Search results for: region planning

Authors: Bandar Alahmadi, Lethia Jackson

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Machine Learning model is used today in many real-life applications. The safety and security of such model is important, so the results of the model are as accurate as possible. One challenge of machine learning model security is the adversarial examples attack. Adversarial examples are designed by the attacker to cause the machine learning model to misclassify the input. We propose a method to generate adversarial examples to attack image classifiers. We are modifying the successfully classified images, so a classifier misclassifies them after the modification. In our method, we do not update the whole image, but instead we detect the important region, modify it, place it back to the original image, and then run it through a classifier. The algorithm modifies the detected region using two methods. First, it will add abstract image matrix on back of the detected image matrix. Then, it will perform a rotation attack to rotate the detected region around its axes, and embed the trace of image in image background. Finally, the attacked region is placed in its original position, from where it was removed, and a smoothing filter is applied to smooth the background with foreground. We test our method in cascade classifier, and the algorithm is efficient, the classifier confident has dropped to almost zero. We also try it in CNN (Convolutional neural network) with higher setting and the algorithm was successfully worked.

Keywords: adversarial examples, attack, computer vision, image processing

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Authors: Jim S. Meng, Mammo H. Yewondwossen

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As a part of routine oesophageal HDR brachytherapy procedure, treatment planning takes about 45 minutes while patients are under light sedation. Some patients may suffer gagging and/or spasms, and the treatment may need to be aborted. A pre-prepared plan generated before the patient’s sedation may reduce the brachytherapy procedure time by forty minutes. This paper reports the rationality and evidence of pre-prepared treatment plans. A retrospective study of 28 patients confirm that all of the pre-prepared plans would be acceptable. The rationality of pre-prepared HDR brachytherapy plans is further confirmed by a systemic study with a wide range of applicator curvature and treatment volume. Detailed comparison between CT based treatment plans and pre-prepared plans are discussed. This argument holds also for endobronchial HDR brachytherapy. With the above evidence, pre-prepared plans have been used for all oesophagus and bronchus HDR brachytherapy cases in our clinic.

Keywords: HDR brachytherapy, treatment planning, oesophageal carcinoma, pre-planning

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Authors: Rafla Attia, Claudio Zucca, Bao Quang Le, Sana Dridi, Thouraya Sahli, Taoufik Hermassi

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In Tunisia, landscape change and land degradation are critical issues for landscape conservation, management, and planning. Landscapes are undergoing crucial environmental problems made evident by soil degradation and desertification. Human improper uses of land resources (e.g., unsuitable land uses, unsustainable crop intensification, and poor rangeland management) and climate change are the main factors leading to the landscape transformation and desertification affecting high proportions of the Tunisian lands. Land use planning (LUP) to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) must be supported by methodologies and technologies that help identify best solutions and practices and design context-specific sustainable land management (SLM) strategies. Such strategies must include restoration or rehabilitation efforts in areas with high land degradation, as well as prevention of degradation that could be caused by improper land use (LU) and land management (LM). The geoinformatics Land Use Planning for LDN (LUP4LDN) tool has been designed for this purpose. Its aim is to support national and sub-national planners in i) mapping geographic patterns of current land degradation; ii) anticipating further future land degradation expected in areas that are unsustainably managed; and iii) providing an interactive procedure for developing participatory LU-LM transitional scenarios over selected regions of interest and timeframes, visualizing the related expected levels of impacts on ecosystem services via maps and graphs. The tool has been co-developed and piloted with national stakeholders in Tunisia. The piloting implementation assessed how the LUP4LDN tool fits with existing LUP processes and the benefits achieved by using the tool to support land use planning for LDN.

Keywords: land use system, land cover, sustainable land management, land use planning for land degradation neutrality

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Authors: Mohamed Bualhamam

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Due to the complex nature of tourism resources of the Northern part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the potential of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) in resolving these issues was used. The study was an attempt to use existing GIS data layers to identify sensitive natural environment and archaeological heritage resources that may be threatened by increased urban growth and give some specific recommendations to protect the area. By identifying sensitive natural environment and archaeological heritage resources, public agencies and citizens are in a better position to successfully protect important natural lands and direct growth away from environmentally sensitive areas. The paper concludes that applications of GIS and RS in study of urban growth impact in tourism resources are a strong and effective tool that can aid in tourism planning and decision-making. The study area is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. The increase in population along the region, as well as rapid growth of towns, has increased the threat to natural resources and archeological sites. Satellite remote sensing data have been proven useful in assessing the natural resources and in monitoring the changes. The study used GIS and RS to identify sensitive natural environment and archaeological heritage resources that may be threatened by increased urban growth. The result of GIS analyses shows that the Northern part of the UAE has variety for tourism resources, which can use for future tourism development. Rapid urban development in the form of small towns and different economic activities are showing in different places in the study area. The urban development extended out of old towns and have negative affected of sensitive tourism resources in some areas. Tourism resources for the Northern part of the UAE is a highly complex resources, and thus requires tools that aid in effective decision making to come to terms with the competing economic, social, and environmental demands of sustainable development. The UAE government should prepare a tourism databases and a GIS system, so that planners can be accessed for archaeological heritage information as part of development planning processes. Applications of GIS in urban planning, tourism and recreation planning illustrate that GIS is a strong and effective tool that can aid in tourism planning and decision- making. The power of GIS lies not only in the ability to visualize spatial relationships, but also beyond the space to a holistic view of the world with its many interconnected components and complex relationships. The worst of the damage could have been avoided by recognizing suitable limits and adhering to some simple environmental guidelines and standards will successfully develop tourism in sustainable manner. By identifying sensitive natural environment and archaeological heritage resources of the Northern part of the UAE, public agencies and private citizens are in a better position to successfully protect important natural lands and direct growth away from environmentally sensitive areas.

