Search results for: Rare earth elements
751 Merchants’ Attitudes towards Tourism Development in Mahane Yehuda Market: A Case Study
Authors: Rotem Mashkov, Noam Shoval
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In an age when a tourist’s gaze is more focused on the daily lives of locals, it is evident that local food markets are being rediscovered. Traditional urban markets succeed in reinventing themselves as a space for consumption, recreation, and culture, enabling authentic experiences and interpersonal interactions with the local culture. Alongside this, the pressure of tourism development may result in commercialization and retail gentrification to the point of losing the sense of local identity. The issue of finding a balance between tourism development and the preservation of unique local features is at the heart of this study and is being tested using the case of the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. The research question—how merchants respond to tourism development in the Mahane Yehuda food market— focuses on local traders, a group of players who are usually absent from the research arenas, although they influence tourism development as well as influenced by it. Three main research methods were integrated into this study. The first two methods, a survey of articles survey and comparative mapping of the business mix, were used to characterize the changes in the Mahane Yehuda market both consciously and physically. The third research method, involving in-depth interviews with merchants, was used to examine the traders' attitudes and responses to tourism development. The findings indicate that there has been a turnaround in the market image over the past decade and a half. Additionally, there has been a significant physical change in the business mix, reflected by a decline of 15% in the number of stalls selling food products and delicacies. The data from the interviews on the traders’ attitudes towards tourism development were inconclusive; there were disagreements among the traders about the economic contribution of tourism development in relation to their dependence on the tourism industry. However, there was a consensus on the need for authentic elements in the marketplace. The findings of the study also indicate a strong link between the merchants’ response to tourism development and their stall ownership status as the merchant could exercise their position in various ways depending on the possession type.Keywords: business mix, Jerusalem, local food markets, Mahane Yehuda market, merchants’ attitude, ownership status, retail gentrification, tourism development, traditional urban markets
Procedia PDF Downloads 127750 Dematerialized Beings in Katherine Dunn's Geek Love: A Corporeal and Ethical Study under Posthumanities
Authors: Anum Javed
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This study identifies the dynamical image of human body that continues its metamorphosis in the virtual field of reality. It calls attention to the ways where humans start co-evolving with other life forms; technology in particular and are striving to establish a realm outside the physical framework of matter. The problem exceeds the area of technological ethics by explicably and explanatorily entering the space of literary texts and criticism. Textual analysis of Geek Love (1989) by Katherine Dunn is adjoined with posthumanist perspectives of Pramod K. Nayar to beget psycho-somatic changes in man’s nature of being. It uncovers the meaning people give to their experiences in this budding social and cultural phenomena of material representation tied up with personal practices and technological innovations. It also observes an ethical, physical and psychological reassessment of man within the context of technological evolutions. The study indicates the elements that have rendered morphological freedom and new materialism in man’s consciousness. Moreover this work is inquisitive of what it means to be a human in this time of accelerating change where surgeries, implants, extensions, cloning and robotics have shaped a new sense of being. It attempts to go beyond individual’s body image and explores how objectifying media and culture have influenced people’s judgement of others on new material grounds. It further argues a decentring of the glorified image of man as an independent entity because of his energetic partnership with intelligent machines and external agents. The history of the future progress of technology is also mentioned. The methodology adopted is posthumanist techno-ethical textual analysis. This work necessitates a negotiating relationship between man and technology in order to achieve harmonic and balanced interconnected existence. The study concludes by recommending a call for an ethical set of codes to be cultivated for the techno-human habituation. Posthumanism ushers a strong need of adopting new ethics within the terminology of neo-materialist humanism.Keywords: corporeality, dematerialism, human ethos, posthumanism
Procedia PDF Downloads 139749 Development of a Systematic Approach to Assess the Applicability of Silver Coated Conductive Yarn
Authors: Y. T. Chui, W. M. Au, L. Li
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Recently, wearable electronic textiles have been emerging in today’s market and were developed rapidly since, beside the needs for the clothing uses for leisure, fashion wear and personal protection, there also exist a high demand for the clothing to be capable for function in this electronic age, such as interactive interfaces, sensual being and tangible touch, social fabric, material witness and so on. With the requirements of wearable electronic textiles to be more comfortable, adorable, and easy caring, conductive yarn becomes one of the most important fundamental elements within the wearable electronic textile for interconnection between different functional units or creating a functional unit. The properties of conductive yarns from different companies can vary to a large extent. There are vitally important criteria for selecting the conductive yarns, which may directly affect its optimization, prospect, applicability and performance of the final garment. However, according to the literature review, few researches on conductive yarns on shelf focus on the assessment methods of conductive yarns for the scientific selection of material by a systematic way under different conditions. Therefore, in this study, direction of selecting high-quality conductive yarns is given. It is to test the stability and reliability of the conductive yarns according the problems industrialists would experience with the yarns during the every manufacturing process, in which, this assessment system can be classified into four stage. That is 1) Yarn stage, 2) Fabric stage, 3) Apparel stage and 4) End user stage. Several tests with clear experiment procedures and parameters are suggested to be carried out in each stage. This assessment method suggested that the optimal conducting yarns should be stable in property and resistant to various corrosions at every production stage or during using them. It is expected that this demonstration of assessment method can serve as a pilot study that assesses the stability of Ag/nylon yarns systematically at various conditions, i.e. during mass production with textile industry procedures, and from the consumer perspective. It aims to assist industrialists to understand the qualities and properties of conductive yarns and suggesting a few important parameters that they should be reminded of for the case of higher level of suitability, precision and controllability.Keywords: applicability, assessment method, conductive yarn, wearable electronics
Procedia PDF Downloads 529748 Biocompatible Beta Titanium Alloy Ti36Nb6Ta as a Suitable Material for Bone Regeneration
Authors: Vera Lukasova, Eva Filova, Jana Dankova, Vera Sovkova, Matej Daniel, Michala Rampichova
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Proper bone implants should promote fast adhesion of cells, stimulate cell differentiation and support the formation of bone tissue. Nowadays titanium is used as a biocompatible material capable of bone tissue integration. This study was focused on comparison of bioactive properties of two titanium alloys - beta titanium alloy Ti36Nb6Ta and standard medical titanium alloy Ti6A14V. The advantage of beta titanium alloy Ti36Nb6Ta is mainly that this material does not contain adverse elements like vanadium or aluminium. Titanium alloys were sterilized in ethanol, placed into 48 well plates and seeded with porcine mesenchymal stem cells. Cells were cultivated for 14 days in standard growth cultivation media with osteogenic supplements. Cell metabolic activity was quantified using MTS assay (Promega). Cell adhesion on day 1 and cell proliferation on further days were verified immunohistochemically using beta-actin monoclonal antibody and secondary antibody conjugated with AlexaFluor®488. Differentiation of cells was evaluated using alkaline phosphatase assay. Additionally, gene expression of collagen I was measured by qRT-PCR. Porcine mesenchymal stem cells adhered and spread well on beta titanium alloy Ti36Nb6Ta on day 1. During the 14 days’ time period the cells were spread confluently on the surface of the beta titanium alloy Ti36Nb6Ta. The metabolic activity of cells increased during the whole cultivation period. In comparison to standard medical titanium alloy Ti6A14V, we did not observe any differences. Moreover, the expression of collagen I gene revealed no statistical differences between both titanium alloys. Therefore, a beta titanium alloy Ti36Nb6Ta promotes cell adhesion, metabolic activity, proliferation and collagen I expression equally to standard medical titanium alloy Ti6A14V. Thus, beta titanium is a suitable material that provides sufficient biocompatible properties. This project was supported by the Czech Science Foundation: grant No. 16-14758S.Keywords: beta titanium alloy, biocompatibility, differentiation, mesenchymal stem cells
Procedia PDF Downloads 487747 Representation of History in Cinema: Comparative Analysis of Turkish Films Based on the Conquest of Istanbul
Authors: Dilara Balcı Gulpinar
