Search results for: personality defect removal

Authors: Mourad Makhlouf, Omar Bouchher, Messabih Sidi Mohamed, Benrachedi Khaled

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The objective of this study was to investigate the removal of two organic pollutants; 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) and phenol from synthetic wastewater by the adsorption on mesoporous materials. In this context, the aim of this work is to study the adsorption of organic compounds phenol and 4AHB on MCM-41 and FSM-16 non-grafted (NG) and other grafted (G) by trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS). The results of phenol and 4AHB adsorption in aqueous solution show that the adsorption capacity tends to increase after grafting in relation to the increase in hydrophobicity. The materials are distinguished by a higher adsorption capacity to the other NG materials. The difference in the phenol is 14.43% (MCM-41), 14.55% (FSM-16), and 16.72% (MCM-41), 13.57% (FSM-16) in the 4AHB. Our adsorption results show that the grafted materials by TMCS are good adsorbent at 25 °C.

Keywords: MCM-41, FSM-16, TMCS, phenol, 4AHB

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Authors: Mogale Sabone, Thabiso Ntlole

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The pressure from globalization has made manufacturing organizations to move towards three major competitive arenas: quality, cost, and responsiveness. Quality is a universal value and has become a global issue. In order to survive and be able to provide customers with good products, manufacturing organizations’ supporting systems, tools, and structures it uses must grow or evolve. The majority of quality management concepts and strategies that are practiced recently are aimed at detecting and correcting problems which already exist and serve to limit losses. In agile manufacturing environment there is no room for defect and error so it needs a quality management which is proactively directed at problem prevention. This proactive quality management avoids losses by focusing on failure prevention, virtual elimination of the possibility of premature failure, mistake-proofing, and assuring consistently high quality in the definition and design of creation processes. To achieve this, a decision support tool for quality control and management is suggested. Current decision support tools/methods used by most manufacturing companies in Botswana for quality management and control are not integrated, for example they are not consistent since some tests results data is recorded manually only whilst others are recorded electronically. It is only a set of procedures not a tool. These procedures cannot offer interactive decision support. This point brings to light the aim of this research which is to develop a framework which will help manufacturing companies in Botswana build a decision support tool for quality control and management.

Keywords: decision support tool, manufacturing, quality control, quality management

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Authors: Megan E. Davies

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As substance use become an increasing prevalent occurrence amongst young people, prevention programs designed specifically for children and adolescents are required to protect against associated cognitive, psychological, and behavioural issues. Further, young people from marginalized backgrounds would highly benefit from culturally adapted substance use prevention programs. The first and second phase of the Life Skills Training (LST) program, the Maskwacis Life Skills Training (MLST) program, the Bii-Zin-Da-De-Da (BZDDD; “Listening to One Another”), and a culturally sensitive smoking prevention program, all of which have been adapted to Canadian Indigenous cultures and are applied within the school and family settings, are discussed. Additionally, comorbid disorders, at-risk personality types, and motivating factors associated with substance use amongst Canadian children and adolescents, specifically Indigenous youth, are explored through the application of a biopsychosocial model. Requital efforts being made in Canada towards Indigenous communities are described within a historical context, and substance use prevention programs targeting Indigenous children and adolescents are compared. Through this lens, suggestions are presented for future research on preventative interventions directed towards substance use within minority groups.

Keywords: early intervention, cultural appropriateness, life skills training, smoking prevention, drug and alcohol prevention

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Authors: D. M. Bassuney, W. A. Ibrahim, Medhat A. E. Moustafa

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As awareness of the variable nature of food industrial wastewater and its environmental impact grows, a more stable treatment reactor is needed to treat such wastewater. In this paper, a performance of 5-compartment lab-scale Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) treating high strength wastewater with high pH variation was studied under three organic loading rates (OLRs). The reactor showed high COD removal efficiencies: 92.67, 97.44, and 98.19% corresponding to OLRs of 2.0, 3.0, and 4.8 KgCOD/m3 d, respectively. The first compartment showed a good buffering capacity and a distinct phase separation occurred in the ABR.

