Search results for: pulsed electric current sintering

Authors: Ahmad Saleem

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Ethereum is the second largest crypto currency in blockchain ecosystem. Along with standard transactions, it supports smart contracts and NFT’s. Current research trends are focused on analyzing the overall structure of the network its growth and behavior. Ethereum addresses are anonymous and can be created on fly. The nature of Ethereum network and addresses make it hard to predict their behavior. The activity period of an ethereum address is not much analyzed. Using machine learning we can make early prediction about the disposability of the address. In this paper we analyzed the lifetime of the addresses. We also identified and predicted the disposable addresses using machine learning models and compared the results.

Keywords: blockchain, Ethereum, cryptocurrency, prediction

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Authors: Hangil Park, Hwayeon Song, Jingyung Sim

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In this study, a business ecosystem of a domestic space industry is comprehensively analyzed to derive the influence factors. The priority level of each element as well as the disparity between the ideal and reality are investigated through a literature review and an expert survey. The three major influence factors determined are: (a) investment scale and approach, (b) propulsion system, and (c) industrialization with overseas expansion. Related issues based on the current status are evaluated, followed by a proposed activation strategy. This research's findings offer a direction for R&D budget allocation and law system maintenance for the activation of the domestic space industry.

Keywords: space industry, activation, strategy, business ecosystem

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Authors: Hrvoje Simovic

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Paper analyses the key problems of fiscal sustainability in Croatia. To point out key challenges of fiscal sustainability, the public debt sustainability is analyzed using standard indicators of fiscal stability, accompanied with the identification of regime changes approach in the public debt trajectory using switching regression approach. The analysis is conducted for the period from 2001 to 2016. Results show huge vulnerability in recession period (2009-14), so key challenges in current fiscal policy and public debt management are recognized in maturity prolongation, interest rates trends, and credit rating expectations.

Keywords: fiscal sustainability, public debt, Croatia, budget deficit

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Authors: Abdulqader Rasool Feqi Mohammed, Ergun Erçelebi̇

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A large number of hospitals from developed countries are adopting hospital information system to bring efficiency in hospital information system. The purpose of this project is to research on new network security techniques in order to enhance the current network security structure of save a hospital information system (HIS). This is very important because, it will avoid the system from suffering any attack. Security architecture was optimized but there are need to keep researching on best means to protect the network from future attacks. In this final project research, security techniques were uncovered to produce best network security results when implemented in an integrated framework.

Keywords: hospital information system, HIS, network security techniques, internet protocol, IP, network

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Authors: Jean Paul Muambangu Milambo, Peter Nyasulu, John Akudugu, Leonidas Ndayisaba, Joyce Tsoka-Gwegweni, Lebwaze Massamba Bienvenu, Mitshindo Mwambangu Chiro

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In 2018, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were responsible for 48% of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with cancer contributing to 5% of these deaths. There is a notable absence of cancer registries, capacity-building activities, budgets, and treatment roadmaps in the DRC. Current cancer estimates are primarily based on mathematical modeling with limited data from neighboring countries. This study aimed to assess cancer subtype prevalence in Kinshasa hospitals and compare these findings with WHO model estimates. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted from 2018 to 2020 at HJ Hospitals in Kinshasa. Data were collected using American Cancer Society (ACS) questionnaires and physician logs. Descriptive analysis was performed using STATA version 16 to estimate cancer burden and provide evidence-based recommendations. Results: The results from the chart review at HJ Hospitals in Kinshasa (2018-2020) indicate that out of 6,852 samples, approximately 11.16% were diagnosed with cancer. The distribution of cancer subtypes in this cohort was as follows: breast cancer (33.6%), prostate cancer (21.8%), colorectal cancer (9.6%), lymphoma (4.6%), and cervical cancer (4.4%). These figures are based on histopathological confirmation at the facility and may not fully represent the broader population due to potential selection biases related to geographic and financial accessibility to the hospital. In contrast, the World Health Organization (WHO) model estimates for cancer prevalence in the DRC show different proportions. According to WHO data, the distribution of cancer types is as follows: cervical cancer (15.9%), prostate cancer (15.3%), breast cancer (14.9%), liver cancer (6.8%), colorectal cancer (5.9%), and other cancers (41.2%) (WHO, 2020). Conclusion: The data indicate a rising cancer prevalence in DRC but highlight significant gaps in clinical, biomedical, and genetic cancer data. The establishment of a population-based cancer registry (PBCR) and a defined cancer management pathway is crucial. The current estimates are limited due to data scarcity and inconsistencies in clinical practices. There is an urgent need for multidisciplinary cancer management, integration of palliative care, and improvement in care quality based on evidence-based measures.

