Search results for: soil moisture sensor

Authors: Lorenzo Cocola, Massimo Fedel, Dragiša Savić, Bojana Danilović, Luca Poletto

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An instrument for the detection and evaluation of gaseous carbon dioxide in the headspace of closed containers has been developed in the context of Packsensor Italian-Serbian joint project. The device is based on Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) with a Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy (WMS) technique in order to accomplish a non-invasive measurement inside closed containers of fermented dairy products (yogurts and fermented cheese in cups and bottles). The purpose of this instrument is the continuous monitoring of carbon dioxide concentration during incubation and storage of products over a time span of the whole shelf life of the product, in the presence of different microorganisms. The instrument’s optical front end has been designed to be integrated in a thermally stabilized incubator. An embedded computer provides processing of spectral artifacts and storage of an arbitrary set of calibration data allowing a properly calibrated measurement on many samples (cups and bottles) of different shapes and sizes commonly found in the retail distribution. A calibration protocol has been developed in order to be able to calibrate the instrument on the field also on containers which are notoriously difficult to seal properly. This calibration protocol is described and evaluated against reference measurements obtained through an industry standard (sampling) carbon dioxide metering technique. Some sets of validation test measurements on different containers are reported. Two test recordings of carbon dioxide concentration evolution are shown as an example of instrument operation. The first demonstrates the ability to monitor a rapid yeast growth in a contaminated sample through the increase of headspace carbon dioxide. Another experiment shows the dissolution transient with a non-saturated liquid medium in presence of a carbon dioxide rich headspace atmosphere.

Keywords: TDLAS, carbon dioxide, cups, headspace, measurement

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: G. Gnanachandrasamy, Y. Zhou, S. Venkatramanan, T. Ramkumar, S. Wang

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The natural resources of groundwater are the most precious resources around the world that balances are shrinking day by day. In connection, there is an urgency need for demarcation of potential groundwater zone. For these rationale integration of geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing techniques (RS) for the hydrological studies have become a dramatic change in the field of hydrological research. These techniques are provided to locate the potential zone of groundwater. This research has been made to indent groundwater potential zone in Ariyalur of the southern part of India with help of GIS and remote sensing techniques. To identify the groundwater potential zone used by different thematic layers of geology, geomorphology, drainage, drainage density, lineaments, lineaments density, soil and slope with inverse distance weighting (IDW) methods. From the overall result reveals that the potential zone of groundwater in the study area classified into five classes named as very good (12.18 %), good (22.74 %), moderate (32.28 %), poor (27.7 %) and very poor (5.08 %). This technique suggested that very good potential zone of groundwater occurred in patches of northern and central parts of Jayamkondam, Andimadam and Palur regions in Ariyalur district. The result exhibited that inverse distance weighting method offered in this research is an effective tool for interpreting groundwater potential zones for suitable development and management of groundwater resources in different hydrogeological environments.

Keywords: GIS, groundwater potential zone, hydrology, remote sensing

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Sanket S. Jugade, Swapneel U. Naphade, Satyabodh M. Kulkarni

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Microscale energy harvesters can be used to convert ambient mechanical vibrations to electrical energy. Such devices have great applications in low powered electronics in remote environments like powering wireless sensor nodes of Internet of Things, lightings on highways or in ships, etc. In this paper, a Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based energy harvester has been modeled using Analytical and Finite Element Method (FEM). The device consists of a microcantilever with a proof mass attached to its free end and a Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric thin film deposited on the surface of microcantilever in a unimorph or bimorph configuration. For the analytical method, the energy harvester was modeled as an equivalent electrical system in SIMULINK. The Finite element model was developed and analyzed using the commercial package COMSOL Multiphysics. The modal analysis was performed first to find the fundamental natural frequency and its variation with geometrical parameters of the system. Then the harmonic analysis was performed to find the input mechanical power, output electrical voltage, and power for a range of excitation frequencies and base acceleration values. The variation of output power with load resistance, PVDF film thickness, and damping values was also found out. The results from FEM were then validated with that of the analytical model. Finally, the performance of the device was optimized with respect to various electro-mechanical parameters. For a unimorph configuration consisting of single crystal silicon microcantilever of dimensions 8mm×2mm×80µm and proof mass of 9.32 mg with optimal values of the thickness of PVDF film and load resistance as 225 µm and 20 MΩ respectively, the maximum electrical power generated for base excitation of 0.2g at 630 Hz is 0.9 µW.

Keywords: bimorph, energy harvester, FEM, harmonic analysis, MEMS, PVDF, unimorph

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Stella O. Olubodun, George E. Eriyamremu

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The study examined the effect of Bonny Light whole crude oil (WC) and its water soluble fraction (WSF) on the activities of antioxidant enzymes (catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD)) and crude mitochondria ATPases in the radicle of germinating bean (Vigna unguiculata). The percentage germination, level of lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzyme, and mitochondria Ca2+ and Mg2+ ATPase activities were measured in the radicle of bean after 7, 14, and 21 days post germination. Viable bean seeds were planted in soils contaminated with 10ml, 25ml, and 50ml of whole crude oil (WC) and its water soluble fraction (WSF) to obtain 2, 5, and 10% v/w crude oil contamination. There was dose dependent reduction of the number of bean seeds that germinated in the contaminated soils compared with control (p<0.001). The activities of the antioxidant enzymes, as well as, adenosine triphosphatase enzymes, were also significantly (p<0.001) altered in the radicle of the plants grown in contaminated soil compared with the control. Generally, the level of lipid peroxidation was highest after 21 days post germination when compared with control. Stress to germinating bean caused by Bonny Light crude oil or its water soluble fraction resulted in adaptive changes in crude mitochondria ATPases in the radicle.

