Search results for: thermal environment

Authors: A. M. Merino-Lechuga, A. González-Caro, D. Suescum-Morales, E. Fernández-Ledesma, J. R. Jiménez, J. M. Fernández-Rodriguez

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Since the mid-19th century, the boom in the economy and industry has grown exponentially. This has led to an increase in pollution due to rising Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and the accumulation of waste, leading to an increasingly imminent future scarcity of raw materials and natural resources. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of the primary greenhouse gases, accounting for up to 55% of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The manufacturing of construction materials generates approximately 73% of CO₂ emissions, with Portland cement production contributing to 41% of this figure. Hence, there is scientific and social alarm regarding the carbon footprint of construction materials and their influence on climate change. Carbonation of concrete is a natural process whereby CO₂ from the environment penetrates the material, primarily through pores and microcracks. Once inside, carbon dioxide reacts with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) and/or CSH, yielding calcium carbonates (CaCO3) and silica gel. Consequently, construction materials act as carbon sinks. This research investigated the effect of accelerated carbonation on the physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of two types of non-structural vibrated concrete pavers (conventional and draining) made from natural aggregates and two types of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste (CDW). Natural aggregates were replaced by recycled aggregates using a volumetric substitution method, and the CO₂ capture capacity was calculated. Two curing environments were utilized: a carbonation chamber with 5% CO₂ and a standard climatic chamber with atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Additionally, the effect of curing times of 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 days on concrete properties was analyzed. Accelerated carbonation in-creased the apparent dry density, reduced water-accessible porosity, improved compressive strength, and decreased setting time to achieve greater mechanical strength. The maximum CO₂ capture ratio was achieved with the use of recycled concrete aggregate (52.52 kg/t) in the draining paver. Accelerated carbonation conditions led to a 525% increase in carbon capture compared to curing under atmospheric conditions. Accelerated carbonation of cement-based products containing recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste is a promising technology for CO₂ capture and utilization, offering a means to mitigate the effects of climate change and promote the new paradigm of circular economy.

Keywords: accelerated carbonation, CO₂ curing, CO₂ uptake and construction and demolition waste., circular economy

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Temitayo Tosin Alawiye

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Plant disease control is important in maintaining plant vigour, grain quantity, abundance of food, feed, and fibre produced by farmers all over the world. Farmers make use of different methods in controlling these diseases but one of the commonly used method is the use of chemicals. However, the continuous and excessive usages of these agrochemicals pose a danger to the environment, man and wildlife. The more the population growth the more the food security challenge which leads to more pressure on agronomic growth. Agricultural waste also known as green waste are the residues from the growing and processing of raw agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables, rice husk, corn cob, mushroom growth medium waste, coconut husk. They are widely used in land bioremediation, crop production and protection which include disease control. These agricultural wastes help the crop by improving the soil fertility, increase soil organic matter and reduce in many cases incidence and severity of disease. The objective was to review the agricultural waste that has worked effectively against certain soil-borne diseases such as Fusarium oxysporum, Pythiumspp, Rhizoctonia spp so as to help minimize the use of chemicals. Climate change is a major problem of agriculture and vice versa. Climate change and agriculture are interrelated. Change in climatic conditions is already affecting agriculture with effects unevenly distributed across the world. It will increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups such as the poor in Sub Saharan Africa. The food security challenge will become more difficult as the world will need to produce more food estimated to feed billions of people in the near future with Africa likely to be the biggest hit. In order to surmount this hurdle, smallholder farmers in Africa must embrace climate-smart agricultural techniques and innovations which includes the use of green waste in agriculture, conservative agriculture, pasture and manure management, mulching, intercropping, etc. Training and retraining of smallholder farmers on the use of green energy to mitigate the effect of climate change should be encouraged. Policy makers, academia, researchers, donors, and farmers should pay more attention to the use of green energy as a way of reducing incidence and severity of soilborne plant diseases to solve looming food security challenges.

Keywords: agricultural waste, climate change, green energy, soil borne plant disease

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: Alexander Street, Nina Wollersberger, Paul Fernie, Leonardo Muller, Ming Hung HSU, Helen Odell-Miller, Jorg Fachner, Patrizia Di Campli San Vito, Stephen Brewster, Hari Shaji, Satvik Venkatesh, Paolo Itaborai, Nicolas Farina, Alexis Kirke, Sube Banerjee, Eduardo Reck Miranda

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Escalating neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in people with dementia may lead to earlier care home admission. Music listening has been reported to stimulate cognitive function, potentially reducing agitation in this population. We present a scoping review, reporting on current developments and discussing the potential for music listening with related technology in managing agitation in dementia care. Of two searches for music listening studies, one focused on older people or people living with dementia where music listening interventions, including technology, were delivered in participants’ homes or in institutions to address neuropsychiatric symptoms, quality of life and independence. The second included any population focusing on the use of music technology for health and wellbeing. In search one 70/251 full texts were included. The majority reported either statistical significance (6, 8.5%), significance (17, 24.2%) or improvements (26, 37.1%). Agitation was specifically reported in 36 (51.4%). The second search included 51/99 full texts, reporting improvement (28, 54.9%), significance (11, 21.5%), statistical significance (1, 1.9%) and no difference compared to the control (6, 11.7%). The majority in the first focused on mood and agitation, and the second on mood and psychophysiological responses. Five studies used AI or machine learning systems to select music, all involving healthy controls and reporting benefits. Most studies in both reviews were not conducted in a home environment (review 1 = 12; 17.1%; review 2 = 11; 21.5%). Preferred music listening may help manage NPS in the care home settings. Based on these and other data extracted in the review, a reasonable progression would be to co-design and test music listening systems and protocols for NPS in all settings, including people’s homes. Machine learning and automated technology for music selection and arousal adjustment, driven by live biodata, have not been explored in dementia care. Such approaches may help deliver the right music at the appropriate time in the required dosage, reducing the use of medication and improving quality of life.

Keywords: music listening, dementia, agitation, scoping review, technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Christoph Hacker, Zeynep Karahaliloglu, Gunnar Seide, Emir Baki Denkbas, Thomas Gries

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A wound dressing material is designed to facilitate wound healing and minimize scarring. An ideal wound dressing material should protect the wound from any contaminations of exogeneous microorganism. In addition, the dressing material should provide a moist environment through extraction of body fluid from the wound area. Recently, wound dressing electrospun nanofibrous membranes are produced by electrospinning from a polymer solution or a polymer melt. These materials have a great potential as dressing materials for wound healing because of superior properties such as high surface-to-volume ratio, high porosity with excellent pore interconnectivity. Melt electrospinning is an attractive tissue engineering scaffold manufacturing process which eliminated the health risk posed by organic solvents used in electrospinning process and reduced the production costs. In this study, antibacterial wound dressing materials were prepared from TPU (Elastollan 1185A) by a melt-electrospinning technique. The electrospinning parameters for an efficient melt-electrospinning process of TPU were optimized. The surface of the fibers was modified with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) by radio-frequency glow discharge plasma deposition method and with silver nanoparticles (nAg) to improve their wettability and antimicrobial properties. TPU melt-electrospun mats were characterized using SEM, DSC, TGA and XPS. The cell viability and proliferation on modified melt-electrospun TPU mats were evaluated using a mouse fibroblast cell line (L929). Antibacterial effects of theirs against both Staphylococcus aureus strain and Escherichia coli were investigated by disk-diffusion method. TPU was successfully processed into a porous, fibrous network of beadless fibers in the micrometer range (4.896±0.94 µm) with a voltage of 50 kV, a working distance of 6 cm, a temperature of the thermocouple and hot coil of 225–230ºC, and a flow rate of 0.1 mL/h. The antibacterial test indicated that PEG-modified nAg-loaded TPU melt-electrospun structure had excellent antibacterial effects and cell study results demonstrated that nAg-loaded TPU mats had no cytotoxic effect on the fibroblast cells. In this work, the surface of a melt-electrospun TPU mats was modified via PEG monomer and then nAg. Results showed melt-electrospun TPU mats modified with PEG and nAg have a great potential for use as an antibacterial wound dressing material and thus, requires further investigation.

