Search results for: compound growth rate

Authors: Nia McRae, Robert Wright, Ghalib Bello

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Introduction: Postpartum depression is a prevalent mood disorder that is detrimental to the mental and physical health of mothers and their newborns. Lead (Pb) is a toxic metal that is associated with hormonal imbalance and mental impairments. The hormone changes that accompany pregnancy and childbirth may be exacerbated by Pb and increase new mothers’ susceptibility to postpartum depression. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the only study that investigates the association between prenatal Pb exposure and postpartum depression. Identifying risk factors can contribute to improved prevention and treatment strategies for postpartum depression. Methods: Data was derived from the Programming Research in Obesity, Growth, Environment and Social Stress (PROGRESS) study which is an ongoing longitudinal birth cohort. Postpartum depression was identified by a score of 13 or above on the 10-Item Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) 6-months and 12-months postpartum. Pb was measured in the blood (BPb) in the second and third trimester and in the tibia and patella 1-month postpartum. Quantile regression models were used to assess the relationship between BPb and postpartum depression. Results: BPb in the second trimester was negatively associated with the 80th percentile of depression 6-months postpartum (β: -0.26; 95% CI: -0.51, -0.01). No significant association was found between BPb in the third trimester and depression 6-months postpartum. BPb in the third trimester exhibited an inverse relationship with the 60th percentile (β: -0.23; 95% CI: -0.41, -0.06), 70th percentile (β: -0.31; 95% CI: -0.52, -0.10), and 90th percentile of depression 12-months postpartum (β: -0.36; 95% CI: -0.69, -0.03). There was no significant association between BPb in the second trimester and depression 12-months postpartum. Bone Pb concentrations were not significantly associated with postpartum depression. Conclusion: The negative association between BPb and postpartum depression may support research which demonstrates lead is a nontherapeutic stimulant. Further research is needed to verify these results and identify effect modifiers.

Keywords: depression, lead, postpartum, prenatal

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Authors: A. Cheriguene, F. Chougrani

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A total of 120 wild lactic acid bacteria were isolated from goat’s milk collected from different areas in Western Algeria. The strains were screened for production and technological properties such as acid production, aminopeptidase activity, autolytic properties, antimicrobial activity, and exopolysaccharide production. In general most tested isolates showed a good biomass separation when collected by centrifugation; as for the production of the lactic acid, results revealed that our strains are weakly acidifying; nevertheless, lactococci showed a best acidifying activity compared to lactobacilli. Aminopeptidase activity was also weak in most strains; but, it was generally higher for lactobacilli compared to lactococci. Autolytic activity was generally higher for most strains, more particularly lactobacilli. Antimicrobial activity was detected in 50% of the isolates, particularly in lactobacilli where 80% of strains tested were able to inhibit the growth of other strains. The survey of the profile of the texture, the proteolysis as well as the development of the flavor in the Domiati cheese made on the basis of our isolated strains have been led during the ripening. The sensory assessment shows that the cheese salted in milk received the best scores in relation to cheese salted after drainage. Textural characteristics, such as hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness decreased in the two treatments during the 60 days of ripening. Otherwise, it has been noted that adhesiveness and adhesive force increased in the cheese salted in milk.

Keywords: lactic acid bacteria, technological properties, acidification, exopolysaccharide, bacteriocin, textural properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Maryam Amiri, Ali Rajabzade, Gholam Reza Goudarzi, Reza Heidari

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Growth of technology and environmental changes are so fast and therefore, companies and industries have much tendency to do activities of R&D for active participation in the market and achievement to a competitive advantages. Aviation industry and its subdivisions have high level technology and play a special role in economic and social development of countries. So, in the aviation industry for getting new technologies and competing with other countries aviation industry, there is a requirement for capability in R&D. Considering of appropriate R&D strategy is supportive that day technologies of the world can be achieved. Biofuel technology is one of the newest technologies that has allocated discussion of the world in aviation industry to itself. The purpose of this research has been formulation of R&D strategy of biofuel technology in aviation industry of Iran. After reviewing of the theoretical foundations of the methods and R&D strategies, finally we classified R&D strategies in four main categories as follows: internal R&D, collaboration R&D, out sourcing R&D and in-house R&D. After a review of R&D strategies, a model for formulation of R&D strategy with the aim of developing biofuel technology in aviation industry in Iran was offered. With regard to the requirements and aracteristics of industry and technology in the model, we presented an integrated approach to R&D. Based on the techniques of decision making and analyzing of structured expert opinion, 4 R&D strategies for different scenarios and with the aim of developing biofuel technology in aviation industry in Iran were recommended. In this research, based on the common features of the implementation process of R&D, a logical classification of these methods are presented as R&D strategies. Then, R&D strategies and their characteristics was developed according to the experts. In the end, we introduced a model to consider the role of aviation industry and biofuel technology in R&D strategies. And lastly, for conditions and various scenarios of the aviation industry, we have formulated a specific R&D strategy.

