Search results for: bug free production

Authors: Save Kumwenda, Khumbo Kalulu, Kondwani Chidziwisano, Limbani Kalumbi, Vincent Doyle, Bagrey Ngwira

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Introduction: The Malawi Government in partnership with Non-Governmental Organizations adopted Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in 2008 as an approach in sanitation and hygiene promotion with an aim of declaring Malawi Open Defeacation Free (ODF) by 2015. While there is a significant body of research into CLTS available in public domain, there is little research done on challenges faced in implementing CLTS in Malawi. Methods: A cross-sectional qualitative study was carried out in three districts of Ntcheu, Balaka, and Phalombe. Data was collected using Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key informant interviews (KII) and analysed manually. Results: In total, 96 people took part in FGDs and 9 people in KII. It was shown that choice of leaders after triggering was commonly done by chiefs, facilitators, and VHC without following CLTS principles as opposed to identifying individuals who showed leadership skills. Despite capacity building initiatives involving District Coordinating Teams, lack of resources to undertake follow-ups contributed to failure to sustain ODF in the community. It was also found that while most respondents appreciating the need for no subsidies, the elderly and those with disabilities felt the need for external support because do not have money for buying strong logs, slabs for durable toilet floor and also to hire people to build latrines for them. Conclusion: Effective implementation of CLTS requires comprehensive consideration of various issues that may affect its success.

Keywords: open defecation, community-led, sanitation, faecal matter, hygiene, Malawi

Procedia PDF Downloads 356

Authors: Adebayo B., Omotehinse A. O.

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The performance and characteristics of blocks produced from dredged sample was investigated. Blocks were produced using appropriate mixes of dredged sample and sharp sand. Some geotechnical properties (moisture content, grain size distribution) of the dredged sample (Igbokoda dredged sample) were determined using the British Standard. The physico-mechanical properties (water absorption, density and compressive strength) of blocks produced were evaluated. The dredged sample is classified as a silty material. Seven replacement levels of sharp sand were considered in the study (SS- Sharp Sand and DS – Dredged Sample) was done with constant amount of cement. 1- 85 % DS and 15 % SS, 2- 70 % DS and 30 % SS, 3- 55 % DS and 45 % SS, 4- 50 % DS and 50 % SS, 5- 45 % DS and 55 % SS, 6- 30 % DS and 70 % SS, 7- 15 % DS and 85 % SS and 8 – IS 100 % with cement; 9 – SS 100 % with cement) of different ages (7 days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days) for the production of blocks. The compressive strength of the blocks produced ranges between 0.52 MPa to 3.0 MPa and considering the mixes, the highest compressive strength was found in mix of 15 % DS and 85 % SS.

Keywords: dredge sample, silt, sharp sand, block, cement

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Authors: K. Nazan Turhan, Tuğçe Ersan

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The population of the world is approximately 8 billion, and it increases uncontrollably and irrepressibly, leading to an increase in consumption. This situation causes crucial problems, and food waste is one of these. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines food waste as the discarding or alternative utilization of food that is safe and nutritious for the consumption of humans along the entire food supply chain, from primary production to end household consumer level. In addition, according to the estimation of FAO, one-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted worldwide every year. Wasting food endangers natural resources and causes hunger. For instance, excessive amounts of food waste cause greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming. Therefore, waste management has been gaining significance in the last few decades at both local and global levels due to the expected scarcity of resources for the increasing population of the world. There are several ways to recover food waste. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Hierarchy, food waste recovery ways are source reduction, feeding hungry people, feeding animals, industrial uses, composting, and landfill/incineration from the most preferred to the least preferred, respectively. Bioethanol, biodiesel, biogas, agricultural fertilizer and animal feed can be obtained from food waste that is generated by different food industries. In this project, feeding animals was selected as a food waste recovery method and food waste of a plant was used to provide ingredient uniformity. Grasshoppers were used as a protein source. In other words, the project was performed to develop a dog food product by recovery of the plant’s food waste after following some steps. The collected food waste and purchased grasshoppers were sterilized, dried and pulverized. Then, they were all mixed with 60 g agar-agar solution (4%w/v). 3 different aromas were added, separately to the samples to enhance flavour quality. Since there are differences in the required amounts of different species of dogs, fulfilling all nutritional needs is one of the problems. In other words, there is a wide range of nutritional needs in terms of carbohydrates, protein, fat, sodium, calcium, and so on. Furthermore, the requirements differ depending on age, gender, weight, height, and species. Therefore, the product that was developed contains average amounts of each substance so as not to cause any deficiency or surplus. On the other hand, it contains more protein than similar products in the market. The product was evaluated in terms of contamination and nutritional content. For contamination risk, detection of E. coli and Salmonella experiments were performed, and the results were negative. For the nutritional value test, protein content analysis was done. The protein contents of different samples vary between 33.68% and 26.07%. In addition, water activity analysis was performed, and the water activity (aw) values of different samples ranged between 0.2456 and 0.4145.

Keywords: food waste, dog food, animal nutrition, food waste recovery

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Authors: Ridvan Yamanoglu

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In the current study, titanium based composites reinforced by hard nickel alloy particles were produced. Powder metallurgical hot pressing technique was used for the fabrication of composite materials. The composites containing different ratio of hard nickel particles were sintered at 900 oC for 15 and 30 minutes under 50 MPa pressure. All titanium based composites were obtained under a vacuum atmosphere of 10-4 mbar to prevent of oxidation of titanium due to its high reactivity to oxygen. The microstructural characterization of the composite samples was carried out by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties of the samples were determined by means of hardness and wear tests. The results showed that when the nickel particle content increased the mechanical properties of the composites enhanced. The results are discussed in detail and optimum nickel particle content were determined.

