Search results for: water users

Authors: Ahmed F. Abdel Qader

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Viral marketing has resulted in a lot of excitement recently as a novel technology in the field of marketing. The need of porting institutions to attract new customers for sporting products and services has increased, especially as many international and Arab clubs rely on them for most of their funding. These organizations, especially clubs, have outlets for selling their products and services; therefore, they are in need for new approaches that are related to modern communication and innovative distribution methods that can depend on the present audience in conveying e-ads to other users in light of the increase in social media users in the Arab world. This study aims at developing a marketing plan for sporting products and services through viral marketing of social media users. The researcher used the descriptive method. The sample consisted of 1991 social media users in 13 Arab countries. The questionnaire consisted of five themes and 42 items. Allan Dib 'one-page marketing plan' was used to develop the sporting products and services marketing plan. The study found that participants reported watching e-ads of sporting products and services that appeared during browsing social media pages; Facebook was the most used means for receiving ads about sporting products and services; sharing the product’s ad depends on the availability of incentives; purchasing sporting products and services takes place after a recommendation by a relative or a friend; and their evaluation of sporting products and services depends on the experiences of other people. The study recommends that the proposed plan should be used in marketing sporting products and services.

Keywords: viral marketing, sporting products, social media, Arab world

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Authors: Vakhtang Geladze, Nana Bolashvili, Nino Machavariani, Tamazi Karalashvili, Nino Chikhradze, Davit Kartvelishvili

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Fresh water deficit is one of the most important global problems today. In the countries with scarce water resources, they often become a reason of armed conflicts. The peaceful settlement of relations connected with management and water consumption issues within and beyond the frontiers of the country is an important guarantee of the region stability. The said problem is urgent in Georgia as well because of its water objects are located at the borders and the transit run-off that is 12% of the total one. Fresh water resources are the major natural resources of Georgia. Despite of this, water supply of population at its Eastern part is an acute issue. Southeastern part of the country has been selected to carry out the research. This region is notable for deficiency of water resources in the country. The region tends to desertification which aggravates fresh water problem even more and presumably may lead to migration of local population from the area. The purpose of study was creation geographical information system (GIS) of water resources. GIS contains almost all layers of different content (water resources, springs, channels, hydrological stations, population water supply, etc.). The results of work provide an opportunity to identify the resource potential of the mentioned region, control and manage it, carry out monitoring and plan regional economy.

Keywords: desertification, GIS, irrigation, water resources

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Authors: Aziz Ahmad, Guillermo Ramirez-Prado

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Governments around the world encourage the use of solar water heating in residential houses due to the low maintenance requirements and efficiency of the solar collector water heating systems. The aim of this work is to study a domestic solar water heating system in a residential building to develop a model of the entire solar water heating system including flat-plate solar collector and storage tank. The proposed model is adaptable to any households and location. The model can be used to test different types of controllers and can provide efficiency as well as economic analysis. The proposed model is based on the heat and mass transfer equations along with assumptions applied in the model which can be modified for a variety of different solar water heating systems and sizes. Simulation results of the model were compared with the actual system which shows similar trends.

Keywords: solar thermal systems, solar water heating, solar collector model, hot water tank model, solar controllers

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Authors: Mohammad Parvaresh, Mahdi Babaee, Bahareh Arghand, Roushanak Fahimi Hanzaee, Davood Nourmohammadi

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Today, the intelligent network of water and wastewater as one of the key steps in realizing the smart city in the world. Use of pressure relief valves in urban water networks in order to reduce the pressure is necessary in Tehran city. But use these pressure relief valves lead to waste water, more power consumption, and environmental pollution because Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Co. use a quarter of industry 's electricity. In this regard, Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Co. identified solutions to reduce direct and indirect costs in energy use in the process of production, transmission and distribution of water because this company has extensive facilities and high capacity to realize green economy and industry. The aim of this study is to analyze the new project in water and wastewater industry to reach sustainable development.

Keywords: Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company, water network efficiency, sustainable development, International Environmental Law

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Authors: Mehvish Bilal, Navneet Singh, Jasir Mushtaq

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Water pollution puts people's health at risk, and it can also impact the ecology. For practitioners of integrated water resources management (IWRM), water quality modelling may be useful for informing decisions about pollution control (such as discharge permitting) or demand management (such as abstraction permitting). To comprehend the current pollutant load, movement of effective load movement of contaminants generates effective relation between pollutants, mathematical simulation, source, and water quality is regarded as one of the best estimating tools. The current study involves the Qual2k model, which includes manual simulation of the various physiochemical characteristics of water. To this end, various sensors could be installed for the automatic simulation of various physiochemical characteristics of water. An artificial intelligence model has been proposed for the automatic simulation of water quality parameters. Models of water quality have become an effective tool for identifying worldwide water contamination, as well as the ultimate fate and behavior of contaminants in the water environment. Water quality model research is primarily conducted in Europe and other industrialized countries in the first world, where theoretical underpinnings and practical research are prioritized.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, QUAL2K, simulation, physiochemical parameters

