Search results for: technical losses

Authors: Christiana Fwenji Zumyil, Toma Maina Antip

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Environmental Science subject is currently not an independent subject taught in secondary schools in Nigeria like Biology, Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Geography and other subjects that students take final exams (West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, National Examination Council, NEC, National Board for Technical Education, NABTED)., on it but its elements/topics/contents are integrated into the curriculum of the subjects mentioned, and because of that, it becomes difficult to know what should be taught and how it should be taught. Currently, it is still difficult to implement student-centered strategies in the classroom. Through this study, we sought to diagnose the difficulties, advantages and perceptions that Environmental Teachers experience when conceiving and implementing Science-Technology-Society (STS) strategies in SS2 classes at the Secondary Education level. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with Secondary School Environmental Teachers. Despite the difficulties found, the advantages, the motivation and the involvement of the students that this teaching perspective enables to lead the teacher to continue developing and implementing STS strategies in the classroom.

Keywords: environment, science, technology, society, science-technology-society, science education, secondary teaching

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Authors: Chin-Chih Chang

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Many manufacturing systems suffer failures due to complex degradation processes and various environment conditions such as random shocks. Consider an operating system is subject to random shocks and works at random times for successive jobs. When successive jobs often result in production losses and performance deterioration, it would be better to do maintenance or replacement at a planned time. A preventive replacement (PR) policy is presented to replace the system before a failure occurs at a continuous time T. In such a policy, the failure characteristics of the system are designed as follows. Each job would cause a random amount of additive damage to the system, and the system fails when the cumulative damage has exceeded a failure threshold. Suppose that the deteriorating system suffers one of the two types of shocks with age-dependent probabilities: type-I (minor) shock is rectified by a minimal repair, or type-II (catastrophic) shock causes the system to fail. A corrective replacement (CR) is performed immediately when the system fails. In summary, a generalized maintenance model to scheduling replacement plan for an operating system is presented below. PR is carried out at time T, whereas CR is carried out when any type-II shock occurs and the total damage exceeded a failure level. The main objective is to determine the optimal continuous schedule time of preventive replacement through minimizing the mean cost rate function. The existence and uniqueness of optimal replacement policy are derived analytically. It can be seen that the present model is a generalization of the previous models, and the policy with preventive replacement outperforms the one without preventive replacement.

Keywords: preventive replacement, working time, cumulative damage model, minimal repair, imperfect maintenance, optimization

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Authors: Ali Mortazavi

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The main objective of this research project is to delve into a multitude of geomechanical risks associated with various mining methods employed within the underground mining industry. Controlling geotechnical design parameters and operational factors affecting the selection of suitable mining techniques for a given underground mining condition will be considered from a risk assessment point of view. Important geomechanical challenges will be investigated as appropriate and relevant to the commonly used underground mining methods. Given the complicated nature of rock mass in-situ and complicated boundary conditions and operational complexities associated with various underground mining methods, the selection of a safe and economic mining operation is of paramount significance. Rock failure at varying scales within the underground mining openings is always a threat to mining operations and causes human and capital losses worldwide. Geotechnical design is a major design component of all underground mines and basically dominates the safety of an underground mine. With regard to uncertainties that exist in rock characterization prior to mine development, there are always risks associated with inappropriate design as a function of mining conditions and the selected mining method. Uncertainty often results from the inherent variability of rock masse, which in turn is a function of both geological materials and rock mass in-situ conditions. The focus of this research is on developing a methodology which enables a geomechanical risk assessment of given underground mining conditions. The outcome of this research is a geotechnical risk analysis algorithm, which can be used as an aid in selecting the appropriate mining method as a function of mine design parameters (e.g., rock in-situ properties, design method, governing boundary conditions such as in-situ stress and groundwater, etc.).

Keywords: geomechanical risk assessment, rock mechanics, underground mining, rock engineering

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Authors: Roberto Cerchione, Emilio Esposito, Mario Raffa

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The relevance and the strategic importance of engineering skills in innovation and in the development of businesses and organizations push to investigate the role of the engineer in society today. In the twentieth century the emergence of a variety of technical and scientific knowledge has led to the rise of new areas of skills going from a "all-comprehensive" engineering to an engineering characterized by many specializations. Organizational and structural changes within companies and the emergence of an industrial society based on multiple interrelationships led to the transformation of engineering education. The objective of this work is to report main steps and many pioneering experiences, both national and international, that have led to establish a graduate degree program in Engineering Management and its subsequent evolution in Entrepreneurial Engineering. The first section of this article focuses on the origins and precursors of Engineering Management education. The second section concerns main Italian education programs. Then the attention is focused on the evolution of Engineering Management in Naples, on the intersectoral nature of this degree program, on the relationship with business community, associations, labor market, small businesses and environment. Finally, the discussion of recent years about the skills that characterize entrepreneurial engineer in society are presented.