Keywords: aviation industry, biofuel technology, R&D, R&D strategy

Procedia PDF Downloads 558

Authors: Samereh Abdoli, Amit Vora, Anusha Vora

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Background: Diabetes burnout is one of the most common contributors to decreased quality of life, poor psychosocial well-being, and increased morbidity, mortality and diabetes cost. While the term diabetes burnout is widely accepted particularly in type 1 diabetes (T1D), the state of the science on diabetes burnout is lacking a systematic approach to overcome diabetes burnout. Objective: The study aimed to explore the strategies to overcome burnout by integrating the voices of individuals with T1D. Methods: In this study, we applied a descriptive qualitative design using YouTube videos produced by individuals with T1D. Seven YouTube videos (Austria= 1, U.S=6) with the highest rate of views which met the inclusion criteria were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Results: Participants verbalized overcoming diabetes burnout as a 'difficult hole to climb out of' which make them empowered. Themes that describes their strategies to overcome burnout in T1D, in general, include; 'make plan and take action', 'start with small steps', 'ask for help', 'get engage in diabetes community' and 'do not be perfect'. Future Work: These findings can begin the examination of different strategies to overcome diabetes burnout, which may change the course of action for diabetes care and management to improve quality of diabetes care and quality of life.

Keywords: diabetes burnout, type 1 diabetes, qualitative research, YouTube videos

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Authors: Bhrugesh Radadiya, Jaydeep Shah

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In Indian foundry industry, there is a need of defect free casting with minimum production cost in short lead time. Casting defect is a very large issue in foundry shop which increases the rejection rate of casting and wastage of materials. The various parameters influences on casting process such as mold machine related parameters, green sand related parameters, cast metal related parameters, mold related parameters and shake out related parameters. The mold related parameters are most influences on casting defects in sand casting process. This paper review the casting produced by foundry with shrinkage and blow holes as a major defects was analyzed and identified that mold related parameters such as mold temperature, pouring temperature and runner size were not properly set in sand casting process. These parameters were optimized using different optimization techniques such as Taguchi method, Response surface methodology, Genetic algorithm and Teaching-learning based optimization algorithm. Finally, concluded that a Teaching-learning based optimization algorithm give better result than other optimization techniques.

Keywords: casting defects, genetic algorithm, parametric optimization, Taguchi method, TLBO algorithm

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Authors: Satish Kumar Pappu

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The most common questions which are frequently asked in oil and gas industry are how much is the current production rate from a particular well and what is the approximate predicted life of that well. These questions can be answered through forecasting of important realistic data like flowing tubing hole pressures FTHP, Production decline curves which are used predict the future performance of a well in a reservoir. With the advent of directional drilling, cluster well drilling has gained much importance and in-fact has even revolutionized the whole world of oil and gas industry. An oil or gas reservoir can generally be described as a collection of several overlying, producing and potentially producing sands in to which a number of wells are drilled depending upon the in-place volume and several other important factors both technical and economical in nature, in some sands only one well is drilled and in some, more than one. The aim of this study is to derive important information from the data collected over a period of time at regular intervals on a depleted well in a reservoir sand and apply this information to predict the performance of other wells in that reservoir sand. The depleted wells are the most common observations when an oil or gas field is being visited, w the application of this study more realistic in nature.

Keywords: decline curve analysis, estimation of future gas reserves, reservoir sands, reservoir risk profile

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Authors: Budoor Al Abid

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Educational systems are increasingly provided as open online services, providing guidance and support for individual learners. To adapt the learning systems, a proper evaluation must be made. This paper builds the evaluation model Fuzzy C Means Adaptive System (FCMAS) based on data mining techniques to assess the difficulty of the questions. The following steps are implemented; first using a dataset from an online international learning system called (slepemapy.cz) the dataset contains over 1300000 records with 9 features for students, questions and answers information with feedback evaluation. Next, a normalization process as preprocessing step was applied. Then FCM clustering algorithms are used to adaptive the difficulty of the questions. The result is three cluster labeled data depending on the higher Wight (easy, Intermediate, difficult). The FCM algorithm gives a label to all the questions one by one. Then Random Forest (RF) Classifier model is constructed on the clustered dataset uses 70% of the dataset for training and 30% for testing; the result of the model is a 99.9% accuracy rate. This approach improves the Adaptive E-learning system because it depends on the student behavior and gives accurate results in the evaluation process more than the evaluation system that depends on feedback only.