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History, which can be defined as the narrative of the past, is a process of reproduction that takes place in current time. Scientificness of historiography is controversial for reasons such as the fact that the historian makes choices and comments; even the reason for choosing the subject distracts him/her from objectivity. Historians may take advantage of the current values, cannot be able to afford to contradict society and/or face pressures of dominant groups. In addition, due to the lack of documentation, interpretation, and fiction are used to integrate historical events that seem disconnected. In this respect, there are views that relate history to narrative arts rather than positive sciences. Popular historical films, which are visual historical representations, appeal to wider audiences by taking advantage of visuality, dramatic fictional narrative, various effects, music, stars, and other populist elements. Historical film, which does not claim to be scientific and even has the freedom to distort historical reality, can be perceived as reality itself and becomes an indispensable resource for individual and social memory. The ideological discourse of popular films is not only impressive and manipulative but also changeable. Socio-cultural and political changes can transform the representation of history in films extremely sharply and rapidly. In accordance with the above-mentioned hypothesis, this study is aimed at examining Turkish historical films about the conquest of Istanbul, using methods of historical and social analysis. İstanbul’un Fethi (Conquest of Istanbul, Aydin Arakon, 1953), Kuşatma Altında Aşk (Love Under Siege, Ersin Pertan, 1997) and Fetih 1453 (Conquest 1453, Faruk Aksoy, 2012) are the only three films in Turkish cinema that revolve around the said conquest, therefore constituting the sample of this study. It has been determined that real and fictional events, as well as characters, both focused and ignored, differ from one another in each film. Such significant differences in the dramatic and cinematographic structure of these three films shot respectively in the 50s, 90s, and 2010s show that the representation of history in popular cinema has altered throughout the years, losing its aspect of objectivity.Keywords: cinema, conquest of Istanbul, historical film, representation
Procedia PDF Downloads 124746 [Keynote Talk]: Let Us Move to Ethical Finance: A Case Study of Takaful
Authors: Syed Ahmed Salman
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Ethicality is essential in our daily activities, including personal and commercial activities. This is evidenced by referring to the historical development of the corporate governance and ethical guidelines. The first corporate governance guideline, i.e. Cadbury Report from U.K. focuses the responsibility of board members towards the shareholders only. Gradually, realising the need to take care of the society and community, stakeholders are now concerns of business entities. Consequently, later codes of corporate governance started extending the responsibility to the other stakeholders in addition to the shareholders. One prevailing corporate governance theory, i.e. stakeholder theory, has been widely used in the research to explore the effects of business entities on society. In addition, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the leading organisation which promotes social care from businesses for sustainable development. Conventionally, history shows that ethics is key to the long term success of businesses. Many organisations, societies, and regulators give full attention and consideration to ethics. Several countries have introduced ethical codes of conduct to direct trade activities. Similarly, Islam and other religions prohibit the practice of interest, uncertainty, and gambling because of its unethical nature. These prohibited practices are not at all good for the society, business, and any organisation especially as it is detrimental to the well-being of society. In order to avoid unethicality in the finance industry, Shari’ah scholars come out with the idea of Islamic finance which is free from the prohibited elements from the Islamic perspective. It can also be termed ethical finance. This paper highlights how Takaful as one of the Islamic finance products offers fair and just products to the contracting parties and the society. Takaful is framed based on ethical guidelines which are extracted from Shari’ah principles and divine sources such as the Quran and Sunnah. Takaful products have been widely offered all over the world, including in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. It seems that it is gaining acceptance regardless of religion. This is evidence that Takaful is being accepted as an ethical financial product.Keywords: ethics, insurance, Islamic finance, religion and takaful
Procedia PDF Downloads 264745 CFD Simulation of the Pressure Distribution in the Upper Airway of an Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patient
Authors: Christina Hagen, Pragathi Kamale Gurmurthy, Thorsten M. Buzug
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CFD simulations are performed in the upper airway of a patient suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) that is a sleep related breathing disorder characterized by repetitive partial or complete closures of the upper airways. The simulations are aimed at getting a better understanding of the pathophysiological flow patterns in an OSA patient. The simulation is compared to medical data of a sleep endoscopic examination under sedation. A digital model consisting of surface triangles of the upper airway is extracted from the MR images by a region growing segmentation process and is followed by a careful manual refinement. The computational domain includes the nasal cavity with the nostrils as the inlet areas and the pharyngeal volume with an outlet underneath the larynx. At the nostrils a flat inflow velocity profile is prescribed by choosing the velocity such that a volume flow rate of 150 ml/s is reached. Behind the larynx at the outlet a pressure of -10 Pa is prescribed. The stationary incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are numerically solved using finite elements. A grid convergence study has been performed. The results show an amplification of the maximal velocity of about 2.5 times the inlet velocity at a constriction of the pharyngeal volume in the area of the tongue. It is the same region that also shows the highest pressure drop from about 5 Pa. This is in agreement with the sleep endoscopic examinations of the same patient under sedation showing complete contractions in the area of the tongue. CFD simulations can become a useful tool in the diagnosis and therapy of obstructive sleep apnea by giving insight into the patient’s individual fluid dynamical situation in the upper airways giving a better understanding of the disease where experimental measurements are not feasible. Within this study, it could been shown on one hand that constriction areas within the upper airway lead to a significant pressure drop and on the other hand a good agreement of the area of pressure drop and the area of contraction could be shown.Keywords: biomedical engineering, obstructive sleep apnea, pharynx, upper airways
Procedia PDF Downloads 302744 Mathematical Competence as It Is Defined through Learners' Errors in Arithmetic and Algebra
Authors: Michael Lousis
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Mathematical competence is the great aim of every mathematical teaching and learning endeavour. This can be defined as an idealised conceptualisation of the quality of cognition and the ability of implementation in practice of the mathematical subject matter, which is included in the curriculum, and is displayed only through performance of doing mathematics. The present study gives a clear definition of mathematical competence in the domains of Arithmetic and Algebra that stems from the explanation of the learners’ errors in these domains. The learners, whose errors are explained, were Greek and English participants of a large, international, longitudinal, comparative research program entitled the Kassel Project. The participants’ errors emerged as results of their work in dealing with mathematical questions and problems of the tests, which were presented to them. The construction of the tests was such as only the outcomes of the participants’ work was to be encompassed and not their course of thinking, which resulted in these outcomes. The intention was that the tests had to provide undeviating comparable results and simultaneously avoid any probable bias. Any bias could stem from obtaining results by involving so many markers from different countries and cultures, with so many different belief systems concerning the assessment of learners’ course of thinking. In this way the validity of the research was protected. This fact forced the implementation of specific research methods and theoretical prospects to take place in order the participants’ erroneous way of thinking to be disclosed. These were Methodological Pragmatism, Symbolic Interactionism, Philosophy of Mind and the ideas of Computationalism, which were used for deciding and establishing the grounds of the adequacy and legitimacy of the obtained kinds of knowledge through the explanations given by the error analysis. The employment of this methodology and of these theoretical prospects resulted in the definition of the learners’ mathematical competence, which is the thesis of the present study. Thus, learners’ mathematical competence is depending upon three key elements that should be developed in their minds: appropriate representations, appropriate meaning, and appropriate developed schemata. This definition then determined the development of appropriate teaching practices and interventions conducive to the achievement and finally the entailment of mathematical competence.Keywords: representations, meaning, appropriate developed schemata, computationalism, error analysis, explanations for the probable causes of the errors, Kassel Project, mathematical competence
Procedia PDF Downloads 262743 Temporality, Place and Autobiography in J.M. Coetzee’s 'Summertime'
