Search results for: importance of SPC supplier selection criteria

Authors: Asmau Mukhtar Ahmed, Olga Duran

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Hydrocarbon (HC) spills constitute a significant problem that causes great concern to the environment. With the latest technology (hyperspectral images) and state of the earth techniques (image processing tools), hydrocarbon spills can easily be detected at an early stage to mitigate the effects caused by such menace. In this study; a controlled laboratory experiment was used, and clay soil was mixed and homogenized with different hydrocarbon types (diesel, bio-diesel, and petrol). The different mixtures were scanned with HYSPEX hyperspectral camera under constant illumination to generate the hypersectral datasets used for this experiment. So far, the Short Wave Infrared Region (SWIR) has been exploited in detecting HC spills with excellent accuracy. However, the Near-Infrared Region (NIR) is somewhat unexplored with regards to HC contamination and how it affects the spectrum of soils. In this study, Deep Neural Network (DNN) was applied to the controlled datasets to detect and quantify the amount of HC spills in soils in the Near-Infrared Region. The initial results are extremely encouraging because it indicates that the DNN was able to identify features of HC in the Near-Infrared Region with a good level of accuracy.

Keywords: hydrocarbon, Deep Neural Network, short wave infrared region, near-infrared region, hyperspectral image

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Arzu Baloglu, Ugur Kaplancali

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This paper focuses on Background Check Systems and Pre-Employment Screening. In our study, we attempted to make an online background checking site that will help employers when hiring employees. Our site has two types of users which are free and powered user. Free users are the employees and powered users are the employers which will hire employers. The database of the site will contain all the information about the employees and employers which are registered in the system so the employers can make a search based on their searching criteria to find the suitable employee for the job. The web site also has a comments and points system. The current employer can make comments to his/her employees and can also give them points. The comments will be shown on employee’s profile, so; when an employer searches for an employee he/she can check the points and comments of the employee to see whether he or she is capable of the job or not. The employers can also follow some employees if they desire. This paper has been designed and implemented with using ASP.NET, C# and JavaScript. The outputs have a user friendly interface. The interface also aimed to provide the useful information for Turkish Technology Companies.

Keywords: background, checking, verification, human resources, online

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Brenda Margaret Behan

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Kenya is a water-stressed country with highly varied socio-ecological environments in its devolved county system, and is currently implementing a polycentric water governance system; this paper examines the importance of social capital in community-based natural resource management and its role in supporting good water governance systems in the Kenya context. Through a robust literature review of theory and case studies, specific aspects of social capital are examined to determine their importance in the implementation of local community-based water management arrangements which support and complement the more formal institutions outlined in the 2002 and 2016 Water Acts of Kenya. Water is an increasingly important and scarce resource not only for Kenya, but for many communities across the globe, and lessons learned in the Kenya context can be useful for other countries and communities faced with similar challenges. Changing climates, increasing populations, and increased per capita consumption of water is contributing to a situation in which the management of water resources will be vital to community resilience. Community-based natural resource management is widely recognized as a building block and component of wider water resource management systems, and when properly conducted can provide a way to enable sustainable use of resources and empower communities. Greater attention to the social and cultural norms and traditional institutions associated with a community’s social capital can lead to better results for Kenya’s polycentric governance of water. The key findings and recommendations from this research show that in Kenya, traditional institutions need to be understood and integrated into governance systems; social values and cultural norms have a significant impact on the implementation of community-based water management efforts; and social capital is a dynamic concept which influences and is influenced by policies and practices. The community-based water management approach will continue to be a key cornerstone for Kenya’s polycentric water governance structure, especially in the more remote arid and semi-arid lands; thus, the successful integration of social capital aspects into planning and implementation will contribute to a strengthened, sustainable, and more equitable national water governance system. Specific observations and recommendations from this study will help practitioners and policymakers to better craft community-based interventions.

Keywords: community-based natural resource management, social capital, traditional institutions, water governance

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Authors: Hussein Altartouri

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The purpose of this paper is to present a modeling and control of the active suspension system using robust state feedback controller implemented for a half car model. This system represents a mechatronic system which contains all the essential components to be considered a complete mechatronic system. This system must adapt different conditions which are difficult to compromise, such as disturbances, slippage, and motion on rough road (that contains rocks, stones, and other miscellanies). Some current automobile suspension systems use passive components only by utilizing spring and damping coefficient with fixed rates. Vehicle suspensions systems are used to provide good road handling and improve passenger comfort. Passive suspensions only offer compromise between these two conflicting criteria. Active suspension poses the ability to reduce the traditional design as a compromise between handling and comfort by directly controlling the suspensions force actuators. In this study, the robust state feedback controller implemented to the active suspensions system for half car model.

