Search results for: seismic random noise attenuation

Authors: Hussaini Bala

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There are different opinions in the literature on the relationship between Audit Committee characteristics and earnings management. The mix of opinions makes the direction of their relationship ambiguous. This study investigated the relationship between Audit Committee characteristics and earnings management of listed food and beverages Firms in Nigeria. The study covered the period of six years from 2007 to 2012. Data for the study were extracted from the Firms’ annual reports and accounts. After running the OLS regression, a robustness test was conducted for the validity of statistical inferences. The dependent variable was generated using two steps regression in order to determine the discretionary accrual of the sample Firms. Multiple regression was employed to run the data of the study using Random Model. The results from the analysis revealed a significant association between audit committee characteristics and earnings management of the Firms. While audit committee size and committees’ financial expertise showed an inverse relationship with earnings management, committee’s independence, and frequency of meetings are positively and significantly related to earnings management. In line with the findings, the study recommended among others that listed food and beverages Firms in Nigeria should strictly comply with the provision of Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and SEC Code of Corporate Governance on the issues regarding Audit Committees. Regulators such as SEC should increase the minimum number of Audit Committee members with financial expertise and also have a statutory position on the maximum number of Audit Committees meetings, which should not be greater than four meetings in a year as SEC code of corporate governance is silent on this.

Keywords: audit committee, earnings management, listed Food and beverages size, leverage, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 252

Authors: Vijaya Nirmala Pangi, K. V. Subhramanyam, C. Vijay Lakshmi

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Background: The prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is increasing drastically at a vigorous rate all over the world population. Aim: The present study aims to determine the prevalence of type-2 diabetes mellitus in Paderu tribal area population of Visakhapatnam district, located in northeastern region of Andhra Pradesh. Methods: A random sampling method was followed in 1025 subjects including controls (n=25) and determined 75-g oral glucose tolerance test to assess the presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The effect of anthropometric factors like age, gender, literacy, socio economic status, and environmental risk factors such as body fat response, hypertension and psychophysical stress response were determined in the studied subjects. Results: 78 (7.8%) were diabetic. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus was found to be comparable between the two genders. Prevalence of diabetes was observed to be high in illiterate, low economic status subjects. Body fat response was comparable between control and diabetic subjects. However hypertension, stress associated enzymes showed significant (p < 0.05) decrease in diabetic subjects compared to controls in both the genders. Conclusion: It appears that there is a rising pattern in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in tribal area, Paderu, Andhra Pradesh, India compared to previous rural studies.

Keywords: anthropometric studies, hypertension, oral glucose tolerance test, stress enzymes, type-2 diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Muhammad Imran Nisar, Fyezah Jehan, Tauseef Akhund, Sadia Shakoor, Kanwal Nayani, Furqan Kabir, Asad Ali, Anita Zaidi

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Pneumococcal Vaccine -10 (PCV 10) was included in the Expanded Program of immunization (EPI) in Sindh, Pakistan in February 2013. This study was carried out immediately before the introduction of PCV 10 to establish baseline pneumococcal carriage and prevalent serotypes in naso-pharynx of children 3-11 months of age in an urban and rural community in Sindh, Pakistan. An additional sample of children aged 12 to 59 months was drawn from the urban community. Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from a random sample of children. Samples were processed in a central laboratory in Karachi. Pneumococci were cultured on 5% Sheep Blood Agar and serotyping was performed using CDC standardized sequential multiplex PCR assay on bacterial colonies. Serotypes were then categorized into vaccine (PCV-10 and PCV-13) type and non-vaccine types. A total of 670 children were enrolled. Carriage rate for pneumococcus based on culture positivity was 74% and 79.5 % in the infant group in Karachi and Matiari respectively. Carriage rate was 78.2% for children aged 12 to 59 months in Karachi. Proportion of PCV 10 serotypes in infants was 38.8% and 33.5% in Karachi and Matiari respectively. In the older age group in Karachi, the proportion was 30.6%. Most common serotypes were 6A, 6B, 23F, 19A and 18C. This survey establishes vaccine and non-vaccine serotype carriage rate in a vaccine-naïve pediatric population among rural and urban communities in Sindh province. Annually planned surveys in the same communities will inform change in carriage rate after the introduction and uptake of PCV 10 in these communities.

Keywords: Naso-Pharyngeal carriage, Pakistan, PCV10, Pneumococcus

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Authors: Azidah Abu Ziden, Adu Ifedayo Emmanuel

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This study investigated the optical board as an artificial technology for peer teaching in a Nigerian university. A design and development research (DDR) design was adopted, which entailed the planning and testing of instructional design models adopted to produce the optical board. This research population involved twenty-five (25) peer-teaching students at a Nigerian university consisting of theatre arts, religion, and language education-related disciplines. Also, using a random sampling technique, this study selected eight (8) students to work on the optical board. Besides, this study introduced a research instrument titled lecturer assessment rubric containing 30-mark metrics for evaluating students’ teaching with the optical board. In this study, it was discovered that the optical board affords students acquisition of self-employment skills through their exposure to the peer teaching course, which is a teacher training module in Nigerian universities. It is evident in this study that students were able to coordinate their design and effectively develop the optical board without lecturer’s interference. This kind of achievement in this research shows that the Nigerian university curriculum had been designed with contents meant to spur students to create jobs after graduation, and effective implementation of the readily available curriculum contents is enough to imbue students with the needed entrepreneurial skills. It was recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) must discourage the poor implementation of Nigerian university curriculum and invest more in the betterment of the readily available curriculum instead of considering a synonymously acclaimed new curriculum for regurgitated teaching and learning process.

