Current Issue : January-March Volume : 2024 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 5 Articles
In many developing countries, such as Ethiopia, water quality and the risk of water-related diseases are serious public health issues. The present study goal was to assess the drinking water quality from source to household tap water. To characterize and analyze drinking water quality parameters, 21 water samples were collected, of which 11 water samples were collected from sources (spring, borehole, and river), 4 from service reservoirs, and 6 from tap water. The mean values of the parameters were as follows: total dissolved solids (TDS) (142.79 mg/L), temperature (22.08°C), turbidity (9.49 NTU), electrical conductivity (EC) (250.14°μS/ cm), pH (7.45 mg/L), fluoride (1.15 mg/L), nitrate (NO3 −) (2.91 mg/L), total hardness (TH) (57.45 mg/L), calcium (41.7 6 mg/l), magnesium (10.74 mg/L), phosphate (0.44 mg/L), sulfate (3.99 mg/L), residual chlorine (1.53 mg/L), alkalinity (196.39 mg/L), and microbiological (total coliform and coliform/CFU) which were the main physiochemical parameters analyzed for the study. The findings revealed that the majority of the water quality parameters tested were within the WHO and National Drinking Water Quality Standards (NDWQS). However, some of the parameters such as temperature, turbidity, fluoride, and residual chlorine did not meet the standards. The mean temperatures at the source, reservoir, and tap water were 22.01°C 22.5°C,and 21.83°C, respectively. Turbidity levels in source samples ranged from 10 to 45 NTU, with a mean of 24.5 NTU, exceeding the WHO’s recommendation of less than 5 NTU. The Boko Alamura well had a high fluoride content (3.9 mg/l), which was above the WHO and NDWQS permissible limits. There was no free residual chlorine in the tap water sample. The results show that the Hawassa drinking water supply did not contain total or fecal coliform in any of the samples tested. The overall WQI for the water source, reservoir, and tap water was also determined to be 89, 71, and 69.7 points, respectively. Therefore, based on the WQI result, Hawassa drinking water quality is good for the source, reservoir, and tap water....
This study endeavors to enhance the operational efficiency of extant coal-fired power plants to mitigate the adverse environmental impact intrinsic to the prevalent utilization of coal-fired power generation, which is particularly dominant in China. It focuses on the assessment and optimization of continuous denitrification systems tailored for a 1000 MW ultra-supercritical pulverized coal boiler. The extant denitrification framework encounters challenges during startup phases owing to diminished selective catalytic reduction (SCR) inlet flue gas temperatures. To ameliorate this, three retrofit schemes were scrutinized: direct mixing of high-temperature flue gas, bypass flue gas mixing, and high-temperature flue gas mixing with cold air. Each option underwent meticulous thermodynamic computations and comprehensive cost analyses. The findings elucidated that bypass flue gas mixing, involving the extraction and blending of high-temperature flue gas, emerged as the most financially prudent and practical recourse. This scheme optimizes fuel combustion heat utilization, significantly curtails fuel consumption, and fosters efficient internal heat transfer mechanisms within the boiler. The evaluation process meticulously considered safety parameters and equipment longevity. The insights derived from this investigation offer valuable guidance for implementing continuous denitrification system retrofits in industrial coal-fired power plants....
The pace of modern life of dwellers in big cities worldwide increases the demand for fast food or ready-to-cook meals. Dal curry is a common and popular meal item in Bangladesh, but its long cooking time needs to be reduced to satisfy consumer’s needs. So, this study is aimed at developing and analyzing ready-to-cook mixed dal powder. Samples were prepared with 100% lentil (control), 25% green gram with 75% lentil (S1), 25% black gram with 75% lentil (S2), and 50% of both dal in 1 : 1 ratio with 50% lentil (S3). Compared to mixed dal powder (8 minutes), the lentil dal powder took less cooking time (7.29 minutes). Mixed dal had no significant effect (p > 0 05) on moisture, fat, and ash but affected on protein content. All mixed dal powder samples showed a higher protein content as well as amino acids such as alanine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, and tyrosine compared to the control. In contrast, the control showed the highest amount of arginine, glycine, lysine, proline, serine, and threonine. Control sample showed the highest loose bulk density (0.828 g/ml), tapped bulk density (0.905 g/ml), water absorption index (5.160 g/g), and water solubility index (24.410 g/100 g) than mixed samples. The color was influenced significantly by adding different pulses variety. The flowability of each sample was excellent, as Carr’s index (CI) and Hausner ratio (HR) for all samples were within 0-10% and 1.00-1.11, respectively. Although no significant differences were found, the sample with 50% lentil, 25% green gram, and 25% black gram secured the highest score in overall acceptability. Samples’ total viable count was assessed for up to 6 months, where the values were within the acceptable limit....
Introduction: The Violent Extremism Risk Assessment - Version 2 Revised (VERA-2R) is an evidence-based structured professional judgement (SPJ) tool for ideologically motivated violence. Use of the tool can help professionals in risk assessment and risk management of suspected and convicted terrorists and violent extremists at different stages within the criminal process. It is important that the tool leads to reliable and valid risk assessments. Methods: The present study aimed to establish the reliability of the VERA-2R, focusing on the interrater- and intrarater reliability. Trained researchers assessed the interrater- and intrarater reliability, respectively in 30 and 33 cases of Dutch convicted terrorist offenders, on the basis of extensive judicial files. Results: In general, the average amount of agreement on the indicators and structured risk judgements can be classified as good to excellent, for both the interrater- and intra-rater reliability. However, six indicators were found to have low reliability. Above clarifying the reliability of the VERA-2R, this study also showed how the interrater- and intrarater reliability of a SPJ tool can be investigated with trained assessors based on judicial files. This can be of added value, because existing reliability studies often use case vignettes, have a small sample size and/or do not include a stringent training program. Discussion: With this research, we can make more substantiated recommendations on how the VERA-2R can be improved. This could lead to more accurate risk assessments and risk management strategies. However, in order to develop a more reliable and valid VERA-2R instrument, the remaining psychometric properties must also be investigated and published. That will be discussed in a future article....
A detailed study has been carried out to reveal signal statistics’ impact on analysis sensitivity in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements. For several signals measured simultaneously, it was demonstrated that space-, spectra- and time-integrated plasma emission followed a normal distribution while the spectra- and time-resolved LIBS signal (atomic line intensity, plasma background emissions) distribution functions were biased compared to a Gaussian distribution function. For the first time in LIBS, the impact of a non-Gaussian distribution function on the limit of detection (LOD)’s determination has been studied in detail for single-shot spectra as well as for averaged spectra. Here, we demonstrated that the non-symmetrical distribution of the LIBS signals influenced the estimated LODs, so knowledge of a LIBS signal’s distribution function provides more reliable results, and the analysis sensitivity can be wrongly estimated if Gaussian distribution is presumed....
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