Search results for: alcohol consumption reduction

Authors: Lillian Gungat, Meor Othman Hamzah, Mohd Rosli Mohd Hasan, Jan Valentin

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Utilization of a high percentage of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) requires higher production temperatures and consumes more energy. High production temperature expedites the aging of bitumen in RAP, which could affect the mixture performance. Warm mix asphalt (WMA) additive enables reduced production temperatures as a result of viscosity reduction. This paper evaluates the integration of a high percentage of RAP with a WMA additive known as RH-WMA. The optimum dosage of RH-WMA was determined from basic properties tests. A total of 0%, 30% and 50% RAP contents from two roads sources were modified with RH-WMA. The modified RAP bitumen were examined for viscosity, stiffness, rutting resistance and greenhouse gas emissions. The addition of RH-WMA improved the flow of bitumen by reducing the viscosity, and thus, decreased the construction temperature. The stiffness of the RAP modified bitumen reduced with the incorporation of RH-WMA. The positive improvement in rutting resistance was observed on bitumen with the addition of RAP and RH-WMA in comparison with control. It was estimated that the addition of RH-WMA could potentially reduce fuel usage and GHG emissions by 22 %. Hence, the synergy of RAP and WMA technology can be an alternative in green road construction.

Keywords: reclaimed asphalt pavement, WMA additive, viscosity, stiffness, emissions

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Waraporn Boonchieng, Ekkarat Boonchieng, Sivaporn Aungwattana, Decha Tamdee, Wongamporn Pinyavong

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Drug addiction represents one of the most important public health issues in both developed and developing countries. The purpose of this study was to develop a drug abuse health information in a community in Northern Thailand using developmental research design. The developmental researchers performed four phases to develop drug abuse health information, including 1) synthesizing knowledge related to drug abuse prevention and identifying the components of drug abuse health information; 2) developing the system in mobile application and website; 3) implementing drug abuse health information in the rural community; and 4) evaluating the feasibility of drug abuse health information. Data collection involved both qualitative and quantitative procedures. The qualitative data and quantitative data were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics, respectively. The findings of this study showed that drug abuse health information consisted of five sections, including drug-related prevention knowledge for teens, drug-related knowledge for adults and professionals, the database for drug dependence treatment centers, self-administered questionnaires, and supportive counseling sections. First, in drug-related prevention knowledge for teens, the developmental researchers designed four infographics and animation to provide drug-related prevention knowledge, including types of illegal drugs, causes of drug abuse, consequences of drug abuse, drug abuse diagnosis and treatment, and drug abuse prevention. Second, in drug-related knowledge for adults and professionals, the developmental researchers developed many documents in a form of PDF file to provide drug-related knowledge, including types of illegal drugs, causes of drug abuse, drug abuse prevention, and relapse prevention guideline. Third, database for drug dependence treatment centers included the place, direction map, operation time, and the way for contacting all drug dependence treatment centers in Thailand. Fourth, self-administered questionnaires comprised preventive drugs behavior questionnaire, drug abuse knowledge questionnaire, the stages of change readiness and treatment eagerness to drug use scale, substance use behaviors questionnaire, tobacco use behaviors questionnaire, stress screening, and depression screening. Finally, for supportive counseling, the developmental researchers designed chatting box through which each user could write and send their concerns to counselors individually. Results from evaluation process showed that 651 participants used drug abuse health information via mobile application and website. Among all users, 48.8% were males and 51.2% were females. More than half (55.3%) were 15-20 years old and most of them (88.0%) were Buddhists. Most users reported ever getting knowledge related to drugs (86.1%), and drinking alcohol (94.2%) while some of them (6.9%) reported ever using tobacco. For satisfaction with using the drug abuse health information, more than half of users reflected that the contents of drug abuse health information were interesting (59%), up-to date (61%), and highly useful to their self-study (59%) at high level. In addition, half of them were satisfied with the design in terms of infographics (54%) and animation (51%). Thus, this drug abuse health information can be adopted to explore drug abuse situation and serves as a tool to prevent drug abuse and addiction among Thai community people.

Keywords: drug addiction, health informatics, big data, development research

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Authors: Sweta Kandari

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Predominantly, the conventional role of an architect is to design and construct. However, in a post-disaster scenario, the prevalent role expands and includes many other responsibilities. Agencies collaborating in post-disaster reconstruction face the challenge of building back quickly while requiring them to listen, reflect, develop and deliver as per the needs and requirements of the people. The question of the role of an architect has been extensively discussed in the reconstruction field. Discourses about the role of an architect in post-disaster scenario revolve around the ignorance by the profession, their professional abilities and inabilities. Within this domain, this paper aims at analyzing and recognizing the roles, responsibilities, scope, limitations, skillsets applied and required by an architect while working in a post-disaster situation. Four projects rebuilt after the 2001 Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat, India were examined for this research. Based on the analysis of the case study, areas of intervention of an architect in the various stages of rebuilding were identified. It was reinforced that within the areas of intervention identified, there is a vast gap between the prescribed, the prevalent notion and the performed responsibilities of an architect. This paper brings forth the specific gaps in the rebuilding process while exploring and understanding the relationship between various stakeholders that influence the role of an architect.

