Search results for: flexible abrasive tool

Authors: Tsietsi J. Pilusa, Tumisang G. Seodigeng

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This study evaluates the benefits of advanced waste management practices in unlocking waste-to-energy opportunities within the solid waste industry. The key drivers of sustainable waste management practices, specifically with respect to packaging waste-to-energy technology options are discussed. The success of a waste-to-energy system depends significantly on the appropriateness of available technologies, including those that are well established as well as those that are less so. There are hard and soft interventions to be considered when packaging an integrated waste treatment solution. Technology compatibility with variation in feedstock (waste) quality and quantities remains a key factor. These factors influence the technology reliability in terms of production efficiencies and product consistency, which in turn, drives the supply and demand network. Waste treatment technologies rely on the waste material as feedstock; the feedstock varies in quality and quantities depending on several factors; hence, the technology fails, as a result. It is critical to design an advanced waste treatment technology in an integrated approach to minimize the possibility of technology failure due to unpredictable feedstock quality, quantities, conversion efficiencies, and inconsistent product yield or quality. An integrated waste-to-energy approach offers a secure system design that considers sustainable waste management practices.

Keywords: emerging markets, evaluation tool, interventions, waste treatment technologies

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: S. Tavuyanago

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Cartels within the international competition law framework have been dubbed the most egregious of competition law violations; this is because they entail a concerted effort by two or more competitor firms to knowingly ‘rob’ consumers of their welfare through their cooperation instead of competition. The net effect of cartel conduct is that the market is distorted as the colluding firms gain enough market power to constrain the supply of goods or services, ultimately driving up prices. As a result, consumers end up paying inflated prices for goods and services, which eventually affects their welfare. It is against this backdrop that competition authorities worldwide have mounted a robust fight against the proliferation of cartels. In South Africa, the fight against cartels saw an amendment to the Competition Act to allow for criminal prosecution of individuals who cause their firms to take part in cartels. The Competition Amendment Act 1 of 2009 introduced section 73A into the principal Competition Act, making it a criminal offence to engage in cartel conduct. This paper assesses the rationale for criminalisation of cartel conduct, discusses the challenges or potential challenges associated with criminalisation, and provides an evaluation of the efficacy of criminalisation of cartel conduct. It questions whether criminal sanctions for cartel conduct as a competition enforcement tool aimed at deterring such conduct are generally effective and whether they have been effective in South Africa specifically. It concludes by offering recommendations on how to effectively root out cartels.

Keywords: cartels, criminalisation, competition, deterrence, South Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Meida Laely Ramdani, Earmporn Thongkrajai, Dedy Purwito

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Lifestyle is one of the most important factors affecting health. Measurement of lifestyle behaviors is necessary for the identification of causal associations between unhealthy lifestyle and health outcomes. There was many instruments have been measured for lifestyle, but not specific for stroke recurrence. This study aimed to develop a new questionnaire of Lifestyle Adjustment Scale (LSAS) among recurrent stroke patients in Indonesia and to measure the reliability and validity of LSAS. The instrument consist of 33 items was developed from the responses of 30 recurrent stroke patients with the maximum age 60 years. Data was collected during October to November 2015. The properties of the instrument were evaluated by validity assessment and reliability measures. The content validity was judged adequate by a panel of five experts, with the result of I-CVI was 0.97. The Cronbach’s alpha analysis was carried out to measure the reliability of LSAS. The result showed that Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.819. LSAS were classified under the domains of dietary habit, smoking habit, physical activity, and stress management. The results of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each subscale were 0.60, 0.39, 0.67, 0.65 and 0.76 respectively. LSAS instrument was valid and reliable therefore can be used as research tool among recurrent stroke patients. The development of this questionnaire has been adapted to the socio-cultural context in Indonesia.

Keywords: LSAS, recurrent stroke patients, lifestyle, Indonesia

Procedia PDF Downloads 253

Authors: Shagufta Jahangir, Nadeemullah, Yaqoob, Raisa Jahangir

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The Persian language word ‘Purdah’ and in Arabic ‘Hajab’ is used for veil. Veil has been used by women for being escaped from men. In one way or the other veil has been continuously used in ancient as well as modern civilizations by women. Developed nations have blamed the use of veil an obstacle in the process of development. Therefore, modern nations have struggled to get rid of the use of veil. They argue that it is a sign of slavery for women and it is an obstacle in the path of development. The modern secular Muslims considered veil as the biggest obstacle for social and economic development. It makes a woman helpless, as being zanjir in her feet. It has become an obstacle in the process of development for women. It is also considered as a tool for segregation among men and women. The so called Muslims of the modern era are trying to introduce changes in religion by imitation the modern nations of the world. In particular ways for Muslim woman use of veil in Islam is must. It is a right provided her by religion. It provides her strength. In the Holy Quran word ‘Hajab’ is used 5 times. Islam is against domination and forceful practice of veil, as a part of teaching of Islam it is being adopted by women as a protection. This article aims at: (1) historical background of veil (2) Its existence in civilizations, (3) Meaning and interpretation of veil in Islamic context, (4) Economic impact of it on women (5) Discussion on its practice in Islamic (eastern) and other (European) circles and conclusions followed by concerted bibliography.

