Search results for: environmental preservation.
1426 Environmental Pollution and Health Risks of Residents Living Near Ewekoro Cement Factory, Ewekoro, Nigeria
Authors: Michael Ajide Oyinloye
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Generally the natural environment is made up of air, water and soil. The release of emission of industrial waste into anyone of the components of the environment causes pollution. Industrial pollution significantly threatens the inherent right of people, to the enjoyment of a safe and secure environment. The aim of this paper is to assess the effect of environmental pollution and health risks of residents living near Ewekoro cement factory. The research made use of IKONOS imagery for Geographical Information System (GIS) to buffer and extract buildings that are less than 1km to the factory, within 1km to 5km and above 5km to the factory. Also questionnaire was used to elicit information on the socio-economic factors, effect of environmental pollution on residents and measures adopted to control industrial pollution on the residents. Findings show that most buildings that fall between less than 1km and 1km to 5km to the factory have high health risk in the study area. The study recommended total relocation for the residents of the study area to reduce health risk problems.
Keywords: Environmental pollution, Ewekoro, GIS, Health risk, Satellite imagery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 56401425 Case Study on Innovative Aquatic-Based Bioeconomy for Chlorella sorokiniana
Authors: Iryna Atamaniuk, Hannah Boysen, Nils Wieczorek, Natalia Politaeva, Iuliia Bazarnova, Kerstin Kuchta
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Over the last decade due to climate change and a strategy of natural resources preservation, the interest for the aquatic biomass has dramatically increased. Along with mitigation of the environmental pressure and connection of waste streams (including CO2 and heat emissions), microalgae bioeconomy can supply food, feed, as well as the pharmaceutical and power industry with number of value-added products. Furthermore, in comparison to conventional biomass, microalgae can be cultivated in wide range of conditions without compromising food and feed production, thus addressing issues associated with negative social and the environmental impacts. This paper presents the state-of-the art technology for microalgae bioeconomy from cultivation process to production of valuable components and by-streams. Microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana were cultivated in the pilot-scale innovation concept in Hamburg (Germany) using different systems such as race way pond (5000 L) and flat panel reactors (8 x 180 L). In order to achieve the optimum growth conditions along with suitable cellular composition for the further extraction of the value-added components, process parameters such as light intensity, temperature and pH are continuously being monitored. On the other hand, metabolic needs in nutrients were provided by addition of micro- and macro-nutrients into a medium to ensure autotrophic growth conditions of microalgae. The cultivation was further followed by downstream process and extraction of lipids, proteins and saccharides. Lipids extraction is conducted in repeated-batch semi-automatic mode using hot extraction method according to Randall. As solvents hexane and ethanol are used at different ratio of 9:1 and 1:9, respectively. Depending on cell disruption method along with solvents ratio, the total lipids content showed significant variations between 8.1% and 13.9 %. The highest percentage of extracted biomass was reached with a sample pretreated with microwave digestion using 90% of hexane and 10% of ethanol as solvents. Proteins content in microalgae was determined by two different methods, namely: Total Kejadahl Nitrogen (TKN), which further was converted to protein content, as well as Bradford method using Brilliant Blue G-250 dye. Obtained results, showed a good correlation between both methods with protein content being in the range of 39.8–47.1%. Characterization of neutral and acid saccharides from microalgae was conducted by phenol-sulfuric acid method at two wavelengths of 480 nm and 490 nm. The average concentration of neutral and acid saccharides under the optimal cultivation conditions was 19.5% and 26.1%, respectively. Subsequently, biomass residues are used as substrate for anaerobic digestion on the laboratory-scale. The methane concentration, which was measured on the daily bases, showed some variations for different samples after extraction steps but was in the range between 48% and 55%. CO2 which is formed during the fermentation process and after the combustion in the Combined Heat and Power unit can potentially be used within the cultivation process as a carbon source for the photoautotrophic synthesis of biomass.Keywords: Bioeconomy, lipids, microalgae, proteins, saccharides.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9011424 European Environmental Policy for Road Transport: Analysis of the Perverse Effects Generated and Proposals for a Good Practice Guide
Authors: Pedro Pablo Ramírez Sánchez, Alassane Ballé Ndiaye, Roberto Rendeiro Martín-Cejas
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The aim of this paper is to analyse the different environmental policies adopted in Europe for car emissions, to comment on some of the possible perverse effects generated and point out these policies which are considered more efficient under the environmental perspective. This paper is focused on passenger cars as this category is the most significant in road transport. The utility of this research lies in this being the first step or basis to improve and optimise actual policies. The methodology applied in this paper refers to a comparative analysis from a practical and theoretical point of view of European environmental policies in road transport. This work describes an overview of the road transport industry in Europe pointing out some relevant aspects such as the contribution of road transport to total emissions and the vehicle fleet in Europe. Additionally, we propose a brief practice guide with the combined policies in order to optimise their aim.
