Search results for: local psychiatric centers

Authors: B. G. Oguntuase, M. O. Olofinsae

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This study was carried out to assess the contribution of bush meat to Edo people’s livelihood and the consequence of utilization on conservation. Five markets were selected in Ovia Southwest local government area of Edo State, twenty bush meat sellers were selected from each market. Direct observations were made to document the composition of wild animals under sale in the study area. A total of one hundred questionnaires were administered to the respondents. The questionnaires were all retrieved and analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results show that thirteen animal species are being traded in the area. The price for the animal species (whole animal) ranged from N200 to N9,520. Respondents reported that there is a decline in the animal population over time. Between 64% and 95% of the respondents acknowledged population decline in seven of the thirteen animal species available for sale compared to what it used to be some ten years ago. Sales of wild animal species could be regarded as a profitable business in the rural community, supporting livelihood of the community, but could have devastating effect on conservation as already observed in this study if harvesting of wild animals is not regulated on controlled or sustainable basis.

Keywords: conservation, economic benefits, hunting, population, wild animals

Procedia PDF Downloads 469

Authors: Osama Amer Mohyeldin Mohamed

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Qubbet el-Hawa North (QHN) is an example of an archaeological site in West-Aswan and It has not opened to the public yet and has been under excavation since its discovery in 2013 as a result of the illegal digging that happened in many sites in Egypt because of the unstable situation and the absence of security. The site has the potential to be one of the most attractive sites in Aswan. Moreover, it deserves to be introduced to the visitors in a good manner appropriate to its great significance. Both interpretation and presentation are crucial inseparable tools that communicate the archaeological site's significance to the public and raise their awareness. Moreover, it helps them to understand the past and appreciate archaeological assets. People will never learn or see anything from ancient remains unless it is explained. They would only look at it as ancient and charming. They expect a story, and more than knowledge, authenticity, or even supporting preservation actions, they want to enjoy and be entertained. On the other hand, a lot of archaeologists believe that planning an archaeological site for entertaining visitors deteriorates it and affects its authenticity. Thus, it represents a challenge to design a model for visitors’ experience that meets their expectations and needs while safeguarding the site’s integrity. The article presents a proposal for an interpretation plan for the site of Qubbet el-Hawa North.

Keywords: heritage interpretation and presentation, archaeological site management, qubbet el-hawa North, local community engagement, accessibility

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Authors: Muhammad Asghar, Aamer Iqbal Bhatti, Qadeer Ahmed, Tahir Izhar

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Three wheeler auto Rickshaw, often termed as ‘auto rickshaw’ is very common in Pakistan and is considered as the most affordable means of transportation to the local people. Problems caused by the gasoline engine on the environment and people, the researchers and the automotive industry have turned to the hybrid electric vehicles and electrical powered vehicle. The research in this paper explains the design of energy efficient Electric auto Rickshaw. An electric auto rickshaw is being developed at Center for Energy Research and Development, (Lahore), which is running on the roads of Lahore city. Energy storage capacity of batteries is at least 25 times heavier than fossil fuel and having volume 10 times in comparison to fuel, resulting an increase of the Rickshaw weight. A set of specifications is derived according to the mobility requirements of the electric auto rickshaw. The design choices considering the power-train and component selection are explained in detail. It was concluded that electric auto rickshaw has many advantages and benefits over the conventional auto rickshaw. It is cleaner and much more energy efficient but limited to the distance it can travel before recharging of battery. In addition, a brief future view of the battery technology is given.

Keywords: conventional auto rickshaw, energy efficiency, electric auto rickshaw, internal combustion engine, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Xu Han, Shanxiong Chen, Shiyu Zhu, Xiaoyu Lin, Fujia Zhao, Dingwang Wang

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Character detection is an important issue for character recognition of ancient Yi books. The accuracy of detection directly affects the recognition effect of ancient Yi books. Considering the complex layout, the lack of standard typesetting and the mixed arrangement between images and texts, we propose a character detection method for ancient Yi books based on connected components and regressive character segmentation. First, the scanned images of ancient Yi books are preprocessed with nonlocal mean filtering, and then a modified local adaptive threshold binarization algorithm is used to obtain the binary images to segment the foreground and background for the images. Second, the non-text areas are removed by the method based on connected components. Finally, the single character in the ancient Yi books is segmented by our method. The experimental results show that the method can effectively separate the text areas and non-text areas for ancient Yi books and achieve higher accuracy and recall rate in the experiment of character detection, and effectively solve the problem of character detection and segmentation in character recognition of ancient books.