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Authors: A. A. Ghanim

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is heading towards a severe and rapidly expanding water crisis, which can have negative impacts on the country’s environment and economy. Of the total water consumption in KSA, the agricultural sector accounts for nearly 87% of the total water use and, therefore, any attempt that overlooks this sector will not help in improving the sustainability of the country’s water resources. KSA Vision 2030 gives priority of water use in the agriculture sector for the regions that have natural renewable water resources. It means that there is little concern for making reuse of municipal wastewater for irrigation purposes in any region in general and in water-scarce regions in particular. The use of treated wastewater is very limited in Saudi Arabia, but it has very considerable potential for future expansion due its numerous beneficial uses. This study reviews the current situation of water resources in Saudi Arabia, providing more highlights on agriculture and wastewater reuse. The reviewed study is proposing some corrective measures for development and better management of water resources in the Kingdom. Suggestions also include consideration of treated water as an alternative source for irrigation in some regions of the country. The study concluded that a sustainable solution for the water crisis in KSA requires implementation of multiple measures in an integrated manner. The integrated solution plan should focus on two main directions: first, improving the current management practices of the existing water resources; second, developing new water supplies from both conventional and non-conventional sources.

Keywords: Saudia Arabia, water resources, water crises, wastewater reuse

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Authors: F. A. Hamad, S. He

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In this paper, the average heat transfer characteristics for a cross flow cylinder of 16 mm diameter in a vertical pipe has been studied for single-phase flow (water/oil) and multicomponent (non-boiling) flow (water-air, water-oil, oil-air and water-oil-air). The cylinder is uniformly heated by electrical heater placed at the centre of the element. The results show that the values of average heat transfer coefficients for water are around four times the values for oil flow. Introducing air as a second phase with water has very little effect on heat transfer rate, while the heat transfer increased by 70% in case of oil. For water–oil flow, the heat transfer coefficient values are reflecting the percentage of water up to 50%, but increasing the water more than 50% leads to a sharp increase in the heat transfer coefficients to become close to the values of pure water. The enhancement of heat transfer by mixing two phases may be attributed to the changes in flow structure near to cylinder surface which lead to thinner boundary layer and higher turbulence. For three-phase flow, the heat transfer coefficients for all cases fall within the limit of single-phase flow of water and oil and are very close to pure water values. The net effect of the turbulence augmentation due to the introduction of air and the attenuation due to the introduction of oil leads to a thinner boundary layer of oil over the cylinder surface covered by a mixture of water and air bubbles.

Keywords: circular cylinder, cross flow, hear transfer, multicomponent multiphase flow

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Authors: Fellah Sihem

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The optimal use of soil moisture by culture, is related to the leaf area index, which stood in the cycle and its modulation according to the prevailing stress intensity. For a given stock of water in the soil, cultivar adapted and saving water is one that is no luxury consumption during the preanthesis. It modulates the leaf area index to regulate sweating in the degree of its water supply. In plants water saving, avoidance of dehydration is related to the reduction of water loss by cuticular and stomatal pathways. Muchow and Sinclair reported that the test of relative water content (TRE) is considered the best indicator of leaf water status. The search for indicators of the ability of the plant to make good use of the water, under water stress is a prerequisite for progress in improving performance under water stress. This experiment aims to characterize a set of durum wheat varieties, tested jars and vegetation under different levels of water stress to the surface of the leaf, relative water content, cell integrity, the accumulated biomass and efficiency of water use. The experiment was conducted during the 2005/2006 academic year, at the Agricultural Research Station of the Field Crop Institute of Setif, under semi-controlled conditions. Five genotypes of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf) were evaluated for their ability to tolerate moderate and severe water stress. The results showed that geno types respond differently to water stress. Dry matter accumulation and growth rate varied among geno types and were significantly reduced. At severe water stress biomass accumulated by Boussalam was the least affected.

