaging techniques and the frontier application of 3D printing are emerging as a valuable ally for cardiac procedures. However, no randomized trial has directly assessed the impact of preprocedural imaging and especially 3D printing guidance for AF ablation. The present study is designed to investigate for the first time the effect of 3D printing of the heart on the safety and effectiveness of the ablation procedure. Methods and design: The 3D-GALA trial is a randomized, open-label, controlled, multicentre clinical trial of 2 parallel groups designed to enroll a total of 100 patients undergoing ablation using cryo-balloon for paroxysmal and persistent AF. Patients will be randomized with a patient allocation ratio of 1: 1 to preprocedural MRI scan of the heart and 3D printing of left atrium and pulmonary veins and cryoablation versus standard cryoablation without imaging. Patients will be followed up to 6 months after the index procedure. The primary outcome measure is the reduction of radiation dose and contrast amount during pulmonary veins isolation. Secondary endpoints will include the percentage of atrial fibrillation relapse at 24h-Holter electrocardiogram monitoring at 6 months after initial treatment. Discussion: To our knowledge, the 3D-GALA trial will be the first study to provide evidence about the clinical impact of preprocedural imaging and 3D printing before cryoablation.

Keywords: atrial fibrillation, cardiac MRI, cryoablation, 3-d printing

Procedia PDF Downloads 163

Authors: S. P. Pradhan, Amulya Ratna Roul

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A number of landslides are occurring during the rainy season along Rayagada-Koraput Railway track for past three years. The track was constructed about 20 years ago. However, the protection measures are not able to control the recurring slope failures now. It leads to a loss to Indian Railway and its passengers ultimately leading to wastage of time and money. The slopes along Rayagada-Koraput track include both rock and soil slopes. The rock types include mainly Khondalite and Charnockite whereas soil slopes are mainly composed of laterite ranging from less weathered to highly weathered laterite. The field studies were carried out in one of the critical slope. Field study was followed by the kinematic analysis to assess the type of failure. Slake Durability test, Uniaxial Compression test, specific gravity test and triaxial test were done on rock samples to calculate and assess properties such as weathering index, unconfined compressive strength, density, cohesion, and friction angle. Following all the laboratory tests, rock mass rating was calculated. Further, from Kinematic analysis and Rock Mass Ratingbasic, Slope Mass Rating was proposed for each slope. The properties obtained were used to do the slope stability simulations using finite element method based modelling. After all the results, suitable protection measures, to prevent the loss due to slope failure, were suggested using the relation between Slope Mass Rating and protection measures.

Keywords: landslides, slope stability, rock mass rating, slope mass rating, numerical simulation

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Authors: Behnaz Farahani, Razieh Sotoudeh, Ali Vahdani, Hamed Abdi

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Individual differences in eating behavior can cause underweight or overweight and obesity. Thus influencing factors on children’s eating behavior such as mothers’ feeding practices are needed to be more investigated. The goals of this survey are to evaluate the association of (i) parental pressure and children’s food avoidant tendency, (ii) parental restriction and children’s food approach tendency, (iii) modeling of healthy eating in front of children and their children’s eating behavior. 760 mothers of children aged 7-10 from schools in Isfahan were asked to complete questionnaires including Child Feeding Questionnaire, Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Modeling Questionnaire, and self-administered demographic questionnaire in which mothers reported their children’s height and weight as well. Of those mothers, 745 completed the questionnaires for the children’s index (mean age: 8.513±1.112) during the 2011-2012 school year. The results of this quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional analysis indicated that “parental restriction” was positively associated with child food responsiveness (P,0.000) and food enjoyment (P,0.000) and surprisingly, it was positively associated with Food Fussiness(0.000) .Parental pressure to eat was positively associated with child satiety responsiveness (P,0.000), slowness (P,0.000), and fussiness (P,0.00) and negatively associated with Food responsiveness(p,0.000)and Enjoyment of food (p,0.002), modeling of healthy eating were positively associated with Enjoyment of food / q (p,0.000) and negatively with food fussiness (P,0.000). The results of this survey will improve interventions and maternal guidance on their feeding practices and their association with children’s eating behavior and weight.

Keywords: feeding practices, eating behavior, pressure to eat, restriction, modeling, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, food fussiness, food responsiveness, enjoyment of food

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Authors: D. Mowla, N. Rasti, P. Keshavarz

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Reduction of fossil fuels sources, increasing of pollution gases emission, and global warming effects increase the demand of renewable fuels. One of the main candidates of alternative fuels is biodiesel. Biodiesel limits greenhouse gas effects due to the closed CO₂ cycle. Biodiesel has more biodegradability, lower combustion emissions such as CO, SO_x, HC, PM and lower toxicity than petro diesel. However, biodiesel has high production cost due to high price of plant oils as raw material. So, the utilization of waste cooking oils (WCOs) as feedstock, due to their low price and disposal problems reduce biodiesel production cost. In this study, production of biodiesel by transesterification of methanol and WCO using modified sodic potassic (SP) clinoptilolite zeolite and sodic potassic calcic (SPC) clinoptilolite zeolite as heterogeneous catalysts have been investigated. These natural clinoptilolite zeolites were modified by KOH solution to increase the site activity. The optimum biodiesel yields for SP clinoptilolite and SPC clinoptilolite were 95.8% and 94.8%, respectively. Produced biodiesel were analyzed and compared with petro diesel and ASTM limits. The properties of produced biodiesel confirm well with ASTM limits. The density, kinematic viscosity, cetane index, flash point, cloud point, and pour point of produced biodiesel were all higher than petro diesel but its acid value was lower than petro diesel. Finally, the reusability and regeneration of catalysts were investigated. The results indicated that the spent zeolites cannot be reused directly for the transesterification, but they can be regenerated easily and can obtain high activity.

