Search results for: growth curve

Authors: Oluibukun G. Ajayi, Joseph O. Odumosu, Oladimeji T. Babafemi, Azeez Z. Opeyemi, Asaleye O. Samuel

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The need for the complete automation of every procedure of surveying and most especially, its engineering applications cannot be overemphasized due to the many demerits of the conventional manual or analogue approach. This paper presents the summarized details of the development of a Route Information Management (RIM) software. The software, codenamed ‘AutoROUTE’, was encoded using Microsoft visual studio-visual basic package, and it offers complete automation of the computational procedures and plan production involved in route surveying. It was experimented using a route survey data (longitudinal profile and cross sections) of a 2.7 km road which stretches from Dama to Lunko village in Minna, Niger State, acquired with the aid of a Hi-Target DGPS receiver. The developed software (AutoROUTE) is capable of computing the various simple curve parameters, horizontal curve, and vertical curve, and it can also plot road alignment, longitudinal profile, and cross-section with a capability to store this on the SQL incorporated into the Microsoft visual basic software. The plotted plans with AutoROUTE were compared with the plans produced with the conventional AutoCAD Civil 3D software, and AutoROUTE proved to be more user-friendly and accurate because it plots in three decimal places whereas AutoCAD plots in two decimal places. Also, it was discovered that AutoROUTE software is faster in plotting and the stages involved is less cumbersome compared to AutoCAD Civil 3D software.

Keywords: automated systems, cross sections, curves, engineering construction, longitudinal profile, route surveying

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Authors: Mohammad Ridzwan Bin Abd Rahim, Siegfried Schmauder, Yupiter HP Manurung, Peter Binkele, Meor Iqram B. Meor Ahmad, Kiarash Dogahe

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This paper deals with the short crack initiation of the material P91 under cyclic loading at two different temperatures, concluded with the estimation of the short crack initiation Wöhler (S/N) curve. An artificial but representative model microstructure was generated using Voronoi tessellation and the Finite Element Method, and the non-uniform stress distribution was calculated accordingly afterward. The number of cycles needed for crack initiation is estimated on the basis of the stress distribution in the model by applying the physically-based Tanaka-Mura model. Initial results show that the number of cycles to generate crack initiation is strongly correlated with temperature.

Keywords: short crack initiation, P91, Wöhler curve, Voronoi tessellation, Tanaka-Mura model

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Authors: Josef Slapal

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Digital images are approximations of real ones and, therefore, to be able to study them, we need the digital plane Z2 to be equipped with a convenient structure that behaves analogously to the Euclidean topology on the real plane. In particular, it is required that such a structure allows for a digital analogue of the Jordan curve theorem. We introduce certain adjacency graphs on the digital plane and prove digital Jordan curves for them thus showing that the graphs provide convenient structures on Z2 for the study and processing of digital images. Further convenient structures including the wellknown Khalimsky and Marcus-Wyse adjacency graphs may be obtained as quotients of the graphs introduced. Since digital Jordan curves represent borders of objects in digital images, the adjacency graphs discussed may be used as background structures on the digital plane for solving the problems of digital image processing that are closely related to borders like border detection, contour filling, pattern recognition, thinning, etc.

Keywords: digital plane, adjacency graph, Jordan curve, quotient adjacency

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Authors: Jackson Niyongabo

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This study addresses a notable gap in the existing literature on the relationship between energy consumption, economic growth, and CO₂ emissions, particularly within the African context. While numerous studies have explored these dynamics globally and regionally across various development levels, few have delved into the nuances of regions and income levels specific to African countries. Furthermore, the evaluation of the interplay between green growth policies, green energy technologies, and their impact on environmental quality has been underexplored. This research aims to fill these gaps by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the transition from conventional economic growth and energy consumption to a paradigm of green growth coupled with green energy utilization across the African continent from 1980 to 2018. The study is structured into three main parts: an empirical examination of the long-term effects of energy intensity, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on CO₂ emissions across diverse African regions and income levels; an estimation of the long-term impact of green growth and green energy use on CO₂ emissions for countries implementing green policies within Africa, as well as at regional and global levels; and a comparative analysis of the impact of green growth policies on environmental degradation before and after implementation. Employing advanced econometric methods and panel estimators, the study utilizes a testing framework, panel unit tests, and various estimators to derive meaningful insights. The anticipated results and conclusions will be elucidated through causality tests, impulse response, and variance decomposition analyses, contributing valuable knowledge to the discourse on sustainable development in the African context.

