Search results for: natural space

Authors: Hakim Aguedal, Abdelkader Iddou, Abdallah Aziz, Djillali Reda Merouani, Ferhat Bensaleh, Saleh Bensadek

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The textile industry produces high amount of colored effluent each year. The management or treatment of these discharges depends on the applied techniques. Adsorption is one of wastewater treatment techniques destined to treat this kind of pollution, and the performance and efficiency predominantly depend on the nature of the adsorbent used. Therefore, scientific research is directed towards the development of new materials using different physical and chemical treatments to improve their adsorption capacities. In the same perspective, we looked at the effect of the heat treatment on the effectiveness of diatomite, which is found in abundance in Algeria. The textile dye Orange Bezaktiv (SRL-150) which is used as organic pollutants in this study is provided by the textile company SOITEXHAM in Oran city (west Algeria). The effect of different physicochemical parameters on the adsorption of SRL-150 on natural and modified diatomite is studied, and the results of the kinetics and adsorption isotherms were modeled.

Keywords: wastewater treatment, diatomite, adsorption, dye pollution, kinetic, isotherm

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Authors: Mateusz Meserszmit, Mariusz Chrabąszcz, Adriana Trojanowska-Olichwer, Zygmunt Kącki

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Semi-natural meadows are valuable communities from the point of view of biodiversity, but their survival is strongly related to human activity. Unfortunately, the current status of preservation of extensively used meadows in Europe is frequently assessed as “unfavorable”. This is due to agricultural activity, in particular the lack of appropriate conservation procedures such as the cutting of meadows or livestock grazing. However, for more effective protective measures, the preservation of the biological diversity of meadows requires an interdisciplinary approach from both scientists and practitioners from many fields. Our research aimed to present the possibility of conservation of semi-natural meadows using cut biomass for the production of bioenergy – biogas, taking into consideration the botanical characteristics of the studied habitat and the chemical properties of biomass. A field study was conducted in Poland, within an area covered by the European Union's nature conservation programme. The samples were collected on four dates (May 24th, July 1st, July 23rd, and September 1st) from a study site established within a Molinion meadow. The biomass collected at the earliest date mostly consisted of plants with flowers in bud or fully open flowers. At the later harvest dates, most plants were at the fruiting or seed shed stage. An earlier stage of plant growth contributed to a lower biomass yield, which also resulted in a lower methane yield per hectare. The methane yield per hectare was at the end of May 482 m3 CH4 ha-1, at the beginning of July 867 m3 CH4 ha-1, at the end of July 759 m3 CH4 ha-1 and at the beginning of September 730 m3 CH4 ha-1. The biomass harvested in May demonstrated a significantly higher content of the elements: N, P, and K, but a lower Ca content compared to later harvested biomass, which may affect the biogas production process. The use of hay as a source of renewable energy can become an important element of conservation adapted for this type of habitat.

Keywords: nature conservation, biomass, bioenergy, grassland

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Authors: Ankur Gupta, Jayant Raj Saurav, Shantanu Bhattacharya

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In this work we report an effective water filtration system based on the photo catalytic performance of semiconducting dense nano-brushes under natural sunlight. During thin-film photocatalysis usually performed by a deposited layer of photocatalyst, a stagnant boundary layer is created near the catalyst which adversely affects the rate of adsorption because of diffusional restrictions. One strategy that may be used is to disrupt this laminar boundary layer by creating a super dense nanostructure near the surface of the catalyst. Further it is adequate to fabricate a structured filter element for a through pass of the water with as grown nanostructures coming out of the surface of such an element. So, the dye remediation is performed through solar means. This remediation was initially limited to lower efficiency because of diffusional restrictions but has now turned around as a fast process owing to the development of the filter materials with standing out dense nanostructures. The effect of increased surface area due to microholes on fraction adsorbed is also investigated and found that there is an optimum value of hole diameter for maximum adsorption.

Keywords: nano materials, photocatalysis, waste water treatment, water remediation

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, E. Bafa, C. Fassoulas, M. Panoutsopoulou

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The role of volunteers in disaster management is of decisive importance and the need of their involvement is well recognized, both for prevention measures and for disaster management. During major catastrophes, whereas professional personnel are outsourced, the role of volunteers is crucial. In Greece experience has shown that various groups operating in the civil protection mechanism like local administration staff or volunteers, in many cases do not have the necessary knowledge and information on best practices to act against natural disasters. One of the major problems is the lack of volunteers’ education and training. In the above given framework, this paper presents the results of a survey aimed to identify the level of education and preparedness of civil protection volunteers in Greece. Furthermore, the implementation of earthquake protection measures at individual, family and working level, are explored. More specifically, the survey questionnaire investigates issues regarding pre-earthquake protection actions, appropriate attitudes and behaviors during an earthquake and existence of contingency plans in the workplace. The questionnaires were administered to citizens from different regions of the country and who attend the civil protection training program: “Protect Myself and Others”. A closed-form questionnaire was developed for the survey, which contained questions regarding the following: a) knowledge of self-protective actions; b) existence of emergency planning at home; c) existence of emergency planning at workplace (hazard mitigation actions, evacuation plan, and performance of drills); and, d) respondents` perception about their level of earthquake preparedness. The results revealed a serious lack of knowledge and preparedness among respondents. Taking into consideration the aforementioned gap and in order to raise awareness and improve preparedness and effective response of volunteers acting in civil protection, the EVANDE project was submitted and approved by the European Commission (EC). The aim of that project is to educate and train civil protection volunteers on the most serious natural disasters, such as forest fires, floods, and earthquakes, and thus, increase their performance.

