Search results for: total ownership cost

Authors: Ruta Mickiene, Audrius Maruska, Ona Ragazinskiene

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This research focuses on phytochemistry and antimicrobial activities of compounds isolated and identified from species Rosmarinus officinalis L. This is a study of synergistic effects between phenolic fraction and essential oils. The antimicrobial activity of extracts from Rosmarinus officinalis L. originated from the sector of medicinal plants, Kaunas botanical garden of Vytautas Magnus University Lithuania, were tested by the method of series dilutions, against different bacteria species. Investigated microorganisms were Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and Staphylococcus aureus with and without antibiotic resistances originating from livestock. The antimicrobial activities of extracts were described by determination of the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). Preliminary results show that the MIC range between 9.0 % and 12.0 % for the different Rosmarinus officinalis L. extracts and bacterial species. The total amounts of phenolic compounds and total amounts of flavonoids were tested in the methanolic extracts of the plants. The chemical composition for essential oils analysed by GC/MS. Predominant components were alpha pinene (20%), camphor (10%), 1.8‐cineole (5%), phellandrene (6%), camphene (5%), beta pinene (4%), bornylacetate (4%), limonene (2%), borneol (3%), alpha terpineol (3%), cymene (2%), caryophyllene (15%), verbenone (7%), alpha terpinene (3%), eucalyptol (11%).

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, essential oil, Rosmarinus officinalis L., escherichia coli

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Authors: Lee Siong Wee, Tan Kang Hai, Yang En-Hua

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This paper presents the results of an experimental study undertaken to evaluate the local bond stress-slip response of short embedment of reinforcing bars in normal concrete (NC) and high performance fiber reinforced cement composites (HPFRCC) blocks. Long embedment was investigated as well to gain insights on the distribution of strain, slip, bar stress and bond stress along the bar especially in post-yield range. A total of 12 specimens were tested, by means of pull-out of the reinforcing bars from concrete blocks. It was found that the enhancement of local bond strength can be reached up to 50% and ductility of the bond behavior was improved significantly if HPFRCC is used. Also, under a constant strain at loaded end, HPFRCC has delayed yielding of bars at other location from the loaded end. Hence, the reduction of bond stress was slower for HPFRCC in comparison with NC. Due to the same reason, the total slips at loaded end for HPFRCC was smaller than NC as expected. Test results indicated that HPFRCC has better bond slip behavior which makes it a suitable material to be employed in anchorage zone such as beam-column joints.

Keywords: bond stress, high performance fiber reinforced cement composites, slip, strain

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Authors: Ali A. Hammadi

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In this work, a practical study on a commissioned Giga Passive Optical Network (GPON) fiber to the home access network in Kuwait is presented. The work covers the framework of the conceptual design of the deployed Passive Optical Networks (PONs), access network, optical fiber cable network distribution, technologies, and standards. The work also describes methodologies applied by system engineers for design of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) transceivers with respect to the distance, operating wavelengths, splitting ratios. The results have demonstrated and justified the limitation of transmission distance of a PON link in Fiber to The Premises (FTTP) to not exceed 20 km. Optical Time Domain Reflector (OTDR) test has been carried for this project to confirm compliance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) specifications regarding the total length of the deployed optical cable, total loss in dB, and loss per km in dB/km with respect to the operating wavelengths. OTDR test results with traces for segments of implemented fiber network will be provided and discussed.

Keywords: passive optical networks (PONs), fiber to the premises (FTTx), access network, OTDR

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Authors: Fatemeh Cheraghali, Saeedeh Shojaee-Aliabadi, Seyede Marzieh Hosseini, Leila Mirmoghtadaie

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In recent years, the field of natural antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds is one of the main research topics in the food industry. Application of agricultural residues is mainly cheap, and available resources are receiving increased attention. Walnut green husk is one of the agricultural residues that is considered as natural compounds with biological properties because of phenolic compounds. In this study, maltodextrin 10% was used for microencapsulation of walnut green husk extract. At first, the extract was examined to consider extraction yield, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activation. The results showed the extraction yield of 81.43%, total phenolic compounds of 3997 [mg GAE/100 g], antioxidant activity [DPPH] of 84.85% for walnut green husk extract. Antioxidant activity is about 75%-81% and by DPPH. At the next stage, microencapsulation was done by spry-drying method. The microencapsulation efficiency was 72%-79%. The results of SEM tests confirmed this microencapsulation process. In addition, microencapsulated and free extract was more effective on gram-positive bacteria’s rather than the gram-negative ones. According to the study, walnut green husk can be used as a cheap antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds due to sufficient value of phenolic compounds.

Keywords: biopolymer, microencapsulation, spray-drying, walnut green husk

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Authors: Sabreen Al Shamli, Abdul Rahman Al azure

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Microscopic examination by histopathology is the gold standard for diagnosing many oral and maxillofacial pathologies. Current clinical guidelines and medicolegal regulations recommend the utilization of histopathology services for confirming pathologies being treated. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence and distribution of oral and maxillofacial biopsies that had been histopathologically diagnosed at Anahdha Hospital (ANH). A total of 512 biopsies randomly selected from a ground total of 3310 biopsies, which were submitted for oral and maxillofacial histopathological specimens, were analyzed at Nahdha Hospital in Oman between January 2010 and December 2022. Data collected retrospectively selected from all case notes of patients who had oral histopathology examinations performed as part of their treatment. Data collected from the Shifa system was transferred to Microsoft Excel and analyzed using SPSS. Research ethics approval was obtained from the research committee of the hospital. This study provides background information on oral histopathology prevalence that could be helpful in future research in Oman. The findings of the present study are in agreement with the reported data from other investigations, even when it is taken into account how difficult it is to compare prevalence rates from different studies.

