Search results for: small area variation

Authors: Taonga Temwani Chibaka

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This qualitative research study was conducted to identify the common risk factors that affect the construction industry in Malawi in the building and infrastructure (civil works) projects. The study then evaluates the possible risk responses that are done to mitigate the various risk factors that were identified. I addition the research also established the barriers to risk management implementation with lastly mapping out as where the identified risk factors fall on which stage of the project and then also map out the knowledge areas that need to be worked on the cases on Malawian construction industry in order to mitigate most of the identified risk factors. The study involved the interviewing the professionals from the construction industry in Malawi where insights and ideas were collected, analysed and interpreted. The key study findings show that risks related to clients group are perceived as most critical followed by the contractor related, consultant related and then external group related factors respectively where preventive measures are the most applied risk response technique where the aim to avoid most of the risk factors from happening. Most of the risk factors identified were internal risks and in managerial category which suggested that risk planning was to be emphasized at pre-contract stage to minimize these risks since a bigger percentage of the risk factors were mapped out at implementation stage. Furthermore, barriers to risk management were identified and the key barriers were lack of awareness; lack of knowledge; lack of formal policies in place; regarded as costly and limited time which resulted in proposing that regulating authorities to purposefully introduce intense training on risk management to make known of this new knowledge area. The study then recommends that organisation should formally implement risk management where policies should be introduced to enforce all parties to undertake this. Risk planning was regarded as paramount and this to be done from pre-contract phase so as to mitigate 80% of the risk factors. Finally, training should be done on all project management knowledge areas.

Keywords: risk management, risk factors, risks, malawi

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Authors: Keivan Amirbagheri, Ana Nuñez-Carballosa, Laura Guitart-Tarrés

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Over the last couple of decades, enterprises have begun to accept the need for environmental management and have started to implement environmental management programs to compete in the markets. The implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices can provide valuable opportunities to improve firm performance. Through the prior investigations, the ascending tendency of the numbers of published papers in the field of green supply chain management practices has been reported and it shows the high interest level of the authors to work in this area. Besides, there is still a gap to study more about the relationship of GSCM to the organizational performance (OP). So, the purpose of this research is to study the practices related to green supply chain management that influence the results of the company as an organizational performance. Based on our previous works, from one part we have collected these GSCM practices (planning, operational, and communication practices) and classified them through conducting some literature reviews to analyze their effects on the OP’s factors (balanced scorecard’s perspectives). To do so we design a case study methodology through semi-structured interviews and secondary data from some multinational well-known companies based in Spain. The cases have been selected with the criterion of trying to collect members of the entire supply chain to have a vision as global as possible. The results report the considerable influence of green supply chain management practices on the organizational performance of the companies of the study. In addition, they represent that the implementation of green supply chain management practices especially in a long-term perspective can be economically justified. From the point of view of the personal, they feel better about being a member of this type of company that has been structured on environmental issues. Also, for these companies, the image that has been created by the implementation of these practices helps them to facilitate their marketing program.

Keywords: green supply chain management, organizational performance, case study, Spain

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Authors: Tekle Olbamo, Tegegn Tesfaye, Dikaso Unbushe, Belete Jorga

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Bovine trypanosomosis is a haemoprotozoan parasitic disease, mostly transmitted by the tsetse fly (Glossina species) and poses significant losses to the livestock industry in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas. Therefore, the current study was aimed to determine the prevalence of bovine trypanosomosis and its vectorial density in some selected tsetse suppression and non-tsetse suppression areas of South Omo Zonefrom December 2018- November 2019. Dark phase contrast buffy coat, hematocrit techniques, and thin blood smear method were used for determination of prevalence and packed cell volume of trypanosomosis infection, respectively. For entomological investigation, 96 NGU traps were deployed (64 traps in tsetse suppression areas, 32 traps in tsetse non-suppression areas) in vector breeding areas. The overall prevalence of bovine trypanosomosis was 11.05% (142/1284), and overall seasonal prevalence of disease was 14.33% (92/642) and 7.78% (50/642) for dry and wet seasons, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference (P <0.05) in disease prevalence between the two seasons. Trypanosomacongolensewas the dominant parasite species; 80% and 71.64%, followed by Trypanosomavivax. Overall mean packed cell volume indicated parasitaemic animals (23.57±3.13) had significantly lower PCV than aparasitaemic animals (27.80±4.95), and animals examined during dry season (26.22±4.37) had lower mean PCV than animals examined during wet season with the significant association. Entomological study result revealed a total of 2.64 F/T/D and 2.03 F/T/D respectively from tsetse suppression areas and tsetse non-suppression areas during dry season and 0.42 F/T/D and 0.56 F/T/D during the wet season. Glossinapallidipes was the only cyclical vectors collected and identified from current study areas along with numerous mechanical vectors of genus Tabanus, Stomoxys, and Haematopota. Therefore integrated and safe control and prevention effort should be engaged to uphold cattle production and productivity in the area.

Keywords: bovine trypanosomiasis, South Omo, tsetse fly density, epidemiological study

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Authors: Ł. Morawiński, C. Jasiński, M. Jurkiewicz, S. Bou Habib, M. Bondyra

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With the development of optics, electronics, and computers, vision systems are increasingly used in various areas of life, science, and industry. Vision systems have a huge number of applications. They can be used in quality control, object detection, data reading, e.g., QR-code, etc. A large part of them is used for measurement purposes. Some of them make it possible to obtain a 3D reconstruction of the tested objects or measurement areas. 3D reconstruction algorithms are mostly based on creating depth maps from data that can be acquired from active or passive methods. Due to the specific appliance in airfield technology, only passive methods are applicable because of other existing systems working on the site, which can be blinded on most spectral levels. Furthermore, reconstruction is required to work long distances ranging from hundreds of meters to tens of kilometers with low loss of accuracy even with harsh conditions such as fog, rain, or snow. In response to those requirements, HRESS (Heliport REmote Safeguard System) was developed; which main part is a rotational head with a two-camera stereovision rig gathering images around the head in 360 degrees along with stereovision 3D reconstruction and point cloud combination. The sub-pixel analysis introduced in the HRESS system makes it possible to obtain an increased distance measurement resolution and accuracy of about 3% for distances over one kilometer. Ultimately, this leads to more accurate and reliable measurement data in the form of a point cloud. Moreover, the program algorithm introduces operations enabling the filtering of erroneously collected data in the point cloud. All activities from the programming, mechanical and optical side are aimed at obtaining the most accurate 3D reconstruction of the environment in the measurement area.

