Search results for: Reynolds number analysis

Authors: Ahmad Aridah, Maria Fay Rola-Rubzen, Zora Singh

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This study investigated the effectiveness of various types of irrigation systems in regards to the impact that these have on the productivity of date palms in the semi-arid and arid region of Sebha, Southwest Libya. The date palm is an economically important crop in Libya and contributes to the agriculture industry, foreign exchange earnings, farmers’ income, and employment in the country. The date palm industry relies on large amounts of water for growing the crop. Farmers in Southwest Libya use a variety of irrigation systems, but the quality and quantity of water varies between systems and this affects the productivity and income of farmers. Using survey data from 210 farmers, this study estimated and assessed the pros and cons of different types of irrigation systems for date palm production under various irrigation systems currently used in Sebha, Libya. The number of years farmers have used irrigation, the area, irrigation water consumption, time of irrigation, number of farm workers (including family labour) and inputs used were measured for surface, sprinkler and drip irrigation methods. Findings from this research provide new insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the various irrigation systems, problems encountered by farmers and the factors that affect the quality and quantity of the irrigation system. The paper discussed proposed solutions to deal with the problems including timing of irrigation, canal maintenance, repair of wells and water control.

Keywords: Libya, factors, irrigation method, date palm

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Authors: Longlong Zhang, Xiaohua Zhu, Ping Zhao, Yu Wang

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The construction of mines, railways, highways, water conservancy projects, etc., have formed a large number of high steep slope wounds in China. Under the premise of slope stability and safety, the minimum cost, green and close to natural wound space repair, has become a new problem. Nowadays, in situ element testing and analysis, monitoring, field quantitative factor classification, and assignment evaluation will produce vast amounts of data. Data processing and analysis will inevitably differentiate the morphology, mineral composition, physicochemical properties between rock wounds, by which to dynamically match the appropriate techniques and materials for restoration. In the present research, based on the grid partition of the slope surface, tested the content of the combined oxide of rock mineral (SiO₂, CaO, MgO, Al₂O₃, Fe₃O₄, etc.), and classified and assigned values to the hardness and breakage of rock texture. The data of essential factors are interpolated and normalized in GIS, which formed the differential zoning map of slope space. According to the physical and chemical properties and spatial morphology of rocks in different zones, organic acids (plant waste fruit, fruit residue, etc.), natural mineral powder (zeolite, apatite, kaolin, etc.), water-retaining agent, and plant gum (melon powder) were mixed in different proportions to form rock aging agents. To spray the aging agent with different formulas on the slopes in different sections can affectively age the fresh rock wound, providing convenience for seed implantation, and reducing the transformation of heavy metals in the rocks. Through many practical engineering practices, a dynamic data platform of rock aging agent formula system is formed, which provides materials for the restoration of different slopes. It will also provide a guideline for the mixed-use of various natural materials to solve the complex, non-uniformity ecological restoration problem.

Keywords: data-driven, dynamic state, high steep slope, rock aging agent, wounds

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Authors: Sabina Auhunas

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These days in Ukraine, Open Science dramatically develops for the sake of scientists of all branches, providing an opportunity to take a more close look on the studies by foreign scientists, as well as to deliver their own scientific data to national and international journals. However, when it comes to the generalization of data on science activities by Ukrainian scientists, these data are often integrated into E-systems that operate inconsistent and barely related information sources. In order to resolve these issues, developed countries productively use E-systems, designed to store and manage research data, such as Current Research Information Systems that enable combining uncompiled data obtained from different sources. An algorithm for selecting SARS-CoV-2 research articles was designed, by means of which we collected the set of papers published by Ukrainian scientists and uploaded by August 1, 2020. Resulting metadata (document type, open access status, citation count, h-index, most cited documents, international research funding, author counts, the bibliographic relationship of journals) were taken from Scopus and Web of Science databases. The study also considered the info from COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2-related documents published from December 2019 to September 2020, directly from documents published by authors depending on territorial affiliation to Ukraine. These databases are enabled to get the necessary information for bibliometric analysis and necessary details: copyright, which may not be available in other databases (e.g., Science Direct). Search criteria and results for each online database were considered according to the WHO classification of the virus and the disease caused by this virus and represented (Table 1). First, we identified 89 research papers that provided us with the final data set after consolidation and removing duplication; however, only 56 papers were used for the analysis. The total number of documents by results from the WoS database came out at 21641 documents (48 affiliated to Ukraine among them) in the Scopus database came out at 32478 documents (41 affiliated to Ukraine among them). According to the publication activity of Ukrainian scientists, the following areas prevailed: Education, educational research (9 documents, 20.58%); Social Sciences, interdisciplinary (6 documents, 11.76%) and Economics (4 documents, 8.82%). The highest publication activity by institution types was reported in the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (its percent of published scientific papers equals 36% or 7 documents), Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University goes next (5 documents, 15%) and P. L. Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education (4 documents, 12%). Basically, research activities by Ukrainian scientists were funded by 5 entities: Belgian Development Cooperation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH, U.S.), The United States Department of Health & Human Services, grant from the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, a grant from the Yale Women Faculty Forum. Based on the results of the analysis, we obtained a set of published articles and preprints to be assessed on the variety of features in upcoming studies, including citation count, most cited documents, a bibliographic relationship of journals, reference linking. Further research on the development of the national scientific E-database continues using brand new analytical methods.

