Search results for: expansion strategies

Authors: Yakubu Adamu, Baba Alfa, Salahudeen Adamu Gene

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As the drive towards clean, renewable and sustainable energy generation is gradually been reshaped by renewable penetration over time, energy storage has thus, become an optimal solution for utilities looking to reduce transmission and capacity cost, therefore the need for capacity resources to be adjusted accordingly such that renewable energy storage may have the opportunity to substitute for retiring conventional energy systems with higher capacity factors. Considering the Nigeria scenario, where Over 80% of the current Nigerian primary energy consumption is met by petroleum, electricity demand is set to more than double by mid-century, relative to 2025 levels. With renewable energy penetration rapidly increasing, in particular biomass, hydro power, solar and wind energy, it is expected to account for the largest share of power output in the coming decades. Despite this rapid growth, the imbalance between load and resources has created a hindrance to the development of energy storage capacity, load and resources, hence forecasting energy storage capacity will therefore play an important role in maintaining the balance between load and resources including supply and demand. Therefore, the degree to which this might occur, its timing and more importantly its sustainability, is the subject matter of the current research. Here, we forecast the future energy storage capacity rating and thus, evaluate the load and resource scenario in Nigeria. In doing so, We used the scenario-based International Energy Agency models, the projected energy demand and supply structure of the country through 2030 are presented and analysed. Overall, this shows that in high renewable (solar) penetration scenarios in Nigeria, energy storage with 4-6h duration can obtain over 86% capacity rating with storage comprising about 24% of peak load capacity. Therefore, the general takeaway from the current study is that most power systems currently used has the potential to support fairly large penetrations of 4-6 hour storage as capacity resources prior to a substantial reduction in capacity ratings. The data presented in this paper is a crucial eye-opener for relevant government agencies towards developing these energy resources in tackling the present energy crisis in Nigeria. However, if the transformation of the Nigeria. power system continues primarily through expansion of renewable generation, then longer duration energy storage will be needed to qualify as capacity resources. Hence, the analytical task from the current survey will help to determine whether and when long-duration storage becomes an integral component of the capacity mix that is expected in Nigeria by 2030.

Keywords: capacity, energy, power system, storage

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Authors: Yunyong Guo, Sudhakar Ganti, Bryan Guo

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The swift proliferation of telehealth Internet of Things (IoT) devices has sparked concerns regarding energy consumption and the need for streamlined data processing. This paper presents an energy-efficient model that integrates telehealth IoT devices into a platform based on fog and cloud computing. This integrated system provides a sustainable and robust solution to address the challenges. Our model strategically utilizes fog computing as a localized data processing layer and leverages cloud computing for resource-intensive tasks, resulting in a significant reduction in overall energy consumption. The incorporation of adaptive energy-saving strategies further enhances the efficiency of our approach. Simulation analysis validates the effectiveness of our model in improving energy efficiency for telehealth IoT systems, particularly when integrated with localized fog nodes and both private and public cloud infrastructures. Subsequent research endeavors will concentrate on refining the energy-saving model, exploring additional functional enhancements, and assessing its broader applicability across various healthcare and industry sectors.

Keywords: energy-efficient, fog computing, IoT, telehealth

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Authors: Wanqing You, Kai Qian, Ying Qian

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The concepts of Cloud Computing provide users with infrastructure, platform and software as service, which make those services more accessible for people via Internet. To better analysis the performance of Cloud Computing provisioning policies as well as resources allocation strategies, a toolkit named CloudSim proposed. With CloudSim, the Cloud Computing environment can be easily constructed by modelling and simulating cloud computing components, such as datacenter, host, and virtual machine. A good scheduling strategy is the key to achieve the load balancing among different machines as well as to improve the utilization of basic resources. Recently, the existing scheduling algorithms may work well in some presumptive cases in a single machine; however they are unable to make the best decision for the unforeseen future. In real world scenario, there would be numbers of tasks as well as several virtual machines working in parallel. Based on the concepts of multi-queue, this paper presents a new scheduling algorithm to schedule tasks with CloudSim by taking into account several parameters, the machines’ capacity, the priority of tasks and the history log.

Keywords: hierarchical queue, load balancing, CloudSim, information technology

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Authors: Lystra Huggins

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The COVID-19 pandemic affected all facets of life, including pedagogical strategies and perceptual experiences for both instructors and students. While there have also been many challenges and advantages to the online teaching and learning environment, when students’ cameras are on, the daily experiences of students’ lives have been magnified during synchronous online instruction and have served to humanize them in the classroom. This means that students’ everyday experiences, now often on display on ZOOM, allow instructors to see the realities of students. They include children running, spouses walking by parents cooking or sitting on the sofa following the lecture, students at their place of employment or driving from work, or having their classroom engagement interrupted by a delivery. Students’ backgrounds and spaces create unique dynamics during synchronous instruction, which offers a holistic view of them outside academia. This research explores whether witnessing students’ daily experiences leads to empathy from their instructors and whether it results in a greater understanding of students’ challenges and circumstances. Ultimately, it will amplify instructors’ stance on the advantages of students having their cameras on during synchronous online classes to develop a connection with the instructor and a more cohesive classroom environment.

