Search results for: urban regeneration priority region

Authors: S. Padma, D. H. Tejavathi

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Somatic embryogenesis is a remarkable illustration of the dictum of plant totipotency where developmental reconstruction of somatic cells takes place towards the embryogenic pathway. It recapitulates the morphological and developmental process that occurs in zygotic embryogenesis. S. androgynous commonly called as multivitamin plant. The leaves are consumed as green leafy vegetable by the Southeast Asian communities due to their rich nutritional profile. Despite being a good nutritional vegetable with proteins, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, it is warned for excessive intake due to the presence of alkoloid called papaverine. Papaverine at higher concentrations is toxic and leads to a syndrome called Bronchiolitis Obliterans. In the present study, morphogenetic potential of shoot tip, leaf and nodal explants of Sauropus androgynous was investigated to develop and enhance the reliable plant regeneration protocol via somatic embryogenesis. Somatic embryos were derived directly from the embryogenic callus derived from shoot tip, node and leaf cultures on Phillips and Collins (L2) medium supplemented with NAA at various concentrations ranging from 5.3 µM/l to 26.85 µM/l within two months of inoculation. Thus obtained embryos were sub cultured to modified L2 media supplemented with increased vitamin level for the further growth. Somatic embryos with well-developed cotyledons were transferred to normal and modified L2 basal medium for conversion. The plantlets thus obtained were subjected to brief acclimatization before transferring them to land. About 95% of survival rate was recorded. The augmentation process of culturing various explants through somatic embryogenesis using synthetic medium with various plant growth regulators under controlled conditions have aggrandized the commercial production of Sauropus making it easily available over the conventional propagation methods. In addition, regeneration process through somatic embryogenesis has ameliorated the development of desired character in Sauropus with low papaverine content thereby providing a valuable resource to the food and pharmaceutical industry. Based on this research, plant tissue culture techniques have shown promise for economical and convenient application in Sauropus androgynous breeding.

Keywords: L2 medium, multivitamin plant, NAA, papaverine

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Authors: Mehdi Heydari Sanglaji

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The dramatic events of the 11 September, and their tragic repercussions, catapulted issues of the political violence in and from the ‘Muslim world’ onto the political discourse, be it in patriotic speeches of campaigning politicians or the TV and news punditry. Depending on what end of the political spectrum the politician/pundit pledges fealty to, the overall analyses of political violence in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) tends towards two overarching categories: on the Right, the diagnosis has unanimously been, ‘they must hate our freedom.’ On the Left, however, there is the contention that the West has to be counted as the primary cause of such rage, for the years of plundering of lives and resources, through colonialism, the Cold War, coups, etc. All these analyses are premised on at least two presuppositions: the violence in and from the WANA region a) is always reactionary, in the sense that it happens only in response to something the West is or does; and b) must always already be condemned, as it is essentially immoral and wrong. It is the aim of this paper to challenge such viewpoints. Through a rigorous study of the historical discourses on political violence in the Leftist organizations active in Algeria and Lebanon, we claim there is a myriad of diverse reasons and justifications presented for advocating political violence in these countries that defy facile categorization. Inspecting such rhetoric for inciting political violence in Leftist discourses, and how some of these reasonings have percolated into other movements in the region (e.g., Islamist ones), will reveal a wealth of indigenous discourses on the subject that has been largely neglected by the Western Media punditry and even by the academia. The indigenous discourses on political violence, much of which overlaps with emancipatory projects in the region, partly follow grammar and logic, which may be different from those developed in the West, even by its more critical theories. Understanding so different epistemology of violence, and the diverse contexts in which political violence might be justifiable in the mind of ‘the other,’ necessitates a historical, materialist, and genealogical study of the discourse already in practice in the WANA region. In that regard, both critical terrorism studies and critical discourse analysis provide exemplary tools of analysis. Capitalizing on such tools, this project will focus on unearthing a history of thought that renders moot the reduction of all instances of violence in the region to an Islamic culture or imperialism/colonialism. The main argument in our research is that by studying the indigenous discourses on political violence, we will be far more equipped in understanding the reasons and the possible solutions for acts of terrorism in and from the region.

Keywords: political violence, terrorism, leftist organizations, West Asia/North Africa

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Authors: Mahadev Bhise, Nabanita Majumder

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Recent studies have found association between air pollutants and mortality, particularly how concentration of air pollutant explains under-five mortality across the countries. Thus, the present study evaluates the relationship between Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and under-five mortality, while controlling other well-being determinant of Under-five mortality in 100 countries using panel unbalanced cross sectional data. We have used PCSE and GMM model for the period 1990-2011 to meet our objectives. Our findings suggest that, the positive relationship between lagged periods of carbon dioxide and under-five mortality; the percentage of rural population with access of improved water is negatively associated with under-five mortality, while in case of urban population with access of improved water, is positively related to under-five mortality. Access of sanitation facility, food production index, GDP per capita, and concentration of urban population have significant negative impact on under-five mortality. Further, total fertility rate is significantly associated (positive) with under-five mortality which indicates relative change in fertility is related to relative change in under-five mortality.

