NEW ZEALAND BUILT ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM Shaping future directions for collaborative built environment research and practice in New Zealand REFURBISHMENT OF OLD EXISTING BUILDINGS FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION

SYNOPSI

Methanol Extract of Peltophorum pterocarpum Stem Bark Has Antimalarial Activity and Normalizes Biochemical Changes Induced by Plasmodium berghei Infection

This study evaluated the antimalarial, haematological and biochemical status of Plasmodium berghei Anka 65-infected mice treated with methanol extract of Peltophorum pterocarpum stem bark (MEPT). The acute toxicity profile and phyto-constituents were also evaluated. Thirty mice were divided into 6 groups of 5 mice each. Group 1 served as normal control and received distilled water only. Group 2 was parasitized and untreated. Groups 3-5 were parasitized and treated with 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg b.w. body weight of MEPT respectively. Group 6 was parasitized and treated with 28 mg/kg. b.w. of arthemeter/lumenfantrin combination. Malaria parasitemia were monitored on treatment days 0-3. Antioxidant, liver, kidney and lipid peroxidation status were determined using classical methods 5 days post-treatment. There were dose-dependent reductions in malaria parasitemia percentages of groups 3-5 that are comparable with group 6. In addition, there were dose and duration-dependent increases in malaria chemo-suppression in groups 3-5. The existence of oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, and kidney and liver dysfunctions were observed in group 2 when compared with group 1. Treatment of groups 3-5 with MEPT and group 6 with arthemeter/lumenfantrin for 4 days restored the biochemical anomalies induced by malaria. The extract was tolerable up to 5,000 mg/kg b.w. of MEPT. The presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, steroids, carotenoids, glycosides, anthraquinones, terpenoids and anthocyanins were detected in high amounts while phenols was detected in low amount in MEPT. These suggest that MEPT possesses antimalarial activity and normalizes malaria-modified biochemical changes. These effects might be attributed to its bioactive constituents. Keywords: malaria, Peltophorum pterocarpum, phytochemicals, toxicity, biochemical dysfunctions DOI: 10.7176/ALST/73-05 Publication date: April 30th 201

Alcohol study 2016. A study commissioned by Ballyfermot Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force to understand current pattern of alcohol use within the area.

This piece of research was undertaken to provide a detailed overview and understanding of the current pattern of alcohol use and misuse in the Ballyfermot Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force (BLDATF) areas. Recently, the Local Task Forces have been asked to address the growing problem of alcohol misuse within local communities by including alcohol in their remit. Information gathered from this study would offer the Task Force (BLDATF) a significant insight into the presenting issues, thereby assisting the ongoing deliberations to evaluate and adopt functioning strategies towards addressing alcohol problems. There have been national surveys assessing patterns and trends of alcohol use in Ireland, but very little is known about alcohol use and misuse in local communities like Ballyfermot where local Drugs and Alcohol Task Forces operate. While some of the findings from this study indicate apparent problem with alcohol use and misuse in this community, there have been some areas where the findings seem to mirror what have been previously found in a national study

Quality evaluation of mixed fruit juice produced from African bush mango, pineapple and orange

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Investigating the Effectiveness of Adopting Building Information Modelling for Refurbishment of Complex Buildings; Case Study of Auckland

The adoption of building information modelling (BIM) is relatively new to the refurbishment of existing building projects. As a result, the uptake and delivery have been recently reported to be slow for refurbishment projects. Low adoption of BIM is suggested to be due to fragmented projects, isolation, lack of collaboration information sharing in the construction firms. In addition, the refurbishment projects are risky, and very complex in nature. However, some of these projects had reported substantial project delays, significant cost overruns twice the budget, poor stakeholder engagement, dissatisfaction of project outcome by the refurbishment stakeholders. Consequently, the adoption of BIM for complex refurbishment projects is dependent on the project stakeholders’ decisions. Although the project stakeholders have diverse backgrounds and interests, they can be independent to each other but having intricate relationships and interactions. In this regard, analysing and aligning the project stakeholders’ interactions can bring about an environment where BIM can be implemented. Since these interactions can constitute the norms, values and perception of stakeholders, the impact and interactions of stakeholders can therefore be analysed from the network perspectives. Therefore, the study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of BIM adoption decisions for complex refurbishment project in the New Zealand context. The study is thesis by manuscript method, hence, each of the manuscript describes fully the analysis approach. Although, the data collection where divided into 4 stages, these includes the preliminary stage, the interview stage, the survey/questionnaire stage and the focus group stage, each of these stages are reflected on different chapters as contained in the thesis. A case study is adopted during the preliminary studies which allowed a snowball methodology to identify hidden population of the research participants. The participants are mainly from Auckland and involves stakeholders who have participated previously in a refurbishment project which was adopted as the case study. The key findings in the study include the main environmental factors that impact refurbishment project stakeholders to adopt BIM in New Zealand, the risk factors that impact project stakeholders role towards BIM adoption for refurbishment project; identification of refurbishment project attributes; and overall validation of factors and provision of solution (optimisation) for adoption of BIM for refurbishment project. The validation of the findings, including identification of real BIM benefits for refurbishment projects using error management and sensitivity analysis indicates that BIM adoption for refurbishment project is feasible through the healthy interaction of the project stakeholders. The findings revealed that the main influence factor is not the cost, which is in consistent with previous study, but rather indicate that it is about cost perception regarding BIM. Finally, the study offered solutions to improve BIM adoption for refurbishment projects discussed in the focus group meeting chapter. Recommendation are given followed by the conclusion. The study provides knowledge on real benefits of BIM and how to optimise the factors found in this study which can either positively or negatively influence BIM adoption

Analysis of the Effects of Pasteurization on Proximate, Atwater Factor and Acceptability of Smoothie from Banana, Carrot and Soymilk Blends

