Search results for: disaster recovery

Authors: Helan Satish, M. Ramasubba Reddy

Abstract:

The simulation of an endocardial cell for gene mutation in the cardiac sodium ion channel NaV1.5, encoded by SCN5A gene, is discussed. The characterization of Brugada Syndrome by loss of function effect on SCN5A mutation due to L812Q mutant present in the DII-S4 transmembrane region of the NaV1.5 channel protein and its effect in an endocardial cell is studied. Ten Tusscher model of human ventricular action potential is modified to incorporate the changes contributed by L812Q mutant in the endocardial cells. Results show that BrS-associated SCN5A mutation causes reduction in the inward sodium current by modifications in the channel gating dynamics such as delayed activation, enhanced inactivation, and slowed recovery from inactivation in the endocardial cell. A decrease in the inward sodium current was also observed, which affects depolarization phase (Phase 0) that leads to reduction in the spike amplitude of the cardiac action potential.

Keywords: SCN5A gene mutation, sodium channel, Brugada syndrome, cardiac arrhythmia, action potential

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Salem Alajmi, Bader Altaweel

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Kuwait, like many parts of the world, has started facing the dangerous growth of electrical and electronic wastes. This growth has been noted last two decades, coming along with the development of mobile phones, computers, TVs, as well as other electronic devices and electrical equipment. Kuwait is already among the highest global producers of electronic waste (E-waste) in kg per capita. Furthermore, Kuwait is among the global countries that set high-level future targets in renewable energy projects. Accumulation of this electronic waste, as well as accelerated renewable energy projects, will lead to the increase of future threats to the country. In this research, factors that lead to the increase the e-waste in Kuwait are presented. Also, the current situations of dealing with e-waste in the country as well as current challenges are examined. The impact of renewable energy projects on future E-wastes accumulation is considered. Moreover, this research proposes the best strategies and practices toward successfully dealing with the waste of electronic devices and renewable energy technologies.

Keywords: Kuwait, e-waste, extended producer responsibility, environment, recycle, recovery

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Kausar Alam, Mohammad Yazdi, Peiman Zogh, Ramin Motamed

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An earthquake is an unpredictable natural disaster. It induces liquefaction, which causes considerable damage to the structure, life support, and piping systems because of ground settlement. As a result, people are incredibly concerned about how to resolve the situation. Previous researchers adopted different ground improvement techniques to reduce the settlement of the structure during earthquakes. This study evaluates the effectiveness of lowering the water table as a technique to mitigate foundation settlement in liquefiable soil. The performance will be evaluated based on foundation settlement and the reduction of excessive pore water pressure. In this study, a scaled model was prepared based on a full-scale shale table experiment conducted at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The model ground consists of three soil layers having a relative density of 55%, 45%, and 90%, respectively. A shallow foundation is seated over an unsaturated crust layer. After preparation of the model ground, the water table was measured to be at 45, 40, and 35 cm (from the bottom). Then, the input motions were applied for 10 seconds, with a peak acceleration of 0.25g and a constant frequency of 2.73 Hz. Based on the experimental results, the effectiveness of the lowering water table in reducing the foundation settlement and excess pore water pressure was evident. The foundation settlement was reduced from 50 mm to 5 mm. In addition, lowering the water table as a mitigation measure is a cost-effective way to decrease liquefaction-induced building settlement.

Keywords: foundation settlement, ground water table, liquefaction, hake table test

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Khaled Benyounes, Abderrahmane Mellak

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The rheology of aqueous solutions of polyelectrolyte (polyanionic cellulose, PAC) at high molecular weight was investigated using a controlled stress rheometer. Several rheological measurements; viscosity measurements, creep compliance tests at a constant low shear stress and oscillation experiments have been performed. The concentrations ranged by weight from 0.01 to 2.5% of PAC. It was found that the aqueous solutions of PAC do not exhibit a yield stress, the flow curves of PAC over a wide range of shear rate (0 to 1000 s-1) could be described by the cross model and the Williamson models. The critical concentrations of polymer c* and c** have been estimated. The dynamic moduli, i.e., storage modulus (G’) and loss modulus (G’’) of the polymer have been determined at frequency sweep from 0.01 to 10 Hz. At polymer concentration above 1%, the modulus G’ is superior to G’’. The relationships between the dynamic modulus and concentration of polymer have been established. The creep-recovery experiments demonstrated that polymer solutions show important viscoelastic properties of system water-PAC when the concentration of the polymer increases.

