Search results for: assessment of risk and need

Authors: Nasreen Jeelani, Huining Shi , Di An, Lu Xia, Shuqing An

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Heavy metals contamination in aquatic ecosystem is a major environmental problem since its accumulation along the food chain pose public health risk. The concentration of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) in soil and plants species collected from different streams of Suoxu River, China was investigated. This aim was to define the level of pollutants in Suoxu River, find which plant species exhibits the greatest accumulation and to evaluate whether these species could be useful for phytoremediation. While total soil Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn concentrations varied, respectively, from 0.09 to 0.23 , 58.6 to 98, 9.72 to 80.5, 15.3 to 41, 15.2 to 27.3 and 35 to 156 (mg-kg-1), those in plants ranged from 0.035 to 0.49, 2.91 to 75.6, 4.79 to 32.4, 1.27 to 16.1, 0.62 to10.2, 18.9 to 84.6 (mg-kg-1), respectively. Based on BCFs and TFs values, most of the studied species have potential for phytostabilization. The plants with most effective in the accumulation of metals in shoots are Phragmatis australis (TF=2.29) and Iris tectorum (TF =2.07) for Pb. While Chenopodium album, (BCF =3.55), Ranunculus sceleratus, (BCF= 3.0), Polygonum hydropiper (BCF =2.46) for Cd and Iris tectorum (BCF=2.0) for Cu was suitable for phytostabilization. Among the plant species screened for Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, most of the species were efficient to take up more than one heavy metal in roots. Our study showed that the native plant species growing on contaminated sites may have the potential uses for phytoremediation.

Keywords: heavy metals, huaihe river catchments, sediment, plants

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Authors: Mohammed Amraouy, Mostafa Bellafkih, Abdellah Bennane, Aziza Benomar

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Distance education has become popular due to their ability to provide learning from almost anywhere and anytime. COVID-19 forced educational institutions to urgently introduce distance education to ensure pedagogical continuity, so all stakeholders were invited to adapt to this new paradigm. In order to identify strengths and weaknesses, the research focuses on the need to create an effective mechanism for evaluating distance education. The aims of this research were to explore and evaluate the use of digital media in general and official platforms in particular in distance education practices. To this end, we have developed and validated a questionnaire before administering it to a sample of 431 teachers in Morocco. Teachers reported lower knowledge and skills in the didactic use of ICT in the distance education process. In addition, although age and educative experience of the teachers continue to modulate the level of instrumental skills. Therefore, resources (digital resources and infrastructure) and the teachers’ ICT training present serious limitations, which require a training more focused on the distance educational paradigm and educational environments that allow teachers to create educational activities able to promote and facilitate the distance learning process.

Keywords: distance education, e-learning, teachers’ perceptions, assessment

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Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Lobna A. ElEtreby, Rehan M. Saleh, Ghada Abdrabou, Somia I. Salama, Amira Orabi, Mohamed Abdelrahman

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Hepatitis C virus infection is a public health threat in Egypt. To control infection, efforts should be spent to encourage healthy behavior. This study aimed to assess the level of behavioral development in order to create a positive environment for the adoption of the recommended behaviors. The study was conducted over one year from Jan. 2011 till Jan. 2012. Knowledge, attitude and behavior of 540 HCV patients and 102 of their contacts were assessed and the level of behavioral development was determined. The study revealed that the majority of patients and contacts knew that HCV infection is dangerous with perceived concern for early diagnosis and treatment. More than 75% knew the correct modes of transmission. The assessment showed positive attitudes towards the recommended practices with the intention to adopt those practices. Strategies to create opportunities to continue the recommended behaviors should be adopted together with the reinforcement of social support.

Keywords: hepatitis C virus, level of behavioral development, recommended behaviors

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Authors: Aqeel Zeid, Hasna Anees, Mohamed Adheeb, Mohamed Rifan, Kalpani Manathunga

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To achieve constructive alignment in a higher education program, a clear set of learning outcomes must be defined. Traditional learning outcome definition techniques such as Bloom’s taxonomy are not written to be utilized by the student. This might be disadvantageous for students in student-centric learning settings where the students are expected to formulate their own learning strategies. To solve the problem, we propose the learning outcome relation and aggregation (LORA) model. To achieve alignment, we developed learning outcome, assessment, and resource authoring tools which help teachers to tag learning outcomes during creation. A pilot study was conducted with an expert panel consisting of experienced professionals in the education domain to evaluate whether the LORA model and tools present an improvement over the traditional methods. The panel unanimously agreed that the model and tools are beneficial and effective. Moreover, it helped them model learning outcomes in a more student centric and descriptive way.