Keywords: Air quality, climate change, emission, environment, perverse effect, road transport, tax policy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8891423 Collaborative Environmental Management: A Case Study Research of Stakeholders’ Collaboration in the Nigerian Oil-producing Region
Authors: Favour Makuochukwu Orji, Yingkui Zhao
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A myriad of environmental issues face the Nigerian industrial region, resulting from; oil and gas production, mining, manufacturing and domestic wastes. Amidst these, much effort has been directed by stakeholders in the Nigerian oil producing regions, because of the impacts of the region on the wider Nigerian economy. Although collaborative environmental management has been noted as an effective approach in managing environmental issues, little attention has been given to the roles and practices of stakeholders in effecting a collaborative environmental management framework for the Nigerian oil-producing region. This paper produces a framework to expand and deepen knowledge relating to stakeholders aspects of collaborative roles in managing environmental issues in the Nigeria oil-producing region. The knowledge is derived from analysis of stakeholders’ practices – studied through multiple case studies using document analysis. Selected documents of key stakeholders – Nigerian government agencies, multi-national oil companies and host communities, were analyzed. Open and selective coding was employed manually during document analysis of data collected from the offices and websites of the stakeholders. The findings showed that the stakeholders have a range of roles, practices, interests, drivers and barriers regarding their collaborative roles in managing environmental issues. While they have interests for efficient resource use, compliance to standards, sharing of responsibilities, generating of new solutions, and shared objectives; there is evidence of major barriers and these include resource allocation, disjointed policy, ineffective monitoring, diverse socio- economic interests, lack of stakeholders’ commitment and limited knowledge sharing. However, host communities hold deep concerns over the collaborative roles of stakeholders for economic interests, particularly, where government agencies and multi-national oil companies are involved. With these barriers and concerns, a genuine stakeholders’ collaboration is found to be limited, and as a result, optimal environmental management practices and policies have not been successfully implemented in the Nigeria oil-producing region. A framework is produced that describes practices that characterize collaborative environmental management might be employed to satisfy the stakeholders’ interests. The framework recommends critical factors, based on the findings, which may guide a collaborative environmental management in the oil producing regions. The recommendations are designed to re-define the practices of stakeholders in managing environmental issues in the oil producing regions, not as something wholly new, but as an approach essential for implementing a sustainable environmental policy. This research outcome may clarify areas for future research as well as to contribute to industry guidance in the area of collaborative environmental management.Keywords: Collaborative environmental management framework, document analysis, case studies, multinational oil companies, Nigerian oil-producing region, stakeholders analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24891422 Unsupervised Feature Selection Using Feature Density Functions
Authors: Mina Alibeigi, Sattar Hashemi, Ali Hamzeh
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Since dealing with high dimensional data is computationally complex and sometimes even intractable, recently several feature reductions methods have been developed to reduce the dimensionality of the data in order to simplify the calculation analysis in various applications such as text categorization, signal processing, image retrieval, gene expressions and etc. Among feature reduction techniques, feature selection is one the most popular methods due to the preservation of the original features. In this paper, we propose a new unsupervised feature selection method which will remove redundant features from the original feature space by the use of probability density functions of various features. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, popular feature selection methods have been implemented and compared. Experimental results on the several datasets derived from UCI repository database, illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods in comparison with the other compared methods in terms of both classification accuracy and the number of selected features.Keywords: Feature, Feature Selection, Filter, Probability Density Function
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20771421 Volterra Filtering Techniques for Removal of Gaussian and Mixed Gaussian-Impulse Noise
Authors: M. B. Meenavathi, K. Rajesh
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In this paper, we propose a new class of Volterra series based filters for image enhancement and restoration. Generally the linear filters reduce the noise and cause blurring at the edges. Some nonlinear filters based on median operator or rank operator deal with only impulse noise and fail to cancel the most common Gaussian distributed noise. A class of second order Volterra filters is proposed to optimize the trade-off between noise removal and edge preservation. In this paper, we consider both the Gaussian and mixed Gaussian-impulse noise to test the robustness of the filter. Image enhancement and restoration results using the proposed Volterra filter are found to be superior to those obtained with standard linear and nonlinear filters.
