Search results for: consumption patterns

Authors: Josef Novák, Alena Kohoutková, Vladimír Křístek, Jan Vodička

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Numerical analysis software belong to the main tools for simulating the real behavior of various concrete structures and elements. In comparison with experimental tests, they offer an affordable way to study the mechanical behavior of structures under various conditions. The contribution deals with a precast element of an innovative airfield pavement system which is being developed within an ongoing scientific project. The proposed system consists a two-layer surface course of precast concrete panels positioned on a two-layer base of fiber-reinforced concrete with recycled aggregate. As the panels are supposed to be installed directly on the hardened base course, imperfections at the interface between the base course and surface course are expected. Considering such circumstances, three various behavior patterns could be established and considered when designing the precast element. Enormous costs of full-scale experiments force to simulate the behavior of the element in a numerical analysis software using finite element method. The simulation was conducted on a nonlinear model in order to obtain such results which could fully compensate results from the experiments. First, several loading schemes were considered with the aim to observe the critical one which was used for the simulation later on. The main objective of the simulation was to optimize reinforcement of the element subject to quasi-static loading from airplanes. When running the simulation several parameters were considered. Namely, it concerns geometrical imperfections, manufacturing imperfections, stress state in reinforcement, stress state in concrete and crack width. The numerical simulation revealed that the precast element should be heavily reinforced to fulfill all the demands assumed. The main cause of using high amount of reinforcement is the size of the imperfections which could occur at real structure. Improving manufacturing quality, the installation of the precast panels on a fresh base course or using a bedding layer underneath the surface course belong to the main steps how to reduce the size of imperfections and consequently lower the consumption of reinforcement.

Keywords: nonlinear analysis, numerical simulation, precast concrete, pavement

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Authors: Daniel Isaac Sanchez Chavez, Salvador Rodríguez Zaragoza, Patricia Velez Aguilar

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In arid and semi-arid regions, plants are essential in the functional activity and productivity, modifying the microclimatic conditions of their environment, which allows many organisms to grow under them. Within these organisms, oribatid mites play a key role in reintegrating nutrients into the soil through the consumption of soil fungi. However, oribatid mites feed on a vast array of fungal species, which is likely to have strong impacts on their population dynamics and their environment. So, in this study, the aim was to determine the gut content of the abundant oribatid mites Zygoribatula sp and Scheloribates sp, under the canopy of the bush P. laevigata in a semi-arid zone through DNA-based analysis. The results showed the presence in the gut of both mites of different fungal taxa. Fungi, such as Aspergillus sp and Mortierella sp, probably served as a food despite the production of deterrent compounds or structures from both fungal species. Saccharomyces sp might serve as well as a food source; however, it might be part of their microbial endosymbionts. On the other hand, the presence of Beauveria sp indicates a probable pathogenicity interaction, instead of fungal consumption, since this fungus is known to be entomopathogenic. Finally, the results might indicate a feeding preference to certain soil fungi according to diverse features from both taxa.

Keywords: microenvironment, endosymbionts, Oribatida, fungi

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Authors: Ghada Elshafei, Abdelazim Negm

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Life cycle assessment is a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision. In this paper, the life cycle assessment of aluminum and beech wood as two commonly used materials in Egypt for window frames are heading, highlighting their benefits and weaknesses. Window frames of the two materials have been assessed on the basis of their production, energy consumption and environmental impacts. It has been found that the climate change of the windows made of aluminum and beech wood window, for a reference window (1.2m × 1.2m), are 81.7 mPt and - 52.5 mPt impacts respectively. Among the most important results are: fossil fuel consumption, potential contributions to the green building effect and quantities of solid waste tend to be minor for wood products compared to aluminum products; incineration of wood products can cause higher impacts of acidification and eutrophication than aluminum, whereas thermal energy can be recovered.

Keywords: aluminum window, beech wood window, green building, life cycle assessment, life cycle analysis, SimaPro software, window frame

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Authors: Ziyuan Wu, Yulong Jia, Xiang Zhang, Wanting Zhou, Lei Li

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly evolving field involving a large number of interconnected embedded devices. In the design of embedded System-on-Chip (SoC), the key issues are power consumption, performance, and security. However, the easy-to-implement software and untrustworthy third-party IP cores may threaten the safety of hardware assets. Considering that illegal access and malicious attacks against SoC resources pass through the bus that integrates IPs, we propose a Lightweight Hardware Firewall (LHF) to protect SoC, which monitors and disallows the offending bus transactions based on physical addresses. Furthermore, under the LHF architecture, this paper refines two types of firewalls: Destination Hardware Firewall (DHF) and Source Hardware Firewall (SHF). The former is oriented to fine-grained detection and configuration, whose core technology is based on the method of dynamic grading units. In addition, we design the SHF based on static entries to achieve lightweight. Finally, we evaluate the hardware consumption of the proposed method by both Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and IC. Compared with the exciting efforts, LHF introduces a bus latency of zero clock cycles for every read or write transaction implemented on Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGAs. Meanwhile, the DC synthesis results based on TSMC 90nm show that the area is reduced by about 25% compared with the previous method.

Keywords: IoT, security, SoC, bus architecture, lightweight hardware firewall, FPGA

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Authors: Monika R. Bhoi, R. F. Sutar, Bhaumik B. Patel

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The objective of this research paper is to obtain the premium quality of cinnamon bark powder through cryogenic grinding technology. The effect of grinding temperature (0, -20, -40, -60, -80 and -100˚C), feed rate (8, 9 and 10 kg/h), and sieve size (0.8, 1.0 and 1.5 mm) were evaluated with respect to grinding time, volatile oil content, particle size, energy consumption, and liquid nitrogen consumption. Cryogenic grinding process parameters were optimized to obtain premium quality cinnamon bark powder was carried out using three factorial completely randomized design. The optimization revealed that grinding of cinnamon bark at -80⁰C temperature using 0.8 mm sieve size and 10 kg/h feed rate resulted in premium quality cinnamon bark powder containing volatile oil 3.01%. In addition, volatile oil retention in cryogenically ground powder was 88.23%, whereas control (ambient grinding) had 33.11%. Storage study of premium quality cryogenically ground powder was carried out under accelerated storage conditions (38˚C & 90% R.H). Accelerated storage of cryoground powder was found to be advantageous over the conventional ground for extended storage of the ground cinnamon powder with retention of its nutritional quality. Hence, grinding of spices at optimally low cryogenic temperature is a promising technology for the production of its premium quality powder economically.

