Search results for: urban waste water

Authors: Hicham Gourgue, Ahmed Aharoune, Ahmed Ihlal

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We present in this work our model of road traffic emissions (line sources) and dispersion of these emissions, named DISPOLSPEM (Dispersion of Poly Sources and Pollutants Emission Model). In its emission part, this model was designed to keep the consistent bottom-up and top-down approaches. It also allows to generate emission inventories from reduced input parameters being adapted to existing conditions in Morocco and in the other developing countries. While several simplifications are made, all the performance of the model results are kept. A further important advantage of the model is that it allows the uncertainty calculation and emission rate uncertainty according to each of the input parameters. In the dispersion part of the model, an improved line source model has been developed, implemented and tested against a reference solution. It provides improvement in accuracy over previous formulas of line source Gaussian plume model, without being too demanding in terms of computational resources. In the case study presented here, the biggest errors were associated with the ends of line source sections; these errors will be canceled by adjacent sections of line sources during the simulation of a road network. In cases where the wind is parallel to the source line, the use of the combination discretized source and analytical line source formulas minimizes remarkably the error. Because this combination is applied only for a small number of wind directions, it should not excessively increase the calculation time.

Keywords: air pollution, dispersion, emissions, line sources, road traffic, urban transport

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Authors: Pimrawee Rocharungsat

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The study of Phetchaburi Local Food Image in order to Support Tourism aimed 1) to overview Phetchaburi tourism images; and 2) to clarify Phetchaburi local food image. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis were used in this study. Questionnaires were delivered to sample group of 1,489 tourists from 8 districts of Phetchaburi. Results were found that Phetchaburi local food image could be as tool for tourism promotion. Strong place images were within Phetchaburi center city (35%) and in the markets (34.50%). As for satisfaction of local food comparing in descending order of excellent level mean score were its eminence, identity, quality, taste, creativity, and sanitation. Results of prominent images of well-known local food of Phetchaburi were Thai custard dessert, other desserts, palm and sugar palm drink and rice in ice water. The results can be applied as promotional tools for future food tourism in Phetchaburi.

Keywords: food tourism, image, tourist, Phetchaburi province

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Authors: Kwadwo Afari Gyan

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Cities are growing at unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, governments in the Global South are already overwhelmed by this growth and are unable to provide infrastructure proactively as expected. As a result, urban residents resort to providing their own infrastructure, such as drainage systems, as part of self-built housing development. Their small-scale, incremental housing practices, which often represent the formation of dense and diverse housing types, styles, and ages, have been identified to affect the planning of drainage systems at the regional scale. Such developments reflect the varied, affordable responses as part of a collective effort to curb regional problems, specifically flooding in this case. However, while some are included in this collective action, others are excluded as they are unable to afford to be included. This phenomenon, in addition to the formation of new autonomous localities, has led to challenges in mitigating flooding and has affected resilience to climate change. Using a qualitative approach, this paper explores how the mismatch between housing development, which occurs at an individual scale, and drainage infrastructure, which is provided at a regional scale, affects a regional effort to mitigate flooding in Tema, Ghana. It seeks to explore and reveal a relationship between affordability and inclusiveness. It also explores how density and diversity influence public infrastructure provision and their connection with affordability.

Keywords: climate change, affordability, inclusivity, equity, contextualization, regionalism

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Authors: Ida Ngurah

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Indonesia is one of the most prone disaster countries, which has earthquake, tsunami or high wave, flood and landslide as well as volcano eruption and drought. Disaster risk reduction has been developing extensively and comprehensively, particularly after tsunami hit in 2004. Yet, saving people live including children and youth from disaster risk is still far from succeed. Poor management of environment, poor development of policy and high level of corruption has become challenges for Indonesia to save its people from disaster impact. Indonesia is struggling to ensure its future best investment, children and youth to have better protection when disaster strike in school hours and have basic knowledge on disaster risk reduction. The program of safe school is being initiated and developed by Plan Indonesia since 2010, yet this effort still needs to be elaborated. This paper is reviewing sporadic safe school programs that have been implemented or currently being implemented Plan Indonesia in few areas of Indonesia, including both rural and urban setting. Methods used are in-depth interview with dedicated person for the program from Plan Indonesia and its implementing patners and analysis of project documents. The review includes program’s goal and objectives, implementation activity, result and achievement as well as its monitoring and evaluation scheme. Moreover, paper will be showing challenges, lesson learned and best practices of the program. Eventually, paper will come up with recommendation for strategy for better implementation of safe school program in Indonesia.