Keywords: oral biopsy, maxillofacial histopathology, oral disease, maxillofacial specimens

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Authors: K. Premakumar, D. S. Rushani, H. N. Hettiarachchi

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The production and consumption of preserved foods have gained much importance due to globalization, and they provide a health benefit apart from the basic nutritional functions. Therefore, a study was conducted to develop a jam incorporating carrot, banana, and lime. Considering the findings of several preliminary studies, five formulations of the jam were prepared by blending different percentages of carrot and banana including control (where the only carrot was added). The freshly prepared formulations were subjected to physicochemical and sensory analysis.Physico-Chemical parameters such as pH, TSS, titrable acidity, ascorbic acid content, total sugar and non-reducing sugar and organoleptic qualities such as colour, aroma, taste, spread ability and overall acceptability and microbial analysis (total plate count) were analyzed after formulations. Physico-Chemical Analysis of the freshly prepared Carrot –Banana Blend jam showed increasing trend in titrable acidity (from 0.8 to 0.96, as % of citric acid), TSS (from 70.05 to 67.5 0Brix), ascorbic acid content (from 0.83 to 11.465 mg/100ml), reducing sugar (from 15.64 to 20.553%) with increase in carrot pulp from 50 to 100%. pH, total sugar, and non-reducing sugar were also reduced when carrot concentration is increased. Five points hedonic scale was used to evaluate the organoleptic characters. According to Duncan's Multiple Range Test, the mean scores for all the assessed sensory characters varied significantly (p<0.05) in the freshly made carrot-banana blend jam formulations. Based on the physicochemical and sensory analysis, the most preferred carrot: banana combinations of 50:50, 100:0 and 80:20 (T1, T2, and T5) were selected for storage studies.The formulations were stored at 300 °C room temperature and 70-75% of RH for 12 weeks. The physicochemical characteristics were measured at two weeks interval during storage. The decreasing trends in pH and ascorbic acid and an increasing trend in TSS, titrable acidity, total sugar, reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar were noted with advancement of storage periods of 12 weeks. The results of the chemical analysis showed that there were significance differences (p<0.05) between the tested formulations. Sensory evaluation was done for carrot –banana blends jam after a period of 12 weeks through a panel of 16 semi-trained panelists. The sensory analysis showed that there were significant differences (p<0.05) for organoleptic characters between carrot-banana blend jam formulations. The highest overall acceptability was observed in formulation with 80% carrot and 20% banana pulp. Microbiological Analysis was carried out on the day of preparation, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months after preparation. No bacterial growth was observed in the freshly made carrot -banana blend jam. There were no counts of yeast and moulds and coliforms in all treatments after the heat treatments and during the storage period. Only the bacterial counts (Total Plate Counts) were observed after three months of storage below the critical level, and all formulations were microbiologically safe for consumption. Based on the results of physio-chemical characteristics, sensory attributes, and microbial test, the carrot –banana blend jam with 80% carrot and 20% banana (T2) was selected as best formulation and could be stored up to 12 weeks without any significant changes in the quality characteristics.

Keywords: formulations, physicochemical parameters, microbiological analysis, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Menuka Maharjan

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In the name of food security, agriculture intensification through conventional farming is being implemented in Nepal. Government focus on increasing agriculture production completely ignores soil as well human health. This leads to create serious soil degradation, i.e., reduction of soil fertility and microbial activity and health hazard in the country. On this note, organic farming is sustainable agriculture approach which can address challenge of sustaining food security while protecting the environment. This creates a win-win situation both for people and the environment. However, people have limited knowledge on significance of organic farming for environment conservation and food security especially developing countries like Nepal. Thus, the objective of the study was to assess the impacts of organic farming on soil fertility and microbial activity compared to conventional farming and forest in Chitwan, Nepal. Total soil organic carbon (C) was highest in organic farming (24 mg C g⁻¹ soil) followed by conventional farming (15 mg C g⁻¹ soil) and forest (9 mg C g⁻¹ soil) in the topsoil layer (0-10 cm depth). A similar trend was found for total nitrogen (N) content in all three land uses with organic farming soil possessing the highest total N content in both 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depth. Microbial biomass C and N were also highest under organic farming, especially in the topsoil layer (350 and 46 mg g⁻¹ soil, respectively). Similarly, microbial biomass phosphorus (P) was higher (3.6 and 1.0 mg P kg⁻¹ at 0-10 and 10-20 cm depth, respectively) in organic farming compared to conventional farming and forest at both depths. However, conventional farming and forest soils had similar microbial biomass (C, N, and P) content. After conversion of forest, the P stock significantly increased by 373% and 170% in soil under organic farming at 0-10 and 10-20 cm depth, respectively. In conventional farming, the P stock increased by 64% and 36% at 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depth, respectively, compared to forest. Overall, organic farming practices, i.e., crop rotation, residue input and farmyard manure application, significantly alters soil fertility and microbial activity. Organic farming system is emerging as a sustainable land use system which can address the issues of food security and environment conservation by increasing sustainable agriculture production and carbon sequestration, respectively, supporting to achieve goals of sustainable development.

