Search results for: safety stock optimization

Authors: Noorulaine Maqsood, Saeed Khan

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Background: Concern regarding incident reporting and bio-safety training in clinical laboratories in Pakistan has increased remarkably in the last few years due to rapid increase in diagnosis and research on infectious organisms. In order to ensure the safety of employees, this issue needs to be addressed immediately. Bio-safety training sessions and lectures are necessary for the protection of laboratory workers in order to ensure safe practices and minimize the count of incident reporting in the lab. Objective: To carry out an inter-departmental survey in lab regarding the awareness of bio-safety practices among lab employees before and after conducting bio-safety training sessions. Methodology: We conducted a 30 questions survey of laboratory workers in June 2013 (before training session) to gather information related to bio-safety awareness. Afterwards, we conducted another survey after training sessions and workshops related to bio-safety. Result: The survey regarding bio-safety level showed that before the training session 32% of the participants were aware of bio-safety level being used in their lab whereas after the session this percentage increased to 72%. 48% of the participants had information about the proper usage of PPE which increased to 76%. Awareness regarding proper management of hazardous waste increased from 32% to 64%. The incident reporting practice, sample handling and hand hygiene awareness was previously reported to be 40%, 65%, and 52% that increased to 80%, 85% and 88% respectively after the training session was completed. Conclusion: The first survey results showed lack of awareness that suggest nearly all senior scientists, faculty, medical technologist, lab attendant and housekeeping staff working in laboratories are required to have bio-safety training, and required inspection at least twice a year by a bio-safety officer and also required to renew their bio-safety training. After the training session, significant changes in awareness level and attitude of the participants regarding biosafety practices were observed. Therefore, such bio-safety sessions should be carried out regularly in clinical laboratories.

Keywords: biosafety practices, clinical laboratory, Pakistan, survey

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Authors: Inayat Ur Rehman, Georgia Sakellari

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Cloud computing has evolved into a vital technology for businesses, offering scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, maintaining high availability and optimal performance in the cloud is crucial for reliable services. This paper explores the significance of cloud monitoring and performance optimization in sustaining the high availability of cloud-based systems. It discusses diverse monitoring tools, techniques, and best practices for continually assessing the health and performance of cloud resources. The paper also delves into performance optimization strategies, including resource allocation, load balancing, and auto-scaling, to ensure efficient resource utilization and responsiveness. Addressing potential challenges in cloud monitoring and optimization, the paper offers insights into data security and privacy considerations. Through this thorough analysis, the paper aims to underscore the importance of cloud monitoring and performance optimization for ensuring a seamless and highly available cloud computing environment.

Keywords: cloud computing, cloud monitoring, performance optimization, high availability

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Authors: Fatemeh Norouzi

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Today, financial performance has become one of the important issues in accounting and auditing that companies and their managers have paid attention to this issue and for this reason to the variables that are influential in this field. One of the things that can affect financial performance is corporate governance, which is examined in this research, although some things such as issues related to auditing can also moderate this relationship; Therefore, this research has been conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance with regard to the moderating role of feedback and internal control weakness. The research is practical in terms of purpose, and in terms of method, it has been done in a post-event descriptive manner, in which the data has been analyzed using stock market data. Data collection has been done by using stock exchange data which has been extracted from the website of the Iraqi Stock Exchange, the statistical population of this research is all the companies admitted to the Iraqi Stock Exchange. . The statistical sample in this research is considered from 2014 to 2021, which includes 34 companies. Four different models have been considered for the research hypotheses, which are eight hypotheses, in this research, the analysis has been done using EXCEL and STATA15 software. In this article, collinearity test, integration test ,determination of fixed effects and correlation matrix results, have been used. The research results showed that the first four hypotheses were rejected and the second four hypotheses were confirmed.

Keywords: size of the board of directors, duality of the CEO, financial performance, internal control weakness

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Authors: Şakir Bingöl, Bayram İslamoğlu, Ebubekir Furkan Tepeli, Fatih Mehmet Karakule, Fatih Küçük, Merve Sena Arpacık, Mustafa Taha Kabar, Muhammet Metin Molak, Osman Emre Turan, Ömer Faruk Yesir, Sıla İnanır

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This study introduces an IoT-based real-time safety system for mining, addressing global safety challenges. The wearable device, seamlessly integrated into miners' jackets, employs LoRa technology for communication and offers real-time monitoring of vital health and environmental data. Unique features include an LCD panel for immediate information display and sound-based location tracking for emergency response. The methodology involves sensor integration, data transmission, and ethical testing. Validation confirms the system's effectiveness in diverse mining scenarios. The study calls for ongoing research to adapt the system to different mining contexts, emphasizing its potential to significantly enhance safety standards in the industry.

