Search results for: integrated planning

Authors: Mudassir Ghafoor, Irsalan Arif, Shuaib Salamat

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This paper presents modeling and analysis of different intake bump (compression surface) configurations and comparison with an existing supersonic aircraft having bump intake configuration. Many successful aircraft models have shown that Diverter less Supersonic Inlet (DSI) as compared to conventional intake can reduce weight, complexity and also maintenance cost. The research is divided into two parts. In the first part, four different intake bumps are modeled for comparative analysis keeping in view the consistency of outer perimeter dimensions of fighter aircraft and various characteristics such as flow behavior, boundary layer diversion and pressure recovery are analyzed. In the second part, modeled bumps are integrated with intake duct for performance analysis and comparison with existing supersonic aircraft data is carried out. The bumps are named as uniform large (Config 1), uniform small (Config 2), uniform sharp (Config 3), non-uniform (Config 4) based on their geometric features. Analysis is carried out at different Mach Numbers to analyze flow behavior in subsonic and supersonic regime. Flow behavior, boundary layer diversion and Pressure recovery are examined for each bump characteristics, and comparative study is carried out. The analysis reveals that at subsonic speed, Config 1 and Config 2 give similar pressure recoveries as diverterless supersonic intake, but difference in pressure recoveries becomes significant at supersonic speed. It was concluded from research that Config 1 gives better results as compared to Config 3. Also, higher amplitude (Config 1) is preferred over lower (Config 2 and 4). It was observed that maximum height of bump is preferred to be placed near cowl lip of intake duct.

Keywords: bump intake, boundary layer, computational fluid dynamics, diverter-less supersonic inlet

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Authors: Ernesto A. Lagarda-Leyva, Manuel A. Valenzuela L., José G. Oshima C., Arnulfo A. Naranjo-Flores

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From August to December of 2016, a diagnostic and strategic planning study was carried out on the supply chain of the company Agropecuaria GABO S.A. de C.V. The final product of the study was the development of the strategic plan and a project portfolio to meet the demands of the three links in the supply chain of the Roma tomato exported annually to the United States of America. In this project, the strategic objective of ensuring the proper handling of the product was selected and one of the goals associated with this was the employment of quantitative methods to support decision making. Considering the antecedents, the objective of this case study was to develop a model to analyze the behavioral dynamics in the distribution chain, from the logistics of storage and shipment of Roma tomato in 81-case pallets (11.5 kg per case), to the two pre-cooling rooms and eventual loading onto transports, seeking to reduce the bottleneck and the associated costs by means of a dynamic interface. The methodology used was that of system dynamics, considering four phases that were adapted to the purpose of the study: 1) the conceptualization phase; 2) the formulation phase; 3) the evaluation phase; and 4) the communication phase. The main practical conclusions lead to the possibility of reducing both the bottlenecks in the cooling rooms and the costs by simulating scenarios and modifying certain policies. Furthermore, the creation of the dynamic interface between the model and the stakeholders was achieved by generating interaction with buttons and simple instructions that allow making modifications and observing diverse behaviors.

Keywords: agrilogistics, distribution, scenarios, system dynamics

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Authors: Nnadi Ezekiel Oluwaseun Ejiofor

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The foundation of this study is the identification of risk variables and their implications on abandoned construction projects in Nigeria. The study's particular goals are to pinpoint the risk factors that lead to the abandonment of public building projects in Nigeria. This study used a hybrid research design that included case studies and descriptive survey research methods. Professionals who work directly in the built environment and are employed by Ministries and Departmental Agencies (MDAs), the public sector, or the private sector are the study's target demographic. This study used a descriptive survey and case study research design to gather data. Nigeria is experiencing a high rate of project abandonment due to housing deficit issues. Factors contributing to this include The study reveals factors contributing to public project abandonment in Abuja FCT include poor cashflow 4.96, inconsistent government policies 4.89, lack of accountability, high corruption, incompetent contractors, non-availability of building materials, lack of utilities, wrong materials, infrastructural facilities, poor planning, and undefined contracts. The study reveals that abandoned projects have a huge impact on the construction industry, such as wastage of resources with a mean value of 3.35, distrust of economic growth, 3.28, and so on. The study found a significant relationship between risk factors and public building construction in Abuja through a T-test value of 0.037, rejecting the null hypothesis and indicating a positive correlation.

Keywords: cost, tetfund, construction projects, public university

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Authors: E. Kalcheva, A. Taki, Y. Hadi

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High-rises and placemaking is an understudied combination which receives more and more interest with the proliferation of this typology in many British cities. The reason for studying three major cities in England: London, Birmingham and Manchester, is to learn from the latest advances in urban design in well-developed and prominent urban environment. The analysis of several high-rise sites reveals the weaknesses in urban design of contemporary British cities and presents an opportunity to study from the implemented examples. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to analyze design approaches towards creating a sustainable and varied urban environment when high-rises are involved. The research questions raised by the study are: what is the quality of high-rises and their surroundings; what facilities and features are deployed in the research area; what is the role of the high-rise buildings in the placemaking process; what urban design principles are applicable in this context. The methodology utilizes observation of the researched area by structured questions, developed by the author to evaluate the outdoor qualities of the high-rise surroundings. In this context, the paper argues that the quality of the public realm around the high-rises is quite low, missing basic but vital elements such as plazas, public art, and seating, along with landscaping and pocket parks. There is lack of coherence, the rhythm of the streets is often disrupted, and even though the high-rises are very aesthetically appealing, they fail to create a sense of place on their own. The implications of the study are that future planning can take into consideration the critique in this article and provide more opportunities for urban design interventions around high-rise buildings in the British cities.