Keywords: GIS, natural environment, UAE, urban growth

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Authors: Markus Heck, Hans Vettiger

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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are the backbone of central Europe’s economies and have a significant contribution to the gross domestic product. Production planning and scheduling (PPS) is still a crucial element in manufacturing industries of the 21st century even though this area of research is more than a century old. The topic of PPS is well researched especially in the context of large enterprises in the manufacturing industry. However, the implementation of PPS methodologies within SME is mostly unobserved. This work analyzes how PPS is implemented in SME with the geographical focus on Switzerland and its vicinity. Based on restricted resources compared to large enterprises, SME have to face different challenges. The real problem areas of selected enterprises in regards of PPS are identified and evaluated. For the identified real-life problem areas of SME clear and detailed recommendations are created, covering concepts and best practices and the efficient usage of PPS. Furthermore, the economic and entrepreneurial value for companies is lined out and why the implementation of the introduced recommendations is advised.

Keywords: central Europe, PPS, production planning, SME

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Authors: Hisham Mortada

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Transition in the urban configuration of Arab cities has never been as radical and visible as it has been since the turn of the last century. The emergence of new cities near historical settlements of Arabia has spawned a series of developments in and around the old city precincts. New developments are based on advanced technology and conform to globally prevalent standards of city planning, superseding the vernacular arrangements based on traditional norms that guided so-called ‘city planning’. Evidence to this fact are the extant Arab buildings present at the urban core of modern cities, which inform us about intricate spatial organization. Organization that subscribed to multiple norms such as, satisfying gender segregation and socialization, economic sustainability, and ensuring security and environmental coherence etc., within settlement compounds. Several participating factors achieved harmony in such an inclusive city—an organization that was challenged and apparently replaced by the new planning order in the face of growing needs of globalized, economy-centric and high-tech models of development. Communities found it difficult to acclimatize with the new western planning models that were implemented at a very large scale throughout the Kingdom, which later experienced spatial re-structuring to suit users’ needs. A closer look the ancient city of Yanbu, now flanked with such new developments, allows us to differentiate and track the beginnings of this unprecedented transition in settlement formations. This paper aims to elaborate the Arabian context offered to both the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ planning approaches, in order to understand challenges and solutions offered by both at different times. In the process it will also establish the inconsistencies and conflicts that arose with the shift in planning paradigm, from traditional-'cultural norms’, to modern-'physical planning', in the Arabian context. Thus, by distinguishing the two divergent planning philosophies, their impact of the Arabian morphology, relevance to lifestyle and suitability to the biophysical environment, it concludes with a perspective on sustainability particularly for in case of Yanbu.

Keywords: Yanbu, traditional architecture, Hijaz, coral building, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Christine Winberg, James Garraway

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Many key university documents, such as vision and mission statements and strategic plans, are aspirational and future-oriented. There is a wide range of future-oriented methods that are used in planning applications, ranging from mathematical modelling to expert opinions. Many of these methods have limitations, and planners using these tools might, for example, make the technical-rational assumption that their plans will unfold in a logical and inevitable fashion, thus underestimating the many complex forces that are at play in planning for an unknown future. This is the issue that this study addresses. The overall project aim was to assist a new university of technology in developing appropriate responses to its social responsibility, graduate employability and research missions in its strategic plan. The specific research question guiding the research activities and approach was: how might the use of innovative future-oriented planning tools enable or constrain a strategic planning process? The research objective was to engage collaborating groups in the use of an innovative tool to develop and assess future scenarios, for the purpose of developing deeper understandings of possible futures and their challenges. The scenario planning tool chosen was ‘fictive scripting’, an analytical technique derived from Technology Forecasting and Innovation Studies. Fictive scripts are future projections that also take into account the present shape of the world and current developments. The process thus began with a critical diagnosis of the present, highlighting its tensions and frictions. The collaborative groups then developed fictive scripts, each group producing a future scenario that foregrounded different institutional missions, their implications and possible consequences. The scripts were analyzed with a view to identifying their potential contribution to the university’s strategic planning exercise. The unfolding fictive scripts revealed a number of insights in terms of unexpected benefits, unexpected challenges, and unexpected consequences. These insights were not evident in previous strategic planning exercises. The contribution that this study offers is to show how better choices can be made and potential pitfalls avoided through a systematic foresight exercise. When universities develop strategic planning documents, they are looking into the future. In this paper it is argued that the use of appropriate tools for future-oriented exercises, can help planners to understand more fully what achieving desired outcomes might entail, what challenges might be encountered, and what unexpected consequences might ensue.