Keywords: biodiesel, renewable fuel, transesterification, waste cooking oil

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Authors: Marilia Correa Parecis De Oliveira

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This research looks at the novel Miguel e os demônios (2009), by the contemporary Brazilian author Lourenço Mutarelli. In it, the presence of film language resources is remarkable, creating thus a kind of scripted writing. We intend to analyze the presence of film language in work under study, in which there is a mixture of the characteristics of the novel and screenplay genres, trying to explore which aesthetic and meaning effects of the ownership of a visual language for the creation of a literary text create in the novel. The objective of this research is to identify and analyze the formal and thematic aspects that characterize the hybridity of literature and film in the novel by Lourenço Mutarelli. The method employed comprises reading and production cataloging of theoretical and critical texts, literary and film theory, historical review about the author, and also the realization of an analytical and interpretative reading of novel. In Miguel e os demônios there is a range of formal and thematic elements of popular narrative genres such as the detective story and action film, with a predominance of verb forms in the present and NPs - features that tend to make present the narrated scenes, as in the cinema. The novel, in this sense, is located in an intermediate position between the literary text and the pre-film text, as though filled with proper elements of the language of film, you can not fit it categorically in the genre script, since it does not reduce the script because aspires to be read as a novel. Therefore, the difficulty of fitting the work in a single gender also refused to be extra-textual factors - such as your publication as novel - but, rather, by the binary classifications serve solely to imprison the work on a label, which impoverish not only reading the text, as also the possibility of recognizing literature as a constant dialogue space and interaction with other media. We can say, therefore, that frame the work Miguel e os demônios in one of the two genres (novel or screenplay) proves not enough, since the text is revealed a hybrid narrative, consisting in a kind of scripted writing. In this sense, it is like a text that is born in a society saturated by audiovisual in their daily lives in order to be consumed by readers who, in ascending scale, exchange books by visual narratives. However, the novel uses film's resources without giving up its constitution as literature; on the contrary, it enriches the visual and linguistically, dialoguing with the complex contemporary horizon marked by the cultural industry.

Keywords: Brazilian literature, cinema, Lourenço Mutarelli, screenplay

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Authors: Dejen Alemu, Murray E. Jennex, Temtim Assefa

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This paper is investigated to understand the design, the use, and the consequence of Knowledge Management System (KMS) for knowledge systems sharing and integration. A KMS for knowledge systems sharing and integration is designed to meet the challenges raised by knowledge management researchers and practitioners: the technical, the human, and social factors. Agricultural KMS involves various members coming from different Communities of Practice (CoPs) who possess their own knowledge of multiple practices which need to be combined in the system development. However, the current development of the technology ignored the indigenous knowledge of the local communities, which is the key success factor for agriculture. This research employed the multi-methodological approach to KMS research in action research perspective which consists of four strategies: theory building, experimentation, observation, and system development. Using the KMS development practice of Ethiopian agricultural transformation agency as a case study, this research employed an interpretive analysis using primary qualitative data acquired through in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The Orlikowski's structuration model of technology has been used to understand the design, the use, and the consequence of the KMS. As a result, the research identified three basic components for the architecture of the shared KMS, namely, the people, the resources, and the implementation subsystems. The KMS were developed using web 2.0 tools to promote knowledge sharing and integration among diverse groups of users in a distributed environment. The use of a shared KMS allows users to access diverse knowledge from a number of users in different groups of participants, enhances the exchange of different forms of knowledge and experience, and creates high interaction and collaboration among participants. The consequences of a shared KMS on the social system includes, the elimination of hierarchical structure, enhance participation, collaboration, and negotiation among users from different CoPs having common interest, knowledge and skill development, integration of diverse knowledge resources, and the requirement of policy and guideline. The research contributes methodologically for the application of system development action research for understanding a conceptual framework for KMS development and use. The research have also theoretical contribution in extending structuration model of technology for the incorporation of variety of knowledge and practical implications to provide management understanding in developing strategies for the potential of web 2.0 tools for sharing and integration of indigenous knowledge.

Keywords: communities of practice, indigenous knowledge, participation, structuration model of technology, Web 2.0 tools

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Authors: Hassnen M. Jafer, W. Atherton, F. Ruddock

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This paper represents the results of experimental work to investigate the suitability of a waste material (WM) for soft soil stabilisation. In addition, the effect of particle size distribution (PSD) of the waste material on its performance as a soil stabiliser was investigated. The WM used in this study is produced from the incineration processes in domestic energy power plant and it is available in two different grades of fineness (coarse waste material (CWM) and fine waste material (FWM)). An intermediate plasticity silty clayey soil with medium organic matter content has been used in this study. The suitability of the CWM and FWM to improve the physical and engineering properties of the selected soil was evaluated dependant on the results obtained from the consistency limits, compaction characteristics (optimum moisture content (OMC) and maximum dry density (MDD)); along with the unconfined compressive strength test (UCS). Different percentages of CWM were added to the soft soil (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15%) to produce various admixtures. Then the UCS test was carried out on specimens under different curing periods (zero, 7, 14, and 28 days) to find the optimum percentage of CWM. The optimum and other two percentages (either side of the optimum content) were used for FWM to evaluate the effect of the fineness of the WM on UCS of the stabilised soil. Results indicated that both types of the WM used in this study improved the physical properties of the soft soil where the index of plasticity (IP) was decreased significantly. IP was decreased from 21 to 13.64 and 13.10 with 12% of CWM and 15% of FWM respectively. The results of the unconfined compressive strength test indicated that 12% of CWM was the optimum and this percentage developed the UCS value from 202kPa to 500kPa for 28 days cured samples, which is equal, approximately 2.5 times the UCS value for untreated soil. Moreover, this percentage provided 1.4 times the value of UCS for stabilized soil-CWA by using FWM which recorded just under 700kPa after 28 days curing.