Keywords: rebuilding, role of an architect, Bhuj, post-disaster

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Authors: Gia Lam Le, Dennis T. Bergado, Thi Ngoc Truc Nguyen

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This study focuses on behaviors of improved soft clay using prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) combined with vacuum and electro-osmotic preloading. Large-scale consolidations of reconstituted soft Bangkok clay were conducted for PVD improvement with vacuum (vacuum-PVD), and vacuum combined with heat (vacuum-thermo-PVD). The research revealed that vacuum-thermo-PVD gives high efficiency of the consolidation rate compared to the vacuum-PVD. In addition, the magnitude of settlement of the specimen improved by the vacuum-thermo-PVD is higher than the vacuum-PVD because the assistance of heat causes the collapse of the clay structure. Particularly, to reach 90% degree of consolidation, the thermal-vacuum-PVD reduced about 58% consolidation time compared to the vacuum-PVD. The increase in consolidation rate is resulted from the increase in horizontal coefficient of consolidation, Ch, the reduction of the smear effect expressed by the ratio of the horizontal hydraulic conductivity in the undisturbed zone, kh, and the horizontal hydraulic conductivity in the smeared zone, ks. Furthermore, the shear strength, Su, increased about 100% when compared using the vacuum-thermal-PVD to the vacuum PVD. In addition, numerical simulations gave reasonable results compared to the laboratory data.

Keywords: PVD improvement, vacuum preloading, prefabricated vertical drain, thermal PVD

Procedia PDF Downloads 442

Authors: Arredondo Valdés Roberto, Hernández Castillo Francisco Daniel, Laredo Alcalá Elan Iñaky, Gonzalez Gallegos Esmeralda, Castro Del Angel Epifanio

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The common bean or Phaseolus vulgaris L. is the most important food legume for direct consumption in the world. Fusarium dry rot in the major fungus disease affects Phaseolus vulgaris L, after planting. In another hand, Rhizoctonia can be found on all underground parts of the plant and various times during the growing season. In recent years, the world has conducted studies about the use of natural products as substitutes for herbicides and pesticides, because of possible ecological and economic benefits. Plants respond to fungal invasion by activating defense responses associated with accumulation of several enzymes and inhibitors, which prevent pathogen infection. This study focused on the role of proteins, peroxidase (POD), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), in imparting resistance to soft rot pathogens by applied different bacterial consortium, formulated and provided by Biofertilizantes de Méxicanos industries, analyzing the enzyme activity at different times of application (6 h, 12 h and 24 h). The resistance of these treatments was correlated with high POD and PAL enzyme activity as well as increased concentrations of proteins. These findings show that PAL, POD and synthesis of proteins play a role in imparting resistance to Phaseolus vulgaris L. soft rot infection by Fusarium and Rhizoctonia.

Keywords: fusarium, peroxidase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase, rhizoctonia

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Ben Salah Nahla

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The problem of water in Tunisia affects the quality and quantity. Tunisia is in a situation of water shortage. It was estimated that 4.6 Mm3/an. Moreover, the quality of water in Tunisia is also mediocre. In fact, 50% of the water has a high salinity (> 1.5g/l). There are several parameters which affect water quality such as sodium, fluoride. An excess of this parameter may induce some human health. Furthermore, the mining basin area has a problem of industrial waste. This problem may affect the water quality of the groundwater. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to assess the water quality in Basin Mining and the impact of fluorine. For this research, some water samples were done in the field and specific water analysis was implemented in the laboratory. Sampling is carried out on eight drilling in the area of the mining region. In the following, we will look at water view composition, physical and chemical quality. A physical-chemical analysis of water from a survey of the Mining area of Tunisia was performed and showed an excess for the following items: fluorine, sodium, sulfate. So many chemicals may be present in water. However, only a small number of them immediately concern in terms of health in all circumstances. Fluorine (F) is one particular chemical that is considered both necessary for the human body, but an excess of the rate of this chemical causes serious diseases. Sodium fluoride and sodium silicofluoride are more soluble and may spread in animals and plants where their toxicity largest organizations. The more complex particles such as cryolite and fluorite, almost insoluble, are more stable and less toxic. Thereafter, we will study the problem of excess fluorine in the water. The latter intended for human consumption must always comply with the limits for microbiological quality parameters and physical-chemical parameters defined by European standards (1.5 mg/l) and Tunisian (2 mg/l).

Keywords: water, minier basin, fluorine, silicofluoride

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Authors: Sang Wook Park, Se Woon Choi, Yousok Kim, Byung Kwan Oh, Hyo Seon Park

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Various retrofit techniques for reinforced concrete frame with infill wall have been steadily developed. Among those techniques, strengthening methodology based on diagonal FRP strips (FRP bracings) has numerous advantages such as feasibility of implementing without interrupting the building under operation, reduction of cost and time, and easy application. Considering the safety of structure and retrofit cost, the most appropriate retrofit solution is needed. Thus, the objective of this study is to suggest pareto-optimal solution for existing building using FRP bracings. To find pareto-optimal solution analysis, NSGA-II is applied. Moreover, the seismic performance of retrofit building is evaluated. The example building is 5-storey, 3-bay RC frames with infill wall. Nonlinear static pushover analyses are performed with FEMA 356. The criterion of performance evaluation is inter-story drift ratio at the performance level IO, LS, CP. Optimal retrofit solutions is obtained for 32 individuals and 200 generations. Through the proposed optimal solutions, we confirm the improvement of seismic performance of the example building.