Keywords: fictive scripts, scenarios, strategic planning, technological forecasting

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Authors: P. H. Mukti, I. Kurniawati, F. Oktaviansyah, A. D. Adhitya, N. Rachmadani, R. Corputty, G. Hendrantoro, T. Fukusako

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HF Communication system is one of the attractive fields among many researchers since it can be reached long-distance areas with low-cost. This long-distance communication can be achieved by exploiting the ionosphere as a transmission medium for the HF radio wave. However, due to the dynamic nature of ionosphere, the channel characteristic of HF communication has to be investigated in order to gives better performances. Many techniques to characterize HF channel are available in the literature. However, none of those techniques describe the HF channel characteristic in low-latitude regions, especially equatorial areas. Since the ionosphere around equatorial region has an ESF phenomenon, it becomes an important investigation to characterize the wideband HF Channel in low-latitude region. On the other sides, the appearance of software-defined radio attracts the interest of many researchers. Accordingly, in this paper a SDR-based channel measurement system is proposed to be used for characterizing the HF channel in low-latitude region.

Keywords: channel characteristic, HF communication system, LabVIEW, software-defined radio, universal software radio peripheral

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Authors: Ana Maria G. Sperandio, Murilo U. Malek-Zadeh, João Luiz de S. Areas, Jussara C. Guarnieri

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Intersectoral governance is a requirement for developing healthy cities. However, this achievement is difficult to be succeeded, especially in regions at low resources condition. Therefore, it was developed a cheap investigative procedure to diagnose sectoral wishes related to urban planning and health promotion. This procedure is composed of two phases, which can be applied to different groups in order to compare the results. The first phase is a conversation guided by a list of questions. Some of those questions aim to gather information about how individuals understand concepts such as healthy city or a health promotion and what they believe that constitutes the relation between urban planning and urban health. Other questions investigate local issues, and how citizens would like to promote dialogue between sectors. At second phase individuals stand around the investigated city (or city region) map and are asked to represent their wishes on it. They can represent it by writing text notations or inserting icons on it, with the latter representing a city element, for example, some trees, a square, a playground, a hospital, a cycle track. After groups had represented their wishes, the map can be photographed, and then the results from distinct groups can be compared. This procedure was conducted at a small city in Brazil (Holambra), in 2017 which is the first out of four years of the mayor’s term. The prefecture asked for this tool in order to make Holambra become a city of Potential Healthy Municipalities Network in Brazil. Two sectors were investigated: the government and the urban population. By the end of our investigation, the intersection from the group (i.e., population and government) maps was accounted for creating a map of common wishes. Therefore, the material produced can be used as a guide for promoting dialogue between sectors and as a tool of monitoring politics progress. The report of this procedure was directed to public managers, so they could see the common wishes between themselves and local populations, and use this tool as a guide for creating urban politics which intends to enhance health promotion and to develop a healthy city, even at low resources condition.

Keywords: governance, health promotion, intersectorality, urban planning

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Authors: Rayeheh Khatami, Toktam Hanaei, Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar

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The growth of the agricultural sector is known as an essential way to achieve development goals in developing countries. Urban agriculture is a way to reduce the vulnerability of urban populations of the world toward global environmental change. It is a sustainable and efficient system to respond to the environmental, social and economic needs of the city, which leads to urban sustainability. Today, many local and national governments are developing urban agriculture as an effective tool in responding to challenges such as poverty, food security, and environmental problems. In this study, we follow a perspective based on urban agriculture literature in order to indicate the urban agriculture’s benefits in environmental planning strategies in non-western countries like Iran. The methodological approach adopted is based on qualitative approach and documentary studies. A total of 35 articles (mixed quantitative and qualitative methods studies) were studied in final analysis, which are published in relevant journals that focus on this subject. Studies show the wide range of positive benefits of urban agriculture on food security, nutrition outcomes, health outcomes, environmental outcomes, and social capital. However, there was no definitive conclusion about the negative effects of urban agriculture. This paper provides a conceptual and theoretical basis to know about urban agriculture and its roles in environmental planning, and also conclude the benefits of urban agriculture for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who seek to create spaces in cities for implementation urban agriculture in future.

Keywords: urban agriculture, environmental planning, urban planning, literature

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Authors: Akinnubi Rufus Temidayo

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Coastal West Africa is highly sensitive to climate variability, driven by complex ocean-atmosphere interactions that shape temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather. Radiative feedback mechanisms—such as water vapor feedback, cloud-radiation interactions, and surface albedo—play a critical role in modulating these patterns. Yet, limited research addresses these feedbacks in climate models specific to West Africa’s coastal zones, creating challenges for accurate climate projections and adaptive planning. This study aims to evaluate the influence of radiative feedbacks on the coastal climate of West Africa by quantifying the effects of water vapor, cloud cover, and sea surface temperature (SST) on the region’s radiative balance. The study uses a regional climate model (RCM) to simulate feedbacks over a 20-year period (2005-2025) with high-resolution data from CORDEX and satellite observations. Key mechanisms investigated include (1) Water Vapor Feedback—the amplifying effect of humidity on warming, (2) Cloud-Radiation Interactions—the impact of cloud cover on radiation balance, especially during the West African Monsoon, and (3) Surface Albedo and Land-Use Changes—effects of urbanization and vegetation on the radiation budget. Preliminary results indicate that radiative feedbacks strongly influence seasonal climate variability in coastal West Africa. Water vapor feedback amplifies dry-season warming, cloud-radiation interactions moderate surface temperatures during monsoon seasons, and SST variations in the Atlantic affect the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events. The findings suggest that incorporating these feedbacks into climate planning can strengthen resilience to climate impacts in West African coastal communities. Further research should refine regional models to capture anthropogenic influences like greenhouse gas emissions, guiding sustainable urban and resource planning to mitigate climate risks.

