Search results for: supply chain planning

Authors: María Canal-Rodríguez, María Arnaiz, Natalia Rey-Raap, Ana Arenillas, Jon Ajuria

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The constant demand of electrical energy, as well as the increase in environmental concern, lead to the necessity of investing in clean and eco-friendly energy sources that implies the development of enhanced energy storage devices. Li-ion batteries (LIBs) and Electrical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) are the most widespread energy systems. Batteries are able to storage high energy densities contrary to capacitors, which main strength is the high-power density supply and the long cycle life. The combination of both technologies gave rise to Li-ion capacitors (LICs), which offers all these advantages in a single device. This is achieved combining a capacitive, supercapacitor-like positive electrode with a faradaic, battery-like negative electrode. Due to the abundance and affordability, dual carbon-based LICs are nowadays the common technology. Normally, an Active Carbon (AC) is used as the EDLC like electrode, while graphite is the material commonly employed as anode. LICs are potential systems to be used in applications in which high energy and power densities are required, such us kinetic energy recovery systems. Although these devices are already in the market, some drawbacks like the limited power delivered by graphite or the energy limiting nature of AC must be solved to trigger their used. Focusing on the anode, one possibility could be to replace graphite with Hard Carbon (HC). The better rate capability of the latter increases the power performance of the device. Moreover, the disordered carbonaceous structure of HCs enables storage twice the theoretical capacity of graphite. With respect to the cathode, the ACs are characterized for their high volume of micropores, in which the charge is storage. Nevertheless, they normally do not show mesoporous, which are really important mainly at high C-rates as they act as transport channels for the ions to reach the micropores. Usually, the porosity of ACs cannot be tailored, as it strongly depends on the precursor employed to get the final carbon. Moreover, they are not characterized for having a high electrical conductivity, which is an important characteristic to get a good performance in energy storage applications. A possible candidate to substitute ACs are carbon aerogels (CAs). CAs are materials that combine a high porosity with great electrical conductivity, opposite characteristics in carbon materials. Furthermore, its porous properties can be tailored quite accurately according to with the requirements of the application. In the present study, CAs with controlled porosity were obtained from polymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde by microwave heating. Varying the synthesis conditions, mainly the amount of precursors and pH of the precursor solution, carbons with different textural properties were obtained. The way the porous characteristics affect the performance of the cathode was studied by means of a half-cell configuration. The material with the best performance was evaluated as cathode in a LIC versus a hard carbon as anode. An analogous full LIC made by a high microporous commercial cathode was also assembled for comparison purposes.

Keywords: li-ion capacitors, energy storage, tailored porosity, carbon aerogels

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Authors: Ion Robu, Claudiu Mazilu, Radu Deju

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Natural aggregates (gravel and crushed) are essential non-renewable resources which are used for infrastructure works and civil engineering. In European Union member states from Southeast Europe, it is estimated that the construction industry will grow by 4.2% thereafter complicating aggregate supply management. In addition, a significant additional problem that can be associated to the aggregates industry is wasting potential resources through waste dumping of inert waste, especially waste from construction and demolition activities. In 2012, in Romania, less than 10% of construction and demolition waste (including concrete) are valorized, while the European Union requires that by 2020 this proportion should be at least 70% (Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, transposed into Romanian legislation by Law 211/2011). Depending on the efficiency of waste processing and the quality of recycled aggregate concrete (RCA) obtained, poor quality aggregate can be used as foundation material for roads and at the high quality for new concrete on construction. To obtain good quality concrete using recycled aggregate is necessary to meet the minimum requirements defined by the rules for the manufacture of concrete with natural aggregate. Properties of recycled aggregate (density, granulosity, granule shape, water absorption, weight loss to Los Angeles test, attached mortar content etc.) are the basis for concrete quality; also establishing appropriate proportions between components and the concrete production methods are extremely important for its quality. This paper presents a study on the use of recycled aggregates, from a concrete of specified class, to acquire new cement concrete with different percentages of recycled aggregates. To achieve recycled aggregates several batches of concrete class C16/20, C25/30 and C35/45 were made, the compositions calculation being made according NE012/2007 CP012/2007. Tests for producing recycled aggregate was carried out using concrete samples of the established three classes after 28 days of storage under the above conditions. Cubes with 150mm side were crushed in a first stage with a jaw crusher Liebherr type set at 50 mm nominally. The resulting material was separated by sieving on granulometric sorts and 10-50 sort was used for preliminary tests of crushing in the second stage with a jaw crusher BB 200 Retsch model, respectively a hammer crusher Buffalo Shuttle WA-12-H model. It was highlighted the influence of the type of crusher used to obtain recycled aggregates on granulometry and granule shape and the influence of the attached mortar on the density, water absorption, behavior to the Los Angeles test etc. The proportion of attached mortar was determined and correlated with provenance concrete class of the recycled aggregates and their granulometric sort. The aim to characterize the recycled aggregates is their valorification in new concrete used in construction. In this regard have been made a series of concrete in which the recycled aggregate content was varied from 0 to 100%. The new concrete were characterized by point of view of the change in the density and compressive strength with the proportion of recycled aggregates. It has been shown that an increase in recycled aggregate content not necessarily mean a reduction in compressive strength, quality of the aggregate having a decisive role.

Keywords: recycled concrete aggregate, characteristics, recycled aggregate concrete, properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: A. Caicedo Padilla, J. Zambrano Nájera

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Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca and the second city of Colombia, is located in the Cauca River Valley between the Western and Central Cordillera that is South West of the country. The topography of the city is mainly flat, but it is possibly to find mountains in the west. The city has increased urbanization during XX century, especially since 1958 when started a rapid growth due to migration of people from other parts of the region. Much of that population has settled in eastern of Cali, an area originally intended for cane cultivation and a zone of flood from Cauca River and its tributaries. Due to the unplanned migration, settling was inadequate and produced changes in natural dynamics of the basins, which has resulted in increases in runoff volumes, peak flows and flow velocities, that in turn increases flood risk. Sewerage networks capacity were not enough for this higher runoff volume, because in first term they were not adequately designed and built, causing its failure. This in turn generates increasingly recurrent floods generating considerable effects on the economy and development of normal activities in Cali. Thus, it becomes very important to know hydrological behavior of Urban Watersheds. This research aims to determine the impact of urbanization on hydrology of watersheds with very low slopes. The project aims to identify changes in natural drainage patterns caused by the changes made on landscape. From the identification of such modifications it will be defined the most critical areas due to recurring flood events in the city of Cali. Critical areas are defined as areas where the sewerage system does not work properly as surface runoff increases considerable with storm events, and floods are recurrent. The assessment will be done from the analysis of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) theme layers from CVC Environmental Institution of Regional Control in Valle del Cauca, hydrological data and disaster database developed by OSSO Corporation. Rainfall data from a network and historical stream flow data will be used for analysis of historical behavior and change of precipitation and hydrological response according to homogeneous zones characterized by EMCALI S.A. public utility enterprise of Cali in 1999.

Keywords: drainage systems, land cover changes, urban hydrology, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Elham Koohi, Silvio Jose Gumiere, Hossein Bonakdari, Saeid Homayouni

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Water used in agricultural crops can be managed by irrigation scheduling based on soil moisture levels and plant water stress thresholds. Automated irrigation scheduling limits crop physiological damage and yield reduction. Knowledge of crop water stress monitoring approaches can be effective in optimizing the use of agricultural water. Understanding the physiological mechanisms of crop responding and adapting to water deficit ensures sustainable agricultural management and food supply. This aim could be achieved by analyzing and diagnosing crop characteristics and their interlinkage with the surrounding environment. Assessments of plant functional types (e.g., leaf area and structure, tree height, rate of evapotranspiration, rate of photosynthesis), controlling changes, and irrigated areas mapping. Calculating thresholds of soil water content parameters, crop water use efficiency, and Nitrogen status make irrigation scheduling decisions more accurate by preventing water limitations between irrigations. Combining Remote Sensing (RS), the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning Algorithms (MLAs) can improve measurement accuracies and automate irrigation scheduling. This paper is a review structured by surveying about 100 recent research studies to analyze varied approaches in terms of providing high spatial and temporal resolution mapping, sensor-based Variable Rate Application (VRA) mapping, the relation between spectral and thermal reflectance and different features of crop and soil. The other objective is to assess RS indices formed by choosing specific reflectance bands and identifying the correct spectral band to optimize classification techniques and analyze Proximal Optical Sensors (POSs) to control changes. The innovation of this paper can be defined as categorizing evaluation methodologies of precision irrigation (applying the right practice, at the right place, at the right time, with the right quantity) controlled by soil moisture levels and sensitiveness of crops to water stress, into pre-processing, processing (retrieval algorithms), and post-processing parts. Then, the main idea of this research is to analyze the error reasons and/or values in employing different approaches in three proposed parts reported by recent studies. Additionally, as an overview conclusion tried to decompose different approaches to optimizing indices, calibration methods for the sensors, thresholding and prediction models prone to errors, and improvements in classification accuracy for mapping changes.

