Search results for: compound growth rate

Authors: Bahriye Gülgün, Gökhan Balik, Şükrü Dursun, Kübra Yazici

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The main reasons such as economic growth of society increase of the world population and rapid changes of industrialization cause the amount and the types of pollutants to increase over time. Soil pollution is the typical side effect of industrial activities. As a result of industrial activities, there are large amounts of heavy metal emission every year. Heavy metals are one of the highest pollution sources according to the soil pollution aspect. The usage of hyperaccumulator plants to clean heavy metal polluted soils and the selection of plants for phytoremediation gain importance recently. There are limited numbers of researches on the ornamental plant types of phytoremediation thus; researches on this subject are important. This research is prepared based on the ornamental plant types with phytoremediation abilities.

Keywords: phytoremediation, ornamental plants, landscape reclamation, soil reclamation, environmental pollution

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Authors: Phutthiwat Waiyawuththanapoom, Wannapong Waiyawuththanapoom, Pimploi Tirastittam

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Nowadays, it is a globalization era which social media plays an important role to the lifestyle as an information source, tools to connect people together and etc. This research is object to find out about the significant level of the social media as a distribution channel to the agriculture product of Thailand. In this research, the agriculture product is the Rice Berry which is the cross-bred unmilled rice producing dark violet grain, is a combination of Hom Nin Rice and Thai Jasmine/ Fragrant Rice 105. Rice Berry has a very high nutrition and nice aroma so the product is in the growth stage of the product cycle. The problem for the Rice Berry product in Thailand is the production and the distribution channel. This study is to confirm that the social media is another option as the distribution channel for the product which is not a mass production product. This will be the role model for the other niche market product to select the distribution channel.

Keywords: distribution, social media, rice berry, distribution channel

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Authors: Fangwei Zhu, Wei Tian, Linzhuo Wang, Miao Yu

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Megaproject has long been a critical issue in project governance, for its low success rate and large impact on society. Although the extant literature on megaproject governance is vast, to our best knowledge, the lacking of a thorough literature review makes it hard for us to gain a holistic view on current scenario of megaproject governance. The study conducts a systematic literature review process to analyze the existing literatures on megaproject governance. The finding indicates that mega project governance needs to be handled at network level and forming a network level governance provides a holistic framework for governing megaproject towards sustainable development of the projects. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future studies and limitations, were discussed.

Keywords: megaproject, governance, literature review, network

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Authors: Radek Novotny, Michal Novak, Daniela Marusakova, Monika Sipova, Hugo Fuentes, Peter Borst

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This research has been conducted within the European HORIZON 2020 project ECC-SMART. The main objective is to assess whether it is feasible to design and develop a small modular reactor (SMR) that would be cooled by supercritical water (SCW). One of the main objectives for material research concerns the corrosion of the candidate cladding materials. The experimental part has been conducted in support of the qualification procedure of the future SCW-SMR constructional materials. The last objective was to identify the gaps in current norms and guidelines. Apart from corrosion, resistance testing of candidate materials stresses corrosion cracking susceptibility tests have been performed in supercritical water. This paper describes part of these tests, in particular, those slow strain rate tensile loading applied for tangential ring shape specimens of two candidate materials, Alloy 800H and 310S stainless steel. These ring tensile tests are one the methods used for tensile testing of nuclear cladding. Here full circular heads with dimensions roughly equal to the inner diameter of the sample and the gage sections are placed in the parallel direction to the applied load. Slow strain rate tensile tests have been conducted in 380 or 500oC supercritical water applying two different elongation rates, 1x10-6 and 1x10-7 s-1. The effect of temperature and dissolved oxygen content on the SCC susceptibility of Alloy 800H and 310S stainless steel was investigated when two different temperatures and concentrations of dissolved oxygen were applied in supercritical water. The post-fracture analysis includes fractographic analysis of the fracture surfaces using SEM as well as cross-sectional analysis on the occurrence of secondary cracks. Assessment of the effect of environment and dissolved oxygen content was by comparing to the results of the reference tests performed in air and N2 gas overpressure. The effect of high temperature on creep and its role in the initiation of SCC was assessed as well. It has been concluded that the applied test method could be very useful for the investigation of stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of candidate cladding materials in supercritical water.