Keywords: arbon dioxide (CO2), under-five mortality (0q5), gross domestic product (GDP), urban population, food production, panel corrected standard errors (PCSE), generalized method of moments (GMM)

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Authors: Anyaogu Paul

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The study examines the problem of child labour in respect to National security in Nigeria. The current situation reflects a chronic urban poverty, which can compel parents and guardians to send their children and wards of school age to engage in income yielding activities to augment family income. The study sought to explain the basis of child labour, its causes and its effects on its victim and society at large. A social survey research design was employed to select the respondents. A sample size of 250 respondents was selected from targeted population of children below the age of 18 years. A questionnaire instrument was employed to collect data. An accidental sampling technique was employed to select the respondents. The findings revealed that child labour is on the increase and a serious threat to national security and social cohesion. The study recommends that the Nigerian government should enforce the laws on child labour and provide opportunities for job creation for urban dwellers. More so, government should also provide free and compulsory education at primary and secondary school levels of education.

Keywords: child labour, family income, national security, survey research

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Authors: Lee Jin-Eui, Kim Jin-OK, Han Seung-Hoon, Kim Nam-Jo

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Recently, there has been a growing interest in wellbeing where individuals pursue a healthy life. About the half of world population is living in cities, and the urban environment is negatively affecting the mental health of modern people. The stress level of urban dwellers continues to increase, and they pursue nature-based recreation activities to relieve their stresses. It was found that activities in green spaces are improving concentration, relieving mental stress, and positively affecting physical activities and social relationship, thus enhancing the quality of life. For that reason, studies have been continuously conducted on the role of nature, which is a green space for pursuing health and relieving the stress of urban dwellers. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of experiencing a restoration from nature-based outdoor recreation activities of urban dwellers on their quality of life for the groups with high and low-stress levels. The results of the analysis against visitors who trekked and climbed Mt. Bukhan National Park in Seoul, South Korea showed that the effect of perceiving restorative environment on relaxation, calmness and subjective vitality, and the effect of relaxation and calmness on the quality of life were similar in both groups. However, it was found that subjective vitality affected the quality of life in the group with the high-stress group, while it did not show a significant result in the low-stress group. This is because the high-stress group increased their belief in the future and themselves and vitality through nature-based outdoor activities, which in turn affected their quality of life, while people in the low-stress group normally have subjective vitality in their daily lives, not affected by nature-based outdoor recreation. This result suggests that urban dwellers feel relaxed and calm through nature-based outdoor recreation activities with perceived restorative environment, and such activities enhance their quality of life. Therefore, a wellbeing policy is needed to enhance the quality of life of citizens by creating green spaces in city centers for the promotion of public health.

Keywords: healing tourism, nature-based outdoor recreation, perceived restorative environment, quality of life

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Authors: Yating Yang, Xue Zhang, Chengli Zhao

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Technology capability refers to the comprehensive ability that influences all factors of technological development. Among them, researchers’ resources serve as the foundation and driving force for technology capability, representing a significant manifestation of a country/region's technological capability. Therefore, the cross-border transfer behavior of researchers to some extent reflects changes in technological capability between countries/regions, providing a unique research perspective for technological capability assessment. This paper proposes a technological capability assessment model based on personnel transfer networks, which consists of a researchers' transfer network model and a country/region role evolution model. It evaluates the changes in a country/region's technological capability roles from the perspective of researcher transfers and conducts an analysis using artificial intelligence as a case study based on literature data. The study reveals that the United States, China, and the European Union are core nodes, and identifies the role evolution characteristics of several major countries/regions.

Keywords: transfer network, technological capability assessment, central-peripheral structure, role evolution

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Authors: Djelloul Benatiallah, Ali Benatiallah, Abdelkader Harouz

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) include various methods and computer techniques to model, capture digitally, store, manage, view and analyze. Geographic information systems have the characteristic to appeal to many scientific and technical field, and many methods. In this article we will present a complete and operational geographic information system, following the theoretical principles of data management and adapting to spatial data, especially data concerning the monitoring of drinking water supply wells (DWS) Adrar region. The expected results of this system are firstly an offer consulting standard features, updating and editing beneficiaries and geographical data, on the other hand, provides specific functionality contractors entered data, calculations parameterized and statistics.

