Search results for: consumption pattern

Authors: Constanza Monterrubio-Solis, Jose Tomas Ibarra

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The fertile interdependence of social-ecological systems reveals itself in the interactions between native forests and seeds, home gardens, kitchens, foraging activities, local knowledge, and food practices, creating particular flavors and food meanings as part of cultural identities within territories. Resilience in local-food systems, from a relational perspective, can be understood as the balance between persistence and adaptability to change. Food growing, preparation, and consumption are constantly changing and adapting as expressions of agency of female and male indigenous peoples and peasants. This paper explores local food systems’ expressions of resilience in the la Araucanía region of Chile, namely: diversity, redundancy, buffer capacity, modularity, self-organization, governance, learning, equity, and decision-making. Applying ethnographic research methods (participant observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews), this work reflects on the experience developed through work with Mapuche women cultivating home gardens in the region since 2012; it looks to material and symbolic elements of resilience in the local indigenous food systems. Local food systems show indeed indicators of social-ecological resilience. The biocultural memory is expressed in affection to particular flavors and recipes, the cultural importance of seeds and reciprocity networks, as well as an accurate knowledge about the indicators of the seasons and weather, which have allowed local food systems to thrive with a strong cultural foundation. Furthermore, these elements turn into biocultural resistance in the face of the current institutional pressures for rural specialization, processes of cultural assimilation such as agroecosystems and diet homogenization, as well as structural threats towards the diversity and freedom of native seeds. Thus, the resilience-resistance dynamic shown by the social-ecological systems of the southern Andes is daily expressed in the local food systems and flavors and is key for diverse and culturally sound social-ecological health.

Keywords: biocultural heritage, indigenous food systems, social-ecological resilience, southern Andes

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Authors: Yasir E. Mohieldeen

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Qatar is one of the most water scarce countries in the World. In 2014, the average per capita rainfall was less than 29 m3/y/ca, while the global average is 6,000 m3/y/ca. However, the per capita water consumption in Qatar is among the highest in the World: more than 500 liters per person per day, whereas the global average is 160 liters per person per day. Since the early 2000s, Qatar has been relying heavily on desalinated water from the Arabian Gulf as the main source of fresh water. In 2009, about 99.9% of the total potable water produced was desalinated. Reliance on desalinated water makes Qatar very vulnerable to water related natural disasters, such as the red-tide phenomenon. Qatar’s strategic water reserve lasts for only 7 days. In case of red-tide outbreak, the country would not be able to desalinate water for days, let alone the months that this disaster would bring about (as it clogs the desalination equipment). The 2008-09 red-tide outbreak, for instance, lasted for more than eight months and forced the closure of desalination plants in the region for weeks. This study aims at identifying favorite conditions for red-tide outbreaks, using satellite data along with in-situ measurements. This identification would allow the prediction of these outbreaks and their hotspots. Prediction and monitoring of outbreaks are crucial to water security in the country, as different measures could be put in place in advance to prevent an outbreak and mitigate its impact if it happened. Red-tide outbreaks are detected using different algorithms for chlorophyll concentration in the Gulf waters. Vegetation indices, such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were used along with Surface Algae Bloom Index (SABI) to detect known outbreaks. MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) bands are used to calculate these indices. A red-tide outbreaks atlas in the Arabian Gulf is being produced. Prediction of red-tide outbreaks ahead of their occurrences would give critical information on possible water-shortage in the country. Detecting known outbreaks in the past few decades and related parameters (e.g. water salinity, water surface temperature, nutrition, sandstorms, … etc) enables the identification of favorite conditions of red-tide outbreak that are key to the prediction of these outbreaks.

Keywords: Arabian Gulf, MODIS, red-tide detection, strategic water reserve, water desalination

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Authors: Jubaida Gulshan Ara, Zebun Nasreen Ahmed

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Urban flood and drought has been a major problem of Dhaka city, particularly in recent years. Continuous increase of the city built up area, and limiting rainwater infiltration zone, are thought to be the main causes of the problem. Proper rainwater management, even at the individual plot level, might bring significant improvement in this regard. As residential use pattern occupies a significant portion of the city surface, the scope of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in residential buildings can be investigated. This paper reports on a research which explored the scope of rainwater harvesting in residential plots, with multifamily apartment buildings, in Dhaka city. The research investigated the basics of RWH, contextual information, i.e., hydro-geological, meteorological data of Dhaka city and the rules and legislations for residential building construction. The study also explored contemporary rainwater harvesting practices in the local and international contexts. On the basis of theoretical understanding, 21 sample case-studies, in different phases of construction, were selected from seven different categories of plot sizes, in different residential areas of Dhaka city. Primary data from the 21 case-study buildings were collected from a physical survey, from design drawings, accompanied by a questionnaire survey. All necessary secondary data were gathered from published and other relevant sources. Collected primary and secondary data were used to calculate and analyze the RWH needs for each case study, based on the theoretical understanding. The main findings have been compiled and compared, to observe residential development trends with regards to building rainwater harvesting system. The study has found that, in ‘Multifamily Apartment Building’ of Dhaka city, storage, and recharge structure size for rainwater harvesting, increases along with occupants’ number, and with the increasing size of the plot. Hence, demand vs. supply ratio remains almost the same for different sizes of plots, and consequently, the size of the storage structure increases significantly, in large-scale plots. It has been found that rainwater can meet only 12%-30% of the total restricted water demand of these residential buildings of Dhaka city. Therefore, artificial groundwater recharge might be the more suitable option for RWH, than storage. The study came up with this conclusion that, in multifamily residential apartments of Dhaka city, artificial groundwater recharge might be the more suitable option for RWH, than storing the rainwater on site.

Keywords: Dhaka city, rainwater harvesting, residential plots, urban flood

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Authors: Sukhvinder Kaur, Jayanta Bora, Ashok Agarwal, Sangeeta Kaul

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Background: HIV and STI transmission can be prevented if condoms are used properly, but condom tear may lead to infections even if are used consistently. Studies reveal high rates of condom breakage among Female Sex Workers (FSWs). USAID PHFI-PIPPSE is piloting a prevention model among high risk groups at Thane district of Maharashtra, India by implementing prevention and advocacy efforts for such risk behaviors. The current analysis highlights the correlates of condom breakage among FSWs from Thane. Method: A Behavioral Tracking Survey was conducted in 2014-15 among 503 FSWs through probability-based two stage random sampling from 3,660 FSWs at 100 hotspots, to understand levels of high risk behaviors, awareness and exposure to prevention programs. Bi-variate and multivariate-logistic regression methods used to assess the association of condom breakage while having sex with age, STI occurrence, anal sex with clients and alcohol consumption. Only self-reported STIs (Genital sore/ulcer, yellowish/ greenish discharge from vagina with/without foul smell, lower abdominal pain without diarrhea/dysentery or menses) were considered. Major Findings: Results depicted FSWs who reported condom breakage while having sex with any type of partner (paying clients, non-paying partners and other than main partner husband/boyfriend) had significantly high number of STIs (42.3% vs 16.9 %, P, 0.000) and had started sexual relationship in <16 years of age (31.0% vs 16.4 %, P, 0.000). Multivariate analysis after controlling the age at sex, knowledge about HIV and literacy, highlighted significantly higher odds of condom breakage among FSWs who have reported currently suffering with STI [AOR 2.91, 95% CI 1.75 - 4.83; P, 0.000]; who had anal sex with their paying client [AOR 2.59, 95% CI 1.59 - 4.19; P, 0.000]; and who consumed alcohol in the last 12 months [AOR 1.89, 95% CI 1.01 - 3.53; P, 0.047]. Conclusion: Risky behavior like anal sex with paying clients and impact of alcohol while having sex are main factors for condom breakage among young sex workers; and condom breakage leads to STIs. Hence, program interventions should address measures for prevention of condom breakage for HIV/STI prevention.