Keywords: learning design, constructive alignment, Bloom’s taxonomy, learning outcome modelling

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Authors: Ghazal Banitahmasb, Nazanin Khakipour

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More than 90 percent of the world's rice is produced and consumed in Asia. Heavy metal contamination of soil and water environments is a serious and growing problem. Toxin by human activities causes pollution in soils so that the intensity of metals in soils was exceeded. This study was done on 7 samples of rice cultivated in Savadkooh of Mazandaran province and soils; they were grown. The amount of heavy metals Arsenic, Lead and Cadmium were measured by atomic absorption. The test results showed that the amount of Lead in rice strain, Tarom A, was 0.768 ppm, the maximum amount of Cadmium in rice strain, Hashemi B, was 0.09 ppm and the highest levels of Arsenic was in red Tarom, 0.39 ppm. According to the results obtained in this study can be found all rice grown in Savadkooh city of Arsenic, Cadmium and Lead, but the measurements are less than specified in the national standard, and their use is safe for consumers. These results also indicate that positive and significant correlation between the studied heavy metals in soil and rice strains that grow there and by increasing the amount of heavy metals in the soil, the amount of these metals in crops grown on them is also increasing.

Keywords: heavy metals, Oryza sativa L., soil pollution, Savadkooh

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Authors: Günther Schuh, Christina König, Toni Drescher

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One of the key factors for the competitiveness and market success of technology-driven companies is the timely provision of information about emerging technologies, changes in existing technologies, as well as relevant related changes in the market's structures and participants. Therefore, many companies conduct technology intelligence (TI) activities to ensure an early identification of appropriate technologies and other (weak) signals. One base activity of TI is technology monitoring, which is defined as the systematic tracking of developments within a specified topic of interest as well as related trends over a long period of time. Due to the very large number of dynamically changing parameters within the technological and the market environment of a company as well as their possible interdependencies, it is necessary to focus technology monitoring on specific indicators or other criteria, which are able to point out technological developments and market changes. In addition to the execution of a literature review on existing approaches, which mainly propose patent-based indicators, it is examined in this paper whether indicator systems from other branches such as risk management or economic research could be transferred to technology monitoring in order to enable an efficient and focused technology monitoring for companies.

Keywords: technology forecasting, technology indicator, technology intelligence, technology management, technology monitoring

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Authors: Meysam Abedinpour

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Water limitation is the main challenge for crop production in a semi-arid environment. Deficit irrigation is a strategy that allows a crop to sustain some degree of water deficit in order to reduce costs and potentially increase income. For this goal, a field experimental carried out at Asrieh fields of Gorgan city in the north of Iran, during summer season 2011. The treatments imposed were different irrigation water regimes (i.e. W1:70, W2:80, W3:90, and W4:100) percent of field capacity (FC). The results showed that there was Significant difference between the yield and (WUE) under different levels of irrigation, excepting of soil moisture content at field capacity (W4) and 90% of field capacity (W3) on yield and water use efficiency (WUE). The seasonal irrigation water applied were (i.e. 375, 338, 300, and 263 mm ha-1) under different irrigation water treatments (100, 90, 80, 80 and 70%) of FC, respectively. Grain yield productions under treatments were 4180, 3955, 3640, and 3355 (kg ha-1) respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that water use efficiency (WUE) at different treatments were 7.67, 7.79, 7.74, and 7.75 Kg mm ha-1 for (100, 90, 80, and 70) per cent of field capacity, therefore the 90 % of FC treatment (W3) is recommended for Soybean irrigation for water saving. Furthermore, the result showed that the treatment of 90 % of filed capacity (W3) seemed to be better adapted to product a high crop yield with acceptable yield coupling with water use efficiency in Golestan province.

Keywords: deficit irrigation, water use efficiency, yield, soybean

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Authors: Péter Sipos, Gerda Diósi, Mariann Móré, Zsófia Szigeti

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Several medical research found that the sodium is one of the main risk factor of high blood pressure and reason for different cardiovascular diseases, while sodium chloride is one of the most ancient food additives. As people consume much more sodium chloride as the recommended value several salt reduction programs started worldwide in the last years. The cereal products are the main source of sodium, and the bakery products are one of the main targets of these programs. In this paper we have evaluated the effects of different concentrations of sodium chloride on the alveo graphical and extensi graphical parameters of rye flours to determine whether it has the same strengthening effect on the dough texture as it was found in the case of wheat flours and these effects were compared to the effects of other salt forms. We found that while the strength of rye flours are similar to the ones of wheat flour, rye flours are much less extensible. The effects of salt concentrations are less significant on the rheological properties of rye flour than on the wheat flour and there is no significant difference between the effects of different salts.

