Search results for: important feature points

Authors: Khalid Alshaikh

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Libya has recently gained momentum, especially with the rise of the social issues ensued by the recent war. CSR is a new organisational culture designing its features and route within the Libyan financial institutions. Now, both the public and private banks invest in this construct trusting that its powers are capable of improving the economic, social and environmental problems the conflict has created. On the other hand, the Libyan commercial banks recognise the benefits of utilising CSR to entice investors and ensure their continuations in the national and international markets. Nevertheless, as a new concept, CSR necessitates an in-depth exploration and analysis to help its transition from the margins of religion to the mainstream of society and businesses. This can assist in constructing its activities to bring about change nation-wide. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the current definitions attached to this term through tracing back its historical beginnings. Then, it investigates its trends both in the public and private banks to identify where its sustainable development materialises. Lastly, it seeks to understand the key challenges that obscure its success in the Libyan environment. The research methodology used both public and private banks as case study and qualitative research to interview ten Board of Directors (BoDs) and eleven Chief Executive Managers (CEOs) to discover how CSR is defined and the core CSR activities practiced by the Libyan Commercial Banks (LCBs) and the key constraints that CSR faces and make it unsuccessful. The findings suggest that CSR is still influenced by the power of religion. Nevertheless, the Islamic perspective is more consistent with the social contract concept of CSR. The LCBs do not solely focus on the economic side of maximizing profits, but also concentrate on its morality. The issue is that CSR activities are not enough to achieve good charity publicly and needs strategies to address major social issues. Moreover, shareholders do not support CSR activities. Their argument is that the only social responsibility of businesses is to maximize profits, while the government should deal with the existing social issues. Finally, although the LCBs endeavour to embed CSR in their organisational culture, it is still important that different stakeholders need to do much more to entrench this construct through their core functions. The Central bank of Libya needs also to boost its standing to be more influential and ensure that the right discussions about CSR happen with the right stakeholders involved.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, private banks, public banks, stakeholders

Procedia PDF Downloads 178

Authors: Mercedes Del Rio Merino, Jaime Santacruz Astorqui, Paola Villoria Saez, Carmen Viñas Arrebola

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The lack of treatment of the waste from construction and demolition waste (CDW) is a problem that must be solved immediately. It is estimated that in the world not to use CDW generates an increase in the use of new materials close to 20% of the total value of the materials used. The problem is even greater in case these wastes are considered hazardous because the final deposition of them may also generate significant contamination. Therefore, the possibility of including CDW in the manufacturing of building materials, represents an interesting alternative to ensure their use and to reduce their possible risk. In this context and in the last years, many researches are being carried out in order to analyze the viability of using CDW as a substitute for the traditional raw material of high environmental impact. Even though it is true, much remains to be done, because these works generally characterize materials but not specific applications that allow the agents of the construction to have the guarantees required by the projects. Therefore, it is necessary the involvement of all the actors included in the life cycle of these new construction materials, and also to promote its use for, for example, definition of standards, tax advantages or market intervention is necessary. This paper presents the main findings reached in "Waste to resources (W2R)" project since it began in October 2014. The main goal of the project is to develop new materials, elements and construction systems, manufactured from CDW, to be used in improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Other objectives of the project are: to quantify the CDW generated in the energy rehabilitation works, specifically wastes from the building envelope; and to study the traceability of CDW generated and promote CDW reuse and recycle in order to get close to the life cycle of buildings, generating zero waste and reducing the ecological footprint of the construction sector. This paper determines the most important aspects to consider during the design of new constructive solutions, which improve the energy efficiency of buildings and what materials made with CDW would be the most suitable for that. Also, a survey to select best practices for reducing "close to zero waste" in refurbishment was done. Finally, several pilot rehabilitation works conform the parameters analyzed in the project were selected, in order to apply the results and thus compare the theoretical with reality. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the Spanish State Secretariat for Research, Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under "Waste 2 Resources" Project (BIA2013-43061-R).

Keywords: building waste, construction and demolition waste, recycling, resources

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Authors: Pierre-Louis Lucas, Corinne Loutelier-Bourhis, Narimane Mati-Baouche, Philippe Chan Tchi-Song, Patrice Lerouge, Elodie Mathieu-Rivet, Muriel Bardor

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N-glycosylation is a post-translational modification taking place in the Endoplasmic Reticulum and the Golgi apparatus where defined glycan features are added on protein in a very specific sequence Asn-X-Thr/Ser/Cys were X can be any amino acid except proline. Because it is well-established that those N-glycans play a critical role in protein biological activity, protein half-life and that a different N-glycan structure may induce an immune response, they are very important in Biopharmaceuticals which are mainly glycoproteins bearing N-glycans. From now, most of the biopharmaceuticals are produced by mammalian cells like Chinese Hamster Ovary cells (CHO) for their N-glycosylation similar to the human, but due to the high production costs, several other species are investigated as the possible alternative system. In this purpose, the green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was investigated as the potential production system for Biopharmaceuticals. This choice was influenced by the facts that C. reinhardtii is a well-study microalgae which is growing fast with a lot of molecular biology tools available. This organism is also producing N-glycan on its endogenous proteins. However, the analysis of the N-glycan structure of this microalgae has revealed some differences as compared to the human. Rather than in Human where the glycans are processed by key enzymes called N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I and II (GnTI and GnTII) adding GlcNAc residue to form a GlcNAc₂Man₃GlcNAc₂ core N-glycan, C. reinhardtii lacks those two enzymes and possess a GnTI independent glycosylation pathway. Moreover, some enzymes like xylosyltransferases and methyltransferases not present in human are supposed to act on the glycans of C. reinhardtii. Furthermore, the recent structural study by mass spectrometry shows that the N-glycosylation precursor supposed to be conserved in almost all eukaryotic cells results in a linear Man₅GlcNAc₂ rather than a branched one in C. reinhardtii. In this work, we will discuss the new released MS information upon C. reinhardtii N-glycan structure and their impact on our attempt to modify the glycan in a Human manner. Two strategies will be discussed. The first one consisted in the study of Xylosyltransferase insertional mutants from the CLIP library in order to remove xyloses from the N-glycans. The second will go further in the humanization by transforming the microalgae with the exogenous gene from Toxoplasma gondii having an activity similar to GnTI and GnTII with the aim to synthesize GlcNAc₂Man₃GlcNAc₂ in C. reinhardtii.

Keywords: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, N-glycosylation, glycosyltransferase, mass spectrometry, humanization

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Authors: Miguel Limbert Ramos, Joseph Amado Galvez

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Background: The nasal septal cartilage is an autologous graft that is widely used in different otolaryngologic procedures of the different subspecialties, such as in septorhinoplasty and ear rehabilitation procedures. The cartilage can be easily accessed and harvested to be utilized for such procedures. However, the dimension of the nasal septal cartilage differs, corresponding to race, gender, and age. Measurements can be done via direct measurement of harvested septal cartilage in cadavers or utilizing radiographic imaging studies giving baseline measurement of the nasal septal cartilage distinct to every race. A preliminary baseline measurement of the dimensions of Filipino nasal septal cartilage was previously established by measuring harvested nasal septal cartilage in Filipino Malay cadavers. This study intends to reinforce this baseline measurement by utilizing computed tomography (CT) scans of adult Filipinos in a tertiary government hospital in the City of Manila, Philippines, which will cover a larger sampling population. Methods: The unit of observation and analysis will be the computed tomography (CT) scans of patients ≥ 18years old who underwent cranial, facial, orbital, paranasal sinus, and temporal bone studies for the year 2019. The measurements will be done in a generated best midsagittal image (155 subjects) which is a view through the midline of the cerebrum that is simultaneously viewed with its coronal and axial views for proper orientation. The view should reveal important structures that will be used to plot the anatomic boundaries, which will be measured by a DICOM image viewing software (RadiAnt). The measured area of nasal septal cartilage will be compared by gender and age. Results: The total area of the nasal septal cartilage is larger in males compared to females, with a mean value of 6.52 cm² and 5.71 cm², respectively. The harvestable nasal septal cartilage area is also larger in males with a mean value of 3.57 cm² compared to females with only a measured mean value of 3.13 cm². The total and harvestable area of the nasal septal cartilage is largest in the 18-30 year-old age group with a mean value of 6.47 cm² and 3.60 cm² respectively and tends to decrease with the advancement of age, which can be attributed to continuous ossification changes. Conclusion: The best time to perform septorhinoplasty and other otolaryngologic procedures which utilize the nasal septal cartilage as graft material is during post-pubertal age, hence surgeries should be avoided or delayed to allow growth and maturation of the cartilage. A computed tomography scan is a cost-effective and non-invasive tool that can provide information on septal cartilage areas prior to these procedures.