Keywords: airfield monitoring, artificial intelligence, stereovision, 3D reconstruction

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Authors: Cecile Garry, Katia Rovira, Julie Brisson

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined by a qualitative and quantitative impairment of social interaction. Indeed early intervention programs, such as the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), aimed at encouraging the development of social skills. In classroom, the children need to be socially engaged to learn. Early intervention programs can thus be implemented in kindergarten schools. In these schools, ASD children have more opportunities to interact with their peers or adults than in elementary schools. However, the preschool children with ASD are less socially engaged than their typically developing peers in the classroom. They initiate, respond and maintain less the social interactions. In addition, they produce more responses than initiations. When they interact, the non verbal communication is more used than verbal or symbolic communication forms and they are more engaged with adults than with peers. Nevertheless, communicative patterns may vary according to the clinical profiles of ASD children. Indeed, the ASD children with better cognitive skills interact more with their peers and use more symbolic communication than the ASD children with a low cognitive level. ASD children with the less severe symptoms use more the verbal communication than ASD children with the more severe symptoms. Small groups and structured activities encourage coordinated joint engagement episodes in ASD children. Our goal is to evaluate ASD children’s social engagement development in class, with their peers or adults, during dyadic or group activities. Participants were 19 preschool children with ASD aged from 3 to 6 years old that benefited of an early intervention in special kindergarten schools. Severity of ASD symptoms was measured with the CARS at the beginning of the follow-up. Classroom situations of interaction were recorded during 10 minutes (5 minutes of dyadic interaction and 5 minutes of a group activity), every 2 months, during 10 months. Social engagement behaviors of children, including initiations, responses and imitation, directed to a peer or an adult, were then coded. The Observer software (Noldus) that allows to annotate behaviors was the coding system used. A double coding was conducted and revealed a good inter judges fidelity. Results show that ASD children were more often and longer socially engaged in dyadic than in groups situations. They were also more engaged with adults than with peers. Children with the less severe symptoms of ASD were more socially engaged in groups situations than children with the more severe symptoms of ASD. Then, ASD children with the less severe symptoms of ASD were more engaged with their peers than ASD children with the more severe symptoms of ASD. However, the engagement frequency increased during the 10 month of follow-up but only for ASD children with the more severe symptoms at the beginning. To conclude, these results highlighted the necessity of individualizing early intervention programs according to the clinical profile of the child.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, preschool children, developmental psychology, early interventions, social interactions

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Authors: Bello Muhammad Dogon Kade

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The study was conducted to determine the effect of a treated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) shell in a complete diet on blood metabolites and microbial load in fattening Yankasa rams. The study was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm (Small Ruminants Unit of Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Each kilogram of groundnut shell was treated with 5% urea and 5% lime for treatments 2 (UTGNS) and 3 (LTGNS), respectively. For treatment 4 (ULTGNS), 1 kg of groundnut shell was treated with 2.5% urea and 2.5% lime, but the shell in treatment 1 was not treated (UNTGNS). Sixteen Yankasa rams were used and randomly assigned to the four treatment diets with four animals per treatment in a completely randomized design (CRD). The diet was formulated to have 14% crude protein (CP) content. Rumen fluid was collected from each ram at the end of the experiment at 0 and 4 hours post-feeding. The samples were then put in a 30 ml bottle and acidified with 5 drops of concentrated sulphuric (0.1N H₂SO4) acid to trap ammonia. The results of the blood metabolites showed that the mean values of NH₃-N differed significantly (P<0.05) among the treatment groups, with rams in the ULTGNS diet having the highest significant value (31.96 mg/L). TVFs were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams fed UNTGNS diet and higher in total nitrogen; the effect of sampling periods revealed that NH3N, TVFs and TP were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rumen fluid collected 4hrs post feeding among the rams across the treatment groups, but rumen fluid pH was significantly (p<0.05) higher in 0-hour post-feeding in all the rams in the treatment diets. In the treatment and sampling period’s interaction effects, animals on the ULTGNS diet had the highest mean values of NH3N in both 0 and 4 hours post-feeding and were significantly (P<0.5) higher compared to rams on the other treatment diets. Rams on the UTGNS diet had the highest bacteria load of 4.96X105/ml, which was significantly (P<0.05) higher than a microbial load of animals fed UNTGNS, LTGNS and ULTGNS diets. However, protozoa counts were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams fed the UTGNS diet than those followed by the ULTGNS diet. The results showed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the bacteria count of the animals at both 0 and 4 hours post-feeding. But rumen fungi and protozoa load at 0 hours were significantly (P<0.05) higher than at 4 hours post-feeding. The use of untreated ground groundnut shells in the diet of fattening Yankasa ram is therefore recommended.

Keywords: blood metabolites, microbial load, volatile fatty acid, ammonia, total protein

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Authors: Claudia Pimentel, Nuno Resende, Maria Fatima Lambert

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In the present time, catastrophe seems to be inevitable, and individuals are permanently overwhelmed with challenges that test one’s ability to cope with reality. Undoubtedly, photography surpassed the barrier of efficient communication in a world filled with omnifarious narratives. It wandered an outing shorter than words and younger than other sciences but became, nowadays, imperative in the context of several fields of knowledge, namely Heritage studies. Heritage and photography thus emerge as unapologetically related concepts, a fact that makes them equally relevant in today's society. Political, economic, social and humanitarian challenges alter the way in which the relationship with the past is managed and the way in which identities and ideas for the future are constructed. Ruins and destruction have become part of aesthetics discourse since the 18th century and are an area of interest when we discuss cultural heritage preservation. The image proves to be a unique way of revealing the event details when we refer to a catastrophic situation, whether it be anthropic, social or climatic. Like poetry, which has a challenging connection with silence, image is capable of creating spaces of sound and silence, and it is often these “pseudo-voids” that capture the attention of the spectator, of the one who sees/observes/contacts with the photography. The way we look at the catastrophe, how we describe it, and the images we keep in our memory will determine the record/capture/news of the event. We, thus, have a visual record, a document that will contribute to the creation of individual and collective identity, in a jigsaw puzzle of memories, pseudo memories and post memories. Based on photographic records in the Portuguese press, we intend to rethink the earthquake at Angra do Heroísmo – Azores in 1980, exploring the viewer´s perspective on the catastrophe’s iconography under the perspective of aesthetics and genealogy of the catastrophe.