Keywords: alveograph, extensigraph, rye flour, salt

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Authors: H. H. Goh, Q. S. Chua, S. W. Lee, B. C. Kok, K. C. Goh, K. T. K. Teo

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At present, the evaluation of voltage stability assessment experiences sizeable anxiety in the safe operation of power systems. This is due to the complications of a strain power system. With the snowballing of power demand by the consumers and also the restricted amount of power sources, therefore, the system has to perform at its maximum proficiency. Consequently, the noteworthy to discover the maximum ability boundary prior to voltage collapse should be undertaken. A preliminary warning can be perceived to evade the interruption of power system’s capacity. The effectiveness of line voltage stability indices (LVSI) is differentiated in this paper. The main purpose of the indices is used to predict the proximity of voltage instability of the electric power system. On the other hand, the indices are also able to decide the weakest load buses which are close to voltage collapse in the power system. The line stability indices are assessed using the IEEE 14 bus test system to validate its practicability. Results demonstrated that the implemented indices are practically relevant in predicting the manifestation of voltage collapse in the system. Therefore, essential actions can be taken to dodge the incident from arising.

Keywords: critical line, line outage, line voltage stability indices (LVSI), maximum loadability, voltage collapse, voltage instability, voltage stability analysis

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Authors: Irum Naz

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In the Arabian higher education context, linguistic proficiency in the English language is considered crucial for the developmental sustainability, economic growth, and stability of communities and societies. Qatar’s educational reforms package, through the 2030 vision, identifies the acquisition of English at K-12 as an essential survival communication tool for globalization, believing that Qatari students need better preparation to take on the responsibilities of leadership and to participate effectively in the country’s surging economy. The idea of introducing Qatari students to modern curricula benchmarked to high-student-performance curricula in developed countries is one of the components of reformatory design principles of Education for New Era reform project that is mutually consented to and supported by the Office of Shared Services, Communications Office, and Supreme Education Council. In appreciation of the government’s vision, the English Language Centre (ELC) at the Community College of Qatar ran an internal educational audit and conducted evaluative research to understand and appraise the value, impact, and practicality of the existing ELC language development program. This study sought to identify the type of change that could identify and improve the quality of Foundation Program courses and the manners in which second language learners could be assisted to transit smoothly between (ELC) levels. Following the interpretivist paradigm and mixed research method, the data was gathered through a bicyclic research model and a triangular design. The analyses of the data suggested that there was a need for improvement in the ELC program as a whole, and particularly in terms of curriculum, student learning outcomes, and the general learning environment in the department. Key findings suggest that the target program would benefit from significant revisions, which would include narrowing the focus of the courses, providing sets of specific learning objectives, and preventing repetition between levels. Another promising finding was about the assessment tools and process. The data suggested that a set of standardized assessments that more closely suited the programs of study should be devised. It was also recommended that students undergo a more comprehensive placement process to ensure that they begin the program at an appropriate level and get the maximum benefit from their learning experience. Although this ties into the idea of curriculum revamp, it was expected that students could leave the ELC having had exposure to courses in English for specific purposes. The idea of a more reliable exit assessment for students was raised frequently so ELC could regulate itself and ensure optimum learning outcomes. Another important recommendation was the provision of a Student Learning Center for students that would help them to receive personalized tuition, differentiated instruction, and self-driven and self-evaluated learning experience. In addition, an extra study level was recommended to be added to the program to accommodate the different levels of English language proficiency represented among ELC students. The evidence collected in the course of conducting the study suggests that significant change is needed in the structure of the ELC program, specifically about curriculum, the program learning outcomes, and the learning environment in general.

Keywords: educational audit, ESL, optimum learning outcomes, Qatar’s educational reforms, self-driven and self-evaluated learning experience, Student Learning Center

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Authors: Mustopa, Setyawan Wahyu Pradana

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This study aims to determine the application of animal welfare in Madura cow racing competition at Sumenep district, Madura Island. This study conducted by survey and discussion methods with 3 Madura cow owners in the competition. The animal welfare is going to be proved by observing the condition of the cage, the cleanliness of it, feeding and water, the health of the cow, also owner treatments for their Madura cow that will be served as a racer. Observations made using stable conditions ACRES form with assessment scores ranged from 1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = regular, 4 = good and 5 = very good, animal welfare conditions seen by conducting observations and interviews with Madura cow owners. The result shows that the Madura cow competition has fulfilled the criteria of animal welfare application. Application of animal welfare principle by the owner of Madura cow terms of ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society) below standard, the average score obtained was 2.06, which is mean in a poor ratings. Besides considering the animal welfare application, Madura cow owners also do special treatments for their Madura cow with purpose to produce racers that are healthy and fast. Therefore, if the cow wins in Madura cow racing competition, it will purchase a high-value price.

