Search results for: goal clusters

Authors: Medani Prasad Rijal

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Forest itself is a factory as well as product. It supplies tangible and intangible goods and services. It supplies timber, fuel wood, fodder, grass leaf litter as well as non timber edible goods and medicinal and aromatic products additionally provides environmental services. These environmental services are of local, national or even global importance. In Nepal, more than 19 thousands community forests are providing environmental service in less economic benefit than actual efficiency. There is a risk of cost of management of those forest exceeds benefits and forests get converted to open access resources in future. Most of the environmental goods and services do not have markets which mean no prices at which they are available to the consumers, therefore the valuation of these services goods and services establishment of paying mechanism for such services and insure the benefit to community is more relevant in local as well as global scale. There are few examples of carbon trading in domestic level to meet the country wide emission goal. In this contest, the study aims to explore the public attitude towards carbon offsetting and their responsibility over service providers. This study helps in promotion of environment service awareness among general people, service provider and community forest. The research helps to unveil the carbon pool scenario in community forest and willingness to pay for carbon offsetting of people who are consuming more energy than general people and emitting relatively more carbon in atmosphere. The study has assessed the carbon pool status in two community forest and valuated carbon service from community forest through willingness to pay in Dharan municipality situated in eastern. In the study, in two community forests carbon pools were assessed following the guideline “Forest Carbon Inventory Guideline 2010” prescribed by Ministry of Forest and soil Conservation, Nepal. Final outcomes of analysis in intensively managed area of Hokse CF recorded as 103.58 tons C /ha with 6173.30 tons carbon stock. Similarly in Hariyali CF carbon density was recorded 251.72 mg C /ha. The total carbon stock of intensively managed blocks in Hariyali CF is 35839.62 tons carbon.

Keywords: carbon, offsetting, sequestration, valuation, willingness to pay

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Authors: Rania Hanafi Mahmoud Said, Rasha Mohamed Taha

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Background: The use of nanoparticles for medication delivery offers the possibility of avoiding the negative effects of systemic antibiotic dosing as well as antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Aim of the study: The goal of this study was to see the efficiency of local administration of tetracycline loaded on nano chitosan in the treatment of the induced infection of the albino rats gingiva with Porphyromonas gingivalis through Immunohistochemical localization of Interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) as a proinflammatory cytokine.Material and methods: Fifty adult male albino rats 150 - 180 grams body weight used in this investigation. Any changes in rats’ weights were detected. The male albino rats were divided haphazardly into five groups as Group I involved ten rats; they served as a normal negative control group. Group II involved ten rats; they were infected once with P.gingivalis that was injected into the interdental gingiva. Group III involved ten rats; they were subjected to the same procedure as group II and then to daily injection at the site of infection with diluted tetracycline powder. Group IV involved ten rats; they were subjected to the same procedure as group II and then to daily injection of nano Chitosan at the site of injection. Group V involved ten rats; they were subjected to the same procedure as group II and then to daily injection of tetracycline loaded on nano Chitosan at the site of injection. After rats had been euthanized, the extraction and preparation of their gingiva were carried out in order to examine histologically and immunohistochemically. Results: The light microscopic results of groups II, III, and IV showed degeneration represented by swollen epithelial cells, collagen fibers dissociation of the connective tissue of lamina propria, and areas of basement membrane discontinuation, while groups I and V showed an almost normal histological picture of gingival tissue. Immunohistochemical results showed a significant difference in Group II and III when compared to control. No significant difference appears in group V when compared to the control (group I). Conclusion: Using nanochitosan as a carrier for tetracycline is a new technology to get over the increasing resistance of tetracycline.

Keywords: immunohistochemistry, P.gingivalis, nano-chitosan, tetracycline, periodontitis

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Authors: Leijun Zhang

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Reading literacy has become a powerful tool for academic success and an essential goal of education. The ability to read is not only fundamental for pupils’ academic success but also a prerequisite for successful participation in today’s vastly expanding multi-literate textual environment. It is also important to recognize that, in many educational settings, students are expected to learn a foreign/second language for successful participation in the increasingly globalized world. Therefore, it is crucial to help learners become skilled foreign-language readers. Research indicates that students’ reading comprehension can be significantly improved through explicit instruction of multiple reading strategies. Despite the wealth of research on how to enhance learners’ reading comprehension achievement by identifying an enormous range of reading strategies and techniques for assisting students in comprehending specific texts, relatively scattered studies have centered on whether these reading comprehension strategies and techniques are used in classrooms, especially in Chinese academic settings. Given the central role of ‘the teacher’ in reading instruction, the study investigates the degree of importance that EFL teachers attach to reading comprehension strategies and their classroom employment of those strategies in secondary schools in China. It also explores the efficiency of reading strategy instruction on pupils’ reading comprehension performance. As a mix-method study, the analysis drew on data from a quantitative survey and interviews with seven teachers. The study revealed that the EFL teachers had positive attitudes toward the use of cognitive strategies despite their insufficient knowledge about and limited attention to the metacognitive strategies and supporting strategies. Regarding the selection of reading strategies for instruction, the mandated curriculum and high-stakes examinations, text features and demands, teaching preparation programs and their own EFL reading experiences were the major criteria in their responses, while few teachers took into account the learner needs in their choice of reading strategies. Although many teachers agreed upon the efficiency of reading strategy instruction in developing students’ reading comprehension competence, three challenges were identified in their implementation of the strategy instruction. The study provides some insights into reading strategy instruction in EFL contexts and proposes implications for curriculum innovation, teacher professional development, and reading instruction research.

Keywords: reading comprehension strategies, EFL reading instruction, language teacher cognition, teacher education

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Authors: Raquel Galante, Marina Braga, Daniela Ghisleni, Terezinha J. A. Pinto, Rogério Colaço, Ana Paula Serro

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The sensitive nature of soft biomaterials, such as hydrogels, renders their sterilization a particularly challenging task for the biomedical industry. Widely used contact lenses are now studied as promising platforms for topical corneal drug delivery. However, to the best of the authors knowledge, the influence of sterilization methods on these systems has yet to be evaluated. The main goal of this study was to understand how different pairs drug-hydrogel would interact under an ozone-based sterilization method in comparison with two conventional processes (steam heat and gamma irradiation). For that, Si-Hy containing hydroxylethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and [tris(trimethylsiloxy)silyl]propyl methacrylate (TRIS) was produced and soaked in different drug solutions, commonly used for the treatment of ocular diseases (levofloxacin, chlorhexidine, diclofenac and timolol maleate). The drug release profiles and main material properties were evaluated before and after the sterilization. Namely, swelling capacity was determined by water uptake studies, transparency was accessed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, surface topography/morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mechanical properties by performing tensile tests. The drug released was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The effectiveness of the sterilization procedures was assured by performing sterility tests. Ozone gas method led to a significant reduction of drug released and to the formation of degradation products specially for diclofenac and levofloxacin. Gamma irradiation led to darkening of the loaded Si-Hys and to the complete degradation of levofloxacin. Steam heat led to smoother surfaces and to a decrease of the amount of drug released, however, with no formation of degradation products. This difference in the total drug released could be the related to drug/polymer interactions promoted by the sterilization conditions in presence of the drug. Our findings offer important insights that, in turn, could be a useful contribution to the safe development of actual products.

