Search results for: growing period

Authors: Gorbunova Tatiana L.

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The research is dedicated to the study of the polluted river inflow impact on the Black Sea coastal marine environment within the watercourse’s plumes in the Greater Sochi area applying bioassay methods using freshwater and marine microalgae. River waters were analyzed using microalgae Chlorella vulgaris Beijer and sea waters were tested with marine diatoms Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin. Experiments included algae cell abundancy growth assessments in acute (24 hours), sub-acute (72 hours) and chronic (168 hours / 7 days) tests. The increase in algal cell growth rates compared to the control in the summer period was detected as a consequence of the recreational activities intensification during the tourism seasonal peak. Most of the analyzed samples demonstrated a significant effect of algae cell growth stimulation compared to the control. It is established that under the impact of contaminants carried by river drain to the sea, the capacity of the coastal marine ecosystem is partially capable of compensating for its effect on the coastal biocenosis, but the general trends of the impact processes remain constant.

Keywords: algae abundance growth, bioassay, microalgae, modeling

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Authors: Akeel Noori Al-Mulla Hwaish

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The environmental impact, economics, social and cultural factors, and the processes by which people define history and meaning had influenced the dynamic shape and character of the traditional Islamic Arabic city. Therefore, in regard to the period when Islam was at its peak (7th- 13th Centuries), Islamic city wasn’t the highly dynamited at the scale of buildings and city planning that demonstrates a distinguished city as an ‘Islamic’ as appeared after centuries when the function of the buildings and their particular arrangement and planning scheme in relation to one another that defined an Islamic city character. The architectural features of the urban fabric of the traditional Arabic Islamic city are a ‎reflection of the spiritual, social, and cultural characteristics of the people. It is a ‎combination of Islamic values ‘Din’ and life needs ‘Dunia’ as Prophet Muhammad built the first Mosque in ‎Madinah in the 1st year of his migration to it, then the Suq or market on 2nd of Hijrah, attached to ‎the mosque to signify the birth of a new Muslims community which considers both, ‎‎’Din’ and ‘Dunia’ and initiated nucleus for what which called after that as an ‘Islamic’ city. This research will discuss the main characteristics and components of the traditional Arab cities and demonstrate the impact of the Islamic values on shaping the planning layout and general built environment features of the early traditional Arab cities.

Keywords: urban, Islamic, Arabic, city

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Authors: Hicham Benamirouche, Oum Elkheir Moussi

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The purpose of the study is to examine the dynamics of Algeria’s natural gas exports through the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach with break points. The analysis was carried out for the period from 1967 to 2015. Based on imperfect substitution specification, the ARDL approach reveals a long-run equilibrium relationship between Algeria’s Natural gas exports and their determinant factors (Algeria’s gas reserves, Domestic gas consumption, Europe’s GDP per capita, relative prices, the European gas production and the market share of competitors). All the long-run elasticities estimated are statistically significant with a large impact of domestic factors, which constitute the supply constraints. In short term, the elasticities are statistically significant, and almost comparable to those of the long term. Furthermore, the speed of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium is less than one year because of the little flexibility of the long term export contracts. Two break points have been estimated when we employ the domestic gas consumption as a break variable; 1984 and 2010, which reflect the arbitration policy between the domestic gas market and gas exports.

Keywords: natural gas exports, elasticity, ARDL bounds testing, break points, Algeria

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Authors: Ivan Sosa Gomez

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Digitalization has impacted the entire insurance value chain, and the growing movement towards P2P platforms and the collaborative economy is also beginning to have a significant impact. P2P insurance is defined as innovation, enabling policyholders to pool their capital, self-organize, and self-manage their own insurance. In this context, new InsurTech start-ups are emerging as peer-to-peer (P2P) providers, based on a model that differs from traditional insurance. As a result, although P2P platforms do not change the fundamental basis of insurance, they do enable potentially more efficient business models to be established in terms of ensuring the coverage of risk. It is therefore relevant to determine whether p2p innovation can have substantial effects on the future of the insurance sector. For this purpose, it is considered necessary to develop P2P innovation from a business perspective, as well as to build a comparison between a traditional model and a P2P model from an actuarial perspective. Objectives: The objectives are (1) to represent P2P innovation in the business model compared to the traditional insurance model and (2) to establish a comparison between a traditional model and a P2P model from an actuarial perspective. Methodology: The research design is defined as action research in terms of understanding and solving the problems of a collectivity linked to an environment, applying theory and best practices according to the approach. For this purpose, the study is carried out through the participatory variant, which involves the collaboration of the participants, given that in this design, participants are considered experts. For this purpose, prolonged immersion in the field is carried out as the main instrument for data collection. Finally, an actuarial model is developed relating to the calculation of premiums that allows for the establishment of projections of future scenarios and the generation of conclusions between the two models. Main Contributions: From an actuarial and business perspective, we aim to contribute by developing a comparison of the two models in the coverage of risk in order to determine whether P2P innovation can have substantial effects on the future of the insurance sector.