Keywords: stress corrosion cracking, ring tensile tests, super-critical water, alloy 800H, 310S stainless steel

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Authors: Preecha Phongpeng

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The objectives of this research are to assess the prevalence of travel businesses websites in Thailand, investigate and evaluate the quality of travel business websites in Thailand. The sample size includes 323 websites from the population of 1,458 websites. The study covers 4 types of travel business websites including: 78 general travel agents, 30 online reservation travel agents, 205 hotels, 7 airlines, and 3 car-rental companies with nation-wide operation. The findings indicated that e-tourism in Thailand is at its growth stage, with only 13% of travel businesses having websites, 28% of them providing e-mail and the quality of travel business websites in Thailand was at the average level. Seven common problems were found in websites: lack of travel essential information, insufficient transportation information, lack of navigation tools, lack of link pages to other organizations, lack of safety features, unclear online booking functions, and lack of special features also as well.

Keywords: traveling business, website evaluation, e-commerce, e-tourism

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Authors: Youngseok Kim, Chul Park, Jonghwa Yi, Sangsik Choi

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The 2-MHz Side Scan SONAR (SSS) attached to the boat for inspection of underwater structures is affected by shaking. It is difficult to determine the exact scale of damage of structure. In this study, a motion sensor is attached to the inside of the 2-MHz SSS to get roll, pitch, and yaw direction data, and developed the image stabilization tool to correct the sonar image. We checked that reliable data can be obtained with an average error rate of 1.99% between the measured value and the actual distance through experiment. It is possible to get the accurate sonar data to inspect damage in underwater structure.

Keywords: image stabilization, motion sensor, safety inspection, sonar image, underwater structure

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Authors: Yasaman Zeinali, Farid Khosravikia

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This paper presents a multi-objective framework for sustainable urban development. The proposed framework aims to address different aspects of sustainability in urban development planning. These aspects include, but are not limited to education, health, job opportunities, architecture, culture, environment, mobility, energy, water, waste, and so on. Then, the proposed framework is applied to the Brackenridge Tract (an area in downtown Austin, Texas), to redevelop that area in a sustainable way. The detail of the implementation process is presented in this paper. The ultimate goal of this paper is to develop a sustainable area in downtown Austin with ensuring that it locally meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental, health as well as cultural aspects. Moreover, it helps the city with the population growth problem by accommodating more people in that area.

Keywords: urban planning, sustainability, sustainable urban development, environmental impacts of human activities

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Authors: W. Y. Zhu, X. L. Yan, Y. Zhou

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Sulfonamides (SAs) are extensively used antibiotics; photocatalysis is an effective, way to remove the SAs from water driven by solar energy. Here we used WO3 nanoplates and their Ag heterogeneous as photocatalysts to investigate their photodegradation efficiency against sulfanilamide (SAM) which is the precursor of SAs. Results showed that WO3/Ag composites performed much better than pure WO3 where the highest removal rate was 96.2% can be achieved under visible light irradiation. Ag as excellent antibacterial agent also endows certain antibacterial efficiency to WO3, and 100% removal efficiency could be achieved in 2 h under visible light irradiation for all WO3/Ag composites. Generally, WO3/Ag composites are very effective photocatalysts with potentials in practical applications which mainly use cheap, clean and green solar energy as energy source.

