Search results for: soil moisture sensors

Authors: Artur Cichowicz

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The last active mine in the Central Rand Goldfields area (50 km x 15 km) ceased operations in 2008. This resulted in the closure of the pumping stations, which previously maintained the underground water level in the mining voids. As a direct consequence of the water being allowed to flood the mine voids, seismic activity has increased directly beneath the populated area of Johannesburg. Monitoring of seismicity in the area has been on-going for over five years using the network of 17 strong ground motion sensors. The objective of the project is to improve strategies for mine closure. The evolution of the seismicity pattern was investigated in detail. Special attention was given to seismic source parameters such as magnitude, scalar seismic moment and static stress drop. Most events are located within historical mine boundaries. The seismicity pattern shows a strong relationship between the presence of the mining void and high levels of seismicity; no seismicity migration patterns were observed outside the areas of old mining. Seven years after the pumping stopped, the evolution of the seismicity has indicated that the area is not yet in equilibrium. The level of seismicity in the area appears to not be decreasing over time since the number of strong events, with Mw magnitudes above 2, is still as high as it was when monitoring began over five years ago. The average rate of seismic deformation is 1.6x1013 Nm/year. Constant seismic deformation was not observed over the last 5 years. The deviation from the average is in the order of 6x10^13 Nm/year, which is a significant deviation. The variation of cumulative seismic moment indicates that a constant deformation rate model is not suitable. Over the most recent five year period, the total cumulative seismic moment released in the Central Rand Basin was 9.0x10^14 Nm. This is equivalent to one earthquake of magnitude 3.9. This is significantly less than what was experienced during the mining operation. Characterization of seismicity triggered by a rising water level in the area can be achieved through the estimation of source parameters. Static stress drop heavily influences ground motion amplitude, which plays an important role in risk assessments of potential seismic hazards in inhabited areas. The observed static stress drop in this study varied from 0.05 MPa to 10 MPa. It was found that large static stress drops could be associated with both small and large events. The temporal evolution of the inter-event time provides an understanding of the physical mechanisms of earthquake interaction. Changes in the characteristics of the inter-event time are produced when a stress change is applied to a group of faults in the region. Results from this study indicate that the fluid-induced source has a shorter inter-event time in comparison to a random distribution. This behaviour corresponds to a clustering of events, in which short recurrence times tend to be close to each other, forming clusters of events.

Keywords: inter-event time, fluid induced seismicity, mine closure, spectral parameters of seismic source

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Authors: Gabriel P. Fife, Saeyong Lee, David M. O'Sullivan

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Introduction: Although investigations into injury characteristics are represented well in the literature, few have investigated the biomechanical characteristics associated with head impacts in Taekwondo. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the kinematic characteristics of head impacts due to taekwondo kicks among non-elite practitioners. Participants: Male participants (n= 11, 175 + 5.3 cm, 71 + 8.3 kg) with 7.5 + 3.6 years of taekwondo training volunteered for this study. Methods: Participants were asked to perform five repetitions of each technique (i.e., turning kick, spinning hook kick, spinning back kick, front axe kick, and clench axe kick) aimed at the Hybrid III head with their dominant kicking leg. All participants wore a protective foot pad (thickness = 12 mm) that is commonly used in competition and training. To simulate head impact in taekwondo, the target consisted of a Hybrid III 50th Percentile Crash Test Dummy (Hybrid III) head (mass = 5.1 kg) and neck (fitted with taekwondo headgear) secured to an aluminum support frame and positioned to each athlete’s standing height. The Hybrid III head form was instrumented with a 500 g tri-axial accelerometer (PCB Piezotronics) mounted to the head center of gravity to obtain resultant linear accelerations (RLA). Rotational accelerations were collected using three angular rate sensors mounted orthogonally to each other (Diversified Technical Systems ARS-12 K Angular Rate Sensor). The accelerometers were interfaced via a 3-channel, battery-powered integrated circuit piezoelectric sensor signal conditioner (PCB Piezotronics) and connected to a desktop computer for analysis. Acceleration data were captured using LABVIEW Signal Express and processed in accordance with SAE J211-1 channel frequency class 1000. Head injury criteria values (HIC) were calculated using the VSRSoftware. A one-way analysis of variance was used to determine differences between kicks, while the Tukey HSD test was employed for pairwise comparisons. The level of significance was set to an effect size of 0.20. All statistical analyses were done using R 3.1.0. Results: A statistically significant difference was observed in RLA (p = 0.00075); however, these differences were not clinically meaningful (η² = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.94 to 1.03). No differences were identified with ROTA (p = 0.734, η² = 0.0004, 95% CI: -0.98 to 0.98). A statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) between kicks in HIC was observed, with a medium effect (η2= 0.08, 95% CI: -0.98 to 1.07). However, the confidence interval of this difference indicates uncertainty. Tukey HSD test identified differences (p < 0.001) between kicking techniques in RLA and HIC. Conclusion: This study observed head impact levels that were comparable to previous studies of similar objectives and methodology. These data are important as impact measures from this study may be more representative of impact levels experienced by non-elite competitors. Although the clench axe kick elicited a lower RLA, the ROTA of this technique was higher than levels from other techniques (although not large differences in reference to effect sizes). As the axe kick has been reported to cause severe head injury, future studies may consider further study of this kick important.

Keywords: Taekwondo, head injury, biomechanics, kicking

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Authors: Elchin Hajiyev, Afet Memmedova Dadash, Sabina Hajiyeva, Aynur Karimova, Ramiz Aliyev

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Although potatoes have a wide distribution range, the yield potential of varieties varies greatly depending on the region. Our country is made up of agricultural regions with very different environmental characteristics.In this case, we cannot expect the introduced varieties to show the same adaptation to the different conditions of our country. For this reason, in our country, varieties with high general adaptability should be used, rather than varieties with special adaptability in certain areas. Soil salinization has become a global problem.Increased salinity has a serious impact on food security by reducing plant productivity. Plants have protective mechanisms of adaptation to salt stress, such as the synthesis of physiologically active substances, resistance to antioxidant stress and oxidation of membrane lipids. One of these substances is free proline. Our study revealed genetic variation in proline accumulation among samples exposed to stress factors.Changes in proline content under stress conditions were studied in 50 samples. There was wide variation across all treatments.The amount of proline varied between 7.2–37.7 μM/g under salinity conditions.The lowest rate was in the SF33 genotype (1.5 times more than the control (2.5 μM/g)).The highest level of proline under the influence of salt stress was in the SF45 genotype (7.25 times higher than the control (32.5 μM/g)). Our studies have found that the protective system reacts differently to the influence of stress factors. According to the results obtained on the amount of proline, adaptation mechanisms must be more actively activated to maintain metabolism and ensure viability in sensitive forms under the influence of stress factors. At high doses of the salt stressor, a tenfold increase in proline compared to the control indicates significant damage to the plant organism as a result of stress.To prevent damage to the body, the antioxidant system needs to quickly mobilize and work at full capacity in adverse conditions. An increase in the dose of the stress factor salt in our study caused a greater increase in the amount of free proline in plant tissues. Considering the functions of proline as an osmoprotector and antioxidant, it was found that increasing its amount is aimed at protecting the plant from the acute effects of stressors.

Keywords: genetic variability, potato, genotypes, proline, stress

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Authors: Ekta, G. K. Darbha

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Nanotechnology offers the potential of simultaneously increasing efficiency as compared to their bulk material as well as reducing harmful environmental impacts of pesticides in field of agriculture. The term nanopesticide covers different pesticides that are cumulative of several surfactants, polymers, metal ions, etc. of nanometer size ranges from 1-1000 nm and exhibit abnormal behavior (high efficacy and high specific surface area) of nanomaterials. Commercial formulations of pesticides used by farmers nowadays cannot be used effectively due to a number of problems associated with them. For example, more than 90% of applied formulations are either lost in the environment or unable to reach the target area required for effective pest control. Around 20−30% of pesticides are lost through emissions. A number of factors (application methods, physicochemical properties of the formulations, and environmental conditions) can influence the extent of loss during application. It is known that among various formulations, polymer-based formulations show the greatest potential due to their greater efficacy, slow release and protection against premature degradation of active ingredient as compared to other commercial formulations. However, the nanoformulations can have a significant effect on the fate of active ingredient as well as may release some new ingredients by reacting with existing soil contaminants. Environmental fate of these newly generated species is still not explored very well which is essential to field scale experiments and hence a lot to be explored in the field of environmental fate, nanotoxicology, transport properties and stability of such formulations. In our preliminary work, we have synthesized polymer based nanoformulation of commercially used weedicide atrazine. Atrazine belongs to triazine class of herbicide, which is used in the effective control of seed germinated dicot weeds and grasses. It functions by binding to the plastoquinone-binding protein in PS-II. Plant death results from starvation and oxidative damage caused by breakdown in electron transport system. The stability of the suspension of nanoformulation containing herbicide has been evaluated by considering different parameters like polydispersity index, particle diameter, zeta-potential under different environmental relevance condition such as pH range 4-10, temperature range from 25°C to 65°C and stability of encapsulation also have been studied for different amount of added polymer. Morphological characterization has been done by using SEM.