Keywords: Insurtech, innovation, business model, P2P, insurance

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Authors: Islam Zeb

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The water of poor quality used for irrigation purposes has the potential to be the direct source of contamination and a vehicle for spreading contamination in the field. A number of wide-ranging review articles have been published that highlight irrigation water as a source of heavy metals toxicity which leads to chronic diseases in the human body. Here a study was planned to determine the microbial and heavy metals status of irrigation water collected from various locations of district Swat in various months. The analyses were carried out at the Environmental Horticulture Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, during the year 2018 – 19. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factors and three replicates. Factor A consist of different locations and factor B represent various months. The result of heavy metals concentration in different regions, maximum Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper (4.27, 0.56, 0.81, 1.33 and 1.51 mg L-1 respectively) were noted for the irrigation water samples collected from Mingora while minimum Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper concentration (2.59, 0.30, 0.27, 0.40 and 0.54 mg L-1 respectively) were noted for the samples of matta. Whereas results of heavy metals content in irrigation water samples for various months maximum content of Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper (4.56, 0.63, 1.15, 1.31 and 1.48 mg L-1 respectively) were noted for the samples collected in Jan/Feb while lowest values for Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper (2.38, 0.24, 0.21, 0.41 and 0.52 mg L-1 respectively) were noted in the samples of July/August. A significant interaction was found for all the studied parameters. It was concluded that the concentration of heavy metal was maximum in irrigation water samples collected from the Mingora location during the month of Jan/Feb because Mingora is the most polluted area as compared to other studied regions, whereas the water content in winter goes to freeze and mostly contaminated water is used for irrigation purposes.

Keywords: irrigation water, various months, different regions, heavy metals contamination, Swat

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Authors: Heba Abdelmotaal

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This paper explores the impact of the extent of a company's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure on credit rating and capital structure. The analysis is based on a sample of 202 firms from the 350 FTSE firms over the period of 2008-2013. ESG disclosure score is measured using Proprietary Bloomberg score based on the extent of a company's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure. The credit rating is measured by The QuiScore, which is a measure of the likelihood that a company will become bankrupt in the twelve months following the date of calculation. The Capital Structure is measured by long term debt ratio. Two hypotheses are test using panel data regression. The results suggested that the higher degree of ESG disclosure leads to better credit rating. There is significant negative relationship between ESG disclosure and the long term debit percentage. The paper includes implications for the transparency which is resulting of the ESG disclosure could support the Monitoring Function. The monitoring role of disclosure is the increasing in the transparency of the credit rating agencies, also it could affect on managers’ actions. This study provides empirical evidence on the material of ESG disclosure on credit ratings changes and the firms’ capital decision making.

Keywords: capital structure, credit rating agencies, ESG disclosure, panel data regression

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Authors: Enze Zhang

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One of the most challenging steps in implementing virtual water content (VWC) analysis of crops is to get properly the total volume of consumptive water use (CWU) and, therefore, the choice of a reliable crop CWU estimation method. In practice, lots of previous researches obtaining CWU of crops follow a classical procedure for calculating crop evapotranspiration which is determined by multiplying reference evapotranspiration by appropriate coefficient, such as crop coefficient and water stress coefficients. However, this manner of calculation requires lots of field experimental data at point scale and more seriously, when current growing conditions differ from the standard conditions, may easily produce deviation between the calculated CWU and the actual CWU. Since evapotranspiration caused by crop planting always plays a vital role in surface water-energy balance in an agricultural region, this study decided to alternatively estimates crop evapotranspiration by Budyko framework. After brief introduce the development process of Budyko framework. We choose a modified Budyko framework under unsteady-state to better evaluated the actual CWU and apply it in an agricultural irrigation area in North China Plain which rely on underground water for irrigation. With the agricultural statistic data, this calculated CWU was further converted into VWC and its subdivision of crops at the annual scale. Results show that all the average values of VWC, VWC_blue and VWC_green show a downward trend with increased agricultural production and improved acreage. By comparison with the previous research, VWC calculated by Budyko framework agree well with part of the previous research and for some other research the value is greater. Our research also suggests that this methodology and findings may be reliable and convenient for investigation of virtual water throughout various agriculture regions of the world.

Keywords: virtual water content, Budyko framework, consumptive water use, crop evapotranspiration

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Authors: Caiwei Chen, Jianhao Li, Jiasong Zhu

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The reform and opening-up stimulated economic and technological take-off in China while resulting in massive urbanization and motorization. Wujiaochang area was set as a secondary business district in Shanghai to meet the growing demand, with the reconstruction of Wujiaochang Plaza in 2005 being a milestone of this intended urban renewal. Wujiaochang is now an economically dynamic area providing much larger traffic and transit capacity transportation-wise. However, this rebuilding has completely changed the face of the district. It is, therefore, appropriate to evaluate its impact on neighborhoods and communities while assessing the overall sustainability of such an operation. In this study, via an online questionnaire survey among local residents and daily visitors, we assess the perceptions and the estimated impact of Wujiaochang Plaza's reconstruction. We then confront these results to the 62 answers from local residents to a questionnaire collected on paper. The analysis of our data, along with observation and other forms of information -such as maps analysis or online applications (Dianping)- demonstrate major improvement in economic sustainability but also significant losses in environmental sustainability, especially in terms of active transportation. As for the social viewpoint, local residents' opinions tend to be rather positive, especially regarding traffic safety and access to consumption, despite the lack of connectivity and radical changes induced by Wujiaochang massive transformations. In general, our investigation exposes the overall positive outcomes of Wujiaochang Plaza reconstruction but also unveils major drawbacks, especially in terms of soft mobility and traffic fluidity. We gather that our approach could be of tremendous help for future major urban interventions, as such approaches in municipal regeneration are widely implemented in Chinese cities and yet still need to be thoroughly assessed in terms of sustainability.