Keywords: female sex workers, condom breakage, anal sex, young sex workers

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Authors: Ismail S. Bostanci, Ebru Akkaya

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Microalgae-derived biodiesel, fertilizer or industrial chemicals' production with wastewater has great potential. Especially water from a municipal wastewater treatment plant is a very important nutrient source for biofuel production. Microalgae biomass production in open ponds system is lower cost culture systems. There are many hurdles for commercial algal biomass production in large scale. One of the important technical bottlenecks for microalgae production in open system is culture contamination. The algae culture contaminants can generally be described as invading organisms which could cause pond crash. These invading organisms can be competitors, parasites, and predators. Contamination is unavoidable in open systems. Potential contaminant organisms are already inoculated if wastewater is utilized for algal biomass cultivation. Especially, it is important to control contaminants to retain in acceptable level in order to reach true potential of algal biofuel production. There are several contamination management methods in algae industry, ranging from mechanical, chemical, biological and growth condition change applications. However, none of them are accepted as a suitable contamination control method. This experiment describes an innovative contamination control method, 'Recirculated Sedimentation Method', to manage contamination to avoid pond cash. The method can be used for the production of algal biofuel, fertilizer etc. and algal wastewater treatment. To evaluate the performance of the method on algal culture, an experiment was conducted for 90 days at a lab-scale raceway (60 L) reactor with the use of non-sterilized and non-filtered wastewater (secondary effluent and centrate of anaerobic digestion). The application of the method provided the following; removing contaminants (predators and diatoms) and other debris from reactor without discharging the culture (with microscopic evidence), increasing raceway tank’s suspended solids holding capacity (770 mg L-1), increasing ammonium removal rate (29.83 mg L-1 d-1), decreasing algal and microbial biofilm formation on inner walls of reactor, washing out generated nitrifier from reactor to prevent ammonium consumption.

Keywords: contamination control, microalgae culture contamination, pond crash, predator control

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Authors: Sabina-Adriana Floria, Marius Gavrilescu, Florin Leon, Silvia Curteanu, Costel Anton

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Neuroevolution is a subfield of artificial intelligence used to solve various problems in different application areas. Specifically, neuroevolution is a technique that applies biologically inspired methods to generate neural network architectures and optimize their parameters automatically. In this paper, we use different biologically inspired optimization algorithms in an ensemble strategy with the aim of training multilayer perceptron neural networks, resulting in regression models used to simulate the industrial chemical process of obtaining bricks from silicone-based materials. Installations in the raw ceramics industry, i.e., bricks, are characterized by significant energy consumption and large quantities of emissions. In addition, the initial conditions that were taken into account during the design and commissioning of the installation can change over time, which leads to the need to add new mixes to adjust the operating conditions for the desired purpose, e.g., material properties and energy saving. The present approach follows the study by simulation of a process of obtaining bricks from silicone-based materials, i.e., the modeling and optimization of the process. Optimization aims to determine the working conditions that minimize the emissions represented by nitrogen monoxide. We first use a search procedure to find the best values for the parameters of various biologically inspired optimization algorithms. Then, we propose an adaptive ensemble strategy that uses only a subset of the best algorithms identified in the search stage. The adaptive ensemble strategy combines the results of selected algorithms and automatically assigns more processing capacity to the more efficient algorithms. Their efficiency may also vary at different stages of the optimization process. In a given ensemble iteration, the most efficient algorithms aim to maintain good convergence, while the less efficient algorithms can improve population diversity. The proposed adaptive ensemble strategy outperforms the individual optimizers and the non-adaptive ensemble strategy in convergence speed, and the obtained results provide lower error values.

Keywords: optimization, biologically inspired algorithm, neuroevolution, ensembles, bricks, emission minimization

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Authors: Davood Vatankhah, Reza Mokhtari Malekabadi, Mohsen Saghaei

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Function of urban transportation systems depends on the existence of the required infrastructures, appropriate placement of different components, and the cooperation of these components with each other. Establishing various neighboring parking spaces in city neighborhood in order to prevent long-term and inappropriate parking of cars in the allies is one of the most effective operations in reducing the crowding and density of the neighborhoods. Every place with a certain application attracts a number of daily travels which happen throughout the city. A large percentage of the people visiting these places go to these travels by their own cars; therefore, they need a space to park their cars. The amount of this need depends on the usage function and travel demand of the place. The study aims at investigating the spatial distribution of the public parking spaces, determining the effective factors in locating, and their combination in GIS environment in Khomeinishahr of Isfahan city. Ultimately, the study intends to create an appropriate pattern for locating parking spaces, determining the request for parking spaces of the traffic areas, choosing the proper places for providing the required public parking spaces, and also proposing new spots in order to promote quality and quantity aspects of the city in terms of enjoying public parking spaces. Regarding the method, the study is based on applied purpose and regarding nature, it is analytic-descriptive. The population of the study includes people of the center of Khomeinishahr which is located on Northwest of Isfahan having about 5000 hectares of geographic area and the population of 241318 people are in the center of Komeinishahr. In order to determine the sample size, Cochran formula was used and according to the population of 26483 people of the studied area, 231 questionnaires were used. Data analysis was carried out by usage of SPSS software and after estimating the required space for parking spaces, initially, the effective criteria in locating the public parking spaces are weighted by the usage of Analytic Hierarchical Process in the Arc GIS software. Then, appropriate places for establishing parking spaces were determined by fuzzy method of Order Weighted Average (OWA). The results indicated that locating of parking spaces in Khomeinishahr have not been carried out appropriately and per capita of the parking spaces is not desirable in relation to the population and request; therefore, in addition to the present parking lots, 1434 parking lots are needed in the area of the study for each day; therefore, there is not a logical proportion between parking request and the number of parking lots in Khomeinishahr.

Keywords: GIS, locating, parking, khomeinishahr

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Authors: Najih Amina

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Our study focuses on monitoring the spatial evolution of a number of physico-chemical parameters of wells waters located at different distances from the discharge of the city of Khouribga (S0 upstream station, S1, S2 et S3 are respectively located at 5.5, 7.5, 11 Km away from solid waste discharge of the city). The absence of a source of drinking water in this region involves the population to feeding on its groundwater wells. Through the results, we note that most of the analyzed parameters exceed the potable water standards from S1. At this source of water, we find that the conductivity (1290 μmScm-1; Standard 1000 μmScm-1), Total Hardness TH (67.2°F/ Standard 50° F), Ca2 + (146 mg l-1 standard 60 mg l-1), Cl- (369 mg l-1 standard 150 mg l-1), NaCl (609 mgl-1), Methyl orange alakanity “M. alk” (280 mg l-1) greatly exceed the drinking water standards. By following these parameters, it is obvious that some values have decreased in the downstream stations, while others become important. We find that the conductivity is always higher than 950 μmScm-1; the TH registers 72°F in S3; Ca 2+ is in the range of 153 mg l-1 in S3, Cl- and NaCl- reached 426 mg l-1 and 702 mg l-1 respectively in S2, M alk becomes higher and reaches 430 to 350 in S3. At the wells S2, we found that the nitrites are well beyond the standard 1.05 mg l-1. Whereas, at the control station S0, the values are lower or at the limit of drinking water standards: conductivity (452 μmScm-1), TH (34 F°), Ca2+ (68 mg l-1), Cl- (157 mg l-1), NaCl- (258 mg l-1), M alk (220 mg l-1). Thus, the diagnosis reveals the presence of a high pollution caused by the leachates of the household waste discharge and by the effluents of the sewage waste water plant (SWWP). The phenomenon of the water hardness could, also, be generated by the processes of erosion, leaching and soil infiltration in the region (phosphate layers, intercalated layers of marl and limestone), phenomenons also caused by the acidity due to this surrounding pollution. The source S1 is the nearest surrounding site of the discharge and the most affected by the phenomenon of pollution, especially, it is near to a superficial water source S’1 polluted by the effluents coming from the sewage waste water plant of the city. In the light of these data, we can deduce that the consumption of this water from S1 does not conform the standards of drinking waters, and could affect the human health.

