Search results for: low temperature heat source

Authors: Nunik Junara, Sugeng Triyadi

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Sustainable Housing in Islamic perspective, can be defined as a multi-dimensional process that seeks to achieve a balance between economic and socio-cultural aspects on the side, and environmental aspect on the other. There are many quotes verses in the Quran and Hadith that leads to the belief that Islam as a Rahmatan lil Alamin, where men are encouraged to act wisely in treating nature and all living things in it. One aspect of the natural environment that closed to human is plants. In the settlement, the availability of plants or also called green open space is highly recommended. The availability of green open space in the neighborhood, both the public and private green open spaces is expected to reduce the effects of global warming that has engulfed various parts of the world. Green open space that can be viewed from the angle of eco-aestetic and eco-medical in sustainable architecture, is expected to increase the temperature and provide aesthetic impression to the surrounding environment. This paper attempts to discuss the principles of Islamic values related to the natural environment as a major resource for sustainability. This paper also aims to raise awareness of the importance of the theme of sustainability in settlements, especially in big cities. Analysis of the availability of green open space in kampung Kauman Malang is one example of the effort to apply the principles of sustainable housing.

Keywords: green open space, sustainable housing, Islamic values, Kampung Kauman Malang

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Authors: Kalaashini Ramachandran, Maznah Dahlui, Nik Daliana Nik Farid

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WHO recommends all babies to be exclusively breastfed and donor milk is the next best alternative in the absence of mother’s own milk. The establishment of a human milk bank (HMB) is still being debated due to religious concerns in Malaysia leading to informal milk sharing practices, but little is known on the knowledge, attitude and perception of women towards HMB and its benefits. This study hypothesizes that there is no association between knowledge and attitude and the acceptance towards the establishment of human milk bank among Malaysian women and healthcare providers. The aim of this study is to determine the drivers and barriers among Malaysian towards the acceptance of an HMB. A cross-sectional study with 367 participants was enrolled within a period of 3 months to answer an online self-administered questionnaire. Data on sociodemographic, knowledge on breastfeeding benefits, knowledge and attitude on HMB and its specific issues were analyzed in terms of frequency and then proceed to multiple logistic regression. Majority of the respondents are of Islamis religion (73.3%), have succeesfully completed their tertiary education (82.8%), and are employed (70.8%). Only 55.9% of respondents have heard of an HMB stating internet as their main source of information but a higher prevalence is agreeable to the establishment of a human milk bank (67.8%). Most respondents have a good score on knowledge of breastfeeding benefits and on HMB specific issues (70% and 54.2% respectively) while 63.8% of them have a positive attitude towards HMB. In the multivariate analysis, mothers with a good score on general knowledge of breastfeeding (AOR: 1.715) were more likely to accept the establishment of an HMB while Islamic religion was negatively associated with its establishment (AOR:0.113). This study has found a high prevalence rate of mothers who are willing to accept the establishment of an HMB. This action can be potentially shaped by educating mothers on the benefits of breastfeeding as well as addressing their religious concerns so the establishment of a religiously abiding HMB in Malaysia may be accepted without compromising their belief or the health benefit of donor milk.

Keywords: acceptability, attitude, human milk bank, knowledge

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Norhan H. Mahdally, Bathini Thissera Riham A. ElShiekh, Noha M. Elhosseiny, Mona T. Kashef, Ali M. El Halawany, Mostafa E. Rateb, Ahmed S. Attia

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Multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens pose a global threat to healthcare settings. The exhaustion of the current antibiotic arsenal and the scarcity of new antimicrobials in the pipeline aggravate this threat and necessitate a prompt and effective response. This study focused on two major pathogens that can cause serious infections: carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Multiple soil isolates were collected from several locations throughout Egypt and screened for their conventional and non-conventional antimicrobial activities against MDR pathogens. One isolate exhibited potent antimicrobial activity and was subjected to multiple rounds of fractionation. After fermentation and bio-guided fractionation, we identified pure microbial secondary metabolites with two scaffolds that exhibited promising effects against CRAB and MRSA. Scaling up and chemical synthesis of derivatives of the identified metabolite resulted in obtaining a more potent derivative, which we designated as 2HP. Cytotoxicity studies indicated that 2HP is well-tolerated by human cells. Ongoing work is focusing on formulating the new compound into a nano-formulation to enhance its delivery. Also, to have a better idea about how this compound works, a proteomic approach is currently underway. Our findings suggest that 2HP is a potential new broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to develop 2HP into a safe and effective treatment for MDR infections.

Keywords: broad-spectrum antimicrobials, carbapenem-resistant acinetobacter baumannii, drug discovery, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, multidrug-resistant, natural products

Procedia PDF Downloads 49

Authors: S. Rashmi, Devashish Das, N. Spoorthi, H. V. Manasa

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Energy is essential and plays an important role for overall development of a nation. The global economy literally runs on energy. The use of fossil fuels as energy is now widely accepted as unsustainable due to depleting resources and also due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the environment, renewable and carbon neutral biodiesel are necessary for environment and economic sustainability. Unfortunately biodiesel produced from oil crop, waste cooking oil and animal fats are not able to replace fossil fuel. Fossil fuels remain the dominant source of primary energy, accounting for 84% of the overall increase in demand. Today biodiesel has come to mean a very specific chemical modification of natural oils. Objectives: To produce biodiesel from yellow oleander seed oil, to test the yield of biodiesel using different types of catalyst (KOH & NaOH). Methodology: Oil is extracted from dried yellow oleander seeds using Soxhlet extractor and oil expeller (bulk). The FFA content of the oil is checked and depending on the FFA value either two steps or single step process is followed to produce biodiesel. Two step processes includes esterfication and transesterification, single step includes only transesterification. The properties of biodiesel are checked. Engine test is done for biodiesel produced. Result: It is concluded that biodiesel quality parameters such as yield(85% & 90%), flash point(1710C & 1760C),fire point(1950C & 1980C), viscosity(4.9991 and 5.21 mm2/s) for the biodiesel from seed oil of Thevetiaperuviana produced by using KOH & NaOH respectively. Thus the seed oil of Thevetiaperuviana is a viable feedstock for good quality fuel.The outcomes of our project are a substitute for conventional fuel, to reduce petro diesel requirement,improved performance in terms of emissions. Future prospects: Optimization of biodiesel production using response surface method.

