Search results for: water resource management

Authors: Peng Li, Luan Wang, Haifeng Fei, Renhong Xie, Yibin Rui, Shanhong Guo

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The applications of satellite-based automatic identification system (S-AIS) pave the road for wide-range maritime traffic monitoring and management. But the coverage of satellite’s view includes multiple AIS self-organizing networks, which leads to the collision of AIS signals from different cells. The contribution of this work is to propose an improved multi-channel blind source separation algorithm based on Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and advanced stochastic optimization to perform separation of the mixed AIS signals. The proposed approach adopts modified ABC algorithm to get an optimized initial separating matrix, which can expedite the initialization bias correction, and utilizes the Adaptive Moment Estimation (Adam) to update the separating matrix by adjusting the learning rate for each parameter dynamically. Simulation results show that the algorithm can speed up convergence and lead to better performance in separation accuracy.

Keywords: satellite-based automatic identification system, blind source separation, artificial bee colony, adaptive moment estimation

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Khaled S. Abdallah, Abdel-Aziz M. Mohamed

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Moving industries consume numerous resources and dispose masses of used packaging materials. Proper sorting, recycling and disposing the packaging materials is necessary to avoid a sever pollution disaster. This research paper presents a conceptual model to propose sustainable truck rental operations instead of the regular one. An optimization model was developed to select the locations of truck rental centers, collection sites, maintenance and repair sites, and identify the rental fees to be charged for all routes that maximize the total closed supply chain profits. Fixed costs of vehicle purchasing, costs of constructing collection centers and repair centers, as well as the fixed costs paid to use disposal and recycling centers are considered. Operating costs include the truck maintenance, repair costs as well as the cost of recycling and disposing the packing materials, and the costs of relocating the truck are presented in the model. A mixed integer model is developed followed by a simulation model to examine the factors affecting the operation of the model.

Keywords: modeling, truck rental, supply chains management.

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: M. Ali Mandegari, S. Farzad, , J. F. Görgens

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Sugar is one of the main agricultural industries in South Africa and approximately livelihoods of one million South Africans are indirectly dependent on sugar industry which is economically struggling with some problems and should re-invent in order to ensure a long-term sustainability. Second generation biorefinery is defined as a process to use waste fibrous for the production of biofuel, chemicals animal food, and electricity. Bioethanol is by far the most widely used biofuel for transportation worldwide and many challenges in front of bioethanol production were solved. Biorefinery annexed to the existing sugar mill for production of bioethanol and electricity is proposed to sugar industry and is addressed in this study. Since flowsheet development is the key element of the bioethanol process, in this work, a biorefinery (bioethanol and electricity production) annexed to a typical South African sugar mill considering 65ton/h dry sugarcane bagasse and tops/trash as feedstock was simulated. Aspen PlusTM V8.6 was applied as simulator and realistic simulation development approach was followed to reflect the practical behaviour of the plant. Latest results of other researches considering pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, enzyme production, bioethanol production and other supplementary units such as evaporation, water treatment, boiler, and steam/electricity generation units were adopted to establish a comprehensive biorefinery simulation. Steam explosion with SO2 was selected for pretreatment due to minimum inhibitor production and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) configuration was adopted for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of cellulose and hydrolyze. Bioethanol purification was simulated by two distillation columns with side stream and fuel grade bioethanol (99.5%) was achieved using molecular sieve in order to minimize the capital and operating costs. Also boiler and steam/power generation were completed using industrial design data. Results indicates that the annexed biorefinery can be self-energy sufficient when 35% of feedstock (tops/trash) bypass the biorefinery process and directly be loaded to the boiler to produce sufficient steam and power for sugar mill and biorefinery plant.

Keywords: biorefinery, self-energy sufficiency, tops/trash, bioethanol, electricity

Procedia PDF Downloads 538

Authors: Wighens Ngoie Ilunga, Pamela J. Welz, Olewaseun O. Oyekola, Daniel Ikhu-Omoregbe

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Currently, most sludge from the wastewater treatment plants of edible oil factories is disposed to landfills, but landfill sites are finite and potential sources of environmental pollution. Production of biodiesel from wastewater sludge can contribute to energy production and waste minimization. However, conventional biodiesel production is energy and waste intensive. Generally, biodiesel is produced from the transesterification reaction of oils with alcohol (i.e., Methanol, ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst. Homogeneously catalysed transesterification is the conventional approach for large-scale production of biodiesel as reaction times are relatively short. Nevertheless, homogenous catalysis presents several challenges such as high probability of soap. The current study aimed to reuse wastewater sludge from the edible oil industry as a novel feedstock for both monounsaturated fats and bioethanol for the production of biodiesel. Preliminary results have shown that the fatty acid profile of the oilseed wastewater sludge is favourable for biodiesel production with 48% (w/w) monounsaturated fats and that the residue left after the extraction of fats from the sludge contains sufficient fermentable sugars after steam explosion followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis for the successful production of bioethanol [29% (w/w)] using a commercial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A novel nano-magnetic catalyst was synthesised from mineral processing alkaline tailings, mainly containing dolomite originating from cupriferous ores using a modified sol-gel. The catalyst elemental chemical compositions and structural properties were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and the BET for the surface area with 14.3 m²/g and 34.1 nm average pore diameter. The mass magnetization of the nano-magnetic catalyst was 170 emu/g. Both the catalytic properties and reusability of the catalyst were investigated. A maximum biodiesel yield of 78% was obtained, which dropped to 52% after the fourth transesterification reaction cycle. The proposed approach has the potential to reduce material costs, energy consumption and water usage associated with conventional biodiesel production technologies. It may also mitigate the impact of conventional biodiesel production on food and land security, while simultaneously reducing waste.