Keywords: water stress, triticum durum, biomass, cell membrane integrity, relative water content

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Authors: Hai Zhou, Wenzhi Zhao

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Water is one of the most important factors limiting plant growth and development in desert ecosystems. In order to understand how desert shrubs cope with variation in water sources over time, it is important to understand plant–water relations in desert-oasis ecotone. We selected the typical desert shrubs: Nitraria sibirica, Calligonum mongolicum and Haloxylon ammodendron of 5-, 10-, 20- and 40-year old as the research species, to study the seasonal variation of plant water sources and response to precipitation in the desert-oasis ecotone of Linze, Northwestern China. We examined stable isotopic ratios of oxygen (δ18O) in stem water of desert shrubs as well as in precipitation, groundwater, and soil water in different soil layers and seasons to determine water sources for the shrubs. We found that the N. sibirica and H. ammodendron of 5-, 10-year old showed significant seasonal variation characteristics of δ18O value of stem water and water sources. However, the C. mongolicum and 20- and 40-year H. ammodendron main water sources were from deep soil water and groundwater, and less response to precipitation pulse. After 22.4 mm precipitation, the contribution of shallow soil water (0-50cm) to the use of N. sibirica increased from 6.7% to 36.5%; the C. mongolicum rarely use precipitation that were about 58.29% and 23.51%, absorbed from the deep soil water and groundwater; the contribution of precipitation to use of H. ammodendron had significantly differences among the four ages. The H. ammodendron of 5- and 10-year old about 86.3% and 42.5% water sources absorbed from the shallow soil water after precipitation. However, the contribution to 20- and 40-year old plant was less than 15%. So, the precipitation was one of the main water sources for desert shrubs, but the species showed different water utilization. We conclude that the main water source of the N. sibirica and H. ammodendron of 5-, 10-year was soil water recharged by precipitation, but the deeply rooted H. ammodendron of 20‐ and 40‐year‐old and the C. mongolicum have the ability to exploit a deep and reliable water source.

Keywords: water use pattern, water resource, stable isotope, seasonal change, precipitation pulse

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Authors: Paiboon Jeamponk, Tasanee Ponglaa, Patchapon Srisanguan

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The aim of this research paper was based on an examination of sources of water supply and water quality for local consumption, conducted at eco-tourism villages of Suan Luang Sub- District Municipality of Amphawa District, Samut Songkram Province. The study incorporated both questionnaire and field work of water testing as the research tool and method. The sample size of 288 households was based on the population of the district, whereas the selected sample water sources were from 60 households: 30 samples were ground water and another 30 were surface water. Degree of heavy metal contamination in the water including copper, iron, manganese, zinc, cadmium and lead was investigated utilizing the Atomic Absorption- Direct Aspiration method. The findings unveiled that 96.0 percent of household water consumption was based on water supply, while the rest on canal, river and rain water. The household behaviour of consumption revealed that 47.2 percent of people routinely consumed water without boiling or filtering prior to consumption. The investigation of water supply quality found that the degree of heavy metal contamination including metal, lead, iron, copper, manganese and cadmium met the standards of the Department of Health.

Keywords: sources of water supply, water quality, water supply, Thailand

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Authors: Pedro Augusto Da Silva E Souza Miranda, Niloofar Jalali, Shweta Mistry

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BACKGROUND: Software developers utilize automated solutions to scrape users’ reviews to extract meaningful knowledge to identify problems (e.g., bugs, compatibility issues) and possible enhancements (e.g., users’ requests) to their solutions. However, most of these solutions do not consider the health risk aspects to users. Recent works have shed light on the importance of including health risk considerations in the development cycle of mHealth apps to prevent harm to its users. PROBLEM: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada (and World) is currently forcing physical distancing upon the general population. This new lifestyle made the usage of mHealth applications more essential than ever, with a projected market forecast of 332 billion dollars by 2025. However, this new insurgency in mHealth usage comes with possible risks to users’ health due to mHealth apps problems (e.g., wrong insulin dosage indication due to a UI error). OBJECTIVE: These works aim to raise awareness amongst mHealth developers of the importance of considering risks to users’ health within their development lifecycle. Moreover, this work also aims to help mHealth developers with a Proof-of-Concept (POC) solution to understand, process, and identify possible health risks to users of mHealth apps based on users’ reviews. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method study design. We developed a crawler to mine the negative reviews from two samples of mHealth apps (my fitness, medisafe) from the Google Play store users. For each mHealth app, we performed the following steps: • The reviews are divided into two groups, before starting the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date before 15 Feb 2019) and during the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date starts from 16 Feb 2019 till Dec 2020). For each period, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model was used to identify the different clusters of reviews based on similar topics of review The topics before and during COVID-19 are compared, and the significant difference in frequency and severity of similar topics are identified. RESULTS: We successfully scraped, filtered, processed, and identified health-related topics in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results demonstrated the similarity between topics before and during the COVID-19.

