Search results for: protection of wetlands.

Authors: Y. Ates, A. R. Boynuegri, M. Uzunoglu, A. Karakas

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The recent interest in alternative and renewable energy systems results in increased installed capacity ratio of such systems in total energy production of the world. Specifically, Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) draw significant attention among possible alternative energy options, recently. On the contrary of the positive points of penetrating WECS in all over the world in terms of environment protection, energy independence of the countries, etc., there are significant problems to be solved for the grid connection of large scale WECS. The reactive power regulation, voltage variation suppression, etc. can be presented as major issues to be considered in this regard. Thus, this paper evaluates the application of a Static VAr Compensator (SVC) unit for the reactive power regulation and operation continuity of WECS during a fault condition. The system is modeled employing the IEEE 13 node test system. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the system performance with an overall grid simulation model close to real grid systems. The overall simulation model is developed in MATLAB/Simulink/SimPowerSystems® environments and the obtained results effectively match the target of the provided study.

Keywords: IEEE 13 bus distribution system, reactive power regulation, static VAr compensator, wind energy conversion system.

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Authors: Ghzlan Mahmoud Abdel Aziz

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This case study aims to identify the intrastate conflicts between the nation state and armed groups. Nowadays, most wars weaken states against armed groups. Thus, it is very important to negotiate with such groups in order to reinforce the law for the protection of victims. These armed groups are the cause of conflicts and they are related with many of humanitarian issues that result out of conflicts. In this age of rivalry; terrorists, insurgents, or transnational criminal parties have surfaced to the top as a reaction to these armed groups in an effort to set up a new world order. Moreover, the intra state conflicts became increasingly treacherous than the interstate conflicts, particularly when nation state systems deal with armed groups which try to influence the state. The unexpected upraising of the Arab Spring during 2011 in parts of the Middle East and North Africa formed various patterns of conflicts. The events of the Arab Spring resulted in current and long term change across the region. Significant modifications in the level, strength and period of armed conflict around the world have been made. Egypt was in the center of these events. It has fought back the armed groups under the name of terrorism and spread common disorder and violence among civilians. On this note, this study focuses on the problem of the transformation in the methods of organized violence within one state rather than between two state or more and analyzes the objectives, strategies, and internal composition of armed groups and the environments that foster them, with a focus on the Egyptian case.

Keywords: Armed groups, conflicts, Egyptian armed forces, intrastate conflicts.

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Authors: Iqbal Hossain, Monzur Alam Imteaz, Mohammed Iqbal Hossain

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Estimation of stormwater pollutants is a pre-requisite for the protection and improvement of the aquatic environment and for appropriate management options. The usual practice for the stormwater quality prediction is performed through water quality modeling. However, the accuracy of the prediction by the models depends on the proper estimation of model parameters. This paper presents the estimation of model parameters for a catchment water quality model developed for the continuous simulation of stormwater pollutants from a catchment to the catchment outlet. The model is capable of simulating the accumulation and transportation of the stormwater pollutants; suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) from a particular catchment. Rainfall and water quality data were collected for the Hotham Creek Catchment (HTCC), Gold Coast, Australia. Runoff calculations from the developed model were compared with the calculated discharges from the widely used hydrological models, WBNM and DRAINS. Based on the measured water quality data, model water quality parameters were calibrated for the above-mentioned catchment. The calibrated parameters are expected to be helpful for the best management practices (BMPs) of the region. Sensitivity analyses of the estimated parameters were performed to assess the impacts of the model parameters on overall model estimations of runoff water quality.

Keywords: Calibration, Model Parameters, Suspended Solids, TotalNitrogen, Total Phosphorus.

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Authors: Mohammad Syuhaimi Ab-Rahman, Boonchuan Ng, Kasmiran Jumari

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This paper presented a MATLAB-based system named Smart Access Network Testing, Analyzing and Database (SANTAD), purposely for in-service transmission surveillance and self restoration against fiber fault in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) access network. The developed program will be installed with optical line terminal (OLT) at central office (CO) to monitor the status and detect any fiber fault that occurs in FTTH downwardly from CO towards residential customer locations. SANTAD is interfaced with optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) to accumulate every network testing result to be displayed on a single computer screen for further analysis. This program will identify and present the parameters of each optical fiber line such as the line's status either in working or nonworking condition, magnitude of decreasing at each point, failure location, and other details as shown in the OTDR's screen. The failure status will be delivered to field engineers for promptly actions, meanwhile the failure line will be diverted to protection line to ensure the traffic flow continuously. This approach has a bright prospect to improve the survivability and reliability as well as increase the efficiency and monitoring capabilities in FTTH.

