Abstract: This paper presents a possibilistic (fuzzy) model in optimal siting and sizing of Distributed Generation (DG) for loss reduction and improve voltage profile in power distribution system. Multi-objective problem is developed in two phases. In the first one, the set of non-dominated planning solutions is obtained (with respect to the objective functions of fuzzy economic cost, and exposure) using genetic algorithm. In the second phase, one solution of the set of non-dominated solutions is selected as optimal solution, using a suitable max-min approach. This method can be determined operation-mode (PV or PQ) of DG. Because of considering load uncertainty in this paper, it can be obtained realistic results. The whole process of this method has been implemented in the MATLAB7 environment with technical and economic consideration for loss reduction and voltage profile improvement. Through numerical example the validity of the proposed method is verified.
Abstract: The direct sewage sludge application is a relative
cheap method for their liquidation. In the past heavy metal contents
increase in soils treated with sewage sludge was observed. In 2003
there was acceptance on act n.188/2003 about sewage sludge
application on soils. The basic philosophy of act is a safety of the
environmental proof of sludge application on soils. The samples of
soils from wastewater treatment plant (WTP) Poprad (35) and WTP
Michalovce (33 samples) were analyzed which were chosen for
sludge application on soils. According to the results only 14 areas for
Poprad and 25 areas for Michalovce are suitable for sludge
application according to act No. 188/2003. The application dose of
sludge was calculated 50 t.ha-1 or 75 t. ha-1 once in 5 years to ensure
that heavy metal contents in treated soils will be kept.
Abstract: Citizens are increasingly are provided with choice and
customization in public services and this has now also become a key
feature of higher education in terms of policy roll-outs on personal
development planning (PDP) and more generally as part of the
employability agenda. The goal here is to transform people, in this
case graduates, into active, responsible citizen-workers. A key part of
this rhetoric and logic is the inculcation of graduate attributes within
students. However, there has also been a concern with the issue of
student lack of engagement and perseverance with their studies. This
paper sets out to explore some of these conceptions that link graduate
attributes with citizenship as well as the notion of how identity is
forged through the higher education process. Examples are drawn
from a quality enhancement project that is being operated within the
context of the Scottish higher education system. This is further
framed within the wider context of competing and conflicting
demands on higher education, exacerbated by the current worldwide
economic climate. There are now pressures on students to develop
their employability skills as well as their capacity to engage with
global issues such as behavioural change in the light of
environmental concerns. It is argued that these pressures, in effect,
lead to a form of personalization that is concerned with how
graduates develop their sense of identity as something that is
engineered and re-engineered to meet these demands.
Abstract: Although, it is a long time that human know about
the importance of environment in life, but at the last decade of 20
century, the space that was full of hot scientific, collegial and
political were made in environmental challenge, So much that, this
problem not only disarrange the peace and security of life, but also it
has threatened human existence. One of the problems in last years
that are significant for authorities is unsatisfactory achieved results
against of using huge cost for magnificent environmental projects.
This subject leads thinker to this thought that for solving the
environmental problems it is needed new methods include of
sociology, ethics and philosophic, etc. methods apart of technical
affairs. Environment ethics is a new branch of philosophic ethics
discussion that discusses about the ethics relationship between
humans and universe that is around them. By notifying to the above
considered affairs, in today world, necessity of environmental ethics
for environment management is reduplicated. In the following the
article has been focused on environmental ethics role and
environmental management methods and techniques for developing
it.
Abstract: The quality improvements of the environmental
elements could increase the recreational opportunities in a certain
area (destination). The technique of the need for recreation focuses
on choosing certain destinations for recreational purposes. The basic
exchange taken into consideration is the one between the satisfaction
gained after staying in that area and the value expressed in money
and time allocated. The number of tourists in the respective area, the
duration of staying and the money spent including transportation
provide information on how individuals rank the place or certain
aspects of the area (such as the quality of the environmental
elements).