Keywords: polyanionic cellulose, viscosity, creep, oscillation, cross model

Procedia PDF Downloads 326

Authors: Christopher Oyediran, Nicola Ubayasiri, Christopher Gough

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Splenic artery aneurysms are often clinically occult, occasionally identified incidentally with imaging. The pathogenesis of aneurysms is complex, but certain factors are thought to contribute to their development. Given the potential fatal complications of rupture, a high index of suspicion is required to make an early diagnosis. We present a case of a 36-year-old female with a history of endometriosis and multiple sclerosis who presented to the Emergency Department with sudden onset epigastric pain and collapse. On arrival, she was pale and clammy with profound tachycardia and hypotension. An ultrasound done in the resuscitation department revealed abdominal free fluid. She was resuscitated with blood and transferred for emergent laparotomy. Laparotomy revealed massive haemoperitoneum from the spleen. She underwent emergency splenectomy and inspection of the spleen revealed a splenic artery aneurysm. She received our massive transfusion protocol followed by a short stay on ITU, making a good post-operative recovery and was discharged home a week later.

Keywords: aneurysm, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), resuscitation, laparotomy

Procedia PDF Downloads 431

Authors: N. Metidji, O. Badaoui, A. Djebli, H. Bendjebbas, R. Sellami

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The agro-industry is considered as one of the most waste producing industrial fields as a result of food processing. Upgrading and reuse of these wastes as animal or poultry food seems to be a promising alternative. Combined with the use of clean energy resources, the recovery process would contribute more to the environment protection. It is in this framework that a new solar dryer has been designed in the Unit of Solar Equipment Development. Direct solar drying has, also, many advantages compared to natural sun drying. In fact, the first does not cause product degradation as it is protected by the drying chamber from direct sun, insects and exterior environment. The aim of this work is to study the drying kinetics of waste, generated during the processing of pepper, by using a direct natural convection solar dryer at 35◦C and 55◦C. The rate of moisture removal from the product to be dried has been found to be directly related to temperature, humidity and flow rate. The characterization of these parameters has allowed the determination of the appropriate drying time for this product namely peppers waste.

Keywords: solar energy, solar dryer, energy conversion, pepper drying, forced convection solar dryer

Procedia PDF Downloads 411

Authors: Furqan M. Kadhum, Asmaa A. Hussein, Maysaa Ch. Hatem

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Hyaluronidase enzyme was purified from the clinical isolate Staphyloccus aureus in three purification steps, first by precipitation with 90% saturated ammonium sulfate, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Cellulose, and gel filtration chromatography throughout Sephacryl S-300. Specific activity of the purified enzyme was reached 930 U/mg protein with 7.4 folds of purification and 46.5% recovery. The enzyme has an average molecular weight of about 69 kDa, with an optimum pH of enzyme activity and stability at pH 7, also the optimum temperature for activity was 37oC. The enzyme was stable with full activity at a temperature ranged between 30-40 oC. Metal ions showed variable inhibitory degree with the strongest effect for Fe+3, however, the chelating and reducing agents had no or little effects. Cytotoxic studies for purified and crude hyaluronidase against cancer cell Hep G2 type at different enzyme concentrations and exposure times showed that the inhibition effect of both crude and purified enzyme increased by increasing the enzyme concentration with no change was observed at 24hr, while at 48 and 72 hrs the same inhibition rate were observed for purified enzyme and differ for the crude filtrate.

Keywords: hyaluronidase, S. aureus, metal ions, cytotoxicity

Procedia PDF Downloads 447

Authors: Rajeshkumar Kanubhai Patel, Neha Sudhirkumar Mochi

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A simple and accurate stability-indicating, reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitation of Evogliptin tartrate and Metformin HCl in pharmaceutical dosage forms, following ICH guidelines. Forced degradation was performed under various stress conditions including acid, base, oxidation, thermal, and photodegradation. The method utilized an Eclipse C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) with a mobile phase of 5 mM 1-hexane sulfonic acid sodium salt in water and 0.2% v/v TEA (45:55 %v/v), adjusted to pH 3.0 with OPA, at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Detection at 254.4 nm using a PDA detector showed good resolution of degradation products and both drugs. Linearity was observed within 1-5 µg/mL for Evogliptin tartrate and 100-500 µg/mL for Metformin HCl, with % recovery between 99-100% and precision within acceptable limits (%RSD < 2%). The method proved to be specific, precise, accurate, and robust for routine analysis of these drugs.

