Search results for: cover crops

Authors: Abel L. Masotla, Phesheya E. Dlamini, Vusumuzi E. Mbanjwa

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Accurate quantification of the vertical distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) in relation to land cover transformations, associated with shrub encroachment is crucial because deeper lying horizons have been shown to have greater capacity to sequester SOC. Despite this, in-depth soil carbon dynamics remain poorly understood, especially in arid and semi-arid rangelands. The objective of this study was to quantify and compare the vertical distribution of soil organic carbon stocks (SOCs) in shrub-encroached and open grassland sites. To achieve this, soil samples were collected vertically at 10 cm depth intervals under both sites. The results showed that SOC was on average 19% and 13% greater in the topsoil and subsoil respectively, under shrub-encroached grassland compared to open grassland. In both topsoil and subsoil, lower SOCs were found under shrub-encroached (4.53 kg m⁻² and 3.90 kgm⁻²) relative to open grassland (4.39 kgm⁻² and 3.67 kgm⁻²). These results demonstrate that deeper soil horizon play a critical role in the storage of SOC in savanna grassland.

Keywords: savanna grasslands, shrub-encroachment, soil organic carbon, vertical distribution

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Authors: Dudul Das, Pankaj Kalita, Sangeeta Borah

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Freshwater availability in the world is as low as 1% of total water available and in many geographical locations dissolved fluoride and arsenic are serious problem. In India availability of freshwater will be stressed by 2025, so the availability saline water from sea is a hope for the people of Indian sub-continent, but saline water is not drinkable it need to be processed, which again require a huge amount of energy. So the most easy and handy option in such situation for all those problems is solar still, this investigation presents various scopes for improvement of its efficiency. Experiments showed that by increasing the absorber plate area through better design can increase the distillate output by two fold and by using jute wicks in the modified absorber plate increases the output up to three times that of conventional solar still available in the Department of Energy, Tezpur University. The experiment is carried out at constant water depth of 8.5 cm and glass cover inclination of 27o facing South. The exergy analysis carried out clearly resulted that with the use of jute wick and baffle plated basin the efficiency achieved more than the simple baffle plated basin. The Instantaneous exergy without jute wick ranges from 2.5% to 4.5% while using jute it ranges from 1.5% to 5.15%.

Keywords: fluoride, absorber plate, jute wick, instantaneous exergy

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Authors: Astha Sinha, Anjali Kanagali

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The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, also termed as “Brexit,” took place on June 23, 2016 and immediately had global repercussions on the stock markets of the world. It is however expected to have a greater impact on the Banking sector in the UK. There is a two-fold effect on the earnings of banks which is being expected. First is of the trading activity and investment banking businesses being hit due to global weakness in financial markets. Second is that the banks having a large presence in the European Union will have to restructure their operations in order to cover other European countries as well increase their operating costs. As per the analysis, banks are expected to face rate cuts, bad loans, and tight liquidity. The directives in the Brexit negotiations on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) will be a major decision to be taken for the Banking sector. New regulations will be required since most of the regulations governing the financial services industry allowing for the cross-border transactions were at the EU level. This paper aims to analyze the effect of Brexit on the UK Banking sector and changes in regulations that are expected due to the same. It shall also lay down the lessons learnt from the 2008 financial crisis and draw a parallel in terms of potential areas to be focused on for revival of the financial sector of Britain.

Keywords: Brexit, Brexit impact on UK, impact of Brexit on banking, impact of Brexit on financial services

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Authors: Miroslav Čulík, Petr Gurný

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This paper is aimed at the financial assessment of the hard coal mining in a given region by real option methodology application. Hard coal mining in this mine makes net loss for the owner during the last years due to the long-term unfavourable mining conditions and significant drop in the coal prices during the last years. Management is going to shut down the operation and abandon the project to reduce the loss of the company. The goal is to assess whether the shutting down the operation is the only and correct solution of the problem. Due to the uncertainty in the future hard coal price evolution, the production might be again restarted if the price raises enough to cover the cost of the production. For the assessment, real option methodology is applied, which captures two important aspect of the financial decision-making: risk and flexibility. The paper is structured as follows: first, current state is described and problem is analysed. Next, methodology of real options is described. At last, project is evaluated by applying real option methodology. The results are commented and recommendations are provided.

