Search results for: demographic analysis

Authors: Defne Uz

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Horizontal Tail of helicopter is exposed to repeated oscillatory loading generated by aerodynamic and inertial loads, and bending moments depending on operating conditions and maneuvers of the helicopter. In order to ensure that maximum stress levels do not exceed certain fatigue limit of the material and to prevent damage, a numerical analysis approach can be utilized through the Finite Element Method. Therefore, in this paper, fatigue analysis of the Horizontal Tail model is studied numerically to predict high-cycle and low-cycle fatigue life related to defined loading. The analysis estimates the stress field at stress concentration regions such as around fastener holes where the maximum principal stresses are considered for each load case. Critical element identification of the main load carrying structural components of the model with rivet holes is performed as a post-process since critical regions with high-stress values are used as an input for fatigue life calculation. Once the maximum stress is obtained at the critical element and the related mean and alternating components, it is compared with the endurance limit by applying Soderberg approach. The constant life straight line provides the limit for several combinations of mean and alternating stresses. The life calculation based on S-N (Stress-Number of Cycles) curve is also applied with fully reversed loading to determine the number of cycles corresponds to the oscillatory stress with zero means. The results determine the appropriateness of the design of the model for its fatigue strength and the number of cycles that the model can withstand for the calculated stress. The effect of correctly determining the critical rivet holes is investigated by analyzing stresses at different structural parts in the model. In the case of low life prediction, alternative design solutions are developed, and flight hours can be estimated for the fatigue safe operation of the model.

Keywords: fatigue analysis, finite element method, helicopter horizontal tail, life prediction, stress concentration

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Authors: Ahmed Sameer El Khatib

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The aim of the present paper is to examine the revenue efficiency of the Indonesian Islamic banking sector. The study also seeks to investigate the potential internal (bank specific) and external (macroeconomic) determinants that influence the revenue efficiency of Indonesian domestic Islamic banks. We employ the whole gamut of domestic and foreign Islamic banks operating in the Indonesian Islamic banking sector during the period of 2009 to 2018. The level of revenue efficiency is computed by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. Furthermore, we employ a panel regression analysis framework based on the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method to examine the potential determinants of revenue efficiency. The results indicate that the level of revenue efficiency of Indonesian domestic Islamic banks is lower compared to their foreign Islamic bank counterparts. We find that bank market power, liquidity, and management quality significantly influence the improvement in revenue efficiency of the Indonesian domestic Islamic banks during the period under study. By calculating these efficiency concepts, we can observe the efficiency levels of the domestic and foreign Islamic banks. In addition, by comparing both cost and profit efficiency, we can identify the influence of the revenue efficiency on the banks’ profitability.

Keywords: Islamic Finance, Islamic Banks, Revenue Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis

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Authors: Sameer Jung Karki, Gokhan Saygili

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The allowable bearing capacity of foundation systems is determined by applying a factor of safety to the ultimate bearing capacity. Conventional ultimate bearing capacity calculations routines are based on deterministic input parameters where the nonuniformity and inhomogeneity of soil and site properties are not accounted for. Hence, the laws of mathematics like probability calculus and statistical analysis cannot be directly applied to foundation engineering. It’s assumed that the Factor of Safety, typically as high as 3.0, incorporates the uncertainty of the input parameters. This factor of safety is estimated based on subjective judgement rather than objective facts. It is an ambiguous term. Hence, a probabilistic analysis of the bearing capacity of an isolated footing on a clayey soil is carried out by using the Monte Carlo Simulation method. This simulated model was compared with the traditional discrete model. It was found out that the bearing capacity of soil was found higher for the simulated model compared with the discrete model. This was verified by doing the sensitivity analysis. As the number of simulations was increased, there was a significant % increase of the bearing capacity compared with discrete bearing capacity. The bearing capacity values obtained by simulation was found to follow a normal distribution. While using the traditional value of Factor of safety 3, the allowable bearing capacity had lower probability (0.03717) of occurring in the field compared to a higher probability (0.15866), while using the simulation derived factor of safety of 1.5. This means the traditional factor of safety is giving us bearing capacity that is less likely occurring/available in the field. This shows the subjective nature of factor of safety, and hence probability method is suggested to address the variability of the input parameters in bearing capacity equations.

Keywords: bearing capacity, factor of safety, isolated footing, montecarlo simulation

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Authors: Julio Albuja, David Zaldumbide

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Data analysis is an important step before taking a decision about money. The aim of this work is to analyze the factors that influence the final price of the houses through data mining algorithms. To our best knowledge, previous work was researched just to compare results. Furthermore, before using the data of the data set, the Z-Transformation were used to standardize the data in the same range. Hence, the data was classified into two groups to visualize them in a readability format. A decision tree was built, and graphical data is displayed where clearly is easy to see the results and the factors' influence in these graphics. The definitions of these methods are described, as well as the descriptions of the results. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are presented related to the released results that our research showed making it easier to apply these algorithms using a customized data set.

