Alarming Problem Research Articles

WITHDRAWN: IoT Evaluating Indoor Environmental Quality Check of Air and Noise

In present day, the unrelenting increase in air and noise pollution has become a perpetual nuisance and likewise an alarming problem. In this periodical, we are providing a system to gauge and monitor the environmental parameters and alarm when the air quality and noise levels breaches safe levels. The system uses the necessary sensors to detect the gases present in the atmosphere as well as the noise levels in a particular region and transmits them to the microcontroller NodeMCU. Now cloud platform Blynk which is connected to Node MCU with Wi-Fi credentials acquires the data and processes it by comparing with the values that are perceived as safe levels. This cloud based monitoring app Blynk further provides an alert system when each of the air quality and noise pollution variables crosses the permissible level. It notifies the user by sending an email or message to an android device or even a buzzer can be activated as an alarm. This data is transmitted continuously, and stored for further interpretation. This cloud based pollution monitoring system is most affordable, reliable and cost efficient and could be enhanced for upcoming challenges.

Exploring Molecular Insights of Cereal Peptidic Antioxidants in Metabolic Syndrome Prevention.

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is presently an alarming public health problem globally. Oxidative stress has been postulated to be strongly correlated with MetS, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers. Cereals are important staple foods which account for a huge proportion of the human diet. However, owing to recent growing demand and the search for natural antioxidants for the prevention and management of MetS, cereal peptides have gained increasing attention for developing functional ingredients or foods with substantial antioxidant properties. This review explores the current production techniques for cereal peptidic antioxidants and their potential mechanism of action in the prevention and management of MetS.

An Analysis of Carbon Market and Carbon Credits in India

Global climate change is becoming an alarming problem of the 21st century, with global warming as the biggest challenge. Anthropogenic activities have added significant quantities of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere ever since the Industrial Revolution. The agriculture sector is a significant source of GHG emission in many countries. Crop stubble burning or agricultural biomass burning is one of the highest contributors to this emission. In India, around 92 million tons of crop residue is burned every year, causing several negative impacts on the climate as well as on human health. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Carbon trading and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are the two robust processes to mitigate the GHG emissions for any country. In this study, we have assessed the overview of world’s carbon market and analysed how much carbon credit India may have traded in the world carbon market, if emission from the crop residue burning was stopped in the Indian agricultural sector. Further we have fitted an econometric model to determine the effect of carbon trading on other stock market variable.

Execution of robust dynamic sliding mode control for smart photovoltaic application

To meet the excess power, the grid integrated solar with power converter interfaces are gaining its popularity. The excess application of non-linear devices increases the power quality (PQ) problems in the distribution sectors. To resolve the alarming problems, dynamic strategy based active power filters (APFs) are gaining interest. This study deals with a robust dynamic sliding mode control (DSMC) method for the undertaken system with the application of combined non-linear and unbalanced load. In this study, an incremental conductance (IC) based maximum power point (MPP) technique and integral switching gain (ISG) based dynamic sliding surface (DSS) is proposed for regulating the boost converter and inverter respectively. To improve the PQ by reducing harmonics, a novel sliding surface (NSS) is constructed with the first derivative of the disturbing current signals sensed from the load. The DSMC design reduces the multiple controller requirement and restrict to only one PI for the voltage regulation. To justify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, different operating conditions are developed and simulated through MATLAB/Simulink software. By using DSMC, the average PQ of the system is improved to 90% and 87% at DSMC-S-APF, and 92% and 94% at DSMC-APF during both grid supplying and absorbing condition.

Biological clock vs Social clock conflict in Adolescents

Alteration of day and night is one of the essential circadian rhythms that build the phenomenon of sleep/wake in humans and other animals. Daily rhythms impact different individuals differently. Light exposure and an individual's circadian response are two aspects that create diversity in phenotype. These diverse phenotypes are called chronotypes. Chronotype varies over the life history stages. Chronotype is seen as morning type in children, evening type in adolescents, and again reverts back to the morning type in adults and old-aged individuals. It is observed that adolescents being evening types have bedtime later in comparison to children and adults. Adolescent physiology/ body clock does not allow them to sleep early and school routine/social clock does not let them sleep till late. Thus, their night phase is shrunk and sleep hours are reduced, which hinders their day-time functioning, including mental tasks such as cognition, learning and memory-based exercises, and physical tasks such as physical presence during field and athletic events. These days sleep debt is a critical health concern in the adolescent population. The current review focuses on the adolescent sleep-needs and various factors affecting their healthy sleep. This also encompasses the understanding of biological clocks, their misalignment, disrupters, causes and impact. The present study would be helpful in finding out the difference between the biological clock and social clock of the adolescent population, elaborates the need for sleep education and suggests a solution to this alarming problem of sleep debt in teens.