Keywords: cancer, risk factors, DRC, gene-environment interactions, survivors

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Authors: Chumki Payun, Bidisha Som

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The Mising language, spoken by the Mising community in Assam, belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family of languages. This is one of the smaller languages of the region and is facing endangerment due to the dominance of the larger languages, like Assamese. The language is spoken in close in-group scenarios and is gradually losing ground to the dominant languages, partly also due to the education setup where schools use only dominant languages. While there are a number of factors for the current contemporary status of the language, and those can be studied using sociolinguistic tools, the current work aims to contribute to the understanding of language attrition through language processing in order to establish if the effect of second language dominance is more than mere ‘usage’ patterns and has an impact on cognitive strategies. When bilingualism spreads widely in society and results in a language shift, speakers perform people often do better in their second language (L2) than in their first language (L1) across a variety of task settings, in both comprehension and production tasks. This phenomenon was investigated in the case of Mising-Assamese bilinguals, using a picture naming task, in two districts of Jorhat and Tinsukia in Assam, where the relative dominance of L2 is slightly different. This explorative study aimed to investigate if the L2 dominance is visible in their performance and also if the pattern is different in the two different places, thus pointing to the degree of language loss in this case. The findings would have implications for native language education, as education in one’s mother tongue can help reverse the effect of language attrition helping preserve the traditional knowledge system. The hypothesis was that due to the dominance of the L2, subjects’ performance in the task would be better in Assamese than that of Missing. The experiment: Mising-Assamese bilingual participants (age ranges 21-31; N= 20 each from both districts) had to perform a picture naming task in which participants were shown pictures of familiar objects and asked to name them in four scenarios: (a) only in Mising; (b) only in Assamese; (c) a cued mix block: an auditory cue determines the language in which to name the object, and (d) non-cued mix block: participants are not given any specific language cues, but instructed to name the pictures in whichever language they feel most comfortable. The experiment was designed and executed using E-prime 3.0 and was conducted responses were recorded using the help of a Chronos response box and was recorded with the help of a recorder. Preliminary analysis reveals the presence of dominance of L2 over L1. The paper will present a comparison of the response latency, error analysis, and switch cost in L1 and L2 and explain the same from the perspective of language attrition.

Keywords: bilingualism, language attrition, language processing, Mising language.

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Authors: Omar Al Ali

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The current study was aimed to explore the relationships between emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, and leader's performance. Data were collected from 260 senior managers from UAE. The results showed that there are significant relationships between emotional intelligence and leadership performance as measured by the annual internal evaluations of each participant (r = .42, p < .01). Data from regression analysis revealed that both variables namely emotional intelligence (beta = .31, p < .01), and cognitive ability (beta = .29, p < .01), predicted leadership competencies, and together explained 26% of its variance. Data suggests that EI and cognitive ability are significantly correlated with leadership performance. In depth implications of the present findings for human resource development theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, leadership, performance

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Authors: Fauzanah Fauzan El Muhammady

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In the recent years, the Indonesian government has made tremendous efforts to improve the quality of Indonesia’s Islamic Higher Education Institutions (IHEIs) through the implementation of the institutional transformation policy. This policy has encouraged some IHEIs, such as Islamic Collages and Islamic Institutes to shift their institution from college to Institute or from Institute to university. As one of the requirements, the IHEIs should provide non-religious curriculum and integrate it with the religious curriculum (as the core curriculum of IHEIs). As results, since the 2000s, some Islamic Collages and Islamic Institutes have successfully developed the non-religious curriculum and achieved institutional transformation. However, after 15 years, the impact of the institutional transformation to the IHEIs is still debatable. The institutional transformation policy can be questioned as to whether the goal of status transformation has truly brought significant improvement to the quality of IHEIs. Therefore, based on the situation above, this study aims to explore how far the institutional transformation has effectively brought significant impact to the quality improvement of IHEIs. This study has used literature review method to investigate the current development of the institutional transformation in Indonesia’s IHEIs context. This is a part of literature review development to support the process of doctoral research. Based on the literature review, some studies found that the institutional transformation has led pro and cons to the academic community, society, and local government. Some agreed the institutional transformation has effectively facilitated non-religious curriculum development and it has significantly improved the number of prospective students and the student admitted at Islamic Universities. Meanwhile, others argue the development of non-religious curriculum will gradually eliminate the existence of the religious curriculum itself. On the other hand, the government suggests that the institutional transformation should be based on the quality standards. As a result, recently, the government has taken an initiative to restrict the institutional transformation (moratorium) in order to ensure the quality control of the institutional transformation application and to control the increasing number of the institutional transformation demands. This study provided the current issues that related to the contemporary of the institutional transformation in IHEIs context to disclosure how far both IHEIs and government overcome the quality issues of the institutional transformation development. The study results are expected can be used to advocate government, policymakers, and academic leaders in 1) reviewing the sustainability impact of the institutional transformation to the quality improvement of higher education institutions; 2) and finding effective solutions for the continuity of the institutional transformation in the future, particularly in the IHEIs context.