Keywords: autologous graft, computed tomography, nasal septal cartilage, septorhinoplasty

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Authors: Gizem Kodak, Alper Unal, Birsen Koldemir, Tayfun Acarer

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Turkish Straits System which consists of Istanbul Strait (Bosphorus), Canakkale Strait (Dardanelles) and the Marmara Sea has a strategical location on international maritime as it is a unique waterway between the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. Thus, this area has great importance since it is the only waterway between Black Sea countries and the rest of the World. Turkish Straits System has dangerous environmental factors hosts more vessel every day through developing World trade and this situation results in expanding accident risks day by day. Today, a lot of precautions have been taken to ensure safe navigation and to prevent maritime accidents, and international standards are followed to avoid maritime accidents. Despite this, the environmental factors that affect this area, trigger the maritime accidents and threaten the vessels with new accidents risks in different months with different hazards. This descriptive study consists of temporal and spatial analyses of environmental factors causing maritime accidents. This study also aims at contributing to safety navigation including monthly and regionally characteristics of variables. In this context, two different data sets are created consisting of environmental factors and accidents. This descriptive study on the accidents between 2001 and 2017 the mentioned region also studies the months and places of the accidents with environmental factor variables. Environmental factor variables are categorized as dynamic and static factors. Dynamic factors are appointed as meteorological and oceanographical while static factors are appointed as geological factors that threaten safety navigation with geometrical restricts. The variables that form dynamic factors are approached meteorological as wind direction, wind speed, wave altitude and visibility. The circulations and properties of the water mass on the system are studied as oceanographical properties. At the end of the study, the efficient meteorological and oceanographical parameters on the region are presented monthly and regionally. By this way, we acquired the monthly, seasonal and regional distributions of the accidents. Upon the analyses that are done; The Turkish Straits System that connects the Black Sea countries with the other countries and which is one of the most important parts of the world trade; is analyzed on temporal and spatial dimensions on the reasons of the accidents and have been presented as environmental factor dynamics causing maritime accidents.

Keywords: descriptive study, environmental factors, maritime accidents, statistics

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Authors: Laura Simmer, Maria Kalt, Oliver Schauer

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Freight transport is growing fast, but many vehicles are empty or just partially loaded. The vision and concepts of the Physical Internet (PI) proposes to eliminate these inefficiencies. Aiming for a radical sustainability improvement, the PI – inspired by the Digital Internet – is a hyperconnected global logistic system, enabling seamless asset sharing and flow consolidation. The implementation of a PI in its full expression will be a huge challenge: the industry needs innovation and implementation support including change management approaches, awareness creation and good practices diffusion, legislative actions to remove antitrust and international commerce barriers, standardization and public incentives policies. In order to take a step closer to this future the project ‘Atropine - Fast Track to the Physical Internet’ funded under the Strategic Economic and Research Program ‘Innovative Upper Austria 2020’ was set up. The two-year research project unites several research partners in this field, but also industrial partners and logistics service providers. With Atropine, the consortium wants to actively shape the mobility landscape in Upper Austria and make an innovative contribution to an energy-efficient, environmentally sound and sustainable development in the transport area. This paper should, on the one hand, clarify the questions what the project Atropine is about and, on the other hand, how a proof of concept will be reached. Awareness building plays an important role in the project as the PI requires a reorganization of the supply chain and the design of completely new forms of inter-company co-operation. New business models have to be developed and should be verified by simulation. After the simulation process one of these business models will be chosen and tested in real life with the partner companies. The developed results - simulation model and demonstrator - are used to determine how the concept of the PI can be applied in Upper Austria. Atropine shall pave the way for a full-scale development of the PI vision in the next few decades and provide the basis for pushing the industry toward a new level of co-operation with more shared resources and increased standardization.

Keywords: Atropine, inter-company co-operation, Physical Internet, shared resources, sustainable logistics

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Authors: Karen Boaz, C. R. Charan

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Background: The infiltration of tumour stroma by eosinophils, Tumor-Associated Tissue Eosinophilia (TATE), is known to modulate the progression of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). Eosinophils have direct tumoricidal activity by release of cytotoxic proteins and indirectly they enhance permeability into tumor cells enabling penetration of tumoricidal cytokines. Also, eosinophils may promote tumor angiogenesis by production of several angiogenic factors. Identification of eosinophils in the inflammatory stroma has been proven to be an important prognosticator in cancers of mouth, oesophagus, larynx, pharynx, breast, lung, and intestine. Therefore, the study aimed to correlate TATE with clinical and histopathological variables, and blood eosinophil count to assess the role of TATE as a prognosticator in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: Seventy two biopsy-proven cases of OSCC formed the study cohort. Blood eosinophil counts and TNM stage were obtained from the medical records. Tissue sections (5µm thick) were stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin. The eosinophils were quantified at invasive tumour front (ITF) in 10HPF (40x magnification) with an ocular grid. Bryne’s grading of ITF was also performed. A subset of thirty cases was also assessed for association of TATE with recurrence, involvement of lymph nodes and surgical margins. Results: 1) No statistically significant correlation was found between TATE and TNM stage, blood eosinophil counts and most parameters of Bryne’s grading system. 2) Statistically significant relation of intense degree of TATE was associated with the absence of distant metastasis, increased lympho-plasmacytic response and increased survival (diseasefree and overall) of OSCC patients. 3) In the subset of 30 cases, tissue eosinophil counts were higher in cases with lymph node involvement, decreased survival, without margin involvement and in cases that did not recur. Conclusion: While the role of eosinophils in mediating immune responses seems ambiguous as eosinophils support cell-mediated tumour immunity in early stages while inhibiting the same in advanced stages, TATE may be used as a surrogate marker for determination of prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Keywords: tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia, oral squamous cell carcinoma, prognosticator, tumoral immunity

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Authors: M. Atef Gabr, M. H. Abdel Latif, Ramadan El Gamsy

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Sandwich panels comprise a thick, light-weight plastic foam such as polyurethane (PU) sandwiched between two relatively thin faces. One or both faces may be flat, lightly profiled or fully profiled. Until recently sandwich panel construction in Egypt has been widely used in cold-storage buildings, cold trucks, prefabricated buildings and insulation in construction. Recently new techniques are used in mass production of Sandwich Materials such as Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) and Vacuum bagging technique. However, in recent times their use has increased significantly due to their widespread structural applications in building systems. Structural sandwich panels generally used in Egypt comprise polyurethane foam core and thinner (0.42 mm) and high strength about 550 MPa (yield strength) flat steel faces bonded together using separate adhesives and By RIM technique. In this paper, we will use a new technique in sandwich panel preparation by using different face sheet materials in combination with polyurethane foam to form sandwich panel structures. Previously, PU Foam core with same thin 2 faces material was used, but in this work, we use different face materials and thicknesses for the upper face sheet such as Galvanized steel sheets (G.S),Aluminum sheets (Al),Fiberglass sheets (F.G) and Aluminum-Rubber composite sheets (Al/R) with polyurethane foam core 10 mm thickness and 45 Kg/m3 Density and Galvanized steel as lower face sheet. Using Aluminum-Rubber composite sheets as face sheet is considered a hybrid composite sandwich panel which is built by Hand-Layup technique by using PU glue as adhesive. This modification increases the benefits of the face sheet that will withstand different working environments with relatively small increase in its weight and will be useful in several applications. In this work, a 3-point bending test is used assistant professor to measure the most important factor in sandwich materials that is strength to weight ratio(STW) for different combinations of sandwich structures and make a comparison to study the effect of changing the face sheet material on the mechanical behavior of PU sandwich material. Also, the density of the different prepared sandwich materials will be measured to obtain the specific bending strength.

