Search results for: distribution strategy

Authors: Tamás Hartványi, Ferenc Tóth

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European telecommunication distribution center performance is measured by service lead time and quality. Operation model is CTO (customized to order) namely, a high mix customization of telecommunication network equipment and parts. CTO operation contains material receiving, warehousing, network and server assembly to order and configure based on customer specifications. Variety of the product and orders does not support mass production structure. One of the success factors to satisfy customer is to have a proper aggregated planning method for the operation in order to have optimized human resources and highly efficient asset utilization. Research will investigate several methods and find proper way to have an order book simulation where practical optimization problem may contain thousands of variables and the simulation running times of developed algorithms were taken into account with high importance. There are two operation research models that were developed, customer demand is given in orders, no change over time, customer demands are given for product types, and changeover time is constant.

Keywords: CTO, aggregated planning, demand simulation, changeover time

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Authors: Abdul-Razak Saeed

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Addressing the climate change crisis that this generation faces has evolved to include the consideration of a policy mechanism referred to as reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation with plus components of conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+). REDD+ emerged from the International level of UNFCCC but its implementation is by developing countries. It challenges the development paradigm of nations that depend on the unsustainable clearing of forests and land use change for economic development whilst posing as an opportunity or risk for forest community livelihoods, institutions and their interaction with the forest resources. As a novel policy mechanism, it is imperative to gain global insight into local contexts of its implementation and to understand local level mobilization of their agency for institutional sustainability as reconfigured by new carbon economy initiatives like REDD+. Using a systematic review process, as the initial stages of this study, secondary data of REDD+ projects across the globe were evaluated to pick up gaps in research and that of on ground REDD+ implementation. Primary data was gathered from 30 actors in the government, NGO, private sector and traditional authorities using face-to-face semi structured interviews in Ghana; participation in meetings and workshops and policy and strategy document reviews. Preliminary findings of the study include REDD+ knowledge being a key determinant of power distribution and affects who shapes the process; in Ghana, informal relationships are playing key roles in advancing REDD+ unlike in traditional forestry and a subjectivity shift of local communities from an 'emotive-link' of environmental care to one of 'economic self-seeking and enriching' domain of thought.

Keywords: climate change, communities, forests, REDD+

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Authors: Saeed Pourhassan, Nastaran Maghbouli

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Statement of the problem: The relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases has been studied widely(1). The distribution of fat tissue gained attention in relation to cardiovascular risk factors during lang-time research (2). American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) is widely and the most reliable tool to be used as a cardiovascular risk (CVR) assessment tool(3). This study aimed to determine which anthropometric index is better in discrimination of high CVR patients from low risks using ACC/AHA score in addition to finding the best index as a CVR predictor among both genders in different races and countries. Methodology & theoretical orientation: The literature in PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched by two independent investigators using the keywords "anthropometric indices," "cardiovascular risk," and "obesity." The search strategy was limited to studies published prior to Jan 2022 as full-texts in the English language. Studies using ACC/AHA risk assessment tool as CVR and those consisted at least 2 anthropometric indices (ancient ones and novel ones) are included. Study characteristics and data were extracted. The relative risks were pooled with the use of the random-effect model. Analysis was repeated in subgroups. Findings: Pooled relative risk for 7 studies with 16,348 participants were 1.56 (1.35-1.72) for BMI, 1.67(1.36-1.83) for WC [waist circumference], 1.72 (1.54-1.89) for WHR [waist-to-hip ratio], 1.60 (1.44-1.78) for WHtR [waist-to-height ratio], 1.61 (1.37-1.82) for ABSI [A body shape index] and 1.63 (1.32-1.89) for CI [Conicity index]. Considering gender, WC among females and WHR among men gained the highest RR. The heterogeneity of studies was moderate (α²: 56%), which was not decreased by subgroup analysis. Some indices such as VAI and LAP were evaluated just in one study. Conclusion & significance: This meta-analysis showed WHR could predict CVR better in comparison to BMI or WHtR. Some new indices like CI and ABSI are less accurate than WHR and WC. Among women, WC seems to be a better choice to predict cardiovascular disease risk.

Keywords: obesity, cardiovascular disease, risk assessment, anthropometric indices

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Authors: Amir Hossein Hejazi, Nima Amjady

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In recent years, due to environmental issues traditional energy sources had been replaced by renewable ones. Wind energy as the fastest growing renewable energy shares a considerable percent of energy in power electricity markets. With this fast growth of wind energy worldwide, owners and operators of wind farms, transmission system operators, and energy traders need reliable and secure forecasts of wind energy production. In this paper, a new forecasting strategy is proposed for short-term wind power prediction based on Echo State Networks (ESN). The forecast engine utilizes state-of-the-art training process including dynamical reservoir with high capability to learn complex dynamics of wind power or wind vector signals. The study becomes more interesting by incorporating prediction of wind direction into forecast strategy. The Big Bang-Big Crunch (BB-BC) evolutionary optimization algorithm is adopted for adjusting free parameters of ESN-based forecaster. The proposed method is tested by real-world hourly data to show the efficiency of the forecasting engine for prediction of both wind vector and wind power output of aggregated wind power production.