Keywords: retrofit, FRP bracings, reinforced concrete frame with infill wall, seismic performance evaluation, NSGA-II

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Authors: Syed Ahsan, Saleh Alshomrani, Ishtiaq Rasool, Ali Hassan

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In this oral presentation, we will provide an overview of the technical and semantic architecture of a desert border security and critical infrastructure protection security system. Modern border security systems are designed to reduce the dependability and intrusion of human operators. To achieve this, different types of sensors are use along with video surveillance technologies. Application of these technologies in a harsh desert environment of Saudi Arabia poses unique challenges. Environmental and geographical factors including high temperatures, desert storms, temperature variations and remoteness adversely affect the reliability of surveillance systems. To successfully implement a reliable, effective system in a harsh desert environment, the following must be achieved: i) Selection of technology including sensors, video cameras, and communication infrastructure that suit desert environments. ii) Reduced power consumption and efficient usage of equipment to increase the battery life of the equipment. iii) A reliable and robust communication network with efficient usage of bandwidth. Also, to reduce the expert bottleneck, an ontology-based intelligent information systems needs to be developed. Domain knowledge unique and peculiar to Saudi Arabia needs to be formalized to develop an expert system that can detect abnormal activities and any intrusion.

Keywords: border security, sensors, abnormal activity detection, ontologies

Procedia PDF Downloads 469

Authors: C. E. Ihejirika, M. I. Nwachukwu, R. F. Njoku-Tony, O. C. Ihejirika, U. O. Enwereuzoh, E. O. Imo, D. C. Ashiegbu

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Disposal of industrial solid wastes in the environment is a major environmental challenge. This study investigated the effects of calcium carbide waste dumpsites on soil quality. Soil samples were collected with hand auger from three different dumpsites at varying depths and made into composite samples. Samples were subjected to standard analytical procedures. pH varied from 10.38 to 8.28, nitrate from 5.6mg/kg to 9.3mg/kg, phosphate from 8.8mg/kg to 12.3mg/kg, calcium carbide reduced from 10% to to 3%. Calcium carbide was absent in control soil samples. Bacterial counts from dumpsites ranged from 1.8 x 105cfu/g - 2.5 x 105cfu/g while fungal ranged from 0.8 x 103cfu/g - 1.4 x 103cfu/g. Bacterial isolates included Pseudomonas spp, Flavobacterium spp, and Achromobacter spp, while fungal isolates include Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizopus stolonifer. No organism was isolated from the dumpsites at soil depth of 0-15 cm, while there were isolates from other soil depths. Toxicity might be due to alkaline condition of the dumpsite. Calcium carbide might be bactericidal and fungicidal leading to cellular physiology, growth retardation, death, general loss of biodiversity and reduction of ecosystem processes. Detoxification of calcium carbide waste before disposal on soil might be the best option in management.

Keywords: biodiversity, calcium-carbide, denitrification, toxicity

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Authors: Khushi Kashyap, Pratibha Singh

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In the recent years increasing interest in vegetarian diets has been observed, a major problem in this type of diet is to provide the appropriate amount of protein .Value addition of food is current most talked topic because of increasing nutritional awareness among consumers today. An investigation was conducted to develop protein rich multi-millet hemp seed khakhra. The seeds of cannabis sativa L. have been a significant source of food for thousand of year. In recent years, hemp has not been thoroughly explored for its nutritional potential due to the mistaken belief regarding the cannabis plants. Methodology- two variations was prepared referencing standard recipe. Variation 1 was prepared using 25g ragi, 25g bajra,40g whole wheat flour with 10g hemp seed powder, variation 2(RF-25g,BF25g,WWF-35g,HS-15g). The product was subjected to sensory evolution by semi trained panel members using 9 point hedonic on 50 panelists. Result- result of the sensory evaluation revealed that the product incorporated with 15g of hemp seed were similar to control I texture, taste and overall quality and was more acceptable by the panelist and was selected as final product seed. On estimation of the nutrient content 30g of khakhra provides 107kcal of energy,12g protein,75g carbohydrate, and 9.6g of fats with shelf life of 3 months. Conclusion- khakhras can be eaten as a snack at any time of the day. hemp seed powder incorporated in it enhances its nutritive value and makes it more nutritious. It is suitable for consumption of all the age group.

Keywords: cannabis sativa, hemp, protein, seed

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Authors: William Fuentes, Melany Gil

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Numerical simulations of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in shallow waters demand sophisticated models considering the cyclic nature of the environmental loads. For the case of an OWT founded on sands, rapid loading may cause a reduction of the effective stress of the soil surrounding the structure. This eventually leads to its settlement, tilting, or other issues affecting its serviceability. In this work, a 3D FE model of an OWT founded on sand is constructed and analyzed. Cyclic loading with different histories is applied at certain points of the tower to simulate some environmental forces. The mechanical behavior of the soil is simulated through the recently proposed ISA-hypoplastic model for sands. The Intergranular Strain Anisotropy ISA can be interpreted as an enhancement of the intergranular strain theory, often used to extend hypoplastic formulations for the simulation of cyclic loading. In contrast to previous formulations, the proposed constitutive model introduces an elastic range for small strain amplitudes, includes the cyclic mobility effect and is able to capture the cyclic behavior of sands under a larger number of cycles. The model performance is carefully evaluated on the FE dynamic analysis of the OWT.