Keywords: drug delivery, silicone hydrogels, sterilization, gamma irradiation, steam heat, ozone gas

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Authors: Fernando Valerio-Holguin

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Over the recent three decades, the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic has had an enormous impact on the country’s culture. The arrival of tourists from Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States has rewritten Dominican cultural identity and created a cultural palimpsest in the areas of language, gastronomy, habits, fashion, values, and gender relations. As a consequence of tourism, a prostitution network has flourished across the country. In the film Sand Dollars (2015) directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, Noelí (Janet Mojica), a young mulatto woman, altogether with her boyfriend (Ricardo Ariel Toribio), strips tourists of dollars and euro through prostitution. One of her frequent clients is Anne, a mature French woman (Geraldine Chaplin). While Noeli’s goal is to get all the euros she can, Anne falls in love with her and tries to bring her to France. Both the content of the film and its cinematographic languages are analyzed in light of theory of coloniality. This concept shows how European and American tourism, through the power of money, perpetuates colonial discourse, i. e., how race and ethnocentrism permeate cultural activities in their former colonies. Moreover, in the content analysis of the film the concepts of exchange value and fetishism are crucial to understanding how the colonial body becomes sexual commodity. They facilitate grasping the film’s inequity in terms of power in the relationship between the two women: the white old European woman and the young, poor, third-world mulatta. Even though the film attempts to break away from compulsory heterosexuality, the power relation between the two women persists due to the presence of the axis of race, ethnicity, age and gender. Both the novel Les dollars des sables written by Jean-Noel Pancrazi, and the film Sand Dollars offer an interesting insight into sex tourism and coloniality and shed additional light on the power relations between the former colonizers and its colonies.

Keywords: coloniality, ethnocentrism, exchange value, Europe, fetishism, money, power, prostitution, sex tourism, United States of America

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Authors: Randall E. Osborne

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A four-step ‘humanities’ thought model has been used in an interdisciplinary course for almost two decades and has been proven to aid in student abilities to become more inclusive in their world view. Lack of tolerance for ambiguity can interfere with this progression so we developed an assignment that seems to have assisted students in developing more tolerance for ambiguity and, therefore, opened them up to make more progress on the critical thought model. A four-step critical thought model (built from a humanities education approach) is used in an interdisciplinary course on prejudice, discrimination, and hate in an effort to minimize egocentrism and promote sociocentrism in college students. A fundamental barrier to this progression is a lack of tolerance for ambiguity. The approach to the course is built on the assumption that Tolerance for Ambiguity (characterized by a dislike of uncertain, ambiguous or situations in which expected behaviors are uncertain, will like serve as a barrier (if tolerance is low) or facilitator (if tolerance is high) of active ‘engagement’ with assignments. Given that active engagement with course assignments would be necessary to promote an increase in critical thought and the degree of multicultural attitude change, tolerance for ambiguity inhibits critical thinking and, ultimately multicultural attitude change. As expected, those students showing the least amount of decrease (or even an increase) in intolerance across the semester, earned lower grades in the course than those students who showed a significant decrease in intolerance, t(1,19) = 4.659, p < .001. Students who demonstrated the most change in their Tolerance for Ambiguity (showed an increasing ability to tolerate ambiguity) earned the highest grades in the course. This is, especially, significant because faculty did not know student scores on this measure until after all assignments had been graded and course grades assigned. An assignment designed to assist students in making their assumption and inferences processes visible so they could be explored, was implemented with the goal of this exploration then promoting more tolerance for ambiguity, which, as already outlined, promotes critical thought. The assignment offers students two options and then requires them to explore what they have learned about inferences and/or assumptions This presentation outlines the assignment and demonstrates the humanities model, what students learn from particular assignments and how it fosters a change in Tolerance for Ambiguity which, serves as the foundational component of critical thinking.

Keywords: critical thinking, humanities education, sociocentrism, tolerance for ambiguity

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Authors: Md Mizanur Rahman, Lotanna Micah Nneji, Adeola C. Adeniyi, Edem Archibong Eniang, Abiodun B. Onadeko, Felista Kasyoka Kilunda, Babatunde E. Adedeji, Ifeanyi C. Nneji, Adiaha A. A. Ugwumba, Jie-Qiong Jin, Min-Sheng Peng, Caroline Olory, Nsikan Eninekit, Jing Che

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Nigeria contains a number of forest habitats that believed to host highly rich amphibian diversity. However, a dearth of herpetological studies has restricted information on the amphibian diversity in Nigeria. To cover the gap of knowledge, this study focused field surveys on relatively less studied forests–Afi Forest Reserve and Ikpan forest ecosystem. The goal of this study is to make a checklist and to investigate the habitat preferences of amphibians in these two forests. The study areas were surveyed between August 2018 and July 2019 following visual and acoustic methods. Individuals were identified using the morphological and molecular (16S ribosomal RNA) approach. Literature searches were conducted to document additional species that were not encountered during the current field surveys. Using the observational records and arrays of diversity indices, the patterns of species richness and abundance across habitat types were evaluated. Voucher specimens and tissue samples were deposited in the museums of the Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan Nigeria, and the remainder at the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China. The result of this study revealed the presence of 30 and 31 amphibian species from the Afi Forest Reserve and the Ikpan Forest Ecosystem, respectively. There were two unidentified species from AFR and one from IFE. In total, 324 individuals of amphibian species were observed from the two study areas. Forest and swamps showed high species diversity and richness than the agricultural field and savannah. Savannah and agricultural fields had the highest similarity in the species composition. Given the increased human disturbances and consequent threats to these forests, this study offers recommendations for the initiation of conservation plans immediately.

