Search results for: sustainable tourism attitude scale

Authors: Sara Sousa

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The environmental goods and services have often been neglected in crucial decisions affecting the environment mainly because the difficulty in estimating their economic value, since we are dealing with non-market goods and, thus, without a price associated. Nevertheless, the inexistence of prices does not necessarily mean these goods have no value. The environment is a key element in today's society that seeks to be as sustainable as possible, where the environmental assets have both use and non-use values. To estimate the use value, researchers may apply the revealed preference methods. This paper provides a theoretical review of the main concepts and methodologies on the economic valuation of the environment, with particular emphasis on the revealed preference techniques. Based on a detailed literature review, this study concludes that, despite some inherent limitations, the revealed preference methodologies – travel cost, hedonic price, and averting behaviour – represent essential tools for the researchers who accept the challenge to estimate the use value of environmental goods and services based on the actual individuals` behaviour. The main purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased theoretical information on the economic valuation of environmental assets, allowing researchers and policymakers to improve future decisions regarding the environment.

Keywords: economic valuation, environmental goods, revealed preference methods, total economic value

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Authors: Brian Kozak, Ryan Ferguson, Evan Hockeridge

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Aerospace engineering and aeronautical engineering students studying propulsion often learn about propellers and their importance in aviation propulsion. In order to reinforce concepts introduced in the classroom, laboratory projects are used. However, to test a full scale propeller, an engine mounted on a test stand must be used. This engine needs to be enclosed in a test cell for appropriated safety requirements, is expensive to operate, and requires a significant amount of time to change propellers. In order to decrease costs and time requirements, the authors designed and built an electric motor powered desktop Arduino controlled test stand. This test stand is used to enhance student understanding of propeller size and pitch on thrust. The test stand can accommodate propellers up to 25 centimeters in diameter. The code computer allowed for the motor speed to be increased or decreased by 1% per second. Outputs that are measured are thrust, motor rpm, amperes, voltage, and motor temperature. These data are exported as a .CVS file and can be imported into a graphing program for data analysis.

Keywords: Arduino, Laboratory Project, Test stand, Propeller

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Authors: Anatoliy Kharkhurin

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The study argues that variations in creative performance may be stipulated by cross-cultural differences in perception of the creativity construct. In Experiment 1, 50 Russian and 50 Emirati college students received structured imagination test that requires producing a drawing of an alien creature. In Experiment 2, 53 Russian and 53 Emirati college students (different from Experiment 1) on 5-point Likert-type scale evaluated the level of creativity of the drawings produced in the Experiment I. Repeated-measure ANOVA revealed an interaction between the country where the drawings were produced and the country where they were evaluated. Russians evaluated their country mates’ drawings as more creative than the Emiratis evaluated their country mates’ drawings. Regression analysis revealed that the creativity level of the drawings was positively predicted by the Russians’ evaluation and negatively predicted by the Emiratis’ evaluation. Finally, the evaluation of the drawings by the Russians predicted divergent thinking performance.

Keywords: creativity, culture, cross-cultural, perception, production

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Authors: Shafiq Alam, Yen Ning Lee

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Conventional hydrometallurgical processing of metals involves the use of large quantities of toxic chemicals. Realizing a need to develop sustainable technologies, extensive research studies are being carried out to recover and recycle base, precious and rare earth metals from their pregnant leach solutions (PLS) using green chemicals/biomaterials prepared from biomass wastes derived from agriculture, marine and forest resources. Our innovative research showed that bio-adsorbents prepared from such biomass wastes can effectively adsorb precious metals, especially gold after conversion of their functional groups in a very simple process. The highly effective ‘Adsorption-coupled-Reduction’ phenomenon witnessed appears promising for the potential use of this gold biosorption process in the mining industry. Proper management and effective use of biomass wastes as value added green chemicals will not only reduce the volume of wastes being generated every day in our society, but will also have a high-end value to the mining and mineral processing industries as those biomaterials would be cheap, but very selective for gold recovery/recycling from low grade ore, leach residue or e-wastes.

Keywords: biosorption, hydrometallurgy, gold, adsorption, reduction, biomass, sustainability

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Authors: M. Balordi, G. Santucci de Magistris, F. Pini, P. Marcacci

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The increasing of extreme meteorological events represents the most important causes of damages and blackouts of the whole electric system. In particular, the icing on ground-wires and overheads lines, due to snowstorms or harsh winter conditions, very often gives rise to the collapse of cables and towers both in cold and warm climates. On the other hand, the high concentration of contaminants in the air, due to natural and/or antropic causes, is reflected in high levels of pollutants layered on glass and ceramic insulators, causing frequent and unpredictable flashover events. Overheads line and insulator failures lead to blackouts, dangerous and expensive maintenances and serious inefficiencies in the distribution service. Inducing superhydrophobic (SHP) properties to conductors, ground-wires and insulators, is one of the ways to face all these problems. Indeed, in some cases, the SHP surface can delay the ice nucleation time and decrease the ice nucleation temperature, preventing ice formation. Besides, thanks to the low surface energy, the adhesion force between ice and a superhydrophobic material are low and the ice can be easily detached from the surface. Moreover, it is well known that superhydrophobic surfaces can have self-cleaning properties: these hinder the deposition of pollution and decrease the probability of flashover phenomena. Here this study presents three different studies to impart superhydrophobicity to aluminum, zinc and glass specimens, which represent the main constituent materials of conductors, ground-wires and insulators, respectively. The route to impart the superhydrophobicity to the metallic surfaces can be summarized in a three-step process: 1) sandblasting treatment, 2) chemical-hydrothermal treatment and 3) coating deposition. The first step is required to create a micro-roughness. In the chemical-hydrothermal treatment a nano-scale metallic oxide (Al or Zn) is grown and, together with the sandblasting treatment, bring about a hierarchical micro-nano structure. By coating an alchilated or fluorinated siloxane coating, the surface energy decreases and gives rise to superhydrophobic surfaces. In order to functionalize the glass, different superhydrophobic powders, obtained by a sol-gel synthesis, were prepared. Further, the specimens were covered with a commercial primer and the powders were deposed on them. All the resulting metallic and glass surfaces showed a noticeable superhydrophobic behavior with a very high water contact angles (>150°) and a very low roll-off angles (<5°). The three optimized processes are fast, cheap and safe, and can be easily replicated on industrial scales. The anti-icing and self-cleaning properties of the surfaces were assessed with several indoor lab-tests that evidenced remarkable anti-icing properties and self-cleaning behavior with respect to the bare materials. Finally, to evaluate the anti-snow properties of the samples, some SHP specimens were exposed under real snow-fall events in the RSE outdoor test-facility located in Vinadio, western Alps: the coated samples delay the formation of the snow-sleeves and facilitate the detachment of the snow. The good results for both indoor and outdoor tests make these materials promising for further development in large scale applications.