Keywords: anaerobic baffled reactor, food industrial wastewater, high strength wastewater, organic loading, pH

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Authors: Fatiha Besahraoui, M'hamed Guezzoul, Kheira Chebbah, M'hamed Bouslama

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SnO₂ thin film is characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Photoluminescence Spectroscopies. AFM images show a dense surface of columnar grains with a roughness of 78.69 nm. The PL measurements at 7 K reveal the presence of PL peaks centered in IR and visible regions. They are attributed to radiative transitions via oxygen vacancies, Sn interstitials, and dangling bonds. A bands diagram model is presented with the approximate positions of intrinsic point defect levels in SnO₂ thin films. The integrated PL measurements demonstrate the good thermal stability of our sample, which makes it very useful in optoelectronic devices functioning at room temperature. The unusual behavior of the evolution of PL peaks and their full width at half maximum as a function of temperature indicates the thermal sensitivity of the point defects present in the band gap. The shallower energy levels due to dangling bonds and/or oxygen vacancies are more sensitive to the temperature. However, volume defects like Sn interstitials are thermally stable and constitute deep and stable energy levels for excited electrons. Small redshifting of PL peaks is observed with increasing temperature. This behavior is attributed to the reduction of oxygen vacancies.

Keywords: transparent conducting oxide, photoluminescence, intrinsic point defects, semiconductors, oxygen vacancies

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Authors: Lal Hussain, Wajid Aziz, Sajjad Ahmed Nadeem, Saeed Arif Shah, Abdul Majid

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Brain electrical activity as reflected in Electroencephalography (EEG) have been analyzed and diagnosed using various techniques. Among them, complexity measure, nonlinearity, disorder, and unpredictability play vital role due to the nonlinear interconnection between functional and anatomical subsystem emerged in brain in healthy state and during various diseases. There are many social and economical issues of alcoholic abuse as memory weakness, decision making, impairments, and concentrations etc. Alcoholism not only defect the brains but also associated with emotional, behavior, and cognitive impairments damaging the white and gray brain matters. A recently developed signal analysis method i.e. Multiscale Permutation Entropy (MPE) is proposed to estimate the complexity of long-range temporal correlation time series EEG of Alcoholic and Control subjects acquired from University of California Machine Learning repository and results are compared with MSE. Using MPE, coarsed grained series is first generated and the PE is computed for each coarsed grained time series against the electrodes O1, O2, C3, C4, F2, F3, F4, F7, F8, Fp1, Fp2, P3, P4, T7, and T8. The results computed against each electrode using MPE gives higher significant values as compared to MSE as well as mean rank differences accordingly. Likewise, ROC and Area under the ROC also gives higher separation against each electrode using MPE in comparison to MSE.

Keywords: electroencephalogram (EEG), multiscale permutation entropy (MPE), multiscale sample entropy (MSE), permutation entropy (PE), mann whitney test (MMT), receiver operator curve (ROC), complexity measure

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Authors: Carolina A. Santos, Alexandra B. Ribeiro

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Climate change and environmental degradation are threats to humanity. Europe has been addressing these problems, namely through the Green Deal, with the use of batteries in mobility and energy fields. However, these require the use of critical raw materials, like lithium, which demand is estimated to grow 60 times in the next 30 years. Thus, it is fundamental to promote a circular economy with lithium recovery from secondary resources. These are nowadays key topics, which will be even more relevant in the future, so a new way to approach them is needed and must be encouraged. Therefore, one of our main goals is to analyse two methods of lithium retrieval from secondary sources, bioleaching, and electrodialysis, and assess them regarding their sustainability. The latest results show good efficiency of removal with both methods, even though there are some matrix interferences. Hence, further investment and research are needed in order to make this process sustainable and our society more circular.

Keywords: lithium, sustainable mining, social license to operate, bioleaching, electrodialysis

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Authors: Mohamed Gar Alalm, Shinichi Ookawara, Ahmed Tawfik

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In the present work, photocatalytic oxidation of phenol by iron (Fe+2) doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) was studied. The source of irradiation was solar simulated light under measured UV flux. The effect of light intensity, pH, catalyst loading, and initial concentration of phenol were investigated. The maximum removal of phenol at optimum conditions was 78%. The optimum pH was 5.3. The most effective degradation occurred when the catalyst dosage was 600 mg/L. increasing the initial concentration of phenol decreased the degradation efficiency due to the deactivation of active sites by additional intermediates. Phenol photocatalytic degradation moderately fitted to the pseudo-first order kinetic equation approximated from Langmuir–Hinshelwood model.