Keywords: disaster impact, safe school, programs, children, youth

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Authors: Ari Istiany, Guspri Devi Artanti, M. Si

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Based on the results Riskesdas, it is known that breastfeeding awareness about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding is still low at only 15.3 %. These conditions resulted in a very infant at risk for infectious diseases, such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infection. Therefore, the aim of this study to evaluate the video development about exclusive breastfeeding as a nutrition education media for posyandu cadre. This research used development methods for making the video about exclusive breastfeeding. The study was conducted in urban areas Rawamangun, East Jakarta. Respondents of this study were 1 media experts from the Department of Educational Technology - UNJ, 2 subject matter experts from Department of Home Economics - UNJ and 20 posyandu cadres to assess the quality of the video. Aspects assessed include the legibility of text, image display quality, color composition, clarity of sound, music appropriateness, duration, suitability of the material and language. Data were analyzed descriptively likes frequency distribution table, the average value, and deviation standard. The result of this study showed that the average score assessment according to media experts, subject matter experts, and posyandu cadres respectively was 3.43 ± 0.51 (good), 4.37 ± 0.52 (very good) and 3.6 ± 0.73 (good). The conclusion is on exclusive breastfeeding video as feasible as a media for nutrition education. While suggestions for the improvement of visual media is multiply illustrations, add material about the correct way of breastfeeding and healthy baby pictures.

Keywords: exclusive breastfeeding, posyandu cadre, video, nutrition education

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Authors: S. Mohammadzadehmoghadam, Y. Dong

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In this study, Bombyx mori silk fibroin/gelatin (SF/GT) nanocomposite with different GT ratio (SF/GT 100/0, 90/10 and 70/30) were prepared by electrospinning process and crosslinked with glutaraldehyde (GA) vapor. Properties of crosslinked SF/GT nanocomposites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mechanical test, water uptake capacity (WUC) and porosity. From SEM images, it was found that fiber diameter increased as GT content increased. The results of mechanical test indicated that the SF/GT 70/30 nanocomposites had both the highest Young’s modulus of 342 MPa and the highest tensile strength of about 14 MPa. However, porosity and WUC decreased from 62% and 405% for pristine SF to 47% and 232% for SF/GT 70/30, respectively. This behavior can be related to higher degree of crosslinking as GT ratio increased which altered the structure and physical properties of scaffolds. This study showed that incorporation of GT into SF nanofibers can enhance mechanical properties of resultant nanocomposite, but the GA treatment should be optimized to control and fine-tune other properties to warrant their biomedical application.

Keywords: electrospinning, gelatin, silk fibroin, mechanical properties, nanocomposites

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Authors: A. Bouchakour, L. Zaghba, M. Brahami, A. Borni

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The work presented in this paper present the design and the simulation of a centrifugal pump coupled to a photovoltaic (PV) generator via a MPPT controller. The PV system operating is just done in sunny period by using water storage instead of electric energy storage. The process concerns the modelling, identification and simulation of a photovoltaic pumping system, the centrifugal pump is driven by an asynchronous three-phase voltage inverter sine triangle PWM motor through. Two configurations were simulated. For the first, it is about the alimentation of the motor pump group from electrical power supply. For the second, the pump unit is connected directly to the photovoltaic panels by integration of a MPPT control. A code of simulation of the solar pumping system was initiated under the Matlab-Simulink environment. Very convivial and flexible graphic interfaces allow an easy use of the code and knowledge of the effects of change of the sunning and temperature on the pumping system.

Keywords: photovoltaic generator, chopper, electrical motor, centrifugal pump

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Authors: Guadalupe Stefanny Aguilar-Moreno, Miguel Angel Aguilar-Mendez, Teodoro Espinosa-Solares

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In the agricultural sector, one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases is manure management, which has been increased considerably in recent years. Biogas is an energy source that can be produced from different organic materials through anaerobic digestion (AD); however, production efficiency is still low. Several techniques have been studied to increase its performance, such as co-digestion, the variation of digestion conditions, and nanomaterials used. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) concentration, synthesized by co-precipitation, on the biogas and methane production in AD using chicken litter as a substrate. Synthesis of NPs was performed according to the co-precipitation method, for which a fractional factorial experimental design 25⁻² with two replications was used. The study factors were concentrations (precursors and passivating), time of sonication and dissolution temperatures, and the response variables were size, hydrodynamic diameter (HD) and zeta potential. Subsequently, the treatment that presented the smallest NPs was chosen for their use on AD. The AD was established in serological bottles with a working volume of 250 mL, incubated at 36 ± 1 °C for 80 days. The treatments consisted of the addition of different concentrations of NPs in the microcosms: chicken litter only (control), 20 mg∙L⁻¹ of NPs + chicken litter, 40 mg∙L⁻¹ of NPs + chicken litter and 60 mg∙L⁻¹ of NPs + chicken litter, all by triplicate. Methane and biogas production were evaluated daily. The smallest HD (49.5 nm) and the most stable NPs (21.22 mV) were obtained with the highest passivating concentration and the lower precursors dissolution temperature, which were the only factors that had a significant effect on the HD. In the transmission electron microscopy performed to these NPs, an average size of 4.2 ± 0.73 nm was observed. The highest biogas and methane production was obtained with the treatment that had 20 mg∙L⁻¹ of NPs, being 29.5 and 73.9%, respectively, higher than the control, while the treatment with the highest concentration of NPs was not statistically different from the control. From the above, it can be concluded that the magnetite NPs promote the biogas and methane production in AD; however, high concentrations may cause inhibitory effects among methanogenic microorganisms.