Keywords: atrazine, nanoformulation, nanopesticide, nanotoxicology

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Authors: Miaomiao Zhang, Sabrina Beckmann, Haluk Ertan, Rocky Chau, Mike Manefield

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Phenazines are a large class of nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocyclic compounds, which are almost exclusively produced by bacteria from diverse genera including Pseudomonas and Streptomyces. Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) as one of 'core' phenazines are converted from chorismic acid before modified to other phenazine derivatives in different cells. Phenazines have attracted enormous interests because of their multiple roles on biocontrol, bacterial interaction, biofilm formation and fitness of their producers. However, in spite of ecological importance, degradation as a part of phenazines’ fate only have extremely limited attention now. Here, to isolate PCA-degrading bacteria, 200 mg L-1 PCA was supplied as sole carbon, nitrogen and energy source in minimal mineral medium. Quantitative PCR and Reverse-transcript PCR were employed to study abundance and activity of functional gene MFORT 16269 in PCA degradation, respectively. Intermediates and products of PCA degradation were identified with LC-MS/MS. After enrichment and isolation, a PCA-degrading strain was selected from soil and was designated as Rhodanobacter sp. PCA2 based on full 16S rRNA sequencing. As determined by HPLC, strain PCA2 consumed 200 mg L-1 (836 µM) PCA at a rate of 17.4 µM h-1, accompanying with significant cells yield from 1.92 × 105 to 3.11 × 106 cells per mL. Strain PCA2 was capable of degrading other phenazines as well, including phenazine (4.27 µM h-1), pyocyanin (2.72 µM h-1), neutral red (1.30 µM h-1) and 1-hydroxyphenazine (0.55 µM h-1). Moreover, during the incubation, transcript copies of MFORT 16269 gene increased significantly from 2.13 × 106 to 8.82 × 107 copies mL-1, which was 2.77 times faster than that of the corresponding gene copy number (2.20 × 106 to 3.32 × 107 copies mL-1), indicating that MFORT 16269 gene was activated and played roles on PCA degradation. As analyzed by LC-MS/MS, decarboxylation from the ring structure was determined as the first step of PCA degradation, followed by cleavage of nitrogen-containing ring by dioxygenase which catalyzed phenazine to nitrosobenzene. Subsequently, phenylhydroxylamine was detected after incubation for two days and was then transferred to aniline and catechol. Additionally, genomic and proteomic analyses were also carried out for strain PCA2. Overall, the findings presented here showed that a newly isolated strain Rhodanobacter sp. PCA2 was capable of degrading phenazines through decarboxylation and cleavage of nitrogen-containing ring, during which MFORT 16269 gene was activated and played important roles.

Keywords: decarboxylation, MFORT16269 gene, phenazine-1-carboxylic acid degradation, Rhodanobacter sp. PCA2

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Authors: António J. Gano, Carmen Rangel

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Currently, electric energy storage systems for stationary applications have known an increasing interest, namely with the integration of local renewable energy power sources into energy communities. Li-ion batteries are considered the leading electric storage devices to achieve this integration, and Battery Management Systems (BMS) are decisive for their control and optimum performance. In this work, the advancement of a smart BMS (sBMS) prototype with a modular distributed topology is described. The system, still under development, has a distributed architecture with modular characteristics to operate with different battery pack topologies and charge capacities, integrating adaptive algorithms for functional state real-time monitoring and management of multicellular Li-ion batteries, and is intended for application in the context of a local energy community fed by renewable energy sources. This sBMS system includes different developed hardware units: (1) Cell monitoring units (CMUs) for interfacing with each individual cell or module monitoring within the battery pack; (2) Battery monitoring and switching unit (BMU) for global battery pack monitoring, thermal control and functional operating state switching; (3) Main management and local control unit (MCU) for local sBMS’s management and control, also serving as a communications gateway to external systems and devices. This architecture is fully expandable to battery packs with a large number of cells, or modules, interconnected in series, as the several units have local data acquisition and processing capabilities, communicating over a standard CAN bus and will be able to operate almost autonomously. The CMU units are intended to be used with Li-ion cells but can be used with other cell chemistries, with output voltages within the 2.5 to 5 V range. The different unit’s characteristics and specifications are described, including the different implemented hardware solutions. The developed hardware supports both passive and active methods for charge equalization, considered fundamental functionalities for optimizing the performance and the useful lifetime of a Li-ion battery package. The functional characteristics of the different units of this sBMS system, including different process variables data acquisition using a flexible set of sensors, can support the development of custom algorithms for estimating the parameters defining the functional states of the battery pack (State-of-Charge, State-of-Health, etc.) as well as different charge equalizing strategies and algorithms. This sBMS system is intended to interface with other systems and devices using standard communication protocols, like those used by the Internet of Things. In the future, this sBMS architecture can evolve to a fully decentralized topology, with all the units using Wi-Fi protocols and integrating a mesh network, making unnecessary the MCU unit. The status of the work in progress is reported, leading to conclusions on the system already executed, considering the implemented hardware solution, not only as fully functional advanced and configurable battery management system but also as a platform for developing custom algorithms and optimizing strategies to achieve better performance of electric energy stationary storage devices.

Keywords: Li-ion battery, smart BMS, stationary electric storage, distributed BMS

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Authors: Manami Masuda, Mariko Era, Takayoshi Kawahara, Takahide Kanyama, Hiroshi Morita

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Objectives: Fatty acid salts are a type of anionic surfactant and are produced from fatty acids and alkali. Moreover, fatty acid salts are known to have potent antibacterial activities. Acanthamoeba is ubiquitously distributed in the environment including sea water, fresh water, soil and even from the air. Although generally free-living, Acanthamoeba can be an opportunistic pathogen, which could cause a potentially blinding corneal infection known as Acanthamoeba keratitis. So, in this study, we evaluated the anti-amoeba activity of fatty acid salts and fatty acids to Acanthamoeba castellanii ATCC 30010. Materials and Methods: The antibacterial activity of 9 fatty acid salts (potassium butyrate (C4K), caproate (C6K), caprylate (C8K), caprate (C10K), laurate (C12K), myristate (C14K), oleate (C18:1K), linoleate (C18:2K), linolenate (C18:3K)) tested on cells of Acanthamoeba castellanii ATCC 30010. Fatty acid salts (concentration of 175 mM and pH 10.5) were prepared by mixing the fatty acid with the appropriate amount of KOH. The amoeba suspension mixed with KOH with a pH adjusted solution was used as the control. Fatty acids (concentration of 175 mM) were prepared by mixing the fatty acid with Tween 80 (20 %). The amoeba suspension mixed with Tween 80 (20 %) was used as the control. The anti-amoeba method, the amoeba suspension (3.0 × 104 cells/ml trophozoites) was mixed with the sample of fatty acid potassium (final concentration of 175 mM). Samples were incubated at 30°C, for 10 min, 60 min, and 180 min and then the viability of A. castellanii was evaluated using plankton counting chamber and trypan blue stainings. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against Acanthamoeba was determined using the two-fold dilution method. The MIC was defined as the minimal anti-amoeba concentration that inhibited visible amoeba growth following incubation (180 min). Results: C8K, C10K, and C12K were the anti-amoeba effect of 4 log-unit (99.99 % growth suppression of A. castellanii) incubated time for 180 min against A. castellanii at 175mM. After the amoeba, the suspension was mixed with C10K or C12K, destroying the cell membrane had been observed. Whereas, the pH adjusted control solution did not exhibit any effect even after 180 min of incubation with A. castellanii. Moreover, C6, C8, and C18:3 were the anti-amoeba effect of 4 log-unit incubated time for 60 min. C4 and C18:2 exhibited a 4-log reduction after 180 min incubation. Furthermore, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined. The MIC of C10K, C12K and C4 were 2.7 mM. These results indicate that C10K, C12K and C4 have high anti-amoeba activity against A. castellanii and suggest C10K, C12K and C4 have great potential for antimi-amoeba agents.

