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The needs for clean and safe water are growing as the population growing as well. This paper describes the variation of Wastewater Percentage and Pinch Point Temperature Difference (PPTD) on a 50 MW Steam Power Plant. After using the cooling water, not all water is discharged back to the sea, some of the water are used in throttling process where some of water will be vapor, and the other are merged with the water from water treatment and are going to be used for cooling cycle. It’s found that by decreasing the condenser pressure from 8.45 kPa to 6.45 kPa it will produce vapor that could be condense into Aquadest with SEC (Specific Energy Consumption) at best condition as much as 697.85 kJ for producing 1 kg of Aquadest on PPTD 4.3 °C. On that condition, Aquadest could be produced at 0.0178 kg/s rate and the efficiency of turbine increase about 0.16%. Another benefit of this system is that this system discharges cooler water from the process, and has less impact to the environment.The needs for clean and safe water are growing as the population growing as well. This paper describes the variation of Wastewater Percentage and Pinch Point Temperature Difference (PPTD) on a 50 MW Steam Power Plant. After using the cooling water, not all water is discharged back to the sea, some of the water are used in throttling process where some of water will be vapor, and the other are merged with the water from water treatment and are going to be used for cooling cycle. It’s found that by decreasing the condenser pressure from 8.45 kPa to 6.45 kPa it will produce vapor that could be condense into Aquadest with SEC (Specific Energy Consumption) at best condition as much as 697.85 kJ for producing 1 kg of Aquadest on PPTD 4.3 °C. On that condition, Aquadest could be produced at 0.0178 kg/s rate and the efficiency of turbine increase about 0.16%. Another benefit of this system is that this system discharges cooler water from the process, and has less impact to the environment.

The need for energy resource has increased due to the exponential increase in human population and industrialization, following suit. The concern towards environmental problems has made people embrace renewable energy resources which are more environmentally friendly. Thus, microalgae biomass are introduced as the promising energy source to substitute the limited supply of fossil fuel. The attached growth microalgae cultivation mode is employed to ease the harvesting process. The pH of the microalgae culture medium packed with polyurethane foam was adjusted daily to pH 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 in the individual photobioreactor. In this study, pH 6 was selected to be the favorable culture condition for both suspended and attached growth of Chlorella vulgaris with dry weight biomass of 0.075 ± 0.006 g and 0.258 ± 0.003 g, respectively, accompanied by a high lipid content attained at 0.394 ± 0.007 g/g. The attached microalgae biomass ease the harvesting process as the polyurethane foam was simply removed from the culture medium during the stationary stage while the suspended microalgae were harvested using the gravitational method.

In potable water distribution systems polyethylene (PE) pipes have been successfully used for several decades. In many applications chlorine disinfectants are frequently used to avoid harmful changes in the quality of water. Considering the intense oxidative ability of these substances, it is crucial to determine their influence on the degradation of pipe materials in long-term applications. At Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH (PCCL), a new device for material exposure under specific chlorine dioxide (ClO2) conditions was developed which allows significantly accelerated exposure of PE pipe materials. Preliminary tests were conducted in order to ensure stable exposure conditions during several weeks regarding temperature, pH value, ClO2 concentration and oxidative reduction potential (ORP) within a specified accuracy. Two PE grades for pipe applications were selected for conditioning and material testing. Dumbbell specimens of 1 mm thickness were punched out of compression molded sheets and fixed in a...

In this paper, we propose and study a time-delay compartmental model for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission, a disease which may lead to an advanced stage of infection called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in a sexually active population with the presence of media coverage. The inclusion of vertical transmission in the recruitment of infected individuals is also considered. Moreover, two time delays are incorporated in the model. One delay τ1 covers the period from the time of gathering statistical data on the total number of infections in the community up to the time that these information are reported to the public through media. The other delay τ2 corresponds to the period that an infected newborn baby reaches the age of sexual maturity. If the threshold value R0 < 1, then the only equilibrium point is the disease-free equilibrium which is globally asymptotically stable. If the threshold values R0 and R00 are both greater than 1, then a unique endemic equilibrium exists, which is globally asymptotically stable when media coverage is not considered. When there is no vertical transmission but media coverage is considered, the system undergoes a Hopf bifurcation at some critical value of the media delay. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate theoretical results.In this paper, we propose and study a time-delay compartmental model for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission, a disease which may lead to an advanced stage of infection called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in a sexually active population with the presence of media coverage. The inclusion of vertical transmission in the recruitment of infected individuals is also considered. Moreover, two time delays are incorporated in the model. One delay τ1 covers the period from the time of gathering statistical data on the total number of infections in the community up to the time that these information are reported to the public through media. The other delay τ2 corresponds to the period that an infected newborn baby reaches the age of sexual maturity. If the threshold value R0 < 1, then the only equilibrium point is the disease-free equilibrium which is globally asymptotically stable. If the threshold values R0 and R00 are both greater than 1, then a unique endemic equilibrium exists, which ...