Keywords: phenol, photocatalytic, solar, titanium dioxide

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Authors: Jalaluddin Abdul Malek, Mohd Asruladlyi Ibrahim, Zurinah Tahir

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This paper is to reveal developments in the areas of urban technology in Malaysia. Developments occur intend to add value intelligent city development to the ubiquitous city (U-city) or smart city. The phenomenon of change is called the development of post intelligent cities. U-City development discourse is seen from the perspective of the philosophy of the virtuous city organized by al-Farabi. The prosperity and perfection of a city is mainly caused by human personality factors, as well as its relationship with material and technological aspects of the city. The question is, to what extent to which human factors are taken into account in the concept of U-City as an added value to the intelligent city concept to realize the prosperity and perfection of the city? Previously, the intelligent city concept was developed based on global change and ICT movement, while the U-city added value to the development of intelligent cities and focused more on the development of information and communications technology (ICT). Value added is defined as the use of fiber optic technology that is wired to the use of wireless technology, such as wireless broadband. In this discourse, the debate on the concept of U-City is to the symbiosis between the U-City and the importance of local human e-participation (U-Society) for prosperity. In the context of virtuous city philosophy, it supports the thought of symbiosis so the concept of U-City can achieve sustainability, prosperity and perfection of the city.

Keywords: smart city, ubiquitous city, u-society, e-participation, prosperity

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Authors: Maria Krambia-Kapardis, Andreas Kapardis

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The relevant literature has been inundated with arguments for ethics, moral values, honesty, resilience, trust in leadership as well as responsible leadership. In many countries around the globe, and as shown by some recent reports, many political leaders are not role models and do not show best practices by being ethical, responsible, compassionate, and resilient. Journalists, whistleblowers, WikiLeaks, Al Jazeera, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have been brought out from the shadow of political leaders who lack the virtues/attributes outlined above by the UN Global Compact. A number of political leaders who lack ethical and responsible leadership skills will continue to find loopholes to enrich themselves and their close friends and relatives. Some researchers use the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic; however, this test, while it provides helpful and useful insights into the personality of a person who leads or inspire his/her people but does not show if that person is ethical, motivating, and empowers his people with trust and honesty. Thus, it is recommended that political leaders ought to undergo training that encompasses Aristotelian Ethics by embedding the appropriate values and behaviours in their strategies, policies, and decisions, enhancing the change factors that will help in the implementation of a more sustainable development model. Finally, there is a need to develop a pedagogy and a curriculum which enables the development of responsible political leaders.

Keywords: political leaders, corruption, anti-corruption, political corruption

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Authors: Panupong Chanplin, Kathaleeya Chanda., Wilailuk Mepracha

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The aims of this research were twofold: 1) to brand identity design of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise, Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkhram Province and 2) to study the level of tourist satisfaction towards brand identity design of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise, Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkhram Province. tourist satisfaction was measured using six criteria: clear brand positioning, likeable brand personality, memorable logo, attractive color palette, professional typography and on-brand supporting graphics. The researcher utilized a probability sampling method via simple random sampling. The sample consisted of 30 tourists in the Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise. Statistics utilized for data analysis were percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The results suggest that tourist had high levels of satisfaction towards all six criteria of the brand identity design that was designed to target them. This study proposes that specifically brand identity designed of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise could also be implemented with other real media already available on the market.

