Contiguous Environment Research Articles

Tracing the Status of Silica Fume in Cementitious Materials Subjected to Deterioration Mechanisms with Raman Microscope.

The status and stability of the unreacted silica fume (SF) agglomerates existing in concrete structures subjected to various deterioration environments is largely unknown, but is a critical issue which could cause public concern. This work employed a Raman microscope, which combines the Raman spectroscopy with a light optical microscope, to characterize the phase assemblage in 6-month-old SF blended Portland cement (PC) pastes after 3-month exposure to simulated deterioration mechanisms (viz. carbonation, chloride attack, or sulfate attack), in order to illustrate the status of SF. Unhydrated SF phases, in terms of amorphous silica (Raman shift at about 350–540 cm−1), were identified in the SF blended paste samples after being exposed to carbonation and sulfate attack, indicating that there is a potential hazard to the living system, especially the structures undergoing long-term ‘interactions’ with a contiguous environment.

Dispatched nurses' experience of wearing full gear personal protective equipment to care for COVID-19 patients in China-A descriptive qualitative study.

Aims and objectivesWe explored dispatched nurses’ experiences of wearing full gear personal protective equipment to care for patients with coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) in Wuhan, China.BackgroundFull gear personal protective equipment is the primary and foremost measure to prevent the contact and transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome‐coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV2); however, working in full gear personal protective equipment may hinder nursing care activities and thus negatively affect patients’ and nurses’ health.DesignThis descriptive qualitative inquiry followed the COREQ guidelines.MethodsIndividual semi‐structured telephone interviews were conducted in a purposive sample of 15 frontline nurses who were dispatched to the outbreak epicentre from March to April 2020. Verbatim transcripts were content analysed.ResultsFour themes emerged from the data: inadequate preparedness for working with full gear personal protective equipment, full gear personal protective equipment stimulated stress responses, coping strategies and professional growth. Participants learned a great deal from problem‐focussed and emotion‐focussed strategies to tackle challenges related to the prolonged wearing of full gear personal protective equipment for quality nursing care and reduced risk of exposure. They became more vigilant to the adherence to evolving protocols and appropriate training concerning full gear personal protective equipment use.ConclusionsFrontline nurses confronted various but diminishing challenges related to the use of full gear personal protective equipment when caring for patients with COVID‐19 across the approximate 40‐day period. Consistent use of coverall personal protective equipment to protect from SARS‐CoV‐2 in high exposure settings would be feasible if nurses were better prepared; therefore, scenario‐based skill training concerning the prolonged use of full gear personal protective equipment should be offered regularly and intensively.Relevance to clinical practiceThis study informs future decisions concerning improved full gear personal protective equipment‐related psychomotor training and promoting ways for nurses to cope with the stress that comes from working in highly contiguous environments.

Tissue-Specific and Geographical Variation in Endophytic Fungi of Ageratina adenophora and Fungal Associations With the Environment.

To understand the distribution of the cultivable fungal community in plant tissues and the associations of these fungi with their surrounding environments during the geographical expansion of an invasive plant, Ageratina adenophora, we isolated the cultivable fungi from 72 plant tissues, 12 soils, and 12 air samples collected from six areas in Yunnan Province, China. A total of 4066 isolates were investigated, including 1641 endophytic fungi, 233 withered leaf fungi, 1255 fungi from air, and 937 fungi from soil. These fungi were divided into 458 and 201 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with unique and 97% ITS gene sequence identity, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the fungi belonged to four phyla, including Ascomycota (94.20%), Basidiomycota (2.71%), Mortierellomycota (3.03%), and Mucoromycota (0.07%). The dominant genera of cultivable endophytic fungi were Colletotrichum (34.61%), Diaporthe (17.24%), Allophoma (8.03%), and Fusarium (4.44%). Colletotrichum and Diaporthe were primarily isolated from mature leaves, Allophoma from stems, and Fusarium from roots, indicating that the enrichment of endophytic fungi is tissue-specific and fungi rarely grew systemically within A. adenophora. In the surrounding environment, Alternaria (21.46%), Allophoma (19.31%), Xylaria (18.45%), and Didymella (18.03%) were dominant in the withered leaves, Cladosporium (22.86%), Trichoderma (14.27%), and Epicoccum (9.83%) were dominant in the canopy air, and Trichoderma (27.27%) and Mortierella (20.46%) were dominant in the rhizosphere soils. Further analysis revealed that the cultivable endophytic fungi changed across geographic areas and showed a certain degree of variation in different tissues of A. adenophora. The cultivable fungi in mature and withered leaves fluctuated more than those in roots and stems. We also found that some cultivable endophytic fungi might undergo tissue-to-tissue migration and that the stem could be a transport tissue by which airborne fungi infect roots. Finally, we provided evidence that the fungal community within A. adenophora was partially shared with the contiguous environment. The data suggested a frequent interaction between fungi associated with A. adenophora and those in surrounding environments, reflecting a compromise driven by both functional requirements for plant growth and local environmental conditions.