With the continuous development of the economy, the scale of city is expanding and the population is growing rapidly. As an effective measure to solve the traffic problems in large cities, rail transit has been planned and constructed in many major cities in China. In light of the limited resources of urban space and the huge demand for subway construction funds, the comprehensive development of land along urban rail transit can effectively promote its sustainable development. The necessity of comprehensive land development along the urban rail transit is explained in this paper, and then the problems in the comprehensive land development along the urban rail transit are analyzed. The prominent case of the development model of Beijing New Everbrite is selected to for analysis. Finally, the development strategy of the land along the urban rail transit is proposed.With the continuous development of the economy, the scale of city is expanding and the population is growing rapidly. As an effective measure to solve the traffic problems in large cities, rail transit has been planned and constructed in many major cities in China. In light of the limited resources of urban space and the huge demand for subway construction funds, the comprehensive development of land along urban rail transit can effectively promote its sustainable development. The necessity of comprehensive land development along the urban rail transit is explained in this paper, and then the problems in the comprehensive land development along the urban rail transit are analyzed. The prominent case of the development model of Beijing New Everbrite is selected to for analysis. Finally, the development strategy of the land along the urban rail transit is proposed.

For the central air-conditioning energy-saving, it is common practice to use a wide range of PTD controllers in engineering to optimize energy savings. However, the shortcomings of the PTD controller have also been magnified on this issue, such as: calculation accuracy is not enough, the calculation time is too long. Particle swarm optimization has the advantage of fast convergence. This paper is based on Particle Swarm Optimization apply in PTD controller tuning parameters in order to achieve the purpose of saving energy while ensuring comfort. The algorithm proposed in this paper can adjust the weight according to the change of population fitness, reduce the weights of particles with lower fitness and enhance the weights of particles with higher fitness in the population, and fully release the population vitality. The method in this paper is validated by the TRNSYS model based on the central air-conditioning system. The experimental results show that the room temperature fluctuation is small, the oversh...

This paper aims to present the issues of the urban transportation system, implication, and proposed solutions. A sustainable urban mobility planning has a direct positive effect on the urban economic wellbeing dimensions such as; business diversity, financial viability, and service efficiency. However, the growing pressure on urban roads and highway travel demand could affect the failure of the performance of its networks. Thus, the proposed solution is to successfully implement highway traveller information services in this digital age. An urban highway can be classified as a road or street within the boundaries of an urban area which is subject to the approval of the federal highway administration, whereby, the means of boundaries area which are including and adjacent to a municipality or urban place with a population of 5,000 or more. In the traveller information service non-technical perspective, bridging the gap between psychological and implementation needs is the key to wellbeing that leads to the success of a service. The traveller information is vital to building a smarter urban highway and sustains its mobility which is valuable for a timely, safe and cost-effective public trip. The identified fundamental value-added from this service is to facilitate in managing travel demand, whereby supporting measures in the urban facilities management and sustainable transportation systems could be established through; real-time and local-based communication network.This paper aims to present the issues of the urban transportation system, implication, and proposed solutions. A sustainable urban mobility planning has a direct positive effect on the urban economic wellbeing dimensions such as; business diversity, financial viability, and service efficiency. However, the growing pressure on urban roads and highway travel demand could affect the failure of the performance of its networks. Thus, the proposed solution is to successfully implement highway traveller information services in this digital age. An urban highway can be classified as a road or street within the boundaries of an urban area which is subject to the approval of the federal highway administration, whereby, the means of boundaries area which are including and adjacent to a municipality or urban place with a population of 5,000 or more. In the traveller information service non-technical perspective, bridging the gap between psychological and implementation needs is the key to wellbeing that leads to the ...

Land carrying capacity is an important index of evaluation on land resources. And the land carrying capacity is also very important for guiding regional plans and promoting sustainable development of regional economy. So it is significant to clarify the land carrying capacity in the sequence of events which helps the decision makers understand and grasp the knowledge of land carrying capacity more clearly and make the right judgment and decision. Based on the theory of population, resources, environment and economy, the method of reviewing literatures is used in this paper to summarize the theory of the land carrying capacity and the researching methods of the land carrying capacity, as well as the problems existing in the study of land carrying capacity.Land carrying capacity is an important index of evaluation on land resources. And the land carrying capacity is also very important for guiding regional plans and promoting sustainable development of regional economy. So it is significant to clarify the land carrying capacity in the sequence of events which helps the decision makers understand and grasp the knowledge of land carrying capacity more clearly and make the right judgment and decision. Based on the theory of population, resources, environment and economy, the method of reviewing literatures is used in this paper to summarize the theory of the land carrying capacity and the researching methods of the land carrying capacity, as well as the problems existing in the study of land carrying capacity.

This paper examines the principal’s efforts in improving the professionalism of post-certification teachers through academic supervision in vocational school. The certification of educators is expected to improve the professionalism of teachers, there are significant changes between the before and after receiving the certificate of educators. One of the efforts made by the principal on increasing the professionalism of teachers is to carry out academic supervision completely and continuously. This paper examines about how principals at vocational schools carry out the programmed academic supervision, and continuing through mentoring, evaluation and coaching. Academic supervision is performed by individual supervision techniques which includes: classroom or practical visit, classroom or practical observation, individual meetings, inter-class or practical places visit, and self-assessment.

This article is an INA-Rxiv post-print post from the OSF (Open Science Framework) which is self-archiving. This article has been presented on SYMPOSIUM ON BIOMATHEMATICS (SYMOMATH 2016) and its proceedings are published in AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1825, Issue 1 with links http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4978992 If any question related to this paper, please ask via rustam.math06@gmail.com or rustam.math@usn.ac.id The present paper deals with an optimal harvesting of predator-prey model in an ecosystem that consists of two zones, namely the free fishing and prohibited zones. The dynamics of prey population in the ecosystem can migrate from the free fishing to the prohibited zone and vice versa. The predator and prey populations in the free fishing zone are then harvested with constant efforts. The existence of the interior equilibrium point is analyzed and its stability is determined using Routh-Hurwitz stability test. The stable interior equilibrium point is then related to the problem of maximum profit and the problem of present value of net revenue. We follow the Pontryagin’s maximal principle to get the optimal harvesting policy of the present value of the net revenue. From the analysis, we found a critical point of the efforts that makes maximum profit. There also exists certain conditions of the efforts that makes the present value of net revenue becomes maximal. In addition, the interior equilibrium point is locally asymptotically stable which means that the optimal harvesting is reached and the unharvested prey, harvested prey, and harvested predator populations remain sustainable. Numerical examples are given to verify the analytical results.