Keywords: animal welfare, competition, Madura cow, racing

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Authors: Maricris I. Abuan

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This assessment of macrobenthic fauna found in the intertidal zone of Brgy. Poblacion, Carmen Agusan del Norte was conducted during the lowest tides of the month of June 2008. Transect-quadrat method was employed during the sampling. Twenty-transect lines were established in the area with lengths depending on the topography of the intertidal zone and were laid perpendicular to the shore, at intervals of fifty meters. Twenty-six (26) macrobenthic species with a total of seventy (70) individuals were identified in the study area. These species belong to the four Phyla -Arthropoda, Mollusca, Echinodermata and Annelida. The three most abundant macrobenthos were hermit crabs (Phylum Arthropoda) , Archaster typicus (Phylum Echinodermata), and Nassarius pullus (Phylum Mollusca). The diversity index value was 2.36. Most species exhibited random distribution And only few species had regular and clumped distribution. The pH, salinity, and sea water temperature readings were within the normal range. Results showed a very scarce macrobenthic species present in the study area.

Keywords: diversity index, macrobenthic fauna, macrobenthos, phyla

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Authors: Sudipta Ghorai, Ossama Salem

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Pavement maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MRR) processes may have considerable environmental impacts due to traffic disruptions associated with work zones. The simulation models in use to predict the emission of work zones were mostly static emission factor models (SEFD). SEFD calculates emissions based on average operation conditions e.g. average speed and type of vehicles. Although these models produce accurate results for large-scale planning studies, they are not suitable for analyzing driving conditions at the micro level such as acceleration, deceleration, idling, cruising, and queuing in a work zone. The purpose of this study is to prepare a comprehensive work zone environmental assessment (WEA) framework to calculate the emissions caused due to disrupted traffic; by integrating traffic microsimulation tools with emission models. This will help highway officials to assess the benefits of accelerated construction and opt for the most suitable TMP not only economically but also from an environmental point of view.

Keywords: accelerated construction, pavement MRR, traffic microsimulation, congestion, emissions

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Authors: Ayoub Daoudi, Javad Eslami, Anne-Lise Beaucour, Martin Vigroux, Albert Noumowé

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As a fact, many cultural heritage masonry buildings have undergone violent fires during their history. In order to investigate the high temperature behaviour of stone masonry, six French limestones were heated to 600 °C at a rate of 9 °C/min. The main focus is the comparison between the high temperature behaviour of stones at the material and at the structural scale. In order to evaluate the risk of spalling, the tests have been carried out on the stone blocks (12x30x30 cm) instrumented with thermocouples and subjected to an unidirectional heating on one face. Thereafter, visual assessments and non-destructive measurements (dynamic elastic modulus) performed on blocks demonstrate a different behaviour from what was observed at the material scale. Finally, a series of thermo-mechanical computations, using finite element method, allowed us to highlight the difference between the behaviour of stones at material and block scales.

Keywords: limestones, hight temperature behaviour, damage, thermo-mechanical modeling, material and blocks scales, color change

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Authors: B. Philip, J. Littlewood, R. Radford, N. Evans, T. Whyman, D. P. Jones