Keywords: GIS, DWS, drilling, Adrar

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Authors: George Mariano Soriano

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In this study, a Rapid Earthquake Risk Ranking Criteria was formulated by integrating various existing maps and databases by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). Utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) software, the above-mentioned maps and databases were used in extracting seismic hazard parameters and bridge vulnerability characteristics in order to rank the seismic damage risk rating of bridges in the National Capital Region.

Keywords: bridge, earthquake, GIS, hazard, risk, vulnerability

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Authors: Surajo Isa

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In as much as mathematics is important to national development, it is regrettable to note that in Nigeria Students academic achievement especially in public examinations remains poor. Among the several factors responsible for such a poor performance is the lack of bringing cultural elements into the conventional school mathematics. The design for this study is triangulation in nature which is set to examined 800 students From 20 School (40 each from male and female schools). Ten (10) male and ten (10) female schools consisting of 400 male and 400 female students to formed the experiment and control groups with a further sub-groping of samples to represent urban and rural settings for both male and female groups. While the experimental groups were taught using ethnomathematics techniques, the control groups were taught using conventional techniques, the results of a t-test for independent samples at p =0.05 level of significance with tcritical = 1.968 showed that (a) boys performed significantly better than girls (b) there is no significantly difference in performance between urban and rural girls (c) significant difference in academic performance was obtained between urban and rural boys. Generally, it was observed that teaching mathematics with ethnomathematics technique would help in great achievement in mathematics.

Keywords: ethnomathematics, achievement, gender, settlement

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Authors: Marco E. O. Jardim, Frederico A. M. Souza, Valeria M. Bastos, Myrian C. A. Costa, Nelson F. F. Ebecken

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Urban public transportation in Rio de Janeiro is based on bus lines, powered by diesel, and four limited metro lines that support only some neighborhoods. This work presents an infrastructure built to better understand microclimate variations related to massive urban transportation in some specific areas of the city. The use of sensor nodes with small analytics capacity provides environmental information to population or public services. The analyses of data collected from a few small sensors positioned near some heavy traffic streets show the harmful impact due to poor bus route plan.

Keywords: big data, IoT, public transportation, public health system

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Authors: Gokhan Erkal, Gulsen Aydin, Muge Yuce, Lokman Sahin

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This study aims to analyze the impacts of involving in mediation of conflicts in the Middle East from the perspective of the economic growth of the mediators. The Middle East is a highly volatile region of the world with rampant crises whose affects spill beyond its borders. Therefore, management and resolution of the conflicts in the region are of great significance. Mediation is an instrument used for abating violence and settling dispute. The recourse to mediation has grown to an important degree in recent years. However, for mediators, it is a daunting task to involve in the mediation of the deadlocks in the Middle East. This study tries to shed light on the positive correlation between economic growth of the mediator and the successful outcome of the mediation process to provide motivation for mediators. To this end, first, it briefly introduces the conflicts ongoing in the region and their negative impacts. Second, the methodology, time series analysis, and the data to be used, International Crisis Behavior Project Data, are presented. Third, the empirical test is carried out and the findings are evaluated. The conclusion highlights the benefits of successful mediation for the economic growth of the mediators of Middle Eastern crises.

Keywords: international crises, mediation, Middle East, times series analysis

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Authors: Daniel Macedo Neto, Sandro Froehner, Juan Sanez

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Suspended sediments (SS) are an environmental constituent able to represent the effects of land use changes on watersheds. One important consideration of land use change is its implication on trace element loading. Water bodies have the capacity to retain trace elements. Spatial variation in trace elements concentrations can be associated with land occupation and sources of pollution. In this work, the spatial variation of trace elements in suspended sediments from an urban river was assessed. Time-integrated fluvial suspended sediment samples were installed in three different sites of Barigui River. The suspend solids were collected every 30 days, from May 2015 to August 2015 (total samples 12). Site P1 covers 44 km2 drainage area and has low land occupation, whilst P2 cover an area of 87 km2 and it is totally urban as P3, which area is higher than 130 km2. Trace elements (As, Cd, Cr, P, Pb and Zn) were analysed by ICP-ES. All elements analyzed showed a similar pattern, i.e., the concentration raise with the urbanization, exception for As (P1=7.75; P2=5.75; P3=5.60mg/kg). There was increase in concentration for Cd (P1=0.75; P2=0.78; P3=1.45mg/kg), Cr (P1=59.50; P2=101.75; P3=102.00 mg/kg), Zn (P1=142.25; P2=152.50; P3=223.00mg/kg), P (P1=937.50; P2=1,545.00; P3=2,355.00 mg/kg) and for Pb (P1=31.25; P2=32.75; P3=39.17±2.56 mg/kg). The variation in concentrations were as follow -27.74% (As), +93.33% (Cd), +71.43% (Cr), +151.20% (P), +25.33% (Pb) e +56.77% (Zn). Cd, Cr, P, Pb and Zn presented a clear trend of increasing the concentration from upstream to downstream. Such variation is more notorious for P, Cd and Cr, possibly due the urbanization.