Keywords: content analysis, COVID-19, scientometrics, text mining

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Authors: Janne Engblom, Elias Oikarinen

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The understanding of housing price dynamics is of importance to a great number of agents: to portfolio investors, banks, real estate brokers and construction companies as well as to policy makers and households. A panel dataset is one that follows a given sample of individuals over time, and thus provides multiple observations on each individual in the sample. Panel data models include a variety of fixed and random effects models which form a wide range of linear models. A special case of panel data models is dynamic in nature. A complication regarding a dynamic panel data model that includes the lagged dependent variable is endogeneity bias of estimates. Several approaches have been developed to account for this problem. In this paper, the panel models were estimated using the Common Correlated Effects estimator (CCE) of dynamic panel data which also accounts for cross-sectional dependence which is caused by common structures of the economy. In presence of cross-sectional dependence standard OLS gives biased estimates. In this study, U.S housing price dynamics were examined empirically using the dynamic CCE estimator with first-difference of housing price as the dependent and first-differences of per capita income, interest rate, housing stock and lagged price together with deviation of housing prices from their long-run equilibrium level as independents. These deviations were also estimated from the data. The aim of the analysis was to provide estimates with comparisons of estimates between 1980-1999 and 2000-2012. Based on data of 50 U.S cities over 1980-2012 differences of short-run housing price dynamics estimates were mostly significant when two time periods were compared. Significance tests of differences were provided by the model containing interaction terms of independents and time dummy variable. Residual analysis showed very low cross-sectional correlation of the model residuals compared with the standard OLS approach. This means a good fit of CCE estimator model. Estimates of the dynamic panel data model were in line with the theory of housing price dynamics. Results also suggest that dynamics of a housing market is evolving over time.

Keywords: dynamic model, panel data, cross-sectional dependence, interaction model

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Authors: T. Toathom, M. Munlin, P. Sugunnasil

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The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the best-known problems in optimization problem. There are many research regarding the TSP. One of the most usage tool for this problem is the genetic algorithm (GA). The chromosome of the GA for TSP is normally encoded by the order of the visited city. However, the traditional chromosome encoding scheme has some limitations which are twofold: the large solution space and the inability to encapsulate some information. The number of solution for a certain problem is exponentially grow by the number of city. Moreover, the traditional chromosome encoding scheme fails to recognize the misplaced correct relation. It implies that the tradition method focuses only on exact solution. In this work, we relax some of the concept in the GA for TSP which is the exactness of the solution. The proposed work exploits the relation between cities in order to reduce the solution space in the chromosome encoding. In this paper, a second order GA is proposed to solve the TSP. The term second order refers to how the solution is encoded into chromosome. The chromosome is divided into 2 types: the high order chromosome and the low order chromosome. The high order chromosome is the chromosome that focus on the relation between cities such as the city A should be visited before city B. On the other hand, the low order chromosome is a type of chromosome that is derived from a high order chromosome. In other word, low order chromosome is encoded by the traditional chromosome encoding scheme. The genetic operation, mutation and crossover, will be performed on the high order chromosome. Then, the high order chromosome will be mapped to a group of low order chromosomes whose characteristics are satisfied with the high order chromosome. From the mapped set of chromosomes, the champion chromosome will be selected based on the fitness value which will be later used as a representative for the high order chromosome. The experiment is performed on the city data from TSPLIB.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, traveling salesman problem, initial population, chromosomes encoding

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Authors: Jonas Chikelue Ogbuefi

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Science and Technology have a major impact on societal peace, it offers support to teaching and learning, cuts costs, and offers solutions to the current agitations and militancy in Nigeria today. Christianity, for instance, did not only change and form the western world in the past 2022 but still has a substantial role to play in society through liquid ecclesiology. This paper interrogated the impact of the theology of Science and Technology as a tool for peace sustainability through peace education in Nigeria. The method adopted is a historical and descriptive method of analysis. It was discovered that a larger number of Nigerian citizens lack almost all the basic things needed for the standard of living, such as Shelter, meaningful employment, and clothing, which is the root course of all agitations in Nigeria. Based on the above findings, the paper contends that the government alone cannot restore Peace in Nigeria. Hence the inability of the government to restore peace calls for all religious actors to be involved. The main thrust and recommendation of this paper are to challenge the religious actors to implement the Theology of Science and Technology as a tool for peace restoration and should network with both the government and the private sectors to make funds available to budding and existing entrepreneurs using Science and Technology as a tool for Peace and economic sustainability. This paper viewed the theology of Science and Technology as a tool for Peace and economic sustainability in Nigeria.