Laser-assisted preparation of C3N4/Fe2O3/Au nanocomposite: a magnetic reusable catalyst for pollutant degradation

Assorted common contaminants namely organic dyes and nitro compounds are generated by various industries and have caused alarming problems for the environment and humans. The development of effective and newer methods to eliminate these contaminants is imperative. One effective way to eliminate these pollutants is to deploy sustainable heterogeneous catalyst systems. Accordingly, a novel and efficient magnetic nanocomposite catalyst comprising graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), gold (Au), and hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles (C3N4/Fe2O3/Au) is prepared through a cost-effective and green method. The individual components, g-C3N4 and Au nanoparticles (NPs), are prepared via thermal decomposition of urea and laser ablation in liquid, respectively. The behavior of C3N4/Fe2O3/Au nanocomposite as a catalyst for the borohydride reduction of methyl orange (MO) dye and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in aqueous solution, is illustrated.

Pitfalls in the Immunochemical Determination of β-Lactam Antibiotics in Water.

Contamination of waters with pharmaceuticals is an alarming problem as it may support the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, fast and cost-effective analytical methods for potential on-site analysis are desired in order to control the water quality and assure the safety of its use as a source of drinking water. Antibody-based methods, such as the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), can be helpful in this regard but can also have certain pitfalls in store, depending on the analyte. As shown here for the class of β-lactam antibiotics, hydrolysis of the β-lactam ring is a key factor in the immunochemical analysis as it influences antibody recognition. With the antibody used in this study, the limit of detection (LOD) in the immunoassay could be significantly reduced by hydrolysis for the five tested penicillins, with the lowest LOD for carbenicillin (0.2 nmol/L) and the greatest impact on penicillins G and V (reduction by 85%). In addition to enhanced quantification, our strategy also provides access to information about the degree of hydrolysis in water samples as shown for the most abundant penicillin amoxicillin.

A Cyclic Dipeptide from Marine Fungus Penicillium chrysogenum DXY-1 Exhibits Anti-quorum Sensing Activity.

Bacterial quorum sensing (QS) is anticipated as a new potential target for the development of antimicrobial drugs. An anti-QS substance against Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 has been isolated and purified from the crude extracts of the marine fungus Penicillium chrysogenum DXY-1, and the accurate structure was identified as cyclo(l-Tyr-l-Pro). This cyclic dipeptide at sub-minimum inhibitory concentration can decrease the QS-regulated violacein production of C. violaceum CV026 by 79% and QS-mediated pyocyanin production, proteases, and elastase activity of P. aeruginosa PA01 by 41%, 20%, and 32%, respectively. In addition, it can also destroy the biofilm formation and decrease QS gene expression of P. aeruginosa PA01. Molecular docking was further performed, and the obtained data indicated that this dipeptide blocks the effect of QS autoinducers through competitive binding to the same pocket of the receptor proteins. We expect this anti-QS cyclic dipeptide to be a potential pro-drug treating drug-resistant P. aeruginosa infections, and these findings could relieve the alarming problem of microbial resistance to antimicrobial drugs.

Transformation of Municipal Solid Waste into Fuel Pellets Case Study of Newai, Rajasthan

The municipal solid waste is generating on a rapid pace not only in India but on a global scale with the increase in population and life style of people on a time scale. Such a huge quantity of waste is posing a serious threat to human health and also on environment as a whole. Many cities in India do not have any treatment and scientific disposal of such wastes thereby developing big hills of municipal solid wastes causing ground water contamination through the process of leaching, generation of mosquitoes leading to various diseases, nuisance and odor problems etc. With an alarming problems being witnessed, the authors of present paper have attempted a case study of small tehsil Newai, district, Tonk in Rajasthan, India wherein the population is forecasted to 2051 and waste generation is estimated on a time scale. A lab study has been conducted by one of the authorto transform municipal waste in to fuel pallets with calorific value of 6000 kcal / kg as an alternate fuel. Such a solution not only facilitate in improving the quality of environment and restriction of pollution but also provide environmentally sustainable approach by providing economic benefits to make the system sustainable.

