Search results for: Spent bleaching earth
102 Estimating Marine Tidal Power Potential in Kenya
Authors: Lucy Patricia Onundo, Wilfred Njoroge Mwema
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The rapidly diminishing fossil fuel reserves, their exorbitant cost and the increasingly apparent negative effect of fossil fuels to climate changes is a wake-up call to explore renewable energy. Wind, bio-fuel and solar power have already become staples of Kenyan electricity mix. The potential of electric power generation from marine tidal currents is enormous, with oceans covering more than 70% of the earth. However, attempts to harness marine tidal energy in Kenya, has yet to be studied thoroughly due to its promising, cyclic, reliable and predictable nature and the vast energy contained within it. The high load factors resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make marine currents particularly attractive for power generation and advantageous when compared to others. Global-level resource assessments and oceanographic literature and data have been compiled in an analysis of the technology-specific requirements for tidal energy technologies and the physical resources. Temporal variations in resource intensity as well as the differences between small-scale applications are considered.
Keywords: Energy data assessment, environmental legislation, renewable energy, tidal-in-stream turbines.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1367101 Appraisal of Relativistic Effects on GNSS Receiver Positioning
Authors: I. Yakubu, Y. Y. Ziggah, E. A. Gyamera
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The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) started with the launch of the United State Department of Defense Global Positioning System (GPS). GNSS systems has grown over the years to include: GLONASS (Russia); Galileo (European Union); BeiDou (China). Any GNSS architecture consists of three major segments: Space, Control and User Segments. Errors such as; multipath, ionospheric and tropospheric effects, satellite clocks, receiver noise and orbit errors (relativity effect) have significant effects on GNSS positioning. To obtain centimeter level accuracy, the impacts of the relative motion of the satellites and earth need to be taken into account. This paper discusses the relevance of the theory of relativity as a source of error for GNSS receivers for position fix based on available relevant literature. Review of relevant literature reveals that due to relativity; Time dilation, Gravitational frequency shift and Sagnac effect cause significant influence on the use of GNSS receivers for positioning by an error range of ± 2.5 m based on pseudo-range computation.
Keywords: GNSS, relativistic effects, pseudo-range, accuracy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 388100 Project Management in Student Satellite Projects: A University – Industry Collaboration View
Authors: Muhammad Fiaz, Naqvi Najam Abbas, Baseerat Rizwan, Yang Naiding
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This research contribution propels the idea of collaborating environment for the execution of student satellite projects in the backdrop of project management principles. The recent past has witnessed a technological shift in the aerospace industry from the big satellite projects to the small spacecrafts especially for the earth observation and communication purposes. This vibrant shift has vitalized the academia and industry to share their resources and to create a win-win paradigm of mutual success and technological development along with the human resource development in the field of aerospace. Small student satellites are the latest jargon of academia and more than 100 CUBESAT projects have been executed successfully all over the globe and many new student satellite projects are in the development phase. The small satellite project management requires the application of specific knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to achieve the defined mission requirements. The Authors have presented the detailed outline for the project management of student satellites and presented the role of industry to collaborate with the academia to get the optimized results in academic environment.
Keywords: Project Management, Academia-Industry Collaboration, Satellite, Aerospace
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 262199 Animation of Objects on the Website by Application of CSS3 Language
Authors: Vladimir Simovic, Matija Varga, Robert Svetlacic
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Scientific work analytically explores and demonstrates techniques that can animate objects and geometric characters using CSS3 language by applying proper formatting and positioning of elements. This paper presents examples of optimum application of the CSS3 descriptive language when generating general web animations (e.g., billiards and movement of geometric characters, etc.). The paper presents analytically, the optimal development and animation design with the frames within which the animated objects are. The originally developed content is based on the upgrading of existing CSS3 descriptive language animations with more complex syntax and project-oriented work. The purpose of the developed animations is to provide an overview of the interactive features of CSS3 descriptive language design for computer games and the animation of important analytical data based on the web view. It has been analytically demonstrated that CSS3 as a descriptive language allows inserting of various multimedia elements into websites for public and internal sites.
