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The process of bioconversion of solid organic wastes through vermicomposting justifies the environmental message for sustainability such as reduce, recycle and reuse of wastes. In the present study, wastes derived from two different types of paper mill sludge (primary and secondary), was used for their bioconversion through the vermicomposting process using an indigenous species of earthworm (Perionyx excavatus). The maturity and stability stage of vermicompost production was assessed using FT-IR, GC-MS and TG analyses. During vermicomposting, different biochemical functional groups present in the wastes have shown differential chemical alteration and turnover as revealed by FT-IR spectroscopy. This study has also confirmed the trend of biodegradation of complex substances like lignin, cellulose, proteins etc. and thereby demonstrates the extent of mineralization. TG spectral analysis had revealed a mass loss of 80% and 71% in vermicompost produced from primary and secondary sludge respectively. GC-MS studies have also shown the presence of several humic acids like octadecanoic acid, heptadecanoic acid etc. in the decomposing substances demonstrating as an indicator of the maturity of products. This was further confirmed by the decrease of humification index which focuses the combined action of both earthworms and microbes in the degradation of organic wastes. The present study has highlighted the role of an indigenous earthworm in converting specific industrial wastes especially by recording the point of maturation using humic acids an indicator of the quality of decomposing of wastes following several instrumental applications.

The generation of three-dimensional superb packages of compact hexagonal periodic assembly with multifaceted layers was demonstrated using Poly (styrene-butylcrylate-acrylic acid) on glass substrates. The synthesized P(St-BA-AA) microspheres were used to formulate a fast drying UV curable terpolymer microspheres printing ink for the generation of colloidal crystal microdots on ink-jet paper with remarkable colours. The terpolymer microspheres and their formulated terpolymer ink undergo self-assembly to form blue monochromatic and viewing angle dependent tunable colours, thus affirming the photonic nature of the generated colloidal crystal films. Unlike other printing techniques which usually make use of specialized tools, this study generated a well ordered coloured tunable assembly of spherical shaped core-shell colloidal crystal microdots on the surface of an inkjet-paper by manually writing the as-synthesized P(St-BA-AA) UV curable printing ink microdots on it. The TEM analysis showed core and shell sizes of 198/50nm and 176/30nm for P(St-BA-AA)1 and P(St- BA-AA)2 respectively. Whenever the prepared terpolymer microspheres are used within the heating and transition temperatures of 383 °C and 110 °C, their thermal stability is retained. This simple technique of generating crystals microdots on inkjet paper may find use in optical devices, security applications and other colour coating applications., Materials science; Nanotechnology; Poly(styrene-butyalcrylate-acrylic acid); Photonic crystals; Monodisperse core/shell; Terpolymer; Colloidal ink; Colloidal crystal microdots

The best possible methods are needed to evaluate the scientific excellence of individuals and research groups in order to award positions and distribute research grants with higher efficiency. It is shown here that for the symmetrical distribution of citations of an individual the currently used h-index is approximately half of the square root of the total number of citations, according to the rule of Hirsch. It is also shown that deviations from this “ideal” h-index are common and they are due to deviations in the citation distributions of different individuals. However, those deviations are not characteristic for the scientific excellence of an individual and therefore they lead only to confusion in scientific evaluation. Therefore the h-index is suggested here to be replaced by the k-index. The k-index of an individual is calculated from his/her all independent citations as self-citations cannot be considered as an indication of the excellence of any paper or its authors (the citation is independent if there is no overlap in the lists of authors of the citing and the cited paper). The k-index takes into account only partial citations for each author of multi-authored papers. In ideal case the shares of the authors in a paper are published in the same paper similarly as shares of the inventors are published in patents. If not, the share of each co-author is taken equal to the inverse of the number of authors of the given paper. The k-index of an individual is defined as the square root from the sum of his/her independent partial citations. The value of the k-index is dependent on the databank used for the citations and on the time of the measurement. If scientists of similar age working in similar fields are compared using the same databank, their personal scientific excellence will be proportional to their k-index. When the k-index is divided by the number of active scientific years, a correction can be made for different ages of different applicants. In average, the k-index has similar values, but a wider range compared to the h-index. More importantly the k-index is not biased by this or that type of citation distribution of an individual, not biased by the self-citations and not biased by the results of the co-authors. The squares of k-indexes of smaller units are additive, and so the k-index is extended to journals, publishing houses, departments, institutions, countries, continents and to the mankind., h-index; Citation distribution; Self-citations; Multi-authored papers; k-index; Education; Evaluation in education; Information science; Information management; Social policy

Pallets are crucial in the logistics infrastructure system of various industries and manufacturing companies. They are made of wood and used to store various large and heavy goods. However, pulp and paper manufacturing companies undergo material shortages to make wooden pallets. Therefore, this study aimed to apply the 3-R concept (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to deal with pallet shortages at the companies. After several experiments, the researcher developed three techniques based on the 3-R concept with the closed-loop system: (1) repairing and (2) reusing waste pallets from/to customers, (3) using Finger Glued-Laminate's products provided internally as raw materials for pallets; all three met several mandatory criteria of strength and design in a pallet. This research aimed to help companies make policies and strategies related to applying the 3-R concept to deal with pallet shortages. If the pallet quantity can meet the company's needs, it will improve the logistics process quality and deliver the products to consumers right on schedule., 3R, knowledge and technology, green approach, pallet shortage.

For research domains such as life sciences, which pursue fundamental scientific understanding and applications intended for immediate use, academic entrepreneurship has played a pivotal role in commercialization. This paper presents an evaluation method of researchers related to user-inspired fundamental research, using global databases of startup finances and academic research papers of "startup readiness." Case studies of startups related to biopharmaceutical research topics suggest that the biopharmaceutical field has rich opportunities stemming from scientific research, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. This evaluation method sorts specific industry segments by which financing activities are active, and by which related growing research topics attract increased academic attention. We constructed networks of author citation and co-authorship from paper citation networks related to research topics in industry segments in the biopharmaceutical domain. Results obtained across all research topics we surveyed demonstrated that authors in the top 10% of degree centrality ranking in both networks are far more likely to be startup participants than other authors. Our computational approach might provide convenient, dynamic, global, and real-time understanding of the “startup readiness” of researchers working with research topics for which academic attention is emerging in actively financed biopharmaceutical fields., Business; Computer science; Pharmaceutical science; Biotechnology; Startup readiness; Research-based startups; Paper citation networks; Co-authorship networks; Academic entrepreneurship; Startup finances; Venture capital; User-inspired fundamental research; Technological innovation; Biopharmaceuticals.