Keywords: biodiesel, bioethanol, edible oil wastewater sludge, nano-magnetism

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Authors: Xu Tao, Yilun Xu, Dingwei Xiang, Yaofei Sun

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Urban community is constitute the entire city and its management ‘cell’, let ‘cells’ with growth and self-regeneration capacity and persistence, to allow the city with infinite vigor and vitality of the source; with toughness community mankind's adaptation to the basic unit of social risk, toughness of the city from the community to create a point of building is urban toughness of top-down construction mode of supplement, is of positive significance on the toughness of the urban construction. Based on the basic concept of resilience, this paper reviews the research on the four main areas of the study of urban resilience (i.e., the engineering toughness, ecological resilience, economic resilience, and social resilience, etc.). Studies and comments and summarizes the basic characteristic and main content of the four kind of toughness. Based on, from the city - community level and community level for building community resilience, including the level of urban community and create a Unicom, inclusiveness and openness of the community; community-level lifted from the four angles of the engineering community toughness, ecological toughness, resilience, social resilience, mainly including enhanced the toughness of the infrastructure, green infrastructure of toughness, resilience, social network and social relations, building with a sense of belonging, inclusive, multicultural community. Finally, summarize and prospect the resilience of the community.

Keywords: resilience, community resilience, urban resilience, construction strategies

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Authors: Laaziz El Hassan

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The Service Network Design Problem (SNDP) is a tactical issue in freight transportation firms. The existing formulations of the problem for intermodal rail-road transportation were not always adapted to the intermodality in terms of full asset utilization and modal shift reinforcement. The objective of the article is to propose a model having a more compliant formulation with intermodality, including constraints highlighting the imperatives of asset management, reinforcing modal shift from road to rail and reducing, by the way, road mode CO2 emissions. The model is a fixed charged, path based integer nonlinear program. Its objective is to minimize services total cost while ensuring full assets utilization to satisfy freight demand forecast. The model's main feature is that it gives as output both the train sizes and the services frequencies for a planning period. We solved the program using a commercial solver and discussed the numerical results.

Keywords: intermodal transport network, service network design, model, nonlinear integer program, path-based, service frequencies, modal shift

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Authors: Gashaw Gismu Chakilu

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Climate and land cover change are very important issues in terms of global context and their responses to environmental and socio-economic drivers. The dynamic of these two factors is currently affecting the environment in unbalanced way including watershed hydrology. In this paper individual and combined impacts of climate change and land use land cover change on hydrological processes were evaluated through applying the model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in Gumara watershed, Upper Blue Nile basin Ethiopia. The regional climate; temperature and rainfall data of the past 40 years in the study area were prepared and changes were detected by using trend analysis applying Mann-Kendall trend test. The land use land cover data were obtained from land sat image and processed by ERDAS IMAGIN 2010 software. Three land use land cover data; 1973, 1986, and 2013 were prepared and these data were used for base line, model calibration and change study respectively. The effects of these changes on high flow and low flow of the catchment have also been evaluated separately. The high flow of the catchment for these two decades was analyzed by using Annual Maximum (AM) model and the low flow was evaluated by seven day sustained low flow model. Both temperature and rainfall showed increasing trend; and then the extent of changes were evaluated in terms of monthly bases by using two decadal time periods; 1973-1982 was taken as baseline and 2004-2013 was used as change study. The efficiency of the model was determined by Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) and Relative Volume error (RVe) and their values were 0.65 and 0.032 for calibration and 0.62 and 0.0051 for validation respectively. The impact of climate change was higher than that of land use land cover change on stream flow of the catchment; the flow has been increasing by 16.86% and 7.25% due to climate and LULC change respectively, and the combined change effect accounted 22.13% flow increment. The overall results of the study indicated that Climate change is more responsible for high flow than low flow; and reversely the land use land cover change showed more significant effect on low flow than high flow of the catchment. From the result we conclude that the hydrology of the catchment has been altered because of changes of climate and land cover of the study area.

Keywords: climate, LULC, SWAT, Ethiopia

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Authors: Tharntip Tawnie Chutikulrungsee, Oliver Kisalay Burmeister, Maumita Bhattacharya, Dragana Calic

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Sharing on social network sites (SNSs) has rapidly emerged as a new social norm and has become a global phenomenon. Billions of users reveal not only their own information (self disclosure) but also information about others (other-generated disclosure), resulting in a risk and a serious threat to either personal or informational privacy. Self-disclosure (SD) has been extensively researched in the literature, particularly regarding control of individual and existing privacy management. However, far too little attention has been paid to other-generated disclosure (OGD), especially by insiders. OGD has a strong influence on self-presentation, self-image, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Moreover, OGD is more credible and less likely manipulated than SD, but lacks privacy control and legal protection to some extent. This article examines OGD in depth, ranging from motivation to both online and offline impacts, based upon lived experiences from both ‘the disclosed’ and ‘the discloser’. Using purposive sampling, this phenomenological study involves an online survey and in-depth interviews. The findings report the influence of peer disclosure as well as users’ strategies to mitigate privacy issues. This article also calls attention to the challenge of OGD privacy and inadequacies in the law related to privacy protection in the digital domain.

