Search results for: long term evolution

Authors: D. S. Gurjar, R. Kaur, K. P. Singh, R. Singh

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A greater volume of wastewater generate from urban areas in India. Due to the adequate availability, less energy requirement and nutrient richness, farmers of urban and peri-urban areas are deliberately using wastewater to grow high value vegetable crops. Wastewater contains pathogens and toxic pollutants, which can enter in the food chain system while using wastewater for irrigating vegetable crops. Hence, wastewater can use for growing commercial flower crops that may avoid food chain contamination. Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) is one of the most important commercially grown, cultivated over 30, 000 ha area, flower crop in India. Its popularity is mainly due to the sweet fragrance as well as the long keeping quality of the flower spikes. The flower spikes of tuberose has high market price and usually blooms during summer and rainy seasons when there is meager supply of other flowers in the market. It has high irrigation water requirement and fresh water supply is inadequate in tuberose growing areas of India. Therefore, wastewater may fulfill the water and nutrients requirements and may enhance the productivity of tuberose. Keeping in view, the present study was carried out at WTC farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 2014-15. Prajwal was the variety of test crop. The seven treatments were taken as T-1. Wastewater irrigation at 0.6 ID/CPE, T-2: Wastewater irrigation at 0.8 ID/CPE, T-3: Wastewater irrigation at 1.0 ID/CPE, T-4: Wastewater irrigation at 1.2 ID/CPE, T-5: Wastewater irrigation at 1.4 ID/CPE, T-6: Conjunctive use of Groundwater and Wastewater irrigation at 1.0 ID/CPE in cyclic mode, T-7: Control (Groundwater irrigation at 1.0 ID/CPE) in randomized block design with three replication. Wastewater and groundwater samples were collected on monthly basis (April 2014 to March 2015) and analyzed for different parameters of irrigation quality (pH, EC, SAR, RSC), pollution hazard (BOD, toxic heavy metals and Faecal coliforms) and nutrients potential (N, P, K, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) as per standard methods. After harvest of tuberose crop, soil samples were also collected and analyzed for different parameters of soil quality as per standard methods. The vegetative growth and flower parameters were recorded at flowering stage of tuberose plants. Results indicated that wastewater samples had higher nutrient potential, pollution hazard as compared to groundwater used in experimental crop. Soil quality parameters such as pH EC, available phosphorous & potassium and heavy metals (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cd. Pb, Ni, Cr, Co, As) were not significantly changed whereas organic carbon and available nitrogen were significant higher in the treatments where wastewater irrigations were given at 1.2 and 1.4 ID/CPE as compared to groundwater irrigations. Significantly higher plant height (68.47 cm), leaves per plant (78.35), spike length (99.93 cm), rachis length (37.40 cm), numbers of florets per spike (56.53), cut spike yield (0.93 lakh/ha) and loose flower yield (8.5 t/ha) were observed in the treatment of Wastewater irrigation at 1.2 ID/CPE. Study concluded that given quality of wastewater improves the productivity of tuberose without an adverse impact on soil quality/health. However, its long term impacts need to be further evaluated.

Keywords: conjunctive use, irrigation, tuberose, wastewater

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Authors: Magdalena Meusburger, Caroline Hofer

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The advancement of woman entrepreneurship in the last decade has been a vital driver for social and economic development. Despite the positive evolution, women entrepreneurs are still underrepresented in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Fear-of-failure is a major factor affecting their entrepreneurial activity. This survey-based research focuses on aspiring and established entrepreneurial women in Austria and in the USA. It explores and compares the extent to which fear-of-failure influences their self-employment and their aspirations to become self-employed.

Keywords: entrepreneurial ecosystems, fear-of-failure, female entrepreneurship, woman entrepreneurship

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: So-Young Lee, Myoung-Won Oh, Soon-Cheol Eom, Yeon-Won Suh

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Buildings produce more than one thirds of the total energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. Korean government agency pronounced and initiated Zero Energy Buildings policy for construction as of 2025. The net zero energy design features include passive (daylight, layout, materials, insulation, finishes, etc.) and active (renewable energy sources) elements. The Zero Energy House recently built in Nowon-gu, Korea is provided for 121 households as a public rental housing complex. However most of public rental housing did not include sustainable features which can reduce housing maintaining cost significantly including energy cost. It is necessary to implement net zero design features to the obsolete public rental housing during the remodeling procedure since it can reduce housing cost in long term. The purpose of this study is to investigate sustainable design elements implemented in Net Zero Energy House in Korea and passive and active housing design features in order to apply the sustainable features to the case public rental apartment for remodeling. Housing complex cases in this study are Nowan zero Energy house, Gangnam Bogemjari House, and public rental housings built in more than 20 years in Seoul areas. As results, energy consumption in public rental housing built in 5-years can be improved by exterior surfaces. Energy optimizing in case housing built in more than 20 years can be enhanced by renovated materials, insulation, replacement of windows, exterior finishes, lightings, gardening, water, renewable energy installation, Green IT except for sunlight and layout of buildings. Further life costing analysis is needed for energy optimizing for case housing alternatives.