Keywords: Fatty acid salts, anti-amoeba activities, Acanthamoeba, fatty acids

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Authors: Mohamed Abdelkareem

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Remote sensing data contributed on predicting the prospective areas of water resources. Integration of microwave and multispectral data along with climatic, hydrologic, and geological data has been used here. In this article, Sentinel-2, Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array Type L‐band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data were utilized to identify the geological, hydrologic and structural features of Wadi Asyuti which represents a defunct tributary of the Nile basin, in the eastern Sahara. The image transformation of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data allowed characterizing the different varieties of rock units. Integration of microwave remotely-sensed data and GIS techniques provided information on physical characteristics of catchments and rainfall zones that are of a crucial role for mapping groundwater prospective zones. A fused Landsat-8 OLI and ALOS/PALSAR data improved the structural elements that difficult to reveal using optical data. Lineament extraction and interpretation indicated that the area is clearly shaped by the NE-SW graben that is cut by NW-SE trend. Such structures allowed the accumulation of thick sediments in the downstream area. Processing of recent OLI data acquired on March 15, 2014, verified the flood potential maps and offered the opportunity to extract the extent of the flooding zone of the recent flash flood event (March 9, 2014), as well as revealed infiltration characteristics. Several layers including geology, slope, topography, drainage density, lineament density, soil characteristics, rainfall, and morphometric characteristics were combined after assigning a weight for each using a GIS-based knowledge-driven approach. The results revealed that the predicted groundwater potential zones (GPZs) can be arranged into six distinctive groups, depending on their probability for groundwater, namely very low, low, moderate, high very, high, and excellent. Field and well data validated the delineated zones.

Keywords: GIS, remote sensing, groundwater, Egypt

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Authors: Bensaid A., Mostephaoui T., Nedjai R.

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A considerable area of Algerian lands are threatened by the phenomenon of wind erosion. For a long time, wind erosion and its associated harmful effects on the natural environment have posed a serious threat, especially in the arid regions of the country. In recent years, as a result of increases in the irrational exploitation of natural resources (fodder) and extensive land clearing, wind erosion has particularly accentuated. The extent of degradation in the arid region of the Algerian Mécheriadepartment generated a new situation characterized by the reduction of vegetation cover, the decrease of land productivity, as well as sand encroachment on urban development zones. In this study, we attempt to investigate the potential of remote sensing and geographic information systems for detecting the spatial dynamics of the ancient dune cords based on the numerical processing of PlanetScope PSB.SB sensors images by September 29, 2021. As a second step, we prospect the use of a multi-scale geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) approach to segment the high spatial resolution images acquired on heterogeneous surfaces that vary according to human influence on the environment. We have used the fractal net evolution approach (FNEA) algorithm to segment images (Baatz&Schäpe, 2000). Multispectral data, a digital terrain model layer, ground truth data, a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) layer, and a first-order texture (entropy) layer were used to segment the multispectral images at three segmentation scales, with an emphasis on accurately delineating the boundaries and components of the sand accumulation areas (Dune, dunes fields, nebka, and barkhane). It is important to note that each auxiliary data contributed to improve the segmentation at different scales. The silted areas were classified using a nearest neighbor approach over the Naâma area using imagery. The classification of silted areas was successfully achieved over all study areas with an accuracy greater than 85%, although the results suggest that, overall, a higher degree of landscape heterogeneity may have a negative effect on segmentation and classification. Some areas suffered from the greatest over-segmentation and lowest mapping accuracy (Kappa: 0.79), which was partially attributed to confounding a greater proportion of mixed siltation classes from both sandy areas and bare ground patches. This research has demonstrated a technique based on very high-resolution images for mapping sanded and degraded areas using GEOBIA, which can be applied to the study of other lands in the steppe areas of the northern countries of the African continent.

Keywords: land development, GIS, sand dunes, segmentation, remote sensing

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Authors: Sagwata A. Manyike, Hulisani Magada

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The South African National Biodiversity Institute is in the process of developing a guideline which sets out how biodiversity can be incorporated into land use (zoning) schemes. South Africa promulgated its Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act in 2015 and the act seeks, amongst other things, to bridge the gap between spatial planning and land use management within the country. In addition, the act requires local governments to develop wall-to-wall land use schemes for their entire jurisdictions as they had previously only developed them for their urban areas. At the same time, South Africa has a rich history of systematic conservation planning whereby Critical Biodiversity Areas and Ecological Support Areas have been spatially delineated at a scale appropriate for spatial planning and land use management at the scale of local government. South Africa is also in the process of spatially delineating ecological infrastructure which is defined as naturally occurring ecosystems which provide valuable services to people such as water and climate regulation, soil formation, disaster risk reduction, etc. The Biodiversity and Land Use Project, which is funded by the Global Environmental Facility through the United Nations Development Programme is seeking to explore ways in which biodiversity information and ecological infrastructure can be incorporated into the spatial planning and land use management systems of local governments. Towards this end, the Biodiversity and Land Use Project have developed a guideline which sets out how local governments can integrate biodiversity into their land-use schemes as a way of not only ensuring sustainable development but also as a way helping them prepare for climate change. In addition, by incorporating biodiversity into land-use schemes, the project is exploring new ways of protecting biodiversity through land use schemes. The Guideline for Incorporating Biodiversity into Land Use Schemes was developed as a response to the fact that the National Land Use Scheme Guidelines only indicates that local governments needed to incorporate biodiversity without explaining how this could be achieved. The Natioanl Guideline also failed to specify which biodiversity-related layers are compatible with which land uses or what the benefits of incorporating biodiversity into the schemes will be for that local government. The guideline, therefore, sets out an argument for why biodiversity is important in land management processes and proceeds to provide a step by step guideline for how schemes can integrate priority biodiversity layers. This guideline will further be added as an addendum to the National Land Use Guidelines. Although the planning act calls for local government to have wall to wall schemes within 5 years of its enactment, many municipalities will not meet this deadline and so this guideline will support them in the development of their new schemes.

Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, land use schemes, local government

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Authors: Shanti Swaroop Gupta, Bibekananda Mohapatra, S. K. Chaturvedi, Anand Bohra

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For sustainable development in India, there is an urgent need to follow the principles of industrial symbiosis in the industrial processes, under which the scraps, wastes, or by‐products of one industry can become the raw materials for another. This will not only help in reducing the dependence on natural resources but also help in gaining economic advantage to the industry. Gypsum is one such area in India, where the linear economy model of by-product gypsum utilization has resulted in unutilized legacy phosphogypsum stock of 64.65 million tonnes (mt) at phosphoric acid plants in 2020-21. In the future, this unutilized gypsum stock will increase further due to the expected generation of Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) gypsum in huge quantities from thermal power plants. Therefore, it is essential to transit from the linear to circular economy in Gypsum in India, which will result in huge environmental as well as ecological benefits. Gypsum is required in many sectors like Construction (Cement industry, gypsum boards, glass fiber reinforced gypsum panels, gypsum plaster, fly ash lime bricks, floor screeds, road construction), agriculture, in the manufacture of Plaster of Paris, pottery, ceramic industry, water treatment processes, manufacture of ammonium sulphate, paints, textiles, etc. The challenges faced in areas of quality, policy, logistics, lack of infrastructure, promotion, etc., for complete utilization of by-product gypsum have been discussed. The untapped potential of by-product gypsum utilization in various sectors like the use of gypsum in agriculture for sodic soil reclamation, utilization of legacy stock in cement industry on mission mode, improvement in quality of by-product gypsum by standardization and usage in building materials industry has been identified. Based on the measures required to tackle the various challenges and utilization of the untapped potential of gypsum, a comprehensive action plan for the transition from linear to the circular economy in gypsum in India has been formulated. The strategies and policy measures required to implement the action plan to achieve a circular economy in Gypsum have been recommended for various government departments. It is estimated that the focused implementation of the proposed action plan would result in a significant decrease in unutilized gypsum legacy stock in the next five years and it would cease to exist by 2027-28 if the proposed action plan is effectively implemented.