Keywords: optical board, artificial technology, peer teaching, educational technology, Nigeria, Malaysia, university, glass, wood, electrical, improvisation

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Authors: Getaneh Berie Tarekegn

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A precise localization system is crucial for many artificial intelligence Internet of Things (AI-IoT) applications in the era of smart cities. Their applications include traffic monitoring, emergency alarming, environmental monitoring, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and smart health care. The most common method for providing continuous positioning services in outdoor environments is by using a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Due to nonline-of-sight, multipath, and weather conditions, GNSS systems do not perform well in dense urban, urban, and suburban areas.This paper proposes a generative AI-based positioning scheme for large-scale wireless settings using fingerprinting techniques. In this article, we presented a novel semi-supervised deep convolutional generative adversarial network (S-DCGAN)-based radio map construction method for real-time device localization. We also employed a reliable signal fingerprint feature extraction method with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), which extracts dominant features while eliminating noise from hybrid WLAN and long-term evolution (LTE) fingerprints. The proposed scheme reduced the workload of site surveying required to build the fingerprint database by up to 78.5% and significantly improved positioning accuracy. The results show that the average positioning error of GAILoc is less than 39 cm, and more than 90% of the errors are less than 82 cm. That is, numerical results proved that, in comparison to traditional methods, the proposed SRCLoc method can significantly improve positioning performance and reduce radio map construction costs.

Keywords: location-aware services, feature extraction technique, generative adversarial network, long short-term memory, support vector machine

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Authors: Avi Shrivastava

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Title 42, an emergency health decree, has forced the federal authorities to turn away asylum seekers and all other border crossers since last year. When Title 42 was first deployed in immigration detention centers, where many migrants are held when they arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration embraced it as a strategy. Expulsions Policy and New Border Challenges will be examined in regard to Title 42 concerns. Humanitarian measures for refugees arriving at the US-Mexico border are the focus of this article. To a large extent, this article addresses the implications of the United States' use of Title 42 in expelling refugees and the possible ramifications of doing away with it. A secondary data collecting strategy was used to gather the information for this study, allowing researchers to examine a large number of previously collected data sets. Information about Title 42 may be found in a variety of places, such as scholarly publications, newspapers, books, and the internet. The inquiry employed qualitative and explanatory research approaches. The claim that 1.7 million individuals were forced to leave the country as a result of it was withdrawn. Since CBP and ICE were limited in their ability to process deportees, it employed a very random patchwork technique in selecting the expelled individuals. As a consequence, repeat offenders, particularly those who were single, got a reduced punishment. The government will be compelled to focus on long-overdue but vital border enhancements if expulsions are halted. Title 42 provisions may help expedite the processing of asylum and other types of humanitarian relief. The government is prepared for an increase in arrivals, but ending the program would lead to a return to arrival levels seen during the Title 42 period.

Keywords: migrants, refugees, title 42, medical, trump administration

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Authors: K. Shafiei, A. Pirestani, G. Ghalamkari, S. Safavipour

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Use of GnRH or its agonists to increase conception rates should be based on an understanding of GnRH-induced biological effects on the reproductive-endocrine system. This effect may occur through GnRH-stimulated LH surge stimulating production of progesterone by corpus luteum.the aim of this study was to compare the effects on reproductive efficiency of a luteolytic dose of a synthetic prostaglandin Cloprostenol Sodium versus ainjectable progesterone and Luliberin- A on Follicle estrogen and progesterone levels.In this study, we used45 head of holstein dairy heifersin the three treatments, with 15 replicates per treatment were performed in random groups. all the heifers before the projects is began in two steps injection 3 mL CloprostenolSodium with an interval of 11 days been synchronized and 10 days later, second injection of prostaglandin was conducted after that we started below protocol:Control group (daily sodium chloride serum injection 1 cc), Group B: Day Zero, intramuscular injection of 15 mg Luliberin- A + every other day injection of 3 cc progesterone + day 7, injection of Cloprostenol Sodium+ day 9, injection of 15 mg Luliberin- A.Group C: similar to Grop B + daily injection of progesterone after that blood samples was collected and centrifuged.plasma were analysed by ELISA.the analysis of this study uses SPSS data software package and compared between the mean and LS Means LSD test at 5% significance level was used.The results of this study shows that maximum of progesterone plasma levels were in the control gruop (P ≥ 0.05).Therefore, daily injection of progesterone inhibit the growth CL. the most estrogen levels in plasma were in Group C (P ≥ 0.05) thus it can be concluded, rise in endogenous estrogen concentrations normally stimulates the preovulatory LH release in heifers.

Keywords: Luliberin- A, Cloprostenol Sodium, estrogen, progesterone, dairy heifers

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Authors: Seyfollah Fazlollahi, Ahmad Bayan Memar

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Background: A review of manpower planning includes a training analysis based on job descriptions and job specifications which looks carefully at training from the points of view of the company, its various departments and personnel. This may show weaknesses in some departments and as a result, training is needed for the staff. Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of training on employee’s efficiency in different aspects of work. Methodology: This is a descriptive-survey study. Statistical population was 85 official employees of University of Qom, Iran. 70 of these individuals were selected on a statistical random sampling method using Morgan&Gorki table. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire including 22 questions. Result: Findings in this study according to data analysis indicate that majority of respondents had positive attitude towards training programs, in the job or off the job. They believed that training programs promoted and enhanced their behavior positively which leads to high efficiency in their job. In fact, data support the main hypothesis that training has positive effects on job performance and efficiency. Conclusion: It is concluded from this study and other related researches that training (on the job and off the job) has positive and effective role in human development and labor as employee’s efficiency. Employees get acquainted with different tasks of a job. Group co-operation, creativity and innovation will be enforced. Training leads to job skills, increasing knowledge and information about a job. It also increases technical and conceptual human skills, which are important in an organization. We can also mention workers' increasing positive motivation toward their job, enforcement of coordinating moral, their good human relations and good contact with clients.

