Search results for: efficient SCADA based monitoring system

Authors: A. A. El Maghrbi

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The control of vectors like mosquitoes based on the application of chemical insecticides but due to its adverse effect on the environment, and development of resistance by most of species of mosquitoes including vectors of important diseases. Ethanol and acetone extracts of nine species of plants (Allium tuberosum, Apium leptophylum, Carica papaya, Cymbopogon citratus, Euphorbia cotinofolia, Melia azedarach, Ocimum canum, Ricinus common, and Tagetes erecta) were tested in respect of their influence on the eggs and larvae of Culex quinquifasciatus in concentration 100, 10 and 1 mg/L. In relation to the survival of larvae, ethanol extract of O. canum and acetone extract of A.tuberosum in 100 mg/L have larvicide activity against L4 of Cx. quinquifasciatus. For hatching of eggs, ethanol and acetone extract of A.tuberosum (100 and 10 mg/L) and acetone extract of C.citratus (100 mg/L) produced reduction in the number of eggs hatched of Cx. quinquifasciatus. Our results indicate that each extract of the plant have potential to control mosquito population and suggest that further studies are needed in this field.

Keywords: Cx. quinquefasciatus, plant extract, ethanol, acetone, larvae, eggs

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Marah El-Beeli, Abdullah Balkhair, Zakaryia Al Muharmi, Samir Al Adawi, Mansoor Al-Jabri, Abdullah Al Rawahi, Hazaa Al Yahyae, Eman Al Balushi, Yahya M. Al-Farsi

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The health care service and the anticancer chemotherapeutics has changed the natural history of cancer into manageable chronic disease and improve the cancer patient’s lifestyle and increase the survival time. Despite that, still, infection is the major dilemma opposing the cancer patient either because of the clinical presentation of the cancer type and impaired immune system or as a consequence of anticancer therapy. This study has been conducted to1) track changes in the epidemiology of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections among patients with malignancies in the last five years. 2) To explore the causative pathogens and 3) the outcome of HA-BSIs in patients with a different types of malignancies. An ampi-directional study (retrospective and prospective follow up) of patients with malignancies admitted at Sultan Qaboos University hospital (570-bed tertiary hospital) during the study period (from January 2015 to December 2019). The cumulative frequency and prevalence rates of HA-BSIs by patients and isolates were calculated. In addition, the cumulative frequency of participants with single versus mixed infections and types of causative micro-organisms of HA-BSIs were obtained. A total of 1246 event of HA-BSIs has occurred during the study period. Nearly the third (30.25%) of the HA-BSI events was identified among 288 patients with malignancies. About 20% of cases were mixed infections (more than one isolate). Staphylococcus spp were the predominant isolated pathogen (24.7%), followed by Klebsiella spp (15.8%), Escherichia spp (13%), and Pseudomonas spp (9.3%). About half (51%) of cases died in the same year, and (64%) of the deaths occur within two weeks after the infection. According to the observations, no changes in the trends of epidemiology, causative pathogens, morbidity, and mortality rates in the last five years.

Keywords: epidemiology, haematological malignancies, hospital acquired bloodstream infections, solid malignancies

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: C. Chhorn, S. H. Han, S. W. Lee

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Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) has been used for decades in many pavement applications due to its economic cost and high construction speed. However, due to the lack of deep researches and experiences, this material has not been widely employed. An RCC mixture with appropriate consistency can induce high compacted density, while high density can induce good aggregate interlock and high strength. Consistency of RCC is mainly known to define its constructability. However, it was not well specified how this property may affect other properties of a constructed RCC pavement (RCCP). This study suggested the possibility of an ideal range of consistency that may provide adequate quality of RCCP. In this research, five sections of RCCP consisted of both 13 mm and 19 mm aggregate sections were investigated. The effects of consistency on compacted depth, strength, international roughness index (IRI), skid resistance are examined. From this study, a new range of consistency is suggested for RCCP application.

Keywords: compacted depth, consistency, international roughness index (IRI), pavement, roller-compacted concrete (RCC), skid resistance, strength