Keywords: education, engineering management, entrepreunerial engineering, engineering skills, managerial skills, entrepreneurial skills

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Authors: Ali Ashraf Hamedi Oghul Beyk

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This research is aimed in order to demonstrate the factors affecting on effectiveness of animal artificial insemination training courses in Zanjan province. The research method is descriptive and correlation. Research tools a questionnaire and research sample are 104 persons who participated in animal artificial insemination training courses. The data resulted from this procedure was analysed by using SPSS software under windows system.independent variables include :individual, sociological, technical, and organizational, dependent variable is: affecting factors on effectiveness of animal artificial insemination training courses the finding of this study indicates that there is a significant correlation(99/0) between individual variables such as motivation and interest and experiment and effectiveness of animal artificial insemination training courses. There is significant correlation (95/0) between sociological variables such as job and education and effectiveness of animal artificial insemination training course. There is significant correlation (99/0) between techn ical variables such as training quality media and instructional materials. Moreover, effectiveness of animal artificial insemination training course there is significant correlation(0/95) between organizational variables such as trainers combination,place conditions.

Keywords: animal artificial insemination, effect, effectiveness, training courses, Zanjan

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Authors: Mohamed Ghorab

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Local generated and distributed system for thermal and electrical energy is sighted in the near future to reduce transmission losses instead of the centralized system. Distributed Energy Resources (DER) is designed at different sizes (small and medium) and it is incorporated in energy distribution between the hubs. The energy generated from each technology at each hub should meet the local energy demands. Economic and environmental enhancement can be achieved when there are interaction and energy exchange between the hubs. Network energy system and CO₂ optimization between different six hubs presented Canadian community level are investigated in this study. Three different scenarios of technology systems are studied to meet both thermal and electrical demand loads for the six hubs. The conventional system is used as the first technology system and a reference case study. The conventional system includes boiler to provide the thermal energy, but the electrical energy is imported from the utility grid. The second technology system includes combined heat and power (CHP) system to meet the thermal demand loads and part of the electrical demand load. The third scenario has integration systems of CHP and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) where the thermal waste energy from the CHP system is used by ORC to generate electricity. General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is used to model DER system optimization based on energy economics and CO₂ emission analyses. The results are compared with the conventional energy system. The results show that scenarios 2 and 3 provide an annual total cost saving of 21.3% and 32.3 %, respectively compared to the conventional system (scenario 1). Additionally, Scenario 3 (CHP & ORC systems) provides 32.5% saving in CO₂ emission compared to conventional system subsequent case 2 (CHP system) with a value of 9.3%.  

Keywords: distributed energy resources, network energy system, optimization, microgeneration system

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Authors: Awad Elkhadir, Rajab M. Ben Yousef

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Introduction: The production of high-quality medical images by radiology technologists is useful in diagnosing and treating various injuries and diseases. However, the factors affecting the role of radiology technologists in image interpretation in Sudan have not been investigated widely. Methods: Cross-sectional study has been employed by recruiting ten radiology college deans in Sudan. The questionnaire was distributed online, and obtained data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and IBM-SPSS version 16.0 to generate descriptive statistics. Results: The study results have shown that half of the deans were doubtful about the readiness of Sudan to implement the role of radiology technologist specialist in image interpretation. The majority of them (60%) believed that this issue had been most strongly pushed by researchers over the past decade. The factors affecting the implementation of the radiology technologist specialist role in image interpretation included; education/training (100%), recognition (30%), technical issues (30%), people-related issues (20%), management changes (30%), government role (30%), costs (10%), and timings (20%). Conclusion: The study concluded that there is a need for a change in image interpretation by radiology technologists in Sudan.

Keywords: development, image interpretation, implementation, radiology technologist specialist, Sudan

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Authors: Zhi Zhu, Boquan Zhang, Tian Jing, Jingjing Li, Tao Wang

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Data assimilation is a model and data hybrid-driven method that dynamically fuses new observation data with a numerical model to iteratively approach the real system state. It is widely used in state prediction and parameter inference of continuous systems. Because of the discrete event system’s non-linearity and non-Gaussianity, traditional Kalman Filter based on linear and Gaussian assumptions cannot perform data assimilation for such systems, so particle filter has gradually become a technical approach for discrete event simulation data assimilation. Hence, we proposed a particle filter-based discrete event simulation data assimilation method and took the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) maintenance service system as a proof of concept to conduct simulation experiments. The experimental results showed that the filtered state data is closer to the real state of the system, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. This research can provide a reference framework for the data assimilation process of other complex nonlinear systems, such as discrete-time and agent simulation.

