Search results for: Islamic sources

Authors: Endalew Jibat, Feyera Senbeta, Tesfaye Zeleke, Fitsum Hagos

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Institutions can play a key role in coordinating how natural resources are effectively used without over-exploitation. Institutions are the laws, policies, and organizational arrangements that permit, forbid or regulate human action. The aim of this study was to look into the roles of formal and informal institutions, as well as their interactions, in water resource governance in Ethiopia's Central Rift Valley (CRV), where water scarcity is a concern. Key informant interviews, group discussions, in depth-interview, and secondary data sources were used to generate relevant data. The study revealed that formal and informal institutions were involved in water resource governance in the study area. However, the influence of informal institutions on formal institutions or vice versa is trivial to change the action of water users. Lack of clear roles and responsibilities of actors, weak capacity and lack of meaningful decentralization and participation of key actors in policy development, lack of synergy and incongruence between formal and informal institutions, and absence of enforcement mechanisms including incentives are attributed to inefficient use of water resources in the CRV. Enhancing the interplay of formal and informal institutions in the water resource policy development and meaningful decentralization and key stakeholders' engagement is recommended for sustainable water use.

Keywords: institutions, governance, institutional interplay, water users

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Authors: Richa Rai

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of the services sector in economic development of Indian economy, especially in the post reform period. Due to adoption of liberalization policy in developing economy like India, international transaction in services has been increased at a rapid pace which compensated to the current account of Balance of Payment which was in a pitiable condition. But this increased share of services in GDP is not commensurate with share in employment, which is a matter of great concern for Indian economy. Although the increased share of service in GDP indicates the advanced stage of growth of the economy, but this theory is not applicable in context of Indian economy completely. In the preliminary stage, this study finds a positive correlation between growth of services and export earnings and gross domestic product and this growth of services is not equal in terms of all aspects on Indian economy, and also all components of services has not been increased at an equal rate. This paper seeks to examine the impact of liberalization in post reform era on the growth of services in India. The analysis is done for the period of 1991 to 2013. Data has been collected from the secondary sources, especially from the website of Reserve Bank of India, World Trade Organization, and United Nation Conference on Trade and Development. The data has been analyzed with the help of appropriate statistical tools (Causality Relation and Group t-test).

Keywords: export earnings, GDP, gross domestic product, liberalization, services

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Authors: Francesco Pisano

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Islam has been an important topic in Turkey’s institutional identity. Since the dawn of the Turkish Republic, at the end of the First World War, the new Turkish leadership was urged to deal with the religious heritage of the Sultanate. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s first President, led the country in a process of internal change, substantially modifying not merely the democratic stance of it, but also the way politics was addressing the Muslim faith. Islam was banned from the public sector of the society and was drastically marginalized to the mere private sphere of citizens’ lives. Headscarves were banned from institutional buildings together with any other religious practice, while the country was proceeding down a path of secularism and Westernization. This issue is demonstrated by the fact that even a new elected Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was initially barred from taking the institutional position, because of allegations that he had read a religious text while campaigning. Over the years, thanks to this initial internal shift, Turkey has often been seen by Western partners as one of the few countries that had managed to find a perfect balance between a democratic stance and an Islamic inherent nature. In the early 2000s, this led many academics to believe that Ankara could eventually have become the next European capital. Since then, the internal and external landscape of Turkey has drastically changed. Today, religion has returned to be an important point of reference for Turkish politics, considering also the failure of the European negotiations and the always more unstable external environment of the country. This paper wants to address this issue, looking at the important role religion has covered in the Turkish society and the way it has been politicized since the early years of the Republic. It will evolve from a more theoretical debate on secularism and the path of political westernization of Turkey under Ataturk’s rule to a more practical analysis of today’s situation, passing through the failure of Ankara’s accession into the EU and the current tense political relation with its traditional NATO allies. The final objective of this research, therefore, is not to offer a meticulous opinion on Turkey’s current international stance. This issue will be left entirely to the personal consideration of the reader. Rather, it will supplement the existing literature with a comprehensive and more structured analysis on the role Islam has played on Turkish politics since the early 1920s up until the political domestic revolution of the early 2000s, after the first electoral win of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Keywords: democracy, Islam, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey

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Authors: Xinge Liao, Francesc Xavier Roige Ventura, Dolores Sanchez Aguilera

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With the development of the Internet, the study of tourism behavior has rapidly expanded from the traditional physical market to the online market. Data on the Internet is characterized by dynamic changes, and new data appear all the time. In recent years the generation of a large volume of data was characterized, such as forums, blogs, and other sources, which have expanded over time and space, together they constitute large-scale Internet data, known as Big Data. This data of technological origin that derives from the use of devices and the activity of multiple users is becoming a source of great importance for the study of geography and the behavior of tourists. The study will focus on cultural heritage tourist practices in the context of Big Data. The research will focus on exploring the characteristics and behavior of Chinese tourists in relation to the cultural heritage of Catalonia. Geographical information, target image, perceptions in user-generated content will be studied through data analysis from Weibo -the largest social networks of blogs in China. Through the analysis of the behavior of heritage tourists in the Big Data environment, this study will understand the practices (activities, motivations, perceptions) of cultural tourists and then understand the needs and preferences of tourists in order to better guide the sustainable development of tourism in heritage sites.