Keywords: titanium, composite, nickel, hot pressing

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Authors: Mozhde Shafie, Nahid Naderi, Mandana Mangeli

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Is it true to say that Saadi was an idealized embodiment of his moral teachings in Gulistan and Boustan? The body of criticism on Saadi’s works suggests that his biography provides no clear and valid information to judge about the extent to which Saadi acted what he preached. His moral teachings depict a sort of individual and social morality which is defined in relation to power and falls in the category of political ethics. Political ethics appear as for the noble and the subordinate in Gulistan and Boustan. Ethics for the noble include all his teachings for governors and rulers in eulogies. On the other hand, ethics for the subordinate include all his suggestions for the public in relation to power position. Here, Saadi puts forward some conservative recommendations that trigger some contemporary critical commentaries. However, there are some cases where he takes up a third person narrative position to narrate the story of a king and a mendicant. In these stories, the mendicant is a witty man with bitter criticism on society, implying that one should relinquish earthly pleasures and advantages if he wants his criticism to be acceptable. First person narratives fall in two categories determinate and indeterminate narratives. Indirect speeches reflecting biographical facts are indeterminate narratives which give no information about the poet’s personality. Other narratives are more of an autobiography that report probable observations. These latter narratives demonstrate Saadi as a man quick at repartee that feels free to disclose his poverty and some cases of impiety. Therefore, they provide no idealized picture of the poet in terms of ethical principles.

Keywords: Saadi, ethics, Boustan, Gulistan, first-person narrative

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Authors: Seyedebrahim Afkhami, Meisam Abdi, Reza Baserinia

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Additive manufacturing is revolutionising production in different industries, including pharmaceuticals. This case study explores the influence of surface area on the dissolution of additively manufactured polyvinyl alcohol parts as a polymer candidate. Specimens of different geometries and constant mass were fabricated using a Fused Deposition Modelling 3D printer. The dissolution behaviour of these samples was compared with respect to their surface area. Improved and accelerated dissolution was observed for samples with a larger surface area. This study highlights the capabilities of additive manufacturing to produce samples of complex geometries that cannot be manufactured otherwise to control the dissolution behaviour for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical applications.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, polymer dissolution, fused deposition modelling, geometry optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: A. Erragh, K. Amanzoui, M. Elharit, H. Salem, M. Ababneh, K. Elfakhr, S. Kalouch, A. Chlilek

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Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is the most common form of acute polyradiculoneuritis (PRNA). It is a medical emergency in pediatrics that requires rapid diagnosis and immediate assessment of the severity criteria for the implementation of appropriate treatment. Retrospective, descriptive study in 24 patients under the age of 18 who presented with GBS between September 2017 and July 2021 and were hospitalized in the multipurpose pediatric intensive care unit of the Abderrahim EL Harouchi children's hospital in Casablanca. The average age was 7.91 years, with extremes ranging from 18 months and 14 years and a male predominance of 75%. After a prodromal event, most often infectious (80%) and a free interval of 12 days on average, 2 types of motor disorders begin either hypo or arereflectic flaccid paralysis of the lower limbs (45.8%) or flaccid quadriplegia hypo or arereflectic (54.2%). During GBS, the most formidable complication is respiratory distress, which can occur at any time. In our study, respiratory impairment was observed in 70.8% of cases. In addition, other signs of severity, such as swallowing disorders (75%) and dysautonomic disorders (8.33%), were also observed, which justified care in the intensive care unit for all of our patients. The use of invasive ventilation was necessary in 76.5% of cases, and specific treatments based on immunoglobulins were administered in all our patients. Despite everything, the death rate remains high (25%) and is mainly due to complications related to hospitalization. Guillain Barré syndrome is, therefore, a pediatric emergency that requires rapid diagnosis and immediate assessment of severity criteria for the implementation of appropriate treatment.

Keywords: guillain barre syndrome, emergency, children, medical

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Authors: Gift Salawa, Perkins Erhijakpor, Henry Ukwu

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This study will explore child labour issues in Nigeria because it is capable of affecting the physical and general well-being of children who perform hazardous work. This feat will be achieved through qualitative research methodology. Data collection shall be elicited by oral interviews and documental content analysis to delve on the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), International Labour Organization ILO and Geneva Convention relating to child labour practices in Nigeria. This will include the relevance of present domestic laws relating to child labour as implemented in Nigeria, together with factors that contribute to the practice of child labour in the country. The oral interview data analysis will be performed by breaking the interview data into significant statements and themes. This shall be done by comparing and determining the commonalities that are prevalent in the participants’ views regarding child labour menace in Nigeria. Presumably, findings from this study shall unveil that a poor educational policy, a widespread poverty level which is mostly prevalent amongst families in the rural areas of the country, a lack of employment for adults, have led to the ineffectiveness of the local child labour laws in Nigeria. These has in turn culminated into a somewhat non-implementation of the international laws of the CRC, ILO and Geneva Declaration on child labour to which the Nigerian government is a signatory. Based on the finding, this study will calls on the government of Nigeria to extend its free educational policy from the elementary, secondary to tertiary educations. The government also has to ensure that offenders of children’s rights should face a severe punishment.

Keywords: child labour, educational policy, human right, protection right

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Authors: Rekha Vijayvergia

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Around seven percent of tribal population of India lives in Rajasthan. Rajasthan has rich cultural diversity and biodiversity. Ethno-botany can be defined as the total natural and traditional relationship and the interactions between man and his surrounding plant wealth from times immemorial, due to sheer, necessity, intuition, observation, and experimentation. Medicinal plants are valuable and are used for the production of various drugs. These plants produce a high diversity of natural products or secondary metabolites like Mahanimbicine, Andrographine, murrayaline, lupeol, and limonin etc. with a prominent function in the protection against diseases like diabetes, kidney stones, osteoporosis, tumours, opthalmia, leucorrhoea, bronchial asthma, diarrhea, cancer, etc. The present report gives an account of traditional medicinal uses of common medicinal plants of Rajasthan. A total of 18 plant species belonging to 13 families are reported, that are being used for various purposes.