Keywords: economic growth, green growth, energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, econometric models, green energy

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Authors: Meiyan Xing, Cenran Li, Liang Xiang

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Impacts of excess sludge vermicompost on the germination and early growth of plant were tested. The better effect of cow dung vermicompost (CV) on seed germination and seedling growth proved that cow dung was indeed the preferred additive in sludge vermicomposting as reported by plentiful researchers worldwide. The effects and the best amount of application of CV were further discussed. Results demonstrated that seed germination and seedling growth (seedlings number, plant height, stem diameter) were the best and heavy metal (Zn, Pb, Cr and As) contents of plant were the lowest when soil amended with CV by 15%. Additionally, CV fostered higher contents of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b compared to the control when concentration ranged from 5 to 15%, thereafter a slight increase in chlorophyll content was observed form 15% to 25%. Thus, CV at the optimum proportion of 15% could serve as a feasible and satisfactory way of sludge agricultural utilization of sewage sludge. In summary, sewage sludge can be gainfully utilized in producing organic fertilizer via vermicomposting, thereby not only providing a means of sewage sludge treatment and disposal, but also stimulating the growth of plant and the ability to resist disease.

Keywords: cow dung vermicompost, seed germination, seedling growth, sludge utilization

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Authors: Lina Wu, Ye Li

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An equivalent relation between a harmonic form and a closed co-closed form is established on a complete non-compact manifold. This equivalence has been generalized for a differential k-form ω from Lq spaces to non-Lq spaces when q=2 in the context of p-balanced growth where p=2. Especially for a simple differential k-form on a complete non-compact manifold, the equivalent relation has been verified with the extended scope of q for from finite q-energy in Lq spaces to infinite q-energy in non-Lq spaces when with 2-balanced growth. Generalized Hadamard Theorem, Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality, and Calculus skills including Integration by Parts as well as Convergent Series have been applied as estimation techniques to evaluate growth rates for a differential form. In particular, energy growth rates as indicated by an appropriate power range in a selected test function lead to a balance between a harmonic differential form and a closed co-closed differential form. Research ideas and computational methods in this paper could provide an innovative way in the study of broadening Lq spaces to non-Lq spaces with a wide variety of infinite energy growth for a differential form.

Keywords: closed forms, co-closed forms, harmonic forms, L^q spaces, p-balanced growth, simple differential k-forms

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Authors: Kang-Hyun Leem, Myung-Gyou Kim, Hye Kyung Kim

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Deer antler, traditionally used as a tonic and valuable drug in oriental medicine, has been considered to possess bone-strengthening activity. The upper section, mid section, and base of the antler has been known to exhibit different biological properties. Present study was performed to examine the effects of different parts of deer antler extract (DH) on osteogenic gene expressions in MG-63 cells and longitudinal bone growth in adolescent male rats. The expressions of osteogenic genes, collagen, alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, and osteopontin, were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Longitudinal bone growth was measured in 3-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats using fluorescence microscopy. To examine the effects on the growth plate metabolism, the total height of growth plate and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) were measured. Collagen and osteocalcin mRNA expressions were increased by all three parts of the DH treatment while osteopontin gene expression was not affected by any of the DH treatment. Alkaline phosphatase gene expression was increased by upper and mid part of DH while base part of DH fails to affect alkaline phosphatase gene expression. The upper and mid parts of the DH treatment enhanced longitudinal bone growth and total height of growth plate. The induction of BMP-2 protein expression in growth plate assessed by immunostaining was also promoted by upper and mid parts of the DH treatment. These results suggest that DH, especially upper and mid parts, stimulate osteogenic gene expressions and have the effect on bone growth in adolescent rats and might be used for the growth delayed adolescent and inherent growth failure patient.

Keywords: bone morphogenetic protein-2, deer antler, longitudinal bone growth, osteogenic genes

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Authors: Ahmed Elgharably, Nivien Nafady

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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth promoting microbes (PGPM) can promote plant growth under saline conditions. This study investigated how AMF and PGPM affected the growth and grain yield of wheat at different soil salinity levels (0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl). AMF colonization percentage, grain yield and dry weights and lengths of shoot and root, N, P K, Na, malondialdehyde, chlorophyll and proline contents and shoot relative permeability were determined. Salinity reduced NPK uptake and malondialdehyde and chlorophyll contents, and increased shoot Na concentration, relative permeability, and proline content, and thus declined plant growth. PGPM inoculation enhanced AMF colonization, P uptake, and K/Na ratio, but alone had no significant effect on plant growth and grain yield. AMF inoculation significantly enhanced NPK uptake, increased chlorophyll content and decreased shoot relative permeability, proline and Na contents, and thus promoted the plant growth. The inoculation of PGPM significantly enhanced the positive effects of AMF in controlling Na uptake and in increasing chlorophyll and NPK contents. Compared to AMF inoculation alone, dual inoculation with AMF and PGPM resulted in approximately 10, 25 and 25% higher grain yield at 0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl, respectively. The results provide that PGPM inoculation can maximize the effects of AMF inoculation in alleviating the deleterious effects of NaCl salts on wheat growth.

