Search results for: water pollution.

Authors: Stanislav Aryeh V. Fradkin, Sharif E.Guseynov

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There is a complex situation on the transport environment in the cities of the world. For the analysis and prevention of environmental problems an accurate calculation hazardous substances concentrations at each point of the investigated area is required. In the turbulent atmosphere of the city the wellknown methods of mathematical statistics for these tasks cannot be applied with a satisfactory level of accuracy. Therefore, to solve this class of problems apparatus of mathematical physics is more appropriate. In such models, because of the difficulty as a rule the influence of uneven land surface on streams of air masses in the turbulent atmosphere of the city are not taken into account. In this paper the influence of the surface roughness, which can be quite large, is mathematically shown. The analysis of this problem under certain conditions identified the possibility of areas appearing in the atmosphere with pressure tending to infinity, i.e. so-called "wall effect".

Keywords: Air pollution, concentration of harmful substances, physical-mathematical model, urban area.

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Authors: Viviane S. Guimarães, Ícaro M. M. Brasil, Simara S. Campos, Roseli F. Gennari, Márcia R. P. Attie, Susana O. Souza.

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Uranium mining and processing in Brazil occur in a northeastern area near to Caetité-BA. Several Non-Governmental Organizations claim that uranium mining in this region is a pollutant causing health risks to the local population,but those in charge of the complex extraction and production of“yellow cake" for generating fuel to the nuclear power plants reject these allegations. This study aimed at identifying potential problems caused by mining to the population of Caetité. In this, work,the concentrations of 238U, 232Th and 40K radioisotopes in the teeth of the Caetité population were determined by ICP-MS. Teeth are used as bioindicators of incorporated radionuclides. Cumulative radiation doses in the skeleton were also determined. The concentration values were below 0.008 ppm, and annual effective dose due to radioisotopes are below to the reference values. Therefore, it is not possible to state that the mining process in Caetité increases pollution or radiation exposure in a meaningful way.

Keywords: bioindicators, radiation dose, radioisotopesincorporation, uranium.

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Authors: Sui Xin, Li Chunsheng, Tian Di

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Short message integrated distributed monitoring systems (SM-DMS) are growing rapidly in wireless communication applications in various areas, such as electromagnetic field (EMF) management, wastewater monitoring, and air pollution supervision, etc. However, delay in short messages often makes the data embedded in SM-DMS transmit unreliably. Moreover, there are few regulations dealing with this problem in SMS transmission protocols. In this study, based on the analysis of the command and data requirements in the SM-DMS, we developed a processing model for the control center to solve the delay problem in data transmission. Three components of the model: the data transmission protocol, the receiving buffer pool method, and the timer mechanism were described in detail. Discussions on adjusting the threshold parameter in the timer mechanism were presented for the adaptive performance during the runtime of the SM-DMS. This model optimized the data transmission reliability in SM-DMS, and provided a supplement to the data transmission reliability protocols at the application level.

Keywords: Delay, SMS, reliability, distributed monitoringsystem (DMS), wireless communication.

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Authors: G Lakshmi Narayana Rao, S Sampath, K Rajagopal

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Transesterified vegetable oils (biodiesel) are promising alternative fuel for diesel engines. Used vegetable oils are disposed from restaurants in large quantities. But higher viscosity restricts their direct use in diesel engines. In this study, used cooking oil was dehydrated and then transesterified using an alkaline catalyst. The combustion, performance and emission characteristics of Used Cooking oil Methyl Ester (UCME) and its blends with diesel oil are analysed in a direct injection C.I. engine. The fuel properties and the combustion characteristics of UCME are found to be similar to those of diesel. A minor decrease in thermal efficiency with significant improvement in reduction of particulates, carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons is observed compared to diesel. The use of transesterified used cooking oil and its blends as fuel for diesel engines will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and also decrease considerably the environmental pollution.

Keywords: Combustion characteristics, diesel engine, emission characteristics, used cooking oil.

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Authors: Michely Vargas Delpupo, José Geraldo Romanello Bueno

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The right to basic sanitation, was elevated to the category of fundamental right by the Constitution of 1988 to protect the ecologically balanced environment, ensuring social rights to health and adequate housing and put the dignity of the human person as the foundation of the Brazilian Democratic State. Before their essentiality to humans, this article seeks to understand why universal access to basic sanitation is a goal so difficult to achieve in Brazil. Therefore, this research uses the deductive and analytical method. Given the nature of the research literature, research techniques were centered in specialized books on the subject, journals, theses and dissertations, laws, relevant law case and raising social indicators relating to the theme. The relevance of the topic stems, among other things, the fact that sanitation services are essential for a dignified life, i.e., everyone is entitled to the maintenance of the necessary existence conditions are satisfied. However, the effectiveness of this right is undermined in society, since Brazil has huge deficit in sanitation services, denying thus a worthy life to most of the population. Thus, it can be seen that the provision of water and sewage services in Brazil is still characterized by a large imbalance, since the municipalities with lower population index have greater disability in the sanitation service. The truth is that the precariousness of water and sewage services in Brazil is still very concentrated in the North and Northeast regions, limiting the effective implementation of the Law 11.445/2007 in the country. Therefore, there is urgent need for a positive service by the State in the provision of sanitation services in order to prevent and control disease, improve quality of life and productivity of individuals, besides preventing contamination of water resources. More than just social and economic necessity, there is a government duty to implement such services. In this sense, given the current scenario, to achieve universal access to basic sanitation imposes many hurdles. These are mainly in the field of properly formulated and implemented public policies, i.e., it requires an excellent institutional organization, management services, strategic planning, social control, in order to provide answers to complex challenges.