Keywords: facebook, online privacy, other-generated disclosure, social networks sites (SNSs)

Procedia PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Fatima Mohammed Musa, J. B. Ameh, S. A. Ado, O. S. Olonitola

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The study was undertaken to evaluate the phytochemical constituents of extracts of Terminalia avicennioides leaf and the antidiarrhoeal effect of n-butanol fraction of the leaf extract in Swiss albino rats infected with Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli. Ethanol crude extract of Terminalia avicennioides leaf was dissolved in 1.5 liters of sterile distilled water. The extract solution was partitioned with 250 ml each of chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol solvents (1:1v/v) to obtain soluble fractions from the extract. The leaf extract and its fractions were screened for the presence of phytocompounds using standard analytical methods. The antidirrhoeal activity of n-butanol fraction was evaluated in Swiss albino rats using standard methods. The results of phytochemical screening of extract of Terminalia avicennioides leaf and its fractions, revealed the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, triterpens, glycosides and phenols. The results of in vivo activity showed that 60 % of each group of rats infected with 2.0 x 108 cfu/ml viable cells of S. Typhimurium and 2.0 x109 cfu/ml viable cells of E. coli manifested the symptoms of diarrhoea, 72 hours after the rats were challenged with bacteria. Other symptoms observed among the infected animals included, loss of appetite, loss of weight, general body weakness and 40 % mortality in S. Typhimurium infected non treated group of rats. Similarly, 60 %, and 20 % mortality was observed among E. coli infected none treated and E. coli infected antibiotic (metronidazole) treated groups of rats respectively. However, there was a reduction in the number of infected rats defecating watery stools over time among all the infected rats that were treated with n-butanol fraction of the leaf extract and mortality was also not observed in the group, indicating high efficacy of n-butanol fraction of T. avicennioides leaf. The results also indicated that n-butanol can be used as alternative source of antidiarrhoeal agent in the treatment of diarrhoea caused by Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli. In the light of this, there is a need for further research on the mechanism of action of the candidate fraction of T. avicennioides leaf which could be responsible for the observed in vivo antibacterial activity.

Keywords: antidirrhoeal effect, phytochemical constituents, swiss albino rats, terminalia avicennioides

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Authors: Sana Iqbal

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The female voice in Sufi poetry has been studied as a symbol of humility and devotion. Throughout the centuries, the Sufi shrines have also sheltered women and have served as a source of emotional strength in times of difficulty. Although women have been central to Sufi Islam, female-led rituals and performances (of veneration) are rarely studied as acts of empowerment and symbols of healing. This is especially true for rituals performed in informal spaces, which require going beyond the shrine practices. The rituals and meanings associated with Khizr Khwaja (or Sindhi Hindu god Jhelelal) among women in Punjab can serve as a useful case study to unpack some of these meanings. The paper aims to shed light on female-led rituals among women from Punjab associated with the folkloric traditions associated with Khizar Khwaja, Zinda Pir, Jhulelal or river god in the South Asian region to protect mariners from possible risks (since trade was primarily dependent on water channels) or for inducing timely rain date back to the 10th century in Sindh. However, these meanings and associations have evolved and the paper thus aims to establish a relationship between this figure and the women in Punjab by analysing the findings from an ethnographic study. It traces the historical meanings and significance attached to the divine figure and the wells (informal spaces) associated with him since the rituals performed by women is now infused solely with seeking fertility or to be blessed with a successful pregnancy, as opposed to him being celebrated for other reasons in older times. These associations beg the question of what women gain out of these rituals and making offerings to the mysterious figure of Khizr. Anecdotal evidence in the form of interviews conducted in Bhakar and Talwandi (Punjab) during the summer of 2015 helped to explore the stories related to this legend while also allowing us to witness some of the female-led ritual practices. It can be said that the symbols adopted in the ritual practices invoke liminality for women, which is a blend of opposites. The paper argues that this liminality/journey has been used as a vehicle to transcend all worldly structures of power and it symbolically emphasises the richness of feminine love/devotion and grants healing to female devotees.

Keywords: transgression, gender, liminality, ritual

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Authors: Abderrazek Ben Maatoug, Ibrahim Fatnassi, Wassim Ben Ayed

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In this paper we investigate the issue of market risk quantification for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Islamic market equity. We use Value-at-Risk (VaR) as a measure of potential risk in Islamic stock market, for long and short position, based on Riskmetrics model and the conditional parametric ARCH class model volatility with normal, student and skewed student distribution. The sample consist of daily data for the 2006-2014 of 11 Islamic stock markets indices. We conduct Kupiec and Engle and Manganelli tests to evaluate the performance for each model. The main finding of our empirical results show that (i) the superior performance of VaR models based on the Student and skewed Student distribution, for the significance level of α=1% , for all Islamic stock market indices, and for both long and short trading positions (ii) Risk Metrics model, and VaR model based on conditional volatility with normal distribution provides the best accurate VaR estimations for both long and short trading positions for a significance level of α=5%.

Keywords: value-at-risk, risk management, islamic finance, GARCH models

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Authors: Robert McGrath, Zara Qureshi

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A innovative leadership philosophy that is proposed herein is distinctly more humane than most leadership approaches Concerned Leadership. The central idea to this approach is to consider the whole person that comes to work; their professional skills and talents, as well as any personal, emotional challenges that could be affecting productivity and effectiveness at work. This paper explores Concerned Leadership as an integration of the two conceptual models areas examined in this paper –(1) leaderful organizations and practices, as well as (2) organizational culture, and defines leadership in the context of Mental Health and Wellness in the workplace. Leaderful organizations calls for organizations to implement leaderful practice. Leaderful practice is when leadership responsibility and decision-making is shared across all team members and levels, versus only delegated to top management as commonly seen. A healthy culture thrives off key aspects such as acceptance, employee pride, equal opportunity, and strong company leadership. Concerned Leadership is characterized by five main components: Self-Concern, Leaderful Practice, Human Touch, Belonging, and Compassion. As scholars and practitioners conceptualize leadership in practice, the present model seeks to uphold the dignity of each organizational member, thereby having the potential to transform workplaces and support all members.