Keywords: hybrid sandwich panel, mechanical behavior, PU foam, sandwich panel, 3-point bending, flexural strength

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Authors: Ivana Čavlina Tomašević, Višnjica Vučetić, Maja Telišman Prtenjak, Barbara Malečić

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The Split wildfire on the mid-Adriatic Coast in July 2017 is one of the most severe wildfires in Croatian history, given the size and unexpected fire behavior, and it is used in this research as a case study to run the Weather Research and Forecasting Spread Fire (WRF SFIRE) model. This coupled fire-atmosphere model was successfully run for the first time ever for one Croatian wildfire case. Verification of coupled simulations was possible by using the detailed reconstruction of the Split wildfire. Specifically, precise information on ignition time and location, together with mapped fire progressions and spotting within the first 30 hours of the wildfire, was used for both – to initialize simulations and to evaluate the model’s ability to simulate fire’s propagation and final fire scar. The preliminary simulations were obtained using high-resolution vegetation and topography data for the fire area, additionally interpolated to fire grid spacing at 33.3 m. The results demonstrated that the WRF SFIRE model has the ability to work with real data from Croatia and produce adequate results for forecasting fire spread. As the model in its setup has the ability to include and exclude the energy fluxes between the fire and the atmosphere, this was used to investigate possible fire-atmosphere interactions during the Split wildfire. Finally, successfully coupled simulations provided the first numerical evidence that a wildfire from the Adriatic coast region can modify the dynamical structure of the surrounding atmosphere, which agrees with observations from fire grounds. This study has demonstrated that the WRF SFIRE model has the potential for operational application in Croatia with more accurate fire predictions in the future, which could be accomplished by inserting the higher-resolution input data into the model without interpolation. Possible uses for fire management in Croatia include prediction of fire spread and intensity that may vary under changing weather conditions, available fuels and topography, planning effective and safe deployment of ground and aerial firefighting forces, preventing wildland-urban interface fires, effective planning of evacuation routes etc. In addition, the WRF SFIRE model results from this research demonstrated that the model is important for fire weather research and education purposes in order to better understand this hazardous phenomenon that occurs in Croatia.

Keywords: meteorology, agrometeorology, fire weather, wildfires, couple fire-atmosphere model

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Authors: M. Moso-Diez, J. L. Moragues-Oregi, K. Simon-Elorz

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Innovation procurement is designed to steer the development of solutions towards concrete public sector needs as a driver for innovation from the demand side (in public services as well as in market opportunities for companies), is horizontally emerging as a new policy instrument. In 2014 the new EU public procurement directives 2014/24/EC and 2014/25/EC reinforced the support for Public Procurement for Innovation, dedicating funding instruments that can be used across all areas supported by Horizon 2020, and targeting potential buyers of innovative solutions: groups of public procurers with similar needs. Under this programme, new policy adapters and networks emerge, aiming to embed innovation criteria into new procurement processes. As these initiatives are in process, research related to is scarce. We argue that Innovation Public Procurement can arise as an innovative policy instrument to public procurement in different policy domains, in spite of existing institutional and cultural barriers (legal guarantee versus innovation). The presentation combines insights from public procurement to supply management chain management in a sustainability and innovation policy arena, as a means of providing understanding of: (1) the circumstances that emerge; (2) the relationship between public and private actors; and (3) the emerging capacities in the definition of the agenda. The policy adopters are the contracting authorities that mainly are at municipal level where they interact with the supply management chain, interconnecting sustainability and climate measures with other policy priorities such as innovation and urban planning; and through the Competitive Dialogue procedure. We found that geography and territory affect both the level of municipal budget (due to municipal income per capita) and its institutional competencies (due to demographic reasons). In spite of the relevance of institutional determinants for public procurement, other factors play an important role such as human factors as well as both public policy and private intervention. The experience is a ‘city project’ (Bilbao) in the field of brownfield decontamination. Brownfield sites typically refer to abandoned or underused industrial and commercial properties—such as old process plants, mining sites, and landfills—that are available but contain low levels of environmental contaminants that may complicate reuse or redevelopment of the land. This article concludes that Innovation Public Procurement in sustainability and climate issues should be further developed both as a policy instrument and as a policy research line that could enable further relevant changes in public procurement as well as in climate innovation.

Keywords: innovation, city projects, public policy, public procurement

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Authors: Reda Moussa Massoud Embark

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Tourism and hospitality graduate development is key to the future state of the tourism and hospitality industry. Meanwhile, Information and Communication Technology is increasingly becoming the engine for improving productivity and business opportunities in the travel and hospitality industry. Given the challenges and fierce global competition that have arisen in today's hospitality industry, it was important to shed light on strategic management. In addition, five-star hotels play a key role in supporting the tourism industry and investments in Egypt. Therefore, this study aims to examine the extent to which strategic management practices are implemented in five-star hotels in Egypt and to examine the differences between resort and inner-city hotels in terms of the implementation of strategic management processes. The influence of different hotel types on the implementation of the strategic management process is examined. A simple random sampling technique is used to select a sample of the target population, including hotels in the cities of Sharm el-Sheikh, Cairo and Hurghada. The data collection tool used in this study is an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Finally, combining the study results with the literature review allowed to present a set of recommendations to be addressed to hoteliers in the area of strategic management practices. Education and training in tourism and hospitality must take these changes into account in order to improve the ability of future managers to use a variety of tools and strategies to make their organizations more efficient and competitive. Therefore, this study aims to examine the types and effectiveness of training courses offered by tourism and hospitality departments in Egypt and to assess the importance of these training courses from the perspective of the graduate. The survey is aimed at graduates who have completed three different majors in the past decade: tourism and hospitality. Findings discussed the nature, level and effectiveness of the training provided at these faculties and the extent to which the training programs were valued by graduates working in different fields, and finally recommended specific practices to improve learning effectiveness increase and increase perceived employee benefits in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Keywords: marketing channels, crisis, hotel, international, tour, operators, online travel agencies, e-tourism, hotel websites, tourism, web-tourism, strategic-management, strategic tools, five-star hotels, resorts, downtown hotels, Egyptian Markets.