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Authors: Timothy Gray

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This paper will present work and discuss lessons learned during a semester-long travel study based in Southeast Asia, which was run in the Spring Semester of 2019 and again in the summer of 2023. The first travel group consisted of fifteen students, and the second group consisted of twelve students ranging from second-year to graduate level, student participants majoring in either architecture or planning. Students worked in interdisciplinary teams, each team beginning their travel study, living together in a separate small town for over a month in (relatively) remote conditions in rural Thailand. Students became intimately familiar with these towns, forged strong personal relationships, and built reservoirs of knowledge one conversation at a time. Rather than impose external ideas and solutions, students were asked to learn from and be open to lessons from the people and the place. The following design statement was used as a point of departure for their investigations: It is our shared premise that architecture exists in small villages and towns of Southeast Asia in the ingenuity of the people, that architecture exists in a shared language of making, modifying, and reusing. It is a modest but vibrant architecture, an architecture that is alive and evolving, an architecture that is small in scale, accessible, and one that emerges from the people. It is an architecture that can exist in a modified bicycle, a woven bamboo bridge, or a self-built community. Students were challenged to engage in existing conditions as design professionals, both empowering and lending coherence to the energies that already existed in the place. As one of the student teams noted in their design narrative: “During our field study, we had the unique opportunity to tour a number of informal settlements and meet and talk to residents through interpreters. We found that many of the residents work in nearby factories for dollars a day. Others find employment in self-generated informal economies such as hand carving and textiles. Despite extreme poverty, we found these places to be vibrant and full of life as people navigate these challenging conditions to live lives with purpose and dignity.” Students worked together with local community members and colleagues to develop a series of varied proposals that emerged from their interrogations of place and partnered with community members and professional colleagues in the development of these proposals. Project partners included faculty and student colleagues Yangon University, the mayor's Office, Planning Department Officials and religious leaders in Sawankhalok, Thailand, and community leaders in Natonchan, Thailand, to name a few. This paper will present a series of student community-based design projects that emerged from these conditions. The paper will also discuss this model of travel study as a way of building an architecture which uses social and cultural issues as a catalyst for design. The paper will discuss lessons relative to sustainable development that the Western students learned through their travels in Southeast Asia.

Keywords: travel study, CAPasia, architecture of empowerment, modular housing

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Authors: Alicja Zapolnik-Plachetka

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The paper examines the impact of the Members’ of the European Parliament (MEPs) language choice on the linguistic quality of their political discourse as delivered by the interpreters. The study, designed by the author, who is an EU interpreter herself, consisted of three phases. First, a number of speeches of Polish and Spanish MEPs were analyzed to determine whether the incidence of use of certain figures of speech depending on whether the speech had been delivered in English or their respective mother tongue. Then the use of figures of speech was also analyzed based on speeches by some British MEPs, in order to determine what was the incidence for the native users of English. Subsequently, the speeches were compared with their interpretations to find out whether the interpreters managed to convey accurately the means of oratory used by the MEPs. The final result shows that in case of institutional environments dependant on simultaneous interpretation the speakers’ choices can, in fact, influence the linguistic quality of the political communication.

Keywords: content accuracy, European Parliament, political discourse, simultaneous interpreting

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Authors: Ainul Haque, Ameeye Kumar Nayak

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Flow enhancement and species transport in a slit hydrophobic microchannel is studied for non-Newtonian fluids with the externally imposed electric field and pressure gradient. The incompressible Poisson-Nernst-Plank equations and the Navier-Stokes equations are approximated by lubrication theory to quantify the flow structure due to hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The analytical quantification of velocity and pressure of electroosmotic flow (EOF) is made with the numerical results due to the staggered grid based finite volume method for flow governing equations. The resistance force due to fluid friction and shear force along the surface are decreased by the hydrophobicity, enables the faster movement of fluid particles. The resulting flow enhancement factor Ef is increased with the low viscous fluid and provides maximum species transport. Also, the analytical comparison of EOF with pressure driven EOF justifies the flow enhancement due to hydrophobicity and shear impact on flow variation.

Keywords: electroosmotic flow, hydrophobic surface, power-law fluid, shear effect

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Authors: Obasa Joshua Ifeoluwa

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Phonetics is the foundation and most important part of language learning. This article, through an acoustic experiment as well as using Praat software, uses Yoruba students’ Chinese consonants, vowels, and tones pronunciation to carry out a visual comparison with that of native Chinese speakers. This article is aimed at Yoruba native speakers learning Chinese phonetics; therefore, Yoruba students are selected. The students surveyed are required to be at an elementary level and have learned Chinese for less than six months. The students selected are all undergraduates majoring in Chinese Studies at the University of Lagos. These students have already learned Chinese Pinyin and are all familiar with the pinyin used in the provided questionnaire. The Chinese students selected are those that have passed the level two Mandarin proficiency examination, which serves as an assurance that their pronunciation is standard. It is discovered in this work that in terms of Mandarin’s consonants pronunciation, Yoruba students cannot distinguish between the voiced and voiceless as well as the aspirated and non-aspirated phonetics features. For instance, while pronouncing [ph] it is clearly shown in the spectrogram that the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of a Chinese speaker is higher than that of a Yoruba native speaker, which means that the Yoruba speaker is pronouncing the unaspirated counterpart [p]. Another difficulty is to pronounce some affricates like [tʂ]、[tʂʰ]、[ʂ]、[ʐ]、 [tɕ]、[tɕʰ]、[ɕ]. This is because these sounds are not in the phonetic system of the Yoruba language. In terms of vowels, some students find it difficult to pronounce some allophonic high vowels such as [ɿ] and [ʅ], therefore pronouncing them as their phoneme [i]; another pronunciation error is pronouncing [y] as [u], also as shown in the spectrogram, a student pronounced [y] as [iu]. In terms of tone, it is most difficult for students to differentiate between the second (rising) and third (falling and rising) tones because these tones’ emphasis is on the rising pitch. This work concludes that the major error made by Yoruba students while pronouncing Chinese sounds is caused by the interference of their first language (LI) and sometimes by their lingua franca.