Keywords: wind power forecasting, echo state network, big bang-big crunch, evolutionary optimization algorithm

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Authors: Rong-Yang Lai, Jia-Yu Wu, Chih-Han Chang, Yung-Chung Chen

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The dental bridge is one of the clinical methods of the treatment for missing teeth. The dental bridge is generally designed for two layers, containing the inner layer of the framework(zirconia) and the outer layer of the porcelain-fused to framework restorations. The design of a conventional bridge is generally based on the antagonist tooth profile so that the framework evenly indented by an equal thickness from outer contour. All-ceramic dental bridge made of zirconia have well demonstrated remarkable potential to withstand a higher physiological occlusal load in posterior region, but it was found that there is still the risk of all-ceramic bridge failure in five years. Thus, how to reduce the incidence of failure is still a problem to be solved. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop mechanical designs for all-ceramic dental bridges framework by reducing the stress and enhancing fracture resistance under given loading conditions by finite element method. In this study, dental design software is used to design dental bridge based on tooth CT images. After building model, Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization (BESO) Method algorithm implemented in finite element software was employed to analyze results of finite element software and determine the distribution of the materials in dental bridge; BESO searches the optimum distribution of two different materials, namely porcelain and zirconia. According to the previous calculation of the stress value of each element, when the element stress value is higher than the threshold value, the element would be replaced by the framework material; besides, the difference of maximum stress peak value is less than 0.1%, calculation is complete. After completing the design of dental bridge, the stress distribution of the whole structure is changed. BESO reduces the peak values of principle stress of 10% in outer-layer porcelain and avoids producing tensile stress failure.

Keywords: dental bridge, finite element analysis, framework, automatic program

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Authors: Saji George, Eng Khuan Seng, Christof Luda

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Nanotechnology has been recognized as an important tool for modern agriculture and has the potential to overcome some of the pressing challenges faced by aquaculture industry. A strategy for optimizing nanotechnology-based therapeutic delivery platform for immunizing farmed fish was developed. Accordingly, a compositional library of nanomaterials of natural chemistry (Halloysite (clay), Chitosan, Hydroxyapatite, Mesoporous Silica and a composite material of clay-chitosan) was screened for their toxicity and efficiency in delivering models antigens in cellular and zebrafish embryo models using high throughput screening platforms. Through multi-parametric optimization, chitosan modified halloysite (clay) nanomaterial was identified as an optimal vaccine delivery platform. Further, studies conducted in juvenile seabass showed the potential of clay-chitosan in delivering outer membrane protein of Tenacibaculum maritimum- TIMA (pathogenic bacteria) to and its efficiency in eliciting immune responses in fish. In short, as exemplified by this work, the strategy of using compositional nanomaterial libraries and their biological profiling using high-throughput screening platform could fasten the discovery process of nanomaterials with potential applications in food and agriculture.

Keywords: nanotechnology, fish-vaccine, drug-delivery, halloysite-chitosan

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Authors: Leila H. Khiabani, Mohammadreza Vafaee, Farshad Hashemzadeh

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Industrial waste management regulates different stages of production, storage, transfer, recycling and waste disposal. There are several common practices for industrial waste management. However, due to various local health, economic, social, environmental and aesthetic considerations, the most optimal principles and measures often vary at each specific industrial zone. In addition, waste management strategies are heavily impacted by local administrative, legal, and financial regulations. In this study, a hybrid qualitative and quantitative research methodology has been designed for waste management planning in an industrial city. Firstly, following a qualitative research methodology, the most relevant waste management strategies for the specific industrial city were identified through interviews with environmental planning and waste management experts. Forty experts participated in this study. Alborz industrial city in Iran, which hosts more than one thousand industrial units in nine hundred acres, was chosen as the sample industrial city in this study. The findings from the expert interviews at the first phase were then used to design a quantitative questionnaire for the second phase of the study. The aim of the questionnaire was to quantify the relative impact of different waste management strategies in the sample industrial city. Eight waste management strategies and three implementation policies were included in the questionnaire. The experts were asked to rank the relative effectiveness of each strategy for environmental planning of the sample industrial city. They were also asked to rank the relative effectiveness of each planning policy on each of the waste management strategies. In the end, the weighted average of all the responses was calculated to identify the most effective waste management strategy and planning policies for the sample industrial city. The results suggested that among the eight suggested waste management strategies, industrial composting is the most effective (31%) strategy based on the collective evaluation of the local expert. Additionally, the results suggested that the most effective policy (58%) in the city’s environmental planning is to reduce waste generation by prolonging the effective life of industrial products using higher quality and recyclable materials. These findings can provide useful expert guidelines for prioritization between different waste management strategies in the city’s overall environmental planning roadmap. The findings may also be applicable to similar industrial cities. In addition, a similar methodology can be utilized in the environmental planning of other industrial cities.