Keywords: Gaussian noise, Image enhancement, Imagerestoration, Linear filters, Nonlinear filters, Volterra series.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27321420 Adaptive Anisotropic Diffusion for Ultrasonic Image Denoising and Edge Enhancement
Authors: Shujun Fu, Qiuqi Ruan, Wenqia Wang, Yu Li
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Utilizing echoic intension and distribution from different organs and local details of human body, ultrasonic image can catch important medical pathological changes, which unfortunately may be affected by ultrasonic speckle noise. A feature preserving ultrasonic image denoising and edge enhancement scheme is put forth, which includes two terms: anisotropic diffusion and edge enhancement, controlled by the optimum smoothing time. In this scheme, the anisotropic diffusion is governed by the local coordinate transformation and the first and the second order normal derivatives of the image, while the edge enhancement is done by the hyperbolic tangent function. Experiments on real ultrasonic images indicate effective preservation of edges, local details and ultrasonic echoic bright strips on denoising by our scheme.
Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, coordinate transformation, directional derivatives, edge enhancement, hyperbolic tangent function, image denoising.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19001419 Internet: a New Medium to Promote Traditional Dances in Indonesia
Authors: Maria Satya Rani, Fandy Tjiptono, Suyoto
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As a multicultural country, Indonesia has many subcultures with unique performing arts. Some of them are well-known to international tourists, such as music ensemble (known as gamelan) in Bali and Java, shadow puppet play (wayang) in Java, and martial arts (known as pencak silat) in Sumatra. Some examples of famous traditional dances in Indonesia are Srimpi from Yogyakarta and Solo, Legong from Bali, and Gong dance from Kalimantan. Performing arts show the identity of a nation. However, they are a complex subject, especially when they are addressed to children. The performing arts, e.g. music, dance theatre, and opera are experiential, experimental, and emotionally charged. Therefore, the right strategy and promotion need to be developed to engage children to appreciate and preserve traditional dances. This study aims to explore and identify possibilities of internet usage as a medium to promote traditional dances, especially to children in Indonesia.Keywords: children education, culture preservation in Indonesia, national identity, online promotion
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21371418 Degradation of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Components across Locations
Authors: Timothy E. Frank, Josh R. Aldred, Sophie B. Boulware, Michelle K. Cabonce, Justin H. White
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Materials degrade at different rates in different environments depending on factors such as temperature, aridity, salinity, and solar radiation. Therefore, predicting asset longevity depends, in part, on the environmental conditions to which the asset is exposed. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are critical to building operations yet are responsible for a significant proportion of their energy consumption. HVAC energy use increases substantially with slight operational inefficiencies. Understanding the environmental influences on HVAC degradation in detail will inform maintenance schedules and capital investment, reduce energy use, and increase lifecycle management efficiency. HVAC inspection records spanning 14 years from 21 locations across the United States were compiled and associated with the climate conditions to which they were exposed. Three environmental features were explored in this study: average high temperature, average low temperature, and annual precipitation, as well as four non-environmental features. Initial insights showed no correlations between individual features and the rate of HVAC component degradation. Using neighborhood component analysis, however, the most critical features related to degradation were identified. Two models were considered, and results varied between them. However, longitude and latitude emerged as potentially the best predictors of average HVAC component degradation. Further research is needed to evaluate additional environmental features, increase the resolution of the environmental data, and develop more robust models to achieve more conclusive results.