Keywords: agricultural sector, anaerobic digestion, nanotechnology, waste management

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Authors: W. Rashmi, M. Khalid, O. Seiksan, R. Saidur, A. F. Ismail

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Nanofluids have received much more attention since its discovery. They are believed to be promising coolants in heat transfer applications due to their enhanced thermal conductivity and heat transfer characteristics. In this study, the enhancement in heat transfer of CNT-nanofluids under turbulent flow conditions is investigated experimentally. Carbon nanotube (CNTs) concentration was varied between 0.051-0.085 wt%. The nanofluid suspension was stabilized by gum arabic (GA) through a process of homogenisation and sonication. The flow rates of cold fluid (water) is varied from 1.7-3 L/min and flow rates of the hot fluid is varied between 2-3.5 L/min. Thermal conductivity, density and viscosity of the nanofluids were also measured as a function of temperature and CNT concentration. The experimental results are validated with theoretical correlations for turbulent flow available in the literature. Results showed an enhancement in heat transfer range between 9-67% as a function of temperature and CNT concentration.

Keywords: nanofluids, carbon nanotubes (CNT), heat transfer enhancement, heat transfer

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Authors: Afshin J. Ghajar, Swanand M. Bhagwat

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The main purpose of this work is to experimentally investigate the effect of pipe orientation on two phase flow phenomenon. Flow pattern, void fraction and two phase pressure drop is measured in a polycarbonate pipe with an inside diameter of 12.7mm for inclination angles ranging from -20° to +20° using air-water fluid combination. The experimental data covers all flow patterns and the entire range of void fraction typically observed in two phase flow. The effect of pipe orientation on void fraction and two phase pressure drop is justified with reference to the change in flow structure and two phase flow behavior. In addition to this, the top performing void fraction and two phase pressure drop correlations available in the literature are presented and their performance is assessed against the experimental data in the present study and that available in the literature.

Keywords: flow patterns, inclined two phase flow, pressure drop, void fraction

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Authors: Zhou Yang, Heli Sun, Jianbin Huang, Jizhong Zhao, Shaojie Qiao

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Traffic prediction is essential in a multitude of ways in modern urban life. The researchers of earlier work in this domain carry out the investigation chiefly with two major focuses: (1) the accurate forecast of future values in multiple time series and (2) knowledge extraction from spatial-temporal correlations. However, two key considerations for traffic prediction are often missed: the completeness of raw data and the full context of the prediction timestamp. Concentrating on the two drawbacks of earlier work, we devise an approach that can address these issues in a two-phase framework. First, we utilize the raw trajectories to a greater extent through building a VLA table and data compression. We obtain the intra-trajectory features with graph-based encoding and the intertrajectory ones with a grid-based model and the technique of back projection that restore their surrounding high-resolution spatial-temporal environment. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study direct feature extraction from raw trajectories for traffic prediction and attempt the use of raw data with the least degree of reduction. In the prediction phase, we provide a broader context for the prediction timestamp by taking into account the information that are around it in the training dataset. Extensive experiments on several well-known datasets have verified the effectiveness of our solution that combines the strength of raw trajectory data and prediction context. In terms of performance, our approach surpasses several state-of-the-art methods for traffic prediction.

Keywords: traffic prediction, raw data utilization, context building, data reduction

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Authors: Emmanuel Iyamuremye

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Extreme rainfall events have caused significant damage to agriculture, ecology, and infrastructure, disruption of human activities, injury, and loss of life. They also have significant social, economic, and environmental consequences because they considerably damage urban as well as rural areas. Early detection of extreme maximum rainfall helps to implement strategies and measures, before they occur, hence mitigating the consequences. Extreme value theory has been used widely in modeling extreme rainfall and in various disciplines, such as financial markets, the insurance industry, failure cases. Climatic extremes have been analyzed by using either generalized extreme value (GEV) or generalized Pareto (GP) distributions, which provides evidence of the importance of modeling extreme rainfall from different regions of the world. In this paper, we focused on Peak Over Thresholds approach, where the Poisson-generalized Pareto distribution is considered as the proper distribution for the study of the exceedances. This research also considers the use of the generalized Pareto (GP) distribution with a Poisson model for arrivals to describe peaks over a threshold. The research used statistical techniques to fit models that used to predict extreme rainfall in Kigali. The results indicate that the proposed Poisson-GP distribution provides a better fit to maximum monthly rainfall data. Further, the Poisson-GP models are able to estimate various return levels. The research also found a slow increase in return levels for maximum monthly rainfall for higher return periods, and further, the intervals are increasingly wider as the return period is increasing.