Water is one of the most elements of life. As the population of the world has increased, our sources of clean water have decreased. Handling a clean water quality is one of the key challenges to avoid the scarcity of clean water, included for aquaculture system. This paper reports the effect of using fine bubbles for handling aquaculture wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The integration of fine bubbles (FBs) generator on WWTP system is a promising method for generating fine bubbles and its ability to improve water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen (DO), turbidity, TDS, and pH level. The performance of WWTP system using fine bubbles was tested for 5 days and the experimental results showed that WWTP system can increase dissolved oxygen from 4.5 mg/L to 7.9 mg/L. It can reduce turbidity levels from 35 NTU to 11 NTU and reduce the TDS level from 124.9 ppm to 101.5 ppm. Based on the experimental results, the application of fine bubbles technology potentially to improves the performance of WWTP system, including for developing an aquaculture system.

The Indonesian government has made various efforts in drug prevention policies through criminal law. However, law enforcement officials still contemplate the Drugs Law is oriented towards imprisonment, so drug abuse is considered as a criminal act. In fact, the government has declared 2014 as the year to save the victims of drug abuse through rehabilitation. In this paper, a drug transmission model with the criminal law aspect is presented and analyzed. The optimal control strategy is then applied in the form of rehabilitation efforts. Based on the model analysis, we found two equilibriums, namely the drugs-free equilibrium and the drug addiction equilibrium. The stability of the equilibriums depends on the basic reproduction number. The spread of drug addicts persists in the population if the basic reproduction number greater than unity. Based on the simulation, it can be seen that criminal law give a significant impact to decrease the number of mild drug addicts and also the number of heavy levels of drug addicts. Furthermore, the existence of the optimal control variable is determined through the Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle method. The comparison of simulation results with and without control shows that rehabilitation efforts can reduce drug addicts transmission.

The noble gas Radon is a chemical element that has no stable isotopes. Radon isotopes result from the disintegration of 238U, 235U and 232Th. The half-life of 222Rn is 3.8235 days, for 220Rn is 55.6 s and for 219Rn is 3.96 s. Radon is the second cause of lung cancer for the population after smoking, [1, 2]. Medical studies have provided clear evidence of an association between Radon exposure in homes and workplaces and lung cancer, even at relatively low concentrations of Radon. Radon emanates from rocks and soils and accumulates in enclosed spaces such as underground mines, basements or houses. Radon is the most important contributor to the dose of ionizing radiation received by the population. This paper is based on Radon measurements undertaken by different research groups, in several European countries. The concentration of Radon in underground, in caves and mines, takes values from tenth of Bq/m3 up to more than one million Bq/m3.

Eye Gaze Tracking is emerging as a popular method to increase the efficiency as well as to increase the accessibility of computing systems. It has been already employed in various applications as well as many researches are going on to incorporate the concept in various other fields. There are various fields where the systems are employed ranging from ease of accessibility of computing systems [1] to performance of computer graphics processing by the method of foveated rendering [2] and as well as digital marketing analysis [3]. The application of eye gaze trackers is still limited due to its lack of availability as well as the cost of the eye gaze trackers which makes them still a scarce resource for majority of the population. This paper proposes an efficient system for Eye Gaze Tracking and draws a sharp contrast between the different open source software available for Eye Gaze Tracking on the market. The study draws the comparison between two of the most popular open source eye gaze tracking software available in the market. ITU Gaze Tracker [4] PyGame based Eye Tracker [5]. The components proposed for the system are easily available in the market.

There are many applications where access is limited to the location where the inspection is needed. One very important application is pipe support corrosion. TNO worked on guided wave tomography for mapping wall loss under pipe supports. Due to the nature of this type of corrosion, pitting may occur. The detection and sizing of these small pits is not possible, because of the long wavelength of the guided waves used for the tomography. The idea described in this paper is much simpler and uses high frequency ultrasonic transducers at the 12 o'clock position on the pipe. If the pipe is liquid filled, echoes are recorded from the opposite position. However, these echoes are heavily contaminated with echoes from the upper pipe wall. The idea to be tested here is whether these echoes can be removed by transmitting a specific signal, which is recorded from the pipe wall itself. First a normal pulse-echo measurement is performed. Next the first and second back-wall echoes are windowed out and the second echo is multiplied with "-1". Then, this new signal is transmitted in the pipe wall, which will cancel all of the multiple reflections because this second echo is in opposite phase. If the same is repeated for the 2nd and 3rd signal and the result is subtracted from the previous measurement, then all multiples caused by the returning signal in the top layer are removed. This concept is illustrated using numerical simulations and measurements and can be applied using phased array transducers or single element transducers. © 2019 Author(s).

