Search results for: air quality measurements

Authors: Nahed M. M. Ismail, Bayoumy B. Mostafa, Ahmed Abdel-Kader, Khalil M. El-Said, Asmaa Abdel-Motleb, Hoda M. Abu Taleb

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This study was carried out in lined and unlined watercourses in Beheira and Giza governorates to investigate the effect of water canals lining on water quality and aquatic vegetations. Samples of water and aquatic plants were collected from the examining sites during four seasons in two successive years. The main ecological parameters were recorded and water quality was measured. Results showed that the mean value of water conductivity and total dissolved salts in lined sites was significantly lower than those of unlined ones (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). In Beheira, the dissolved oxygen concentrations during autumn and winter were higher in lined sites (3.93±1.3 and 9.6±1.1 ppm, respectively) than those of unlined ones (the same values of 1.2±0.6 ppm). However, it represented by lower values of 5.77±6.05 and 4.9±1.8 ppm in lined watercourses in spring and summer, respectively, comparing with those in unlined ones (14.05±5.59 and 5.83±0.8 ppm, respectively). Generally, Zn, Pb, Fe, Cd were higher in both lined and unlined sites during summer than the other seasons. However, Zn and Fe were higher in lined sites (0.78±0.37 and 17.4±4.3 ppb, respectively) during summer than that of unlined ones (0.4±0.1 and 10.95±1.93 ppb, respectively). Cu was absent during summer in lined and unlined sites and only in unlined ones during spring. Regarding to Giza sites, Cu and Pb were absent in both lined and unlined sites during summer and only in unlined ones during spring. Whereas, Fe recorded higher values in autumn in both lined (8.8±20.1 ppb) and unlined sites (15.16±3 ppb) than the other seasons. Present survey study revealed that 13 species of aquatic plants were collected from lined and unlined sites in Beheira and Giza governorates. Eichhornia crassipes, Ceratophyllum demersum, and Potamogeton sp. were the only plant species infested the examined sites during autumn and winter in Beheira. In autumn C. demersum was the only plant found in lined sites represented by highly lower significant percentage (12.5% of the all examined sites) compared to the unlined sites (50%). E. crassipes was completely absent in the lined sites during the two seasons. In spring, there is only 3 plant species in lined sites compared to 6 ones in unlined. Also, in summer, there is only 2 species in lined sites comparing with 5 in unlined. The percentage of occurrence and density of these plants was highly significant (p < 0.01, p < 0.001) higher in unlined sites compared to the lined ones during all seasons. A diversity of plant species, E. crassipes, C. demersum, Jussias repens, Lemma giba, and Polygonum serr were the most abundant in many examined sites during all seasons in Giza. In summer, the percentage of sites containing the two plants E. crassipes (83.3%) and C. demersum (50%) was highly significant (p < 0.001) higher in unlined sites compared to the lined ones (50% and 0.0%, respectively). It concluded from the results that watercourses lining may play a significant role in preserving water with a good quality and reduces the distribution of aquatic vegetation which rendered the current of water.

Keywords: aquatic plants, lining of watercourses, physicochemical parameters, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Ashraf M. Khalifa, Hwat Bing So, Greg Maddocks

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Changes to the mining environmental approvals process in Queensland have been rolled out under the MERFP Act (2018). This includes requirements for a Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (PRC Plan). Key considerations of the landform design report within the PRC Plan must include: (i) identification of materials available for landform rehabilitation, including their ability to achieve the required landform design outcomes, (ii) erosion assessments to determine landform heights, gradients, profiles, and material placement, (iii) slope profile design considering the interactions between soil erodibility, rainfall erosivity, landform height, gradient, and vegetation cover to identify acceptable erosion rates over a long-term average, (iv) an analysis of future stability based on the factors described above e.g., erosion and /or landform evolution modelling. ACARP funded an extensive and thorough erosion assessment program using rainfall simulators from 1998 to 2010. The ACARP program included laboratory assessment of 35 soil and spoil samples from 16 coal mines and samples from a gold mine in Queensland using 3 x 0.8 m laboratory rainfall simulator. The reliability of the laboratory rainfall simulator was verified through field measurements using larger flumes 20 x 5 meters and catchment scale measurements at three sites (3 different catchments, average area of 2.5 ha each). Soil cover systems are a primary component of a constructed mine landform. The primary functions of a soil cover system are to sustain vegetation and limit the infiltration of water and oxygen into underlying reactive mine waste. If the external surface of the landform erodes, the functions of the cover system cannot be maintained, and the cover system will most likely fail. Assessing a constructed landform’s potential ‘long-term’ erosion stability requires defensible erosion rate thresholds below which rehabilitation landform designs are considered acceptably erosion-resistant or ‘stable’. The process used to quantify erosion rates using rainfall simulators (flumes) to measure rill and inter-rill erosion on bulk samples under laboratory conditions or on in-situ material under field conditions will be explained.