Keywords: veil, economic development, civilizations, obstacle, secular Muslims, segregation

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Authors: Sonia Anand Knowlton

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In many ways, judges can express their personality within and beyond their role as a judge. Judges can use their unique backgrounds and life experiences to inform their legal reasons and can also participate in certain extrajudicial activities outside of their role on the bench. For many judges, the line between the expression of this judicial personality, on the one hand, and the consequence of jeopardizing the public’s perception of their impartiality, on the other, is ambiguous if not wholly unclear. In the famous Canadian decision R v RDS, for instance, a Black judge who was hearing a case about police violence against a Black person was accused of being biased after she acknowledged that her community’s racial dynamics may have impacted the police’s conduct. Many within the legal community might find comfort in the belief that judges do not need to bring their ‘personality’ to the bench in order to uncover the law’s truths and impartially apply it. Indeed, and for a good reason, judges are often discouraged from allowing their personality to shine through in their role as a judge – because the expression of judicial personality can compromise the public perception of the impartiality of the administration of justice. This paper evaluates the theoretical constraints on the expression of judicial personality as a tool for legal decision-making and argues that judges from minority groups are held to a higher level of impartiality. Specifically, minority judges are disproportionately constrained from 1) using life experience to apply the law and 2) engaging in certain extrajudicial activities.

Keywords: judging, legal decision making, judicial personality, extrajudicial activities

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Authors: Avadhesh Kumar

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Background: The cell phone has rapidly become an integral, and, for some, an essential communication tool that is being used worldwide. Their use without any knowledge of their harmful effects like cancers and other health effects is not ‘quite’ safe. Studies on cancers due to electromagnetic radiations from cell phones are available, but there is a need to research on the detrimental physical and psychological effects on users like students. This study focused on certain psychological or mental health effects of cell phone usage amongst students. Materials and methods: The present study will be carried out on all the students of Banaras Hindu University. Students of both sexes from urban and rural backgrounds were selected at random and administered a pre- tested questionnaire which included aspects related to few common adverse psychological health signs and symptoms attributed to cell phone over-usage. Results: Stress was found to be the commonest symptom (51.47%) followed by irritability/anger (43.79%). Other common mental symptoms included lack of concentration and academic performance, insomnia, anxiety etc. Suggestions: This study confirms that the younger generation, who are the most frequent cell phone users, needs to be aware of the adverse health effects of cell phone usage especially the mental aspects and take preventive measures to minimize and control the same. Less dependence on the device, a curtailing time period spent on talking, communicating more by texting, etc. are some of the practical measures suggested.

Keywords: cell phones, psychological health effects, students, mental health

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Authors: Dhurgham Al-Karawi, Nisreen Polus, Shakir Al-Zaidi, Sabah Jassim

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The management of COVID-19 patients based on chest imaging is emerging as an essential tool for evaluating the spread of the pandemic which has gripped the global community. It has already been used to monitor the situation of COVID-19 patients who have issues in respiratory status. There has been increase to use chest imaging for medical triage of patients who are showing moderate-severe clinical COVID-19 features, this is due to the fast dispersal of the pandemic to all continents and communities. This article demonstrates the development of machine learning techniques for the test of COVID-19 patients using Chest X-Ray (CXR) images in nearly real-time, to distinguish the COVID-19 infection with a significantly high level of accuracy. The testing performance has covered a combination of different datasets of CXR images of positive COVID-19 patients, patients with viral and bacterial infections, also, people with a clear chest. The proposed AI scheme successfully distinguishes CXR scans of COVID-19 infected patients from CXR scans of viral and bacterial based pneumonia as well as normal cases with an average accuracy of 94.43%, sensitivity 95%, and specificity 93.86%. Predicted decisions would be supported by visual evidence to help clinicians speed up the initial assessment process of new suspected cases, especially in a resource-constrained environment.

Keywords: COVID-19, chest x-ray scan, artificial intelligence, texture analysis, local binary pattern transform, Gabor filter

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Levente Varga, Dávid Deritei, Mária Ercsey-Ravasz, Răzvan Florian, Zsolt I. Lázár, István Papp, Ferenc Járai-Szabó

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One of the major shortcomings of widely used scientometric indicators is that different disciplines cannot be compared with each other. The issue of cross-disciplinary normalization has been long discussed, but even the classification of publications into scientific domains poses problems. Structural properties of citation networks offer new possibilities, however, the large size and constant growth of these networks asks for precaution. Here we present a new tool that in order to perform cross-field normalization of scientometric indicators of individual publications relays on the structural properties of citation networks. Due to the large size of the networks, a systematic procedure for identifying scientific domains based on a local community detection algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is tested with different benchmark and real-world networks. Then, by the use of this algorithm, the mechanism of the scientometric indicator normalization process is shown for a few indicators like the citation number, P-index and a local version of the PageRank indicator. The fat-tail trend of the article indicator distribution enables us to successfully perform the indicator normalization process.