Authors: Barbara Janari
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In this paper it is argued that the effect of the disjunctive temporality in Summertime (the third of J.M. Coetzee’s fictionalised memoirs) is two-fold: firstly, it reflects the memoir’s ambivalent, contradictory representations of place in order to emphasize the fractured sense of self growing up in South Africa during apartheid entailed for Coetzee. Secondly, it reconceives the autobiographical discourse as one that foregrounds the inherent fictionality of all texts. The memoir’s narrative is filtered through intricate textual strategies that disrupt the chronological movement of the narrative, evoking the labyrinthine ways in which the past and present intersect and interpenetrate each other. It is framed by entries from Coetzee’s Notebooks: it opens with entries that cover the years 1972–1975, and ends with a number of undated fragments from his Notebooks. Most of the entries include a short ‘memo’ at the end, added between 1999 and 2000. While the memos follow the Notebook entries in the text, they are separated by decades. Between the Notebook entries is a series of interviews conducted by Vincent, the text’s putative biographer, between 2007 and 2008, based on recollections from five people who had known Coetzee in the 1970s – a key period in John’s life as it marks both his return to South Africa after a failed emigration attempt to America, and the beginning of his writing career, with the publication of Dusklands in 1974. The relationship between the memoir’s various parts is a key feature of Coetzee’s representation of place in Summertime, which is constructed as a composite one in which the principle of reflexive referencing has to be adopted. In other words, readers have to suspend individual references temporarily until the relationships between the parts have been connected to each other. In order to apprehend meaning in the text, the disparate narrative elements have to first be tied together. In this text, then, the experience of time as ordered and chronological is ruptured. Instead, the memoir’s themes and patterns become apparent most clearly through reflexive referencing, by which relationships between disparate sections of the text are linked. The image of the fictional John that emerges from the text is a composite of this John and the author, J.M. Coetzee, and is one which embodies Coetzee’s often fraught relationship with his home country, South Africa.Keywords: autobiography, place, reflexive referencing, temporality
Procedia PDF Downloads 66742 Determination of Influence Lines for Train Crossings on a Tied Arch Bridge to Optimize the Construction of the Hangers
Authors: Martin Mensinger, Marjolaine Pfaffinger, Matthias Haslbeck
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The maintenance and expansion of the railway network represents a central task for transport planning in the future. In addition to the ultimate limit states, the aspects of resource conservation and sustainability are increasingly more necessary to include in the basic engineering. Therefore, as part of the AiF research project, ‘Integrated assessment of steel and composite railway bridges in accordance with sustainability criteria’, the entire lifecycle of engineering structures is involved in planning and evaluation, offering a way to optimize the design of steel bridges. In order to reduce the life cycle costs and increase the profitability of steel structures, it is particularly necessary to consider the demands on hanger connections resulting from fatigue. In order for accurate analysis, a number simulations were conducted as part of the research project on a finite element model of a reference bridge, which gives an indication of the internal forces of the individual structural components of a tied arch bridge, depending on the stress incurred by various types of trains. The calculations were carried out on a detailed FE-model, which allows an extraordinarily accurate modeling of the stiffness of all parts of the constructions as it is made up surface elements. The results point to a large impact of the formation of details on fatigue-related changes in stress, on the one hand, and on the other, they could depict construction-specific specifics over the course of adding stress. Comparative calculations with varied axle-stress distribution also provide information about the sensitivity of the results compared to the imposition of stress and axel distribution on the stress-resultant development. The calculated diagrams help to achieve an optimized hanger connection design through improved durability, which helps to reduce the maintenance costs of rail networks and to give practical application notes for the formation of details.Keywords: fatigue, influence line, life cycle, tied arch bridge
Procedia PDF Downloads 320741 Open Innovation for Crowdsourced Product Development: The Case Study of Quirky.com
Authors: Ana Bilandzic, Marcus Foth, Greg Hearn
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In a narrow sense, innovation is the invention and commercialisation of a new product or service in the marketplace. The literature suggests places that support knowledge exchange and social interaction, e.g. coffee shops, to nurture innovative ideas. With the widespread success of Internet, interpersonal communication and interaction changed. Online platforms complement physical places for idea exchange and innovation – the rise of hybrid, ‘net localities.’ Further, since its introduction in 2003 by Chesbrough, the concept of open innovation received increased attention as a topic in academic research as well as an innovation strategy applied by companies. Open innovation allows companies to seek and release intellectual property and new ideas from outside of their own company. As a consequence, the innovation process is no longer only managed within the company, but it is pursued in a co-creation process with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Quirky.com (Quirky), a company founded by Ben Kaufman in 2009, recognised the opportunity given by the Internet for knowledge exchange and open innovation. Quirky developed an online platform that makes innovation available to everyone. This paper reports on a study that analysed Quirky’s business process in an extended event-driven process chain (eEPC). The aim was to determine how the platform enabled crowdsourced innovation for physical products on the Internet. The analysis reveals that key elements of the business model are based on open innovation. Quirky is an example of how open innovation can support crowdsourced and crowdfunded product ideation, development and selling. The company opened up various stages in the innovation process to its members to contribute in the product development, e.g. product ideation, design, and market research. Throughout the process, members earn influence through participating in the product development. Based on the influence they receive, shares on the product’s turnover. The outcomes of the study’s analysis highlighted certain benefits of open innovation for product development. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to look into opportunities of open innovation approaches to be adopted by tertiary institutions as a novel way to commercialise research intellectual property.Keywords: business process, crowdsourced innovation, open innovation, Quirky
Procedia PDF Downloads 221740 Rendering Cognition Based Learning in Coherence with Development within the Context of PostgreSQL
Authors: Manuela Nayantara Jeyaraj, Senuri Sucharitharathna, Chathurika Senarath, Yasanthy Kanagaraj, Indraka Udayakumara
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PostgreSQL is an Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) that has been in existence for a while. Despite the superior features that it wraps and packages to manage database and data, the database community has not fully realized the importance and advantages of PostgreSQL. Hence, this research tends to focus on provisioning a better environment of development for PostgreSQL in order to induce the utilization and elucidate the importance of PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL is also known to be the world’s most elementary SQL-compliant open source ORDBMS. But, users have not yet resolved to PostgreSQL due to the facts that it is still under the layers and the complexity of its persistent textual environment for an introductory user. Simply stating this, there is a dire need to explicate an easy way of making the users comprehend the procedure and standards with which databases are created, tables and the relationships among them, manipulating queries and their flow based on conditions in PostgreSQL to help the community resolve to PostgreSQL at an augmented rate. Hence, this research under development within the context tends to initially identify the dominant features provided by PostgreSQL over its competitors. Following the identified merits, an analysis on why the database community holds a hesitance in migrating to PostgreSQL’s environment will be carried out. These will be modulated and tailored based on the scope and the constraints discovered. The resultant of the research proposes a system that will serve as a designing platform as well as a learning tool that will provide an interactive method of learning via a visual editor mode and incorporate a textual editor for well-versed users. The study is based on conjuring viable solutions that analyze a user’s cognitive perception in comprehending human computer interfaces and the behavioural processing of design elements. By providing a visually draggable and manipulative environment to work with Postgresql databases and table queries, it is expected to highlight the elementary features displayed by Postgresql over any other existent systems in order to grasp and disseminate the importance and simplicity offered by this to a hesitant user.Keywords: cognition, database, PostgreSQL, text-editor, visual-editor
Procedia PDF Downloads 276739 The Concept of Birthday: A Theoretical, Historical, and Social Overview, in Judaism and Other Cultures
Authors: Orly Redlich