Keywords: Barcelona, Big Data, Catalonia, cultural heritage, Chinese tourism market, tourists’ behavior

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Authors: Saleh Gareh, B. C. Kok, H. H. Goh

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Piezoelectric energy harvesting has advantages over other alternative sources due to its large power density, ease of applications, and capability to be fabricated at different scales: macro, micro, and nano. This paper presents an electromechanical-traffic model for roadway compression-based piezoelectric energy harvesting system. A two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) electromechanical model has been developed for the piezoelectric energy harvesting unit to define its performance in power generation under a number of external excitations on road surface. Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT-5H) is selected as the piezoelectric material to be used in this paper due to its high Piezoelectric Charge Constant (d) and Piezoelectric Voltage Constant (g) values. The main source of vibration energy that has been considered in this paper is the moving vehicle on the road. The effect of various frequencies on possible generated power caused by different vibration characteristics of moving vehicle has been studied. A single unit of circle-shape Piezoelectric Cymbal Transducer (PCT) with diameter of 32 mm and thickness of 0.3 mm be able to generate about 0.8 mW and 3 mW of electric power under 4 Hz and 20 Hz of excitation, respectively. The estimated power to be generated for multiple arrays of PCT is approximately 150 kW/ km. Thus, the developed electromechanical-traffic model has enormous potential to be used in estimating the macro scale of roadway power generation system.

Keywords: piezoelectric energy harvesting, cymbal transducer, PZT (lead zirconate titanate), 2-DOF

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Authors: Ahmed Al-Adaileh

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Renewable energy sources, domestic storage systems, controllable loads and machine learning technologies will be key components of future smart homes management systems. An energy management scheme that uses a Deep Learning (DL) approach to support the smart home management systems, which consist of a standalone photovoltaic system, storage unit, heating ventilation air-conditioning system and a set of conventional and smart appliances, is presented. The objective of the proposed scheme is to apply DL-based machine learning to predict various running parameters within a smart home's environment to achieve maximum comfort levels for occupants, reduced electricity bills, and less dependency on the public grid. The problem is using Reinforcement learning, where decisions are taken based on applying the Continuous-time Markov Decision Process. The main contribution of this research is the proposed framework that applies DL to enhance the system's supervised dataset to offer unlimited chances to effectively support smart home systems. A case study involving a set of conventional and smart appliances with dedicated processing units in an inhabited building can demonstrate the validity of the proposed framework. A visualization graph can show "before" and "after" results.

Keywords: smart homes systems, machine learning, deep learning, Markov Decision Process

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Authors: El Hadi Bouguerra, Nouredine Retiel

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To avoid or at least to attenuate the global warming, it is essential to reduce the energy consumption of the buildings where the biggest potential of savings exists. The impending danger can come from the increase in the needs of air conditioning not only because of the climate warming but also the fast equipping of emerging or developing countries. Passive solutions exist and others are in promising development and therefore, must be applied wherever it is possible. Even if they do not always avoid the resort to an active cooling (mechanical), they allow lowering the load at an acceptable level which can be possibly taken in relay by the renewable energies. These solutions have the advantage to be relatively less expensive and especially adaptable to the existing housing. However, it is the internal convection resistance that controls the heat exchange between the phase change materials (PCM) and the indoor temperature because of the very low heat coefficients of natural convection. Therefore, it is reasonable to link the switch temperature Tm to the temperature of the substrate (walls and ceiling) because conduction heat transfer is dominant. In this case, external conditions (heat sources such as solar irradiation and ambient temperatures) and conductivities of envelope constituents are the most important factors. The walls are not at the same temperature year round; therefore, it is difficult to set a unique switch temperature for the whole season, making the average values a key parameter. With this work, the authors’ aim is to see which parameters influence the optimum switch temperature of a PCM and additionally, if a better selection of PCMs relating to their optimum temperature can enhance their energetic performances.