Keywords: high-rises, placemaking, urban design, townscape

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Authors: Hozaifa Zaki, Ghada Soliman

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In this paper, we introduced an approach for Automated Dotted Arabic Expiration Date Extraction using Optimized Convolutional Autoencoder (ARABEX) with bidirectional LSTM. This approach is used for translating the Arabic dot-matrix expiration dates into their corresponding filled-in dates. A custom lightweight Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (CRNN) model is then employed to extract the expiration dates. Due to the lack of available dataset images for the Arabic dot-matrix expiration date, we generated synthetic images by creating an Arabic dot-matrix True Type Font (TTF) matrix to address this limitation. Our model was trained on a realistic synthetic dataset of 3287 images, covering the period from 2019 to 2027, represented in the format of yyyy/mm/dd. We then trained our custom CRNN model using the generated synthetic images to assess the performance of our model (ARABEX) by extracting expiration dates from the translated images. Our proposed approach achieved an accuracy of 99.4% on the test dataset of 658 images, while also achieving a Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) of 0.46 for image translation on our dataset. The ARABEX approach demonstrates its ability to be applied to various downstream learning tasks, including image translation and reconstruction. Moreover, this pipeline (ARABEX+CRNN) can be seamlessly integrated into automated sorting systems to extract expiry dates and sort products accordingly during the manufacturing stage. By eliminating the need for manual entry of expiration dates, which can be time-consuming and inefficient for merchants, our approach offers significant results in terms of efficiency and accuracy for Arabic dot-matrix expiration date recognition.

Keywords: computer vision, deep learning, image processing, character recognition

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Authors: Jose Gay D. Gallego

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This study examined the learning performance in General Psychology of 297 freshmen of the CPSU-Main through the Pre and Post Tests. The instructional intervention via Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was applied to 33% (97 out of 297) of these freshmen as the Treatment Group while the 67% (200) belonged to the Control Group for traditional instructions. Statistical inferences utilized one-way Analysis of Variance for mean differences; Pearson R Correlations for bivariate relationships, and; Factor Analysis for significant components that contributed most to the Universal Design for Learning instructions. Findings showed very high levels of students’ acquired UDL skills. Results in the pre test in General Psychology, respectively, were low and average when grouped into low and high achievers. There was no significant mean difference in the acquired nine UDL components when categorized into seven colleges to generalize that between colleges they were on the same very high levels. Significant differences were found in three test areas in General Psychology in eight colleges whose students in College of teacher education taking the lead in the learning performance. Significant differences were also traced in the post test in favor of the students in the treatment group. This proved that UDL really impacted the learning performance of the low achieving students. Significant correlations were revealed between the components of UDL and General Psychology. There were twenty four significant itemized components that contributed most to UDL instructional interventions. Implications were emphasized to maximizing the principles of UDL with the contention of thoughtful planning related to the four curricular pillars of UDL: (a) instructional goals, (b) instructional delivery methods, (c) instructional materials, and (d) student assessments.

Keywords: universal design for learning, enhanced performance, teaching innovation, technology in education, social science area

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Authors: K. Drabczyk, Z. Starowicz, S. Maleczek, P. Zieba

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The army, police and fire brigade commonly use dedicated equipment based on special textile materials. The properties of these textiles should ensure human life and health protection. Equally important is the ability to use electronic equipment and this requires access to the source of electricity. Photovoltaic cells integrated with such textiles can be solution for this problem in the most of outdoor circumstances. One idea may be to laminate the cells to textile without changing their properties. The main goal of this work was analyzed lamination quality of special designed semi-flexible solar module with special textile materials as a backsheet. In the first step of investigation, the quality of lamination was determined using device equipped with dynamometer. In this work, the crystalline silicon solar cells 50 x 50 mm and thin chemical tempered glass - 62 x 62 mm and 0.8 mm thick - were used. The obtained results showed the correlation between breaking force and type of textile weave and fiber. The breaking force was in the ranges: 4.5-5.5 N, 15-20 N and 30-33 N depending on the type of wave and fiber type. To verify these observations the microscopic and FTIR analysis of fibers was performed. The studies showed the special textile can be used as a backsheet of semi-flexible solar modules. This work presents a new composition of solar module with special textile layer which, to our best knowledge, has not been published so far. Moreover, the work presents original investigations on adhesion of EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) polymer to textile with respect to fiber structure of laminated substrate. This work is realized for the GEKON project (No. GEKON2/O4/268473/23/2016) sponsored by The National Centre for Research and Development and The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.

Keywords: flexible solar modules, lamination process, solar cells, textile for photovoltaics

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Authors: Fatma Ünal, Hasancan Okutan

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Increasing worldwide population and technological requirements lead to an increase in energy demand every year. The demand has been mainly supplied from fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum due to insufficient natural gas resources. In recent years, the amount of coal reserves has reached almost 21 billion tons in Türkiye. These are mostly lignite (%92,7), that contains high levels of moisture and sulfur components. Underground coal gasification technology is one of the most suitable methods in comparison with direct combustion techniques for the evaluation of such coal types. In this study, the applicability of the underground coal gasification process is investigated in the Eskişehir-Alpu lignite reserve as a pilot region, both technologically and economically. It is assumed that the electricity is produced from the obtained synthesis gas in an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Firstly, an equilibrium model has been developed by using the thermodynamic properties of the gasification reactions. The effect of the type of oxidizing gas, the sulfur content of coal, the rate of water vapor/air, and the pressure of the system have been investigated to find optimum process conditions. Secondly, the parallel and linear controlled recreation and injection point (CRIP) models were implemented as drilling methods, and costs were calculated under the different oxidizing agents (air and high-purity O2). In Parallel CRIP (P-CRIP), drilling cost is found to be lower than the linear CRIP (L-CRIP) since two coal beds simultaneously are gasified. It is seen that CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) technology was the most effective unit on the total cost in both models. The cost of the synthesis gas produced varies between 0,02 $/Mcal and 0,09 $/Mcal. This is the promising result when considering the selling price of Türkiye natural gas for Q1-2023 (0.103 $ /Mcal).

