Search results for: methane low temperature total oxidation

Authors: T. Arkle, D. Pournaras, S. Lam, B. Kumar

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Introduction: Fundoplication is widely recognised as the best surgical option for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) in the general population. However, there is controversy surrounding the use of conventional fundoplication in obese patients. Whilst the intra-operative failure of fundoplication, including wrap disruption, is reportedly higher in obese individuals, the more significant issue surrounds symptom recurrence post-surgery. Could a bariatric procedure be considered in obese patients for weight management, to treat the GORD, and to also reduce the risk of recurrence? Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a widely performed bariatric procedure, has been shown to be highly successful both in controlling GORD symptoms and in weight management in obese patients. Furthermore, NICE has published clear guidelines on eligibility for bariatric surgery, with the main criteria being type 3 obesity or type 2 obesity with the presence of significant co-morbidities that would improve with weight loss. This study aims to identify the proportion of patients who undergo conventional fundoplication for GORD and/or hiatus hernia, which would have been eligible for bariatric surgery referral according to NICE guidelines. Methods: All patients who underwent fundoplication procedures for GORD and/or hiatus hernia repair at a single NHS foundation trust over a 10-year period will be identified using the Trust’s health records database. Pre-operative patient records will be used to find BMI and the presence of significant co-morbidities at the time of consideration for surgery. This information will be compared to NICE guidelines to determine potential eligibility for the bariatric surgical referral at the time of initial surgical intervention. Results: A total of 321 patients underwent fundoplication procedures between January 2011 and December 2020; 133 (41.4%) had available data for BMI or to allow BMI to be estimated. Of those 133, 40 patients (30%) had a BMI greater than 30kg/m², and 7 (5.3%) had BMI >35kg/m². One patient (0.75%) had a BMI >40 and would therefore be automatically eligible according to NICE guidelines. 4 further patients had significant co-morbidities, such as hypertension and osteoarthritis, which likely be improved by weight management surgery and therefore also indicated eligibility for referral. Overall, 3.75% (5/133) of patients undergoing conventional fundoplication procedures would have been eligible for bariatric surgical referral, these patients were all female, and the average age was 60.4 years. Conclusions: Based on this Trust’s experience, around 4% of obese patients undergoing fundoplication would have been eligible for bariatric surgical intervention. Based on current evidence, in class 2/3 obese patients, there is likely to have been a notable proportion with recurrent disease, potentially requiring further intervention. These patient’s may have benefitted more through undergoing bariatric surgery, for example a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, addressing both their obesity and GORD. Use of patient written notes to obtain BMI data for the 188 patients with missing BMI data and further analysis to determine outcomes following fundoplication in all patients, assessing for incidence of recurrent disease, will be undertaken to strengthen conclusions.

Keywords: bariatric surgery, GORD, Nissen fundoplication, nice guidelines

Procedia PDF Downloads 42

Authors: Umeda Junaydova

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Legal aid is a key element of access to justice. According to UN Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems, state members bear the obligation to put in place accessible, effective, sustainable, and credible legal aid systems. Regarding this obligation, developing countries, such as Tajikistan, faced challenges in terms of financing this system. Thus, many developed nations have launched rule-of-law programs to support these states and ensure access to justice for all. Following independence from the Soviet Union, Tajikistan committed to introducing the rule of law and providing access to justice. This newly established country was weak, and the sudden outbreak of civil war aggravated the situation even more. The country needed external support and opened its door to attract foreign donors to assist it in its way to development. In 2015, Tajikistan, with the financial support of development partners, was able to establish a state-funded legal aid system that provides legal assistance to vulnerable and marginalized populations, including in criminal cases. In the beginning, almost the whole system was financed from donor funds; by that time, the contribution of the government gradually increased, and currently, it covers 80% of the total budget. All these governments' actions toward ensuring access to criminal legal aid for disadvantaged groups look promising; however, the reality is completely different. Currently, not all disadvantaged people are covered by these services, and their cases are most of the time considered without appropriate defense, which leads to violation of fundamental human rights. This research presents a comprehensive exploration of the interplay between donor assistance and the effectiveness of legal aid services in Tajikistan, with a specific focus on criminal cases involving vulnerable groups, such as women and children. In the context of Tajikistan, this study addresses a pressing concern: despite substantial financial support from international donors, state-funded legal aid services often fall short of meeting the needs of poor and vulnerable populations. The study delves into the underlying complexities of this issue and examines the structural, operational, and systemic challenges faced by legal aid providers, shedding light on the factors contributing to the ineffectiveness of legal aid services. Furthermore, it seeks to identify the root causes of these issues, revealing the barriers that hinder the delivery of adequate legal aid services. The research adopts a socio-legal methodology to ensure an appropriate combination of multiple methodologies. The findings of this research hold significant implications for both policymakers and practitioners, offering insights into the enhancement of legal aid services and access to justice for disadvantaged and marginalized populations in Tajikistan. By addressing these pressing questions, this study aims to fill the gap in legal literature and contribute to the development of a more equitable and efficient legal aid system that better serves the needs of the most vulnerable members of society.

Keywords: access to justice, legal aid, rule of law, rights for council

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: Muhammad Younas, Sidra Sawati, M. Razzaq Athar

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Organizational development history reveals that it has ever been a challenge to identify and fathom the role of talent management, career development and compensation management towards employees’ retention and organizational performance. Organizations strive hard to measure the impact of all those factors which affect employee retention and organizational performance. Researchers have worked in great deal in order to know the relationship of independent variables i.e. Talent Management, Career Development and Compensation Management on dependent variables i.e. Employee Retention and Organizational Performance. Employees adorned with latest skills with long lasting loyalty play a significant role towards successful achievement of short term as well as long term goals of the organizations. Retention of valuable and resourceful employees for a longer time is equally essential for meeting the set goals. The organizations which spend reasonable chunk of their resources for taking such measures that help to retain their employees through talent management and satisfactory career development always enjoy a competitive edge over their competitors. Human resource is regarded as one of the most precious and difficult resource to management. It has its own needs and requirement. It becomes an easy prey to monotony when lacks career development. Wants and aspirations of this resource are seldom met completely but can be managed through career development and compensation management. In this era of competition, organizations have to take viable steps to management their resources especially human resource. Top management and Managers keep on working for an amenable solution in order to address the challenges relating career development and compensation management as their ultimate goal is to ensure the organizational performance on optimum level. The current study was conducted to examine the impact of Talent Management, Career Development and Compensation Management towards Employees Retention and Organizational Performance with mediating effect of Employees Motivation in Service Sector of Pakistan. The current study is based on Resource Based View (RBV) and Ability Motivation Opportunity (AMO) theories. It explains that by increasing internal resources we can manage employee talent, career development through compensation management and employee motivation more effectively. It will result in effective execution of HRM practices for employee retention enabling an organization to achieve and sustain competitive advantage through optimal performance. Data collection was made through a structured questionnaire which was based upon adopted instruments after testing reliability and validity. A total 300 employees of 30 firms in service sector of Pakistan were sampled through non-probability sampling technique. Regression analysis revealed that talent management, career development and compensation management have significant positive impact on employee retention and perceived organizational performance. The results further showed that employee motivation have a significant mediating effect on employee retention and organizational performance. The interpretation of the findings and limitations, theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

Keywords: career development, compensation management, employee retention, organizational performance, talent management

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: Mikaela Kutrolli, Noah S. Pereira, Vanessa Scanlon, Mohamadmahdi Samandari, Ali Tamayol

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Bone tissue engineering has drawn significant attention and various biomaterials have been tested. Polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL) offer excellent biocompatibility, reasonable mechanical properties, and biodegradability. However, PCL scaffolds suffer a critical drawback: a lack of micro/mesoporosity, affecting cell attachment, tissue integration, and mineralization. It also results in a slow degradation rate. While 3D-printing has addressed the issue of macroporosity through CAD-guided fabrication, PCL scaffolds still exhibit poor smaller-scale porosity. To overcome this, we generated composites of PCL, hydroxyapatite (HA), and powdered sucrose (PS). The latter serves as a sacrificial material to generate porous particles after sucrose dissolution. Additionally, we have incorporated dexamethasone (DEX) to boost the PCL osteogenic properties. The resulting scaffolds maintain controlled macroporosity from the lattice print structure but also develop micro/mesoporosity within PCL fibers when exposed to aqueous environments. The study involved mixing PS into solvent-dissolved PCL in different weight ratios of PS to PCL (70:30, 50:50, and 30:70 wt%). The resulting composite was used for 3D printing of scaffolds at room temperature. Printability was optimized by adjusting pressure, speed, and layer height through filament collapse and fusion test. Enzymatic degradation, porogen leaching, and DEX release profiles were characterized. Physical properties were assessed using wettability, SEM, and micro-CT to quantify the porosity (percentage, pore size, and interconnectivity). Raman spectroscopy was used to verify the absence of sugar after leaching. Mechanical characteristics were evaluated via compression testing before and after porogen leaching. Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) behavior in the printed scaffolds was studied by assessing viability, metabolic activity, osteo-differentiation, and mineralization. The scaffolds with a 70% sugar concentration exhibited superior printability and reached the highest porosity of 80%, but performed poorly during mechanical testing. A 50% PS concentration demonstrated a 70% porosity, with an average pore size of 25 µm, favoring cell attachment. No trace of sucrose was found in Raman after leaching the sugar for 8 hours. Water contact angle results show improved hydrophilicity as the sugar concentration increased, making the scaffolds more conductive to cell adhesion. The behavior of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) showed positive viability and proliferation results with an increasing trend of mineralization and osteo-differentiation as the sucrose concentration increased. The addition of HA and DEX also promoted mineralization and osteo-differentiation in the cultures. The integration of PS as porogen at a concentration of 50%wt within PCL scaffolds presents a promising approach to address the poor cell attachment and tissue integration issues of PCL in bone tissue engineering. The method allows for the fabrication of scaffolds with tunable porosity and mechanical properties, suitable for various applications. The addition of HA and DEX further enhanced the scaffolds. Future studies will apply the scaffolds in an in-vivo model to thoroughly investigate their performance.

