Search results for: concentration index

Authors: Hadiatullah, T. S. D. Desak Ketut, A. A. Ayu, A. N. Isna, D. P. Ririn

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Spirogyra sp. is genus of microalgae which has a high carbohydrate content that used as a best medium for bacterial fermentation to produce cellulose. This study objective to determine the effect of pulp banana in the fermented paper production process using Spirogyra sp. and characterizing of the paper product. The method includes the production of bacterial cellulose, assay of the effect fermented paper interpolating with banana pulp using Spirogyra sp., and the assay of paper characteristics include gram-mage paper, water assay absorption, thickness, power assay of tensile resistance, assay of tear resistance, density, and organoleptic assay. Experiments were carried out with completely randomized design with a variation of the concentration of sewage treatment in the fermented paper production interpolating banana pulp using Spirogyra sp. Each parameter data to be analyzed by Anova variance that continued by real difference test with an error rate of 5% using the SPSS. Nata production results indicate that different carbon sources (glucose and sugar) did not show any significant differences from cellulose parameters assay. Significantly different results only indicated for the control treatment. Although not significantly different from the addition of a carbon source, sugar showed higher potency to produce high cellulose. Based on characteristic assay of the fermented paper showed that the paper gram-mage indicated that the control treatment without interpolation of a carbon source and a banana pulp have better result than banana pulp interpolation. Results of control gram-mage is 260 gsm that show optimized by cardboard. While on paper gram-mage produced with the banana pulp interpolation is about 120-200 gsm that show optimized by magazine paper and art paper. Based on the density, weight, water absorption assays, and organoleptic assay of paper showing the highest results in the treatment of pulp banana interpolation with sugar source as carbon is 14.28 g/m2, 0.02 g and 0.041 g/cm2.minutes. The conclusion found that paper with nata material interpolating with sugar and banana pulp has the potential formulation to produce super-quality paper.

Keywords: cellulose, fermentation, grammage, paper, Spirogyra sp.

Procedia PDF Downloads 318

Authors: Erwin Geroleo, Higinio Mappala

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Introduction Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy (OHE) is the most dreaded outcome of liver cirrhosis. Aside from the triggering factors which are already known to precipitate OHE, there is growing evidence that an altered gut microbiota profile (dysbiosis) can also trigger OHE. MHE is the mildest form of hepatic encephalopathy(HE), affecting about one-third of patients with cirrhosis, and close 80% of patients with cirrhosis and manifests as abnormalities in central nervous system function. Since these symptoms are subclinical most patients are not being treated to prevent OHE. The gut microbiota have been evaluated by several studies as a therapeutic option for MHE, especially in decreasing the levels of ammonia, thus preventing progression to OHE Objectives This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of probiotics in terms of reduction of ammonia levels in patient with minimal hepatic encephalopathies and to determine if Probiotics has role in the prevention of progression to overt hepatic encephalopathy in adult patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) Methods and Analysis The literature search strategy was restricted to human studies in adults subjects from 2004 to 2022. The Jadad Score Calculation was utilized in the assessment of the final studies included in this study. Eight (8) studies were included. Cochrane’s Revman Web, the Fixed Effects model and the Ztest were all used in the overall analysis of the outcomes. A p value of less than 0.0005 was statistically significant. Results. These results show that Probiotics significantly lowers the level of Ammonia in Cirrhotic patients with OHE. It also shows that the use of Probiotics significantly prevents the progression of MHE to OHE. The overall risk of bias graph indicates low risk of publication bias among the studies included in the meta-analysis. Main findings This research found that plasma ammonia concentration was lower among participants treated with probiotics (p<0.00001).) Ammonia level of the probiotics group is lower by 13.96 μmol/ on the average. Overall risk of developing overt hepatic encephalopathy in the probiotics group is shown to be decreased by 15% as compared to the placebo group Conclusion The analysis showed that compared with placebo, probiotics can decrease serum ammonia, may improve MHE and may prevent OHE.

Keywords: minimal hepatic encephalopathy, probiotics, liver cirrhosis, overt hepatic encephalopathy

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Authors: K. Larysz, E. Grochowska-Niedworok, M. Kardas, K. Brukalo, B. Calyniuk, R. Polaniak

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Eating behaviours and habits are one of the main factors affecting health. Abnormal nutritional status is a growing problem related to nutritional errors. The number of adolescents presenting excess body weight is also rising. The body's demand for all nutrients increases in the period of intensive development, i.e., during puberty. A varied, well-balanced diet and elimination of unhealthy habits are two of the key factors that contribute to the proper development of a young body. The aim of the study was to assess the nutritional status and selected eating behaviours/habits in adolescents attending middle school. An original questionnaire including 24 questions was conducted. A total of 401 correctly completed questionnaires were qualified for the assessment. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Furthermore, the frequency of breakfast consumption, the number of meals per day, types of snacks and sweetened beverages, as well as the frequency of consuming fruit and vegetables, dairy products and fast-foods were assessed. The obtained results were analysed statistically. The study showed that malnutrition was more of a problem than overweight or obesity among middle school students. More than 71% of middle school students have breakfast, whereas almost 30% of adolescents skip this meal. Up to 57.6% of respondents most often consume sweets at school. A total of 37% of adolescents consume sweetened beverages daily or almost every day. Most of the respondents consume an optimal number of meals daily. Only 24.7% of respondents consume fruit and vegetables more than once daily. The majority of respondents (49.40%) declared that they consumed fast food several times a month. Satisfactory frequency of consuming dairy products was reported by 32.7% of middle school students. Conclusions of our study: 1. Malnutrition is more of a problem than overweight or obesity among middle school students. They consume excessive amounts of sweets, sweetened beverages, and fast foods. 2. The consumption of fruit and vegetables was too low in the study group. The intake of dairy products was also low in some cases. 3. A statistically significant correlation was found between the frequency of fast food consumption and the intake of sweetened beverages. A low correlation was found between nutritional status and the number of meals per day. The number of meals consumed by these individuals decreased with increasing nutritional status.

Keywords: adolescent, malnutrition, nutrition, nutritional status, obesity

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: A. T. Toci, M. V. B. Zanoni

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The advanced oxidation processes have been defined as destructive technologies treatment of wastewater. These involve the formation of powerful oxidizing agents (usually hydroxyl radical .OH) capable of reacting with organic compounds present in wastewater, transforming damaging substances in CO2 and H2O (mineralization) or other innocuous products. However, the photochemical degradation with singlet oxygen has been little explored as oxidative pathway for the treatment of effluents containing food colorants. The molecular oxygen is an effective suppressor of organic molecules in the triplet excited state. One of the possible results of the physical withdrawal is the formation of singlet oxygen. Studies with singlet oxygen (1O2) show an high reactivity of the excited state of the molecule with olefins, aromatic hydrocarbons and a number of other organic and inorganic compounds. Its reactivity is about 2500 times larger than the oxygen in the ground state. Thus, in this work, it was studied the degradation of some dyes used in food industry (tartrazine, sunset yellow, erythrosine and carmoisine) by singlet oxygen. The sensitizer used for generating the 1O2 was methylene blue, which has a quantum yield generation of 0.50. Samples were prepared in water at a concentration of 5 ppm and irradiated with a sunlight simulator (Newport brand, model no. 67005) by consecutive 8h. The absorption spectra of UV-Vis molecules were made each hour irradiation. The degradation kinetics for each dye was determined using the maximum length of each dye absorption. The analysis by UV-Vis revealed that the processes were very efficient for the colorants sunset yellow and carmoisine. Both presented degradation kinetics of order zero with degradation constants 0.416 and 0.104, respectively. In the case of sunset yellow degradation reached 53% after 7h irradiation, Demonstrating the process efficiency. The erithrosine presented during the period irradiated a oscillating degradation kinetics, which requires further study. In the other hand, tartrazine was stable in the presence of 1O2. The investigation of the dyes degradation products owned degradation by 1O2 are underway, the techniques used for this are MS and NMR. The results of this study will enable the application of the cleanest methods for the treatment of industrial effluents, as there are other non-toxic and polluting molecules to generate 1O2.

