Multi-Scale Investigation of Water-Energy-Food Nexus

Water, energy and food (WEF) are among essentials to meet the basic human needs and ensure economic and social development. Globally, the demand for WEF rapidly increases while billions of people are still lacking access to these needs. The main drivers behind increased demand for WEF are population growth, urbanization, economic growth and climate change. It may also be driven by changes in demography, technological developments and diet preferences. To achieve a sustainable supply and effectively manage the demand for WEF, complex interactions between WEF (nexus) need to be understood. Traditionally, WEF have been studied and managed separately with a minimal focus on their interactions. The primary objective of this study is to investigate WEF nexus at different scales. A bottom-up approach has been employed to develop a system-dynamics based model to capture the interactions between WEF at end-use level at a household scale. Additionally, a city scale model has been developed to quantify WEF implications for agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors. The household level model is then integrated with the city scale model to estimate WEF demand and the generated organic waste and wastewater quantities. The integrated model investigates the impact of several variables on WEF: human bahaviour, diet, household income, family size, seasonal variability, population size, GDP, crop type and land-use for agriculture. The integrated model is based on a detailed survey of 407 households conducted to investigate WEF over winter and summer season for the city of Duhok, Iraq. The city is chosen as a case study due to the rapid population growth, considerable urbanization, changes in land-use pattern and shifting climate trends toward longer summer duration. These put an additional pressure on WEF demand in the city. The collected data of WEF and household characteristics (demographic and socio-economic) have been intensively analysed to provide a better understanding for the factors influencing WEF consumption. The surveyed data was used to develop statistical regression models for estimating demand as a function of household characteristics using stepwise-multiple-linear and evolutionary polynomial regression techniques. The integrated WEF model was subjected to sensitivity analysis and uncertainty assessment. A comparison of the model simulation results were made with the historical data. The model results show a good agreement with the historical data. The WEF model is then applied to assess the risk and resilience of WEF systems under the impact of seasonal climate variability (i.e., increase/decrease in the number of summer days). In order to decrease the risk of not meeting per capita demand for WEF and increase the resilience of system for providing per capita demand for WEF, a number of demand management strategies have been investigated in water and energy systems under the impact of seasonal variability. The results show that using recycled greywater for non-potable application in Duhok water system is the most efficient strategy but it increases the energy demand. Additionally, anaerobic digestion of food waste and wastewater sludge for energy recovery can increase the resilience of Duhok energy system. Finally, the impact, of Global Scenario Group (GSG) scenarios (Market Forces, Fortress World, Great Transition and Policy Reform) on the WEF consumption and resulting implications, has been investigated using the WEF model. The results suggest that the Fortress World scenario (an authoritarian response to the threat of breakdown) has the highest impact on WEF consumption. In the Great Transition scenario, WEF consumption would be the lowest. The model results suggest that the food-related water consumption is the highest in the Policy Reform scenario

Backpropagation Neural Network For Colour Recognition

Colour Image Processing (CIP) is useful for inspection system and Automatic Packing Lines Systems. CIP usually needs expensive and special hardware as well as software to extract colour from image. Most of CIP software use statistical methods to extract colours and some system use Neural Network such as Counter-Propagation and Back-Propagation . Some researchers had used Neural Network methods to recognize colour of Commission Internationale de L'Ec1airage (CIE) Models either L *u *v or L *a *b. CIE colour components need special and expensive devices to extract their values from an image. However, this project will use RED, GREEN, BLUE (RGB) colour components, which can be read from an image. In this research, RGB values are used to represent the colour. RGB values are used in two forms. The first form is the actual values that are used in PPM File Format within (0,255) and the second form is normalized RGB values within (0, I ). Back-Propagation Neural Network is used to recognize colour in RGB values. It is found that RGB is useful when used with Neural Network and the Normalized RGB value is faster in the learning of neural network

Coronavirus Disease-19 Quarantine Experience in the Middle East Region: Emotional Status, Health Patterns, and Self-efficacy Survey