Keywords: theology, science, technology, peace education

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Authors: Pallab Das, Nabam Zomleen

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Effective dissipation of lateral loads that are coming due to seismic force determines the strength, durability and safety concern of the structure. Masonry infill has high stiffness and strength capabilities which can be put into an effective utilization for lateral load dissipation by incorporating it into building construction, but masonry behaves in highly nonlinear manner, so it is highly important to find out generalized, yet a rational approach to determine its nonlinear behavior and failure mode and it’s response when it is incorporated into building. But most of the countries do not specify the procedure for design of masonry infill wall. Whereas, there are many analytical modeling method available in literature, e.g. equivalent diagonal strut method, finite element modeling etc. In this paper the masonry infill is modeled and 6-storey bare framed building and building with masonry infill is analyzed using SAP-200014 in order to find out inter-storey drift by time-history analysis and capacity curve by Pushover analysis. The analysis shows that, while, the structure is well within CP performance level for both the case, whereas, there is considerable reduction of inter-storey drift of about 28%, when the building is analyzed with masonry infill wall.

Keywords: capacity curve, masonry infill, nonlinear analysis, time history analysis

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Authors: Gülçin Tekin, Fethi Kadıoğlu

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In this study, the dynamic analysis of viscoelastic plates with variable thickness is examined. The solutions of dynamic response of viscoelastic thin plates with variable thickness have been obtained by using the functional analysis method in the conjunction with the Gâteaux differential. The four-node serendipity element with four degrees of freedom such as deflection, bending, and twisting moments at each node is used. Additionally, boundary condition terms are included in the functional by using a systematic way. In viscoelastic modeling, Three-parameter Kelvin solid model is employed. The solutions obtained in the Laplace-Carson domain are transformed to the real time domain by using MDOP, Dubner & Abate, and Durbin inverse transform techniques. To test the performance of the proposed mixed finite element formulation, numerical examples are treated.

Keywords: dynamic analysis, inverse laplace transform techniques, mixed finite element formulation, viscoelastic plate with variable thickness

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Authors: R. Kiš, M. Malcho, M. Janovcová

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This work aims to present a numerical analysis of the natural gas which flows through a high-pressure pipeline and an orifice plate, through the use of CFD methods. The paper contains CFD calculations for the flow of natural gas in a pipe with different geometry used for the orifice plates. One of them has a standard geometry and a shape without any deformation and the other is deformed by the action of the pressure differential. It shows the behaviour of natural gas in a pipeline using the velocity profiles and pressure fields of the gas in both models with their differences. The entire research is based on the elimination of any inaccuracy which should appear in the flow of the natural gas measured in the high-pressure pipelines of the gas industry and which is currently not given in the relevant standard.

Keywords: orifice plate, high-pressure pipeline, natural gas, CFD analysis

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Authors: Mohammed Alhammad

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The movement towards the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools has become widely accepted practice in many countries. However in Saudi Arabia, this is not happening. Instead the practice for students with learning difficulties (LD) is to study in special classrooms in mainstream schools and they are not included with their peers, except at break times and morning assembly, and on school trips. There are a number of barriers that face implementing inclusion for students with LD in mainstream classrooms: one such barrier is the training of teachers. The training, either pre- or in-service, that teachers receive is seen as playing an important role in leading to the successful implementation of inclusion. The aim of this presentation is to explore how pre-service training and in-service training are acting as barriers for implementing inclusion of students with LD in mainstream primary schools in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of teachers. The qualitative research approach was used to explore this barrier. Twenty-four teachers (general education teachers, special education teachers) were interviewed using semi-structured interview and a number of documents were used as method of data collection. The result showed teachers felt that not much attention was paid to inclusion in pre-services training for general education teachers and special education teachers in Saudi Arabia. In addition, pre-service training for general education teachers does not normally including modules on special education. Regarding the in-service training, no courses at all about inclusion are provided for teachers. Furthermore, training courses in special education are few. As result, the knowledge and skills required to implemented inclusion successfully.

Keywords: inclusion, learning difficulties, Saudi Arabia, training

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Authors: Alireza Behfar, Mohammad Mahdavi

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Nowadays, in the light of progress in the world of science, technology and communications, mastery of learning international languages is a sure and needful matter. In learning any language as a second language, progress and achieving a desirable level in speaking is indeed important for approximately all learners. In this research, we find out how preparation can influence L2 learners' oral fluency with respect to individual differences in working memory capacity. The participants consisted of sixty-one advanced L2 learners including MA students of TEFL at Isfahan University as well as instructors teaching English at Sadr Institute in Isfahan. The data collection consisted of two phases: A working memory test (reading span test) and a picture description task, with a one-month interval between the two tasks. Speaking was elicited through speech generation task in which the individuals were asked to discuss four topics emerging in two pairs. The two pairs included one simple and one complex topic and was accompanied by planning time and without any planning time respectively. Each topic was accompanied by several relevant pictures. L2 fluency was assessed based on preparation. The data were then analyzed in terms of the number of syllables, the number of silent pauses, and the mean length of pauses produced per minute. The study offers implications for strategies to improve learners’ both fluency and working memory.