Keywords: low energy building, energy conservation, phase change materials, PCM

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Authors: Muhammad Naziru Yahaya, Buhari Samaila, Nasiru Abubakar

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Noise pollution caused by vehicular movement in urban cities has reached alarming proportions due to continuous increases in vehicles and industrialization. Traffic noise causes deafness, annoyance, and other health challenges. According to World Health Organization recommends 60Db daytime sound levels and 40db night time sound levels in hospitals, schools, and other residential areas. Measurements of traffic noise were taken at six different locations of selected healthcare facilities at Birnin Kebbi (Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital and Federal Medical Centre Birnin Kebbi). The data was collected in the vicinity of hospitals using the slow setting of the device and pointed at noise sources. An integrated multifunctional sound level GM1352, KK2821163 model, was used for measuring the emitted noise and temperatures. The data was measured and recorded at three different periods of the day 8 am – 12 pm, 3 pm – 6 pm, and 6 pm – 8:30 pm, respectively. The results show that a fair traffic flow producing an average sound level in the order of 38db – 64db was recorded at GOPDF, amenityF, and ante-natalF. Similarly, high traffic noise was observed at GOPDS, amenityS, and Fati-LamiS in the order of 52db – 78db unsatisfactory threshold for human hearing.

Keywords: amenities, healthcare, noise, hospital, traffic

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Authors: Kemal Çomakli, Uğur Çakir, Ayşegül Çokgez Kuş, Erol Şahin

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Kind of energy that buildings need changes in various types, like heating energy, cooling energy, electrical energy and thermal energy for hot top water. Usually the processes or systems produce thermal energy causes emitting pollutant emissions while they produce heat because of fossil fuels they use. A lower consumption of thermal energy will contribute not only to a reduction in the running costs, but also in the reduction of pollutant emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect and a lesser dependence of the hospital on the external power supply. Cogeneration or CHP (Combined heat and Power) is the system that produces power and usable heat simultaneously. Combined production of mechanical or electrical and thermal energy using a simple energy source, such as oil, coal, natural or liquefied gas, biomass or the sun; affords remarkable energy savings and frequently makes it possible to operate with greater efficiency when compared to a system producing heat and power separately. Because of the life standard of humanity in new age, energy sources must be continually and best qualified. For this reason the installation of a system for the simultaneous generation of electrical, heating and cooling energy would be one of the best solutions if we want to have qualified energy and reduce investment and operating costs and meet ecological requirements. This study aims to bring out the contributions of cogeneration systems to the environment and sustainability by saving the energy and reducing the emissions.

Keywords: sustainability, cogeneration systems, energy economy, energy saving

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Authors: Diogo Ribeiro, Teresa Neto, Ricardo Santos, Maria Portela, Alexandra Trincão

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This article describes a set of innovating student recruitment strategies in a 1st cycle course of Civil Engineering, in particular the Civil Engineering Degree from the School of Engineering - Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP-PP). The strategies described were two-fold, targeting, for one, the increment on the number of admissions for the degree’s first year and two, promoting the re-entry of students who, for whatever reason, interrupted their studies. For the first objective, teacher-student binomials were set, whilst for the second, personalized contacts and assistance were provided. The main initiatives were promoted by the team of degree directors and were upheld with the participation and in consonance with the School’s external relations office. These initiatives were put forward as an attempt to minimize the impact of a national and international crisis on the AEC industry when the sustainability of the course was at risk. The implementation of these strategies was assessed on basis of a statistical analysis of the data collected from official sources and by surveys promoted. The results showed that the re-entry boost of former students, attending classes scattered on the three curricular years, secured registrations on some Curricular Units (UC’s) which more than doubled their numbers. Accompanied by a still incipient but regained interest on Civil Engineering it was possible in the short span of three years to reset the number of new students from less than 10 to the currently maximum allowed of 75, and so invert the tendency of an abrupt decline on the total number of students enrolled on the degree.

Keywords: civil engineering, monitoring, performance indicators, strategies, student recruitment

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Authors: Reza Sadeghi, Maryam Nazarahari

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Considering the effectiveness of plant pesticides in pest control, this group of pesticides can provide an efficient way to reduce the damage caused by pests in agriculture and maintain environmental health. Plant pesticides allow farmers to cultivate their crops by lowering the use of chemical pesticides and help improve the quality of agricultural products. In this research, various plant compounds were extracted from two different sources, thyme and eucalyptus, by using n-hexane solvent and investigated to control cotton bollworm in laboratory conditions. The mortality rates of cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) caused by different concentrations of hexanic extract formulations were evaluated. The results showed that the varied concentrations of the hexanic extract formulations of thyme and eucalyptus had significant effects on the mortality rates of cotton bollworm larvae during a 24-h exposure period. The hexanic extract of thyme as a plant pesticide can be an effective alternative in agriculture and plant pest control. The use of pesticides in agriculture can help the environment and reduce the problems related to chemical toxins. Also, this research revealed that the types and compounds of plant pesticides can be effective in pest control and help to develop more efficient agricultural strategies.