Keywords: cinnamon bark, cryogenic grinding, feed rate, volatile oil

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Authors: Pooja Ahuja, Tejal Bhutani, M. S. Dahiya

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Cheiloscopy, the study of lip prints, is a tool in forensic investigation technique that deals with identification of individuals based on lips patterns. The objective of this study is to determine predominant lip print pattern found among the Gujarati population, to evaluate whether any sex difference exists and to study the permanence of the pattern over six months duration. The study comprised of 100 healthy individuals (50 males and 50 females), in the age group of 18 to 25 years of Gujarati population of the Gandhinagar region of the Gujarat state, India. By using Suzuki and Tsuchihashi classification, Lip prints were then divided into four quadrants and also classified on the basis of peripheral shape of the lips. Materials used to record the lip prints were dark brown colored lipstick, cellophane tape, and white bond paper. Lipstick was applied uniformly, and lip prints were taken on the glued portion of cellophane tape and then stuck on to a white bond paper. These lip prints were analyzed with magnifying lens and virtually with stereo microscope. On the analysis of the subject population, results showed Branched pattern Type II (29.57 percentage) to be most predominant in the Gujarati population. Branched pattern Type II (35.60 percentage) and long vertical Type I (28.28 percentage) were most prevalent in males and females respectively and large full lips were most predominantly present in both the sexes. The study concludes that lip prints in any form can be an effective tool for identification of an individual in a closed or open group forms.

Keywords: cheiloscopy, lip pattern, predomianant, Gujarati population

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Authors: Alireza Barari, Ahmad Abdi

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Regular body trainings cause adaption in various system in body. One of the important effect of body training is its effect on immune system. It seems that cytokines usually release after long period exercises or some exercises which cause skeletal muscular damages. If some of the cytokines which cause responses such as inflammation of cells in skeletal muscles, with manipulating of training program, it can be avoided or limited from those exercises which induct cytokines release. Ginger plant is a kind of medicinal plants which is known as a anti inflammation plant. This plant is as most precedence medicinal plants in medicine science especially in inflammation cure. The aim of the present study was the effect of selected resistance training and consumption of ginger extract on IL-1α and TNFα untrained young women. The population includes young women interested in participating in the study with the average of 30±2 years old from Abbas Abad city among which 32 participants were chosen randomly and divided into 4 four groups, resistance training (R), resistance training and ginger consumption(RG), Ginger consumption(G)and Control group(C). The training groups performed circuit resistance training at the intensity of 65-75% one repeat maximum, 3 days a week for 6 weeks. Besides resistance training, subjects were given either ginseng (5 mg/kg per day) or placebo. Prior to and 48 hours after interventions body composition was measured and blood samples were taken in order to assess serum levels of IL-1α and TNFα. Plasma levels of cytokines were measured with commercially available ELISA Kits.IL-1α kit and TNFα kit were used in this research. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the independent variable and the comparison between groups, t-test and ANOVA were used. To determine differences between the groups, the Scheffe test was used that showed significant changes in any of the variables. we observed that circuit resistance training in R and RG groups can significant decreased in weight and body mass index in untrained females (p<0.05). The results showed a significant decreased in the mean level of IL-1α levels before and after the training period in G group (p=0.046) and RG group (p=0.022). Comparison between groups also showed there was significant difference between groups R-RG and RG-C. Intergroup comparison results showed that the mean levels of TNFα before and after the training in group G (p=0.044) and RG (p=0.037), significantly decreased. Comparison between groups also showed there was significant difference between groups R–RG , R-G ,RG-C and G-C. The research shows that circuit resistance training with reducing overload method results in systemic inflammation had significant effect on IL-1α levels and TNFα. Of course, Ginger can counteract the negative effects of resistance training exercise on immune function and stability of the mast cell membrane. Considerable evidence supported the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger for several constituents, especially gingerols, shogaols, paradols, and zingerones, through decreased cytokine gene TNF α and IL-1Α expression and inhibition of cyclooxygenase 1 and 2. These established biological actions suggest that ingested ginger could block the increase in IL-1α.

Keywords: resistance training, ginger, IL-1α , TNFα

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Authors: Vinayambika S. Bhat, S. Shanmuga Priya, I. Thirunavukkarasu, Shreeranga Bhat

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An attempt has been made to design a decoupling controller for systems with more inputs more outputs with dead time in it. The de-coupler is designed for the chemical process industry 3×3 plant transfer function with dead time. The Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) based controller has also been designed here for the 2×2 distillation column transfer function. The developed control techniques were simulated using the MATLAB/Simulink. Also, the stability of the process was analyzed, together with the presence of various perturbations in it. Time domain specifications like setting time along with overshoot and oscillations were analyzed to prove the efficiency of the de-coupler method. The load disturbance rejection was tested along with its performance. The QFT control technique was synthesized based on the stability and performance specifications in the presence of uncertainty in time constant of the plant transfer function through sequential loop shaping technique. Further, the energy efficiency of the distillation column was improved by proper tuning of the controller. A distillation column consumes 3% of the total energy consumption of the world. A suitable control technique is very important from an economic point of view. The real time implementation of the process is under process in our laboratory.

