Search results for: water management plans

Authors: Mohamed Gouda

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Antibacterial wound dressings based on cellulose nanofibers containing different metal nanoparticles (CMC-MNPs) were synthesized using an electrospinning technique. First, the composite of carboxymethyl cellulose containing different metal nanoparticles (CMC/MNPs), such as copper nanoparticles (CuNPs), iron nanoparticles (FeNPs), zinc nanoparticles (ZnNPs), cadmium nanoparticles (CdNPs) and cobalt nanoparticles (CoNPs) were synthesized, and finally, these composites were transferred to the electrospinning process. Synthesized CMC-MNPs were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with high-energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and UV-visible spectroscopy used to confirm nanoparticle formation. The SEM images clearly showed regular flat shapes with semi-porous surfaces. All MNPs were well distributed inside the backbone of the cellulose without aggregation. The average particle diameters were 29-39 nm for ZnNPs, 29-33 nm for CdNPs, 25-33 nm for CoNPs, 23-27 nm for CuNPs and 22-26 nm for FeNPs. Surface morphology, water uptake and release of MNPs from the nanofibers in water and antimicrobial efficacy were studied. SEM images revealed that electrospun CMC-MNPs nanofibers are smooth and uniformly distributed without bead formation with average fiber diameters in the range of 300 to 450 nm. Fiber diameters were not affected by the presence of MNPs. TEM images showed that MNPs are present in/on the electrospun CMC-MNPs nanofibers. The diameter of the electrospun nanofibers containing MNPs was in the range of 300–450 nm. The MNPs were observed to be spherical in shape. The CMC-MNPs nanofibers showed good hydrophilic properties and had excellent antibacterial activity against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus.

Keywords: electrospinning technique, metal nanoparticles, cellulosic nanofibers, wound dressing

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Authors: Hsin-Yi Lo, Chia-Yu Hsu

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This article is the nursing experience of a multiple trauma case using Swanson's theory of caring, the nursing period is from May 31 to June 4, 2021, collect data through observation, written talks, interviews, listening, direct care and physical assessment, established cases with health problems such as acute pain, impaired tissue integrity, and anxiety. Nursing process including, evaluate the pain index with the pain assessment scale, assist in acupoint massage, use a corset to fix the wound, and give the patient listening to favorite radio programs to divert attention and relieve pain problems; promote wound healing and avoid infection by assessing wound condition and exudation, changing dressings with aseptic technique, and providing appropriate dressings; encourage patients to express their feelings, provide companionship, and assist in self-care and participation in treatment plans, to enable the case to overcome the anxiety caused by being admitted to the intensive care unit for the first time and not knowing about the disease, and assist the case to overcome the injury caused by the accident and return to normal life. There is no video equipment in the intensive care unit during the nursing period. In response to the problem that family visits cannot be opened during the epidemic, it is a limitation this time. It is recommended that the hospital take this into consideration in the future. In the post-epidemic era, it can reduce the risk of various infections for patients and family members. Traveling between home and hospital, improving the quality of high-quality and technological care.

Keywords: swanson's theory of caring, multiple trauma, anxiety, nursing experience

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Authors: Yifan Fan, Xudong Luo, Pingping Lin

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Nowadays, dialogue systems increasingly become the way for humans to access many computer systems. So, humans can interact with computers in natural language. A dialogue system consists of three parts: understanding what humans say in natural language, managing dialogue, and generating responses in natural language. In this paper, we survey deep learning based methods for dialogue management, response generation and dialogue evaluation. Specifically, these methods are based on neural network, long short-term memory network, deep reinforcement learning, pre-training and generative adversarial network. We compare these methods and point out the further research directions.

Keywords: dialogue management, response generation, deep learning, evaluation

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Authors: Hilmi Rafet Yüncü

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Today Internet has very important role to promote products and services all over the world. Companies and destinations in tourism industry use Internet to sell and to promote their core products to directly potential tourists. Internet technologies have redefined the relationships between tourists, tourism companies, and travel agents. The new relationship allows for accessing and tapping tourism information and services. Internet technologies ensure new opportunities to available for the tourism industry, including travel accommodation, and tourist destination organizations. Websites are important devices to the marketing of a destination. Most people make a research about the destination before arriving via internet. Governments have a considerable role in the process of marketing tourism destinations. Governments make policies and regulations; furthermore, they help to market destinations to potential tourists. Governments have a comprehensive overview of the sector to see changes in tourism market and design better policies, programs and marketing plans. At the same time, governments support developing of alternative tourism in the country with regulations and marketing tools. The aim of this study is to analyse of an Internet website of governmental tourism portal in Turkey to determine effectiveness about gastronomy tourism. The Turkish government has established a culture portal for foreign and local tourists. The Portal provides local and general information about tourism attractions of cities and Turkey. There are 81 official cities in Turkey and all these cities are conducted to analyse to determine how effective marketing is done by Turkish Government in the manner of gastronomy tourism. A content analysis will be conducted to Internet website of the portal with food content, recipes and gastronomic feature of cities.

Keywords: culture portal, gastronomy tourism, government, Turkey

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Authors: Sonika Sharma, Mohan G. Vairale, Sibnarayan Datta, Soumya Chatterjee, Dharmendra Dubey, Rajesh Prasad, Raghvendra Budhauliya, Bidisha Das, Vijay Veer