Keywords: food colourants, singlet oxygen, degradation, wastewater, oxidative

Procedia PDF Downloads 387

Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is widely used and an accepted measure of energy expenditure. Its principal determinant is body mass. However, this parameter is also correlated with a variety of other factors. The objective of this study is to measure BMR and compare it with the values obtained from predictive equations in adults classified according to their body mass index (BMI) values. 276 adults were included into the scope of this study. Their age, height and weight values were recorded. Five groups were designed based on their BMI values. First group (n = 85) was composed of individuals with BMI values varying between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m². Those with BMI values varying from 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m² constituted Group 2 (n = 90). Individuals with 30.0-34.9 kg/m², 35.0-39.9 kg/m², > 40.0 kg/m² were included in Group 3 (n = 53), 4 (n = 28) and 5 (n = 20), respectively. The most commonly used equations to be compared with the measured BMR values were selected. For this purpose, the values were calculated by the use of four equations to predict BMR values, by name, introduced by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations University (UNU), Harris and Benedict, Owen and Mifflin. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, post-Hoc Tukey and Pearson’s correlation tests were performed by a statistical program designed for Windows (SPSS, version 16.0). p values smaller than 0.05 were accepted as statistically significant. Mean ± SD of groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for measured BMR in kcal were 1440.3 ± 210.0, 1618.8 ± 268.6, 1741.1 ± 345.2, 1853.1 ± 351.2 and 2028.0 ± 412.1, respectively. Upon evaluation of the comparison of means among groups, differences were highly significant between Group 1 and each of the remaining four groups. The values were increasing from Group 2 to Group 5. However, differences between Group 2 and Group 3, Group 3 and Group 4, Group 4 and Group 5 were not statistically significant. These insignificances were lost in predictive equations proposed by Harris and Benedict, FAO/WHO/UNU and Owen. For Mifflin, the insignificance was limited only to Group 4 and Group 5. Upon evaluation of the correlations of measured BMR and the estimated values computed from prediction equations, the lowest correlations between measured BMR and estimated BMR values were observed among the individuals within normal BMI range. The highest correlations were detected in individuals with BMI values varying between 30.0 and 34.9 kg/m². Correlations between measured BMR values and BMR values calculated by FAO/WHO/UNU as well as Owen were the same and the highest. In all groups, the highest correlations were observed between BMR values calculated from Mifflin and Harris and Benedict equations using age as an additional parameter. In conclusion, the unique resemblance of the FAO/WHO/UNU and Owen equations were pointed out. However, mean values obtained from FAO/WHO/UNU were much closer to the measured BMR values. Besides, the highest correlations were found between BMR calculated from FAO/WHO/UNU and measured BMR. These findings suggested that FAO/WHO/UNU was the most reliable equation, which may be used in conditions when the measured BMR values are not available.

Keywords: adult, basal metabolic rate, fao/who/unu, obesity, prediction equations

Procedia PDF Downloads 110

Authors: Hongliang Ding, Ziqu Ouyang

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Under the basic national conditions that the energy structure is dominated by coal, it is of great significance to realize deep and flexible peak shaving of boilers in pulverized coal power plants, and maximize the consumption of renewable energy in the power grid, to ensure China's energy security and scientifically achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. With the promising self-preheating combustion technology, which had the potential of broad-load regulation and rapid response to load changes, this study mainly investigated the different load operation and rapid load-change characteristics of pulverized coal combustion. Four effective load-stabilization bases were proposed according to preheating temperature, coal gas composition (calorific value), combustion temperature (spatial mean temperature and mean square temperature fluctuation coefficient), and flue gas emissions (CO and NOx concentrations), on the basis of which the load-change rates were calculated to assess the load response characteristics. Due to the improvement of the physicochemical properties of pulverized coal after preheating, stable ignition and combustion conditions could be obtained even at a low load of 25%, with a combustion efficiency of over 97.5%, and NOx emission reached the lowest at 50% load, with the concentration of 50.97 mg/Nm3 (@6%O2). Additionally, the load ramp-up stage displayed higher load-change rates than the load ramp-down stage, with maximum rates of 3.30 %/min and 3.01 %/min, respectively. Furthermore, the driving force formed by high step load was conducive to the increase of load-change rate. The rates based on the preheating indicator attained the highest value of 3.30 %/min, while the rates based on the combustion indicator peaked at 2.71 %/min. In comparison, the combustion indicator accurately described the system’s combustion state and load changes, whereas the preheating indicator was easier to acquire, with a higher load-change rate, hence the appropriate evaluation strategy should depend on the actual situation. This study verified a feasible method for deep and flexible peak shaving of coal-fired power units, further providing basic data and technical supports for future engineering applications.

Keywords: clean coal combustion, load-change rate, peak shaving, self-preheating

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: Asselah Amel, Affif Chaouche M'yassa, Toudji Amira, Tazerouti Amel

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This study covers two aspects ; the biodegradability and the performances in corrosion inhibition of a series of synthetized surfactants namely Φ- sodium methyl ester sulfonates (Φ-MES: C₁₂-MES, C₁₄-MES and C₁₆-MES. The biodegradability of these organic compounds was studied using the respirometric method, ‘the standard ISO 9408’. Degradation was followed by analysis of dissolved oxygen using the dissolved oxygen meter over 28 days and the results were compared with that of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The inoculum used consists of activated sludge taken from the aeration basin of the biological wastewater treatment plant in the city of Boumerdes-Algeria. In addition, the anticorrosive performances of Φ-MES surfactants on a carbon steel "X70" were evaluated in an injection water from a well of Hassi R'mel region- Algeria, known as Baremian water, and are compared to sodium dodecyl sulphate. Two technics, the weight loss and the linear polarization resistance corrosion rate (LPR) are used allowing to investigate the relationships between the concentrations of these synthetized surfactants and their surface properties, surface coverage and inhibition efficiency. Various adsorption isotherm models were used to characterize the nature of adsorption and explain their mechanism. The results show that the MES anionic surfactants was readily biodegradable, degrading faster than SDS, about 88% for C₁₂-MES compared to 66% for the SDS. The length of their carbon chain affects their biodegradability; the longer the chain, the lower the biodegradability. The inhibition efficiency of these surfactants is around 78.4% for C₁₂-MES, 76.60% for C₁₄-MES and 98.19% for C₁₆-MES and increases with their concentration and reaches a maximum value around their critical micelle concentrations ( CMCs). Scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy allowed to the visualization of a good adhesion of the protective film formed by the surfactants to the surface of the steel. The studied surfactants show the Langmuirian behavior from which the thermodynamic parameters as adsorption constant (Kads), standard free energy of adsorption (〖∆G〗_ads^0 ) are determined. Interaction of the surfactants with steel surface have involved physisorptions.

