Search results for: site suitability analysis

Authors: Maria De Albuquerque Bercot, Caio Gustavo Mesquita Angelo, Daniela Maria Moreira Siqueira, Augusto Assucena De Vasconcellos, Rodrigo Studart Correa

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Mining is an important socioeconomic activity in Brazil although it negatively impacts the environment. Mineral operations cause irreversible changes in topography, removal of vegetation and topsoil, habitat destruction, displacement of fauna, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, siltation of watercourses and have potential to enhance climate change. Due to the impacts and its pollution potential, mining activity in Brazil is legally subjected to environmental licensing. Unlicensed mining operations or operations that not abide to the terms of an obtained license are taken as environmental crimes in the country. This work reports a case analyzed in the Forensic Institute of the Brazilian Federal District Civil Police. The case consisted of detecting illegal aspects of sand exploitation from a licensed mine in Federal District, nearby Brasilia city. The fieldwork covered an area of roughly 6 ha, which was surveyed with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (PHANTOM 3 ADVANCED). The overflight with UAV took about 20 min, with maximum flight height of 100 m. 592 UAV georeferenced images were obtained and processed in a photogrammetric software (AGISOFT PHOTOSCAN 1.1.4), which generated a mosaic of geo-referenced images and a 3D model in less than six working hours. The 3D model was analyzed in a forensic software for accurate modeling and volumetric analysis. (MAPTEK I-SITE FORENSIC 2.2). To ensure the 3D model was a true representation of the mine site, coordinates of ten control points and reference measures were taken during fieldwork and compared to respective spatial data in the model. Finally, these spatial data were used for measuring mining area, excavation depth and volume of exploited sand. Results showed that mine holder had not complied with some terms and conditions stated in the granted license, such as sand exploration beyond authorized extension, depth and volume. Easiness, the accuracy and expedition of procedures used in this case highlight the employment of UAV imagery and computational photogrammetry as efficient tools for outdoor forensic exams, especially on environmental issues.

Keywords: computational photogrammetry, environmental monitoring, mining, UAV

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Authors: Mohammed Ahmed Ahmed Odah

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DNA barcoding is a crucial method for assessing and monitoring species diversity amidst escalating threats to global biodiversity. The author explores DNA barcoding's potential as a robust and reliable tool for biodiversity assessment. It begins with a comprehensive review of existing literature, delving into the theoretical foundations, methodologies and applications of DNA barcoding. The suitability of various DNA regions, like the COI gene, as universal barcodes is extensively investigated. Additionally, the advantages and limitations of different DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools are evaluated within the context of DNA barcoding. To evaluate the efficacy of DNA barcoding, diverse ecosystems, including terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats, are sampled. Extracted DNA from collected specimens undergoes amplification and sequencing of the target barcode region. Comparison of the obtained DNA sequences with reference databases allows for the identification and classification of the sampled organisms. Findings demonstrate that DNA barcoding accurately identifies species, even in cases where morphological identification proves challenging. Moreover, it sheds light on cryptic and endangered species, aiding conservation efforts. The author also investigates patterns of genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships among different taxa through the analysis of genetic data. This research contributes to the growing knowledge of DNA barcoding and its applicability for biodiversity assessment. The advantages of this approach, such as speed, accuracy and cost-effectiveness, are highlighted, along with areas for improvement. By unlocking the genetic code, DNA barcoding enhances our understanding of biodiversity, supports conservation initiatives and informs evidence-based decision-making for the sustainable management of ecosystems.

Keywords: DNA barcoding, biodiversity assessment, genetic code, species identification, taxonomic resolution, next-generation sequencing

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Authors: Shreya Ghosh, Akansha Garg, Chayanika Kala, Ashwani Kumar Thakur

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Background: Granuloma formation is one of the characteristic features of tuberculosis. Besides, chronic inflammation underlying tuberculosis is often indicated by an increase in the concentration of serum amyloid A (SAA) protein. The connection between tuberculosis and SAA-driven secondary amyloidosis is well documented. However, SAA-derived amyloid deposition start sites are not well understood in tuberculosis and other chronic inflammatory conditions. It was hypothesized that granuloma could be a potential site for an amyloid deposition because both SAA protein and proteases that cleave SAA into aggregation-prone fragments are reported to be present in the granuloma. Here the authors have shown the presence of SAA-derived amyloid deposits in the granuloma of tuberculosis patients. Methodology: Over a period of two years, tuberculosis patients were screened, and biopsies were collected from the affected organs of the patients. The gold standard, Congo red dye staining, was used to identify amyloid deposits in the tissue sections of tuberculosis patients containing granulomatous structure. Results: 11 out of 150 FFPE biopsy specimens of tuberculosis patients showed eosinophilic hyaline-rich deposits surrounding granuloma. Upon Congo red staining, these deposits exhibited characteristic apple-green birefringence under polarized light, confirming amyloid deposits. Further, upon immunohistochemical staining with anti-SAA, the amyloid enriched areas showed positive immunoreactivity. Conclusion: In this pilot study, we have shown that granuloma can be a potential site for serum amyloid A-derived amyloid formation in tuberculosis patients. Moreover, the presence of amyloid gave significant cues that granuloma might be a probable amyloid deposition start in tuberculosis patients. This study will set a stage to expand the clinical and fundamental research in the understanding of amyloid formation in granuloma underlying tuberculosis and chronic inflammatory conditions.