Keywords: mining safety, internet of things, wearable technology, LoRa, RFID tracking, real-time safety system, safety alerts, safety measures

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Authors: Ikumapayi Catherine Mayowa

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The well-being of humans on a construction site is critical; abundant manpower had been lost through accidents which kill or make workers physically unfit to carry out construction activities, these, in turn, have multiple effects on the whole economy. Thus, it is necessary to put all safety items and regulations in place before construction activities can commence. This study was carried out in the Ondo state of Nigeria to investigate and analyze the state of health and safety of construction workers in the state. The study was done using first-hand observations, 50 construction project sites were visited in ten major towns of Ondo state, questionnaires were distributed, and the results were analyzed. The result shows that construction workers are being exposed to many construction site hazards due to lack of inadequate safety programs and lack of appropriate safety equipment for workers on site. From the data gotten from each site visited and the statistical analysis, it can be concluded that occurrences of an accident on construction sites depend significantly on the available safety facilities on the sites. The result of the regression statistics shows that the dependence of the frequency of occurrence of an accident on the availability of safety items on the site is 0.0362 which is less than 0.05 maximum significant level allowed. Therefore, a vital way of sustaining our building strategy is given a detail attention to the provision of adequate health and safety items on construction sites which will reduce the occurrence of accident, loss of manpower and death of skilled workers.

Keywords: construction sites, health, safety, welfare

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Authors: Rawan A. Abdelrazeq, Ahmed M. Khalafallah, Nabil A. Kartam

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Selection of competent contractors for construction projects is usually accomplished through competitive bidding or negotiated contracting in which the contract bid price is the basic criterion for selection. The evaluation of contractor’s safety performance is still not a typical criterion in the selection process, despite the existence of various safety prequalification procedures. There is a critical need for practical and automated systems that enable owners and decision makers to evaluate contractor safety performance, among other important contractor selection criteria. These systems should ultimately favor safety-conscious contractors to be selected by the virtue of their past good safety records and current safety programs. This paper presents an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach to develop a framework for an automated decision support system that evaluates contractor safety performance based on a multitude of indicators and metrics that have been identified through a comprehensive review of construction safety research, and a survey distributed to domain experts. The framework is developed in three phases: (1) determining the indicators that depict contractor current and past safety performance; (2) soliciting input from construction safety experts regarding the identified indicators, their metrics, and relative significance; and (3) designing a decision support system using relational database models to integrate the identified indicators and metrics into a system that assesses and rates the safety performance of contractors. The proposed automated system is expected to hold several advantages including: (1) reducing the likelihood of selecting contractors with poor safety records; (2) enhancing the odds of completing the project safely; and (3) encouraging contractors to exert more efforts to improve their safety performance and practices in order to increase their bid winning opportunities which can lead to significant safety improvements in the construction industry. This should prove useful to decision makers and researchers, alike, and should help improve the safety record of the construction industry.

Keywords: construction safety, contractor selection, decision support system, relational database

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Authors: Hassan Noun, Christian Urban-Seelmann, Mohamed Abdelfattah, Guillaume Zeller, Rajesh G., Iryna Mozgova, Roland Lachmayer

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Several modules in automotive are usually modified and adapted for various project-specific applications. Due to a standardized safety concept, high reusability is accessible. A safety element out of context (SEooC) according to ISO 26262 can be a suitable approach. Based on the same safety concept and analysis, common modules can reach high usability. For developing according to a module out of context, an appropriate and detailed development approach is required. This paper shows how to derive these development processes for platform modules. Therefore, the detailed approach to the safety element out of context is derived. The aim is to create a detailed workflow for all phases of the development and integration of any kind of system modules. As an application example, an automotive project for an actuator control module is considered.