Keywords: training, work efficiency, employee, human relation, job satisfaction

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Authors: N. R. P Withana, E. Auch

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The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of climate change risk to forest ecosystems and forest-based communities as well as perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies for climate change as well as challenges for adaptation. Data was gathered using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Simple random selection technique was applied. For the majority of issues, the responses were obtained on multi-point Likert scales, and the scores provided were, in turn, used to estimate the means and other useful estimates. A composite knowledge index developed using correct responses to a set of self-rated statements were used to evaluate the issues. The mean of the knowledge index was 0.64. Also all respondents recorded values of the knowledge index above 0.25. Increase forest fire was perceived by respondents as the greatest risk to forest eco-system. Decrease access to water supplies was perceived as the greatest risk to livelihoods of forest based communities. The most effective adaptation strategy relevant to climate change risks to forest eco-systems and forest based communities livelihoods in Kathmandu valley in Nepal as perceived by the respondents was reforestation and afforestation. As well, lack of public awareness was perceived as the major limitation for climate change adaptation. However, perceived risks as well as effective adaptation strategies showed an inconsistent association with knowledge indicators and social-cultural variables. The results provide useful information to any party who involve with climate change issues in Nepal, since such attempts would be more effective once the people’s perceptions on these aspects are taken into account.

Keywords: climate change, risk perceptions, forest ecosystems, forest-based communities

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Authors: Ayse Inel Manav, Saliha Bozdogan Yesilot, Pinar Yesil Demirci, Gursel Oztunc

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Introduction: This study was conducted with a view to evaluating cognitive function level, depression, and quality of life of elderly people living in a nursing home. Methods: This study, which is cross-sectional and descriptive in nature, was conducted in the Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for the Elderly in Adana/Turkey between 1st of May and 1st of August, 2016. The participants included 118 elderly people who were chosen using simple random sampling method. The data were collected using the Personal Information Form, the Standardized Mini Mental State Exam (SMMSE), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-OLD (WHOQOL-OLD) module. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 (IBM, SPSS, Turkey) program. Results: Of all the participants, 36,4% (n=43) were female, 63,6% (n=75) were male, and average age was 74,08 ± 8,23 years. The participants’ SMMSE mean score was found 20,37 ± 7,08, GDS mean score was 14,92 ± 4,29, and WHOQOL-OLD module mean score was 69,76 ± 11,54. There was a negative, significant relationship between SMMSE and GDS scores, a positive relationship between WHOQOL-OLD module total scores and a negative, significant relationship between GDS scores and WHOQOL-OLD module total scores. Discussıon and Conclusion: Results showed that more than half of the elderly people living in the nursing home experienced cognitive deterioration and depression; and cognitive state, depression, and quality of life were found to be significantly related to each other.

Keywords: depression, cognitive function level, quality of life

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Authors: Mohd Sabri Minhat, Nurul Adilla Mohd Subha

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The 1MWth PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor (RTP) in Malaysia Nuclear Agency has been operating more than 35 years. The existing core power control is using conventional controller known as Feedback Control Algorithm (FCA). It is technically challenging to keep the core power output always stable and operating within acceptable error bands for the safety demand of the RTP. Currently, the system could be considered unsatisfactory with power tracking performance, yet there is still significant room for improvement. Hence, a new design core power control is very important to improve the current performance in tracking and regulating reactor power by controlling the movement of control rods that suit the demand of highly sensitive of nuclear reactor power control. In this paper, the proposed Model Predictive Control (MPC) law was applied to control the core power. The model for core power control was based on mathematical models of the reactor core, MPC, and control rods selection algorithm. The mathematical models of the reactor core were based on point kinetics model, thermal hydraulic models, and reactivity models. The proposed MPC was presented in a transfer function model of the reactor core according to perturbations theory. The transfer function model-based predictive control (TFMPC) was developed to design the core power control with predictions based on a T-filter towards the real-time implementation of MPC on hardware. This paper introduces the sensitivity functions for TFMPC feedback loop to reduce the impact on the input actuation signal and demonstrates the behaviour of TFMPC in term of disturbance and noise rejections. The comparisons of both tracking and regulating performance between the conventional controller and TFMPC were made using MATLAB and analysed. In conclusion, the proposed TFMPC has satisfactory performance in tracking and regulating core power for controlling nuclear reactor with high reliability and safety.

Keywords: core power control, model predictive control, PUSPATI TRIGA reactor, TFMPC

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Authors: Yong Min You

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The study on the torque ripple of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) has been rapidly progressed, which effects on the noise and vibration of the electric vehicle. There are several ways to reduce torque ripple, which are the increase in the number of slots and poles, the notch of the rotor and stator teeth, and the skew of the rotor and stator. However, the conventional methods have the disadvantage in terms of material cost and productivity. The demagnetization characteristic of PMSMs must be attained for electric vehicle application. Due to rare earth supply issue, the demand for Dy-free permanent magnet has been increasing, which can be applied to PMSMs for the electric vehicle. Dy-free permanent magnet has lower the coercivity; the demagnetization characteristic has become more significant. To improve the torque ripple as well as the demagnetization characteristics, which are significant parameters for electric vehicle application, an unequal air-gap model is proposed for a PMSM. A shape optimization is performed to optimize the design variables of an unequal air-gap model. Optimal design variables are the shape of an unequal air-gap and the angle between V-shape magnets. An optimization process is performed by Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS), Kriging Method, and Genetic Algorithm (GA). Finite element analysis (FEA) is also utilized to analyze the torque and demagnetization characteristics. The torque ripple and the demagnetization temperature of the initial model of 45kW PMSM with unequal air-gap are 10 % and 146.8 degrees, respectively, which are reaching a critical level for electric vehicle application. Therefore, the unequal air-gap model is proposed, and then an optimization process is conducted. Compared to the initial model, the torque ripple of the optimized unequal air-gap model was reduced by 7.7 %. In addition, the demagnetization temperature of the optimized model was also increased by 1.8 % while maintaining the efficiency. From these results, a shape optimized unequal air-gap PMSM has shown the usefulness of an improvement in the torque ripple and demagnetization temperature for the electric vehicle.