Keywords: discrete event simulation, data assimilation, particle filter, model and data-driven

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Authors: Rafat Alwazna

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Technical lexicon is witnessing a large upsurge in the use of new terminologies whose emergence is an inevitable result of the spread of high-quality technology, the existence of scientific paradigms and the fast growth of research in different disciplines. One important subfield of terminology is legal terminology, which forms a crucial part of legal studies, and whose translation from one legal system into another is deemed a formidable and arduous task that needs to be properly performed by legal translators. Indeed, the issue of untranslatability of legal terms, particularly between originally unrelated languages, like legal Arabic and legal English, has long been a real challenge in legal translation. It stems from the conceptual incongruency between legal terms of different legal languages, which are derived from different legal cultures and legal systems. Such conceptual asymmetry is owing to the fact that law has no universal reference and that legal language is what determines the degree of difference in conceptual correspondence. The present paper argues that although conceptual asymmetry, which is the main reason for the issue of untranslatability of legal terms, cannot be denied in legal translation, there exist certain translation techniques which, if properly adopted, would resolve the issue of untranslatability of legal terms and therefore achieve acceptable legal translation. Hence, the question of untranslatability of legal terms should no longer exist within the context of legal translation.

Keywords: conceptual incongruency, Legal terms, translation techniques, untranslatability

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Authors: Liliana Zura-Brravo, Antonio Vega-Galvez, Roberto Lemus-Mondaca, Jessica Lopez

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Murta (Ugni molinae T.) is an endemic fruit of Southern Chile, possesses qualities exceptional as its high antioxidants content, that make it increasingly more appreciated for marketing. Dehydration has the potential providing safe food products through the decreased activity water while maintaining their functional properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different drying methods on the antioxidant capacity (AC), total flavonoid content (TFC), rehydration indexes and texture the dried murta berry. Five drying technologies were used: convective drying, vacuum drying, sun-air drying, infrared drying and freezing-drying. The antioxidant capacity was measured by the ORAC method, CFT was determined by spectrophotometry, rehydration capacity (CR) and water retention (WHC) by gravimetry, texture profile (TPA) by a texture analyzer TA-XT2 and microstructure by SEM. The results showed that the lyophilized murta had smaller losses AC and TFC with values of 2886.27 routine mg rutin/ 100 g dm and 23359.99 μmol ET/100 g dm, respectively. According to the rehydration indexes, these were affected by the drying methods, where the maximum value of WHC was 92.60 g retained water/100 g sample for the vacuum drying, and the lowest value of CR was 1.43 g water absorbed/g dm for the sun-air drying. Furthermore, the microstructure and TPA showed that lyophilized samples had characteristics similar to the fresh sample. Therefore, it is possible to mention that lyophilization achieved greater extent preserving the characteristics of the murta samples, showing that this method can be used in the food industry and encourage the consumption of dried fruit and thus give it greater added value.

Keywords: antioxidant, drying method, flavonoid, murta berry, texture

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Authors: Lucia Silveira Alda

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This research aims to analyze critically a set of studies published in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Learning of IADIS, from 2008 until 2012, which addresses the issue of foreign language learning mediated by mobile phones. The theoretical review of this study is based on the Vygotskian assumptions about tools and mediated learning and the concepts of mobile learning, CALL and MALL. In addition, the diffusion rates of the mobile phone and especially its potential are considered. Through systematic review and meta-analysis, this research intended to identify similarities and differences between the identified characteristics in the studies on the subject of language learning and mobile phone. From the analysis of the results, this study verifies that the mobile phone stands out for its mobility and portability. Furthermore, this device presented positive aspects towards student motivation in language learning. The studies were favorable to mobile phone use for learning. It was also found that the challenges in using this tool are not technical, but didactic and methodological, including the need to reflect on practical proposals. The findings of this study may direct further research in the area of language learning mediated by mobile phones.

Keywords: language learning, mobile learning, mobile phones, technology

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Authors: Ali Akbar Zeinali

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Lack of appropriate equivalences for the terms or technical words is the result of ineffective translation guidelines adopted in the translation processes. The increasing number of foreign words and specific terms incorporated into the native language are due to the ongoing development of technology and science. Many problems appear in medical translation when the Persian translators try to employ non-Persian or imported words in medical texts, in which multiple equivalents may be created for one particular word based on the individual preferences of authors and translators in the target language due to lack of standardization. The study attempted to discuss the findings based on the compatibility of the international naming criteria, considering the translation procedures. About 67% of 339 equivalents under this study were grouped as incompatible words while about 33% of them were compatible terms. The similarities and differences were investigated and discussed according to the compatibility status of the equivalents with Sager’s criteria. Such equivalents have been classified into several groups through bi-dimensional descriptions that were different features of translation procedures related to the international naming criteria. In review of the frequency distribution of compatibilities, the equivalents were divided into two categories of compatibles and incompatibles, indicating the effectiveness of the applied translation procedures.