Keywords: two factors, fluency, working memory capacity, preparation, L2 speech production reading span test picture description

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Authors: Ozan Yavuz Baytemir, Ender Cigeroglu, Gokhan Osman Ozgen

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Vibration is an important issue in the design of various components of aerospace, marine and vehicular applications. In order not to lose the components’ function and operational performance, vibration isolation design involving the optimum isolator properties selection and isolator positioning processes appear to be a critical study. Knowing the growing need for the vibration isolation system design, this paper aims to present two types of software capable of implementing modal analysis, response analysis for both random and harmonic types of excitations, static deflection analysis, Monte Carlo simulations in addition to study of parameter and location optimization for different types of isolation problem scenarios. Investigating the literature, there is no such study developing a software-based tool that is capable of implementing all those analysis, simulation and optimization studies in one platform simultaneously. In this paper, the theoretical system model is generated for a 6-DOF rigid body. The vibration isolation system of any mechanical structure is able to be optimized using hybrid method involving both global search and gradient-based methods. Defining the optimization design variables, different types of optimization scenarios are listed in detail. Being aware of the need for a user friendly vibration isolation problem solver, two types of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are prepared and verified using a commercial finite element analysis program, Ansys Workbench 14.0. Using the analysis and optimization capabilities of those GUIs, a real application used in an air-platform is also presented as a case study at the end of the paper.

Keywords: hybrid optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, multi-degree-of-freedom system, parameter optimization, location optimization, passive vibration isolation analysis

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Authors: Gamal Alamri, Tariq Iqbal

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This paper presents an optimum designs and thermal analysis of concrete house in the hot climate of Libya. For this goal we have used BEopt software (building energy optimization) that provides capabilities for estimating residential building design and thermal analysis. The most area of the house that is exposed to the sunlight’s is the roof leading to heat gain. Therefore, house cooling consumes high energy. The cooling energy consumption is three times the heating energy consumption. In order to maintain comfortable indoor conditions in a low-energy house, the entire building envelope needs to be perfectly insulated and prevented from air leakages. Insulated roof is selected to reduce cooling demand, and the paper presents details and BEopt simulation results. Designed house needs 12.02mmbtus/year. Furthermore, the modeling indicates that the designed house is close to achieving the Passive standard.

Keywords: concrete house design, thermal analysis, hot climate, BEopt software

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Authors: Mohsen Goodarzi, George Berghorn

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Despite the rapid growth in the number of green building and community development projects, the long-term performance of these projects has not yet been sufficiently evaluated from the users’ points of view. This is partially due to the lack of post-occupancy evaluation tools available for this type of project. In this study, a post-construction evaluation model is developed to evaluate the relationship between the perceived performance and satisfaction of residents in LEED-certified residential buildings and communities. To develop this evaluation model, a primary five-factor model was developed based on the existing models and residential satisfaction theories. Each factor of the model included several measures that were adopted from LEED certification systems such as LEED-BD+C New Construction, LEED-BD+C Multifamily Midrise, LEED-ND, as well as the UC Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment survey tool. The model included four predictor variables (factors), including perceived building performance (8 measures), perceived infrastructure performance (9 measures), perceived neighborhood design (6 measures), and perceived economic performance (4 measures), and one dependent variable (factor), which was residential satisfaction (6 measures). An online survey was then conducted to collect the data from the residents of LEED-certified residential communities (n=192) and the validity of the model was tested through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). After modifying the CFA model, 26 measures, out of the initial 33 measures, were retained to enter into a Structural Equation Model (SEM) and to find the relationships between the perceived buildings performance, infrastructure performance, neighborhood design, economic performance and residential Satisfaction. The results of the SEM showed that the perceived building performance was the most influential factor in determining residential satisfaction in LEED-certified communities, followed by the perceived neighborhood design. On the other hand, perceived infrastructure performance and perceived economic performance did not show any significant relationship with residential satisfaction in these communities. This study can benefit green building researchers by providing a model for the evaluation of the long-term performance of these projects. It can also provide opportunities for green building practitioners to determine priorities for future residential development projects.

Keywords: green building, residential satisfaction, perceived performance, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling

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Authors: S. Bagur, S. Verger, B. Mut

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Early childhood intervention (ECI) is understood as the set of interventions aimed at the child population with developmental disorders or disabilities from 0 to 6 years of age, the family, and the environment. Under the principles of family-centred practices, the members of the family nucleus are direct agents of intervention. Thus, the multidisciplinary team of professionals should work to improve family empowerment and the level of parenting skills. The aim of the present study is to analyse descriptively and differentially the level of parenting skills and family empowerment of parents using ECI services during the foster care phase. There were 135 families participating in the study. Three questionnaires were completed. The results show that the employment situation, the age of the child receiving an intervention, and the number of children in the family nucleus or the professional carrying out the intervention are variables that have a differential impact on different items of empowerment and parenting skills. The results are discussed and future lines of research are proposed, with the understanding that the initial analysis of the variables of empowerment and parenting skills may be predictors for the improvement of child development and family well-being. In addition, it is proposed to identify and analyse professional training in order to be able to adapt early care practices without depending on the discipline of the professional of reference.