Keywords: open-cut, mining, erosion, rainfall simulator

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Joel F. Campbell, Bing Lin, Michael Obland, Susan Kooi, Tai-Fang Fan, Byron Meadows, Edward Browell, Wayne Erxleben, Doug McGregor, Jeremy Dobler, Sandip Pal, Christopher O'Dell, Ken Davis

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The Active Sensing of CO₂ Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) CarbonHawk Experiment Simulator (ACES) is a NASA Langley Research Center instrument funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate that seeks to advance technologies critical to measuring atmospheric column carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) mixing ratios in support of the NASA ASCENDS mission. The ACES instrument, an Intensity-Modulated Continuous-Wave (IM-CW) lidar, was designed for high-altitude aircraft operations and can be directly applied to space instrumentation to meet the ASCENDS mission requirements. The ACES design demonstrates advanced technologies critical for developing an airborne simulator and spaceborne instrument with lower platform consumption of size, mass, and power, and with improved performance. The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport – America (ACT-America) is an Earth Venture Suborbital -2 (EVS-2) mission sponsored by the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. A major objective is to enhance knowledge of the sources/sinks and transport of atmospheric CO₂ through the application of remote and in situ airborne measurements of CO₂ and other atmospheric properties on spatial and temporal scales. ACT-America consists of five campaigns to measure regional carbon and evaluate transport under various meteorological conditions in three regional areas of the Continental United States. Regional CO₂ distributions of the lower atmosphere were observed from the C-130 aircraft by the Harris Corp. Multi-Frequency Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) and the ACES lidar. The airborne lidars provide unique data that complement the more traditional in situ sensors. This presentation shows the applications of CO₂ lidars in support of these science needs.

Keywords: CO₂ measurement, IMCW, CW lidar, laser spectroscopy

Procedia PDF Downloads 157

Authors: Emilienne Lardy, Eric Ballot, Mariam Lafkihi

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Efficient urban logistics requires a comprehensive understanding of traffic dynamics, particularly as it pertains to kinetic parameters influencing energy consumption and trip duration estimations. While real-time traffic information is increasingly accessible, current high-precision forecasting services embedded in route planning often function as opaque 'black boxes' for users. These services, typically relying on AI-processed counting data, fall short in accommodating open design parameters essential for management studies, notably within Supply Chain Management. This work revisits the modelling of traffic conditions in the context of city logistics, emphasizing its significance from the user’s point of view, with two focuses. Firstly, the focus is not on the vehicle flow but on the vehicles themselves and the impact of the traffic conditions on their driving behaviour. This means opening the range of studied indicators beyond vehicle speed, to describe extensively the kinetic and dynamic aspects of the driving behaviour. To achieve this, we leverage the Art. Kinema parameters are designed to characterize driving cycles. Secondly, this study examines how the driving context (i.e., exogenous factors to the traffic flow) determines the mentioned driving behaviour. Specifically, we explore how accurately the kinetic behaviour of a vehicle can be predicted based on a limited set of exogenous factors, such as time, day, road type, orientation, slope, and weather conditions. To answer this question, statistical analysis was conducted on real-world driving data, which includes high-frequency measurements of vehicle speed. A Factor Analysis and a Generalized Linear Model have been established to link kinetic parameters with independent categorical contextual variables. The results include an assessment of the adjustment quality and the robustness of the models, as well as an overview of the model’s outputs.

Keywords: factor analysis, generalised linear model, real world driving data, traffic congestion, urban logistics, vehicle kinematics

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Sefiu Adebowale Adewumi

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Continuous improvement programme (CIP) adopts an approach to improve organizational performance with small incremental steps over time. In this approach, it is not the size of each step that is important, but the likelihood that the improvements will be ongoing. Many companies in developing nations are now complementing continuous improvement with innovation, which is the successful exploitation of new ideas. Focus area of CIP in the organization was in relation to the size of the organizations and also in relation to the generic classification of these organizations. Product quality was prevalent in the manufacturing industry while manpower training and retraining and marketing strategy were emphasized for improvement to be made in the service, transport and supply industries. However, focus on innovation in raw materials, process and methods are needed because these are the critical factors that influence product quality in the manufacturing industries.

Keywords: continuous improvement programme, developing countries, generic classfications, technological innovation

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: M. Y. Achouri, O. A. Alleg, M. C. L. Moulai, M. A. Selka

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This study aims to assess the perception and attitudes of community pharmacists in Sidi-Bel-Abbes (Algeria) towards generic drugs. This is a descriptive cross-sectional prospective survey and quantitative, conducted over a period of two months from April to May 2014. The target population consisted of 118 pharmacists practicing in pharmacies in Sidi-Bel-Abbes. Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire consisting of thirteen (13) items. Fifty six (67%) of community pharmacists in the town of Sidi-Bel-Abbes in the survey believe that generics have a lower quality compared to brand name medicines Only 42% of respondents viewed locally manufactured generic medicines as equal in quality compared to the imported generic medicines, and 63% believe that the generics substitution has led to change the relationship between a pharmacist and patient. In order to promote the practice of generic medicines in Algeria, an educational program should be implemented.

Keywords: generic drugs, perception, attitudes, community pharmacists

Procedia PDF Downloads 419

Authors: A. Rahaf, S. Liyakathunsia

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In today’s world, unprecedented operational pressure is faced by banks that test the efficiency, effectiveness, and agility of their business processes. In a typical banking process, a person’s authorization is usually based on his signature on most all of the transactions. Signature verification is considered as one of the highly significant information needed for any bank document processing. Banks usually use Signature Verification to authenticate the identity of individuals. In this paper, a business process model has been proposed in order to increase the quality of the verification process and to reduce time and needed resources. In order to understand the current process, a survey has been conducted and distributed among bank employees. After analyzing the survey, a process model has been created using Bizagi modeler which helps in simulating the process after assigning time and cost of it. The outcomes show that the automation of signature verification process is highly recommended for a banking business process.