Keywords: leadership, mental health, reflective practice, organizational culture

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Authors: Ayman M. El-Zahaby, Ahmed S. El-Gendy

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Aeration for wastewater is essential for the proper operation of aerobic treatment units where the wastewater normally has zero dissolved oxygen. This is due to the need of oxygen by the aerobic microorganisms to grow and survive. Typical aeration units for wastewater treatment require electric energy for their operation such as mechanical aerators or diffused aerators. The passive units are units that operate without the need of electric energy such as cascade aerators, spray aerators and tray aerators. In contrary to the cascade aerators and spray aerators, tray aerators require much smaller area foot print for their installation as the treatment stages are arranged vertically. To the extent of the authors knowledge, the design of tray aerators for the aeration purpose has not been presented in the literature. The current research concerns with an analytical study for the design of tray aerators for the purpose of increasing the dissolved oxygen in wastewater treatment systems, including an investigation on different design parameters and their impact on the aeration efficiency. The studied aerator shall act as an intermediate stage between an anaerobic primary treatment unit and an aerobic treatment unit for small scale treatment systems. Different free falling flow regimes were investigated, and the thresholds for transition between regimes were obtained from the literature. The study focused on the jetting flow regime between trays. Starting from the two film theory, an equation that relates the dissolved oxygen concentration effluent from the system was derived as a function of the flow rate, number of trays, tray area, spacing between trays, number and diameter of holes and the water temperature. A MATLab ® model was developed for the derived equation. The expected aeration efficiency under different tray configurations and operating conditions were illustrated through running the model with varying the design parameters. The impact of each parameter was illustrated. The overall system efficiency was found to increase by decreasing the hole diameter. On the other side, increasing the number of trays, tray area, flow rate per hole or tray spacing had positive effect on the system efficiency.

Keywords: aeration, analytical, passive, wastewater

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Authors: Kidus Dawit Gedamu

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Addis Ababa City Road Authority is responsible for managing and setting performance evaluation of the city’s road network using the International Roughness Index (IRI). This helps the authority to conduct pavement condition assessments of asphalt roads each year to determine the health status or Level of service (LOS) of the roadway network and plan program improvements such as maintenance, resurfacing and rehabilitation. For a lower IRI limit economical and acceptable maintenance strategy may be selected among a number of maintenance alternatives. The Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) tool can do such measures to help decide which option is the best by evaluating the economic and structural conditions. This paper specifically addresses flexible pavement, including two principal arterial streets under the administration of the Addis Ababa City Roads Authority. The roads include the road from Megenagna Interchange to Ayat Square and from Ayat Square to Tafo RA. First, it was assessed the procedures followed by the city's road authority to develop the appropriate road maintenance strategies. Questionnaire surveys and interviews are used to collect information from the city's road maintenance departments. Second, the project analysis was performed for functional and economic comparison of different maintenance alternatives using HDM-4.

Keywords: appropriate maintenance strategy, cost stream, road deterioration, maintenance alternative

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Authors: Oqba Basal, András Szabó

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Legume crops are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen by the symbiotic relation with specific bacteria, which allows the use of the mineral nitrogen-fertilizer to be reduced, or even excluded, resulting in more profit for the farmers and less pollution for the environment. Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) is one of the most important legumes with its high content of both protein and oil. However, it is recommended to combine the two nitrogen sources under stress conditions in order to overcome its negative effects. Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses that increasingly limits soybean yields. A precise rate of mineral nitrogen under drought conditions is not confirmed, as it depends on many factors; soybean yield-potential and soil-nitrogen content to name a few. An experiment was conducted during 2017 growing season in Debrecen, Hungary to investigate the effects of nitrogen source on the physiology and the yield of the soybean cultivar 'Boglár'. Three N-fertilizer rates including no N-fertilizer (0 N), 35 kg ha^-1 of N-fertilizer (35 N) and 105 kg ha^-1 of N-fertilizer (105 N) were applied under three different irrigation regimes; severe drought stress (SD), moderate drought stress (MD) and control with no drought stress (ND). Half of the seeds in each treatment were pre-inoculated with Bradyrhizobium japonicum inoculant. The overall results showed significant differences associated with fertilization and irrigation, but not with inoculation. Increasing N rate was mostly accompanied with increased chlorophyll content and leaf area index, whereas it positively affected the plant height only when the drought was waived off. Plant height was the lowest under severe drought, regardless of inoculation and N-fertilizer application and rate. Inoculation increased the yield when there was no drought, and a low rate of N-fertilizer increased the yield furthermore; however, the high rate of N-fertilizer decreased the yield to a level even less than the inoculated control. On the other hand, the yield of non-inoculated plants increased as the N-fertilizer rate increased. Under drought conditions, adding N-fertilizer increased the yield of the non-inoculated plants compared to their inoculated counterparts; moreover, the high rate of N-fertilizer resulted in the best yield. Regardless of inoculation, the mean yield of the three fertilization rates was better when the water amount increased. It was concluded that applying N-fertilizer to provide the nitrogen needed by soybean plants, with the absence of N₂-fixation process, is very important. Moreover, adding relatively high rate of N-fertilizer is very important under severe drought stress to alleviate the drought negative effects. Further research to recommend the best N-fertilizer rate to inoculated soybean under drought stress conditions should be executed.