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic can provoke anxiety, stress, sadness, and fear; therefore, the timely assessment of individual psychological health status is urgently necessary for society. AIM: The aim of the study was to assess the emotional states (depression, anxiety, and stress), functional health patterns, and self-efficacy among individuals from Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia during the home quarantine experience associated with COVID-19. METHODS: A descriptive and cross-sectional research design was applied to a convenience sample that included 704 participants from Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Data collection was performed in April 2020, using a self-administered questionnaire that consisted of a sociodemographic data sheet, the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS), a functional health pattern survey, and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). RESULTS: Overall, the sample was found to have mild-level DASS scores, with significantly higher scores identified for Egyptian participants compared with those from other countries. In contrast, participants from Egypt presented significantly reduced GSES scores than those from other countries. Higher mean DASS scores were identified among females, participants who reported inappropriate housing conditions and participants who were unemployed, young, widowed, and school-educated. A high mean DASS score was significantly associated with reported disturbances in sleep, sexuality, and social communication, work schedule changes, the inability to concentrate on positive thoughts, the inability to empty their brains of daily thoughts, and not caring about regular interactions with family. Increased mean GSES scores were significantly associated with males, participants who reported appropriate housing conditions, participants who live alone, are older, married, hold higher education degrees, and who are employed with sufficient incomes, whereas lower mean GSES scores were significantly associated with participants who reported engaging in regular exercise, experiencing disturbances in sexuality and social communications, and reduced appetites. However, a significant inverse correlation was detected between the mean DASS and GSES scores, with significant positive correlations among the DASS. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 quarantine was associated with a mild level of depression stress and normal anxiety levels, with higher psychological distress and lower self-efficacy identified among participants from Egypt. The emotional status of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic should be explored further, and awareness programs, designed to address the psychological effects of quarantine, should be promoted, through mass media and other means, with consideration of the effects on the general population, COVID-19 cases, individuals with close contacts with COVID-19 cases, and health-care professionals

Some Properties of Certain subclass of Meromorphically Multivalent Functions Defined by Convolution and Integral Operator involving I-Function

In the present paper, we introduce a certain subclass of meromorphic functions . We obtain some results, like, Coefficient inequality, Modified Hadamard Product, Integral means and Inclusion properties for this class

Design and implement a new secure prototype structure of e-commerce system

The huge development of internet technologies and the widespread of modern and advanced devices lead to an increase in the size and diversity of e-commerce system development. These developments lead to an increase in the number of people that navigate these sites asking for their services and products. Which leads to increased competition in this field. Moreover, the expansion in the size of currency traded makes transaction protection an essential issue in this field. Providing security for each online client especially for a huge number of clients at the same time, causing an overload on the system server. This problem may lead to server deadlock, especially at rush time, which reduce system performance. To solve security and performance problems, this research suggests a prototype design for agent software. This agent will play the role of broker between the clients and the electronic marketplace. This is done by providing security inside the client device and converting the client’s order into a special form which is called a record form to be sent to the commercial website. Experimental results showed that this method increase system performance in terms of page loading time, transaction processing and improves the utilization of system resources

Fusion and Breakup Reactions of 17S + 208Pb and 15C + 232ThHalo Nuclei Systems

In this study the calculations of the total fusion reaction cross section have been performed for fusion reaction systems 17F + 208Pb and 15C + 232Th which involving halo nuclei by using a semiclassical approach.The semiclassical treatment is comprising the WKB approximation to describe the relative motion between target and projectile nuclei, and Continuum Discretized Coupled Channel (CDCC) method to describe the intrinsic motion for both target and projectile nuclei. For the same of comparsion a full quantum mechanical clacualtions have been preforemd using the (CCFULL) code. Our theorticalrestuls are compared with the full quantum mechaincialcalcuations and with the recent experimental data for the total fusion reaction  checking the stability of the distancesThe coupled channel calculations of the total fusion cross section σfus, and the fusion barrier distribution Dfus. The comparsion with experiment proves that the semiclassiacl approach adopted in the present work reproduce the experimental data better that the full quantal mechanical calcautions

The reality of motivational administrative methods for academic decision-makers in the faculties of physical education and sports sciences of Baghdad