Keywords: MATLAB, SANTAD, in-service transmission surveillance, self restoration, fiber fault, FTTH

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Authors: Lukáš Plošek, Jaroslav Hynšt, Jaroslav Záhora, Jakub Elbl, Antonín Kintl, Ivana Charousová, Silvia Kovácsová

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Compost can influence soil fertility and plant health. At the same time compost can play an important role in the nitrogen cycle and it can influence leaching of mineral nitrogen from soil to underground water.

This paper deals with the influence of compost addition and mineral nitrogen fertilizer on leaching of mineral nitrogen, nitrogen availability in microbial biomass and plant biomass production in the lysimetric experiment. Twenty one lysimeters were filed with topsoil and subsoil collected in the area of protection zone of underground source of drinking water - Březová nad Svitavou. The highest leaching of mineral nitrogen was detected in the variant fertilized only mineral nitrogen fertilizer (624.58 mg m^-2), the lowest leaching was recorded in the variant with high addition of compost (315.51 mg m^-2). On the other hand, losses of mineral nitrogen are not in connection with the losses of available form of nitrogen in microbial biomass. Because lost of mineral nitrogen was detected in variant with the least change in the availability of N in microbial biomass.

The leaching of mineral nitrogen, yields as well as the results concerning nitrogen availability from the first year of long term experiment suggest that compost can positive influence the leaching of nitrogen into underground water.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Compost, Biomass production, Lysimeter.

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Authors: Tarek M. Mahmoud

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Skin color can provide a useful and robust cue for human-related image analysis, such as face detection, pornographic image filtering, hand detection and tracking, people retrieval in databases and Internet, etc. The major problem of such kinds of skin color detection algorithms is that it is time consuming and hence cannot be applied to a real time system. To overcome this problem, we introduce a new fast technique for skin detection which can be applied in a real time system. In this technique, instead of testing each image pixel to label it as skin or non-skin (as in classic techniques), we skip a set of pixels. The reason of the skipping process is the high probability that neighbors of the skin color pixels are also skin pixels, especially in adult images and vise versa. The proposed method can rapidly detect skin and non-skin color pixels, which in turn dramatically reduce the CPU time required for the protection process. Since many fast detection techniques are based on image resizing, we apply our proposed pixel skipping technique with image resizing to obtain better results. The performance evaluation of the proposed skipping and hybrid techniques in terms of the measured CPU time is presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve better result than the relevant classic method.

Keywords: Adult images filtering, image resizing, skin color detection, YcbCr color space.

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Authors: Petra Wächter

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A comprehensive discussion of feasible strategies for sustainable energy supply is urgently needed to achieve a turnaround of the current energy situation. The necessary fundamentals required for the development of a long term energy vision are lacking to a great extent due to the absence of reasonable long term scenarios that fulfill the requirements of climate protection and sustainable energy use. The contribution of the study is based on a search for sustainable energy paths in the long run for Austria. The analysis makes use of secondary data predominantly. The measures developed to avoid CO2 emissions and other ecological risk factors vary to a great extent among all economic sectors. This is shown by the calculation of CO2 cost of abatement curves. In this study it is demonstrated that the most effective technical measures with the lowest CO2 abatement costs yield solutions to the current energy problems. Various scenarios are presented concerning the question how the technological and environmental options for a sustainable energy system for Austria could look like in the long run. It is shown how sustainable energy can be supplied even with today-s technological knowledge and options available. The scenarios developed include an evaluation of the economic costs and ecological impacts. The results are not only applicable to Austria but demonstrate feasible and cost efficient ways towards a sustainable future.

Keywords: Cost of CO2 Abatement, Energy Economics, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Sustainable Energy and Development.

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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: Shin-Jer Yang, Kai-Tai Yang

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In response to a changing world and the fast growth of the Internet, more and more enterprises are replacing web-based services with cloud-based ones. Multi-tenancy technology is becoming more important especially with Software as a Service (SaaS). This in turn leads to a greater focus on the application of Identity and Access Management (IAM). Conventional Near-Field Communication (NFC) based verification relies on a computer browser and a card reader to access an NFC tag. This type of verification does not support mobile device login and user-based access management functions. This study designs an NFC-based third-party cloud identity and access management scheme (NFC-IAM) addressing this shortcoming. Data from simulation tests analyzed with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) suggest that the NFC-IAM not only takes less time in identity identification but also cuts time by 80% in terms of two-factor authentication and improves verification accuracy to 99.9% or better. In functional performance analyses, NFC-IAM performed better in salability and portability. The NFC-IAM App (Application Software) and back-end system to be developed and deployed in mobile device are to support IAM features and also offers users a more user-friendly experience and stronger security protection. In the future, our NFC-IAM can be employed to different environments including identification for mobile payment systems, permission management for remote equipment monitoring, among other applications.