Keywords: Fundamental rights, sanitation, universal access.

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Authors: Paula M. R. Correia, Marta Gonzaga, Luis M. Batista, Luísa Beirão-Costa, Raquel F. P. Guiné

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The purpose of the present work was to develop an innovative food product with good textural and sensorial characteristics. The product, a new type of bread, was prepared with wheat (90%) and lupin (10%) flours, without the addition of any conservatives. Several experiences were also done to find the most appropriate proportion of lupin flour. The optimized product was characterized considering the rheological, physical-chemical and sensorial properties. The water absorption of wheat flour with 10% of lupin was higher than that of the normal wheat flours, and Wheat Ceres flour presented the lower value, with lower dough development time and high stability time. The breads presented low moisture but a considerable water activity. The density of bread decreased with the introduction of lupin flour. The breads were quite white, and during storage the colour parameters decreased. The lupin flour clearly increased the number of alveolus, but the total area increased significantly just for the Wheat Cerealis bread. The addition of lupin flour increased the hardness and chewiness of breads, but the elasticity did not vary significantly. Lupin bread was sensorially similar to wheat bread produced with WCerealis flour, and the main differences are the crust rugosity, colour and alveolus characteristics.

Keywords: Lupin flour, physical-chemical properties, sensorial analysis, wheat flour.

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Authors: Abdoullah Namdar, Fadzil Mat Yahaya

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The waste agriculture materials cause environment pollution, recycle of these materials help sustainable development. This study focused on the impact of used oil palm shell ash on the compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar. Two different cement mortar mixes have been designed to investigate the impact of oil palm shell ash on strengths of cement mortar. Quantity of 4% oil palm shell ash has been replaced in cement mortar. The main objective of this paper is, to modify mechanical properties of cement mortar by replacement of oil palm ash in it at early age of 7 days. The results have been revealed optimum quantity of oil palm ash for replacement in cement mortar. The deflection, load to failure, time to failure of compressive strength and flexural strength of all specimens have significantly been improved. The stress-strain behavior has been indicated ability of modified cement mortar in control stress path and strain. The micro property of cement paste has not been investigated.

Keywords: Minerals, additive, flexural strength, compressive strength, modulus of elasticity.

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Authors: D. Y. Bawa, M. I. Ribah, I. S. Jega, V. O. Oyedepo

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This study was conducted to determine the physicochemical characteristics and heavy metal concentration (Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn)) in freshwater from Jega river. 30 water samples were collected in two 1-liter sterile plastic containers from three designated sampling points, namely; Station A (before the bridge; upstream), Station B (at the bridge where human activities such as washing of cars, motorbike, clothes, bathing and other household materials are concentrated), Station C (after the bridge; downstream) fortnightly, between March and July 2014. Results indicated that the highest pH mean value of 7.08 ± 1.12 was observed in station C, the highest conductivity with the mean 58.75 ± 7.87 µs/cm was observed at station A, the highest mean value of the water total hardness was observed at station A (54 ± 16.11 mg/L), the highest mean value of nitrate deposit was observed in station A (1.66 ± 1.33 mg/L), the highest mean value of alkalinity was observed at station B (51.33 ± 6.66 mg/L) and the highest mean (39.56 ± 3.24 mg/L) of total dissolved solids was observed at station A. The highest concentration mean value of Fe was observed in station C (65.33 ± 4.50 mg/L), the highest concentrations of Cd was observed in station C (0.99 ± 0.36 mg/L), the mean value of 2.13 ± 1.99 mg/L was the highest concentration of Zn observed in station B, the concentration of Pb was not detected (ND) and the highest concentration of Cu with the mean value of 0.43 ± 0.16 mg/L was observed in station B, while the lowest concentration was observed at station C (0.27 ± 0.26 mg/L). Statistical analysis shows no significant difference (P > 0.05) among the sampling stations for both the physicochemical characteristics and heavy metal concentrations. The results were found to be within the internationally acceptable standard limits.

Keywords: Assessment, freshwater, heavy metal concentration, physicochemical.