Keywords: bone, PCL, 3D printing, tissue engineering

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Authors: W. Staiano, S. Marcora

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Introduction: It has been proposed that acute negative effect of mental fatigue (MF) could potentially become a training stimulus for the brain (Brain endurance training (BET)) to adapt and improve its ability to attenuate MF states during sport competitions. Purpose: The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of 6 weeks of BET on cognitive and cycling tests in a group of well-trained subjects. We hypothesised that combination of BET and standard physical training (SPT) would increase cognitive capacity and cycling performance by reducing rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and increase resilience to fatigue more than SPT alone. Methods: In a randomized controlled trial design, 26 well trained participants, after a familiarization session, cycled to exhaustion (TTE) at 80% peak power output (PPO) and, after 90 min rest, at 65% PPO, before and after random allocation to a 6 week BET or active placebo control. Cognitive performance was measured using 30 min of STROOP coloured task performed before cycling performance. During the training, BET group performed a series of cognitive tasks for a total of 30 sessions (5 sessions per week) with duration increasing from 30 to 60 min per session. Placebo engaged in a breathing relaxation training. Both groups were monitored for physical training and were naïve to the purpose of the study. Physiological and perceptual parameters of heart rate, lactate (LA) and RPE were recorded during cycling performances, while subjective workload (NASA TLX scale) was measured during the training. Results: Group (BET vs. Placebo) x Test (Pre-test vs. Post-test) mixed model ANOVA’s revealed significant interaction for performance at 80% PPO (p = .038) or 65% PPO (p = .011). In both tests, groups improved their TTE performance; however, BET group improved significantly more compared to placebo. No significant differences were found for heart rate during the TTE cycling tests. LA did not change significantly at rest in both groups. However, at completion of 65% TTE, it was significantly higher (p = 0.043) in the placebo condition compared to BET. RPE measured at ISO-time in BET was significantly lower (80% PPO, p = 0.041; 65% PPO p= 0.021) compared to placebo. Cognitive results in the STROOP task showed that reaction time in both groups decreased at post-test. However, BET decreased significantly (p = 0.01) more compared to placebo despite no differences accuracy. During training sessions, participants in the BET showed, through NASA TLX questionnaires, constantly significantly higher (p < 0.01) mental demand rates compared to placebo. No significant differences were found for physical demand. Conclusion: The results of this study provide evidences that combining BET and SPT seems to be more effective than SPT alone in increasing cognitive and cycling performance in well trained endurance participants. The cognitive overload produced during the 6-week training of BET can induce a reduction in perception of effort at a specific power, and thus improving cycling performance. Moreover, it provides evidence that including neurocognitive interventions will benefit athletes by increasing their mental resilience, without affecting their physical training load and routine.

Keywords: cognitive training, perception of effort, endurance performance, neuro-performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Guilherme M. Pereira, Kimmo Teinïla, Danilo Custódio, Risto Hillamo, Célia Alves, Pérola de C. Vasconcellos

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South American large cities often present serious air pollution problems and their atmosphere composition is influenced by a variety of emissions sources. The South American Emissions Megacities, and Climate project (SAEMC) has focused on the study of emissions and its influence on climate in the South American largest cities and it also included Lima (Peru) and Medellin (Colombia), sites where few studies of the genre were done. Lima is a coastal city with more than 8 million inhabitants and the second largest city in South America. Medellin is a 2.5 million inhabitants city and second largest city in Colombia; it is situated in a valley. The samples were collected in quartz fiber filters in high volume samplers (Hi-Vol), in 24 hours of sampling. The samples were collected in intensive campaigns in both sites, in July, 2010. Several species were determined in the aerosol samples of Lima and Medellin. Organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC) in thermal-optical analysis; biomass burning tracers (levoglucosan - Lev, mannosan - Man and galactosan - Gal) in high-performance anion exchange ion chromatography with mass spectrometer detection; water soluble ions in ion chromatography. The average particulate matter was similar for both campaigns, the PM10 concentrations were above the recommended by World Health Organization (50 µg m⁻³ – daily limit) in 40% of the samples in Medellin, while in Lima it was above that value in 15% of the samples. The average total ions concentration was higher in Lima (17450 ng m⁻³ in Lima and 3816 ng m⁻³ in Medellin) and the average concentrations of sodium and chloride were higher in this site, these species also had better correlations (Pearson’s coefficient = 0,63); suggesting a higher influence of marine aerosol in the site due its location in the coast. Sulphate concentrations were also much higher at Lima site; which may be explained by a higher influence of marine originated sulphate. However, the OC, EC and monosaccharides average concentrations were higher at Medellin site; this may be due to the lower dispersion of pollutants due to the site’s location and a larger influence of biomass burning sources. The levoglucosan average concentration was 95 ng m⁻³ for Medellin and 16 ng m⁻³ and OC was well correlated with levoglucosan (Pearson’s coefficient = 0,86) in Medellin; suggesting a higher influence of biomass burning over the organic aerosol in this site. The Lev/Man ratio is often related to the type of biomass burned and was close to 18, similar to the observed in previous studies done at biomass burning impacted sites in the Amazon region; backward trajectories also suggested the transport of aerosol from that region. Biomass burning appears to have a larger influence on the air quality in Medellin, in addition the vehicular emissions; while Lima showed a larger influence of marine aerosol during the study period.

Keywords: aerosol transport, atmospheric particulate matter, biomass burning, SAEMC project

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Anna Drabczyk, Sonia Kudlacik-Kramarczyk, Dagmara Malina, Bozena Tyliszczak, Agnieszka Sobczak-Kupiec

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Nowadays, nano-size materials are very popular group of materials among scientists. What is more, these materials find an application in a wide range of various areas. Therefore constantly increasing demand for nanomaterials including metallic nanoparticles such as silver of gold ones is observed. Therefore, new routes of their preparation are sought. Considering potential application of nanoparticles, it is important to select an adequate methodology of their preparation because it determines their size and shape. Among the most commonly applied methods of preparation of nanoparticles chemical and electrochemical techniques are leading. However, currently growing attention is directed into the biological or biochemical aspects of syntheses of metallic nanoparticles. This is associated with a trend of developing of new routes of preparation of given compounds according to the principles of green chemistry. These principles involve e.g. the reduction of the use of toxic compounds in the synthesis as well as the reduction of the energy demand or minimization of the generated waste. As a result, a growing popularity of the use of such components as natural plant extracts, infusions or essential oils is observed. Such natural substances may be used both as a reducing agent of metal ions and as a stabilizing agent of formed nanoparticles therefore they can replace synthetic compounds previously used for the reduction of metal ions or for the stabilization of obtained nanoparticles suspension. Methods that proceed in the presence of previously mentioned natural compounds are environmentally friendly and proceed without the application of any toxic reagents. Methodology: Presented research involves preparation of silver nanoparticles using selected plant extracts, e.g. artichoke extract. Extracts of natural origin were used as reducing and stabilizing agents at the same time. Furthermore, syntheses were carried out in the presence of additional polymeric stabilizing agent. Next, such features of obtained suspensions of nanoparticles as total antioxidant activity as well as content of phenolic compounds have been characterized. First of the mentioned studies involved the reaction with DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical. The content of phenolic compounds was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu technique. Furthermore, an essential issue was also the determining of the stability of formed suspensions of nanoparticles. Conclusions: In the research it was demonstrated that metallic nanoparticles may be obtained using plant extracts or infusions as stabilizing or reducing agent. The methodology applied, i.e. a type of plant extract used during the synthesis, had an impact on the content of phenolic compounds as well as on the size and polydispersity of obtained nanoparticles. What is more, it is possible to prepare nano-size particles that will be characterized by properties desirable from the viewpoint of their potential application and such an effect may be achieved with the use of non-toxic reagents of natural origin. Furthermore, proposed methodology stays in line with the principles of green chemistry.

