This diploma thesis deals with the design of sanitary and gas installations in the kindergarten building in Židlochovice in the Družba housing estate. The building consists of two floors, where on the 1st floor there are 2 classes, kitchen, warehouses and maintenance areas. There are also 2 classes on the 2nd floor. The theoretical part deals with the possibilities of using internal installation spaces and requirements for hygienic spaces. The calculation part and the project contain the design of sewerage and rain sewerage, water supply, gas supply and their connection to public networks.

The population growth in many urban cities and its activities in developing countries have resulted in an increased solid waste generation rate and waste management has become a global environmental issue. Routing of solid waste collection vehicles in developing countries like Pakistan poses a challenging task. In the process of solid waste management, collection and transportation play a leading role in waste collection and disposal, in which collection activities contributed the most to total cost for solid waste collection activities. Therefore, this study describes an attempt to design and develop an appropriate collection, transportation and disposal plan for the twin cities of Pakistan by using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques to determine the minimum cost/distance/time efficient collection paths for the transportation of the solid wastes to the landfill sites. In addition to this, identification of solid waste disposal sites and appropriately managing them is a challenging task to many developing countries and Pakistan is no exception to that. The existing landfill sites for the twin cities are not technically viable and environmentally acceptable and are thus damaging to the environment due to their location and the type of waste dumped. Therefore, the second aim of our study was to find out the suitable landfill sites for the twin cities and the study employed Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) methods to combine necessary factors considered for landfill site selection for the twin cities. Hence, our present study has proved that GIS is a tool that can be used in integration with other techniques such as MCE for a identifying new landfill sites and it can help decision makers deal with real-world developmental and management issues. Finally, the study has developed a Wed-Based Decision Support System (DSS) via Application Programming Interface (API) which will help decision-makers to search for cost-effective alternatives and it can be operated by people who don’t have knowledge of GIS. The proposed study can be used as a decision support tool by the municipalities of the twin cities for efficient management and transportation of solid wastes to landfill sites, managing work schedules for workers, etc.

Studies on empire have shown that colonialism generated new disease environments and complicated old disease experiences in Africa. These conditions necessitated a mission to sanitize Africans and their environment in British West Africa since the colonies had to be conducive for European colonial officials and their African labor, especially given the region’s image as the “white man’s grave.” However, colonial administrations lacked the skills, adequate personnel, and materials to transform territories like western Nigeria into desired healthy locations for European personnel or colonized Africans. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, most Africans resisted the preventive health measures introduced in Yoruba towns, including environmental sanitation projects to reduce mosquito breeding spots. This was not simply because the initiative threatened African livelihood but rather because many Africans were too poor to pay the cost of the British modernizing projects, including pipe-borne water and odor-proof latrine buckets. As most Africans resisted some of these initiatives and negotiated others to improve their health and social conditions, their politics of resistance shaped public health development in western Nigeria. This is significant to African history because it reveals how the administrative policing of environmental sanitation and health adds nuance to our understanding of empire, particularly the complex relationship between Africans of different social classes and between Africans and the colonial governments in Western Nigerian towns. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation is about the history of British preventive health in western Nigeria from the late nineteenth century to the end of the second world war. It contributes to the social history of medicine, health, and environment as it explores Africans’ experience of British imperial hygiene and public sanitation programs. Specifically, the study focuses on how public health projects such as potable water, public latrine, and waste management shaped people’s lives and how Africans shaped the health initiatives in return. The study argues that most of the preventive health programs the British colonial authorities introduced in western Nigerian towns during the period under review had a minimal impact on African health. This was because the colonial government and most Africans had opposing views on how public health initiatives should be executed in an environment of budget restraints and poverty. The study thus shows how Africans resisted some public health initiatives and negotiated others in an attempt to improve their health and social conditions. By exploring major colonial initiatives that sought to transform the Nigerian environment into a more healthy place and the people into environmentally responsible subjects, the study argues that colonized Africans were not passive onlookers during the transformation of their public health system. Rather, their politics of resistance shaped colonial health development.