Keywords: functional safety, engineering processes, system engineering, electronic engineering

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Authors: Alfredo Soeiro

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Rehabilitation in construction or built environment is a particular type of operations when concerning prevention of accidents. In fact, it is also a different type of task in construction itself. Therefore, due to the complex characteristics of construction rehabilitation tasks and due to the intrinsic difficulty of preventing accidents in construction, a major challenge faces the responsibility for implementing adequate safety levels in this type of safety management. This paper addresses a set of proposed generic measures to face the unknown characteristics of built environment in terms of stability, materials and actual performance of buildings or other constructions. It is also addressed the necessary adaptation of preventive guidelines to this type of delicate refurbishing and renovating of existing facilities. Training, observation and reflective approaches are necessary to perform this safety management in the rehabilitation of built environment.

Keywords: built environment, rehabilitation, construction safety, accident prevention, safety plan

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Authors: Charawee Butbumrung

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the monetary worthiness of investment and the usefulness of risk estimation as a tool employed by a production section of an electronic factory. This study employed the case study of accidents occurring in production areas. Data is collected from interviews with six production of safety coordinators and collect the information from the relevant section. The study will present the ratio of benefits compared with the operation costs for investment. The result showed that it is worthwhile for investment with the safety measures. In addition, the organizations must be able to analyze the causes of accidents about the benefits of investing in protective working process. They also need to quickly provide the manual for the staff to learn how to protect themselves from accidents and how to use all of the safety equipment.

Keywords: cost and benefit, enterprises in Thailand, investment in safety and health, risk estimation

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Authors: Hesham Abd Elkhalek, Sherif M. Hafez, Yasser M. El Fahham

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Allocating limited budget to maintain bridge networks and selecting effective maintenance strategies for each bridge represent challenging tasks for maintenance managers and decision makers. In Egypt, bridges are continuously deteriorating. In many cases, maintenance works are performed due to user complaints. The objective of this paper is to develop a practical and reliable framework to manage the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities of Bridges network considering performance and budget limits. The model solves an optimization problem that maximizes the average condition of the entire network given the limited available budget using Genetic Algorithm (GA). The framework contains bridge inventory, condition assessment, repair cost calculation, deterioration prediction, and maintenance optimization. The developed model takes into account multiple parameters including serviceability requirements, budget allocation, element importance on structural safety and serviceability, bridge impact on network, and traffic. A questionnaire is conducted to complete the research scope. The proposed model is implemented in software, which provides a friendly user interface. The framework provides a multi-year maintenance plan for the entire network for up to five years. A case study of ten bridges is presented to validate and test the proposed model with data collected from Transportation Authorities in Egypt. Different scenarios are presented. The results are reasonable, feasible and within acceptable domain.

Keywords: bridge management systems (BMS), cost optimization condition assessment, fund allocation, Markov chain

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Authors: Sofia Ayouche, Rachid Ellaia, Rajae Aboulaich

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Today, insurers may use the yield curve as an indicator evaluation of the profit or the performance of their portfolios; therefore, they modeled it by one class of model that has the ability to fit and forecast the future term structure of interest rates. This class of model is the Nelson-Siegel-Svensson model. Unfortunately, many authors have reported a lot of difficulties when they want to calibrate the model because the optimization problem is not convex and has multiple local optima. In this context, we implement a hybrid Particle Swarm optimization and Nelder Mead algorithm in order to minimize by least squares method, the difference between the zero-coupon curve and the NSS curve.

Keywords: optimization, zero-coupon curve, Nelson-Siegel-Svensson, particle swarm optimization, Nelder-Mead algorithm

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Authors: Rahul Paul, Kedar Nath Das

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The field of machine learning (ML) is experiencing rapid development, resulting in a multitude of theoretical advancements and extensive practical implementations across various disciplines. The objective of ML is to facilitate the ability of machines to perform cognitive tasks by leveraging knowledge gained from prior experiences and effectively addressing complex problems, even in situations that deviate from previously encountered instances. Reinforcement Learning (RL) has emerged as a prominent subfield within ML and has gained considerable attention in recent times from researchers. This surge in interest can be attributed to the practical applications of RL, the increasing availability of data, and the rapid advancements in computing power. At the same time, optimization algorithms play a pivotal role in the field of ML and have attracted considerable interest from researchers. A multitude of proposals have been put forth to address optimization problems or improve optimization techniques within the domain of ML. The necessity of a thorough examination and implementation of optimization algorithms within the context of ML is of utmost importance in order to provide guidance for the advancement of research in both optimization and ML. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the application of metaheuristic evolutionary optimization algorithms in conjunction with RL to address a diverse range of scientific challenges. Furthermore, this article delves into the various challenges and unresolved issues pertaining to the optimization of RL models.

