Search results for: low cost of mud formulation

Authors: Reza Sirjani, Nobosse Tafem Bolan

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Many optimization techniques available in the literature have been developed in order to solve the problem of voltage stability enhancement in power systems. However, there are a number of drawbacks in the use of previous techniques aimed at determining the optimal location and size of reactive compensators in a network. In this paper, an Improved Cuckoo Search algorithm is applied as an appropriate optimization algorithm to determine the optimum location and size of a Static Var Compensator (SVC) in a transmission network. The main objectives are voltage stability improvement and total cost minimization. The results of the presented technique are then compared with other available optimization techniques.

Keywords: cuckoo search algorithm, optimization, power system, var compensators, voltage stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 552

Authors: Diom Loreen Ndum, Omarine Njimanted

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With increasing automation in clinical laboratories, the requirements for quality control materials have greatly increased in order to monitor daily performance. The constant use of commercial control material is not economically feasible for many developing countries because of non-availability or the high-cost of the materials. Therefore, preparation and use of in-house quality control serum will be a very cost-effective measure with respect to laboratory needs.The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of in-house prepared pooled sera with respect to commercially acquired control sample for routine internal quality control at the Nkwen District Hospital Laboratory. This was an analytical study, serum was taken from leftover serum samples of 5 healthy adult blood donors at the blood bank of Nkwen District Hospital, which had been screened negative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Hepatitis B antigens (HBsAg), and were pooled together in a sterile container. From the pooled sera, sixty aliquots of 150µL each were prepared. Forty aliquots of 150µL each of commercially acquired samples were prepared after reconstitution and stored in a deep freezer at − 20°C until it was required for analysis. This study started from the 9th June to 12th August 2022. Every day, alongside with commercial control sample, one aliquot of pooled sera was removed from the deep freezer and allowed to thaw before analyzed for the following parameters: blood urea, serum creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), potassium and sodium. After getting the first 20 values for each parameter of pooled sera, the mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation were calculated, and a Levey-Jennings (L-J) chart established. The mean and standard deviation for commercially acquired control sample was provided by the manufacturer. The following results were observed; pooled sera had lesser standard deviation for creatinine, urea and AST than commercially acquired control samples. There was statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between the mean values of creatinine, urea and AST for in-house quality control when compared with commercial control. The coefficient of variation for the parameters for both commercial control and in-house control samples were less than 30%, which is an acceptable difference. The L-J charts revealed shifts and trends (warning signs), so troubleshooting and corrective measures were taken. In conclusion, in-house quality control sample prepared from pooled serum can be a good control sample for routine internal quality control.

Keywords: internal quality control, levey-jennings chart, pooled sera, shifts, trends, westgard rules

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Authors: Aynur Kazaz, Yusif Inusah

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In the bid to improve transparency and efficiency as well as to reduce the cost of the public procurement process, Ghana started implementing an electronic Government Procurement System, known as the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) in November 2019. The implementation of e-tendering technology is new to the stakeholders. Therefore, this research is aimed to identify the critical barriers to e-tendering implementation in the Ghanaian construction industry. Examples of barriers to e-tendering implementation were first identified through a literature review, and questionnaires and interview questions were prepared to gather the data. This study contributes to the in-depth understanding of global e-tendering barriers in the Ghanaian construction industry. The findings could help researchers, practitioners, and governments make strategic investment decisions and overcome e-tendering challenges.

Keywords: barriers, challenges, construction industry, e-procurement, e-tendering

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Tetsuya Yabuki, Yasunori Arizumi, Tetsuhiro Shimozato, Samy Guezouli, Hiroaki Matsusita, Masayuki Tai

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The main object of this paper is to present the research results of the development of a hybrid stainless steel girder system for bridge construction undertaken at University of Ryukyu. In order to prevent the corrosion damage and reduce the fabrication costs, a hybrid stainless steel girder in bridge construction is developed, the stainless steel girder of which is stiffened and braced by structural carbon steel materials. It is verified analytically and experimentally that the ultimate strength of the hybrid stainless steel girder is equal to or greater than that of conventional carbon steel girder. The benefit of the life-cycle cost of the hybrid stainless steel girder is also shown.