Keywords: Climate, infrastructure degradation, HVAC, neighborhood component analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1721417 Species Spreading due to Environmental Hostility, Dispersal Adaptation and Allee Effects
Authors: Sanjeeva Balasuriya
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A phenomenological model for species spreading which incorporates the Allee effect, a species- maximum attainable growth rate, collective dispersal rate and dispersal adaptability is presented. This builds on a well-established reaction-diffusion model for spatial spreading of invading organisms. The model is phrased in terms of the “hostility" (which quantifies the Allee threshold in relation to environmental sustainability) and dispersal adaptability (which measures how a species is able to adapt its migratory response to environmental conditions). The species- invading/retreating speed and the sharpness of the invading boundary are explicitly characterised in terms of the fundamental parameters, and analysed in detail.
Keywords: Allee effect, dispersal, migration speed, diffusion, invasion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12641416 An Optimization Analysis on an Automotive Component with Fatigue Constraint Using HyperWorks Software for Environmental Sustainability
Authors: W. M. Wan Muhamad, E. Sujatmika, M.R. Idris, S.A. Syed Ahmad
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A finite element analysis (FEA) computer software HyperWorks is utilized in re-designing an automotive component to reduce its mass. Reduction of components mass contributes towards environmental sustainability by saving world-s valuable metal resources and by reducing carbon emission through improved overall vehicle fuel efficiency. A shape optimization analysis was performed on a rear spindle component. Pre-processing and solving procedures were performed using HyperMesh and RADIOSS respectively. Shape variables were defined using HyperMorph. Then optimization solver OptiStruct was utilized with fatigue life set as a design constraint. Since Stress-Number of Cycle (S-N) theory deals with uni-axial stress, the Signed von Misses stress on the component was used for looking up damage on S-N curve, and Gerber criterion for mean stress corrections. The optimization analysis resulted in mass reduction of 24% of the original mass. The study proved that the adopted approach has high potential use for environmental sustainability.
Keywords: Environmental Sustainability, Shape Optimization, Fatigue, Rear Spindle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 42911415 Contingent Pay and Experience with its use by Organizations of the Czech Republic Operating in the Field of Environmental Protection
Authors: Petra Horváthová, Marcela Davidová, Miroslava Bendová
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One part of the total employee-s reward is apart from basic wages or salary, employee-s benefits and intangible elements also so called contingent (variable) pay. Contingent pay is connected to performance, contribution, capcompetency or skills of individual employees, and to team-s or company-wide performance or to combination of few of the mentioned possibilities. Main aim of this article is to define, based on available information, contingent pay, describe reasons for its implementation and arguments for and against this type of remuneration, but also bring information not only about its extent and level of utilization by organizations of the Czech Republic operating in the field of environmental protection, but also mention their practical experience with this type of remuneration.
Keywords: Contingent pay, environmental protection, experience in using, organizations of the Czech Republic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38311414 A Comparative Study on the Impact of Global Warming of Applying Low Carbon Factor Concrete Products
Authors: Su-Hyun Cho, Chang-U Chae
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Environmental impact assessment techniques have been developed as a result of the worldwide efforts to reduce the environmental impact of global warming. By using the quantification method in the construction industry, it is now possible to manage the greenhouse gas is to systematically evaluate the impact on the environment over the entire construction process. In particular, the proportion of greenhouse gas emissions at the production stage of construction material occupied is high, and efforts are needed in particular in the construction field. In this research, intended for concrete products for the construction materials, by using the LCA method, we compared the results of environmental impact assessment and carbon emissions of developing products that have been applied low-carbon technologies compared to existing products. As a results, by introducing a raw material of industrial waste, showed carbon reduction. Through a comparison of the carbon emission reduction effect of low carbon technologies, it is intended to provide academic data for the evaluation of greenhouse gases in the construction sector and the development of low carbon technologies of the future.
