The Characteristics of Phytoremediation of Soil and Leachate Polluted by Landfills

Current landfill regulations provide for the responsible management of solid waste and a safer alternative to the outdated practices of open or illegal dumping. Aside from imparting aesthetic value, natural or planted vegetation on landfill sites has an important role in erosion control and removal of contaminants, and may also be used in leaching treatment. The use of leachate for the irrigation of landfill vegetation reduces its harmful effects, and the reuse of water aids in water conservation. The aim of this study was to search for ways to use leachate water from solid waste landfill sites for irrigation of plant species that normally grow in the wild. The study focuses on the plant species Alcea rosea (hollyhock), Cynodon dactylon (Bermuda grass) and Melilotus officinalis (yellow melilot). Over the 2-year study period, plants were irrigated with tap and leachate water under drought conditions. Wild plant diversity was identified, and the landfill was rehabilitated with various plant species. After the experiment, populations of Escherichia coli, total coliforms and fecal coliform bacteria in soil samples were analyzed. We observed that the use of leachate water for cultivation of different kinds of plants affected the density of total and fecal coliforms in the soil

Climate Control in Mediterranean Greenhouses

As climate control in greenhouses directly affects crop yields, there is an increasing trend for advancements in environmentally controlled agricultural-production techniques. In the Mediterranean region, the temperatures during the period from December to February are below 12°C when the daily total radiation 8.4 MJ/m2day. Based on the region?s climate data, greenhouses require heating during the period from November to March, ventilation and shading from February to May and cooling from June to September. In order to maintain day and night temperatures of 18/16°C, annual heat energy requirement of PE greenhouses is 95-256 kWh/m2. In view of environment and production costs, conservation of heating energy is as important as heating itself. Heat energy saving is about 37% when energy curtains are used. Greenhouse temperature can be increased by 8°C in palliative non-heated greenhouses where energy curtains and water mattresses are used in addition to passively used solar energy. Ventilation openings at the roofs of these greenhouses should adequately be 20-25%. When outside noon-time temperature is above 30°C in June, evaporative cooling of greenhouse is essential. Depending on outside humidity and volume of exchanged air for cooling, a temperature difference of 6°C can be achieved with evaporative cooling of greenhouses in August

Potential of Biofuel Usage in Turkey’s Energy Supply

Rapidly growing population and industrialization brought about the enormous need for energy, alongside the environmental problems. Since biofuel energy is inexhaustible, it is becoming increasingly important to address the energy problem. Today, it is possible to classify biomass energy into two classes: classical and modern. Classical biofuel utilization is the simple burning of wood obtained from tree cutting and animal wastes, where modern biofuel application consists of a variety of fuels produced from various sources. Turkey’s potential for biofuels is estimated to be around 45 Mg. As a renewable energy, it’s been under the Renewable Support Scheme by regulation for more than a decade now. By the end of 2016, installed biofuel electricity generation capacity had reached 468 MW with 2 billion kWh realized (~0.7% of national demand). The aim for 2023 is reaching at least 1000 MW (which will be around 1.3% by then). Many analysts believe that the potential for development is higher and realization therefore will surpass the official aims. Effective usage of biofuels for power generation may not be sizable but it’s critical and will make multilayer contributions to energy supply and dependence as well as to meeting climate and sustainability targets of the country

Efficacy of school-based career guidance interventions: A review of recent research

This paper aims to examine the impacts of career guidance interventions on school students’ career-related skills, knowledge and beliefs by combining relevant empirical studies conducted in the last 10 years. A random-effects meta-analytic technique was employed for this purpose. After screening, electronic databases using pre-defined eligibility criteria, nine studies involving a total of 1,433 participants were included in the final meta-analysis. The analysis yielded a weighted mean effect size of 0.42 (95% confidence interval = 0.19, 0.65; z = 3.61, p < 0.01) which may be construed as a moderate-to-high effect size with a significant difference between the treatment and control conditions at post-treatment. As a result, post-test career-related outcomes in students who received career guidance were significantly higher than in non-guidance groups. The results suggest that career interventions may provide some modest developmental progression in school-age children and adolescents particularly through improving learners’ career decidedness and attitudes such as future time perspective. These findings might have strategic implications for policy and practice. This paper extends past research on career guidance effectiveness by identifying the combined effect size of relevant career interventions

Hızlı Prototip Üretim Teknolojileri ve Diş Hekimliğinde Kullanımı

Protetik diş tedavisinde yaygın olarak kullanılan CAD/CAM yöntemlerine yakın zamanda bir yenisi eklenmiştir. ‘Hızlı Prototip Üretim Teknolojileri’ olarak adlandırılan bu sistemler ile sabit restorasyonların metal altyapıları, fasial protezler, cerrahi model ve stentler, titanyum implantlar elde edilebilmektedir. Kayıp mum tekniğine alternatif olan yöntemde, üretilecek olan restorasyonun sanal görüntüsü cihaza aktarılmakta ve lazer ışını ile toz halindeki Cr-Co alaşımı üzerinde, seçilmiş alanlar sinterlenerek, restorasyon tek aşamada, katmanlar halinde üretilmektedir. Bu olgu sunumunda, tek diş eksikliği nedeniyle üç üyeli metal destekli porselen köprü yapımına karar verilen vakada, restorasyonun metal altyapısının fabrikasyonu için kullanılan hızlı prototip üretim teknolojileri, çalışma prensibi ve fabrikasyon aşamaları açıklanmıştır

Optimización de la resistencia a compresión de lechadas de cemento reforzadas con aditivos

