Search results for: long term effects

Authors: Avadhesh Kumar

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Background: The cell phone has rapidly become an integral, and, for some, an essential communication tool that is being used worldwide. Their use without any knowledge of their harmful effects like cancers and other health effects is not ‘quite’ safe. Studies on cancers due to electromagnetic radiations from cell phones are available, but there is a need to research on the detrimental physical and psychological effects on users like students. This study focused on certain psychological or mental health effects of cell phone usage amongst students. Materials and methods: The present study will be carried out on all the students of Banaras Hindu University. Students of both sexes from urban and rural backgrounds were selected at random and administered a pre- tested questionnaire which included aspects related to few common adverse psychological health signs and symptoms attributed to cell phone over-usage. Results: Stress was found to be the commonest symptom (51.47%) followed by irritability/anger (43.79%). Other common mental symptoms included lack of concentration and academic performance, insomnia, anxiety etc. Suggestions: This study confirms that the younger generation, who are the most frequent cell phone users, needs to be aware of the adverse health effects of cell phone usage especially the mental aspects and take preventive measures to minimize and control the same. Less dependence on the device, a curtailing time period spent on talking, communicating more by texting, etc. are some of the practical measures suggested.

Keywords: cell phones, psychological health effects, students, mental health

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Authors: Ghulam Rasool Madni

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Global economies are prioritizing the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for well-being of their people. An emphasis lies on the concept of metagovernance when contemplating the role of government in SDGs, especially in the context of its influence and guidance. Existing literature acknowledges the pivotal role of metagovernance in achieving the SDGs, but aspects of metagovernance unclear that are important for 17 SDGs. Using data from 41 countries, a comparative analysis is conducted for the year 2022. Utilizing a multiple regression analysis, the impact of different dimensions of metagovernance to achieve SDGs is explored, with a particular focus on sustainable policies, strategic capacity, policy coherence, democratic institutions, reflexivity, and adaptation. It is found that sustainable policies have a positive and significant relationship with different SDGs, including no poverty, zero hunger, health, sanitation and clean water, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities while democratic institutions also have a positive relationship with no poverty, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, clean and affordable energy, and peace, justice, and strong institutions in these countries. Policymakers are suggested to ensure that sustainable policies are backed by legislation to provide them with a strong legal foundation. It is suggested to develop a long-term vision for sustainability that goes beyond short-term political cycles. Economies are encouraged to invest in building the capacity of government agencies, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to effectively implement sustainable policies. Moreover, democratic institutions may be established through a constitution providing a solid foundation for democratic governance, including protection of human rights, separation of powers, and mechanisms for accountability and transparency.

Keywords: metagovernance, sustainable development goals, sustainable policies, democratic institutions

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Authors: Young Sik Kim, Tae Kwon Ha

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This article considers the problems of economic growth and Russian energy strategy. Also in this paper, the issues related to the economic growth prospects of Russian were discussed. Russian energy strategy without standing Russia`s stature in global energy markets, at the current production and extraction rates, will not be able to sustain its own production as well as fulfil its energy strategy. Indeed, Russia’s energy sector suffers from a chronic lack of investments which are necessary to modernize its energy supply system. In recent years, especially since the international financial crisis, Russia-EU energy cooperation has made substantive progress. Recently the break-through progress has been made, resulting mainly from long-term contributing factors between the countries and recent international economic and political situation changes. Analytical material presented in the article is intended for a more detailed or substantive analysis related to foreign economic relations of the countries and Russia as well.

Keywords: Russia, energy strategy, economic growth, cooperation

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Authors: N. Schneider, M. Bruchhage, M. Hartweg, G. Mutungi, J. O Regan, S. Deoni

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Observational neuroimaging studies suggest differences between breast-fed and formula-fed infants in developmental myelination, a key brain process for learning and cognitive development. However, the possible effects of a nutrient formulation on myelin development in healthy term infants in an intervention study have not been investigated. Objective was, therefore, to investigate the efficacy of a nutrient formulation with higher levels of myelin-relevant nutrients as compared to a control formulation with lower levels of the same nutrients on brain myelination and cognitive development in the first 6 months of life. The study is an ongoing randomized, controlled, double-blind, two-center, parallel-group clinical trial with a nonrandomized, non-blinded arm of exclusively breastfed infants. The current findings result from a staged statistical analysis at 6 months; the recruitment and intervention period has been completed for all participants. Follow-up visits at 12, 18 and 24 months are still ongoing. N= 81 enrolled full term, neurotypical infants of both sexes were randomized into either the investigational (N= 42) or the control group (N= 39), and N= 108 children in the breast-fed arm served as a natural reference group. The effect of a blend of docosahexaenoic acid, arachidonic acid, iron, vitamin B12, folic acid as well as sphingomyelin from a uniquely proceed whey protein concentrate enriched in alpha-lactalbumin and phospholipids in an infant nutrition product matrix was investigated. The main outcomes for the staged statistical analyses at 6 months included brain myelination measures derived from MRI. Additional outcomes were brain volume, cognitive development and safety. The full analyses set at 6 months comprised N= 66 infants. Higher levels of myelin-relevant nutrients compared to lower levels resulted in significant differences in myelin structure, volume, and rate of myelination as early as 3 and 6 months of life. The cross-sectional change of means between groups for whole-brain myelin volume was 8.4% for investigational versus control formulation (3.5% versus the breastfeeding reference) group at 3 months and increased to 36.4% for investigational versus control formulation (14.1% versus breastfeeding reference) at 6 months. No statistically significant differences were detected for early cognition scores. Safety findings were largely similar across groups. This is the first pediatric nutritional neuroimaging study demonstrating the efficacy of a myelin nutrient blend on developmental myelination in well-nourished term infants. Myelination is a critical process in learning and development. The effects were demonstrated across the brain, particularly in temporal and parietal regions, known to be functionally involved in sensory, motor and language skills. These first results add to the field of nutritional neuroscience by demonstrating early life nutrition benefits for brain architecture which may be foundational for later cognitive and behavioral outcomes. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03111927 (Infant Nutrition and Brain Development - Full-Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov).