Keywords: superhydrophobic coatings, anti-icing, self-cleaning, anti-snow, overheads lines

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Authors: Gilberto Goracci, Fabio Curti

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This work presents a robust, light, and inexpensive algorithm to perform autonomous orbit determination using onboard magnetometer data in real-time. Magnetometers are low-cost and reliable sensors typically available on a spacecraft for attitude determination purposes, thus representing an interesting choice to perform real-time orbit determination without the need to add additional sensors to the spacecraft itself. Magnetic field measurements can be exploited by Extended/Unscented Kalman Filters (EKF/UKF) for orbit determination purposes to make up for GPS outages, yielding errors of a few kilometers and tens of meters per second in the position and velocity of a spacecraft, respectively. While this level of accuracy shows that Kalman filtering represents a solid baseline for autonomous orbit determination, it is not enough to provide a reliable state estimation in the absence of GPS signals. This work combines the solidity and reliability of the EKF with the versatility of a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) architecture to further increase the precision of the state estimation. Deep learning models, in fact, can grasp nonlinear relations between the inputs, in this case, the magnetometer data and the EKF state estimations, and the targets, namely the true position, and velocity of the spacecraft. The model has been pre-trained on Sun-Synchronous orbits (SSO) up to 2126 kilometers of altitude with different initial conditions and levels of noise to cover a wide range of possible real-case scenarios. The orbits have been propagated considering J2-level dynamics, and the geomagnetic field has been modeled using the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) coefficients up to the 13th order. The training of the module can be completed offline using the expected orbit of the spacecraft to heavily reduce the onboard computational burden. Once the spacecraft is launched, the model can use the GPS signal, if available, to fine-tune the parameters on the actual orbit onboard in real-time and work autonomously during GPS outages. In this way, the provided module shows versatility, as it can be applied to any mission operating in SSO, but at the same time, the training is completed and eventually fine-tuned, on the specific orbit, increasing performances and reliability. The results provided by this study show an increase of one order of magnitude in the precision of state estimate with respect to the use of the EKF alone. Tests on simulated and real data will be shown.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, extended Kalman filter, orbit determination, magnetic field

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Authors: Aleksandar Zhelyazkov, Daniele Zonta, Helmut Wenzel, Peter Furtner

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In the current research structural health monitoring is considered for addressing the critical issue of post-earthquake damage detection. A non-standard approach for damage detection via acoustic emission is presented - acoustic emissions are monitored in the low frequency range (up to 120 Hz). Such emissions are termed high-frequency transients. Further a damage indicator defined as the Time-Ratio Damage Indicator is introduced. The indicator relies on time-instance measurements of damage initiation and deformation peaks. Based on the time-instance measurements a procedure for estimation of the maximum drift ratio is proposed. Monitoring data is used from a shaking-table test of a full-scale reinforced concrete bridge pier. Damage of the experimental column is successfully detected and the proposed damage indicator is calculated.

Keywords: acoustic emission, damage detection, shaking table test, structural health monitoring

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Authors: Hassan Badkoobehi, Pradip Peter Dey, Mohammad Amin, Milan Jose Carlos, Basmal Hana, Fadi Zaco

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The economy of coastline areas depends on the natural splendor of estuaries. When estuaries are improperly managed or polluted, long or short term damage to local economy or harm to local life forms can be caused. Estuaries are shelters for thousands of species such as birds, mammals, fish, crustaceans, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. The delicate balance of these life forms in estuaries requires careful planning for the benefit of all. The commercial value of estuaries is very important; recreational activities that people enjoy like boating, kayaking, windsurfing, swimming, bird-watching and fishing are marketable. Estuaries are national treasures with vital community and ecological resources. Years of estuarine environmental studies have produced extensive results that merit consideration. This study reviews research results from various sources and suggests best strategies for maintaining healthy estuaries in the current socioeconomic conditions. The main hypothesis is that many estuaries can be restored to their original healthy status in a cost effective manner with restoration or prevention plans suggested in published studies.

