Search results for: ministry of transport facilities

Authors: Dmytro Symak

Abstract:

The experience in other countries shows that, the role of accreditation of higher education as one of the types of quality assurance process for providing educational services increases. This was the experience of highly developed countries such as USA, Canada, France, Germany, because without proper quality assurance process is impossible to achieve a successful future of the nation and the state. In most countries, the function of Higher Education Accreditation performs public authorities, in particular, such as the Ministry of Education. In the US, however, the quality assurance process is independent on the government and implemented by private non-governmental organization - the Council of Higher Education Accreditation. In France, the main body that carries out accreditation of higher education is the Ministry of National Education. As part of the Bologna process is the mutual recognition and accreditation of degrees. While higher education institutions issue diplomas, but the ministry could award the title. This is the main level of accreditation awarded automatically by state universities. In total, there are in France next major level of accreditation of higher education: - accreditation for a visa: Accreditation second level; - recognition of accreditation: accreditation of third level. In some areas of education to accreditation ministry should adopt formal recommendations on specific organs. But there are also some exceptions. Thus, the French educational institutions, mainly large Business School, looking for non-French accreditation. These include, for example, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Association of MBAs, the European Foundation for Management Development, the European Quality Improvement System, a prestigious EFMD Programme accreditation system. Noteworthy also German accreditation system of education. The primary here is a Conference of Ministers of Education and Culture of land in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz or CCM) was established in 1948 by agreement between the States of the Federal Republic of Germany. Among its main responsibilities is to ensure quality and continuity of development in higher education. In Germany, the program of bachelors and masters must be accredited in accordance with Resolution Kultusministerkonerenz. In Ukraine Higher Education Accreditation carried out the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Ukraine under four main levels. Ukraine's legislation on higher education based on the Constitution Ukraine consists of the laws of Ukraine ‘On osvititu’ ‘On scientific and technical activity’, ‘On Higher osvititu’ and other legal acts and is entirely within the competence of the state. This leads to considerable centralization and bureaucratization of the process. Thus, analysis of expertise shined can conclude that reforming the system of accreditation and quality of higher education in Ukraine to its integration into the global space requires solving a number of problems in the following areas: improving the system of state certification and licensing; optimizing the network of higher education institutions; creating both governmental and non-governmental organizations to monitor the process of higher education in Ukraine and so on.

Keywords: higher education, accreditation, decentralization, education institutions

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Authors: Jerzy Merkisz, Piotr Lijewski, Pawel Fuc, Maciej Siedlecki, Andrzej Ziolkowski, Sylwester Weymann

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The paper discusses the problem of load transport using farm tractors and road tractor units. This type of carriage of goods is often done with farm vehicles. The tests were performed with the PEMS equipment (Portable Emission Measurement System) under actual traffic conditions. The vehicles carried a load of 20000 kg. This research method is one of the most desired because it provides reliable information on the actual vehicle emissions and fuel consumption (carbon balance method). For the tests, a route was selected that simulated a trip from a small town to a food-processing facility located in a city. The analysis of the obtained results gave a clear answer as to what vehicles need to be used for the carriage of this type of cargo in terms of exhaust emissions and fuel consumption.

Keywords: emission, transport, fuel consumption, PEMS

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Authors: Michael Ubale Cyril

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Challenges of embedding entrepreneurship in tertiary institutions in Nigeria requires a consistent policy for equipping schools with necessary facilities like establishing incubating technology centre, the right calibres of human resources, appropriate pedagogical tools for teaching entrepreneurship education and exhibition grounds where products and services will be delivered and patronised by the customers. With the death of facilities in public schools in Nigeria, educators are clamouring for a way out. This study investigated the challenges of embedding entrepreneurship education in Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola, Nigeria. The population for the study was 201 comprising 34 industrial entrepreneurs, 76 technical teachers and 91 final year undergraduates. The data was analysed using means of 3 groups, standard deviation, and analysis of variance. The study found out, that technical teachers have not been trained to teach entrepreneurship education, approaches to teaching methodology, were not varied and lack of infrastructural facilities like building was not a factor. It was recommended that technical teachers be retrained to teach entrepreneurship education, textbooks in entrepreneurship should be published with Nigerian outlook.

Keywords: challenges, embedding, entrepreneurship pedagogical, technology incubating centres

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Yuanxiaoyue Yang

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Emissions trading, or ‘cap-and-trade', has been long promoted by economists as a more cost-effective pollution control approach than traditional performance standard approaches. While there is a large body of empirical evidence for the overall effectiveness of emissions trading, relatively little attention has been paid to other unintended consequences brought by emissions trading. One important consequence is that cap-and-trade could introduce the risk of creating high-level emission concentrations in areas where emitting facilities purchase a large number of emission allowances, which may cause an unequal distribution of environmental benefits. This study will contribute to the current environmental policy literature by linking trading activity with environmental injustice concerns and empirically analyzing the causal relationship between trading activity and emissions reduction under a cap-and-trade program for the first time. To investigate the potential environmental injustice concern in cap-and-trade, this paper uses a differences-in-differences (DID) with instrumental variable method to identify the causal effect of allowance trading behaviors on emission reduction levels under the clean air interstate rule (CAIR), a cap-and-trade program targeting on the power sector in the eastern US. The major data source is the facility-year level emissions and allowance transaction data collected from US EPA air market databases. While polluting facilities from CAIR are the treatment group under our DID identification, we use non-CAIR facilities from the Acid Rain Program - another NOx control program without a trading scheme – as the control group. To isolate the causal effects of trading behaviors on emissions reduction, we also use eligibility for CAIR participation as the instrumental variable. The DID results indicate that the CAIR program was able to reduce NOx emissions from affected facilities by about 10% more than facilities who did not participate in the CAIR program. Therefore, CAIR achieves excellent overall performance in emissions reduction. The IV regression results also indicate that compared with non-CAIR facilities, purchasing emission permits still decreases a CAIR participating facility’s emissions level significantly. This result implies that even buyers under the cap-and-trade program have achieved a great amount of emissions reduction. Therefore, we conclude little evidence of environmental injustice from the CAIR program.