Keywords: CCS concepts, computing methodologies, interest point, salient region detections, image segmentation

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Kankurize Josiane, Nizigama Mediatrice

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Introduction: Burundi records a still high infant mortality rate. Despite efforts to reduce it, prematurity is still the leading cause of death in the neonatal period. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of care for premature babies hospitalized in the neonatology unit of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kamenge. Method: This was a descriptive and evaluative prospective carried out in the neonatology unit of the CHUK (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kamenge) from December 1, 2016, to May 31, 2017, including 70 premature babies, 65 mothers of premature babies and 15 providers including a pediatrician and 14 nurses. Using a tool developed by the World Health Organization and adapted to the local context by national experts, the quality of care for premature babies was assessed. Results: Prematurity accounted for 44.05% of hospitalizations in neonatology at the University Hospital of Kamenge. The assessment of the quality of care for premature babies was of low quality, with an average global score of 2/5 (50%), indicating that there is a considerable need for improvement to reach the standards. Conclusion: Efforts must be made to have infrastructures, materials, and human resources sufficient in quality and quantity so that the neonatology unit of the CHUK can be efficient and optimize the care of premature babies.

Keywords: quality of care, evaluation, premature, standards

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Authors: Andreas Hirseland, Lukas Kerschbaumer

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In Germany, during the past years there constantly are about one million long term unemployed who did not benefit from the prospering labor market while most short term unemployed did. Instead, they are continuously dependent on welfare and sometimes precarious short-term employment, experiencing work poverty. Long term unemployment thus turns into a main obstacle to regular employment, especially if accompanied by other impediments such as low level education (school/vocational), poor health (especially chronical illness), advanced age (older than fifty), immigrant status, motherhood or engagement in care for other relatives. Almost two thirds of all welfare recipients have multiple impediments which hinder a successful transition from welfare back to sustainable and sufficient employment. Hiring them is often considered as an investment too risky for employers. Therefore formal application schemes based on formal qualification certificates and vocational biographies might reduce employers’ risks but at the same time are not helpful for long-term unemployed and welfare recipients. The panel survey ‘Labor market and social security’ (PASS; ~15,000 respondents in ~10,000 households), carried out by the Institute of Employment Research (the research institute of the German Federal Labor Agency), shows that their chance to get back to work tends to fall to nil. Only 66 cases of such unlikely transitions could be observed. In a sequential explanatory mixed-method study, the very scarce ‘success stories’ of unlikely transitions from long term unemployment to work were explored by qualitative inquiry – in-depth interviews with a focus on biography accompanied by qualitative network techniques in order to get a more detailed insight of relevant actors involved in the processes which promote the transition from being a welfare recipient to work. There is strong evidence that sustainable transitions are influenced by biographical resources like habits of network use, a set of informal skills and particularly a resilient way of dealing with obstacles, combined with contextual factors rather than by job-placement procedures promoted by Job-Centers according to activation rules or by following formal paths of application. On the employer’s side small and medium-sized enterprises are often found to give job opportunities to a wider variety of applicants, often based on a slow but steadily increasing relationship leading to employment. According to these results it is possible to show and discuss some limitations of (German) activation policies targeting welfare dependency and long-term unemployment. Based on these findings, indications for more supportive small scale measures in the field of labor-market policies are suggested to help long-term unemployed with multiple impediments to overcome their situation.

Keywords: against-all-odds, economic sociology, long-term unemployment, mixed-methods

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Alesandro Romero, Inaki Maulida Hakim

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This research was conducted in an automotive company in Indonesia to overcome the problem of high logistics cost. The problem causes high of additional truck delivery. From the breakdown of the problem, chosen one route, which has the highest gap value, namely for RE-04. Research methodology will be started from calculating the ideal condition, making simulation, calculating the ideal logistic cost, and proposing an improvement. From the calculation of the ideal condition, box arrangement was done on the truck; the average efficiency was 97,4 % with three trucks delivery per day. Route simulation making uses Tecnomatix Plant Simulation software as a visualization for the company about how the system is occurred on route RE-04 in ideal condition. Furthermore, from the calculation of logistics cost of the ideal condition, it brings savings of Rp53.011.800,00 in a month. The last step is proposing improvements on the area of route RE-04. The route arrangement is done by Saving Method and sequence of each supplier with the Nearest Neighbor. The results of the proposed improvements are three new route groups, where was expected to decrease logistics cost Rp3.966.559,40 per day, and increase the average of the truck efficiency 8,78% per day.

Keywords: efficiency, logistic cost, milkrun, saving methode, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 446

Authors: Eldah Ephraim Buba, Jamila Mohammed Waziri

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There are challenges faced by tourist in respect of choosing food while in tourism destination. Food is very important in the choice of holiday of tourist. Many tourists choose a destination not only because of physical attraction but they choose destination where they will not encounter challenges in respect to food. The study is aimed at examining the acceptability of northern delicacies by tourists from other parts of Nigeria. Six delicacies were produced and presented to 50 tourists who are randomly picked from the south-east, south-west, south-south and the middle belt of Nigeria. The study found out that Danwake, Masa, and Kwadon zogale were generally accepted by majority of the respondents. Although, the respondents were not comfortable with the appearance of danwake, other aspect of the checklist was accepted. Tuwon shinkafa miyan taushe was accepted in terms of appearance but rejected in terms of taste and texture. ‘Yar Tsame and dindikolo were generally rejected. The study recommended that caterers, attraction owners and hoteliers should include such meals in their menu so that tourist will enjoy the gastronomy of the northern part of Nigeria.