Keywords: melt electrospinning, nanofiber, silver nanoparticles, wound dressing

Procedia PDF Downloads 462

Authors: Belachew Gebrewold

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The Horn of Africa is marred by complex and systematic internal and external political, economic and social-cultural causes of conflict that result in internal displacement and migration. This paper engages with them and shows how such a study can help us to understand migration, both in this region and more generally. The conflict has occurred within states, between states, among proxies, between armies. Human insecurities as a result of the state collapse of Somalia, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the whole region, recurrent drought affecting the livelihoods of subsistence farmers as well as nomads, exposure to hunger, environmental degradation, youth unemployment, rapid growth of slums around big cities, and political repression (especially in Eritrea) have been driving various segments of the regional population into regional and international migration. Eritrea has been going through a brutal dictatorship which pushes many Eritreans to flee their country and be exposed to human trafficking, torture, detention, and agony on their way to Europe mainly through Egypt, Libya and Israel. Similarly, Somalia has been devastated since 1991 by unending civil war, state collapse, and radical Islamists. There are some important aspects to highlight in the conflict-migration nexus in the Horn of Africa: first, the main push factor for the Somalis and Eritreans to leave their countries and risk their lives is the physical insecurity they have been facing in their countries. Secondly, as a result of the conflict the economic infrastructure is massively destroyed. Investment is rare; job opportunities are out of sight. Thirdly, in such a grim situation the politically and economically induced decision to migrate is a household decision, not only an individual decision. Based on this third point this research study took place in the Horn of Africa between 2014 and 2016 during different occasions. The main objective of the research was to understanding how the increasing migration is affecting the socio-economic and socio-political environment, and conversely how the socio-economic and socio-political environments are increasing migration decisions; and whether and how these decisions are individual or family decisions. The main finding is the higher the human insecurity, the higher the family decision; the lower the human insecurity, the higher the individual decision. These findings apply not only to the Eritrean, Somali migrants but also to Ethiopian migrants. But the general impacts of migration on sending countries’ human security is quite mixed and complex.

Keywords: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Horn of Africa, insecurity, migration, Somalia

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: K. C. Wong, K. L. Siu, S. N. Ng, K. N. Yip, Y. Y. Yuen, K. W. Lee, K. W. Wong, C. C. Li, H. P. Lam

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Background: Occupational injuries among nursing profession were found related to repeated bedside nursing care, such as transfer, lifting and manual handling patients from previous studies. Likewise, undergraduate nursing students are also exposed to potential safety hazard due to their similar work nature of registered nurses. Especially, those students who worked as Temporary undergraduate nursing students (TUNS) which is a part-time clinical job in hospitals in Hong Kong who mainly assisted in providing bedside cares appeared to at high risk of work-related injuries. Several studies suggested the level of compliance with safe work behaviors was highly associated with work-related injuries. Yet, it had been limitedly studied among nursing students. This study was conducted to assess and compare the compliance with safe work behaviors and the levels of awareness of different workplace safety issues between undergraduate nursing students with or without TUNS experiences. Methods: This is a quantitative descriptive study using convenience sampling. 362 undergraduate nursing students in Hong Kong were recruited. The Safe Work Behavior relating to Patient Handling (SWB-PH) was used to assess their compliance of safe-work behaviors and the level of awareness of different workplace safety issues. Results: The results showed that most of the participants (n=250, 69.1%) who were working as TUNS. However, students who worked as TUNS had significantly lower safe-work behaviors compliance (mean SWB-PH score = 3.64±0.54) than those did not worked as TUNS (SWB-PH score=4.21±0.54) (p<0.001). Particularly, these students had higher awareness to seek help and use assistive devices but lower awareness of workplace safety issues and awareness of proper work posture than students without TUNS experiences. The students with TUNS experiences had higher engagement in help-seeking behaviors might be possibly explained by their richer clinical experiences which served as a facilitator to seek help from clinical staff whenever necessary. Besides, these experienced students were more likely to bear risks for occupational injuries and worked alone when no available aid which might be related to the busy working environment, heightened work pressures and high expectations of TUNS. Eventually, students who worked as TUNS might target on completing the assigned tasks and gradually neglecting the occupational safety. Conclusion: The findings contributed to an understanding of the level of compliance with safe work behaviors among nursing students with different clinical experiences. The results might guide the modification of current safety protocols and the introduction of multiple clinical training courses to improve nursing student’s engagement in safe work behaviors.

Keywords: Occupational safety, Safety compliance, Safe-work behavior, Nursing students

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Wissal Ben Arfi, Jean-Michel Sahut

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The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the succession process from a knowledge management perspective. By doing that, succession process in family businesses, as an environment for creating and sharing knowledge, was explored. Design/Methodology/Approach: To support our reasoning, we collected qualitative data through 16 in-depth interviews conducted with all decision makers involved in the family businesses succession process in France. These open-ended responses were subsequently exposed to thematic discourse analysis. Findings: Central to this exhibit is the nature and magnitude of knowledge creation and sharing among the actors within the family succession context and how can tacit knowledge sharing facilitate the succession process. We also identified factors that inhibit down the knowledge creation and sharing processes. The sharing and creation of knowledge among members of a family business appear to be a complex process that must be part of a strategy for change. This implies that it requests trust and takes a certain amount of time because it requires organizational change and a clear and coherent strategic vision that is accepted and assimilated by all the members. Professional and leadership skills are of particular importance in knowledge sharing and creation processes. In most cases, tacit knowledge is crucial when it is shared and accumulated collectively. Our findings reveal that managers should find ways of implementing knowledge sharing and creation processes while acknowledging the succession process within family firms. This study highlights the importance of generating knowledge strategies in order to enhance the performance and the success of intergenerational succession. The empirical outcomes contribute to enrich the field of succession management process and enhance the role of knowledge in shaping family performance and longevity. To a large extent, the lessons learned from the study of succession processes in family-owned businesses are that when there is a deliberate effort to introduce a knowledge-based approach, this action becomes a seminal event in the life of the organization. Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the deep understanding of interactions among actors by examining the knowledge creation and sharing processes since current researches in family succession focused on aspects such as personal development of potential, intra-family succession intention, decision-making processes in family businesses. Besides, as succession is one of the key factors that determine the longevity and the performance of family businesses, it also contributes to literature by examining how tacit knowledge is transferred, shared and created in family businesses and how this can facilitate the intergenerational succession process.

Keywords: family-owned businesses, succession process, knowledge, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Mariamawit T. Belete

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Cereal production and marketing are the means of livelihood for millions of households in Ethiopia. However, cereal production is constrained by technical and socio-economic factors. Among the technical factors, cereal crop diseases are the major contributing factors to the low yield. The aim of this research is to develop an integration of data mining and knowledge based system for sorghum anthracnose disease diagnosis that assists agriculture experts and development agents to make timely decisions. Anthracnose diagnosing systems gather information from Melkassa agricultural research center and attempt to score anthracnose severity scale. Empirical research is designed for data exploration, modeling, and confirmatory procedures for testing hypothesis and prediction to draw a sound conclusion. WEKA (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis) was employed for the modeling. Knowledge based system has come across a variety of approaches based on the knowledge representation method; case-based reasoning (CBR) is one of the popular approaches used in knowledge-based system. CBR is a problem solving strategy that uses previous cases to solve new problems. The system utilizes hidden knowledge extracted by employing clustering algorithms, specifically K-means clustering from sampled anthracnose dataset. Clustered cases with centroid value are mapped to jCOLIBRI, and then the integrator application is created using NetBeans with JDK 8.0.2. The important part of a case based reasoning model includes case retrieval; the similarity measuring stage, reuse; which allows domain expert to transfer retrieval case solution to suit for the current case, revise; to test the solution, and retain to store the confirmed solution to the case base for future use. Evaluation of the system was done for both system performance and user acceptance. For testing the prototype, seven test cases were used. Experimental result shows that the system achieves an average precision and recall values of 70% and 83%, respectively. User acceptance testing also performed by involving five domain experts, and an average of 83% acceptance is achieved. Although the result of this study is promising, however, further study should be done an investigation on hybrid approach such as rule based reasoning, and pictorial retrieval process are recommended.