Keywords: environment, pollution, sustainable, wildlife

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Authors: Leela Edwin, Rithin Joseph, P. H. Dhiju Das, K. A. Sayana, P. S. Muhammed Sherief

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The shrimp trawl fishery is considered one of the more valuable fisheries from the South east Coast of Arabian Sea. Inventory data for the shrimp were collected over 1 year period and used to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA was performed to assess and compare the environmental impacts associated with the fishing operations related to shrimp fishery. This analysis included the operation of the vessels, together with major inputs related to the production of diesel, trawl nets, or anti-fouling paints. Data regarding vessel operation was obtained from the detailed questionnaires filled out by 180 trawlers. The analysis on environmental impacts linked to shrimp extraction on a temporal scale, showed that varying landings enhanced the environmental burdens mainly associated with activities related to diesel production, transport and consumption of the fishing vessels. Discard rates for trawlers were also identified as a major environmental impact in this fishery.

Keywords: shrimp trawling, life cycle assesment (LCA), Arabian sea, environmental impacts

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Authors: Omer Leshem, Michael F. Schober

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This paper introduces a new method for assessing how audience members and performers feel and think during live concerts, and how audience members' recognized and felt emotions are related. Two hypotheses were tested in a live concert setting: (1) that audience members’ cognitive perspective taking ability predicts their accuracy in identifying an emotion that a jazz improviser intended to express during a performance, and (2) that audience members' affective empathy predicts their likelihood of feeling the same emotions as the performer. The aim was to stage a concert with audience members who regularly attend live jazz performances, and to measure their cognitive and affective reactions during the performance as non-intrusively as possible. Pianist and Grammy nominee Andy Milne agreed, without knowing details of the method or hypotheses, to perform a full-length solo improvised concert that would include an ‘unusual’ piece. Jazz fans were recruited through typical advertising for New York City jazz performances. The event was held at the New School’s Glass Box Theater, the home of leading NYC jazz venue ‘The Stone.’ Audience members were charged typical NYC jazz club admission prices; advertisements informed them that anyone who chose to participate in the study would be reimbursed their ticket price after the concert. The concert, held in April 2018, had 30 attendees, 23 of whom participated in the study. Twenty-two minutes into the concert, the performer was handed a paper note with the instruction: ‘Perform a 3-5-minute improvised piece with the intention of conveying sadness.’ (Sadness was chosen based on previous music cognition lab studies, where solo listeners were less likely to select sadness as the musically-expressed emotion accurately from a list of basic emotions, and more likely to misinterpret sadness as tenderness). Then, audience members and the performer were invited to respond to a questionnaire from a first envelope under their seat. Participants used their own words to describe the emotion the performer had intended to express, and then to select the intended emotion from a list. They also reported the emotions they had felt while listening using Izard’s differential emotions scale. The concert then continued as usual. At the end, participants answered demographic questions and Davis’ interpersonal reactivity index (IRI), a 28-item scale designed to assess both cognitive and affective empathy. Hypothesis 1 was supported: audience members with greater cognitive empathy were more likely to accurately identify sadness as the expressed emotion. Moreover, audience members who accurately selected ‘sadness’ reported feeling marginally sadder than people who did not select sadness. Hypotheses 2 was not supported; audience members with greater affective empathy were not more likely to feel the same emotions as the performer. If anything, members with lower cognitive perspective-taking ability had marginally greater emotional overlap with the performer, which makes sense given that these participants were less likely to identify the music as sad, which corresponded with the performer’s actual feelings. Results replicate findings from solo lab studies in a concert setting and demonstrate the viability of exploring empathy and collective cognition in improvised live performance.

Keywords: audience, cognition, collective cognition, emotion, empathy, expressed emotion, felt emotion, improvisation, live performance, recognized emotion

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Authors: Ifigenia Stylianou

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As more than three-quarters of students going online daily via computers, tablets, and smartphones, the phenomenon of cyberbullying is growing rapidly. Knowing that victims of online bullying are often also victims of traditional bullying and that traditional bullying is considered as an extension of cyberbullying. In this study, we aim to identify (1) whether cyberbullying lead to more intense forms of school bullying, and (2) whether some biological and environmental factors mediate between this relation, and act protectively to bullying and inappropriate behaviour in school. To answer this questions, a sample of X students, aged X, were asked to complete eight questionnaires (Personal Experiences Checklist, Inventory of Peers Attachment, Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, School Climate Survey for Bullying, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Form, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11) in X time periods. Results can provide us important information to improve understanding the factors that are related to bullying. In addition, the results can assist in developing intervention programs to tangle the issue of bullying at schools. All data have been collected and are currently being processed for statistical analyses.

Keywords: cyberbullying, bullying, school climate, psychopathy traits, attachment, mediation factors

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Authors: Farouk A.N. Bouhadiba

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Based on Fishman’s Theoretical Paradigm (1991), we shall first discuss his three value positions for the case of the so called minority native languages in Algeria and how they may be included into a global language teaching program in Algeria. We shall then move on to his scale on language loss, language maintenance and language renewal with illustrating examples taken from the Algerian context. The second part of our talk relates to pedagogical issues on how to proceed for a smooth transition from mother tongue to school tongue, what methods or approaches suit best the teaching of mother tongue and school tongue (Immersion Programs, The Natural Approach, Applied Literacy Programs, The Berlitz Method, etc.). We shall end up our talk on how one may reshuffle the current issues on the “Arabic-only” movement and the abrupt transition from mother tongue to school tongue in use today by opting for teaching programs that involve pre-school language acquisition and in-school language acquisition grammars, and thus pave the way to effective language teaching programs and living curricula and pedagogies such as language nests, intergenerational continuity, communication and identity teaching programs, which result in better language teaching models that make language policies become a reality.

