• Title/Summary/Keyword: environmental challenge

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Impact of Waste Coffee Residue Disposal on the Environment and Anti-microbic Activity of Oyster Shell Waste

  • Ramakrishna, Chilakala;Thenepalli, Thriveni;Nam, Seong Young;Kim, Chunsik;Ahn, Ji Whan
    • Journal of Energy Engineering
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.76-80
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    • 2018
  • The objective of this research paper is to discuss the waste coffee residue disposal and its environmental effects on the environment. As we know, coffee is one of the most demand and swallowed beverages in the world, which leads to large quantities of solid waste. Which can be toxic and a lot of environmental problems occur. In developing countries, there is a lack of proper coffee waste residue management. The coffee beans and residues contain several organic compounds. The wastewater from coffee industry emitted several pollutants (highly concentrated) and it contaminates the soil, ground waters, aquatic life, and also human health. Hence it is essential to treat the coffee waste residues. Mean while, oyster shell waste and its disposal also a big environmental challenge in the coastal regions of southeast Korea. In this paper, we focused the treatment of coffee waste residue with oyster shell waste powder. Primarily, oyster shells are calcinated at higher temperatures and investigated the calcined CaO powder as an anti microbic agent to the bacteria presented in coffee waste residues. We successfully applied calcium oxide from oyster shell waste, as an antimicrobic agent.

Responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to Challenge by Pseudomonas syringae

  • Kim, Min Gab;Kim, Sun Young;Kim, Woe Yeon;Mackey, David;Lee, Sang Yeol
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.25 no.3
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    • pp.323-331
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    • 2008
  • Plants are continually exposed to a variety of potentially pathogenic microbes, and the interactions between plants and pathogenic invaders determine the outcome, disease or disease resistance. To defend themselves, plants have developed a sophisticated immune system. Unlike animals, however, they do not have specialized immune cells and, thus all plant cells appear to have the innate ability to recognize pathogens and turn on an appropriate defense response. Using genetic, genomic and biochemical methods, tremendous advances have been made in understanding how plants recognize pathogens and mount effective defenses. The primary immune response is induced by microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). MAMP receptors recognize the presence of probable pathogens and evoke defense. In the co-evolution of plant-microbe interactions, pathogens gained the ability to make and deliver effector proteins to suppress MAMP-induced defense responses. In response to effector proteins, plants acquired R-proteins to directly or indirectly monitor the presence of effector proteins and activate an effective defense response. In this review we will describe and discuss the plant immune responses induced by two types of elicitors, PAMPs and effector proteins.

The review of municipal solid waste management in Nigeria: the current trends

  • Iorhemen, Oliver T.;Alfa, Meshach I.;Onoja, Sam B.
    • Advances in environmental research
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    • v.5 no.4
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    • pp.237-249
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    • 2016
  • The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is essential for every community; and, it is currently a major challenge in Nigeria. This paper provides an overview of the current MSW management trends in Nigeria and proposes new sustainable MSW management systems. Across Nigerian cities, MSW management is characterized by inefficient collection and transportation to disposal sites. Collection services do not reach some unplanned areas and slums due to poor street network. Even some planned areas are not reached by collection services. The informal sector contributes to waste collection, resource recovery and recycling; however, their activities are not recognized by the governments. Markets exist for recovered materials but more efforts need to be geared towards intensive recovery of materials and expansion of these markets. Despite the high proportion of putrescible matter in MSW, the only form of treatment commonly used currently is open burning for volume reduction. The high organic fraction presents a great opportunity for composting and anaerobic digestion. Ultimate disposal is currently done in open dumpsites. This needs to be upgraded to engineered landfills that are properly sited and adequately operated by well trained personnel. There is an emerging waste stream of concern, electronic-waste (e-waste), that requires urgent sustainable management as e-waste are currently co-disposed with other waste streams or burnt in the open posing detrimental health impacts.

Strength in Numbers and Voice: An Assessment of the Networking Capacity of Chinese ENGOs

  • Shapiro, Matthew A.;Brunner, Elizabeth;Li, Hui
    • Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.147-175
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    • 2018
  • Under authoritarian regimes, citizen-led NGOs such as environmental NGOs (ENGOs) often operate under close scrutiny of the government. While this presents a challenge to a single ENGO, we propose here - in line with existing research on network effects - that there are opportunities for multiple ENGOs to coordinate and thus work in ways that supersede government controls, affect public opinion, and contribute to policy revision and/or creation. In this paper, we specifically examine the possibility that the gamut of citizen-based ENGOs in China are coordinating. Based on network analysis of ENGOs web pages as well as interviews with more than a dozen ENGO leaders between 2014 and 2016, we find that ENGOs have few direct and public connections to each other, but social media sites and personal connections offline provide a crucial function in creating bridges. A closer examination of these bridges reveals, however, that they can be substantive to the environmental discussion or functional to the dissemination of web page information but typically not both. In short, ENGOs in China are not directly connected but rather are connected in a way that responds to the available social media and the government's censorship practices.