Keywords: real option, investment, option to abandon, option to shut down and restart, risk, flexibility

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Authors: O. Sunantha, S. Zhenfeng, S. Phattraporn, A. Zeeshan

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The decline of soil organic carbon (SOC) in global agriculture is a critical issue requiring rapid and accurate estimation for informed policymaking. Previous studies have demonstrated the variability of SOC predictors derived from remote sensing data and environmental variables. However, the specific parameters most suitable for accurately estimating SOC in agricultural areas remain unclear. This study utilizes remote sensing data to precisely estimate SOC and identify influential factors in diverse agricultural areas, such as paddy, corn, sugarcane, cassava, and perennial crops. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), and support vector regression (SVR) models are employed to analyze these factors impact on SOC estimation. The results show key factors influencing SOC estimation include slope, vegetation indices (EVI), spectral reflectance indices (red index, red edge2), temperature, land use, and surface soil moisture, as indicated by their averaged importance scores across XGBoost, RF, and SVR models. Therefore, using different machine learning algorithms for SOC estimation reveals varying influential factors from remote sensing data and environmental variables. This approach emphasizes feature selection, as different machine learning algorithms identify various key factors from remote sensing data and environmental variables for accurate SOC estimation.

Keywords: factors influencing SOC estimation, remote sensing data, environmental variables, machine learning

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Authors: Thapthep Paprach, Benya Lertsuwan

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Investment fraud is not a new criminal, but there are still more victims during the Internet of Things era. This kind of criminal has been classified as a national and transnational financial crime problem all over the world. In Thailand, the country has also been attacked by this kind of crime. This research concerns whether the mass media that is supposed to cover news about online investment scams realized and warned Thais about this crime. Thus, this study explores the value of news about investment fraud in terms of frequency. The methodology uses web crawling from the top 5 news agency websites that have the most access. We pull out all information reporting about investment fraud. The findings revealed that the ‘Khaosod’ news agency was the first rank in reporting on investment crime. On the other hand, ‘Matichon’ was the least reported. Thairat news agencies frequently reported such criminals from midnight to very early in the morning, while other news agencies reported during the daytime. The results between the frequency of news reporting about investment fraud and the monthly number of victim reports are not correlated. Although the most cases reported to Thai police were in February 2023, but the most news reported was in January 2023. In conclusion, there might be a negative correlation between the amount of investment fraud news reported and the number of victims.

Keywords: investment fraud, news value, online news report, Ponzi schemes, Romance scam

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Authors: Daniel Macedo Neto, Sandro Froehner, Juan Sanez

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Suspended sediments (SS) are an environmental constituent able to represent the effects of land use changes on watersheds. One important consideration of land use change is its implication on trace element loading. Water bodies have the capacity to retain trace elements. Spatial variation in trace elements concentrations can be associated with land occupation and sources of pollution. In this work, the spatial variation of trace elements in suspended sediments from an urban river was assessed. Time-integrated fluvial suspended sediment samples were installed in three different sites of Barigui River. The suspend solids were collected every 30 days, from May 2015 to August 2015 (total samples 12). Site P1 covers 44 km2 drainage area and has low land occupation, whilst P2 cover an area of 87 km2 and it is totally urban as P3, which area is higher than 130 km2. Trace elements (As, Cd, Cr, P, Pb and Zn) were analysed by ICP-ES. All elements analyzed showed a similar pattern, i.e., the concentration raise with the urbanization, exception for As (P1=7.75; P2=5.75; P3=5.60mg/kg). There was increase in concentration for Cd (P1=0.75; P2=0.78; P3=1.45mg/kg), Cr (P1=59.50; P2=101.75; P3=102.00 mg/kg), Zn (P1=142.25; P2=152.50; P3=223.00mg/kg), P (P1=937.50; P2=1,545.00; P3=2,355.00 mg/kg) and for Pb (P1=31.25; P2=32.75; P3=39.17±2.56 mg/kg). The variation in concentrations were as follow -27.74% (As), +93.33% (Cd), +71.43% (Cr), +151.20% (P), +25.33% (Pb) e +56.77% (Zn). Cd, Cr, P, Pb and Zn presented a clear trend of increasing the concentration from upstream to downstream. Such variation is more notorious for P, Cd and Cr, possibly due the urbanization.

Keywords: trace elements, erosion, urbanization, suspended sediments

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Authors: Kaniz Roksana, Aluthgun Hewage Shaini, Cheng Zhu

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Lead is environmentally hazardous because it may persist for a long time in soil, water, and air, and it can travel large distances when carried by wind or water. Lead is toxic to many different species of organisms and has the potential to disrupt ecosystem stability. Moreover, lead can contaminate crops and livestock, which can then have an adverse effect on human health. This study was conducted to use the enzyme-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (EICP) technique from soybean crude extract urease along coconut fiber derived biochar’s (CFB) to bioremediate lead. To study the desorption rates of heavy metals from the soil, lead (Pb) was added to the soil at load ratios of 50 and 100 mg/kg. There were five separate treatment soil columns created: control sample, only CFB, only EICP, EICP with 2% (w/w) CFB, and EICP with 4% (w/w) CFB. Laboratory scale experiment demonstrates significant lead removal from soil. The amount of CaCO₃ precipitated in the soil was measured using a gravimetric acid digestion test, which related heavy metal desorption to the amount of precipitated calcium carbonate. These findings were validated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which revealed calcium carbonate and lead coprecipitation. As a result, the study reveals that the EICP technique, in conjunction with coconut fiber biochar, could be an efficient alternative in the remediation of heavy metal ion-contaminated soils.