Keywords: affordable housing, remodeling, sustainable design, zero-energy house

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Authors: Nur Atiqah Adam, Mor Jack Ng, Bernard Chern, Kok Hian Tan

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Introduction: Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a common pregnancy complication with short and long-term health consequences for both mother and fetus. Factors such as family history of diabetes mellitus, maternal obesity, maternal age, ethnicity and parity have been reported to influence the risk of GDM. In a multi-racial country like Singapore, it is worthwhile to study the GDM prevalences of different ethnicities. We aim to investigate the influence of ethnicity on the racial prevalences of GDM in Singapore. This is important as it may help us to improve guidelines on GDM healthcare services according to significant risk factors unique to Singapore. Materials and Methods: Obstetric cohort data of 926 singleton deliveries in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) from 2011 to 2013 was obtained. Only patients aged 18 and above and without complicated pregnancies or chronic illnesses were targeted. Factors such as ethnicity, maternal age, parity and maternal body mass index (BMI) at booking visit were studied. A multivariable logistic regression model, adjusted for confounders, was used to determine which of these factors are significantly associated with an increased risk of GDM. Results: The overall GDM prevalence rate based on WHO 1999 criteria & at risk screening (race alone not a risk factor) was 8.86%. GDM rates were higher among women above 35 years old (15.96%), obese (15.15%) and multiparous women (10.12%). Indians had a higher GDM rate (13.0 %) compared to the Chinese (9.57%) and Malays (5.20%). However, using multiple logistic regression model, variables that are significantly related to GDM rates were maternal age (p < 0.001) and maternal BMI at booking visit (p = 0.006). Conclusion: Maternal age (p < 0.001) and maternal booking BMI (p = 0.006) are the strongest risk factors for GDM. Ethnicity per se does not seem to have a significant influence on the prevalence of GDM in Singapore (p = 0.064). Hence we should tailor guidelines on GDM healthcare services according to maternal age and booking BMI rather than ethnicity.

Keywords: ethnicity, gestational diabetes, healthcare, pregnancy

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Authors: Venuste Kayinamura, V. Iyamuremye, A. Ngirabakunzi

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Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for HIV patient can cause a deficiency in glucose metabolism by promoting insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and diabetes, diabetes mellitus keep increasing among HIV-infected patients worldwide but there is limited data on levels of blood glucose and its relationship with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and HIV-infection worldwide, particularly in Rwanda. A convenient sampling strategy was used in this study and it involved 323 HIV patients (n=323). Patients who are HIV positive under ARVs were involved in this study. The patient’s blood glucose was analyzed using an automated machine or glucometer (COBAS C 311). Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS V. 20.0 and presented in percentages. The highest diabetes mellitus prevalence was 93.33 % in people aged >40 years while the lowest diabetes mellitus prevalence was 6.67% in people aged between 21-and 40 years. The P-value was (0.021). Thus, there is a significant association between age and diabetes occurrence. The highest diabetes mellitus prevalence was 28.2% in patients under ART treatment for more than 10 years, 16.7% were <5years while 20% of patients were on ART treatment between 5-10 years. The P-value here is (0.03), thus the incidence of diabetes is associated with long-term ART use in HIV-infected patients. This study assessed the prevalence of diabetes among HIV-infected patients under ARVs attending the University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB), it shows that the prevalence of diabetes is high in HIV-infected patients under ARTs. This study found no significant relationship between gender and diabetes mellitus growth. Therefore, regular assessment of diabetes mellitus especially among HIV-infected patients under ARVs is highly recommended to control other health issues caused by diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: anti-retroviral, diabetes mellitus, antiretroviral therapy, human immune deficiency virus

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Authors: Stjepka Popović, Lucija Vejmelka

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Background: Cyberbullying has become a prevalent issue worldwide, including in Croatia. However, a comprehensive understanding of the extent and nature of cyberbullying in the Croatian context is lacking. Objective: The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the quality of current research conducted in Croatia on the subject of cyberbullying, identify any gaps in the research, and provide suggestions for future investigations. It examines the prevalence gender and age differences of cyberbullying in Croatia. Participants and Setting: Research is done on secondary data resources (published studies) of cyberbullying in Croatia. The participants in these studies that were included in systematic review are children and youth of all ages residing in Croatia who have been involved in cyberbullying incidents. The setting includes various environments where cyberbullying may occur, such as social media platforms and educational institutions. Methods: To identify pertinent studies on cyberbullying in Croatia, a comprehensive exploration of both international and domestic electronic databases was systematically undertaken. Relevant studies were chosen according to predefined criteria that determined inclusion and exclusion. Key findings from the selected studies were extracted and synthesized, enabling the identification of patterns in the data. Results: A total of 43 studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were identified in the review. The prevalence of cyberbullying victimization in Croatia ranged from 7% - 55.3%, with adolescents being the most affected group. The prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration was ranging from 3.2% - 30.3%. The most prevalent form of cyberbullying included gossiping and mocking others. Gender and age differences are highlighted. Conclusions: The outcomes of this systematic review highlight the pressing need for targeted interventions and preventative measures to address cyberbullying in Croatia. Additionally, it is crucial to conduct further research to investigate the long-term impacts and potential factors that can help mitigate cyberbullying in the context of Croatia.

Keywords: cyberbullying, online risky behavior, Croatia, systematic review

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Authors: Meitham Amereh, Mohsen Akbari, Ben Nadler