The Inverse Box-Cox (BC) transformation (see [1]) produces the Power Normal (PN) distribution family that includes the log-normal and the normal distributions, see [2], [4] and [3]. The Box-Cox power transformation aims to transform data to approximate normality (truncated normal (TN)) therefore the knowledge of the its inverse scale is of major importance. In this paper we consider the univariate PN distribution, and, because in many applications there are more than one variable and correlation we also consider the bivariate PN distribution (BPN), see [6] and [5]. We give some important results concerning both distributions. In [6] it is given a formula to approximate the ordinary moments of the PN distribution, herein, we give an exact formula for the ordinary integer moments of the PN distribution. Regarding the BPN distribution, we calculate the marginal probability density functions (pdf) and we note that they are not univariate PN distributed however the conditional pdf is PN univariate. This is also true for the corresponding functions of the transformed scale, the TN distribution. The correlation curve or curve of the conditional moments E(X 2|X 1 = x 1) that is useful to characterize the structure of the correlation is very well fitted by a power law model f(x) = axb + c.

In this paper, we discuss a mathematical model of changes in smoking behavior, in which the population is classified into five classes as follow: potential smokers, light smokers, heavy smokers, smokers who temporarily quit smoking and smokers who permanently quit smoking. In this model, the crude death rate of each classes are set apart. The density-dependent death rates are also considered in this model. From this model, we find the smoking-free equilibrium point and analyze the stability by using reproduction number. Then, we analyze the sensitivity of reproduction numbers to determine the parameters that influence the dissemination of changes in smoking behavior. After that, we perform numerical simulations to illustrate the analytic conclusions and to know how far the influence of some parameters on the dissemination of changes in smoking behavior so that we can predict the ways to overcome the dissemination of smoking behavior.

The increasing of population have enhanced the generation of waste in Malaysia, a country of which highly depends on landfill as a method to dispose solid waste. However, one of the problems closely related to landfill is leachate which can potentially contaminated the nearby surface water, groundwater and soil. In Malaysia, food waste is a major waste composition which can lead to generation of leachate due to their high moisture content. Citrus fruit wastes classified as one of food waste which become a concern because of its potential to create environmental pollution. Leachate from citrus fruit is acidic, high BOD and COD, high turbidity, total suspended solid and high nutrient such as nitrogen and phosphorus. These characteristic may interfere the effectiveness in wastewater treatment. Meanwhile, high nitrogen and phosphorus can lead to eutrophication. Therefore, citrus leachate needs to be treated properly in order to reduce their impacts towards the environment. The method used for citrus leachate treatment is membrane process. Membrane process had been proven their effectiveness and had been used in many applications. The previous membrane composition is used but the suitability on citrus waste is needed to investigate. The MWCO of newly developed flat sheet membrane is determined in order to study the performance of the membrane in citrus fruit waste leachate treatment.The referenced publication has been retracted because the ideas, design of the study, data, and the text of this manuscript are an unauthorized reproduction of a previously published article with the same title published in the International Journal of Scientific and Research Publication. Given the extent of the overlap and the failure to properly credit the original source this article has been retracted. In addition, it was published without knowledge or consent from a co-author listed on the paper, Malini Rajie, her name was added without her permission.

Indonesia is one of the developing countries in Southeast Asia. Its population is approximately 257 million. The growing number of people every year has resulted in the increasing of the needs of the community for general development, such as roads, buildings, bridges, and others, in order to assist and launch daily activities. The construction of every bridge or road requires an instrument that can be used to control the fairness of the financial affairs. One of the methods to control financial issues is by forecasting the financial needs for the future. The purpose of this paper is to forecast the unit price of materials in Batam using annual data from 2013 to 2017. Because the available dataset is small, we used three methods that can forecast small sized data: Grey–Markov (1,1), Grey–Markov (2,1), and Moving Average of order 2 (MA(2)). The results of the analysis show that the model which has the smallest error is Grey–Markov (1,1), therefore it is the best model to forecast the unit price of materials in Batam.

To accommodate for increase in human population, development of cities and urban areas is necessary. This call for changes in land use. The transition from natural to build environment has affected the natural landscape in many ways; one of which is pollution. Consequently, the native biodiversity within the urban landscape is stressed to maintain an optimum level of ecosystem service in order to sustain ecological integrity. This is where the urban green lung plays its role; to provide for carbon sequestration, oxygen generation, acting as filters to noise and dust, and offers aesthetical values. The study area, Bukit Soga Perdana Recreational Forest is a well–known green lung of Batu Pahat, Johor; the second largest industrial town in Johor. This paper aims to study the biodiversity of butterflies in Bukit Soga and discusses its impact on the urban ecological landscape. Species abundance and habitat characterization based on plant nativity, canopy and vegetation coverage, and disturbance type analysis such as human pressure, were studied. Collection resulted in 43 species of butterflies. Total abundance was 88 individuals, sampled throughout Dec to June 2017. Majority are primary forest species that requires adequate canopy coverage. As for plants, in Bukit Soga most are native with exception to the herbs garden. Surprisingly, habitat disturbance such as human movement does not affect the spatial distribution of primary or secondary forest butterfly species. However, their distribution is largely affected by canopy coverage, as it should be. This suggests that despite the growing recreational activities in Bukit Soga, this urban green lung still play an important role in maintaining the ecological integrity in Batu Pahat.