Keywords: antioxidant enzymes, bonny light crude oil, radicle, mitochondria ATPases

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Authors: Eri Sulyanti, Trimurti Habazar, Eti Farda Husen, Abdi Dharma, Nasril Nasir

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In this study, combination of some biocontrol agents with different mechanisms was an alternative to improve the effectiveness of the biological control agents. Single and combined applications of indigenous Pseudomonas fluorescens and Arbuscular Mychorrhizae Fungi (AM Fungi) isolates were tested to induce the resistance on susceptible Cavendish banana against F.oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 4 under greenhouse conditions. These isolates originally isolated from healthy banana rhizosphere at endemic Fusarium wilt areas in the centre of production banana in West Sumatra. These researches were conducted with Randomized Block Design with 16 treatments and 10 replications. The treatments were three indigenous isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens (Par1-Cv, Par4-Rj1, Par2-Jt1) and 3 isolates of AM Fungi (Gl1BuA4, Gl2BuA6, and Gl1KeP3. The biocontrol agents were applied as single agents and combination two of them. This study demonstrated that the application of combination biocontrol organisms Pseudomonas fluorescens and AM Fungi provided were more effective than single application. The combination of Par1-Cv and Gl1BuA4 isolates was the most effective to control Fusarium wilt and followed by the combination of Par1-Cv and Gl2BuA6 and Par2-Jt1 and Gl1P3.

Keywords: pseudomonad fluorescens (Pf), arbuscular mychorrhizae fungi (AM Fungi) indigenous isolates, fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, soil rhizosphere

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Mustafa Al Sukar, Azzam Sleit, Abdullatif Abu-Dalhoum, Bassam Al-Kasasbeh

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Use and abuse of drugs by teens is very common and can have dangerous consequences. The drugs contribute to physical and sexual aggression such as assault or rape. Some teenagers regularly use drugs to compensate for depression, anxiety or a lack of positive social skills. Teen resort to smoking should not be minimized because it can be "gateway drugs" for other drugs (marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and heroin). The combination of teenagers' curiosity, risk taking behavior, and social pressure make it very difficult to say no. This leads most teenagers to the questions: "Will it hurt to try once?" Nowadays, technological advances are changing our lives very rapidly and adding a lot of technologies that help us to track the risk of drug abuse such as smart phones, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Internet of Things (IoT), etc. This technique may help us to early discovery of drug abuse in order to prevent an aggravation of the influence of drugs on the abuser. In this paper, we have developed a Decision Support System (DSS) for detecting the drug abuse using Artificial Neural Network (ANN); we used a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) feed-forward neural network in developing the system. The input layer includes 50 variables while the output layer contains one neuron which indicates whether the person is a drug addict. An iterative process is used to determine the number of hidden layers and the number of neurons in each one. We used multiple experiment models that have been completed with Log-Sigmoid transfer function. Particularly, 10-fold cross validation schemes are used to access the generalization of the proposed system. The experiment results have obtained 98.42% classification accuracy for correct diagnosis in our system. The data had been taken from 184 cases in Jordan according to a set of questions compiled from Specialists, and data have been obtained through the families of drug abusers.

Keywords: drug addiction, artificial neural networks, multilayer perceptron (MLP), decision support system

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Authors: N. P. Eswara Reddy, S. Thahir Basha

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Here, we report the success stories of potential leaf, seed and root endophytes against soil borne as well as foliar plant pathogens which are nutritionally adequate and safe for consumption. Endophytes are the microorganisms that reside asymptomatically in the tissues of higher plants are a robust source of potential biocontrol agents and it is presumed that the survival ability of endophytes may be better when compared to phylloplane microflora. Of all the 68 putative leaf endophytes, the endophytes viz., EB9 (100%), and EB35 (100%) which were superior in controlling Colletotrichum gloeosporioides causing mango anthracnose were identified as Brevundimonas bullata (EB09) and Bacillus thuringiensis (EB35) and further delayed in ripening of mango fruits up to 21 days. As a part, the seed endophyte GSE-4 was identified as Archoromobacter spp. against Sclerotium rolfsii causing stem rot of groundnut and the root endophyte REB-8 against Rhizoctonia bataticola causing dry root rot of chickpea was identified as Bacillus subtilis. Both recorded least percent disease incidence (PDI) and increased plant growth promotion, respectively. Further, the novel Bacillus subtilis (SEB-2) against Macrophomina pahseolina causing charcoal rot of sunflower provides an ample scope for exploring the endophytes at large scale. The talc-based formulations of these endophytes developed can be commercialized after toxicological studies. At the bottom line these unexplored endophytes are the need of the hour against aggressive plant pathogens and to maintain the quality and abundance of food and feed and also to fetch marginal economy to the farmers will be discussed.

