Topic Review
Image Assisted Total Stations for Structural Health Monitoring
Measuring structures and its documentation is one of the tasks of engineering geodesy. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is defined as a periodic or continuous method to provide information about the condition of the construction through the determination of measurement data and their analysis. In SHM, wide varieties of sensors are used for data acquisition.
  • 588
  • 03 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Impact of Particles on Pulmonary Endothelial Cells
Due to particle sizes ranging from the nanometre to the millimetre scale, these particles can be easily inhaled or absorbed by the skin, reaching the cells of the pulmonary alveoli and finally entering the bloodstream, which can lead to health adverse effects. Endothelial cells (ECs) guarantee permeability for the passage of blood, hormone fluids, macromolecules and platelets through arteries, veins, arterioles and venules and controls blood flow and vascular relaxation and constriction. The function of pulmonary endothelial cells (PECs) is not very different from vascular endothelial cells; they regulate blood flow but also control the passage of liquid and macromolecules between the interstitial space, the vessels and the smooth muscle cells.
  • 321
  • 15 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Indian Remote Sensing Programme
India's remote sensing program was developed with the idea of applying space technologies for the benefit of human kind and the development of the country. The program involved the development of three principal capabilities. The first was to design, build and launch satellites to a sun synchronous orbit. The second was to establish and operate ground stations for spacecraft control, data transfer along with data processing and archival. The third was to use the data obtained for various applications on the ground.
  • 5.5K
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Nations
Indoor air pollution in developing nations is a significant form of indoor air pollution (IAP) that is little known to those in the developed world. Three billion people in developing countries across the globe rely on biomass, in the form of wood, charcoal, dung, and crop residue, as their domestic cooking fuel. Since much of the cooking is carried out indoors in environments that lack proper ventilation, millions of people, primarily poor women and children face serious health risks. The major sources of indoor air pollution include combustion and building materials. Globally, 4.3 million deaths were attributed to exposure to IAP in developing countries in 2012, almost all in low and middle-income countries. The South East Asian and Western Pacific regions bear most of the burden with 1.69 and 1.62 million deaths, respectively. Almost 600,000 deaths occur in Africa, 200,000 in the Eastern Mediterranean region, 99,000 in Europe and 81,000 in the Americas. The remaining 19,000 deaths occur in high-income countries. Even though the rate of dependence on biomass fuel is declining, this dwindling resource will not keep up with population growth which could ultimately put environments at even greater risk. Over the past several decades, there have been numerous studies investigating the air pollution generated by traditional household solid fuel combustion for space heating, lighting, and cooking in developing countries. It is now well established that, throughout much of the developing world, indoor burning of solid fuels (biomass, coal, etc.) by inefficient, often insufficiently vented, combustion devices results in elevated exposure to household air pollutants. This is due to the poor combustion efficiency of the combustion devices and the elevated nature of the emissions. In addition, they are often released directly into living areas. Smoke from traditional household solid fuel combustion commonly contains a range of incomplete combustion products, including both fine and coarse particulate matter (e.g., PM2.5, PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and a variety of organic air pollutants (e.g., formaldehyde, 1,3-butadiene, benzene, acetaldehyde, acrolein, phenols, pyrene, benzopyrene, benzo(a)pyrene, dibenzopyrenes, dibenzocarbazoles, and cresols). In a typical solid fuel stove, about 6–20% of the solid fuel is converted into toxic emissions (by mass). The exact quantity and relative composition is determined by factors such as the fuel type and moisture content, stove type and operation influencing the amount. While many pollutants can evolve, most measurements have been focused on breathing-zone exposure levels of particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO), which are the main products of incomplete combustion and are considered to pose the greatest health risks. Indoor PM2.5 exposure levels have been consistently reported to be in the range of hundreds to thousands of micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3). Similarly, CO exposure levels have been measured to be as high as hundreds to greater than 1000 milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3). A recent study of 163 households in two rural Chinese counties reported geometric mean indoor PM2.5 concentrations of 276 μg/m3 (combinations of different plant materials, including wood, tobacco stems, and corncobs), 327 μg/m3 (wood), 144 μg/m3 (smoky coal), and 96 μg/m3 (smokeless coal) for homes using a variety of different fuel types and stove configurations (e.g., vented, unvented, portable, fire pit, mixed ventilation stove).
