Search results for: friendly public space

Authors: Lina Wu

Abstract:

The excessive discharge of nitrogen in sewage greatly intensifies the eutrophication of water bodies and poses a threat to water quality. Nitrogen pollution control has become a global concern. Currently, the problem of water pollution in China is still not optimistic. As a typical high ammonia nitrogen organic wastewater, landfill leachate is more difficult to treat than domestic sewage because of its complex water quality, high toxicity, and high concentration.Many studies have shown that the autotrophic anammox bacteria in nature can combine nitrous and ammonia nitrogen without carbon source through functional genes to achieve total nitrogen removal, which is very suitable for the removal of nitrogen from leachate. In addition, the process also saves a lot of aeration energy consumption than the traditional nitrogen removal process. Therefore, anammox plays an important role in nitrogen conversion and energy saving. The process composed of short-range nitrification and denitrification coupled an ammo ensures the removal of total nitrogen and improves the removal efficiency, meeting the needs of the society for an ecologically friendly and cost-effective nutrient removal treatment technology. Continuous flow process for treating late leachate [an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB), anoxic/oxic (A/O)–anaerobic ammonia oxidation reactor (ANAOR or anammox reactor)] has been developed to achieve autotrophic deep nitrogen removal. In this process, the optimal process parameters such as hydraulic retention time and nitrification flow rate have been obtained, and have been applied to the rapid start-up and stable operation of the process system and high removal efficiency. Besides, finding the characteristics of microbial community during the start-up of anammox process system and analyzing its microbial ecological mechanism provide a basis for the enrichment of anammox microbial community under high environmental stress. One research developed partial nitrification-Anammox (PN/A) using an internal circulation (IC) system and a biological aerated filter (BAF) biofilm reactor (IBBR), where the amount of water treated is closer to that of landfill leachate. However, new high-throughput sequencing technology is still required to be utilized to analyze the changes of microbial diversity of this system, related functional genera and functional genes under optimal conditions, providing theoretical and further practical basis for the engineering application of novel anammox system in biogas slurry treatment and resource utilization.

Keywords: nutrient removal and recovery, leachate, anammox, partial nitrification

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Authors: Nwachukwu M. A., Nwachukwu J. I., Anyanwu J., Emeka U., Okorondu J., Acholonu C.

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Actualization of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) conceived by the United Nations in 2015 is a global challenge that may not be feasible in sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2030, except universities play a committed role. This is because; there is a need to educate the people about the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in the region to make the desired change. Here is a sensitization paper with a model of intervention and curricular planning to allow advancement in understanding and knowledge of SDGs. This Model Center for Sustainability Studies (MCSS) will enable partnerships with institutions in Africa and in advanced nations, thereby creating a global network for sustainability studies not found in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS will train and certify public servants, government agencies, policymakers, entrepreneurs and personnel from organizations, and students on aspects of the SDGs and sustainability science. There is a need to add sustainability knowledge into environmental education and make environmental education a compulsory course in higher institutions and a secondary school certificate exam subject in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS has 11 training modules that can be replicated anywhere in the world.

Keywords: sustainability, higher institutions, training, SDGs, collaboration, sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: Kothuri Sriraman, Mattupalli Komal Teja

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In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed for the recognition of hulls in a hand written images that might be irregular or digit or character shape. Identification of objects and internal objects is quite difficult to extract, when the structure of the image is having bulk of clusters. The estimation results are easily obtained while going through identifying the sub-regional objects by using the SASK algorithm. Focusing mainly to recognize the number of internal objects exist in a given image, so as it is shadow-free and error-free. The hard clustering and density clustering process of obtained image rough set is used to recognize the differentiated internal objects, if any. In order to find out the internal hull regions it involves three steps pre-processing, Boundary Extraction and finally, apply the Hull Detection system. By detecting the sub-regional hulls it can increase the machine learning capability in detection of characters and it can also be extend in order to get the hull recognition even in irregular shape objects like wise black holes in the space exploration with their intensities. Layered hulls are those having the structured layers inside while it is useful in the Military Services and Traffic to identify the number of vehicles or persons. This proposed SASK algorithm is helpful in making of that kind of identifying the regions and can useful in undergo for the decision process (to clear the traffic, to identify the number of persons in the opponent’s in the war).

Keywords: chain code, Hull regions, Hough transform, Hull recognition, Layered Outline Extraction, SASK algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Khyamling Parane, B. M. Prabhu Prasad, Basavaraj Talawar

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Fast simulations are critical in reducing time to market in CMPs and SoCs. Several simulators have been used to evaluate the performance and power consumed by Network-on-Chips. Researchers and designers rely upon these simulators for design space exploration of NoC architectures. Our experiments show that simulating large NoC topologies take hours to several days for completion. To speed up the simulations, it is necessary to investigate and optimize the hotspots in simulator source code. Among several simulators available, we choose Booksim2.0, as it is being extensively used in the NoC community. In this paper, we analyze the cache and memory system behaviour of Booksim2.0 to accurately monitor input dependent performance bottlenecks. Our measurements show that cache and memory usage patterns vary widely based on the input parameters given to Booksim2.0. Based on these measurements, the cache configuration having least misses has been identified. To further reduce the cache misses, we use software optimization techniques such as removal of unused functions, loop interchanging and replacing post-increment operator with pre-increment operator for non-primitive data types. The cache misses were reduced by 18.52%, 5.34% and 3.91% by employing above technology respectively. We also employ thread parallelization and vectorization to improve the overall performance of Booksim2.0. The OpenMP programming model and SIMD are used for parallelizing and vectorizing the more time-consuming portions of Booksim2.0. Speedups of 2.93x and 3.97x were observed for the Mesh topology with 30 × 30 network size by employing thread parallelization and vectorization respectively.