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Bacteriophages are viruses that parasitize specific bacteria and multiply in metabolising host bacteria. Bacteriophages hunt for a single or a subset of bacterial species, making them potential antibacterial agents. Utilizing the ability of phages to control bacterial populations has several applications from medical to the fields of agriculture, aquaculture and the food industry. However, harnessing phage based techniques in wastewater treatments to improve quality of effluent and sludge release into the environment is a potential area for R&D application. Phage mediated bactericidal effect in any wastewater treatment process has many controlling factors that lead to treatment performance. In laboratory conditions, titer of bacteriophages (coliphages) isolated from effluent water of a specially designed anaerobic digester of human night soil (DRDO Biotoilet) was successfully increased with a modified protocol of the classical double layer agar technique. Enrichment of the same was carried out and efficacy of the phage enriched medium was evaluated at different conditions (specific media, temperature, storage conditions). Growth optimization study was carried out on different media like soybean casein digest medium (Tryptone soya medium), Luria-Bertani medium, phage deca broth medium and MNA medium (Modified nutrient medium). Further, temperature-phage yield relationship was also observed at three different temperatures 27˚C, 37˚C and 44˚C at laboratory condition. Results showed the higher activity of coliphage 27˚C and at 37˚C. Further, addition of divalent ions (10mM MgCl2, 5mM CaCl2) and 5% glycerol resulted in a significant increase in phage titer. Besides this, effect of antibiotics addition like ampicillin and kanamycin at different concentration on plaque formation was analysed and reported that ampicillin at a concentration of 1mg/ml ampicillin stimulates phage infection and results in more number of plaques. Experiments to test viability of phage showed that it can remain active for 6 months at 4˚C in fresh tryptone soya broth supplemented with fresh culture of coliforms (early log phase). The application of bacteriophages (especially coliphages) for treatment of effluent of human faecal matter contaminated effluent water is unique. This environment-friendly treatment system not only reduces the pathogenic coliforms, but also decreases the competition between nuisance bacteria and functionally important microbial populations. Therefore, the phage based cocktail to treat fecal pathogenic bacteria present in black water has many implication in wastewater treatment processes including ‘DRDO Biotoilet’, which is an ecofriendly appropriate and affordable human faecal matter treatment technology for different climates and situations.

Keywords: wastewater, microbes, virus, biotoilet, phage viability

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Authors: Mkhinini Maher, Knani Jilani

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We present in this work the performances of a mobile omnidirectional robot through evaluating its management of the redundancy of actuation. Thus we come to the predictive control implemented. The distribution of the wringer on the robot actions, through the inverse pseudo of Moore-Penrose, corresponds to a -geometric- distribution of efforts. We will show that the load on vehicle wheels would not be equi-distributed in terms of wheels configuration and of robot movement. Thus, the threshold of sliding is not the same for the three wheels of the vehicle. We suggest exploiting the redundancy of actuation to reduce the risk of wheels sliding and to ameliorate, thereby, its accuracy of displacement. This kind of approach was the subject of study for the legged robots.

Keywords: mobile robot, actuation, redundancy, omnidirectional, inverse pseudo moore-penrose, reductive control

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Authors: Majid Shahbazi

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Subclavian artery stenosis (SAS) is a common vascular disease that can cause a range of symptoms, from arm fatigue and weakness to ischemic stroke. Revascularization procedures, such as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting, are widely used to treat SAS and improve blood flow to the affected arm. However, the optimal management of patients with SAS is still unclear, and further research is needed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of different treatment options. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of patients with SAS who underwent revascularization procedures in Latvia (Specifically RAKUS). The research part of this paper aims to describe and analyze the demographics, comorbidities, diagnostic methods, types of revascularization procedures, and antiaggregant therapy used. The goal of this study is to provide insights into the current clinical practice in Latvia and help future treatment decision-makers. To achieve this aim, a retrospective study of 76 patients with SAS who underwent revascularization procedures was performed. After statistical analysis of the data, the study provided insights into the characteristics and management of patients with SAS in Latvia, highlighting the most observed comorbidities in these patients, the preferred diagnostic methods, and the most performed procedures. These findings can inform clinical decision-making and may have implications for the management of patients with subclavian artery stenosis in Latvia.

Keywords: subclavian artery stenosis, revascularization, characteristics of patients, comorbidities, retrospective analysis

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Authors: Sanaa Mekdad, Leenah Alsayed

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Pharmacists play an important role in the CDTM in the care of patients with heart failure (HF). CDTM allows specialized, dedicated clinical pharmacists in a formal agreement in collaborative practice with physicians. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the role of cardiology clinical pharmacists in CDTM in decreasing hospitalization and cost. We studied patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction in a cluster-randomized selection in a tertiary care center. We allocated 296 patients to pharmacist intervention from 1480 patients. Results: With an acceptance rate of 86%, we documented 696 interventions carried out by clinical pharmacists in cardiology. The average intervention was 2.4 patients, and the admission after interventions decreased from 0.79 to. 0.24 (p value = 0.001). Conclusions: In HF CDTM, clinical pharmacists play a crucial role in enhancing medication management, patient education, and lifestyle modification of patients with chronic heart failure. These efforts improve patients' outcomes and lower costs by reducing hospitalization and other associated expenses.

Keywords: cardiology, medication management, heart failure, outpatient therapy, pharmacist-based services, chronic heart failure, heart failure recommendations, CDTM, Middle East, pharmacist-based services, quality of life, pharmacist

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Authors: Ibrahim Alkandi

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This study aims at understanding how banks can utilize their resources and capabilities to achieve a competitive advantage. The resource-based approach has been applied to assess the resources and capabilities as well as how the management perceives them as sources of competitive advantages. A quantitative approach was implemented using cross-sectional data. The research population consisted of Top managers in financial companies in Saudi Arabia, and the sample comprised 79 managers. The resources were sub divided into tangible and intangible. Among the variables that will be assessed in the research include propriety rights, trademark which is the brand, communication as well as organizational culture. To achieve the objective of the research, Multivariate analysis through multiple regression was used. The research tool used is a questionnaire whose validity is also assessed. According to the results of the study, there is a significant relationship between bank’s performance and the strategic management of propriety rights, trademark, administrative and financial skills as well as bank culture. Therefore, the research assessed four aspects, among the variables in the model, in relation to the strategic performance of these banks. The aspects considered were trademark, communication, administrative and leadership style as well as the company’s culture. Hence, this paper contributes to the body of literature by providing empirical evidence of the resources influencing both banks’ market and economic performance.