Keywords: smart structure, hybrid stainless steel members, ultimate strength, steel bridge, corrosion prevention

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: Tugrul Oktay, Mehmet Konar, Mustafa Soylak, Firat Sal, Murat Onay, Orhan Kizilkaya

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In this paper, autonomous performance of a small manufactured unmanned helicopter is tried to be increased. For this purpose, a small unmanned helicopter is manufactured in Erciyes University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics. It is called as ZANKA-Heli-I. For performance maximization, autopilot parameters are determined via minimizing a cost function consisting of flight performance parameters such as settling time, rise time, overshoot during trajectory tracking. For this purpose, a stochastic optimization method named as simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation is benefited. Using this approach, considerable autonomous performance increase (around %23) is obtained.

Keywords: small helicopters, hierarchical control, stochastic optimization, autonomous performance maximization, autopilots

Procedia PDF Downloads 582

Authors: Amjaad Alsalamah, Liyakathunsia Syed

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Transportation is an essential need for many people to go to their work, school, and home. In particular, the main common method inside many cities is to drive the car. Driving a car can be an easy job to reach the destination and load all stuff in a reasonable time. However, deciding to find a parking lot for a car can take a long time using the traditional system that can issue a paper ticket for each customer. The old system cannot guarantee a parking lot for all customers. Also, payment methods are not always available, and many customers struggled to find their car among a numerous number of cars. As a result, this research focuses on providing an online smart parking system in order to save time and budget. This system provides a flexible management system for both parking owner and customers by receiving all request via the online system and it gets an accurate result for all available parking and its location.

Keywords: smart parking system, IoT, tracking system, process model, cost, time

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Zaki Abiza, Miguel Chavez, David M. Holman, Ruddy Brionnaud

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In this paper, the prediction of the aerodynamic behavior of the flow around a Finned Projectile will be validated using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solution, XFlow, based on the Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM). XFlow is an innovative CFD software developed by Next Limit Dynamics. It is based on a state-of-the-art Lattice-Boltzmann Method which uses a proprietary particle-based kinetic solver and a LES turbulent model coupled with the generalized law of the wall (WMLES). The Lattice-Boltzmann method discretizes the continuous Boltzmann equation, a transport equation for the particle probability distribution function. From the Boltzmann transport equation, and by means of the Chapman-Enskog expansion, the compressible Navier-Stokes equations can be recovered. However to simulate compressible flows, this method has a Mach number limitation because of the lattice discretization. Thanks to this flexible particle-based approach the traditional meshing process is avoided, the discretization stage is strongly accelerated reducing engineering costs, and computations on complex geometries are affordable in a straightforward way. The projectile that will be used in this work is the Army-Navy Basic Finned Missile (ANF) with a caliber of 0.03 m. The analysis will consist in varying the Mach number from M=0.5 comparing the axial force coefficient, normal force slope coefficient and the pitch moment slope coefficient of the Finned Projectile obtained by XFlow with the experimental data. The slope coefficients will be obtained using finite difference techniques in the linear range of the polar curve. The aim of such an analysis is to find out the limiting Mach number value starting from which the effects of high fluid compressibility (related to transonic flow regime) lead the XFlow simulations to differ from the experimental results. This will allow identifying the critical Mach number which limits the validity of the isothermal formulation of XFlow and beyond which a fully compressible solver implementing a coupled momentum-energy equations would be required.

Keywords: CFD, computational fluid dynamics, drag, finned projectile, lattice-boltzmann method, LBM, lift, mach, pitch

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Authors: Vishnu Pratap Singh Kirar

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The main aim of the communication system is to achieve maximum performance. In cognitive radio, any user or transceiver have the ability to sense best suitable channel, while the channel is not in use. It means an unlicensed user can share the spectrum of licensed user without any interference. Though the spectrum sensing consumes a large amount of energy and it can reduce by applying various artificial intelligent methods for determining proper spectrum holes. It also increases the efficiency of Cognitive Radio Network (CRN). In this survey paper, we discuss the use of different learning models and implementation of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to increase the learning and decision-making capacity of CRN without affecting bandwidth, cost and signal rate.

Keywords: artificial neural network, cognitive radio, cognitive radio networks, back propagation, spectrum sensing

Procedia PDF Downloads 609

Authors: Ioannis Kavouras, Eftychios Protopapadakis, Emmanuel Sardis, Anastasios Doulamis

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In this paper, we investigate the appropriateness and usability of three different free and open-source rendering tools for urban planning visualizations. The process involves the selection of a map area, the 3D rendering transformation, the addition of nature-based solution placement, and the evaluation and assessment of the suggested applied interventions. The manuscript uses a case study involved at Dilaveri Coast, Piraeus region, Greece. Research outcomes indicate that a Blender-OSM implementation is an appropriate tool capable of supporting high-fidelity urban planning, with quick and accurate visibility of related results for end users and involved in NBS transformations.