Keywords: endophytes, plant pathogens, commercialization, abundance of food

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Authors: Rana Sawaya, Jalal Halwani, Isam Bashour, Nada Nehme

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Mismanagement of municipal solid wastes in Lebanon might lead to serious environmental problems, especially that a big portion of mixed wastes including putrescible is transferred to Naameh landfill. One of the consequences of municipal solid waste deposition is the production of landfill leachate, which if unproperly treated will threaten the main crucial matrices such as soil, water, and air. The main aim of this one of a kind study is to assess the risk posed to groundwater as a result of leachate infiltration on off-site wells especially after stoppage of Naameh landfill's operation end of the year 2016 and initiation of the capping process which is still ongoing and will be finalized in December 2019. For this purpose, nine representative points around the landfill were selected to undergo physicochemical and microbial analysis on a seasonal basis (every three months). The study extended from the year 2014 until the end of the year 2016 (closure of Naameh landfill). The preliminary data obtained are statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and was found in conformity with international and Lebanese norms. Thus, the study will be extended an additional year, especially after the finalization of capping and the results obtained, will enable us to propose new techniques and tools (treatment systems) in water resources management depending on the direction of its usage (domestic, irrigation, drinking).

Keywords: contamination, groundwater, leachate, Lebanon, solid waste

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Hongshan Guo

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Ground-source heat pumps provide stable and reliable heating and cooling when designed properly. The confounding effect of the borehole depth for a GSHP system, however, is rarely taken into account for any optimization: the determination of the borehole depth usually comes prior to the selection of corresponding system components and thereafter any optimization of the GSHP system. The depth of the borehole is important to any GSHP system because the shallower the borehole, the larger the fluctuation of temperature of the near-borehole soil temperature. This could lead to fluctuations of the coefficient of performance (COP) for the GSHP system in the long term when the heating/cooling demand is large. Yet the deeper the boreholes are drilled, the more the drilling cost and the operational expenses for the circulation. A controller that reads different building load profiles, optimizing for the smallest costs and temperature fluctuation at the borehole wall, eventually providing borehole depth as the output is developed. Due to the nature of the nonlinear dynamic nature of the GSHP system, it was found that between conventional optimal controller problem and model predictive control problem, the latter was found to be more feasible due to a possible history of both the trajectory during the iteration as well as the final output could be computed and compared against. Aside from a few scenarios of different weighting factors, the resulting system costs were verified with literature and reports and were found to be relatively accurate, while the temperature fluctuation at the borehole wall was also found to be within acceptable range. It was therefore determined that the MPC is adequate to optimize for the investment as well as the system performance for various outputs.

Keywords: geothermal borehole, MPC, dynamic modeling, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Aïssa Rezzoug

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This paper is aimed to bring new elements that demonstrate the tide caused the groundwater to rise in the shoreline band, on which the urban areas occurs, especially in the western coastal cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia like Jeddah. The reason for the last events of Jeddah inundation was the groundwater rise in the city coupled at the same time to a strong precipitation event. This paper will illustrate the tide participation in increasing the groundwater level significantly. It shows that the reason for internal groundwater recharge within the urban area is not only the excess of the water supply coming from surrounding areas, due to the human activity, with lack of sufficient and efficient sewage system, but also due to tide effect. The research study follows a quantitative method to assess groundwater level rise risks through many in-situ measurements and mathematical modelling. The proposed approach highlights groundwater level, in the urban areas of the city on the shoreline band, reaching the high tide level without considering any input from precipitation. Despite the small tide in the Red Sea compared to other oceanic coasts, the groundwater level is considerably enhanced by the tide from the seaside and by the freshwater table from the landside of the city. In these conditions, the groundwater level becomes high in the city and prevents the soil to evacuate quickly enough the surface flow caused by the storm event, as it was observed in the last historical flood catastrophe of Jeddah in 2009.

Keywords: flood, groundwater rise, Jeddah, tide

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

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The filter media in synthetic fibre is the most geotextile materials used in aerosol and drainage filtration, particularly for buildings soil reinforcement in civil engineering due to its appropriated properties and its low cost. However, the current understanding of the durability and stability of this material in real service conditions, especially under severe long-term conditions are completely limited. This study has examined the effects of the chemical aging of a filter media in polyester non-woven under different temperatures (50, 70 and 80˚C) and pH (2. 7 and 12). The effect of aging conditions on mechanical properties, morphology, permeability, thermal stability and molar weigh changes is investigated. The results showed a significant reduction of mechanical properties in term of tensile strength, puncture force and tearing forces of the filter media after chemical aging due to the chemical degradation. The molar mass and mechanical properties changes in different temperature and pH showed a complex dependence of material properties on environmental conditions. The SEM and AFM characterizations showed a significant impact of the thermal aging on the morphological properties of the fibers. Based on the obtained results, the lifetime of the material in different temperatures was determined by the use of the Arrhenius model. These results provide useful information to better understand phenomena occurring during chemical aging of the filter media and may help to predict the service lifetime of this material in real used conditions.