Keywords: Animation recording, web page graphics, HTML5 forms, Cascading Style Sheets 3 - CSS3, man-computer interaction, KML animation presenting format, GML, Google Earth Professional.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 80798 The Integration between Transportation Solutions, Economic Development and Community Development as an Approach for Sustainability – A Case Study of Curitiba, Brazil
Authors: G. M. Rehan, H. S. Mahmoud
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Sustainability and sustainable development have been the main theme of many international conferences, such the UN Rio de Janeiro 1992 Earth Summit This was followed by the appearance of the global conferences at the late of the nineties and the early of 2000 to confirm the importance of the sustainable development .it was focused on the importance of the economic development as it is considered an effective tool in the operations of the sustainable development. Industry plays a critical role in technological innovations and research and development activities, which are crucial for the economic and social development of any country. Transportation and mobility are an important part or urban economics and the quality of life. To analyze urban transportation and its environmental impacts, a comprehensive approach is needed. So this research aims to apply new approach for the development of the urban communities that insure the continuity and facing the deterioration. This approach aims to integrate sustainable transport solutions with economic development and community development. For that purpose we will concentrate on one of the most sustainable cities in the world (Curitiba in Brazil) which provides the world with a model in how to integrate sustainable transport considerations into business development, road infrastructure development, and local community development.Keywords: Community development, economic development sustainable development, sustainable transport
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 221797 Driver of Tectonic Plate Fracture and Movement
Authors: Xuguang Leng
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The theory of tectonic plate asteroid driver provides that comet and asteroid collisions have ample energy to fracture, move, and deform tectonic plate. The enormous kinetic energy of an asteroid collision is dissipated through the fracture and violent movement of the tectonic plates, and stored in the plate deformations. The stored energy will be released in the future through plate slow movement. The reflection of plate edge upwards upon collision impact causes the plate to sit on top of adjacent plate and creates the subduction plate. Higher probability and higher energy of asteroid collision in the equator area provides the net energy to drive heavier land plates to higher latitudes, offsetting the tidal and self spin forces, creating a more random land plates distribution. The trend of asteroid collisions is less frequency and intensity as loose objects are merging into the planets and Jupiter is taking ever larger shares of collisions. As overall energy input from asteroid collision decreases, plate movement is slowing down and eventually land plates will congregate towards equator area. The current trajectory of plate movements is the cumulative effect of past asteroid collisions, and can be altered, new plates be created, by future collisions.
Keywords: Tectonic plate, Earth, asteroid, comet.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21496 The Social Area Disclosure to Reduce Conflicts between Community and the State: A Case of Mahakan Fortress, Bangkok
Authors: Saowapa Phaithayawat
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The purposes of this study are 1) to study the over 20-year attempt of Mahakan fort community to negotiate with Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to remain in their residential area belonging to the state, and 2) to apply the new social and cultural dimension between the state and the community as an alternative for local participation in keeping their residential area. This is a qualitative research, and the findings reveal that the community claimed their ancestors’ right as owners of this piece of land for over 200 years. The community, therefore, requested to take part in the preservation of land, culture and local intellect and the area management in terms of being a learning resource on the cultural road in Rattanakosin Island. However, BMA imposed the law concerning the community area relocation in Rattanakosin Island. The result of law enforcement led to the failure of the area relocation, and the hard hit on physical structure of the area including the overall deterioration of the cultural road renovated in the year 1982, the 200 years’ celebration of Bangkok. The enforcement of law by the state required the move of the community, and the landscape improvement based on the capital city plan. However, this enforcement resulted in the unending conflicts between the community and the state, and the solution of this problem was unclear. At the same time the community has spent a long time opposing the state’s action, and preparing themselves by administrating the community behind Mahakan fortress with community administrative committee under the suggestion of external organization by registering all community members, providing funds for community administration. At the meantime the state lacked the continuation of the enforcement due to political problem and BMA’s administration problem. It is, therefore, suggested that an alternative solution to this problem lie at the negotiation between the state and the community with the purpose of the collaboration between the two to develop the area under the protective law of each side.
Keywords: Pom-Mahakan Community, The Reduction of Conflicts, The Social Area Disclosure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 176195 Eco-Innovation as a New Sustainable Development Strategy: Case Studies
Authors: Orhan Çoban, Nuryağdı Rozıyev, Fehmi Karasioğlu
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Sustainable development is one of the most debated issues, recently. In terms of providing more livable Earth continuity, while Production activities are going on, on the other hand protecting the environment has importance. As a strategy for sustainable development, eco-innovation is the application of innovations to reduce environmental burdens. Endeavors to understand ecoinnovation processes have been affected from environmental economics and innovation economics from neoclassical economics, and evolutionary economics other than neoclassical economics. In the light of case study analyses, this study aims to display activities in this field through case studies after explaining the theoretical framework of eco-innovations. This study consists of five sections including introduction and conclusion. In the second part of the study identifications of the concepts related with eco-innovation are described and eco-innovations are classified. Third section considers neoclassical and evolutionary approaches from neoclassical economics and evolutionary economics, respectively. Fourth section gives the case studies of successful eco-innovations. Last section is the conclusion part and offers suggestions for future eco-innovation research according to the theoretical framework and the case studies.Keywords: Sustainable Development, Innovation, Ecoinnovation, Neoclassical Approach, Evolutionary Approach, Case Studies
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 204994 Impact of Enhanced Business Models on Technology Companies in the Pandemic: A Case Study about the Revolutionary Change in Management Styles
Authors: Murat Colak, Berkay Cakir Saridogan
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Since the dawn of modern corporations, almost every single employee has been working in the same loop, which contains three basic steps: going to work, providing the needs for the work, and getting back home. Only a small amount of people was able to break that standard and live outside the box. As the 2019 pandemic hit the Earth and most companies shut down their physical offices, that loop had to change for everyone. This means that the old management styles had to be significantly re-arranged to the "work from home" type of business methods. The methods include online conferences and meetings, time and task tracking using algorithms, globalization of the work, and, most importantly, remote working. After the global epidemic started, even the tech giants were concerned. Now, it can be seen that those technology companies have an incredible step-up in their shares compared to the other companies because they know how to manage such situations even better than every other industry. This study aims to take the old traditional management styles in big companies and compare them with the post-Covid methods (2019-2022). As a result of this comparison made using the annual reports and shared statistics, this study aims to explain why the winners of this crisis are the technology companies.