Keywords: curriculum, higher education, institutional transformation, quality

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Authors: Evan Lowhorn, Rocio Alba-Flores

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Traditional classification Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) attempt to classify an image in its entirety. This becomes problematic when trying to perform classification with a drone’s camera in real-time due to unpredictable backgrounds. Object detectors with bounding boxes can be used to isolate individuals and other items, but the original backgrounds remain within these boxes. These basic detectors have been regularly used to determine what type of object an item is, such as “person” or “dog.” Recent advancement in computer vision, particularly with human imaging, is keypoint detection. Human keypoint detection goes beyond bounding boxes to fully isolate humans and plot points, or Regions of Interest (ROI), on their bodies within an image. ROIs can include shoulders, elbows, knees, heads, etc. These points can then be related to each other and used in deep learning methods such as pose estimation. For drone control based on human motions, poses, or signals using the onboard camera, it is important to have a simple method for pilot identification among multiple individuals while also giving the pilot fine control options for the drone. To achieve this, the OpenPose keypoint detection network was used with body and hand keypoint detection enabled. OpenPose supports the ability to combine multiple keypoint detection methods in real-time with a single network. Body keypoint detection allows simple poses to act as the pilot identifier. The hand keypoint detection with ROIs for each finger can then offer a greater variety of signal options for the pilot once identified. For this work, the individual must raise their non-control arm to be identified as the operator and send commands with the hand on their other arm. The drone ignores all other individuals in the onboard camera feed until the current operator lowers their non-control arm. When another individual wish to operate the drone, they simply raise their arm once the current operator relinquishes control, and then they can begin controlling the drone with their other hand. This is all performed mid-flight with no landing or script editing required. When using a desktop with a discrete NVIDIA GPU, the drone’s 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection combined with OpenPose restrictions to only body and hand allows this control method to perform as intended while maintaining the responsiveness required for practical use.

Keywords: computer vision, drone control, keypoint detection, openpose

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Authors: Tatipamula Samiksha Goud, .A.Naveena, M.sresta

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Traffic congestion is a major issue in many cities throughout the world, particularly in urban areas, and it is past time to switch from a fixed timer mode to an automated system. The current traffic signalling system is a fixed-time system that is inefficient if one lane is more functional than the others. A structure for an intelligent traffic control system is being designed to address this issue. When traffic density is higher on one side of a junction, the signal's green time is extended in comparison to the regular time. This study suggests a technique in which the signal's time duration is assigned based on the amount of traffic present at the time. Infrared sensors can be used to do this.

Keywords: infrared sensors, micro-controllers, LEDs, oscillators

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Authors: Abebe Taye

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The interest in enhancing the performance of all-solid-state batteries featuring lithium metal anodes as a potential alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries has prompted exploration into new avenues. A promising strategy involves transforming lithium-ion batteries into hybrid configurations by integrating lithium-ion and lithium-metal solid-state components. This study is focused on achieving stable lithium deposition and advancing the electrochemical capabilities of solid-state lithium hybrid batteries with anodes by incorporating mesocarbon microbeads (MCMBs) blended with silver nanoparticles. To achieve this, mesocarbon microbeads (MCMBs) blended with silver nanoparticles are coated on stainless-steel current collectors. These samples undergo a battery of analyses employing diverse techniques. Surface morphology is studied through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical behavior of the coated samples is evaluated in both half-cell and full-cell setups utilizing an argyrodite-type sulfide electrolyte. The stability of MCMBs in the electrolyte is assessed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Additional insights into the composition are gleaned through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). At an ultra-low N/P ratio of 0.26, stability is upheld for over 100 charge/discharge cycles in half-cells. When applied in a full-cell configuration, the hybrid anode preserves 60.1% of its capacity after 80 cycles at 0.3 C under a low N/P ratio of 0.45. In sharp contrast, the capacity retention of the cell using untreated MCMBs declines to 20.2% after a mere 60 cycles. The introduction of mesocarbon microbeads (MCMBs) combined with silver nanoparticles into the hybrid anode of solid-state lithium batteries substantially elevates their stability and electrochemical performance. This approach ensures consistent lithium deposition and removal, mitigating dendrite growth and the accumulation of inactive lithium. The findings from this investigation hold significant value in elevating the reversibility and energy density of lithium-ion batteries, thereby making noteworthy contributions to the advancement of more efficient energy storage systems.

Keywords: MCMB, lithium metal, hybrid anode, silver nanoparticle, cycling stability

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Authors: Liu Li, Kim Seng Lee, Li Lu

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The high-energy-density Li-rich layered materials are promising cathode materials for the next-generation high-performance lithium-ion batteries. They have attracted a lot of attentions due mainly to their high reversible capacity of more than 250 mAh•g-1 at low charge-discharge current. However several drawbacks still hinder their applications, such as voltage decay caused by an undesired phase transformation during cycling and poor rate capability. To conquer these issues, the authors applied F modification methods on the pristine Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 to enhance its electrochemical performance.