Keywords: distillation, energy, MIMO process, time delay, robust stability

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Authors: Jitka Rychtarikova

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Regional differences in mortality in the Czech Republic (CR) may be moderate from a broader European perspective, but important discrepancies in life expectancy can be found between smaller territorial units. In this study territorial units are based on Administrative Districts of Municipalities with Extended Powers (MEP). This definition came into force January 1, 2003. There are 205 units and the city of Prague. MEP represents the smallest unit for which mortality patterns based on life tables can be investigated and the Czech Statistical Office has been calculating such life tables (every five-years) since 2004. MEP life tables from 2009-2013 for males and females allowed the investigation of three main life cycles with the use of temporary life expectancies between the exact ages of 0 and 35; 35 and 65; and the life expectancy at exact age 65. The results showed regional survival inequalities primarily in adult and older ages. Consequently, only mortality indicators for adult and elderly population were related to census 2011 unlinked data for the same age groups. The most relevant socio-economic factors taken from the census are: having a partner, educational level and unemployment rate. The unemployment rate was measured for adults aged 35-64 completed years. Exploratory spatial data analysis methods were used to detect regional patterns in spatially contiguous units of MEP. The presence of spatial non-stationarity (spatial autocorrelation) of mortality levels for male and female adults (35-64), and elderly males and females (65+) was tested using global Moran’s I. Spatial autocorrelation of mortality patterns was mapped using local Moran’s I with the intention to depict clusters of low or high mortality and spatial outliers for two age groups (35-64 and 65+). The highest Moran’s I was observed for male temporary life expectancy between exact ages 35 and 65 (0.52) and the lowest was among women with life expectancy of 65 (0.26). Generally, men showed stronger spatial autocorrelation compared to women. The relationship between mortality indicators such as life expectancies and socio-economic factors like the percentage of males/females having a partner; percentage of males/females with at least higher secondary education; and percentage of unemployed males/females from economically active population aged 35-64 years, was evaluated using multiple regression (OLS). The results were then compared to outputs from geographically weighted regression (GWR). In the Czech Republic, there are two broader territories North-West Bohemia (NWB) and North Moravia (NM), in which excess mortality is well established. Results of the t-test of spatial regression showed that for males aged 30-64 the association between mortality and unemployment (when adjusted for education and partnership) was stronger in NM compared to NWB, while educational level impacted the length of survival more in NWB. Geographic variation and relationships in mortality of the CR MEP will also be tested using the spatial Durbin approach. The calculations were conducted by means of ArcGIS 10.6 and SAS 9.4.

Keywords: Czech Republic, mortality, municipality, socio-economic factors, spatial analysis

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Authors: H. Soltani, Kevin Laugero

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Obesity is becoming an increasingly critical issue in the United States due to the steady and substantial increase in prevalence over the last 30 years. Existing interventions have been able to help participants achieve short-term weight loss, but have failed to show long-term results. The complex nature of behavioral change remains one of the most difficult barriers in promoting sustainable weight-loss in overweight individuals. Research suggests that the 'intention-behavior gap' can be explained by a person’s ability to regulate higher-order thinking, or Executive Function (EF). A review of 63 research articles was completed in fall of 2017 to identify the role of EF in regulating eating behavior and to identify whether there is a potential for improving dietary quality by enhancing EF. Results showed that poor EF is positively associated with obesogenic behavior, namely increased consumption of highly palatable foods, eating in the absence of hunger, high saturated fat intake and low fruit and vegetable consumption. Recent research has indicated that interventions targeting an improvement in EF can be successful in helping promote healthy behaviors. Furthermore, interventions of longer duration have a more lasting and versatile effect on weight loss and maintenance. This may present an opportunity for the increasingly ubiquitous use of mobile application technology.

Keywords: eating behavior, executive function, nutrition, obesity, weight-loss

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Authors: Merieleen Engtipi

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India's total share of global population is nearly 18%; however, its per capita energy consumption is only one-third of global average. The demand and supply of electricity are uneven in the country; around 240 million of the population have no access to electricity. However, with India's trajectory for modernisation and economic growth, the demand for energy is only expected to increase. India is at a crossroad, on the one hand facing the increasing demand for energy and on the other hand meeting the Paris climate policy commitments, and further the struggle to provide efficient energy. This paper analyses the policies to meet India’s need for energy, as the per capita energy consumption is likely to be double in 6-7 years period. Simultaneously, India's Paris commitment requires curbing of carbon emission from fossil fuels. There is an increasing need for renewables to be cheaply and efficiently available in the market and for clean technology to extract fossil fuels to meet climate policy goals. Fossil fuels are the most significant generator of energy in India; with the Paris agreement, the demand for clean energy technology is increasing. Finally, the U.S. decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement; however, the two countries plan to continue engaging bilaterally on energy issues. The U.S. energy cooperation under Trump administration is significantly vital for greater energy security, transfer of technology and efficiency in energy supply and demand.

Keywords: energy demand, energy cooperation, fossil fuels, technology transfer

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Authors: Chong Zhang, Guoming Tang, Bin Ge, Jiuyang Tang

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With the fast growing road traffic and increasingly severe traffic congestion, more and more citizens choose to use the public transportation for daily travelling. Meanwhile, the shared bike provides a convenient option for the first and last mile to the public transit. As of 2016, over one thousand cities around the world have deployed the bike-sharing system. The combination of these two transportations have stimulated the development of each other and made significant contribution to the reduction of carbon footprint. A lot of work has been done on mining the riding behaviors in various bike-sharing systems. Most of them, however, treated the bike-sharing system as an isolated system and thus their results provide little reference for the public transit construction and optimization. In this work, we treat the bike-sharing and public transit as a whole and investigate the customers’ bike-and-ride behaviors. Specifically, we develop a spatio-temporal traffic delivery model to study the riding patterns between the two transportation systems and explore the traffic characteristics (e.g., distributions of customer arrival/departure and traffic peak hours) from the time and space dimensions. During the model construction and evaluation, we make use of large open datasets from real-world bike-sharing systems (the CitiBike in New York, GoBike in San Francisco and BIXI in Montreal) along with corresponding public transit information. The developed two-dimension traffic model, as well as the mined bike-and-ride behaviors, can provide great help to the deployment of next-generation intelligent transportation systems.