Keywords: biodiversity, conservation, cryptic species, ecology, integrated taxonomy, species inventory

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Authors: Christiane Dumont

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This paper proposes to revisit foreign-language learning as a tool to increase motivation through advocacy and develop effective natural communication skills, which are critical leadership qualities. To this end, collaborative initiatives undertaken by advanced university students of French with local and international community partners will be reviewed. Close attention will be paid to the acquisition of intercultural skills, the reflective process, as well as the challenges and outcomes. Two international development projects conducted in Haiti will be highlighted, i.e., collaboration with a network of providers in the Haitian cultural heritage preservation and tourism sector (2014-15) and development of investigation and teacher training tools for a primary/secondary school in the Port-au-Prince area (current). The choice of community-service learning as a framework to teach French-as-a-second-language stemmed from the need to raise awareness against stereotypes and prejudice, which hinder the development of effective intercultural skills. This type of experiential education also proved very effective in identifying and preventing miscommunication caused by the lack of face-to-face interaction in our increasingly technology-mediated world. Learners experienced first-hand, the challenges and advantages of face-to-face communication, which, in turn, enhanced their motivation for developing effective intercultural skills. Vygotsky's and Kolb's theories, current research on service learning (Dwight, Eyler), action/project-based pedagogy (Beckett), and reflective learning (TSC Farrell), will provide useful background to analyze the benefits and challenges of community-service learning. The ultimate goal of this paper is to find out what makes experiential learning truly unique and transformative for both the learners and the community they wish to serve. It will demonstrate how enhanced motivation, community engagement, and clear, concise, and respectful communication impact and empower learners. The underlying hope is to help students in high-profile, and leading-edge industries become effective global leaders.

Keywords: experiential learning, intercultural communication, reflective learning, effective leadership, learner motivation

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Authors: T. Almutairi, K. Naudi, N. Nairn, X. Ju, B. Eng, J. Whitters, A. Ayoub

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Purpose: At present Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) imaging does not record dental morphology accurately due to the scattering produced by metallic restorations and the reported magnification. The aim of this pilot study is the development and validation of a new method for the replacement of the distorted dentition of CBCT scans with the dental image captured by the digital intraoral camera. Materials and Method: Six dried skulls with orthodontics brackets on the teeth were used in this study. Three intra-oral markers made of dental stone were constructed which were attached to orthodontics brackets. The skulls were CBCT scanned, and occlusal surface was captured using TRIOS® 3D intraoral scanner. Marker based and surface based registrations were performed to fuse the digital intra-oral scan(IOS) into the CBCT models. This produced a new composite digital model of the skull and dentition. The skulls were scanned again using the commercially accurate Laser Faro® arm to produce the 'gold standard' model for the assessment of the accuracy of the developed method. The accuracy of the method was assessed by measuring the distance between the occlusal surfaces of the new composite model and the 'gold standard' 3D model of the skull and teeth. The procedure was repeated a week apart to measure the reproducibility of the method. Results: The results showed no statistically significant difference between the measurements on the first and second occasions. The absolute mean distance between the new composite model and the laser model ranged between 0.11 mm to 0.20 mm. Conclusion: The dentition of the CBCT can be accurately replaced with the dental image captured by the intra-oral scanner to create a composite model. This method will improve the accuracy of orthognathic surgical prediction planning, with the final goal of the fabrication of a physical occlusal wafer without to guide orthognathic surgery and eliminate the need for dental impression.

Keywords: orthognathic surgery, superimposition, models, cone beam computed tomography

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Authors: Shih-Ping Liu, Cheng-Hsuan Chang, Yu-Chuen Huang, Shih-Yin Chen, Woei-Cherng Shyu

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Embryonic stem cells (ES) and induced pluripotnet stem cells (iPS) are both pluripotent stem cells. For mouse stem cells culture technology, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) was used to maintain the pluripotency of stem cells in vitro. However, LIF is an expensive reagent. The goal of this study was to find out a pure compound extracted from Chinese herbal medicine that could maintain stem cells pluripotency to replace LIF and improve the iPS generation efficiency. From 20 candidates traditional Chinese medicine we found that Cordycepsmilitaris triggered the up-regulation of stem cells activating genes (Oct4 and Sox2) expression levels in MEF cells. Cordycepin, a major active component of Cordycepsmilitaris, also could up-regulate Oct4 and Sox2 gene expression. Furthermore, we used ES and iPS cells and treated them with different concentrations of Cordycepin (replaced LIF in the culture medium) to test whether it was useful to maintain the pluripotency. The results showed higher expression levels of several stem cells markers in 10 μM Cordycepin-treated ES and iPS cells compared to controls that did not contain LIF, including alkaline phosphatase, SSEA1, and Nanog. Embryonic body formation and differentiation confirmed that 10 μM Cordycepin-containing medium was capable to maintain stem cells pluripotency after four times passages. For mechanism analysis, microarray analysis indicated extracellular matrix and Jak/Stat signaling pathway as the top two deregulated pathways. In ECM pathway, we determined that the integrin αVβ5 expression levels and phosphorylated Src levels increased after Cordycepin treatment. In addition, the phosphorylated Jak2 and phosphorylated Sat3 protein levels were increased after Cordycepin treatment and suppressed with the Jak2 inhibitor, AG490. The expression of cytokines associated with Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway were also up-regulated by Q-PCR and ELISA assay. Lastly, we used Oct4-GFP MEF cells to test iPS generation efficiency following Cordycepin treatment. We observed that 10 Μm Cordycepin significantly increased the iPS generation efficiency in day 21. In conclusion, we demonstrated Cordycepin could maintain the pluripotency of stem cells through both of ECM and Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway and improved iPS generation efficiency.

Keywords: cordycepin, iPS cells, Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway, molecular biology

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Authors: Kyra Kannen, Sonja D. Roelen, Sebastian Schnieder, Jarek Krajewski, Steffen Holsteg, André Karger, Johanna Askeridis, Celina Slawik, Philip Mildner, Jens Piesk, Ruslan David, Holger Kürten, Benjamin Oster, Robert Malzan, Mike Ludemann

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Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly recognized for its potential in transforming mental disorder treatment, offering advantages such as cost-effectiveness, time efficiency, accessibility, reduced stigma, and scalability. While the application of VR in the context of anxiety disorders has been extensively evaluated and demonstrated to be effective, the utilization of VR as a therapeutic treatment for depression remains under-investigated. Our goal is to pioneer immersive VR therapy modules for treating major depression, alongside a web-based system for home use. We develop a modular digital therapy platform grounded in psychodynamic therapy interventions which addresses stress reduction, exploration of social situations and relationship support, social skill training, avoidance behavior analysis, and psychoeducation. In addition, an automated depression monitoring system, based on acoustic voice analysis, is implemented in the form of a speech-based diary to track the affective state of the user and depression severity. The use of immersive VR facilitates patient immersion into complex and realistic interpersonal interactions with high emotional engagement, which may contribute to positive treatment acceptance and satisfaction. In a proof-of-concept study, 45 depressed patients were assigned to VR or web-platform modules, evaluating user experience, usability and additional metrics including depression severity, mindfulness, interpersonal problems, and treatment satisfaction. The findings provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and user-friendliness of VR and web modules for depression therapy and contribute to the refinement of more tailored digital interventions to improve mental health.