Keywords: citation networks, cross-field normalization, local cluster detection, scientometric indicators

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Authors: Devansh Desai, Chamandeep Kaur, Nirmal Kullu, George Christopher

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Study of aerosols has become very important tool in assuming the climatic changes over a region.Spectral and temporal variability’s in aerosol optical depth(AOD) and size distribution are investigated using ground base measurements over Ahmedabad during the months of January(2013) to may (2013). Angstrom coefficient (ἁ) was found to be higher in winter season (January to march) indicating the dominance of fine mode aerosol concentration over Ahmedabad, and the Angstrom coefficient (ἁ) was found to be lower indicating the dominance of coarse mode aerosol concentration over Ahmedabad. The different values of alpha are observed when calculated over different wavelength ranges indicating bimodal aerosol size distribution. Discrimination of aerosol size during different seasons is made using the coefficient of polynomial fit (ἁ1 and ἁ2) which shows the presence of changing dominant aerosol types as a function of season over Ahmedabad. The ἁ2- ἁ1 value is used to get the confirmation on the dominant aerosol mode over Ahmedabad in both seasons. During pre-monsoon about 90% of AOD spectra is dominated by coarse mode aerosols and during winter about 60% of AOD spectra is dominated by fine mode aerosols. This characterization of aerosols is important in assessing the response of different aerosols type in radiative forcing and over climate of Ahmedabad.

Keywords: radiative forcing, aerosol optical depth, fine mode, coarse mode

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Authors: Aria Vitkova, Hanna Sykulska-Lawrence

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In recent years, Europa has been one of the major focus points in astrobiology due to its high potential of harbouring life in the vast ocean underneath its icy crust. However, the detection of life on Europa faces many challenges due to the harsh environmental conditions and mission constraints. Raman spectroscopy is a highly capable and versatile in-situ characterisation technique that does not require any sample preparation. It has only been used on Earth to date; however, recent advances in optical and laser technology have also allowed it to be considered for extraterrestrial exploration. So far, most efforts have been focused on the exploration of Mars, the most imminent planetary target. However, as an emerging technology with high miniaturization potential, Raman spectroscopy also represents a promising tool for the exploration of Europa. In this study, the capabilities of Raman technology in terms of life detection on Europa are explored and assessed. Spectra of biosignatures identified as high priority molecular targets for life detection on Europa were acquired at various excitation wavelengths and conditions analogous to Europa. The effects of extremely low temperatures and low concentrations in water ice were explored and evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of various configurations of Raman instruments. Based on the findings, a design of a miniaturized Raman instrument optimized for in-situ detection of life on Europa is proposed.

Keywords: astrobiology, biosignatures, Europa, life detection, Raman Spectroscopy

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Authors: Mohammad Besharatloo

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Intrusion detection is an important research topic in network security because of increasing growth in the use of computer network services. Intrusion detection is done with the aim of detecting the unauthorized use or abuse in the networks and systems by the intruders. Therefore, the intrusion detection system is an efficient tool to control the user's access through some predefined regulations. Since, the data used in intrusion detection system has high dimension, a proper representation is required to show the basis structure of this data. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the redundant features to create the best representation subset. In the proposed method, a hybrid model of differential evolution and firefly algorithms was employed to choose the best subset of properties. In addition, decision tree and support vector machine (SVM) are adopted to determine the quality of the selected properties. In the first, the sorted population is divided into two sub-populations. These optimization algorithms were implemented on these sub-populations, respectively. Then, these sub-populations are merged to create next repetition population. The performance evaluation of the proposed method is done based on KDD Cup99. The simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance than the other methods in this context.

Keywords: intrusion detection system, differential evolution, firefly algorithm, support vector machine, decision tree

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Authors: Rorlinda Yusof, Siti Aishah Hassan, Afifah Mohamad Radzi, Mohd Hakimie Zainal Abidin, Amran Rasli, Inderbir Sandhu

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The purpose of this study is to examine the self-identities of gifted and talented students and the relationship between self-identity and academic accomplishment. A random sample of 300 students enrolled in a secondary education programme at the Pusat GENIUS@pintar Negara was chosen as respondents of a 151-item holistic-identity component development tool. The validity of the instrument was assessed using Principal Components Analysis and Factor Analysis via an inter-Item Correlation Matrix (Loading values 0.44 to 0.86), which resulted in the formation of eight dimensions. The Cronbach's Alpha was calculated to determine the instrument's reliability (the overall result was 0.98). The results showed that students' holistic-identity profiles were relatively high (mean=4.09, standard deviation=0.449). In addition, spiritual identity received the greatest mean score (4.34) out of the eight components of identity investigated, while leadership identity received the lowest mean score (3.88). A conceptual framework for Islamic school leadership is recommended to implement spiritual values without differentiation to harmonize spiritual and intellectual intelligence among all the students. Some benchmarking studies with other centres for gifted and talented students are recommended for further research.

Keywords: holistic self-identity, academic achievement, self-development programme, counselling services, gifted and talented students

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Authors: Mojtaba Javdan, Kamran Jafarpour Ghalehteimouri, Moslem Ghasemi, Arezu Riazi

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Tourism has a huge multiplier effect on other socioeconomic sectors, resulting in better infrastructure and public services. However, its environmental impact is still a source of concern. As a result, a greater emphasis has been placed on improving the sustainability of tourist destinations. Despite the global significance of sustainability assessment, only a few widely accepted methods for measuring sustainability exist. As a result, the life cycle concept is used to evaluate environmental, economic, and social consequences. The Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is a crucial life cycle tool. Due to the tourism-specific service specifications, tourism-related activities are well-suited for the elaboration of data related to social sustainability. Therefore, the possibility of how the S-LCA is involved in ensuring cultural tourism destinations' long-term viability can be the main question. To answer this question, this article examines the theoretical evolution of both the S-LCA and cultural tourism. Potential application gaps are investigated, and an S-LCA framework for sustainable cultural tourism destinations is proposed and discussed. Thus, by bringing all stakeholders' interests together, the proposed S-LCA conceptual framework can play an effective role in achieving the principles and objectives of sustainable tourism destination management.