Keywords: west africa, radiative, climate, resilence, anthropogenic

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Authors: Ngoc Thao Linh Dang

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Urban waterfront redevelopment is a global phenomenon, and thousands of schemes are being carried out in large metropoles, medium-sized cities, and even small towns all over the world. This opportunity brings the city back to the river and rediscovers waterfront revitalization as a unique opportunity for cities to reconnect with their unique historical and cultural image. The redevelopment can encourage economic investments, serve as a social platform for public interactions, and allow dwellers to express their rights to the city. Many coastal cities have effectively transformed the perception of their waterfront area through years of redevelopment initiatives, having been neglected for over a century. However, this process has never been easy due to the particular complexity of the space: local culture, history, and market-led development. Moreover, municipal governments work out the balance of diverse stakeholder interests, especially when repurposing high-profile and redundant spaces that form the core of urban economic investment while also accommodating the present and future generations in sustainable environments. Urban critics consistently grapple with the effectiveness of the planning process on the new waterfront, where public spaces are criticized for presenting a lack of opportunities for actual public participation due to privatization and authoritarian governance while no longer doing what they are ‘meant to’: all arise in reaction to the perceived failure of these places to meet expectations. The planning culture and the decision-making context determine the level of public involvement in the planning process; however, in the context of competing market forces and commercial interests dominating cities’ planning agendas, planning for public space in urban waterfronts tends to be for economic gain rather than supporting residents' social needs. These newly pleasing settings satisfied the cluster of middle-class individuals, new communities living along the waterfront, and tourists. A trend of public participatory exclusion is primarily determined by the nature of the planning being undertaken and the decision-making context in which it is embedded. Starting from this context, the research investigates the influence of planning on waterfront regeneration and the role of participation in this process. The research aims to look specifically at the characteristics of the planning process of the waterfront in Da Nang and its impact on the regeneration of the place to regain the city’s historical value and enhance local cultural identity and images. Vietnam runs a top-down planning system where municipal governments have control or power over what happens in their city following the approved planning from the national government. The community has never been excluded from development; however, their participation is still marginalized. In order to ensure social equality, a proposed approach called "bottom-up" should be considered and implemented alongside the traditional "top-down" process and provide a balance of perspectives, as it allows for the voices of the most underprivileged social group involved in a planning project to be heard, rather than ignored. The research provides new insights into the influence of the planning process on the waterfront regeneration in the context of Da Nang.

Keywords: planning process, public participation, top-down planning, waterfront regeneration

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Authors: Talib Jan Abasindhi

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Democracy has reached almost every nuke & corner of the globe. It is well embedded in the political systems found in the majority of the countries in the world. Political parties, their manifestos, and programs are educating their people for better democracy and good governance, as well as service delivery in many countries around the globe. Although democracy in Pakistan by itself is in its infancy stage, yet, there is a region consisting of three districts (administrative units) lying in the North of the country where democracy is yet unknown to a wide range of population bounded into a series of mountains from Himalayan and Karakuram ranges. Political parties are struggling now to get their roots in the area while disrupting the traditional and tribal electoral system prevailing in the region. This paper will shed light on an interesting subject of casting lots for nomination as candidatures for general and local bodies’ elections in Kohistani region in Pakistan. The people of wisdom and knowledge in the modern world deem such societies as uncivilized where these practices are found. No one can believe it in today’s world, yet, this practice has been common in Kohistani region over the past many decades, and there have been many reasons for this too. Through this paper, we shall not only make others aware of the process and procedure practiced in casting the lots in elections in democratic Pakistan, but rather we shall also talk about its very basic reasons and suggestions as a solution for this menace to be eliminated.

Keywords: democracy, casting lots, governance, Kohistani region

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Authors: Mariana Durana Pinto, Thierry Aubry, Eduarda Vieira

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The Côa River is one of the tributaries of the Douro River, which in turn connects two Portuguese regions: Beira-Alta (Serra das Mesas, Sabugal) and Trás-os-Montes (Douro River, Vila Nova de Foz Côa). The river, which is approximately 140 kilometres in length, is surrounded by characteristic Northern-Estearn Portugal landscape. The dominant flora in the region includes olive and almond trees and vines, which provide habitat for a diverse range of native species. These include mammals such as the lynx and Iberian wolf, as well as birds of prey such as the Egyptian vulture and the griffon vulture. Additionally, herbivorous species such as red deer and roe deer also inhabit the region. However, the Vale Côa is inextricably linked with the rocky outcrops bearing the emblematic open-air Upper Palaeolithic rock art, indeed, it houses the world's largest collection of prehistoric open-air rock art, inscribed on the World Heritage list by UNESCO in 1998. From the initial discovery of the first engravings in 1991 to the present day, approximally 1,500 panels with rock art, mostly engravings and carving, but also some paintings, have been discovered, inventoried and recorded spanning from earlu Upper Paleolithic to the 20th century. The study and interpretation of the engravings and its geoarchaeological context, allow the construction of a chronological timeline of the human occupation and graphical production in this region. The area has been inhabited since the Early Palaeolithic, with human communities exploiting the diversity of the natural resources of the environment and adapting it to their needs. This led to the creation of an archaeological and historical cultural landscape.The region is currently inhabited by rural communities whose primary source of income is derived from agricultural activities, with a particular focus on olive oil and wine production, including the emblematic Vinho do Porto. Additionally, the region is distinguished by activities such as stone exploration and extraction (e.g. schist and granite quarries) and tourism. The latter has progressively assumed a role in the promotion and development of the region, primarily due to the engravings of the Côa Valley itself, as well as the Alto Douro Wine Region. Furthermore, this cultural landscape has been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. The aforementioned factors give rise to a series of challenges and issues pertaining to the management and safeguarding of rock art on a daily basis. These include: I) the management of conflicts between cultural heritage and economic activity (between Rock art and vineyards, both classified as World Heritage Sites); II) the management of land-use planning in areas where the engravings are located (since the areas with engravings are larger than those identified as buffer zones by UNESCO); III) the absence of the legal figure of an 'archaeological park' and the need to solve this issue; IV) the management of tourist pressure and unauthorised visits; and V) the management of vandalism (as a consequence of misinformation and denial).