Reusing calcined sediments from Chorfa II dam as partial replacement of cement for sustainable mortar production

Dam siltation is an alarming problem that significantly affects the dam's lifetime and water storage capacity. In Algeria, the removal of dredged sediment has become a significant environmental impact and an economic issue. In this context, the utilization of calcined sediments as an artificial pozzolanic material could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the cement industry. This paper addresses the objective of valorizing calcined sediments in sustainable mortar production on fresh and hardened states of grouts and mortars. Moreover, three dry curing methods were used to accelerate improving the strength of the different mortars at a rate of 5, 15, and 25% by weight of Portland cement (CEM I 42.5 N). The first method was applied at 10 °C, and the other two at 20 °C and 40 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed a real advantage of heat treatment at 750 °C of sediments to acquire pozzolanic behavior. A substitution rate of 25% affected the fluidity of cement grouts with calcined sediments at 60 min with a loss of fluidity, even with a high dosage of plasticizer. Indeed, the best mechanical results of the mortars were observed at cure temperatures of 20 °C and 40 °C. With an acceleration of the pozzolanic activity at 90 days for a cure at 40 °C and 180 days at 20 °C, the development of compressive strength is relatively higher than that of the control mortar. In conclusion, the carbon footprint of the final mortars showed that a high substitution rate reduces CO2 emissions, representing a reduction of 3%, 10%, and 17% respectively for the formulation of mortars based on 5%, 15%, and 25% calcined sediment.

A Modified FlowDroid Based on Chi-Square Test of Permissions.

Android devices are currently widely used in many fields, such as automatic control, embedded systems, the Internet of Things and so on. At the same time, Android applications (apps) always use multiple permissions, and permissions can be abused by malicious apps that disclose users’ privacy or breach the secure storage of information. FlowDroid has been extensively studied as a novel and highly precise static taint analysis for Android applications. Aiming at the problem of complex detection and false alarms in FlowDroid, an improved static detection method based on feature permission and risk rating is proposed. Firstly, the Chi-square test is used to extract correlated permissions related to malicious apps, and mutual information is used to cluster the permissions to generate feature permission clusters. Secondly, risk calculation method based on permissions and combinations of permissions are proposed to identify dangerous data flows. Experiments show that this method can significantly improve detection efficiency while maintaining the accuracy of dangerous data flow detection.

Engaging Apparel Employees to Identify and Decide Actions to Address Selected Determinants using Health Promotion Approach

Low level of employee engagement is one of the most alarming global economic problems. It declines work performance and productivity of employees. The objective of this qualitative study is to identify and decide actions to address selected probable determinants which affect employee engagement. The health promotion principals with participatory approach were implemented with sewing machine operators in an apparel factory in Sri Lanka of age 18–55 (n = 64). The duration of determinant identification took around 3 months while intervention period took around 6 months. Initiation, maintenance and continual monitoring, and re-direction toward greater effectiveness were done as the components of a health promotion process. Group discussions with employees and key informant interviews with managerial personals were recorded, transcribed, translated to English, and thematically analyzed. Without the involvement of the principal investigator, employees were able to identify eight determinants while managerial personals identified three determinants. Among those identified probable determinants, four of which corresponded with those already mentioned in published studies. After facilitation, employees could identify six determinants and they could identify determinants by conducting some interactive activities and while measuring employees’ changes using “health promotional tools” as well. From the identified determinants, employees prioritized four determinants that were addressed and nine actions were developed with the employees to address them in this process. Employees could identify the probable determinants that affect employee engagement in their own work place by themselves and they could decide actions to address selected determinants successfully with minimum guidance through a health promotion approach.

Kinetic and equilibrium isotherm studies for the removal of acid blue 113 dye by dried corallina officinalis alga as a novel eco-friendly adsorbent

Water pollution is an alarming problem in developing countries. Dried algae can be considered as potential and suitable bio-sorbents due to their fast and easy growth and high availability. The special surface properties of these algae allow them to adsorb different types of organic and inorganic pollutants from solutions. In this context, the removal of anionic acid blue 113 dye (AB113) from aqueous solutions by dried Corallina officinalis alga as low-cost bio-sorbent was chosen as a case study of a typical remediation process of water contaminants. The effect of various environmental and physicochemical parameters has been studied. The results show that the equilibrium adsorption was established within 120 min. The sorption phenomenon was investigated by determining the process kinetics at different concentrations and the adsorption isotherms at different temperatures. The kinetics results showed that the pseudo second-order kinetics model generates the best agreement with the experimental data. The modeling results showed that linear Langmuir and Freundlich models appear to fit the adsorption data better than Temkin model for the adsorption of AB113 onto dried C. officinalis alga. It can be concluded that C. Officinalis alga can be successfully used as adsorbent.