Keywords: cache behaviour, network-on-chip, performance profiling, vectorization

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Authors: Edy Wahyu Susilo

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This research discusses a comparative analysis of various anti-corruption responses of three Indonesian City Governments (Jakarta, Surabaya, and Medan) and completes previous findings on the effectiveness of the city anti-corruption program. Some factors (transparency, accountability, leadership, law enforcement, and bureaucratic reform) have been chosen in this study to diagnose the main role in the success and the failure of anti-corruption programs in these cities. These factors diagnose the relationship between factors and their dominancy, which is then utilized to create the city’s strategic anti-corruption programs. Although this study found leadership had a dominant influence both in encouraging and discouraging the performance of city transformation drastically, however, it is not the only factor that determined the performance of the city in the fight against corruption. It needs other factors as an ideal balancing element to achieve an anti-corruption program, namely KPK’s intervention and public engagement. Based on the dominance factors found, this research then develops an appropriate strategy using a policy evaluation approach to create a real practical guide regardless of the existence of good or bad leadership in the city. This research is expected to be a useful reference for stakeholders, especially the government, as a blueprint to prevent corruption by considering several important steps and guidance in efforts to eradicate corruption in the city, especially in Indonesia.

Keywords: intervention, KPK (corruption eradication commission), law enforcements, leadership, policy evaluation

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Authors: Claudia Norambuena, Myissa Weiss, Maria Ruiz Maya, Matthew Straley, Elijah Hammond, Benjamin Chesebrough, David Grow

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The purpose of this project is to develop a low-cost, portable sensor device that can be used at home for long-term analysis of gait and balance abnormalities. One area of particular concern involves the asymmetries in movement and balance that can accompany certain types of injuries and/or the associated devices used in the repair and rehabilitation process (e.g. the use of splints and casts) which can often increase chances of falls and additional injuries. This device has the capacity to monitor a patient during the rehabilitation process after injury or operation, increasing the patient’s access to healthcare while decreasing the number of visits to the patient’s clinician. The sensor device may thereby improve the quality of the patient’s care, particularly in rural areas where access to the clinician could be limited, while simultaneously decreasing the overall cost associated with the patient’s care. The device consists of nine interconnected accelerometer/ gyroscope/compass chips (9-DOF IMU, Adafruit, New York, NY). The sensors attach to and are used to determine the orientation and acceleration of the patient’s lower abdomen, C7 vertebra (lower neck), L1 vertebra (middle back), anterior side of each thigh and tibia, and dorsal side of each foot. In addition, pressure sensors are embedded in shoe inserts with one sensor (ESS301, Tekscan, Boston, MA) beneath the heel and three sensors (Interlink 402, Interlink Electronics, Westlake Village, CA) beneath the metatarsal bones of each foot. These sensors measure the distribution of the weight applied to each foot as well as stride duration. A small microntroller (Arduino Mega, Arduino, Ivrea, Italy) is used to collect data from these sensors in a CSV file. MATLAB is then used to analyze the data and output the hip, knee, ankle, and trunk angles projected on the sagittal plane. An open-source program Processing is then used to generate an animation of the patient’s gait. The accuracy of the sensors was validated through comparison to goniometric measurements (±2° error). The sensor device was also shown to have sufficient sensitivity to observe various gait abnormalities. Several patients used the sensor device, and the data collected from each represented the patient’s movements. Further, the sensors were found to have the ability to observe gait abnormalities caused by the addition of a small amount of weight (4.5 - 9.1 kg) to one side of the patient. The user-friendly interface and portability of the sensor device will help to construct a bridge between patients and their clinicians with fewer necessary inpatient visits.

Keywords: biomedical sensing, gait analysis, outpatient, rehabilitation

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Authors: Ali Alattabi, Clare Harris, Rafid Alkhaddar, Ali Alzeyadi

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Petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) can be considered as one of the most significant source of aquatic environmental pollution. It consists of oil and grease along with many other toxic organic pollutants. In recent years, a new technique was implemented using different types of membranes and sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) to treat PRW. SBR is a fill and draw type sludge system which operates in time instead of space. Many researchers have optimised SBRs’ operating conditions to obtain maximum removal of undesired wastewater pollutants. It has gained more importance mainly because of its essential flexibility in cycle time. It can handle shock loads, requires less area for operation and easy to operate. However, bulking sludge or discharging floating or settled sludge during the draw or decant phase with some SBR configurations are still one of the problems of SBR system. The main aim of this study is to develop and innovative design for the SBR optimising the process variables to result is a more robust and efficient process. Several experimental tests will be developed to determine the removal percentages of chemical oxygen demand (COD), Phenol and nitrogen compounds from synthetic PRW. Furthermore, the dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) of the SBR system will be monitored online to ensure a good environment for the microorganisms to biodegrade the organic matter effectively.