Keywords: native languages, language maintenance, mother tongue, school tongue, education, Algeria

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Authors: Elie Awwad, Bilal Hamad, Mounir Mabsout, Helmi Khatib

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The paper reports test results on the long-term behavior of sustainable hemp-concrete material prepared in research work conducted at the American University of Beirut. The tests results are in terms of compressive and splitting tensile tests conducted on standard 150x300 mm cylinders. A control mix without fibers, one polypropylene-concrete mix, and ten hemp-concrete mixes were prepared with different percentages of industrial hemp fibers and reduced coarse aggregate contents. The objective was to investigate the strength properties of hemp-reinforced concrete at 1.5 years age as compared with control mixes. The results indicated that both the compressive strength and the splitting tensile strength results of all tested cylinders increased as compared with the 28-days values. Also, the difference between the hemp-concrete samples and the control samples at 28 days was maintained at 1.5 years age indicating that hemp fibers did not exhibit any negative effect on the long-term strength properties of concrete.

Keywords: hemp-reinforced concrete, natural fibers, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength

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Authors: Alexander de Tomás, Miquel Sierra, Stefan Pfenninger, Francesco Lombardi, Ines Campos, Cristina Madrid

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Environmental parameters are key in the definition of sustainable energy systems yet excluded from most energy system optimization models. Still, decision-making may be misleading without considering them. Environmental analyses of the energy transition are a key part of industrial ecology but often are performed without any input from the users of the information. This work assesses the systemic impacts of energy transition pathways in Portugal. Using the Calliope energy modeling framework, 250+ optimized energy system pathways are generated. A Delphi study helps to identify the relevant criteria for the stakeholders as regards the environmental assessment, which is performed with ENBIOS, a python package that integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) with a metabolic analysis based on complex relations. Furthermore, this study focuses on how the uncertainty propagates through the model’s consortium. With the aim of doing so, a soft link between the Calliope/ENBIOS cascade and Brightway’s data capabilities is built to perform Monte Carlo simulations. These findings highlight the relevance of including uncertainty analysis as a range of values rather than informing energy transition results with a single value.

Keywords: energy transition, energy modeling, uncertainty, sustainability

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Authors: Roshni Raha, Karthikeyan S.

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The world's largest livestock population resides in India. Existing strategies must be modified to increase the production of livestock and their by-products in order to meet the demands of the growing human population. Even though India leads the world in both milk production and the number of cows, average production is not very healthy and productive. This may be due to the animals' poor nutrition caused by a chronic under-availability of high-quality fodder and feed. This article explores Azolla pinnata to be a promising source to produce high-quality unconventional feed and fodder for effective livestock production and good quality breeding in India. This article is an exploratory study using a literature survey and experimentation analysis. In the realm of agri-biotechnology, azolla sp gained attention for helping farmers achieve sustainability, having minimal land requirements, and serving as a feed element that doesn't compete with human food sources. It has high methionine content, which is a good source of protein. It can be easily digested as the lignin content is low. It has high antioxidants and vitamins like beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin B12. Using this concept, the paper aims to investigate and develop a model of using azolla plants as a novel, high-potential feed source to combat the problems of low production and poor quality of animals in India. A representative sample of animal feed is collected where azolla is added. The sample is ground into a fine powder using mortar. PITC (phenylisothiocyanate) is added to derivatize the amino acids. The sample is analyzed using HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) to measure the amino acids and monitor the protein content of the sample feed. The amino acid measurements from HPLC are converted to milligrams per gram of protein using the method of amino acid profiling via a set of calculations. The amino acid profile data is then obtained to validate the proximate results of nutrient enhancement of the composition of azolla in the sample. Based on the proximate composition of azolla meal, the enhancement results shown were higher compared to the standard values of normal fodder supplements indicating the feed to be much richer and denser in nutrient supply. Thus azolla fed sample proved to be a promising source for animal fodder. This would in turn lead to higher production and a good breed of animals that would help to meet the economic demands of the growing Indian population. Azolla plants have no side effects and can be considered as safe and effective to be immersed in the animal feed. One area of future research could begin with the upstream scaling strategy of azolla plants in India. This could involve introducing several bioreactor types for its commercial production. Since azolla sp has been proved in this paper as a promising source for high quality animal feed and fodder, large scale production of azolla plants will help to make the process much quicker, more efficient and easily accessible. Labor expenses will also be reduced by employing bioreactors for large-scale manufacturing.