To minimize makespan for scheduling independent tasks in cloud computing, an improved estimation of distribution algorithm (IEDA) is proposed to tackle the investigated problem in this paper. Considering that the problem is concerned with multi-dimensional discrete problems, an improved population-based incremental learning (PBIL) algorithm is applied, which the parameter for each component is independent with other components in PBIL. In order to improve the performance of PBIL, on the one hand, the integer encoding scheme is used and the method of probability calculation of PBIL is improved by using the task average processing time; on the other hand, an effective adaptive learning rate function that related to the number of iterations is constructed to trade off the exploration and exploitation of IEDA. In addition, both enhanced Max-Min and Min-Min algorithms are properly introduced to form two initial individuals. In the proposed IEDA, an improved genetic algorithm (IGA) is applied to generate partia...

The paper focuses on the stage of heating the welded ends of a polyethylene pipe and a coupling with special replaceable nozzles for subsequent welding at low temperatures. The thermal process is simulated in a polyethylene pipe in contact with a replaceable nozzle, the base of which is kept at a constant temperature by means of a heating plate with a set temperature. The results of calculations demonstrate a temperature distribution close to homogeneous in a pipe wall, which was obtained by heating with a replaceable packing followed by free cooling to equalize the temperatures.

This research aimed to determine (1) the influence of the use of a contextual teaching and learning (CTL) approach on critical thinking ability, (2) the influence of the use of the CTL approach on conceptual understanding, and (3) the relationship between critical thinking ability and conceptual understanding. The research adopted a quasi-experimental approach using a pre-test/post-test control group design. The population in this research comprised all grade XI pupils in State Senior High School 1 Prambanan consisting of eight classes. Two classes were selected based on the random cluster sampling technique: XI MIPA 1 as the control class and XI MIPA 4 as the experimental class. The experimental class used the CTL approach and the control class used a non-CTL approach. The instruments were an observation sheet for the implementation of CTL, and a paper test of critical thinking ability and conceptual understanding. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Pearson correlation. The results showed (1) that CTL had a positive influence on critical thinking ability, (2) CTL had a positive influence on conceptual understanding, and (3) there was a high correlation between critical thinking ability and conceptual understanding, such that the better the critical thinking ability, the higher the conceptual understanding.

The problem of predicting the indices of long-term strength of welded joints of polyethylene pipes is outlined in the present paper. Fracture mechanics methods allow determining crack resistance limit IC of a welded butt joint of PE3PE, PE80, and PE100 polyethylene pipes at a temperature of 213 K. The IC values in the junction area are less than in the base material for all the tested polyethylene pipe types. Herewith, PE100 has shown better weldability in comparison with the other specimens.

Urban infrastructure and urbanization influence each other, and quantitative analysis of the relationship between them will play a significant role in promoting the social development. The paper based on the data of infrastructure and the proportion of urban population in Shanghai from 1988 to 2013, use the econometric analysis of co-integration test, error correction model and Granger causality test method, and empirically analyze the relationship between Shanghai’s infrastructure and urbanization. The results show that: 1) Shanghai Urban infrastructure has a positive effect for the development of urbanization and narrowing the population gap; 2) when the short-term fluctuations deviate from long-term equilibrium, the system will pull the non-equilibrium state back to equilibrium with an adjust intensity 0.342670. And hospital infrastructure is not only an important variable for urban development in short-term, but also a leading infrastructure in the process of urbanization in Shanghai; 3) there has Granger causality between road infrastructure and urbanization; and there is no Granger causality between water infrastructure and urbanization, hospital and school infrastructures of social infrastructure have unidirectional Granger causality with urbanization.

As the aging problem becoming serious in China, Aging care is now one of the top issuer in front of all of us. Lots of private and public aging care architecture and facilities have been built. At present, we only pay attention to the architecture design and interior design scientific, ecological and sustainable design on aged care architecture landscape. Based on the social economy, population resources, mutual coordination and development of the environment, taking the elderly as the special group, this paper follows the principles of the sustainable development, conducts the comprehensive design planning of aged care landscape architecture and makes a deeper understanding and exploration through changing the form of architectural space, ecological landscape planting, new materials and technology, ecological energy utilization.

Population ageing is a worldwide phenomenon experienced by developed and developing countries. It occurs when the median age of a country rises and shifts the distribution of that country’s population towards older ages. Malaysia is experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of elderly people. Recent medical advances and improvements in hygiene and food supply have led to the people of Malaysia having a longer life expectancy. This paper comprehensively reviews articles and journals to discover the concepts, definitions and issues regarding the ageing population globally and in Malaysia, particularly looking at how elderly people can age in place. The concern over ageing is not just about the size of the old age population but, more importantly, about their health, welfare, care and living arrangements as well as the implications for infrastructure, housing, income and economic growth. The built environment plays a role in defining the conditions for people to live healthy lives, and older people requ...

Pressure driven membrane processes have been proven suitable for the separation of microorganisms in many of biotechnical applications. In this paper, we report the preparation and characterization of a novel nylon 6, 6 nanofibers membranes and applied it for filtration of Chlorella vulgaris broth. Its performance is compared with a phase inverted polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane, an established membrane material for this application. The tests on the filterability of both membranes and their harvesting efficiency were conducted. Results show that nanofiber membrane is more hydrophilic (contact angle of zero), and has 45% higher surface pore size and 20% surface pore population that contribute significantly into its higher clean water permeability (of 1018 and 493 l/m2hbar for nanofiber and PVDF membranes respectively). Filterability results show that nanofiber membrane has superior advantages over the phase inverted one: 2-5 times higher in productivity while maintaining similar rejection of 92%. Those results were consistent for three independent filterability tests. This finding confirms the potential application of nanofiber membrane. However, further development with respect to improving its mechanical strength and its ability to be assembled into a membrane module should be critical to serve its promise in this particular application.