Keywords: business process management, process modeling, quality, Signature Verification

Procedia PDF Downloads 419

Authors: Tessalyn Morrison, Alexis Dinno, Taurica Salmon

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Sex and gender conflation continue to perpetuate the invisibility of gender minorities and obscure information about the ways that biological sex and gender affect health. The misuse of sex and gender terms, and their respective binaries, can yield inaccurate results. But more importantly, it contributes to the erasure of sex and gender minority health experiences. This paper discusses ways in which public health researchers can use sex and gender terms correctly and center the health experiences of intersex, transgender, non binary, and a-gender individuals. It includes promoting sensitivity in approaching minority communities, improving survey questions, and collaborating with sex and gender minority communities to improve research quality and participant experiences. Improving our standards for the quality of sex and gender term usage and centering sex and gender minorities in public health research are imperative to address the health inequalities faced by sex and gender minorities.

Keywords: epidemiology, gender, intersex, research methods, sex, transgender

Procedia PDF Downloads 235

Authors: A. Hira Masood, B. Umer Hameed, C. Ezza Nasir

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Contemporary studies support the strong co-relation between psychology and design. This study elaborates how different psychological personality test can help a fashion designer to judge the needs of their clients with respect to have products which will satisfy the client's request concerning costumised clothing. This study will also help the designer to improve the lacking in the personality and will enable him to put his effort in required areas for grooming the customer, control and direct organization regarding quality maintenance. The use of psychology test to support the choice of certain design strategies that how the right clothing can make client a better intellectual with enhanced self-esteem and confidence. Different projective personality test are being used to suggest to evaluate personality traits. The Rorschach Inkblot Test is projective mental comprising of 10 ink-blots synonymous with the clinical brain research. Lüsher Color Diagnostics measures a person’s psycho physical state, his or her ability to withstand stress to perform and communicate. HTP is a projective responsibility test measuring self-perception, attitudes. The TAT test intend to evaluate a person’s patterns of thoughts, attitudes, observation, capacity and emotional response to this ambiguous test materials. No doubt designers are already crucially redesigning the individuals by their attires, but to expose the behavioral mechanism of the customer, designers should be able to recognize the hidden complexity behind his client by using the above mentioned methods. The study positively finds the design and psychology need to become substantially contacted in order to create a new regime of norms to groom a personality under the concentration and services of a fashion designer in terms of clothing, This interactive activity altimately upgrade design team to help customers to find the suited way to satisfy their needs and wishes, offer client relible relationship and quality management services, and to become more disereable.

Keywords: projective personality tests, customized clothing, Rorschach Inkblot test, TAT, HTP, Lüsher color diagnostics, quality management services

Procedia PDF Downloads 551

Authors: Christin Tønseth

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The Norwegian ‘knowledge promotion reform’ was implemented in elementary schools and upper secondary schools in 2006. The goal of the reform was that all pupils should develop basic skills and competencies in order to take an active part in the knowledge society. This paper discusses how governmentality as a management principle is demonstrated through the Norwegian ‘knowledge promotion reform’. Evaluation reports and political documents are the basis for the discussion. The ‘knowledge promotion reform’ was including quality assurance for schools, teachers, and students and the authorities retained control by using curricula and national tests. The reform promoted several intentions that were not reached. In light of governmentality, it seemed that thoughts and intentions by the authorities differed from those in the world of practice. The quality assurances did not motivate the practitioners to be self-governing. The relationship between the authorities and the implementation actors was weak, and the reform was, therefore, difficult to implement in practice.

Keywords: governance, governmentality, the Norwegian knowledge promotion reform, education, politics

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Sahil Anand, John Luetke, Nikhil Venkatesh, Dorothy Wong

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Trust plays an important role in building and sustaining long-term relationships between people. In this paper, we present a robot that communicates using nonverbal behaviors such as facial expressions and body movements. Our study reports on an experiment in which participants were asked to team up with the robot to perform specific tasks. We varied the expressivity of the robot and measured the effects on trust, quality of interactions as well as on the praising and punishing behavior of the participant towards the robot. We found that participants developed a stronger affinity towards the expressive robot, but did not show any significant differences in the level of trust. When the same robot made mistakes, participants unconsciously punished it with lesser intensity compared to the neutral robot. The results emphasize the role of expressive behaviors on participant’s perception of the robot and also on the quality of interactions between humans and robots.

Keywords: human-robot interaction, nonverbal communication, relationships, social robot, trust

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: Elyta Widyaningrum

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The LiDAR data acquisition has been recognizable as one of the fastest solution to provide the basis data for topographic base mapping in Indonesia. The challenges to accelerate the provision of large-scale topographic base maps as a development plan basis gives the opportunity to implement the automated scheme in the map production process. The one stop processing will also contribute to accelerate the map provision especially to conform with the Indonesian fundamental spatial data catalog derived from ISO 19110 and geospatial database integration. Thus, the automated LiDAR classification, DTM generation and feature extraction will be conducted in one GIS-software environment to form all layers of topographic base maps. The quality of automated topographic base map will be assessed and analyzed based on its completeness, correctness, contiguity, consistency and possible customization.