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Cancer has been recognized as one of the most challenging problems in biology and medicine. Aggressive tumors are a lethal type of cancers characterized by high genomic instability, rapid progression, invasiveness, and therapeutic resistance. Their behavior involves complicated molecular biology and consequential dynamics. Although tremendous effort has been devoted to developing therapeutic approaches, there is still a huge need for new insights into the dark aspects of tumors. As one of the key requirements in better understanding the complex behavior of tumors, mathematical modeling and continuum physics, in particular, play a pivotal role. Mathematical modeling can provide a quantitative prediction on biological processes and help interpret complicated physiological interactions in tumors microenvironment. The pathophysiology of aggressive tumors is strongly affected by the extracellular cues such as stresses produced by mechanical forces between the tumor and the host tissue. During the tumor progression, the growing mass displaces the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM), and due to the level of tissue stiffness, stress accumulates inside the tumor. The produced stress can influence the tumor by breaking adherent junctions. During this process, the tumor stops the rapid proliferation and begins to remodel its shape to preserve the homeostatic equilibrium state. To reach this, the tumor, in turn, upregulates epithelial to mesenchymal transit-inducing transcription factors (EMT-TFs). These EMT-TFs are involved in various signaling cascades, which are often associated with tumor invasiveness and malignancy. In this work, we modeled the tumor as a growing hyperplastic mass and investigated the effects of mechanical stress from surrounding ECM on tumor invasion. The invasion is modeled as volume-preserving inelastic evolution. In this framework, principal balance laws are considered for tumor mass, linear momentum, and diffusion of nutrients. Also, mechanical interactions between the tumor and ECM is modeled using Ciarlet constitutive strain energy function, and dissipation inequality is utilized to model the volumetric growth rate. System parameters, such as rate of nutrient uptake and cell proliferation, are obtained experimentally. To validate the model, human Glioblastoma multiforme (hGBM) tumor spheroids were incorporated inside Matrigel/Alginate composite hydrogel and was injected into a microfluidic chip to mimic the tumor’s natural microenvironment. The invasion structure was analyzed by imaging the spheroid over time. Also, the expression of transcriptional factors involved in invasion was measured by immune-staining the tumor. The volumetric growth, stress distribution, and inelastic evolution of tumors were predicted by the model. Results showed that the level of invasion is in direct correlation with the level of predicted stress within the tumor. Moreover, the invasion length measured by fluorescent imaging was shown to be related to the inelastic evolution of tumors obtained by the model.

Keywords: cancer, invasion, mathematical modeling, microfluidic chip, tumor spheroids

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Authors: Yue Huang, Hongcheng Gan

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The new urbanization pattern has led to a rapid growth in demand for short-distance intercity travel, and the emergence of new travel modes has also increased the variety of intercity travel options. In previous studies on intercity travel mode choice behavior, the impact of functional amenities of travel mode and travelers’ long-term personality characteristics has rarely been considered, and empirical results have typically been calibrated using revealed preference (RP) or stated preference (SP) data. This study designed a questionnaire that combines the RP and SP experiment from the perspective of a trip chain combining inner-city and intercity mobility, with consideration for the actual condition of the Huainan-Hefei traffic corridor. On the basis of RP/SP fusion data, a hybrid choice model considering both random taste heterogeneity and psychological characteristics was established to investigate travelers’ mode choice behavior for traditional train, high-speed rail, intercity bus, private car, and intercity online car-hailing. The findings show that intercity time and cost exert the greatest influence on mode choice, with significant heterogeneity across the population. Although inner-city cost does not demonstrate a significant influence, inner-city time plays an important role. Service attributes of travel mode, such as catering and hygiene services, as well as free wireless network supply, only play a minor role in mode selection. Finally, our study demonstrates that safety-seeking tendency, hedonism, and introversion all have differential and significant effects on intercity travel mode choice.

Keywords: intercity travel mode choice, stated preference survey, hybrid choice model, RP/SP fusion data, psychological latent variable, heterogeneity

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Authors: Yun-Chung Yu, Yan-Wen Wang, Min-Sheng Liao, Joe-Air Jiang, Yuen-Chung Lee

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This paper proposes to use a Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) for a smart pest monitoring system which aims at the oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) to improve the communication efficiency of the system. The oriental fruit fly is one of the main pests in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim. Different smart pest monitoring systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) architecture have been developed to solve problems of employing manual measurement. These systems often use Octopus II, a communication module following the 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee specification, as sensor nodes. The Octopus II is commonly used in low-power and short-distance communication. However, the energy consumption increase as the logical topology becomes more complicate to have enough coverage in the large area. By comparison, LoRaWAN follows the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specification, which targets the key requirements of the IoT technology, such as secure bi-directional communication, mobility, and localization services. The LoRaWAN network has advantages of long range communication, high stability, and low energy consumption. The 433MHz LoRaWAN model has two superiorities over the 2.4GHz ZigBee model: greater diffraction and less interference. In this paper, The Octopus II module is replaced by a LoRa model to increase the coverage of the monitoring system, improve the communication performance, and prolong the network lifetime. The performance of the LoRa-based system is compared with a ZigBee-based system using three indexes: the packet receiving rate, delay time, and energy consumption, and the experiments are done in different settings (e.g. distances and environmental conditions). In the distance experiment, a pest monitoring system using the two communication specifications is deployed in an area with various obstacles, such as buildings and living creatures, and the performance of employing the two communication specifications is examined. The experiment results show that the packet receiving the rate of the LoRa-based system is 96% , which is much higher than that of the ZigBee system when the distance between any two modules is about 500m. These results indicate the capability of a LoRaWAN-based monitoring system in long range transmission and ensure the stability of the system.

Keywords: LoRaWan, oriental fruit fly, IoT, Octopus II

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Authors: Marinko Maslaric, Maja Jokic

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When searching for fast and long term responses, sustainable logistics and supply chain applications have developed irrefutable theories and hypotheses towards market requirements. Nevertheless, there are certain misunderstandings on how the implementation of sustainability principles (social, economical, and environmental) and concepts should work in practice, more specifically, within a humanitarian supply chain management context. This paper will focus on the review and analysis of risk management concepts in humanitarian supply chain in order to identify their compliance with sustainable principles. In this direction, the study will look for strategies that suggest: minimization of environmental impacts throughout the reduction of resources consumption, depreciation of logistics costs, including supply chain ones, minimization of transportation and service costs, elaboration of quality performance of supply chain and logistics, and reduction of supply chain delivery time. On the side of meeting all defense, trades and humanitarian logistics needs, the research will be aligned to UN Sustainable Development Goals, standards, and performances. It will start with relevant strategies for identification of risk indicators and it will end with suggestion of valuable strategic approaches for their minimization or total prevention. Finally, a content analysis will propose a suitable methodological structure for the creation of most sustainable strategy in risk management of humanitarian supply chain. Content analysis will accompany thorough, consistent and methodical approach of literature review for potential disaster risk management plan. Thereupon, the propositions of this research will look for contemporary literature gaps, with respect to operate the literature analysis and to suggest the appropriate sustained risk low master plan. The indicated is here to secure the high quality of logistics practices in hazardous events.