Durability enhancement of anion exchange membranes for water electrolysis: an updated review

  • Akter, Mahamuda;Park, Jong-Hyeok;Kim, Beom-Seok;Lee, Minyoung;Jeong, Dahye;Shin, Jiyun;Park, Jin-Soo
    • Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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    • v.55 no.6
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    • pp.319-327
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    • 2022
  • Ion exchange membranes have been developed from laboratory tools to industrial products with significant technical and trade impacts in the last 70 years. Today, ion exchange membranes are successfully applied for water and energy for different electro-membrane processes. Hydrogen could be produced by electrochemical water splitting using renewable energy, for example, solar, biomass, geothermal and wind energy. This review briefly summarizes the recent studies reporting the state-of-the-art anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis, especially focusing on the enhancement of the durability of anion-exchange membranes. Anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis could be used as inexpensive non-noble metal electrocatalysts that are capable of producing low cost of hydrogen. However, the main challenge of anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis is to increase the performance and durability. In this mini review, the limiting factors of the durability and the technology enhancing the durability will be discussed for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis.

A Study on the Development of Artificial Intelligence Crop Environment Control Framework

  • Guangzhi Zhao
    • International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.144-156
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    • 2023
  • Smart agriculture is a rapidly growing field that seeks to optimize crop yields and reduce risk through the use of advanced technology. A key challenge in this field is the need to create a comprehensive smart farm system that can effectively monitor and control the growth environment of crops, particularly when cultivating new varieties. This is where fuzzy theory comes in, enabling the collection and analysis of external environmental factors to generate a rule-based system that considers the specific needs of each crop variety. By doing so, the system can easily set the optimal growth environment, reducing trial and error and the user's risk burden. This is in contrast to existing systems where parameters need to be changed for each breed and various factors considered. Additionally, the type of house used affects the environmental control factors for crops, making it necessary to adapt the system accordingly. While developing such a framework requires a significant investment of labour and time, the benefits are numerous and can lead to increased productivity and profitability in the field of smart agriculture. We developed an AI platform for optimal control of facility houses by integrating data from mushroom crops and environmental factors, and analysing the correlation between optimal control conditions and yield. Our experiments demonstrated significant performance improvement compared to the existing system.

Development of Automated Welding System for Construction: Focused on Robotic Arm Operation for Varying Weave Patterns

  • Doyun Lee;Guang-Yu Nie;Aman Ahmed;Kevin Han
    • International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.115-124
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    • 2022
  • Welding is a significant part of the construction industry. Since most high-rise building construction structures rely on a robust metal frame welded together, welding defect can damage welded structures and is critical to safety and quality. Despite its importance and heavy usage in construction, the labor shortage of welders has been a continuous challenge to the construction industry. To deal with the labor shortage, the ultimate goal of this study is to design and develop an automated robotic welding system composed of a welding machine, unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), robotic arm, and visual sensors. This paper proposes and focuses on automated weaving using the robotic arm. For automated welding operation, a microcontroller is used to control the switch and is added to a welding torch by physically modifying the hardware. Varying weave patterns are mathematically programmed. The automated weaving is tested using a brush pen and a ballpoint pen to clearly see the patterns and detect any changes in vertical forces by the arm during weaving. The results show that the weave patterns have sufficiently high consistency and precision to be used in the actual welding. Lastly, actual welding was performed, and the results are presented.