In this paper some of the brightest GeV sources observed by the Fermi-LAT were analysed, focusing on their spectral cut-off region. The sources chosen for this investigation were the brightest blazar flares of 3C~454.3 and 3C~279 and the Vela pulsar with a reanalysis with the latest Fermi-LAT software. For the study of the spectral cut-off we first explored the Vela pulsar spectrum, whose statistics in the time interval of the 3FGL catalog allowed strong constraints to be obtained on the parameters. We subsequently performed a new analysis of the flaring blazar SEDs. For these sources we obtained constraints on the cut-off parameters under the assumption that their underlying spectral distribution is described by a power-law with a stretched exponential cut-off. We then highlighted the significant potential improvements on such constraints by observations with next generation ground based Cherenkov telescopes, represented in our study by the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Adopting currently available simulations for this future observatory, we demonstrate the considerable improvement in cut-off constraints achievable by observations with this new instrument when compared with that achievable by satellite observations., total number of pages 24, including 6 pages of references. Accepted by Astroparticle Physics

Survey is one of data collection method which sampling of individual units from a population. However, national survey only provides limited information which impacts on low precision in small area level. In fact, when the area is not selected as sample unit, estimation cannot be made. Therefore, small area estimation method is required to solve this problem. One of model-based estimation methods is empirical Bayes which has been widely used to estimate parameter in small area, even in non-sampled area. Yet, problems occur when this method is used to estimate parameter of non-sampled area which is solely based on synthetic model which ignore the area effects. This paper proposed an approach to cluster area effects of auxiliary variable by assuming that there are similar among particular area. Direct estimates in several sub-districts in regency and city of Bogor are zero because no household which are under poverty in the sample that selected from these sub-districts. Empirical Bayes method is used to get...

In Malaysia, flash floods are common occurrences throughout the year in flood prone areas. In terms of flood extent, flash floods affect smaller areas but because of its tendency to occur in densely urbanized areas, the value of damaged property is high and disruption to traffic flow and businesses are substantial. However, in river floods especially the river floods of Kelantan and Pahang, the flood extent is widespread and can extend over 1,000 square kilometers. Although the value of property and density of affected population is lower, the damage inflicted by these floods can also be high because the area affected is large. In order to combat these floods, various flood mitigation measures have been carried out. Structural flood mitigation alone can only provide protection levels from 10 to 100 years Average Recurrence Intervals (ARI). One of the economically effective non-structural approaches in flood mitigation and flood management is using a geospatial technology which involves flood forecasting and warning services to the flood prone areas. This approach which involves the use of Geographical Information Flood Forecasting system also includes the generation of a series of flood maps. There are three types of flood maps namely Flood Hazard Map, Flood Risk Map and Flood Evacuation Map. Flood Hazard Map is used to determine areas susceptible to flooding when discharge from a stream exceeds the bank-full stage. Early warnings of incoming flood events will enable the flood victims to prepare themselves before flooding occurs. Properties and life’s can be saved by keeping their movable properties above the flood levels and if necessary, an early evacuation from the area. With respect to flood fighting, an early warning with reference through a series of flood maps including flood hazard map, flood risk map and flood evacuation map of the approaching flood should be able to alert the organization in charge of the flood fighting actions and the authority to undertake the necessary decisions, and the general public to be aware of the impending danger. However this paper will only discuss on the generations of Flood Hazard Maps and the use of Flood Risk Map and Flood Evacuation Map by using geospatial data.

Aceh is one of the 34 provinces in Indonesia that has the highest population with a high level of hazard. This research was conducted in the Lhokseumawe district, East Coast of Aceh. This paper was based on secondary data of the analyzed SPOT-5 satellite imagery. This study examines the relationship between the level of damage to mangrove with the distribution of mangrove forests that have formed various spatial patterns and spread in the administrative area of Lhokseumawe, distribution of school and location of school. The method performed by descriptive and quantitative analysis method by Pearson product moment statistic method. The degradation level of mangrove is divided into 3 classes such as the good condition, moderate condition, and bad condition. The result is 14 % of the good condition of mangrove extent about more than 60,000 m2, 32 % are mangrove in moderate condition with an area of 30,000-60,000 m2 and 54 % of them are in bad condition about can be found within an area of than 30,000 m2.

This paper discussed regarding a model and an optimal control problem of dengue fever transmission. We classified the model as human and vector (mosquito) population classes. For the human population, there are three subclasses, such as susceptible, infected, and resistant classes. Then, for the vector population, we divided it into wiggler, susceptible, and infected vector classes. Thus, the model consists of six dynamic equations. To minimize the number of dengue fever cases, we designed two optimal control variables in the model, the giving of fogging and vaccination. The objective function of this optimal control problem is to minimize the number of infected human population, the number of vector, and the cost of the controlling efforts. By giving the fogging optimally, the number of vector can be minimized. In this case, we considered the giving of vaccination as a control variable because it is one of the efforts that are being developed to reduce the spreading of dengue fever. We used Pontryagin Mi...