Keywords: linguistics, medical translation, naming, terminology

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Authors: Fatima Ibnchahid

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Competence approach is considered, since the early 80's as one of the major development of HR policies. Many approaches to manage the professional skills were declined. Some processes are mature whereas the others have been abandoned. Competence can be defined as the set of knowledge (theoretical and practical), know-how (experience) and life skills (personality traits) mobilized by a person in the company. The skills must master a logistics manager are divided into two main categories: depending on whether technical skills, or managerial skills and human. The firsts are broken down into skills on logistical techniques and on general skills in business, seconds in social skills (self with others) and personal (with oneself). Logisticians are faced with new challenges and new constraints that are revolutionizing the way to treat the physical movement of goods and operations related to information flows that trigger, they control and guide the physical movements of these major changes, we can mention the development of information technology and communication, the emergence of strong environmental and security constraints. These changes have important effects on the skills needs of the members of the logistical function and sensitive development for training requested by logistical managers to perform better in their job changes. In this article, we will address two main points, first, a brief overview of the management skills and secondly answer the question asked in the title of the article to know what are the skills that will master a logistical manager.

Keywords: skills, competence, management, logistical function

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Authors: Shahab Hasani Nasab, Aran Aeini, Navid Kermanshahi

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In order to reduce road building costs and reduce environmental damage, recycled materials can be used instead of mineral materials in the production of asphalt mixtures. Today, in most parts of the world, cold recycled asphalt with bitumen emulsion, has acceptable results. However, Cold Recycled Asphalt have some deficiency such as stripping, thermal cracking, and rutting. This requires the addition of additives to reduce this deficiency of recycled pavement with emulsified asphalt. In this research, nano-alumina and emulsified asphalt were used to modify the properties of recycled asphalt mixtures according to the technical specifications and the operation of cold recycling. Marshall test methods, dynamic creep test, and resiliency modulus test has been used to obtain the nano-alumina’s effects on asphalt mixture properties. The results show that the addition of nano-alumina would reduce the Marshall stability in samples but increases the rutting resistance. The resiliency modulus increases significantly with this additive.

Keywords: cold asphalt, cold recycling, nano-alumina, dynamic creep, bitumen emulsion

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Authors: Joon Sang Kang, Ming Ke, Yongjie Hu

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Controlling heat transfer and thermal properties of materials is important to many fields such as energy efficiency and thermal management of integrated circuits. Significant progress over the past decade has been made to improve material performance through structuring at the nanoscale, however a clear relationship between structure dimensions, interfaces, and thermal properties remains to be established. The main challenge comes from the unknown intrinsic spectral contribution from different phonons. Here, we describe our current progress on quantifying and controlling thermal spectra based on our recently developed technical approach using ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Our work brings further the promise of rational material design to achieve high performance through a synergistic experimental-modeling approach. This approach can be broadly applicable to a wide range of materials and energy systems. In particular, we demonstrate in-situ characterization and tunable thermal properties of 2D van der waals materials through ionic intercalations. The significant impacts of this research in improving the efficiency of thermal energy conversion and management will also be illustrated.

Keywords: energy, mean free path, nanoscale heat transfer, nanostructure, phonons, TDTR, thermoelectrics, 2D materials

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Authors: Atif Mahmood, Mohammad Inayatullah Khan Babar

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Communication infrastructure has been installed, operated, and maintained all over the world according to defined electrical safety standards for separate or joint structures. These safety standards have been set for the safeguard of public, utility workers (employees and contractors), utility facilities, electrical communication equipment’s connected to the utility facilities and other facilities or premise adjacent to utility facilities. Different communication utilities in Pakistan use standards of different countries due to the absence of Common National Electrical Safety Standards of Pakistan. It is really important to devise a framework for implementation of a uniform standard for strict compliance. In this context, it is important to explore the compliance of safety standards for communication conductors and equipment for separate or joint structures for which NESC standards are taken as reference. Specific reference to grounding techniques including grounding AC/DC systems and its frames, leaving Fences, Messenger wires and special circuits used for the protection for lightning etc, ungrounded so recommendations are also given after in-depth analysis of current technical practices for the installation and maintenance of communication infrastructure.