Keywords: acceptability, examination, food, tourism

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Authors: Anu Paul, Varghese Paul

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The focal aspire of e-Government (eGovt) is to offer citizen-centered service delivery. Accordingly, the citizenry consumes services from multiple government agencies through national portal. Thus, eGovt is an enterprise with the primary business motive of transparent, efficient and effective public services to its citizenry and its logical structure is the eGovernment Enterprise Architecture (eGEA). Since eGovt is IT oriented multifaceted service-centric system, EA doesn’t do much on an automated enterprise other than the business artifacts. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) manifestation led some governments to pertain this in their eGovts, but it limits the source of business artifacts. The concurrent use of EA and SOA in eGovt executes interoperability and integration and leads to Service-Oriented e-Government Enterprise (SOeGE). Consequently, agile eGovt system becomes a reality. As an IT perspective eGovt comprises of centralized public service artifacts with the existing application logics belong to various departments at central, state and local level. The eGovt is renovating to SOeGE by apply the Service-Orientation (SO) principles in the entire system. This paper explores IT perspective of SOeGE in India which encompasses the public service models and illustrated with a case study the Passport service of India.

Keywords: enterprise architecture, service-oriented e-Government enterprise, service interface layer, service model

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Authors: F. Ismael Roman Moreno, Francisca Alba Sanchez

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Over time, the plant landscape has changed as a result of the numerous events on a global and local scale that have happened. This is the case of the Mediterranean ecosystems, one of the most complex and rich in endemisms on the planet, subjected to anthropic pressures from the beginning of civilizations. The intervention in these systems together with climate changes has led to changes in diversity, tree cover, shrub, and ultimately in the structure and functioning of these ecosystems. Paleopalinology is used as a tool for analysis of pollen and non-pollen microfossils preserved in the flooded grasslands of the Middle Atlas (Morocco). This allows reconstructing the evolution of vegetation and climate, as well as providing data and reasoning to different ecological, cultural and historical processes. Although climatic and anthropic events are well documented in Europe, they are not so well documented in North Africa, which gives added value to the study area. The results obtained serve to predict the behavior and evolution of Mediterranean mountain ecosystems during the Holocene, their response to future changes, resilience, and recovery from climatic and anthropic disturbances. In the stratigraphic series analyzed, nine major events were detected, eight of which appeared to be of climatic and anthropic origin, and one unexpected, related to volcanic activity.

Keywords: anthropic, Holocene, Morocco, paleopalynology, resilience

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Authors: Zheng Zhihao

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Recently, Knowledge Graph Framework Network (KGCN) has developed powerful capabilities in knowledge representation and reasoning tasks. However, traditional KGCN often uses a fixed weight mechanism when aggregating information, failing to make full use of rich structural information, resulting in a certain expression ability of node representation, and easily causing over-smoothing problems. In order to solve these challenges, the paper proposes an new graph neural network model called KGCN-STAR (Knowledge Graph Convolutional Network with Structural Adaptive Receptive Fields). This model dynamically adjusts the perception of each node by introducing a structural adaptive receptive field. wild range, and a subgraph aggregator is designed to capture local structural information more effectively. Experimental results show that KGCN-STAR shows significant performance improvement on multiple knowledge graph data sets, especially showing considerable capabilities in the task of representation learning of complex structures.

Keywords: knowledge graph, graph neural networks, structural adaptive receptive fields, information aggregation

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Authors: Yin Yuanling

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A Deep Feedback Recurrent Neural Network (DFRNN) and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) are designed to address the problem of low accuracy of traditional relationship extraction models. This method combines a deep feedback-based recurrent neural network (DFRNN) with a bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) approach. The method combines DFRNN, which extracts local features of text based on deep feedback recurrent mechanism, BiLSTM, which better extracts global features of text, and Self-Attention, which extracts semantic information. Experiments show that the method achieves an F1 value of 76.69% on the CEC dataset, which is 0.0652 better than the BiLSTM+Self-ATT model, thus optimizing the performance of the deep learning method in the event relationship extraction task.

Keywords: event relations, deep learning, DFRNN models, bi-directional long and short-term memory networks