Keywords: Li-ion battery, Li-rich layered cathode material, phase transformation, cycling stability, rate capability

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Authors: Dejenie Birile Gemeda, Wilhelm Stork

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The power system is one of the most important systems in modern society. The existing power system is approaching the critical operating limits as views of several power system operators. With the increase of load demand, high capacity and long transmission networks are widely used to meet the requirement. With the integration of renewable energies such as wind and solar, the uncertainty, intermittence bring bigger challenges to the operation of power systems. These dynamic uncertainties in the power system lead to power disturbances. The disturbances in a heavily stressed power system cause distance relays to mal-operation or false alarms during post fault power oscillations. This unintended operation of these relays may propagate and trigger cascaded trappings leading to total power system blackout. This is due to relays inability to take an appropriate tripping decision based on ensuing power swing. According to the N-1 criterion, electric power systems are generally designed to withstand a single failure without causing the violation of any operating limit. As a result, some overloaded components such as overhead transmission lines can still work for several hours under overload conditions. However, when a large power swing happens in the power system, the settings of the distance relay of zone 3 may trip the transmission line with a short time delay, and they will be acting so quickly that the system operator has no time to respond and stop the cascading. Misfiring of relays in absence of fault due to power swing may have a significant loss in economic performance, thus a loss in revenue for power companies. This research paper proposes a method to distinguish stable power swing from unstable using dynamic line rating (DLR) in response to power swing or disturbances. As opposed to static line rating (SLR), dynamic line rating support effective mitigation actions against propagating cascading outages in a power grid. Effective utilization of existing transmission lines capacity using machine learning DLR predictions will improve the operating point of distance relay protection, thus reducing unintended power outages due to power swing.

Keywords: blackout, cascading outages, dynamic line rating, power swing, overhead transmission lines

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Authors: Wang Zhulin, Min Fuhong, Peng Guangya, Wang Yaoda, Cao Yi

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In this paper, a magnetron memristor model based on hyperbolic sine function is presented and the correctness proved by studying the trajectory of its voltage and current phase, and then a memristor chaotic system with the memristor model is presented. The phase trajectories and the bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponent spectrum of the magnetron memristor system are plotted by numerical simulation, and the chaotic evolution with changing the parameters of the system is also given. The paper includes numerical simulations and mathematical model, which confirming that the system, has a wealth of dynamic behavior.

Keywords: memristor, chaotic circuit, dynamical behavior, chaotic system

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Authors: Ryan Maclellan

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EXO-200 has provided one of the most sensitive searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay utilizing 175 kg of enriched liquid xenon in an ultra-low background time projection chamber. This detector has demonstrated excellent energy resolution and background rejection capabilities. Using the first two years of data, EXO-200 has set a limit of 1.1x10^25 years at 90% C.L. on the neutrinoless double-beta decay half-life of Xe-136. The experiment has experienced a brief hiatus in data taking during a temporary shutdown of its host facility: the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. EXO-200 expects to resume data taking in earnest this fall with upgraded detector electronics. Results from the analysis of EXO-200 data and an update on the current status of EXO-200 will be presented.

Keywords: double-beta, Majorana, neutrino, neutrinoless

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Authors: Mohamed Shafi Mahboob Ali

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Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare entity with overall cases reported less than 1%. However, the incidence of MBC is regularly rising every year. Due to the lack of data on MBC, diagnosis and treatment are tailored to female breast cancer. MBC risk increases with age and is usually diagnosed ten years late as the disease progression is slow compared to female breast cancer (FBC). The most common feature of MBC is an intra-ductal variant, and often, upon diagnosis, the stage of the disease is already advanced. The Prognosis of MBC is often flawed, but new treatment modalities are emerging with the current knowledge and advancement. We presented a series of male breast cancer in our center, highlighting the clinicopathological, radiological and treatment options.