Keywords: agricultural crops, crop water stress detection, irrigation scheduling, precision agriculture, remote sensing

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Authors: Md. Nuru Miah, A. F. M. Akhter Uddin

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Medicinal plants are grown naturally in a tropical environment in Bangladesh and used as drug and therapeutic agents in the health care system. According to Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), there are 722 species of medicinal plants in the country. Of them, 255 plants are utilized by the manufacturers of Ayurvedic and Unani medicines. Medicinal plants like Aloevera, Ashwagonda, shotomul,Tulsi, Vuikumra, Misridana are extensively cultivated in some selected areas as well; where Aloevera scored the highest position in production. In the early 1980, Ayurvedic and Unani companies procured 80 percent of medicinal plants from natural forests, and the rest 20 percent was imported. Now the scenario has changed; 80 percent is imported, and the rest 20 percent is collected from local products(Source: Astudy on sectorbased need assessment of Business promotion council-Herbal products and medicinal plants, page-4). Uttara Development Program Society, a leading Non- Government development organization in Bangladesh, has been implementing a value chain development project under promoting Agricultural commercialization and Enterprises of Pally Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Natore Sadar Upazila from April 2017 to sustainably develop the technological interventions for products and market development. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase income, generate employment and develop this sector as a sustainable business enterprise. Altogether 10,000 farmers (Nursery owners, growers, input supplier, processors, whole sellers, and retailers) are engaged in different activities of the project. The entrepreneurs engaged in medicinal plant cultivation did not know and follow environmental and good agricultural practices. They used to adopt traditional methodology in production and processing. Locally the farmers didn’t have any positive initiative to expand their business as well as developvalue added products. A lot of diversified products could be possible to develop and marketed with the introduction of post-harvest processing technology and market linkage with the local and global buyer. Training is imparted to the nursery owners and herbal growers on production technologies, sowing method, use of organic fertilizers/compost/pesticides, harvesting procedures, and storage facilities. Different types of herbal tea like Rosella, Moringa, Tulshi, and Basak are being produced and packed locally with a good scope of its marketing in different cities of the country. The project has been able to achieve a significant impact in the development of production technologies, but still, there is room for further improvement in processing, packaging, and marketing level. The core intervention of the current project to develop some entrepreneurs for branding, packaging, promotion, and marketing while considering environment friendly practices. The present strategies will strengthen the knowledge and skills of the entrepreneurs for the production and marketing of their products, maintaining worldwide accepted compliance system for easy access to the global market.

Keywords: aloe vera, herbs and shrubs, market, interventions

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: Murari Prasad

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This paper is motivated by the implications of indentured migration depicted in Amitav Ghosh’s critically acclaimed novel, Sea of Poppies (2008). Ghosh’s perspective on the experiences of North Indian indentured labourers moving from their homeland to a distant and unknown location across the seas suggests a radical attitudinal change among the migrants on board the Ibis, a schooner chartered to carry the recruits from Calcutta to Mauritius in the late 1830s. The novel unfolds the life-altering trauma of the bonded servants, including their efforts to maintain a sense of self while negotiating significant social and cultural transformations during the voyage which leads to the breakdown of familiar life-worlds. Equally, the migrants are introduced to an alternative network of relationships to ensure their survival away from land. They relinquish their entrenched beliefs and prejudices and commit themselves to a new brotherhood formed by ‘ship siblings.’ With the official abolition of direct slavery in 1833, the supply of cheap labour to the sugar plantation in British colonies as far-flung as Mauritius and Fiji to East Africa and the Caribbean sharply declined. Around the same time, China’s attempt to prohibit the illegal importation of opium from British India into China threatened the lucrative opium trade. To run the ever-profitable plantation colonies with cheap labour, Indian peasants, wrenched from their village economies, were indentured to plantations as girmitiyas (vernacularized from ‘agreement’) by the colonial government using the ploy of an optional form of recruitment. After the British conquest of the Isle of France in 1810, Mauritius became Britain’s premier sugar colony bringing waves of Indian immigrants to the island. In the articulations of their subjectivities one notices how the recruits cope with the alienating drudgery of indenture, mitigate the hardships of the voyage and forge new ties with pragmatic acts of cultural syncretism in a forward-looking autonomous community of ‘ship-siblings’ following the fracture of traditional identities. This paper tests the hypothesis that Ghosh envisions a kind of futuristic/utopian political collectivity in a hierarchically rigid, racially segregated and identity-obsessed world. In order to ground the claim and frame the complex representations of alliance and love across the boundaries of caste, religion, gender and nation, the essential methodology here is a close textual analysis of the novel. This methodology will be geared to explicate the utopian futurity that the novel gestures towards by underlining new regulations of life during voyage and dissolution of multiple differences among the indentured migrants on board the Ibis.

Keywords: indenture, colonial, opium, sugar plantation

Procedia PDF Downloads 379

Authors: Irene Carmagnola, Valeria Chiono, Sandra Pacharra, Jochen Salber, Sean McMahon, Chris Lovell, Pooja Basnett, Barbara Lukasiewicz, Ipsita Roy, Xiang Zhang, Gianluca Ciardelli

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Thrombosis and restenosis after stenting procedure can be prevented by promoting fast stent wall endothelialisation. It is well known that surface functionalisation with antifouling molecules combining with extracellular matrix proteins is a promising strategy to design biomimetic surfaces able to promote fast endothelialization. In particular, REDV has gained much attention for the ability to enhance rapid endothelialization due to its specific affinity with endothelial cells (ECs). In this work, a two-step plasma treatment was performed to polymerize a thin layer of acrylic acid, used to subsequently graft PEGylated-REDV and polyethylene glycol (PEG) at different molar ratio with the aim to selectively promote endothelial cell adhesion avoiding platelet activation. PEGylate-REDV was provided by Biomatik and it is formed by 6 PEG monomer repetitions (Chempep Inc.), with an NH2 terminal group. PEG polymers were purchased from Chempep Inc. with two different chain lengths: m-PEG6-NH2 (295.4 Da) with 6 monomer repetitions and m-PEG12-NH2 (559.7 Da) with 12 monomer repetitions. Plasma activation was obtained by operating at 50W power, 5 min of treatment and at an Ar flow rate of 20 sccm. Pure acrylic acid (99%, AAc) vapors were diluted in Ar (flow = 20 sccm) and polymerized by a pulsed plasma discharge applying a discharge RF power of 200 W, a duty cycle of 10% (on time = 10 ms, off time = 90 ms) for 10 min. After plasma treatment, samples were dipped into an 1-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-3- ethylcarbodiimide (EDC)/N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) solution (ratio 4:1, pH 5.5) for 1 h at 4°C and subsequently dipped in PEGylate-REDV and PEGylate-REDV:PEG solutions at different molar ratio (100 μg/mL in PBS) for 20 h at room temperature. Surface modification was characterized through physico-chemical analyses and in vitro cell tests. PEGylated-REDV peptide and PEG were successfully bound to the carboxylic groups that are formed on the polymer surface after plasma reaction. FTIR-ATR spectroscopy, X -ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurement gave a clear indication of the presence of the grafted molecules. The use of PEG as a spacer allowed for an increase in wettability of the surface, and the effect was more evident by increasing the amount of PEG. Endothelial cells adhered and spread well on the surfaces functionalized with the REDV sequence. In conclusion, a selective coating able to promote a new endothelial cell layer on polymeric stent surface was developed. In particular, a thin AAc film was polymerised on the polymeric surface in order to expose –COOH groups, and PEGylate-REDV and PEG were successful grafted on the polymeric substrates. The REDV peptide demonstrated to encourage cell adhesion with a consequent, expected improvement of the hemocompatibility of these polymeric surfaces in vivo. Acknowledgements— This work was funded by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme under grant agreement number 604251- ReBioStent (Reinforced Bioresorbable Biomaterials for Therapeutic Drug Eluting Stents). The authors thank all the ReBioStent partners for their support in this work.