Keywords: antibacterial, photocatalysis, semiconductor, sulfanilamide

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Authors: Ayesha Obaid, Abdur Rehman Cheema

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This study is about understanding the role of the gender division of work that has been assigned to men and women in different societies and cultures and its impact on labour force participation through economic development. Development in Gilgit Baltistan has been challenging due to its geographical conditions and the human development indicators are lower than the rest of the Pakistan. Various socioeconomic factors are identified that play an important role in determining the choices and roles men and women undertake for contributing towards the labour force. Our research highlights the areas lagging behind in gender equality in the labour market. The availability and access of gender over these socioeconomic resources determine gender mainstreaming in the labour market. It is a need of time that gender gaps should be addressed at the grass root level by the policy makers to enhance the growth and improve human development indicators.

Keywords: gender division of work, human development, indicators of socioeconomic factors, labour force

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Authors: J. G. Batista, L. J. de Bessa Neto, M. A. F. B. Lima, J. R. Leite, J. I. de Andrade Nunes

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The robot manipulator is an equipment that stands out for two reasons: Firstly because of its characteristics of movement and reprogramming, resembling the arm; secondly, by adding several areas of knowledge of science and engineering. The present work shows the development of the prototype of a robotic manipulator driven by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), having two degrees of freedom, which allows the movement and displacement of mechanical parts, tools, and objects in general of small size, through an electronic system. The aim is to study direct and inverse kinematics of the robotic manipulator to describe the translation and rotation between two adjacent links of the robot through the Denavit-Hartenberg parameters. Currently, due to the many resources that microcomputer systems offer us, robotics is going through a period of continuous growth that will allow, in a short time, the development of intelligent robots with the capacity to perform operations that require flexibility, speed and precision.

Keywords: Denavit-Hartenberg, direct and inverse kinematics, microcontrollers, robotic manipulator

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Authors: Ndana Mohammed, Abdullahi Musa Sabo

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The oils used in this work were extracted from seeds of Ricinuscommunis, Heaveabrasiliensis, Gossypiumhirsutum, Azadirachtaindica, Glycin max and Jatrophacurcasby solvent extraction method using n-hexane, and gave the yield of 48.00±0.00%, 44.30±0.52%, 45.50±0.64%, 47.60±0.51%, 41.50±0.32% and 46.50±0.71% respectively. However these feed stocks are highly challenging to trans-esterification reaction because they were found to contain high amount of free fatty acids (FFA) (6.37±0.18, 17.20±0.00, 6.14±0.05, 8.60±0.14, 5.35±0.07, 4.24±0.02mgKOH/g) in order of the above. As a result, two-stage trans-esterification reactions process was used to produce biodiesel; Acid esterification was used to reduce high FFA to 1% or less, and the second stage involve the alkaline trans-esterification/optimization of process condition to obtain high yield quality biodiesel. The salient features of this study include; characterization of oils using AOAC, AOCS standard methods to reveal some properties that may determine the viability of sample seeds as potential feed stocks for biodiesel production, such as acid value, saponification value, Peroxide value, Iodine value, Specific gravity, Kinematic viscosity, and free fatty acid profile. The optimization of process parameters in biodiesel production was investigated. Different concentrations of alkaline catalyst (KOH) (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.50w/v, methanol/oil molar ratio (3:1, 6:1, 9:1, 12:1, and 15:1), reaction temperature (500 C, 550 C, 600 C, 650 C, 700 C), and the rate of stirring (150 rpm,225 rpm,300 rpm and 375 rpm) were used for the determination of optimal condition at which maximum yield of biodiesel would be obtained. However, while optimizing one parameter other parameters were kept fixed. The result shows the optimal biodiesel yield at a catalyst concentration of 1%, methanol/oil molar ratio of 6:1, except oil from ricinuscommunis which was obtained at 9:1, the reaction temperature of 650 C was observed for all samples, similarly the stirring rate of 300 rpm was also observed for all samples except oil from ricinuscommunis which was observed at 375 rpm. The properties of biodiesel fuel were evaluated and the result obtained conformed favorably to ASTM and EN standard specifications for fossil diesel and biodiesel. Therefore biodiesel fuel produced can be used as substitute for fossil diesel. The work also reports the result of the study on the evaluation of the effect of the biodiesel storage on its physicochemical properties to ascertain the level of deterioration with time. The values obtained for the entire samples are completely out of standard specification for biodiesel before the end of the twelve months test period, and are clearly degraded. This suggests the biodiesels from oils of Ricinuscommunis, Heaveabrasiliensis, Gossypiumhirsutum, Azadirachtaindica, Glycin max and Jatrophacurcascannot be stored beyond twelve months.