Keywords: exceedances, extreme value theory, generalized Pareto distribution, Poisson generalized Pareto distribution

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Authors: Masood Sattari

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Using fuel cell technology to generate electricity for large commercial and industrial sites is a growing segment in the fuel cell industry. The installation of these systems involves design, permitting, procurement of long-lead electrical equipment, and construction involving multiple utilities. The installation of each fuel cell system requires the same amount of coordination as the construction of a new structure requiring a foundation, gas, water, and electricity. Each of these components provide variables that can delay and possibly eliminate a new project. As the manufacturing process and efficiency of fuel cell systems improves, so must the installation methods to prevent a ‘bottle-neck’ in the installation phase of the deployment. Installation methodologies to install the systems vary among companies and this paper will examine the methodologies, describe the benefits and drawbacks for each, and provide guideline for the industry to improve overall installation efficiency.

Keywords: construction, installation, methodology, procurement

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Mustafa Abdul Rahman, Maisarah Abdullah, Nurfarahin Azizan, Mohd-Azlan Jayasilan, Andrew Alek Tuen

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Common myna (Acridotheres tristis) and Javan myna (A. javanicus) belong to the family Sturnidae. These two species range from Iran, Afghanistan, and east through the Indian subcontinent to south China, Indochina and the mainland Southeast Asia. It was introduced to Sarawak in 1980’s and since then the population has increased tremendously. A study to determine the density of these two species was conducted in the Kuching and Samarahan Districts, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo between November 2013 and January 2014. In Kuching City a total of 12 transect lines of 500 m each were established totaling 6 km. In Samarahan District, six 500 m transect lines were established both within Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) campus and in Serian Town totaling 6 km. The results showed that the density of Javan myna in Kuching City (east) was 13.9 birds/ha, Kuching City (center) was 21.3 birds/ha and Kuching City (west) was 43.1 birds/ha. The density of common myna at UNIMAS campus was 20.3 birds/ha and Serian Town was 13.2 birds/ha. The density of human population probably plays an important role in determining the density of mynas in an area as it is associated with the availability of food sources, roosting and nesting places originating from human activity.

Keywords: density, myna, transect, invasive, Sarawak, Borneo

Procedia PDF Downloads 565

Authors: Mohamed A. Ghandourah, Walied M. Alarif, Nahed O. Bawakid

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Halogenated cyclic enynes and terpenoids are commonly identified among secondary metabolites of the genus Laurencia. Laurencian acetogenins are entirly C15 non-terpenoid haloethers with different carbocyclic nuclei; a specimen of the Red Sea red alga L. obtusa was investigated for its acetogenin content. The dichloromethane extract of the air-dried red algal material was fractionated on aluminum oxide column preparative thin-layer chromatography. Three new rare C12 acetogenin derivatives (1-3) were isolated from the organic extract obtained from Laurencia obtusa, collected from the territorial Red Sea water of Saudi Arabia. The structures of the isolated metabolites were established by means of spectroscopical data analyses. Examining the isolated compounds in activated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) revealed potent Anti-inflammatory activity as evidenced by inhibition of NFκB and release of other inflammatory mediators like TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6.

Keywords: Red Sea, red algae, fatty acids, spectroscopy, anti-inflammatory

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Ki-seok Kwon, Dong-woo Ryu, Heung-Youl Kim

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Although high-strength concrete has many advantages over generic concrete at normal temperatures (around 20℃), it undergoes spalling at high temperatures, which constitutes its structurally fatal drawback. In this study, fire resistance tests were conducted for 3 hours in accordance with ASTM E119 on bearing wall specimens which were 3,000mm x 3,000mm x 300mm in dimensions to investigate the influence the type of admixtures would exert on the fire resistance performance of high-strength concrete. Portland cement, blast furnace slag, fly ash and silica fume were used as admixtures, among which 2 or 3 components were combined to make 7 types of mixtures. In 56MPa specimens, the severity of spalling was in order of SF5 > F25 > S65SF5 > S50. Specimen S50 where an admixture consisting of 2 components was added did not undergo spalling. In 70MPa specimens, the severity of spalling was in order of SF5 > F25SF5 > S45SF5 and the result was similar to that observed in 56MPa specimens. Acknowledgements— This study was conducted by the support of the project, “Development of performance-based fire safety design of the building and improvement of fire safety” (18AUDP-B100356-04) which is under the management of Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement as part of the urban architecture research project for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, for which we extend our deep thanks.