Keywords: social life cycle assessment, sustainable cultural tourism destinations, sustainable tourism destination management, S-LCA framework

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Authors: Vasudha Hegde, Narendra Chaulagain, H. M. Ravikumar, Sonu Mishra, Siva Yellampalli

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Acoustic sensors are extensively used in recent days not only for sensing and condition monitoring applications but also for small scale energy harvesting applications to power wireless sensor networks (WSN) due to their inherent advantages. The natural frequency of the structure plays a major role in energy harvesting applications since the sensor key element has to operate at resonant frequency. In this paper, circular diaphragm based MEMS acoustic sensor is modelled by Lumped Element Model (LEM) and the natural frequency is compared with the simulated model using Finite Element Method (FEM) tool COMSOL Multiphysics. The sensor has the circular diaphragm of 3000 µm radius and thickness of 30 µm to withstand the high SPL (Sound Pressure Level) and also to withstand the various fabrication steps. A Piezoelectric ZnO layer of thickness of 1 µm sandwiched between two aluminium electrodes of thickness 0.5 µm and is coated on the diaphragm. Further, a channel with radius 3000 µm radius and length 270 µm is connected at the bottom of the diaphragm. The natural frequency of the structure by LEM method is approximately 16.6 kHz which is closely matching with that of simulated structure with suitable approximations.

Keywords: acoustic sensor, diaphragm based, lumped element modeling (LEM), natural frequency, piezoelectric

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Authors: Ishak Kamal Baskhayroun

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This study examines consumer attitudes toward mobile marketing, especially toward SMS marketing. Unlike similar studies, this study does not focus on the young, but includes consumers who are in the 18-70 age range to the field research. According to the results, it has been concluded that most participants think SMS marketing is disturbing. Most important problems with SMS marketing are about getting subscribed to message lists without the permission of the receiver; the high number of messages sent; and the irrelevancy of the message content. The emergence of sponsorship as a new marketing communication tool and a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace has changed the entire marketing communication process. Sponsorship has overtaken other marketing communication tools in terms of growth and expenditure. This paper seeks to evaluate the role of sponsorship in marketing communication tools. The study recommends that proper measures be taken before the company embarks into sponsorship programs. This is necessary because investment in sponsorship does not always guarantee sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.Mobile phones are one of the direct marketing tools that can be used to reach today’s hard to reach consumers. Mobile phones are very personal devices and they are always carried with the consumer, where ever they go. This creates an opportunity for marketers to create personalized marketing communications messages and send them on the right time and place.

Keywords: employee organizational performance, internal marketing, internal customer, direct marketing, mobile phones mobile marketing, sms advertising, marketing sponsorship, marketing communication theories, marketing communication tools corporate responsibility

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Authors: Carlos A. C. G. Neto, Natan C. G. Silva, Thais O. Costa, Luciana R. B. Goncalves, Maria v. P. Rocha

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Galactosidases are enzymes responsible for catalyzing lactose hydrolysis reactions and also favoring transgalactosylation reactions for the production of prebiotics, among which lactulose stands out. These enzymes, when immobilized, can have some enzymatic characteristics substantially improved, and the coating of supports with multifunctional polymers in immobilization processes is a promising alternative in order to extend the useful life of the biocatalysts, for example, the coating with polyethyleneimine (PEI). PEI is a flexible polymer that suits the structure of the enzyme, giving greater stability, especially for multimeric enzymes such as β-galactosidases and also protects it from environmental variations, for example, pH and temperature. In addition, it can substantially improve the immobilization parameters and also the efficiency of enzymatic reactions. In this context, the aim of the present work was first to develop biocatalysts of β-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis immobilized on PEI coated agarose, determining the immobilization parameters, its operational and thermal stability, and then to apply it in the hydrolysis of lactose and synthesis of lactulose, using whey as a substrate. This immobilization strategy was chosen in order to improve the catalytic efficiency of the enzyme in the transgalactosylation reaction for the production of prebiotics, and there are few studies with β-galactosidase from this strain. The immobilization of β-galactosidase in agarose previously functionalized with 48% (w/v) glycidol and then coated with 10% (w/v) PEI solution was evaluated using an enzymatic load of 10 mg/g of protein. Subsequently, the hydrolysis and transgalactosylation reactions were conducted at 50 °C, 120 RPM for 20 minutes, using whey (66.7 g/L of lactose) supplemented with 133.3 g/L fructose at a ratio of 1:2 (lactose/fructose). Operational stability studies were performed in the same conditions for 10 cycles. Thermal stabilities of biocatalysts were conducted at 50 ºC in 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 6.6, with 0.1 mM MnCl2. The biocatalysts whose supports were coated were named AGA_GLY_PEI_GAL, and those that were not coated were named AGA_GLY_GAL. The coating of the support with PEI considerably improved immobilization yield (2.6-fold), the biocatalyst activity (1.4-fold), and efficiency (2.2-fold). The biocatalyst AGA_GLY_PEI_GAL was better than AGA_GLY_GAL in hydrolysis and transgalactosylation reactions, converting 88.92% of lactose at 5 min of reaction and obtaining a residual concentration of 5.24 g/L. Besides that, it was produced 13.90 g/L lactulose in the same time interval. AGA_GLY_PEI_GAL biocatalyst was stable during the 10 cycles evaluated, converting approximately 80% of lactose and producing 10.95 g/L of lactulose even after the tenth cycle. However, the thermal stability of AGA_GLY_GAL biocatalyst was superior, with a half-life time 5 times higher, probably because the enzyme was immobilized by covalent bonding, which is stronger than adsorption (AGA_GLY_PEI_GAL). Therefore, the strategy of coating the supports with PEI has proven to be effective for the immobilization of β-galactosidase from K. lactis, considerably improving the immobilization parameters, as well as the enzyme, catalyzed reactions. In addition, the use of whey as a raw material for lactulose production has proved to be an industrially advantageous alternative.