For the statistical analysis of the environmental benefits offered by
an area through the need of recreation technique, the following stages
are suggested:
- characterization of the reference area based on the
statistical variables considered;
- estimation of the environmental benefit through
comparing the reference area with other similar areas
(having the same environmental characteristics), from
the perspective of the statistical variables considered.
The model compared in recreation technique faced with a series of
difficulties which refers to the reference area and correct
transformation of time in money.
Abstract: Heavy metals have bad effects on environment and
soils and it can uptake by natural HAP .natural Hap is an inexpensive
material that uptake large amounts of various heavy metals like Zn
(II) .Natural HAP (N-HAP), extracted from bovine cortical bone ash,
is a good choice for substitution of commercial HAP. Several
experiments were done to investigate the sorption capacity of Zn (II)
to N-HAP in various particles sizes, temperatures, initial
concentrations, pH and reaction times. In this study, the sorption of
Zinc ions from a Zn solution onto HAP particles with sizes of 1537.6
nm and 47.6 nm at three initial pH values of 4.50, 6.00 and 7.50 was
studied. The results showed that better performance was obtained
through a 47.6 nm particle size and higher pH values. The
experimental data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and
Arrhenius equations for equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic
studies. The analysis showed a maximum adsorption capacity of NHAP
as being 1.562 mmol/g at a pH of 7.5 and small particle size.
Kinetically, the prepared N-HAP is a feasible sorbent that retains Zn
(II) ions through a favorable and spontaneous sorption process.
Abstract: This paper discusses an artificial mind model and its
applications. The mind model is based on some theories which assert
that emotion is an important function in human decision making. An
artificial mind model with emotion is built, and the model is applied to
action selection of autonomous agents. In three examples, the agents
interact with humans and their environments. The examples show the
proposed model effectively work in both virtual agents and real robots.
Abstract: Home is important for Chinese people. Because the
information regarding the house attributes and surrounding
environments is incomplete in most real estate agency, most house
buyers are difficult to consider the overall factors effectively and only
can search candidates by sorting-based approach. This study aims to
develop a decision support system for housing purchasing, in which
surrounding facilities of each house are quantified. Then, all
considered house factors and customer preferences are incorporated
into Simple Multi-Attribute Ranking Technique (SMART) to support
the housing evaluation. To evaluate the validity of proposed approach,
an empirical study was conducted from a real estate agency. Based on
the customer requirement and preferences, the proposed approach can
identify better candidate house with consider the overall house
attributes and surrounding facilities.
Abstract: Anaerobic digestion process is one of the alternative
methods to convert organic waste into methane gas which is a fuel
and energy source. Activities of various kinds of microorganisms are
the main factor for anaerobic digestion which produces methane gas.
Therefore, in this study a modified Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR)
with working volume of 50 liters was designed to identify the
microorganisms through biogas production. The mixture of 75%
kitchen waste and 25% sewage sludge was used as substrate.
Observations on microorganisms in the ABR showed that there exists
a small amount of protozoa (5%) and fungi (2%) in the system, but
almost 93% of the microorganism population consists of bacteria. It
is definitely clear that bacteria are responsible for anaerobic
biodegradation of kitchen waste. Results show that in the
acidification zone of the ABR (front compartments of reactor) fast
growing bacteria capable of growth at high substrate levels and
reduced pH was dominant. A shift to slower growing scavenging
bacteria that grow better at higher pH was occurring towards the end
of the reactor. Due to the ability of activity in acetate environment the
percentages of Methanococcus, Methanosarcina and Methanotrix
were higher than other kinds of methane former in the system.
Abstract: Numerical analysis of flow characteristics and
separation efficiency in a high-efficiency cyclone has been performed.