Keywords: sorghum anthracnose, data mining, case based reasoning, integration

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: S. Somerset, D. J. Hoare

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Participation in sport is linked to better mental and physical health in children and adults. Studies have shown children who participate in sports benefit from improved social skills, self-confidence, communication skills and a better quality of life. Children who participate in sports from a young age are also more likely to continue to have active lifestyles during adulthood. This is an important consideration with a nation where physical activity levels are declining and the incidences of obesity are rising. Getting children active and keeping them active can provide long term health benefits to the individual but also a potential reduction in health costs in the future. This systematic review aims to identify the barriers to participation in sport for children aged up to 18 years and encompasses both qualitative and quantitative studies. The bibliographic databases, EMBASE, Medline, CINAHL and SportDiscus were searched. Additional hand searches were carried out on review articles found in the searches to identify any studies that may have been missed. Studies involving children up to 18 years without additional needs focusing on barriers to participation in sport were included. Randomised control trials, policy guidelines, studies with sport as an intervention, studies focusing on the female athlete triad, tobacco abuse, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, pre exercise testing, and cardiovascular disease were excluded. Abstract review, full paper review and quality appraisal were conducted by two researchers. A consensus meeting took place to resolve any differences at the abstract, full text and data extraction / quality appraisal stages. The CASP qualitative studies appraisal tool and the CASP cohort studies tool (excluding question 3 and 4 which refer to interventions) were used for quality appraisal in this review. The review identified several salient barriers to participation in sport for children. These barriers ranged from the uniform worn during school physical education lessons to the weather during participation in sport. The most commonly identified barriers in the review include parental support, time allocation, location of the activity and the cost of the activity. Therefore, it would be beneficial for a greater provision to be made within the school environment for children to participate sport. This can reduce the cost and time commitment required from parents to encourage participation. This would help to increase activity levels of children, which ultimately can only be a good thing.

Keywords: barrier, children, participation, sport

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Pappu Kumar, Ajai Singh, Anshuman Singh

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There are different water user sectors such as rural, urban, mining, subsistence and commercial irrigated agriculture, commercial forestry, industry, power generation which are present in the catchment in Subarnarekha River Basin and Ranchi city. There is an inequity issue in the access to water. The development of the rural area, construction of new power generation plants, along with the population growth, the requirement of unmet water demand and the consideration of environmental flows, the revitalization of small-scale irrigation schemes is going to increase the water demands in almost all the water-stressed catchment. The WEAP Model was developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to enable evaluation of planning and management issues associated with water resources development. The WEAP model can be used for both urban and rural areas and can address a wide range of issues including sectoral demand analyses, water conservation, water rights and allocation priorities, river flow simulation, reservoir operation, ecosystem requirements and project cost-benefit analyses. This model is a tool for integrated water resource management and planning like, forecasting water demand, supply, inflows, outflows, water use, reuse, water quality, priority areas and Hydropower generation, In the present study, efforts have been made to access the utility of the WEAP model for water supply and demand analysis for Ranchi city. A detailed works have been carried out and it was tried to ascertain that the WEAP model used for generating different scenario of water requirement, which could help for the future planning of water. The water supplied to Ranchi city was mostly contributed by our study river, Hatiya reservoir and ground water. Data was collected from various agencies like PHE Ranchi, census data of 2011, Doranda reservoir and meteorology department etc. This collected and generated data was given as input to the WEAP model. The model generated the trends for discharge of our study river up to next 2050 and same time also generated scenarios calculating our demand and supplies for feature. The results generated from the model outputs predicting the water require 12 million litter. The results will help in drafting policies for future regarding water supplies and demands under changing climatic scenarios.

Keywords: WEAP model, water demand analysis, Ranchi, scenarios

Procedia PDF Downloads 419

Authors: A. Schuchter, M. Promegger

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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that online education is so much more than just a cool feature for teachers – it is an essential part of modern teaching. In online math teaching, it is common to use tools to share screens, compute and calculate mathematical examples, while the students can watch the process. On the other hand, flipped classroom models are on the rise, with their focus on how students can gather knowledge by watching videos and on the teacher’s use of technological tools for information transfer. This paper proposes a co-educational teaching approach for coding and engineering subjects with the help of drone-building to spark interest in technology and create a platform for knowledge transfer. The project combines aspects from mathematics (matrices, vectors, shaders, trigonometry), physics (force, pressure and rotation) and coding (computational thinking, block-based programming, JavaScript and Python) and makes use of collaborative-shared 3D Modeling with clara.io, where students create mathematics knowhow. The instructor follows a problem-based learning approach and encourages their students to find solutions in their own time and in their own way, which will help them develop new skills intuitively and boost logically structured thinking. The collaborative aspect of working in groups will help the students develop communication skills as well as structural and computational thinking. Students are not just listeners as in traditional classroom settings, but play an active part in creating content together by compiling a Handbook of Knowledge (called “open book”) with examples and solutions. Before students start calculating, they have to write down all their ideas and working steps in full sentences so other students can easily follow their train of thought. Therefore, students will learn to formulate goals, solve problems, and create a ready-to use product with the help of “reverse engineering”, cross-referencing and creative thinking. The work on drones gives the students the opportunity to create a real-life application with a practical purpose, while going through all stages of product development.

Keywords: flipped classroom, co-creational education, coding, making, drones, co-education, ARCS-model, problem-based learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Branislav Kovačević, Andrej Pilipović, Zoran Novčić, Marina Milović, Lazar Kesić, Milan Drekić, Saša Pekeč, Leopold Poljaković Pajnik, Saša Orlović

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Poplars present one of the most important tree species used for phytoremediation in the northern hemisphere. They can be used either as direct “cleaners” of the contaminated soils or as buffer zones preventing the contaminant plume to the surrounding environment. In order to produce appropriate planting material for this purpose, there is a long process of the breeding of the most favorable candidates. Although the development of the poplar propagation technology has been evolving for decades, white poplar nursery production, as well as the establishment of short-rotation coppice plantations, still considerably depends on the success of hardwood cuttings’ survival. This is why easy rooting is among the most desirable properties in white poplar breeding. On the other hand, there are many opportunities for the optimization of the technological procedures in order to meet the demands of particular genotype (clonal technology). In this study the effect of the term of hardwood cuttings’ preparation of four white poplar clones on their survival and further growth of rooted cuttings in nursery conditions were tested. There were three terms of cuttings’ preparation: the beginning of February (2nd Feb 2023), the beginning of March (3rd Mar 2023) and the end of March (21nd Mar 2023), which is regarded as the standard term. The cuttings were stored in cool chamber at 2±2°C. All cuttings were planted on the same date (11th Apr 2023), in soil prepared with rotary tillage, and then cultivated by usual nursey procedures. According to the results obtained after the bud set (29th Sept 2023) there were significant differences in the survival and growth of rooted cuttings between examined terms of cutting preparation. Also, there were significant differences in the reaction of examined clones on terms of cutting preparation. In total, the best results provided cuttings prepared at the first term (2nd Feb 2023) (survival rate of 39.4%), while performance after two later preparation terms was significantly poorer (20.5% after second and 16.5% after third term). These results stress the significance of dormancy preservation in cuttings of examined white poplar clones for their survival, which could be especially important in context of climate change. Differences in clones’ reaction to term of cutting preparation suggest necessity of adjustment of the technology to the needs of particular clone i.e. design of clone specific technology.