Keywords: biodiesel, characterization, esterification, optimization, transesterification

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Authors: Evisa Mitrou, Nicholas Tsitsianis, Supriya Shinde

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In the age of digitisation and globalisation, businesses have shifted online and are investing in big data analytics (BDA) to respond to changing market conditions and sustain their performance. Our study shifts the focus from the adoption of BDA to the impact of BDA on financial performance. We explore the financial performance of both BDA-vendors (business-to-business) and BDA-clients (business-to-customer). We distinguish between the five BDA-technologies (big-data-as-a-service (BDaaS), descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics) and discuss them individually. Further, we use four perspectives (internal business process, learning and growth, customer, and finance) and discuss the significance of how each of the five BDA-technologies affects the performance measures of these four perspectives. We also present the analysis of employee engagement, average turnover, average net income, and average net assets for BDA-clients and BDA-vendors. Our study also explores the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on business continuity for both BDA-vendors and BDA-clients.

Keywords: BDA-clients, BDA-vendors, big data analytics, financial performance

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Authors: Innocent Felix Idoko

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The development of indigenous entrepreneurship is critical to the achievement of sustainable development in the internationalized economy. Sustainable development implies a continuous stimulus of growth and improvement of an economy in a fairly stable manner. The paradigms of a globalization are numerous to mention. However, to a great extent, these are trade-offs and dilemmas for indigenous entrepreneurship, particularly in the developing economies with infant industries that are essentially crucial to development. This paper analyses the pros and cons of globalization as relates to the complementary role of both foreign and indigenous entrepreneurs, the conflict of values between globalization and protectionism for local entrepreneurship. Using analytical and descriptive approach, the views of academicians, research fellows, literature reviews and both the theories of the mercantilists and those of free trade mainstream economists, and the G20, the paper concludes that there is a legitimate need for protectionism for domestic entrepreneurship in the developing economies as doing otherwise amount to stifling them.

Keywords: developing countries, entrepreneurship, globalization, infant-industries, protectionism, sustainable development

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Authors: Raymond Oriebe Anyasi, Harrison Atagana

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The use of a plant in the detoxification of several toxin is been known to be enhanced by various microbial endophytes which have been reported to be contained in plants growing in any contaminated soil. Plants in their natural state are mostly colonized by endophytes which in the process forms symbiotic associations with the host plants. These benefits that the endophytes offer to the plants include amongst others to: Enhance plants growth through the production of various phytohormones; increase in the resistance of environmental stresses; produce important bioactive metabolites; help in the fixing of nitrogen in the plants organelles; help in the metal translocation and accumulation in plants; assist in the production of enzymes involves the degradation of organic contaminants. Therefore recognizing these natural processes of the microbes will enable the understanding of the effective mechanism for enhanced phytoremediation. The aim of this study was to survey the progressiveness in the study involving endophyte-assisted phytoremediation of contaminants; highlighting various pollutants, the plants used, the endophytes studied as well as the type of interaction between the plants and the microbes so as to proffer a better future prospect for the technology.

Keywords: phytoremediation, endophytes, microbes, pollution, environmental management, plants

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Authors: Abdulrahman M. Homadi

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This study focuses on how to control the outlet temperature of a solar air heater in a way simpler than the existing methods. In this work, five cases have been studied by using ANSYS Fluent based on a CFD numerical method. All the cases have been simulated by utilizing the same criteria and conditions like the temperature, materials, areas except the geometry. The case studies are conducted in Little Rock (LR), AR, USA during the winter time supposedly on 15^th of December. A fresh air that is flowing with a velocity of 0.5 m/s and a flow rate of 0.009 m³/s. The results prove the possibility of achieving a controlled temperature just by changing the geometric shape of the heater. This geometry guarantees that the absorber plate always has a normal component of the solar radiation at any time during the day. The heater has a sectarian shape with a radius of 150 mm where the outlet temperature remains almost constant for six hours.