Keywords: stability indicating RP-HPLC, evogliptin tartrate, metformin HCl, validation

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Authors: AnnWon Chew, Nik Norulaini Nik Ab Rahman, Mohd Omar Ab Kadir, C. C. Chen, Jaafar Chua

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This paper presents an innovative process to solve the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate build-up problem in recirculating system using Biological Aquaculture System (BAS). The novel aspects of the process lie in a series of bioreactors that specially arrange and design to meet the required conditions for water purification. The BAS maximizes the utilization of bio-balls as the ideal surface for beneficial microbes to flourish. It also serves as a physical barrier that traps organic particles, which in turn becomes source for the microbes to perform their work. The operation in the proposed system gives a low concentration and average range of good maintain excellent water quality, i.e., with low levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, a suitable pH range for aquaculture and low turbidity. The BAS thus provides a solution for sustainable small-scale, urban aquaculture operation with a high recovery water and minimal waste disposal.

Keywords: ammonia, bioreactor, Biological Aquaculture System (BAS), bio-balls, water recirculating technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 592

Authors: Ahmed Elrewainy

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Mixing in the hyperspectral imaging occurs due to the low spatial resolutions of the used cameras. The existing pure materials “endmembers” in the scene share the spectra pixels with different amounts called “abundances”. Unmixing of the data cube is an important task to know the present endmembers in the cube for the analysis of these images. Unsupervised unmixing is done with no information about the given data cube. Sparsity is one of the recent approaches used in the source recovery or unmixing techniques. The l₁-norm optimization problem “basis pursuit” could be used as a sparsity-based approach to solve this unmixing problem where the endmembers is assumed to be sparse in an appropriate domain known as dictionary. This optimization problem is solved using proximal method “iterative thresholding”. The l₁-norm basis pursuit optimization problem as a sparsity-based unmixing technique was used to unmix real and synthetic hyperspectral data cubes.

Keywords: basis pursuit, blind source separation, hyperspectral imaging, spectral unmixing, wavelets

Procedia PDF Downloads 195

Authors: Alessandro Marano

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The author describes the use of deep plane face lifting and platysmaplasty to treat sagging neck with minimal scars. Series of case study. The author uses a selective deep plane face lift with a minimal access scar that not extend behind the ear lobe, neck liposuction and platysmaplasty to restore the sagging neck; the scars are minimal and no require drainage post-op. The deep plane face lifting can achieve a good result restoring vertical vectors in aging and sagging face, neck district can be treated without cutting the skin behind the ear lobe combining the SMAS vertical suspension and platysmaplasty; surgery can be performed in local anesthesia with sedation in day surgery and fast recovery. Restoring neck sagging without extend scars behind ear lobe is possible in selected patients, procedure is fast, safe, no drainage required, patients are satisfied and healing time is fast and comfortable.

Keywords: face lifting, aesthetic, face, neck, platysmaplasty, deep plane

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Francesco Nespoli

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After having posed a theoretical framework combining framing theory and new rhetoric, the paper analyze the shift in communication both adopted by UAW and FCA during the negotiations in fall 2015. The paper argues that mistakes and adjustments played a determinant role respectively in the rejection of the first tentative agreement and in the ratification of the contract. The purpose of the paper is to set a new theoretical framework for the analysis of communication in industrial relations, by describing a narrative construction of reality from the perspective of the new rhetoric. The paper thus analyze all public text, speeches, tweets and Facebook posts by the union reading them as part of the narrative set by the organization condensed by the slogan 'it’s our time'. That narrative tried to gain consensus from the members matching the expectations due to the industry recovery after more than five years of workers' sacrifices. In doing so, the analysis points out a shift in the communication strategy of the union after the first rejection of a tentative agreement in 15 years. The findings suggest that, from the communication point of view, consultation in industrial relations can be conceived as a particular kind of political communication where identification with the audience through deliberate narrative may not be effective if it is not preceded by a listening campaign.

Keywords: communication, consultation, automotive, FCA

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Metodi Mladenov

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Heavy metals contamination of soils is a big problem mainly as a result of industrial production. From this point of view, this is of interests the processes for decontamination of soils for crop of production with low content of heavy metals and suitable for consumption from the animals and the peoples. In the current article, there are presented data for established changes in chemical composition and ecological state on soils contaminated from non-ferrous metallurgy manufacturing, for seven years time period. There was done investigation on alteration of pH, conductivity and contain of the next elements: As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn, Co, Mn and Al. Also, there was done visual observations under the processes of recovery of root-inhabitable soil layer and reforestation. Obtained data show friendly changes for the investigated indicators pH and conductivity and decreasing of content of some form analyzed elements. Visual observations show augmentation of plant cover areas and change in species structure with increase of number of shrubby and wood specimens.