Keywords: air pollution, cap-and-trade, emissions trading, environmental justice

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Authors: Jaeun Park, Daekyoung Kim, Ho Kyoon Chung, Heeyeop Chae

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Quantum dots light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) have been considered as the next generation display and lighting devices due to their excellent color purity, photo-stability solution process possibility and good device stability. Currently typical quantum dot light emitting diodes contain organic layers such as PEDOT:PSS and PVK for charge transport layers. To make quantum dot light emitting diodes (QD-LED) more stable, it is required to replace those acidic and relatively unstable organic charge transport layers with inorganic materials. Therefore all inorganic and solution processed quantum dot light emitting diodes can potentially be a solution to stable and cost-effective display devices. We studied solution processed NiO films to replace organic charge transport layers that are required for stable all-inorganic based light emitting diodes. The transition metal oxides can be made by various vacuum and solution processes, but the solution processes are considered more cost-effective than vacuum processes. In this work we investigated solution processed NiOx for a hole transport layer (HTL). NiOx, has valence band energy levels of 5.3eV and they are easy to make sol-gel solutions. Water vapor oxidation process was developed and applied to solution processed all-inorganic QD-LED. Turn-on voltage, luminance and current efficiency of QD in this work were 5V, 1800Cd/m2 and 0.5Cd/A, respectively.

Keywords: QD-LED, metal oxide solution, NiO, all-inorganic QD-LED device

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Authors: G. Bharath, K. S. Reddy, Vivek Tandon, M. Amaranatha Reddy

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This paper presents the details of a study conducted to evaluate the interaction between recycled binder and fresh binder in Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) mixes. When RAP is mixed with virgin aggregates in the presence of fresh binder there will be partial blending in a hot mix asphalt mixture. A recent approach used by some researchers for studying the degree of blending of RAP binder with virgin binder has been adopted in this study. Dense Bituminous Macadam mix of Ministry of Road Transport of India with a nominal maximum aggregate size of 19 mm was studied. Two proportions of RAP-20% and 35% and two types of virgin binders – viscosity grade VG10 and VG30 were considered. Design binder contents were determined for all the four types of mixes (two RAP contents and two virgin binders) as per Marshall mix design procedure. The degree of blending of RAP and virgin binders was evaluated in terms of the complex modulus of the binder. Laboratory test results showed that with an increase in RAP content, the degree of blending decreases. Better blending was observed for softer grade binder (VG10).

Keywords: blending, complex modulus, recycled asphalt pavement, virgin binder

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Authors: Amit Kumar Jain, Surbhi Jain

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The urban freight in a city constitutes 10 to 18 per cent of all city road traffic, and 40 per cent of air pollution and noise emissions, are directly related to commercial transport. The policy measures implemented by urban planners have sought to restrict rather than assist goods-vehicle operations. This approach has temporarily controlled the urban transport demand during peak hours of traffic but has not effectively solved transport congestion. The solution discussed in the paper envisages the development of a comprehensive network of Urban Freight Stations (UFS) connected through underground conveyor belts in the city in line with baggage segregation and distribution in any of the major airports. The transportation of freight shall be done in standard size containers/cars through rail borne carts. The freight can be despatched or received from any of the UFS. Once freight is booked for a destination from any of the UFS, it would be stuffed in the container and digitally tagged for the destination. The container would reach the destination UFS through a network of rail borne carts. The container would be de-stuffed at the destination UFS and sent for further delivery, or the consignee may be asked to collect the consignment from urban freight station. The obvious benefits would be decongestion of roads, reduction in air and noise pollution, saving in manpower used for freight transportation.

Keywords: congestion, urban freight, intelligent transport system, pollution

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Authors: M. Imran Hossen Khan, M. Mahiuddin, M. A. Karim

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Drying is a food processing technique where simultaneous heat and mass transfer take place from surface to the center of the sample. Deformation of food materials during drying is a common physical phenomenon which affects the textural quality and taste of the dried product. Most of the plant-based food materials are porous and hygroscopic in nature that contains about 80-90% water in different cellular environments: intercellular environment and intracellular environment. Transport of this cellular water has a significant effect on material deformation during drying. However, understanding of the scale of deformation is very complex due to diverse nature and structural heterogeneity of food material. Knowledge about the effect of transport of cellular water on deformation of material during drying is crucial for increasing the energy efficiency and obtaining better quality dried foods. Therefore, the primary aim of this work is to investigate the effect of intracellular water transport on material deformation during drying. In this study, apple tissue was taken for the investigation. The experiment was carried out using 1H-NMR T2 relaxometry with a conventional dryer. The experimental results are consistent with the understanding that transport of intracellular water causes cellular shrinkage associated with the anisotropic deformation of whole apple tissue. Interestingly, it is found that the deformation of apple tissue takes place at different stages of drying rather than deforming at one time. Moreover, it is found that the penetration rate of heat energy together with the pressure gradient between intracellular and intercellular environments is the responsible force to rupture the cell membrane.