Keywords: Cloud service, multi-tenancy, NFC, IAM, mobile device.

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Authors: M. Zellagui, A. Chaghi

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This paper presents the impact study of GTO Controlled Series Capacitor (GCSC) parameters on measured impedance (Zseen) by MHO distance relays for single transmission line high voltage 220 kV in the presence of single phase to earth fault with fault resistance (RF). The study deals with a 220 kV single electrical transmission line of Eastern Algerian transmission networks at Group Sonelgaz (Algerian Company of Electrical and Gas) compensated by series Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) i.e. GCSC connected at midpoint of the transmission line. The transmitted active and reactive powers are controlled by three GCSC-s. The effects of maximum reactive power injected as well as injected maximum voltage by GCSC on distance relays measured impedance is treated. The simulations results investigate the effects of GCSC injected parameters: variable reactance (XGCSC), variable voltage (VGCSC) and reactive power injected (QGCSC) on measured resistance and reactance in the presence of earth fault with resistance fault varied between 5 to 50 Ω for three cases study.

Keywords: GCSC Parameters, Transmission line, Earth fault, Symmetrical components, Distance protection, Measured impedance.

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Authors: V.S.Kale, S.R.Bhide, P.P.Bedekar, G.V.K.Mohan

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The protection of parallel transmission lines has been a challenging task due to mutual coupling between the adjacent circuits of the line. This paper presents a novel scheme for detection and classification of faults on parallel transmission lines. The proposed approach uses combination of wavelet transform and neural network, to solve the problem. While wavelet transform is a powerful mathematical tool which can be employed as a fast and very effective means of analyzing power system transient signals, artificial neural network has a ability to classify non-linear relationship between measured signals by identifying different patterns of the associated signals. The proposed algorithm consists of time-frequency analysis of fault generated transients using wavelet transform, followed by pattern recognition using artificial neural network to identify the type of the fault. MATLAB/Simulink is used to generate fault signals and verify the correctness of the algorithm. The adaptive discrimination scheme is tested by simulating different types of fault and varying fault resistance, fault location and fault inception time, on a given power system model. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme for fault diagnosis is able to classify all the faults on the parallel transmission line rapidly and correctly.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, fault detection and classification, parallel transmission lines, wavelet transform.

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Authors: Kambiz Tahvildari, Shakila ila Motamedi

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Presently and in line with the United Nations (EPA), human thinking system has shifted towards clean fuels so as to maintain a cleaner environment and to save our planet earth. One of the most successful studies in order to achieve new energies includes the use of animal wastes and their organic residues, and the result of these researches has been represented in the form of very simple and cheap methods called biogas technology. Biogas technology has developed a lot in the recent decades; its reason is the high cost of fossil fuels and the greater attention of countries to the environmental pollutions due to the consumption of this kind of fuels. IRAN is ready for the optimized application of renewable energies, having much enriched resources of this kind of energies; so a special place could be considered for it when making programs. The purpose of biogas technology is the recovery of energy and finally the protection of the environment, which is much appropriate for the third world farmers with respect to their technical abilities and economic potentials. Studies show that the production and consumption of biogas is appropriate and economic in IRAN, because of the high amount of waste in the agriculture sector, the significant amount of animal and human excrement production, the great volume of garbage produced and the most important the specific social, climatic and agricultural conditions in IRAN, in order to proceed towards the reduction of pollution due to the use of fossil fuels.

Keywords: Agriculture, Biogas, Energy, Environment.

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Authors: Arunima Shukla, Vikas Almadi, Devesh Jaiswal, Sunil Saini, Bhusan S. Patil

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Lightning protection consists of three main parts; mainly air termination system, down conductor, and earth termination system. Earth termination system is the most important part as earth is the sink and source of charges. Therefore, even when the charges are captured and delivered to the ground, and an easy path is not provided to the charges, earth termination system would lead to problems. Soil has significantly different resistivities ranging from 10 Ωm for wet organic soil to 10000 Ωm for bedrock. Different methods have been discussed and used conventionally such as deep-ground-well method and altering the length of the rod. Those methods are not considered economical. Therefore, it was a general practice to use charcoal along with salt to reduce the soil resistivity. Bentonite is worldwide acceptable material, that had led our interest towards study of bentonite at first. It was concluded that bentonite is a clay which is non-corrosive, environment friendly. Whereas bentonite is suitable only when there is moisture present in the soil, as in the absence of moisture, cracks will appear on the surface which will provide an open passage to the air, resulting into increase in the resistivity. Furthermore, bentonite without moisture does not have enough bonding property, moisture retention, conductivity, and non-leachability. Therefore, bentonite was used along with the other backfill material to overcome the dependency of bentonite on moisture. Different experiments were performed to get the best ratio of bentonite and carbon backfill. It was concluded that properties will highly depend on the quantity of bentonite and carbon-based backfill material.