Keywords: automation, GIS environment, LiDAR processing, map quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 361

Authors: Farokh Alipour, Ali Falavand, Neda Beit Saeid

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The calculation of the effect of accidental releases of flammable materials such as LNG requires the use of a suitable consequence model. This study is due to providing a planning advice for developments in the vicinity of LNG sites and other sites handling flammable materials. In this paper, an applicable algorithm that is able to model pool fires on water is presented and applied to estimate pool fire damage zone. This procedure can be used to model pool fires on land and could be helpful in consequence modeling and domino effect zone measurements of flammable materials which is needed in site selection and plant layout.

Keywords: LNG, pool fire, spill, radiation

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Ashan Wijekoon, Abi Beane, Subashini Jayawardana

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Background: Civil war in Sri Lanka ended a decade ago, leaving thousands of army veterans permanently disabled following lower-limb amputations. Quantifying long-term functional health and psychological wellbeing will inform the development of tailored home-based rehabilitation intervention. Objectives: To assess the long-term health and quality of life of Sri Lankan soldiers with traumatic lower-limb amputation.Methods and Materials: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in five districts of Sri Lanka. Using stratified random sample technique, two groups of 85 participants were selected; group 1, community re-integrated male army veterans with unilateral lower-limb amputation, and group 2, age and sex matched normal healthy individuals. Long-term health and quality of life (QoL) outcomes were assessed and compared between the two groups using self-administered Short-Form Health Survey-36 questionnaire (SF-36) previously validated for use in Sri Lanka. Results: Group 1 were active prosthetic users who had undergone amputation > ten years ago (Mean±SD: 21.7±5.9). The most prevalent comorbidities for group 1 and 2 were hypertension and diabetes (22.4% and 30.6% and 9.4% and 9.8%, respectively). In group 1, injury-associated long-term health outcomes included knee osteoarthritis (18.8%), knee pain (20.0%), and back pain (69.4%). Scores of physical health and psychological wellbeing were 53.1 (IQR 64.4- 43.8) and 63.5 (IQR 73.3- 51.4) for each group, respectively. Scores revealed the highest QoL related to social functioning (75 (IQR 87.5- 62.5)) and the poorest aspects of QoL related to general health (40 (IQR 50- 35)). Prevalence of comorbidities was significantly higher, and QoL outcomes were significantly lower among soldiers compared to normal healthy individuals (p<0.05).Conclusion: Higher prevalence of comorbidities, poor physical health, and lower QoL outcomes were more prevalent in soldiers with lower-limb amputation when compared to healthy counterparts.

Keywords: community-based, disability, health outcomes, quality of life, soldiers

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Banafsheh Aghamohammadi, Masoud Honarvar, Babak Ghiassi Tarzi

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Usage of different components has been considered to improve the quality and nutritional properties of cakes in recent years. The effects of applying some sweeteners, instead of sugar, have been evaluated in cakes and many bread formulas up to now; but there has not been any research about the usage of by-products of sugar factories such as Wash and Green-A Syrups in cake formulas. In this research, the effects of substituting 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of sugar with Wash and Green-A Syrups on some dough and cake properties, such as pH, viscosity, density, volume, weight loss, moisture, water activity, texture, staling, color and sensory evaluations, are studied. The results of these experiments showed that the pH values were not significantly different among any of the all cake batters and also most of the cake samples. Although differences among viscosity and specific gravity of all treatments were both significant and insignificant, these two parameters resulted in higher volume in all samples than the blank one. The differences in weight loss, moisture content and water activity of samples were insignificant. Evaluating of texture showed that the softness of most of samples is increased and the staling is decreased. Crumb color and sensory evaluations of samples were also affected by the replacement of sucrose with Wash and Green-A Syrups. According to the results, we can increase the shelf life and improve the quality and nutritional values of cake by using these kinds of syrups in the formulation.

Keywords: cake, green-A syrup, quality tests, sensory evaluation, wash syrup

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: C. Amrane, D. Haman

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Aluminum-magnesium alloys are widely used in industry thanks to their mechanical properties and corrosion resistivity. These properties are related to the magnesium content and to the applied heat treatments. Although they are already well studied, questions concerning the microstructural stability and the effect of different heat treatments are still being asked. In this work we have presented a comparative study on the behavior of the precipitation reactions during different heat treatment in two different Al-Mg alloys (Al–8 wt. % Mg and Al–12 wt. % Mg). For this purpose, we have used various experimental techniques as dilatometry, calorimetry, optical microscopy, and microhardness measurements. The obtained results shown that, the precipitation kinetics and the mechanical responses to the applied heat treatments, of the two studied alloys, are different.