Keywords: high strength concrete, mineral admixture, fire resistance, social disaster

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Authors: Shiva Kumar G.

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The present study is to know the level of noises emanated from vehicles in intersections located in urban areas using Sound Level Meter and the possibility of reducing noise levels through traffic flow optimization. The main objective is to study traffic noise level of the Intersections located at on-going metro construction activities and which are away from metro construction activities. To compare traffic noise level between stop phase, go phase and drive phase at the Intersections. To study the effect of traffic noise level of directional movement of traffic and variation in noise level during day and night times. The range of Noise level observed at intersections is between 60 to 105 decibel. The noise level of stop and drive phases were minimum and almost same where go phase had maximum noise level. By comparing noise level of directional movement of traffic, it has been noticed that Vijayanagar intersection has no significant difference in their noise level and all other intersection has a significant difference in their noise level. By comparing noise level of stop, go and drive phase it has been noticed that there was a significant difference in noise level during peak hours compared to off-peak hour. By comparing noise level between Metro and Non-Metro construction activity intersections it has been noticed that there was a significant difference in noise level. By comparing noise level during day and night times, significant differences in noise level were observed at all intersections.

Keywords: noise, metro and non-metro intersections, traffic flow optimization, stop-go and drive phase

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Authors: Regina A. Tayong, Reza Barati

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A stable, fast and robust three-phase, 2D IMPES simulator has been developed for assessing the influence of; breaker concentration on yield stress of filter cake and broken gel viscosity, varying polymer concentration/yield stress along the fracture face, fracture conductivity, fracture length, capillary pressure changes and formation damage on fracturing fluid cleanup in tight gas reservoirs. This model has been validated as against field data reported in the literature for the same reservoir. A 2-D, two-phase (gas/water) fracture propagation model is used to model our invasion zone and create the initial conditions for our clean-up model by distributing 200 bbls of water around the fracture. A 2-D, three-phase IMPES simulator, incorporating a yield-power-law-rheology has been developed in MATLAB to characterize fluid flow through a hydraulically fractured grid. The variation in polymer concentration along the fracture is computed from a material balance equation relating the initial polymer concentration to total volume of injected fluid and fracture volume. All governing equations and the methods employed have been adequately reported to permit easy replication of results. The effect of increasing capillary pressure in the formation simulated in this study resulted in a 10.4% decrease in cumulative production after 100 days of fluid recovery. Increasing the breaker concentration from 5-15 gal/Mgal on the yield stress and fluid viscosity of a 200 lb/Mgal guar fluid resulted in a 10.83% increase in cumulative gas production. For tight gas formations (k=0.05 md), fluid recovery increases with increasing shut-in time, increasing fracture conductivity and fracture length, irrespective of the yield stress of the fracturing fluid. Mechanical induced formation damage combined with hydraulic damage tends to be the most significant. Several correlations have been developed relating pressure distribution and polymer concentration to distance along the fracture face and average polymer concentration variation with injection time. The gradient in yield stress distribution along the fracture face becomes steeper with increasing polymer concentration. The rate at which the yield stress (τ_o) is increasing is found to be proportional to the square of the volume of fluid lost to the formation. Finally, an improvement on previous results was achieved through simulating yield stress variation along the fracture face rather than assuming constant values because fluid loss to the formation and the polymer concentration distribution along the fracture face decreases as we move away from the injection well. The novelty of this three-phase flow model lies in its ability to (i) Simulate yield stress variation with fluid loss volume along the fracture face for different initial guar concentrations. (ii) Simulate increasing breaker activity on yield stress and broken gel viscosity and the effect of (i) and (ii) on cumulative gas production within reasonable computational time.

Keywords: formation damage, hydraulic fracturing, polymer cleanup, multiphase flow numerical simulation

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Authors: Saeeda Nadir Ali, Najma Sultana, Muhammad Saeed Arayne, Amtul Qayoom

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Present study describes a simple and a fast liquid chromatographic method using ultraviolet detector for simultaneous determination of anxiety relief medicine alprazolam with ACE inhibitors i.e; lisinopril, captopril and enalapril employing purospher star C18 (25 cm, 0.46 cm, 5 µm). Separation was achieved within 5 min at ambient temperature via methanol: water (8:2 v/v) with pH adjusted to 2.9, monitoring the detector response at 220 nm. Optimum parameters were set up as per ICH (2006) guidelines. Calibration range was found out to be 0.312-10 µg mL-1 for alprazolam and 0.625-20 µg mL-1 for all the ACE inhibitors with correlation coefficients > 0.998 and detection limits 85, 37, 68 and 32 ng mL-1 for lisinopril, captopril, enalapril and alprazolam respectively. Intra-day, inter-day precision and accuracy of the assay were in acceptable range of 0.05-1.62% RSD and 98.85-100.76% recovery. Method was determined to be robust and effectively useful for the estimation of studied drugs in dosage formulations and human serum without obstruction of excipients or serum components.