Keywords: solar energy, air heater, control of temperature, CFD

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Authors: Razzaghifard P., Arya F., Chen S. Chien-I, Abdi B., Razzaghifard V., Arya A. H., Nazary A., Hosseinpour H., Ghabelnezam K.

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E-learning, also known as online learning, has indicated increased growth in recent years. One of the critical factors in the successful application of e-learning in higher education is students’ perceptions towards it. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of engineering students about e-learning in the UK. For the purpose of the present study, 145 second-year engineering students were randomly selected from the total population of 1280 participants. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire containing 16 items. The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of participants have negative perceptions of e-learning. Most of the students had trouble interacting effectively during online classes. Furthermore, the majority of participants had negative experiences with the learning platform they used during e-learning. Suggestions were made on what could be done to improve the students’ perceptions of e-learning.

Keywords: e-learning, higher, education, engineering education, online learning

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Authors: Ilija Plecas, Dalibor Arbutina

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The leaching rate of 60Co from spent mix bead (anion and cation) exchange resins in a cement-bentonite matrix has been studied. Transport phenomena involved in the leaching of a radioactive material from a cement-bentonite matrix are investigated using three methods based on theoretical equations. These are: the diffusion equation for a plane source, an equation for diffusion coupled to a first order equation and an empirical method employing a polynomial equation. The results presented in this paper are from a 25-year mortar and concrete testing project that will influence the design choices for radioactive waste packaging for a future Serbian radioactive waste disposal center.

Keywords: cement, concrete, immobilization, leaching, permeability, radioactivity, waste

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Authors: C. P. Griffin

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This paper seeks to critically review special educational needs (SEN) policy in the Irish education system since the introduction of the Education Act in 1998. In particular, the author seeks to focus on the impact of SEN policy on inclusionary practices for children with significant care needs in light of the introduction on the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme. Following a systematic review of the literature, the growth of the SNA scheme in Ireland will be critically reviewed. Strengths and weaknesses of the scheme will be forwarded and comparisons drawn between contrasting international models of teaching assistant support. Based on this review, avenues for future research will be forwarded, with the aim of supporting effective inclusionary practices for children with SEN based on evidence-based practice.

Keywords: care needs, inclusion, Ireland, special needs assistants

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Authors: Natalya G. Filimonova, Mariya G. Ozerova, Irina N. Ermakova

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The long-term strategy of the economic development of Russia up to 2030 is based on the concept of sustainable growth. The determining factor of such development is complex changes in the economic system which may be achieved by making progressive changes in its structure. The structural changes determine the character and the direction of economic development, as well as they include all elements of this system without exception, and their regulated character ensures the most rapid aim achievement. This article has discussed the industrial structure of the agriculture in Russia. With the use of the system of indexes, the article has determined the directions, intensity, and speed of structural shifts. The influence of structural changes on agricultural production development has been found out. It is noticed that the changes in the industrial structure are synchronized with the changes in the organisation and economic structure. Efficiency assessment of structural changes allowed to trace the efficiency of structural changes and elaborate the main directions for agricultural policy improvement.