Keywords: virtual reality therapy, digital health, depression, psychotherapy

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Authors: Dhouibi Mohamed, Stirbu Bogdan, Chabotier André, Pirlot Marc

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Effects of erosion and wear on the performance of small caliber guns have been analyzed throughout numerical and experimental studies. Mainly, qualitative observations were performed. Correlations between the volume change of the chamber and the maximum pressure are limited. This paper focuses on the development of a numerical model to predict the maximum pressure evolution when the interior shape of the chamber changes in the different weapon’s life phases. To fulfill this goal, an experimental campaign, followed by a numerical simulation study, is carried out. Two test barrels, « 5.56x45mm NATO » and « 7.62x51mm NATO,» are considered. First, a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) with a contact scanning probe is used to measure the interior profile of the barrels after each 300-shots cycle until their worn out. Simultaneously, the EPVAT (Electronic Pressure Velocity and Action Time) method with a special WEIBEL radar are used to measure: (i) the chamber pressure, (ii) the action time, (iii) and the bullet velocity in each barrel. Second, a numerical simulation study is carried out. Thus, a coupled interior ballistic model is developed using the dynamic finite element program LS-DYNA. In this work, two different models are elaborated: (i) coupled Eularien Lagrangian method using fluid-structure interaction (FSI) techniques and a coupled thermo-mechanical finite element using a lumped parameter model (LPM) as a subroutine. Those numerical models are validated and checked through three experimental results, such as (i) the muzzle velocity, (ii) the chamber pressure, and (iii) the surface morphology of fired projectiles. Results show a good agreement between experiments and numerical simulations. Next, a comparison between the two models is conducted. The projectile motions, the dynamic engraving resistances and the maximum pressures are compared and analyzed. Finally, using this obtained database, a statistical correlation between the muzzle velocity, the maximum pressure and the chamber volume is established.

Keywords: engraving process, finite element analysis, gun barrel erosion, interior ballistics, statistical correlation

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Authors: Esam Mohammed Al-shaebi

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One of the most crucial approaches for treating human diseases, particularly parasite infections, is nanomedicine. One of the most significant protozoan diseases that impact farm and domestic animals is coccidiosis. While, amprolium is one of the traditional anticoccidial medication, the advent of drug-resistant strains of Eimeria necessitates the development of novel treatments. The goal of the current investigation was to determine whether biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles (Bio-SeNPs) using Azadirachta indica leaves extract might treat mice with Eimeria papillata infection in the jejunal tissue. Five groups of seven mice each were used, as follows: Group 1: Non-infected-non-treated (negative control). Group 2: Non-infected treated group with Bio-SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg of body weight). Groups 3-5 were orally inoculated with 1×103 sporulated oocysts of E. papillata. Group 3: Infected-non-treated (positive control). Group 4: Infected and treated group with Bio-SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg). Group 5: Infected and treated group with the Amprolium. Groups 4 and 5 daily received oral administration (for 5 days) of Bio-SeNPs and anticoccidial medication, respectively, after infection. Bio-SeNPs caused a considerable reduction in oocyst output in mice feces (97.21%). This was also accompanied by a significant reduction in the number of developmental parasitic stages in the jejunal tissues. Glutathione reduced (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were dramatically reduced by the Eimeria parasite, whereas, nitric oxide (NO) and malonaldehyde (MDA) levels were markedly elevated. The amount of goblet cells and MUC2 gene expression were used as apoptotic indicators, and both were considerably downregulated by infection. However, infection markedly increased the expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) and the apoptotic genes (Caspase-3 and BCL2). Bio-SeNPs were administrated to mice to drastically lower body weight, oxidative stress, and inflammatory and apoptotic indicators in the jejunal tissue. Our research thus showed the involvement of Bio-SeNPs in protecting mice with E. papillata infections against jejunal damage.

Keywords: coccidiosis, nanoparticles, azadirachta indica, oxidative stress

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Authors: Lancer Scott

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Purpose: High quality clinical disaster medicine requires providers working collaboratively to care for multiple patients in chaotic environments; however, many providers lack adequate training. To address this deficit, we created a competency-based, 5-hour Emergency Preparedness Training (EPT) curriculum using didactics, small-group discussion, and kinetic learning. The goal was to evaluate the effect of a short course on improving provider knowledge, confidence and skills in disaster scenarios. Methods: Diverse groups of medical university students, health care professionals, and community members were enrolled between 2011 and 2014. The course consisted of didactic lectures, small group exercises, and two live, multi-patient mass casualty incident (MCI) scenarios. The outcome measures were based on core competencies and performance objectives developed by a curriculum task force and assessed via trained facilitator observation, pre- and post-testing, and a course evaluation. Results: 708 participants completed were trained between November 2011 and August 2014, including 49.9% physicians, 31.9% medical students, 7.2% nurses, and 11% various other healthcare professions. 100% of participants completed the pre-test and 71.9% completed the post-test, with average correct answers increasing from 39% to 60%. Following didactics, trainees met 73% and 96% of performance objectives for the two small group exercises and 68.5% and 61.1% of performance objectives for the two MCI scenarios. Average trainee self-assessment of both overall knowledge and skill with clinical disasters improved from 33/100 to 74/100 (overall knowledge) and 33/100 to 77/100 (overall skill). The course assessment was completed by 34.3% participants, of whom 91.5% highly recommended the course. Conclusion: A relatively short, intensive EPT course can improve the ability of a diverse group of disaster care providers to respond effectively to mass casualty scenarios.

Keywords: clinical disaster medicine, training, hospital preparedness, surge capacity, education, curriculum, research, performance, training, student, physicians, nurses, health care providers, health care

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Authors: Rosa Tiziana Bruno

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The connection between education and sustainability has been posited to have benefit for realizing a social development compatible with environmental protection. However, an educational paradigm based on the passage of information or on the fear of a catastrophe might not favor the acquisition of eco-identity. To build a sustainable world, it is necessary to "become people" in harmony with other human beings, being aware of belonging to the same human community that is part of the natural world. This can only be achieved within an authentic educating community and the most effective tools for building educating communities are reading literacy and storytelling. This paper is the report of a research-action carried out in this direction, in agreement with the sociology department of the University of Salerno, which involved four hundred children and their teachers in a path based on the combination of reading literacy, storytelling, autobiographical writing and outdoor education. The goal of the research was to create an authentic educational community within the school, capable to encourage the acquisition of an eco-identity by the pupils, that is, personal and relational growth in the full realization of the Self, in harmony with the social and natural environment, with a view to an authentic education for sustainability. To ensure reasonable validity and reliability of findings, the inquiry started with participant observation and a process of triangulation has been used including: semi-structured interview, socio-semiotic analysis of the conversation and time budget. Basically, a multiple independent sources of data was used to answer the questions. Observing the phenomenon through multiple "windows" helped to comparing data through a variety of lenses. All teachers had the experience of implementing a socio-didactic strategy called "Fiabadiario" and they had the possibility to use it with approaches that fit their students. The data being collected come from the very students and teachers who are engaged with this strategy. The educational path tested during the research has produced sustainable relationships and conflict resolution within the school system and between school and families, creating an authentic and sustainable learning community.