Keywords: offshore wind turbine, monopile, ISA, hypoplasticity

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Authors: Ziraguen O. Williams, Shield B. Lin, Fouad N. Matari, Leslie J. Quiocho

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In a task to assist NASA in analyzing the dynamic forces caused by operational countermeasures of an astronaut’s exercise platform impacting the spacecraft, feedback delay, and signal noise were added to a simulation model of an active-controlled vibration isolation system to regulate the movement of the exercise platform. Previous simulation work was conducted primarily via MATLAB/Simulink. Two additional simulation tools used in this study were Trick and MBDyn, NASA co-developed software simulation environments. Simulation results obtained from these three tools were very similar. All simulation results support the hypothesis that an active-controlled vibration isolation system outperforms a passive-controlled system even with the addition of feedback delay and signal noise to the active-controlled system. In this paper, squat exercise was used in creating excited force to the simulation model. The exciter force from a squat exercise was calculated from the motion capture of an exerciser. The simulation results demonstrate much greater transmitted force reduction in the active-controlled system than the passive-controlled system.

Keywords: control, counterweight, isolation, vibration

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: S. Nishat Fatima Rizvi, Tulika Chandra, Abbas Ali Mahdi, Devisha Agarwal

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Introduction: Blood components are an unexplored area prone to numerous discoveries which influence patient’s care. Experiments at different levels will further change the present concept of blood banking. Hyperlipidemia is a condition of elevated plasma level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) as well as decreased plasma level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Studies show that platelets play a vital role in the progression of atherosclerosis and thrombosis, a major cause of death worldwide. They are activated by many triggers like elevated LDL in the blood resulting in aggregation and formation of plaques. Hyperlipidemic platelets are frequently transfused to patients with various disorders. Screening the random donor platelets for hyperlipidemia and correlating the condition with other donor criteria such as lipid rich diet, oral contraceptive pills intake, weight, alcohol intake, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, family history of heart diseases will lead to further deciding the exclusion criteria for donor selection. This will help in making the patients safe as well as the donor deferral criteria more stringent to improve the quality of blood supply. Technical evaluation and assessment will enable blood bankers to supply safe blood and improve the guidelines for blood safety. Thus, we try to study the correlation between hyperlipidemic platelets with platelets parameters, weight, and specific history of the donors. Methodology: This case control study included 100 blood samples of Blood donors, out of 100 only 30 samples were found to be hyperlipidemic and were included as cases, while rest were taken as controls. Lipid Profile were measured by fully automated analyzer (TRIGL:triglycerides),(LDL-C:LDL –Cholesterol plus 2nd generation),CHOL 2: Cholesterol Gen 2), HDL C 3: HDL-Cholesterol plus 3rdgeneration)-(Cobas C311-Roche Diagnostic).And Platelets parameters were analyzed by the Sysmex KX21 automated hematology analyzer. Results: A significant correlation was found amongst hyperlipidemic level in single time donor. In which 80% donors have history of heart disease, 66.66% donors have sedentary life style, 83.3% donors were smokers, 50% donors were alcoholic, and 63.33% donors had taken lipid rich diet. Active physical activity was found amongst 40% donors. We divided donors sample in two groups based on their body weight. In group 1, hyperlipidemic samples: Platelet Parameters were 75% in normal 25% abnormal in >70Kg weight while in 50-70Kg weight 90% were normal 10% were abnormal. In-group 2, Non Hyperlipidemic samples: platelet Parameters were 95% normal and 5% abnormal in >70Kg weight, while in 50-70Kg Weight, 66.66% normal and 33.33% abnormal. Conclusion: The findings indicate that Hyperlipidemic status of donors may affect the platelet parameters and can be distinguished on history by their weight, Smoking, Alcoholic intake, Sedentary lifestyle, Active physical activity, Lipid rich diet, Oral contraceptive pills intake, and Family history of heart disease. However further studies on a large sample size will affirm this finding.

Keywords: blood donors, hyperlipidemia, platelet, weight

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Authors: G. E. Kiral, O. Elma, A. T. Ince, B. Vural, U. S. Selamogullari, M. Uzunoglu

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Energy is an indispensable resource to meet the needs of people. Depending on the needs of people, the correct and efficient use of electrical energy has became important nowadays. Besides the need for the electrical energy is also increasing with the rapidly developing technology and continuously changing living standards. Due to the depletion of energy sources and increased demand for electricity, efficient energy use is an important research topic. Recently, ideas like smart cities, smart buildings and smart homes have been widely used under smart grid concept. With smart grid infrastructure, it will be possible to monitor electrical demand of a residential customer and control each electricity generation center for more efficient energy flow. The smallest component of the smart grid can be considered as smart homes. Better utilization of the electrical grid can be achieved through the communication of the smart home with both other customers in the grid and appliances in the house itself since generation can effectively be scheduled by having more precise demand data. Smart Plugs are used for the communication with the household appliances in the house. Smart Plug is an intermediate control element, which can be mounted on the existing outlet, and thus can be used to monitor the energy consumption of the plugged device and also can provide on/off control energy remotely. This study proposes a Smart Plug for energy monitoring and energy management. Proposed design is composed of five subsystems: micro controller embedded system with communication system, metering circuitry, power supply and switching circuitry. The developed smart plug offers efficient use of electrical energy.