Keywords: yellow oleander seeds, biodiesel, quality parameters, renewable sources

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Authors: Ashfaque Hossain Khan, Brian Thomson, Ratan Debnath, Abhishek Motayed, Mulpuri V. Rao

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Though the efforts had been made, the problem of cross-sensitivity for a single metal oxide-based sensor can’t be fully eliminated. In this work, a sensor array has been designed and fabricated comprising of platinum (Pt), copper (Cu), and silver (Ag) decorated TiO2 and ZnO functionalized GaN nanowires using industry-standard top-down fabrication approach. The metal/metal-oxide combinations within the array have been determined from prior molecular simulation study using first principle calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). The gas responses were obtained for both single and mixture of NO2, SO2, ethanol, and H2 in the presence of H2O and O2 gases under UV light at room temperature. Each gas leaves a unique response footprint across the array sensors by which precise discrimination of cross-sensitive gases has been achieved. An unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) technique has been implemented on the array response. Results indicate that each gas forms a distinct cluster in the score plot for all the target gases and their mixtures, indicating a clear separation among them. In addition, the developed array device consumes very low power because of ultra-violet (UV) assisted sensing as compared to commercially available metal-oxide sensors. The nanowire sensor array, in combination with PCA, is a potential approach for precise real-time gas monitoring applications.

Keywords: cross-sensitivity, gas sensor, principle component analysis (PCA), sensor array

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Authors: Ali Javaid, Rizwan Latif, Syed Adnan Qasim, Imran Shafi

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To control combustion inside a direct injection diesel engine, fuel atomization is the best tool. Controlling combustion helps in reducing emissions and improves efficiency. Cavitation is one of the most important factors that significantly affect the nature of spray before it injects into combustion chamber. Typical fuel injector nozzles are small and operate at a very high pressure, which limits the study of internal nozzle behavior especially in case of diesel engine. Simulating cavitation in a fuel injector will help in understanding the phenomenon and will assist in further development. There is a parametric variation between high speed and high torque low speed diesel engines. The objective of this study is to simulate internal spray characteristics for a low speed high torque diesel engine. In-nozzle cavitation has strong effects on the parameters e.g. mass flow rate, fuel velocity, and momentum flux of fuel that is to be injected into the combustion chamber. The external spray dynamics and subsequently the air – fuel mixing depends on a lot of the parameters of fuel injecting the nozzle. The approach used to model turbulence induced in – nozzle cavitation for high-torque low-speed diesel engine, is homogeneous equilibrium model. The governing equations were modeled using Matlab. Complete Model in question was extensively evaluated by performing 3-D time-dependent simulations on Open FOAM, which is an open source flow solver and implemented in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). Results thus obtained will be analyzed for better evaporation in the near-nozzle region. The proposed analyses will further help in better engine efficiency, low emission, and improved fuel economy.

Keywords: cavitation, HEM model, nozzle flow, open foam, turbulence

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Authors: Jiajia Yao, Guanlin Wu, Fang Liu, Junshuai Xue, Yue Hao

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This study reports on the epitaxial growth of a GaN-based resonant tunneling diode (RTD) structure with stable and repeatable double negative differential resistance (NDR) characteristics at room temperature on a c-plane GaN-on-sapphire template using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) technology. In this structure, two independent AlN/GaN RTDs are epitaxially connected in series in the vertical growth direction through a silicon-doped GaN layer. As the collector electrode bias voltage increases, the two RTDs respectively align the ground state energy level in the quantum well with the 2DEG energy level in the emitter accumulation well to achieve quantum resonant tunneling and then reach the negative differential resistance (NDR) region. The two NDR regions exhibit similar peak current densities and peak-to-valley current ratios, which are 230 kA/cm² and 249 kA/cm², 1.33 and 1.38, respectively, for a device with a collector electrode mesa diameter of 1 µm. The consistency of the NDR is much higher than the results of on-chip discrete RTD device interconnection, resulting from the smaller chip area, fewer interconnect parasitic parameters, and less process complexity. The methods and results presented in this paper show the brilliant prospects of GaN RTDs in the development of multi-value logic digital circuits.

Keywords: MBE, AlN/GaN, RTDs, double NDR

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Authors: Ananthakrishna L. R., Ramesh D., Kumar Wodeyar, Kotresh A. M., Gururaj P. M.

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Malnad Gidda is the indigenous recognized cattle breed of Shivamogga District of Karnataka state, India is known for its disease resistance to many of the infectious diseases. There are 25 LRR (Leucine Rich Repeats) identified in bovine (Bos indicus) TLR9. The amino acid sequence of LRR is deduced to nucleotide sequence in BLASTx bioinformatic online tools. LRR2 to LRR10 are involved in pathogen recognition and binding in human TLR9 which showed a higher degree of nucleotide variations with respect to disease resistance to various pathogens. Hence, primers were designed to amplify the flanking sequences of LRR2 to LRR10, to discover the nucleotide variations if any, in Malnad Gidda breed of Cattle which is associated with disease resistance. The DNA isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of ten Malnad Gidda cattle. A desired and specific amplification product of 0.8 kb was obtained at an annealing temperature of 56.6ᵒC. All the PCR products were sequenced on both sides by gene-specific primers. The sequences were compared with TLR9 sequence of cross breed cattle obtained from NCBI data bank. The sequence analysis between Malnad Gidda and crossbreed cattle revealed no nucleotide variations in the region LRR2 to LRR9 which shows the conserved in pathogen binding domain (LRR) of TLR9.

