APCBEE Procedia最新文献

The use of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment has been exercised since 1950's and still are being in use. The vertical flow constructed wetlands provide more oxygenated environment and significantly reduce the organic matter as well as microbial species from wastewater. In the present study vertical up-flow constructed wetlands were constructed and used as bio-filter to improve the water quality of secondary treated effluent. The reduction pattern is studied in this research and correlated with plant species and presence of plant. The plant species used in the constructed wetlands were canna and phragmitis. The fibrous rooting system of canna species causes the high aerobic conditions throughout the treatment bed which in turn facilitates higher removal in comparison to phragmitis planted wetland. Removal of nitrogenous compounds like ammonia-nitrogen, TKN and nitrate were observed better in canna planted wetlands than others.

Oxygen mass transfer is an important phenomenon in any biological treatment systems, fermentation reactors and other biochemical reactors. In biological treatment processes, aeration and agitation is carried out to enhance the oxygen mass transfer in the system, which in turn enhances the fermentation or treatment efficiency. In case of wastewater treatment plant, this process takes around 45-50% of the total energy requirement of the treatment plant. This paper proposes a new method for enhancing an oxygen mass transfer phenomenon in biological treatment processes by introducing non-aqueous phase liquids in the treatment system.

The horse conch, Pleuroploca trapezium is a marine gastropod that is landed in huge amount as by-catch along Gulf of Mannar, southeast coast of India. To make use of this underutilized gastropod meat, ready- to- serve instant soup powder was prepared using this meat with an objective to popularize the meat among local people. This study was intended to find out the best packing material for the long time storage of this soup powder. Instant soup powder was first prepared using non-deodourized meat and packed in LDPE pouches. Since the shell life was poor, another batch of soup powder was prepared using deodourized meat and packed in pouches made of HMHD, PP, 12 μ PET laminated with 50 μ LDPE, 12 μ PET laminated with BOPP, 12 μ PET laminated with metallised BOPP. During storage, studies such as relative humidity moisture relationship, wettability were also carried out in addition to shelf life studies. The soup powder stored in laminated pouches had a shelf life of 6 months at room temperature.

This study revealed that anthropometric measurements of Javanese farmers are mostly higher than that of Madurese farmers. The minimum, mean, and the maximum stature values are 146.3, 159.0, 174.6 cm for Javanese male farmers and 143.0, 156.3, 173.8 cm for Madurese male farmers, respectively. The minimum, mean, and the maximum stature of Javanese and Madures female farmers are 137.7, 152.5, 167.3 cm and 137.4, 150.1, 167.7 cm, respectively. The mean of Relative Sitting Height (RSH) of Javanese and Madurese, male is 0.49, 0.49, respectively, whereas the mean of RSH of Javanese and Madurese female is 0.52, 0.51, respectively. The mean values of body surface area (BSA) of Javanese, Madurese, male are 1.57, 1.54, and for female are 1.47, 1.44 m², respectively. Whereas, the body mass index (BMI) is 22.4, 22.88 for male and 22.38, 22.75 kg/m² for female Javanese and Madurese farmers, respectively. By using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation, the first rank preference of farmers is safety for hand tools, and then followed by good fit in hand, easy to use, reliable and to no inflamed skin in the last. For agricultural hand tools, farmers prefer utilitarian performance than hedonic performance.

This paper talks about two models. First model is presented to study space-time variability of latent heat flux, where latent heat flux has been decomposed into three periodic terms, spatio-temporal process term, long term trend and a term due to covariates. And the second model is presented to characterize the long term trend and its possible causes. For both the models Bayesian approach was adopted. The method presented is particularly useful for characterizing environmental spatio- temporal processes variability. The model parameters were sampled using a Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation technique. The models were used for studying latent heat flux components in the Indian Ocean for the period of January 1985 to April 2010. The results showed that in LHF variability, dominant factors were annual variability, spatio-temporal variability and variability due to covariates. Further it has been found that the long term positive trend of LHF is dominated by the increase in wind speed. In some regions of Indian Ocean, increase in sea surface temperature has also been the cause for increase in LHF.