Background: Single fruit consumption results in loss of appetite and consumption due to monotony of flavor thereby results in lack of functional nutrient inherent in fruits and vegetables. These functional nutrients prevent such chronic diseases like cancer, stroke among others alongside same health benefits. Conversely, combination of different fruits improves flavour and consumption thereby enhances phytonutrient consumption with reduced risk of chronic disease.Objective: As smoothies are pasteurized before short time storage in fridge by some people, this research understudied the effect of pasteurization on the proximate, Atwater factor and acceptability of smoothie from the blend of ripe banana, carrot and soymilk.Methods: Banana, carrot slices and soymilk were blended with variable speed kitchen blender in varying proportions to produce four samples of pasteurized and unpasteurized smoothie samples. The smoothie samples were subjected to proximate and acceptability using standard analytical methods. Energy values were by calculation using the Atwater factor.Results: Proximate composition of both pasteurized and unpasteurized smoothie samples showed that moisture ranged from 88.33 to 90.42%, ash 0.75 to 0.88%, crude protein 3.74 to 3.91%, crude fibre 0.14 to1.17%, fat 2.65 to 3.15% and, carbohydrate 2.82 to 3.90%. Energy values ranged from 154.02 to 211.470 Kj/100g.Sensory scores for taste ranged from 4 to 7, appearance 5 to 7, consistency 5 to 6 and general acceptability 5 to 7.Conclusion: The study revealed that pasteurization affected the proximate composition, energy values and acceptability of all the smoothie blends and therefore should be a matter of choice

Elucidating The Role of a Nematode Secreted PLA2 and Lipid Signaling in Immunomodulation of Drosophila melanogaster

Parasitic nematodes are a global health concern and can infect a variety of organisms such as insects and mammals. As a result of infection, they can cause significant morbidity and mortality. Upon successful infection they can release excreted/ secreted proteins (ESPs) into the host, which enables them to evade or suppress host immunity and cause toxicity. Despite some characterization of ESPs in certain parasitic nematode species, very little is known about the mechanisms behind these interactions. Parasitic nematodes that infect insects called entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), have been employed to better understand molecular mechanism. Research with EPNs utilize insect model systems which enables circumvention of logistic and technical challenges encountered with using mammals. EPNs also have high homology with vertebrate parasitic nematodes which leads to the application of translational research. This work focuses on an ESP released by the EPN Steinernema carpocapsae, that displayed immunomodulatory effects in the model host Drosophila melanogaster. The ESP is a secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) enzyme that I named Sc-sPLA2 and displayed immunosuppressive effects by reducing the number of hemocytes in the host, and likely by increasing circulation of an anti-inflammatory lipid. The sPLA2 operates enzymatically by cleaving fatty acids directly from the membrane which resulted in immunosuppressive effects on the humoral and cellular response. Analysis of fly hemolymph post injection of Sc-sPLA2 showed increase of eicosanoid and oxylipin precursors, and the increase of an anti-inflammatory fatty acid. In addition, the analysis of fly hemolymph post infection revealed several lipids that are depleted with the ability to rescue immunity upon treatment. This work also attempted to characterize endogenous lipid signaling mechanisms by identifying lipids, prostaglandins and endogenous sPLA2 enzymes that significantly improve the outcome of infection. Thus far this work has been able to establish that an eicosanoid precursor was able to stimulate the cellular response, furthering our understanding of how lipid signaling is immunomodulatory in D. melanogaster

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING Volume 5, No 2, 2014 A comparative study of building strengthening methods to have an efficient and economical solution. Case study in Famagusta, Cyprus

ABSTRACT The chamber of Civil Engineers in Northern Cyprus began to approve building projects in 1981. Until that time, such projects were designed according to the rules of the Streets and Buildings Regulations (Cap 96). By the new revisions of these building rules and regulations of 1981, buildings which are higher than four storeys were asked to make an earthquake analysis to ascertain if they are able to resist earthquake force. In 1993, new revisions were made and some practical precautions were taken for better solutions and quality of the projects then. If shear walls are placed in two different directions at 1 % of the total floor area of a building, then earthquake analysis will not be required. Since there is a building stock that was constructed without this earthquake analysis, and their performances are not well known, earthquake performances of these buildings are analysed. The buildings found to be earthquake prone are strengthened by application of suitable strengthening method. Presently, there are needs to improve the economy of strengthening method application to ensure that the cost of strengthening does not exceed the cost of raising a new building. Therefore, in this study, a real life building apartment is selected from the building stock constructed in 1970 in Famagusta, Cyprus. It is modeled using structural software. The performance assessment is obtained. According to these results, most available strengthening methods in this region are compared. A direct real cost of the strengthening materials are considered. The economy of the materials required for the strengthening application is obtained. Such methods will serve its purpose on the building bearing load capacity, with respect to the economy of the applied strengthening methods. The best method is recommended considering the economy and problems found during the performance check for the building investigated

Evaluation of Technological Quality of Meat Produced from Nsukka Local Abattior

The technological quality of raw meat from Nsukka local abattoir was evaluated by analyzing the proximate composition, water holding capacity, pH, Napole yield and sensory colour and texture of longissimus dorsi [LD] and psoas major [PM] of beef and pork. Results show that moisture [71.36 – 72.76%], protein [21.37 – 22.75%], fat[3.81 – 4.36%] and ash [0.80 – 1.30%] contents were within the range known for fresh raw beef and pork. Due to species differences and effect of scalding, pork had significantly lower ultimate pH [5.35 – 5.54] compared to beef [5.83 –5.91]; with 70% of the pork muscles being in the PSE range contrasted with 38% of those of beef. Also due to muscledifferences LD had lower ultimate pH compared to PM, although the differences were not found to be significant [