Keywords: COVID-19, technology companies, business models, remote work.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 39193 Simulating the Dynamics of Distribution of Hazardous Substances Emitted by Motor Engines in a Residential Quarter
Authors: S. Grishin
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This article is dedicated to development of mathematical models for determining the dynamics of concentration of hazardous substances in urban turbulent atmosphere. Development of the mathematical models implied taking into account the time-space variability of the fields of meteorological items and such turbulent atmosphere data as vortex nature, nonlinear nature, dissipativity and diffusivity. Knowing the turbulent airflow velocity is not assumed when developing the model. However, a simplified model implies that the turbulent and molecular diffusion ratio is a piecewise constant function that changes depending on vertical distance from the earth surface. Thereby an important assumption of vertical stratification of urban air due to atmospheric accumulation of hazardous substances emitted by motor vehicles is introduced into the mathematical model. The suggested simplified non-linear mathematical model of determining the sought exhaust concentration at a priori unknown turbulent flow velocity through non-degenerate transformation is reduced to the model which is subsequently solved analytically.Keywords: Urban ecology, time-dependent mathematical model, exhaust concentration, turbulent and molecular diffusion, airflow velocity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 141192 Assessing the Effect of Underground Tunnel Diameter on Structure-Foundation-Soil Performance under the Kobe Earthquake
Authors: Masoud Mahdavi
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Today, developed and industrial cities have all kinds of sewage and water transfer canals, subway tunnels, infrastructure facilities, etc., which have caused underground cavities to be created under the buildings. The presence of these cavities causes behavioral changes in the structural behavior that must be fully evaluated. In the present study, using Abaqus finite element software, the effect of cavities with 0.5 and 1.5 meters in diameter at a depth of 2.5 meters from the earth's surface (with a circular cross-section) on the performance of the foundation and the ground (soil) has been evaluated. For this purpose, the Kobe earthquake was applied to the models for 10 seconds. Also, pore water pressure and weight were considered on the models to get complete results. The results showed that by creating and increasing the diameter of circular cavities in the soil, three indicators; 1) von Mises stress, 2) displacement and 3) plastic strain have had oscillating, ascending and ascending processes, respectively, which shows the relationship between increasing the diameter index of underground cavities and structural indicators of structure-foundation-soil.
Keywords: Underground excavations, foundation, structural substrates, Abaqus software, Kobe earthquake, time history analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 69091 Mapping of Siltations of AlKhod Dam, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Using Low-Cost Multispectral Satellite Data
Authors: Sankaran Rajendran
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Remote sensing plays a vital role in mapping of resources and monitoring of environments of the earth. In the present research study, mapping and monitoring of clay siltations occurred in the Alkhod Dam of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman are carried out using low-cost multispectral Landsat and ASTER data. The dam is constructed across the Wadi Samail catchment for ground water recharge. The occurrence and spatial distribution of siltations in the dam are studied with five years of interval from the year 1987 of construction to 2014. The deposits are mainly due to the clay, sand and silt occurrences derived from the weathering rocks of ophiolite sequences occurred in the Wadi Samail catchment. The occurrences of clays are confirmed by minerals identification using ASTER VNIR-SWIR spectral bands and Spectral Angle Mapper supervised image processing method. The presence of clays and their spatial distribution are verified in the field. The study recommends the technique and the low-cost satellite data to similar region of the world.