Keywords: humanitarian logistics, sustainability, supply chain risk, risk management plan

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Authors: Fortune Chibuike Onyia, Femi Ogundeji Ayodele

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The design of a drainage system at the permanent site of Federal Polytechnic Oko in Anambra State is critical for mitigating flooding, managing surface runoff, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The design process employed a comprehensive analysis involving topographical surveys, hydraulic modeling, and the assessment of local soil types to ensure stability and efficient water conveyance. Proper slope gradients were considered to maintain adequate flow velocities and avoid sediment deposition, which could hinder long-term performance. From the result, the channel size estimated was 0.199m by 0.0199m and 0.0199m². This study proposed a channel size of 1.4m depth by 0.5m width and 0.7m², optimized to accommodate the anticipated peak flow resulting from heavy rainfall and storm-water events. This sizing is based on hydrological data, which takes into account rainfall intensity, runoff coefficients, and catchment area characteristics. The objective is to effectively convey storm-water while preventing overflow, erosion, and subsequent damage to infrastructure and properties. This sustainable approach incorporates provisions for maintenance and aligns with urban drainage standards to enhance durability and reliability. Implementing this drainage system will mitigate flood risks, safeguard campus facilities, improve overall water management, and contribute to the development of resilient infrastructure at Federal Polytechnic Oko.

Keywords: flood mitigation, drainage system, sustainable design, environmental management

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Authors: Eric Gismondi, Aurelie Bigot-Clivot

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Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) are well known to disrupt the development and the reproduction of exposed organisms. Although this point has been studied in vertebrate models, the limited knowledge of the endocrine system of invertebrates makes the evaluation of EDCs effects difficult. However, invertebrates represent the major part of aquatic ecosystems, such as amphipods Gammaridea, which are crucial for their functioning (e.g., litter degradation, food resource). Moreover, gammarids are hosts of parasites such as vertically-transmitted microsporidia (microsporidia VT), which could be confounding factors in assessment of EDC effects. Indeed, some microsporidia VT could have endocrine effects by their own present in the host since it was observed for example, a feminization of juvenile males, which become phenotypic females. This work evaluated the impact of ethinylestradiol (EE₂, estrogenic), cyproterone acetate (CPA, anti-androgenic), 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4HT, anti-estrogenic) and 17α-methyltestosterone (17MT - androgenic), on the 20-hydroxyecdysone concentration (i.e. 20HE - molt process) and the vitellogenin gene expression (i.e. reproduction) in the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex, after a 96h laboratory exposure. In addition, the presence of microsporidia VT was verified in order to analyze the effect of this confounding factor. Results of this study shown that, although endocrine systems of invertebrates and vertebrates are different, EDCs proved in vertebrates could also affect biological functions hormonally controlled in invertebrates. Indeed, the molt process of crustaceans was disrupted in the first stage (i.e. 20-HE concentration) and therefore, could affect, at the long term, the population dynamic. In addition, it was observed that G. pulex was differently impacted according to the gender and parasitism, which underline the importance to take into account these confounding factors to better evaluate the EDCs impact on invertebrate populations.

Keywords: endocrine disruption, gammarus sp., molt, parasitism

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Authors: Pius Marthin, Nihal Ata Tutkun

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Survival analysis has become one of the paramount procedures in the modeling of time-to-event data. When we encounter complex survival problems, the traditional approach remains limited in accounting for the complex correlational structure between the covariates and the outcome due to the strong assumptions that limit the inference and prediction ability of the resulting models. Several studies exist on the deep learning approach to survival modeling; moreover, the application for the case of complex survival problems still needs to be improved. In addition, the existing models need to address the data structure's complexity fully and are subject to noise and redundant information. In this study, we design a deep learning technique (CmpXRnnSurv_AE) that obliterates the limitations imposed by traditional approaches and addresses the above issues to jointly predict the risk-specific probabilities and survival function for recurrent events with competing risks. We introduce the component termed Risks Information Weights (RIW) as an attention mechanism to compute the weighted cumulative incidence function (WCIF) and an external auto-encoder (ExternalAE) as a feature selector to extract complex characteristics among the set of covariates responsible for the cause-specific events. We train our model using synthetic and real data sets and employ the appropriate metrics for complex survival models for evaluation. As benchmarks, we selected both traditional and machine learning models and our model demonstrates better performance across all datasets.

Keywords: cumulative incidence function (CIF), risk information weight (RIW), autoencoders (AE), survival analysis, recurrent events with competing risks, recurrent neural networks (RNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), self-attention, multilayers perceptrons (MLPs)

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Authors: Ayesha Iftikhar, Faisal Hafeez, Muhammad Jawad Saleem, Afifa Naeem, Muhammad Sohaib

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To further develop integrated pest management (IPM) tactics against insect pests, demographic toxicology is considered important and efficient to evaluate the long-term effects of pesticides on biological control agents. In this study, lethal and sub-lethal effects of Pyriproxyfen (insect growth regulator) two concentrations of LC10 and LC30 were tested on second instar larvae of convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergens (Goeze) in order to evaluate the effect of insecticide on demographic parameters of the predator under laboratory conditions. The life table parameters were analysed statistically by using age-stage, two sex life table procedure. The results of this study show that developmental time for immature was prolonged in treated population (LC30 and LC10) rather than in control. Similarly, male and female longevity was also longer in the control group as compared to the treated population. Adult pre-oviposition period and fecundity were also greater in control as compared to the treated population. In addition, population parameters such as net reproductive rate (R0), intrinsic rate of increase (r) and finite rate of increase (λ) were also greater in control group rather than treated population. However, mean generation time (T) was greater in the treated group. The results revealed that pyriproxyfen, even at low concentrations, has potential to greatly affect the population growth of predatory lady beetle, therefore care should be taken when insect growth regulators are used within an IPM framework.