Keywords: CO2 Emissions, CO2 Reduction, Ready-mixed Concrete, Environmental Impact Assessment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20581413 Utilization of Advanced Data Storage Technology to Conduct Construction Industry on Clear Environment
Authors: Javad Majrouhi Sardroud, Mukesh C. Limbachiya
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Construction projects generally take place in uncontrolled and dynamic environments where construction waste is a serious environmental problem in many large cities. The total amount of waste and carbon dioxide emissions from transportation vehicles are still out of control due to increasing construction projects, massive urban development projects and the lack of effective tools for minimizing adverse environmental impacts in construction. This research is about utilization of the integrated applications of automated advanced tracking and data storage technologies in the area of environmental management to monitor and control adverse environmental impacts such as construction waste and carbon dioxide emissions. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) integrated with the Global Position System (GPS) provides an opportunity to uniquely identify materials, components, and equipments and to locate and track them using minimal or no worker input. The transmission of data to the central database will be carried out with the help of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).Keywords: Clear environment, Construction industry, RFID.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18681412 Brazilian Environmental Public Policies Analysis
Authors: Estela Macedo Alves
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This paper is an overview on public policy analysis focused on the study of Brazilian public policy making process. The methodology is based on the review of some theories on the subject, linking them to Brazilian reality. The study presents basic policy analysis concepts, such as policy, polity and politics. It is emphasized John Kingdon's Multiple Stream Model, because of its clarifying aspects concerning public policies formulation process in democratic countries. In this path it was possible to establish interpretations on environmental public policies in Brazil and understand its methods, instead of presenting only a case study. At the end, it is possible to connect theory with Brazilian reality, identifying negative and positive points of its political processes and structure.
Keywords: Brazilian policies, environmental public policy, multiple stream model, public policy analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21701411 Effect of Smoke Drying Techniques on the Proximate and Mineral Composition of Macrobrachium vollenhovenii (African River Prawn)
Authors: D. E. Omomo, R. M. Sunday, I. Kareem
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This study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional composition of the African River Prawn (Macrobrachium vollenhovenii) in relation to Chokor (traditional) and Altona (improved traditional) drying techniques used in the preservation and processing of prawns by carrying out proximate composition analysis. The value obtained for the proximate analysis of Chokor and Altona smoke dried prawns were; Moisture (14.90% and 15.15%), Dry matter (85.10% and 84.85%), Protein (55.80% and 58.87%), Crude fat (1.95% and 1.98%), Crude fibre (21.40% and 13.11%), Carbohydrate (0.54% and 0.54%) and Ash (19.76% and 15.86%) respectively. The proximate mineral composition of Chokor and Altona smoke dried prawns were; Calcium (5.66% and 4.20%) and Phosphorus (9. 22% and 6.34%) respectively. Result shows there was no loss of nutritional value with respect to Chokor and Altona drying techniques used in the processing of prawns.
Keywords: Altona, Chokor, Macrobrachium vollenhovenii, Proximate composition, Smoke drying.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20601410 Evaluation of an Offshore Wind Power Project: Economic, Strategic and Environmental Value
Authors: Paula Ferreira, Filipa Vieira
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The use of wind energy for electricity generation is growing rapidly across the world and in Portugal. However, the geographical characteristics of the country along with the average wind regime and with the environmental restrictions imposed to these projects create limitations to the exploit of the onshore wind resource. The best onshore wind spots are already committed and the possibility of offshore wind farms in the Portuguese cost is now being considered. This paper aims to make a contribution to the evaluation of offshore wind power projects in Portugal. The technical restrictions are addressed and the strategic, environmental and financial interest of the project is analysed from the private company and public points of view. The results suggest that additional support schemes are required to ensure private investors interest for these projects. Assuming an approach of direct substitution of energy sources for electricity generation, the avoided CO2 equivalent emissions for an offshore wind power project were quantified. Based on the conclusions, future research is proposed to address the environmental and social impacts of these projects.Keywords: Feed-in tariff, offshore wind power, project evaluation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19561409 Preservation of Millet Flour by Refrigeration: Changes in Total Protein and Amino Acids Composition During Storage
Authors: ElShazali A. Mohamed, Isam A. Mohamed Ahmed, Elfadil E. Babiker
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This work describes refrigeration effects during storage on total protein and amino acids composition of raw and processed flour of two pearl millet cultivars (Ashana and Dembi). The protein content of the whole raw flour was found to be 14.46 and 13.38% for Ashana and Dembi cultivars, respectively. Dehulling of the grains reduced the protein content to 13.38 and 12.67% for the cultivars, respectively. For both cultivars, the protein content of the whole and dehulled raw flour before and after cooking was slightly decreased when the flour was stored for 60 days even after refrigeration. The effect of refrigeration process in combination with the storage period, cooking or dehulling was found to be vary between amino acids and even between cultivars. Regardless of the storage period and processing method, the amino acids content was remained unchanged after refrigeration for both cultivars.