Keywords: utility facilities, grounding electrodes, special circuits, grounding conductor

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Authors: Rakesh Kumar Meena, Tanushree Chatterjee

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Okra (Abelmoschus esculentas L. Moench) or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop belonging to the Malvaceae family. Unfortunately, production and productivity of Okra are majorly affected by Yellow Vein mosaic virus (YVMV). The AO: 189 (resistant parent) X AO: 191(susceptible parent) used for the development of mapping population. The mapping population has 143 individuals (F₂:F₃). Population was characterized by physiological and pathological observations. Screening of 360 DNA markers was performed to survey for parental polymorphism between the contrasting parents’, i.e., AO: 189 and AO: 191. Out of 360; 84 polymorphic markers were used for genotyping of the mapping population. Total markers were distributed into four linkage groups (LG1, LG2, LG3, and LG4). LG3 covered the longest span (106.8cM) with maximum number of markers (27) while LG1 represented the smallest linkage group in terms of length (71.2cM). QTL identification using the composite interval mapping approach detected two prominent QTLs, QTL1 and QTL2 for resistance against YVMV disease. These QTLs were placed between the marker intervals of NBS-LRR72-Path02 and NBS-LRR06- NBS-LRR65 on linkage group 02 and linkage group 04 respectively. The LOD values of QTL1 and QTL2 were 5.7 and 6.8 which accounted for 19% and 27% of the total phenotypic variation, respectively. The findings of this study provide two linked markers which can be used as efficient diagnostic tools to distinguish between YVMV resistant and susceptible Okra cultivars/genotypes. Lines identified as highly resistant against YVMV infection can be used as donor lines for this trait. This will be instrumental in accelerating the trait improvement program in Okra and will substantially reduce the yield losses due to this viral disease.

Keywords: Okra, yellow vein mosaic virus, resistant, linkage map, QTLs

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Authors: Philomena Ibuh Adzongo, Margaret U. Oluwole, Justina Nguveren Jor.

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This paper investigated the need for the development of entrepreneurial skills for Benue State University students. The population consisted of all 1,500 final year students in Benue State University. A sample of 100 students was selected using simple random sampling. A 12-item self-constructed and content validated questionnaire by research experts titled, the Need for the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in Benue State University Students (NDECBSUS) was used to collect the data. The questionnaire items were rated using a 4-point modified rating scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree, assigned the following scores of 4,3,2 and 1, respectively. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of two research assistants through the primary source. Simple percentages and chi-square were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, respectively. The findings revealed that in business management, business management skills, personal skills, and technical skills need to be developed in students for them to become effective and efficient entrepreneurs and concluded that the acquisition of these skills will reduce the challenge of unemployment. The study recommended that funds should be made available by all education stakeholders for such programmes to remain functional.

Keywords: entrepreneurial skill, entrepreneurship, need for development, university students

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Authors: N. David, H. O. Gao

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Air pollution is a serious environmental threat on a global scale and can cause harm to human health, morbidity and premature mortality. Reliable monitoring and control systems are therefore necessary to develop coping skills against the hazards associated with this phenomenon. However, existing environmental monitoring means often do not provide a sufficient response due to practical and technical limitations. Commercial microwave links that form the infrastructure for transmitting data between cell phone towers can be harnessed to map rain at high tempo-spatial resolution. Rainfall causes a decrease in the signal strength received by these wireless communication links allowing it to be used as a built-in sensor network to map the phenomenon. In this study, we point to the potential that lies in this system to indirectly monitor areas where air pollution is reduced. The relationship between pollutant wash-off and rainfall provides an opportunity to acquire important spatial information about air quality using existing cell-phone tower signals. Since the density of microwave communication networks is high relative to any dedicated sensor arrays, it could be possible to rely on this available observation tool for studying precipitation scavenging on air pollutants, for model needs and more.

Keywords: air pollution, commercial microwave links, rainfall, washout

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Authors: Arash Khosravi, Mohamad Nazir Ahmad

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Today’s economy is a knowledge-based economy in which knowledge is a crucial facilitator to individuals, as well as being an instigator of success. Due to the impact of globalization, universities face new challenges and opportunities. Accordingly, they ought to be more innovative and have their own competitive advantages. One of the most important goals of universities is the promotion of students as professional knowledge workers. Therefore, knowledge sharing and transferring at tertiary level between students and supervisors is vital in universities, as it decreases the budget and provides an affordable way of doing research. Knowledge-sharing impact factors can be categorized into three groups, namely: organizational, individual and technical factors. There are some individual barriers to knowledge sharing, namely: lack of time and trust, lack of communication skills and social networks. IT systems such as e-learning, blogs and portals can increase knowledge sharing capability. However, it must be stated that IT systems are only tools and not solutions. Individuals are still responsible for sharing information and knowledge. This paper proposes new research model to examine the effect of individual factors and organisational factors, namely: learning strategy, trust culture, supervisory support, as well as technological factor on knowledge sharing in a research supervision process at the University of Technology Malaysia.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge sharing, research supervision, knowledge transferring