Keywords: Backfill material, bentonite, conducting soil, grounding material, low resistivity.

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Authors: J. Chatthong, W. Boonchouytan, R. Burapa

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The purpose of study was to design and construction the semi-automatic sliced ginger machine for reduce production times in sheet and slice ginger procedure furthermore, reduced amount of labor of slides and cutting method. Take consider into clean and safety of workers and consumers. The principle of machines, used 1 horsepower motor, rotation speed of sliced blade 967 rpm, the diameter of sliced dish 310 mm, consists of 2 blades for sheet cutting ginger and the power from motor which transfer to rotate the sliced blade roller, rotation speed 440 rpm. The slice cutter roller was sliced ginger from sheet ginger to line ginger. The conveyer could adjustment level of motors, used to the beginning area that sheet ginger was transference to the roller for sheet and sliced cutting in next process. The cover of sliced cutting had channel for 1 tuber of ginger. The semi-automatic sliced ginger machine could produced sheet ginger 81.8 kg/h (6.2 times of labor) and line ginger 17.9 kg/h (2.5 times of labor) compare with, labor work could produced sheet ginger 13.2 kg/h and line ginger 7.1 kg/h, and when timekeeper, the total times of semi auto machine 30.86 kg/h and labor 4.6 kg/h, there for the semi auto machine was 6.7 times of labor. The semiautomatic sliced ginger machine convenient, easy for use and maintain, in addition to reduce fatigue of body and seriousness from works; must be used high skill, and protection accident in slicing procedure. Beside, machine could used with other vegetables for example potato, carrot .etc

Keywords: Sliced Machine, Sliced Ginger, Line Ginger

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Authors: W. E. Igwegbe, B. C. Okoro, J. C. Osuagwu

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The study assessed the effectiveness of Pawpaw (Carica papaya) wood in reducing the concentrations of heavy metals in wastewater acting as a bio-sorbent. The following heavy metals were considered; Zinc, Cadmium, Lead, Copper, Iron, Selenium, Nickel and Manganese. The physiochemical properties of Carica papaya stem were studied. The experimental sample was sourced from the trunk of a felled matured pawpaw tree. Wastewater for experimental use was prepared by dissolving soil samples collected from a dump site at Owerri, Imo state of Nigeria in water. The concentration of each metal remaining in solution as residual metal after bio-sorption was determined using Atomic absorption Spectrometer. The effects of pH and initial heavy metal concentration were studied in a batch reactor. The results of Spectrometer test showed that there were different functional groups detected in the Carica papaya stem biomass. There was increase in metal removal as the pH increased for all the metals considered except for Nickel and Manganese. Optimum bio-sorption occurred at pH 5.9 with 5g/100ml solution of bio-sorbent. The results of the study showed that the treated wastewater is fit for irrigation purpose based on Canada wastewater quality guideline for the protection of Agricultural standard. This approach thus provides a cost effective and environmentally friendly option for treating wastewater.

Keywords: Biomass, bio-sorption, Carica papaya, heavy metal, wastewater.

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Authors: A. Irudaya Veni Mary, M. Victor Louis Anthuvan, P. Christie, A. Indira

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In India, social enterprises are working to create social value in various fields including education; health; women and child development; environment protection and community development. Although social enterprises have brought about tremendous changes in the lives of beneficiaries, the importance of their works is not understood thoroughly. One of the ways to prove themselves is to measure the impact, which in recent times has received much attention. This paper focuses on the study of social value created by the social enterprises in the field of community development. It also aims to put forth a research tool for measuring the social value created by the social enterprises in the field of community development. A close-ended interview schedule was prepared to measure the social value creation and it was administered among 60 beneficiaries of two social enterprises who work in the field of community development. The study results show that the social enterprises have brought four types of impact in the life of their beneficiaries; economic impact, social impact, political impact and cultural impact. This study is limited to the social enterprises those who work towards community development. This empirical finding will enable the reader to understand various types of social value created by the social enterprises working in the field of community development. This study will also serve as guide for social enterprises in community development activities to measure their impact and thereby improve their operation towards the betterment of the society. This paper is derived from an empirical research carried out to describe the different types of social value created by the social enterprises in India.

Keywords: Social enterprise, social entrepreneurs, social impact, social value, tool for social impact measurement.