Keywords: permanent magnet synchronous motor, optimal design, finite element method, torque ripple

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Shin Ku Kim, Yun Ah Oh, Eun Hee Seo, Chang Min Dae, Yun Jung Bae

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Objectives: The commonly used PRESS technique in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has a limitation of incomplete water suppression. The recently developed sLASER technique is known for its improved effectiveness in suppressing water signal. However, no prior study has compared both sequences in a normal human brain. In this study, we firstly aimed to compare the performances of both techniques in brain MRS. Materials and methods: From January 2023 to July 2023, thirty healthy participants (mean age 38 years, 17 male, 13 female) without underlying neurological diseases were enrolled in this study. All participants underwent single-voxel MRS using both PRESS and sLASER techniques on 3T MRI. Two regions-of-interest were allocated in the left medial thalamus and left parietal white matter (WM) by a single reader. The SpectroView Analysis (SW5, Philips, Netherlands) provided automatic measurements, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and peak_height of water, N-acetylaspartate (NAA)-water/Choline (Cho)-water/Creatine (Cr)-water ratios, and NAA-Cr/Cho-Cr ratios. The measurements from PRESS and sLASER techniques were compared using paired T-tests and Bland-Altman methods, and the variability was assessed using coefficients of variation (CV). Results: SNR and peak_heights of the water were significantly lower with sLASER compared to PRESS (left medial thalamus, sLASER SNR/peak_height 2092±475/328±85 vs. PRESS 2811±549/440±105); left parietal WM, 5422±1016/872±196 vs. 7152±1305/1150±278; all, P<0.001, respectively). Accordingly, NAA-water/Cho-water/Cr-water ratios and NAA-Cr/Cho-Cr ratios were significantly higher with sLASER than with PRESS (all, P< 0.001, respectively). The variabilities of NAA-water/Cho-water/Cr-water ratios and Cho-Cr ratio in the left medial thalamus were lower with sLASER than with PRESS (CV, sLASER vs. PRESS, 19.9 vs. 58.1/19.8 vs. 54.7/20.5 vs. 43.9 and 11.5 vs. 16.2) Conclusion: The sLASER technique demonstrated enhanced background water suppression, resulting in increased signals and reduced variability in brain metabolite measurements of MRS. Therefore, sLASER could offer a more precise and stable method for identifying brain metabolites.

Keywords: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Brain, sLASER, PRESS

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Authors: Vineeth G. Kuriakose, Joseph C. Chen, Ye Li

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The research follows a systematic approach to optimize the parameters for parts machined by turning and milling processes. The quality characteristic chosen is surface roughness since the surface finish plays an important role for parts that require surface contact. A tapered cylindrical surface is designed as a test specimen for the research. The material chosen for machining is aluminum alloy 6061 due to its wide variety of industrial and engineering applications. HAAS VF-2 TR computer numerical control (CNC) vertical machining center is used for milling and HAAS ST-20 CNC machine is used for turning in this research. Taguchi analysis is used to optimize the surface roughness of the machined parts. The L₉ Orthogonal Array is designed for four controllable factors with three different levels each, resulting in 18 experimental runs. Signal to Noise (S/N) Ratio is calculated for achieving the specific target value of 75 ± 15 µin. The controllable parameters chosen for turning process are feed rate, depth of cut, coolant flow and finish cut and for milling process are feed rate, spindle speed, step over and coolant flow. The uncontrollable factors are tool geometry for turning process and tool material for milling process. Hypothesis testing is conducted to study the significance of different uncontrollable factors on the surface roughnesses. The optimal parameter settings were identified from the Taguchi analysis and the process capability C_p and the process capability index C_pk were improved from 1.76 and 0.02 to 3.70 and 2.10 respectively for turning process and from 0.87 and 0.19 to 3.85 and 2.70 respectively for the milling process. The surface roughnesses were improved from 60.17 µin to 68.50 µin, reducing the defect rate from 52.39% to 0% for the turning process and from 93.18 µin to 79.49 µin, reducing the defect rate from 71.23% to 0% for the milling process. The purpose of this study is to efficiently utilize the Taguchi design analysis to improve the surface roughness.

Keywords: surface roughness, Taguchi parameter design, CNC turning, CNC milling

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Authors: O. S. Asaolu, A. Bolorunduro

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Background: Unwanted, mistimed and unintended pregnancy is an important public health issue and the most common cause of maternal mortality in developing countries. Unintended pregnancy is a potential hazard for every sexually active woman as it most times ends in unsafe abortion. The study aimed at assessing the pre-conception contraceptive use, prevalence of unintended pregnancies and the non-contraceptive factors associated with unintended pregnancy amongst currently married women in Osun state. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study among randomly selected 341 currently married pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Ilesa town of Osun state was conducted in 5 health facilities. A random selection of 5 of the 22 health facilities in the state was done. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire and all completed questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS. Result: About two-fifth of the currently pregnant women (40%) who has never used an FP method reported that their current pregnancy was unintended. The results indicate that age of women, age at first sex, substance use, total children ever born of children, religion, and extramarital affairs were key predictors of unintended pregnancy. Women who have higher parity are more likely to experience unintended pregnancy compared to women with lower parity (odds ratio, 0.25). Furthermore, those women who don’t engage in extra marital affairs were less likely to experience unintended pregnancy (odds ratio, 0.3) compared to those who do not. Contribution to knowledge: The predicted probability, using logistic regression, has shown that women who engage in extramarital affairs and women with high parity are more likely to have unintended pregnancy. Conclusion: Behaviour change programs should aim to reduce unintended pregnancy by focusing mostly on identified factors so that the need for abortion is decreased and the overall well-being of the family is maintained and enhanced.