Keywords: photography, aesthetics, catastrophe, Portugal

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Authors: Dogan Cetin, Burak Turk, Mahmut Candan

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Landslides cause remarkable damage and loss of human life every year around the world. They may be made more likely by factors such as earthquakes, heavy precipitation, and incorrect construction activities near or on slopes. The stadium of Karabük University is located at the bottom of a very high slope. After construction of the stadium, severe deformations were observed on the social activity area surrounding the stadium. Some inclinometers were placed behind the stadium to detect the possible landslide activity. According to measurements of the inclinometers, irregular soil movements were detected at depths between 20 m and 45 m. Also, significant heaves and settlements were observed behind the stadium walls located at the toe of the slope. The heaves indicate that the stadium walls were under threat of a significant landslide. After inclinometer readings and field observations, the potential failure geometry was estimated. The protection system was designed based on numerous numerical analysis performed by 2-D Plaxis software. After the design was completed, protective geotechnical work was started. Before the geotechnical work began, new inclinometers were installed to monitor earth movement during the work and afterward. The total horizontal length of the possible failure surface is 220 m. Geotechnical work included two-row-pile construction and three-row-pile construction on the slope. The bored piles were 120 cm in diameter for two-row-pile construction, and 150 cm in diameter for three-row-pile construction. Pile length is 31.30 m for two-row-pile construction and 31.40 m for three-row-pile construction. The distance between two-row-pile and three-row-pile construction is 60 m. With these bored piles, the landslide was divided into three parts. In this way, the earth's pressure was reduced. After a number of inclinometer readings, it was seen that deformation continued during the work, but after the work was done, the movement reversed, and total deformation stayed in mm dimension. It can be said that the protection work eliminated the possible landslide.

Keywords: landslide, landslide protection, inclinometer measurement, bored piles

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Authors: Ghulamhossein Nezami

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Civilizations based in Iran, especially in the south, have always realized the all-around importance of the Persian Sea and for various reasons, have paid full attention to it. The first of these was the pre-Aryan government, Ilam in the coastal province of Sharihum and the city of Lian (now the port of Bushehr) in terms of trade, defense and religion. With the establishment of the Achaemenids on the entire plateau of Iran to the center of Persia, they created several communication routes from Parseh to the shores of the Persian Gulf, which ended in the present Bushehr province. This coastal area was extended by a road in the coastal plain to the more southern parts of the ports of Ausinze - according to Ptolemy the port of Siraf before the Sassanids - and Epstane and Hormozia in the present-day Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the ancient city of Temukknana, whose new historical documents testify to its extraordinary importance in the Achaemenid period, especially Darius I of the Achaemenids, from a strategic position with the coastal areas, the coasts and on the other hand with the gamers, the political center. - Achaemenid administration, had. New archeological evidence, research, and excavations show that both the famous Achaemenid kings and courtiers paid special attention to Tamukknana. The discovery of a tomb and three Achaemenid palaces from before the reign of Cyrus to Xerxes in this region showed the importance of the strategic, security-defense and commercial position of this region, extraordinary for the Achaemenids. Therefore, the city of Temukkana in the Dashtestan region of present-day Bushehr province became an important Achaemenid center on the Persian Gulf coast and became the political-economic center of gravity of the Achaemenids and the regulator of communication networks on the Persian Gulf coast. This event showed that the Achaemenids attached importance to their economic goals and oversight of their vast territory by the Persian Gulf. Methods: Book resources and field study.

Keywords: Achaemenids, Bushehr, Persian Gulf, Tamukkana

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Authors: Fatemeh Asadi Farsad, Sima Modirkhameneh

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The purpose of this study was to explore the pattern of Psychological Well-Being (PWB) of Iranian male and female EFL teachers during the pandemic. It was intended to see if such a drastic change in the context and mode of teaching affects teachers' PWB. Furthermore, the possible difference between the six elements of PWB of Iranian EFL male vs. female teachers during the pandemic was investigated. The other purpose was to find out the EFL teachers’ perceptions of any modifications, and factors leading to such modifications in their PWB during pandemic. For the purpose of this investigation, a total of 81 EFL teachers (59 female, 22 male) with an age range of 25 to 35 were conveniently sampled from different cities in Iran. Ryff’s PWB questionnaire was sent to participant teachers through online platforms to elicit data on their PWB. As for their perceptions on the possible modifications and the factors involved in PWB during pandemic, a set of semi-structured interviews were run among both sample groups. The findings revealed that male EFL teachers had the highest mean on personal growth, followed by purpose of life, and self-acceptance and the lowest mean on environmental mastery. With a slightly similar pattern, female EFL teachers had the highest mean on personal growth, followed by purpose in life, and positive relationship with others with the lowest mean on environmental mastery. However, no significant difference was observed between the male and female groups’ overall means on elements of PWB. Additionally, participants perceived that their anxiety level in online classes altered due to factors like (1) Computer literacy skills, (2) Lack of social communications and interactions with colleagues and students, (3) Online class management, (4) Overwhelming workloads, and (5) Time management. The study ends with further suggestions as regards effective online teaching preparation considering teachers PWB, especially at severe situations such as covid-19 pandemic. The findings offer to determine the reformations of educational policies concerning enhancing EFL teachers’ PWB through computer literacy courses and stress management courses. It is also suggested that to proactively support teachers’ mental health, it is necessary to provide them with advisors and psychologists if possible for free. Limitations: One limitation is the small number of participants (81), suggesting that future replications should include more participants for reliable findings. Another limitation is the gender imbalance, which future studies should address to yield better outcomes. Furthermore, Limited data gathering tools suggest using observations, diaries, and narratives for more insights in future studies. The study focused on one model of PWB, calling for further research on other models in the literature. Considering the wide effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, future studies should consider additional variables (e.g., teaching experience, age, income) to understand Iranian EFL teachers’ vulnerabilities and strengths better.

Keywords: online teaching, psychological well-being, female and male EFL teachers, pandemic

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Authors: Faris Tarlochan, Siva Mahesh Tangutooru

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Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) is the relay center in the visual pathway as it receives most of the input information from retinal ganglion cells (RGC) and sends to visual cortex. Low threshold calcium currents (IT) at the membrane are the unique indicator to characterize this firing functionality of the LGN neurons gained by the RGC input. According to the LGN functional requirements such as functional mapping of RGC to LGN, the morphologies of the LGN neurons were developed. During the neurological disorders like glaucoma, the mapping between RGC and LGN is disconnected and hence stimulating LGN electrically using deep brain electrodes can restore the functionalities of LGN. A computational model was developed for simulating the LGN neurons with three predominant morphologies, each representing different functional mapping of RGC to LGN. The firings of action potentials at LGN neuron due to IT were characterized by varying the stimulation parameters, morphological parameters and orientation. A wide range of stimulation parameters (stimulus amplitude, duration and frequency) represents the various strengths of the electrical stimulation with different morphological parameters (soma size, dendrites size and structure). The orientation (0-1800) of LGN neuron with respect to the stimulating electrode represents the angle at which the extracellular deep brain stimulation towards LGN neuron is performed. A reduced dendrite structure was used in the model using Bush–Sejnowski algorithm to decrease the computational time while conserving its input resistance and total surface area. The major finding is that an input potential of 0.4 V is required to produce the action potential in the LGN neuron which is placed at 100 µm distance from the electrode. From this study, it can be concluded that the neuroprostheses under design would need to consider the capability of inducing at least 0.4V to produce action potentials in LGN.