Keywords: riding pattern mining, bike-sharing system, public transportation, bike-and-ride behavior

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Authors: Mario Pérez-Won, Anais Palma-Acevedo, Luis González-Cavieres, Roberto Lemus-Mondaca, Gipsy Tabilo-Munizaga

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The Chilean abalone (Concholepas Concholepas) is a gastropod mollusk; it has a high commercial value due to the qualities of its meat, especially hardness, as a critical acceptance parameter. However, its main problem is its short shelf-life which is usually extended using traditional technologies with high energy consumption. Therefore, applying different technologies for the pre-treatment and drying process is necessary. In this research, pulsed electric field (PEF) was used as a pre-treatment for vacuum microwave drying (VMD), freeze-drying (FD), and hot-air drying (HAD). Drying conditions and characteristics were set according to previous experiments. The Drying samples were analyzed in terms of physical quality (color, texture, microstructure, and rehydration capacity), protein quality (degree of hydrolysis and computer protein efficiency ratio), and energy parameters. Regarding quality, the treatment that obtained lower harness was PEF+FD (195 N ± 10), the lowest change of color was for treatment PEF+VMD (ΔE: 17 ± 1.5), and the best rehydration capacity was for treatment PEF+VMD (1.2 h for equilibrium). For protein quality, the highest Computer-Protein Efficiency Ratio was the sample 2.0 kV/ cm of PEF (index of 4.18 ± 0.26 at the end of the digestion). Moreover, about energetic consumption, results show that VMD decreases the drying process by 97% whether PEF was used or not. Consequently, it is possible to conclude that using PEF as a pre-treatment for VMD and FD treatments has advantages that must be used following the consumer’s needs or preferences.

Keywords: chilean abalone, freeze-drying, proteins, pulsed electric fields

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Authors: Elham Abbas Aljaaly, Nahlaa Abdulwahab Khalifa

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The active method of disease prevention is seen as the most affordable and sustainable action to deal with risks of non-communicable diseases such as obesity. This eight-week project aimed to pilot the feasibility and acceptability of a school-based programme, which is proposed to prevent and modify overweight status and possible related risk factors among student girls 'at the intermediate level' in Jeddah city. The programme was conducted through comprehensible approach targeting physical environment and school policies (nutritional/exercise/behavioural approach). The programme was designed to cultivate the personal and environmental awareness in schools for girls. This was applied by promoting healthy eating and physical activity through policies, physical education, healthier options for school canteens, and the creation of school health teams. The prevention programme was applied on 68 students (who agreed to participate) from grades 7th, 8th and 9th. A pre and post assessment questionnaire was employed on 66 students. The questionnaires were designed to obtain information on students' knowledge about health, nutrition and physical activity. Survey questions included information about nutrients, food consumption patterns, food intake and lifestyle. Physical education included training sessions for new opportunities for physical activities to be performed during school or after school hours. A running competition 'to enhance students’ performance for physical activities' was also conducted during the school visit. A visit to the school canteen was conducted to check, observe, record and assess all available food/beverage items and meals. The assessment method was a subjective method for the type of food/beverages if high in saturated fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) or non-HFSS. The school canteen administrators were encouraged to provide healthy food/beverage items and a sample healthy canteen was provided for implementation. Two healthy options were introduced to the school canteen. A follow up for students’ preferences for the introduced options and the purchasing power were assessed. Thirty-eight percent of young girls (n=26) were not participating in any form of physical activities inside or outside school. Skipping breakfast was stated by 42% (n=28) of students with no daily consumption (19%, n=13) for fruit/vegetables. Significant changes were noticed in students’ (n=66) overall responses to the pre and post questions (P value=.001). All students had participated in the conducted running competition sessions and reported satisfaction and enjoyment about the sessions. No absence was reported by the research team for attending physical education and activity sessions throughout the delivered programme. The purchasing power of the introduced healthy options of 'Salad and oatmeal' was increased to 18% in 8 weeks at the school canteen, and slightly affected the purchase for other less healthy options. The piloted programme indorsed better health and nutrition knowledge, healthy eating and lifestyle attitude, which could help young girls to obtain sustainable changes. It is expected that the outcomes of the programme will be a cornerstone for the futuristic national study that will assist policy makers and participants to build a knowledgeable health promotion scenario and make sure that school students have access to healthy foods, physical exercise and healthy lifestyle.

Keywords: adolescents, diet, exercise, behaviours, overweight/obesity, prevention-intervention programme, Saudi Arabia, schoolgirls

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Authors: Kimuli Ismail, Michael Lubwama, John Baptist Kirabira, Adam Sebbit

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This study develops 4 energy scenarios for Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA). GKMA is Uganda’s capital with a population of 4.1million and a GDP growth rate of 5.8 with a nonsustainable energy management system. The study uses TIMES-VEDA to examine the energy impacts of business as usual (BAU), Kabejja, Carbon-Tax, and Lutta scenarios in commercial, industrial, transportation, residential, agricultural, and electricity generation activities. BAU is the baseline scenario with limited CO2 emissions restrictions against which Kabejja with 20% CO2 emissions restriction, a carbon tax of $100/ton imposed in 2050 for Carbon-Tax scenario, and Lutta with 95% CO2 emissions restriction is made. The analysis suggests that if the current policy trends continue as BAU, consumption would increase from 139.6PJ to 497.42PJ and CO2 emissions will increase from 4.6mtns to 7mtns. However, consumption would decrease by 2.3% in Kabejja, 3.4% in Carbon-Tax, and 3.3 % in Lutta compared to BAU. The CO2 emissions would decrease by 8.57% in Kabejja, 55.14% in Carbon-Tax, and 60% in Lutta compared to BAU. Sustainability is achievable when low-carbon electricity is increased by 53.68% in the EMS, and setting up an electrified Kampala metro. The study recommends Lutta as the sustainable pathway to a lowcarbon 2050.