Keywords: soft soil stabilisation, waste materials, fineness, unconfined compressive strength

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Authors: Adel S. Alanazi

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The transition of a student with a disability from school to work is the most crucial phase while moving from the stage of adolescence into early adulthood. In this process, young individuals face various difficulties and challenges in order to accomplish the next venture of life successfully. In this respect, this paper aims to examine the challenges encountered by the individuals with intellectual disabilities in transition to work in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, this study has undertaken a qualitative research-based methodology; wherein interpretivist philosophy has been followed along with inductive approach and exploratory research design. The data for the research has been gathered with the help of semi-structured interviews, whose findings are analysed with the help of thematic analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of persons with intellectual disabilities, officials, supervisors and specialists of two vocational rehabilitation centres providing training to intellectually disabled students, in addition to that, directors of companies and websites in hiring those individuals. The total number of respondents for the interview was 15. The purposive sampling method was used to select the respondents for the interview. This sampling method is a non-probability sampling method which draws respondents from a known population and allows flexibility and suitability in selecting the participants for the study. The findings gathered from the interview revealed that the lack of awareness among their parents regarding the rights of their children who are intellectually disabled; the lack of adequate communication and coordination between various entities; concerns regarding their training and subsequent employment are the key difficulties experienced by the individuals with intellectual disabilities. Training in programmes such as bookbinding, carpentry, computing, agriculture, electricity and telephone exchange operations were involved as key training programmes. The findings of this study also revealed that information technology and media were playing a significant role in smoothing the transition to employment of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Furthermore, religious and cultural attitudes have been identified to be restricted for people with such disabilities in seeking advantages from job opportunities. On the basis of these findings, it can be implied that the information gathered through this study will serve to be highly beneficial for Saudi Arabian schools/ rehabilitation centres for individuals with intellectual disability to facilitate them in overcoming the problems they encounter during the transition to work.

Keywords: intellectual disability, transition services, rehabilitation centre, employment

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Authors: Alexandros Pournaras, Anastasia Papadopoulou, Serafim Kontos, Anastasios Karakostas

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The air quality of modern cities is an important concern, as poor air quality contributes to human health and environmental issues. Reliable air quality forecasting has, thus, gained scientific and governmental attention as an essential tool that enables authorities to take proactive measures for public safety. In this study, the potential of Machine Learning (ML) models to forecast PM2.5 at local scale is investigated in the city of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, which has been struggling with the persistent issue of air pollution. ML models, with proven ability to address timeseries forecasting, are employed to predict the PM2.5 concentrations and the respective Air Quality Index 5-days ahead by learning from daily historical air quality and meteorological data from 2014 to 2016 and gathered from two stations with different land use characteristics in the urban fabric of Thessaloniki. The performance of the ML models on PM2.5 concentrations is evaluated with common statistical methods, such as R squared (r²) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), utilizing a portion of the stations’ measurements as test set. A multi-categorical evaluation is utilized for the assessment of their performance on respective AQIs. Several conclusions were made from the experiments conducted. Experimenting on MLs’ configuration revealed a moderate effect of various parameters and training schemas on the model’s predictions. Their performance of all these models were found to produce satisfactory results on PM2.5 concentrations. In addition, their application on untrained stations showed that these models can perform well, indicating a generalized behavior. Moreover, their performance on AQI was even better, showing that the MLs can be used as predictors for AQI, which is the direct information provided to the general public.

Keywords: Air Quality, AQ Forecasting, AQI, Machine Learning, PM2.5

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Authors: Gorazd Karer

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When performing a diagnostic procedure or surgery in general anesthesia (GA), a proper introduction and dosing of anesthetic agents are one of the main tasks of the anesthesiologist. However, depth of anesthesia (DoA) also seems to be a suitable process for closed-loop control implementation. To implement such a system, one must be able to acquire the relevant signals online and in real-time, as well as stream the calculated control signal to the infusion pump. However, during a procedure, patient monitors and infusion pumps are purposely unable to connect to an external (possibly medically unapproved) device for safety reasons, thus preventing closed-loop control. The paper proposes a conceptual solution to the aforementioned problem. First, it presents some important aspects of contemporary clinical practice. Next, it introduces the closed-loop-control-system structure and the relevant information flow. Focusing on transferring the data from the patient to the computer, it presents a non-invasive image-based system for signal acquisition from a patient monitor for online depth-of-anesthesia assessment. Furthermore, it introduces a UDP-based communication method that can be used for transmitting the calculated anesthetic inflow to the infusion pump. The proposed system is independent of a medical device manufacturer and is implemented in Matlab-Simulink, which can be conveniently used for DoA control implementation. The proposed scheme has been tested in a simulated GA setting and is ready to be evaluated in an operating theatre. However, the proposed system is only a step towards a proper closed-loop control system for DoA, which could routinely be used in clinical practice.

Keywords: closed-loop control, depth of anesthesia (DoA), modeling, optical signal acquisition, patient state index (PSi), UDP communication protocol

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Authors: Yared Pawlos Woldeyes

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Public Relations often referred to as ‘PR’, is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or organization, such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization, and the public. Public Relations are important because they help organizations or entities cultivate and maintain meaningful connections with society at large through platforms like print media and social media. Individuals that identify as public relation specialists establish and maintain relationships with an organization’s target audiences, relevant media sources, and opinion leaders. With regard to the challenges, when trying to practice public relations for government institutions, the priority for specialists is often to help members of society exercise a positive attitude and impression of a country’s political systems and practices. If you consider the case of public relations for government entities in Ethiopia there are several factors to consider. First, public relations in Ethiopia are very much driven by a desire to create a good image of the country and prevent the spread of any information that creates a bad image of Ethiopia. Also, the current ruling party dominates public relations in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, this means that more often than not, public relations specialists are forced by the government to spread and mass communicate false information to the public instead of the truth. Any opposition to government’s agenda will result in seriously negative repercussions for public relations specialists. Although public relations is supposed to create a positive and honest relationship between an organization or the government with the public, in Ethiopia, that is not the case. As a result, very few people express an interest in practicing public relations here. Despite this, there is an opportunity for the development of an accountable public relation affairs in developing nations, taking Ethiopian’s case. For instance, the fact that Public relations are provided as a field of study in college or university to produce competent and trained specialists, the enormous contribution of good communication to the public developmental efforts linking the government to the people, and the better payment to employees of public relation officers are some of them. Therefore, there is a need by the respective stakeholders to work in coalition in raising awareness of the youth regarding the importance of a responsible public relations officer to the country’s developmental efforts, encouragement of Civil Society Organizations working in promoting free press and expression of ideas, improving the governmental structure to be transparent and that allows independent officers, and hosting international conferences on public relations practice so that the specialists can exchange knowledge and skills.