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Authors: Fardin Boustani, M Hojati , S Ebrahimzadeh

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The Kowsar dam supply water for different usages such as drinking, industrial, agricultural and aquaculture farms usages and located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram are the most important and populated cities in this area. The study was undertaken to assess the status of water quality in the urban areas of the Kowsar dam. A total of 28 water samples were collected from 6 stations on surface water and 1 station from groundwater on the watershed of the Kowsar dam. All the samples were analyzed for Ni concentration using standard procedures. The results were compared with other national and international standards. Among the analyzed samples, as the maximum value of Nickel (0.01 mg/L) was observed on the station 2 at the autumn 2010, all the samples analyzed were within the maximum admissible limits by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EU, WHO and the Iranian. In general results of the present study have shown that a Ni mean value of station No. 2 with 0.006 mg/L is higher than the other stations. Ni level of all samples and stations have had normal values and this is an indication of pollution potential and hazards because of human activity and waste water of towns in the areas, which can effect on human health implications in future. This research, therefore, recommends the government and other responsible authorities to take suitable improving measures in the Kowsar dam watersheds.

Keywords: Kowsar dam, Drinking water quality, Nickel, Maximum admissible limit, World health organization

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Authors: Souvik Bhattacharyya, Gautam Sanyal

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In recent years, everything is trending toward digitalization and with the rapid development of the Internet technologies, digital media needs to be transmitted conveniently over the network. Attacks, misuse or unauthorized access of information is of great concern today which makes the protection of documents through digital media a priority problem. This urges us to devise new data hiding techniques to protect and secure the data of vital significance. In this respect, steganography often comes to the fore as a tool for hiding information. Steganography is a process that involves hiding a message in an appropriate carrier like image or audio. It is of Greek origin and means "covered or hidden writing". The goal of steganography is covert communication. Here the carrier can be sent to a receiver without any one except the authenticated receiver only knows existence of the information. Considerable amount of work has been carried out by different researchers on steganography. In this work the authors propose a novel Steganographic method for hiding information within the spatial domain of the gray scale image. The proposed approach works by selecting the embedding pixels using some mathematical function and then finds the 8 neighborhood of the each selected pixel and map each bit of the secret message in each of the neighbor pixel coordinate position in a specified manner. Before embedding a checking has been done to find out whether the selected pixel or its neighbor lies at the boundary of the image or not. This solution is independent of the nature of the data to be hidden and produces a stego image with minimum degradation.

Keywords: Cover Image, LSB, Pixel Coordinate Position (PCP), Stego Image.

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Authors: N. Gigauri, V. Kukhalashvili, A. Surmava, L. Intskirveli, L. Gverdtsiteli

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Tbilisi, a large city of the South Caucasus, is a junction point connecting Asia and Europe, Russia and republics of the Asia Minor. Over the last years, its atmosphere has been experienced an increasing anthropogenic load. Numerical modeling method is used for study of Tbilisi atmospheric air pollution. By means of 3D non-linear non-steady numerical model a peculiarity of city atmosphere pollution is investigated during background western light air. Dust concentration spatial and time changes are determined. There are identified the zones of high, average and less pollution, dust accumulation areas, transfer directions etc. By numerical modeling, there is shown that the process of air pollution by the dust proceeds in four stages, and they depend on the intensity of motor traffic, the micro-relief of the city, and the location of city mains. In the interval of time 06:00-09:00 the intensive growth, 09:00-15:00 a constancy or weak decrease, 18:00-21:00 an increase, and from 21:00 to 06:00 a reduction of the dust concentrations take place. The highly polluted areas are located in the vicinity of the city center and at some peripherical territories of the city, where the maximum dust concentration at 9PM is equal to 2 maximum allowable concentrations. The similar investigations conducted in case of various meteorological situations will enable us to compile the map of background urban pollution and to elaborate practical measures for ambient air protection.

Keywords: Numerical modelling, source of pollution, dust propagation, western light air.

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Authors: A. Ramachandran

Abstract:

Nowadays there is a growing environmental concern and the business communities have slowly started recognising environmental protection and sustainable utilization of natural resources into their marketing strategies. This paper discusses the various Ecolabeling and Certification Systems developed world over to regulate and introduce Fair Trade in Ornamental Fish Industry. Ecolabeling and green certification are considered as part of these strategies implemented partly out of compulsion from the National and International Regulatory Bodies and Environmental Movements. All the major markets of ornamental fishes like European Union, USA and Japan have started putting restrictions on the trade to impose ecolabeling as a non tariff barrier like the one imposed on seafood and aqua cultured products. A review was done on the available Ecolabeling and Green Certification Schemes available at local, national and international levels for fisheries including aquaculture and ornamental fish trade and to examine the success and constraints faced by these schemes during its implementation. The primary downside of certification is the multiplicity of ecolabels and cost incurred by applicants for certification, costs which may in turn be passed on to consumers. The studies reveal serious inadequacies in a number of ecolabels and cast doubt on their overall contribution to effective fisheries management and sustainability. The paper also discusses the inititive taken in India to develop guidelines for Green Certification of Fresh water ornamental fishes.