Keywords: enzyme induced calcium carbonate precipitation (EICP), coconut fiber derived biochar’s (CFB), bioremediation, heavy metal

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Authors: Hachemi Nouria

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The olive tree is a Mediterranean tree, which belongs to the family Oleaceae. The Olea genus contains various species and subspecies, and the only species bearing edible fruit is Olea europaea. The desired issue in this study is to provide the current status of plant cover and especially the training in Olea europaea currently existing in the major centers of the region of Tlemcen. While based on the flora and biometric aspect of this plant germplasm. In order to make an assessment of the phytomass, we made measurements of the four parameters of the aerial part of the taxon: height, diameter, and canopy density to ten feet of the olive tree per station. The floristic analysis shows a certain floristic difference between the different stations. The vegetal formations reflect the biotic and abiotic conditions including climate affecting the ecosystem. Biometric study on the feet of Olea in the six study sites, has led us to conclude that the four measured parameters provides insight on the development or degradation of Olea feet depending on the layout of the stations and the factors environmental. We find that the terrains are havens for these assets. Also the local microclimate (Oued Thalweg) promotes the healthy development of this species.

Keywords: olivier, ecology, biometrics, Tlemcen, Algeria

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Authors: Belalia Douma Omar, Bakhta Boukhatem, Mohamed Ghrici

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Self-compacting concrete (SCC) developed in Japan in the late 80s has enabled the construction industry to reduce demand on the resources, improve the work condition and also reduce the impact of environment by elimination of the need for compaction. Fuzzy logic (FL) approaches has recently been used to model some of the human activities in many areas of civil engineering applications. Especially from these systems in the model experimental studies, very good results have been obtained. In the present study, a model for predicting compressive strength of SCC containing various proportions of fly ash, as partial replacement of cement has been developed by using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). For the purpose of building this model, a database of experimental data were gathered from the literature and used for training and testing the model. The used data as the inputs of fuzzy logic models are arranged in a format of five parameters that cover the total binder content, fly ash replacement percentage, water content, super plasticizer and age of specimens. The training and testing results in the fuzzy logic model have shown a strong potential for predicting the compressive strength of SCC containing fly ash in the considered range.

Keywords: self-compacting concrete, fly ash, strength prediction, fuzzy logic

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Authors: Mosima M. Mabitsela

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Groundnut is preferably grown on light textured soils. Most of these light textured soils tend to be highly weathered and characterized by high soil acidity and low nutrient status. One major soil factor associated with infertility of acidic soils that can negatively depress groundnut yield is aluminium (Al) toxicity. In plants Al toxicity damages root cells, leading to inhibition of root growth as a result of the suppression of cell division, cell elongation and cell expansion in the apical meristem cells of the root. The end result is that roots become stunted and brittle, root hair development is poor, and the root apices become swollen. This study was conducted to determine the effects of aluminium (Al) toxicity on a range of groundnut varieties. Fifteen cultivars were tested in incremental aluminum (Al) supply in an ebb and flow solution culture laid out in a randomized complete block design. There were six aluminium (Al) treatments viz. 0 µM, 1 µM, 5.7 µM, 14.14 µM, 53.18 µM, and 200 µM. At 1 µM there was no inhibitory effect on the growth of groundnut. The inhibition of groundnut growth was noticeable from 5.7 µM to 200 µM, where the severe effect of aluminium (Al) stress was observed at 200 µM. The cultivars varied in their response to aluminium (Al) supply in solution culture. Groundnuts are one of the most important food crops in the world, and its supply is on a decline due to the light-textured soils that they thrive under as these soils are acidic and can easily solubilize aluminium (Al) to its toxic form. Consequently, there is a need to develop groundnut cultivars with high tolerance to soil acidity.

Keywords: aluminium toxicity, cultivars, reduction, root growth

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Authors: F. Ismael Roman Moreno, Francisca Alba Sanchez

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Over time, the plant landscape has changed as a result of the numerous events on a global and local scale that have happened. This is the case of the Mediterranean ecosystems, one of the most complex and rich in endemisms on the planet, subjected to anthropic pressures from the beginning of civilizations. The intervention in these systems together with climate changes has led to changes in diversity, tree cover, shrub, and ultimately in the structure and functioning of these ecosystems. Paleopalinology is used as a tool for analysis of pollen and non-pollen microfossils preserved in the flooded grasslands of the Middle Atlas (Morocco). This allows reconstructing the evolution of vegetation and climate, as well as providing data and reasoning to different ecological, cultural and historical processes. Although climatic and anthropic events are well documented in Europe, they are not so well documented in North Africa, which gives added value to the study area. The results obtained serve to predict the behavior and evolution of Mediterranean mountain ecosystems during the Holocene, their response to future changes, resilience, and recovery from climatic and anthropic disturbances. In the stratigraphic series analyzed, nine major events were detected, eight of which appeared to be of climatic and anthropic origin, and one unexpected, related to volcanic activity.