Keywords: Chinese, Yoruba, error analysis, experimental phonetics, consonant, vowel, tone

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Authors: Rashid S. Mohammad, Shicheng Zhang, Xinzhe Zhao

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In tight oil reservoirs, wettability alteration has generally been considered as an effective way to remove fracturing fluid retention on the surface of the fracture and consequently improved oil production. However, there is a lack of a reliable productivity prediction model to show the relationship between the wettability and oil production in tight oil well. In this paper, a new oil productivity prediction model of immiscible oil-water flow and miscible CO₂-oil flow accounting for wettability is developed. This mathematical model is established by considering two different length scales: nonporous network and propped fractures. CO₂ flow diffuses in the nonporous network and high velocity non-Darcy flow in propped fractures are considered by taking into account the effect of wettability alteration on capillary pressure and relative permeability. A laboratory experiment is also conducted here to validate this model. Laboratory experiments have been designed to compare the water saturation profiles for different contact angle, revealing the fluid retention in rock pores that affects capillary force and relative permeability. Four kinds of brines with different concentrations are selected here to create different contact angles. In water-wet porous media, as the system becomes more oil-wet, water saturation decreases. As a result, oil relative permeability increases. On the other hand, capillary pressure which is the resistance for the oil flow increases as well. The oil production change due to wettability alteration is the result of the comprehensive changes of oil relative permeability and capillary pressure. The results indicate that wettability is a key factor for fracturing fluid retention removal and oil enhancement in tight reservoirs. By incorporating laboratory test into a mathematical model, this work shows the relationship between wettability and oil production is not a simple linear pattern but a parabolic one. Additionally, it can be used for a better understanding of optimization design of fracturing fluids.

Keywords: wettability, relative permeability, fluid retention, oil production, unconventional and tight reservoirs

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Authors: Norm Josephy, Lucy Kimball, Victoria Steblovskaya

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Hedging of a portfolio of European options under proportional transaction costs is considered. Our discrete time financial market model extends the binomial market model with transaction costs to the case where the underlying stock price ratios are distributed over a bounded interval rather than over a two-point set. An optimal hedging strategy is chosen from a set of admissible non-self-financing hedging strategies. Our approach to optimal hedging of a portfolio of options is based on theoretical foundation that includes determination of a no-arbitrage option price interval as well as on properties of the non-self-financing strategies and their residuals. A computational algorithm for optimizing an investor relevant criterion over the set of admissible non-self-financing hedging strategies is developed. Applicability of our approach is demonstrated using both simulated data and real market data.

Keywords: extended binomial model, non-self-financing hedging, optimization, proportional transaction costs

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Authors: Samuel Olugbenga King

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This review article, which is a synthesis of the relevant research literature, focuses on the capabilities of digital video to support, facilitate and enhance faculty development. Based on the literature review, faculty development (i.e., academic or educational development) requires the continued adoption of cohesive, theoretical frameworks to guide research and practice; incorporation of relevant tools from analogous fields, such as teacher professional development; systematic program evaluations; and detailed descriptions of practice to further practice and creative development. A cohesive, five-heuristic framework is subsequently outlined to inform the design and evaluation of the use of digital video, so as to address the barriers to advancing faculty development, as identified through the literature review. Alternative impact evaluation approaches are also described, while the limitations of using digital video for faculty development are highlighted. This paper is therefore conceived as one way to meaningfully leverage the educational affordances of digital video to address some lingering gaps in faculty development.

Keywords: digital video, faculty/educational development, evaluation, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

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Authors: Mohammad Irfan

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among the key macroeconomic variables and Islamic stock market in India. This study is based on the time series data of financial years 2009-2015 to explore the consistency of relationship between macroeconomic variables and Shariah Indices. The ADF (Augmented Dickey–Fuller Test Statistic) and PP (Phillips–Perron Test Statistic) tests are employed to check stationarity of the data. The study depicts the long run relationship between Shariah indices and macroeconomic variables by using the Johansen Co-integration test. BSE Shariah and Nifty Shariah have uni-direct Granger causality. The outcome of VECM is significantly confirming the applicability of best fitted model. Thus, Islamic stock indices are proficiently working for the development of Indian economy. It suggests that by keeping eyes on Islamic stock market which will be more interactive in the future with other macroeconomic variables.