Keywords: mycorrhizal fungi, salinity, sodium, wheat

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Authors: Hasan Basri Jumin

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Using the slaughterhouse waste combined to suitable dose of nitrogen fertilizer to Apium glaviolen gives the significant effect to mean relative growth rate. The same pattern also showed significantly in net assimilation rate. The net assimilation rate increased significantly during 42 days old plants. Combination of treatment of 100 ml/l animal slaughterhouse waste and 0.1 g/kg nitrogen fertilizer/kg soil increased the vegetative growth of Apium glaviolens. The biomass of plant and mean relative growth rate of Apium glaviolens were rapidly increased in 4 weeks after planting and gradually decreased after 35 days at the harvest time. Combination of 100 ml/l slaughterhouse waste and applied 0.1 g/kg nitrogen fertilizer has increased all parameters. The highest vegetative growth, biomass, mean relative growth rate and net assimilation rate were received from 0.56 mg-l.m-2.days-1.

Keywords: Apium glaviolent, nitrogen, pollutant, slaughterhouse, waste

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Authors: Olawale Johnson

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The cry and agitation for the creation of equal opportunities is one of the major reasons behind the social menace countries of the world experience. As the poor, continue to demand for the dividends of economic growth, countries of the world are in a state of dilemma because, despite impressive growth figures, the poor are still far below the empowerment line. However, evidence from the Asian Tigers has proven that with the adoption and efficient utilization of information technology, a growth miracle is not far-fetched. With the mind-boggling pace of technological innovation, the need to ensure that the innovative products are all connected has become vital. Technologies that did not exist a few years ago have become vital equipment used to underlie every aspect of our economy from medicine to banking to sports. The need to connect things sensors, actuators and smart systems with the aim of ensuring person-to-object, object-to-object communications has promoted the need of internet of things. As developing countries struggle with delivering inclusiveness, the Internet of Everything is perceived to be the miracle that will deliver this in no time. This paper examines how the Asian Tigers have been able to promote inclusive growth through the Internet of Everything.

Keywords: inclusive growth, internet of everything, innovation, embedded systems and smart technologies

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Authors: Anupam Das

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Although financial liberalization has been one of the most important policy prescriptions of international organizations like the World Bank and the IMF, the effect of financial liberalization on economic growth in developing countries is far from unanimous. Since the '80s, South Asian countries made a significant development in liberalization the financial sector. However, due to unavailability of a sufficient number of time series observations, the relationship between economic growth and financial development has not been investigated adequately. We aim to fill this gap by examining time series data of five developing countries from the South Asian region: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Applying the cointegration tests and Granger causality within the vector error correction model (VECM), we do not find unanimous evidence of financial development on positive economic growth. These results are helpful for developing countries which have been trying to liberalize the financial sector in recent decades.

Keywords: economic growth, financial development, Granger causality, South Asia

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Authors: Ibrahim Can, Fatih Tosunoğlu

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The flow duration curve (FDC) is an informative method that represents the flow regime’s properties for a river basin. Therefore, the FDC is widely used for water resource projects such as hydropower, water supply, irrigation and water quality management. The primary purpose of this study is to obtain synthetic daily flow duration curves for Çoruh Basin, Turkey. For this aim, we firstly developed univariate auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) models for daily flows of 9 stations located in Çoruh basin and then these models were used to generate 100 synthetic flow series each having same size as historical series. Secondly, flow duration curves of each synthetic series were drawn and the flow values exceeded 10, 50 and 95 % of the time and 95% confidence limit of these flows were calculated. As a result, flood, mean and low flows potential of Çoruh basin will comprehensively be represented.

Keywords: ARMA models, Çoruh basin, flow duration curve, Turkey

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Authors: T. Maruyama, T. Saida, S. Naritsuka, S. Iijima