Keywords: corrosion, surfactants, adsorption, adsorption isotherems

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Khalil Trigui, Rafik Ben Said, Fourat Akrout, Neji Aloui

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In this study, we examined in the first part the eco-biology of Artemia (A.salina) collected from Sahline Salt Lake (governorate of Monastir: Tunisia) during an annual cycle. The correlations between environmental factors and some biological parameters of Artemia were determined. The results obtained showed that the environmental factors affected the biology of Artemia. The highest abundance was recorded in May (550 ± 2,16 ind/l) and all life history stages existed with different seasonal proportions. The Artemia population is bisexual with ovoviviparous reproduction at the beginning and oviparous at the end of the life cycle. We also recorded the dominance of males at the start and the females at the end of the cycle. During all the study period, the size of mature females is bigger than that of males. The fertility obtained resulted in a significant production of cysts compared to the nauplii. A negative correlation with highly significant effect was deduced between environmental factors (temperature and salinity) and the production of nauplii (ovoviviparity) in contrast with dissolved oxygen. In the second part of our work is consecrated to the mastery of breeding Artemia. For this, we tested the effect of five external factors (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, light intensity and food) on the survival of this crustacean. Thereby, the survival rates of Artemia were affected by the different values of studied factors. The recorded results showed that Artemia salina has an optimum temperature ranged from 25 to 27°C with a survival rate ranging from 84 to 88%. The optimal salinity to breed Artemia salina was 37 psu (62 ± 0,23%). Nevertheless, this crustacean was able to survive and withstand the salinity of 0 psu (freshwater). The optimum concentration of dissolved oxygen was 7mg/l with a survival rate of 87,11 ± 0,04%. An optimum light intensity of 10 lux revealed a survival rate equal to 85,33 ± 0,01%. The results also showed that the preferred micro-algae by Artemia is Dunaliella salina with a maximum survival rate of the order of 80 ± 0,15%. There is a significant effect for all experienced parameters on the survival of Artemia reared except the nature of food.

Keywords: Artemia salina, biology, breeding, ecology, Sahline salt lake

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: Mengistu G. Woldu, Hani Y. Zaki, Areeg Faggad, Badreldin E. Abdalla

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Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex, degenerative, and multi-factorial disease, which is culpable for huge mortality and morbidity worldwide. Even though relatively significant numbers of studies are conducted on the genetics domain of this disease in the developed world, there is huge information gap in the sub-Saharan Africa region in general and in Eritrea in particular. Objective: The principal aim of this study was to investigate the association of common variants of the Insulin Receptor Substrate 1 (IRS1) and Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 (TCF7L2) genes with T2DM in the Eritrean population. Method: In this cross-sectional case control study 200 T2DM patients and 112 non-diabetes subjects were participated and genotyping of the IRS1 (rs13431179, rs16822615, 16822644rs, rs1801123) and TCF7L2 (rs7092484) tag SNPs were carries out using PCR-RFLP method of analysis. Haplotype analyses were carried out using Plink version 1.07, and Haploview 4.2 software. Linkage disequilibrium (LD), and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) analyses were performed using the Plink software. All descriptive statistical data analyses were carried out using SPSS (Version-20) software. Throughout the analysis p-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: Significant association was found between rs13431179 SNP of the IRS1 gene and T2DM under the recessive model of inheritance (OR=9.00, 95%CI=1.17-69.07, p=0.035), and marginally significant association found in the genotypic model (OR=7.50, 95%CI=0.94-60.06, p=0.058). The rs7092484 SNP of the TCF7L2 gene also showed markedly significant association with T2DM in the recessive (OR=3.61, 95%CI=1.70-7.67, p=0.001); and allelic (OR=1.80, 95%CI=1.23-2.62, p=0.002) models. Moreover, eight haplotypes of the IRS1 gene found to have significant association withT2DM (p=0.013 to 0.049). Assessments made on the interactions of genotypes of the rs13431179 and rs7092484 SNPs with various parameters demonstrated that high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), waist circumference (WC), and systolic blood pressure (SBP) are the best T2DM onset predicting models. Furthermore, genotypes of the rs7092484 SNP showed significant association with various atherogenic indexes (Atherogenic index of plasma, LDL/HDL, and CHLO/HDL); and Eritreans carrying the GG or GA genotypes were predicted to be more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases onset. Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that IRS1 (rs13431179) and TCF7L2 (rs7092484) gene polymorphisms are associated with increased risk of T2DM in Eritreans.

Keywords: IRS1, SNP, TCF7L2, type 2 diabetes

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: R. Raudonis, L. Raudonė, V. Janulis, P. Viškelis

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Pharmacological and clinical studies demonstrated that phenolic compounds particularly flavonoids and phenolic acids are responsible for a wide spectrum of therapeutic activities. Flavonoids and phenolic acids are regarded as natural antioxidants that play an important role in protecting cells from oxidative stress. Qualitatively prepared dry extracts possess high stability and concentration of bio active compounds, facility of standardization and quality control. The aim of this work was to determine the phenolic and antioxidant profiles of Hippophaë rhamnoides L., Betula pendula Roth., Tilia cordata Mill., Sorbus aucuparia L. leaves dry extracts and to identify markers of antioxidant activity. Extracts were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with FRAP post-column assay. Dry extracts are versatile forms possessing wide area of applications, final product ensure consistent phytochemical and functional properties. Seven flavonoids: rutin, hyperoside, isorhamnetin 3-O-rutinoside, isorhamnetin 3-O-glucoside, quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin were identified in dry extract of Hippophaë rhamnoides L. leaves. Predominant compounds were flavonol glycosides which were chosen as markers for quantitative control of dry extracts. Chlorogenic acid, hyperoside, rutin, quercetin, isorhamnetin were prevailing compounds in Betula pendula Roth. leaves extract, whereas strongest ferric reducing activity was determined for chlorogenic acid and hyperoside. Notable amounts of protocatechuic acid and flavonol glycosides, rutin, hyperoside, quercitrin, isoquercitrin were identified in the chromatographic profile of Tilia cordata Mill. Neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids were significantly dominant compounds in antioxidant profile in dry extract of Sorbus aucuparia L. leaves. Predominant compounds of antioxidant profiles could be proposed as functional markers of quality of phenolic rich raw materials. Dry extracts could be further used for manufacturing of pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals.

Keywords: dry extract, FRAP, antioxidant activity, phenolic

Procedia PDF Downloads 477

Authors: Oladele V. Adeniyi, B. Longo-Mbenza, Daniel T. Goon

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Background: Lipids are often low or in the normal ranges and controversial in the atherogenesis among Black Africans. The effect of the severity of obesity on some traditional and novel cardiovascular disease risk factors is unclear before and after a diet and exercise maintenance programme among obese black South Africans with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Therefore, this study aimed to identify the risk factors to discriminate obesity classes among patients with T2DM before and after a diet and exercise programme. Methods: This interventional cohort of Black South Africans with T2DM was followed by a very – low calorie diet and exercise programme in Mthatha, between August and November 2013. Gender, age, and the levels of body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, monthly income, daily frequency of meals, blood random plasma glucose (RPG), serum creatinine, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), LDL –C, HDL – C, Non-HDL, ratios of TC/HDL, TG/HDL, and LDL/HDL were recorded. Univariate analysis (ANOVA) and multivariate discriminant analysis were performed to separate obesity classes: normal weight (BMI = 18.5 – 24.9 kg/m2), overweight (BMI = 25 – 29.9 kg/m2), obesity Class 1 (BMI = 30 – 34.9 kg/m2), obesity Class 2 (BMI = 35 – 39.9 kg/m2), and obesity Class 3 (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2). Results: At the baseline (1st Month September), all 327 patients were overweight/obese: 19.6% overweight, 42.8% obese class 1, 22.3% obese class 2, and 15.3% obese class 3. In discriminant analysis, only systolic blood pressure (SBP with positive association) and LDL/HDL ratio (negative association) significantly separated increasing obesity classes. At the post – evaluation (3rd Month November), out of all 327 patients, 19.9%, 19.3%, 37.6%, 15%, and 8.3% had normal weight, overweight, obesity class 1, obesity class 2, and obesity class 3, respectively. There was a significant negative association between serum creatinine and increase in BMI. In discriminant analysis, only age (positive association), SBP (U – shaped relationship), monthly income (inverted U – shaped association), daily frequency of meals (positive association), and LDL/HDL ratio (positive association) classified significantly increasing obesity classes. Conclusion: There is an epidemic of diabesity (Obesity + T2DM) in this Black South Africans with some weight loss. Further studies are needed to understand positive or negative linear correlations and paradoxical curvilinear correlations between these markers and increase in BMI among black South African T2DM patients.