Keywords: Lateral Geniculate Nucleus, visual cortex, finite element, glaucoma, neuroprostheses

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Authors: Olajumoke Adetoun Ojeleye

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The study assessed the safety culture, mindfulness and safe behaviors of students residing in the halls of residence of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to assess the level of safety mindfulness of students residing in the halls of residence of OAU, examine their safety culture and establish whether these students are involved in unsafe practices. The study employed a cross-sectional research design and instrument used for data collection was a self-structured, self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was tested for validity and reliability with its reliability coefficient at 0.71 before being used for data collection. Respondents were selected by multi-stage sampling technique and the sample size was 530. Data collection took 2 weeks and analysed using descriptive statistical techniques. Results showed that about half of the respondents’ population (49.8%) was between the ages of 20-24 years. There were more males (56.2%) than females (43.8%). Although data demonstrated that majority (91.7%) of the respondents are highly safety minded and the safety culture of an equally high proportion (83.4%) was adjudged fair, a lot of improvement is needed in the area of alerting or informing management of impending dangers and studying the hall handbook to internalize its contents. The study further showed that only 43.6% of respondents had good safety practices and behaviors and majority (56.4%) had fair safety practices and behaviors. One accidental discovery of the study is the finding that not a few of the students squat their counterparts. The study recommended the establishment of clearly written out complaint procedure that is accessible and available to all hall residents, building more hostels with adequate facilities to address the issue of overcrowding and also putting systems in place in order to encourage residents to report incidences/accidents.

Keywords: safe behaviours, safety culture, safety mindfulness, student

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Authors: Arijit Saha, Hassan Kassem, Leo Hoening

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Ongoing climate change demands the increasing use of renewable energies. Wind energy plays an important role in this context since it can be applied almost everywhere in the world. To reduce the costs of wind turbines and to make them more competitive, simulations are very important since experiments are often too costly if at all possible. The wind turbine on a vast open area experiences the turbulence generated due to the atmosphere, so it was of utmost interest from this research point of view to generate the turbulence through various Inlet Turbulence Generation methods like Precursor cyclic and Kaimal Spectrum Exponential Coherence (KSEC) in the computational simulation domain. To be able to validate computational fluid dynamic simulations of wind turbines with the experimental data, it is crucial to set up the conditions in the simulation as close to reality as possible. This present work, therefore, aims at investigating the turbulent inflow strategy and boundary conditions of KSEC and providing a comparative analysis alongside the Precursor cyclic method for Large Eddy Simulation within the context of wind energy applications. For the generation of the turbulent box through KSEC method, firstly, the constrained data were collected from an auxiliary channel flow, and later processing was performed with the open-source tool PyconTurb, whereas for the precursor cyclic, only the data from the auxiliary channel were sufficient. The functionality of these methods was studied through various statistical properties such as variance, turbulent intensity, etc with respect to different Bulk Reynolds numbers, and a conclusion was drawn on the feasibility of KSEC method. Furthermore, it was found necessary to verify the obtained data with DNS case setup for its applicability to use it as a real field CFD simulation.

Keywords: Inlet Turbulence Generation, CFD, precursor cyclic, KSEC, large Eddy simulation, PyconTurb

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Authors: Fereydoon Bondarian, Samira Shaygan

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Today, many nutritionists recommend the consumption of plants, fruits, and vegetables to provide the antioxidants needed by the body because the use of plant antioxidants usually causes fewer side effects and better treatment. Natural antioxidants increase the power of plasma antioxidants and reduce the incidence of some diseases, such as cancer. Bad lifestyles and environmental factors play an important role in increasing the incidence of cancer. In this study, different extracts of white teas taken from two types of tea available in Iran (clone 100 and Chinese hybrid) due to the presence of a hydroxyl functional group in their structure to inhibit free radicals and anticancer properties, using 3 aqueous, methanolic and aqueous-methanolic methods were used. The total polyphenolic content was calculated using the Folin-Ciocalcu method, and the percentage of inhibition and trapping of free radicals in each of the extracts was calculated using the DPPH method. With the help of high-performance liquid chromatography, a small amount of each catechin in the tea samples was obtained. Clone 100 white tea was found to be the best sample of tea in terms of all the examined attributes (total polyphenol content, antioxidant properties, and individual amount of each catechin). The results showed that aqueous and aqueous-methanolic extracts of Clone 100 white tea have the highest total polyphenol content with 27.59±0.08 and 36.67±0.54 (equivalent gallic acid per gram dry weight of leaves), respectively. Due to having the highest level of different groups of catechin compounds, these extracts have the highest property of inhibiting and trapping free radicals with 66.61±0.27 and 71.74±0.27% (mg/l) of the extracted sample against ascorbic acid). Using the MTT test, the inhibitory effect of clone 100 white tea extract in inhibiting the growth of HCT-116 colon cancer cells was investigated and the best time and concentration treatments were 500, 150 and 1000 micrograms in 8, 16 and 24 hours, respectively. To investigate gene expression changes, selected genes, including tumorigenic genes, proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressors, and genes involved in apoptosis, were selected and analyzed using the real-time PCR method and in the presence of concentrations obtained for white tea. White tea extract at a concentration of 1000 μg/ml 3 times 16, 8, and 24 hours showed the highest growth inhibition in cancer cells with 53.27, 55.8, and 86.06%. The concentration of 1000 μg/ml aqueous extract of white tea under 24-hour treatment increased the expression of tumor suppressor genes compared to the normal sample.

Keywords: catechin, gene expression, suppressor genes, colon cell line

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Authors: Nadeem Munawar, Tariq Mahmood

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Habitat manipulation is an important technique that can be used for controlling rodent damage in agricultural ecosystems. It involves intentionally manipulation of vegetation cover in adjacent habitats around the active burrows of rodents to reduce shelter, food availability and to increase predation pressure. The current study was conducted in the Pothwar Plateau during the respective non-crop period of wheat-groundnut (post-harvested and un-ploughed/non-crop fallow lands) with the aim to assess the impact of the reduction in vegetation height of adjacent habitats (field borders) on rodent’s richness and abundance. The study area was divided into two sites viz. treated and non-treated. At the treated sites, habitat manipulation was carried out by removing crop cache, and non-crop vegetation’s over 10 cm in height to a distance of approximately 20 m from the fields. The trapping sessions carried out at both treated and non-treated sites adjacent to wheat-groundnut fields were significantly different (F 2, 6 = 13.2, P = 0.001) from each other, which revealed that a maximum number of rodents were captured from non-treated sites. There was a significant difference in the overall abundance of rodents (P < 0.05) between crop stages and between treatments in both crops. The manipulation effect was significantly observed on damage to crops, and yield production resulted in the reduction of damage within the associated croplands (P < 0.05). The outcomes of this study indicated a significant reduction of rodent population at treated sites due to changes in vegetation height and cover which affect important components, i.e., food, shelter, movements and increased risk sensitivity in their feeding behavior; therefore, they were unable to reach levels where they cause significant crop damage. This method is recommended for being a cost-effective and easy application.