Keywords: physico-chemical parameters, ground water wells, infiltration, leaching, pollution, leachate discharge effluent SWWP, human health.

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Authors: Huseyin Guler, Cigdem Kosar

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The aim of this study is to propose Bridge estimator for seasonal unit root tests. Seasonality is an important factor for many economic time series. Some variables may contain seasonal patterns and forecasts that ignore important seasonal patterns have a high variance. Therefore, it is very important to eliminate seasonality for seasonal macroeconomic data. There are some methods to eliminate the impacts of seasonality in time series. One of them is filtering the data. However, this method leads to undesired consequences in unit root tests, especially if the data is generated by a stochastic seasonal process. Another method to eliminate seasonality is using seasonal dummy variables. Some seasonal patterns may result from stationary seasonal processes, which are modelled using seasonal dummies but if there is a varying and changing seasonal pattern over time, so the seasonal process is non-stationary, deterministic seasonal dummies are inadequate to capture the seasonal process. It is not suitable to use seasonal dummies for modeling such seasonally nonstationary series. Instead of that, it is necessary to take seasonal difference if there are seasonal unit roots in the series. Different alternative methods are proposed in the literature to test seasonal unit roots, such as Dickey, Hazsa, Fuller (DHF) and Hylleberg, Engle, Granger, Yoo (HEGY) tests. HEGY test can be also used to test the seasonal unit root in different frequencies (monthly, quarterly, and semiannual). Another issue in unit root tests is the lag selection. Lagged dependent variables are added to the model in seasonal unit root tests as in the unit root tests to overcome the autocorrelation problem. In this case, it is necessary to choose the lag length and determine any deterministic components (i.e., a constant and trend) first, and then use the proper model to test for seasonal unit roots. However, this two-step procedure might lead size distortions and lack of power in seasonal unit root tests. Recent studies show that Bridge estimators are good in selecting optimal lag length while differentiating nonstationary versus stationary models for nonseasonal data. The advantage of this estimator is the elimination of the two-step nature of conventional unit root tests and this leads a gain in size and power. In this paper, the Bridge estimator is proposed to test seasonal unit roots in a HEGY model. A Monte-Carlo experiment is done to determine the efficiency of this approach and compare the size and power of this method with HEGY test. Since Bridge estimator performs well in model selection, our approach may lead to some gain in terms of size and power over HEGY test.

Keywords: bridge estimators, HEGY test, model selection, seasonal unit root

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Authors: Alvaro Figueira, Bruno Cabral

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Nowadays, students are used to be assessed through an online platform. Educators have stepped up from a period in which they endured the transition from paper to digital. The use of a diversified set of question types that range from quizzes to open questions is currently common in most university courses. In many courses, today, the evaluation methodology also fosters the students’ online participation in forums, the download, and upload of modified files, or even the participation in group activities. At the same time, new pedagogy theories that promote the active participation of students in the learning process, and the systematic use of problem-based learning, are being adopted using an eLearning system for that purpose. However, although there can be a lot of feedback from these activities to student’s, usually it is restricted to the assessments of online well-defined tasks. In this article, we propose an automatic system that informs students of abnormal deviations of a 'correct' learning path in the course. Our approach is based on the fact that by obtaining this information earlier in the semester, may provide students and educators an opportunity to resolve an eventual problem regarding the student’s current online actions towards the course. Our goal is to prevent situations that have a significant probability to lead to a poor grade and, eventually, to failing. In the major learning management systems (LMS) currently available, the interaction between the students and the system itself is registered in log files in the form of registers that mark beginning of actions performed by the user. Our proposed system uses that logged information to derive new one: the time each student spends on each activity, the time and order of the resources used by the student and, finally, the online resource usage pattern. Then, using the grades assigned to the students in previous years, we built a learning dataset that is used to feed a machine learning meta classifier. The produced classification model is then used to predict the grades a learning path is heading to, in the current year. Not only this approach serves the teacher, but also the student to receive automatic feedback on her current situation, having past years as a perspective. Our system can be applied to online courses that integrate the use of an online platform that stores user actions in a log file, and that has access to other student’s evaluations. The system is based on a data mining process on the log files and on a self-feedback machine learning algorithm that works paired with the Moodle LMS.

Keywords: data mining, e-learning, grade prediction, machine learning, student learning path

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Authors: Jiri Beranovsky, Jaroslav Knapek, Tomas Kralik, Kamila Vavrova

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The paper deals with the results of research focused on the complex aspects of the use of intentionally grown biomass on agricultural land for the production of solid biofuels as an alternative for individual household heating. . The study primarily deals with the analysis of CO2 emissions of the logistics cycle of biomass for the production of energy pellets. Growing, harvesting, transport and storage are evaluated in the pellet production cycle. The aim is also to take into account the consumption profile during the year in terms of heating of common family houses, which are typical end-market segment for these fuels. It is assumed that in family houses, bio-pellets are able to substitute typical fossil fuels, such as brown coal and old wood burning heating devices and also electric boilers. One of the competing technology with the pellets are heat pumps. The results show the CO2 emissions related with considered fuels and technologies for their utilization. Comparative analysis is aimed biopellets from intentionally grown biomass, brown coal, natural gas and electricity used in electric boilers and heat pumps. Analysis combines CO2 emissions related with individual fuels utilization with costs of these fuels utilization. Cost of biopellets from intentionally grown biomass is derived from the economic models of individual energy crop plantations. At the same time, the restrictions imposed by EU legislation on Ecodesign's fuel and combustion equipment requirements and NOx emissions are discussed. Preliminary results of analyzes show that to achieve the competitiveness of pellets produced from specifically grown biomass, it would be necessary to either significantly ecological tax on coal (from about 0.3 to 3-3.5 EUR/GJ), or to multiply the agricultural subsidy per area. In addition to the Czech Republic, the results are also relevant for other countries, such as Bulgaria and Poland, which also have a high proportion of solid fuels for household heating.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, heating costs, energy crop, pellets, brown coal, heat pumps, economical evaluation

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Authors: Alan T. Sassler

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Biofouling is a significant issue for ships, especially those based in warm water ports. Biofouling damages hull coatings, degrades platform hydrodynamics, blocks cooling water intakes, and returns, reduces platform range and speed, and increases fuel consumption. Although platforms are protected to some degree by antifouling paints, these paints are much less effective on stationary platforms, and problematic biofouling can occur on antifouling paint-protected stationary platforms in some environments in as little as a matter of weeks. Remediation hull cleaning operations are possible, but they are very expensive, sometimes result in damage to the vessel’s paint or hull and are generally not completely effective. Ultrasound with sufficient intensity focused on specific frequency ranges can be used to prevent the growth of biofouling organisms. The use of ultrasound to prevent biofouling isn't new, but systems to date have focused on protecting platforms by shaking the hull using internally mounted transducers similar to those used in ultrasonic cleaning machines. While potentially effective, this methodology doesn't scale well to large platforms, and there are significant costs associated with installing and maintaining these systems, which dwarf the initial purchase price. An alternative approach has been developed, which uses highly directional pier-mounted transducers to project high-intensity spread-spectrum ultrasonic energy into the water column focused near the surface. This focused energy has been shown to prevent biofouling at ranges of up to 50 meters from the source. Spreading the energy out over a multi-kilohertz band makes the system both more effective and more environmentally friendly. This system has been shown to be both effective and inexpensive in small-scale testing and is now being characterized on a larger scale in selected marinas. To date, test results have been collected in Florida marinas suggesting that this approach can be used to keep ensonified areas of thousands of square meters free from biofouling, although care must be taken to minimize shaded areas.