Keywords: leucine rich repeats, Malnad Gidda, cross breed, TLR9

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Authors: Adrien Cornille, Marine Blain, Bernard Boutevin, Sylvain Caillol

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Generally, linear polyurethanes (PUs) are obtained by the reaction between an oligomeric diol, a short diol as chain extender and a diisocyanate. However the use of diisocyanate should be avoided since they are generally very harmful for human health. Therefore the synthesis of NIPUs (non isocyanate PUs) from step growth polymerization of dicyclocarbonates and diamines should be favoured. This method is particularly interesting since no hazardous isocyanates are used. Thus, this reaction, extensively studied by Endo et al. is currently gaining a lot of attention as a substitution route for the synthesis of NIPUs, both from industrial and academic community. However, the reactivity of reaction between amine and cyclic carbonate is a major scientific issue, since cyclic carbonates are poorly reactive. Thus, our team developed several synthetic ways for the synthesis of various di-cyclic carbonates based on C5-, C6- and dithio- cyclic carbonates, from different biobased raw materials (glycerin isosorbide, vegetable oils…). These monomers were used to synthesize NIPUs with various mechanical and thermal properties for various applications. We studied the reactivity of reaction with various catalysts and find optimized conditions for room temperature reaction. We also studied the radical copolymerization of cyclic carbonate monomers in styrene-acrylate copolymers for coating applications. We also succeeded in the elaboration of biobased NIPU flexible foams. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report in literature on the preparation of non-isocyanate polyurethane foams.

Keywords: foam, nonisocyanate polyurethane, cyclic carbonate, blowing agent, scanning electron microscopy

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Authors: S. S. L. Andrade, E. A. Souza, L. C. L. Santos, C. Moraes, A. K. C. L. Lobato

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Biodiesel may be produced through transesterification reaction (or alcoholysis), that is the transformation of a long chain fatty acid in an alkyl ester. This reaction can occur in the presence of acid catalysts, alkali, or enzyme. Currently, for industrial processes, biodiesel is produced by alkaline route. The alkali most commonly used in these processes is hydroxides and methoxides of sodium and potassium. In this work, biodiesel production was conducted in two different systems. The first consisted of a batch reactor operating with a traditional washing system and the second consisted of a semi-continuous flow reactor operating with a membrane separation system. Potassium hydroxides was used as catalyst at a concentration of 1% by weight, the molar ratio oil/alcohol was 1/9 and temperature of 55 °C. Tests were performed using soybeans and palm oil and the ester conversion results were compared for both systems. It can be seen that the results for both oils are similar when using the batch reator or the semi-continuous flow reactor. The use of the semi-continuous flow reactor allows the removal of the formed products. Thus, in the case of a reversible reaction, with the removal of reaction products, the concentration of the reagents becomes higher and the equilibrium reaction is shifted towards the formation of more products. The higher conversion to ester with soybean and palm oil using the batch reactor was approximately 98%. In contrast, it was observed a conversion of 99% when using the same operating condition on a semi-continuous flow reactor.

Keywords: biodiesel, batch reactor, semi-continuous flow reactor, transesterification

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Authors: Eun Young Park, Jongwon Park

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A physical touch of a product can provide ample diagnostic information about the product attributes and quality. However, consumers’ product judgments and purchases can be erroneously influenced by non-diagnostic haptic information. For example, consumers’ evaluations of the coffee they drink could be affected by the heaviness of a cup that is used for just serving the coffee. This important issue has received little attention in prior research. The present research contributes to the literature by identifying when and how non-diagnostic haptic information can have an influence and why such influence occurs. Specifically, five studies experimentally varied the content of non-diagnostic haptic information, such as the weight of a cup (heavy vs. light) and the texture of a cup holder (smooth vs. rough), and then assessed the impact of the manipulation on product judgments and decisions. Results show that non-diagnostic haptic information has a biasing impact on consumer judgments. For example, the heavy (vs. light) cup increases consumers’ perception of the richness of coffee in it, and the rough (vs. smooth) texture of a cup holder increases the perception of the healthfulness of fruit juice in it, which in turn increases consumers’ purchase intentions of the product. When consumers are cognitively distracted during the touch experience, the impact of the content of haptic information is no longer evident, but the valence (positive vs. negative) of the haptic experience influences product judgments. However, consumers are able to avoid the impact of non-diagnostic haptic information, if and only if they are both knowledgeable about the product category and undistracted from processing the touch experience. In sum, the nature of the influence by non-diagnostic haptic information (i.e., assimilation effect vs. contrast effect vs. null effect) is determined by the content and valence of haptic information, the relative impact of which depends on whether consumers can identify the content and source of the haptic information. Theoretically, to our best knowledge, this research is the first to document the empirical evidence of the interplay between cognitive and affective processes that determines the impact of non-diagnostic haptic information. Managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords: consumer behavior, haptic information, product judgments, touch effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Mahda Foroughi, Bruno de Anderade, Ana Pereira Roders