Keywords: China's reform and opening-up, economical revitalization, neighborhood identity, sustainability assessment, urban renewal

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Authors: Slwa Al-Hammad

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Adaptation studies have been closely aligned to translation studies as both deal with the process of rendering the meaning from one culture to another. These two disciplines are related to each other, but the theories are still being developed. This research aims to fill this gap and provide a contribution to the growing discipline of adaptation studies through a theoretical perspective while investigating how different cultural interpretations of adaptation influence the final literary product. This research focuses on the theoretical concepts of Barthes’s death of the author and Benjamin’s afterlife of the text in translation, which is believed to lead to the birth of the adapter in a literary work. That is, in adaptation, the ‘death’ of the author allows for the ‘birth’ of the adapter, offering them all the creative possibilities of authorship. It also explores the differences between the meanings of adaptation in the West and the Arab world through the analysis of adapted texts in Arabic initially deriving from the European and American literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. The methodology of this thesis is based upon qualitative literary analysis, in which original and adapted works are compared and contrasted, with the additional insights of literary and adaptation theories and prior scholarship. The main works discussed are the Arabic adaptations of William Faulkner’s novels. The analysis is guided by theories of adaptation studies to help in explaining the concepts of relocating, recreating, and rewriting in the process of adaptation. It draws on scholarship on adaptations to inquire into the status of the adapted texts in relation to the original texts. Also, these theories prove that adaptation is the process that is used to transfer text from source to adapted text, not some other analytical practice. Through the textual analysis, concepts of the death of the author and the birth of the adapter will be illustrated, as will the roles of the adapter and the task of rendering works for a different culture, and the understanding of adaptation and Arabization in Arabic literature.

Keywords: adaptation, Arabization, authorship, recreating, relocating

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Authors: Chul-Hee Jo, Do-Youb Kim, Seok-Jin Cho, Yu-Ho Rho

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The Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoy system is the most popular and widely used type of offshore loading terminals. SPM buoy mooring systems have been deployed worldwide for a variety of applications, water depths and vessel sizes ranging from small production carriers to Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). Because of safe and easy berthing and un-berthing operations, the SPM buoy mooring system is also preferred for offshore terminals. The SPM buoy consists of a buoy that is permanently moored to the seabed by means of multiple mooring lines. The buoy contains a bearing system that allows a part of it to rotate around the moored geostatic part. When moored to the rotating part of the buoy, a vessel is able to freely weathervane around the buoy. This study was verified the effects of design variables in order to design an SPM buoy mooring system through parametric analysis. The design variables have independent and nonlinear characteristics. Using parametric analysis, this research was found that the fairlead departure angle, wave height and period, chain diameter and line length effect to the mooring top tension, buoy excursion and line layback.

Keywords: Single Point Mooring (SPM), Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring(CALM), design variables, parametric analysis, mooring system optimization

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Authors: Maffo Maffo Nicole Liliane, Mounmeni Kpoumie Hubert, Mbaire Matindje Karl Marx, Zapfack Louis

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Sacred forests play a valuable role in conserving local biodiversity and provide numerous ecosystem services in Cameroon. The study was carried out in the sacred forests of Bandrefam and Batoufam (western Cameroon). The aim was to estimate the diversity of woody species, carbon stocks and degradation factors in these sacred forests. The floristic inventory was carried out in plots measuring 25m × 25m for trees with diameters greater than 10 cm and 5m × 5m for trees with diameters less than 10 cm. Carbon stocks were estimated using the non-destructive method and the allometric equations. Data on degradation factors were collected using semi-structured surveys in the Bandrefam and Batoufam neighborhoods. The floristic inventory identified 65 species divided into 57 genera and 30 families in the Bandrefam Sacred Forest and 45 species divided into 42 genera and 27 families in the Batoufam Sacres Forest. The families common to both sacred forests are as follows: Phyllanthaceae, Fabaceae, Moraceae, Lamiaceae, Malvaceae, Rubiaceae, Meliaceae, Anacardiaceae, and Sapindaceae. Three genera are present in both sites. These are: Albizia, Macaranga, Trichillia. In addition, there are 27 species in common between the two sites. The total carbon stock is 469.26 tC/ha at Batoufam and 291.41 tC/ha at Bandrefam. The economic value varies between 15 823 877.05 fcfa at Batoufam and 9 825 530.528 fcfa at Bandrefam. The study shows that despite the sacred nature of these forests, they are subject to degradation factors such as bushfires (35.42 %), the creation of plantations (23.96 %), illegal timber exploitation (21.88 %), young people's lack of interest in the notion of conservation (9.38 %), climate change (7.29 %) and growing urbanization (2.08 %). These factors threaten biodiversity and reduce carbon storage in these forests.

Keywords: sacred forests, degradation factors, carbon stocks, semi-structured surveys

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Authors: Aaron Walayat

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Protection of the environment in international law has been one of the most developed in the context of international humanitarian law. This paper examines the history of the protection of the environment in times of armed conflict, beginning with the traditional notion of restraint observed in antiquity towards the obligation to protect the environment, examining the treaties and agreements, both binding and non-binding which have contributed to environmental protection in war. The paper begins with a discussion of the ancient concept of restraint. This section examines the social norms in favor of protection of the environment as observed in the Bible, Greco-Roman mythology, and even more contemporary literature. The study of the traditional rejection of total war establishes the social foundation on which the current legal regime has stemmed. The paper then studies the principle of restraint as codified in international humanitarian law. It mainly examines Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Convention of 1949 and existing international law concerning civilian objects and the principles of international humanitarian law in the classification between civilian objects and military objectives. The paper then explores the environment’s classification as both a military objective and as a civilian object as well as explores arguments in favor of the classification of the whole environment as a civilian object. The paper will then discuss the current legal regime surrounding the protection of the environment, discussing some declarations and conventions including the 1868 Declaration of St. Petersburg, the 1907 Hague Convention No. IV, the Geneva Conventions, and the 1976 Environmental Modification Convention. The paper concludes with the outline noting the movement from codification of the principles of restraint into the various treaties, agreements, and declarations of the current regime of international humanitarian law. This paper provides an analysis of the history and significance of the relationship between international humanitarian law as a major contributor to the growing field of international environmental law.