Keywords: azolla, fodder, nutrient, protein

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Authors: Priyanka Kumari

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Menstrual hygiene is an important aspect in the life of young girls. Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) is defined as ‘Women and adolescent girls using a clean material to absorb or collect menstrual blood that can be changed in privacy as often as necessary for the duration of the menstruation period, using soap and water for washing the body as required and having access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials. This paper aims to investigate the prevalence of hygienic menstrual practices and socio-demographic correlates of hygienic menstrual practices among women aged 15-24 in India. Data from the 2015–2016 National Family Health Survey–4 for 244,500 menstruating women aged 15–24 were used. The methods have been categorized into two, women who use sanitary napkins, locally prepared napkins and tampons considered as a hygienic method and those who use cloth, any other method and nothing used at all during menstruation considered as an unhygienic method. Women’s age, year of schooling, religion, place of residence, caste/tribe, marital status, wealth index, type of toilet facility used, region, the structure of the house and exposure to mass media are taken as an independent variables. Bivariate analysis was carried out with selected background characteristics to analyze the socio-economic and demographic factors associated with the use of hygienic methods during menstruation. The odds for the use of the hygienic method were computed by employing binary logistic regression. Almost 60% of the women use cloth as an absorbent during menstruation to prevent blood stains from becoming evident. The hygienic method, which includes the use of locally prepared napkins, sanitary napkins and tampons, is 16.27%, 41.8% and 2.4%. The proportion of women who used hygienic methods to prevent blood stains from becoming evident was 57.58%. Multivariate analyses reveal that education of women, wealth and marital status are found to be the most important positive factors of hygienic menstrual practices. The structure of the house and exposure to mass media also have a positive impact on the use of menstrual hygiene practices. In contrast, women residing in rural areas belonging to scheduled tribes are less likely to use hygienic methods during their menstruation. Geographical regions are also statistically significant with the use of hygienic methods during menstruation. This study reveals that menstrual hygiene is not satisfactory among a large proportion of adolescent girls. They need more education about menstrual hygiene. A variety of factors affect menstrual behaviors; amongst these, the most influential is economic status, educational status and residential status, whether urban or rural. It is essential to design a mechanism to address and access healthy menstrual knowledge. It is important to encourage policies and quality standards that promote safe and affordable options and dynamic markets for menstrual products. Materials that are culturally acceptable, contextually available and affordable. Promotion of sustainable, environmentally friendly menstrual products and their disposal as it is a very important aspect of sustainable development goals. We also need to educate the girls about the services which are provided by the government, like a free supply of sanitary napkins to overcome reproductive tract infections. Awareness regarding the need for information on healthy menstrual practices is very important. It is essential to design a mechanism to address and access healthy menstrual practices. Emphasis should be given to the education of young girls about the importance of maintaining hygiene during menstruation to prevent the risk of reproductive tract infections.

Keywords: adolescent, menstruation, menstrual hygiene management, menstrual hygiene

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Authors: Taghrid Asfar, Olusanya J. Oluwole, Michael Schmidt, Alejandra Casas, Zoran Bursac, Wasim Maziak.

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Waterpipe (WP) smoking (a.k.a. hookah) has increased dramatically in the US mainly due to the misperception that it is safer than cigarette smoking. Mounting evidence show that WP smoking is addictive and harmful. Health warning labels (HWLs) are effective in communicating smoking-related risks. Currently, the FDA requires that WP tobacco packages have a textual HWL about nicotine. While this represents a good step, it is inadequate given the established harm of WP smoking beyond addiction and the superior performance of pictorial HWLs over text-only ones. We developed 24 WP pictorial HWLs in a Delphi study among international expert panel. HWLs were grouped into 6 themes: addiction, harm compared to cigarettes, harm to others, health effects, quitting, and specific harms. This study aims to compare the effect of the pictorial HWLs compared to the FDA HWL, and 2) the effect of pictorial HWLs between the 6 themes. A 2x7 between/within subject online factorial experimental study was conducted among a national convenience sample of 300 (50% current WP smokers; 50% nonsmokers) US adults (females 71.1%; mean age of 31.1±3.41 years) in March 2022. The first factor varied WP smoking status (smokers, nonsmokers). The second factor varied the HWL theme and type (text, pictorial). Participants were randomized to view and rate 7 HWLs: 1 FDA text HWL (control) and 6 HWLs, one from each of the 6 themes, all presented in random order. HWLs were rated based on the message impact framework into five categories: attention, reaction (believability, relevance, fear), perceived effectiveness, intentions to quit WP among current smokers, and intention to not initiate WP among nonsmokers. measures were assessed on a 5-point Likert scale (1=not at all to 5=very much) for attention and reaction and on a 7-point Likert scale (1=not at all to 7=very much) for the perceived effectiveness and intentions to quit or not initiate WP smoking. Means and SDs of outcome measures for each HWL type and theme were calculated. Planned comparisons using Friedman test followed by pairwise Wilcoxon signed-rank test for multiple comparisons were used to examine distributional differences of outcomes between the HWL type and themes. Approximately 74.4 % of participants were non-Hispanic Whites, 68.4% had college degrees, and 41.5% were under the poverty level. Participants reported starting WTS on average at 20.3±8.19 years. Compared with the FDA text HWL, pictorial HWLs elicited higher attention (p<0.0001), fear (p<0.0001), harm perception (p<0.0003), perceived effectiveness (p<0.0001), and intentions to quit (p=0.0014) and not initiate WP smoking (p<0.0003). HWLs in theme 3 (harm to others) achieved the highest rating in attention (4.14±1), believability (4.15±0.95), overall perceived effectiveness (7.60±2.35), harm perception (7.53±2.43), and intentions to quit (7.35±2.57). HWLs in theme 2 (WP harm compared to cigarettes) achieved the highest rating in discouraging WP smoking initiation (7.32±2.54). Pictorial HWLs were superior to the FDA text-only for several communication outcomes. Pictorial HWLs related to WP harm to others and WP harm compared to cigarette are promising. These findings provide strong evidence for the potential implementation of WP-specific pictorial HWLs.

Keywords: health communication, waterpipe smoking, factorial experiment, reaction, harm perception, tobacco regulations

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Authors: C. Caudwell, R. Syed, C. Lacey

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While the development and advancement of information communication technologies (ICTs) offers powerful opportunities for meaningful connections and relationships, shame is a significant barrier to social and cultural acceptance. In particular, artificial intelligence and socially oriented robots are increasingly becoming partners in romantic relationships with people, offering bonding, support, comfort, growth, and reciprocity. However, these relationships suffer hierarchical, anthropocentric shame that is a significant barrier to their success and longevity. This paper will present case studies of human and artificially intelligent agent relationships, in the context of internal and external shame, as cultivated, propagated, and communicated through ICT. Using an interdisciplinary methodology we aim to present a framework for technological shame, building on the experimental and emergent psychoanalytical theories of emotions. Our study finds principally that socialization is a powerful factor in the vectors of shame as experienced by humans. On a wider scale, we contribute understanding of social emotion and the phenomenon of shame proliferated through ICTs, which is at present under-explored, but vital, as society and culture is increasingly mediated through this medium.