Keywords: energy efficiency, home energy management, smart home, smart plug

Procedia PDF Downloads 709

Authors: Daniel Osorio, Janneth Gonzalez, Andres Pinzon

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In this work, proteins and metabolic pathways associated with the neuroprotective response mediated by the synthetic neurosteroid tibolone under a palmitate-induced inflammatory model were identified by flux balance analysis (FBA). Three different metabolic scenarios (‘healthy’, ‘inflamed’ and ‘medicated’) were modeled over a gene expression data-driven constructed tissue-specific metabolic reconstruction of mature astrocytes. Astrocyte reconstruction was built, validated and constrained using three open source software packages (‘minval’, ‘g2f’ and ‘exp2flux’) released through the Comprehensive R Archive Network repositories during the development of this work. From our analysis, we predict that tibolone executes their neuroprotective effects through a reduction of neurotoxicity mediated by L-glutamate in astrocytes, inducing the activation several metabolic pathways with neuroprotective actions associated such as taurine metabolism, gluconeogenesis, calcium and the Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor signaling pathways. Also, we found a tibolone associated increase in growth rate probably in concordance with previously reported side effects of steroid compounds in other human cell types.

Keywords: astrocytes, flux balance analysis, genome scale metabolic reconstruction, inflammation, neuroprotection, tibolone

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Authors: G. Venkata Rao, R. Srinivasa Rao, B. Neelima Sri Priya

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The over extraction of groundwater from the coastal aquifers, result in reduction of groundwater resource and lowering of water level. In general, the depletion of groundwater level enhances the landward migration of saltwater wedge. Now a days the ground water extraction increases by year to year because increased population and industrialization. The ground water is the only source of irrigation, domestic and Industrial purposes at Pydibhimavaram industrial area, which is located in the coastal belt of Srikakulam district, India of Latitudes 18.145N 83.627E and Longitudes 18.099N 83.674E. The present study has been attempted to calculate amount of water getting recharged into this aquifer, status of rainfall pattern for the past two decades and the runoff is calculated by using Khosla’s formula with available rainfall and temperature in the study area. A decision support model has been developed on the basis of Monthly Extractions of the water from the ground through bore wells and the Net Recharge of the aquifer. It is concluded that the amount of extractions is exceeding the amount of recharge from May to October in a given year which will in turn damage the water balance in the subsurface layers.

Keywords: aquifer, decision support model, groundwater extraction, run off estimation and rainfall

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Authors: Mohsen S. Sajadieha, Danyar Molavia

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In this paper, a truck scheduling problem is investigated at a two-touch cross-docking center with due dates for outbound trucks as a hard constraint. The objective is to minimize the total cost comprising penalty and delivery cost of delayed shipments. The sequence of unloading shipments is considered and is assumed that shipments are sent to shipping dock doors immediately after unloading and a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) policy is considered for loading the shipments. A mixed integer programming model is developed for the proposed model. Two meta-heuristic algorithms including genetic algorithm (GA) and variable neighborhood search (VNS) are developed to solve the problem in medium and large sized scales. The numerical results show that increase in due dates for outbound trucks has a crucial impact on the reduction of penalty costs of delayed shipments. In addition, by increase the due dates, the improvement in the objective function arises on average in comparison with the situation that the cross-dock is multi-touch and shipments are sent to shipping dock doors only after unloading the whole inbound truck.

Keywords: cross-docking, truck scheduling, fixed due date, door assignment

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Authors: Rehab Abdullah Shendi

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The use of customised soft-core processors in which instructions can be integrated into a system in application hardware is increasing in the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) field. Specifically, the partial run-time reconfiguration of FPGAs in specialised processors for a particular domain can be very beneficial. In this report, the design and implementation for the customisation of a soft-core MIPS processor using an FPGA and partial reconfiguration (PR) of FPGA technology will be addressed to achieve efficient resource use. This can be achieved using a PR design flow that helps the design fit into a smaller device. Moreover, the impact of static power consumption could be reduced due to runtime reconfiguration. This will be done by configurable custom instructions implemented in the hardware as an extension on the MIPS CPU. The aim of this project is to investigate the PR of FPGAs for run-time adaptations of the instruction set of a soft-core CPU, including the integration of custom instructions and the exploration of the potential to use the MultiBoot feature available in Xilinx FPGAs to carry out the PR process. The system will be evaluated and tested on a Nexus 3 development board featuring a Xilinx Spartran-6 FPGA. The system will be able to load reconfigurable custom instructions dynamically into user programs with the help of the trap handler when the custom instruction is called by the MIPS CPU. The results of this experiment demonstrate that custom instructions in hardware can speed up a certain function and many instructions can be saved when compared to a software implementation of the same function. Implementing custom instructions in hardware is perfectly possible and worth exploring.

Keywords: customisation, FPGA, MIPS, partial reconfiguration, PR

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Authors: Radhika Ranjan Roy

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Deployment of machine learning (ML)/deep learning (DL) algorithms for cyberattack detection in operational communications networks (wireless and/or wire-line) is being delayed because of low-performance parameters (e.g., recall, precision, and f₁-score). If datasets become imbalanced, which is the usual case for communications networks, the performance tends to become worse. Complexities in handling reducing dimensions of the feature sets for increasing performance are also a huge problem. Mahalanobis algorithms have been widely applied in scientific research because Mahalanobis distance metric learning is a successful framework. In this paper, we have investigated the Mahalanobis binary classifier algorithm for increasing cyberattack detection performance over communications networks as a proof of concept. We have also found that high-dimensional information in intermediate features that are not utilized as much for classification tasks in ML/DL algorithms are the main contributor to the state-of-the-art of improved performance of the Mahalanobis method, even for imbalanced and sparse datasets. With no feature reduction, MD offers uniform results for precision, recall, and f₁-score for unbalanced and sparse NSL-KDD datasets.