Substance Abuse Patterns in Brick Industry Workers Detection and Evaluation

Background: Drug abuse became an alarming problem in the last years in Egypt and many other countries. Some studies had examined the prevalence of substance abuse among school and university students, but few have assessed workers in workplaces which can pose major risks to the health and productivity of workers. The aim of this work is to estimate the prevalence of substance abuse among a sample of workers, to explore various behavioral and psychological manifestations. Methods: This is a cross - sectional study performed in one of the brick industries in Giza governorate in Egypt. It included 481 workers from different sections in the industry. Data were coded and entered using the statistical package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The mean age of the participants was 34.85 ± 13.50 with a minimum of 6 years and maximum 87 years old. Results: Results showed high prevalence of various psychosocial problems among workers which were highest between 21 and 40 years old. Symptoms included poor concentration, depression, stress, suicidal and guilty thoughts, mood swings, aggressive behavior, anxiety and disturbed social relationships. Concerning abuse pattern, 47.3 % of employees were abusing cannabinoids, 19.2 % were abusing tramadol and 8.3 % were abusing both. Workers performing physical work recorded the highest rate of abuse. In addition, 50.5 % of workers are smokers which was the highest independent variable related to substance abuse. Conclusions: It is important to develop substance abuse policy, raise awareness regarding their health effects and serious impacts on individual’s physical, psychosocial and behavioral integrity. Drug testing in workplace is a must to ensure community safety.

Earthquake Alert Device Using a Low-Cost Accelerometer and its Services

With the recent increase in the number of earthquakes in Korea, research efforts have been directed toward the real-time detection of earthquakes and the formulation of evacuation plans. Traditional seismometers can precisely record earthquakes but are incapable of processing them on-site to initiate an alert and response mechanism. By contrast, internet of things (IoT) devices equipped with accelerometers and CPUs can record and detect earthquake signals in real time and send out alert messages to nearby users. However, the signals recorded on IoT devices are noisy because of two main factors: the urban buildings and structures these devices are installed in and their cost–quality trade-off. Therefore, in this work, we provide an effective mechanism to deal with the problem of false alarms in IoT devices. We test our previously proposed artificial neural network (ANN) with different feature window sizes ranging from 2 seconds to 6 seconds and with various earthquake intensities. We find that setting the size of the feature window to a certain interval (i.e., 4–5 seconds) can improve model performance. Moreover, an evacuation route guidance platform that considers user location is proposed. The proposed platform provides and visualizes information to user devices in real time through the communication between server and user devices. In the event of a disaster, safe shelters are selected on the basis of the information entered from the server, and pedestrian paths are provided. As a result, the direct and secondary damages caused by earthquakes can be avoided.

The structure of South African police: Towards a single police service

The South African crime statistics released by the police minister for the first three months of 2021 reaffirmed the alarming crime problems in the country. Although, the statistics as released by the minister seemingly opined that certain crimes such as contact related crimes, property-related crimes to be declining. Other crimes such as, Truck hijacking, commercial crime, attempted murder, murder, robbery at residential premises, carjacking, robbery at non-residential premises, bank robbery and others are on the increase. This article argues that the high rate of crime in South Africa cannot be severed from the disjointed functions given to public law enforcement establishments in the country. It is argued the public policing agencies in South Africa, such as the Municipal police, Traffic police and the SAPS have the common objective of crime control against law breakers. The central argument is that the alarming rate of crime in the country is essentially because the efforts of these law enforcement agencies are not properly coordinated into a central command structure with uniform strategy and tactics. The main objective of this article is to propose a centralisation of police agencies (Municipal, Traffic and South African Police Services) which will be effective in dealing with crime in the South African communities. This article adopted qualitative research methodology. Twenty participants were purposefully selected. The article makes recommendations, emanating from the research findings.

New biomaterials for Ni biosorption turned into catalysts for Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling of aryl iodides in green conditions.