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In the age of social distance, which has been added to an individual and competitive worldview, it has become important to find a way to promote closeness and personal touch. The sense of social belonging and the existence of positive interaction with others have recently become a considerable necessity. Therefore, this theoretical paper will review one of the familiar and common concepts among different cultures around the world – birthday. This paper has a theoretical contribution that deepens the understanding of the birthday concept. Birthday rituals are historical and universal events, which noted since the prehistoric eras. In ancient history, birthday rituals were solely reserved for kings and nobility members, but over the years, birthday celebrations have evolved into a worldwide tradition. Some of the familiar birthday customs and symbols are currently common among most cultures, while some cultures have adopted for themselves unique birthday customs, which characterized their values and traditions. The birthday concept has a unique significance in Judaism as well, historically, religiously, and socially: It is considered as a lucky day and a private holiday for the celebrant. Therefore, the present paper reviews diverse birthday customs around the world in different cultures, including Judaism, and marks important birthdays throughout history. The paper also describes how the concept of birthday appears over the years in songs, novels, and art, and presents quotes from distinguished sages. The theoretical review suggests that birthday has a special meaning as a time-mark in the cycle of life, and as a socialization means in human development. Moreover, the birthday serves as a symbol of belonging and group cohesiveness, a day in which the celebrant's sense of belonging and sense of importance are strengthened and nurtured. Thus, the reappearance of these elements in a family or group interaction during the birthday ceremony allows the celebrant to absorb positive impressions about himself. In view of the extensive theoretical review, it seems that the unique importance of birthdays can serve as the foundation for intervention programs that may affect the participants’ sense of belonging and empowerment. In the group aspect, perhaps it can also yield therapeutic factors within a group. Concrete recommendations are presented at the end of the paper.Keywords: birthday, universal events, positive interaction, group cohesiveness, rituals
Procedia PDF Downloads 130738 Exploration of the Protection Theory of Chinese Scenic Heritage Based on Local Chronicles
Authors: Mao Huasong, Tang Siqi, Cheng Yu
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The cognition and practice of Chinese landscapes have distinct uniqueness. The intergenerational inheritance of urban and rural landscapes is a common objective fact which has created a unique type of heritage in China - scenic heritage. The current generalization of the concept of scenic heritage has affected the lack of innovation in corresponding protection practices. Therefore, clarifying the concepts and connotations of scenery and scenic heritage, clarifying the protection objects of scenic heritage and the methods and approaches in intergenerational inheritance can provide theoretical support for the practice of Chinese scenic heritage and contribute Chinese wisdom to the transformation of world heritage sites. Taking ancient Shaoxing, which has a long time span and rich descriptions of scenic types and quantities, as the research object and using local chronicles as the basic research material, based on text analysis, word frequency analysis, case statistics, and historical, geographical spatial annotation methods, this study traces back to ancient scenic practices and conducts in-depth descriptions in both text and space. it have constructed a scenic heritage identification method based on the basic connotation characteristics and morphological representation characteristics of natural and cultural correlations, combined with the intergenerational and representative characteristics of scenic heritage; Summarized the bidirectional integration of "scenic spots" and "form scenic spots", "outstanding people" and "local spirits" in the formation process of scenic heritage; In inheritance, guided by Confucian values of education; In communication, the cultural interpretation constructed by scenery and the way of landscape life are used to strengthen the intergenerational inheritance of natural, artificial material elements, and intangible spirits. As a unique type of heritage in China, scenic heritage should improve its standards, values, and connotations in current protection practices and actively absorb historical experience.Keywords: scenic heritage, heritage protection, cultural landscape, shaoxing, chinese landscape
Procedia PDF Downloads 61737 The Influence of Neighborhood Centers of Tehran Municipality in Living Style of the Residents of Each Neighborhood
Authors: Fahimeh Rafiezade, Fatemeh Kakoyi Dinaki, Maryam Soufi
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This research studies and identifies the important elements of the living style of the residents of one of the neighborhoods of Tehran. The study will also study the role, the degree, and extent of the influence of neighborhood trainings in the lives of these people. Saraymahaleh is one of the centers established by Tehran municipality in various neighborhoods of Tehran in order to provide educational, cultural, etc. services. We carried out our study according to demography, field study, observation, 30 interviews, and 2 focus group discussions (FGD) at Sahebalzaman neighborhood in district 18 of Tehran municipality. We interpreted our observations and interviews with the neighborhoods’ supervisors and city council assistants (Shorayar), supervisor of Saraymahaleh and people who refer to them. We used this information to study the citizens’ lifestyle, values, behavioral, motivational, and attitude preferences in their religious and environmental orientations, cultural consumptions, and spare times, and the influence of Saraymahaleh on these aspects according to specific economic, cultural, and ethnic characteristics. Sahebalzaman neighborhood is considered an underprivileged district in terms of economy, high illiteracy, and low but structured migration of young people. The interviews we made helped us classify the people referring to Saraymahaleh based on their demographic attributes and attitudes and the reason of referring and finally the influence of the rendered services on their lifestyles. The studies indicate that women made the most part of people referring to Saraymahaleh Sahebalzaman. They were mostly young, in their midlives, and generally unemployed without a specialized skill. People referred to Saraymahaleh Sahebalzaman mostly to receive services or for entertainment and recreation purposes, i.e. they did not take part actively. In addition to creating welfare and cultural facilities, Saraymahaleh increases the level of skill training, empowerment, innovation and creativity, and issues skill certificates and documents that helps to increase job and income producing opportunities for the neighborhood residents, improve the quality of their live, and increase their hope for life.Keywords: lifestyle, living in neighborhood, Saraymahaleh, Tehran municipality, urban life, demography
Procedia PDF Downloads 370736 Seismic Isolation of Existing Masonry Buildings: Recent Case Studies in Italy
Authors: Stefano Barone
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Seismic retrofit of buildings through base isolation represents a consolidated protection strategy against earthquakes. It consists in decoupling the ground motion from that of the structure and introducing anti-seismic devices at the base of the building, characterized by high horizontal flexibility and medium/high dissipative capacity. This allows to protect structural elements and to limit damages to non-structural ones. For these reasons, full functionality is guaranteed after an earthquake event. Base isolation is applied extensively to both new and existing buildings. For the latter, it usually does not require any interruption of the structure use and occupants evacuation, a special advantage for strategic buildings such as schools, hospitals, and military buildings. This paper describes the application of seismic isolation to three existing masonry buildings in Italy: Villa “La Maddalena” in Macerata (Marche region), “Giacomo Matteotti” and “Plinio Il Giovane” school buildings in Perugia (Umbria region). The seismic hazard of the sites is characterized by a Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) of 0.213g-0.287g for the Life Safety Limit State and between 0.271g-0.359g for the Collapse Limit State. All the buildings are isolated with a combination of free sliders type TETRON® CD with confined elastomeric disk and anti-seismic rubber isolators type ISOSISM® HDRB to reduce the eccentricity between the center of mass and stiffness, thus limiting torsional effects during a seismic event. The isolation systems are designed to lengthen the original period of vibration (i.e., without isolators) by at least three times and to guarantee medium/high levels of energy dissipation capacity (equivalent viscous damping between 12.5% and 16%). This allows the structures to resist 100% of the seismic design action. This article shows the performances of the supplied anti-seismic devices with particular attention to the experimental dynamic response. Finally, a special focus is given to the main site activities required to isolate a masonry building.Keywords: retrofit, masonry buildings, seismic isolation, energy dissipation, anti-seismic devices
Procedia PDF Downloads 63735 Hexavalent Chromium-Induced Changes in Biochemical Parameters of Wistar Albino Rats
Authors: Ounassa Adjroud