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Social media platforms have been increasingly used by locals and tourists to express their opinions about buildings, cities, and built heritage in particular. Most recently, scholars have been using social media to conduct innovative research on built heritage and heritage management. Still, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods to analyze social media data for heritage management is seldom explored. This paper investigates the potential of short texts (sentences and hashtags) shared through social media as a data source and artificial intelligence methods for data analysis for revealing the cultural significance (values and attributes) of built heritage. The city of Yazd, Iran, was taken as a case study, with a particular focus on windcatchers, key attributes conveying outstanding universal values, as inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This paper has three subsequent phases: 1) state of the art on the intersection of public participation in heritage management and social media research; 2) methodology of data collection and data analysis related to coding people's voices from Instagram and Twitter into values of windcatchers over the last ten-years; 3) preliminary findings on the comparison between opinions of locals and tourists, sentiment analysis, and its association with the values and attributes of windcatchers. Results indicate that the age value is recognized as the most important value by all interest groups, while the political value is the least acknowledged. Besides, the negative sentiments are scarcely reflected (e.g., critiques) in social media. Results confirm the potential of social media for heritage management in terms of (de)coding and measuring the cultural significance of built heritage for windcatchers in Yazd. The methodology developed in this paper can be applied to other attributes in Yazd and also to other case studies.

Keywords: social media, artificial intelligence, public participation, cultural significance, heritage, sentiment analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: C. Annapurna, Rao M. Srinivasa, Bhanu C. H. Vijaya, M. Sivalakshmi, Rao P. V. Surya

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A study on the community structure of meiobenthic fauna was undertaken during three cruises (June 2008, October 2008 and March 2009). Ten stations at depth between 10 and 40 m off Pudimadaka in Visakhapatnam (Lat.17º29′12″N and Long. 83º00′09″), East coast of India were investigated. Ninety species representing 3 major (meiofaunal) taxa namely foraminifera (2), copepoda (9), nematoda (58) and polychaeta (21) were encountered. Overall, meiofaunal (mean) abundance ranged from 2 individuals to 63 ind. 10cm-² with an average of 24.3 ind.10cm-2. The meiobenthic biomass varied between 0.135 to 0.48 mg.10cm-2 with an average 0.27 ± 0.12. On the whole, nematodes constituted 73.62% of the meiofauna in terms of numerical abundance. Shannon –Wiener index values were 2.053 ± 0.64 (June, 2008), 2.477 ± 0.177 (October 2008) and 2.2815±0.24 (March 2009). Multivariate analyses were used to define the most important taxon in nematode assemblages. Three nematode associations could be recognized off Pudimadaka coast, namely Laimella longicaudata, Euchromodora vulgaris and Sabatieria elongata assemblage (June, 2008); Catanema sp. and Leptosomatum sp. assemblage (October 2008) assemblage; Sabatieria sp. and Setosabatieria sp. assemblage (March 2009). Canonical correspondence analysis showed that temperature, organic matter, silt and mean particle diameter were important in controlling nematode community structure.

Keywords: meiofauna, marine nematode, biodiversity, community structure, India

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Authors: Nandini Nalika, Suhel Parvez

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Nanotechnology has emerged to play a vital role in developing all through the industrial world with an immense production of nanomaterials including nanoparticles (NPs). Many toxicological studies have confirmed that due to unique small size and physico-chemical properties of NPs (1-100nm), they can be potentially hazardous. Metallic NPs of small size have been shown to induce higher levels of cellular oxidative stress and can easily pass through the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) and significantly accumulate in brain. With the wide applications of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TNPs) in day-to-day life in form of cosmetics, paints, sterilisation and so on, there is growing concern regarding the deleterious effects of TNPs on central nervous system and mitochondria appear to be important cellular organelles targeted to the pro-oxidative effects of NPs and an important source that contribute significantly for the production of reactive oxygen species after some toxicity or an injury. The aim of our study was to elucidate the effect of TNPs in anatase form with different concentrations (5-50 µg/ml) following with various oxidative stress markers in isolated brain mitochondria as an in vitro model. Oxidative stress was determined by measuring the different oxidative stress markers like lipid peroxidation as well as the protein carbonyl content which was found to be significantly increased. Reduced glutathione content and major glutathione metabolizing enzymes were also modulated signifying the role of glutathione redox cycle in the pathophysiology of TNPs. The study also includes the mitochondrial enzymes (Complex 1, Complex II, complex IV, Complex V ) and the enzymes showed toxicity in a relatively short time due to the effect of TNPs. The study provide a range of concentration that were toxic to the neuronal cells and data pointing to a general toxicity in brain mitochondria by TNPs, therefore, it is in need to consider the proper utilization of NPs in the environment.

Keywords: mitochondria, nanoparticles, brain, in vitro

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Authors: Venkat Garigapati

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Cell-based therapies are limited due to underlying host immune system activity. Microencapsulation of living cells to overcome this issue has some serious drawbacks, such as limitations of nutrient and oxygen diffusion, which pose a threat to the function and longevity of cells. The conformal coating could overcome the issues which are generally involved in traditional microencapsulation. Some of the theoretical advantages of conformal coating include superior nutrient and oxygen supply to cells, prolonged lifespan, improved drug-secreting cell functionality and an opportunity to load high cell doses in small volumes. Despite several advantages to the conformal coating, there are no suitable methods available to apply to living cells. The ultra-thin conformal coating was achieved utilizing click-reactive methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymers, which are capable of specifically reacting one polymer to another at neutral pH in the aqueous isotonic system at the desired temperature suitable for living cells without the need of deleterious initiators. ARPE-19 (Adult Retinal Pigment Epithelial cell line-19) cell-spheroids and rat pancreatic islets were used in the formulation studies. The in vitro studies of coated ARPE-19 cell-spheroids and rat islets indicate that the coat was intact; cells were viable and functioning. The in vitro study results revealed that the conformal coating technology seems promising and in vivo studies are being planned.