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Authors: Zakhile Somlata

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In the context of international linguistic and cultural diversity, all languages can be used for all purposes. Africa in general and South Africa, in particular, is not an exception to multilingual and multicultural society. The multilingual and multicultural nature of South African society has a direct bearing to the heterogeneity of South African Universities in general. Universities as the centers of research, innovation, and transformation of the entire society should be at the forefront in leading multilingualism. The universities in South Africa had been using English and to a certain extent Afrikaans as the only academic languages during colonialism and apartheid regime. The democratic breakthrough of 1994 brought linguistic relief in South Africa. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa recognizes 11 official languages that should enjoy parity of esteem for the realization of multilingualism. The elevation of the nine previously marginalized indigenous African languages as academic languages in higher education is central to multilingualism. It is high time that Afrocentric model instead of Eurocentric model should be the one which underpins education system in South Africa at all levels. Almost all South African universities have their language policies that seek to promote access and success of students through multilingualism, but the main dilemma is the implementation of language policies. This study is significant to respond to two objectives: (i) To evaluate how selected institutions use language policies for accessibility and success of students. (ii) To study how selected universities integrate African languages for both academic and administrative purposes. This paper reflects the language policy practices in one selected University of Technology (UoT) in South Africa. The UoT has its own language policy which depicts linguistic diversity of the institution and its commitment to promote multilingualism. Translanguaging pedagogy which accommodates minority languages' usage in the teaching and learning process plays a pivotal role in promoting multilingualism. This research paper employs mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative research) approach. Qualitative data has been collected from the key informants (insiders and experts), while quantitative data has been collected from a cohort of third-year students. A mixed methods approach with its convergent parallel design allows the data to be collected separately, analysed separately but with the comparison of the results. Language development initiatives have been discussed within the framework of language policy and policy implementation strategies. Theoretically, this paper is rooted in language as a problem, language as a right and language as a resource. The findings demonstrate that despite being a multilingual institution, there is a perpetuation of marginalization of African languages to be used as academic languages. Findings further display the hegemony of English. The promotion of status quo compromises the promotion of multilingualism, Africanization of Higher Education and intellectualization of indigenous African languages in South Africa under a democratic dispensation.

Keywords: afro-centric model, hegemony of English, language as a resource, translanguaging pedagogy

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Latha Subbiah, Dhanalakshmi Samiappan

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In this paper, we propose denoising Common Carotid Artery (CCA) B mode ultrasound images by a decomposition approach to curvelet thresholding and automatic segmentation of the intima media thickness and adventitia boundary. By decomposition, the local geometry of the image, its direction of gradients are well preserved. The components are combined into a single vector valued function, thus removes noise patches. Double threshold is applied to inherently remove speckle noise in the image. The denoised image is segmented by active contour without specifying seed points. Combined with level set theory, they provide sub regions with continuous boundaries. The deformable contours match to the shapes and motion of objects in the images. A curve or a surface under constraints is developed from the image with the goal that it is pulled into the necessary features of the image. Region based and boundary based information are integrated to achieve the contour. The method treats the multiplicative speckle noise in objective and subjective quality measurements and thus leads to better-segmented results. The proposed denoising method gives better performance metrics compared with other state of art denoising algorithms.

Keywords: curvelet, decomposition, levelset, ultrasound

Procedia PDF Downloads 340

Authors: Edlira Donefski, Lorenc Ekonomi, Tina Donefski

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Edgeworth approximation is one of the most important statistical methods that has a considered contribution in the reduction of the sum of standard deviation of the independent variables’ coefficients in a Quantile Regression Model. This model estimates the conditional median or other quantiles. In this paper, we have applied approximating statistical methods in an economical problem. We have created and generated a quantile regression model to see how the profit gained is connected with the realized sales of the cosmetic products in a real data, taken from a local business. The Linear Regression of the generated profit and the realized sales was not free of autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity, so this is the reason that we have used this model instead of Linear Regression. Our aim is to analyze in more details the relation between the variables taken into study: the profit and the finalized sales and how to minimize the standard errors of the independent variable involved in this study, the level of realized sales. The statistical methods that we have applied in our work are Edgeworth Approximation for Independent and Identical distributed (IID) cases, Bootstrap version of the Model and the Edgeworth approximation for Bootstrap Quantile Regression Model. The graphics and the results that we have presented here identify the best approximating model of our study.

Keywords: bootstrap, edgeworth approximation, IID, quantile

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: George D. Ranis, Valasia Iakovoglou, George N. Zaimes

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Fires are one of the main types of disturbances that shape ecosystems in the Mediterranean region. However nowadays, climate alterations towards higher temperature regimes results on the increased levels of the intensity, frequency and the spread of fires inducing obstacles for the natural regeneration. Thasos Island is one of the Greek islands that have experienced those problems. Since 1984, a series of wildfires led to the reduction of forest cover from 61.6% to almost 20%. The negative impacts were devastating in many different aspects for the island. The absence of plant cover, post-wildfire precipitation and steep slopes were the major factors that induced severe soil erosion and intense flooding events. That also resulted to serious economic problems to the local communities and the ability of the burnt areas to regenerate naturally. Despite the substantial amount of published work regarding Thasos wildfires, there is no information related to post-wildfire effects on the hydrology and soil erosion. More research related to post-fire effects should help to an overall assessment of the negative impacts of wildfires on land degradation through processes such as soil erosion and flooding.