Keywords: nonwoven membrane, chemical aging, mechanical properties, lifetime, filter media

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Authors: Giuffrida Graziella, Pennisi Stefania, Coppa Federica, Iannello Giulia, Cartelli Simone, Lo Faro Riccardo, Ferruggia Greta, Brundo Maria Violetta

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Cladode chemical composition may vary according to soil factors, cultivation season, and plant age. The primary metabolites of cladodes are water, carbohydrates, and proteins. The carbohydrates in cladodes are divided into two types: structural and storage. Polysaccharides from Opuntia ficus‐indica (L.) Mill plants build molecular networks with the capacity to retain water; thus, they act as mucoprotective agents. Mucilage is the main polysaccharide of cladodes; it contains polymers of β‐d‐galacturonic acid bound in positions (1–4) and traces of R‐linked l‐rhamnose (1-2). Mucilage regulates both the cell water content during prolonged drought and the calcium flux in the plant cells. The in vitro analysis of keratinocytes in monolayer, through the scratch-wound-healing assay, provided promising results. After 48 hours of exposure, the wound scratch was almost completely closed in cells treated with cladode extract. After 72 hours, the treated cells reached complete confluence, while in the untreated cells (negative control) the confluence was reached after 96 hours. We also added a positive control group of cells treated with colchicine, which inhibited wound closure for a more comprehensive analysis.

Keywords: cladodes, metabolites, polysaccharide, scratch-wound-healing assay

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Oseni Taiwo Amoo, Bloodless Dzwairo

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In this paper, we extend the versatility and usefulness of GIS as a methodology for any river basin hydrologic characteristics analysis (HCA). The Gurara River basin located in North-Central Nigeria is presented in this study. It is an on-going research using spatial Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Arc-Hydro tools to take inventory of the basin characteristics in order to predict water abstraction quantification on streamflow regime. One of the main concerns of hydrological modelling is the quantification of runoff from rainstorm events. In practice, the soil conservation service curve (SCS) method and the Conventional procedure called rational technique are still generally used these traditional hydrological lumped models convert statistical properties of rainfall in river basin to observed runoff and hydrograph. However, the models give little or no information about spatially dispersed information on rainfall and basin physical characteristics. Therefore, this paper synthesizes morphometric parameters in generating runoff. The expected results of the basin characteristics such as size, area, shape, slope of the watershed and stream distribution network analysis could be useful in estimating streamflow discharge. Water resources managers and irrigation farmers could utilize the tool for determining net return from available scarce water resources, where past data records are sparse for the aspect of land and climate.

Keywords: hydrological characteristic, stream flow, runoff discharge, land and climate

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Authors: Kaushik Sathupadi, Sandesh Achar

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Pervasive computing is a growing research field that aims to acknowledge human physical life routines (HPLR) based on body-worn sensors such as MEMS sensors-based technologies. The use of these technologies for human activity recognition is progressively increasing. On the other hand, personalizing human life routines using numerous machine-learning techniques has always been an intriguing topic. In contrast, various methods have demonstrated the ability to recognize basic movement patterns. However, it still needs to be improved to anticipate the dynamics of human living patterns. This study introduces state-of-the-art techniques for recognizing static and dy-namic patterns and forecasting those challenging activities from multi-fused sensors. Further-more, numerous MEMS signals are extracted from one self-annotated IM-WSHA dataset and two benchmarked datasets. First, we acquired raw data is filtered with z-normalization and denoiser methods. Then, we adopted statistical, local binary pattern, auto-regressive model, and intrinsic time scale decomposition major features for feature extraction from different domains. Next, the acquired features are optimized using maximum relevance and minimum redundancy (mRMR). Finally, the artificial neural network is applied to analyze the whole system's performance. As a result, we attained a 90.27% recognition rate for the self-annotated dataset, while the HARTH and KU-HAR achieved 83% on nine living activities and 90.94% on 18 static and dynamic routines. Thus, the proposed HPLR system outperformed other state-of-the-art systems when evaluated with other methods in the literature.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, gait analysis, local binary pattern (LBP), statistical features, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), maximum relevance and minimum re-dundancy (MRMR)

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Authors: Nicolae Bold, Daniel Nijloveanu

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The idea of cropping-system is a method used by farmers. It is an environmentally-friendly method, protecting the natural resources (soil, water, air, nutritive substances) and increase the production at the same time, taking into account some crop particularities. The combination of this powerful method with the concepts of genetic algorithms results into a possibility of generating sequences of crops in order to form a rotation. The usage of this type of algorithms has been efficient in solving problems related to optimization and their polynomial complexity allows them to be used at solving more difficult and various problems. In our case, the optimization consists in finding the most profitable rotation of cultures. One of the expected results is to optimize the usage of the resources, in order to minimize the costs and maximize the profit. In order to achieve these goals, a genetic algorithm was designed. This algorithm ensures the finding of several optimized solutions of cropping-systems possibilities which have the highest profit and, thus, which minimize the costs. The algorithm uses genetic-based methods (mutation, crossover) and structures (genes, chromosomes). A cropping-system possibility will be considered a chromosome and a crop within the rotation is a gene within a chromosome. Results about the efficiency of this method will be presented in a special section. The implementation of this method would bring benefits into the activity of the farmers by giving them hints and helping them to use the resources efficiently.