Keywords: biofouling, ultrasonic, environmentally friendly antifoulant, marine protection, antifouling

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Adham Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Ayman Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Introduction: Like many dialects, the Arabic dialect of Yemen (ADY) exhibited utterance phonemic distinction- vowel deletion, lengthening, and insertion- that were investigated using speakers from different dialectal backgrounds, with particular focus on the difference typically developing and achieving speakers and those suffering linguistic problems make. Phonological variations were found to be inevitable, suggesting further investigation of consonants to see to what extent they are prone to such phonemic changes. This study investigates the patterns of consonant substitution in ADY by examining if there is a clear-cut line between normal and pathological consonants to decide which of these consonants is substituted more. Methods: A total of hundred and twenty nine Yemeni male participants (age= 6-13) were enrolled in this study. Participants were preassigned into two groups (Articulation disorders (AD) group= 42 and typically developing and achieving group (TD) = 70), each of which consists of five sub-groups in decided sociolinguistic classification. In a 45 minute-session, 180 pictures of commonly used verbs (4 pics/m.) were presented to participants who were asked to impulsively describe these verbs before their production was psychoneurolinguistically and statistically analyzed. Results: There was a pattern of consonant substitution in some dialects that participants from both groups have in common: Voiceless consonants (/t/, /ṣ/,/s/, /ḥ, /k/, /ʃ/, /f//, and /k/) in northern and eastern dialects; voiced consonants (/q/, /gh/, /Ʒ/, /g/,/ḍ/, /b/, and /d/) in southern, eastern, western and central dialects; and voiceless and voiced consonants(/t/, /f/, /Ø/, /ṣ/, /s/, /q/, /gh/, /Ʒ/, /g/,/ḍ/, and /b/) in southern dialect. Voiceless consonants (/t/, /ṣ/,/s/, /ḥ, /k/, /ʃ/, /f//, /Ø/and /k/) found to be substituted more by ADY speakers of both AD and TD groups followed by voiced consonants (/q/, /gh/, /Ʒ/, /g/,/ḍ/,/d/ /b/, and /ð/), nasals (/m/, /n/), mute (/h/), semi-vowels (/w/ and /j/) and laterals (/l/ and /r/). Unexpectedly, a short vowel (/æ/) and two long vowels (/u: and /a:/) were found to substitute consonants in ADY both by AD and TD participants. Conclusions: AD and TD participants of ADY substitute consonants in their dialectal speech. Consonant substitution processes cover not only consonants but extend to include monophthongs. The finding that speakers of ADY substitute consonants in multisyllabic words is probably due to the fact that the sociolinguistic factor plays a pivotal role in the problematic substitution of consonants in ADY speakers. Larger longitudinal studies are necessary to further investigate the effect of sociolinguistic background on phonological variations, notably sound change in the speech of Yemeni TD speakers compared to those with linguistic impairments.

Keywords: consonant substitution, Arabic dialect of Yemen, phonetics, phonology, syllables, articulation disorders

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Authors: Tânia F. C. V. Silva, Eloísa S. S. Vieira, João Pinto da Costa, Rui A. R. Boaventura, Vitor J. P. Vilar

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Sanitary landfill leachates are characterized as a complex mixture of diverse organic and inorganic contaminants, which are usually removed by combining different treatment processes. Due to its simplicity, reliability, high cost-effectiveness and high nitrogen content (mostly under the ammonium form) inherent in this type of effluent, the activated sludge biological process is almost always applied in leachate treatment plants (LTPs). The purpose of this work is to assess the effect of the main nitrification and denitrification variables on the nitrogen's biological removal, from mature leachates. The leachate samples were collected after an aerated lagoon, at a LTP nearby Porto, presenting a high amount of dissolved organic carbon (1.0-1.3 g DOC/L) and ammonium nitrogen (1.1-1.7 g NH4+-N/L). The experiments were carried out in a 1-L lab-scale batch reactor, equipped with a pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) control system, in order to determine the reaction kinetic constants at unchanging conditions. The nitrification reaction rate was evaluated while varying the (i) operating temperature (15, 20, 25 and 30ºC), (ii) DO concentration interval (0.5-1.0, 1.0-2.0 and 2.0-4.0 mg/L) and (iii) solution pH (not controlled, 7.5-8.5 and 6.5-7.5). At the beginning of most assays, it was verified that the ammonium stripping occurred simultaneously to the nitrification, reaching up to 37% removal of total dissolved nitrogen. The denitrification kinetic constants and the methanol consumptions were calculated for different values of (i) volatile suspended solids (VSS) content (25, 50 and 100 mL of centrifuged sludge in 1 L solution), (ii) pH interval (6.5-7.0, 7.5-8.0 and 8.5-9.0) and (iii) temperature (15, 20, 25 and 30ºC), using effluent previously nitrified. The maximum nitrification rate obtained was 38±2 mg NH4+-N/h/g VSS (25ºC, 0.5-1.0 mg O2/L, pH not controlled), consuming 4.4±0.3 mg CaCO3/mg NH4+-N. The highest denitrification rate achieved was 19±1 mg (NO2--N+NO3--N)/h/g VSS (30ºC, 50 mL of sludge and pH between 7.5 and 8.0), with a C/N consumption ratio of 1.1±0.1 mg CH3OH/mg (NO2--N+NO3--N) and an overall alkalinity production of 3.7±0.3 mg CaCO3/mg (NO2--N+NO3--N). The denitrification process showed to be sensitive to all studied parameters, while the nitrification reaction did not suffered significant change when DO content was changed.

Keywords: mature sanitary landfill leachate, nitrogen removal, nitrification and denitrification parameters, lab-scale activated sludge biological reactor

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Authors: Damianos Tzoupis

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In the context of the canon debate, assumptions regarding the place, value, and impact of classical texts have come under increased scrutiny. Factors like the distance of time, the depreciation of tradition, or the increased cultural omnivorousness and eclecticism have allegedly played a part in destabilizing classics’ authority. However, despite all these developments, classics’ position and influence is strong both in contemporary institutions and among readers’ preferences. Within this background of conflicted narratives, the study maps the varied discourses, value grammars, and justifications that lay cultural consumers employ to discuss those texts which have come to be the most consecrated and valuable cultural objects. The study centers on reviews posted on Goodreads. These online reviews offer unique access to unsolicited reception data produced by lay readers themselves, thus providing a clearer picture of lay cultural consumption and lay theories about classics. Moreover, the approach taken relies on the micro-practices of evaluation: the study investigates the evaluation of a specific cultural object, namely Plato’s allegory of the Cave, and treats it as an exemplary case to identify interpretive repertoires and valuation grammars about classical texts in general. The analysis uncovers a wide range of discourses used to construct the concept of the “classical text”. At first sight, lay reviewers seem to adopt interpretive repertoires that highlight qualities such as universality, timelessness, canonicity, cultural impact, and difficulty. These repertoires seem in principle to follow generalized and institutionalized discourses about classical texts, as these are established and circulated by institutions and cultural brokers like schools, academics, critics, etc. However, the study also uncovers important variations of these discourses. Lay readers tend to (re)negotiate the meanings/connotations of the above qualities and also structure their discourses by “modalities” such as necessity or surprise. These variations in interpretive repertoires are important in cultural sociology’s attempt to better grasp the principles informing the grammars of valuation that lay cultural consumers employ and to understand the kinds of impact that consecrated cultural objects have on people’s lives.