Keywords: Alkhod Dam, ASTER Siltation, Landsat, Remote Sensing, Oman.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 311190 Reduction of Plutonium Production in Heavy Water Research Reactor: A Feasibility Study through Neutronic Analysis Using MCNPX2.6 and CINDER90 Codes
Authors: H. Shamoradifar, B. Teimuri, P. Parvaresh, S. Mohammadi
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One of the main characteristics of Heavy Water Moderated Reactors is their high production of plutonium. This article demonstrates the possibility of reduction of plutonium and other actinides in Heavy Water Research Reactor. Among the many ways for reducing plutonium production in a heavy water reactor, in this research, changing the fuel from natural Uranium fuel to Thorium-Uranium mixed fuel was focused. The main fissile nucleus in Thorium-Uranium fuels is U-233 which would be produced after neutron absorption by Th-232, so the Thorium-Uranium fuels have some known advantages compared to the Uranium fuels. Due to this fact, four Thorium-Uranium fuels with different compositions ratios were chosen in our simulations; a) 10% UO2-90% THO2 (enriched= 20%); b) 15% UO2-85% THO2 (enriched= 10%); c) 30% UO2-70% THO2 (enriched= 5%); d) 35% UO2-65% THO2 (enriched= 3.7%). The natural Uranium Oxide (UO2) is considered as the reference fuel, in other words all of the calculated data are compared with the related data from Uranium fuel. Neutronic parameters were calculated and used as the comparison parameters. All calculations were performed by Monte Carol (MCNPX2.6) steady state reaction rate calculation linked to a deterministic depletion calculation (CINDER90). The obtained computational data showed that Thorium-Uranium fuels with four different fissile compositions ratios can satisfy the safety and operating requirements for Heavy Water Research Reactor. Furthermore, Thorium-Uranium fuels have a very good proliferation resistance and consume less fissile material than uranium fuels at the same reactor operation time. Using mixed Thorium-Uranium fuels reduced the long-lived α emitter, high radiotoxic wastes and the radio toxicity level of spent fuel.
Keywords: Burn-up, heavy water reactor, minor actinides, Monte Carlo, proliferation resistance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 100589 Geotechnical Investigation of Soil Foundation for Ramps of Dawar El-Tawheed Bridge in Jizan City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Authors: Ali H. Mahfouz, Hossam E. M.Sallam, Abdulwali Wazir, Hamod H. Kharezi
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The soil profile at site of the bridge project includes soft fine grained soil layer located between 5.0 m to 11.0 m in depth, it has high water content, low SPT no., and low bearing capacity. The clay layer induces high settlement due to surcharge application of earth embankment at ramp T1, ramp T2, and ramp T3 especially at heights from 9m right 3m. Calculated settlement for embankment heights less than 3m may be accepted regarding Saudi Code for soil and foundation. The soil and groundwater at the project site comprise high contents of sulfates and chlorides of high aggressively on concrete and steel bars, respectively. Regarding results of the study, it has been recommended to use stone column piles or new technology named PCC piles as soil improvement to improve the bearing capacity of the weak layer. The new technology is cast in-situ thin wall concrete pipe piles (PCC piles), it has economically advantageous and high workability. The technology can save time of implementation and cost of application is almost 30% of other types of piles.Keywords: Soft foundation soil, bearing capacity, bridge ramps, soil improvement, PCC piles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 201488 The Urban Expansion Characterization of the Bir El Djir Municipality Using Remote Sensing and GIS
Authors: Zakaria Smahi, Khadidja Remaoun, Fatima Achouri
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Bir El Djir is an important coastal township in Oran department, located at 450 Km far away from Algiers on northwest of Algeria. In this coastal area, the urban sprawl is one of the main problems that reduce the limited highly fertile land. So, using the remote sensing and GIS technologies have shown their great capabilities to solve many earth resources issues. The aim of this study is to produce land use and cover map for the studied area at varied periods to monitor possible changes that may occurred, particularly in the urban areas and subsequently predict likely changes. For this, two spatial images SPOT and Landsat satellites from 1987 and 2014 respectively were used to assess the changes of urban expansion and encroachment during this period with photo-interpretation and GIS approach. The results revealed that the town of Bir El Djir has shown a highest growth rate in the period 1987-2014 which is 1201.5 hectares in terms of area. These expansions largely concern the new real estate constructions falling within the social and promotional housing programs launched by the government. The most urban expansion is characterized by the new construction in the form of spontaneous or peripheral precarious habitat, but also unstructured slums settled especially in the southeastern part of town.
Keywords: Urban expansion, Remote Sensing, Photointerpretation, Spatial dynamics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 213587 Flood-Induced River Disruption: Geomorphic Imprints and Topographic Effects in Kelantan River Catchment from Kemubu to Kuala Besar, Kelantan, Malaysia
Authors: Mohamad Muqtada Ali Khan, Nor Ashikin Shaari, Donny Adriansyah Bin Nazaruddin, Hafzan Eva Bt Mansoor
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Floods play a key role in landform evolution of an area. This process is likely to alter the topography of the earth’s surface. The present study area, Kota Bharu is very prone to floods extends from upstream of Kelantan River near Kemubu to the downstream area near Kuala Besar. These flood events which occur every year in the study area exhibit a strong bearing on river morphological set-up. In the present study, three satellite imageries of different time periods have been used to manifest the post-flood landform changes. The pre-processing of the images such as subset, geometric corrections and atmospheric corrections were carried-out using ENVI 4.5 followed by the analysis processes. Twenty sets of cross sections were plotted using software Erdas 9.2, ERDAS and ArcGis 10 for the all three images. The results show a significant change in the length of the cross section which suggest that the geomorphological processes play a key role in carving and shaping the river banks during the floods.