Keywords: machine learning, adaptive, fuzzy logic, data mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Jiashu Shen

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Background: The abortion rate has increased significantly, which is harmful especially to adolescents, making repeat induced abortion (RIA) among adolescents a social problem. This study aims to investigate the associations of family support with sexual behavior and repeat induced abortion among Chinese adolescents Methods: This study based on a national hospital-based sample with 945 girls aged 15-19 who underwent induced abortion in 43 hospitals. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to estimated odds ratio for the risk factors. Results: Adolescences living with parents were less inclined to undergo RIA, especially if they were rural (adjusted odds ratio=0.48 95%CI 0.31-0.72) and local (adjusted odds ratio =0.39 95%=0.23-0.66). Those with parental financial support were likely to have less sexual partnersand take contraceptives more regularly. Those with higher self-perceived importance in family were more likely to take contraceptives during the first sexual intercourse in higher age, and with higher first abortion age and less sexual partners. Conclusion: In mainland China, living with parents, parental financial support, high self-perceived importance in family and adequate family sexuality communications may contribute to lower incidence of RIA.

Keywords: Chinese adolescent, family support, repeat induced abortion, sexual behavior

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Authors: Gholamhassan Kakha, Mohsen Jami, Daniel Alex Merino Natorce

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Sustainable development refers to the creation of a balance between the development and the environment too; it consists of three key principles namely environment, society and economy. These three parameters are related to each other and the imbalance occurs in each will lead to the disparity of the other parts. Mining is one of the most important tools of the economic growth and social welfare in many countries. Meanwhile, assessment of the environmental impacts has directed to the attention of planners toward the natural environment of the areas surrounded by mines and allowing for monitoring and controlling of the current situation by the designers. In this look upon, a semi-quantitative model using a matrix method is presented for assessing the environmental impacts in the BOOG Granite Mine located in Sistan and Balouchestan, one of the provinces of Iran for determining the effective factors and environmental components. For accomplishing this purpose, the initial data are collected by the experts at the next stage; the effect of the factors affects each environmental component is determined by specifying the qualitative viewpoints. Based on the results, factors including air quality, ecology, human health and safety along with the environmental damages resulted from mining activities in that area. Finally, the results gained from the assessment of the environmental impact are used to evaluate the sustainability by using Philips mathematical model. The results show that the sustainability of this area is weak, so environmental preventive measures are recommended to reduce the environmental damages to its components.

Keywords: sustainable development, environmental impacts' assessment, BOOG granite, Philips mathematical model

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Authors: Alaa A. Youssef, Mohamed A. El-Emam, Momeana B. Mahmoud, Mona Ragheb

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Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, is a disease caused by a parasitic trematode worm called Schistosoma. Biological control of the snail intermediate hosts of Schistosoma is one of the promising methods for eliminating this disease in Egypt. The molluscicidal activity of exotoxins secreted from Bacillus subtilis bacteria was studied. The effect of these exotoxins was studied on the fecundity of Biomphalaria alexandrina snails the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni; the fecundity includes the reproductive rate (R0) of B. alexandrina snails and levels of sex hormones (progesterone, testosterone, and estradiol). Moreover, the cercarial production of S. mansoni was determined. The results showed a significant reduction in the egg-laying capacity of the treated snails after exposure to sublethal concentrations ( LC10 and LC25) of B. Subtilis exotoxins; this reduction reached 70% at LC25. Moreover, B. Subtilis exotoxins' significantly suppressed the cercarial production of B. alexandrina snails. It is concluded that the exotoxins of Bacillus subtilis bacteria play an important role in the interference of the Schistosomiasis transmission, hence should be applied in the strategy of schistosomiasis control.

Keywords: schistosomiasis, Biomphalaria alexandrina snails, Bacillus subtilis bacteria, fecundity, sex hormones

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: Surbhi Mathur, J. M. Vyas

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Although the rapid development of forensic speaker recognition technology has been conducted, there are still many problems to be solved. The biggest problem arises when the cases involving disguised voice samples come across for the purpose of examination and identification. Such type of voice samples of anonymous callers is frequently encountered in crimes involving kidnapping, blackmailing, hoax extortion and many more, where the speaker makes a deliberate effort to manipulate their natural voice in order to conceal their identity due to the fear of being caught. Voice disguise causes serious damage to the natural vocal parameters of the speakers and thus complicates the process of identification. The sole objective of this doctoral project is to find out the possibility of rendering definite opinions in cases involving disguised speech by experimentally determining the effects of different disguise forms on personal identification and percentage rate of speaker recognition for various voice disguise techniques such as raised pitch, lower pitch, increased nasality, covering the mouth, constricting tract, obstacle in mouth etc by analyzing and comparing the amount of phonetic and acoustic variation in of artificial (disguised) and natural sample of an individual, by auditory as well as spectrographic analysis.