Keywords: competitive advantage, Saudi banks, strategic management, RBV

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Authors: Raimo P. Hämäläinen, Juha Törmänen, Esa Saarinen

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Systems thinking has been acknowledged as an important approach in the strategy and management literature ever since the seminal works of Ackhoff in the 1970´s and Senge in the 1990´s. The early literature was very much focused on structures and organizational dynamics. Understanding systems is important but making improvements also needs ways to understand human behavior in systems. Peter Senge´s book The Fifth Discipline gave the inspiration to the development of the concept of Systems Intelligence. The concept integrates the concepts of personal mastery and systems thinking. SI refers to intelligent behavior in the context of complex systems involving interaction and feedback. It is a competence related to the skills needed in strategy and the environment of modern industrial engineering and management where people skills and systems are in an increasingly important role. The eight factors of Systems Intelligence have been identified from extensive surveys and the factors relate to perceiving, attitude, thinking and acting. The personal self-evaluation test developed consists of 32 items which can also be applied in a peer evaluation mode. The concept and test extend to organizations too. One can talk about organizational systems intelligence. This paper reports the results of an extensive survey based on peer evaluation. The results show that systems intelligence correlates positively with professional performance. People in a managerial role score higher in SI than others. Age improves the SI score but there is no gender difference. Top organizations score higher in all SI factors than lower ranked ones. The SI-tests can also be used as leadership and management development tools helping self-reflection and learning. Finding ways of enhancing learning organizational development is important. Today gamification is a new promising approach. The items in the SI test have been used to develop an interactive card game following the Topaasia game approach. It is an easy way of engaging people in a process which both helps participants see and approach problems in their organization. It also helps individuals in identifying challenges in their own behavior and in improving in their SI.

Keywords: gamification, management competence, organizational learning, systems thinking

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Authors: Chamilani Nikapitiya, Mahanama De Zoysa, Jehee Lee

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Most of the bacterial diseases are associated with high mortalities in aquaculture species and causing huge economic losses. Different approaches have been taken to prevent or control of bacterial diseases including use of vaccines, probiotics, chemotherapy, water quality management, etc. Antibiotics are widely applying as chemotherapy to control bacterial diseases, however, it has been shown that frequent use of antibiotics is favored to develop multi-drug resistance bacteria. Therefore, phages and phage encoded lytic proteins are known to be one of the most promising alternatives for antibiotics to avoid the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We isolated and characterized the two lytic phages, namely pAh-1 and pAs-1 against pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila and Aeromonas salmonicida, respectively. Morphological characteristics were analyzed by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and host strain specificities were tested with Aeromonas and other closely related bacterial strains. TEM analysis revealed that both pAh-1 and pAsm-1 are composed of an icosahedral head and a segmented tail, and we suggest that, they are new members of Myoviridae family. Genome sizes of isolated phages were estimated by restriction enzyme digestion of genomic DNA using selected endonucleases followed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Estimated genome size of pAh-1 and pAs-1 were approximately 64 Kbp and 120 Kbp, respectively. Both pAh-1 and pAs-1 have shown narrow host specificity. Moreover, protective effects of phage therapy against fish pathogenic A. hydrophila were investigated in zebrafish model. The survival rate was 40% higher when zebrafish received intra-peritoneal injection (i.p.) of pAh-1 were simultaneously challenge A. hydrophila (2 x 106 CFU/fish) compared to that without phage treatment. Overall results suggest that both pAh-1 and pAs-1 can be used as a potential phage therapy to control Aeromonas infections in aquaculture.

Keywords: Aeromonas infections, antibiotic resistance, bacteriophage, bio-control, lytic phage

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Authors: Mohammad Rahmani Rezaiyeh, Mojtaba Rahmani Rezaiyeh, Mehrdad Rahmani Rezaiyeh

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Smart speed bump is a new invention and I am invented it. Smart speed bump is a system that can change the position of speed bumps either active or passive in necessary situations. The basic system of smart speed bumps is based on a robotic system which includes mechanic, electronic and artificial intelligence. The smart speed bump is capable of smart decision making and can change its position by anticipating the peak of terrific hours. It can be noted to the advantages of this system such as preventing the waste of petrol while crossing speed bumps, traffic management, accelerating, flowing and securing traffic, reducing accidents and judicial records.

Keywords: invention, smart, robotic system, speed bump, traffic, management

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Authors: Jean Hugé, Francisco Benitez-Capistros, Giorgia Camperio-Ciani

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Addressing conservation conflicts requires the consideration of multiple stakeholders' perspectives and knowledge claims, in order to inform complex and possibly contentious decision-making dilemmas. Hence, a better understanding of why people in particular contexts act in a particular way in a conservation conflict is needed. First, this contribution aims at providing and applying an approach to map and interpret the diversity of subjective viewpoints with regard to iconic species in conservation conflicts. Secondly, this contribution aims to feed the reflection on the possible consequences of the diversity of perspectives for the future management of wildlife (in particular iconic species), based on case studies in Galapagos and Malaysia. The use of the semi-quantitative Q methodology allowed us to identify various perspectives on conservation in different social-ecological contexts. While the presence of iconic species may lead to a more passionate and emotional debate, it may also provide more opportunities for finding common ground and for jointly developing acceptable management solutions that will depolarize emergent, long-lasting or latent conservation conflicts. Based on the research team’s experience in the field, and on the integration of ecological and social knowledge, methodological and management recommendations are made with regard to conservation conflicts involving iconic wildlife. The mere presence of iconic wildlife does not guarantee its centrality in conservation conflicts, and comparisons will be drawn between the cases of the giant tortoises (Chelonoidis spec.) in Galapagos, Ecuador and the Milky Stork (Mycteria cinerea) in western peninsular Malaysia. Acknowledging the diversity of viewpoints, reflecting how different stakeholders see, act and talk about wildlife management, highlights the need to develop pro-active and resilient strategies to deal with these issues.