Keywords: educating community, education for sustainability, literature in education, social relations

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Authors: Joy Debski

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Due to the varying degrees of the problem posed by global warming, environmental sustainability dominates international discourse. International initiatives' aims and expectations have proven particularly challenging to put into practice in developing nations. To reduce human exploitation of the environment, stricter measures are urgently needed. However, putting them into practice has proven more difficult. Relatively recent information from the Climate Accountability Institute and academic researchers shows that fossil fuel companies are major contributors to the climate crisis. Host communities in oil and gas-producing areas, particularly in developing nations, have grown hostile toward both oil and gas companies and government policies. It is now essential that the three main stakeholders—government, the oil and gas sector, and host communities—cooperate to achieve the shared objective of environmental sustainability. This research, therefore, advocates a governance system for Nigeria that facilitates the achieving the goal of environmental sustainability. This objective is achieved by the research's examination of the main institutional framework for environmental sustainability, evaluation of the strategies used by major oil companies to increase stakeholder engagement in environmental sustainability, and examination of the involvement of host communities in environmental sustainability. The study reveals that while environmental sustainability is important to the identified stakeholders, it's challenging to accomplish without an informed synergy. Hence the research advocates the centralisation of CSR through a CSR commission for environmental sustainability. The commission’s mandate is to facilitate, partner with, and endorse companies. The commission is strongly advised to incorporate host community liaison offices into the process of negotiating contracts with oil and gas firms, as well as to play a facilitative role in helping firms adhere to both domestic and international regulations. The recommendations can benefit Nigerian policymakers in enhancing their unsuccessful efforts to pass CSR legislation. Through the research-proposed CSR department, which has competent training and stakeholder engagement strategies, oil and gas companies can enhance and centralise their goals for environmental sustainability. Finally, the CSR Commission's expertise would give host communities more leverage when negotiating their memorandum of understanding with oil and gas companies.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, CSR, oil and gas, nigeria

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Authors: Sirajdin Olagoke Adeshina, Haidi Ibrahim, Akeem Salawu

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large lecture theatres cannot be covered by a single camera but rather by a multicamera setup because of their size, shape, and seating arrangements. Although, classroom capture is achievable through a single camera. Therefore, a design and implementation of a multicamera setup for a large lecture hall were considered. Researchers have shown emphasis on the impact of class attendance taken on the academic performance of students. However, the traditional method of carrying out this exercise is below standard, especially for large lecture theatres, because of the student population, the time required, sophistication, exhaustiveness, and manipulative influence. An automated large classroom attendance system is, therefore, imperative. The common approach in this system is face detection and recognition, where known student faces are captured and stored for recognition purposes. This approach will require constant face database updates due to constant changes in the facial features. Alternatively, face counting can be performed by cropping the localized faces on the video or image into a folder and then count them. This research aims to develop a face localization-based approach to detect student faces in classroom images captured using a multicamera setup. A selected Haar-like feature cascade face detector trained with an asymmetric goal to minimize the False Rejection Rate (FRR) relative to the False Acceptance Rate (FAR) was applied on Raspberry Pi 4B. A relationship between the two factors (FRR and FAR) was established using a constant (λ) as a trade-off between the two factors for automatic adjustment during training. An evaluation of the proposed approach and the conventional AdaBoost on classroom datasets shows an improvement of 8% TPR (output result of low FRR) and 7% minimization of the FRR. The average learning speed of the proposed approach was improved with 1.19s execution time per image compared to 2.38s of the improved AdaBoost. Consequently, the proposed approach achieved 97% TPR with an overhead constraint time of 22.9s compared to 46.7s of the improved Adaboost when evaluated on images obtained from a large lecture hall (DK5) USM.

Keywords: automatic attendance, face detection, haar-like cascade, manual attendance

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Authors: Hana Barak, Alex Sivan, Ariel Kushmaro

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Microorganisms are the most diverse and abundant life forms on Earth and account for a large portion of the Earth’s biomass and biodiversity. To date though, our knowledge regarding microbial life is lacking, as it is based mainly on information from cultivated organisms. Indeed, microbiologists have borrowed from astrophysics and termed the ‘uncultured microbial majority’ as ‘microbial dark matter’. The realization of how diverse and unexplored microorganisms are, actually stems from recent advances in molecular biology, and in particular from novel methods for sequencing microbial small subunit ribosomal RNA genes directly from environmental samples termed next-generation sequencing (NGS). This has led us to use NGS that generates several gigabases of sequencing data in a single experimental run, to identify and classify environmental samples of microorganisms. In metagenomics sequencing analysis (both 16S and shotgun), sequences are compared to reference databases that contain only small part of the existing microorganisms and therefore their taxonomy assignment may reveal groups of unknown microorganisms or origins. These unknowns, or the ‘microbial sequences dark matter’, are usually ignored in spite of their great importance. The goal of this work was to develop an improved bioinformatics method that enables more complete analyses of the microbial communities in numerous environments. Therefore, NGS was used to identify previously unknown microorganisms from three different environments (industrials wastewater, Negev Desert’s rocks and water wells at the Arava valley). 16S rRNA gene metagenome analysis of the microorganisms from those three environments produce about ~4 million reads for 75 samples. Between 0.1-12% of the sequences in each sample were tagged as ‘Unassigned’. Employing relatively simple methodology for resequencing of original gDNA samples through Sanger or MiSeq Illumina with specific primers, this study demonstrates that the mysterious ‘Unassigned’ group apparently contains sequences of candidate phyla. Those unknown sequences can be located on a phylogenetic tree and thus provide a better understanding of the ‘sequences dark matter’ and its role in the research of microbial communities and diversity. Studying this ‘dark matter’ will extend the existing databases and could reveal the hidden potential of the ‘microbial dark matter’.