Keywords: brain development, infant nutrition, MRI, myelination

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Authors: Mohamed Ali Benhalima, Nathon Elbaz, Malik Koubi

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This paper evaluates an expansion of employer-mandated sick leave insurance in the French private sector. We use a difference-in-differences method in which control groups are defined according to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) employees belong to. Indeed, thanks to complementary insurance provided by CBAs, employees were not affected the same way by the reform. We find significant effects of the reform on sick leave spells lasting at least 7 days, consistently with the reform target. The effects on spells’ duration and frequency are positive and more pronounced for women than for men, for whom the effect on frequency tends to be slightly negative. The effects are also more pronounced for executives and supervisors than less qualified categories.

Keywords: sickness absence, collective agreements, daily sickness benefits, labor economics

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Authors: Khalid El Asri

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Culture influences lexicalization of salient concepts in a society. Hence, languages often have different degrees of equivalence regarding lexical items of different fields. The present study focuses on the field of emotions in English and Moroccan Arabic. Findings of a comparative study that involved fifty English emotions revealed that Moroccan Arabic has equivalence of some English emotion terms, partial equivalence of some emotion terms, and no equivalence for some other terms. It is hypothesized then that emotion terms that have near equivalence in Moroccan Arabic will be easier to acquire for EFL learners, while partially equivalent terms will be difficult to acquire, and those that have no equivalence will be even more difficult to acquire. In order to test these hypotheses, the participants (104 advanced Moroccan EFL learners and 104 native speakers of English) were given two tests: the first is a receptive one in which the participants were asked to choose, among four emotion terms, the term that is appropriate to fill in the blanks for a given situation indicating certain kind of feelings. The second test is a productive one in which the participants were asked to give the emotion term that best described the feelings of the people in the situations given. The results showed that conceptually equivalent terms do not pose any problems for Moroccan EFL learners since they can link the concept to an already existing linguistic category; whereas the results concerning the acquisition of partially equivalent terms indicated that this type of emotion terms were difficult for Moroccan EFL learners to acquire, because they need to restructure the boundaries of the target linguistic categories by expanding them when the term includes other range of meanings that are not subsumed in the L1 term. Surprisingly however, the results concerning the case of non-equivalence revealed that Moroccan EFL learners could internalize the target L2 concepts that have no equivalence in their L1. Thus, it is the category of emotion terms that have partial equivalence in the learners’ L1 that pose problems for them.

Keywords: acquisition, culture, emotion terms, lexical equivalence

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Authors: Suhrita Saha

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Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel Inc and it made debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York in 9 March 1959. From being a fashion doll to a symbol of fetishistic commodification, Barbie has come a long way. A Barbie doll is sold every three seconds across the world, which makes the billion dollar brand the world’s most popular doll for the girls. The 11.5 inch moulded plastic doll has a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Her vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). Her weight is permanently set at 110 pounds which would be 35 pounds underweight. Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie wanted a doll that represented adulthood and allowed children to imagine themselves as teenagers or adults. While Barbie might have been intended to be independent, imaginative and innovative, the physical uniqueness does not confine the doll to the status of a play thing. It is a cultural icon but with far reaching critical implications. The doll is a commodity bearing more social value than practical use value. The way Barbie is produced represents industrialization and commodification of the process of symbolic production. And this symbolic production and consumption is a standardized planned one that produce stereotypical ‘pseudo-individuality’ and suppresses cultural alternatives. Children are being subject to and also arise as subjects in this consumer context. A very gendered, physiologically dissected sexually charged symbolism is imposed upon children (both male and female), childhood, their social worlds, identity, and relationship formation. Barbie is also very popular among Indian children. While the doll is essentially an imaginative representation of the West, it is internalized by the Indian sensibilities. Through observation and questionnaire-based interview within a sample population of adolescent children (primarily female, a few male) and parents (primarily mothers) in Kolkata, an Indian metropolis, the paper puts forth findings of sociological relevance. 1. Barbie creates, recreates, and accentuates already existing divides between the binaries like male- female, fat- thin, sexy- nonsexy, beauty- brain and more. 2. The Indian girl child in her associative process with Barbie wants to be like her and commodifies her own self. The male child also readily accepts this standardized commodification. Definition of beauty is thus based on prejudice and stereotype. 3. Not being able to become Barbie creates health issues both psychological and physiological varying from anorexia to obesity as well as personality disorder. 4. From being a plaything Barbie becomes the game maker. Barbie along with many other forms of simulation further creates a consumer culture and market for all kind of fitness related hyper enchantment and subsequent disillusionment. The construct becomes the reality and the real gets lost in the play world. The paper would thus argue that Barbie from being an innocuous doll transports itself into becoming social construct with long term and irreversible adverse impact.