Keywords: developing nations, Ethiopia, public relations, public relations specialist

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Authors: Saulutė Juzelėnienė, Skirmantė Šarkauskienė

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In this paper, it is aimed to analyse the multimodal representations of the concepts of LOVE and PASSION in Lithuanian graphic novel “Gertrūda”, by Gerda Jord. The research is based on the earlier findings by Forceville (2005), Eerden (2009) as well as insights made by Shihara and Matsunaka (2009) and Kövecses (2000). The domains of target and source of LOVE and PASSION metaphors in comics are expressed by verbal and non-verbal cues. The analysis of non-verbal cues adopts the concepts of rune and indexes. A pictorial rune is a graphic representation of an object that does not exist in reality in comics, such as lines, dashes, text "balloons", and pictorial index – a graphically represented object of reality, a real symptom expressing a certain emotion, such as a wide smile, furrowed eyebrows, etc. Indexes are often hyperbolized in comics. The research revealed that most frequent source domains are CLOSINESS/UNITY, NATURAL/ PHYSICAL FORCE, VALUABLE OBJECT, PRESSURE. The target is the emotion of LOVE/PASSION which belongs to a more abstract domain of psychological experience. In this kind of metaphor, the picture can be interpreted as representing the emotion of happiness. Data are taken from Lithuanian comic books and Internet sites, where comics have been presented. The data and the analysis we are providing in this article aims to reveal that there are pictorial metaphors that manifest conceptual metaphors that are also expressed verbally and that methodological framework constructed for the analysis in the papers by Forceville at all is applicable to other emotions and culture specific pictorial manifestations.

Keywords: multimodal metaphor, conceptual metaphor, comics, graphic novel, concept of love/passion

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Authors: Eda Üstünel, Seval Karacabey

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The students, who are enrolled in German Preparatory Language Programme at the School of Foreign Languages, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey, learn German as a foreign language for two semesters in an academic year. Although the language programme is a skills-based one, the students lack German speaking skills due to their fear of making language mistakes while speaking in German. This problem of incompetency in German speaking skills exists also in their four-year departmental study at the Faculty of Education. In order to address this problem we design German speaking activities, which are extra-curricular activities. With the help of these activities, we aim to lead Turkish students of German language to speak in the target language, to improve their speaking skills in the target language and to create a stress-free atmosphere and a meaningful learning environment to communicate in the target language. In order to achieve these aims, an ERASMUS+ exchange staff (a German trainee teacher of German as a foreign language), who is from Schwabisch Gmünd University, Germany, conducted out-of-class German speaking activities once a week for three weeks in total. Each speaking activity is lasted for one and a half hour per week. 7 volunteered students of German preparatory language programme attended the speaking activity for three weeks. The activity took place at a cafe in the university campus, that’s the reason, we call it as an out-of-class activity. The content of speaking activity is not related to the topics studied at the units of coursebook, that’s the reason, we call this activity as extra-curricular one. For data collection, three tools are used. A questionnaire, which is an adapted version of Sabo’s questionnaire, is applied to seven volunteers. An interview session is then held with each student on individual basis. The interview questions are developed so as to ask students to expand their answers that are given at the questionnaires. The German trainee teacher wrote fieldnotes, in which the teacher described the activity in the light of her thoughts about what went well and which areas were needed to be improved. The results of questionnaires show that six out of seven students note that such an acitivity must be conducted by a native speaker of German. Four out of seven students emphasize that they like the way that the activities are designed in a learner-centred fashion. All of the students point out that they feel motivated to talk to the trainee teacher in German. Six out of seven students note that the opportunity to communicate in German with the teacher and the peers enable them to improve their speaking skills, the use of grammatical rules and the use of vocabulary.

Keywords: Learning a Foreign Language, Speaking Skills, Teaching German as a Foreign Language, Turkish Learners of German Language

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Authors: Alonso-Cañadas J., Galán-Valdivieso F., Saraite-Sariene L., García-Tabuyo M., Alonso-Morales N.

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Green Public Procurement (GPP) has recently gained attention in the academic and policy arenas since climate change has shown the need to be addressed by both private companies and public entities. Such growing interest motivates this article, aiming to explore the most influential journals, publishers, categories, and topics, as well as the recent trends and future research lines in GPP. Based on the Web of Science database, 578 articles from 2004 to February 2022 devoted to GPP are analyzed using Bibliometrix, an R-tool to perform bibliometric analysis, and Google’s Big Query and Data Studio. This article introduces a variety of findings. First, the most influential journals by far are “Journal of Cleaner Production” and “Sustainability,” differing in that the latter is open access while the former publishes via traditional subscription. This result also occurs regarding the main publishers (Elsevier and MDPI). These features lead us to split the sample into open-access journals and traditional journals to deepen into the similarities and differences between them, confirming that traditional journals exhibit a higher degree of influence in the literature than their open-access counterparts in terms of the number of documents, number of citations and impact (according to the H index). Second, this research also highlights the recent emergence of green-related terms (sustainable, environment) and, parallelly, the increase in categorizing GPP papers in “green” WoS categories, particularly since 2019. Finally, a number of related topics are emerging and will lead the research, such as food security, infrastructures, and implementation barriers of GPP.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, green public procurement, open access, traditional journals