Keywords: endothelialisation, plasma treatment, stent, surface functionalisation

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: Tendü H. Göktuğ, Gönül T. İçemer, Bülent Deniz

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National parks, which are rich in natural and cultural resources values are protected in the context of the idea to develop sustainability, are among the most important recreated areas demanding with each passing day. Increasing recreational use or unplanned use forms negatively affect the resource values and visitor satisfaction. The intent of national parks management is to protect the natural and cultural resource values and to provide the visitors with a quality of recreational experience, as well. In this context, the current studies to improve the appropriate tourism and recreation planning and visitor management, approach have focused on recreational carrying capacity analysis. The aim of this study is to analyze recreational carrying capacity of Çıralı Coast in the Bey Mountains Coastal National Park to compare the analyze results with the current usage format and to develop alternative management strategies. In the first phase of the study, the annual and daily visitations, geographic, bio-physical, and managerial characteristics of the park and the type of recreational usage and the recreational areas were analyzed. In addition to these, ecological observations were carried out in order to determine recreational-based pressures on the ecosystems. On-site questionnaires were administrated to a sample of 284 respondents in the August 2015 - 2016 to collect data concerning the demographics and visit characteristics. The second phase of the study, the coastal area separated into four different usage zones and the methodology proposed by Cifuentes (1992) was used for capacity analyses. This method supplies the calculation of physical, real and effective carrying capacities by using environmental, ecological, climatic and managerial parameters in a formulation. Expected numbers which estimated three levels of carrying capacities were compared to current numbers of national parks’ visitors. In the study, it was determined that the current recreational uses in the north of the beach were caused by ecological pressures, and the current numbers in the south of beach much more than estimated numbers of visitors. Based on these results management strategies were defined and the appropriate management tools were developed in accordance with these strategies. The authors are grateful for the financial support of this project by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (No: 114O344)

Keywords: Çıralı Coast, national parks, recreational carrying capacity, visitor management

Procedia PDF Downloads 258

Authors: V. Cesaroni, C. Girometta, A. Bernicchia, M. Brusoni, F. Corana, R. M. Baiguera, C. M. Cusaro, M. L. Guglielminetti, B. Mannucci, H. Kawagishi, C. Perini, A. M. Picco, P. Rossi, E. Salerni, E. Savino

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Fungi of the genus Hericium contain various compounds with antibacterial activity, cytotoxic effect on cancer cells and bioactive molecules. Some of the active metabolites stimulate the synthesis of the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF). Recently, the effect of dietary supplement based on Hericium erinaceus on recognition memory and on hippocampal mossy fiber-CA3 neurotransmission was published. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of Hericium species on Italian territory in order to isolate the strains for further studies and applications. The first step was to collect Hericium sporophores in Tuscany: H. alpestre Pers., H. coralloides (Scop.) Pers. and H. erinaceus (Bull.) Pers. were the species present. The strains of H. alpestre (H.a.1), H. coralloides (H.c.1) and H. erinaceus (H.e.1 & H.e.2) have been isolated in pure culture and preserved in the collection of the University of Pavia (MicUNIPV). The DNA sequences obtained from the strains were compared to other sequences found in international databases. Therefore, it was possible to construct a phylogenetic tree that highlights the clear separation in clades of the sequences and the molecular identification of our strains with the species of Hericium considered. The second step was to cultivate indoor and outdoor H. erinaceus in order to obtain as many sporophores as possible for further chemical analysis. All the procedures for H. erinaceus cultivation have been followed. Among the available recipes for indoor H. erinaceus cultivation, it was used a substrate formulation contained 70% oak sawdust, 20% rice bran, 10% wheat straw, 1% CaCO3 and 1% sucrose. The bioactive compounds present in the mycelia and in the sporophores of H. erinaceus were chemically analyzed in collaboration with the Centro Grandi Strumenti of the University of Pavia using high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS/MS). The materials to be analyzed were previously freeze-dried and then extracted with an alcoholic procedure. Preliminary chromatographic analysis revealed the presence of potentially bioactive and structurally different secondary metabolites such as polysaccharides, erinacins, ericenones, steroids and other terpenoids. Ericenones C and D (in sporophores) and erinacin A (in mycelium) have been identified by comparison with the respective standards. These molecules are known to have effects on the Central Nervous System (CNS) cells, which is the main objective of our studies. Thanks to the high sensitivity in the detection of bioactive compounds of H. erinaceus, it will be possible to use the To obtain lyophilized mycelium and the respective culture broth, 4 small pieces (about 5 mm2) of the respective H.e.1 or H.c.1 strains, taken from the margin of growing cultures (MEA), were inoculated into 1 liter of 2% ME (malt extract, Biokar Diagnostics). The static liquid cultures were kept at 24 °C in the dark chamber and fungi grew for one month. 10 replicates for each strain have been done. The method proposed as an analytical screening protocol to determine the optimal growth conditions of the fungus and to improve the production chain of H. erinaceus. These results encourage to carry out chemical analyzes also on H. alpestre and H. coralloides in order to evaluate the presence of bioactive compounds in these two species.

Keywords: Hericium species, Hercium erinaceus bioactive compounds, medicinal mushrooms, mushroom cultivation

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Babak Forouraghi

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A genetic circuit is a collection of interacting genes and proteins that enable individual cells to implement and perform vital biological functions such as cell division, growth, death, and signaling. In cell engineering, synthetic gene circuits are engineered networks of genes specifically designed to implement functionalities that are not evolved by nature. These engineered networks enable scientists to tackle complex problems such as engineering cells to produce therapeutics within the patient's body, altering T cells to target cancer-related antigens for treatment, improving antibody production using engineered cells, tissue engineering, and production of genetically modified plants and livestock. Construction of computational models to realize genetic circuits is an especially challenging task since it requires the discovery of the flow of genetic information in complex biological systems. Building synthetic biological models is also a time-consuming process with relatively low prediction accuracy for highly complex genetic circuits. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of a pre-trained bidirectional encoder transformer that can accurately predict gene expressions in genetic circuit designs. The main reason behind using transformers is their innate ability (attention mechanism) to take account of the semantic context present in long DNA chains that are heavily dependent on the spatial representation of their constituent genes. Previous approaches to gene circuit design, such as CNN and RNN architectures, are unable to capture semantic dependencies in long contexts, as required in most real-world applications of synthetic biology. For instance, RNN models (LSTM, GRU), although able to learn long-term dependencies, greatly suffer from vanishing gradient and low-efficiency problem when they sequentially process past states and compresses contextual information into a bottleneck with long input sequences. In other words, these architectures are not equipped with the necessary attention mechanisms to follow a long chain of genes with thousands of tokens. To address the above-mentioned limitations, a transformer model was built in this work as a variation to the existing DNA Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (DNABERT) model. It is shown that the proposed transformer is capable of capturing contextual information from long input sequences with an attention mechanism. In previous works on genetic circuit design, the traditional approaches to classification and regression, such as Random Forrest, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Networks, were able to achieve reasonably high R2 accuracy levels of 0.95 to 0.97. However, the transformer model utilized in this work, with its attention-based mechanism, was able to achieve a perfect accuracy level of 100%. Further, it is demonstrated that the efficiency of the transformer-based gene expression classifier is not dependent on the presence of large amounts of training examples, which may be difficult to compile in many real-world gene circuit designs.

Keywords: machine learning, classification and regression, gene circuit design, bidirectional transformers

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Authors: Tas Yong Koh, Steve Rowlinson, Yuzhong Shen

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In construction safety management, safety climate has long been linked to workers' safety behaviors and performance. For this reason, safety climate concept and tools have been used as heuristics to diagnose a range of safety-related issues by some progressive contractors in Hong Kong and elsewhere. However, as a diagnostic tool, safety climate tends to treat the different components of the climate construct in a linear fashion. Safety management in construction projects, in reality, is a multi-faceted and multilevel phenomenon that resembles a complex system. Hence, understanding safety management in construction projects requires not only the understanding of safety climate but also the organizational-systemic nature of the phenomenon. Our involvement, diagnoses, and interpretations of a range of safety climate-related issues which culminated in the project’s sub-optimum safety performance in an infrastructure construction project have brought about such revelation. In this study, a range of data types had been collected from various hierarchies of the project site organization. These include the frontline workers and supervisors from the main and sub-contractors, and the client supervisory personnel. Data collection was performed through the administration of safety climate questionnaire, interviews, observation, and document study. The findings collectively indicate that what had emerged in parallel of the seemingly linear climate-based exploration is the exposition of the organization-systemic nature of the phenomenon. The results indicate the negative impacts of climate perceptions mismatch, insufficient work planning, and risk management, mixed safety leadership, workforce negative attributes, lapsed safety enforcement and resources shortages collectively give rise to the project sub-optimum safety performance. From the dynamic causation and multilevel perspective, the analyses show that the individual, group, and organizational levels issues are interrelated and these interrelationships are linked to negative safety climate. Hence the adoption of both perspectives has enabled a fuller understanding of the phenomenon of safety management that point to the need for an organizational-systemic intervention strategy. The core message points to the fact that intervention at an individual level will only meet with limited success if the risks embedded in the higher levels in group and project organization are not addressed. The findings can be used to guide the effective development of safety infrastructure by linking different levels of systems in a construction project organization.