Keywords: Al-Mg alloys, precipitation, hardness, heat treatments

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Hatem K. Hamed, Mohamed S. Hrouda

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The Middle Paleocene Lower Beda Formation was deposited in a ramp system with local shoaling. The main constituent is limestone, with subordinate dolomites and Shales. Reservoir quality is largely influenced by depositional environments and diagenesis processes. Generally the reservoir quality of Lower Beda Formation is low risk on the Inferred Horst and in the Southern Shelf where the Lower Beda formation comprises mainly of calcarenties. In the vicinity of the well GG1 the Lower Beda comprise mainly of argillaceous calcilutites and shale. The reservoir quality gradually improves from high risk to moderate risk towards KK1, LL1 and NN1 wells. The average gross thickness of Lower Beda Formation is about 300 ft. The net thickness varies from about 270 ft. in the E1-71 well to about 30 ft. in the vicinity of GG1-71 well. The net thickest of Lower Beda form a NNW-SSW trend with an average of 250 ft. the change in facies is due to change in the depositional environment, from lagoonal to shoal barrier to open marine affected the reservoir quality. The Upper Cretaceous Sirte Shale is the main source rock. It is developed within the three troughs surrounding the study area. S-Marada Trough to the N- E, Gerad Trough to the N N-W, and Abu Tummym Sub-basin to the S-W of the Inferred Horst. Sirte shale reaches 1000ft, of organically rich section. It has good organic contents over large area 2% to 3%. Hydrocarbon shows were encountered in several wells in Beda Formation this is an indication of vertical and lateral migration of hydrocarbon. The overlying Upper Paleocene Khalifa Formation is a transgressive shale, it is an effective regional top seal. Lithofacies variations in Khalifa Shale, from shales to limestones in the southern shelf in R1-71 well approximately 50-75% of the secession is limestone. About 47 million barrel of hydrocarbon recoverable reserves is expected to be trapped in structural and stratigraphic traps in Beda Formation in the study area.

Keywords: Sirte basin, Beda formation, concession 71, petroleum play fairway analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Lucia Ceccherini Nelli, Alessandra Donato

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The ABITA Master course of the University of Florence offered by the Department of Architecture covers nearly all the energy-relevant issues that can arise in public and private companies and sectors. The main purpose of the Master course, active since 2003, is to analyse the energy consumption of building technologies, components, and structures at the conceptual design stage, so it could be very helpful, for designers, when making decisions related to the selection of the most suitable design alternatives and for the materials choice that will be used in an energy-efficient building. The training course provides a solid basis for increasing the knowledge and skills of energy managers and is developed with an emphasis on practical experiences related to the knowledge through case studies, measurements, and verification of energy-efficient solutions in buildings, in the industry and in the cities. The main objectives are: i)To raise the professional standards of those engaged in energy auditing, ii) To improve the practice of energy auditors by encouraging energy auditing professionals in a continuing education program of professional development, iii) Implement in the use of instrumentations for the typical measurements, iv) To propose an integrated methodology that links energy analysis tools with green building certification systems. This methodology will be applied at the early design stage of a project’s life. The final output of the practical training is to achieve an elevated professionalism in the study of environmental design and Energy management in buildings. The results are the redaction of line guides instruction for the energy refurbishment of Public schools in Florence. The school heritage of the Municipality of Florence requires interventions for the control of energy performance, as old construction buildings are often made without taking into account the necessary envelope performance. For this reason, every year, the Master's course aims to study groups of public schools to enable the Municipality to carry out energy redevelopment interventions on the existing building heritage. The future challenges of the education and training program are related to follow-up activities, the development of interactive tools and the curriculum's customization to meet the constantly growing needs of energy experts from industry.

Keywords: expert in energy, energy auditing, public buildings, thermal analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 185

Authors: Amani Aljahani

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The purpose of the study was to identify the physical and chemical properties of pomegranate juices and to evaluate their sensory quality. The samples were collected from the local markets and included four types of pomegranate produced in the western and southern region of the kingdom. The juices were extracted by manual squeezing and by centrifugal force. The juices were analyzed periodically for their content of organic acids, total acidity, glucose and fructose, total sugars, and the anthosianine. A panel of 30 judges evaluated the juices for their color, smell, taste, consistency and general acceptance using a prepared scale for that purpose. Result showed that pomegranate juices were acidic in nature (PH between 3.56–4.27). The major organic acids were citric, tartaric, malic, and oxalic aids total organic acidity was between 596.32–763.49 ng/100 ml and increased over storage time, however; total acidity almost stable over time except for the southern produced. The major monosaccharide's in pomegranate juices were glucose and fructose. Their concentration in the juice varied by storage. On the average glucose concentration was between 6.68–7.71 g/100 ml while fructose concentration was between 6.72–7.98 g/100 ml. total sugars content was 16% on the average and dropped by storage. Anthosianine concertration increased after five hours of storage then dropped and stabilized over time regardless of method of treatment. In addition, sensory evaluation of the juices showed general acceptance of them as of color, flavor, and constercy but the preferred one was with that of the western kind extracted by squeezing.