Keywords: energy, lignite reserve, techno-economic analysis, underground coal gasification.

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Authors: Mariam Ismail, Kazeem Rufai, Jeremiah Balogun

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A study was conducted to apply fuzzy logic to the development of a monitoring model for child pornography based on associated risk factors, which can be used by forensic experts or integrated into forensic systems for the early detection of child pornographic activities. A number of methods were adopted in the study, which includes an extensive review of related works was done in order to identify the factors that are associated with child pornography following which they were validated by an expert sex psychologist and guidance counselor, and relevant data was collected. Fuzzy membership functions were used to fuzzify the associated variables identified alongside the risk of the occurrence of child pornography based on the inference rules that were provided by the experts consulted, and the fuzzy logic expert system was simulated using the Fuzzy Logic Toolbox available in the MATLAB Software Release 2016. The results of the study showed that there were 4 categories of risk factors required for assessing the risk of a suspect committing child pornography offenses. The results of the study showed that 2 and 3 triangular membership functions were used to formulate the risk factors based on the 2 and 3 number of labels assigned, respectively. The results of the study showed that 5 fuzzy logic models were formulated such that the first 4 was used to assess the impact of each category on child pornography while the last one takes the 4 outputs from the 4 fuzzy logic models as inputs required for assessing the risk of child pornography. The following conclusion was made; there were factors that were related to personal traits, social traits, history of child pornography crimes, and self-regulatory deficiency traits by the suspects required for the assessment of the risk of child pornography crimes committed by a suspect. Using the values of the identified risk factors selected for this study, the risk of child pornography can be easily assessed from their values in order to determine the likelihood of a suspect perpetuating the crime.

Keywords: fuzzy, membership functions, pornography, risk factors

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Authors: Sachini Wickramanayaka

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The occurrence of natural disasters has increased in an alarming rate in recent times due to escalating effects of climate change. One such natural disaster that has continued to grow in frequency and intensity is ‘flooding’, adversely affecting communities around the globe. This is an exploration on how architecture can intervene and facilitate in preserving communities in the face of disaster, specifically in battling floods. ‘Resilience’ is one of the concepts that have been brought forward to be instilled in vulnerable communities to lower the impact from such disasters as a preventative and coping mechanism. While there are number of ways to achieve resilience in the built environment, this paper aims to create a synthesis between resilience and ‘urban acupuncture’. It will consider strengthening communities from within, by layering a network of relatively small-scale, fast phased interventions on pre-existing conventional flood preventative large-scale engineering infrastructure.By investigating ‘The Woodlands’, a planned neighborhood as a case study, this paper will argue that large-scale water management solutions while extremely important will not suffice as a single solution particularly during a time of frequent and extreme weather events. The different projects will try to synthesize non-architectural aspects such as neighborhood aspirations, requirements, potential and awareness into a network of architectural forms that would collectively increase neighborhood resiliency to floods. A mapping study of the selected study area will identify the problematic areas that flood in the neighborhood while the empirical data from previously implemented case studies will assess the success of each solution.If successful the different solutions for each of the identified problem areas will exhibithow flooding and water management can be integrated as part and parcel of daily life.

Keywords: acupuncture, architecture, resiliency, micro-interventions, neighborhood

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Authors: Muge Unal, Ahmet Cilek

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Urban identity, having a dynamic characteristic spatial and semantic aspects, is a phenomenon in an ever-changing. Urban identity formation includes not only a process of physical nature but also development and change processes that take place in the political, economic, social and cultural values, whether national and international level. Although the concept of urban transformation is basically regarded as the spatial transformation; in fact, it reveals a holistic perspective and transformation based on dialectical relationship existing between the spatial and social relationship. For this reason, urban renewal needs to address as not only spatial but also the impact of spatial transformation on social, cultural and economic. Implementation tools used in the perception of urban transformation are varied concepts such as urban renewal, urban resettlement, urban rehabilitation, urban redevelopment, and urban revitalization. The phenomenon of urban transformation begins with the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1980s, it was interpreted as reconsidering physical fossil on urban environment factor like occurring in rapid urbanization, changing in the spatial structure of the city, concentrating of the population in urban areas. However, after the 1980s, it has resided in a conceptual structure which requires to be addressed physical, economic, social, technological and integrity of information. In conclusion, urban transformation, when it enter the literature as a practice of planning, has been up to date in terms of the conceptual structure and content and also hasn’t remained behind converting itself. Urban transformation still maintains its simplest expression, while it transforms so fast converts the contents. In this study, the relationship between urban design and components of urban transformation were discussed with strategies used as a place in the historical process of urban transformation besides a general evaluation of the concept of urban renewal.