Keywords: green chemistry principles, metallic nanoparticles, plant extracts, stabilization of nanoparticles

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Iris Xiaohong Quan, Sharon Qi, Kelly Tianqin Shi

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This study focuses on the critical role of insurance policies in a world grappling with increasing mental health challenges, as they significantly influence the dynamics of healthcare businesses and entrepreneurial ventures. The paper utilizes the mental health sector as a case to examine the impact of insurance policies on healthcare service providers, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking mental health support. This paper addressed the following research questions: To what extent do changes in insurance reimbursement policies affect the accessibility and affordability of mental health services for patients, and how does this impact the overall demand for such services? What are the barriers and opportunities that mental health entrepreneurs face and what strategies and adaptations do mental health businesses employ when navigating the evolving landscape of insurance reimbursement policies? How do changes in insurance reimbursement policies, specifically related to mental health services, influence the financial viability and sustainability of mental health clinics and private practices? Employing a self-designed survey aimed at autism spectrum disorder (ASD) treatment companies, alongside two in-depth case studies and an analysis of pertinent insurance policies and documents, this research aims to elucidate the multifaceted influence of insurance policies on the mental health industry. The findings from this study reveal how insurance policies shape the landscape of mental health businesses and their operations. A total of 821 autism treatment organizations or offices were contacted by telephone between November 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020. About half of the offices (53.33%) were established in the past five years, and 80% were established in the past 15 years. There is a significant increase in the establishment of ABA service centers in the recent two decades as a result of autism insurance reform, the increasing social awareness of ASD, and the redefinition of autism. In addition, almost half of the ABA service providers we surveyed had a patient size ranging from 20 to 50 in the year when the residence state passed the legislation for autism insurance coverage. On average, an ABA service provider works with 5.3 insurance companies. This research find that insurance is the main source of revenue for most ABA service providers. However, our survey reveals that clients’ out of pocket payment has been the second main revenue sources. Despite the changes of regulations and insurance policies in all states, clients still have to pay a fraction of, if not all, the ABA treatment service fees out of pocket. This research shows that some ABA service providers seek federal and government funds and grants to support their services and businesses. Our further analysis with the in-depth case studies and other secondary data also indicate the rise of entrepreneurial startups in the mental health industry. Overall, this research sheds light on both the challenges and opportunities presented by insurance policies in the mental health sector, offering insights into the new industry landscape.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, healthcare policy, insurance policy, mental health industry

Procedia PDF Downloads 41

Authors: Daniel Martin Fellows, Sean P. Walton, Jennifer Thompson, Oubay Hassan, Ella Quigley, Kevin Tinkham

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Fire performance is a crucial aspect to consider when designing cladding products, and testing this performance is extremely expensive. Appropriate use of numerical simulation of fire performance has the potential to reduce the total number of fire tests required when designing a product by eliminating poor-performing design ideas early in the design phase. Due to the complexity of fire and the large spectrum of failures it can cause, multi-disciplinary models are needed to capture the complex fire behavior and its structural effects on its surroundings. Working alongside Tata Steel U.K., the authors have focused on completing a coupled CFD-FEA simulation model suited to test Polyisocyanurate (PIR) based sandwich panel products to gain confidence before costly experimental standards testing. The sandwich panels are part of a thermally insulating façade system primarily for large non-domestic buildings. The work presented in this paper compares two coupling methodologies of a replicated physical experimental standards test LPS 1181-1, carried out by Tata Steel U.K. The two coupling methodologies that are considered within this research are; one-way and two-way. A one-way coupled analysis consists of importing thermal data from the CFD solver into the FEA solver. A two-way coupling analysis consists of continuously importing the updated changes in thermal data, due to the fire's behavior, to the FEA solver throughout the simulation. Likewise, the mechanical changes will also be updated back to the CFD solver to include geometric changes within the solution. For CFD calculations, a solver called Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) has been chosen due to its adapted numerical scheme to focus solely on fire problems. Validation of FDS applicability has been achieved in past benchmark cases. In addition, an FEA solver called ABAQUS has been chosen to model the structural response to the fire due to its crushable foam plasticity model, which can accurately model the compressibility of PIR foam. An open-source code called FDS-2-ABAQUS is used to couple the two solvers together, using several python modules to complete the process, including failure checks. The coupling methodologies and experimental data acquired from Tata Steel U.K are compared using several variables. The comparison data includes; gas temperatures, surface temperatures, and mechanical deformation of the panels. Conclusions are drawn, noting improvements to be made on the current coupling open-source code FDS-2-ABAQUS to make it more applicable to Tata Steel U.K sandwich panel products. Future directions for reducing the computational cost of the simulation are also considered.

Keywords: fire engineering, numerical coupling, sandwich panels, thermo fluids

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Authors: Yiea Funk Te, Daniel Mueller, Irena Pletikosa Cvijikj

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy of many countries. When the overall world economy is considered, SMEs represent 95% of all businesses in the world, accounting for 66% of the total employment. Existing studies show that the current business environment is characterized as highly turbulent and strongly influenced by modern information and communication technologies, thus forcing SMEs to experience more severe challenges in maintaining their existence and expanding their business. To support SMEs at improving their competitiveness, researchers recently turned their focus on applying data mining techniques to build risk and growth prediction models. However, data used to assess risk and growth indicators is primarily obtained via questionnaires, which is very laborious and time-consuming, or is provided by financial institutes, thus highly sensitive to privacy issues. Recently, web mining (WM) has emerged as a new approach towards obtaining valuable insights in the business world. WM enables automatic and large scale collection and analysis of potentially valuable data from various online platforms, including companies’ websites. While WM methods have been frequently studied to anticipate growth of sales volume for e-commerce platforms, their application for assessment of SME risk and growth indicators is still scarce. Considering that a vast proportion of SMEs own a website, WM bears a great potential in revealing valuable information hidden in SME websites, which can further be used to understand SME risk and growth indicators, as well as to enhance current SME risk and growth prediction models. This study aims at developing an automated system to collect business-relevant data from the Web and predict future growth trends of SMEs by means of WM and data mining techniques. The envisioned system should serve as an 'early recognition system' for future growth opportunities. In an initial step, we examine how structured and semi-structured Web data in governmental or SME websites can be used to explain the success of SMEs. WM methods are applied to extract Web data in a form of additional input features for the growth prediction model. The data on SMEs provided by a large Swiss insurance company is used as ground truth data (i.e. growth-labeled data) to train the growth prediction model. Different machine learning classification algorithms such as the Support Vector Machine, Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network are applied and compared, with the goal to optimize the prediction performance. The results are compared to those from previous studies, in order to assess the contribution of growth indicators retrieved from the Web for increasing the predictive power of the model.

Keywords: data mining, SME growth, success factors, web mining

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Authors: P. M. Natarajan, Shambhu Kallolikar, S. Ganesh

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By size and volume of water, Ganges River basin is the biggest among the fourteen major river basins in India. By Hindu’s faith, it is the main ‘holy river’ in this nation. But, of late, the pollution load, both domestic and industrial sources are deteriorating the surface and groundwater as well as land resources and hence the environment of the Ganges River basin is under threat. Seeing this scenario, the Indian government began to reclaim this river by two Ganges Action Plans I and II since 1986 by spending Rs. 2,747.52 crores ($457.92 million). But the result was no improvement in the water quality of the river and groundwater and environment even after almost three decades of reclamation, and hence now the New Indian Government is taking extra care to rejuvenate this river and allotted Rs. 2,037 cores ($339.50 million) in 2014 and Rs. 20,000 crores ($3,333.33 million) in 2015. The reasons for the poor water quality and stinking environment even after three decades of reclamation of the river are either no treatment/partial treatment of the sewage. Hence, now the authors are suggesting a tertiary level treatment standard of sewages of all sources and origins of the Ganges River basin and recycling the entire treated water for nondomestic uses. At 20million litres per day (MLD) capacity of each sewage treatment plant (STP), this basin needs about 2020 plants to treat the entire sewage load. Cost of the STPs is Rs. 3,43,400 million ($5,723.33 million) and the annual maintenance cost is Rs. 15,352 million ($255.87 million). The advantages of the proposed exercise are: we can produce a volume of 1,769.52 million m³ of biogas. Since biogas is energy, can be used as a fuel, for any heating purpose, such as cooking. It can also be used in a gas engine to convert the energy in the gas into electricity and heat. It is possible to generate about 3,539.04 million kilowatt electricity per annum from the biogas generated in the process of wastewater treatment in Ganges basin. The income generation from electricity works out to Rs 10,617.12million ($176.95million). This power can be used to bridge the supply and demand gap of energy in the power hungry villages where 300million people are without electricity in India even today, and to run these STPs as well. The 664.18 million tonnes of sludge generated by the treatment plants per annum can be used in agriculture as manure with suitable amendments. By arresting the pollution load the 187.42 cubic kilometer (km³) of groundwater potential of the Ganges River basin could be protected from deterioration. Since we can recycle the sewage for non-domestic purposes, about 14.75km³ of fresh water per annum can be conserved for future use. The total value of the water saving per annum is Rs.22,11,916million ($36,865.27million) and each citizen of Ganges River basin can save Rs. 4,423.83/ ($73.73) per annum and Rs. 12.12 ($0.202) per day by recycling the treated water for nondomestic uses. Further the environment of this basin could be kept clean by arresting the foul smell as well as the 3% of greenhouse gages emission from the stinking waterways and land. These are the ways to reclaim the waterways of Ganges River basin from deterioration.

Keywords: Holy Ganges River, lifeline of India, wastewater treatment and management, making Ganges permanently holy

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Mudasir Ahmad Syed, Raashid Ahmd Wani, Mashooq Ahmad Dar, Uneeb Urwat, Riaz Ahmad Shah, Nazir Ahmad Ganai

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Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (Salmonella Typhimurium) is a primary avian pathogen responsible for severe intestinal pathology in younger chickens and economic losses. However, the Salmonella Typhimurium is also able to cause infection in humans, described by typhoid fever and acute gastro-intestinal disease. A study was conducted at days to investigate pathological, histopathological, haemato-biochemical, immunological and expression kinetics of NRAMP (natural resistance associated macrophage protein) gene family (NRAMP1 and NRAMP2) in broiler chickens following experimental infection of Salmonella Typhimurium at 0,1,3,5,7,9,11,13 and 15 days respectively. Infection was developed in birds through oral route at 2×108 CFU/ml. Clinical symptoms appeared 4 days post infection (dpi) and after one-week birds showed progressive weakness, anorexia, diarrhea and lowering of head. On postmortem examination, liver showed congestion, hemorrhage and necrotic foci on surface, while as spleen, lungs and intestines revealed congestion and hemorrhages. Histopathological alterations were principally observed in liver in second week post infection. Changes in liver comprised of congestion, areas of necrosis, reticular endothelial hyperplasia in association with mononuclear cell and heterophilic infiltration. Hematological studies confirm a significant decrease (P<0.05) in RBC count, Hb concentration and PCV. White blood cell count showed significant increase throughout the experimental study. An increase in heterophils was found up to 7dpi and a decreased pattern was observed afterwards. Initial lymphopenia followed by lymphocytosis was found in infected chicks. Biochemical studies showed a significant increase in glucose, AST and ALT concentration and a significant decrease (P<0.05) in total protein and albumin level in the infected group. Immunological studies showed higher titers of IgG in infected group as compared to control group. The real time gene expression of NRAMPI and NRAMP2 genes increased significantly (P<0.05) in infected group as compared to controls. The peak expression of NRAMP1 gene was seen in liver, spleen and caecum of infected birds at 3dpi, 5dpi and 7dpi respectively, while as peak expression of NRAMP2 gene in liver, spleen and caecum of infected chicken was seen at 9dpi, 5dpi and 9dpi respectively. This study has role in diagnostics and prognostics in the poultry industry for the detection of salmonella infections at early stages of poultry development.