Keywords: male, breast, cancer, clinicopathology, ultrasound, CT scan

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Authors: Juan Cuesta

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Satellite observation is a fundamental component of air pollution monitoring systems, such as the large-scale Copernicus Programme. Next-generation satellite sensors, in orbit or programmed in the future, offer great potential to observe major air pollutants, such as tropospheric ozone, with unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage. However, satellite approaches developed for remote sensing of tropospheric ozone are based solely on measurements from a single instrument in a specific spectral range, either thermal infrared or ultraviolet. These methods offer sensitivity to tropospheric ozone located at the lowest at 3 or 4 km altitude above the surface, thus limiting their applications for ozone pollution analysis. Indeed, no current observation of a single spectral domain provides enough information to accurately measure ozone in the atmospheric boundary layer. To overcome this limitation, we have developed a multispectral synergism approach, called "IASI+GOME2", at the Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA) laboratory. This method is based on the synergy of thermal infrared and ultraviolet observations of respectively the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) sensors embedded in MetOp satellites that have been in orbit since 2007. IASI+GOME2 allowed the first satellite observation of ozone plumes located between the surface and 3 km of altitude (what we call the lowermost troposphere), as it offers significant sensitivity in this layer. This represents a major advance for the observation of ozone in the lowermost troposphere and its application to air quality analysis. The ozone abundance derived by IASI+GOME2 shows a good agreement with respect to independent observations of ozone based on ozone sondes (a low mean bias, a linear correlation larger than 0.8 and a mean precision of about 16 %) around the world during all seasons. Using IASI+GOME2, lowermost tropospheric ozone pollution plumes are quantified both in terms of concentrations and also in the amounts of ozone photo-chemically produced along transport and also enabling the characterization of the ozone pollution, such as what occurred during the lockdowns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current paper will show the IASI+GOME2 multispectral approach to observe the lowermost tropospheric ozone from space and an overview of several applications on different continents and at a global scale.

Keywords: ozone pollution, multispectral synergism, satellite, air quality

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Authors: Aharouay Soumaya

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Efficiency is a relative concept. It is measured by comparing the productivity obtained in what is intended as standard or objective criteria. The quantity and quality of output achieved and the level of service are also compared to targets or standards, to determine to what extent they could cause changes in efficiency. Efficiency improves when more outputs of a specified quality are produced with the same resource inputs or less, or when the same amount of output is produced with fewer resources. This article proposes a review of the literature on strategies adopted by firms in the age of the financial crisis to overcome these negative effects, and tracks progress chosen by the organization to remain successful despite the plight of firms.

Keywords: effectiveness, efficiency, organizational capacity, strategy, management tool, progress, performance

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Authors: Leena Inamdar, David Allen, Sushma Acquilla, James Gore

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Health systems globally are facing increasingly complex challenges. Emerging health threats, changing population demographics and increasing health inequalities, globalisation, economic constraints on government spending are some of the most critical ones. These challenges demand not only innovative funding and cross-sectoral approaches, but also require a multidisciplinary public health workforce equipped with skills and expertise to meet the future challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We aim to outline an approach to assessing the feasibility of establishing a competency-based public health training at a country level. Although the SDGs provide an enabling impetus for change and promote positive developments, public health training and education still lag behind. Large gaps are apparent in both the numbers of trained professionals and the options for high quality training. Public health training in most Low-Middle Income Countries is still largely characterized by a traditional and limited public health focus. There is a pressing need to review and develop core and emerging competences for a well-equipped workforce fit for the future. This includes the important role of national Health and Human Resource Ministries in determining these competences. Public health has long been recognised as a multidisciplinary field, with need for professionals from a wider range of disciplines such as management, health promotion, health economics, law. Leadership and communication skills are also critical to achieve the successes in meeting public health outcomes. Such skills and competences need to be translated into competency-based training and education, to prepare current public health professionals with the skills required in today’s competitive job market. Integration of academic and service based public-health training, flexible accredited programmes to support existing mid-career professionals, continuous professional development need to be explored. In the current global climate of austerity and increasing demands on health systems, the need for stepping up public health training and education is more important than ever. By using a case study, we demonstrate the process of assessing the in-county capacity to establish a competency based public health training programme that will help to develop a stronger, more versatile and much needed public health workforce to meet the SDGs.

Keywords: public health training, competency-based, assessment, SDGs

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Authors: Anthony Halog

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In the coming decades the world that we know today will be drastically transformed. Population and economic growth, particularly in developing countries, are radically changing the demand for food and natural resources. Due to the transformations caused by these megatrends, especially economic growth which is rapidly expanding the middle class and changing consumption patterns worldwide, it is expected that this will result to an increase of approximately 40 percent in the demand for food, water, energy and other resources in the next decades. To fulfill this demand in a sustainable and efficient manner while avoiding food and water scarcity as well as environmental catastrophes in the near future, some industries, particularly the ones involved in food and energy production, have to drastically change its current production systems towards circular and green economy. In Australia, the agri-food industry has played a very important role in the scenario described above. It is one of the major food exporters in the world, supplying fast growing international markets in Asia and the Middle East. Though the Australian food supply chains are economically and technologically developed, it has been facing enduring challenges about its international competitiveness and environmental burdens caused by its production processes. An integrated framework for sustainability assessment is needed to precisely identify inefficiencies and environmental impacts created during food production processes. This research proposes a combination of industrial ecology and systems science based methods and tools intending to develop a novel and useful methodological framework for life cycle sustainability analysis of the agri-food industry. The presentation highlights circular economy paradigm aiming to implement sustainable industrial processes to transform the current industrial model of agri-food supply chains. The results are expected to support government policy makers, business decision makers and other stakeholders involved in agri-food-energy production system in pursuit of green and circular economy. The framework will assist future life cycle and integrated sustainability analysis and eco-redesign of food and other industrial systems.