Keywords: algorithms, data, decision tree, transformation

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Authors: Mohamed Izzharif Abdul Halim, Niamh Nic Daeid

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Determining the source of pen inks used on a variety of documents is impartial for forensic document examiners. The examination of inks is often performed to differentiate between inks in order to evaluate the authenticity of a document. A ballpoint pen ink consists of synthetic dyes in (acidic and/or basic), pigments (organic and/or inorganic) and a range of additives. Inks of similar color may consist of different composition and are frequently the subjects of forensic examinations. This study emphasizes on blue ballpoint pen inks available in the market because it is reported that approximately 80% of questioned documents analysis involving ballpoint pen ink. Analytical techniques such as thin layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, UV-vis spectroscopy, luminescence spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy have been used in the analysis of ink samples. In this study, application of Diamond Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) FTIR is straightforward but preferable in forensic science as it offers no sample preparation and minimal analysis time. The data obtained from these techniques were further analyzed using multivariate chemometric methods which enable extraction of more information based on the similarities and differences among samples in a dataset. It was indicated that some pens from the same manufactures can be similar in composition, however, discrete types can be significantly different.

Keywords: ATR FTIR, ballpoint, multivariate chemometric, PCA

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Authors: García López

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The Government Departments of Health have the task of informing and educating citizens about public health issues. For this, they use channels like Twitter, key in the search for health information and the propagation of content. The tweets, important in the virality of the content, may contain emotions that influence the contagion and exchange of knowledge. The goal of this study is to perform an analysis of the emotional projection of health information shared on Twitter by official American accounts: the disease control account CDCgov, National Institutes of Health, NIH, the government agency HHSGov, and the professional organization PublicHealth. For this, we used Tone Analyzer, an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) tool specialized in emotion detection in text, corresponding to the categorical model of emotion representation. For 15 days, all tweets from these accounts were analyzed with the emotional analysis tool in text. The results showed that their tweets contain an important emotional load, a determining factor in the success of their communications. This exposes that official accounts also use subjective language and contain emotions. The predominance of emotion joy over sadness and the strong presence of emotions in their tweets stimulate the virality of content, a key in the work of informing that government health departments have.

Keywords: emotions in tweets, emotion detection in the text, health information on Twitter, American health official accounts, emotions on Twitter, emotions and content

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Authors: Ana L. Gonzalez-Celis, Edgardo Ruiz-Carrillo, Karina Reyes-Jarquin, Margarita Chavez-Becerra

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Since recent decades, the aging has been viewed from a more positive perspective, where is not only about losses and damage, but also about being on a stage where you can enjoy life and live with well-being and quality of life. The challenge to feel better is to find those resources that seniors have. For that reason, psychological well-being has shown interest in the study of the affect and life satisfaction (hedonic well-being), while from a more recent tradition, focus on the development of capabilities and the personal growth, considering both as the main indicators of the quality of life. A resource that can be used in the later age is generativity, which refers to the ability of older people to develop and grow through activities that contribute with the improvement of the context in which they live and participate. In this way the generative interest is understood as a favourable attitude that contribute to the common benefit while strengthening and enriching the social institutions, to ensure continuity between generations and social development. On the other hand, generative behavior, differentiating from generative interest, is the expression of that attitude reflected in activities that make a social contribution and a benefit for generations to come. Hence the purpose of the research was to test if there is an association between the generative behaviour type and the psychological well-being with their dimensions. For this reason 188 Mexican adults from 60 to 94 years old (M = 69.78), 67% women, 33% men, completed two instruments: The Ryff’s Well-Being Scales to measure psychological well-being with 39 items with two dimensions (Hedonic and Eudaimonic well-being), and the Loyola’s Generative Behaviors Scale, grouped in five categories: Knowledge transmitted to the next generation, things to be remember, creativity, be productive, contribution to the community, and responsibility of other people. In addition, the socio-demographic data sheet was tested, and self-reported health status. The results indicated that the psychological well-being and its dimensions were significantly associated with the presence of generative behavior, where the level of well-being was higher when the frequency of some generative behaviour excelled; finding that the behavior with greater psychological well-being (M = 81.04, SD = 8.18) was "things to be remembered"; while with greater hedonic well-being (M = 73.39, SD = 12.19) was the behavior "responsibility of other people"; and with greater Eudaimonic well-being (M = 84.61, SD = 6.63), was the behavior "things to be remembered”. The most important findings highlight the importance of generative behaviors in adulthood, finding empirical evidence that the generativity in the last stage of life is associated with well-being. However, by finding differences in the types of generative behaviors at the level of well-being, is proposed the idea that generativity is not situated as an isolated construct, but needs other contextualized and related constructs that can simultaneously operate at different levels, taking into account the relationship between the environment and the individual, encompassing both the social and psychological dimension.