Keywords: biochemistry, histopathology, NRAMP, poultry, real time expression, Salmonella Typhimurium

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Authors: Md Shafiqul Bari, Md Shafiqul Islam Sikdar

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This paper summarizes the current knowledge on Agroforestry practices in the Barind tract of Bangladesh. The part of greater Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur and Bogra district of Bangladesh is geographically identified as the Barind tract. The hard red soil of these areas is very significant in comparison to that of the other parts of the country. A typical dry climate with comparatively high temperature prevails in the Barind area. Scanty rainfall and excessive extraction of groundwater have created an alarming situation among the Barind people and others about irrigation to the rice field. In addition, the situation may cause an adverse impact on the people whose livelihood largely depends on agriculture. The groundwater table has been declined by at least 10 to 15 meters in some areas of the Barind tract during the last 20 years. Due to absent of forestland in the Barind tract, the soil organic carbon content can decrease more rapidly because of the higher rate of decomposition. The Barind soils are largely carbon depleted but can be brought back to carbon-carrying capacity by bringing under suitable Agroforestry systems. Agroforestry has tremendous potential for carbon sequestration not only in above C biomass but also root C biomass in deeper soil depths. Agroforestry systems habitually conserve soil organic carbon and maintain a great natural nutrient pool. Cultivation of trees with arable crops under Agroforestry systems help in improving soil organic carbon content and sequestration carbon, particularly in the highly degraded Barind lands. Agroforestry systems are a way of securing the growth of cash crops that may constitute an alternative source of income in moments of crisis. Besides being a source of fuel wood, a greater presence of trees in cropping system contributes to decreasing temperatures and to increasing rainfall, thus contrasting the negative environmental impact of climate changes. In order to fulfill the objectives of this study, two experiments were conducted. The first experiment was survey on the impact of existing agroforestry system on the livelihood security in the Barind tract of Bangladesh and the second one was the role of agroforestry system on the improvement of soil properties in a multilayered coconut orchard. Agroforestry systems have been generated a lot of employment opportunities in the Barind area. More crops mean involvement of more people in various activities like involvements in dairying, sericulture, apiculture and additional associated agro-based interventions. Successful adoption of Agroforestry practices in the Barind area has shown that the Agroforestry practitioners of this area were very sound positioned economically, and had added social status too. However, from the findings of the present study, it may be concluded that the majority rural farmers of the Barind tract of Bangladesh had a very good knowledge and medium extension contact related to agroforestry production system. It was also observed that 85 per cent farmers followed agroforestry production system and received benefits to a higher extent. Again, from the research study on orchard based mutistoried agroforestry cropping system, it was evident that there was an important effect of agroforestry cropping systems on the improvement of soil chemical properties. As a result, the agroforestry systems may be helpful to attain the development objectives and preserve the biosphere core.

Keywords: agroforestry systems, Barind tract, carbon sequestration, climate changes

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Authors: Sudipto Sarkar, Anamika Paul

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Pseudoplastic (n<1, n is the power index) fluids have great importance in food, pharmaceutical and chemical process industries which require a lot of attention. Unfortunately, due to its complex flow behavior inadequate research works can be found even in laminar flow regime. A practical problem is solved in the present research work by numerical simulation where we tried to control the vortex shedding from a square cylinder using a horizontal splitter plate placed at the downstream flow region. The position of the plate is at the centerline of the cylinder with varying distance from the cylinder to calculate the critical gap-ratio. If the plate is placed inside this critical gap, the vortex shedding from the cylinder suppressed completely. The Reynolds number considered here is in unsteady laminar vortex shedding regime, Re = 100 (Re = U∞a/ν, where U∞ is the free-stream velocity of the flow, a is the side of the cylinder and ν is the maximum value of kinematic viscosity of the fluid). Flow behavior has been studied for three different gap-ratios (G/a = 2, 2.25 and 2.5, where G is the gap between cylinder and plate) and for a fluid with three different flow behavior indices (n =1, 0.8 and 0.5). The flow domain is constructed using Gambit 2.2.30 and this software is also used to generate the mesh and to impose the boundary conditions. For G/a = 2, the domain size is considered as 37.5a × 16a with 316 × 208 grid points in the streamwise and flow-normal directions respectively after a thorough grid independent study. Fine and equal grid spacing is used close to the geometry to capture the vortices shed from the cylinder and the boundary layer developed over the flat plate. Away from the geometry meshes are unequal in size and stretched out. For other gap-ratios, proportionate domain size and total grid points are used with similar kind of mesh distribution. Velocity inlet (u = U∞), pressure outlet (Neumann condition), symmetry (free-slip boundary condition) at upper and lower domain boundary conditions are used for the simulation. Wall boundary condition (u = v = 0) is considered both on the cylinder and the splitter plate surfaces. Discretized forms of fully conservative 2-D unsteady Navier Stokes equations are then solved by Ansys Fluent 14.5. SIMPLE algorithm written in finite volume method is selected for this purpose which is a default solver inculcate in Fluent. The results obtained for Newtonian fluid flow agree well with previous works supporting Fluent’s usefulness in academic research. A thorough analysis of instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields are depicted both for Newtonian and pseudoplastic fluid flow. It has been observed that as the value of n reduces the stretching of shear layers also reduce and these layers try to roll up before the plate. For flow with high pseudoplasticity (n = 0.5) the nature of vortex shedding changes and the value of critical gap-ratio reduces. These are the remarkable findings for laminar periodic vortex shedding regime in pseudoplastic flow environment.

Keywords: CFD, pseudoplastic fluid flow, wake-boundary layer interactions, critical gap-ratio

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Authors: Ayoti Banerjee, Meenakshi Banerjee

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The study of metamorphic reaction textures is important in contributing to our understanding of the evolution of metamorphic terranes. Where preserved, they provide information on changes in the P-T conditions during the metamorphic history of the rock, and thus allow us to speculate on the P-T-t evolution of the terrane. Mafic dykes have attracted the attention of petrologists because they act as window to mantle. This rock represents a mafic dyke of doleritic composition. It is fine to medium grained in which clinopyroxene are enclosed by the lath shaped plagioclase grains to form spectacular ophitic texture. At places, sub ophitic texture was also observed. Grains of pyroxene and plagioclase show very less deformation typically plagioclase showing deformed lamella along with plagioclase-clinopyroxene-phyric granoblastic fabric within a groundmass of feldspar microphenocrysts and Fe–Ti oxides. Both normal and reverse zoning were noted in the plagioclase laths. The clinopyroxene grains contain exsolved phases such as orthopyroxene, plagioclase, magnetite, ilmenite along the cleavage traces and the orthopyroxene lamella form granules in the periphery of the clinopyroxene grains. Garnet corona also develops preferentially around plagioclase at the contact of clinopyroxene, ilmenite or magnetite. Tiny quartz and K-fs grains showed symplectic intergrowth with garnet at a few places. The product quartz formed along with garnet rims the coronal garnet and the reacting clinopyroxene. Thin amphibole corona formed along the periphery of deformed plagioclase and clinopyroxene occur as patches over the magmatic minerals. The amphibole coronas cannot be assigned to a late magmatic stage and are interpreted as reactive being restricted to the contact between clinopyroxene and plagioclase, thus postdating the crystallization of both. The amphibole and garnet do not share grain boundary in the entire rock and is thus pointing towards simultaneous crystallization. Olivine is absent. Spectacular myrmekitic growth of orthoclase and quartz rimming the plagioclase is consistent with the potash metasomatic effects that is also found in other rocks of this region. These textural features are consistent with a phase of fluid induced metamorphism (retrogression). But the appearance of coronal garnet and amphibole exclusive of each other reflects the participation if Ti as the prime reason. Presence of Ti as a reactant phase is a must for amphibole forming reactions whereas it is not so in case of garnet forming reactions although the reactants are the same plagioclase and clinopyroxene in both cases. These findings are well validated by petrographical and textural analysis. In order to obtain balanced chemical reactions that explain formation of amphibole and garnet in the mafic dyke rocks a matrix operation technique called Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) was adopted utilizing the measured chemical compositions of the minerals. The computer program C-Space was used for this purpose and the required compositional matrix. Data fed to C-Space was after doing cation-calculation of the oxide percentages obtained from EPMA analysis. The Garnet-Clinopyroxene geothermometer yielded a temperature of 650 degrees Celsius. The Garnet-Clinopyroxene-Plagioclase geobarometer and Al-in amphibole yielded roughly 7.5 kbar pressure.