Keywords: Russian agricultural sectors, sectoral structure, organizational and economic structure, structural changes

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Authors: Gabriele Borg, Alexei De Bono, Charlie Abela

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There on a constant rise in the availability of high volumes of data gathered from multiple sources, resulting in an abundance of unprocessed information that can be used to monitor patterns and trends in user behaviour. Similarly, year after year, Malta is also constantly experiencing ongoing population growth and an increase in mobilization demand. This research takes advantage of data which is continuously being sourced and converting it into useful information related to the traffic problem on the Maltese roads. The scope of this paper is to provide a methodology to create a custom dataset (MalTra - Malta Traffic) compiled from multiple participants from various locations across the island to identify the most common routes taken to expose the main areas of activity. This use of big data is seen being used in various technologies and is referred to as ITSs (Intelligent Transportation Systems), which has been concluded that there is significant potential in utilising such sources of data on a nationwide scale.

Keywords: Big Data, vehicular traffic, traffic management, mobile data patterns

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Authors: Preeti Panthari, Harsha Kharkwal

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Myrica nagi belongs to Myricaceae family. It is known for its therapeutic use since ancient times. The leaves were extracted with methanol and further fractioned with different solvents with increasing polarity. The n-butanol fraction of methanol extract was passed through celite, on separation through silica gel column chromatography yielded ten fractions. For the first time we report isolation of Caffeic acid from n-butanol fraction of Myrica nagi leaves in Chloroform: methanol (70:30) fraction. The mobile phase used for analysis in HPLC was Methanol: water (60:40) at the flow rate of 1 ml/min at wavelength of 280 nm. The retention time was 2.66 mins.

Keywords: Myrica nagi, column chromatography, retention time, caffeic acid

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Authors: Sasikala Govindaraj, P. Palanisamy, G. M. Natarajan

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Domestic sewage poses major threats to the aquatic environment in third world countries due to lack of technical and economic sources which can have significant impacts on fish. The tolerance limits to toxicants found in domestic effluents vary among species and their integrative effects may lead to reproductive failure and reduction of survival and growth of the more sensitive fish species. The mechanism of action of toxic substances upon various concentrations of sewage was taken aiming to evaluate locomotory, physiological, neurological and morbidity response of fish. The rapid biomonitoring assessment technique for qualitative evaluation of various industrial pollutants, behavioral responses of an air-breathing fish Pangasius pangasius were used as biomarkers for water quality assessment. The present investigation concluded that sewage is highly toxic to the fish and severely affects their physiology and behavior.

Keywords: air-breathing organs, behavioral, locomotory, morbidity, neurological, physiological, sewage

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Authors: P. S. BEDI* , Neavty Thakur, Balvınder Sıngh

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In the present study an attempt has been made to prepare the crude extracts of leaves and stem of ‘Girardinia heterophylla’ by using various solvents like petroleum ether, ethanol and double distilled water. The samples were given the code NGLS 1, NGLS 2, NGLS 3, NGSS 1, NGSS 2 and NGSS 3 respectively. All the extracts were used to study their antimicrobial activity against gram positive bacteria eg. Bacillus subtilis, Gram negative bacteria eg. E. coli, K. pneumonia and antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger. The results of the antimicrobial activity showed that all the crude extracts of the plant posseses antibacterial activity. Maximum antibacterial activity was shown by NGLS 2, NGLS 3 and NGSS 3 against K. pneumonia. The growth of fungus A. niger was also inhibited by all the crude extracts. Maximum inhibition was shown by NGSS 2 followed by NGSS 1.

Keywords: Girardinia heterophylla, leaves and stem extracts, Antibacterial activity, antifungal activity.

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Authors: Karishma Kashyap, Subha D. Parida