Keywords: half-car model, active suspension system, state feedback, road profile

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Authors: Yani Shi, Jiaqi Yan

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A new product is important for companies to extend consumers and manifest competitiveness. New product often involves new features that consumers might not be familiar with while it may also have a competitive advantage to attract consumers compared to established products. However, although most online retailers employ recommendation agents (RA) to influence consumers’ product choice decision, recommended new products are not accepted and chosen as expected. We argue that it might also be caused by providing a new product recommendation in the wrong way at the wrong time. This study seeks to discuss how new product evaluations sourced from third parties could be employed in RAs as evidence of the superiority for the new product and how the new product recommendation could be provided to a consumer at the right time so that it can be accepted and finally chosen during the consumer’s decision-making process. A 2*2 controlled laboratory experiment was conducted to understand the selection of new product recommendation sources and recommendation timing. Human subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four treatments to minimize the effects of individual differences on the results. Participants were told to make purchase choices from our product categories. We find that a new product recommended right after a similar existing product and with the source of the expert review will be more likely to be accepted. Based on this study, both theoretical and practical contributions are provided regarding new product recommendation.

Keywords: new product recommendation, recommendation timing, recommendation source, recommendation agents

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Authors: Pedro Augusto Da Silva E Souza Miranda, Niloofar Jalali, Shweta Mistry

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BACKGROUND: Software developers utilize automated solutions to scrape users’ reviews to extract meaningful knowledge to identify problems (e.g., bugs, compatibility issues) and possible enhancements (e.g., users’ requests) to their solutions. However, most of these solutions do not consider the health risk aspects to users. Recent works have shed light on the importance of including health risk considerations in the development cycle of mHealth apps to prevent harm to its users. PROBLEM: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada (and World) is currently forcing physical distancing upon the general population. This new lifestyle made the usage of mHealth applications more essential than ever, with a projected market forecast of 332 billion dollars by 2025. However, this new insurgency in mHealth usage comes with possible risks to users’ health due to mHealth apps problems (e.g., wrong insulin dosage indication due to a UI error). OBJECTIVE: These works aim to raise awareness amongst mHealth developers of the importance of considering risks to users’ health within their development lifecycle. Moreover, this work also aims to help mHealth developers with a Proof-of-Concept (POC) solution to understand, process, and identify possible health risks to users of mHealth apps based on users’ reviews. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method study design. We developed a crawler to mine the negative reviews from two samples of mHealth apps (my fitness, medisafe) from the Google Play store users. For each mHealth app, we performed the following steps: • The reviews are divided into two groups, before starting the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date before 15 Feb 2019) and during the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date starts from 16 Feb 2019 till Dec 2020). For each period, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model was used to identify the different clusters of reviews based on similar topics of review The topics before and during COVID-19 are compared, and the significant difference in frequency and severity of similar topics are identified. RESULTS: We successfully scraped, filtered, processed, and identified health-related topics in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results demonstrated the similarity between topics before and during the COVID-19.

Keywords: natural language processing (NLP), topic modeling, mHealth, COVID-19, software engineering, telemedicine, health risks

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Authors: Peter Fedichev

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We studied fundamental aspects of aging to develop a mathematical model of gene regulatory network. We show that aging manifests itself as an inherent instability of gene network leading to exponential accumulation of regulatory errors with age. To validate our approach we studied age-dependent omic data such as transcriptomes, metabolomes etc. of different model organisms and humans. We build a computational platform based on our model to identify the targets and biomarkers of aging to design new drugs against aging and age-related diseases. As biomarkers of aging, we choose the rate of aging and the biological age since they completely determine the state of the organism. Since rate of aging rapidly changes in response to an external stress, this kind of biomarker can be useful as a tool for quantitative efficacy assessment of drugs, their combinations, dose optimization, chronic toxicity estimate, personalized therapies selection, clinical endpoints achievement (within clinical research), and death risk assessments. According to our model, we propose a method for targets identification for further interventions against aging and age-related diseases. Being a biotech company, we offer a complete pipeline to develop an anti-aging drug-candidate.