Keywords: developmental disabilities, early childhood intervention, family empowerment, parenting skills

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Authors: Kholood Baron

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Radiologic interventional studies use fluoroscopy imaging guidance to perform both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. These could result in high radiation doses being delivered to the patients and also to the radiology team. This is due to the prolonged fluoroscopy time and the large number of images taken, even when dose-minimizing techniques and modern fluoroscopic tools are applied. Hence, these procedures are part of the everyday routine of interventional radiology doctors, assistant nurses, and radiographers. Thus, it is important to estimate the radiation exposure dose they received in order to give objective advice and reduce both patient and radiology team radiation exposure dose. The aim of this study was to find out the total radiation dose reaching the radiologist and the patient during an interventional procedure and to determine the impact of certain parameters on the patient dose. Method: The radiation dose was measured by TLD devices (thermoluminescent dosimeter; radiation dosimeter device). Physicians, patients, nurses, and radiographers wore TLDs during 12 interventional radiology procedures performed in two hospitals, Mubarak and Chest Hospital. This study highlights the need for interventional radiologists to be mindful of the radiation doses received by both patients and medical staff during interventional radiology procedures. The findings emphasize the impact of factors such as fluoroscopy duration and the number of images taken on the patient dose. By raising awareness and providing insights into optimizing techniques and protective measures, this research contributes to the overall goal of reducing radiation doses and ensuring the safety of patients and medical staff.

Keywords: dosimetry, radiation dose, interventional radiology procedures, patient radiation dose

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Authors: Muhammad Ilyas, Awais Khan, Syed Ali Raza Shah

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DC motors are widely used in industries to provide mechanical power in speed and torque. The position and speed control of DC motors is getting the interest of the scientific community in robotics, especially in the robotic arm, a flexible joint manipulator. The current research work is based on position control of DC motors using experimental investigations in LabVIEW. The linear control strategy is applied to track the position and speed of the DC motor with comparative analysis in the LabVIEW platform and simulation analysis in MATLAB. The tracking error in hardware setup based on LabVIEW programming is slightly greater than simulation analysis in MATLAB due to the inertial load of the motor during steady-state conditions. The controller output shows the input voltage applied to the dc motor varies between 0-8V to ensure minimal steady error while tracking the position and speed of the DC motor.

Keywords: DC motor, labview, proportional integral derivative control, position tracking, speed tracking

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Authors: Lucky Dartsa Wakawa, Friday Nwabueze Ogana, Temitope Elizabeth Adeniyi

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Timely and reliable information on the status of a forest is essential for assessing the extent of regeneration and degradation. However, when such information is lacking effective forest management practices becomes impossible. Therefore, this study assessed the tree species composition, richness, diversity, structure of Oluwa forest reserve with the view of ascertaining it conservation status. A systematic line transect was used in the laying of eight (8) temporary sample plots (TSPs) of size 50m x 50m. Trees with Dbh ≥ 10cm in the selected plots were enumerated, identified and measured. The results indicate that 535 individual trees were enumerated cutting across 26 families and 58 species. The family Sterculiaceae recorded the highest number of species (10) and occurrence (112) representing 17.2% and 20.93% respectively. Celtis zenkeri is the species with the highest number of occurrence of tree per hectare and importance value index (IVI) of 59 and 53.81 respectively. The reserve has the Margalef's index of species richness, Shannon-Weiner diversity Index (H') and Pielou's Species Evenness Index (EH) of 9.07, 3.43 and 0.84 respectively. The forest has a mean Dbh (cm), mean height (m), total basal area/ha (m2) and total volume/ha (m3) of 24.7, 16.9, 36.63 and 602.09 respectively. The important tropical tree species identified includes Diospyros crassiflora Milicia excels, Mansonia altisima, Triplochiton scleroxylon. Despite the level of exploitation in the forest, the forest seems to be resilience. Given the right attention, it could regenerate and replenish to save some of the original species composition of the reserve.

Keywords: forest conservation, forest structure, Lowland tropical forest, South-west Nigeria

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Authors: Prapin Nuchpiam

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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become a global agenda for all. The role of the business sector is significant in promoting sustainable development, particularly to prevent, address, and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations. Modern slavery is one of the complex issues of human rights. The paper aims to study the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015, whose main purpose is to tackle modern slavery in all its forms: human trafficking, slavery, forced labor, and domestic servitude. The Act has a great significance in its approach to involving businesses in combating modern slavery without imposing stricter regulations on them. In doing so, Section 54 of the MSA requires commercial organizations to disclose a statement confirming the transparency in their corporate supply chains. Even though the statement is required by law, in practice, it is rather similar to the ‘comply or explain’ scheme. In other words, compliance is mainly enforced due to fear of reputational risk, rather than of lawbreaking. Thailand has been reported a number of modern slavery cases, particularly in the production stage of supply chains. With desperate attempts to solve modern slavery, the Thai government tends to seek stricter regulation and stronger punishment as the main approach. The paper will analyze the effective implementation of section 54and conclude whether and to what extent the MSA can be applied to the case of Thailand.