Keywords: forensic, speaker recognition, voice, speech, disguise, identification

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Authors: Stanley Yap, Patrick Kee Peng Kong, Chong Wei Ying, Leow Hon Wei

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Purpose: This study examines the comprehensive household retirement planning based on the level of financial literacy in Malaysia. Sufficient financial literacy is essential to make financial decision on Malaysian household retirement planning. Design/Methodology/Approach: Numerous measurements consist of present value of total retirement fund needed, future value of the expenses and inflation-adjusted interest rate are used in this paper. Therefore, we are able to identify the retirement gap that needs to be considered immediately. Findings: Our results show, firstly, adequate financial literacy is vital to achieve long term household retirement planning. Secondly, there is no retirement gap where the future value of the existing financial assets is greater than the lump sum needs during retirement phase. Thirdly, financial assets should be prepared in early age to accumulate substantial funding to support household retirement life. Practical Implications: The outcomes benefit to retiree and working adults. It highlights the importance of financial literacy to retirement planning. It is also a milestone for Malaysian to achieve developed country if Malaysian has sufficient retirement funding. Originality/Value: There is currently lack of in-depth research on financial literacy related to household retirement planning. Further, the paper also focusses on financial literacy, as a means to assist those in funding retirement resources, in order to fulfil the retirement gap.

Keywords: financial literacy, retirement planning, retirement resources, retirement gap, Malaysian household

Procedia PDF Downloads 448

Authors: Srijoni Banerjee

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Sequences of some of the candidate genes (e.g., CPE, CDKAL1, GCKR, HSD11B1, IGF2BP2, IRS1, LPIN1, PKLR, TNF, PPARG) implicated in some of the complex disease, e.g. Type II diabetes in man has been compared with other species to investigate phylogenetic affinity. Based on mRNA sequence of these genes of 7 to 8 species, using bioinformatics tools Mega 5, Bioedit, Clustal W, distance matrix was obtained. Phylogenetic trees were obtained by NJ and UPGMA clustering methods. The results of the phylogenetic analyses show that of the species compared: Xenopus l., Danio r., Macaca m., Homo sapiens s., Rattus n., Mus m. and Gallus g., Bos taurus, both NJ and UPGMA clustering show close affinity between clustering of Homo sapiens s. (Man) with Rattus n. (Rat), Mus m. species for the candidate genes, except in case of Lipin1 gene. The results support the functional similarity of these genes in physiological and biochemical process involving man and mouse/rat. Therefore, in understanding the complex etiology and treatment of the complex disease mouse/rate model is the best laboratory choice for experimentation.

Keywords: phylogeny, candidate gene of type-2 diabetes, CPE, CDKAL1, GCKR, HSD11B1, IGF2BP2, IRS1, LPIN1, PKLR, TNF, PPARG

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: Abhishek Soni, A. Kumaraswamy, M. S. Mahesh

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Bullet penetration in steel plate is investigated with the help of three-dimensional, non-linear, transient, dynamic, finite elements analysis using explicit time integration code LSDYNA. The effect of large strain, strain-rate and temperature at very high velocity regime was studied from number of simulations of semi-spherical nose shape bullet penetration through single layered circular plate with 2 mm thickness at impact velocities of 500, 1000, and 1500 m/s with the help of Johnson Cook material model. Mie-Gruneisen equation of state is used in conjunction with Johnson Cook material model to determine pressure-volume relationship at various points of interests. Two material models viz. Plastic-Kinematic and Johnson- Cook resulted in different deformation patterns in steel plate. It is observed from the simulation results that the velocity drop and loss of kinetic energy occurred very quickly up to perforation of plate, after that the change in velocity and changes in kinetic energy are negligibly small. The physics behind this kind of behaviour is presented in the paper.

Keywords: AISI 4340 steel, ballistic impact simulation, bullet penetration, non-linear FEM

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Authors: Gloria A. Adewumi, Andrew C. Eloka-Eboka, Freddie L. Inambao

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Bio-based carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have received considerable research attention due to their comparative advantages of high level stability, simplistic use, low toxicity and overall environmental friendliness. New potentials for improvement in heat transfer applications are presented due to their high aspect ratio, high thermal conductivity and special surface area. Phonons have been identified as being responsible for thermal conductivities in carbon nanotubes. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of heat conduction in CNTs involves investigating the difference between the varieties of phonon modes and knowing the kinds of phonon modes that play the dominant role. In this review, a reference to a different number of studies is made and in addition, the role of phonon relaxation rate mainly controlled by boundary scattering and three-phonon Umklapp scattering process was investigated. Results show that the phonon modes are sensitive to a number of nanotube conditions such as: diameter, length, temperature, defects and axial strain. At a low temperature (<100K) the thermal conductivity increases with increasing temperature. A small nanotube size causes phonon quantization which is evident in the thermal conductivity at low temperatures.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, phonons, thermal conductivity, Umklapp process

