Search results for: mature landfill leachate
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 143

Search results for: mature landfill leachate

83 Treatment of Leaden Sludge of Algiers Refinery by Electrooxidation

Authors: K. Ighilahriz, M. Taleb Ahmed, R. Maachi

Abstract:

Oil industries are responsible for most cases of contamination of our ecosystem by oil and heavy metals. They are toxic and considered carcinogenic and dangerous even when they exist in trace amounts. At Algiers refinery, production, transportation, and refining of crude oil generate considerable waste in storage tanks; these residues result from the gravitational settling. The composition of these residues is essentially a mixture of hydrocarbon and lead. We propose in this work the application of electrooxidation treatment for the leachate of the leaden sludge. The effect of pH, current density and the electrolysis time were studied, the effectiveness of the processes is evaluated by measuring the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The dissolution is the best way to mobilize pollutants from leaden mud, so we conducted leaching before starting the electrochemical treatment. The process was carried out in batch mode using graphite anode and a stainless steel cathode. The results clearly demonstrate the compatibility of the technique used with the type of pollution studied. In fact, it allowed COD removal about 80%.

Keywords: Electrooxidation, leaching, leaden sludge, the oil industry.

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82 Ecotoxicological Safety of Wastewater Treated with Lignocellulosic Adsorbents

Authors: Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes, Artur Figueirinha, Isabel Brás, Bruno Esteves

Abstract:

Portugal is an important wine and olive oil producer, activities which generate a high quantity of residues commonly called grape stalks and olive cake, respectively. In this work grape stalks and olive cake were used as lignocellulosic adsorbents for wastewater containing lead treatment. To attain a better knowledge of the factors that could influence the quality of the treated wastewater, a chemical characterization of the materials used in the treatment was done. To access the ecotoxicological safety of the treated wastewater, several tests were performed.

The results of the toxicity test show that the samples leachate has a mild effect on the living models tested. The tests performed in lemna and bacteria were the most sensible to toxicity effects of the samples. The results obtained in this work evidenced the importance of use of simple and fast toxicity tests to predict impacts in the environment.

Keywords: Chemical composition, ecotoxicological, lignocellulosic residues, safety.

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81 Sampling and Characterization of Fines Created during the Shredding of Non Hazardous Waste

Authors: Soukaina Oujana, Peggy Zwolinski

Abstract:

Fines are heterogeneous residues created during the shredding of non-hazardous waste. They are one of the most challenging issues faced by recyclers, because they are at the present time considered as non-sortable and non-reusable mixtures destined to landfill. However, fines contain a large amount of recoverable materials that could be recycled or reused for the production of solid recovered fuel. This research is conducted in relation to a project named ValoRABES. The aim is to characterize fines and establish a suitable sorting process in order to extract the materials contained in the mixture and define their suitable recovery paths. This paper will highlight the importance of a good sampling and will propose a sampling methodology for fines characterization. First results about the characterization will be also presented.

Keywords: Fines, non-hazardous waste, recovery, shredding residues, waste characterization, waste sampling.

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80 Effect of Salt Solution and Plasticity Index on undrain Shear Strength of Clays

Authors: S .A. Naeini, M. A. Jahanfar

Abstract:

Compacted clay liners (CCLs) are the main materials used in waste disposal landfills due to their low permeability. In this study, the effect on the shear resistant of clays with inorganic salt solutions as permeate fluid was experimentally investigated. For this purpose, NaCl inorganic salt solution at concentrations of 2, 5, 10% and deionized water were used. Laboratory direct shear and Vane shear tests were conducted on three compacted clays with low, medium and high plasticity. Results indicated that the solutions type and its concentration affect the shear properties of the mixture. In the light of this study, the influence magnitude of these inorganic salts in varies concentrations in different clays were determined and more suitable compacted clay with the compare of plasticity were found.

Keywords: landfill liner, shear resistant, plasticity, salt solution

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79 Review of Studies on Agility in Knowledge Management

Authors: Ferdi Sönmez, Başak Buluz

Abstract:

Agility in Knowledge Management (AKM) tries to capture agility requirements and their respective answers within the framework of knowledge and learning for organizations. Since it is rather a new construct, it is difficult to claim that it has been sufficiently discussed and analyzed in practical and theoretical realms. Like the term ‘agile learning’, it is also commonly addressed in the software development and information technology fields and across the related areas where those technologies can be applied. The organizational perspective towards AKM, seems to need some more time to become scholarly mature. Nevertheless, in the literature one can come across some implicit usages of this term occasionally. This research is aimed to explore the conceptual background of agility in KM, re-conceptualize it and extend it to business applications with a special focus on e-business.

