Search results for: natural processes of transformation

Authors: Sarah Ekuwo Okende, Armand Lokolo

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Gradually, the recognition of wild bees in processes affecting ecosystems and as major components of biodiversity has led to their protection as well as their areas in Kinshasa. And despite their decisive role in the well-being of men, the general public and decision-makers know nothing of the consequences of the loss of these, which are nevertheless of considerable magnitude. On this, they provide the pollination of sexual plants, and they also provide us with a number of goods that have a direct economic value, such as food, medicines, etc. And yet today, more than half of these wild bee species are threatened in Kinshasa. The causes of this phenomenon are largely unknown to the general public in the Kinshasa region. The objective of this study is to find the causes leading to the disappearance of wild bee species in Kinshasa. Also, this research contributes to current knowledge of the biodiversity of wild bees in the Kinshasa region and helps the authorities to develop a good policy for the conservation or safeguarding of this biodiversity, which plays a key role in maintaining the integrity of our ecosystems. We carried out field surveys using interview sheets in the forest areas of Kinshasa where wild bees populated them. To achieve this, an interview sheet was made, and it included questions on the causes of the disappearance of wild bees and the destruction of forest areas. The interviews were carried out with the natives of these forest areas. The results of this study show us that the destruction of habitats or natural areas and the use of pesticides are the causes of the disappearance of these wild bees.

Keywords: wild bees, pollinisation, forest, biodiversity, habitats, ecosystem, destruction, pesticide

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Matthew Olanrewaju Ibiyomi

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The study examined the abundance of free-range natural inhabitants of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) Zoo Park. A baseline data of free-ranging inhabitants of the Park is essential to monitor trends and institute conservation plans through unsustainable natural resources exploitation and habitat destruction. Four transects were selected across the study area. Each transect was traversed for a period of four months and observations was carried out twice a day. The Four existing tracks explored during the study were the aviary, reptile, carnivore and primate tracks. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings from this study revealed that 8 species of natural inhabitants were identified, which were the Vervet monkey (Chlorocebuspygerythrus), Maxwell duiker(Philantombamaxwellii), Mongoose (Herpestidaespp), Bushbuck(Tragelaphusscriptus), Cobra (Najanaja), Ground squirrel (Marmotinispp), Senegal coucal(Centropus senegalensis), Black kite (Milvus migrans). The result further showed that a total of 115 animals were encountered in the primate transect, 77 animals in the carnivores transect, 46 animals in the aviary transect and 34 animals in the ungulates transect by the representative of 43.3%, 28.3%, 15.8% and 12.5% respectively. Human activities and level of disturbance were observed to have affected the abundance and distribution of animals at Funaab Zoo Park. Continuous field inventory is recommended to ascertain the dynamics of animals observed as free-range inhabitants in this study.

Keywords: abundance, ecosystem, extinction, free-range

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Szu-Hua Wang

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Urban ecosystems, as complex coupled human-environment systems, contain abundant natural resources for breeding natural assets and, at the same time, attract urban assets and consume natural resources, triggered by urban development. Land use change illustrates the interaction between human activities and environments factually. However, IPCC (2014) announces that land use change and urbanization due to human activities are the major cause of climate change, leading to serious impacts on urban ecosystem resilience and risk. For this reason, risk assessment and resilience analysis are the keys for responding to climate change on urban ecosystems. Urban spatial planning can guide urban development by land use planning, transportation planning, and environmental planning and affect land use allocation and human activities by building major constructions and protecting important national land resources simultaneously. Urban spatial planning can aggravate climate change and, on the other hand, mitigate and adapt climate change. Research on effects of spatial planning on land use change and climate change is one of intense issues currently. Therefore, this research focuses on developing frameworks for risk assessment and resilience analysis from the aspect of ecosystem based on typhoon precipitation in Taipei area. The integrated method of risk assessment and resilience analysis will be also addressed for applying spatial planning practice and sustainable development.

Keywords: ecosystem, land use change, risk analysis, resilience

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Authors: Martin Cai, Khadijah B. Hashim, Leng Leo, Edmund F. Tian

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Analysis of traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) supplements has always been a laborious task, particularly in the case of multi‐ingredient formulations. Traditionally, herbal extracts are analysed using one or few markers compounds. In the recent years, however, pharmaceutical companies are introducing health supplements of TCM active ingredients to cater to the needs of consumers in the fast-paced society in this age. As such, new problems arise in the aspects of composition identification as well as quality analysis. In most cases of products or supplements formulated with multiple TCM herbs, the chemical composition, and nature of each raw material differs greatly from the others in the formulation. This results in a requirement for individual analytical processes in order to identify the marker compounds in the various botanicals. Thin-layer Chromatography (TLC) is a simple, cost effective, yet well-regarded method for the analysis of natural products, both as a Pharmacopeia-approved method for identification and authentication of herbs, and a great analytical tool for the discovery of chemical compositions in herbal extracts. Recent technical advances introduced High-Performance TLC (HPTLC) where, with the help of automated equipment and improvements on the chromatographic materials, both the quality and reproducibility are greatly improved, allowing for highly standardised analysis with greater details. Here we report an industrial consultancy project with ONI Global Pte Ltd for the analysis of LAC Liver Protector, a TCM formulation aimed at improving liver health. The aim of this study was to identify 4 key components of the supplement using HPTLC, following protocols derived from Chinese Pharmacopeia standards. By comparing the TLC profiles of the supplement to the extracts of the herbs reported in the label, this project proposes a simple and cost-effective analysis of the presence of the 4 marker compounds in the multi‐ingredient formulation by using 4 different HPTLC methods. With the increasing trend of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bringing natural products and health supplements into the market, it is crucial that the qualities of both raw materials and end products be well-assured for the protection of consumers. With the technology of HPTLC, science can be incorporated to help SMEs with their quality control, thereby ensuring product quality.