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UK buildings and energy infrastructures are heavily dependent on natural gas, a large proportion of which is used for domestic space heating. However, approximately half of the gas consumed in the UK is imported. Improving energy security and reducing carbon emissions are major government drivers for reducing gas dependency. In order to do so there needs to be a wholesale shift in the energy provision to householders without impacting on thermal comfort levels, convenience or cost of supply to the end user. Heat pumps are seen as a potential alternative in modern well insulated homes, however, can the same be said of older homes? A large proportion of housing stock in Britain was built prior to 1919. The age of the buildings bears testimony to the quality of construction; however, their thermal performance falls far below the minimum currently set by UK building standards. In recent years significant sums of money have been invested to improve energy efficiency and combat fuel poverty in some of the most deprived areas of Wales. Increasing energy efficiency of older properties remains a significant challenge, which cannot be achieved through insulation and air-tightness interventions alone, particularly when alterations to historically important architectural features of the building are not permitted. This paper investigates the energy demand of pre-1919 dwellings in a former Welsh mining village, the feasibility of meeting that demand using water from the disused mine workings to supply a district heat network and potential barriers to success of the scheme. The use of renewable solar energy generation and storage technologies, both thermal and electrical, to reduce the load and offset increased electricity demand, are considered. A wholistic surveying approach to provide a more accurate assessment of total household heat demand is proposed. Several surveying techniques, including condition surveys, air permeability, heat loss calculations, and thermography were employed to provide a clear picture of energy demand. Additional insulation can bring unforeseen consequences which are detrimental to the fabric of the building, potentially leading to accelerated dilapidation of the asset being ‘protected’. Increasing ventilation should be considered in parallel, to compensate for the associated reduction in uncontrolled infiltration. The effectiveness of thermal performance improvements are demonstrated and the detrimental effects of incorrect material choice and poor installation are highlighted. The findings show estimated heat demand to be in close correlation to household energy bills. Major areas of heat loss were identified such that improvements to building thermal performance could be targeted. The findings demonstrate that the use of heat pumps in older buildings is viable, provided sufficient improvement to thermal performance is possible. Addition of passive solar thermal and photovoltaic generation can help reduce the load and running cost for the householder. The results were used to predict future heat demand following energy efficiency improvements, thereby informing the size of heat pumps required.

Keywords: heat demand, heat pump, renewable energy, retrofit

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Authors: Kowser Ali Jan, R. Balaji

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A disaster hurts those affected. It also spares many in the affected areas, yet those spared may be indirectly affected. The analytical framework of prevention and coping has proved useful in many circumstances. Historically and currently, there has been limited quantitative information available on flood management in Jammu and Kashmir. This study focuses on the Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA) of flood management by District Disaster Management Kulgam, and the assessment is based on secondary pooled data collected from government offices, NGOs, published Journals, and local and national newspapers. It also described the scenario, the approach adopted, and the sources of flood damage cost information. The estimated total benefits account for 78686.18 lakh of rupees, and that of total costs account for 2218.75lakh of rupees. The Benefit-Cost ratio greater than one (>1) shows that Flood Management in District Kulgam was economically feasible and successfully managed. The State of Jammu and Kashmir takes essential prevention and management measures to bring down the damages due to floods to significant status.

Keywords: cost-benefit analysis, nature, flood management, disaster

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Authors: Ghada Mohammed, Mohamed Abdel Salam, Passent Tantawi

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The study aimed to investigate the impact of motives and barriers for Egyptian users to use Airbnb as a platform of peer-to-peer accommodation instead of hotels on overall attitude towards Airbnb. A sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted to this study and it proposed a comprehensive research model adapted from both literature and results of qualitative phase and then tested via an online questionnaire. The findings revealed that, motives, price, home benefits, privacy, and online reviews significantly explained overall attitude towards Airbnb, while the main barriers were respectively: perceived risk and distrust in which they can predict the overall attitude. While from the subjective norms, only social influence can predict behavioral intention to use Airbnb. The study may serve as a practical reference for practitioners as well as researchers when developing programs and strategies to manage Airbnb consumers' needs and decision process. Some of the main conclusions drawn from this study are that variety was one of the major things that users like about Airbnb and the most important motives are the functional ones like price rather than the experiential ones like authenticity.

Keywords: airbnb, barriers, disruptive innovation, motives, sharing economy

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Authors: Ágnes Győri, Éva Perpék, Zsófia Bauer, Zsuzsanna Elek

