Search results for: state estimation

Authors: Tomiwa, Akinyemi Clement

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Tropical regions experience diverse and complex precipitation patterns, posing significant challenges for accurate rainfall estimation and forecasting. This study addresses the problem of effectively classifying tropical rain types and refining the Z-R (Reflectivity-Rain Rate) relationship to enhance rainfall estimation accuracy. Through a combination of remote sensing, meteorological analysis, and machine learning, the research aims to develop an advanced classification framework capable of distinguishing between different types of tropical rain based on their unique characteristics. This involves utilizing high-resolution satellite imagery, radar data, and atmospheric parameters to categorize precipitation events into distinct classes, providing a comprehensive understanding of tropical rain systems. Additionally, the study seeks to improve the Z-R relationship, a crucial aspect of rainfall estimation. One year of rainfall data was analyzed using a Micro Rain Radar (MRR) located at The Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria, measuring rainfall parameters from ground level to a height of 4.8 km with a vertical resolution of 0.16 km. Rain rates were classified into low (stratiform) and high (convective) based on various microstructural attributes such as rain rates, liquid water content, Drop Size Distribution (DSD), average fall speed of the drops, and radar reflectivity. By integrating diverse datasets and employing advanced statistical techniques, the study aims to enhance the precision of Z-R models, offering a more reliable means of estimating rainfall rates from radar reflectivity data. This refined Z-R relationship holds significant potential for improving our understanding of tropical rain systems and enhancing forecasting accuracy in regions prone to heavy precipitation.

Keywords: remote sensing, precipitation, drop size distribution, micro rain radar

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Authors: Nana Kwasi Amoateng

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The paper uses secondary information to investigate some longstanding limitations in International Relations (IR) theory. Specifically, the analysis highlights IR theory through the lens of J. C. Sharman’s brilliant concept of outside-in state-building logic in which some states, particularly those in Africa, have relied mainly on foreign resources to address local threats. The key findings are that IR theory has been largely understood from the perspective of an inside-out state-building logic, whereby Western and other advanced states have heavily relied on local resources to address foreign threats. In this vein, IR theorists, including Critical Theorists, have not been able to fully grasp African states and states elsewhere that have generally relied on an outside-in logic of state-building. The paper helps to fill a major gap in IR theory, which has mainly addressed criticisms of being Euro- or Western-centric or failing to include the unique experiences of states and other actors in the Global South by developing critical theories such as post-colonial theory and neo-colonialism. Although this has helped to understand some experiences of actors in the Global South, the fundamental difference between state-building in the West and the Global South, particularly Africa, has not been adequately explored to fully comprehend why, despite the works of Critical Theorists, IR theory still fails to capture many political and socioeconomic realities in Africa and elsewhere.

Keywords: international relations theory, outside-in state-building logic, inside-out state-building logic, Africa

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Authors: M. Jathaveda, Joben Leons, G. Vidya

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Reentry from orbit is a critical phase in the entry trajectory. For a non-propulsive ballistic entry, static and dynamic stability play an important role in the trajectory, especially for the safe deployment of parachutes, typically at subsonic Mach numbers. Static stability of flight vehicles are being estimated through CFD techniques routinely. Advances in CFD software as well as computational facilities have enabled the estimation of the dynamic stability derivatives also through CFD techniques. Longitudinal static and dynamic stability of a typical reentry body for subsonic Mach number of 0.6 is predicted using commercial software CFD++ and presented here. Steady state simulations are carried out for α = 2° on an unstructured grid using SST k-ω model. Transient simulation using forced oscillation method is used to compute pitch damping derivatives.

Keywords: stability, typical reentry body, subsonic, static and dynamic

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Authors: Adebowale T. Odeyemi, Oluwafemi A. Ajenifuja

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The leachate samples collected from Erifun dumpsite along Federal Polythenic road, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, were subjected to bacteriological and mineral analyses. The bacteriological estimation and isolation were done using serial dilution and pour plating techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done using agar disc diffusion technique. Atomic Absorption Spectophotometry method was used to analyze the heavy metal contents in the leachate samples. The bacterial and coliform counts ranged from 4.2 × 105 CFU/ml to 2.97 × 106 CFU/ml and 5.0 × 104 CFU/ml to 2.45 x 106 CFU/ml, respectively. The isolated bacteria and percentage of occurrence include Bacillus cereus (22%), Enterobacter aerogenes (18%), Staphylococcus aureus (16%), Proteus vulgaris (14%), Escherichia coli (14%), Bacillus licheniformis (12%) and Klebsiella aerogenes (4%). The mineral value ranged as follow; iron (21.30mg/L - 25.60mg/L), zinc (1.80mg/L - 5.60mg/L), copper (1.00mg/L - 2.60mg/L), chromium (0.50mg/L - 1.30mg/L), candium (0.20mg/L - 1.30mg/L), nickel (0.20mg/L - 0.80mg/L), lead (0.05mg/L-0.30mg/L), cobalt (0.03mg/L - 0.30mg/L) and in all samples manganese was not detected. The entire organisms isolated exhibited a high level of resistance to most of the antibiotics used. There is an urgent need for awareness to be created about the present situation of the leachate in Erifun, on the need for treatment of the nearby stream and other water sources before they can be used for drinking and other domestic use. In conclusion, a good method of waste disposal is required in those communities to prevent leachate formation, percolation, and runoff into water bodies during the raining season.