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Authors: Hari Prasad Nepal

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Research on lecture method issues confirm that this teaching method has been practiced from the very beginnings of schooling. Many teachers, lecturers and professors are convinced that lecture still represents main tool of contemporary instructional process. The central purpose of this study is to uncover the extent of using lecture method in the higher education. The study was carried out in Nepalese context with employing mixed method research design. To obtain the primary data this study employed a questionnaire involving items with close and open answers. 120 teachers, lecturers and professors participated in this study. The findings indicated that 75 percent of the respondents use the lecture method in their classroom teaching. The study reveals that there are advantages of using lecture method such as easy to practice, less time to prepare, high pass rate, high students’ satisfaction, little comments on instructors, appropriate to large classes and high level students. In addition, the study divulged the instructors’ reflections and measures to improve the lecture method. This research concludes that the practice of lecture method is still significantly applicable in colleges and universities in Nepalese contexts. So, there are no significant changes in the application of lecture method in the higher education classroom despite the emergence of new learning approaches and strategies.

Keywords: instructors, learning approaches, learning strategies, lecture method

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: Eunseop Yeom

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Platelets can be activated by the surrounding blood flows where a blood vessel is narrowed as a result of atherosclerosis. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the relation between platelets activation and thrombus formation. To measure platelet adhesion, this study proposes an image analysis technique. Blood samples are delivered in the microfluidic channel, and then platelets are activated by a stenotic micro-channel with 90% severity. By applying proposed correlation mapping, which visualizes decorrelation of the streaming blood flow, the area of adhered platelets (APlatelet) was estimated without labeling platelets. In order to evaluate the performance of correlation mapping on the detection of platelet adhesion, the effect of tile size was investigated by calculating 2D correlation coefficients with binary images obtained by manual labeling and the correlation mapping method with different sizes of the square tile ranging from 3 to 50 pixels. The maximum 2D correlation coefficient is observed with the optimum tile size of 5×5 pixels. As the area of the platelet adhesion increases, the platelets plug the channel and there is only a small amount of blood flows. This image analysis could provide new insights for better understanding of the interactions between platelet aggregation and blood flows in various physiological conditions.

Keywords: platelet activation, correlation coefficient, image analysis, shear rate

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Authors: Pranab Kumar Goswami

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According to WHO, over 1000 million people worldwide are employed in small-scale industries. The ‘garment’ industry’ is one such industry in developing countries. These garment SMEs are mostly run by private establishments in the unorganized sector to avoid legal obligations of OSH provisions. The OSH standards are very poor and even basic health and safety provisions are not provided in such units. The study has been conducted in India among workers employed in the ‘garment’ industry with the objectives to analyze the types and extent of occupational health hazards of the garment workers and to assess the relationship of sociodemographic and occupational factors with various health hazards. The survey method, the tabular method followed by applying simple statistical technique, has been taken into account to analyze the data collected from three SME garment industries in Delhi (India-Asia). The study was conducted in Delhi from August-2019 to October-2020. A random sampling of 70 workers from three factories has been chosen for this study. The study shows that most of the workers were males (82%) and were in the 18-50 age group (78%), with none below 18 years of age. It was found that 26% of the workers were illiterate and most of them belonged to poor socioeconomic status. The study revealed that the nature of the hazards in garment industries in India is mostly physical and mechanical. We found that musculoskeletal problems (54%) were the commonest health problem. The body areas commonly affected were neck, low back, hand, wrist, finger, and shoulder. If garment workers’ health is affected by occupational hazards, it will impact on national health and economic growth of developing countries. Health is a joint responsibility of both government and employing authority.

Keywords: garment, MSD, health hazard, social factor

Procedia PDF Downloads 178

Authors: Florian Monetti, Brett Beamsley, Peter McComb, Simon Weppe

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Land reclamation from the ocean has considerably increased over past decades to support worldwide rapid urban growth. Reshaping the coastline, however, inevitably affects coastal systems. One of the main challenges for coastal oceanographers is to predict the physical and morphological responses for nearshore systems to man-made changes over multiple time-scales. Fully-coupled numerical models are powerful tools for simulating the wide range of interactions between flow field and bedform morphology. Restricted and inconsistent measurements, combined with limited computational resources, typically make this exercise complex and uncertain. In the present study, we investigate the impact of proposed land reclamation within a wave-dominated bay in New Zealand. For this purpose, we first calibrated our morphological model based on the long-term evolution of the bay resulting from land reclamation carried out in the 1950s. This included the application of sedimentological spin-up and reduction techniques based on historical bathymetry datasets. The updated bathymetry, including the proposed modifications of the bay, was then used to predict the effect of the proposed land reclamation on the wave climate and morphology of the bay after one decade. We show that reshaping the bay induces a distinct symmetrical response of the shoreline which likely will modify the nearshore wave patterns and consequently recreational activities in the area.