Keywords: barbie, commodification, personality disorder, sterotype

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Authors: Radmila Maksimovic, Sonja Ketin, Rade Biocanin, Jelena Maksimovic

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The abnormal conditions of life and work genetic factors often play a major role in incidence of diabetes-diabetes, heart disease and vascular disease, jaundice, and post traumatic stress. Trauma and post traumatic stress are most common in the displaced persons,and the focus of this paper is to shed light on this issue in former Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia and now in our country. This is caused by increased beta-cell sensitivity to viruses, the development of autoimmune antibodies against its own pancreascells, degenerative changes in cells that r esult in change of structure and insulin. In this paper, we dealt with traumatic events and long-term psycho social consequences for internally displaced persons, several years after displacement, and found a high level of PTSD symptoms. This stress is present in almost 1/3 of internally displaced persons, and every sixth person is suffering from PTSD in the past. Respondents generally suffer from symptoms of intrusion, but there was a large number of symptoms, avoidance and increased arousal. We also found that gender, age andeducation related to the symptoms. Females, and older respondents and internally displaced persons with lower levels of education how a higher level of PTSD symptoms, especially symptoms of intrusion and increase darousal. It is a highly traumatized sample in which more than 1/2 of respondents experienced more than three traumatic events in life,although the number of traumas experienced before, during and after the conflict varies.We found that during the war, internally displaced persons haveexperienced more traumatic events compared with the periodbefore and after the conflict. Trauma are different in type. No significant correlation between the number of experienced trauma and PTSD, suggesting that it is necessary to further study the structure of past traumas and the intermediary effects of certain risk factors and protective factors.

Keywords: living environment, displaced persons, jaundice, diabetes, trauma, diabetic hypertension, post-traumatic stress (PTSD), treatment

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Authors: Sean Yao Zu Kong, Khong Yik Chew

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Introduction: We described a case report of the successful use of advanced surgical techniques in a patient with recurrent breast cancer who underwent a wide resection including the hemi-sternum, clavicle, multiple ribs, and a lobe of the lung due to tumor involvement. This extensive resection exposed critical structures, requiring a creative approach to reconstruction. To address this complex chest wall reconstruction, a free fibula flap and a 4-zone rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap were successfully utilized. The use of a free vascularized bone flap allowed for rapid osteointegration and resistance against osteoradionecrosis after adjuvant radiation, while a four-zone tram flap allowed for reconstruction of both the chest wall and breast mound. Although limited recipient vessels made free flaps challenging, the free fibula flap served as both a bony reconstruction and vascular conduit, supercharged with the distal peroneal artery and veins of the peroneal artery from the fibula graft. Our approach highlights the potential of advanced surgical techniques to improve outcomes in complex cases of chest wall reconstruction in patients with recurrent breast cancer, which is becoming increasingly relevant as breast cancer incidence rates increases. Case presentation: This report describes a successful reconstruction of a patient with recurrent breast cancer who required extensive resection, including the anterior chest wall, clavicle, and sternoclavicular joint. Challenges arose due to the loss of accessory muscles and the non-rigid rib cage, which could lead to compromised ventilation and instability. A free fibula osteocutaneous flap and a four-zone TRAM flap with vascular supercharging were utilized to achieve long-term stability and function. The patient has since fully recovered, and during the review, both flaps remained viable, and chest mound reconstruction was satisfactory. A planned nipple/areolar reconstruction was offered pending the patient’s decision after adjuvant radiotherapy. Conclusion: In conclusion, this case report highlights the successful use of innovative surgical techniques in addressing a complex case of recurrent breast cancer requiring extensive resection and radical reconstruction. Our approach, utilized a combination of a free fibula flap and a 4-zone rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap, demonstrates the potential for advanced techniques in chest wall reconstruction to minimize complications and ensure long-term stability and function. As the incidence of breast cancer continues to rise, it is crucial that healthcare professionals explore and utilize innovative techniques to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

Keywords: free fibula flap, rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap, post-adjuvant radiotherapy, reconstructive surgery, malignancy

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Authors: Kostas Kouvaris, Anastasia Eleftheriou, Georgios A. Sarantitis, Apostolos Chondronasios