Keywords: Indian Shariah Indices, macroeconomic variables, co-integration, Granger causality, vector error correction model (VECM)

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Authors: Rosemary R. Carlton, Roxane Caron

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Almost three decades ago, bell hooks (1994) identified the classroom as “the most radical space of possibility in the academy”. A feminist scholar, educator, and activist, hooks urged educators to transgress the boundaries of what might be customary or considered acceptable in teaching, thus encouraging the pursuit of new ways of knowing and different strategies for sharing knowledge. This paper reflects upon a particular response to hooks’ still relevant call for transgression in teaching. Specifically, this paper reports on the design, implementation, and preliminary analysis of a social work course integrating active pedagogy and transnational exchange to encourage students’ critical thinking and autonomous learning in their development as social workers in a global context. The bachelor’s level course, Pratiques spécifiques: Projet international, was developed collaboratively across three francophone institutions of higher learning in Belgium, Canada, and France: the Haute École de Namur-Liège-Luxembourg (Hénallux); the Université de Montréal; and, the Institut d’enseignement supérieur et professionnel, l’IRTS Paris Île-de-France. The driving aims of the course are to promote autonomous learning and critical thinking through a lens of transnational understandings of social problems -competencies indispensable to students’ development as social workers. The course is offered to two paired cohorts, one addressing the subject of “migrations” (Canada/France) and the other the subject of “sexual exploitation” (Canada/Belgium). Through the adaptation of a critical pedagogy of problem-based learning, students are called upon to actively engage in acquiring and applying knowledge to respond to “real life” social issues relating to migration or sexual exploitation. At the conclusion of the course, each cohort of students is brought together for a week-long intensive period of transnational exchange either at the Université de Montréal in Canada or at Hénallux in Belgium. Extending the bounds of the classroom across international borders allows students novel opportunities to deepen and expand their understandings of issues relating to predefined social issues and to critically examine associated social work practices. The paper opens with a presentation of the social work course. Specifically, the authors will outline their adaptation of a pedagogy of problem-based learning integrating transnational exchange in the design and implementation of the course. Returning to hooks’ notion of transgression in teaching, the paper offers a preliminary analysis of how and with what effect the course provides opportunities to transgress hierarchical student-teacher relationships; transgress conventional modes of learning to explore diverse sources of knowledge and transgress the walls of the university to engage with and learn from local and global partners. The paper concludes with a consideration of the potential influence of such transgressions in teaching for students’ development of critical thinking in their practice of social work in global context.

Keywords: active learning, critical pedagogy, social work intervention, transnational learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Jingsi Li, Neil S. Ferguson

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Time pressure could have an influence on the productivity, quality of decision making, and the efficiency of problem-solving. This has been mostly stemmed from cognitive research or psychological literature. However, a salient scarce discussion has been held for transport adjacent fields. It is conceivable that in many activity-travel contexts, time pressure is a potentially important factor since an excessive amount of decision time may incur the risk of late arrival to the next activity. The activity-travel rescheduling behavior is commonly explained by costs and benefits of factors such as activity engagements, personal intentions, social requirements, etc. This paper hypothesizes that an additional factor of perceived time pressure could affect travelers’ rescheduling behavior, thus leading to an impact on travel demand management. Time pressure may arise from different ways and is assumed here to be essentially incurred due to travelers planning their schedules without an expectation of unforeseen elements, e.g., transport disruption. In addition to a linear-additive utility-maximization model, the less computationally compensatory heuristic models are considered as an alternative to simulate travelers’ responses. The paper will contribute to travel behavior modeling research by investigating the following questions: how to measure the time pressure properly in an activity-travel day plan context? How do travelers reschedule their plans to cope with the time pressure? How would the importance of the activity affect travelers’ rescheduling behavior? What will the behavioral model be identified to describe the process of making activity-travel rescheduling decisions? How do these identified coping strategies affect the transport network? In this paper, a Mixed Heuristic Model (MHM) is employed to identify the presence of different choice heuristics through a latent class approach. The data about travelers’ activity-travel rescheduling behavior is collected via a web-based interactive survey where a fictitious scenario is created comprising multiple uncertain events on the activity or travel. The experiments are conducted in order to gain a real picture of activity-travel reschedule, considering the factor of time pressure. The identified behavioral models are then integrated into a multi-agent transport simulation model to investigate the effect of the rescheduling strategy on the transport network. The results show that an increased proportion of travelers use simpler, non-compensatory choice strategies instead of compensatory methods to cope with time pressure. Specifically, satisfying - one of the heuristic decision-making strategies - is adopted commonly since travelers tend to abandon the less important activities and keep the important ones. Furthermore, the importance of the activity is found to increase the weight of negative information when making trip-related decisions, especially route choices. When incorporating the identified non-compensatory decision-making heuristic models into the agent-based transport model, the simulation results imply that neglecting the effect of perceived time pressure may result in an inaccurate forecast of choice probability and overestimate the affectability to the policy changes.