Keywords: circular economy, eco-efficiency, agri-food systems, green economy, life cycle sustainability assessment

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Authors: Paule Olivia Akotto

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The recent literature suggests spending between 50%-85% of oil rents. However, there are not yet clear guidelines for allocating this windfall in the public investment system, while most of the resource-rich countries fail to improve their intergenerational mobility. We study a design of the optimal spending system in Senegal, a low-income developing country featuring newly discovered oil fields and low intergenerational mobility. We build a dynamic general equilibrium model in which rural and urban (Dakar and other urban centers henceforth OUC) households face different health, education, and employment opportunities based on their location, affecting their intergenerational mobility. The model captures the relationship between oil rents, public investment, and multidimensional inequality of opportunity. The government invests oil rents in three broad sectors: health and education, road and industries, and agriculture. Through endogenous productivity externality and human capital accumulation, our model generates the predominant position of Dakar and OUC households in terms of access to health, education, and employment in line with Senegal data. Rural households are worse off in all dimensions. We compute the optimal spending policy under two sets of simulation scenarios. Under the current Senegal public investment strategy, which weighs more health and education investments, we find that the reform maximizing the decline in inequality of opportunity between households, frontloads investment during the first eight years of the oil exploitation and spends the perpetual value of oil wealth thereafter. We will then identify the marginal winners and losers associated with this policy and its redistributive implications. Under our second set of scenarios, we will test whether the Senegalese economy can reach better equality of opportunity outcomes under this frontloading reform, by allowing the sectoral shares of investment to vary. The trade-off will be between cutting human capital investment in favor of agricultural and productive infrastructure or increasing the former. We will characterize the optimal policy by specifying where the higher weight should be. We expect that the optimal policy of the second set strictly dominates in terms of equality of opportunity, the optimal policy computed under the current investment strategy. Finally, we will quantify this optimal policy's aggregate and distributional effects on poverty, well-being, and gender earning gaps.

Keywords: developing countries, general equilibrium, inequality of opportunity, oil rents

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Authors: Fereshteh Falah, Alireza Vasiee, Farideh Tabatabaei-Yazdi

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In this research, we investigated the usage of dairy sludge in the fermentation process and cyclosporin production. This bioactive compound is a metabolite produced by Tolypocladium inflatum. Results showed that about 200 ppm of cyclosporin can be produced in this fermentation. In order to have a proper and specific function, CyA must be free of any impurities, so we need purification. In this downstream processing, we used chromatographic extraction and evaluation of pharmacological activities of cyA. Results showed that the obtained metabolite has very high activity against Aspergilus niger (25mm clear zone). This cyclosporin was isolated for use as an antibiotic. The current research shows that this drug is very vital and commercially very important.

Keywords: fermentation, cyclosporin A, Tolypocladium inflatum, TLC

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Authors: Mehmet Sener, Emre Kishali

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The establishment of republic brought radical changes related to the modernization of life in early republican Turkey considering the revolutions in socio-economical, cultural and political aspects. These changes also had many influences on the formation of city planning and architectural medium that the arrangements related with health facility production had an important place amongst them. While the health services were witnessing great transformations with all its sides, socio-cultural and architectural framework of these facilities necessitated the adaption of new conceptual approaches which led to the construction new hospital buildings by the republican state with a name ‘Sample Hospital’. In this period, the state constructed sample hospitals in some cities (Adana, Ankara, Erzurum, İstanbul, Konya, Sivas and Trabzon) for the aim of being a good example for further hospitals sheltering all the characteristics of a contemporary health complex for that day. In this study, these six hospitals will firstly be elucidated considering their historical evaluations and current situations. Then, being one of the most significant modern heritages of republican history, the ways to provide the interrelationship of these complexes with the rapidly evolving current world will be discussed by proposing solutions or approaches coming from the fields of city planning, architectural preservation, engineering and architectural history together with an awareness of the socio-economic conditions, health services and architectural medium of Turkey. These hospitals are complexes composed of building ensembles which have functional relationships with each other. So, some strategies will be proposed for the preservation, renovation, and refurbishment of these complexes with an awareness of the possibility of the conflict between conservation practices and today’s health facility standards. Accordingly, the addition or removal of some elements in the complex or the suggestion of some architectural changes for the modernization of these health facilities will be investigated considering the requirements of the contemporary architectural design of health facilities. Since these hospitals are highly complex structures and have vastly changing design and construction standards, they cannot be used without adopting necessary architectural and technological interventions. So, the adaptive re-use of these buildings instead of demolition or the preservation of their overall characteristics becomes inevitable for the sustaining of these health facility heritages in Turkey. In this context, a multidisciplinary analysis will be made in this study on ‘Sample Hospital’ concept and buildings existing in Turkish modern architectural history within the framework of the adaptive reuse of these health complexes.