Keywords: antibiotic susceptibility, dumpsite, bacteriological analysis, heavy metal

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Authors: Seyed-Yaser Nabavi-Chashmi, Davood Asadi, Karim Ahmadi, Eren Demir

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The landing phase of a UAV is very critical as there are many uncertainties in this phase, which can easily entail a hard landing or even a crash. In this paper, the estimation of relative distance and velocity to the ground, as one of the most important processes during the landing phase, is studied. Using accurate measurement sensors as an alternative approach can be very expensive for sensors like LIDAR, or with a limited operational range, for sensors like ultrasonic sensors. Additionally, absolute positioning systems like GPS or IMU cannot provide distance to the ground independently. The focus of this paper is to determine whether we can measure the relative distance and velocity of UAV and ground in the landing phase using just low-resolution images taken by a monocular camera. The Lucas-Konda feature detection technique is employed to extract the most suitable feature in a series of images taken during the UAV landing. Two different approaches based on Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) have been proposed, and their performance in estimation of the relative distance and velocity are compared. The first approach uses the kinematics of the UAV as the process and the calculated optical flow as the measurement; On the other hand, the second approach uses the feature’s projection on the camera plane (pixel position) as the measurement while employing both the kinematics of the UAV and the dynamics of variation of projected point as the process to estimate both relative distance and relative velocity. To verify the results, a sequence of low-quality images taken by a camera that is moving on a specifically developed testbed has been used to compare the performance of the proposed algorithm. The case studies show that the quality of images results in considerable noise, which reduces the performance of the first approach. On the other hand, using the projected feature position is much less sensitive to the noise and estimates the distance and velocity with relatively high accuracy. This approach also can be used to predict the future projected feature position, which can drastically decrease the computational workload, as an important criterion for real-time applications.

Keywords: altitude estimation, drone, image processing, trajectory planning

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Authors: Kuldeep Singh

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The present paper is an attempt for tracing the changes in the welfare state in Indian democracy from the starting point till now and aims to critical analyse the social-welfare programmes in India with respect to welfare state. After getting independence from Britishers, India became a welfare state and is aiming towards the upliftment of its citizens. Indian democracy is considered to be the largest amongst democratic countries, instead of this after forty-five years of independence, Panchayati Raj Institution became one of the branches of democratic decentralization institutions in India by 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1992. Unfortunately, desired purpose of introducing Panchayati Raj Institution is not achieved after all these delayed efforts. The basic problem regarding achievement of welfare state in India in true sense is unawareness and non-implementation of these social-welfare programmes. Presently, Indian government is only focusing on economic growth of the country but lacking from the social point. The doctrinal method of research is used in this research paper. In the concluding remarks, researcher is partly favoring the government in introducing welfare programmes as there are abundant of welfare schemes and programmes, but majority are facing implementation problem. In last, researcher has suggested regarding programmes and schemes that these should be qualitative in nature and power would be given to effective machinery for further check upon their proper implementation and aware the citizens regarding their rights so that welfare state would be achieved.

Keywords: democratic decentralization, Indian democracy, Panchayati Raj institution, social-welfare programmes, welfare state

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Authors: Mostafa Aminzadeh, Min Deng

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Modeling loss data is an important part of actuarial science. Actuaries use models to predict future losses and manage financial risk, which can be beneficial for marketing purposes. In the insurance industry, small claims happen frequently while large claims are rare. Traditional distributions such as Normal, Exponential, and inverse-Gaussian are not suitable for describing insurance data, which often show skewness and fat tails. Several authors have studied classical and Bayesian inference for parameters of composite distributions, such as Exponential-Pareto, Weibull-Pareto, and Inverse Gamma-Pareto. These models separate small to moderate losses from large losses using a threshold parameter. This research introduces a computational approach using a nonlinear regression model for loss data that relies on multiple predictors. Simulation studies were conducted to assess the accuracy of the proposed estimation method. The simulations confirmed that the proposed method provides precise estimates for regression parameters. It's important to note that this approach can be applied to datasets if goodness-of-fit tests confirm that the composite distribution under study fits the data well. To demonstrate the computations, a real data set from the insurance industry is analyzed. A Mathematica code uses the Fisher information algorithm as an iteration method to obtain the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of regression parameters.