Keywords: Amino acids, dehulling, Irradiation, Millet, protein content.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19191408 The Management Accountant’s Roles for Creation of Corporate Shared Value
Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana
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This study investigates the management accountant’s roles that link with the creation of corporate shared value to enable more effective decision-making and improve the information needs of stakeholders. Mixed method is employed to collect using triangulation for credibility. A quantitative approach is employed to conduct a survey of 200 Thai companies providing annual reports in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The results of the study reveal that environmental and social data incorporated in a corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure are based on the indicators of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) at a statistically significant level of 0.01. Environmental and social indicators in CSR are associated with environmental and social data disclosed in the annual report to support stakeholders’ and the public’s interests that are addressed and show that a significant relationship between environmental and social in CSR disclosures and the information in annual reports is statistically significant at the 0.01 level.
Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, creating shared value, management accountant’s roles, stock exchange of Thailand.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9961407 Web-Based Tools to Increase Public Understanding of Nuclear Technology and Food Irradiation
Authors: Denise Levy, Anna Lucia C. H. Villavicencio
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Food irradiation is a processing and preservation technique to eliminate insects and parasites and reduce disease-causing microorganisms. Moreover, the process helps to inhibit sprouting and delay ripening, extending fresh fruits and vegetables shelf-life. Nevertheless, most Brazilian consumers seem to misunderstand the difference between irradiated food and radioactive food and the general public has major concerns about the negative health effects and environmental contamination. Society´s judgment and decision making are directly linked to perceived benefits and risks. The web-based project entitled ‘Scientific information about food irradiation: Internet as a tool to approach science and society’ was created by the Nuclear and Energetic Research Institute (IPEN), in order to offer an interdisciplinary approach to science education, integrating economic, ethical, social and political aspects of food irradiation. This project takes into account that, misinformation and unfounded preconceived ideas impact heavily on the acceptance of irradiated food and purchase intention by the Brazilian consumer. Taking advantage of the potential value of the Internet to enhance communication and education among general public, a research study was carried out regarding the possibilities and trends of Information and Communication Technologies among the Brazilian population. The content includes concepts, definitions and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about processes, safety, advantages, limitations and the possibilities of food irradiation, including health issues, as well as its impacts on the environment. The project counts on eight self-instructional interactive web courses, situating scientific content in relevant social contexts in order to encourage self-learning and further reflections. Communication is a must to improve public understanding of science. The use of information technology for quality scientific divulgation shall contribute greatly to provide information throughout the country, spreading information to as many people as possible, minimizing geographic distances and stimulating communication and development.
Keywords: Food irradiation, multimedia learning tools, nuclear science, society and education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15401406 A Survey on E-Guide to Educational Tour Planning in Environmental Science among Standard Six Primary School Students the Ministry of Education Malaysia
Authors: A. Halim Sahelan, Mohd Halid Abu, Jamaluddin Hashim, Zulisman Maksom, Mohd Afif Md Nasir
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This study aims to assess the students' needs for the tour planning e-guide. The study is developing on the contribution and importance of the Educational Tour Planning Guide (ETP) is a multimedia course ware as one of the effective methods in teaching and learning of environmental science among the students in primary schools of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. It is to provide the student with knowledge and experience about tourism, environmental science activities and process. E-guide to ETP also hopes to strengthen the student understanding toward the subject learn in the tourism environmental science. In order to assess the student's needs on the e-Guide to Educational Tour Planning in Environmental Science, the study has produced a similar e-Guide to ETP in the form as a course ware to be tested during the study. The study has involved several steps in order to be completed. It is such as the formulation of the problem, the review of the literature, the formulation of the study methodology, the production of the e-Guide to ETP, field survey and finally the analyses and discussion made on the data gathered during the study. The survey has involved 100 respondents among the students in standard six primary schools in Kluang Johor. Through the findings, the study indicates that the current tested product is acceptable among the students in learning environmental science as a guide to plan for the tour. The findings also show a slight difference between the respondents who are using the e-Guide to ETP, and those who are not on the basis of the e-Guide to ETP results. Due the important for the study, the researcher hopes to be having a fair discussion and excellence, recommendation for the development of the product of the current study. This report is written also important to provide a written reference for the future related study.Keywords: Tour planning e-guide, educational tour planning guide, environmental science, multimedia course ware.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20201405 Relation between Environmental Accounting and Pillars of Sustainability