Keywords: ethno botany, Rajasthan, secondary metabolites, traditional medicines

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Authors: Andi Setiawan, Annisa Ulfah Pristya

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Indonesian rubber plant area reached 2.9 million hectares with productivity reached 1.38 million. High rubber productivity is directly proportional to the amount of waste produced rubber processing industry. Rubber industry would produce a negative impact on the rubber industry in the form of environmental pollution caused by waste that has not been treated optimally. Rubber industrial wastewater containing high-nitrogen compounds (nitrate and ammonia) and phosphate compounds which cause water pollution and odor problems due to the high ammonia content. On the other hand, demand for NPK fertilizers in Indonesia continues to increase from year to year and in need of ammonia and phosphate as raw material. Based on domestic demand, it takes a year to 400,000 tons of ammonia and Indonesia imports 200,000 tons of ammonia per year valued at IDR 4.2 trillion. As well, the lack of phosphoric acid to be imported from Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, the Philippines, and India as many as 225 thousand tons per year. During this time, the process of wastewater treatment is generally done with a rubber on the tank to contain the waste and then precipitated, filtered and the rest released into the environment. However, this method is inefficient and thus require high energy costs because through many stages before producing clean water that can be discharged into the river. On the other hand, Indonesia has the potential of pineapple fruit can be harvested throughout the year in all of Indonesia. In 2010, production reached 1,406,445 tons of pineapple in Indonesia or about 9.36 percent of the total fruit production in Indonesia. Increased productivity is directly proportional to the amount of pineapple waste pineapple leaves are kept continuous and usually just dumped in the ground or disposed of with other waste at the final disposal. Through Eco-Nanofiltration Membrane-Based Fiber Pineapple leaves Waste so that environmental problems can be solved efficiently. Nanofiltration is a process that uses pressure as a driving force that can be either convection or diffusion of each molecule. Nanofiltration membranes that can split water to nano size so as to separate the waste processed residual economic value that N and P were higher as a raw material for the manufacture of NPK fertilizer to overcome the crisis in Indonesia. The raw materials were used to manufacture Eco-Nanofiltration Membrane is cellulose from pineapple fiber which processed into cellulose acetate which is biodegradable and only requires a change of the membrane every 6 months. Expected output target is Green eco-technology so with nanofiltration membranes not only treat waste rubber industry in an effective, efficient and environmentally friendly but also lowers the cost of waste treatment compared to conventional methods.

Keywords: biodegradable, cellulose diacetate, fertilizers, pineapple, rubber

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Authors: Naeemeh Silvari

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The phenomenon of the spread and epidemic of the corona virus caused many aspects of the social life of the people of the world to face various challenges. In this regard, and in order to improve the living conditions of the people, the World Health Organization has tried to publish the necessary instructions for its contacts in the world in the form of its media capacities. Considering the importance of cultural differences in the discussion of health communication and the distinct needs of people in different societies, some production contents were produced and published exclusively. This research has studied six videos published on the official page of the World Health Organization in Iran as a case study. The published content has the least semantic affinity with Iranian culture, and it has been tried to show a uniform image of the Middle East with the predominance of the image of the culture of the developing Arab countries.

Keywords: corona, representation, semiotics, instagram, health communication

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Authors: Rene Hellmuth

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The requirements for the factory planning and the building concerned have changed in the last years. Factory planning has the task of designing products, plants, processes, organization, areas, and the building of a factory. Regular restructuring gains more importance in order to maintain the competitiveness of a factory. Restrictions regarding new areas, shorter life cycles of product and production technology as well as a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world cause more frequently occurring rebuilding measures within a factory. Restructuring of factories is the most common planning case today. Restructuring is more common than new construction, revitalization and dismantling of factories. The increasing importance of restructuring processes shows that the ability to change was and is a promising concept for the reaction of companies to permanently changing conditions. The factory building is the basis for most changes within a factory. If an adaptation of a construction project (factory) is necessary, the inventory documents must be checked and often time-consuming planning of the adaptation must take place to define the relevant components to be adapted, in order to be able to finally evaluate them. The different requirements of the planning participants from the disciplines of factory planning (production planner, logistics planner, automation planner) and industrial construction planning (architect, civil engineer) come together during reconstruction and must be structured. This raises the research question: Which requirements do the disciplines involved in the reconstruction planning place on a digital factory model? A subordinate research question is: How can model-based decision support be provided for a more efficient design of the conversion within a factory? Because of the high adaptation rate of factories and its building described above, a methodology for rescheduling factories based on the requirements engineering method from software development is conceived and designed for practical application in factory restructuring projects. The explorative research procedure according to Kubicek is applied. Explorative research is suitable if the practical usability of the research results has priority. Furthermore, it will be shown how to best use a digital factory model in practice. The focus will be on mobile applications to meet the needs of factory planners on site. An augmented reality (AR) application will be designed and created to provide decision support for planning variants. The aim is to contribute to a shortening of the planning process and model-based decision support for more efficient change management. This requires the application of a methodology that reduces the deficits of the existing approaches. The time and cost expenditure are represented in the AR tablet solution based on a building information model (BIM). Overall, the requirements of those involved in the planning process for a digital factory model in the case of restructuring within a factory are thus first determined in a structured manner. The results are then applied and transferred to a construction site solution based on augmented reality.

