Assessment of Water Quality Index of Groundwater Resources in Iwo Local Government Area, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria

This study assessed the groundwater quality of 30 selected wells and boreholes in Iwo Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria. Groundwater sources were randomly stratified and identified according to the 15 political wards using hand-held GPS equipment. The sources were sampled during the rainy season (October) and dry season (January) to determine water quality. The physico-chemical and microbiological parameters of the water samples such as temperature, turbidity, total suspended solids, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total alkalinity, total hardness, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, lead, manganese, cadmium, chromium, and total coliform were determined using standard methods. The results showed that total hardness, calcium, cadmium, sulphate, and phosphate had mean values above the acceptable values for rainy and dry seasons; their mean values in mg/l for the rainy season were 252.933, 98.267, 0.018, 305.119, and 1.762, respectively, while their values for the dry season were 299.633, 115.831, 0.020, 285.695 and 1.705, respectively. The Water Quality Index (WQI) values showed that 30% of the selected groundwater sources were fit for consumption while 60% were poor and 10% were unfit for drinking during the rainy season. During the dry season, 50% of the groundwater sources were fit for consumption, 40% were poor, and 10% were unfit for consumption.

An Optimal Cloud Based Electric Vehicle Charging System

With the evolution of the internet-of-things and the emergence of cloud computing, the charging dynamics of vehicles have changed. This work discusses cloud-based monitoring and management used in charging electric vehicles and their impact on the smart charging system. Charging management plays a key role in assessing the charging infrastructure because of the automakers and charging service providers. As the market evolves, this system looks at the present public and private sectors that provide charging stations and contrasts them with modern cloud-based charging in electric vehicles. The cloud module developed contains layers, with the top layer of the robust calculating ability, which is globally optimized using machine learning technology. The bottom layer counters the real-time issues with the controller. The system also analyzes the current demands in the market and forms strategies to maximize profits through smart charging systems.

Artificial Intelligence in 5G Technology

The occurrence of various devices that are interlinked to provide advanced connectivity throughout the systems revolves around the formation of 5G systems. Artificial Intelligence plays a fundamental role in the 5G networks. The popularity and integration of 5G have emerged through advanced cellular networks and many other technologies. This innovative and speedy network has built strong connections in recent years, its conduct in business, personal work, or daily life. Artificial Intelligence and edge computing devices have optimized internet usages in everyday life. The growth of 5G networks is effective in the AI/ML algorithms due to its low latency and high bandwidth, which also performs real-time analysis, reasoning, and optimization. The 5G era has fundamental features that are highlighted among the revolutionary techniques which are most commonly used by cellular device networks, such as the resource management of radio, mobility management, and service management, and so on. This work also integrates the selection of spectrum and access the spectrum which AI-based interface to accomplish demands of 5G. The strategies which are introduced are Fractional Knapsack Greedy-based strategy and Language Hyperplane approach which becomes the basis of subsequently utilized by strategies of Artificial Intelligence for purpose of the selection of spectrum and the right allocation of spectrum for IoT-enabled sensor networks.

Industry 4.0 and Future of Korean Steel Sector

Digitalization is a fundamental process that begun several decades ago, but which got a significant acceleration by Industry 4.0 and now directly affects all the process and industrial industries. It is anticipated to enable the Korean industry to improve its production efficiency and its sustainability. In particular, in the energy-intensive industries, such as the steel industry, digitalization concerns the application of the related technologies to the production processes, focusing on two main often overlapping directions: Advanced tools for the optimization of the production chain and specific technologies for low-carbon and sustainable production. Furthermore, the fast development of technology in the steel industry demands the continual updating of the skills of the industrial personnel. This article, the case study of Korean businesses, presents the backdrop of digitalization and several key concepts in the Korean iron and steel sector. The effect of digitalization on the steel sector personnel is examined along with the anticipated economic changes.

Azolla (Caroliniana): An Aquatic Energy Crop for Remediation of Eutrophic Ecosystems with Prospect of Biofuel Production in Bangladesh

The Phytoremediation ability of aquatic macrophyte, Azolla as potential biomass, to improve the quality of eutrophic lakes and river water of Bangladesh at lab scale were studied to remove organics, solutes and improving the physicochemical properties of water including pH, DO, EC, TDS, Turbidity and NaCl concentration. In the different eutrophic water, a 100% survival rate of the species was observed. The extensive root system of the phytoremediator improves water quality after one week as determined by a marked decrease in Turbidity, TDS, EC & Nacl and increased in DO and pH. DO content served as a useful indicator of water quality and increased manifolds over 7 days (one week) of treatment. The capability of the plant in removing pollutants and improving water quality was established from the study. After phytoremediation activities, the discarded energy crop biomass could be used to produce green energy because of its high growth potential.

Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Grasping and Manipulation: A Review

A century of robots is the 21st century. The robots have long been able to cross the divide between the virtual universe and the real world. Robotics, as the most successful contender in the upcoming great technological revolution, will play an ever more important role in society because of the impact it has in every field of life, including medicine, healthcare, architecture, manufacturing and food supplies, logistics and transport. This document introduces a modern approach to the grasp of robots, which draws grasp techniques from the human demonstration and combines these strategies into a grasp-planning framework, in order to produce a viable insight into the objective geometry and manipulation tasks of the object. Our study findings show that grasping strategies of the form of grasp and thumbs positioning are not only necessary for human grasp but also significant restrictions on posture and wrist posture which greatly reduce both the robot hand's workplace and the search space for grasp planning. In the simulation and with a true robotic system this method has been extensively tested for several everyday living representative objects. In the experiment with varying degrees of perceiving in certainties, we have demonstrated the power of our method.

The Value of Solar Photovoltaics in an Isolated Competitive Electricity Market: a Case Study of Singapore

With a view of achieving its obligations under the global climate change regime, and low technical potential for other renewable energy technologies, solar photovoltaics (PV) is the main focus for Singapore to generate low carbon electricity. However, a high penetration of PV in Singapore’s electricity market would result in a number of costs and benefits that need to be quantified in order to ensure prudent government policies for “supporting” the widespread adoption of PV in Singapore. The quantification of these costs and benefits would allow policymakers to realize the true “value” of solar PV for Singapore and would address the limitations of relying on the levelised cost of electricity metric. This paper provides an assessment of the societal value that PV would bring to Singapore, essentially an isolated power system with a liberalized electricity market. For the purpose of this study, the determination of the value of solar involves quantifying the savings due to the merit order effect, costs due to additional frequency control services, and net avoidance of CO2 emissions.

A Case Study Of The Environmental Impact Assessment Legislations In Sarawak, Malaysia

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a planning tool used to identify, predict, evaluate and mitigate the environmental effects of development projects. In Sarawak, EIA is governed by the both the State and the Federal EIA Orders. This leads to ambivalence in determining the legislation under which a prescribed activity demanding an EIA falls. This case study aims to investigate the implications associated with the coexistence of both EIA Orders in the state of Sarawak from the viewpoints of practicing environmental consultants. The case study reviews the EIA legislations governing EIA practices in the State and includes a qualitative survey involving practicing EIA consultants to gather feedback on the implications associated with the EIA practices and recommendations to resolve the problems identified. The study shows that even though a prescribed activity is defined by the EIA legislations, different stages of the prescribed activity eventually become prescribed activities on their own, which demand fulfillment of different EIA legislation. Unclear demarcation of EIA jurisdiction and different requirements on the scope of an EIA particularly for earthworks also contribute to doubts among environmental consultants interviewed. Consultation, involvement and effective communication with environmental protection as priority are crucial to minimize any uncertainty resulted from co-implementation of both the EIA legislations. Future study can look into comparing perceptions on the effectiveness of the State and the Federal EIA legislations. The case study delves into a crucial issue related to EIA practices in Sarawak, Malaysia which has persisted without being formally addressed in any previous studies.

Performance Evaluation of Multiple Helical Tubes as a Receiver for Solar Parabolic Trough Collector

Solar parabolic trough collector consists of a parabolic reflector with a central receiver at a focal point through which heat transfer fluid is passed. Parabolic trough collector is used mostly in solar thermal power plants for generating electricity. This paper describes the experimental results of two straight tubes wrapped over each other to form a helically shaped receiver. The receiver was tested with aluminium material with and without black paint over it. Also, the helical tube receiver was tested with a glass cover over it, at two different mass flow rates and, with and without manual tracking. The tested instantaneous thermal efficiency ranges from 31.26% to 45.28% and the overall thermal efficiency ranges from 14.9% to 31.41% during the experimental period. The instantaneous thermal efficiency increased by an average of 1.32 times for unpainted receiver and 1.36 times for black painted receiver with the increase in mass flow rate. By tracking the parabolic collector according to sun’s position, there is an average increase in instantaneous thermal efficiency by 1.1 times for unpainted receiver and 1.04 times for black painted receiver. The paper further reveals that the use of multiple helical tubes as a receiver for parabolic trough collector increases the overall efficiency of the collector in a substantial manner.

A Parametric Study Of Window, Orientation And Shading to Minimize Energy Consuption in Mechanically Ventilated High Rise Office Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Vital statistics of a building, meaning geometric attributes, are very important design tool to manipulate energy performance of a building which is often neglected. Though a lot of recent researches focused on increasing capabilities of material and technology to build energy efficient buildings, design elements such as form, shape, window, orientation, etc. can play a very important and effective role to increase energy efficiency. The strategic design decisions about geometric attributes in the design phase costs almost nothing and can save energy bills through lifetime of the building, which is yet be specified in particular climatic region and particular building types where energy consumption matters in national scale. This paper investigates the critical proportion of façade glazing through parametric study by simulation to obtain optimum balance between luminous and thermal behavior as well as energy consumption. The context of the study is Dhaka, with tropical monsoon climate where heat and humidity is a big concern. The experiment is carried out and hence relevant to highrise office building due to its large vertical surface compared to insignificant roof area. The outcomes indicate that significant harvesting of daylight and reduction of total energy consumption by 50% comes with proper shading on large glazing on East and West facade; and 30% on South facade.