Keywords: Sustainability, Scenario Plannnig, Times-Veda Modelling, Energy Policy Development

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Authors: Alireza Barari

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Physical activity and diet are factors that influence the body's structure. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of four weeks of resistance training, and glutamine supplement consumption on growth hormone (GH), and Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) Axis. 40 amateur male bodybuilders, participated in this study. They were randomly divided into four equal groups, Resistance (R), Glutamine (G), Resistance with Glutamine (RG), and Control (C). The R group was assigned to a four week resistance training program, three times/week, three sets of 10 exercises with 6-10 repetitions, at the 80-95% 1RM (One Repetition Maximum), with 120 seconds rest between sets), G group is consuming l-glutamine (0.1 g/kg^-1/day^-1), RG group resistance training with consuming L-glutamine, and C group continued their normal lifestyle without exercise training. GH, IGF1, IGFBP-III plasma levels were measured before and after the protocol. One-way ANOVA indicated significant change in GH, IGF, and IGFBP-III between the four groups, and the Tukey test demonstrated significant increase in GH, IGF1, IGFBP-III plasma levels in R, and RG group. Based upon these findings, we concluded that resistance training at 80-95% 1RM intensity, and resistance training along with oral glutamine shows significantly increase secretion of GH, IGF-1, and IGFBP-III in amateur males, but the addition of oral glutamine to the exercise program did not show significant difference in GH, IGF-1, and IGFBP-III.

Keywords: strength, glutamine, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1

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Authors: Byung Wook Yang, Jong Dae Park, Wang Soo Shin, Ji-Hyeon Song, Seo-Yun Choi, Boo-Yong Lee, Young Tae Hahm

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Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) is frequently taken orally as a traditional herbal medicine with ginsenosides as the main pharmacological component in Asian countries, and its use is increasing worldwide. Recently, the increase in global temperature has been reported to cause various kinds of biological disorders induced by heat stress in human. The standardized black ginseng extract (SBGE; KGR-BG1) was developed in our biological screening experiment on the thermo-regulation, whose chemical characteristics were evaluated as ginsenoside Rg1, Rb1, Rg3(S), as well as Re, Rf, Rg2(S), Rh1(S), Rh2(S), and Rg5+Rk1. Heat stress responses such as body weight, food intake, water consumption have been measured when treated with Standardized Black Ginseng Extract (SBGE) in the animal experiment and also, biomarkers. SBGE treated group has been found to inhibit a decrease in body weight, a decrease in food intake and an increase in the water consumption when compared with non-treated group against environmental heat stress. These results suggest that SBGE might have a protective effect against environmental heat stress. And also, the several factors of stress response on the immune system need to be done for further studies and its evaluation is in progress.

Keywords: ginseng, ginsenoside, standardization, heat stress, immunomodulatory effect

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Authors: Trude Tørset, María Díez Gutiérrez

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The west coast of Norway features numerous islands and fjords. Ferry services connect the roads when these features make the construction challenging. Currently, scientific effort is designated to assess potential ferry replacement projects along the European road E-39. The inconvenience of ferry dependency is imprecisely represented in the transport models, thus transport analyses of ferry replacement projects appear as guesstimates rather than reliable input to decision-making processes of such costly projects. Trips including ferry connections imply more inconvenient elements than just travel time and cost. The goal of this paper is to understand and explain the extra inconveniences associated to the dependency of the ferry. The first scientific approach is to identify the characteristics of the ferry travelers and their trips’ features, as well as whether the ferry represents an obstacle for some specific trip types. In doing so, a survey was conducted in 2011 in eight E-39 ferries and in 2013 in 18 ferries connecting different road categories. More than 20,000 passengers answered with their trip and socioeconomic characteristics. The travel patterns in the different ferry connections were compared. The analysis showed that the trip features differed based on the location of the ferry connections, yet independently of the road category. Additionally, the patterns were compared to the national travel survey to detect differences in the travel patterns due to the use of the ferry connections. The results showed that the share of commuting trips within the same travel time was lower if the ferry was part of the trip. The second scientific approach is to know how the different travelers perceive potential benefits for a ferry replacement project. In the 2011 survey, some of the questions were about the relevance of nine different benefits this project might bring. Travelers identified the better access to public services and job market as the most valuable benefits, followed by the reduced planning of the trip. In 2016, a follow-up survey in some of the ferry connections was carried out in order to investigate variations in travelers’ perceptions. The growing interest in ferry replacement projects might make travelers more aware of the potential benefits these would bring to their daily lives. This paper describes the travel behaviour of travelers using a ferry connection as part of their trips, as well as the potential inconveniences associated to these trips. The findings might provide valuable input to further development of transport models, concept evaluations and cost benefit analysis methods.

Keywords: ferry connections, ferry trip, inconvenience costs, travel behaviour

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Authors: Marcin Dębowski, Mirosław Krzemieniewski, Marcin Zieliński

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This publication presents a device designed to depolymerise and structurally change organic substrate, for use in agricultural biogas plants or sewage treatment plants. The presented device consists of a heated tank equipped with an inlet valve for the crude substrate and an outlet valve for the treated substrate. The system also includes a gas conduit, which is at its tip equipped with a high-pressure solenoid valve and a vacuum relief solenoid valve. A conduit behind the high-pressure solenoid valve connects to the vacuum tank equipped with the outlet valve. The substrate introduced into the device is exposed to agents such as high temperature and cavitation produced by abrupt, short-term reduction of pressure within the heated tank. The combined effect of these processes is substrate destruction rate increase of about 20% when compared to using high temperature alone, and about 30% when compared to utilizing only cavitation. Energy consumption is greatly reduced, as the pressure increase is generated by heating the substrate. Thus, there is a 18% reduction of energy consumption when compared to a device designed to destroy substrate through high temperature alone, and a 35% reduction if compared to using cavitation as the only means of destruction.