Keywords: construction safety management, dynamic causation, multilevel analysis, safety climate

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Authors: Tramuta Clara, Masotti Chiara, Pitti Monica, Adriano Daniela, Battistini Roberta, Serraca Laura, Decastelli Lucia

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Oysters are considered filter organisms, and their raw consumption may increase health risks for consumers: it is often associated with outbreaks of gastroenteritis or enteric illnesses. Most of these foodborne diseases are caused by Vibrio strains, enteric pathogens also involved in the diffusion of genetic determinants of antibiotic resistance and their entrance along the food chain. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), during the European Union report on antimicrobial resistance in 2017, focused the attention about the role of food as a possible carrier of antibiotic-resistant bacteria or antibiotic-resistance genes that determine health risks for humans. This study wants to determine antibiotic resistance and antibiotic-resistance genes in Vibrio spp. isolated from Crassostrea gigas oysters collected in the Golfo della Spezia (Liguria, Italy). A total of 47 Vibrio spp. strains were isolated (ISO21872-2:2017) during the summer of 2021 from oysters of Crassostrea gigas. The strains were identified by MALDI-TOF (Bruker, Germany) mass spectrometry and tested for antibiotic susceptibility using a broth microdiluition method (ISO20776-1:2019) using Sensititre EUVSEC plates (Thermo-Fisher Scientific) to obtain the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). The strains were tested with PCR-based biomolecular methods, according to previous works, to define the presence of 23 resistance genes of the main classes of antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine: tet (B), tet (C), tet (D), tet (A), tet (E), tet (G ), tet (K), tet (L), tet (M), tet (O), tet (S) (tetracycline resistance); blaCTX-M, blaTEM, blaOXA, blaSHV (β-lactam resistance); mcr-1 and mcr-2 (colistin resistance); qnrA, qnrB, and qnrS (quinolone resistance); sul1, sul2 and sul3 (sulfonamide resistance). Six different species have been identified: V. alginolyticus 34% (n=16), V. harveyi 28% (n=13), V. fortis 15% (n=7), V. pelagius 8% (n=4), V. parahaemolyticus 11% (n=5) e V. chagasii 4% (n=2). The PCR assays showed the presence of the blaTEM gene on 40% of the strains (n=19). All the other genes were not detected, except for a V. alginolyticus positive for anrS gene. The broth microdiluition method results showed an high level of resistance for ciprofloxacin (62%; n=29), ampicillin (47%; n=22), and colistin (49%; n=23). Furthermore, 32% (n=15) of strains can be considered multiresistant bacteria for the simultaneous presence of resistance for three different antibiotic classes. Susceptibility towards meropenem, azithromycin, gentamicin, ceftazidime, cefotaxime, chloramphenicol, tetracycline and sulphamethoxazole reached 100%. The Vibrio species identified in this study are widespread in marine environments and can cause gastrointerstinal infections after the ingestion of raw fish products and bivalve molluscs. The level of resistance to antibiotics such as ampicillin, ciprofloxacin and colistin can be connected to anthropic factors (industrial, agricultural and domestic wastes) that promote the spread of resistance to these antibiotics. It can be also observed a strong correlation between phenotypic (resistant MIC) and genotypic (positive blaTEM gene) resistance for ampicillin on the same strains, probably due to the transfer of genetic material between bacterial strains. Consumption of raw bivalve molluscs can represent a risk for consumers heath due to the potentially presence of foodborne pathogens, highly resistant to different antibiotics and source of transferable antibiotic-resistant genes.

Keywords: vibrio species, blaTEM genes, antimicrobial resistance, PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Xin Jiao, Xin Zhang, Jian Fan, Zhenwei Cai, Yiming Xu

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Tower cranes play a crucial role in the construction industry, facilitating the vertical and horizontal movement of materials and aiding in building construction, especially for high-rise structures. However, tower crane accidents can lead to severe consequences, highlighting the importance of effective safety management and inspection. This paper presents an innovative approach to tower crane inspection utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and an Intelligent Inspection APP System. The system leverages UAVs equipped with high-definition cameras to conduct efficient and comprehensive inspections, reducing manual labor, inspection time, and risk. By integrating advanced technologies such as Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning and digital image processing, the system enables precise route planning and collection of safety hazards images. A case study conducted on a construction site demonstrates the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method, showcasing its potential to enhance tower crane safety. On-site testing of UAV intelligent inspections reveals key findings: efficient tower crane hazard inspection within 30 minutes, with a full-identification capability coverage rates of 76.3%, 64.8%, and 76.2% for major, significant, and general hazards respectively and a preliminary-identification capability coverage rates of 18.5%, 27.2%, and 19%, respectively. Notably, UAVs effectively identify various tower crane hazards, except for those requiring auditory detection. The limitations of this study primarily involve two aspects: Firstly, during the initial inspection, manual drone piloting is required for marking tower crane points, followed by automated flight inspections and reuse based on the marked route. Secondly, images captured by the drone necessitate manual identification and review, which can be time-consuming for equipment management personnel, particularly when dealing with a large volume of images. Subsequent research efforts will focus on AI training and recognition of safety hazard images, as well as the automatic generation of inspection reports and corrective management based on recognition results. The ongoing development in this area is currently in progress, and outcomes will be released at an appropriate time.

Keywords: tower crane, inspection, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), intelligent inspection app system, safety management

Procedia PDF Downloads 28

Authors: Sushil Pradhan

Abstract:

Biotechnology contributes to sustainable development in several ways such as biofertilizer production, biopesticide production and management of environmental pollution, tissue culture and biodiversity conservation in vitro, in vivo and in situ, Insectivorous medicinal plant Drosera burmannii Vahl belongs to the Family-Droseraceae under Order-Caryophyllales, Dicotyledoneae, Angiospermeae which has 31 (thirty one) living genera and 194 species besides 7 (seven) extinct (fossil) genera. Locally it is known as “Patkanduri” in Odia. Its Hindi name is “Mukhajali” and its English name is “Sundew”. The earliest species of Drosera was first reported in 1753 by Carolous Linnaeus called Drosera indica L (Indian Sundew). The latest species of Drosera reported by Fleisch A, Robinson, AS, McPherson S, Heinrich V, Gironella E and Madulida D.A. (2011) is Drosera ultramafica from Malaysia. More than 50 % species of Drosera have been reported from Australia and next to Australia is South Africa. India harbours only 3 species such as D. indica L, Drosera burmannii Vahl and D. peltata L. From our Odisha only D. burmannii Vahl is being reported for the first time from the district of Subarnapur near Sonepur (Arjunpur Reserve Forest Area). Drosera plant is autotrophic but to supplement its Nitrogen (N2) requirement it adopts heterotrophic mode of nutrition (insectivorous/carnivorous) as well. The colour of plant in mostly red and about 20-30cm in height with beautiful pink or white pentamerous flowers. Plants grow luxuriantly during November to February in shady and moist places near small water bodies of running water stream. Medicinally it is a popular herb in the locality for the treatment of cold and cough in children in rainy season by the local Doctors (Kabiraj and Baidya). In the present field investigation an attempt has been made to understand the unique reproductive phase and life cycle of the plant thereby planning for its conservation and propagation through various techniques of tissue culture and biotechnology. More importantly besides morphological and anatomical studies, cytological investigation is being carried out to find out the number of chromosomes in the cell and its genomics as there is no such report as yet for Drosera burmannii Vahl. The ecological significance and biodiversity conservation of Drosera with special reference to energy, environmental and chemical engineering has been discussed in the research paper presentation.