Keywords: Mahalanobis distance, machine learning, deep learning, NS-KDD, local intrinsic dimensionality, chi-square, positive semi-definite, area under the curve

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Authors: Raana Babadi Fathipour

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Street foods hold a significant place in the tapestry of socioeconomic and cultural norms, beloved across the globe. Serving as a convenient and affordable option for city dwellers seeking nourishment, these culinary delights also serve as a vital source of income for vendors, particularly women. Additionally, street food acts as a mirror reflecting traditional local customs and practices, an element that draws tourists to experience the authenticity of a culture firsthand. Despite its many virtues, concerns have emerged regarding the microbiological safety of street food worldwide. Often prepared and sold in subpar conditions without proper oversight or regulation, street food has become synonymous with potential health risks. The presence of elevated levels of fecal indicator bacteria and various pathogens in these unregulated delicacies further perpetuates anxieties surrounding their consumption. This analysis delves into the intricate microbiological intricacies inherent in street food, shedding light on the pertinent safety concerns and prevalent pathogens. Additionally, it elaborates on the worldwide standing of this vital economic endeavor. Moreover, it advocates for the adoption of molecular detection techniques over conventional culture-based methods to gain a more comprehensive grasp of the true microbial risks posed by street cuisine. Acknowledgment marks the initial step towards resolving any given issue.

Keywords: foodborne pathogens, microbiological safety, street food, viruses

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Authors: William Middleton, Nodumo Zulu, Sue Harrison

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Open raceway ponds are currently the most used system for the commercial cultivation of algal biomass, as it is a cost-effective means of production. However, raceway ponds suffer from lower algal productivity when compared to closed photobioreactors. This is due to poor gas exchange between the fluid and the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) mass transfer is a large concern in the production of algae in raceway pond systems. The utilization of atmospheric CO₂ does not support maximal growth; however, CO₂ supplementation in the form of flue gas or concentrated CO₂ is not cost-effective. The introduction of slopes into the raceway system presents a possible improvement to the mass transfer from the air, as seen in previous work conducted at CeBER. Slopes improve turbulence (decreasing the concentration gradient of dissolved CO₂) and can cause air entrainment (allowing for greater surface area and contact time between the air and water). This project tests the findings of previous studies conducted in an indoor lab-scale raceway on a larger scale under outdoor conditions. The addition of slopes resulted in slightly increased CO₂ mass transfer as well as algal growth rate and productivity. However, there were reductions in energy consumption and average fluid velocity in the system. These results indicate a potential to improve the economic feasibility of algal biomass production, but further economic assessment would need to be carried out.

Keywords: algae, raceway ponds, mass transfer, algal culture, biotechnology, reactor design

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Authors: Siva Chander Chabattula, Piyush Kumar Gupta, Debashis Chakraborty, Rama Shanker Verma

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Green nanoparticles have gotten a lot of attention because of their potential applications in tissue regeneration, bioimaging, wound healing, and cancer therapy. The physical and chemical methods to synthesize metal oxide nanoparticles have an environmental impact, necessitating the development of an environmentally friendly green strategy for nanoparticle synthesis. In this study, we used Annona muricata plant leaf extract to synthesize Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (Am-ZnO NPs), which were evaluated using UV/Visible spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, DLS, and Zeta potential. Nanoparticles had an optical absorbance of 355 nm and a net negative surface charge of ~ - 2.59 mV. Transmission Electron Microscope characterizes the Shape and size of the nanoparticles. The obtained Am-ZnO NPs are biocompatible and hemocompatible in nature. These nanoparticles caused an anti-cancer therapeutic effect in MIA PaCa2 and MOLT4 cancer cells by inducing oxidative stress, and a change in mitochondrial membrane potential leads to programmed cell death. Further, we observed a reduction in the size of lung cancer spheroids (act as tumor micro-environment) with doxorubicin as a positive control.

Keywords: Biomaterials, nanoparticle, anticancer activity, ZnO nanoparticles

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Authors: Christine Odinga, Fred Otieno, Josiah Adeyemo

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A study was done to establish the effectiveness of wetland plants: Echinocloa pyramidalis (L) and Cyperus papyrus (L) in purifying wastewater from sugar factory stabilization pond effluent. A pilot-scale Free Water Surface Wetland (FWSCW) system was constructed in Chemelil sugar factory, Kenya for the study. The wetland was divided into 8 sections (cells) and planted with C. papyrus and E. pyramidalis in alternating sequence. Water samples and plant specimen were taken fortnightly at inlets and outlets of the cells and analysed for total phosphates and total nitrates. The data was analysed by use of Microsoft excel and SPSS computer packages. Water analysis recorded a reduction in the nutrient levels between the inlet pond nine and the final outlet channel to River Nyando. The plants grown in the wetland experienced varied increases and reductions in the level of total foliar nitrogen and phosphorous, indicating that though the nutrients were being removed from the wetland, the same were not those assimilated by the plants either. The control plants had higher folia phosphorous and nitrogen, an indication that the system of the constructed wetland was able to eliminate the nutrients effectively from the plants.