Keywords: atherogenic dyslipidaemia, dietary interventions, obesity, south africans

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Authors: Pradeep G. Siddheshwar, K. M. Lakshmi

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The present study deals with weakly non-linear stability analysis of Rayleigh-Benard-Brinkman convection in nanoliquid-saturated porous enclosures. The modified-Buongiorno-Brinkman model (MBBM) is used for the conservation of linear momentum in a nanoliquid-saturated-porous medium under the assumption of Boussinesq approximation. Thermal equilibrium is imposed between the base liquid and the nanoparticles. The thermophysical properties of nanoliquid are modeled using phenomenological laws and mixture theory. The fifth-order Lorenz model is derived for the problem and is then reduced to the first-order Ginzburg-Landau equation (GLE) using the multi-scale method. The analytical solution of the GLE for the amplitude is then used to quantify the heat transport in closed form, in terms of the Nusselt number. It is found that addition of dilute concentration of nanoparticles significantly enhances the heat transport and the dominant reason for the same is the high thermal conductivity of the nanoliquid in comparison to that of the base liquid. This aspect of nanoliquids helps in speedy removal of heat. The porous medium serves the purpose of retainment of energy in the system due to its low thermal conductivity. The present model helps in making a unified study for obtaining the results for base liquid, nanoliquid, base liquid-saturated porous medium and nanoliquid-saturated porous medium. Three different types of enclosures are considered for the study by taking different values of aspect ratio, and it is observed that heat transport in tall porous enclosure is maximum while that of shallow is the least. Detailed discussion is also made on estimating heat transport for different volume fractions of nanoparticles. Results of single-phase model are shown to be a limiting case of the present study. The study is made for three boundary combinations, viz., free-free, rigid-rigid and rigid-free.

Keywords: Boungiorno model, Ginzburg-Landau equation, Lorenz equations, porous medium

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Authors: Md. Abdul Aziz

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Sulfide ion is water soluble, highly corrosive, toxic and harmful to the human beings. As a result, knowing the exact concentration of sulfide in water is very important. However, the existing detection and quantification methods have several shortcomings, such as high cost, low sensitivity, and massive instrumentation. Consequently, the development of novel sulfide sensor is relevant. Nevertheless, electrochemical methods gained enormous popularity due to a vast improvement in the technique and instrumentation, portability, low cost, rapid analysis and simplicity of design. Successful field application of electrochemical devices still requires vast improvement, which depends on the physical, chemical and electrochemical aspects of the working electrode. The working electrode made of bulk gold (Au) and platinum (Pt) are quite common, being very robust and endowed with good electrocatalytic properties. High cost, and electrode poisoning, however, have so far hindered their practical application in many industries. To overcome these obstacles, we developed a sulfide sensor based on an indium tin oxide nanoparticle (ITONP)-modified ITO electrode. To prepare ITONP-modified ITO, various methods were tested. Drop-drying of ITONPs (aq.) on aminopropyltrimethoxysilane-functionalized ITO (APTMS/ITO) was found to be the best method on the basis of voltammetric analysis of the sulfide ion. ITONP-modified APTMS/ITO (ITONP/APTMS/ITO) yielded much better electrocatalytic properties toward sulfide electro-οxidation than did bare or APTMS/ITO electrodes. The ITONPs and ITONP-modified ITO were also characterized using transmission electron microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Optimization of the type of inert electrolyte and pH yielded an ITONP/APTMS/ITO detector whose amperometrically and chronocoulοmetrically determined limits of detection for sulfide in aqueous solution were 3.0 µM and 0.90 µM, respectively. ITONP/APTMS/ITO electrodes which displayed reproducible performances were highly stable and were not susceptible to interference by common contaminants. Thus, the developed electrode can be considered as a promising tool for sensing sulfide.

Keywords: amperometry, chronocoulometry, electrocatalytic properties, ITO-nanoparticle-modified ITO, sulfide sensor

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Authors: Sergejs Kolesovs, Pavels Semjonovs

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Whey and dairy wastewaters if disposed in the environment without proper treatment, cause serious environmental risks contributing to overall and particular environmental pollution and climate change. Biological treatment of wastewater is considered to be most eco-friendly approach, as compared to the chemical treatment methods. Research shows, that dairy wastewater can potentially be remediated by use of microalgae thussignificantly reducing the content of carbohydrates, P, N, K and other pollutants. Moreover, it has been shown, that use of dairy wastewaters results in higher microalgae biomass production. In recent decades microalgal biomass has entailed a big interest for its potential applications in pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, health supplementation, cosmetics, animal feed, plant protection, bioremediation and biofuels. It was shown, that lipids productivity on whey and dairy wastewater is higher as compared with standard cultivation media and occurred without the necessity of inducing specific stress conditions such as N starvation. Moreover, microalgae biomass production as usually associated with high production costs may benefit from perspective of both reasons – enhanced microalgae biomass or target substances productivity on cheap growth substrate and effective management of whey and dairy wastewaters, which issignificant for decrease of total production costs in both processes. Obviously, it became especially important when large volume and low cost industrial microalgal biomass production is anticipated for further use in agriculture of crops as plant growth stimulants, biopesticides soil fertilisers or remediating solutions. Environmental load of dairy wastewaters can be significantly decreased when microalgae are grown in coculture with other microorganisms. This enhances the utilisation of lactose, which is main C source in whey and dairy wastewaters when it is not metabolised easily by most microalgal species chosen. Our study showsthat certain microalgae strains can be used in treatment of residual sugars containing industrial wastewaters and decrease of their concentration thus approving that further extensive research on dairy wastewaters pre-treatment optionsfor effective cultivation of microalgae, carbon uptake and metabolism, strain selection and choice of coculture candidates is needed for further optimisation of the process.