Keywords: insectivorous, medicinal, drosera, biotechnology, chromosome, genome

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: E. A. Abdel-Hakim

Abstract:

The corn stemborer Sesamia cretica (Lederer), has been viewed in many parts of the world as a major pest of cultivated maize, graminaceous crops and sugarcane. Its life cycle is comprised of two different phases, one is the growth and developmental phase (non-diapause) and the other is diapause phase which takes place at the last larval instar. Several problems associated with the use of conventional insecticides, have strongly demonstrated the need for applying alternative safe compounds. Prominent among the prototypes of such prospective chemicals are the juvenoids; i.e. the insect (JH) mimics. In fact, the hormonal effect on metabolism has long been viewed as a secondary consequence of its direct action on specific energy-requiring biosynthetic mechanisms. Therefore, the present study was undertaken essentially in a rather systematic fashion as a contribution towards clarifying metabolic and energetic changes taking place during non-diapause wandering larvae as regulated by (JH) mimic. For this purpose, we applied two different doses of JH mimic (Ro 11-0111) in a single (standard) dose of 100µg or in a single dose of 20 µg/g bw in1µl acetone topically at the onset of nondiapause wandering larvae (WL). Energetic data were obtained by indirect calorimetry methods by conversion of respiratory gas exchange volumetric data, as measured manometrically using a Warburg constant respirometer, to caloric units (g-cal/g fw/h). The findings obtained can be given in brief; these treated larvae underwent supernumerary larval moults. However, this potential the wandering larvae proved to possess whereby restoration of larval programming for S. cretica to overcome stresses even at this critical developmental period. The results obtained, particularly with the high dose used, show that 98% wandering larvae were rescued to survive up to one month (vs. 5 days for normal controls), finally the formation of larval-adult intermediates. Also, the solvent controls had resulted in about 22% additional, but stationary moultings. The basal respiratory metabolism (O2 uptake and CO2 output) of the (WL), whether un-treated or larvae not had followed reciprocal U-shaped curves all along of their developmental duration. The lowest points stood nearly to the day of prepupal formation (571±187 µl O2/gfw/h and 553±181 µl CO2/gfw/h) during un-treated in contrast to the larvae treated with JH (210±48 µl O2/gfw/h and 335±81 µl CO2/gfw/h). Un-treated (normal) larvae proved to utilize carbohydrates as the principal source for energy supply; being fully oxidised without sparing any appreciable amount for endergonic conversion to fats. While, the juvenoid-treated larvae and compared with the acetone-treated control equivalents, there existed no distinguishable differences between them; both had been observed utilising carbohydrates as the sole source of energy demand and converting endergonically almost similar percentages to fats. The overall profile, treated and un-treated (WL) utilized carbohydrates as the principal source for energy demand during this stage.

Keywords: juvenile hormone, respiratory metabolism, Sesamia cretica, wandering phase

Procedia PDF Downloads 276

Authors: Soheila Sadeghi

Abstract:

Construction projects are complex and often subject to significant cost overruns due to the multifaceted nature of the activities involved. Accurate cost estimation is crucial for effective budget planning and resource allocation. Traditional methods for predicting overruns often rely on expert judgment or analysis of historical data, which can be time-consuming, subjective, and may fail to consider important factors. However, with the increasing availability of data from construction projects, machine learning techniques can be leveraged to improve the accuracy of overrun predictions. This study applied machine learning algorithms to enhance the prediction of cost overruns in a case study of a construction project. The methodology involved the development and evaluation of two machine learning models: Random Forest and Neural Networks. Random Forest can handle high-dimensional data, capture complex relationships, and provide feature importance estimates. Neural Networks, particularly Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), are capable of automatically learning and modeling complex, non-linear relationships between input features and the target variable. These models can adapt to new data, reduce human bias, and uncover hidden patterns in the dataset. The findings of this study demonstrate that both Random Forest and Neural Networks can significantly improve the accuracy of cost overrun predictions compared to traditional methods. The Random Forest model also identified key cost drivers and risk factors, such as changes in the scope of work and delays in material delivery, which can inform better project risk management. However, the study acknowledges several limitations. First, the findings are based on a single construction project, which may limit the generalizability of the results to other projects or contexts. Second, the dataset, although comprehensive, may not capture all relevant factors influencing cost overruns, such as external economic conditions or political factors. Third, the study focuses primarily on cost overruns, while schedule overruns are not explicitly addressed. Future research should explore the application of machine learning techniques to a broader range of projects, incorporate additional data sources, and investigate the prediction of both cost and schedule overruns simultaneously.

Keywords: cost prediction, machine learning, project management, random forest, neural networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 16

Authors: Zuzana Tatarkova, Ivana Pilchova, Michal Cibulka, Martin Kolisek, Peter Racay, Peter Kaplan

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Introduction: Normal functioning of mitochondria is crucial for cardiac performance. Mitochondria undergo mitophagy and biogenesis, and mitochondrial proteins are subject to extensive post-translational modifications. The state of mitochondrial homeostasis reflects overall cellular fitness and longevity. Perturbed mitochondria produce less ATP, release greater amounts of reactive molecules, and are more prone to apoptosis. Therefore mitochondrial turnover is an integral aspect of quality control in which dysfunctional mitochondria are selectively eliminated through mitophagy. Currently, the progressive deterioration of physiological functions is seen as accumulation of modified/damaged proteins with limiting regenerative ability and disturbance of such affected protein-protein communication throughout aging in myocardial cells. Methodologies: For our study was used immunohistochemistry, biochemical methods: spectrophotometry, western blotting, immunodetection as well as more sophisticated 2D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry for evaluation protein-protein interactions and specific post-translational modification. Results and Discussion: Mitochondrial stress response to reactive species was evaluated as electron transport chain (ETC) complexes, redox-active molecules, and their possible communication. Protein-protein interactions revealed a strong linkage between age and ETC protein subunits. Redox state was strongly affected in senescent mitochondria with shift in favor of more pro-oxidizing condition within cardiomyocytes. Acute myocardial ischemia and ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury affected ETC complexes I, II and IV with no change in complex III. Ischemia induced decrease in total antioxidant capacity, MnSOD, GSH and catalase activity with recovery in some extent during reperfusion. While MnSOD protein content was higher in IR group, activity returned to 95% of control. Nitric oxide is one of the biological molecules that can out compete MnSOD for superoxide and produce peroxynitrite. This process is faster than dismutation and led to the 10-fold higher production of nitrotyrosine after IR injury in adult with higher protection in senescent ones. 2D protein profiling revealed 140 mitochondrial proteins, 12 of them with significant changes after IR injury and 36 individual nitrotyrosine-modified proteins further identified by mass spectrometry. Linking these two groups, 5 proteins were altered after IR as well as nitrated, but only one showed massive nitration per lowering content of protein after IR injury in adult. Conclusions: Senescent cells have greater proportion of protein content, which might be modulated by several post-translational modifications. If these protein modifications are connected to functional consequences and protein-protein interactions are revealed, link may lead to the solution. Assume all together, dysfunctional proteostasis can play a causative role and restoration of protein homeostasis machinery is protective against aging and possibly age-related disorders. This work was supported by the project VEGA 1/0018/18 and by project 'Competence Center for Research and Development in the field of Diagnostics and Therapy of Oncological diseases', ITMS: 26220220153, co-financed from EU sources.

Keywords: aging heart, mitochondria, proteomics, redox state

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: O. Katz-Shufan, T. Simon-Tuval, L. Sabag, L. Granek, D. R. Shahar

Abstract:

Meals provided at catering systems are a common source of workers' nutrition and were found as contributing high amounts calories and fat. Thus, eating daily catering food can lead to overweight and chronic diseases. On the other hand, the institutional dining room may be an ideal environment for implementation of intervention programs that promote healthy eating. This may improve diners' lifestyle and reduce their prevalence of overweight, obesity and chronic diseases. The significance of this study is in developing an intervention program based on the diners’ dietary habits, preferences and their attitudes towards various intervention programs. In addition, a successful catering-based intervention program may have a significant effect simultaneously on a large group of diners, leading to improved nutrition, healthier lifestyle, and disease-prevention on a large scale. In order to develop the intervention program, we conducted a qualitative study. We interviewed 13 diners who eat regularly at catering systems, using a semi-structured interview. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed by the thematic method, which identifies, analyzes and reports themes within the data. The interviews revealed several major themes, including expectation of diners to be provided with healthy food choices; their request for nutrition-expert involvement in planning the meals; the diners' feel that there is a conflict between sensory attractiveness of the food and its' nutritional quality. In the context of the catering-based intervention programs, the diners prefer scientific and clear messages focusing on labeling healthy dishes only, as opposed to the labeling of unhealthy dishes; they were interested in a nutritional education program to accompany the intervention program. Based on these findings, we have developed an intervention program that includes: changes in food served such as replacing several menu items and nutritional improvement of some of the recipes; as well as, environmental changes such as changing the location of some food items presented on the buffet, placing positive nutritional labels on healthy dishes and an ongoing healthy nutrition campaign, all accompanied by a nutrition education program. The intervention program is currently being tested for its impact on health outcomes and its cost-effectiveness.