  • 2.2K
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Indoor Bioaerosol
Indoor bioaerosol is bioaerosol in an indoor environment. Bioaerosols are natural or artificial particles of biological (microbial, plant, or animal) origin suspended in the air. These particles are also referred to as organic dust. Bioaerosols may consist of bacteria, fungi (and spores and cell fragments of fungi), viruses, microbial toxins, pollen, plant fibers, etc. Size of bioaerosol particles varies from below 1 µm to 100 µm in aerodynamic diameter; viable bioaerosol particles can be suspended in air as single cells or aggregates of microorganism as small as 1–10 µm in size. Since bioaerosols are potentially related to various human health effects and the indoor environment provides a unique exposure situation, concerns about indoor bioaerosols have increased over the last decade.
  • 434
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Industrial Ecology Education
Industrial ecology (IE) education is a topic that has received attention in institutions of higher education throughout the world. Some universities have been teaching and researching IE for the past 20 years but its scope is still being defined. There is a need to catalogue and exchange experiences of IE teaching and their results. In addition to an extensive literature review, this paper provides a framework composed of content and strategies for teaching Industrial Ecology. This framework is tested in teaching IE as a general education course for undergraduate students at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). The methodology applied in this paper is of a descriptive and empirical nature and thus this paper focuses on a practice-oriented perspective in describing the experience at BIT. A range of different strategies, including lectures, group discussions, case studies, role playing games, oral presentations, evaluation, and student feedback have been incorporated into the course. The course received highly positive evaluation by the participating students. Students were impressed by IE’s characteristic of interdisciplinarity, way of thinking and practical value. Additionally, the course appears to influence students’ values, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The paper concludes with some thoughts on ways of improving IE education in the future.
  • 700
  • 06 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Inner Core
The Earth's inner core is the Earth's innermost part. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 kilometres (760 miles), which is about 70% of the Moon's radius. It is composed of an iron–nickel alloy and some other elements. The temperature at the inner core's surface is approximately 5,700 K (5,430 °C) or 9806 °F, which is about the temperature at the surface of the Sun.
  • 1.9K
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Intermarium
Intermarium (Polish: Międzymorze, Polish pronunciation: [mʲɛnd͡zɨˈmɔʐɛ]) was a geopolitical project conceived by politicians in successor states of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in several iterations, some of which anticipated the inclusion as well of other, neighboring states. The proposed multinational polity would have extended across territories lying between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, hence the name meaning "Between-Seas". Prospectively a federation of Central and Eastern European countries, the post-World War I Intermarium plan pursued by Polish leader and former political prisoner of the Russian Empire, Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), sought to recruit to the proposed federation the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), Finland , Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. The Polish name Międzymorze (from między, "between"; and morze, "sea"), meaning "Between-Seas", was rendered into Latin as "Intermarium." The proposed federation was meant to emulate the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, that, from the end of the 16th century to the end of the 18th, had united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Intermarium complemented Piłsudski's other geopolitical vision, Prometheism, whose goal was the dismemberment of the Russian Empire and that Empire's divestment of its territorial acquisitions. Intermarium was, however, perceived by some Lithuanians as a threat to their newly established independence, and by some Ukrainians as a threat to their aspirations for independence, and while France backed the proposal, it was opposed by Russia and by most other Western powers. Within two decades of the failure of Piłsudski's grand scheme, all the countries that he had viewed as candidates for membership in the Intermarium federation had fallen to the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, except for Finland (which suffered some territorial losses in the 1939–40 Winter War with the Soviet Union).
  • 2.6K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Internet-Based E-Waste Collection Platforms
As Internet-based e-waste collection moves from a novelty to a routine way of e-waste collection in China, the service quality of Internet-based e-waste collection platforms plays a crucial role in attracting users.
  • 432
  • 29 May 2023
Topic Review
Iranian Plateau
The Iranian Plateau or the Persian Plateau is a geological feature in Central Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the east in Indian subcontinent. As a historical region, it includes Parthia, Media, Persis, the heartlands of Iran and some of the previous territories of Greater Iran. The Zagros Mountains form the plateau's western boundary, and its eastern slopes may be included in the term. The Encyclopædia Britannica excludes "lowland Khuzestan" explicitly and characterizes Elam as spanning "the region from the Mesopotamian Plain to the Iranian Plateau". From the Caspian in the northwest to Balochistan in the south-east, the Iranian Plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. It encompasses the greater part of Iran, all of Afghanistan, and Pakistan west of the Indus River containing some 3,700,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). In spite of being called a "plateau", it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Alborz at 5610 m, and the Dasht-e Lut east of Kerman in Central Iran falling below 300 m.
  • 5.1K
  • 22 Nov 2022
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