Keywords: microalgae, whey, dairy wastewaters, sustainability, plant biostimulants

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Authors: Xuan Li, Weian Huang, Jinsheng Sun, Fuhao Zhao, Zhiyuan Wang, Jintang Wang

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Natural gas hydrates (NGHs) as promising alternative energy sources have gained increasing attention. Hydrate-bearing formation in marine areas is highly unconsolidated formation and is fragile, which is composed of weakly cemented sand-clay and silty sediments. During the drilling process, the invasion of drilling fluid can easily lead to excessive water content in the formation. It will change the soil liquid plastic limit index, which significantly affects the formation quality, leading to wellbore instability due to the metastable character of hydrate-bearing sediments. Therefore, controlling the filtrate loss into the formation in the drilling process has to be highly regarded for protecting the stability of the wellbore. In this study, the temperature-sensitive nanogel of P(NIPAM-co-AMPS-co-tBA) was prepared by soap-free emulsion polymerization, and the temperature-sensitive behavior was employed to achieve self-adaptive plugging in hydrate sediments. First, the effects of additional amounts of AMPS, tBA, and cross-linker MBA on the microgel synthesis process and temperature-sensitive behaviors were investigated. Results showed that, as a reactive emulsifier, AMPS can not only participate in the polymerization reaction but also act as an emulsifier to stabilize micelles and enhance the stability of nanoparticles. The volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of nanogels gradually decreased with the increase of the contents of hydrophobic monomer tBA. An increase in the content of the cross-linking agent MBA can lead to a rise in the coagulum content and instability of the emulsion. The plugging performance of nanogel was evaluated in a core sample with a pore size distribution range of 100-1000nm. The temperature-sensitive nanogel can effectively improve the microfiltration performance of drilling fluid. Since a combination of a series of nanogels could have a wide particle size distribution at any temperature, around 200nm to 800nm, the self-adaptive plugging capacity of nanogels for the hydrate sediments was revealed. Thermosensitive nanogel is a potential intelligent plugging material for drilling operations in natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments.

Keywords: temperature-sensitive nanogel, NIPAM, self-adaptive plugging performance, drilling operations, hydrate-bearing sediments

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Authors: Nora Geczy

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In today’s architectural practice, during the process of designing public, educational, healthcare and cultural space, human-centered architectural designs helping spatial orientation, safe space usage and the appropriate spatial sequence of actions are gaining increasing importance. Related to the methodology of designing public buildings, several scientific experiments in spatial recognition, spatial analysis and spatial psychology with regard to the components of space producing mental and physiological effects have been going on at the Department of Architectural Design and the Interdisciplinary Student Workshop (IDM) at the Széchenyi István University, Győr since 2013. Defining the creation of preventive, anticipated spatial design and the architectural tools of spatial comfort of public buildings and their practical usability are in the limelight of our research. In the experiments applying eye-tracking cameras, we studied the way public spaces are used, especially concentrating on the characteristics of spatial behaviour, orientation, recognition, the sequence of actions, and space usage. Along with the role of mental maps, human perception, and interaction problems in public spaces (at railway stations, galleries, and educational institutions), we analyzed the spatial situations influencing psychological and ergonomic factors. We also analyzed the eye movements of the experimental subjects in dynamic situations, in spatial procession, using stairs and corridors. We monitored both the consequences and the distorting effects of the ocular dominance of the right eye on spatial orientation; we analyzed the gender-based differences of women and men’s orientation, stress-inducing spaces, spaces affecting concentration and the spatial situation influencing territorial behaviour. Based on these observations, we collected the components of creating public interior spaces, which -according to our theory- contribute to the optimal usability of public spaces. We summed up our research in criteria for design, including 10 points. Our further goals are testing design principles needed for optimizing orientation and space usage, their discussion, refinement, and practical usage.

Keywords: architecture, eye-tracking, human-centered spatial design, public interior spaces, visual perception

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Obesity may lead to growing serious health problems throughout the world. Vitamin D appears to play a role in cardiovascular and metabolic health. Vitamin D deficiency may add to derangements in human metabolic systems, particularly those of children. Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of chronic and sophisticated diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate associations as well as possible differences related to parameters affected by obesity and their relations with vitamin D status in obese (OB) and morbid obese (MO) children. This study included a total of 78 children. Of them, 41 and 37 were OB and MO, respectively. WHO BMI-for age percentiles were used for the classification of obesity. The values above 99 percentile were defined as MO. Those between 95 and 99 percentiles were included into OB group. Anthropometric measurements were recorded. Basal metabolic rates (BMRs) were measured. Vitamin D status is determined by the measurement of 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol [25- hydroxyvitamin D3, 25(OH)D] using high-performance liquid chromatography. Vitamin D status was evaluated as deficient, insufficient and sufficient. Values < 20.0 ng/ml, values between 20-30 ng/ml and values > 30.0 ng/ml were defined as vitamin D deficient, insufficient and sufficient, respectively. Optimal 25(OH)D level was defined as ≥ 30 ng/ml. SPSSx statistical package program was used for the evaluation of the data. The statistical significance degree was accepted as p < 0.05. Mean ages did not differ between the groups. Significantly increased body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (C) and neck C as well as significantly decreased fasting blood glucose (FBG) and vitamin D values were observed in MO group (p < 0.05). In OB group, 37.5% of the children were vitamin D deficient, and in MO group the corresponding value was 53.6%. No difference between the groups in terms of lipid profile, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and insulin values was noted. There was a severe statistical significance between FBG values of the groups (p < 0.001). Important correlations between BMI, waist C, hip C, neck C and both SBP as well as DBP were found in OB group. In MO group, correlations only with SBP were obtained. In a similar manner, in OB group, correlations were detected between SBP-BMR and DBP-BMR. However, in MO children, BMR correlated only with SBP. The associations of vitamin D with anthropometric indices as well as some lipid parameters were defined. In OB group BMI, waist C, hip C and triglycerides (TRG) were negatively correlated with vitamin D concentrations whereas none of them were detected in MO group. Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to the complications associated with childhood obesity. Loss of correlations between obesity indices-DBP, vitamin D-TRG, as well as relatively lower FBG values, observed in MO group point out that the emergence of MetS components starts during obesity state just before the transition to morbid obesity. Aside from its deficiency state, associations of vitamin D with anthropometric measurements, blood pressures and TRG should also be evaluated before the development of morbid obesity.

Keywords: children, morbid obesity, obesity, vitamin D

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Prasanna Belur, P. R. Ashwini, Sampath Charanyaa, I. Regupathi

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Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps) are one of the richest and cheapest sources of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) such as Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The health benefits conferred by n-3 PUFA upon consumption, in the prevention and treatment of coronary, neuromuscular, immunological disorders and allergic conditions are well documented. Natural refined Indian Sardine oil generally contain about 25% (w/w) n-3 PUFA along with various unsaturated and saturated fatty acids in the form of mono, di, and triglycerides. Having high concentration of n-3 PUFA content in the glyceride form is most desirable for human consumption to avail maximum health benefits. Thus, enhancing the n-3 PUFA content while retaining it in the glyceride form with green technology is the need of the hour. In this study, refined Indian Sardine oil was subjected to selective hydrolysis by Candida antartica lipase to enhance n-3 PUFA content. The degree of hydrolysis and enhancement of n-3 PUFA content was estimated by determining acid value, Iodine value, EPA and DHA content (by Gas Chromatographic methods after derivitization) before and after hydrolysis. Various reaction parameters such as pH, temperature, enzyme load, lipid to aqueous phase volume ratio and incubation time were optimized by conducting trials with one parameter at a time approach. Incubating enzyme solution with refined sardine oil with a volume ratio of 1:1, at pH 7.0, for 60 minutes at 50 °C, with an enzyme load of 60 mg/ml was found to be optimum. After enzymatic treatment, the oil was subjected to refining to remove free fatty acids and moisture content using previously optimized refining technology. Enzymatic treatment at the optimal conditions resulted in 12.11 % enhancement in Degree of hydrolysis. Iodine number had increased by 9.7 % and n-3 PUFA content was enhanced by 112 % (w/w). Selective enhancement of n-3 PUFA glycerides, eliminating saturated and unsaturated fatty acids from the oil using enzyme is an interesting preposition as this technique is environment-friendly, cost effective and provide natural source of n-3 PUFA rich oil.