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Biotechnology)-Dept. of Biotechnology, Durban Institute Of Technology, 2005 xxiii, 172 p. : ill. ; 30 cm / The provision of safe and sanitary water is a constitutional right and above all, a necessity of life. As a result of the rapid urbanisation and the past policies of apartheid, a large population of South Africa dwell in informal settlements, where there is very little hope of development, as the government does not possess the resources that are necessary for a full-scale sanitation programme. Therefore, on-site treatments have been considered to provide sanitation in these dense peri-urban areas. The anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) is one such sanitation system. This reactor utilises the phenomenon of anaerobic digestion to degrade substrates. One of the major disadvantages of any anaerobic treatment processes is the extreme sensitivity of the bacterial communities, thus inducing slow recovery rates following toxic shocks. Therefore, an understanding of these microbial consortia is essential to effectively control, operate and optimise the anaerobic reactor. Fluorescence in situ hybridization, 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining and DNA sequencing techniques were applied to determine the microbial consortium, as well as their reactions to daily operating conditions. With an understanding of these populations and their responses to perturbations within the system, it is possible to construct an anaerobic system that is successful in its treatment of domestic wastewater. In situ hybridizations were conducted for three operating periods, each characterised by specific flow rates. Results showed Eubacterial population dominance over the Archaeal population throughout both of the operating periods investigated. However, these cells cumulatively consisted of 50% of the total biomass fraction, as determined by DAPI staining. Group-probes utilised revealed a high concentration of fermentative acidogenic bacteria, which lead to a decrease in the pH values. It was noted that the ABR did not separate the acidogenic and methanogenic phases, as expected. Therefore, the decrease in pH further inhibited the proliferation of Archaeal acetoclastic methanogens, which were not present in the second operating period. DNA sequencing results revealed the occurrence of the hydrogenotrophic Methanobacterium and Methanococcus genera and confirmed the presence of Methanosarcina. Sequencing of the bacterial DNA confirmed the presence of the low G+ C Gram Positives (Streptococcus), the high G+C Gram Positives (Propionibacterium) and the sulfate reducing bacteria (Desulfovibrio vulgaris). However, justifications were highly subjective due to a lack of supportive analytical data, such as acetate, volatile fatty acids and methane concentrations. Despite this, findings served to add valuable information, providing details on the specific microbial groups associated with ABR treatment processes.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Biotechnology)-Dept. of Biotechnogy, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xvi, 85 leaves : ill. ; 31 cm / Atmospheric nitrogen pollution is on the increase and human activities are directly or indirectly responsible for the generation of the various nitrogen polluting compounds. This can lead to the two major problems of eutrophication and groundwater pollution. Therefore, the removal of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater is important. Nitrogen removal from wastewater is achieved by a combination of nitrification and denitrification. Thus, there is a need to identify and characterise heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria involved in denitrification in wastewater treatment systems. The aim of this study, therefore, was to characterise heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria through detailed biochemical and molecular analysis, to facilitate the understanding of their functional role in wastewater treatment systems. Drysdale (2001) isolated heterotrophic denitrifiers to obtain a culture collection of 179 isolates. This culture collection was used to screen for nitrate and nitrite reduction using the colorimetric biochemical nitrate reduction test. The isolates were thereafter Gram stained to assess their gram reaction, cellular and colonial morphology. Based on these results identical isolates were discarded and a culture collection of approximately 129 isolates remained. The genetic diversity of the culture collection was investigated by the analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) fragments on polyacrylamide gels using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Thus DNA fragments of the same length but different nucleotide sequences were effectively separated and microbial community profiles of eight predominant isolates were created. Batch experiments were conducted on these eight isolates, the results of which ultimately confirmed their characterisation and placed them into their four functional groups i.e. 3 isolates were incomplete denitrifiers, 2 isolates were true denitrifiers, 2 isolates were sequential denitrifiers and 1 isolate was an exclusive nitrite reducer.