Keywords: rooting, Populus alba, nursery, clonal technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Bojana Ž. Bajić, Siniša N. Dodić, Vladimir S. Puškaš, Jelena M. Dodić

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Increasing industrialization as a response to the demands of the consumer society greatly exploits resources and generates large amounts of waste effluents in addition to the desired product. This means it is a priority to implement technologies with the maximum utilization of raw materials and energy, minimum generation of waste effluents and/or their recycling (secondary use). Considering the process conditions and the nature of the raw materials used by the vegetable oil industry, its wastewaters can be used as substrates for the biotechnological production which requires large amounts of water. This way the waste effluents of one branch of industry become raw materials for another branch which produces a new product while reducing wastewater pollution and thereby reducing negative environmental impacts. Vegetable oil production generates wastewaters during the process of rinsing oils and fats which contain mainly fatty acid pollutants. The vegetable oil industry generates large amounts of waste effluents, especially in the processes of degumming, deacidification, deodorization and neutralization. Wastewaters from the vegetable oil industry are generated during the whole year in significant amounts, based on the capacity of the vegetable oil production. There are no known alternative applications for these wastewaters as raw materials for the production of marketable products. Since the literature has no data on the potential negative impact of fatty acids on the metabolism of the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris, these wastewaters were considered as potential raw materials for the biotechnological production of xanthan. In this research, vegetable oil industry wastewaters were used as the basis for the cultivation media for xanthan production with Xanthomonas campestris ATCC 13951. Examining the process of biosynthesis of xanthan on vegetable oil industry wastewaters as the basis for the cultivation media was performed to obtain insight into the possibility of its use in the aforementioned biotechnological process. Additionally, it was important to experimentally determine the absence of substances that have an inhibitory effect on the metabolism of the production microorganism. Xanthan content, rheological parameters of the cultivation media, carbon conversion into xanthan and conversions of the most significant nutrients for biosynthesis (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus sources) were determined as indicators of the success of biosynthesis. The obtained results show that biotechnological production of the biopolymer xanthan by bacterium Xanthomonas campestris on vegetable oil industry wastewaters based cultivation media simultaneously provides preservation of the environment and economic benefits which is a sustainable solution to the problem of wastewater treatment.

Keywords: biotechnology, sustainable bioprocess, vegetable oil industry wastewaters, Xanthomonas campestris

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Dounyazad Sour

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This research examines international doctoral students’ reflections on their journey and experiences of studying for a PhD in the UK. Since the early 1990s, the international students’ number in the UK has increased. The significant contribution of these international students to the cultural and academic diversity of the UK universities’ doctoral programmes is widely acknowledged. The substantial fees these students bring to British Higher Education institutions is also much appreciated. The rationale for undertaking this study grew from personal experience of studying in the UK. Through membership in different groups both online and, when regulations permitted it, face to face social groups, it quickly became apparent that among all students, there were both shared and individual experiences of struggles and triumphs. This insight led to the decision to investigate these matters in greater detail. This in-depth qualitative interpretative study, inspired by a phenomenological approach, offers fresh insights into academic, social and cultural experiences of international PhD students in the UK. Data collection was carried out in the UK over a period of three months, deploying focus groups, individual semi-structured interviews, and images selected by participants that represent their feelings towards their experiences. The ten participants are attending different UK universities, studying a range of disciplines and have diverse backgrounds. Interviews and discussions took place in the participants' preferred languages; Arabic, English and French. The analysis shows that the participants had experienced two types of shock: negative and positive. Negative shocks, which have seen considerable attention in the field of international students’ experiences, relate to unexpected incidents that happened to the participants in relation to their interactions with others: people from different backgrounds and people from the same background. This impacted their experience negatively through experiencing feelings of anxiety, stress, low self-esteem and xenophobia, all these hindering factors contribute to make international students struggle to adapt to the new environment. Positive shocks, which have remained largely under-researched in the field of international students’ experiences, refer to all the positive occurrences that participants experienced. For instance, a shop assistant saying: “do you need any help, honey?” which brought a sense of belonging, feeling home, safety, and satisfaction to the respondents, and made their experiences less challenging. This investigation will offer insights into the PhD international students’ experiences and shed new light on the shocks that can work as facilitators, rather than as inhibitors.

Keywords: international students, PhD journey, phenomenological approach, positive shock

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Lenka Krsnakova, Petr Jirsak

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Prior research on facility location in supply chain is mostly focused on improvement of mathematical models. It is due to the fact that supply chain design has been for the long time the area of operational research that underscores mainly quantitative criteria. Qualitative criteria are still highly neglected within the supply chain design research. Facility location in the supply chain has become multi-criteria decision-making problem rather than single criteria decision due to changes of market conditions. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative criteria have to be included in the decision making process. The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of qualitative criteria as key parameters of relevant mathematical models. We examine which criteria are taken into consideration when Czech companies decide about their facility location. A literature review on criteria being used in facility location decision making process creates a theoretical background for the study. The data collection was conducted through questionnaire survey. Questionnaire was sent to manufacturing and business companies of all sizes (small, medium and large enterprises) with the representation in the Czech Republic within following sectors: automotive, toys, clothing industry, electronics and pharmaceutical industry. Comparison of which criteria prevail in the current research and which are considered important by companies in the Czech Republic is made. Despite the number of articles focused on supply chain design, only minority of them consider qualitative criteria and rarely process supply chain design as a multi-criteria decision making problem. Preliminary results of the questionnaire survey outlines that companies in the Czech Republic see the qualitative criteria and their impact on facility location decision as crucial. Qualitative criteria as company strategy, quality of working environment or future development expectations are confirmed to be considered by Czech companies. This study confirms that the qualitative criteria can significantly influence whether a particular location could or could not be right place for a logistic facility. The research has two major limitations: researchers who focus on improving of mathematical models mostly do not mention criteria that enter the model. Czech supply chain managers selected important criteria from the group of 18 available criteria and assign them importance weights. It does not necessarily mean that these criteria were taken into consideration when the last facility location was chosen, but how they perceive that today. Since the study confirmed the necessity of future research on how qualitative criteria influence decision making process about facility location, the authors have already started in-depth interviews with participating companies to reveal how the inclusion of qualitative criteria into decision making process about facility location influence the company´s performance.

Keywords: criteria influencing facility location, Czech Republic, facility location decision-making, qualitative criteria

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: P. Maheshwari, M. Brindavan

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The present research aimed to study the level of socio-emotional skills and perceived self-efficacy of children with learning disability. The study further investigated the relationship between the levels of socio-emotional skills, perceived self-efficacy and academic achievement of children with learning disability. The sample comprised of 40 children with learning disability as their primary condition, belonging to middle or upper middle class, living with both the parents, residing in Mumbai. Purposive or Judgmental and snowball sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. Proformas in the form of questionnaires were used to obtain the background information of the children with learning disability. A self-constructed Child’s Perceived Self-Efficacy Assessment Scale and Child’s Social and Emotional Skills Assessment Scale was used to measure the level of child’s perceived self-efficacy and their level of social and emotional skill respectively. Academic scores of the child were collected from the child’s parents or teachers and were converted into a percentage. The data was analyzed quantitatively using SPSS. Spearman rho or Pearson Product Moment correlation was used to ascertain the multiple relationships between child’s perceived self-efficacy, child’s social and emotional skills and child’s academic achievement. The findings revealed majority (27) of the children with learning disability perceived themselves having above average level of social and emotional skills while 13 out of 40 perceived their level of social and emotional skills at an average level. Domain wise analyses revealed that, in the domain of self- management (26) and relationship skills (22) more number of the children perceived themselves as having average or below average level of social and emotional skills indicating that they perceived themselves as having average or below average skills in regulating their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations, establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse groups and individuals. With regard to perceived self-efficacy, the majority of the children with learning disability perceived themselves as having above average level of self-efficacy. Looking at the data domain wise it was found that, in the domains of self-regulated learning and emotional self-efficacy, 50% of the children perceived themselves at average or below average level, indicating that they perceived themselves as average on competencies like organizing academic activities, structuring environment to make it conducive for learning, expressing emotions in a socially acceptable manner. Further, the correlations were computed, and significant positive correlations were found between children’s social and emotional skills and academic achievement (r=.378, p < .01), and between children’s social and emotional skills and child’s perceived self-efficacy (r = .724, p < .01) and a positive significant correlation was also found between children’s perceived self-efficacy and academic achievement (r=.332, p < .05). Results of the study emphasize on planning intervention for children with learning disability focusing on improving self-management and relationship skills, self-regulated learning and emotional self-efficacy.

