Search results for: sustainability outcomes.

Authors: Diana Gómez-Cano, J. C. Ochoa-Botero, Roberto Bernal Correa, Yhan Paul Arias

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To obtain high mechanical performance, the fresh conditions of a mortar are decisive. Measuring the absorption of aggregates used in mortar mixes is a fundamental requirement for proper design of the mixes prior to their placement in construction sites. In this sense, absorption is a determining factor in the design of a mix because it conditions the amount of water, which in turn affects the water/cement ratio and the final porosity of the mortar. Thus, this work focuses on the mechanical behavior of recycled mortars manufactured from moisture correction using the Thermogravimetric Balancing Halogen Light (TBHL) technique in comparison with the traditional ASTM C 128 International Standard method. The advantages of using the TBHL technique are favorable in terms of reduced consumption of resources such as materials, energy and time. The results show that in contrast to the ASTM C 128 method, the TBHL alternative technique allows obtaining a higher precision in the absorption values of recycled aggregates, which is reflected not only in a more efficient process in terms of sustainability in the characterization of construction materials, but also in an effect on the mechanical performance of recycled mortars.

Keywords: Alternative raw materials, halogen light, recycled mortar, resources optimization, water absorption.

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Authors: A. Zonouzi, M. Auli, M. Javanmard Dakheli, M. A. Hejazi

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Microalgae are tiny photosynthetic plants. Nowadays, microalgae are being used as nutrient-dense foods and sources of fine chemicals. They have significant amounts of lipid, carotenoids, vitamins, protein, minerals, chlorophyll, and pigments. Oil extraction from algae is a hotly debated topic currently because introducing an efficient method could decrease the process cost. This can determine the sustainability of algae-based foods. Scientific research works show that solvent extraction using chloroform/methanol (2:1) mixture is one of the efficient methods for oil extraction from algal cells, but both methanol and chloroform are toxic solvents, and therefore, the extracted oil will not be suitable for food application. In this paper, the effect of two food grade solvents (hexane and hexane/ isopropanol) on oil extraction yield from microalgae Dunaliella sp. was investigated and the results were compared with chloroform/methanol (2:1) extraction yield. It was observed that the oil extraction yield using hexane, hexane/isopropanol (3:2) and chloroform/methanol (2:1) mixture were 5.4, 13.93, and 17.5 (% w/w, dry basis), respectively. The fatty acid profile derived from GC illustrated that the palmitic (36.62%), oleic (18.62%), and stearic acids (19.08%) form the main portion of fatty acid composition of microalgae Dunalliela sp. oil. It was concluded that, the addition of isopropanol as polar solvent could increase the extraction yield significantly. Isopropanol solves cell wall phospholipids and enhances the release of intercellular lipids, which improves accessing of hexane to fatty acids.

Keywords: Fatty acid profile, Microalgae, Oil extraction, Polar solvent.

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Authors: Umar Ubandawaki

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Political participation involves voluntary and deliberate efforts by the members of a political system to determine the kinds of political institution and individuals that will govern them and equally influence the mobilization and allocation of the available societal resources. Over the years, youths in Nigeria participate actively in political party rallies and voting to elect their leaders and representatives in governance. This paper examines categories and nature of participation in politics as well as factors that drive youths into politics in Sokoto State. A survey conducted, through focus group discussions, interviews and questionnaire, in the six sampled Local Government of Sokoto State identifies three category of political participation; namely, active, moderate and apathetic participation. The findings reveal that 63.57% of respondents are apathetic to politics in the State and unemployed youth constitutes 34.74% of the entire responses. The paper establishes that lack of attainment of need (63.22%) is one of the reasons that make youths engage into participatory activities that encourage political thuggery and manipulation of electoral outcomes. The paper recommends that youths should be engaged into positive rational participatory activities that ensure inclusiveness and promotion of good governance in Nigeria. It is hoped that this will enlighten youths and policy implementers on the constructive strategies in controlling youths’ negative participation in politics in Nigeria.

Keywords: Democracy, Governance, Inclusiveness, Participation and Politics.

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Authors: Handan Ertaş

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The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between organizational trust level and organizational justice of Municipality officials. Correlational method has been used via descriptive survey model and Organizational Justice Perception Scale, Organizational Trust Inventory and Interpersonal Trust Scale have been applied to 353 participants who work in Konya Metropolitan Municipality and central district municipalities in the study. Frequency as statistical method, Independent Samples t test for binary groups, One Way-ANOVA analyses for multi-groups and Pearson Correlation analysis have been used to determine the relation in the data analysis process.It has been determined in the outcomes of the study that participants have high level of organizational trust, “Interpersonal Trust” is in the first place and there is a significant difference in the favor of male officials in terms of Trust on the Organization Itself and Interpersonal Trust. It has also been understood that officials in district municipalities have higher perception level in all dimensions, there is a significant difference in Trust on the Organization sub-dimension and work status is an important factor on organizational trust perception. Moreover, the study has shown that organizational justice implementations are important in raising trust of official on the organization, administrator and colleagues, and there is a parallel relation between Organizational Trust components and Organizational Trust dimensions.