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Authors: Yingxiao Ye, Christopher Doehring, Angelos Georghiou, Hugh Robinson, Phebe Vayanos

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Human development is a threat to biodiversity, and conservation organizations (COs) are purchasing land to protect areas for biodiversity preservation. However, COs have limited budgets and thus face hard prioritization decisions that are confounded by uncertainty in future human land use. This research proposes a data-driven sequential planning model to help COs choose land parcels that minimize the uncertain human impact on biodiversity. The proposed model is robust to uncertain development, and the sequential decision-making process is adaptive, allowing land purchase decisions to adapt to human land use as it unfolds. The cellular automata model is leveraged to simulate land use development based on climate data, land characteristics, and development threat index from NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center. This simulation is used to model uncertainty in the problem. This research leverages state-of-the-art techniques in the robust optimization literature to propose a computationally tractable reformulation of the model, which can be solved routinely by off-the-shelf solvers like Gurobi or CPLEX. Numerical results based on real data from the Jaguar in Central and South America show that the proposed method reduces conservation loss by 19.46% on average compared to standard approaches such as MARXAN used in practice for biodiversity conservation. Our method may better help guide the decision process in land acquisition and thereby allow conservation organizations to maximize the impact of limited resources.

Keywords: data-driven robust optimization, biodiversity conservation, uncertainty simulation, adaptive sequential planning

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Authors: Hira Jabbar

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Education is vital for inclusive growth of an economy and a critical contributor for investment in human capital. Like other developing countries, Pakistan is facing enormous challenges regarding the provision of public facilities, improper infrastructure planning, accelerating rate of population and poor accessibility. The influence of the rapid advancement and innovations in GIS and RS techniques have proved to be a useful tool for better planning and decision making to encounter these challenges. Therefore present study incorporates GIS and RS techniques to investigate the spatial distribution of school facilities, identifies settlements with served and unserved population, finds potential areas for new schools based on population and develops an accessibility index to evaluate the higher accessibility for schools. For this purpose high-resolution worldview imagery was used to develop road network, settlements and school facilities and to generate school accessibility for each level. Landsat 8 imagery was utilized to extract built-up area by applying pre and post-processing models and Landscan 2015 was used to analyze population statistics. Service area analysis was performed using network analyst extension in ArcGIS 10.3v and results were evaluated for served and underserved areas and population. An accessibility tool was used to evaluate a set of potential destinations to determine which is the most accessible with the given population distribution. Findings of the study may contribute to facilitating the town planners and education authorities for understanding the existing patterns of school facilities. It is concluded that GIS and remote sensing can be effectively used in urban transport and facility planning.

Keywords: accessibility, geographic information system, landscan, worldview

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Authors: Ghassan Mohammad Alalawi, Abobakr Khidir Ziyada, Abdulmajeed Khan

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A potential alternative or next-generation CO₂-selective separation medium that has lately been suggested is ionic liquids (ILs). It is more facile to "tune" the solubility and selectivity of CO₂ in ILs compared to organic solvents via modification of the cation and/or anion structures. Compared to ionic liquids at ambient temperature, polymerized ionic liquids exhibited increased CO₂ sorption capacities and accelerated sorption/desorption rates. This research aims to investigate the correlation between the CO₂ sorption rate and capacity of poly ionic liquids (pILs) and the chemical structure of these substances. The dependency of sorption on the ion conductivity of the pILs' cations and anions is one of the theories we offered to explain the attraction between CO₂ and pILs. This assumption was supported by the Monte Carlo molecular dynamics simulations results, which demonstrated that CO₂ molecules are localized around both cations and anions and that their sorption depends on the cations' and anions' ion conductivities. Polymerized ionic liquids are synthesized to investigate the impact of substituent alkyl chain length, cation, and anion on CO₂ sorption rate and capacity. Three stages are involved in synthesizing the pILs under study: first, trialkyl amine and vinyl benzyl chloride are directly quaternized to obtain the required cation. Next, anion exchange is performed, and finally, the obtained IL is polymerized to form the desired product (pILs). The synthesized pILs' structures were confirmed using elemental analysis and NMR. The synthesized pILs are characterized by examining their structure topology, chloride content, density, and thermal stability using SEM, ion chromatography (using a Metrohm Model 761 Compact IC apparatus), ultrapycnometer, and TGA. As determined by the CO₂ sorption results using a magnetic suspension balance (MSB) apparatus, the sorption capacity of pILs is dependent on the cation and anion ion conductivities. The anion's size also influences the CO₂ sorption rate and capacity. It was discovered that adding water to pILs caused a dramatic, systematic enlargement of pILs resulting in a significant increase in their capacity to absorb CO₂ under identical conditions, contingent on the type of gas, gas flow, applied gas pressure, and water content of the pILs. Along with its capacity to increase surface area through expansion, water also possesses highly high ion conductivity for cations and anions, enhancing its ability to absorb CO₂.

Keywords: polymerized ionic liquids, carbon dioxide, swelling, characterization

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Authors: Hamidreza Hoshyarmanesh, Benjamin Durante, Alex Irwin, Sanju Lama, Kourosh Zareinia, Garnette R. Sutherland

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This study reports on a proposed method to evaluate the accuracy and precision of Excalibur I, a neurosurgery-specific haptic hand controller, designed and developed at Project neuroArm. Having an efficient and successful robot-assisted telesurgery is considerably contingent on how accurate and precise a haptic hand controller (master/local robot) would be able to interpret the kinematic indices of motion, i.e., position and orientation, from the surgeon’s upper limp to the slave/remote robot. A proposed test rig is designed and manufactured according to standard ASTM F2554-10 to determine the accuracy and precision range of Excalibur I at four different locations within its workspace: central workspace, extreme forward, far left and far right. The test rig is metrologically characterized by a coordinate measuring machine (accuracy and repeatability < ± 5 µm). Only the serial linkage of the haptic device is examined due to the use of the Structural Length Index (SLI). The results indicate that accuracy decreases by moving from the workspace central area towards the borders of the workspace. In a comparative study, Excalibur I performs on par with the PHANToM PremiumTM 3.0 and more accurate/precise than the PHANToM PremiumTM 1.5. The error in Cartesian coordinate system shows a dominant component in one direction (δx, δy or δz) for the movements on horizontal, vertical and inclined surfaces. The average error magnitude of three attempts is recorded, considering all three error components. This research is the first promising step to quantify the kinematic performance of Excalibur I.