Keywords: petroleum refinery wastewater, sequencing batch reactor, hydraulic retention time, Phenol, COD, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS)

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Authors: Mobina Bagherianlemraski, Parastoo Namdar

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Background: The ongoing coronavirus disease has affected most countries. This virus has high transmission power. Due to the closure of most dental clinics, millions of orthodontic patients missed their appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A questionnaire was developed and sent to patients receiving orthodontic treatment at a public or private clinic. Results: A total of 200 responses were analyzed: These included 153 women (76.5%) and 47 men (23.5%). The mean and standard deviation of their age was 18.92±7.23 years, with an age range of 8 to 40 years. One hundred eighty-nine patients (94.5%) had fixed appliances, and 11 patients (5.5%) had removable appliances. Of all participants, 35% (70) missed their appointments. The highest and lowest reasons for stopping appointments were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 with 28 cases (40%) and the closure of the clinic with 15 cases (21.4%). Of the 53 patients who contacted their orthodontists, 86.8 % (46) communicated via office phone and 5.7% (3) through social media. Conclusion: This study determined that the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine have had an important impact on orthodontic treatments. The greatest concern of orthodontic patients was increasing in treatment duration. Patients who used fixed appliances reported missing dental appointments more than others. Therefore, during COVID 19 Pandemic, orthodontists should prepare patients to solve their problems linked to orthodontic appliances when possible.

Keywords: orthodontic patients, coronavirus pandemic, appointments, COVID-19

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Authors: Satyasen Panda, Urmila Bhanja

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In this paper, we have presented and analyzed three-dimensional (3-D) matrices of wavelength/time/space code for optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) networks with NAND subtraction detection technique. The 3-D codes are constructed by integrating a two-dimensional modified quadratic congruence (MQC) code with one-dimensional modified prime (MP) code. The respective encoders and decoders were designed using fiber Bragg gratings and optical delay lines to minimize the bit error rate (BER). The performance analysis of the 3D-OCDMA system is based on measurement of signal to noise ratio (SNR), BER and eye diagram for a different number of simultaneous users. Also, in the analysis, various types of noises and multiple access interference (MAI) effects were considered. The results obtained with NAND detection technique were compared with those obtained with OR and AND subtraction techniques. The comparison results proved that the NAND detection technique with 3-D MQC\MP code can accommodate more number of simultaneous users for longer distances of fiber with minimum BER as compared to OR and AND subtraction techniques. The received optical power is also measured at various levels of BER to analyze the effect of attenuation.

Keywords: Cross Correlation (CC), Three dimensional Optical Code Division Multiple Access (3-D OCDMA), Spectral Amplitude Coding Optical Code Division Multiple Access (SAC-OCDMA), Multiple Access Interference (MAI), Phase Induced Intensity Noise (PIIN), Three Dimensional Modified Quadratic Congruence/Modified Prime (3-D MQC/MP) code

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Authors: Haruna Abdu Usman, J. Mohammed Umar, U. M. Bashir

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Solid waste management continued to be the biggest threat to the sustainability of urban centers of developing countries. Most streets corners of these urban centers are characterized by heaps of uncollected wastes at drains, public spaces and road sides destroying the aesthetic qualities and environmental ecosystems of these cities. Also, harboring disease vectors and rodents putting the health of the populace at risk, thus posing a serious challenge to the municipalities who are in most cases responsible for the solid waste management in these cities. The typical or commonest method adapted by these agencies in dealing with the solid waste management is the conventional approach; focusing mainly on waste collection ,treatment(composting and incineration)and disposal giving little consideration to the 3RS, of waste reduce, re-used and recycled. The resultant consequence being huge budget spending in solid waste management as high as 80% but little collection rate as low as 50%. This paper attempt to analyze the impacts and effects of the conventional solid waste management practices on the stakeholders in solid waste management; the municipal authorities, the communities, formal and informal waste managers, the NGOs and CBOs and suggests appropriate measures that would lessen the effects.

Keywords: conventional waste management, solid waste, waste stakeholders, developing countries

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Authors: Bakr Gomaa, Hana Awad

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A stuffy room is one of the indicators of poor indoor air quality. Through working in an educational building in Alexandria, it is noticed that one of the rooms is smelly. A field study is conducted in a private university building in Alexandria to achieve indoor sustainable educational environment. Additionally, the indoor air quality is empirically assessed, and thermal comfort is identified in educational buildings, in studio halls specifically during lecture hours. The current research uses qualitative and quantitative methods in the form of literature review, investigation and test measurements. At a similar time that the teachers and students fill in a questionnaire regarding the concept of indoor climate, thermal comfort variables are determined. The indoor thermal conditions of the studio are assessed through three variables including Fanger’s comfort indicators (calculated using PMV, predicted mean vote and PPD, predicted percentage of dissatisfied people), the actual people clothing and metabolic rate. Actual measurements of air quality are obtained in a case study in an architectural building. Results have proved that indoor climatic conditions as air flow and temperature are inconvenient to inhabitants. Regarding questionnaire results, occupants appear to be uncomfortable in both seasons, with result percentages out of the acceptable range. Finally, further researches will center on how to preserve thermal comfort in school buildings since it has a vital influence on the student’s knowledge.