Keywords: augmented reality, digital factory model, factory planning, restructuring

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Elene Tatunashvili, Bun Chan, Philippe E. Nashar, Christopher S. P. McErlean

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The reduction of aryl diazonium salts is one of the most efficient ways to generate aryl radicals for use in a wide range of transformations, including Sandmeyer-type reactions, Meerwein arylations of olefins and Gomberg-Bachmann-Hey arylations of heteroaromatic systems. The aryl diazonium species can be reduced electrochemically, by UV irradiation, inner-sphere and outer-sphere single electron transfer processes (SET) from metal salts, SET from photo-excited organic catalysts or fragmentation of adducts with weak bases (acetate, hydroxide, etc.). This paper details an approach for the metal-free reduction of aryl diazonium salts, which facilitates the efficient synthesis of various aromatic compounds under exceedingly mild reaction conditions. By measuring the oxidation potential of a number of organic molecules, a series of nucleophiles were identified that reduce aryl diazonium salts via the addition-fragmentation mechanism. This approach leads to unprecedented operational simplicity: The reactions are very rapid and proceed in the open air; there is no need for external irradiation or heating, and the process is compatible with a large number of radical reactions. We illustrate these advantages by using the addition-fragmentation strategy to regioselectively arylate a series of heterocyclic compounds, to synthesize ketones by arylation of silyl enol ethers, and to synthesize benzothiophene and phenanthrene derivatives by radical annulation reactions.

Keywords: diazonium salts, hantzsch esters, oxygen, radical reactions, synthetic methods

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Authors: Ratih Andaruni Widhiantari

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The combination of the expanding population of aid agencies and the act of politicization in humanitarian intervention blurred the distinction between what humanitarianism accept as universal human rights in theory and their practices in humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian organizations were now venturing into the formerly taboo territory of politics that place individuals at risk, for examples, cooperating and coordinating with the intervening states, considering moments of destruction as opportunities for political change and even taking on functions that had once been the exclusive preserve of government. Hence, aid agencies were becoming involved in matters of local or even international politics. This study focuses on the comparison between Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctor without Borders different attitudes against political influences in humanitarian aid. It aims to untangle the bewilderment whether the contradictory approach to politics will becoming a barrier to performing their principles as humanitarian actors and also the consequences of taking that one particular position. The analysis of quantitative data and qualitative literature analysis are presented. The findings indicated Oxfam is actively engaged with politics. It welcomed government and private sector to shared cooperation to reach its goals to alleviate global inequalities. On the other hand, MSF has always taken a strong position to refuse any politics influence within their aid programmes. With no financial assistance from any government, MSF is free from any direct politics intervention. Hence, it can work efficiently with a clear objective to respond the demand side pressures from the people in needs. It is still publicly against politic involvement in the humanitarian activity, but practically, it has been moving forward to politicization in its own definition.

Keywords: humanitarian agencies, humanitarian intervention, humanitarian principles, politicization of humanitarianism

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Authors: Eugenia P. Ramirez, Kevin Matthe Caramancion, Mia Eleazar

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Getting the attention of students is a constant challenge to the instructors/lecturers. Although in the computer laboratories some networking and entertainment websites are blocked, yet, these websites have unlimited ways of attracting students to get into it. Thus, when an instructor gives a specific set of instructions, some students may not be able to follow sequentially the steps that are given. The instructor has to physically go to the specific remote terminal and show the student the details. Sometimes, during an examination in laboratory set-up, a proctor may prefer to give detailed and text-written instructions rather than verbal instructions. Even the mere calling of a specific student at any time will distract the whole class especially when activities are being performed. What is needed is : An application software that is able to lock the student's monitor and at the same time display the instructor’s screen; a software that is powerful enough to process in its side alone and manipulate a specific user’s terminal in terms of free configuration that is, without restrictions at the server level is a required functionality for a modern and optimal server structure; a software that is able to send text messages to students, per terminal or in group will be a solution. These features are found in LabSupport. This paper outlines the LabSupport application software framework to efficiently manage computer laboratory sessions and will include different modules: screen viewer, demonstration mode, monitor locking system, text messaging, and class management. This paper's ultimate aim is to provide a system that increases instructor productivity.

Keywords: application software, broadcast messaging, class management, locking system

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Authors: Junaid Kameran Ahmed

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A laminated plate composite of graphite/epoxy has been analyzed dynamically in the present work by using a quadratic element (8-node diso-parametric), and by depending on 1^st order shear deformation theory, every node in this element has 6-degrees of freedom (displacement in x, y, and z axis and twist about x, y, and z axis). The dynamic analysis in the present work covered parametric studies on a composite laminated plate (square plate) to determine its effect on the natural frequency of the plate. The parametric study is represented by set of changes (plate thickness, number of layers, support conditions, layer orientation), and the plates have been simulated by using ANSYS package 12. The boundary conditions considered in this study, at all four edges of the plate, are simply supported and fixed boundary condition. The results obtained from ANSYS program show that the natural frequency for both fixed and simply supported increases with increasing the number of layers, but this increase in the natural frequency for the first five modes will be neglected after 10 layers. And it is observed that the natural frequency of a composite laminated plate will change with the change of ply orientation, the natural frequency increases and it will be at maximum with angle 45 of ply for simply supported laminated plate, and maximum natural frequency will be with cross-ply (0/90) for fixed laminated composite plate. It is also observed that the natural frequency increase is approximately doubled when the thickness is doubled.