Keywords: coastal waves, impact of land reclamation, long-term coastal evolution, morphodynamic modeling

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Authors: Aileen F. Wang

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Mammography has been one of the most reliable methods for early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. However, mammography misses about 17% and up to 30% of breast cancers due to the subtle and unstable appearances of breast cancer in their early stages. Recent computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) technology using Zernike moments has improved detection accuracy. However, it has several drawbacks: it uses manual segmentation, Zernike moments are not robust, and it still has a relatively high false negative rate (FNR)–17.6%. This project will focus on the development of a novel breast cancer detection algorithm to automatically segment the breast mass and further reduce FNR. The algorithm consists of automatic segmentation of a single breast mass using Point Region Growing Segmentation, reconstruction of the segmented breast mass using Pseudo-Zernike moments, and classification of the breast mass using the root mean square (RMS). A comparative study among the various algorithms on the segmentation and reconstruction of breast masses was performed on randomly selected mammographic images. The results demonstrated that the newly developed algorithm is the best in terms of accuracy and cost effectiveness. More importantly, the new classifier RMS has the lowest FNR–6%.

Keywords: computer aided diagnosis, mammography, point region growing segmentation, pseudo-zernike moments, root mean square

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Authors: Zahra Bakhtiari

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Middle East countries confront a multitude of main environmental challenges which are inevitable. The unstable economic and political structure which dominates numerous middle East countries makes it difficult to react effectively to unfavorable climate change impacts. This study applies a qualitative methodology and relies on secondary literature aimed to investigate how countries in the Middle East are balancing economic security and climatic security in terms of budgeting, infrastructure investment, political engagement (domestically through discourses or internationally in terms of participation in international organizations or bargaining, etc.) There has been provided an outline of innovative measures in both economic and environmental fields that are in progress in the Middle East countries and what capacity they have for economic development and environmental adaptation, as well as what has already been performed. The primary outcome is that countries that rely more on infrastructure investment such as negative emissions technologies (NET) through green social capital enterprises and political engagement, especially nationally determined contributions (NDCs) commitments and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), experience more economic and climatological security balance in the Middle East. Since implementing these measures is not the same in all countries in the region, we see different levels of balance between climate security and economic security. The overall suggestion is that the collaboration of both the bottom-up and top-down approaches helps create strategic environmental strategies which are in line with the economic circumstances of each country and creates the desired balance.

Keywords: climate change, economic growth, sustainability, the Middle East, green economy, renewable energy

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Authors: Ashim Sattar, Ajanta Goswami, Anil V. Kulkarni

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Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) highly contributes to mountain hazards in the Himalaya. Over the past decade, high altitude lakes in the Himalaya has been showing notable growth in their size and number. The key reason is rapid retreat of its glacier front. Hydrodynamic modeling GLOF using shallow water equations (SWE) would result in understanding its impact in the downstream region. The present study incorporates remote sensing based ice thickness modeling to determine the future extent of the Dhauliganga Lake to map the over deepening extent around the highest lake in the Dhauliganga basin. The maximum future volume of the lake calculated using area-volume scaling is used to model a GLOF event. The GLOF hydrograph is routed along the channel using one dimensional and two dimensional model to understand the flood wave propagation till it reaches the 1st hydropower station located 72 km downstream of the lake. The present extent of the lake calculated using SENTINEL 2 images is 0.13 km². The maximum future extent of the lake, mapped by investigating the glacier bed has a calculated scaled volume of 3.48 x 106 m³. The GLOF modeling releasing the future volume of the lake resulted in a breach hydrograph with a peak flood of 4995 m³/s at just downstream of the lake. Hydraulic routing

Keywords: GLOF, glacial lake outburst floods, mountain hazard, Central Himalaya, future projection

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Authors: Chothmal

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In this paper, we present a route discovery process which uses the signal strength on a link as a parameter of its inclusion in the route discovery method. The proposed signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) based multipath reactive routing protocol is named as SINR-MP protocol. The proposed SINR-MP routing protocols has two following two features: a) SINR-MP protocol selects routes based on the SINR of the links during the route discovery process therefore it select the routes which has long lifetime and low frame error rate for data transmission, and b) SINR-MP protocols route discovery process is multipath which discovers more than one SINR based route between a given source destination pair. The multiple routes selected by our SINR-MP protocol are node-disjoint in nature which increases their robustness against link failures, as failure of one route will not affect the other route. The secondary route is very useful in situations where the primary route is broken because we can now use the secondary route without causing a new route discovery process. Due to this, the network overhead caused by a route discovery process is avoided. This increases the network performance greatly. The proposed SINR-MP routing protocol is implemented in the trail version of network simulator called Qualnet.