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The aim of the research (funded by Hungarian national grant, NFKI- FK 138315) is to examine the professional mobility, mental health and work environment of social workers with a complex approach. Previous international and Hungarian research has pointed out that those working in the helping professions are strongly exposed to the risk of emotional-mental-physical exhaustion due to stress. Mental and physical strain, as well as lack of coping (can) cause health problems, but its role in career change and high labor turnover has also been proven. Even though satisfaction with working conditions of those employed in the human service sector in the context of the stress burden has been researched extensively, there is a lack of large-sample international and Hungarian domestic studies exploring the effects of profession-specific conditions. Nor has it been examined how the specific features of the social profession and mental health affect the career mobility of the professionals concerned. In our research, these factors and their correlations are analyzed by means of mixed methodology, utilizing the benefits of netnographic big data analysis and a sector-specific quantitative survey. The netnographic analysis of open web content generated inside and outside the social profession offers a holistic overview of the influencing factors related to mental health and the work environment of social workers. On the one hand, the topics and topoi emerging in the external discourse concerning the sector are examined, and on the other hand, focus on mentions and streams of comments regarding the profession, burnout, stress, coping, as well as labor turnover and career changes among social professionals. The analysis focuses on new trends and changes in discourse that have emerged during and after the pandemic. In addition to the online conversation analysis, a survey of social professionals with a specific focus has been conducted. The questionnaire is based on input from the first two research phases. The applied approach underlines that the mobility paths of social professionals can only be understood if, apart from the general working conditions, the specific features of social work and the effects of certain aspects of mental health (emotional-mental-physical strain, resilience) are taken into account as well. In this paper, the preliminary results from this innovative methodological mix are presented, with the aim of highlighting new opportunities and dimensions in the research on social work. A gap in existing research is aimed to be filled both on a methodological and empirical level, and the Hungarian domestic findings can create a feasible and relevant framework for a further international investigation and cross-cultural comparative analysis. Said results can contribute to the foundation of organizational and policy-level interventions, targeted programs whereby the risk of burnout and the rate of career abandonment can be reduced. Exploring different aspects of resilience and mapping personality strengths can be a starting point for stress-management, motivation-building, and personality-development training for social professionals.

Keywords: burnout, mixed methods, netnography, professional mobility, social work

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Authors: Ekin Ozer

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Assessment of structural reliability is essential for efficient use of civil infrastructure which is subjected hazardous events. Dynamic analysis of finite element models is a commonly used tool to simulate structural behavior and estimate its performance accordingly. However, theoretical models purely based on preliminary assumptions and design drawings may deviate from the actual behavior of the structure. This study proposes up-to-date reliability estimation procedures which engages actual bridge vibration data modifying finite element models for finite element model updating and performing reliability estimation, accordingly. The proposed method utilizes vibration response measurements of bridge structures to identify modal parameters, then uses these parameters to calibrate finite element models which are originally based on design drawings. The proposed method does not only show that reliability estimation based on updated models differs from the original models, but also infer that non-updated models may overestimate the structural capacity.

Keywords: earthquake engineering, engineering vibrations, reliability estimation, structural health monitoring

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Authors: Loizos A. Hadjivasiliou, May Chehab

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Confronted with the human tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean during the 2011-2016 period, the European Union introduced for the first time the “hotspot approach”, the establishment of facilities for initial reception, identification registration, and fingerprinting of asylum seekers and migrants arriving in the EU by sea, at the frontline Member States. However, the lack of a comprehensive collective policy on migration management and border security left the Mediterranean Member States, mainly Italy, Greece, and Cyprus, struggling to overcome these challenges. The current study sheds light on the implementation of the hotspot approach as the frontispiece of the European response to the migration challenges, which, limited to the operational and financial support of the hosting member states, leads to heterogeneous burden-sharing. Within this framework, it highlights the fact that the implementation of the hotspots as a panacea carries the risk of transforming the Mediterranean member states into giant hotspots with unpredictable consequences for the future of the Schengen area.

Keywords: asylum, burden sharing, hotspots, migration management policy, Schengen area

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Authors: Ahmed M. Al-Mutarreb, Shiferaw R. Jufar

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Global shale gas resource assessment is still in its preliminary stage in most of the countries including the development of shale gas reservoirs in Malaysia. This project presents the main geochemical and mineral characteristics of few Malaysian’s shale samples which contribute on evaluating shale gas reserve world resource evaluations. Three shale samples from the western part of Peninsular Malaysia (Batu-Caja, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor Baru shale formations) were collected for this study. Total organic carbon wt.%, thermal maturity, kerogen type, mineralogy and adsorption/desorption characteristics are measured at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS laboratories. Two samples show good potential in TOC results exhibited > 2wt.% exceeding the minimum values of Shale gas potential, while the third revealed < 1.5wt. Mineralogical compositions for the three samples are within the acceptable range percentage% of quartz and clays compared to shale plays in USA. This research’s results are promising and recommend to continue exploring and assessing unconventional shale gas reserves values in these areas.