Keywords: activity-travel rescheduling, decision making under uncertainty, mixed heuristic model, perceived time pressure, travel demand management

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Authors: M. Belachia, R. Djebien

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In the development that our country has in all areas and especially in the field of Building and Construction, the development of new building materials is a current problem where researchers are trying to find the right materials for each region and returning cheapest countries. Enhancement of crushed sand and sand dunes and reuse of waste as additions in concrete can help to overcome the deficit in aggregates. This work focuses on the development of concrete made from sand, knowing that our country has huge potential in sand dune. This study is complemented by a review of the possibility of using certain recycled wastes in concrete sand, including the effect of fines (marble powders) on the rheological and mechanical properties of concrete and sand to the outcome optimal formulation. After the characterization phase of basic materials, we proceeded to carry out the experimental program was to search the optimum characteristics by adding different percentages of fines. The aim is to show that the possibility of using local materials (sand dune) for the manufacture of concrete and reuse of waste (marble powders) in the implementation of concrete.

Keywords: sand dune, mechanical properties, rheological properties, fine marble

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Authors: Khadem Hichem

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With the new technology challenges, dynamics and challenges of the contemporary world, most teachers are struggling to maintain effective and successful teaching /learning environment for learners. Teachers as a key to the success of reforms in the educational setting, they must improve their competencies to teach effectively. Many researchers emphasis on the ongoing professional development of the teacher by enhancing their experiences and encouraging their responsibility for learning, and thus promoting self-reliance, collaboration, and reflection. In short, teachers are considered as learners and they need to learn together. The educational system must support, both conceptually and financially, the teachers’ development as lifelong learners Teachers need opportunities to grow in language proficiency and in knowledge. Changing nature of language and culture in the world, all teachers must have opportunities to update their knowledge and practices. Many researchers in the field of foreign or additional languages indicate that teachers keep side by side of effective instructional practices and they need special support with the challenging task of developing and administering proficiency tests to their students. For significant change to occur, each individual teacher’s needs must be addressed. The teacher must be involved experientially in the process of development, since, by itself, knowledge of how to change does not mean change will be initiated. For improvement to occur, new skills have to be guided, practiced, and reflected upon in collaboration with colleagues. Clearly, teachers are at different places developmentally; therefore, allowances for various entry levels and individual differences need to be built into the professional development structure. Objectives must be meaningful to the participant and teacher improvement must be stated terms of student knowledge, student performance, and motivation. The most successful professional development process acknowledges the student-centered nature of good teaching. This paper highlights the importance of teacher professional development process and institutional supports as way to enhance good teaching and learning environment.

Keywords: teacher professional development, teacher competencies, institutional support, teacher education

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Authors: Katleho Daniel Makatjane, Diteboho Lawrence Xaba, Ntebogang Dinah Moroke

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The current study investigates the behaviour of time-varying parameters that are based on the score function of the predictive model density at time t. The mechanism to update the parameters over time is the scaled score of the likelihood function. The results revealed that there is high persistence of time-varying, as the location parameter is higher and the skewness parameter implied the departure of scale parameter from the normality with the unconditional parameter as 1.5. The results also revealed that there is a perseverance of the leptokurtic behaviour in stock returns which implies the returns are heavily tailed. Prior to model estimation, the White Neural Network test exposed that the stock price can be modelled by a GAS model. Finally, we proposed further researches specifically to model the existence of time-varying parameters with a more detailed model that encounters the heavy tail distribution of the series and computes the risk measure associated with the returns.

Keywords: generalized autoregressive score model, South Africa, stock returns, time-varying

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Authors: Mimi Mohaffyza Mohamad, Yee Mei Heong, Nurfirdawati Muhammad Hanafi, Tee Tze Kiong

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This study is conducted to investigate the disparity of between learning styles and cognitive abilities specifically in Vocational Education. Felder and Silverman Learning Styles Model (FSLSM) was applied to measure the students’ learning styles while the content in Building Construction Subject consists; knowledge, skills and problem solving were taken into account in constructing the elements of cognitive abilities. There are four dimension of learning styles proposed by Felder and Silverman intended to capture student learning preferences with regards to processing either active or reflective, perception based on sensing or intuitive, input of information used visual or verbal and understanding information represent with sequential or global learner. The study discovered that students are tending to be visual learners and each type of learner having significant difference whereas cognitive abilities. The finding may help teachers to facilitate students more effectively and to boost the student’s cognitive abilities.