Several models based on the experimental observation for a design
purpose were proposed. However, the model is only estimated the
cyclone's performance under the limited environments; it is difficult to
obtain a general model for all types of cyclones. The purpose of this
study is to find out the flow characteristics and separation efficiency
numerically. The Reynolds stress model (RSM) was employed instead
of a standard k-ε or a k-ω model which was suitable for isotropic
turbulence and it could predict the pressure drop and the Rankine
vortex very well. For small particles, there were three significant
components (entrance of vortex finder, cone, and dust collector) for
the particle separation. In the present work, the particle re-entraining
phenomenon from the dust collector to the cyclone body was observed
after considerable time. This re-entrainment degraded the separation
efficiency and was one of the significant factors for the separation
efficiency of the cyclone.
Abstract: The concerns about clean environment and high oil
prices driving forces for the research on alternative fuels. The
research efforts directed towards improving the performance of C.I
engines using vegetable oil as fuel. The paper deals results of
performance of a four stroke, single cylinder C.I. engine by preheated
neat Karanja oil is done from 30
o
C to 100
o
C. The performance of the
engine was studied for a speed range between 1500 to 4000 rpm, with
the engine operated under full load conditions. The performance
parameters considered for comparing are brake specific fuel
consumption, thermal efficiency, brake power, Nox emission of the
engine. The engine offers lower thermal efficiency when it is
powered by preheated neat Karanja oil at higher speed. The power
developed and Nox emission increase with the increase in the fuel
inlet temperature and the specific fuel consumption is higher than
diesel fuel operation at all elevated fuel inlet temperature.
Abstract: The use of sewage sludge and effluents from
wastewater treatment plants for irrigation of agricultural lands is on
the rise particularly in peri-urban areas of developing countries.
The reuse of nutrients and organic matter in treated wastewater
and sewage sludge via land application is a desirable goal. However,
trace or heavy metals present in sludge pose the risk of human or
phytotoxicity from land application. Long-term use of sewage
sludge, heavy metals can accumulate to phytotoxic levels and results
in reduced plants growth and/or enhanced metal concentrations in
plants, which consumed by animals then enter the food chain. In this
research, the amount of heavy metals was measured in plants
irrigated with wastewater and sludge application. For this purpose,
three pilots were made in a Shush treatment plant in south of Tehran.
Three plants species, spinach, lettuce and radish were selected and
planted in the pilots.First pilot was irrigated just with wastewater of
treatment plant and second pilot was irrigated with wastewater and
sludge application .Third pilot was irrigated with simulated heavy
metals solution equal 50 years of irrigation. The results indicate that
the average of amount of heavy metals Pb, Cd in three plant species
in first pilot were lower than permissible limits .In second pilot,
Cadmium accumulations are high in three species plants and more
than the standard limits. Concentration of Cd , Pb have exceed their
permitted limits in plants in third pilot . It was concluded that the use
of wastewater and sludge application in agricultural lands enriched
soils with heavy metals to concentrations that may pose potential
environmental and health risks in the long-term.
Abstract: As a by-product of its "cyberspace" status, electronic
commerce is global, encompassing a whole range of B2C
relationships which need to be approached with solutions provided at
a local level while remaining viable when applied to global issues.
Today, the European Union seems to be endowed with a reliable
legal framework for consumer protection. A question which remains,
however, is enforcement of this protection. This is probably a matter
of time and awareness from both parties in the B2C relationship.
Business should realize that enhancing trust in the minds of
consumers is more than a question of technology; it is a question of
best practice. Best practice starts with the online service of high
street banks as well as with the existence of a secure, user-friendly
and cost-effective payment system. It also includes the respect of
privacy and the use of smart cards as well as enhancing privacy
technologies and fair information practice. In sum, only by offering
this guarantee of privacy and security will the consumer be assured
that, in cyberspace, his/her interests will be protected in the same
manner as in a traditional commercial environment.