Keywords: extracting, pomegranate, juice, quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Hasan Kalyoncu, Ayşe Güneş

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This study was carried on 12 determined stations, on Alara and Karpuz Streams, between January and November 2014. Seasonal samples were taken from the stations to analyze physicochemical parameters and Plecoptera Fauna in the water. The correlation between identified taxa and physicochemical data were tried to determine. As the result of the study, 2088 individuals from Plecoptera fauna were examined, 3 genera and 13 species were identified. The taxa of Brachyptera risi, Capnia bifrons, Dinocras cephalotes, Diura bicaudata, Isogenus nebecula, Isogenus sp., Isoperla grammatica, Leuctra hippopus, Leuctra inermis, Leuctra moselyi, Leuctra sp., Nemoura sp., Perla bipunctata, Perla marginata, Protonemura meyeri and Rhabdiopteryx acuminata were determined. In Alara Stream, the dominant species were; Isogenus nebecula at stations I and IV, Leuctra moselyi at station II, Leuctra hippopus at stations III, V and VI. In Karpuz Stream, Brachyptera risi was the dominant species in all stations. While Leuctra hippopus was the dominant taxon in Alara Stream, in Karpuz Stream it was Brachyptera risi. The highest diversity value was at station III and the lowest was at station VI in Alara Stream and the lowest diversity value was at station VI, while the highest was at station I in Karpuz Stream. In Alara Stream, the most similar stations were I and III, while in Karpuz Stream the highest similarity was determined between stations I and II. As for the evaluation result, the water quality of Alara and Karpuz Streams were determined as at oligosaprobic level.

Keywords: Alara stream, Karpuz stream, plecoptera, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 291

Authors: A. Alsoqeer

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The establishment, dry matter production and feeding value of six perennial grasses were measured over two growing seasons in a field experiments. The experiments were conducted at the Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2009 and 2010 seasons. The six perennial grasses were: creeping bluegrass (Bothriochloa insculpta cv. Bisset), digit grass (Digitaria smutsi), Jarra digit grass (Digitaria milanjiana), panic (Panicum coloratum cv. Bambatsii), Sabi grass (Urochloa mosambicensis) and setaria (Setaria sphacelata cv. Kazungula). The experimental design used was a completely randomized block design with four replications. The results revealed significant differences among plant species of all agronomic characters and quality traits in the first year, while in the second year, plant species differed significantly for quality traits only. D. smutsi had a superior performance for all agronomic characters, however, it had the lowest values in protein content in the two years comparing with other genotypes. D. milanjiana and U. mosambicensis showed high values in dry matter yield and protein content in the first year, but showed a very poor performance in the second year because most of plants were die due to the low temperatures in the winter. These two species appear to be suitable for annual cultivation. The other species tolerate the cold winter and were a highly productive in the second year.

Keywords: dry mater yield, grass species, cuts, quality traits, crude protein content

Procedia PDF Downloads 315

Authors: Caixia Gao, Chuanrong Li, Lingli Tang, Lingling Ma, Yaokai Liu, Xinhong Wang, Yongsheng Zhou

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Performances analysis of remote sensing sensor is required to pursue a range of scientific research and application objectives. Laboratory analysis of any remote sensing instrument is essential, but not sufficient to establish a valid inflight one. In this study, with the aid of the in situ measurements and corresponding image of three-gray scale permanent artificial target, the in-flight radiometric performances analyses (in-flight radiometric calibration, dynamic range and response linearity, signal-noise-ratio (SNR), radiometric resolution) of self-developed short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera are performed. To acquire the inflight calibration coefficients of the SWIR camera, the at-sensor radiances (L_i) for the artificial targets are firstly simulated with in situ measurements (atmosphere parameter and spectral reflectance of the target) and viewing geometries using MODTRAN model. With these radiances and the corresponding digital numbers (DN) in the image, a straight line with a formulation of L = G × DN + B is fitted by a minimization regression method, and the fitted coefficients, G and B, are inflight calibration coefficients. And then the high point (L_H) and the low point (L_L) of dynamic range can be described as L_H= (G × DN_H + B) and L_L= B, respectively, where DN_H is equal to 2ⁿ − 1 (n is the quantization number of the payload). Meanwhile, the sensor’s response linearity (δ) is described as the correlation coefficient of the regressed line. The results show that the calibration coefficients (G and B) are 0.0083 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹ and −3.5 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹; the low point of dynamic range is −3.5 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹ and the high point is 30.5 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹; the response linearity is approximately 99%. Furthermore, a SNR normalization method is used to assess the sensor’s SNR, and the normalized SNR is about 59.6 when the mean value of radiance is equal to 11.0 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹; subsequently, the radiometric resolution is calculated about 0.1845 W•sr^-1m^-2μm^-1. Moreover, in order to validate the result, a comparison of the measured radiance with a radiative-transfer-code-predicted over four portable artificial targets with reflectance of 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% respectively, is performed. It is noted that relative error for the calibration is within 6.6%.

Keywords: calibration and validation site, SWIR camera, in-flight radiometric calibration, dynamic range, response linearity

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Authors: Abdurrahman Arslanyilmaz, Salman Al Matouq, Durmus V. Doner

Abstract:

Level 3 autonomous vehicles are able to take full responsibility over the control of the vehicle unless a system boundary is reached or a system failure occurs, in which case, the driver is expected to take-over the control of the vehicle. While this happens, the driver is often not aware of the traffic situation or is engaged in a secondary task. Factors affecting the duration and quality of take-overs in these situations have included secondary task type and nature, traffic density, take-over request (TOR) time, and TOR warning type and modality. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study examined time buffer for TORs when a system failure occurs immediately before intersections. The first objective of this study is to investigate the effect of time buffer (3 and 7 seconds) on the duration and quality of take-overs when a system failure occurs just prior to intersections. In addition, eye-tracking has become one of the most popular methods to report what individuals view, in what order, for how long, and how often, and it has been utilized in driving simulations with various objectives. However, to the extent of authors’ knowledge, none has compared drivers’ eye gaze behavior in the two different time buffers in order to examine drivers’ attention and comprehension of salient information. The second objective is to understand the driver’s attentional focus on comprehension of salient traffic-related information presented on different parts of the dashboard and on the roads.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, driving simulation, eye gaze, attention, comprehension, take-over duration, take-over quality, time buffer