Keywords: learning styles, cognitive abilities, dimension of learning styles, learning preferences

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Authors: Reza Taherlouei Safa, Mohammad Aboonajmi

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Agriculture plays an essential role in providing food for the world's population. It also offers numerous benefits to countries, including non-food products, transportation, and environmental balance. Precision agriculture, which employs advanced tools to monitor variability and manage inputs, can help achieve these benefits. The increasing demand for food security puts pressure on decision-makers to ensure sufficient food production worldwide. To support sustainable agriculture, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be utilized to manage farms and increase yields. This paper aims to provide an understanding of UAV usage and its applications in agriculture. The objective is to review the various applications of UAVs in agriculture. Based on a comprehensive review of existing research, it was found that different sensors provide varying analyses for agriculture applications. Therefore, the purpose of the project must be determined before using UAV technology for better data quality and analysis. In conclusion, identifying a suitable sensor and UAV is crucial to gather accurate data and precise analysis when using UAVs in agriculture.

Keywords: drone, precision agriculture, farmer income, UAV

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Authors: Syed Talib Abbas Raza, Tahseen Ahmed Jilani, Saleem Abdullah

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This paper presents interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets based TOPSIS method for group decision making. The interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy soft set is a mutation of an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set and soft set. In group decision making problems IVIFSS makes the process much more algebraically elegant. We have used weighted arithmetic averaging operator for aggregating the information and define a new Hybrid Score Function as metric tool for comparison between interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy values. In an illustrative example we have applied the developed method to a criminological problem. We have developed a group decision making model for integrating the imprecise and hesitant evaluations of multiple law enforcement agencies working on target killing cases in the country.

Keywords: group decision making, interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy soft set, TOPSIS, score function, criminology

Procedia PDF Downloads 578

Authors: Abayneh Getachew Demesa

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Interest in renewable feedstock for the chemical industry has increased considerably over the last decades, mainly due to environmental concerns and foreseeable shortage of fossil raw materials. Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant source of bio-based raw material that is readily available and can be utilized as an alternative source for chemical production. Lignin accrues in enormous amounts as a by-product of the pulping process in the pulp and paper industry. It is estimated that 70 million tons of lignin are annually processed worldwide from the pulp and paper industry alone. Despite its attractive chemical composition, lignin is still insufficiently exploited and mainly regarded as bio-waste. Therefore, an environmentally benign process that can completely and competitively convert lignin into different value-added chemicals is needed to launch its commercial success on industrial scale. Partial wet oxidation by molecular oxygen has received increased attention as a potential process for production of chemicals from biomass wastes. In this paper, the production of chemicals by oxidation of lignin is investigated. The factors influencing the different types of products formed during the oxidation of lignin and their yields and compositions are discussed.

Keywords: biomass, lignin, waste, chemicals

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Authors: Lilia Righi

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Recently, the fashion industry has demonstrated a keen interest in sustainability and the environment. Sustainable fashion has huge potential and appeals to environmentally conscious Generation Z shoppers. Meanwhile, Generation Z customers have attracted researchers' interest due to their overconsumption of clothing. However, most studies in this area focus on designing or producing sustainable clothing, with little exploration of consumers. To fill this gap, the present study aims to determine the important factors influencing Generation Z consumers' decisions to purchase sustainable fashion by mobilizing the theory of planned behavior (TPB). It uses deductive qualitative research based on 18 semi-structured interviews with Generation Z consumers in France. Qualitative data will be analyzed using reflective thematic analysis. On a theoretical level, this research contributes to enriching the literature by mobilizing, for the first time, the theory of planned behavior in the context of sustainable fashion. On a practical level, the results can help practitioners determine effective marketing strategies to persuade Generation Z to consume sustainable clothing.

Keywords: generation Z, qualitative methodology, sustainable fashion, theory of planned behavior (TPB).

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Authors: Reza Bahboodian

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One of the most important factors in the use of construction machinery is the fuel consumption cost of this equipment. The use of diesel engines in off-road vehicles is an important source of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter 10 in off-road vehicles (construction and mining) may be high. Due to the high cost of fuel, it is necessary to minimize fuel consumption. Factors affecting the fuel consumption of these cars are very diverse. Climate changes such as changes in pressure, temperature, humidity, fuel type selection, type of gearbox used in the car are effective in fuel consumption and pollution, and engine efficiency. In this paper, methods for reducing fuel consumption and pollutants by considering valid European and European standards are examined based on new methods such as hybridization, optimal gear change, adding hydrogen to diesel fuel, determining optimal working fluids, and using oxidation catalysts.