Keywords: adaptive re-use, conservation, early republican Turkey, sample hospital

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Authors: Diptoshi Roy, G. Sreevidya Varma, S. Asokan, Chandasree Das

Abstract:

Germanium Telluride based quaternary thin film switching devices with composition Ge₁₅In₅Te₅₆Ag_24, have been deposited in sandwich geometry on glass substrate with aluminum as top and bottom electrodes. The bulk glassy form of the said composition is prepared by melt quenching technique. In this technique, appropriate quantity of elements with high purity are taken in a quartz ampoule and sealed under a vacuum of 10^-5 mbar. Then, it is allowed to rotate in a horizontal rotary furnace for 36 hours to ensure homogeneity of the melt. After that, the ampoule is quenched into a mixture of ice - water and NaOH to get the bulk ingot of the sample. The sample is then coated on a glass substrate using flash evaporation technique at a vacuum level of 10^-6 mbar. The XRD report reveals the amorphous nature of the thin film sample and Energy - Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) confirms that the film retains the same chemical composition as that of the base sample. Electrical switching behavior of the device is studied with the help of Keithley (2410^c) source-measure unit interfaced with Lab VIEW 7 (National Instruments). Switching studies, mainly SET (changing the state of the material from amorphous to crystalline) operation is conducted on the thin film form of the sample. This device is found to manifest memory switching as the device remains 'ON' even after the removal of the electric field. Also it is found that amorphous Ge₁₅In₅Te₅₆Ag₂₄ thin film unveils clean memory type of electrical switching behavior which can be justified by the absence of fluctuation in the I-V characteristics. The I-V characteristic also reveals that the switching is faster in this sample as no data points could be seen in the negative resistance region during the transition to on state and this leads to the conclusion of fast phase change during SET process. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies are performed on the chosen sample to study the structural changes at the time of switching. SEM studies on the switched Ge₁₅In₅Te₅₆Ag₂₄ sample has shown some morphological changes at the place of switching wherein it can be explained that a conducting crystalline channel is formed in the device when the device switches from high resistance to low resistance state. From these studies it can be concluded that the material may find its application in fast switching Non-Volatile Phase Change Memory (PCM) Devices.

Keywords: Chalcogenides, Vapor deposition, Electrical switching, PCM.

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Authors: Kyo Jin An, Bukyo Seo, Young-Chul Park

Abstract:

The current trend in car market is increase of parts of automobile and weight in vehicle. It comes from improvement of vehicle performance. Outer tie rod is a part of component of steering system and it is lighter than the others. But, weight lightening is still required for improvement of car mileage. So, we have presented a model of aluminized outer tie rod, but the process of fabrication has to be checked to manufacture the product. Therefore, we have anticipated forming load, die stress and abrasion to use the program of forging interpretation in the part of hot forging process of outer tie rod in this study. Also, we have implemented the experiments design to use the table of orthogonal arrays to reduce the forming load.

Keywords: forming load, hot forging, orthogonal array, outer tie rod (OTR), multi–step forging

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Authors: Sabir Messalti, Ahmed Gherbi, Ahmed Bouchlaghem

Abstract:

This paper presents comparative study for power systems transient stability improvement using three FACTS devices: the SVC(Static Var Compensator), the Thyristor Control Breaking Resistor (TCBR) and superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL)The transient stability is assessed by the criterion of relative rotor angles. Critical Clearing Time (CCT) is used as an index for evaluated transient stability. The present study is tested on the WSCC3 nine-bus system in the case of three-phase short circuit fault on one transmission line.

Keywords: SVC, TCBR, SFCL, power systems transient stability improvement

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Authors: Emin Gundogar, Burak Erkayman, Aysegul Yilmaz, Nusret Sazak

Abstract:

When considering current competition conditions on the world, satisfying customer demands on time has become an important factor that enables the firms take a step further. Therefore, production process must be completed faster to take the competitive advantage. A balanced assembly line is the one of most important factors affecting the speed of production lines. The aim of this study is to build an assembly line to balance the assembly line and to simulate it for different scenarios through a refrigerator factory. The times of the operations is analyzed and grouped by the priorities. First, a Kilbridge & Wester heuristics is put to the model then a simulation approach is implemented to the model and the differences are observed.