Keywords: instructor’s empathy, synchronous class, asynchronous class, online environment

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Authors: Anna Vildová, H. Hendrychová, J. Kubeš, L. Tůmová

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The abiotic elicitation is one of the methods for increasing the secondary metabolites production in plant tissue cultures and it seems to be more effective than traditional strategies. This study verified the use of silver nitrate as elicitor to enhance flavonolignans and flavonoid taxifolin production in suspension culture of Sylibum marianum (L.) Gaertn. Silver nitrate in various concentrations (5.887.10-3 mol/L, 5.887.10-4 mol/L, 5.887.10-5 mol/L) was used as elicitor. The content of secondary metabolites in cell suspension cultures was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. The samples were taken after 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 168 hours of treatment. The highest content of taxifolin production (2.2 mg.g-1) in cell suspension culture of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. was detected after silver nitrate (5.887.10-4 mol/L) treatment and 72 h application. Flavonolignans such as silybinA, silybin B, silydianin, silychristin, isosilybin A, isosilybin B were not produced by cell suspension culture of S. marianum after elicitor treatment. Our results show that the secondarymetabolites could be released from S. marianum cells into the nutrient medium by changed permeability of cell wall.

Keywords: Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn., elicitation, silver nitrate, taxifolin

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Authors: Rozo D. Juan Felipe, Ramírez L. Leonardo Juan, Puerta A. Gabriel Alberto

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The telemedicine services require correct computing resource management to guarantee productivity and efficiency for medical and non-medical staff. The aim of this study was to examine web management strategies to ensure the availability of resources and services in telemedicine so as to provide medical information management with an accessible strategy. In addition, to evaluate the quality-of-service parameters, the followings were measured: delays, throughput, jitter, latency, available bandwidth, percent of access and denial of services based of web management performance map with profiles permissions and database management. Through 24 different test scenarios, the results show 100% in availability of medical information, in relation to access of medical staff to web services, and quality of service (QoS) of 99% because of network delay and performance of computer network. The findings of this study suggest that the proposed strategy of web management is an ideal solution to guarantee the availability, reliability, and accessibility of medical information. Finally, this strategy offers seven user profile used at telemedicine center of Bogota-Colombia keeping QoS parameters suitable to telemedicine services.

Keywords: availability, medical information, QoS, strategy, telemedicine

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Authors: Ana Paula Gomes Nogueira, Pietro Tonolini, Andrea Bonfanti

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Automotive braking systems must convert kinetic into thermal energy by friction. Nowadays, the disc brake system is the most widespread configuration on the automotive market, which its specific configuration provides a very efficient heat dissipation. At the same time, both discs and pads wear out. Different wear mechanisms can act during the braking, which makes the understanding of the phenomenon essential for the strategies to be applied when an increased lifetime of the components is required. In this study, a specific characterization approach was conducted to analyze the worn surfaces of commercial pad friction materials and its conterface cast iron disc after dynobench tests. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM), confocal microscope, and focus ion beam microscope (FIB) were used as the main tools of the analysis, and they allowed imaging of the footprint of the different wear mechanisms presenting on the worn surfaces. Aspects such as the temperature and specific ingredients of the pad friction materials are discussed since they play an important role in the wear mechanisms.

Keywords: wear mechanism, surface characterization, brake tests, friction materials, disc brake

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Authors: Minwuyelet Maru, Solomon Habtemariam, Endalamaw Gadissa, Abraham Aseffa

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Background: Tuberculosis is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. The burden of TB is aggravated by emergence and expansion of drug resistant tuberculosis and different lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) have been reported in many parts of the country. Describing strains of Mycobacterial isolates and drug susceptibility pattern is necessary. Method: Sputum samples were collected from smear positive pulmonary TB patients age >= 7 years between October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013 and Mycobacterial strains isolated on Loweensten Jensen (LJ) media. Each strain was characterized by deletion typing and Spoligotyping. Drug sensitivity testing was determined with the indirect proportion method using Middle brook 7H10 media and association to determine possible risk factors to drug resistance was done. Result: A total of 144 smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients were enrolled. The age of participants ranged from 7 to 78 with mean age of 29.22 (±10.77) years. In this study 82.2% (n=97) of the isolates were sensitive to the four first line anti-tuberculosis drugs and resistance to any of the four drugs tested was 17.8% (n=21). A high frequency of any resistance was observed in isoniazid, 13.6%, (n=16) followed by streptomycin, 11.8% (n=14). No significant association of isoniazid resistance with HIV, sex and history of previous TB treatment was observed but there was significant association with age, high between 31-35 years of age (p=0.01). Majority, 89.9% (n=128) of participants were new cases and only 11.1% (n=16) had history of previous TB treatment. No MDR-TB from new cases and 2 MDRTB (13.3%) was isolated from re-treatment cases which was significantly associated with previous TB treatment (p<0.01). Thirty two different types of spoligotype patterns were identified and 74.1% were grouped in to 13 clusters. The dominant strains were SIT 25, 18.1% (n=21), SIT 53, 17.2% (n=20) and SIT 149, 8.6% (n=10). Lineage 4 is the predominant lineage followed by lineage 3 and lineage 7 comprising 65.5% (n=76), 28.4% (n=33) and 6% (n=7) respectively. Majority of strains from lineage 3 and 4 were SIT 25 (63.6%) and SIT 53 (26.3%) whereas SIT 343 was the dominant strain from lineage 7 (71.4%). Conclusion: Wide spread of lineage 3 and lineage 4 of the modern lineage and high number of strain cluster indicates high ongoing transmission. The high proportion resistance to any of the first line anti-tuberculosis drugs may be a potential source in the emergence of MDR-TB. Wide spread of SIT 25 and SIT 53 having a tendency of ease transmission and presence of higher resistance of isoniazid in working and mobile age group, 31-35 years of age may increase risk of drug resistant strains transmission.