Keywords: organic farming, soil fertility, micobial biomas, food security

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Authors: Y. Yulnafatmawita, H. Hermansah

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Topography is a factor affecting soil characteristics. Chemical characteristics of a soil is a factor determining the productivity of the land. A research was conducted in Bukit Sarasah Padang, an area receiving > 5000 mm rainfall annually. The purpose of this research was to determine the chemical characteristics of soils at sequence topography in hill-slope of Bukit Sarasah. Soils were sampled at 3 different altitudes in the research area from 315 m – 515 m asl with 100 m interval. At each location, soil samples were taken from two depths (0-20 cm and 30-50 cm) for soil chemical characteristics (pH, CEC, organic-C, N-total, C/N, Ca-, Mg-, K-, Na-, Al-, and H-exchangeable). Based on the data resulted, it was found that there was a tendency of decreasing soil organic matter (SOC) content by increasing location from 315 to 515 m asl as well as from the top 0-20 cm to 30-50 cm soil depth. The same tendency was also found for the CEC, pH, N-total, and C/N ratio of the soil. On the other hand, exchangeable-Al and -H tended to increase by increasing elevation in Bukit Sarasah. There was no significant difference found for the concentration of exchangeable cations among the elevations and between the depths. The soil chemical characteristics on the top 20 cm were generally better than those on 30-50 cm soil depth, however, different elevation did not gave significant difference of the concentration.

Keywords: soil chemical characteristics, soil depths, topo-sequence, wet tropical area

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Authors: Ahmed Eid, Amita Gupta

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Abstract: Background: Background Medical gases are estimated to contribute to 5% of the carbon footprints produced by hospitals, Desflurane has the largest impact, but all increase significantly when used with N2O admixture. Climate Change Act 2008, we must reduce our carbon emission by 80% of the 1990 baseline by 2050.NHS carbon emissions have reduced by 18.5% (2007-2017). The NHS Long Term Plan has outlined measures to achieve this objective, including a 2% reduction by transforming anaesthetic practices. FGF is an important variable that determines the utilization of inhalational agents and can be tightly controlled by the anaesthetist. Aims and Objectives Environmental safety, Identification of areas of high N20 and different anaesthetic agents used across the St Helier operating theatres and consider improvising on the current practice. Methods: Data was collected from St Helier operating theatres and retrieved daily from Care Station 650 anaesthetic machines. 60 cases were included in the sample. Collected data (average flow rate, amount and type of agent used, duration of surgery, type of surgery, duration, and the total amount of Air, O2 and N2O used. AAGBI impact anaesthesia calculator was used to identify the amount of CO2 produced and also the cost per hour for every pt. Communication via reminder emails to staff emphasized the significance of low-flow anaesthesia and departmental meeting presentations aimed at heightening awareness of LFA, Distribution of AAGBI calculator QR codes in all theatres enables the calculation of volatile anaesthetic consumption and CO2e post each case, facilitating informed environmental impact assessment. Results: A significant reduction in the flow rate use in the 2nd sample was observed, flow rate usage between 0-1L was 60% which means a great reduction of the consumption of volatile anaesthetics and also Co2e. By using LFA we can save money but most importantly we can make our lives much greener and save the planet.

Keywords: low flow anesthesia, sustainability project, N₂0, Co2e

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Authors: Yashasvi Thakur, Vikas K. Sharma

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The fragile Himalayan ecosystems are sensitive to environmental stresses, including direct and indirect impacts of climate stresses. A total of 297 naturalized alien plant species belonging to 65 families in the IHR have already been reported. Of the total 297 naturalized alien plant species in IHR, the maximum species occur in Himachal Pradesh (232; 78.1%), followed by Jammu & Kashmir (192; 64.6%) and Uttarakhand (181; 60.90%). The present study reports the spread of some invasive and existing weed species like Ageratum conyzoides, Bidens pilosa, Chromolaena odorata, Lantana camara, Brossnetia papyrifera, Oxalis corniculata, Galinsoga parviflora, Panicum maximum at an extent that they are not only invading the agricultural fields but are also replacing the native plant species and degrading the existing grassland quality. Moreover, the degradation of grassland has led to the dry fodder shortage for livestock in the lower Shivalik ranges of the state of Himachal Pradesh and has also encouraged the use of herbicides at an extensive scale. This article provides a mapping of the current spread of some of these species at the block level to allow the development of appropriate management strategies and policy planning for addressing issues pertaining to plant invasion, agricultural fields, and grasslands across the IHR states.

Keywords: climate change, invasive alien species, agriculture, grassland, IHR

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Authors: J. M. Counsell, Y. Khalid, M. J. Stewart

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Achieving nearly zero carbon heating continues to be identified by UK government analysis as an important feature of any lowest cost pathway to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Heat currently accounts for 48% of UK energy consumption and approximately one third of UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Heat Networks are being promoted by UK investment policies as one means of supporting hybrid heat pump based solutions. To this effect the RISE (Renewable Integrated and Sustainable Electric) heating system project is investigating how an all-electric heating sourceshybrid configuration could play a key role in long-term decarbonisation of heat.  For the purposes of this study, hybrid systems are defined as systems combining the technologies of an electric driven air source heat pump, electric powered thermal storage, a thermal vessel and micro-heat network as an integrated system.  This hybrid strategy allows for the system to store up energy during periods of low electricity demand from the national grid, turning it into a dynamic supply of low cost heat which is utilized only when required. Currently a prototype of such a system is being tested in a modern house integrated with advanced controls and sensors. This paper presents the virtual performance analysis of the system and its design for a micro heat network with multiple dwelling units. The results show that the RISE system is controllable and can reduce carbon emissions whilst being competitive in running costs with a conventional gas boiler heating system.