Keywords: anthropic, Holocene, Morocco, paleopalynology, resilience

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Authors: Chiang-Ho Cheng, An-Shik Yang, Hon-Yi Cheng, Ming-Yu Lai

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This paper presents the design and fabrication of a novel piezoelectric actuator for a gas micropump with check valve having the advantages of miniature size, light weight and low power consumption. The micropump is designed to have eight major components, namely a stainless steel upper cover layer, a piezoelectric actuator, a stainless steel diaphragm, a PDMS chamber layer, two stainless steel channel layers with two valve seats, a PDMS check valve layer with two cantilever-type check valves and an acrylic substrate. A prototype of the gas micropump, with a size of 52 mm × 50 mm × 5.0 mm, is fabricated by precise manufacturing. This device is designed to pump gases with the capability of performing the self-priming and bubble-tolerant work mode by maximizing the stroke volume of the membrane as well as the compression ratio via minimization of the dead volume of the micropump chamber and channel. By experiment apparatus setup, we can get the real-time values of the flow rate of micropump and the displacement of the piezoelectric actuator, simultaneously. The gas micropump obtained higher output performance under the sinusoidal waveform of 250 Vpp. The micropump achieved the maximum pumping rates of 1185 ml/min and back pressure of 7.14 kPa at the corresponding frequency of 120 and 50 Hz.

Keywords: PDMS, check valve, micropump, piezoelectric

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Authors: Recep Keşli, Onur Türkyılmaz, Hayriye Tokay, Kasım Demir

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Objective: Coeliac disease (CD) is a primary small intestine disorder caused by high sensitivity to gluten which is present in the crops, characterized by inflammation in the small intestine mucosa. The goal of this study was to determine and to compare the sensitivity and specificity values of anti-endomysial IgA (EMA IgA) (IFA) and anti-tissue transglutaminase IgA (anti-tTG IgA) (ELISA) antibodies in the diagnosis of patients suspected with the CD. Methods: One thousand two hundred seventy three patients, who have applied to gastroenterology and pediatric disease polyclinics of Afyon Kocatepe University ANS Research and Practice Hospital were included into the study between 23.09.2010 and 30.05.2016. Sera samples were investigated by immunofluorescence method for EMA positiveness (Euroimmun, Luebeck, Germany). In order to determine quantitative value of Anti-tTG IgA (EIA) (Orgentec Mainz, Germany) fully automated ELISA device (Alisei, Seac, Firenze, Italy) were used. Results: Out of 1273 patients, 160 were diagnosed with coeliac disease according to ESPGHAN 2012 diagnosis criteria. Out of 160 CD patients, 120 were female, 40 were male. The EMA specificity and sensitivity were calculated as 98% and 80% respectively. Specificity and sensitivity of Anti-tTG IgA were determined as 99% and 96% respectively. Conclusion: The specificity of EMA for CD was excellent because all EMA-positive patients (n = 144) were diagnosed with CD. The presence of human anti-tTG IgA was found as a reliable marker for diagnosis and follow-up the CD. Diagnosis of CD should be established on both the clinical and serologic profiles together.

Keywords: anti-endomysial antibody, anti-tTG IgA, coeliac disease, immunofluorescence assay (IFA)

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Authors: M. Bahgat, H. Hanafy, H. Al-Tassan

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Cluster formation is an essential phenomenon during direct reduction processes at shaft furnaces. Decreasing the reducing temperature to avoid this problem can cause a significant drop in throughput. In order to prevent sticking of pellets, a coating material basically inactive under the reducing conditions prevailing in the shaft furnace, should be applied to cover the outer layer of the pellets. In the present work, steel dust is used as coating material for iron ore pellets to explore dust coating effectiveness and determines the best coating conditions. Steel dust coating is applied for iron ore pellets in various concentrations. Dust slurry concentrations of 5.0-30% were used to have a coated steel dust amount of 1.0-5.0 kg per ton iron ore. Coated pellets with various concentrations were reduced isothermally in weight loss technique with simulated gas mixture to the composition of reducing gases at shaft furnaces. The influences of various coating conditions on the reduction behavior and the morphology were studied. The optimum reduced samples were comparatively applied for sticking index measurement. It was found that the optimized steel dust coating condition that achieve higher reducibility with lower sticking index was 30% steel dust slurry concentration with 3.0 kg steel dust/ton ore.