Keywords: educational buildings, Indoor air quality, productivity, thermal comfort

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Authors: Bethany Leake, Samantha Caton, Paul Norman, Jill Edmondson

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With the majority of the UK population residing in urban areas and with the pressures both environmentally and socially on rural agriculture, the role of urban food production, particularly urban horticulture (UH), is increasingly important in the future of UK food security. UH has the potential to provide an important contribution to urban diets and to provide additional benefits to human health and well-being. While allotments are the traditional focus of UH and play an important role, as access to this type of land is limited and unequal across cities, other forms of UH space, such as domestic growing, will need to be utilized to provide a significant contribution to urban diets. It is theorized that this smaller scale of growing may also be a more accessible way of engaging novice growers in UH. A collaborative research project, Urban Harvest, was designed between the University of Sheffield and Sheffield-based food organizations, which aimed to engage inexperienced gardeners in UH by providing them with home food-growing kits (Grow-Kits). Grow-Kits were provided to 189 participants across Sheffield in 2022, 48% of whom had never grown food before. Data collected through surveys and interviews will help us to evaluate the effect of small-scale food growing on health and wellbeing and the potential of this type of scheme to encourage future UH engagement. This data and increasing evidence on the co-benefits of UH have important implications not only for local food security but also for urban health inequalities and the potential use of this activity for preventative healthcare.

Keywords: urban horticulture, health and wellbeing, food security, nutrition

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Authors: Xiaoyun Zhao, Rami Darwish, Anna Pernestål

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Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to enhance road capacity, improving road safety and traffic efficiency. Research and development on AVs have been going on for many years. However, when the complicated traffic rules and real situations interacted, AVs fail to make decisions on contradicting situations, and are not able to have control in all conditions due to highly dynamic driving scenarios. This limits AVs’ usage and restricts the full potential benefits that they can bring. Furthermore, regulations, infrastructure development, and public acceptance cannot keep up at the same pace as technology breakthroughs. Facing these challenges, this paper proposes automated vehicle traffic control tower (AVTCT) acting as a safe, efficient and integrated solution for AV control. It introduces a concept of AVTCT for control, management, decision-making, communication and interaction with various aspects in transportation. With the prototype demonstrations and simulations, AVTCT has the potential to overcome the control challenges with AVs and can facilitate AV reaching their full potential. Possible functionalities, benefits as well as challenges of AVTCT are discussed, which set the foundation for the conceptual model, simulation and real application of AVTCT.

Keywords: automated vehicle, connectivity and automation, intelligent transport system, traffic control, traffic safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Parma Chakravartti

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The impact of government spending and taxation on economic growth has remained a central issue of fiscal policy analysis. There is a wide range of opinions over the strength of fiscal policy’s effect on macroeconomic variables. It can be argued that the impact of fiscal policy depends on the structure and economic condition of the economy. This study makes an attempt to examine the effect of fiscal policy shocks on growth in India using the structural vector autoregressive model (SVAR), considering data from 1950 to 2019. The study finds that government spending is an important instrument of growth in India, where the share of revenue expenditure to capital expenditure plays a key role. The optimum composition of total expenditure is important for growth and it is not necessarily true that capital expenditure multiplier is more than revenue expenditure multiplier. The study also finds that the impact of public economic activities on private economic activities for both consumption expenditure and gross capital formation of government crowds in private consumption expenditure and private gross capital formation, respectively, thus indicating that government expenditure complements private expenditure in India.

Keywords: government spending, fiscal policy, multiplier, growth

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Authors: Carlos Alberto Ríos-Reyes, Efraín Casadiego-Quintero

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We propose a generalized workflow for mineralogy investigation of unconventional reservoirs using multi-scale imaging and pore-scale analyses. This workflow can be used for the integral evaluation of these resources. The Cretaceous La Luna Formation´s mudstones in the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin (Colombia) inherently show a heterogeneous pore system with organic and inorganic pores. For this reason, it is necessary to carry out the integration of high resolution 2D images of mapping by conventional petrography, scanning electron microscopy and quantitative evaluation of minerals by scanning electron microscopy to describe their organic and inorganic porosity to understand the transport mechanism through pores. The analyzed rocks show several pore types, including interparticle pores, organoporosity, intraparticle pores, intraparticle pores, and microchannels and/or microfractures. The existence of interconnected pores in pore system of these rocks promotes effective pathways for primary gas migration and storage space for residual hydrocarbons in mudstones, which is very useful in this type of gas reservoirs. It is crucial to understand not only the porous system of these rocks and their mineralogy but also to project the gas flow in order to design the appropriate strategies for the stimulation of unconventional reservoirs. Keywords: mudstones; La Luna Formation; gas storage; migration; hydrocarbon.