Huge quantities of harvest wastes that are generated from agricultural practices at every farming season in Nigeria are not put into significant use. As an attempt towards adopting these abundant by-products as bioenergy resources for electricity generation, yearly quantities of both cocoa and kolanut harvest residues were estimated in this study. Hygroscopic natures and moisture contents of the two, and their blends, were also analyzed and compared. It was estimated that approximately 681,000 tons and 90,000 tons of cocoa and kolanut husks respectively, are produced in the country annually. While the proximate analyses showed that the sample made of 100% cocoa waste had the least volatile matter and moisture contents in addition to having highest fixed ash and fixed carbon contents, the reverse was the case with the sample made of 100% kolanut waste composition. From the ultimate analyses, however, the latter appears to possess the best characteristic (highest hydrogen and least oxygen contents), but its highest nitrogen content is a pointer to its exhibition of poor thermal property. The gross calorific contents of the samples were, therefore employed for definitive determination of their thermoelectric potentials and these gave higher heating values of 15.19 MJ/kg and 13.87 MJ/kg respectively, with the blends having their values within this range in proportionality to the mass percentage of kolanut husk in the blends. In addition to the two wastes exhibiting good energy characteristics, the study concludes that their blending offers benefit of reduction in ash content. At the optimal blend of equal composition of the two materials (50%CPH/50%KPH), it was estimated that 29,000 MW of electricity is accruable from the wastes., Highlights • Cocoa and kolanut harvest wastes of 681,000 and 90,000 tons respectively, are generated in Nigeria annually. • HHVs of the two agro-residues are 15.19 and 13.87 MJ/kg respectively, with their blends having values within this range. • The optimal blend composition of the two agro-residues has electric power generation potential estimated at 29,000 MW., Agro-wastes, biofuel materials, cocoa pod husk, kolanut pod husk, biomass blends, electrification.

The application of sewage sludge in soils can bring benefits to agricultural productivity, however, the risks arising from this application must be measured and carefully evaluated. Persistent organics compounds and drugs can be present in the sewage sludge and if applied to the soil, they can cause severe risks to the soil biota and contamination of groundwater. This work determined 174 persistent organic compounds and drugs in sludge samples from a wastewater treatment plant using chromatographic methods. The drugs ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and diclofenac were quantified, and values varied according to sampling period. For persistent organic compounds, cresols were the most abundant compounds in sewage sludge. With the analyses made of both the elutriate and the filtrate, it was possible to verify the potential for soil retention or leaching that each compound can present with the application of sewage sludge in the agriculture., Biosolid, Cresols, Chromatography.

Lime is one of the most commonly consumed medicinal plants in Indonesia, which must be dried to preserve its quality, but mostly by using traditional, ineffective drying method. Therefore, this study aims to investigate lime drying process a hybrid solar drying method. The hybrid solar dryer consisted of a solar dryer and Liquefied Petroleum Gas as the supplementary heater. The drying process was conducted until there was no significant weight decrease, with the drying temperature of 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 °C. Thin-layer modeling and quality analysis were also conducted. The experimental results indicated that 5 h was required to sufficiently dry the lime at 80 °C, while drying at 40 °C took 24 h to finish. The drying rate curve of lime suggested that lime drying mostly happened during the falling-rate period. Moreover, the average efficiency of the hybrid solar dryer ranged from 5.36% to 38.61%, which increased with temperature. From the 10 thin-layer drying models used, the Wang and Singh model was the most suitable to describe the drying behavior of lime. The effective diffusivity values of the limes and the activation energy value during hybrid solar drying were within their respective acceptable range for agricultural products. However, as the drying temperature was increased from 40 to 80 °C, the total phenolic content and vitamin C content decreased, from 87.3 to 27.8 mg GAE/100 g dry limes and 0.118 to 0.015 ppm, respectively. It can be concluded that hybrid solar dryer is able to sufficiently dry the lime, with acceptable drying time and dryer efficiency, although using high drying temperature will decrease the quality of dried lime. Further modifications and improvements to the hybrid solar dryer are required to maximize the quality of dried lime while still maintaining fast and effective drying process., Lime; Drying; Hybrid solar dryer; Dryer efficiency; Thin-layer modeling;Agricultural engineering; Food engineering; Food technology; Postharvest food processing; Thermal food processing