Keywords: conductivity, contamination of soils, chemical composition, inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry, heavy metals, visual observation

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: Marju Ben Sayed, Shigeko Haruyama

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Among all kinds of natural disaster, the flood is a common feature in rapidly urbanizing Dhaka city. In this research, assessment of flood risk of Dhaka metropolitan area has been investigated by using an integrated approach of GIS, remote sensing and socio-economic data. The purpose of the study is to measure the flooding risk concerning with the flood protection embankment in big flooding events (1988, 1998 and 2004) and urbanization of Dhaka metropolitan zone. In this research, we considered the Dhaka city into two parts; East Dhaka (outside the flood protection embankment) and West Dhaka (inside the flood protection embankment). Using statistical data, we explored the socio-economic status of the study area population by comparing the density of population, land price and income level. We have drawn the cross section profile of the flood protection embankment into three different points for realizing the flooding risk in the study area, especially in the big flooding year (1988, 1998 and 2004). According to the physical condition of the study area, the land use/land cover map has been classified into five classes. Comparing with each land cover unit, historical weather station data and the socio-economic data, the flooding risk has been evaluated. Moreover, we compared between DEM data and each land cover units to find out the relationship with flood. It is expected that, this study could contribute to effective flood forecasting, relief and emergency management for a future flood event in Dhaka city.

Keywords: land use, land cover change, socio-economic, Dhaka city, GIS, flood

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: Vidit Mohan, Ashwin P. Ramesh, Anirudh Toshniwal

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Alkali-Surfactant-Alternate-Gas(ASAG) injection, a novel EOR process has the potential to improve displacement efficiency over Surfactant-Alternate-Gas(SAG) by addressing the problem of surfactant adsorption by clay minerals in rock matrix. A detailed laboratory investigation on ASAG injection process was carried out with encouraging results. To further enhance recovery over WAG injection process, SAG injection was investigated at laboratory scale. SAG injection yielded marginal incremental displacement efficiency over WAG process. On investigation, it was found that, clay minerals in rock matrix adsorbed the surfactants and were detrimental for SAG process. Hence, ASAG injection was conceptualized using alkali as a clay stabilizer. The experiment of ASAG injection with surfactant concentration of 5000 ppm and alkali concentration of 0.5 weight% yields incremental displacement efficiency of 5.42% over WAG process. The ASAG injection is a new process and has potential to enhance efficiency of WAG/SAG injection process.

Keywords: alkali surfactant alternate gas (ASAG), surfactant alternate gas (SAG), laboratory investigation, EOR process

Procedia PDF Downloads 479

Authors: Ateeth Shetty, K. S. Jayappa, Ratheesh Ramakrishnan, A. S. Rajawat

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Suspended Sediment Concentration (SSC) was estimated for the period of four months (November, 2013 to February 2014) using Oceansat-2 (Ocean Colour Monitor) satellite images to understand the coastal dynamics and regional sediment transport, especially distribution and budgeting in coastal waters. The coastal zone undergoes continuous changes due to natural processes and anthropogenic activities. The importance of the coastal zone, with respect to safety, ecology, economy and recreation, demands a management strategy in which each of these aspects is taken into account. Monitoring and understanding the sediment dynamics and suspended sediment transport is an important issue for coastal engineering related activities. A study of the transport mechanism of suspended sediments in the near shore environment is essential not only to safeguard marine installations or navigational channels, but also for the coastal structure design, environmental protection and disaster reduction. Such studies also help in assessment of pollutants and other biological activities in the region. An accurate description of the sediment transport, caused by waves and tidal or wave-induced currents, is of great importance in predicting coastal morphological changes. Satellite-derived SSC data have been found to be useful for Indian coasts because of their high spatial (360 m), spectral and temporal resolutions. The present paper outlines the applications of state‐of‐the‐art operational Indian Remote Sensing satellite, Oceansat-2 to study the dynamics of sediment transport.

Keywords: suspended sediment concentration, ocean colour monitor, sediment transport, case – II waters

Procedia PDF Downloads 252

Authors: Abdull Halim Abdull, Nasiman Sapari, Mohammad Haikal Asyraf Bin Anuar

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Although soil thermal properties are required in many areas to improve oil recovery, they are seldom measured on a routine basis. Reasons for this are unclear, but may be related to a lack of suitable instrumentation and entropy theory. We integrate single probe thermal gradient for the radial conduction of a short-duration heat pulse away from a single electrode source, and compared it with the theory for an instantaneously heated line source. By measuring the temperature response at a short distance from the line source, and applying short-duration heat-pulse theory, we can extract all the entropy properties, the thermal diffusivity, heat capacity, and conductivity, from a single heat-pulse measurement. Results of initial experiments carried out on air-dry sand and clay materials indicate that this heat-pulse method yields soil thermal properties that compare well with thermal properties measured by single electrode.