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To achieve the objective of almost zero carbon energy solutions by 2050, the EU needs to accelerate the development of integrated, highly efficient and environmentally friendly solutions. In this direction, district heating and cooling (DHC) emerges as a viable and more efficient alternative to conventional, decentralized heating and cooling systems, enabling a combination of more efficient renewable and competitive energy supplies. In this paper, we develop a forecasting tool for near real-time local weather and thermal energy demand predictions for an entire DHC network. In this fashion, we are able to extend the functionality and to improve the energy efficiency of the DHC network by predicting and adjusting the heat load that is distributed from the heat generation plant to the connected buildings by the heat pipe network. Two case-studies are considered; one for Vransko, Slovenia and one for Montpellier, France. The data consists of i) local weather data, such as humidity, temperature, and precipitation, ii) weather forecast data, such as the outdoor temperature and iii) DHC operational parameters, such as the mass flow rate, supply and return temperature. The external temperature is found to be the most important energy-related variable for space conditioning, and thus it is used as an external parameter for the energy demand models. For the development of the forecasting tool, we use state-of-the-art deep neural networks and more specifically, recurrent networks with long-short-term memory cells, which are able to capture complex non-linear relations among temporal variables. Firstly, we develop models to forecast outdoor temperatures for the next 24 hours using local weather data for each case-study. Subsequently, we develop models to forecast thermal demand for the same period, taking under consideration past energy demand values as well as the predicted temperature values from the weather forecasting models. The contributions to the scientific and industrial community are three-fold, and the empirical results are highly encouraging. First, we are able to predict future thermal demand levels for the two locations under consideration with minimal errors. Second, we examine the impact of the outdoor temperature on the predictive ability of the models and how the accuracy of the energy demand forecasts decreases with the forecast horizon. Third, we extend the relevant literature with a new dataset of thermal demand and examine the performance and applicability of machine learning techniques to solve real-world problems. Overall, the solution proposed in this paper is in accordance with EU targets, providing an automated smart energy management system, decreasing human errors and reducing excessive energy production.

Keywords: machine learning, LSTMs, district heating and cooling system, thermal demand

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Authors: Getaneh Berie Tarekegn, Li-Chia Tai

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With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, low-power built-in sensors on Internet of Things devices, and communication technologies, location-aware services have become increasingly popular and have permeated every aspect of people’s lives. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) are the default method of providing continuous positioning services for ground and aerial vehicles, as well as consumer devices (smartphones, watches, notepads, etc.). However, the environment affects satellite positioning systems, particularly indoors, in dense urban and suburban cities enclosed by skyscrapers, or when deep shadows obscure satellite signals. This is because (1) indoor environments are more complicated due to the presence of many objects surrounding them; (2) reflection within the building is highly dependent on the surrounding environment, including the positions of objects and human activity; and (3) satellite signals cannot be reached in an indoor environment, and GNSS doesn't have enough power to penetrate building walls. GPS is also highly power-hungry, which poses a severe challenge for battery-powered IoT devices. Due to these challenges, IoT applications are limited. Consequently, precise, seamless, and ubiquitous Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) systems are crucial for many artificial intelligence Internet of Things (AI-IoT) applications in the era of smart cities. Their applications include traffic monitoring, emergency alarming, environmental monitoring, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and smart health care. This paper proposes a generative AI-based positioning scheme for large-scale wireless settings using fingerprinting techniques. In this article, we presented a novel semi-supervised deep convolutional generative adversarial network (S-DCGAN)-based radio map construction method for real-time device localization. We also employed a reliable signal fingerprint feature extraction method with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), which extracts dominant features while eliminating noise from hybrid WLAN and long-term evolution (LTE) fingerprints. The proposed scheme reduced the workload of site surveying required to build the fingerprint database by up to 78.5% and significantly improved positioning accuracy. The results show that the average positioning error of GAILoc is less than 0.39 m, and more than 90% of the errors are less than 0.82 m. According to numerical results, SRCLoc improves positioning performance and reduces radio map construction costs significantly compared to traditional methods.

Keywords: location-aware services, feature extraction technique, generative adversarial network, long short-term memory, support vector machine

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Authors: B. R. S. Babu, E. Prasad, P. V. Laveen, A. M. Vinodkumar

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Searching the “Island of stability” is a topic of extreme interest in theoretical as well as experimental modern physics today. This “island of stability” is spanned by superheavy elements (SHE's) that are produced in the laboratory. SHE's are believed to exist primarily due to the “magic” stabilizing effects of nuclear shell structure. SHE synthesis is extremely difficult due to their very low production cross section, often of the order of pico barns or less. Stabilizing effects of shell closures at proton number Z=82 and neutron number N=126 are predicted theoretically. Though stabilizing effects of Z=82 have been experimentally verified, no concluding observations have been made with N=126, so far. We measured and analyzed the total evaporation residue (ER) cross sections for a number of systems with neutron number around 126 to explore possible shell closure effects in ER cross sections, in this work.

Keywords: super heavy elements, fusion, evaporation residue, compund nucleus

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Authors: Takeru Furuawa, Kohei Takizawa, Daisuke Kuwahara, Shunjiro Shinohara