Keywords: natural language processing (NLP), topic modeling, mHealth, COVID-19, software engineering, telemedicine, health risks

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Authors: Gurjit Kaur, Shashank Johri, Arpit Mehrotra

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In this paper we have analyzed and compared the performance of various coding schemes. The basic ID prime sequence codes are unique in only dimension i.e. time slots whereas 2D coding techniques are not unique by their time slots but with their wavelengths also. In this research we have evaluated and compared the performance of 1D and 2D coding techniques constructed using prime sequence coding pattern for OCDMA system on a single platform. Results shows that 1D Extended Prime Code (EPC) can support more number of active users compared to other codes but at the expense of larger code length which further increases the complexity of the code. Modified Prime Code (MPC) supports lesser number of active users at λc=2 but it has a lesser code length as compared to 1D prime code. Analysis shows that 2D prime code supports lesser number of active users than 1D codes but they are having large code family and are the most secure codes compared to other codes. The performance of all these codes is analyzed on basis of number of active users supported at a Bit Error Rate (BER) of 10-9.

Keywords: CDMA, OCDMA, BER, OOC, PC, EPC, MPC, 2-D PC/PC, λc, λa

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Authors: M. A. Adejumobi, J. O. Ojediran

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The aim of irrigation is to recharge the available water in the soil. Quality of irrigation water is essential for the yield and quality of crops produced, maintenance of soil productivity and protection of the environment. The analysis of irrigation water arises as a need to know the impact of irrigation water on the yield of crops, the effect, and the necessary control measures to rectify the effect of this for optimum production and yield of crops. This study was conducted to assess the quality of irrigation water with its performance on crop planted, in Josepdam irrigation scheme Bacita, Nigeria. Field visits were undertaken to identify and locate water supply sources and collect water samples from these sources; X1 Drain, Oshin, River Niger loop and Ndafa. Laboratory experiments were then undertaken to determine the quality of raw water from these sources. The analysis was carried for various parameters namely; physical and chemical analyses after water samples have been taken from four sources. The samples were tested in laboratory. Results showed that the raw water sources shows no salinity tendencies with SAR values less than 1me/l and Ecvaules at Zero while the pH were within the recommended range by FAO, there are increase in potassium and sulphate content contamination in three of the location. From this, it is recommended that there should be proper monitoring of the scheme by conducting analysis of water and soil in the environment, preferable test should be carried out at least one year to cover the impact of seasonal variations and to determine the physical and chemical analysis of the water used for irrigation at the scheme.

Keywords: irrigation, salinity, raw water quality, scheme

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Authors: Saira Soroya, Khalid Mahmood

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Library catalogs open the door to the library collection. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) are one of the services offered by automated libraries. The present study aims to explore user’s awareness, the level of use and their searching behavior of OPAC with a purpose to give suggestions and ways to improve user-friendly features of library OPAC. The population consisted of OPAC users of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Convenient sampling technique was carried out. Total sample size was 100 OPAC users. Quantitative research design, based on survey method used to carry out the study. The data collection instrument was adopted. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Results revealed that a considerable number of users were not aware of OPAC i.e. (30%); however, those who were aware were using basic features of the OPAC. It was found that lack of knowledge was considered the frequent reason for not using all features of OPAC. In this regard, it is strongly recommended that compulsory information literacy programme should be established.

Keywords: catalog, OPAC, library automation, usability study, university library

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Authors: Ayushi Arora

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Solar photocatalysis has the potential to treat drinking water in a sustainable and cost effective manner. According to WHO, there should not be any colony forming units (CFU) per 100 mL present in drinking water, and as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India, the bathing water should have less than 500 CFU/100 mL and the maximum permissible limit is 2500 CFU/100 mL. In this study, 8 water sources near our collaborators, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, were analysed, and it was found that 6 out of 8 sources of water had significant coliform count in them. Two of them were chosen to be treated by solar photocatalysis a) well water which had a count of 4800 CFU/100 mL for total coliforms and was used by people for drinking purposes, and b) pond water which had a count of 92000 CFU/100 mL for total coliforms and 3000 CFU/mL for E.Coli and was used by people for washing and bathing purposes. In this study, a semiconductor-semiconductor, composite BTO-TiO2-RMSG & TiO2-SiO2 were tested for their ability to be activated under solar light and to reduce Total Coliforms and E.Coli bacteria in real world contaminated water, and it was found that both catalysts were both able to reduce the total coliform count in water by 99.7% and 98.2 % in 2 hrs respectively. They have also shown promising results in reusability tests. This study demonstrates the ability of solar photocatalysis to be used in real world drinking water treatment and will promote future advancements in this field.