Keywords: classics, interpretive repertoires around classicalness, institutionalized discourses, lay readers, online reviews/criticism

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Mompi Sharma, Labananda Choudhury, Anjana M. Saikia

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Background: The period life table is entirely based on the assumption that the mortality patterns of the population existing in the given period will persist throughout their lives. However, it has been observed that the mortality rate continues to decline. As such, if the rates of change of probabilities of death are considered in a life table then we get a dynamic life table. Although, mortality has been declining in all parts of India, one may be interested to know whether these declines had appeared more in an urban area of underdeveloped regions like North-Eastern India. So, attempt has been made to know the mortality pattern and the life expectancy under dynamic scenario in Guwahati, the biggest city of North Eastern India. Further, if the probabilities of death changes then there is a possibility that its different constituent probabilities will also change. Since cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Guwahati. Therefore, an attempt has also been made to formulate dynamic cause specific death ratio and probabilities of death due to CVD. Objectives: To construct dynamic life table for Guwahati for the year 2011 based on the rates of change of probabilities of death over the previous 10 and 25 years (i.e.,2001 and 1986) and to compute corresponding dynamic cause specific death ratio and probabilities of death due to CVD. Methodology and Data: The study uses the method proposed by Denton and Spencer (2011) to construct dynamic life table for Guwahati. So, the data from the Office of the Birth and Death, Guwahati Municipal Corporation for the years 1986, 2001 and 2011 are taken. The population based data are taken from 2001 and 2011 census (India). However, the population data for 1986 has been estimated. Also, the cause of death ratio and probabilities of death due to CVD are computed for the aforementioned years and then extended to dynamic set up for the year 2011 by considering the rates of change of those probabilities over the previous 10 and 25 years. Findings: The dynamic life expectancy at birth (LEB) for Guwahati is found to be higher than the corresponding values in the period table by 3.28 (5.65) years for males and 8.30 (6.37) years for females during the period of 10 (25) years. The life expectancies under dynamic consideration in all the other age groups are also seen higher than the usual life expectancies, which may be possible due to gradual decline in probabilities of death since 1986-2011. Further, a continuous decline has also been observed in death ratio due to CVD along with cause specific probabilities of death for both sexes. As a consequence, dynamic cause of death probability due to CVD is found to be less in comparison to usual procedure. Conclusion: Since incorporation of changing mortality rates in period life table for Guwahati resulted in higher life expectancies and lower probabilities of death due to CVD, this would possibly bring out the real situation of deaths prevailing in the city.

Keywords: cause specific death ratio, cause specific probabilities of death, dynamic, life expectancy

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Authors: Majid Rasta, Xiaotao Shi, Mian Adnan Kakakhel, Yanqin Bai, Lao Liu, Jia Manke

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Microplastics (MPs; particles <5 mm) pollution is considered as a globally pervasive threat to aquatic ecosystems, and many studies reported this pollution in rivers, wetlands, lakes, coastal waters and oceans. In the aquatic environments, settling and transport of MPs in water column and sediments are determined by different factors such as hydrologic characteristics, watershed pattern, rainfall events, hydraulic conditions, vegetation, hydrodynamics behavior of MPs, and physical features of particles (shape, size and density). In the meantime, hydraulic conditions (such as turbulence, high/low water speed flows or water stagnation) play a key role in the fate of MPs in aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, this study presents a briefly review on the effects of different hydraulic conditions on the fate, transport and accumulation of MPs in aquatic ecosystems. Generally, MPs are distributed horizontally and vertically in aquatic environments. The vertical distribution of MPs in the water column changes with different flow velocities. In the riverine, turbulent flow causing from the rapid water velocity and shallow depth may create a homogeneous mixture of MPs throughout the water column. While low velocity followed by low-turbulent waters can lead to the low level vertical mixing of MP particles in the water column. Consequently, the high numbers of MPs are expected to be found in the sediments of deep and wide channels as well as estuaries. In contrast, observing the lowest accumulation of MP particles in the sediments of straights of the rivers, places with the highest flow velocity is understandable. In the marine environment, hydrodynamic factors (e.g., turbulence, current velocity and residual circulation) can affect the sedimentation and transportation of MPs and thus change the distribution of MPs in the marine and coastal sediments. For instance, marine bays are known as the accumulation area of MPs due to poor hydrodynamic conditions. On the other hand, in the nearshore zone, the flow conditions are highly complex and dynamic. Experimental studies illustrated that maximum horizontal flow velocity in the sandy beach can predict the accumulation of MPs so that particles with high sinking velocities deposit in the lower water depths. As a whole, it can be concluded that the transport and accumulation of MPs in aquatic ecosystems are highly affected by hydraulic conditions. This study provided information about the impacts of hydraulic on MPs pollution. Further research on hydraulics and its relationship to the accumulation of MPs in aquatic ecosystems is needed to increase insights into this pollution.

Keywords: microplastics pollution, hydraulic, transport, accumulation

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Authors: Rishi Richa, N. C. Shahi, J. P. Pandey, S. S. Kautkar

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Citrus fruits rank third in area and production after banana and mango in India. Sweet oranges are the second largest citrus fruits cultivated in the country. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand are the main sweet orange-growing states. Citrus fruits occupy a leading position in the fruit trade of Uttarakhand, is casing about 14.38% of the total area under fruits and contributing nearly 17.75 % to the total fruit production. Malta is grown in most of the hill districts of the Uttarakhand. Malta common is having high acceptability due to its attractive colour, distinctive flavour, and taste. The excellent quality fruits are generally available for only one or two months. However due to its less shelf-life, Malta can not be stored for longer time under ambient conditions and cannot be transported to distant places. Continuous loss of water adversely affects the quality of Malta during storage and transportation. Method of picking, packaging, and cold storage has detrimental effects on moisture loss. The climatic condition such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind condition (aeration) and microbial attack greatly influences the rate of moisture loss and quality. Therefore, different agro-climatic zone will have different moisture loss pattern. The rate of moisture loss can be taken as one of the quality parameters in combination of one or more parameter such as RH, and aeration. The moisture contents of the fruits and vegetables determine their freshness. Hence, it is important to maintain initial moisture status of fruits and vegetable for prolonged period after the harvest. Keeping all points in views, effort was made to store Malta at ambient condition. In this study, the response surface method and experimental design were applied for optimization of independent variables to enhance the shelf life of four months stored malta. Box-Benkhen design, with, 12 factorial points and 5 replicates at the centre point were used to build a model for predicting and optimizing storage process parameters. The independent parameters, viz., scavenger (3, 4 and 5g), polythene thickness (75, 100 and 125 gauge) and fungicide concentration (100, 150 and 200ppm) were selected and analyzed. 5g scavenger, 125 gauge and 200ppm solution of fungicide are the optimized value for storage which may enhance life up to 4months.