Keywords: civil protection, earthquake, preparedness, volunteers

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Authors: Boris M. Popović, Tatjana Jurić, Bojana Blagojević, Denis Uka, Ružica Ždero Pavlović

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Green solvents are environmentally friendly and greatly improve the sustainability of chemical processes. There is a growing interest in the green extraction of polyphenols from fruits. In this study, we consider three Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) systems based on choline chloride as a hydrogen bond acceptor and malic acid, urea, and fructose as hydrogen bond donors. NADES systems were prepared by heating and stirring, ultrasound, and microwave (MW) methods. Sour cherry pomace was used as a natural source of polyphenols. Polyphenol extraction from cherry pomace was performed by ultrasound-assisted extraction and microwave-assisted extraction and compared with conventional heat and stirring method extraction. It was found that MW-assisted preparation of NADES was the fastest, requiring less than 30 s. Also, MW extraction of polyphenols was the most rapid, with less than 5 min necessary for the extract preparation. All three NADES systems were highly efficient for anthocyanin extraction, but the most efficient was the system with malic acid as a hydrogen bond donor (yield of anthocyanin content was enhanced by 62.33% after MW extraction with NADES compared with the conventional solvent).

Keywords: anthocyanins, green extraction, NADES, polyphenols

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Authors: Sharifullah Ahmed, Sarwar Jahan Md. Yasin

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Shallow foundations on unimproved soft natural soils can undergo a high consolidation and secondary settlement. For low and medium rise building projects on such soil condition, pile foundation may not be cost effective. In such cases an alternative to pile foundations may be shallow strip footings placed on a double layered improved soil system soil. The upper layer of this system is untreated or cement treated compacted sand and underlying layer is natural soft clay. This system will reduce the settlement to an allowable limit. The current research has been conducted with the settlement of a rigid plane-strain strip footing of 2.5 m width placed on the surface of a soil consisting of an untreated or cement treated sand layer overlying a bed of homogeneous soft clay. The settlement of the mentioned shallow foundation has been studied considering both cases with the thicknesses of the sand layer are 0.3 to 0.9 times the width of footing. The response of the clay layer is assumed as undrained for plastic loading stages and drained during consolidation stages. The response of the sand layer is drained during all loading stages. FEM analysis was done using PLAXIS 2D Version 8.0. A natural clay deposit of 15 m thickness and 18 m width has been modeled using Hardening Soil Model, Soft Soil Model, Soft Soil Creep Model, and upper improvement layer has been modeled using only Hardening Soil Model. The groundwater level is at the top level of the clay deposit that made the system fully saturated. Parametric study has been conducted to determine the effect of thickness, density, cementation of the sand mat and density, shear strength of the soft clay layer on the settlement of strip foundation under the uniformly distributed vertical load of varying value. A set of the chart has been established for designing shallow strip footing on the sand mat over thick, soft clay deposit through obtaining the particular thickness of sand mat for particular subsoil parameter to ensure no punching shear failure and no settlement beyond allowable level. Design guideline in the form of non-dimensional charts has been developed for footing pressure equivalent to medium-rise residential or commercial building foundation with strip footing on soft inorganic Normally Consolidated (NC) soil of Bangladesh having void ratio from 1.0 to 1.45.

Keywords: design charts, ground improvement, PLAXIS 2D, primary and secondary settlement, sand mat, soft clay

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Authors: Engin Eroğlu, Oktay Yıldız, Necmi Aksoy, Akif Keten, Mehmet Kıvanç Ak, Şeref Keskin, Elif Atmaca, Sertaç Kaya

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Nowadays, green spaces in urban areas are under threat and decreasing their percentages in the urban areas because of increasing population, urbanization, migration, and some cultural changes in quality. An important element of the natural landscape water and water-related natural ecosystems are exposed to corruption due to these pressures. A landscape has owned many different types of elements or units, a more dominant structure than other landscapes as good or bad perceptible extent different direction and variable reveals a unique structure and character of the landscape. Whereas landscapes deal with two main groups as urban and rural according to their location on the world, especially intersection areas of urban and rural named semi-urban or semi-rural present variety landscape features. The main components of the landscape are defined as patch-matrix-corridor. The corridors include quite various vegetation types such as riparian, wetland and the others. In urban areas, natural water corridors are an important elements of the diversity of the riparian vegetation cover. In particular, water corridors attract attention with a natural diversity and lack of fragmentation, degradation and artificial results. Thanks to these features, without a doubt, water corridors are the important component of all cities in the world. These corridors not only divide the city into two separate sides, but also assured the ecological connectivity between the two sides of the city. The main objective of this study is to determine the vegetation and habitat features of urban stream corridor according to environmental interactions. Within this context, this study will be realized that 'Asar Suyu' is an important component of the city of Düzce. Moreover, the riparian zone touched contiguous area borders of the city and overlaid the urban development limits of the city, determining of characteristics of the corridor will be carried out as floristic and habitat analysis. Consequently, vegetation structure and habitat features which play an important role between riparian zone vegetation covers and environmental interaction will be determined. This study includes first results of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK-116O596; 'Determining of Landscape Character of Urban Water Corridors as Visual and Ecological; A Case Study of Asar Suyu in Duzce').