Keywords: sustainable water treatment, waterpurification technologies, water policies, water pollution and environmental engineering

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Authors: Jamil Ahmed, Li P. Wong, Yan P. Chua

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The United Nation's sustainable development goals include the target to ensure access to water and sanitation for all; however, very few studies have assessed school-based drinking water in Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to characterize water quality in primary schools of Pakistan and to characterize how recent WASH interventions were associated with school water quality. We conducted a representative cross-sectional study of primary schools in the Sindh province of Pakistan. We used structured observations and structured interviews to ascertain the school’s WASH conditions. Our primary exposures of interest were the implementation of previous WASH interventions in the school and the water source type. Outcomes of interest included water quality (measured by various chemical and microbiological indicators) and water availability at the school’s primary drinking water source. We used log-binomial regression to characterize how WASH exposures were associated with water quality outcomes. We collected data from 256 schools. Groundwater was the primary drinking water source at most schools (87%). Water testing showed that 14% of the school’s water had arsenic above the WHO recommendations, and over 50% of the water samples exceeded recommendations for both lead and cadmium. A majority of the water sources (52%) had fecal coliform contamination. None of the schools had nitrate contamination (0%), and few had fluoride contamination (5%). Regression results indicated that having a recent WASH intervention at the school was not associated with either arsenic contamination (prevalence ratio=0.97; 95% CI: 0.46-2.1) or with fecal coliform contamination (PR=0.88; 95% CI: 0.67-1.17). Our assessment unveiled several water quality gaps that exist, including high heavy metal and fecal contamination. Our findings will help various stakeholders to take suitable action to improve water quality in Pakistani schools.

Keywords: WASH interventions, water quality, primary school children, heavy metals

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Authors: Chih-Ping Chen

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Despite the increasing popularity of and interest in mobile games, there has been little research that evaluates gender differences in users’ actual preferences for mobile game content, and the factors that influence entertainment and mobile-learning habits. To fill this void, this study examines different gender users’ experience of mobile English learning game adoption in order to identify the areas of development in Taiwan, using Uses and Gratification Theory, Expectation Confirmation Theory and experiential value. The integration of these theories forms the basis of an extended research concept. Users’ responses to questions about cognitive perceptions, confirmation, gratifications and continuous use were collected and analyzed with various factors derived from the theories.

Keywords: expectation confirmation theory, experiential value, gender difference, mobile game, uses and gratification

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Authors: Edjere Oghenekohwiroro, Asibor Irabor Godwin, Uwem Bassey

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This paper determines the presence and levels of phthalates in sachet and borehole water source in some parts of Delta State, Nigeria. Sachet and borehole water samples were collected from seven different water packaging facilities and level of phthalates determined using GC-MS instrumentation. Phthalates concentration in borehole samples varied from 0.00-0.01 (DMP), 0.06-0.20 (DEP), 0.10-0.98 (DBP), 0.21-0.36 (BEHP), 0.01-0.03 (DnOP) µg/L and (BBP) was not detectable; while sachet water varied from 0.03-0.95 (DMP), 0.16-12.45 (DEP), 0.57-3.38 (DBP), 0.00-0.03 (BBP), 0.08-0.31 (BEHP) and 0-0.03 (DnOP) µg/L. Phthalates concentration in the sachet water was higher than that of the corresponding boreholes sources and also showed significant difference (p < 0.05) between the two. Sources of these phthalate esters were the interaction between water molecules and plastic storage facilities. Although concentration of all phthalate esters analyzed were lower than the threshold limit value(TLV), over time storage of water samples in this medium can lead to substantial increase with negative effects on individuals consuming them.

Keywords: phthalate esters, borehole, sachet water, sample extraction, gas chromatography, GC-MS

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Authors: Razali Bin Abidin

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This paper presents the development of a portable water jet cutter for soft materials such as meat. Twelve geometries of nozzles were simulated using finite element method. Water pressure was set to 1500 lb/in². Through the simulation, highest average water output speed was 133.04 m/s. The nozzle was fabricated from Al - alloy 5052 with the Factor of Safety~ 3. This indicates that the nozzle made of Al-alloy 5052 is capable of performing the cutting process without any fracture. Preliminary design of mobile water jet hand tool is presented at the end of this paper.

Keywords: water jet, finite element, Al-alloy 5052, nozzle geometry

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Authors: Jong-Ho Moon, Dong-Ho Lee, Hyunuk Kim, Young Cheol Park, Jong-Seop Lee, Jae-deok Jeon, Hyung-Keun Lee

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A novel membrane reactor process for DMC synthesis from carbon dioxide has been developing in Korea Institute of Energy Research. The scheme of direct synthesis of DMC from CO₂ and Methanol is 'CO₂ + 2MeOH ↔ DMC + H₂O'. Among them, reactants are CO₂ and MeOH, product is DMC, and byproduct is H₂O (water). According to Le Chatelier’s principle, removing byproduct (water) can shift the reaction equilibrium to the right (DMC production). The main purpose of this process is removing water during the reaction. For efficient in situ water removal (dehydration) and DMC separation, zeolite 4A membranes with very small pore diameter and hydrophilicity were introduced. In this study, pervaporation performances of binary and ternary DMC / methanol / water mixtures were evaluated.