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Authors: James Dunia, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa

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Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most important energy resources since it is clean, pollution free, and endless. Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to maximize the photovoltaic output power, irrespective the variations of temperature and radiation conditions. This paper presents a comparison between Ćuk and SEPIC converter in maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic (PV) system. In the paper, advantages and disadvantages of both converters are described. Incremental conductance control method has been used as maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The two converters and MPPT algorithm were modelled using MATLAB/Simulink software for simulation. Simulation results show that both Ćuk and SEPIC converters can track the maximum power point with some minor variations. 

Keywords: Ćuk Converter, Incremental Conductance, Maximum Power Point Tracking, PV Module, SEPIC Converter.

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Authors: Maisam Rafiee, Chikashi Deguchi, Akio Odake, Minoru Matsui, Takanori Sata

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Cities in Afghanistan have been rapidly urbanized; however, many parts of these cities have been developed with no detailed land use plan or infrastructure. In other words, they have been informally developed without any government leadership. The new government started the In-situ Upgrading Project in Kabul to upgrade roads, the water supply network system, and the surface water drainage system on the existing street layout in 2002, with the financial support of international agencies. This project is an appropriate emergency improvement for living life, but not an essential improvement of living conditions and infrastructure problems because the life expectancies of the improved facilities are as short as 10–15 years, and residents cannot obtain land tenure in the unplanned areas. The Land Readjustment System (LRS) conducted in Japan has good advantages that rearrange irregularly shaped land lots and develop the infrastructure effectively. This study investigates the effects of the In-situ Upgrading Project on private investment, land prices, and residents’ satisfaction with projects in Kart-e-Char, where properties are registered, and in Afshar-e-Silo Lot 1, where properties are unregistered. These projects are located 5 km and 7 km from the CBD area of Kabul, respectively. This study discusses whether LRS should be applied to the unplanned area based on the questionnaire and interview responses of experts experienced in the In-situ Upgrading Project who have knowledge of LRS. The analysis results reveal that, in Kart-e-Char, a lot of private investment has been made in the construction of medium-rise (five- to nine-story) buildings for commercial and residential purposes. Land values have also incrementally increased since the project, and residents are commonly satisfied with the road pavement, drainage systems, and water supplies, but dissatisfied with the poor delivery of electricity as well as the lack of public facilities (e.g., parks and sport facilities). In Afshar-e-Silo Lot 1, basic infrastructures like paved roads and surface water drainage systems have improved from the project. After the project, a few four- and five-story residential buildings were built with very low-level private investments, but significant increases in land prices were not evident. The residents are satisfied with the contribution ratio, drainage system, and small increase in land price, but there is still no drinking water supply system or tenure security; moreover, there are substandard paved roads and a lack of public facilities, such as parks, sport facilities, mosques, and schools. The results of the questionnaire and interviews with the four engineers highlight the problems that remain to be solved in the unplanned areas if LRS is applied—namely, land use differences, types and conditions of the infrastructure still to be installed by the project, and time spent for positive consensus building among the residents, given the project’s budget limitation.

Keywords: In-Situ Upgrading, Kabul, Land Readjustment, Land value, Planned areas, Private investment, Resident satisfaction, Unplanned areas.

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Authors: H. B. Mehta, Vipul M. Patel, Jyotirmay Banerjee

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The present paper discusses the prediction of gas-liquid two-phase frictional pressure drop in a 2.12 mm horizontal circular minichannel using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The experimental results are obtained with air as gas phase and water as liquid phase. The superficial gas velocity is kept in the range of 0.0236 m/s to 0.4722 m/s while the values of 0.0944 m/s, 0.1416 m/s and 0.1889 m/s are considered for superficial liquid velocity. The experimental results are predicted using different Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models. Networks used for prediction are radial basis, generalised regression, linear layer, cascade forward back propagation, feed forward back propagation, feed forward distributed time delay, layer recurrent, and Elman back propagation. Transfer functions used for networks are Linear (PURELIN), Logistic sigmoid (LOGSIG), tangent sigmoid (TANSIG) and Gaussian RBF. Combination of networks and transfer functions give different possible neural network models. These models are compared for Mean Absolute Relative Deviation (MARD) and Mean Relative Deviation (MRD) to identify the best predictive model of ANN.

Keywords: Minichannel, Two-Phase Flow, Frictional Pressure Drop, ANN, MARD, MRD.

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Authors: Violina R. Angelova, Mariana N. Perifanova-Nemska, Galina P. Uzunova, Elitsa N. Kolentsova

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Comparative research has been conducted to allow us to determine the accumulation of heavy metals (Pb, Zn and Cd) in the vegetative and reproductive organs of safflower, and to identify the possibility of its growth on soils contaminated by heavy metals and efficacy for phytoremediation. The experiment was performed on an agricultural field contaminated by the Non-Ferrous-Metal Works (MFMW) near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The experimental plots were situated at different distances (0.1, 0.5, 2.0, and 15 km) from the source of pollution. The contents of heavy metals in plant materials (roots, stems, leaves, seeds) were determined. The quality of safflower oils (heavy metals and fatty acid composition) was also determined. The quantitative measurements were carried out with inductively-coupled plasma (ICP). Safflower is a plant that is tolerant to heavy metals and can be referred to the hyperaccumulators of lead and cadmium and the accumulators of zinc. The plant can be successfully used in the phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. The processing of safflower seeds into oil and the use of the obtained oil will greatly reduce the cost of phytoremediation.