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In the field of a space propulsion, an electric propulsion system has been developed because its fuel efficiency is much higher than a conventional chemical one. However, the practical electric propulsion systems, e.g., an ion engine, have a problem of short lifetime due to a damage of generation and acceleration electrodes of the plasma. A helicon plasma thruster is proposed as a long-lifetime electric thruster which has non-direct contact electrodes. In this system, both generation and acceleration methods of a dense plasma are executed by antennas from the outside of a discharge tube. Development of the helicon plasma thruster has been conducting under the Helicon Electrodeless Advanced Thruster (HEAT) project. Our helicon plasma thruster has two important processes. First, we generate a dense source plasma using a helicon wave with an excitation frequency between an ion and an electron cyclotron frequencies, fci and fce, respectively, applied from the outside of a discharge using a radio frequency (RF) antenna. The helicon plasma source can provide a high-density (~1019 m-3), a high-ionization ratio (up to several tens of percent), and a high particle generation efficiency. Second, in order to achieve high thrust and specific impulse, we accelerate the dense plasma by the axial Lorentz force fz using the product of the induced azimuthal current jθ and the static radial magnetic field Br, shown as fz = jθ × Br. The HEAT project has proposed several kinds of electrodeless acceleration schemes, and in our particular case, a Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF) method has been extensively studied. The RMF scheme was originally developed as a concept to maintain the Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) in a magnetically confined fusion research. Here, RMF coils are expected to generate jθ due to a nonlinear effect shown below. First, the rotating magnetic field Bω is generated by two pairs of RMF coils with AC currents, which have a phase difference of 90 degrees between the pairs. Due to the Faraday’s law, an axial electric field is induced. Second, an axial current is generated by the effects of an electron-ion and an electron-neutral collisions through the Ohm’s law. Third, the azimuthal electric field is generated by the nonlinear term, and the retarding torque generated by the collision effects again. Then, azimuthal current jθ is generated as jθ = - nₑ er ∙ 2π fRMF. Finally, the axial Lorentz force fz for plasma acceleration is generated. Here, jθ is proportional to nₑ and frequency of RMF coil current fRMF, when Bω is fully penetrated into the plasma. Our previous study has achieved 19 % increase of ion velocity using the 5 MHz and 50 A of the RMF coil power supply. In this presentation, we will show the improvement of the ion velocity using the lower frequency and higher current supplied by RMF power supply. In conclusion, helicon high-density plasma production and electromagnetic acceleration by the RMF scheme with a concept of electrodeless condition have been successfully executed.

Keywords: electric propulsion, electrodeless thruster, helicon plasma, rotating magnetic field

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Authors: Chiu-Pin Wei

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This research aims to explore the impact of music preferences on the emotional well-being of military academy students, recognizing the potential long-term implications for their high-stress careers post-graduation. Given the significance of positive emotion regulation in military personnel, this study focuses on understanding the types of music preferred by military cadets and analyzing how these preferences correlate with their emotional states. The study employs a quantitative approach, utilizing the Music Category Scale and Mood Scale to collect data. Statistical tools, such as Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS), are employed for inferential analysis, including t-tests for emotional responses to instrumental and vocal music, one-way variance analysis for different demographic factors (grades, genders, and music listening frequencies), and Pearson's correlation to examine the relationship between music preferences and moods of military students.

Keywords: music preference, emotional regulation, military academic students, SPASS

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Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Amin Jahangard, Milad Samavat, Saeid Homayoun

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In the modern competitive business environment, one cannot overstate the importance of corporate social responsibility. The controversial link between the social and financial performance of firms has become a topic of interest for scholars. Hence, this study examines the social and financial performance link by taking into account the mediating role of innovation performance. We conducted the Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) method on an international sample of firms provided by the ASSET4 database. In this research, to explore the black box of the social and financial performance relationship, we first examined the effect of social performance separately on financial performance and innovation; then, we measured the mediation role of innovation in the social and financial performance link. While our results indicate the positive effect of social performance on financial performance and innovation, we cannot document the positive mediating role of innovation. This possibly relates to the long-term nature of benefits from investments in innovation.

Keywords: ESG, financial performance, innovation, social performance, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Jiří Kugl

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Typology and specific opportunities of brownfield revitalization are already largely described. Challenges and opportunities that brownfields represent have been adequately studied and presented, as well as specific ways in which these areas can be used or how they are used abroad. In other words, the questions why (revitalize brownfields) and what (we should do with them) are satisfactorily answered, but the question how (we can work with them) is not. This work will focus on answering this question, which will deal with tools that enable the revitalization and rehabilitation projects in the area. Tools can be divided, for example in terms of spatial planning and urban design, from an environmental perspective, from the perspective of cultural heritage protection and from the perspective of investment opportunities. The result is that the issue of brownfields is handled by numerous institutions and instruments. The aim of this paper is to identify, classify and analyze these instruments. Paper will study instruments from other countries with long-term experience with this issue (eg. France, Great Britain, USA, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic) and analyse their contribution and the feasibility of their implementation in other countries.

Keywords: brownfields, revitalization, rehabilitation, tools, urban planning

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Authors: Ali Mohammadi

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One of the concerns that employers and contractors have in creating long tunnels is that when the excavation is completed, the tunnel will be exited in the correct position according to designed, the deviation of the tunnel from its path can have many costs for the employer and the contractor, lack of correct calculations by the surveying engineer or the employer and contractors lack of importance to the surveying team in guiding the tunnel can cause the tunnel to deviate from its path and this deviation becomes a disaster. But employers are able to make the right decisions so that the tunnel is guided with the highest precision if they consider some points. We are investigating two tunnels with lengths of 12 and 18 kilometers that were dug by Tunnel boring machine machines to transfer water, how the contractor’s decision to control the 12 kilometer tunnel caused the most accuracy of one centimeter to the next part of the tunnel will be connected. We will also investigate the reasons for the deviation of axis in the 18 km tunnel about 20 meters. Also we review the calculations of surveyor engineers in both tunnels and what challenges there will be in the calculations and teach how to solve these challenges. Surveying calculations are the most important part in controlling long tunnels.