Keywords: traditional Chinese medicine supplement, high performance thin layer chromatography, active ingredients, product quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: S. Benessam, T. H. Debieche, A. Drouiche, S. Mahdid, F. Zahi

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The marsh is the impermeable depression. It is not very deep and presents the stagnant water. Their water level varies according to the contributions of water (rain, groundwater, stream etc.), when this last reaches the maximum level of the marsh, it flows towards the downstream through the discharge system. The marsh accumulates all the liquid and solid contributions of upstream part. In the North-East Algerian, the Redjla marsh is located on the course of the Tassift river. Its contributions of water come from the upstream part of the river, often characterized by the presence of several pollutants in water related to the urban effluents, and its discharge system supply the downstream part of the river. In order to determine the effect of the marsh on the water quality of the river this study was conducted. A two-monthly monitoring of the physicochemical parameters and water chemistry of the river were carried out, before and after the marsh, during the period from November 2013 to January 2015. The results show that the marsh plays the role of a natural purifier of water of Tassift river, present by drops of conductivity and concentration of the pollutants (ammonium, phosphate, iron, chlorides and bicarbonates) between the upstream part and downstream of the marsh. That indicates that these pollutants are transformed with other chemical forms (case of ammonium towards nitrate), precipitated in complex forms or/and adsorbed by the sediments of the marsh. This storage of the pollutants in the ground of the marsh will be later on a source of pollution for the plants and river water.

Keywords: marsh, natural purification, urban pollution, nitrogen

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Abrha Reta, Ajebu Nurfeta, Genet Mengistu, Mohammed Beyan

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Fodder trees such as Ziziphus spina-christi have the potential to enhance the utilization of natural grazing resources and also to mitigate seasonal feed shortages. The experiment was conducted with the objective of evaluating the effect of supplementing Ziziphus spina-christi leaf meal (ZSCLM) to natural pasture hay on feed intake, body weight gain, digestibility, and carcass characteristics of Tigray highland sheep. A randomized complete block design was employed with 5 blocks based on initial body weight, and sheep were randomly assigned to five treatments. Treatments were: 100g concentrate mix + ad libtum natural pasture hay (T1), T1+ 100g ZSCLM (T2), T1 + 200g ZSCLM (T3), T1 + 300g ZSCLM (T4), and T1 + 400g ZSCLM (T5) on dry matter (DM) basis. Dry matter intake was greater (P<0.05) in sheep on T5 compared to T3 and T1, while the total DM intake among T2, T4, and T5 were similar. Crude protein and metabolizable energy intake differed (P<0.05) among treatments with highest and lowest values in T5 and T1, respectively. Average daily gain was higher (P<0.05) in sheep kept on T2, T3, and T4 diets than T1. Higher (P<0.05) DM digestibility was found in T4 and T5 than T1. The highest (P<0.05) OM and CP digestibility was observed in sheep fed T3, T4, and T5 diets. Rib eye muscle area was higher (P<0.05) for T4 than T1 and T2. Dressing percentage was similar (P>0.05) among treatments. The current study indicated that supplementation of Tigray highland sheep with 200g air-dried Ziziphus spina-christi leaf meal leaves with 100g of concentrate mixture in their diet significantly increased feed intake and apparent digestibility, body weight gain, hot carcass weight, and rib eye muscle area by improving feed conversion efficiency.

Keywords: body weight, carcass, digestibility, and ziziphus spina-christi leaf meal

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Mahmoud S. Ahmed, Hany A. Mohamed, Mohamed A. Omara, Mohamed F. Abdeen

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Experimental study of natural convection heat transfer inside smooth and rough surfaces of vertical and inclined equilateral triangular channels of different inclination angles with a uniformly heated surface are performed. The inclination angle is changed from 15º to 90º. Smooth and rough surface of average roughness (0.02 mm) are used and their effect on the heat transfer characteristics are studied. The local and average heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt number are obtained for smooth and rough channels at different heat flux values, different inclination angles and different Rayleigh numbers (Ra) 6.48 × 105 ≤ Ra ≤ 4.78 × 106. The results show that the local Nusselt number decreases with increase of axial distance from the lower end of the triangular channel to a point near the upper end of channel, and then, it slightly increases. Higher values of local Nusselt number for rough channel along the axial distance compared with the smooth channel. The average Nusselt number of rough channel is higher than that of smooth channel by about 8.1% for inclined case at θ = 45o and 10% for vertical case. The results obtained are correlated using dimensionless groups for both rough and smooth surfaces of the inclined and vertical triangular channels.