Keywords: conservation conflicts, Q methodology, Galapagos, Malaysia, giant tortoise, milky stork

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Authors: Chirag Raval, Jimmy Toussaint, Tieuvi Nguyen, Hadi Fadaifard, George Wolberg, Steven Quarfordt, Kung-ming Jan, David S. Rumschitzki

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Numerous studies examine aquaporins’ role in osmotic water transport in various systems but virtually none focus on aquaporins’ role in hydrostatically-driven water transport involving mammalian cells save for our laboratory’s recent study of aortic endothelial cells. Here we investigate aquaporin-1 expression and function in the aortic endothelium in two high-renin rat models of hypertension, the spontaneously hypertensive genomically altered Wystar-Kyoto rat variant and Sprague-Dawley rats made hypertensive by two kidney, one clip Goldblatt surgery. We measured aquaporin-1 expression in aortic endothelial cells from whole rat aortas by quantitative immunohistochemistry, and function by measuring the pressure driven hydraulic conductivities of excised rat aortas with both intact and denuded endothelia on the same vessel. We use them to calculate the effective intimal hydraulic conductivity, which is a combination of endothelial and subendothelial components. We observed well-correlated enhancements in aquaporin-1 expression and function in both hypertensive rat models as well as in aortas from normotensive rats whose expression was upregulated by 2h forskolin treatment. Upregulated aquaporin-1 expression and function may be a response to hypertension that critically determines conduit artery vessel wall viability and long-term susceptibility to atherosclerosis. Numerous studies examine aquaporins’ role in osmotic water transport in various systems but virtually none focus on aquaporins’ role in hydrostatically-driven water transport involving mammalian cells save for our laboratory’s recent study of aortic endothelial cells. Here we investigate aquaporin-1 expression and function in the aortic endothelium in two high-renin rat models of hypertension, the spontaneously hypertensive genomically altered Wystar-Kyoto rat variant and Sprague-Dawley rats made hypertensive by two kidney, one clip Goldblatt surgery. We measured aquaporin-1 expression in aortic endothelial cells from whole rat aortas by quantitative immunohistochemistry, and function by measuring the pressure driven hydraulic conductivities of excised rat aortas with both intact and denuded endothelia on the same vessel. We use them to calculate the effective intimal hydraulic conductivity, which is a combination of endothelial and subendothelial components. We observed well-correlated enhancements in aquaporin-1 expression and function in both hypertensive rat models as well as in aortas from normotensive rats whose expression was upregulated by 2h forskolin treatment. Upregulated aquaporin-1 expression and function may be a response to hypertension that critically determines conduit artery vessel wall viability and long-term susceptibility to atherosclerosis.

Keywords: acute hypertension, aquaporin-1, hydraulic conductivity, hydrostatic pressure, aortic endothelial cells, transcellular flow

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Authors: Ying Li, Zaisheng Hong, Weihong Wang

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With the rapid enlargement of the size of Chinese universities, newly built campuses are springing up everywhere in recent years. It is urged to build eco-green campus because the role of higher education institutions in the transition to a more sustainable society has been highlighted for almost three decades. On condition that a new campus is usually built on an undeveloped site, where the basic infrastructure is not completed, finding proper strategies in planning and design of the campus becomes a primary concern. Low Impact Development (LID) options have been proposed as an alternative approach to make better use of rainwater in planning and design of an undeveloped site. On the basis of analyzing the natural circumstance, geographic condition, and other relative information, four main LID approaches are coordinated in this study of Hebei Union University, which are ‘Storage’, ‘Retaining’, ‘Infiltration’ and ‘Purification’. ‘Storage’ refers to a big central lake in the campus for rainwater harvesting. ‘Retaining’ means rainwater gardens scattered in the campus, also being known as bioretention areas which mimic the naturally created pools of water, to decrease surface flow runoff. ‘Infiltration’ is designed of grassed swales, which also play a part of floodway channel. ‘Purification’ is known as either natural or artificial wetland to reduce pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorous in the waterbody. With above mentioned measures dealing with the synthetic use of rainwater in the acid & alkali area in the coastal district, an eco-green campus construction and an ecological sustainability will be realized, which will give us more enlightenment and reference.

Keywords: newly built campus, low impact development, planning design, rainwater reuse

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Authors: Nicola S. Schutte, John M. Malouff

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Introduction: Curiosity is a positive emotion and motivational state that consists of the desire to know. Curiosity consists of several related dimensions, including a desire for exploration, deprivation sensitivity, and stress tolerance. Creativity involves generating novel and valuable ideas or products. How curiosity may prompt greater creativity remains to be investigated. The phenomena of flow may link curiosity and creativity. Flow is characterized by intense concentration and absorption and gives rise to optimal performance. Objective of Study: The objective of the present study was to investigate whether the phenomenon of flow may link curiosity with creativity. Methods and Design: Fifty-seven individuals from Australia (45 women and 12 men, mean age of 35.33, SD=9.4) participated. Participants were asked to design a program encouraging residents in a local community to conserve water and to record the elements of their program in writing. Participants were then asked to rate their experience as they developed and wrote about their program. Participants rated their experience on the Dimensional Curiosity Measure sub-scales assessing the exploration, deprivation sensitivity, and stress tolerance facets of curiosity, and the Flow Short Scale. Reliability of the measures as assessed by Cronbach's alpha was as follows: Exploration Curiosity =.92, Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity =.66, Stress Tolerance Curiosity =.93, and Flow=.96. Two raters independently coded each participant’s water conservation program description on creativity. The mixed-model intraclass correlation coefficient for the two sets of ratings was .73. The mean of the two ratings produced the final creativity score for each participant. Results: During the experience of designing the program, all three types of curiosity were significantly associated with the flow. Pearson r correlations were as follows: Exploration Curiosity and flow, r =.68 (higher Exploration Curiosity was associated with more flow); Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity and flow, r =.39 (higher Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity was associated with more flow); and Stress Tolerance Curiosity and flow, r = .44 (more stress tolerance in relation to novelty and exploration was associated with more flow). Greater experience of flow was significantly associated with greater creativity in designing the water conservation program, r =.39. The associations between dimensions of curiosity and creativity did not reach significance. Even though the direct relationships between dimensions of curiosity and creativity were not significant, indirect relationships through the mediating effect of the experience of flow between dimensions of curiosity and creativity were significant. Mediation analysis using PROCESS showed that flow linked Exploration Curiosity with creativity, standardized beta=.23, 95%CI [.02,.25] for the indirect effect; Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity with creativity, standardized beta=.14, 95%CI [.04,.29] for the indirect effect; and Stress Tolerance Curiosity with creativity, standardized beta=.13, 95%CI [.02,.27] for the indirect effect. Conclusions: When engaging in an activity, higher levels of curiosity are associated with greater flow. More flow is associated with higher levels of creativity. Programs intended to increase flow or creativity might build on these findings and also explore causal relationships.