Keywords: mudstones, La luna formation, gas storage, migration, hydrocarbon

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Authors: Keivan Jmahidi, Afshin Zahedi

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To evaluate neurotoxic effects of ACR on hypothalamus of rat, amino-cupric silver staining technique of de Olmos and electron microscopic examination were conducted. For this purpose 60 adult male Wistar rats (± 250 g) were selected. Randomly assigned groups of rats (10 rats per exposure group, as A, B, C, D, E) were exposed to 0.5, 5, 50, 100 and 500 mg/kg per day×11days i.p. respectively. The remaining 10 rats were housed in group F as control group. Control rats received daily i.p. injections of 0.9% saline (3ml/kg). As indices of developing neurotoxicity, daily weight gain, gait scores and landing hindlimb foot splay (LHF) were determined. After 11 days, two rats for silver stain, and two rats for EM, were randomly selected, dissected and proper samples were collected from hypothalamus. Rats in groups D and E died within 1-2 hours due to sever toxemia. In histopathological studies no argyrophilic neurons or processes were observed in stained sections obtained from hypothalamus of rats belong to groups A, B and F, while moderate to severe argyrophilic changes were observed in different nuclei and regions of stained sections obtained from hypothalamus of rats belong to group C. In ultrastructural studies some variations in the myelin sheet of injured axons including decompactation, interlaminar space formation, disruption of the laminar sheet, accumulation of neurofilaments, vacculation and clumping inside the axolem, and finaly complete disappearance of laminar sheet were observed.

Keywords: acrylamide (ACR), amino-cupric silver staining technique of de Olmos, argyrophilia, hypothalamic neuropathy

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Authors: Saghir Ahmad, Abid Hussain Ch, Misbah Malik, Ayesha Batool

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Terrorism is the marvel in which dreadful circumstance is made by a gathering of individuals who view themselves as abused by society. Terrorism is the unlawful utilization of power or viciousness by a man or a sorted out gathering by the general population or property with the aim of intimidation or compulsion of social orders or governments frequently for ideological or political reasons. Terrorism is as old as people. The main aim of the study was to find out the causes of terrorism through the perceptions of the universities students of teacher training institutions. This study was quantitative in nature. Survey method was used to collect data. A sample of two hundred and sixty seven students was selected from public universities. A five point Likert scale was used to collect data. Mean, Standard deviation, independent sample t-test, and One Way ANOVA were applied to analyze the data. The major findings of the study indicated that students perceived the main causes of terrorism are poverty, foreign interference, wrong concept of Islamization, and social injustice. It is also concluded that mostly, students think that drone attacks are promoting the terrorist activities. The education is key to eliminate the terrorism. There is need to educate the people and specially youngsters to bring the peace in the world.

Keywords: dreadful circumstance, governments, power, students, terrorism

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Authors: K. M. Saif Ur Rahman, Razib Mamun, Himica Arjuman, Fida Al Shams

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Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has become an emerging neurodevelopmental disorder with increasing prevalence. It has become an important public health issue globally. Many approaches including speech and language therapy (SLT), occupational therapy, behavioral therapy etc. are being applied for the betterment of the ASD patients. This study aims to describe the characteristics of ASD patients and perception of caregiver regarding SLT in Bangladesh. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a therapy and rehabilitation center at Dhaka city. Caregivers of 48 ASD patients responded regarding their perception of SLT and characteristics of patients. Results: Among 48 ASD patients, 56.3% were between 3 to 5 years age group with a male predominance (87.5%). More than half of the participants (56.3%) initiated SLT at the age of 1-3 years and the majority (43.8%) were taking SLT for less than 1 year. Majority of the patients (64.6%) were taken to a physician for healthcare as a first contact of which 29.2% were referred to SLT by physicians. More than half (56.3%) of the caregivers were moderately satisfied with SLT and most of them (62.5%) mentioned moderate improvement through SLT. Improvement rate was 10-15% in specific symptoms such as eye contact, complex mannerism, pointing, imitation etc. Conclusion: This study reveals the self-reported perception of caregivers on SLT. Despite reported improvements, more exploration of different approaches and intervention for management of ASD is recommended.

Keywords: ASD, characteristics, SLT, Bangladesh

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Authors: S. Dias, A. Tadeu, J. Antonio, F. Pedro, C. Serra

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The goal of the present work is to experimentally evaluate the feasibility of using vibration isolators made of expanded cork agglomerate. Even though this material, also known as insulation cork board (ICB), has mainly been studied for thermal and acoustic insulation purposes, it has strong potential for use in vibration isolation. However, the adequate design of expanded cork blocks vibration isolators will depend on several factors, such as excitation frequency, static load conditions and intrinsic dynamic behavior of the material. In this study, transmissibility tests for different static and dynamic loading conditions were performed in order to characterize the material. Since the material’s physical properties can influence the vibro-isolation performance of the blocks (in terms of density and thickness), this study covered four mass density ranges and four block thicknesses. A total of 72 expanded cork agglomerate specimens were tested. The test apparatus comprises a vibration exciter connected to an excitation mass that holds the test specimen. The test specimens under characterization were loaded successively with steel plates in order to obtain results for different masses. An accelerometer was placed at the top of these masses and at the base of the excitation mass. The test was performed for a defined frequency range, and the amplitude registered by the accelerometers was recorded in time domain. For each of the signals (signal 1- vibration of the excitation mass, signal 2- vibration of the loading mass) a fast Fourier transform (FFT) was applied in order to obtain the frequency domain response. For each of the frequency domain signals, the maximum amplitude reached was registered. The ratio between the amplitude (acceleration) of signal 2 and the amplitude of signal 1, allows the calculation of the transmissibility for each frequency. Repeating this procedure allowed us to plot a transmissibility curve for a certain frequency range. A number of transmissibility experiments were performed to assess the influence of changing the mass density and thickness of the expanded cork blocks and the experimental conditions (static load and frequency of excitation). The experimental transmissibility tests performed in this study showed that expanded cork agglomerate blocks are a good option for mitigating vibrations. It was concluded that specimens with lower mass density and larger thickness lead to better performance, with higher vibration isolation and a larger range of isolated frequencies. In conclusion, the study of the performance of expanded cork agglomerate blocks presented herein will allow for a more efficient application of expanded cork vibration isolators. This is particularly relevant since this material is a more sustainable alternative to other commonly used non-environmentally friendly products, such as rubber.