Keywords: thermal depolymerisation, organic substrate, biogas, pre-treatment

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Authors: M. P. Rajeeshkumar, K. V. Aneesh Kumar, J. L. Otero-Ferrer, A. Lombarte, M. Hashim, N. Saravanane, V. N.Sanjeevan, V. M. Tuset

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The anglerfishes are widely distributed from shallow to deep-water habitats and are highly diverse in morphology, behaviour, and niche occupancy patterns. To understand this interspecific variability and degree of niche overlap, we performed a functional analysis of five species inhabiting Indian waters where diversity of deep-sea anglerfishes is very high. The sensory capacities (otolith shape and eye size) were also studied to improve the understanding of coexistence of species. The analyses of fish body and otolith shape clustered species in two morphotypes related to phylogenetic lineages: i) Malthopsis lutea, Lophiodes lugubri and Halieutea coccinea were characterized by a dorso-ventrally flattened body with high swimming ability and relative small otoliths, and ii) Chaunax spp. were distinguished by their higher body depth, lower swimming efficiency, and relative big otoliths. The sensory organs did not show a pattern linked to depth distribution of species. However, the larger eye size in M. lutea suggested a nocturnal feeding activity, whereas Chaunax spp. had a large mouth and deeper body in response to different ecological niches. Therefore, the present study supports the hypothesis of spatial and temporal segregation of anglerfishes in the Indian waters, which can be explained from a functional approach and understanding from sensory capabilities.

Keywords: functional traits, otoliths, niche overlap, fishes, Indian waters

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Authors: Monika Lipska

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Drinking water is water with a very high quality, and as such represents only 2.5% of the total quantity of all water in the world. For many years we have observed continuous increase in its consumption as a result of many factors such as: Growing world population (7 billion in 2011r.), increase of human lives comfort and – above all – the economic growth. Due to the rocketing consumption and growing costs of production of water with such high-quality parameters, we experience accelerating interest in alternative sources of obtaining potable water. One of the ways of saving this valuable material is using rainwater in the Urban Building. With an exponentially growing demand, the acquisition of additional sources of water is necessary to maintain the proper balance of all ecosystems. The first part of the paper describes what rainwater is and what are its potential sources and means of use, while the main part of the article focuses on the description of the methods of obtaining water from rain on the example of new urban building in Poland. It describes the method and installations of rainwater in the new urban building (“MBJ2030”). The paper addresses also the issue of monitoring of the whole recycling systems as well as the particular quality indicators important because of identification of the potential risks to human health. The third part describes the legal arrangements concerning the recycling of rainwater existing in different European Union countries with particular reference to Poland on example the new urban building in Warsaw.

Keywords: rainwater, potable water, non-potable water, Poland

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Authors: Nihan Gurel Ulusan

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It is obvious that electrical energy, which is an inseparable part of modern day’s human and also the most important power source of our age, should be generated on a level that will suffice the nation’s requirements. The electrical energy used for a sustainable architectural design should be reduced as much as possible. Designing the buildings as energy efficient systems which aim at reducing the artificial illumination loads has been a current subject of our times as a result of concepts gaining importance like conscious consumption of energy sources, environment-friendly designs and sustainability. Reducing the consumption of electrical energy regarding the artificial lighting carries great significance, especially in the volumes which are used all day long like the educational buildings. Starting out with such an aim in this paper, the educational buildings are explored in terms of energy efficient lighting. Firstly, illumination techniques, illumination systems, light sources, luminaries, illumination controls and 'efficient energy' usage in lighting are mentioned. In addition, natural and artificial lighting systems used in educational buildings and also the spaces building up these kind buildings are examined in terms of energy efficient lighting. Lastly, the illumination properties of the school sample chosen for this study, Kağıthane Anadolu Lisesi, a typical high school in Istanbul, is observed. Suggestions are made in order to improve the system by evaluating the illumination properties of the classes with the survey carried out with the users.

Keywords: educational buildings, energy efficient, illumination techniques, lighting

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Authors: Bethany Wood

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The world pandemic led to a change in the way social media was used by audiences, with young people spending more hours on the platform due to lockdown. Reports by Ofcom have demonstrated that the internet is the second most popular platform for accessing news after television in the UK with social media and the internet ranked as the most popular platform to access news for those aged between 16-24. These statistics are unsurprising considering that at the time of writing, 98 percent of Generation Z (Gen Z) owned a smartphone and the subsequent ease and accessibility of social media. Technology is constantly developing and with this, its importance is becoming more prevalent with each generation: the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) consider it something useful whereas millennials (1981-1997) believe it a necessity for day to day living. Gen Z, otherwise known as the digital native, have grown up with this technology at their fingertips and social media is a norm. It helps form their identity, their affiliations and opens gateways for them to engage with news in a new way. It is a common misconception that Gen Z do not consume news, they are simply doing so in a different way to their predecessors. Using a sample of 800 18-20 year olds whilst utilising Generational theory, Actor Network Theory and the Social Shaping of Technology, this research provides a critical analyse regarding how Gen Z’s news consumption and engagement habits are developing along with technology to sculpture the future format of news and its distribution. From that perspective, allied with the empirical approach, it is possible to provide research orientated advice for the industry and even help to redefine traditional concepts of journalism.

Keywords: journalism, generation z, digital, social media

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Authors: Raheel Shakoor Siddiqui, Shahbaz Malik, Manikandar Srinivas Cheruvu, Sanjay Narayana Murthy, Livio DiMascio