Keywords: urban planning, nature based solution, 3D gaming tools, game engine, free and open source

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Abdelkarim Ait Brik, Abdelaziz Khoukh, Mustapha Jammali, Hamid Chaikhy

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The energy audit is the essential initial step to ensure a good definition of energy control actions. The in-depth study of the various energy-consuming equipments makes it possible to determine the actions and investments with best cost for the company. The analysis focuses on the energy consumption of production equipment and utilities (lighting, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, transport). Successful implementation of this approach requires, however, to take into account a number of prerequisites. This paper proposes a number of useful recommendations concerning the energy audit in order to achieve better results, and a case study concerning the lighting audit of a Moroccan company by showing the gains that can be made through this audit.

Keywords: energy audit, energy diagnosis, consumption, electricity, energy efficiency, lighting audit

Procedia PDF Downloads 695

Authors: Dana Alghool, Tarek ElMekkawy, Mohamed Haouari, Adel Elomari

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District cooling systems have captured the attentions of many researchers recently due to the enormous benefits offered by such system in comparison with traditional cooling technologies. It is considered a major component of urban cities due to the significant reduction of energy consumption. This paper aims to find the optimal design and operation of district cooling systems by developing a mixed integer linear programming model to minimize the annual total system cost and satisfy the end-user cooling demand. The proposed model is experimented with different cooling demand scenarios. The results of the very high cooling demand scenario are only presented in this paper. A sensitivity analysis on different parameters of the model was performed.

Keywords: Annual Cooling Demand, Compression Chiller, Mathematical Modeling, District Cooling Systems, Optimization

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Authors: Aishath Shakeela

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At a global level, water stewardship, water stress and water security are crucial factors in tourism planning and development considerations. Challenges associated with water is of particular concern to the Maldives as there is limited availability of freshwater, high dependency on desalinated water, and high unit cost associated with desalinating water. While the Maldives is promoted as an example of sustainable tourism, a key sustainability challenge facing tourism dependent communities is the efficient use and management of available water resources. A water crisis event in the capital island of Maldives highlighted how precarious water related issues are in this tourism dependent destination. Applying netnography, the focus of this working paper is to present community perceptions of how government policies addressed Malé Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) water crisis event.

Keywords: crisis management, government policies, Maldives, tourism, water

Procedia PDF Downloads 530

Authors: Giorgi Gaprindashvili

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One of the best examples, in evolution of the public procurement, from post-soviet countries are reforms carried out in Georgia, which brought them close to international standards of procurement. In Georgia, public procurement legislation started functioning in 1998. The reform has passed several stages and came in the form as it is today. It should also be noted, that countries with economy in transition, including Georgia, implemented all the reforms in public procurement based on recommendations and support of World Bank, the United Nations and other international organizations. The first law on public procurement in Georgia was adopted on December 9, 1998 which aimed regulation of the procurement process of budget-organizations, transparent and competitive environment for private companies to access state funds legally. The priorities were identified quite clearly in the wording of the law, but operation/function of this law could not be reached on its level, because of some objective and subjective reasons. The high level of corruption in all levels of governance, can be considered as a main obstacle reason and of course, it is natural, that it had direct impact on the procurement process, as well as on transparency and rational use of state funds. This circumstances were the reasons that reforms in this sphere continued, to improve procurement process, in particular, the first wave of reforms began in 2001. Public procurement agency carried out reform with World Bank with main purpose of smartening the procurement legislation and its harmonization with international treaties and agreements. Also with the support of World Bank various activities were carried out to raise awareness of participants involved in procurement system. Further major changes in the legislation were filed in May 2005, which was also directed towards the improvement and smarten of the procurement process. The third wave of the reform began in 2010, which more or less guaranteed the transparency of the procurement process, which later became the basis for the rational spending of state funds. The reform of the procurement system completely changed the procedures. Carried out reform in Georgia resulted in introducing new electronic tendering system, which benefit the transparency of the process, after this became the basis for the further development of a competitive environment, which become a prerequisite for the state rational spending. Increased number of supplier organizations participating in the procurement process resulted in reduction of the estimated cost and the actual cost from 20% up to 40%, it is quite large saving for the procuring organizations and allows them to use the freed-up funds for their other needs. Assessment of the reforms in Georgia in the field of public procurement can be concluded, that proper regulation of the sector and relevant policy may proceed to rational and transparent spending of the budget from country’s state institutions. Also, the business sector has the opportunity to work in competitive market conditions and to make a preliminary analysis, which is a prerequisite for future strategy and development.