Keywords: heat and mass transfer, food material, intracellular water, cell rupture, deformation

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Authors: Hee Jin Kang

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Despite numerous studies on the reserves and availability of natural gas hydrates, the technology of transporting natural gas hydrates in large quantities to sea has not been put into practical use. Several natural gas hydrate transport technologies presented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are under preparation for commercialization. Among them, NGH tank container concept modularized transportation unit to prevent sintering effect during sea transportation. The natural gas hydrate can be vaporized in a certain part during the transportation. Unprocessed BOG increases the pressure inside the tank. Also, there is a risk of fire if you export the BOG out of the tank without proper handling. Therefore, in this study, we have studied the concept of technology to properly process BOG to modularize natural gas hydrate and to transport it to sea for long distance. The study is expected to contribute to the practical use of NGH tank container, which is a modular transport concept proposed to solve the sintering problem that occurs when transporting natural gas hydrate in the form of bulk cargo.

Keywords: Natural gas hydrate, tank container, marine transportation, boil-off gas

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Authors: Min Wang, Hui Tian

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Health promotion of high school students is essential for the construction of ‘Healthy China’, and increasing high school students’ physical activity is a must for their health promotion. School plays a crucial role in increasing high school students’ physical activity. Therefore, to have a comprehensive command of the school physical activity promotion strategies is of great significance for the health promotion of high school students in China and will shed some light on physical activity promotion worldwide. Literature review and interview survey are the main methods adopted for this research. It has been found that reforms of P.E. classes, improving the overall quality of P.E. teachers, and construction of school fields and facilities are among the major strategies to promote students’ physical activities. Even though it has been stipulated that primary and middle school students should take 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week, the execution is greatly influenced by the exam-oriented educational system. Randomly canceling P.E. classes or taking up the time to study other subjects is common, so it is difficult to guarantee the quantity of P.E. classes. According to national surveys, only 20%-40% of schools have 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week. In order to reduce the hindering effects of the exam-oriented educational system, a physical education test is included in the senior middle school entrance exam. The exam items include 1000m run for boys, 800m run for girls, and the basic skills for basketball/football/volleyball. The scores of the physical education test will greatly influence the admission of senior middle schools. China is now developing the ‘campus football’ policy and has established 20,000 football featured schools by 2017. Especially in these schools, football has become an important part of the students’ P.E. classes and a major means to promote students’ physical activity. As the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2022, China has promoted the ‘winter sports for all’ movement. The aim is to encourage 300 million people to winter sports, and the high school students are among the most potential participants. The primary and middle schools in Beijing have introduced winter sports to their P.E. curriculum, providing opportunities for the students to experience ice hockey and curling. Some Winter Olympics champions also go to the schools to popularize winter sports among the students. This greatly adds variety to the students’ physical activity regimen at school. In November 2017, seven ministries, including the General Administration of Sport of China and Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, release Youth Sport Promotion Strategy. The strategy stipulates to strengthen the construction of youth sport facilities and implement the cultivation plan for P.E. teachers. It also emphasizes that school sport facilities should be open to students during holidays and vacations for free or at an affordable price. Overall speaking, the Chinese government stresses the importance of youth physical activity promotion and has issued a series of related policies and strategies, but the implementation still needs improvement.

Keywords: China, physical activity, promotion, school

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Authors: Jason M. Hegenauer, Nicholas Fucci

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In the late 1990s, a major deinstitutionalization movement of elderly patients took place, since which, the design of long-term care facilities has not been adequately analyzed in the United States. Over the course of the last 25 years, major innovations in construction methods, technology, and medicine have been developed, drastically changing the landscape of healthcare architecture. In light of recent events, and the expected increase in elderly populations with the aging of the baby-boomer generation, it is evident that reconsideration of these facilities is essential for the proper care of aging populations. The global response has been effective in stifling this pandemic; however, widespread disease still poses an imminent threat to the human race. Having witnessed the devastation Covid-19 has reaped throughout nursing homes and long-term care facilities, it is evident that the current strategies for protecting our most vulnerable populations are not enough. Light renovation of existing facilities and previously overlooked considerations for new construction projects can drastically lower the risk at nursing homes and long-term care facilities. A reconfigured entry sequence supplements several of the features which have been long-standing essentials of the design of these facilities. This research focuses on several aspects identified as needing improvement, including indoor environment quality, security measures incorporated into healthcare architecture and design, and architectural mitigation strategies for sick building syndrome. The results of this study have been compiled as 'best practices' for the design of future healthcare construction projects focused on the health, safety, and quality of life of the residents of these facilities. These design strategies, which can easily be implemented through renovation of existing facilities and new construction projects, minimize risk of infection and spread of disease while allowing routine functions to continue with minimal impact, should the need for future lockdowns arise. Through the current lockdown procedures, which were implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic, isolation of residents has caused great unrest and worry for family members and friends as they are cut off from their loved ones. At this time, data is still being reported, leaving infection and death rates inconclusive; however, recent projections in some states list long-term care facility deaths as high as 60% of all deaths in the state. The population of these facilities consists of residents who are elderly, immunocompromised, and have underlying chronic medical conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control, these populations are particularly susceptible to infection and serious illness. The obligation to protect our most vulnerable population cannot be overlooked, and the harsh measures recently taken as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic prove that the design strategies currently utilized for doing so are inadequate.