Keywords: maximum likelihood estimation, fisher scoring method, non-linear regression models, composite distributions

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Authors: Tiee-Jian Wu, Chih-Yuan Hsu

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Mode estimation is an important task, because it has applications to data from a wide variety of sources. We propose a semi-parametric approach to estimate the mode of an unknown continuous multivariate density function. Our approach is based on a weighted average of a parametric density estimate using the Box-Cox transform and a non-parametric kernel density estimate. Our semi-parametric mode estimate improves both the parametric- and non-parametric- mode estimates. Specifically, our mode estimate solves the non-consistency problem of parametric mode estimates (at large sample sizes) and reduces the variability of non-parametric mode estimates (at small sample sizes). The performance of our method at practical sample sizes is demonstrated by simulation examples and two real examples from the fields of climatology and image recognition.

Keywords: Box-Cox transform, density estimation, mode seeking, semiparametric method

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Authors: Andrey V. Timofeev

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This paper introduces an original method for guaranteed estimation of the accuracy of an ensemble of Lipschitz classifiers. The solution was obtained as a finite closed set of alternative hypotheses, which contains an object of classification with a probability of not less than the specified value. Thus, the classification is represented by a set of hypothetical classes. In this case, the smaller the cardinality of the discrete set of hypothetical classes is, the higher is the classification accuracy. Experiments have shown that if the cardinality of the classifiers ensemble is increased then the cardinality of this set of hypothetical classes is reduced. The problem of the guaranteed estimation of the accuracy of an ensemble of Lipschitz classifiers is relevant in the multichannel classification of target events in C-OTDR monitoring systems. Results of suggested approach practical usage to accuracy control in C-OTDR monitoring systems are present.

Keywords: Lipschitz classifiers, confidence set, C-OTDR monitoring, classifiers accuracy, classifiers ensemble

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Authors: Seyedmahdi Mousavihashemi

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One of the most important subjects of interest in researches is 'improving' which result in various algorithms. In so many geometrical problems we are faced with target functions which should be optimized. In group practices, all the functions’ cooperation lead to convergence. In the study, the optimization algorithm of dense particles is used. Usage of the algorithm improves the given performance norms. The results reveal that usage of swarm algorithm for reinforced particles in designing state feedback improves the given performance norm and in optimized designing of multi-target state feedback controlling, the network will maintain its bearing structure. The results also show that PSO is usable for optimization of state feedback controllers.

Keywords: multi-objective, enhanced, feedback, optimization, algorithm, particle, design

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Authors: Suzana Ramli, Wardah Tahir

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Estimation of surface runoff depth is a vital part in any rainfall-runoff modeling. It leads to stream flow calculation and later predicts flood occurrences. GIS (Geographic Information System) is an advanced and opposite tool used in simulating hydrological model due to its realistic application on topography. The paper discusses on calculation of surface runoff depth for two selected events by using GIS with Curve Number method for Upper Klang River basin. GIS enables maps intersection between soil type and land use that later produces curve number map. The results show good correlation between simulated and observed values with more than 0.7 of R2. Acceptable performance of statistical measurements namely mean error, absolute mean error, RMSE, and bias are also deduced in the paper.

Keywords: surface runoff, geographic information system, curve number method, environment

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Authors: Adegbite Bashiru Adeniyi, Olaniyi Akeem Olawale, Ayobamidele Sinatu Juliet

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The study was carried out in the 6 South Western states of Nigeria to analyze socio-economic characteristic of garri processors and their anthropometric qualities with respect to modern technologies used in garri processing. About 20 respondents were randomly selected from each of the 6 workstations purposively considered for the study due to their daily processing activities already attracted high patronage of customers. These include Oguntolu village (Ogun State), Igoba-Akure (Ondo State), Imo-Ilesa (Osun State), Odo Oba-Ileri (Oyo State), Irasa village (Ekiti State) and Epe in Lagos state. Interview schedule was conducted for 120 respondents to elicit information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. It was observed from the findings that respondents were in their most productive age range (36-45 years) except Ogun state where majority (45%) were relatively older than 45 years. A fewer processors were much younger than 26 years old. It furthers revealed that not less than 55% have body weight greater than 50.0 kilogram, also not less than 70% were taller than 1.5 meter. So also, the hand length and hand thickness of the majority were long and bulky which are considered suitable for operating some modern and improved technologies in garri-frying process. This information could be used by various technological developers to enhance production of modern equipment and tools for a greater efficiency.