Keywords: agricultural ecosystems, crop damage, habitat manipulation, rodents, trapping

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Authors: Murtala Gada Abubakar, Aliyu T. Umar

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A substantial part of Nigeria is part of semi-arid areas of the world, underlain by basement complex (hard) rocks which are very poor in both transmission and storage of appreciable quantity of water. Recently, a growing attention is being paid on the need to develop water resources in these areas largely due to concerns about increasing droughts and the need to maintain water security challenges. While there is ample body of knowledge that captures the hydrological behaviours of the sedimentary part, reported research which unambiguously illustrates water distribution in the basement complex of the Sokoto basin remains sparse. Considering the growing need to meet the water requirements of those living in this region necessitated the call for accurate water balance estimations that can inform a sustainable planning and development to address water security challenges for the area. To meet this task, a one-dimensional soil water balance model was developed and utilised to assess the state of water distribution within the Sokoto basin basement complex using measured meteorological variables and information about different landscapes within the complex. The model simulated the soil water storage and rates of input and output of water in response to climate and irrigation where applicable using data from 2001 to 2010 inclusive. The results revealed areas within the Sokoto basin basement complex that are rich and deficient in groundwater resource. The high potential areas identified includes the fadama, the fractured rocks and the cultivated lands, while the low potential areas are the sealed surfaces and non-fractured rocks. This study concludes that the modelling approach is a useful tool for assessing the hydrological behaviour and for better understanding the water resource availability within a basement complex.

Keywords: basement complex, hydrological processes, Sokoto Basin, water security

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Authors: Farida Habib, Haya Alfozan, Eman Miligi, Najla Alotaibi

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Background: Women’s satisfaction with maternity services, especially care during labor and birth, has become highly significant to healthcare providers, administrators, and policymakers. Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess maternal satisfaction regarding the quality of care during labor and to compare the level of maternal satisfaction between women who delivered by physicians and those delivered by midwives. Methodology: A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational design was used. A convenient sample of 180 low-risk cases of immediate postpartum women who delivered at King Abdul-Aziz medical city was recruited. Women whose babies were diagnosed with serious health problems were excluded from the study. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were ensured. The questionnaire included three parts, namely: demographics data, medical history, and obstetrical history, and the last part is the satisfaction assessment tool. Ethical confederations were ensured. Maternal satisfaction during labor was classified in terms of health care, health workers' communication, and the environment. Results: Regarding health care, women were highly satisfied with care received from nurse (M = 4.21 + 0.88), medical care received (M = 4.17 + 0.79), and comfort techniques (M = 4.04 + 0.91). Regarding health workers' communication, women were highly satisfied with the provider to treat with dignity and respect (M = 4.03 + 0.91) and orientation to the toilet, bathroom, washing area (M = 4.00 + 0.93). Regarding the environment, women were highly satisfied with the experience of their baby's birth (M = 4.18 + 0.98) and supplies with drugs and supplies (M = 4.09 + 0.97). There was no statistically significant difference in maternal satisfaction between women who delivered by physicians and those delivered by midwives. Conclusion: Women were generally satisfied with their labor and delivery experience. There was no difference in maternal satisfaction on the labor process between women who delivered by physicians and those delivered by midwives.

Keywords: maternity, satisfaction, labor, delivery

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Khairul Abid Awang

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Happiness and life satisfaction are the vital components in assessing the well-being of the societies and their social progress. These components varies and changes within communities and across time. Thus, due to low level of happiness and life satisfaction, it might affect mental health status psychologically and generally disrupt the health pattern of the individual. Hence, this present study aims to identify the happiness determinants, assessing the happiness and life satisfaction level, as well as examine the relation between happiness among Kampung Jaya Bakti adult community. Quantitative and cross-sectional study with total of 100 observations of 18 years old and above was participated in this study. The study was done in a semi-rural village which is geocentric towards river that branched from South East Asia Sea. Several happiness and life satisfaction instruments was used, inclusive of Individual Determinants of Happiness Scale (IDoHS) that had been developed in this study, in order to identify the determinants of happiness in the area based on the listed determinants. The listed determinants in IDoHS are: i) Daily activities. ii) Adaptation. iii) Goals. iv) Life Events. v) Living condition. vi) Self-confidence. vii) Personality traits. viii) Religion. The results revealed that 98% of the respondents agreed that the listed determinants in IDoHS are statistically significant in determining the happiness. The happiness level revealed that 71 percent (%) of the respondents are ‘very happy’, followed by 26% (‘moderately happy’) and 3% (‘neutral’), while life satisfaction level revealed that 70% of the respondents are ‘very highly satisfied’, followed by 29% (‘highly satisfied’) and 1% (‘moderately satisfied’). Pearson Correlation (Pearson’s r) shows that; happiness determinants listed in IDoHS are affecting happiness level (Pearson’s r: .514, p < 0.01) and life satisfaction level (Pearson’s r: .504, p < 0.01) respectively, as well as happiness that are statistically significant in affecting life satisfaction (Pearson’s r: .653, p < 0.01; Pearson’s r; .546, p < 0.01). It is concluded that the listed determinants in IDoHS are the determinants that affecting happiness and it is also noted that happiness are affecting life satisfaction and vice versa.

Keywords: adult community, determinants, happiness, life satisfaction, subjective well-being

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Kaiwen Zheng, Wanting Zhou, Nan Tang, Lei Li, Yuanhang He

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The integrated circuit industry has become a cornerstone of the information society, finding widespread application in areas such as industry, communication, medicine, and aerospace. However, with the increasing complexity of integrated circuits, Hardware Trojans (HTs) implanted by attackers have become a significant threat to their security. In this paper, we proposed a hardware trojan detection method for large-scale circuits. As HTs introduce physical characteristic changes such as structure, area, and power consumption as additional redundant circuits, we proposed a machine-learning-based hardware trojan detection method based on the physical characteristics of gate-level netlists. This method transforms the hardware trojan detection problem into a machine-learning binary classification problem based on physical characteristics, greatly improving detection speed. To address the problem of imbalanced data, where the number of pure circuit samples is far less than that of HTs circuit samples, we used the SMOTETomek algorithm to expand the dataset and further improve the performance of the classifier. We used three machine learning algorithms, K-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine, to train and validate benchmark circuits on Trust-Hub, and all achieved good results. In our case studies based on AES encryption circuits provided by trust-hub, the test results showed the effectiveness of the proposed method. To further validate the method’s effectiveness for detecting variant HTs, we designed variant HTs using open-source HTs. The proposed method can guarantee robust detection accuracy in the millisecond level detection time for IC, and FPGA design flows and has good detection performance for library variant HTs.