Keywords: trace elements, erosion, urbanization, suspended sediments

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Authors: Muhammad Imran Nisar, Fyezah Jehan, Tauseef Akhund, Sadia Shakoor, Kanwal Nayani, Furqan Kabir, Asad Ali, Anita Zaidi

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Pneumococcal Vaccine -10 (PCV 10) was included in the Expanded Program of immunization (EPI) in Sindh, Pakistan in February 2013. This study was carried out immediately before the introduction of PCV 10 to establish baseline pneumococcal carriage and prevalent serotypes in naso-pharynx of children 3-11 months of age in an urban and rural community in Sindh, Pakistan. An additional sample of children aged 12 to 59 months was drawn from the urban community. Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from a random sample of children. Samples were processed in a central laboratory in Karachi. Pneumococci were cultured on 5% Sheep Blood Agar and serotyping was performed using CDC standardized sequential multiplex PCR assay on bacterial colonies. Serotypes were then categorized into vaccine (PCV-10 and PCV-13) type and non-vaccine types. A total of 670 children were enrolled. Carriage rate for pneumococcus based on culture positivity was 74% and 79.5 % in the infant group in Karachi and Matiari respectively. Carriage rate was 78.2% for children aged 12 to 59 months in Karachi. Proportion of PCV 10 serotypes in infants was 38.8% and 33.5% in Karachi and Matiari respectively. In the older age group in Karachi, the proportion was 30.6%. Most common serotypes were 6A, 6B, 23F, 19A and 18C. This survey establishes vaccine and non-vaccine serotype carriage rate in a vaccine-naïve pediatric population among rural and urban communities in Sindh province. Annually planned surveys in the same communities will inform change in carriage rate after the introduction and uptake of PCV 10 in these communities.

Keywords: Naso-Pharyngeal carriage, Pakistan, PCV10, Pneumococcus

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Authors: Guezouli Larbi, Belkacem Soundes

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The automation of the text detection process can help the human in his driving task. Its application can be very useful to help drivers to have more information about their environment by facilitating the reading of road signs such as directional signs, events, stores, etc. In this paper, a system consisting of two stages has been proposed. In the first one, we used pseudo-Zernike moments to pinpoint areas of the image that may contain text. The architecture of this part is based on three main steps, region of interest (ROI) detection, text localization, and non-text region filtering. Then, in the second step, we present a convolutional neural network architecture (On-Road Text Detection Network - ORTDN) which is considered a classification phase. The results show that the proposed framework achieved ≈ 35 fps and an mAP of ≈ 90%, thus a low computational time with competitive accuracy.

Keywords: text detection, CNN, PZM, deep learning

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Authors: Mohammed Bakhit Kashoob, Mohammed Salim Al-Maashani, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Marhoon

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Fatalities of Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) on rural roads are usually higher than that on urban roads. The likelihood of traffic accidents may increase with the presence of factors that are associated with the rural type of community such as long-distance, road type, road geometry (e.g., curves and steepens), poor lighting, terrain, obstacles (e.g., animals crossing, boulders or tree branches), heavy truck traffic, weather conditions, and road flaws. Most of these factors are present on the rural roads of Oman. As many cities in Oman are surrounded by mountains and connected by rural roads, this is of great concern. In this paper, the causes of traffic crashes on rural roads in Oman are analyzed. The fatality rate of traffic deaths on rural roads is compared with the fatality rate on urban roads for different regions in Oman. Statistical data and police reports show that the leading cause of RTCs and deaths on rural roads is vehicle speeding, especially on long-distance roads. It is shown that crashes on rural roads result in higher fatalities than crashes on urban roads. In comparison to speed, the numbers of RTCs and deaths that resulted from other causes are small.

Keywords: causes of traffic crashes, road safety, road traffic crash, rural roads

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Authors: Emmanuel Olamijuwon

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Despite laws against child marriage - a violation against child rights, the practice remains widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and globally partly because of persistent poverty, gender inequality, protection and the need to reinforce family ties. Using pooled data from the recent demographic and health surveys of 20-sub-Saharan African countries with a regional representative sample of 36,943 girls under 18 years, this study explores the prevalence, pattern and infant mortality implications of this marriage type while also examining its regional variations. Indications from the study are that child marriage is still very high in the region with variations above one-tenth in West, Central and Southern Africa regions except in the East African region where only about 7% of children under 18 were already married. Preliminary findings also suggest that about one-in-ten infant deaths were to child brides many of whom were residing in poor households, rural residence, unemployed and have less than secondary education. Based on these findings, it is, therefore, important that government of African countries addresses critical issues through increased policies towards increasing enrollment of girl children in schools as many of these girls are not likely to have any economic benefit to the region if the observed pattern continues.