There is a growing need for the production and use of sustainable biofuels worldwide. One noteworthy approach is the production of biofuels via the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulose biomass. This work studied the production of char via the slow pyrolysis of corn-stover as a suitable supplement or replacement of coal in industrial processes. The char quality was assessed according to the ASTM D388 (American Standard Testing Method), which ranks coals according to their higher heating value (HHV), volatile matter and fixed carbon. Furthermore, an evaluation of the techno-economic feasibility of an industrial scale 30 t/day slow pyrolysis plant was conducted. The techno-economic study was conducted at a char baseline price of $100/ton. A two-level three-factor central composite design (CCD), with response surface methodology (RSM) was used to study the slow-pyrolysis process conditions. Optimisation experiments were conducted at bench-scale gram-level to study the influences of the process condition of char higher heating value (HHV) and yield. Furthermore, this study assessed the techno-economic feasibility of a 30t/day processing plant. The results showed process temperature had the most significant influence on char HHV and yield. Optimal conditions for char production were at a reactor temperature of 453 °C, and 5 °C/min and 29 min for heating rate and holding time respectively. Under these conditions char with HHV of 26.25 ± 1.5 MJ/kg and yield of 34.5% were produced. These chars are comparable to sub-bituminous A coals. A high energy efficiency of ~82% was also associated with the process. The economic feasibility of the plant is highly sensitive to the cost of CS feedstock. The process had a net present value (NPV) of -$1.17 million at the $20/ton CS baseline assumption. A cost sensitivity analysis showed that when the cost of CS was lowered to $3/ton, the NPV was zero. Uncertainties in the price estimation of the volatile by-products remained a concern., Chemical engineering; Environmental science; Environmental hazard; Environmental pollution; Fossil fuel; Slow pyrolysis; Corn-stover; Char; Techno-economics; Optimisation.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Hunger Index, the incidence of malnutrition and Vitamin-A deficiency in preschool-age children is higher in South-East Asian countries. Therefore, this study was envisaged to formulate value-added flavoured buffalo milk and to carry out the sensory evaluation, nutritional analysis, storage characteristics and total carotene content of the developed product. Flavoured buffalo milk was prepared by incorporation of Cucurbita pepo (Pumpkin) pulp and ground sugar at a concentration of 15% and 10%, respectively. The formulation was found preeminent by panellists and then subjected to nutritional analysis and storage studies at room temperature following “in bottle heat treatment”. Nutritional analysis revealed that the protein, fat, total carbohydrates, total ash and moisture content of pumpkin flavoured buffalo milk were 3.07%, 5.21%, 12.63%, 0.61% and 78.48%, respectively. The storage study of flavoured buffalo milk showed a significantly (p < 0.05) declined score in colour and appearance as well as flavour only after day 90. The overall acceptability score also declined significantly (p < 0.05) after day 60 of storage. Though the sensory score declined gradually during the storage period, the product was liked by the panellist even till day 180. The carotene content of pumpkin flavoured buffalo milk was 1.2 mg/100 g at day 0 and it decreased significantly as storage prolongs. The nutritional components were not affected significantly during the 180 days storage period. Standard plate counts, coliform counts as well as yeast and mould counts were not detected during storage of pumpkin flavoured buffalo milk., Food science; Food technology; Cucurbita pepo; Pumpkin pulp; Flavoured drink; Storage study; Carotene analysis; Sensory evaluation

In 2015, the Worldatlas recorded 50 countries whose source of income is fossil fuel and its derivatives. Surprisingly, these countries solely depend on this source of energy up to 100% (Omar, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) because of technology improvement. It's so sadden that apart from its adverse effect on the economics of the countries, fossil fuels harmful effects on the universe cannot be overlooked. Meanwhile, the use of renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuel and its derivatives are faced by the high oil price, high cost of investment for alternative energy, and unfathomed electricity prices. This research work evaluates desirability of making use of alternative source of energy sources by making use of biomass oil over the use of fossil fuel and its derivatives for electricity generation. Lucky nut is an agricultural non edible seed that was employed as raw material for biofuel production. The non-edible oil was extracted from the seeds and the oil was further converted to Lucky nut biofuel via a heterogeneous based catalyst produced from calcinated pearl spar. For modelling and optimization, design expert coupled with genetic algorithms were used to generate experimental designs so as to correlate the variable factors considered for production. The extraction of Lucky nut seed revealed the optimum production yield of 50.80% (v/v) and the oil is highly unsaturated. Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrophotometer analyses and scanning electron microscope (SEM) of the calcined catalyst obtained from pearl spar showed the major component found in the pearl spar was K with relative abundance of 58.48%, which favoured the yield of Lucky nut biodiesel (91.00% (v/v)). Based on predicted values, the optimum validated Lucky nut biodiesel by RSMED and ANNED were 89.68% (v/v) and 92.87% (v/v), respectively. Produced properties of biofuel conformed to the biofuel standard. The study concluded that Lucky nut seed is a good source of oil, and its transformation to alternative fuel via a using calcined catalyst proved its fitness as a replacement for fossil fuel.

The problem of environmental pollution in today's world is not just a problem for the country or a specific territory. This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the environmental behavior of Iranian citizens. The present study was carried out using meta-analysis method on the performed studies (1998–2018) on pro-environmental behavior Papers related to the subject were gathered with the keywords for environmental behavior and environmental support behavior through searching on Magiran, SID, Scopus, Medline (PubMed) and Science-direct databases. Heterogeneity of studies was obtained using the I2 index, and data were analyzed in the comprehensive meta-analysis software. In 21 papers submitted to the meta-analysis process, 10 papers in the score range 20–100 (A) and 11 papers in the score range 1–5 (B), the total number of samples entered into the study was 3670 in the age range of 15–87 year scores (A), 4413 in the age range of 10–70 year scores (B). The overall mean and standard deviation of the environmental behavior (A) based on a meta-analysis of 50.4 ± 3.1 (44.56%–2.5%: 95% confidence limit) and in the score range 1–5 (B), 3.4 ± 0.18 (3.05%–5.7%, 95% confidence limit), were obtained. The effect of sample size and the publication issue of studies based on meta-regression in order to investigate the effect of heterogeneity in studies. The mean increases in each interval from 1 to 5, with an increase in sample size; in both intervals with an increase in the publication issue, the mean scores increase (P < 0.05). According to Mata-analysis results, the environmental behavior of Iranian citizens in both study intervals, is about average the global mean index of environmental performance., Environmental support behavior, Iran, Meta-analysis, Systematic review, Pro-environmental behavior.

Academic institutions worldwide have had to adapt their methods of teaching and assessment due to COVID-19. In many Spanish universities exams moved online, affording students with opportunities to breach academic integrity that were not previously available to them. This paper uses the emerging research method of search engine data analysis to investigate the extent of requests for exam cheating information in Spain in the time period surrounding adjustments for the pandemic. The Internet data analytics technique is one that the paper proposes should be used more widely as an academic integrity research method. For this study, search engine activity data on exam cheating in Spain was collected and analysed for the five-year period between 2016 and 2020 inclusive. The data suggests that students are searching for information about ways to cheat in exams, including how to create cheat sheets. Most strikingly, the results show a significant increase in requests for information on cheating on online exams during the COVID-19 timeframe and the Spanish lockdown period. Based on the findings, academic institutions in other regions should be wary about the opportunities that their students have to commit exam fraud., Assessment; Exam cheating; Academic integrity; Spain; COVID-19.