Keywords: assembly line design, assembly line balancing, simulation modelling, refrigeration industry

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Authors: Md. Abdul Karim, Syed Imran Ahmed, Pandora T. Hardtman

Abstract:

Informed consent is one of the basic human and ethical rights for childbearing women. It plays a central role in promoting informed decision making between patients and service providers during the labor process. It gives mothers rights to accept or reject any examination and/or procedure, increases the respect and dignity of the mother during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum care. To assess the practices of this right during normal vaginal delivery and immediate postpartum care in tertiary level hospital setting in Bangladesh, a quantitative study with cross-sectional design was conducted in Dhaka Medical College & Hospital (DMCH) and Sir Salimullah Medical College & Mitford Hospital (SSMCH) in Dhaka in November 2015. A prevalence-based sample size of 190 was calculated where prevalence, confidence interval and level of significance were at 9.7%, 98% and 5% respectively. The respondents were the mothers who gave normal vaginal childbirth within past 24 hours and received postpartum care there. They were selected through systematic random sampling technique and their face-to-face interview of 190 mothers was done using a structured questionnaire. Data were entered into the spreadsheet (MS Excel 2013 version) and descriptive analysis of findings was done. The result shows the complete absence of informed consent practices and mostly absence of consented care such as right to information, respect for choices of preferences for examination and/or procedure of childbearing women. Although 95% of the mothers were informed that they were being proceeded with normal vaginal delivery, their choice of preference was absent during the process. Only consent (not informed consent) was taken from 50%-72% mothers for examination (except breast examination ‘0%’) and 8%-83% for any procedures during postpartum care. Only one-ninth (11%) of the mothers could ask service providers regarding the services they received. No consent was taken from 3% of the mothers- neither in the labor process nor in postpartum care. This current practice doesn’t comply with the Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) Charter 2011. The issue is not even clarified in the current Standard Clinical Management Protocols of the country. So, improvement of the existing protocol and increased awareness are essential to address this right of child-bearing women and to practice it during normal vaginal delivery and postpartum care.

Keywords: informed consent, normal vaginal delivery, respectful maternity care, tertiary level hospital

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Authors: Meduranda Marco

Abstract:

This paper aimed to discuss the Integrative Assessment (IA) initiative of the Schools Division Office - Navotas City. The introduction provided a brief landscape analysis of the current state of education, the context of SDO Navotas, and the rationale for the administration of Integrative Assessment (IA) in schools. The IA methodology, procedure, and implementation activities were also shared. Feedback and reports on IA showed positive results as all schools in the Division were able to operationalize IA and consequently foster academic ease for learners and parents. Challenges met after compliance were also documented and strategies to continuously improve the Integrative Assessment process were proposed.

Keywords: distance learning assessment, integrative assessment, academic ease, learning outcomes evaluation

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Authors: Mark De Ste Croix, Jonathan Hughes, Francisco Ayala, Michal Lehnert

Abstract:

There are well-known challenges to implementing injury prevention training for youth players but no data are available on the knowledge and understanding of deliverers of such programmes at grass root level. To increase adoption and adherence to such programmes coach knowledge and understanding of injury risk and prevention is essential. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine grass-root coaches knowledge and understanding of injury risk and prevention in youth players. 68 grass root coaches (18 females and 50 males) who were attending a one-day injury prevention workshop completed a modified validated questionnaire exploring knowledge and understanding of injury risk and prevention in youth players. Only 59% of coaches agreed that youth players are at a high risk of suffering an injury. There were high levels of agreement that injuries can have negative impacts on team performance (75%) and can cause physical problems in later life (85%), however only around half of coaches felt that injuries affect youth players current quality of life (59%). There was strong agreement that it is possible to prevent injuries in youth players (84%), but coaches were generally unaware of programs to help prevent injuries (84%), and only 9% used some form of injury prevention program. Despite this, nearly all coaches felt that their coaching could benefit from a greater understanding of growth and maturation (91%), injury prevention programmes (91%) and specific exercises (93%) for youth athletes. 17% of coaches rated their knowledge of injury prevention as good/very good at the start of the workshop and this increased to 94% at the end of the workshop. 62% of coaches identified their attitude towards injury prevention as indifferent at the start of the workshop compared with only 1% at the end. Only 14% of coaches at the start of the workshop were confident to deliver an injury prevention session but 83% stated they were confident by the end of the workshop. Finally, 98% of coaches felt that the workshop provided them with the confidence and the knowledge to deliver an injury prevention session and 98% suggested that they would implement injury prevention into their coaching. These data suggest that there is a lack of understanding of grass root coaches that children are a high-risk group for injuries, and that such injuries impact on current quality of life. Despite understanding that injuries can be prevented most grass root coaches do not have the knowledge to implement injury prevention into their coaching and very few do. There is a common consensus amongst these coaches that a greater understanding of such programmes will enhance their coaching. The injury prevention workshop appears to have increased the knowledge and changed the attitude of coaches towards injury prevention. All coaches felt that the workshop provided them with the tools to adopt, implement and deliver injury prevention in their coaching. These data highlight that there is a clear need for education regarding injury risk and prevention to be embedded within the coach education pathway, especially at grass root level.

Keywords: coach education, injury prevention, knowledge, and understanding, youth

Procedia PDF Downloads 171