Keywords: drought stress, inoculation, N-fertilizer, soybean physiology, yield

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Authors: Hakan Bozdoğan

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A wide variety of traditional methodologies has been enhanced for characterising smooth habitats in order to find out different environmental objectives. The habitats were characterised based on size and shape by using Geo-Gebra Software. In this study, an innovative approach to researching habitat characterisation in the lacewing species, GeoGebra software is utilised. This approach is demonstrated using the example of ‘surface area’ as an analytical concept, wherein the goal was to increase clearness for researchers, and to improve the quality of researching in survey area. In conclusion, habitat characterisation using the mathematical programme provides a unique potential to collect more comprehensible and analytical information about in shapeless areas beyond the range of direct observations methods. This research contributes a new perspective for assessing the structure of habitat, providing a novel mathematical tool for the research and management of such habitats and environments. Further surveys should be undertaken at additional sites within the Amanos Mountains for a comprehensive assessment of lacewings habitat characterisation in an analytical plane. This paper is supported by Ahi Evran University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit, Projects No:TBY.E2.17.001 and TBY.A4.16.001.

Keywords: uneven habitat shape, habitat assessment, lacewings, Geo-Gebra Software

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Authors: Singh Baljinder, Sharma Navneet

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Microalbuminuria is the earliest detectable marker of diabetic nephropathy. We planned to evaluate the prevalence of microalbuminuria in type 1 diabetics and correlate with various risk factor. We randomly selected 100 type 1 diabetic patients after inclusion and exclusion criteria from DCRC, S. P. Medical College, Bikaner. Clinical examinations for anthropometeric parameters, hypertension, retinopathy, glycaemic status, lipid profile were done and microalbuminuria was estimated by micral test. Microalbuminuria was seen in 38% patients. The mean urinary albumin concentration was 96.61 mg/l in microalbuminuria positive cases, 134 mg/L in hypertensive patients while 74.5 mg/L in normal patients. Mean diabetic duration was 6.43 years in microalbuminurics. Albumin excretion increased significantly with age at onset of 10-18 years and declined thereafter. Microalbuminuria cases exhibited mean cholesterol 181.63 mg%, TG 130.94 mg%, LDL 109.87 mg%, HDL 57.5 mg% and VLDL 30.64 mg%. Mean urinary albumin concentration in patients with retinopathy was 160.52 mg/L while 78.66 mg/L without retinopathy. In multiple stepwise logistic regression analysis, a strong positive association was seen between microalbuminuria and hypertension (OR=5.087, CI=2.1319-12.101), fasting blood sugar (OR=3. 491, CI=1.138-10.70), duration of diabetes (OR=3.41, CI=1.360-8.55) and HbA1c (OR=2.381, CI-=1.1-5.64). The present study indicates that microalbuminuria is a common complication of type 1 diabetes mellitus and can be prevented by careful management of risk factors.

Keywords: type 1 diabetes, microalbuminuria, diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, hypertension

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Authors: Mehrdad Abkenari, Alireza Rezaei, Naghmeh Pournayeb

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There have recently been many studies and investments in developed and developing countries regarding the possibility of recycling construction waste, which are still ongoing. Since the term 'construction waste' covers a vast spectrum of materials in constructing buildings, roads and etc., many investigations are required to measure their technical performance in use as well as their time and place of use. Concrete is among the major and fundamental materials used in current construction industry. Along with the rise of population in developing countries, it is desperately required to meet the people's primary need in construction industry and on the other hand, dispose existing wastes for reducing the amount of environmental pollutants. Restrictions of natural resources and environmental pollution are the most important problems encountered by civil engineers. Reusing construction waste is an important and economic approach that not only assists the preservation of environment but also, provides us with primary raw materials. In line with consistent municipal development in disposal and reuse of construction waste, several approaches including, management of construction waste and materials, materials recycling and innovation and new inventions in materials have been predicted. This article has accordingly attempted to study the activities related to recycling of construction wastes and then, stated the economic, quantitative, qualitative and environmental results obtained.

Keywords: civil engineering, environment, recycling, construction waste

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Authors: Alyamama Alsaidi

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This research has been conducted in order to analyse the impact of outsourcing on telecommunication industry in Oman. The research is conducted by collecting qualitative and quantitative data in order to widen the area of comprehension. The data has been collected from genuine sources which showcased that results were reliable and possess validity. The outsourcing is very important because it helps the organisation in saving the cost and efforts of the workers. In Oman, the telecommunication industry largely uses the outsourcing service which is provided by the third party. The third party is responsible for providing outsourcing to the telecommunication companies. This research gives an overall view of the outsourcing in the telecommunication companies of Oman. The IT companies of Oman give their work to the outsourcing services as this will help in reducing the cost the project. Rather employing the experts to do the projects, the organization can easily give their products to the outsourcing services in which they complete the work for a cheaper rate for the telecommunication company of Oman. It will help in reducing the work load on the staffs and management of the telecommunication companies in Oman. The IT outsourcing in Oman is very common because some of the staff are not well experienced to do the IT work. The outsourcing has positive as well as negative impact on the telecommunication industry in Oman. The research has been done while considering ethical aspect in an effective and efficient manner. Furthermore, the literature is adequately reviewed so that views of various specialists can be considered for future guidance.