Keywords: Knowledge management, agility requirements, agility in knowledge management, knowledge.

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78 The Development of Decision Support System for Waste Management; a Review

Authors: M. S. Bani, Z. A. Rashid, K. H. K. Hamid, M. E. Harbawi, A.B.Alias, M. J. Aris

Abstract:

Most Decision Support Systems (DSS) for waste management (WM) constructed are not widely marketed and lack practical applications. This is due to the number of variables and complexity of the mathematical models which include the assumptions and constraints required in decision making. The approach made by many researchers in DSS modelling is to isolate a few key factors that have a significant influence to the DSS. This segmented approach does not provide a thorough understanding of the complex relationships of the many elements involved. The various elements in constructing the DSS must be integrated and optimized in order to produce a viable model that is marketable and has practical application. The DSS model used in assisting decision makers should be integrated with GIS, able to give robust prediction despite the inherent uncertainties of waste generation and the plethora of waste characteristics, and gives optimal allocation of waste stream for recycling, incineration, landfill and composting.

Keywords: Review, decision support system, GIS and waste management.

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77 Determination of Material Properties for Biodegradable Polylactic Acid Plastic Used in 3D Printers

Authors: Juraj Beniak, Ľubomír Šooš, Peter Križan, Miloš Matúš

Abstract:

Within Rapid Prototyping technologies are used many types of materials. Many of them are recyclable but there are still as plastic like, so practically they do not degrade in the landfill. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the special plastic materials, which are biodegradable and available for 3D printing within Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. The question is, if the mechanical properties of produced models are comparable to similar technical plastic materials which are usual for prototype production. Presented paper shows the experiments results for tensile strength measurements for specimens prepared with different 3D printer settings and model orientation. Paper contains also the comparison of tensile strength values with values measured on specimens produced by conventional technologies as injection moulding.

Keywords: 3D printing, biodegradable plastic, fused deposition modeling, PLA plastic, rapid prototyping.

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76 Curriculum of Ethical Education in Slovakia

Authors: Petra Fridrichová, Eva Balážová

Abstract:

Ethical Education is a compulsorily optional subject in primary and secondary schools. The Ethical Education objective is the education of a personality with one´s own identity, with interiorized ethical standards, with mature moral judgement and therefore with the behaviour determined by one´s own beliefs; with a positive attitude to himself/herself and other people and that is why he/she is able to cooperate and to initiate cooperation. In the paper we describe the contents and the principles of Ethical education. We also shows that Ethical education is subject supported primary socialpathological prevention and education to citizenship. In this context we try to show that ethical education contributes to the education of good people who are aware of the necessity to respect social norms and are able to assume responsibility for their own behaviour in any situation at present and in the future.

Keywords: Ethical education, Curriculum of Ethical education, The Contents of Ethical education in Slovakia, The principles of Ethical education

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75 Municipal Solid Waste Management in KhoramAbad City and Experiences

Authors: Ali Jafari, Hatam Godini, Saed Hamed Mirhousaini

Abstract:

This paper presents an overview of current municipal solid waste management in Khoram Abad city. According to data collected by the local authorities, the waste generation rate is estimated to be 800 g/cap.d with density of 243 kg/m3. Solid waste is stored in different types of containers at the source of generation in different areas of the city. Local Authority is responsible for waste collection, transportation. Municipality is responsible for waste collection, using private sector contracts. At present, both mechanical and manual methods are used to collect residential waste. Manual methods of collection are the most commonly used for waste collection in most parts of the city. Land filling is the main disposal method in this city. But it has some obvious problem and deficiencies The current state of solid waste management has been improved slightly in the last decade. By more actions can reduce the human and environmental risks.

Keywords: Disposal, Landfill, management, solid waste.