The paper focuses on collection of information on recent multifaceted usage of biomass materials with critical examination on its sustainability. The use of biomass is becoming popular, with wide global acceptance as it is considered as green technology. The use of biomass products across industrial parallels, the material combination and production processes were elucidated in this paper. Biomass materials are seen as affordable alternative to conventional materials for domestic and industrial applications. The multifaceted use of biomass, which includes, energy generation, metallurgical applications, construction purposes, reinforcement in metal matrix composite, microelectromechanical system, biochemical and traditional medicine were discussed. This underscores the need to develop a sustainable plan to meet with its diverse usage to be beyond laboratory efforts. This paper examined whether the availability of biomass can sustain its multifaceted usage or not. It also examined the modalities to ensure sustainable use of biomass. Different policies were highlighted and discussed in line with continuous multifaceted use of biomass., Biomass; Multifaceted; Construction; Energy; Traditional medicine; Direct reduced iron; Metal matrix composite

Ghana produces over 50% of its electrical energy demands from fossil-fuelled thermal plants. To increase the proportion of renewable energy in the national energy generation, a Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP) which seeks, among others, to shift the country's national energy generation capacity towards more renewable energy sources has been developed. The REMP noted that inadequate data on renewable energy sources such as wind is one of the challenges to achieving this target. In this regard, this paper assessed the open-source Weather Research and Forecasting Model, as a tool for generating wind resource data. The WRF model is often used to downscale meteorological datasets for wind resources assessments. However, due to diverse model options, performance assessments are required to establish the accuracy and suitability of a model configuration for an application in an area. This paper assessed the performance of a Weather Research and Forecasting Model configuration that is based on previous verification studies. In evaluation, data accuracy benchmarks were generally met by the downscaled wind data. A wind map that was generated was observed to be generally accurate and better than the previous 2001 wind map for Ghana. It is presumed that the configuration is suitable for wind mapping activities for the coastal areas in Ghana, and probably neighbouring countries. However, for downscaling time-series data, further studies are recommended., Wind mapping; Wind resources assessment; WRF; Dynamic downscaling; Ghana; West African coast.

The essence of this paper is to analyse the ripple effects caused from the intertwining and complex relationship between the relational and structural dimensions of social capital on the US based Kick starter projects’ outcomes. This will be measured based on real time data collected from the Kick starter. com in form of 1157 projects organised in the structure of the number of backers, amount of time taken to fund the projects and the converted amount pledged towards the projects, as classified according to various project categories and geographical locations. This research applies qualitative and quantitative statistical analysis methods as well as data mining techniques; k-Nearest Neighbour, Naive Bayes and Decision Tree Algorithms. The results from this research confirm that relational social capital i.e. the number of backers involved in the projects, has significantly strong and positive impact on the converted amount pledged towards a project and the project outcome. This paper also offers a feasible decision-making model that will be used by the entrepreneurs in the future to determine which type of project categories an entrepreneur can choose to host and the project outcome., Social capital theory dimensions; Crowdfunding; k-nearest neighbor; Naive Bayes; Decision tree algorithm.

For decades now, a lot of radio wave path loss propagation models have been developed for predictions across different environmental terrains. Amongst these models, empirical models are practically the most popular due to their ease of application. However, their prediction accuracies are not as high as required. Therefore, extensive path loss measurement data are needed to develop novel measurement-oriented path loss models with suitable correction factors for varied frequency, capturing both local terrain and clutter information, this have been found to be relatively expensive. In this paper, a large-scale radio propagation path loss measurement campaign was conducted across the VHF and UHF frequencies. A multi-transmitter propagation set-up was employed to measure the strengths of radio signals from seven broadcasting transmitters (operating at 89.30, 103.5, 203.25, 479.25, 615.25, 559.25 and 695.25 MHz respectively) at various locations covering a distance of 145.5 km within Nigerian urban environments. The measurement procedure deployed ensured that the data obtained strictly reflect the shadowing effects on radio signal propagation by filtering out the small-scale fading components. The paper also, examines the feasibilities of applying Kriging method to predict distanced-based path losses in the VHF and UHF bands. This method was introduced to minimize the cost of measurements, analysis and predictions of path losses in built-up propagation environments., Path loss measurement, Kriging Interpolation Method, prediction model, radio propagation

Transporting natural gas across different locations require compressor stations to provide the pressure needed to keep the gas moving. This paper presents a model for matching the gas turbine and gas compressor power required under different environmental conditions to support the continuous gas transmission across other locations. The trans-Saharan gas pipeline (TSGP) project proposed to transport gas from Nigeria to Algeria has been used as a case study in this paper. The TSGP project is a Nigerian Government initiative to rejig its gas development and transportation infrastructure to meet its internal and external market demand. The numerical method used in this paper integrates the effect of the ambient temperature in the power matching of the gas turbine and gas compressors. There are 18 compressor stations across the TSGP network, and compressor station 2 is used as the reference point. The daily temperature fluctuation is segmented into hours of the day, emphasising considerable ambient temperature variation at 3:00 h, 9:00 h, 15:00 h. One benefit of the model against others in the open literature is accounting for changes in the ambient temperature along the pipeline network and gas compression stations. Accounting for changes in ambient temperature provides accuracy to near real-life operational experience for gas distribution via pipelines. The model also accounts for variations in turbine entry temperature (TET) to compensate for changes in the ambient conditions to meet the power requirements of the gas turbine and the gas compressor. The results show that for every 1% increase in ambient temperature, a 3.5% increase in power is required to drive the gas compressor and a 1% decrease in gas turbine output power. The effect of the 1% increase in ambient would require a 3.5% increase in TET to meet both the gas turbine and gas compressor requirement., Gas compressor; Gas turbine; Ambient temperature; Power matching; Pipeline.