Keywords: laminated plate, orthotropic plate, square plate, natural frequency (free vibration), composite (graphite / epoxy)

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Authors: Dutica Luminita

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For the music composer Myriam Marbe the musical time and memory represent 2 (complementary) phenomena with conclusive impact on the settlement of new musical ontologies. Summarizing the most important achievements of the contemporary techniques of composition, her vision on the microform presented in The Concert for Daniel Kientzy, saxophone and orchestra transcends the linear and unidirectional time in favour of a flexible, multi-vectorial speech with spiral developments, where the sound substance is auto(re)generated by analogy with the fundamental processes of the memory. The conceptual model is of an archetypal essence, the music composer being concerned with identifying the mechanisms of the creation process, especially of those specific to the collective creation (of oral tradition). Hence the spontaneity of expression, improvisation tint, free rhythm, micro-interval intonation, coloristic-timbral universe dominated by multiphonics and unique sound effects. Hence the atmosphere of ritual, however purged by the primary connotations and reprojected into a wonderful spectacular space. The Concert is a work of artistic maturity and enforces respect, among others, by the timbral diversity of the three species of saxophone required by the music composer (baritone, sopranino and alt), in Part III Daniel Kientzy shows the performance of playing two saxophones concomitantly. The score of the music composer Myriam Marbe contains a deeply spiritualized music, full or archetypal symbols, a music whose drama suggests a real cinematographic movement.

Keywords: archetype, chronogenesis, concert, multiphonics

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Authors: Paolo Russu

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The purpose of the present paper is to highlight some features of an economic growth model with environmental negative externalities, giving rise to a three-dimensional dynamic system. In particular, we show that the economy, which is based on a Perfect-Substitution Technologies function of production, has no neither indeterminacy nor poverty trap. This implies that equilibrium select by economy depends on the history (initial values of state variable) of the economy rather than on expectations of economies agents. Moreover, by contrast, we prove that the basin of attraction of locally equilibrium points may be very large, as they can extend up to the boundary of the system phase space. The infinite-horizon optimal control problem has the purpose of maximizing the representative agent’s instantaneous utility function depending on leisure and consumption.

Keywords: Hopf bifurcation, open-access natural resources, optimal control, perfect-substitution technologies, Poincarè compactification

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Authors: Chioma Nwakanma, Onyeka Okoh Irene, Emmanuel Eze

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Pesticide residues left in agricultural soils after cropping are always accumulative, difficult to degrade and harmful to animals, plants, soil and human health in general. The biodegrading potential of pesticides- resistant PGPB on soil pollution was investigated using in situ remediation technique following recommended standards. In addition, screening for insecticide utilization, maximum insecticide concentration tolerance, insecticide biodegradation and insecticide residues analyses via gas chromatographic/electron column detector were determined. The location of bacterial degradation genes was also determined. Three plant growth-promoting rhizophere (PGPR) were isolated and identified according to 16S rRNA as Paraburkholderia tropica, Burkolderia glumae and Achromobacter insolitus. From the results, all the three isolates showed phosphate solubilizing traits and were able to grow on nitrogen free medium. The isolates were able to utilize the insecticide as sole carbon source and increase in biomass. They were statistically significantly tolerant to all the insecticide concentrations screened. The gas chromatographic profiles of the insecticide residues showed a reduction in the peak areas of the insecticides, indicating degradation. The bacterial consortium had the lowest peak areas, showing the highest degradation efficiency. The genes responsible for degradation were found to be in the plasmids of the isolates. Therefore, the use of PGPR is recommended for bioremediation of agricultural soil insecticide polluted areas and can also enhance soil fertility.

Keywords: biodegradation, rhizosphere, insecticides utilization, agricultural soil

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Authors: Akhtar Aman, Abida Raza, Shumaila Bashir, Mehboob Alam

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The development of efficient delivery systems remains a major concern in cancer chemotherapy as many efficacious anticancer drugs are hydrophobic and difficult to formulate. Nanomedicines based on drug-loaded amphiphilic glycol chitosan micelles offer potential advantages for the formulation of drugs such as etoposide that may improve the pharmacokinetics and reduce the formulation-related adverse effects observed with current formulations. Amphiphilic derivatives of glycol chitosan were synthesized by chemical grafting of palmitic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide and quaternization to glycol chitosan backbone. To this end, a 7.9 kDa glycol chitosan was modified by palmitoylation and quaternization, yielding a 13 kDa amphiphilic polymer. Micelles prepared from this amphiphilic polymer had a size of 162nm and were able to encapsulate up to 3 mg/ml etoposide. Pharmacokinetic results indicated that the GCPQ micelles transformed the biodistribution pattern and increased etoposide concentration in the brain significantly compared to free drugs after intravenous administration. AUC 0.5-24h showed statistically significant difference in ETP-GCPQ vs. Commercial preparation in liver (25 vs.70, p<0.001), spleen (27 vs.36, p<0.05), lungs (42 vs.136,p<0.001),kidneys(25 vs.70,p< 0.05),and brain(19 vs.9,p<0.001). ETP-GCPQ crossed the blood-brain barrier, and 4, 3.5, 2.6, 1.8, 1.7, 1.5, and 2.5 fold higher levels of etoposide were observed at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, and 24hrs; respectively suggesting these systems could deliver hydrophobic anticancer drugs such as etoposide to tumors but also increased their transport through the biological barriers, thus making it a good delivery system

Keywords: glycol chitosan, micelles, pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution

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Authors: Anupriya, Bikramjit Sinfh, Radhay Shyam

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In order to improve mixing phenomena and combustion processes in supersonic flow, the current work has concentrated on identifying the ideal cavity parameters using CFD ANSYS Fluent. Offset ratios (OR) and aft ramp angles () have been manipulated in simulations of several models, but the length-to-depth ratio has remained the same. The length-to-depth ratio of all cavity flows is less than 10, making them all open. Hydrogen fuel was injected into a supersonic air flow with a Mach number of 3.75 using a chamber with a 1 mm diameter and a transverse slot nozzle. The free stream had conditions of a pressure of 1.2 MPa, a temperature of 299K, and a Reynolds number of 2.07x107. This method has the ability to retain a flame since the cavity facilitates rapid mixing of fuel and oxidizer and decreases total pressure losses. The impact of the cavity on combustion efficiency and total pressure loss is discussed, and the results are compared to those of a model without a cavity. Both the mixing qualities and the combustion processes were enhanced in the model with the cavity. The overall pressure loss as well as the effectiveness of the combustion process both increase with the increase in the ramp angle to the rear. When OR is increased, however, resistance to the supersonic flow field is reduced, which has a detrimental effect on both parameters. For a given ramp height, larger pressure losses were observed at steeper ramp angles due to increased eddy-viscous turbulent flow and increased wall drag.