Keywords: environmental planning, industrial city, quantitative research, waste management

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Authors: S. Ajith Kumar, Vaisakh S. Rajan

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In external flows, vortex shedding behind the bluff bodies causes to experience unsteady loads on a large number of engineering structures, resulting in structural failure. Vortex shedding can even turn out to be disastrous like the Tacoma Bridge failure incident. We need to have control over vortex shedding to get rid of this untoward condition by reducing the unsteady forces acting on the bluff body. In circular cylinders, hydrophobic surface in an otherwise no-slip surface is found to be delaying separation and minimizes the effects of vortex shedding drastically. Flow over square cylinder stands different from this behavior as separation can takes place from either of the two corner separation points (front or rear). An attempt is made in this study to numerically elucidate the effect of hydrophobic surface in flow over a square cylinder. A 2D numerical simulation has been done to understand the effects of the slip surface on the flow past square cylinder. The details of the numerical algorithm will be presented at the time of the conference. A non-dimensional parameter, Knudsen number is defined to quantify the slip on the cylinder surface based on Maxwell’s equation. The slip surface condition of the wall affects the vorticity distribution around the cylinder and the flow separation. In the numerical analysis, we observed that the hydrophobic surface enhances the shedding frequency and damps down the amplitude of oscillations of the square cylinder. We also found that the slip has a negative effect on aerodynamic force coefficients such as the coefficient of lift (CL), coefficient of drag (CD) etc. and hence replacing the no slip surface by a hydrophobic surface can be treated as an effective drag reduction strategy and the introduction of hydrophobic surface could be utilized for reducing the vortex induced vibrations (VIV) and is found as an effective method in controlling VIV thereby controlling the structural failures.

Keywords: drag reduction, flow past square cylinder, flow control, hydrophobic surfaces, vortex shedding

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Authors: Shola Haruna Adeosun, Ajoke F. Adebiyi

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Business organizations in Nigeria have failed to realize the role of a good corporate image policy in business dealings. This is probably because they do not understand the concept of corporate image and the necessary tools for promoting it. Corporate image goes beyond attractive products or rendering quality services, advertising and paying good salary. It pervades every aspect of business concern, from the least worker’s personality to the dealings within the organization and with the large society. In the face of the societal dynamics, especially in the business world, brought by technology, companies are faced with stiff competition that maintaining a competitive edge requires aggressive strategies. One of such strategies in effective corporate image management is promotion. This study investigates the strategies that could be deployed in order to build and promote the effective corporate image, as well as enhance profit margins of an organization, using Phinomar Nigeria Limited, Ngwo as case study. The study reveals that Phinomar Nigeria Limited has a laid down corporate image policy but not effectively managed; and that, strategies deployed to promote corporate image are limited; while responses to Phinomar products are fairly high. It, therefore, suggests profitable products but requires periodical improvement in the employee's welfare and work environment; as well as, the need to increase the scope of Phinomar’s social responsibility.

Keywords: corporate image, effective, enhancing, management, profitability, strategy

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Authors: Rania Ajmi, Faiza Allouche Khebour, Aude Nuscia Taibi, Sirine Essasi

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Urban green spaces (UGS) as an important contributor can be a significant part of sustainable development. A spatial method was employed to assess and map the spatial distribution of UGS in five districts in Sousse, Tunisia. Ecological management of UGS is an essential factor for the sustainable development of the city; hence the municipality of Sousse has decided to support the districts according to different green spaces characters. And to implement this policy, (1) a new GIS web application was developed, (2) then the implementation of the various green spaces was carried out, (3) a spatial mapping of UGS using Quantum GIS was realized, and (4) finally a data processing and statistical analysis with RStudio programming language was executed. The intersection of the results of the spatial and statistical analyzes highlighted the presence of an imbalance in terms of the spatial UGS distribution in the study area. The discontinuity between the coast and the city's green spaces was not designed in a spirit of network and connection, hence the lack of a greenway that connects these spaces to the city. Finally, this GIS support will be used to assess and monitor green spaces in the city of Sousse by decision-makers and will contribute to improve the well-being of the local population.

Keywords: distributions, GIS, green space, imbalance, spatial analysis

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Authors: A. J. Otjen

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Native American communities are struggling with unemployment and depressed economies. A major cause is a lack of business knowledge, education, and cultural desire. And yet, in the history of the American West, Native Americans were considered the best traders and negotiators for everything from furs to weapons to buffalo. To improve these economies, there has been an effort to reintroduce that heritage to todays and tomorrows generation of tribal members, such Crow, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet. Professors at the College of Business Montana State University-Billings (MSUB) teach tribal students in Montana to create business plans. These plans have won national small business plan competitions. The teaching and advising method used at MSUB is uniquely successful as theses business students are now five time national champions. This article reviews the environment and the method of learning to achieve a winning small business plan with Native American students. It discusses the five plans that became national champions. And it discusses the problems and solutions discovered in the process of achieving results. Students who participated in this endeavor have graduated and become CPAs, MBAs, and gainfully employed in their chosen professions. They have also worked to improve the economies of their native lands and homes. By educating members of these communities with business strategy and plan development, they are better able to impact their own economies.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, native American economies, small businesses, unemployment