In parallel with increasing Ni production and utilisation, Ni pollution in the soil–water continuum has become an alarming and global problem. Solutions for removing Ni from industrial effluents have been widely investigated and biosorption has emerged as an efficient, cost-effective, scalable and sustainable alternative for water treatment. However, the biosorption capacity is limited by the chemical composition of the biomaterial and the Ni-enriched biomaterials are rarely valorised. In this work, the biosorption capacity of three abundant biomaterials with different chemical properties – water hyacinth, coffee grounds and pinecones – was studied before and after functionalization, and reached a maximum biosorption capacity of 51 mg g−1 of Ni(ii). A bioinspired functionalization approach was investigated introducing carboxylate moieties and was conducted in green conditions. The Ni-enriched biomaterials were valorised by transformation into catalysts, which were characterised by MP-AES and XRPD. Their characterisation revealed a structure similar to nickel formate, and hence the Eco-Ni(HCOO)2 catalysts were tested in Suzuki–Miyaura reactions. Several aryl iodides were successfully cross-coupled to phenylboronic acids using Eco-Ni(HCOO)2 without any ligand, a mild and green base in a mixture of green solvents.

Incidence and pattern of stroke among patients admitted to medical ward at Yirgalem General Hospital, Sidama Regional State, Southern-Ethiopia.

Introduction:In the current days, stroke has become one of the common reasons for admission in many health care setups and becoming an alarming public health problem in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed to assess the incidence and associated factors of stroke among patients admitted to the medical wards in Yirgalem hospital.Methods:An institution-based retrospective cross-sectional study design was carried out from 01 January 2017, to 30 December 2019. Admitted adult patients’ medical charts were used to collect all required information using structured checklists. Data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 software, and a p value < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.Result:From a total of 3016 admitted patients, the incidence of stroke was 3.15% (n = 95). Of the 95 stroke cases, 58.9% were males and 69.5% of them were urban dwellers. 62.1% (59/95) of the stroke patients had an ischemic stroke, whereas 37.9% (36/95) had a hemorrhagic stroke. Patients with age ⩾ 65 years, smokers, hypertension, and type-II diabetes had significantly higher ischemic stroke when compared to patients with hemorrhagic stroke (62.7% vs 30.5%, p = 0.008), (49.1% vs 11.1%, p ⩽ 0.0001), and (71.2%vs 13.9%, p < 0.0001), respectively. While patients with hypertension had a significantly higher rate of hemorrhagic stroke when compared to patients with ischemic stroke (88.9% vs 61%, p = 0.003).Conclusion:The majority of stroke patients had cardiovascular problems and hypertension. More than 44% and 34.7% of them had a history of alcoholism and smoking. Therefore, proper management of hypertension, lifestyle modification, early screening and management of strok risks and avoiding risk-full personal behaviors like smoking and alcoholism are important tools to limit or prevent stroke-related morbidity and mortality.

Impact of EEG Parameters Detecting Dementia Diseases: A Systematic Review

Dementia diseases are increasing rapidly, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), becoming an alarming problem for the health sector. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a non-invasive test that records brain electrical activity and has a wide field of applications in the medical area, one of which is the detection of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this work is to present the results of a thorough review of the use of EEG systems for the detection of dementia diseases. Around 82 papers published between 2009 and 2020 were reviewed and compared obtaining data such as sampling time, number of electrodes, the most popular processing, classification, and validation techniques, as well as an analysis of the reported results. The relationship of the selected parameters with the efficiency obtained is shown. Some more common combinations in the reviewed papers that demonstrated to have reliability levels greater than 90%, and details to be considered at each stage of the process. An overview of the most commonly used classification tools and processing techniques is also described.

The relationship between exposure of Palestinian youth to community violence and internalizing and externalizing symptoms: Do gender and social support matter?

BackgroundYouth exposure to community violence (ECV) in the Palestinian society is an alarming problem. Yet, there is serious scarcity of research on its mental health consequences. ObjectivesThe study examined the relationships between youth ECV and internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as the moderating and mediating effects of gender and support from family and teachers on these relationships. Participants, Setting, and MethodA cross-sectional survey was conducted among a systematic random sample of 1930 Palestinian junior and senior high school pupils (912 boys, 1018 girls, aged 12–19-year- old), using a self-administered questionnaire. ResultsThe results revealed that the more Palestinian youth were exposed to community violence (CV) the more they demonstrated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Palestinian boys who were victims of CV reported higher levels of externalizing symptoms, while girls reported higher levels of internalizing symptoms. Adolescents with higher levels of family support and teacher support reported lower levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. We have also found that gender can moderate the effects of CV victimization on internalizing symptoms and that family support can mediates the relationship between CV victimization and internalizing symptoms and moderate the relationships between ECV (both victimization and witnessing) and externalizing symptoms. ConclusionsThe moderating and mediating effects of gender and social support on the relationship between ECV and mental health consequences are discussed. The implications of the results for future research and for prevention and intervention as well as the strengths and limitations of the study are also discussed.