Nowadays, recognizing the current situation and forecasting the desired status of spatial analysis of infrastructures regarding security and defense considerations is of great importance. Besides, the use of approaches such as futures studies and its simultaneous application with GIS has the most fundamental contribution to the field of decision-making and appropriate planning method in studies on the spatial defense planning. Accordingly, this paper aims to evaluate the spatial distribution of regional infrastructures in the northeast of Iran using a passive defense approach. In this regard, a descriptive-analytical research methodology, library-documentary studies, and statistical surveys were used in the model framework along with software (Mic Mac and Scenario Wizard) and system analysis (GIS) to achieve the research objective. The statistical population of the study was defined in two human and spatial scales. The entire geographical space of Khorasan Razavi province made the spatial scale. On the human scale, 40 experts (n = 15) and elites (n = 25) in the field of this study were selected as the statistical sample using a purposive non-random model. It is noteworthy that all of the subjects had the required scientific and executive knowledge. According to the total research indicators, the vulnerable zones of the study area could be distinguished into five categories of areas with very high (7.33%), high (16.52%), moderate (29.78%), low (16.94%), and very low (29.4%) vulnerability. Also, according to the results, the density and dispersion patterns of the study area infrastructures were concentrated, clustered, and randomly self-clustered, respectively. In the meantime, factors such as legal, policy, and institutional infrastructure criteria were identified as key drivers influencing the spatial distribution of the province infrastructures. Therefore, it is possible to realize the future models in three scenarios of high desirability (green status), acceptable (yellow status), and crisis (red status). Finally, the paper concludes with some suggestions to increase the desirability of infrastructures in Khorasan Razavi province., Spatial futures studies; Passive defense; Regional infrastructure; Regional development.

Parking allocation has become a major problem in modern cities for which numerous smart parking systems (SPS) have been developed. This paper aims to provide comprehensive study, comparison and extensive analysis of SPSs in terms of technological approach, sensors utilized, networking technologies, user interface, computational approaches, and service provided. Moreover, the paper fills up the research gap by providing a clear insight into the suitability of SPSs in various environmental conditions and highlights their advantages/disadvantages. The extensive comparison among multiple aspects of SPSs would enable researchers, designers, and policymakers to identify the best suited SPS and understand the current trends in this sector., Smart parking system; Internet of things; Wireless sensor network; VANET; Sensor; Image processing; Smartphone application; Web application; Machine learning; Neural networks

Recently, there has been a growing interest in utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for wind resistant design of tall buildings. A key factor that influences the accuracy and computational expense of CFD simulations is the size of the computational domain. In this paper, the effect of the computational domain on CFD predictions of wind loads on tall buildings is investigated with a series of sensitivity studies. Four distinct sources of domain error are identified which include wind-blocking effects caused by short upstream length, flow recirculation due to insufficient downstream length, global venturi effects due to large blockage ratios, and local venturi effects caused by insufficient clearance between the building and top and lateral domain boundaries. Domains based on computational wind engineering guidelines are found to be overly conservative when applied to tall buildings, resulting in uneconomic grids with a large cell count. A framework for optimizing the computational domain is proposed which is based on monitoring sensitivity of key output metrics to variations in domain dimensions. The findings of this paper help inform modellers of potential issues when optimizing the computational domain size for tall building simulations., computational domain; tall buildings; CFD simulation; wind loading; venturi effect.

This research aims to review the current state and limitations of water resources management in Nigeria and explore how adopting an integrated approach to water management can strengthen socio-economic development. As the support for integrated water resources management (IWRM) grows, it is necessary to explore how feasible it is in the Nigerian context especially with many Nigerian states facing water stress even with the country's substantial resources. This paper reviews literature related to the implementation of IWRM around the world with particular reference to developing countries in Africa and draws parallels between their experience and the possibilities that exist for IWRM in Nigeria. Progress on adopting IWRM in Nigeria is discussed and the pitfalls to implementing IWRM in practice are identified. Among the hindrances to effective water resources management in the country is the lack of good water governance, which has affected the quality of water legislation and institutions. This paper concludes that the slow progress of IWRM implementation in Nigeria is the result of an unclear framework for implementing IWRM in the country. This paper recommends an iterative approach to implementing IWRM that allows for adaptation and is tailored to solve specific water problems in Nigeria., Integrated water resources management (IWRM); IWRM implementation; Sustainable development goals (SDGs); Nigeria; Water stress; River basin.

Background Currently, there is no available medication for immediate correction of bruise discoloration. Instead, makeup, cosmetic powders, concealers, and various traditional herbal remedies are used to mask discoloration. These approaches have no influence on the pathology behind the discoloration. The purpose of this study was to explore existing methods and current trends in correction of hemoglobin related cutaneous discoloration. Methods This paper describes the treatment methodologies available for proposed correction of hemoglobin related cutaneous discoloration. A thorough literature review was conducted to assess current knowledge of available treatments for bruise discoloration. Results current cosmetics being marketed under the names "Bleacher bruises," "Bleaching agents" and "Blood bleachers" addressing bruise related discoloration do not offer targeted pathological treatment. Several methods for immediate discoloration of the skin and nail plate in the area of bruising and hematoma were found, yet no method offered sufficient clinical data in support of its efficacy and safety. The intricate mechanisms of discoloration associated with hemoglobin extravascular deterioration are not targeted by any treatment method. Only one paper outlining the clinical application of bleaching agents was found. Conclusion The primary blood pigments responsible for the discoloration in bruises include methemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, carbohymoglobin, verdoglobin, biliverdin, and bilirubin. No existing method targets the degradation of hemoglobin in the area of ecchymosis. The efficacy of existing patented methods remains questionable and unsupported clinically. Future research should focus on developing a drug targeting hemoglobin derivatives, preventing discoloration at an early stage., Bruising; Hematoma; Red blood cell; Hemoglobin; New technologies.