Keywords: dimehtyl carbonate, methanol, water, zeolite membrane, pervaporation

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Authors: Kayla Youhanaie, Kenneth Dott, Greg Gillis-Smith

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Access to clean water is a global challenge that affects nearly one-third of the world’s population. A lack of safe drinking water negatively affects a person’s health, safety, and economic status. However, many regions of the world that face this clean water challenge also have high solar energy potential. To address this worldwide issue and utilize available resources, a solar-powered water purification device was developed that could be implemented in communities around the world that lack access to potable water. The device uses ozone to destroy water-borne pathogens and sand filtration to filter out particulates from the water. To select the best method for this application, a quantitative energy efficiency comparison of three water purification methods was conducted: heat, UV light, and ozone. After constructing an initial prototype, the efficacy of the device was tested using agar petri dishes to test for bacteria growth in treated water samples at various time intervals after applying the device to contaminated water. The results demonstrated that the water purification device successfully removed all bacteria and particulates from the water within three minutes, making it safe for human consumption. These results, as well as the proposed design that utilizes widely available resources in target communities, suggest that the device is a sustainable solution to address the global water crisis and could improve the quality of life for millions of people worldwide.

Keywords: clean water, solar powered water purification, ozonation, sand filtration, global water crisis

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Authors: Frederick N. F. Chou, Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh

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The impact of water shortages has been increasingly severe as a consequence of population growth, urbanization, economic development, and climate change. The need for improvements in reliable water supply systems is urgent with the increasing living standards of regions. In this study, a suitable shortage index capable of multi-aspect description - frequency, magnitude, and duration - is adopted to more accurately describe the characteristics of a shortage situation. The values of the index were determined to cope with the increasing need for reliability. There are four reservoirs in series located on the Be River of the Dong Nai River Basin in Southern Vietnam. The primary purpose of the three upstream reservoirs is hydropower generation while the primary purpose of the fourth is water supply. A compromise between hydropower generation and water supply can be negotiated for these four reservoirs to reduce the severity of water shortages. A generalized water allocation model was applied to simulate the water supply, and hydropower generation of various management alternatives and the system’s reliability was evaluated using the adopted multiple shortage indices. Modifying management policies of water resources using data-based indexes can improve the reliability of water supply.

Keywords: cascade reservoirs, hydropower, shortage index, water supply

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Authors: Michael Lognoul

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In April 2021, the European Commission released its AI Act Proposal, which is the first policy proposal at the European Union level to target AI systems comprehensively, in a horizontal manner. This Proposal notably aims to achieve an ecosystem of trust in the European Union, based on the respect of fundamental rights, regarding AI. Among many other requirements, the AI Act Proposal aims to impose several generic transparency obligationson all AI systems to the benefit of natural persons facing those systems (e.g. information on the AI nature of systems, in case of an interaction with a human). The Proposal also provides for more stringent transparency obligations, specific to AI systems that qualify as high-risk, to the benefit of their users, notably on the characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of the AI systems they use. Against that background, this research firstly presents all such transparency requirements in turn, as well as related obligations, such asthe proposed obligations on record keeping. Secondly, it focuses on a legal analysis of their scope of application, of the content of the obligations, and on their practical implications. On the scope of transparency obligations tailored for high-risk AI systems, the research notably notes that it seems relatively narrow, given the proposed legal definition of the notion of users of AI systems. Hence, where end-users do not qualify as users, they may only receive very limited information. This element might potentially raise concern regarding the objective of the Proposal. On the content of the transparency obligations, the research highlights that the information that should benefit users of high-risk AI systems is both very broad and specific, from a technical perspective. Therefore, the information required under those obligations seems to create, prima facie, an adequate framework to ensure trust for users of high-risk AI systems. However, on the practical implications of these transparency obligations, the research notes that concern arises due to potential illiteracy of high-risk AI systems users. They might not benefit from sufficient technical expertise to fully understand the information provided to them, despite the wording of the Proposal, which requires that information should be comprehensible to its recipients (i.e. users).On this matter, the research points that there could be, more broadly, an important divergence between the level of detail of the information required by the Proposal and the level of expertise of users of high-risk AI systems. As a conclusion, the research provides policy recommendations to tackle (part of) the issues highlighted. It notably recommends to broaden the scope of transparency requirements for high-risk AI systems to encompass end-users. It also suggests that principles of explanation, as they were put forward in the Guidelines for Trustworthy AI of the High Level Expert Group, should be included in the Proposal in addition to transparency obligations.