Keywords: circular economy, FGD gypsum, India, phosphogypsum

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Authors: Maged El-Sayed Mohamed

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Plant tissue culture practices are presented nowadays as the most promising substitute to a whole plant in the terms of secondary metabolites production. They offer the advantages of high production, tunability and they have less effect on plant ecosystems. Lantana camara is a weed, which is common all over the world as an ornamental plant. Weeds can adapt to any type of soil and climate due to their rich cellular machinery for secondary metabolites’ production. This characteristic is found in Lantana camara as a plant of very rich diversity of secondary metabolites with no dominant class of compounds. Aim: This trait has encouraged the author to develop tissue culture experiments for Lantana camara to be a platform for production and manipulation of secondary metabolites through biotransformation. Methodology: The plant was collected in its flowering stage in September 2014, from which explants were prepared from shoot tip, auxiliary bud and leaf. Different types of culture media were tried as well as four phytohormones and their combinations; NAA, 2,4-D, BAP and kinetin. Explants were grown in dark or in 12 hours dark and light cycles at 25°C. A metabolic profile for the produced callus was made and then compared to the whole plant profile. The metabolic profile was made using GC-MS for volatile constituents (extracted by n-hexane) and by HPLC-MS and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) for non-volatile constituents (extracted by ethanol and water). Results: The best conditions for the callus induction was achieved using MS media supplied with 30 gm sucrose and NAA/BAP (1:0.2 mg/L). Initiation of callus was favoured by incubation in dark for 20 day. The callus produced under these conditions showed yellow colour, which changed to brownish after 30 days. The rate of callus growth was high, expressed in the callus diameter, which reached to 1.15±0.2 cm in 30 days; however, the induction of callus delayed for 15 days. The metabolic profile for both volatile and non-volatile constituents of callus showed more simple background metabolites than the whole plant with two new (unresolved) peaks in the callus’ nonvolatile constituents’ chromatogram. Conclusion: Lantana camara callus production can be itself a source of new secondary metabolites and could be used for biotransformation studies due to its simple metabolic background, which allow easy identification of newly formed metabolites. The callus production gathered the simple metabolic background with the rich cellular secondary metabolite machinery of the plant, which could be elicited to produce valuable medicinally active products.

Keywords: capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, metabolic profile, plant tissue culture

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Authors: Syeda Fatima Manzelat

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This chapter investigates the biodeterioration of parks in the UK caused by lichens, focusing on Campbell Park and Great Linford Manor Park in Milton Keynes. The study first isolates and identifies potent biodeteriogens responsible for potential biodeterioration in these parks, enumerating and recording different classes and genera of lichens known for their biodeteriorative properties. It then examines the implications of lichens on biodeterioration at historic sites within these parks, considering impacts on historic structures, the environment, and associated health risks. Conservation strategies and preventive measures are discussed before concluding.Lichens, characterized by their symbiotic association between a fungus and an alga, thrive on various surfaces including building materials, soil, rock, wood, and trees. The fungal component provides structure and protection, while the algal partner performs photosynthesis. Lichens collected from the park sites, such as Xanthoria, Cladonia, and Arthonia, were observed affecting the historic walls, objects, and trees. Their biodeteriorative impacts were visible to the naked eye, contributing to aesthetic and structural damage. The study highlights the role of lichens as bioindicators of pollution, sensitive to changes in air quality. The presence and diversity of lichens provide insights into the air quality and pollution levels in the parks. However, lichens also pose health risks, with certain species causing respiratory issues, allergies, skin irritation, and other toxic effects in humans and animals. Conservation strategies discussed include regular monitoring, biological and chemical control methods, physical removal, and preventive cleaning. The study emphasizes the importance of a multifaceted, multidisciplinary approach to managing lichen-induced biodeterioration. Future management practices could involve advanced techniques such as eco-friendly biocides and self-cleaning materials to effectively control lichen growth and preserve historic structures. In conclusion, this chapter underscores the dual role of lichens as agents of biodeterioration and indicators of environmental quality. Comprehensive conservation management approaches, encompassing monitoring, targeted interventions, and advanced conservation methods, are essential for preserving the historic and natural integrity of parks like Campbell Park and Great Linford Manor Park.

Keywords: biodeterioration, historic parks, algae, UK

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Authors: Habib Abida, Noura Dahri

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Flash floods are among the most serious natural hazards that have disastrous environmental and human impacts. They are associated with exceptional rain events, characterized by short durations, very high intensities, rapid flows and small spatial extent. Flash floods happen very suddenly and are difficult to forecast. They generally cause damage to agricultural crops and property, infrastructures, and may even result in the loss of human lives. The city of Gabes (South-eastern Tunisia) has been exposed to numerous damaging floods because of its mild topography, clay soil, high urbanization rate and erratic rainfall distribution. The risks associated with this situation are expected to increase further in the future because of climate change, deemed responsible for the increase of the frequency and the severity of this natural hazard. Recently, exceptional events hit Gabes City causing death and major property losses. A major flooding event hit the region on June 2nd, 2014, causing human deaths and major material losses. It resulted in the stagnation of storm water in the numerous low zones of the study area, endangering thereby human health and causing disastrous environmental impacts. The characterization of flood risk in Gabes Watershed (South-eastern Tunisia) is considered an important step for flood management. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method coupled with Monte Carlo simulation and geographic information system were applied to delineate and characterize flood areas. A spatial database was developed based on geological map, digital elevation model, land use, and rainfall data in order to evaluate the different factors susceptible to affect flood analysis. Results obtained were validated by remote sensing data for the zones that showed very high flood hazard during the extreme rainfall event of June 2014 that hit the study basin. Moreover, a survey was conducted from different areas of the city in order to understand and explore the different causes of this disaster, its extent and its consequences.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, flash floods, Gabes, remote sensing, Tunisia

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: D. Malouch, M. Berchel, C. Dreanno, S. Stachowski-Haberkorn, P-A. Jaffres

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Biofouling is a complex natural phenomenon that involves biological, physical and chemical properties related to the environment, the submerged surface and the living organisms involved. Bio-colonization of artificial structures can cause various economic and environmental impacts. The increase in costs associated with the over-consumption of fuel from biocolonized vessels has been widely studied. Measurement drifts from submerged sensors, as well as obstructions in heat exchangers, and deterioration of offshore structures are major difficulties that industries are dealing with. Therefore, surfaces that inhibit biocolonization are required in different areas (water treatment, marine paints, etc.) and many efforts have been devoted to produce efficient and eco-compatible antifouling agents. The different steps of surface fouling are widely described in literature. Studying the biofilm and its stages provides a better understanding of how to elaborate more efficient antifouling strategies. Several approaches are currently applied, such as the use of biocide anti-fouling paint (mainly with copper derivatives) and super-hydrophobic coatings. While these two processes are proving to be the most effective, they are not entirely satisfactory, especially in a context of a changing legislation. Nowadays, the challenge is to prevent biofouling with non-biocide compounds, offering a cost effective solution, but with no toxic effects on marine organisms. Since the micro-fouling phase plays an important role in the regulation of the following steps of biofilm formation, it is desired to reduce or delate biofouling of a given surface by inhibiting the micro-fouling at its early stages. In our recent works, we reported that some amphiphilic compounds exhibited bacteriostatic or bactericidal properties at a concentration that did not affect mammalian eukaryotic cells. These remarkable properties invited us to assess this type of bio-inspired phospholipids to prevent the colonization of surfaces by marine bacteria. Of note, other studies reported that amphiphilic compounds interacted with bacteria leading to a reduction of their development. An amphiphilic compound is a molecule consisting of a hydrophobic domain and a polar head (ionic or non-ionic). These compounds appear to have interesting antifouling properties: some ionic compounds have shown antimicrobial activity, and zwitterions can reduce nonspecific adsorption of proteins. Herein, we investigate the potential of amphiphilic compounds as inhibitors of bacterial growth and marine biofilm formation. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of four synthetic phospholipids that features a cationic charge or a zwitterionic polar-head group to prevent microfouling with marine bacteria. Toxicity of these compounds was also studied in order to identify the most promising compounds that inhibit biofilm development and show low cytotoxicity on two links representative of coastal marine food webs: phytoplankton and oyster larvae.