Keywords: child marriage, infant mortality, Africa, child brides

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Authors: Lacheheb Dhia Eddine Zakaria, Ballout Amor

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Today, it is necessary to be thrifty for its planet, on one hand the space being a rare, nonrenewable resource, and on the other hand the ecological, economic and social cost of the urban sprawl. It is commonly asserted that the promotion of a more compact and dense city has a positive effect in terms of public costs of investment, functioning and costs for the citizens and the users of the city. It is clear that the modes urban development management have to evolve profoundly, in particular towards a densification favourable to the raising of the urban quality through an ideal urban density on the scale of the individual housing estate. The lot as an individual housing estate was adopted as an alternative development model to the collective housing, thought in an anthropocentric perspective to emerge as a quality model where the density plays an important role, by being included in operations of a global coherence, in an optimal organization without forgetting the main importance of the deadlines of construction and the finalization of the works. The image of eternal construction site inflicted to our cities explains the renewed interest for the application of the regulatory framework and the completion of these limited operations without global coherence, which are summed up in our case to a ground cut in plots of land, sold then built independently without being finished, and support the relevance of the essential question of the improvement of the outside aspect bound to the appearance which can be revealed as a so important factor for a better use and a better acceptance of its housing environment, that the ratio of a number of houses on a plot of land or the number of square meters by house. To demonstrate the impact of the completion degree of the subdivision dwellings, roads system and urban public utilities on the density or the densification and therefore on the urban quality, we studied two residential subdivisions, the private subdivision Sellam and the subdivision El Imane with a common situation, and a different land surface, density and cutting, being occupied by various social classes, with different needs and different household average size. The approach of this work is based on the typo morphological analysis to reveal the differences in the degrees of completions of the subdivision’s built environment and on the investigation, by a household’s survey, to demonstrate importance of the degree of completion and to reveal the conditions of qualitative densification favourable and convenient to a better subdivision’s appropriation.

Keywords: subdivision, degree of completion, densification, urban quality

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Authors: Arsany Philip Fawzy

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This study is going to address the hurdles of project management in the joinery field. It is widely divided into two sections; the first one will shed light on how to execute large-scale projects with a specific focus on the middle east region. It will also raise major obstacles that may face the joinery team from the site clearance and the coordination between the joinery team and the construction team. The second section is going to technically analyze the commercial side of the joinery and how to control the main cost of the project to avoid financial problems. It will also suggest empirical solutions to monitor the cost impact (e.g., Variation of contract quantity and claims).

Keywords: clearance, quality, cost, variation, claim

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Authors: N. R. Harris, J. Curry

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This paper describes the construction and operation of an experimental LoRaWAN network surrounding the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Following successful installation, an experimental node design is built and characterised, with particular emphasis on radio range. Several configurations are investigated, including different data rates, and varying heights of node. It is concluded that although range can be great (over 8 km in this case), environmental topology is critical. However, shorter range implementations, up to about 2 km in an urban environment, are relatively insensitive although care is still needed. The example node and the relatively simple base station reported demonstrate that LoraWan can be a very low cost and practical solution to Internet of Things type applications for distributed monitoring systems with sensors spread over distances of several km.

Keywords: long-range, wireless, sensor, network

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Authors: Emma Serwaa Obobisa

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Urbanization has become the focus for challenging goals relating to environmental performance, such as carbon neutrality. Green technological innovation and clean energy are considered the prominent factors in reducing emissions and achieving sustainable cities. Through the application of a fixed effect model, generalized method of moments, and quantile-on-quantile regression, this study explores the role of green technology innovation and clean energy in accelerating the sustainable urban transition towards net zero emissions in developing countries while controlling for nonrenewable energy consumption, and economic growth. The long-run results show that green technology innovation and renewable energy consumption reduce CO₂ emissions from urban residential buildings. In contrast, economic growth and nonrenewable energy consumption increase CO₂ emissions. This study proposes a consistent technique for encouraging green technological innovation and renewable energy projects in developing countries where the role of innovation in achieving carbon neutrality is still understudied.