Keywords: total pressure loss, flame holder, supersonic combustion, combustion efficiency, cavity, nozzle

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Authors: Burak Erkayman

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The manufacturing and service organizations are in the need of using ERP systems to integrate many functions from purchasing to storage, production planning to calculation of costs. Using ERP systems by the integration in the level of information provides companies remarkable advantages in terms of profitability, productivity and efficiency in processes. Cloud computing is one of the most significant changes in information and communication technology. The developments in Cloud Computing attract business world to take advantage of this field. Cloud Computing means much more storage area, more cost saving and faster data transfer rate. In addition to these, it presents new business models, new field of study and practicable solutions for anyone’s use. These developments make inevitable the implementation of ERP systems to cloud environment. In this study, the performance of ERP systems in cloud environment is analyzed through various performance criteria and a comparison between traditional and cloud-ERP systems is presented. At the end of study the transformation and the future of ERP systems is discussed.

Keywords: cloud-ERP, ERP system performance, information system transformation

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Authors: A. D. Rao, Sachiko Mohanty, R. Gayathri, V. Ranga Rao

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Modeling on coupled physical and biogeochemical processes of coastal waters is vital to identify the primary production status under different natural and anthropogenic conditions. About 7, 500 km length of Indian coastline is occupied with number of semi enclosed coastal bodies such as estuaries, inlets, bays, lagoons, and other near shore, offshore shelf waters, etc. This coastline is also rich in wide varieties of ecosystem flora and fauna. Directly/indirectly extensive domestic and industrial sewage enter into these coastal water bodies affecting the ecosystem character and create environment problems such as water quality degradation, hypoxia, anoxia, harmful algal blooms, etc. lead to decline in fishery and other related biological production. The present study is focused on the southeast coast of India, starting from Pulicat to Gulf of Mannar, which is rich in marine diversity such as lagoon, mangrove and coral ecosystem. Three dimensional Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) along with Darwin biogeochemical module is configured for the western Bay of Bengal (BoB) to study the biogeochemistry over this region. The biogeochemical module resolves the cycling of carbon, phosphorous, nitrogen, silica, iron and oxygen through inorganic, living, dissolved and particulate organic phases. The model domain extends from 4°N-16.5°N and 77°E-86°E with a horizontal resolution of 1 km. The bathymetry is derived from General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), which has a resolution of 30 sec. The model is initialized by using the temperature, salinity filed from the World Ocean Atlas (WOA2013) of National Oceanographic Data Centre with a resolution of 0.25°. The model is forced by the surface wind stress from ASCAT and the photosynthetically active radiation from the MODIS-Aqua satellite. Seasonal climatology of nutrients (phosphate, nitrate and silicate) for the southwest BoB region are prepared using available National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in-situ data sets and compared with the WOA2013 seasonal climatology data. The model simulations with the two different initial conditions viz., WOA2013 and the generated NIO climatology, showed evident changes in the concentration and the evolution of the nutrients in the study region. It is observed that the availability of nutrients is more in NIO data compared to WOA in the model domain. The model simulated primary productivity is compared with the spatially distributed satellite derived chlorophyll data and at various locations with the in-situ data. The seasonal variability of the model simulated primary productivity is also studied.

Keywords: Bay of Bengal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model, MITgcm, biogeochemistry, primary productivity