Keywords: catering system, food services, intervention, nutrition policy, public health, qualitative research

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: Yi-Chun Huang, Kuan-Yun Chen, Chuang-Hung Lin

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Urban Green Belt and Blue is a part of the city landscape, it is an important constituent element of the urban environment and appearance. The Hsinchu East Gate Moat is situated in the center of the city, which not only has a wealth of historical and cultural resources, but also combines the Green Belt and the Blue Belt qualities at the same time. The Moat runs more than a thousand meters through the vital Green Belt and the Blue Belt in downtown, and each section is presented in different qualities of moat from south to north. The water area and the green belt of surroundings are presented linear and banded spread. The water body and the rich diverse river banks form an urban green belt of rich layers. The watercourse with green belt design lets users have connections with blue belts in different ways; therefore, the integration of Hsinchu East Gate and moat have become one of the unique urban landscapes in Taiwan. The study is based on the fact-finding case of Hsinchu East Gate Moat where situated in northern Taiwan, to research the impact between the SVF variation of the city and spatial sequence of Urban Green Belt and Blue landscape and visual analysis by constituent cross-section, and then comparing the influence of different leaf area index – the variable ecological factors to the degree of enclosure. We proceed to survey the landscape design of open space, to measure existing structural features of the plant canopy which contain the height of plants and branches, the crown diameter, breast-height diameter through access to diagram of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and on-the-spot actual measurement. The north and south districts of blue green belt areas are divided 20 meters into a unit from East Gate Roundabout as the epicenter, and to set up a survey points to measure the SVF above the survey points; then we proceed to quantitative analysis from the data to calculate open landscape degree of enclosure. The results can be reference for the composition of future river landscape and the practical operation for dynamic space planning of blue and green belt landscape.

Keywords: sky view factor, degree of enclosure, spatial sequence, leaf area indices

Procedia PDF Downloads 542

Authors: Aya Al Masri, Kamel Guerchouche, Youssef Laynaoui, Safoin Aktaou, Malorie Martin, Fouad Maaloul

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Introduction: Mobile C-arms move throughout operating rooms of the operating theater. Being designed to move between rooms, they are not equipped with relays to retrieve the exposition information and export it outside the room. Therefore, no light signaling is available outside the room to warn the X-ray emission for staff. Inadvertent exposition of staff outside the operating theater is a real problem for radiation protection. The French standard NFC 15-160 require that: (1) access to any room containing an X-ray emitting device must be controlled by a light signage so that it cannot be inadvertently crossed, and (2) setting up an emergency button to stop the X-ray emission. This study presents a system that we developed to meet these requirements and the results of its clinical test. Materials and methods: The system is composed of two communicating boxes: o The "DetectBox" is to be installed inside the operating theater. It identifies the various operation states of the C-arm by analyzing its power supply signal. The DetectBox communicates (in wireless mode) with the second box (AlertBox). o The "AlertBox" can operate in socket or battery mode and is to be installed outside the operating theater. It detects and reports the state of the C-arm by emitting a real time light signal. This latter can have three different colors: red when the C-arm is emitting X-rays, orange when it is powered on but does not emit X-rays, and green when it is powered off. The two boxes communicate on a radiofrequency link exclusively carried out in the ‘Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM)’ frequency bands and allows the coexistence of several on-site warning systems without communication conflicts (interference). Taking into account the complexity of performing electrical works in the operating theater (for reasons of hygiene and continuity of medical care), this system (having a size <10 cm²) works in complete safety without any intrusion in the mobile C-arm and does not require specific electrical installation work. The system is equipped with emergency button that stops X-ray emission. The system has been clinically tested. Results: The clinical test of the system shows that: it detects X-rays having both high and low energy (50 – 150 kVp), high and low photon flow (0.5 – 200 mA: even when emitted for a very short time (<1 ms)), Probability of false detection < 10-5, it operates under all acquisition modes (continuous, pulsed, fluoroscopy mode, image mode, subtraction and movie mode), it is compatible with all C-arm models and brands. We have also tested the communication between the two boxes (DetectBox and AlertBox) in several conditions: (1) Unleaded room, (2) leaded room, and (3) rooms with particular configuration (sas, great distances, concrete walls, 3 mm of lead). The result of these last tests was positive. Conclusion: This system is a reliable tool to alert the staff present outside the operating room for X-ray emission and insure their radiation protection.

Keywords: Clinical test, Inadvertent staff exposition, Light signage, Operating theater

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: H. Arzani, Z. Arzani

Abstract:

Every piece of rangeland has a different set of physical and biological characteristics. This requires the manager to synthesis various information for regular monitoring to define changes trend to get wright decision for sustainable management. So range managers need to use computerized technologies to monitor rangeland, and select. The best management practices. There are four examples of computerized technologies that can benefit sustainable management: (1) Photographic method for cover measurement: The method was tested in different vegetation communities in semi humid and arid regions. Interpretation of pictures of quadrats was done using Arc View software. Data analysis was done by SPSS software using paired t test. Based on the results, generally, photographic method can be used to measure ground cover in most vegetation communities. (2) GPS application for corresponding ground samples and satellite pixels: In two provinces of Tehran and Markazi, six reference points were selected and in each point, eight GPS models were tested. Significant relation among GPS model, time and location with accuracy of estimated coordinates was found. After selection of suitable method, in Markazi province coordinates of plots along four transects in each 6 sites of rangelands was recorded. The best time of GPS application was in the morning hours, Etrex Vista had less error than other models, and a significant relation among GPS model, time and location with accuracy of estimated coordinates was found. (3) Application of satellite data for rangeland monitoring: Focusing on the long term variation of vegetation parameters such as vegetation cover and production is essential. Our study in grass and shrub lands showed that there were significant correlations between quantitative vegetation characteristics and satellite data. So it is possible to monitor rangeland vegetation using digital data for sustainable utilization. (4) Rangeland suitability classification with GIS: Range suitability assessment can facilitate sustainable management planning. Three sub-models of sensitivity to erosion, water suitability and forage production out puts were entered to final range suitability classification model. GIS was facilitate classification of range suitability and produced suitability maps for sheep grazing. Generally digital computers assist range managers to interpret, modify, calibrate or integrating information for correct management.

Keywords: computer, GPS, GIS, remote sensing, photographic method, monitoring, rangeland ecosystem, management, suitability, sheep grazing

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: Anilkumar L. Rathod

Abstract:

This paper examines event tourism as a field of study and area of professional practice updating the previous review article published in 2015. In this substantially extended review, a deeper analysis of the field's evolution and development is presented, charting the growth of the literature, focusing both chronologically and thematically. A framework for understanding and creating knowledge about events and tourism is presented, forming the basis which signposts established research themes and concepts and outlines future directions for research. In addition, the review article focuses on constraining and propelling forces, ontological advances, contributions from key journals, and emerging themes and issues. It also presents a roadmap for research activity in event tourism. Published scholarly studies within this period are examined through content analysis, using such keywords as knowledge management, organizational learning, hospitality, tourism, tourist destinations, travel industry, hotels, lodging, motels, hotel industry, gaming, casino hotel and convention to search scholarly research journals. All contributions found are then screened for a hospitality and tourism theme. Researchers mostly discuss knowledge management approach in improving information technology, marketing and strategic planning in order to gain competitive advantage. Overall, knowledge management research is still limited. Planned events in tourism are created for a purpose, and what was once the realm of individual and community initiatives has largely become the realm of professionals and entrepreneurs provides a typology of the four main categories of planned events within an event-tourism context, including the main venues associated with each. It also assesses whether differences exist between socio-demographic groupings. An analysis using primarily descriptive statistics indicated both sub-samples had similar viewpoints although Maharashtra residents tended to have higher scores pertaining to the consequences of gambling. It is suggested that the differences arise due to the greater exposure of Maharashtra residents to the influences of casino development.