Keywords: shame, artificial intelligence, romance, society

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Authors: Kemi Olalekan Oduntan

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This paper is of the view that entrepreneurship education (if well utilized) can solve the problems of unemployment and the clamor for paid employment in Nigeria. Nigeria educational system is bookish too more academically oriented thereby neglecting the entrepreneurial and vocational values to a greater extent. This paper examines the utilization of entrepreneurship education as a way out of the myriad of unemployment in Nigeria, with the need to refocus Nigeria educational system towards skills acquisition that prepares Nigerians for self-reliance, hence being an employer of labor, while sustainable development and economic diversification are also stressed. The paper further argues that entrepreneurship education will equip the students and Nigeria working class youth with the skills to be jobs creators and become an employer of labor which it will solve Nigeria’s problems such as poverty, overdependence on foreign goods, low economic growth and poor infrastructural development among others. We concludes and recommends that a new pedagogy that prepares students and working class youth with knowledge and practical skills to be entrepreneurial be instituted, promoted and made compulsory in all our tertiary institutions as a way of reducing the menace unemployment in Nigeria.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, unemployment, national development, self-employment

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Authors: Abubakar O. Sulaiman

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Agriculture was the main stay of Nigeria’s economy before the oil boom of the 1970s caused a gradual but steady shift from agriculture to crude oil as the major source of revenue and foreign exchange. The economy later experienced many symptoms of the 'Dutch disease', with exchange rate appreciation and erosion of competitiveness of the non-oil tradable goods. In order to reverse the worsening economic situations -high unemployment, galloping inflation, deteriorating balance of payment, declining economic growth, and fiscal deficits among others- the government, embarked on austerity measures in 1982 and Structure Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986. One of the cornerstones of SAP is the diversification of the economy from oil to non-oil. In the form of stocktaking, this paper investigates the impact of non-oil revenue on economic growth in Nigeria using quarterly time-series data from 1980 to 2019. The findings revealed that a long-run relationship exists between the variables (non-oil variables) and economic growth in Nigeria. Among the variables, (agriculture revenue, manufacturing revenue, revenue from services, and company income tax) contributed substantially to economic growth. The paper recommends that the government should continue to intensify efforts and policies in the diversification of the economy as it will bring about sustainable non-oil revenue and economic growth.

Keywords: non-oil revenue, economic growth, export, long run relationship

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Authors: Mukesh Singh Boori, Vít Voženílek

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Olomouc is a unique and complex landmark with widespread forestation and land use. This research work was conducted to assess important and complex land use change trajectories in Olomouc region. Multi-temporal satellite data from 1991, 2001 and 2013 were used to extract land use/cover types by object oriented classification method. To achieve the objectives, three different aspects were used: (1) Calculate the quantity of each transition; (2) Allocate location based landscape pattern (3) Compare land use/cover evaluation procedure. Land cover change trajectories shows that 16.69% agriculture, 54.33% forest and 21.98% other areas (settlement, pasture and water-body) were stable in all three decade. Approximately 30% of the study area maintained as a same land cove type from 1991 to 2013. Here broad scale of political and socio-economic factors was also affect the rate and direction of landscape changes. Distance from the settlements was the most important predictor of land cover change trajectories. This showed that most of landscape trajectories were caused by socio-economic activities and mainly led to virtuous change on the ecological environment.

Keywords: remote sensing, land use/cover, change trajectories, image classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: Flordeliza L. Mercado, Teresito G. Aguinaldo, Helen F. Gavino, Victorino T. Taylan

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Most fruits and vegetables are available in large quantities during peak season which are oftentimes marketed at low price and left to rot or fed to farm animals. The lack of efficient storage facilities, and the additional cost and unavailability of small machinery for food processing, results to low price and wastage. Incidentally, processed fresh fruits and vegetables are gaining importance nowadays and health conscious people are also into ‘juicing’. One way to reduce wastage and ensure an all-season availability of crop juices at reasonable costs is to develop equipment for effective extraction of juice. The study was conducted to design, fabricate and evaluate a multi-juice extractor using locally available materials, making it relatively cheaper and affordable for medium-scale enterprises. The study was also conducted to formulate juice blends using extracted juices and calamansi juice at different blending percentage, and evaluate its chemical properties and sensory attributes. Furthermore, the chemical properties of extracted meals were evaluated for future applications. The multi-juice extractor has an overall dimension of 963mm x 300mm x 995mm, a gross weight of 82kg and 5 major components namely; feeding hopper, extracting chamber, juice and meal outlet, transmission assembly, and frame. The machine performance was evaluated based on juice recovery, extraction efficiency, extraction rate, extraction recovery, and extraction loss considering type of crop as apple and carrot with three replications each and was analyzed using T-test. The formulated juice blends were subjected to sensory evaluation and data gathered were analyzed using Analysis of Variance appropriate for Complete Randomized Design. Results showed that the machine’s juice recovery (73.39%), extraction rate (16.40li/hr), and extraction efficiency (88.11%) for apple were significantly higher than for carrot while extraction recovery (99.88%) was higher for apple than for carrot. Extraction loss (0.12%) was lower for apple than for carrot, but was not significantly affected by crop. Based on adding percentage mark-up on extraction cost (Php 2.75/kg), the breakeven weight and payback period for a 35% mark-up is 4,710.69kg and 1.22 years, respectively and for a 50% mark-up, the breakeven weight is 3,492.41kg and the payback period is 0.86 year (10.32 months). Results on the sensory evaluation of juice blends showed that the type of juice significantly influenced all the sensory parameters while the blending percentage including their respective interaction, had no significant effect on all sensory parameters, making the apple-calamansi juice blend more preferred than the carrot-calamansi juice blend in terms of all the sensory parameter. The machine’s performance is higher for apple than for carrot and the cost analysis on the use of the machine revealed that it is financially viable with a payback period of 1.22 years (35% mark-up) and 0.86 year (50% mark-up) for machine cost, generating an income of Php 23,961.60 and Php 34,444.80 per year using 35% and 50% mark-up, respectively. The juice blends were of good qualities based on the values obtained in the chemical analysis and the extracted meal could also be used to produce another product based on the values obtained from proximate analysis.