Keywords: bacteria, bioinformatics, dark matter, Next Generation Sequencing, unknown

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Authors: Mannika Garg, N. Srinivas Murthy, Sunish Nair

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TeamIndus is only Indian team participated in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP). GLXP is an incentive prize space competition which is organized by the XPrize Foundation and sponsored by Google. The main objective of the mission is to soft land a rover on the moon surface, travel minimum displacement of 500 meters and transmit HD and NRT videos and images to the Earth. Team Indus is designing a Lunar Lander which carries Rover with it and deliver onto the surface of the moon with a soft landing. For lander to survive throughout the mission, energy is required to operate all attitude control sensors, actuators, heaters and other necessary components. Photovoltaic solar array systems are the most common and primary source of power generation for any spacecraft. The scope of this paper is to provide a system-level approach for designing the solar array systems of the lander to generate required power to accomplish the mission. For this mission, the direction of design effort is to higher efficiency, high reliability and high specific power. Towards this approach, highly efficient multi-junction cells have been considered. The design is influenced by other constraints also like; mission profile, chosen spacecraft attitude, overall lander configuration, cost effectiveness and sizing requirements. This paper also addresses the various solar array design challenges such as operating temperature, shadowing, radiation environment and mission life and strategy of supporting required power levels (peak and average). The challenge to generate sufficient power at the time of surface touchdown, due to low sun elevation (El) and azimuth (Az) angle which depends on Lunar landing site, has also been showcased in this paper. To achieve this goal, energy balance analysis has been carried out to study the impact of the above-mentioned factors and to meet the requirements and has been discussed in this paper.

Keywords: energy balance analysis, multi junction solar cells, photovoltaic, reliability, spacecraft attitude

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Authors: Ritvik Chauhan, Vijay Kumar Baraik

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Crime is a rare event on earth surface. It is not simple but a complex event occurring in a spatio- temporal environment. Crime is one of the most serious security threats to human environments as it may result in harm to the individuals through the loss of property, physical and psychological injuries. The conventional studies done on different nature crime was mostly related to laws, psychological, social and political themes. The geographical areas are heterogeneous in their environmental conditions, associations between structural conditions, social organization which contributing specific crimes. The crime pattern analysis is made through theories in which criminal events occurs in persistent, identifiable patterns in a particular space and time. It will be the combined analysis of spatial factors and rational factors to the crime. In this study, we are analyzing the combined factors for the origin of crime against children. Children have always been vulnerable to victimization more because they are silent victims both physically and mentally to crimes and they even not realize what is happening with them. Their trusting nature and innocence always misused by criminals to perform crimes. The nature of crime against children is changed in past years like child rape, kidnapping &abduction, selling & buying of girls, foeticide, infanticide, prostitution, child marriage etc turned to more cruel and inhuman. This study will focus on understanding the space-time pattern of crime against children during the period 2001-2012. It also makes an attempt to explore and ascertain the association of crimes categorised against children, its rates with various geographical and socio-demographic factors through causal analysis using selected indicators (child sex-ratio, education, literacy rate, employment, income, etc.) obtained from the Census of India and other government sources. The outcome of study will help identifying the high crime regions with specified nature of crimes. It will also review the existing efforts and exploring the new plausible measure for tracking, monitoring and minimization of crime rate to meet the end goal of protecting the children from crimes committed against them.

Keywords: crime against children, geographic profiling, spatio-temporal analysis, hotspot

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Authors: Mary Edokpa Fadal, Frances Agweda

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Considering the volatile and evolving nature of the political environment in the developing countries, it is important that the subject of effective leadership practices that focus on transformational and systematic political development and values be reviewed. If the attitude towards partisan politics and the played politics by political parties is relatively deviated from expected adherence to acceptance, safe, efficient and practical standard, the political parties will continue to struggle endlessly in an effort to maintain a system that works. The analysis is situated in the context of political parties and partisan political behavior in contemporary societies and developing nations. Recent research of empirical evidence shows that most of the political parties are more or less, not too active in playing their instrumental role in the political system, such as unifying, simplifying and stabilizing the political process. This is however traced to the problem of ethnic politics that have been dominated by tribalism. The rising clamor for political development needs re-structuring and correcting the abnormalities in the center of the polity to address the flaws in our political system. The paper argues that political parties and political actors are some of the vital instrument of attaining societal goals of democratic principles for peace and durability. Issues of ethnic and partisan politics are also discussed, as it relates to question pertaining to political ideologies. It is in the findings that this paper examines some of the issues that have been seen revolving the true practice of political parties and its activities towards the democratic trend of a society, that help to resolve questions surrounding the issues of politics and governance in developing countries. These issues are seen as an aberration that have characterized politics and political behavior especially in the aspect of transparency and fulfilling its purpose of existence. The paper argues that the transition of the developing nature of states largely depends on the political structures and party politics and the nature of constitutionalism following the democratic awakening. The paper concludes that politics and political behavior are all human factors that play a vital role in the development of contemporary societies. They drive the wheel of nations towards its goal attainment. This paper relies on documentary, primary sources of data collection and empirical analysis.

Keywords: development, ethnicity, partisan politics, political behavior, political parties

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Authors: Sarra K. Ikhlef, Onita Basu

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Natural organic matter (NOM) removal efficiency using drinking water treatment biological filters can be highly influenced by backwashing conditions. Backwashing has the ability to remove the accumulated biomass and particles in order to regenerate the biological filters' removal capacity and prevent excessive headloss buildup. A lab scale system consisting of 3 biological filters was used in this study to examine the implications of different backwash strategies on biological filtration performance. The backwash procedures were evaluated based on their impacts on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removals, biological filters’ biomass, backwash water volume usage, and particle removal. Results showed that under nutrient limited conditions, the simultaneous use of air and water under collapse pulsing conditions lead to a DOC removal of 22% which was significantly higher (p>0.05) than the 12% removal observed under water only backwash conditions. Employing a bed expansion of 20% under nutrient supplemented conditions compared to a 30% reference bed expansion while using the same amount of water volume lead to similar DOC removals. On the other hand, utilizing a higher bed expansion (40%) lead to significantly lower DOC removals (23%). Also, a backwash strategy that reduced the backwash water volume usage by about 20% resulted in similar DOC removals observed with the reference backwash. The backwash procedures investigated in this study showed no consistent impact on biological filters' biomass concentrations as measured by the phospholipids and the adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) methods. Moreover, none of these two analyses showed a direct correlation with DOC removal. On the other hand, dissolved oxygen (DO) uptake showed a direct correlation with DOC removals. The addition of the extended terminal subfluidization wash (ETSW) demonstrated no apparent impact on DOC removals. ETSW also successfully eliminated the filter ripening sequence (FRS). As a result, the additional water usage resulting from implementing ETSW was compensated by water savings after restart. Results from this study provide insight to researchers and water treatment utilities on how to better optimize the backwashing procedure for the goal of optimizing the overall biological filtration process.