Keywords: organizational learning, hospitality, tourism, tourist destinations, travel industry, hotels, lodging, motels, hotel industry, gaming, casino hotel and convention to search scholarly research journals

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: Soheila Sadeghi

Abstract:

Construction projects are complex and often subject to significant cost overruns due to the multifaceted nature of the activities involved. Accurate cost estimation is crucial for effective budget planning and resource allocation. Traditional methods for predicting overruns often rely on expert judgment or analysis of historical data, which can be time-consuming, subjective, and may fail to consider important factors. However, with the increasing availability of data from construction projects, machine learning techniques can be leveraged to improve the accuracy of overrun predictions. This study applied machine learning algorithms to enhance the prediction of cost overruns in a case study of a construction project. The methodology involved the development and evaluation of two machine learning models: Random Forest and Neural Networks. Random Forest can handle high-dimensional data, capture complex relationships, and provide feature importance estimates. Neural Networks, particularly Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), are capable of automatically learning and modeling complex, non-linear relationships between input features and the target variable. These models can adapt to new data, reduce human bias, and uncover hidden patterns in the dataset. The findings of this study demonstrate that both Random Forest and Neural Networks can significantly improve the accuracy of cost overrun predictions compared to traditional methods. The Random Forest model also identified key cost drivers and risk factors, such as changes in the scope of work and delays in material delivery, which can inform better project risk management. However, the study acknowledges several limitations. First, the findings are based on a single construction project, which may limit the generalizability of the results to other projects or contexts. Second, the dataset, although comprehensive, may not capture all relevant factors influencing cost overruns, such as external economic conditions or political factors. Third, the study focuses primarily on cost overruns, while schedule overruns are not explicitly addressed. Future research should explore the application of machine learning techniques to a broader range of projects, incorporate additional data sources, and investigate the prediction of both cost and schedule overruns simultaneously.

Keywords: resource allocation, machine learning, optimization, data-driven decision-making, project management

Procedia PDF Downloads 16

Authors: S. N. C. M. Dias, Niels Schuetze, Franz Lennartz

Abstract:

The current focus in irrigated agriculture will move from maximizing crop production per unit area towards maximizing the crop production per unit amount of water (water productivity) used. At the same time, inadequate water supply or deficit irrigation will be the only solution to cope with water scarcity in the near future. Soil matric potential based irrigation plays an important role in such deficit irrigated agriculture to grow any crop including rice. Rice as the staple food for more than half of the world population, grows mainly under flooded conditions. It requires more water compared to other upland cereals. A major amount of this water is used in the land preparation and is lost at field level due to evaporation, deep percolation, and seepage. A field experimental study was conducted in the experimental premises of rice research and development institute of Sri Lanka in Kurunegala district to estimate the water productivity of rice under deficit irrigation. This paper presents the feasibility of improving current irrigation management in rice cultivation under water scarce conditions. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four different irrigation treatments with three replicates. Irrigation treatments were based on soil matric potential threshold values. Treatment W0 was maintained between 60-80mbars. W1 was maintained between 80-100mbars. Other two dry treatments W2 and W3 were maintained at 100-120 mbar and 120 -140 mbar respectively. The sprinkler system was used to irrigate each plot individually upon reaching the maximum threshold value in respective treatment. Treatments were imposed two weeks after seed establishment and continued until two weeks before physiological maturity. Fertilizer applications, weed management, and other management practices were carried out per the local recommendations. Weekly plant growth measurements, daily climate parameters, soil parameters, soil tension values, and water content were measured throughout the growing period. Highest plant growth and grain yield (5.61t/ha) were observed in treatment W2 followed by W0, W1, and W3 in comparison to the reference yield (5.23t/ha) of flooded rice grown in the study area. Water productivity was highest in W3. Concerning the irrigation water savings, grain yield, and water productivity together, W2 showed the better performance. Rice grown under unsaturated conditions (W2) shows better performance compared to the continuously saturated conditions(W0). In conclusion, soil matric potential based irrigation is a promising practice in irrigation management in rice. Higher irrigation water savings can be achieved in this method. This strategy can be applied to a wide range of locations under different climates and soils. In future studies, higher soil matric potential values can be applied to evaluate the maximum possible values for rice to get higher water savings at minimum yield losses.

Keywords: irrigation, matric potential, rice, water scarcity

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Hai L. Tran

Abstract:

In the digital age, evidence-based reporting is touted as a best practice for seeking the truth and keeping the public well-informed. Journalists are expected to rely on evidence to demonstrate the validity of a factual statement and lend credence to an individual account. Evidence can be obtained from various sources, and due to a rich supply of evidence types available, the definition of this important concept varies semantically. To promote clarity and understanding, it is necessary to break down the various types of evidence and categorize them in a more coherent, systematic way. There is a wide array of devices that digital journalists deploy as proof to back up or refute a truth claim. Evidence can take various formats, including verbal and visual materials. Verbal evidence encompasses quotes, soundbites, talking heads, testimonies, voice recordings, anecdotes, and statistics communicated through written or spoken language. There are instances where evidence is simply non-verbal, such as when natural sounds are provided without any verbalized words. On the other hand, other language-free items exhibited in photos, video footage, data visualizations, infographics, and illustrations can serve as visual evidence. Moreover, there are different sources from which evidence can be cited. Supporting materials, such as public or leaked records and documents, data, research studies, surveys, polls, or reports compiled by governments, organizations, and other entities, are frequently included as informational evidence. Proof can also come from human sources via interviews, recorded conversations, public and private gatherings, or press conferences. Expert opinions, eye-witness insights, insider observations, and official statements are some of the common examples of testimonial evidence. Digital journalism studies tend to make broad references when comparing qualitative versus quantitative forms of evidence. Meanwhile, limited efforts are being undertaken to distinguish between sister terms, such as “data,” “statistical,” and “base-rate” on one side of the spectrum and “narrative,” “anecdotal,” and “exemplar” on the other. The present study seeks to develop the evidence taxonomy, which classifies evidence through the quantitative-qualitative juxtaposition and in a hierarchical order from broad to specific. According to this scheme, data, statistics, and base rate belong to the quantitative evidence group, whereas narrative, anecdote, and exemplar fall into the qualitative evidence group. Subsequently, the taxonomical classification arranges data versus narrative at the top of the hierarchy of types of evidence, followed by statistics versus anecdote and base rate versus exemplar. This research reiterates the central role of evidence in how journalists describe and explain social phenomena and issues. By defining the various types of evidence and delineating their logical connections it helps remove a significant degree of conceptual inconsistency, ambiguity, and confusion in digital journalism studies.

Keywords: evidence, evidence forms, evidence types, taxonomy

Procedia PDF Downloads 44

Authors: Gikunda Aloise, Mjema Saida, Barasa Herbert, Wanyungu John, Kimani Maureen

Abstract:

Background: Community Health Workforce (CHW) is health care providers at the community level (Level 1) and serves as a bridge between the community and the formal healthcare system. This human resource has enormous potential to extend healthcare services and ensures that the vulnerable, marginalized, and hard-to-reach populations have access to quality healthcare services at the community and primary health facility levels. However, these cadres are neither recognized, remunerated, nor in most instances, registered in a master list. Management and supervision of CHWs is not easy if their individual demographics, training capacity and incentives is not well documented through a centralized registry. Description: In February 2022, Amref supported the Kenya Ministry of Health in developing a community health workforce database called Community Health Workers Master List Registry (CHWML), which is hosted in Kenya Health Information System (KHIS) tracker. CHW registration exercise was through a sensitization meeting conducted by the County Community Health Focal Person for the Sub-County Community Health Focal Person and Community Health Assistants who uploaded information on individual demographics, training undertaken and incentives received by CHVs. Care was taken to ensure compliance with Kenyan laws on the availability and use of personal data as prescribed by the Data Protection Act, 2019 (DPA). Results and lessons learnt: By June 2022, 80,825 CHWs had been registered in the system; 78,174 (96%) CHVs and 2,636 (4%) CHAs. 25,235 (31%) are male, 55,505 (68%) are female & 85 (1%) are transgender. 39,979. (49%) had secondary education and 2500 (3%) had no formal education. Only 27 641 (34%) received a monthly stipend. 68,436 CHVs (85%) had undergone basic training. However, there is a need to validate the data to align with the current situation in the counties. Conclusions/Next steps: The use of CHWML will unlock opportunities for building more resilient and sustainable health systems and inform financial planning, resource allocation, capacity development, and quality service delivery. The MOH will update the CHWML guidelines in adherence to the data protection act which will inform standard procedures for maintaining, updating the registry and integrate Community Health Workforce registry with the HRH system.