Keywords: Heavy metals, phytoremediation, polluted soils, safflower.

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Authors: K. Jagannath, Akhilesh Kotian, S. S. Sharma, Achutha Kini U., P. R. Prabhu

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Boiling process is characterized by the rapid formation of vapour bubbles at the solid–liquid interface (nucleate boiling) with pre-existing vapour or gas pockets. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool to study bubble dynamics. In the present study, CFD simulation has been carried out to determine the bubble detachment diameter and its terminal velocity. Volume of fluid method is used to model the bubble and the surrounding by solving single set of momentum equations and tracking the volume fraction of each of the fluids throughout the domain. In the simulation, bubble is generated by allowing water-vapour to enter a cylinder filled with liquid water through an inlet at the bottom. After the bubble is fully formed, the bubble detaches from the surface and rises up during which the bubble accelerates due to the net balance between buoyancy force and viscous drag. Finally when these forces exactly balance each other, it attains a constant terminal velocity. The bubble detachment diameter and the terminal velocity of the bubble are captured by the monitor function provided in FLUENT. The detachment diameter and the terminal velocity obtained are compared with the established results based on the shape of the bubble. A good agreement is obtained between the results obtained from simulation and the equations in comparison with the established results.

Keywords: Bubble growth, computational fluid dynamics, detachment diameter, terminal velocity.

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Authors: Barenten Suciu

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An electrical generator able to harness energy from the water waves and designed as a double-cone geared motor-generator (DCGMG), is proposed and theoretically investigated. Similar to a differential gear mechanism, used in the transmission system of the auto vehicle wheels, an angular speed differential is created between the cones rolling on two concentric circular rails. Water wave acting on the floating DCGMG produces and a gear-box amplifies the speed differential to gain sufficient torque for power generation. A model that allows computation of the speed differential, torque, and power of the DCGMG is suggested. Influence of various parameters, regarding the construction of the DCGMG, as well as the contact between the double-cone and rails, on the electro-mechanical output, is emphasized. Results obtained indicate that the generated electrical power can be increased by augmenting the mass of the double-cone, the span of the rails, the apex angle of the cones, the friction between cones and rails, the amplification factor of the gear-box, and the efficiency of the motor-generator. Such findings are useful to formulate a design methodology for the proposed wave-powered generator.

Keywords: Wave-powered electrical generator, double-cone, circular concentric rails, amplification of angular speed differential.

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Authors: Krishan Lal, Anish Dua

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Gobind Sagar Reservoir has been created in Himachal Pradesh, India (31° 25´ N and 76 ° 25´E) by damming River Sutlej at village Bhakra in 1963. The average water spread area of this reservoir is 10,000 hectares. Fishermen have organized themselves in the form of co-operative societies. 26 fisheries co-operative societies were working in Gobind Sagar Reservoir up till 2012. June and July months were observed as closed season, no fishing was done during this period. Proper record maintaining of fish catch was done at different levels by the state fisheries department. Different measures like minimum harvestable size, mesh size regulation and prohibition of illegal fishing etc. were taken for fish conservation. Fishermen were actively involved in the management. Gill nets were used for catching fishes from this reservoir. State fisheries department is realizing 15% royalty of the sold fish. Data used in this paper is about the fish catch during 2006-2012 and were obtained from the state fisheries department, Himachal Pradesh. Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Sperata seenghala, Cyprinus carpio, Tor putitora, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Labeo calbasu, Labeo dero and Ctenopharyngodon idella etc., were the fish species exploited for commercial purposes. Total number of individuals of all species caught was 3141236 weighing 5637108.9 kg during 2006-2012. H. molitrix was introduced accidently in this reservoir and was making a good share of fish catch in this reservoir. The annual catch of this species was varying between 161279.6 kg, caught in 2011 and 788030.8 kg caught in 2009. Total numbers of individuals of C. idella caught were 8966 weighing 64320.2 kg. The catch of Cyprinus carpio was varying between 144826.1 kg caught in 2006 and 214480.1 kg caught in 2010. Total catch of Tor putitora was 180263.2 kg during 2006-2012. Total catch of L. dero, S. seenghala and Catla catla remained 100637.4 kg, 75297.8 kg and 561802.9 kg, respectively, during 2006-2012. Maximum fish catch was observed during the months of August (after observing Closed Season). Maximum catch of exotic carps was from Bhakra area of the reservoir which has fewer fluctuations in water levels. The reservoir has been divided into eight beats for administrative purpose, to avoid conflicts between operating fisheries co-operative societies for area of operation. Fish catch was more by co-operative societies operating in the area of reservoir having fewer fluctuations in water level and catch was less by co-operative societies operating in the area of more fluctuations in water level. Species-wise fish catch by different co-operative societies from their allotted area was studied. This reservoir is one of most scientifically managed reservoirs.