Keywords: cotton bollworm, thyme, eucalyptus, extract formulation, toxicity

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Authors: Huma Naqeeb

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Epidemiological studies have shown the robust link between breast cancer and dietary pattern. There has been no previous study conducted in Pakistan, which specifically focuses on dietary patterns among breast cancer women. This study aims to examine the association of breast cancer with dietary patterns among Pakistani women. This case-control research was carried in multiple tertiary care facilities. Newly diagnosed primary breast cancer patients were recruited as cases (n = 408); age matched controls (n = 408) were randomly selected from the general population. Data on required parameters were systematically collected using subjective and objective tools. Factor and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) techniques were used to extract women’s dietary patterns. Four dietary patterns were identified based on eigenvalue >1; (i) veg-ovo-fish, (ii) meat-fat-sweet, (iii) mix (milk and its products, and gourds vegetables) and (iv) lentils - spices. Results of the multiple regressions were displayed as adjusted odds ratio (Adj. OR) and their respective confidence intervals (95% CI). After adjusted for potential confounders, veg-ovo-fish dietary pattern was found to be robustly associated with a lower risk of breast cancer among women (Adj. OR: 0.68, 95%CI: (0.46-0.99, p<0.01). The study findings concluded that attachment to the diets majorly composed of fresh vegetables, and high quality protein sources may contribute in lowering the risk of breast cancer among women.

Keywords: breast cancer, dietary pattern, women, principal component analysis

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Authors: Sirus Mohammadi, Rohala Moghimi

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The main advantages of microgrids are high energy efficiency through the application of Combined Heat and Power (CHP), high quality and reliability of the delivered electric energy and environmental and economic advantages. This study presents an energy management system (EMS) to optimize the operation of the microgrid (MG). In this paper an Adaptive Modified Firefly Algorithm (AMFA) is presented for optimal operation of a typical MG with renewable energy sources (RESs) accompanied by a back-up Micro-Turbine/Fuel Cell/Battery hybrid power source to level the power mismatch or to store the energy surplus when it’s needed. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear constraint problem to minimize the total operating cost. The management of Energy storage system (ESS), economic load dispatch and operation optimization of distributed generation (DG) are simplified into a single-object optimization problem in the EMS. The proposed algorithm is tested on a typical grid-connected MG including WT/PV/Micro Turbine/Fuel Cell and Energy Storage Devices (ESDs) then its superior performance is compared with those from other evolutionary algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Fuzzy Self Adaptive PSO (FSAPSO), Chaotic Particle PSO (CPSO), Adaptive Modified PSO (AMPSO), and Firefly Algorithm (FA).

Keywords: microgrid, operation management, optimization, firefly algorithm (AMFA)

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Authors: Abdullah Alharbi

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Purpose: This research seeks to take a holistic strategic evaluation of the thermal power plants in Kuwait at both policy and technical level in order to allow a systematic retrofitting program. The new world order in energy generation and consumption demand that sources of energy can safeguard the use of natural resources and generate minimal impacts on the environment. For Kuwait, the energy used per capita is mainly associated with desalination plants. The overall impact of thermal power plant installations manifests indisposed of seawater and the health of marine life. Design/methodology/approach: The research adopts a case study based evaluation of performance data and documents of thermal plant installations in Kuwait. Findings: Research findings on the performance of existing thermal plants demand policy benchmarking with internationally acceptable standards in order to create clarity on decisions regarding demolition, retrofitting, or renewal. Research implications: This research has the potential to strategically inform and influence the piecemeal changes to power plants, including the replacement of power generation equipment, considering the varied technologies for thermal plants. Originality/value: This research provides evidence based data that can be useful for influencing operational efficiency after a holistic evaluation of existing capacity in comparison with future demands.

Keywords: energy, Kuwait, performance, stainability, tracking, thermal plant

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Authors: Uğur Çakir, Erol Şahin, Kemal Çomakli, Ayşegül Çokgez Kuş

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Solar energy is thought as main source of all energy sources on the world and it can be used in many applications like agricultural areas, heating cooling or direct electricity production directly or indirectly. Greenhousing is the first one of the agricultural activities that solar energy can be used directly in. Greenhouses offer us suitable conditions which can be controlled easily for the growth of the plant and they are made by using a covering material that allows the sun light entering into the system. Covering material can be glass, fiber glass, plastic or another transparent element. This study investigates the solar energy usability rates and solar energy benefiting rates of a semi-spherical (modified arch) type greenhouse system according to different orientations and positions which exists under climatic conditions of Bayburt. In the concept of this study it is tried to determine the best direction and best sizes of a semi-spherical greenhouse to get best solar benefit from the sun. To achieve this aim a modeling study is made by using MATLAB. However this modeling study is running for some determined shapes and greenhouses it can be used for different shaped greenhouses or buildings. The basic parameters are determined as greenhouse azimuth angle, the rate of size of long edge to short and seasonal solar energy gaining of greenhouse.

