Africa is the second populous continent, and its population has the fastest growing rate. Some African countries are still plagued by poverty, poor sanitary conditions and limited resources, such as clean drinking water, food supply, electricity, and effective waste management systems. Underfunded healthcare systems, poor training and lack of awareness of policies and legislations on handling medical waste have led to increased improper handling of waste within hospitals, healthcare facilities and transportation and storage of medical waste. Some countries, including Ethiopia, Botswana, Nigeria and Algeria, do not have national guidelines in place to adhere to the correct disposal of such wastage. Incineration is often the favoured disposal method due to the rapid diminishment of up to 90% of waste, as well as production of heat for boilers or for energy production. This type of method – if not applying the right technologies – potentially creates hazardous risks of its own, such as harmful emissions and residuals. In this study, the sustainability aspects of medical waste management in Africa were reviewed to present resilient solutions for health and environment protection for the next generation in Africa. The findings of this research introduce policies, possible advices and solutions associated with sustainability and medical waste management that can support decision-makers in developing strategies for the sustainability by using the eco-friendly technologies for efficient medical waste treatment and disposal methods and also can serve as a link between the healthcare system, decision-makers, and stakeholders in developing health policies and programmes.
The rise in the human population, its density and scarcity of resources require cost-effective solutions for sustainable energy and water resources. Smart and sustainable agriculture is one important factor for future green cities to tackle climate change as a cost-effective solution to save energy and water. However, greenhouses (GH) require consistent ventilation due to their internal temperatures, and this can be an energy-intensive operation. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse the potential factors involved. In this study, the effect of vent configuration of a mono-span greenhouse with roof and side vents at low wind speeds was investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The validated simulations were then performed on different models to analyse the effects of the vents’ locations on the ventilation requirements. The side vents were found to contribute most to the ventilation. The position of the side vent was found to affect the convection loop in the greenhouse and the air velocity at the plant level. The humidity was shown to be highest under the windward side vent. The roof vent was found to affect the temperature and air velocity in the roof of the greenhouse but had very little effect on the distributions at the plant level.
Hybrid optimisation of multiple energy resources has been performed on a micro grid model of a hospital to investigate the capability of a standalone energy system and simultaneous mitigation of hospital waste. The main objectives of this study were to collect renewable energy resource data of a hybrid hospital, use the average amount of hospital waste from the literature and NASA surface meteorology in addition to the solar energy database from HOMER Pro software to construct a hybrid model for a conceptual hospital in the new green city in Saudi Arabia, NEOM. The hybrid model consisted of biogas Cofire and diesel generators, PV solar array and batteries. Simulations were performed to analyse the load requirements of a standalone hospital. The mechanism of energy storage was designed based on Tesla batteries.Then, the hybrid hospital model was tested with NEOM's natural resources, load demand of 250 kWh/day and the average amount of daily hospital waste of 0.6 tons based on the literature data. This condition allows the smart hospital to be tested with real features. The outcome of the COE, NPC and the amount of reduction of carbon dioxide in the hybrid hospital were analysed. Many of the hybrid properties and constraints that define the hospital were adopted from previous literature concentrating on similar domains. The optimal solution of a hybrid micro grid consisted of biogas cofire, PV array, and batteries. Of the total load demand, 32.3% and 67.6% were produced by PV array and biogas cofire generators, respectively, together with eight Tesla PowerWall2.0 batteries. The cost of energy was 0.21 USD/kWh and the net present cost was 243,699.17 USD. In this study, we compared renewable energy with conventional energy and found that the optimal solution would be able to reduce carbon emission and diesel consumption by almost 84% and 81%, respectively. The results were verified through a sensitivity study and compared with other studies.
Cultivation in open fields mainly depends on the location and time of farming, which itself highly depends on the quality and quantity of water for irrigation, weather conditions and soil characteristics. Water resources are highly dependent on the limited freshwater resources from the groundwater system, or rainwater. Countries in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) rely mostly on desalination technologies for agriculture, due to water scarcity. Therefore, greenhouse (GH) agriculture can be developed to succeed in dealing with the water scarcity and provide sufficient sources of agricultural products as a sustainable solution. These indoor agriculture facilities, which are enclosed by transparent covers, can produce different sources of fruits and vegetables, using a controlled amount of water. By reducing the exchange rate of air with the outside environment, which is known as the confinement effects, greenhouses generate a suitable environment for the plants to grow under transparent covers to trap the sunlight. This raises the inside temperature above the maximum threshold levels, especially within the warm season, due to the high solar radiation intensity, having an adverse influence on the microclimate conditions and consequently the crop growth. In order to sustain maximum agricultural yield, greenhouse ventilation is an important parameter in which its trends and emerging practices were reviewed in this study.
A three-dimensional hip model was created from the MRI scans of one human subject based on constructing the entire pelvis and femur. The ball and socket joint was modelled between the hip's acetabulum and the femoral head to analyse the multiaxial loads applied in the hip joint. The three key ligaments that reinforce the external surface of the hip to help to stabilise the joint were also modelled which are the iliofemoral , the pubofemoral and ischiofemoral ligaments. Each of these ligaments wraps around the joint connection to form a seal over the synovial membrane, a line of attachment around the head of the femur. This model was tested for different loading and boundary conditions to analyse their sensitivities on the cortical and cancellous tissues of the human hip bones. The outcomes of a one-legged stance finite element analysis revealed that the maximum of 0.056 mm displacement occurred. The stress distribution varied across the model which the majority occurring in the cortical femur and dissipating through the cartilage. The maximum stress value occurring in the joint was 110.1 MPa, which appeared at the free end of the proximal femur. This developed finite element model was validated against the literature data to be used as an asset for further research in investigating new methods of total hip arthroplasty, to minimise the recurrence of dislocations and discomfort in the hip joint, as well as increasing the range of movement available to a patient after surgery.
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