Keywords: chromosomes, cropping, genetic algorithm, genes

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Authors: Edmund M. Muthigani

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Innovation in the construction industry has been characterized by new products and processes especially in slum upgrading. The need for low cost housing has motivated stakeholders to think outside the box in coming up with solutions. This paper explored innovative construction technologies that have been used in slum upgrading. The main objectives of the paper was to examine innovations in the construction housing sector and to show how incremental derived demand for decent housing has led to adoption of innovative technologies and materials. Systematic literature review was used to review studies on innovative construction technologies in slum upgrading. The review revealed slow process of innovations in the construction industry due to risk aversion by firms and the hesitance to adopt by firms and individuals. Low profit margins in low cost housing and lack of sufficient political support remain the major hurdles to innovative techniques adoption that can actualize right to decent housing. Conventional construction materials have remained unaffordable to many people and this has negated them decent housing. This has necessitated exploration of innovative materials to realize low cost housing. Stabilized soil blocks and sisal-cement roofing blocks are some of the innovative construction materials that have been utilized in slum upgrading. These innovative materials have not only lowered the cost of production of building elements but also eased costs of transport as the raw materials to produce them are readily available in or within the slum sites. Despite their shortcomings in durability and compressive strength, they have proved worthwhile in slum upgrading. Production of innovative construction materials and use of innovative techniques in slum upgrading also provided employment to the locals.

Keywords: construction, housing, innovation, slum, technology

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Authors: Alexsandro Bayestorff da Cunha, Dpebora Caline de Mello, Camila Alves Corrêa

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In the production of fiberboards, an adhesive based on urea-formaldehyde resin is used, which has the advantages of low cost, homogeneity of distribution, solubility in water, high reactivity in an acid medium, and high adhesion to wood. On the other hand, as a disadvantage, there is low resistance to humidity and the release of formaldehyde. The objective of the study was to determine the viability of adding industrial boiler ash to the urea formaldehyde-based adhesive for the production of medium-density fiberboard. The raw material used was composed of Pinus spp fibers, urea-formaldehyde resin, paraffin emulsion, ammonium sulfate, and boiler ash. The experimental plan, consisting of 8 treatments, was completely randomized with a factorial arrangement, with 0%, 1%, 3%, and 5% ash added to the adhesive, with and without the application of a catalyst. In each treatment, 4 panels were produced with density of 750 kg.m⁻³, dimensions of 40 x 40 x 1,5 cm, 12% urea formaldehyde resin, 1% paraffin emulsion and hot pressing at a temperature of 180ºC, the pressure of 40 kgf/cm⁻² for a time of 10 minutes. The different compositions of the adhesive were characterized in terms of viscosity, pH, gel time and solids, and the panels by physical and mechanical properties, in addition to evaluation using the IMAL DPX300 X-ray densitometer and formaldehyde emission by the perforator method. The results showed a significant reduction of all adhesive properties with the use of the catalyst, regardless of the treatment; while the percentage increase of ashes provided an increase in the average values of viscosity, gel time, and solids and a reduction in pH for the panels with a catalyst; for panels without catalyst, the behavior was the opposite, with the exception of solids. For the physical properties, the results of the variables of density, compaction ratio, and thickness were equivalent and in accordance with the standard, while the moisture content was significantly reduced with the use of the catalyst but without the influence of the percentage of ash. The density profile for all treatments was characteristic of medium-density fiberboard, with more compacted and dense surfaces when compared to the central layer. For thickness, the swelling was not influenced by the catalyst and the use of ash, presenting average values within the normalized parameters. For mechanical properties, the influence of ashes on the adhesive was negatively observed in the modulus of rupture from 1% and in the traction test from 3%; however, only this last property, in the percentages of 3% and 5%, were below the minimum limit of the norm. The use of catalyst and ashes with percentages of 3% and 5% reduced the formaldehyde emission of the panels; however, only the panels that used adhesive with catalyst presented emissions below 8mg of formaldehyde / 100g of the panel. In this way, it can be said that boiler ash can be added to the adhesive with a catalyst without impairing the technological properties by up to 1%.

Keywords: reconstituted wood panels, formaldehyde emission, technological properties of panels, perforator

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Authors: Nahla H. Alaswadko, Rayya A. Hassan, Bayar N. Mohammed

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Empirical deterministic models have been developed to predict roughness progression of heavy duty spray sealed pavements for a dataset representing rural arterial roads. The dataset provides a good representation of the relevant network and covers a wide range of operating and environmental conditions. A sample with a large size of historical time series data for many pavement sections has been collected and prepared for use in multilevel regression analysis. The modelling parameters include road roughness as performance parameter and traffic loading, time, initial pavement strength, reactivity level of subgrade soil, climate condition, and condition of drainage system as predictor parameters. The purpose of this paper is to report the approaches adopted for models development and validation. The study presents multilevel models that can account for the correlation among time series data of the same section and to capture the effect of unobserved variables. Study results show that the models fit the data very well. The contribution and significance of relevant influencing factors in predicting roughness progression are presented and explained. The paper concludes that the analysis approach used for developing the models confirmed their accuracy and reliability by well-fitting to the validation data.