Keywords: erosion, land degradation, Mediterranean islands, regeneration, Thasos, wildfires

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Riyadh Alsultani, Ali Majdi

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It is necessary to develop a design methodology that includes the possibility of seismic events occurring in a region, the vulnerability of the civil hydraulic structure, and the effects of the occurrence hazard on society, environment, and economy in order to evaluate the flood and earthquake risks of coastal bridge networks. This paper presents a design approach for the assessment of the risk and sustainability of coastal bridge networks under time-variant flood-earthquake conditions. The social, environmental, and economic indicators of the network are used to measure its sustainability. These consist of anticipated loss, downtime, energy waste, and carbon dioxide emissions. The design process takes into account the possibility of happening in a set of flood and earthquake scenarios that represent the local seismic activity. Based on the performance of each bridge as determined by fragility assessments, network linkages are measured. The network's connections and bridges' damage statuses after an earthquake scenario determine the network's sustainability and danger. The sustainability measures' temporal volatility and the danger of structural degradation are both highlighted. The method is shown using a transportation network in Baghdad, Iraq.

Keywords: sustainability, Coastal bridge networks, flood-earthquake risk, structural design

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Authors: Qurat Ul Ain Bashir

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Since the inception of Pakistan Tourism industry was not on developed level but afterwards 9/11 the tourism has declined rapidly in the country. Despite Northern areas full potential, rich historical and cultural heritage, natural beauty, museums, art galleries, hiking tracks, tourism is not getting that response in Pakistan, which it deserves. In fact Pakistan has been blessed with all the features that could make her a tourist destination. On the other side the attitude of the local people, socio-political condition, lack of facilities of international standards, media’s way of reporting about country, governments’ negligence etc has more adversely affected the international tourism than domestic tourism. From 2013 onward some developments in the said industry has been shown but that is not much encouraging. In 2017 approximately two million tourist visited Pakistan in comparison to 1.75 million in 2016. In the light of above debate the paper attempts to diagnose the causes which are not allowing the reasonable growth of tourism in Pakistan and suggests steps which must be taken to develop the industry through a large scale campaign and long term planning. The methodology about this research is quantitative with reference to description, analysis and recommendations. The material would be collected from the government publications, articles, surveys, tourist accounts, books, internet, magazines.

Keywords: tourism, terrorism, barriers, infrastructure, culture, northern areas

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Gimhani Madhushika Hewayalage, Thilini Ariyadasa, Sanja Gunawardena

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In Sri Lanka, the largest contribution for the industrial export earnings is governed by textile and apparel industry. However, this industry generates huge quantities of effluent consists of unfixed dyes which enhance the effluent colour and toxicity thereby leading towards environmental pollution. Therefore, the effluent should properly be treated prior to the release into the environment. The biological technique has now captured much attention as an environmental-friendly and cost-competitive effluent decolourization method due to the drawbacks of physical and chemical treatment techniques. The present study has focused on identifying dye decolourizing potential of several bacterial isolates obtained from the effluent of the local textile industry. Yellow EXF, Red EXF, Blue EXF, Nova Black WNN and Nylosan-Rhodamine-EB dyes have been selected for the study to represent different chromophore groups such as Azo and Xanthene. The rates of decolorization of each dye have been investigated by employing distinct bacterial isolates. Bacterial isolate which exhibited effective dye decolorizing potential was identified as Proteus mirabilis using 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis. The high decolorizing rates of identified bacterial strain indicate its potential applicability in the treatment of dye-containing wastewaters.

Keywords: azo, bacterial, biological, decolourization, xanthene

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Authors: Shubham Bhonde, Nekzad Doctor, Shashwat Gawande

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For the use and the import of Keys and ID Transmitter as well as Body Control Modules with radio transmission in a lot of countries, homologation is required. Final deliverables in homologation of the product are certificates. In considering the world of homologation, there are approximately 200 certificates per product, with most of the certificates in local languages. It is challenging to manually investigate each certificate and extract relevant data from the certificate, such as expiry date, approval date, etc. It is most important to get accurate data from the certificate as inaccuracy may lead to missing re-homologation of certificates that will result in an incompliance situation. There is a scope of automation in reading the certificate data in the field of homologation. We are using deep learning as a tool for automation. We have first trained a model using machine learning by providing all country's basic data. We have trained this model only once. We trained the model by feeding pdf and jpg files using the ETL process. Eventually, that trained model will give more accurate results later. As an outcome, we will get the expiry date and approval date of the certificate with a single click. This will eventually help to implement automation features on a broader level in the database where certificates are stored. This automation will help to minimize human error to almost negligible.

Keywords: homologation, re-homologation, data science, deep learning, machine learning, ETL (extract transform loading)

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Authors: Azeem Tariq, Stephane De Tourdonnet, Lars Stoumann Jensen, Reiner Wassmann, Bjoern Ole Sander, Quynh Duong Vu, Trinh Van Mai, Andreas De Neergaard