Keywords: Flood Induced, Geomorphic imprints, Kelantan river, Malaysia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 240886 Comprehensive Regional Drought Assessment Index
Authors: A. Zeynolabedin, M. A. Olyaei, B. Ghiasi
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Drought is an inevitable part of the earth’s climate. It occurs regularly with no clear warning and without recognizing borders. In addition, its impact is cumulative and not immediately discernible. Iran is located in a semi-arid region where droughts occur periodically as natural hazard. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI), and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) are three well-known indices which describe drought severity; each has its own advantages and disadvantages and can be used for specific types of drought. These indices take into account some factors such as precipitation, reservoir storage and discharge, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration in determining drought severity. In this paper, first all three indices are calculated in Aharchay river watershed located in northwestern part of Iran in East Azarbaijan province. Next, based on two other important parameters which are groundwater level and solar radiation, two new indices are defined. Finally, considering all five aforementioned indices, a combined drought index (CDI) is presented and calculated for the region. This combined index is based on all the meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural features of the region. The results show that the most severe drought condition in Aharchay watershed happened in Jun, 2004. The result of this study can be used for monitoring drought and prepare for the drought mitigation planning.Keywords: Drought, index variation, regional assessment, monitoring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 126085 Urban Areas Management in Developing Countries: Analysis of the Urban Areas Crossed with Risk of Storm Water Drains, Aswan-Egypt
Authors: Omar Hamdy, Schichen Zhao, Hussein Abd El-Atty, Ayman Ragab, Muhammad Salem
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One of the most risky areas in Aswan is Abouelreesh, which is suffering from flood disasters, as heavy deluge inundates urban areas causing considerable damage to buildings and infrastructure. Moreover, the main problem was the urban sprawl towards this risky area. This paper aims to identify the urban areas located in the risk areas prone to flash floods. Analyzing this phenomenon needs a lot of data to ensure satisfactory results; however, in this case the official data and field data were limited, and therefore, free sources of satellite data were used. This paper used ArcGIS tools to obtain the storm water drains network by analyzing DEM files. Additionally, historical imagery in Google Earth was studied to determine the age of each building. The last step was to overlay the urban area layer and the storm water drains layer to identify the vulnerable areas. The results of this study would be helpful to urban planners and government officials to make the disasters risk estimation and develop primary plans to recover the risky area, especially urban areas located in torrents.
Keywords: Risk area, DEM, storm water drains, GIS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 92284 Comparisons of Co-Seismic Gravity Changes between GRACE Observations and the Predictions from the Finite-Fault Models for the 2012 Mw = 8.6 Indian Ocean Earthquake Off-Sumatra
Authors: Armin Rahimi
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The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has been a very successful project in determining math redistribution within the Earth system. Large deformations caused by earthquakes are in the high frequency band. Unfortunately, GRACE is only capable to provide reliable estimate at the low-to-medium frequency band for the gravitational changes. In this study, we computed the gravity changes after the 2012 Mw8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake off-Sumatra using the GRACE Level-2 monthly spherical harmonic (SH) solutions released by the University of Texas Center for Space Research (UTCSR). Moreover, we calculated gravity changes using different fault models derived from teleseismic data. The model predictions showed non-negligible discrepancies in gravity changes. However, after removing high-frequency signals, using Gaussian filtering 350 km commensurable GRACE spatial resolution, the discrepancies vanished, and the spatial patterns of total gravity changes predicted from all slip models became similar at the spatial resolution attainable by GRACE observations, and predicted-gravity changes were consistent with the GRACE-detected gravity changes. Nevertheless, the fault models, in which give different slip amplitudes, proportionally lead to different amplitude in the predicted gravity changes.Keywords: Undersea earthquake, GRACE observation, gravity change, dislocation model, slip distribution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 99183 High-Accuracy Satellite Image Analysis and Rapid DSM Extraction for Urban Environment Evaluations (Tripoli-Libya)
Authors: Abdunaser Abduelmula, Maria Luisa M. Bastos, José A. Gonçalves
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Modelling of the earth's surface and evaluation of urban environment, with 3D models, is an important research topic. New stereo capabilities of high resolution optical satellites images, such as the tri-stereo mode of Pleiades, combined with new image matching algorithms, are now available and can be applied in urban area analysis. In addition, photogrammetry software packages gained new, more efficient matching algorithms, such as SGM, as well as improved filters to deal with shadow areas, can achieve more dense and more precise results. This paper describes a comparison between 3D data extracted from tri-stereo and dual stereo satellite images, combined with pixel based matching and Wallis filter. The aim was to improve the accuracy of 3D models especially in urban areas, in order to assess if satellite images are appropriate for a rapid evaluation of urban environments. The results showed that 3D models achieved by Pleiades tri-stereo outperformed, both in terms of accuracy and detail, the result obtained from a Geo-eye pair. The assessment was made with reference digital surface models derived from high resolution aerial photography. This could mean that tri-stereo images can be successfully used for the proposed urban change analyses.