Keywords: conceptual approach, urban identity, urban regeneration, urban renewal

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Authors: Marzia Bilkiss, Muhammad J. A. Shiddiky, Mostafa K. Masud, Prabhakaran Sambasivam, Ido Bar, Jeremy Brownlie, Rebecca Ford

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A greater achievement in the Integrated Disease Management (IDM) to prevent the loss would result from early diagnosis and quantitation of the causal pathogen species for accurate and timely disease control. This could significantly reduce costs to the growers and reduce any flow on impacts to the environment from excessive chemical spraying. Necrotrophic fungal disease botrytis grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea and Botrytis fabae, significantly reduce temperate legume yield and grain quality during favourable environmental condition in Australia and worldwide. Several immunogenic and molecular probe-type protocols have been developed for their diagnosis, but these have varying levels of species-specificity, sensitivity, and consequent usefulness within the paddock. To substantially improve speed, accuracy, and sensitivity, advanced nanoparticle-based biosensor approaches have been developed. For this, two sets of primers were designed for both Botrytis cinerea and Botrytis fabae which have shown the species specificity with initial sensitivity of two genomic copies/µl in pure fungal backgrounds using multiplexed quantitative PCR. During further validation, quantitative PCR detected 100 spores on artificially infected legume leaves. Simultaneously an electro-catalytic assay was developed for both target fungal DNA using functionalised magnetic nanoparticles. This was extremely sensitive, able to detect a single spore within a raw total plant nucleic acid extract background. We believe that the translation of this technology to the field will enable quantitative assessment of pathogen load for future accurate decision support of informed botrytis grey mould management.

Keywords: biosensor, botrytis grey mould, sensitive, species specific

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Authors: Mamoon M. Atout

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The Middle East Gulf region has witnessed rapid growth and development in many areas over the last two decades. The development of the real-estate sector, construction industry and infrastructure projects are a major share of the development that has participated in the civilization of the countries of the Gulf. Construction industry projects were planned and managed by different types of experts, who came from all over the world having different types of experiences in construction management and industry. Some of these projects were completed on time, while many were not, due to many accumulating factors. Many accumulated factors are considered as the principle reason for the problem experienced at the project construction stage, which reflected negatively on the project success. Specific causes of delay have been identified by construction managers to avoid any unexpected delays through proper analysis and considerations to some implications such as risk assessment and analysis for many potential problems to ensure that projects will be delivered on time. Construction management implications were adopted and considered by project managers who have experience and knowledge in applying the techniques of the system of engineering construction management. The aim of this research is to determine the benefits of the implications of construction management by the construction team and level of considerations of the techniques and processes during the project development and construction phases to avoid any delay in the projects. It also aims to determine the factors that participate to project completion delays in case project managers are not well committed to their roles and responsibilities. The results of the analysis will determine the necessity of the applications required by the project team to avoid the causes of delays that help them deliver projects on time, e.g. verifying tender documents, quantities and preparing the construction method of the project.

Keywords: construction management, control process, cost control, planning and scheduling

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Authors: N. Hedayat, E. Karamifar

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Sustainable food and fiber production is emerging as an irresistible option in agrarian planning. Although one should not underestimate the successes of the Green Revolution in enhancing crop production, its adverse environmental and ecosystem consequences have also been remarkable. The aim of this paper is to identify ways of improving crop production to ensure agricultural sustainability and environmental integrity. Systematic observations are used for data collection on intensive farming, deforestation and the environmental implications of industrial pollutants on agricultural sustainability at national and international levels. These were achieved within a comparative analytical model of data interpretation. Results show that while multiple factors enhance yield, they have a simultaneous effect in undermining the ecosystem and environmental integrity. Results show that application of excessive agrichemical have been one of the major cause of polluting the surface and underground water bodies as well as soil layers in affected croplands. Results consider rapid deforestation in the tropical regions has been the underlying cause of impairing the integrity of biodiversity and oxygen-generation regime. These, coupled with production of greenhouse gasses, have contributed to global warming and hydrological irregularities. Continuous production of pollutants and effluents has affected marine and land biodiversity arising from acid rains generated by modern farming and deforestation. Continuous production of greenhouse gases has also been instrumental in affecting climatic behavior manifested in recurring draughts and contraction of lakes and ponds as well as emergence of potential flooding of waterways and floodplains in the future.

Keywords: agricultural sustainability, environmental integrity, pollution, eco-system

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Authors: Malinwo Estone Ayikpa

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With the rapid increase of grid-connected PV systems over the last decades, genuine challenges have arisen for engineers and professionals of energy field in the planning and operation of existing distribution networks with the integration of new generation sources. However, the conventional distribution network, in its design was not expected to receive other generation outside the main power supply. The tools generally used to analyze the networks become inefficient and cannot take into account all the constraints related to the operation of grid-connected PV systems. Some of these constraints are voltage control difficulty, reverse power flow, and especially voltage unbalance which could be due to the poor distribution of single-phase PV systems in the network. In order to analyze the impact of the connection of small and large number of PV systems to the distribution networks, this paper presents an efficient optimization tool that minimizes voltage unbalance in three-phase distribution networks with active and reactive power injections from the allocation of single-phase and three-phase PV plants. Reactive power can be generated or absorbed using the available capacity and the adjustable power factor of the inverter. Good reduction of voltage unbalance can be achieved by reactive power control of the PV systems. The presented tool is based on the three-phase current injection method and the PV systems are modeled via an equivalent circuit. The primal-dual interior point method is used to obtain the optimal operating points for the systems.