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Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are generally synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using Fe, Co, and Ni as catalysts. However, due to the Ostwald ripening of metal catalysts, the diameter distribution of the grown SWCNTs is considerably wide (>2 nm), which is not suitable for electronics applications. In addition, reduction in the growth temperature is desirable for fabricating SWCNT devices compatible with the LSI process. Herein, we performed SWCNT growth by alcohol catalytic CVD using platinum-group metal catalysts (Pt, Rh, and Pd) because these metals have high melting points, and the reduction in the Ostwald ripening of catalyst particles is expected. Our results revealed that web-like SWCNTs were obtained from Pt and Rh catalysts at growth temperature between 500 °C and 600 °C by optimizing the ethanol pressure. The SWCNT yield from Pd catalysts was considerably low. By decreasing the growth temperature, the diameter and chirality distribution of SWCNTs from Pt and Rh catalysts became small and narrow. In particular, the diameters of most SWCNTs grown using Pt catalysts were below 1 nm and their diameter distribution was considerably narrow. On the contrary, SWCNTs can grow from Rh catalysts even at 300 °C by optimizing the growth condition, which is the lowest temperature recorded for SWCNT growth. Our results demonstrated that platinum-group metals are useful for the growth of small-diameter SWCNTs and facilitate low-temperature growth.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, chemical vapor deposition, catalyst, platinum, rhodium, palladium

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Authors: Haiming Wen

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Grain growth is an important and consequential phenomenon that generally occurs in the presence of thermal and/or stress/strain fields. Thermally activated grain growth has been extensively studied and similarly, there are numerous experimental and theoretical studies published describing stress-induced grain growth in single-phase materials. However, studies on grain growth during the simultaneous presence of an elevated temperature and an external stress are very limited, and moreover, grain growth phenomena in materials containing second-phase particles and solute segregation at GBs have received limited attention. This lecture reports on a study of grain growth in the presence of second-phase particles and solute/impurity segregation at grain boundaries (GBs) during high-temperature deformation of an ultra-fine grained (UFG) Al alloy synthesized via consolidation of mechanically milled powders. The mechanisms underlying the grain growth were identified as GB migration and grain rotation, which were accompanied by dynamic recovery and geometric dynamic recrystallization, while discontinuous dynamic recrystallization was not operative. A theoretical framework that incorporates the influence of second-phase particles and solute/impurity segregation at GBs on grain growth in presence of both elevated temperature and external stress is formulated and discussed. The effect of second-phase particles and solute/impurity segregation at GBs on GB migration and grain rotation was quantified using the proposed theoretical framework, indicating that both second-phase particles and solutes/impurities segregated GBs reduce the velocities of GB migration and grain rotation as compared to those in commercially pure Al. Our results suggest that grain growth predicted by the proposed theoretical framework is in agreement with experimental results. Hence, the developed theoretical framework can be applied to quantify grain growth in simultaneous presence of external stress, elevated temperature, GB segregation and second-phase particles, or in presence of one or more of the aforementioned factors.

Keywords: nanocrystalline materials, ultra-fine grained materials, grain growth, grain boundary migration, grain rotation

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Authors: Adferotimi Banso

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A laboratory investigation was conducted to determine the effect of Justica flava and Aframonium melegueta on the growth of Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer and Fusarium species in sweet orange and mango juices. Aqueous extract (3%v/v) of Justica flava and Aframonium melegueta reduced the growth of the fungi, a combination of 2% (v/v) each of Justica flava and Aframonium melegueta extracts reduced the growth better. Partial purification of aqueous extracts of Justica flava and Aframonium melegueta showed that ethyl acetate fraction of the extracts exhibited the highest level of inhibition of growth of the test fungi compared with diethyl ether and n-hexane fractions. The results suggest that extracts of Justica flava and Aframonium melegueta may be important substitutes for conventional chemical preservatives in the processing of fruit juices.

Keywords: aqueous, fraction, mango, orange, purification, sweet

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Authors: Rajarshi Sharma, Rashidul Alam, Visavino Seleyi, Yuvila Sangtam

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The Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) relationship of rainfall amounts is one of the most commonly used tools in water resources engineering for planning, design and operation of water resources project, or for various engineering projects against design floods. The establishment of such relationships was reported as early as in 1932 (Bernard). Since then many sets of relationships have been constructed for several parts of the globe. The objective of this research is to derive IDF relationship of rainfall for western watershed of Guwahati, Assam. These relationships are useful in the design of urban drainage works, e.g. storm sewers, culverts and other hydraulic structures. In the study, rainfall depth for 10 years viz. 2001 to 2010 has been collected from the Regional Meteorological Centre Borjhar, Guwahati. Firstly, the data has been used to construct the mass curve for duration of more than 7 hours rainfall to calculate the maximum intensity and to form the intensity duration curves. Gumbel’s frequency analysis technique has been used to calculate the probable maximum rainfall intensities for a period of 2 yr, 5 yr, 10 yr, 50 yr, 100 yr from the maximum intensity. Finally, regression analysis has been used to develop the intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curve. Thus, from the analysis the values for the constants ‘a’,‘b’ &‘c’ have been found out. The values of ‘a’ for which the sum of the squared deviation is minimum has been found out to be 40 and when the corresponding value of ‘c’ and ‘b’ for the minimum squared deviation of ‘a’ are 0.744 and 1981.527 respectively. The results obtained showed that in all the cases the correlation coefficient is very high indicating the goodness of fit of the formulae to estimate IDF curves in the region of interest.