Keywords: tuberculosis, drug susceptibility, strain diversity, lineage, Ethiopia, spoligotyping

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Authors: Danielle Guerra, Marden Silva

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The use of active methodologies in the teaching of English has been widely encouraged recently, due to its potential to create propitious conditions for the learners to develop autonomy and studying skills that tend to keep them motivated throughout the learning process. The constant use of technology by the students makes it possible to implement strategies such as blended learning, which blends regular classes with online instruction and practice. (Horn and Staker, 2015) For that reason, the aim of this study was to implement the blended approach in a High School second-grade English class in Brazil, in order to analyze the impacts of this methodology on the students' autonomy. The teacher's role was that of a mediator, being responsible for selecting the best resources for students to study with, and also for helping them with questions when necessary. The results show that taking learner characteristics and learning experiences into account and allowing the students to follow their learning paths at their own pace was crucial to promoting engagement that led to the desired outcomes. In conclusion, the research shows that blended learning is a helpful strategy to foster autonomy and promote motivation in EFL students.

Keywords: active methodologies, autonomy, blended learning, motivation

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Authors: Parsa Naji

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Following the Iran Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the subsequent formation of a theocratic regime, the new regime implemented stringent regulations and a complicated censorship system in the film industry. Thereupon, the screening of films showing the relationships between males and females encountered numerous limitations. Not only did these limits encompass the physical portrayal of the relationship between males and females, but also the dialogues containing explicit sexual or even passionate romantic themes, resulting in a film being permanently consigned to archival storage. However, despite these limitations, Iranian filmmakers persevered in creating their interesting cinematic works. Throughout the years after the revolution, Iranian directors have navigated a series of challenges and obstacles, employing innovative and unconventional methods to bypass the rigorous censorship system imposed by the government, ensuring the screening of their films. This study aims to analyze the creative approaches employed by Iranian filmmakers to circumvent governmental censorship regulations.

Keywords: censorship, Iranian cinema, Islamic revolution, male-female relationship

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Authors: Mohammadreza Nematollahi, Bahareh Mosadegh Sedghy, Alireza Tajbakhsh

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The last two decades have witnessed substantial attention to organic and sustainable agricultural supply chains. Motivated by real-world practices, this paper aims to address two main challenges observed in organic product supply chains: decentralized decision-making process between farmers and their retailers, and competition between organic products and their conventional counterparts. To this aim, an agricultural supply chain consisting of two farmers, a conventional farmer and an organic farmer who offers an organic version of the same product, is considered. Both farmers distribute their products through a single retailer, where there exists competition between the organic and the conventional product. The retailer, as the market leader, sets the wholesale price, and afterward, the farmers set their production quantity decisions. This paper first models the demand functions of the conventional and organic products by incorporating the effect of asymmetric brand equity, which captures the fact that consumers usually pay a premium for organic due to positive perceptions regarding their health and environmental benefits. Then, profit functions with consideration of some characteristics of organic farming, including crop yield gap and organic cost factor, are modeled. Our research also considers both economies and diseconomies of scale in farming production as well as the effects of organic subsidy paid by the government to support organic farming. This paper explores the investigated supply chain in three scenarios: decentralized, centralized, and coordinated decision-making structures. In the decentralized scenario, the conventional and organic farmers and the retailer maximize their own profits individually. In this case, the interaction between the farmers is modeled under the Bertrand competition, while analyzing the interaction between the retailer and farmers under the Stackelberg game structure. In the centralized model, the optimal production strategies are obtained from the entire supply chain perspective. Analytical models are developed to derive closed-form optimal solutions. Moreover, analytical sensitivity analyses are conducted to explore the effects of main parameters like the crop yield gap, organic cost factor, organic subsidy, and percent price premium of the organic product on the farmers’ and retailer’s optimal strategies. Afterward, a coordination scenario is proposed to convince the three supply chain members to shift from the decentralized to centralized decision-making structure. The results indicate that the proposed coordination scenario provides a win-win-win situation for all three members compared to the decentralized model. Moreover, our paper demonstrates that the coordinated model respectively increases and decreases the production and price of organic produce, which in turn motivates the consumption of organic products in the market. Moreover, the proposed coordination model helps the organic farmer better handle the challenges of organic farming, including the additional cost and crop yield gap. Last but not least, our results highlight the active role of the organic subsidy paid by the government as a means of promoting sustainable organic product supply chains. Our paper shows that although the amount of organic subsidy plays a significant role in the production and sales price of organic products, the allocation method of subsidy between the organic farmer and retailer is not of that importance.