Keywords: Photovoltaic system, Primal-dual interior point method, Three-phase optimal power flow, Voltage unbalance

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Authors: Akinola Ikudayisi, Josiah Adeyemo

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The correct estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ETₒ) is required for effective irrigation water resources planning and management. However, there are some variables that must be considered while estimating and modeling ETₒ. This study therefore determines the multivariate analysis of correlated variables involved in the estimation and modeling of ETₒ at Vaalharts irrigation scheme (VIS) in South Africa using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. Weather and meteorological data between 1994 and 2014 were obtained both from South African Weather Service (SAWS) and Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in South Africa for this study. Average monthly data of minimum and maximum temperature (°C), rainfall (mm), relative humidity (%), and wind speed (m/s) were the inputs to the PCA-based model, while ETₒ is the output. PCA technique was adopted to extract the most important information from the dataset and also to analyze the relationship between the five variables and ETₒ. This is to determine the most significant variables affecting ETₒ estimation at VIS. From the model performances, two principal components with a variance of 82.7% were retained after the eigenvector extraction. The results of the two principal components were compared and the model output shows that minimum temperature, maximum temperature and windspeed are the most important variables in ETₒ estimation and modeling at VIS. In order words, ETₒ increases with temperature and windspeed. Other variables such as rainfall and relative humidity are less important and cannot be used to provide enough information about ETₒ estimation at VIS. The outcome of this study has helped to reduce input variable dimensionality from five to the three most significant variables in ETₒ modelling at VIS, South Africa.

Keywords: irrigation, principal component analysis, reference evapotranspiration, Vaalharts

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Authors: Paschal Arsein Mugabe

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This paper examines sustainable development planning in the context of environmental concerns in rural areas of the Tanzania. It challenges mainstream approaches to development, focusing instead upon transformative action for environmental justice. The goal is to help shape future sustainable development agendas in local government, international agencies and civil society organisations. Research methods: The approach of the study is geographical, but also involves various Trans-disciplinary elements, particularly from development studies, sociology and anthropology, management, geography, agriculture and environmental science. The research methods included thematic and questionnaire interviews, participatory tools such as focus group discussion, participatory research appraisal and expert interviews for primary data. Secondary data were gathered through the analysis of land use/cover data and official documents on climate, agriculture, marketing and health. Also several earlier studies that were made in the area provided an important reference base. Findings: The findings show that, agricultural sustainability in Tanzania appears likely to deteriorate as a consequence of climate change. Noteworthy differences in impacts across households are also present both by district and by income category. Also food security cannot be explained by climate as the only influencing factor. A combination of economic, political and socio-cultural context of the community are crucial. Conclusively, it is worthy knowing that people understand their relationship between climate change and their livelihood.

Keywords: agriculture, climate change, environment, sustainable development

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Authors: Rasaq Bolakale Salau, Maimuna Muhammad Abubakar, Jonathan Yisa, Muhammad Tauheed Bisiriyu, Jimoh Oladejo Tijani, Alexander Ifeanyi Ajai

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Vegetables oils are widely consumed in Nigeria. This has led to competitive manufacture of various oil brands. This leads increasing tendencies for fraud, labelling misinformation and other unwholesome practices. A total of thirty samples including raw and corresponding branded samples of vegetable oils were collected. The Oils were extracted from raw ground nut, soya bean and oil palm fruits. The GC-MS data was subjected to chemometric techniques of PCA and HCA. The SOLO 8.7 version of the standalone chemometrics software developed by Eigenvector research incorporated and powered by PLS Toolbox was used. The GCMS fingerprint gave basis for discrimination as it reveals four predominant but unevenly distributed fatty acids: Hexadecanoic acid methyl ester (10.27- 45.21% PA), 9,12-octadecadienoic acid methyl ester (10.9 - 45.94% PA), 9-octadecenoic acid methyl ester (18.75 - 45.65%PA), and Eicosanoic acid methyl ester (1.19% - 6.29%PA). In PCA modelling, two PCs are retained at cumulative variance captured at 73.15%. The score plots indicated that palm oil brands are most aligned with raw palm oil. PCA loading plot reveals the signature retention times between 4.0 and 6.0 needed for quality assurance and authentication of the oils samples. They are of aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols and aldehydes functional groups. HCA dendrogram which was modeled using Euclidian distance through Wards method, indicated co-equivalent samples. HCA revealed the pair of raw palm oil brand and palm oil brand in the closest neighbourhood (± 1.62 % A difference) based on variance weighted distance. It showed Palm olein brand to be most authentic. In conclusion, based on the GCMS data with chemometrics, the authenticity of the branded samples is ranked as: Palm oil > Soya oil > groundnut oil.

Keywords: vegetable oil, authenticity, chemometrics, PCA, HCA, GC-MS

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Authors: Silvia Arrate, Waldo Salud, Eloy París

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The wear of cutting tools is one of the most decisive elements when planning tunneling works, programming the maintenance stops and saving the optimum stock of spare parts during the evolution of the excavation. Being able to predict the behavior of cutting tools can give a very competitive advantage in terms of costs and excavation performance, optimized to the needs of the TBM itself. The incredible evolution of data science in recent years gives the option to implement it at the time of analyzing the key and most critical parameters related to machinery with the purpose of knowing how the cutting head is performing in front of the excavated ground. Taking this as a case study, Metro Line 3 of Guadalajara in Mexico will develop the feasibility of using Specific Energy versus data science applied over parameters of Torque, Penetration, and Contact Force, among others, to predict the behavior and status of cutting tools. The results obtained through both techniques are analyzed and verified in the function of the wear and the field situations observed in the excavation in order to determine its effectiveness regarding its predictive capacity. In conclusion, the possibilities and improvements offered by the application of digital tools and the programming of calculation algorithms for the analysis of wear of cutting head elements compared to purely empirical methods allow early detection of possible damage to cutting tools, which is reflected in optimization of excavation performance and a significant improvement in costs and deadlines.