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Rapid population growth and urbanization is creating pressure throughout the world. This has a dramatic effect on a lot of elements which include water, food, transportation, energy, infrastructure etc. as few of the key services. Built environment sector is growing concurrently to meet the needs of urbanization. Due to such large scale development of buildings, there is a need for them to be monitored and managed efficiently. Along with appropriate management, climate adaptation is highly crucial as well because buildings are one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emission in their operation phase. Buildings to be adaptive need to provide a triple bottom approach to sustainability i.e., being socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. Hence, in order to deliver these sustainability outcomes, there is a growing understanding and thrive towards switching to green buildings or renovating new ones as per green standards wherever possible. Academic institutions in particular have been following this trend globally. This is highly significant as universities usually have high occupancy rates because they manage a large building portfolio. Also, as universities accommodate the future generation of architects, policy makers etc., they have the potential of setting themselves as a best industry practice model for research and innovation for the rest to follow. Hence their climate adaptation, sustainable growth and performance management becomes highly crucial in order to provide the best services to users. With the objective of evaluating appropriate management mechanisms within academic institutions, a feasibility study was carried out in a recent 5-Star Green Star rated university building (housing the School of Construction) in Victoria (south-eastern state of Australia). The key aim was to understand the behavioral and social aspect of the building users, management and the impact of their relationship on overall building sustainability. A survey was used to understand the building occupant’s response and reactions in terms of their work environment and management. A report was generated based on the survey results complemented with utility and performance data which were then used to evaluate the management structure of the university. Followed by the report, interviews were scheduled with the facility and asset managers in order to understand the approach they use to manage the different buildings in their university campuses (old, new, refurbished), respective building and parameters incorporated in maintaining the Green Star performance. The results aimed at closing the communication and feedback loop within the respective institutions and assist the facility managers to deliver appropriate stakeholder engagement. For the wider design community, analysis of the data highlights the applicability and significance of prioritizing key stakeholders, integrating desired engagement policies within an institution’s management structures and frameworks and their effect on building performance

Keywords: building optimization, green building, post occupancy evaluation, stakeholder engagement

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Authors: David Hasurungan

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This paper objective is to analyze the impact from photovoltaic system integration to power distribution network. The case study in Badak Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant is presented in this paper. Badak LNG electricity network is operated in islanded mode. The total power generation in Badak LNG plant is significantly affected to feed gas supply. Meanwhile, to support the Government regulation, Badak LNG continuously implemented the grid-connected photovoltaic system in existing power distribution network. The impact between train operational mode change in Badak LNG plant and the growth of photovoltaic system is also encompassed in analysis. The analysis and calculation are performed using software Power Factory 15.1.

Keywords: power quality, distribution network, grid-connected photovoltaic system, power management system

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Authors: Anwar Ali Abdulla, Thekra Abdulaali Abed Al-Chaabawi, Anwar Kadhim Al-Saffar, Hussein Kadhim Al-Saffar

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Lactic acid bacteria are very significant to human health due to the production of some antimicrobial substances and ability to inhibit pathogenic bacteria. Furthermore, the bacteria are also used as starter culture in the production of various foods. The present study was focused on isolation and characterization of Lactobacillus acidophilus from yogurt and to demonstrate some of probiotic properties of these isolates. All isolates were phenotypically characterized including studying, biochemical, effect of sodium chloride and pH during growth, carbohydrates test and characterizing the antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus acidophilus against pathogens. The present study demonstrates that Lactobacillus acidophilus produced a bacteriocin- like inhibitory substance with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity directed against pathogenic indicator organism suggesting its protective value against enteric pathogens.

Keywords: lactobacillus acidophilus, bacteriocin, antimicrobial activity, probiotic

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Authors: Hyeonuk Shin, Hun Song, Yongsik Chu, Jongkyu Lee, Dongcheon Park

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Although much current research has been devoted to reusing concrete in the form of recycled aggregate, insufficient attention has been given to researching the utilization of waste concrete powder, which constitutes 20 % or more of waste concrete and therefore the majority of waste cementitious powder is currently being discarded or buried in landfills. This study consists of foundational research for the purpose of reusing waste cementitious powder in the form of recycled cement that can answer the need for low carbon green growth. Progressing beyond the conventional practice of using the waste cementitious powder as inert filler material, this study contributes to the aim of manufacturing high value added materials that exploits the chemical properties of the waste cementitious powder, by presenting a pre-treatment method for the material and an optimal method of proportioning the mix of materials to develop a low carbon type of recycled cement.