Keywords: satisfaction, brand identity, logo, creative agriculture community enterprise

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Authors: Chien-Kuo Chang, You-Syuan Wu, Min-Chiu Wu, Bharath-Kumar Boyanapalli

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The electrical treeing mechanism in epoxy resin insulation is a critical area of study concerning the degradation of high-voltage electrical equipment. In this study, we conducted pressure-induced degradation experiments on epoxy resin specimens using a needle-plane electrode structure to simulate electrical treeing. The specimens featured two different defect spacings, allowing for detailed observation facilitated by time-lapse photography. Our investigation revealed four distinct stages of insulation degradation: initial dark tree growth, filamentary tree growth, reverse tree growth, and eventual insulation breakdown. The initial dark treeing stage, though shortest in duration, exhibited a thicker main branch and shorter branching, ceasing upon the appearance of filamentary treeing. Filamentary treeing manifested in two forms: dark filamentary treeing during the resin's glassy state, characterized by branching structures, and fuzzy filamentary treeing during the rubbery state, resembling white feathers. The channels formed by filamentary treeing were observed to be as narrow as a few micrometers and continued to grow until the end of the experiment. Additionally, the transition to reverse treeing occurred when filamentary treeing reached the ground electrode, with the earliest manifestation being growth from the ground electrode towards the high-voltage end.

Keywords: epoxy resin insulation, high-voltage equipment, electrical treeing mechanism

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Authors: Rim Frikha, Nouha Bouayed, Afifa Sellami, Nozha Chakroun, Salima Daoud, Leila Keskes, Tarek Rebai

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Introduction: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) defined as two or more pregnancy losses, is a serious clinical problem. Methylene-tetrahydro-folate-reductase (MTHFR) polymorphisms, commonly the variant C677T is recognized as an inherited thrombophilia which might affect embryonic development and pregnancy success and cause pregnancy complications as RPL. Material and Methods DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples and PCR-RFLP was performed for the molecular diagnosis of the C677T MTHFR polymorphism among 70 patients (35 couples) with more than 2 fetal losses. Aims and Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of MTHFR C677T among Tunisian couples with RPL and to critically analyze the available literature on the importance of MTHFR polymorphism testing in the management of RPL. Result and comments: No C677T mutation was detected in the carriers of RPL. This result would be related to sample size and to different criteria (number of abortion), - The association between MTHFR polymorphisms and pregnancy complications has been reported but with controversial results. - A lack of evidence for MTHFR polymorphism testing previously recommended by ACMG (American College of Medical medicine). Our study highlights the importance of screening of MTHFR polymorphism since the real impact of such thrombotic molecular defect on the pregnancy outcome is evident. - Folic supplementation of these patients during pregnancy can prevent such complications and lead to a successful pregnancy outcome.

Keywords: methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, C677T, recurrent pregnancy loss, genetic testing

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Authors: Huihui Zhang, Zhongzhi Zhang

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Coagulation/flocculation is regarded a simple and effective wastewater treatment technology. Chlorine-containing coagulants may release chloride ions into the wastewater, causing corrosion. A green chlorine-free coagulant of polyaluminum ferric silicate (PSAF) was prepared by the copolymerization method to treat oily refractory wastewaters. Results showed that the highest removal efficiency of turbidity and chemical oxygen demand (COD) achieved 97.4% and 93.0% at a dosage of 700 mg/L, respectively. After PSAF coagulation, the chloride ion concentration was also almost the same as that in the raw wastewater. Thus, the chlorine-free coagulant is highly efficient and does not introduce additional chloride ions into the wastewater, avoiding corrosion.

Keywords: coagulation, chloride-free coagulant, oily refractory wastewater, coagulation performance

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Authors: Sh. Khoshemehry, M. E. Bahram, M. J. Pourvaghar

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Sport has found a special place as an effective phenomenon in all societies of the contemporary world. The relationship between physical activity and exercise with different sciences has provided new fields for human study. The range of issues related to exercise and physical education is such that it requires specialized sciences and special studies. In this article, the psychological and social sections of exercise have been investigated for children and adults. It can be used for anyone in different age groups. Exercise and regular physical movements have a great impact on the mental and social health of the individual in addition to body health. It affects the individual's adaptability in society and his/her personality. Exercise affects the treatment of diseases such as depression, anxiety, stress, body image, and memory. Exercise is a safe haven for young people to achieve the optimum human development in its shelter. The effects of sensorimotor skills on mental actions and mental development are such a way that many psychologists and sports science experts believe these activities should be included in training programs in the first place. Familiarity of students and scholars with different programs and methods of sensorimotor activities not only causes their mental actions; but also increases mental health and vitality, enhances self-confidence and, therefore, mental health.