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Authors: Khulud M. Rahuma, Ibrahim B. Younis

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Assessment of petrophysical parameters are very essential for reservoir engineer. Three techniques can be used to predict reservoir properties: well logging, well testing, and core analysis. Cementation factor and saturation exponent are very required for calculation, and their values role a great effect on water saturation estimation. In this study a sensitive analysis was performed to investigate the influence of cementation factor and saturation exponent variation applying logs, and core analysis. Measurements of water saturation resulted in a maximum difference around fifteen percent.

Keywords: porosity, cementation factor, saturation exponent, formation factor, water saturation

Procedia PDF Downloads 688

Authors: E. Saeedian, M. Shakerian, A. Zarif Sanayei, Z. Rakeb, F. N. Alizadeh, S. Sarshough, S. Sina

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Radiological protection for plants and animals is an area of regulatory importance. Acute doses of 0.1 Gy/d (10 rad/d) or below are highly unlikely to produce permanent, measurable negative effects on populations or communities of plants or animals. The advancement of radio diagnostics for domestic animals, particularly dogs and cats, has gained popularity in veterinary medicine. As pets are considered to be members of the family worldwide, they are entitled to the same care and protection. It is important to have a system of radiological protection for nonhuman organisms that complies with the focus on human health as outlined in ICRP publication 19. The present study attempts to assess surface-skin entrance doses in small pets undergoing abdominal radio diagnostic procedures utilizing a direct measurements technique with a thermoluminescent dosimeter. These measurements allow the determination of the entrance skin dose (ESD) by calculating the amount of radiation absorbed by the skin during exposure. A group of Thirty TLD-100 dosimeters produced by Harshaw Company, each with repeatability greater than 95% and calibration using ¹³⁷Cs gamma source, were utilized to measure doses to ten small pets, including cats and dogs in the radiological department in a veterinary clinic in Shiraz, Iran. Radiological procedures were performed using a portable imaging unit (Philips Super M100, Philips Medical System, Germany) to acquire images of the abdomen; ten exams of abdomen images of different pets were monitored, measuring the thicknesses of the two projections (lateral and ventrodorsal) and the distance of the X-ray source from the surface of each pet during the exams. A group of two dosimeters was used for each pet which has been stacked on their skin on the abdomen region. The outcome of this study involved medical procedures with the same kVp, mAs, and nearly identical positions for different diagnostic X-ray procedures executed over a period of two months. The result showed the mean ESD value was 260.34±50.06 µGy due to the approximate size of pets. Based on the results, the ESD value is associated with animal size, and larger animals have higher values. If a procedure doesn't require repetition, the dose can be optimized. For smaller animals, the main challenge in veterinary radiology is the dose increase caused by repetitions, which is most noticeable in the ventrodorsal position due to the difficulty in immobilizing the animal. Animals are an area of regulatory importance. Acute doses of 0.1 Gy/d (10 rad/d) or below are highly unlikely to produce permanent, measurable negative effects on populations or communities of plants or animals. The advancement of radio diagnostics for domestic animals, particularly dogs and cats, has gained popularity in veterinary medicine. As pets are considered to be members of the family worldwide, they are entitled to the same care and protection. It is important to have a system of radiological protection for nonhuman organisms that complies with the focus on human health as outlined in ICRP publication 19. The present study attempts to assess surface-skin entrance doses in small pets undergoing abdominal radio diagnostic procedures utilizing direct measurements.

Keywords: direct dose measuring, dosimetry, radiation protection, veterinary medicine

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Kanokwan Tangchitnusorn, Patcharawalai Wongboonsin

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Following the ‘Golden Age of Welfare’ which enabled post-war prosperity to European citizens in 1950s, the world has witnessed the increasing mobility across borders of older citizens of First World countries. Then, in 1990s, the international retirement migration (IRM) of older persons has become a prominent trend, in which, it requires the integration of several fields of knowledge to explain, i.e. migration studies, tourism studies, as well as, social gerontology. However, while the studies of the IRM to developed destinations in Europe (e.g. Spain, Malta, Portugal, Italy), and the IRM to developing countries like Mexico, Panama, and Morocco have been largely studied in recent decades due to their massive migration volume, the study of the IRM to remoter destinations has been far more relatively sparse and incomplete. Developing countries in Southeast Asia have noticed the increasing number of retired expats, particularly to Thailand, where the number of foreigners applying for retirement visa increased from 10,709 in 2005 to 60,046 in 2014. Additionally, it was evident that the majority of Thailand’s retirement visa applicants were Westerners, i.e. citizens of the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the Nordic countries, respectively. As such trend just becoming popular in Thailand in recent decades, little is known about the IRM populations, their well-being, and their future migration plans. This study aimed to examine the subjective wellbeing or the self-evaluations of own well-being among Western retirees in Thailand, as well as, their future migration plans as whether they planned to stay here for life or otherwise. The author employed a mixed method to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data during October 2015 – May 2016, including 330 self-administered questionnaires (246 online and 84 hard-copied responses), and 21 in-depth interviews of the Western residents in Nan (2), Pattaya (4), and Chiang Mai (15). As derived from the integration of previous subjective well-being measurements (i.e. Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI), Global AgeWatch Index, and OECD guideline on measuring subjective wellbeing), this study would measure the subjective well-being of Western retirees in Thailand in 7 dimensions, including standard of living, health status, personal relationships, social connections, environmental quality, personal security and local infrastructure.