Keywords: Konya, Organizational Justice, Organizational.

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Authors: J. E. Oti, J. M. Kinuthia, R. Robinson, P. Davies

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This work reports the potential of using Palm Kernel (PK) ash and shell as a partial substitute for Portland Cement (PC) and coarse aggregate in the development of mortar and concrete. PK ash and shell are agro-waste materials from palm oil mills, the disposal of PK ash and shell is an environmental problem of concern. The PK ash has pozzolanic properties that enables it as a partial replacement for cement and also plays an important role in the strength and durability of concrete, its use in concrete will alleviate the increasing challenges of scarcity and high cost of cement. In order to investigate the PC replacement potential of PK ash, three types of PK ash were produced at varying temperature (350-750C) and they were used to replace up to 50% PC. The PK shell was used to replace up to 100% coarse aggregate in order to study its aggregate replacement potential. The testing programme included material characterisation, the determination of compressive strength, tensile splitting strength and chemical durability in aggressive sulfatebearing exposure conditions. The 90 day compressive results showed a significant strength gain (up to 26.2 N/mm2). The Portland cement and conventional coarse aggregate has significantly higher influence in the strength gain compared to the equivalent PK ash and PK shell. The chemical durability results demonstrated that after a prolonged period of exposure, significant strength losses in all the concretes were observed. This phenomenon is explained, due to lower change in concrete morphology and inhibition of reaction species and the final disruption of the aggregate cement paste matrix.

Keywords: Sustainability, Concrete, mortar, Palm kernel shell, compressive strength, consistency.

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Authors: Sunil Patel, Pallab Maji

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To study the effect of adversarial attack environment must be controlled. Autonomous driving includes mainly 5 phases sense, perceive, map, plan, and drive. Autonomous vehicles sense their surrounding with the help of different sensors like cameras, radars, and lidars. Deep learning techniques are considered Blackbox and found to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks. In this research, we study the effect of the various known adversarial attacks with the help of the Unreal Engine-based, high-fidelity, real-time raytraced simulated environment. The goal of this experiment is to find out if adversarial attacks work in moving vehicles and if an unknown network may be targeted. We discovered that the existing Blackbox and Whitebox attacks have varying effects on different traffic signs. We observed that attacks that impair detection in static scenarios do not have the same effect on moving vehicles. It was found that some adversarial attacks with hardly noticeable perturbations entirely blocked the recognition of certain traffic signs. We observed that the daylight condition has a substantial impact on the model's performance by simulating the interplay of light on traffic signs. Our findings have been found to closely resemble outcomes encountered in the real world.

Keywords: Adversarial attack simulation, computer simulation, ray-traced environment, realistic simulation, unreal engine.

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Authors: A. A. Ghanim

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

Keywords: Saudi Arabia, water resources, water crisis, treated wastewater.

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Authors: Rana Bazaid, Debajyoti Pati

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Purpose: The aim of this research is to explore and discuss innovation-workspaces, and how the design of the workspace has the potential to boost the work process and encourage employees’ satisfaction, leading to inventive and creative results. Background: The relationship between the workers and the work environment has a strong potential to enhance work outcomes when optimized for work goals. Innovation-work environment can benefit employees’ satisfaction, health, and performance. To understand this complex relationship, this research explores innovation-work environments. Methods: A review of 26 peer-reviewed articles, seven books, and 23 companies’ websites was conducted; in addition, five case studies were analyzed to deduce appropriate examples for the study. Results: The research found all successful five innovation environments focused on two aspects: first, workers’ satisfaction and comfort, which includes a focus on physical, functional, and psychological comfort; second aspect, all five centers were diverse work environments that addressed workers’ needs, design for individuals and teamwork, design for workers’ freedom, and design for increasing interaction. Conclusion: understanding individuals' needs and creating work environments that enhance interaction between workers and with the space are key aspects of successful innovation-work environments.

Keywords: Innovation-workspace, productivity, work environment, workers’ satisfaction.