Keywords: natural heat transfer convection, constant heat flux, open channels, heat transfer

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Authors: Pichaya Poonlarp, Danai Boonyakiat, C. Chuamuangphan, M. Chanta

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Current consumers’ behavior trends have changed towards more health awareness, the well-being of society and interest of nature and environment. The Royal Project Foundation is, therefore, well aware of organic agriculture. The project only focused on using natural products and utilizing its highland biological merits to increase resistance to diseases and insects for the produce grown. The project also brought in basic knowledge from a variety of available research information, including, but not limited to, improvement of soil fertility and a control of plant insects with biological methods in order to lay a foundation in developing and promoting farmers to grow quality produce with a high health safety. This will finally lead to sustainability for future highland agriculture and a decrease of chemical use on the highland area which is a source of natural watershed. However, there are still shortcomings of the postharvest management in term of quality and losses, such as bruising, rottenness, wilting and yellowish leaves. These losses negatively affect the maintenance and a shelf life of organic vegetables. Therefore, it is important that a research study of the appropriate and effective postharvest management is conducted for an individual organic vegetable to minimize product loss and find root causes of postharvest losses which would contribute to future postharvest management best practices. This can be achieved through surveys and data collection from postharvest processes in order to conduct analysis for causes of postharvest losses of organic pak-choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum. Consequently, postharvest losses reduction strategies of organic vegetables can be achieved. In this study, postharvest losses of organic pak choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum were determined at each stage of the supply chain starting from the field after harvesting, at the Development Center packinghouse, at Chiang Mai packinghouse, at Bangkok packing house and at the Royal Project retail shop in Chiang Mai. The results showed that postharvest losses of organic pak-choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum were 86.05, 89.05 and 59.03 percent, respectively. The main factors contributing to losses of organic vegetables were due to mechanical damage and underutilized parts and/or short of minimum quality standard. Good practices had been developed after causes of losses were identified. Appropriate postharvest handling and management, for example, temperature control, hygienic cleaning, and reducing the duration of the supply chain, postharvest losses of all organic vegetables should be able to remarkably reduced postharvest losses in the supply chain.

Keywords: postharvest losses, organic vegetables, handling improvement, shelf life, supply chain

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Authors: Hilal T. Sasmazel, Seda Surucu

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Skin tissue engineering is a promising field for the treatment of skin defects using scaffolds. This approach involves the use of living cells and biomaterials to restore, maintain, or regenerate tissues and organs in the body by providing; (i) larger surface area for cell attachment, (ii) proper porosity for cell colonization and cell to cell interaction, and (iii) 3-dimensionality at macroscopic scale. Recent studies on this area mainly focus on fabrication of scaffolds that can closely mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) for creation of tissue specific niche-like environment at the subcellular scale. Scaffolds designed as ECM-like architectures incorporating into the host with minimal scarring/pain and facilitate angiogenesis. This study is related to combining of synthetic PCL and natural chitosan polymers to form 3D PCL/Chitosan core-shell structures for skin tissue engineering applications. Amongst the polymers used in tissue engineering, natural polymer chitosan and synthetic polymer poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) are widely preferred in the literature. Chitosan has been among researchers for a very long time because of its superior biocompatibility and structural resemblance to the glycosaminoglycan of bone tissue. However, the low mechanical flexibility and limited biodegradability properties reveals the necessity of using this polymer in a composite structure. On the other hand, PCL is a versatile polymer due to its low melting point (60°C), ease of processability, degradability with non-enzymatic processes (hydrolysis) and good mechanical properties. Nevertheless, there are also several disadvantages of PCL such as its hydrophobic structure, limited bio-interaction and susceptibility to bacterial biodegradation. Therefore, it became crucial to use both of these polymers together as a hybrid material in order to overcome the disadvantages of both polymers and combine advantages of those. The scaffolds here were fabricated by using electrospinning technique and the characterizations of the samples were done by contact angle (CA) measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Additionally, gas permeability test, mechanical test, thickness measurement and PBS absorption and shrinkage tests were performed for all type of scaffolds (PCL, chitosan and PCL/chitosan core-shell). By using ImageJ launcher software program (USA) from SEM photographs the average inter-fiber diameter values were calculated as 0.717±0.198 µm for PCL, 0.660±0.070 µm for chitosan and 0.412±0.339 µm for PCL/chitosan core-shell structures. Additionally, the average inter-fiber pore size values exhibited decrease of 66.91% and 61.90% for the PCL and chitosan structures respectively, compare to PCL/chitosan core-shell structures. TEM images proved that homogenous and continuous bead free core-shell fibers were obtained. XPS analysis of the PCL/chitosan core-shell structures exhibited the characteristic peaks of PCL and chitosan polymers. Measured average gas permeability value of produced PCL/chitosan core-shell structure was determined 2315±3.4 g.m-2.day-1. In the future, cell-material interactions of those developed PCL/chitosan core-shell structures will be carried out with L929 ATCC CCL-1 mouse fibroblast cell line. Standard MTT assay and microscopic imaging methods will be used for the investigation of the cell attachment, proliferation and growth capacities of the developed materials.

Keywords: chitosan, coaxial electrospinning, core-shell, PCL, tissue scaffold

Procedia PDF Downloads 481

Authors: Rim Messaoudi, Nogaye-Gueye Gning, François Azelart

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Automatic text classification applies mostly natural language processing (NLP) and other AI-guided techniques to automatically classify text in a faster and more accurate manner. This paper discusses the subject of using predictive maintenance to manage incident tickets inside the sociality. It focuses on proposing a tool that treats and analyses comments and notes written by administrators after resolving an incident ticket. The goal here is to increase the quality of these comments. Additionally, this tool is based on NLP and machine learning techniques to realize the textual analytics of the extracted data. This approach was tested using real data taken from the French National Railways (SNCF) company and was given a high-quality result.