Keywords: corridor, Duzce, landscape ecology, riparian vegetation

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Authors: Taba Tath

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Arunachal Pradesh, located in the easternmost part of India, is known for its natural beauty and diverse tribal lifestyles. The state has the highest species richness and biological diversity among Northeast states in terms of flora, fauna, and tribal traditions and culture. The protection of nature and culture is a practice that is widely used by governments or nongovernmental organizations seeking to preserve the scenic beauty of landscapes and their natural resources in spaces that stand out for their natural and cultural value and have not been heavily impacted by human activity. The whole of Arunachal Pradesh comes under the purview of special permits such as the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and Protected Area Permit (PAP) for domestic and foreign travellers, respectively. Due to politically vibrant areas and naturally fragile in nature, the state needs to be protected, but at the same time, the demand for tourism activities is increasing gradually due to its unique blend of nature and socio-cultural richness. There are 13 protected areas in the state which is unexplored, and there are no tourism activities in these protected areas except for Namdapha National Park. Out of 13 protected areas, the Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the well-managed protected areas located near the Assam-Arunachal border, approximately 40km away from Tezpur town, Assam. The state has great potential for wildlife and nature-based tourism development, which can also indirectly support wildlife and nature-based livelihood options for the local inhabitants living in the peripheral of the sanctuary area due to its high richness in terms of flora and fauna. To promote the richness of the state, boost tourism, and the economic, social and environmental development of the area and local communities, a proper tourism management practice and framework are very much required. The research paper has made an attempt to study the role of stakeholders in preserving and promoting the Protected Areas for tourism development in a sustainable way. This is both a primary and secondary study conducted with field visits, interaction, questionnaire and observation with the various stakeholders and also conducted with the Government reports, magazines and other published sources available. Furthermore, this study will be relevant to all stakeholders for having knowledge and processes for promoting tourism in Protected Areas in a sustainable way. The results will provide relevant information and process for the management and promotion of the protected Areas and to strengthen the sustainable tourism activities in these areas.

Keywords: protected area, inner line permit, protected area permit, management, government, nongovernmental organization, stakeholders, sustainable, natural resources

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Authors: Darius Phiri, Moses Chibesa, Donald Zulu, Robby Kasubika

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In Zambia, wildlife is co-managed by Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and the local communities by sharing management responsibilities and benefits derived from harvesting wildlife resources under a benefit sharing mechanism. Although the benefit sharing mechanism has been formulated under good principles, it is still facing numerous challenges. In response to these challenges, a study on the sustainability of ZAWA benefit sharing mechanism was carried out in order to assess its potential and continuity in line with community empowerment and wildlife resources management. Systematic sampling was used with a sampling intensity of 4% to administer three types of questionnaires to community members in Mumbwa Game Management Area (GMA), ZAWA officers, and to the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources (MTENR) staffs. The collected data was then analysed using SPSS version 16.5. The findings indicated that many people in the GMA do not participate fully because of lacking satisfactory benefits. However, the mechanism contribute to the community well-being and can still remain sustainable especially if measures to address the current challenges are put in place.

Keywords: benefit sharing, concessions, licenses, poaching, local communities, sustainability

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Authors: Oliver Kinnane, Aidan Reilly, John Grimes, Sara Pavia, Rosanne Walker

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Unwanted sound reflection can create acoustic discomfort and lead to problems of speech comprehensibility. Contemporary building techniques enable highly finished internal walls resulting in sound reflective surfaces. In contrast, sustainable construction materials using natural and vegetal materials, are often more porous and absorptive. Hemp shiv is used as an aggregate and when mixed with lime binder creates a low-embodied-energy concrete. Cement replacements such as ground granulated blast slag (GGBS), a byproduct of other industrial processes, are viewed as more sustainable alternatives to high-embodied-energy cement. Hemp concretes exhibit good hygrothermal performance. This has focused much research attention on them as natural and sustainable low-energy alternatives to standard concretes. A less explored benefit is the acoustic absorption capability of hemp-based concretes. This work investigates hemp-lime-GGBS concrete specifically, and shows that it exhibits high levels of sound absorption.

Keywords: hemp, hempcrete, acoustic absorption, GGBS

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Authors: María Araya Léon, Ainoa Abella, Aura Murillo, Ricardo Guasch, Laura Clèries

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Objectives: This article aims to examine scientific theory framed within the term hospitals of the future from a multidisciplinary and cross-sectional perspective. To understand the connection that the various cross-sectional areas we studied have with architectural spaces and to determine the future outlook of the works examined and how they can be classified into the categories of need/solution, evolution/revolution, collective/individual, and preventive/corrective. Background: The changes currently taking place within the context of healthcare demonstrate how important these projects are and the need for companies to face future changes. Method: A systematic review has been carried out focused on what will the hospitals of the future be like in relation to the elements that form part of their use, design, and architectural space experience, using the WOS database from 2016 to 2019. Results: The large number of works about sensoring & big data and the scarce amount related to the area of materials is worth highlighting. Furthermore, no growth concerning future issues is envisaged over time. Regarding classifications, the articles we reviewed address evolutionary and collective solutions more, and in terms of preventive and corrective solutions, they were found at a similar level. Conclusions: Although our research focused on the future of hospitals, there is little evidence representing this approach. We also detected that, given the relevance of the research on how the built environment influences human health and well-being, these studies should be promoted within the context of healthcare.