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Authors: Jimmy K. C. Lam, Carrie Wong

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One of the key goals on Learning and Teaching as documented in the University strategic plan 2012/13 – 2017/18 is to encourage active learning, the use of innovative teaching approaches and technology, and promoting the adoption of flexible and varied teaching delivery methods. This research reported the recent visited to Prof Eric Mazur at Harvard University on Peer Instruction: Collaborative learning in large class and innovative use of technology to enable new mode of learning. Peer Instruction is a research-based, interactive teaching method developed by Prof. Eric Mazur at Harvard University in the 1990s. It has been adopted across the disciplines, institutional type and throughout the world. One problem with conventional teaching lies in the presentation of the material. Frequently, it comes straight out of textbook/notes, giving students little incentive to attend class. This traditional presentation is always delivered as monologue in front of passive audience. Only exceptional lecturers are capable of holding students’ attention for an entire lecture period. Consequently, lectures simply reinforce students’ feelings that the most important step in mastering the material is memorizing a zoo of unrelated examples. In order to address these misconceptions about learning, Prof Mazur’s Team developed “Peer Instruction”, a method which involves students in their own learning during lectures and focuses their attention on underling concepts. Lectures are interspersed with conceptual questions called Concept Tests, designed to expose common difficulties in understanding the material. The students are given one or two minutes to think about the question and formulate their own answers; they then spend two or three minutes discussing their answers in a group of three or four, attempting to reach consensus on the correct answer. This process forces the students to think through the arguments being developed, and enable them to assess their understanding concepts before they leave the classroom. The findings from Peer Instruction and innovative use of technology on teaching at Harvard University were applied to the first year Textiles and Fashion students in Hong Kong. Survey conducted from 100 students showed that over 80% students enjoyed the flexibility of peer instruction and 70% of them enjoyed the instant feedback from the Clicker system (Student Response System used at Harvard University). Further work will continue to explore the possibility of peer instruction to art and fashion students.

Keywords: peer instruction, education, technology, fashion

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Authors: Zuzana Sedrlova, Eva Slaninova, Ines Fritz, Christina Daffert, Stanislav Obruca

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Cyanobacteria are ecologically extremely important phototrophic gram-negative bacteria capable of oxygenic photosynthesis. They synthesize many interesting metabolites such as glycogen, carotenoids, but the most interesting metabolites are polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). The main advantage of cyanobacteria is the fact they do not require costly organic substrate and, oppositely, cyanobacteria can fix CO₂. PHA serves primarily as a carbon and energy source and occurs in the form of intracellular granules in bacterial cells. It is possible, PHA helps cyanobacteria to survive stress conditions since increased PHA synthesis was observed during cultivation in stress conditions. PHA is microbial biopolymers that are biodegradable with similar properties as petrochemical synthetic plastics. Production of PHA by heterotrophic bacteria is expensive; for price reduction waste materials as input, materials are used. Positively, cyanobacteria principally do not require organic carbon substrate since they are capable of CO₂ fixation. In this work, we demonstrated that stress conditions lead to the highest obtained yields of PHA in cyanobacterial cultures. Two cyanobacterial cultures from genera Synechocystis were used in this work. Cultivations were performed either in Erlenmayer flask or in tube multicultivator. Multiple stressors were applied on cyanobacterial cultures, and stressors include PHA precursors. PHA precursors are chemical substances and some of them do not occur naturally in the environment. Cultivation with the same PHA precursors in the same concentration led to a 1,6x higher amount of PHA when a multicultivator was used. The highest amount of PHA reached 25 % of PHA in dry cyanobacterial biomass. Both strains are capable of co-polymer synthesis in the presence of their structural precursor. The composition of co-polymer differs in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and Synechocystis salina CCALA 192. Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 cultivated with γ-butyrolakton accumulated co-polymer of 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and 4-hydroxybutyrate (4HB) the composition of the copolymer was 56 % of 4HB and 44 % of 3HB. The total amount of PHA, as well as yield of biomass, was lower than in control due to the toxic properties of γ-butyrolakton. Funding: This study was partly funded by the project GA19- 19-29651L of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) and partly funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), a project I 4082-B25. This work was supported by Brno, Ph.D. Talent – Funded by the Brno City Municipality.

Keywords: co-polymer, cyanobacteria, PHA, synechocystis

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Authors: Jason Michael Crozier

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The wrestling territories of the mid-twentieth century in the United States are widely considered the birthplace of modern professional wrestling, and by many professional wrestlers, to be a beacon of hope for the easing of racial tensions during the civil rights era and beyond. The performers writing on this period speak of racial equality but fail to acknowledge the exploitation of black athletes as a racialized capital commodity who suffered the challenges of systemic racism, codified by a false narrative of aspirational exceptionalism and equality measured by audience diversity. The promoters’ ability to equate racial and capital exploitation with equality leads to a broader discussion of the history of Muscular Christianity in the United States and the exploitation of black bodies. Narratives of racial erasure that dominate the historical discourse when examining athleticism and exceptionalism redefined how blackness existed and how physicality and race are conceived of in sport and entertainment spaces. When discussing the implications of race and professional wrestling, it is important to examine the role of promotions as ‘imagined communities’ where the social agency of wrestlers is defined and quantified based on their ‘desired elements’ as a performer. The intentionally vague nature of this language masks a deep history of racialization that has been perpetuated by promoters and never fully examined by scholars. Sympathetic racism and the omission of cultural identity are also key factors in the limitations and racial barriers placed upon black athletes in the squared circle. The use of sympathetic racism within professional wrestling during the twentieth century defined black athletes into two distinct categorizations, the ‘black savage’ or the ‘black minstrel’. Black wrestlers of the twentieth century were defined by their strength as a capital commodity and their physicality rather than their knowledge of the business and in-ring skill. These performers had little agency in their ability to shape their own character development inside and outside the ring. Promoters would often create personas that heavily racialized the performer by tying them to a regional past or memory, such as that of slavery in the deep south using dog collar matches and adoring black characters in chains. Promoters softened cultural memory by satirizing the historic legacy of slavery and the black identity.

Keywords: sympathetic racism, social agency, racial commodification, stereotyping

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Authors: Ina Nasto, Denada Sota, Kerol Sacaj, Brunilda Veshaj, Hajdar Kicaj

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Rocky shores are often used as models to describe the dynamics of biodiversity around the world, making them one of the most studied marine habitats and their communities. The variability in the number of species and the abundance of hard-bottom benthic animal communities on the coast of Triporti, north of the Bay of Vlora, Albania is described in relation to environmental variables using multivariate analysis. The purpose of this study is to monitor the species composition, quantitative characteristics, and seasonal variations of the benthic macroinvertebrate populations of the shallow rocky shores of the Triportit-Vlora area, as well as the assessment of the ecological condition of these populations. The rocky coast of Triport, with a length of 7 km, was divided into three sampling stations, with three transects each of 50m. The monitoring of benthic macroinvertebrates in these areas was carried out in two seasons, spring and summer (June and August 2021). In each station and sampling season, estimates of the total and average density for each species, the presence constant, and the assessment of biodiversity were calculated using the Shannon–Wiener and the Simpson index. The species composition, the quantitative characteristics of the populations, and the indicators mentioned above were analyzed in a comparative way, both between the seasons within one station and between the three stations with each other. Statistical processing of the data was carried out to analyze the changes between the seasons and between the sampling stations for the species composition, population density, as well as correlation between them. A total of 105 benthic macroinvertebrate taxa were found, dominated by Molluscs, Annelids, and Arthropods. The small density of species and the low degree of stability of the macrozoobenthic community are indicators of the poor ecological condition and environmental impact in the studied areas. Algal cover, the diversity of coastal microhabitats, and the degree of coastal exposure to waves play an important role in the characteristics of macrozoobenthos populations in the studied areas. Also, the rocky shores are of special interest because, in the infralittoral of these areas, there are dense kelp forests with Gongolaria barbata, Ericaria crinita as well as fragmented areas with Posidonia oceanica that reach the coast, priority habitats of special conservation importance in the Mediterranean.