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Potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) is one of the most toxic elements to which man can be exposed at work or in the environment. The purpose of the current work is to compare the effect of K2Cr2O7 using variations in the dose, route of administration and duration of exposure in male and female Wistar albino rats with a special focus on biochemical parameters. K2Cr2O7 was subcutaneously administered alone (10, 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight) to female Wistar albino rats. Male rats received in their drinking water K2Cr2O7 30 mg/L/day) for 20 consecutive days. The Biochemical parameters were evaluated on days 3, 6 and 21 after subcutaneous (sc.) treatment in female rats and on days 10 and 20 after oral administration in male rats. The subcutaneous (s.c.) administration of 25 mg/kg of K2Cr2O7 to Wistar albino rats induced a slight change in plasma glucose levels during the experiment period. On the contrary, a significant decrease in plasma glucose levels was observed with 50 mg/kg mainly on days 3 (-26%) and 21 (-48%) after treatment compared to controls females rats. On the other hand, the higher dose provoked a significant increase in plasma glucose concentrations on days 6 (+31%) and 21 (+60%). similarly, the lower dose of chromium had no effect on the plasma urea levels. Conversely, a significant increase (122%) in this parameter was obtained during the first three days after treatment. In addition, a significant decrease in plasma glucose levels was observed with 50 mg/kg mainly on days 3 (-26%) and 21 (-48%) after treatment. On the other hand, the higher dose provoked a significant increase in plasma glucose concentrations on days 6 (+31%) and 21 (+60%). similarly, the lower dose of chromium had no effect on the plasma urea levels. Conversely, a significant increase in this parameter (122%) was obtained during the first three days after treatment. In addition, administration of 100 mg/kg of K2Cr2O7 by s.c markedly augmented the levels of plasma urea on days 3 (62%) and 6 (121%). Administration of 30 mg/L/day of K2Cr2O7 in the drinking water induced a significant augmentation in both of plasma glucose (27%) and urea (126%) during the first ten days of treatment. These results suggested that K2Cr2O7 administered subcutaneously or in the drinking water may induce harmful effects on biochemical parameters.Keywords: glucose, potassium dichromate, Wistar albino rat, urea
Procedia PDF Downloads 278734 Pull-Out Analysis of Composite Loops Embedded in Steel Reinforced Concrete Retaining Wall Panels
Authors: Pierre van Tonder, Christoff Kruger
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Modular concrete elements are used for retaining walls to provide lateral support. Depending on the retaining wall layout, these precast panels may be interlocking and may be tied into the soil backfill via geosynthetic strips. This study investigates the ultimate pull-out load increase, which is possible by adding varied diameter supplementary reinforcement through embedded anchor loops within concrete retaining wall panels. Full-scale panels used in practice have four embedded anchor points. However, only one anchor loop was embedded in the center of the experimental panels. The experimental panels had the same thickness but a smaller footprint (600mm x 600mm x 140mm) area than the full-sized panels to accommodate the space limitations of the laboratory and experimental setup. The experimental panels were also cast without any bending reinforcement as would typically be obtained in the full-scale panels. The exclusion of these reinforcements was purposefully neglected to evaluate the impact of a single bar reinforcement through the center of the anchor loops. The reinforcement bars had of 8 mm, 10 mm, 12 mm, and 12 mm. 30 samples of concrete panels with embedded anchor loops were tested. The panels were supported on the edges and the anchor loops were subjected to an increasing tensile force using an Instron piston. Failures that occurred were loop failures and panel failures and a mixture thereof. There was an increase in ultimate load vs. increasing diameter as expected, but this relationship persisted until the reinforcement diameter exceeded 10 mm. For diameters larger than 10 mm, the ultimate failure load starts to decrease due to the dependency of the reinforcement bond strength to the concrete matrix. Overall, the reinforced panels showed a 14 to 23% increase in the factor of safety. Using anchor loops of 66kN ultimate load together with Y10 steel reinforcement with bent ends had shown the most promising results in reducing concrete panel pull-out failure. The Y10 reinforcement had shown, on average, a 24% increase in ultimate load achieved. Previous research has investigated supplementary reinforcement around the anchor loops. This paper extends this investigation by evaluating supplementary reinforcement placed through the panel anchor loops.Keywords: supplementary reinforcement, anchor loops, retaining panels, reinforced concrete, pull-out failure
Procedia PDF Downloads 190733 Migrants and Non Migrants: Class Level Distinctions from a Village Level Analysis of Mahabubnagar District
Authors: T. P. Muhammed Jamsheer
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This paper tries to explains some of differences between migrants and non-migrants households by taking ten indicators like land ownership, land distribution, lease in land, lease out land, demand of labour, supply of labour, land operational potential, holding of agriculture implements and livestock’s, irrigation potential of households and credit holding by the households of highly dry, drought affected, poverty stricken, multi caste and pluralistic sub castes village in very backward Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. The paper is purely field work based research and conducted census survey of field work among the 298 households in highly dry village called Keppatta from Bhoothpur mandel. One of the main objectives of the paper is that, to find out the factors which differentiate migrants and non-migrants households and what are distress elements which forced the poor peasants migrants to outside the village. It concludes that among the migrants and non-migrants households and among the differences between the categories wise of both types of households, there are differences, except two indicators like lease in and lease out, all other indicators like land holding pattern, demand and supply of labour, land operation, irrigation potential, implements and livestock and credit facilities of migrants and non-migrants households shows that non-migrants have high share than the migrants households. This paper also showing the landed households are more migrants, means among the BC and FC households landed households are migrants while SC landless are more migrants which is contradictory to general/existing literatures conclusion that, landless are more migrant than landed households, here also showing that when the number of land in acres increases the share of SC is declining while the share of FC is increasing among the both migrants and non-migrants households. In the class wise SC households are more in distress situation than any other class and that might be leading to the highest share of migrants from the respective village. In the logistic econometric model to find out the relation between migration and other ten variables, the result shows that supply of labour, lease in of the land and size of the family are statically significantly related with migration and all other variables not significant relation with migration although the theoretical explanation shows the different results.Keywords: class, migrants, non migrants, economic indicators, distress factors
Procedia PDF Downloads 323732 The Influence of Wildlife Watching Experience on Tourists’ Connection to Wildlife Conservation Caring and Awareness
Authors: Fiffy Hanisdah Saikim, Bruce Prideaux
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One of the aims of wildlife tourism is to educate visitors about the threats facing wildlife, in general, and the actions needed to protect the environment and maintain biodiversity. Annually, millions of tourists visit natural areas and zoos primarily to view flagship species such as rhinos and elephants. Venues rely on the inherent charisma of these species to increase visitation and anchor conservation efforts. Expected visitor outcomes from the use of flagships include raised levels of awareness and pro-conservation behaviors. However, the role of flagships in wildlife tourism has been criticized for not delivering conservation benefits for species of interest or biodiversity and producing negative site impacts. Furthermore, little is known about how the connection to a species influences conservation behaviors. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by extending previous work exploring wildlife tourism to include the emotional connection formed with wildlife species and pro-conservation behaviors for individual species and biodiversity. This paper represents a substantial contribution to the field because (a) it incorporates the role of the experience in understanding how tourists connect with a species and how this connection influences pro-conservation behaviors; and (b) is the first attempt to operationalize Conservation Caring as a measure of tourists’ connection with a species. Existing studies have investigated how specific elements, such as interpretation or species’ morphology may influence programmatic goals or awareness. However, awareness is a poor measure of an emotional connection with an animal. Furthermore, there has not been work done to address the holistic nature of the wildlife viewing experience, and its subsequent influence on behaviors. Results based on the structural equation modelling, support the validity of Conservation Caring as a factor; the ability of wildlife tourism to influence Conservation Caring; and that this connection is a strong predictor of conservation awareness behaviors. These findings suggest wildlife tourism can deliver conservation outcomes. The studies in this paper also provide a valuable framework for structuring wildlife tourism experiences to align with flagship related conservation outcomes, and exploring a wider assemblage of species as potential flagships.Keywords: wildlife tourism, conservation caring, conservation awareness, structural equation modelling
Procedia PDF Downloads 282731 Bayesian Parameter Inference for Continuous Time Markov Chains with Intractable Likelihood