Keywords: learning disability, social and emotional skills, perceived self-efficacy, academic achievement

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Authors: Comsun Thongchai, Vorapoj Promasatayaprot

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Background: Child development center is a day care center that gathers large numbers of children in the same areas. As a result, it provides high opportunity for infection, especially gastrointestinal and respiratory infections. Ubon Ratchathani has been a province with an increasing number of cases of Hand foot and mouth disease each year reported between 2014 and 2016. Accorded to a recent investigation reported, HFMD occurred in the Child Development Center and kindergartens, this was a place where HFMD spreads. This research was aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behavior about hand foot and mouth disease preventing of child caregivers in child development centers, Ubon Ratchathani Province. Method: Descriptive study was conducted between April and July, 2017. The study instruments used questionnaires and in-depth interviews on their practices of prevention and environment management of HFMD. The samples of survey questionnaires were caregivers who are working in 160 child development centers of the 160 parishes in Ubon Ratchathani province. The data was analyzed by percentages, means and standard deviations and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Result: The results showed that the majority were female (96.3%), average age 41 years (68.3%), marital status were couples (85.7%) and studied in undergraduate (75.2%). with a period of performance as teachers in child development centers range from 10 to 14 years were percentage 58.7 and 71.8 percent of them had been trained by health worker about the control HFMD. The knowledge for preventive in hand foot mouth disease on child caregivers was at high level. The mean score was 2.76 (S.D. = 0.114). The attitude of child caregivers was at a moderate level. Its mean score was 2.28 (S.D. = 0.247). On the other hand, the level of environmental management to prevent HFMD was low. The mean score was 1.34 (S.D. = 0.215). The factor of personal characteristics as gender, age, educational level, duration at work, knowledge and attitude of preventive HFMD was associated with Preventive of Behaviors to a statistically significant level (p<0.05 respectively). Conclusion: These results should be concerned to develop knowledge and improving practice for preventive hand foot mouth disease of child caregivers in child development centers by training. Preparation of media education, Surveillance of hand foot mouth disease and health behaviors promotion with community participation need to be supported continuously.

Keywords: preventive behavior, child development center, hand foot mouth disease, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: David Taillis, Oussama Becissa, Julien Gabaston, Jean-Michel Merillon, Tristan Richard, Stephanie Cluzet

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Nowadays, there is a strong pressure to reduce the phytosanitary inputs of synthetic chemistry in vineyards. It is, therefore, necessary to find viable alternatives in order to protect the vine against its major diseases. For this purpose, we suggest the use of a plant extract enriched in antimicrobial compounds. Being produced from vine trunks and roots, which are co-products of wine production, the extract produced is part of a circular economy. The antimicrobial molecules present in this plant material are polyphenols and, more particularly, stilbenes, which are derived from a common base, the resveratrol unit, and that are well known vine phytoalexins. The stilbenoids were extracted from trunks and roots (30/70, w/w) by a double extraction with ethyl acetate followed by enrichment by liquid-liquid extraction. The produced extract was characterized by UHPLC-MS, then its antimicrobial activities were tested on Plasmopara viticola and Botrytis cinerea in the laboratory and/or in greenhouse and in vineyard. The major compounds were purified, and their antimicrobial activity was evaluated on B. cinerea. Moreover, after its spraying, the effect of the stilbene extract on the plant defence status was evaluated by analysis of defence gene expression. UHPLC-MS analysis revealed that the extract contains 50% stilbenes with resveratrol, ε-viniferin and r-viniferin as major compounds. The extract showed antimicrobial activities on P. viticola with IC₅₀ and IC₁₀₀ respectively of 90 and 300 mg/L in the laboratory. In addition, it inhibited 40% of downy mildew development in greenhouse. However, probably because of the sensitivity of stilbenes to the environment, such as UV degradation, no activity has been observed in vineyard towards P. viticola development. For B. cinerea, the extract IC50 was 123 mg/L, with resveratrol and ε-viniferin being the most active stilbenes (IC₅₀ of 88 and 142 mg/L, respectively). The analysis of the expression of defence genes revealed that the extract can induce the expression of some defence genes 24, 48, and 72 hours after treatment, meaning that the extract has a defence-stimulating effect at least for the first three days after treatment. In conclusion, we produced a plant extract enriched in stilbenes with antimicrobial properties against two major grapevine pathogenic agents P. viticola and B. cinerea. In addition, we showed that this extract displayed eliciting activity of plant defences. This extract can therefore represent, after formulation development, a viable eco-friendly alternative for vineyard protection. Subsequently, the effect of the stilbenoid extract on primary metabolism will be evaluated by quantitative NMR.

Keywords: antimicrobial, bioprotection, grapevine, Plasmopara viticola, stilbene

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Authors: Tanapond S.

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Typically, most of the controlling firms are relate to family firms which are widespread and important for economic growth particularly in Asian Pacific region. The unique characteristics of the controlling families tend to play an important role in determining the corporate policies such as dividend policy. Given the complexity of the family business phenomenon, the empirical evidence has been unclear on how the families behind business groups influence dividend policy in Asian markets with the prevalent existence of cross-shareholdings and pyramidal structure. Dividend policy as one of an important determinant of firm value could also be implemented in order to examine the effect of the controlling families behind business groups on strategic decisions-making in terms of a governance perspective and agency problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ownership structure and concentration which are influential internal corporate governance mechanisms in family firms on dividend decision-making. Using panel data and constructing a unique dataset of family ownership and control through hand-collecting information from the nonfinancial companies listed in Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) between 2000 and 2015, the study finds that family firms with large stakes distribute higher dividends than family firms with small stakes. Family ownership can mitigate the agency problems and the expropriation of minority investors in family firms. To provide insight into the distinguish between ownership rights and control rights, this study examines specific firm characteristics including the degrees of concentration of controlling shareholders by classifying family ownership in different categories. The results show that controlling families with large deviation between voting rights and cash flow rights have more power and affect lower dividend payment. These situations become worse when second blockholders are families. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this study is the first to examine the association between family firms’ characteristics and dividend policy from the corporate governance perspectives in Thailand with weak investor protection environment and high ownership concentration. This research also underscores the importance of family control especially in a context in which family business groups and pyramidal structure are prevalent. As a result, academics and policy makers can develop markets and corporate policies to eliminate agency problem.