Keywords: machine learning, text classification, NLP techniques, semantic representation

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Mercedeh Malekzadeh

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Scrap tires are the source of wastes that cause the environmental problems. The major components of these tires are rubber and carbon black. These components can be used again for different applications by utilizing physical and chemical processes. Pyrolysis is a way that converts rubber portion of scrap tires to oil and gas and the carbon black recovers to pyrolytic carbon black. This pyrolytic carbon black can be used to reinforce rubber and metal, coating preparation, electronic thermal manager and so on. The porous structure of this carbon black also makes it as a suitable choice for heavy metals removal from water. In this work, the application of base treated pyrolytic carbon black was studied as an adsorbent for chromium (III) removal from water in a batch process. Pyrolytic carbon blacks in two natural and base treated forms were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive analysis x-ray. The effects of adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial concentration of chromium (III) and pH were considered on the adsorption process. The adsorption capacity was 19.76 mg/g. Maximum adsorption was seen after 120 min at pH=3. The equilibrium data were considered and better fitted to Langmuir model. The adsorption kinetic was evaluated and confirmed with the pseudo second order kinetic. Results have shown that the base treated pyrolytic carbon black obtained from scrap tires can be used as a cheap adsorbent for removal of chromium (III) from the water.

Keywords: chromium (III), pyrolytic carbon, scrap tire, water

Procedia PDF Downloads 200

Authors: Jen-Te Pai, Jao-Heng Liu, Shin-En Pai

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The impact of climate change has intensified in recent years, causing Taiwan to face higher frequency and serious natural disasters. Therefore, it is imperative for industrial parks manufacturers to promote adaptation policies in response to climate change. On the other hand, with the rise of the international anti-terrorism situation, once a terrorist attack occurs, it will attract domestic and international media attention, especially the strategic and economic status of the science park. Thus, it is necessary to formulate adaptation and mitigation strategies under climate change and social economic disasters. After reviewed the literature about climate change, urban disaster prevention, vulnerability assessment, and risk communication, the study selected 62 industrial parks compiled by the Industrial Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan as the research object. This study explored the vulnerability and disaster prevention and disaster relief functional assessment of these industrial parks facing of natural and socio-economic disasters. Furthermore, this study explored planned adaptation of industrial parks management section and autonomous adaptation of corporate institutions in the park. The conclusion of this study is that Taiwan industrial parks with a higher vulnerability to natural and socio-economic disasters should employ positive adaptive behaviours.

Keywords: adaptive behaviours, analytic network process, vulnerability, industrial parks

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Nicholas Okpe

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The world is no more innocent as previously, as it gets more and more engulfed in both man-made and natural disasters and the call for religious intervention becomes intrinsically louder to the extent that any religious inclination that does not devolve into societal or humanitarian adventures makes no meaning. Issues such as wars, conflicts of different dimensions, natural and man made discomforts in form of environmental disturbances have thrown new challenges hitherto unknown to the doorsteps of religious groups especially faith based organizations. In the last two decades, the above speaks volumes in Nigeria such that Chunua Achebe's "things fallen apart" is real today all over Nigeria. An estimated five million people live in internally displaced camps all over the country as a consequence of various forms of social unrest as well as natural disasters. These incidences have brought to the fore the signifance of religion in societal affairs as many groups who through their interventions have often shown to be the hope of the people. The crux of this paper is to examine the role of religion in not only making people to cope with difficult situations they find themselves in, but also giving hope to the many who otherwise are feeling despondent and at the edge of life. Many religious groups have well developed strategies of interventions in various humanitarian situations. Thus, this paper assesses efforts of religions such as christianity, Islam and the indigenous African religion in this respect. It is discovered that the most potent and effective means of attending to humanitarian crisis today in Nigeria is through the various religious and cultural organizations as governments at various levels have lost credibility in such exercises.

Keywords: humanitarianism, religion, practice, nigeria

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Authors: Kaewmart Pongakkasira

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This study investigated how different levels of pixelation affect face detection in natural scenes. Eye movements and reaction times, while observers searched for faces in natural scenes rendered in different ranges of pixels, were recorded. Detection performance for coarse visual detail at lower pixel size (3 x 3) was better than with very blurred detail carried by higher pixel size (9 x 9). The result is consistent with the notion that face detection relies on gross detail information of face-shape template, containing crude shape structure and features. In contrast, detection was impaired when face shape and features are obscured. However, it was considered that the degradation of scenic information might also contribute to the effect. In the next experiment, a more direct measurement of the effect of pixelation on face detection, only the embedded face photographs, but not the scene background, will be filtered.

Keywords: eye movements, face detection, face-shape information, pixelation

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Sonia Regina Lyra

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The desire for unequivocal clarity is understandable, but this can make one forget that things of the soul are experiential processes, or transformations, which should never be designated unilaterally if it is not wanted to transform something that moves, a living thing, into something static. Among the so-called ‘things of the soul’ there are especially spontaneous fantasies, that emerge during the processes, as a result from the use of the active imagination technique, for when fantasy is not forced, violated, or subjugated by an illegitimate, intellectually preconceived idea, then it is a legitimate and authentic product of the unconscious mind. This is how one can gain access to unadulterated information about everything that transcends the conscious mind. However, it is vital to discern between ego and non-ego, because this principle will result in a release of energy and a renewal of life, which will come to have meaning. This study will deal with the active imagination as a knowledge that depends on the individual experience of the therapist because the patient will be taken just to reach where the unconscious of the therapist was assimilated to his own conscience. In this way, the therapist becomes the method itself, being his personality, a fundamental part of an effective factor.