Keywords: building security, healthcare architecture and design, indoor environment quality, new construction, sick building syndrome, renovation

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Authors: Alan Crowle, Philpp Thies

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As the floating offshore wind turbine industry continues to develop and grow, the capabilities of established port facilities need to be assessed as to their ability to support the expanding construction and installation requirements. This paper assesses current infrastructure requirements and projected changes to port facilities that may be required to support the floating offshore wind industry. Understanding the infrastructure needs of the floating offshore renewable industry will help to identify the port-related requirements. Floating Offshore Wind Turbines can be installed further out to sea and in deeper waters than traditional fixed offshore wind arrays, meaning that it can take advantage of stronger winds. Separate ports are required for substructure construction, fit-out of the turbines, moorings, subsea cables and maintenance. Large areas are required for the laydown of mooring equipment; inter-array cables, turbine blades and nacelles. The capabilities of established port facilities to support floating wind farms are assessed by evaluation of the size of substructures, the height of wind turbine with regards to the cranes for fitting of blades, distance to offshore site and offshore installation vessel characteristics. The paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using large land-based cranes, inshore floating crane vessels or offshore crane vessels at the fit-out port for the installation of the turbine. Water depths requirements for import of materials and export of the completed structures will be considered. There are additional costs associated with any emerging technology. However part of the popularity of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines stems from the cost savings against permanent structures like fixed wind turbines. Floating Offshore Wind Turbine developers can benefit from lighter, more cost-effective equipment which can be assembled in port and towed to the site rather than relying on large, expensive installation vessels to transport and erect fixed bottom turbines. The ability to assemble Floating Offshore Wind Turbines equipment onshore means minimizing highly weather-dependent operations like offshore heavy lifts and assembly, saving time and costs and reducing safety risks for offshore workers. Maintenance might take place in safer onshore conditions for barges and semi-submersibles. Offshore renewables, such as floating wind, can take advantage of this wealth of experience, while oil and gas operators can deploy this experience at the same time as entering the renewables space The floating offshore wind industry is in the early stages of development and port facilities are required for substructure fabrication, turbine manufacture, turbine construction and maintenance support. The paper discusses the potential floating wind substructures as this provides a snapshot of the requirements at the present time, and potential technological developments required for commercial development. Scaling effects of demonstration-scale projects will be addressed, however, the primary focus will be on commercial-scale (30+ units) device floating wind energy farms.

Keywords: floating wind, port, marine construction, offshore renewables

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Ehikhamele Isaac Erhomosele, Ogbogu Sunday Sylvester

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A biodiversity survey was conducted in Shasha Forest Reserve, Ife southern, Osun State, Nigeria between May 2019 to April 2021 with a view to determining the nature of Odonata fauna of the forest. A total number of 1055 individuals of adult dragonflies and damselflies belonging to 8 families (Aeshnidae, Calopterygidae, Chlorocyphidae, Coenagrionidae, Gomphidae, Lestidae, Libellulidae and Platycnemididae) were recorded. Five (5) of these families of which belong to the suborder Zygoptera, and the remaining three (3) to Anisoptera. Libellulidae was the most abundant family while Gomphidae recorded the least representative. No new species of Odonata was recorded. Most of the families reported were previously been documented in the tropical region. Logging activities and human disturbance have been attributed to the nature of Odonata species in the Forest. It is therefore recommended that logging should be restricted to designated areas of the forest and regulated by the Department of Forestry of Osun State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Keywords: checklist, Odonata, Shasha, families

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Authors: P. G. Siddheshwar, T. N. Sakshath

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In the paper we make linear and non-linear stability analyses of Rayleigh-Bénard convection of a Newtonian nanoliquid in a rotating medium (called as Rayleigh-Bénard-Taylor convection). Rigid-rigid isothermal boundaries are considered for investigation. Khanafer-Vafai-Lightstone single phase model is used for studying instabilities in nanoliquids. Various thermophysical properties of nanoliquid are obtained using phenomenological laws and mixture theory. The eigen boundary value problem is solved for the Rayleigh number using an analytical method by considering trigonometric eigen functions. We observe that the critical nanoliquid Rayleigh number is less than that of the base liquid. Thus the onset of convection is advanced due to the addition of nanoparticles. So, increase in volume fraction leads to advanced onset and thereby increase in heat transport. The amplitudes of convective modes required for estimating the heat transport are determined analytically. The tri-modal standard Lorenz model is derived for the steady state assuming small scale convective motions. The effect of rotation on the onset of convection and on heat transport is investigated and depicted graphically. It is observed that the onset of convection is delayed due to rotation and hence leads to decrease in heat transport. Hence, rotation has a stabilizing effect on the system. This is due to the fact that the energy of the system is used to create the component V. We observe that the amount of heat transport is less in the case of rigid-rigid isothermal boundaries compared to free-free isothermal boundaries.

Keywords: nanoliquid, rigid-rigid, rotation, single phase

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Authors: Jiri Dufek

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The national model of the Czech Republic has been modified in a detailed way to get detailed travel demand in the municipality level (cities, villages over 300 inhabitants). As a technique for this detailed modelling, three-dimensional procedure for calibrating gravity models, was used. Besides of zone production and attraction, which is usual in gravity models, the next additional parameter for trip distribution was introduced. Usually it is called by “third dimension”. In the model, this parameter is a demand between regions. The distribution procedure involved calculation of appropriate skim matrices and its multiplication by three coefficients obtained by iterative balancing of production, attraction and third dimension. This type of trip distribution was processed in R-project and the results were used in the Czech Republic transport model, created in PTV Vision. This process generated more precise results in local level od the model (towns, villages)

Keywords: trip distribution, three dimension, transport model, municipalities

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Authors: Ribut Alam Malau, Durri Andriani, C. B. Supartomo