Keywords: eudaimonic well-being, generativity, hedonic well-being, Mexican elders, psychological well-being

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Authors: Mohamed El-Sayed Mosaad

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An analytic approach is obtained for the steady heat transfer problem of two fluid systems, in thermal communication via heat conduction across a solid wall separating them. The two free convection layers created on wall sides are assumed to be in parallel flow. Fluid-solid interface temperature on wall sides is not prescribed in analysis in advance; rather, determined from conjugate solution among other unknown parameters. The analysis highlights the main conjugation parameters controlling thermal interaction process of involved heat transfer modes. Heat transfer results of engineering importance are obtained.

Keywords: conjugate heat transfer, boundary layer, convection, thermal systems

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Authors: Leyla Yesilbas, M. Sukru Ozcoban, M. Ergenekon Selcuk

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From past to present, there is a constant need for engineering structures such as high-rise buildings, wide-span bridges, airports and stadiums, business towers due to technological developments and increasing population. Because of the large loads transferred from the superstructure to the ground layers in these types of structures, the bearing strength and seating problems usually occur on the floors. In order to solve these problems, piled foundations are used by passing the weak soil layers and transferring the loads from the superstructure to the solid soil layers. Considering the factors such as the characteristics of the building to be constructed, the purpose and location of the building, the basic cost of the pile should be at normal levels. When these requirements are taken into consideration, a new basic system called 'Barette Foundation' has been developed. In this thesis, an application made to provide slope stability with 'Baret Piles' was investigated. In addition, the ground parameters obtained from the field and laboratory experiments were numerically modeled using a PLAXİS 2D finite element software and barette piles. The effects of barette piles on slope stability were investigated by numerical analysis, and the results of inclinometer measurements in the field were compared with numerical analysis results.

Keywords: barette pile, PLAXİS 2D, slope, soil

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Authors: Martonovich Noa, Maman David, Alfandari Liad, Behrbalk Eyal.

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Introduction: The human body is designed for upright standing and walking, with the lower extremities and axial skeleton supporting weight-bearing. Constant weight-bearing on joints not meant for this action can lead to various pathologies, as seen in wheelchair users. Handstand practitioners use their wrists as weight-bearing joints during activities, but little is known about wrist injuries in this population. This study aims to investigate the epidemiology of wrist pain among handstand practitioners, as no such data currently exist. Methods: The study is a cross-sectional online survey conducted among athletes who regularly practice handstands. Participants were asked to complete a three-part questionnaire regarding their workout regimen, training habits, and history of wrist pain. The inclusion criteria were athletes over 18 years old who practice handstands more than twice a month for at least 4 months. All data were collected using Google Forms, organized and anonymized using Microsoft Excel, and analyzed using IBM SPSS 26.0. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and potential risk factors were tested using asymptotic t-tests and Fisher's tests. Differences were considered significant when p < 0.05. Results: This study surveyed 402 athletes who regularly practice handstands to investigate the prevalence of chronic wrist pain and potential risk factors. The participants had a mean age of 31.3 years, with most being male and having an average of 5 years of training experience. 56% of participants reported chronic wrist pain, and 14.4% reported a history of distal radial fracture. Yoga was the most practiced form, followed by Capoeira. No significant differences were found in demographic data between participants with and without chronic wrist pain, and no significant associations were found between chronic wrist pain prevalence and warm-up routines or protective aids. Conclusion: The lower half of the body is meant to handle weight-bearing and impact, while transferring the load to upper extremities can lead to various pathologies. Athletes who perform handstands are particularly prone to chronic wrist pain, which affects over half of them. Warm-up sessions and protective instruments like wrist braces do not seem to prevent chronic wrist pain, and there are no significant differences in age or training volume between athletes with and without the condition. Further research is needed to understand the causes of chronic wrist pain in athletes, given the growing popularity of sports and activities that can cause this type of injury.

Keywords: handstand, handbalance, wrist pain, hand and wrist surgery, yoga, calisthenics, circus, capoeira, movement.

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Authors: Emily Hamilton, Adiel Kahana, Ron Hauser, Shimi Barda

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BACKGROUND: In the male fertility and sperm bank unit of Tel Aviv Sourasky medical center, women are treated with intrauterine insemination (IUI) using washed sperm from their partner or thawed sperm from a selected donor. In most cases, the women perform the IUI treatment in Sourasky, but sometimes they ask to undergo the insemination procedure in another clinic with their own fertility doctor. In these cases, the sperm sample is prepared at the Sourasky lab and the patient is inseminated after arriving to her doctor. Our laboratory has previously found that time negatively affects several parameters of thawed sperm, and we estimate that it has more severe and significant effect than on washed sperm. AIM: To examine the effect of time on the quality of washed sperm versus thawed sperm. METHODS: Sperm samples were collected from men referred for semen analysis. Each ejaculate was allowed to liquefy for at least 20 min at 37°C and analyzed for sperm motility and vitality percentage and DNA fragmentation index (Time 0). Subsequently, 1ml of the sample was divided into two parts, 1st part was washed only and the 2nd part was washed, frozen and thawed. Time 1 analysis occurred immediately after sperm washing or thawing. Time 2 analysis occurred 75 minutes after time 1. Statistical analysis was performed using Student t-test. P values<0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: Preliminary data showed that time had a greater impact on the average percentages of sperm motility and vitality in thawed compared to washed sperm samples (26%±10% vs. 21%±10% and 21%±9% vs. 9%±10%, respectively). An additional trend towards increased average DNA fragmentation percentage in thawed samples compared to washed samples was observed (46%±18% vs. 25%±24%). CONCLUSION: Time negatively effects sperm quality. The effect is greater in thawed samples compared to fresh samples.