Keywords: UTM, localization, scale factor, traverse

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Authors: Vinayaka Gude Divya Sampath

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The research introduces an integrated prediction model to assess the susceptibility of roads in a future flooding event. The model consists of deep learning algorithm for forecasting gauge height data and Flood Inundation Mapper (FIM) for spatial flooding. An optimal architecture for Long short-term memory network (LSTM) was identified for the gauge located on Tangipahoa River at Robert, LA. Dropout was applied to the model to evaluate the uncertainty associated with the predictions. The estimates are then used along with FIM to identify the spatial flooding. Further geoprocessing in ArcGIS provides the susceptibility values for different roads. The model was validated based on the devastating flood of August 2016. The paper discusses the challenges for generalization the methodology for other locations and also for various types of flooding. The developed model can be used by the transportation department and other emergency response organizations for effective disaster management.

Keywords: deep learning, disaster management, flood prediction, urban flooding

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Authors: Jayati Das

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Kolkata, one of the fastest-growing metropolises in India, has been suffering from air pollution for many decades. Mismanagement of government and an increase in automobiles have been fuelling this problem. The study aims to portray the quality of air along with the influence of traffic flow and vehicular growth and the effects on human health. It further shows the correlation between the emission of pollution during weekdays and weekends with the help of a scatter diagram and trend line. An assessment of Kolkata air quality is done where the listed pollutants’ (RPM, SPM, NO2, and SO2) annual average concentrations are classified into four different categories. Our observed association between childhood Acute Respiratory disorder and early life exposure to traffic-related air pollutants is biologically plausible. The period of in utero and the first year of life is critical in the development of the immune and respiratory systems and potentially harmful effects of toxic pollutants during this period might result in the long-lasting impaired capacity to fight infections and increased risk of allergic manifestations. Up-to-date knowledge about the seasonal and spatial variation of asthma and studying the air quality of the area is done through Geographical Information System (GIS). Steps are taken by the government to control air pollution by alternative public transport like the metro and compulsory certification of period-driven vehicles which test for Carbon mono oxide.

Keywords: air pollution, asthma, GIS, hotspots, governance

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Authors: Safieh Javadinejad

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In order to make well-informed decisions respecting long-term system planning, resource managers and policy creators necessitate to comprehend the interconnections among energy and water utilization and manufacture—and also the energy-water nexus. Planning and assessment issues contain the enhancement of strategies for declining the water and energy system’s vulnerabilities to climate alteration with also emissions of decreasing greenhouse gas. In order to deliver beneficial decision support for climate adjustment policy and planning, understanding the regionally-specific features of the energy-water nexus, and the history-future of the water and energy source systems serving is essential. It will be helpful for decision makers understand the nature of current water-energy system conditions and capacity for adaptation plans for future. This research shows an integrated hydrology/energy modeling platform which is able to extend water-energy examines based on a detailed illustration of local circumstances. The modeling links the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) and the Long Range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) system to create full picture of water-energy processes. This will allow water managers and policy-decision makers to simply understand links between energy system improvements and hydrological processing and realize how future climate change will effect on water-energy systems. The Zayandeh Rud river basin in Iran is selected as a case study to show the results and application of the analysis. This region is known as an area with large integration of both the electric power and water sectors. The linkages between water, energy and climate change and possible adaptation strategies are described along with early insights from applications of the integration modeling system.

Keywords: climate impacts, hydrology, water systems, adaptation planning, electricity, integrated modeling

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Authors: Weishou Shen, Chunyan Yang, Zhongliang Li

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The crop climate productivity and the distribution of cropland reflect long-term adaption of agriculture to climate. In order to fully understand the impact of climate change on cropland ecosystem in Tibet, the spatiotemporal changes of crop climate productivity and cropland distribution were analyzed with the help of GIS and RS software. Results indicated that the climate change to the direction of wet and warm in Tibet in the recent 30 years, with a rate of 0.79℃/10 yr and 23.28 mm/10yr respectively. Correspondingly, the climate productivity increased gradually, with a rate of 346.3kg/(hm2•10a), of which, the fastest-growing rate of the crop climate productivity is in Southern Tibet Mountain- plain-valley. During the study period, the total cropland area increased from 32.54 million ha to 37.13 million ha, and cropland has expanded to higher altitude area and northward. Overall, increased cropland area and crop climate productivity due to climate change plays a positive role for agriculture in Tibet.

Keywords: climate change, productivity, cropland area, Tibet plateau

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Authors: T. A. Mona M. Salem, Ali F. Bakr

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Given the potential devastation associated with future climate change related disasters, it is vital to change the way we build and manage our cities, through new strategies to reconfigure them and their infrastructures in ways that help secure their reproduction. This leads to a kaleidoscopic view of the city that recognizes the interrelationships of energy, water, transportation, and solid waste. These interrelationships apply across sectors and with respect to the built form of the city. The paper aims at a long-term climate resilience of cities and their critical infrastructures, and sets out an argument for including an eco-infrastructure-based approach in strategies to address climate change. As these ecosystems have a critical role to play in building resilience and reducing vulnerabilities in cities, communities and economies at risk, the enhanced protection and management of ecosystems, biological resources and habitats can mitigate impacts and contribute to solutions as nations and cities strive to adapt to climate change.