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Background: elderly traumatic hip fracture patients frequently present to trauma services globally. Rising low energy falls amongst an osteoporotic aging population is the commonest cause for injury. Hip fractures in this population are a major cause for severe pain, morbidity and mortality. The term hip fracture is interchangeable with neck of femur fracture, fractured neck of femur or proximal femur fracture. Hip fracture pain management protocols and guidelines suggest conventional analgesia, nerve block and opioid based treatment as rescue analgesia. There is a current global opioid crisis with overuse, abuse and dependence. Adverse opioid related complications in vulnerable elderly patients further adds to morbidity and mortality. Systematic reviews in literature have evidenced superiority of multimodal analgesia in osteoarthritic primary joint replacements compared to opioids however, this has not yet been conducted for elderly traumatic hip fracture patients. Aims: The primary aim of this systematic review is to provide standardised evidence following Cochrane and PRISMA guidance in determining advantages of perioperative multimodal analgesia over conventional opioid based treatments in elderly traumatic hip fractures. Methods: 5 databases were searched from January 2000-2023 which identified 8 randomised controlled trials and 446 total participants. These trials met defined PICOS eligibility criteria of patient mean age ≥ 65 years presenting with a unilateral traumatic fractured neck of femur for operative intervention. Analgesic intervention with perioperative multimodal analgesia has been compared to conventional opioid based analgesia. Outcomes of interest include, primarily, the change in postoperative opioid consumption within a 0-30 postoperative period and secondarily, the change in postoperative adverse events and complications. A qualitative synthesis has been performed due to clinical heterogenicity and variance amongst trials. Results: GRADE evidence of moderate quality supports perioperative multimodal analgesia leads to a reduction in postoperative opioid consumption however, low quality evidence supports a reduction of adverse effects and complications. Conclusion: Perioperative multimodal analgesia whether used preoperative, intraoperative and/or postoperative leads to a reduction in postoperative opioid consumption for elderly traumatic hip fracture patients. This review recommends the use of perioperative multimodal analgesia as part of hip fracture pain protocols however, caution and clinical judgement should be used as the risk of adverse effects may not be lower.

Keywords: trauma, orthopaedics, hip, fracture, neck of femur fracture, analgesia, multimodal analgesia, opioid

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Authors: Mary Rosa Espinosa-Ochoa

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The study of overgeneralization in inflectional morphology provides evidence for understanding how a child's mind works when applying linguistic patterns in a novel way. High-frequency inflectional forms in the input cause inappropriate use in contexts related to lower-frequency forms. Children learn verbs as lexical items and new forms develop only gradually, around their second year: most of the utterances that children produce are closely related to what they have previously produced. Spanish has a complex verbal system that inflects for person, mood, and tense. Approximately 200 verbs are irregular, and bare roots always require an inflected form, which represents a challenge for the memory. The aim of this research is to investigate i) what kinds of overgeneralization errors children make in verb production, ii) to what extent these errors are related to verb forms previously produced, and iii) whether the overgeneralized verb components are also frequent in children’s linguistic inventory. It consists of a high-density longitudinal study of a middle-class girl (1;11,24-2;02,24) from Mexico City, whose utterances were recorded almost daily for three months to compile a unique corpus in the Spanish language. Of the 358 types of inflected verbs produced by the child, 9.11% are overgeneralizations. Not only are inflected forms (verbal and pronominal clitics) overgeneralized, but also verbal roots. Each of the forms can be traced to previous utterances, and they show that the child is detecting morphological patterns. Neither verbal roots nor inflected forms are associated with high frequency patterns in her own speech. For example, the child alternates the bare roots of an irregular verb, cáye-te* and cáiga-te* (“fall down”), to express the imperative of the verb cá-e-te (fall down.IMPERATIVE-PRONOMINAL.CLITIC), although cay-ó (PAST.PERF.3SG) is the most frequent form of her previous complete inventory, and the combined frequency of caer (INF), cae (PRES.INDICATIVE.3SG), and caes (PRES.INDICATIVE.2SG) is the same as that of as caiga (PRES.SUBJ.1SG and 3SG). These results provide evidence that a) two forms of the same verb compete in the child’s memory, and b) although the child uses her own inventory to create new forms, these forms are not necessarily frequent in her memory storage, which means that her mind is more sensitive to external stimuli. Language acquisition is a developing process, given the sensitivity of the human mind to linguistic interaction with the outside world.

Keywords: inflection, morphology, child language acquisition, Spanish

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Authors: Mathias B. Michael, Esther T. Akinlabi, Tien-Chien Jen

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Thermal energy consumption in palm oil production plant comprises mainly of steam, hot water and hot air. In most efficient plants, hot water and air are generated from the steam supply system. Research has shown that thermal energy utilize in palm oil production plants is about 70 percent of the total energy consumption of the plant. In order to manage the plants’ energy efficiently, the energy systems are modelled and optimized. This paper aimed to present the model of steam supply systems of a typical palm oil production plant in Ghana. The models include exergy and energy models of steam boiler, steam turbine and the palm oil mill. The paper further simulates the virtual plant model to obtain the thermal energy performance of the plant under study. The simulation results show that, under normal operating condition, the boiler energy performance is considerably below the expected level as a result of several factors including intermittent biomass fuel supply, significant moisture content of the biomass fuel and significant heat losses. The total thermal energy performance of the virtual plant is set as a baseline. The study finally recommends number of energy efficiency measures to improve the plant’s energy performance.

Keywords: palm biomass, steam supply, exergy and energy models, energy performance benchmark

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Authors: Tatiana Stanchuliak

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It is common knowledge that intonation is not laid over a ready text. On the contrary, intonation forms and accompanies the text on the level of its birth in the speaker’s mind. As a result, intonation plays one of the fundamental roles in the process of transferring a thought into external speech. Intonation structure can highlight the semantic significance of textual elements and become a ranging mark in understanding the information structure of the text. Intonation functions by means of prosodic characteristics, one of which is intonation salience, whose function in texts results in making some textual elements more prominent than others. This function of intonation, therefore, performs as organizing. It helps to form the frame of key elements of the text. The study under consideration made an attempt to look into the inner nature of salience and create a sort of a text intonation model. This general goal brought to some more specific intermediate results. First, there were established degrees of salience on the level of the smallest semantic element - intonation group, as well as prosodic means of creating salience, were examined. Second, the most frequent combinations of prosodic means made it possible to distinguish patterns of salience, which then became constituent elements of a text intonation model. Third, the analysis of the predicate structure allowed to divide the whole text into smaller parts, or units, which performed a specific function in the developing of the general communicative intention. It appeared that such units can be found in any text and they have common characteristics of their intonation arrangement. These findings are certainly very important both for the theory of intonation and their practical application.