Keywords: machine learning, reinforcement learning, loss function, evolutionary optimization techniques

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Authors: Zhaoming Yang, Qi Xiang, Qian He, Michael Havbro Faber, Enrico Zio, Huai Su, Jinjun Zhang

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Resilience is one of the key factors for system safety assessment and optimization, and resilience studies of natural gas pipeline systems (NGPS), especially in terms of process descriptions, are still being explored. Based on the three main stages, which are function loss process, recovery process, and waiting process, the paper has built functions and models which are according to the practical characteristics of NGPS and mainly analyzes the characteristics of deterministic interruptions. The resilience of NGPS also considers the threshold of the system function or users' satisfaction. The outcomes, which quantify the resilience of NGPS in different evaluation views, can be combined with the max flow and shortest path methods, help with the optimization of extra gas supplies and gas routes as well as pipeline maintenance strategies, the quick analysis of disturbance effects and the improvement of NGPS resilience evaluation accuracy.

Keywords: natural gas pipeline system, resilience, process modeling, deterministic disturbance

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Authors: Patel Parul, Harsh Ganvit

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The construction industry is the second highest industry after agriculture provides employment in India. In developing countries like India, many construction projects are coming up to meet the demand. On the one hand, construction projects are increasing; on the other hand still, construction companies are struggling with many problems. One of the major problems is to ensure safe working conditions at the construction site. Due to a lack of safety awareness and ignorance of safety aspects, many fatal accidents are very common at the construction site in India. One of the key success factors for construction projects is “Accident-Free Construction Projects”. The construction projects can be divided into various categories like Infrastructure projects, industrial construction and real estate construction. Real estate projects are mainly comprised of commercial and residential projects. In the construction industry, private sectors play a huge role in urban and rural development and also contribute significantly to the growth of the nation. Infrastructure and Industrial projects are mainly executed by well-qualified construction contractors. For such projects, ensuring safety at construction projects is inevitable and probably one of the major clauses of contract documents as well. These projects are monitored from time to time by national agencies and researchers, too. However, Real estate projects are rarely monitored for safety aspects. No systematic contract system is followed for these projects. Safety is the most neglected aspect of these projects. In the current research projects, an attempt is made to carry out safety auditing for about 75 real estate projects. The objective of this work is to collect the activity-based safety survey of real estate projects in western India. The analysis of activity-based safety implementation for real estate projects is discussed in the present work. The activities are divided into three categories based on the data collected. The findings of this work will help local monitoring authorities to implement a safety management plan for real estate projects.

Keywords: construction safety, safety assessment, activity-based safety, real estate projects

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Authors: Dana Kristalova

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This article deals with geographical conditions in terrain and their effect on the movement of vehicles, their effect on speed and safety of movement of people and vehicles. Finding of the optimal routes outside the communication is studied in the army environment, but it occur in civilian as well, primarily in crisis situation, or by the provision of assistance when natural disasters such as floods, fires, storms, etc. have happened. These movements require the optimization of routes when effects of geographical factors should be included. The most important factor is surface of the terrain. It is based on several geographical factors as are slopes, soil conditions, micro-relief, a type of surface and meteorological conditions. Their mutual impact has been given by coefficient of deceleration. This coefficient can be used for commander´s decision. New approaches and methods of terrain testing, mathematical computing, mathematical statistics or cartometric investigation are necessary parts of this evaluation.

Keywords: surface of a terrain, movement of vehicles, geographical factor, optimization of routes

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Authors: Arslan Ellahi, Syed Amjad Hussain, Fawaz Saleem Bokhari

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Optimization of software architecture can be done with respect to a quality attributes (QA). In this paper, there is an analysis of multiple research papers from different dimensions that have been used to classify those attributes. We have proposed a technique of swarm intelligence Meta heuristic ant colony optimization algorithm as a contribution to solve this critical optimization problem of software architecture. We have ranked quality attributes and run our algorithm on every QA, and then we will rank those on the basis of accuracy. At the end, we have selected the most accurate quality attributes. Ant colony algorithm is an effective algorithm and will perform best in optimizing the QA’s and ranking them.