Keywords: intensity-duration-frequency relationship, mass curve, regression analysis, correlation coefficient

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Authors: Luis Marquez, Ge Zhu, Vikas Srivastava

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High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is one of the most commonly used thermoplastic polymer materials for water and gas pipelines. Slow crack growth failure is a well-known phenomenon in high-density polyethylene material and causes brittle failure well below the yield point with no obvious sign. The failure of transportation pipelines can cause catastrophic environmental and economic consequences. Using the non-destructive testing method to predict slow crack growth failure behavior is the primary preventative measurement employed by the pipeline industry but is often costly and time-consuming. Phenomenological slow crack growth models are useful to predict the slow crack growth behavior in the polymer material due to their ability to evaluate slow crack growth under different temperature and loading conditions. We developed a quantitative method to assess the slow crack growth behavior in the high-density polyethylene pipeline material under different thermal conditions based on existing physics-based phenomenological models. We are also working on developing an experimental protocol and quantitative model that can address slow crack growth behavior under different chemical exposure conditions to improve the safety, reliability, and resilience of HDPE-based pipeline infrastructure.

Keywords: mechanics of materials, physics-based modeling, civil engineering, fracture mechanics

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Authors: Davinder Singh, Jaimal Singh Khamba, Tarun Nanda

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Growth of the Indian economy has accelerated to 8% and efforts are on to further propel it to 10%. Undoubtedly, all the segments of the economy, viz. agriculture, industry and services have to improve their contribution to the economy. Growth of Micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is a sine qua non for the growth of industry, exports and other segments of the economy. Furthermore, promotion of entrepreneurship is also vital for sustenance and upward movement of the current growth trajectory of the economy. The MSME sector acts as a catalyst in upholding and encouraging the creation of the innovative spirit and entrepreneurship in the economy, thereby helping in laying the foundation for rapid industrial development. In this competitive world, they need to be able to confront the increasing competition from developed and emerging economies and to plug into the new market opportunities.

Keywords: characteristics, management, MSMEs, technology infrastructure

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Authors: Despoina Chochtoula, Aristidis Ilias, Yannis Stamatiou

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Modbus is a protocol that enables the communication among devices which are connected to the same network. This protocol is, often, deployed in connecting sensor and monitoring units to central supervisory servers in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, systems. These systems monitor critical infrastructures, such as factories, power generation stations, nuclear power reactors etc. in order to detect malfunctions and ignite alerts and corrective actions. However, due to their criticality, SCADA systems are vulnerable to attacks that range from simple eavesdropping on operation parameters, exchanged messages, and valuable infrastructure information to malicious modification of vital infrastructure data towards infliction of damage. Thus, the SCADA research community has been active over strengthening SCADA systems with suitable data protection mechanisms based, to a large extend, on cryptographic methods for data encryption, device authentication, and message integrity protection. However, due to the limited computation power of many SCADA sensor and embedded devices, the usual public key cryptographic methods are not appropriate due to their high computational requirements. As an alternative, Elliptic Curve Cryptography has been proposed, which requires smaller key sizes and, thus, less demanding cryptographic operations. Until now, however, no such implementation has been proposed in the SCADA literature, to the best of our knowledge. In order to fill this gap, our methodology was focused on integrating Modbus, a frequently used SCADA communication protocol, with Elliptic Curve based cryptography and develop a server/client application to demonstrate the proof of concept. For the implementation we deployed two C language libraries, which were suitably modify in order to be successfully integrated: libmodbus (https://github.com/stephane/libmodbus) and ecc-lib https://www.ceid.upatras.gr/webpages/faculty/zaro/software/ecc-lib/). The first library provides a C implementation of the Modbus/TCP protocol while the second one offers the functionality to develop cryptographic protocols based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography. These two libraries were combined, after suitable modifications and enhancements, in order to give a modified version of the Modbus/TCP protocol focusing on the security of the data exchanged among the devices and the supervisory servers. The mechanisms we implemented include key generation, key exchange/sharing, message authentication, data integrity check, and encryption/decryption of data. The key generation and key exchange protocols were implemented with the use of Elliptic Curve Cryptography primitives. The keys established by each device are saved in their local memory and are retained during the whole communication session and are used in encrypting and decrypting exchanged messages as well as certifying entities and the integrity of the messages. Finally, the modified library was compiled for the Android environment in order to run the server application as an Android app. The client program runs on a regular computer. The communication between these two entities is an example of the successful establishment of an Elliptic Curve Cryptography based, secure Modbus wireless communication session between a portable device acting as a supervisor station and a monitoring computer. Our first performance measurements are, also, very promising and demonstrate the feasibility of embedding Elliptic Curve Cryptography into SCADA systems, filling in a gap in the relevant scientific literature.