Keywords: Co-operative societies, fish catch, fish species, reservoir.

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Authors: M. G. Dirodi, G. Gugliotta, C. Leonardi

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Member States shall establish zones and agglomerations throughout their territory to assess and manage air quality in order to comply with European directives. In Italy decree 155/2010, transposing Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, merged into a single act the previous provisions on ambient air quality assessment and management, including those resulting from the implementation of Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air. Decree 155/2010 introduced stricter rules for identifying zones on the basis of the characteristics of the territory in spite of considering pollution levels, as it was in the past. The implementation of such new criteria has reduced the great variability of the previous zoning, leading to a significant reduction of the total number of zones and to a complete and uniform ambient air quality assessment and management throughout the Country. The present document is related to the new zones definition in Italy according to Decree 155/2010. In particular the paper contains the description and the analysis of the outcome of zoning and classification.

Keywords: Zones, agglomerations, air quality assessment, classification.

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Authors: Jindrich J. Melcher, Marcela Karmazínová

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The paper presents the brief information on particular results of experimental study focused to the problems of behavior of structural plated components made of fiber-cement-based materials and used in building constructions, exposed to atmospheric physical effects given by the weather changes in the summer period. Weather changes represented namely by temperature and rain cause also the changes of the temperature and moisture of the investigated structural components. This can affect their static behavior that means stresses and deformations, which have been monitored as the main outputs of tests performed. Experimental verification is based on the simulation of the influence of temperature and rain using the defined procedure of warming and water sprinkling with respect to the corresponding weather conditions during summer period in the South Moravian region at the Czech Republic, for which the application of these structural components is mainly planned. Two types of components have been tested: (i) glass-fiber-concrete panels used for building façades and (ii) fiber-cement slabs used mainly for claddings, but also as a part of floor structures or lost shuttering, and so on.

Keywords: Atmospheric physical effect, building component, experiment, fiber-cement, glass-fiber-concrete, simulation, static behavior, test, warming, water sprinkling, weather.

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Authors: H. Taheri Shahraiyni, B. Ataie Ashtiani

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Flow movement in unsaturated soil can be expressed by a partial differential equation, named Richards equation. The objective of this study is the finding of an appropriate implicit numerical solution for head based Richards equation. Some of the well known finite difference schemes (fully implicit, Crank Nicolson and Runge-Kutta) have been utilized in this study. In addition, the effects of different approximations of moisture capacity function, convergence criteria and time stepping methods were evaluated. Two different infiltration problems were solved to investigate the performance of different schemes. These problems include of vertical water flow in a wet and very dry soils. The numerical solutions of two problems were compared using four evaluation criteria and the results of comparisons showed that fully implicit scheme is better than the other schemes. In addition, utilizing of standard chord slope method for approximation of moisture capacity function, automatic time stepping method and difference between two successive iterations as convergence criterion in the fully implicit scheme can lead to better and more reliable results for simulation of fluid movement in different unsaturated soils.

Keywords: Finite Difference methods, Richards equation, fullyimplicit, Crank-Nicolson, Runge-Kutta.

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Authors: Constantia Achilleos, Diofantos G. Hadjimitsis

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Road industry has challenged the prospect of ecoconstruction. Pavements may fit within the framework of sustainable development. Hence, research implements assessments of conventional pavements impacts on environment in use of life cycle approach. To meet global, and often national, targets on pollution control, newly introduced pavement designs are under study. This is the case of Cyprus demonstration, which occurred within EcoLanes project work. This alternative pavement differs on concrete layer reinforced with tire recycling product. Processing of post-consumer tires produces steel fibers improving strength capacity against cracking. Thus maintenance works are relevantly limited in comparison to flexible pavement. This enables to be more ecofriendly, referenced to current study outputs. More specific, proposed concrete pavement life cycle processes emits 15 % less air pollutants and consumes 28 % less embodied energy than those of the asphalt pavement. In addition there is also a reduction on costs by 0.06 %.

Keywords: Environmental impact assessment, life cycle, tirerecycling, transportation pavement.