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Universitas Terbuka (UT) as a higher education institution implements open and distance education is responsible to provide higher education to all Indonesian citizen wherever they live, including those reside in cultural diversity aras. Operate from Jakarta Head Office and 37 regional centers (ROs), UT is accustomed to the challenge. UT-Kupang and UT-Ambon which oversee East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku have successfully provided quality educational services for students. The two ROs have provided educational facilities which could assist the students to cope with their study in spite of the diversity situations. In order to analyze the effectiveness of the facilities provided, questionnaires focusing on tutorial services were sent to 90 students in the two ROs asking them to assess the facilities which best fulfills students’ needs in terms of their culture diversity. The results showed that UT-Kupang and UT-Ambon have successful in providing education for students in their areas as reflected in more than 80% of respondents aware of the facilities concerning tutorial service except for tutorial mechanism where only 34,5% of respondents aware of. However, despite lower rate of awareness in tutorial mechanism, majority of respondent 90.8% of respondents registered in tutorials and 95.4% will register in tutorials next semester. The majority of respondents showed appreciation for the ROs efforts to provide tutorials on weekdays which could accommodate their beliefs. In addition, conducting tutorials in all islands also perceived highly since students did not have to commute between islands. Efforts done by UT-Kupang and UT-Ambon have proven to be appreciated by students.

Keywords: archipelago, cultural diversity, ODL, service quality, Universitas Terbuka

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Authors: Cihat Aşan

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Istanbul Strait is a crucial and narrow waterway, not only having a role in linking two continents but also has a crossover mission for the petroleum, which is the biggest energy resource, between its supply and demand sources. Besides its substantial features, sensitivities like around 18 million populations in surroundings, military facilities, ports, oil lay down areas etc. also brings the high risk to use of Istanbul Strait. Based on the statistics of Turkish Ministry of Transportation, Maritime and Communication, although the number of vessel passage in Istanbul Strait is declining, tonnage of hazardous and flammable cargo like oil and chemical transportation is increasing and subsequently the risk of oil pollution, loss of life and property is also rising. Based on the mentioned above; it is crucial to be prepared for the initial and subsequent response to eventual ship sourced oil spill which may cause to block the Strait for an unbearable duration. In this study; preconditioned Istanbul Strait sensitive areas studies has been taken into account and possible oil spill scenario is loaded to PISCES 2 (Potential Incident Simulation Control and Evaluation System) decision support system for the determined specific sea area. Consequences of the simulation like oil expanding process, required number and types of assets to response, had in hand and evaluated.

Keywords: Istanbul strait, oil spill, PISCES simulator, initial response

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Authors: Huda Aljabi

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The existence of heavy metals similar to cadmium, arsenic, lead and mercury in the drinking water be able to be a threat to public health. The amount of the substances of these heavy metals in drinking water has expected importance. The National Primary Drinking Water Regulations have set limits for the concentrations of these elements in drinking water because of their toxicity. Furthermore, bromate shaped during the disinfection of drinking water by Ozonation can also be a health hazard. The Paper proposed here will concentrate on the compilation of all available data and information on the presence of trace metals and bromate in the drinking water at residential houses distributed over different areas in Kuwait. New data will also be collected through a sampling of drinking water at some of the residential houses present in different areas of Kuwait and their analysis for the contents of trace metals and bromate. The collected data will be presented on maps showing the distribution of these metals and bromate in the drinking water of Kuwait. Correlation among different chemical parameters will also be investigated using the GRAPHER software. This will help both the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in taking corrective measures and also in planning the infrastructure activities for the future.

Keywords: bromate, ozonation, GIS, heavy metals

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Authors: Mireille Elhajj, Washington Ochieng, Deeph Chana

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The challenges of the rapid growth in the demand for transport has traditionally been seen within the context of the problems of congestion, air quality, climate change, safety, and affordability. However, there are increasing threats including those related to crime such as cyber-attacks that threaten the security of the transport of people and goods. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents for the first time, a comprehensive framework for the assessment of the current and future security issues of multi-modal transport systems. The approach or method proposed is based on a structured framework starting with a detailed specification of the transport asset map (transport system architecture), followed by the identification of vulnerabilities. The asset map and vulnerabilities are used to identify the various approaches for exploitation of the vulnerabilities, leading to the creation of a set of threat scenarios. The threat scenarios are then transformed into risks and their categories, and include insights for their mitigation. The consideration of the mitigation space is holistic and includes the formulation of appropriate policies and tactics and/or technical interventions. The quality of the framework is ensured through a structured and logical process that identifies the stakeholders, reviews the relevant documents including policies and identifies gaps, incorporates targeted surveys to augment the reviews, and uses subject matter experts for validation. The approach to categorising security risks is an extension of the current methods that are typically employed. Specifically, the partitioning of risks into either physical or cyber categories is too limited for developing mitigation policies and tactics/interventions for transport systems where an interplay between physical and cyber processes is very often the norm. This interplay is rapidly taking on increasing significance for security as the emergence of cyber-physical technologies, are shaping the future of all transport modes. Examples include: Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) in road transport; the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in rail transport; Automatic Identification System (AIS) in maritime transport; advanced Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) technologies in air transport; and the Internet of Things (IoT). The framework adopts a risk categorisation scheme that considers risks as falling within the following threat→impact relationships: Physical→Physical, Cyber→Cyber, Cyber→Physical, and Physical→Cyber). Thus the framework enables a more complete risk picture to be developed for today’s transport systems and, more importantly, is readily extendable to account for emerging trends in the sector that will define future transport systems. The framework facilitates the audit and retro-fitting of mitigations in current transport operations and the analysis of security management options for the next generation of Transport enabling strategic aspirations such as systems with security-by-design and co-design of safety and security to be achieved. An initial application of the framework to transport systems has shown that intra-modal consideration of security measures is sub-optimal and that a holistic and multi-modal approach that also addresses the intersections/transition points of such networks is required as their vulnerability is high. This is in-line with traveler-centric transport service provision, widely accepted as the future of mobility services. In summary, a risk-based framework is proposed for use by the stakeholders to comprehensively and holistically assess the security of transport systems. It requires a detailed understanding of the transport architecture to enable a detailed vulnerabilities analysis to be undertaken, creates threat scenarios and transforms them into risks which form the basis for the formulation of interventions.