Keywords: β-galactosidase, immobilization, lactulose, polyethylenimine, whey

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Authors: Ilir Rexhepi, Naim Ismajli

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Quality and quality management are key factors of success nowadays. Public sector and quality management in this sector contains many challenges and difficulties, most notably in a new country like Kosovo. This study analyses the process of implementation of quality management system in public administration institutions in this country. The main objective is to show how to set up a quality management system and how does the quality management system setup affect the overall public administration services in Kosovo. This study shows how the efficiency and effectiveness of public institution services/performance is rapidly improving through the establishment and functionalization of Quality Management System. The specific impact of established QMC within the organization has resulted with the identification of mission related processes within the entire system including input identification, the person in charge and the way of conversion to the output of each activity though the interference with other service processes within the system. By giving detailed analyses of all steps of implementation of the Quality Management System, its effect and consequences towards the overall public institution service performance, we try to go one step further, by showing it as a very good example or tool of other public institutions for improving their service performance. Interviews with employees, middle and high level managers including the quality manager and general secretaries are also part of analyses in this paper.

Keywords: quality, quality management system, efficiency, public administration institutions

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Authors: Qingliang Tang

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The transition from voluntary to mandatory carbon reporting (also refers to climate reporting) poses serious challenges for accounting professionals aiming to support firms in achieving net-zero goals. The accounting literature addresses the topics that are currently bewildering accounting academics and professional accountants on how to make accounting as a useful tool for the management to achieve a carbon neutral business model. This paper explores the evolving role of carbon accounting within corporate financial reporting systems, emphasizing its integration as a crucial component. Key challenges addressed include data availability, climate risk assessment, defining reporting boundaries, selecting appropriate greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting methodologies, and integrating climate-related events into traditional financial statements. A dynamic, integrated carbon accounting framework is proposed to facilitate this transformative process effectively. Furthermore, the paper identifies critical knowledge gaps and sets forth a research agenda aimed at enhancing transparency and relevance in carbon accounting and reporting systems, thereby empowering informed decision-making. The purpose of the paper is to succinctly capture the essence of carbon accounting practice in the transitional period, focusing on the challenges, proposed solutions, and future research directions in the realm of carbon accounting and mandatory climate reporting.

Keywords: mandatory carbon reporting, carbon management, net zero target, sustainability, climate risks

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Authors: Julio Jesus Salazar, Manuel Andres Jesus De Lama

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There are very few models that serve to analyze the use of water in the socio-economic process. On the supply side, the joint use of groundwater has been considered in addition to the simple limits on the availability of surface water. In addition, we have worked on waterlogging and the effects on water quality (mainly salinity). In this paper, a 'complex' water economy is examined; one in which demands grow differentially not only within but also between sectors, and one in which there are limited opportunities to increase consumptive use. In particular, high-value growth, the growth of the production of irrigated crops of high value within the basins of the case study, together with the rapidly growing urban areas, provides a rich context to examine the general problem of water management at the basin level. At the same time, the long-term aridity of nature has made the eco-environment in the basins located on the coast of Peru very vulnerable, and the exploitation and immediate use of water resources have further deteriorated the situation. The presented methodology is the optimization with embedded simulation. The wide basin simulation of flow and water balances and crop growth are embedded with the optimization of water allocation, reservoir operation, and irrigation scheduling. The modeling framework is developed from a network of river basins that includes multiple nodes of origin (reservoirs, aquifers, water courses, etc.) and multiple demand sites along the river, including places of consumptive use for agricultural, municipal and industrial, and uses of running water on the coast of Peru. The economic benefits associated with water use are evaluated for different demand management instruments, including water rights, based on the production and benefit functions of water use in the urban agricultural and industrial sectors. This work represents a new effort to analyze the use of water at the regional level and to evaluate the modernization of the integrated management of water resources and socio-economic territorial development in Peru. It will also allow the establishment of policies to improve the process of implementation of the integrated management and development of water resources. The input-output analysis is essential to present a theory about the production process, which is based on a particular type of production function. Also, this work presents the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) version of the economic model for water resource policy analysis, which was specifically designed for analyzing large-scale water management. As to the platform for CGE simulation, GEMPACK, a flexible system for solving CGE models, is used for formulating and solving CGE model through the percentage-change approach. GEMPACK automates the process of translating the model specification into a model solution program.