Keywords: amyloid, granuloma, periphery, serum amyloid A, tuberculosis

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Authors: Devika Nair, Sean Bellairs, Ken Evans

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Flow and erosion modeling provides an avenue for simulating the fine suspended sediment in surface water systems like streams and creeks. Fine suspended sediment is highly mobile, and many contaminants that may have been released by any sort of catchment disturbance attach themselves to these sediments. Therefore, a knowledge of fine suspended sediment transport is important in assessing contaminant transport. The CAESAR-Lisflood Landform Evolution Model, which includes a hydrologic model (TOPMODEL) and a hydraulic model (Lisflood), is being used to assess the sediment movement in tropical streams on account of a disturbance in the catchment of the creek and to determine the dynamics of sediment quantity in the creek through the years by simulating the model for future years. The accuracy of future simulations depends on the calibration and validation of the model to the past and present events. Calibration and validation of the model involve finding a combination of parameters of the model, which, when applied and simulated, gives model outputs similar to those observed for the real site scenario for corresponding input data. Calibrating the sediment output of the CAESAR-Lisflood model at the catchment level and using it for studying the equilibrium conditions of the landform is an area yet to be explored. Therefore, the aim of the study was to calibrate the CAESAR-Lisflood model and then validate it so that it could be run for future simulations to study how the landform evolves over time. To achieve this, the model was run for a rainfall event with a set of parameters, plus discharge and sediment data for the input point of the catchment, to analyze how similar the model output would behave when compared with the discharge and sediment data for the output point of the catchment. The model parameters were then adjusted until the model closely approximated the real site values of the catchment. It was then validated by running the model for a different set of events and checking that the model gave similar results to the real site values. The outcomes demonstrated that while the model can be calibrated to a greater extent for hydrology (discharge output) throughout the year, the sediment output calibration may be slightly improved by having the ability to change parameters to take into account the seasonal vegetation growth during the start and end of the wet season. This study is important to assess hydrology and sediment movement in seasonal biomes. The understanding of sediment-associated metal dispersion processes in rivers can be used in a practical way to help river basin managers more effectively control and remediate catchments affected by present and historical metal mining.

Keywords: erosion modelling, fine suspended sediments, hydrology, surface water systems

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Authors: Julien Caudeville, Muriel Ismert

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Analyzing the relationship between environment and health has become a major preoccupation for public health as evidenced by the emergence of the French national plans for health and environment. These plans have identified the following two priorities: (1) to identify and manage geographic areas, where hotspot exposures are suspected to generate a potential hazard to human health; (2) to reduce exposure inequalities. At a regional scale and fine resolution of exposure outcome prerequisite, environmental monitoring networks are not sufficient to characterize the multidimensionality of the exposure concept. In an attempt to increase representativeness of spatial exposure assessment approaches, risk composite indicators could be built using additional available databases and theoretical framework approaches to combine factor risks. To achieve those objectives, combining data process and transfer modeling with a spatial approach is a fundamental prerequisite that implies the need to first overcome different scientific limitations: to define interest variables and indicators that could be built to associate and describe the global source-effect chain; to link and process data from different sources and different spatial supports; to develop adapted methods in order to improve spatial data representativeness and resolution. A GIS-based modeling platform for quantifying human exposure to chemical substances (PLAINE: environmental inequalities analysis platform) was used to build health risk indicators within the Lorraine region (France). Those indicators combined chemical substances (in soil, air and water) and noise risk factors. Tools have been developed using modeling, spatial analysis and geostatistic methods to build and discretize interest variables from different supports and resolutions on a 1 km2 regular grid within the Lorraine region. By example, surface soil concentrations have been estimated by developing a Kriging method able to integrate surface and point spatial supports. Then, an exposure model developed by INERIS was used to assess the transfer from soil to individual exposure through ingestion pathways. We used distance from polluted soil site to build a proxy for contaminated site. Air indicator combined modeled concentrations and estimated emissions to take in account 30 polluants in the analysis. For water, drinking water concentrations were compared to drinking water standards to build a score spatialized using a distribution unit serve map. The Lden (day-evening-night) indicator was used to map noise around road infrastructures. Aggregation of the different factor risks was made using different methodologies to discuss weighting and aggregation procedures impact on the effectiveness of risk maps to take decisions for safeguarding citizen health. Results permit to identify pollutant sources, determinants of exposure, and potential hotspots areas. A diagnostic tool was developed for stakeholders to visualize and analyze the composite indicators in an operational and accurate manner. The designed support system will be used in many applications and contexts: (1) mapping environmental disparities throughout the Lorraine region; (2) identifying vulnerable population and determinants of exposure to set priorities and target for pollution prevention, regulation and remediation; (3) providing exposure database to quantify relationships between environmental indicators and cancer mortality data provided by French Regional Health Observatories.

Keywords: health risk, environment, composite indicator, hotspot areas

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Authors: Andi Fallahi, Bona Ryan Situmeang

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The Construction Industry is notoriously risky. Much of the preparatory paperwork that precedes construction project can be viewed as the formulation of risk allocation between the owner and the Contractor. The Owner is taking the risk that his project will not get built on the schedule that it will not get built for what he has budgeted and that it will not be of the quality he expected. The Contractor Face a multitude of risk. One of them is an unforeseen condition at the construction site. The Owner usually has the upper hand here if the unforeseen condition occurred. Site data contained in Ground Investigation report is often of significant contractual importance in disputes related to the unforeseen ground condition. A ground investigation can never fully disclose all the details of the underground condition (Risk of an unknown ground condition can never be 100% eliminated). Adipala Coal Fired Steam Power Plant (CSFPP) 1 x 660 project is one of the large CSFPP project in Indonesia based on Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Contract. Unforeseen Ground Condition it’s responsible by the Contractor has stipulated in the clausal of Contract. In the implementation, there’s indicated unforeseen ground condition at Circulating Water Pump House (CWPH) area which caused the Contractor should be changed the Method of Work that give big impact against Time of Completion and Cost Project. This paper tries to analyze the best way for allocating the risk between The Owner and The Contractor. All parties that allocating of sharing risk fairly can ultimately save time and money for all parties, and get the job done on schedule for the least overall cost.