Keywords: IT outsourcing, client company, services company, telecommunication

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Authors: Xiaoyun Zhao, Rami Darwish, Anna Pernestål

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Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to enhance road capacity, improving road safety and traffic efficiency. Research and development on AVs have been going on for many years. However, when the complicated traffic rules and real situations interacted, AVs fail to make decisions on contradicting situations, and are not able to have control in all conditions due to highly dynamic driving scenarios. This limits AVs’ usage and restricts the full potential benefits that they can bring. Furthermore, regulations, infrastructure development, and public acceptance cannot keep up at the same pace as technology breakthroughs. Facing these challenges, this paper proposes automated vehicle traffic control tower (AVTCT) acting as a safe, efficient and integrated solution for AV control. It introduces a concept of AVTCT for control, management, decision-making, communication and interaction with various aspects in transportation. With the prototype demonstrations and simulations, AVTCT has the potential to overcome the control challenges with AVs and can facilitate AV reaching their full potential. Possible functionalities, benefits as well as challenges of AVTCT are discussed, which set the foundation for the conceptual model, simulation and real application of AVTCT.

Keywords: automated vehicle, connectivity and automation, intelligent transport system, traffic control, traffic safety

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Authors: Sintayehu W. Dejene

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An ecological and biodiversity conservation study on species composition, population status and habitat association of large mammals and the impact of human interference on their distribution was carried out in Awash National Park, Ethiopia during October, 2012 to July, 2013. A total of 25 species of large mammals were recorded from the study area. Representative sample sites were taken from each habitat type and surveyed using random line transect method. For medium and large mammal survey, indirect methods (foot print and dung) and direct observations were used. Twenty three species of medium to large-sized mammals were identified and recorded from ANP. A total of 25 species of median and large size mammals were recorded from the study area. Out of this, 20 species were rodents of three families and five species were insectivores of two families. Beisa Oryx (Oryx beisa beisa),Soemmerings gazelle (Gazella soemmeringi),Defassa waterbuck (Kobus defassa), Lesser Kudu (Strepsiceros imberbis), Greater Kudu (Strepsiceros strepsiceros), Warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus), Baboon (Papio anubis baboon) and Salt's dikdik (Madoqua saltiana) were the most common seen median and large mammals in the study area. Beisa Oryx (Oryx beisa beisa) and Sommering Gazelles (Gazella soemmeringi) are commonly found in the open areas, where as Greater Kudus (Strepsiceros strepsiceros) and Lesser Kudus (Strepsiceros imberbis) was seen in the bushed areas. Defarsa waterbuck (Kobus defassa) was observed in the bushy river area in Northern part of the Park. Anubis baboon (Papio anubis baboon) was seen near to the river side. Hamadryas baboon founded in semi-desert areas of Awash National Park, particularly in Filwoha area. The area is one of a key biodiversity conservation and provide pure water, air, food, grazing land and storage of carbon.

Keywords: awash national park, biodiversity, ecosystem value, habitat association, large mammals, population status, species composition

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Authors: Wang Di, Luo Shengqiang, Chen Yanjie

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Vocational skill competition is an effective means to test and improve the quality of engineering education personnel training and provides a high-level practice platform for practical teaching in engineering education. Since China participated in the WorldSkills Competition in 2011, it has achieved very good results in the past 14 years. This study provides a group portrait of China's participation in the WorldSkills Competition, including competitors, competition managers and, Chinese laborers, etc. Meanwhile, through in-depth research on the basic process of launching the WorldSkills Competition in China, the experience and main problems of China's participation in skills competition are summarized. Including China's remarkable practices in institutional mechanisms, team management, promoting world skills development, and boosting social equity and gender equality, it puts forward specific ideas for developing countries to strengthen engineering education and participate in skills competitions. Centering on the value concept of a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by China, we envision how to reinforce skills development in China and take concrete actions to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Keywords: WorldSkills competition, engineering education, TVET, Chinese experience

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Authors: Dorith Tavor, Adi Wolfson

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In the past two decades a variety of green solvents have been proposed, including water, ionic liquids, fluorous solvents, and supercritical fluids. However, their implementation in industrial processes is still limited due to their tedious and non-sustainable synthesis, lack of experimental data and familiarity, as well as operational restrictions and high cost. Several years ago we presented, for the first time, the use of glycerol-based solvents as alternative sustainable reaction mediums in both catalytic and non-catalytic organic synthesis. Glycerol is the main by-product from the conversion of oils and fats in oleochemical production. Moreover, in the past decade, its price has substantially decreased due to an increase in supply from the production and use of fatty acid derivatives in the food, cosmetics, and drugs industries and in biofuel synthesis, i.e., biodiesel. The renewable origin, beneficial physicochemical properties and reusability of glycerol-based solvents, enabled improved product yield and selectivity as well as easy product separation and catalyst recycling. Furthermore, their high boiling point and polarity make them perfect candidates for non-conventional heating and mixing techniques such as ultrasound- and microwave-assisted reactions. Finally, in some reactions, such as catalytic transfer-hydrogenation or transesterification, they can also be used simultaneously as both solvent and reactant. In our ongoing efforts to design a viable protocol that will facilitate the acceptance of glycerol and its derivatives as sustainable solvents, pure glycerol and glycerol triacetate (triacetin) as well as various glycerol-triacetin mixtures were tested as sustainable solvents in several representative organic reactions, such as nucleophilic substitution of benzyl chloride to benzyl acetate, Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of iodobenzene and phenylboronic acid, baker’s yeast reduction of ketones, and transfer hydrogenation of olefins. It was found that reaction performance was affected by the glycerol to triacetin ratio, as the solubility of the substrates in the solvent determined product yield. Thereby, employing optimal glycerol to triacetin ratio resulted in maximum product yield. In addition, using glycerol-based solvents enabled easy and successful separation of the products and recycling of the catalysts.