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Authors: Abbaas I. Kareem, H. Nikraz

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The use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) in hot-mix asphalt (HMA) production could ease natural aggregate shortage and maintain sustainability in modern societies. However, it was the attached cement mortar and other impurities that make the RCAs behave differently than high-quality aggregates. Therefore, different upgrading treatments were suggested to enhance its properties before being used in HMA production. Disappointedly, some of these treatments had caused degradation to some RCA properties. In order to avoid degradation, a coating technique is developed. This technique is based on combining of two main treatments, so it is named as double coating technique (DCT). Dosages of 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% uncoated RCA, RCA coated with Cement Slag Paste (CSP), and Double Coated Recycled Concrete Aggregates (DCRCAs) in place of granite aggregates were evaluated. The results indicated that the DCT improves strength and reduces water absorption of the DCRCAs compared with uncoated RCAs and RCA coated with CSP. In addition, the DCRCA asphalt mixtures exhibit stability values higher than those obtained for mixes made with granite aggregates, uncoated RCAs and RCAs coated with CSP. Also, the DCRCA asphalt mixtures require less bitumen to achieve the optimum bitumen content (OBC) than those manufactured with uncoated RCA and RCA-coated with CSP. Although the results obtained were encouraging, more testing is required in order to examine the effect of the DCT on performance properties of DCRCA- asphalt mixtures such as rutting and fatigue.

Keywords: Recycled concrete aggregates, hot mix asphalt, double coating technique, aggregate crashed value, Marshall parameters.

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Authors: Ling-Lih Shen, Feng-Chuan Pan

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Chronic diseases prevailed along with economic growth as well as life style changed in recent years in Taiwan. According to the governmental statistics, hypertension related disease is the tenth of death causes with 1,816 died directly from hypertension in 2010. There were more death causes amongst the top ten had been proofed that having strong association with the hypertension, such as heart diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Hypertension or High blood pressure is one of the major indicators for chronic diseases, and was generally perceived as the major causes of mortality. The literature generally suggested that regular physical exercise was helpful to prevent the occurrence or to ease the progress of a hypertension. This paper reported the process and outcomes in detailed of an improvement project of physical exercise intervention specific for hypertension patients. Physical information were measured before and after the project to obtain information such as weight, waistline, cholesterol (HD & LD), blood examination, as well as self-perceived health status. The intervention project involved a six-week exercise program, of which contained three times a week, 30 minutes of tutored physical exercise intervention. The project had achieved several gains in changing the subjects- behavior in terms of many important biophysical indexes. Around 20% of the participants had significantly improved their cholesterols, BMI, and changed unhealthy behaviors. Results from the project were encouraging, and would be good reference for other samples.

Keywords: Intervention, biological information, hypertension patients, behavioral changes, chronic disease

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Authors: Taposh Roy, Dipankar Choudhury, Belinda Pingguan-Murphy

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The tribological outcomes of micro dent are found to be outstanding in many engineering and natural surfaces. Ceramic (Al₂O₃) is considered one of the most potential material to bearing surfaces particularly, artificial hip or knee implant. A well-defined micro dent on alumina oxide interface could further decrease friction and wear rate, thus increase their stability and durability. In this study we fabricated circular micro dent surface profiles (Dia: 400µm, Depth 20µm, P: 1.5mm; Dia: 400µm, Depth 20µm, P: 2mm) on pure Al₂O₃ (99.6%) substrate by using a micro tool machines. A preliminary tribological experiment was carried out to compare friction coefficient of these fabricated dent surfaces with that of non-textured surfaces. The experiment was carried on well know pin-on-disk specimens while other experimental parameters such as hertz pressure, speed, lubrication, and temperature were maintained to standard of simulated hip joints condition. The experiment results revealed that micro dent surface texture reduced 15%, 8% and 4% friction coefficient under 0.132,0.162, 0.187 GPa contact pressure respectively. Since this is a preliminary tribological study, we will pursue further experiments considering higher ranges of dent profiles and longer run experiments. However, the preliminary results confirmed the suitability of fabricating dent profile to ceramic surfaces by using micro tooling, and also their improved tribological performance in simulated hip joints.

Keywords: Micro dent, tribology, ceramic on ceramic hipjoints.

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Authors: D. Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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Due to growing concern about environmental and social consequences throughout the world, a need has been felt to incorporate sustainability concepts in conventional manufacturing. This paper is an attempt to identify and evaluate drivers in implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. Nine possible drivers for successful implementation of sustainable manufacturing have been identified from extensive review. Further, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach has been utilized to evaluate and categorize these identified drivers for implementing sustainable manufacturing in to the cause and effect groups. Five drivers (Societal Pressure and Public Concerns; Regulations and Government Policies; Top Management Involvement, Commitment and Support; Effective Strategies and Activities towards Socially Responsible Manufacturing and Market Trends) have been categorized into the cause group and four drivers (Holistic View in Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Participation; Building Sustainable culture in Organization; and Corporate Image and Benefits) have been categorized into the effect group. “Societal Pressure and Public Concerns” has been found the most critical driver and “Corporate Image and Benefits” as least critical or the most easily influenced driver to implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. This paper may surely help practitioners in better understanding of these drivers and their priorities towards effective implementation of sustainable manufacturing.