Keywords: analytical game-theoretic model, product competition, supply chain coordination, sustainable organic supply chain

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Authors: Yenisleidy Martínez-Martínez, Yannay Casas-Ledón, Jo Dewulf

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Wind power constitutes a cleaner energy source with smaller unfavorable impacts on the environment than fossil fuels. Its development could be an alternative to fight climate change while meeting energy demands. However, wind energy development requires first determining the existing potential and areas with aptitude. Also, potential socio-economic and environmental impacts should be analyzed to prevent social rejection of this technology. In this context, this work performs a suitability assessment on a GIS environment to locate suitable areas for wind energy expansion in South-Central Chile. In addition, suitable areas were characterized in terms of potential goods and services to be produced as a proxy for analyzing potential impacts and trade-offs. First, layers of annual wind speed were generated as they represent the resource potential, and layer representing previously defined territorial constraints were created. Zones depicting territorial constraints were removed from resource measurement layers to identify suitable sites. Then, the appropriation of the primary production in suitable sites was determined to measure potential ecosystem services derived from human interventions in those areas. Results show that approximately 52% of the total surface of the study area has a good aptitude to install wind farms. In this area, provisioning services like food crops production, timber, and other forest resources like firewood play a key role in the regional economy and thus are the main cause of human interventions. This is reflected by human appropriation of the primary production values of 0.71 KgC/m².yr, 0.36 KgC/m².yr, and 0.14 KgC/m².yr, respectively. In this sense, wind energy development could be compatible with croplands, which is the predominant land use in suitable areas, and provide farmers with cheaper energy and extra income. Also, studies have reported changes in local temperature associated with wind turbines, which could be beneficial to crop growth. The results obtained in this study prove to be useful for identifying available areas for wind development, which could be very useful in decision-making processes related to energy planning.

Keywords: net primary productivity, provisioning services, suitability assessment, wind energy

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Authors: Hamza Salih

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Since translation is no longer viewed as a mere replacement of linguistic codes from one language to another, it has increasingly been considered, especially with the advent of the cultural turn in the late 70's, in relation to the broader external context in which it takes place. According to scholars in the field, the translation process is determined by the political, economic and cultural values which exert external pressures on the translator. Correspondingly, the relationship between translation as an act of re-writing the original text and ideology has already been established. This paper addresses the issue of how ideology comes into play in the translational process and what strategies the translator adopts to foreground or circumvent ideological constraints. Along with this, the paper will touch upon the notions of censorship, manipulation, subversion and domestication which are deemed of relevance to this very topic. In fact, after the domination of the empirically-oriented linguistic approaches in translation studies, the relationship between translation and ideology has to be foregrounded to draw attention to the fact that the translation process is not a mere text-to-text linguistic transfer, but, on the contrary, takes place in the midst of economic, political, cultural and religious variables, which some scholars subsume under the category ideology.

Keywords: translation, language, ideology, subversion, censorship and manipulation

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Authors: Majid Vafaeipour, Mohamed El Baghdadi, Florian Verbelen, Peter Sergeant, Joeri Van Mierlo, Kurt Stockman, Omar Hegazy

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The Electrical Variable Transmission (EVT), an electromechanical device, can be considered as an alternative solution to the conventional transmission system utilized in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). This study present comparisons in terms of fuel consumption, power split, and state of charge (SoC) of an HEV containing an EVT to a conventional parallel topology and a series topology. To this end, corresponding simulations of these topologies are all performed in presence of control strategies enabling battery charge-sustaining and efficient power split. The power flow through the components of the vehicle are attained, and fuel consumption results of the considered cases are compared. The investigation of the results indicates utilizing EVT can provide significant added values in HEV configurations. The outcome of the current research paves its path for implementation of design optimization approaches on such systems in further research directions.

Keywords: Electrical Variable Transmission (EVT), Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), parallel, series, modeling

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Authors: Zhou Xiaowen China, Zhang Sanming China

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Neighbourhood space as a very important part of city spaces, is an organic combination of material environment and spiritual achievement in people’ daily life, and has a real impact upon the sustainable development of the whole city. Looking back on the past 2014 World Architecture Festival (WAF), 4 out of 35winning buildings were neighbourhood designs, and all of them mentioned about space-sharing and sustainable development. In this paper, three award-winning cases were studied, including the world building of the year—the chapel (Vietnam, A21 studio), The Carve (Norway, A-Lab) and House for Trees (Vietnam, Vo Trong Nghia Architects). Urban context, planning, space construction and sustainable technology were discussed. Based on those, it was discovered that passive energy-saving technologies have been paid more and more attention, sharing space has been designed ingeniously, and the architectural forms of them reflect social inclusion and equity. This paper is aimed at summarizing the excellent works on the Festival and providing reference for the future design.

Keywords: neighbourhood design, 2014 World Architecture Festival (WAF), sustainable development, space-sharing

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Authors: Erica Cochran Hameen, Bobuchi Ken-Opurum, Mounica Guturu