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Authors: Benedict Okundaye, Patricia Tzortzopoulos, Yun Gao

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Scholars and international organisations have contended that developing nations lack the technical expertise, infrastructure, and ability to cope with or prepare for the neighbourhood’s sustainable development as Sustainable Development Goals, mainly targeting goal 11 unimpressive accomplishments. Both wealthy and impoverished communities are facing increasing issues due to rapid urbanisation and pandemics, particularly in Africa. The global neighbourhood challenges, especially in developing countries such as South Africa, include pollution poverty, energy poverty, digital poverty, environmental degradation, social exclusion, and socioeconomic inequalities. With the problematic international sustainability assessment tools lingering, few researchers have produced frameworks to engage the local contexts, but improvements are still required. This research anchors on developing a people-centred, flexible, and adaptable neighbourhood sustainability assessment framework that becomes a tool to assess the characteristics of neighbourhood sustainability in South Africa. The conceptual framework employs a variety of approaches, including broader dimensional factors, a closed-ended questionnaire, and statistical analysis to improve on and complement other existing frameworks.

Keywords: participation, development, inclusion, urbanism, cities, resilience

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Authors: Merab Mamuladze, Mixeil Lejava, Fadiko Abuselidze

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At present, where most of the soils of Georgia have a small contour, the demand for small-capacity technical means, in particular motoblocks, has increased. Motoblocks perform agricultural work for various purposes, where the work process is performed by the operator, who experiences various magnitudes of vibration, impact, noise, and in general, as a result of long-term work production, causes body damage, dynamic load, and respiratory diseases in people. In the scientific paper, the dependence on the vibration of different types of diesel fuel is investigated in the case of five different revolutions in the internal combustion engine. Studies have shown that fuel and engine speed are the only risk factors that contradict the ISO 5349-2(2004) international standard. The experience of four years of work studies showed that 10% of operators received various types of injuries as a result of working with motoblocks. Experiments also showed that the amount of vibration decreases when the number of revolutions of the engine increases, and in the case of using biodiesel fuel, the damage risk factor is 5-10%, and in the case of using conventional diesel, this indicator has gone up to 20%.

Keywords: engine, vibration, biodiesel, high risk factor, working conditions

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Authors: Resham Lal Phuldel

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This study based on a bilateral development cooperation project funded by the governments of Nepal and Finland. The first phase of the project has been completed in August 2012 and the phase II started in September 2013 and will end September 2018. The project strengthens the capacity of local governments in 14 districts to deliver services in water supply, sanitation and hygiene in Western development region and in Mid-Western development region of Nepal. In recent days, several spring sources have been dried out or slowly decreasing its yield across the country due to changing character of rainfall, increasing evaporative losses and some other manmade causes such as land use change, infrastructure development work etc. To sustain the hilly communities, the sources have to be able to provide sufficient water to serve the population, either on its own or in conjunction with other sources. Phase III have measured all water sources in Tanahu district in 2004 and sources were located with the GPS. Phase II has repeated the exercise to see changes in the district. 3320 water sources as identified in 2004 and altogether 4223 including new water sources were identified and measured in 2014. Between 2004 and 2014, 50% flow rate (yield) deduction of point sources’ average yield in 10 years is found. Similarly, 21.6% and 34% deductions of average yield were found in spring and stream water sources respectively. The rainfall from 2002 to 2013 shows erratic rainfalls in the district. The monsoon peak month is not consistent and the trend shows the decrease of annual rainfall 16.7 mm/year. Further, the temperature trend between 2002 and 2013 shows warming of + 0.0410C/year.