Keywords: unforeseen ground condition, coal fired steam power plant, circulating water pump house, Indonesia

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Authors: Alok Madan, Arshad K. Hashmi

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The paper presents a plastic analysis procedure based on the energy balance concept for performance based seismic retrofit of multi-story multi-bay masonry infilled reinforced concrete (R/C) frames with a ‘soft’ ground story using passive energy dissipation (PED) devices with the objective of achieving a target performance level of the retrofitted R/C frame for a given seismic hazard level at the building site. The proposed energy based plastic analysis procedure was employed for developing performance based design (PBD) formulations for PED devices for a simulated application in seismic retrofit of existing frame structures designed in compliance with the prevalent standard codes of practice. The PBD formulations developed for PED devices were implemented for simulated seismic retrofit of a representative code-compliant masonry infilled R/C frame with a ‘soft’ ground story using friction dampers as the PED device. Non-linear dynamic analyses of the retrofitted masonry infilled R/C frames is performed to investigate the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed energy based plastic analysis procedure in achieving the target performance level under design level earthquakes. Results of non-linear dynamic analyses demonstrate that the maximum inter-story drifts in the masonry infilled R/C frames with a ‘soft’ ground story that is retrofitted with the friction dampers designed using the proposed PBD formulations are controlled within the target drifts under near-field as well far-field earthquakes.

Keywords: energy methods, masonry infilled frame, near-field earthquakes, seismic protection, supplemental damping devices

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Authors: Pisut Painmanakul, Thawatchai Chintateerachai, Supanid Lertlapwasin, Nusara Rojvilavan, Tanun Chalermsinsuwan, Nattawin Chawaloesphonsiya, Onanong Larpparisudthi

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Conventional coagulation, advance oxidation process (AOPs), and the combined process were evaluated and compared for its suitability to treat the stabilized cutting-oil wastewater. The 90% efficiency was obtained from the coagulation at Al2(SO4)3 dosage of 150 mg/L and pH 7. On the other hands, efficiencies of AOPs for 30 minutes oxidation time were 10% for acoustic oxidation, 12% for acoustic oxidation with hydrogen peroxide, 76% for Fenton, and 92% sono-Fenton processes. The highest efficiency for effective oil removal of AOPs required large amount of chemical. Therefore, AOPs were studied as a post-treatment after conventional separation process. The efficiency was considerable as the effluent COD can pass the standard required for industrial wastewater discharge with less chemical and energy consumption.

Keywords: cutting oily-wastewater, advance oxidation process, sono-fenton, combined process

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Authors: Abeer Elshater

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This paper pursues the relationship between the inhabitants’ happiness and the right to the city in an Egyptian neighbourhood status quo. Although the optimum of getting the services comes from ten mints walking in a suitable ambiance, the happiness is not acquired. The research objective is, first, to review the literature that get a guideline of 10 minutes neighbourhoods. Second make a comparative content analysis to recent online articles to the right to the city. Third is to test the concluded principles in Egyptian neighbourhood settings. The idea of ten minutes neighbourhood is manageable. The hypothesis concerns a compliant design. The logic of people who live close to within ten minutes’ walk to essential settings in their area can minimize several problems and maximize a healthy lifestyle. The supposed issue makes the right to the city affect the relationship between ten minutes neighbourhood and citizen happiness. This assumption can be intervention through site observation and oriented questionnaire. The contribution comes from presenting new planning units in away suits the current context of the old cities in MENA region based on ten-minute walking or less distance with a reference to the right to the city. This planning unit can find it way to citizens' happiness.

Keywords: happiness, ten-minute neighbourhood, urban design, well-being

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Authors: Hakim Aguedal, Abdelkader Iddou, Abdalla Aziz, Abdelhadi Bentouami, Ferhat Bensalah, Salah Bensadek

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The major environmental risk of soil pollution is the contamination of groundwater by infiltration of organic and inorganic pollutants that can cause a serious pollution. To prevent the migration of this pollution through this structure, many studies propose the installation of layers, which play a role of a barrier that inhibiting the contamination of groundwater by limiting or slowing the flow of rainwater carrying pollution through the layers of soil. However, it is practically impossible to build a barrier layer that let through only water, but it is possible to design a structure with low permeability, which reduces the infiltration of dangerous pollutant. In an environmental context of groundwater protection, the main objective of this study was to investigate the environmental and appropriate suitability method to preserve groundwater, by establishment of a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) intermediate in soil. Followed the influence of several parameters allow us to find the most effective materials and the most appropriate way to incorporate this barrier in the soil.

Keywords: Ground water, protection, permeable reactive Barrier, soil pollution.

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Authors: L. Sun, O. Bloom, K. Anderson

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The medial and lateral sural artery perforator flaps (MSAP and LSAP, respectively) are two recently described flaps that are less commonly used in lower limb trauma reconstructive surgeries compared to flaps such as the anterolateral thigh (ALT) flap or the gastrocnemius flap. The LSAP flap has several theoretical benefits over the MSAP, including the ability to be sensate and being more easily manoeuvred into position as a local flap for coverage of lateral knee or leg defects. It is less commonly used in part due to a lack of documented studies of the anatomical reliability of the perforator, and an unquantified average length of the pedicle used for microsurgical anastomosis (if used as a free flap) or flap rotation (if used as a pedicled flap). It has been shown to have significantly lower donor site morbidity compared to other flaps such as the ALT, due to the decreased need for intramuscular dissection and resulting in less muscle loss at the donor site. 11 cadaveric lower limbs were dissected, with a mean of 1.6 perforators per leg, with an average pedicle length of 45mm to the sural artery and 70mm to the popliteal artery. While the majority of perforating arteries lay close to the midline (average of 19mm lateral to the midline), there were patients whose artery was significantly lateral and would have been likely injured by the initial incision during an operation. Adding to the literature base of documented LSAP dissections provides a greater understanding of the anatomical basis of these perforator flaps, and the authors hope this will establish them as a more commonly used and discussed option when managing complicated lower limb trauma requiring soft tissue reconstruction.