Keywords: agro-business, anthromorphic, modernization, proficiency

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Authors: Chad Brown

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This paper establishes general conditions for the convergence rates of nonparametric sieve estimators with dependent data. We present two key results: one for nonstationary data and another for stationary mixing data. Previous theoretical results often lack practical applicability to deep neural networks (DNNs). Using these conditions, we derive convergence rates for DNN sieve estimators in nonparametric regression settings with both nonstationary and stationary mixing data. The DNN architectures considered adhere to current industry standards, featuring fully connected feedforward networks with rectified linear unit activation functions, unbounded weights, and a width and depth that grows with sample size.

Keywords: sieve extremum estimates, nonparametric estimation, deep learning, neural networks, rectified linear unit, nonstationary processes

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Authors: Jiahao Tian, Michael D. Porter

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Law enforcement agencies are tasked with crime prevention and crime reduction under limited resources. Having an accurate temporal estimate of the crime rate would be valuable to achieve such a goal. However, estimation is usually complicated by the interval-censored nature of crime data. We cast the problem of intensity estimation as a Poisson regression using an EM algorithm to estimate the parameters. Two special penalties are added that provide smoothness over the time of day and day of the week. This approach presented here provides accurate intensity estimates and can also uncover day-of-week clusters that share the same intensity patterns. Anticipating where and when crimes might occur is a key element to successful policing strategies. However, this task is complicated by the presence of interval-censored data. The censored data refers to the type of data that the event time is only known to lie within an interval instead of being observed exactly. This type of data is prevailing in the field of criminology because of the absence of victims for certain types of crime. Despite its importance, the research in temporal analysis of crime has lagged behind the spatial component. Inspired by the success of solving crime-related problems with a statistical approach, we propose a statistical model for the temporal intensity estimation of crime with censored data. The model is built on Poisson regression and has special penalty terms added to the likelihood. An EM algorithm was derived to obtain maximum likelihood estimates, and the resulting model shows superior performance to the competing model. Our research is in line with the smart policing initiative (SPI) proposed by the Bureau Justice of Assistance (BJA) as an effort to support law enforcement agencies in building evidence-based, data-driven law enforcement tactics. The goal is to identify strategic approaches that are effective in crime prevention and reduction. In our case, we allow agencies to deploy their resources for a relatively short period of time to achieve the maximum level of crime reduction. By analyzing a particular area within cities where data are available, our proposed approach could not only provide an accurate estimate of intensities for the time unit considered but a time-variation crime incidence pattern. Both will be helpful in the allocation of limited resources by either improving the existing patrol plan with the understanding of the discovery of the day of week cluster or supporting extra resources available.

Keywords: cluster detection, EM algorithm, interval censoring, intensity estimation

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Authors: Yeongyu Choi, Ju H. Park, S. M. Lee, Ho-Youl Jung

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In this paper, an improved method for estimating fundamental matrix is proposed. The method is applied effectively to monocular camera based moving object detection. The method consists of corner points detection, moving object’s motion estimation and fundamental matrix calculation. The corner points are obtained by using Harris corner detector, motions of moving objects is calculated from pyramidal Lucas-Kanade optical flow algorithm. Through epipolar geometry analysis using RANSAC, the fundamental matrix is calculated. In this method, we have improved the performances of moving object detection by using two threshold values that determine inlier or outlier. Through the simulations, we compare the performances with varying the two threshold values.

Keywords: corner detection, optical flow, epipolar geometry, RANSAC

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Authors: Olubusayo Asikhia

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The purpose of the study was to compare the incidence of indiscipline and guidance and counseling programmes among federal and state-owned tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria. This study was borne out of persistent students’ revolt and unrest in Nigerian tertiary institutions with its concomitant breakdown of law and order, disruption of academic activities, closure of institutions and the disruption of lives and property among others. A sample of 300 students, 270 staff (including academic and non-academic, heads of disciplinary committees, deans of student affairs and counselors) from 6 federal and state-owned tertiary institutions were selected through stratified random sampling. Three structured questionnaires with reliability coefficients that range from 0.78 to 0.91 were used to collect data for the study. The data were tested at 0.05 level of significance and analyzed using descriptive, paired samples statistics and regression analysis. Findings from the four hypotheses generated for the study revealed that student indiscipline occurs more in state colleges of education and polytechnics than in their federal counterparts. It was also higher in federal universities than the state. The study also revealed a significant difference in the causes of indiscipline and assessment of guidance and counseling programmes in state and federal universities and no significant difference in state and federal colleges and polytechnics. It was recommended that the guidance and counseling department in tertiary institutions should create a well-structured program that will enable it to address issues of indiscipline among students and that counselors should use small-group counseling approach and student-focused interventions.