Keywords: unintended pregnancy, factors, pregnant women, Nigeria

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Authors: Nisith K. Datta, Rakesh Bharti

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The purpose of the study was to find out the effects of Aquatic and Land plyometric training on selected physical variables in intercollegiate male handball players. To achieve this purpose of the study, forty five handball players of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat were selected as players at random and their age ranged between 18 to 21 years. The selected players were divided into three equal groups of fifteen players each. Group I underwent Aquatic plyometric training, Group II underwent Land plyometric training and Group III Control group for three days per week for twelve weeks. Control Group did not participate in any special training programme apart from their regular activities as per their curriculum. The following physical fitness variables namely speed; leg explosive power and agility were selected as dependent variables. All the players of three groups were tested on selected dependent variables prior to and immediately after the training programme. The analysis of covariance was used to analyze the significant difference, if any among the groups. Since, three groups were compared, whenever the obtained ‘F’ ratio for adjusted post test was found to be significant, the Scheffe’s test to find out the paired mean differences, if any. The 0.05 level of confidence was fixed as the level of significance to test the ‘F’ ratio obtained by the analysis of covariance, which was considered as an appropriate. The result of the study indicates due to Aquatic and Land plyometric training on speed, explosive power, and agility has been improved significantly.

Keywords: aquatic training, explosive power, plyometric training, speed

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Authors: Doaa Hamdi, Ahmed Hashem

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The present study aims at integrating the ASTER data and Landsat 8 data to discriminate and map alteration and/or mineralization zones in addition to delineating different lithological units of Humr Akarim Granites area. The study area is located at 24º9' to 24º13' N and 34º1' to 34º2'45"E., covering a total exposed surface area of about 17 km². The area is characterized by rugged topography with low to moderate relief. Geologic fieldwork and petrographic investigations revealed that the basement complex of the study area is composed of metasediments, mafic dikes, older granitoids, and alkali-feldspar granites. Petrographic investigations revealed that the secondary minerals in the study area are mainly represented by chlorite, epidote, clay minerals and iron oxides. These minerals have specific spectral signatures in the region of visible near-infrared and short-wave infrared (0.4 to 2.5 µm). So that the ASTER imagery processing was concentrated on VNIR-SWIR spectrometric data in order to achieve the purposes of this study (geologic mapping of hydrothermal alteration zones and delineate possible radioactive potentialities). Mapping of hydrothermal alterations zones in addition to discriminating the lithological units in the study area are achieved through the utilization of some different image processing, including color band composites (CBC) and data transformation techniques such as band ratios (BR), band ratio codes (BRCs), principal component analysis(PCA), Crosta Technique and minimum noise fraction (MNF). The field verification and petrographic investigation confirm the results of ASTER imagery and Landsat 8 data, proposing a geological map (scale 1:50000).

Keywords: remote sensing, petrography, mineralization, alteration detection

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Authors: Jayanti De

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Users of any urban road infrastructure may be classified into various categories. The current paper intends to see whether the opinions on different environmental and transportation criteria vary significantly among different types of road users or not. The paper addresses this issue by using a unique survey data that has been collected from Kolkata, a highly populated city in India. Multiple criteria should be taken into account while planning on infrastructure development programs. Given limited resources, a welfare maximizing government typically resorts to public opinion by designing surveys for prioritization of one project over another. Designing such surveys can be challenging and costly. Deciding upon whom to include in a survey and how to represent each group of consumers/road-users depend crucially on how opinion for different criteria vary across consumer groups. A unique dataset has been collected from various parts of Kolkata to statistically test (using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) whether assigning of weights to rank the transportation criteria like congestion, air pollution, noise pollution, and morning/evening delay vary significantly across the various groups of users of such infrastructure. The different consumer/user groups in the dataset include pedestrian, private car owner, para-transit (taxi /auto rickshaw) user, public transport (bus) user and freight transporter among others. Very little evidence has been found that ranking of different criteria among these groups vary significantly. This also supports the hypothesis that road- users/consumers form their opinion by using their long-run rather than immediate experience. As a policy prescription, this implies that under-representation or over-representation of a specific consumer group in a survey may not necessarily distort the overall opinion, since opinions across different consumer groups are highly correlated as evident from this particular case study.

Keywords: multi criteria analysis, project-prioritization, road- users, survey designing

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Authors: Parthiban Srinivasan

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With recent advances in computational power and access to enough data in biosciences, artificial intelligence methods are increasingly being used in drug discovery research. These methods are essentially a series of advanced statistics based exercises that review the past to indicate the likely future. Our goal is to develop a model that accurately predicts biological activity and toxicity parameters for novel compounds. We have compiled a robust library of over 150,000 chemical compounds with different pharmacological properties from literature and public domain databases. The compounds are stored in simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES), a commonly used text encoding for organic molecules. We utilize an automated process to generate an array of numerical descriptors (features) for each molecule. Redundant and irrelevant descriptors are eliminated iteratively. Our prediction engine is based on a portfolio of machine learning algorithms. We found Random Forest algorithm to be a better choice for this analysis. We captured non-linear relationship in the data and formed a prediction model with reasonable accuracy by averaging across a large number of randomized decision trees. Our next step is to apply deep neural network (DNN) algorithm to predict the biological activity and toxicity properties. We expect the DNN algorithm to give better results and improve the accuracy of the prediction. This presentation will review all these prominent machine learning and deep learning methods, our implementation protocols and discuss these techniques for their usefulness in biomedical and health informatics.