Keywords: anxiety, mental health, physical activity, serotonin

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Authors: M. Al Huwayz, A. Salhi, S. Alhassan, S. Alotaibi, A. Almalki, M.Almunyif, A. Alhassni, M. Henini

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Recently, there has been much research carried out to investigate quantum dots (QDs) lasers with the aim to increase the gain of quantum well lasers. However, one of the difficulties with these structures is that electrically active defects can lead to serious issues in the performance of these devices. It is therefore essential to fully understand the types of defects introduced during the growth and/or the fabrication process. In this study, the effects of Gamma radiation on the electrically active defects in p-i-n InAs/InGaAsQDs laser structures grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) technique on GaAs substrates were investigated. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS), current-voltage (I-V), and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements were performed to explore these effects on the electrical properties of these QDs lasers. I-V measurements showed that as-grown sample had better electrical properties than the irradiated sample. However, DLTS and Laplace DLTS measurements at different reverse biases revealed that the defects in the-region of the p-i-n structures were decreased in the irradiated sample. In both samples, a trap with an activation energy of ~ 0.21 eV was assigned to the well-known defect M1 in GaAs layers

Keywords: quantum dots laser structures, gamma radiation, DLTS, defects, nAs/IngaAs

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Authors: Christine Alvarez, Rio Gojar, Hannah Jimala

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The Philippines is a large country composed of geographic islands and distinct cultural groups. But what makes such a diverse country connect and communicate with one another? This case study examines the narrative of lived experiences expressed by the selected indigenous peoples through an in-depth interview. Based on the results, some indigenous peoples feel that they are motivated to engage in interethnic discussions that concern their ethnic identity and such cultural misconceptions about them. Their experiences in being involved in indigenous people centered and community/academic organizations helped them in every interethnic communication. After all, some indigenous peoples expressed that they find their own communities as a safe space. Although indigenous peoples present less interethnic communication apprehension, its existence is still manifested in their experiences in verbal communication, non-verbal communication, and mediated communication. Lastly, their Interethnic Communication Apprehension manifested on their innate and learned personality whenever there is a large crowd, and is affected by their socioeconomic status. This study mainly focuses on what are the interethnic communication apprehension experiences of indigenous peoples in the country. Concepts are applied from the Contextual Theory of Interethnic Communication theory, Interethnic Communication Apprehension, and other types of communication. Meanwhile, the participants are determined through a purposive sampling with the criteria as indigenous people who stays in Manila in pursuit of higher education.

Keywords: ethnic identity, interethnic relation, intercultural communication, indigenous people community

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Authors: Hamitri-Guerfi Fatiha, Mekimene Lekhder, Madani Khodir, Youyou Ahcene

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Virgin olive oil is appreciated by consumers, the quality of the oil is regulated by the international olive oil council depends on its chemical composition, so, the correct packing conditions are a prerequisite to preserve oil color, flavor, and nutriments, from production to consumption. The contact of food with various materials of packaging, since the production, until their consumption constitutes one of the essential aspects of food safety (directive 76/833/CEE). In Algeria, plastic bottles, although, they are economic and light are largely used at packaging olive oil but not used in other countries. This is due to migration phenomena that can occur from these materials. Thus, the goal of this work is to examine the physicochemical behavior of the couple packaging plastic-oil during their exposure to three temperatures corresponding to the conditions of storage applied in Algeria. Like, it is difficult to compare blowers of bottles which are heavy engineering, it comes out from this study that the effect of heat, the absorption of water, the constraints of storage of acidity, as well as the composition of oil, the PET bottles showed a remarkable structural instability, this defect of quality was confirmed by the analysis of morphology by electronic scan microscopy. These bottles present a total migration significantly higher than the threshold of acceptance. Moreover, a metal contamination of oil by its packaging was confirmed by the spectroscopy of atomic absorption and a microanalysis. The differences observed between the results of the microanalysis applied and the mechanical characterizations of the various bottles are reported, showing the reality of the container-contents exchanges.