Keywords: public administration, public procurement, reforms, transparency

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: A. Kesraoui, M. Seffen

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Applications of adsorption onto activated carbon for water treatment are well known. The process has been demonstrated to be widely effective for removing dissolved organic substances from wastewaters, but this treatment has a major drawback is the high operating cost. The main goal of our research work is to improve the retention capacity of Tunisian biomass for the depollution of industrial wastewater and retention of pollutants considered toxic. The biosorption process is based on the retention of molecules and ions onto a solid surface composed of biological materials. The evaluation of the potential use of these materials is important to propose as an alternative to the adsorption process generally expensive, used to remove organic compounds. Indeed, these materials are very abundant in nature and are low cost. Certainly, the biosorption process is effective to remove the pollutants, but it presents a slow kinetics. The improvement of the biosorption rates is a challenge to make this process competitive with respect to oxidation and adsorption onto lignocellulosic fibers. In this context, the alternating current appears as a new alternative, original and a very interesting phenomenon in the acceleration of chemical reactions. Our main goal is to increase the retention acceleration of dyes (indigo carmine, methylene blue) and phenol by using a new alternative: alternating current. The adsorption experiments have been performed in a batch reactor by adding some of the adsorbents in 150 mL of pollutants solution with the desired concentration and pH. The electrical part of the mounting comprises a current source which delivers an alternating current voltage of 2 to 15 V. It is connected to a voltmeter that allows us to read the voltage. In a 150 mL capacity cell, we plunged two zinc electrodes and the distance between two Zinc electrodes has been 4 cm. Thanks to alternating current, we have succeeded to improve the performance of activated carbon by increasing the speed of the indigo carmine adsorption process and reducing the treatment time. On the other hand, we have studied the influence of the alternating current on the biosorption rate of methylene blue onto Luffa cylindrica fibers and the hybrid material (Luffa cylindrica-ZnO). The results showed that the alternating current accelerated the biosorption rate of methylene blue onto the Luffa cylindrica and the Luffa cylindrica-ZnO hybrid material and increased the adsorbed amount of methylene blue on both adsorbents. In order to improve the removal of phenol, we performed the coupling between the alternating current and the biosorption onto two adsorbents: Luffa cylindrica and the hybrid material (Luffa cylindrica-ZnO). In fact, the alternating current has succeeded to improve the performance of adsorbents by increasing the speed of the adsorption process and the adsorption capacity and reduce the processing time.

Keywords: adsorption, alternating current, dyes, modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Jun Young Moon, Hyeonggeon Lee, Jong Tae Kim

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In this paper, we present Cortex-M3 based virtual platform which can virtualize wearable hardware platform and evaluate hardware performance. Cortex-M3 is very popular microcontroller in wearable devices, hardware sensors and display devices. This platform can be used to implement software layer for specific hardware architecture. By using the proposed platform the software development process can be parallelized with hardware development process. We present internal mechanism to implement the proposed virtual platform and describe how to use the proposed platform to develop software by using case study which is low cost wearable device that uses Cortex-M3.

Keywords: electronic system level design, software development, virtual platform, wearable device