Keywords: Low carbon type cement, Waste cementitious powder, Waste recycling

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Authors: H. Nacef, L. Larous

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Salin soils occupy about 7% of land area; they are characterized by unsuitable physical conditions for the growth of living organisms. However, researches showed that some microorganisms especially fungi are able to grow and adapt to such extreme conditions; it is due to their ability to develop different physiological mechanisms in their adaptation. The aim of this study is to identify qualitatively the osmolytes that the biotechnological important fungus A. oryzae accumulated and/or produced in its adaptation, which they were detected by Thin-layer chromatography technique (TLC) using several systems, from different media (Wheat brane, MNM medium and MM medium). The results showed that The moderately halotolerant fungus A. oryzae, accumulates mixture of molecules, containing polyols and sugars , some amino acids in addition to some molecules which were not defined. Wheat bran was the best medium for the extraction of these molecules, where the proportion was 85.71%, followed by MNM medium 64.28%, then the minimum medium MM 14.28%. Properties of osmolytes are becoming increasingly useful in molecular biology, agriculture pharmaceutical, medicinal, and biotechnological interests.

Keywords: salinity, aspergillus oryzae, halo tolerance, osmolytes, compatible solutes

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Authors: Tsu-Yun Chiu, Tsung-Hsueh Lu, Tain-Junn Cheng

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Background: Traditional chronic disease management did not pay attention to effects of geographic factors on the compliance of treatment regime, which resulted in geographic inequality in outcomes of chronic disease management. This study aims to examine the geographic distribution and clustering of quality indicators of diabetes care. Method: We first extracted address, demographic information and quality of care indicators (number of visits, complications, prescription and laboratory records) of patients with diabetes for 2014 from medical information system in a medical center in Tainan City, Taiwan, and the patients’ addresses were transformed into district- and village-level data. We then compared the differences of geographic distribution and clustering of quality of care indicators between districts and villages. Despite the descriptive results, rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for indices of care in order to compare the quality of diabetes care among different areas. Results: A total of 23,588 patients with diabetes were extracted from the hospital data system; whereas 12,716 patients’ information and medical records were included to the following analysis. More than half of the subjects in this study were male and between 60-79 years old. Furthermore, the quality of diabetes care did indeed vary by geographical levels. Thru the smaller level, we could point out clustered areas more specifically. Fuguo Village (of Yongkang District) and Zhiyi Village (of Sinhua District) were found to be “hotspots” for nephropathy and cerebrovascular disease; while Wangliau Village and Erwang Village (of Yongkang District) would be “coldspots” for lowest proportion of ≥80% compliance to blood lipids examination. On the other hand, Yuping Village (in Anping District) was the area with the lowest proportion of ≥80% compliance to all laboratory examination. Conclusion: In spite of examining the geographic distribution, calculating rate ratios and their 95% CI could also be a useful and consistent method to test the association. This information is useful for health planners, diabetes case managers and other affiliate practitioners to organize care resources to the areas most needed.

Keywords: catchment area of healthcare, chronic disease management, Geographic information system, quality of diabetes care

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Authors: Ece Çetin, İsmail Boz, Mehtap Şafak Boroğlu

Abstract:

Energy is one of the most important components of production processes, economic activities, and daily life. Non-renewable energy sources cause serious environmental problems with the increase of greenhouse gases. Obtaining energy from renewable sources is also essential for sustainable economic growth. Solar energy is also an important renewable energy source with its unlimited and clean features. In this study, the effect of 1, 2, and 3 layers of perovskite film number and antisolvent dripping on perovskite based solar cell efficiency was investigated. The yield increased as the number of perovskite films increased. In addition, the yields obtained with the antisolvent dripped in the last 5 seconds are higher than the ones dropped in the last 17 seconds. The highest efficiency was obtained with 3 perovskite films, and antisolvent dropped in the last 5 seconds.

Keywords: antisolvent, efficiency, perovskite, solar cell

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