Keywords: greenhousing, solar energy, direct radiation, renewable energy

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Authors: Hafizah Che Hasan, Fateen Nazwa Yusof, Maslina Daud

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Internet of Things (IoT) is a powerful industry system, which end-devices are interconnected and automated, allowing the devices to analyze data and execute actions based on the analysis. The IoT technology leverages the technology of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), including mobile and sensor. These technologies contribute to the evolution of IoT. However, due to more devices are connected each other in the Internet, and data from various sources exchanged between things, confidentiality of the data becomes a major concern. This paper focuses on one of the major challenges in IoT; authentication, in order to preserve data integrity and confidentiality are in place. A few solutions are reviewed based on papers from the last few years. One of the proposed solutions is securing the communication between IoT devices and cloud servers with Elliptic Curve Cryptograhpy (ECC) based mutual authentication protocol. This solution focuses on Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) cookies as security parameter.  Next proposed solution is using keyed-hash scheme protocol to enable IoT devices to authenticate each other without the presence of a central control server. Another proposed solution uses Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) based mutual authentication protocol. It emphasizes on tamper resistant and resource-efficient technology, which equals a 3-way handshake security protocol.

Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), authentication, PUF ECC, keyed-hash scheme protocol

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Authors: Abhinav Sirvaiya, Karan Gupta, Pankaj Garg

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The demand of energy is increasing at every part of the world. Thus, use of fossil fuel is efficient which results in large liberation of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. Tons of this CO2 raises the risk of dangerous climate changes. To minimize the risk carbon capture and storage (CCS) has to be used so that the emitted carbon dioxide do not reach the atmosphere. CCS is being considered as one of the options that could have a major role to play in India.With the growing awareness towards the global warming, carbon capture and sequestration has a great importance. New technologies and theories are in use to capture CO2. This paper contains the methodology and technologies that is in use to capture carbon dioxide in India. The present scenario of CCS is also being discussed. CCS is playing a major role in enhancing recovery of oil (ERO). Both the purpose 1) minimizing percentage of carbon dioxide in atmosphere and 2) enhancing recovery of oil are fulfilled from the CCS. The CO2 is usually captured from coal based power plant and from some industrial sources and then stored in the geological formations like oil and gas reservoir and deep aquifers or in oceans. India has large reservoirs of coal which are being used for storing CO2, as coal is a good absorbent of CO2. New technologies and studies are going on for injection purposes. Government has initiated new plans for CCS as CCS is technically feasible and economically attractive. A discussion is done on new schemes that should bring up CCS plans and approaches. Stakeholders are welcomed for suitability of CCS. There is still a need to potentially capture the CO2 and avail its storage in developing country like India.

Keywords: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), carbon dioxide (CO2), enhance oil recovery, geological formations, stakeholders

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Authors: Julie A. Baldwin, Robert T. Trotter, Mark Remiker, C. Loren Buck, Amanda Aguirre, Trudie Milner, Emma Torres, Frank A. von Hippel

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Introduction: In the past, there have been concerns about contaminants in the water sources in Yuma, Arizona, including the Colorado River. Prolonged exposure to contaminants, such as perchlorate and heavy metals, can lead to deleterious health effects in humans. This project examined the association between the concentration of environmental contaminants and patient health outcomes in Yuma residents, using a community-engaged approach to data collection. Methods: A community-engaged design allowed community partners and researchers to establish joint research goals, recruit participants, collect data, and formulate strategies for dissemination of findings. Key informant interviews were conducted to evaluate adherence to models of community-based research. Results: The training needs, roles, and expectations of community partners varied based on available resources, prior research experience, and perceived research challenges and ways to address them. Conclusions: Leveraging community-engaged approaches for studies of environmental contamination in marginalized communities can expedite recruitment efforts and stimulate action that can lead to improved community health.

Keywords: community engaged research, environmental contaminants, underserved populations, health equity

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Authors: Ivan Ramos Sampe Immanuel, Linung Kresno Adikusumo, Liston Sitanggang

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Achieving the production targets of oil and gas in an upstream oil and gas company represents a complex undertaking necessitating collaborative engagement from a multidisciplinary team. In addition to conducting exploration activities and executing well intervention programs, an upstream oil and gas enterprise must assess the feasibility of attaining predetermined production goals. The monitoring of production performance serves as a critical activity to ensure organizational progress towards the established oil and gas performance targets. Subsequently, decisions within the upstream oil and gas management team are informed by the received information pertaining to the respective production performance. To augment the decision-making process, the implementation of a production performance dashboard emerges as a viable solution, providing an integrated and centralized tool. The deployment of a production performance dashboard manifests as an instrumental mechanism fostering a user-friendly interface for monitoring production performance, while concurrently preserving the intrinsic characteristics of granular data. The integration of diverse data sources into a unified production performance dashboard establishes a singular veritable source, thereby enhancing the organization's capacity to uphold a consolidated and authoritative foundation for its business requisites. Additionally, the heightened accessibility of the production performance dashboard to business users constitutes a compelling substantiation of its consequential impact on facilitating the monitoring of organizational targets.