Keywords: accentuation , inner speech, intention, intonation, intonation functions, models, patterns, predicate, salience, semantics, sentence stress, text

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Authors: Emmanuel Ademola Anigilaje, Ibraheem Ishola

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Background: Childhood steroid-sensitive idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (SSINS) is plagued with relapses that contribute to its morbidity and the cost of treatment. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective review of relapses among children with SSINS at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital from January 2016 to July 2020. Triggers related to relapse incidents were noted. Chi-square test was deployed for predictors (factors at the first clinical presentations that associate with subsequent relapses) of relapses. Predictors with p-values of less than 0.05 were considered significant and 95% confidence intervals (CI) and odd ratio (OR) were described. Results: Sixty SSINS comprising 52 males (86.7%), aged 23 months to 18 years, with a mean age of 7.04±4.16 years were studied. Thirty-eight (63.3%) subjects had 126 relapses including infrequent relapses in 30 (78.9%) and frequent relapses in 8 (21.1%). The commonest triggers were acute upper respiratory tract infections (68, 53.9%) and urinary tract infections (UTIs) in 25 (19.8%) relapses. In 4 (3.2%) relapses, no trigger was identified. The time-to-first relapse ranged 14 days to 365 days with a median time of 60 days. The significant predictors were hypertension (OR=3.4, 95% CI; 1.04-11.09, p=0.038), UTIs (OR=9.9, 95% CI; 1.16-80.71, p= 0.014), malaria fever (OR=8.0, 95% CI; 2.45-26.38, p˂0.001), micro-haematuria (OR=4.9, 95% CI; 11.58-15.16, p=0.004), elevated serum creatinine (OR=12.3, 95%CI; 1.48-101.20, p=0.005) and hypercholesterolaemia (OR=4.1, 95%CI; 1.35-12.63, p=0.011). Conclusion: While the pathogenesis of relapses remains unknown, it is prudent to consider relapse-specific preventive strategies against triggers and predictors of relapses in our setting.

Keywords: Patterns, triggers, predictors, steroid-sensitive idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, relapses, Nigeria

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Authors: Judith Margaret Tymon

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As cities struggle to incorporate informal settlements into the fabric of urban areas, the focus has often been on the provision of housing. This study explores the underlying structure of street networks, with the goal of understanding the morphogenesis of informal settlements through the lens of the access network. As the stages of development progress from infill to consolidation and eventually, to a planned in-situ settlement, the access networks retain the form of the core segments; however, a majority of street patterns are adapted to a grid design to support infrastructure in the final upgraded phase. A case study is presented to examine the street network in the informal settlement of Gobabis Namibia as it progresses from its initial stages to a planned, in-situ, and permanently upgraded development. The Informal Development Stages framework of foundation, infill, and consolidation, as developed by Dr. Jota Samper, is utilized to examine the evolution of street networks. Data is gathered from historical Google Earth satellite images for the time period between 2003 and 2022. The results demonstrate that during the foundation through infill stages, incremental changes follow similar patterns, with pathways extended, lengthened, and densified as housing is created and the settlement grows. In the final stage of consolidation, the resulting street layout is transformed to support the installation of infrastructure; however, some elements of the original street patterns remain. The core pathways remain intact to accommodate the installation of infrastructure and the creation of housing plots, defining the shape of the settlement and providing the basis of the urban form. The adaptations, growth, and consolidation of the street network are critical to the eventual formation of the spatial layout of the settlement. This study will include a comparative analysis of findings with those of recent research performed by Kamalipour, Dovey, and others regarding incremental urbanism within informal settlements. Further comparisons will also include studies of street networks of well-established urban centers that have shown links between the morphogenesis of access networks and the eventual spatial layout of the city. The findings of the study can be used to guide and inform strategies for in-situ upgrading and can contribute to the sustainable development of informal settlements.

Keywords: Gobabis Namibia, incremental urbanism, informal development stages, informal settlements, street networks

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Authors: Huseyin Guler, Cigdem Kosar

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The aim of this study is to propose Bridge estimator for seasonal unit root tests. Seasonality is an important factor for many economic time series. Some variables may contain seasonal patterns and forecasts that ignore important seasonal patterns have a high variance. Therefore, it is very important to eliminate seasonality for seasonal macroeconomic data. There are some methods to eliminate the impacts of seasonality in time series. One of them is filtering the data. However, this method leads to undesired consequences in unit root tests, especially if the data is generated by a stochastic seasonal process. Another method to eliminate seasonality is using seasonal dummy variables. Some seasonal patterns may result from stationary seasonal processes, which are modelled using seasonal dummies but if there is a varying and changing seasonal pattern over time, so the seasonal process is non-stationary, deterministic seasonal dummies are inadequate to capture the seasonal process. It is not suitable to use seasonal dummies for modeling such seasonally nonstationary series. Instead of that, it is necessary to take seasonal difference if there are seasonal unit roots in the series. Different alternative methods are proposed in the literature to test seasonal unit roots, such as Dickey, Hazsa, Fuller (DHF) and Hylleberg, Engle, Granger, Yoo (HEGY) tests. HEGY test can be also used to test the seasonal unit root in different frequencies (monthly, quarterly, and semiannual). Another issue in unit root tests is the lag selection. Lagged dependent variables are added to the model in seasonal unit root tests as in the unit root tests to overcome the autocorrelation problem. In this case, it is necessary to choose the lag length and determine any deterministic components (i.e., a constant and trend) first, and then use the proper model to test for seasonal unit roots. However, this two-step procedure might lead size distortions and lack of power in seasonal unit root tests. Recent studies show that Bridge estimators are good in selecting optimal lag length while differentiating nonstationary versus stationary models for nonseasonal data. The advantage of this estimator is the elimination of the two-step nature of conventional unit root tests and this leads a gain in size and power. In this paper, the Bridge estimator is proposed to test seasonal unit roots in a HEGY model. A Monte-Carlo experiment is done to determine the efficiency of this approach and compare the size and power of this method with HEGY test. Since Bridge estimator performs well in model selection, our approach may lead to some gain in terms of size and power over HEGY test.

Keywords: bridge estimators, HEGY test, model selection, seasonal unit root

Procedia PDF Downloads 327