Keywords: Douro and Côa Valleys, archaeological cultural landscapes, rock art, Douro wine, conservation challenges

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Authors: Timo Miebach, Kirsten Hoeper, Carolin Felix

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In times of competitive pressures and demographic change, hospitals have to reconsider their strategies as a company. Due to the fact, that operations are one of the main income and one of the primary cost drivers otherwise, a process-oriented approach and an efficient use of resources seems to be the right way for getting a consistent market position. Thus, the efficient operation room occupancy planning is an important cause variable for the success and continued the existence of these institutions. A high utilization of resources is essential. This means a very high, but nevertheless sensible capacity-oriented utilization of working systems that can be realized by avoiding downtimes and a thoughtful occupancy planning. This engineering approach should help hospitals to reach her break-even point. Firstly, the aim is to establish a strategy point, which can be used for the generation of a planned throughput time. Secondly, the operation planning and control should be facilitated and implemented accurately by the generation of time modules. More than 100,000 data records of the Hannover Medical School were analyzed. The data records contain information about the type of conducted operation, the duration of the individual process steps, and all other organizational-specific data such as an operating room. Based on the aforementioned data base, a generally valid model was developed by an analysis to define a strategy point which takes the conflict of capacity utilization and low overtime into account. Furthermore, time modules were generated in this work, which allows a simplified and flexible operation planning and control for the operation manager. By the time modules, it is possible to reduce a high average value of the idle times of the operation rooms. Furthermore, the potential is used to minimize the idle time spread.

Keywords: capacity, operating room, surgery planning and control, utilization

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Authors: S. Sundarasen, I. Ibrahim

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This study examines whether the legal origin of a country alters the association between corruption and corporate performance in the East Asia and South East Asia Region. A total of 18,286 companies from 14 countries in the East Asia and South East Asia Region are tested using Generalized Least Square (GLS) panel and pool data analysis with the cross-section being the income level. The data is further analyzed in terms of high income, upper middle income and low-income countries within the East and South Asia region. The empirical results indicate that legal origin positively moderates the relationship between a country’s corruption level and firm performance. As for the sub-analysis, legal origin positively moderates only in the high and upper middle-income countries. As for the low-income countries, no significance is documented in both the common and civil law.

Keywords: corruption, performance, legal origin, East Asia and South East Asia Region

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Authors: M. L. Gaol, I. W. Mudita

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Indonesia is well known as a country covered by lush tropical rain forests, but in fact, the northeastern part of the country, within the areas geologically known as Lesser Sunda, the dominant vegetation is tropical savanna. Lesser Sunda is a chain of islands located closer to Australia than to islands in the other parts of the country. Among those of islands in the chain which is closes to Australia, and thereby most strongly affected by the hot and dry Australian climate, is the island of Timor, the western part of which belongs to Indonesia and the eastern part is a sovereign state East Timor. Regardless of being the most dominant vegetation cover, tropical savanna in West Timor, especially its understory, is rarely investigated. This research was therefore carried out to investigate the structure, composition and diversity of the understory of this tropical savanna as the basis for looking at the possibility of introducing other spesieis for various purposes. For this research, 14 terrestrial communities representing major types of the existing savannas in West Timor was selected with aid of the most recently available satellite imagery. At each community, one stand of the size of 50 m x 50 m most likely representing the community was as the site of observation for the type of savanna under investigation. At each of the 14 communities, 20 plots of 1 m x 1 m in size was placed at random to identify understory species and to count the total number of individuals and to estimate the cover of each species. Based on such counts and estimation, the important value of each species was later calculated. The results of this research indicated that the understory of savanna in West Timor consisted of 73 understory species. Of this number of species, 18 species are grasses and 55 are non-grasses. Although lower than non-grass species, grass species indeed dominated the savanna as indicated by their number of individuals (65.33 vs 34.67%), species cover (57.80 vs 42.20%), and important value (123.15 vs 76.85). Of the 14 communities, the lowest density of grass was 13.50/m2 and the highest was 417.50/m2. Of 18 grass species found, all were commonly found as agricultural weeds, whereas of 55 non-grass, 10 species were commonly found as agricultural weeds, environmental weeds, or invasive species. In terms of better managing the savanna in the region, these findings provided the basis for planning a more integrated approach in managing such agricultural and environmental weeds as well as invasive species by considering the structure, composition, and species diversity of the understory species existing in each site. These findings also provided the basis for better understanding the flora of the region as a whole and for developing a flora database of West Timor in future.