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Rice growing area is increasing to meet the food demand of increasing population. Mostly, rice is growing on lowland, small landholder fields in most part of the world, which is one of the major sources of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from agriculture fields. The strategies such as, altering water and residues (carbon) management practices are assumed to be essential to mitigate the GHG emissions from flooded rice system. The actual implementation and potential of these measures on small farmer fields is still challenging. A field study was conducted on red river delta in Northern Vietnam to identify the potential challenges and barriers to the small rice farmers for implementation of climate smart rice practices. The objective of this study was to develop and access the feasibility of climate smart rice prototypes under actual farmer conditions. Field and scientific oriented framework was used to meet our objective. The methodological framework composed of six steps: i) identification of stakeholders and possible options, ii) assessment of barrios, drawbacks/advantages of new technologies, iii) prototype design, iv) assessment of mitigation potential of each prototype, v) scenario building and vi) scenario assessment. A farm survey was conducted to identify the existing farm practices and major constraints of small rice farmers. We proposed the two water (pre transplant+midseason drainage and early+midseason drainage) and one straw (full residue incorporation) management option keeping in views the farmers constraints and barriers for implementation. To test new typologies with existing prototypes (midseason drainage, partial residue incorporation) at farmer local conditions, a participatory field experiment was conducted for two consecutive rice seasons at farmer fields. Following the results of each season a workshop was conducted with stakeholders (farmers, village leaders, cooperatives, irrigation staff, extensionists, agricultural officers) at local and district level to get feedbacks on new tested prototypes and to develop possible scenarios for climate smart rice production practices. The farm analysis survey showed that non-availability of cheap labor and lacks of alternatives for straw management influence the small farmers to burn the residues in the fields except to use for composting or other purposes. Our field results revealed that application of early season drainage significantly mitigates (40-60%) the methane emissions from residue incorporation. Early season drainage was more efficient and easy to control under cooperate manage system than individually managed water system, and it leads to both economic (9-11% high rice yield, low cost of production, reduced nutrient loses) and environmental (mitigate methane emissions) benefits. The participatory field study allows the assessment of adaptation potential and possible benefits of climate smart practices on small farmer fields. If farmers have no other residue management option, full residue incorporation with early plus midseason drainage is adaptable and beneficial (both environmentally and economically) management option for small rice farmers.

Keywords: adaptation, climate smart agriculture, constrainsts, smallholders

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Authors: Iris Xiaohong Quan, Sharon Qi, Kelly Tianqin Shi

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This study focuses on the critical role of insurance policies in a world grappling with increasing mental health challenges, as they significantly influence the dynamics of healthcare businesses and entrepreneurial ventures. The paper utilizes the mental health sector as a case to examine the impact of insurance policies on healthcare service providers, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking mental health support. This paper addressed the following research questions: To what extent do changes in insurance reimbursement policies affect the accessibility and affordability of mental health services for patients, and how does this impact the overall demand for such services? What are the barriers and opportunities that mental health entrepreneurs face and what strategies and adaptations do mental health businesses employ when navigating the evolving landscape of insurance reimbursement policies? How do changes in insurance reimbursement policies, specifically related to mental health services, influence the financial viability and sustainability of mental health clinics and private practices? Employing a self-designed survey aimed at autism spectrum disorder (ASD) treatment companies, alongside two in-depth case studies and an analysis of pertinent insurance policies and documents, this research aims to elucidate the multifaceted influence of insurance policies on the mental health industry. The findings from this study reveal how insurance policies shape the landscape of mental health businesses and their operations. A total of 821 autism treatment organizations or offices were contacted by telephone between November 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020. About half of the offices (53.33%) were established in the past five years, and 80% were established in the past 15 years. There is a significant increase in the establishment of ABA service centers in the recent two decades as a result of autism insurance reform, the increasing social awareness of ASD, and the redefinition of autism. In addition, almost half of the ABA service providers we surveyed had a patient size ranging from 20 to 50 in the year when the residence state passed the legislation for autism insurance coverage. On average, an ABA service provider works with 5.3 insurance companies. This research find that insurance is the main source of revenue for most ABA service providers. However, our survey reveals that clients’ out of pocket payment has been the second main revenue sources. Despite the changes of regulations and insurance policies in all states, clients still have to pay a fraction of, if not all, the ABA treatment service fees out of pocket. This research shows that some ABA service providers seek federal and government funds and grants to support their services and businesses. Our further analysis with the in-depth case studies and other secondary data also indicate the rise of entrepreneurial startups in the mental health industry. Overall, this research sheds light on both the challenges and opportunities presented by insurance policies in the mental health sector, offering insights into the new industry landscape.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, healthcare policy, insurance policy, mental health industry

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Authors: Sidra Naeem, Ayesha Naeem, Sahar Rahim, Nadia Nawaz Qadri

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Citrus greening is a bacterial disease that causes considerable damage to citrus fruits worldwide. Efficient method for this disease detection must be carried out to minimize the production loss. This paper presents a pattern recognition system that comprises three stages for the detection of citrus greening from Orange leaves: segmentation, feature extraction and classification. Image segmentation is accomplished by adaptive thresholding. The feature extraction stage comprises of three visual descriptors i.e. shape, color and texture. From shape feature we have used asymmetry index, from color feature we have used histogram of Cb component from YCbCr domain and from texture feature we have used local binary pattern. Classification was done using support vector machines and k nearest neighbors. The best performances of the system is Accuracy = 88.02% and AUROC = 90.1% was achieved by automatic segmented images. Our experiments validate that: (1). Segmentation is an imperative preprocessing step for computer assisted diagnosis of citrus greening, and (2). The combination of shape, color and texture features form a complementary set towards the identification of citrus greening disease.