Keywords: deep learning, drug discovery, health informatics, machine learning, toxicity prediction

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Authors: Joy Johnbest Egbo

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The study was designed to investigate the relative effectiveness of inquiry role approach and expository instructional methods in fostering students’ retention in chemistry. Two research questions were answered and three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental (the non-equivalent pretest, posttest control group) design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised all senior secondary school class two (SS II) students who were offering Chemistry in single sex schools in Enugu Education Zone. The instrument for data collection was a self-developed Chemistry Retention Test (CRT). Relevant data were collected from a sample of one hundred and forty–one (141) students drawn from two secondary schools (1 male and 1 female schools) using simple random sampling technique. A reliability co-efficient of 0.82 was obtained for the instrument using Kuder Richardson formular20 (K-R20). Mean and Standard deviation scores were used to answer the research questions while two–way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings showed that the students taught with Inquiry role approach retained the chemistry concept significantly higher than their counterparts taught with expository method. Female students retained slightly higher than their male counterparts. There is significant interaction between instructional packages and gender on Chemistry students’ retention. It was recommended, among others, that teachers should be encouraged to employ the use of Inquiry-role approach more in the teaching of chemistry and other subjects in general. By so doing, students’ retention of the subject could be increased.

Keywords: inquiry role approach, retention, exposition method, chemistry

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Authors: Anja Gräff, Stefan Holzer, Manfred Höld, Jörn Stumpenhausen, Heinz Bernhardt

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In view of the increasing quantity of 'green energy' from renewable raw materials and photovoltaic facilities, it is quite conceivable that power supply variations may occur, so that constantly working machines like automatic milking systems (AMS) may break down temporarily. The usage of farm-made energy is steadily increasing in order to keep energy costs as low as possible. As a result, power cuts are likely to happen more frequently. Current work in the framework of the project 'stable 4.0' focuses on possible stress reactions by simulating power cuts up to four hours in dairy farms. Based on heart activity it should be found out whether stress on dairy cows increases under these circumstances. In order to simulate a power cut, 12 random cows out of 2 herds were not admitted to the AMS for at least two hours on three consecutive days. The heart rates of the cows were measured and the collected data evaluated with HRV Program Kubios Version 2.1 on the basis of eight parameters (HR, RMSSD, pNN50, SD1, SD2, LF, HF and LF/HF). Furthermore, stress reactions were examined closely via video analysis, milk yield, ruminant activity, pedometer and measurements of cortisol metabolites. Concluding it turned out, that during the test only some animals were suffering from minor stress symptoms, when they tried to get into the AMS at their regular milking time, but couldn´t be milked because the system was manipulated. However, the stress level during a regular “time-dependent milking rejection” was just as high. So the study comes to the conclusion, that the low psychological stress level in the case of a 2-4 hours failure of an AMS does not have any impact on animal welfare and health.

Keywords: dairy cow, heart activity, power cut, stable 4.0

Procedia PDF Downloads 301

Authors: Jackqueline Uy, Hannah Miriam Verano, Crysler Luis Verbo, Irene Gueco

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Educational tours are part of the curriculum of the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, De La Salle University-Dasmarinas. They are highly significant to the students, especially Tourism students. The purpose of this study was to determine how effective educational tours were as a learning tool using the Experiential Learning Theory by David Kolb. This study determined the demographic profile of the third year tourism students in terms of gender, section, educational tours joined, and monthly family income and lastly, this study determined if there is a significant difference between the demographic profile of the respondents and their assessment of educational tours as a learning tool. The researchers used a historical research design with the third-year students of the bachelor of science in tourism management as the population size and used a random sampling method. The researchers made a survey questionnaire and utilized statistical tools such as weighted mean, frequency distribution, percentage, standard deviation, T-test, and ANOVA. The result of the study answered the profile of the respondents such as the gender, section, educational tour/s joined, and family monthly income. The findings of the study showed that the 3rd year tourism management students strongly agree that educational tours are a highly effective learning tool in terms of active experimentation, concrete experience, reflective observation, and abstract conceptualisation based on the data gathered from the respondents.

Keywords: CTHM, educational tours, experiential learning theory, De La Salle University Dasmarinas, tourism

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Authors: Irene Oluwatosin Uwabor

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Climate change is a global phenomenon which affects the environment and undermines agricultural activities, in particular, cocoa production in Nigeria. This study, therefore, assessed the farmers ‘coping strategies to climate change effects in Ilaro Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used to select twenty-five cocoa farmers from each of the selected six wards to make up 150 cocoa farmers as sample size for this study. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were used for the data analysis. The results showed that the average age of the respondents was 43.8 years and male dominated (80.00%) cocoa production. Most of the respondents had some level of formal education (93.4%). The mean of household and year of experience in cocoa farming were eight people and 11.6 years respectively. Family and Hired labour (41.3%) was the common source of labour to the respondents and majority (86.0%) of the respondents were aware of climate change. The study concluded that respondents experienced low yield and high rate of deformed beans in the pods due to climate change. The adjustment strategies used were planting of diseases and pest resistant cocoa varieties, using of heavy mulching, diversification into other non- agricultural income generating activities and tree crops cultivation to provide shade. Also, significant relationships existed between personal characteristics (χ²= 62.24, df = 6, p = 0.00), adjustment strategies (χ²= 103.1, df = 4, p = 0.00) and effect of climate change. It is hereby recommend that extension service providers should intensify more effort and advocating for improved agronomic practices to increase cocoa productivity in the study area.