Keywords: colleges of education, guidance and counseling, indiscipline, polytechnics, students and universities

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Authors: Eng. Alaa K. Satti Salih

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Revolutions Applications such as telecommunications, hands-free communications, recording, etc. which need at least one microphone, the signal is usually infected by noise and echo. The important application is the speech enhancement, which is done to remove suppressed noises and echoes taken by a microphone, beside preferred speech. Accordingly, the microphone signal has to be cleaned using digital signal processing DSP tools before it is played out, transmitted, or stored. Engineers have so far tried different approaches to improving the speech by get back the desired speech signal from the noisy observations. Especially Mobile communication, so in this paper will do reconstruction of the speech signal, observed in additive background noise, using the Kalman filter technique to estimate the parameters of the Autoregressive Process (AR) in the state space model and the output speech signal obtained by the MATLAB. The accurate estimation by Kalman filter on speech would enhance and reduce the noise then compare and discuss the results between actual values and estimated values which produce the reconstructed signals.

Keywords: autoregressive process, Kalman filter, Matlab, noise speech

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Authors: Aziza Tahar Djebbar

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Throughout American history, many American presidents have tried to create new reforms to enhance the living conditions of the American citizens and promote their welfare. Among these reforms were those dealing with health care, education, as well as social security, which would facilitate accordingly the evolution of the American welfare state. After the New Deal, from 1945 to 1969, American presidents sought to carry out and enlarge the scope of the welfare state that emerged during the Roosevelt Administration by introducing new social reforms. Yet, there were some American presidents who succeeded, and there were some presidents who failed.The task of this research work is to depict the postwar period from 1945 to 1969. Some light will be shed on the main causes that led to the delay of many programs from 1945 to 1960. Further, the focus will be on the main factors that contributed to the reappearance of many social reforms and the dramatic expansion of the welfare state all along the 1960s.

Keywords: new deal, great society, medicaid, medicare, war on poverty, social reforms, welfare reforms

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Authors: Akbar Jamali

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According to Hegel’s philosophy, constitution of any given nation is the best expression of its national Self-Consciousness. Since constitution is the place in which freedom and Universal Rights is expressed, and since the essence of Self-consciousness is freedom, the development of self-consciousness and consequently freedom, is the direct cause of the development of constitution. Self-consciousness develops in the human history according to its own internal and external dialectic; therefore, it is essentially a dynamic phenomenon. However, constitution is supposed to be a stable foundation for the legal system of state and society. Therefore, the dilemma is: how the dynamic and contradictory nature of Self-Consciousness is the foundation of constitution that supposed to be the stable base of legal system of state and society. According to Hegel’s philosophy, the contradiction between the dynamic self- consciousness and the static constitution and state has an essential role in the formation of social movements within any given state. Self-consciousness is the phenomenology of Spirit in the human history. Subjective Spirit expresses itself in the different shapes of Self-consciousness in human spirit. These different shapes of self-consciousness must be identical with its contradiction; Objective Spirit. State is the highest form of the objective Spirit. Therefore, state and its foundation namely ‘constitution’ must be identical with Self-consciousness. "Spirit cannot remain forever alienated from its expression." Hegel states. Self-consciousness is the Subjective Spirit, it freely develops according to its internal and external contradictions, but since it must be always identical with its expression namely constitution, its development results to alienation. They way by which self-consciousness became again identical with the constitution determines the nature of legal and political development of any given society and state. In the democratic states, self-consciousness shows itself partially in the public opinion. In the process of election, this public opinion changes the ruling parties that construct the government. In democracies, self-consciousness or subjective spirit is in a dialectical relationship with state or the Objective Spirit. Therefore, it cannot remain alienated with its expression that is political system and its constitution. But, in the autocracies Self-consciousness cannot easily express itself in the government and its constitution. More Self-consciousness develops more it becomes alienated with its expression that is the state and its constitution. Rebel and revolution are the symptom of alienation of Spirit (self-consciousness) with its expression (state and its constitution).

Keywords: alienation, constitution, self-consciousness, spirit

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Authors: Temitope Francis Abiodun

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The practice of intelligence is not limited to the machinery of a nation state alone, yet not much research or analysis has been directed towards the spy-crafts and tradecrafts engaged in by violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in the international community. The rise of 'private sector intelligence' in more recent years has only just begun to be interrogated by practitioners and academics. However, the use of intelligence by insurgents and other groups assembled to achieve varied forms of politico-military outcomes has often been overlooked. This paper examined the factors and conditions that gave rise to an increase in violent non-state actors (VNSAs), strategies aiding their deployment of insurgent intelligence, and as well the implications of their activities on global security. The failed state theory was adopted, while a descriptive research design served as the framework for the study. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The paper, however, revealed there were massive deployments of insurgent intelligence by violent non-state actors in contrast to a faulty pre-conception that insurgents were not as highly trained in deployment of intelligence as state actors, having assumed that the VNSAs lacked the sophistication to produce intelligence. However, the strategic objectives of insurgents (VNSAs) were revealed to depend on well-organized information gathering operations that feed into the tactical executions of their insurgency. The paper recommends, therefore, there is a need for adequate training on the part of security personnel in the states to be alive to their responsibilities; and there is also a need to ensure adequate border control and management to checkmate the influx of the various violent or deadly movements across global frontiers.