Within the perspective of environmental psychology, there are some forms of earth destruction such as global warming, deforestation, pollution, and species extinction. These have been caused by the massive growth of population that inevitably means more housingis needed while at the same time, agricultural land for food production has been shrinking. Nisbet, Zelenski, and Murphy (2009) proposed that personal relationships with nature may provide some insight into the way people treat the environment. In other words, disconnection from the natural world may be contributing to our planet’s destruction. In addition, Koger and Winter (2011) proposed green urban planning and green buildings as solution not only for overcoming the destruction, but also they are useful to reduce stress. Wilson (1984) pioneered the term “biophilia” to refer to a fundamental hypothesized, genetically based human need and propensity to affiliate with “life and lifelike processes.” Studies have shown, for example, that even minimal connection with nature—such as looking at it through a window—can promote the healing of hospitalized patients; can increase health in the workplace; and can reduce the frequency of illness in prisons. In hundreds of other studies, interaction with pets has shown a wide range of benefits forclinical patients—from adults with Alzheimer’s disease to children with autism—as well as for people within the general population (Kahn, Severson, & Ruckert, 2009). This paper is an attempt to collect data regarding the efforts of cities today in adapting to nature, such as Barcelona which tried to control the bird population with contraception;Austin city coexists with bats; dozens of cities in the US which conform with bees and honey, and Masdar city that is designed along with its nature.

This paper raised a novel particle swarm optimization algorithm based on population category. Traditional particle swarm optimization algorithm is easily to trap in local optimum. In order to avoid standard algorithm appearing premature convergence, this novel algorithm use population category strategy to find new directions for particles. At last, computational results show that the new method is effective and has a high-performance.

Asia has witnessed robust economic growth since the 1960s. Today, emerging markets in Asia have managed to maintain rapid growth even when the world’s main economies suffer from debt and banking crises. However, declining total fertility rate (TFR), increasing life expectancy, continuous change of birth and death patterns, and increasing share of old age population in the age distribution in Asia exert significant pressure on its economies. This paper analyses the relationship between population ageing and economic growth using 7 countries in Asia between 1970 and 2014. The analysis is based on the bound testing approach of co-integration advanced by Pesaran et al (2001). We find a significant negative long run relationship between the old age dependency ratio and economic growth in especially in India and a significant positive long run relationship between youth dependency ratio with economic growth in Japan. This implies that a phase of accelerated ageing to be expected and requires suitable remedial policies to balance the negative effects of ageing.

Immune system plays a vital role in controlling the tumor growth. Therefore, this paper proposes a new mathematical model that describes tumor-immune interaction, focusing on the role of natural killer (NK) cell and CD8+ T cell. The tumor population is subdivided into two different phases, namely interphase and mitosis. This model used Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) and the functions involved in the model represents tumor-immune growth, responses and interaction between the cells. The stability and analysis of the model are carried out. From the analysis, the stability curve limits tumor growth region is shown. The curve from the model lie below the curve of the model with single immune response (CD8+ T cell). This result concluded that the proposed model with involvement of NK cell suppression will lower the tumor growth region.

Calcium carbonate scale formation is a serious problem found in pipes of many industrial processes, such as chemical, desalination and oil industries. The presence of scale makes the narrowing of the diameter of pipes and reduction of heat transfer performance. This paper presents result of crystallization behavior of CaCO3 in pipes. The crystals forming solutions were made by mixing of equimolar solution to CaCl2 and Na2CO3 with Ca2+ concentration of 3,000 ppm. The parameters studied were the solution flow rates (25, 35, 50 mL/min), temperatures (27, 35, 50°C) and tartaric acid as additives (0.00, 1.00, 10.00 ppm) for the scaling inhibition. The CaCO3 scales formation process was monitored by measuring the change in the solution conductivity. The scale obtained was then characterized by SEM/EDS for morphology and elemental analysis, and XRD for phase composition. It was observed that the conductivity of the solution remained constant after a certain period, and subsequently it dropped sharply. This induc...

The population of many countries might undergo dramatic changes in the coming decades due to continuous increases in life expectancy. The sustained reduction in mortality rates and its systematic underestimation has been attracting the significant interest of researchers in recent years because of its potential impact on population size and structure, social security systems, and (from an actuarial perspective) the life insurance and pensions industry worldwide. Among all projection methods, the Lee-Carter method has been widely accepted by the actuarial community. This paper explores the use of the Lee-Carter method to forecast the mortality rates for Malaysian population. The index of the level of mortality for each gender, and the shape and sensitivity coefficients for 18 age groups were obtained through the Lee-Carter method. The Singular Values Decomposition (SVD) is used to forecast the general index for the time period that goes from 2011 to 2030. Since the model involves nonlinear equations that are explicitly difficult to solve, the Matrix Laboratory Version 7.0 (MATLAB 7.0) software will be used in the study. The empirical data sets of Malaysia population for the period of 1981-2010 and for both genders will be considered.

This paper proposes a method for the determination of the duration of heating polyethylene pipes in coils by heated air during the installation and laying works in the construction of gas pipelines under the conditions of low temperatures. The mathematical model of thermal process of heating polyethylene pipes by heated air is considered. Calculation results on the heating duration of a polyethylene pipe are given in the range of external air temperatures at a known flow rate of heated air supplied inside the pipe.

Internal corrosion and external are the one major cause of accidents in liquid and natural gas in a pressure vessel. To lessen the vessel risk level, many companies have adopted and applied risk based inspection (RBI) methodology to risk reduction equipment, This study applied RBI methodology to optimize the inspection planing of the pressure vessel in power plant unit Jawa-Bali. In API 581, the risk situation for each type of equipment was classified into four levels: low risk level, medium-risk level, medium-high-risk level, and high level. This is expressed as a risk matrix. In this paper, semi-quantitative analysis method of risk-based inspection (RBI) was carried out for reducing the failure level of risk and optimized inspection plans, risk analysis of equipment failures resulting from corrosion need to be implemented. The result RBI analysis showed that pressure vessel has a medium high risk level and medium level. Failure mechanisms that occur in the pressure vessel is general thinning.