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Authors: Ziyad S. Haidar

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Background: Saliva plays a major role in maintaining oral, dental, and general health and well-being; where it normally bathes the oral cavity acting as a clearing agent. This becomes more apparent when the amount and quality of saliva are significantly reduced due to medications, salivary gland neoplasms, disorders such as Sjögren’s syndrome, and especially ionizing radiation therapy for tumors of the head and neck, the 5th most common malignancy worldwide, during which the salivary glands are included within the radiation field/zone. Clinically, patients affected by salivary gland dysfunction often opt to terminate their radiotherapy course prematurely as they become malnourished and experience a significant decrease in their QoL. Accordingly, the formulation of a radio-protection/-prevention modality and development of an alternative Rx to restore damaged salivary gland tissue is eagerly awaited and highly desirable. Objectives: Assess the pre-clinical radio-protective effect and reparative/regenerative potential of layer-by-layer self-assembled lipid-polymer-based core-shell nanocapsules designed and fine-tuned for the sequential (ordered) release of dual cytokines, following a single local administration (direct injection) into a murine sub-mandibular salivary gland model of irradiation. Methods: The formulated core-shell nanocapsules were characterized by physical-chemical-mechanically pre-/post-loading with the drugs, followed by optimizing the pharmaco-kinetic profile. Then, nanosuspensions were administered directly into the salivary glands, 24hrs pre-irradiation (PBS, un-loaded nanocapsules, and individual and combined vehicle-free cytokines were injected into the control glands for an in-depth comparative analysis). External irradiation at an elevated dose of 18Gy was exposed to the head-and-neck region of C57BL/6 mice. Salivary flow rate (un-stimulated) and salivary protein content/excretion were regularly assessed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (3-month period). Histological and histomorphometric evaluation and apoptosis/proliferation analysis followed by local versus systemic bio-distribution and immuno-histochemical assays were then performed on all harvested major organs (at the distinct experimental end-points). Results: Monodisperse, stable, and cytocompatible nanocapsules capable of maintaining the bioactivity of the encapsulant within the different compartments with the core and shell and with controlled/customizable pharmaco-kinetics, resulted, as is illustrated in the graphical abstract (Figure) below. The experimental animals demonstrated a significant increase in salivary flow rates when compared to the controls. Herein, salivary protein content was comparable to the pre-irradiation (baseline) level. Histomorphometry further confirmed the biocompatibility and localization of the nanocapsules, in vivo, into the site of injection. Acinar cells showed fewer vacuoles and nuclear aberration in the experimental group, while the amount of mucin was higher in controls. Overall, fewer apoptotic activities were detected by a Terminal deoxynucleotidyl Transferase (TdT) dUTP Nick-End Labeling (TUNEL) assay and proliferative rates were similar to the controls, suggesting an interesting reparative and regenerative potential of irradiation-damaged/-dysfunctional salivary glands. The Figure below exemplifies some of these findings. Conclusions: Biocompatible, reproducible, and customizable self-assembling layer-by-layer core-shell delivery system is formulated and presented. Our findings suggest that localized sequential bioactive delivery of dual cytokines (in specific dose and order) can prevent irradiation-induced damage via reducing apoptosis and also has the potential to promote in situ proliferation of salivary gland cells; maxSALIVA is scalable (Good Manufacturing Practice or GMP production for human clinical trials) and patent-pending.

Keywords: cancer, head and neck, oncology, drug development, drug delivery systems, nanotechnology, nanoncology

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Authors: Timur Mukhametkaliyev

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The earthen material possesses low compression strength, and it is highly sensitive to the water content. Different binders can be added (Portland cement or lime) to improve the durability and the mechanical characteristics of earthen material, but the production of these binders has high embodied energy and results in an increase in world CO₂ emission. Geopolymers are binders which can be synthesized at low temperature in alkaline solutions from raw materials consisting of amorphous aluminosilicates. Geopolymers are an attractive substitution of Portland cement and can be used as an excellent stabilization for earthen material. In this study, earthen material stabilized with geopolymer binder for use in construction 3D printing was developed. Construction 3D printing offers freedom of design, waste minimisation, customisation, reduced labour, and automation. For successful 3D printing, the properties of used material are the most important aspects because they require adaptability for extrusion and controlled time of hardening for the binder.

Keywords: 3D printing, building construction, geopolymer, architecture

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Authors: Mershack O. Tetteh, Albert P. C. Chan, Amos Darko, Gabriel Nani

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International construction joint ventures (ICJVs) have evolved as an effective approach to sustainable development, given their myriad socio-economic and environmental benefits. Yet, they are not free of barriers and risks. In many studies, it is termed as risks for convenience’s sake. While the barriers and risks continue to affect the success of ICJVs, a systematic and reliable approach for managing them has yet to be developed. This study aims to identify and classify the barriers and risks factors affecting ICJVs through a systematic literature review. Based on a critical review of 54 papers published in peer-reviewed journals from 1990 to 2019, a conceptual framework was proposed for managing the barriers and risks in ICJV operations. The review showed that the barriers can be grouped into six including inter-organizational differences, lack of expertise and confidence, lack of effective planning and strategies, lack of knowledge of ICJV’s fundamentals, conflicts among ICJV entities, and management difficulties. The risks were also categorized into six: policy and political risks, legal risks, financial risks, management risks, project and technical risks, and market risks. The developed model would help practitioners achieve more efficient resource allocation and bring new perspectives for managerial practices in ICJVs. Moreover, it is positioned to alleviate the negligence of previous studies that combined the barriers and risks factors as one checklist.

Keywords: barriers, construction, international construction joint venture, risks, sustainable development

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Authors: Ching Shya Lee, Mohamed Kheireddine Aroua, Wan Mohd Ashri Wan Daud, Patrick Cognet, Yolande Peres, Mohammed Ajeel

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In recent years, with the decreasing supply of fossil fuel, renewable energy has received a significant demand. Biodiesel which is well known as vegetable oil based fatty acid methyl ester is an alternative fuel for diesel. It can be produced from transesterification of vegetable oils, such as palm oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, etc., with methanol. During the transesterification process, crude glycerol is formed as a by-product, resulting in 10% wt of the total biodiesel production. To date, due to the fast growing of biodiesel production in worldwide, the crude glycerol supply has also increased rapidly and resulted in a significant price drop for glycerol. Therefore, extensive research has been developed to use glycerol as feedstock to produce various added-value chemicals, such as tartronic acid, mesoxalic acid, glycolic acid, glyceric acid, propanediol, acrolein etc. The industrial processes that usually involved are selective oxidation, biofermentation, esterification, and hydrolysis. However, the conversion of glycerol into added-value compounds by electrochemical approach is rarely discussed. Currently, the approach is mainly focused on the electro-oxidation study of glycerol under potentiostatic mode for cogenerating energy with other chemicals. The electro-organic synthesis study from glycerol under galvanostatic mode is seldom reviewed. In this study, the glycerol was converted into various added-value compounds by electrochemical method under galvanostatic mode. This work aimed to study the possible compounds produced from glycerol by electrochemical technique in a one-pot electrolysis cell. The electro-organic synthesis study from glycerol was carried out in a single compartment reactor for 8 hours, over the platinum cathode and anode electrodes under acidic condition. Various parameters such as electric current (1.0 A to 3.0 A) and reaction temperature (27 °C to 80 °C) were evaluated. The products obtained were characterized by using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy equipped with an aqueous-stable polyethylene glycol stationary phase column. Under the optimized reaction condition, the glycerol conversion achieved as high as 95%. The glycerol was successfully converted into various added-value chemicals such as ethylene glycol, glycolic acid, glyceric acid, acetaldehyde, formic acid, and glyceraldehyde; given the yield of 1%, 45%, 27%, 4%, 0.7% and 5%, respectively. Based on the products obtained from this study, the reaction mechanism of this process is proposed. In conclusion, this study has successfully converted glycerol into a wide variety of added-value compounds. These chemicals are found to have high market value; they can be used in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. This study effectively opens a new approach for the electrochemical conversion of glycerol. For further enhancement on the product selectivity, electrode material is an important parameter to be considered.