Keywords: creativity, curiosity, flow, motivation

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Authors: Tianyu Zhang

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China has become one of the markets with the biggest potential for UK exporters, but it remains difficult for outsiders to explore Chinese media’s inner workings due to a lack of access. Having worked in Chinese media, the author conducted six month’s participant-observation in China Central Television (CCTV) and three independent production companies. This paper mainly explores how TV production ethics were implemented in the casting process of three Chinese reality shows that are well-known within the country. The three production teams had issues in common: unorganised management, subjective casting standards and lack of production ethics. Casting directors, who were multitasking, could only rely on their professional experience and ad-hoc demands from the management. More concerning phenomena such as borderline corruption, passive-aggressiveness, and blame cultures were prevalent during the entire production, especially during casting. The casting process also often involved the celebrity status of the many ‘ordinary’ participants who were not that ‘ordinary’ as they claimed. Many of these participants were professional talents who were not famous enough but worked as many other well-known celebrities who had their own employees. On the other hand, as comprehensive production and ethics guidelines were missing, junior television practitioners struggled between their ideal professional standards and real-life events that fell into grey areas – telling white lies, bribery, shifting blame, and lack of employee training. Although facing challenges, many practitioners came up with self-management solutions and worked with positivity.

Keywords: production studies, ethics, television production, ethnography, reality TV, Chinese TV

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Authors: Jing Ma, Guotong Qin

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We reported electro-confinement desalination (ECMD), a desalination method combining electric field effects and confinement effects using nanoporous carbon membranes as electrode. A carbon membrane with average pore size of 8.3 nm was prepared by organic sol-gel method. The precursor of support was prepared by curing porous phenol resin tube. Resorcinol-formaldehyde sol was coated on porous tubular resin support. The membrane was obtained by carbonisation of coated support. A well-combined top layer with the thickness of 35 μm was supported by macroporous support. Measurements of molecular weight cut-off using polyethylene glycol showed the average pore size of 8.3 nm. High salt rejection can be achieved because the water molecules need not overcome high energy barriers in confined space, while huge inherent dehydration energy was required for hydrated ions to enter the nanochannels. Additionally, carbon membrane with additional electric field can be used as an integrated membrane electrode combining the effects of confinement and electric potential gradient. Such membrane electrode can repel co-ions and attract counter-ions using pressure as the driving force for mass transport. When the carbon membrane was set as cathode, the rejection of SO₄²⁻ was 94.89%, while the removal of Na⁺ was less than 20%. We set carbon membrane as anode chamber to treat the effluent water from the cathode chamber. The rejection of SO₄²⁻ and Na⁺ reached to 100% and 88.86%, respectively. ECMD will be a promising energy efficient method for salt rejection.

Keywords: nanoporous carbon membrane, confined effect, electric field, desalination, membrane reactor

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Authors: Muhammad Kashif Yar, Muhammad Hayat Jaspal, Muawuz Ijaz, Zafar Hayat, Iftikhar Hussain Badar, Jamal Nasir

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Meat quality characteristics such as ultimate pH (pHu), color, cooking loss and shear force of eight wholesale meat cuts of humped cattle (Bos indicus) and water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bulls at two age groups were evaluated. A total of 48 animals, 24 of each species and within species 12 from each 18 and 26 months age group were slaughtered. After 24h post-slaughter, eight meat cuts, i.e., tenderloin, sirloin, rump, cube roll, round, topside, silverside and blade were cut from the carcass. The pHu of tenderloin (5.65 vs 5.55), sirloin (5.67 vs 5.60), cube roll (5.68 vs 5.62) and blade (5.88 vs 5.72) was significantly higher (P<0.05) in buffalo than cattle. The tenderloin showed significantly higher (44.63 vs 42.23) and sirloin showed lower (P<0.05) mean L* value (42.28 vs 44.47) in cattle than buffalo whilst the mean L* value of the only tenderloin was affected by animal age. Species had a significant (P<0.05) effect on mean a*, b*, C, and h values of all meat cuts. The shear force of the majority of meat cuts, within species and age groups, varied considerably. The mean shear values of tenderloin, sirloin, cube roll and blade were higher (P<0.05) in buffalo than cattle. The shear values of rump, round, topside and silverside increased significantly (P<0.05) with animal age. In conclusion, primal cuts of cattle showed better meat quality especially tenderness than buffalo. Furthermore, calves should be raised at least up to 26 months of age to maximize profitability by providing better quality meat.

Keywords: buffalo, cattle, meat color, meat quality, slaughtering age, tenderness

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Authors: Christian Doppler, Gernot Hirschl, Gerhard Zsiga

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Starting from 2020, an EU-wide CO2-limitation of 95g/km is scheduled for the average of an OEMs passenger car fleet. Considering that, further measures of optimization on the diesel cycle will be necessary in order to reduce fuel consumption and emissions while keeping performance values adequate at the least. The present article deals with charge air cooling (CAC) on the basis of a diesel passenger car model in a 0D/1D-working process calculation environment. The considered engine is a 2.4 litre EURO VI diesel engine with variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) and low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (LP EGR). The object of study was the impact of charge air cooling on the engine working process at constant boundary conditions which could have been conducted with an available and validated engine model in AVL BOOST. Part load was realized with constant power and NOx-emissions, whereas full load was accomplished with a lambda control in order to obtain maximum engine performance. The informative results were used to implement a simulation model in Matlab/Simulink which is further integrated into a full vehicle simulation environment via coupling with ICOS (Independent Co-Simulation Platform). Next, the dynamic engine behavior was validated and modified with load steps taken from the engine test bed. Due to the modular setup in the Co-Simulation, different CAC-models have been simulated quickly with their different influences on the working process. In doing so, a new cooler variation isn’t needed to be reproduced and implemented into the primary simulation model environment, but is implemented quickly and easily as an independent component into the simulation entity. By means of the association of the engine model, longitudinal dynamics vehicle model and different CAC models (air/air & water/air variants) in both steady state and transient operational modes, statements are gained regarding fuel consumption, NOx-emissions and power behavior. The fact that there is no more need of a complex engine model is very advantageous for the overall simulation volume. Beside of the simulation with the mentioned demonstrator engine, there have also been conducted several experimental investigations on the engine test bench. Here the comparison of a standard CAC with an intake-manifold-integrated CAC was executed in particular. Simulative as well as experimental tests showed benefits for the water/air CAC variant (on test bed especially the intake manifold integrated variant). The benefits are illustrated by a reduced pressure loss and a gain in air efficiency and CAC efficiency, those who all lead to minimized emission and fuel consumption for stationary and transient operation.