Keywords: elliptic curve cryptography, ICT security, modbus protocol, SCADA, TCP/IP protocol

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Authors: A. J. Nazari, S. Honma

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This paper evaluates oil displacement by water in Hauterivian sandstone reservoir of Kashkari oil field in North of Afghanistan. The core samples of this oil field were taken out from well No-21^st, and the relative permeability and fractional flow are analyzed. Steady state flow laboratory experiments are performed to empirically obtain the fractional flow curves and relative permeability in different water saturation ratio. The relative permeability represents the simultaneous flow behavior in the reservoir. The fractional flow approach describes the individual phases as fractional of the total flow. The fractional flow curve interprets oil displacement by water, and from the tangent of fractional flow curve can find out the average saturation behind the water front flow saturation. Therefore, relative permeability and fractional flow curves are suitable for describing the displacement of oil by water in a petroleum reservoir. The effects of irreducible water saturation, residual oil saturation on the displaceable amount of oil are investigated through Buckley-Leveret analysis.

Keywords: fractional flow, oil displacement, relative permeability, simultaneously flow

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Authors: M. B. Sokoto, I. U. Abubakar

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The study was carried out on effect of water stress and variety on growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), during 2009/10 and 2010/11 dry seasons. The treatments consisted of factorial combination of water stress at three critical growth stage which was imposed by withholding water at (Tillering, Flowering, Grain filling) and Control (No stress) and two varieties (Star 11 TR 77173/SLM and Kauze/Weaver) laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. Water stress was assigned to the main-plot while variety was assigned to the sub-plots. Result revealed significant (P<0.05) effect of water stress, water stress at tillering significantly (P<0.05) reduced plant height, LAI, CGR, and NAR. Variety had a significant effect on plant height, LAI, CGR and NAR. In conclusion water stress at tillering was observed to be most critical growth stage in wheat, and water stress at this period should be avoided because it results to decrease in growth components in wheat. Wheat should be sown in November or at least first week of December in this area and other area with similar climate. Star II TR 77173/LM is recommended variety for the area.

Keywords: wheat, growth, water stress, variety, Sudan savannah

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Authors: Assaad Ghazouani, Ati Abdessatar

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In the world, agriculture maintains a social and economic importance in the national economy. Its importance is distinguished by its ripple effects not only downstream but also upstream vis-à-vis the non-agricultural sector. However, the situation is relatively fragile because of weather conditions. In this work, we propose a model to highlight the impacts of climate change (CC) on economic growth in the world where agriculture is considered as a strategic sector. The CC is supposed to directly and indirectly affect economic growth by reducing the performance of the agricultural sector. The model is tested for Tunisia. The results validate the hypothesis that the potential economic damage of the CC is important. Indeed, an increase in CO2 concentration (temperatures and disruption of rainfall patterns) will have an impact on global economic growth particularly by reducing the performance of the agricultural sector. Analysis from a vector error correction model also highlights the magnitude of climate impact on the performance of the agricultural sector and its repercussions on economic growth

Keywords: Climate Change, Agriculture, Economic Growth, World, VECM, Cointegration.

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Authors: Muhammad Waseem Akram

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The current study attempts to analyze the impact of business constraints on the growth potential and performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the electrical industry of Pakistan. Primary data have been utilized for the study collected from the electrical industry cluster in Sargodha, Pakistan. OLS regression is used to assess the impact of business constraints on the performance of SMEs by controlling the effect of Technology Level, Innovations, and Firm Size. To associate business constraints with the growth potential of SMEs, the study utilized Tetrachoric Correlation and Logistic Regression. Findings reveal that all the business constraints negatively affect the performance of SMEs in the electrical industry except Political Instability. Results of Tetrachoric Correlation show that all the business constraints are negatively correlated with the growth potential of SMEs. Logistic Regression results show that Energy Constraint, Inflation and Price Instability, and Bad Business Practices, all three business constraints cause to reduce the probability of income growth in sample SMEs.