Keywords: glycerol, green chemistry, sustainability, catalysis

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Authors: L. Obeid, A. Bee, D. Talbot, S. Abramson, M. Welschbillig

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The adsorption process is one of the most efficient methods to remove pollutants from wastewater provided that suitable adsorbents are used. In order to produce environmentally safe adsorbents, natural polymers have received increasing attention in recent years. Thus, alginate and chitosane are extensively used as inexpensive, non-toxic and efficient biosorbents. Alginate is an anionic polysaccharide extracted from brown seaweeds. Chitosan is an amino-polysaccharide; this cationic polymer is obtained by deacetylation of chitin the major constituent of crustaceans. Furthermore, it has been shown that the encapsulation of magnetic materials in alginate and chitosan beads facilitates their recovery from wastewater after the adsorption step, by the use of an external magnetic field gradient, obtained with a magnet or an electromagnet. In the present work, we have studied the adsorption affinity of magnetic alginate beads and magnetic chitosan beads (called magsorbents) for methyl orange (MO) (an anionic dye), methylene blue (MB) (a cationic dye) and p-nitrophenol (PNP) (a hydrophobic pollutant). The effect of different parameters (pH solution, contact time, pollutant initial concentration…) on the adsorption of pollutant on the magnetic beads was investigated. The adsorption of anionic and cationic pollutants is mainly due to electrostatic interactions. Consequently methyl orange is highly adsorbed by chitosan beads in acidic medium and methylene blue by alginate beads in basic medium. In the case of a hydrophobic pollutant, which is weakly adsorbed, we have shown that the adsorption is enhanced by adding a surfactant. Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), a cationic surfactant, was used to increase the adsorption of PNP by magnetic alginate beads. Adsorption of CPC by alginate beads occurs through two mechanisms: (i) electrostatic attractions between cationic head groups of CPC and negative carboxylate functions of alginate; (ii) interaction between the hydrocarbon chains of CPC. The hydrophobic pollutant is adsolubilized within the surface aggregated structures of surfactant. Figure c shows that PNP can reach up to 95% of adsorption in presence of CPC. At highest CPC concentrations, desorption occurs due to the formation of micelles in the solution. Our magsorbents appear to efficiently remove ionic and hydrophobic pollutants and we hope that this fundamental research will be helpful for the future development of magnetically assisted processes in water treatment plants.

Keywords: adsorption, alginate, chitosan, magsorbent, magnetic, organic pollutant

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Authors: K. M. Saif Ur Rahman, Razib Mamun, Himica Arjuman, Fida Al Shams

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Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has become an emerging neurodevelopmental disorder with increasing prevalence. It has become an important public health issue globally. Many approaches including speech and language therapy (SLT), occupational therapy, behavioral therapy etc. are being applied for the betterment of the ASD patients. This study aims to describe the characteristics of ASD patients and perception of caregiver regarding SLT in Bangladesh. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a therapy and rehabilitation center at Dhaka city. Caregivers of 48 ASD patients responded regarding their perception of SLT and characteristics of patients. Results: Among 48 ASD patients, 56.3% were between 3 to 5 years age group with a male predominance (87.5%). More than half of the participants (56.3%) initiated SLT at the age of 1-3 years and the majority (43.8%) were taking SLT for less than 1 year. Majority of the patients (64.6%) were taken to a physician for healthcare as a first contact of which 29.2% were referred to SLT by physicians. More than half (56.3%) of the caregivers were moderately satisfied with SLT and most of them (62.5%) mentioned moderate improvement through SLT. Improvement rate was 10-15% in specific symptoms such as eye contact, complex mannerism, pointing, imitation etc. Conclusion: This study reveals the self-reported perception of caregivers on SLT. Despite reported improvements, more exploration of different approaches and intervention for management of ASD is recommended.

Keywords: ASD, characteristics, SLT, Bangladesh

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Authors: Thi Phuong Chi Nguyen

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Although consumer ethnocentrism has been widely studied in academic research since 1987, somehow it is still considered as a new and unknown concept in marketing theory and practice. By analyzing the content, three mainstreams of consumer ethnocentrism were found including economic, management and marketing approaches. The present study indicated that the link between consumer ethnocentrism and consumer behaviours varies across countries. Consumers in developing countries might be both patriotic about their home countries and curious about foreign cultures at the same time. The most important finding is identifying three main periods in the chronological development of consumer ethnocentrism research. The first period, spanning from 1987 to 1995, was characterized by the introduction of the consumer ethnocentrism concepts and scales, the unidimensionality and the adaptation of the standard CETSCALE version. The second period 1996-2005 witnessed the replication of CETSCALE in various fields, as well as an increase in the volume of researches in developing and emerging countries; the exploration of determinants and the begin of multidimensionality. In the third period from 2006 to present, all variables related to CET were syntherized within the theory of planne behavior. Consumer ethnocentrism analyses were conducted even in less-developed countries and in groups of countries within longitudinal studies. The results from this study showed many inadequacies relating to consumer ethnocentrism in the context of globalisation for further researches to examine.