The Taguchi method was used in this study to optimize the unconfined (7-, 14- and 28-day) compressive strength of cement-based grouts with bentonite, fly ash and silica fume admixtures. The experiments were designed using an L16 orthogonal array in which the three factors considered were bentonite (0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 3%), fly ash (10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) and silica fume (0%, 5%, 10% and 20%) content. The experimental results, which were analyzed by ANOVA and the Taguchi method, showed that fly ash and silica fume content play a significant role in unconfined compressive strength. The optimum conditions were found to be: 0% bentonite, 10% fly ash, 20% silica fume and 28 days of curing time. The maximum unconfined compressive strength reached under the above optimum conditions was 17.1 MPa.En el presente trabajo se ha intentado optimizar, mediante el método de Taguchi, las resistencias a compresión (a las edades de 7, 14 y 28 días) de lechadas de cemento reforzadas con bentonita, cenizas volantes y humo de sílice. Se diseñaron los experimentos de acuerdo con un arreglo ortogonal tipo L16 en el que se contemplaban tres factores: la bentonita (0, 0,5, 1 y 3%), las cenizas volantes (10, 20, 30 y 40%) y el humo de sílice (0, 5, 10 y 20%) (porcentajes en peso del sólido). Los datos obtenidos se analizaron con mediante ANOVA y el método de Taguchi. De acuerdo con los resultados experimentales, el contenido tanto de cenizas volantes como de humo de sílice desempeña un papel significativo en la resistencia a compresión. Por otra parte, las condiciones óptimas que se han identificado son: 0% bentonita, 10% cenizas volantes, 20% humo de sílice y 28 días de tiempo de curado. La resistencia a compresión máxima conseguida en las anteriores condiciones era de 17,1 MPa

A critical evaluation of predictive models for rooted soil strength with application to predicting the seismic deformation of rooted slopes

This paper presents a comparative study of three different classes of model for estimating the reinforcing effect of plant roots in soil, namely (i) fibre pull-out model, (ii) fibre break models (including Wu and Waldron’s Model (WWM) and the Fibre Bundle Model (FBM)) and (iii) beam bending or p-y models (specifically Beam on a Non-linear Winkler-Foundation (BNWF) models). Firstly, the prediction model of root reinforcement based on pull-out being the dominant mechanism for different potential slip plane depths was proposed. The resulting root reinforcement calculated were then compared with those derived from the other two types of models. The estimated rooted soil strength distributions were then incorporated within a fully dynamic, plane-strain continuum finite element model to assess the consequences of the selection of rooted soil strength model on the global seismic stability of a vegetated slope (assessed via accumulated slip during earthquake shaking). For the particular case considered in this paper (no roots were observed to have broken after shearing), root cohesion predicted by the pull-out model is much closer to that the BNWF model, but is largely over-predicted by the family of fibre break models. In terms of the effects on the stability of vegetated slopes, there exists a threshold value beyond which the position of the critical slip plane would bypass the rooted zones, rather than passing through them. Further increase of root cohesion beyond this value has minimal effect on the global slope behaviour. This implies that significantly over-predicted root cohesion from fibre break models when used to model roots with non-negligible bending stiffness may still provide a reasonable prediction of overall behaviour, so long as the critical failure mechanism is already bypassing the root-reinforced zones. © 2019, The Author(s)

Epistemological role of human reasoning in data-informed decision-making

Visual analytics was introduced in 2004 as a “grand challenge” to build an interdisciplinary “science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces”. The goal of visual analytics was to develop ways of interactively visualizing data, information, and computational analysis methods that augment human expertise in analysis and decision-making. In this paper, we examine the role of human reasoning in data analysis and decision-making, focusing on issues of expertise and objectivity in interpreting data for purposes of decision-making. We do this by integrating the visual analytics perspective with Decision Intelligence, a cognitive framework that emphasizes the connection between computational data analyses, predictive models, actions that can be taken, and predicted outcomes of those actions. Because Decision Intelligence models factors of operational capabilities and stakeholder beliefs, it necessarily extends objective data analytics to include intuitive aspects of expert decision-making such as human judgment, values, and ethics. By combining these two perspectives we believe that researchers will be better able to generate actionable decisions that ideally effectively utilize human expertise, while eliminating bias. This paper aims to provide a framework of how Decision Intelligence leverages visual analytics tools and human reasoning to support the decision-making process

“The Future Market and the Current Reality”:Zaimoglu/Senkel’s Black Virgins and Interculturalism in the German Context

What happens to the relationship between theatre and interculturalism in a contemporary European country of immigration? How does making “intercultural theatre” differ from making theatre in an “intercultural society”? This chapter explores these questions with reference to the emergence of “postmigrant theatre” in Germany, and particularly Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel’s Black Virgins (Schwarze Jungfrauen). This controversial semi-documentary play about Muslim women premiered to great success in 2006 and has since appeared in at least ten further professional productions in Germany alone. Focusing on productions in Bremen, Hannover, and the Ruhr area, I situate this proliferation against a broader background of “interculturalism” in cultural policies within Germany, tracing the way in which intercultural policies have both enabled and demanded the production of new forms of engagement with postmigrant theatre. The title quotation, taken from the play, suggests an awareness of the uneasy positioning of the play’s success between market demands and a more rights-based approach to inclusion and recognition in contemporary Germany. A focus on the dynamics of intercultural policies allows us to unpack this positioning further, and explore what the production histories of Black Virgins have to tell us about interculturalism and performance in the German context and beyond