Keywords: improve fuel consumption, construction machinery, pollutant reduction, determining the optimal working cycle

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Authors: Suprihatin Soewarto

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The background of writing this paper is to assess the truth of rejection of some Muslim scholars who develop Islamic economics on the concept of consumer satisfaction and replace it with the concept of maslahah. In the perspective of Islamic law, this rejection attitude needs to be verified in order to know the accuracy of the replacement of this concept of satisfaction with maslahah as part of consumer behavior. This is done so that replacement of rejection of the term satisfaction with maslahah is objective. This objective replacement of the term will surely be more enlightening and more just than the subjective substitution. Therefore the writing of this paper aims to get an answer whether the concept of satisfaction needs to be replaced? is it possible for Islamic law to confirm the theory of consumer satisfaction? The method of writing this paper using the method of literature with a critical analysis approach. The results of this study is an explanation of the similarities and differences of consumer satisfaction theory and consumer theory maslahah according to Islamic law. disclosure of the concept of consumer gratitude according to Islamic law and its implementation in Muslim consumer demand theory.

Keywords: consumer's gratitude, islamic law, confirmation, satisfaction consumer's

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Promothes Saha

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Recently, transportation engineering industry members at the study university showed concern that students lacked the skills needed to solve real-world engineering problems using spreadsheet data analysis. In response to the concerns shown by industry members, this study investigated how to engage students in a better way by incorporating spreadsheet analysis during class - also, help them learn the course topics. Helping students link theoretical knowledge to real-world problems can be a challenge. In this effort, in-class activities and worksheets were redesigned to integrate with Excel to solve example problems using built-in tools including cell referencing, equations, data analysis tool pack, solver tool, conditional formatting, charts, etc. The effectiveness of this technique was investigated using students’ evaluations of the course, enrollment data, and students’ comments. Based on the data of those criteria, it is evident that the spreadsheet activities may increase student learning.

Keywords: civil, engineering, active learning, transportation

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Authors: Sabina Akter, Osiris Valdez Banda, Pentti Kujala, Jani Romanoff

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This paper examines the relationship between on-board environmental factors and customer overall satisfaction in the context of the cruise on-board experience. The on-board environmental factors considered are ambient, layout/design, social, product/service and on-board enjoyment factors. The study presents a data-driven framework and model for the on-board cruise experience. The data are collected from 893 respondents in an application of a self-administered online questionnaire of their cruise experience. This study reveals the cruise passengers’ on-board experience through the customer decision journey based on the publicly available data. Pearson correlation and regression analysis have been applied, and the results show a positive and a significant relationship between the environmental factors and on-board experience. These data help understand the cruise passengers’ on-board experience, which will be used for the ultimate decision-making process in cruise ship design.

Keywords: cruise behavior, customer activities, on-board environmental factors, on-board experience, user or customer satisfaction

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Authors: Chia-Wen Yeh, Ting-Sheng Lin, Chih-Han Chang

Abstract:

Pressure garment has been used to prevent and treat the hypertrophic scars following serious burns since 1970s. The use of pressure garment is believed to hasten the maturation process and decrease the highness of scars. Pressure garment is custom made by reducing circumferential measurement of the patient by 10%~20%, called Reduction Factor. However the exact reducing value used depends on the subjective judgment of the therapist and the feeling of patients throughout the try and error process. The Laplace Law can be applied to calculate the pressure from the dimension of the pressure garment by the circumferential measurements of the patients and the tension profile of the fabrics. The tension profile currently obtained neglects the stress relaxation and hysteresis effect within most elastic fabrics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the tension attenuation, from stress relaxation and hysteresis effect of the fabrics. Samples of pressure garment were obtained from Sunshine Foundation Organization, a nonprofit organization for burn patients in Taiwan. The wall tension profile of pressure garments were measured on a material testing system. Specimens were extended to 10% of the original length, held for 1 hour for the influence of the stress relaxation effect to take place. Then, specimens were extended to 15% of the original length for 10 seconds, then reduced to 10% to simulate donning movement for the influence of the hysteresis effect to take place. The load history was recorded. The stress relaxation effect is obvious from the load curves. The wall tension is decreased by 8.5%~10% after 60mins of holding. The hysteresis effect is obvious from the load curves. The wall tension is increased slightly, then decreased by 1.5%~2.5% and lower than stress relaxation results after 60mins of holding. The wall tension attenuation of the fabric exists due to stress relaxation and hysteresis effect. The influence of hysteresis is more than stress relaxation. These effect should be considered in order to design and evaluate the pressure of pressure garment more accurately.

Keywords: hypertrophic scars, hysteresis, pressure garment, stress relaxation

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Authors: Deeksha Arora

Abstract:

The study aims to explore the applicability of the widely used asset pricing models, namely, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Fama-French Four Factor Model in the Indian equity market. The study will be based on the companies that form part of the Nifty Fifty Index for a period of five years: 2011 to 2016. The asset pricing model is examined by forming portfolios on the basis of three variables – market capitalization (size effect), book-to-market equity ratio (value effect) and profitability. The study provides a basis to test the presence of the Fama-French Four factor model in Indian stock market. This study may provide a basis for future research in the generalized asset pricing model comprising of multiple risk factors.