Keywords: corona, dolerite, geothermometer, metasomatism, metamorphic reaction texture, retrogression

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Authors: Xabier Barandiaran, Igone Guerra

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The economic and financial crisis that hit European countries in 2008 revealed the inability of governments to respond unilaterally to the so-called “wicked” problems that affect our societies. Closely linked to this, the increasing disaffection of citizens towards politics has resulted in growing distrust of the citizenry not only in the institutions in general but also in the political system, in particular. Precisely, these two factors provoked the action of the local government of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country) to move from old ways of “doing politics” to a new way of “thinking politics” based on a collaborative approach, in which innovative modes of public decision making are prominent. In this context, in 2015, the initiative Etorkizuna Eraikiz (Building the Future), a contemporary form of networked governance, was launched by the Provincial Government. The paper focuses on the Etorkizuna Eraikiz initiative, a sound commitment from a local government to build jointly with the citizens the future of the territory. This paper will present preliminary results obtained from three different experiences of co-creation developed within Etorkizuna Eraikiz in which the formulation of networked governance is a mandatory pre-requisite. These experiences show how the network building approach among the different agents of the territory as well as the co-creation of public policies is the cornerstone of this challenging mission. Through the analysis of the information and documentation gathered during the four years of Etorkizuna-Eraikiz, and, specifically by delving into the strategy promoted by the initiative, some emerging analytical conclusions resulting from the promotion of this collaborative culture will be presented. For example, some preliminary results have shown a significant positive relationship between shared leadership and the formulation of the public good. In the period 2016-2018, a total of 73 projects were launched and funding by the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa within the Etorkizuna Eraikiz initiative, that indicates greater engagement of the citizenry in the process of policy-making and therefore improving, somehow, the quality of the public policies. These statements have been supported by the last survey about the perspectives of the citizens toward politics and policies. Some of the more prominent results show us that there is still a high level of distrust in Politics (78,9% of respondents) but a greater trust in institutions such the Political Government of Gipuzkoa (40,8% of respondents declared as “good” the performance of this provincial institution). Regarding the Etorkizuna Eraikiz Initiative, it is being more readily recognized by citizens over this period of time (25,4% of the respondents in June 2018 agreed to know about the initiative giving it a mark of 5,89 ) and thus build trust and a sense of ownership. Although, there is a clear requirement for further research on the linkages between collaborative governance and level of trust, the paper, based on these findings, will provide some managerial and theoretical implications for collaborative governance in the territory.

Keywords: network governance, collaborative governance, public sector innovation, citizen participation, trust

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Authors: Miguel Chen Austin, Denis Bruneau, Alain Sempey, Laurent Mora, Alain Sommier

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An experimental study in a Plus Energy House (PEH) prototype was conducted in August 2016. It aimed to highlight the energy charge and discharge of a concrete-slab floor submitted to the day-night-cycles heat exchanges in the southwestern part of France and to identify the heat transfer phenomena that take place in both processes: charge and discharge. The main features of this PEH, significant to this study, are the following: (i) a non-active slab covering the major part of the entire floor surface of the house, which include a concrete layer 68 mm thick as upper layer; (ii) solar window shades located on the north and south facades along with a large eave facing south, (iii) large double-glazed windows covering the majority of the south facade, (iv) a natural ventilation system (NVS) composed by ten automatized openings with different dimensions: four are located on the south facade, four on the north facade and two on the shed roof (north-oriented). To highlight the energy charge and discharge processes of the non-active slab, heat flux and temperature measurement techniques were implemented, along with airspeed measurements. Ten “measurement-poles” (MP) were distributed all over the concrete-floor surface. Each MP represented a zone of measurement, where air and surface temperatures, and convection and radiation heat fluxes, were intended to be measured. The airspeed was measured only at two points over the slab surface, near the south facade. To identify the heat transfer phenomena that take part in the charge and discharge process, some relevant dimensionless parameters were used, along with statistical analysis; heat transfer phenomena were identified based on this analysis. Experimental data, after processing, had shown that two periods could be identified at a glance: charge (heat gain, positive values) and discharge (heat losses, negative values). During the charge period, on the floor surface, radiation heat exchanges were significantly higher compared with convection. On the other hand, convection heat exchanges were significantly higher than radiation, in the discharge period. Spatially, both, convection and radiation heat exchanges are higher near the natural ventilation openings and smaller far from them, as expected. Experimental correlations have been determined using a linear regression model, showing the relation between the Nusselt number with relevant parameters: Peclet, Rayleigh, and Richardson numbers. This has led to the determination of the convective heat transfer coefficient and its comparison with the convective heat coefficient resulting from measurements. Results have shown that forced and natural convection coexists during the discharge period; more accurate correlations with the Peclet number than with the Rayleigh number, have been found. This may suggest that forced convection is stronger than natural convection. Yet, airspeed levels encountered suggest that it is natural convection that should take place rather than forced convection. Despite this, Richardson number values encountered indicate otherwise. During the charge period, air-velocity levels might indicate that none air motion occurs, which might lead to heat transfer by diffusion instead of convection.

Keywords: heat flux measurement, natural ventilation, non-active concrete slab, plus energy house

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Authors: Suikinai Nobre Santos, Ranko Gacesa, Paul F. Long, Itamar Soares de Melo

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Extremophilic microorganism are adapted to biotopes combining several stress factors (temperature, pressure, radiation, salinity and pH), which indicate the richness valuable resource for the exploitation of novel biotechnological processes and constitute unique models for investigations their biomolecules (1, 2). The above information encourages us investigate bioprospecting synthesized compounds by a noval actinomycete, designated thermotolerant Streptomyces caatingaensis CMAA 1322, isolated from sample soil tropical dry forest (Caatinga) in the Brazilian semiarid region (3-17°S and 35-45°W). This set of constrating physical and climatic factores provide the unique conditions and a diversity of well adapted species, interesting site for biotechnological purposes. Preliminary studies have shown the great potential in the production of cytotoxic, pesticidal and antimicrobial molecules (3). Thus, to extend knowledge of the genes clusters responsible for producing biosynthetic pathways of natural products in strain CMAA1322, whole-genome shotgun (WGS) DNA sequencing was performed using paired-end long sequencing with PacBio RS (Pacific Biosciences). Genomic DNA was extracted from a pure culture grown overnight on LB medium using the PureLink genomic DNA kit (Life Technologies). An approximately 3- to 20-kb-insert PacBio library was constructed and sequenced on an 8 single-molecule real-time (SMRT) cell, yielding 116,269 reads (average length, 7,446 bp), which were allocated into 18 contigs, with 142.11x coverage and N50 value of 20.548 bp (BioProject number PRJNA288757). The assembled data were analyzed by Rapid Annotations using Subsystems Technology (RAST) (4) the genome size was found to be 7.055.077 bp, comprising 6167 open reading frames (ORFs) and 413 subsystems. The G+C content was estimated to be 72 mol%. The closest-neighbors tool, available in RAST through functional comparison of the genome, revealed that strain CMAA1322 is more closely related to Streptomyces hygroscopicus ATCC 53653 (similarity score value, 537), S. violaceusniger Tu 4113 (score value, 483), S. avermitilis MA-4680 (score value, 475), S. albus J1074 (score value, 447). The Streptomyces sp. CMAA1322 genome contains 98 tRNA genes and 135 genes copies related to stress response, mainly osmotic stress (14), heat shock (16), oxidative stress (49). Functional annotation by antiSMASH version 3.0 (5) identified 41 clusters for secondary metabolites (including two clusters for lanthipeptides, ten clusters for nonribosomal peptide synthetases [NRPS], three clusters for siderophores, fourteen for polyketide synthetase [PKS], six clusters encoding a terpene, two clusters encoding a bacteriocin, and one cluster encoding a phenazine). Our work provide in comparative analyse of genome and extract produced (data no published) by lineage CMAA1322, revealing the potential of microorganisms accessed from extreme environments as Caatinga” to produce a wide range of biotechnological relevant compounds.

Keywords: caatinga, streptomyces, environmental stresses, biosynthetic pathways

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Authors: Kim Hyekyoung, Au Yunkyung

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As media plays an increasingly important role in our lives, the age at which media usage begins is getting younger worldwide. Particularly, young children are exposed to media at an early age, making early childhood media literacy education an essential task. However, most existing early childhood media literacy education programs focus solely on teaching children how to use media, and practical implementation and application are challenging. Therefore, this study aims to develop a play-based early childhood media literacy education program utilizing topic-based media content and explore the potential application and impact of this program on young children's media literacy learning. Based on theoretical and literature review on media literacy education, analysis of existing educational programs, and a survey on the current status and teacher perceptions of media literacy education for preschool children, this study developed a media literacy education program for preschool children, considering the components of media literacy (understanding media characteristics, self-regulation, self-expression, critical understanding, ethical norms, and social communication). To verify the effectiveness of the program, 20 preschool children aged 5 from C City M Kindergarten were chosen as participants, and the program was implemented from March 28th to July 4th, 2022, once a week for a total of 7 sessions. The program was developed based on Gallenstain's (2003) iterative learning model (participation-exploration-explanation-extension-evaluation). To explore the quantitative changes before and after the program, a repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted, and qualitative analysis was employed to examine the observed process changes. It was found that after the application of the education program, media literacy levels such as understanding media characteristics, self-regulation, self-expression, critical understanding, ethical norms, and social communication significantly improved. The recursive learning-based early childhood media literacy education program developed in this study can be effectively applied to young children's media literacy education and help enhance their media literacy levels. In terms of observed process changes, it was confirmed that children learned about various topics, expressed their thoughts, and improved their ability to communicate with others using media content. These findings emphasize the importance of developing and implementing media literacy education programs and can contribute to empowering young children to safely and effectively utilize media in their media environment. The results of this study, exploring the potential application and impact of the recursive learning-based early childhood media literacy education program on young children's media literacy learning, demonstrated positive changes in young children's media literacy levels. These results go beyond teaching children how to use media and can help foster their ability to safely and effectively utilize media in their media environment. Additionally, to enhance young children's media literacy levels and create a safe media environment, diverse content and methodologies are needed, and the continuous development and evaluation of education programs should be conducted.