Keywords: Macrozoobenthic communities, Shannon–Wiener, Triporti, Vlore, rocky shore

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Authors: Kirill D. Semavin, Norbert S. Chilingarov, Eugene.V. Skokan

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The ionic liquids (ILs) based on imidazolium cation are well known nowadays. The changing anions and substituents in imidazolium ring may lead to different physical and chemical properties of ILs. It is important that such ILs with halogen as anion are characterized by a low thermal stability. The data about thermal stability of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride are ambiguous. In the works of last years, thermal stability of this IL was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and obtained results are contradictory. Moreover, in the last study, it was shown that the observed temperature of the beginning of decomposition significantly depends on the experimental conditions, for example, the heating rate of the sample. The vapor pressure of this IL is not presented at the literature. In this study, the vapor pressure of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride was obtained by Knudsen effusion mass-spectrometry (KEMS). The samples of [ЕMIm]Cl (purity > 98%) were supplied by Sigma–Aldrich and were additionally dried at dynamic vacuum (T = 60 0C). Preliminary procedures with Il were derived into glove box. The evaporation studies of [ЕMIm]Cl were carried out by KEMS with using original research equipment based on commercial MI1201 magnetic mass spectrometer. The stainless steel effusion cell had an effective evaporation/effusion area ratio of more than 6000. The cell temperature, measured by a Pt/Pt−Rh (10%) thermocouple, was controlled by a Termodat 128K5 device with an accuracy of ±1 K. In first step of this study, the optimal temperature of experiment and heating rate of samples were customized: 449 K and 5 K/min, respectively. In these conditions the sample is decomposed, but the experimental measurements of the vapor pressures are possible. The thermodynamic activity of [ЕMIm]Cl is close to 1 and products of decomposition don’t affect it at firstly 50 hours of experiment. Therefore, it lets to determine the saturated vapor pressure of IL. The electronic ionization mass-spectra shows that the decomposition of [ЕMIm]Cl proceeds with two ways. Nonetheless, the MALDI mass spectra of the starting sample and residue in the cell were similar. It means that the main decomposition products are gaseous under experimental conditions. This result allows us to obtain information about the kinetics of [ЕMIm]Cl decomposition. Thus, the original KEMS-based procedure made it possible to determine the IL vapor pressure under decomposition conditions. Also, the loss of sample mass due to the evaporation was obtained.

Keywords: ionic liquids, Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry, thermal stability, vapor pressure

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Authors: Anthony Halog

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In the coming decades the world that we know today will be drastically transformed. Population and economic growth, particularly in developing countries, are radically changing the demand for food and natural resources. Due to the transformations caused by these megatrends, especially economic growth which is rapidly expanding the middle class and changing consumption patterns worldwide, it is expected that this will result to an increase of approximately 40 percent in the demand for food, water, energy and other resources in the next decades. To fulfill this demand in a sustainable and efficient manner while avoiding food and water scarcity as well as environmental catastrophes in the near future, some industries, particularly the ones involved in food and energy production, have to drastically change its current production systems towards circular and green economy. In Australia, the agri-food industry has played a very important role in the scenario described above. It is one of the major food exporters in the world, supplying fast growing international markets in Asia and the Middle East. Though the Australian food supply chains are economically and technologically developed, it has been facing enduring challenges about its international competitiveness and environmental burdens caused by its production processes. An integrated framework for sustainability assessment is needed to precisely identify inefficiencies and environmental impacts created during food production processes. This research proposes a combination of industrial ecology and systems science based methods and tools intending to develop a novel and useful methodological framework for life cycle sustainability analysis of the agri-food industry. The presentation highlights circular economy paradigm aiming to implement sustainable industrial processes to transform the current industrial model of agri-food supply chains. The results are expected to support government policy makers, business decision makers and other stakeholders involved in agri-food-energy production system in pursuit of green and circular economy. The framework will assist future life cycle and integrated sustainability analysis and eco-redesign of food and other industrial systems.

Keywords: circular economy, eco-efficiency, agri-food systems, green economy, life cycle sustainability assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Osama Moustafa Zayed

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Aim of the work: To evaluate the effectiveness of venous glucose, levels of serum lactate and base deficit in polytraumatized patients as simple parameters to predict the mortality in these patients. Compared to the predictive value of Trauma and injury severity (TRISS) and Acute Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation IV (APACHE IV). Introduction: Trauma is a serious global health problem, accounting for approximately one in 10 deaths worldwide. Trauma accounts for 5 million deaths per year. Prediction of mortality in trauma patients is an important part of trauma care. Several trauma scores have been devised to predict injury severity and risk of mortality. The trauma and injury severity score (TRISS) was most common used. Regardless of the accuracy of trauma scores, is based on an anatomical description of every injury and cannot be assigned to the patients until a full diagnostic procedure has been performed. So we hypothesized that alterations in admission glucose, lactate levels and base deficit would be an early and easy rapid predictor of mortality. Patient and Method: a comparative cross-sectional study. 282 Polytraumatized patients attended to the Emergency Department(ED) of the Suez Canal university Hospital constituted. The period from 1/1/2012 to 1/4/2013 was included. Results: We found that the best cut off value of TRISS probability of survival score for prediction of mortality among poly-traumatized patients is = 90, with 77% sensitivity and 89% specificity using area under the ROC curve (0.89) at (95%CI). APACHE IV demonstrated 67% sensitivity and 95% specificity at 95% CI at cut off point 99. The best cutoff value of Random Blood Sugar (RBS) for prediction of mortality was>140 mg/dl, with 89%, sensitivity, 49% specificity. The best cut off value of base deficit for prediction of mortality was less than -5.6 with 64% sensitivity, 93% specificity. The best cutoff point of lactate for prediction of mortality was > 2.6 mmol/L with 92%, sensitivity, 42% specificity. Conclusion: According to our results from all evaluated predictors of mortality (laboratory and scores) and mortality based on the estimated cutoff values using ROC curves analysis, the highest risk of mortality was found using a cutoff value of 90 in TRISS score while with laboratory parameters the highest risk of mortality was with serum lactate > 2.6 . Although that all of the three parameter are accurate in predicting mortality in poly-traumatized patients and near with each other, as in serum lactate the area under the curve 0.82, in BD 0.79 and 0.77 in RBS.

Keywords: APACHE IV, emergency department, polytraumatized patients, serum lactate

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Michal Lach, Maria Hebdowska-Krupa, Justyna Stefanek, Artur Stanek, Anna Stefanska, Janusz Mikula, Marek Hebda

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Limited resources of raw materials determine the necessity of obtaining materials from other sources. In this area, the most known and widespread are recycling processes, which are mainly focused on the reuse of material. Another possible solution used in various companies to achieve improvement in sustainable development is waste-free production. It involves the production exclusively from such materials, whose waste is included in the group of renewable raw materials. This means that they can: (i) be recycled directly during the manufacturing process of further products or (ii) be raw material obtained by other companies for the production of alternative products. The article presents the possibility of using post-production clay from the Jurassic limestone deposit "Raciszyn II" as a raw material for the production of alkali activated materials (AAM). Such products are currently increasingly used, mostly in various building applications. However, their final properties depend significantly on many factors; the most important of them are: chemical composition of the raw material, particle size, specific surface area, type and concentration of the activator and the temperature range of the heat treatment. Conducted mineralogical and chemical analyzes of clay from the “Raciszyn II” deposit confirmed that this material, due to its high content of aluminosilicates, can be used as raw material for the production of AAM. In order to obtain the product with the best properties, the optimization of the clay calcining process was also carried out. Based on the obtained results, it was found that this process should occur in the range between 750 oC and 800 oC. The use of a lower temperature causes getting a raw material with low metakaolin content which is the main component of materials suitable for alkaline activation processes. On the other hand, higher heat treatment temperatures cause thermal dissociation of large amounts of calcite, which is associated with the release of large amounts of CO2 and the formation of calcium oxide. This compound significantly accelerates the binding process, which consequently often prevents the correct formation of geopolymer mass. The effect of the use of various activators: (i) NaOH, (ii) KOH and (iii) a mixture of KOH to NaOH in a ratio of 10%, 25% and 50% by volume on the compressive strength of the AAM was also analyzed. Obtained results depending on the activator used were in the range from 25 MPa to 40 MPa. These values are comparable with the results obtained for materials produced on the basis of Portland cement, which is one of the most popular building materials.