Keywords: accuracy, advanced metrology, hand controller, precision, robot-assisted surgery, tele-operation, workspace

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Authors: Xvelian Qin

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Urban "organic renewal" based on the development of existing resources in high-density urban areas has become the mainstream of urban development in the new era. As an important stock resource of public space in high-density urban areas, promoting its value remodeling is an effective way to alleviate the shortage of public space resources. However, due to the lack of evaluation links in the process of underpass space renewal, a large number of underpass space resources have been left idle, facing the problems of low space conversion efficiency, lack of accuracy in development decision-making, and low adaptability of functional positioning to citizens' needs. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to construct the evaluation system of under-bridge space renewal potential and explore the renewal mode. In this paper, some of the under-bridge spaces in the main urban area of Chongqing are selected as the research object. Through the questionnaire interviews with the users of the built excellent space under the bridge, three types of six levels and twenty-two potential evaluation indexes of "objective demand factor, construction feasibility factor and construction suitability factor" are selected, including six levels of land resources, infrastructure, accessibility, safety, space quality and ecological environment. The analytical hierarchy process and expert scoring method are used to determine the index weight, construct the potential evaluation system of the space under the bridge in high-density urban areas of Chongqing, and explore the direction of renewal and utilization of its suitability.

Keywords: space under bridge, potential evaluation, high density urban area, updated using

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Authors: Jung Lee

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The last decade has witnessed more people than ever before using social media and broadening their social circles. Social media users connect not only with their friends but also with professional acquaintances, primarily coworkers, and clients; personal and professional social circles are mixed within the same social media platform. Considering the positive aspect of social media in facilitating communication and mutual understanding between individuals, we infer that social media interactions with co-workers could indeed benefit one’s professional life. However, given privacy issues, sharing all personal details with one’s co-workers is not necessarily the best practice. Should one connect with coworkers via social media? Will social media connections with coworkers eventually benefit one’s long-term career? Will the benefit differ across cultures? To answer, this study examines how social media can contribute to organizational communication by tracing the foundation of user motivation based on social capital theory, leader-member exchange (LMX) theory and expectancy theory of motivation. Although social media was originally designed for personal communication, users have shown intentions to extend social media use for professional communication, especially when the proper incentive is expected. To articulate the user motivation and the mechanism of the incentive expectation scheme, this study applies those three theories and identify six antecedents and three moderators of social media use motivation including social network flaunt, shared interest, perceived social inclusion. It also hypothesizes that the moderating effects of those constructs would significantly differ based on the relationship hierarchy among the workers. To validate, this study conducted a survey of 329 active social media users with acceptable levels of job experiences. The analysis result confirms the specific roles of the three moderators in social media adoption for organizational communication. The present study contributes to the literature by developing a theoretical modeling of ambivalent employee perceptions about establishing social media connections with co-workers. This framework shows not only how both positive and negative expectations of social media connections with co-workers are formed based on expectancy theory of motivation, but also how such expectations lead to behavioral intentions using career success model. It also enhances understanding of how various relationships among employees can be influenced through social media use and such usage can potentially affect both performance and careers. Finally, it shows how cultural factors induced by social media use can influence relations among the coworkers.

Keywords: the social network, workplace, social capital, motivation

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Authors: Jessica Gu, Yu Chen

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Knowledge Management (KM) is undoubtable crucial to organizational value creation, learning, and adaptation. Although the rapidly growing KM domain has been fueled with full-fledged methodologies and technologies, studies on KM evolution that bridge the organizational performance and adaptation to the organizational environment are still rarely attempted. In particular, creation (or generation) and diffusion (or share/exchange) of knowledge are of the organizational primary concerns on the problem-solving perspective, however, the optimized distribution of knowledge creation and diffusion endeavors are still unknown to knowledge workers. This research proposed an agent-based model of knowledge creation and diffusion in an organization, aiming at elucidating how the intertwining knowledge flows at microscopic level lead to optimized organizational performance at macroscopic level through evolution, and exploring what exogenous interventions by the policy maker and endogenous adjustments of the knowledge workers can better cope with different environmental conditions. With the developed model, a series of simulation experiments are conducted. Both long-term steady-state and time-dependent developmental results on organizational performance, network and structure, social interaction and learning among individuals, knowledge audit and stocktaking, and the likelihood of choosing knowledge creation and diffusion by the knowledge workers are obtained. One of the interesting findings reveals a non-monotonic phenomenon on organizational performance under turbulent environment while a monotonic phenomenon on organizational performance under a stable environment. Hence, whether the environmental condition is turbulence or stable, the most suitable exogenous KM policy and endogenous knowledge creation and diffusion choice adjustments can be identified for achieving the optimized organizational performance. Additional influential variables are further discussed and future work directions are finally elaborated. The proposed agent-based model generates evidence on how knowledge worker strategically allocates efforts on knowledge creation and diffusion, how the bottom-up interactions among individuals lead to emerged structure and optimized performance, and how environmental conditions bring in challenges to the organization system. Meanwhile, it serves as a roadmap and offers great macro and long-term insights to policy makers without interrupting the real organizational operation, sacrificing huge overhead cost, or introducing undesired panic to employees.