Keywords: Ecolabeling in fisheries, Fair trade, Green Certification, Sustainable Ornamental fish trade.

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Authors: Bingchun Liu, Pei-Chann Chang, Natasha Huang, Dun Li

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Machine Learning and Data Mining are the two important tools for extracting useful information and knowledge from large datasets. In machine learning, classification is a wildly used technique to predict qualitative variables and is generally preferred over regression from an operational point of view. Due to the enormous increase in air pollution in various countries especially China, Air Quality Classification has become one of the most important topics in air quality research and modelling. This study aims at introducing a hybrid classification model based on information theory and Support Vector Machine (SVM) using the air quality data of four cities in China namely Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin from Jan 1, 2014 to April 30, 2016. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has classified the daily air quality into 6 levels namely Serious Pollution, Severe Pollution, Moderate Pollution, Light Pollution, Good and Excellent based on their respective Air Quality Index (AQI) values. Using the information theory, information gain (IG) is calculated and feature selection is done for both categorical features and continuous numeric features. Then SVM Machine Learning algorithm is implemented on the selected features with cross-validation. The final evaluation reveals that the IG and SVM hybrid model performs better than SVM (alone), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN) models in terms of accuracy as well as complexity.

Keywords: Machine learning, air quality classification, air quality index, information gain, support vector machine, cross-validation.

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Authors: Mamidi Ramakrishna Rao

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Doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) due to their advantages like speed variation and four-quadrant operation, find its application in wind turbines. DFIG besides supplying power to the grid has to support reactive power (kvar) under grid voltage variations, should contribute minimum fault current during faults, have high efficiency, minimum weight, adequate rotor protection during crow-bar-operation from +20% to -20% of rated speed.  To achieve the optimum performance, a good electromagnetic design of DFIG is required. In this paper, a simple and heuristic global optimization – Differential Evolution has been used. Variables considered are lamination details such as slot dimensions, stack diameters, air gap length, and generator stator and rotor stack length. Two operating conditions have been considered - voltage and speed variations. Constraints included were reactive power supplied to the grid and limiting fault current and torque. The optimization has been executed separately for three objective functions - maximum efficiency, weight reduction, and grid fault stator currents. Subsequent calculations led to the conclusion that designs determined through differential evolution help in determining an optimum electrical design for each objective function.

Keywords: Design optimization, performance, doubly fed induction generators, DFIG, differential evolution.

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Authors: Woo Young Jung, Min Ho Kwon, Bu Seog Ju

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A failure of the non-structural component can cause  significant damages in critical facilities such as nuclear power plants  and hospitals. Historically, it was reported that the damage from the  leakage of sprinkler systems, resulted in the shutdown of hospitals for  several weeks by the 1971 San Fernando and 1994 North Ridge  earthquakes. In most cases, water leakages were observed at the cross  joints, sprinkler heads, and T-joint connections in piping systems  during and after the seismic events. Hence, the primary objective of  this study was to understand the seismic performance of T-joint  connections and to develop an analytical Finite Element (FE) model  for the T-joint systems of 2-inch fire protection piping system in  hospitals subjected to seismic ground motions. In order to evaluate the  FE models of the piping systems using OpenSees, two types of  materials were used: 1) Steel02 materials and 2) Pinching4 materials.  Results of the current study revealed that the nonlinear  moment-rotation FE models for the threaded T-joint reconciled well  with the experimental results in both FE material models. However,  the system-level fragility determined from multiple nonlinear time  history analyses at the threaded T-joint was slightly different. The  system-level fragility at the T-joint, determined by Pinching4 material  was more conservative than that of using Steel02 material in the piping  system.

Keywords: Fragility, T-joint, Piping, Leakage, Sprinkler.