Keywords: amphiphilic phospholipids, biofilm, marine fouling, non-toxique assays

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Authors: Melis Inalpulat, Levent Genc

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Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes due to human activities and natural causes have become a major environmental concern. Assessment of temporal remote sensing data provides information about LULC impacts on environment. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the important components for modeling environmental changes in climatological, hydrological, and agricultural studies. In this study, LULC changes (September 7, 1984 and July 8, 2014) especially in agricultural lands together with population changes (1985-2014) and LST status were investigated using remotely sensed and census data in South Marmara Watershed, Turkey. LULC changes were determined using Landsat TM and Landsat OLI data acquired in 1984 and 2014 summers. Six-band TM and OLI images were classified using supervised classification method to prepare LULC map including five classes including Forest (F), Grazing Land (G), Agricultural Land (A), Water Surface (W), and Residential Area-Bare Soil (R-B) classes. The LST image was also derived from thermal bands of the same dates. LULC classification results showed that forest areas, agricultural lands, water surfaces and residential area-bare soils were increased as 65751 ha, 20163 ha, 1924 ha and 20462 ha respectively. In comparison, a dramatic decrement occurred in grazing land (107985 ha) within three decades. The population increased % 29 between years 1984-2014 in whole study area. Along with the natural causes, migration also caused this increase since the study area has an important employment potential. LULC was transformed among the classes due to the expansion in residential, commercial and industrial areas as well as political decisions. In the study, results showed that agricultural lands around the settlement areas transformed to residential areas in 30 years. The LST images showed that mean temperatures were ranged between 26-32 °C in 1984 and 27-33 °C in 2014. Minimum temperature of agricultural lands was increased 3 °C and reached to 23 °C. In contrast, maximum temperature of A class decreased to 41 °C from 44 °C. Considering temperatures of the 2014 R-B class and 1984 status of same areas, it was seen that mean, min and max temperatures increased by 2 °C. As a result, the dynamism of population, LULC and LST resulted in increasing mean and maximum surface temperatures, living spaces/industrial areas and agricultural lands.

Keywords: census data, landsat, land surface temperature (LST), land use land cover (LULC)

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: V. Mantey, N. Findlay, I. Maddox

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The quality and quantity of global satellite data have been increasing exponentially in recent years as spaceborne systems become more affordable and the sensors themselves become more sophisticated. This is a valuable resource for many applications, including disaster management and relief. However, while more information can be valuable, the volume of data available is impossible to manually examine. Therefore, the question becomes how to extract as much information as possible from the data with limited manpower. Buildings are a key feature of interest in satellite imagery with applications including telecommunications, population models, and disaster relief. Machine learning tools are fast becoming one of the key resources to solve this problem, and models have been developed to detect buildings in optical satellite imagery. However, by and large, most models focus on affluent regions where buildings are generally larger and constructed further apart. This work is focused on the more difficult problem of detection in populated regions. The primary challenge with detecting small buildings in densely populated regions is both the spatial and spectral resolution of the optical sensor. Densely packed buildings with similar construction materials will be difficult to separate due to a similarity in color and because the physical separation between structures is either non-existent or smaller than the spatial resolution. This study finds that training models until they are overfitting the input sample can perform better in these areas than a more robust, generalized model. An overfitted model takes less time to fine-tune from a generalized pre-trained model and requires fewer input data. The model developed for this study has also been fine-tuned using existing, open-source, building vector datasets. This is particularly valuable in the context of disaster relief, where information is required in a very short time span. Leveraging existing datasets means that little to no manpower or time is required to collect data in the region of interest. The training period itself is also shorter for smaller datasets. Requiring less data means that only a few quality areas are necessary, and so any weaknesses or underpopulated regions in the data can be skipped over in favor of areas with higher quality vectors. In this study, a landcover classification model was developed in conjunction with the building detection tool to provide a secondary source to quality check the detected buildings. This has greatly reduced the false positive rate. The proposed methodologies have been implemented and integrated into a configurable production environment and have been employed for a number of large-scale commercial projects, including continent-wide DEM production, where the extracted building footprints are being used to enhance digital elevation models. Overfitted machine learning models are often considered too specific to have any predictive capacity. However, this study demonstrates that, in cases where input data is scarce, overfitted models can be judiciously applied to solve time-sensitive problems.

Keywords: building detection, disaster relief, mask-RCNN, satellite mapping

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Alia Alghosoun, Nabil El Moçayd, Mohammed Seaid

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Modeling dam-break flows over non-flat beds requires an accurate representation of the topography which is the main source of uncertainty in the model. Therefore, developing robust and accurate techniques for reconstructing topography in this class of problems would reduce the uncertainty in the flow system. In many hydraulic applications, experimental techniques have been widely used to measure the bed topography. In practice, experimental work in hydraulics may be very demanding in both time and cost. Meanwhile, computational hydraulics have served as an alternative for laboratory and field experiments. Unlike the forward problem, the inverse problem is used to identify the bed parameters from the given experimental data. In this case, the shallow water equations used for modeling the hydraulics need to be rearranged in a way that the model parameters can be evaluated from measured data. However, this approach is not always possible and it suffers from stability restrictions. In the present work, we propose an adaptive optimal control technique to numerically identify the underlying bed topography from a given set of free-surface observation data. In this approach, a minimization function is defined to iteratively determine the model parameters. The proposed technique can be interpreted as a fractional-stage scheme. In the first stage, the forward problem is solved to determine the measurable parameters from known data. In the second stage, the adaptive control Ensemble Kalman Filter is implemented to combine the optimality of observation data in order to obtain the accurate estimation of the topography. The main features of this method are on one hand, the ability to solve for different complex geometries with no need for any rearrangements in the original model to rewrite it in an explicit form. On the other hand, its achievement of strong stability for simulations of flows in different regimes containing shocks or discontinuities over any geometry. Numerical results are presented for a dam-break flow problem over non-flat bed using different solvers for the shallow water equations. The robustness of the proposed method is investigated using different numbers of loops, sensitivity parameters, initial samples and location of observations. The obtained results demonstrate high reliability and accuracy of the proposed techniques.

Keywords: erodible beds, finite element method, finite volume method, nonlinear elasticity, shallow water equations, stresses in soil

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Authors: Amandeep Kaur, Ns Atri, Munruchi Kaur

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Mushrooms have shaped our environment in ways that we are only beginning to understand. The weather patterns, topography, flora and fauna of Punjab state in India create favorable growing conditions for thousands of species of mushrooms, but the complete region was unexplored when it comes to coprophilous mushrooms growing on herbivorous dung. Coprophilous mushrooms are the most specialized fungi ecologically, which germinate and grow directly on different types of animal dung or on manured soil. In the present work, the diversity of coprophilous mushrooms' of Family Psathyrellaceae of the order Agaricales is explored, their relationship to the human world is sketched out, and their supreme significance to life on this planet is revealed. During the investigation, different dung localities from 16 districts of Punjab state have been explored for the collection of material. The macroscopic features of the collected mushrooms were documented on the Field key. The hand cut sections of the various parts of carpophore, such as pileus, gills, stipe and the basidiospores details, were studied microscopically under different magnification. Various authentic publications were consulted for the identification of the investigated taxa. The classification, authentic names and synonyms of the investigated taxa are as per the latest version of Dictionary of Fungi and the MycoBank. The present work deals with the taxonomy of 81 collections belonging to 39 species spread over 05 coprophilous genera, namely Psathyrella, Panaeolus, Parasola, Coprinopsis, and Coprinellus of family Psathyrellaceae. In the text, the investigated taxa have been arranged as they appear in the key to the genera and species investigated. In this work, have been thoroughly examined for their macroscopic, microscopic, ecological, and chemical reaction details. The authors dig deeper to give indication of their ecology and the dung type where they can be obtained. Each taxon is accompanied by a detailed listing of its prominent features and an illustration with habitat photographs and line drawings of morphological and anatomical features. Taxa are organized as per their status in the keys, which allow easy recognition. All the taxa are compared with similar taxa. The study has shown that dung is an important substrate which serves as a favorable niche for the growth of a variety of mushrooms. This paper shows an insight what short-lived coprophilous mushrooms can teach us about sustaining life on earth!