Keywords: Malta fruit, scavenger, packaging, shelf life

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: F. Heyecan Giritli, Gizem Akgül

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Because of the raising population of world; the need for houses, buildings and infrastructures are increasing rapidly. Energy and water consumption, waste production continues to increase. If this situation of resources continues, there will be a significant loss for next generations. Therefore, there are a lot of researches and solutions developed in the world. Also sustainability criteria are collected together by some countries to serve construction industry with certification systems. Sustainable building production process’s scope requires different path from traditional building production process. Moreover, the key objective of sustainable buildings is that the process includes whole life cycle duration. The process approaches from the decision of the project to the end of it; so the project team is needed from the beginning of the integrated project delivery model. Further more, by defining project team at the beginning of the project provides communication among the team members and defined problem solving and decision making methods. In this research includes the certification systems among the world to comprehend the head lines and assessment criteria. Therefore, it is understand that usually all green building criteria have the same contents. The aim of this research is to assess the sustainable project stakeholder’ perceptions in Turkish construction industry from the point of occupation, job title and years of experience. Therefore, a survey is made to assess the perceptions of each attendant. In Turkey, sustainability criteria are not clearly defined; on the other hand some regulations like waste management, energy efficiency are made by legal agencies. LEED certification system is the most popular system in Turkey that has attended and certificated. From the LEED official data, it’s understood that 308 project registered in Turkey. Therefore, LEED sustainability criteria are used in the survey. Head lines of LEED certification criteria; sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and regional priority are indicated to assess the perceptions of survey participants. Moreover, only surveying of criteria are not enough; so the equipment, methods, risks and benefits also considered.

Keywords: LEED, sustainability, perceptions, stakeholders, construction, Turkey, risk, benefit

Procedia PDF Downloads 301

Authors: Aime P. Lampad-Dela Pena, Rhodora V. Azanza, Cesar L. Villanoy, Ephrime B. Metillo, Aletta T. Yniguez

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Phytoplankton community changes in relation to environmental parameters were compared between and within, the three interconnected basins. Phytoplankton samples were collected from thirteen stations of Baler Bay and Casiguran Sound, Aurora last May 2013 by filtering 10 L buckets of surface water and 5 L Niskin samples at 20 meters and at 30 to 40 meters depths through a 20um sieve. Duplicate samples per station were preserved, counted, and identified up to genus level, in order to determine the horizontal and vertical spatial variation of different phytoplankton functional groups during the summer ebb and flood flow. Baler Bay, Outer and Inner Casiguran Sound had a total of 89 genera from four phytoplankton groups: Diatom (62), Dinoflagellate (25), Silicoflagellate (1) and Cyanobacteria (1). Non-toxic diatom Chaetoceros spp. bloom (averaged 2.0 x 105 to 2.73 x 106 cells L⁻¹) co-existed with Bacteriastrum spp. at surface waters in Inner and Outer Casiguran. Pseudonitzschia spp. (1.73 x 106 cells L⁻¹) bloomed at bottom waters of the innermost embayment near Casiguran mangrove estuary. Cyanobacteria Trichodesmium spp. significantly increased during ebb tide at the mid-water layers (20 meters depth) in the three basins (ranged from 6, 900 to 15, 125 filaments L⁻¹), forming another bloom. Gonyaulax spp. - dominated dinoflagellate did not significantly change with depth across the three basins. Overall, diatoms and dinoflagellates community assemblages significantly changed between sites (p < 0.001) while diatoms and cyanobacteria varied within Casiguran outer and inner sites (p < 0.001) only. Tidal fluctuations significantly affected dinoflagellates and diatom groups (p < 0.001) in inner and baler sites. Chlorophyll significantly varied between (KW, p < 0.001) and within each basins (KW, p < 0.05), no tidal influence, with the highest value at inner Casiguran and at deeper waters indicating deep chlorophyll maxima. Aurora’s distinct shelf morphology favoring counterclockwise circulation pattern, advective transport, and continuous stratification of the water column could basically affect the phytoplankton assemblages and water quality of Baler Bay and Casiguran inner and outer basins. Observed spatial phytoplankton community changes with multi-species diatom and cyanobacteria bloom at different water layers of the three inter-connected embayments would be vital for any environmental management initiatives in Aurora.

Keywords: aurora fronting Philippines Rise, intermonsoon, multi-species diatom bloom, spatial variability

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Thabo M. Bafitlhile, Adewole Oladele

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Botswana has been affected by floods since long ago and is still experiencing this tragic event. Flooding occurs mostly in the North-West, North-East, and parts of Central district due to heavy rainfalls experienced in these areas. The torrential rains destroyed homes, roads, flooded dams, fields and destroyed livestock and livelihoods. Palapye is one area in the central district that has been experiencing floods ever since 1995 when its greatest flood on record occurred. Heavy storms result in floods and inundation; this has been exacerbated by poor and absence of drainage structures. Since floods are a part of nature, they have existed and will to continue to exist, hence more destruction. Furthermore floods and highway plays major role in erosion and destruction of roads structures. Already today, many culverts, trenches, and other drainage facilities lack the capacity to deal with current frequency for extreme flows. Future changes in the pattern of hydro climatic events will have implications for the design and maintenance costs of roads. Increase in rainfall and severe weather events can affect the demand for emergent responses. Therefore flood forecasting and warning is a prerequisite for successful mitigation of flood damage. In flood prone areas like Palapye, preventive measures should be taken to reduce possible adverse effects of floods on the environment including road structures. Therefore this paper attempts to estimate return periods associated with huge storms of different magnitude from recorded historical rainfall depth using statistical method. The method of annual maxima was used to select data sets for the rainfall analysis. In the statistical method, the Type 1 extreme value (Gumbel), Log Normal, Log Pearson 3 distributions were all applied to the annual maximum series for Palapye area to produce IDF curves. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Chi Squared were used to confirm the appropriateness of fitted distributions for the location and the data do fit the distributions used to predict expected frequencies. This will be a beneficial tool for urgent flood forecasting and water resource administration as proper drainage design will be design based on the estimated flood events and will help to reclaim and protect the road structures from adverse impacts of flood.

Keywords: drainage, estimate, evaluation, floods, flood forecasting

Procedia PDF Downloads 371

Authors: Maria Korman, Carmit Gal, Ella Gabitov, Avi Karni

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The main question addressed in this study was whether the time-of-day wherein training is afforded is a significant factor for motor skill ('how-to', procedural knowledge) acquisition and consolidation into long term memory in the healthy elderly population. Twenty-nine older adults (60-75 years) practiced an explicitly instructed 5-element key-press sequence by repeatedly generating the sequence ‘as fast and accurately as possible’. Contribution of three parameters to acquisition, 24h post-training consolidation, and 1-week retention gains in motor sequence speed was assessed: (a) time of training (morning vs. evening group) (b) sleep quality (actigraphy) and (c) chronotype. All study participants were moderately morning type, according to the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire score. All participants had sleep patterns typical of age, with average sleep efficiency of ~ 82%, and approximately 6 hours of sleep. Speed of motor sequence performance in both groups improved to a similar extent during training session. Nevertheless, evening group expressed small but significant overnight consolidation phase gains, while morning group showed only maintenance of performance level attained at the end of training. By 1-week retention test, both groups showed similar performance levels with no significant gains or losses with respect to 24h test. Changes in the tapping patterns at 24h and 1-week post-training were assessed based on normalized Pearson correlation coefficients using the Fisher’s z-transformation in reference to the tapping pattern attained at the end of the training. Significant differences between the groups were found: the evening group showed larger changes in tapping patterns across the consolidation and retention windows. Our results show that morning-oriented older adults effectively acquired, consolidated, and maintained a new sequence of finger movements, following both morning and evening practice sessions. However, time-of-training affected the time-course of skill evolution in terms of performance speed, as well as the re-organization of tapping patterns during the consolidation period. These results are in line with the notion that motor training preceding a sleep interval may be beneficial for the long-term memory in the elderly. Evening training should be considered an appropriate time window for motor skill learning in older adults, even in individuals with morning chronotype.