Authors: Randa Alharbi, Vladislav Vyshemirsky
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Systems biology is an important field in science which focuses on studying behaviour of biological systems. Modelling is required to produce detailed description of the elements of a biological system, their function, and their interactions. A well-designed model requires selecting a suitable mechanism which can capture the main features of the system, define the essential components of the system and represent an appropriate law that can define the interactions between its components. Complex biological systems exhibit stochastic behaviour. Thus, using probabilistic models are suitable to describe and analyse biological systems. Continuous-Time Markov Chain (CTMC) is one of the probabilistic models that describe the system as a set of discrete states with continuous time transitions between them. The system is then characterised by a set of probability distributions that describe the transition from one state to another at a given time. The evolution of these probabilities through time can be obtained by chemical master equation which is analytically intractable but it can be simulated. Uncertain parameters of such a model can be inferred using methods of Bayesian inference. Yet, inference in such a complex system is challenging as it requires the evaluation of the likelihood which is intractable in most cases. There are different statistical methods that allow simulating from the model despite intractability of the likelihood. Approximate Bayesian computation is a common approach for tackling inference which relies on simulation of the model to approximate the intractable likelihood. Particle Markov chain Monte Carlo (PMCMC) is another approach which is based on using sequential Monte Carlo to estimate intractable likelihood. However, both methods are computationally expensive. In this paper we discuss the efficiency and possible practical issues for each method, taking into account the computational time for these methods. We demonstrate likelihood-free inference by performing analysing a model of the Repressilator using both methods. Detailed investigation is performed to quantify the difference between these methods in terms of efficiency and computational cost.Keywords: Approximate Bayesian computation(ABC), Continuous-Time Markov Chains, Sequential Monte Carlo, Particle Markov chain Monte Carlo (PMCMC)
Procedia PDF Downloads 198730 Digital Transformation: Actionable Insights to Optimize the Building Performance
Authors: Jovian Cheung, Thomas Kwok, Victor Wong
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Buildings are entwined with smart city developments. Building performance relies heavily on electrical and mechanical (E&M) systems and services accounting for about 40 percent of global energy use. By cohering the advancement of technology as well as energy and operation-efficient initiatives into the buildings, people are enabled to raise building performance and enhance the sustainability of the built environment in their daily lives. Digital transformation in the buildings is the profound development of the city to leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies To optimize the building performance, intelligent power quality and energy management system is developed for transforming data into actions. The system is formed by interfacing and integrating legacy metering and internet of things technologies in the building and applying big data techniques. It provides operation and energy profile and actionable insights of a building, which enables to optimize the building performance through raising people awareness on E&M services and energy consumption, predicting the operation of E&M systems, benchmarking the building performance, and prioritizing assets and energy management opportunities. The intelligent power quality and energy management system comprises four elements, namely the Integrated Building Performance Map, Building Performance Dashboard, Power Quality Analysis, and Energy Performance Analysis. It provides predictive operation sequence of E&M systems response to the built environment and building activities. The system collects the live operating conditions of E&M systems over time to identify abnormal system performance, predict failure trends and alert users before anticipating system failure. The actionable insights collected can also be used for system design enhancement in future. This paper will illustrate how intelligent power quality and energy management system provides operation and energy profile to optimize the building performance and actionable insights to revitalize an existing building into a smart building. The system is driving building performance optimization and supporting in developing Hong Kong into a suitable smart city to be admired.Keywords: intelligent buildings, internet of things technologies, big data analytics, predictive operation and maintenance, building performance
Procedia PDF Downloads 146729 Using Optical Character Recognition to Manage the Unstructured Disaster Data into Smart Disaster Management System
Authors: Dong Seop Lee, Byung Sik Kim
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In the 4th Industrial Revolution, various intelligent technologies have been developed in many fields. These artificial intelligence technologies are applied in various services, including disaster management. Disaster information management does not just support disaster work, but it is also the foundation of smart disaster management. Furthermore, it gets historical disaster information using artificial intelligence technology. Disaster information is one of important elements of entire disaster cycle. Disaster information management refers to the act of managing and processing electronic data about disaster cycle from its’ occurrence to progress, response, and plan. However, information about status control, response, recovery from natural and social disaster events, etc. is mainly managed in the structured and unstructured form of reports. Those exist as handouts or hard-copies of reports. Such unstructured form of data is often lost or destroyed due to inefficient management. It is necessary to manage unstructured data for disaster information. In this paper, the Optical Character Recognition approach is used to convert handout, hard-copies, images or reports, which is printed or generated by scanners, etc. into electronic documents. Following that, the converted disaster data is organized into the disaster code system as disaster information. Those data are stored in the disaster database system. Gathering and creating disaster information based on Optical Character Recognition for unstructured data is important element as realm of the smart disaster management. In this paper, Korean characters were improved to over 90% character recognition rate by using upgraded OCR. In the case of character recognition, the recognition rate depends on the fonts, size, and special symbols of character. We improved it through the machine learning algorithm. These converted structured data is managed in a standardized disaster information form connected with the disaster code system. The disaster code system is covered that the structured information is stored and retrieve on entire disaster cycle such as historical disaster progress, damages, response, and recovery. The expected effect of this research will be able to apply it to smart disaster management and decision making by combining artificial intelligence technologies and historical big data.Keywords: disaster information management, unstructured data, optical character recognition, machine learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 121728 Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Doha Institute for Graduate Studies as a Case Study
Authors: Ahmed Makhoukh
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Quality assurance (QA) has recently become a common practice, which is endorsed by most Higher Education (HE) institutions worldwide, due to the pressure of internal and external forces. One of the aims of this quality movement is to make the contribution of university education to socio-economic development highly significant. This entails that graduates are currently required have a high-quality profile, i.e., to be competent and master the 21st-century skills needed in the labor market. This wave of change, mostly imposed by globalization, has the effect that university education should be learner-centered in order to satisfy the different needs of students and meet the expectations of other stakeholders. Such a shift of focus on the student learning outcomes has led HE institutions to reconsider their strategic planning, their mission, the curriculum, the pedagogical competence of the academic staff, among other elements. To ensure that the overall institutional performance is on the right way, a QA system should be established to assume this task of checking regularly the extent to which the set of standards of evaluation are strictly respected as expected. This operation of QA has the advantage of proving the accountability of the institution, gaining the trust of the public with transparency and enjoying an international recognition. This is the case of Doha Institute (DI) for Graduate Studies, in Qatar, the object of the present study. The significance of this contribution is to show that the conception of quality has changed in this digital age, and the need to integrate a department responsible for QA in every HE institution to ensure educational quality, enhance learners and achieve academic leadership. Thus, to undertake the issue of QA in DI for Graduate Studies, an elite university (in the academic sense) that focuses on a small and selected number of students, a qualitative method will be adopted in the description and analysis of the data (document analysis). In an attempt to investigate the extent to which QA is achieved in Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, three broad indicators will be evaluated (input, process and learning outcomes). This investigation will be carried out in line with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education represented by Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).Keywords: accreditation, higher education, quality, quality assurance, standards