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Biotechnology)-Dept. of Biotechnology, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xiv, 114 leaves : ill. 30 cm / The activated sludge process is the mostl used biological treatment process. Engineers and microbiologists are constantly seeking ways to improve process efficiency, which can be attributed to the increasing demand for fresh water supplies and proper environmental management. Since the inception of the activated sludge process, bulking and foaming have been major problems affecting its efficiency. Filamentous bacteria have been identified as the primary cause of bulking and foaming. Numerous attempts have been made to resolve this problem. Some of these attempts were effective as interim measures but failed as long term control strategies. The identification of filamentous bacteria and the study of their physiology have been hampered by the unreliability of conventional microbiological techniques. This is largely due to their morphological variations and inconsistent characteristics within different environments. To fully understand their role in promoting bulking and foaming, filamentous bacteria need to be characterized on a molecular level. The aim of this study was, therefore, to identify filamentous bacteria in pure culture with the purpose of validating these findings to the physiological traits of the pure cultures when they were isolated. Fourteen different filamentous cultures were used for this study. The cultures were identified using specific oligonucleotide probes via fluorescent in situ hybridisation and nucleotide sequencing. Prior to sequencing, an agarose gel and a denaturing gradient gel Electrophoresis profile were determined for each isolate. The various techniques were optimised specifically for the filamentous isolates. The isolates were identified as Gordonia amarae, Haliscomenobacter hydrossis, Acinetobacter sp./Type 1863, Type 021N, Thiothrix nivea, Sphaerotilus natans and Nocardioform organisms.

A collection of hardware weightless Boolean elements has been developed. These form fundamental building blocks which have particular pertinence to the field of weightless neural networks. They have also been shown to have merit in their own right for the design of robust architectures. A major element of this is a collection of weightless Boolean sum and threshold techniques. These are fundamental building blocks which can be used in weightless architectures particularly within the field of weightless neural networks. Included in these is the implementation of L-max also known as N point thresholding. These elements have been applied to design a Boolean weightless hardware version of Austin’s ADAM neural network. ADAM is further enhanced by the addition of a new learning paradigm, that of non-Hebbian Learning. This new method concentrates on the association of ‘dis-similarity’, believing this is as important as areas of similarity. Image processing using hardware weightless neural networks is investigated through simulation of digital filters using a Type 1 Neuroram neuro-filter. Simulations have been performed using MATLAB to compare the results to a conventional median filter. Type 1 Neuroram has been tested on an extended collection of noise types. The importance of the threshold has been examined and the effect of cascading both types of filters was examined. This research has led to the development of several novel weightless hardware elements that can be applied to image processing. These patented elements include a weightless thermocoder and two weightless median filters. These novel robust high speed weightless filters have been compared with conventional median filters. The robustness of these architectures has been investigated when subjected to accelerated ground based generated neutron radiation simulating the atmospheric radiation spectrum experienced at commercial avionic altitudes. A trial investigating the resilience of weightless hardware Boolean elements in comparison to standard weighted arithmetic logic is detailed, examining the effects on the operation of the function when implemented on hardware experiencing high energy neutron bombardment induced single event effects. Further weightless Boolean elements are detailed which contribute to the development of a weightless implementation of the traditionally weighted self ordered map.

A combination of climate change, due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions and concerns over energy security, due to fluctuating fuel prices, has led to the UK pushing to increase its renewable energy production. Harnessing tidal stream energy is an infant sector in the UK’s renewable energy portfolio, despite the UK’s large tidal stream resource, and is harnessed through deploying tidal stream energy converters. This thesis focuses on the design of a novel vertical axis tidal turbine (VATT) called CarBine which is driven by drag force and therefore has several unique advantages, including slow rotational speed, omni-directionality and a simple design. This research focused on the optimisation of the CarBine design and was split into two areas: physical testing and numerical modelling. A conventional Savonius was also analysed in both of these respects and this enabled a direct comparison of CarBine to a competing drag force driven VATT. Physical testing measured the power of the turbines and was conducted in hydraulic flumes at both Cardiff University (CU) and IFREMER in Northern France for a range of flow conditions. Testing at IFREMER enabled the quantification of the blockage effect in the CU experiments. Physical testing resulted in the optimised design of CarBine being one with a four arm configuration. From physical testing at CU, CarBine showed inferior efficiency performance to that of the conventional Savonius, a Cp of 0.117 compared to 0.225 at U∞=0.72 m/s. As a result a hybrid of both the Savonius and CarBine was tested, namely a Savonius with flaps. However, results from physical testing showed the Savonius with flaps to have inferior performance to both CarBine and the conventional Savonius, with a Cp of 0.103 at U∞=0.72 m/s at CU. Numerical modelling was conducted using the commercial CFD software package, Ansys CFX. Both transient and steady state simulations along with 2D and 3D models were used to model both CarBine and the Savonius. Both the k-ε and SST turbulence models were used for comparison. The two degrees of rotational freedom present in the CarBine design resulted in CarBine being difficult to model precisely. The numerical modelling results were validated against the physical testing results and where available, 3D results showed closer validation than the 2D results.