Keywords: climate change, rainfall, source discharge, water sources

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Authors: Mirza Waseem Abbas, Abdul Qayyum, Muhammad Islam

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Climate change has emerged as a significant threat to global food security, affecting crop production systems worldwide. This research paper aims to examine the specific impacts of climate change on wheat production in Pakistan, Punjab in particular, a country highly dependent on wheat as a staple food crop. Through a comprehensive review of scientific literature, field observations, and data analysis, this study assesses the key climatic factors influencing wheat cultivation and the subsequent implications for food security in the region. A comparison of two subsequent Wheat seasons in Punjab was examined through climatic conditions, area, yield, and production data. From the analysis, it is observed that despite a decrease in the area under cultivation in the Punjab during the Wheat 2023 season, the production and average yield increased due to favorable weather conditions. These uncertain climatic conditions have a direct impact on crop yields. Last year due to heat waves, Wheat crop in Punjab suffered a significant loss. Through crop insurance, Wheat growers were provided with yield loss protection keeping in view the devastating heat wave and floods last year. Under crop insurance by the Government of the Punjab, 534,587 Wheat growers were insured with a $1.6 million premium subsidy. However, due to better climatic conditions, no loss in the yield was recorded in the insured areas. Crop Insurance is one of the suitable options for policymakers to protect farmers against climatic losses in the future as well.

Keywords: climate change, crop insurance, heatwave, wheat yield punjab

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Authors: Amit Kohli, Pooja Lekhi, Gihan Adel Amin Hafez

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Blockchain is a distributor ledger technology trend that extended to different fields and proved a remarkable success. Blockchain technology is a vital proliferation technique that recuperates the food supply chain traceability process. While tracing is the core of the food supply chain; still, a complex system mitigates the exceptional risk of food contamination, foodborne, food waste, and food fraud. In addition, the upsurge of food supply chain data variance and variety in the traceability system requires complete transparency, a secure, steadfast, sustainable, and efficient approach to face the food supply chain challenges. On the other hand, blockchain technical aspects merged with a detailed implementation plan, the advantages and challenges in food traceability have not been much elucidated for small and medium enterprises (SMEs.) This paper demonstrated the advantages and challenges of applying blockchain in SMEs combined with the success stories of firms implementing blockchain to cover the gap. Moreover, blockchain architecture in SMEs and how technology, organization, and environment frameworks can guarantee the success of blockchain implementation have been revealed.

Keywords: blockchain technology, small and medium enterprises, food traceability, blockchain architecture

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Authors: Serikma Mourad, Mezidi Amar

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The conception (design) of an earthquake-resistant structure is a complex problem seen the necessity of meeting the requirements of security been imperative by the regulations, and of economy been imperative by the increasing costs of the structures. The resistance of a building in the horizontal actions (shares) is mainly ensured by a mixed brace system; for a concrete building, this system is constituted by frame or shells; or both at the same time. After the earthquake of Boumerdes (May 23; 2003) in Algeria, the studies made by experts, ended in modifications of the Algerian Earthquake-resistant Regulation (AER 99). One of these modifications was to widen the use of shells for the brace system. This modification has create a conflict on the quantities, the positions and the type of the shells at adopt. In the present project, we suggest seeing the effect of the variation of the dimensions, the localization and the conditions of rigidity in extremities of shells. The study will be led on a building (F+5) implanted in zone of seismicity average. To do it, we shall proceed to a classic dynamic study of a structure by using 4 alternatives for shells by varying the lengths and number in order to compare the cost of the structure for 4 dispositions of the shells with a technical-economic study of the brace system by the use of different dispositions of shells and to estimate the quantities of necessary materials (concrete and steel).

Keywords: reinforced concrete, mixed brace system, dynamic analysis, beams, shells

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Authors: Fayad Ghawbar

Abstract:

The significance of the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system in the 5G wireless communication system is essential to enhance channel capacity and provide a high data rate resulting in a need for dual-polarization in vertical and horizontal. Furthermore, size reduction is critical in a MIMO system to deploy more antenna elements requiring a compact, low-profile design. A compact dual-band 4-MIMO antenna system has been presented in this paper with pattern and polarization diversity. The proposed single antenna structure has been designed using two antenna layers with a C shape in the front layer and a partial slot with a U-shaped cut in the ground to enhance isolation. The single antenna is printed on an FR4 dielectric substrate with an overall size of 18 mm×18 mm×1.6 mm. The 4-MIMO antenna elements were printed orthogonally on an FR4 substrate with a size dimension of 36 × 36 × 1.6 mm3 with zero edge-to-edge separation distance. The proposed compact 4-MIMO antenna elements resonate at 3.4-3.6 GHz and 4.8-5 GHz. The s-parameters measurement and simulation results agree, especially in the lower band with a slight frequency shift of the measurement results at the upper band due to fabrication imperfection. The proposed design shows isolation above -15 dB and -22 dB across the 4-MIMO elements. The MIMO diversity performance has been evaluated in terms of efficiency, ECC, DG, TARC, and CCL. The total and radiation efficiency were above 50 % across all parameters in both frequency bands. The ECC values were lower than 0.10, and the DG results were about 9.95 dB in all antenna elements. TARC results exhibited values lower than 0 dB with values lower than -25 dB in all MIMO elements at the dual-bands. Moreover, the channel capacity losses in the MIMO system were depicted using CCL with values lower than 0.4 Bits/s/Hz.