Keywords: ecology, ecosystem, infrastructure, climate change, urban

Procedia PDF Downloads 304

Authors: Kamal Agrawal, Ved Prakash Nayak, Akshay Patil

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Raipur is known as a city of water bodies. The city had around 200 man-made and natural lakes of varying sizes. These structures were constructed to collect rainwater and control flooding in the city. Due to the transition from community participation to state government, as well as rapid urbanisation, Raipur now has only about 80 lakes left. Rapid and unplanned growth has resulted in pollution, encroachment, and eutrophication of the city's lakes. The state government keeps these lakes in good condition by cleaning them and proposing lakefront developments. However, maintaining individual lakes is insufficient because urban lakes are not distinct entities. It is a system comprised of the lake, shore, catchment, and other components. While Urban lake system (ULS) is a combination of multiple such lake systems interacting in a complex urban setting. Thus, the project aims to propose a co-evolution model for urban lake systems (ULS) and rapid urbanization in Raipur. The goals are to comprehend the ULS and to identify elements and dimensions of urbanization that influence the ULS. Evaluate the impact of rapid urbanization on the ULS & vice versa in the study area. Determine how to maximize the positive impact while minimizing the negative impact identified in the study area. Propose short-, medium-, and long-term planning interventions to support the ULS's co-evolution with rapid urbanization. A complexity approach is used to investigate the ULS. It is a technique for understanding large, complex systems. A complex system is one with many interconnected and interdependent elements and dimensions. Thus, elements of ULS and rapid urbanization are identified through a literature study to evaluate statements of their impacts (Beneficial/ Adverse) on one another. Rapid urbanization has been identified as having elements such as demography, urban legislation, informal settlement, urban infrastructure, and tourism. Similarly, the catchment area of the lake, the lake's water quality, the water spread area, and lakefront developments are all being impacted by rapid urbanisation. These nine elements serve as parameters for the subsequent analysis. Elements are limited to physical parameters only. The city has designated a study area based on the definition provided by the National Plan for the Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems. Three lakes are discovered within a one-kilometer radius, establishing a tiny urban lake system. Because the condition of a lake is directly related to the condition of its catchment area, the catchment area of these three lakes is delineated as the study area. Data is collected to identify impact statements, and the interdependence diagram generated between the parameters yields results in terms of interlinking between each parameter and their impact on the system as a whole. The planning interventions proposed for the ULS and rapid urbanisation co-evolution model include spatial proposals as well as policy recommendations for the short, medium, and long term. This study's next step will be to determine how to implement the proposed interventions based on the availability of resources, funds, and governance patterns.

Keywords: urban lake system, co-evolution, rapid urbanization, complex system

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Authors: Chaima Babi, Said Gadri

Abstract:

The rapid increase in fake news continues to grow at a very fast rate; this requires implementing efficient techniques that allow testing the re-liability of online content. For that, the current research strives to illuminate the fake news problem using deep learning DL and machine learning ML ap-proaches. We have developed the traditional LSTM (Long short-term memory), and the bidirectional BiLSTM model. A such process is to perform a training task on almost of samples of the dataset, validate the model on a subset called the test set to provide an unbiased evaluation of the final model fit on the training dataset, then compute the accuracy of detecting classifica-tion and comparing the results. For the programming stage, we used Tensor-Flow and Keras libraries on Python to support Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) that are being used for developing deep learning applications.

Keywords: machine learning, deep learning, natural language, fake news, Bi-LSTM, LSTM, multiclass classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Thee Chowwanonthapunya, Junhua Dong, Wei Ke

Abstract:

The atmospheres in many cities along the coastal lines in the world have been rapidly changed to coastal-industrial atmosphere. Hence, it is vital to investigate the corrosion behavior of steel exposed to this kind of environment. In this present study, Electrochemical Impedance Spectrography (EIS) and film thickness measurements were applied to monitor the corrosion behavior of weathering steel covered with a thin layer of the electrolyte in a wet-dry cyclic condition, simulating a coastal-industrial environment at 25 oC and 60 % RH. The results indicate that in all cycles, the corrosion rate increases during the drying process due to an increase in anion concentration and an acceleration of oxygen diffusion enhanced by the effect of the thinning out of the electrolyte. During the wet-dry cyclic corrosion test, the long-term corrosion behavior of this steel depends on the periods of exposure. Corrosion process is first accelerated and then decelerated. The decelerating corrosion process is contributed to the formation of the protective rust, favored by the wet-dry cycle and the acid regeneration process during the rusting process.

Keywords: atmospheric corrosion, EIS, low alloy, rust

Procedia PDF Downloads 445

Authors: Petra Hurbišová, Monika Davidová

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The article deals with the readiness of military professionals for challenging situations. It discusses higher requirements on the psychical endurance of military professionals arising from the specific nature of the military occupation, which is typical for being very difficult to maintain regularity, which is in accordance with the hygiene of work alternated by relaxation. The soldier must be able to serve in the long term and constantly intense performance that goes beyond human tolerance to stress situations. A challenging situation is always associated with overcoming difficulties, obstacles and complicated circumstances or using unusual methods, ways and means to achieve the desired (expected) objectives, performing a given task or satisfying an important need. This paper describes the categories of challenging situations, their classification and characteristics. Attention is also paid to the formation of personality in challenging situations, coping with stress in challenging situations, Phases of solutions of stressful situations, resistance to challenging life situations and its factors. Finally, the article is focused on increasing the readiness of military professionals for challenging situations.