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Authors: Mateusz Janas

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Innovative implementations in the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) sector are among the essential activities considering the current market realities, technological advancements, and digitization trends. MSMEs play a crucial role and significantly influence the economic conditions of countries, as their competitiveness directly impacts the global economy. Business development and investment in innovation and technology are integral parts of every modern enterprise's strategy, seeking to maintain and achieve a desired competitive position. The instability of the socio-economic environment, along with contemporary changes in artificial intelligence implementation and digitization, requires businesses to adopt increasingly newer solutions and actions. Enterprises must strive to survive in the global market and build competitive positions, especially in uncertain conditions. Being aware of the significance of innovative actions is crucial for MSMEs as it enables them to enhance their operations and expand their scope. It is essential for managers and executives of MSMEs to be focused on development and innovation, as their approach will also impact their employees, emphasizing results and maximizing the company's value. Managers of MSMEs must be aware of various threats, costs, opportunities, and gains that can arise from implementing new technical and organizational solutions. Businesses must view development as an integral part of their strategy and continuously strive for improvement.

Keywords: innovation, SME, develop, management

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Authors: Tripta Dixit, Smita Sahu, William Selvamurthy, Sadhana Srivastava

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India is battling with the issues of accessibility, affordability and availability of quality health to the masses. Indian medical heritage which dated back to 3000 BC unveils the rich knowledge pool which has undergone a perceptible change over years, such as eradication of many communicable diseases, increasing individual awareness of quality health and import driven medical device market etc. Despite a slew of initiatives the holistic slogan of ‘health for all’ remains elusive and a concern for the nation. The 21st-century projects a myriad of challenges like cultural diversity, large population, demographic dividend and geographical segmentation leading to varied needs of people as per their regional conditions of climate, disease prevalence, nutrition and sanitation. But these challenges are also opportunities for the development of indigenous, low cost and accessible technologies to tackle them. This requires reinforcing the potential of indigenous technologies in coordination with prevailing health issues in various regions of country. This paper emphasis on the strategy for exploring the indigenous technologies with entrusted up-scaling to meet the diverse needs of the people. This review proposes to adopt technology transfer as a strategy to establish a vibrant ecosystem for identifying and up-scaling the indigenous medical technologies with diligent hand-holding for public health.

Keywords: health, indigenous, medical technology, technology transfer

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Authors: Riky Tri Hartagung, Mohammad Syamsu Rosid

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The lithology prediction process, as well as the fluid content is the most important part in the reservoir characterization. One of the methods used in this process is the simultaneous seismic inversion method. In the Posseidon field, Browse Basin, Australia, the parameters generated through simultaneous seismic inversion are not able to characterize the reservoir accurately because of the overlapping impedance values between hydrocarbon sand, water sand, and shale, which causes a high level of ambiguity in the interpretation. The Poisson Impedance inversion provides a solution to this problem by rotating the impedance a few degrees, which is obtained through the coefficient c. Coefficient c is obtained through the Target Correlation Coefficient Analysis (TCCA) by finding the optimum correlation coefficient between Poisson Impedance and the target log, namely gamma ray, effective porosity, and resistivity. Correlation of each of these target logs will produce Lithology Impedance (LI) which is sensitive to lithology sand, Porosity Impedance (ϕI) which is sensitive to porous sand, and Fluid Impedance (FI) which is sensitive to fluid content. The results show that PI gives better results in separating hydrocarbon saturated reservoir zones. Based on the results of the LI-GR crossplot, the ϕI-effective porosity crossplot, and the FI-Sw crossplot with optimum correlations of 0.74, 0.91, and 0.82 respectively, it shows that the lithology of hidrocarbon-saturated porous sand is at the value of LI ≤ 2800 (m/s)(g *cc), ϕI ≤ 5500 (m/s)(g*cc), and FI ≤ 4000 (m/s)(g*cc). The presence of low values of LI, ϕI, and FI correlates accurately with the presence of hydrocarbons in the well. Each value of c is then applied to the seismic data. The results show that the PI inversion gives a good distribution of Hydrocarbon-saturated porous sand lithology. The distribution of hydrocarbon saturated porous sand on the seismic inversion section is seen in the northeast – southwest direction, which is estimated as the direction of gas distribution.

Keywords: reservoir characterization, poisson impedance, browse basin, poseidon field

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Authors: Sunghyoun Lee, Byeongkee Yu, Chanjung Lee, Yeongtaek Lim

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Oyster mushrooms are one of the ingredients that Koreans prefer. The oyster mushroom cultivation house has multiple layers in order to increase the mushroom production per unit area. However, the growing shelves in the house act as obstacles and hinder the circulation of the interior air, which leads to the difference of cultivation environment between the upper part and lower part of the growing shelves. Due to this difference of environments, growth distinction occurs according to the area of the growing shelves. It is known that minute air circulation around the mushroom cap facilitates the metabolism of mushrooms and improves its quality. This study has utilized the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program, that is, FLUENT R16, in order to analyze the improvement of the internal environment uniformity of the oyster mushroom cultivation house. The analyzed factors are velocity distribution, temperature distribution, and humidity distribution. In order to maintain the internal environment uniformity of the oyster mushroom cultivation house, it appeared that installing circulation fan at the upper part of the working passage towards the ceiling is effective. When all the environmental control equipment – unit cooler, inlet fan, outlet fan, air circulation fan, and humidifier - operated simultaneously, the RMS figure on the growing shelves appeared as follows: velocity 28.23%, temperature 30.47%, humidity 7.88%. However, when only unit cooler and air circulation fan operated, the RMS figure on the growing shelves appeared as follows: velocity 22.28%, temperature 0.87%, humidity 0.82%. Therefore, in order to maintain the internal environment uniformity of the mushroom cultivation house, reducing the overall operating time of inlet fan, outlet fan, and humidifier is needed, and managing the internal environment with unit cooler and air circulation fan appropriately is essential.