Keywords: mitigations, risk, transport, security, vulnerabilities

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Authors: Jie Liu, Jinqu Cheng, Qiyuan Peng, Yong Yin

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Urban rail transit (URT) plays a significant role in dealing with traffic congestion and environmental problems in cities. However, equipment failure and obstruction of links often lead to URT links’ capacities loss in daily operation. It affects the reliability and transport service quality of URT network seriously. In order to measure the influence of links’ capacities loss on reliability and transport service quality of URT network, passengers are divided into three categories in case of links’ capacities loss. Passengers in category 1 are less affected by the loss of links’ capacities. Their travel is reliable since their travel quality is not significantly reduced. Passengers in category 2 are affected by the loss of links’ capacities heavily. Their travel is not reliable since their travel quality is reduced seriously. However, passengers in category 2 still can travel on URT. Passengers in category 3 can not travel on URT because their travel paths’ passenger flow exceeds capacities. Their travel is not reliable. Thus, the proportion of passengers in category 1 whose travel is reliable is defined as reliability indicator of URT network. The transport service quality of URT network is related to passengers’ travel time, passengers’ transfer times and whether seats are available to passengers. The generalized travel cost is a comprehensive reflection of travel time, transfer times and travel comfort. Therefore, passengers’ average generalized travel cost is used as transport service quality indicator of URT network. The impact of links’ capacities loss on transport service quality of URT network is measured with passengers’ relative average generalized travel cost with and without links’ capacities loss. The proportion of the passengers affected by links and betweenness of links are used to determine the important links in URT network. The stochastic user equilibrium distribution model based on the improved logit model is used to determine passengers’ categories and calculate passengers’ generalized travel cost in case of links’ capacities loss, which is solved with method of successive weighted averages algorithm. The reliability and transport service quality indicators of URT network are calculated with the solution result. Taking Wuhan Metro as a case, the reliability and transport service quality of Wuhan metro network is measured with indicators and method proposed in this paper. The result shows that using the proportion of the passengers affected by links can identify important links effectively which have great influence on reliability and transport service quality of URT network; The important links are mostly connected to transfer stations and the passenger flow of important links is high; With the increase of number of failure links and the proportion of capacity loss, the reliability of the network keeps decreasing, the proportion of passengers in category 3 keeps increasing and the proportion of passengers in category 2 increases at first and then decreases; When the number of failure links and the proportion of capacity loss increased to a certain level, the decline of transport service quality is weakened.

Keywords: urban rail transit network, reliability, transport service quality, links’ capacities loss, important links

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Authors: Yen Chia-Ju, Cheng Ding-Ruei

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This study took case office building as subject and explored the responsive work order repair request of facilities and equipment in offices and public areas by gray theory, with the purpose of providing for future related office building owners, executive managers, property management companies, mechanical and electrical companies as reference for deciding and assessing forecast model. Important conclusions of this study are summarized as follows according to the study findings: 1. Grey Relational Analysis discusses the importance of facilities repair number of six categories, namely, power systems, building systems, water systems, air conditioning systems, fire systems and manpower dispatch in order. In terms of facilities maintenance importance are power systems, building systems, water systems, air conditioning systems, manpower dispatch and fire systems in order. 2. GM (1,N) and regression method took maintenance hours as dependent variables and repair number, leased area and tenants number as independent variables and conducted single month forecast based on 12 data from January to December 2011. The mean absolute error and average accuracy of GM (1,N) from verification results were 6.41% and 93.59%; the mean absolute error and average accuracy of regression model were 4.66% and 95.34%, indicating that they have highly accurate forecast capability.

Keywords: rey theory, forecast model, Taipei 101, office buildings, property management, facilities, equipment

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Authors: Mahima Shrivastava, Soumya Kar, B. Swetha Malika, Lalu Saheb, M. Muthu Kumar, P. V. Ponambala Moorthi

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Natural hazards and manmade destruction causes both economic and societal losses. Generalized pre-mitigation strategies introduced and adopted for prevention of disaster all over the world are capable of augmenting the resiliency and optimizing the life-cycle cost of facilities. In countries like India where varied topographical feature exists requires location specific mitigation measures and strategies to be followed for better enhancement by event-driven and code-driven approaches. Present state of vindication measures followed and adopted, lags dominance in accomplishing the required development. In addition, serious concern and debate over climate change plays a vital role in enhancing the need and requirement for the development of time bound adaptive mitigation measures. For the development of long-term sustainable policies incorporation of future climatic variation is inevitable. This will further assist in assessing the impact brought about by the climate change on life-cycle cost of facilities. This paper develops more definite region specific and time bound pre-mitigation measures, by reviewing the present state of mitigation measures in India and all over the world for improving life-cycle cost of facilities. For the development of region specific adoptive measures, Indian regions were divided based on multiple-calamity prone regions and geo-referencing tools were used to incorporate the effect of climate changes on life-cycle cost assessment. This study puts forward significant effort in establishing sustainable policies and helps decision makers in planning for pre-mitigation measures for different regions. It will further contribute towards evaluating the life cycle cost of facilities by adopting the developed measures.