Keywords: cells, hydrogel, conformal coating, microencapsulation, insulin

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Authors: D. Songpol, K. Taweesak, T. Sookyuen

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A social enterprise is an organization that operates commercial business as a source of income with the aim of addressing social and environmental issues. Though it is clear that this kind of organization will benefit society and environment but in practice, it is found that most of social enterprises’ goals cannot be achieved. The most success factors of social enterprises usually rely on individual characteristics of entrepreneurs, especially in educational business. This study aims to find out the magnitude of influence from the components of entrepreneur competencies to social enterprises in education. There are developmental models of research demonstrating that knowledge, skills and attributes affect the success of social enterprises in term of sustainability, social opportunities and innovation leadership. The 5-scale questionnaire was used to collect data from the social entrepreneurs in education who operates in the South East Asian region of 135 samples and then processed by the methods of structural equation models. The results show that the competency of entrepreneurs in attributes has the greatest impact on the success of social enterprises while the skills and knowledge have respectively impact on the social enterprises’ success as well. The reason why attributes of entrepreneurs have the greatest impact on social enterprise success is because, social enterprise is an organization that does not motivate or provide attractive financial incentives to the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs, who succeed in developing their organizations, therefore need attribute factor higher than normal entrepreneurs, especially those in education sector that have somewhat few human resources to operate their businesses. More importantly, attribute’s traits such as entrepreneurial passion, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial identity and, innovativeness and perseverance will significantly affect the ideology and tolerance of the entrepreneurs once facing the problem in doing business. In conclusion, the education social enterprise would be successful depending on the performance of the entrepreneurs which derives from higher attributes competency.

Keywords: education, entrepreneur competencies, social enterprise, South East Asia

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Authors: Sajid Shah, Yoshimitsu Uemura, Katsuki Kusakabe

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Sol-gel derived hydrophobic silica membranes with pore sizes less than 1 nm are quite attractive for gas separation in a wide range of temperatures. A nano-structured hydrophobic membrane was prepared by sol-gel technique on a porous α–Al₂O₃ tubular support with yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as an intermediate layer. Bistriethoxysilylethane (BTESE) derived sol was modified by adding phenyltriethoxysilylethane (PhTES) as an organic template. Six times dip coated modified silica membrane having a thickness of about 782 nm was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy. Thermogravimetric analysis, together along contact angle and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, showed that hydrophobic properties were improved by increasing the PhTES content. The contact angle of water droplet increased from 37° for pure to 111.5° for the modified membrane. The permeance of single gas H₂ was higher than H₂:CO₂ ratio of 75:25 binary feed mixtures. However, the permeance of H₂ for 60:40 H₂:CO₂ was found lower than single and binary mixture 75:25 H₂:CO₂. The binary selectivity values for 75:25 H₂:CO₂ were 24.75, 44, and 57, respectively. Selectivity had an inverse relation with PhTES content. Hydrophobicity properties were improved by increasing PhTES content in the silica matrix. The system exhibits proper three layers adhesion or integration, and smoothness. Membrane system suitable in steam environment and high-temperature separation. It was concluded that the hydrophobic silica membrane is highly promising for the separation of H₂/CO₂ mixture from various H₂-containing process streams.

Keywords: gas separation, hydrophobic properties, silica membrane, sol–gel method

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Authors: Loubna Hamami, Bouchaib Nassereddine

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Due to the evolution of technologies, the need to observe and manage hostile environments, and reduction in size, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are becoming essential and implicated in the most fields of life. WSNs enable us to change the style of living, working and interacting with the physical environment. The agricultural sector is one of such sectors where WSNs are successfully used to get various benefits. For successful agricultural production, the irrigation system is one of the most important factors, and it plays a tactical role in the process of agriculture domain. However, it is considered as the largest consumer of freshwater. Besides, the scarcity of water, the drought, the waste of the limited available water resources are among the critical issues that touch the almost sectors, notably agricultural services. These facts are leading all governments around the world to rethink about saving water and reducing the volume of water used; this requires the development of irrigation practices in order to have a complete and independent system that is more efficient in the management of irrigation. Consequently, the selection of WSNs in irrigation system has been a benefit for developing the agriculture sector. In this work, we propose a prototype for a complete and intelligent irrigation system based on wireless sensor networks and we present and discuss the design of this prototype. This latter aims at saving water, energy and time. The proposed prototype controls water system for irrigation by monitoring the soil temperature, soil moisture and weather conditions for estimation of water requirements of each plant.

Keywords: precision irrigation, sensor, wireless sensor networks, water resources

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Abera Hailu Degaga, Emana Getu Degaga

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Spodoptera frugiperda is an invasive insect pest that infests and feeds various crops, particularly affecting maize yields. However, nature has its own way of maintaining balance, and in this case, natural enemies play a crucial role in regulating the population of S. frugiperda. Locally available and easily prepared botanical sources, bio-pesticides, are also important. The objectives of the study were to investigate the natural enemies of S. frugiperda in the Gurage zone and to compare Neem aqueous extracts against its larvae in central Ethiopia. S. frugiperda larvae and egg masses were collected randomly from smallholder maize farms infested with pests between June and August 2023. Our findings revealed the existence of diverse types of parasitoids, predators, and entomopathogenic fungi associated with S. frugiperda. Notably, we documented three species of parasitoids, namely Exorista xanthaspis and Tachina spp. (Diptera: Tachinidae) and Charops annulipes (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). All three species of parasitoids were recorded from Ethiopia for the first time. The overall parasitism rate was 5.3%, with individual rates ranging from 1.3 to 4%. Additionally, we identified ten species of predator insects from four different orders, including Hemiptera, Dermaptera, Coleoptera, and Mantodea, in the maize farms infested with S. frugiperda. Aqueous extract of Neem seed and leaf powder and green leaf exhibited similar mortality rates of S. frugiperda larvae at 72 hours even though there was a significant difference at 24 and 48 hours of the test. For effective management of S. frugiperda further research is necessary to fully exploit the potential of these natural enemies and additionally to use botanical source pesticides like Azadirachta indica.