Evaporative passive cooling systems are considered as interesting technique to address the environmental and energy crises. Within this context, the development of new porous materials has attracted a lot of attention recently. The utilization of industrial and agricultural waste byproduct will also make this technology more environmentally friendly. This article reviews the application of byproduct, industrial wastes materials, and other agricultural residuals as raw materials for the preparation of geopolymers. It must also be taken into due consideration that many potential waste and residuals have not been extensively studied, and requires extensive investigations.

Sheep and goat production systems in the UAE within scarce natural resource constraints represent an ideal setting for studying input-use economic efficiency (production and allocative). Despite the importance of this subsector in the UAE, no reliable cross-sectional data was ever disseminated. The research objectives are to: obtain the baseline information on the existing small-ruminant farms in UAE; identify the responsiveness of output to percentage changes in inputs, rank the prominent inputs with the greatest impact on output level; and determine the corresponding allocative efficiency for the most significant inputs. A cross-section field survey that covered 661 mixed farms, with major sheep and goat production activities, was conducted in three areas of Al-Ain, the Western Region, and Abu Dhabi during 2012. Cobb-Douglas double-logarithmic production function approach was applied to estimate the important economic derivatives. A multidisciplinary approach was implemented to better understand the integration of biological and economic perspectives of the issue. Results indicated inefficiency of the inputs utilized for sheep and goats separately; where all of the inputs used in sheep production were overutilized, whereas those used in goat production were two underutilized, one over-utilized, with only one input close to economic-use optimality. Study beneficiaries include strategic-decision makers and individual sheep and goats producers.

In the present study, an interface element with softening and hardening series springs is used to model crack growth in steel. These series spring elements are developed to obtain the strain energy release rates based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). Two nonlinear springs are proposed to be placed between interfacial node pairs. A spring element with softening behaviour and another spring element with hardening behaviour are placed in series at the crack tip between two nodes to calculate the internal forces. Therefore, with these springs, strain energy release rates can be calculated directly. Also, with the implementation of fracture criteria, crack growth can be also analyzed. The model decreases computational time and complexity for analysing discrete cracks. The model is easy, accurate, and independent of the mesh size.

The experiment was conducted to determine the effects of cutting interval and cutting height on the yield and nutrient composition of King Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum x Pennisetum americanum) when grown on a sandy soil in the Northeast of Thailand. The cutting intervals were 30, 45 and 60 days between harvests and the cutting heights were 5, 10 and 15 cm above ground level. The experiment was a 3×3 factorial layout in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications-giving a total of 36 plots each 3×3 m². Harvested plant material was weighed, dried and the ground subsamples taken for analyses of crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF), ash, ether extract (EE), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), Hemicellulose and Cellulose. Results showed that increasing the cutting interval (i.e. advancing age of maturity) increased dry matter and nutrient yields significantly. In terms of nutrient content, it also increased the crude fiber, acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) percent in the plant. However, crude protein and ash percent was markedly decreased as the cutting interval increased. Increasing cutting height had no effect on dry matter yield and yields of nutrients, but in terms of nutrient content, it decreased crude fiber content. The percent EE, NDF, ADF, Hemicellulose and Cellulose in the plant was unaffected by cutting height. From the results presented it is clear that cutting a stand of King Napier grass every 45 to 60 days will achieve greater dry matter and nutrient yields than cutting more frequently, at 30 days. The cutting height at harvest, whether 5, 10 or 15 cm above ground level had no effect on dry matter or nutrient yields of King Napier grass.

High-rise building safety has drawn public attention due to the occurrence of many catastrophic fires, to study the temperature distribution in the emergency staircase of a high-rise building in an accident, a set of experiments were conducted in a scaled building model. The window state in the staircase has a significant effect on the temperature distribution. When the window in the staircase is opened, the temperatures below the fire source floor almost maintain the ambient temperature during the whole period, but the temperatures above the fire source increase quickly and finally reach a quasi steady stage due to the stack effect. Moreover, if the doors below the fire source are opened, the fresh air flow into the staircase and decrease the temperature. On the contrary, when all windows in the staircase are closed, the doors state has a slight effect on the temperature distribution in the staircase. Because of the absence of the stack effect, the temperatures are low and the temperature attenuation coefficient β is larger.