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74 A New Method for Complex Goods Selection in Electronic Markets

Authors: Mohammad Ali Tabarzad, Caro Lucas, Nassim Jafarzadeh Eslami

Abstract:

After the development of the Internet a suitable discipline for trading goods electronically has been emerged. However, this type of markets is not still mature enough in order to become independent and get closer to seller/buyer-s needs. Furthermore, the buyable and sellable goods in these markets still don-t have essential standards for being well-defined. In this paper, we will present a model for development of a market which can contain goods with variable definitions and we will also investigate its characteristics. Besides, by noticing the fact that people have different discriminations, it-s figured out that the significance of each attribute of a specific product may vary from different people-s view points. Consequently we-ll present a model for weighting and accordingly different people-s view points could be satisfied. These two aspects will be discussed completely throughout this paper.

Keywords: Electronic markets, selection of multi attributegoods, data infusion.

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73 Quantification of Methane Emissions from Solid Waste in Oman Using IPCC Default Methodology

Authors: Wajeeha A. Qazi, Mohammed-Hasham Azam, Umais A. Mehmood, Ghithaa A. Al-Mufragi, Noor-Alhuda Alrawahi, Mohammed F. M. Abushammala

Abstract:

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposed in landfill sites decompose under anaerobic conditions and produce gases which mainly contain carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Methane has the potential of causing global warming 25 times more than CO2, and can potentially affect human life and environment. Thus, this research aims to determine MSW generation and the annual CH4 emissions from the generated waste in Oman over the years 1971-2030. The estimation of total waste generation was performed using existing models, while the CH4 emissions estimation was performed using the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) default method. It is found that total MSW generation in Oman might be reached 3,089 Gg in the year 2030, which approximately produced 85 Gg of CH4 emissions in the year 2030.

Keywords: Methane, emissions, landfills, solid waste.

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72 Identification of an Appropriate Alternative Waste Technology for Energy Recovery from Waste through Multi-Criteria Analysis

Authors: Sharmina Begum, M. G. Rasul, Delwar Akbar

Abstract:

Waste management is now a global concern due to its high environmental impact on climate change. Because of generating huge amount of waste through our daily activities, managing waste in an efficient way has become more important than ever. Alternative Waste Technology (AWT), a new category of waste treatment technology has been developed for energy recovery in recent years to address this issue. AWT describes a technology that redirects waste away from landfill, recovers more useable resources from the waste flow and reduces the impact on the surroundings. Australia is one of the largest producers of waste per-capita. A number of AWTs are using in Australia to produce energy from waste. Presently, it is vital to identify an appropriate AWT to establish a sustainable waste management system in Australia. Identification of an appropriate AWT through Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of four AWTs by using five key decision making criteria is presented and discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Alternative waste technology (AWT), Energy fromwaste, Gasification, Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA)

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71 Sustainable Engineering Paradigm Shift in Digital Architecture, Engineering and Construction Ecology within Metaverse

Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

Abstract:

In the post COVID 19 pandemic, the demand for virtual world and digital economy accelerated and became more popular and the term Metaverse is now a hot topic in different sectors in the community and society. Digital technology development in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and networks has become more mature in recent years, the racing of the application of Metaverse in different aspects is more vigorous. Metaverse in digital architectural, engineering and construction being one of the major players in future should not be overlooked. More understanding of Metaverse which includes the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is crucial and this is important for stakeholders in the AEC industry to start early development to match with the quick development, expansion and global trend of Metaverse.

Keywords: Metaverse, internet of things, smart city, NFTs, digital economy, blockchain.

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70 Density, Strength, Thermal Conductivity and Leachate Characteristics of Light-Weight Fired Clay Bricks Incorporating Cigarette Butts

Authors: Aeslina Abdul Kadir, Abbas Mohajerani, Felicity Roddick, John Buckeridge

Abstract:

Several trillion cigarettes produced worldwide annually lead to many thousands of kilograms of toxic waste. Cigarette butts (CBs) accumulate in the environment due to the poor biodegradability of the cellulose acetate filters. This paper presents some of the results from a continuing study on recycling CBs into fired clay bricks. Physico-mechanical properties of fired clay bricks manufactured with different percentages of CBs are reported and discussed. The results show that the density of fired bricks was reduced by up to 30 %, depending on the percentage of CBs incorporated into the raw materials. Similarly, the compressive strength of bricks tested decreased according to the percentage of CBs included in the mix. The thermal conductivity performance of bricks was improved by 51 and 58 % for 5 and 10 % CBs content respectively. Leaching tests were carried out to investigate the levels of possible leachates of heavy metals from the manufactured clay-CB bricks. The results revealed trace amounts of heavy metals.