Keywords: abundance, basidiomycota, biodiversity, seasonal availability, systematics

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Chang Hsueh-Sheng, Chen Tzu-Ling

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Earthquake is an unpredictable natural disaster and intensive earthquakes have caused serious impacts on social-economic system, environmental and social resilience, and further increase vulnerability. Due to earthquakes do not kill people, buildings do. When buildings located nearby earthquake-prone areas and constructed upon poorer soil areas might result in earthquake-induced ground damage. In addition, many existing buildings built before any improved seismic provisions began to be required in building codes and inappropriate land usage with highly dense population might result in much serious earthquake disaster. Indeed, not only do earthquake disaster impact seriously on urban environment, but urban growth might increase the vulnerability. Since 1980s, ‘Cutting down risks and vulnerability’ has been brought up in both urban planning and architecture and such concept has way beyond retrofitting of seismic damages, seismic resistance, and better anti-seismic structures, and become the key action on disaster mitigation. Land use planning and zoning are two critical non-structural measures on controlling physical development while it is difficult for zoning boards and governing bodies restrict development of questionable lands to uses compatible with the hazard without credible earthquake loss projection. Therefore, identifying potential earthquake exposure, vulnerability people and places, and urban development areas might become strongly supported information for decision makers. Taiwan locates on the Pacific Ring of Fire where a seismically active zone is. Some of the active faults have been found close by densely populated and highly developed built environment in the cities. Therefore, this study attempts to base on the perspective of carrying capacity and draft out micro-zonation according to both vulnerability index and urban growth index while considering spatial variances of multi factors via geographical weighted principle components (GWPCA). The purpose in this study is to construct supported information for decision makers on revising existing zoning in high-risk areas for a more compatible use and the public on managing risks.

Keywords: earthquake disaster, vulnerability, urban growth, carrying capacity, /geographical weighted principle components (GWPCA), bivariate spatial association statistic

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Sarah Pasala, Elizabeth Zacharias

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Vital sign monitoring is crucial for both everyday health and medical diagnosis. A significant factor in assessing a human's health is their vital signs, which include heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and electrocardiogram (ECG) readings. Vital sign monitoring has been the focus of many system and method innovations recently. Piezoelectrics are materials that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and can be used for vital sign monitoring. Piezoelectric energy harvesters that are stretchable and flexible can detect very low frequencies like airflow, heartbeat, etc. Current advancements in piezoelectric materials and flexible sensors have made it possible to create wearable and implantable medical devices that can continuously monitor physiological signals in humans. But because of their non-biocompatible nature, they also produce a large amount of e-waste and require another surgery to remove the implant. This paper presents a biocompatible and flexible piezoelectric composite material for wearable and implantable devices that offers a high-performance platform for seamless and continuous monitoring of human physiological signals and tactile stimuli. It also addresses the issue of e-waste and secondary surgery. A Lead-free piezoelectric, SrBi4Ti4O15, is found to be suitable for this application because the properties can be tailored by suitable substitutions and also by varying the synthesis temperature protocols. In the present work, SrBi4Ti4O15 modified by rare-earth has been synthesized and studied. Coupling factors are calculated from resonant (fr) and anti-resonant frequencies (fa). It is observed that Samarium substitution in SBT has increased the Curie temperature, dielectric and piezoelectric properties. From impedance spectroscopy studies, relaxation, and non-Debye type behaviour are observed. The composite of bioresorbable poly(l-lactide) and Lead-free rare earth modified Bismuth Layered Ferroelectrics leads to a flexible piezoelectric device for non-invasive measurement of vital signs, such as heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and electrocardiogram (ECG) readings and also artery pulse signals in near-surface arteries. These composites are suitable to detect slight movement of the muscles and joints. This Lead-free rare earth modified Bismuth Layered Ferroelectrics – polymer composite is synthesized using a ball mill and the solid-state double sintering method. XRD studies indicated the two phases in the composite. SEM studies revealed the grain size to be uniform and in the range of 100 nm. The electromechanical coupling factor is improved. The elastic constants are calculated and the mechanical flexibility is found to be improved as compared to the single-phase rare earth modified Bismuth Latered piezoelectric. The results indicate that this composite is suitable for the non-invasive detection of multiple vital signs of humans.

Keywords: composites, flexible, non-invasive, piezoelectric

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: B. S. Chaudhary

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The severity and frequencies of different disasters on the globe is increasing in recent years. India is also facing the disasters in the form of drought, cyclone, earthquake, landslides, and floods. One of the major causes of disasters in northern India is flood. There are great losses and extensive damage to the agricultural crops, property, human, and animal life. This is causing environmental imbalances at places. The annual global figures for losses due to floods run into over 2 billion dollar. India is a vast country with wide variations in climate and topography. Due to widespread and heavy rainfall during the monsoon months, floods of varying magnitude occur all over the country during June to September. The magnitude depends upon the intensity of rainfall, its duration and also the ground conditions at the time of rainfall. Haryana, one of the agriculturally dominated northern states is also suffering from a number of disasters such as floods, desertification, soil erosion, land degradation etc. Earthquakes are also frequently occurring but of small magnitude so are not causing much concern and damage. Most of the damage in Haryana is due to floods. Floods in Haryana have occurred in 1978, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1998, and 2010 to mention a few. The present paper deals with the Remote Sensing and GIS applications in preparing flood risk maps in parts of Haryana State India. The satellite data of various years have been used for mapping of flood affected areas. The Flooded areas have been interpreted both visually and digitally and two classes-flooded and receded water/ wet areas have been identified for each year. These have been analyzed in GIS environment to prepare the risk maps. This shows the areas of high, moderate and low risk depending on the frequency of flood witness. The floods leave a trail of suffering in the form of unhygienic conditions due to improper sanitation, water logging, filth littered in the area, degradation of materials and unsafe drinking water making the people prone to many type diseases in short and long run. Attempts have also been made to enumerate the causes of floods. The suggestions are given for mitigating the fury of floods and proper management issues related to evacuation and safe places nearby.

Keywords: flood mapping, GIS, Haryana, India, remote sensing, space technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Srinivasa Reddy Mallampati, Min Hee Park, Soo Mim Cho, Sung Hyeon Yoon

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One of the issues of End of Life Vehicles (ELVs) recycling promotion is technology for the appropriate treatment of automotive shredder residue (ASR). Owing to its high heterogeneity and variable composition (plastic (23–41%), rubber/elastomers (9–21%), metals (6–13%), glass (10–20%) and dust (soil/sand) etc.), ASR can be classified as ‘hazardous waste’, on the basis of the presence of heavy metals (HMs), PCBs, BFRs, mineral oils, etc. Considering their relevant concentrations, these metals and plastics should be properly recovered for recycling purposes before ASR residues are disposed of. Brominated flame retardant additives in ABS/HIPS and PVC may generate dioxins and furans at elevated temperatures. Moreover, these BFRs additives present in plastic materials may leach into the environment during landfilling operations. ASR thermal process removes some of the organic material but concentrates, the heavy metals and POPs present in the ASR residues. In the present study, Fe/Ca/CaO nanoparticle assisted ozone treatment has been found to selectively hydrophilize the surface of ABS/HIPS and PVC plastics, enhancing its wettability and thereby promoting its separation from ASR plastics by means of froth flotation. The water contact angles, of ABS/HIPS and PVC decreased, about 18.7°, 18.3°, and 17.9° in ASR respectively. Under froth flotation conditions at 50 rpm, about 99.5% and 99.5% of HIPS in ASR samples sank, resulting in a purity of 98% and 99%. Furthermore, at 150 rpm a 100% PVC separation in the settled fraction, with 98% of purity in ASR, respectively. Total recovery of non-ABS/HIPS and PVC plastics reached nearly 100% in the floating fraction. This process improved the quality of recycled ASR plastics by removing surface contaminants or impurities. Further, a hybrid ball-milling and with Fe/Ca/CaO nanoparticle froth flotation process was established for the recovery of HMs from ASR. After ball-milling with Fe/Ca/CaO nanoparticle additives, the flotation efficiency increased to about 55 wt% and the HMs recovery were also increased about 90% for the 0.25 mm size fractions of ASR. Coating with Fe/Ca/CaO nanoparticles associated with subsequent microbubble froth flotation allowed the air bubbles to attach firmly on the HMs. SEM–EDS maps showed that the amounts of HMs were significant on the surface of the floating ASR fraction. This result, along with the low HM concentration in the settled fraction, was confirmed by elemental spectra and semi-quantitative SEM–EDS analysis. Developed hybrid preferential hazardous plastics and metals separation process from ASR is a simple, highly efficient, and sustainable procedure.