Keywords: complexity, rapid evolution, swarm intelligence, dimensions

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Authors: Zainal Abidin Akasah, Maizam Alias, Azuin Ramli

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The safety and health performances aspects of a building are the most challenging aspect of facility management. It requires a deep understanding by the building managers on the factors that contribute to health and safety performances. This study attempted to develop an explanatory architectural safety performance model for stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The proposed Building Safety and Health Performance (BSHP) model was tested empirically through a survey on 308 construction practitioners using Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) tool. Statistical analysis results supports the conclusion that architecture, building services, external environment, management approaches and maintenance management have positive influence on safety and health performance of stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The findings provide valuable insights for construction industry to introduce BSHP model in the future where the model could be used as a guideline for training purposes of managers and better planning and implementation of building management.

Keywords: building management, stratified low-cost housing, safety, health model

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Authors: Saeed Kamarian, Mahmoud Shakeri

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Sandwich structures are used in a variety of engineering applications including aircraft, construction and transportation where strong, stiff and light structures are required. In this paper, frequency maximization of Functionally Graded Sandwich (FGS) beams resting on Pasternak foundations is investigated. A generalized power-law distribution with four parameters is considered for material distribution through the thicknesses of face layers. Since the search space is large, the optimization processes becomes so complicated and too much time consuming. Thus a novel meta–heuristic called Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) which is a socio-politically motivated global search strategy is implemented to improve the speed of optimization process. Results show the success of applying ICA for engineering problems especially for design optimization of FGM sandwich beams.

Keywords: sandwich beam, functionally graded materials, optimization, imperialist competitive algorithm

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Authors: Li Ni, Pen ManMan, Li KenLi

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Clustering is an intensive research for some years because of its multifaceted applications, such as biology, information retrieval, medicine, business and so on. The expectation maximization (EM) is a kind of algorithm framework in clustering methods, one of the ten algorithms of machine learning. Traditionally, optimization of objective function has been the standard approach in EM. Hence, research has investigated the utility of evolutionary computing and related techniques in the regard. Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) is a recently established method. So the property embedded in CRO is used to solve optimization problems. This paper presents an algorithm framework (EM-CRO) with modified CRO operators based on EM cluster problems. The hybrid algorithm is mainly to solve the problem of initial value sensitivity of the objective function optimization clustering algorithm. Our experiments mainly take the EM classic algorithm:k-means and fuzzy k-means as an example, through the CRO algorithm to optimize its initial value, get K-means-CRO and FKM-CRO algorithm. The experimental results of them show that there is improved efficiency for solving objective function optimization clustering problems.

Keywords: chemical reaction optimization, expection maimization, initia, objective function clustering

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Authors: Tomasz Robert Kuczerski

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The high complexity of the algorithm of the autonomous tandem detonator system creates an optimization problem due to the parallel operation of several machine states of the system. Many years of experience and classic analyses have led to a partially optimized model. Limitations on the energy resources of this class of autonomous systems make it necessary to search for more effective methods of optimisation. The use of the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) in these studies shows the most promising results. With the help of multiple evaluations of several qubit quantum circuits, proper results of variable parameter optimization were obtained. In addition, it was observed that the increase in the number of assessments does not result in further efficient growth due to the increasing complexity of optimising variables. The tests confirmed the effectiveness of the QAOA optimization method.

Keywords: algorithm analysis, autonomous system, quantum optimization, tandem detonator