Keywords: armed conflict, environment, legal regime, restraint

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Authors: M. Sumida, S. Morita

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In this research, the effect of unsteady flows acting on road vehicles was experimentally investigated, using an advanced and recently introduced wind tunnel. The aims of this study were to extract the characteristics of fluid forces acting on road vehicles under unsteady wind conditions and obtain new information on drag forces in a practical on-road test. We applied pulsating wind as a representative example of the atmospheric fluctuations that vehicles encounter on the road. That is, we considered the case where the vehicles are moving at constant speed in the air, with large wind oscillations. The experimental tests were performed on the Ahmed-type test model, which is a simplified vehicle model. This model was chosen because of its simplicity and the data accumulated under steady wind conditions. The experiments were carried out with a time-averaged Reynolds number of Re = 4.16x10⁵ and a pulsation period of T = 1.5 s, with amplitude of η = 0.235. Unsteady fluid forces of drag and lift were obtained utilizing a multi-component load cell. It was observed that the unsteady aerodynamic forces differ significantly from those under steady wind conditions. They exhibit a phase shift and an enhanced response to the wind oscillations. Furthermore, their behavior depends on the slant angle of the rear shape of the model.

Keywords: Ahmed body, automotive aerodynamics, unsteady wind, wind tunnel test

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Authors: Wei Yao, Constantinos Alexiou

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In the existing literature, many studies have focused on the implementation and effectiveness of quantitative easing (QE) since 2008, but only a few have evaluated QE’s effect on commodity prices. In this context, by following Frankel’s (1986) commodity price overshooting model, we study the dynamic covariation between the expected real interest rates and six agricultural commodities’ real returns over the period from 2000:1 to 2018 for the US economy. We use wavelet analysis to investigate the causal relationship and co-movement of time series data by calculating the coefficient of determination in different frequencies. We find that a) US unconventional monetary policy may cause more positive and significant covariation between the expected real interest rates and agricultural commodities’ real returns over the short horizons; b) a lead-lag relationship that runs from agricultural commodities’ real returns to the expected real short-term interest rates over the long horizons; and c) a lead-lag relationship from agricultural commodities’ real returns to the expected real long-term interest rates over short horizons. In the realm of monetary policy, we argue that QE may shift the negative relationship between most commodities’ real returns and the expected real interest rates to a positive one over a short horizon.

Keywords: QE, commodity price, interest rate, wavelet coherence

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Authors: Divya Ramaseshan

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The indigenous beauty of a space supported by its local context is unmatchable. India, known to be a hub for varied cultural significance, has one of the best uses of vernacularism. This paper focuses on the traditional houses present in Thirumayilai, Mylapore, one of the oldest and most populous cities in Chennai. The Mylapore houses are known for their Agraharam style with thinnai, courtyard, and sloping roof characteristics. These homes had a combined influence of Indian, Islamic as well as Neo-classical architecture in their design. The design of the houses reflects the lives of Brahmin communities which have almost vanished from sight now. According to the growing demands of local residents as well as urbanization, many houses have been renovated. Some of those structures have been conserved in certain streets showcasing their historical identity. Other structures have either been demolished or redesigned based on people’s needs. Those structures have been identified and studied to understand the comparative features that have been changed. Many of those were in direct relevance to the city’s climate, family size, socializing habits, and local materials. Being a temple town, Mylapore has contour variations sloping towards various water bodies. These factors have been considered for building homes as well. The study aims to list down the possible design guidelines that could be effective in today’s construction field. The pros and cons are analyzed, and the respective methodologies are framed. Our modern construction technologies have brought in the best visual aesthetics in a short frame of time, but the serene touch of teak wood, walking through paved stones, daydreaming in the sunlit courtyards, and chitchatting in porticos are always cherished. Architects around the world are trying hard to achieve such appreciated design elements in upcoming projects with the best use of modern technology. This will also improvise people’s mental health in the comfort of their homes.

Keywords: Agraharam, Mylapore, traditional, vernacularism

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Authors: Yi Yang, Jiasong Sun

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Almost every aspect of our daily lives is now intertwined with some degree of human-computer interaction (HCI). HCI courses draw on knowledge from disciplines as diverse as computer science, psychology, design principles, anthropology, and more. Our HCI courses, named the Media and Cognition course, are constantly updated to reflect state-of-the-art technological advancements such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence-based interactions. For more than a decade, our course has used an interest-based approach to teaching, in which students proactively propose some research-based questions and collaborate with teachers, using course knowledge to explore potential solutions. Semantic communication plays a key role in facilitating understanding and interaction between users and computer systems, ultimately enhancing system usability and user experience. The advancements in AI-generated technology, which have gained significant attention from both academia and industry in recent years, are exemplified by language models like GPT-3 that generate human-like dialogues from given prompts. Our latest version of the Human-Computer Interaction course practices a semantic communication platform based on AI-generated techniques. The purpose of this semantic communication is twofold: to extract and transmit task-specific information while ensuring efficient end-to-end communication with minimal latency. An AI-generated semantic communication platform evaluates the retention of signal sources and converts low-retain ability visual signals into textual prompts. These data are transmitted through AI-generated techniques and reconstructed at the receiving end; on the other hand, visual signals with a high retain ability rate are compressed and transmitted according to their respective regions. The platform and associated research are a testament to our students' growing ability to independently investigate state-of-the-art technologies.