Keywords: terrorism, non-violent state actors, private sector intelligence, security

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Authors: Tina Beyene

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In this paper examines the state of grassroots feminist activism in the backdrop of state feminism in Ethiopia. Specifically, I examine the impact of the Charities and Societies Proclamation (aka CSO law), a 2009 law that banned so-called foreign NGOs—i.e., those receiving more than 10% of its operating budget from non-local sources— from working in the areas of human rights, democracy, governance, and gender equality. Viewed as government retribution for the NGO opposition to the government in the 2005 elections, the law aimed to halt the work groups such as the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), who were defined as a “foreign” NGO. Based on interviews with prominent Ethiopian women’s rights leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I assess how grassroots feminist organizing adapts to state suppression on the one hand, and the aggressive entry of the state into women’s rights work on the other hand. While the 2009 law has slowed down the work of women’s rights activism, displaced feminists view feminist advocacy as cyclical and the state as neither fully adversarial nor an ally but rather as an instable entity that at times provides political openings to push ambitious feminist agendas. Grassroots activists are regrouping and developing new political responses strategies such as coding rights issues to fit state mandate; dissembling rights work in permissible social provision language; rechanneling political work into informal spaces and unregistered social clubs; innovating new funding partnerships, and reassembling as privately held research and advocacy companies. my study reveals how grassroots feminist politics operates in the shadow of a hostile state and within the confines of local politics.

Keywords: grassroots feminism, ethiopian feminism, civil society and gender, state feminism

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Authors: Olga Sukhoveeva

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main component of carbon biogeochemical cycle and one of the most important greenhouse gases (GHG). Agriculture, particularly arable soils, are one the largest sources of GHG emission for the atmosphere including CO2.Models may be used for estimation of GHG emission from agriculture if they can be adapted for different countries conditions. The only model used in officially at national level in United Kingdom and China for this purpose is DNDC (DeNitrification-DeComposition). In our research, the model DNDC is offered for estimation of GHG emission from arable soils in Russia. The aim of our research was to create the method of DNDC using for evaluation of CO2 emission in Russia based on official statistical information. The target territory was European part of Russia where many field experiments are located. At the first step of research the database on climate, soil and cropping characteristics for the target region from governmental, statistical, and literature sources were created. All-Russia Research Institute of Hydrometeorological Information – World Data Centre provides open daily data about average meteorological and climatic conditions. It must be calculated spatial average values of maximum and minimum air temperature and precipitation over the region. Spatial average values of soil characteristics (soil texture, bulk density, pH, soil organic carbon content) can be determined on the base of Union state register of soil recourses of Russia. Cropping technologies are published by agricultural research institutes and departments. We offer to define cropping system parameters (annual information about crop yields, amount and types of fertilizers and manure) on the base of the Federal State Statistics Service data. Content of carbon in plant biomass may be calculated via formulas developed and published by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation. At the second step CO2 emission from soil in this region were calculated by DNDC. Modelling data were compared with empirical and literature data and good results were obtained, modelled values were equivalent to the measured ones. It was revealed that the DNDC model may be used to evaluate and forecast the CO2 emission from arable soils in Russia based on the official statistical information. Also, it can be used for creation of the program for decreasing GHG emission from arable soils to the atmosphere. Financial Support: fundamental scientific researching theme 0148-2014-0005 No 01201352499 ‘Solution of fundamental problems of analysis and forecast of Earth climatic system condition’ for 2014-2020; fundamental research program of Presidium of RAS No 51 ‘Climate change: causes, risks, consequences, problems of adaptation and regulation’ for 2018-2020.

Keywords: arable soils, carbon dioxide emission, DNDC model, European Russia

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Authors: Mohammad Ridzwan Bin Abd Rahim, Siegfried Schmauder, Yupiter HP Manurung, Peter Binkele, Meor Iqram B. Meor Ahmad, Kiarash Dogahe

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This paper deals with the short crack initiation of the material P91 under cyclic loading at two different temperatures, concluded with the estimation of the short crack initiation Wöhler (S/N) curve. An artificial but representative model microstructure was generated using Voronoi tessellation and the Finite Element Method, and the non-uniform stress distribution was calculated accordingly afterward. The number of cycles needed for crack initiation is estimated on the basis of the stress distribution in the model by applying the physically-based Tanaka-Mura model. Initial results show that the number of cycles to generate crack initiation is strongly correlated with temperature.