Keywords: interaction, stability, pet, virgin olive oil

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Authors: Bensacia Nabila, Hadj-Ziane Amel, Sefah Karima

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Carbon nanocomposites have received more attention in the last years in view of their special properties such as low density, high specific surface area, and thermal and mechanical stability. Taking into account the importance of these materials, many studies aimed at improving the synthesis process have been conducted. However, the presence of impurities could affect significantly the properties of these materials, and the characterization of these compounds is an important challenge to assure the quality of the new carbon nanocomposites. The present study aims to develop a new recyclable decontaminating material for dyes removal. This new material consists of an active element based on carbon nanotubes wrapped in a microcapsule of iron oxide. The adsorbent is characterized by Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and the surface area was measured by the BET method.

Keywords: carbon nanocomposite, chitozen, elimination, dyes

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Authors: Roli Saini, Pradeep Kumar

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A coagulation/flocculation process was adopted for the reduction of carbamate insecticide (carbofuran) from aqueous solution. Ferric chloride (FeCl₃) was used as a coagulant to treat the carbofuran. To exploit the reduction efficiency of pesticide concentration and COD, the jar-test experiments were carried out and process was optimized through response surface methodology (RSM). The effects of two independent factors; i.e., FeCl₃ dosage and pH on the reduction efficiency were estimated by using central composite design (CCD). The initial COD of the 30 mg/L concentrated solution was found to be 510 mg/L. Results exposed that the maximum reduction occurred at an optimal condition of FeCl₃ = 80 mg/L, and pH = 5.0, from which the reduction of concentration and COD 75.13% and 65.34%, respectively. The present study also predicted that the obtained regression equations could be helpful as the theoretical basis for the coagulation process of pesticide wastewater.

Keywords: carbofuran, coagulation, optimization, response surface methodology

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Authors: T. Pastraporn, J. Panida, P. Gasamapong, N. Jintana

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The study of inclusive educational environment of exceptional and normal children at the regional centre for special education aimed to establish guidelines for creating an environment for inclusive education. Buildings utilization of thirty-five elementary schools providing inclusive educational program in Bangkok were analyzed to study the following aspects: 1) The environment of exceptional and normal students’ inclusive classes at the regional centre for special education 2) The patterns of the environment suited to the exceptional and normal students’ inclusive classes 3) Environmental management policies for the inclusive classes of exceptional and normal students. Information was gathered from surveys, observations, questionnaires, document analysis, interviews, and non-experimental research. The findings showed that the usable spaces in school buildings were designated to enhance the three kinds of social learning experience: 1) Support class control 2) Help developing students’ personality consisting of physical, verbal and emotional expressions that are socially accepted 3) Recognition and learning, which are needed for the increasing of learning experience, were caused by having an interaction with the environment. Thus, the school buildings’ space designation positively affected the environmental management of exceptional and normal students’ inclusive classes.

Keywords: learning environment, inclusive education, school buildings, exceptional and normal children

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Authors: J. R. Wang, H. C. Chen, C. Shih, S. W. Chen, J. H. Yang, Y. Chiang

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In this study, we focus on the establishment of the analysis model for Maanshan PWR nuclear power plant (NPP) by using RADTRAD and SNAP codes with the FSAR, manuals, and other data. In order to evaluate the cumulative dose at the Exclusion Area Boundary (EAB) and Low Population Zone (LPZ) outer boundary, Maanshan NPP RADTRAD/SNAP model was used to perform the analysis of the DBA LOCA case. The analysis results of RADTRAD were similar to FSAR data. These analysis results were lower than the failure criteria of 10 CFR 100.11 (a total radiation dose to the whole body, 250 mSv; a total radiation dose to the thyroid from iodine exposure, 3000 mSv).