Keywords: biodiesel, glycerol, electrochemical conversion, galvanostatic mode

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Authors: Nilson Barbieri, Bruno Matos Martins, Gabriel de Sant'Anna Vitor Barbieri

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In more complex systems, such as automotive gearbox, a rigorous treatment of the data is necessary because there are several moving parts (gears, bearings, shafts, etc.), and in this way, there are several possible sources of errors and also noise. The basic objective of this work is the detection of damage in automotive gearbox. The detection methods used are the wavelet method, the bispectrum; advanced filtering techniques (selective filtering) of vibrational signals and mathematical morphology. Gearbox vibration tests were performed (gearboxes in good condition and with defects) of a production line of a large vehicle assembler. The vibration signals are obtained using five accelerometers in different positions of the sample. The results obtained using the kurtosis, bispectrum, wavelet and mathematical morphology showed that it is possible to identify the existence of defects in automotive gearboxes.

Keywords: automotive gearbox, mathematical morphology, wavelet, bispectrum

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Authors: M. A. Askari, M. A. Nazari, P. Perrier, Y. Payan

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Growth and remodeling of biological structures have gained lots of attention over the past decades. Determining the response of living tissues to mechanical loads is necessary for a wide range of developing fields such as prosthetics design or computerassisted surgical interventions. It is a well-known fact that biological structures are never stress-free, even when externally unloaded. The exact origin of these residual stresses is not clear, but theoretically, growth is one of the main sources. Extracting body organ’s shapes from medical imaging does not produce any information regarding the existing residual stresses in that organ. The simplest cause of such stresses is gravity since an organ grows under its influence from birth. Ignoring such residual stresses might cause erroneous results in numerical simulations. Accounting for residual stresses due to tissue growth can improve the accuracy of mechanical analysis results. This paper presents an original computational framework based on gradual growth to determine the residual stresses due to growth. To illustrate the method, we apply it to a finite element model of a healthy human face reconstructed from medical images. The distribution of residual stress in facial tissues is computed, which can overcome the effect of gravity and maintain tissues firmness. Our assumption is that tissue wrinkles caused by aging could be a consequence of decreasing residual stress and thus not counteracting gravity. Taking into account these stresses seems therefore extremely important in maxillofacial surgery. It would indeed help surgeons to estimate tissues changes after surgery.

Keywords: finite element method, growth, residual stress, soft tissue

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Authors: Bengan Simbarashe Manwere

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The entire African continent, comprising 55 countries, holds a 2% share of the global carbon market. The World Bank attributes the continent’s insignificant share and participation in the carbon market to the limited access to electricity. Approximately 800 million people spread across 47 African countries generate as much power as Spain, with a population of 45million. Only South Africa and North Africa have carbon-reduction investment opportunities on the continent and dominate the 2% market share of the global carbon market. On the back of the 2015 Paris Agreement, South Africa signed into law the Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019 and the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 13 of 2019 (Gazette No. 4280) on 1 June 2019. By these laws, South Africa was ushered into the league of active global carbon market players. By increasing the cost of production by the rate of R120/tCO2e, the tax intentionally compels the internalization of pollution as a cost of production and, relatedly, stimulate investment in clean technologies. The first phase covered the 1 June 2019 – 31 December 2022 period during which the tax was meant to escalate at CPI + 2% for Scope 1 emitters. However, in the second phase, which stretches from 2023 to 2030, the tax will escalate at the inflation rate only as measured by the consumer price index (CPI). The Carbon Tax Act provides for carbon allowances as mitigation strategies to limit agents’ carbon tax liability by up to 95% for fugitive and process emissions. Although the June 2019 Carbon Tax Act explicitly makes provision for a carbon trading scheme (CTS), the carbon trading regulations thereof were only finalised in December 2020. This points to a delay in the establishment of a carbon trading scheme (CTS). Relatedly, emitters in South Africa are not able to benefit from the 95% reduction in effective carbon tax rate from R120/tCO2e to R6/tCO2e as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has not yet finalized the establishment of the market for trading carbon credits. Whereas most carbon trading schemes have been designed and constructed from the beginning as new tailor-made systems in countries the likes of France, Australia, Romania which treat carbon as a financial product, South Africa intends, on the contrary, to leverage existing trading infrastructure of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Clearing and Settlement platforms of Strate, among others, in the interest of the Paris Agreement timelines. Therefore the carbon trading scheme will not be constructed from scratch. At the same time, carbon will be treated as a commodity in order to align with the existing institutional and infrastructural capacity. This explains why the Carbon Tax Act is silent about the involvement of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).For South Africa, there is need to establish they equilibrium stability of the CTS. This is important as South Africa is an innovator in carbon trading and the successful trading of carbon credits on the JSE will lead to imitation by early adopters first, followed by the middle majority thereafter.

Keywords: carbon trading scheme (CTS), Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE), carbon tax act 15 of 2019, South Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 47