Keywords: cutting tools, data science, prediction, TBM, wear

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Authors: Devesh Motwani, Ranjana S. Baruah

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The prime incentive behind up gradation of heavy oil is to increase its API gravity for ease of transportation to refineries, thus expanding the market access of bitumen-based crude to the refineries. There has always been a demand for an integrated approach that aims at simplifying the upgrading scheme, making it adaptable to the production site in terms of economics, environment, and personnel safety. Recent advances in nanotechnology have facilitated the development of two lines of heavy oil upgrading processes that make use of nano-catalysts for producing upgraded oil: In Situ Upgrading and Field Upgrading. The In-Situ upgrading scheme makes use of Hot Fluid Injection (HFI) technique where heavy fractions separated from produced oil are injected into the formations to reintroduce heat into the reservoir along with suspended nano-catalysts and hydrogen. In the presence of hydrogen, catalytic exothermic hydro-processing reactions occur that produce light gases and volatile hydrocarbons which contribute to increased oil detachment from the rock resulting in enhanced recovery. In this way the process is a combination of enhanced heavy oil recovery along with up gradation that effectively handles the heat load within the reservoirs, reduces hydrocarbon waste generation and minimizes the need for diluents. By eliminating most of the residual oil, the Synthetic Crude Oil (SCO) is much easier to transport and more amenable for processing in refineries. For heavy oil reservoirs seriously impacted by the presence of aquifers, the nano-catalytic technology can still be implemented on field though with some additional investments and reduced synergies; however still significantly serving the purpose of production of transportable oil with substantial benefits with respect to both large scale upgrading, and known commercial field upgrading technologies currently on the market. The paper aims to delve deeper into the technology discussed, and the future compatibility.

Keywords: upgrading, synthetic crude oil, nano-catalytic technology, compatibility

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Authors: Chongyang Ye, Rong Liu

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Elastic compression stockings (ECSs) have been widely applied in prophylaxis and treatment of chronic venous insufficiency of lower extremities. The medical function of ECS is to improve venous return and increase muscular pumping action to facilitate blood circulation, which is largely determined by the complex interaction between the ECS and lower limb tissues. Understanding the mechanical transmission of ECS along the skin surface, deeper tissues, and vascular system is essential to assess the effectiveness of the ECSs. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of the leg-ECS system integrated with a 3D fluid-solid interaction (FSI) model of the leg-vein system was constructed to analyze the biomechanical properties of veins and soft tissues under different ECS compression. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the human leg was divided into three regions, including soft tissues, bones (tibia and fibula) and veins (peroneal vein, great saphenous vein, and small saphenous vein). The ECSs with pressure ranges from 15 to 26 mmHg (Classes I and II) were adopted in the developed FE-FSI model. The soft tissue was assumed as a Neo-Hookean hyperelastic model with the fixed bones, and the ECSs were regarded as an orthotropic elastic shell. The interfacial pressure and stress transmission were simulated by the FE model, and venous hemodynamics properties were simulated by the FSI model. The experimental validation indicated that the simulated interfacial pressure distributions were in accordance with the pressure measurement results. The developed model can be used to predict interfacial pressure, stress transmission, and venous hemodynamics exerted by ECSs and optimize the structure and materials properties of ECSs design, thus improving the efficiency of compression therapy.

Keywords: elastic compression stockings, fluid-solid interaction, tissue and vein properties, prediction

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Authors: Niveen M. Hassan-Abbas

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The COVID-19 pandemic created a range of stressors, among them difficulties related to work conditions, financial changes, lack of childcare, and confinement or isolation due to social distancing. Among families and married individuals, these stressors were often expressed in additional daily hassles, with an influence on mental health. This study examined two moderated mediation models based on Bodenmann’s systemic-transactional stress model. Specifically, the models tested the hypothesis that intra-dyadic stress mediates the association between extra-dyadic stress and mental health, while two measures of family functioning, cohesion, and flexibility, moderate the relationship between extra and intra-dyadic stress. Participants were 480 heterosexual married Palestinians from Israel who completed self-report questionnaires. The results showed partial mediation patterns supporting both models, indicating that family cohesion and flexibility weakened the mediating effect of intra-dyadic stress on the relationship between extra-dyadic stress and mental health. These findings increase our understanding of the variables that affected mental health during the pandemic and suggested that when faced with extra-dyadic stress, married individuals with good family environments are less likely to experience high levels of intra-dyadic stress, which is in turn associated with preserved mental health. Limitations and implications for planning interventions for couples and families during the pandemic are discussed.

Keywords: Palestinian families in Israel, COVID-19 pandemic, family cohesion and flexibility, extra-dyadic stress, intra-dyadic stress, mental health

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Authors: Claudius Peter Van Wyk

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Given the increasingly manifest phenomena, as described in complexity theory, of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), Taleb's notion of 'antifragility, has a significant contribution to make to positive psychology applied to wellbeing. Antifragility is argued to be fundamentally different from the concepts of resiliency; as the ability to recover from failure, and robustness; as the ability to resist failure. Rather it describes the capacity to reorganise in the face of stress in such a way as to cope more effectively with systemic challenges. The concept, which has been applied in disciplines ranging from physics, molecular biology, planning, engineering, and computer science, can now be considered for its application in individual human and social wellbeing. There are strong correlations to Antonovsky's model of 'salutogenesis' in which an attitude and competencies are developed of transforming burdening factors into greater resourcefulness. We demonstrate, from the perspective of neuroscience, how technology measuring nervous system coherence can be coupled to acquired psychodynamic approaches to not only identify contextual stressors, utilise biofeedback instruments for facilitating greater coherence, but apply these insights to specific life stressors that compromise well-being. Employing an on-going case study with BMW South Africa, the neurological mapping is demonstrated together with 'reframing' and emotional anchoring techniques from neurolinguistic programming. The argument is contextualised in the discipline of psychoneuroimmunology which describes the stress pathways from the CNS and endocrine systems and their impact on immune function and the capacity to restore homeostasis.