Keywords: cadaveric, dissection, lateral, perforator flap, sural artery, surface anatomy

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Authors: Zhe Li, Tao Ju, Liguo Zhang, Zehong Zhang, Baoshun Zhang

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In-grow stacking-faults (IGSFs) in 4H-SiC epilayers can cause increased leakage current and reduce the blocking voltage of 4H-SiC power devices. Double Shockley stacking fault (2SSF) is a common type of IGSF with double slips on the basal planes. In this study, a 2SSF in the 4H-SiC epilayer grown by chemical vaper deposition (CVD) is characterized. The nucleation site of the 2SSF is discussed, and a model for the 2SSF nucleation is proposed. Homo-epitaxial 4H-SiC is grown on a commercial 4 degrees off-cut substrate by a home-built hot-wall CVD. Defect-selected-etching (DSE) is conducted with melted KOH at 500 degrees Celsius for 1-2 min. Room temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) is conducted at a 20 kV acceleration voltage. Low-temperature photoluminescence (LTPL) is conducted at 3.6 K with the 325 nm He-Cd laser line. In the CL image, a triangular area with bright contrast is observed. Two partial dislocations (PDs) with a 20-degree angle in between show linear dark contrast on the edges of the IGSF. CL and LTPL spectrums are conducted to verify the IGSF’s type. The CL spectrum shows the maximum photoemission at 2.431 eV and negligible bandgap emission. In the LTPL spectrum, four phonon replicas are found at 2.468 eV, 2.438 eV, 2.420 eV and 2.410 eV, respectively. The Egx is estimated to be 2.512 eV. A shoulder with a red-shift to the main peak in CL, and a slight protrude at the same wavelength in LTPL are verified as the so called Egx- lines. Based on the CL and LTPL results, the IGSF is identified as a 2SSF. Back etching by neutral loop discharge and DSE are conducted to track the origin of the 2SSF, and the nucleation site is found to be a threading screw dislocation (TSD) in this sample. A nucleation mechanism model is proposed for the formation of the 2SSF. Steps introduced by the off-cut and the TSD on the surface are both suggested to be two C-Si bilayers height. The intersections of such two types of steps are along [11-20] direction from the TSD, while a four-bilayer step at each intersection. The nucleation of the 2SSF in the growth is proposed as follows. Firstly, the upper two bilayers of the four-bilayer step grow down and block the lower two at one intersection, and an IGSF is generated. Secondly, the step-flow grows over the IGSF successively, and forms an AC/ABCABC/BA/BC stacking sequence. Then a 2SSF is formed and extends by the step-flow growth. In conclusion, a triangular IGSF is characterized by CL approach. Base on the CL and LTPL spectrums, the estimated Egx is 2.512 eV and the IGSF is identified to be a 2SSF. By back etching, the 2SSF nucleation site is found to be a TSD. A model for the 2SSF nucleation from an intersection of off-cut- and TSD- introduced steps is proposed.

Keywords: cathodoluminescence, defect-selected-etching, double Shockley stacking fault, low-temperature photoluminescence, nucleation model, silicon carbide

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Authors: Said Belaaouad

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This study aimed to explore the quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) of 1,2,4-Triazine-3(2H)-one derivative as a potential anticancer agent against breast cancer. The electronic descriptors were obtained using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) method, and a multiple linear regression techniques was employed to construct the QSAR model. The model exhibited favorable statistical parameters, including R2=0.849, R2adj=0.656, MSE=0.056, R2test=0.710, and Q2cv=0.542, indicating its reliability. Among the descriptors analyzed, absolute electronegativity (χ), total energy (TE), number of hydrogen bond donors (NHD), water solubility (LogS), and shape coefficient (I) were identified as influential factors. Furthermore, leveraging the validated QSAR model, new derivatives of 1,2,4-Triazine-3(2H)-one were designed, and their activity and pharmacokinetic properties were estimated. Subsequently, molecular docking (MD) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to assess the binding affinity of the designed molecules. The Tubulin colchicine binding site, which plays a crucial role in cancer treatment, was chosen as the target protein. Through the simulation trajectory spanning 100 ns, the binding affinity was calculated using the MMPBSA script. As a result, fourteen novel Tubulin-colchicine inhibitors with promising pharmacokinetic characteristics were identified. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the QSAR of 1,2,4-Triazine-3(2H)-one derivative as potential anticancer agent, along with the design of new compounds and their assessment through molecular docking and dynamics simulations targeting the Tubulin-colchicine binding site.

Keywords: QSAR, molecular docking, ADMET, 1, 2, 4-triazin-3(2H)-ones, breast cancer, anticancer, molecular dynamic simulations, MMPBSA calculation

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Authors: Carla Lopes

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It is clear nowadays that the proper performance of different speech acts is one of the most difficult obstacles that a foreign language learner has to overcome to be considered communicatively competent. This communication presents the results of an investigation on the pragmatic performance of Portuguese Language students at the University of Macau. The research discussed herein is based on a survey consisting of fourteen speaking situations to which the participants must respond in writing, and that includes different types of speech acts: apology, response to a compliment, refusal, complaint, disagreement and the understanding of the illocutionary force of indirect speech acts. The responses were classified in a five levels Likert scale (quantified from 1 to 5) according to their suitability for the particular situation. In general terms, we can summarize that about 45% of the respondents' answers were pragmatically competent, 10 % were acceptable and 45 % showed weaknesses at socio-pragmatic competence level. Given that the linguistic deviations were not taken into account, we can conclude that the faults are of cultural origin. It is natural that in the presence of orthogonal cultures, such as Chinese and Portuguese, there are failures of this type, barely solved in the four years of the undergraduate program. The target population, native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin, make their first contact with the English language before joining the Bachelor of Portuguese Language. An analysis of the socio - pragmatic failures in the respondents’ answers suggests the conclusion that many of them are due to the lack of cultural knowledge. They try to compensate for this either using their native culture or resorting to a Western culture that they consider close to the Portuguese, that is the English or US culture, previously studied, and also widely present in the media and on the internet. This phenomenon, known as 'pragmatic transfer', can result in a linguistic behavior that may be considered inauthentic or pragmatically awkward. The resulting speech act is grammatically correct but is not pragmatically feasible, since it is not suitable to the culture of the target language, either because it does not exist or because the conditions of its use are in fact different. Analysis of the responses also supports the conclusion that these students present large deviations from the expected and stereotyped behavior of Chinese students. We can speculate while this linguistic behavior is the consequence of the Macao globalization that culturally casts the students, makes them more open, and distinguishes them from the typical Chinese students.