Keywords: human-computer interaction, media and cognition course, semantic communication, retainability, prompts

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Authors: Samaila Muazu Bawa

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Hydration process, crack potential and setting time of concrete grade C30, C40 and C50 were separately monitored using non-contact electrical resistivity apparatus, a plastic ring mould and penetration resistance method respectively. The results show highest resistivity of C30 at the beginning until reaching the acceleration point when C50 accelerated and overtaken the others, and this period corresponds to its final setting time range, from resistivity derivative curve, hydration process can be divided into dissolution, induction, acceleration and deceleration periods, restrained shrinkage crack and setting time tests demonstrated the earliest cracking and setting time of C50, therefore, this method conveniently and rapidly determines the concrete’s crack potential. The highest inflection time (ti), the final setting time (tf) were obtained and used with crack time in coming up with mathematical models for the prediction of concrete’s cracking age for the range being considered. Finally, ANSYS numerical simulations supports the experimental findings in terms of the earliest crack age of C50 and the crack location that, highest stress concentration is always beneath the artificially introduced expansion joint of C50.

Keywords: concrete hydration, electrical resistivity, restrained shrinkage crack, ANSYS simulation

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Authors: Sarah Niklas, Lynne Chester, Mark Diesendorf

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Geopolitical tensions, climate change and recent movements favouring a transformative shift in institutional power structures have influenced the economics of conventional energy supply for decades. This study takes a multi-dimensional approach to illustrate the potential of renewable energy (RE) technology to provide a pathway to a low-carbon economy driven by ecologically sustainable, independent and socially just energy. This comparative analysis identifies economic, political and social drivers that shaped the adoption of RE policy in two significantly different economies, Germany and Australia, with strong and weak commitments to RE respectively. Two complementary political-economy theories frame the document-based analysis. Régulation Theory, inspired by Marxist ideas and strongly influenced by contemporary economic problems, provides the background to explore the social relationships contributing the adoption of RE within the macro-economy. Varieties of Capitalism theory, a more recently developed micro-economic approach, examines the nature of state-firm relationships. Together these approaches provide a comprehensive lens of analysis. Germany’s energy policy transformed substantially over the second half of the last century. The development is characterised by the coordination of societal, environmental and industrial demands throughout the advancement of capitalist regimes. In the Fordist regime, mass production based on coal drove Germany’s astounding economic recovery during the post-war period. Economic depression and the instability of institutional arrangements necessitated the impulsive seeking of national security and energy independence. During the postwar Flexi-Fordist period, quality-based production, innovation and technology-based competition schemes, particularly with regard to political power structures in and across Europe, favoured the adoption of RE. Innovation, knowledge and education were institutionalized, leading to the legislation of environmental concerns. Lastly the establishment of government-industry-based coordinative programs supported the phase out of nuclear power and the increased adoption of RE during the last decade. Australia’s energy policy is shaped by the country’s richness in mineral resources. Energy policy largely served coal mining, historically and currently one of the most capital-intense industry. Assisted by the macro-economic dimensions of institutional arrangements, social and financial capital is orientated towards the export-led and strongly demand-oriented economy. Here energy policy serves the maintenance of capital accumulation in the mining sector and the emerging Asian economies. The adoption of supportive renewable energy policy would challenge the distinct role of the mining industry within the (neo)-liberal market economy. The state’s protective role of the mining sector has resulted in weak commitment to RE policy and investment uncertainty in the energy sector. Recent developments, driven by strong public support for RE, emphasize the sense of community in urban and rural areas and the emergence of a bottom-up approach to adopt renewables. Thus, political economy frameworks on both the macro-economic (Regulation Theory) and micro-economic (Varieties of Capitalism theory) scales can together explain the strong commitment to RE in Germany vis-à-vis the weak commitment in Australia.

Keywords: political economy, regulation theory, renewable energy, social relationships, energy transitions

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Authors: Jean-François Pouilly

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This study addresses the growing complexity of embedded systems and the critical need for secure, reliable software. Traditional cybersecurity testing methods, often conducted late in the development cycle, struggle to keep pace. This talk explores how formal methods, integrated with advanced analysis tools, empower C/C++ developers to 1) Proactively address vulnerabilities and bugs, which includes formal methods and abstract interpretation techniques to identify potential weaknesses early in the development process, reducing the reliance on penetration and fuzz testing in later stages. 2) Streamline development by focusing on bugs that matter, with close to no false positives and catching flaws earlier, the need for rework and retesting is minimized, leading to faster development cycles, improved efficiency and cost savings. 3) Enhance software dependability which includes combining static analysis using abstract interpretation with full context sensitivity, with hardware memory awareness allows for a more comprehensive understanding of potential vulnerabilities, leading to more dependable and secure software. This approach aligns with industry best practices (ISO2626 or ISO 21434) and empowers C/C++ developers to deliver robust, secure embedded systems that meet the demands of today's and tomorrow's applications. We will illustrate this approach with the TrustInSoft analyzer to show how it accelerates verification for complex cases, reduces user fatigue, and improves developer efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and software cybersecurity. In summary, integrating formal methods and sound Analyzers enhances software reliability and cybersecurity, streamlining development in an increasingly complex environment.