Keywords: citrus greening, pattern recognition, feature extraction, classification

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Authors: Jana Heimel, Franziska Drescher, Lauren Ugur, Graciela Kuchle

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Sharing platforms are a widely investigated field. However, there is a research gap with a lack of focus on ‘real’ (non-profit-orientated) sharing platforms. The research project addresses this gap by conducting an empirical study on a private peer-to-peer (P2P) network to investigate cooperative behavior from a socio-psychological perspective. In recent years the conversion from possession to accessing is increasingly influencing different sectors, particularly the traveling industry. The number of people participating in hospitality exchange platforms like Airbnb, Couchsurfing, and Warmshowers (WS) is rapidly growing. WS is an increasingly popular online community that is linking cycling tourists and locals. It builds on the idea of the “sharing economy” as a not-for-profit hospitality network for bicycle tourists. Hosts not only provide a sleeping berth and warm shower free of charge but also offer additional services to their guests, such as cooking and washing clothes for them. According to previous studies, they are motivated by the idea of promoting cultural experience and forming new friendships. Trust and reciprocity are supposed to play major roles in the success of such platforms. The objective of this research project is to analyze the reciprocity behavior within the WS community. Reciprocity is the act of giving and taking among each other. Individuals feel obligated to return a favor and often expect to increase their own chances of receiving future benefits for themselves. Consequently, the drivers that incite giving and taking, as well as the motivation for hosts and guests, are examined. Thus, the project investigates a particular tourism offer that contributes to sustainable tourism by analyzing P2P resp. cyclist-to-cyclist, C2C) tourism. C2C tourism is characterized by special hospitality and generosity. To find out what motivations drive the hosts and which determinants drive the sharing cycling economy, an empirical study has been conducted globally through an online survey. The data was gathered through the WS community and comprised responses from more than 10,000 cyclists around the globe. Next to general information mostly comprising quantitative data on bicycle tourism (year/tour distance, duration and budget), qualitative information on traveling with WS as well as hosting was collected. The most important motivations for a traveler is to explore the local culture, to save money, and to make friends. The main reasons to host a guest are to promote the use of bicycles and to make friends, but also to give back and pay forward. WS members prefer to stay with/host cyclists. The results indicate that C2C tourists share homogenous characteristics and a similar philosophy, which is crucial for building mutual trust. Members of WS are generally extremely trustful. The study promotes an ecological form of tourism by combining sustainability, regionality, health, experience and the local communities' cultures. The empirical evidence found and analyzed, despite evident limitations, enabled us to shed light, especially on the issue of motivations and social capital, and on the functioning of ‘sharing’ platforms. Final research results are intended to promote C2C tourism around the globe to further replace conventional by sustainable tourism.

Keywords: bicycle tourism, homogeneity, reciprocity, sharing economy, trust

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Colette Faucher

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In modern asymmetric conflicts, the Armed Forces generally have to intervene in countries where the internal peace is in danger. They must make the local population an ally in order to be able to deploy the necessary military actions with its support. For this purpose, psychological operations (PSYOPs) are used to shape people’s behaviors and emotions by the modification of their attitudes in acting on their perceptions. PSYOPs aim at elaborating and spreading a message that must be read, listened to and/or looked at, then understood by the info-targets in order to get from them the desired behavior. A message can generate in the info-targets, reasoned thoughts, spontaneous emotions or reflex behaviors, this effect partly depending on the means of conveyance used to spread this message. In this paper, we focus on psychological operations that generate emotions. We present a method based on the Intergroup Emotion Theory, that determines, from the characteristics of the conveyed message and of the people from the population directly reached by the means of conveyance (direct info-targets), the emotion likely to be triggered in them and we simulate the propagation of the effects of such a message on indirect info-targets that are connected to them through the social networks that structure the population.

Keywords: military psychological operations, social identity, social network, emotion propagation

Procedia PDF Downloads 409

Authors: Arkaprabha Bhattacharyya, Makarand Hastak

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The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of its global reach and economic impacts. Historically, investment in infrastructure development projects has been touted to boost the economic growth of a nation. The State and Local governments responsible for delivering infrastructure assets work under tight budgets. Therefore, it is important to understand which infrastructure projects have the highest potential of boosting economic growth in the post-pandemic era. This paper presents relationships between infrastructure projects and economic growth. Statistical relationships between investment in different types of infrastructure projects (transit, water and wastewater, highways, power, manufacturing etc.) and indicators of economic growth are presented using historic data between 2002 and 2020 from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The outcome of the paper is the comparison of statistical correlations between investment in different types of infrastructure projects and indicators of economic growth. The comparison of the statistical correlations is useful in ranking the types of infrastructure projects based on their ability to influence economic prosperity. Therefore, investment in the infrastructures with the higher rank will have a better chance of boosting the economic growth. Once, the ranks are derived, they can be used by the decision-makers in infrastructure investment related decision-making process.