Keywords: water economy, simulation, modeling, integration

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Authors: Carla Caiazza, Valentina Preziosi, Giovanna Tomaiuolo, Denis O'Sullivan, Vincenzo Guida, Stefano Guido

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In the last decades, wormlike micellar solutions have been extensively used to tune the rheological behavior of home care and personal care products. This and other successful applications underlie the growing attention that both basic and applied research are devoting to these systems, and to their unique rheological and flow properties. One of the key research topics is the occurrence of flow instabilities at high shear rates (such as shear banding), with the possibility of appearance of flow induced structures. In this scenario, microfluidics is a powerful tool to get a deeper insight into the flow behavior of a wormlike micellar solution, as the high confinement of a microfluidic device facilitates the onset of the flow instabilities; furthermore, thanks to its small dimensions, it can be coupled with optical microscopy, allowing a direct visualization of flow structuring phenomena. Here, the flow of a widely used wormlike micellar solution through a glass capillary has been studied, by coupling the microfluidic device with μPIV techniques. The direct visualization of flow-induced structures and the flow visualization analysis highlight a relationship between solution structuring and the onset of discontinuities in the velocity profile.

Keywords: flow instabilities, flow-induced structures, μPIV, wormlike micelles

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Authors: Sofiane Bendoukha, Daniel Moldt, Hayat Bendoukha

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Workflow concepts are essential for the development of remote sensing applications. They can help users to manage and process satellite data and execute scientific experiments on distributed resources. The objective of this paper is to introduce an approach for the specification and the execution of complex scientific workflows in Cloud-like environments. The approach strives to support scientists during the modeling, the deployment and the monitoring of their workflows. This work takes advantage from Petri nets and more pointedly the so-called reference nets formalism, which provides a robust modeling/implementation technique. RENEWGRASS is a tool that we implemented and integrated into the Petri nets editor and simulator RENEW. It provides an easy way to support not experienced scientists during the specification of their workflows. It allows both modeling and enactment of image processing workflows from the remote sensing domain. Our case study is related to the implementation of vegetation indecies. We have implemented the Normalized Differences Vegetation Index (NDVI) workflow. Additionally, we explore the integration possibilities of the Cloud technology as a supplementary layer for the deployment of the current implementation. For this purpose, we discuss migration patterns of data and applications and propose an architecture.

Keywords: cloud computing, scientific workflows, petri nets, RENEWGRASS

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Authors: Donna H. Gabor

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This study aimed to develop and validate an electronic module in physics for first-year college students of Iloilo and find out if there would be a significant difference in the performance of students before and after using the electronic module. The e-module was composed of one topic with two sub-lessons in linear motion (kinematics). The participants of the study were classified into three groups: the subject matter experts who are physics instructors who suggested the content, physical appearance, and limitations of the e-module; the IT experts who are active both in teaching and developing computer programs; and 28 students divided into two groups, 15 in the pilot group and 13 in the final test group. A researcher created 30 items checklist form (difficulty of a sample problem, comprehension, application, and definition of terms) was prepared and validated by the experts in subject matter for gathering data. To test the difference in student performance in physics, the researcher prepared an achievement test containing 25 items, multiple choices. The findings revealed that there was an increase in the performance of students in the pretest and post-test. T-test results revealed that there was a significant difference in the test scores of the students before and after using the module which can be used as a future reference for linear motion as an additional teaching tool in physics.

Keywords: electronic module, kinematics, linear motion, physics

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Authors: Juan Xia, Jiaxu Yan, Ze Xiang Shen

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The tuneable interlayer interactions in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichlcogenides (TMDs) offer an exciting platform for exploring new physics and applications by material variety, thickness, stacking sequence, electromagnetic filed, and stress/strain. Compared with the five methods mentioned above, high pressure is a clean and powerful tool to induce dramatic changes in lattice parameters and physical properties for 2D TMD materials. For instance, high pressure can strengthen the van der Waals interactions along c-axis and shorten the covalent bonds in atomic plane, leading to the typical first-order structural transition (2Hc to 2Ha for MoS2), or metallization. In particular, in the case of WTe₂, its unique symmetry endows the significant anisotropy and the corresponding unexpected properties including the giant magnetoresistance, pressure-induced superconductivity and Weyl semimetal states. Upon increasing pressure, the Raman peaks for WTe₂ at ~120 cm⁻¹, are gradually red-shifted and totally suppressed above 10 GPa, attributed to the possible structural instability of orthorhombic Td phase under high pressure and phase transition to a new monoclinic T' phase with inversion symmetry. Distinct electronic structures near Fermi level between the Td and T' phases may pave a feasible way to achieve the Weyl state tuning in one material without doping.