Keywords: ladybird beetle, IGR, integrated pest management, population inhibition

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Authors: Xiujuan Qiao

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Cities worldwide are increasingly adopting sustainable stormwater solutions such as using green infrastructure to mitigate challenges related to stormwater, e.g., pluvial flooding, and stormwater pollution. Barriers caused by governance factors have been identified as the main reason for the slow pace of sustainable stormwater management implementation. In this study, we examined governance factors influencing local implementation in four case cities: Lund and Malmö, Sweden, and Xi’xian New Area and Zhenjiang, China. Based on systems thinking of interrelations between previously identified influencing governance factors in sustainable stormwater management (SSM), we developed a causal loop diagram (SSM-CLD) and used it to analyze 23 semi-structured interviews with local government officers in the four case cities. Based on the results, we created one SSM-CLD for each country and analyzed the main differences between these four SSM-CLDs. The results revealed that differences in governance structures can lead to differences in the influencing governance factors. In top-down political systems, e.g., China, the role of national policy in setting local leaders’ priorities is significant for SSM implementation. In political systems with more power devolved to local governments, e.g., Sweden, public awareness and local government politicians’ priorities are important for SSM implementation. Acquiring funding for long-term maintenance was identified as a challenge in all four cities studied. These results are relevant for policymakers, local government departments, consultancy companies, and researchers seeking a better understanding of how governance factors influence sustainable stormwater management.

Keywords: sustainable stormwater management, causal loop diagram, governance structures, local government priorities, public awareness, maintenance

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Authors: Sheraz Ahmad, Li Yiming, Li XiangFang, Xia Wei, Zeen Chen

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Holding CO₂ at massive scale in the enclathrated solid matter called hydrate can be perceived as one of the most reliable methods for CO₂ sequestration to take greenhouse gases emission control measures and global warming preventive actions. In this study, a dynamically coupled mass and heat transfer mathematical model is developed which elaborates the unsteady behavior of CO₂ flowing into a porous medium and converting itself into hydrates. The combined numerical model solution by implicit finite difference method is explained and through coupling the mass, momentum and heat conservation relations, an integrated model can be established to analyze the CO₂ hydrate growth within P-T equilibrium conditions. CO₂ phase transition, effect of hydrate nucleation by exothermic heat release and variations of thermo-physical properties has been studied during hydrate nucleation. The results illustrate that formation pressure distribution becomes stable at the early stage of hydrate nucleation process and always remains stable afterward, but formation temperature is unable to keep stable and varies during CO₂ injection and hydrate nucleation process. Initially, the temperature drops due to cold high-pressure CO₂ injection since when the massive hydrate growth triggers and temperature increases under the influence of exothermic heat evolution. Intermittently, it surpasses the initial formation temperature before CO₂ injection initiates. The hydrate growth rate increases by increasing injection pressure in the long formation and it also expands overall hydrate covered length in the same induction period. The results also show that the injection pressure conditions and hydrate growth rate affect other parameters like CO₂ velocity, CO₂ permeability, CO₂ density, CO₂ and H₂O saturation inside the porous medium. In order to enhance the hydrate growth rate and expand hydrate covered length, the injection temperature is reduced, but it did not give satisfactory outcomes. Hence, CO₂ injection in vacated natural gas hydrate porous sediment may form hydrate under low temperature and high-pressure conditions, but it seems very challenging on a huge scale in lengthy formations.

Keywords: CO₂ hydrates, CO₂ injection, CO₂ Phase transition, CO₂ sequestration

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Mohammad Ebrahim Kianifar, Ehsan Ahmadi

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Reinforced concrete structures experience local defects such as cracks over their lifetime under various environmental loadings. Consequently, they are repaired by mortars to avoid detrimental effects such as corrosion of reinforcement, which in long-term may lead to strength loss of a member or collapse of structures. However, repaired structures may need multiple repairs due to changes in load distribution, and thus, lack of compatibility between mortar and substrate concrete. On the other hand, waste tire rubber alkali-activated (WTRAA)-based materials have very high potential to be used as repair mortars because of their ductility and flexibility, which may delay the failure of repair mortar and thus, provide sufficient compatibility. Hence, this work presents a pioneering study on suitability of WTRAA-based materials as mortars for the repair of concrete structures through an experimental program. To this end, WTRAA mortars with 15% aggregate replacement, alkali-activated (AA) mortars, and ordinary mortars are made to repair a number of concrete beams. The WTRAA mortars are composed of slag as base material, sodium hydroxide as an alkaline activator, and different gradations of waste tire rubber (fine and coarse gradations). Flexural tests are conducted on the concrete beams repaired by the ordinary, AA, and WTRAA mortars. It is found that, despite having lower compressive strength and modulus of elasticity, the WTRAA and AA mortars increase the flexural strength of the repaired beams, give compatible failures, and provide sufficient mortar-concrete interface bondings. The ordinary mortars, however, show incompatible failure modes. This study demonstrates the promising application of WTRAA mortars in the practical repairs of concrete structures.