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Authors: Yih-Wenn Laih

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In recent times, the dependence and co-movement among international financial markets have become stronger than in the past, as evidenced by commentaries in the news media and the financial sections of newspapers. Studying the co-movement between returns in financial markets is an important issue for portfolio management and risk management. The realization of co-movement helps investors to identify the opportunities for international portfolio management in terms of asset allocation and pricing. Since the election of the new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, in November 2012, the yen has weakened against the US dollar from the 80 to the 120 level. The policies, known as “Abenomics,” are to encourage private investment through a more aggressive mix of monetary and fiscal policy. Given the close economic relations and competitions among Asia markets, it is interesting to discover the co-movement relations, affected by the depreciation of yen, between stock market of Japan and 5 major Asia stock markets, including China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Specifically, we devote ourselves to measure the co-movement of stock markets between Japan and each one of the 5 Asia stock markets in terms of rank correlation coefficients. To compute the coefficients, return series of each stock market is first fitted by a skewed-t GARCH (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity) model. Secondly, to measure the dependence structure between matched stock markets, we employ the symmetrized Joe-Clayton (SJC) copula to calculate the probability density function of paired skewed-t distributions. The joint probability density function is then utilized as the scoring scheme to optimize the sequence alignment by dynamic programming method. Finally, we compute the rank correlation coefficients (Kendall's  and Spearman's ) between matched stock markets based on their aligned sequences. We collect empirical data of 6 stock indexes from Taiwan Economic Journal. The data is sampled at a daily frequency covering the period from January 1, 2013 to July 31, 2015. The empirical distributions of returns indicate fatter tails than the normal distribution. Therefore, the skewed-t distribution and SJC copula are appropriate for characterizing the data. According to the computed Kendall’s τ, Korea has the strongest co-movement relation with Japan, followed by Taiwan, China, and Singapore; the weakest is Hong Kong. On the other hand, the Spearman’s ρ reveals that the strength of co-movement between markets with Japan in decreasing order are Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We explore the effects of “Abenomics” on Asia stock markets by measuring the co-movement relation between Japan and five major Asia stock markets in terms of rank correlation coefficients. The matched markets are aligned by a hybrid method consisting of GARCH, copula and sequence alignment. Empirical experiments indicate that Korea has the strongest co-movement relation with Japan. The strength of China and Taiwan are better than Singapore. The Hong Kong market has the weakest co-movement relation with Japan.

Keywords: co-movement, depreciation of Yen, rank correlation, stock market

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Authors: H. C. Nguyen

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This contribution considers seismic effects on the stability of slope and footing resting on a slope. The seismic force is simply treated as static inertial force through the values of acceleration factor. All domains are assumed to be plasticity deformations approximated using node-based smoothed finite element method (NS-FEM). The failure mechanism and safety factor were then explored using numerical procedure based on upper bound approach in which optimization problem was formed as second order cone programming (SOCP). The data obtained confirm that upper bound procedure using NS-FEM and SOCP can give stable and rapid convergence results of seismic stability factors.

Keywords: upper bound analysis, safety factor, slope stability, footing resting on slope

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Authors: Chukwuebuka Vincent Azuka, Chidimma Peace Odoh

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Changes in agricultural practices and land use influence the storage and release of soil organic carbon and soil structural dynamics. To investigate this in Nsukka, southeastern Nigeria, soil samples were collected at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm from three locations; Ovoko (OV), Obukpa (OB) and University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and three land use types; cultivated land (CL), forest land (FL) and grassland (GL)). Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS. Also, correlations between organic carbon stock, structural stability indices and other soil properties were established. The result showed that Ksat was significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by location with mean values of 68 cmhr⁻¹,121.63 cmhr⁻¹, 8.42 cmhr⁻¹ in OV, OB and UNN respectively. The MWD and aggregate stability (AS) were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by land use and depth. The mean values of MWD are 0.85 (CL), 1.35 (FL) and 1.45 (GL), and 1.66 at 0-10 cm, 1.08 at 10-20 cm and 0.88 mm at 20-30 cm. The mean values of AS are; 27.66% (CL), 46.39% (FL) and 49.81% (GL), and 53.96% at 0-10cm, 40.22% at 10-20cm and 29.57% at 20-30cm. Clay flocculation (CFI) and dispersion indices (CDI) differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the land use. Soil pH differed significantly (p < 0.05) across the land use and locations with mean values ranging from 3.90-6.14. Soil organic carbon (SOC) significantly (p < 0.05) differed across locations and depths. SOC decreases as depth increases depth with mean values of 15.6 gkg⁻¹, 10.1 gkg⁻¹, and 8.6 gkg⁻¹ at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 20-30 cm respectively. SOC in the three land use was 8.8 g kg-1, 15.2 gkg⁻¹ and 10.4 gkg⁻¹ at CL, FL, and GL respectively. The highest aggregate-associated carbon was recorded in 0.5 mm across the land use and depth except in cultivated land and at 20-30 cm which recorded their highest SOC at 1mm. SOC stock, total nitrogen (TN) and CEC were significantly (p < 0.05) different across the locations with highest values of 23.43 t/ha, 0.07g/kg and 14.27 Cmol/kg respectively recorded in UNN. SOC stock was significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by depth as follows; 0-10>10-20>20-30 cm. TN was low with mean values ranging from 0.03-0.07 across the locations, land use and depths. The mean values of CEC ranged from 9.96-14.27 Cmol kg⁻¹ across the locations and land use. SOC stock showed correlation with silt, coarse sand, N and CEC (r = 0.40*, -0.39*, -0.65** and 0.64** respectively. AS showed correlation with BD, Ksat, pH in water and KCl, and SOC (r = -0.42*, 0.54**, -0.44*, -0.45* and 0.49** respectively. Thus, land use and location play a significant role in sustainable management of soil resources.