Keywords: roughness progression, empirical model, pavement performance, heavy duty pavement

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Authors: Mamta Rana, K. K. Singh, Nisha Kumari

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The simulation models with its soil-weather-plant atmosphere interacting system are important tools for assessing the crops in changing climate conditions. The CERES-Wheat & Rice vs. 4.6 DSSAT was calibrated and evaluated for one of the major producers of wheat and rice state- Haryana, India. The simulation runs were made under irrigated conditions and three fertilizer applications dose of N-P-K to estimate crop yield and other growth parameters along with the phenological development of the crop. The genetic coefficients derived by iteratively manipulating the relevant coefficients that characterize the phenological process of wheat and rice crop to the best fit match between the simulated and observed anthesis, physological maturity and final grain yield. The model validated by plotting the simulated and remote sensing derived LAI. LAI product from remote sensing provides the edge of spatial, timely and accurate assessment of crop. For validating the yield and yield components, the error percentage between the observed and simulated data was calculated. The analysis shows that the model can be used to simulate crop yield and yield components for wheat and rice cultivar under different management practices. During the validation, the error percentage was less than 10%, indicating the utility of the calibrated model for climate risk assessment in the selected region.

Keywords: simulation model, CERES-wheat and rice model, crop yield, genetic coefficient

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Authors: Omar Ibrahim, Aly A. Gaafar, K. A. Ratib

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Two field experiments in micro plots were carried out during the winter seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, Soil Salinity Laboratory, Alexandria, Egypt, to study the effect of three levels of salicylic acid (SA) as a growth regulator (0, 50, 100 ppm) and three rates of nitrogen fertilizer (75, 100, 125 kg N/feddan) on growth and yield of a spring wheat (Giza 168). The experimental design was a split plot with the main plots in randomized complete block design (RCBD) and four replicates. The results indicated that increasing nitrogen fertilizer rates resulted in insignificant effect on both plant height (cm) and grain weight/spike only. However, a significant effect was observed in all the other studied characters due to the increase in nitrogen fertilizer. On the other hand, increasing salicylic acid rates resulted in insignificant effect in all the studied characters except for chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, number of grain/spike, and grain yield (gm/ plot). The highest effects on grain yield in wheat were obtained by the rate of 125 kg/feddan of nitrogen fertilizer and 100 ppm of salicylic acid. In conclusion, the data indicated that a high grain yield could be obtained by adding 100 kg/feddan of nitrogen fertilizer and spraying of 50 ppm of salicylic acid with no significant difference with the highest rates. Finally, the interaction had no significant effect on all the studied characters.

Keywords: growth regulator, nitrogen fertilizer, spring wheat, salicylic acid

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Snehal Mevada, Darshana Bhatt, Aryan Kalthiya, Neel Parmar, Vishal Baraiya, Dhruvit Bhanderi, Tisha Patel

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In multi-storeyed framed buildings, damage occurring from earthquake ground motion generally initiates at locations of structural weaknesses present in the lateral load-resisting frame. In some cases, these weaknesses may be created by discontinuities in stiffness, mass, plan, and torsion. Such discontinuity between storeys is often associated with sudden variations in the vertical geometric irregularities and plan irregularities. Vertical irregularities are structures with a soft storey that can further be broken down into the different types of irregularities as well as their severity for a more refined assessment tool pushover analysis which is one of the methods available for evaluating building against earthquake loads. So, it is very necessary to analyse and understand the seismic performance of the irregular structure in order to reduce the damage which occurs during an earthquake. In this project, a multi-storey (G+4) RCC building with four irregularities (stiffness, mass, plan, torsion) is studied for earthquake loads using the response spectrum method (dynamic analysis) and STADD PRO. All analyses have been done for seismic zone IV and for Medium Soil. In this study effects of different irregularities are analysed based on storey displacement, storey drift, and storey shear.

Keywords: comparison of regular and irregular structure, dynamic analysis, mass irregularity, plan irregularity, response spectrum method, stiffness irregularity, seismic performance, torsional irregularity, STAAD PRO

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Authors: Neşe Işık, Şenol Altıok, Galip Devrim Eryılmaz, Aydın durukan, Hasan Özgür Daş

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In this study, an active landslide zone affecting the road alignment on the Tortum-Uzundere (Erzurum/Turkey) highway was investigated. Due to the landslide movement, problems have occurred in the existing road pavement, which has caused both safety problems and reduced driving comfort in the operation of the road. In order to model the landslide, drilling, geophysical and inclinometer studies were carried out in the field within the scope of ground investigation. Laboratory tests were carried out on soil and rock samples obtained from the borings. When the drilling and geophysical studies were evaluated together, it was determined that the study area has a complex geological structure. In addition, according to the inclinometer results, the direction and speed of movement of the landslide mass were observed. In order to create an idealized geological profile, all field and laboratory studies were evaluated together and then the sliding surface of the landslide was determined by back analysis method. According to the findings obtained, it was determined that the landslide was massively large, and the movement occurred had a deep sliding surface. As a result of the numerical analyses, it was concluded that the Slope angle reduction is the most economical and environmentally friendly method for the control of the landslide mass.

Keywords: landslide, geotechnical methods, geophysics, monitoring, highway

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Authors: S. Chandrakaran, Aarthy D.