Keywords: coping, challenging situations, stress, stressful situations, military professionals, resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Pengcheng Quan, Shan Zhong

Abstract:

Double ramp geometry is widely used in supersonic and hypersonic environments as it presents unique flow patterns for shock wave-boundary layer interaction studies as well as for two-dimensional inlets and deflected control surfaces for re-entry vehicles. Hence, the surface pressure distribution is critical for optimum design. Though when the model is wide enough on spanwise direction the flow can be regarded as a two-dimensional flow, in actual applications a finite width would normally cause some three-dimensional spillage effects. No research has been found addressed this problem, hence the primary interest of this study is to set up a liable surface pressure distribution on a double ramp with three-dimensional effects. Both numerical and experimental (pressure sensitive paints) are applied to obtain the pressure distribution; the results agree well except that the numerical computation doesn’t capture the Gortler vortices. The pressure variations on the spanwise planes are used to analyse the development of the Gortler vortices and the effects of three-dimensional spillage on the vortices. Results indicate that the three-dimensionl spillage effects not only enhance the developing of the Gortler vortice, but also increase the periodic distance between vortice pairs.

Keywords: spillage effects, pressure sensitive paints, hypersonic, double ramp

Procedia PDF Downloads 326

Authors: Dana Craciun, Daniela Dascalu, Adriana Isvoran

Abstract:

Phthalates are a class of plastic additives that are used to enhance the physical properties of plastics and as solvents in paintings and some of them proved to be of particular concern for the human health. There are insufficient data concerning the health risks of phthalates and further research on evaluating their effects in humans is needed. As humans are not volunteers for such experiments, computational analysis may be used to predict the biological effects of phthalates in humans. Within this study we have used some computational approaches (SwissADME, admetSAR, FAFDrugs) for predicting the absorption, distribution, metabolization, excretion and toxicity (ADME-Tox) profiles and pharmacokinetics for the most common used phthalates. These computational tools are based on quantitative structure-activity relationship modeling approach. The predictions are further compared to the known effects of each considered phthalate in humans and correlations between computational results and experimental data are discussed. Our data revealed that phthalates are a class of compounds reflecting high toxicity both when ingested and when inhaled, but by inhalation their toxicity is even greater. The predicted harmful effects of phthalates are: toxicity and irritations of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, dyspnea, skin and eye irritations and disruption of the functions of liver and of the reproductive system. Many of investigated phthalates are predicted to be able to inhibit some of the cytochromes involved in the metabolism of numerous drugs and consequently to affect the efficiency of administrated treatments for many diseases and to intensify the adverse drugs reactions. The obtained predictions are in good agreement with clinical data concerning the observed effects of some phthalates in cases of acute exposures. Our study emphasizes the possible health effects of numerous phthalates and underlines the applicability of computational methods for predicting the biological effects of xenobiotics.

Keywords: phthalates, ADME-Tox, pharmacokinetics, biological effects

Procedia PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Yan Li, Yujiang Gao

Abstract:

Passengers are the main users of the airport. Whether the travel experience of passengers in the airport is comfortable or not is an important indicator for evaluating the reasonableness of airport design. Taking the Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport as an example, this paper analyzes the airport’s solution to the problem of passengers’ inconvenience caused by lost directions, excessive congestion, and excessively long streamlines during passenger use. First of all, by using the method of analyzing the design of architectural function streamlines, the design of interior spaces of buildings, and the interrelationship between interior design and passenger experience, it was first concluded that the airport is capable of performing the two major problems of easy disorientation and excessive congestion. Later, by using the method of analyzing architectural function streamlines and collecting passenger experience evaluations, it was concluded that the airport could not solve the inconvenience caused by excessively long streamlines to passengers. Finally came to the conclusion that the airport design meets the demand in terms of the overall design of the passenger experience, but the boarding line is still relatively long and some fly in the ointment.

Keywords: passengers’ experience, terminal 3 of Beijing capital international airport, lost directions, excessive congestion, excessively long streamlines

Procedia PDF Downloads 192

Authors: Mohd Abdullah

Abstract:

This review describes some of the effects of repetitive strain/stress injury (RSI) on the human body especially among computer professionals today that spend extended hours of prolonged sitting in front of a computer day in and day out. The review briefly introduces the main factors that contribute to an increase of RSI among such computer professionals. The review briefly discusses how the human spinal column and knees are mainly affected by the onset of RSI resulting in poor posture. The root and secondary causes and effects of RSI are reviewed. The importance and value of the various breathing techniques are reviewed in an attempt to alleviate some of the effects of RSI. The review concludes with a small sample of suggested office stretches and poses geared towards at reducing RSI follows in this review. Readers will learn about the effects of RSI, as well as ways to cope with it. A better understanding of coping strategies may lead to well-being and a healthier overall lifestyle. Ultimately, the investment of time to connect with oneself with the poses and the power of the breath would promote a well-being that is overall healthier thus resulting in a better ability to cope/manage life stresses.

Keywords: health, wellness, repetitive, chairs

Procedia PDF Downloads 102