Keywords: alkaline activation, aluminosilicates, calcination, compressive strength

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Authors: Placide Poba-Nzaou, Anicet Tchibozo, Malatsi Galani, Ali Etkkali, Erwin Halim

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is a general-purpose technology that is transforming many industries, working life and society by stimulating economic growth and innovation. Despite the huge potential of benefits to be generated, the adoption of AI varies from one organization to another, from one region to another, and from one industry to another, due in part to obstacles that can inhibit an organization or organizations located in a specific geographic region or operating in a specific industry from adopting AI technology. In this context, these obstacles and their implications for AI adoption from the perspective of configurational theory is important for at least three reasons: (1) understanding these obstacles is the first step in enabling policymakers and providers to make an informed decision in stimulating AI adoption (2) most studies have investigating obstacles or challenges of AI adoption in isolation with linear assumptions while configurational theory offers a holistic and multifaceted way of investigating the intricate interactions between perceived obstacles and barriers helping to assess their synergetic combination while holding assumptions of non-linearity leading to insights that would otherwise be out of the scope of studies investigating these obstacles in isolation. This study aims to pursue two objectives: (1) characterize organizations by uncovering the typical profiles of combinations of 15 internal and external obstacles that may prevent organizations from adopting AI technology, (2) assess the variation in terms of intensity of AI adoption associated with each configuration. We used data from a survey of AI adoption by organizations conducted throughout the EU27, Norway, Iceland and the UK (N=7549). Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis help uncover configurations of organizations based on the 15 obstacles, including eight external and seven internal. Second, we compared the clusters according to AI adoption intensity using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a Tamhane T2 post hoc test. The study uncovers three strongly separated clusters of organizations based on perceived obstacles to AI adoption. The clusters are labeled according to their magnitude of perceived obstacles to AI adoption: (1) Cluster I – High Level of perceived obstacles (N = 2449, 32.4%)(2) Cluster II – Low Level of perceived obstacles (N =1879, 24.9%) (3) Cluster III – Moderate Level of perceived obstacles (N =3221, 42.7%). The proposed taxonomy goes beyond the normative understanding of perceived obstacles to AI adoption and associated implications: it provides a well-structured and parsimonious lens that is useful for policymakers, AI technology providers, and researchers. Surprisingly, the ANOVAs revealed a “high level of perceived obstacles” cluster associated with a significantly high intensity of AI adoption.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI), obstacles, adoption, taxonomy.

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Authors: P. Saravanan, A. Vasumathi

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Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) plays a vital role in formulating the policies and strategies for the company, in order to fulfill the employee’s requirement and to perform the job efficiently within the organisation. Human Resource Management (HRM) functions helps in attracting and motivating the talented workforce for the organisation and by increasing the performance of an individual, will result in achieving the defined goals and objectives for the company. HRM function plays an important role in managing the workers within organisation through a formal communication channel. Since HR functions acts as a mediatory role in between the employee as well as the employers within the organisation that helps in improving the efficacy and skills of the individuals employed within the company. HR manager acts as a change agent, enabling and driving the change management program with respect to business HR functions and its future requirements of the company. Due to change in the business environment, the focus of HR manager is shifting from administrative/personal functions in to a strategic business HR function. HR managers plays a strategic role in managing various HR functions such as recruitment and selection, human resource information system, manpower planning, performance management, conflict management, employee engagement, compensation management, policy formation and retention strategies followed within the industry. Major challenges faced by HR managers at work place are managing the level of engagement for the talented resources within the organisation, reducing the conflicts at workplace, mapping the talented resources through succession planning process, building the effective appraisal process and performance management system and mapping the compensation based on the skills and experience possed by the employee within the company. The authors conducted a study for the sample size of 75 HR managers from an Indian IT company through systematic sampling method. This study identifies that the female employees are facing lesser conflict than the male employees against their managers within the organisation and also the study determines the impact of demographic profile on strategic HRM practices and its challenges faced by HR managers in IT firm, India.

Keywords: strategic human resource management, change agent, employee engagement, performance management, succession planning and conflict management

Procedia PDF Downloads 291

Authors: Ahmad Odeh, Ahmad Jrade

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Energy assessment is an evidently significant factor when evaluating the sustainability of structures especially at the early design stage. Today design practices revolve around the selection of material that reduces the operational energy and yet meets their displinary need. Operational energy represents a substantial part of the building lifecycle energy usage but the fact remains that embodied energy is an important aspect unaccounted for in the carbon footprint. At the moment, little or no consideration is given to embodied energy mainly due to the complexity of calculation and the various factors involved. The equipment used, the fuel needed, and electricity required for each material vary with location and thus the embodied energy will differ for each project. Moreover, the method and the technique used in manufacturing, transporting and putting in place will have a significant influence on the materials’ embodied energy. This anomaly has made it difficult to calculate or even bench mark the usage of such energies. This paper presents a model aimed at helping designers select the construction materials based on their embodied energy. Moreover, this paper presents a systematic approach that uses an efficient method of calculation and ultimately provides new insight into construction material selection. The model is developed in a BIM environment targeting the quantification of embodied energy for construction materials through the three main stages of their life: manufacturing, transportation and placement. The model contains three major databases each of which contains a set of the most commonly used construction materials. The first dataset holds information about the energy required to manufacture any type of materials, the second includes information about the energy required for transporting the materials while the third stores information about the energy required by tools and cranes needed to place an item in its intended location. The model provides designers with sets of all available construction materials and their associated embodied energies to use for the selection during the design process. Through geospatial data and dimensional material analysis, the model will also be able to automatically calculate the distance between the factories and the construction site. To remain within the sustainability criteria set by LEED, a final database is created and used to calculate the overall construction cost based on R.M.S. means cost data and then automatically recalculate the costs for any modifications. Design criteria including both operational and embodied energies will cause designers to revaluate the current material selection for cost, energy, and most importantly sustainability.

Keywords: building information modelling, energy, life cycle analysis, sustainablity

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Authors: Abrehet Kahsay Mehari

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Aquatic plants provide the physical structure of wetlands and increase their habitat complexity and heterogeneity, and as such, have a profound influence on other biotas. In this study, we investigated how human disturbance activities influenced the species richness and community composition of aquatic plants in the wetlands of Lake Tana, Ethiopia. Twelve wetlands were selected: four lacustrine, four river mouths, and four riverine papyrus swamps. Data on aquatic plants, environmental variables, and human activities were collected during the dry and wet seasons of 2018. A linear mixed effect model and a distance-based Redundancy Analysis (db-RDA) were used to relate aquatic plant species richness and community composition, respectively, to human activities and environmental variables. A total of 113 aquatic plant species, belonging to 38 families, were identified across all wetlands during the dry and wet seasons. Emergent species had the maximum area covered at 73.45 % and attained the highest relative abundance, followed by amphibious and other forms. The mean taxonomic richness of aquatic plants was significantly lower in wetlands with high overall human disturbance scores compared to wetlands with low overall human disturbance scores. Moreover, taxonomic richness showed a negative correlation with livestock grazing, tree plantation, and sand mining. The community composition also varied across wetlands with varying levels of human disturbance and was primarily driven by turnover (i.e., replacement of species) rather than nestedness resultant(i.e., loss of species). Distance-based redundancy analysis revealed that livestock grazing, tree plantation, sand mining, waste dumping, and crop cultivation were significant predictors of variation in aquatic plant communities’ composition in the wetlands. Linear mixed effect models and distance-based redundancy analysis also revealed that water depth, turbidity, conductivity, pH, sediment depth, and temperature were important drivers of variations in aquatic plant species richness and community composition. Papyrus swamps had the highest species richness and supported different plant communities. Conservation efforts should therefore focus on these habitats and measures should be taken to restore the highly disturbed and species poor wetlands near the river mouths.