Keywords: Cigarette butts, Fired clay bricks, Light bricks, Recycling waste, Thermal conductivity, Leachates, Leaching test

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69 Incineration of Sludge in a Fluidized-Bed Combustor

Authors: Chien-Song Chyang, Yu-Chi Wang

Abstract:

For sludge disposal, incineration is considered to be better than direct burial because of regulations and space limitations in Taiwan. Additionally, burial after incineration can effectively prolong the lifespan of a landfill. Therefore, it is the most satisfactory method for treating sludge at present. Of the various incineration technologies, the fluidized bed incinerator is a suitable choice due to its fuel flexibility. In this work, sludge generated from industrial plants was treated in a pilot-scale vortexing fluidized bed. The moisture content of the sludge was 48.53%, and its LHV was 454.6 kcal/kg. Primary gas and secondary gas were fixed at 3 Nm3/min and 1 Nm3/min, respectively. Diesel burners with on-off controllers were used to control the temperature; the bed temperature was set to 750±20 °C, and the freeboard temperature was 850±20 °C. The experimental data show that the NO emission increased with bed temperature. The maximum NO emission is 139 ppm, which is in agreement with the regulation. The CO emission is low than 100 ppm through the operation period. The mean particle size of fly ash collected from baghouse decreased with operating time. The ration of bottom ash to fly ash is about 3. Compared with bottom ash, the potassium in the fly ash is much higher. It implied that the potassium content is not the key factor for aggregation of bottom ash.

Keywords: Sludge incineration, fluidized bed combustion, fly ash, bottom ash.

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68 University of Jordan Case Tool (Uj-Case- Tool) for Database Reverse Engineering

Authors: Fawaz A. Masoud, Heba_tallah Khattab, Mahmoud Al-Karazoon

Abstract:

The database reverse engineering problems and solving processes are getting mature, even though, the academic community is facing the complex problem of knowledge transfer, both in university and industrial contexts. This paper presents a new CASE tool developed at the University of Jordan which addresses an efficient support of this transfer, namely UJ-CASE-TOOL. It is a small and self-contained application exhibiting representative problems and appropriate solutions that can be understood in a limited time. It presents an algorithm that describes the developed academic CASE tool which has been used for several years both as an illustration of the principles of database reverse engineering and as an exercise aimed at academic and industrial students.

Keywords: Reverse engineering, ERD, DBRE, case tools.

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67 Landfill Design for Reclamation of Şırnak Coal Mine Dumps: Shalefill Stability and Risk Assessment

Authors: Yıldırım I. Tosun, Halim Cevizci, Hakan Ceylan

Abstract:

By GEO5 FEM program with four rockfill slope modeling and stability analysis was performed for S1, S2, S3 and S4 slopes where landslides of the shalefills were limited. Effective angle of internal friction (φ'°) 17°-22.5°, the effective cohesion (c') from 0.5 to 1.8 kPa, saturated unit weight 1.78-2.43 g/cm3, natural unit weight 1.9-2.35 g/cm3, dry unit weight 1.97-2.40 g/cm3, the permeability coefficient of 1x10-4 - 6.5x10-4 cm/s. In cross-sections of the slope, GEO 5 FEM program possible critical surface tension was examined. Rockfill dump design was made to prevent sliding slopes. Bulk material designated geotechnical properties using also GEO5 programs FEM and stability program via a safety factor determined and calculated according to the values S3 and S4 No. slopes are stable S1 and S2 No. slopes were close to stable state that has been found to be risk. GEO5 programs with limestone rock fill dump through FEM program was found to exhibit stability.

Keywords: Slope stability, GEO5, rockfills, rock stability.

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66 XML Data Management in Compressed Relational Database

Authors: Hongzhi Wang, Jianzhong Li, Hong Gao

Abstract:

XML is an important standard of data exchange and representation. As a mature database system, using relational database to support XML data may bring some advantages. But storing XML in relational database has obvious redundancy that wastes disk space, bandwidth and disk I/O when querying XML data. For the efficiency of storage and query XML, it is necessary to use compressed XML data in relational database. In this paper, a compressed relational database technology supporting XML data is presented. Original relational storage structure is adaptive to XPath query process. The compression method keeps this feature. Besides traditional relational database techniques, additional query process technologies on compressed relations and for special structure for XML are presented. In this paper, technologies for XQuery process in compressed relational database are presented..