Keywords: aI act proposal, explainability of aI, high-risk aI systems, transparency requirements

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Authors: Archil Undilashvili, Ketevan Stvilia, Dustin Gilbreath, Giorgi Dzneladze, Gordon Charchward

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Introduction: In recent years, diverse types of wheelchairs, both local production and imported, have been made available on the Georgian market for wheelchair users. Some types of wheelchairs are sold together with a service package, while the others, including the State Program, Supported locally-produced ones, don’t provide adjustment and maintenance service packages to users. Within the USAID Physical Rehabilitation Project in Georgia, a study was conducted to assess the impact of the wheelchair service provision in line with the WHO guidelines on the health and overall satisfaction of wheelchair users in Georgia. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in May 2021. A structured questionnaire was used for telephone interviews that, along with socio-demographic characteristics, included questions for assessment of accessibility, availability, timeliness, cost and quality of wheelchair services received. Out of 1060 individuals listed in the census of wheelchair users, 752 were available for interview, with an actual response rate of 73.4%. 552 wheelchair users (31%) or their caregivers (69%) agreed to participate in the survey. In addition to using descriptive statistics, the study used multivariate matching of wheelchair users who received wheelchair services and who did not (control group). In addition, to evaluate satisfaction with service provision, respondents were asked to assess services. Findings: The majority (67%) of wheelchair users included in the survey were male. The average age of participants was 43. The three most frequently named reasons for using a wheelchair were cerebral palsy (29%), followed by stroke (18%), and amputation (12%). Users have had their current chair for four years on average. Overall, 60% of respondents reported that they were assessed before providing a wheelchair, but only half of them reported that their preferences and needs were considered. Only 13% of respondents had services in line with WHO guidelines and only 22% of wheelchair users had training when they received their current chair. 16% of participants said they had follow-up services, and 41% received adjustment services after receiving the chair. A slight majority (56%) of participants were satisfied with the quality of service provision and the service provision overall. Similarly, 55% were satisfied with the accessibility of service provision. A slightly larger majority (61%) were satisfied with the timeliness of service provision. The matching analysis suggests that users that received services in line with WHO guidelines were more satisfied with their chairs (the difference 17 point/0-100 scale) and they were four percentage points less likely to have health problems attributed to the chair. The regression analysis provides a similar finding of a 21 point increase in satisfaction attributable to services. Conclusion: The provision of wheelchair services in line with WHO guidelines and with follow-up services is likely to have a positive impact on the daily lives of wheelchair users in Georgia. Wheelchair services should be institutionalized as a standard component of wheelchair provision in Georgia.

Keywords: physical rehabilitation, wheelchair users, persons with disabilities, wheelchair production

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Authors: B. Self, V. Fleming, C. Maxwell

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The fourth clause of the UK 1967 Abortion Act allows individuals (including health care practitioners) to conscientiously object to participating in an abortion. Individuals are able to object if they consider that participating is incompatible with their religious, moral, philosophical, ethical, or personal beliefs. Currently, there is no research on service users’ opinions and understandings of conscientious objection or the impact of conscientious objection from the UK service users’ perspective. This perspective is imperative in understanding the real-world consequences and impact of conscientious objection and essential when creating policy and guidelines. This qualitative research took a liberal feminist approach. It provided a platform for service users to share their experiences of abortion and conscientious objection, as well as their opinions and understandings of conscientious objection. The method employed was semi-structured interviews. Findings indicated that conscientious objection could work in practice. However, it is currently failing some individuals, as health care practitioners are not always referring and informing service users. Participants didn’t experience burdens such as long waiting times and were still able to access legal abortion. However, participants did experience negative emotional effects, as they were often left feeling scared, angry, and hopeless when they were not referred. Moreover, participants’ opinions on conscientious objection in the UK varied greatly. The majority supported the most common approach within the literature and in practice, whereby health care practitioners are able to object so long as they refer and inform the service user. However, the opinion that health care practitioners should not be allowed to object or should be able to object without referring and informing was also present. Without this research, the impact that conscientious objection is having on service users in the UK and service users’ opinions on conscientious objection wouldn’t be known. These findings will be used to inform national policy and guidelines, making access to abortion fairer and safer for all.

Keywords: conscientious objection, abortion, medical ethics, reproductive justice

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Authors: Etsuo Morishita

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In this paper, we show shallow water in a tin box as an analogous simulation tool for high-speed aerodynamics education and research. It is customary that we use a water tank to create shallow water flow. While a flow in a water tank is not necessarily uniform and is sometimes wavy, we can visualize a clear supercritical flow even when we move a body manually in stationary water in a simple shallow tin box. We can visualize a blunt shock wave around a moving circular cylinder together with a shock pattern around a diamond airfoil. Another interesting analogous experiment is a hydrodynamic shock tube with water and tea. We observe the contact surface clearly due to color difference of the two liquids those are invisible in the real gas dynamics experiment. We first revisit the similarities between high-speed aerodynamics and shallow water hydraulics. Several educational and research experiments are then introduced for engineering students. Shallow water experiments in a tin box simulate properly the high-speed flows.