Keywords: Drivers, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), India, Sustainable Manufacturing (SM).

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Authors: Prasanti Widyasih Sarli, Prayatni Soewondo

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Greater access to sanitation in developing countries is urgent. However even though sanitation is crucial, overall budget for sanitation is limited. With this budget limitation, it is important to (1) allocate resources strategically to maximize impact and (2) take into account communal agency to potentially be a source for sanitation improvements. The Jodipan and Kesatrian Project in Malang, Indonesia is an interesting alternative for solving the sanitation problem in which resources were allocated strategically and communal agency was also observed. Although the projects initial goal was only to improve visually the situation in the slums, it became a new tourist destination, and the economic benefit that came with it had an effect also on the change of behavior of the residents and the government towards sanitation. It also grew from only including the Kesatrian Village to expanding to the Jodipan Village in the course of less than a year. To investigate the success of this project, in this paper a descriptive model will be used and data will be drawn from intensive interviews with the initiators of the project, residents affected by the project and government officials. In this research it is argued that three points mark the success of the project: (1) the strategic initial impact due to choice of location, (2) the influx of tourists that triggered behavioral change among residents and, (3) the direct economic impact which ensured its sustainability and growth by gaining government officials support and attention for more public spending in the area for slum development and sanitation improvement.

Keywords: Behavior change, sanitation, slum, strategic thinking.

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Authors: A. Iaaly, O. Jadayel, R. Jadayel

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This paper explores the effectiveness of approaches used for the implementation of technology within central governments specifically Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It examines the extent to which various strategies to GIS implementation and its roll out to users within an organization is crucial for its long term assimilation. Depending on the contextual requirements, various implementation strategies exist spanning from the most revolutionary to the most evolutionary, which have an influence on the success of GIS projects and the realization of resulting business benefits within the central governments. This research compares between two strategies of GIS implementation within the Lebanese Municipalities. The first strategy is the “Technological Approach” which is focused on technology acquisition, overlaid on existing governmental frameworks. This approach gives minimal attention to capability building and the long term sustainability of the implemented program. The second strategy, referred to as the “Ecological Approach”, is naturally oriented to the function of the organization. This approach stresses on fostering the evolution of the program and on building the human capabilities. The Union of the Joumeh Municipalities will be presented as a case study under the “Ecological Approach” and the role of the GIS Center at the University of Balamand will be highlighted. Thus, this research contributes to the development of knowledge on technology implementation and the vital role of academia in the specific context of the Lebanese public sector so that this experience may pave the way for further applications.

Keywords: Ecological Approach, GIS, low income countries, technological approach.

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Authors: Rachel Hurdley, Jane Hopkinson

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This article is based on observation of a cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional team that worked on an intervention called ‘Memory Mate’ for use in a UK Cancer Centre. This aimed to improve treatment outcomes for patients who had comorbid dementia or other memory impairment. Comorbid patients present ambiguous, spoiled identities, problematising the boundaries of health specialisms and frames of understanding. Memory Mate is theorised as a boundary object facilitating service transformation by changing relations between oncology and mental health care practice. It crosses the boundaries between oncology and mental health. Its introduction signifies an important step in reconfiguring relations between the specialisms. As a boundary object, it contains parallel, even contesting worlds, with potential to enable an eventual synthesis of the double stigma of cancer and dementia. Memory Mate comprises physical things, such as an animation, but its principal value is in the interaction it initiates across disciplines and services. It supports evolution of practices to address a newly emergent challenge for health service provision, namely the cancer patient with comorbid dementia/cognitive impairment. Getting clinicians from different disciplines working together on a practical solution generates a dialogue that can shift professional identity and change the culture of practice.

Keywords: Boundary object, cancer, dementia, interdisciplinary teams.