Keywords: gas boilers, heat pumps, hybrid heating and thermal storage, renewable integrated and sustainable electric

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Authors: Q. Ni, J. A. Serna, D. Holland, X. Wang

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The objective of this study is to develop Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques to enhance bone related research applied on normal and disuse (Biglycan knockout) mice bone in vitro by using both low-field and high-field NMR simultaneously. It is known that the total amplitude of T₂ relaxation envelopes, measured by the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill NMR spin echo train (CPMG), is a representation of the liquid phase inside the pores. Therefore, the NMR CPMG magnetization amplitude can be transferred to the volume of water after calibration with the NMR signal amplitude of the known volume of the selected water. In this study, the distribution of mobile water, porosity that can be determined by using low-field (20 MHz) CPMG relaxation technique, and the pore size distributions can be determined by a computational inversion relaxation method. It is also known that the total proton intensity of magnetization from the NMR free induction decay (FID) signal is due to the water present inside the pores (mobile water), the water that has undergone hydration with the bone (bound water), and the protons in the collagen and mineral matter (solid-like protons). Therefore, the components of total mobile and bound water within bone that can be determined by low-field NMR free induction decay technique. Furthermore, the bound water in solid phase (mineral and organic constituents), especially, the dominated component of calcium hydroxyapatite (Ca₁₀(OH)₂(PO₄)₆) can be determined by using high-field (400 MHz) magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR. With MAS technique reducing NMR spectral linewidth inhomogeneous broadening and susceptibility broadening of liquid-solid mix, in particular, we can conduct further research into the ¹H and ³¹P elements and environments of bone materials to identify the locations of bound water such as OH- group within minerals and bone architecture. We hypothesize that with low-field and high-field magic angle spinning NMR can provide a more complete interpretation of water distribution, particularly, in bound water, and these data are important to access bone quality and predict the mechanical behavior of bone.

Keywords: bone, mice bone, NMR, water in bone

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Authors: Hala M. El-hanbuli, Mohammed F. Darweesh

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The incidence rates of any tumor vary hugely with geographical location. Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) is one of the most common skin cancer that has many histopathologic subtypes. Objective: The aim was to study the histopathological features of BCC cases that were received in the Pathology Department, Kasr El-Aini hospital, Cairo University, Egypt during the period from Jan 2004 to Dec 2013 and to evaluate the clinical characters through the patient data available in the request sheets. Methods: Slides and data of BCC cases were collected from the archives of the pathology department, Kasr El-Aini hospital. Revision of all available slides and histological classification of BCC according to WHO (2006) was done. Results: A total number of 310 cases of BCC representing about 65% from the total number of malignant skin tumors examined during the 10-years duration in the department. The age ranged from 8 to 84 years, the mean age was (55.7 ± 15.5). Most of the patients (85%) were above the age of 40 years. There was a slight male predominance (55%). Ulcerated BCC was the most common gross picture (60%), followed by nodular lesion (30%) and finally the ulcerated nodule (10%). Most of the lesions situated in the high-risk sites (77%) where the nose was the most common site (35%) followed by the periocular area (22%), then periauricular (15%) and finally perioral (5%). No lesion was reported outside the head. The tumor size was less than 2 centimeters in 65% of cases, and from 2-5 centimeters in the lesions' greatest dimension in the rest of cases. Histopathological reclassification revealed that the nodular BCC was the most common (68%) followed by the pigmented nodular (18.75%). The histologic high-risk groups represented (7.5%) about half of them (3.75%) being basosquamous carcinoma. The total incidence for multiple BCC and 2nd primary was 12%. Recurrent BCC represented 8%. All of the recurrent lesions of BCC belonged to the histologic high-risk group. Conclusion: Basal Cell Carcinoma is the most common skin cancer in the 10-year survey. Histopathological diagnosis and classification of BCC cases are essential for the determination of the tumor type and its biological behavior.

Keywords: basal cell carcinoma, high risk, histopathological features, statistical analysis

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Authors: Samkeliso S. Ndzimandze, Welldone Moyo, Oranso T. Mahlangu, Adolph A. Muleja, Alex T. Kuvarega, Thabo T. I. Nkambule

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The high cost of precursor materials has hindered the commercialization of ceramic membrane technology in water treatment. In this work, a ceramic membrane disc (approximately 50 mm in diameter and 4 mm thick) was prepared from low-cost starting materials, kaolin, and fly ash by pressing at 200 bar and calcining at 900 °C. The fabricated membrane was characterized for various physicochemical properties, natural organic matter (NOM) removal as well as fouling propensity using several techniques. Further, the ceramic membrane was tested on samples collected from four drinking water treatment plants in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (named plants 1-4). The membrane achieved 48.6%, 54.6%, 57.4%, and 76.4% bulk UV254 reduction for raw water at plants 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. These removal rates were comparable to UV254 reduction achieved by coagulation/flocculation steps at the respective plants. Further, the membrane outperformed sand filtration steps in plants 1-4 in removing disinfection by-product precursors (8%-32%) through size exclusion. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrices (FEEM) studies showed the removal of fluorescent NOM fractions present in the water samples by the membrane. The membrane was fabricated using an up-scalable facile method, and it has the potential for application as a polishing step to complement conventional processes in water treatment for drinking purposes.