Procedia PDF Downloads 375

Authors: Dyah Purwaningsih, Roto Roto, Hari Sutrisno

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Manganese dioxide (MnO₂) and its derivatives are among the most widely used materials for the positive electrode in both primary and rechargeable lithium batteries. The MnO₂ derivative compound of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) is one of the leading candidates for positive electrode materials in lithium batteries as it is abundant, low cost and environmentally friendly. Over the years, synthesis of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) has been carried out using various methods including sol-gel, gas condensation, spray pyrolysis, and ceramics. Problems with these various methods persist including high cost (so commercially inapplicable) and must be done at high temperature (environmentally unfriendly). This research aims to: (1) synthesize LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) by reflux technique; (2) develop microstructure analysis method from XRD Powder LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ data with the two-stage method; (3) study the electrical conductivity of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄. This research developed the synthesis of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) with reflux. The materials consisting of Mn(CH₃COOH)₂. 4H₂O and Na₂S₂O₈ were refluxed for 10 hours at 120°C to form β-MnO₂. The doping of Co, Ni and Cr were carried out using solid-state method with LiOH to form LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄. The instruments used included XRD, SEM-EDX, XPS, TEM, SAA, TG/DTA, FTIR, LCR meter and eight-channel battery analyzer. Microstructure analysis of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ was carried out on XRD powder data by two-stage method using FullProf program integrated into WinPlotR and Oscail Program as well as on binding energy data from XPS. The morphology of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ was studied with SEM-EDX, TEM, and SAA. The thermal stability test was performed with TG/DTA, the electrical conductivity was studied from the LCR meter data. The specific capacity of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ as lithium battery cathode was tested using an eight-channel battery analyzer. The results showed that the synthesis of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) was successfully carried out by reflux. The optimal temperature of calcination is 750°C. XRD characterization shows that LiMn₂O₄ has a cubic crystal structure with Fd3m space group. By using the CheckCell in the WinPlotr, the increase of Li/Mn mole ratio does not result in changes in the LiMn₂O₄ crystal structure. The doping of Co, Ni and Cr on LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (x = 0.02; 0.04; 0; 0.6; 0.08; 0.10) does not change the cubic crystal structure of Fd3m. All the formed crystals are polycrystals with the size of 100-450 nm. Characterization of LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) microstructure by two-stage method shows the shrinkage of lattice parameter and cell volume. Based on its range of capacitance, the conductivity obtained at LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄ (M: Co, Ni, Cr) is an ionic conductivity with varying capacitance. The specific battery capacity at a voltage of 4799.7 mV for LiMn₂O₄; Li₁.₀₈Mn₁.₉₂O₄; LiCo₀.₁Mn₁.₉O₄; LiNi₀.₁Mn₁.₉O₄ and LiCr₀.₁Mn₁.₉O₄ are 88.62 mAh/g; 2.73 mAh/g; 89.39 mAh/g; 85.15 mAh/g; and 1.48 mAh/g respectively.

Keywords: LiMₓMn₂₋ₓO₄, solid-state, reflux, two-stage method, ionic conductivity, specific capacity

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Wen-Yuh Jywe, Bor-Jeng Lin, Jing-Chung Shen, Jeng-Dao Lee, Hsueh-Liang Huang, Tung-Hsien Hsieh

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In this study, a simple 2-D measurement system based on optical design was developed to measure the motion errors of the linear guideway. Compared with the transitional methods about the linear guideway for measuring the motion errors, our proposed 2-D optical measurement system can simultaneously measure horizontal and vertical running straightness errors for the linear guideway. The performance of the 2-D optical measurement system is verified by experimental results. The standard deviation of the 2-D optical measurement system is about 0.4 μm in the measurement range of 100 mm. The maximum measuring speed of the proposed automatic measurement instrument is 1 m/sec.

Keywords: 2-D measurement, linear guideway, motion errors, running straightness

Procedia PDF Downloads 491

Authors: Nurul Amziah Md Yunus, Izhal Abdul Halin, Nasri Sulaiman, Noor Faezah Ismail, Nik Hasniza Nik Aman

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Nanotechnology has become the world attention in various applications including the solar cells devices due to the uniqueness and benefits of achieving low cost and better performances of devices. Recently, thin film solar cells such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper-indium-gallium-diSelenide (CIGS), copper-zinc-tin-sulphide (CZTS), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) enhanced by nanotechnology have attracted much attention. Thus, a compilation of nanotechnology devices giving the progress in the solar cells has been presented. It is much related to nanoparticles or nanocrystallines, carbon nanotubes, and nanowires or nanorods structures.

Keywords: nanotechnology, nanocrystalline, nanowires, carbon nanotubes, nanorods, thin film solar cells