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Authors: Rabia Göçmen, Gülşah Kanbur, Sinan Sefa Parlat

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Aim of this study is to determine the effects of cellular insulin receptor stimulators on performance, plasma glucose, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), total cholesterol, triglyceride, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) hormone levels, and incubation features in the breeding Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica). In the study, a total of 84 breeding quails was used, 6 weeks’ age, 24 are male and 60, female. Rations used in experiment are 2900 kcal/kg metabolic energy and 20% crude protein. Water pH is calibrated to 7.45. Ration and water were administered ad-libitum to the animals. As metformin source, metformin-HCl was used and as chrome resource, chromium picolinate was used. Trial groups were formed as control group (basal ration), metformin group (basal ration, added metformin at the level of feed of 20 mg/kg), and chromium picolinate (basal ration, added feed of 1500 ppb Cr) group. When regarded to the results of performance at the end of experiment, it is seen that live weight gain, feed consumption, egg weight, feed conversion ratio (Feed consumption/ egg weight), and egg production were affected at the significant level (p < 0.05). When the results are evaluated in terms of incubation features, hatchability and hatchability of fertile egg ratio were not affected from the treatments. Fertility ratio was significantly affected by metformin and chromium picolinate treatments and fertility rose at the significant level compared to control group (p < 0.05). According to results of experiment, plasma glucose level was not affected by metformin and chromium picolinate treatments. Plasma, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglyceride levels were significantly affected from insulin receptor stimulators added to ration (p < 0.05). Hormone level of Plasma T3 and T4 were also affected at the significant level from insulin receptor stimulators added to ration (p < 0.05).

Keywords: Chromium picolinate, cholesterol, hormone, metformin, quail.

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Authors: L. Mahnicka

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The alumosilicate ceramics with mullite crystalline phase are used in various branches of science and technique. The mullite refractory ceramics with high porosity serve as a heat insulator and as a constructional materials [1], [2]. The purpose of the work was to sinter high porosity ceramic and to increase the quantity of mullite phase in this mullite, mullite-corundum ceramics. Two types of compositions were prepared at during the experiment. The first type is compositions with commercial alumina and silica oxides. The second type is from mixing these oxides with 10, 20 and 30 wt.%. of kaolin. In all samples the Al2O3 and SiO2 were in 2.57:1 ratio, because that was conformed to mullite stechiometric compositions (3Al2O3.2SiO2). The types of alumina oxides were α-Al2O3 (d50=4µm) and γ-Al2O3 (d50=80µm). Ratios of α-: γ-Al2O3 were (1:1) or (1:3). The porous materials were prepared by slip casting of suspension of raw materials. The aluminium paste (0.18 wt.%) was used as a pore former. Water content in the suspensions was 26-47 wt.%. Pore formation occurred as a result of hydrogen formation in chemical reaction between aluminium paste and water [2]. The samples were sintered at the temperature of 1650°C and 1750°C for one hour. The increasing amount of kaolin, α-: γ-Al2O3 at the ratio (1:3) and sintering at the highest temperature raised the quantity of mullite phase. The mullite phase began to dominate over the corundum phase.

Keywords: Alumina, Kaolin, Mullite-corundum, Porous refractory ceramics

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Authors: Tatsuya Sakoda, Yuta Nakamura, Junichiro Kitajima, Masaki Sugiura, Satoshi Kurihara, Kenji Baba, Koichiro Kaneko, Takayoshi Yarimitsu

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An acoustic emission (AE) technique is useful for detection of partial discharges (PDs) at a joint and a terminal section of a cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable. For AE technique, it is not difficult to detect a PD using AE sensors. However, it is difficult to grasp whether the detected AE signal is owing to a single discharge or not. Additionally, when an AE technique is applied at a terminal section of a XLPE cable in salt pollution district, for example, there is possibility of detection of AE signals owing to creeping discharges on the surface of electric power apparatus. In this study, we evaluated AE signals in order to grasp what kind of information we can get from detected AE signals. The results showed that envelop detection of AE signal and a period which some AE signals were continuously detected were good indexes for estimating state-of-discharge.

Keywords: acoustic emission, creeping discharge, partial discharge, XLPE cable

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Authors: H. Al-Baghli, F. Al-Asfour

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The current applied asphalt technology for Kuwait roads pavement infrastructure is the hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement, including both pen grade and polymer modified bitumen (PMBs), that is produced and compacted at high temperature levels ranging from 150 to 180 °C. There are no current specifications for warm and cold mix asphalts in Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works (MPW) asphalt standard and specifications. The process of the conventional HMA is energy intensive and directly responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases and other environmental hazards into the atmosphere leading to significant environmental impacts and raising health risk to labors at site. Warm mix asphalt (WMA) technology, a sustainable alternative preferred in multiple countries, has many environmental advantages because it requires lower production temperatures than HMA by 20 to 40 °C. The reduction of temperatures achieved by WMA originates from multiple technologies including foaming and chemical or organic additives that aim to reduce bitumen and improve mix workability. This paper presents a literature review of WMA technologies and techniques followed by an experimental study aiming to compare the results of produced WMA samples, using a water containing additive (foaming process), at different compaction temperatures with the HMA control volumetric properties mix designed in accordance to the new MPW’s specifications and guidelines.