Keywords: active imagination, effective factor, synchronicity, symptom

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Irfan Wazeer

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Desalination has become one of the major water treatment process in several countries around the world where shortage of water is a serious problem. Energy consumption is a vital economic factor in selecting the type of desalination processes because current desalination processes require large amount of energy which is costly. Multi-effect desalination system with thermal vapor compression (MED-TVC) is particularly more attractive than other thermal desalination systems due to its low energy consumption. MED-TVC is characterized by high performance ratio (PR), easier operation, low maintenance requirements and simple geometry. These attractive features make MED-TVC highly competitive to other well established desalination techniques that include the reverse osmosis (RO) and multi-stage flash desalination (MSF). The primary goal of this paper is to present a preview of some aspects related with the theory of the technology, parametric study of the MED-TVC systems and its development. It will analyzed the current and future aspects of the MED-TVC technology in view of latest installed plants.

Keywords: MED-TVC, parallel feed, performance ratio, GOR

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: Jaeun Park, Daekyoung Kim, Ho Kyoon Chung, Heeyeop Chae

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Quantum dots light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) have been considered as the next generation display and lighting devices due to their excellent color purity, photo-stability solution process possibility and good device stability. Currently typical quantum dot light emitting diodes contain organic layers such as PEDOT:PSS and PVK for charge transport layers. To make quantum dot light emitting diodes (QD-LED) more stable, it is required to replace those acidic and relatively unstable organic charge transport layers with inorganic materials. Therefore all inorganic and solution processed quantum dot light emitting diodes can potentially be a solution to stable and cost-effective display devices. We studied solution processed NiO films to replace organic charge transport layers that are required for stable all-inorganic based light emitting diodes. The transition metal oxides can be made by various vacuum and solution processes, but the solution processes are considered more cost-effective than vacuum processes. In this work we investigated solution processed NiOx for a hole transport layer (HTL). NiOx, has valence band energy levels of 5.3eV and they are easy to make sol-gel solutions. Water vapor oxidation process was developed and applied to solution processed all-inorganic QD-LED. Turn-on voltage, luminance and current efficiency of QD in this work were 5V, 1800Cd/m2 and 0.5Cd/A, respectively.

Keywords: QD-LED, metal oxide solution, NiO, all-inorganic QD-LED device

Procedia PDF Downloads 750

Authors: Senem Suna, Canan Ece Tamer, Ömer Utku Çopur

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In this research, dried linden (Tilia argentea) leaves and blossoms were used as a raw material for mineral enriched herbal tea beverage production. For this aim, %1 dried linden was infused with boiling water (100 °C) for 5 minutes. After cooling, sucrose, citric acid, ascorbic acid, natural lemon flavor and natural mineral water were added. Beverage samples were plate filtered, filled into 200-mL glass bottles, capped then pasteurized at 98 °C for 15 minutes. Water soluble dry matter, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, pH, minerals (Fe, Ca, Mg, K, Na), color (L*, a*, b*), turbidity, bioaccessible phenolics and antioxidant capacity were analyzed. Water soluble dry matter, titratable acidity, and ascorbic were determined as 7.66±0.28 g/100 g, 0.13±0.00 g/100 mL, and 19.42±0.62 mg/100 mL, respectively. pH was measured as 3.69. Fe, Ca, Mg, K and Na contents of the beverage were determined as 0.12±0.00, 115.48±0.05, 34.72±0.14, 48.67±0.43 and 85.72±1.01 mg/L, respectively. Color was measured as 13.63±0.05, -4.33±0.05, and 3.06±0.05 for L*, a*, and b* values. Turbidity was determined as 0.69±0.07 NTU. Bioaccessible phenolics were determined as 312.82±5.91 mg GAE/100 mL. Antioxidant capacities of chemical (MetOH:H₂O:HCl) and physiological extracts (in vitro digestive enzymatic extraction) with DPPH (27.59±0.53 and 0.17±0.02 μmol trolox/mL), FRAP (21.01±0.97 and 13.27±0.19 μmol trolox/mL) and CUPRAC (44.71±9.42 and 2.80±0.64 μmol trolox/mL) methods were also evaluated. As a result, enrichment with natural mineral water was proposed for the development of functional and nutritional values together with a good potential for commercialization.