Smart Eco Home: Towards Sustainable Community Within Relevant Strategic Integrated Intelligence of Architecture.

While various countries all over the world suffer from a real energy lack, Energy becomes essential for economic evolution in any country for two main causes; first that its mandatory for domestic development, and it‘s a rich source of foreign currencies. To avoid energy scarcity in Egypt; the community has to change its habits in different approaches and aspects to overcome any future lack in energy and at the same time to offer a sustainable community. Nowadays environmental technologies become an important discipline to take in consideration, as the sustainable smart approach will be a significant arena for economic competitions between building (especially Homes), which of them is more environmentally friend and fulfill human intelligent needs. The main aim of this research is to consolidate Smart approach with ecological Discipline aiming to enhance ecological sustainability through integrated intelligent of architecture, the research gathered information about architecture chronological approaches through a logical review. Further, the research educes from this approaches an elaborated criterion to follow, and a real range for designers to apply in smart sustainable homes This productive scientific intellectual offers specific procedures for innovating and designing a new compatibility viable architecture. this architecture countenance merging between two major poles, which are; building smartness and environmental control,Turning residential buildings to Smart Ecological (SE) Home through; the application of intelligent and /or knowledge to automate the operation of building systems, the fulfillment of the ecological potentials concerning the environmental issue, preserving the natural environment, and minimize the economics used by home before and after construction. The study closes with the synthesis of main preliminary guide lines of the SE concept. Not only through hypothetical stage based on elaborated scientific search but also via practical investigation based on further analysis of the two major branches (smart-ecology). The purpose of the study is to create a new approach that integrates smart and ecological features with each other creating an elaborated approach that fulfill occupants needs, and at the same time provide comfort for occupants inside the homes. Also it offers energy conservation and a natural atmosphere desired for building consumers without harming the contiguous environment.

Context recognition system for smartphone applications with acoustic data

This paper aims to create an original context recognition system on smartphones by using acoustic data. In this paper, the context represents that how the smartphone users move or how their contiguous environment is. In current systems, the context refers to the place where they are. It means that it is difficult to recognize the context when they are in a new place for which the system does not have the data. Our system simply categorizes the situation: “Train” when the user on the train, “Quiet Work Place” when they in a place like a library, PC room, or laboratory, and so on. This system features sound because it would be containing a lot of information. From volume to spectrum, we analyze the data from a built-in microphone and abstract multiple feature values. In addition to this, accelerator and luminance data are also used as feature values. Then these feature values are classified into context categories. This situation based categorizing system realizes that wherever the user goes, the context can be understood. It would be a flexible platform for smartphone applications which need the context recognition system.

Efficacy of microalgae for industrial wastewater treatment: a review on operating conditions, treatment efficiency and biomass productivity

Sustainable, clean, renewable energy without negotiating contiguous environment is a challenging task mainly comprises of natural resource management which involves operational efficiency, waste minimisation and energy recovery. Disposal of untreated industrial wastewater with chemical nutrients especially compounds containing nitrogen and phosphorous lead to eutrophication and related environmental issues that affect the recycling processes of bio system. Biotransformation of pollutants using microalgae has proven to be proficient and economic method of wastewater treatment due to their adaptability of growing in various wastewater streams and also useful in the process of CO2 fixation. Moreover this technology has the competence of producing bio fuels as an alternative energy resource in the form of bio diesel, bio ethanol and biogas. In this review paper, the applicability of microalgae cultivation in industrial wastewater treatment has been discussed extensively including the processes involved, influencing operational parameters such as study mode, cultivation mode and time, method of aeration, pH and intensity of light. Further, the cultivation methods, harvesting techniques involved in the treatment process have been presented. In addition, the analysis on removal efficiency of algal treatment, biomass productivity and lipid content of the cultivated biomass has been discussed widely which possibly will be helpful in adopting the process integration in industrial wastewater treatment with bio energy production.