Keywords: agency theory, dividend policy, family control, Thailand

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Authors: Mohamad R. Moshtagh, Ahmad Bagheri

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Accurate fault detection in rotating machinery is of utmost importance to ensure optimal performance and prevent costly downtime in industrial applications. This study presents a robust fault detection system based on vibration data collected from rotating gears under various operating conditions. The considered scenarios include: (1) both gears being healthy, (2) one healthy gear and one faulty gear, and (3) introducing an imbalanced condition to a healthy gear. Vibration data was acquired using a Hentek 1008 device and stored in a CSV file. Python code implemented in the Spider environment was used for data preprocessing and analysis. Winner features were extracted using the Wiener feature selection method. These features were then employed in multiple machine learning algorithms, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and Random Forest, to evaluate their performance in detecting and classifying faults in both the training and validation datasets. The comparative analysis of the methods revealed the superior performance of the Wiener-CNN approach. The Wiener-CNN method achieved a remarkable accuracy of 100% for both the two-class (healthy gear and faulty gear) and three-class (healthy gear, faulty gear, and imbalanced) scenarios in the training and validation datasets. In contrast, the other methods exhibited varying levels of accuracy. The Wiener-MLP method attained 100% accuracy for the two-class training dataset and 100% for the validation dataset. For the three-class scenario, the Wiener-MLP method demonstrated 100% accuracy in the training dataset and 95.3% accuracy in the validation dataset. The Wiener-KNN method yielded 96.3% accuracy for the two-class training dataset and 94.5% for the validation dataset. In the three-class scenario, it achieved 85.3% accuracy in the training dataset and 77.2% in the validation dataset. The Wiener-Random Forest method achieved 100% accuracy for the two-class training dataset and 85% for the validation dataset, while in the three-class training dataset, it attained 100% accuracy and 90.8% accuracy for the validation dataset. The exceptional accuracy demonstrated by the Wiener-CNN method underscores its effectiveness in accurately identifying and classifying fault conditions in rotating machinery. The proposed fault detection system utilizes vibration data analysis and advanced machine learning techniques to improve operational reliability and productivity. By adopting the Wiener-CNN method, industrial systems can benefit from enhanced fault detection capabilities, facilitating proactive maintenance and reducing equipment downtime.

Keywords: fault detection, gearbox, machine learning, wiener method

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Authors: L. Bruckert, A. Mansourzadeh

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The voice has a major influence on interpersonal communication in everyday life via the perception of pleasantness. The evolutionary perspective postulates that the mechanisms underlying the pleasantness judgments are universal adaptations that have evolved in the service of choosing a mate (through the process of sexual selection). From this point of view, the favorite voices would be those with more marked sexually dimorphic characteristics; for example, in men with lower voice pitch, pitch is the main criterion. On the other hand, one can postulate that the mechanisms involved are gradually established since childhood through exposure to the environment, and thus the prosodic elements could take precedence in everyday life communication as it conveys information about the speaker's attitude (willingness to communicate, interest toward the interlocutors). Our study focuses on voice pleasantness and its relationship with social impression formation, exploring both the spectral aspects (pitch, timbre) and the prosodic ones. In our study, we recorded the voices through two vocal corpus (five vowels and a reading text) of 25 French males speaking French and 25 Iranian males speaking Farsi. French listeners (40 male/40 female) listened to the French voices and made a judgment either on the voice's pleasantness or on the speaker (judgment about his intelligence, honesty, sociability). The regression analyses from our acoustic measures showed that the prosodic elements (for example, the intonation and the speech rate) are the most important criteria concerning pleasantness, whatever the corpus or the listener's gender. Moreover, the correlation analyses showed that the speakers with the voices judged as the most pleasant are considered the most intelligent, sociable, and honest. The voices in Farsi have been judged by 80 other French listeners (40 male/40 female), and we found the same effect of intonation concerning the judgment of pleasantness with the corpus «vowel» whereas with the corpus «text» the pitch is more important than the prosody. It may suggest that voice perception contains some elements invariant across culture/language, whereas others are influenced by the cultural/linguistic background of the listener. Shortly in the future, Iranian people will be asked to listen either to the French voices for half of them or to the Farsi voices for the other half and produce the same judgments as the French listeners. This experimental design could potentially make it possible to distinguish what is linked to culture and what is linked to language in the case of differences in voice perception.

Keywords: cross-cultural psychology, impression formation, pleasantness, voice perception

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Authors: Yemane Tadesse Gebreslassie, Fisseha Guesh Gebremeskel

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Nanotechnology has made remarkable advancements in recent years, revolutionizing various scientific fields, industries, and research institutions through the utilization of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles. Among these nanoparticles, copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) have garnered significant attention due to their versatile properties and wide-range applications, particularly, as effective antimicrobial and anticancer agents. CuO NPs can be synthesized using different methods, including physical, chemical, and biological approaches. However, conventional chemical and physical approaches are expensive, resource-intensive, and involve the use of hazardous chemicals, which can pose risks to human health and the environment. In contrast, biological synthesis provides a sustainable and cost-effective alternative by eliminating chemical pollutants and allowing for the production of CuO NPs of tailored sizes and shapes. This comprehensive review focused on the green synthesis of CuO NPs using various biological resources, such as plants, microorganisms, and other biological derivatives. Current knowledge and recent trends in green synthesis methods for CuO NPs are discussed, with a specific emphasis on their biomedical applications, particularly in combating cancer and microbial infections. This review highlights the significant potential of CuO NPs in addressing these diseases. By capitalizing on the advantages of biological synthesis, such as environmental safety and the ability to customize nanoparticle characteristics, CuO NPs have emerged as promising therapeutic agents for a wide range of conditions. This review presents compelling findings, demonstrating the remarkable achievements of biologically synthesized CuO NPs as therapeutic agents. Their unique properties and mechanisms enable effective combating against cancer cells and various harmful microbial infections. CuO NPs exhibit potent anticancer activity through diverse mechanisms, including induction of apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis, and modulation of signaling pathways. Additionally, their antimicrobial activity manifests through various mechanisms, such as disrupting microbial membranes, generating reactive oxygen species, and interfering with microbial enzymes. This review offers valuable insights into the substantial potential of biologically synthesized CuO NPs as an alternative approach for future therapeutic interventions against cancer and microbial infections.

Keywords: biological synthesis, copper oxide nanoparticles, microbial infection, nanotechnology

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Authors: Chikang Wang, Jhongjheng Jian, Poming Huang

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Among a wide variety of pharmaceutical compounds, tetracycline antibiotics are one of the largest groups of pharmaceutical compounds extensively used in human and veterinary medicine to treat and prevent bacterial infections. Because it is water soluble, biologically active, stable and bio-refractory, release to the environment threatens aquatic life and increases the risk posed by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. In practice, due to its antibacterial nature, tetracycline cannot be effectively destructed by traditional biological methods. Hence, in this study, two advanced oxidation processes such as ozonation and sono-Fenton processes were conducted individually to degrade the tetracycline for investigating their feasibility on tetracycline degradation. Effect of operational variables on tetracycline degradation, release of nitrogen and change of toxicity were also proposed. Initial tetracycline concentration was 50 mg/L. To evaluate the efficiency of tetracycline degradation by ozonation, the ozone gas was produced by an ozone generator (Model LAB2B, Ozonia) and introduced into the reactor with different flows (25 - 500 mL/min) at varying pH levels (pH 3 - pH 11) and reaction temperatures (15 - 55°C). In sono-Fenton system, an ultrasonic transducer (Microson VCX 750, USA) operated at 20 kHz combined with H₂O₂ (2 mM) and Fe²⁺ (0.2 mM) were carried out at different pH levels (pH 3 - pH 11), aeration gas and flows (air and oxygen; 0.2 - 1.0 L/min), tetracycline concentrations (10 - 200 mg/L), reaction temperatures (15 - 55°C) and ultrasonic powers (25 - 200 Watts), respectively. Sole ultrasound was ineffective on tetracycline degradation, where the degradation efficiencies were lower than 10% with 60 min reaction. Contribution of Fe²⁺ and H₂O₂ on the degradation of tetracycline was significant, where the maximum tetracycline degradation efficiency in sono-Fenton process was as high as 91.3% followed by 45.8% mineralization. Effect of initial pH level on tetracycline degradation was insignificant from pH 3 to pH 6 but significantly decreased as the pH was greater than pH 7. Increase of the ultrasonic power was slightly increased the degradation efficiency of tetracycline, which indicated that the hydroxyl radicals dominated the oxidation of tetracycline. Effects of aeration of air or oxygen with different flows and reaction temperatures were insignificant. Ozonation showed better efficiencies in tetracycline degradation, where the optimum reaction condition was found at pH 3, 100 mL O₃/min and 25°C with 94% degradation and 60% mineralization. The toxicity of tetracycline was significantly decreased due to the mineralization of tetracycline. In addition, less than 10% of nitrogen content was released to solution phase as NH₃-N, and the most degraded tetracycline cannot be full mineralized to CO₂. The results shown in this study indicated that both the sono-Fenton process and ozonation can effectively degrade the tetracycline and reduce its toxicity at profitable condition. The costs of two systems needed to be further investigated to understand the feasibility in tetracycline degradation.