Keywords: Warm-mix asphalt, water-bearing additives, foaming-based process, chemical additives, organic additives.

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Authors: Arvind Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Dattatraya H. Nagaraj, Amanpreet Singh, Jayanthi Prattapati

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In recent years, the use of renewable energy resources instead of pollutant fossil fuels and other forms has increased. Photovoltaic generation is becoming increasingly important as a renewable resource since it does not cause in fuel costs, pollution, maintenance, and emitting noise compared with other alternatives used in power applications. In this paper, Perturb and Observe and Incremental Conductance methods are used to improve energy conversion efficiency under different environmental conditions. PI controllers are used to control easily DC-link voltage, active and reactive currents. The whole system is simulated under standard climatic conditions (1000 W/m2, 250C) in MATLAB and the irradiance is varied from 1000 W/m2 to 300 W/m2. The use of PI controller makes it easy to directly control the power of the grid connected PV system. Finally the validity of the system will be verified through the simulations in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Keywords: Incremental conductance algorithm, modeling of PV panel, perturb and observe algorithm, photovoltaic system and simulation results.

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Authors: P. Rahnemoon, M. Sarabi Jamab, M. Javanmard Dakheli, A. Bostan

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In recent years, tendency to use of natural antimicrobial agents in food industry has increased. Pomegranate peels containing phenolic compounds and anti-microbial agents, are counted as valuable source for extraction of these compounds. In this study, the extraction of pomegranate peel extract was carried out at different ethanol/water ratios (40:60, 60:40, and 80:20), temperatures (25, 40, and 55 ˚C), and time durations (20, 24, and 28 h). The extraction yield, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and anthocyanins were measured. ‎Antimicrobial activity of pomegranate peel extracts were determined against some food-borne ‎microorganisms such as Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, ‎‎Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae by agar diffusion and MIC methods. Results showed that at ethanol/water ratio 60:40, 25 ˚C and 24 h maximum amount of phenolic compounds ‎‏(‎‏‎349.518‎‏ ‏mg gallic acid‏/‏g dried extract), ‎flavonoids (250.124 mg rutin‏/‏g dried extract), anthocyanins (252.047 ‎‏‏mg ‎cyanidin‏‎3‎‏glucoside‏/‏‎100 g dried extract), and the strongest antimicrobial activity were obtained. ‎All extracts’ antimicrobial activities were demonstrated against every tested ‎‎microorganisms‏.‎‏ Staphylococcus aureus showed the highest sensitivity among the tested ‎‎‎microorganisms.

Keywords: Antimicrobial agents, phenolic compounds, pomegranate peel, solvent extraction.

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Authors: S. Somaratne, S. R. Weerakoon

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Heavy metal pollution is an environmental concern. Phytoremediation is a low-cost, environmental-friendly approach to solve this problem. Mustard has the potential in reducing heavy metal contents in soils. Among mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss) genotypes in Sri Lanka, accessions 7788, 8831 and 5088 give significantly a high yield. Therefore, present study was conducted to quantify the phytoextractive potential among these local mustard accessions and to assess the interaction of heavy metals, Pb, Co, Mn on phytoextraction. A pot experiment was designed with acid washed sand (quartz) and a series of heavy metal solutions of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 μg/g. Experiment was carried out with factorial experimental design. Mustard accessions were tolerant to heavy metals and could be successfully used in removal of Pb, Co and Mn and they are capable of accumulating significant quantities of heavy metals in vegetative and reproductive organs. The order of the accumulative potential of Pb, Co and Mn in mustard accessions is, root > shoot >seed.

Keywords: Brassica juncea, heavy metal hyper-accumulation, phytoremediation

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Authors: H. Al-Jabli

Abstract:

Using the freeze-melting process for the disposing of high saline brines was the aim of the paper by confirming the performance estimation of the treatment system. A laboratory bench scale freezing technique test unit was designed, constructed, and tested at Doha Research Plant (DRP) in Kuwait. The principal unit operations that have been considered for the laboratory study are: ice crystallization, separation, washing, and melting. The applied process is characterized as “the secondary-refrigerant indirect freezing”, which is utilizing normal freezing concept. The high saline brine was used as definite feed water, i.e. average TDS of 250,000 ppm. Kuwait desalination plants were carried out in the experimental study to measure the performance of the proposed treatment system. Experimental analysis shows that the freeze-melting process is capable of dropping the TDS of the feed water from 249,482 ppm to 56,880 ppm of the freeze-melting process in the two-phase’s course, whereas overall recovery results of the salt passage and salt rejection are 31.11%, 19.05%, and 80.95%, correspondingly. Therefore, the freeze-melting process is encouraging for the proposed application, as it shows on the results, which approves the process capability of reducing a major amount of the dissolved salts of the high saline brine with reasonable sensible recovery. This process might be reasonable with other brine disposal processes.

Keywords: High saline brine, freeze-melting process, ice crystallization, brine disposal process.