Keywords: tropical savanna, understory species, integrated management, weedy and invasive species

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Authors: Vladimir Klepikov

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Countries of Central and Southern Europe have a typical feature: oil consumption in the region exceeds own commodity production capacity by far. So crude oil import prevails in the region’s crude oil consumption structure. Transportation using marine and pipeline transport is a common method of the imported oil delivery in the region. For certain refineries, in addition to possible transportation by oil pipelines from seaports, oil is delivered from Russian oil fields. With the view to these specific features and geographic location of the region’s refineries, three ways of imported oil delivery can be singled out: oil delivery by tankers to the port and subsequent transportation by pipeline transport of the port and the refinery; oil delivery by tanker fleet to the port and subsequent transportation by oil trunk pipeline transport; oil delivery from the fields by oil trunk pipelines to refineries. Oil is also delivered by road, internal water, and rail transport. However, the volumes transported this way are negligible in comparison to the three above transportation means. Multimodal oil transportation to refineries using the pipeline and marine transport is one of the biggest cargo flows worldwide. However, in scientific publications this problem is considered mainly for certain modes of transport. Therefore, this study is topical. To elaborate an efficient transportation policy of crude oil supply to Central and Southern Europe, in this paper the geographic concentration of oil refineries was determined and the capacities of the region’s refineries were assessed. The quantitative analysis method is used as a tool. The port infrastructure and the oil trunk pipeline system capacity were assessed in terms of delivery of raw materials to the refineries. The main groups of oil consuming countries were determined. The trends of crude oil production in the region were reviewed. The changes in production capacities and volumes at refineries in the last decade were shown. Based on the revealed refining trends, the scope of possible crude oil supplies to the refineries of the region under review was forecast. The existing transport infrastructure is able to handle the increased oil flow.

Keywords: European region, infrastructure, oil terminal capacity, pipeline capacity, refinery capacity, tanker draft

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Authors: Amanda Kenny, Virginia Dickson-Swift, Jane Farmer, Sarah Larkins, Karen Carlisle, Helen Hickson

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Rural ECOH (Engaging Communities in Oral Health) is a collaborative project that connects policy makers, service providers and community members. The aim of the project is to empower community members to determine what is important for their community and to design the services that they need. This three-year project is currently underway in six rural communities across Australia. This study is specifically focused on Remote Services Futures (RSF), an evidence-based method of community participation that was developed in Scotland. The findings highlight the complexities of community participation in health service planning. We assumed that people living in rural communities would welcome participation in oral health planning and engage with their community to discuss these issues. We found that to understand the relationships between community members and health service providers, it was essential to identify the formal and informal community leaders and to engage stakeholders from the various community governance structures. Our study highlights the sometimes ‘messiness’ of decision making in rural communities as well as ways to ensure that community members have the training and practical skills necessary to participate in community decision making.

Keywords: community participation, health planning, rural ECOH, Remote Services Futures

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Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Jian-Hong Hou

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Industry 4.0 is a vision of integrated industry implemented by artificial intelligent computing, software, and Internet technologies. The main goal of industry 4.0 is to deal with the difficulty owing to competitive pressures in the marketplace. For today’s manufacturing factories, the type of production is changed from mass production (high quantity production with low product variety) to medium quantity-high variety production. To offer flexibility, better quality control, and improved productivity, robot manipulators are used to combine material processing, material handling, and part positioning systems into an integrated manufacturing system. To implement the automated system for sheet metal bending operations, motion planning of a 7-degrees of freedom (DOF) robot is studied in this paper. A virtual reality (VR) environment of a bending cell, which consists of the robot and a bending machine, is established using the virtual robot experimentation platform (V-REP) simulator. For sheet metal bending operations, the robot only needs six DOFs for the pick-and-place or tracking tasks. Therefore, this 7 DOF robot has more DOFs than the required to execute a specified task; it can be called a redundant robot. Therefore, this robot has kinematic redundancies to deal with the task-priority problems. For redundant robots, Pseudo-inverse of the Jacobian is the most popular motion planning method, but the pseudo-inverse methods usually lead to a kind of chaotic motion with unpredictable arm configurations as the Jacobian matrix lose ranks. To overcome the above problem, we proposed a method to formulate the motion planning problems as optimization problem. Moreover, a genetic algorithm (GA) based method is proposed to deal with motion planning of the redundant robot. Simulation results validate the proposed method feasible for motion planning of the redundant robot in an automated sheet-metal bending operations.

Keywords: redundant robot, motion planning, genetic algorithm, obstacle avoidance

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Authors: D Bhargavi, J. Sharath Kumar Reddy

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The present investigation has been undertaken to assess the effect of viscous dissipation and axial conduction on forced convection heat transfer in the entrance region of a parallel plate channel with the porous insert attached to both walls of the channel. The flow field is unidirectional. Flow in the porous region corresponds to Darcy-Brinkman model and the clear fluid region to that of plane Poiseuille flow. The effects of the parameters Darcy number, Da, Peclet number, Pe, Brinkman number, Br and a porous fraction γ_p on the local heat transfer coefficient are analyzed graphically. Effects of viscous dissipation employing the Darcy model and the clear fluid compatible model have been studied.