Keywords: aging, longevity, biomarkers, senescence

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Authors: Jelena Radmanovic

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On 5 March 2020, the International Criminal Court has decided to authorize the investigation into the crimes allegedly committed on the territory of Afghanistan after 1 May 2003. The said determination has raised several controversies, including the recently imposed sanctions by the United States, furthering the United States' long-standing rejection of the authority of the International Criminal Court. The purpose of this research is to address the said investigation in light of its importance for the prevention of impunity in the cases where the perpetrators are nationals of Non-Party States to the Rome Statute. Difficulties that the International Criminal Court has been facing, concerning the establishment of its jurisdiction in those instances where an involved state is not a Party to the Rome Statute, have become the most significant stumbling block undermining the importance, integrity, and influence of the Court. The Situation in Afghanistan raises even further concern, bearing in mind that the Prosecutor’s Request for authorization of an investigation pursuant to article 15 from 20 November 2017 has initially been rejected with the ‘interests of justice’ as an applied rationale. The first method used for the present research is the description of the actual events regarding the aforementioned decisions and the following reactions in the international community, while with the second method – the method of conceptual analysis, the research will address the decisions pertaining to the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction and will attempt to address the mentioned Decision of 5 March 2020 as an example of good practice and a precedent that should be followed in all similar situations. The research will attempt parsing the reasons used by the International Criminal Court, giving rather greater attention to the latter decision that has authorized the investigation and the points raised by the officials of the United States. It is a find of this research that the International Criminal Court, together with other similar judicial instances (Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda), has presented the world with the possibility of non-impunity, attempting to prosecute those responsible for the gravest of crimes known to the humanity and has shown that such persons should not enjoy the benefits of their immunities, with its focus primarily on the victims of such crimes. Whilst it is an issue that will most certainly be addressed further in the future, with the situations that will be brought before the International Criminal Court, the present research will make an attempt at pointing to the significance of the situation in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court as such and the international criminal justice as a whole, for the purpose of putting an end to impunity.

Keywords: Afghanistan, impunity, international criminal court, sanctions, United States

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Authors: Mdluli Fezile, Schmidt Stefan, Thamaga-Chitja Joyce

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In view of the frequently reported foodborne disease outbreaks caused by contaminated fresh produce, consumers have a preference for foods that meet requisite hygiene standards to reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses. Producing good quality fresh produce then becomes critical in improving market access and food security, especially for small-scale farmers. Questions of hygiene and subsequent microbiological quality in the rural small-scale farming sector of South Africa are even more crucial, given the policy drive to develop small-scale farming as a measure for reinforcement of household food security and reduction of poverty. Farming practices and methods, throughout the fresh produce value chain, influence the quality of the final product, which in turn determines its success in the market. This study’s aim was to therefore determine the extent to which training on organic farming methods, including modules such as Importance of Production Hygiene, influenced the hygienic farming practices employed by eTholeni small-scale organic farmers in uMbumbulu, KwaZulu-Natal- South Africa. Questionnaires were administered to 73 uncertified organic farmers and analysis showed that a total of 33 farmers were trained and supplied the local Agri-Hub while 40 had not received training. The questionnaire probed respondents’ attitudes, knowledge of hygiene and composting practices. Data analysis included descriptive statistics such as the Chi-square test and a logistic regression model. Descriptive analysis indicated that a majority of the farmers (60%) were female, most of which (73%) were above the age of 40. The logistic regression indicated that factors such as farmer training and prior experience in the farming sector had a significant influence on hygiene practices both at 5% significance levels. These results emphasize the importance of training, education and farming experience in implementing good hygiene practices in small-scale farming. It is therefore recommended that South African policies should advocate for small-scale farmer training, not only for subsistence purposes, but also with an aim of supplying produce markets with high fresh produce.

Keywords: small-scale farmers, leafy salad vegetables, organic produce, food safety, hygienic practices, food security

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Authors: Nissa Phloimontri

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This research explores the current physical conditions of motorcycle taxi stands located near the BTS stations in the central business district (CBD) and the comfort conditions of motorcycle taxi drivers. The criteria set up for physical stand survey and assessment are the integration of multimodal access design guidelines. After the survey, stands that share similar characteristics are classified into a series of typologies. Based on the environmental comfort model, questionnaires and in-depth interviews are conducted to evaluate the comfort levels of drivers including physical, functional, and psychological comfort. The results indicate that there are a number of motorcycle taxi stands that are not up to standard and are not conducive to the work-related activities of drivers. The study concludes by recommending public policy for integrated paratransit stops that support the multimodal transportation and seamless mobility concepts within the specific context of Bangkok as well as promote the quality of work life of motorcycle taxi drivers.