New Development of Methods for Environmental Impact Assessment Facing Uncertainty and Cumulative Environmental Impacts (불확실성과 누적환경영향하에서의 환경영향평가를 위한 방법론의 새로운 개발)

  • Pietsch, Jurgen
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.4 no.3
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    • pp.87-94
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    • 1995
  • At both international and national levels, such as in the Rio Declaration and the EU's Fifth Environmental Action Plan, governments have committed themselves to the adoption of the precautionary principle (UNCED 1992, CEC 1992). These commitments mean that the existence of uncertainty in appraising policies and proposals for development should be acknowledged. Uncertainty arise in both the prediction of impacts and in the evaluation of their significance, particularly of those cumulative impacts which are individually insignificant but cumulatively damaging. The EC network of EIA experts, stated at their last meeting in Athens that indirect effects and the treatment of uncertainty are one of the main deficiencies of current EIA practice. Uncertainties in decision-making arise where choices have been made in the development of the policy or proposal, such as the selection of options, the justification for that choice, and the selection of different indicators to comply with different regulatory regimes. It is also likely that a weighting system for evaluating significance will have been used which may be implicit rather than explicit. Those involved in decision-making may employ different tolerances of uncertainty than members of the public, for instance over the consideration of the worst-case scenario. Possible methods for dealing with these uncertainties include scenarios, sensitivity analysis, showing points of view, decision analysis, postponing decisions and graphical methods. An understanding of the development of cumulative environmental impacts affords not only ecologic but also socio-economic investigations. Since cumulative impacts originate mainly in centres of urban or industrial development, in particular an analysis of future growth effects that might possibly be induced by certain development impacts. Not least it is seen as an matter of sustainability to connect this issue with ecological research. The serious attempt to reduce the area of uncertainty in environmental planning is a challenge and an important step towards reliable planning and sustainable development.

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Environmental Impact Assessment within Regional and Municipal Planning (지역 및 도시계획에서의 환경영향평가)

  • Socher, Wolfgang
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.4 no.3
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    • pp.27-29
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    • 1995
  • Within regional and municipal planning we are using several levels or types of EIA in the city of Dresden. Some of these types, practical aspects and some experiences of our work will be presented in this contribution. Firstly I may introduce you to some general conditions for your better understanding of our principles of work. Surely you know about. the destruction of the political and economical structures in Eastern Germany since 1989. Until today our not quite simple task is to build up new ones. At the same time people were in great expectation of freedom and high standard of living as soon as possible. Economical difficulties increased in association with the breakdown of the market in Eastern Europe. How to rebuild industrial estatements and how to renew the traffic systems? We had to find answers to all these complex question. Should we only repair the former damages or could we reach a really environmental sound production for the future? The demand for a rapid economic growth is an incredible challenge for the application of new environmental ideas. I am truly not sure whether you know the city of Dresden or not. So I would like to give you a short introduction. Dresden is situated in a valley shaped by the river Elbe. There live about 500,000 people. Dresden has a great reputation for arts and sciences. Its also well know as a town of high technology industries such as electronics and optics. We restored the power plant and therefore we don't need any atomic power plants actually we haven't got one. Since 1990 there were founded many official agencies in Dresden because it is the capatal of Saxony. Considering nature and environment we there is a large forest area called "Dresdner Heide". The river Elbe and the meadows are situated on both sides of the river. There are a lot of green and free places in the city area too. Furtheron there is something unusual for a large city: about 50% of the drinking water resources mostly take place within the city itself. The origin is the ground water as well as water from the river Elbe after filtration of course.

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An overview of applicability of WEQ, RWEQ, and WEPS models for prediction of wind erosion in lands

  • Seo, Il Whan;Lim, Chul Soon;Yang, Jae Eui;Lee, Sang Pil;Lee, Dong Sung;Jung, Hyun Gyu;Lee, Kyo Suk;Chung, Doug Young
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.47 no.2
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    • pp.381-394
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    • 2020
  • Accelerated soil wind erosion still remains to date to cause severe economic and environmental impacts. Revised and updated models to quantitatively evaluate wind induced soil erosion have been made for specific factors in the wind erosion equation (WEQ) framework. Because of increasing quantities of accumulated data, the WEQ, the revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ), the wind erosion prediction system (WEPS), and other soil wind erosion models have been established. These soil wind erosion models provide essential knowledge about where and when wind erosion occurs although naturally, they are less accurate than the field-scale. The WEQ was a good empirical model for comparing the effects of various management practices on potential erosion before the RWEQ and the WEPS showed more realistic estimates of erosion using easily measured local soil and climatic variables as inputs. The significant relationship between the observed and predicted transport capacity and soil loss makes the RWEQ a suitable tool for a large scale prediction of the wind erosion potential. WEPS developed to replace the empirical WEQ can calculate soil loss on a daily basis, provide capability to handle nonuniform areas, and obtain predictions for specific areas of interest. However, the challenge of precisely estimating wind erosion at a specific regional scale still remains to date.