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Authors: N. Garba, C. S. Özveren, D. Blackwood, A. Adamu, A. I. Augie

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The purpose of this paper was to develop a policy and associated regulatory actions together with legislations that could help in sustainable energy development in Africa and Nigeria in particular. As a result of depletion of fossil fuels in most African countries, renewable energy options such as solar, wind and hydropower biomass are considered to be alternative sources in sustaining the energy security in the continent and particularly Nigeria. Corruption level is another factor that hinders economic growth and development in Nigeria. A review of the past literature on sustainable energy policy from Europe has been carried out. The countries investigated include: The United Kingdom, Germany, Norway and Finland. Their policies have been examined, and this helps suggest new policies on sustainable energy for Nigeria and Africa as a continent. The policies analyzed focused on incentives such as Feed-in-Tariff (FiT). Renewable energy sources potential and renewable have been investigated in Nigeria and that could help in formulating new sustainable energy policy for the country. Some of the proposed policies includes: Renewable Obligation (RO), Cogeneration, FiT, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Renewable Integration, and Heat Entrepreneurship. These are some the new policies that could help sustain the energy security, reduce the level of poverty and corruption in Nigeria as well as Africa in general. If these policies are well designed and properly implemented as observed in this research, Nigeria can achieve sustainable energy and economic growth and development in the near future. Each proposed policy was assigned a timeframe for it to be achieved.

Keywords: Sustainability, renewable energy, energy policies, Africa, Nigeria, Europe, United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Finland.

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Authors: Sanjida Ahmed Sinthia

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Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. There are several reasons for this insufficiency and uncontrolled population growth is one of the prime reasons. Others include low economic progress, imbalanced resource management, unemployment and underemployment, urban migration and natural catastrophes etc. As a result, the rate of urban poor is increasing inevitably in every sphere of urban cities in Bangladesh and Dhaka is the most affected one. Besides there is scarcity of urban land, housing, urban infrastructure and amenities which create pressure on urban cities and mostly encroach the open space, wetlands that causes environmental degradation. Government has no or limited control over these due to poor government policy and management, political pressure and lack of resource management. Unfortunately, over centralization and bureaucracy creates unnecessary delay and interruptions in any government initiations. There is also no coordination between government and private sector developer to solve the problem of urban Poor. To understand the problem of these huge populations this paper analyzes one of the single largest slum areas in Dhaka, Korail Slum. The study focuses on socio demographic analysis, morphological pattern and role of different actors responsible for the improvements of the area and recommended some possible steps for determining the potential outcomes.

Keywords: Demographic analysis, environmental degradation, physical condition, government policy, housing and land management policy.

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Authors: Muhammad Ashraf Fauzi, Nurhayati Abdul Malek, Jamilah Othman

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The implementations of green roof have been widely used in the developed countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Green roof have many benefits such as aesthetic and economic value, ecological gain which are optimization of storm water management, urban heat island mitigation and energy conservation. In term of pollution, green roof can control the air and noise pollution in urban cities. The application of green roof in Malaysian building has been studied with the previous work of green roof either in Malaysia or other Asian region as like Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and several other countries that have similar climate and environment as in Malaysia. These technologies of adapting green roof have been compared to the Green Building Index (GBI) of Malaysian buildings. The study has concentrated on the technical aspect of green roof system having focused on i) waste & recyclable materials ii) types of plants and method of planting and iii) green roof as tool to reduce storm water runoff. The finding of these areas will be compared to the suitability in achieving good practice of the GBI in Malaysia. Results show that most of the method are based on the countries own climate and environment. This suggests that the method of using green roof must adhere to the tropical climate of Malaysia. Suggestion of this research will be viewed in term of the sustainability of the green roof. Further research can be developed to implement the best method and application in Malaysian climate especially in urban cities and township.

Keywords: Green roofs, vegetation, plants, material, stormwater.

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, V. Avramea

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Planning for natural disasters and emergencies is something every school or educational institution must consider, regardless of its size or location. Preparedness is the key to save lives if a disaster strikes. School disaster management mirrors individual and family disaster prevention, and wider community disaster prevention efforts. This paper presents the usage of E-PreS System as a helpful, managerial tool during the school earthquake drill, in order to support schools in developing effective disaster and emergency plans specific to their local needs. The project comes up with a holistic methodology using real-time evaluation involving different categories of actors, districts, steps and metrics. The main outcomes of E-PreS project are the development of E-PreS web platform that host the needed data of school emergency planning; the development of E-PreS System; the implementation of disaster drills using E-PreS System in educational premises and local schools; and the evaluation of E-PreS System. Taking into consideration that every disaster drill aims to test and valid school plan and procedures; clarify and train personnel in roles and responsibilities; improve interagency coordination; identify gaps in resources; improve individual performance; and identify opportunities for improvement, E-PreS Project was submitted and approved by the European Commission (EC).

Keywords: Disaster drills, earthquake preparedness, E-PreS system, school emergency plans.