Keywords: porous material, channel partially filled with a porous material, axial conduction, viscous dissipation

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Authors: Sarojini Imran, Riza Firmansyah, Aula Ramadhan, Chudamul Furqon, Achfriyatama Oktariflandi

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This article delves into the participatory approach in formulating a master plan for the development of pioneer village tourism in Cibubuan, Sumedang. We explore the process of participatory mapping that involves the active participation of the local community in planning and envisioning the future of village tourism. This research considers the positive impact that arises when the community takes an active role in designing a master plan that benefits the local economy while preserving culture and the environment. The results of this research reveal that the participatory approach can create a more accurate and community-responsive mapping that aligns with the aspirations of the people in Cibubuan Village. It also provides a deep insight into how community-developed mapping can guide the development of sustainable tourism. By offering a deeper understanding of the participatory role in village tourism development planning, this article provides essential insights for stakeholders and researchers in this field. We hope this article will inspire more communities to adopt a participatory approach in planning the future of their village tourism.

Keywords: participatory masterplan, pioneer village tourism, sustainable tourism, community engagement, Cibubuan Village

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Authors: Dongkyu Lee, Doan-Quoc Hoan, Soomi Shin

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This study shows an easy R&D innovation-activity methodology which embodies the methodological strategy of supplementing the disadvantages of 6 sigma by TRIZ and considers the acceptance of employees through the change in the concept of innovation-activity methodology from the focus of chapter development to that of stepwise executed task.

Keywords: idea thinking, 6 sigma, triz, visual planning, R&D, innovation-activity

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Authors: Fathia Elmenghawi

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The transformation of cities under colonial rule has received a great deal of scholarly work. Colonizers interpret their colonies differently and many urban and planning approaches can be traced. This paper focuses on the colonial approaches of urban expansion in the city of Tripoli, Libya during two colonial periods, the late Ottomans and the Italians, from the 1830s to 1940s. Both had perceived their approaches to the city’s expansion as means of practicing dominance over the colonized under the disguise of facilitating the process of modernization of the city. This research uses a historical method that based on archival documents such as maps, photos, and publications to uncover the planning practices followed by the two colonizers. The findings indicate that despite the similar intentions that both colonizers had when they expanded the city, one striking difference was distinguished, which is how the Ottomans and the Italians planned to treat the Walled City as, respectively, either a context for expansion or as merely remains to marginalize.

Keywords: colonial urban planning, Italian colonization, Ottoman provinces, walled city

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Authors: Farzad Jafarpour Taher, Maghsud Solimanpur

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Production planning is one of the complex tasks in multi-product firms that produce a wide range of products. Since resources in mass production companies are limited and different products use common resources, there must be a careful plan so that firms can respond to customer needs efficiently. Azar-battery Company is a firm that provides twenty types of products for its customers. Therefore, careful planning must be performed in this company. In this research, the current conditions of Azar-battery Company were investigated to provide a mathematical programming model to determine the optimum production rate of the products in this company. The production system of this company is multi-stage, multi-product and multi-period. This system is studied in terms of a one-year planning horizon regarding the capacity of machines and warehouse space limitation. The problem has been modeled as a linear programming model with deterministic demand in which shortage is not allowed. The objective function of this model is to minimize costs (including raw materials, assembly stage, energy costs, packaging, and holding). Finally, this model has been solved by Lingo software using the branch and bound approach. Since the computation time was very long, the solver interrupted, and the obtained feasible solution was used for comparison. The proposed model's solution costs have been compared to the company’s real data. This non-optimal solution reduces the total production costs of the company by about %35.

Keywords: multi-period, multi-product production, multi-stage, production planning

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Authors: Naushaba Naseem Ahmed

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Economic development does not merely depend upon the level of development but also on its distributive aspect. As it is a serious issue, the fruit of development is not equally distributed among the different section of peoples and different part of the country this cause the regional disparities in the levels of social economic development. Different part of the country has different resource endowments in term of natural, human and capital. If there is the uniform condition to grow, these areas that have better resources, are favourably placed grow comparatively faster as other areas. Thus with the very stage of development, gap between resourceful and less resourceful area goes on widening. This paper is an attempt to highlight the levels of disparities in term of economic development with the help of selected variables. Principal component analysis, correlation, and coefficient of variation are the techniques which were used in paper and employed published data for analysis. The result shows that Western region of Uttar Pradesh is more developed followed by Central Region. There will be urgent need in investment and developmental policies for the backward region like Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh.

Keywords: coefficient of variation, correlation, economic development, principal component analysis

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Authors: A.Halim Sahelan, Mohd Halid Abu, Jamaluddin Hashim, Zulisman Maksom, Mohd Afif Md Nasir

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This study aims to assess the students' needs for the tour planning e-guide. The study is developing on the contribution and importance of the Educational Tour Planning Guide (ETP) is a multimedia courseware as one of the effective methods in teaching and learning of environmental science among the students in primary schools of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. It is to provide the student with knowledge and experience about tourism, environmental science activities and process. E-guide to ETP also hopes to strengthen the student understanding toward the subject learns in the tourism environmental science. In order to assess the student's needs on the e-Guide to Educational Tour Planning in Environmental Science, the study has produced a similar e-Guide to ETP in the form as a courseware to be tested during the study. The study has involved several steps in order to be completed. It is such as the formulation of the problem, the review of the literature, the formulation of the study methodology, the production of the e-Guide to ETP, field survey and finally the analyses and discussion made on the data gathered during the study. The survey has involved 100 respondents among the students in standard six primary schools in Kluang Johor. Through the findings, the study indicates that the currently tested product is acceptable among the students in learning environmental science as a guide to plan for the tour. The findings also show a slight difference between the respondents who are using the e-Guide to ETP, and those who are not on the basis of the e-Guide to ETP results. Due the important for the study, the researcher hopes to be having a fair discussion and excellence, recommendation for the development of the product of the current study. This report is written also important to provide a written reference for the future related study.