Keywords: hospitals, future, architectural space, disruptive approach

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Authors: Ali Oveysi Sarabi

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The dimensions of nanostructures are in the range of inter-atomic spacing of the structures which makes them impossible to be modeled as a continuum. Nanoscale size-effects on vibration analysis of nanobeams embedded in an elastic medium is investigated using different types of beam theory. To this end, Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity is incorporated to various beam theories namely as Euler-Bernoulli beam theory (EBT), Timoshenko beam theory (TBT), Reddy beam theory (RBT), and Levinson beam theory (LBT). The surrounding elastic medium is simulated with both Winkler and Pasternak foundation models and the difference between them is studies. Explicit formulas are presented to obtain the natural frequencies of nanobeam corresponding to each nonlocal beam theory. Selected numerical results are given for different values of the non-local parameter, Winkler modulus parameter, Pasternak modulus parameter and aspect ratio of the beam that imply the effects of them, separately. It is observed that the values of natural frequency are strongly dependent on the stiffness of elastic medium and the value of the non-local parameter and these dependencies varies with the value of aspect ratio and mode number.

Keywords: nanobeams, free vibration, nonlocal elasticity, winkler foundation model, Pasternak foundation model, beam theories

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Authors: Ya-Ting Chuang, Krystle Leung, Ya-Jen Chang, Rosemarie H. DeKruyff, Paul B. Savage, Richard Cruse, Christophe Benoit, Dirk Elewaut, Nicole Baumgarth, Dale T. Umetsu

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We examined characteristics of a Natural Killer T (NKT) cell subpopulation that developed during influenza infection in neonatal mice, and that suppressed the subsequent development of allergic asthma in a mouse model. This NKT cell subset expressed CD38 but not CD4, produced IFN-γ, but not IL-17, IL-4 or IL-13, and inhibited the development of airway hyperreactivity (AHR) through contact-dependent suppressive activity against helper CD4 T cells. The NKT subset expanded in the lungs of neonatal mice after infection with influenza, but also after treatment of neonatal mice with a Th1-biasing α-GalCer glycolipid analogue, Nu-α-GalCer. These results suggest that early/neonatal exposure to infection or to antigenic challenge can affect subsequent lung immunity by altering the profile of cells residing in the lung and that some subsets of NKT cells can have direct inhibitory activity against CD4+ T cells in allergic asthma. Importantly, our results also suggest a potential therapy for young children that might provide protection against the development of asthma.

Keywords: NKT subset, asthma, airway hyperreactivity, hygiene hypothesis, influenza

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Authors: Qi Liu, Jiqin Yao, Xiaohu Zhou, Bo Zheng

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The first artificial cell was produced by Thomas Chang in the 1950s when he was trying to make a mimic of red blood cells. Since then, many different types of artificial cells have been constructed from one of the two approaches: a so-called bottom-up approach, which aims to create a cell from scratch, and a top-down approach, in which genes are sequentially knocked out from organisms until only the minimal genome required for sustaining life remains. In this project, bottom-up approach was used to build a new cell-free expression system which mimics artificial cell that capable of protein expression and communicate with each other. The artificial cells constructed from the bottom-up approach are usually lipid vesicles, polymersomes, hydrogels or aqueous droplets containing the nucleic acids and transcription-translation machinery. However, lipid vesicles based artificial cells capable of communication present several issues in the cell communication research: (1) The lipid vesicles normally lose the important functions such as protein expression within a few hours. (2) The lipid membrane allows the permeation of only small molecules and limits the types of molecules that can be sensed and released to the surrounding environment for chemical communication; (3) The lipid vesicles are prone to rupture due to the imbalance of the osmotic pressure. To address these issues, the hydrogel-based artificial cells were constructed in this work. To construct the artificial cell, polyacrylamide hydrogel was functionalized with Acrylate PEG Succinimidyl Carboxymethyl Ester (ACLT-PEG2000-SCM) moiety on the polymer backbone. The proteinaceous factors can then be immobilized on the polymer backbone by the reaction between primary amines of proteins and N-hydroxysuccinimide esters (NHS esters) of ACLT-PEG2000-SCM, the plasmid template and ribosome were encapsulated inside the hydrogel particles. Because the artificial cell could continuously express protein with the supply of nutrients and energy, the artificial cell-artificial cell communication and artificial cell-natural cell communication could be achieved by combining the artificial cell vector with designed plasmids. The plasmids were designed referring to the quorum sensing (QS) system of bacteria, which largely relied on cognate acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) / transcription pairs. In one communication pair, “sender” is the artificial cell or natural cell that can produce AHL signal molecule by synthesizing the corresponding signal synthase that catalyzed the conversion of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) into AHL, while the “receiver” is the artificial cell or natural cell that can sense the quorum sensing signaling molecule form “sender” and in turn express the gene of interest. In the experiment, GFP was first immobilized inside the hydrogel particle to prove that the functionalized hydrogel particles could be used for protein binding. After that, the successful communication between artificial cell-artificial cell and artificial cell-natural cell was demonstrated, the successful signal between artificial cell-artificial cell or artificial cell-natural cell could be observed by recording the fluorescence signal increase. The hydrogel-based artificial cell designed in this work can help to study the complex communication system in bacteria, it can also be further developed for therapeutic applications.