Keywords: linden, herbal tea beverage, bioaccessibility, antioxidant capacity

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: Liz van Acker, Linda Colley

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Political processes are shaped by the gendered culture of parliaments. This paper examines how the institution of parliament has been affected by the changing number of women in politics. In order to understand how and why gender change occurs, the paper employs a feminist historical institutionalism approach. It argues that while it is difficult to change the gendered nature of political institutions, it is possible, from a gender perspective, to understand the processes of change both formally and informally. Increasing women’s representation has been a slow process which has not occurred without political struggles. A broadly defined ‘feminist historical institutionalism’ has critiqued existing approaches to institutions and combined historical institutional analysis with tools of gender to enhance our understanding of institutional processes and change. The paper examines the gendered rules, norms, and practices that influence institutional design choices and processes. Institutions such as Parliament often are able to adjust to women’s entry and absorb them without too much interruption. Exploring the hidden aspects to informal institutions involves identifying unspoken and accepted norms that may guide decision-making – exposing and questioning the gender status quo. This paper examines the representation of women in the Queensland Parliament, Australia. It places the Queensland experience in historical context, as well as in the national and international context. The study is interesting, given that its gender representation has rocketed from one of the worst performing states in 2012 to one of the best performing in 2015 with further improvements in 2017. The state currently has a re-elected female Premier, a female Deputy Premier and a female-dominated cabinet – in fact, Queensland was the first ministry in Australia to have a majority of women in its Cabinet. However, it is unnecessary to dig far below these headlines to see that this is uncharacteristic of its history: progress towards this current position has been slow and patchy. The paper finds that matters such as the glass ceiling and the use of quotas explain women’s recent success in Queensland politics.

Keywords: feminist historical institutional approach, glass ceiling, quotas, women’s participation in politics

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Cansu Bozer, Saadet İrem Turgut

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most important technologies of the digital age and is transforming many sectors, including education. The advantages offered by AI, such as automation, personalised learning, and data analytics, create new opportunities for both teachers and students in education systems. Preschool education plays a fundamental role in the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children. In this period, the foundations of children's creative thinking, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills are laid. Educational technologies, especially artificial intelligence-based applications, are thought to contribute to the development of these skills. For example, artificial intelligence-supported digital learning tools can support learning processes by offering activities that can be customised according to the individual needs of each child. However, the successful use of artificial intelligence-based applications in preschool education can be realised under the guidance of teachers who have the right knowledge about this technology. Therefore, it is of great importance to measure preschool teachers' awareness levels of artificial intelligence and to understand which variables affect this awareness. The aim of this study is to measure preschool teachers' awareness levels of artificial intelligence and to determine which factors are related to this awareness. In line with this purpose, teachers' level of knowledge about artificial intelligence, their thoughts about the role of artificial intelligence in education, and their attitudes towards artificial intelligence will be evaluated. The study will be conducted with 100 teachers working in Turkey using a descriptive survey model. In this context, ‘Artificial Intelligence Awareness Level Scale for Teachers’ developed by Ferikoğlu and Akgün (2022) will be used. The collected data will be analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and relationship analyses (correlation and regression analyses) will be used in data analysis. As a result of the study, the level of artificial intelligence awareness of preschool teachers will be determined, and the factors affecting this awareness will be identified. The findings obtained will contribute to the determination of studies that can be done to increase artificial intelligence awareness in preschool education.

Keywords: education, child development, artificial intelligence, preschool teachers

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Authors: Mohamed Ayoub

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The structures and energetics of various isomeric hydrogen bonded dimers, such as (FH…OC, FH…CO), (FH…CNH, FH…NCH), (FH…N2O, FH…ON2), and (FH…NHCO, FH…OCNH) have been investigated using DFT B3LYP with aug-cc-pVTZ basis set and by natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. For each isomeric pair we calculated: H-bond energy (ΔEB…H), charge-transfer (QCT), where B is atom bearing lone-pairs in CO, CNH, NCH, N2O, and NHCO, H-bond distances (RB…H), the elongation of HF bond (ΔRHF) and the red-shift of HF stretching frequency (ΔVHF). We conclude that the principle difference in the relative stability between each isomeric pair is attributed to distinctive interaction of carbon and oxygen lone pairs of CO, carbon and nitrogen lone-pairs of CNH and NCH, and nitrogen and oxygen lone pairs of N2O and NHCO into the unfilled antibond on HF (σ*HF).

Keywords: charge transfer, computational chemistry, isomeric hydrogen bond, natural bond orbital

Procedia PDF Downloads 246

Authors: K. Jarmkom, P. Eakwaropas, W. Khobjai, S. Techaeoi

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Ancient Thai perfumed powder was used as a fragrance for clothing, food, and the body. Plant-based natural Thai perfume products are known as Pang-Rum. The objective of this study was to evaluate the stability of essential oils after six months of incubation. The chemical compositions were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), in terms of the qualitative composition of the isolated essential oil. The isolation of the essential oil of natural products by incubate sample for 5 min at 40 ºC is described. The volatile components were identified by percentage of total peak areas comparing their retention times of GC chromatograph with NIST mass spectral library. The results show no significant difference in the seven chromatograms of perfumed powder (Pang-Rum) both with binder and without binder. Further identification was done by GC-MS. Some components of Pang-Rum with/without binder were changed by temperature and time.

Keywords: GC-MS analysis, essential oils, stability, Pang-Rum

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Safeer Hussain Khan, H. Fukhar-ud-Din

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The concept of quasi-contractive type operators was given by Berinde and extended by Imoru and Olatinwo. They named this new type as contractive-like operators. On the other hand, Xu and Noo introduced a three-step-one-mappings iterative process which can be seen as a generalization of Mann and Ishikawa iterative processes. Approximating common fixed points has its own importance as it has a direct link with minimization problem. Motivated by this, in this paper, we first extend the iterative process of Xu and Noor to the case of three-step-three-mappings and then prove a strong convergence result using contractive-like operators for this iterative process. In general, this generalizes corresponding results using Mann, Ishikawa and Xu-Noor iterative processes with quasi-contractive type operators. It is to be pointed out that our results can also be proved with iterative process involving error terms.