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Authors: Seema Singh, Puja Anand, Alok Bhasin

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The interior design profession aims to create aesthetically pleasing design solutions for human habitats but of late, growing awareness about depleting environmental resources, both tangible and intangible, and damages to the eco-system led to the quest for creating healthy and sustainable interior environments. The paper proposes adapting traditionally produced organic wool textiles for the mainstream interior design industry. This can create sustainable livelihoods whereby eco-friendly bridges can be built between Interior designers and consumers and pastoral communities. This study focuses on traditional textiles produced by two pastoral communities from India that use organic wool from indigenous sheep varieties. The Gaddi communities of Himachal Pradesh use wool from the Gaddi sheep breed to create Pattu (a multi-purpose textile). The Kurumas of Telangana weave a blanket called the Gongadi, using wool from the Black Deccani variety of sheep. These communities have traditionally reared indigenous sheep breeds for their wool and produce hand-spun and hand-woven textiles for their own consumption, using traditional processes that are chemical free. Based on data collected personally from field visits and documentation of traditional crafts of these pastoral communities, and using traditionally produced indigenous organic wool, the authors have developed innovative textile samples by including design interventions and exploring dyeing and weaving techniques. As part of the secondary research, the role of pastoralism in sustaining the eco-systems of Himachal Pradesh and Telangana was studied, and also the role of organic wool in creating healthy interior environments. The authors found that natural wool from indigenous sheep breeds can be used to create interior textiles that have the potential to be marketed to an urban audience, and this will help create earnings for pastoral communities. Literature studies have shown that organic & sustainable wool can reduce indoor pollution & toxicity levels in interiors and further help in creating healthier interior environments. Revival of indigenous breeds of sheep can further help in rejuvenating dying crafts, and promotion of these indigenous textiles can help in sustaining traditional eco-systems and the pastoral communities whose way of life is endangered today. Based on research and findings, the authors propose that adapting traditional textiles can have potential for application in Interiors, creating eco-friendly spaces. Interior textiles produced through such sustainable processes can help reduce indoor pollution, give livelihood opportunities to traditional economies, and leave almost zero carbon foot-print while being in sync with available natural resources, hence ultimately benefiting the society. The win-win situation for all the stakeholders in this eco-friendly model makes it pertinent to re-think how we design lifestyle textiles for interiors. This study illustrates a specific example from the two pastoral communities and can be used as a model that can work equally well in any community, regardless of geography.

Keywords: Design Intervention, Eco-Friendly, Healthy Interiors, Indigenous, Organic Wool, Pastoralism, Sustainability.

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Authors: Hamed Sadeghi, Pouya A. Panahi, Hamed Nasiri, Mohammad Sadeghi

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Collapsible soils like loess comprise an important category of problematic soils for construction purposes and sustainable development. As a result, research on both geological and geotechnical aspects of this type of soil have been in progress for decades. However, considerable natural variability in physical properties of in-situ loess strata even in a single block sample challenges the fundamental laboratory investigations. The reason behind this is that it is somehow impossible to remove the effect of a specific factor like void ratio from fair comparisons to come with a reliable conclusion. In order to cope with this limitation, two types of artificially made dispersive and calcareous loess are introduced which can be easily reproduced in any soil mechanics laboratory provided that all its compositions are known and controlled. The collapse potential is explored for a variety of soil water salinity and lime content and comparisons are made against the natural soil behavior. Trends are reported for the influence of pore water salinity on collapse potential under different osmotic flow conditions. The most important advantage of artificial loess is the ease of controlling cementing agent content like calcite or dispersive potential for studying their influence on mechanical soil behavior.

Keywords: Artificial loess, unsaturated soils, collapse potential, dispersive clays, laboratory tests.

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Authors: Francisco Javier Reyes Salazar, Héctor Mauricio Ramírez

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The coastal zones are home to mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and seagrass ecosystems, which are the most biodiverse and fragile on the planet. These areas support a great diversity of marine life; they are also extraordinarily important for humans in the provision of food, water, wood, and other associated goods and services; they also contribute to climate regulation. The lack of an automated model that generates information on the dynamics of changes in coastlines and coastal erosion is identified as a central problem. In this paper, coastlines were determined from 1984 to 2020 on the Google Earth Engine platform from Landsat and Sentinel images. Then, we determined the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and used Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) v5.0. Starting from the 2020 coastline; the 10-year prediction (Year 2031) was determined with the erosion of 238.32 hectares and an accretion of 181.96 hectares. For the 20-year prediction (Year 2041) will be presented an erosion of 544.04 hectares and an accretion of 133.94 hectares. The erosion and accretion of Playa Muelle in the municipality of Puerto Colombia were established, which will register the highest value of erosion. The coverage that presented the greatest change was that of artificialized territories.

Keywords: Coastline, coastal erosion, MNDWI, Google Earth Engine, Colombia.

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