Keywords: XML, compression, query processing

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65 The Optimum Operating Conditions for the Synthesis of Zeolite from Waste Incineration Fly Ash by Alkali Fusion and Hydrothermal Methods

Authors: Yi-Jie Lin, Jyh-Cherng Chen

Abstract:

The fly ash of waste incineration processes is usually hazardous and the disposal or reuse of waste incineration fly ash is difficult. In this study, the waste incineration fly ash was converted to useful zeolites by the alkali fusion and hydrothermal synthesis method. The influence of different operating conditions (the ratio of Si/Al, the ratio of hydrolysis liquid to solid, and hydrothermal time) was investigated to seek the optimum operating conditions for the synthesis of zeolite from waste incineration fly ash. The results showed that concentrations of heavy metals in the leachate of Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) were all lower than the regulatory limits except lead. The optimum operating conditions for the synthesis of zeolite from waste incineration fly ash by the alkali fusion and hydrothermal synthesis method were Si/Al=40, NaOH/ash=1.5, alkali fusion at 400 oC for 40 min, hydrolysis with Liquid to Solid ratio (L/S)= 200 at 105 oC for 24 h, and hydrothermal synthesis at 105 oC for 24 h. The specific surface area of fly ash could be significantly increased from 8.59 m2/g to 651.51 m2/g (synthesized zeolite). The influence of different operating conditions on the synthesis of zeolite from waste incineration fly ash followed the sequence of Si/Al ratio > hydrothermal time > hydrolysis L/S ratio. The synthesized zeolites can be reused as good adsorbents to control the air or wastewater pollutants. The purpose of fly ash detoxification, reduction and waste recycling/reuse is achieved successfully.

Keywords: Alkali fusion, hydrothermal, fly ash, zeolite.

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64 Genetic Algorithm for Solving Non-Convex Economic Dispatch Problem

Authors: Navid Javidtash, Abdolmohamad Davodi, Mojtaba Hakimzadeh, Abdolreza Roozbeh

Abstract:

Economic dispatch (ED) is considered to be one of the key functions in electric power system operation. This paper presents a new hybrid approach based genetic algorithm (GA) to economic dispatch problems. GA is most commonly used optimizing algorithm predicated on principal of natural evolution. Utilization of chaotic queue with GA generates several neighborhoods of near optimal solutions to keep solution variation. It could avoid the search process from becoming pre-mature. For the objective of chaotic queue generation, utilization of tent equation as opposed to logistic equation results in improvement of iterative speed. The results of the proposed approach were compared in terms of fuel cost, with existing differential evolution and other methods in literature.

Keywords: Economic Dispatch(ED), Optimization, Fuel Cost, Genetic Algorithm (GA).

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63 Challenges and Proposed Solutions toward Successful Dealing with E-Waste in Kuwait

Authors: Salem Alajmi, Bader Altaweel

Abstract:

Kuwait, like many parts of the world, has started facing the dangerous growth of electrical and electronic waste. This growth has been noted in last two decades, emerging with the development of mobile phones, computers, TVs, as well as other electronic devices and electrical equipment. Kuwait is already among the highest global producers of electronic waste (e-waste) in kg per capita. Furthermore, Kuwait is among the global countries that set high-level future targets in renewable energy projects. Accumulation of this electronic waste, as well as accelerated renewable energy projects, will lead to the increase of future threats to the country. In this research, factors that lead to the increase the e-waste in Kuwait are presented. Also, the current situations of dealing with e-waste in the country as well as the associated challenges are examined. The impact of renewable energy projects on future e-waste accumulation is considered. Moreover, this research proposes the best strategies and practices toward successfully dealing with the waste of electronic devices and renewable energy technologies.

Keywords: E-waste, landfill, environmental management, valuable metals, hazardous materials.

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62 Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Hybrid Blends of LLDPE/Starch/PVA

Authors: Rahmah, M., Farhan, M., Akidah, N.M.Y

Abstract:

Polybag and mulch film in agricultural field are used plastics which caused environmental problems after transplantation and planting processes due to the discarded wastes. Thus a degradable polybag was designed in this study to replace non degradable polybag with natural biodegradable resin that is widely available, namely sago starch (SS) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Hybrid blend consists of SS, PVA and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) was compounded at different ratios. The thermal and mechanical properties of the blends were investigated. Hybrid films underwent landfill degradation tests for up to 2 months. The films showed gelation and melting transition existed for all three systems with significant melting peaks by LLDPE and PVA. All hybrid blends loses its LLDPE semi crystalline characteristics as PVA and SS systems had disrupted crystallinity and enhanced the amorphosity of the hybrid system. Generally, blending SS with PVA improves the mechanical properties of the SS based materials. Tensile strength of each film was also decreased with the increase of SS contents while its modulus had increased with SS content.