Keywords: green technology innovation, renewable energy, urbanization, net zero emissions

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Authors: Ashwini Bhosale, Yogesh Patil

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Urban areas are extremely complicated environmental settings, where health and well-being of an individual and population are governed by a large number of bio-physical, socio-economical, and inclusive aspects. Although poverty and slums are the prime issues under UN-HABITAT agenda of environmental sustainability, slums, the inevitable part of urban environment, have not accounted for inclusive city planning. Developing nations, where about 60 % of world slum population resides, are increasingly under pressure to uplift the urban poor, particularly slum dwellers. From a point of advantage, these new slum redevelopment projects have succeeded in providing legitimized and more permanent and stable shelter for the low income people, as well as individualized sanitation and water supply. However, they unfortunately follow the “one type fits all" approach and exhibit no response to the climatic design needs on Mumbai. The thesis focuses on the study of environmental perspectives in the context of Daylight, natural ventilation and social aspects in the design process of Slum-Rehabilitation schemes (SRS) – case of Mumbai. It attempts to investigate into Indian approaches about SRS and concludes upon strategies to be incorporated in SRS to improve the overall SRS environment. The main objectives of this work have been to identify and study the spatial configuration and possibilities of daylight and natural ventilation in Slum Rehabilitated buildings. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated by comparison with the daylight luminance simulated by lighting software, namely ECOTECT, and with measurements under real skies whereas for the ventilation study purpose, software named FLOW DESIGN was used.

Keywords: urban environment, slum-rehabilitation, daylight, natural-ventilation, architectural consequences

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Authors: Benedict O. Muyale, Emmanuel S. Murunga

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Cities have always been the loci for nationals as well as growth of cultural fusion and innovation. Over 50%of global population dwells in cities and urban centers. This means that cities are prolific users of natural resources and generators of waste; hence they produce most of the greenhouse gases which are causing global climate change. The root cause of increase in the transport sector carbon curve is mainly the greater numbers of individually owned cars. Development in these cities is geared towards economic progress while environmental sustainability is ignored. Infrastructure projects focus on road expansion, electrification, and more parking spaces. These lead to more carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and air pollution. Recent development plans for Nairobi city are now on road expansion with little priority for electric train solutions. The Vision 2030, Kenya’s development guide, has shed some light on the city with numerous road expansion projects. This chapter seeks to realize the following objectives; (1) to assess the current transport situation of Nairobi; (2) to review green transport solutions being undertaken in the city; (3) to give an overview of alternative green transportation solutions, and (4) to provide a green transportation framework matrix. This preliminary study will utilize primary and secondary data through mainly desktop research and analysis, literature, books, magazines and on-line information. This forms the basis for formulation of approaches for incorporation into the green transportation framework matrix of the main study report.The main goal is the achievement of a practical green transportation system for implementation by the City County of Nairobi to reduce carbon emissions and congestion and promote environmental sustainability.

Keywords: cities, transport, Nairobi, green technologies

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Authors: Djelloul Chafia, Demagh Rafik, Kareche Toufik

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Human activities, made without precautions, accelerate the degradation of the soil structure and reduces its resistance. Operations, such as tunnel construction may exercise an influence more or less permanent on the grounds which surrounded them, these structures alter soil it is necessary to predict their impacts by suitable measures. This research is a numerical analysis that deals the risks and effects due to the weakening of the soil after digging two parallel vertical circular tunnels in urban areas, and suggests forecasting techniques based essentially on the organization of underground space. The simulations are performed using the finite-difference code FLAC in a two-dimensional case and with an elasto-plastic behavior of the soil.

Keywords: sol, weakening, degradation, prevention, tunnel

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Authors: Soma Chatterjee, I. Das

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In the present study, we have investigated the structural, electrical and magneto-transport properties of polycrystalline and nanocrystalline Gd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 compounds. The variation of transport properties is modified by tuning the grain size of the material. In the high-temperature semiconducting region, temperature-dependent resistivity data can be well explained by the non-adiabatic small polaron hopping (SPH) mechanism. In addition, the resistivity data for all compounds in the low-temperature paramagnetic region can also be well explained by the variable range hopping (VRH) model. The parameters obtained from SPH and VRH mechanisms are found to be reasonable. In the case of nanocrystalline compounds, there is an overlapping temperature range where both SPH and VRH models are valid simultaneously, and a new conduction mechanism - variable range hopping of small polaron s(VR-SPH) is satisfactorily valid for the whole temperature range of these compounds. However, for the polycrystalline compound, the overlapping temperature region between VRH and SPH models does not exist and the VR-SPH mechanism is not valid here. Thus, polarons play a leading role in selecting different conduction mechanisms in different temperature ranges.