Keywords: alprazolam, ACE inhibitors, RP HPLC, serum

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Authors: Sheikh Nawaz Ali, Pratima Pandey, P. Morthekai, Jyotsna Dubey, Md. Firoze Quamar

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The high mountain glaciers are one of the most sensitive recorders of climate changes, because they have the tendency to respond to the combined effect of snow fall and temperature. The Himalayan glaciers have been studied with a good pace during the last decade. However, owing to its large ecological diversity and geographical vividness, major part of the Indian Himalaya is uninvestigated, and hence the palaeoclimatic patterns as well as the chronology of past glaciations in particular remain controversial for the entire Indian Himalayan transect. Although the Himalayan glaciers are nourished by two important climatic systems viz. the southwest summer monsoon and the mid-latitude westerlies, however, the influence of these systems is yet to be understood. Nevertheless, existing chronology (mostly exposure ages) indicate that irrespective of the geographical position, glaciers seem to grow during enhanced Indian summer monsoon (ISM). The Himalayan mountain glaciers are referred to the third pole or water tower of Asia as they form a huge reservoir of the fresh water supplies for the Asian countries. Mountain glaciers are sensitive probes of the local climate, and, thus, they present an opportunity and a challenge to interpret climates of the past as well as to predict future changes. The principle object of all the palaeoclimatic studies is to develop a futuristic models/scenario. However, it has been found that the glacial chronologies bracket the major phases of climatic events only, and other climatic proxies are sparse in Himalaya. This is the reason that compilation of data for rapid climatic change during the Holocene shows major gaps in this region. The sedimentation in proglacial lakes, conversely, is more continuous and, hence, can be used to reconstruct a more complete record of past climatic variability that is modulated by changing ice volume of the valley glacier. The Himalayan region has numerous proglacial lacustrine deposits formed during the late Quaternary period. However, there are only few such deposits which have been studied so far. Therefore, this is the high time when efforts have to be made to systematically map the moraines located in different climatic zones, reconstruct the local and regional moraine stratigraphy and use multiple dating techniques to bracket the events of glaciation. Besides this, emphasis must be given on carrying multiproxy studies on the lacustrine sediments that will provide a high resolution palaeoclimatic data from the alpine region of the Himalaya. Although the Himalayan glaciers fluctuated in accordance with the changing climatic conditions (natural forcing), however, it is too early to arrive at any conclusion. It is very crucial to generate multiproxy data sets covering wider geographical and ecological domains taking into consideration multiple parameters that directly or indirectly influence the glacier mass balance as well as the local climate of a region.

Keywords: glacial chronology, palaeoclimate, multiproxy, Himalaya

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Authors: Md. Ratin

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This paper aims to show how Dhaka city is getting destroyed and the creator and guide of the city – the architects destroying the city in more designed and creative way. The liability of architects should be first and foremost to make the would, country, city a better living environment. As without it where the architects will do their design? To make a better living environment architects should conserve the tress, river and other related ingredient related to the environment. This paper attempts to show how cutting down trees and filling rivers causing more problem than having a great architecture in those places. For increasing people in a city like Dhaka, we need more shelter. But for providing those architects building more living spaces. But as a liability of an architect, one should give something back to the environment too. With time the city’s greenery and water body are getting vanished like magic. And for this, the architects should be blamed for giving us a disastrous future. The analysis is based on literature survey and survey by questionnaire, interviews of users.

Keywords: architect, environment, liability, river

Procedia PDF Downloads 334

Authors: Villiam Ambong, Kevin Banawag, Wynne Shane Bugatan, Mark Alvin Jay Carpio, Hwan Hee Choi, Moises Kevin Chungalao

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This survey research investigated the perception of primary school teachers on the efficacy of MTB-MLE in SLU-LES, Baguio City. SLU-LES has a total of 21 primary school teachers who served as respondents of this study in an attempt to answer the major questions regarding the efficacy of MTB-MLE among primary school teachers. A questionnaire was used in collecting the data which were analyzed using weighted mean and ANOVA. The questionnaire was validated by a statistician and it was administered to a school which does not differ from the intended respondents for further validation of the items. Findings revealed from the intended respondents that they perceive MTB-MLE as effective; however, they do not prefer the use of Mother Tongue as a medium of instruction. A research on the same topic was conducted in Ibadan, Nigeria by Dr. David O. Fakeye and although his respondents were students; the results came out that the respondents do perceive MTB-MLE to be efficacious. The results of this study also showed that years of teaching experience and the number of languages spoken by the teachers have no bearing on the preference of the respondents between MT medium and English medium gave that the respondents are in melting pot community. Comparative studies between rural and urban schools are encouraged. Future researchers should include questions that elicit reasons of the respondents on the efficacy of mother tongue as well as their preference between mother tongue medium and English.