Keywords: SMEs, business constraints, performance, growth potential

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Authors: O. E. Akinyemi, P. O. Alege, O. O. Ajayi, L. A. Amaghionyediwe, A. A. Ogundipe

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Nigeria as an oil-producing developing country in Africa is one of the many countries that had been subsidizing consumption of fossil fuel. Despite the numerous advantage of this policy ranging from increased energy access, fostering economic and industrial development, protecting the poor households from oil price shocks, political considerations, among others; they have been found to impose economic cost, wasteful, inefficient, create price distortions discourage investment in the energy sector and contribute to environmental pollution. These negative consequences coupled with the fact that the policy had not been very successful at achieving some of its stated objectives, led to a number of organisations and countries such as the Group of 7 (G7), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Energy Agency (IEA), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others call for global effort towards reforming fossil fuel subsidies. This call became necessary in view of seeking ways to harmonise certain existing policies which may by design hamper current effort at tackling environmental concerns such as climate change. This is in addition to driving a green growth strategy and low carbon development in achieving sustainable development. The energy sector is identified to play a vital role. This study thus investigates the prospects of using fuel subsidy reform as a viable tool in driving an economy that de-emphasizes carbon growth in Nigeria. The method used is the Johansen and Engle-Granger two-step Co-integration procedure in order to investigate the existence or otherwise of a long-run equilibrium relationship for the period 1971 to 2011. Its theoretical framework is rooted in the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) hypothesis. In developing three case scenarios (case of subsidy payment, no subsidy payment and effective subsidy), findings from the study supported evidence of a long run sustainable equilibrium model. Also, estimation results reflected that the first and the second scenario do not significantly influence the indicator of environmental quality. The implication of this is that in reforming fuel subsidy to drive environmental quality for an economy like Nigeria, strong and effective regulatory framework (measure that was interacted with fuel subsidy to yield effective subsidy) is essential.

Keywords: environmental quality, fuel subsidy, green growth, low carbon growth strategy

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Authors: Jae Ni Jang, SoYoon Park, Sukhee Park, Yumin Song, Jae Won Kim, Keum Nae Kang, Young Uk Kim

Abstract:

Objectives: Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is a common clinical condition characterized by anterior knee pain. Here, we investigated the quadriceps tendon cross-sectional area (QTCSA) as a novel predictor for the diagnosis of PFPS. By examining the association between the QTCSA and PFPS, we aimed to provide a more valuable diagnostic parameter and more equivocal assessment of the diagnostic potential of PFPS by comparing the QTCSA with the quadriceps tendon thickness (QTT), a traditional measure of quadriceps tendon hypertrophy. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study included 30 patients with PFPS and 30 healthy participants who underwent knee magnetic resonance imaging. T1-weighted turbo spin echo transverse magnetic resonance images were obtained. The QTCSA was measured on the axial-angled phases of the images by drawing outlines, and the QTT was measured at the most hypertrophied quadriceps tendon. Results: The average QTT and QTCSA for patients with PFPS (6.33±0.80 mm and 155.77±36.60 mm², respectively) were significantly greater than those for healthy participants (5.77±0.36 mm and 111.90±24.10 mm2, respectively; both P<0.001). We used a receiver operating characteristic curve to confirm the sensitivities and specificities for both the QTT and QTCSA as predictors of PFPS. The optimal diagnostic cutoff value for QTT was 5.98 mm, with a sensitivity of 66.7%, a specificity of 70.0%, and an area under the curve of 0.75 (0.62–0.88). The optimal diagnostic cutoff value for QTCSA was 121.04 mm², with a sensitivity of 73.3%, a specificity of 70.0%, and an area under the curve of 0.83 (0.74–0.93). Conclusion: The QTCSA was found to be a more reliable diagnostic indicator for PFPS than QTT.

Keywords: patellofemoral pain syndrome, quadriceps muscle, hypertrophy, magnetic resonance imaging

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Authors: Bharatkumar Sutaria, Tejaskumar Chaudhari

Abstract:

An engine performance can be increased by minimizing losses. There are various losses observed in the engines. i.e. thermal loss, heat loss and mechanical losses. Mechanical losses are in the tune of 15 to 20 % of the overall losses. Piston ring assembly contributes the highest friction in the mechanical frictional losses. The variation of piston speed in stroke length the friction force development is not uniform. In present work, comparison has been made between theoretical and experimental friction force under different operating conditions. The experiments are performed using variable operating parameters such as load, speed, temperature and lubricants. It is found that reducing trend of friction force and friction coefficient is in good nature with mixed lubrication regime of the Stribeck curve. Overall outcome from the laboratory test performance of segmented piston ring assembly using multi-grade oil offers reasonably good results at room and elevated temperatures.