The paper proposes a comprehensive sustainability framework for urban development projects in hot, dry developing regions. Such a framework is required due to the lack of knowledge in these regions of issues including population-inflation, traffic congestion, environmental pollution, water shortages and high energy consumption. Iraq is one such developing country having a hot, dry, semi-arid climate with unique socio-cultural factors which have been impacted by four decades of war. New development projects are underway but scant attention has been paid to sustainability, specifically in cities e.g. Baghdad. This framework has been developed using expert consultations to reach a consensus on its dimensions, three in total: the use of satellite cities around existing cities for various purposes (residential, industrial, commercial and administrative) with the creation of a green belt, the determination of criteria for future domestic energy projects, e.g. the minimum energy requirements for an average Iraqi family and on-site renewable sources such as solar energy, and the application of a set of urban sustainable development factors to improve the quality of services and human well-being. This study presents, for the first time, a comprehensive sustainability framework for a country that has suffered several decades of wars and international sanctions. This framework was subsequently validated using semi structured interviews with 15 local intra-organizational leaders. The key findings of this paper based on this validation show that 12 out of 15 intra-organizational leaders highly recommended the adoption of the developed framework, highlighting their level of understanding, accepting, feasibility and challenging, and their future scope to develop this framework in order to enhance the quality of life at the city scale. Moreover, the leaders of the Mayoralty of Baghdad emphasised to adopt the developed framework in order to mitigate the current and future challenges of the capital Baghdad, including housing deficit, traffic problems, economical issues, and environmental pollution. The key contributions of this study is its investigation of locality-specific issues in war-torn countries such as Iraq, specifically this includes; (a) analyzing locality-specific problems based on engagement with stakeholders, and the general public, (b) proposing a framework to solve multiple problems, including lack of environmental strategies, traffic congestion, housing deficit, rapid urbanization and population growth and, (c) validation of the framework through engagement with intra-organsational leadership in different ministries and organizations like, ministry of housing and construction, Mayoralty of Baghdad, ministry of water resources, UN-HABITIAT program in Iraq, ministry of electricity, National consultation engineering committee, and etc., Energy; Environmental management; ; Delphi technique, Sustainability framework, Experts consultation

Construction time overrun is one of the common inefficiencies of public construction projects in Ethiopia. Laws and standard construction contracts stipulate different legal remedies against project time overrun. This paper is meant to unravel these legal remedies and their application to construction project time overrun in public construction projects in Ethiopia. To this end, the magnitude of time overrun, its common causes, and the practical implementation of legal remedies against it is exposed through literature review, primary data obtained from 18 roads and 10 public building projects, and interviews of 10 key informants. The result showed, although time is not the essence of construction contract in international standard conditions of contracts, it is a fundamental obligation the breach of which would give rise to termination of the contract under the laws and standard conditions of contracts applicable to public works in Ethiopia. However, the paper established that the practical implantation of these legal remedies against time overrun in public construction projects is very erratic although time overrun is a rampant challenge of the construction industry of the country in general and public construction projects in particular., Construction time overrun, extension of time, liquidated damages, termination, time at large, Civil engineering; Construction Engineering; Law; Economics

The research purposed in this paper is to investigate the impact of the health information technology on hospital performance through the health information quality as mediating variable, as new evidence from the teaching hospitals in the north of Jordan. Research design and methodology approach based on a survey that is conducted to collect the requested data to develop a model connect between the health information technologies, health information quality and hospital performance by using the Structural Equation Modeling approach. The research findings show that there is an intertwined and reciprocal relation between Health Information Technologies (HITs), hospital performance, and health information quality. HITs have direct positive impacts on both hospital performance and health information quality. Health information quality has also a direct impact on hospital performance. Besides, health information quality functioned as a partial mediator between HITs and hospital performance. The study did not examine the factors that influence the relationship between HITs, hospital performance and health information quality. This paper is evidence for the investor in the healthcare sector to invest more in HITs and health information quality, where the expected results are productivity improvement, performance leveraging and error reduction. The research originality is to introduce new evidence support literature form the Middle East countries is the main contribution of this paper., Health information technology; Health information quality; Hospital performance; Public teaching hospitals; Structural equation modelling approach; Public health; Information systems management; Technology management; Management; Public administration; Research and development; Decision support tools; Information science.

This paper aims to provide a critical review of the studies dealing with Educational Robotics for children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. We aimed to investigate whether in the literature there is a sound evidence that activities with robots improve the abilities and performances of children with special needs. This paper explores the methodological aspects as well as the outcomes of the selected studies to provide a clear picture of the state-of-the-art on this topic. After a systematic search in the online database via keyword searches, 15 scientific papers were included in this review. We applied strict selection criteria limiting our review only to papers reporting educational robotics activities with children (from 3 up to 19 years old) with a diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders, in which the children had the opportunity to somehow program the behaviours of real robots. The majority of experiences showed improvements in the participants' performance or abilities, their engagement and involvement, communication/interaction with peers, during robotics sessions. Some studies reported mixed results, calling for the need to carefully design the objective and the related activities of each experience., Psychology; Education; Educational robotics; Special needs children; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Outcome evaluation

This paper analyses the impact of corruption on environmental sustainability in all 16 countries in the Southern region of Africa from 2010-2017. The paper uses two proxies of corruption: the Corruption Index and Corruption Ranking. Using two econometric methods, namely, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) Granger causality test and the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) techniques this study found largely congruent results on both causation and relationships, respectively. Firstly, the two indicators of corruption harmoniously show that corruption Granger causes the existing state of environmental sustainability in Southern African economies, and vice-versa. Moreover, in the short-run corruption was also found to worsen environmental sustainability for both regression models deployed using the two corruption indicators. In the long-term, the two measures of corruption conflicted with their findings. In this regard, though the relationship is contradicting in the long-run the corruption negative (becoming bad) effect of corruption ranking surpasses the corruption positive (becoming clean) effect of corruption index by nearly three times. This show how detrimental corruptible actions are to the natural environment. Overall, this paper consent to global reports explaining how Southern African environments are gradually deteriorating by putting corruption as one central practice causing extensive damage., Corruption Index; Corruption Ranking; Environmental sustainability; Income; Ease of Doing Business; Education Status; Business; Economics; Education; Environmental Analysis; Environmental Assessment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Management; Environmental Pollution; Environmental Science

Through reviewing extant literature, this conceptual paper is aimed to improve the understanding of the intervening mechanisms that influence the relationship between intangible assets (IAs) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to improve the performance of contemporary knowledge-dependent organizations. The authors believe this to be the first attempt to bring four major components of IAs together and look at their relationship with OCB. This helps to create awareness of the necessity of matching key resources with appropriate behavior to improve organizations’ competitive advantages. The proposed model and propositions showed relationships between IAs and OCB mediated and moderated by work engagement and perceived organizational support, respectively. Moreover, this paper suggests the need for integrated multi-level studies to strengthen the links between critical resources and behaviors to put the learning organization on the right growth track. Future research is suggested on new conceptualizations of IAs, such as spiritual capital, as well as the relationship of IAs with other typologies of OCB., Intangible assets; Intellectual capital; Psychological capital; Organizational citizenship behavior; Work engagement; Perceived organizational support; Entrepreneurial psychology; Human resource management; Business management; Strategic management; Research and development; Business.