Keywords: motorcycle taxi, paratransit stops, environmental comfort, quality of work life

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Authors: Yuhei Kunihiro, Sorin V. Sabau, Kazuhiro Shibuya

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We study the molecular evolution of insulin from the metric geometry point of view. In mathematics, and particularly in geometry, distances and metrics between objects are of fundamental importance. Using a weaker notion than the classical distance, namely the weighted quasi-metrics, one can study the geometry of biological sequences (DNA, mRNA, or proteins) space. We analyze from the geometrical point of view a family of 60 insulin homologous sequences ranging on a large variety of living organisms from human to the nematode C. elegans. We show that the distances between sequences provide important information about the evolution and function of insulin.

Keywords: metric geometry, evolution, insulin, C. elegans

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Authors: Heide Imai

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The paper will introduce and discuss specific examples of urban practices which take place within the dynamic urban landscape of contemporary Tokyo. The rising interest and importance of derelict places as resilient and creative clusters will be analysed, before relating this to the rediscovery of small urban niches and the emergence of different forms of social entrepreneurs. Secondly, two different case study areas will be introduced before discussing different forms of hybrid lifestyles, social micro scale enterprises and social innovations, understanding the concept of ‘small places of resilience’ as zones of human interaction, desire and care in which spontaneous practices take place.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, social innovation, Tokyo, urban regeneration

Procedia PDF Downloads 478

Authors: Brandon Takahashi, Marielle Hanley, Gerry Hanley

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The large-scale quick-service restaurant industry is a complex business to manage optimally. With over 40 suppliers providing different ingredients for food preparation and thousands of restaurants serving over 50 unique food offerings across a wide range of regions, the company must implement a quality assurance process. Businesses want to deliver quality food efficiently, reliably, and successfully at a low cost that the public wants to buy. They also want to make sure that their food offerings are never unsafe to eat or of poor quality. A good reputation (and profitable business) developed over the years can be gone in an instant if customers fall ill eating your food. Poor quality also results in food waste, and the cost of corrective actions is compounded by the reduction in revenue. Product compliance evaluation assesses if the supplier’s ingredients are within compliance with the specifications of several attributes (physical, chemical, organoleptic) that a company will test to ensure that a quality, safe to eat food is given to the consumer and will deliver the same eating experience in all parts of the country. The technical component of the evaluation includes the chemical and physical tests that produce numerical results that relate to shelf-life, food safety, and organoleptic qualities. The psychological component of the evaluation includes organoleptic, which is acting on or involving the use of the sense organs. The rubric for product compliance evaluation has four levels: (1) Ideal: Meeting or exceeding all technical (physical and chemical), organoleptic, & psychological specifications. (2) Deviation from ideal but no impact on quality: Not meeting or exceeding some technical and organoleptic/psychological specifications without impact on consumer quality and meeting all food safety requirements (3) Acceptable: Not meeting or exceeding some technical and organoleptic/psychological specifications resulting in reduction of consumer quality but not enough to lessen demand and meeting all food safety requirements (4) Unacceptable: Not meeting food safety requirements, independent of meeting technical and organoleptic specifications or meeting all food safety requirements but product quality results in consumer rejection of food offering. Sampling of products and consumer tastings within the distribution network is a second critical element of the quality assurance process and are the data sources for the statistical analyses. Each finding is not independently assessed with the rubric. For example, the chemical data will be used to back up/support any inferences on the sensory profiles of the ingredients. Certain flavor profiles may not be as apparent when mixed with other ingredients, which leads to weighing specifications differentially in the acceptability decision. Quality assurance processes are essential to achieve that balance of quality and profitability by making sure the food is safe and tastes good but identifying and remediating product quality issues before they hit the stores. Comprehensive quality assurance procedures implement human factors methodologies, and this report provides recommendations for systemic application of quality assurance processes for quick service restaurant services. This case study will review the complex decision rubric and evaluate processes to ensure the right balance of cost, quality, and safety is achieved.