Keywords: cocoa farmers, coping strategies, climate change, ilaro

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Suliman Al Balawi

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Food waste is a significant problem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). About SR13 billion worth of food is wasted per year in the KSA. From moral, social, and economic perspectives, it is essential to reduce the wastage of food. Although studies have identified the amount of food waste in the KSA, there is a lack of research on why people in the KSA waste food; thus, it is difficult to design efficient intervention programs to reduce food waste. This research investigates the key factors that influence the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA. A food waste behavior model is proposed in this study that has moral disengagement at the center of the model. Following a literature survey, it is hypothesised that religiosity, hedonic value, frugality, and trait cynicism are the antecedents of moral disengagement that are likely to impact the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA. The study further posits that an intervention strategy in the form of a social marketing campaign that focuses on lowering the level of moral disengagement could reduce the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA. This study will apply a pre-test/post-test experimental design (control group). A random sampling method will be used to select participants from the (employees of a chosen firm) in the KSA. The social marketing campaign will be run for six months through the Corporate Social Responsibility Department of the Company, and to analyse the experimental data, structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used. The outcomes of the study will demonstrate the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign for improving the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA and will ultimately lay the foundation for designing efficient intervention programs in the future. This study will contribute to the knowledge on food waste behavior by testing a newly proposed food waste behavior model in the KSA.

Keywords: food waste, social marketing, Saudi Arabia, moral disengagement

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Suwapitch Chalongkulasak, Teerasak E-Kobon, Pramote Chumnanpuen

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Acne vulgaris is a common skin disease mainly caused by the Gram–positive pathogenic bacterium, Propionibacterium acnes. This bacterium stimulates inflammation process in human sebaceous glands. Giant African snail (Achatina fulica) is alien species that rapidly reproduces and seriously damages agricultural products in Thailand. There were several research reports on the medical and pharmaceutical benefits of this snail mucus peptides and proteins. This study aimed to in silico predict multifunctional bioactive peptides from A. fulica mucus peptidome using several bioinformatic tools for determination of antimicrobial (iAMPpred), anti–biofilm (dPABBs), cytotoxic (Toxinpred), cell membrane penetrating (CPPpred) and anti–quorum sensing (QSPpred) peptides. Three candidate peptides with the highest predictive score were selected and re-designed/modified to improve the required activities. Structural and physicochemical properties of six anti–P. acnes (APA) peptide candidates were performed by PEP–FOLD3 program and the five aforementioned tools. All candidates had random coiled structure and were named as APA1–ori, APA2–ori, APA3–ori, APA1–mod, APA2–mod and APA3–mod. To validate the APA activity, these peptide candidates were synthesized and tested against six isolates of P. acnes. The modified APA peptides showed high APA activity on some isolates. Therefore, our biomimetic mucus peptides could be useful for preventing acne vulgaris and further examined on other activities important to medical and pharmaceutical applications.

Keywords: Propionibacterium acnes, Achatina fulica, peptidomes, antibacterial peptides, snail mucus

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Haifeng Zhou, Tsungyang Liow, Xiaoguang Tu, Eujin Lim, Chao Li, Junfeng Song, Xianshu Luo, Ying Huang, Lianxi Jia, Lianwee Luo, Qing Fang, Mingbin Yu, Guoqiang Lo

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With the development of technology, countries gradually allocated more and more frequency spectrums for civilization and commercial usage, especially those high radio frequency bands indicating high information capacity. The field effect becomes more and more prominent in microwave components as frequency increases, which invalidates the transmission line theory and complicate the design of microwave components. Here a modeling approach based on numerical search algorithm is proposed to design various building blocks for microwave circuits to avoid complicated impedance matching and equivalent electrical circuit approximation. Concretely, a microwave component is discretized to a set of segments along the microwave propagation path. Each of the segment is initialized with random dimensions, which constructs a multiple-dimension parameter space. Then numerical searching algorithms (e.g. Pattern search algorithm) are used to find out the ideal geometrical parameters. The optimal parameter set is achieved by evaluating the fitness of S parameters after a number of iterations. We had adopted this approach in our current projects and designed many microwave components including sharp bends, T-branches, Y-branches, microstrip-to-stripline converters and etc. For example, a stripline 90° bend was designed in 2.54 mm x 2.54 mm space for dual-band operation (Ka band and Ku band) with < 0.18 dB insertion loss and < -55 dB reflection. We expect that this approach can enrich the tool kits for microwave designers.

Keywords: microwave component, microstrip and stripline, bend, power division, the numerical search algorithm.

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: Gracia Lwanzo Kasongo

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In the realm of cultural heritage, few issues loom larger than the ongoing battle for restitution faced by European and African museums. In Belgium, this contentious process was set in motion by two pivotal events. Firstly, the resounding revelations of the French report on restitution, which boldly declared that 'over 90% of African cultural heritage resides outside of Africa Secondly, the seismic impact of the Black Lives Matter movement following the tragic death of George Floyd. These two events unleashed a wave of outrage among Afro-descendants, who viewed the possession of colonial collections as an enduring symbol of colonial dominance and a stark validation of the systemic racism deeply ingrained within Belgian society. The instrumentalization of cultural property as a means of wielding political power is by no means a novel concept. Its roots can be traced back to the constructed justifications that emerged in the 1950s, during which the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren played a pivotal role as the self-proclaimed 'guardian of Congolese cultural heritage'. This legacy of legitimizing colonial presence permeates the fabric of Belgium's museum reform policies and the structural management of museums in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Employing a dialectical approach, I embark on an exploration of the intricate historical interplay between the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Institute of National Museums of Congo. From this vantage point, I delve into the arduous struggles faced by museums in both the DRC and Belgium as they grapple with the complex and contentious issue of cultural heritage restitution. Central to these struggles is the profound quest for meaning and (re)definition of museums, particularly for Congolese and Afro-descendant communities whose identities and narratives have long been marginalized and suppressed. As the narrative unfolds, I shed light on the prospects for cooperation that have emerged from my extensive fieldwork. Within the interplay of historical entanglements, struggles for restitution, and the search for a more inclusive and equitable museum landscape, glimmers of hope emerge. Collaborative efforts and potential avenues for mutual understanding between Belgium and the DRC begin to take shape, offering a beacon of possibility amidst the often tumultuous discourse surrounding cultural heritage.