Keywords: the tour planning e-guide, the Educational Tour Planning Guide, environmental science, multimedia course ware

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Authors: Magdy Roman, Mostafa Shoeib, Mostafa Rostom

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Global vision, whether provided by overhead fixed cameras, on-board aerial vehicle cameras, or satellite images can always provide detailed information on the environment around mobile robots. In this paper, an intelligent vision-based method of path planning and obstacle avoidance for mobile robots is presented. The method integrates visual perception with a new proposed field-based path-planning method to overcome common path-planning problems such as local minima, unreachable destination and unnecessary lengthy paths around obstacles. The method proposes an exponential angle deviation field around each obstacle that affects the orientation of a close robot. As the robot directs toward, the goal point obstacles are classified into right and left groups, and a deviation angle is exponentially added or subtracted to the orientation of the robot. Exponential field parameters are chosen based on Lyapunov stability criterion to guarantee robot convergence to the destination. The proposed method uses obstacles' shape and location, extracted from global vision system, through a collision prediction mechanism to decide whether to activate or deactivate obstacles field. In addition, a search mechanism is developed in case of robot or goal point is trapped among obstacles to find suitable exit or entrance. The proposed algorithm is validated both in simulation and through experiments. The algorithm shows effectiveness in obstacles' avoidance and destination convergence, overcoming common path planning problems found in classical methods.

Keywords: path planning, collision avoidance, convergence, computer vision, mobile robots

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Authors: Preeti Tiwari, Jay Wood, Duncan Babbage

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Family planning plays a role in saving lives across the globe by preventing unwanted pregnancies. The purpose of this multidisciplinary research was to determine the impact of mHealth tools have on psychosocial determinants of behaviour for family planning. The present study examines a topic that is very relevant in times where human-technology interaction is at its peak. It is probably one of the first studies that have investigated the impact of mobile phone technology on the underlying mechanisms of behaviour change for family planning using primary data. To examine the association between exposure to mHealth tools and predictors of behaviour, data was collected from mHealth intervention areas in India. A post-intervention quasi-experimental study with a 2x2 factorial design was conducted among 831 men and women from the state of Bihar. The quantitative data analysis evaluated the extent of influence that predictors of behaviour (beliefs, social norms, perceived behaviour control, and outcome behaviour) have on a woman’s decisions about family planning. The results indicated an association between exposure to mHealth tools and improved communication about family planning among various family members after receiving health information from a health worker (H1). A relationship between exposure to mHealth tools and increased support women received from their husbands and extended family (mothers-in-law specifically) and peers (H2) was also found. A further result showed that knowledge about family planning was greater among users of family planning (H4). mHealth tools empower women to communicate with family members. This has important implications for developing mobile phone-based tools, as they can be used as a crucial communication channel that can be an effective method of increasing communication among family members about contraceptives. Thus, it can be implied that where women feel nervous talking about contraception, the successful application of mHealth tools can strengthen the interactivity of the health communication and could increase the likelihood of using contraception. However, while it may improve health communication that can inform health decisions, it may be insufficient on its own to cause behaviour change.

Keywords: contraceptive, e-health, psycho-social, women

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Authors: Jane N. O'Sullivan

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In most studies relating change in fertility to potentially causal factors (such as girls’ educational attainment, infant mortality or urbanization), the presence or nature of family planning efforts are not examined, potentially misattributing their contributions. Modest impacts of voluntary family planning programs on fertility change have been claimed, citing the near-term effects of historical quasi-experimental projects – notably in Bangladesh and in Ghana – where recipients and non-recipients could be contrasted. By their nature, such experiments lacked the wider cultural impacts of national programs. Concurrently, analyses relating population growth with economic advancement have been equivocal, discrediting previous widespread concern which prevailed before the 1980s. This neutral view has been revised more recently with demographic dividend theory crediting higher working-age proportion with some economic stimulus if supported by sufficient institutional and human capacity. In this study of country-level data, cross-country comparisons spanning six decades relate fertility decline with family planning effort, GDP per capita and female education, finding that the timing of rapid fertility decline aligns with commencement of voluntary family planning programs, while economic betterment came after substantial fertility fall. The relationship between fertility and primary education completion was inconsistent, with potential channels of causation operating in both directions. GDP per capita was unrelated to rate of fertility decline, but total fertility rates above three children per woman strongly impeded enrichment. By synchronizing countries with respect to their fertility transition, strong relationships are revealed which suggest lower fertility enables economic betterment, rather than the other way around. These results argue in favour of elevating voluntary family planning as a development priority.

Keywords: economic advance, family planning effort, fertility decline, population growth rate

Procedia PDF Downloads 143