Abstract:

Abstract: Under reamed piles are piles which are of different types like bored cast in-situ pile or bored compaction concrete piles where one or more bulbs are provided. In this paper, the design procedure of under reamed pile by both experimental study and numerical study using PLAXIS 3D Foundation software was studied. The soil chosen for study was M Sand. The Single and double under reamed pile modelling was made using mild steel. The pile load test experiment was conducted in the laboratory and the ultimate compression load for 25 mm settlement on single and double under reamed pile was observed and finally the result was compared with conventional pile (pile without bulb). The parametric influence on under reamed pile was studied by varying the geometrical parameters like diameter of bulbs, spacing between bulbs, position of bulbs and number of bulbs. The results of the numerical model showed that when the diameter of bulb D u =2.5D, the ultimate compression load for an under-reamed pile with a single bulb increased by 55 % compared to a pile without a bulb. It was observed that when the spacing between the bulbs was S=6D u with three different positions of bulb from bottom of pile as D u , 2D u and 3D u , the ultimate compression load increased by 88%, 94% and 73 % respectively, compared to the ultimate compression load for 25 mm settlement on conventional pile and if spacing was more than 6D u , ultimate compression load for 25 mm settlement started to decrease. It was observed that when the bucket length was more than 2D u , the ultimate compression

Keywords: load capcity, under remed bulb . sand, model study, sand

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Authors: Eldah Ephraim Buba, Sanusi Abubakar Sadiq

Abstract:

Habitat can be degraded by tourism leisure activities for example wildlife viewing can bring abrupt stress for animals and alter their natural behaviors when tourist come too close and wildlife watching have degradation effects on the habitats as they often are accompanied by the noise and commotion created by tourist as they chase wild animals. It is observed that Jos Wild Life Park is usually congested during on-peak periods which causes littering and contamination of the environment by tourist which may lead to changes in the soil nutrient. The issue of unauthorized feeding of animals by a tourist in which the food might be dangerous and harmful to their health and making them be so aggressive is also observed. The aim of the study is to investigate the environmental impact of tourists’ activities in Jos Wild Life Park, Nigeria. The study used survey questionnaires to both tourists and the staff of the wildlife park. One hundred questionnaires were self-administered to randomly selected tourists as the visit the park and some staff. The average mean score of the response was used to show agreement or disagreement. Major findings show the negative impact of tourist’s activities to the environment as air pollution, overcrowding, and congestion, solid littering of the environment, distress to animals and alteration of the ecosystem. Furthermore, the study found the positive impact of tourists activities on the environment to be income generation through tourists activities and infrastructural development. It is recommended that the impact of tourism should be minimized through admitting the right carrying capacity and impact assessment.

Keywords: environmental, impact, investigation, tourists, activities

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

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The filter media in synthetic fibre is the most geotextile materials used in aerosol and drainage filtration, particularly for buildings soil reinforcement in civil engineering due to its appropriated properties and its low cost. However, the current understanding of the durability and stability of this material in real service conditions, especially under severe long-term conditions are completely limited. This study has examined the effects of the chemical aging of a filter media in polyester nonwoven under different temperatures (50, 70 and 80˚C) and pH (2. 7 and 12). The effect of aging conditions on mechanical properties, morphology, permeability, thermal stability and molar weigh changes is investigated. The results showed a significant reduction of mechanical properties in term of tensile strength, puncture force and tearing forces of the filter media after chemical aging due to the chemical degradation. The molar mass and mechanical properties changes in different temperature and pH showed a complex dependence of material properties on environmental conditions. The SEM and AFM characterizations showed a significant impact of the thermal aging on the morphological properties of the fibres. Based on the obtained results, the lifetime of the material in different temperatures was determined by the use of the Arrhenius model. These results provide useful information to better understand phenomena occurring during chemical aging of the filter media and may help to predict the service lifetime of this material in real used conditions.

Keywords: nonwoven membrane, chemical aging, mechanical properties, lifetime, filter media

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Authors: Hanan, S. Siam, Safaa A. Mahmoud, A. S. Taalab

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A pot experiment was conducted in greenhouse of NRC, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt to study the response of wheat plants to different levels of superphosphate at (60kg P2O5 or 30 kg P2O5) with or without potassium silicate or chicken compost (2.5 ton/fed.) on growth yield and nutrients status especially, and phosphorus and silica availability. Data reveal that the addition either chicken or compost increased significantly affected on all the growth and yield parameters as well as nutrients status and protein of the different parts of wheat plants if compared with control (60kg P2O5 or 30 kg P2O5). Data also reveal that the highest mean values were obtained when potassium silicate with was added to 60 kg P2O5, while the lowest values of the previous parameters were obtained when 30 kg P2O5 alone was added to plants. Furthermore, data indicated that the highest mean values of all mentioned parameters were obtained when chicken compost was applied with any rate of P as compared with silica addition at the same rates of P. According to the results, the highest values of all mentioned parameters were obtained when addition of chicken compost and potassium silicate including the high rate of P at (60 kg P2O5) while the lowest values of the previous parameters were obtained when plants received of phosphorus (30 kg P2O5) alone.