Procedia PDF Downloads 627

Authors: Ahmad Kayvani Fard, Gordon Mckay, Muataz Hussien

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Adsorption/sorption is believed to be one of the optimal processes for the removal of heavy metals from water due to its low operational and capital cost as well as its high removal efficiency. Different materials have been reported in literature as adsorbent for heavy metal removal in waste water such as natural sorbents, organic polymers (synthetic) and mineral materials (inorganic). The selection of adsorbents and development of new functional materials that can achieve good removal of heavy metals from water is an important practice and depends on many factors, such as the availability of the material, cost of material, and material safety and etc. In this study we reported the synthesis of doped Activated carbon and Carbon nanotube (CNT) with different loading of metal oxide nanoparticles such as Fe2O3, Fe3O4, Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2 and Ag nanoparticles and their application in removal of heavy metals, hydrocarbon, and organics from waste water. Commercial AC and CNT with different loadings of mentioned nanoparticle were prepared and effect of pH, adsorbent dosage, sorption kinetic, and concentration effects are studied and optimum condition for removal of heavy metals from water is reported. The prepared composite sorbent is characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), the Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption technique, and Zeta potential. The composite materials showed higher removal efficiency and superior adsorption capacity compared to commercially available carbon based adsorbent. The specific surface area of AC increased by 50% reaching up to 2000 m2/g while the CNT specific surface area of CNT increased by more than 8 times reaching value of 890 m2/g. The increased surface area is one of the key parameters along with surface charge of the material determining the removal efficiency and removal efficiency. Moreover, the surface charge density of the impregnated CNT and AC have enhanced significantly where can benefit the adsorption process. The nanoparticles also enhance the catalytic activity of material and reduce the agglomeration and aggregation of material which provides more active site for adsorbing the contaminant from water. Some of the results for treating wastewater includes 100% removal of BTEX, arsenic, strontium, barium, phenolic compounds, and oil from water. The results obtained are promising for the use of AC and CNT loaded with metal oxide nanoparticle in treatment and pretreatment of waste water and produced water before desalination process. Adsorption can be very efficient with low energy consumption and economic feasibility.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, activated carbon, adsorption, heavy metal, water treatment

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Authors: Rhea Khosla, Victoria Tzortziou-Brown

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Introduction: Adolescent SRH has been neglected since the start of the millennium. Adolescents comprise 16% of the global population, with the largest proportion living in Asia (650 million). By late adolescence, individuals in these regions are likely to become sexually active, and thus they must understand their SRH rights. Many lack knowledge of SRH, using unreliable sources for such information. Sex education is necessary to standardize and inform sexual knowledge, which empowers adolescents to make informed SRH decisions. School is an appropriate environment for this, however, SRH education requires effective policy to enforce. Nonetheless, this issue remains of low political priority in Asia and Africa. Current literature on sex education policy in schools in these regions is scarce and tends to have broad aims. Thus, a scoping review was necessary. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in February 2023 using six databases, including grey literature databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Global Index Medicus), returning a total of 1537 unique articles. After screening titles, abstracts and full text, 17 articles remained. References of included articles were additionally searched, producing a further 7 articles, which then underwent thematic analysis Results: Most countries in Africa and Asia did not have studies on this topic. Studies derived data from interviews with key stakeholders and quantitative methods quantified questionnaire responses. Barriers were: policy/curriculum issues, societal opinions, teaching discomfort, and lack of educator training. Limitations were insufficient timing, inconsistent implementation, insufficient hours dedicated to teaching, education received late into schooling, and discrepancies between teachers, schools, and students about whether policies were being implemented. Discussion: Based on the existing limited evidence, a cultural shift to reduce stigma seems necessary, alongside teacher and student involvement in policy formulation with effective implementation monitoring and educator training.

Keywords: adolescent, Africa, Asia, education, sexual and reproductive health, policy

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Authors: Tareq N. Issa

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The main pressuring challenges of global competition and high returns have forced businesses to shift their strategic competitive advantage from physical distribution management to integrated logistics management, finally moving into supply chain management. Conventionally, corporate profitability is a function of cost, capital employed, revenue and customer service. This article gives an insight into the effect of supply chain management on each of the above variables. It investigates the impact of the changing levels/ effects of these variables on corporate profitability and the means of measuring supply chain financial effectiveness. Information technology tools form the basis for supply chain optimal performance through alignment of supply chain systems in this ever increasing complexity in business decisions.

Keywords: corporate profitability, sypply chain systems, business decisions, competitive advanage

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Dagmara Wrzecionkowska

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Mass media campaigns against obesity are often designed to impact large audiences. This usually means that their audience is defined based on general demographic characteristics like age, gender, occupation etc., not taking into account psychographics like behavior, motivations, wants, etc. Using psychographics, as the base for the audience segmentation, is a common practice in case of successful campaigns, as it allows developing more relevant messages. It also serves a purpose of identifying key segments, those that generate the best return on investment. For a health campaign, that would be segments that have the best chance of being converted into healthy lifestyle at the lowest cost. This paper presents the limitations of the demographic targeting, based on the findings from the reception study of IMSS anti-obesity TV commercials and proposes mothers as the first level of segmentation, in the process of identifying the key segment for these campaigns.