Keywords: agricultural practices, structural dynamics, sequestration, soil resources, management

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Authors: M. Farhaoui, M. Derraz

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In the drinking water treatment processes, the optimization of the treatment is an issue of particular concern. In general, the process consists of many units as settling, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. The optimization of the process consists of some measures to decrease the managing and monitoring expenses and improve the quality of the produced water. The objective of this study is to provide water treatment operators with methods and practices that enable to attain the most effective use of the facility and, in consequence, optimize the of the cubic meter price of the treated water. This paper proposes a review on optimization of drinking water treatment process by analyzing all of the water treatment units and gives some solutions in order to maximize the water treatment performances without compromising the water quality standards. Some solutions and methods are performed in the water treatment plant located in the middle of Morocco (Meknes).

Keywords: coagulation process, optimization, turbidity removal, water treatment

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Authors: A. E. Kurtoglu, A. Cevik, M. Bilgehan

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In this parametric study, effect of soil and material characteristics on safety of structures is investigated. The soil parameters such as shear strength, unit weight; geometrical parameters of the structure such as foundation depth and height of building; and material properties such as weight of concrete were selected as input parameters. A real accelerogram of 1989 El-Centro earthquake recorded by the USGS in Imperial Valley is used for this study. It is contained in the standard Strong Motion CD-ROM (SMC) format, which can be recognized and interpreted by FEM software used. The soil-structure interaction model subjected to above-mentioned earthquake was analyzed for 729 cases. Effect of input parameters on safety factor of the soil-structure system was then investigated and the interaction between the input and output parameters is presented in graphical form. Findings showed that all input parameters have significant effects on factor of safety results.

Keywords: factor of safety, finite element method, safety of structures, soil structure interaction

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Authors: K. Y. Tseng, C. Y. Wu

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This paper employs a heuristic algorithm to solve engineering problems including truss structure optimization and optimal chiller loading (OCL) problems. Two different type algorithms, real-valued differential evolution (DE) and modified binary differential evolution (MBDE), are successfully integrated and then can obtain better performance in solving engineering problems. In order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm, this study adopts each one testing case of truss structure optimization and OCL problems to compare the results of other heuristic optimization methods. The result indicates that the proposed algorithm can obtain similar or better solution in comparing with previous studies.

Keywords: differential evolution, Truss structure optimization, optimal chiller loading, modified binary differential evolution

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Authors: Aman Sharma, Sonali Sengupta

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The study explores the utility of Bayesian optimization in tuning the physical and chemical parameters of reactions in an offline experimental setup. A comparative analysis of the influence of the acquisition function on the optimization performance is also studied. For proxy first and second-order reactions, the results are indifferent to the acquisition function used, whereas, while studying the parameters for oxidative desulphurization of thiophene in an offline setup, upper confidence bound (UCB) provides faster convergence along with a marginal trade-off in the maximum conversion achieved. The work also demarcates the critical number of independent parameters and input observations required for both sequential and offline reaction setups to yield tangible results.

Keywords: acquisition function, Bayesian optimization, desulfurization, kinetics, thiophene

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Authors: Kim Lindsay F. Restua, Jeehan Kyra A. Rivero, Joneka Myles D. Taguba

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Lean construction is defined as an approach in construction with the purpose of reducing waste in the process without compromising the value of the project. There are numerous lean construction tools that are applied in the construction process, which maximizes the efficiency of work and satisfaction of customers while minimizing waste. However, the complexity and differences of construction projects cause a rise in challenges on achieving the lean benefits construction can give, such as improvement in safety performance. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between lean construction tools and their effects on safety performance. The relationship between construction tools applied in construction and safety performance is identified through Logistic Regression Analysis, and Correlation Analysis was conducted thereafter. Based on the findings, it was concluded that almost 60% of the factors listed in the study, which are different tools and effects of lean construction, were determined to have a significant relationship with the level of safety in construction projects.