Keywords: ART, male fertility, sperm cryopreservation, sperm quality

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Authors: Namik Kemal Sonmez

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Based passive remote sensing technologies have been widely used in many plant species. However, use of these techniques in orange trees is limited. In this study, the relationships between chlorophyll content (Chl) and calculated red edge (RE) and vegetation index values of the citrus leave at different growth stages were formed the basis for the analysis. Canopy reflectance by hand-held spectroradiometer and total Chl analysis at the lab were measured simultaneously, from the random samples taken from four different parts of an orange orchard. Plant materials consisted of four different age groups of 15, 20, 25, and 30 years old orange trees. Reflectance measurements were conducted between 450 and 900 nanometer (nm) wavelength at four different bands (3 visible bands and 1 near-infrared band) at the four basic physiological periods (flowering, fruit setting, fruit maturity, and dormancy) of orange trees. According to the statistical analysis conducted, there was a strong relationship between the chlorophyll content and calculated indexes (p ≤ 0.01; R²= 0.925 at red edge and R²= 0.986 at vegetation index) at the fruit setting stage of 20 years old trees. Again at this stage, fruit setting, total Chl content values among all orange trees were significantly correlated at the RE and VI with the R² values of 0.672 and 0.635 at the 0.001 level, respectively. This indicated that the relationships between Chl content and index values were very strong at this stage, in comparison to the other stages.

Keywords: spectroradiometer, citrus, chlorophyll, reflectance, index

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Authors: N. C. Okoronkwo, I. E. Mbaeyi-Nwaoha, C. P. Agbata

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Childhood malnutrition is one of the most persistent public health problems throughout developing countries, including Nigeria. Demographic and Health survey data from twenty-one developing countries indicated that poor complementary feeding of children aged 6- 23 months contributes to negative growth trends. To reduce malnutrition among children in the society, formulation of complimentary food rich in essential nutrient for optimum growth and development of infants is essential. This study focused on the evaluation of complementary food produced by solid-state fermentation of Acha and Soybean using Rhizopus oligosporus (2710) and Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) using Lactobacillus planterum (B-41621). The raw materials were soaked separately, each in four volumes of 0.9M acetic acid for 16 hours, rinsed with clean water, steam cooked and cooled. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) was carried out by inoculating Acha and Soybean with spore suspension (1x 10⁶spores/ml) of Rhizopus oligosporus (2710) and OFSP with spore suspension (1x 106spores/ml) of Lactobacillus planterum (B-41621). Fermentation which lasted for 72hours was carried out with 24hours sampling. The samples were blended in the following ratios: Acha and soybean 100: 100 (AS), Acha/soybean and OFSP 50: 50(ASO), made into gruel and compared with a commercial infant formula (Cerelac) which served as the control (CTRL). The samples were analyzed for proximate composition using AOAC methods and sensory attributes using a hedonic scale. Results showed that moisture, crude protein, fibre and ash content increased significantly (p<0.05) as fermentation progressed, while carbohydrate and fat content decreased. The protein, moisture, fibre and ash content ranged from 17.10-19.02%, 54.97-56.27%, 7.08-7.60% and2.09-2.38%, respectively, while carbohydrate and fat content ranged from 12.95-10.21% and 5.81-4.52%, respectively. In sensory scores, there were no significant (p>0.05) difference between the average mean scores of colours, texture and consistency of the samples. The sensory score for the overall acceptability ranged from 6.20-7.80. Sample CTRL had the highest score, while sample ASO had the least score. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference between samples CTRL and AS. Solid-state fermentation improved the nutritional content and flavour of the developed complementary food, which is needed for infant growth and development.

Keywords: Complementary food, malnutrition, proximate composition, solid-state fermentation

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Authors: M. Boukhrouk, R. Ed-Dali

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Outbound tourism in Morocco, as in the majority of developing countries, reveals some of the aspects of inequality between the north and the south. Considered by some researchers as one of the facets of the development crisis, access to tourism and especially international tourism is a chance for a small minority with financial means, while the vast portions of the population dream rather of immigrating to a developed country for the sake of improving their standard of living. The right to travel is also limited by visa requirements, procedures in host countries, security and technical measures and creates discrimination in the practice of tourism. These conditions do not seem to be favorable to the democratization of the practice of international tourism for the populations of the southern countries. This paper is a contribution to the reading of the trends of outbound tourism in developing countries through the example of Morocco. It highlights the different aspects of Moroccan outbound tourism, destinations and the behavior of tourists through an analysis of the offer of a sample of 50 travel agencies. In the same vein, it offers a reading grid of the possibilities offered for the development of outbound tourism and the various existing obstacles to the democratization of international outbound tourism in the southern countries. This reading reveals the transformation in the behavior of Moroccan international tourists as well as the profound changes in Moroccan society, through a model of statistical analysis.