The purpose of this study was to know the reality of motivational administrative methods for academic decision-makers in the faculties of physical education and sports sciences in Baghdad from the perspective of faculty members. To solve the nature of the current problem, the two researchers used the descriptive approach of the survey method. The two researchers determined their research community by limiting the sample to all faculty members in the faculties of physical education and sports sciences in Baghdad (Al-Mustansiriya University, Al-Jadriya Univeristy & Al-Waziriyah University). Their number reached 314 faculty members and the two researchers determined their research community by 90%, so the research sample was 283 faculty members. To achieve the objective of the study, a special and codified questionnaire on the Iraqi environment was identified. The statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). It was found that academic leaders have the ability to arouse fear among faculty members from time to time, and academic leaders’ decision-makers stay away from the participation of faculty members when crises occur. Furthermore, academic decision-makers have the ability to evoke the principle of encouragement and perseverance in work and give warnings and directions to work well and away from reluctance

Evaluation of the behavior of tanks under seismic load

The unstable reaction of structures could be influenced by evaluating the behavior of tanks under seismic loads using research of soil-structure interaction. Because fluid limit tanks are important structures that can continue to function even in the face of severe earthquakes, their unstable behavior should be examined. Similarly, under unstable tremor ground upgrades, the unstable reaction of liquid limit tanks placed on 0.5 area soil is investigated. To improve correlation, the six considered ground enhancements are divided into bundles based on their beat like properties, dubbed turn off and shut accuse ground enhancements. The acquired ground mass-spring represent is used to signal up the liquid limit tanks, and the liquid is displayed as lumped lots termed sloshing and flying, and furthermore exploiting paired springs and dashpots is how the fluid and structure are linked. Using a connected spring and dashpot, the impact of Soil Structure Interaction is also considered. Aside from that, four soil types are commonly used to identify a wide range of soil attributes. To date, the mat lab writing computer programs has been used to invigorate the time history reactions in the aftermath of social gathering the stages of development. Due to its significant heap, the sloshing (or convective) voidance is not troubled by such effects, even though the Soil Structure Interaction influence causes a reduction in rush relocation, falling small and standardized base shear

Evaluation of Retinol Level Among Preschool Children, Pregnant and Lactating Women Attending Primary Health Care Centres in Baghdad

Background: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major public health nutrition problem in the developing world. There have been no studies on this topic in Iraq. This study was designed to evaluate the serum retinol levels of preschool children, pregnant and lactating women. Objectives: The present study is an attempt to estimate the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency among preschool children, pregnant and lactating women attending primary health care centers in Baghdad, in addition to figure out the relation between vitamin A deficiency with some demographical, clinical, variables. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted during the period from October to December 2009. The sample was comprised of 490 subjects, Lactating women pregnant women and under 6 year's old children attending ten primary health care centers in Baghdad. The data were collected through direct interview; blood samples were taken and analyze for serum retinol (SR) by HPLC analysis and hemoglobin (Hb) level, anthropometric measurement were obtained for the study sample. Results: The study showed that the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency in preschool aged children (below 6 years) was (38.3 %); and that for lactating women and pregnant women were (7.1 %) and (25 %) respectively. Forty percent of pregnant women, (25.8 %) of lactating women and a total of (58.6 %) preschool children were anemic, A correlation coefficient between SR and Hb concentrations was significant (N=490, r=0.533, P<0.0001). Conclusion: Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem, this study shows that subjects in the 3 groups (preschool children, pregnant and lactating women) are at risk of VAD and anemia; nearly half of them had the co-occurrence of VAD and anemia. A close association between vitamin A deficiency and anemia with a correlation coefficient between SR and Hb concentrations was significant

Fusion Reaction of Weakly Bound Nuclei

Semiclassical and full quantum mechanical approaches are used to study the effect of channel coupling on the calculations of the total fusion reaction cross section σfus and the fusion barrier distribution Dfus for the systems 6Li + 64Ni, 11B + 159Tb, and 12C + 9Be. The semiclassical approach used in the present work is based on the method of the Alder and Winther for Coulomb excitation. Full quantum coupled-channel calculations are carried out using CCFULL code with all order coupling in comparison with our semiclassical approach. The semiclassical calculations agree remarkably with the full quantum mechanical calculations. The results obtained from our semiclassical calculations are compared with the available experimental data and with full quantum coupled-channel calculations. The comparison with the experimental data shows that the full quantum coupled channels are better than semiclassical approach in the calculations of the total fusion cross section σfus and the fusion barrier distribution Dfus