Keywords: Portuguese foreign language, pragmatic failures, pragmatic transfer, pragmatic competence

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Authors: Charles Amoo, Joshua New, Bill Eckman

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Buildings in the United States account for a significant proportion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and this trend is expected to continue as well as rise in the near future. Low-income households, in particular, bear a disproportionate burden of high building energy consumption and spending due to high energy costs. Energy efficiency improvements need to reach an average of 4% per year in this decade in order to meet global net zero emissions target by 2050, but less than 1 % of U.S. buildings are improved each year. The government has recognized the importance of technology in addressing this issue, and energy efficiency programs have been developed to tackle the problem. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the largest residential whole-house energy efficiency program in the U.S., is specifically designed to reduce energy costs for low-income households. Under the WAP, energy auditors must follow specific audit procedures and use Department of Energy (DOE) approved energy audit tools or software. This article proposes an expanded framework of factors that should be considered in energy audit software that is approved for use in energy efficiency programs, particularly for low-income households. The framework includes more than 50 factors organized under 14 assessment criteria and can be used to qualitatively and quantitatively score different energy audit software to determine their suitability for specific energy efficiency programs. While the tool can be useful for developers to build new tools and improve existing software, as well as for energy efficiency program administrators to approve or certify tools for use, there are limitations to the model, such as the lack of flexibility that allows continuous scoring to accommodate variability and subjectivity. These limitations can be addressed by using aggregate scores of each criterion as weights that could be combined with value function and direct rating scores in a multicriteria decision analysis for a more flexible scoring.

Keywords: buildings, energy efficiency, energy audit, software

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Authors: J. Van Engeland, C. Lavigne, S. De Jaeger

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In the light of the transition towards a more circular economy, recovery of products, parts or materials will gain in importance. Additionally, the EU proximity principle related to waste management and emissions generated by transporting large amounts of end-of-life products, shift attention to local recovery networks. The Flemish inter-communal cooperation for municipal solid waste management Meetjesland (IVM) is currently investigating the set-up of such a network. More specifically, the network encompasses the recycling of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is collected in separate containers. When these containers are full, a truck should transport them to the processor which can recycle the PVC into new products. This paper proposes a model to optimize the container collection. The containers are located at different Civic Amenity sites (CA sites) in a certain region. Since people can drop off their waste at these CA sites, the containers will gradually fill up during a planning horizon. If a certain container is full, it has to be collected and replaced by an empty container. The collected waste is then transported to a single processor. To perform this collection and transportation of containers, the responsible firm has a set of vehicles stationed at a single depot and different personnel crews. A vehicle can load exactly one container. If a trailer is attached to the vehicle, it can load an additional container. Each day of the planning horizon, the different crews and vehicles leave the depot to collect containers at the different sites. After loading one or two containers, the crew has to drive to the processor for unloading the waste and to pick up empty containers. Afterwards, the crew can again visit sites or it can return to the depot to end its collection work for that day. All along the collection process, the crew has to respect the opening hours of the sites. In order to allow for some flexibility, a crew is allowed to wait a certain amount of time at the gate of a site until it opens. The problem described can be modelled as a variant to the PVRP-TW (Periodic Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows). However, a vehicle can at maximum load two containers, hence only two subsequent site visits are possible. For that reason, we will refer to the model as a model for building tactical waste collection schemes. The goal is to a find a schedule describing which crew should visit which CA site on which day to minimize the number of trucks and the routing costs. The model was coded in IBM CPLEX Optimization studio and applied to a number of test instances. Good results were obtained, and specific suggestions concerning route and truck costs could be made. For a large range of input parameters, collection schemes using two trucks are obtained.

Keywords: container collection, crew scheduling, mixed integer linear programming, waste management

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Authors: Nihad Chakri, Btissam El Amrani, Faouzi Berrada, Halima Jounaid, Fouad Amraoui

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Public baths or hammams play an essential role in the Moroccan urban and peri-urban fabric, constituting part of the cultural heritage. Urbanization in Morocco has led to a significant increase in the number of these traditional hammams: between 6,000 and 15,000 units (to be updated) operate with a traditional heating system. Numerous studies on energy consumption indicate that a hammam consumes between 60 and 120m3 of water and one to two tons of wood per day. On average, one ton of wood costs 650 Moroccan dirhams (approximately 60 Euros), resulting in a daily fuel cost of around 1300 Moroccan dirhams (about 120 Euros). These high consumptions result in significant environmental nuisances generated by: Wastewater: in the case of hammams located on the outskirts of Casablanca, such as our study area, the Municipality of Dar Bouazza, most of these waters are directly discharged into the receiving environment without prior treatment because they are not connected to the sanitation network. Emissions of black smoke and ashes produced by the often incomplete combustion of wood. Reducing the liquid and gas emissions generated by these hammams thus poses an environmental and sustainable development challenge that needs to be addressed. In this context, we initiated the Eco-hammam project with the objective of implementing innovative and locally adapted solutions to limit the negative impacts of hammams on the environment and reduce water and wood energy consumption. This involves treating and reusing wastewater through a compact system with heat recovery and using alternative energy sources to increase and enhance the energy efficiency of these traditional hammams. To achieve this, on-site surveys of hammams in the Dar Bouazza Municipality and the application of statistical approaches to the results of the physico-chemical and bacteriological characterization of incoming and outgoing water from these units were conducted. This allowed us to establish an environmental diagnosis of these entities. In conclusion, the analysis of well water used by Dar Bouazza's hammams revealed the presence of certain parameters that could be hazardous to public health, such as total germs, total coliforms, sulfite-reducing spores, chromium, nickel, and nitrates. Therefore, this work primarily focuses on prospecting upstream of our study area to verify if other sources of pollution influence the quality of well water.