Keywords: friction force, friction coefficient, piston rings, Stribeck curve

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Authors: Kehinde Damilola Ilesanmi, Dev Datt Tewari

Abstract:

South Africa is in its post-industrial era moving from the primary and secondary sector to the tertiary sector. The study investigated the impact of the disaggregated energy consumption (coal, oil, and electricity) on the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy between 1980 and 2012 in South Africa. Using vector error correction model, it was established that South Africa is an energy dependent economy, and that energy (especially electricity and oil) is a limiting factor of growth. This implies that implementation of energy conservation policies may hamper economic growth. Output growth is significantly outpacing energy supply, which has necessitated load shedding. To meet up the excess energy demand, there is a need to increase the generating capacity which will necessitate increased investment in the electricity sector as well as strategic steps to increase oil production. There is also need to explore more renewable energy sources, in order to meet the growing energy demand without compromising growth and environmental sustainability. Policy makers should also pursue energy efficiency policies especially at sectoral level of the economy.

Keywords: causality, economic growth, energy consumption, hypothesis, sectoral output

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Authors: Chigbo Ikechukwu Emmanuel

Abstract:

Microalgae can be used for tertiary treatment of wastewater due to their capacity to assimilate nutrients. The pH increase which is mediated by the growing algae also induces phosphorus precipitation and ammonia stripping to the air, and may in addition act disinfecting on the wastewater. Domestic wastewater is ideal for algal growth since it contains high concentrations of all necessary nutrients. The growth limiting factor is rather light, especially at higher latitudes. The most important operational factors for successful wastewater treatment with microalgae are depth, turbulence and hydraulic retention time.

Keywords: microalgae, wastewater treatment, phosphorus, nitrogen, light, operation, ponds, growth

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Authors: Mekamı Hayet, Bounoua Nacer, Benabderrahmane Sidahmed, Taleb Ahmed

Abstract:

Pose estimation is an important task in computer vision. Though the majority of the existing solutions provide good accuracy results, they are often overly complex and computationally expensive. In this perspective, we propose the use of dimensionality reduction techniques to address the problem of facial pose estimation. Firstly, a face image is converted into one-dimensional time series using Hilbert space filling curve, then the approach converts these time series data to a symbolic representation. Furthermore, a distance matrix is calculated between symbolic series of an input learning dataset of images, to generate classifiers of frontal vs. profile face pose. The proposed method is evaluated with three public datasets. Experimental results have shown that our approach is able to achieve a correct classification rate exceeding 97% with K-NN algorithm.

Keywords: machine learning, pattern recognition, facial pose classification, time series

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Authors: Ella Tyuryumina, Alexey Neznanov

Abstract:

This paper is devoted to mathematical modelling of the progression and stages of breast cancer. We propose Consolidated mathematical growth model of primary tumor and secondary distant metastases growth in patients with lymph nodes metastases (CoM-III) as a new research tool. We are interested in: 1) modelling the whole natural history of primary tumor and secondary distant metastases growth in patients with lymph nodes metastases; 2) developing adequate and precise CoM-III which reflects relations between primary tumor and secondary distant metastases; 3) analyzing the CoM-III scope of application; 4) implementing the model as a software tool. Firstly, the CoM-III includes exponential tumor growth model as a system of determinate nonlinear and linear equations. Secondly, mathematical model corresponds to TNM classification. It allows to calculate different growth periods of primary tumor and secondary distant metastases growth in patients with lymph nodes metastases: 1) ‘non-visible period’ for primary tumor; 2) ‘non-visible period’ for secondary distant metastases growth in patients with lymph nodes metastases; 3) ‘visible period’ for secondary distant metastases growth in patients with lymph nodes metastases. The new predictive tool: 1) is a solid foundation to develop future studies of breast cancer models; 2) does not require any expensive diagnostic tests; 3) is the first predictor which makes forecast using only current patient data, the others are based on the additional statistical data. Thus, the CoM-III model and predictive software: a) detect different growth periods of primary tumor and secondary distant metastases growth in patients with lymph nodes metastases; b) make forecast of the period of the distant metastases appearance in patients with lymph nodes metastases; c) have higher average prediction accuracy than the other tools; d) can improve forecasts on survival of breast cancer and facilitate optimization of diagnostic tests. The following are calculated by CoM-III: the number of doublings for ‘non-visible’ and ‘visible’ growth period of secondary distant metastases; tumor volume doubling time (days) for ‘non-visible’ and ‘visible’ growth period of secondary distant metastases. The CoM-III enables, for the first time, to predict the whole natural history of primary tumor and secondary distant metastases growth on each stage (pT1, pT2, pT3, pT4) relying only on primary tumor sizes. Summarizing: a) CoM-III describes correctly primary tumor and secondary distant metastases growth of IA, IIA, IIB, IIIB (T1-4N1-3M0) stages in patients with lymph nodes metastases (N1-3); b) facilitates the understanding of the appearance period and inception of secondary distant metastases.

Keywords: breast cancer, exponential growth model, mathematical model, primary tumor, secondary metastases, survival

Procedia PDF Downloads 296