Keywords: young children, media literacy, recursive learning, education program

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Authors: Li Shuping, Shu Huaping, Yi Chaofan, Tao Jiang

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Equestrian practice is often considered having a unique effect on improving symptoms in children with autism. This study evaluated and measured the changes in daily behavior, morphological, physical function, and fitness indexes of two group children with autism by means of 12 weeks of equestrian and basketball exercises. 19 clinically diagnosed children with moderate/mild autism were randomly divided into equestrian group (9 children, age=10.11±1.90y) and basketball group (10 children, age=10.70±2.16y). Both the equestrian and basketball groups practiced twice a week for 45 to 60 minutes each time. Three scales, the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Clancy Autism Behavior Scale (CABS) were used to assess their human behavior and psychology. Four morphological, seven physical function and fitness indicators were measured to evaluate the effects of the two exercises on the children’s body. The evaluations were taken by every four weeks ( pre-exercise, the 4th week, the 8th week and 12th week (post exercise). The result showed that the total scores of ABC, CARS and CABS, the dimension scores of ABC on the somatic motor, language and life self-care obtained after exercise were significantly lower than those obtained before 12 week exercises in both groups. The ABC feeling dimension scores of equestrian group and ABC communication dimension score of basketball group were significantly lower,and The upper arm circumference, sitting forward flexion, 40 second sit-up, 15s lateral jump, vital capacity, and single foot standing of both groups were significantly higher than that of before exercise.. The BMI of equestrian group was significantly reduced. The handgrip strength of basketball group was significantly increased. In conclusion, both types of exercises could improve daily behavior, morphological, physical function, and fitness indexes of the children with autism. However, the behavioral psychological scores, body morphology and function indicators and time points were different in the middle and back of the two interventions.But the indicators and the timing of the improvement were different. To the group of equestrian, the improvement of the flexibility occurred at week 4, the improvement of the sensory perception, control and use their own body, and promote the development of core strength endurance, coordination and cardiopulmonary function occurred at week 8，and the improvement of core strength endurance, coordination and cardiopulmonary function occurred at week 12. To the group of basketball, the improvement of the hand strength, balance, flexibility and cardiopulmonary function occurred at week 4, the improvement of the self-care ability and language expression ability, and core strength endurance and coordination occurred at week 8, the improvement of the control and use of their own body and social interaction ability occurred at week 12. In comparison of the exercise effects, the equestrian exercise improved the physical control and application ability appeared earlier than that of basketball group. Basketball exercise improved the language expression ability, self-care ability, balance ability and cardiopulmonary function of autistic children appeared earlier than that of equestrian group.

Keywords: intervention, children with autism, equestrain, basketball

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Authors: Javier Carroquino, Nieves García-Casarejos, Pilar Gargallo, F. Javier García-Ramos

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The energy used in agriculture is a source of global emissions of greenhouse gases. The two main types of this energy are electricity for pumping and diesel for agricultural machinery. In order to reduce these emissions, the European project LIFE REWIND addresses the supply of this demand from renewable sources. First of all, comprehensive data on energy demand and available renewable resources have been obtained in several case studies. Secondly, a set of simulations and optimizations have been performed, in search of the best configuration and sizing, both from an economic and emission reduction point of view. For this purpose, it was used software based on genetic algorithms. Thirdly, a prototype has been designed and installed, that it is being used for the validation in a real case. Finally, throughout a year of operation, various technical and economic parameters are being measured for further analysis. The prototype is not connected to the utility grid, avoiding the cost and environmental impact of a grid extension. The system includes three kinds of photovoltaic fields. One is located on a fixed structure on the terrain. Another one is floating on an irrigation raft. The last one is mounted on a two axis solar tracker. Each has its own solar inverter. The total amount of nominal power is 44 kW. A lead acid battery with 120 kWh of capacity carries out the energy storage. Three isolated inverters support a three phase, 400 V 50 Hz micro-grid, the same characteristics of the utility grid. An advanced control subsystem has been constructed, using free hardware and software. The electricity produced feeds a set of seven pumps used for purification, elevation and pressurization of water in a drip irrigation system located in a vineyard. Since the irrigation season does not include the whole year, as well as a small oversize of the generator, there is an amount of surplus energy. With this surplus, a hydrolyser produces on site hydrogen by electrolysis of water. An off-road vehicle with fuel cell feeds on that hydrogen and carries people in the vineyard. The only emission of the process is high purity water. On the one hand, the results show the technical and economic feasibility of stand-alone renewable energy systems to feed seasonal pumping. In this way, the economic costs, the environmental impacts and the landscape impacts of grid extensions are avoided. The use of diesel gensets and their associated emissions are also avoided. On the other hand, it is shown that it is possible to replace diesel in agricultural machinery, substituting it for electricity or hydrogen of 100% renewable origin and produced on the farm itself, without any external energy input. In addition, it is expected to obtain positive effects on the rural economy and employment, which will be quantified through interviews.

Keywords: drip irrigation, greenhouse gases, hydrogen, renewable energy, vineyard

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Michelle S. Pereira, Analice C. Azevedo, Julliane D. Medeiros, Ana Claudia S. Martins, Didier S. Castellano-Filho, Claudio G. Diniz, Vania L. Silva

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Vaginal microbiota is a complex ecosystem, composed by aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, living in a dynamic equilibrium. Lactobacillus spp. are predominant in vaginal ecosystem, and factors such as immunity and hormonal variations may lead to disruptions, resulting in proliferation of opportunistic pathogens. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a polymicrobial syndrome, caused by an increasing of anaerobic bacteria replacing Lactobacillus spp. Microorganisms such as Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma hominis, Mobiluncus spp., and Atopobium vaginae can be found in BV, which may also be associated to other infections such as by Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is highly prevalent in sexually active women, and is considered a risk factor for development of cervical cancer. As long as few data is available on vaginal microbiota of women with HPV-associated cervical lesions, our objectives were to evaluate the diversity in vaginal ecosystem in these women. To all patients, clinical and socio-demographic data were collected after gynecological examination. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee from Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Vaginal secretion and cervical scraping were collected. Gram-stained smears were evaluated to establish Nugent score for BV determination. Viral and bacterial DNA obtained was used as template for HPV genotyping (PCR) and bacterial fingerprint (REP-PCR). In total 31 patients were included (mean age 35 and 93.6% sexually active). The Nugent score showed that 38.7% were BV. From the medical records, Pap smear tests showed that 32.3% had low grade squamous epithelial lesion (LSIL), 29% had high grade squamous epithelial lesion (HSIL), 25.8% had atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) and 12.9% with atypical squamous cells that would not exclude high-grade lesion (ASC-H). All participants were HPV+. HPV-16 was the most frequent (87.1%), followed by HPV-18 (61.3%). HPV-31, HPV-52 and HPV-58 were also detected. Coinfection HPV-16/HPV-18 was observed in 75%. In the 18-30 age group, HPV-16 was detected in 40%, and HPV-16/HPV-18 coinfection in 35%. HPV-16 was associated to 30% of ASC-H and 20% of HSIL patients. BV was observed in 50% of HPV-16+ participants and in 45% of HPV-16/HPV-18+. Fingerprints of bacterial communities showed clusters with low similarity suggesting high heterogeneity in vaginal microbiota within the sampled group. Overall, the data is worrisome once cervical-cancer highly risk-associated HPV-types were identified. The high microbial diversity observed may be related to the different levels of cellular lesions, and different physiological conditions of the participants (age, social behavior, education). Further prospective studies are needed to better address correlations and BV and microbial imbalance in vaginal ecosystems which would be related to the different cellular lesions in women with HPV infections. Supported by FAPEMIG, CNPq, CAPES, PPGCBIO/UFJF.