Keywords: reduction, ironmaking, steel dust, coating

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Authors: A. Ibáñez, A. Martínez, A. Sánchez, M. A. León

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This article is focused on the development of a series of biodegradable and eco-friendly masterbatches based on polylactic acid (PLA) filled with almond shell to study the influence of almond shell in the properties of injected biodegradable parts. These innovative masterbatches have 20 wt % of the almond shell. Different treatments were carried out with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and maleic anhydride (MA) to obtain better interfacial bonding between fibre and matrix. The masterbatches were produced by varying the fibre treatments (type of treatment, concentration and temperature). The masterbatches have been injected to obtain standardised test samples in order to study mechanical properties. The results show that, the some of the treated fibres present slightly higher flexural modulus and impact strength than untreated fibres. This study is part of a LIFE project (MASTALMOND) aimed to create and test at preindustrial level new coloured masterbatches based on biodegradable polymers and containing in its formulation a high percentage of almond shell, a natural waste material, which firstly will permit to cover technical requirements of two traditional industrial sectors: toy and furniture, although the results achieved could be extended to other industrial sectors.

Keywords: additivation, almond shell, biodegradable, masterbatch, PLA, injection moulding

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Authors: Najoua El Hajjaji El Idrissi, Necip Gokhan Kasapoglu

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Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar-based imaging is a powerful technique used for earth observation and classification of surfaces. Forest evolution has been one of the vital areas of attention for the remote sensing experts. The information about forest areas can be achieved by remote sensing, whether by using active radars or optical instruments. However, due to several weather constraints, such as cloud cover, limited information can be recovered using optical data and for that reason, Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) is used as a powerful tool for forestry inventory. In this [14paper, we applied support vector machine (SVM) and Mahalanobis distance to the fully polarimetric AIRSAR P, L, C-bands data from the Nezer forest areas, the classification is based in the separation of different tree ages. The classification results were evaluated and the results show that the SVM performs better than the Mahalanobis distance and SVM achieves approximately 75% accuracy. This result proves that SVM classification can be used as a useful method to evaluate fully polarimetric SAR data with sufficient value of accuracy.

Keywords: classification, synthetic aperture radar, SAR polarimetry, support vector machine, mahalanobis distance

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Authors: Fazal Said, Mian Inayatullah

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Various insect visitors in common and honeybees in particular are considered to be accountable for 80-85% of pollination services for numerous crops worldwide. Pollinators not only increase crop yield but also improve quality of produce as well. The present investigation is therefore, an endeavor to assess the visitation pattern of honeybees, Apis florea (Hymenopterae: Apidae) in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). The current research trial was carried out at New Developmental Farm (NDF), The University of Agriculture Peshawar, (34.01° N, 71.53° E) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan during 2012 and 2013. Different observations on the foraging behavior of A. florea’s individuals were made from 0800 hr in the morning and continued until 1800 hr in the evening. Hence, total duration of foraging activity of A. florea individuals was comprised of 10 hours. It was found that two peaks of visitation/foraging occurred between 1400 to 1600 hr of the day. First peak of foraging was recorded at 1600hr, where 15 individuals of honeybees/3 m2 were counted to be engaged in foraging sunflower blooms. Second peak visitation was recorded with a total of 12 bees/3 m2 at 1400 hrs of the day. Visitations of A. florea were observed to its minimum intensity of only 07 individuals during late hours of the day as evening approached after 1800 hrs. Similarly, due to more number of pollens and nectars on flowers, high frequency of A. florea were found engaged in foraging during 20th and 25th day after initiation of blooms on sunflower. Minimum numbers of honeybees were recorded during initial and very last days of flowering due to less number of plants with blooms and less availability of pollen and nectar on flowers.

Keywords: apis florea, days after flowering, daily hours, sunflower, visitation pattern

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Authors: Jackson Parker Galvan, Wenxuan Guo

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Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is being increasingly adopted in high-throughput plant phenotyping for applications in plant breeding and precision agriculture. Winter wheat is an important cover crop for reducing soil erosion and protecting the environment in the Southern High Plains. Efficiently quantifying plant leaf area and biomass provides critical information for producers to practice site-specific management of crop inputs, such as water and fertilizers. The objective of this study was to estimate wheat biomass and leaf area index using UAV images. This study was conducted in an irrigated field in Garza County, Texas. High-resolution images were acquired on three dates (February 18, March 25, and May 15th ) using a multispectral sensor onboard a Matrice 600 UAV. On each data of image acquisition, 10 random plant samples were collected and measured for biomass and leaf area. Images were stitched using Pix4D, and ArcGIS was applied to overlay sampling locations and derive data for sampling locations.