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Authors: Aisha Othman, Crinela Pislaru, Ahmed Impes

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This paper provides an identification of the existing practical skills gap between school-based learning (SBL) and laboratory based learning (LBL) in the Computing Department within the Faculty of Science at Omar Al-Mukhtar University in Libya. A survey has been conducted and the first author has elicited the responses of two groups of stakeholders, namely the academic teachers and students.

The primary goal is to review the main strands of evidence available and argue that there is a gap between laboratory and school-based learning in terms of opportunities for experiment and application of skills. In addition, the nature of experimental work within the laboratory at Omar Al-Mukhtar University needs to be reconsidered. Another goal of our study was to identify the reasons for students’ poor performance in the laboratory and to determine how this poor performance can be eliminated by the modification of teaching methods. Bloom’s taxonomy of learning outcomes has been applied in order to classify questions and problems into categories, and the survey was formulated with reference to third year Computing Department students. Furthermore, to discover students’ opinions with respect to all the issues, an exercise was conducted. The survey provided questions related to what the students had learnt and how well they had learnt. We were also interested in feedback on how to improve the course and the final question provided an opportunity for such feedback.

Keywords: Bloom’s taxonomy, e-learning, Omar Al-Mukhtar University.

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Authors: Ujjwala Bhand, Mridula Goel

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Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) prepared by World Economic Forum has become a benchmark in studying the competitiveness of countries and for understanding the factors that enable competitiveness. Innovation is a key pillar in competitiveness and has the unique property of enabling exponential economic growth. This paper attempts to analyze how the pillars comprising the Global Competitiveness Index affect innovation and whether GDP growth can directly affect innovation outcomes for a country. The key objective of the study is to identify areas on which governments of developing countries can focus policies and programs to improve their country’s innovativeness. We have compiled a panel data set for top innovating countries and large emerging economies called BRICS from 2007-08 to 2014-15 in order to find the significant factors that affect innovation. The results of the regression analysis suggest that government should make policies to improve labor market efficiency, establish sophisticated business networks, provide basic health and primary education to its people and strengthen the quality of higher education and training services in the economy. The achievements of smaller economies on innovation suggest that concerted efforts by governments can counter any size related disadvantage, and in fact can provide greater flexibility and speed in encouraging innovation.

Keywords: Innovation, Global Competitiveness Index, BRICS, economic growth.

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Authors: Saeed Sayyad Hagh Shomar

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Traffic congestion pricing in urban streets is one of the most suitable options for solving the traffic problems and environment pollutions in the cities of the country. Unlike its acceptable outcomes, there are problems concerning the necessity to pay by the mass. Regarding the fact that public response in order to succeed in this strategy is so influential, studying their response and behavior to get the feedback and improve the strategies is of great importance. In this study, a questionnaire was used to examine the public reactions to the traffic congestion pricing schemes at the center of Tehran metropolis and the factors involved in people’s decision making in accepting or rejecting the congestion pricing schemes were assessed based on the data obtained from the questionnaire as well as the international experiences. Then, by analyzing and comparing the schemes, guidelines to reduce public objections to them are discussed. The results of reviewing and evaluating the public reactions show that all the pros and cons must be considered to guarantee the success of these projects. Consequently, with targeted public education and consciousness-raising advertisements, prior to initiating a scheme and ensuring the mechanism of the implementation after the start of the project, the initial opposition is reduced and, with the gradual emergence of the real and tangible benefits of its implementation, users’ satisfaction will increase.

Keywords: Demand management, international experiences, traffic congestion pricing, public acceptance, public objection.

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Authors: Hebberly Ahatlan

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The process of digitizing energy systems involves transforming traditional energy infrastructure into interconnected, data-driven systems that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and responsiveness. As smart grids become increasingly integral to the efficient distribution and management of electricity from both fossil and renewable energy sources, the energy industry faces strategic challenges associated with digitalization and interoperability — particularly in the context of modern energy business models, such as virtual power plants (VPPs). The critical challenge in modern smart grids is to seamlessly integrate diverse technologies and systems, including virtualization, grid computing and service-oriented architecture (SOA), across the entire energy ecosystem. Achieving this requires addressing issues like semantic interoperability, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) convergence, and digital asset scalability, all while ensuring security and risk management. This paper proposes a four-layer digitalization framework to tackle these challenges, encompassing persistent data protection, trusted key management, secure messaging, and authentication of IoT resources. Data assets generated through this framework enable AI systems to derive insights for improving smart grid operations, security, and revenue generation. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a Trusted Energy Interoperability Alliance as a universal guiding standard in the development of this digitalization framework to support more dynamic and interoperable energy markets.