Procedia PDF Downloads 144727 Acceleration Techniques of DEM Simulation for Dynamics of Particle Damping
Authors: Masato Saeki
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Presented herein is a novel algorithms for calculating the damping performance of particle dampers. The particle damper is a passive vibration control technique and has many practical applications due to simple design. It consists of granular materials constrained to move between two ends in the cavity of a primary vibrating system. The damping effect results from the exchange of momentum during the impact of granular materials against the wall of the cavity. This damping has the advantage of being independent of the environment. Therefore, particle damping can be applied in extreme temperature environments, where most conventional dampers would fail. It was shown experimentally in many papers that the efficiency of the particle dampers is high in the case of resonant vibration. In order to use the particle dampers effectively, it is necessary to solve the equations of motion for each particle, considering the granularity. The discrete element method (DEM) has been found to be effective for revealing the dynamics of particle damping. In this method, individual particles are assumed as rigid body and interparticle collisions are modeled by mechanical elements as springs and dashpots. However, the computational cost is significant since the equation of motion for each particle must be solved at each time step. In order to improve the computational efficiency of the DEM, the new algorithms are needed. In this study, new algorithms are proposed for implementing the high performance DEM. On the assumption that behaviors of the granular particles in the each divided area of the damper container are the same, the contact force of the primary system with all particles can be considered to be equal to the product of the divided number of the damper area and the contact force of the primary system with granular materials per divided area. This convenience makes it possible to considerably reduce the calculation time. The validity of this calculation method was investigated and the calculated results were compared with the experimental ones. This paper also presents the results of experimental studies of the performance of particle dampers. It is shown that the particle radius affect the noise level. It is also shown that the particle size and the particle material influence the damper performance.Keywords: particle damping, discrete element method (DEM), granular materials, numerical analysis, equivalent noise level
Procedia PDF Downloads 450726 Multiscale Process Modeling of Ceramic Matrix Composites
Authors: Marianna Maiaru, Gregory M. Odegard, Josh Kemppainen, Ivan Gallegos, Michael Olaya
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Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are typically used in applications that require long-term mechanical integrity at elevated temperatures. CMCs are usually fabricated using a polymer precursor that is initially polymerized in situ with fiber reinforcement, followed by a series of cycles of pyrolysis to transform the polymer matrix into a rigid glass or ceramic. The pyrolysis step typically generates volatile gasses, which creates porosity within the polymer matrix phase of the composite. Subsequent cycles of monomer infusion, polymerization, and pyrolysis are often used to reduce the porosity and thus increase the durability of the composite. Because of the significant expense of such iterative processing cycles, new generations of CMCs with improved durability and manufacturability are difficult and expensive to develop using standard Edisonian approaches. The goal of this research is to develop a computational process-modeling-based approach that can be used to design the next generation of CMC materials with optimized material and processing parameters for maximum strength and efficient manufacturing. The process modeling incorporates computational modeling tools, including molecular dynamics (MD), to simulate the material at multiple length scales. Results from MD simulation are used to inform the continuum-level models to link molecular-level characteristics (material structure, temperature) to bulk-level performance (strength, residual stresses). Processing parameters are optimized such that process-induced residual stresses are minimized and laminate strength is maximized. The multiscale process modeling method developed with this research can play a key role in the development of future CMCs for high-temperature and high-strength applications. By combining multiscale computational tools and process modeling, new manufacturing parameters can be established for optimal fabrication and performance of CMCs for a wide range of applications.Keywords: digital engineering, finite elements, manufacturing, molecular dynamics
Procedia PDF Downloads 93725 Study of the Transport of ²²⁶Ra Colloidal in Mining Context Using a Multi-Disciplinary Approach
Authors: Marine Reymond, Michael Descostes, Marie Muguet, Clemence Besancon, Martine Leermakers, Catherine Beaucaire, Sophie Billon, Patricia Patrier
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²²⁶Ra is one of the radionuclides resulting from the disintegration of ²³⁸U. Due to its half-life (1600 y) and its high specific activity (3.7 x 1010 Bq/g), ²²⁶Ra is found at the ultra-trace level in the natural environment (usually below 1 Bq/L, i.e. 10-13 mol/L). Because of its decay in ²²²Rn, a radioactive gas with a shorter half-life (3.8 days) which is difficult to control and dangerous for humans when inhaled, ²²⁶Ra is subject to a dedicated monitoring in surface waters especially in the context of uranium mining. In natural waters, radionuclides occur in dissolved, colloidal or particular forms. Due to the size of colloids, generally ranging between 1 nm and 1 µm and their high specific surface areas, the colloidal fraction could be involved in the transport of trace elements, including radionuclides in the environment. The colloidal fraction is not always easy to determine and few existing studies focus on ²²⁶Ra. In the present study, a complete multidisciplinary approach is proposed to assess the colloidal transport of ²²⁶Ra. It includes water sampling by conventional filtration (0.2µm) and the innovative Diffusive Gradient in Thin Films technique to measure the dissolved fraction (<10nm), from which the colloidal fraction could be estimated. Suspended matter in these waters were also sampled and characterized mineralogically by X-Ray Diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. All of these data, which were acquired on a rehabilitated former uranium mine, allowed to build a geochemical model using the geochemical calculation code PhreeqC to describe, as accurately as possible, the colloidal transport of ²²⁶Ra. Colloidal transport of ²²⁶Ra was found, for some of the sampling points, to account for up to 95% of the total ²²⁶Ra measured in water. Mineralogical characterization and associated geochemical modelling highlight the role of barite, a barium sulfate mineral well known to trap ²²⁶Ra into its structure. Barite was shown to be responsible for the colloidal ²²⁶Ra fraction despite the presence of kaolinite and ferrihydrite, which are also known to retain ²²⁶Ra by sorption.Keywords: colloids, mining context, radium, transport
Procedia PDF Downloads 152724 A Risk Assessment Tool for the Contamination of Aflatoxins on Dried Figs Based on Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Kottaridi Klimentia, Demopoulos Vasilis, Sidiropoulos Anastasios, Ihara Diego, Nikolaidis Vasileios, Antonopoulos Dimitrios
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Aflatoxins are highly poisonous and carcinogenic compounds produced by species of the genus Aspergillus spp. that can infect a variety of agricultural foods, including dried figs. Biological and environmental factors, such as population, pathogenicity, and aflatoxinogenic capacity of the strains, topography, soil, and climate parameters of the fig orchards, are believed to have a strong effect on aflatoxin levels. Existing methods for aflatoxin detection and measurement, such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), can provide accurate results, but the procedures are usually time-consuming, sample-destructive, and expensive. Predicting aflatoxin levels prior to crop harvest is useful for minimizing the health and financial impact of a contaminated crop. Consequently, there is interest in developing a tool that predicts aflatoxin levels based on topography and soil analysis data of fig orchards. This paper describes the development of a risk assessment tool for the contamination of aflatoxin on dried figs, based on the location and altitude of the fig orchards, the population of the fungus Aspergillus spp. in the soil, and soil parameters such as pH, saturation percentage (SP), electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter, particle size analysis (sand, silt, clay), the concentration of the exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, K, Na), extractable P, and trace of elements (B, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu), by employing machine learning methods. In particular, our proposed method integrates three machine learning techniques, i.e., dimensionality reduction on the original dataset (principal component analysis), metric learning (Mahalanobis metric for clustering), and k-nearest neighbors learning algorithm (KNN), into an enhanced model, with mean performance equal to 85% by terms of the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) between observed and predicted values.Keywords: aflatoxins, Aspergillus spp., dried figs, k-nearest neighbors, machine learning, prediction
Procedia PDF Downloads 178723 Use of Artificial Intelligence and Two Object-Oriented Approaches (k-NN and SVM) for the Detection and Characterization of Wetlands in the Centre-Val de Loire Region, France
Authors: Bensaid A., Mostephaoui T., Nedjai R.