Keywords: climate change, geo-referencing tools, life-cycle cost, multiple-calamity prone regions, pre-mitigation strategies, sustainable policies

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Authors: William G. "Gus" Simmons

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Municipal and industrial wastewater plants across our country utilize anaerobic digestion as either primary treatment or as a means of waste sludge treatment and reduction. The emphasis on renewable energy and clean energy over the past several years, coupled with increasing electricity costs and increasing consumer demands for efficient utility operations has led to closer examination of the potential for harvesting the energy value of the biogas produced by anaerobic digestion. Although some facilities may have already come to the belief that harvesting this energy value is not practical or a top priority as compared to other capital needs and initiatives at the wastewater plant, we see that many are seeing biogas, and an opportunity for additional revenues, go up in flames as they continue to flare. Conversely, few wastewater plants under progressive and visionary leadership have demonstrated that harvesting the energy value from anaerobic digestion is more than “smoke and hot air”. From providing thermal energy to adjacent or on-campus operations to generating electricity and/or transportation fuels, these facilities are proving that energy harvesting can not only be profitable, but sustainable. This paper explores ways in which wastewater treatment plants can increase their value and import to the communities they serve through the generation of clean, renewable energy; also presented the processes in which these facilities moved from energy and cost sinks to sparks of innovation and pride in the communities in which they operate.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, harvesting energy, biogas, renewable energy, sustainability

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Authors: A. Maghari, V. M. Maleki

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In this paper, we present a quantum statistical mechanical formulation from our recently analytical expressions for partial-wave transition matrix of a three-particle system. We report the quantum reactive cross sections for three-body scattering processes 1 + (2,3)-> 1 + (2,3) as well as recombination 1 + (2,3) -> 2 + (3,1) between one atom and a weakly-bound dimer. The analytical expressions of three-particle transition matrices and their corresponding cross-sections were obtained from the three-dimensional Faddeev equations subjected to the rank-two non-local separable potentials of the generalized Yamaguchi form. The equilibrium quantum statistical mechanical properties such partition function and equation of state as well as non-equilibrium quantum statistical properties such as transport cross-sections and their corresponding transport collision integrals were formulated analytically. This leads to obtain the transport properties, such as viscosity and diffusion coefficient of a moderate dense gas.

Keywords: statistical mechanics, nonlocal separable potential, three-body interaction, faddeev equations

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Authors: Thomas Larm, Anna Wahlsten

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An international literature study has been carried out for comparison of commonly used methods for the dimensioning of transport systems and stormwater facilities for flow detention. The focus of the literature study regarding the calculation of design flow and detention has been the widely used Rational method and its underlying parameters. The impact of chosen design parameters such as return time, rain intensity, runoff coefficient, and climate factor have been studied. The parameters used in the calculations have been analyzed regarding how they can be calculated and within what limits they can be used. Data used within different countries have been specified, e.g., recommended rainfall return times, estimated runoff times, and climate factors used for different cases and time periods. The literature study concluded that the determination of runoff coefficients is the most uncertain parameter that also affects the calculated flow and required detention volume the most. Proposals have been developed for new runoff coefficients, including a new proposed method with equations for calculating runoff coefficients as a function of return time (years) and rain intensity (l/s/ha), respectively. Suggestions have been made that it is recommended not to limit the use of the Rational Method to a specific catchment size, contrary to what many design manuals recommend, with references to this. The proposed relationships between return time or rain intensity and runoff coefficients need further investigation and to include the quantification of uncertainties. Examples of parameters that have not been considered are the influence on the runoff coefficients of different dimensioning rain durations and the degree of water saturation of green areas, which will be investigated further. The influence of climate effects and design rain on the dimensioning of the stormwater facilities grassed ditches and biofilters (bio retention systems) has been studied, focusing on flow detention capacity. We have investigated how the calculated runoff coefficients regarding climate effect and the influence of changed (increased) return time affect the inflow to and dimensioning of the stormwater facilities. We have developed a smart design of ditches and biofilters that results in both high treatment and flow detention effects and compared these with the effect from dry and wet ponds. Studies of biofilters have generally before focused on treatment of pollutants, but their effect on flow volume and how its flow detention capability can improve is only rarely studied. For both the new type of stormwater ditches and biofilters, it is required to be able to simulate their performance in a model under larger design rains and future climate, as these conditions cannot be tested in the field. The stormwater model StormTac Web has been used on case studies. The results showed that the new smart design of ditches and biofilters had similar flow detention capacity as dry and wet ponds for the same facility area.

Keywords: runoff coefficients, flow detention, smart design, biofilter, ditch

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Authors: Jorge Urrutia-Mosquera, Luz Flórez-Calderón, Yasna Cortés

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We assessed the state of progress in terms of urban sustainability indicators and studied the impact of current land use conditions and the level of spatial accessibility to basic urban amenities on travel patterns and sustainable mobility in Santiago de Chile. We determined the spatial impact of urban facilities on sustainable travel patterns through the statistical analysis, data visualisation, and weighted regression models. The results show a need to diversify land use in more than 60% of the communes, although in 85% of the communes, accessibility to public spaces is guaranteed. The findings also suggest improving access to early education facilities, as only 26% of the communes meet the sustainability standard, negatively impacting travel in sustainable modes. It is also observed that the level of access to urban facilities generates spatial heterogeneity in the city, which negatively affects travel patterns in terms of time over 60 minutes and modes of travel in private vehicles. The results obtained allow us to identify opportunities for public policy intervention to promote and adopt sustainable mobility.