Keywords: demand, Hajj, Morocco, outbound tourism, tendency, Umrah

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Authors: Hao Li, Guy Y. Cornejo Maceda, Yiqing Li, Jianguo Tan, Marek Morzynski, Bernd R. Noack

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We propose an automated analysis of the flow control behaviour from an ensemble of control laws and associated time-resolved flow snapshots. The input may be the rich database of machine learning control (MLC) optimizing a feedback law for a cost function in the plant. The proposed methodology provides (1) insights into the control landscape, which maps control laws to performance, including extrema and ridge-lines, (2) a catalogue of representative flow states and their contribution to cost function for investigated control laws and (3) visualization of the dynamics. Key enablers are classification and feature extraction methods of machine learning. The analysis is successfully applied to the stabilization of a mixing layer with sensor-based feedback driving an upstream actuator. The fluctuation energy is reduced by 26%. The control replaces unforced Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices with subsequent vortex pairing by higher-frequency Kelvin-Helmholtz structures of lower energy. These efforts target a human interpretable, fully automated analysis of MLC identifying qualitatively different actuation regimes, distilling corresponding coherent structures, and developing a digital twin of the plant.

Keywords: machine learning control, mixing layer, feedback control, model-free control

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Authors: Eun-Taek Sin, Hyun-Ju Jang, Chang Geun Song, Yong-Sik Han

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Due to the climate change, the coastal urban area repeatedly suffers from the loss of property and life by flooding. There are three main causes of inland submergence. First, when heavy rain with high intensity occurs, the water quantity in inland cannot be drained into rivers by increase in impervious surface of the land development and defect of the pump, storm sewer. Second, river inundation occurs then water surface level surpasses the top of levee. Finally, Coastal inundation occurs due to rising sea water. However, previous studies ignored the complex mechanism of flooding, and showed discrepancy and inadequacy due to linear summation of each analysis result. In this study, inland flooding and river inundation were analyzed together by HDM-2D model. Petrov-Galerkin stabilizing method and flux-blocking algorithm were applied to simulate the inland flooding. In addition, sink/source terms with exponentially growth rate attribute were added to the shallow water equations to include the inland flooding analysis module. The applications of developed model gave satisfactory results, and provided accurate prediction in comprehensive flooding analysis. The applications of developed model gave satisfactory results, and provided accurate prediction in comprehensive flooding analysis. To consider the coastal surge, another module was developed by adding seawater to the existing Inland Flooding-River Inundation binding module for comprehensive flooding analysis. Based on the combined modules, the Coastal Inundation – Inland & River Flow Interface was simulated by inputting the flow rate and depth data in artificial flume. Accordingly, it was able to analyze the flood patterns of coastal cities over time. This study is expected to help identify the complex causes of flooding in coastal areas where complex flooding occurs, and assist in analyzing damage to coastal cities. Acknowledgements—This research was supported by a grant ‘Development of the Evaluation Technology for Complex Causes of Inundation Vulnerability and the Response Plans in Coastal Urban Areas for Adaptation to Climate Change’ [MPSS-NH-2015-77] from the Natural Hazard Mitigation Research Group, Ministry of Public Safety and Security of Korea.

Keywords: flooding analysis, river inundation, inland flooding, 2D hydrodynamic model

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Authors: Sohrab Jafarpour, Hamed Farokhi, Mohammad Rahmati, Alireza Gholipour

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In the current study, a nonlinear fluid-structure interaction (FSI) biomechanical model of atherosclerosis in the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery is developed to perform a detailed sensitivity analysis of the geometrical features of an atheroma plaque. In the development of the numerical model, first, a 3D geometry of the diseased artery is developed based on patient-specific dimensions obtained from the experimental studies. The geometry includes four influential geometric characteristics: stenosis ratio, plaque shoulder-length, fibrous cap thickness, and eccentricity intensity. Then, a suitable strain energy density function (SEDF) is proposed based on the detailed material stability analysis to accurately model the hyperelasticity of the arterial walls. The time-varying inlet velocity and outlet pressure profiles are adopted from experimental measurements to incorporate the pulsatile nature of the blood flow. In addition, a computationally efficient type of structural boundary condition is imposed on the arterial walls. Finally, a non-Newtonian viscosity model is implemented to model the shear-thinning behaviour of the blood flow. According to the results, the structural responses in terms of the maximum principal stress (MPS) are affected more compared to the fluid responses in terms of wall shear stress (WSS) as the geometrical characteristics are varying. The extent of these changes is critical in the vulnerability assessment of an atheroma plaque.