Keywords: mother tongue, primary teachers, perception, multilingual education

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Salimpour, Amir Dehshiri

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In the present article, we investigate experimental laminar forced convective heat transfer specifications of TiO2/water nanofluids through conduits with different cross sections. We check the effects of different parameters such as cross sectional shape, Reynolds number and concentration of nanoparticles in stable suspension on increasing convective heat transfer by designing and assembling of an experimental apparatus. The results demonstrate adding a little amount of nanoparticles to the base fluid improves heat transfer behavior in conduits. Moreover, conduit with circular cross-section has better performance compared to the square and triangular cross sections. However, conduits with square and triangular cross sections have more relative heat transfer enhancement than conduit with circular cross section.

Keywords: nanofluid, cross-sectional shape, TiO2, convection

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Authors: Jonni Guiller Madeira, Angel Sanchez Delgado, Ronney Mancebo Boloy

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The use bioenergy, in recent years, has become a good alternative to reduce the emission of polluting gases. Several Brazilian and foreign companies are doing studies related to waste management as an essential tool in the search for energy efficiency, taking into consideration, also, the ecological aspect. Brazil is one of the largest cassava producers in the world; the cassava sub-products are the food base of millions of Brazilians. The repertoire of results about the ecological impact of the production, by steam reforming, of biohydrogen from cassava wastewater biogas is very limited because, in general, this commodity is more common in underdeveloped countries. This hydrogen, produced from cassava wastewater, appears as an alternative fuel to fossil fuels since this is a low-cost carbon source. This paper evaluates the environmental impact of biohydrogen production, by steam reforming, from cassava wastewater biogas. The ecological efficiency methodology developed by Cardu and Baica was used as a benchmark in this study. The methodology mainly assesses the emissions of equivalent carbon dioxide (CO₂, SOₓ, CH₄ and particulate matter). As a result, some environmental parameters, such as equivalent carbon dioxide emissions, pollutant indicator, and ecological efficiency are evaluated due to the fact that they are important to energy production. The average values of the environmental parameters among different biogas compositions (different concentrations of methane) were calculated, the average pollution indicator was 10.11 kgCO₂e/kgH₂ with an average ecological efficiency of 93.37%. As a conclusion, bioenergy production using biohydrogen from cassava wastewater treatment plant is a good option from the environmental feasibility point of view. This fact can be justified by the determination of environmental parameters and comparison of the environmental parameters of hydrogen production via steam reforming from different types of fuels.

Keywords: biohydrogen, ecological efficiency, cassava, pollution indicator

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Authors: Sharareh Hekmat, Michelle Lane

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Pregnancy during adolescence affects both the growth and development of mother and baby, particularly in low socioeconomic and food insecure areas. This mixed methods study is aimed at discovering a need for a community-based probiotic yogurt program to assist pregnant women in the Mukuru slum Nairobi, Kenya. Surveys were conducted with pregnant women (14-25 years old, n=43), which included questionnaires on dietary intake, food access, and health/quality of life perception. The frequency and means procedure was used to analyze maternal characteristics, Women’s Dietary Diversity Score (WDDS) and Household Hunger Scale. 24-hour recalls were analyzed via ESHA Food Processor, and median nutrient intakes were reported as a percent of recommendations. An environmental scan was conducted to assess food availability, accessibility, and quality. WDDS reflected a low-moderate diet variation (3.86 food groups out of 9, SD ± 1.3) among the women. The 24-hour recall suggested an inadequate intake of many nutrients, most significantly B12, potassium and calcium. 86% of women reported little to no household hunger. However, the environmental scan revealed low quality and poor sanitation of food. This study provides evidence that a probiotic program would be desirable, and contribute to the nutritional status of women in the Mukuru community.

Keywords: dietary diversity, pregnant women, probiotics, urban slum, Kenya

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Authors: Mahtab Assadian, Mohd Hasbullah Idris, Mostafa Rezazadeh Shirdar, Mohammad Mahdi Taheri, ‎S. Izman

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Corrosion behaviour and surface roughness of magnesium substrate were investigated after NaOH pretreatment in different concentrations (1, 5, and 10 molar) and duration of (10 min, 30 min, 1 h, 3 h, 6 h and 24 h). Creation of Mg(OH)2 barrier layer after pretreatment enhanced corrostion resistance as well as wettability of substrate surface. Characterization including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) was conducted to detect the existence of this barrier layer. Surface roughness and wettability of substrate was evaluated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle measurement respectively. It is found that magnesium treated by 1M NaOH for 30 min reveals higher corrosion resistance and lower water contact angle of substrate surface. In addition, this investigation indicates that pH value of SBF solution is strongly influenced by different time and concentration of alkaline pretreatment.