Keywords: production, performance, dashboard, data analytics

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Authors: Leandro Marcos Alves Vaz

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In this article, we analyze the different approaches to the topic Magnetism of Matter in physics textbooks of Brazilian schools. For this, we compared the approach to the concepts of the magnetic characteristics of materials (diamagnetism, paramagnetism, ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism) in different sources of information and in different levels of education, from Higher Education to High School. In this sense, we used as reference the theory of the Didactic Transposition of Yves Chevallard, a French educational theorist, who conceived in his theory three types of knowledge – Scholarly Knowledge, Knowledge to be taught and Taught Knowledge – related to teaching practice. As a research methodology, from the reading of the works used in teacher training and those destined to basic education students, we compared the treatment of a higher education physics book, a scientific article published in a Brazilian journal of the educational area, and four high school textbooks, in order to establish in which there is a greater or lesser degree of approximation with the knowledge produced by the scholars – scholarly knowledge – or even with the knowledge to be taught (to that found in books intended for teaching). Thus, we evaluated the level of proximity of the subjects conveyed in high school and higher education, as well as the relevance that some textbook authors give to the theme.

Keywords: Brazilian physics books, didactic transposition, magnetism of matter, teaching of physics

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Authors: Steven D. P. Moore

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An electrical discharge in the air induces an electromagnetic (EM) wave capable of wireless transfer, reception, and conversion back into electrical discharge at a distant location. Following Norton’s ground wave principles, EM wave radiation (EMR) runs parallel to the Earth’s surface. Energy in an EMR wave can move through the air and be focused to create a spark at a distant location, focused by a receiver to generate a local electrical discharge. This local discharge can be amplified and stored but also has the propensity to initiate another EMR wave. In addition to typical EM waves, lightning is also associated with atmospheric events, trans-ionospheric pulse pairs, the most powerful natural EMR signal on the planet. With each lightning strike, regardless of global position, it generates naturally occurring pulse-pairs that are emitted towards space within a narrow cone. An EMR wave can self-propagate, travel at the speed of light, and, if polarized, contain vector properties. If this reflective pulse could be directed by design through structures that have increased probabilities for lighting strikes, it could theoretically travel near the surface of the Earth at light speed towards a selected receiver for local transformation into electrical energy. Through research, there are several influencing parameters that could be modified to model, test, and increase the potential for adopting this technology towards the goal of developing a global grid that utilizes natural sources of energy.

Keywords: electricity, sparkgap, wireless, electromagnetic

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Authors: Nisha Gaur, K.Narasimhulu, Pydi Setty Yelamarthy

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Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have become a great concern due to their toxicity, transformation and bioaccumulation property. Therefore, this review highlights the types, sources, classification health hazards and mobility of organochlorine pesticides, industrial chemicals and their by-products. Moreover, with the signing of Aarhus and Stockholm convention on POPs there is an increased demand to identify and characterise such chemicals from industries and environment which are toxic in nature or to existing biota. Due to long life, persistent nature they enter into body through food and transfer to all tropic levels of ecological unit. In addition, POPs are lipophilic in nature and accumulate in lipid-containing tissues and organs which further indicates the adverse symptoms after the threshold limit. Though, several potential enzymes are reported from various categories of microorganism and their interaction with POPs may break down the complex compounds either through biodegradation, biostimulation or bioaugmentation process, however technological advancement and human activities have also indicated to explore the possibilities for the role of genetically modified organisms and metagenomics and metabolomics. Though many studies have been done to develop low cost, effective and reliable method for detection, determination and removal of ultra-trace concentration of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) but due to insufficient knowledge and non-feasibility of technique, the safe management of POPs is still a global challenge.

Keywords: persistent organic pollutants, bioaccumulation, biostimulation, microbial remediation

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Authors: Ikudayisi Akinola, Adeyemo Folasade, Adeyemo Josiah

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This study focuses on the hydro-geology and chemistry of Ikogosi Warm Spring in South West Nigeria. Ikogosi warm spring is a global tourist attraction because it has both warm and cold spring sources. Water samples from the cold spring, warm spring and the meeting point were collected, analyzed and the result shows close similarity in temperature, hydrogen iron concentration (pH), alkalinity, hardness, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Iron, total dissolved solid and heavy metals. The measured parameters in the water samples are within World Health Organisation standards for fresh water. The study of the geology of the warm spring reveals that the study area is underlain by a group of slightly migmatised to non-migmatised paraschists and meta-igneous rocks. The concentration levels of selected heavy metals, (Copper, Cadmium, Zinc, Arsenic and Cromium) were determined in the water (ppm) samples. Chromium had the highest concentration value of 1.52ppm (an average of 49.67%) and Cadmium had the lowest concentration with value of 0.15ppm (an average of 4.89%). Comparison of these results showed that, their mean levels are within the standard values obtained in Nigeria. It can be concluded that both warm and spring water are safe for drinking.