Keywords: human papillomavirus, bacterial vaginosis, bacterial diversity, cervical cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Vanessa Roulet, Marc Turini, Juliane Hey, Stéphanie Bord-Romeu, Emilie Bonzom, Mahmoud Badawi, Mohammed-Amine Chakir, Valérie Simon, Vanessa Viotti, Jérémie Gautier, Françoise Le Boulaire, Catherine Coignard, Claire Vincent, Sandrine Greaume, Isabelle Voisin

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Background: Beckman Coulter, Inc. has recently developed fully automated assays for the detection of HBsAg on a new immunoassay platform. The objective of this European multicenter study was to evaluate the performance of the ACCESS HBsAg and ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assays† on the recently CE-marked DxI 9000 ACCESS Immunoassay Analyzer. Methods: The clinical specificity of the ACCESS HBsAg and HBsAg Confirmatory assays was determined using HBsAg-negative samples from blood donors and hospitalized patients. The clinical sensitivity was determined using presumed HBsAg-positive samples. Sample HBsAg status was determined using a CE-marked HBsAg assay (Abbott ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative II, Roche Elecsys HBsAg II, or Abbott PRISM HBsAg assay) and a CE-marked HBsAg confirmatory assay (Abbott ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative II Confirmatory or Abbott PRISM HBsAg Confirmatory assay) according to manufacturer package inserts and pre-determined testing algorithms. False initial reactive rate was determined on fresh hospitalized patient samples. The sensitivity for the early detection of HBV infection was assessed internally on thirty (30) seroconversion panels. Results: Clinical specificity was 99.95% (95% CI, 99.86 – 99.99%) on 6047 blood donors and 99.71% (95%CI, 99.15 – 99.94%) on 1023 hospitalized patient samples. A total of six (6) samples were found false positive with the ACCESS HBsAg assay. None were confirmed for the presence of HBsAg with the ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assay. Clinical sensitivity on 455 HBsAg-positive samples was 100.00% (95% CI, 99.19 – 100.00%) for the ACCESS HBsAg assay alone and for the ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assay. The false initial reactive rate on 821 fresh hospitalized patient samples was 0.24% (95% CI, 0.03 – 0.87%). Results obtained on 30 seroconversion panels demonstrated that the ACCESS HBsAg assay had equivalent sensitivity performances compared to the Abbott ARCHITECT HBsAg Qualitative II assay with an average bleed difference since first reactive bleed of 0.13. All bleeds found reactive in ACCESS HBsAg assay were confirmed in ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assay. Conclusion: The newly developed ACCESS HBsAg and ACCESS HBsAg Confirmatory assays from Beckman Coulter have demonstrated high clinical sensitivity and specificity, equivalent to currently marketed HBsAg assays, as well as a low false initial reactive rate. †Pending achievement of CE compliance; not yet available for in vitro diagnostic use. 2023-11317 Beckman Coulter and the Beckman Coulter product and service marks mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Beckman Coulter, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Keywords: dxi 9000 access immunoassay analyzer, hbsag, hbv, hepatitis b surface antigen, hepatitis b virus, immunoassay

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Sujan Barua

Abstract:

Buddhism relies upon natural events which are appeared from the four auto-elements of nature. It has seemed to be an authentic proof of mono-actions that have chronically been existing through our lives circles into the action and reaction that can produce more and more suffering in entire beings. Religion is called such politic through giving up on worthy concerns. Birth, aging, getting sick, lamentation, and death are just a politic of four conditions that depend upon one mind. Those are greed, hatred, and delusion, which are the first fueling to fall into a worthy realm again and again. It is because of having numerous ways of sense faculties, six senses, and five aggregates. These are all defaults of the deluded mind’s conditions and total ignorance covered by not understanding through the emancipating religion. Buddhism is dependent upon the threefold morality, which is the basic politic of giving up birth, aging, getting sick, lamentation, and death. Morality is the primordial theme of reach at ultimate happiness called “Nirvana”. It is a politic of one’s non-understanding ignorance. In Buddhism, the Buddha emphasizes that to understand the politic of the samsara, one must profoundly understand the own action that appears from the threefold ways. One must need authentically verify the own karma and reflection from the self-mind. The worthy concerns are the cause of political suffering to fall in samsara. By avoiding the entire, one can attain ultimate happiness. To attain Nirvana is not like an achievement of worthy happiness and proper understanding of functionality as we comfort in our daily lives. There is no virtue or non-virtual deeds to rebirth, no gripes, no upsetting, no greed, no hatred, no aging, no sickness, no death. It is totally uprooted from 31 types of states of worthy concerns. Nirvana is the stability of ultimate realization, but worthy states are the levels of grasping impurities in life span that make us fall into one clan according to our actions. By profoundly observing, the Buddha crucially founds that the source of rebirth is ignorance. Ignorance drives physical, verbal, and mental, which makes us reborn into the 31 types of realms in cycling existence. It is believed that the best knowledge of how many beings are in this world except the Enlightenment one. The enlightened one knows everything while he thinks about when it is causally necessary for demonstrating someone or verifying the truth of the relational way. It is a political view for entire beings that are chronic because covering by ignorance. It is tremendously toxic, and the person who truly understands this politic of turning here to there is a person who wishes to have eager to find the truth and way to leave those massive toxicities to discover the fixed state of nonexistence. The word non-existence is known as “Suiyata” or emptiness. One can able to find the ultimate truth with the effort of achieving the arch truth of leaving suffering from the cycling system.

Keywords: ultimate realization, nirvana, the easiest way policy to give up worthily concerns, profound understanding of 31 types of cosmology, four noble truths

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Authors: Baha Eddine Aissou, Aichouche Belhadj Aissa

Abstract:

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing technology used for several applications. Airborne LiDAR is becoming an important technology for the acquisition of a highly accurate dense point cloud. A classification of airborne laser scanning (ALS) point cloud is a very important task that still remains a real challenge for many scientists. Support vector machine (SVM) is one of the most used statistical learning algorithms based on kernels. SVM is a non-parametric method, and it is recommended to be used in cases where the data distribution cannot be well modeled by a standard parametric probability density function. Using a kernel, it performs a robust non-linear classification of samples. Often, the data are rarely linearly separable. SVMs are able to map the data into a higher-dimensional space to become linearly separable, which allows performing all the computations in the original space. This is one of the main reasons that SVMs are well suited for high-dimensional classification problems. Only a few training samples, called support vectors, are required. SVM has also shown its potential to cope with uncertainty in data caused by noise and fluctuation, and it is computationally efficient as compared to several other methods. Such properties are particularly suited for remote sensing classification problems and explain their recent adoption. In this poster, the SVM classification of ALS LiDAR data is proposed. Firstly, connected component analysis is applied for clustering the point cloud. Secondly, the resulting clusters are incorporated in the SVM classifier. Radial basic function (RFB) kernel is used due to the few numbers of parameters (C and γ) that needs to be chosen, which decreases the computation time. In order to optimize the classification rates, the parameters selection is explored. It consists to find the parameters (C and γ) leading to the best overall accuracy using grid search and 5-fold cross-validation. The exploited LiDAR point cloud is provided by the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Geoinformation. The ALS data used is characterized by a low density (4-6 points/m²) and is covering an urban area located in residential parts of the city Vaihingen in southern Germany. The class ground and three other classes belonging to roof superstructures are considered, i.e., a total of 4 classes. The training and test sets are selected randomly several times. The obtained results demonstrated that a parameters selection can orient the selection in a restricted interval of (C and γ) that can be further explored but does not systematically lead to the optimal rates. The SVM classifier with hyper-parameters is compared with the most used classifiers in literature for LiDAR data, random forest, AdaBoost, and decision tree. The comparison showed the superiority of the SVM classifier using parameters selection for LiDAR data compared to other classifiers.

Keywords: classification, airborne LiDAR, parameters selection, support vector machine

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Authors: Ling-Ling E, Lin Feng, Hong-Chen Liu, Dong-Sheng Wang, Zhanping Shi, Juncheng Wang, Wei Luo, Yan Lv

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The objective of this study was to compare the effects of the two calcium phosphate composite scaffolds on the attachment, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rabbit dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). One nano-hydroxyapatite/collagen/poly (L-lactide) (nHAC/PLA), imitating the composition and the micro-structure characteristics of the natural bone, was made by Beijing Allgens Medical Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (China). The other beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), being fully interoperability globular pore structure, was provided by Shanghai Bio-lu Biomaterials Co, Ltd. (China). We compared the absorption water rate and the protein adsorption rate of two scaffolds and the characterization of DPSCs cultured on the culture plate and both scaffolds under osteogenic differentiation media (ODM) treatment. The constructs were then implanted subcutaneously into the back of severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice for 8 and 12 weeks to compare their bone formation capacity. The results showed that the ODM-treated DPSCs expressed osteocalcin (OCN), bone sialoprotein (BSP), type I collagen (COLI) and osteopontin (OPN) by immunofluorescence staining. Positive alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining, calcium deposition and calcium nodules were also observed on the ODM-treated DPSCs. The nHAC/PLA had significantly higher absorption water rate and protein adsorption rate than ß-TCP. The initial attachment of DPSCs seeded onto nHAC/PLA was significantly higher than that onto ß-TCP; and the proliferation rate of the cells was significantly higher than that of ß-TCP on 1, 3 and 7 days of cell culture. DPSCs+ß-TCP had significantly higher ALP activity, calcium/phosphorus content and mineral formation than DPSCs+nHAC/PLA. When implanted into the back of SCID mice, nHAC/PLA alone had no new bone formation, newly formed mature bone and osteoid were only observed in β-TCP alone, DPSCs+nHAC/PLA and DPSCs+β-TCP, and this three groups displayed increased bone formation over the 12-week period. The percentage of total bone formation area had no difference between DPSCs+β-TCP and DPSCs+nHAC/PLA at each time point，but the percentage of mature bone formation area of DPSCs+β-TCP was significantly higher than that of DPSCs+nHAC/PLA. Our results demonstrated that the DPSCs on nHAC/PLA had a better proliferation and that the DPSCs on β-TCP had a more mineralization in vitro, much more newly formed mature bones in vivo were presented in DPSCs+β-TCP group. These findings have provided a further knowledge that scaffold architecture has a different influence on the attachment, proliferation and differentiation of cells. This study may provide insight into the clinical periodontal bone tissue repair with DPSCs+β-TCP construct.