Keywords: public baths, hammams, cultural heritage, urbanization, water consumption, wood consumption, environmental nuisances, wastewater, environmental challenge, sustainable development, Eco-hammam project, innovative solutions, local adaptation, negative impacts, water conservation, wastewater treatment, heat recovery, alternative energy sources, on-site surveys, Dar Bouazza Municipality, statistical approaches, physico-chemical characterization, bacteriological characterization, environmental diagnosis, well water analysis, public health, pollution sources, well water quality

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Authors: Mirzahmedov Ismoiljon Karimjon Ugli, Juraeva Shakhnoza Abdumalik Kizi

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The article deals with the current scientific problems of natural geography related to the development of new pedagogical technologies and their implementation in the educational process. The use of recommended interactive methods in independent study is considered very effective and is a very useful method for students, especially for students who work more on themselves. Today's demand is to make young people talented, intelligent, innovative, as well as mature and well-rounded individuals, as a result of the work carried out in the field of education today. This is how creating tables of different contents and filling them out shows the student's talent and desire for innovation. Also, the techniques and methods necessary for today's student are shown, the role of the teacher in conducting lessons meaningfully, the suitability of the method used by the teacher for the lesson, factors affecting the quality of education, and natural issues of the use of methods based on the specific features of geography are highlighted.

Keywords: teaching methods, educational process, educational technologies, education, problem, didactics, natural geography

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Authors: Wael M. Rabeh, Cesar Carrasco-Lopez, Juliana C. Ferreira, Pance Naumov

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Bioluminescence, the emission of light from a biological process, is found in various living organisms including bacteria, fireflies, beetles, fungus and different marine organisms. Luciferase is an enzyme that catalyzes a two steps oxidation of luciferin in the presence of Mg2+ and ATP to produce oxyluciferin and releases energy in the form of light. The luciferase assay is used in biological research and clinical applications for in vivo imaging, cell proliferation, and protein folding and secretion analysis. The luciferase enzyme consists of two domains, a large N-terminal domain (1-436 residues) that is connected to a small C-terminal domain (440-544) by a flexible loop that functions as a hinge for opening and closing the active site. The two domains are separated by a large cleft housing the active site that closes after binding the substrates, luciferin and ATP. Even though all insect luciferases catalyze the same chemical reaction and share 50% to 90% sequence homology and high structural similarity, they emit light of different colors from green at 560nm to red at 640 nm. Currently, the majority of the structural and biochemical studies have been conducted on green-emitting firefly luciferases. To address the color emission mechanism, we expressed and purified two luciferase enzymes with blue-shifted green and red emission from indigenous Brazilian species Amydetes fanestratus and Phrixothrix, respectively. The two enzymes naturally emit light of different colors and they are an excellent system to study the color-emission mechanism of luciferases, as the current proposed mechanisms are based on mutagenesis studies. Using a vapor-diffusion method and a high-throughput approach, we crystallized and solved the crystal structure of both enzymes, at 1.7 Å and 3.1 Å resolution respectively, using X-ray crystallography. The free enzyme adopted two open conformations in the crystallographic unit cell that are different from the previously characterized firefly luciferase. The blue-shifted green luciferase crystalized as a monomer similar to other luciferases reported in literature, while the red luciferases crystalized as an octamer and was also purified as an octomer in solution. The octomer conformation is the first of its kind for any insect’s luciferase, which might be relate to the red color emission. Structurally designed mutations confirmed the importance of the transition between the open and close conformations in the fine-tuning of the color and the characterization of other interesting mutants is underway.

Keywords: bioluminescence, enzymology, structural biology, x-ray crystallography

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Authors: O. Nthoi-Molefe, V. Makwinja

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In the North West district of Botswana, Heritage tourism has the potential to offer tremendous economic and social opportunities for local communities in terms of supporting Tourism product development and entrepreneurship. This paper Identifies that Cultural Heritage Entrepreneur brings to the market goods and services, organizes and runs cultural heritage in a commercial or non-profit manner depending on characteristics of cultural resources identified. Data was collected through a series of focus group discussions that included sixteen village community members within the region. Data collected was transcribed and then further analyzed thematically to bring forward results to be analysed. Using Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site as a case study, the researchers acknowledged that Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurs in that area should use a creative approach in order toidentify suitable solutions for financing different tourism activities starting with sponsored events, grant funds, donations, including the benefits of financial opportunities brough be foreign visitors and domestic tourists alike. The researchers also identified a need for specialized training for the identified entrepreneurs in order to maintain quality services of tourism products and sites (interpretation), information for tourists, visitation services, diversification, and upgrading of the heritage experience. The research reveals that the identified Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurs prefer economic motivation, exploitation over the cultural value of their resources, further calling for recommendations of the research that emphasize on the need for detailed training on how to valorize their cultural resources for the growth of Tourism in the area.

Keywords: education, community development, entrepreneurship, cultural tourism

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Authors: Lau Sing Yew

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The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyse the host-guests interaction in a homestay setting with the sub context of cultural exchange and cultural differences between both parties. The research were carried out in Malaysia, specifically in the state of Sabah and Sarawak which are more well-known for its’ rural tourism and homestay programs. The research problem addressed here is on the suitability of the homestay setting as a platform for intercultural communication between the host and foreign tourists. The key issues that were discussed include ‘cultural representations’, ‘touristic representations’ and ‘social representations’ which contoured the image that tourists form about destinations and local communities while debating on the benefits and disbenefits of cultural exchange. These issues were deliberated through observation and interviews and it was found that the homestay setting in Malaysia though there are varied types available acts as a suitable platform to encourage intercultural interaction between tourists and local communities.