In recent years, the use of small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) has grown alongside demand from industrial users of natural gas. Small-scale LNG is an alternative to the supply of natural gas to remote areas with a cost-effectiveness challenge. To address this challenge, five mobile power plants located in remote areas with limited depth of water level in western Indonesia are used here as a case study. The objective of this paper is to optimize LNG distribution using small-scale LNG carriers and carry out an economic analysis in this region. The capacitated vehicle routing problem model was used to optimize the maritime routing of a small-scale LNG supply chain. The maximization of the volume cargo with a given LNG vessel capacity set as the objective function was therefore provided with the optimum inventory routing and economic analysis of the transport of LNG. Cluster 1 serves three power plants with a total demand of 966 m3/day and a distance is 913 Nautical Miles, while cluster 2 serves two power plants with a total demand of 690 m3/day and distance of 1,483 Nautical Miles. Economic analysis of the two clusters shows that there is a minimum difference in the margin rate needed to make it worth the investment, which is 3 USD/MMBTU for cluster 1 and 4 USD/MMBTU for cluster 2. Thus, this paper concludes that the cost of LNG transportation depends on the amount of cargo demand and shipping distances., Energy; Energy sustainability; Urban energy consumption; Industrial energy consumption; Natural resource economics; Energy economics; LNG distribution; Small-scale LNG carriers; Route optimization.

The increasing trend of using light and slender deck in pedestrian bridge has raised the issue of instability under pedestrian movement. The suspension pedestrian bridges are more vulnerable as lateral vibration often occurred in such type of bridges. Hence, the current paper targeted to develop a pedestrian suspension bridge with a new type of composite deck using Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) in the bottom layer and laminated glass in the top layer. The safety and serviceability of the developed pedestrian bridge is rigorously investigated. The performance of the suspension pedestrian bridge is comprehensively investigated by monitoring important response parameters such as stress, deflections, natural frequencies and accelerations under pedestrian loads and compared with current bridge design code requirements. The developed suspension pedestrian bridge with new type of composite deck could adhere the requirements of the bridge design code. Hence, the suspension pedestrian bridge mentioned in this paper is recommended for pedestrian use for its standard safety and serviceability., Civil engineering; Concrete technology; Structural analysis; Structural health monitoring; Structural mechanics; Laminated glass, Fibre reinforced polymer, Composite, Pedestrian suspension bridge, Deflection, Natural frequency, Acceleration.

Data Science (DS) is expected to deliver value for public governance. In a number of studies, strong claims have been made about the potential of big data and data analytics and there are now several cases showing their application in areas such as service delivery and organizational administration. The role of DS in policy-making has, on the contrary, still been explored only marginally, but it is clear that there is the need for greater investigation because of its greater complexity and its distinctive inter-organizational boundaries. In this paper, we have investigated how DS can contribute to the policy definition process, endorsing a socio-technical perspective. This exploration has addressed the technical elements of DS - data and processes - as well as the social aspects surrounding the actors’ interaction within the definition process. Three action research cases are presented in the paper, lifting the veil of obscurity from how DS can support policy-making in practice. The findings highlight the importance of a new role, here defined as that of a translator, who can provide clarity and understanding of policy needs, assess whether data-driven results fit the legislative setting to be addressed, and become the junction point between data scientists and policy-makers. The three cases and their different achievements make it possible to draw attention to the enabling and inhibiting factors in the application of DS., Data Science; Policy; big data; framing, Knowledge Management; Information Systems Management; Information Management; Human Resource Management; Business Management; Strategic Management; Risk Management, Information science, Business

The material selection process for producing a horizontal axis wind turbine blade for sustainable energy generation is a vital issue when using Nigeria as a case study. Due to the challenge faced with the low wind speed variations. However, this paper focuses on implementing MCDM for the material selection process for a suitable material for developing a horizontal wind turbine blade. This paper used a quantitative research approach using AHP and TOPSIS multi-criteria decision method. The study put into consideration the environmental conditions for the material selection process when designing the questionnaire. The authors extracted the data used for the selection process from the 130 research questionnaire distributed to materials engineers and renewable energy professionals. This research considered four alternatives that is, aluminum alloy, stainless steel, glass fiber, and mild steel to determine the best material for the wind turbine blade. Also, the model has four criteria and eight sub-criteria used for developing the pair-wise matrix and the performance score used for the ranking process of the alternatives. The result shows that a consistency index of 0.056 and a consistency ratio of 0.062 gotten via the AHP method is workable for material selection practice. 78%, 43%, 67%, and 25% are the performance scores for the four alternatives via the TOPSIS techniques. In conclusion, aluminum alloy is the best material, followed by glass fibre. Therefore, the decision-makers recommended aluminum alloy; hence, manufacturers should apply aluminum alloy to develop the wind turbine blade for sustainable energy generation., Materials science; Energy; Mechanical engineering; Environmental science; Wind turbine blade; Multi-criteria decision method; Analytical hierarchy process; TOPSIS techniques.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing passenger adoption and behaviour of self-service technology (SST) in airports. This study adopted the Theory Acceptance Model (TAM) and extended the model by including the need for human interaction (NI) construct in the study framework. Design/methodology/approach The research framework is based on the theoretical concepts of SST usage from the inter-disciplinary field. Four hundred two questionnaires were collected from passengers who used the self-check-in kiosks in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA and KLIA2). The collected data were analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Findings Different factors determine passengers' willingness and adoption of SSTs. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness significantly affect passenger adoption and behaviour of SSTs in airports. However, the passenger was much comfortable with the SST as the moderating effect of need for human interaction shows a negative result. Practical implications The findings contribute to an understanding of how and why passengers use SSTs, which is critical from a customer relationship management (CRM) perspective. Better strategies can be developed to manage and coordinate SSTs delivery in the airport by understanding the passengers’ experience from the self-check-in kiosks. Originality/value This paper goes beyond the basic SSTs usage and intentions study by highlighting the nonimportance of human interaction in SSTs usage specifically by airport passengers., Self-service technology (SST); Self-check-ins; Adoption behaviour; Technology acceptance model (TAM); Human interaction; Business; Psychology.