Keywords: expanded cork agglomerate, insulation cork board, transmissibility tests, sustainable materials, vibration isolators

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Authors: Sanjay Bari, Vinod Ugale, Kamalkishor Patil

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Over the past several years the emergence of micro-organisms resistant to nearly all the class of antimicrobial agents has become a serious public health concern. In the present research, we report the synthesis and in-vitro antimicrobial activity of a new series of novel quinazolino-thiadiazoles 3 (a-j). The synthesized compounds were confirmed by melting point, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C NMR and Mass spectroscopy. In general, the results of the in-vitro antibacterial activity are encouraging, as out of 10 compounds tested, Compound 3f and 3i with a 4-chloro phenyl and 4-nitro phenyl at C-2 of thiadiazolyl of quinazolino-thiadiazoles, displayed the excellent antibacterial and antifungal activities against all the tested microorganisms (Bacterial and Fungal strain) with MIC values of 62.5 μg/mL. It is worth to mention that the combination of two biologically active moieties quinazoline and thiadiazole profoundly influences the biological activity. While evaluating the antimicrobial activity, it was observed that compounds having electron withdrawing groups on thiazole has shown profound activity in comparison to compounds having electron releasing groups. As a result of this study, it can be concluded that halogen substituent on thiazole ring increases antimicrobial activity. Possible improvements in the antimicrobial activity can be further achieved by slight modifications in the substituent’s and/or additional structural activity investigations to have good antimicrobial activity.

Keywords: antifungal, antimicrobial, quinazolino-thiazoles, synthesis

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Authors: Abdurrahim A. Elouzi, Abdurrauf M. Gusbi, Ali M. Elgerbi

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Antibiotic resistance has become a global public-health problem, thus it is imperative that new antibiotics continue to be developed. Major problems are being experienced in human medicine from antibiotic resistant bacteria. Moreover, no new chemical class of antibiotics has been introduced into medicine in the past two decades. The aim of the current study presents experimental results that evaluate the capability of bio surfactant rhamnolipid on enhancing the efficacy of hydrophobic antibiotics. Serial dilutions of azithromycin and clarithromycin were prepared. A bacterial suspension (approximately 5 X 105 CFU) from an overnight culture in MSM was inoculated into 20 ml sterile test tube each containing a serial 10-fold dilution of the test antibiotic(s) in broth with or without 200 mgL-1 rhamnolipid. The tubes were incubated for 24 h with vigorous shaking at 37°C. Antimicrobial activity in multiple antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria pathogens and gram-positive bacteria were assessed using optical density technique. The results clearly demonstrated that the presence of rhamnolipid significantly improved the efficiency of both antibiotics. We hypothesized that the addition of rhamnolipid at low concentration, causes release of LPS which results in an increase in cell surface hydrophobicity. This allows increased association of cells with hydrophobic antibiotics resulting in increased cytotoxicity rates.

Keywords: hydrophobic antibiotics, biosurfactant, rhamnolipid, azithromycin, clarithromycin

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Authors: Ibrahim Azem

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the attitudes of regular classroom teachers, special education teachers, principals, social workers, parents of students without disabilities and parents of students with disabilities, in Sultanate Oman towards inclusion of students with disabilities in the general school setting. Participants’ Four hundred fifty schools were selected randomly from all public schools in Sultanate Oman. From these schools 2,025 individuals volunteered to participate in this study. The Attitude Scale toward inclusion was used to measure adults’ attitudes toward teaching students with disabilities with their peers in an inclusive classroom. The scale was developed based on the conceptualization of attitude as a tri component evaluation consisting of cognitive, affective, and behavioral intention. To investigate the validity and the reliability of the scale, it shows that it has valid appropriate connotations and reliability. The results of the study showed that the adult’s role had significant effect (p < .05) on the participants’ attitudes toward inclusion. Moreover, the results indicated significant (p < .05) gender differences in the attitudes toward inclusion, males scored significantly (p < .05) higher than females. The result of the study also showed that the special education teachers had positives attitudes more than the other type of stakeholders.