Keywords: Digitalization, IT/OT convergence, semantic interoperability, TEIA alliance, VPP.

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Authors: Zayed Freah Zeadat

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The wellbeing of urban dwellers is strongly associated with the quality and quantity of green infrastructure. Nevertheless, urban green infrastructure is still lagging in many Arab cities, and Jordan is no exception. The capital city of Jordan, Amman, is becoming more urban dense with limited green spaces. The unplanned urban growth in Amman has caused several environmental problems such as urban heat islands, air pollution and lack of green spaces. This study aims to investigate the most suitable drivers to leverage the implementation of urban green infrastructure in Jordan through qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative research includes an extensive literature review to discuss the most common drivers used internationally to promote urban green infrastructure implementation in the literature. The quantitative study employs a questionnaire survey to rank the suitability of each driver. Consultants, contractors and policymakers were invited to fill the research questionnaire according to their judgments and opinions. Relative Importance Index has been used to calculate the weighted average of all drivers and the Kruskal-Wallis test to check the degree of agreement among groups. This study finds that research participants agreed that indirect financial incentives (i.e., tax reductions, reduction in stormwater utility fee, reduction of interest rate, density bonus etc.) are the most effective incentive policy whilst granting sustainability certificate policy is the least effective driver to ensure widespread of UGI is elements in Jordan.

Keywords: sustainable development, urban green infrastructure, relative importance index, urban Jordan

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Authors: M. Bortolini, E. Ferrari, F. G. Galizia, C. Mora

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In the last decades, an increasing set of companies adopted lean philosophy to improve their productivity and efficiency promoting the so-called continuous improvement concept, reducing waste of time and cutting off no-value added activities. In parallel, increasing attention rises toward green practice and management through the spread of the green supply chain pattern, to minimise landfilled waste, drained wastewater and pollutant emissions. Starting from a review on contributions deepening lean and green principles applied to supply chain management, the most relevant drivers to measure the performance of industrial processes are pointed out. Specific attention is paid on the role of cost because it is of key importance and it crosses both lean and green principles. This analysis leads to figure out an original reference framework for integrating lean and green principles in designing and managing supply chains. The proposed framework supports the application, to the whole value chain or to parts of it, e.g. distribution network, assembly system, job-shop, storage system etc., of the lean-green integrated perspective. Evidences show that the combination of the lean and green practices lead to great results, higher than the sum of the performances from their separate application. Lean thinking has beneficial effects on green practices and, at the same time, methods allowing environmental savings generate positive effects on time reduction and process quality increase.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability, green supply chain, integrated framework, lean thinking, supply chain management.

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Authors: Leila Kazemi, Akram Pourmohammad, Zargham OstadiAsl, Maryam Jahandideh, Ahadollah Azami

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Due to its geographical location, Iran is considered one of the earthquake-prone areas where the best way to decrease earthquake effects is supposed to be strengthening the buildings. Even though, one idea suggests that the use of adobe in constructing buildings be prohibited for its weak function especially in earthquake-prone areas, however, regarding ecological considerations, sustainability and other local skills, another idea pays special attention to adobe as one of the construction technologies which is popular among people. From the architectural and technological point of view, as strong sustainable building construction materials, compressed adobe construction materials make most of the construction in urban or rural areas ranging from small to big industrial buildings used to replace common earth blocks in traditional systems and strengthen traditional adobe buildings especially against earthquake. Mentioning efficient construction using compressed adobe system as a reliable replacement for traditional soil construction materials , this article focuses on the experiences of India in the fields of sustainable development of compressed adobe systems in the form of system in which the compressed soil is combined with cement, load bearing building with brick/solid concrete block system, brick system using rat trap bond, metal system with adobe infill and finally emphasizes on the use of these systems in the earthquake-struck city of Bam in Iran.

Keywords: Local Materials, Compressed Earth Blocks, Sustainable Construction, Retrofitting

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Authors: Verónica Arredondo, Miguel Martínez-Panero, Teresa Peña, Victoriano Ramírez

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The Mexican Chamber of Deputies is composed of 500 representatives: 300 of them elected by relative majority and another 200 ones elected through proportional representation in five electoral clusters (constituencies) with 40 representatives each. In this mixed-member electoral system, the seats distribution of proportional representation is not independent of the election by relative majority, as it attempts to correct representation imbalances produced in single-member districts. This two-fold structure has been maintained in the successive electoral reforms carried out along the last three decades (eight from 1986 to 2014). In all of them, the election process of 200 seats becomes complex: Formulas in the Law are difficult to understand and to be interpreted. This paper analyzes the Mexican electoral system after the electoral reform of 2014, which was applied for the first time in 2015. The research focuses on contradictions and issues of applicability, in particular situations where seats allocation is affected by ambiguity in the law and where asymmetrical treatment of political parties arises. Due to these facts, a proposal of electoral reform will be presented. It is intended to be simpler, clearer, and more enduring than the current system. Furthermore, this model is more suitable for producing electoral outcomes free of contradictions and paradoxes. This approach would allow a fair treatment of political parties and as a result an improved opportunity to exercise democracy.