Keywords: community health registry, community health volunteers (CHVs), community health workers masters list (CHWML), data protection act

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Jeffrey A. Humenik

Abstract:

Environmental, Limited Liability Corporation (EMR) provided civil construction services to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District, for the placement of a protective riprap blanket on the west bank of the Smoky Hill River, construction of 2 shore abutments and the construction of a 140 foot long sill wall spanning the Smoky Hill River in Salina, Kansas. The purpose of the project was to protect the riverbank from erosion and hold back water to a specified elevation, creating a pool to ensure adequate water intake for the municipal water supply. Geotextile matting and riprap were installed for streambank erosion protection. An inflatable bladder (AquaDam®) was designed to the specific river dimension and installed to divert the river and allow for dewatering during the construction of the sill walls and cofferdam. AquaDam® consists of water filled polyethylene tubes to create aqua barriers and divert water flow or prevent flooding. A challenge of the project was the fact that 100% of the sill wall was constructed within an active river channel. The threat of flooding of the work area, damage to the aqua dam by debris, and potential difficulty of water removal presented a unique set of challenges to the construction team. Upon completion of the West Sill Wall, floating debris punctured the AquaDam®. The manufacturing and delivery of a new AquaDam® would delay project completion by at least 6 weeks. To keep the project ahead of schedule, the decision was made to construct an earthen cofferdam reinforced with rip rap for the construction of the East Abutment and East Sill Wall section. During construction of the west sill wall section, a deep scour hole was encountered in the wall alignment that prevented EMR from using the natural rock formation as a concrete form for the lower section of the sill wall. A formwork system was constructed, that allowed the west sill wall section to be placed in two horizontal lifts of concrete poured on separate occasions. The first sectional lift was poured to fill in the scour hole and act as a footing for the second sectional lift. Concrete wall forms were set on the first lift and anchored to the surrounding riverbed in a manner that the second lift was poured in a similar fashion as a basement wall. EMR’s timely decision to keep the project moving toward completion in the face of changing conditions enabled project completion two (2) months ahead of schedule. The use of inflatable bladders is an effective and cost-efficient technology to divert river flow during construction. However, a secondary plan should be part of project design in the event debris transported by river punctures or damages the bladders.

Keywords: abutment, AquaDam®, riverbed, scour

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Authors: P. Maheshwari, M. Brindavan

Abstract:

The present research aimed to study the level of socio-emotional skills and perceived self-efficacy of children with learning disability. The study further investigated the relationship between the levels of socio-emotional skills, perceived self-efficacy and academic achievement of children with learning disability. The sample comprised of 40 children with learning disability as their primary condition, belonging to middle or upper middle class, living with both the parents, residing in Mumbai. Purposive or Judgmental and snowball sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. Proformas in the form of questionnaires were used to obtain the background information of the children with learning disability. A self-constructed Child’s Perceived Self-Efficacy Assessment Scale and Child’s Social and Emotional Skills Assessment Scale was used to measure the level of child’s perceived self-efficacy and their level of social and emotional skill respectively. Academic scores of the child were collected from the child’s parents or teachers and were converted into a percentage. The data was analyzed quantitatively using SPSS. Spearman rho or Pearson Product Moment correlation was used to ascertain the multiple relationships between child’s perceived self-efficacy, child’s social and emotional skills and child’s academic achievement. The findings revealed majority (27) of the children with learning disability perceived themselves having above average level of social and emotional skills while 13 out of 40 perceived their level of social and emotional skills at an average level. Domain wise analyses revealed that, in the domain of self- management (26) and relationship skills (22) more number of the children perceived themselves as having average or below average level of social and emotional skills indicating that they perceived themselves as having average or below average skills in regulating their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations, establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse groups and individuals. With regard to perceived self-efficacy, the majority of the children with learning disability perceived themselves as having above average level of self-efficacy. Looking at the data domain wise it was found that, in the domains of self-regulated learning and emotional self-efficacy, 50% of the children perceived themselves at average or below average level, indicating that they perceived themselves as average on competencies like organizing academic activities, structuring environment to make it conducive for learning, expressing emotions in a socially acceptable manner. Further, the correlations were computed, and significant positive correlations were found between children’s social and emotional skills and academic achievement (r=.378, p < .01), and between children’s social and emotional skills and child’s perceived self-efficacy (r = .724, p < .01) and a positive significant correlation was also found between children’s perceived self-efficacy and academic achievement (r=.332, p < .05). Results of the study emphasize on planning intervention for children with learning disability focusing on improving self-management and relationship skills, self-regulated learning and emotional self-efficacy.

Keywords: learning disability, social and emotional skills, perceived self-efficacy, academic achievement

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Shujon Mohammed Alazzam, Sarah Saad Alamer, Omar Hassan Kasule, Lama Suliman Aleid, Mohammad Abdulaziz Alakeel, Boshra Mosleh Alanazi, Abdullah Abdulelah Altowairqi, Yahya Ali Al-Asiri

Abstract:

Background: Interventional radiology (IR) is a specialized field within radiology that diagnose and treat several conditions through a minimally invasive surgical procedure that involves the use of various radiological techniques. In the last few years, the role of IR has expanded to include a variety of organ systems which have been led to an increase in demand for these Specialties. The level of knowledge regarding IR is relatively low in general. In this study, we aimed to investigate the perceptions of interventional radiology (IR) as a specialty among medical students and medical interns in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This study was a cross section. The target population is medical students in January 2023 in Riyadh city, KSA. We used the questionnaire for face-to-face interviews with voluntary participants to assess their knowledge of Interventional radiology. Permission was taken from participants to use their information. Assuring them that the data in this study was used only for scientific purposes. Results: According to the inclusion criteria, a total of 314 students participated in the study. (49%) of the participants were in the preclinical years, and (51%) were in the clinical years. The findings indicate more than half of the students think that they had good information about IR (58%), while (42%) reported that they had poor information and knowledge about IR. Only (28%) of students were planning to take an elective and radiology rotation, (and 27%) said they would consider a career in IR. (73%) of the participants who would not consider a career in IR, the highest reasons in order were due to "I do not find it interesting" (45%), then "Radiation exposure" (14%). Around half (48%) thought that an IRs must complete a residency training program in both radiology and surgery, and just (36%) of the students believe that an IRs must finish training in radiology. Our data show the procedures performed by IRs that (66%) lower limb angioplasty and stenting (58%) Cardiac angioplasty or stenting. (68%) of the students were familiar with angioplasty. When asked about the source of exposure to angioplasty, the majority (46%) were from a cardiologist, (and 16%) were from the interventional radiologist. Regarding IR career prospects, (78%) of the students believe that IRs have good career prospects. In conclusion, our findings reveal that the perception and exposure to IR among medical students and interns are generally poor. This has a direct influence on the student's decision regarding IR as a career path. Recommendations to attract medical students and promote IR as a career should be increased knowledge among medical students and future physicians through early exposure to IR, and this will promote the specialty's growth; also, involvement of the Saudi Interventional Radiology Society and Radiological Society of Saudi Arabia is essential.

Keywords: knowledge, medical students, perceptions, radiology, interventional radiology, Saudi Arabia

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Şeyda Akçalı

Abstract:

This study explores the concept of social sustainability and its characteristics in terms of neighborhood (mahalle) which is a social phenomenon in Turkish urban life. As social sustainability indicators that moving away traditional themes toward multi-dimensional measures, the solutions for urban strategies may be achieved through learning lessons from historical precedents. It considers the inherent values of traditional urban forms contribute to the evolution of the city as well as the social functions of it. The study aims to measure non-tangible issues in order to evaluate social sustainability in historic urban environments and how they could contribute to the current urban planning strategies. The concept of neighborhood (mahalle) refers to a way of living that represents the organization of Turkish social and communal life rather than defining an administrative unit for the city. The distinctive physical and social features of neighborhood illustrate the link between social sustainability and historic urban environment. Instead of having a nostalgic view of past, it identifies both the failures and successes and extract lessons of traditional urban environments and adopt them to modern context. First, the study determines the aspects of social sustainability which are issued as the key themes in the literature. Then, it develops a model by describing the social features of mahalle which show consistency within the social sustainability agenda. The model is used to analyze the performance of traditional housing area in the historical city center of Bursa, Turkey whether it meets the residents’ social needs and contribute collective functioning of the community. Through a questionnaire survey exercised in the historic neighborhoods, the residents are evaluated according to social sustainability criteria of neighborhood. The results derived from the factor analysis indicate that social aspects of neighborhood are social infrastructure, identity, attachment, neighborliness, safety and wellbeing. Qualitative evaluation shows the relationship between key aspects of social sustainability and demographic and socio-economic factors. The outcomes support that inherent values of neighborhood retain its importance for the sustainability of community although there must be some local arrangements for few factors with great attention not to compromise the others. The concept of neighborhood should be considered as a potential tool to support social sustainability in national political agenda and urban policies. The performance of underlying factors in historic urban environment proposes a basis for both examining and improving traditional urban areas and how it may contribute to the overall city.

Keywords: historical city center, mahalle, neighborhood, social sustainability, traditional urban environment, Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 269