Keywords: alkali-activated mortars, concrete repair, mortar compatibility, flexural strength, waste tire rubber

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Authors: Pramod Kumar Sharma, Pratibha Kumari, Udai Pratap Singh, Sustainability

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In the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South-East Asia, the rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) is dominant with conventional tillage (CT) without residue management, which shows depletion of soil fertility and non-sustainable crop productivity. Hence, this investigation was planned to identify suitable natural resource management practices involving different tillage and crop establishment (TCE) methods along with crop residue and their effects, on the sustainability of dominant cropping systems through enhancing soil fertility and productivity. This study was conducted for two consecutive years 2018-19 and 2019-20 on a long-term field experiment that was started in the year 2015-16 taking six different combinations of TCE methods viz. CT, partial conservation agriculture (PCA) i.e. anchored residue of rice and full conservation agriculture (FCA)] i.e. anchored residue of rice and wheat under RWCS in terms of crop productivity, sustainability of soil health, and crop nutrition by the crops. Results showed that zero tillage direct-seeded rice (ZTDSR) - zero tillage wheat (ZTW) [FCA + green gram residue retention (RR)] recorded the highest yield attributes and yield during both the crops. Compared to conventional tillage rice (CTR)-conventional tillage wheat (CTW) [residue removal (R 0 )], the soil quality parameters were improved significantly with ZTDSR-ZTW (FCA+RR). Overall, ZTDSR-ZTW (FCA+RR) had higher nutrient uptake by the crops than CT-based treatment CTR-CTW (R 0 ) and CTR-CTW (RI).These results showed that there is significant profitability of yield and resource utilization by the adoption of FCA it may be a better alternative to the dominant tillage system i.e. CT in RWSC.

Keywords: tillage and crop establishment, soil fertility, rice-wheat cropping system, sustainability

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Authors: Robin Lok-Wang Ma

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The Center/Unit for Industry Engagement and Collaboration, as well as Internship, play a significant role at university. In general, the Center serves as the official interface between the industry and the School or Department to cultivate students’ early exposure to professional experience. The missions of the Center are not limited to provide a communication channel and collaborative platform for the industries and the university but also to assist students to build up their career paths early while still in the university. In recent years, a cooperative education experience (commonly known as a co-op) has been strongly advocated for students to make the school-to-work transition. The nature of the co-op program is not only consistent with the internships/final year design projects, but it is also more industrial-oriented with academic support from faculty at the university. The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to how cooperative education experience can be integrated into Engineering Curriculum. It provides a mutual understanding and exchange of ideas for the approach between the university and the industry. A suggested format in terms of timeline, duration, selection of candidates, students, and companies’ expectations for the co-op program is described. Also, feedbacks from employers/industries show that a longer-term co-op program is well suited for students compared with a short-term internship. To this end, it provides a new insight into collaboration and/or partnership between the university and the industries to prepare professional work-ready graduates.

Keywords: cooperative education, industry, engagement, collaboration

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Thato Masiangoako

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While being home to one of the greatest constitutions in the world, South Africa is also notorious for brutal policing practices, endemic corruption, and an overstrained criminal justice system. This apparent gap between the normative conceptions of the law and the actual experiences of being subjected to the criminal justice system forms the crux of this study. This study explores how community activists, student activists, and migrants in Johannesburg, who rely on the law for protection and effective political expression and participation and understand the law through their experiences of arrest and short-term incarceration. This work introduces the concept of legal consciousness to the South African context, whilst also drawing very heavily from South African literature of the law and criminal justice system. This research is grounded in the experiences of arrest and pre-trial and immigration detention shared by these individuals, which are used to develop a rich account of legal consciousness in South Africa. It also sheds light on some of the ways in which the criminal justice system sustains its legitimacy within a post-apartheid framework despite the gaps between what the law ought to be and it actually is. The study argues that the ways in which these groups make sense of their experiences of the criminal justice system and the law, more broadly, are closely bound to their socio-political identities. This calls the core values of equality and dignity that undergird South Africa’s Constitution into question.

Keywords: criminal justice, immigrant detention, legal consciousness, remand detention

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Authors: Aicha Majda, Abdelhamid El Hassani

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Lung CT image segmentation is a prerequisite in lung CT image analysis. Most of the conventional methods need a post-processing to deal with the abnormal lung CT scans such as lung nodules or other lesions. The simplest similarity measure in the standard Graph Cuts Algorithm consists of directly comparing the pixel values of the two neighboring regions, which is not accurate because this kind of metrics is extremely sensitive to minor transformations such as noise or other artifacts problems. In this work, we propose an improved version of the standard graph cuts algorithm based on the Patch-Based similarity metric. The boundary penalty term in the graph cut algorithm is defined Based on Patch-Based similarity measurement instead of the simple intensity measurement in the standard method. The weights between each pixel and its neighboring pixels are Based on the obtained new term. The graph is then created using theses weights between its nodes. Finally, the segmentation is completed with the minimum cut/Max-Flow algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed method is very accurate and efficient, and can directly provide explicit lung regions without any post-processing operations compared to the standard method.

Keywords: graph cuts, lung CT scan, lung parenchyma segmentation, patch-based similarity metric

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Authors: Ming-Hong Chen

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In the study, the mechanical and financial feasibility for the compressed air energy storage (CAES) system in the porous media reservoir in Taiwan is evaluated. In 2035, Taiwan aims to install 16.7 GW of wind power and 40 GW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity. However, renewable energy sources often generate more electricity than needed, particularly during winter. Consequently, Taiwan requires long-term, large-scale energy storage systems to ensure the security and stability of its power grid. Currently, the primary large-scale energy storage options are Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) and Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES). Taiwan has not ventured into CAES-related technologies due to geological and cost constraints. However, with the imperative of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, there's a substantial need for the development of a considerable amount of renewable energy. PHS has matured, boasting an overall installed capacity of 4.68 GW. CAES, presenting a similar scale and power generation duration to PHS, is now under consideration. Taiwan's geological composition, being a porous medium unlike salt caves, introduces flow field resistance affecting gas injection and extraction. This study employs a program analysis model to establish the system performance analysis capabilities of CAES. The finite volume model is then used to assess the impact of porous media, and the findings are fed back into the system performance analysis for correction. Subsequently, the financial implications are calculated and compared with existing literature. For Taiwan, the strategic development of CAES technology is crucial, not only for meeting energy needs but also for decentralizing energy allocation, a feature of great significance in regions lacking alternative natural resources.