Keywords: contractive-like operator, iterative process, common fixed point, strong convergence

Procedia PDF Downloads 594

Authors: Sina Abadzadesahraei, Stephen Déry, John Rex

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Climate research has repeatedly identified strong associations between anthropogenic emissions of ‘greenhouses gases’ and observed increases of global mean surface air temperature over the past century. Studies have also demonstrated that the degree of warming varies regionally. Canada is not exempt from this situation, and evidence is mounting that climate change is beginning to cause diverse impacts in both environmental and socio-economic spheres of interest. For example, northeastern British Columbia (BC), whose climate is controlled by a combination of maritime, continental and arctic influences, is warming at a greater rate than the remainder of the province. There are indications that these changing conditions are already leading to shifting patterns in the region’s hydrological cycle, and thus its available water resources. Coincident with these changes, northeastern BC is undergoing rapid development for oil and gas extraction: This depends largely on subsurface hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), which uses enormous amounts of freshwater. While this industrial activity has made substantial contributions to regional and provincial economies, it is important to ensure that sufficient and sustainable water supplies are available for all those dependent on the resource, including ecological systems. In this turn demands a comprehensive understanding of how water in all its forms interacts with landscapes, the atmosphere, and of the potential impacts of changing climatic conditions on these processes. The aim of this study is therefore to characterize and quantify all components of the water budget in the small watershed of Coles Lake (141.8 km², 100 km north of Fort Nelson, BC), through a combination of field observations and numerical modelling. Baseline information will aid the assessment of the sustainability of current and future plans for freshwater extraction by the oil and gas industry, and will help to maintain the precarious balance between economic and environmental well-being. This project is a perfect example of interdisciplinary research, in that it not only examines the hydrology of the region but also investigates how natural gas operations and growth can affect water resources. Therefore, a fruitful collaboration between academia, government and industry has been established to fulfill the objectives of this research in a meaningful manner. This project aims to provide numerous benefits to BC communities. Further, the outcome and detailed information of this research can be a huge asset to researchers examining the effect of climate change on water resources worldwide.

Keywords: northeastern British Columbia, water resources, climate change, oil and gas extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 264

Authors: Ana Paula Esteves, Diego S. Caetano, Louise L. B. Lomardo

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This paper presents an approach on the advantages of using adequate coverage in the zenithal lighting typology in various areas of architectural production, while at the same time to encourage to the design concerns inherent in this choice of roofing in Brazil. Understanding that sustainability needs to cover several aspects, a roofing system such as zenithal lighting system can contribute to the provision of better quality natural light for the interior of the building, which is related to the good health and welfare; it will also be able to contribute for the sustainable aspects and environmental needs, when it allows the generation of energy in semitransparent or opacity photovoltaic solutions and economize the artificial lightning. When the energy balance in the building is positive, that is, when the building generates more energy than it consumes, it may fit into the Net Zero Energy Building concept. The zenithal lighting systems could be an important ally in Brazil, when solved the burden of heat gains, participate in the set of pro-efficiency actions in search of "zero energy buildings". The paper presents comparative three cases of buildings that have used this feature in search of better environmental performance, both in light comfort and sustainability as a whole. Two of these buildings are examples in Europe: the Notley Green School in the UK and the Isofóton factory in Spain. The third building with these principles of shed´s roof is located in Brazil: the Ipel´s factory in São Paulo.

Keywords: natural lighting, net zero energy building, sheds, semi-transparent photovoltaics

Procedia PDF Downloads 194

Authors: R. S. Quintal, J. L. Tesch Santos, M. D. Davis, E. C. de Santana, M. de F. Bandeira dos Santos

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The objective is to identify the contributions from the introduction of the computerized system deal within the Accounting Department of Brazilian Navy Financial Directorship and its possible effects on the budgetary and financial harvest of Brazilian Navy. The relevance lies in the fact that the management process is responsible for the continuous improvement of organizational performance through higher levels of quality in their activities. Improvements in organizational processes have direct effects on crops cost, quality, reliability, flexibility and speed. The method of study of this research is the case study. The choice of case study attended, among other demands, a need for greater flexibility to study processes related to a computerized system. The sources of evidence were used literature, documentary and direct observation. Direct observation was made by monitoring the implementation of the computerized system in the Division of Management Analysis. The main findings of the study point to the fact that the computerized system may contribute significantly to the standardization of information. There was improvement of internal processes in the division of management analysis, made possible the consolidation of a standard management and performance analysis that contribute to global homogeneity in the treatment of information essential to the process of decision making. This study has limitations related to the fact the search result be subject exclusively to the case studied, and it is impossible to generalize to other organs of government.