Keywords: degradation, detoxification, mineralization, ozonation, sono-Fenton process, tetracycline

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Authors: Imran Aziz Tunio

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Islamkot is an underdeveloped sub-district (Taluka) in the Tharparkar district Sindh province of Pakistan located between latitude 24°25'19.79"N to 24°47'59.92"N and longitude 70° 1'13.95"E to 70°32'15.11"E. The Islamkot has an arid desert climate and the region is generally devoid of perennial rivers, canals, and streams. It is highly dependent on rainfall which is not considered a reliable surface water source and groundwater is the only key source of water for many centuries. To assess groundwater’s potential, an electrical resistivity survey (ERS) was conducted in Islamkot Taluka. Groundwater investigations for 128 Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) were collected to determine the groundwater potential and obtain qualitatively and quantitatively layered resistivity parameters. The PASI Model 16 GL-N Resistivity Meter was used by employing a Schlumberger electrode configuration, with half current electrode spacing (AB/2) ranging from 1.5 to 100 m and the potential electrode spacing (MN/2) from 0.5 to 10 m. The data was acquired with a maximum current electrode spacing of 200 m. The data processing for the delineation of dune sand aquifers involved the technique of data inversion, and the interpretation of the inversion results was aided by the use of forward modeling. The measured geo-electrical parameters were examined by Interpex IX1D software, and apparent resistivity curves and synthetic model layered parameters were mapped in the ArcGIS environment using the inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation technique. Qualitative interpretation of vertical electrical sounding (VES) data shows the number of geo-electrical layers in the area varies from three to four with different resistivity values detected. Out of 128 VES model curves, 42 nos. are 3 layered, and 86 nos. are 4 layered. The resistivity of the first subsurface layers (Loose surface sand) varied from 16.13 Ωm to 3353.3 Ωm and thickness varied from 0.046 m to 17.52m. The resistivity of the second subsurface layer (Semi-consolidated sand) varied from 1.10 Ωm to 7442.8 Ωm and thickness varied from 0.30 m to 56.27 m. The resistivity of the third subsurface layer (Consolidated sand) varied from 0.00001 Ωm to 3190.8 Ωm and thickness varied from 3.26 m to 86.66 m. The resistivity of the fourth subsurface layer (Silt and Clay) varied from 0.0013 Ωm to 16264 Ωm and thickness varied from 13.50 m to 87.68 m. The Dar Zarrouk parameters, i.e. longitudinal unit conductance S is from 0.00024 to 19.91 mho; transverse unit resistance T from 7.34 to 40080.63 Ωm2; longitudinal resistance RS is from 1.22 to 3137.10 Ωm and transverse resistivity RT from 5.84 to 3138.54 Ωm. ERS data and Dar Zarrouk parameters were mapped which revealed that the study area has groundwater potential in the subsurface.

Keywords: electrical resistivity survey, GIS & RS, groundwater potential, environmental assessment, VES

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Authors: Ashan Wijekoon, Abi Beane, Subashini Jayawardana

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Background: Soldiers' physical rehabilitation and long term health status has been hindered due to limited investment in and access to rehabilitation services. Home-based rehabilitation programmes could offer a potentially feasible alternative to facilitate long-term recovery. Objectives: To explore Sri Lankan soldiers' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to a home-based physical rehabilitation programme.Methods and Materials: We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with community re-integrated army veterans who had undergone unilateral lower limb amputation following war related trauma. Veterans were identified from five districts of Sri Lanka, based on a priori knowledge of veteran community settlements (Disabled Category Registry) obtained from Directorate of Rehabilitation, MoD, Sri Lanka. Individuals were stratified for purposive selection. The interview guide was developed from existing methods and adapted for context. Verbatim transcripts of interviews were analyzed for emerging themes using an inductive approach. Following consent, participants met the researcher (AW- a trained physiotherapist fluent in Sinhalese). Results: Twenty-five Interviews were conducted, totaling 7.2 hours of new data (Mean±SD: 0.28±0.11). All participants were male, aged 30-55 years (Mean±SD: 46.1±7.4), and had experienced traumatic amputation as a result of conflict. Twenty-four sub themes were identified. Inadequate space for exercises, absence of equipment and assistance to conduct the exercises at home, alongside absence of community healthcare services were all barriers. Burden of comorbidities, including chronic pain and disability level, were also barriers. Social support systems, including soldier societies, family, and kinship with other amputees, were seen as facilitators to an at-home programme. Motivation for independence was a strong indicator of engagement. Conclusion: Environment, chronic pain, and absence of well-established community health services were key barriers. Family and soldier support was a facilitator. Engagement with community healthcare providers (physiotherapist and primary care physicians) will be essential to the success of an at-home rehabilitation program.

Keywords: physical rehabilitation, home-based, soldiers, disability, lower-limb amputation, qualitative

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Authors: Devon Simpson

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Recycled Manure Solids (RMS), attained via centrifugation from Canadian dairy farms, were synthesized into a non-polluting fertilizer by bonding micronutrients (Fe, Zn, and Mn) to cellulose fibers and then assessed for the effectiveness of nutrient recovery in tomatoes. Manure management technology is critical for improving the sustainability of agroecosystems and has the capacity to offer a truly circular economy. The ability to add value to manure byproducts offers an opportunity for economic benefits while generating tenable solutions to livestock waste. The dairy industry is under increasing pressure from new environmental protections such as government restrictions on manure applications, limitations on herd size as well as increased product demand from a growing population. Current systems use RMS as bedding, so there is a lack of data pertaining to RMS use as a fertilizer. This is because of nutrient distribution, where most nutrients are retained in the liquid effluent of the solid-liquid separation. A literature review on the physical and chemical properties of dairy manure further revealed more data for raw manure than centrifuged solids. This research offers an innovative perspective and a new avenue of exploration in the use of RMS. Manure solids in this study were obtained directly from dairy farms in Salmon Arm and Abbotsford, British Columbia, and underwent physical, chemical, and biological characterizations pre- and post-synthesis processing. Samples were sent to A&L labs Canada for analysis. Once characterized and bonded to micronutrients, the effect of synthesized RMS on nutrient recovery in tomatoes was studied in a greenhouse environment. The agricultural research package ‘agricolae’ for R was used for experimental design and data analysis. The growth trials consisted of a randomized complete block design (RCBD) that allowed for analysis of variance (ANOVA). The primary outcome was to measure nutrient uptake, and this was done using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (IC-PMS) to analyze the micronutrient content of both the tissue and fruit of the tomatoes. It was found that treatments containing bonded dairy manure solids had an increased micronutrient concentration. Treatments with bonded dairy manure solids also saw an increase in yield, and a brix analysis showed higher sugar content than the untreated control and a grower standard.