Keywords: decision making, food safety, organoleptics, product compliance, quality assurance

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Authors: Usman Adekunle Ojedokun, Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto

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Migration remains an important course of action often resort-to by human and some other classes of animal for survival in the face of life-threatening conditions. However, the activity of certain group of immigrants, who are exploiting the socio-economic and environmental challenges in their home countries to conduct street begging across different countries in Africa, is fast becoming a major cause for concern. This paper examined the migratory trajectory of transnational street beggars in South Western, Nigeria. Strain and Migration Network Theories were adopted for the study. The methods of data collection were survey questionnaire, in-depth interview, and key informant interview. Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were employed for the selection of 395 transnational street beggars and 4 key informants were purposively chosen. Findings revealed that transnational street beggars immigrated into Nigeria all year round and all of them came by road. Also, while some of them entered the country officially, others gained entry illegally. The majority (29.3%) arrived through Sokoto, a border State to some neighbouring countries. This study calls for more security measures at the Nigerian borders as a way of controlling the influx of this category of beggars into the country.

Keywords: transnational street beggars, street begging, migration, Nigeria

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Authors: Numan Hasan

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We have tried to highlight the linguistic trend in the Qur’anic Tafsir of ‘Al Tahreer wa Al Tanveer’ by Sheikh Tahir Bin A’shur, the brightest linguistic commentator in the modern era. We have started studying the life of Bin A’shur and his contributions to the field of Qur’anic knowledge. We have also studied to focus on the linguistic approach of ‘Al Tahreer wa Al Tanveer’ and emphasized the importance of linguistic interpretations. We have tried to have a clear understanding about the features and characteristics of his Tafsir. We have also reflected on the methodological approach and linguistic reference of his interpretation. In the conclusion we presented the main results of a research.

Keywords: Sheikh Tahir Bin A’shur, tafsir, linguistics, interpretation, Islamic studies

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Authors: Cherifi Mehdi, Lahdir Mourad, Ameur Soltane

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Image compression is the heart of several multimedia techniques. It is used to reduce the number of bits required to represent an image. Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite allows the acquisition of 12 image files every 15 minutes and that results in a large databases sizes. In this paper, a novel image compression method based on the arithmetic coding with the sorted Run Length Coding (SRLC) for MSG images is proposed. The SRLC allows us to find the occurrence of the consecutive pixels of the original image to create a sorted run. The arithmetic coding allows the encoding of the sorted data of the previous stage to retrieve a unique code word that represents a binary code stream in the sorted order to boost the compression ratio. Through this article, we show that our method can perform the best results concerning compression ratio and bit rate unlike the method based on the Run Length Coding (RLC) and the arithmetic coding. Evaluation criteria like the compression ratio and the bit rate allow the confirmation of the efficiency of our method of image compression.

Keywords: image compression, arithmetic coding, Run Length Coding, RLC, Sorted Run Length Coding, SRLC, Meteosat Second Generation, MSG

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Authors: Ashneel Ajay Singh, Naoki Suzuki, Kazumi Sakuramoto,

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The North Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) is a temperate tuna species distributed in the North Pacific which is of significant economic importance to the Pacific Island Nations and Territories. Despite its importance, the stock dynamics and ecological characteristics of albacore still, have gaps in knowledge. The stock-recruitment relationship of the North Pacific stock of albacore tuna was investigated for different density-dependent effects and a regime shift in the stock characteristics in response to changes in environmental and climatic conditions. Linear regression analysis for recruit per spawning biomass (RPS) and recruitment (R) against the female spawning stock biomass (SSB) were significant for the presence of different density-dependent effects and positive for a regime shift in the stock time series. Application of Deming regression to RPS against SSB with the assumption for the presence of observation and process errors in both the dependent and independent variables confirmed the results of simple regression. However, R against SSB results disagreed given variance level of < 3 and agreed with linear regression results given the assumption of variance ≥ 3. Assuming the presence of different density-dependent effects in the albacore tuna time series, environmental and climatic condition variables were compared with R, RPS, and SSB. The significant relationship of R, RPS and SSB were determined with the sea surface temperature (SST), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and multivariate El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) with SST being the principal variable exhibiting significantly similar trend with R and RPS. Recruitment is significantly influenced by the dynamics of the SSB as well as environmental conditions which demonstrates that the stock-recruitment relationship is multidimensional. Further investigation of the North Pacific albacore tuna age-class and structure is necessary for further support the results presented here. It is important for fishery managers and decision makers to be vigilant of regime shifts in environmental conditions relating to albacore tuna as it may possibly cause regime shifts in the albacore R and RPS which should be taken into account to effectively and sustainability formulate harvesting plans and management of the species in the North Pacific oceanic region.