Keywords: biological filtration, backwashing, collapse pulsing, ETSW

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Authors: Eun Jae Ko, In Young Sung, Eui Soo Joeng

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Cognitive impairment is commonly encountered problem in children with various clinical diseases, including Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, brain injury, and others. Cognitive impairment limits participation in education and society, and this further hinders development in cognition. However, young children with cognitive impairment tend not to respond well to traditional cognitive treatments, therefore alternative treatment choices are need. As a cognitive training program, touch screen technology can easily be applied to very young children by involving visual and auditory support. Injini was developed as tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program for young children or individuals with severe cognitive impairment, which targeted on cognitive ages of 18 to 36 months. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program (Injini) for children with cognitive impairment. 38 children between cognitive ages of 18 to 36 months confirmed by cognitive evaluations were recruited and randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=20) and the control group (n=18). The intervention group received tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program (Injini) for 30 minutes per session, twice a week, over a period of 12 weeks, in addition to the traditional rehabilitation program. The control group received traditional rehabilitation program only. Mental score of Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID II), Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB), Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ), and Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) were evaluated before and after 12 weeks of therapeutic intervention. When comparing the baseline characteristics, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the measurements of cognitive function. After 12 weeks of treatment, both group showed improvements in all measurements. However, in comparison of improvements after treatment, the intervention group showed more improvements in the mental score of BSID II, social function domain of PEDI, observation domain of Lab-TAB, and GAS, as compared to the control group. Application of the tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program (Injini) would be beneficial for improvement of cognitive function in young children with cognitive impairment.

Keywords: cognitive therapy, computer-assisted therapy, early intervention, tablets

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Authors: Lola Vivour-Adeniyi, Oluwatoyosi Abikoye

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The death penalty in the 21st century is often considered a relic of the past in many contemporary societies, except where cultural or religious beliefs heavily influence legal systems. However, a recent study on gender-based violence in Lagos State, Nigeria, suggests that this perception might not hold universally. This paper provides a balanced jurisprudential analysis of the death penalty as a punitive measure for sexual offences, particularly against minors, drawing on comprehensive demographic data from 3,225 respondents across various demographics, including gender, age, marital status, religious beliefs, literacy levels, and ethnicity in ten major Local Government Areas. The research captures the diverse perspectives of different demographic groups, weighing the arguments of proponents who see the death penalty as a significant deterrent, a source of justice for victims, and a means to permanently remove dangerous offenders from society against opponents who raise ethical concerns, highlight the risk of wrongful convictions and question its effectiveness in deterring crime. Through a thorough examination of legal frameworks, case studies, and statistical data, this paper presents empirical evidence to reopen the discussion in developing countries. Key questions are addressed: Could the death penalty be an effective measure against sexual assault, particularly involving minors? Would it deter potential offenders? Is it humane to include it in modern legal systems? If not, what long-term reforms could ensure accountability, justice, and enlightenment for those affected by such crimes? This paper aims to foster a nuanced and progressive dialogue, providing insights for policymakers, legal practitioners, jurists, and scholars on the complexities of this contentious issue. The goal is to consider the implications for justice systems in developing countries and to advocate for more effective responses to sexual assault cases and justice for survivors.

Keywords: sexual offences, death penalty, jurisprudential analysis, criminal justice reform

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Authors: Mikhail O. Eremin

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Present work is devoted to experimental study and numerical modelling of failure of rocks typical for Kuzbass coal basin (Russia). The main goal was to define strength and deformation characteristics of rocks on the base of uniaxial compression and three-point bending loadings and then to build a mathematical model of failure process for both types of loading. Depending on particular physical-mechanical characteristics typical rocks of Kuzbass coal basin (sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, etc. of different series – Kolchuginsk, Tarbagansk, Balohonsk) manifest brittle and quasi-brittle character of failure. The strength characteristics for both tension and compression are found. Other characteristics are also found from the experiment or taken from literature reviews. On the base of obtained characteristics and structure (obtained from microscopy) the mathematical and structural models are built and numerical modelling of failure under different types of loading is carried out. Effective characteristics obtained from modelling and character of failure correspond to experiment and thus, the mathematical model was verified. An Instron 1185 machine was used to carry out the experiments. Mathematical model includes fundamental conservation laws of solid mechanics – mass, impulse, energy. Each rock has a sufficiently anisotropic structure, however, each crystallite might be considered as isotropic and then a whole rock model has a quasi-isotropic structure. This idea gives an opportunity to use the Hooke’s law inside of each crystallite and thus explicitly accounting for the anisotropy of rocks and the stress-strain state at loading. Inelastic behavior is described in frameworks of two different models: von Mises yield criterion and modified Drucker-Prager yield criterion. The damage accumulation theory is also implemented in order to describe a failure process. Obtained effective characteristics of rocks are used then for modelling of rock mass evolution when mining is carried out both by an open-pit or underground opening.

Keywords: damage accumulation, Drucker-Prager yield criterion, failure, mathematical modelling, three-point bending, uniaxial compression

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Authors: Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng, Teng Jung Wang

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According to the study of British national advisory council on creative and cultural education（NACCCE, what the present and the future need awesome innovative and creative people from the perspective of commercial human resources. Therefore, we can know from above, creativity plays an important role in today’s enterprise indeed. Besides, many companies are aimed at developing team work as their main goal, so “creativity” and “teamwork” become more and more important factors to succeed and team creativity also turn into an important issue gradually. Then, the study takes in-depth interviews of design companies’ leaders and uses self-designed questionnaire regarding affecting team creativity to conduct cross-analysis. The results show that for those creative-oriented integrated design companies, their design strategies don’t begin until data collection and their scripts are usually the best way to inspire creativity. Besides, passing down a legacy of experiences are their common educational training. Most important of all, their organizational resources and leaders can assist all the team to learn and grow effectively and the good interaction between the leader and the member can also bring work flexibility and efficiency. In short, the leader’s expectation of members’ performance can cause them to encourage each other to progress. Moreover, the analysis of questionnaire indicates that members who are open-minded and leaders who have transformational leadership style can both help to establish a good team interaction. Furthermore, abundant resources and training system are also good approaches to establish a harmonious relationship. Finally, through integrating the outcomes of interviews and questionnaires, we can infer that those integrated design companies’ circumstances of design progress are mainly from their leaders’ guidance. In addition, the analysis of design problems are focused on their creative strategies and their scripts and sketches can also inspire their creativity. In sum, the feature of all team is influenced by 4 factors: leaders who have transformational leadership style, open-minded members, flexible working environment, resources and interactive relationship. Ultimately, the study hopes that the result above can apply to the design-related industries or help general companies elevate the team creativity.