Keywords: Candida antartica, lipase, n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, sardine oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Ugwuowo Leonard Chidi, Oparaji Chetachukwu Jecinta., Ogidi Chibuzor Agafenachukwu, Onuoha Rebecca Obianuju

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This experiment was conducted to investigate the growth performance, haematology and serum biochemistry indices of broiler birds fed diets containing Neem leaf meal. A total of 96 unsexed day-old broiler birds were allocated to four treatments of T1, T2, T3 and T4 and replicated three times with eight birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design. The treatments were diets containing 2.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0% Neem leaf meal respectively. Growth performances, packed cell volume, red blood cell count, haemoglobin, white blood cell count, lymphocytes, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, platelet count, aspartate amino transaminase, alanine amino transaminase, alkaline phosphate, cholesterol, albumin, globulin, urea, glucose, total protein and creatinine were evaluated. Results showed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in all the growth performance parameters among the treatments. The results of the experiment showed that there were significant differences (P<0.05) in all the heamatological and serum biochemistry parameters at finisher phases. Mean corpuscular volume, white blood cell count, lymphocytes, red blood cell count, haemoglobin, platelet count, creatinine and triglyceride increased and were highest in treatment two while treatment four had the least values in mean corpuscular volume, urea, white blood cell, haemoglobin and triglyceride. This implies that the levels of inclusion of Neem leaf meal in this experiment did not affect the growth performance of the broiler chicks but the haematological and serum biochemistry indices were affected. Treatment two with a 4% inclusion level of Neem leaf meal has shown the capacity to replace vaccines and antibiotics in broilers due to the positive effects it had on both the haematological and serum biochemistry.

Keywords: leaf meal, broiler, Aziradicta indica, serum biochemistry, haematology

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Authors: Javed Sidiqi, Stephen Baezinger, Stephen Wegulo

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Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production continues to be challenged by foliar fungal diseases although significant improvement has been made to manage the diseases through developing resistant varieties and the fungicide use to ensure sufficient wheat is produced to meet the growing population’s need. Significant crop losses have been recorded in the history of grain production and yield losses due to fungal diseases, and the trend continues to threat food security in the world and particularly in the less developed countries. The impact of individual fungal diseases on grain yield has been studied extensively to determine crop losses. However, there is limited research available to find out the combined effects of fungal diseases on grain yield and the ways to effectively manage the diseases. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to study the effect of fungal pathogens on grain yield of pre-released winter wheat genotypes in fungicide treated and untreated plots, and to determine whether S7b gene was present in ‘Gage’ wheat as previously hypothesized. Sixty winter wheat genotypes in fungicide treated and untreated plots were studied across four environments. There was a significant effect of fungicide on grain yield consistently across four environments in three years. Fungicide treated wheat lines demonstrated (4,496 kg/ ha-1) grain yield compared to (3,147 kg/ ha-1) grain yield in untreated wheat lines indicating 43% increased grain yield due to severity of foliar fungal diseases. Furthermore, fungicide application also caused an increase in protein concentration from 153 (g kg-1) to 164 (g kg-1) in treated plots in along with test weight from 73 to 77 (kg hL-1) respectively. Gage wheat variety and ISr7b-Ra were crossed to determine presence of Sr7b in Gage. The F2 and F2:3 segregating families were screened and evaluated for stem rust resistance. The segregation of families fell within 15:1 ratio for two separate resistance genes suggesting that Sr7b segregates independently from an unknown resistance gene in Gage that needs to be characterized for its use in the future wheat breeding program to develop resistant wheat varieties.

Keywords: funicide, genetics, foliar diseases, grain

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: M. A. Talha, M. Osman Gani, M. Ferdows

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This paper focuses on the study of two dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) steady incompressible viscous Williamson nanofluid with exponential internal heat generation containing gyrotactic microorganism over a stretching sheet. The governing equations and auxiliary conditions are reduced to a set of non-linear coupled differential equations with the appropriate boundary conditions using similarity transformation. The transformed equations are solved numerically through spectral relaxation method. The influences of various parameters such as Williamson parameter γ, power constant λ, Prandtl number P_r, magnetic field parameter M, Peclet number P_e, Lewis number Le, Bioconvection Lewis number Lb, Brownian motion parameter Nb, thermophoresis parameter Nt, and bioconvection constant σ are studied to obtain the momentum, heat, mass and microorganism distributions. Moment, heat, mass and gyrotactic microorganism profiles are explored through graphs and tables. We computed the heat transfer rate, mass flux rate and the density number of the motile microorganism near the surface. Our numerical results are in better agreement in comparison with existing calculations. The Residual error of our obtained solutions is determined in order to see the convergence rate against iteration. Faster convergence is achieved when internal heat generation is absent. The effect of magnetic parameter M decreases the momentum boundary layer thickness but increases the thermal boundary layer thickness. It is apparent that bioconvection Lewis number and bioconvection parameter has a pronounced effect on microorganism boundary. Increasing brownian motion parameter and Lewis number decreases the thermal boundary layer. Furthermore, magnetic field parameter and thermophoresis parameter has an induced effect on concentration profiles.

Keywords: convection flow, similarity, numerical analysis, spectral method, Williamson nanofluid, internal heat generation

Procedia PDF Downloads 163

Authors: Rosely Sichieri, Bruna K. Hassan, Michele Sgambato, Barbara S. N. Souza, Rosangela A. Pereira, Edna M. Yokoo, Diana B. Cunha

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Obesity is increasing at a fast rate in low and middle-income countries where few school-based obesity interventions have been conducted. Results of obesity prevention studies are still inconclusive mainly due to underestimation of sample size in cluster-randomized trials and overestimation of changes in body mass index (BMI). The pooled analysis in the present study overcomes these design problems by analyzing 4,448 students (mean age 11.7 years) from three randomized behavioral school-based interventions, conducted in public schools of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The three studies focused on encouraging students to change their drinking and eating habits over one school year, with monthly 1-h sessions in the classroom. Folders explaining the intervention program and suggesting the participation of the family, such as reducing the purchase of sodas were sent home. Classroom activities were delivered by research assistants in the first two interventions and by the regular teachers in the third one, except for culinary class aimed at developing cooking skills to increase healthy eating choices. The first intervention was conducted in 2005 with 1,140 fourth graders from 22 public schools; the second, with 644 fifth graders from 20 public schools in 2010; and the last one, with 2,743 fifth and sixth graders from 18 public schools in 2016. The result was a non-significant change in BMI after one school year of positive changes in dietary behaviors associated with obesity. Pooled intention-to-treat analysis using linear mixed models was used for the overall and subgroup analysis by BMI status, sex, and race. The estimated mean BMI changes were from 18.93 to 19.22 in the control group and from 18.89 to 19.19 in the intervention group; with a p-value of change over time of 0.94. Control and intervention groups were balanced at baseline. Subgroup analyses were statistically and clinically non-significant, except for the non-overweight/obese group with a 0.05 reduction of BMI comparing the intervention with control. In conclusion, this large pooled analysis showed a very small effect on BMI only in the normal weight students. The results are in line with many of the school-based initiatives that have been promising in relation to modifying behaviors associated with obesity but of no impact on excessive weight gain. Changes in BMI may require great changes in energy balance that are hard to achieve in primary prevention at school level.