Keywords: land use, urban sustainability, travel patterns, spatial heterogeneity, GWR model, sustainable mobility

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Authors: Cláudia Alcoforado, Anabela Ribeiro

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This paper is part of an ongoing PhD thesis. It seeks to develop a model to identify the spatial failures of the public transportation supply. In the construction of the model, it also seeks to detect the social needs arising from the disadvantage in transport. The case study is carried out for the Brazilian city of Recife. Currently, Recife has a population density of 7,039.64 inhabitants per km². Unfortunately, only 46.9% of urban households on public roads have adequate urbanization. Allied to this reality, the trend of the occupation of the poorest population is that of the peripheries, a fact that has been consolidated in Brazil and Latin America, thus burdening the families' income, since the greater the distances covered for the basic activities and consequently also the transport costs. In this way, there have been great impacts caused by the supply of public transportation to locations with low demand or lack of urban infrastructure. The model under construction uses methods such as Currie’s Gap Assessment associated with the London’s Public Transport Access Level, and the Public Transport Accessibility Index developed by Saghapour. It is intended to present the stage of the thesis with the spatial/need gaps of the neighborhoods of Recife already detected. The benefits of the geographic information system are used in this paper. It should be noted that gaps are determined from the transport supply indices. In this case, considering the presence of walking catchment areas. Still in relation to the detection of gaps, the relevant demand index is also determined. This, in turn, is calculated through indicators that reflect social needs. With the use of the smaller Brazilian geographical unit, the census sector, the model with the inclusion of population density in the study areas should present more consolidated results. Based on the results achieved, an analysis of transportation disadvantage will be carried out as a factor of social exclusion in the study area. It is anticipated that the results obtained up to the present moment, already indicate a strong trend of public transportation in areas of higher income classes, leading to the understanding that the most disadvantaged population migrates to those neighborhoods in search of employment.

Keywords: gap assessment, public transport supply, social exclusion, spatial gaps

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Authors: Darshini Mahadevia, Kanika Gounder, Saumya Lathia

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Cities, an outcome of natural growth and migration, are ever-expanding due to urban sprawl. In the Global South, urban areas are experiencing a switch from public transport to private vehicles, coupled with intensified urban agglomeration, leading to frequent longer commutes by automobiles. This increase in travel distance and motorized vehicle kilometres lead to unsustainable cities. To achieve the nationally pledged GHG emission mitigation goal, the government is prioritizing a modal shift to low-carbon transport modes like mass transit and paratransit. Mixed land-use and urban densification are crucial for the economic viability of these projects. Informed by desktop assessment of mobility plans and in-person primary surveys, the paper explores the challenges around urban densification and travel patterns in two Indian cities of contrasting nature- Surat, a metropolitan industrial city with a 5.9 million population and a very compact urban form, and Udaipur, a heritage city attracting large international tourists’ footfall, with limited scope for further densification. Dense, mixed-use urban areas often improve access to basic services and economic opportunities by reducing distances and enabling people who don't own personal vehicles to reach them on foot/ cycle. But residents travelling on different modes end up contributing to similar trip lengths, highlighting the non-uniform distribution of land-uses and lack of planned transport infrastructure in the city and the urban-peri urban networks. Additionally, it is imperative to manage these densities to reduce negative externalities like congestion, air/noise pollution, lack of public spaces, loss of livelihood, etc. The study presents a comparison of the relationship between transport systems with the built form in both cities. The paper concludes with recommendations for managing densities in urban areas along with promoting low-carbon transport choices like improved non-motorized transport and public transport infrastructure and minimizing personal vehicle usage in the Global South.

Keywords: India, low-carbon transport, travel behaviour, trip length, urban densification

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Authors: Albin Wallace

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Part of the provision within educational institutions is the design, commissioning and implementation of ICT facilities to improve teaching and learning. Inevitably, these facilities focus largely on Internet Protocol (IP) based provisions including access to the World Wide Web, email, interactive software and hardware tools. Educators should be committed to the use of ICT to improve learning and teaching as well as to issues relating to the Internet and educational disadvantage, especially with respect to access and exclusion concerns. In this paper I examine some recent research into the issue of inequality and use of the Internet during which I discuss the causes and consequences of exclusion in the context of social inequality, digital literacy and digital inequality, also touching on issues of global inequality.

Keywords: inequality, internet, education, design

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Authors: Vakhtang Charaia, Mariam Lashkhi

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Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a vital role in global business. It provides firms with new markets and advertising channels, cheaper production facilities, admission to new technology, products, skills and financing. FDI can provide a recipient country/company with a source of new technologies, capital, practice, products, management skills, and as such can be a powerful drive for economic development. It is one of the key elements of stable economic development in many countries, especially in developing ones. Therefore the size of FDI inflow is one of the most crustal factors for economic perfection in small economy countries (like, Georgia), while most of developed ones are net exporters of FDI. Since, FDI provides firms with new markets; admission to new technologies, products and management skills; marketing channels; cheaper production facilities, and financing opportunities. It plays a significant role in Georgian economic development. Increasing FDI inflows from all over the world to Georgia in last decade was achieved with the outstanding reforms managed by the Georgian government. However, such important phenomenon as world financial crisis and Georgian-Russian war put its consequence on the over amount of FDI inflow in Georgia in the last years. It is important to mention that the biggest investor region for Georgia is EU, which is interested in Georgia not only from the economic points of view but from political. The case studies from main EU investor countries show that Georgia has a big potential of investment in different areas, such as; financial sector, energy, construction, tourism industry, transport and communications. Moreover, signing of Association Agreement between Georgia and EU will further boost all the fields of economy in Georgia in both short and long terms. It will attract more investments from different countries and especially from EU. The last, but not least important issue is the calculation of annual FDI inflow to Georgia, which it is calculated differently by different organizations, based on different methodologies, but what is more important is that all of them show significant increase of FDI in last decade, which gives a positive signal to investors and underlines necessity of further improvement of investment climate in the same direction.

Keywords: foreign direct investment (FDI), Georgia, investment development path, investment climate

Procedia PDF Downloads 236