Keywords: Appearance peak, LLDPE, PVA, sago starch.

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61 Moving towards Zero Waste in a UK Local Authority Area: Challenges to the Introduction of Separate Food Waste Collections

Authors: C. Cole, M. Osmani, A. Wheatley, M. Quddus

Abstract:

EU and UK Government targets for minimising and recycling household waste has led the responsible authorities to research the alternatives to landfill. In the work reported here the local waste collection authority (Charnwood Borough Council) has adopted the aspirational strategy of becoming a “Zero Waste Borough” to lead the drive for public participation. The work concludes that the separate collection of food waste would be needed to meet the two regulatory standards on recycling and biologically active wastes.

An analysis of a neighbouring Authority (Newcastle-Under-Lyne Borough Council (NBC), a similar sized local authority that has a successful weekly food waste collection service was undertaken. Results indicate that the main challenges for Charnwood Borough Council would be gaining householder co-operation, the extra costs of collection and organising alternative treatment. The analysis also demonstrated that there was potential offset value via anaerobic digestion for CBC to overcome these difficulties and improve its recycling performance.

Keywords: England, Food Waste Collections, Household Waste, Local Authority.

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60 Prediction of Rubberised Concrete Strength by Using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: A. M. N. El-Khoja, A. F. Ashour, J. Abdalhmid, X. Dai, A. Khan

Abstract:

In recent years, waste tyre problem is considered as one of the most crucial environmental pollution problems facing the world. Thus, reusing waste rubber crumb from recycled tyres to develop highly damping concrete is technically feasible and a viable alternative to landfill or incineration. The utilization of waste rubber in concrete generally enhances the ductility, toughness, thermal insulation, and impact resistance. However, the mechanical properties decrease with the amount of rubber used in concrete. The aim of this paper is to develop artificial neural network (ANN) models to predict the compressive strength of rubberised concrete (RuC). A trained and tested ANN was developed using a comprehensive database collected from different sources in the literature. The ANN model developed used 5 input parameters that include: coarse aggregate (CA), fine aggregate (FA), w/c ratio, fine rubber (Fr), and coarse rubber (Cr), whereas the ANN outputs were the corresponding compressive strengths. A parametric study was also conducted to study the trend of various RuC constituents on the compressive strength of RuC.

Keywords: Rubberized concrete, compressive strength, artificial neural network, prediction.

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59 Enhancement in a Mechatronic Aluminum Beverage Cans Recycling Machine

Authors: H. M. El-Zomor, M. Hany

Abstract:

Recycling of aluminum beverage cans is an important issue due to its economic and environmental effect. One of the significant factors in aluminum cans recycling process is the transportation cost from the landfill space. An automatic compression baler (ACB) machine has been designed and built to densify the aluminum beverage cans. It has been constructed using numerous fabricated components. Two types of control methodology have been introduced in this ACB machine to achieve its goal. The first is a semi-automatic system, and the second is a mechatronic system by using a Programmable Logic Control (PLC). The effect of single and double pre-compression for the beverage cans have been evaluated by using the PLC control. Comparisons have been performed between the two types of control methodologies by operating this ACB machine in different working conditions. The double pre-compression in PLC control proves that there is an enhancement in the ACB performance by 133% greater than the direct compression in the semi-automatic control. In addition, the percentage of the reduction ratio in volume reaches 77%, and the compaction ratio reaches about four times of the initial volume.

Keywords: Aluminum can recycling, Fully automatic machine, Hydraulic system control, Multi-compression.

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58 An Innovation Capability Maturity Model – Development and Initial Application

Authors: H. Essmann, N. du Preez

Abstract:

The seemingly ambiguous title of this paper – use of the terms maturity and innovation in concord – signifies the imperative of every organisation within the competitive domain. Where organisational maturity and innovativeness were traditionally considered antonymous, the assimilation of these two seemingly contradictory notions is fundamental to the assurance of long-term organisational prosperity. Organisations are required, now more than ever, to grow and mature their innovation capability – rending consistent innovative outputs. This paper describes research conducted to consolidate the principles of innovation and identify the fundamental components that constitute organisational innovation capability. The process of developing an Innovation Capability Maturity Model is presented. A brief description is provided of the basic components of the model, followed by a description of the case studies that were conducted to evaluate the model. The paper concludes with a summary of the findings and potential future research.