Keywords: time-of-day, elderly, motor learning, memory consolidation, chronotype

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Sylvain Chardon, Timotéo Payre, Hugo Grardel, Yann Quentel, Mathieu Thomachot, Gérald Aigouy, Frank Claeyssen

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With the increasing digitalization of society, access to data has become vital and strategic for individuals and nations. In this context, the number of satellite constellation projects is growing drastically worldwide and is a next-generation challenge of the New Space industry. So far, existing satellite constellations have been using radio frequencies (RF) for satellite-to-ground communications, inter-satellite communications, and feeder link communication. However, RF has several limitations, such as limited bandwidth and low protection level. To address these limitations, space optical communication will be the new trend, addressing both very high-speed and secured encrypted communication. Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM) are key components used in optical communication as well as space imagery and for a large field of functions such as Point Ahead Mechanisms (PAM), Raster Scanning, Beam Steering Mirrors (BSM), Fine Pointing Mechanisms (FPM) and Line of Sight stabilization (LOS). The main challenges of space FSM development for optical communication are to propose both a technology and a supply chain relevant for high quantities New Space approach, which requires secured connectivity for high-speed internet, Earth planet observation and monitoring, and mobility applications. CTEC proposes a mini-FSM technology offering a stroke of +/-6 mrad and a resonant frequency of 1700 Hz, with a mass of 50 gr. This FSM mechanism is a good candidate for giant constellations and all applications on board NanoSats and CubeSats, featuring a very high level of miniaturization and optimized for New Space high quantities cost efficiency. The use of piezo actuators offers a high resonance frequency for optimal control, with almost zero power consumption in step and stay pointing, and with very high-reliability figures > 0,995 demonstrated over years of recurrent manufacturing for Optronics applications at CTEC.

Keywords: fast steering mirror, feeder link, line of sight stabilization, optical communication, pointing ahead mechanism, raster scan

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Iwona Cieślik, Władysław Migdał, Kinga Topolska, Ewa Cieślik

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The consumption of fish is recommended as a means of preventing serious diseases, especially cardiovascular problems. Fish is known to be a valuable source of protein (rich in essential amino acids), unsaturated fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins, macro- and microelements. However, it can also contain several contaminants (e.g. pesticides, heavy metals) that may pose considerable risks for humans. Among others, pesticide are of special concern. Their widespread use has resulted in the contamination of environmental compartments, including water. The occurrence of pesticides in the environment is a serious problem, due to their potential toxicity. Therefore, a systematic monitoring is needed. The aim of the study was to determine the organochlorine and organophosphate pesticide residues in fish muscle tissues of the pike (Esox lucius, L.) and the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykkis, Walbaum) by a modified QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method, using Gas Chromatography Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (GC/Q-MS), working in selected-ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The analysis of α-HCH, β-HCH, lindane, diazinon, disulfoton, δ-HCH, methyl parathion, heptachlor, malathion, aldrin, parathion, heptachlor epoxide, γ-chlordane, endosulfan, α-chlordane, o,p'-DDE, dieldrin, endrin, 4,4'-DDD, ethion, endrin aldehyde, endosulfan sulfate, 4,4'-DDT, and metoxychlor was performed in the samples collected in the Carp Valley (Malopolska region, Poland). The age of the pike (n=6) was 3 years and its weight was 2-3 kg, while the age of the rainbow trout (n=6) was 0.5 year and its weight was 0.5-1.0 kg. Detectable pesticide (HCH isomers, endosulfan isomers, DDT and its metabolites as well as metoxychlor) residues were present in fish samples. However, all these compounds were below the limit of quantification (LOQ). The other examined pesticide residues were below the limit of detection (LOD). Therefore, the levels of contamination were - in all cases - below the default Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs), established by Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The monitoring of pesticide residues content in fish is required to minimize potential adverse effects on the environment and human exposure to these contaminants.

Keywords: contaminants, fish, pesticides residues, QuEChERS method

Procedia PDF Downloads 219

Authors: Emiliano Matta

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Passive resonant vibration absorbers are among the most widely used dynamic control systems in civil engineering. They typically consist in a single-degree-of-freedom mechanical appendage of the main structure, tuned to one structural target mode through frequency and damping optimization. One classical scheme is the pendulum absorber, whose mass is constrained to move along a curved trajectory and is damped by viscous dashpots. Even though the principle is well known, the search for improved arrangements is still under way. In recent years this investigation inspired a type of bidirectional pendulum absorber (BPA), consisting of a mass constrained to move along an optimal three-dimensional (3D) concave surface. For such a BPA, the surface principal curvatures are designed to ensure a bidirectional tuning of the absorber to both principal modes of the main structure, while damping is produced either by horizontal viscous dashpots or by vertical friction dashpots, connecting the BPA to the main structure. In this paper, a variant of BPA is proposed, where damping originates from the variable tangential friction force which develops between the pendulum mass and the 3D surface as a result of a spatially-varying friction coefficient pattern. Namely, a friction coefficient is proposed that varies along the pendulum surface in proportion to the modulus of the 3D surface gradient. With such an assumption, the dissipative model of the absorber can be proven to be nonlinear homogeneous in the small displacement domain. The resulting homogeneous BPA (HBPA) has a fundamental advantage over conventional friction-type absorbers, because its equivalent damping ratio results independent on the amplitude of oscillations, and therefore its optimal performance does not depend on the excitation level. On the other hand, the HBPA is more compact than viscously damped BPAs because it does not need the installation of dampers. This paper presents the analytical model of the HBPA and an optimal methodology for its design. Numerical simulations of single- and multi-story building structures under wind and earthquake loads are presented to compare the HBPA with classical viscously damped BPAs. It is shown that the HBPA is a promising alternative to existing BPA types and that homogeneous tangential friction is an effective means to realize systems provided with amplitude-independent damping.

Keywords: amplitude-independent damping, homogeneous friction, pendulum nonlinear dynamics, structural control, vibration resonant absorbers

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Achim Kampker, Heiner H. Heimes, Mathias Ordung, Christoph Lienemann, Ansgar Hollah, Nemanja Sarovic

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Electric cars with their fast innovation cycles and their disruptive character offer a high degree of freedom regarding innovative design for remanufacturing. Remanufacturing increases not only the resource but also the economic efficiency by a prolonged product life time. The reduced power train wear of electric cars combined with high manufacturing costs for batteries allow new business models and even second life applications. Modular and intermountable designed battery packs enable the replacement of defective or outdated battery cells, allow additional cost savings and a prolongation of life time. This paper discusses opportunities for future remanufacturing value chains of electric cars and their battery components and how to address their potentials with elaborate designs. Based on a brief overview of implemented remanufacturing structures in different industries, opportunities of transferability are evaluated. In addition to an analysis of current and upcoming challenges, promising perspectives for a sustainable electric car circular economy enabled by design for remanufacturing are deduced. Two mathematical models describe the feasibility of pursuing a circular economy of lithium ion batteries and evaluate remanufacturing in terms of sustainability and economic efficiency. Taking into consideration not only labor and material cost but also capital costs for equipment and factory facilities to support the remanufacturing process, cost benefit analysis prognosticate that a remanufacturing battery can be produced more cost-efficiently. The ecological benefits were calculated on a broad database from different research projects which focus on the recycling, the second use and the assembly of lithium ion batteries. The results of this calculations show a significant improvement by remanufacturing in all relevant factors especially in the consumption of resources and greenhouse warming potential. Exemplarily suitable design guidelines for future remanufacturing lithium ion batteries, which consider modularity, interfaces and disassembly, are used to illustrate the findings. For one guideline, potential cost improvements were calculated and upcoming challenges are pointed out.