Keywords: Albacore tuna, Thunnus alalunga, recruitment, spawning stock biomass, recruits per spawning biomass, sea surface temperature, pacific decadal oscillation, El Niño southern oscillation, density-dependent effects, regime shift

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Authors: Ayşegül Bilge, Hacer Demirkol, Merve Uğuryol

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Therapeutic touch is one of the most important methods of complementary and alternative treatments. Therapeutic touch requires the sharing of universal energy. Therapeutic touch (TT) provides the interaction between the patient and the nurse. In addition, nurses can be aware of physical and mental symptoms of patients through therapeutic touch. Therapeutic touch (TT) is short-term provides the advantage for the nurse. For this reason, nurses have to be aware of the importance of therapeutic touch and they can use it from the primary care to tertiary care in nursing practices at in health field.

Keywords: health care services, complementary treatment, nursing, therapeutic touch

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Authors: Seyedmirsajad Mokhtarimousavi, Danial Talebi, Hamidreza Asgari

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Gate Assignment Problem (GAP) is one of the most substantial issues in airport operation. In principle, GAP intends to maintain the maximum capacity of the airport through the best possible allocation of the resources (gates) in order to reach the optimum outcome. The problem involves a wide range of dependent and independent resources and their limitations, which add to the complexity of GAP from both theoretical and practical perspective. In this study, GAP was mathematically formulated as a three-objective problem. The preliminary goal of multi-objective formulation was to address a higher number of objectives that can be simultaneously optimized and therefore increase the practical efficiency of the final solution. The problem is solved by applying the second version of Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). Results showed that the proposed mathematical model could address most of major criteria in the decision-making process in airport management in terms of minimizing both airport/airline cost and passenger walking distance time. Moreover, the proposed approach could properly find acceptable possible answers.

Keywords: airport management, gate assignment problem, mathematical modeling, genetic algorithm, NSGA-II

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Authors: Makara Rith, Young Kyu Kim, Seung Woo Lee

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In heavy duty areas, asphalt pavement constructed as entrance roadway may expose distresses such as cracking and rutting during service life. To mitigate these problems, composite pavement with a roller-compacted concrete base may be a good alternative; however, it should be initially investigated. Structural performances such as fatigue cracking and rut depth may be changed due to variation of some design factors. Therefore, this study focuses on the variation effect of material modulus, layer thickness and loading on composite pavement performances. Stress and strain at the critical location are determined and used as the input of transfer function for corresponding distresses to evaluate the pavement performance. Also, composite pavement satisfying the design criteria may be selected as a design section for heavy duty areas. Consequently, this investigation indicates that composite pavement has the ability to eliminate fatigue cracking in asphalt surfaces and significantly reduce rut depth. In addition, a thick or strong rigid base can significantly reduce rut depth and prolong fatigue life of this layer.

Keywords: composite pavement, ports, cracking, rutting

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Authors: Mai Ashraf Talaat

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Bullying is an aggressive behavior and a serious issue that should be addressed by everyone and should be avoided at all costs. It is very common among adolescents and schoolchildren and the effects can be devastating and long-lasting. Students are most commonly bullied about physical appearance, race, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. Appearance-targeted bullying is a form of bullying that targets an aspect of a person's appearance, which includes facial and dental features. Deviation from accepted dentofacial aesthetics leads to elevated incidences of bullying in schoolchildren. The aim of this review article is to assess the prevalence of bullying due to dentofacial characteristics and evaluate the importance of dentofacial appearance on perceived social attractiveness based on multiple studies.

Keywords: dentofacial features, orthodontics, malocclusion, adolescents, bullying

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Authors: Finbarr Murphy, Wei Xu, Xian Xu

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The embedding of digital technologies in the global economy has attracted increasing attention from economists. With a large and detailed dataset, this study examines the specific case where consumers have a choice between offline and digital channels in the context of insurance purchases. We find that digital channels screen consumers with lower unobserved risk. For the term life, endowment, and disease insurance products, the average risk of the policies purchased through digital channels was 75%, 21%, and 31%, respectively, lower than those purchased offline. As a consequence, the lower unobserved risk leads to weaker information asymmetry and higher profitability of digital channels. We highlight three mechanisms of the risk screening effect: heterogeneous marginal influence of channel features on insurance demand, the channel features directly related to risk control, and the link between the digital divide and risk. We also find that the risk screening effect mainly comes from the extensive margin, i.e., from new consumers. This paper contributes to three connected areas in the insurance context: the heterogeneous economic impacts of digital technology adoption, insurer-side risk selection, and insurance marketing.