Keywords: ad hoc networks, quality of service, video streaming, H.264/SVC, multiple routes, video traces

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Authors: Meriem El Kolli, Hocine Laouer, Hayet El Kolli, Salah Akkal

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The methanolic extract (ME) of C. montanum obtained by a hydo-alcoholic maceration and its polyphenol content was evaluated by Folin-Ciocalteu method. This extract and C. montanum essential oil were screened for antimicrobial activity against 21 microbial strains by agar diffusion method. MICs of the EO were determined by the broth micro dilution method. The mechanism of action of the EO was determined on the susceptible strains by the time kill assay and the lysis experience. Antioxidant properties were studied by both free DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power techniques. The TPC in the ME showed a high level of 101.50 ± 5.33 mg GAE /mg. B. cereus was the most sensitive strain with MIC of 55.5 µg/ml , then K. pneumoniae (111 µg/ml). A remarkable decrease in a survival rate as well as in the absorbance at 260 nm were recorded, which suggest that the cytoplasm membrane is one of the targets of the EO. Antioxidant effects were concentration dependent and IC50 values were 1.09 ± 0.37 µg/ml for the EO and 65.04 ± 0.00 µg/ml for the ME by DPPH method and a reducing power dose-dependent. In conclusion, C. montanum extracts showed potent which could be exploited in the food industry for food preservation.

Keywords: C. montanum, Apiaceae, essential oils, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity, reducing power

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Authors: Puti F. Marzuki, Adrianto Oktavianus, Almerinda Regina

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Interface problems among interacting parties in Indonesian construction projects have most often led to low productivity and completion delay. In the midst of this country’s needs to accelerate construction of public infrastructure providing connectivity among regions and supporting economic growth as well as better living quality, project delays have to be seriously addressed. This paper identifies potential causes factors of interface problems experienced by construction projects in Indonesia. Data are collected through a survey involving the main actors of six important public infrastructure construction projects including railway, LRT, sports stadiums, apartment, and education building construction projects. Five of these projects adopt the design-build project delivery method and one applies the design-bid-build scheme. Interface problems’ potential causes are categorized into contract, management, technical experience, coordination, financial, and environmental factors. Research results reveal that, especially in railway and LRT projects, potential causes of interface problems are mainly technical and managerial in nature. These relate to complex construction execution in highly congested areas. Meanwhile, coordination cause factors are mainly found in the education building construction project with loan from a foreign donor. All of the six projects have to resolve interface problems caused by incomplete or low-quality contract documents. This research also shows that the design-bid-build delivery method involving more parties in construction projects tends to induce more interface problem cause factors than the design-build scheme.

Keywords: cause factors, construction delays, project delivery method, contract documents

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Authors: Mohsen Azarmjoo, Yasaman Azarmjoo, Zahra Alikhani Koopaei

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The increasing global population and continued growth in energy consumption underscore the need for renewable and sustainable energy sources more than ever. Soil batteries are a method for generating electrical energy by using recycled materials. Recycled materials include galvanized and copper sheets and recycled tires. Additionally, hydrogen, being a clean and efficient fuel, has the potential to replace fossil fuels. Consequently, hydrogen production from water presents a sustainable solution for energy supply. By utilizing aged materials, hydrogen production becomes more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. This article focuses on energy-deprived agricultural lands, explaining how soil batteries and hydrogen can provide the necessary energy for agricultural equipment, such as irrigation, lighting, greenhouse ventilation, and heating. The article explores the benefits of utilizing this method, emphasizing its potential to reduce environmental pollution through the use of recyclable materials. It is worth mentioning that these technologies face challenges, but their progress toward achieving zero-energy consumer standards positions them as promising future technologies for electricity generation. This article provides detailed insights into emerging technologies using a constructed case study involving soil batteries and a hydrogen fuel production device.