Keywords: wetlands, constructed, plants, nutrients, wastewater, industrial

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Yong-Heng Shi, Peng Hao, Bai-Chen Xie

Abstract:

Solar prosumers are playing increasingly prominent roles in the power system. However, its uncertainty affects the outcomes and functions of the power market, especially in the asymmetric information environment. Therefore, an important issue is how to take effective measures to reduce the impact of uncertainty on market equilibrium. We propose a two-level stochastic differential game model to explore the Cournot decision problem of prosumers. In particular, we study the impact of punishment and cooperation mechanisms on the efficiency of the Cournot game in which prosumers face uncertainty. The results show that under the penalty mechanism of fixed and variable rates, producers and consumers tend to take conservative actions to hedge risks, and the variable rates mechanism is more reasonable. Compared with non-cooperative situations, prosumers can improve the efficiency of the game through cooperation, which we attribute to the superposition of market power and uncertainty reduction. In addition, the market environment of asymmetric information intensifies the role of uncertainty. It reduces social welfare but increases the income of prosumers. For regulators, promoting alliances is an effective measure to realize the integration, optimization, and stable grid connection of producers and consumers.

Keywords: Cournot games, power market, uncertainty, prosumer cooperation

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Authors: Kai-Chee Loh, Jingxin Zhang, Yen-Wah Tong

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Hydrolysis and acidogenesis are the rate-controlling steps in an anaerobic digestion (AD) process. Considering that the optimum conditions for each stage can be diverse diverse, the development of a multi-stage AD system is likely to the AD efficiency through individual optimization. In this research, we developed a highly integrate three-stage anaerobic digester (HM3) to combine the advantages of dry AD and wet AD for anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and horse manure. The digester design comprised mainly of three chambers - high-solids hydrolysis, high-solids acidogenesis and wet methanogensis. Through comparing the treatment performance with other two control digesters, HM3 presented 11.2 ~22.7% higher methane yield. The improved methane yield was mainly attributed to the functionalized partitioning in the integrated digester, which significantly accelerated the solubilization of solid organic matters and the formation of organic acids, as well as ammonia in the high-solids hydrolytic and acidogenic stage respectively. Additionally, HM3 also showed the highest volatile solids reduction rate among the three digesters. Real-time PCR and pyrosequencing analysis indicated that the abundance and biodiversity of microorganisms including bacteria and archaea in HM3 was much higher than that in the control reactors.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, high-solids, food waste and horse manure, microbial community

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Authors: Teresa Rushe, Nicole Devlin, Tara O Neill

Abstract:

In this study, we sought to examine associations between childhood experiences of community and collective violence and psychological functioning in young people who grew up in post-conflict Northern Ireland. We hypothesized that those who grew up with such experiences would demonstrate internalizing and externalizing difficulties in early adulthood and, furthermore, that these difficulties would be mediated by adverse childhood experiences occurring within the home environment. As part of the Northern Ireland Childhood Adversity Study, we recruited 213 young people aged 18-25 years (108 males) who grew up in the post-conflict society of Northern Ireland using purposive sampling. Participants completed a digital questionnaire to measure adverse childhood experiences as well as aspects of psychological functioning. We employed the Adverse Childhood Experience -International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ¬) adaptation of the original Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE) as it additionally measured aspects of witnessing community violence (e.g., seeing someone being beaten/killed, fights) and experiences of collective violence (e.g., war, terrorism, police, or gangs’ battles exposure) during the first 18 years of life. 51% of our sample reported experiences of community and/or collective violence (N=108). Compared to young people with no such experiences (N=105), they also reported significantly more adverse experiences indicative of household dysfunction (e.g., family substance misuse, mental illness or domestic violence in the family, incarceration of a family member) but not more experiences of abuse or neglect. As expected, young people who grew up with the community and/or collective violence reported significantly higher anxiety and depression scores and were more likely to engage in acts of deliberate self-harm (internalizing symptoms). They also started drinking and taking drugs at a younger age and were significantly more likely to have been in trouble with the police (externalizing symptoms). When the type of violence exposure was separated by whether the violence was witnessed (community violence) or more directly experienced (collective violence), we found community and collective violence to have similar effects on externalizing symptoms, but for internalizing symptoms, we found evidence of a differential effect. Collective violence was associated with depressive symptoms, whereas witnessing community violence was associated with anxiety-type symptoms and deliberate self-harm. However, when experiences of household dysfunction were entered into the models predicting anxiety, depression, and deliberate self-harm, none of the main effects remained significant. This suggests internalizing type symptoms are mediated by immediate family-level experiences. By contrast, significant community and collective violence effects on externalizing behaviours: younger initiation of alcohol use, younger initiation of drug use, and getting into trouble with the police persisted after controlling for family-level factors and thus are directly associated with growing up with the community and collective violence. Given the cross-sectional nature of our study, we cannot comment on the direction of the effect. However, post-hoc correlational analyses revealed associations between externalising behaviours and personal factors, including greater risk-taking and young age at puberty. The implications of the findings will be discussed in relation to interventions for young people and families living with the community and collective violence.