Keywords: digital economy, information asymmetry, insurance, mobile application, risk screening

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Authors: Jiaoya Huang, Jianghong Liu

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This paper endeavors to comprehend and scrutinize the entrepreneurial development process within Chinese cultural and creative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the factors that impinge on entrepreneurs' recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities from the vantage point of institutional theory. The study is centered around three key research questions: namely, the drivers and impediments for entrepreneurs to identify opportunities within three prominent Chinese cultural and creative regions and the influence of institutional facets on the exploitation and recognition of opportunities within the cultural industry. Adopting a qualitative interpretivist research paradigm, a comparative multiple case study design is utilized. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with founders and mid-level professionals of SMEs in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, which are chosen in accordance with specific criteria. The data will be analyzed through an inductive thematic approach. Anticipatedly, this research will contribute to bridging the research gap in the nexus between institutional theory and entrepreneurial opportunities within the context of cultural and creative industries.

Keywords: entrepreneurial opportunities, cultural and creative industries, institutional theory, Chinese SMEs

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Authors: Siva Sankara Arudra, Kamaruzaman Baharuddin, Ir. Ahmed Fadzil Mustafa Kamal, Ir. Abdul Latif Mohamed

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The advancement of electrical and electronics technologies has rewarded the oil and gas industry with great opportunities to embed more environmentally solutions into design. Most offshore oil and gas producers have their engineering and production asset goals to promote greater use of environmentally friendly compression system technologies to eliminate hazardous emissions from conventional gas compressor drivers. Therefore, this paper comprehensively elaborates the parametric study conducted in integrating the latest electrical and electronics drives technology into the existing compression system. This study was conducted in aspects of layout, reliability & availability, maintainability, emission, and cost. An existing offshore facility that utilized gas turbines as the driver for gas compression was set as Conventional Case for this study. The Electrification Case will utilize electric motor drives as the driver for the compression system. Findings from this study indicate more advantages in driver electrification compared to conventional compression systems. The findings of this paper can be set as a benchmark for future offshore driver selection for gas compression systems of similar operating parameters and power range.

Keywords: turbomachinery, electrification, emission, compression system

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Authors: Fatemeh Valizadeh Gamchi, Edward L. Boone

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This research focuses on Lyme disease, a widespread infectious condition in the United States caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. It is critical to identify environmental and economic elements that are contributing to the spread of the disease. This study examined data from Virginia to identify a subset of explanatory variables significant for Lyme disease case numbers. To identify relevant variables and avoid overfitting, linear poisson, and regularization regression methods such as a ridge, lasso, and elastic net penalty were employed. Cross-validation was performed to acquire tuning parameters. The methods proposed can automatically identify relevant disease count covariates. The efficacy of the techniques was assessed using four criteria on three simulated datasets. Finally, using the Virginia Department of Health’s Lyme disease data set, the study successfully identified key factors, and the results were consistent with previous studies.

Keywords: lyme disease, Poisson generalized linear model, ridge regression, lasso regression, elastic net regression

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Authors: Leila Keshavarz Afshar, Hedieh Sajedi

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Estimation of biological brain age from MR images is a topic that has been much addressed in recent years due to the importance it attaches to early diagnosis of diseases such as Alzheimer's. In this paper, we use a 3D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to provide a method for estimating the biological age of the brain. The 3D-CNN model is trained by MRI data that has been normalized. In addition, to reduce computation while saving overall performance, some effectual slices are selected for age estimation. By this method, the biological age of individuals using selected normalized data was estimated with Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 4.82 years.

Keywords: brain age estimation, biological age, 3D-CNN, deep learning, T1-weighted image, SPM, preprocessing, MRI, canny, gray matter

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Authors: Marcelo Pereira Introini

Abstract:

The global value chains (GVC) approach contributes to a better understanding of the international production organization amid globalization’s second unbundling from the 1970s on. Mainly due to the tools that help to understand the importance of critical competences, technological capabilities, and functions performed by each player, GVC research flourished in recent years, rooted in discussing the possibilities of integration and repositioning along regional and global value chains. Regarding this context, part of the literature endorsed a more optimistic view that engaging in fragmented production networks could represent learning opportunities for developing countries’ firms, since the relationship with transnational corporations could allow them build skills and competences. Increasing recognition that GVCs are based on asymmetric power relations provided another sight about benefits, costs, and development possibilities though. Once leading companies tend to restrict the replication of their technologies and capabilities by their suppliers, alternative strategies beyond the functional specialization, seen as a way to integrate value chains, began to be broadly highlighted. This paper organizes a coherent narrative about the shortcomings of the GVC analytical framework, while recognizing its multidimensional contributions and recent developments. We adopt two different and complementary perspectives to explore the idea of integration in the international production. On one hand, we emphasize obstacles beyond production components, analyzing the role played by intangible assets and intellectual property regimes. On the other hand, we consider the importance of domestic production and innovation systems for technological development. In order to provide a deeper understanding of the restrictions on technological learning of developing countries’ firms, we firstly build from the notion of intellectual monopoly to analyze how flagship companies can prevent subordinated firms from improving their positions in fragmented production networks. Based on intellectual property protection regimes we discuss the increasing asymmetries between these players and the decreasing access of part of them to strategic intangible assets. Second, we debate the role of productive-technological ecosystems and of interactive and systemic technological development processes, as concepts of the Innovation Systems approach. Supporting the idea that not only endogenous advantages are important for international competition of developing countries’ firms, but also that the building of these advantages itself can be a source of technological learning, we focus on local efforts as a crucial element, which is not replaceable for technology imported from abroad. Finally, the paper contributes to the discussion about technological development as a two-dimensional dynamic. If GVC analysis tends to underline a company-based perspective, stressing the learning opportunities associated to GVC integration, historical involvement of national States brings up the debate about technology as a central aspect of interstate disputes. In this sense, technology is seen as part of military modernization before being also used in civil contexts, what presupposes its role for national security and productive autonomy strategies. From this outlook, it is important to consider it as an asset that, incorporated in sophisticated machinery, can be the target of state policies besides the protection provided by intellectual property regimes, such as in export controls and inward-investment restrictions.

Keywords: global value chains, innovation systems, intellectual monopoly, technological development

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Authors: Jose Ramon Sanabria Navarro, Yahilina Silveira Perez, Valentin Molina Moreno, Digna Dionisia Perez Bravo

Abstract:

The general objective of this research is to conceive a model of strategic direction for Latin American high-performance sports centers for the improvement of their results. The sample is 62 managers, 187 trainers, 2930 athletes and 62 expert researchers from centers in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina, for 3241. The measurement instrument includes 12 key variables in the process of management strategies which are consolidated with the factorial analysis and the ANOVA of a factor through the SPSS 24.0. The reliability of the scale obtained an alpha higher than 0.7 in each sample. In this sense, a model is obtained that taxes the deficiencies detected in the diagnosis, based on the needs of the members of these organizations, considering criteria and theories of the strategic direction in the improvement of the organizational results. The validation of the model for high performance sports centers of the countries analyzed aims to develop joint strategies to generate synergies in their operational mode, which leads to enhance the sports organization.

Keywords: sports organization, information management, decision making, control

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Authors: Edemealem Desalegn Kingawa, Kafte Tasew Timkete, Mekashaw Girmaw Abebe, Terefe Feyisa, Abiyot Bitew Mihretie, Senait Teklemarkos Haile

Abstract:

Currently, hate speech is a growing challenge for society, individuals, policymakers, and researchers, as social media platforms make it easy to anonymously create and grow online friends and followers and provide an online forum for debate about specific issues of community life, culture, politics, and others. Despite this, research on identifying and detecting hate speech is not satisfactory performance, and this is why future research on this issue is constantly called for. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature in this field, with a focus on approaches like word embedding techniques, machine learning, deep learning technologies, hate speech terminology, and other state-of-the-art technologies with challenges. In this paper, we have made a systematic review of the last six years of literature from Research Gate and Google Scholar. Furthermore, limitations, along with algorithm selection and use challenges, data collection, and cleaning challenges, and future research directions, are discussed in detail.

Keywords: Amharic hate speech, deep learning approach, hate speech detection review, Afaan Oromo hate speech detection

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Authors: M. Ndaw, G. Mendy, S. Ouya

Abstract:

Risk management in banking sector is a key issue linked to financial system stability and its importance has been elevated by technological developments and emergence of new financial instruments. In this paper, we improve the model previously defined for quantifying internal control impact on banking risks by automatizing the residual criticality estimation step of FMECA. For this, we defined three equations and a maturity coefficient to obtain a mathematical model which is tested on all banking processes and type of risks. The new model allows an optimal assessment of residual criticality and improves the correlation rate that has become 98%.

Keywords: risk, control, banking, FMECA, criticality

Procedia PDF Downloads 337