Keywords: knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion, agent-based modeling, organizational performance, decision making evolution

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Authors: Ässia Boukhatmi, Roger Nyffenegger

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The expansion of solar energy as a means to address the climate crisis is undisputed, but the increasing number of new photovoltaic (PV) modules being put on the market is simultaneously leading to increased challenges in terms of managing the growing waste stream. Many of the discarded modules are still fully functional but are often damaged by improper handling after disassembly or not properly tested to be considered for a second life. In addition, the collection rate for dismantled PV modules in several European countries is only a fraction of previous projections, partly due to the increased number of illegal exports. The underlying problem for those market imperfections is an insufficient data exchange between the different actors along the PV value chain, as well as the limited traceability of PV panels during their lifetime. As part of the Horizon 2020 project CIRCUSOL, an asset database prototype was developed to tackle the described problems. In an iterative process applying the design science research methodology, different business models, as well as the technical implementation of the database, were established and evaluated. To explore the requirements of different stakeholders for the development of the database, surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted with various representatives of the solar industry. The proposed database prototype maps the entire value chain of PV modules, beginning with the digital product passport, which provides information about materials and components contained in every module. Product-related information can then be expanded with performance data of existing installations. This information forms the basis for the application of data analysis methods to forecast the appropriate end-of-life strategy, as well as the circular economy potential of PV modules, already before they arrive at the recycling facility. The database prototype could already be enriched with data from different data sources along the value chain. From a business model perspective, the database offers opportunities both in the area of reuse as well as with regard to the certification of sustainable modules. Here, participating actors have the opportunity to differentiate their business and exploit new revenue streams. Future research can apply this approach to further industry and product sectors, validate the database prototype in a practical context, and can serve as a basis for standardization efforts to strengthen the circular economy.

Keywords: business model, circular economy, database, design science research, solar industry

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Authors: Shivam Adhikary

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Sports stadiums are not merely public amenities for entertainment and recreation for a city. They are buildings with extremely high construction investment and running costs which holds the supreme responsibility of social integration, nation building and financial upliftment of the community apart from its primary motive of conducting and promotion of the sports. But the present scenario of sports performances at international events and growing physical inactivity among the youth in India show that the sports facilities are far behind in achieving these goals. A pilot study of Indira Gandhi Sports complex in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh gave an indication of underutilization of sports stadia in India. This probed a crying need for the assessment of the present usage and functioning of the major sports (non-cricketing) facilities within the country. This paper assesses the sustainability of stadiums built for national and international sporting (non-cricket) events in terms of sporting, socio-cultural and financial sustainability by mainly focusing on their usage in non-event days. The criteria for the assessment and comparison of the stadiums within the nation is done using World Stadium Index and GDI (Gross Domestic Income) while with international counterparts using WSI and GNI (Gross National Income). The pilot case of India Gandhi Sports complex in Vijayawada is further investigated for a deeper understanding of the present usage, the existing issues for its underutilization and the way-forward (at least a few) to reach its sustainable potential. The paper finally concludes with the discussion on whether sports stadiums are being utilized to its financial potential and if it is at par with its international counterparts.

Keywords: economic sustainability, social sustainability, sports infrastructure, stadium efficiency

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Authors: Biruhi Tesfaye, Avinash M. Potdar

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The laboratory test process to determine the California bearing ratio (CBR) of black cotton soils is not only overpriced but also time-consuming as well. Hence advanced prediction of CBR plays a significant role as it is applicable In pavement design. The prediction of CBR of treated soil was executed by Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) which is a Computational tool based on the properties of the biological neural system. To observe CBR values, combined eggshell and waste glass was added to soil as 4, 8, 12, and 16 % of the weights of the soil samples. Accordingly, the laboratory related tests were conducted to get the required best model. The maximum CBR value found at 5.8 at 8 % of eggshell waste glass powder addition. The model was developed using CBR as an output layer variable. CBR was considered as a function of the joint effect of liquid limit, plastic limit, and plastic index, optimum moisture content and maximum dry density. The best model that has been found was ANN with 5, 6 and 1 neurons in the input, hidden and output layer correspondingly. The performance of selected ANN has been 0.99996, 4.44E-05, 0.00353 and 0.0067 which are correlation coefficient (R), mean square error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) respectively. The research presented or summarized above throws light on future scope on stabilization with waste glass combined with different percentages of eggshell that leads to the economical design of CBR acceptable to pavement sub-base or base, as desired.

Keywords: CBR, artificial neural network, liquid limit, plastic limit, maximum dry density, OMC

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Authors: Natela Gerliani, Mohammed Aider

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Nowadays, the interest of using sustainable technologies for protein extraction from underutilized oilseeds is growing. Currently, a major disposal problem for the oil industry is by-products of plant food processing such as soybean meal. That is why valorization of soybean meal is important for the oil industry since it contains high-quality proteins and other valuable components. Generally, soybean meal is used in livestock and poultry feed but is rarely used in human feed. Though chemical composition of this meal compensate nutritional deficiency and can be used to balance protein in human food. Regarding the efficiency of soybean meal valorization, extraction is a key process for obtaining enriched protein ingredient, which can be incorporated into the food matrix. However, most of the food components such as proteins extracted from oilseeds by-products imply the utilization of organic and inorganic chemicals (e.g. acids, bases, TCA-acetone) having a significant environmental impact. In a context of sustainable production, the use of an electro-activation technology seems to be a good alternative. Indeed, the electro-activation technology requires only water, food grade salt and electricity as main materials. Moreover, this innovative technology helps to avoid special equipment and trainings for workers safety as well as transport and storage of hazardous materials. Electro-activation is a technology based on applied electrochemistry for the generation of acidic and alkaline solutions on the basis of the oxidation-reduction reactions that occur at the vicinity electrode/solution interfaces. It is an eco-friendly process that can be used to replace the conventional acidic and alkaline extraction. In this research, the electro-activation technology for protein extraction from soybean meal was carried out in the electro-activation reactor. This reactor consists of three compartments separated by cation and anion exchange membranes that allow creating non-contacting acidic and basic solutions. Different current intensities (150 mA, 300 mA and 450 mA) and treatment durations (10 min, 30 min and 50 min) were tested. The results showed that the extracts obtained by the electro-activation method have good quality in comparison to conventional extracts. For instance, extractability obtained with electro-activation method was 55% whereas with the conventional method it was only 36%. Moreover, a maximum protein quantity of 48 % in the extract was obtained with the electro-activation technology comparing to the maximum amount of protein obtained by conventional extraction of 41 %. Hence, the environmentally sustainable electro-activation technology seems to be a promising type of protein extraction that can replace conventional extraction technology.