Keywords: end of life vehicles shredder residue, hazardous plastics, nanoparticle froth flotation, separation process

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Nehir Nebioglu

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Chemotherapy is widely used for the treatment of cancer. Doxorubicin is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug that is classified as an anthracycline antibiotic. Antitumor antibiotics consist of natural products produced by species of the soil fungus Streptomyces. These drugs act in multiple phases of the cell cycle and are known cell-cycle specific. Although DOX is a precious clinical antineoplastic agent, resistance is also a problem that limits its utility besides cardiotoxicity problem. The drug resistance of cancer cells results from multiple factors including individual variation, genetic heterogeneity within a tumor, and cellular evolution. The mechanism of resistance is thought to involve, in particular, ABCB1 (MDR1, Pgp) and ABCC1 (MRP1) as well as other transporters. Several studies on DOX-resistant cell lines have shown that resistance can be overcome by an inhibition of ABCB1, ABCC1, and ABCC2. This study attempts to understand the effects of different concentration levels of glucose treatment and starvation on the proliferation of Doxorubicin resistant cancer cells lines. To understand the effect of starvation, K562/Dox and K562 cell lines were treated with 0, 5 nM, 50 nM, 500 nM, 5 uM and 50 uM Dox concentrations in both starvation and normal medium conditions. In addition to this, to interpret the effect of glucose treatment, different concentrations (0, 1 mM, 5 mM, 25 mM) of glucose were applied to Dox-treated (with 0, 5 nM, 50 nM, 500 nM, 5 uM and 50 uM) K562/Dox and K652 cell lines. All results show significant decreasing in the cell count of K562/Dox, when cells were starved. However, while proliferation of K562/Dox lines decrease is associated with the increasingly applied Dox concentration, K562/Dox starved ones remain at the same proliferation level. Thus, the results imply that an amount of K562/Dox lines gain starvation resistance and remain resistant. Furthermore, for K562/Dox, there is no clear effect of glucose treatment in terms of cell proliferation. In the presence of a moderate level of glucose (5 mM), proliferation increases compared to other concentration of glucose for each different Dox application. On the other hand, a significant increase in cell proliferation in moderate level of glucose is only observed in 5 uM Dox concentration. The moderate concentration level of Dox can be examined in further studies. For the high amount of glucose (25 mM), cell proliferation levels are lower than moderate glucose application. The reason could be high amount of glucose may not be absorbable by cells. Also, in the presence of low amount of glucose, proliferation is decreasing in an orderly manner of increase in Dox concentration. This situation can be explained by the glucose depletion -Warburg effect- in the literature.

Keywords: drug resistance, cancer cells, chemotherapy, doxorubicin

Procedia PDF Downloads 176

Authors: Thayalan Nall, Andreas Putra

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A major offshore reclamation work is currently underway in Southeast Asia for a container terminal. The total extent of the reclamation extent is 2600m x 800m and the seabed level is around -5mRL below mean sea level. Subsoil profile below seabed comprises soft marine clays of thickness varying from 8m to 15m. To contain the dredging spoil within the reclamation area, perimeter bunds have been constructed to +2.5mRL. They include breakwaters of trapezoidal geometry, made of boulder size rock along the northern, eastern and western perimeters, with a sand bund along the southern perimeter. Breakwaters were constructed on a composite bamboo pile and raft foundation system. Bamboo clusters 8m long, with 7 individual Bamboos bundled together as one, have been installed within the footprint of the breakwater below seabed in soft marine clay. To facilitate drainage two prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) have been attached to each cluster. Once the cluster piles were installed, a bamboo raft was placed as a load transfer platform. Rafts were made up of 5 layers of bamboo mattress, and in each layer bamboos were spaced at 200mm centres. The rafts wouldn’t sink under their own weight, and hence, they were sunk by loading quarry run rock onto them. Bamboo is a building material available in abundance in Indonesia and obtained at a relatively low cost. They are commonly used as semi-rigid inclusions to improve compressibility and stability of soft soils. Although bamboo is widely used in soft soil engineering design, no local design guides are available and the designs are carried out based on local experience. In June 2015, when the 1st load of sand was pumped by a dredging vessel next to the breakwater, a 150m long section of the breakwater underwent failure and displaced the breakwater between 1.2m to 4.0m. The cause of the failure was investigated to implement remedial measures to reduce the risk of further failures. Analyses using both limit equilibrium approach and finite element modelling revealed two plausible modes of breakwater failure. This paper outlines: 1) Developed Geology and the ground model, 2) The techniques used for the installation of bamboo piles, 3) Details of the analyses including modes and mechanism of failure and 4) Design changes incorporated to reduce the risk of failure.

Keywords: bamboo piles, ground improvement, reclamation, breakwater failure

Procedia PDF Downloads 417

Authors: Ramon Omar Rosales-Espinoza

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Pile-to-pile mechanical connections are used if the depth of the soil layers with sufficient bearing strength exceeds the original (“leading”) pile length, with the additional pile segment being termed “extension” pile. Mechanical connectors permit a safe transmission of forces from leading to extension pile while meeting strength and serviceability requirements. Common types of connectors consist of an assembly of sleeve-type external couplers, bolts, pins, and other mechanical interlock devices that ensure the transmission of compressive, tensile, torsional and bending stresses between leading and extension pile segments. While welded connections allow for a relatively simple structural design, mechanical connections are advantageous over welded connections because they lead to shorter installation times and significant cost reductions since specialized workmanship and inspection activities are not required. However, common practices followed to design mechanical connectors neglect important aspects of the assembly response, such as stress concentration around pin/bolt holes, torsional stresses from the installation process, and interaction between the forces at the installation (torsion), service (compression/tension-bending), and removal stages (torsion). This translates into potentially unsatisfactory designs in terms of the ultimate and service limit states, exhibiting either reduced strength or excessive deformations. In this study, the experimental response under compressive forces of a type of mechanical connector is presented, in terms of strength, deformation and failure modes. The tests revealed that the type of connector used can safely transmit forces from pile to pile. Using the results from the compressive tests, an analysis model was developed using the finite element (FE) method to study the interaction of forces under installation and service stages of a typical mechanical connector. The response of the analysis model is used to identify potential areas for design optimization, including size, gap between leading and extension piles, number of pin/bolts, hole sizes, and material properties. The results show the design of mechanical connectors should take into account the interaction of forces present at every stage of their life cycle, and that the torsional stresses occurring during installation are critical for the safety of the assembly.