Keywords: circular economy, electric mobility, lithium ion batteries, remanufacturing

Procedia PDF Downloads 358

Authors: Isara Muangthai, Lin Sue Jane

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Electricity is vital to every country’s economy in the world. For Thailand, the electricity generation sector plays an important role in the economic system, and it is the largest source of CO2 emissions. The aim of this paper is to use the decomposition analysis to investigate the key factors contributing to the changes of CO2 emissions from the electricity sector. The decomposition analysis has been widely used to identify and assess the contributors to the changes in emission trends. Our study adopted the Divisia index decomposition to identify the key factors affecting the evolution of CO2 emissions from Thailand’s thermal power sector during 2000-2011. The change of CO2 emissions were decomposed into five factors, including: Emission coefficient, heat rate, fuel intensity, electricity intensity, and economic growth. Results have shown that CO2 emission in Thailand’s thermal power sector increased 29,173 thousand tons during 2000-2011. Economic growth was found to be the primary factor for increasing CO2 emissions, while the electricity intensity played a dominant role in decreasing CO2 emissions. The increasing effect of economic growth was up to 55,924 million tons of CO2 emissions because the growth and development of the economy relied on a large electricity supply. On the other hand, the shifting of fuel structure towards a lower-carbon content resulted in CO2 emission decline. Since the CO2 emissions released from Thailand’s electricity generation are rapidly increasing, the Thailand government will be required to implement a CO2 reduction plan in the future. In order to cope with the impact of CO2 emissions related to the power sector and to achieve sustainable development, this study suggests that Thailand’s government should focus on restructuring the fuel supply in power generation towards low carbon fuels by promoting the use of renewable energy for electricity, improving the efficiency of electricity use by reducing electricity transmission and the distribution of line losses, implementing energy conservation strategies by enhancing the purchase of energy-saving products, substituting the new power plant technology in the old power plants, promoting a shift of economic structure towards less energy-intensive services and orienting Thailand’s power industry towards low carbon electricity generation.

Keywords: co2 emission, decomposition analysis, electricity generation, energy consumption

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Authors: Fulya Asena Uluç, Ehsan Tuzcuoğlu, Songül Bayraktar, Burak Koca, Alper Gürarslan

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Microplastics are contaminants that are widely distributed in the environment with a detrimental ecological effect. Besides this, recent research has proved the existence of microplastics in human blood and organs. Microplastics in the environment can be divided into two main categories: primary and secondary microplastics. Primary microplastics are plastics that are released into the environment as microscopic particles. On the other hand, secondary microplastics are the smaller particles that are shed as a result of the consumption of synthetic materials in textile products as well as other products. Textiles are the main source of microplastic contamination in aquatic ecosystems. Laundry of synthetic textiles (34.8%) accounts for an average annual discharge of 3.2 million tons of primary microplastics into the environment. Recently, microfiber shedding from laundry research has gained traction. However, no comprehensive study was conducted from the standpoint of rinsing parameters during laundry to analyze microfiber shedding. The purpose of the present study is to quantify microfiber shedding from fabric under different rinsing conditions and determine the effective rinsing parameters on microfiber release in a laundry environment. In this regard, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the key factors affecting the microfiber release from a front-load washing machine. These parameters are the amount of water used during the rinsing step and the spinning speed at the end of the washing cycle. Minitab statistical program is used to create a design of the experiment (DOE) and analyze the experimental results. Tests are repeated twice and besides the controlled parameters, other washing parameters are kept constant in the washing algorithm. At the end of each cycle, released microfibers are collected via a custom-made filtration system and weighted with precision balance. The results showed that by increasing the water amount during the rinsing step, the amount of microplastic released from the washing machine increased drastically. Also, the parametric study revealed that increasing the spinning speed results in an increase in the microfiber release from textiles.

Keywords: front load, laundry, microfiber, microfiber release, microfiber shedding, microplastic, pollution, rinsing parameters, sustainability, washing parameters, washing machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Mashad Maramaei, Behrooz Chogan, Reza Ahmadi

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Human health and the health of his watershed are inseparable. This is because a watershed is an interconnected system of "land", "water", "air" and "life". Nowadays, most of the world's watersheds show symptoms of unhealthiness and require a prompt solution. It is believed that suitable solution is a participatory and Integrated Watershed Management (IWM). In recent decades the Hyrcanian forests in the north of Iran, which belongs to the end of the third geological era, are suffering from many environmental challenges such as land degradation, increasing trends of flood, drought and accelerated soil erosion. These challenges in the main forested area of the country impose many tangible and intangible damages and human losses. This is despite the fact that in the past decades, forestry programs, watershed management and other activities in the region have been implemented in a parallel and uncoordinated manner. Therefore, recently; the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization has resorted to the concept of IWM planning the Hyrcanian watersheds. The Chelchai watershed as mostly degraded watershed in the eastern part of the Hyrcanian forests has been selected as a pilot watershed for implementation of the IWM. It has a drainage area of 25680 hectares and receives an average annual precipitation of 650 mm. In this mountainous region, the average temperature is 17.3 degrees Celsius. About 34% of the watershed is under cultivation, 64% under forest cover, 2% under built up areas and etc. In this research, the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the IWM model implementation of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization has been evaluated based on questionnaire method and field studies. The results indicated that IWM activities in the study area should be reconsidered and revived. Based on this research and the lessons learned during five years' experience in the Chelchai watershed; authors believe that seven important tasks are necessary for socially acceptable and successful implementation of IWM projects. These are: 1) Establishment of Local Coordination Committee (LCC) at the watershed level 2) working for development of a IWM law among government organizations to organize watershed management and eliminate parallel and contradictory activities 3) More investment on education of local communities, especially women and children 4) Development of trust builder and pattern projects that showing best agricultural and livestock management activities at each of 26 villages 5) Assigning forest protection to local communities. 6) Capacity building of government stakeholders. 7) Helping in the marketing of watershed products.

Keywords: integrated watershed management, Chelchai, Hyrcanian forests, Iran

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Authors: Alireza Akbari, Gelareh Babaee Khou

Abstract:

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is an important nondestructive remote sensing tool that has been used in both military and civilian fields. Recently, GPR imaging has attracted lots of attention in detection of subsurface shallow small targets such as landmines and unexploded ordnance and also imaging behind the wall for security applications. For the monostatic arrangement in the space-time GPR image, a single point target appears as a hyperbolic curve because of the different trip times of the EM wave when the radar moves along a synthetic aperture and collects reflectivity of the subsurface targets. With this hyperbolic curve, the resolution along the synthetic aperture direction shows undesired low resolution features owing to the tails of hyperbola. However, highly accurate information about the size, electromagnetic (EM) reflectivity, and depth of the buried objects is essential in most GPR applications. Therefore hyperbolic curve behavior in the space-time GPR image is often willing to be transformed to a focused pattern showing the object's true location and size together with its EM scattering. The common goal in a typical GPR image is to display the information of the spatial location and the reflectivity of an underground object. Therefore, the main challenge of GPR imaging technique is to devise an image reconstruction algorithm that provides high resolution and good suppression of strong artifacts and noise. In this paper, at first, the standard back-projection (BP) algorithm that was adapted to GPR imaging applications used for the image reconstruction. The standard BP algorithm was limited with against strong noise and a lot of artifacts, which have adverse effects on the following work like detection targets. Thus, an improved BP is based on cross-correlation between the receiving signals proposed for decreasing noises and suppression artifacts. To improve the quality of the results of proposed BP imaging algorithm, a weight factor was designed for each point in region imaging. Compared to a standard BP algorithm scheme, the improved algorithm produces images of higher quality and resolution. This proposed improved BP algorithm was applied on the simulation and the real GPR data and the results showed that the proposed improved BP imaging algorithm has a superior suppression artifacts and produces images with high quality and resolution. In order to quantitatively describe the imaging results on the effect of artifact suppression, focusing parameter was evaluated.

Keywords: algorithm, back-projection, GPR, remote sensing

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