Keywords: air circulation fan, computational fluid dynamics, multi-layered shelves cultivation, oyster mushroom cultivation house

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Authors: Louay Safi

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The notion of secular society that evolved over the last two centuries was initially intended to free the public sphere from religious imposition, before it assumed the form a comprehensive ideology whose aim is to prevent any overt religious expression from the public space. The negative view of religious expression, and the desire by political elites to purge the public space from all forms of religious expressions were first experienced in the Middle East in the last decades of the twentieth century in relation to Islam, before it manifests itself in the twentieth century Europe. Arab regimes were encouraged by European democracies to marginalize all forms of religious expressions in the public as part of the secularization process that was deemed necessary for modernization and progress. The prohibition of Islamic symbols and outlawing the headscarf was first undertaken to Middle Eastern republics, such as Turkey in 1930s and Syria in 1970s, before it is implemented recently in France. Secularization has been perceived by European powers as the central aspect of social and political liberalization, and was given priority over democratization and human rights, so much so that European elites were willing to entrust the task of nurturing liberal democracy to Arab autocrats and dictators. Not only did the strategy of empowering autocratic regimes to effect liberal democratic culture failed, but it contributed to the rise of Islamist extremism and produced failed states in Syria and Iraq that undermine both national and global peace and stability. The paper adopts the distinction made by John Rawls between political and comprehensive liberalism to argue that the modernization via secularization in Muslim societies is counterproductive and has subverted early successful efforts at democratization and reform in the Middle East. Using case studies that illustrate the role of the secularization strategy in Syria, Iran, and Egypt in undermining democratic and reformist movements in those countries, the paper calls for adopting a different approach rooted in liberal and democratic values rather than cultural practices and lifestyle. The paper shows that Islamic values as articulated by reform movements support a democratic and pluralist political order, and emphasizes the need to legitimize and support social forces that advocate democracy and human rights. Such an alternative strategy allows for internal competition among social groups for popular support, and therefore enhances the chances that those with inclusive and forward-looking political principles and policies would create a democratic and pluralist political order more conducive to meaningful national and global cooperation, and respectful of human dignity.

Keywords: democracy, Islamic values, political liberalism, secularization

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Authors: Hongyu Chen, Li Jiang

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Ubiquitous anomalies endanger the security of our system con- stantly. They may bring irreversible damages to the system and cause leakage of privacy. Thus, it is of vital importance to promptly detect these anomalies. Traditional supervised methods such as Decision Trees and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used to classify normality and abnormality. However, in some case, the abnormal status are largely rarer than normal status, which leads to decision bias of these methods. Generative adversarial network (GAN) has been proposed to handle the case. With its strong generative ability, it only needs to learn the distribution of normal status, and identify the abnormal status through the gap between it and the learned distribution. Nevertheless, existing GAN-based models are not suitable to process data with discrete values, leading to immense degradation of detection performance. To cope with the discrete features, in this paper, we propose an efficient GAN-based model with specifically-designed loss function. Experiment results show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art models on discrete dataset and remarkably reduce the overhead.

Keywords: GAN, discrete feature, Wasserstein distance, multiple intermediate layers

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Authors: Amer Rghei

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The Sahara region potentially is one of the most attractive heritage areas in the world. Yet presently, the heritage of the Sahara is currently facing serious planning challenges of underdeveloped and neglected economic and physical potentials. Deterioration of heritage resources has been observed by the author during his several field tours for historic sites has discovered special heritage values such as in Ghadames which combines historic oasis, natural environment along with its exceptional urban fabric and architectural character. Despite the richness of Ghadames with historic significance, it is found that at the present time, Ghadames city, the UNESCO World Heritage site, is facing serious challenges including the abandonment by its tenants and inclusive negligence by its officials. The author believes that Ghadames can illustrate an excellent heritage example in North Africa with cultural pride and socio-economic opportunities that can contribute to overall economic development in the Sahara region. However, the paper deals with the case of Ghadames ‘The World Heritage Site’ in Libya and discusses the current challenges and possible planning for its heritage conservation strategy. The momentous resources in Ghadames with their historical, environmental, economic, social, cultural, and aesthetic values would benefit from a careful heritage planning and management program for its significant values. In this paper an attempt is made to investigate this issue seriously towards building a model of a strategy for heritage conservation planning for Ghadames is proposed.