Keywords: air/water-charge air cooler, co-simulation, diesel working process, EURO VI fuel consumption

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Authors: Oliver Marunțălu, Elena Elisabeta Manea, Lăcrămioara Diana Robescu, Mihai Necșoiu, Gheorghe Lăzăroiu, Dana Andreya Bondrea

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In order to obtain efficient pollutants removal in small-scale wastewater treatment plants, uniform water flow has to be achieved. The experimental setup, designed for treating high-load wastewater (leachate), consists of two aerobic biological reactors and a lamellar settler. Both biological tanks were aerated by using three different types of aeration systems - perforated pipes, membrane air diffusers and tube ceramic diffusers. The possibility of homogenizing the water mass with each of the air diffusion systems was evaluated comparatively. The oxygen concentration was determined by optical sensors with data logging. The experimental data was analyzed comparatively for all three different air dispersion systems aiming to identify the oxygen concentration variation during different operational conditions. The Oxygenation Capacity was calculated for each of the three systems and used as performance and selection parameter. The global mass transfer coefficients were also evaluated as important tools in designing the aeration system. Even though using the tubular porous diffusers leads to higher oxygen concentration compared to the perforated pipe system (which provides medium-sized bubbles in the aqueous solution), it doesn’t achieve the threshold limit of 80% oxygen saturation in less than 30 minutes. The study has shown that the optimal solution for the studied configuration was the radial air diffusers which ensure an oxygen saturation of 80% in 20 minutes. An increment of the values was identified when the air flow was increased.

Keywords: flow, aeration, bioreactor, oxygen concentration

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Authors: D. Courault, L. Hossard, V. Demarez, E. Ndikumana, D. Ho Tong Minh, N. Baghdadi, F. Ruget

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In the global change context, efficient management of the available resources has become one of the most important topics, particularly for sustainable crop development. Timely assessment with high precision is crucial for water resource and pest management. Rice cultivated in Southern France in the Camargue region must face a challenge, reduction of the soil salinity by flooding and at the same time reduce the number of herbicides impacting negatively the environment. This context has lead farmers to diversify crop rotation and their agricultural practices. The objective of this study was to evaluate this crop diversity both in crop systems and in agricultural practices applied to rice paddy in order to quantify the impact on the environment and on the crop production. The proposed method is based on the combined use of crop models and multispectral data acquired from the recent Sentinel 2 satellite sensors launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) within the homework of the Copernicus program. More than 40 images at fine spatial resolution (10m in the optical range) were processed for 2016 and 2017 (with a revisit time of 5 days) to map crop types using random forest method and to estimate biophysical variables (LAI) retrieved by inversion of the PROSAIL canopy radiative transfer model. Thanks to the high revisit time of Sentinel 2 data, it was possible to monitor the soil labor before flooding and the second sowing made by some farmers to better control weeds. The temporal trajectories of remote sensing data were analyzed for various rice cultivars for defining the main parameters describing the phenological stages useful to calibrate two crop models (STICS and SAFY). Results were compared to surveys conducted with 10 farms. A large variability of LAI has been observed at farm scale (up to 2-3m²/m²) which induced a significant variability in the yields simulated (up to 2 ton/ha). Observations on more than 300 fields have also been collected on land use. Various maps were elaborated, land use, LAI, flooding and sowing, and harvest dates. All these maps allow proposing a new typology to classify these paddy crop systems. Key phenological dates can be estimated from inverse procedures and were validated against ground surveys. The proposed approach allowed to compare the years and to detect anomalies. The methods proposed here can be applied at different crops in various contexts and confirm the potential of remote sensing acquired at fine resolution such as the Sentinel2 system for agriculture applications and environment monitoring. This study was supported by the French national center of spatial studies (CNES, funded by the TOSCA).

Keywords: agricultural practices, remote sensing, rice, yield

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Authors: Adebowale T. Odeyemi, Oluwafemi A. Ajenifuja

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The leachate samples collected from Erifun dumpsite along Federal Polythenic road, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, were subjected to bacteriological and mineral analyses. The bacteriological estimation and isolation were done using serial dilution and pour plating techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done using agar disc diffusion technique. Atomic Absorption Spectophotometry method was used to analyze the heavy metal contents in the leachate samples. The bacterial and coliform counts ranged from 4.2 × 105 CFU/ml to 2.97 × 106 CFU/ml and 5.0 × 104 CFU/ml to 2.45 x 106 CFU/ml, respectively. The isolated bacteria and percentage of occurrence include Bacillus cereus (22%), Enterobacter aerogenes (18%), Staphylococcus aureus (16%), Proteus vulgaris (14%), Escherichia coli (14%), Bacillus licheniformis (12%) and Klebsiella aerogenes (4%). The mineral value ranged as follow; iron (21.30mg/L - 25.60mg/L), zinc (1.80mg/L - 5.60mg/L), copper (1.00mg/L - 2.60mg/L), chromium (0.50mg/L - 1.30mg/L), candium (0.20mg/L - 1.30mg/L), nickel (0.20mg/L - 0.80mg/L), lead (0.05mg/L-0.30mg/L), cobalt (0.03mg/L - 0.30mg/L) and in all samples manganese was not detected. The entire organisms isolated exhibited a high level of resistance to most of the antibiotics used. There is an urgent need for awareness to be created about the present situation of the leachate in Erifun, on the need for treatment of the nearby stream and other water sources before they can be used for drinking and other domestic use. In conclusion, a good method of waste disposal is required in those communities to prevent leachate formation, percolation, and runoff into water bodies during the raining season.