Keywords: compressed-air energy storage, efficiency, porous media, financial feasibility

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Authors: Jana Tchekalarova, Milena Atanasova, Katerina Georgieva

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Melatonin deficit can cause a disturbance in emotional status and circadian rhythms of the endocrine system in the body. Both pharmacological and alternative approaches are applied for correction of dysfunctions driven by changes in circadian dynamics of many physiological indicators. In the present study, we tested and compare the beneficial effect of agomelatine (40 mg/kg, i.p. for 3 weeks) and endurance training on depressive behavior in two models of melatonin deficit in rat. The role of disturbed circadian rhythms of plasma melatonin and corticosterone secretion in the mechanism of these treatments was also explored. The continuous exercise program attenuated depressive responses associated with disrupted diurnal rhythm of home-cage motor activity, anhedonia in the sucrose preference test, and despair-like behavior in the forced swimming test were attenuated by agomelatine exposed to chronic constant light (CCL) and long-term exercise in pinealectomized rats. Parallel to the observed positive effect on the emotional status, agomelatine restored CCL-induced impairment of circadian patterns of plasma melatonin but not that of corticosterone. In opposite, exercise training diminished total plasma corticosterone levels and corrected its flattened pattern while it was unable to correct melatonin deficit in pinealectomy. These results suggest that the antidepressant-like effect of pharmacological and alternative approach might be mediated via two different mechanism, correction of the disturbed circadian rhythm of melatonin and corticosterone, respectively. Therefore, these treatment approaches might have a potential therapeutic application in different subpopulations of people characterized by a melatonin deficiency. This work was supported by the National Science Fund of Bulgaria (research grant # № DN 03/10; DN# 12/6).

Keywords: agomelatine, exercise training, melatonin deficit, corticosterone

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Authors: Madeline Gibson

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Night shift workers make up an essential part of the modern workforce. However, night shift workers have higher incidences of late in life diseases and earlier mortality. Night shift workers are exposed to constant light and experience circadian rhythm disruption. Sleep disruption is thought to increase oxidative stress, defined as an imbalance of excess pro-oxidative factors and reactive oxygen species over anti-oxidative activity. Oxidative stress can damage cells, proteins and DNA and can eventually lead to varied chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and dementia. This review aimed to understand whether night shift workers were at greater risk of oxidative stress and to contribute to a consensus on this relationship. Twelve studies published in 2001-2019 examining 2,081 workers were included in the review. Studies compared both the impact of working a single shift and in comparisons between those who regularly work night shifts and only day shifts. All studies had evidence to support this relationship across a range of oxidative stress indicators, including increased DNA damage, reduced DNA repair capacity, increased lipid peroxidation, higher levels of reactive oxygen species, and to a lesser extent, a reduction in antioxidant defense. This research supports the theory that melatonin and the sleep-wake cycle mediate the relationship between shift work and oxidative stress. It is concluded that night shift work increases the risk for oxidative stress and, therefore, future disease. Recommendations are made to promote the long-term health of shift workers considering these findings.

Keywords: night shift work, coxidative stress, circadian rhythm, melatonin, disease, circadian rhythm disruption

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Authors: Wendy Lee

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From the mid-twentieth century onward, the notion of ‘attachment’ has been used to define the optimum relationship between young children and their carers; first applied to parents and young children and more recently with early childhood educators and children in their care. However, it is seldom, if ever, asked whether the notion of ‘attachment’ and more especially so-called Attachment Theory, as propounded by John Bowlby and others, provides a sound basis for conceptualising child-adult relationships in early years. Even if appropriate in the context of family, the use of the term raises a number of questions when used in early childhood education. Research has shown that our youngest children (infants) in early childhood centre based care settings, are given the utmost priority to build 'attachments' with their educators. But exactly when, how and why does this priority diminish - and should it (for preschoolers)? This presentation will elaborate on such issues and will argue that there is a need to reconceptualise and redefine how 'quality relationships' should be measured and implemented in the daily practices and pedagogical methods adopted by early childhood educators. Moreover, this presentation will include data collected from the empirical study conducted, that observed various early childhood educators and children in Australian early childhood centres. Lastly, the thoughts, feelings and desires of parents of children in early childhood centre-based care, regarding the term 'attachment' and 'quality relationships' will be shared in the hope that we can take one step closer in bridging the needs of families, children, early childhood centres, educators, and the wider community.

Keywords: attachment, early childhood education, pedagogy, relationships

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Authors: Abolghasem Yousefi-Babadi, Ali Bozorgi-Amiri, Aida Kazempour, Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Maryam Irani

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All over the world, natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and hurricanes) causes a lot of deaths. Earthquakes are introduced as catastrophic events, which is accident by unusual phenomena leading to much loss around the world. Such could be replaced by disasters or any other synonyms strongly demand great long-term help and relief, which can be hard to be managed. Supplies and facilities are very important challenges after any earthquake which should be prepared for the disaster regions to satisfy the people's demands who are suffering from earthquake. This paper proposed disaster response facility allocation problem for disaster relief operations as a mathematical programming model. Not only damaged people in the earthquake victims, need the consumable commodities (e.g., food and water), but also they need non-consumable commodities (e.g., clothes) to protect themselves. Therefore, it is concluded that paying attention to disaster points and people's demands are very necessary. To deal with this objective, both commodities including consumable and need non-consumable commodities are considered in the presented model. This paper presented the multi-objective multi-period mathematical programming model regarding the minimizing the average of the weighted response times and minimizing the total operational cost and penalty costs of unmet demand and unused commodities simultaneously. Furthermore, a Chebycheff multi-objective solution procedure as a powerful solution algorithm is applied to solve the proposed model. Finally, to illustrate the model applicability, a case study of the Tehran earthquake is studied, also to show model validation a sensitivity analysis is carried out.