Keywords: atherosclerosis, fluid-Structure interaction modeling, material stability analysis, and nonlinear biomechanics

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Authors: Robert Cazar, Nathaly Maza

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Energy drinks and sports drinks are quite popular among young adults and teenagers worldwide. Some concerns regarding their health effects – particularly those of the energy drinks - have been raised based on scientific findings. Differentiating between these two types of drinks by means of their chemical properties seems to be an instructive task. Chemometrics provides the most appropriate strategy to do so. In this study, a discrimination analysis of the energy and sports drinks has been carried out applying chemometric methods. A set of eleven samples of available commercial brands of drinks – seven energy drinks and four sports drinks – were collected. Each sample was characterized by eight chemical variables (carbohydrates, energy, sugar, sodium, pH, degrees Brix, density, and citric acid). The data set was standardized and examined by exploratory chemometric techniques such as clustering and principal component analysis. As a preliminary step, a variable selection was carried out by inspecting the variable correlation matrix. It was detected that some variables are redundant, so they can be safely removed, leaving only five variables that are sufficient for this analysis. They are sugar, sodium, pH, density, and citric acid. Then, a hierarchical clustering `employing the average – linkage criterion and using the Euclidian distance metrics was performed. It perfectly separates the two types of drinks since the resultant dendogram, cut at the 25% similarity level, assorts the samples in two well defined groups, one of them containing the energy drinks and the other one the sports drinks. Further assurance of the complete discrimination is provided by the principal component analysis. The projection of the data set on the first two principal components – which retain the 71% of the data information – permits to visualize the distribution of the samples in the two groups identified in the clustering stage. Since the first principal component is the discriminating one, the inspection of its loadings consents to characterize such groups. The energy drinks group possesses medium to high values of density, citric acid, and sugar. The sports drinks group, on the other hand, exhibits low values of those variables. In conclusion, the application of chemometric methods on a data set that features some chemical properties of a number of energy and sports drinks provides an accurate, dependable way to discriminate between these two types of beverages.

Keywords: chemometrics, clustering, energy drinks, principal component analysis, sports drinks

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Authors: Aya Salama

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Digital Twin is an emerging research topic that attracted researchers in the last decade. It is used in many fields, such as smart manufacturing and smart healthcare because it saves time and money. It is usually related to other technologies such as Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. However, Human digital twin (HDT), in specific, is still a novel idea that still needs to prove its feasibility. HDT expands the idea of Digital Twin to human beings, which are living beings and different from the inanimate physical entities. The goal of this research was to create a Human digital twin that is responsible for real-time human replies automation by simulating human behavior. For this reason, clustering, supervised classification, topic extraction, and sentiment analysis were studied in this paper. The feasibility of the HDT for personal replies generation on social messaging applications was proved in this work. The overall accuracy of the proposed approach in this paper was 63% which is a very promising result that can open the way for researchers to expand the idea of HDT. This was achieved by using Random Forest for clustering the question data base and matching new questions. K-nearest neighbor was also applied for sentiment analysis.

Keywords: human digital twin, sentiment analysis, topic extraction, supervised machine learning, unsupervised machine learning, classification, clustering

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Authors: Natalia Rudeli, Elisabeth Viles, Adrian Santilli

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Delays in the construction industry are a global phenomenon. Many construction projects experience extensive delays exceeding the initially estimated completion time. The main purpose of this study is to identify construction projects typical behaviors in order to develop a prognosis and management tool. Being able to know a construction projects schedule tendency will enable evidence-based decision-making to allow resolutions to be made before delays occur. This study presents an innovative approach that uses Cluster Analysis Method to support predictions during Earned Value Analyses. A clustering analysis was used to predict future scheduling, Earned Value Management (EVM), and Earned Schedule (ES) principal Indexes behaviors in construction projects. The analysis was made using a database with 90 different construction projects. It was validated with additional data extracted from literature and with another 15 contrasting projects. For all projects, planned and executed schedules were collected and the EVM and ES principal indexes were calculated. A complete linkage classification method was used. In this way, the cluster analysis made considers that the distance (or similarity) between two clusters must be measured by its most disparate elements, i.e. that the distance is given by the maximum span among its components. Finally, through the use of EVM and ES Indexes and Tukey and Fisher Pairwise Comparisons, the statistical dissimilarity was verified and four clusters were obtained. It can be said that construction projects show an average delay of 35% of its planned completion time. Furthermore, four typical behaviors were found and for each of the obtained clusters, the interim milestones and the necessary rhythms of construction were identified. In general, detected typical behaviors are: (1) Projects that perform a 5% of work advance in the first two tenths and maintain a constant rhythm until completion (greater than 10% for each remaining tenth), being able to finish on the initially estimated time. (2) Projects that start with an adequate construction rate but suffer minor delays culminating with a total delay of almost 27% of the planned time. (3) Projects which start with a performance below the planned rate and end up with an average delay of 64%, and (4) projects that begin with a poor performance, suffer great delays and end up with an average delay of a 120% of the planned completion time. The obtained clusters compose a tool to identify the behavior of new construction projects by comparing their current work performance to the validated database, thus allowing the correction of initial estimations towards more accurate completion schedules.