Keywords: process management, management control, business intelligence, Brazilian Navy

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: S. Arias

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New housing developments and the technological changes that this implies, adapt the styles of living of its residents, as well as new family structures and forms of work due to the particular needs of a specific group of people which involves different techniques of dealing with, organize, equip and use a particular territory. Currently, own their own space is increasingly important and the cities are faced with the challenge of providing the opportunity for such demands, as well as energy, water and waste removal necessary in the process of construction and occupation of new human settlements. Until the day of today, not has failed to give full response to these demands and needs, resulting in cities that grow without control, badly used land, avenues and congested streets. Buildings and dwellings have an important impact on the environment and on the health of the people, therefore environmental quality associated with the comfort of humans to the sustainable development of natural resources. Applied to architecture, this concept involves the incorporation of new technologies in all the constructive process of a dwelling, changing customs of developers and users, what must be a greater effort in planning energy savings and thus reducing the emissions Greenhouse Gases (GHG) depending on the geographical location where it is planned to develop. Since the techniques of occupation of the territory are not the same everywhere, must take into account that these depend on the geographical, social, political, economic and climatic-environmental circumstances of place, which in modified according to the degree of development reached. In the analysis that must be undertaken to check the degree of sustainability of the place, it is necessary to make estimates of the energy used in artificial air conditioning and lighting. In the same way is required to diagnose the availability and distribution of the water resources used for hygiene and for the cooling of artificially air-conditioned spaces, as well as the waste resulting from these technological processes. Based on the results obtained through the different stages of the analysis, it is possible to perform an energy audit in the process of proposing recommendations of sustainability in architectural spaces in search of energy saving, rational use of water and natural resources optimization. The above can be carried out through the development of a sustainable building code in develop technical recommendations to the regional characteristics of each study site. These codes would seek to build bases to promote a building regulations applicable to new human settlements looking for is generated at the same time quality, protection and safety in them. This building regulation must be consistent with other regulations both national and municipal and State, such as the laws of human settlements, urban development and zoning regulations.

Keywords: building regulations, housing, sustainability, technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: C. B. Abhilash, Kavi Mahesh

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Human beings are the most advanced species on earth; it's all because of the ability to communicate and share information via human language. In today's world, a huge amount of data is available on the web in text format. This has also resulted in the generation of big data in structured and unstructured formats. In general, the data is in the textual form, which is highly unstructured. To get insights and actionable content from this data, we need to incorporate the concepts of text mining and natural language processing. In our study, we mainly focus on Interesting data through which interesting facts are generated for the knowledge base. The approach is to derive the analytics from the text via the application of natural language processing. Using semantic web Resource framework descriptors (RDF), we generate the triple from the given data and derive the interesting patterns. The methodology also illustrates data integration using the RDF for reliable, interesting patterns.

Keywords: RDF, interestingness, knowledge base, semantic data

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Harvard Najoan, Sarwono Sutikno, Yusep Rosmansyah

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Most enterprises are now using information technology services as their assets to support business objectives. These kinds of services are provided by the internal service provider (inside the enterprise) or external service provider (outside enterprise). To deliver quality information technology services, the service provider (which from now on will be called ‘organization’) either internal or external, must have a standard for service management system. At present, the standard that is recognized as best practice for service management system for the organization is international standard ISO/IEC 20000:2011. The most important part of this international standard is the first part or ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011-Service Management System Requirement, because it contains 22 for organization processes as a requirement to be implemented in an organizational environment in order to build, manage and deliver quality service to the customer. Assessing organization management processes is the first step to implementing ISO/IEC 20000:2011 into the organization management processes. This assessment needs Process Assessment Model (PAM) as an assessment instrument. PAM comprises two parts: Process Reference Model (PRM) and Measurement Framework (MF). PRM is built by transforming the 22 process of ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 and MF is based on ISO/IEC 33020. This assessment instrument was designed to assess the capability of service management process in Divisi Teknologi dan Sistem Informasi (Information Systems and Technology Division) as an internal organization of PT Pos Indonesia. The result of this assessment model can be proposed to improve the capability of service management system.

Keywords: ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011, ISO/IEC 33020:2015, process assessment, process capability, service management system

Procedia PDF Downloads 465

Authors: Liana C. Salanță, Maria Tofană, Carmen R. Pop, Vlad Mureșan

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The landscape of functional food is expanding very fast, due to the consumer interest for healthy natural products. Consumers nowadays demand healthy products that impart phytonutrients to encourage good health and well-being, prevent diseases, without sacrificing taste and texture. Candies are foodstuffs appreciated by all category of consumers. They are available in a range variety of forms (jellies, marshmallows, caramels, lollipops, etc.). Jelly is characterized by a gummy and chewy texture typically conferred by a hydrocolloid (gelatin, pectin). The purpose of this research was to obtain hypocaloric jelly (no added sugar) enriched with protein powder from acai, chia seeds and hemp, which are considered superfood. Peach and raspberry juice were used for obtaining functional jelly, due to the specific flavour, natural carbohydrate, natural pigments and vitamins (C, B1, PP, etc). Instead of classic hydrocolloids used in Romania for the industry of jelly, agar-agar was used in this study, due to its properties. Agar-agar is able to form gels in the aqueous medium, stronger than other gel-forming agents. High sugar concentrations or an acid environment (as is necessary with pectins) are not needed. In addition to its gelation properties, Agar-agar is considered to have important nutritional benefits, high content of fibre and has low calories. Six prototypes of jellies were obtained and evaluated by physicochemical, microbiological and sensorial analysis. For the textural profile analysis, the Brookfield CT3 Texture Analyzer, equipped with a 10kg load cell, was used. The results revealed that hypocaloric jelly can serve as a good source of bioactive compounds in the diet. The jelly is a convenient way of delivering potential health benefits of protein powder and agar-agar to a wide range of consumers.

Keywords: agar-agar, functional food, hypocaloric jelly, superfoods

Procedia PDF Downloads 126