Context recognition on smartphones by categorizing extracted features from acoustic and other sensor data

This work presents a method of context recognition on smartphones using several built-in sensors. This system is developed for the Android. The three sensors are a microphone, an accelerometer, and a light sensor, which are correlated with human senses or movement. Context recognition is a method of being aware of the user’s context or contiguous environment. In existing systems, raw time series data are directly used for the recognition. Our system aims to define data categories, which are connected with contexts, by extracting features from time series data. These features are made up of processed signals from each sensor. In particular, acoustic data turns into several different features; volume, spectrum average, peak spectrum appearance ratio, and correlation of these signals over a defined period of time. With acceleration and light features, it can classify similar contexts in the same category. For example, riding the train appears in one discreet category. Another category exemplifies the situation in a library, PC room, or laboratory which can be described as the “quiet” work place. As a part of automatic context awareness, features are formed hierarchical structure in order to make this method efficient.

Distance-decay and taxa-area relationships for bacteria, archaea and methanogenic archaea in a tropical lake sediment.

The study of of the distribution of microorganisms through space (and time) allows evaluation of biogeographic patterns, like the species-area index (z). Due to their high dispersal ability, high reproduction rates and low rates of extinction microorganisms tend to be widely distributed, and they are thought to be virtually cosmopolitan and selected primarily by environmental factors. Recent studies have shown that, despite these characteristics, microorganisms may behave like larger organisms and exhibit geographical distribution. In this study, we searched patterns of spatial diversity distribution of bacteria and archaea in a contiguous environment. We collected 26 samples of a lake sediment, distributed in a nested grid, with distances between samples ranging from 0.01 m to 1000 m. The samples were analyzed using T-RFLP (Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism) targeting mcrA (coding for a subunit of methyl-coenzyme M reductase) and the genes of Archaeal and Bacterial 16S rRNA. From the qualitative and quantitative results (relative abundance of operational taxonomic units) we calculated the similarity index for each pair to evaluate the taxa-area and distance decay relationship slopes by linear regression. All results were significant, with mcrA genes showing the highest slope, followed by Archaeal and Bacterial 16S rRNA genes. We showed that the microorganisms of a methanogenic community, that is active in a contiguous environment, display spatial distribution and a taxa-area relationship.

Scale and ecological dependence of ecosystem services evaluation: Spatial extension and economic value of freshwater ecosystems in Italy

Using land cover datasets derived from satellite imagery as a proxy for ecosystem services (ES) mapping and evaluation generates a series of technical problems mainly related to the resolution at which spatial data are acquired. Small sized and highly fragmented ecosystems such as wetlands, streams and rivers are particularly underestimated when coarse resolution land cover datasets are used. However, even at finer resolution, a large fraction of the economic value provided by freshwater ecosystems may not be adequately captured by remote sensed data because, other than technical and methodological problems, the provision of many freshwater services is strictly dependent on the interactions and contacts of these ecosystems with contiguous environments. The paper analyzes and discusses the effectiveness of the CORINE land cover (CLC) dataset to represent the spatial extension and, indirectly, the economic value of freshwater biomes in Italy, with emphasis on rivers and streams. Using a georeferenced national hydrographic network database and applying a stream buffer of variable width to more than 20,000 water courses, we demonstrated that less than 10% of the estimated surface is captured by the CLC dataset with heavy negative consequences on the overall evaluation of ES at local, regional and national scale. Our approach, easily applicable also to other geographical and spatial contexts, may contribute to improve proxy-based methodologies in ES mapping/evaluation and may help to limit errors in the estimation of freshwater services.

An Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Self-Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles at the Surface of Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

This paper reports the findings of a detailed study of the self-assembly of gold nanoparticles at the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The study included the development of a predictive model for the interactions (charge transfer, van der Waals, osmotic, elastic, nonelastic, and covalent) between tetraoctylammonium bromide-stabilized (TOAB) gold nanoparticles and alkyl- and alkylthiol-modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). It also included the measurement of the coverage of gold nanoparticles at the surface of the above MWCNTs as a function of increasing alkyl chain length. One key finding is that it is possible to predict with a high degree of accuracy using the above model the measured coverage of gold nanoparticles adsorbed, either noncovalently or covalently, at the surface of a MWCNT. Another key finding is that, as predicted, under well-defined conditions the measured coverage of nanoparticles is very sensitive to the nature of the modified CNT surface and the contiguous environment, providing valuable insights that will underpin the rational design of functional nanoscale devices assembled from nanoparticle and CNT building blocks.

A Contextural Aspect for the Structure of Architectural Systems

In a heuristic educational environ possessing a holistic philosophy to problem definition, it is intrinsic to establish a teaching/learning setting for building design that investigates the interconnectedness of the physio-psychological behavioral criteria of the architectural place with its contiguous environment. The emphasis upon human behavioral comfort and the uniqueness of the characteristics and determinants of each site contributes to the excitement of the learning sequence.