Keywords: species richness, community composition, aquatic plants, wetlands, Lake Tana, human disturbance activities

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Authors: Sagwata A. Manyike, Hulisani Magada

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The South African National Biodiversity Institute is in the process of developing a guideline which sets out how biodiversity can be incorporated into land use (zoning) schemes. South Africa promulgated its Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act in 2015 and the act seeks, amongst other things, to bridge the gap between spatial planning and land use management within the country. In addition, the act requires local governments to develop wall-to-wall land use schemes for their entire jurisdictions as they had previously only developed them for their urban areas. At the same time, South Africa has a rich history of systematic conservation planning whereby Critical Biodiversity Areas and Ecological Support Areas have been spatially delineated at a scale appropriate for spatial planning and land use management at the scale of local government. South Africa is also in the process of spatially delineating ecological infrastructure which is defined as naturally occurring ecosystems which provide valuable services to people such as water and climate regulation, soil formation, disaster risk reduction, etc. The Biodiversity and Land Use Project, which is funded by the Global Environmental Facility through the United Nations Development Programme is seeking to explore ways in which biodiversity information and ecological infrastructure can be incorporated into the spatial planning and land use management systems of local governments. Towards this end, the Biodiversity and Land Use Project have developed a guideline which sets out how local governments can integrate biodiversity into their land-use schemes as a way of not only ensuring sustainable development but also as a way helping them prepare for climate change. In addition, by incorporating biodiversity into land-use schemes, the project is exploring new ways of protecting biodiversity through land use schemes. The Guideline for Incorporating Biodiversity into Land Use Schemes was developed as a response to the fact that the National Land Use Scheme Guidelines only indicates that local governments needed to incorporate biodiversity without explaining how this could be achieved. The Natioanl Guideline also failed to specify which biodiversity-related layers are compatible with which land uses or what the benefits of incorporating biodiversity into the schemes will be for that local government. The guideline, therefore, sets out an argument for why biodiversity is important in land management processes and proceeds to provide a step by step guideline for how schemes can integrate priority biodiversity layers. This guideline will further be added as an addendum to the National Land Use Guidelines. Although the planning act calls for local government to have wall to wall schemes within 5 years of its enactment, many municipalities will not meet this deadline and so this guideline will support them in the development of their new schemes.

Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, land use schemes, local government

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Nazlı Çetindağ, Pelin Yılmaz Çetiner, Metin Mert İlgün, Emine Birci, Gizemnur Yıldız Uysal, Özcan Hatipoğlu, Ehsan Tuzcuoğlu, Gökhan Sır

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Water scarcity is an unavoidable issue impacting an increasing number of individuals daily, representing a global crisis stemming from swift population growth, urbanization, and excessive resource exploitation. Consequently, solutions that involve the reclamation of wastewater are considered essential. In this context, household wastewater, categorized as greywater, plays a significant role in freshwater used for residential purposes and is attributed to washing. This type of wastewater comprises diverse elements, including organic substances, soaps, detergents, solvents, biological components, and inorganic elements such as certain metal ions and particles. The physical characteristics of wastewater vary depending on its source, whether commercial, domestic, or from a hospital setting. Consequently, the treatment strategy for this wastewater type necessitates comprehensive investigation and appropriate handling. The advanced oxidation process (AOP) emerges as a promising technique associated with the generation of reactive hydroxyl radicals highly effective in oxidizing organic pollutants. This method takes precedence over others like coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration due to its avoidance of undesirable by-products. In the current study, the focus was on exploring the feasibility of the AOP for treating actual household wastewater. To achieve this, a laboratory-scale device was designed to effectively target the formed radicals toward organic pollutants, resulting in lower organic compounds in wastewater. Then, the number of microorganisms present in treated wastewater, in addition to the chemical content of the water, was analyzed to determine whether the lab-scale device eliminates microbial accumulation with AOP. This was also an important parameter since microbes can indirectly affect human health and machine hygiene. To do this, water samples were taken from treated and untreated conditions and then inoculated on general purpose agar to track down the total plate count. Analysis showed that AOP might be an option to treat household wastewater and lower microorganism growth.

Keywords: usage of household water, advanced oxidation process, water reuse, modelling

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Authors: Jakub Marek, Marie Vagnerova, Ladislav Csemy

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Background: The length of time spent on the street influences the degree of adjustment to homelessness. Over the years spent sleeping rough, homeless people gradually lose the ability to control their lives and their return to mainstream society becomes less and less likely. Goals: The aim of the study was to discover whether and how men who have been sleeping rough for more than ten years differ from those who have been homeless for four years or less. Methods: The research was based on a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews focused on the respondent’s entire life story, i.e. their childhood, adolescence, and the period of adulthood preceding homelessness. It also asked the respondents about how they envisaged the future. The group under examination comprised 51 homeless men aged 37 – 54. The first subgroup contained 29 men who have been sleeping rough for 10 – 21 years, the second group contained 22 men who have been homeless for four years or less. Results: Men who have been sleeping rough for more than ten years had problems adapting as children. They grew up in a problematic family or in an institution and acquired only a rudimentary education. From the start they had problems at work, found it difficult to apply themselves, and found it difficult to hold down a job. They tend to have high-risk personality traits and often a personality disorder. Early in life they had problems with alcohol or drugs and their relationships were unsuccessful. If they have children, they do not look after them. They are reckless even in respect of the law and often commit crime. They usually ended up on the street in their thirties. Most of this subgroup of homeless people lack motivation and the will to make any fundamental change to their lives. They identify with the homeless community and have no other contacts. Men who have been sleeping rough for four years or less form two subgroups. There are those who had a normal childhood, attended school and found work. They started a family but began to drink, and as a consequence lost their family and their job. Such men end up on the street between the ages of 35 and 40. And then there are men who become homeless after the age of 40 because of an inability to cope with a difficult situation, e.g. divorce or indebtedness. They are not substance abusers and do not have a criminal record. Such people can be offered effective assistance to return to mainstream society by the social services because they have not yet fully self-identified with the homeless community and most of them have retained the necessary abilities and skills. Conclusion: The length of time a person has been homeless is an important factor in respect of social prevention. It is clear that the longer a person is homeless, the worse are their chances of being reintegrated into mainstream society.

Keywords: risk factors, homelessness, chronicity, narrative analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Byeongcheol Kang, Junyi Kim, Hyungsik Jung, Hyungjun Yang, Jaewoo An, Jonggeun Choe

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It is important to figure out reservoir properties for better production management. Due to the limited information, there are geological uncertainties on very heterogeneous or channel reservoir. One of the solutions is to generate multiple equi-probable realizations using geostatistical methods. However, some models have wrong properties, which need to be excluded for simulation efficiency and reliability. We propose a novel method of model selection scheme, based on distance-based clustering for reliable application of production optimization algorithm. Distance is defined as a degree of dissimilarity between the data. We calculate Hausdorff distance to classify the models based on their similarity. Hausdorff distance is useful for shape matching of the reservoir models. We use multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) to describe the models on two dimensional space and group them by K-means clustering. Rather than simulating all models, we choose one representative model from each cluster and find out the best model, which has the similar production rates with the true values. From the process, we can select good reservoir models near the best model with high confidence. We make 100 channel reservoir models using single normal equation simulation (SNESIM). Since oil and gas prefer to flow through the sand facies, it is critical to characterize pattern and connectivity of the channels in the reservoir. After calculating Hausdorff distances and projecting the models by MDS, we can see that the models assemble depending on their channel patterns. These channel distributions affect operation controls of each production well so that the model selection scheme improves management optimization process. We use one of useful global search algorithms, particle swarm optimization (PSO), for our production optimization. PSO is good to find global optimum of objective function, but it takes too much time due to its usage of many particles and iterations. In addition, if we use multiple reservoir models, the simulation time for PSO will be soared. By using the proposed method, we can select good and reliable models that already matches production data. Considering geological uncertainty of the reservoir, we can get well-optimized production controls for maximum net present value. The proposed method shows one of novel solutions to select good cases among the various probabilities. The model selection schemes can be applied to not only production optimization but also history matching or other ensemble-based methods for efficient simulations.