Keywords: crossflow filtration, drinking water treatment plants, fluorescence excitation-emission matrices, ultraviolet 254 (UV₂₅₄)

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Authors: A. Albaridi Najla

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Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) is well known to have beneficial effect on health. The seeds are rich in protein, α-linolenic fatty acid and dietary fiber. Bakery products are important part of our daily meals. Functional food recently received considerable attention among consumers. The increase in bread daily consumption leads to the production of breads with functional ingredients such as flaxseed The aim of this Study was to improve the nutritional value of bread by adding flaxseed flour and assessing the effect of adding 0, 5, 10 and 15% flaxseed on whole wheat bread rheological and sensorial properties. The total consumer's acceptability of the flaxseed bread was assessed. Dough characteristics were determined using Farinograph (C.W. Brabender® Instruments, Inc). The result shows no change was observed in water absorption between the stander dough (without flaxseed) and the bread with flaxseed (67%). An Increase in the peak time and dough stickiness was observed with the increase in flaxseed level. Further, breads were evaluated for sensory parameters, colour and texture. High flaxseed level increased the bread crumb softness. Bread with 5% flaxseed was optimized for total sensory evaluation. Overall, flaxseed bread produced in this study was highly acceptable for daily consumption as a functional foods with a potentially health benefits.

Keywords: bread, flaxseed, rheological properties, whole-wheat bread

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Authors: Hanan A. Anwar

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This paper introduces green building construction in Egypt with different concepts and practices. The following study includes green building applied definition, guidelines, regulations and Standards. Evaluation of cost/benefit of green construction methods and green construction rating systems are presented. Relevant case studies will be reviewed. Four sites will be included.

Keywords: green construction, ecofreindly, self-sufficient town, carbon neutral atmosphere

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Authors: Mahnaz Sanjari, Sedigheh Salemi, Mohammad Mirzabeigi

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Nowadays, the world is facing a crisis of workforce and one of the most striking examples is the shortage of nurses. Nursing workforce productivity is related by various factors such as absenteeism, professional effectiveness and quality care. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 700 nurses who work in government hospitals from 35 hospitals of 9 provinces in Iran. The study was approved by the Nursing Council and was carried out with the authorization of the Research Ethics Committee. The questionnaire included 33 questions and 4 sub categories such as human resource, education and management. The reliability was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha (α=0/85). Statistical analyzes were performed, using SPSS version 16. The result showed that nurses emphasized on "respect to nurse-to-bed ratio" and less importance item was "using less experienced nurse". In addition, another important factor in clinical productivity is "Proper physical structure and amenities","good communication with colleagues" and "having good facilities". Also, "human resources at all levels of standard", "promoting on merit" and "well defined relationship in health system" are another important factors in productivity from nurse` view. The main managerial factor is "justice between employees" and the main educational component of productivity is “updating nursing knowledge”. The results show that more than half of the participants emphasized on the management and educational factors. Productivity as one of the main part of the health care quality leads to appropriate use of human and organizational resources, reduce cost services, and organizational development.

Keywords: productivity, nursing services, workforce, cost services

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Authors: Soumya Pugal

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The traditional lake system of an ancient town is a network of water holding blue spaces, erected further than 2000 years ago by the rulers of ancient cities and maintained for centuries by the original communities. These blue spaces form a micro-watershed wherein an individual tank has its own catchment, tank bed area, and command area. These lakes are connected by a common sluice from the upstream tank, thereby feeding the downstream tank. The lakes used to be of socio-economic significance in those times, but the rapid growth of the city, as well as the change in systems of ownership of the lakes, have turned them into the backyard of urban development. Madurai is one such historic city to be facing the issues of finding a balance to the social, ecological, and profitable requirements of the people with respect to the traditional lake system. To find a solution to problems caused by the neglect of vital ecological systems of a city, the theory of transformative placemaking through water sensitive urban design has been explored. This approach re-invents the relationship between the people and the urban lakes to suit the modern aspirations while respecting the environment. The thesis aims to develop strategies to guide the development along the major urban lake of Vandiyur to equip the lake to meet the growing requirements of the megacity in terms of its recreational requirements and give a renewed connection between people and water. The intent of the design is to understand the ecological and social structures of the lake and find ways to use the lake to produce social cohesion within the community and balance the city's profitable and ecological requirements by using transformative placemaking through water sensitive urban design..

Keywords: urban lakes, urban blue spaces, placemaking, revitalisation of lakes, urban cohesion

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Authors: Mohammad Amin Hamedirad, Seyed Javad Vaziri Kang Olyaei

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Project planning and control are one of the most critical issues in the management of construction projects. Traditional methods of project planning and control, such as the critical path method or Gantt chart, are not widely used for planning projects with discrete and repetitive activities, and one of the problems of project managers is planning the implementation process and optimal allocation of its resources. Massive concreting projects is also a project with discrete and repetitive activities. This study uses the concept of simulating discrete events to manage resources, which includes finding the optimal number of resources considering various limitations such as limitations of machinery, equipment, human resources and even technical, time and implementation limitations using analysis of resource consumption rate, project completion time and critical points analysis of the implementation process. For this purpose, the concept of discrete-event simulation has been used to model different stages of implementation. After reviewing the various scenarios, the optimal number of allocations for each resource is finally determined to reach the maximum utilization rate and also to reduce the project completion time or reduce its cost according to the existing constraints. The results showed that with the optimal allocation of resources, the project completion time could be reduced by 90%, and the resulting costs can be reduced by up to 49%. Thus, allocating the optimal number of project resources using this method will reduce its time and cost.