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The United Stated (U.S.) populous spends the majority of their time indoors in spaces where building codes and voluntary sustainability standards provide clear Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) metrics. The existing sustainable building standards and codes are aimed towards improving IEQ, health of occupants, and reducing the negative impacts of buildings on the environment. While they address the post-occupancy stage of buildings, there are fewer standards on the pre-occupancy stage thereby placing a large labor population in environments much less regulated. Construction personnel are often exposed to a variety of uncomfortable and unhealthy elements while on construction sites, primarily thermal, visual, acoustic, and air quality related. Construction site power generators, equipment, and machinery generate on average 9 decibels (dBA) above the U.S. OSHA regulations, creating uncomfortable noise levels. Research has shown that frequent exposure to high noise levels leads to chronic physiological issues and increases noise induced stress, yet beyond OSHA no other metric focuses directly on the impacts of noise on contractors’ well-being. Research has also associated natural light with higher productivity and attention span, and lower cases of fatigue in construction workers. However, daylight is not always available as construction workers often perform tasks in cramped spaces, dark areas, or at nighttime. In these instances, the use of artificial light is necessary, yet lighting standards for use during lengthy tasks and arduous activities is not specified. Additionally, ambient air, contaminants, and material off-gassing expelled at construction sites are one of the causes of serious health effects in construction workers. Coupled with extreme hot and cold temperatures for different climate zones, health and productivity can be seriously compromised. This research evaluates the impact of existing green building metrics on construction and risk management, by analyzing two codes and nine standards including LEED, WELL, and BREAM. These metrics were chosen based on the relevance to the U.S. construction industry. This research determined that less than 20% of the sustainability context within the standards and codes (texts) are related to the pre-occupancy building sector. The research also investigated the impact of construction personnel’s health and well-being on construction management through two surveys of project managers and on-site contractors’ perception of their work environment on productivity. To fully understand the risks of limited Environmental and Health Quality metrics for contractors (EHQ) this research evaluated the connection between EHQ factors such as inefficient lighting, on construction workers and investigated the correlation between various site coping strategies for comfort and productivity. Outcomes from this research are three-pronged. The first includes fostering a discussion about the existing conditions of EQH elements, i.e. thermal, lighting, ergonomic, acoustic, and air quality on the construction labor force. The second identifies gaps in sustainability standards and codes during the pre-occupancy stage of building construction from ground-breaking to substantial completion. The third identifies opportunities for improvements and mitigation strategies to improve EQH such as increased monitoring of effects on productivity and health of contractors and increased inclusion of the pre-occupancy stage in green building standards.

Keywords: construction contractors, health and well-being, environmental quality, risk management

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Authors: Ankita Sharma, Reenu Singh

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In order to conserve the ecology and the environment, there is a need to focus on sustainable lighting solutions such as LED bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs, candle-powered lamps, self-cooling smart bulbs, and many more, that are both eco-friendly and practical. This paper focuses on such sustainable solutions to lighting, which will have a major positive impact on the environment in the coming future. A questionnaire survey was conducted to note the responses of people living in high-rise buildings in metropolitan cities with regards to such sustainable lighting choices in their homes. The result of such questionnaire survey has helped to design parameters which are used to ideate design interventions in this field of sustainable lighting choices. This paper includes proposals to facilitate the reduction of electric power in interior lighting through various lighting accessory design interventions. Thus, such design interventions will allow us to design more sustainable interior spaces, and renewable energy strategies can be developed in the field of lighting, which will not only help to save energy but also positively affect other aspects of human well-being such as productivity, heritage conservation and economic well-being too!

Keywords: sustainable, interior lighting, lighting design, environmental impact, metropolitan cities

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Authors: Zehor Ktitni

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In pragmatics, politeness is regarded as a feature of paramount importance to successful interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, emails have recently become one of the indispensable means of communication in educational settings. This research puts email communication at the core of the study and analyses it from a politeness perspective. More specifically, it endeavours to look closely at how the concept of (im)politeness is reflected through students’ emails. To this end, a corpus of Algerian supervisees’ email threads, exchanged with their Irish supervisors, was compiled. Leech’s model of politeness (2014) was selected as the main theoretical framework of this study, in addition to making reference to Brown and Levinson’s model (1987) as it is one of the most influential models in the area of pragmatic politeness. Further, some follow-up interviews are to be conducted with Algerian students to reinforce the results derived from the corpus. Initial findings suggest that Algerian Ph.D. students’ emails tend to include more politeness markers than impoliteness ones, they heavily make use of academic titles when addressing their supervisors (Dr. or Prof.), and they rely on hedging devices in order to sound polite.

Keywords: politeness, email communication, corpus pragmatics, Algerian PhD supervisees, Irish supervisors

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Authors: Lin Chih-Ken

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This paper explores the A Li Shan hotel of Taiwan during the Japanese occupation period, after over a hundred years of time, it has been handed over to the hotel managing enterprise to retain the historic building and the culture. Applying the innovative marketing strategies, coordinate the local government traveling policy then combined local tea agriculture and forestry specialty integrated marketing, to create the special hotel located in the Alishan National Scenic Area with the characteristics of landscape, innovative marketing and history, to attract domestic tourism and visitors around the world. This study interview the hotel owner, managers, employees and guests, in addition to collected message feedback from reservation website, to apply Ambidexterity Marketing Theory and Resource Base Theory to analyze the main impact factors. The conclusion showed that the integration of several key factors and make good use of resource strength generate heterogeneous product characteristics to attracting wider range of visitors.

Keywords: heritage tourism, historic hotel, marketing ambidexterity, resource base theory

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Authors: Rizqi W. Romadhon, Nur Arifan

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Halal Tourism is a part of tourism industry which is based on Islamic Principle and addressed to the Muslim tourist. The potency of halal tourism is very broad to be developed, because the growth of Muslim populations is rapidly increasing. Indonesia is one of the biggest countries with Majority of its population is Muslim, therefore human resources and natural resources have very good potential to be part of the Halal tourism industry. But the fact is Indonesia can not optimize the potential of human resources and natural resources as well as neighboring countries carried out. This paper will discuss the reasons of the importance of developing Halal tourism, and the factors influencing the success of developing halal tourism in Indonesia, and also the optimization strategies which can be adopted by the government so that the Halal tourism industry in Indonesia has a sustainable competitive advantage. The existence of this research is expected to government, tourism agents and others can optimize the potency of Indonesia’s Human resources and natural resources for developing Halal tourism industry in Indonesia.