Keywords: restitution, museum stuggles, belgium, DRCongo

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Robert Ogbanje Okwori

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The paper explained the causes low students’ access to university education in Nigeria and how it can be remedied. It is discovered that low students’ access to university education in Nigeria is evident despite these number of universities in the country. In 2006/2007 academic session, 806,089 sat for Joint Unified Matriculation Board Examination (JAMB) into Nigerian universities and only 123,626 (15.3%) were admitted while 2011/2012 academic session, a total of 1,493,604 candidates sat for Joint Unified Matriculation Board Examination (JAMB) into Nigerian universities and only 65,073 (43.57%) were admitted. This necessitates for the research. Therefore, the study posed the following research questions. What are causes of low students’ access to university education in Nigeria? What are the challenges of students’ access to university education in Nigeria? How can students’ access to university education in Nigeria be improved? Sample survey research design was adopted for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data for the study. Six hundred and eighty (680) respondents which comprised of 100 level university students; JAMB Officers and University administrators (Vice Chancellors, Registrars and Admission Officers) were used for the study. Stratified random sampling was applied for adequate representation of respondents from universities in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Mean was used to answer research questions while Kuder-Richardson formula 20 was used to check the internal consistency of the instrument. The correlation coefficient of the instrument was 0.87. The major findings include the carrying capacity of each university contributes to low students’ access to university education and academic staff were inadequate. From the analysis of the study, it is concluded that the rate of access to university education is low, therefore, every university should establish distance learning programme to reduce university admission crisis. The training infrastructure in the universities should be improved upon by the owners to increase the carrying capacity of each university.

Keywords: access, causes, low, university

Procedia PDF Downloads 451

Authors: Mona T. Kashef, Omneya M. Helmy

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Multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria have become a significant public health threat. The prevalence rates, of Gram negative MDR bacteria, are in continuous increase. However, few data are available about these resistant strains. Since, third generation cephalosporins are one of the most commonly used antimicrobials, we set out to investigate the prevalence, different mechanisms and clonal relatedness of multidrug resistance among third generation resistant Gram negative clinical isolates. A total of 114 Gram negative clinical isolates, previously characterized as being resistant to at least one of 3rd generation cephalosporins, were included in this study. Each isolate was tested, using Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method, against its assigned categories of antimicrobials. The role of efflux pump in resistance development was tested by the efflux pump inhibitor-based microplate assay using chloropromazine as an inhibitor. Detecting different aminoglycosides, β-lactams and quinolones resistance genes was done using polymerase chain reaction. The genetic diversity of MDR isolates was investigated using Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA technique. MDR phenotype was detected in 101 isolates (89%). Efflux pump mediated resistance was detected in 49/101 isolates. Aminoglycosides resistance genes; armA and aac(6)-Ib were detected in one and 53 isolates, respectively. The aac(6)-Ib-cr allele, that also confers resistance to floroquinolones, was detected in 28/53 isolates. β-lactam resistance genes; blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX-M group 1 and group 9 were detected in 52, 29, 61 and 35 isolates, respectively. Quinolone resistance genes; qnrA, qnrB and qnrS were detectable in 2, 14, 8 isolates respectively, while qepA was not detectable at all. High diversity was observed among tested MDR isolates. MDR is common among 3rd generation cephalosporins resistant Gram negative bacteria, in Egypt. In most cases, resistance was caused by different mechanisms. Therefore, new treatment strategies should be implemented.

Keywords: gram negative, multidrug resistance, RAPD typing, resistance genes

Procedia PDF Downloads 297

Authors: Mamadou Dione, Eric Matzner-lober, Philippe Alexandre

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The Energy Transition Act defined by the French State has precise implications on Renewable Energies, in particular on its remuneration mechanism. Until then, a purchase obligation contract permitted the sale of wind-generated electricity at a fixed rate. Tomorrow, it will be necessary to sell this electricity on the Market (at variable rates) before obtaining additional compensation intended to reduce the risk. This sale on the market requires to announce in advance (about 48 hours before) the production that will be delivered on the network, so to be able to predict (in the short term) this production. The fundamental problem remains the variability of the Wind accentuated by the geographical situation. The objective of the project is to provide, every day, short-term forecasts (48-hour horizon) of wind production using weather data. The predictions of the GFS model and those of the ECMWF model are used as explanatory variables. The variable to be predicted is the production of a wind farm. We do two approaches: a direct approach that predicts wind generation directly from weather data, and an integrated approach that estimâtes wind from weather data and converts it into wind power by power curves. We used machine learning techniques to predict this production. The models tested are random forests, CART + Bagging, CART + Boosting, SVM (Support Vector Machine). The application is made on a wind farm of 22MW (11 wind turbines) of the Compagnie du Vent (that became Engie Green France). Our results are very conclusive compared to the literature.

Keywords: forecast aggregation, machine learning, spatio-temporal dynamics modeling, wind power forcast

Procedia PDF Downloads 199