Keywords: short crack initiation, P91, Wöhler curve, Voronoi tessellation, Tanaka-Mura model

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Authors: Xiang Jia, Zhijun Cheng

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The residual lifetime of a product is the operation time between the current time and the time point when the failure happens. The residual lifetime estimation is rather important in reliability analysis. To predict the residual lifetime, it is necessary to assume or verify a particular distribution that the lifetime of the product follows. And the two-parameter Weibull distribution is frequently adopted to describe the lifetime in reliability engineering. Due to the time constraint and cost reduction, a life testing experiment is usually terminated before all the units have failed. Then the censored data is usually collected. In addition, other information could also be obtained for reliability analysis. The expert judgements are considered as it is common that the experts could present some useful information concerning the reliability. Therefore, the residual lifetime is estimated for Weibull distribution by fusing the censored data and expert judgements in this paper. First, the closed-forms concerning the point estimate and confidence interval for the residual lifetime under the Weibull distribution are both presented. Next, the expert judgements are regarded as the prior information and how to determine the prior distribution of Weibull parameters is developed. For completeness, the cases that there is only one, and there are more than two expert judgements are both focused on. Further, the posterior distribution of Weibull parameters is derived. Considering that it is difficult to derive the posterior distribution of residual lifetime, a sample-based method is proposed to generate the posterior samples of Weibull parameters based on the Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) method. And these samples are used to obtain the Bayes estimation and credible interval for the residual lifetime. Finally, an illustrative example is discussed to show the application. It demonstrates that the proposed method is rather simple, satisfactory, and robust.

Keywords: expert judgements, information fusion, residual lifetime, Weibull distribution

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Authors: S. Gharbi, S. Labidi, M. Mars, M. Chelli, F. Ladeb

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The purpose of this study is to reduce radiation dose for chest CT examination by including Tube Current Modulation (TCM) to a standard CT protocol. A scan of an anthropomorphic male Alderson phantom was performed on a 128-slice scanner. The estimation of effective dose (ED) in both scans with and without mAs modulation was done via multiplication of Dose Length Product (DLP) to a conversion factor. Results were compared to those measured with a CT-Expo software. The size specific dose estimation (SSDE) values were obtained by multiplication of the volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) with a conversion size factor related to the phantom’s effective diameter. Objective assessment of image quality was performed with Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) measurements in phantom. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results showed including CARE Dose 4D; ED was lowered by 48.35% and 51.51% using DLP and CT-expo, respectively. In addition, ED ranges between 7.01 mSv and 6.6 mSv in case of standard protocol, while it ranges between 3.62 mSv and 3.2 mSv with TCM. Similar results are found for SSDE; dose was higher without TCM of 16.25 mGy and was lower by 48.8% including TCM. The SNR values calculated were significantly different (p=0.03<0.05). The highest one is measured on images acquired with TCM and reconstructed with Filtered back projection (FBP). In conclusion, this study proves the potential of TCM technique in SSDE and ED reduction and in conserving image quality with high diagnostic reference level for thoracic CT examinations.

Keywords: anthropomorphic phantom, computed tomography, CT-expo, radiation dose

Procedia PDF Downloads 215

Authors: Wee Akina Sia Seng Lee, Shabeshan Rengasamy, Lim Boon Hooi, Chandrakalavaratharajoo, Mohd Ibrahim K. Azeez

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This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of Teaching Games For Understanding (TGFU) in improving the hockey tactical skills and state self-confidence among 16-year-old students. Two hundred fifty nine (259) school students were selected for the study based on the intact sampling method. One class was used as the control group (Boys=60, Girls=70), while another as the treatment group (Boys=60, Girls=69) underwent intervention with TGFU in physical education class conducted twice a week for four weeks. The Games Performance Assessment Instrument was used to observe the hockey tactical skills and The State Self-Confidence Inventory was used to determine the state of self-confidence among the students. After four weeks, ANCOVA analysis indicated the treatment groups had significant improvement in hockey tactical skills with F (1, 118) =313.37, p < .05 for school boys, and F (1, 136) =92.62, p < .05 for school girls. The Mann Whitney U test also showed the treatment groups had significant improvement in state self-confidence with U=428.50, z= -7.22, p < .05, r=.06 for school boys. ANCOVA analysis also showed the treatment group had significant improvement in state self-confidence with F (1, 136) =74.40, p < .05 for school girls. This indicates that TGFU in a 40 minute physical education class conducted twice a week for four weeks can significantly improve the hockey tactical skills and state self-confidence among 16-year-old students. The findings give new knowledge to PE teachers to implement the TGFU method as it enhances the hockey tactical skills and state self-confidence among 16-year-old students. Some recommendation was suggested for future research.