Keywords: 3D Models, Environment, Matching, Pleiades.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 268682 Jalovchat Gabbroic Intrusive of the Caucasus: Petrological Study, Geochemical Peculiarities and Formation Conditions
Authors: Giorgi Chichinadze, David Shengelia, Tamara Tsutsunava, Nikoloz Maisuradze, Giorgi Beridze
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The Jalovchat intrusive is built up of hornblende gabbros, gabbro-norites and norites. Within the intrusive hornblende-bearing gabbro-pegmatites are widespread. That is a coarse-grained rock with gigantic hornblende crystals. By its unusual composition, the Jalovchat intrusive has no analogue in the Caucasus. However, petrologically and geochemically, the intrusive rocks were studied insufficiently. For comprehensive investigations, the authors applied appropriate methodologies: Microscopic study of thin sections, petro- and geochemical analyses of the samples and also different petrogenic, rare and rare earth elements diagrams and spidergrams. Analytical study established that the Jalovchat intrusive by its composition corresponds mainly to the mid-ocean ridge basalts and according to geodynamic type belongs to the subduction type. In general, it is an anomalous phenomenon, as in the rocks of such composition crystallization of hornblende and especially of its gigantic crystals is atypical. The authors believe that the water-rich magma reservoir, which was necessary for the crystallization of gigantic hornblende crystals, appeared as a result of melting of water-rich mid-ocean ridge basaltic rocks during the subduction process in Bajocian time.
Keywords: Gabbroic intrusive, petrology, geochemistry, genesis, the Caucasus.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 80881 Botswana and Nation-Building Theory
Authors: Rowland M. Brucken
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This paper argues nation-building theories that prioritize democratic governance best explain the successful postindependence development of Botswana. Three main competing schools of thought exist regarding the sequencing of policies that should occur to re-build weakened or failed states. The first posits that economic development should receive foremost attention, while democratization and a binding sense of nationalism can wait. A second group of experts identified constructing a sense of nationalism among a populace is necessary first, so that the state receives popular legitimacy and obedience that are prerequisites for development. Botswana, though, transitioned into a multi-party democracy and prosperous open economy due to the utilization of traditional democratic structures, enlightened and accountable leadership, and an educated technocratic civil service. With these political foundations already in place when the discovery of diamonds occurred, the resulting revenues were spent wisely on projects that grew the economy, improved basic living standards, and attracted foreign investment. Thus democratization preceded, and therefore provided an accountable basis for, economic development that might otherwise have been squandered by greedy and isolated elites to the detriment of the greater population. Botswana was one of the poorest nations in the world at the time of its independence in 1966, with little infrastructure, a dependence on apartheid South Africa for trade, and a largely subsistence economy. Over the next thirty years, though, its economy grew the fastest of any nation in the world. The transparent and judicious use of diamond returns is only a partial explanation, as the government also pursued economic diversification, mass education, and rural development in response to public needs. As nation-building has become a project undertaken by nations and multilateral agencies such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Botswana may provide best practices that others should follow in attempting to reconstruct economically and politically unstable states.
Keywords: Botswana, democratization, economic development, nation-building.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 343780 Variability in Near-Surface Ultraviolet Radiation and Its Dependence on Atmospheric Parameters
Authors: Yusuff Idowu Moshood, Sanni Mohammed
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Natural radiations such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation sourced from sun are known to be the main causes of skin cancer, sunburn, eye damage, premature aging of skin and other skin related diseases. Its percentage of radiation reaching the earth populace and its impacts are not well known. Its variability in near-surface relating to its impacts on populace depends on some atmospheric parameters. Hence, this work was embarked on to determine the variability in near-surface UV radiation and its dependency on some atmospheric parameters at different time of the day in Offa, Nigeria. The variability was determined using the data obtained from meteorological garden, Science Laboratory Technology Department, Federal Polytechnic Offa, Nigeria. The data obtained were solar UV radiation, solar radiation, temperature, humidity and pressure at 30 minutes interval. Relationships were determined and correlations were derived using SPSS Pearson Correlation tool. The results showed a significant level of correlation with p-value of 0.01 and 0.05 levels. Thus, the results revealed some good relationships between the solar UV radiation and other atmospheric parameters with significance level less than p-value obtained. Inferentially, interdependent relationships were found to exist. Therefore, the nature of relationship obtained could be a yardstick for decision making in short term environmental planning on solar UV radiation depending of some atmospheric parameters within Offa locality.