Keywords: precision agriculture, UAV plant phenotyping, biomass, leaf area index, winter wheat, southern high plains

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Authors: Cristina S. Decano, Vitaliana U. Malamug, Melissa E. Agulto, Helen F. Gavino

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This study aimed to introduce new natural fiber to be used in the production of geotextile net for mitigation of soil erosion. Fiber extraction from the stalks was the main challenge faced during the processing of stalks to ropes. Thus, an investigation on the extraction procedures of corn (Zea mays L.) stalk under biological and chemical retting was undertaken. Results indicated significant differences among percent fiber yield as affected by the retting methods used with values of 15.07%, 12.97%, 11.60%, and 9.01%, for dew, water, chemical (1 day after harvest and15 days after harvest), respectively, with the corresponding average extracting duration of 70, 82, 89, and 94 minutes. Physical characterization of the developed corn stalk geotextile net resulted to average mass per unit area of 806.25 g/m² and 241% water absorbing capacity. The effect of corn stalk geotextile net in mitigating soil erosion was evaluated in a laboratory experiment for 30^o and 60^o inclinations with three treatments: bare soil (A₁), corn stalk geotextile net (A₂) and combined cornstalk geotextile net and vegetation cover (A₃). Results revealed that treatment A₂ and A₃ significantly decreased sediment yield and an increase in terms of soil loss reduction efficiency. The cost of corn stalk geotextile net is Php 62.41 per square meter.

Keywords: corn stalk, natural geotextile, retting, soil erosion

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Authors: Muhammed Rabiu, Moses S. Oluyomi, Joshua Olorundare

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Quarry activities are important to modern day life and the socio-economic development of local communities. Unfortunately, this industry is usually associated with air pollution. To assess the impact of quarry dust on plant biodiversity and agriculture, PM2.5, PM10 and some meteorological parameters were measured using Gas analyzer, handheld thermometer and Multifunction Anemometer (PCE-EM 888) as well as taking a social survey. High amount of particulate matters that exceeded the international standard were recorded at the study locations which include the Julius Berger Quarry and 1km away from the quarry site which serve as the base for the farmlands. The correlation coefficient between the particulate matters with the meteorological parameters of the locations all show a strong relationship with temperature recording a stronger value of 0.952 and 0.931 for PM2.5 and PM10 respectively. Similarly, the coefficient of determination 0.906 and 0.866 shows that temperature has the highest meteorological percentage variation on PM2.5 and PM10. Furthermore, a notable negative impact of quarrying on plant biodiversity and local farm crops are also revealed based on respondents’ results where wide range of local plants were affected with Maize and Azadiracta indica (Neem) been the most with respondent of 31.5% and 27.5%. According to the obtained results, it is highly recommended to develop green belt surrounding the quarrying using pollutant-tolerant trees (usually with broad leaves) in order to restrict spreading of quarrying dust via intercepting, filtering and absorbing pollutants.

Keywords: agriculture, air pollution, biodiversity, quarry

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Authors: Wannakorn Sangthongngam, Melissa Huerta, Jaewoo Kim, Doyeon Kim

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Continuous glucose monitoring systems are essential for diabetics to avoid health complications but come at a costly price, especially when insurance does not fully cover the diabetic testing kits needed. This paper proposes a noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring system to provide an accessible, low-cost, and painless alternative method of accurate glucose measurements to help improve quality of life. Using a light source with a wavelength of 850nm illuminates the fingertip for the photodetector to detect the transmitted light. Utilizing SeeDevice’s photon-assisted tunneling photodetector (PAT-PD)-based QMOS™ sensor, fluctuations of voltage based on photon absorption in blood cells are comparable to traditional glucose measurements. The performance of the proposed method was validated using 4 test participants’ transmitted voltage readings compared with measurements obtained from the Accu-Chek glucometer. The proposed method was able to successfully measure concentrations from linear regression calculations.

Keywords: continuous glucose monitoring, non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring, NIR, photon-assisted tunneling photodetector, QMOS™, wearable device

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Authors: U. S. Babuga, A. H. Danwanka, A. Garba

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The research was carried out to compare the yield of respondents before and after access to extension services on crop production technologies in the study area. Data were collected from the study area through questionnaires administered to seventy-five randomly selected respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and regression models. The result disclosed that majority (97%) of the respondent attended one form of school or the other. The majority (78.67%) of the respondents had farm size ranging between 1-3 hectares. The majority of the respondent adopt improved variety of crops, plant spacing, herbicide, fertilizer application, land preparation, crop protection, crop processing and storage of farm produce. The result of the t-test between the yield of respondents before and after access to extension services shows that there was a significant (p<0.001) difference in yield before and after access to extension. It also indicated that farm size was significant (p<0.001) while household size, years of farming experience and extension contact were significant at (p<0.005). The major constraint to adoption of crop production technologies were shortage of extension agents, high cost of technology and lack of access to credit facility. The major pre-requisite for the improvement of extension service are employment of more extension agents or workers and adequate training. Adequate agricultural credit to farmers at low interest rates will enhance their adoption of crop production technologies.