Keywords: correlation analysis, lean construction tools, lean construction, logistic regression analysis, risk management, safety

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Authors: Ousmane Sarr

Abstract:

The Senegalese coasts have high productivity of fishery resources due to the frequency of intense up-welling system that occurs along its coast, caused by the maritime trade winds making its waters nutrients rich. Fishing plays a primordial role in Senegal's socioeconomic plans and food security. However, a global diagnosis of the Senegalese maritime fishing sector has highlighted the challenges this sector encounters. Among these concerns, some significant stocks, a priority target for artisanal fishing, need further assessment. If no efforts are made in this direction, most stock will be overexploited or even in decline. It is in this context that this research was initiated. This investigation aimed to apply a multi-modal approach (LBB, Catch-only-based CMSY model and its most recent version (CMSY++); JABBA, and JABBA-Select) to assess the stock of Atlantic bonito, Sarda sarda (Bloch, 1793) in the Senegalese Exclusive Economic Zone (SEEZ). Available catch, effort, and size data from Atlantic bonito over 15 years (2004-2018) were used to calculate the nominal and standardized CPUE, size-frequency distribution, and length at retentions (50 % and 95 % selectivity) of the species. These relevant results were employed as input parameters for stock assessment models mentioned above to define the stock status of this species in this region of the Atlantic Ocean. The LBB model indicated an Atlantic bonito healthy stock status with B/BMSY values ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 and B/B0 values varying from 0.47 to 0.61 of the main scenarios performed (BON_AFG_CL, BON_GN_Length, and BON_PS_Length). The results estimated by LBB are consistent with those obtained by CMSY. The CMSY model results demonstrate that the SEEZ Atlantic bonito stock is in a sound condition in the final year of the main scenarios analyzed (BON, BON-bt, BON-GN-bt, and BON-PS-bt) with sustainable relative stock biomass (B2018/BMSY = 1.13 to 1.3) and fishing pressure levels (F2018/FMSY= 0.52 to 1.43). The B/BMSY and F/FMSY results for the JABBA model ranged between 2.01 to 2.14 and 0.47 to 0.33, respectively. In contrast, The estimated B/BMSY and F/FMSY for JABBA-Select ranged from 1.91 to 1.92 and 0.52 to 0.54. The Kobe plots results of the base case scenarios ranged from 75% to 89% probability in the green area, indicating sustainable fishing pressure and an Atlantic bonito healthy stock size capable of producing high yields close to the MSY. Based on the stock assessment results, this study highlighted scientific advice for temporary management measures. This study suggests an improvement of the selectivity parameters of longlines and purse seines and a temporary prohibition of the use of sleeping nets in the fishery for the Atlantic bonito stock in the SEEZ based on the results of the length-base models. Although these actions are temporary, they can be essential to reduce or avoid intense pressure on the Atlantic bonito stock in the SEEZ. However, it is necessary to establish harvest control rules to provide coherent and solid scientific information that leads to appropriate decision-making for rational and sustainable exploitation of Atlantic bonito in the SEEZ and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Keywords: multi-model approach, stock assessment, atlantic bonito, SEEZ

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Authors: M. Pieńko, A. Robak, E. Błazik-Borowa, J. Szer

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of analysis of 100 full-scale scaffolding structures in terms of compliance with legal acts and safety of use. In 2016 and 2017, authors examined scaffolds in Poland located at buildings which were at construction or renovation stage. The basic elements affecting the safety of scaffolding use such as anchors, supports, platforms, guardrails and toe-boards have been taken into account. All of these elements were checked in each of considered scaffolding. Based on the analyzed scaffoldings, the most common errors concerning assembly process and use of scaffolding were collected. Legal acts on the scaffoldings are not always clear, and this causes many issues. In practice, people realize how dangerous the use of incomplete scaffolds is only when the accident occurs. Despite the fact that the scaffolding should ensure the safety of its users, most accidents on construction sites are caused by fall from a height.

Keywords: façade scaffolds, load capacity, practice, safety of people

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