Keywords: simulation, massive concreting, discrete event simulation, resource management

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Authors: A. T. Ramachandra Naik, H. Shivananda Murthy, H. n. Anjanayappa

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The freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii is a more popular crustacean cultured widely in monoculture system in India. It has got high nutritional value in the human diet. Hence, understanding its enzymatic and body composition is important in order to judge its flesh quality. Fish oil specially derived from Indian oil sardine is a good source of highly unsaturated fatty acid and lipid source in fish/prawn diet. A 35% crude protein diet with graded levels of Sardine oil as a source of fat was incorporated at four levels viz, 2.07, 4.07, 6.07 and 8.07% maintaining a total lipid level of feed at 8.11, 10.24, 12.28 and 14.33% respectively. Diet without sardine oil (6.05% total lipid) was served as basal treatment. The giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii was used as test animal and the experiment was lost for 112 days. Significantly, higher gain in weight of prawn was recorded in the treatment with 6.07% sardine oil incorporation followed by higher specific growth rate, food conversion rate and protein efficiency ratio. The 8.07% sardine oil diet produced the highest RNA: DNA ratio in the prawn muscle. Digestive enzyme analyses in the digestive tract and mid-gut gland showed the greatest activity in prawns fed the 8.07% diet.

Keywords: digestive enzyme, fish diet, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, sardine oil

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Authors: Lara Marie Pangan Lo, Soo Im Chung, Yao Cheng Zhang, Xingyue Jin, Mi Young Kang

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Being the world’s most consumed grain crop, rice (Oryza sativa L.) demands’ have increase and this prompted the development of new rice cultivars with high bio-functional properties than the commonly used white rice. Ordinary rice variety is already known to be a potential source for a number of nutritional as well as bioactive compounds. To further enhance the rice’s nutritive values, germination is done in addition to making it more tasty and palatable when cooked. Pigmented rice, on the other hand, has become increasingly popular in the recent years for their greater antioxidant potential and other nutraceutical properties which can help alleviate the occurrence of the increasing incidence of metabolic diseases. Combining these two (2) parameters, this research study is sought to quantitatively determine the pre-germinated and germinated quantities of the major bioactive compounds of South Korea’s newly developed purplish pigmented rice grain cultivar Superjami (SJ) and red pigmented rice grain Superhongmi (SH) and compare them against the non-pigmented Normal Brown (NB) rice variety. Powdered rice grain cultivars were subjected to 72-hour germination period and the quantities of GABA, γ-oryzanol, ferulic acid, tocopherol and tocotrienol homologues were compared against their pre-germinated condition using γ- amino butyric acid (GABA) analysis and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Results revealed the effectiveness of germination in enhancing the bioactive components in all rice samples. GABA contents in germinated rice cultivars increased by more than 10-fold following the order: SJ >SH >NB. In addition, purple rice variety (SJ) has higher total γ-oryzanol and ferulic acid contents which increased by > 2-fold after germination followed by the red cultivar SH then the control, NB. Germinated varieties also possess higher total tocotrienol content than their pre-germinated state. As for the total tocopherol content, SJ has higher quantity, but the red-pigmented SH (0.16 mg/kg) is shown to have lower total tocopherol content than the control rice NB (0.86 mg/kg). However, all tocopherol and tocotrienol homologues were present only in small amounts ( < 3.0 mg/kg) in all pre-germinated and germinated samples. In general, all of the analyzed pigmented rice cultivars were found to possess higher bioactive compounds than the control NB rice variety. Also, regardless of their strain, germinated rice samples have higher bioactive compounds than their pre-germinated counterparts. This only shows the effectiveness of germinating rice in enhancing bioactive constituents. Overall, these results suggest the potential of the pigmented rice varieties as natural source of nutraceuticals in bio-functional food development.

Keywords: bioactive compounds, germinated rice, superhongmi, superjami

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Authors: Abdulwahab Alalyani, Mahbub Rashid

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Urban Open Space (UOS) a central role to promotes community health, including daily activities, but these resources may not available, accessible enough, and or equitably be distributed. This paper measures and compares spatial equity of the availability and accessibility UOS among low, middle, and high-income neighborhoods in Riyadh city. The measurement mothdulgy for the UOSavailability was by calculating the total of UOS with respect to the population total (m2/inhabitant) and the accessibility indicted by using walking distance of a 0.25 mi (0.4 km) buffering streets network.All UOS were mapped and measured using geographical information systems. To evaluate the significant differences in UOS availability and accessibility across low, medium, and high-income Riyadh neighborhoods, we used a One-way ANOVA analysis of covariance to test the differences.The findings are as follows; finding, UOSavailability was lower than global standers. Riyadh has only 1.13 m2 per capita of UOS, and the coverage accessible area by walking distance to UOS was lower than 50%. The final finding, spatial equity of the availability and accessibility, were significantly different among Riyadh neighborhoods based on socioeconomic status. The future development of UOS should be focused on increasing Urban park availability and should be given priority to those low-income and unhealthy communities.

Keywords: distribution urban open space, urban open space accessibility, spatial equity, riyadh city

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Authors: Mindaye Teshome, Nesibu Yahya, Carlos Moreira Miquelino Eleto Torres, Pedro Manuel Villaa, Mehari Alebachew

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Arbagugu forest is one of the remnant dry Afromontane forests under severe anthropogenic disturbances in central Ethiopia. Despite this fact, up-to-date information is lacking about the status of the forest and its role in climate change mitigation. In this study, we evaluated the woody species composition, structure, biomass, and carbon stock in this forest. We employed a systematic random sampling design and established fifty-three sample plots (20 × 100 m) to collect the vegetation data. A total of 37 woody species belonging to 25 families were recorded. The density of seedlings, saplings, and matured trees were 1174, 101, and 84 stems ha-1, respectively. The total basal area of trees with DBH (diameter at breast height) ≥ 2 cm was 21.3 m2 ha-1. The characteristic trees of dry Afromontane Forest such as Podocarpus falcatus, Juniperus procera, and Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata exhibited a fair regeneration status. On the contrary, the least abundant species Lepidotrichilia volkensii, Canthium oligocarpum, Dovyalis verrucosa, Calpurnia aurea, and Maesa lanceolata exhibited good regeneration status. Some tree species such as Polyscias fulva, Schefflera abyssinica, Erythrina brucei, and Apodytes dimidiata lack regeneration. The total carbon stored in the forest ranged between 6.3 Mg C ha-1 and 835.6 Mg C ha-1. This value is equivalent to 639.6 Mg C ha-1. The forest had a very low number of woody species composition and diversity. The regeneration study also revealed that a significant number of tree species had unsatisfactory regeneration status. Besides, the forest had a lower carbon stock density compared with other dry Afromontane forests. This implies the urgent need for forest conservation and restoration activities by the local government, conservation practitioners, and other concerned bodies to maintain the forest and sustain the various ecosystem goods and services provided by the Arbagugu forest.