Authors: P. Harazin, Gy. Horváth
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There are four challenges of sustainable development and in corporate level sustainability management-s role is to answer for ecological sustainability challenge, social sustainability challenge, economic sustainability challenges to environment and social management and integration challenge of corporate sustainable challenges by the help of different concepts, methods, instruments, which are in the toolbox of sustainability management. These instruments, concepts have different relevance in these challenges, and according to different literatures environmental management is outside of social and integration challenge. Main aim of this paper is to represent the answer for the question that: is it true that social and integration point of view is outside of the concept environmental accounting? Using literature review and primer research at the end of the paper the answer will be confirmed.Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, Environmentalaccounting, Integration, Sustainability management
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24811404 Design and Sensitivity Analysis of Photovoltaic/Thermal Solar Collector
Authors: H. M. Farghally, N. M. Ahmed, H. T. El-Madany, D. M. Atia, F. H. Fahmy
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Energy is required in almost every aspect of human activities and development of any nation in the world. Increasing fossil fuel price, energy security and climate change have important bearings on sustainable development of any nation. The renewable energy technology is considered one of the drastic approaches which taken over the world to reduce the energy problem. The preservation of vegetables by freezing is one of the most important methods of retaining quality in agricultural products over long-term storage periods. Freezing factories show high demand of energy for both heat and electricity; the hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) systems could be used in order to meet this requirement. This paper presents PV/T system design for freezing factory. Also, the complete mathematical modeling and MATLAB SIMULINK of PV/T collector is introduced. The sensitivity analysis for the manufacturing parameters of PV/T collector is carried out to study their effect on both thermal and electrical efficiency.
Keywords: Renewable energy, Hybrid PV/T system, Sensitivity analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38941403 Renewal Plan for the Old Part of Chittagong: A Case Study of Firingi Bazar
Authors: A. T. M. Shahjahan, M. D. Kamrul Islam, Saikat Mitra, Kutub Uddin Chisty
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Due to rapid pressured of population growth, city has started to lose its old tradition. City becomes congested with uncomfortably living. Urban renewal refers orderly development of settlements as well as land redevelopment. For this paper Chittagong city has been selected as study area. It had a great tradition but it has been losing its concord. Land use pattern of this place is also haphazard due to lack of planning intervention. Renewal plan is needed to ascertain suitable redevelopment and to recommend on preservation of city heritage structure. The goal of this study is to prepare a renewal plan using local planning approach. Social impact methods have been used to achieve this goal. Both primary and secondary data are used to achieve the goal. This study may find out a complete solution for healthy living in old Part of city. This study will help to preserve its tradition and makes urban lives more livable.Keywords: Renewal Plan, Social Impact.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29341402 Tool for Metadata Extraction and Content Packaging as Endorsed in OAIS Framework
Authors: Payal Abichandani, Rishi Prakash, Paras Nath Barwal, B. K. Murthy
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Information generated from various computerization processes is a potential rich source of knowledge for its designated community. To pass this information from generation to generation without modifying the meaning is a challenging activity. To preserve and archive the data for future generations it’s very essential to prove the authenticity of the data. It can be achieved by extracting the metadata from the data which can prove the authenticity and create trust on the archived data. Subsequent challenge is the technology obsolescence. Metadata extraction and standardization can be effectively used to resolve and tackle this problem. Metadata can be categorized at two levels i.e. Technical and Domain level broadly. Technical metadata will provide the information that can be used to understand and interpret the data record, but only this level of metadata isn’t sufficient to create trustworthiness. We have developed a tool which will extract and standardize the technical as well as domain level metadata. This paper is about the different features of the tool and how we have developed this.