Keywords: Ghadames, Oasis architecture, Sahara region, heritage environment

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Authors: Zate Zewdneh Zana

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Coffea arabica (Arabica coffee), a cornerstone of the global beverage industry, necessitates rigorous genetic conservation due to its economic significance and genetic complexity. In this study, we performed whole-genome resequencing of wild species collected from its birthplace, Ethiopia. Advanced Illumina sequencing technology facilitated the mapping of a high percentage of clean reads to the C. arabica reference genome, revealing a substantial number of genetic variants, predominantly SNPs. Our comprehensive analysis not only uncovered a notable distribution of genomic variants across the coffee genome but also identified distinct genetic groups through phylogenetic and population structure analyses. This genomic study provides invaluable insights into the genetic diversity of C. arabica, highlighting the potential of identified SNPs and InDels in enhancing our understanding of key agronomic traits. The findings contribute significantly to genetic studies and support strategic breeding and conservation efforts essential for sustaining the global coffee industry.

Keywords: population genetics, wild species, evolutionary study, coffee plant

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Authors: Jaber H. Almutairi, Hosny Z. Abou-Ziyan, Issa F. Almesri, Mosab A. Alrahmani

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The present work investigates the behavior of fluid flow inside tunnel kilns using 3D-CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. The CFD simulations are carried out with the FLUENT software and validated against experimental results on fluid flow and heat transfer in tunnel kilns. A grid dependency study is conducted in the current work to improve the accuracy of the results. Three turbulence models k–ω, standard k–ε, and RNG k–ε are tested where k–ω model gives the best results in comparison with the experiment. The numerical results reveal an intriguing phenomenon where a long flow separation zone behind the setting is observed under different geometric and operation conditions. It was found that the uniformity of flow distribution can be substantially improved by rearranging the geometrical parameters of brick setting relative to kiln/setting. This improvement of flow distribution plays a critical role to enhance the quality and quantity of the production. It can be concluded that a better design and operation of tunnel kilns in terms of productivity and energy consumption can be obtained by taking into consideration the flow uniformity inside the tunnel kilns using CFD modelling.

Keywords: tunnel kilns, flow separation, flow uniformity, computational fluid dynamics

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Authors: Chatarina Muryani, Sarwono, Sugiyanto Heribentus

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Major part of Grobogan District, Central Java Province, Indonesia, always suffers from drought every year. The drought has implications toward almost all of the community activities, both domestic, agriculture, livestock, and industrial. The aim of this study was to determine (1) the drought distribution area in Grobogan District in 2015; (2) the impact of drought; and (3) the community adaptation toward the drought. The subject of the research was people who were impacted by the drought, purposive sampling technique was used to draw the sample. The data collection method was using field observation and in-depth interview while the data analysis was using descriptive analysis. The results showed that (1) in 2015, there were 14 districts which were affected by the drought and only 5 districts which do not suffer from drought, (2) the drought impacted to the reduction of water for domestic compliance, reduction of agricultural production, reduction of public revenue, (3) community adaptation to meet domestic water need was by making collective deep-wells and building water storages, adaptation in agriculture was done by setting the cropping pattern, while adaptation on economics was by allocating certain amount of funds for the family in anticipation of drought, which was mostly to purchase water.

Keywords: adaptation, distribution, drought, impacts

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Authors: S. Perera, T. R. Walsh, M. Solvang

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The structure-property relationships of calcium aluminosilicate (CAS) glass surfaces are of scientific and technological interest regarding dissolution phenomena. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide atomic-scale insights into the structure and properties of the CAS interfaces in vacuo as the first step to conducting computational dissolution studies on CAS surfaces. However, one limitation to date is that although the bulk properties of CAS glasses have been well studied by MD simulation, corresponding efforts on CAS surface properties are relatively few in number (both theoretical and experimental). Here, a systematic computational protocol to create CAS surfaces in vacuo is developed by evaluating the sensitivity of the resultant surface structure with respect to different factors. Factors such as the relative thickness of the surface layer, the relative thickness of the bulk region, the cooling rate, and the annealing schedule (time and temperature) are explored. Structural features such as ring size distribution, defect concentrations (five-coordinated aluminium (AlV), non-bridging oxygen (NBO), and tri-cluster oxygen (TBO)), and linkage distribution are identified as significant features in dissolution studies.

Keywords: MD simulation, CAS glasses, surface structure, structure-property, CAS interface