In this paper, we present a comparative study involving several penalty functions that can be used in a penalty approach for globally solving bound mixed-integer nonlinear programming (bMIMLP) problems. The penalty approach relies on a continuous reformulation of the bMINLP problem by adding a particular penalty term to the objective function. A penalty function based on the ‘erf’ function is proposed. The continuous nonlinear optimization problems are sequentially solved by the population-based firefly algorithm. Preliminary numerical experiments are carried out in order to analyze the quality of the produced solutions, when compared with other penalty functions available in the literature., The authors would like to thank the financial support from FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal) in the scope of the projects: PEst-OE/MAT/UI0013/2014 and PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013.

Prediction of future mortality rates is crucial to insurance companies because they face longevity risks while providing retirement benefits to a population whose life expectancy is increasing. In the past literature, a time series model based on multivariate power-normal distribution has been applied on mortality data from the United States for the years 1933 till 2000 to forecast the future mortality rates for the years 2001 till 2010. In this paper, a more dynamic approach based on the multivariate time series will be proposed where the model uses stochastic parameters that vary with time. The resulting prediction intervals obtained using the model with stochastic parameters perform better because apart from having good ability in covering the observed future mortality rates, they also tend to have distinctly shorter interval lengths.

Research of the optimum concentration of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) on acid hydrolysis and enzyme at the optimum dosage of enzyme hydrolysis of newspaper waste in producing hydrolyzate at optimum levels in reducing sugars and fermentation of its hydrolyzate was conducted. The purpose of this study was to obtain the optimum enzyme dosage and concentration of sulfuric acid hydrolysis of waste paper to produce the best reducing sugar hydrolyzate and microbes to obtain the most effective use of microbial fermentation process. Descriptive and experimental method were used in this research. Descriptive method was applied for evaluating enzyme and acid hydrolysis, preparation hydrolyzate and starter of culture as well as fermentation. The fermentation was conducted by experimental methods using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. This study parameter included reducing sugar content, ethanol content, microbial population, Dextrose Equivalent (DE) and pH. Our finding showed that the highest reducing sugar content on sulfuric acid hydrolysis (H2SO4) was at a concentration of 6, whereas the liquefaction α-amylase enzyme was at dosage 0.52 µL · g−1. The optimum dosage for the hemicellulase enzyme hydrolysis was at 0.001 g · g−1, whereas the saccharification cellulase and amyloglucosidase enzyme were 0.83 µL · g−1 and 0.56 µL · g−1. The most effective and optimum microbial fermentation process was obtained with a consortium of Zymomonas mobilis and Pichia stipitis that produces the highest ethanol content by 6.523 % at 72 h with fermentation efficiency by 45.77 %. Consortium Zymomonas mobilis and Pichia stipitis also reached the highest end of exponential population phase with 27.5 × 1 010 CFU at 36 h with the highest maximum growth rate by 2.48. Additionally the effectiveness was also supported by the lowest reducing sugar content at 9.09 % with the highest growth yield by 1.689 and the end of Dextrose Equivalent (DE) by 56.140 at the lowest pH of 3.34.

Crude oil is becoming more corrosive with higher sulfur concentration, chloride concentration, and acidity. The increasing presence of naphthenic acids in oils with various environmental conditions at temperatures between 150°C and 400°C can lead to different internal degradation morphologies in refineries that are uniform, non-uniform, or localized pitting. Improved corrosion measurement technology is needed to better quantify the integrity risk associated with refining crude oils of higher acid concentration. This paper first reports a consolidated review of corrosion inspection technology to establish the foundation for structural health monitoring of localized internal corrosion in high temperature piping. An approach under investigation is to employ flexible ultrasonic thin-film piezoelectric transducer arrays fabricated by the sol-gel manufacturing process for monitoring localized internal corrosion at temperatures up to 400°C. A statistical analysis of sol-gel transducer measurement accuracy using various time of flight thickness calculation algorithms on a flat calibration block is demonstrated.

SolFocus has been conducting field trials of the SF1100 CPV systems for over three years and has a large installed base at commercial sites in operation for two years. Detailed data gathered from the field trials is used as a basis to predict long-term performance of the commercial population. This paper details the experience gained through running these long term field trials. Specifically, a couple of receiver related failure mechanisms were encountered through these field trials. Failure analysis methods are explored along with the correlation of these field failures to accelerated test methods. A review of manufacturing processes and a survey of commercial populations were conducted to confirm that the exposure of commercial population to these failures was very limited and associated with early process development issues.

A discussion moderated by the authors on the topic “Hair Cells: Bundles, Tuning, Transduction” was held on 17 July 2011 at the 11th International Mechanics of Hearing Workshop in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The paper provides an edited transcript of the session.

A discussion moderated by the authors on the topics “Comparative Auditory Mechanics” and “Mechanics in the Apex of the Cochlea” was held on 20 July 2011 at the 11th International Mechanics of Hearing Workshop in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The paper provides an edited transcript of the session.

This paper presents a numerical study of a stochastic augmented Lagrangian algorithm to solve continuous constrained global optimization problems. The algorithm approximately solves a sequence of bound constrained subproblems whose objective function penalizes equality and inequality constraints violation and depends on the Lagrange multiplier vectors and a penalty parameter. Each subproblem is solved by a population‐based method that uses an electromagnetism‐like mechanism to move points towards optimality. A comparison with another stochastic technique is also reported.