Keywords: dental pulp stem cells, nano-hydroxyapatite/collagen/poly(L-lactide), beta-tricalcium phosphate, periodontal tissue engineering, bone regeneration

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Authors: Saheli Mitra, Ramesh Karri, Praveen K. Mylapalli, Arka. B. Dey, Gourav Bhattacharya, Gouriprasanna Roy, Syed M. Kamil, Surajit Dhara, Sunil K. Sinha, Sajal K. Ghosh

Abstract:

The most well-known structures of lyotropic liquid crystalline systems are the two dimensional hexagonal phase of cylindrical micelles with a positive interfacial curvature and the lamellar phase of flat bilayers with zero interfacial curvature. In aqueous solution of surfactants, the concentration dependent phase transitions have been investigated extensively. However, instead of changing the surfactant concentrations, the local curvature of an aggregate can be altered by tuning the electrostatic interactions among the constituent molecules. Intermediate phases with non-uniform interfacial curvature are still unexplored steps to understand the route of phase transition from hexagonal to lamellar. Understanding such structural evolution in lyotropic liquid crystalline systems is important as it decides the complex rheological behavior of the system, which is one of the main interests of the soft matter industry. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) is an anionic surfactant and can be considered as a unique system to tune the electrostatics by cationic additives. In present study, imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) with different number of carbon atoms in their single hydrocarbon chain were used as the additive in the aqueous solution of SDS. At a fixed concentration of total non-aqueous components (SDS and IL), the molar ratio of these components was changed, which effectively altered the electrostatic interactions between the SDS molecules. As a result, the local curvature is observed to modify, and correspondingly, the structure of the hexagonal liquid crystalline phases are transformed into other phases. Polarizing optical microscopy of SDS and imidazole-based-IL systems have exhibited different textures of the liquid crystalline phases as a function of increasing concentration of the ILs. The small angle synchrotron x-ray diffraction (SAXD) study has indicated the hexagonal phase of direct cylindrical micelles to transform to a rectangular phase at the presence of short (two hydrocarbons) chain IL. However, the hexagonal phase is transformed to a lamellar phase at the presence of long (ten hydrocarbons) chain IL. Interestingly, at the presence of a medium (four hydrocarbons) chain IL, the hexagonal phase is transformed to another hexagonal phase of direct cylindrical micelles through the lamellar phase. To the best of our knowledge, such a phase sequence has not been reported earlier. Even though the small angle x-ray diffraction study has revealed the lattice parameters of these phases to be similar to each other, their rheological behavior has been distinctly different. These rheological studies have shed lights on how these phases differ in their viscoelastic behavior. Finally, the packing parameters, calculated for these phases based on the geometry of the aggregates, have explained the formation of the self-assembled aggregates.

Keywords: lyotropic liquid crystals, polarizing optical microscopy, rheology, surfactants, small angle x-ray diffraction

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Authors: Gasto Lyakurwa, Glory Bakari, Edwin Sabuhoro

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Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are established to promote and act as a remedy to the protection of wildlife resources outside the core protected area. WMAs aim to address issues of poverty, ensure sustainable use of wildlife resources, and share benefits from wildlife with the member villages. Successfully managed WMA in Tanzania improves local livelihood and conserves local biodiversity through tourism revenues and the protection of wildlife, respectively. Benefits accrued at household levels as a result of conservation activities in WMA can positively influence attitudes towards wildlife conservation. This research intends to assess the positive socio-economic impacts of WMA benefits on households in Burunge WMA in Tanzania. A questionnaire survey was conducted among four randomly selected villages in the ten villages forming the Burunge WMA to explore the household-level benefits of conservation activities. An example of a question item was whether household heads feel that they are benefiting from WMA and if they could remember some of the benefits. Interviews with leaders from WMA and member villages combined the survey to capture aspects of benefit distribution to households. A total of 80 households were used as samples of the recruited study sites. Moreover, the four WMA leaders and the eight village leaders of the respective study villages were interviewed. The study findings revealed that the shared benefit has mostly reached the community level and is less likely to reach the household level. Economic activities such as agriculture and livestock keeping were found to be more important for households than conservation-related economic activities. Conservation-related economic activities generate marginal direct benefits from WMA benefits to households, with ecotourism accounting for only 19.5%. The study also indicates that a direct share of financial benefits from WMA to households is lacking. Wildlife conservation benefits are less likely to reach household levels in WMAs, with the implication of reducing people's conservation attitudes and impeding community conservation success. WMA can utilize the finances from tourism fees and concessions to establish a Community Considerations Bank, which can lend money to some individuals at no or low interest rates. Considering the importance of education and health to households, WMA stands in a good position to provide health insurance premiums and student scholarships to motivate household participation in conservation activities. Community-based organizations and governments responsible for wildlife conservation should create mechanisms to channel conservation benefits to households in order to ensure the achievement of wildlife conservation objectives through WMA. These findings are expected to contribute to forming more WMAs with enhanced mechanisms for sharing conservation benefits to benefit the conservation of natural resources outside of the core protected areas. Motivated households are expected to respect wildlife and are less likely to engage in illegal activities such as poaching and harvesting conserved natural resources while coexisting with wildlife.

Keywords: social economic benefits, individuals, wildlife management areas, biodiversity, community

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Authors: K. M. S. Weerasinghe, A. H. K. Balasooriya, S. L. Ransingha, G. D. Krishantha, R. S. Brhakamanagae, L. C. Wijethilke

Abstract:

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is a major horticultural crop with an estimated global production of over 120 million metric tons and ranks first as a processing crop. The average tomato productivity in Sri Lanka (11 metric tons/ha) is much lower than the world average (24 metric tons/ha).To meet the tomato demand for the increasing population the productivity has to be intensified through the agronomic-techniques. Nutrition is one of the main factors which govern the growth and yield of tomato and the main nutrient source soil affect the plant growth and quality of the produce. Continuous cropping, improper fertilizer usage etc., cause widespread nutrient deficiencies. Therefore synthetic fertilizers and organic manures were introduced to enhance plant growth and maximize the crop yields. In this study, effects of macro and micronutrient supplementations on improvement of growth and yield of tomato were investigated. Selected tomato variety is Maheshi and plants were grown in Regional Agricultural and Research Centre Makadura under the Department of Agriculture recommended (DOA) macro nutrients and various combination of Ontario recommended dosages of secondary and micro fertilizer supplementations. There were six treatments in this experiment and each treatment was replicated in three times and each replicate consisted of six plants. Other than the DOA recommendation, five combinations of Ontario recommended dosage of secondary and micronutrients for tomato were also used as treatments. The treatments were arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design. All cultural practices were carried out according to the DOA recommendations. The mean data was subjected to the statistical analysis using SAS package and mean separation (Duncan’s Multiple Range test at 5% probability level) procedures. Secondary and micronutrients containing treatments significantly increased most of the growth parameters. Plant height, plant girth, number of leaves, leaf area index etc. Fruits harvested from pots amended with macro, secondary and micronutrients performed best in terms of total yield; yield quality; to pots amended with DOA recommended dosage of fertilizer for tomato. It could be due to the application of all essential macro and micro nutrients that rise in photosynthetic activity, efficient translocation and utilization of photosynthates causing rapid cell elongation and cell division in actively growing region of the plant leading to stimulation of growth and yield were caused. The experiment revealed and highlighted the requirements of essential macro, secondary and micro nutrient fertilizer supplementations for tomato farming. The study indicated that, macro and micro nutrient supplementation practices can influence growth and yield performances of tomato fruits and it is a promising approach to get potential tomato yields.

Keywords: macro and micronutrients, tomato, SAS package, photosynthates

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Authors: Monica Arnaudo, Monika Topel, Bjorn Laumert

Abstract:

Within the Swedish context, the current trend of relatively low electricity prices promotes the electrification of the energy infrastructure. The residential heating sector takes part in this transition by proposing a switch from a centralized district heating system towards a distributed heat pumps-based setting. When it comes to urban environments, two issues arise. The first, seen from an electricity-sector perspective, is related to the fact that existing networks are limited with regards to their installed capacities. Additional electric loads, such as heat pumps, can cause severe overloads on crucial network elements. The second, seen from a heating-sector perspective, has to do with the fact that the indoor comfort conditions can become difficult to handle when the operation of the heat pumps is limited by a risk of overloading on the distribution grid. Furthermore, the uncertainty of the electricity market prices in the future introduces an additional variable. This study aims at assessing the extent to which distributed heat pumps can penetrate an existing heat energy network while respecting the technical limitations of the electricity grid and the thermal comfort levels in the buildings. In order to account for the multi-disciplinary nature of this research question, a cosimulation modeling approach was adopted. In this way, each energy technology is modeled in its customized simulation environment. As part of the cosimulation methodology: a steady-state power flow analysis in pandapower was used for modeling the electrical distribution grid, a thermal balance model of a reference building was implemented in EnergyPlus to account for space heating and a fluid-cycle model of a heat pump was implemented in JModelica to account for the actual heating technology. With the models set in place, different scenarios based on forecasted electricity market prices were developed both for present and future conditions of Hammarby Sjöstad, a neighborhood located in the south-east of Stockholm (Sweden). For each scenario, the technical and the comfort conditions were assessed. Additionally, the average cost of heat generation was estimated in terms of levelized cost of heat. This indicator enables a techno-economic comparison study among the different scenarios. In order to evaluate the levelized cost of heat, a yearly performance simulation of the energy infrastructure was implemented. The scenarios related to the current electricity prices show that distributed heat pumps can replace the district heating system by covering up to 30% of the heating demand. By lowering of 2°C, the minimum accepted indoor temperature of the apartments, this level of penetration can increase up to 40%. Within the future scenarios, if the electricity prices will increase, as most likely expected within the next decade, the penetration of distributed heat pumps can be limited to 15%. In terms of levelized cost of heat, a residential heat pump technology becomes competitive only within a scenario of decreasing electricity prices. In this case, a district heating system is characterized by an average cost of heat generation 7% higher compared to a distributed heat pumps option.

Keywords: cosimulation, distributed heat pumps, district heating, electrical distribution grid, integrated energy systems

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