Keywords: safety, cybersecurity, ISO26262, ISO24434, formal methods

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Authors: F. A. Olutoge, O.R. Olulope, M. O. Odelola

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This study investigates the strength potentials of groundnut husk ash as partial cement replacement in mortar and also develops a predictive model using Artificial Neural Network. Groundnut husks sourced from Ogbomoso, Nigeria, was sun dried, calcined to ash in a furnace at a controlled temperature of 600⁰ C for a period of 6 hours, and sieved through the 75 microns. The ash was subjected to chemical analysis and setting time test. Fine aggregate (sand) for the mortar was sourced from Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. The cement: GHA constituents were blended in ratios 100:0, 95:5, 90:10, 85:15 and 80:20 %. The sum of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃ content in GHA is 26.98%. The compressive strength for mortars PC, GHA5, GHA10, GHA15, and GHA20 ranged from 6.3-10.2 N/mm² at 7days, 7.5-12.3 N/mm² at 14 days, 9.31-13.7 N/mm² at 28 days, 10.4-16.7 N/mm² at 56days and 13.35- 22.3 N/mm² at 90 days respectively, PC, GHA5 and GHA10 had competitive values up to 28 days, but GHA10 gave the highest values at 56 and 90 days while GHA20 had the lowest values at all ages due to dilution effect. Flexural strengths values at 28 days ranged from 1.08 to 1.87 N/mm² and increased to a range of 1.53-4.10 N/mm² at 90 days. The ANN model gave good prediction for compressive strength of the mortars. This study has shown that groundnut husk ash as partial cement replacement improves the strength properties of mortar.

Keywords: compressive strength, groundnut husk ash, mortar, pozzolanic index

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Authors: Nazia Zaffar, Alam Khan, Abdul Haq, Malik Badshah

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Pakistan is an agricultural country. The increasing population leads to an increase in demand for food. A large number of crops are infected by different microbes, and nutrient deficiency of soil adversely affects the yield of crops. Furthermore, the use of chemical fertilizers like Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium (NPK) Urea, and Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and pesticides have environmental consequences. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore alternative renewable and sustainable biofertilizers. Maize is one of the top growing crops in Pakistan, but it has low yield compared to other countries due to deficiency of organic matter, widespread nutrients deficiency (phosphorus and nitrogen), unbalanced use of fertilizers and various fungal diseases. In order to get rid of all these disadvantages, Digestate emerged as a win-win opportunity for the control of a few plant diseases and a replacement for the chemical fertilizers. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of Anerobic digestate on Antifungal Activity and in different parameters of Maize. The antifungal activity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) against selected phytopathogens (Colletotrichum coccodis, Pythium ultimum, Phytophthora capsci, Rhizoctonia solani, Bipolaris oryzae and Fusarium Fujikuroi) were determined by microtiter plate method. The effect of various fertilizers in different growth parameters height, diameter, chlorophyll, leaf area, biomass, and yield were studied in field experiments. The extracts from anaerobic digestate have shown antifungal activity against selected phytopathogens, the highest activity was noted against P. ultimum, the MIC activity was high in case of P. ultimum and B. oryzae. The present study concludes that anaerobic digestate have a positive effect on maize growth and yield as well as an antifungal activity which can be potentially a good biofertilizer.

Keywords: anaerobic digestate, antifungal activity, MIC, phytopathogens

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Authors: Jasna Prester, Ivana Rašić Bakarić, Božidar Matijević

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Various prominent scholars and substantial practitioner-oriented literature on innovation orientation have shown positive effects on firm performance. There is a myriad of factors that influence and enhance innovation but it has been found in the literature that new product innovations accounted for an average of 14 percent of sales revenues for all firms. If there is one thing that has changed in innovation management during the last decade, it is the growing reliance on external partners. As a consequence, a new task for purchasing arises, as firms need to understand which suppliers actually do have high potential contributing to the innovativeness of the firm and which do not. Purchasing function in an organization is extremely important as it deals on an average of 50% or more of a firm's expenditures. In the nineties the purchasing department was largely seen as a transaction-oriented, clerical function but today purchasing integration provides a formal interface mechanism between purchasing and other firm functions that services other functions within the company. Purchasing function has to be organized differently to enable firm innovation potential. However, innovations are inherently risky. There are behavioral risk (that some partner will take advantage of the other party), technological risk in terms of complexity of products and processes of manufacturing and incoming materials and finally market risks, which in fact judge the value of the innovation. These risks are investigated in this work since it has been found in the literature that the higher the technological risk, higher will be the centralization of the purchasing function as an interface with other supply chain members. Most researches on organization of purchasing function were done by case study analysis of innovative firms. This work actually tends to prove or discard results found in the literature based on case study method. A large data set of 1493 companies, from 25 countries collected in the GMRG 4 survey served as a basis for analysis.

Keywords: purchasing function organization, innovation, technological risk, GMRG 4 survey

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Authors: Haroon Mahmood, Christopher Gan, Cuong Nguyen

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Maturity transformation risk is highlighted as one of the major causes of recent global financial crisis. Basel III has proposed new liquidity regulations for transformation function of banks and hence to monitor this risk. Specifically, net stable funding ratio (NSFR) is introduced to enhance medium- and long-term resilience against liquidity shocks. Islamic banking is widely accepted in many parts of the world and contributes to a significant portion of the financial sector in many countries. Using a dataset of 68 fully fledged Islamic banks from 11 different countries, over a period from 2005 – 2014, this study has attempted to analyze various factors that may significantly affect the maturity transformation risk in these banks. We utilize 2-step system GMM estimation technique on unbalanced panel and find bank capital, credit risk, financing, size and market power are most significant among the bank specific factors. Also, gross domestic product and inflation are the significant macro-economic factors influencing this risk. However, bank profitability, asset efficiency, and income diversity are found insignificant in determining the maturity transformation risk in Islamic banking model.