Keywords: inclusion, students with disabilities, Oman, stakeholders

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Authors: Aelita Skarzauskiene, Monika Maciuliene

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In this paper, we conduct a systematic survey of urban communities in Lithuania to evaluate their potential to co-create collective intelligence or “civic intelligence” applying Digital Co-creation Index methodology that includes different socio-technological indicators. Civic intelligence is a form of collective intelligence that refers to the group’s capacity to perceive societal problems and to address them effectively. The research focuses on evaluation of diverse organizational designs that increase efficient collective performance. The current scientific project advanced the state of the art by evaluating the basic preconditions in the urban communities through which the collective intelligence is being co-created under the systemic manner. The research subject is the “bottom up” digital enabled urban platforms, initiated by Lithuanian public organizations, civic movements or business entities. The web-based monitoring results obtained by applying a social indices calculation methodology and Pearson correlation analysis provided the information about the potential and limits of the urban communities and what possible changes need to be implemented to overcome the limitations.

Keywords: computer supported collaboration, socio-technological system, collective intelligence, networked society

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Authors: Obulesh Avuku, Satwik Sunnam, Sri Charan Mohan Janthuka, Keerthi Yalamaddi

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In the United States alone, there are over 1.5 million spine fractures per year, resulting in about 17,730 spinal cord injuries. The cervical spine is where fractures in the spine most frequently occur. The prevalence of spinal fractures in the elderly has increased, and in this population, fractures may be harder to see on imaging because of coexisting degenerative illness and osteoporosis. Nowadays, computed tomography (CT) is almost completely used instead of radiography for the imaging diagnosis of adult spine fractures (x-rays). To stop neurologic degeneration and paralysis following trauma, it is vital to trace any vertebral fractures at the earliest. Many approaches have been proposed for the classification of the cervical spine [2d models]. We are here in this paper trying to break the bounds and use the vision transformers, a State-Of-The-Art- Model in image classification, by making minimal changes possible to the architecture of ViT and making it 3D-enabled architecture and this is evaluated using a weighted multi-label logarithmic loss. We have taken this problem statement from a previously held Kaggle competition, i.e., RSNA 2022 Cervical Spine Fracture Detection.

Keywords: cervical spine, spinal fractures, osteoporosis, computed tomography, 2d-models, ViT, multi-label logarithmic loss, Kaggle, public score, private score

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Authors: Yvonne Ayerki Lamptey

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The expanding informal sector in developing countries and in Ghana in particular from the 1980s has now been aggravated by the growing population and downsizing in both the public and private sectors, with displaced workers finding alternative livelihoods in the informal sector. Youth and graduate unemployment also swell the numbers and further promote the continuity of the sector. Formal workers and institutions facilitate the growth and complicate demarcations between informality within the formal and informal sectors. In spite of its growth and increasing importance, the informal economy does not feature in policy debates and has often been neglected by the Ghana government. The phenomenon has evolved with modernity into myriad unimaginable forms. Indeed, actors within the sector often clash with the interventions provided by policy makers - because neither the operatives nor the activities they perform can be clearly defined. This study uses in-depth interviews to explore the behavioural nature of the informal workers in Ghana to understand how the operatives describe and perceive the sector, and to identify the factors that influence their drive to stay within the sector. This paper concludes that the operatives clearly distinguish between the formal and informal sectors and identify the characteristics and conditions that constitute the informal sector. Other workers are trapped between formality and informality. The findings also enumerate the push and pull factors contributing to the growth of the sector.

Keywords: informal employment, informal sector, informal work, informality

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Authors: Swapna Begum, Higano Yoshiro

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Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh. It is considered as one of the traffic congested cities in the world. The growth of the population of this city is increasing day by day. The land use pattern and the increased socio-economic characteristics increase the motor vehicle ownership of this city. The rapid unplanned urbanization and poor transportation planning have deteriorated the transport environment of this city. Also, the huge travel demand with non-motorized traffics on streets is accounted for enormous traffic congestion in this city. The land transport sector in Dhaka is mainly dependent on road transport comprised of both motorized and non-motorized modes of travel. This improper modal mix and the un-integrated system have resulted in huge traffic congestion in this city. Moreover, this city has no well-organized public transport system and any Mass Transit System to cope with this ever increasing demand. Traffic congestion causes serious air pollution and adverse impact on the economy by deteriorating the accessibility, level of service, safety, comfort and operational efficiency. Therefore, there is an imperative need to introduce a well-organized, properly scheduled mass transit system like (Bus Rapid Transit) BRT minimizing the existing problems.