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Authors: M. Foysul Alam

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Land diluvion is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. According to Bangladesh land administration manual, land gained by diluvion and alluvion are considered as Khas (state) lands. Distributing khas lands to the poorest landless people was suggested as a way of improving the livelihood by mobilizing their economic activity and improving their social status in Bangladesh. The impact of this initiative, which started in 1980 as a state policy, is perhaps one of the least experimentally documented ones in the country. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the economic and social status of some landless farmers focusing on determining whether the distribution of khas lands provide part of the explanation for possible improvement of their livelihood during this period of almost four decades. If not, the secondary objective of this study was to identify the issues and challenges of this policy, whether in strategic planning or implementation efforts. Both subjectively observable and objectively measurable data were collected from 150 households from 30 villages of 6 districts worse suffering from landlessness. A well-organized questionnaire, including 10 open ended question, were used to collect specific data and experiences of the landless farmers. Special attention was given to those who left peasantry becoming involved in other economic activities. The study found that Khas lands have very nominal or even zero influence on landless farmers due to 1. Lack of Khas land inventory 2. Lack of availability of information to the farmers 3. Complexity in application procedure for demanding Khas land and 4. Political nexus of local influential farmers makes it nearly impossible for those farmers who actually deserve it. It also found that most of the lucky farmers who eventually got a piece of Khas land had links with the local elites of their community. The research concludes that it is too early to decide how good the Khas land is for the marginalized landless farmers in Bangladesh, with actually a few numbers of them given the possession of one. This document provides crucial recommendations for overcoming the prevailing challenges.

Keywords: Khas land, land distribution, marginalized farmers, rural livelihood

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Authors: Shanshan Guo, Xiaoying Zhu, Dominik Jańczewski, Koon Gee Neoh

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Surface charge and wettability are two prominent physical factors governing cell adhesion and have been extensively studied in the literature. However, a comparison between the two driving forces in terms of their independent and cooperative effects in affecting cell adhesion is rarely explored on a systematic and quantitative level. Herein, we formulate a protocol which allows two-dimensional and independent control over both surface charge and wettability. This protocol enables the unambiguous comparison of the effects of these two properties on cell adhesion. This strategy is implemented by controlling both the relative thickness of polyion layers in the layer-by-layer assembly and the polyion side chain chemical structures. The 2D property matrix spans surface isoelectric point ranging from 5 to 9 and water contact angle from 35º to 70º, with other interferential factors (e.g. roughness) eliminated. The interplay between these two surface variables influences 3T3 fibroblast cell adhesion. The results show that both surface charge and wettability have an effect on its adhesion. The combined effects of positive charge and hydrophilicity led to the highest cell adhesion whereas negative charge and hydrophobicity led to the lowest cell adhesion. Our design strategy can potentially form the basis for studying the distinct behaviors of electrostatic force or wettability driven interfacial phenomena and serving as a reference in future studies assessing cell adhesion to surfaces with known charge and wettability within the property range studied here.

Keywords: cell adhesion, layer-by-layer, surface charge, surface wettability

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Authors: Sisi Xia, Dezhuan Tao

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Urban Double Reform is an effective means to improve the quality of ecological space, based on improving the living environment and urban functions and promoting the organic integration of the city and nature. This paper takes the design of Qinyang Wetland Park in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, as an example, attempting to closely link the ecological restoration of wetland with the urban culture and to extend the urban spirit of the ancient county of Qinyang while purifying the ecological water system. This design uses ecological technology to repair underwater forests and underwater turf, rapidly improving the quality of urban water without biological side effects. The ecological grass slope is used to create multiple bank forms, combining with a number of hydrophilic platforms to provide a good view of the public. Through the placement of ecological education bases, urban cultural exhibition halls, and other means, the cultural value of wetland parks will be enhanced, and the citizens will return to nature and experience the ecology and appreciate the charm of urban culture in the ecological space. Repair the ecosystem, sculpt the urban culture, let the public return to nature, experience the ecology, and experience the charm of urban culture in the ecological space.

Keywords: urban double reform, ecological space, improvement strategy, wetland park design

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Authors: P. Jost, L. Muckova, M. Matula, J. Pejchal, D. Jun, R. Stetina

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Sulfur mustard (bis(2-chlorethyl) sulfide) is highly toxic, chemical warfare agent that has been used in the past in several armed conflicts. Except for the skin, respiratory tract is one of the important routes of exposure. The elucidation and understanding of the mechanism of toxicity of SM have been effort intensive research. The multiple targets character of SM caused cellular damage resulted in activation of many different mechanisms which contribute to cellular response and participate in the final cytopathology effect. In our present work, we compared time-dependent changes in sulfur mustard exposed adult human lung fibroblasts NHLF and lung epithelial alveolar cell line A-549. Cell viability (MTT assay, Calcein-AM assay, and xCELLigence - real-time cell analysis), apoptosis (flow cytometry), mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm, flow cytometry), reactive oxygen species induction (DC and cell cycle distribution (flow cytometry) were studied. We observed significantly decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and subsequent induction of apoptosis correlating with decreased cellular viability in the sulfur mustard exposed cells. In low concentrations, sulfur mustard-induced S-phase cell cycle arrest, on the other hand, high concentrations, cell cycle phase distribution of sulfur mustard exposed cells resembled cell cycle phase distribution of control group, which implies nonspecific cell cycle inhibition. Epithelial cells A-549 was found as more sensible to sulfur mustard toxicity. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a long-term organization development plan Medical Aspects of Weapons of Mass Destruction of the Faculty of Military Health Sciences, University of Defence.