Keywords: comparative, analysis, yield, access, extension

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Authors: Farah Jafarpisheh, John Hutson, Howard Fallowfield

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Growing Sorghum varieties, with the potential of the animal food source, by using the treated wastewater from High Rate Algae Ponds (HRAPs) is an attractive subject. For the first time, in South Australia, Sorghum Earthnote variety one (SE1) has been grown using the wastewater from HRAPs. In this study, after the first harvest, the roots left in the soil. After a short period of time, sorghum started to regrow again, which can increase the value of planting sorghum by using the wastewater. This study demonstrates the higher amount of green biomass with the potential of animal food source after the second harvest. Different parameters, including height(mm), number of leaves and tiller, Brix percentage, fresh and dry leaf weight(g), total top fresh weight(g), stem and seed dry and fresh weight(g) have been measured in the field after first and second harvest. The results demonstrated the higher height, number of tiller, and diameter after the second harvest. Number of leaves and leaves fresh weight and total top weight increased by 6 and 10 times, respectively. Brix percentage increased by 2 times. In the first harvest, no seeds harvested, while in the second harvest, 134 g seeds harvested. This sorghum variety (SE1) showed the acceptable green biomass, especially after the second harvest. This property will add to the value of sorghum in this condition, as it will not need extra fertilizer and labor work for seed planting.

Keywords: energy, high rate algae ponds, HRAPs, Sorghum, waste water

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Authors: Tomáš Ludík, Jiří Barta, Sabina Chytilová, Josef Navrátil

Abstract:

Emergency management is a discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. Appropriate emergency management software allows better management of these risks and has a direct influence on reducing potential negative impacts. Although there are several emergency management software products in the Czech Republic, they cover user requirements from the emergency management field only partially. Therefore, the paper focuses on the issues of requirement analysis within development of emergency management software. Analysis of the current state describes the basic features and properties of user requirements for software development as well as basic methods and approaches for gathering these requirements. Then, the paper presents more specific mechanisms for requirement analysis based on chosen software development approach: structured, object-oriented or agile. Based on these experiences it is designed new methodology for requirement analysis. Methodology describes how to map user requirements comprehensively in the field of emergency management and thus reduce misunderstanding between software analyst and emergency manager. Proposed methodology was consulted with department of fire brigade and also has been applied in the requirements analysis for their current emergency management software. The proposed methodology has general character and can be used also in other specific areas during requirement analysis.

Keywords: emergency software, methodology, requirement analysis, stakeholders, use case diagram, user stories

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Authors: Lisa Snape, Andreas Lang, Tony Brown, Dan Fallu, Ben Pears

Abstract:

Agricultural terraced landscapes are widespread in mountainous areas in a variety of climatic zones around the World. The most famous are those found associated with the famous Inca site of Machu Pichu in the Andes, the arid lands in upland areas of Yemen, and the abundant rice terraces covering the hilltops in tropical areas such as Thailand, Vietnam, and China and also Bali. Terraces were designed using advanced engineered techniques, requiring specialist knowledge of bedrock geology, soil cultivation and maintenance, and ecosystem management to grow a variety of crops in specific environmental conditions. These enigmatic landscapes were often overlooked in the past but have now received widespread attention to further understand their age, origins, and evolution as the landscapes and environment changed over time. By understanding the age and chronologies of agricultural terrace technology, we can enhance our understanding of these unique features considered widely as important ecosystem services in the present day. We present distinct luminescence dating evidence from a variety of terraced systems found in different European environmental settings, such as the UK, Italy and Belgium, as part of the wider ERC-funded TerrACE Project. Our research aims to better understand their history and advocate for their protection and effective management as important cultural, heritage and environmental assets, creating new avenues for future scientific research.

Keywords: terraces, agriculture, luminescence dating, heritage protection

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Authors: Najib Al-Fadhali, Huda Majid

Abstract:

In this article, a substrate integrated waveguide cavity slot antenna was designed using a computer simulation technology software tool to address the specific design challenges for millimeter-wave communications posed by future satellite communications. Due to the symmetrical structure, a high-order mode is generated in SIW, which yields high gain and high efficiency with a compact feed structure. The antenna has dimensions of 20 mm x 20 mm x 1.34 mm. The proposed antenna bandwidth ranges from 45 GHz to 50 GHz, covering a Q-band application such as satellite communication. Antenna efficiency is above 80% over the operational frequency range. The gain of the antenna is above 9 dB with a peak value of 9.4 dB at 47.5 GHz. The proposed antenna is suitable for various millimeter-wave applications such as sensing, body imaging, indoor scenarios, new generations of wireless networks, and future satellite communications. The simulated results show that the SIW antenna resonates throughout the bands of 45 to 50 GHz, making this new antenna cover all applications within this range. The reflection coefficients are below 10 dB in most ranges from 45 to 50 GHz. The compactness, integrity, reliability, and performance at various operating frequencies make the proposed antenna a good candidate for future satellite communications.