Keywords: aerodynamics compressible flow, gas dynamics, hydraulics, shock wave

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Authors: Ming Ma, Zhenyu Cai, Rui Li

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People are more vulnerable to health problems than ever before, such as overweight and obesity due to the change of built environment. In the high-rise buildings, the core-tube layout is closely associated with user’s physical activities which will affect human’s health in a long-term. As for the white-collars who spends the amount of time working in the office tower, using staircase seems to provide an opportunity for them to increase the physical activities in the workplaces. This paper is aiming to find out the specific relationship between health and core-tube in the office tower through analyzing the correlation between staircase’s layout and user’s health. The variables of staircase’s layout are consisted of two indicators: plan layout and space design, including nine factors while health variable is applying BIM as the only main factor. 14 office towers in downtown Shanghai are selected as the research samples because of its typical users’ pattern and similar core-tube layout. In the result, it is obvious that the users from these 14 cases have higher BMI than average partly because that the staircases are mainly designed for emergency and fire instead of daily use. After the regression and correlation analysis of the variables of health and staircases, it’s found that users’ BMI is significantly associated with the factors of floor guide-signs and distance from lobby to the staircase. In addition, the factors of comfort level of staircase such as width and daylighting have a certain correlation with users’ BMI.

Keywords: office tower, staircase, design, obesity, physical activity

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Authors: Cesar Eduardo Hernández Curiel, Victor Hugo Benítez Baltazar, Jesús Horacio Pacheco Ramírez

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This paper is devoted to present the advances in the design of a prototype that is able to supervise the complex behavior of water quality parameters such as pH and temperature, via a real-time monitoring system. The current water quality tests that are performed in government water quality institutions in Mexico are carried out in problematic locations and they require taking manual samples. The water samples are then taken to the institution laboratory for examination. In order to automate this process, a water quality monitoring system based on wireless sensor networks is proposed. The system consists of a sensor node which contains one pH sensor, one temperature sensor, a microcontroller, and a ZigBee radio, and a base station composed by a ZigBee radio and a PC. The progress in this investigation shows the development of a water quality monitoring system. Due to recent events that affected water quality in Mexico, the main motivation of this study is to address water quality monitoring systems, so in the near future, a more robust, affordable, and reliable system can be deployed.

Keywords: pH measurement, water quality monitoring, wireless sensor networks, ZigBee

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Authors: Saheed Olakunle Sanusi, Israel Ajibade Adedeji

Abstract:

The study analysed the effect of microfinance on the profit level of small and medium scale enterprises in Lagos. The data for the study were obtained by simple random sampling, and total of one hundred and fifty (150) small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) were sampled for the study. Seventy-five (75) each are microfinance users and non-users. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, logit model, t-test and ordinary least square (OLS) regression. The mean profit of the enterprises using microfinance is ₦16.8m, while for the non-users of microfinance is ₦5.9m. The mean profit of microfinance users is statistically different from the non-users. The result of the logit model specified for the determinant of access to microfinance showed that three of specified variables- educational status of the enterprise head, credit utilisation and volume of business investment are significant at P < 0.01. Enterprises with many years of experience, highly educated enterprise heads and high volume of business investment have more potential access to microfinance. The OLS regression model indicated that three parameters namely number of school years, the volume of business investment and (dummy) participation in microfinance were found to be significant at P < 0.05. These variables are therefore significant determinants of impacts of microfinance on profit level in the study area. The study, therefore, concludes and recommends that to improve the status of small and medium scale enterprises for an increase in profit, the full benefit of access to microfinance can be enhanced through investment in social infrastructure and human capital development. Also, concerted efforts should be made to encouraged non-users of microfinance among SMEs to use it in order to boost their profit.

Keywords: credit utilisation, logit model, microfinance, small and medium enterprises

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Authors: Aminu J. A. Koguna, Aliyu M. Aliyu, Olawale T. Fajemidupe, Yahaya D. Baba

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Production fluids are transported from the platform to tankers or process facilities through transfer pipelines. Water being one of the heavier phases tends to settle at the bottom of pipelines especially at low flow velocities and this has adverse consequences for pipeline integrity. On restart after a shutdown this could result in corrosion and issues for process equipment, thus the need to have the heavier liquid dispersed into the flowing lighter fluid. This study looked at the flow regime of low water cut and low flow velocity oil and water flow using conductive film thickness probes in a large diameter 4-inch pipe to obtain oil and water interface height and the interface structural velocity. A wide range of 0.1–1.0 m/s oil and water mixture velocities was investigated for 0.5–5% water cut. Two fluid model predictions were used to compare with the experimental results.

Keywords: interface height, liquid, velocity, flow regime, dispersed, water cut

Procedia PDF Downloads 359