Keywords: economic growth, infrastructure development, infrastructure projects, strategic investment

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Chutikarn Sriwiboon

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The purposes of this paper were to study the production problems of basketry in the central region and to study the development of potential in skilled labourers in producing basketry in three provinces: Suphanburi, Ayuthaya, and Aungthong. A quota sampling was utilized to get 486 respondents from 243 basketry communities that were registered with OTOP project. A focus group was also used with a connoisseurship model to study knowledge and factors that related to the development of potential in skilled labourers in producing basketry. The findings revealed that the process getting service is the major problem for customers to get service. Also, there should be more of a variety of knowledge for customers. In terms of technology, the variety of information was rated as the most important problem. In terms staff's ability, the knowledge of staff was the most important problem. For the development of potential in high skilled labours for basketry, the findings revealed that having proper tools was considered the most important factor. In terms of economy, the findings revealed that the basketry job must provide sufficient income was considered the most important factor. In terms of using natural resources, efficiency is the most important factor. In terms of mentality, integrity is the most important factor. Finally, in terms of society and culture, help in the local activities is the most important factor.

Keywords: basketry, development, potential, skilled labours

Procedia PDF Downloads 295

Authors: Woei-Shyan Lee, Hao-Chien Kao

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The impact deformation and fracture behaviour of cobalt-based Haynes 188 superalloy are investigated by means of a split Hopkinson pressure bar. Impact tests are performed at strain rates ranging from 1×103 s-1 to 5×103 s-1 and temperatures between 25°C and 800°C. The experimental results indicate that the flow response and fracture characteristics of cobalt-based Haynes 188 superalloy are significantly dependent on the strain rate and temperature. The flow stress, work hardening rate and strain rate sensitivity all increase with increasing strain rate or decreasing temperature. It is shown that the impact response of the Haynes 188 specimens is adequately described by the Zerilli-Armstrong fcc model. The fracture analysis results indicate that the Haynes 188 specimens fail predominantly as the result of intensive localised shearing. Furthermore, it is shown that the flow localisation effect leads to the formation of adiabatic shear bands. The fracture surfaces of the deformed Haynes 188 specimens are characterised by dimple- and / or cleavage-like structure with knobby features. The knobby features are thought to be the result of a rise in the local temperature to a value greater than the melting point.

Keywords: Haynes 188 alloy, impact, strain rate and temperature effect, adiabatic shearing

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: D. R. T. N. K. Dissanayake, H. M. S. K. Herath, H. K. S. G. Gunadasa, P. Weerasinghe

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Luffa is a tropical and subtropical vegetable, belongs to family Cucurbiteceae. It is predominantly monoecious in sex expression and provides an ample scope for utilization of hybrid vigor. Hybrid varieties develop through open pollination, produce higher yields due to its hybrid vigor. Naga F1 hybrid variety consists number of desirable traits other than higher yield such as strong and vigorous plants, fruits with long deep ridges, attractive green color fruits ,better fruit weight, length and early maturity compared to the local Luffa cultivars. Unavailability of fertilizer recommendations for hybrid cucurbit vegetables leads to an excess fertilizer application causing a vital environmental issue that creates undesirable impacts on nature and the human health. Main Objective of this research is to determine effect of different nitrogen and potassium fertilizer rates on growth and yield of Naga F1 Variety. Other objectives are, to evaluate specific growth parameters and yield, to identify the optimum nitrogen and potassium fertilizer levels based on growth and yield of hybrid Luffa variety. As well as to formulate the general fertilizer recommendation for hybrid Luffa -Naga F1 variety.

Keywords: hybrid, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium

Procedia PDF Downloads 592

Authors: Stephan Koehler, Thomas Friedli

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Performance measurement has evolved over time from a unidimensional short-term efficiency focused approach into a balanced multidimensional approach. Today, integrated performance measurement frameworks are often used to avoid local optimization and to encourage continuous improvement of an organization. In literature, the multidimensional characteristic of performance measurement is often described by competitive priorities. At the same time, on the highest abstraction level an effectiveness and efficiency dimension of performance measurement can be distinguished. This paper aims at a better understanding of the composition of effectiveness and efficiency and their relation in pharmaceutical quality control labs. The research comprises a lab-specific operationalization of effectiveness and efficiency and examines how the two dimensions are interlinked. The basis for the analysis represents a database of the University of St. Gallen including a divers set of 40 different pharmaceutical quality control labs. The research provides empirical evidence that labs with a high effectiveness also accompany a high efficiency. Lab effectiveness explains 29.5 % of the variance in lab efficiency. In addition, labs with an above median operational excellence performance have a statistically significantly higher lab effectiveness and lab efficiency compared to the below median performing labs.

Keywords: empirical study, operational excellence, performance measurement, pharmaceutical quality control lab

Procedia PDF Downloads 161