Keywords: by-products, eco-friendly technology, electro-activation, soybean meal

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Authors: Intanri Kurniati, Raja Iqbal Mulya Harahap, Agustyas Tjiptaningrum, Reni Zuraida

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Background: Diabetes mellitus is still increasing and has become a health and social burden in the world. It is known that glycation among various proteins is increased in diabetic patients compared with non-diabetic subjects. Some of these glycated proteins are suggested to be involved in the development and progression of chronic diabetic complications. Among these glycated proteins, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) is commonly used as the gold standard index of glycemic control in the clinical setting. HbA1C testing has some methods, and the most commonly used is immunoturbidimetry. This research aimed to compare the HbA1c level between immunoturbidimetry and HbA1C level in T2DM patients. Methods: This research involves 77 patients from Abd Muluk Hospital Bandar Lampung; the patient was asked for consent in this research, then underwent phlebotomy to be tested for HbA1C; the sample was then examined for HbA1C with Turbidimetric Inhibition Immunoassay (TINIA) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. Result: Mean± SD of the samples with the TINIA method was 9.2±1,2; meanwhile, the level HbA1C with the HPLC method is 9.6±1,2. The t-test showed no significant difference between the group subjects. (p<0.05). It was proposed that the two methods have high suitability in testing, and both are eligibly used for the patient. Discussion: There was no significant difference among research subjects, indicating that the high conformity of the two methods is suitable to be used for monitoring patients clinically. Conclusion: There is increasing in HbA1C level in a patient with T2DM measured with HPLC and or Turbidimetric Inhibition Immunoassay (TINIA) method, and there were no significant differences among those methods.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus, glycated albumin, HbA1C, HPLC, immunoturbidimetry

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Authors: Mohadese Hashemi, Elham Akhoundi Kharanaghi, Fatemeh Haghiralsadat, Mojgan Yazdani, Omid Javani, Mahboobe Sharafodini, Davood Rajabi

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Niosomes are non-ionic surfactant vesicles in aqueous media resulting in closed bilayer structures that can be used as carriers of hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds. The use of niosomes for encapsulation of essential oils (EOs) is an attractive new approach to overcome their physicochemical stability concerns include sensibility to oxygen, light, temperature, and volatility, and their reduced bioavailability which is due to low solubility in water. EOs are unstable and fragile volatile compounds which have strong interest in pharmaceutical due to their medicinal properties such as antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antioxidant activities without side effects. Trachyspermum copticum (ajwain) is an annual aromatic plant with important medicinal properties that grows widely around Mediterranean region and south-west Asian countries. The major components of the ajwain oil were reported as thymol, γ-terpinene, p-cymene, and carvacrol which provide antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. The aim of this work was to formulate ajwain essential oil-loaded niosomes to improve water solubility of natural product and evaluate its physico-chemical features and stability. Ajwain oil was obtained through steam distillation using a clevenger-type apparatus and GC/MS was applied to identify the main components of the essential oil. Niosomes were prepared by using thin film hydration method and nanoparticles were characterized for particle size, dispersity index, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency, in vitro release, and morphology.

Keywords: trachyspermum copticum, ajwain, niosome, essential oil, encapsulation

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Authors: Bharti Verma, Chandrajit Balomajumder

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Water pollution is escalated owing to industrialization and random ejection of one or more toxic heavy metal ions from the semiconductor industry, electroplating, metallurgical, mining, chemical manufacturing, tannery industries, etc., In semiconductor industry various kinds of chemicals in wafers preparation are used . Fluoride, toxic solvent, heavy metals, dyes and salts, suspended solids and chelating agents may be found in wastewater effluent of semiconductor manufacturing industry. Also in the chrome plating, in the electroplating industry, the effluent contains heavy amounts of Chromium. Since Cr(VI) is highly toxic, its exposure poses an acute risk of health. Also, its chronic exposure can even lead to mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. On the contrary, Cr (III) which is naturally occurring, is much less toxic than Cr(VI). Discharge limit of hexavalent chromium and trivalent chromium are 0.05 mg/L and 5 mg/L, respectively. There are numerous methods such as adsorption, chemical precipitation, membrane filtration, ion exchange, and electrochemical methods for the heavy metal removal. The present study focuses on the removal of Chromium ions by using flat sheet UF5kDa membrane. The Ultra filtration membrane process is operated above micro filtration membrane process. Thus separation achieved may be influenced due to the effect of Sieving and Donnan effect. Ultrafiltration is a promising method for the rejection of heavy metals like chromium, fluoride, cadmium, nickel, arsenic, etc. from effluent water. Benefits behind ultrafiltration process are that the operation is quite simple, the removal efficiency is high as compared to some other methods of removal and it is reliable. Polyamide membranes have been selected for the present study on rejection of Cr(VI) from feed solution. The objective of the current work is to examine the rejection of Cr(VI) from aqueous feed solutions by flat sheet UF5kDa membranes with different parameters such as pressure, feed concentration and pH of the feed. The experiments revealed that with increasing pressure, the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) is increased. Also, the effect of pH of feed solution, the initial dosage of chromium in the feed solution has been studied. The membrane has been characterized by FTIR, SEM and AFM before and after the run. The mass transfer coefficients have been estimated. Membrane transport parameters have been calculated and have been found to be in a good correlation with the applied model.

Keywords: heavy metal removal, membrane process, waste water treatment, ultrafiltration

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