Keywords: distance-based clustering, geological uncertainty, particle swarm optimization (PSO), production optimization

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Authors: Boris Nemzer, Tania Reyes-Izquierdo, Zbigniew Pietrzkowski

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Glucosinolate is a family of glucosides that can be found in a family of brassica vegetables. Upon the damage of the plant, glucosinolate breakdown by an internal enzyme myrosinase (thioglucosidase; EC 3.2.3.1) into isothiocyanates, such as sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is formed by glucoraphanin cleaving the sugar off by myrosinase and rearranged. Sulforaphane nitrile is formed in the same reaction as sulforaphane with the active of epithiospecifier protein (ESP). Most common food processing procedure would break the plant and mix the glucoraphanin and myrosinase together, and the formed sulforaphane would be further degraded. The purpose of this study is to understand the glucoraphanin/sulforaphane and the myrosinase activity of broccoli seeds germinated at a different time and technological processing conditions that keep the activity of the enzyme to form sulforaphane. Broccoli seeds were germinated in the house. Myrosinase activities were tested as the glucose content using glucose assay kit and measured UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Glucosinolates were measured by HPLC/DAD. Sulforaphane was measured using HPLC-DAD and GC/MS. The 6 hr germinated sprouts have a myrosinase activity 32.2 mg glucose/g, which is comparable with 12 and 24 hour germinated seeds and higher than dry seeds. The glucoraphanin content in 6 hour germinated sprouts is 13935 µg/g which is comparable to 24 hour germinated seeds and lower than the dry seeds. GC/MS results show that the amount of sulforaphane is higher than the amount of sulforaphane nitrile in seeds, 6 hour and 24 hour germinated seeds. The ratio of sulforaphane and sulforaphane nitrile is high in 6 hour germinated seeds, which indicates the inactivated ESP in the reaction. After evaluating the results, the short time germinated seeds can be used as the source of glucoraphanin and myrosinase supply to form potential higher sulforaphane content. Broccoli contains glucosinolates, glucoraphanin (4-methylsulfinylbutyl glucosinolate), which is an important metabolite with health-promoting effects. In the pilot clinical study, we observed the effects of a glucosinolates/glucoraphanin-rich extract from short time germinated broccoli seeds on blood adenosine triphosphate (ATP), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lactate levels. A single dose of 50 mg of broccoli sprouts extract increased blood levels of ATP up to 61% (p=0.0092) during the first 2 hours after the ingestion. Interestingly, this effect was not associated with an increase in blood ROS or lactate. When compared to the placebo group, levels of lactate were reduced by 10% (p=0.006). These results indicate that broccoli germinated seed extract may positively affect the generation of ATP in humans. Due to the preliminary nature of this work and promising results, larger clinical trials are justified.

Keywords: broccoli glucosinolates, glucoraphanin, germinated seeds, myrosinase, adenosine triphosphate

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Authors: Mehmet Sener, Emre Kishali

Abstract:

The establishment of republic brought radical changes related to the modernization of life in early republican Turkey considering the revolutions in socio-economical, cultural and political aspects. These changes also had many influences on the formation of city planning and architectural medium that the arrangements related with health facility production had an important place amongst them. While the health services were witnessing great transformations with all its sides, socio-cultural and architectural framework of these facilities necessitated the adaption of new conceptual approaches which led to the construction new hospital buildings by the republican state with a name ‘Sample Hospital’. In this period, the state constructed sample hospitals in some cities (Adana, Ankara, Erzurum, İstanbul, Konya, Sivas and Trabzon) for the aim of being a good example for further hospitals sheltering all the characteristics of a contemporary health complex for that day. In this study, these six hospitals will firstly be elucidated considering their historical evaluations and current situations. Then, being one of the most significant modern heritages of republican history, the ways to provide the interrelationship of these complexes with the rapidly evolving current world will be discussed by proposing solutions or approaches coming from the fields of city planning, architectural preservation, engineering and architectural history together with an awareness of the socio-economic conditions, health services and architectural medium of Turkey. These hospitals are complexes composed of building ensembles which have functional relationships with each other. So, some strategies will be proposed for the preservation, renovation, and refurbishment of these complexes with an awareness of the possibility of the conflict between conservation practices and today’s health facility standards. Accordingly, the addition or removal of some elements in the complex or the suggestion of some architectural changes for the modernization of these health facilities will be investigated considering the requirements of the contemporary architectural design of health facilities. Since these hospitals are highly complex structures and have vastly changing design and construction standards, they cannot be used without adopting necessary architectural and technological interventions. So, the adaptive re-use of these buildings instead of demolition or the preservation of their overall characteristics becomes inevitable for the sustaining of these health facility heritages in Turkey. In this context, a multidisciplinary analysis will be made in this study on ‘Sample Hospital’ concept and buildings existing in Turkish modern architectural history within the framework of the adaptive reuse of these health complexes.

Keywords: adaptive re-use, conservation, early republican Turkey, sample hospital

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Authors: Varsha Pandurang Nagargoje, K. S. James

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Background: Social participation is considered as one of the central components of successful and healthy aging. This study aimed to examine the moderating role of marital status and living arrangement in the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction and other potential factors associated with life satisfaction of Indian older adults. Method: For analyses, the nationally representative study sample of 31,464 adults aged ≥60 years old was extracted from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) wave 1, 2017-18. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis have been performed to determine the proportion of life satisfaction. The first set of multivariable linear regression analyses examined Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale and its association with various predictor variables, including social participation, marital status, living arrangements, socio-demographic, economic, and health-related variables. Further, the second and third sets of regression investigated the moderating role of marital status and living arrangements respectively in the association of social participation and level of life satisfaction among Indian older adults. Results: Overall, the proportion of life satisfaction among older men was relatively higher than women counterparts in most background characteristics. Regression results stressed the importance of older adults’ involvement in social participation [β = 0.39, p < 0.05], being in marital union [β = 0.68, p < 0.001] and co-residential living arrangements either only with spouse [β = 1.73, p < 0.001] or with other family members [β = 2.18, p < 0.001] for the improvement of life satisfaction. Results also showed that some factors were significant for life satisfaction: in particular, increased age, having a higher level of educational status, MPCE quintile, and caste category. Higher risk of life dissatisfaction found among Indian older adults who were exposed to vulnerabilities like consuming tobacco, poor self-rated health, having difficulty in performing ADL and IADL were of major concern. The interaction effect of social participation with marital status or with living arrangements explained that currently married older individuals, and those older adults who were either co-residing with their spouse only or with other family members irrespective of their involvement in social participation remained an important modifiable factor for life satisfaction. Conclusion: It would be crucial for policymakers and practitioners to advocate social policy programs and service delivery oriented towards meaningful social connections, especially for those Indian older adults who were staying alone or currently not in the marital union to enhance their overall life satisfaction.

Keywords: Indian, older adults, social participation, life satisfaction, marital status, living arrangement

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