Keywords: adolescents, obesity prevention, randomized controlled trials, school-based study

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Afrouz Yousefi, Mohtada Sadrzadeh

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The widespread presence of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) poses a significant concern due to their ability to accumulate in living organisms and their persistence in the environment, thanks to their robust carbon-fluorine (C-F) bonds, which require substantial energy to break (485 kJ/mol). The prevalence of toxic PFAS compounds can be highly detrimental to ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. Ongoing efforts are dedicated to investigating methods for fully breaking down and eliminating PFAS from the environment. Among the various techniques employed, advanced oxidation processes have shown promise in completely breaking down emerging contaminants in wastewater. However, the drawback lies in the relatively slow reaction rates of these processes and the substantial energy input required, which currently impedes their widespread commercial adoption. We developed a hybrid process, comprising electro-Fenton as an advanced oxidation process and membrane distillation, to simultaneously degrade organic PFAS pollutants and extract pure water from the mixture. In this study, environmentally persistent perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), as an emerging contaminant, was used to study the effectiveness of the electro-Fenton/membrane distillation hybrid system. The PFOA degradation studies were conducted in two modes: electro-Fenton and electro-Fenton coupled with membrane distillation. High-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV), ion-chromatography (measuring fluoride ion concentration), total organic carbon (TOC) decay, mineralization current efficiency (MCE), and specific energy consumption (SEC) were evaluated for a single EF and hybrid EF-MD processes. In contrast to a single EF reaction, TOC decay improved significantly in the EF-MD process. Overall, the MCE of hybrid processes surpassed 100% while it remained under 50% for a single EF reaction. Calculations of specific energy consumption (SEC) demonstrated a substantial decrease of nearly one-third in energy usage when integrating the EF reaction with the MD process.

Keywords: water treatment, PFAS, membrane distillation, electro-Fenton, advanced oxidation

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Saeid Bahiraei, Hassan Daneshmandi , Ali Asghar Norasteh

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The present study aims at the effects of 8 weeks of selected corrective exercise training in stable and unstable levels on the postural control people with ID. Problems and limitations of movement in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are highly common, which particularly may cause the loss of basic performance and limitation of the person's independence in doing their daily activities. In the present study, thirty-four young adult intellectual disabilities were selected randomly and divided into three groups. In order to measure the balance variable indicators, BESTest was used. The intervention group did the selected performance exercise in 8 weeks (3 times of 45 to 50 minutes a week). Meanwhile, the control group did not experience any kind of exercise. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS on a significant level (p<0/05). The results showed the compromise between time and the group in all the BESTest tests is significant (P=0/001). The results of the research test compared to the studied groups with time measurements showed that there is a significant difference in the unstable group in Biomechanical constraints (P<0/05). And also, a significant difference exists in the stable and unstable level instability limits/Vertically, Postural responses, and Anticipatory postural adjustment variables (except for the follow-up and pre-test levels), Stability in Gait and Sensory Orientation in the pre-test, post-test, and follow up- pre-test stage of the test (P<0/05). In the comparison between the times of measurement with the groups under study, the results showed that Biomechanical Constraints, Anticipatory Postural adjustment and Postural responses at the pre-test-follow upstage, there was a significant difference between unstable-stable and unstable-control groups (P<0/05), it was also significant between all groups in Stability Limits/Vertically, Sensory Orientation, Stability in Gait and Overall stability index variables (P<0/05). The findings showed that the practice group at an unstable level has move improvement compared to the practice group at a stable level. In conclusion, this study presents evidence that shows selected performative practices can be recognized as a comprehensive and effective mediator in the betterment and improvement of the balance in intellectually disabled people and also affect the performative and moving activities.

Keywords: intellectual disability, BSETest, rehabilitation, postural control

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Authors: Giorgia Zotti

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This research comprehensively investigates the multifaceted interplay determining school performance, individual backgrounds, and regional disparities within the landscape of Italian secondary education. Leveraging data gleaned from the INVALSI 2021-2022 database, the analysis meticulously scrutinizes two fundamental distributions of educational achievements: the standardized Invalsi test scores and official grades in Italian and Mathematics, focusing specifically on final-year secondary school students in Italy. Applying a comprehensive methodology, the study initially employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess school performances. This methodology involves constructing a production function encompassing inputs (hours spent at school) and outputs (Invalsi scores in Italian and Mathematics, along with official grades in Italian and Math). The DEA approach is applied in both of its versions: traditional and conditional. The latter incorporates environmental variables such as school type, size, demographics, technological resources, and socio-economic indicators. Additionally, the analysis delves into regional disparities by leveraging the Theil Index, providing insights into disparities within and between regions. Moreover, in the frame of the inequality of opportunity theory, the study quantifies the inequality of opportunity in students' educational achievements. The methodology applied is the Parametric Approach in the ex-ante version, considering diverse circumstances like parental education and occupation, gender, school region, birthplace, and language spoken at home. Consequently, a Shapley decomposition is applied to understand how much each circumstance affects the outcomes. The outcomes of this comprehensive investigation unveil pivotal determinants of school performance, notably highlighting the influence of school type (Liceo) and socioeconomic status. The research unveils regional disparities, elucidating instances where specific schools outperform others in official grades compared to Invalsi scores, shedding light on the intricate nature of regional educational inequalities. Furthermore, it emphasizes a heightened inequality of opportunity within the distribution of Invalsi test scores in contrast to official grades, underscoring pronounced disparities at the student level. This analysis provides insights for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders, fostering a nuanced understanding of the complexities within Italian secondary education.

Keywords: inequality, education, efficiency, DEA approach

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Authors: Ahmed Ali Samejo, Riffat Sultana

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Pakistan has the sandy Thar Desert in the eastern area, which share border line with India and has exotic fauna and flora, the livelihood of native people rely on livestock and rain fed cultivated fields. The climate of Thar Desert is very harsh and stressful due to frequent drought and very little rainfall, which may occur during monsoon season in the months of July to October and temperature is high, and wind speed also increases in April to June. Schistocerca gregaria is a destructive pest of vegetation from Mauritania to the border line of Pakistan and India. Sometimes they produce swarms which consume all plant where ever they land down and cause the loss in agro-economy of the world. During the recent study, we observed that vegetation was not unique throughout the Thar Desert in the year 2015, because the first spell of rainfall showered over all areas of the Thar Desert in July. However, the second and third spell of rain was confined to village Mahandre jo par and surroundings from August to October. Consequently, vegetation and cultivated crops grew up specially bajra crop (Pennistum glaucum). The climate of Mahandre jo par and surroundings became favorable for S.gregaria, and remaining areas of Thar Desert went hostile. Therefore desert locust attracted to the pleasant area (Mahandre jo par and surroundings) and gradually concentrated, increased reproductive activities, but did not gregarize due to the harvest of bajra crop and the onset of the winter season with an immediate decrease in temperature. An outbreak was near to come into existence, and thereupon conditions become stressful for hoppers to continue further development. Afore mentioned was one reason behind hurdle to the outbreak, another reason might be that migration and concentration of desert locust took place at the end of the season, so climate becomes unfavorable for hoppers, due to dryness of vegetation. Soils also become dry, because rainfall was not showered in end of the season, that’s why eggs that were deposited in late summer were desiccated. This data might be proved fruitful to forecast any outbreak update in future.