Keywords: entropy, single probe thermal gradient, soil thermal, probe heat

Procedia PDF Downloads 446

Authors: Lorenzo Maiorino, Fabio Fortuna, Giovanni Panebianco, Marco Sanzari, Gabriella Arcese, Valerio Maria Paolozzi

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It is well known that sport is a factor of social cohesion and the breaking down of barriers between people. From this point of view, the aim is to demonstrate how, through the (re)generation of sustainable structures, it is possible to give life to a new social, cultural, and economic pathway, where possible, in peripheral areas with problems of abandonment and degradation. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to study realities such as European programs and funds and to highlight the ways in which planning can be used to respond to critical issues such as urban decay, abandonment, and the mitigation of social differences. For this reason, the analysis will be carried out through the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) package, the Next Generation EU, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund, and other managed funds. The procedure will rely on sources and data of unquestionable origin, and the relation to the object of study in question will be highlighted. The project lends itself to be ambitious and exploring a further aspect of the sports theme, which, as we know, is one of the foundations for a healthy society.

Keywords: sport, social inclusion, urban regeneration, sports facilities, European funds

Procedia PDF Downloads 225

Authors: Do Jaesoo, Kim Kyoung Seok

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Under the recent difficult economic conditions, a number of people are increasingly expecting fostering ventures as the breakthrough in economic recovery and thus more attention is socially paid to an entrepreneur spirit. However, even though the role of managers is very important for the success of a venture company, programs to cultivate their qualities and skills are quite insufficient. In recent years, programs to foster entrepreneurs and business men have proliferated, which are led mainly by national agencies, research institutions, and large corporations. However, these programs still remain at a tottering stage, since there is no accumulated knowledge in many aspects, including systemic know-how and education. Therefore, this study attempted to introduce the definition of the entrepreneur (founder’s) spirit and furthermore identify the characteristics required for entrepreneurs as the subject of management. It thus tried to examine how those characteristics have an influence on entrepreneurs as their successful conditions, and presented foreign cases after analyzing the entrepreneur spirit through case studies. The entrepreneur spirit and the venture management emerge as a new field in business administration and scholars have reported various theories. Further research activities and efforts for active exchanges are also needed thereof.

Keywords: venture, entrepreneur, entrepreneur (founder’s) spirit, characteristics of entrepreneur spirit

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: Elisa Menardo, Margherita Pasini, Margherita Brondino

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A growing body of empirical research from different areas of inquiry suggests that brief contact with natural environment restore mental resources. The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) is the widespread used and empirical founded theory developed to explain why exposure to nature helps people to recovery cognitive resources. It assumes that contact with nature allows people to free (and then recovery) voluntary attention resources and thus allows them to recover from a cognitive fatigue situation. However, it was suggested that some people could have more cognitive benefit after exposure to urban environment. The objective of this study is to report the results of a meta-analysis on studies (peer-reviewed articles) comparing the restorativeness (the quality to be restorative) perceived in natural environments than those perceived in urban environments. This meta-analysis intended to estimate how much nature environments (forests, parks, boulevards) are perceived to be more restorativeness than urban ones (i.e., the magnitude of the perceived restorativeness’ difference). Moreover, given the methodological difference between study, it studied the potential role of moderator variables as participants (student or other), instrument used (Perceived Restorativeness Scale or other), and procedure (in laboratory or in situ). PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, SpringerLINK, Web of Science online database were used to identify all peer-review articles on restorativeness published to date (k = 167). Reference sections of obtained papers were examined for additional studies. Only 22 independent studies (with a total of 1371 participants) met inclusion criteria (direct exposure to environment, comparison between one outdoor environment with natural element and one without natural element, and restorativeness measured by self-report scale) and were included in meta-analysis. To estimate the average effect size, a random effect model (Restricted Maximum-likelihood estimator) was used because the studies included in the meta-analysis were conducted independently and using different methods in different populations, so no common effect-size was expected. The presence of publication bias was checked using trim and fill approach. Univariate moderator analysis (mixed effect model) were run to determine whether the variable coded moderated the perceived restorativeness difference. Results show that natural environments are perceived to be more restorativeness than urban environments, confirming from an empirical point of view what is now considered a knowledge gained in environmental psychology. The relevant information emerging from this study is the magnitude of the estimated average effect size, which is particularly high (d = 1.99) compared to those that are commonly observed in psychology. Significant heterogeneity between study was found (Q(19) = 503.16, p < 0.001;) and studies’ variability was very high (I2[C.I.] = 96.97% [94.61 - 98.62]). Subsequent univariate moderator analyses were not significant. Methodological difference (participants, instrument, and procedure) did not explain variability between study. Other methodological difference (e.g., research design, environment’s characteristics, light’s condition) could explain this variability between study. In the mine while, studies’ variability could be not due to methodological difference but to individual difference (age, gender, education level) and characteristics (connection to nature, environmental attitude). Furthers moderator analysis are working in progress.