Keywords: human rights, responsible business, SDGs, the UK modern slavery act 2015

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Authors: Imalka Wasana Rathnayaka, Rasheda Khanam, Mohammad Mafizur Rahman

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TheCOVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to both the health and economic states in countries around the world. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of governments' decisions to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 through proposing policy directions to reduce its magnitude. The study is motivated by the ongoing coronavirus outbreaks and comprehensive policy responses taken by countries to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and reduce death rates. This study contributes to filling the knowledge by exploiting the long-term efficacy of extensive plans of governments. This study employs a Panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework. The panels incorporate both a significant number of variables and fortnightly observations from22 countries. The dependent variables adopted in this study are the fortnightly death rates and the rates of the spread of COVID-19. Mortality rate and the rate of infection data were computed based on the number of deaths and the number of new cases per 10000 people.The explanatory variables are fortnightly values of indexes taken to investigate the efficacy of government interventions to control COVID-19. Overall government response index, Stringency index, Containment and health index, and Economic support index were selected as explanatory variables. The study relies on the Oxford COVID-19 Government Measure Tracker (OxCGRT). According to the procedures of ARDL, the study employs (i) the unit root test to check stationarity, (ii) panel cointegration, and (iii) PMG and ARDL estimation techniques. The study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic forced immediate responses from policymakers across the world to mitigate the risks of COVID-19. Of the four types of government policy interventions: (i) Stringency and (ii) Economic Support have been most effective and reveal that facilitating Stringency and financial measures has resulted in a reduction in infection and fatality rates, while (iii) Government responses are positively associated with deaths but negatively with infected cases. Even though this positive relationship is unexpected to some extent in the long run, social distancing norms of the governments have been broken by the public in some countries, and population age demographics would be a possible reason for that result. (iv) Containment and healthcare improvements reduce death rates but increase the infection rates, although the effect has been lower (in absolute value). The model implies that implementation of containment health practices without association with tracing and individual-level quarantine does not work well. The policy implication based on containment health measures must be applied together with targeted, aggressive, and rapid containment to extensively reduce the number of people infected with COVID 19. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that economic support for income and debt relief has been the key to suppressing the rate of COVID-19 infections and fatality rates.

Keywords: COVID-19, infection rate, deaths rate, government response, panel data

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Authors: Izabela Poprawa, Alina Chachulska-Zymelka, Lukasz Chajec, Grazyna Wilczek, Piotr Wilczek, Sebastian Student, Magdalena Rost-Roszkowska

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Heavy metals polluting the environment, especially soil, have a harmful effect on organisms, because they can damage the organ structure, disturb their function and cause developmental disorders. They can affect not only the somatic tissues but also the germinal tissues. In the natural environment, plants and animals are exposed to short- and long-term exposure to these stressors, which have a major influence on the functioning of these organisms. Numerous animals have been treated as the bioindicators of the environment. Therefore, studies on any alterations caused by, e.g., heavy metals are in the center of interests of not only environmental but also medical and biological science. Myriapods are invertebrates which are bioindicators of the environment. One of the species which lives in the upper layers of soil, particularly under stones and rocks is Lithobius forficatus (Chilopoda), commonly known as the brown centipede or stone centipede. It is a European species of the family Lithobiidae. This centipede living in the soil is exposed to, e.g., heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, arsenic. The main goal of our project was to analyze the impact of long-term exposure to cadmium on the structure of ovary with the emphasis on the course of oogenesis. As the material for analysis of cadmium exposure to ovaries, we chose the centipede species, L. forficatus. Animals were divided into two experimental groups: C – the control group, the animals cultured in laboratory conditions in a horticultural soil; Cd2 – the animals cultured in a horticultural soil supplemented with 80 mg/kg (dry weight) of CdCl2 for 45 days – long-term exposure. Animals were fed with Acheta and Chironomus larvae maintained in tap water. The analyzes were carried out using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), flow cytometry and laser scanning (confocal) microscopy. Here we present the results of long-term exposure to cadmium concentration in soil on the organ responsible for female germ cell formation. Analysis with the use of the transmission electron microscope showed changes in the ultrastructure of both somatic and germ cells in the ovary. Moreover, quantitative analysis revealed the decrease in the percentage of cells viability, the increase in the percentage of cells with depolarized mitochondria and increasing the number of early apoptotic cells. All these changes were statistically significant compared to the control. Additionally, an increase in the ADP/ATP index was recorded. However, changes were not statistically significant to the control. Acknowledgment: The study has been financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant no 2017/25/B/NZ4/00420.

Keywords: cadmium, centipede, ovary, ultrastructure

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Authors: Akrem Sellami, Imed Riadh Farah, Basel Solaiman

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With the development of HyperSpectral Imagery (HSI) technology, the spectral resolution of HSI became denser, which resulted in large number of spectral bands, high correlation between neighboring, and high data redundancy. However, the semantic interpretation is a challenging task for HSI analysis due to the high dimensionality and the high correlation of the different spectral bands. In fact, this work presents a dimensionality reduction approach that allows to overcome the different issues improving the semantic interpretation of HSI. Therefore, in order to preserve the spatial information, the Tensor Locality Preserving Projection (TLPP) has been applied to transform the original HSI. In the second step, knowledge has been extracted based on the adjacency graph to describe the different pixels. Based on the transformation matrix using TLPP, a weighted matrix has been constructed to rank the different spectral bands based on their contribution score. Thus, the relevant bands have been adaptively selected based on the weighted matrix. The performance of the presented approach has been validated by implementing several experiments, and the obtained results demonstrate the efficiency of this approach compared to various existing dimensionality reduction techniques. Also, according to the experimental results, we can conclude that this approach can adaptively select the relevant spectral improving the semantic interpretation of HSI.