Keywords: hardware trojans, physical properties, machine learning, hardware security

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Selvam M., Vadthya Poornachandar, Surender Singh

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These Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) aggregates are generally dumped in the open area after the demolition of Asphalt Pavements. The utilization of RAP aggregates in cement concrete pavements may provide several socio-economic-environmental benefits and could embrace the circular economy. The cross recycling of RAP aggregates in the concrete pavement could reduce the consumption of virgin aggregates and saves the fertile land. However, the structural, as well as functional properties of RAP-concrete could be significantly lower than the conventional Pavement Quality Control (PQC) pavements. This warrants judicious selection of RAP fraction (coarse and fine aggregates) along with the accurate proportion of the same for PQC highways. Also, the selection of the RAP fraction and its proportion shall not be solely based on the mechanical properties of RAP-concrete specimens but also governed by the structural and functional behavior of the pavement system. In this study, an effort has been made to predict the optimum RAP fraction and its corresponding proportion for cement concrete pavements by considering the low-volume and high-volume roads. Initially, the effect of inclusions of RAP on the fresh and mechanical properties of concrete pavement mixes is mapped through an extensive literature survey. Almost all the studies available to date are considered for this study. Generally, Indian Roads Congress (IRC) methods are the most widely used design method in India for the analysis of concrete pavements, and the same has been considered for this study. Subsequently, fatigue damage analysis is performed to evaluate the required safe thickness of pavement slab for different fractions of RAP (coarse RAP). Consequently, the performance of RAP-concrete is predicted by employing the AASHTO-1993 model for the following distresses conditions: faulting, cracking, and smoothness. The performance prediction and total cost analysis of RAP aggregates depict that the optimum proportions of coarse RAP aggregates in the PQC mix are 35% and 50% for high volume and low volume roads, respectively.

Keywords: concrete pavement, RAP aggregate, performance prediction, pavement design

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Chiyoung Kim, Jaegeol Yim

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Bus service is often either main or the only public transportation available in cities. In metropolitan areas, both subways and buses are available whereas in the medium sized cities buses are usually the only type of public transportation available. Bus Information Systems (BIS) provide current locations of running buses, efficient routes to travel from one place to another, points of interests around a given bus stop, a series of bus stops consisting of a given bus route, and so on to users. Thanks to BIS, people do not have to waste time at a bus stop waiting for a bus because BIS provides exact information on bus arrival times at a given bus stop. Therefore, BIS does a lot to promote the use of buses contributing to pollution reduction and saving natural resources. BIS implementation costs a huge amount of budget as it requires a lot of special equipment such as road side equipment, automatic vehicle identification and location systems, trunked radio systems, and so on. Consequently, medium and small sized cities with a low budget cannot afford to install BIS even though people in these cities need BIS service more desperately than people in metropolitan areas. It is possible to provide BIS service at virtually no cost under the assumption that everybody carries a smartphone and there is at least one person with a smartphone in a running bus who is willing to reveal his/her location details while he/she is sitting in a bus. This assumption is usually true in the real world. The smartphone penetration rate is greater than 100% in the developed countries and there is no reason for a bus driver to refuse to reveal his/her location details while driving. We have developed a mobile app that periodically reads values of sensors including GPS and sends GPS data to the server when the bus stops or when the elapsed time from the last send attempt is greater than a threshold. This app detects the bus stop state by investigating the sensor values. The server that receives GPS data from this app has also been developed. Under the assumption that the current locations of all running buses collected by the mobile app are recorded in a database, we have also developed a web site that provides all kinds of information that most BISs provide to users through the Internet. The development environment is: OS: Windows 7 64bit, IDE: Eclipse Luna 4.4.1, Spring IDE 3.7.0, Database: MySQL 5.1.7, Web Server: Apache Tomcat 7.0, Programming Language: Java 1.7.0_79. Given a start and a destination bus stop, it finds a shortest path from the start to the destination using the Dijkstra algorithm. Then, it finds a convenient route considering number of transits. For the user interface, we use the Google map. Template classes that are used by the Controller, DAO, Service and Utils classes include BUS, BusStop, BusListInfo, BusStopOrder, RouteResult, WalkingDist, Location, and so on. We are now integrating the mobile app system and the web app system.

Keywords: bus information system, GPS, mobile app, web site

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Loreta Serniene, Dalia Sekmokiene, Justina Tomkeviciute, Lina Lauciene, Vaida Andruleviciute, Ingrida Sinkeviciene, Kristina Kondrotiene, Neringa Kasetiene, Mindaugas Malakauskas

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One of the most important areas of product development and research in the dairy industry is the product enrichment with active ingredients as well as leading to increased product safety and sustainability. The most expanding field of the active ingredients is the various plants' CO₂ extracts with aromatic, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. In this study, 15 plant extracts were evaluated based on their antioxidant, antimicrobial properties as well as sensory acceptance indicators for the development of new dairy products. In order to increase the total antioxidant capacity of the milk products, it was important to determine the content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of CO₂ extract. The total phenolic content of fifteen different commercial CO₂ extracts was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and expressed as milligrams of the Gallic acid equivalents (GAE) in gram of extract. The antioxidant activities were determined by 2.2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline)-6-sulfonate (ABTS) methods. The study revealed that the antioxidant activities of investigated CO₂ extract vary from 4.478-62.035 µmole Trolox/g, while the total phenolic content was in the range of 2.021-38.906 mg GAE/g of extract. For the example, the estimated antioxidant activity of Chinese cinnamon (Cinammonum aromaticum) CO₂ extract was 62.023 ± 0.15 µmole Trolox/g and the total flavonoid content reached 17.962 ± 0.35 mg GAE/g. These two parameters suggest that cinnamon could be a promising supplement for the development of new cheese. The inhibitory effects of these essential oils were tested by using agar disc diffusion method against pathogenic bacteria, most commonly found in dairy products. The obtained results showed that essential oil of lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) has antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, B. cereus, P. florescens, L. monocytogenes, Br. thermosphacta, P. aeruginosa and S. typhimurium with the diameter of inhibition zones variation from 10 to 52 mm. The sensory taste acceptability of plant extracts in combination with a dairy product was evaluated by a group of sensory evaluation experts (31 individuals) by the criteria of overall taste acceptability in the scale of 0 (not acceptable) to 10 (very acceptable). Each of the tested samples included 200g grams of natural unsweetened greek yogurt without additives and 1 drop of single plant extract (essential oil). The highest average of overall taste acceptability was defined for the samples with essential oils of orange (Citrus sinensis) - average score 6.67, lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) – 6.62, elderberry flower (Sambucus nigra flos.) – 6.61, lemon (Citrus limon) – 5.75 and cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) – 5.41, respectively. The results of this study indicate plant extracts of Cinnamomum cassia and Backhousia citriodora as a promising additive not only to increase the total antioxidant capacity of the milk products and as alternative antibacterial agent to combat pathogenic bacteria commonly found in dairy products but also as a desirable flavour for the taste pallet of the consumers with expressed need for safe, sustainable and innovative dairy products. Acknowledgment: This research was funded by the European Regional Development Fund according to the supported activity 'Research Projects Implemented by World-class Researcher Groups' under Measure No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718.