Keywords: homestay program, Malaysia, host-guest interactions, cultural representations

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Authors: Pratima Poudel, Austin Himes, Heidi Renninger, Eric McConnel

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Populus spp. (poplar) are the fastest-growing trees in North America, making them ideal for a range of applications as they can achieve high yields on short rotations and regenerate by coppice. Furthermore, poplar undergoes biochemical conversion to fuels without complexity, making it one of the most promising, purpose-grown, woody perennial energy sources. Employing wood-based biomass for bioenergy offers numerous benefits, including reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to non-renewable traditional fuels, the preservation of robust forest ecosystems, and creating economic prospects for rural communities.In order to gain a better understanding of the potential use of poplar as a biomass feedstock for biofuel in the southeastern US, the conducted a techno-economic assessment (TEA). This assessment is an analytical approach that integrates technical and economic factors of a production system to evaluate its economic viability. the TEA specifically focused on a short rotation coppice system employing a single-pass cut-and-chip harvesting method for poplar. It encompassed all the costs associated with establishing dedicated poplar plantations, including land rent, site preparation, planting, fertilizers, and herbicides. Additionally, we performed a sensitivity analysis to evaluate how different costs can affect the economic performance of the poplar cropping system. This analysis aimed to determine the minimum average delivered selling price for one metric ton of biomass necessary to achieve a desired rate of return over the cropping period. To inform the TEA, data on the establishment, crop care activities, and crop yields were derived from a field study conducted at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station's Bearden Dairy Research Center in Oktibbeha County and Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwood Branch Experiment Station in Pontotoc County.

Keywords: biomass, populus species, sensitivity analysis, technoeconomic analysis

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Authors: Xiyue Wen

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With the rapid development of the city, old communities in the city are facing a series of problems. On one hand, aging facilities, obsolete spatial patterns, aging populations arouse in the aging of the community. On the other hand, public space is reduced and is taking up by cars parking or facilities setting, which lead to the collapse of traditional life in the old communities. That is to say, modern amenities haven’t helped to reform the old community, but have leading to tedious and inefficient, when it is not accommodated in the traditional space. Exploring a way is imminent to the east the contradiction between modern living facilities and spatial patterns of traditional. We select a typical site-GeDa Community in Xi’an, built in 70-80s，and carry out a concept calling 'Raising Landscape', which enables a convenient and efficient space for parking, as well as a high-quality yard for activities. In addition, the design implements low cost, simple construction, resident participation, so that it can be spread in the same texture of urban space.

Keywords: old communities, renewal strategy, raising landscape, public space, parking space

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Authors: Peter Robinson, Milka Ivanova

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Despite the growing interest in the Cold War period and heritage, little attention has been paid to the presentation and curatorship of Cold War heritage in eastern or western Europe. In 2021 Leeds Beckett University secured a British Academy Grant to explore visitor experiences, curatorship, emotion, and memory at Cold War-related tourist sites, comparing the perspectives of eastern and western European sites through research carried out in the UK and Bulgaria. The research explores the themes of curatorship, experience, and memory. Many of the sites included in the research in the UK-based part of the project are nuclear bunkers that have been decommissioned and are now open to visitors. The focus of this conference abstract is one of several perspectives drawn from a British Academy Grant-funded project exploring curatorship, visitor experience and nostalgia and memory in former cold war spaces in the UK, bringing together critical comparisons between western and eastern European sites. The project identifies specifically the challenges of ownership, preservation and presentation and discusses the challenges facing those who own, manage, and provide access to cold war museums and sites. The research is underpinned by contested issues of authenticity and ownership, discussing narrative accounts of those involved in caring for and managing these sites. The research project draws from interviews with key stakeholders, site observations, visitor surveys, and content analysis of Trip advisor posts. Key insights from the project include the external challenges owners and managers face from a lack of recognition of and funding for important Cold War sites in the UK that are at odds with interest shown in cold war sites by visitors to Cold War structures and landmarks. The challenges center on the lack of consistent approaches toward cold war heritage conservation, management, and ownership, lack of curatorial expertise and over-reliance on no-expert interpretation and presentation of heritage, the effect of the passage of time on personal connections to cold war heritage sites, the dissipating technological knowledge base, the challenging structure that does not lend themselves easily as visitor attractions or museums, the questionable authenticity of artifacts, the limited archival material, and quite often limited budgets. A particularly interesting insight focusing on nuclear bunkers has been on the difficulties in site reinterpretation because of the impossibility of fully exploring the enormity of nuclear war as a consistent threat of the Cold War. Further insights from the research highlight the secrecy of many of the sites as a key marketing strategy, particularly in relation to the nuclear bunker sites included in the project.

Keywords: cold war, curatorship, heritage, nuclear bunkers.

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Authors: Antoine Vikkey Hinson, Menonli Adjobimey, Gemayel Ahmed Biokou, Rose Mikponhoue

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Introduction: Construction industry is a critical concern with regard to Health and Safety Service worldwide. World health Organization revealed that work-related disease and trauma were held responsible for the death of one million nine hundred thousand people in 2016. The aim of this study it was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with the occurrence of work accidents in a construction industry in Benin. Method: It was a descriptive cross-sectional and analytical study. Data analysis was performed with R software 4.1.1. In multivariate analysis, we performed a binary logistic regression. OR adjusted (ORa) association measures and their 95% confidence interval [CI95%] were presented for the explanatory variables used in the final model. The significance threshold for all tests selected was 5% (p < 0.05) Result: In this study, 472 workers were included, and, of these, 452 (95.7%) were men corresponding to a sex ratio of 22.6. The average age of the workers was 33 years ± 8.8 years. Workers were mostly laborers (84.7%), and had declared having inadequate personal protective equipment (50.6%, n=239). The prevalence of work accidents is 50.8%. Collision with a rolling stock (25.8%), cut (16.2%), and stumbling (16.2%) were the main types of work accidents on the construction site. Four factors were associated with contributing to work accidents. Fatigue or exhaustion (ORa : 1.53[1.03 ; 2.28]); The use of dangerous tools (ORa : 1.81 [1.22 ; 2.71]); The various laborers’ jobs (ORa : 4.78 [2.62 ; 9.21]); and seniority in the company ≥ 4 years (ORa : 2.00 [1.35 ; 2.96]). Conclusion: This study allowed us to identify the associated factors. It is imperative to implement a rigorous policy of occupational health and security mostly the continuing training for workers safe, the supply of appropriate work tools and protective