Keywords: Teaching Games For Understanding (TGFU), traditional teaching, hockey tactical skills, state self-confidence

Procedia PDF Downloads 350

Authors: Gamalath M. B. P. Abeysekara

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Primary objective of any organization is to enhance the bottom line profit. Strategic procurement is one of the prominent aspects in view of receiving this ultimate objective. Strategic procurement is an activity used in each and every organization in their operations. Pharmaceutical procurement is an especially significant task for any organizations, particularly state sector concerned. The whole pharmaceutical procurement requirement of the country is procured through the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) of Sri Lanka. They follow Pharmaceutical Procurement Guideline of 2006 as the procurement principle. The main objective of this project is to identify the importance of State Pharmaceutical Corporation supplier selection criteria and critical analysis of pharmaceutical procurement procedure. State Pharmaceutical Corporations applied net price, product quality, past performance, and delivery of suppliers’ as main criteria for the selection suppliers. Data collection for this study was taken place through a questionnaire, given to fifty doctors within the Colombo district attached to five main state hospitals. Data analysis is carried out with mean and standard deviation functions. The ultimate outcomes indicated product quality, net price, and delivery of suppliers’ are the most important criteria behind the selection of suppliers. Critical analysis proved State Pharmaceutical Corporation should focus on net price reduction, improving laboratory testing facilities and effective communication between up and down stream of supply chain.

Keywords: government procurement procedure, pharmaceutical procurement supplier selection criteria, importance of SPC supplier selection criteria

Procedia PDF Downloads 447

Authors: Albert Kwabena Osei Konadu

Abstract:

One of the endemic forest species of the savannah transition zones enlisted by the Convention of International Treaty for Endangered Species (CITES) in Appendix II is the Rosewood, also known as Pterocarpus erinaceus or Krayie. Its economic viability has made it increasingly popular and in high demand. Ghana’s forest resource management regime for these ecozones is mainly on conservation and very little on resource utilization. Consequently, commercial logging management standards are at teething stage and not fully developed, leading to a deficiency in the monitoring of logging operations and quantification of harvested trees volumes. Tree information form (TIF); a volume estimation and tracking regime, has proven to be an effective sustainable management tool for regulating timber resource extraction in the high forest zones of the country. This work aims to generate TIF that can track and capture requisite parameters to accurately estimate the volume of harvested rosewood within forest savannah transition zones. Tree information forms were created on three scenarios of individual billets, stacked billets and conveying vessel basis. The study was limited by the usage of regulators assigned volume as benchmark and also fraught with potential volume measurement error in the stacked billet scenario due to the existence of spaces within packed billets. These TIFs were field-tested to deduce the most viable option for the tracking and estimation of harvested volumes of rosewood using the smallian and cubic volume estimation formula. Overall, four districts were covered with individual billets, stacked billets and conveying vessel scenarios registering mean volumes of 25.83m3,45.08m3 and 32.6m3, respectively. These adduced volumes were validated by benchmarking to assigned volumes of the Forestry Commission of Ghana and known standard volumes of conveying vessels. The results did indicate an underestimation of extracted volumes under the quotas regime, a situation that could lead to unintended overexploitation of the species. The research revealed conveying vessels route is the most viable volume estimation and tracking regime for the sustainable management of the Pterocarpous erinaceus species as it provided a more practical volume estimate and data extraction protocol.

Keywords: cubic volume formula, smallian volume formula, pterocarpus erinaceus, tree information form, forest transition and savannah zones, harvested tree volume

Procedia PDF Downloads 39

Authors: Triyanto, Rima Vien Permata Hartanto

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Indonesia is a legal state. The consequence of this status is the recognition and protection of the existence of indigenous peoples. This paper aims to describe the dynamics of legal recognition and protection for indigenous peoples within the framework of Indonesian law. This paper is library research based on literature. The result states that although the constitution has normatively recognized the existence of indigenous peoples and their traditional rights, in reality, not all rights were recognized and protected. The protection and recognition for indigenous people need to be strengthened.

Keywords: indigenous peoples, customary law, state law, state of law

Procedia PDF Downloads 323

Authors: Asaad Y. Shamseldin

Abstract:

Analytical probabilistic approach is an innovative approach for urban stormwater modeling. It can provide information about the long-term performance of a stormwater management facility without being computationally very demanding. This paper explores the application of the analytical probabilistic approach in New Zealand. The paper presents the results of a case study aimed at development of an objective way of identifying what constitutes a rainfall storm event and the estimation of the corresponding statistical properties of storms using two selected automatic rainfall stations located in the Auckland region in New Zealand. The storm identification and the estimation of the storm statistical properties are regarded as the first step in the development of the analytical probabilistic models. The paper provides a recommendation about the definition of the storm inter-event time to be used in conjunction with the analytical probabilistic approach.

Keywords: hydrology, rainfall storm, storm inter-event time, New Zealand, stormwater management

Procedia PDF Downloads 336