Keywords: halal tourism, Islamic principle, optimization, sustainable competitive advantage

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Authors: Wasan Ismail Khalil, Hisham Khalid Ahmed, Zainab Ali

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Structural Lightweight Aggregate Concrete (SLWAC) has been developed in recent years because it reduces the dead load, cost, thermal conductivity and coefficient of thermal expansion of the structure. So SLWAC has the advantage of being a relatively green building material. Lightweight Aggregate (LWA) is either occurs as natural material such as pumice, scoria, etc. or as artificial material produced from different raw materials such as expanded shale, clay, slate, etc. The use of SLWAC in Iraq is limited due to the lack in natural LWA. The existence of Iraqi clay deposit with different types and characteristics leads to the idea of producing artificial expanded clay aggregate. The main aim in this work is to present of the properties of artificial LWA produced in the laboratory. Available local bentonite clay which occurs in the Western region of Iraq was used as raw material to produce the LWA. Sodium silicate as liquid industrial waste material from glass plant was mixed with bentonite clay in mix proportion 1:1 by weight. The manufacturing method of the lightweight aggregate including, preparation and mixing of clay and sodium silicate, burning of the mixture in the furnace at the temperature between 750-800˚C for two hours, and finally gradually cooling process. The produced LWA was then crushed to small pieces then screened on standard sieve series and prepared with grading which conforms to the specifications of LWA. The maximum aggregate size used in this investigation is 10 mm. The chemical composition and the physical properties of the produced LWA are investigated. The results indicate that the specific gravity of the produced LWA is 1.5 with the density of 543kg/m3 and water absorption of 20.7% which is in conformity with the international standard of LWA. Many trail mixes were carried out in order to produce LWAC containing the artificial LWA produced in this research. The selected mix proportion is 1:1.5:2 (cement: sand: aggregate) by weight with water to cement ratio of 0.45. The experimental results show that LWAC has oven dry density of 1720 kg/m3, water absorption of 8.5%, the thermal conductivity of 0.723 W/m.K and compressive strength of 23 N/mm2. The SLWAC produced in this research can be used in the construction of different thermal insulated buildings and masonry units. It can be concluded that the SLWA produced in this study contributes to sustainable development by, using industrial waste materials, conserving energy, enhancing the thermal and structural efficiency of concrete.

Keywords: expanded clay, lightweight aggregate, structural lightweight aggregate concrete, sustainable

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Authors: Lagnajeet Mohanty, Mohnish Mishra, Pratham Tapdiya, Himanshu Sekhar Nayak, Swetapadma Singh

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In the era of global interconnectedness, effective risk assessment and management are critical for organizational resilience. This review explores the integration of machine learning (ML) into risk processes, examining its transformative potential and the challenges it presents. The literature reveals ML's success in sectors like consumer credit, demonstrating enhanced predictive accuracy, adaptability, and potential cost savings. However, ethical considerations, interpretability issues, and the demand for skilled practitioners pose limitations. Looking forward, the study identifies future research scopes, including refining ethical frameworks, advancing interpretability techniques, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. The synthesis of limitations and future directions highlights the dynamic landscape of ML in risk management, urging stakeholders to navigate challenges innovatively. This abstract encapsulates the evolving discourse on ML's role in shaping proactive and effective risk management strategies in our interconnected and unpredictable global landscape.

Keywords: machine learning, risk assessment, ethical considerations, financial inclusion

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Authors: Caroline A. Mathieu, Steve Geoffrion, Alexandre Dumais, Denis Lafortune

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In Quebec, troubled youths stay in a rehabilitation Center (RC), and educators in RC’S are particularly at risk of exposure to workplace violence. In order to manage youth violence and protect youth safety or their own, educators can resort to restraint and seclusion (R&S) strategies. To our best knowledge, in the literature, no study was found on the topic of R&S super users either in psychiatry or in a rehabilitation center. The objective of this study is to explore the differences between R&S super users and normal users among educators in terms of individual and environmental characteristics, over an eight weeks period. The 278 participants were volunteers recruited from 36 units that foster around 8 to 12 youths per unit, in a suburb of Montreal; Quebec, Canada. The results indicate that among the variables that were studied, only fear of violence and past exposure to violence at work characterized the R&S super users. These results suggest that exposure to violence in the workplace might increase the anticipation and fear of violence from a youth; this is concordant with the results indicating that these variables are the ones separating normal users from super users.

Keywords: seclusion and restraint, violence, youth, educators

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Authors: Dilnee D. Suraweera, Tim Groom, Brian Chung, Brendan Bond, Andrew Schipp, Marc E. Nicolas