Keywords: Basel III, Islamic banking, maturity transformation risk, net stable funding ratio

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Authors: Sireen Irsheid

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Despite concerted efforts to improve education attainment with progress in recent years, student achievement and attainment remain among the most significant challenges for school districts across the United States. Many scholars have argued that students who do not complete high school do not drop out of school voluntarily but are ‘pushed out’ of schools through multiple mechanisms related to structural and socioeconomic barriers, behavioral health challenges, pedagogical practices, and administrative procedures. Extant literature has shown that living in historically disadvantaged neighborhoods or attending under-resourced schools exacerbates student-level risk factors for grade retention and school pushout. Most efforts to respond to the school pushout phenomenon have focused on individual characteristics of students, with relatively little attention to addressing these multiple system-level characteristics related to perpetuating inequities. This study is built on a growing body of social justice-oriented research concerned with the systemic influences that shape the experiences and mental health challenges of young people. Specifically, this study examined how young people who have been experiencing education inequities make meaning and navigate the structural factors related to neighborhood and school disinvestment and access to resources and supports, and their risk for school pushout. Furthermore, schools as political, cultural, and ideologically reproductive spaces often serve as sites of resistance and can support students who are impacted by educational inequity. Study findings provide education, neighborhood, school psychology, social work practice, and policy considerations.

Keywords: education policy, mental health, school prison nexus, school pushout, structural trauma

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Authors: H. Mashhady, H. A. Manzoori, M. Doosti, M. Fatollahi

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This study reports a descriptive research in the form of a genre analysis of postgraduates' theses and dissertations at three Iranian universities, including Ferdowsi, Tehran, and Tarbiat Moddares universities. The researchers sought to depict the generic structure of “statement of the problem” section of PhD dissertations and MA theses. Moreover, researchers desired to find any probable variety based on the year the dissertations belonged, to see weather genre-consciousness developed among Iranian postgraduates. To obtain data, “statement of the problem” section of 90 Ph.D. dissertations and MA theses from 2001 to 2013 in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at above-mentioned universities was selected. Frequency counts was employed for the quantitative method of data analysis, while genre analysis was used as the qualitative method. Inter-rater reliability was found to be about 0.93. Results revealed that students in different degrees at each of these universities used various generic structures for writing “statement of the problem”. Moreover, comparison of different time periods (2001-2006, and 2007-2013) revealed that postgraduates in the second time period, regardless of their degree and university, employed more similar generic structures which can be optimistically attributed to a general raise in genre awareness.

Keywords: genre, genre analysis, Ph.D. and MA dissertations, statement of the problem, generic structure

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Authors: Santosh Tummidi, Pragati Sathe, Kanchan Kothari, Prachi Gholap, Mona Agnihotri, Gwendolyn Fernandes, Leena Naik, Rachana Chaturvedi

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Introduction: EUS-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration/Brush (EUS-FNA/Brush) has become increasingly popular for the diagnosis and staging of gastrointestinal and peri-gastrointestinal lesions. Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and spectrum of lesions in gastrointestinal EUS-FNA. Material and Methods: A total of 124 EUS-FNA during the period from Aug 2015-Nov 2016 were studied. Results: Age ranged from 13-80 years with a slight female predominance. CBD was the most common site with 47 cases amongst which were 9 adenocarcinoma, and 7 cases were suspicious for malignancy. Pancreatic EUS-FNA showed 5 adenocarcinoma, 2 SPEN, 1 case each of neuroendocrine tumor, anaplastic carcinoma and NHL. Amongst oesophageal lesions, 3 cases were suspicious for malignancy, and 4 were inflammatory, 4 showed SCC, 1case each adenocarcinoma and leiomyoma. Stomach- 1 case each of adenocarcinoma, granulomatous inflammation, and GIST. Periportal lymph nodes were the commonest nodes, and there were 11 necrotising granulomatous inflammations, 3 metastatic adenocarcinoma, 2 cases of atypical cells and 1 case of NHL. 17 cases were unsatisfactory, 41 cases had histopathology follow up with 85% cases being concordant. Conclusion: EUS-FNA is reliable, sensitive and specific. It can be utilized for better management of intra-abdominal lesions.

Keywords: EUS-FNA, brush, cytology, histopathology

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Authors: Soumya Pugal

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The traditional lake system of an ancient town is a network of water holding blue spaces, erected further than 2000 years ago by the rulers of ancient cities and maintained for centuries by the original communities. These blue spaces form a micro-watershed wherein an individual tank has its own catchment, tank bed area, and command area. These lakes are connected by a common sluice from the upstream tank, thereby feeding the downstream tank. The lakes used to be of socio-economic significance in those times, but the rapid growth of the city, as well as the change in systems of ownership of the lakes, have turned them into the backyard of urban development. Madurai is one such historic city to be facing the issues of finding a balance to the social, ecological, and profitable requirements of the people with respect to the traditional lake system. To find a solution to problems caused by the neglect of vital ecological systems of a city, the theory of transformative placemaking through water sensitive urban design has been explored. This approach re-invents the relationship between the people and the urban lakes to suit the modern aspirations while respecting the environment. The thesis aims to develop strategies to guide the development along the major urban lake of Vandiyur to equip the lake to meet the growing requirements of the megacity in terms of its recreational requirements and give a renewed connection between people and water. The intent of the design is to understand the ecological and social structures of the lake and find ways to use the lake to produce social cohesion within the community and balance the city's profitable and ecological requirements by using transformative placemaking through water sensitive urban design..