Keywords: agro-economy, destructive pest, climate, outbreak, vegetation

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Xuan Zhao

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In this study, a web crawler was used to collect POI sample data from 38 districts and counties of Chongqing in 2022, and ArcGIS was combined to coordinate and projection conversion and realize data visualization. Nuclear density analysis and spatial correlation analysis were used to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of elderly care facilities in Chongqing, and K mean cluster analysis was carried out with GeoDa to study the spatial concentration degree of elderly care resources in 38 districts and counties. Finally, the driving force of spatial differentiation of elderly care facilities in various districts and counties of Chongqing is studied by using the method of geographic detector. The results show that: (1) In terms of spatial distribution structure, the distribution of elderly care facilities in Chongqing is unbalanced, showing a distribution pattern of ‘large dispersion and small agglomeration’ and the asymmetric pattern of ‘west dense and east sparse, north dense and south sparse’ is prominent. (2) In terms of the spatial matching between elderly care resources and the elderly population, there is a weak coordination between the input of elderly care resources and the distribution of the elderly population at the county level in Chongqing. (2) In terms of the spatial matching between elderly care resources and the elderly population, there is a weak coordination between the input of elderly care resources and the distribution of the elderly population at the county level in Chongqing. (3) The analysis of the results of the geographical detector shows that the single factor influence is mainly the number of elderly population, public financial revenue and district and county GDP. The high single factor influence is mainly caused by the elderly population, public financial income and district and county GDP. The influence of each influence factor on the spatial distribution of elderly care facilities is not simply superimposed but has a nonlinear enhancement effect or double factor enhancement. It is necessary to strengthen the synergistic effect of two factors and promote the synergistic effect of multiple factors.

Keywords: aging, elderly care facilities, spatial differentiation, geographical detector, driving force analysis, Mountain city

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Authors: Marina Arino Martin, John McEvoy, Eakalak Khan

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Endoxifen is an active metabolite responsible for the effectiveness of tamoxifen, a chemotherapeutic drug widely used for endocrine responsive breast cancer and chemo-preventive long-term treatment. Tamoxifen and endoxifen are not completely metabolized in human body and are actively excreted. As a result, they are released to the water environment via wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The presence of tamoxifen in the environment produces negative effects on aquatic lives due to its antiestrogenic activity. Because endoxifen is 30-100 times more potent than tamoxifen itself and also presents antiestrogenic activity, its presence in the water environment could result in even more toxic effects on aquatic lives compared to tamoxifen. Data on actual concentrations of endoxifen in the environment is limited due to recent discovery of endoxifen pharmaceutical activity. However, endoxifen has been detected in hospital and municipal wastewater effluents. The detection of endoxifen in wastewater effluents questions the treatment efficiency of WWTPs. Studies reporting information about endoxifen removal in WWTPs are also scarce. There was a study that used chlorination to eliminate endoxifen in wastewater. However, an inefficient degradation of endoxifen by chlorination and the production of hazardous disinfection by-products were observed. Therefore, there is a need to remove endoxifen from wastewater prior to chlorination in order to reduce the potential release of endoxifen into the environment and its possible effects. The aim of this research is to isolate and identify bacteria strain(s) capable of degrading endoxifen into less hazardous compound(s). For this purpose, bacteria strains from WWTPs were exposed to endoxifen as a sole carbon and nitrogen source for 40 days. Bacteria presenting positive growth were isolated and tested for endoxifen biodegradation. Endoxifen concentration and by-product formation were monitored. The Monod kinetic model was used to determine endoxifen biodegradation rate. Preliminary results of the study suggest that isolated bacteria from WWTPs are able to growth in presence of endoxifen as a sole carbon and nitrogen source. Ongoing work includes identification of these bacteria strains and by-product(s) of endoxifen biodegradation.

Keywords: biodegradation, bacterial degraders, endoxifen, wastewater

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Apichaya Aneksampant, Xuefei Tu, Masami Fukushima, Mitsuo Yamamoto

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The restoration of seaweed beds recovery has been developed using a fertilization technique for supplying dissolved iron to barren coastal areas. The fertilizer is composed of iron oxides as a source of iron and compost as humic substance (HS) source, which can serve as chelator of iron to stabilize the dissolved species under oxic seawater condition. However, elution mechanisms of iron from iron oxide surfaces have not sufficiently elucidated. In particular, roles of microbial activities in the elution of iron from the fertilizer are not sufficiently understood. In the present study, a fertilizer (iron oxide/compost = 1/1, v/v) was incubated in a water tank at Mashike coast, Hokkaido Japan. Microorganisms in the 6-month fertilizer were isolated and identified as Exiguobacterium oxidotolerans sp. (T-2-2). The identified bacteria were inoculated to perform iron elution test in a postgate B medium, prepared in artificial seawater. Hematite was used as a model iron oxide and anthraquinone-2,7-disolfonate (AQDS) as a model for HSs. The elution test performed in presence and absence of bacteria inoculation. ICP-AES was used to analyze total iron and a colorimetric technique using ferrozine employed for the determination of ferrous ion. During the incubation period, sample contained hematite and T-2-2 in both presence and absence of AQDS continuously showed the iron elution and reached at the highest concentration after 9 days of incubation and then slightly decrease to stabilize within 20 days. Comparison to the sample without T-2-2, trace amount of iron was observed, suggesting that iron elution to seawater can be attributed to bacterial activities. The levels of total organic carbon (TOC) in the culture solution with hematite decreased. This may be to the adsorption of organic compound, AQDS, to hematite surfaces. The decrease in UV-vis absorption of AQDS in the culture solution also support the results of TOC that AQDS was adsorbed to hematite surfaces. AQDS can enhance the iron elution, while the adsorption of organic matter suppresses the iron elution from hematite.

Keywords: anthraquinone-2, 7-disolfonate, barren ground, E.oxidotolerans sp., hematite, humic substances, iron elution

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Authors: Mojtaba Taheri, Saied Reza Ameli

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In this research, we have calculated the effect of membership in international climate change treaties for 20 developed countries based on the human development index (HDI) and compared this effect with the process of pollutant reduction in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory. For this purpose, the data related to The real GDP per capita with 2010 constant prices is selected from the World Development Indicators (WDI) database. Ecological Footprint (ECOFP) is the amount of biologically productive land needed to meet human needs and absorb carbon dioxide emissions. It is measured in global hectares (gha), and the data retrieved from the Global Ecological Footprint (2021) database will be used, and we will proceed by examining step by step and performing several series of targeted statistical regressions. We will examine the effects of different control variables, including Energy Consumption Structure (ECS) will be counted as the share of fossil fuel consumption in total energy consumption and will be extracted from The United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) (2021) database. Energy Production (EP) refers to the total production of primary energy by all energy-producing enterprises in one country at a specific time. It is a comprehensive indicator that shows the capacity of energy production in the country, and the data for its 2021 version, like the Energy Consumption Structure, is obtained from (EIA). Financial development (FND) is defined as the ratio of private credit to GDP, and to some extent based on the stock market value, also as a ratio to GDP, and is taken from the (WDI) 2021 version. Trade Openness (TRD) is the sum of exports and imports of goods and services measured as a share of GDP, and we use the (WDI) data (2021) version. Urbanization (URB) is defined as the share of the urban population in the total population, and for this data, we used the (WDI) data source (2021) version. The descriptive statistics of all the investigated variables are presented in the results section. Related to the theories of sustainable development, Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is more significant in the period of study. In this research, we use more than fourteen targeted statistical regressions to purify the net effects of each of the approaches and examine the results.

Keywords: climate change, globalization, environmental economics, sustainable development, international climate treaty

Procedia PDF Downloads 52