Keywords: aoecosystems, dairy manure, micronutrient fertilizer, manure management, nutrient recovery, nutrient recycling, recycled manure solids, regenerative agricugrlture, sustainable farming

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Authors: Majid Rasta, Xiaotao Shi, Mian Adnan Kakakhel, Yanqin Bai, Lao Liu, Jia Manke

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Microplastics (MPs; particles <5 mm) pollution is considered as a globally pervasive threat to aquatic ecosystems, and many studies reported this pollution in rivers, wetlands, lakes, coastal waters and oceans. In the aquatic environments, settling and transport of MPs in water column and sediments are determined by different factors such as hydrologic characteristics, watershed pattern, rainfall events, hydraulic conditions, vegetation, hydrodynamics behavior of MPs, and physical features of particles (shape, size and density). In the meantime, hydraulic conditions (such as turbulence, high/low water speed flows or water stagnation) play a key role in the fate of MPs in aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, this study presents a briefly review on the effects of different hydraulic conditions on the fate, transport and accumulation of MPs in aquatic ecosystems. Generally, MPs are distributed horizontally and vertically in aquatic environments. The vertical distribution of MPs in the water column changes with different flow velocities. In the riverine, turbulent flow causing from the rapid water velocity and shallow depth may create a homogeneous mixture of MPs throughout the water column. While low velocity followed by low-turbulent waters can lead to the low level vertical mixing of MP particles in the water column. Consequently, the high numbers of MPs are expected to be found in the sediments of deep and wide channels as well as estuaries. In contrast, observing the lowest accumulation of MP particles in the sediments of straights of the rivers, places with the highest flow velocity is understandable. In the marine environment, hydrodynamic factors (e.g., turbulence, current velocity and residual circulation) can affect the sedimentation and transportation of MPs and thus change the distribution of MPs in the marine and coastal sediments. For instance, marine bays are known as the accumulation area of MPs due to poor hydrodynamic conditions. On the other hand, in the nearshore zone, the flow conditions are highly complex and dynamic. Experimental studies illustrated that maximum horizontal flow velocity in the sandy beach can predict the accumulation of MPs so that particles with high sinking velocities deposit in the lower water depths. As a whole, it can be concluded that the transport and accumulation of MPs in aquatic ecosystems are highly affected by hydraulic conditions. This study provided information about the impacts of hydraulic on MPs pollution. Further research on hydraulics and its relationship to the accumulation of MPs in aquatic ecosystems is needed to increase insights into this pollution.

Keywords: microplastics pollution, hydraulic, transport, accumulation

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Authors: Nan Wu, Peng Liu

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As a morphological element reflecting the land property rights structure, the plot pattern plays a crucial role in shaping the form and quality of the built environment. Therefore, it is one of the core control elements of urban regeneration. As China's urban development mode is shifting from growth-based development to urban regeneration, it is urgent to explore a more refined way for the planning control of the plot pattern, which further promotes the optimization of urban form and land property structure. European and American countries such as Germany and the United States began to deal with the planning control of plot patterns in urban regeneration earlier and established relatively mature methods and mechanisms. Therefore, this paper summarizes two typical scenarios of plot pattern regeneration in old cities in China: the first one is "limited scale plot pattern rezoning", which mainly deals with the regeneration scenario of tearing down the old and building the new, and the focus of its control is to establish an adaptive plot pattern rezoning methodology and mechanism; The second is "localized parcel regeneration under the existing property rights," which mainly deals with the renewal scenario of alteration and addition, and its control focuses on the establishment of control rules for individual plot regeneration. For the two typical plot pattern regeneration scenarios, Germany (Berlin) and the United States (New York) are selected as two international cases with reference significance, and the framework of plot pattern form and property rights control elements of urban regeneration is established from four latitudes, namely, the overall operation mode, form control methods, property rights control methods, and effective implementation prerequisites, so as to compare and analyze the plot pattern control methods of the two countries under different land systems and regeneration backgrounds. Among them, the German construction planning system has formed a more complete technical methodology for block-scale rezoning, and together with the overall urban design, it has created a practical example in the critical redevelopment of the inner city of Berlin. In the United States (New York), the zoning method establishes fine zoning regulations and rules for adjusting development rights based on the morphological indicators plots so as to realize effective control over the regeneration of local plots under the existing property rights pattern. On the basis of summarizing the international experience, we put forward the proposal of plot pattern and property rights control for the organic regeneration of old cities in China.

Keywords: plot pattern, urban regeneration, urban morphology, property rights, regulatory planning

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Authors: Lauren A. Bailey, Amber R. Childs, Nicola C. James, Murray I. Duncan, Alexander Winkler, Warren M. Potts

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Changes in behaviour and physiology are the most important responses of marine life to anthropogenic impacts such as climate change and over-fishing. Behavioural changes (such as a shift in distribution or changes in phenology) can ensure that a species remains in an environment suited for its optimal physiological performance. However, if marine life is unable to shift their distribution, they are reliant on physiological adaptation (either by broadening their metabolic curves to tolerate a range of stressors or by shifting their metabolic curves to maximize their performance at extreme stressors). However, since there are links between fish physiology and behaviour, changes to either of these traits may have reciprocal interactions. This paper reviews the current knowledge of the links between the behaviour and physiology of fishes, discusses these in the context of exploitation and climate change, and makes recommendations for future research needs. The review revealed that our understanding of the links between fish behaviour and physiology is rudimentary. However, both are hypothesized to be linked to stress responses along the hypothalamic pituitary axis. The link between physiological capacity and behaviour is particularly important as both determine the response of an individual to a changing climate and are under selection by fisheries. While it appears that all types of capture fisheries are likely to reduce the adaptive potential of fished populations to climate stressors, angling, which is primarily associated with recreational fishing, may induce fission of natural populations by removing individuals with bold behavioural traits and potentially the physiological traits required to facilitate behavioural change. Future research should focus on assessing how the links between physiological capacity and behaviour influence catchability, the response to climate change drivers, and post-release recovery. The plasticity of phenotypic traits should be examined under a range of stressors of differing intensity in several species and life history stages. Future studies should also assess plasticity (fission or fusion) in the phenotypic structuring of social hierarchy and how this influences habitat selection. Ultimately, to fully understand how physiology is influenced by the selective processes driven by fisheries, long-term monitoring of the physiological and behavioural structure of fished populations, their fitness, and catch rates are required.

Keywords: climate change, metabolic shifts, over-fishing, phenotypic plasticity, stress response

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Authors: Marijan KovačIć, Davor Pavelić, Darko Tibljaš, Ivo Galić, Frane Marković, Ivica PavičIć

Abstract:

The North Croatian Basin (NCB) occupies the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin System and belongs to the Central Paratethys realm. In a quarry near the village of Poljanska, on the southern slopes of Mt. Papuk in eastern Croatia, a 40-meter-thick section is exposed, consisting of well-bedded, mixed, carbonate-siliciclastic deposits with occurrences of pyroclastics. Sedimentological investigation indicates that a salina lake developed in the central NCB during the late early Miocene. Field studies and mineralogical and petrological analyses indicate that alternations of laminated crypto- characterize the lower part of the section to microcrystalline dolomite and analcimolite (sedimentary rocks composed essentially of authigenic analcime) associated with tuffites and marls. The pyroclastic material is a product of volcanic activity at the end of the early Miocene, while the formation of analcime, the zeolite group mineral, is a result of an alteration of pyroclastic material in an alkaline lacustrine environment. These sediments were deposited in a shallow, hydrologically closed lake that was controlled by an arid climate during the first phase of its development. The middle part of the section consists of dolomites interbedded with analcimolites and sandstones. The sandstone beds are a result of the increased supply of clastic material derived from the locally uplifted metamorphic and granitoid basement. The emplacement of sandstones and dolomites reflects a distinct alternation of hydrologically open and closed lacustrine environments controlled by the frequent alternation of humid and arid climates, representing the second phase of lake development. The siliciclastics of the third phase of lake development were deposited during the Middle Miocene in a hydrologically mostly open lake. All lacustrine deposition coincides with the Miocene Climatic Optimum, which was characterized by a hot and warm climate. The sedimentological data confirm the mostly wet conditions previously identified by paleobotanical studies in the region. The exception is the relatively long interval of arid climate in the late early Miocene that controlled the first phase of lake evolution, i.e., the salina-type lake.

Keywords: early Miocene, Pannonian basin System, pyroclastics, salina-type lake

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