Keywords: artificial cell, cell-free system, gene circuit, synthetic biology

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Authors: Parvin Abedi, Poorandokht Afshari

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Introduction: In 2022, the Youth Law of the Population was notified to all organizations, including the Iranian Ministry of Health. Some of the articles of this law are about the role of midwives in health and treatment to promote childbearing. In this regard, articles number 45, 48, 49, and 50 are related to midwifery work that will be reviewed in this article. Methods: In this review, the law of population youth was reviewed. In this regard, the statistics of midwives working in the treatment and health sector were collected and analyzed according to the population youth law. Results: Nearly 47 000 midwives are working in the public and private sectors of the country and in the healthcare sector; according to Article 49, which states that there should be one midwife for every two parturient women, about 12,000 midwives are needed in the treatment department and about 8,000 midwives are needed in the health department. In Article 50 it is mentioned to modify tariffs and efficiency in order to increase natural childbirth, and in this field, insurance organizations should have sufficient cooperation with payments. The tariff for midwifery services has been increased, but it is not enough for the stressful job of midwifery. The labor incentive for delivery by midwives is also low. Conclusion: Midwives are one of the fundamental pillars of the law of the population, and without increasing the motivation of midwives, it is not possible to increase the rate of natural childbirth and make childbirth pleasant.

Keywords: law of the population, midwife, motivation, childbearing

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Authors: K. Nasir, S. Ahmad, A. Khan, H. Benkreira

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The topic of the research is to develop sustainable fire-resistant materials for vibration and acoustic damping of structure and airborne noises from sustainable recycled materials and biodegradable binders. The paper reports, methods and techniques of enhancing fire resistive, vibration and acoustic properties of building insulation materials made from natural resources like wood and recycled materials like rubber and textile waste. The structures are designed to optimize the number, size and stratification of closed (heat insulating) and open (noise insulating) pores. The samples produced are tested for their heat and noise insulating properties, including vibration damping and their structural properties (airflow resistivity, porosity, tortuosity and elastic modulus). The structural properties are then used in theoretical models to check the acoustic insulation measurements. Initial data indicate that one layer of such material can yield as much as 18 times more damping, increasing the loss factor by 18%.

Keywords: fire resistant, vibration damping, acoustic material, vibro-acoustic, thermal insulation, sustainable material, low cost materials, recycled materials, construction material

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Authors: T. Toathom, M. Munlin, P. Sugunnasil

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The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the best-known problems in optimization problem. There are many research regarding the TSP. One of the most usage tool for this problem is the genetic algorithm (GA). The chromosome of the GA for TSP is normally encoded by the order of the visited city. However, the traditional chromosome encoding scheme has some limitations which are twofold: the large solution space and the inability to encapsulate some information. The number of solution for a certain problem is exponentially grow by the number of city. Moreover, the traditional chromosome encoding scheme fails to recognize the misplaced correct relation. It implies that the tradition method focuses only on exact solution. In this work, we relax some of the concept in the GA for TSP which is the exactness of the solution. The proposed work exploits the relation between cities in order to reduce the solution space in the chromosome encoding. In this paper, a second order GA is proposed to solve the TSP. The term second order refers to how the solution is encoded into chromosome. The chromosome is divided into 2 types: the high order chromosome and the low order chromosome. The high order chromosome is the chromosome that focus on the relation between cities such as the city A should be visited before city B. On the other hand, the low order chromosome is a type of chromosome that is derived from a high order chromosome. In other word, low order chromosome is encoded by the traditional chromosome encoding scheme. The genetic operation, mutation and crossover, will be performed on the high order chromosome. Then, the high order chromosome will be mapped to a group of low order chromosomes whose characteristics are satisfied with the high order chromosome. From the mapped set of chromosomes, the champion chromosome will be selected based on the fitness value which will be later used as a representative for the high order chromosome. The experiment is performed on the city data from TSPLIB.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, traveling salesman problem, initial population, chromosomes encoding

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Authors: Petra Gruber, Ariana Rupp, Peter Niewiarowski

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This paper presents a concept for a biomimetic fablab as a physical space for education, research and development of innovation inspired by nature. Biomimetics as a discipline finds increasing recognition in academia and has started to be institutionalized at universities in programs and centers. The Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center was founded in 2012 at the University of Akron as an interdisciplinary venture for the advancement of innovation inspired by nature and is part of a larger community fostering the approach of bioimimicry in the Great Lakes region of the US. With 30 faculty members the center has representatives from Colleges of Arts and Sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, geoscience, and philosophy) Engineering (e.g., mechanical, civil, and biomedical), Polymer Science, and Myers School of Arts. A platform for training PhDs in Biomimicry (17 students currently enrolled) is co-funded by educational institutions and industry partners. Research at the center touches on many areas but is also currently biased towards materials and structures, with highlights being materials based on principles found in spider silk and gecko attachment mechanisms. As biomimetics is also a novel scientific discipline, there is little standardisation in programming and the equipment of research facilities. As a field targeting innovation, design and prototyping processes are fundamental parts of the developments. For experimental design and prototyping, MIT's maker space concept seems to fit well to the requirements, but facilities need to be more specialised in terms of accessing biological systems and knowledge, specific research, production or conservation requirements. For the education and research facility BRIC we conceptualize the concept of a biomimicry fablab, that ties into the existing maker space concept and creates the setting for interdisciplinary research and development carried out in the program. The concept takes on the process of biomimetics as a guideline to define core activities that shall be enhanced by the allocation of specific spaces and tools. The limitations of such a facility and the intersections to further specialised labs housed in the classical departments are of special interest. As a preliminary proof of concept two biomimetic design courses carried out in 2016 are investigated in terms of needed tools and infrastructure. The spring course was a problem based biomimetic design challenge in collaboration with an innovation company interested in product design for assisted living and medical devices. The fall course was a solution based biomimetic design course focusing on order and hierarchy in nature with the goal of finding meaningful translations into art and technology. The paper describes the background of the BRIC center, identifies and discusses the process of biomimetics, evaluates the classical maker space concept and explores how these elements can shape the proposed research facility of a biomimetic fablab by examining two examples of design courses held in 2016.