Keywords: band selection, dimensionality reduction, feature extraction, hyperspectral imagery, semantic interpretation

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Authors: T. D. Tran, H. Schlegel, R. Neugebauer

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Ball screws are an important component in machine tools. In mechatronic systems and machine tools, a ball screw has to work usually at a high speed. Otherwise the axial compliance of the ball screw, in combination with the inertia of the slide, the motor, the coupling and the screw, will cause an oscillation resonance, which limits the systems bandwidth and consequently influences performance of the motion controller. In this paper, the modal analysis method by measuring and analysing the vibrating parameters of the ball screw system to determine the dynamic characteristic of existing structures is used. On the one hand, the results of this study were obtained by the theoretical analysis and the modal testing of a ball screw system test station with the help of an impact hammer, respectively using excitation by motor. The experimental study showed oscillating forms of the ball screw for each frequency and obtained eigenfrequencies of the ball screw system. On the other hand, in this research a simulation with the help of the numerical modal analysis in order to analyse the oscillation and to find the eigenfrequencies of the ball screw system is used. Furthermore, the model order reduction by modal reduction and also according to Guyan is carried out. On the basis of these results a secure and also rapid commissioning of the control loops with regard to operating in their optimal function is targeted.

Keywords: modal analysis, ball screw, controller system, machine tools

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Authors: Bin Wang, Yong Xu, Honggang Qu, Rongmei Liu, Zhenji Gao

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Today's mining industry is advancing gradually toward digital and visual direction. The three dimensional visualization geological modeling of mine is the digital characterization of mineral deposit, and is one of the key technology of digital mine. The three-dimensional geological modeling is a technology that combines the geological spatial information management, geological interpretation, geological spatial analysis and prediction, geostatistical analysis, entity content analysis and graphic visualization in three-dimensional environment with computer technology, and is used in geological analysis. In this paper, the three-dimensional geological modeling of an iron mine through the use of Surpac is constructed, and the weight difference of the estimation methods between distance power inverse ratio method and ordinary kriging is studied, and the ore body volume and reserves are simulated and calculated by using these two methods. Compared with the actual mine reserves, its result is relatively accurate, so it provided scientific bases for mine resource assessment, reserve calculation, mining design and so on.

Keywords: three-dimensional geological modeling, geological database, geostatistics, block model

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Authors: Alessio Varotto, Lorenzo Freschi, Umberto Pasqual Laverdura, Anastasia Moschovi, Davide Pumiglia, Iakovos Yakoumis, Marta Feroci, Maria Luisa Grilli

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Dry reforming of Methane (DRM) is considered one of the most valuable technologies for green-house gas valorization thanks to the fact that through this reaction, it is possible to obtain syngas, a mixture of H₂ and CO in an H₂/CO ratio suitable for utilization in the Fischer-Tropsch process of high value-added chemicals and fuels. Challenges of the DRM process are the reduction of costs due to the high temperature of the process and the high cost of precious metals of the catalyst, the metal particles sintering, and carbon deposition on the catalysts’ surface. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of the synthesis of catalysts using a leachate solution containing Pt coming directly from the recovery of spent diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) without further purification. An unusual perovskite support for DRM, the BaCe₁₋ₓ₋ᵧZrₓGdᵧO₃ (BCZG) perovskite, has been chosen as the catalyst support because of its high thermal stability and capability to produce oxygen vacancies, which suppress the carbon deposition and enhance the catalytic activity of the catalyst. BCZG perovskite has been synthesized by a sol-gel modified Pechini process and calcinated in air at 1100 °C. BCZG supports have been impregnated with a Pt-containing leachate solution of DOC, obtained by a mild hydrometallurgical recovery process, as reported elsewhere by some of the authors of this manuscript. For comparison reasons, a synthetic solution obtained by digesting commercial Pt-black powder in aqua regia was used for BCZG support impregnation. Pt nominal content was 2% in both BCZG-based catalysts formed by real and synthetic solutions. The structure and morphology of catalysts were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal stability of the catalyst’s samples. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis provided a high surface area of the catalysts. H₂-TPR (Temperature Programmed Reduction) analysis was used to study the consumption of hydrogen for reducibility, and it was associated with H₂-TPD characterization to study the dispersion of Pt on the surface of the support and calculate the number of active sites used by the precious metal. Dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction, carried out in a fixed bed reactor, showed a high conversion efficiency of CO₂ and CH4. At 850°C, CO₂ and CH₄ conversion were close to 100% for the catalyst obtained with the aqua regia-based solution of commercial Pt-black, and ~70% (for CH₄) and ~80 % (for CO₂) in the case of real HCl-based leachate solution. H₂/CO ratios were ~0.9 and ~0.70 in the first and latter cases, respectively. As far as we know, this is the first pioneering work in which a BCGZ catalyst and a real Pt-containing leachate solution were successfully employed for DRM reaction.