Keywords: electrical resistivity, manganite, small polaron hopping, variable range hopping, variable range of small polaron hopping

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Authors: Shanna Swart, Caryn Fenner, Athanasios Kotsiopoulos, Susan Harrison

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Linear alkanes are produced as by-products from the increasing use of gas-to-liquid fuel technologies for synthetic fuel production and offer great potential for value addition. Their current use as low-value fuels and solvents do not maximize this potential. Therefore, attention has been drawn towards direct activation of these aliphatic alkanes to more useful products such as alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids and derivatives. Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) can be used for activation of these aliphatic alkanes using whole-cells or cell-free systems. Some limitations of whole-cell systems include reduced mass transfer, stability and possible side reactions. Since the P450 systems are little studied as cell-free systems, they form the focus of this study. Challenges of a cell-free system include co-factor regeneration, substrate availability and enzyme stability. Enzyme immobilization offers a positive outlook on this dilemma, as it may enhance stability of the enzyme. In the present study, 2 different P450s (CYP153A6 and CYP102A1) as well as the relevant accessory enzymes required for electron transfer (ferredoxin and ferredoxin reductase) and co-factor regeneration (glucose dehydrogenase) have been expressed in E. coli and purified by metal affinity chromatography. Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH), was used as a model enzyme to assess the potential of various enzyme immobilization strategies including; surface attachment on MagReSyn® microspheres with various functionalities and on electrospun nanofibers, using self-assembly based methods forming Cross Linked Enzymes (CLE), Cross Linked Enzyme Aggregates (CLEAs) and spherezymes as well as in a sol gel. The nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning, which required the building of an electrospinning machine. The nanofiber morphology has been analyzed by SEM and binding will be further verified by FT-IR. Covalent attachment based methods showed limitations where only ferredoxin reductase and GDH retained activity after immobilization which were largely attributed to insufficient electron transfer and inactivation caused by the crosslinkers (60% and 90% relative activity loss for the free enzyme when using 0.5% glutaraldehyde and glutaraldehyde/ethylenediamine (1:1 v/v), respectively). So far, initial experiments with GDH have shown the most potential when immobilized via their His-tag onto the surface of MagReSyn® microspheres functionalized with Ni-NTA. It was found that Crude GDH could be simultaneously purified and immobilized with sufficient activity retention. Immobilized pure and crude GDH could be recycled 9 and 10 times, respectively, with approximately 10% activity remaining. The immobilized GDH was also more stable than the free enzyme after storage for 14 days at 4˚C. This immobilization strategy will also be applied to the P450s and optimized with regards to enzyme loading and immobilization time, as well as characterized and compared with the free enzymes. It is anticipated that the proposed immobilization set-up will offer enhanced enzyme stability (as well as reusability and easy recovery), minimal mass transfer limitation, with continuous co-factor regeneration and minimal enzyme leaching. All of which provide a positive outlook on this robust multi-enzyme system for efficient activation of linear alkanes as well as the potential for immobilization of various multiple enzymes, including multimeric enzymes for different bio-catalytic applications beyond alkane activation.

Keywords: alkane activation, cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, enzyme catalysis, enzyme immobilization

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Authors: Isma Benmazouz, Bálint Joszef Nagy, Bence Bálacs, Gábor Kardos, László Kővér

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Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are among the major nosocomial threats, which have a potential for zoonotic transmission due to the ubiquity of enterococci in the environment and in animal microbiota, e.g., wild birds. . In order to assess the prevalence in an urbanized bird species, 221 fecal samples were collected from Hooded crows (Corvus cornix) in 2020. Fecal samples were screened using VRE agar plates. None of the samples yielded VRE. The absence of VRE isolates in sampled urban hooded crows indicates that crows residing in the city do not necessarily constitute a reservoir of VREs.

Keywords: resistance, crows, Enterococci, wild birds

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Hala Obeid

Abstract:

Among the cities that have been touched by hard events and have been experiencing this polemic of existence, one can quote Beirut. A city that defies and confronts itself for its own existence. Beirut materialized all the social complexity; it has also preserved the memory of a society that has been able to build and reflect a certain unique identity. In spite of its glory, Lebanon’s civil war has marked a turning point in Beirut’s history. It has caused many deaths and opposed religious communities. Once this civil war has ended, the reconstruction of the city center, however, saw the spatial exclusion of manual labor, small local commerce, and middle-class residences. The urban functions that characterized the pre-war center were removed, and the city’s spontaneous evolutions were replaced by a historical urban planning, which neglected the city’s memory and identity. The social and spatial fragmentation that has erupted since the war has led to a breakdown of spatial and social boundaries within the city. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of fragmentation and boundaries on the city of Beirut in spatial, social, religious and ethnic terms. The method used in this research is what we call the mixed method which is a combination between the quantitative method and the qualitative one. These two approaches, in this case, do not oppose but complement each other in order to study the city of Beirut physically and socially. The main purpose of the qualitative approach is to describe and analyze the social phenomenon of the fragmentation of the city; this method can be summarized by the field observation and study. While the quantitative approach is based on filling out questionnaires that leads to statistics analyzes. Together, these two approaches will mark the course of the research. As a result, Beirut is not only a divided city but is fragmented spatially into many fragments and socially into many groups. This fragmentation is creating immaterial boundaries between fragments and therefore between groups. These urban and social boundaries are specifically religious and ethnic limits. As a conclusion, one of the most important and discussed boundary in Beirut is a spatial and religious boundary called ‘the green line’ or the demarcation line, a true caesura within the city. It marks the opposition of two urban groups and the aggravated fragmentation between them. This line divided Beirut into two compartments: East Beirut (for Christians) and West Beirut (for Muslims). This green line has become an urban void that holds the past in suspension. Finally, to think of Beirut as an urban unit becomes an insoluble problem.

Keywords: Beirut, boundaries, fragmentation, identity

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Deeksha Chauhan, Kamal Jain

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Pollutant concentration is high in near-road environments, and vegetation is an effective measure to mitigate urban air quality problems. This paper presents the influence of roadside green infrastructure in dispersion and Deposition of Particulate matter (PM) by the ENVI-met Simulations. Six green infrastructure configurations were specified (i) hedges only, (ii) trees only, (iii) a mix of trees and shrubs (iv) green barrier (v) green wall, and (vi) no tree buffer were placed on both sides of the road. The changes in concentrations at all six scenarios were estimated to identify the best barrier to reduce the dispersion and deposition of PM10 and PM2.5 in an urban environment.

Keywords: barrier, concentration, dispersion, deposition, Particulate matter, pollutant

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Sabyasachi Behera, Shiv Kumar, Pramod Gautam, Anisur Rahman, Pawan Pathak, Rahul Bhadouria

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Background: The increasing proportion of population especially urban poor and vulnerable groups or groups with specific needs, with health indicators worse than their rural counterparts in India face various issues related with availability and quality of health care. The reasons are myriad, starting from information and awareness of the community, especially, in a scenario wherein the needs and challenges of floating and migrant urban populations remain poorly understood. Weak linkages between health care facilities and slum dwellers and vulnerable populations hinder the improvement of health services for urban poor. Method: To address this issue, TCIHC program is helping health department of Indore city of Madhya Pradesh to establish a referral mechanism with a dual approach: at both community and facility level. The former is based on the premise of ‘building social capital’, i.e. norms and networks within a community facilitating collective action, helps improve the demand and supply of health services at appropriate levels of care (Minus 2: Accredited Social Health Activist and Community Health Groups; Minus 1: Urban Health Nutrition Days; Zero: Urban Primary Health Center; Plus 1: secondary facility with BEmONC services; Plus 2: secondary facilities with CEmONC services; Plus 3: tertiary level facility) for the urban poor. The latter focuses on encouraging the provision of all services at various levels of service delivery points and stakeholders to function in a coordinated manner to ensure better health service availability and coverage in underserved slum areas. Results: This initiative has enhanced the utilization of community based, primary and secondary level services through defined referral pathways that are clearly known to a community dweller. Conclusion: An ideal referral mechanism should begin with referral at the community level wherein services of a frontline health care provider are accessed by them at their door-step, causing no delay in both understanding and decision on the health issues faced by them.

Keywords: levels of care, linkages, referral mechanism, service delivery

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Haruna Abdu Usman, J. Mohammed Umar, U. M. Bashir

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Solid waste management continued to be the biggest threat to the sustainability of urban centers of developing countries. Most streets corners of these urban centers are characterized by heaps of uncollected wastes at drains, public spaces and road sides destroying the aesthetic qualities and environmental ecosystems of these cities. Also, harboring disease vectors and rodents putting the health of the populace at risk, thus posing a serious challenge to the municipalities who are in most cases responsible for the solid waste management in these cities. The typical or commonest method adapted by these agencies in dealing with the solid waste management is the conventional approach; focusing mainly on waste collection ,treatment(composting and incineration)and disposal giving little consideration to the 3RS, of waste reduce, re-used and recycled. The resultant consequence being huge budget spending in solid waste management as high as 80% but little collection rate as low as 50%. This paper attempt to analyze the impacts and effects of the conventional solid waste management practices on the stakeholders in solid waste management; the municipal authorities, the communities, formal and informal waste managers, the NGOs and CBOs and suggests appropriate measures that would lessen the effects.

Keywords: conventional waste management, solid waste, waste stakeholders, developing countries

Procedia PDF Downloads 435