Keywords: apoptosis, cell cycle, cytotoxicity, sulfur mustard

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Abel Edeowede Abhulimen

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Due to supply irregularity and frequent outages, the need for reliability in power supply has grown unsatisfactorily over time in developing nations, impeding industrialization and fueling insecurity. This article attempts to break down the Nigerian power issue into its numerous sub-sectors in order to pinpoint the industry's ailment and suggest a viable fix. Monthly average performance data were obtained for the various sub-sectors across the industry for eight consecutive quarters. Whereas the amount of energy generated was found to be insufficient to engender industrialization in a nation like Nigeria, the transmission infrastructure was inadequate for the amount of power needed to be wheeled. Additionally, the distribution sub-sector was plagued with problems such as revenue collection inefficiency, severe enough to impede the growth of the entire industry. The country's goal of attaining energy sufficiency and industrialization would significantly be closer to reality with a conscious effort to increase the base of power generation through aggressive investment in Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT), decentralization of the transmission infrastructure, and strict monitoring of the distribution sub-sector for improved accountability and system reliability.

Keywords: performance, power industry, industrialization, security, energy

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Authors: Sreto Boljevic

Abstract:

In the absence of considerable investment in electricity generation, transmission and distribution network (DN) capacity, the demand for electrical energy will quickly strain the capacity of the existing electrical power network. With anticipated growth and proliferation of Electric vehicles (EVs) and Heat pump (HPs) identified the likelihood that the additional load from EV changing and the HPs operation will require capital investment in the DN. While an area-wide implementation of EVs and HPs will contribute to the decarbonization of the energy system, they represent new challenges for the existing low-voltage (LV) network. Distributed energy resources (DER), operating both as part of the DN and in the off-network mode, have been offered as a means to meet growing electricity demand while maintaining and ever-improving DN reliability, resiliency and power quality. DN planning has traditionally been done by forecasting future growth in demand and estimating peak load that the network should meet. However, new problems are arising. These problems are associated with a high degree of proliferation of EVs and HPs as load imposes on DN. In addition to that, the promotion of electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES). High distributed generation (DG) penetration and a large increase in load proliferation at low-voltage DNs may have numerous impacts on DNs that create issues that include energy losses, voltage control, fault levels, reliability, resiliency and power quality. To mitigate negative impacts and at a same time enhance positive impacts regarding the new operational state of DN, CHP system integration can be seen as best action to postpone/reduce capital investment needed to facilitate promotion and maximize benefits of EVs, HPs and RES integration in low-voltage DN. The aim of this paper is to generate an algorithm by using an analytical approach. Algorithm implementation will provide a way for optimal placement of the CHP system in the DN in order to maximize the integration of RES and increase in proliferation of EVs and HPs.

Keywords: combined heat & power (CHP), distribution networks, EVs, HPs, RES

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Suhadiyana Hanapi, Alhassan Salami Tijani, W. A. N Wan Mohamed

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In this paper, a prototype PEM fuel cell vehicle integrated with a 1 kW air-blowing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack as a main power sources has been developed for a lightweight cruising vehicle. The test vehicle is equipped with a PEM fuel cell system that provides electric power to a brushed DC motor. This vehicle was designed to compete with industrial lightweight vehicle with the target of consuming least amount of energy and high performance. Individual variations in driving style have a significant impact on vehicle energy efficiency and it is well established from the literature. The primary aim of this study was to assesses the power and fuel consumption of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle operating at three difference driving technique (i.e. 25 km/h constant speed, 22-28 km/h speed range, 20-30 km/h speed range). The goal is to develop the best driving strategy to maximize performance and minimize fuel consumption for the vehicle system. The relationship between power demand and hydrogen consumption has also been discussed. All the techniques can be evaluated and compared on broadly similar terms. Automatic intelligent controller for driving prototype fuel cell vehicle on different obstacle while maintaining all systems at maximum efficiency was used. The result showed that 25 km/h constant speed was identified for optimal driving with less fuel consumption.

Keywords: prototype fuel cell electric vehicles, energy efficient, control/driving technique, fuel economy

Procedia PDF Downloads 435

Authors: Benguerine Zohra, Merzak Siham, Pr. Chelghoum

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Introduction: The widespread production and consumption of antibiotics have raised significant concerns due to various adverse effects and the development of bacterial resistance. This increasing resistance to currently available antibiotics necessitates the search for new antibacterial agents. One alternative strategy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria is the use of natural antimicrobial substances such as plant extracts. This study aims to provide an overview of the antibacterial effects of Salvia officinalis (sage), a plant native to the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. Materials and Methods: This review was conducted by searching studies in databases such as PubMed, Scopus, JSTOR, and SpringerLink. The search terms were “Salvia officinalis L.” and “antibacterial effects.” Only studies that met our inclusion criteria (in English, focusing on the antibacterial effects of Salvia officinalis L., and primarily dated from 2012 to 2023) were considered for further review. Results and Discussion: The initial search strategy identified approximately 78 references, of which only 13 articles were included in this review. The synthesis of these articles revealed that multiple data sources confirm the antimicrobial effects of S. officinalis. Its essential oil and alcoholic extract exhibit strong bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Conclusion: The significant value of the extract, oil, and leaves of S. officinalis demands further studies on other useful and unknown properties of this multipurpose plant.

Keywords: salvia officinalis, literature review, antibacterial., botany

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