Keywords: anti-obesity campaigns, mothers, segmentation, targeting

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Authors: Jesryl B. Paulite, Irene Alcantara-Papa, Teofila O. Zulaybar, Jocelyn T. Zarate, Virgie Ugay

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Banana is one of the major fruits in the Philippines in terms of volume of production and export earnings. The Philippines export of fresh Cavendish banana ranked No.1 with 22% share. One major threat to the industry is Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. It tops as a major concern today affecting the Philippine banana industry since 2002 up to the present in Mindanao. Because of environmental and health issues concerning the use of chemical pesticides in the control of diseases, utilization of microorganisms has been significant in recent years as a promising alternative. This study aims to evaluate the potential of actinomycetes to control Fusarium wilt in Cavendish banana. The in-vitro experiments was carried out in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) while field experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three treatments and three replications. Actinomycetes were isolated from mangrove soils in areas in Quezon and Bataan, Philippines. A total of 199 actinomycetes were isolated and 82 actinomycetes showed activity against the local Fusarium oxysporum (Foc) by agar plug assay. The test for antagonisms (AQ6, AQ30, and AQ121) of three best isolates Foc to were selected inhibiting Foc by 21.0mm, 22.0mm and 20.5mm, respectively. The same actinomycetes inhibited well Foc Tropical Race 4 showing 24.6 mm, 20.2mm and 19.0 mm zones of inhibition by agar plug assay, respectively. Combinations of the three isolates yielded an inhibition of 13.5 mm by cup cylinder assay. These findings led to the formulation of the mixed actinomycetes as biocontrol agents against Foc. A field experiment to evaluate the formulated mixed actinomycetes against Foc in a Foc infested field in Kinamayan, Sto Tomas, Davao Del Norte, Philippines. was conducted. Results showed that preventive method of application of the mixed actinomycetes against Foc showed promising results. A 56.66% mortality was observed in control set-up (no biocontrol agent added) compared to 33.33% mortality in preventive method. Further validation of the effectiveness of the mixed actinomycetes as biocontrol agent is presently being conducted in Asuncion, Davao Del Norte, Philippines.

Keywords: actinomycetes, biocontrol agents, cavendish banana, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense

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Authors: Ajay B. C., Meena H. N., Dagla M. C., Narendra Kumar, Makwana A. D., Bera S. K., Kalariya K. A., Singh A. L.

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The high-energy value, protein content and minerals makes peanut a rich source of nutrition at comparatively low cost. Basic information on genetics and inheritance of these mineral elements is very scarce. Hence, in the present study inheritance (using additive-dominance model) and association of mineral elements was studied in two peanut crosses. Dominance variance (H) played an important role in the inheritance of P, K, Fe and Zn in peanut pods. Average degree of dominance for most of the traits was greater than unity indicating over dominance for these traits. Significant associations were also observed among mineral elements both in F2 and F3 generations but pod yield had no associations with mineral elements (with few exceptions). Di-allele/bi-parental mating could be followed to identify high yielding and mineral dense segregates.

Keywords: correlation, dominance variance, mineral elements, peanut

Procedia PDF Downloads 413

Authors: Shadi Janbabaei, Hossein Gharaee Garakani, Naser Mohammadzadeh

Abstract:

Internet of things is a new concept that its emergence has caused ubiquity of sensors in human life, so that at any time, all data are collected, processed and transmitted by these sensors. In order to establish a secure connection, the first challenge is authentication between sensors. However, this challenge also requires some features so that the authentication is done properly. Anonymity, untraceability, and being lightweight are among the issues that need to be considered. In this paper, we have evaluated the authentication protocols and have analyzed the security vulnerabilities found in them. Then an improved light weight authentication protocol for sensor-to-sensor communications is presented which uses the hash function and logical operators. The analysis of protocol shows that security requirements have been met and the protocol is resistant against various attacks. In the end, by decreasing the number of computational cost functions, it is argued that the protocol is lighter than before.