Keywords: compact antennas, MIMO antenna system, 5G communication, dual band, ECC, DG, TARC

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: David Cook, Brynhildur Davidsdottir, Dadi. M. Kristofersson

Abstract:

The approval of development projects with significant environmental impacts implies that the economic costs of the affected environmental resources must be less than the financial benefits, but such irreversible decisions are frequently made without ever attempting to estimate the monetary value of the losses. Due to this knowledge gap in the processes informing decision-making, development projects are commonly approved despite the potential for social welfare to be undermined. Heeding a repeated call by the OECD to commence economic accounting of environmental impacts as part of the cost-benefit analysis process for Icelandic energy projects, this paper sets out the results pertaining to the nation’s first two contingent valuation studies of geothermal areas likely to be developed in the near future. Interval regression using log-transformation was applied to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for the preservation of the high-temperature Eldvörp and Hverahlíð fields. The estimated mean WTP was 8,333 and 7,122 ISK for Eldvörp and Hverahlíð respectively. Scaled up to the Icelandic population of national taxpayers, this equates to estimated total economic value of 2.10 and 1.77 billion ISK respectively. These results reinforce arguments in favour of accounting for the environmental impacts of Iceland’s future geothermal power projects as a mandatory component of the exploratory and production license application process. Further research is necessary to understand the economic impacts to specific ecosystem services associated with geothermal environments, particularly connected to changes in recreational amenity. In so doing, it would be possible to gain greater comprehension of the various components of total economic value, evolving understanding of why one geothermal area – in this case, Eldvörp – has a higher preservation value than another.

Keywords: decision-making, contingent valuation, geothermal energy, preservation

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Maia Kukhaleishvili, Ekaterine Bulauri, Iveta Megrelishvili, Tamar Shamatava, Tamar Chipashvili

Abstract:

Plant viruses can cause loss of yield and quality in a lot of important crops. Symptoms of pathogens are variable depending on the cultivars and virus strain. Selection of resistant potato varieties would reduce the risk of virus transmission and significant economic impact. Other way to avoid reduced harvest yields is regular potato seed production sampling and testing for viral infection. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence and distribution of viral diseases according potato cultivars for further selection of virus-free material in Georgia. During the summer 2015- 2016, 5 potato cultivars (Sante, Laura, Jelly, Red Sonia, Anushka) at 5 different farms located in Akhalkalaki were tested for 6 different potato viruses: Potato virus A (PVA), Potato virus M (PVM), Potato virus S (PVS), Potato virus X (PVX), Potato virus Y (PVY) and potato leaf roll virus (PLRV). A serological method, Double Antibody Sandwich-Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (DASELISA) was used at the laboratory to analyze the results. The result showed that PVY (21.4%) and PLRV (19.7%) virus presence in collected samples was relatively high compared to others. Researched potato cultivars except Jelly and Laura were infected by PVY with different concentrations. PLRV was found only in three potato cultivars (Sante, Jelly, Red Sonia) and PVM virus (3.12%) was characterized with low prevalence. PVX, PVA and PVS virus infection was not reported. It would be noted that 7.9% of samples were containing PVY/PLRV mix infection. Based on the results it can be concluded that PVY and PLRV infections are dominant in all research cultivars. Therefore significant yield losses are expected. Systematic, long-term control of potato viral infection, especially seed-potatoes, must be regarded as the most important factor to increase seed productivity.

Keywords: virus, potato, infection, diseases

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: Jayaletchumi T. Sambantha Moorthy, Suhaimi bin Ibrahim, Mohd Naz’ri Mahrin

Abstract:

Most quality models have defined usability as a significant factor that leads to improving product acceptability, increasing user satisfaction, improving product reliability, and also financially benefiting companies. Usability is also the best factor that acts as a balance for both the technical and human aspects of a software product, which is an important aspect in defining quality during software development process. A usability risk can be defined as a potential usability risk factor that a chosen action or activity may lead to a possible loss or an undesirable outcome. This could impact the usability of a software product thereby contributing to negative user experiences and causing a possible software product failure. Hence, it is important to mitigate and reduce usability risks in the software development process itself. By managing possible involved usability risks in software development process, failure of software product could be reduced. Therefore, this research uses the Delphi method to identify mitigation plans to reduce potential usability risks. The Delphi method is conducted with seven experts from the field of risk management and software development.

Keywords: usability, usability risk, risk management, risk mitigation, delphi study

Procedia PDF Downloads 466