In the last few decades, the demand for reversible heating and cooling systems has increased significantly, together with the need to generate energy in a more efficient and sustainable way. Consequently, the concept of solar photovoltaic (PV) powered heat pumps (HP) has become very attractive in order to match the heating/cooling demand with a renewable and environmentally-friendly energy source. This paper presents a review of the different solutions for PV-HP systems that have been studied theoretically and/or experimentally tested, and of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that were mainly used. An analysis of these traditional KPIs has been performed and their boundaries were identified. As a result, new KPIs (PR25, PRref,25, SPFPV-HP and SPFPV-HP,ref,25) were proposed for trying to mitigate such limitations, as well as for evaluating not only the quality of the HP and the PV system, but also the quality of their integration and the renewable character of the whole PV-HP system. This paper is aimed to be framed in the common effort of the PV-HP research community to reach a set of KPIs that allow comparing the different future works and, therefore, a set of recommendations and future research lines are also proposed., Performance indicator; Heat-pump; Photovoltaic/Thermal; photovoltaic; Engineering; Electrical engineering; Energy engineering; Industrial engineering; Systems engineering

The term ''Internet of Things'' first appeared in publication paper since 2006, describing the paradigm of evolution concept that brought about by the presence of internet technology (Vermesan and Friess, 2015) which is very important in contemporary circumstances. This study conducted an in-depth analysis of the research material written on 26420 papers which focused on the published Internet of Things (IoT) research, starting from the firstly year IoT keyword appeared in 2006 until 2018. The selected paper is a combination of various disciplines and publications which are all indexed by Scopus wherein the article discusses IoT. IoT articles are classified using key attributes in sequence: the methodology used, general knowledge and applied concepts, and various general exploration topics. By using the Scientometrics method, this method will group the overall terms that appear frequently from the Scopus paper database according to keywords, titles, and abstracts. The resulting data is then studied to understand and distinguish trends that occur in the time span along with the general characteristics of the paper, in the mathematics visual scheme. All various issues that are considered in the paper's methodology selection, their studied and services innovations, and continuing discoveries on the characteristics, concepts, and processes applied to IoT success. Although it only involves scopus indexed paper, this study found a remarkable increase in the number of articles on IoT in each category of the paper. This study also reveals the direction of the regular discipline of knowledge. The use of the Scientometrics method makes the analysis able to focus on the movement of characteristics and IoT themes to researcher's direction that has not found at this time, as a comprehensive guide to further research and industry strategy that is more directed on concepts that support the 4th industrial revolution.

Drug component interactions are most likely to trigger unexpected pharmacological effects with unknown causal mechanisms, hence, demanding the discovery of patterns to establish suitable and effective regimens. This paper proposes a novel framework that embeds machine learning (ML) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques, for efficient prediction of patient response to antiretroviral therapy (ART). To achieve this, experiment databases were created from two independent sources: a publicly available HIV domain datasets of patients with failed treatment - hosted by the Stanford University, hereinafter referred to as the Stanford HIV database, and locally sourced datasets gathered from 13 prominent healthcare facilities treating HIV patients in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, hereinafter referred to as the Akwa-Ibom HIV database: with 5,780 and 3,168 individual treatment change episodes (TCEs) of HIV treatment indicators (baseline CD4 count (BCD4), followup CD4 count (FCD4), baseline viral load (BRNA), followup viral load (FRNA), and drug type combination (DType)), observed from 1,521 and 1,301 unique patient records, respectively. A hybridised (two-stage) classification system consuming the Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic (IT2FL) and Deep Neural Network (DNN) was employed to model and optimise patients' response to ART with appreciable error pruning achieved through MDS. Visualisation of the experiment databases showed remarkable immunological changes in the Akwa-Ibom HIV database, as the FCD4 of TCEs clustered far above the BCD4, compared to the Stanford HIV database, where over 40% of FCD4 clustered below the BCD4. Similar changes were noticed for the RNA, as more FRNA copies clustered below the BRNA for the Akwa-Ibom datasets, compared to the Stamford datasets. DNN classification results for both databases showed best performance metrics for the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm when compared with the resilient backpropagation algorithm, with improved drug pattern predictions for experiment with MDS. This paper is most likely to evolve an avenue that triggers interesting combination(s) for optimum patient response, while ensuring minimal side effects, as further findings revealed the superiority of the proposed approach over existing approaches.

Open source software (OSS) is increasingly being integrated into educational institutions, and many countries require the use of OSS in government departments. However, not much focus is placed on integrating it into the educational sector in a strategic and productive manner. This paper examines the existing literature on the use of OSS in terms of the potential enhancements it can provide for computer science studies in high schools in general, and those in the UAE more specifically. It also details a survey conducted among 400 high school teachers after teaching them about multiple types of OSS that might enhance their teaching experience. After examining more than 69 different research papers and taking the survey findings into account, we drafted a roadmap that can be used by any educational institute—especially high schools—to strategically integrate OSS into the educational system.

Children in the United States suffered almost 118,000 cases of physical abuse in 2015. One factor that might help decrease child physical abuse is health care coverage. This paper presents a justification for a link between health care coverage and reductions in child physical abuse and, though it does not assess specific causal mechanisms, examines evidence for such a connection. The paper uses panel data linear regression analysis to explore state level physical abuse and health care coverage rates. Findings indicate a statistically significant relationship between increases in child health care coverage rates, including both private coverage and Medicaid coverage, and decreases in child physical abuse.

The objective of this paper is to design a loan repayment plan adapted to the financed company with the aim to avoid a possible situation of illiquidity. More specifically, in this paper the sequence of payments which amortizes a loan is determined according to the distribution of the future income expected by the borrower. To do this, we will start from the concept of a continuous distribution of capital or, equivalently, a continuous annuity. The continuous distribution of capital will be derived from a continuous distribution of probability, to then obtain a discrete annuity which fits the future income of the debtor. On the other hand, it is noteworthy the analysis of the particular case of financial transactions with interest periods of different amplitude, which can facilitate the adjustment of the sequence of instalments to the timing of the real income of the borrower in loan transactions.