Keywords: bio-pesticide, natural enemy, parasitoids, predators, Tachinid flies

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Authors: Ben Yahia Nouha, Harris Chris, Sebei Abdelaziz, Boussen Slim, Chaabani Fredj

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The present work has set itself the objective of studying non-detritic siliceous rocks of the extreme northwest Tunisia. It aims to examine the origin and their sedimentary depositional environment based on mineralogical and geochemical characteristics. The different sections were located in the area of Babouch and the area of Tabarka. The collected samples were subjected to mineralogical and geochemical characterization using different analytical methods: X-ray diffraction (XRD), geochemical analysis (ICP- AES), isotopic geochemistry (δ18O), to assess their suitability for industrial use. X-ray powder diffraction of the pure siliceous rock indicates quartz as the major mineral, with the total lack of amorphous silica. Trace impurities, such as carbonate and clay minerals, are concealed in the analytical results. The petrographic examination revealed allowed us to deduce that this rock was deriving from tests of siliceous organisms (the radiolarians). The chemical composition shows that SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 represent the most abundant oxides. The other oxides are present in negligible quantities. Geochemical data support a biogenic and non-hydrothermal origin of babouchite silica. Oxygen isotopic has shown that babouchites were formed in an environment with a high temperature ranging from 56 °C to 73 °C.

Keywords: biogenic silica, babouchite formation, XRD, chemical analysis, oxygen isotopic, northwest tunisia

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Authors: Magdalena Suśniak, Joanna Karwan-Baczewska

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Microstructure and tribological properties of AlSi5Cu2 matrix composite reinforced with SiC have been studied by microscopic examination and basic tribological properties. Composite material was produced by the mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The mixture of AlSi5Cu2 chips with 0, 10, 15 wt. % of SiC powder were placed in 250 ml mixing jar and milled 40 hours. To prevent the extreme cold welding the 1 wt. % of stearic acid was added to the powder mixture as a process control agent. Mechanical alloying provide to obtain composites powder with uniform distribution of SiC in matrix. Composite powders were poured into a graphite and a pulsed electric current was passed through powder under vacuum to consolidate material. Processing conditions were: sintering temperature 450°C, uniaxial pressure 32MPa, time of sintering 5 minutes. After SPS process composite samples indicate higher hardness values, lower weight loss, and lower coefficient of friction as compared with the unreinforced alloy. Light microscope micrograph of the worn surfaces and wear debris revealed that in the unreinforced alloy the prominent wear mechanism was the adhesive wear. In the AlSi5Cu2/SiC composites, by increasing of SiC the wear mechanism changed from adhesive and micro-cutting to abrasive and delamination for composite with 20 SiC wt. %. In all the AlSi5Cu2/SiC composites, abrasive wear was the main wear mechanism.

Keywords: aluminum matrix composite, mechanical alloying, spark plasma sintering, AlSi5Cu2/SiC composite

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Farid Eltom A. E., Mustafa Abdul-Halim, Abdalla Markaz, Sami Atta, Mohamed Azhari, Ahmed Rashed

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Smart environment sensors integrated with ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) technology can provide a new concept in tracking, sensing, and monitoring objects in the environment. The aim of the study is to evaluate the farm environmental monitoring system based on (IoT) and to realize the automated management of agriculture and the implementation of precision production. Until now, irrigation monitoring operations in Sudan have been carried out using traditional methods, which is a very costly and unreliable mechanism. However, by utilizing soil moisture sensors, irrigation can be conducted only when needed without fear of plant water stress. The result showed that software application allows farmers to display current and historical data on soil moisture and nutrients in the form of line charts. Design measurements of the soil factors: moisture, electrical, humidity, conductivity, temperature, pH, phosphorus, and potassium; these factors, together with a timestamp, are sent to the data server using the Lora WAN interface. It is considered scientifically agreed upon in the modern era that artificial intelligence works to arrange the necessary procedures to take care of the terrain, predict the quality and quantity of production through deep analysis of the various operations in agricultural fields, and also support monitoring of weather conditions.

Keywords: smart environment, monitoring systems, IoT, LoRa Gateway, center pivot

Procedia PDF Downloads 27

Authors: Emel Sonmezer, Hayri Baran Yosmaoglu

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The negative impact of chronic pain syndromes on sexual function has been reported in several studies; however, the influences of treatment strategies on sexual dysfunction have not been evaluated widely. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of pelvic floor exercise on sexual dysfunction in female patients with chronic low back pain. Forty-two patient with chronic low back pain were enrolled this study. Subjects were divided into two groups. Group 1 received conventional physiotherapy consist of heat therapy, ergonomic education, William flexion exercise during 6 weeks. Group 2 received pelvic floor exercises in addition to conventional physiotherapy. Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was used for the assessment of sexual function. Pain intensity was assessed with Visual Analogue Scale. Quality of life was assessed with World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale. All measurements were taken before and after treatment. In conventional physiotherapy group; there were significant improvement in pain intensity (p= 0,003), physical health (p=0,011), psychological health (p=0,042) subscales of quality of life scale, arousal (p=0,042), lubrication (p=0,028) and pain (p= 0,034) subscales of FSFI. In additional pelvic floor exercise group; there were significant improvement in pain intensity (p= 0,005), physical health (p=0,012) psychological health (p=0,039) subscales of quality of life scale, arousal (p=0,024), lubrication (p=0,011), orgasm (p=0,035) and pain (p= 0,015) subscales and total score (p=0,016) of FSFI. Total FSFI score (p=0,025) and orgasm (p=0,017) subscale of FSFI were significantly higher for the additional pelvic floor exercise group than the conventional physiotherapy group.The outcome of this study suggested that conventional physiotherapy may contribute to improve pain, quality of life and some parameters of the sexual function in patients with low back pain. Although additional pelvic floor exercise did not reveal more treatment effect in terms of quality of life and pain intensity, it caused significant improvement in sexual function. It is recommended that pelvic floor exercise should be added to treatment programs in order to manage sexual dysfunction more effectively in patients with chronic low back pain.