Keywords: meta-analysis, natural environments, perceived restorativeness, urban environments

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Diego Roberto Goncalves De Pontes, Sergio Donizetti Zorzo

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Studies show that most users do not read privacy policies from the online services they use. Some authors claim that one of the main causes of this is that policies are long and usually hard to understand, which make users lose interest in reading them. In this scenario, users may agree with terms without knowing what kind of data is being collected and why. Given that, we aimed to develop a model that would present the privacy policies contents in an easy and graphical way for the user to understand. We call it the Privacy Label. Using information recovery techniques, we propose an architecture that is able to extract information about what kind of data is being collected and to what end in the policies and show it to the user in an automated way. To assess our model, we calculated the precision, recall and f-measure metrics on the information extracted by our technique. The results for each metric were 68.53%, 85.61% e 76,13%, respectively, making it possible for the final user to understand which data was being collected without reading the whole policy. Also, our proposal can facilitate the notice-and-choice by presenting privacy policy information in an alternative way for online users.

Keywords: privacy, policies, user behavior, computer human interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Bernabeo R. Alberto

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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) platforms or remotely piloted aircraft system (Rpas) - with dedicated sensors - are fundamental support to the planning, running, and control of the territory in which public safety is or may be at risk for post-disaster assessments such as flooding or landslides, for searching lost people, for crime and accident scene photography, for assisting traffic control at major events, for teaching geography, history, natural science and all those subjects that require a continuous cyclical process of observation, evaluation and interpretation. Through the use of proximal remote sensing information related to anthropic landscape and nature integration, there is an opportunity to improve knowledge and management decision-making for the safeguarding of the environment, for farming, wildlife management, land management, mapping, glacier monitoring, atmospheric monitoring, for the conservation of archeological, historical, artistic and architectural sites, allowing an exact delimitation of the site in the territory. This paper will go over many different mission types. Within each mission type, it will give a broad overview to familiarize the reader but not make them an expert. It will also give detailed information on the payloads and other testing parameters the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) use to complete a mission. The project's goal is to improve satellite maps about the stress of the plants, air quality monitoring, and related health issues.

Keywords: proximal remote sensing, remotely piloted aircraft system, risk, safety, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Umer Aslam, Mohammad Rafiq Khan

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This techno-economic study reports the feasibility of generating thermoelectric power from municipal solid waste (MSW) of Kasur City by incineration process. The data was gathered from different establishments of Kasur, through appropriate permission from their heads, and processed to design different alternative projects for installation of a thermal power plant in the city of Kasur. A technique of discounted cash flow was used to evaluate alternative projects so that their Benefit to Cost Ratio, Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return and Payback Period can be determined. The study revealed that Kasur City currently consumes 18MWh electricity and generates 179 tons/day MSW. The generated waste has the ability to produce 2.1MWh electricity at the cost of USD 0.0581/unit with an expenditure of USD 3,907,692 as initial fixed investment of forming about 1/7th of consumption of Kasur. The cost from this source, when compared to current rate of electricity in Pakistan (USD 0.1346), is roughly half.

Keywords: Kasur City, resource recovery, thermoelectric power, waste management

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Mousa Meratizaman, Sina Monadizadeh, Majid Amidpour

Abstract:

One of the most favorable thermal desalination methods used widely today is Multi Effect Desalination. High energy consumption in this method causes coupling it with high temperature power cycle like gas turbine. This combination leads to higher energy efficiency. One of the high temperature power systems which have cogeneration opportunities is Solid Oxide Fuel Cell / Gas Turbine. Integration of Multi Effect Desalination with Solid Oxide Fuel Cell /Gas Turbine power cycle in a range of 300-1000 kW is considered in this article. The exhausted heat of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell /Gas Turbine power cycle is used in Heat Recovery Steam Generator to produce needed motive steam for Desalination unit. Thermodynamic simulation and parametric studies of proposed system are carried out to investigate the system performance.