Keywords: Apportionment paradoxes, biproportional representation, electoral mathematics, electoral reform, Mexican electoral system, proportional representation, political asymmetry.

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Authors: L. Vujičić, Ž. Ivković, Ž. Boneta

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There is a widespread belief in everyday discourse that science subjects (physics, chemistry and biology) are, along with math, the most difficult school subjects in the education of an individual. This assumption is usually justified by the following facts: low GPA in these subjects, the number of pupils who fail these subjects is high in comparison to other subjects, and the number of pupils interested in continuing their studies in the fields with a focus on science subjects is lower compared to non-science-oriented fields. From that perspective, the project: “Could it be different? How do children explore it?” becomes extremely interesting because it is focused on young children and on the introduction of new methods, with aim of arousing interest in scientific literacy development in 10 kindergartens by applying the methodology of an action research, with an ethnographic approach. We define scientific literacy as a process of encouraging and nurturing the research and explorative spirit in children, as well as their natural potential and abilities that represent an object of scientific research: to learn about exploration by conducting exploration. Upon project completion, an evaluation questionnaire was created for the parents of the children who had participated in the project, as well as for those whose children had not been involved in the project. The purpose of the first questionnaire was to examine the level of satisfaction with the project implementation and its outcomes among those parents whose children had been involved in the project (N=142), while the aim of the second questionnaire was to find out how much the parents of the children not involved (N=154) in this activity were interested in this topic.

Keywords: Documenting, early childhood education, evaluation questionnaire for parents, scientific literacy development.

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Authors: Joseph C. Chen, Venkata Karthik Jakka

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The main objective of this research is to optimize tensile strength and dimensional accuracy in injection molding processes using Taguchi Parameter Design. An L16 orthogonal array (OA) is used in Taguchi experimental design with five control factors at four levels each and with non-controllable factor vibration. A total of 32 experiments were designed to obtain the optimal parameter setting for the process. The optimal parameters identified for the shrinkage are shot volume, 1.7 cubic inch (A4); mold term temperature, 130 ºF (B1); hold pressure, 3200 Psi (C4); injection speed, 0.61 inch3/sec (D2); and hold time of 14 seconds (E2). The optimal parameters identified for the tensile strength are shot volume, 1.7 cubic inch (A4); mold temperature, 160 ºF (B4); hold pressure, 3100 Psi (C3); injection speed, 0.69 inch3/sec (D4); and hold time of 14 seconds (E2). The Taguchi-based optimization framework was systematically and successfully implemented to obtain an adjusted optimal setting in this research. The mean shrinkage of the confirmation runs is 0.0031%, and the tensile strength value was found to be 3148.1 psi. Both outcomes are far better results from the baseline, and defects have been further reduced in injection molding processes.

Keywords: Injection molding processes, Taguchi Parameter Design, tensile strength, shrinkage test, high-density polyethylene, HDPE.

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Authors: Wann-Ming Wey

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In recent years, the problems of global climate change and natural disasters have induced the concerns and attentions of environmental sustainability issues for the public. Aside from the environmental planning efforts done for human environment, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has been widely used as one of the future solutions for the sustainable city development. In order to be more consistent with the urban sustainable development, the development of the built environment planning based on the concept of Green TOD which combines both TOD and Green Urbanism is adapted here. The connotation of the urban development under the green TOD including the design toward environment protect, the maximum enhancement resources and the efficiency of energy use, use technology to construct green buildings and protected areas, natural ecosystems and communities linked, etc. Green TOD is not only to provide the solution to urban traffic problems, but to direct more sustainable and greener consideration for future urban development planning and design. In this study, we use both the TOD and Green Urbanism concepts to proceed to the study of the built environment planning and design. Fuzzy Delphi Technique (FDT) is utilized to screen suitable criteria of the green TOD. Furthermore, Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) were then developed to evaluate the criteria and prioritize the alternatives. The study results can be regarded as the future guidelines of the built environment planning and designing under green TOD development in Taiwan.

Keywords: Green transit-oriented development, built environment, fuzzy Delphi technique, quality function deployment, fuzzy analytic network process.

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