Keywords: shale gas characterizations, geochemical properties, Malaysia, shale gas reserve

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Authors: Ritu Raj, Hrishikesh Dubey

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This paper presents the results of the experimental investigations carried out on two intricate plan shaped buildings to evaluate aerodynamic performance of the building. The purpose is to study the associated environment arising due to wind forces in isolated and interference conditions on a model of scale 1:300 with a prototype having 180m height. Experimental tests were carried out at the boundary layer wind tunnel considering isolated conditions with 0° to 180° isolated wind directions and four interference conditions of twin building (separately for both the models). The research has been undertaken in Terrain Category-II, which is the most widely available terrain in India. A comparative assessment of the two models is performed out in an attempt to comprehend the various consequences of diverse conditions that may emerge in real-life situations, as well as the discrepancies amongst them. Experimental results of wind pressure coefficients of Model-1 and Model-2 shows good agreement with various wind incidence conditions with minute difference in the magnitudes of mean Cp. On the basis of wind tunnel studies, it is distinguished that the performance of Model-2 is better than Model-1in both isolated as well as interference conditions for all wind incidences and orientations respectively.

Keywords: interference factor, tall buildings, wind direction, mean pressure-coefficients

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Authors: Suzan Anwar, Utkarsh Goyal

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Heart rate (HR) is a predictor of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and all-cause mortality in the general population, as well as in patients with cardio and cerebrovascular diseases. Machine learning (ML) significantly improves the accuracy of cardiovascular risk prediction, increasing the number of patients identified who could benefit from preventive treatment while avoiding unnecessary treatment of others. This research examines relationship between the individual's various heart health inputs like age, sex, cp, trestbps, thalach, oldpeaketc, and the likelihood of developing heart disease. Machine learning techniques like logistic regression and decision tree, and Python are used. The results of testing and evaluating the model using the Heart Failure Prediction Dataset show the chance of a person having a heart disease with variable accuracy. Logistic regression has yielded an accuracy of 80.48% without data handling. With data handling (normalization, standardscaler), the logistic regression resulted in improved accuracy of 87.80%, decision tree 100%, random forest 100%, and SVM 100%.

Keywords: heart rate, machine learning, SVM, decision tree, logistic regression, random forest

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Authors: Gnanachandrasamy G., Zhou Y., Ramkumar T., Venkatramanan S., Wang S., Mo Liping, Jingru Zhang

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In order to assess the heavy metal contamination totally fourty five groundwater samples were collected from the coastal part of Cauvery deltaic region, South India, during monsoon season in the year of 2017. The study area lies between longitudes 79º15’ to 79º 50’ E and latitudes 10º10’ to 11º20’ N with total area of 2,569 km². The concentration of As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The heavy metals ranged between 0.007-117.8 µg/l for As, 8.503-1281 µg/l for Ba, 0.006-0.12 µg/l for Cd, 0.23-5.572µg/l for Cr, 0.44-17.9 µg/l for Co, 0.633-11.56 µg/l for Cu, 0.467-29.34 µg/l for Ni, 0.008-5.756 µg/l for Pb, 0.979 to 45.49 µg/l for Se, and 2.712-10480 µg/l for Zn in the groundwaters. A comparison of heavy metal concentration with WHO and BIS drinking water standards shows that Ni, Zn, As, Se, and Ba level is higher than the drinking water standards in some of the groundwater samples, and the concentrations of all the other heavy metals were lower than the drinking water standards. The present levels of heavy metal concentration in the studied area groundwaters are moderate to severe to public health and environmental concerns and need attention.

Keywords: cauvery delta, drinking water, groundwater, heavy metals

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Authors: Shazia Anwer Bukhari, Waseem Akhtar Shamshari, Mahmood-Ur-Rahman, Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq, Hawa Z. E. Jaafar

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Diabetes mellitus is a life threatening disease and scientists are doing their best to find a cost effective and permanent treatment of this malady. The recent trend is to control the disease by target base inhibiting of enzymes or proteins. Secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) is found to cause five times more risk of diabetes when expressed above average levels. This study was therefore designed to analyze the SFRP4 and to find its potential inhibitors. SFRP4 was analyzed by bio-informatics tools of sequence tool and structure tool. A total of three potential inhibitors of SFRP4 were found, namely cyclothiazide, clopamide and perindopril. These inhibitors showed significant interactions with SFRP4 as compared to other inhibitors as well as control (acetohexamide). The findings suggest the possible treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2 by inhibiting the SFRP4 using the inhibitors cyclothiazide, clopamide and perindopril.