Keywords: Correlation, inferential, radiation, yardstick.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 78279 QoS Improvement Using Intelligent Algorithm under Dynamic Tropical Weather for Earth-Space Satellite Applications
Authors: Joseph S. Ojo, Vincent A. Akpan, Oladayo G. Ajileye, Olalekan L, Ojo
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In this paper, the intelligent algorithm (IA) that is capable of adapting to dynamical tropical weather conditions is proposed based on fuzzy logic techniques. The IA effectively interacts with the quality of service (QoS) criteria irrespective of the dynamic tropical weather to achieve improvement in the satellite links. To achieve this, an adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) has been adopted. The algorithm is capable of interacting with the weather fluctuation to generate appropriate improvement to the satellite QoS for efficient services to the customers. 5-year (2012-2016) rainfall rate of one-minute integration time series data has been used to derive fading based on ITU-R P. 618-12 propagation models. The data are obtained from the measurement undertaken by the Communication Research Group (CRG), Physics Department, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. The rain attenuation and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were derived for frequency between Ku and V-band and propagation angle with respect to different transmitting power. The simulated results show a substantial reduction in SNR especially for application in the area of digital video broadcast-second generation coding modulation satellite networks.
Keywords: Fuzzy logic, intelligent algorithm, Nigeria, QoS, satellite applications, tropical weather.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 81878 A Theoretical Analysis for Modeling and Prediction of the Jet Engine Emissions
Authors: Jamal S. Yassin
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This paper is to formulate a mathematical model to predict the amounts of the emissions produced from the combustion process of the gas turbine unit of the jet engine. These emissions have bad impacts on the environment if they are out of standards, which cause real threats to all type of life on the earth. The amounts of the emissions from the gas turbine engine are functions to many operational and design factors. In landing-takeoff (LTO) these amounts are not the same as in taxi or cruise of the plane using jet engines, because of the difference in the activity period during these operating modes. These emissions can be affected by several physical and chemical variables, such as fuel type, fuel to air ratio or equivalence ratio, flame temperature, combustion pressure, in addition to some inlet conditions such as ambient temperature and air humidity. To study the influence of these variables on the amounts of these emissions during the combustion process in the gas turbine unit, a computer program has been developed by using the visual basic 6 software. Here, the analysis of the combustion process is carried out by considering it as a chemical reaction with shifting equilibrium to find the products of the combustion of the octane fuel, at different equivalence ratios, compressor pressure ratios (CPR) and combustion temperatures. The results obtained have shown that there is noticeable influence of the equivalence ratio, CPR, and the combustion temperature on the amounts of the main emissions which are considered pollutants, such as CO, CO2 and NO.
Keywords: Mathematical model, gas turbine unit, equivalence ratio, emissions, shifting equilibrium.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 73677 Certain Data Dimension Reduction Techniques for application with ANN based MCS for Study of High Energy Shower
Authors: Gitanjali Devi, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma, Pranayee Datta, Anjana Kakoti Mahanta
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Cosmic showers, from their places of origin in space, after entering earth generate secondary particles called Extensive Air Shower (EAS). Detection and analysis of EAS and similar High Energy Particle Showers involve a plethora of experimental setups with certain constraints for which soft-computational tools like Artificial Neural Network (ANN)s can be adopted. The optimality of ANN classifiers can be enhanced further by the use of Multiple Classifier System (MCS) and certain data - dimension reduction techniques. This work describes the performance of certain data dimension reduction techniques like Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Self Organizing Map (SOM) approximators for application with an MCS formed using Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN). The data inputs are obtained from an array of detectors placed in a circular arrangement resembling a practical detector grid which have a higher dimension and greater correlation among themselves. The PCA, ICA and SOM blocks reduce the correlation and generate a form suitable for real time practical applications for prediction of primary energy and location of EAS from density values captured using detectors in a circular grid.Keywords: EAS, Shower, Core, ANN, Location.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 160876 The Effect of Substitution of CaO/MgO and CaO/SrO on in vitro Bioactivity of Sol-Gel Derived Bioactive Glass
Authors: Zeinab Hajifathali, Moghan Amirhosseinian
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This study had two main aims: firstly, to determine how the individual substitution of CaO/MgO and CaO/SrO can affect the in vitro bioactivity of sol-gel derived substituted 58S bioactive glass (BG) and secondly to introduce a composition in the 60SiO2–(36-x)CaO–4P2O5–(x)MgO and 60SiO2–(36-x)CaO–4P2O5–(x)SrO quaternary systems (where x= 0, 5, 10 mol.%) with enhanced biocompatibility, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and more efficient antibacterial activity against MRSA bacteria. Results showed that both magnesium-substituted bioactive glasses (M-BGs) and strontium- substituted bioactive glasses (S-BGs) retarded the Hydroxyapatite (HA) formation. Meanwhile, magnesium had more pronounced effect. The 3-(4, 5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and ALP assays revealed that the presence of moderate amount (5 mol%) of Mg and Sr had a stimulating effect on increasing of both proliferation and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Live dead and Dapi/actin staining revealed both substitution of CaO/MgO and CaO/SrO resulted in more biocompatibility and stimulation potential of the MC3T3 cells compared with control. Taken together, among all of the synthesized magnesium substituted (MBGs) and strontium substituted (SBGs), the sample 58- BG with 5 mol% CaO/MgO substitution (BG-5M) was considered as a multifunctional biomaterial in bone tissue regeneration field with enhanced biocompatibility, ALP activity as well as the highest antibacterial efficiency against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.