Keywords: Capability maturity, innovation, innovation capability.

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57 In vivo Introduced Extracellular Ubiquitin Regulates Intracellular Processes

Authors: Rusudan Sujashvili, Ekaterine Bakuradze, Irina Modebadze, Davit Dekanoidze

Abstract:

Extracellular ubiquitin in vivo effect on regenerative liver cells and liver histoarchitectonics has been studied. Experiments were performed on mature female white rats. Partial hepatectomy was made using the modified method of Higgins and Anderson. Standard histopathological assessment of liver tissue was used. Proliferative activity of hepatocytes was analyzed by colchicine mitotic index and immunohistochemical staining on ki67. We have found that regardless of number of injections and dose of extracellular ubiquitin liver histology has not been changed, so at tissue level no effect was observed. In vivo double injection of ubiquitin significantly decreases the mitotic activity at 32 hour point after partial hepatectomy. Thus, we can conclude that in vivo injected extracellular ubiquitin inhibits proliferative activity of hepatocytes in partially hepatectomyzed rats.

Keywords: Liver, regeneration, proliferation, ubiquitin.

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56 Computational Identification of MicroRNAs and their Targets in two Species of Evergreen Spruce Tree (Picea)

Authors: Muhammad Y.K. Barozai, Ifthikhar A. Baloch, M. Din

Abstract:

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding and regulatory RNAs about 20 to 24 nucleotides long. Their conserved nature among the various organisms makes them a good source of new miRNAs discovery by comparative genomics approach. The study resulted in 21 miRNAs of 20 pre-miRNAs belonging to 16 families (miR156, 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 172, 319, 390, 393, 394, 395, 400, 472 and 861) in evergreen spruce tree (Picea). The miRNA families; miR 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 319, 390, 393, 394, 400, 472 and 861 are reported for the first time in the Picea. All 20 miRNA precursors form stable minimum free energy stem-loop structure as their orthologues form in Arabidopsis and the mature miRNA reside in the stem portion of the stem loop structure. Sixteen (16) miRNAs are from Picea glauca and five (5) belong to Picea sitchensis. Their targets consist of transcription factors, growth related, stressed related and hypothetical proteins.

Keywords: BLAST, Comparative Genomics, Micro-RNAs, Spruce

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55 Hybrid Genetic-Simulated Annealing Approach for Fractal Image Compression

Authors: Y.Chakrapani, K.Soundera Rajan

Abstract:

In this paper a hybrid technique of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing (HGASA) is applied for Fractal Image Compression (FIC). With the help of this hybrid evolutionary algorithm effort is made to reduce the search complexity of matching between range block and domain block. The concept of Simulated Annealing (SA) is incorporated into Genetic Algorithm (GA) in order to avoid pre-mature convergence of the strings. One of the image compression techniques in the spatial domain is Fractal Image Compression but the main drawback of FIC is that it involves more computational time due to global search. In order to improve the computational time along with acceptable quality of the decoded image, HGASA technique has been proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed HGASA is a better method than GA in terms of PSNR for Fractal image Compression.

Keywords: Fractal Image Compression, Genetic Algorithm, HGASA, Simulated Annealing.

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54 DRE - A Quality Metric for Component based Software Products

Authors: K. S. Jasmine, R. Vasantha

Abstract:

The overriding goal of software engineering is to provide a high quality system, application or a product. To achieve this goal, software engineers must apply effective methods coupled with modern tools within the context of a mature software process [2]. In addition, it is also must to assure that high quality is realized. Although many quality measures can be collected at the project levels, the important measures are errors and defects. Deriving a quality measure for reusable components has proven to be challenging task now a days. The results obtained from the study are based on the empirical evidence of reuse practices, as emerged from the analysis of industrial projects. Both large and small companies, working in a variety of business domains, and using object-oriented and procedural development approaches contributed towards this study. This paper proposes a quality metric that provides benefit at both project and process level, namely defect removal efficiency (DRE).

Keywords: Software Reuse, Defect density, Reuse metrics, Defect Removal efficiency.

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