Keywords: solid oxide fuel cell, thermodynamic simulation, multi effect desalination, gas turbine hybrid cycle

Procedia PDF Downloads 379

Authors: N. Metidji, N. Kasbadji Merzouk, O. Badaoui, R. Sellami, A. Djebli

Abstract:

The Agro-industry is considered as one of the most waste producing industrial fields as a result of food processing. Upgrading and reuse of these wastes as animal or poultry food seems to be a promising alternative. Combined with the use of clean energy resources, the recovery process would contribute more to the environment protection. It is in this framework that a new solar dryer has been designed in the Unit of Solar Equipments Development. Indirect solar drying has, also, many advantages compared to natural sun drying. In fact, the first does not cause product degradation as it is protected by the drying chamber from direct sun, insects and exterior environment. The aim of this work is to study the drying kinetics of waste, generated during the processing of orange to make fruit juice, by using an indirect forced convection solar dryer at 50 °C and 60 °C, the rate of moisture removal from the product to be dried has been found to be directly related to temperature, humidity and flow rate. The characterization of these parameters has allowed the determination of the appropriate drying time for this product namely orange waste.

Keywords: solar energy, solar dryer, energy conversion, orange drying, forced convection solar dryer

Procedia PDF Downloads 354

Authors: Lorena Munoz

Abstract:

Since the 1990s cities in the global south have implemented revanchist neoliberal urban regeneration policies that cater to urban elites based on “recovering” public space for capital accumulation purposes. These policies often work to reify street vending as survival strategies of ‘last resort’ for marginalized people and as an unorganized, unsystematic economic activities that needs to be disciplined, incorporated and institutionalized into the formal economy. This paper suggests, that by moving away from frameworks that reify formal/informal spheres of the economy, we are able to disrupt and rethink normative understandings of economic practices categorized as ‘informal’. Through queering economies, informal workers center their own understandings of self-value and legitimacy informing their economic lives and contributions to urban life. As such, queering the economy opens up possibilities of rethinking urban redevelopment policies that incorporate rather than remove street vendors, as their economic practices are incorporated into the everyday fabric and aesthetic of urban life.

Keywords: queering economies, street vendors, immigrant economies, race and nationality

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Mohamad Sharif bin Mustaffa, Maizatul Akmam binti Abu Bakar, Mohd Harriszamani bin Abu Bakar

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Most teens who gave birth to an illegitimate child will suffer from depression. This depression issues arising from the incident itself which contains the teen will feel ashamed because labeled as immoral, apart from that most teenagers go through this episode without support from their spouse or family. Teens also face the possibility of a large part with the will be born babies because the issue of too young and needs to go back to school. Teens also can not make a decision on the future of the baby later because they are too immature and no baby care skills other than financial issues, where young people themselves are still dependent on their family. This paper will look at how to apply neurofeedback can be used to see the level of depression experienced by teenagers who get pregnant out of wedlock. Play therapy that will help improve adolescent focus will be used for this purpose. Each level experienced by teenagers going through the phase of easy-to-high difficulty level. Apart from that a recovery module will also be developed as a whole to reduce the level of depression to enable the youth to perform routine healthy activities and can go back to school with cheerful feeling, motivated and active.

Keywords: neurofeedback, depression, pregnant, adolescent, illegitimate

Procedia PDF Downloads 437

Authors: Ramadan M. El-Kahawy, M. A. El-Shafeiy, Mohamed Abd El-Wahab, S. A. Helal, Nabil Aboul-Ela

Abstract:

Due to the economic importance of Safaga Bay, Quseir harbor and Ras Gharib harbor , a multidisciplinary approach was adopted to invistigate 27 surfecial sediment samples from the three sites and 9 samples for each in order to use the benthic foraminifera as bio-indicators for characterization of the environmental variations. Grain size analyses indicate that the bottom facies in the inner part of quseir is muddy while the inner part of Ras Gharib and Safaga is silty sand and those close to the entrance of Safaga bay and Ras Gharib is sandy facies while quseir still also muddy facies. geochemical data show high concentration of heavy-metals mainly in Ras Gharib due to oil leakage from the hydrocarbon oil field and Safaga bay due to the phosphate mining while quseir is medium concentration due to anthropocentric effect.micropaelontological analyses indicate the boundaries of the highest concentration of heavy metals and those of low concentration as well.the dominant benthic foraminifera in these three sites are Ammonia beccarii, Amphistigina and sorites. the study highlights the worsening of environmental conditions and also show that the areas in need of a priority recovery.