Keywords: bioscreening, clopamide, cyclothiazide, diabetes mellitus, perindopril, SFRP4

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Authors: Gerardette Darkwah, Gloria Ankar Brewoo, John Barimah, Gilbert Owiah Sampson, Vincent Abe-Inge

Abstract:

Soft drinks which are widely consumed in Ghana have been reported in other countries to contain toxic heavy metals beyond the acceptable limits in other countries. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the quality characteristics of selected locally produced and marketed soft drinks. Three (3) different batches of 23 soft drinks were sampled from the Takoradi markets. The samples were prescreened for the presence of reducing sugars, phosphates, alcohol and carbon dioxide. The heavy metal contents and physicochemical properties were also determined with AOAC methods. The results indicated the presence of reducing sugars, carbon dioxide and the absence of alcohol in all the selected soft drink samples. The pH, total sugars, moisture, total soluble solids (TSS) and titratable acidity ranged from 2.42 – 3.44, 3.30 – 10.44%, 85.63 – 94.85%, 5.00 – 13.33°Brix, and 0.21 – 1.99% respectively. The concentration of heavy metals were also below detection limits in all samples. The quality of the selected were within specifications prescribed by regulatory bodies.

Keywords: heavy metal contamination, locally manufactured, quality, soft drinks

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Authors: Satyavati Shukla, Lakhan V. Rathod, Mohan V. Khire

Abstract:

Rapid urbanization changes the land use/land cover pattern of a developing region. Due to these land surface changes, stream flow of the rivers also changes. It is important to investigate the factors affecting hydrological characteristics of the river basin for better river basin management planning. This study is aimed to understand the effect of Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) changes on stream flow of Upper Bhima River basin which is highly stressed in terms of water resources. In this study, Upper Bhima River basin is divided into two adjacent sub-watersheds: Mula-Mutha (urbanized) sub-watershed and Bhima (non-urbanized) sub-watershed. First of all, LU/LC changes were estimated over 1980, 2002, and 2009 for both Mula-Mutha and Bhima sub-watersheds. Further, stream flow simulations were done using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the streams draining both watersheds. Results revealed that stream flow was relatively higher for urbanized sub-watershed. Through Sensitivity Analysis it was observed that out of all the parameters used, base flow was the most sensitive parameter towards LU/LC changes.

Keywords: land use/land cover, remote sensing, stream flow, urbanization

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Authors: Gizem Kodak

Abstract:

The Strait of Çanakkale, together with the Strait of Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara, form the Turkish Straits System. In other words, the Strait of Çanakkale is the southern gate of the system that connects the Black Sea countries with the other countries of the world. Due to the heavy maritime traffic, it is important to scientifically examine the accident characteristics in the region. In particular, the results indicated by the descriptive statistics are of critical importance in order to strengthen the safety of navigation. At this point, exploratory data analysis offers strategic outputs in terms of defining the problem and knowing the strengths and weaknesses against possible accident risk. The study aims to determine the accident characteristics in the Strait of Çanakkale with temporal and spatial analysis of historical data, using Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) as the research method. The study's results will reveal the general characteristics of maritime accidents in the region and form the infrastructure for future studies. Therefore, the text provides a clear description of the research goals and methodology, and the study's contributions are well-defined.

Keywords: maritime accidents, EDA, Strait of Çanakkale, navigational safety

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Authors: Stephen J. Mitchual, Kwasi Frimpong-Mensah, Nicholas A. Darkwa

Abstract:

The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia africana were studied. Properties studied include the species density, gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash, organic carbon, N, H, S, Cu, Pb, As and Cd content. Fuel properties were determined using standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the Gross Calorific Value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22 MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane. The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%, and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the properties of the six biomass materials suggest that Piptadenia africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before selecting it for fuel purpose.

Keywords: ash content, briquette, calorific value, elemental composition, species, volatile matter

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Authors: Yu Zhang, Pedro Desouza

Abstract:

Since big data has become substantially more accessible and manageable due to the development of powerful tools for dealing with unstructured data, people are eager to mine information from social media resources that could not be handled in the past. Sentiment analysis, as a novel branch of text mining, has in the last decade become increasingly important in marketing analysis, customer risk prediction and other fields. Scientists and researchers have undertaken significant work in creating and improving their sentiment models. In this paper, we present a concept of selecting appropriate classifiers based on the features and qualities of data sources by comparing the performances of five classifiers with three popular social media data sources: Twitter, Amazon Customer Reviews, and Movie Reviews. We introduced a couple of innovative models that outperform traditional sentiment classifiers for these data sources, and provide insights on how to further improve the predictive power of sentiment analysis. The modelling and testing work was done in R and Greenplum in-database analytic tools.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, social media, Twitter, Amazon, data mining, machine learning, text mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 337