Keywords: creativity, team creativity, integrated design companies, design process

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Authors: Elizabeth Behrens, Anne Timmermann, Alexander Yerkan, Joshua Thomas, Deborah Katz, Agne Paner, Melissa Larson, Shivi Jain, Seo-Hyun Kim, Celalettin Ustun, Ankur Varma, Parameswaran Venugopal, Jamile Shammo

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Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) causes persistent concern for poor outcomes in vulnerable populations. Patients with hematologic malignancies (HM) have been found to have higher COVID-19 case fatality rates compared to those without malignancy. While cytopenias are common in patients with HM, especially in those undergoing chemotherapy treatment, hemoglobin (Hgb) and platelet count have not yet been studied, to our best knowledge, as potential prognostic indicators for patients with HM and COVID-19. The goal of this study is to identify factors that may increase the risk of mortality in patients with HM and COVID-19. In this single-center, retrospective, observational study, 65 patients with HM and laboratory confirmed COVID-19 were identified between March 2020 and January 2021. Information on demographics, laboratory data the day of COVID-19 diagnosis, and prognosis was extracted from the electronic medical record (EMR), chart reviewed, and analyzed using the statistical software SAS version 9.4. Chi-square testing was used for categorical variable analyses. Risk factors associated with mortality were established by logistic regression models. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (37%), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (20%), and plasma cell dyscrasia (15%) were the most common HM. Higher Hgb level upon COVID-19 diagnosis was related to decreased mortality, odd ratio=0.704 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.511-0.969; P = .0263). Platelet count the day of COVID-19 diagnosis was lower in patients who ultimately died (mean 127 ± 72K/uL, n=10) compared to patients who survived (mean 197 ±92K/uL, n=55) (P=.0258). Female sex was related to decreased mortality, odd ratio=0.143 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.026-0.785; P = .0353). There was no mortality difference between the patients who were on treatment for HM the day of COVID-19 diagnosis compared to those who were not (P=1.000). Lower Hgb and male sex are independent risk factors associated with increased mortality of HM patients with COVID-19. Clinicians should be especially attentive to patients with HM and COVID-19 who present with cytopenias. Larger multi-center studies are urgently needed to further investigate the impact of anemia, thrombocytopenia, and demographics on outcomes of patients with hematologic malignancies diagnosed with COVID-19.

Keywords: anemia, COVID-19, hematologic malignancy, prognosis

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Authors: Juan S. Vera, Miguel A. Gomez, Omar Gelvez

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Water is Earth's most valuable resource, and the lack of it is currently a critical problem in today’s society. Non-treated wastewaters contribute to this situation, especially those coming from industrial activities, as they reduce the quality of the water bodies, annihilating all kind of life and bringing disease to people in contact with them. An effective solution for this problem is distillation, which removes most contaminants. However, this approach must also be energetically efficient in order to appeal to the industry. In this endeavour, most water distillation treatments fail, with the exception of the Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC) distillation system, which has a great efficiency due to energy input by a compressor and the latent heat exchange. This paper presents the process of design, construction, and evaluation of a Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC) distillation system for the main Colombian poultry company Avidesa Macpollo SA. The system will be located in the principal slaughterhouse in the state of Santander, and it will work along with the Gas Energy Mixing system (GEM) to treat the wastewaters from the plant. The main goal of the MVC distiller, rarely used in this type of application, is to reduce the chlorides, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels according to the state regulations since the GEM cannot decrease them enough. The MVC distillation system works with three components, the evaporator/condenser heat exchanger where the distillation takes place, a low-pressure compressor which gives the energy to create the temperature differential between the evaporator and condenser cavities and a preheater to save the remaining energy in the distillate. The model equations used to describe how the compressor power consumption, heat exchange area and distilled water are related is based on a thermodynamic balance and heat transfer analysis, with correlations taken from the literature. Finally, the design calculations and the measurements of the installation are compared, showing accordance with the predictions in distillate production and power consumption, changing the temperature difference of the evaporator/condenser.

Keywords: mechanical vapor compression, distillation, wastewater, design, construction, evaluation

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Authors: Afifa Aslam, Muhammad Ibrahim, Abid Mahmood, Muhammad Usman Alvi, Fariha Jabeen, Umara Tabassum

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Many factors cause air pollution in Pakistan, which poses a significant threat to human health. Diesel fuel and gasoline motor vehicles, as well as industrial companies, pollute the air in Pakistan's cities. The study's goal is to determine the level of air pollution in a Pakistani industrial city and to establish risk levels for the health of the population. We measured the intensity of air pollution by chemical characterization and examination of air samples collected at stationary remark sites. The PM10 levels observed at all sampling sites, including residential, commercial, high-traffic, and industrial areas were well above the limits imposed by Pakistan EPA, the United States EPA, and WHO. We assessed the health risk via chemical factors using a methodology approved for risk assessment. All Igeo index values greater than one were considered moderately contaminated or moderately to severely contaminated. Heavy metals have a substantial risk of acute adverse effects. In Faisalabad, Pakistan, there was an enormously high risk of chronic effects produced by a heavy metal acquaintance. Concerning specified toxic metals, intolerable levels of carcinogenic risks have been determined for the entire population. As a result, in most of the investigated areas of Faisalabad, the indices and hazard quotients for chronic and acute exposure exceeded the permissible level of 1.0. In the current study, re-suspended roadside mineral dust, anthropogenic exhaust emissions from traffic and industry, and industrial dust were identified as major emission sources of elemental particulate contents. Because of the unacceptable levels of risk in the research area, it is strongly suggested that a comprehensive study of the population's health status as a result of air pollution should be conducted for policies to be developed against these risks.

Keywords: elemental composition, particulate pollution, Igeo index, health risk assessment, hazard quotient

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Authors: Geetanjali Yadav, Arpit Mishra, Parthsarathi Ghosh, Ramkrishna Sen

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The world is facing problems of increasing global CO2 emissions, climate change and fuel crisis. Therefore, several renewable and sustainable energy alternatives should be investigated to replace non-renewable fuels in future. Algae presents itself a versatile feedstock for the production of variety of fuels (biodiesel, bioethanol, bio-hydrogen etc.) and high value compounds for food, fodder, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Microalgae are simple microorganisms that require water, light, CO2 and nutrients for growth by the process of photosynthesis and can grow in extreme environments, utilize waste gas (flue gas) and waste waters. Mixing, however, is a crucial parameter within the culture system for the uniform distribution of light, nutrients and gaseous exchange in addition to preventing settling/sedimentation, creation of dark zones etc. The overarching goal of the present study is to improve photobioreactor (PBR) design for enhancing dissolution of CO2 from ambient air (0.039%, v/v), pure CO2 and coal-fired flue gas (10 ± 2%) into microalgal PBRs. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a state-of-the-art technique has been used to solve partial differential equations with turbulence closure which represents the dynamics of fluid in a photobioreactor. In this paper, the hydrodynamic performance of the PBR has been characterized and compared with that of the conventional bubble column PBR using CFD. Parameters such as flow rate (Q), mean velocity (u), mean turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) were characterized for each experiment that was tested across different aeration schemes. The results showed that the modified PBR design had superior liquid circulation properties and gas-liquid transfer that resulted in creation of uniform environment inside PBR as compared to conventional bubble column PBR. The CFD technique has shown to be promising to successfully design and paves path for a future research in order to develop PBRs which can be commercially available for scale-up microalgal production.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, microalgae, bubble column photbioreactor, flue gas, simulation

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