Keywords: physiotherapy, chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, pelvic floor

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Sukovatov K.Yu., Bezuglova N.N.

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Winter precipitation variability over the Altai Krai was investigated by retrieving temporal patterns. The spectral singular analysis was used to describe the variance distribution and to reduce the precipitation data into a few components (modes). The associated time series were related to large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation indices by using lag cross-correlation and wavelet-coherence analysis. GPCC monthly precipitation data for rectangular field limited by 50-550N, 77-880E and monthly climatological circulation index data for the cold season were used to perform SSA decomposition and retrieve statistics for analyzed parameters on the time period 1951-2017. Interannual variability of winter precipitation over the Altai Krai are mostly caused by three natural factors: intensity variations of momentum exchange between mid and polar latitudes over the North Atlantic (explained variance 11.4%); wind speed variations in equatorial stratosphere (quasi-biennial oscillation, explained variance 15.3%); and surface temperature variations for equatorial Pacific sea (ENSO, explained variance 2.8%). It is concluded that under the current climate conditions (Arctic amplification and increasing frequency of meridional processes in mid-latitudes) the second and the third factors are giving more significant contribution into explained variance of interannual variability for cold season atmospheric precipitation over the Altai Krai than the first factor.

Keywords: interannual variability, winter precipitation, Altai Krai, wavelet-coherence

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: A. Aljohani, D. Burke, D. Clarke, M. Gormally, M. Byrne, G. Fleming

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Introduction: House Dust Mites (HDMs) are a source of allergen particles embedded in textiles and furnishings. Vacuum sampling is commonly used to recover and determine the abundance of HDMs but the efficiency of this method is less than standardized. Here, the efficiency of recovery of HDMs was evaluated from home-associated textiles using vacuum sampling protocols.Methods/Approach: Living Mites (LMs) or dead Mites (DMs) House Dust Mites (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus: FERA, UK) were separately seeded onto the surfaces of Smooth Cotton, Denim and Fleece (25 mites/10x10cm2 squares) and left for 10 minutes before vacuuming. Fabrics were vacuumed (SKC Flite 2 pump) at a flow rate of 14 L/min for 60, 90 or 120 seconds and the number of mites retained by the filter (0.4μm x 37mm) unit was determined. Vacuuming was carried out in a linear direction (Protocol 1) or in a multidirectional pattern (Protocol 2). Additional fabrics with LMs were also frozen and then thawed, thereby euthanizing live mites (now termed EMs). Results/Findings: While there was significantly greater (p=0.000) recovery of mites (76% greater) in fabrics seeded with DMs than LMs irrespective of vacuuming protocol or fabric type, the efficiency of recovery of DMs (72%-76%) did not vary significantly between fabrics. For fabrics containing EMs, recovery was greatest for Smooth Cotton and Denim (65-73% recovered) and least for Fleece (15% recovered). There was no significant difference (p=0.99) between the recovery of mites across all three mite categories from Smooth Cotton and Denim but significantly fewer (p=0.000) mites were recovered from Fleece. Scanning Electron Microscopy images of HMD-seeded fabrics showed that live mites burrowed deeply into the Fleece weave which reduced their efficiency of recovery by vacuuming. Research Implications: Results presented here have implications for the recovery of HDMs by vacuuming and the choice of fabric to ameliorate HDM-dust sensitization.

Keywords: allergy, asthma, dead, fabric, fleece, live mites, sampling

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Abraham Kidane

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The study aims at assessing the prospects and challenges of community-based ecotourism development in and around the Guassa Community Conservation Area (GCCA) for the establishment of alternative sources of livelihood for local people and the conservation of natural resources. The Guassa area and its surrounding area are endowed with natural, cultural, and religious tourism resources. The study is descriptive in its design and uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Interviews and questionnaires were used as an instrument for data gathering. The interview was undertaken with government officials, NGO officials, and experts, with three local community representatives. The three Kebeles of Guassa were chosen using purposive sampling because of the fact that they are immediate neighbors to GCCA, and hence, 150 questionnaires were administered proportionally to the household numbers in each kebeles. The perspectives of the MoCT, EWCA, and some Tour Operation agencies were uncovered through questionnaires; for each of them, five questionnaires were administered, and all the returns were used in the analysis. Frequency, percentage, average mean, One Way-ANOVA, and independent t-test are used to analyze quantitative data. The findings revealed that food insecurity is commonplace in the study area. The local people's reliance on the conservation area’s resources has been increasing, and the area size is also dwindling from time to time. On the other hand, the local people's levels of awareness about Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) are low. In addition, the local capacity in relation to conservation and CBET development is also low, even though there is inadequate training offered by the government and NGOs. In general, tourism is not yet considered an alternative source of income and a means of conserving natural resources. In addition, the challenges for CBET development apart from low awareness level about CBET and low capacity, poor infrastructure, and poor tourism facilities were also identified as challenges in the study area.