Keywords: ultra-wideband, Q-band, SIW, mm-wave, satellite communications

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Authors: Shafaqat Ali, Afzal Hussain, Muhammad Rizwan, Longhua Wu

Abstract:

Chromium (Cr) is one of the widespread and toxic trace elements present in the agricultural land. Chromium can enter into the food chain mainly through agricultural crops grown on Cr-contaminated soils such as rice (Oryza sativa L.). The current study was done to evaluate the effects of increasing concentrations foliar applied zinc (Zn) chelated with lysine (Zn-lys) (0, 10, 20, and 30 mg L⁻¹) on rice biomass, photosynthesis, oxidative stress, key antioxidant enzyme activities and Cr uptake under increasing levels of Cr in the soil (0, 100, 500 mg kg⁻¹). Cr-induced toxicity reduced the height of plants, biomass, chlorophyll contents, gas exchange parameters, and antioxidant enzyme activities while increased the Cr concentrations and oxidative stress (malondialdehyde, electrolyte leakage, and H₂O₂) in shoots and roots than control plants. Foliar application of Zn-lys increased the plant growth, photosynthesis, Zn concentrations, and enzyme activities in rice seedlings. In addition, Zn-lys reduced the Cr concentrations and oxidative stress compared to the respective Cr treatments alone. The present results indicate that foliar Zn-lys stimulates the antioxidant defense system in rice, increase the rice growth while reduced the Cr concentrations in plants by promoting the Zn uptake and photosynthesis. Taken together, foliar spray of Zn-lys chelate can efficiently be employed for improving plant growth and Zn contents while reducing Cr concentration in rice grown in Cr-contaminated and Zn-deficient soils.

Keywords: antioxidants, chromium, zinc-lysine, oxidative stress, photosynthesis, tolerance

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Authors: Virgina Claudia Latengke, Muhaammad Nur Arifin, Vanny Septia Sundari

Abstract:

Kedulan Temple is located in Dusun Kedulan, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia at coordinates S 07o 44’ 57’, E 110o 28’ 17’. Kedulan Temple is a trace of the relics of life in the 3 century AD. The Kedulan Temple including exhumed landforms, which the primordial landform is first surface topography, then buried under cover mass and exposed or re-inscribed. Recognized by the existence of ancient soil (paleosoil) and ancient objects. Seen from the type of soil that closes the temple, there are 13 layers of lava type, so it is estimated that the lava that buried the temple came from 13 times the eruption of Mount Merapi. The material that buries the base of this temple is the pyroclastic surge deposits in 3 layers, each of which is limited by a thin layer of paleosol, the sediments are 1445+/-50 yBP, 1175+/-50 yBP, and 1060+/-40 yBP. This temple is buried and dug again at 940+/-100 yBP. Furthermore, the temple affected by earthquake, so the floor and foundation becomes bumpy and most of the temple stone are thrown. The temple is left alone, until exposed to hot clouds at 1285 M (740+/-50yBP). Next, repeatedly buried lava in 4 periods, in 1587 M (360+/-50 yBP, 240+/-50 yBP, 200+/-50 yBP and unknown date). From studying this temple, can be known paleogeomorphology process that occurred in Yogyakarta, especially related to the volcanic activity of Mount Merapi. Until now, the water is still flowing around the temple so there is a fluvial process that began to take a role in the temple.

Keywords: Kedulan temple, paleogeomorphology, buried, mount Merapi, Yogyakarta

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: M. López-Moreno, L. Lugo Avilés, F. Román, J. Lugo Rosas, J. Hernández-Viezcas Jr., Peralta-Videa, J. Gardea-Torresdey

Abstract:

Degradation of agricultural soils has increased rapidly during the last 20 years due to the indiscriminate use of pesticides and other anthropogenic activities. Currently, there is an urgent need of soil restoration to increase agricultural production. Utilization of sewage sludge or municipal solid waste is an important way to recycle nutrient elements and improve soil quality. With these amendments, nutrient availability in the aqueous phase might be increased and production of healthier crops can be accomplished. This research project aimed to achieve sustainable management of tropical agricultural soils, specifically in Puerto Rico, through the amendment of water treatment plant sludge’s. This practice avoids landfill disposal of sewage sludge and at the same time results cost-effective practice for recycling solid waste residues. Coriander sativum was cultivated in a compost-soil-sludge mixture at different proportions. Results showed that Coriander grown in a mixture of 25% compost+50% Voladora soi+25% sludge had the best growth and development. High chlorophyll content (33.01 ± 0.8) was observed in Coriander plants cultivated in 25% compost+62.5% Coloso soil+ 12.5% sludge compared to plants grown with no sludge (32.59 ± 0.7). ICP-OES analysis showed variations in mineral element contents (macro and micronutrients) in coriander plant grown I soil amended with sludge and compost.

Keywords: compost, Coriandrum sativum, nutrients, waste sludge

Procedia PDF Downloads 386