Keywords: aboveground biomass, forest regeneration, climate change, biodiversity conservation, restoration

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Authors: Yong-Sung Kim, Je-Seok Shin, Ho-Jun Jo, Jin-O Kim

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Home Energy Management System (HEMS) which makes the residential consumers contribute to the demand response is attracting attention in recent years. An aim of HEMS is to minimize their electricity cost by controlling the use of their appliances according to electricity price. The use of appliances in HEMS may be affected by some conditions such as external temperature and electricity price. Therefore, the user’s usage pattern of appliances should be modeled according to the external conditions, and the resultant usage pattern is related to the user’s comfortability on use of each appliances. This paper proposes a methodology to model the usage pattern based on the historical data with the copula function. Through copula function, the usage range of each appliance can be obtained and is able to satisfy the appropriate user’s comfort according to the external conditions for next day. Within the usage range, an optimal scheduling for appliances would be conducted so as to minimize an electricity cost with considering user’s comfort. Among the home appliance, electric heater (EH) is a representative appliance which is affected by the external temperature. In this paper, an optimal scheduling algorithm for an electric heater (EH) is addressed based on the method of branch and bound. As a result, scenarios for the EH usage are obtained according to user’s comfort levels and then the residential consumer would select the best scenario. The case study shows the effects of the proposed algorithm compared with the traditional operation of the EH, and it also represents impacts of the comfort level on the scheduling result.

Keywords: load scheduling, usage pattern, user’s comfort, copula function, branch and bound, electric heater

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Authors: A. Suresh, Sreehari Rao Patri, K. S. R. Krishnaprasad

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An ultra low power capacitor less low-dropout voltage regulator with improved transient response using gain enhanced feed forward path compensation is presented in this paper. It is based on a cascade of a voltage amplifier and a transconductor stage in the feed forward path with regular error amplifier to form a composite gain-enhanced feed forward stage. It broadens the gain bandwidth and thus improves the transient response without substantial increase in power consumption. The proposed LDO, designed for a maximum output current of 100 mA in UMC 180 nm, requires a quiescent current of 69 µA. An undershoot of 153.79mV for a load current changes from 0mA to 100mA and an overshoot of 196.24mV for current change of 100mA to 0mA. The settling time is approximately 1.1 µs for the output voltage undershoot case. The load regulation is of 2.77 µV/mA at load current of 100mA. Reference voltage is generated by using an accurate band gap reference circuit of 0.8V.The costly features of SOC such as total chip area and power consumption is drastically reduced by the use of only a total compensation capacitance of 6pF while consuming power consumption of 0.096 mW.

Keywords: capacitor-less LDO, frequency compensation, transient response, latch, self-biased differential amplifier

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Authors: Udeh Nneka Evelyn

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The shortcomings of traditional costing system, in terms of validity, accuracy, consistency and relevance increased the need for modern management accounting system. ABC (Activity-Based Costing) can be used as a modern tool for planning, control and decision making for management. Past studies on activity-based costing (ABC) system have focused on manufacturing firms thereby making the studies on service firms scanty to some extent. This paper reviewed the application and relevance of activity-based costing techniques in service oriented business organisations by employing a qualitative research method which relied heavily on literature review of past and current relevant articles focusing on activity-based costing (ABC). Findings suggest that ABC is not only appropriate for use in a manufacturing environment; it is also most appropriate for service organizations such as financial institutions, the healthcare industry, and government organizations. In fact, some banking and financial institutions have been applying the concept for years under other names. One of them is unit costing, which is used to calculate the cost of banking services by determining the cost and consumption of each unit of output of functions required to deliver the service. ABC in very basic terms may provide very good payback for businesses. Some of the benefits that relate directly to the financial services industry are: Identification of the most profitable customers; more accurate product and service pricing; increase product profitability; well-organized process costs.

Keywords: profitability, activity-based costing (ABC), management accounting, manufacture

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Authors: Ghorbanali Mohammadi

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Background: Due to the widespread outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, a large number of people become infected with the disease every day and go to hospitals. The acute condition of this disease has caused the death of many people. Since all the stages of treatment for these people happen in the hospitals, nurses are at the forefront of the fight against this virus. This causes nurses to suffer from physical and mental health problems. Methods: Physical and mental problems in nurses were assessed using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42) of Lovibond (1995) and the Nordic Questionnaire. Results: 90 nurses from emergency, intensive care, and coronary care units were examined, and a total of 180 questionnaires were collected and evaluated. It was found that 37.78%, 47.78%, and 21.11% of nurses have symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. 40% of the nurses had physical problems. In total, 65.17% of them were involved in one or more mental or physical illnesses. Conclusions: Of the three units surveyed, the nurses in intensive care, emergency room, and coronary care units worked more than ten hours a day. Examining the interaction of physical and mental health problems indicated that physical problems can aggravate mental problems.