Keywords: 2D TMDs, electronic property, high pressure, first-principles calculations

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Authors: Chiao-Chen Chang, Yang-Chieh Chin

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Social media has created a change in the way the network community is clustered, especially from the location of the community, from the original virtual space to the intertwined network, and thus the communication between people will change from face to face communication to social media-based communication model. However, social media users who have had a fixed engagement may have an intention to switch to another service provider because of the emergence of new forms of social media. For example, some of Facebook or Twitter users switched to Instagram in 2014 because of social media messages or image overloads, and users may seek simpler and instant social media to become their main social networking tool. This study explores the impact of system features overload, information overload, social monitoring concerns, problematic use and privacy concerns as the antecedents on social media fatigue, dissatisfaction, and alternative attractiveness; further influence social media switching. This study also uses the online questionnaire survey method to recover the sample data, and then confirm the factor analysis, path analysis, model fit analysis and mediating analysis with the structural equation model (SEM). Research findings demonstrated that there were significant effects on multiple paths. Based on the research findings, this study puts forward the implications of theory and practice.

Keywords: social media, switching, social media fatigue, alternative attractiveness

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Authors: Meryem Saban Guler, Saniye Bilici

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Malnutrition is a problem that significantly affects patients with cancer throughout the course of their illness, and it may be present from the moment of diagnosis until the end of treatment. We searched electronic databases using key terms such as ‘malnutrition in cancer patients’ or ‘nutritional status in cancer’ or ‘nutritional screening tools’ etc. Decline in nutritional status and continuing weight loss are associated with an increase in number and severity of complications, impaired quality of life and decreased survival rate. Nutrition is an important factor in the treatment and progression of cancer. Cancer patients are particularly susceptible to nutritional depletion due to the combined effects of the malignant disease and its treatment. With increasing incidence of cancer, identification and management of nutritional deficiencies are needed. Early identification of malnutrition, is substantial to minimize or prevent undesirable outcomes throughout clinical course. In determining the nutritional status; food consumption status, anthropometric methods, laboratory tests, clinical symptoms, psychosocial data are used. First-line strategies must include routine screening and identification of inpatients or outpatients at nutritional risk with the use of a simple and standardized screening tool. There is agreement among international nutrition organizations and accredited health care organizations that routine nutritional screening should be a standard procedure for every patient admitted to a hospital. There are f management of all cancer patients therefore routine nutritional screening with validated tools can identify cancer patients at risk.

Keywords: cancer, malnutrition, nutrition, nutritional screening

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Authors: Debdatta Mukherjee, Abhiman Das, Amit Garg

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In recent years, there is a growing interest about corporate social responsibility of firms in both academic literature and business world. Since business forms a part of society incorporating socio-environment concerns into its value chain, activities are vital for ensuring mutual sustainability and prosperity. But, until now most of the works have been either descriptive or normative rather than positivist in tone. Even the few ones with a positivist approach have mostly studied the link between corporate financial performance and corporate social performance. However, these studies have been severely criticized by many eminent authors on grounds that they lack a theoretical basis for their findings. They have also argued that apart from corporate financial performance, there must be certain other crucial influences that are likely to determine corporate social performance of firms. In fact, several studies have indicated that firms operating in distinct national institutions show significant variations in the corporate social responsibility practices that they undertake. This clearly suggests that the institutional context of a country in which the firms operate is a key determinant of corporate social performance of firms. Therefore, this paper uses an institutional framework to understand why corporate social performance of firms vary across countries. It examines the impact of country level institutions on corporate social performance using a sample of 3240 global publicly-held firms across 33 countries covering the period 2010-2015. The country level institutions include public institutions, private institutions, markets and capacity to innovate. Econometric Analysis has been mainly used to assess this impact. A three way panel data analysis using fixed effects has been used to test and validate appropriate hypotheses. Most of the empirical findings confirm our hypotheses and the economic significance indicates the specific impact of each variable and their importance relative to others. The results suggest that institutional determinants like ethical behavior of private institutions, goods market, labor market and innovation capacity of a country are significantly related to the corporate social performance of firms. Based on our findings, few implications for policy makers from across the world have also been suggested. The institutions in a country should promote competition. The government should use policy levers for upgrading home demands, like setting challenging yet flexible safety, quality and environment standards, and framing policies governing buyer information, providing innovative recourses to low quality goods and services and promoting early adoption of new and technologically advanced products. Moreover, the institution building in a country should be such that they facilitate and improve the capacity of firms to innovate. Therefore, the proposed study argues that country level institutions impact corporate social performance of firms, empirically validates the same, suggest policy implications and attempts to contribute to an extended understanding of corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance in a multinational context.

Keywords: corporate social performance, corporate social responsibility, institutions, markets

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Authors: Boon Yih Mah

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Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) is a hybrid e-framework that consolidates instructional design and language development towards the development of a web-based instruction (WBI). WeCWI divides instructional design into macro and micro perspectives. In macro perspective, a 21st century educator is encouraged to disseminate knowledge and share ideas with in-class and global learners. By leveraging the virtue of technology, WeCWI aims to transform the educator into an aggregator, curator, publisher, social networker and finally, a web-based instructor. Since the most notable contribution of integrating technology is being a tool of teaching as well as a stimulus for learning, WeCWI focuses on the use of contemporary web tools based on the multiple roles played by the 21st century educator. The micro perspective draws attention to the pedagogical approaches focussing on three main aspects: reading, discussion, and writing. With the effective use of pedagogical approaches, technology adds new dimensions and expands the bounds of learning capacity. Lastly, WeCWI also imparts the fundamental theoretical concepts for web-based instructors’ awareness such as interactionism, e-learning interactional-based model, computer-mediated communication (CMC), cognitive theories, and learning style model.