Keywords: international retirement migration, ageing, mobility, wellbeing, Western, Thailand

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Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho

Abstract:

The detection and identification of multivariate manufacturing processes are quite important in order to maintain good product quality. Unusual behaviors or events encountered during its operation can have a serious impact on the process and product quality. Thus they should be detected and identified as soon as possible. This paper focused on the efficient representation of process measurement data in detecting and identifying abnormalities. This qualitative method is effective in representing fault patterns of process data. In addition, it is quite sensitive to measurement noise so that reliable outcomes can be obtained. To evaluate its performance a simulation process was utilized, and the effect of adopting linear and nonlinear methods in the detection and identification was tested with different simulation data. It has shown that the use of a nonlinear technique produced more satisfactory and more robust results for the simulation data sets. This monitoring framework can help operating personnel to detect the occurrence of process abnormalities and identify their assignable causes in an on-line or real-time basis.

Keywords: detection, monitoring, identification, measurement data, multivariate techniques

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Düzgün Akmaz, Hüseyin Erişti

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In the last few years, harmonics have been occurred with the increasing use of nonlinear loads, and these harmonics have been an ever increasing problem for the line systems. This situation importantly affects the quality of power and gives large losses to the network. An efficient way to solve these problems is providing harmonic compensation through parallel active power filters. Many methods can be used in the control systems of the parallel active power filters which provide the compensation. These methods efficiently affect the performance of the active power filters. For this reason, the chosen control method is significant. In this study, Fourier analysis (FA) control method and synchronous reference frame (SRF) control method are discussed. These control methods are designed for both eliminate harmonics and perform reactive power compensation in MATLAB/Simulink pack program and are tested. The results have been compared for each two methods.

Keywords: parallel active power filters, harmonic compensation, power quality, harmonics

Procedia PDF Downloads 451

Authors: Zuoji Huang, Jinyan Sun, Chunlin Wang, Haiming Qian, Nan Xu

Abstract:

The spatial extent and area of central river bars can always vary due to the impact of water level, sediment supply and human activities. In 2016, a catastrophic flood disaster caused by sustained and heavy rainfall happened in the middle and lower Yangtze River. The flood led to the most serious economic and social loss since 1954, and strongly affected the central river bar. It is essential to continuously monitor the dynamics change of central bars because it can avoid frequent field measurements in central bars before and after the flood disaster and is helpful for flood warning. This paper focused on the dynamic change of central bars of Phoenix bar and Changsha bar in the Yangtze River in 2016. In this study, GF-1 (GaoFen-1) WFV(wide field view) data was employed owing to its high temporal frequency and high spatial resolution. A simple NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) method was utilized for river central bar mapping. Human-checking was then performed to ensure the mapping quality. The relationship between the area of central bars and the measured water level was estimated using four mathematical models. Furthermore, a risk assessment index was proposed to map the spatial pattern of inundation risk of central bars. The results indicate a good ability of the GF-1 WFV imagery with a 16-m spatial resolution to characterize the seasonal variation of central river bars and to capture the impact of a flood disaster on the area of central bars. This paper observed a significant negative but nonlinear relationship between the water level and the area of central bars, and found that the cubic function fits best among four models (R² = 0.9839, P < 0.000001, RMSE = 0.4395). The maximum of the inundated area of central bars appeared during the rainy season on July 8, 2016, and the minimum occurred during the dry season on December 28, 2016, which are consistent with the water level measured by the hydrological station. The results derived from GF-1 data could provide a useful reference for decision-making of real-time disaster early warning and post-disaster reconstruction.

Keywords: central bars, dynamic change, water level, the Yangtze river

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Tim Steinhaus, Christian Beidl

Abstract:

Urban air quality and climate protection are two major challenges for future mobility systems. Despite the steady reduction of pollutant emissions from vehicles over past decades, local immission load within cities partially still reaches heights, which are considered hazardous to human health. Although traffic-related emissions account for a major part of the overall urban pollution, modeling the exact interaction remains challenging. In this paper, a novel approach for the determination of the emission-immission interaction on the basis of neural network modeling for traffic induced NO2-immission load within a near-traffic hot-spot scenario is presented. In a detailed sensitivity analysis, the significance of relevant influencing variables on the prevailing NO2 concentration is initially analyzed. Based on this, the generation process of the model is described, in which not only environmental influences but also the vehicle fleet composition including its associated segment- and certification-specific real driving emission factors are derived and used as input quantities. The validity of this approach, which has been presented in the past, is re-examined in this paper using updated data on vehicle emissions and recent immission measurement data. Within the framework of a final scenario analysis, the future development of the immission load is forecast for different developments in the vehicle fleet composition. It is shown that immission levels of less than half of today’s yearly average limit values are technically feasible in hot-spot situations.

Keywords: air quality, emission, emission-immission-interaction, immission, NO2, zero impact

Procedia PDF Downloads 123