Keywords: anonymity, authentication, Internet of Things, lightweight, un-traceability

Procedia PDF Downloads 293

Authors: Amruta Amune, Rohit Agrawal, Yashashree Shastri, Syeda Zarah Aiman, Rutuja Rathi, Vaishnav Suryawanshi, Sameer Sumbhe

Abstract:

Every human being needs a sense of security. The requirement for security has risen in proportion with the population growth. However, because of a scarcity of resources, effective protection is not possible. It costs a lot of money to get appropriate security that not many can handle or afford. The goal of the study was to find a solution to the issue by developing a system capable of providing strong protection at a very low cost when long-term benefits are taken into account. The objective was to design and develop a robot that could travel around and survey the region and inform the command center if anything unusual was found. The system will be controlled manually on the server to find out its workplace's paths. The system is outfitted with a camera so that it can be used to capture built-in live video of the attacker and display it on the server.

Keywords: night patrolling, node MCU, server, security

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: G. A. Amin, A. D. Al-Talhi

Abstract:

The bacterium B. subtilis produced surfactin in conventional batch culture as a growth associated product and a growth rate (0.4 h-1). A fed-batch process was developed and the fermentative substrate and other nutrients were fed on hourly basis and according to the growth rate of the bacterium. Conversion of different quantities of Maldex-15 into surfactin was investigated in five different fermentation runs. In all runs, most of Maldex-15 was consumed and converted into surfactin and cell biomass with appreciable efficiencies. The best results were obtained with fermentation run supplied with 200 g Maldex-15. Up to 35.4 g.l-1 of surfactin and cell biomass of 30.2 g.l-1 were achieved in 12 hrs. Also, markedly substrate yield of 0.269 g/g and volumetric reactor productivity of 2.61 g.1-1.h-1 were obtained confirming the establishment of a cost effective commercial surfactin production.

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis, biosurfactant, exponentially fed-batch fermentation, surfactin

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Authors: Viney Dixit, Rohit R. Shahi, Ashish Bhatnagar, P. Jain, T. P. Yadav, O. N. Srivastava

Abstract:

Carbons are being widely investigated as hydrogen storage material owing to their light weight, fast hydrogen absorption kinetics and low cost. However, these materials suffer from low hydrogen storage capacity at room temperature. The aim of the present study is to synthesize carbon based material which shows moderate hydrogen storage at room temperature. For this purpose, hydrogenation characteristics of natural precursor coconut kernel is studied in this work. The hydrogen storage measurement reveals that the as-synthesized materials have good hydrogen adsorption and desorption capacity with fast kinetics. The synthesized material absorbs 8 wt.% of hydrogen at liquid nitrogen temperature and 2.3 wt.% at room temperature. This could be due to the presence of certain elements (KCl, Mg, Ca) which are confirmed by TEM.

Keywords: coconut kernel, carbonization, hydrogenation, KCl, Mg, Ca

Procedia PDF Downloads 422

Authors: Omar Farahat Hassanein, A. Samer Ezeldin

Abstract:

The construction industry is a very dynamic field. Every day new technologies and methods are developing to fasten the process and increase its efficiency. Hence, if a project uses fewer resources, it will be more efficient. This paper examines the recycling of concrete construction and demolition (C&D) waste to reuse it as aggregates in on-site applications for construction projects in Egypt and possibly in the Middle East. The study focuses on a stationary plant setting. The machinery set-up used in the plant is analyzed technically and financially. The findings are gathered and grouped to obtain a comprehensive cost-benefit financial model to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing and operating a concrete recycling plant. Furthermore, a detailed business plan including the time and hierarchy is proposed.

Keywords: construction wastes, recycling, sustainability, financial model, concrete recycling, concrete life cycle

Procedia PDF Downloads 416

Authors: Gabriel Chenevert, Abhilash Arora, Zeljko Pantic

Abstract:

The major problem underwater acoustic communication faces is the low data rate due to low signal frequency. By contrast, the Wi-Fi communication protocol offers high throughput but limited operating range due to the attenuation effect of the sea and ocean medium. However, short-range near-field underwater wireless power transfer systems offer an environment where Wi-Fi communication can be effectively integrated to collect data and deliver instructions to sensors in underwater sensor networks. In this paper, low-power, low-cost off-the-shelf Wi-Fi modules are explored experimentally for four selected parameters for different distances between units and water salinities. The results reveal a shorter operating range and stronger dependence on water salinity than reported so far for high-end Wi-Fi modules.

Keywords: Wi-Fi, wireless power transfer, underwater communications, ESP

Procedia PDF Downloads 116