Keywords: web-based cognitive writing instruction, WeCWI, instructional design, e-framework, web-based instructor

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Authors: Ng Yen, Shafii Khamis, Rehir Bin Dahalan

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Cyclotrons in the energy range 10-30 MeV are widely used for the production of clincally relevant radiosiotopes used in positron emission tomography (PET) nuclear imaging. Positron emmision tomography is a powerful nuclear imaging tool that produces high quality 3-dimentional images of functional processes of body. The advantage of PET among all other imaging devices is that it allows the study of an impressive array of discrete biochemical and physiologic processes, within a single imaging session. The number of PET scanner increases every year globally due to high clinical demand. However, not all PET centers can afford a cyclotron, due to the expense associated with operation of an in-house cyclotron. Therefore, current research has also focused on the development of parent/daughter generators that can reliably provide PET nuclides. These generators (68Ge/68Ga generator, 62Zn/62Cu, 82Sr/82Rb, etc) can provide even short-lived radionuclides at any time on demand, without the need of an ‘in-house cyclotron’. The parent isotope is produced at a cyclotron/reactor facility, and can be shipped to remote clinical sites (regionally/overseas), where the daughter isotope is eluted, a model similar to the 99Mo/99mTc generator system. The specific aim for this presentation is to talk about the potential for both of the cyclotron and generator-produced PET radiopharmaceuticals used in clinical imaging.

Keywords: positron emission tomography, radiopharmaceutical, cyclotron, generator

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Authors: Célia Barreto Carvalho, Carolina da Motta, Marina Sousa, Joana Cabral, Ana Luísa Carvalho, Ermelindo Peixoto

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The aim of the current study was to develop and validate a Response to Stressful Situations Scale (RSSS) for the Portuguese population. This scale assesses the degree of stress experienced in scenarios that can constitute positive, negative and more neutral stressors, and also describes the physiological, emotional and behavioral reactions to those events according to their intensity. These scenario include typical stressor scenarios relevant to patients with schizophrenia, which are currently absent from most scale, assessing specific risks that these stressors may bring on subjects, which may prove useful in non-clinical and clinical populations (i.e. patients with mood or anxiety disorders, schizophrenia). Results from Principal Components Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of on two adult samples from general population allowed to confirm a three-factor model with good fit indices: χ2 (144)= 370.211, p = 0.000; GFI = 0.928; CFI = 0.927; TLI = 0.914, RMSEA = 0.055, P( rmsea ≤ 0.005) = 0.096; PCFI = 0.781. Further data analysis on the scale revealed that RSSS is an adequate assessment tool of stress response in adults to be used in further research and clinical settings, with good psychometric characteristics, adequate divergent and convergent validity, good temporal stability and high internal consistency.

Keywords: assessment, stress events, stress response, stress vulnerability

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Authors: Alexandru-Ion Marinescu

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There exist a plethora of methods in the scientific literature which tackle the well-established task of credit score evaluation. In its most abstract form, a credit scoring algorithm takes as input several credit applicant properties, such as age, marital status, employment status, loan duration, etc. and must output a binary response variable (i.e. “GOOD” or “BAD”) stating whether the client is susceptible to payment return delays. Data imbalance is a common occurrence among financial institution databases, with the majority being classified as “GOOD” clients (clients that respect the loan return calendar) alongside a small percentage of “BAD” clients. But it is the “BAD” clients we are interested in since accurately predicting their behavior is crucial in preventing unwanted loss for loan providers. We add to this whole context the constraint that the algorithm must yield an actual, tractable mathematical formula, which is friendlier towards financial analysts. To this end, we have turned to genetic algorithms and genetic programming, aiming to evolve actual mathematical expressions using specially tailored mutation and crossover operators. As far as data representation is concerned, we employ a very flexible mechanism – LINQ expression trees, readily available in the C# programming language, enabling us to construct executable pieces of code at runtime. As the title implies, they model trees, with intermediate nodes being operators (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or mathematical functions (sin, cos, abs, round, etc.) and leaf nodes storing either constants or variables. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the client properties and the formula variables. The mutation and crossover operators work on a flattened version of the tree, obtained via a pre-order traversal. A consequence of our chosen technique is that we can identify and discard client properties which do not take part in the final score evaluation, effectively acting as a dimensionality reduction scheme. We compare ourselves with state of the art approaches, such as support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and extreme learning machines, to name a few. The data sets we benchmark against amount to a total of 8, of which we mention the well-known Australian credit and German credit data sets, and the performance indicators are the following: percentage correctly classified, area under curve, partial Gini index, H-measure, Brier score and Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, respectively. Finally, we obtain encouraging results, which, although placing us in the lower half of the hierarchy, drive us to further refine the algorithm.

Keywords: expression trees, financial credit scoring, genetic algorithm, genetic programming, symbolic evolution

Procedia PDF Downloads 122