Keywords: food processing, fruits and vegetables, juice extraction, multi-juice extractor

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Authors: K. Noah, F.-S. Lien

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In Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), there are a variety of numerical methods, of which some depend on macroscopic model representatives. These models can be solved by finite-volume, finite-element or finite-difference methods on a microscopic description. However, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is considered to be a mesoscopic particle method, with its scale lying between the macroscopic and microscopic scales. The LBM works well for solving incompressible flow problems, but certain limitations arise from solving compressible flows, particularly at high Mach numbers. An improved lattice Boltzmann model for compressible flow problems is presented in this research study. A higher-order Taylor series expansion of the Maxwell equilibrium distribution function is used to overcome limitations in LBM when solving high-Mach-number flows. Large eddy simulation (LES) is implemented in LBM to simulate turbulent jet flows. The results have been validated with available experimental data for turbulent compressible free jet flow at subsonic speeds.

Keywords: compressible lattice Boltzmann method, multiple relaxation times, large eddy simulation, turbulent jet flows

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: M. A. Salman, G. Al-Nuwaibit, M. Safar, M. Rughaibi, A. Al-Mesri

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Barium sulfate (BaSO₄) is a hard scaling usually precipitates on the surface of equipment in many industrial systems, as oil and gas production, desalination and cooling and boiler operation. It is a scale that extremely resistance to both chemical and mechanical cleaning. So, BaSO₄ is a problematic and expensive scaling. Although barium ions are present in most natural waters at a very low concentration as low as 0.008 mg/l, it could result of scaling problems in the presence of high concentration of sulfate ion or when mixing with incompatible waters as in oil produced water. The scaling potential of BaSO₄ using seawater at the intake of seven desalination plants in Kuwait, brine water and Kuwait oil produced water was calculated and compared then the best location in regards of barium sulfate scaling was reported. Finally, a physical treatment method (magnetic treatment method) and chemical treatment method were used to control BaSO₄ scaling using saturated solutions at different operating temperatures, flow velocities, feed pHs and different magnetic strengths. The results of the two methods were discussed, and the more economical one with the reasonable performance was recommended, which is the physical treatment method.

Keywords: magnetic field strength, flow velocity, retention time, barium sulfate

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Chi-Wen Huang, Hung-Chi Chen

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Total laryngectomy affects swallowing, speech functions and life quality in the head and neck cancer. Voice restoration plays an important role in social activities and communication. Several techniques have been developed for voice restoration and reported to improve the life quality. However, the rehabilitation program for voice reconstruction by using the ileocolon flap still unclear. A retrospective study was done, and the patients' data were drawn from the medical records between 2010 and 2016 who underwent voice reconstruction by ileocolon flap after laryngectomy. All of them were trained to swallow first; then, the voice rehabilitation was started. The outcome of voice was evaluated after 6 months using the 4-point scoring scale. In our result, 9.8% patients could give very clear voice so everyone could understand their speech, 61% patients could be understood well by families and friends, 20.2% patients could only talk with family, and 9% patients had difficulty to be understood. Moreover, the 57% patients did not need a second surgery, but in 43% patients voice was made clear by a second surgery. In this study, we demonstrated that the rehabilitation program after voice reconstruction with ileocolon flap for post-laryngectomy patients is important because the anatomical structure is different from the normal larynx.

Keywords: post-laryngectomy, ileocolon flap, rehabilitation, voice reconstruction

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Authors: Jainendra Singh, Zaheeruddin

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A typical wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consists of several tiny and low-power sensors which use radio frequency to perform distributed sensing tasks. The longevity of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a major issue that impacts the application of such networks. While routing protocols are striving to save energy by acting on sensor nodes, recent studies show that network lifetime can be enhanced by further involving sink mobility. A common approach for energy efficiency is partitioning the network into clusters with correlated data, where the representative nodes simply transmit or average measurements inside the cluster. In this paper, we propose an energy- efficient homogenous clustering (EHC) technique. In this technique, the decision of each sensor is based on their residual energy and an estimate of how many of its neighboring cluster heads (CHs) will benefit from it being a CH. We, also explore the routing algorithm in clustered WSNs. We show that the proposed schemes significantly outperform current approaches in terms of packet delay, hop count and energy consumption of WSNs.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, energy efficiency, clustering, routing

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Authors: Ahmet Parlak, Celalettin Bilgen

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In order to create an effective early warning system, Identification of the risks, preparation and carrying out risk modeling of risk scenarios, taking into account the shortcomings of the old disaster scenarios should be used to improve the system. In the light of this, the importance of risk modeling in creating an effective early warning system is understood. In the scope of TAFRISK project risk modeling trend analysis report on risk modeling developed and a demonstration was conducted for Risk Modeling for flood and mass movements. For risk modeling R&D, studies have been conducted to determine the information, and source of the information, to be gathered, to develop algorithms and to adapt the current algorithms to Turkey’s conditions for determining the risk score in the high disaster risk areas. For each type of the disaster; Disaster Deficit Index (DDI), Local Disaster Index (LDI), Prevalent Vulnerability Index (PVI), Risk Management Index (RMI) have been developed as disaster indices taking danger, sensitivity, fragility, and vulnerability, the physical and economic damage into account in the appropriate scale of the respective type.