Keywords: antifragility, complexity, neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, salutogenesis, volatility

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Authors: E. Mattio

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The aim of this project is to study the Chinese presence in Ethiopia, following the path of the last salt caravans from Danakil to Tigray region. Official estimates of the number of Chinese in Africa vary widely; on the continent, there are increasingly diverse groups of Chinese migrants in terms of language, dialect, class, education, and employment. Based on this and on a very general state of the art, it was decided to increase the studies on this phenomenon, documenting the extraction of salt and following the sellers in the north of the country. The project is unique and allows you to admire a landscape that will soon change, due to the construction of infrastructure that is changing the dynamics of movement and sales. To carry out this study, interdisciplinary investigation methods were integrated, such as landscape archeology, historiographic research, participatory anthropology, geopolitics, and cultural anthropology and ethnology. There are two main objectives of the research. The first was an analysis of risk perceptions to predict what will happen to these populations and how the territory will be modified, trying to monitor the growth of infrastructure in the country and the effects it will have on the population. Thanks to the use of GIS, some roads created by Chinese companies that worked in the area have been georeferenced. The second point was to document the life and rituals of Ethiopian populations, in order not to lose the aspects of uniqueness that risk being lost. The local interviews have garnered impressions and criticisms from the local population to understand whether the Chinese presence is perceived as a threat or a solution. Among the most exclusive interviews, there are those made to Afar leaders in the Logya area and some Coptic representatives in the Wukro area. To make this project even more unique, the Coptic rituals of Gennà and Timkat have been documented, unique expressions of a millennial tradition. The aim was to understand whether the Maoist presence began to influence the religious rites and forms of belief present in the country.

Keywords: China, Ethiopia, GIS, risk perceptions

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Authors: Dibya Jivan Pati, Kazuhisa Iki, Riken Homma

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Unlike other metro cities of India, Bhubaneswar–the capital city of Odisha, is expected to reach 1-million-mark population by now. The demands of dwelling unit requirement mostly among urban poor belonging to Economically Weaker section (EWS) and Low Income groups (LIG) is becoming a challenge due to high housing cost and rents. As a matter of fact, it’s also noted that, with increase in population, the solid waste generation also increases subsequently affecting the environment due to inefficiency in collection of waste by local government bodies. Methods of utilizing Solid Waste - especially in form of Plastic bottles, Glass bottles and Metal cans (PGM) are now widely used as an alternative material for construction of low-cost building by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in developing countries like India to help the urban poor afford a shelter. The application of disposed plastic bottle used in construction of single dwelling significantly reduces the overall cost of construction to as much as 14% compared to traditional construction material. Therefore, considering its cost-benefit result, it’s possible to provide housing to EWS and LIGs at an affordable price. In this paper, we estimated the quantity of plastic bottles generated in Bhubaneswar which further helped to estimate the possible number of single dwelling unit that can be constructed on yearly basis so as to refrain from further housing shortage. The estimation results will be practically used for planning and managing low-cost housing business by local government and NGOs.

Keywords: construction, dwelling unit, plastic bottle, solid waste generation, groups

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Authors: Joseph Marae Djouda, Ashraf Kasmi, François Hild

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Fused filament fabrication is one of the most widespread additive manufacturing techniques because of its low-cost implementation. Its initial development was based on part fabrication with thermoplastic materials. The influence of the manufacturing parameters such as the filament orientation through the nozzle, the deposited layer thickness, or the speed deposition on the mechanical properties of the parts has been widely experimentally investigated. It has been recorded the remarkable variations of the anisotropy in the function of the filament path during the fabrication process. However, there is a lack in the development of constitutive models describing the mechanical properties. In this study, integrated digital image correlation (I-DIC) is used for the identification of mechanical constitutive parameters of two configurations of ABS samples: +/-45° and so-called “oriented deposition.” In this last, the filament was deposited in order to follow the principal strain of the sample. The identification scheme based on the gap reduction between simulation and the experiment directly from images recorded from a single sample (single edge notched tension specimen) is developed. The macroscopic and mesoscopic analysis are conducted from images recorded in both sample surfaces during the tensile test. The elastic and elastoplastic models in isotropic and orthotropic frameworks have been established. It appears that independently of the sample configurations (filament orientation during the fabrication), the elastoplastic isotropic model gives the correct description of the behavior of samples. It is worth noting that in this model, the number of constitutive parameters is limited to the one considered in the elastoplastic orthotropic model. This leads to the fact that the anisotropy of the architectured 3D printed ABS parts can be neglected in the establishment of the macroscopic behavior description.

