Nature versus built

Nature is made up of various living and non-living things which is related to plants, animals and other features such as mountains, deserts and seas. They are connected and some of the relationships between members are direct and obvious and ecosystem occurred to balance the amount of living things. Built environment is referring to aspects of creature human-made surroundings. Human activities caused some environmental issues and disturbance the nature. However, the technologies introduce sustainability building and creature as conservation our nature. There also some ways can be practice at house to save the environment

Zero-Tension Lysimeter for use in greywater irrigation monitoring

The main purpose of the study was to develop a new zero-tension lysimeter (ZTL) as a leachate sampler in a greywater irrigation plot. Greywater is known as a wastewater that is generated from baths, showers, washing machines, laundry troughs, dishwashers and kitchen sinks; but excludes toilet wastes. The use of greywater is becoming increasingly acceptable to supply non-potable irrigation needs. However, some questions have been raised about the pollution risk of soil and receiving waters due to the content of different pollutants from the household washing activities. In this study, the new ZTLNs were trialled to compare the quantity and quality of leachate collected with the conventional pan lysimeter (ZTLP) in the pilot scale study. The calculated leachate volume incorporated a water balance using the Penman-Monteigh model. The results indicate that the new lysimeter designated as ZTL (N1), produced the lowest mean percentage deviation from the calculated volume (CV), 3.90 %. ZTL (N1) was also cost effective and required limited effort to install using an auger, which also minimises soil disturbance.to install at household sites. Consequently, the lysimeter was established to facilitate the monitoring of greywater irrigation.&nbsp

Predictive model and near infrared spectroscopy in predicting the diesel fuel properties

Monitoring the diesel fuel properties play an important role in the performance of vehicle engines. Near-infrared (NIR) technology has been investigated as an alternative to monitor the diesel fuel properties. NIR spectroscopy shows an enormous potential for quantitative analysis of complex samples by coupling with artificial neural networks (ANNs). Although a single layer ANN shows promising in the establishing better relationship between a component of interest and NIR spectrum, a different algorithm for updating weight that has been proved to improve the performance of the multilayer could further reveal the potential of single linear layer ANN in NIR spectroscopic analysis. Therefore, this study investigates the performance of a single layer ANN that trained with LevenbergMarquardt (SLM) and that trained with Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SSCG) and compares the proposed methods with multilayer ANN that trained with same learning algori thms. Results were evaluated and discussed with previous studies that used the same data sets to establish the relationship between the NIR spectral data and diesel fuel properties. Finding depicts that the proposed SLM and SSCG were capable of predicting the diesel fuel properties using NIR spectrum without data reduction, and achieving better accuracy in predicting the diesel fuel properties compared with other recent methods. In addition, using a proposed genetic algorithm for data reduction to improve the predictive model of the proposed method

CURRENT PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS IN COUNSELING PATIENTS ON SMOKING CESSATION IN BEIRUT:A QUESTIONNAIRE – BASED STUDY

Despite various strategies and efforts exerted in the form of awareness campaigns, health conferences, targeted advertisements and laws, the prevalence of smoking is alarmingly increasing for both genders in Lebanon. Because of the ease of accessibility, community pharmacists are ideally positioned to help their patients quit smoking. The current study aims to assess the Lebanese pharmacists’ practices in counseling their patients on smoking cessation. A cross-sectional study targeting community pharmacists in Beirut was conducted during June 2017 to September 2017. The adopted questionnaire was designed based on the WHO approved 5A’s toolkit program for delivering brief tobacco interventions in primary care. Results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences program (SPSS) version 20 and Mega Stat. Our results showed that, for most of the survey questions, the performance of fresh pharmacy graduates (having less than 5 years of practice experience) and senior pharmacists (having 6-10 years of practice experience) with regards to counseling patients on smoking cessation using was not statistically different compared to that of older pharmacists (having more than 10 years of practice experience). In a similar pattern to that obtained concerning the length of professional experience, the participating pharmacist in our study, irrespective to their graduating universities, displayed inconsistent practices during counselling their patients on smoking cessation. Interestingly, the presence of on-duty assistance to the participating pharmacists during their practice shift was shown to be significant (P\u3c 0.05 for all questions) in helping them provide their smoking patients proper counselling on smoking cessation. In conclusion, our study highlighted the discrepancy in the participating community pharmacists’ practices relevant to their ability to provide their smoking patients with appropriate smoking cessation services. In order to address the current situation, well-planned, structured interventions at both educational and professional levels should be made as a priority

Pharmaceuticals active compounds in the aquatic environment: a review

Pharmaceutical active substances utilised to treat human and animal diseases can launch into the environment through effluents from wastewater treatment plants and direct disposal of pharmaceutical compounds. Some of these compounds arrive in the environment as a parent compound or as active/inactive metabolites. Owing to their pharmacological action, their conceptions in the environment are significant, and thus this chapter reviews the understanding of the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment

Survival and disinfection of SARS-Cov-2 in environment and contaminated surface

The detection of SARS-Cov-2 in the sewage and water resources has increased the awareness among the people about the possibility survival of SARS-Cov-2 in the environment and the potential to transmit into the human through food chain or water resources. Moreover, the surface contaminated by the virus need to be disinfected frequently by using an effective disinfectant, the current chapter discussed the efficiency of the most traditional treatment process of the sewage and wastewater, and their role in the elimination of the virus as well as the sterility assurance level concept. Moreover, the chemical disinfectant used currently and their temporary efficiency has been reviewed

Pathophysiology, histopathology and therapeutic of SARS-CoV-2

The rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through the world has induced the scientist to understand the histopathology of the virus and then to find an effective drug. However, many of the point associated with the virus pathogenicity still unknown and need more studies. In this chapter the pathophysiology, histopathology and therapeutic of SARS-CoV-2 has been reviewed. It was appeared that pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 is belonging to the viral with genome structure which acting by blocking the host innate immune response. Both chloroquine and hydroxyl-chloroquine have similar structure and mechanism action and they are among the most effective antiviral for treating the patents with the SARS-CoV-2. Chloroquine works by inhibition the intracellular organism by increasing the pH

Would muslim entrepreneurs use shariah-compliant equity-based crowdfunding model for financial sustainability? a case study on Malaysia

The rise of equity-based crowdfunding is expected to offer a new gateway for Muslim entrepreneurs given its similarity with risk-sharing concept as per the Shariah principles. Malaysia is the first country in Southeast Asia to legislate and award equity-based crowdfunding licences in June 2015. Accordingly, this study aims to propose a Shariah-compliant equity-based crowdfunding (SCF) model and analyse the acceptance level of Muslim entrepreneurs to use it in raising new funds. Based on primary data collected on 411 Muslim entrepreneurs in Malaysia, this study analyse the data using Structural Equation Modelling by adopting Technology Acceptance Model. It is found that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have positive effect on behavioral intention to use the proposed SCF model. Similar significance and positive results are found between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention to use the proposed SCF model. Hence, it is concluded that the respondent’s perceptions on the usefulness and ease of use positively affect the behavioral intention of using the new model. Taking the lead in Shariah-compliant crowdfunding research, this paper aims to contribute to the blueprints for the market players and regulators with regard to offering of SCF particularly in Malaysia