Keywords: piles, FEA, steel, mechanical connector

Procedia PDF Downloads 264

Authors: Iman Farasat, Howard M. Salis

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Engineered genetic circuits reprogram cellular behavior to act as living computers with applications in detecting cancer, creating self-controlling artificial tissues, and dynamically regulating metabolic pathways. Phenemenological models are often used to simulate and design genetic circuit behavior towards a desired behavior. While such models assume that each circuit component’s function is modular and independent, even small changes in a circuit (e.g. a new promoter, a change in transcription factor expression level, or even a new media) can have significant effects on the circuit’s function. Here, we use statistical thermodynamics to account for the several factors that control transcriptional regulation in bacteria, and experimentally demonstrate the model’s accuracy across 825 measurements in several genetic contexts and hosts. We then employ our first principles model to design, experimentally construct, and characterize a family of signal amplifying genetic circuits (genetic OpAmps) that expand the dynamic range of cell sensors. To develop these models, we needed a new approach to measuring the in vivo binding free energies of transcription factors (TFs), a key ingredient of statistical thermodynamic models of gene regulation. We developed a new high-throughput assay to measure RNA polymerase and TF binding free energies, requiring the construction and characterization of only a few constructs and data analysis (Figure 1A). We experimentally verified the assay on 6 TetR-homolog repressors and a CRISPR/dCas9 guide RNA. We found that our binding free energy measurements quantitatively explains why changing TF expression levels alters circuit function. Altogether, by combining these measurements with our biophysical model of translation (the RBS Calculator) as well as other measurements (Figure 1B), our model can account for changes in TF binding sites, TF expression levels, circuit copy number, host genome size, and host growth rate (Figure 1C). Model predictions correctly accounted for how these 8 factors control a promoter’s transcription rate (Figure 1D). Using the model, we developed a design framework for engineering multi-promoter genetic circuits that greatly reduces the number of degrees of freedom (8 factors per promoter) to a single dimensionless unit. We propose the Ptashne (Pt) number to encapsulate the 8 co-dependent factors that control transcriptional regulation into a single number. Therefore, a single number controls a promoter’s output rather than these 8 co-dependent factors, and designing a genetic circuit with N promoters requires specification of only N Pt numbers. We demonstrate how to design genetic circuits in Pt number space by constructing and characterizing 15 2-repressor OpAmp circuits that act as signal amplifiers when within an optimal Pt region. We experimentally show that OpAmp circuits using different TFs and TF expression levels will only amplify the dynamic range of input signals when their corresponding Pt numbers are within the optimal region. Thus, the use of the Pt number greatly simplifies the genetic circuit design, particularly important as circuits employ more TFs to perform increasingly complex functions.

Keywords: transcription factor, synthetic biology, genetic circuit, biophysical model, binding energy measurement

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Authors: Ross J. Maestas

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Biofuels are derived from multiple renewable bioenergy feedstocks including animal fats, wood, starchy grains, and oil seeds. Transportation agencies have considered growing the latter two on underutilized and nontraditional lands that they manage, such as in the Right of Way (ROW), abandoned weigh stations, and at maintenance yards. These crops provide the opportunity to generate revenue or supplement fuel once converted and offer a solution to increasing fuel costs and instability by creating a ‘home-grown’ alternative. Biofuels are non-toxic, biodegradable, and emit less Green House Gasses (GHG) than fossil fuels, therefore allowing agencies to meet sustainability goals and regulations. Furthermore, they enable land managers to achieve soil erosion and roadside aesthetic strategies. The research sought to understand if the cultivation of a biofuel feedstock within the Arkansas State Highway Transportation Department’s (AHTD) managed and marginalized lands is feasible by identifying potential land areas and crops. To determine potential plots the parcel data was downloaded from Arkansas’s GIS office. ArcGIS was used to query the data for all variations of the names of property owned by AHTD and a KML file was created that identifies the queried parcel data in Google Earth. Furthermore, biofuel refineries in the state were identified to optimize the harvest to transesterification process. Agricultural data was collected from federal and state agencies and universities to assess various oil seed crops suitable for conversion and suited to grow in Arkansas’s climate and ROW conditions. Research data determined that soybean is the best adapted biofuel feedstock for Arkansas with camelina and canola showing possibilities as well. Agriculture is Arkansas’s largest industry and soybean is grown in over half of the state’s counties. Successful cultivation of a feedstock in the aforementioned areas could potentially offer significant employment opportunity for which the skilled farmers already exist. Based on compiled data, AHTD manages 21,489 acres of marginalized land. The result of the feasibility assessment offer suggestions and guidance should AHTD decide to further investigate this type of initiative.

Keywords: Arkansas highways, biofuels, renewable energy initiative, marginalized lands

Procedia PDF Downloads 329

Authors: B. S Kaith, K. Sharma, V. Kumar, S. Kalia

Abstract:

Superabsorbent are three-dimensional networks of linear or branched polymeric chains which can uptake large volume of biological fluids. The ability is due to the presence of functional groups like –NH2, -COOH and –OH. Such cross-linked products based on natural materials, such as cellulose, starch, dextran, gum and chitosan, because of their easy availability, low production cost, non-toxicity and biodegradability have attracted the attention of Scientists and Technologists all over the world. Since natural polymers have better biocompatibility and are non-toxic than most synthetic one, therefore, such materials can be applied in the preparation of controlled drug delivery devices, biosensors, tissue engineering, contact lenses, soil conditioning, removal of heavy metal ions and dyes. Gums are natural potential antioxidants and are used as food additives. They have excellent properties like high solubility, pH stability, non-toxicity and gelling characteristics. Till date lot of methods have been applied for the synthesis and modifications of cross-linked materials with improved properties suitable for different applications. It is well known that ion beam irradiation can play a crucial role to synthesize, modify, crosslink or degrade polymeric materials. High energetic heavy ions irradiation on polymer film induces significant changes like chain scission, cross-linking, structural changes, amorphization and degradation in bulk. Various researchers reported the effects of low and heavy ion irradiation on the properties of polymeric materials and observed significant improvement in optical, electrical, chemical, thermal and dielectric properties. Moreover, modifications induced in the materials mainly depend on the structure, the ion beam parameters like energy, linear energy transfer, fluence, mass, charge and the nature of the target material. Ion-beam irradiation is a useful technique for improving the surface properties of biodegradable polymers without missing the bulk properties. Therefore, a considerable interest has been grown to study the effects of SHIs irradiation on the properties of synthesized semi-IPNs and IPNs. The present work deals with the preparation of semi-IPNs and IPNs and impact of SHI like O7+ and Ni9+ irradiation on optical, chemical, structural, morphological and thermal properties along with impact on different applications. The results have been discussed on the basis of Linear Energy Transfer (LET) of the ions.

Keywords: adsorbent, gel, IPNs, semi-IPNs

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Authors: Miroslaw Wendeker, Piotr Kacejko, Mariusz Duk, Pawel Karpinski

Abstract:

The research in the field of aircraft internal combustion engines is currently driven by the needs of decreasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, while fulfilling the level of safety. Currently, reciprocating aircraft engines are found in sports, emergency, agricultural and recreation aviation. Technically, they are most at a pre-war knowledge of the theory of operation, design and manufacturing technology, especially if compared to that high level of development of automotive engines. Typically, these engines are driven by carburetors of a quite primitive construction. At present, due to environmental requirements and dealing with a climate change, it is beneficial to develop aircraft piston engines and adopt the achievements of automotive engineering such as computer-controlled low-pressure injection, electronic ignition control and biofuels. The paper describes simulation research of the innovative power and control systems for the aircraft radial engine of high power. Installing an electronic ignition system in the radial aircraft engine is a fundamental innovative idea of this solution. Consequently, the required level of safety and better functionality as compared to the today’s plug system can be guaranteed. In this framework, this research work focuses on describing a methodology for optimizing the electronically controlled ignition system. This attempt can reduce emissions of toxic compounds as a result of lowered fuel consumption, optimized combustion and engine capability of efficient combustion of ecological fuels. New, redundant elements of the control system can improve the safety of aircraft. Consequently, the required level of safety and better functionality as compared to the today’s plug system can be guaranteed. The simulation research aimed to determine the vulnerability of the values measured (they were planned as the quantities measured by the measurement systems) to determining the optimal ignition angle (the angle of maximum torque at a given operating point). The described results covered: a) research in steady states; b) velocity ranging from 1500 to 2200 rpm (every 100 rpm); c) loading ranging from propeller power to maximum power; d) altitude ranging according to the International Standard Atmosphere from 0 to 8000 m (every 1000 m); e) fuel: automotive gasoline ES95. The three models of different types of ignition coil (different energy discharge) were studied. The analysis aimed at the optimization of the design of the innovative ignition system for an aircraft engine. The optimization involved: a) the optimization of the measurement systems; b) the optimization of actuator systems. The studies enabled the research on the vulnerability of the signals to the control of the ignition timing. Accordingly, the number and type of sensors were determined for the ignition system to achieve its optimal performance. The results confirmed the limited benefits, in terms of fuel consumption. Thus, including spark management in the optimization is mandatory to significantly decrease the fuel consumption. This work has been financed by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development, INNOLOT, under Grant Agreement No. INNOLOT/I/1/NCBR/2013.

Keywords: piston engine, radial engine, ignition system, CFD model, engine optimization

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