Keywords: elastic anisotropy, fused filament fabrication, Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, I-DIC identification

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Authors: Ravi Kiran Pothamsetty, Radha Rani Ghosh, Baby Paul Thaliath

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Radiation therapy has undergone many advancements and evloved from 2D to 3D. Recently, with rapid pace of drug discoveries, cutting edge technology, and clinical trials has made innovative advancements in computer technology and treatment planning and upgraded to intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) which delivers in homogenous dose to tumor and normal tissues. The present study was a hospital-based experience comparing two different conformal radiotherapy techniques for brain tumors. This analytical study design has been conducted at Regional Cancer Centre, India from January 2014 to January 2015. Ten patients have been selected after inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the patients were treated on Artiste Siemens Linac Accelerator. The tolerance level for maximum dose was 6.0 Gyfor lenses and 54.0 Gy for brain stem, optic chiasm and optical nerves as per RTOG criteria. Mean and standard deviation values of PTV98%, PTV 95% and PTV 2% in IMRT were 93.16±2.9, 95.01±3.4 and 103.1±1.1 respectively; for 3DCRT were 91.4±4.7, 94.17±2.6 and 102.7±0.39 respectively. PTV max dose (%) in IMRT and 3D-CRT were 104.7±0.96 and 103.9±1.0 respectively. Maximum dose to the tumor can be delivered with IMRT with acceptable toxicity limits. Variables such as expertise, location of tumor, patient condition, and TPS influence the outcome of the treatment.

Keywords: brain tumors, intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), radiation therapy oncology group (RTOG)

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Authors: M. Stewart, Ameer Al-Khaykan, J. M. Counsell

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Emissions are a consequence of electricity generation. A major option for low carbon generation, local energy systems featuring Combined Heat and Power with solar PV (CHPV) has significant potential to increase energy performance, increase resilience, and offer greater control of local energy prices while complementing the UK’s emissions standards and targets. Recent advances in dynamic modelling and simulation of buildings and clusters of buildings using the IDEAS framework have successfully validated a novel multi-vector (simultaneous control of both heat and electricity) approach to integrating the wide range of primary and secondary plant typical of local energy systems designs including CHP, solar PV, gas boilers, absorption chillers and thermal energy storage, and associated electrical and hot water networks, all operating under a single unified control strategy. Results from this work indicate through simulation that integrated control of thermal storage can have a pivotal role in optimizing system performance well beyond the present expectations. Environmental impact analysis and reporting of all energy systems including CHPV LES presently employ a static annual average carbon emissions intensity for grid supplied electricity. This paper focuses on establishing and validating CHPV environmental performance against conventional emissions values and assessment benchmarks to analyze emissions performance without and with an active thermal store in a notional group of non-domestic buildings. Results of this analysis are presented and discussed in context of performance validation and quantifying the reduced environmental impact of CHPV systems with active energy storage in comparison with conventional LES designs.

Keywords: CHPV, thermal storage, control, dynamic simulation

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Authors: Ahmed Stifi, Sascha Gentes, Fritz Gehbauer

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The construction industry is perhaps one of the oldest industry of the world. The ancient monuments like the egyptian pyramids, the temples of Greeks and Romans like Parthenon and Pantheon, the robust bridges, old Roman theatres, the citadels and many more are the best testament to that. The industry also has a symbiotic relationship with other . Some of the heavy engineering industry provide construction machineries, chemical industry develop innovative construction materials, finance sector provides fund solutions for complex construction projects and many more. Construction Industry is not only mammoth but also very complex in nature. Because of the complexity, construction industry is prone to various tribulations which may have the propensity to hamper its growth. The comparitive study of this industry with other depicts that it is associated with a state of tardiness and delay especially when we focus on the managerial aspects and the study of triple constraint (time, cost and scope). While some institutes says the complexity associated with it as a major reason, others like lean construction, refers to the wastes produced across the construction process as the prime reason. This paper introduces corruption as one of the prime factors for such delays.To support this many international reports and studies are available depicting that construction industry is one of the most corrupt sectors worldwide, and the corruption can take place throught the project cycle comprising project selection, planning, design, funding, pre-qualification, tendering, execution, operation and maintenance, and even through the reconstrction phase. It also happens in many forms such as bribe, fraud, extortion, collusion, embezzlement and conflict of interest and the self-sufficient. As a solution to cope the corruption in construction industry, the paper introduces the integrity as a key factor and build a new integrity framework to develop and implement an integrity management system for construction companies and construction projects.

Keywords: corruption, construction industry, integrity, lean construction

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Authors: Jadwiga Klukow, Anna Ksykiewicz-Dorota

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An analysis of the distribution of nurses’ working time constitutes vital information for the management in planning employment. The objective of the study was to analyze the distribution of nurses’ working time in an emergency department. The study was conducted in an emergency department of a teaching hospital in Lublin, in Southeast Poland. The catalogue of activities performed by nurses was compiled by means of continuous observation. Identified activities were classified into four groups: Direct care, indirect care, coordination of work in the department and personal activities. Distribution of nurses’ working time was determined by work sampling observation (Tippett) at random intervals. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee by the Medical University of Lublin (Protocol 0254/113/2010). On average, nurses spent 31% of their working time on direct care, 47% on indirect care, 12% on coordinating work in the department and 10% on personal activities. The most frequently performed direct care tasks were diagnostic activities – 29.23% and treatment-related activities – 27.69%. The study has provided information on the complexity of performed activities and utilization of nurses’ working time. Enhancing the effectiveness of nursing actions requires working out a strategy for improved management of the time nurses spent at work. Increasing the involvement of auxiliary staff and optimizing communication processes within the team may lead to reduction of the time devoted to indirect care for the benefit of direct care.

Keywords: emergency nurses, nursing care, workload, work sampling

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