Abstract: This paper reports a new application of material accounting techniques to characterise and quantify material stocks and flows at the “neighbourhood" scale. The study area is the main campus of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The system boundary is defined by the urban structural unit (USU), a typological construct devised to facilitate assessment of the metabolism of urban systems. A streamlined material flow analysis (MFA) was applied to quantify the stocks and flows of key construction materials within the campus USU over time, drawing on empirical data from a major campus development project. The results are reviewed to assess the efficacy of the method in supporting urban environmental evaluation and design practice, for example to facilitate estimation of significant impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions. It is concluded that linking a service (in this case, teaching students) enabled by a given product (university buildings) to the amount of materials used in creating that product offers a potential way to reduce the environmental impact of that service, through more efficient use of materials.
Abstract: 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.
Abstract: Chemical vapor deposition method was used to
produce carbon nanotubes on an iron based catalyst from acetylene.
Gas-phase samples collected from the different positions of the tubular reactor were analyzed by GC/MS. A variety of species ranging from hydrogen to naphthalene were observed and changes in their concentrations were plotted against the reactor position. Briefly benzene, toluene, styrene, indene and naphthalene were the main
higher molecular weight species and vinylacetylene and diacetylene were the important intermediates. Nanotube characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.
Abstract: The objective of this contribution is to study the
performances in terms of bit error rate, of space-time code algorithms
applied to MIMO communication in tunnels. Indeed, the channel
characteristics in a tunnel are quite different than those of urban or
indoor environment, due to the guiding effect of the tunnel.
Therefore, MIMO channel matrices have been measured in a straight
tunnel, in a frequency band around 3GHz. Correlation between array
elements and properties of the MIMO matrices are first studied as a
function of the distance between the transmitter and the receiver.
Then, owing to a software tool simulating the link, predicted values
of bit error rate are given for VLAST, OSTBC and QSTBC
algorithms applied to a MIMO configuration with 2 or 4 array
elements. Results are interpreted from the analysis of the channel
properties.
Abstract: The environmental performance of rapeseed oil (RO)
and rapeseed methyl ester(RME) from winter rape as fuels produced
in Romanian agroclimate is analyzed in this paper. The proposed
methodology is life cycle assessment (LCA) and takes into
consideration the influence of grain production and agroclimatic
conditions. This study shows favorable results first for RO and then
for RME. When compared to diesel fuel, both studied biofuels show
better results in the following impact categories: Abiotic depletion
potential (ADP), Ozone layer depletion (ODP) and Photochemical
ozone creation potential (POCP).Furthermore, the environmental
performance of the two biofuels studied can be improved by
changing the type of fertilizer used and also by using biofuels instead
of diesel in the field works.
Abstract: This research is to explore the satisfaction for senior
citizens on continuing education in Taiwan. The purpose of this
research aims at the difference on teacher-s teaching, personal
relationship, learning result, materials and environment. Through
different sexual and living area as the background variables, a
questionnaire is adopted as the methodology in this research. Three
results are found in this research. In overall, senior citizens taking
continuing education put the most important attention on personal
relationship but materials and leaning environment put the least. There
is a significant difference on personal relationship, teacher-s teaching
and research result between different sexes. Female senior citizens
attach more importance to teacher-s teaching and learning results but
male senior citizens value on personal relationship. Another
significant difference is shown on teacher-s teaching and personal
relationship because of senior citizens living area. Urban senior
citizens put importance on personal relationship and rural senior
citizens respect teacher-s teaching more.
Abstract: Regarding the multi-media property of internet and the facilities that can be provided for the users, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the users- behavioral patterns and the impact of internet on taboos of marriage. For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 403 students of governmental guidance schools of city of Mashhad in country of Iran were considered. The results showed, the process of using various internet environments depends on the degree of the users- familiarity with these sites. In order to clarify the effects of the Internet on the taboos of marriage, the non – internet parameters also considered to be controlled. The ttest held among the internet users and non-users, indicated that internet users possess lower taboos of marriage. Extraction of the effects of internet via considering the effects of non-internet parameters, indicate that addiction to the internet, creating a cordial atmosphere, emotional communication, and message attractive factors have significant effects on the family's traditional values.