Keywords: urban lakes, urban blue spaces, placemaking, revitalisation of lakes, urban cohesion

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Authors: Mary-Ann N. Jallad, Dalal F. Jaber, Alexander M. Abdelnoor

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Introduction: Current evidence confirms that both innate and adaptive immune systems are capable of recognizing and abolishing malignant cells. The emergence of cancerous tumors in patients is, therefore, an indication that certain cancer cells can resist elimination by the immune system through a process known as “immune evasion”. In fact, cancer cells often exploit regulatory mechanisms to escape immunity. Such mechanisms normally exist to control the immune responses and prohibit exaggerated or autoimmune reactions. Recently, immunotherapies have shown promising yet limited results. Therefore this study investigates several immunotherapeutic combinations and devises a triple immunotherapy which harnesses the innate and acquired immune responses towards the annihilation of malignant cells through overcoming their ability of immune evasion, consequently hampering malignant progression and eliminating established tumors. The aims of the study are to rule out acute/chronic toxic effects of the proposed treatment combinations, to assess the effect of these combinations on tumor growth and survival rates, and to investigate potential mechanisms underlying the phenotypic results through analyzing serum levels of anti-tumor cytokines, angiogenic factors and tumor progression indicator, and the tumor-infiltrating immune-cells populations. Methodology: For toxicity analysis, cancer-free C57BL/6 mice are randomized into 9 groups: Group 1 untreated, group 2 treated with sterile saline (solvent of used treatments), group 3 treated with Monophosphoryl-lipid-A, group 4 with anti-CTLA4-antibodies, group 5 with 1-Methyl-Tryptophan (Indolamine-Dioxygenase-1 inhibitor), group 6 with both MPLA and anti-CTLA4-antibodies, group 7 with both MPLA and 1-MT, group 8 with both anti-CTLA4-antibodies and 1-MT, and group 9 with all three: MPLA, anti-CTLA4-antibodies and 1-MT. Mice are monitored throughout the treatment period and for three following months. At that point, histological sections from their main organs are assessed. For tumor progression and survival analysis, a murine melanoma model is generated by injecting analogous mice with B16F10 melanoma cells. These mice are segregated into the listed nine groups. Their tumor size and survival are monitored. For a depiction of underlying mechanisms, melanoma-bearing mice from each group are sacrificed at several time-points. Sera are tested to assess the levels of Interleukin-12 (IL-12), Vascular-Endothelial-Growth Factor (VEGF), and S100B. Furthermore, tumors are excised for analysis of infiltrated immune cell populations including T-cells, macrophages, natural killer cells and immune-regulatory cells. Results: Toxicity analysis shows that all treated groups present no signs of neither acute nor chronic toxicity. Their appearance and weights were comparable to those of control groups throughout the treatment period and for the following 3 months. Moreover, histological sections from their hearts, kidneys, lungs, and livers were normal. Work is ongoing for completion of the remaining study aims. Conclusion: Toxicity was the major concern for the success of the proposed comprehensive combinational therapy. Data generated so far ruled out any acute or chronic toxic effects. Consequently, ongoing work is quite promising and may significantly contribute to the development of more effective immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer patients.

Keywords: cancer immunotherapy, check-point blockade, combination therapy, melanoma

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Authors: Musadiq Idris, Sajjad Ali, Syed A. Khaliq, Umer Farooq

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Postmortem record of 217 captive ungulates including Black-buck (n=31), Chinkara (n=20), Hog deer (n=116), Spotted deer (n=35), Red Deer n=(04), and Rusa deer (n=11) submitted to the Veterinary Research Institute, Lahore, Pakistan was analyzed to determine the primary cause of mortality in these animals. The submissions included temporal distribution from Government wildlife captive farms, zoo, and private ownerships, over a three year period (2007-2009). The most common cause of death was found to be trauma (20.27%), followed by parasitic diseases (15.67%), bacterial diseases (11.98%), stillbirths (9.21%), snakebites (2.76%), gut affections (2.30%), neoplasia (1.38%) and starvation (0.92%). The exact cause of death could not be determined in 77 of 217 animals. Pneumonia (8.29%) and tuberculosis (3.69%) were the most common bacterial diseases. Analyses for parasitic infestation revealed tapeworms to be highest (11.05%), followed by roundworms (8.29%) and hemoparasitism (5.07%) (babesiosis and theileriosis). The mortality rate in young ungulates was lower as compared to adults (32.26% and 67.74%). Gender wise data presented higher mortality in females (55.30%) compared to males (44.70%). In conclusion, highest mortality factor in captive ungulates was trauma, followed by parasitic and bacterial infestations/infections of tapeworms and pneumonia, respectively. Furthermore, necropsies provided substantial information on etiology of death and other related epidemiological aspects.

Keywords: age, epidemiology, gender, mortality, ungulates

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Authors: PB Venkataraman

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Most of the real-life problems are ill-structured. They do not have a single solution but many competing solutions. The solution paths are non-linear and ambiguous, and the problem definition itself is many times a challenge. Students of professional education learn to solve such problems through internships. The current pandemic situation has constrained on-site internship opportunities; thus the students have no option but to pursue this learning online. This research assessed the learning gain of four undergraduate students in engineering as they undertook an online internship in an organisation over a period of eight weeks. A clinical interview at the end of the internship provided the primary data to assess the team’s problem-solving skills using a tested rubric. In addition to this, change in their learning attitudes were assessed through a pre-post study using a repurposed CLASS instrument for Electrical Engineering. Analysis of CLASS data indicated a shift in the sophistication of their learning attitude. A learning engagement survey adopting a 6-point Likert scale showed active participation and motivation in learning. We hope this new research will stimulate educators to exploit online internships even beyond the time of pandemic as more and more business operations are transforming into virtual.

Keywords: ill-structured problems, learning attitudes, internship, assessment, student engagement

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