Keywords: cold spring, Ikogosi, melting point, warm spring, water samples

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Authors: Yuval Sinai

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As part of the historical, religious and cultural heritage of the Jewish people, Jewish law is part of the legal system in Israel, which is a Jewish and democratic state. The proper degree of use of Jewish law in judicial decisions is an issue that crops up in Israeli law from time to time. This was a burning question in the 1980s in the wake of the enactment of the Foundations of Law Act 1980, which declared Jewish heritage a supplementary legal method to Israeli law. The enactment of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty 1992, which decreed that the basic Israeli legal principles must be interpreted in light of the values of a Jewish and democratic state, marks a significant change in the impact of Judaism in the law created and applied by the courts. Both of these legislative developments revived the initiative to grant a central status to Jewish law within the state law. How should Jewish law be applied in Israel’s secular courts? This is not a simple question. It is not merely a question of identifying the relevant rule of Jewish law or tracing its development from the Talmud to modern times. Nor is it the same as asking how a rabbinic court would handle the issue. It is a matter of delicate judgment to distill out of the often conflicting Jewish law sources a rule that will fit into the existing framework of Israeli law so as to advance a policy that will best promote the interests of Israel’s society. We shall point out the occasional tensions between Jewish religious law and secular law, and introduce opinions as to how reconciliation of the two can best be achieved in light of Jewish legal tradition and in light of the reality in the modern State of Israel.

Keywords: law and religion, israel, jewish law, law and society

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Authors: Bruce G. Wilson

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The collection of municipal solid waste at the curbside is a complex operation that is repeated daily under varying circumstances around the world. There have been several attempts to develop Monte Carlo simulation models of the waste collection process dating back almost 50 years. Despite this long history, the use of simulation modeling as a planning or optimization tool for waste collection is still extremely limited in practice. Historically, simulation modeling of waste collection systems has been hampered by the limitations of computer hardware and software and by the availability of representative input data. This paper outlines the development of a Monte Carlo simulation model that overcomes many of the limitations contained in previous models. The model uses a general purpose simulation software program that is easily capable of modeling an entire waste collection network. The model treats the stops on a waste collection route as a queue of work to be processed by a collection vehicle (or server). Input data can be collected from a variety of sources including municipal geographic information systems, global positioning system recorders on collection vehicles, and weigh scales at transfer stations or treatment facilities. The result is a flexible model that is sufficiently robust that it can model the collection activities in a large municipality, while providing the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions on the collection route.

Keywords: modeling, queues, residential waste collection, Monte Carlo simulation

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Authors: Suhadiyana Hanapi, Alhassan Salami Tijani, W. A. N Wan Mohamed

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In this paper, a prototype PEM fuel cell vehicle integrated with a 1 kW air-blowing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack as a main power sources has been developed for a lightweight cruising vehicle. The test vehicle is equipped with a PEM fuel cell system that provides electric power to a brushed DC motor. This vehicle was designed to compete with industrial lightweight vehicle with the target of consuming least amount of energy and high performance. Individual variations in driving style have a significant impact on vehicle energy efficiency and it is well established from the literature. The primary aim of this study was to assesses the power and fuel consumption of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle operating at three difference driving technique (i.e. 25 km/h constant speed, 22-28 km/h speed range, 20-30 km/h speed range). The goal is to develop the best driving strategy to maximize performance and minimize fuel consumption for the vehicle system. The relationship between power demand and hydrogen consumption has also been discussed. All the techniques can be evaluated and compared on broadly similar terms. Automatic intelligent controller for driving prototype fuel cell vehicle on different obstacle while maintaining all systems at maximum efficiency was used. The result showed that 25 km/h constant speed was identified for optimal driving with less fuel consumption.