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Authors: Joshua N. Edokpayi, John O. Odiyo, Patience P. Shikwambana

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Water is a very rare natural resource in South Africa. Ga-Selati River is used for both domestic and industrial purposes. This study was carried out in order to assess the quality of Ga-Selati River in a mining area of Limpopo Province-Phalaborwa. The pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were determined using a Crinson multimeter while turbidity was measured using a Labcon Turbidimeter. The concentrations of Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Pb were analysed in triplicate using a Varian 520 flame atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) supplied by PerkinElmer, after acid digestion with nitric acid in a fume cupboard. The average pH of the river from eight different sampling sites was 8.00 and 9.38 in wet and dry season respectively. Higher EC values were determined in the dry season (138.7 mS/m) than in the wet season (96.93 mS/m). Similarly, TDS values were higher in dry (929.29 mg/L) than in the wet season (640.72 mg/L) season. These values exceeded the recommended guideline of South Africa Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) for domestic water use (70 mS/m) and that of the World Health Organization (WHO) (600 mS/m), respectively. Turbidity varied between 1.78-5.20 and 0.95-2.37 NTU in both wet and dry seasons. Total hardness of 312.50 mg/L and 297.75 mg/L as the concentration of CaCO₃ was computed for the river in both the wet and the dry seasons and the river water was categorised as very hard. Mean concentration of the metals studied in both the wet and the dry seasons are: Na (94.06 mg/L and 196.3 mg/L), K (11.79 mg/L and 13.62 mg/L), Ca (45.60 mg/L and 41.30 mg/L), Mg (48.41 mg/L and 44.71 mg/L), Al (0.31 mg/L and 0.38 mg/L), Cd (0.01 mg/L and 0.01 mg/L), Cr (0.02 mg/L and 0.09 mg/L), Pb (0.05 mg/L and 0.06 mg/L), Mn (0.31 mg/L and 0.11 mg/L) and Fe (0.76 mg/L and 0.69 mg/L). Results from this study reveal that most of the metals were present in concentrations higher than the recommended guidelines of DWAF and WHO for domestic use and the protection of aquatic life.

Keywords: Contamination, mining activities, surface water, trace metals.

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Authors: Amir Reza Talaghat

Abstract:

Since 2015, a new approach and policy regarding energy resources protection and using renewable energies has been started in Iran which was developing new projects. Investigating about the feasibility study of these new projects helped to figure out five steps to prepare an executive feasibility study of the concerned projects, which are proper site selections, authorizations, design and simulation, economic study and programming, respectively. The results were interesting and essential for decision makers and investors to start implementing of these projects in reliable condition. The research is obtained through collection and study of the project's documents as well as recalculation to review conformity of the results with GIS data and the technical information of the bidders. In this paper, it is attempted to describe the result of the performed research by describing the five steps as an executive methodology, for preparing a feasible study of installing a 10 MW – solar farm project. The corresponding results of the research also help decision makers to start similar projects is explained in this paper as follows: selecting the best location for the concerned PV plant, reliable and safe conditions for investment and the required authorizations to start implementing the solar farm project in the concerned region, selecting suitable component to achieve the best possible performance for the plant, economic profit of the investment, proper programming to implement the project on time.

Keywords: Solar farm, solar energy, execution of PV power plant, PV power plant, feasibility study.

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Authors: Fardin Boustani

Abstract:

The Kowsar dam supply water for different usages such as drinking, industrial, agricultural and aquaculture farms usages and located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram are the most important and populated cities in this area. The study was undertaken to assess the status of water quality in the urban areas of the Kowsar dam. A total of 28 water samples were collected from 6 stations on surface water and 1 station from groundwater on the watershed of the Kowsar dam. All the samples were analyzed for Cd concentration using standard procedures. The results were compared with other national and international standards. Among the analyzed samples, as the maximum value of cadmium (1.131 μg/L) was observed on the station 2 at the winter 2009, all the samples analyzed were within the maximum admissible limits by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EU, WHO, New Zealand , Australian, Iranian, and the Indian standards. In general results of the present study have shown that Cd mean values of stations No. 4, 1 and 2 with 0.5135, 0.0.4733 and 0.4573 μg/L respectively are higher than the other stations . Although Cd level of all samples and stations have had normal values but this is an indication of pollution potential and hazards because of human activity and waste water of towns in the areas, which can effect on human health implications in future. This research, therefore, recommends the government and other responsible authorities to take suitable improving measures in the Kowsar dam watershed-s.

Keywords: Kowsar dam, Drinking water quality, Cadmium, Maximum admissible limit, World health organization,

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Authors: Zs. Csanádi, A. Szabó Nagy, J. Szabó, J. Erdős

Abstract:

Atmospheric aerosols have several important environmental impacts and health effects in point of air quality. Monitoring the PM10-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) could have important environmental significance and health protection aspects. Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is the most relevant indicator of these PAH compounds. In Hungary, the Hungarian Air Quality Network provides air quality monitoring data for several air pollutants including BaP, but these data show only the annual mean concentrations and maximum values. Seasonal variation of BaP concentrations comparing the heating and non-heating periods could have important role and difference as well. For this reason, the main objective of this study was to assess the annual concentration and seasonal variation of BaP associated with PM10 in the ambient air of Northwestern Hungary seven different sampling sites (six urban and one rural) in the sampling period of 2008–2013. A total of 1475 PM10 aerosol samples were collected in the different sampling sites and analyzed for BaP by gas chromatography method. The BaP concentrations ranged from undetected to 8 ng/m3 with the mean value range of 0.50-0.96 ng/m3 referring to all sampling sites. Relatively higher concentrations of BaP were detected in samples collected in each sampling site in the heating seasons compared with non-heating periods. The annual mean BaP concentrations were comparable with the published data of the other Hungarian sites.