Keywords: antioxidant properties, antimicrobial properties, cinnamon, CO₂ plant extracts, dairy products, essential oils, lemon myrtle

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Bushra Alghamdi, Alla Alsharif, Hamzah Aljohani, Saba Kassim

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Introduction: Collaborative work has always been acknowledged as a fundamental concept in delivering oral health care. Aim: This study aimed to assess the perception and attitude of pharmacists in oral health promotion and to determine the confident levels of pharmacists in delivering advice on oral health problems. Methods: An observational cross-sectional survey, using self-administered anonymous questionnaires, was conducted between March and April 2017. The study recruited a convenience sample of registered community pharmacists who were working in local private pharmaceutical stores in the urban area of Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A preliminary descriptive analysis was performed. Results: Thirty-five pharmacists have completed the surveys. All participants were males, with a mean age of 35.5 ( ± 6.92) years. Eighty-six percent of the participants reported that pharmacists should have a role in oral health promotion. Eighty percent have reported adequate level of confident when giving advice on most of the common oral health problems that include; oral health related risk behaviors such as tobacco cessation (46%), bleeding gums (63%) and sensitive teeth (60%). However, higher percentages of pharmacists have reported low confident levels when giving advice in relation to specific domain of dentistry, such as lost dental fillings (57%), loose crowns (60%), trauma to teeth (40%), denture-related problems (51%) and oral cancer (6.9%). Conclusion: Community pharmacists recognized their potential role in promoting oral health in KSA. Community pharmacists had varying levels of ability and confidence to offer support for oral health. The study highlighted that inner professional collaboration between pharmacists and dental care healthcare should be enhanced.

Keywords: community, oral health, promotion, pharmacist

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Abdulmalik Altuwayjiri, Milad Pirhadi, Mohammed Kalafy, Badr Alharbi, Constantinos Sioutas

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In this study, we investigated the chemical and toxicological characteristics of PM10 in the metropolitan area of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. PM10 samples were collected on quartz and teflon filters during cold (December 2019–April 2020) and warm (May 2020–August 2020) seasons, including dust and non-dust events. The PM10 constituents were chemically analyzed for their metal, inorganic ions, and elemental and organic carbon (EC/OC) contents. Additionally, the PM10 oxidative potential was measured by means of the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay. Our findings revealed that the oxidative potential of the collected ambient PM10 samples was significantly higher than those measured in many urban areas worldwide. The oxidative potential of the collected ambient PM¹⁰⁻ samples was also higher during dust episodes compared to non-dust events, mainly due to higher concentrations of metals during these events. We performed Pearson correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and multi-linear regression (MLR) to identify the most significant sources contributing to the toxicity of PM¹⁰⁻ The results of the MLR analyses indicated that the major pollution sources contributing to the oxidative potential of ambient PM10 were soil and resuspended dust emissions (identified by Al, K, Fe, and Li) (31%), followed by secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation (traced by SO₄-² and NH+₄) (20%), and industrial activities (identified by Se and La) (19%), and traffic emissions (characterized by EC, Zn, and Cu) (17%). Results from this study underscore the impact of transported dust emissions on the oxidative potential of ambient PM10 in Riyadh and can be helpful in adopting appropriate public health policies regarding detrimental outcomes of exposure to PM₁₀-

Keywords: ambient PM10, oxidative potential, source apportionment, Riyadh, dust episodes

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Fatemeh Daneshvartarigh

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New technologies and applications have radically altered construction techniques in recent years. In order to anticipate how the building will act, perform, and appear, these technologies encompass a wide range of visualization, simulation, and analytic tools. These new technologies and applications have a considerable impact on completing construction projects in today's (architecture, engineering and construction)AEC industries. The rate of changes in BIM-related topics is different worldwide, and it depends on many factors, e.g., the national policies of each country. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive research focused on a specific area with common characteristics. Therefore, one of the necessary measures to increase the use of this new approach is to examine the challenges and obstacles facing it. In this research, based on the Delphi method, at first, the background and related literature are reviewed. Then, using the knowledge obtained from the literature, a primary questionnaire is generated and filled by experts who are selected using snowball sampling. It covered the experts' attitudes towards implementing BIM in renovation projects and their view of the benefits and obstacles in this regard. By analyzing the primary questionnaire, the second group of experts is selected among the participants to be interviewed. The results are analyzed using Theme analysis. Six themes, including Management support, staff resistance, client willingness, Cost of software and implementation, the difficulty of implementation, and other reasons, are obtained. Then a final questionnaire is generated from the themes and filled by the same group of experts. The result is analyzed by the Fuzzy Delphi method, showing the exact ranking of the obtained themes. The final results show that management support, staff resistance, and client willingness are the most critical barrier to BIM usage in renovation projects.

Keywords: building information modeling, BIM, BIM implementation, BIM barriers, BIM in renovation

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Tao Yang, Yongli Zhao

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Low-temperature cracking is one of the major challenges for asphalt pavement in the cold region. Fracture energy could determine from various test methods, which is a commonly used parameter to evaluate the low-temperature cracking resistance of asphalt mixture. However, the feasibility of evaluating the low-temperature cracking performance of asphalt mixture using fracture energy is not investigated comprehensively. This paper aims to verify whether fracture energy is an appropriate parameter to evaluate the low-temperature cracking performance. To achieve this goal, this paper compared the test results of thermal stress restrained specimen test (TSRST) and semi-circular bending test (SCB) of asphalt mixture with different types of aggregate, TSRST and indirect tensile test (IDT) of asphalt mixture with different additives, and single-edge notched beam test (SENB) and TSRST of asphalt mixture with different asphalt. Finally, the correlation between in-suit cracking performance and fracture energy was surveyed. The experimental results showed the evaluation result of critical cracking temperature and fracture energy are not always consistent; the in-suit cracking performance is also not correlated well with fracture energy. These results indicated that it is not feasible to evaluate low-temperature performance by fracture energy. Then, the composition of fracture energy of TSRST, SCB, disk-shaped compact tension test (DCT), three-point bending test (3PB) and IDT was analyzed. The result showed: the area of thermal stress versus temperature curve is the multiple of fracture energy and could be used to represent fracture energy of TSRST, as the multiple is nearly equal among different asphalt mixtures for a specific specimen; the fracture energy, determined from TSRST, SCB, DCT, 3PB, SENB and IDT, is mainly the surface energy that forms the fracture face; fracture energy is inappropriate to evaluate the low-temperature cracking performance of asphalt mixture, as the relaxation/viscous performance is not considered; if the fracture energy was used, it is recommended to combine this parameter with an index characterizing the relaxation or creep performance of asphalt mixture.