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Pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium) is a perennial plant belongs to family Asteraceae. This is cultivated commercially for extraction of natural insecticide pyrethrins, which accumulates in their flower head achenes. Approximately 94% of the pyrethrins are produced within secretory ducts and trichomes of achenes of the mature pyrethrum flower. This is the most widely used botanical insecticide in the world and Australia is the current largest pyrethrum producer in the world. Rainfall in pyrethrum growing regions in Australia during pyrethrum flowering period, in late spring and early summer is significantly less. Due to lack of adequate soil moisture and under elevated temperature conditions during post-anthesis period, resulting in yield reductions. Therefore, understanding of yield responses of pyrethrum to irrigation is important for Pyrethrum as a commercial crop. Irrigation management has been identified as a key area of pyrethrum crop management strategies that could be manipulated to increase yield. Pyrethrum is a comparatively drought tolerant plant and it has some ability to survive in dry conditions due to deep rooting. But in dry areas and in dry seasons, the crop cannot reach to its full yield potential without adequate soil moisture. Therefore, irrigation is essential during the flowering period prevent crop water stress and maximise yield. Irrigation during the water deficit period results in an overall increased rate of water uptake and growth by the plant which is essential to achieve the maximum yield benefits from commercial crops. The effects of irrigation treatments applied at post-anthesis period on pyrethrum yield responses were studied in two irrigation methods. This was conducted in a first harvest commercial pyrethrum field in Waubra, Victoria, during 2012/2013 season. Drip irrigation and overhead sprinkler irrigation treatments applied during whole flowering period were compared with ‘rainfed’ treatment in relation to flower yield and pyrethrin yield responses. The results of this experiment showed that the application of 180mm of irrigation throughout the post-anthesis period, from early flowering stages to physiological maturity under drip irrigation treatment increased pyrethrin concentration by 32%, which combined with the 95 % increase in the flower yield to give a total pyrethrin yield increase of 157%, compared to the ‘rainfed’ treatment. In contrast to that overhead sprinkler irrigation treatment increased pyrethrin concentration by 19%, which combined with the 60 % increase in the flower yield to give a total pyrethrin yield increase of 91%, compared to the ‘rainfed’ treatment. Irrigation treatments applied throughout the post-anthesis period significantly increased flower yield as a result of enhancement of number of flowers and flower size. Irrigation provides adequate soil moisture for flower development in pyrethrum which slows the rate of flower development and increases the length of the flowering period, resulting in a delayed crop harvest (11 days) compared to the ‘rainfed’ treatment. Overall, irrigation has a major impact on pyrethrin accumulation which increases the rate and duration of pyrethrin accumulation resulting in higher pyrethrin yield per flower at physiological maturity. The findings of this study will be important for future yield predictions and to develop advanced agronomic strategies to maximise pyrethrin yield in pyrethrum.

Keywords: achene, drip irrigation, overhead irrigation, pyrethrin

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Authors: Dipali Nagaonkar, Mahendra Rai

Abstract:

Chitosan, a carbohydrate polymer at nanoscale level has gained considerable momentum in drug delivery applications due to its inherent biocompatibility and non-toxicity. However, conventional synthetic strategies for chitosan nanoparticles mainly rely upon physicochemical techniques, which often yield chitosan microparticles. Hence, there is an emergent need for development of controlled synthetic protocols for chitosan nanoparticles within the nanometer range. In this context, we report the green synthesis of size controlled chitosan nanoparticles by using Pongamia pinnata (L.) leaf extract. Nanoparticle tracking analysis confirmed formation of nanoparticles with mean particle size of 85 nm. The stability of chitosan nanoparticles was investigated by zetasizer analysis, which revealed positive surface charged nanoparticles with zeta potential 20.1 mV. The green synthesized chitosan nanoparticles were further explored for encapsulation and controlled release of antioxidant biomolecule, quercetin. The resulting drug loaded chitosan nanoparticles showed drug entrapment efficiency of 93.50% with drug-loading capacity of 42.44%. The cumulative in vitro drug release up to 15 hrs was achieved suggesting towards efficacy of green synthesized chitosan nanoparticles for drug delivery applications.

Keywords: Chitosan nanoparticles, green synthesis, Pongamia pinnata, quercetin

Procedia PDF Downloads 563

Authors: Peter Temitope Agboola

Abstract:

Food insecurity continues to affect a large number of U.S households during this coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has threatened the livelihoods of people, making them vulnerable to severe hardship and has had an unanticipated impact on the U.S economy. This study attempts to identify the food insecurity status of households and the determinant factors driving household food insecurity. Additionally, it attempts to discover the mitigation measures adopted by households during the pandemic in the city of Huntsville, Texas. A structured online sample survey was used to collect data, with a household expenditures survey used in evaluating the food security status of the household. Most survey respondents disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their life and source of income. Furthermore, the main analytical tool used for the study is descriptive statistics and logistic regression modeling. A logistic regression model was used to determine the factors responsible for food insecurity in the study area. The result revealed that most households in the study area are food secure, with the remainder being food insecure.

Keywords: food insecurity, household expenditure survey, COVID-19, coping strategies, food pantry

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Mohanad Hammad

Abstract:

Port institutions serve as a link connecting the land areas that receive the goods and the areas from where ships sail. These areas hold great significance for the conversion of goods into commodities of economic value, capable of meeting the needs of the society. Development of ports constitutes a fundamental component of the comprehensive economic development process. Recognizing this fact, developing countries have always resorted to this infrastructural element to resolve the numerous problems they face, taking into account its contribution to the reformation of their economic conditions. Iraqi ports have played a major role in boosting the commercial movement in Iraq, as they are the starting point of its oil exports and a key constituent in fulfilling the consumer and production needs of the various economic sectors of Iraq. With the Gulf wars and the economic blockade, Iraqi ports have continued to deteriorate and become unable to perform their functions as first-generation ports, prompting Iraq to use the ports of neighboring countries such as Jordan's Aqaba commercial port. Meanwhile, Iraqi ports face strong competition from the ports of neighboring countries, which have achieved progress and advancement as opposed to the declining performance and efficiency of Iraqi ports. The great developments in the economic conditions of Iraq lay a too great burden on the Iraqi maritime transport and ports, which require development in order to be able to meet the challenges arising from the fierce international and regional competition in the markets. Therefore, it is necessary to find appropriate solutions in support of the role that can be played by Iraqi ports in serving Iraq's foreign trade transported by sea and in keeping up with the development of foreign trade. Thus, this research aims at tackling the current situation of the Iraqi ports and their commercial activity and studying the problems and obstacles they face. The research also studies the future prospects of these ports, the potentials of maritime openness to Iraq under the fierce competition of neighboring ports, and the possibility of enhancing Iraqi ports’ competitiveness. Among the results produced by this research is the future scenario it proposes for Iraqi ports, mainly represented in the establishment of Al-Faw Port, which will contribute to a greater openness of maritime transport in Iraq, and the rehabilitation and expansion of existing ports. This research seeks to develop solutions to Iraq ports so that they can be repositioned as a vital means of promoting economic development.

Keywords: maritime transport, port, future prospects, regional integration

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Saima Yaqoob

Abstract:

Due to advancement in technologies and cutting cost competition, especially in manufacturing business, organizations are now becoming more focused toward achieving exceptional quality standards with low manufacturing cost. In this concern, many process improvement strategies are becoming popular in the way of increasing productivity and output. Lean manufacturing principles are among one of them, increasingly used for improving productivity by reducing wastages. Many success factors are involved in lean implementation. But, the role of senior management is most important in developing the lean culture in an organization. Purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of executive level management related to the successful implementation of lean practices and its comparison with the existing practices in the organization. In order to collect data, survey questionnaire comprised of eight statements rendering the critical success factors were sent to the top management of fifty (50) automotive manufacturing companies of Karachi. After analyzing their feedbacks, the trend of lean manufacturing principles and the commitment of senior management toward its implementation was identified in the manufacturing industries of Karachi, Pakistan.

Keywords: lean manufacturing, process improvement, senior management, perception, involvement, waste reduction

Procedia PDF Downloads 177

Authors: Cristie Ann Jaca-Delfin, Felino Javines Jr.

Abstract:

Teachers especially those who are teaching elementary and high school students need to upgrade their teaching practices in order to become effective and efficient facilitators of learning. It is in this context that this study is conducted in order to present the perceived teaching-learning activities needs among basic education teachers in the three campuses of the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, the Philippines as expressed during their In-Service Teacher Training. The study employed the quantitative-qualitative research design and used the researcher-made survey questionnaire to look into the ten items under Teaching-Learning Activities to determine which item teachers need to be trained and retrained on. The data were solicited during the teachers’ In-Service Teacher Training period conducted in May 2015. It was found out that designing interesting and meaningful classroom activities, strategies in teaching and assessment procedures were identified as the most needed areas teachers want to be included in their in-service training. As these expressed needs were identified, the teachers’ in-service training must a venue for teachers’ instructional development needs to be addressed so as to maximize the students’ learning outcomes

Keywords: in-service teacher training, perceived needs, teaching-learning activities, teaching practices

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Kai Zhang, Xi Jiang

Abstract:

Effect of fuel variabilities on premixed combustion of bio-syngas mixtures is of great importance in bio-syngas utilisation. The uncertainties of concentrations of fuel constituents such as H2, CO and CH4 may lead to unpredictable combustion performances, combustion instabilities and hot spots which may deteriorate and damage the combustion hardware. Numerical modelling and simulations can assist in understanding the behaviour of bio-syngas combustion with pre-defined species concentrations, while the evaluation of variabilities of concentrations is expensive. To be more specific, questions such as ‘what is the burning velocity of bio-syngas at specific equivalence ratio?’ have been answered either experimentally or numerically, while questions such as ‘what is the likelihood of burning velocity when precise concentrations of bio-syngas compositions are unknown, but the concentration ranges are pre-described?’ have not yet been answered. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) methods can be used to tackle such questions and assess the effects of fuel compositions. An efficient probabilistic UQ method based on Polynomial Chaos Expansion (PCE) techniques is employed in this study. The method relies on representing random variables (combustion performances) with orthogonal polynomials such as Legendre or Gaussian polynomials. The constructed PCE via Galerkin Projection provides easy access to global sensitivities such as main, joint and total Sobol indices. In this study, impacts of fuel compositions on combustion (adiabatic flame temperature and laminar flame speed) of bio-syngas fuel mixtures are presented invoking this PCE technique at several equivalence ratios. High-pressure effects on bio-syngas combustion instability are obtained using detailed chemical mechanism - the San Diego Mechanism. Guidance on reducing combustion instability from upstream biomass gasification process is provided by quantifying the significant contributions of composition variations to variance of physicochemical properties of bio-syngas combustion. It was found that flame speed is very sensitive to hydrogen variability in bio-syngas, and reducing hydrogen uncertainty from upstream biomass gasification processes can greatly reduce bio-syngas combustion instability. Variation of methane concentration, although thought to be important, has limited impacts on laminar flame instabilities especially for lean combustion. Further studies on the UQ of percentage concentration of hydrogen in bio-syngas can be conducted to guide the safer use of bio-syngas.

Keywords: bio-syngas combustion, clean energy utilisation, fuel variability, PCE, targeted uncertainty reduction, uncertainty quantification

Procedia PDF Downloads 264