Keywords: depression anxiety and stress scale of Lovibond, nordic questionnaire, mental health of nurses, physical health problems in nurses

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Authors: Ankur Chaudhuri, Sibani Sen Chakraborty

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In human, glutaminyl cyclase activity is highly abundant in neuronal and secretory tissues and is preferentially restricted to hypothalamus and pituitary. The N-terminal modification of β-amyloids (Aβs) peptides by the generation of a pyro-glutamyl (pGlu) modified Aβs (pE-Aβs) is an important process in the initiation of the formation of neurotoxic plaques in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This process is catalyzed by glutaminyl cyclase (QC). The expression of QC is characteristically up-regulated in the early stage of AD, and the hallmark of the inhibition of QC is the prevention of the formation of pE-Aβs and plaques. A computer-aided drug design (CADD) process was employed to give an idea for the designing of potentially active compounds to understand the inhibitory potency against human glutaminyl cyclase (QC). This work elaborates the ligand-based and structure-based pharmacophore exploration of glutaminyl cyclase (QC) by using the known inhibitors. Three dimensional (3D) quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) methods were applied to 154 compounds with known IC50 values. All the inhibitors were divided into two sets, training-set, and test-sets. Generally, training-set was used to build the quantitative pharmacophore model based on the principle of structural diversity, whereas the test-set was employed to evaluate the predictive ability of the pharmacophore hypotheses. A chemical feature-based pharmacophore model was generated from the known 92 training-set compounds by HypoGen module implemented in Discovery Studio 2017 R2 software package. The best hypothesis was selected (Hypo1) based upon the highest correlation coefficient (0.8906), lowest total cost (463.72), and the lowest root mean square deviation (2.24Å) values. The highest correlation coefficient value indicates greater predictive activity of the hypothesis, whereas the lower root mean square deviation signifies a small deviation of experimental activity from the predicted one. The best pharmacophore model (Hypo1) of the candidate inhibitors predicted comprised four features: two hydrogen bond acceptor, one hydrogen bond donor, and one hydrophobic feature. The Hypo1 was validated by several parameters such as test set activity prediction, cost analysis, Fischer's randomization test, leave-one-out method, and heat map of ligand profiler. The predicted features were then used for virtual screening of potential compounds from NCI, ASINEX, Maybridge and Chembridge databases. More than seven million compounds were used for this purpose. The hit compounds were filtered by drug-likeness and pharmacokinetics properties. The selective hits were docked to the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of the target protein glutaminyl cyclase (PDB ID: 2AFU/2AFW) to filter these hits further. To validate the molecular docking results, the most active compound from the dataset was selected as a reference molecule. From the density functional theory (DFT) study, ten molecules were selected based on their highest HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbitals) energy and the lowest bandgap values. Molecular dynamics simulations with explicit solvation systems of the final ten hit compounds revealed that a large number of non-covalent interactions were formed with the binding site of the human glutaminyl cyclase. It was suggested that the hit compounds reported in this study could help in future designing of potent inhibitors as leads against human glutaminyl cyclase.

Keywords: glutaminyl cyclase, hit lead, pharmacophore model, simulation

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Authors: Shailja Thakur

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In this paper it is shown that how farmers are suffering from all sides including vagaries of weather then price fluctuations, demand supply constraints, poor soil health etc. Also the ICT can prove to be of great help if incorporated rightly into Indian agriculture. Some innovative ways to reward farmers and distribution of subsidies to them can improve the current scenario.

Keywords: cost of farming, information and communication technology, innovative steps, roof gardening, vermicomposting

Procedia PDF Downloads 293

Authors: Mary A. Bisi-Johnson, Kehinde A. Adediran, Saheed A. Akinola, Hamzat A. Oyelade

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Some of the main problems man contends with are the quantity (source and amount) and quality of water in Nigeria. Scarcity leads to water being obtained from various sources and microbiological contaminations of the water may thus occur between the collection point and the point of usage. Thus, this study aims to assess the general and microbiological quality of domestic water sources and household stored water used within selected areas in Ile-Ife, South-Western part of Nigeria for microbial contaminants. Physicochemical and microbiological examination were carried out on 45 source and stored water samples collected from well and spring in three different local government areas i.e. Ife east, Ife-south, and Ife-north. Physicochemical analysis included pH value, temperature, total dissolved solid, dissolved oxygen, and biochemical oxygen demand. Microbiology involved most probable number analysis, total coliform, heterotrophic plate, faecal coliform, and streptococcus count. The result of the physicochemical analysis of samples showed anomalies compared to acceptable standards with the pH value of 7.20-8.60 for stored and 6.50-7.80 for source samples as the total dissolved solids (TDS of stored 20-70mg/L, source 352-691mg/L), dissolved oxygen (DO of stored 1.60-9.60mg/L, source 1.60-4.80mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD stored 0.80-3.60mg/L, source 0.60-5.40mg/L). General microbiological quality indicated that both stored and source samples with the exception of a sample were not within acceptable range as indicated by analysis of the MPN/100ml which ranges (stored 290-1100mg/L, source 9-1100mg/L). Apart from high counts, most samples did not meet the World Health Organization standard for drinking water with the presence of some pathogenic bacteria and fungi such as Salmonella and Aspergillus spp. To annul these constraints, standard treatment methods should be adopted to make water free from contaminants. This will help identify common and likely water related infection origin within the communities and thus help guide in terms of interventions required to prevent the general populace from such infections.

Keywords: domestic, microbiology, physicochemical, quality, water

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