Keywords: biomimetics, biomimicry, design, biomimetic fablab

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Authors: Farzaneh Tahmoorian, Bijan Samali, John Yeaman

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Road networks are expanding all over the world during the past few decades to meet the increasing freight volumes created by the population growth and industrial development. At the same time, the rate of generation of solid wastes in the society is increasing with the population growth, technological development, and changes in the lifestyle of people. Thus, the management of solid wastes has become an acute problem. Accordingly, there is a need for greater efficiency in the construction and maintenance of road networks, in reducing the overall cost, especially the utilization of natural materials such as aggregates. An efficient means to reduce construction and maintenance costs of road networks is to replace natural (virgin) materials by secondary, recycled materials. Recycling will also help to reduce pressure on landfills and demand for extraction of natural virgin materials thus ensuring sustainability. Application of solid wastes in asphalt layer reduces not only environmental issues associated with waste disposal but also the demand for virgin materials which will subsequently result in sustainability. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the feasibility of the application of some of the waste materials such as glass, construction and demolition wastes, etc. as alternative materials in pavement construction, particularly flexible pavements. To this end, various combination of different waste materials in certain percentages is considered in designing the asphalt mixture. One of the goals of this research is to determine the optimum percentage of all these materials in the mixture. This is done through a series of tests to evaluate the volumetric properties and resilient modulus of the mixture. The information and data collected from these tests are used to select the adequate samples for further assessment through advanced tests such as triaxial dynamic test and fatigue test, in order to investigate the asphalt mixture resistance to permanent deformation and also cracking. This paper presents the results of these investigations on the application of waste materials in asphalt mixture for production of a sustainable asphalt mix.

Keywords: asphalt, glass, pavement, recycled aggregate, sustainability

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Authors: Omid Adibi, Nategheh Najafpour, Bijan Farhanieh, Hossein Afshin

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Energy transmission pipelines are one of the most vital parts of each country which several strict laws have been conducted to enhance the safety of these lines and their vicinity. One of these laws is the safety distance around high pressure gas pipelines. Safety distance refers to the minimum distance from the pipeline where people and equipment do not confront with serious damages. In the present study, safety distance around high pressure gas transmission pipelines were determined by using numerical methods. For this purpose, gas leakages from cracked pipeline and created jet fires were simulated as continuous ignition, three dimensional, unsteady and turbulent cases. Numerical simulations were based on finite volume method and turbulence of flow was considered using k-ω SST model. Also, the combustion of natural gas and air mixture was applied using the eddy dissipation method. The results show that, due to the high pressure difference between pipeline and environment, flow chocks in the cracked area and velocity of the exhausted gas reaches to sound speed. Also, analysis of the incident radiation results shows that safety distances around 42 inches high pressure natural gas pipeline based on 5 and 15 kW/m² criteria are 205 and 272 meters, respectively.

Keywords: gas pipelines, incident radiation, numerical simulation, safety distance

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Authors: Sarmin, S., Ologuin, R.S.

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Background: Rapid population growth and land constraints in Singapore results in a possible situation in which we face a higher number of casualties and lack of operational space in healthcare facilities during disasters and HAZMAT events, collectively known as Civil Emergencies. This creates a need for available working space within hospital grounds to be amphibious or multi-functional, to ensure the institution’s capability to respond efficiently to Civil Emergencies. The Emergency Department (ED) mitigates this issue by converting the Ambulance Assembly Area used during peacetime into an Open Decontamination Facility (ODF) during Civil Emergency Response, for decontamination of casualties before they proceed to treatment areas into Ambulance Assembly Area used during peacetime. Aims: To effectively operationalize the Open Decontamination Facility (ODF) through the reduction of manual handling. Methods: From past experiences on Civil Emergency exercises, it was labor-intensive for staff to set up the Open Decontamination Facility (ODF). Manual handling to set up the Decontamination lanes by bringing down the curtains and supply of water was required to be turned on. Conclusion: The effectiveness of the design construction of an Open Decontamination Facility (ODF) is based on the use of automation of bringing down the curtains on the various lanes. The use of control panels for water supply to decontaminate patients. Safety within the ODF was considered with the installation of panic buttons, intercom for staff communication, and perimeter curtains were installed with stability arm to manage the condition with high wind velocity.

Keywords: civil emergencies, disaster, emergency department, Hazmat

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Authors: Tobias Schramm, Günther Prokop

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Degraded vehicle shock absorbers represent a risk for road safety. The exact effect of degraded vehicle dampers on road safety is still the subject of research. This work is intended to contribute to estimating the effect of degraded twin-tube dampers of passenger cars on road safety. An axle model was built using a damper model to simulate different degradation levels. To parameterize the model, a realistic parameter space was estimated based on test rig measurements and database analyses, which is intended to represent the vehicle field in Germany. Within the parameter space, simulations of the axle model were carried out, which calculated the transmittable lateral forces of the various axle configurations as a function of vehicle speed, road surface, damper conditions and axle parameters. A degraded damper has the greatest effect on the transmittable lateral forces at high speeds and in poor road conditions. If a vehicle is traveling at a speed of 100 kph on a Class D road, a degraded damper reduces the transmissible lateral forces of an axle by 20 % on average. For individual parameter configurations, this value can rise to 50 %. The axle parameters that most influence the effect of a degraded damper are the vertical stiffness of the tire, the unsprung mass and the stabilizer stiffness of the axle.