Keywords: magnesium, NaOH pretreatment, corrosion resistance, wettability

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Authors: Nada Bezić, Valerija Dunkić, Rušćić Mirko

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Astragalus monspessulanus L. ssp. illyricus (Bernhardt) Chater is endemic species of Fabaceae family and belongs to hemicryptophyte. This plant grows wild in the sub-Mediterranean area. We analyzed the composition of the essential oil of stems and leaves of A. monspessulanus L. ssp. Illyricus, collected in Tijarica, near Split, Croatia. Water distilled essential oils from aerial parts of investigation plant have been analysed by GC and GC/MS using VF-5ms capillary column. The total yield of oil was 0.08%, based on dry weight of samples. Thirty-eight compounds were representing 88.5% of the total oil. This essential oil was characterized by a high concentration of cis-myrtanol (20.5%), geranyl acetate (9.6%) and phytone (6.6%). Previous research in the species A. monspessulanus have included flavoalkaloids and flavonoids composition. The present study gives additional knowledge about secondary metabolites contents on the genus Astragalus.

Keywords: essential oil, isovaleric acid, Valeriana tuberosa, geranyl acetate, phytone

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Authors: Doan Van Chinh, Bui Thi Kien Trinh

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This paper outlines some statistical properties of residual sea level (RSL) at six representative tidal stations located along the coast of Vietnam. It was found that the positive RSL varied on average between 9.82 and 19.96cm and the negative RSL varied on average between -16.62 and -9.02cm. The maximum positive RSL varied on average between 102.8 and 265.5cm with the maximum negative RSL varied on average between -250.4 and -66.4cm. It is seen that the biggest positive RSL ere appeared in the summer months and the biggest negative RSL ere appeared in the winter months. The cumulative frequency of RSL less than 50 cm occurred between 95 and 99% of the times while the frequency of RSL higher than 100 cm accounted for between 0.01 and 0.2%. It also was found that the cumulative frequency of duration of RSL less than 24 hours occurred between 90 and 99% while the frequency of duration longer than 72 hours was in the order of 0.1 and 1%.

Keywords: coast of Vietnam, residual sea level, residual water, surge, cumulative frequency

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Xue Wu

Abstract:

Since the 1980s, a series of policies and practices have been implemented in China in response to the unprecedented rate of ageing population. The paper provides a detailed narrative of what later-life learning policy discourses have been advocated and gives a description on relevant practical issues during the past three decades. The research process based on the discourse approach with a systematic review of the government-issued documents. It finds that the main practices taken by central government at various levels were making University of the Aged (UA) available in all urban and rural regions to consolidate the newly student enrollments; focusing social-recreational, leisure and cultural activities on 55-75 age group; and utilizing various methods including voluntary works and tourism to improve older adults’ physical and mental wellness. Although there were greater achievements with 30 years of development, many problems still exist. Finding reveals that the curriculum should be modified to meet the needs of the local development, to promote older adults’ contact and contribution to the community, and to enhance technical competences of those in rural areas involving in agricultural production. Central government should also integrate resources from all sectors of the society for further developing later-life learning in China. The result of this paper highlights the value to promote community-based later-life learning for building a society for active ageing and ageing in place.

Keywords: ageing population, China, later-life learning, policy, University of the Aged

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Tarek S. Jamil, H. A. Abbas, Rabab A. Nasr, Eman S. Mansor, Rose-Noëlle Vannier

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The citrate manner (Pechini method) was utilized in elaboration of a novel Nano-sized BaFe(1-x)CuxO3 (x=0.01, 0.05 and 0.10). The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by x-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance, TEM and the surface area. The prepared samples have a mixture of cubic perovskite structure (main) and orthorhombic phases. The effect of different loads of copper as dopant on the structural properties as well as the photocatalytic activity was demonstrated. The lattice parameter and the unit cell volume of the prepared materials are given. Doping with copper increased the photocatalytic activity of BaFeO3 several times in abstraction of hazardous atrazine that causes acute problems in drinking water treatment facilities. This may be reasoned to low band gap energy of copper doped BaFe(1-x)CuxO3 attributed to oxygen vacancies formation.

Keywords: photocatalysis, nano-sized, BaFeO3, copper doping, atrazine

Procedia PDF Downloads 342