Keywords: Digital Preservation, Metadata, OAIS, PDI, XML.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18241401 Hydrological Method to Evaluate Environmental Flow (Case Study: Gharasou River, Ardabil)
Authors: Mehdi Fuladipanah, Mehdi Jorabloo
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Water flow management is one of the most important parts of river engineering. Non-uniformity distribution of rainfall and various flow demand with unreasonable flow management will be caused destroyed of river ecosystem. Then, it is very serious to determine ecosystem flow requirement. In this paper, Flow duration curve indices method which has hydrological based was used to evaluate environmental flow in Gharasou River, Ardabil, Iran. Using flow duration curve, Q90 and Q95 for different return periods were calculated. Their magnitude were determined as 1-day, 3-day, 7-day and 30 day. According the second method, hydraulic alteration indices often had low and medium range. In order to maintain river at an acceptable ecological condition, minimum daily discharge of index Q95 is 0.7 m3.s-1.
Keywords: Ardabil, Environmental flow, Flow Duration Curve, Gharasou River.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22851400 Analysis of Green Wood Preservation Chemicals
Authors: Aitor Barbero-López, Soumaya Chibily, Gerhard Scheepers, Thomas Grahn, Martti Venäläinen, Antti Haapala
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Wood decay is addressed continuously within the wood industry through use and development of wood preservatives. The increasing awareness on the negative effects of many chemicals towards the environment is causing political restrictions in their use and creating more urgent need for research on green alternatives. This paper discusses some of the possible natural extracts for wood preserving applications and compares the analytical methods available for testing their behavior and efficiency against decay fungi. The results indicate that natural extracts have interesting chemical constituents that delay fungal growth but vary in efficiency depending on the chemical concentration and substrate used. Results also suggest that presence and redistribution of preservatives in wood during exposure trials can be assessed by spectral imaging methods although standardized methods are not available. This study concludes that, in addition to the many standard methods available, there is a need to develop new faster methods for screening potential preservative formulation while maintaining the comparability and relevance of results.
Keywords: Analytics, methods, preservatives, wood decay.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9901399 Environmental Issues Related to Nuclear Desalination
Authors: V. Anastasov, I.Khamis
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The paper presents an overview of environmental issues that may be expected with nuclear desalination. The analysis of coupling nuclear power with desalination plants indicates that adverse marine impacts can be mitigated with alternative intake designs or cooling systems. The atmospheric impact of desalination may be greatly reduced through the coupling with nuclear power, while maximizing the socio-economic benefit for both processes. The potential for tritium contamination of the desalinated water was reviewed. Experience with the systems and practices related to the radiological quality of the product water, shows no examples of cross-contamination. Furthermore, the indicators for the public acceptance of nuclear desalination, as one of the most important sustainability aspects of any such large project, show a positive trend. From the data collected, a conclusion is made that nuclear desalination should be supported by decision-makers.Keywords: Environmental impacts, nuclear desalination, publicacceptance, tritium.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26301398 HelpMeBreathe: A Web-Based System for Asthma Management
Authors: Alia Al Rayssi, Mahra Al Marar, Alyazia Alkhaili, Reem Al Dhaheri, Shayma Alkobaisi, Hoda Amer
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We present in this paper a web-based system called “HelpMeBreathe” for managing asthma. The proposed system provides analytical tools, which allow better understanding of environmental triggers of asthma, hence better support of data-driven decision making. The developed system provides warning messages to a specific asthma patient if the weather in his/her area might cause any difficulty in breathing or could trigger an asthma attack. HelpMeBreathe collects, stores, and analyzes individuals’ moving trajectories and health conditions as well as environmental data. It then processes and displays the patients’ data through an analytical tool that leads to an effective decision making by physicians and other decision makers.
Keywords: Asthma, environmental triggers, map interface, peak flow, web-based system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8691397 Environmental Management System According to ISO 14001 as a Source of Eco-Innovations in Enterprises - A Case of Podkarpackie Voivodeship
Authors: M. Hajduk-Stelmachowicz
Abstract:
This paper presents results of empirical studies that were conducted in enterprises from Podkarpackie Voivodeship (Poland). It shows the experiences of those enterprises resulting from implementing and improving the eco-innovativeness management that is formal Environmental Management System (EMS). This study shows the expected and obtained internal benefits which are the effects of a functioning EMS. The aim of this paper is to determine whether the information included in international theoretical studies concerning the benefits of implementing, functioning and improving formal EMS (which is based on the international standard ISO 14001) are confirmed by the effects of the enterprises- activities.
Keywords: Eco-innovations, Environmental Management System (EMS), ISO 14001, Podkarpackie Voivodeship (Poland).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2177