Keywords: antibiotic susceptibility, dumpsite, bacteriological analysis, heavy metal

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Authors: Rodriguez Diego, Del Valle Martin, Hargreaves Matias, Riveros Jose Luis

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Nutrient deficiencies due to a diet low in quantitative and qualitative terms, are prevalent throughout the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Children and women of childbearing age are especially vulnerable. Limited availability, access and intake of animal foods at home and lack of knowledge about their value in the diet and the role they play in health, contribute to poor diet quality. Poor bioavailability of micronutrients in diets based on foods high in fiber and phytates, the low content of some micronutrients in these foods are further factors to consider. Goats are deeply embedded in almost every Sub-Saharan African rural culture, generally kept for their milk, meat, hair or leather. Goats have played an important role in African social life, especially in food security. Goat meat has good properties for human wellbeing, with a special role in lower income households. It has a high-quality protein (20 protein g/100 meat g) including all essential amino acids, good unsaturated/satured fatty acids relationship, and it is an important B-vitamin source with high micronutrients bioavailability. Mozambique has major food security problems, with poor food access and utilization, undiversified diets, chronic poverty and child malnutrition. Our objective was to design a nutritional intervention based on a dietary diversification, nutritional education, cultural beliefs and local resources, aimed to strengthen food security of children at Barrio Broma village (15°43'58.78"S; 32°46'7.27"E) in Chitima, Mozambique. Two surveys were conducted first of socio-productive local databases and then to 100 rural households about livelihoods, food diversity and anthropometric measurements in children under 5 years. Our results indicate that the main economic activity is goat production, based on a native breed with two deliveries per year in the absence of any management. Adult goats weighted 27.2±10.5 kg and raised a height of 63.5±3.8 cm. Data showed high levels of poverty, with a food diversity score of 2.3 (0-12 points), where only 30% of households consume protein and 13% iron, zinc, and B12 vitamin. The main constraints to food security were poor access to water and low income to buy food. Our dietary intervention was based on improving diet quality by increasing the access to dried goat meat, fresh vegetables, and legumes, and its utilization by a nutritional education program. This proposal was based on local culture and living conditions characterized by the absence of electricity power and drinkable water. The drying process proposed would secure the food maintenance under local conditions guaranteeing food safety for a longer period. Additionally, an ancient local drying technique was rescued and used. Moreover, this kind of dietary intervention would be the most efficient way to improve the infant nutrition by delivering macro and micronutrients on time to these vulnerable populations.

Keywords: child malnutrition, dietary diversification, food security, goat meat

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Authors: Saloni Diwakar, Hansika Kapoor

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The study undertook comparative analyses between 130 male and female managers in a power/electric company, relating to prevalent perceptions about gendered leadership, leadership efficacy, perceived organizational support, and diversity and inclusiveness. Results showed no significant difference in POS, leadership aspirations, expression, and self- and other leadership efficacy between male and female managers. However, within-groups analyses revealed that female managers reported a disparity between self and other leadership efficacy (value), to a far greater extent than male managers (value). Additionally, females reported a dip in POS during middle management, as compared to junior management, whereas men reported a steady increase in POS from junior, middle on to senior management. Descriptively, both men and women reported preferring gender neutral leadership traits, as compared to male or female centered traits, and both genders least preferred male centered leadership traits. Compared to women, male managers were found to significantly undervalue diversity and inclusion initiatives. Subjective feedback was elicited to corroborate quantitative output. Also, female participants provided subjective feedback regarding efficacy of existing D&I practices in the organization. Findings and implications are discussed relevant to existing gender inclusion agendas.

Keywords: gendered leadership, diversity, inclusivity, perceived organizational support

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Authors: Dmitriy V. Chulkov

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Escalation of commitment is defined as continuation of a project after receiving negative information about it. While literature in management and psychology identified various factors contributing to escalation behavior, this phenomenon has received little analysis in economics, potentially due to the apparent irrationality of escalation. In this study, we present an economic model of escalation with asymmetric information in a principal-agent setup where the agents are responsible for a project selection decision and discover the outcome of the project before the principal. Our theoretical model complements the existing literature on several accounts. First, we link the incentive to escalate commitment to a project with the turnover decision by the manager. When a manager learns the outcome of the project and stops it that reveals that a mistake was made. There is an incentive to continue failing projects and avoid admitting the mistake. This incentive is enhanced when the agent may voluntarily resign from the firm before the outcome of the failing project is revealed, and thus not bear the full extent of reputation damage due to project failure. As long as some successful managers leave the firm for extraneous reasons, outside firms find it difficult to link failing projects with certainty to managers that left a firm. Second, we demonstrate that non-CEO managers have reputation concerns separate from those of the CEO, and thus may escalate commitment to projects they oversee, when such escalation can attenuate damage to reputation from impending project failure. Such incentive for escalation will be present for non-CEO managers if the CEO delegates responsibility for a project to a non-CEO executive. If reputation matters for promotion to the CEO, the incentive for a rising executive to escalate in order to protect reputation is distinct from that of a CEO. Third, our theoretical model is supported by empirical analysis of changes in the firm’s operations measured by the presence of discontinued operations at the time of turnover among the top four members of the top management team. Discontinued operations are indicative of termination of failing projects at a firm. The empirical results demonstrate that in a large dataset of over three thousand publicly traded U.S. firms for a period from 1993 to 2014 turnover by top executives significantly increases the likelihood that the firm discontinues operations. Furthermore, the type of turnover matters as this effect is strongest when at least one non-CEO member of the top management team leaves the firm and when the CEO departure is due to a voluntary resignation and not to a retirement or illness. Empirical results are consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model and suggest that escalation of commitment is primarily observed in decisions by non-CEO members of the top management team.