Keywords: ecotourism, CBET, alternative livelihood, conservation

Procedia PDF Downloads 75

Authors: Rachid El Aidani, Phuong Nguyen-Tri, Toan Vu-Khanh

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The filter media in synthetic fibre is the most geotextile materials used in aerosol and drainage filtration, particularly for buildings soil reinforcement in civil engineering due to its appropriated properties and its low cost. However, the current understanding of the durability and stability of this material in real service conditions, especially under severe long-term conditions are completely limited. This study has examined the effects of the chemical aging of a filter media in polyester nonwoven under different temperatures (50, 70 and 80˚C) and pH (2. 7 and 12). The effect of aging conditions on mechanical properties, morphology, permeability, thermal stability and molar weigh changes is investigated. The results showed a significant reduction of mechanical properties in term of tensile strength, puncture force and tearing forces of the filter media after chemical aging due to the chemical degradation. The molar mass and mechanical properties changes in different temperature and pH showed a complex dependence of material properties on environmental conditions. The SEM and AFM characterizations showed a significant impact of the thermal aging on the morphological properties of the fibres. Based on the obtained results, the lifetime of the material in different temperatures was determined by the use of the Arrhenius model. These results provide useful information to better understand phenomena occurring during chemical aging of the filter media and may help to predict the service lifetime of this material in real used conditions.

Keywords: nonwoven membrane, chemical aging, mechanical properties, lifetime, filter media

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Matza Gusto Andika, Syariefatunnisa

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Hanger at the arch bridges is an important part to transfer load on the bridge deck onto the arch. Bridges are subjected to several types of loadings, such as dead load, temperature load, wind load, moving loads etc. Usually the hanger bridge has a typical bluff body shape such as circle, square, H beam, etc. When flow past bluff body, the flow separates from the body surface generating an unsteady broad wake. These vortices are shed to the wake periodically with some frequency that is related to the undisturbed wind speed and the size of the cross-section body by the well-known Strouhal relationship. The dynamic characteristic and hanger shape are crucial for the evaluation of vortex induced vibrations and structural vibrations. The effect of vortex induced vibration is not catastrophic as a flutter phenomenon, but it can make fatigue failure to the structure. Wind tunnel tests are conducted to investigate the VIV and galloping effect at circle, hexagonal, and H beam bluff body for hanger bridge. From this research, the hanger bridge with hexagonal shape has a minimum vibration amplitude due to VIV phenomenon compared to circle and H beam. However, when the wind bruises the acute angle of hexagon shape, the vibration amplitude of bridge hanger with hexagonal shape is higher than the other bluff body.

Keywords: vortex induced vibration, hanger bridge, wind tunnel, galloping

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Ngo Xuan Quang, Tran Thanh Thai, Ann Vanreusel

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The Ba Lai dam construction was created in 2000 in the Ba Lai estuarine river, Ben Tre province, Vietnam to prevent marine water infiltration, drainage and de-acidification, and to build a reservoir of freshwater for land reclamation in the Ba Lai tributary. However, this dam is considered as an environmental failure for the originally connected estuarine and river ecosystem, especially to bad effect to benthic fauna distribution. This research aims to study applying free living nematode communities’ distribution in disturbance of dam construction as bioindicator to detect environmental impact. Nematode samples were collected together measuring physical–chemical environmental parameters such as chlorophyll, CPE, coliform, nutrient, grain size, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, conductivity, temperature in three stations within three replicates. Results showed that free living nematode communities at the dam construction was significantly low densities, low diversity (Hurlbert’s index, Hill diversity indices) and very low maturity index in comparison with two remaining stations. Strong correlation of nematode feeding types and communities’ structure was found in relation with sediment grain size and nutrient enrichment such nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and pigment concentration. Moreover, greatly negative link between nematode maturity index with nutrient parameters can serve as warning organic pollution of the Ba Lai river due to dam construction.

Keywords: Ba Lai, dam impact, nematode, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: Muhammed Saeed Rasheed

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Knowledge of the zinc and phytic acid (PA) concentrations of staple cereal crops are essential when evaluating the nutritional health of national and regional populations. In the present study, a total of 120 farmers’ fields in Iraqi Kurdistan were surveyed for zinc status in soil and wheat grain samples; wheat is the staple carbohydrate source in the region. Soils were analysed for total concentrations of phosphorus (PT) and zinc (ZnT), available P (POlsen) and Zn (ZnDTPA) and for pH. Average values (mg kg-1) ranged between 403-3740 (PT), 42.0-203 (ZnT), 2.13-28.1 (POlsen) and 0.14-5.23 (ZnDTPA); pH was in the range 7.46-8.67. The concentrations of Zn, PA/Zn molar ratio and estimated Zn bioavailability were also determined in wheat grain. The ranges of Zn and PA concentrations (mg kg⁻¹) were 12.3-63.2 and 5400 – 9300, respectively, giving a PA/Zn molar ratio of 15.7-30.6. A trivariate model was used to estimate intake of bioaccessible Zn, employing the following parameter values: (i) maximum Zn absorption = 0.09 (AMAX), (ii) equilibrium dissociation constant of zinc-receptor binding reaction = 0.680 (KP), and (iii) equilibrium dissociation constant of Zn-PA binding reaction = 0.033 (KR). In the model, total daily absorbed Zn (TAZ) (mg d⁻¹) as a function of total daily nutritional PA (mmole d⁻¹) and total daily nutritional Zn (mmole Zn d⁻¹) was estimated assuming an average wheat flour consumption of 300 g day⁻¹ in the region. Consideration of the PA and Zn intake suggest only 21.5±2.9% of grain Zn is bioavailable so that the effective Zn intake from wheat is only 1.84-2.63 mg d-1 for the local population. Overall results suggest available dietary Zn is below recommended levels (11 mg d⁻¹), partly due to low uptake by wheat but also due to the presence of large concentrations of PA in wheat grains. A crop breeding program combined with enhanced agronomic management methods is needed to enhance both Zn uptake and bioavailability in grains of cultivated wheat types.

Keywords: phosphorus, zinc, phytic acid, phytic acid to zinc molar ratio, zinc bioavailability

Procedia PDF Downloads 99