Keywords: prevalence, work accident, associated factors, construction, benin

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Authors: Leszek Chybowski, Artur Bejger, Katarzyna Gawdzińska

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Subversion analysis is a tool used in the TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) methodology. This article introduces the history and describes the process of subversion analysis, as well as function analysis and analysis of the resources, used at the design stage when generating possible undesirable situations. The article charts the course of subversion analysis when applied to a fuel injection nozzle of a marine engine. The work describes the fuel injector nozzle as a technological system and presents principles of analysis for the causes of a cracked tip of the nozzle body. The system is modelled with functional analysis. A search for potential causes of the damage is undertaken and a cause-and-effect analysis for various hypotheses concerning the damage is drawn up. The importance of particular hypotheses is evaluated and the most likely causes of damage identified.

Keywords: complex technical system, fuel injector, function analysis, importance analysis, resource analysis, sabotage analysis, subversion analysis, TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving)

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Authors: Ada Garus

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This paper presents the outcomes of the sustainability assessment of food delivery with a last-mile delivery service introduced in a real-world case study. The methodology used in the sustainability assessment integrates multi-criteria decision-making analysis, sustainability pillars, and scenario analysis to best reflect the conflicting needs of stakeholders involved in the last mile delivery system. The case study provides an application of the framework to the food delivery system of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission where three alternative solutions were analyzed I) the existent state in which individuals frequent the local cantine or pick up their food, using their preferred mode of transport II) the hypothetical scenario in which individuals can only order their food using the delivery droid system III) a scenario in which the food delivery droid based system is introduced as a supplement to the current system. The environmental indices are calculated using a simulation study in which decision regarding the food delivery is predicted using a multinomial logit model. The vehicle dynamics model is used to predict the fuel consumption of the regular combustion engines vehicles used by the cantine goers and the electricity consumption of the droid. The sustainability assessment allows for the evaluation of the economic, environmental, and social aspects of food delivery, making it an apt input for policymakers. Moreover, the assessment is one of the first studies to investigate automated delivery droids, which could become a frequent addition to the urban landscape in the near future.

Keywords: innovations in transportation technologies, behavioural change and mobility, urban freight logistics, innovative transportation systems

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Authors: Richard Ji

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Nondestructive deflection testing has been accepted widely as a cost-effective tool for evaluating the structural condition of airfield pavements. Backcalculation of pavement layer moduli can be used to characterize the pavement existing condition in order to compute the load bearing capacity of pavement. This paper presents an improved best-fit backcalculation methodology based on deflection predictions obtained using finite element method (FEM). The best-fit approach is based on minimizing the squared error between falling weight deflectometer (FWD) measured deflections and FEM predicted deflections. Then, concrete elastic modulus and modulus of subgrade reaction were back-calculated using Heavy Weight Deflectometer (HWD) deflections collected at the National Airport Pavement Testing Facility (NAPTF) test site. It is an alternative and more versatile method in considering concrete slab geometry and HWD testing locations compared to methods currently available.

Keywords: nondestructive testing, pavement moduli backcalculation, finite element method, concrete pavements

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Authors: Jaechun No

Abstract:

As the technology of NAND flash memory rapidly grows, SSD is becoming an excellent alternative for storage solutions, because of its high random I/O throughput and low power consumption. These SSD potentials have drawn great attention from IT enterprises that seek for better I/O performance. However, high SSD cost per capacity makes it less desirable to construct a large-scale storage subsystem solely composed of SSD devices. An alternative is to build a hybrid storage subsystem where both HDD and SSD devices are incorporated in an economic manner, while employing the strengths of both devices. This paper presents a hybrid file system, called hybridFS, that attempts to utilize the advantages of HDD and SSD devices, to provide a single, virtual address space by integrating both devices. HybridFS not only proposes an efficient implementation for the file management in the hybrid storage subsystem but also suggests an experimental framework for making use of the excellent features of existing file systems. Several performance evaluations were conducted to verify the effectiveness and suitability of hybridFS.

Keywords: hybrid file mapping, data layout, hybrid device integration, extent allocation

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Authors: F. S. Al-Anzi, M. Sarfraz, A. Elmi, A. R. Khan

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Researchers are responding to the environmental challenges of Kuwait in localized, innovative, effective and economic ways. One of the vital and significant examples of the natural challenges is lack or water and desertification. In this research, the project team focuses on redesigning a prototype, using Value Engineering Methodology, which would provide similar functionalities to the well-known technology of Waterboxx kits while reducing the capital and operational costs and simplifying the process of manufacturing and usability by regular farmers. The design employs used tires and recycled plastic sheets as raw materials. Hence, this approach is going to help not just fighting desertification but also helping in getting rid of ever growing huge tire dumpsters in Kuwait, as well as helping in avoiding hazards of tire fires yielding in a safer and friendlier environment. Several alternatives for implementing the prototype have been considered. The best alternative in terms of value has been selected after thorough Function Analysis System Technique (FAST) exercise has been developed. A prototype has been fabricated and tested in a controlled simulated lab environment that is being followed by real environment field testing. Water and soil analysis conducted on the site of the experiment to cross compare between the composition of the soil before and after the experiment to insure that the prototype being tested is actually going to be environment safe. Experimentation shows that the design was equally as effective as, and may exceed, the original design with significant savings in cost. An estimated total cost reduction using the VE approach of 43.84% over the original design. This cost reduction does not consider the intangible costs of environmental issue of waste recycling which many further intensify the total savings of using the alternative VE design. This case study shows that Value Engineering Methodology can be an important tool in innovating new designs for reducing costs.

Keywords: desertification, functional analysis, scrap tires, value engineering, waste recycling, water irrigation rationing

Procedia PDF Downloads 200