Keywords: discontinued operations, escalation of commitment, executive turnover, top management teams

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Authors: R. Kaleeswari

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An investigation was carried out to assess the soil biological quality parameters in rice soils under rainfed and to compare soil quality indexing methods viz., Principal component analysis, Minimum data set and Indicator scoring method and to develop soil quality indices for formulating soil and crop management strategies.Soil samples were collected and analyzed for soil biological properties by adopting standard procedure. Biological indicators were determined for soil quality assessment, viz., microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (MBC and MBN), potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN) and soil respiration and dehydrogenease activity. Among the methods of rice cultivation, Organic nutrition, Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) and System of Rice Intensification (SRI ), rice cultivation registered higher values of MBC, MBN and PMN. Mechanical and conventional rice cultivation registered lower values of biological quality indicators. Organic nutrient management and INM enhanced the soil respiration rate. SRI and aerobic rice cultivation methods increased the rate of soil respiration, while conventional and mechanical rice farming lowered the soil respiration rate. Dehydrogenase activity (DHA) was registered to be higher in soils under organic nutrition and Integrated Nutrient Management INM. System of Rice Intensification SRI and aerobic rice cultivation enhanced the DHA; while conventional and mechanical rice cultivation methods reduced DHA. The microbial biomass carbon (MBC) of the rice soils varied from 65 to 244 mg kg-1. Among the nutrient management practices, INM registered the highest available microbial biomass carbon of 285 mg kg-1.Potentially mineralizable N content of the rice soils varied from 20.3 to 56.8 mg kg-1. Aerobic rice farming registered the highest potentially mineralizable N of 78.9 mg kg-1..The soil respiration rate of the rice soils varied from 60 to 125 µgCO2 g-1. Nutrient management practices ofINM practice registered the highest. soil respiration rate of 129 µgCO2 g-1.The dehydrogenase activity of the rice soils varied from 38.3 to 135.3µgTPFg-1 day-1. SRI method of rice cultivation registered the highest dehydrogenase activity of 160.2 µgTPFg-1 day-1. Soil variables from each PC were considered for minimum soil data set (MDS). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to select the representative soil quality indicators. In intensive rice cultivating regions, soil quality indicators were selected based on factor loading value and contribution percentage value using principal component analysis (PCA).Variables having significant difference within production systems were used for the preparation of minimum data set (MDS).

Keywords: soil quality, rice, biological properties, PCA analysis

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Authors: Keisuke Fujioka, Yuta Itoh, Masaru Minagawa, Shunji Kusayanagi

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In this study, building information models of the underground temporary structures and adjacent embedded pipes were constructed to show the importance of the information on underground pipes adjacent to the structures to enhance the productivity of execution of construction. Next, the bar chart used in actual construction process were employed to make the Gantt chart, and the critical pass analysis was carried out to show that accurate information on the arrangement of underground existing pipes can be used for the enhancement of the productivity of the construction of underground structures. In the analyzed project, significant construction delay was not caused by unforeseeable existence of underground pipes by the management ability of the construction manager. However, in many cases of construction executions in the developing countries, the existence of unforeseeable embedded pipes often causes substantial delay of construction. Design change based on uncertainty on the position information of embedded pipe can be also important risk for contractors in domestic construction. So CPM analyses were performed by a project-management-software to the situation that influence of the tasks causing construction delay was assumed more significant. Through the analyses, the efficiency of information management on underground pipes and BIM analysis in the design stage for workability improvement was indirectly confirmed.

Keywords: building-information modelling, construction information modelling, design improvement, infrastructure

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Authors: Fahad Abbasi

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Flow of electrically conducting nanofluids is of pivotal importance in countless industrial and medical appliances. Fluctuations in thermophysical properties of such fluids due to variations in temperature have not received due attention in the available literature. Present investigation aims to fill this void by analyzing the flow of copper-water nanofluid with temperature dependent viscosity past a Riga plate. Strong wall suction and viscous dissipation have also been taken into account. Numerical solutions for the resulting nonlinear system have been obtained. Results are presented in the graphical and tabular format in order to facilitate the physical analysis. An estimated expression for skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number are obtained by performing linear regression on numerical data for embedded parameters. Results indicate that the temperature dependent viscosity alters the velocity, as well as the temperature of the nanofluid and, is of considerable importance in the processes where high accuracy is desired. Addition of copper nanoparticles makes the momentum boundary layer thinner whereas viscosity parameter does not affect the boundary layer thickness. Moreover, the regression expressions indicate that magnitude of rate of change in effective skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number with respect to nanoparticles volume fraction is prominent when compared with the rate of change with variable viscosity parameter and modified Hartmann number.

Keywords: heat transfer, peristaltic flows, radially varying magnetic field, curved channel

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Authors: Edward Nartey

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Although sustainability management control (SMC) systems provide information that enhances corporate sustainability decisions, reviews on the SMC implications for sustainable supply chains (SCs) demonstrate a wide research gap, particularly the sustainability performance of healthcare SCs in unusual times. This study provides preliminary empirical evidence on the level of SMC adoption and the decision-making implications for the Tripple Bottom Line (TBL) principles of SC sustainability of Ghanaian public healthcare institutions (PHIs). Using a sample of 226 public health managers, the results show that sustainable formal control has a positive and significant impact on economic sustainability but an insignificant effect on social and environmental sustainability. In addition, a positive relationship was established between informal controls and economic and environmental sustainability but an insignificant relationship with social sustainability. Although the findings highlight the prevalence of the SMC system being prioritized over regular MCS in crisis situations, the MCSs are inadequate in promoting PHIs' sustainable behaviours in SCs. It also provides little empirical evidence on the effective enhancement of the TBL principle of SC sustainability perhaps because the SMC is in misalignment with the TBL principle in crisis situations. Thus, in crisis situations, PHIs need to redesign their MCSs to support the integration of sustainability issues in SCs.

Keywords: sustainability management control, informal control, formal control, sustainable supply chain performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 35