Keywords: facility location, multi-objective model, disaster response, commodity

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Authors: Lauren Dawson, Sean Comber, Richard Sandford, Alan Tappin, Bruce Stockley

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The West Dart River is underperforming for Salmon (Salmo salar) survival rates due to acidified pH troughs under the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). These troughs have been identified as being caused by historic acid rain pollution which is being held in situ by peat bog presence at site and released during flushing events. Natural recovery has been deemed unlikely by the year 2020 using steady state water chemistry models and therefore a program of monitored calcium carbonate (CaCO3) introductions are being conducted to eliminate these troughs, which can drop to pH 2.93 (salmon survival – pH 5.5). The river should be naturally acidic (pH 5.5-6) due to the granite geology of Dartmoor and therefore the CaCO3 introductions are under new methodology (the encasing of the CaCO3 in permeable sacks) to ensure removal should the water pH rise above neutral levels. The water chemistry and ecology are undergoing comprehensive monitoring, including pH and turbidity levels, dissolved organic carbon and aluminum concentration and speciation, while the aquatic biota is being used to assess the potential water chemistry changes. While this project is ongoing, results from the preliminary field trial show only a temporary, localized increase in pH following CaCO3 introductions into the water column. However, changes to the water chemistry have only been identified in the West Dart after methodology adjustments to account for flow rates and spate-dissolution, though no long-term changes have so far been found in the ecology of the river. However, this is not necessarily a negative factor, as the aim of the study is to protect the current ecological communities and the natural pH of the river while remediating only the detrimental pH troughs.

Keywords: anthropogenic acidification recovery, calcium carbonate introductions, ecology monitoring, water chemistry monitoring

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Authors: Eszter Hamza

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The competitiveness of economic operators is based on interoperability, which is relatively low in Hungary. The development of co-operation is high priority in Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020. The aim of the paper to assess co-operations in Hungarian agriculture, estimate the economic outputs and benefits of co-operations, based on statistical data processing and literature. Further objective is to explore the potential of agricultural co-operation with the help of interviews and questionnaire survey. The research seeks to answer questions as to what fundamental factors play role in the development of co-operation, and what are the motivations of the actors and the key success factors and pitfalls. The results were analysed using econometric methods. In Hungarian agriculture we can find several forms of co-operation: cooperatives, producer groups (PG) and producer organizations (PO), machinery cooperatives, integrator companies, product boards and interbranch organisations. Despite the several appearance of the agricultural co-operation, their economic weight is significantly lower in Hungary than in western European countries. Considering the agricultural importance, the integrator companies represent the most weight among the co-operations forms. Hungarian farmers linked to co-operations or organizations mostly in relation to procurement and sales. Less than 30 percent of surveyed farmers are members of a producer organization or cooperative. The trust level is low among farmers. The main obstacle to the development of formalized co-operation, is producers' risk aversion and the black economy in agriculture. Producers often prefer informal co-operation instead of long-term contractual relationships. The Hungarian agricultural co-operations are characterized by non-dynamic development, but slow qualitative change. For the future, one breakout point could be the association of producer groups and organizations, which in addition to the benefits of market concentration, in the dissemination of knowledge, advisory network operation and innovation can act more effectively.

Keywords: agriculture, co-operation, producer organisation, trust level

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Authors: Kushal Gowda Jayaram, Joseph Huret, Jonathan Quibel, Walter-John Chitty, Gilbert Henaff

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Thermal aging is one of the concerns for the long-term operation of nuclear power plants. Indeed, components in the primary circuit undergo thermal aging while exposed to the chemically active environment of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) over time. Among the materials used in the reactor components, Alloy 690 can be found in some critical components for nuclear safety. Despite its importance, research on the effect of thermal aging on the microstructural changes and low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of Alloy 690 remains limited. This study aims to assess the impact of thermal aging on the fatigue life of Alloy 690. The as-received sample underwent aging at 420°C for 4000 hours, representing the equivalent aging of 60 years in reactor working conditions. First, the characterization of the area and density of intergranular and intragranular precipitates was performed to understand the microstructural changes in the aged specimen. Then, low cycle fatigue tests were conducted on the as received and aged samples at varying strain amplitudes. To investigate the influence of thermal aging on the fatigue behavior of Alloy 690, fracture surfaces were analyzed to estimate fatigue crack growth rates based on striation spacing measurements. Additionally, the axially cut fractured samples have undergone analysis using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) to understand the effect of aging on strain localization near the crack path. Results indicate that while the characterization of the area and density of intergranular precipitates in the aged specimen (for 2000 hours, approximately 30 years) showed no significant changes, there was a slight increase in the area and density of intragranular precipitates under the same conditions.

Keywords: alloy 690, thermal aging, low cycle fatigue, precipitates

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Authors: K. Urukundu, K. A. Aravind, Pradeep M. Nirgude, K. Sandhya

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Transmission of bulk power over a long distance through HVDC transmission lines is gaining importance. This is because the transfer of bulk power through HVDC, from generating stations to load centers over long distances is more economical. However, these HVDC transmission lines create environmental and interference effects under the right of way of the line due to the ionization of the surrounding atmosphere in the vicinity of HVDC lines. The measurement of ground-level electric field and ionic current density is essential for the evaluation of human effects due to electromagnetic interference of the HVDC transmission line. In this paper, experimental laboratory results of the ground-level electric field under the miniature model of 800 kV monopole HVDC line of length 8 meters are presented in lateral configuration with different heights of the conductor from the ground plane. The results are compared with the simulated test results obtained through Finite Element based software.

Keywords: bundle, conductor, hexagonal, transmission line, ground-level electric field

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