Keywords: cluster analysis, construction management, earned value, schedule

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Authors: Kari M. Solomon

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Companies with a culture accepting of change management and performance excellence are better suited to determine their sustainability performance and impacts. A mature corporate culture supportive of performance excellence is better positioned to integrate sustainability management tools into their standard business strategy. Companies use various sustainability management tools and reporting standards to communicate levels of sustainability performance to their stakeholders, more often focusing on shareholders and investors. A research gap remains in understanding how companies adapt business excellence models to define corporate sustainability performance. A content analysis of medium-sized enterprises using corporate sustainability reports and business excellence models reveals the challenges and opportunities of reporting sustainability performance in the context of organizational excellence. The outcomes of this content analysis contribute knowledge on the resources needed for companies to build sustainability performance management systems integral to existing management systems. The findings of this research inform academic research areas of corporate sustainability performance, the business community contributing to sustainable development initiatives, and integrating sustainable development issues into business excellence models. There are potential research links between sustainability performance management and the alignment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) when organizations promote a culture of performance or business excellence.

Keywords: business excellence, corporate sustainability, performance excellence, sustainability performance

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Authors: Alcardo Alex Barakabitze, Tan Xiaoheng

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a special case of Multi-Carrier Modulation (MCM) technique which transmits a stream of data over a number of lower data rate subcarriers. OFDM splits the total transmission bandwidth into a number of orthogonal and non-overlapping subcarriers and transmit the collection of bits called symbols in parallel using these subcarriers. This paper explores the Peak to Average Power Reduction (PAPR) using the Partial Transmit Sequence technique. We provide the distribution analysis and the basics of OFDM signals and then show how the PAPR increases as the number of subcarriers increases. We provide the performance analysis of CCDF and PAPR expressed in decibels through MATLAB simulations. The simulation results show that, in PTS technique, the performance of PAPR reduction in OFDM systems improves significantly as the number of sub-blocks increases. However, by keeping the same number of sub-blocks variation, oversampling factor and the number of OFDM blocks’ iteration for generating the CCDF, the OFDM systems with 128 subcarriers have an improved performance in PAPR reduction compared to OFDM systems with 256, 512 or >512 subcarriers.

Keywords: OFDM, peak to average power reduction (PAPR), bit error rate (BER), subcarriers, wireless communications

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Authors: Alka Obadić

Abstract:

The research concentrates on the role of tourism in generating female employment and on impact of gender discrimination in tourism sector. Unfortunately, in many countries there are still some barriers to the inclusion of women at all hierarchical levels of tourism labor market. Research analysis focuses on EU countries where tourism is a main employer of women. The analysis shows that women represent over third persons employed in the non-financial business economy and almost two thirds in core tourism activities. Women's gross hourly earnings in accommodation and food services were below those of men in the European Union and only countries who recorded increase of gender pay gap from the beginning of crisis are Bulgaria and Croatia. Women in tourism industry are still overrepresented in lower status jobs with fewer opportunities for career progression and are often treated unequally.

Keywords: employment, gender discrimination, tourism, women’s participation

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Authors: A. Perdomo, J. R. Bacca, Q. E. Jabid

Abstract:

In recent years, technological and investigative progress has been achieved in the area of monitoring of equipment and installation as a result of a deeper understanding of physical phenomenon associated with the non-destructive tests (NDT). The modal analysis proposes an efficient solution to determine the dispersion curves of an arbitrary waveguide cross-sectional. Dispersion curves are essential in the discontinuity localization based on guided waves. In this work, an isotropic hollow cylinder is dynamically analyzed in ANSYS to obtain resonant frequencies and mode shapes all of them associated with the dispersion curves. The numerical results provide the relation between frequency and wavelength which is the foundation of the dispersion curves. Results of the simulation process are validated with the software GUIGW.

Keywords: ansys APDL, dispersion curves, guide waves, modal analysis

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Authors: Saad Bin Nasir

Abstract:

The study identifies the impact of inflation and foreign exchange rate on foreign direct investment in Pakistan. Inflation and exchange rates are used as independent variables and foreign direct investment is taken as dependent variable. Discreet time series data has been used from the period of 1999 to 2009. The results of regression analysis reveal that high inflation has negative impact on foreign direct investment and higher exchange rates has positive impact on foreign direct investment in Pakistan. The inflation and foreign exchange rates both are insignificant in the analysis.