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Nowadays, wetlands are the subject of contradictory debates opposing scientific, political and administrative meanings. Indeed, given their multiple services (drinking water, irrigation, hydrological regulation, mineral, plant and animal resources...), wetlands concentrate many socio-economic and biodiversity issues. In some regions, they can cover vast areas (>100 thousand ha) of the landscape, such as the Camargue area in the south of France, inside the Rhone delta. The high biological productivity of wetlands, the strong natural selection pressures and the diversity of aquatic environments have produced many species of plants and animals that are found nowhere else. These environments are tremendous carbon sinks and biodiversity reserves depending on their age, composition and surrounding environmental conditions, wetlands play an important role in global climate projections. Covering more than 3% of the earth's surface, wetlands have experienced since the beginning of the 1990s a tremendous revival of interest, which has resulted in the multiplication of inventories, scientific studies and management experiments. The geographical and physical characteristics of the wetlands of the central region conceal a large number of natural habitats that harbour a great biological diversity. These wetlands, one of the natural habitats, are still influenced by human activities, especially agriculture, which affects its layout and functioning. In this perspective, decision-makers need to delimit spatial objects (natural habitats) in a certain way to be able to take action. Thus, wetlands are no exception to this rule even if it seems to be a difficult exercise to delimit a type of environment as whose main characteristic is often to occupy the transition between aquatic and terrestrial environment. However, it is possible to map wetlands with databases, derived from the interpretation of photos and satellite images, such as the European database Corine Land cover, which allows quantifying and characterizing for each place the characteristic wetland types. Scientific studies have shown limitations when using high spatial resolution images (SPOT, Landsat, ASTER) for the identification and characterization of small wetlands (1 hectare). To address this limitation, it is important to note that these wetlands generally represent spatially complex features. Indeed, the use of very high spatial resolution images (>3m) is necessary to map small and large areas. However, with the recent evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning methods for satellite image processing have shown a much better performance compared to traditional processing based only on pixel structures. Our research work is also based on spectral and textural analysis on THR images (Spot and IRC orthoimage) using two object-oriented approaches, the nearest neighbour approach (k-NN) and the Super Vector Machine approach (SVM). The k-NN approach gave good results for the delineation of wetlands (wet marshes and moors, ponds, artificial wetlands water body edges, ponds, mountain wetlands, river edges and brackish marshes) with a kappa index higher than 85%.Keywords: land development, GIS, sand dunes, segmentation, remote sensing
Procedia PDF Downloads 60722 Observation on the Performance of Heritage Structures in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal during the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake
Authors: K. C. Apil, Keshab Sharma, Bigul Pokharel
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Kathmandu Valley, capital city of Nepal houses numerous historical monuments as well as religious structures which are as old as from the 4th century A.D. The city alone is home to seven UNESCO’s world heritage sites including various public squares and religious sanctums which are often regarded as living heritages by various historians and archeological explorers. Recently on April 25, 2015, the capital city including other nearby locations was struck with Gorkha earthquake of moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8, followed by the strongest aftershock of moment magnitude (Mw) 7.3 on May 12. This study reports structural failures and collapse of heritage structures in Kathmandu Valley during the earthquake and presents preliminary findings as to the causes of failures and collapses. Field reconnaissance was carried immediately after the main shock and the aftershock, in major heritage sites: UNESCO world heritage sites, a number of temples and historic buildings in Kathmandu Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, and Bhaktapur Durbar Square. Despite such catastrophe, a significant number of heritage structures stood high, performing very well during the earthquake. Preliminary reports from archeological department suggest that 721 of such structures were severely affected, whereas numbers within the valley only were 444 including 76 structures which were completely collapsed. This study presents recorded accelerograms and geology of Kathmandu Valley. Structural typology and architecture of the heritage structures in Kathmandu Valley are briefly described. Case histories of damaged heritage structures, the patterns, and the failure mechanisms are also discussed in this paper. It was observed that performance of heritage structures was influenced by the multiple factors such as structural and architecture typology, configuration, and structural deficiency, local ground site effects and ground motion characteristics, age and maintenance level, material quality etc. Most of such heritage structures are of masonry type using bricks and earth-mortar as a bonding agent. The walls' resistance is mainly compressive, thus capable of withstanding vertical static gravitational load but not horizontal dynamic seismic load. There was no definitive pattern of damage to heritage structures as most of them behaved as a composite structure. Some structures were extensively damaged in some locations, while structures with similar configuration at nearby location had little or no damage. Out of major heritage structures, Dome, Pagoda (2, 3 or 5 tiered temples) and Shikhara structures were studied with similar variables. Studying varying degrees of damages in such structures, it was found that Shikhara structures were most vulnerable one where Dome structures were found to be the most stable one, followed by Pagoda structures. The seismic performance of the masonry-timber and stone masonry structures were slightly better than that of the masonry structures. Regular maintenance and periodic seismic retrofitting seems to have played pivotal role in strengthening seismic performance of the structure. The study also recommends some key functions to strengthen the seismic performance of such structures through study based on structural analysis, building material behavior and retrofitting details. The result also recognises the importance of documentation of traditional knowledge and its revised transformation in modern technology.Keywords: Gorkha earthquake, field observation, heritage structure, seismic performance, masonry building
Procedia PDF Downloads 141