Keywords: vehicle dynamics, vehicle simulation, vehicle component degradation, shock absorber model, shock absorber degradation

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Authors: Isadora Bugarin, Taygoara F. de Oliveira

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Binary fluids and emulsions, in general, are present in a vast range of industrial, medical, and scientific applications, showing complex behaviors responsible for defining the flow dynamics and the system operation. However, the literature describing those highlighted fluids in non-isothermal models is currently still limited. The present work brings a detailed investigation on droplet migration due to natural convection in square enclosure, aiming to clarify the effects of drop viscosity on the flow dynamics by showing how distinct viscosity ratios (droplet/ambient fluid) influence the drop motion and the final movement pattern kept on stationary regimes. The analysis was taken by observing distinct combinations of Rayleigh number, drop initial position, and viscosity ratios. The Navier-Stokes and Energy equations were solved considering the Boussinesq approximation in a laminar flow using the finite differences method combined with the Level Set method for binary flow solution. Previous results collected by the authors showed that the Rayleigh number and the drop initial position affect drastically the motion pattern of the droplet. For Ra ≥ 10⁴, two very marked behaviors were observed accordingly with the initial position: the drop can travel either a helical path towards the center or a cyclic circular path resulting in a closed cycle on the stationary regime. The variation of viscosity ratio showed a significant alteration of pattern, exposing a large influence on the droplet path, capable of modifying the flow’s behavior. Analyses on viscosity effects on the flow’s unsteady Nusselt number were also performed. Among the relevant contributions proposed in this work is the potential use of the flow initial conditions as a mechanism to control the droplet migration inside the enclosure.

Keywords: binary fluids, droplet motion, level set method, natural convection, viscosity

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Authors: Dmitry Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina

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In review the generalized data about biosynthetic routs formation anthraquinone molecules in natural cells. The basic possibilities of various ways of biosynthesis of different quinoid substances are shown.

Keywords: anthraquinones, biochemical evolution, biosynthesis, metabolism

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Authors: Yahya Lavafpour, Steve Sharples

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This study investigated the potential negative impacts of future UK climate change on dwellings. In particular, the risk of overheating was considered for a Passivhaus dwelling in London. The study used dynamic simulation modelling software to investigate the potential use of building geometry to control current and future overheating risks in the dwelling for London climate. Specifically, the focus was on the optimum inclination of a south façade to make use of the building’s shape to self-protect itself. A range of different inclined façades were examined to test their effectiveness in reducing the overheating risk. The research found that implementing a 115° tilted façade could completely eliminate the risk of overheating in current climate, but with some consequence for natural ventilation and daylighting. Future overheating was significantly reduced by the tilted façade. However, geometric considerations could not eradicate completely the risk of overheating particularly by the 2080s. The study also used CFD modelling and sensitivity analysis to investigate the effect of the façade geometry on the wind pressure distributions on and around the building surface. This was done to assess natural ventilation flows for alternative façade inclinations.

Keywords: climate change, tilt façade, thermal comfort, passivhaus, overheating

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Authors: Maryam Heidari, James H. Jones Jr.

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Millions of online posts about different topics and products are shared on popular social media platforms. One use of this content is to provide crowd-sourced information about a specific topic, event or product. However, this use raises an important question: what percentage of information available through these services is trustworthy? In particular, might some of this information be generated by a machine, i.e., a bot, instead of a human? Bots can be, and often are, purposely designed to generate enough volume to skew an apparent trend or position on a topic, yet the consumer of such content cannot easily distinguish a bot post from a human post. In this paper, we introduce a model for social media bot detection which uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (Google Bert) for sentiment classification of tweets to identify topic-independent features. Our use of a Natural Language Processing approach to derive topic-independent features for our new bot detection model distinguishes this work from previous bot detection models. We achieve 94\% accuracy classifying the contents of data as generated by a bot or a human, where the most accurate prior work achieved accuracy of 92\%.

Keywords: bot detection, natural language processing, neural network, social media

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Authors: Dwi Retno Sri Ambarwati

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Recently, the traditional architecture were getting lost, replaced by modern architecture. The existence of many traditional houses often changing the function and change the values in an effort to adjust to the modern lifestyle, whereas the spiritual background of traditional architectural design is very specific and be the basis for consideration in the construction of the building, both in terms of determining the location of the building, the direction toward building, the spatial pattern and organization of space, zoning, hierarchical space, building form, ornamentation, the selection of building materials, and so on. The changes in function and form will transformed the spiritual values contained in it, because the architecture affects human behavior and reflects the culture. The traditional architecture views the architecture as a concept that has different tendencies in terms of orientation, shape, and attitude toward nature that tends to harmony with the social environment and local culture. The concept of the spirit of place made the architecture looks familiar, not arrogant and give a positive value to the surrounding environment. Every culture has a traditional architecture that full of spiritual values, although in the simplest form. Humans can learn about human values and local wisdom through the positive values that contained in traditional architecture, the desire to balance themselves with nature and the environment, not overbearing, strict adherence to the prevailing norms, openness in public life and intimacy family life that form a harmonious in life. The great and the wise value of traditional architecture should be revived in modern architecture that tends to ignore the spiritual values and more concerned with the functional and aesthetic pleasure, by combining the noble values of traditional architecture into modern architecture.