Keywords: RADionuclide, transport, removal, and dose estimation (RADTRAD), symbolic nuclear analysis package (SNAP), dose, PWR

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Authors: Ndibarafinia Tobin

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Building defect and failure are common phenomena in the Nigerian construction industry. The activities of the inexperienced labor force in the Nigerian construction industry have tarnished the image of practicing construction professionals in recent past. Defects and collapse can cause unnecessary expenditure, delays, loss of lives, property and left many people injured. They are also generating controversies among parties involved. Also, if this situation is left unanswered and untreated, it will lead to more serious problems in the future upcoming construction projects in Nigeria. Quite a number of factors are responsible for collapse of high-rise, reinforced concrete buildings in Nigeria. Government, professional bodies and stakeholders are asking countless questions as to who should be responsible and how solutions could be proffered. Therefore this study is aimed to identify the contributing factors to high-rise buildings defects and failures in Nigeria, which frequently occur in construction project in order to minimize time and cost and also the roles of professionals and other participants play in the industry in terms of the use of building materials, placement and curing of concrete, modification in the use of a building, collapse of building induced by fire and other causes. The data is collected from questionnaire from various players in construction industry in Nigeria. This study is succeeds in identifying the causes of building failure and also suggesting possible measures to be taken by government and other regulatory bodies in the building industry to avert this and also improve the effectiveness of managing appraisal process of failures and defects in the future.

Keywords: building defects, building failures, Nigerian construction industry, professionals

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Authors: Hamad Almohamadi, Nabeel Alharthi, Majed Alamoudi

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Biphasic electrodes featuring CuSx/NiSx electrodeposited on nickel foam have been investigated for their electrocatalytic activity in water splitting. The study investigates the impacts of an S-vacancy induced biphasic design on the overpotential and Tafel slope. According to the findings, the NiSx/CuSx/NF electrode with S-vacancy defects displays stronger oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with lower overpotential and a steeper Tafel slope than the non-defect sample. NiSx/CuSx/NF exhibits the lowest overpotential value of 212 mV vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) for OER and −109 mV vs RHE for HER at 10 mA cm−2. Tafel slope of 25.4 mV dec−1 for OER and −108 mV dec−1 for OER found of that electrode. The electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and diffusion impedance of the electrode is calculated. The maximum ECSA, lowest series resistance and lowest charge transfer resistance are found in the *NiSx/CuSx/NF sample with S-vacancy defects, showing increased electrical conductivity and quick charge transfer kinetics. The *NiSx/CuSx/NF electrode was found to be stable for 80 hours in pure water splitting and 20 hours in sea-water splitting. The investigation comes to the conclusion that the enhanced water splitting activity and electrical conductivity of the electrode are caused by S-vacancy defects resulting in improved water splitting performance.

Keywords: water splitting, electrocatalyst, biphasic design, electrodeposition

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Authors: Ozge Nilay Yalcin

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Dialogue has been proposed to be the natural basis for the human-computer interaction, which is behaviorally rich and includes different modalities such as gestures, posture changes, gaze, para-linguistic parameters and linguistic context. However, equipping the system with these capabilities might have consequences on the usability of the system. One issue is to be able to find a good balance between rich behavior and fluent behavior, as planning and generating these behaviors is computationally expensive. In this work, we propose a multi-modal dialogue management system that automates the conversational flow from text-based dialogue examples and uses synchronized verbal and non-verbal conversational cues to achieve a fluent interaction. Our system is integrated with Smartbody behavior realizer to provide real-time interaction with embodied agent. The nonverbal behaviors are used according to turn-taking behavior, emotions, and personality of the user and linguistic analysis of the dialogue. The verbal behaviors are responsive to the emotional value of the utterance and the feedback from the user. Our system is aimed for online planning of these affective multi-modal components, in order to achieve enhanced user experience with richer and more natural interaction.

Keywords: affect, embodied conversational agents, human-agent interaction, multimodal interaction, natural interfaces

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Authors: Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, Arvind Kumar

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Batch adsorption experiments were carried out for the removal of phenol from its aqueous solution using water hyancith activated carbon (WHAC) as an adsorbent. The sorption kinetics were analysed using pseudo-first order kinetics and pseudo-second order model, and it was observed that the sorption data tend to fit very well in pseudo-second order model for the entire sorption time. The experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Equilibrium data fitted well to the Freundlich model with a maximum biosorption capacity of 31.45 mg/g estimated using Langmuir model. The adsorption intensity 3.7975 represents a favorable adsorption condition.