Keywords: prototype fuel cell electric vehicles, energy efficient, control/driving technique, fuel economy

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Authors: Ikram Kamal, Mohamed Blaghen

Abstract:

Biosurfactants are amphiphilic biological compounds consisting of hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains produced extracellularly or as part of the cell membrane by a variety of yeast, bacteria and filamentous fungi. Biosurfactant applications in the environmental industries are promising due to their biodegradability, low toxicity, and effectiveness in enhancing biodegradation and solubilization of low solubility compounds. Currently, the main application is for enhancement of oil recovery and hydrocarbon bioremediation due to their biodegradability and low critical micelle concentration (CMC). The use of biosurfactants has also been proposed for various industrial applications, such as in food additives, cosmetics, detergent formulations and in combinations with enzymes for wastewater treatment. In this study, we have investigated the potential of bacterial strains: Mannheimia haemolytica, Burkholderia cepacia and Serratia ficaria were collected aseptically from the lagoon Marchika (water and soil) in Nador, Morocco; for the production of biosurfactants. This study also aimed to optimize the biosurfactant production process by changing the variables that influence the type and amount of biosurfactant produced by these microorganisms such as: carbon sources and also other physical and chemical parameters such as temperature and pH. Emulsification index, methylene blue test, and thin layer chromatography (TLC) revealed the ability of strains used in this study to produce compounds that could emulsify gasoline. In addition, a GC/MS was used to separate and identify different biosurfactants purified.

Keywords: biosurfactants, Mannheimia haemolytica, biodegradability, Burkholderia cepacia, Serratia ficaria

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Authors: Benguerine Zohra, Merzak Siham, Pr. Chelghoum

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Introduction: The widespread production and consumption of antibiotics have raised significant concerns due to various adverse effects and the development of bacterial resistance. This increasing resistance to currently available antibiotics necessitates the search for new antibacterial agents. One alternative strategy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria is the use of natural antimicrobial substances such as plant extracts. This study aims to provide an overview of the antibacterial effects of Salvia officinalis (sage), a plant native to the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. Materials and Methods: This review was conducted by searching studies in databases such as PubMed, Scopus, JSTOR, and SpringerLink. The search terms were “Salvia officinalis L.” and “antibacterial effects.” Only studies that met our inclusion criteria (in English, focusing on the antibacterial effects of Salvia officinalis L., and primarily dated from 2012 to 2023) were considered for further review. Results and Discussion: The initial search strategy identified approximately 78 references, of which only 13 articles were included in this review. The synthesis of these articles revealed that multiple data sources confirm the antimicrobial effects of S. officinalis. Its essential oil and alcoholic extract exhibit strong bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Conclusion: The significant value of the extract, oil, and leaves of S. officinalis demands further studies on other useful and unknown properties of this multipurpose plant.

Keywords: salvia officinalis, literature review, antibacterial., botany

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Authors: Sirajoddeen Al-Ameen

Abstract:

Researchers seek to introduce development leading to technologies that address environmental problems and learn how to interact with stakeholders, managers, and policymakers for appropriate actions. One of the greatest strategies that African countries need to consider in realizing sustainable development is effective, efficient, credible, and lasting environmental sustainability and ensuring that future generations have access to natural resources to live in a better way. Therefore the coordinated set of participatory and continuously improving processes of analysis, capacity, planning, and investment seeks to integrate the social and environmental objectives of society, and this is not given priority in Nigeria. Environmental sustainability is a field where people can understand the natural environment and public works for sustainable development. Sustainable development requires shifts from ordinary ways of doing things to modern ways of executing activities ranging from low to high productivity, the creation and adoption of new strategies, new skills, and knowledge. It ensures a developed world with a secure and healthy environment for all; human beings, animals, and plants alike. This paper is to carry out a review of various literature sources to ascertain the potential strategy of environment and sustainable development reform using the content analysis method to discuss the environmental strategies towards sustainable development in Nigeria. The objective of this paper is to enable Nigerians to understand and have an orientation on how to manage environmental resources and avoid environmental impact on the ecosystem, and also to find sustainable solutions for environmental issues without compromising economic development.

Keywords: development, environment, strategies, sustainable

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Authors: Mohamed Noureldin, Jinkoo Kim

Abstract:

The sensitivity of the seismic response parameters to the uncertain modeling variables of pile-founded fixed steel jacket platforms are investigated using tornado diagram, first-order second-moment, and static pushover analysis techniques. The effects of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty on seismic response parameters have been investigated for an existing offshore platform. The sources of uncertainty considered in the present study are categorized into three different categories: the uncertainties associated with the soil-pile modeling parameters in clay soil, the platform jacket structure modeling parameters, and the uncertainties related to ground motion excitations. It has been found that the variability in parameters such as yield strength or pile bearing capacity has almost no effect on the seismic response parameters considered, whereas the global structural response is highly affected by the ground motion uncertainty. Also, some uncertainty in soil-pile property such as soil-pile friction capacity has a significant impact on the response parameters and should be carefully modeled. Based on the results, it is highlighted that which uncertain parameters should be considered carefully and which can be assumed with reasonable engineering judgment during the early structural design stage of fixed steel jacket platforms.

Keywords: fixed jacket offshore platform, pile-soil structure interaction, sensitivity analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 375