Keywords: benthic foraminifera, Ras Gharib, Safaga, Quseir, Red Sea, Egypt

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Authors: F. Portet-Koltalo, Y. Tian, I. Berger, C. Boulanger-Lecomte, A. Benamar, N. Machour

Abstract:

Sediments are complex environments which can accumulate a great variety of persistent toxic contaminants such as polychlorobiphenyles (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and some of their more toxic degradation metabolites such as hydroxylated PAHs (OH-PAHs). Owing to their composition, fine clayey sediments can be more difficult to extract than soils using conventional solvent extraction processes. So this study aimed to compare the potential of MSPD (matrix solid phase dispersive extraction) to extract PCBs, PAHs and OH-PAHs, in comparison with microwave assisted extraction (MAE). Methodologies: MAE extraction with various solvent mixtures was used to extract PCBs, PAHs and OH-PAHs from sediments in two runs, followed by two GC-MS analyses. MSPD consisted in crushing the dried sediment with dispersive agents, introducing the mixture in cartridges and eluting the target compounds with an appropriate volume of selected solvents. So MSPD combined with cartridges containing MIPs (molecularly imprinted polymers) designed for OH-PAHs was used to extract the three families of target compounds in only one run, followed by parallel analyses in GC-MS for PAHs/PCBs and HPLC-FLD for OH-PAHs. Results: MAE extraction was optimized to extract from clayey sediments, in two runs, PAHs/PCBs in one hand and OH-PAHs in the other hand. Indeed, the best conditions of extractions (mixtures of extracting solvents, temperature) were different if we consider the polarity and the thermodegradability of the different families of target contaminants: PAHs/PCBs were better extracted using an acetone/toluene 50/50 mixture at 130°C whereas OH-PAHs were better extracted using an acetonitrile/toluene 90/10 mixture at 100°C. Moreover, the two consecutive GC-MS analyses contributed to double the total analysis time. A matrix solid phase dispersive (MSPD) extraction procedure was also optimized, with the first objective of increasing the extraction recovery yields of PAHs and PCBs from fine-grained sediment. The crushing time (2-10 min), the nature of the dispersing agents added for purifying and increasing the extraction yields (Florisil, octadecylsilane, 3-chloropropyle, 4-benzylchloride), the nature and the volume of eluting solvents (methylene chloride, hexane, hexane/acetone…) were studied. It appeared that in the best conditions, MSPD was a better extraction method than MAE for PAHs and PCBs, with respectively, mean increases of 8.2% and 71%. This method was also faster, easier and less expensive. But the other advantage of MSPD was that it allowed to introduce easily, just after the first elution process of PAHs/PCBs, a step permitting the selective recovery of OH-PAHs. A cartridge containing MIPs designed for phenols was coupled to the cartridge containing the dispersed sediment, and various eluting solvents, different from those used for PAHs and PCBs, were tested to selectively concentrate and extract OH-PAHs. Thereafter OH-PAHs could be analyzed at the same time than PAHs and PCBs: the OH-PAH extract could be analyzed with HPLC-FLD, whereas the PAHs/PCBs extract was analyzed with GC-MS, adding only few minutes more to the total duration of the analytical process. Conclusion: MSPD associated to MIPs appeared to be an easy, fast and low expensive method, able to extract in one run a complex mixture of toxic apolar and more polar contaminants present in clayey fine-grained sediments, an environmental matrix which is generally difficult to analyze.

Keywords: contaminated fine-grained sediments, matrix solid phase dispersive extraction, microwave assisted extraction, molecularly imprinted polymers, multi-pollutant analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: Manatchanok Tantiphiphatthana, Lin Peng, Rujira Jitrwung, Kunio Yoshikawa

Abstract:

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a technique for obtaining clean biofuel from biomass in the presence of heat and pressure in an aqueous medium which leads to a decomposition of this biomass to the formation of various products. A role of operating conditions is essential for the bio-oil and other products’ yield and also quality of the products. The effects of these parameters were investigated in regards to the composition and yield of the products. Chlorellaceae microalgae were tested under different HTL conditions to clarify suitable conditions for extracting bio-oil together with value-added co-products. Firstly, different microalgae loading rates (5-30%) were tested and found that this parameter has not much significant to product yield. Therefore, 10% microalgae loading rate was selected as a proper economical solution for conditioned schedule at 250oC and 30 min-reaction time. Next, a range of temperature (210-290oC) was applied to verify the effects of each parameter by keeping the reaction time constant at 30 min. The results showed no linkage with the increase of the reaction temperature and some reactions occurred that lead to different product yields. Moreover, some nutrients found in the aqueous product are possible to be utilized for nutrient recovery.

Keywords: bio-oil, hydrothermal liquefaction, microalgae, aqueous co-product

Procedia PDF Downloads 410