Keywords: Apatite, alkaline earth, bioactivity, biomedical applications, sol-gel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 84275 Reliability and Cost Focused Optimization Approach for a Communication Satellite Payload Redundancy Allocation Problem
Authors: Mehmet Nefes, Selman Demirel, Hasan H. Ertok, Cenk Sen
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A typical reliability engineering problem regarding communication satellites has been considered to determine redundancy allocation scheme of power amplifiers within payload transponder module, whose dominant function is to amplify power levels of the received signals from the Earth, through maximizing reliability against mass, power, and other technical limitations. Adding each redundant power amplifier component increases not only reliability but also hardware, testing, and launch cost of a satellite. This study investigates a multi-objective approach used in order to solve Redundancy Allocation Problem (RAP) for a communication satellite payload transponder, focusing on design cost due to redundancy and reliability factors. The main purpose is to find the optimum power amplifier redundancy configuration satisfying reliability and capacity thresholds simultaneously instead of analyzing respectively or independently. A mathematical model and calculation approach are instituted including objective function definitions, and then, the problem is solved analytically with different input parameters in MATLAB environment. Example results showed that payload capacity and failure rate of power amplifiers have remarkable effects on the solution and also processing time.
Keywords: Communication satellite payload, multi-objective optimization, redundancy allocation problem, reliability, transponder.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 119274 Two-Stage Launch Vehicle Trajectory Modeling for Low Earth Orbit Applications
Authors: Assem M. F. Sallam, Ah. El-S. Makled
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This paper presents a study on the trajectory of a two stage launch vehicle. The study includes dynamic responses of motion parameters as well as the variation of angles affecting the orientation of the launch vehicle (LV). LV dynamic characteristics including state vector variation with corresponding altitude and velocity for the different LV stages separation, as well as the angle of attack and flight path angles are also discussed. A flight trajectory study for the drop zone of first stage and the jettisoning of fairing are introduced in the mathematical modeling to study their effect. To increase the accuracy of the LV model, atmospheric model is used taking into consideration geographical location and the values of solar flux related to the date and time of launch, accurate atmospheric model leads to enhancement of the calculation of Mach number, which affects the drag force over the LV. The mathematical model is implemented on MATLAB based software (Simulink). The real available experimental data are compared with results obtained from the theoretical computation model. The comparison shows good agreement, which proves the validity of the developed simulation model; the maximum error noticed was generally less than 10%, which is a result that can lead to future works and enhancement to decrease this level of error.
Keywords: Launch vehicle modeling, launch vehicle trajectory, mathematical modeling, MATLAB-Simulink.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 330073 The Islamic Element of Al-‘Adl in Critical Thinking: the Perception of Muslim Engineering Undergraduates in Malaysia
Authors: Mohd Nuri Al-Amin Endut, Wan Suhaimi Wan Abdullah, Zulqarnain Abu Bakar
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The element of justice or al-‘adl in the context of Islamic critical thinking deals with the notion of justice in a thinking process which critically rationalizes the truth in a fair and objective manner with no irrelevant interference that can jeopardize a sound judgment. This Islamic axiological element is vital in technological decision making as it addresses the issues of religious values and ethics that are primarily set to fulfill the purpose of human life on earth. The main objective of this study was to examine and analyze the perception of Muslim engineering students in Malaysian higher education institutions towards the concept of al-‘adl as an essential element of Islamic critical thinking. The study employed mixed methods approach that comprises data collection from the questionnaire survey and the interview responses. A total of 557 Muslim engineering undergraduates from six Malaysian universities participated in the study. The study generally indicated that Muslim engineering undergraduates in the higher institutions have rather good comprehension and consciousness for al-‘adl with a slight awareness on the importance of objective thinking. Nonetheless there were a few items on the concept that have implied a comparatively low perception on the rational justice in Islam as the means to grasp the ultimate truth.Keywords: Engineering education, Islamic critical thinking, rational justice, perception, tertiary education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2440