Keywords: Air quality, benzo(a)pyrene, PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

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Authors: Abimbola Motunrayo Folami, Ibironke Titilayo Enitan, Feroz Mohomed Swalaha

Abstract:

Water is a vital resource that is important in ensuring the growth and development of any country. To sustain the basic human needs and the demands for agriculture, industry, conservational and ecosystem, enough quality and quantity water is needed. Contamination of water resources is now a global and public health concern. Hence, this study assessed the water quality of Ndawuse River by measuring the physicochemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations of the river using standard methods. In total, 16 surface water samples were obtained from five locations along the river, from upstream to downstream as well as samples from the dumpsite. The results obtained were compared with the standard limits set by both the World Health Organization and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for domestic purposes. The results of the measured parameters indicated that biological oxygen demand (85.88 mg/L), turbidity (44.51 NTU), Iron (0.014 - 3.511 mg /L) and chromium (0.078 - 0.14 mg /L) were all above the standard limits. The results further showed that the quality of surface water is being significantly affected by human activities around the Ndawuse River which could pose an adverse health risk to several communities that rely on this river as their primary source of water. Therefore, there is a need for strict enforcement of environmental laws to protect the aquatic ecosystem and to avoid long term cumulative exposure risk that heavy metals may pose on human health.

Keywords: Abuja, contaminants, heavy metals, Ndawuse River, Nigeria, surface water.

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Authors: P. Niranatlumpong, H. Koiprasert, C. Sukhonket, K. Ninon, N. Coompreedee

Abstract:

The use of a conventional air plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coating (TBC) and a porous, functionally graded TBC as a thermal insulator for Al7075 alloy was explored. A quench test at 1200°C employing fast heating and cooling rates was setup to represent a dynamic thermal condition of an aerospace component. During the test, coated samples were subjected the ambient temperature of 1200°C for a very short time. This was followed by a rapid drop in temperature resulting in cracking of the coatings. For the conventional TBC, it was found that the temperature of the Al7075 substrate decreases with the increase in the ZrO₂ topcoat thickness. However, at the topcoat thickness of 1100 µm, large horizontal cracks can be observed in the topcoat and at the topcoat thickness of 1600 µm, the topcoat delaminate during cooling after the quench test. The porous, functionally graded TBC with 600 µm thick topcoat, on the other hand, was found to be as effective at reducing the substrate temperature as the conventional TBC with 1100 µm thick topcoat. The maximum substrate temperature is about 213°C for the former and 208°C for the latter when a heating rate of 38°C/s was used. When the quench tests were conducted with a faster heating rate of 128°C/s, the Al7075 substrate heat up faster with a reduction in the maximum substrate temperatures. The substrate temperatures dropped from 297 to 212°C for the conventional TBC and from 213 to 155°C for the porous TBC, both with 600 µm thick topcoat. Segmentation cracks were observed in both coating after the quench test.

Keywords: Thermal barrier coating, Al7075, porous TBC, Quenching.

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Authors: E. Ghabouli

Abstract:

Intermediate cities which also called medium size cities have an important role in the process of globalization. It is argued that, in some cases this type of cities may be depopulated or in otherwise may be transformed as the periphery of metropolitans, so that the personal identity of the city and its local cultural heritage could suffer from its neighbor metropolitan. Over the last decades, the role of tourism in the development process and the cultural heritage has increased. The impact of tourism on socioeconomic growth makes motivation for the study of tourism development in regional and urban planning process. There are evidences that tourism has a positive impact in local development and makes economic motivations for cultural heritage protection. In this study, by considering the role of tourism in local development, especially by its economic and socio-cultural impacts, it is tried to introduce a strategy for tourism development through a method of urban planning for intermediate cities called as Base plan. Damavand is an intermediate city located in Tehran province, Iran with a high potential in tourism by its local specific characteristic like social structure, antiquities and natural attractions. It’s selected as a suitable case study for intended strategy which is a combination of urban planning and tourism development methods. Focusing on recognition of the historical and cultural heritage of Damavand, in this paper through “base plan methodology” a strategy of urban planning toward tourism development is prepared in order to make tourism development as a support for cultural heritage of this city.

Keywords: Urban planning, tourism, cultural heritage, intermediate cities.

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