Keywords: dry reforming of methane, perovskite, PGM, recycled Pt, syngas

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kers Kapaj, Rialda Xhizdari, Ilma Robo

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Dealing with emerging cases of dental malpractice with justifications that stem from the clear rules of dental ethics is a phenomenon with an increasing trend in today's dental practice. Dentists should clearly understand how far the limit of malpractice goes, with or without minimal or major consequences, for the affected patient, which can be justified as a complication of dental treatment, in support of the rules of dental ethics in the dental office. Indeed, malpractice can occur in cases of lack of professionalism, but it can also come as a consequence of anatomical and physiological limitations in the implementation of the dental protocols, predetermined and indicated by the patient in the paragraph of the treatment plan in his personal card. This study is of the review type with the aim of the latest findings published in the literature about the problem of dealing with these phenomena. The combination of keywords is done in such a way with the aim to give the necessary space for collecting the right information in the networks of publications about this field, always first from the point of view of the dentist and not from that of the lawyer or jurist. From the findings included in this article, it was noticed the diversity of approaches towards the phenomenon depends on the different countries based on the legal basis that these countries have. There is a lack of or a small number of articles that touch on this topic, and these articles are presented with a limited number of data on the same topic. Conclusions: Dental malpractice should not be hidden under the guise of various dental complications that we justify with the strict rules of ethics for patients treated in the dental chair. The individual experience of dental malpractice must be published with the aim of serving as a source of experience for future generations of dentists.

Keywords: dental ethics, malpractice, professional protocol, random deviation

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Authors: Irum Matloob, Shoab Ahmad Khan, Fahim Arif

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As Indo-Pak has been the victim of heart diseases since many decades. Many surveys showed that percentage of cardiac patients is increasing in Pakistan day by day, and special attention is needed to pay on this issue. The framework is proposed for performing detailed analysis of ECG survey data which is conducted for measuring prevalence of heart diseases statistics in Pakistan. The ECG survey data is evaluated or filtered by using automated Minnesota codes and only those ECGs are used for further analysis which is fulfilling the standardized conditions mentioned in the Minnesota codes. Then feature selection is performed by applying proposed algorithm based on discernibility matrix, for selecting relevant features from the database. Clustering is performed for exposing natural clusters from the ECG survey data by applying spectral clustering algorithm using fuzzy c means algorithm. The hidden patterns and interesting relationships which have been exposed after this analysis are useful for further detailed analysis and for many other multiple purposes.

Keywords: arrhythmias, centroids, ECG, clustering, discernibility matrix

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Authors: Saeed Qaisrani

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This article briefly reviews the rise of Critical Discourse Analysis about the Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain speech which delivered in the joint session of Parliament and teases out a detailed analysis of the various critiques that have been levelled at CDA and its practitioners over the last twenty years, both by scholars working within the “critical” paradigm and by other critics. A range of criticisms are discussed which target the underlying premises, the analytical methodology and the disputed areas of reader response and the integration of contextual factors. Controversial issues such as the predominantly negative focus of much CDA scholarship, and the status of CDA as an emergent “intellectual orthodoxy”, are also reviewed. The conclusions offer a summary of the principal criticisms that emerge from this overview, and suggest some ways in which these problems could be attenuated. It also focused on the different views about president speech and how it is presented in the Pakistani print and electronic media.

Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Analytical methodology, Corpus linguistics, Reader response theory, Critical paradigm, Contextualization.

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Authors: Ahmed Hamida Boudinar, Noureddine Benouzza, Azeddine Bendiabdellah, Mohamed El Amine Khodja

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This paper describes a new diagnosis approach for identification of the progressive stator winding inter-turn short-circuit fault in induction motor. This approach is based on a simple monitoring of the combined information related to both magnitude and phase-angle obtained from the fundamental by the three line currents frequency analysis. In addition, to simplify the interpretation and analysis of the data; a new graphical tool based on a triangular representation is suggested. This representation, depending on its size, enables to visualize in a simple and clear manner, the existence of the stator inter-turn short-circuit fault and its discrimination with respect to a healthy stator. Experimental results show well the benefit and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: induction motor, magnitude, phase-angle, spectral analysis, stator fault

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Authors: Sabina Jordan, Marjana Šijanec Zavrl, Miha Tomšič, Friderik Knez

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To determine the possibilities for the implementation of sustainable building indicators in Slovenia, testing of the first version of the indicators, developed in the CARE4CLIMATE project and based on the EU Level(s) framework, was carried out in 2022. Invited and interested stakeholders of the construction process were provided with video content and instructions on the Slovenian e-platform of sustainable building indicators. In addition, workshops and lectures with individual subjects were also performed. The final phase of the training and testing procedure included a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information about the participants' opinions regarding the indicators. The analysis of the results of the testing, which was focused on level 2, confirmed the key preliminary finding of the development group, namely that currently, due to the lack of certain knowledge, data, and tools, all indicators for this level are not yet feasible in practice. The research also highlighted the greater need for training and specialization of experts in this field. At the same time, it showed that the testing of the first version itself was a big challenge: only 30 experts fully participated and filled out the online questionnaire. This number seems alarmingly low at first glance, but compared to level(s) testing in the EU member states, it is much more than 50 times higher. However, for the further execution of the indicators in Slovenia, it will therefore be necessary to invest a lot of effort and engagement. It is likely that state support will also be needed, for example, in the form of financial mechanisms or incentives and/or legislative background.

Keywords: sustainability, building, indicator, implementation, testing, questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 88