Keywords: electricity generation, soil batteries, tires, hydrogen, heat supply, water, aged materials, recycling, agricultural lands

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Authors: Blair D. Macdonald

Abstract:

After nearly one hundred years of its origin, foundational quantum mechanics remains one of the greatest unexplained mysteries in physicists today. Within this time, chaos theory and its geometry, the fractal, has developed. In this paper, the propagation behaviour with an iteration of a simple fractal, the Koch Snowflake, was described and analysed. From an arbitrary observation point within the fractal set, the fractal propagates forward by oscillation—the focus of this study and retrospectively behind by exponential growth from a point beginning. It propagates a potentially infinite exponential oscillating sinusoidal wave of discrete triangle bits sharing many characteristics of light and quantum entities. The model's wave speed is potentially constant, offering insights into the perception and a direction of time where, to an observer, when travelling at the frontier of propagation, time may slow to a stop. In isolation, the fractal is a superposition of component bits where position and scale present a problem of location. In reality, this problem is experienced within fractal landscapes or fields where 'position' is only 'known' by the addition of information or markers. The quantum' measurement problem', 'uncertainty principle,' 'entanglement,' and the classical-quantum interface are addressed; these are a problem of scale invariance associated with isolated fractality. Dual forward and retrospective perspectives of the fractal model offer the opportunity for unification between quantum mechanics and cosmological mathematics, observations, and conjectures. Quantum and cosmological problems may be different aspects of the one fractal geometry.

Keywords: measurement problem, observer, entanglement, unification

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Authors: Chayanika Hazarika Bordoloi

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This paper is an attempt to work on a highly inflectional language called Assamese. This is also one of the national languages of India and very little has been achieved in terms of computational research. Building a language processing tool for a natural language is not very smooth as the standard and language representation change at various levels. This paper presents inflectional suffixes of Assamese verbs and how the statistical tools, along with linguistic features, can improve the tagging accuracy. Conditional random fields (CRF tool) was used to automatically tag and train the text data; however, accuracy was improved after linguistic featured were fed into the training data. Assamese is a highly inflectional language; hence, it is challenging to standardizing its morphology. Inflectional suffixes are used as a feature of the text data. In order to analyze the inflections of Assamese word forms, a list of suffixes is prepared. This list comprises suffixes, comprising of all possible suffixes that various categories can take is prepared. Assamese words can be classified into inflected classes (noun, pronoun, adjective and verb) and un-inflected classes (adverb and particle). The corpus used for this morphological analysis has huge tokens. The corpus is a mixed corpus and it has given satisfactory accuracy. The accuracy rate of the tagger has gradually improved with the modified training data.

Keywords: CRF, morphology, tagging, tagset

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Authors: Ş. Karabulut, A. Güllü, A. Güldaş, R. Gürbüz

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This study investigates the effects of the lead angle and chip thickness variation on surface roughness during the machining of compacted graphite iron using ceramic cutting tools under dry cutting conditions. Analytical models were developed for predicting the surface roughness values of the specimens after the face milling process. Experimental data was collected and imported to the artificial neural network model. A multilayer perceptron model was used with the back propagation algorithm employing the input parameters of lead angle, cutting speed and feed rate in connection with chip thickness. Furthermore, analysis of variance was employed to determine the effects of the cutting parameters on surface roughness. Artificial neural network and regression analysis were used to predict surface roughness. The values thus predicted were compared with the collected experimental data, and the corresponding percentage error was computed. Analysis results revealed that the lead angle is the dominant factor affecting surface roughness. Experimental results indicated an improvement in the surface roughness value with decreasing lead angle value from 88° to 45°.

Keywords: CGI, milling, surface roughness, ANN, regression, modeling, analysis

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Authors: Jarel Elgin Tolentino, Arby Denise Nera, Mary Rose Roco, Angela Vianca Aspa, Nikko Beltran, Else Dapat

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Drug resistance by cells has been the problem in the medical field for decades now. The use of medicinal plants as a source of creating powerful drugs has been nowadays recognized worldwide to treat such resistant diseases. In the present study, the potential for Diospyros philippinensis A. DC. to inhibit growth of both bacteria and cancer cell line was conducted. The leaf crude extracts were screened for the presence of phytochemicals and examined for potential bioactivities by employing several assays like Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method, DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate) assay and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) tetrazolium assay for the antibacterial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of the extract, respectively. Phytochemical test results of the extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, quinones, cardiac glycosides, phlobatannins, carbohydrate, cardenolides and proteins. The leaf extracts were found to exhibit antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria, high antioxidant activity (99.22% ± 0.005) but did not show any sign of cytotoxicity towards HCT116 (ATCC CCL-247). The study therefore concludes that D. philippinensis A. DC. leaf extract can be a source of antibacterial and chemopreventive agents. This claim may be used as basis for future investigation.

Keywords: bioassay, medicinal plants, plant crude extracts, phytochemical screening

Procedia PDF Downloads 259