Keywords: asphalt pavement, cold region, critical cracking temperature, fracture energy, low-temperature cracking

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Chondrogianni Dimitra, Yorgos J. Stephanedes

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The impact of the economic crisis, coupled with the aging of the city's old core, is reflected in central Athens. Public and private users, residents, employees, visitors desire the quality upgrading of abandoned buildings and public spaces through environmental upgrading and sustainable mobility, and promotion of the international metropolitan character of the city. In the study, a strategy for reshaping the character and function of the historic Athenian triangle is proposed, aiming at its economic, environmental, and social sustainable development through feasible, meaningful, and non-landscaping solutions of low cost and high positive impact. Sustainable mobility is the main principle in re-planning the study area and transforming it into a “Low Pollution and Limited Vehicle Traffic Zone” is the main strategy. Τhe proposed measures include the development of pedestrian mobility networks by expanding the pedestrian roads and limited-traffic routes, of bicycle networks based on the approved Metropolitan Bicycle Route of Athens, of public transportation networks with new lines of electric mini-buses, and of new regulations for vehicle mobility in the historic triangle. In addition, complementary actions are proposed regarding the provision of Wi-Fi on fixed track media, development of applications that facilitate combined travel and provide real-time data, integration of micromobility (roller skates, Segway, Hoverboard), and its enhancement as a flexible means of personal mobility, and development of car-sharing, ride-sharing and dynamic carpooling initiatives.

Keywords: regeneration plans, sustainable mobility, environmental upgrading, athens historical triangle

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Hengki Eko Putra, Dennish Ari Putro, Tri Wahyu Hadi, Edi Riawan, Junnaedhi Dewa Gede, Aditia Rojali, Fariza Dian Prasetyo, Yudhistira Satya Pribadi, Dita Fatria Andarini, Mila Khaerunisa, Raditya Hanung Prakoswa

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Catastrophe risk management can only be done if we are able to calculate the exposed risks. Jakarta is an important city economically, socially, and politically and in the same time exposed to severe floods. On the other hand, flood risk calculation is still very limited in the area. This study has calculated the risk of flooding for Jakarta using 2-Dimensional Model ANUGA. 2-Dimensional model ANUGA and 1-Dimensional Model HEC-RAS are used to calculate the risk of flooding from 13 major rivers in Jakarta. ANUGA can simulate physical and dynamical processes between the streamflow against river geometry and land cover to produce a 1-meter resolution inundation map. The value of streamflow as an input for the model obtained from hydrological analysis on rainfall data using hydrologic model HEC-HMS. The probabilistic streamflow derived from probabilistic rainfall using statistical distribution Log-Pearson III, Normal and Gumbel, through compatibility test using Chi Square and Smirnov-Kolmogorov. Flood event on 2007 is used as a comparison to evaluate the accuracy of model output. Property damage estimations were calculated based on flood depth for 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years return period against housing value data from the BPS-Statistics Indonesia, Centre for Research and Development of Housing and Settlements, Ministry of Public Work Indonesia. The vulnerability factor was derived from flood insurance claim. Jakarta's flood loss estimation for the return period of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years, respectively are Rp 1.30 t; Rp 16.18 t; Rp 16.85 t; Rp 21.21 t; Rp 24.32 t; and Rp 24.67 t of the total value of building Rp 434.43 t.

Keywords: 2D hydrodynamic model, ANUGA, flood, flood modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Joanne Sin Wei Yeoh, Quynh Lê, Daniel R. Terry, Rosa Mc Manamey

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Food security is a global issue and one of the concerns in Australia, particularly in regional and rural areas. Despite Australia’s current ability to produce enough food to feed more than its current population, evidence has been accumulating over the last decade to demonstrate many Australians struggle to feed themselves, including immigrants from cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. This study aims to identify the acculturation strategies used by migrants to enhance their approach to food security in Tasmania. The study employed a mixed methods approach that used both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with migrants living in Tasmania. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyse data collected from questionnaire, whereas, thematic analysis was employed to analyse the interview data. Migrants (n=301) completed the questionnaire with a response rate of 50.2% and 33 follow-up interviews were conducted. We found that majority of the migrants (70.0%) replaced food ingredients and went without the food they could not buy from shops with similar ingredients. Support and advice from friends were effective ways to improve their food access. Additionally, length of stays in Tasmania and region of origin were significantly associated with the ways migrants dealing with food security. The interview results revealed that migrants managed to adapt to the new food culture by using different acculturation strategies, including access food ingredients from other country; adjusting or adapting; home gardening and access to technology. In addition, social and cultural capitals were also treated as vital roles in improving migrants’ food security. To summarize, migrants employed different strategies for food security while acculturating into the new environment. Our findings could become the guidelines for migrants and relevant government or private sectors that address food security.

Keywords: food security, migrants, strategies, inferential statistics

Procedia PDF Downloads 510

Authors: Khair Al-Deen Bsisu, Osama Mahmoud Abuzeid

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Significant technological advances have been achieved in the design and building construction of steel and glass in the last two decades. The metal glass support frame has been replaced by further sophisticated technological solutions, for example, the point fixed glazing systems. The minimization of the visual mass has reached extensive possibilities through the evolution of technology in glass production and the better understanding of the structural potential of glass itself, the technological development of bolted fixings, the introduction of the glazing support attachments of the glass suspension systems and the use for structural stabilization of cables that reduce to a minimum the amount of metal used. The variability of solutions of tension structures, allied to the difficulties related to geometric and material non-linear behavior, usually overrules the use of analytical solutions, letting numerical analysis as the only general approach to the design and analysis of tension structures. With the characteristics of low stiffness, lightweight, and small damping, tension structures are obviously geometrically nonlinear. In fact, analysis of cable truss is not only one of the most difficult nonlinear analyses because the analysis path may have rigid-body modes, but also a time consuming procedure. Non-linear theory allowing for large deflections is used. The flexibility of supporting members was observed to influence the stresses in the pane considerably in some cases. No other class of architectural structural systems is as dependent upon the use of digital computers as are tensile structures. Besides complexity, the process of design and analysis of tension structures presents a series of specificities, which usually lead to the use of special purpose programs, instead of general purpose programs (GPPs), such as ANSYS. In a special purpose program, part of the design know how is embedded in program routines. It is very probable that this type of program will be the option of the final user, in design offices. GPPs offer a range of types of analyses and modeling options. Besides, traditional GPPs are constantly being tested by a large number of users, and are updated according to their actual demands. This work discusses the use of ANSYS for the analysis and design of tension structures, such as cable truss structures under wind and gravity loadings. A model to describe the glass panels working in coordination with the cable truss was proposed. Under the proposed model, a FEM model of the glass panels working in coordination with the cable truss was established.

Keywords: Glass Construction material, Facades, Finite Element, Pre-Tensioned Cable Truss

Procedia PDF Downloads 264