Keywords: adsorption, isotherm, kinetics, phenol

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Authors: Abhiram Siva Prasad Pamula

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Access to clean drinking water becomes scarce due to the increase in extreme weather events because of the rise in the average global temperatures and climate change. By 2030, approximately 47% of the world’s population will face water shortages due to uncertainty in seasonal rainfall. Over 10000 varieties of synthetic dyes are commercially available in the market and used by textile and paper industries, negatively impacting human health when ingested. Besides humans, textile dyes have a negative impact on aquatic ecosystems by increasing biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand. This study assesses different treatment methods that remove dyes from textile wastewater while focusing on energy, economic, and engineering aspects of the treatment processes.

Keywords: textile wastewater, dye removal, treatment methods, hazardous pollutants

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Authors: Tia Morosin, Marie Shella De Robles

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Rectocele may be associated with symptoms of both obstructed defecation and faecal incontinence. Currently, numerous operative techniques exist to treat patients with rectocele; however, no single technique has emerged as the optimal approach in patients with post-partum faecal incontinence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome in a consecutive series of patients who underwent transperineal repair of rectocele for patients presenting with faecal incontinence as the predominant symptom. Twenty-three consecutive patients from April 2000 to July 2015 with symptomatic rectocele underwent transperineal repair by a single surgeon. All patients had a history of vaginal delivery, with or without evidence of associated anal sphincter injury at the time. The median age of the cohort was 53 years (range 21 to 90 years). The median operating time and length of hospital stay were 2 hours and 7 days, respectively. Two patients developed urinary retention post-operatively, which required temporary bladder catheterization. One patient had wound dehiscence, which was managed by absorbent dressing applied by the patient and her carer. There was no operative mortality. In all patients with rectocele, there was a concomitant anal sphincter disruption. All patients had satisfactory improvement with regard to faecal incontinence on follow-up. This study suggests this method provides excellent anatomic and physiologic results with minimal morbidity. However, because none of the patients gained full continence postoperatively, pelvic floor rehabilitation might be also needed to achieve better sphincter function in patients with incontinence.

Keywords: anal sphincter defect, faecal incontinence, rectocele, transperineal repair

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Authors: Zulaika Mohd Khasiran

Abstract:

The capability of ionic liquids in various applications makes them attracted by many researchers. They have potential to be developed as “green” solvents for gas separation, especially H2S gas. In this work, it is attempted to predict the solubility of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in ILs by COSMO-RS method. Since H2S is a toxic pollutant, it is difficult to work on it in the laboratory, therefore an appropriate model will be necessary in prior work. The COSMO-RS method is implemented to predict the Henry’s law constants and activity coefficient of H2S in 140 ILs with various combinations of cations and anions. It is found by the screening that more H2S can be absorbed in ILs with [Cl] and [Ac] anion. The solubility of H2S in ILs with different alkyl chain at the cations not much affected and with different type of cations are slightly influence H2S capture capacities. Even though the cations do not affect much in solubility of H2S, we still need to consider the effectiveness of cation in different way. The prediction results only show their physical absorption ability, but the absorption of H2S need to be consider chemically to get high capacity of absorption of H2S.

Keywords: H2S, hydrogen sulfide, ionic liquids, COSMO-RS

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Amin Mojiri, Akiyoshi Ohashi, Tomonori Kindaichi

Abstract:

Synthetic domestic wastewater was treated via combining treatment methods, including electrochemical oxidation, adsorption, and sequencing batch reactor (SBR). In the upper part of the reactor, an anode and a cathode (Ti/RuO₂-IrO₂) were organized in parallel for the electrochemical oxidation procedure. Sodium sulfate (Na₂SO₄) with a concentration of 2.5 g/L was applied as the electrolyte. The voltage and current were fixed on 7.50 V and 0.40 A, respectively. Then, 15% working value of the reactor was filled by activated sludge, and 85% working value of the reactor was added with synthetic wastewater. Powdered cockleshell, 1.5 g/L, was added in the reactor to do ion-exchange. Response surface methodology was employed for statistical analysis. Reaction time (h) and pH were considered as independent factors. A total of 97.0% biochemical oxygen demand, 99.9% phosphorous and 88.6% cadmium were eliminated at the optimum reaction time (80.0 min) and pH (6.4).

Keywords: adsorption, electrochemical oxidation, metals, SBR

Procedia PDF Downloads 203