Keywords: inflation rate, foreign exchange rate, foreign direct investment, foreign assets

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Authors: Radim Sip, Denisa Denglerova

Abstract:

It’s impossible to capture complex phenomena, such as inclusion, with reductionism. The most common form of reductionism is the objectivist approach, where processes and relationships are reduced to entities and clearly outlined phases, with a consequent search for relationships between them. Constructivism as a paradigm and situational analysis as a methodological research portfolio represent a way to avoid the dominant objectivist approach. They work with a situation, i.e. with the essential blending of actors and their environment. Primary transactions are taking place between actors and their surroundings. Researchers create constructs based on their need to solve a problem. Concepts therefore do not describe reality, but rather a complex of real needs in relation to the available options how such needs can be met. For examination of a complex problem, corresponding methodological tools and overall design of the research are necessary. Using an original research on inclusion in the Czech Republic as an example, this contribution demonstrates that inclusion is not a substance easily described, but rather a relationship field changing its forms in response to its actors’ behaviour and current circumstances. Inclusion consists of dynamic relationship between an ideal, real circumstances and ways to achieve such ideal under the given circumstances. Such achievement has many shapes and thus cannot be captured by description of objects. It can be expressed in relationships in the situation defined by time and space. Situational analysis offers tools to examine such phenomena. It understands a situation as a complex of dynamically changing aspects and prefers relationships and positions in the given situation over a clear and final definition of actors, entities, etc. Situational analysis assumes creation of constructs as a tool for solving a problem at hand. It emphasizes the meanings that arise in the process of coordinating human actions, and the discourses through which these meanings are negotiated. Finally, it offers “cartographic tools” (situational maps, socials worlds / arenas maps, positional maps) that are able to capture the complexity in other than linear-analytical ways. This approach allows for inclusion to be described as a complex of phenomena taking place with a certain historical preference, a complex that can be overlooked if analyzed with a more traditional approach.

Keywords: constructivism, situational analysis, objective realism, reductionism, inclusion

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Authors: Saad Odeh

Abstract:

Thermal performance is considered to be a key measure in building sustainability. One of the technologies used in the current building sustainable design is the rooftop solar PV power generators. The application of this type of technology has expanded vastly during the last five years in many countries. This paper studies the effect of roof shading developed by the solar PV panels on dwellings’ thermal performance. The analysis in this work is performed by using two types of packages: “AccuRate Sustainability” for rating the energy efficiency of residential building design, and “PVSYST” for the solar PV power system design. The former package is used to calculate the annual heating and cooling load, and the later package is used to evaluate the power production from the roof top PV system. The analysis correlates the electrical energy generated from the PV panels to the change in the heating and cooling load due to roof shading. Different roof orientation, roof inclination, roof insulation, as well as PV panel area are considered in this study. The analysis shows that the drop in energy efficiency due to the shaded area of the roof by PV panels is negligible compared to the energy generated by these panels.

Keywords: PV panel, thermal performance, roof shading, energy efficiency

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Authors: Arun Kumar, Neelesh Haulder

Abstract:

This paper identifies and resolves some key issues relating to a specific aspect within the supply chain logistics of the public health care industry in the Republic of Mauritius. The analysis and the proposed solution are performed using soft systems methodology (SSM). Through the application of this relevant systematic approach at problem solving, the aim is to obtain an in-depth analysis of the problem, incorporating every possible world view of the problem and consequently to obtain a well explored solution aimed at implementing relevant changes within the current supply chain logistics of the health care industry, with the purpose of tackling the key identified issues.

Keywords: soft systems methodology, CATWOE, healthcare, logistics

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Authors: Tang Wei, Yang Xiaofeng, Gui Yewei, Du Yanxia

Abstract:

Complex lifting entry was selected for precise landing performance during the Mars Science Laboratory entry. This study aims to develop the three-dimensional numerical method for precise computation and the surface panel method for rapid engineering prediction. Detailed flow field analysis for Mars exploration mission was performed by carrying on a series of fully three-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations. The static aerodynamic performance was then discussed, including the surface pressure, lift and drag coefficient, lift-to-drag ratio with the numerical and engineering method. Computation results shown that the shock layer is thin because of lower effective specific heat ratio, and that calculated results from both methods agree well with each other, and is consistent with the reference data. Aerodynamic performance analysis shows that CG location determines trim characteristics and pitch stability, and certain radially and axially shift of the CG location can alter the capsule lifting entry performance, which is of vital significance for the aerodynamic configuration des0ign and inner instrument layout of the Mars entry capsule.

Keywords: Mars entry capsule, static aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, hypersonic

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Authors: Thirasak Panyaphirawat, Pairoj Sapsmarnwong, Teeratas Pornyungyuen

Abstract:

This paper presents the findings of an experimental investigation of important machining parameters for the horizontal boring tool modified to mouth with a horizontal lathe machine to bore an overlength workpiece. In order to verify a usability of a modified tool, design of experiment based on Taguchi method is performed. The parameters investigated are spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and length of workpiece. Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is selected for four factors three level parameters in order to minimize surface roughness (Ra and Rz) of S45C steel tubes. Signal to noise ratio analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed to study an effect of said parameters and to optimize the machine setting for best surface finish. The controlled factors with most effect are depth of cut, spindle speed, length of workpiece, and feed rate in order. The confirmation test is performed to test the optimal setting obtained from Taguchi method and the result is satisfactory.

Keywords: design of experiment, Taguchi design, optimization, analysis of variance, machining parameters, horizontal boring tool

Procedia PDF Downloads 424