Keywords: community and collective violence, adverse childhood experiences, youth, psychological wellbeing

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Authors: Ghulam Mustafa Peerzada, Shagufta Rashid, Nadeem Bashir

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These the influence of initial reagent concentrations on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) system with Mn2+/Mn3+ as redox catalyst, inorganic bromate as oxidant and pyrogallol as organic substrate was studied. The reactions were monitored by potentiometery in oxidation reduction potential (ORP) mode. The aforesaid reagents were mixed with varying concentrations to evolve the optimal concentrations at which the reaction system exhibited better oscillations. The various oscillatory parameters such as induction period (tin), time period (tp), frequency (v), amplitude (A) and number of oscillations (n) were derived and the dependence of concentration of the reacting species on these oscillatory parameters was interpreted on the basis of the Field-Koros-Noyes mechanism. Ferroin based BZ system with pyrogallol as organic substrate was optimized under CSTR condition at temperature of 30±0.1oC Effect of molecules like monomer and polymer as additives to the system was checked and their interaction with the system was also studied. It has been observed that the monomer affects the time period, while the polymer has its effect on the amplitude of oscillations because of monomer’s interaction with the bromine and polymer’s with that of the Ferroin.

Keywords: Belousov Zhabotinsky reaction, oscillatory parameters, polymer, pyrogallol

Procedia PDF Downloads 297

Authors: Mabtho Moreroa-Monyelo, Grace Ijoma, Rosina Nkuna, Tonderayi Matambo

Abstract:

A moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was used for the bioremediation of high strength chemical oxygen demand (COD) Fisher-Tropsch (FT) wastewater. The aerobic MBBR system was operated over 60 days. For metagenomics profile assessment of the targeted 16S sequence of bacteria involved in the bioremediation of the chemical compounds, sludge samples were collected every second day of operation. Parameters such as pH and COD were measured daily to compare the system efficiency as the changedin microbial diversity progressed. The study revealed that pH was a contributing factor to microbial diversity, which further affected the efficiency of the MBBR system. The highest COD removal rate of 86.4% was achieved at pH 8.3. It was observed that when there was more, A higher bacterial diversity led to an improvement in the reduction of COD. Furthermore, an OTUof 4530 was obtained, which were divided into 12 phyla, 27 classes, 44 orders, 74 families, and 138 genera across all sludge samples from the MBBR. A determination of the relative abundance of microorganisms at phyla level indicates that the most abundant phylum on day it was Firmicutes (50%); thereafter, the most abundant phylum changed toProteobacteria.

Keywords: biodegradation, fischer-tropsch wastewater, metagenomics, moving bed biofilm reactor

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Usman Abubakar, Xiaoyuan Wang, Sayyed Haleem Shah, Sadiq Ur Rahman, Rabiu Saleh Zakariyya

Abstract:

High-speed Permanent magnet synchronous machine (HSPMSM) uses in different industrial applications like blowers, compressors as a result of its superb performance. Nevertheless, the over-temperature rise of both winding and PM is one of their substantial problem for a high-power HSPMSM, which affects its lifespan and performance. According to the literature, HSPMSM with a Hybrid cooling configuration has a much lower temperature rise than non-hybrid cooling. This paper presents the design 185kW, 26K rpm with two different cooling configurations, i.e., hybrid cooling configuration (forced air and housing spiral water jacket) and non-hybrid (forced air cooling assisted with winding’s potting material and sleeve’s material) to enhance the heat dissipation of winding and PM respectively. Firstly, the machine’s electromagnetic design is conducted by the finite element method to accurately account for machine losses. Then machine’s cooling configurations are introduced, and their effectiveness is validated by lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN). Investigation shows that using potting, sleeve materials to assist non-hybrid cooling configuration makes the machine’s winding and PM temperature closer to hybrid cooling configuration. Therefore, the machine with non-hybrid cooling is prototyped and tested due to its simplicity, lower energy consumption and can still maintain the lifespan and performance of the HSPMSM.

Keywords: airflow network, axial ventilation, high-speed PMSM, thermal network

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Authors: Lorena Antonovici, Maria Nicoleta Turliuc

Abstract:

The process of becoming a vegetarian involves changes in several life aspects, including health. Despite its relevance, however, little research has been carried out to analyze vegetarians' self-perceived health, and even less empirical attention has received in the Romanian population. This study aimed to assess health-related beliefs and practices among vegetarian adults in a Romanian sample. We have undertaken 20 semi-structured interviews (10 males, 10 females) based on a snowball sample with a mean age of 31 years. The interview guide was divided into three sections: causes of adopting the diet, general aspects (beliefs, practices, tensions, and conflicts) and consequences of adopting the diet (significant changes, positive aspects, and difficulties, physical and mental health). Additional anamnestic data were reported by means of a questionnaire. Data analyses were performed using Tropes text analysis software (v. 8.2) and SPSS software (v. 24.0.) Findings showed that most of the participants considered a vegetarian diet as a natural and healthy choice as opposed to meat-eating, which is not healthy, and its consumption should be moderated among omnivores. A higher proportion of participants (65%) had an average body mass index (BMI), and several women even assumed having certain affections that no longer occur after following a vegetarian diet. Moreover, participants admitted having better moods and mental health status, given their self-contentment with the dietary choice. Relatives were perceived as more skeptical about their practices than others, and especially women had this view. This study provides a valuable insight into health-related beliefs and practices and how a vegetarian diet might interact.

Keywords: beliefs, health, practices, vegetarians

Procedia PDF Downloads 108