Keywords: disaster, hazard, risk modeling, sensor

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Authors: Mostafa Kazemi, Zahra N. Farkhani

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This paper proposes an integrated Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) model for measuring the technical efficiency of decision making units. The model is validated using a set of 69% sales representatives’ dairy products. The analysis is done in two stages, in the first stage, VIF technique is used to distinguish independent effective factors of resellers, and in the second stage we used DEA for measuring efficiency for both constant and variable return to scales status. Further DEA is used to examine the utilization of environmental factors on efficiency. Results of this paper indicated an average managerial efficiency of 83% in the whole sales representatives’ dairy products. In addition, technical and scale efficiency were counted 96% and 80% respectively. 38% of sales representative have the technical efficiency of 100% and 72% of the sales representative in terms of managerial efficiency are quite efficient.High levels of relative efficiency indicate a good condition for sales representative efficiency.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis (DEA), relative efficiency, sales representatives’ dairy products, variance inflation factor (VIF)

Procedia PDF Downloads 558

Authors: H. Akbari Khorami, P. Wild, N. Djilali

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This paper reports on the response of a fiber-optic sensing probe to small concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) vapor at room temperature. H2O2 has extensive applications in industrial and medical environments. Conversely, H2O2 can be a health hazard by itself. For example, H2O2 induces cellular damage in human cells and its presence can be used to diagnose illnesses such as asthma and human breast cancer. Hence, development of reliable H2O2 sensor is of vital importance to detect and measure this species. Ferric ferrocyanide, referred to as Prussian blue (PB), was deposited on the tip of a multimode optical fiber through the single source precursor technique and served as an indicator of H2O2 in a spectroscopic manner. Sensing tests were performed in H2O2-H2O vapor mixtures with different concentrations of H2O2. The results of sensing tests show the sensor is able to detect H2O2 concentrations in the range of 50.6 ppm to 229.5 ppm. Furthermore, the sensor response to H2O2 concentrations is linear in a log-log scale with the adjacent R-square of 0.93. This sensing behavior allows us to detect and quantify the concentration of H2O2 in the vapor phase.

Keywords: chemical deposition, fiber-optic sensor, hydrogen peroxide vapor, prussian blue

Procedia PDF Downloads 354

Authors: Ed de Jong

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Avantium is a leading technology development company and a frontrunner in renewable chemistry. Avantium develops disruptive technologies that enable the production of sustainable high value products from renewable materials and actively seek out collaborations and partnerships with like-minded companies and academic institutions globally, to speed up introductions of chemical innovations in the marketplace. In addition, Avantium helps companies to accelerate their catalysis R&D to improve efficiencies and deliver increased sustainability, growth, and profits, by providing proprietary systems and services to this regard. Many chemical building blocks and materials can be produced from biomass, nowadays mainly from 1st generation based carbohydrates, but potential for competition with the human food chain leads brand-owners to look for strategies to transition from 1st to 2nd generation feedstock. The use of non-edible lignocellulosic feedstock is an equally attractive source to produce chemical intermediates and an important part of the solution addressing these global issues (Paris targets). Avantium’s Dawn Technology™ separates the glucose, mixed sugars, and lignin available in non-food agricultural and forestry residues such as wood chips, wheat straw, bagasse, empty fruit bunches or corn stover. The resulting very pure lignin is dense in energy and can be used for energy generation. However, such a material might preferably be deployed in higher added value applications. Bitumen, which is fossil based, are mostly used for paving applications. Traditional hot mix asphalt emits large quantities of the GHG’s CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O, which is unfavorable for obvious environmental reasons. Another challenge for the bitumen industry is that the petrochemical industry is becoming more and more efficient in breaking down higher chain hydrocarbons to lower chain hydrocarbons with higher added value than bitumen. This has a negative effect on the availability of bitumen. The asphalt market, as well as governments, are looking for alternatives with higher sustainability in terms of GHG emission. The usage of alternative sustainable binders, which can (partly) replace the bitumen, contributes to reduce GHG emissions and at the same time broadens the availability of binders. As lignin is a major component (around 25-30%) of lignocellulosic material, which includes terrestrial plants (e.g., trees, bushes, and grass) and agricultural residues (e.g., empty fruit bunches, corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, straw, etc.), it is globally highly available. The chemical structure shows resemblance with the structure of bitumen and could, therefore, be used as an alternative for bitumen in applications like roofing or asphalt. Applications such as the use of lignin in asphalt need both fundamental research as well as practical proof under relevant use conditions. From a fundamental point of view, rheological aspects, as well as mixing, are key criteria. From a practical point of view, behavior in real road conditions is key (how easy can the asphalt be prepared, how easy can it be applied on the road, what is the durability, etc.). The paper will discuss the fundamentals of the use of lignin as bitumen replacement as well as the status of the different demonstration projects in Europe using lignin as a partial bitumen replacement in asphalts and will especially present the results of using Dawn Technology™ lignin as partial replacement of bitumen.

Keywords: biorefinery, wood fractionation, lignin, asphalt, bitumen, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 151