This thesis addresses the architectural integration of transpired solar collectors (TSC), as a building envelope technology patented in 1980s to pre-heat ambient air that would be used for space heating. It explores the reasons for low take up of the technology. It further explores the preferences, perceptions and recommendations of architectural integration quality of TSC in buildings. The research analyses the associated technological innovation development at entrepreneurial level in the UK and North America in a variety of terms including knowledge diffusion and research and development. Building-integrated renewable energy is an important response to concerns about climate change and energy poverty. As space heating accounts for 61% of total domestic energy consumption in countries with long cold seasons, the transpired solar collector (TSC) is a promising technology. However, TSC suffers from low take up despite its apparent technical competitiveness. A large-scale questionnaire, an experimental prototype and technological innovation system analysis were used to provide insight into architecturally integrating and developing TSC technology in buildings, and clarifying its potential contribution to pre-heating ambient air. The research outcomes inferred multi-dimensional reasons behind limited adoption of the technology. Respondents were generally aware of TSC technology; however, few were satisfied with available technology. Various preferences determining selection of TSCs were investigated, including: ‘invisible’ integration, planning guidelines for traditional buildings, stage of integration and sustainable factors. Respondents indicated that the ultimate feature considered when sourcing TSC technology was its reliability followed by capital cost. The solar irradiation only needed to exceed 60W/m2 for TSC to generate an output temperature greater than the ambient temperature. A significant temperature increase was observed when solar irradiation exceeded 400W/m2. Output temperature increased to 16ºC above ambient temperature in autumn and 12ºC in winter in the TSC prototype. A comparison of relevant actors, institutions and networks of TSC in the United Kingdom (UK) with North America, found both to be cautious about communication to protect intellectual property: this hampers knowledge exchange and development. Despite TSC take up in North America being restricted by cheap gas prices, end-user feedback reflects a level of satisfaction versus fewer such examples in the UK. Identified barriers included immaturity of technology, reluctance to implement new technology, lack of supply chain and low institutional support. A framework of potential enablers and architectural design guidelines were proposed to breakthrough take up of TSC.

Many households in developing countries rely on biomass (wood, charcoal, agricultural wastes, sawdust, and animal dung) and coal to meet their energy needs. The burning of these fuels in open fires creates environmental problems one of which is indoor air pollution (IAP). For effective reduction of indoor air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa, it is therefore, important to understand factors that determine the choice and uptake of cleaner fuels for household energy use. This research investigates the salient factors influencing households in developing countries in choosing fuel types, using the households in peri-urban areas of Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria as a case study. This research used holistic approaches to understand energy issues in the study area and used methods such as questionnaires, interviews, and field observation during data collection. Key findings suggest that underlying socio-cultural contexts of households’ ethnic groups guided wood-fuel harvesting in the peri-urban areas of Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. Wood fuel continues to be households’ main domestic energy source irrespective of their socio-economic status. The open burning of wood fuel causes indoor air pollution as the recorded 24-hour particulate matter levels was between 42µg/m3 – 275µg/m3 for indoor kitchens and 48µg/m3 – 648µg/m3 for outdoor kitchens. The cultural perception of the households that natural aeration blows particulates into buildings hinders them from believing that the open of burning of biomass fuels for domestic activities is the cause of indoor air pollution. Based on the findings of this study, it is argued that the traditional norms and values of the householders, being embedded in their socio-cultural contexts, are vital for understanding energy issues in the global South.