Keywords: wheat, yield, chicken compost, potassium, phosphorus, silicate, nutrients status

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Authors: Anjana Sagar

Abstract:

Arsenic poisoned ground water is a major concern in South Asia. The arsenic enters the food chain not only through drinking but also by using arsenic polluted water for irrigation. Arsenic is highly toxic in its inorganic forms; however, organic forms of arsenic are comparatively less toxic. In terrestrial plants, inorganic form of arsenic is predominantly found; however, we found that significant proportion of organic arsenic was present in root and shoot of a staple legume, chickpea (Cicer arientinum L) plants. Chickpea plants were raised in pot culture on soils spiked with arsenic ranging from 0-70 mg arsenate per Kg soil. Total arsenic concentrations of chickpea shoots and roots were determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS) ranging from 0.76 to 20.26, and 2.09 to 16.43 µg g⁻¹ dry weight, respectively. Information on arsenic species was acquired by methanol/water extraction method, with arsenic species being analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with ICP-MS. Dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) was the only organic arsenic species found in amount from 0.02 to 3.16 % of total arsenic shoot concentration and 0 to 6.93 % of total arsenic root concentration, respectively. To investigate the source of the organic arsenic in chickpea plants, arsenic species in the rhizosphere of soils of plants were also examined. The absence of organic arsenic in soils would suggest the possibility of formation of DMA in plants. The present investigation provides useful information for better understanding of distribution of arsenic species in terrestrial legume plants.

Keywords: arsenic, arsenic speciation, dimethylarsinic acid, organoarsenic

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Authors: A. Parra Parra, M. Vlasova, P. A. Marquez, M. Kakazey, M. C. Resendiz Gonzalez

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The work of water treatment plants from various sources of pollution includes a biological treatment stage using activated sludge. Due to the large volume of toxic activated sludge waste (WAS) generated and soil contamination during its storage, WAS disposal technologies are being continuously developed. The most common is the carbonization of WAS. The carbonization products are various forms of ordered and disordered carbon material having different reactivity. The aim of this work was to study the reduction process of Fe₂O₃ mixed with activated sludge waste (WAS). It could be assumed that the simultaneous action of the WAS thermal decomposition process, accompanied by the formation of reactive nano-carbon, with carbothermal reduction of the Fe₂O₃, will permit intensify reduction of metal oxide up to stage of metal and iron carbide formation. The studies showed that the temperature treatment in the region of (800-1000) °C for 1 hour under conditions of oxygen deficiency is accompanied by the occurrence of reactions: Fe₂O₃ → Fe₃O₄ → FeO → Fe, which are typical for the metallurgical process of iron smelting, but less energy-intensive. Depending on the ratio of the WAS - Fe₂O₃ components and the temperature-time regime of reduction of iron oxide, it is possible to distinguish the stages of the predominant formation of ferromagnetic compounds, cast iron, and iron carbide. The results indicated the promise of using WAS as a metals oxide reducing agent and obtaining of ceramic-based on metal carbides.

Keywords: carbothermal reduction, Fe₂O₃, FeₓOᵧ-C, waste activated sludge

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Authors: Kumaraamy Sasikumar

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The study was conducted in Vadamarachchi-East in Sri Lanka. Data collection was done for a period of two months from June to July 2011. The main focus of this study was to examine factors contributing to mangrove deforestation within the study area, and resultant impacts from deforestation. The study found that, the main factors that have contributed to deforestation include: Long civil wars in the region, poverty which pushed people to clear the forest to earn income through the sale of firewood and timber among others, industrial development, increasing demand for farm and settlement land, limited knowledge within the local community, weak government polices and implementation strategies, and natural disasters especially the 2004 Tsunami destruction. The impacts presented are those that impact both on the environment and the economy including; loss of income sources, loss of biodiversity, climate change, desertification, conflicts in the use of forest products and loss of land productivity due to reduced fertility caused by soil erosion. However, a few strategies have been put in place by the government to ensure the sustainable use of mangrove forest products, though these have not proved successful in reducing deforestation. The recommendations make suggestions to the government and other stakeholders to work together in ensuring sustainable use of natural resources, for example implementing laws and regulations aimed at controlling deforestation among others.

Keywords: deforestation, impacts, actors, environment, economic, sustainable development

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Authors: Asif Jamal, Samia Sakindar, Ramla Rehman

Abstract:

Biosurfactants are amphiphilic surface active compounds obtained from natural resources such as plants and microorganisms. Because of their diverse physicochemical characteristics biosurfactant are replacing synthetic compounds in various commercial applications. In present study, a strain of P. aeruginosa was isolated from crude oil contaminated soil as efficient biosurfactant producers. The biosurfactant production was analyzed as a function of surface tension reduction, oil spreading capacity, emulsification index and hemolysis assay. This bacterial strain showed excellent emulsion activity of EI24 85%, surface tension reduction up to 28.6 mNm-1 and 7.0 mm oil displacement zone. Physicochemical and biological properties of extracted rhamnolipid were also investigated in current study. The chemical composition of product from strain PSS was analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy. The results revealed that extracted biosurfactant was rhamnolipid type in nature having RL-1 and RL-2 homologues. The surface behavior of rhamnolipid in aqueous phase was investigated varying extreme pH, temperature, salt conditions and with various hydrocarbons. The results indicated that biosurfactant produced by strain PSS Which showed stability during high temperature up to 121 C, salt concentrations up to 20% and pH range between (4—14). The emulsification activity with different hydrocarbons was also remarkable. It was concluded that rhamnolipid biosurfactant produced by strain PSS has excellent potential as emulsifying/remediation agent for broad range of hydrophobic pollutants.

Keywords: P. aeruginosa, bioremediation, rhamnolipid, surfactants

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