Keywords: architecture, combining noble values, local wisdom, traditional architecture

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Authors: Sophy Joseph

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The study uses the concept of ‘Settler city’ to understand the nature of peripheralization that a neoliberal city initiates. The settler city designs powerless communities without inherent rights, title and sovereignty. Kathputli Colony, home to generations of artists/craftsmen, who have kept heritage of arts/crafts alive, has undergone eviction of its population from urban space. The proposed study, ‘Neoliberal Settler City: Socio-spatial segregation and livelihood of artists/craftsmen in Delhi’ would problematize the settler city as a colonial technology. The colonial regime has ‘erased’ the ‘unwanted’ as primitive and swept them to peripheries in the city. This study would also highlight how structural change in political economy has undermined their crafts/arts by depriving them from practicing/performing it with dignity in urban space. The interconnections between citizenship and In-Situ Private Public Partnership in Kathputli rehabilitation has become part of academic exercise. However, a comprehensive study connecting inherent characteristics of neoliberal settler city, trajectory of political economy of unorganized workers - artists/craftsmen and legal containment and exclusion leading to dispossession and marginalization of communities from the city site, is relevant to contextualize the trauma of spatial segregation. This study would deal with political, cultural, social and economic dominant behavior of the structure in the state formation, accumulation of property and design of urban space, fueled by segregation of marginalized/unorganized communities and disowning the ‘footloose proletariat’, the migrant workforce. The methodology of study involves qualitative research amongst communities and the field work-oral testimonies and personal accounts- becomes the primary material to theorize the realities. The secondary materials in the forms of archival materials about historical evolution of Delhi as a planned city from various archives, would be used. As the study also adopt ‘narrative approach’ in qualitative study, the life experiences of craftsmen/artists as performers and emotional trauma of losing their livelihood and space forms an important record to understand the instability and insecurity that marginalization and development attributes on urban poor. The study attempts to prove that though there was a change in political tradition from colonialism to constitutional democracy, new state still follows the policy of segregation and dispossession of the communities. It is this dispossession from the space, deprivation of livelihood and non-consultative process in rehabilitation that reflects the neoliberal approach of the state and also critical findings in the study. This study would entail critical spatial lens analyzing ethnographic and sociological data, representational practices and development debates to understand ‘urban otherization’ against craftsmen/artists. This seeks to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the resistance of communities against primitivity attached with them and to decolonize the city. This would help to contextualize the demand for declaring Kathputli Colony as ‘heritage artists village’. The conceptualization and contextualization would help to argue for right to city of the communities, collective rights to property, services and self-determination. The aspirations of the communities also help to draw normative orientation towards decolonization. It is important to study this site as part of the framework, ‘inclusive cities’ because cities are rarely noted as important sites of ‘community struggles’.

Keywords: neoliberal settler city, socio-spatial segregation, the livelihood of artists/craftsmen, dispossession of indigenous communities, urban planning and cultural uprooting

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Authors: Adi Gielgun-Katz, Alina S. Rusu

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In the last two decades, education systems worldwide have integrated new pedagogical methods and strategies in lesson plans, such as innovative technologies, social-emotional learning (SEL), gamification, mixed learning, multiple literacies, and many others. Visual language, such as photographs, is known to transcend cultures and languages, and it is commonly used by youth to express positions and affective states in social networks. Therefore, visual language needs more educational attention as a linguistic and communicative component that can create connectedness among the students and their teachers. Nowadays, when SEL is gaining more and more space and meaning in the area of academic improvement in relation to social well-being, and taking and sharing pictures is part of the everyday life of the majority of people, it becomes natural to add the visual language to SEL approach as a reinforcement strategy for connecting education to the contemporary culture and language of the youth. This article presents a program conducted in a high school class in Israel, which combines the five SEL with photography techniques, i.e., Social-Emotional Learning Visual Empowerments (SELVEs) program (experimental group). Another class of students from the same institution represents the control group, which is participating in the SEL program without the photography component. The SEL component of the programs addresses skills such as: troubleshooting, uncertainty, personal strengths and collaboration, accepting others, control of impulses, communication, self-perception, and conflict resolution. The aim of the study is to examine the effects of programs on the level of the five SEL aspects in the two groups of high school students: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision Making, and Relationship Skills. The study presents a quantitative assessment of the SEL programs’ impact on the students. The main hypothesis is that the students’ questionnaires' analysis will reveal a better understanding and improvement of the five aspects of the SEL in the group of students involved in the photography-enhanced SEL program.

Keywords: social-emotional learning, photography, education program, adolescents

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Authors: Abdul Majid, Alia Jabeen, Nimra Zulifqar

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The inorganic molecular crystal (IMCs) due to their unusual structure has grabbed a lot of attention due to anisotropy in crystal structure. The IMCs consist of the molecular structures joined together via weak forces. Therefore, a difference between the bonding between the inter-cage and intra-cage interactions exists. To look closely at the bonding and interactions, we investigated interactions between two cages of Sb2O3 structure. The interactions were characterized via Extended Transition State-Natural Orbital for Chemical Valence-method (ETS-NOCV), Natural Bond Orbitals (NBO) and Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM). The results revealed strong intra-cage covalent bonding while weak van der Waals (vdWs) interactions along inter-cages exits. This structure cannot be termed as layered material although they have anisotropy in bonding and presence of weak vdWs interactions but its bulk is termed as inorganic layered clusters. This is due to the fact that the free standing sheet/films with these materials are not possible. This type of structures may be the most feasible to be used for the system to deal with high pressures and stress bearing materials.

Keywords: inorganic molecular crystals, density functional theory, cages, interactions

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