Keywords: air pollution, BRT, mass transit, traffic congestion

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Authors: Wafaa Hasan

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In May of 2022, Palestinian parents in Toronto, Canada, became aware that educators and staff in the Toronto District School Board were attempting to include the International Holocaust and Remembrance Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA) in The Child Abuse and Neglect Policy of the largest school board in Canada, The Toronto District School Board (TDSB). The idea was that if students were to express any form of antisemitism, as defined by the IHRA, then an investigation could follow with Child Protective Services (CPS). That is, the student’s parents could be reported to the state and investigated for custodial rights to their children. The TDSB has set apparent goals for “Decolonizing Pedagogy” (“TDSB Equity Leadership Competencies”), Culturally Responsive and Relevant Practices (CRRP) and inclusive education. These goals promote the centering of colonized, racialized and marginalized voices. CRRP cannot be effective without the application of anti-racist and settler colonial analyses. In order for CRRP to be effective, school boards need a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which the vilification of Palestinians operates through anti-indigenous and white supremacist systems and logic. Otherwise, their inclusion will always be in tension with the inclusion of settler colonial agendas and worldviews. Feminist maternalism frames racial mothering as degenerate (viewing the contributions of racialized students and their parents as products of primitive and violent cultures) and also indirectly inhibits the actualization of the tenets of CRRP and inclusive education through its extensions into the welfare state and public education. The contradiction between the tenets of CRRP and settler colonial systems of erasure and repression is resolved by the continuation of tactics to 1) force assimilation, 2) punish those who push back on that assimilation and 3) literally fragment familial and community structures of racialized students, educators and parents. This paper draws on interdisciplinary (history, philosophy, anthropology) critiques of white feminist “maternalism” from the 19th century onwards in North America and Europe (Jacobs, Weber), as well as “anti-racist education” theory (Dei), and more specifically,” culturally responsive learning,” (Muhammad) and “bandwidth” pedagogy theory (Verschelden) to make its claims. This research contributes to vibrant debates about anti-racist and decolonial pedagogies in public education systems globally. This paper also documents first-hand interviews and experiences of diasporic Palestinian mothers and motherhoods and situates their experiences within longstanding histories of white feminist maternalist (and eugenicist) politics. This informal qualitative data from "participatory conversations" (Swain) is situated within a set of formal interview data collected with Palestinian women in the West Bank (approved by the McMaster University Humanities Research Ethics Board) relating to white feminist maternalism in the peace and dialogue industry.

Keywords: decolonial feminism, maternal feminism, anti-racist pedagogies, settler colonial studies, motherhood studies, pedagogy theory, cultural theory

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Authors: Makhlouf Sandy, Adem Ziad, Taher Fadia, Magnier Sylvie

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The electronic structure of 90ZrS has been investigated using Ab-initio methods based on Complete Active Space Self Consistent Field and Multi-reference Configuration Interaction (CASSCF/MRCI). The number of predicted states has been extended to 14 singlet and 12 triplet lowest-lying states situated below 36000cm-1. The equilibrium energies of these 26 lowest-lying electronic states have been calculated in the 2S+1Λ(±) representation. The potential energy curves have been plotted in function of the inter-nuclear distances in a range of 1.5 to 4.5Å. Spectroscopic constants, permanent electric dipole moments and transition dipole moments between the different electronic states have also been determined. A discrepancy error of utmost 5% for the majority of values shows a good agreement with available experimental data. The ground state is found to be of symmetry X1Σ+ with an equilibrium inter-nuclear distance Re= 2.16Å. However, the (1)3Δ is the closest state to X1Σ+ and is situated at 514 cm-1. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the spin-orbit coupling has been investigated for all the predicted states of ZrS. 52 electronic components in the Ω(±) representation have been predicted. The energies of these components, the spectroscopic constants ωe, ωeχe, βe and the equilibrium inter-nuclear distances have been also obtained. The percentage composition of the Ω state wave-functions in terms of S-Λ states was calculated to identify their corresponding main parents. These (SOC) calculations have determined the shift between (1)3Δ1 and X1Σ+ states and confirmed the ground state type being 1Σ+.

Keywords: CASSCF/MRCI, electronic structure, spin-orbit effect, zirconium monosulfide

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Authors: Giselda Cristina Ferreira, Carlos Alberto Kamienski, Ana Lígia Scott

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The COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced the anti-vaccination movement in Brazil, supported by unscientific theories and false news and the possibility of wide communication through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the large volume of information on the subject against COVID-19 as an Infodemic. In this paper, we present a protocol to identify polarizing users (called polarizers) and study the profiles of Brazilian polarizers on Twitter (renamed to X some weeks ago). We analyzed polarizing interactions on Twitter (in Portuguese) to identify the main polarizers and how the conflicts they caused influenced the COVID-19 vaccination rate throughout the pandemic. This protocol uses data from this social network, graph theory, Java, and R-studio scripts to model and analyze the data. The information about the vaccination rate was obtained in a public database for the government called OpenDataSus. The results present the profiles of Twitter’s Polarizer (political position, gender, professional activity, immunization opinions). We observed that social and political events influenced the participation of these different profiles in conflicts and the vaccination rate.

Keywords: Twitter, polarization, vaccine, Brazil

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Authors: Fitria Ningsih

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This study concerns on the process of making corpus obtained from Indonesian year 4 students’ free writing compared to the vocabulary taught in English language textbooks. 369 students’ sample writings from 19 public elementary schools in Malang, East Java, Indonesia and 5 selected English textbooks were analyzed through corpus in linguistics method using AdTAT -the Adelaide Text Analysis Tool- program. The findings produced wordlists of the top 100 words most frequently used by students and the top 100 words given in English textbooks. There was a 45% match between the two lists. Furthermore, the classifications of the top 100 most frequent words from the two corpora based on part of speech found that both the Indonesian and English languages employed a similar use of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. Moreover, to see the contextualizing the vocabulary of learning materials towards the students’ need, a depth-analysis dealing with the content and the cultural views from the vocabulary taught in the textbooks was discussed through the criteria developed from the checklist. Lastly, further suggestions are addressed to language teachers to understand the students’ background such as recognizing the basic words students acquire before teaching them new vocabulary in order to achieve successful learning of the target language.

Keywords: corpus, frequency, English, Indonesian, linguistics, textbooks, vocabulary, wordlists, writing

Procedia PDF Downloads 187