Keywords: book to market equity, Fama French four factor model, market capitalization, profitability, size effect, value effect

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Authors: M. S. Gaafar, S. Y. Marzouk

Abstract:

Sodium borosilicate glasses doped with different content of NdF3 mol % have been prepared by rapid quenching method. Ultrasonic velocities (both longitudinal and shear) measurements have been carried out at room temperature and at ultrasonic frequency of 4 MHz. Elastic moduli, Debye temperature, softening temperature and Poisson's ratio have been obtained as a function of NdF3 modifier content. Results showed that the elastic moduli, Debye temperature, softening temperature and Poisson's ratio have very slight change with the change of NdF3 mol % content. Based on FTIR spectroscopy and theoretical (Bond compression) model, quantitative analysis has been carried out in order to obtain more information about the structure of these glasses. The study indicated that the structure of these glasses is mainly composed of SiO4 units with four bridging oxygens (Q4), and with three bridging and one nonbridging oxygens (Q3).

Keywords: borosilicate glasses, ultrasonic velocity, elastic moduli, FTIR spectroscopy, bond compression model

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Authors: Saboor Saeed, Chunming Jiang

Abstract:

Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), formerly known as Churg-Strauss syndrome, is a rare systemic vasculitis of small and medium-sized vessels that primarily develops in middle-aged individuals. It is characterized by asthma, blood eosinophilia, and extra pulmonary manifestations. In childhood, EGPA is extremely rare. Pulmonary and cardiac involvement is predominant in pediatric EGPA, and mortality is substantial. Generally, EGPA will develop in three stages: a) The allergic phase is commonly associated with asthma, allergic rhinitis, and sinusitis, b) the eosinophilic phase, in which the main pathology is related to the infiltration of eosinophilic organs, i.e., lung, heart, and gastrointestinal system, c) vasculitis phase involved purpura, peripheral neuropathy, and some constitutional symptoms. The key to the treatment of EGPA lies in the early diagnosis of the disease. Early application of glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants can improve symptoms and the overall prognosis of EGPA. Case Description: We presented a case of an 8-year-old boy with a history of short asthma, marked eosinophilia, and multi-organ involvement. The extremely high eosinophil level in the blood (72.50%) prompted the examination of eosinophilic leukemia before EGPA diagnosis was made. Subsequently, this disease was successfully treated. This case report shows a typical case of CSS in childhood because of the extreme eosinophilia. It emphasizes the importance of EGPA is a life-threatening cause of children's eosinophilia. Conclusion: EGPA in children has unique clinical, imaging, and histological characteristics different from those of adults. In pediatric patients, the development and diagnosis of systemic symptoms are often delayed, mainly occurring in the eosinophilic phase, which will lead to specific manifestations. At the same time, we cannot detect a genetic relationship related to EGPA.

Keywords: Churg Strauss syndrome, asthma, vasculitis, hypereosinophilia, eosinophilic granulomatosis polyangiitis

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Authors: Asrat M.Belachew, Tiago Pereira, Institute of Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Avenida Trabalhador São Carlense, 400, São Carlos, 13566-590, Brazil

Abstract:

Infectious diseases are among the most prominent threats to human beings. They cause morbidity and mortality to an individual and collapse the social, economic, and political systems of the whole world collectively. Mathematical models are fundamental tools and provide a comprehensive understanding of how infectious diseases spread and designing the control strategy to mitigate infectious diseases from the host population. Modeling the spread of infectious diseases using a compartmental model of inhomogeneous populations is good in terms of complexity. However, in the real world, there is a situation that accounts for heterogeneity, such as ages, locations, and contact patterns of the population which are ignored in a homogeneous setting. In this work, we study how classical an SEIR infectious disease spreading of the compartmental model can be extended by incorporating the mobility of population between heterogeneous cities during an outbreak of infectious disease. We have formulated an SEIR multi-cities epidemic spreading model using a system of 4k ordinary differential equations to describe the disease transmission dynamics in k-cities during the day and night. We have shownthat the model is epidemiologically (i.e., variables have biological interpretation) and mathematically (i.e., a unique bounded solution exists all the time) well-posed. We constructed the next-generation matrix (NGM) for the model and calculated the basic reproduction number R0for SEIR-epidemic spreading model with cities mobility. R0of the disease depends on the spectral radius mobility operator, and it is a threshold between asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium and disease persistence. Using the eigenvalue perturbation theorem, we showed that sending a fraction of the population between cities decreases the reproduction number of diseases in interconnected cities. As a result, disease transmissiondecreases in the population.

Keywords: SEIR-model, mathematical model, city mobility, epidemic spreading

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