Keywords: CETSCALE, consumer behavior, consumer ethnocentrism, business, marketing

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Authors: Mojahid F. Saeed Osman

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Repairable items inventory system is a management tool used to incorporate all information concerning inventory levels and movements for repaired and new items. This paper presents development of an effective simulation model for managing the inventory of repairable items for a production system where production lines send their faulty items to a repair shop considering the stochastic failure behavior and repair times. The developed model imitates the process of handling the on-hand inventory of repaired items and the replenishment of the inventory of new items using Economic Order Quantity and Reorder Point ordering policy in a flexible and risk-free environment. We demonstrate the appropriateness and effectiveness of the proposed simulation model using an illustrative case problem. The developed simulation model can be used as a reliable tool for estimating a healthy on-hand inventory of new and repaired items, backordered items, and downtime due to unavailability of repaired items, and validating and examining Economic Order Quantity and Reorder Point ordering policy, which would further be compared with other ordering strategies as future work.

Keywords: inventory system, repairable items, simulation, maintenance, economic order quantity, reorder point

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Authors: Yeliz Yazıcı, Alev Erenler

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School is an institution designed to provide learning, teaching places and environments under guidance of selected teachers. School is not just a place or institution but it is a place where complex and living structures are alive and always changing. It is also an undeniable fact that schools have shaped the ideas, future, society as well as the students and their lives. While this is the situation, schools having academic excellence is considered as successful ones. Academic excellence is a composition of excellence in teachers, management and physical environment, also. This is the general perception of the authorities and parents when the excellence is the point but the school is a developing and supporting organism. In this concept, the main aim of this study is to compare student and teacher perceptions of school as a ‘positive support factor’. The study is designed as a quantitative and qualitative design and a questionnaire is applied to both teachers and students via online and face to face meetings. It is aimed to define the perceptions of the participants related to the school as a positive support factor. It means the role of school in establishing self-efficacy, shaping and acquiring the behavior etc. Gathered data is analyzed via SPSS program and the detailed discussion is carried in the frame of the related literature.

Keywords: positive support factor, education, school, student teacher perception

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Authors: Sophie Huck, Knut Linke

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This study will examine how IT practitioners can be motivated for IT studies and which kind of support they need during their occupational studies. Within this research project, the challenge of supporting students being engaged in business for several years arose. Here, it is especially important to successfully guide them through their studies. The problem of this group is that they finished their school education years ago. In order to gather first experiences, preliminary e-learning courses were introduced and tested with a group of users studying General Management. They had to work with these courses and have been questioned later on about their approach to the different methods. Moreover, a second group of potential students was interviewed with the help of online questionnaires to give information about their expectations regarding extra occupational studies. We also want to present best practices and cases in e-education in the subarea of mathematics and distance learning. Within these cases and practices, we use state of the art systems and technologies in e-education to find a way to increase teaching quality and the success of students. Our research indicated that the first group of enrolled students appreciated the new preliminary e-learning courses. The second group of potential students was convinced of this way of learning as a significant component of extra occupational studies. It can be concluded that this part of the project clarified the acceptance of the e-learning strategy by both groups and led to satisfactory results with the enrolled students.

Keywords: e-learning evaluation, self-learning, virtual classroom, virtual learning environments

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Authors: Mahabub Alam, Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan, M. Hasanuzzaman, M. Ahasanul Hoque

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Animals are transported from one place to another for different purposes in Bangladesh. However, the potential effect of long-distance transport on cattle health has not frequently been studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess health conditions of cattle transported from a long distance to Chittagong in Bangladesh. A total of 100 adult cattle, regardless of breed and sex, were selected at Benapole live cattle market in Jessore between August and September 2015 for the study. Blood samples were taken from 50 randomly selected cattle at 0 hours before transportation, just after transportation, at 12-16 hours post-conclusion of transportation, and 24 hours after transportation. The external health conditions and injuries of the cattle were assessed by close inspection, and the trader was interviewed using the structured questionnaire. Images of cattle injuries were taken with a camera. The basic internal health of the cattle was evaluated using standard hemato-biochemical tests. Animals were fasted and remained standing within a small space allocation (8-10 sq feet/animal) in the vehicle during transportation. Animals were provided only with paddy straw and water prior to selling at the destination market. The overall frequency of cattle injuries varied significantly (26% before vs. 47% after transportation; p < 0.001). The frequency of different cattle injuries also significantly varied by types such as abrasion (11% vs. 21%; p < 0.05) and barbed wire injury (9% vs. 18%; p < 0.05). Single cattle injury differed significantly (21% vs. 36%; p < 0.001). Cattle health conditions varied significantly (nasal discharge: 15% vs. 28%; p < 0.05; diarrhea: 15% vs. 23%; p < 0.05 and severe dehydration: 8% vs. 20%; p < 0.001). The values of hemoglobin (Hb), total erythrocyte count (TEC), total leukocyte count (TLC), lymphocyte (L), neutrophil (N) and eosinophil (E) varied significantly (p ≤ 0.01) (Hb: 11.1mg/dl vs. 12.3mg/dl; TEC: 4.7 million/ml vs. 5.7million/ml; TLC: 6.2 thousand/ml vs. 7.3 thousand/ml; L: 61.7% vs. 58.1%; N: 29.7% vs. 32.8%; E: 3.8% vs. 4.7%). The values of serum total protein (TP), creatine kinase (CK), triglyceride (TG), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) significantly differed (p ≤ 0.05) (TP: 6.8g/dl vs. 8.2g/dl; CK:574.9u/l vs. 1288u/l; TG: 104.7mg/dl vs. 127.7mg/dl; Ca: 11.3mg/dl vs. 13mg/dl; P: 7.3mg/dl vs. 7.6mg/dl; ALP: 303u/l vs. 363u/l). The identified status of external and internal health conditions of the cattle for trading purpose due to long-distance transportation in the present study indicates a high degree of transport stress and poor animal welfare.

Keywords: animal welfare, cattle, external and internal health conditions, transportation

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