Search results for: research method
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 38387

Search results for: research method

33287 Relationship among the Air Pollution and Atopic Dermatitis Using Meta-Analysis

Authors: Chaebong Kim, Yongmin Cho, Minkyung Han, Mooyoung Kim, KooSang Kim

Abstract:

Background: Air pollution from global warming has a considerable influence on respiratory disease and atopic dermatitis (AD). Present studies base on a hypothesis about correlation between air pollutant and AD, and the results are analyzed from various points of view. Objectives: This study aimed to integrate the relevant researches for air pollutant and AD, and to perform the systematic literature review and meta-analysis to provide the basis of air pollutant control. Methods: Research materials were collected from original articles published in English academic journals including medicine, nursing and health science from August 1 to 31, 2016. We collected the materials from Pubmed, Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central database with Prisma (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) based on the Cochrane Systematic Review Manual, and performed the evaluation and analysis for selected materials. We got the research results for risk of bias using Rev-Man ver. 5.2, and meta analyses using STATA. Results: The prevalence of infantile atopic dermatitis were 1.05 times higher than other groups who were exposed to air pollution, and exposure to NO2 (1.08, 95% CI: 1.02 – 1.14), O3 (1.09, 95% CI: 1.04 – 1.15), SO2 (1.07, 95% CI: 1.02 – 1.12) in subgroup air pollutant was considerably associated with infantile atopic dermatitis. The prevalence of infantile atopic dermatitis was 1.03 times higher than other groups who were exposed to PM2.5, but the results were not statistically similar. Conclusion: Health effect from environmental pollution risen people’s interest in environmental diseases. Air pollutant was associated with AD in this study, but selected literature was based on non-RCT (Randomized Controlled Trial) study. Therefore, there was a limit in study method including control, matching, and correction of confounding variables. For clear conclusion, it is necessary to develop the appropriate tool for object of study and clear standard to measure of air pollutant.

Keywords: air pollution, atopic dermatitis, children, meta-analysis

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33286 Research on Transmission Parameters Determination Method Based on Dynamic Characteristic Analysis

Authors: Baoshan Huang, Fanbiao Bao, Bing Li, Lianghua Zeng, Yi Zheng

Abstract:

Parameter control strategy based on statistical characteristics can analyze the choice of the transmission ratio of an automobile transmission. According to the difference of the transmission gear, the number and spacing of the gear can be determined. Transmission ratio distribution of transmission needs to satisfy certain distribution law. According to the statistic characteristics of driving parameters, the shift control strategy of the vehicle is analyzed. CVT shift schedule adjustment algorithm based on statistical characteristic parameters can be seen from the above analysis, if according to the certain algorithm to adjust the size of, can adjust the target point are in the best efficiency curve and dynamic curve between the location, to alter the vehicle characteristics. Based on the dynamic characteristics and the practical application of the vehicle, this paper presents the setting scheme of the transmission ratio.

Keywords: vehicle dynamics, transmission ratio, transmission parameters, statistical characteristics

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33285 A Spatial Information Network Traffic Prediction Method Based on Hybrid Model

Authors: Jingling Li, Yi Zhang, Wei Liang, Tao Cui, Jun Li

Abstract:

Compared with terrestrial network, the traffic of spatial information network has both self-similarity and short correlation characteristics. By studying its traffic prediction method, the resource utilization of spatial information network can be improved, and the method can provide an important basis for traffic planning of a spatial information network. In this paper, considering the accuracy and complexity of the algorithm, the spatial information network traffic is decomposed into approximate component with long correlation and detail component with short correlation, and a time series hybrid prediction model based on wavelet decomposition is proposed to predict the spatial network traffic. Firstly, the original traffic data are decomposed to approximate components and detail components by using wavelet decomposition algorithm. According to the autocorrelation and partial correlation smearing and truncation characteristics of each component, the corresponding model (AR/MA/ARMA) of each detail component can be directly established, while the type of approximate component modeling can be established by ARIMA model after smoothing. Finally, the prediction results of the multiple models are fitted to obtain the prediction results of the original data. The method not only considers the self-similarity of a spatial information network, but also takes into account the short correlation caused by network burst information, which is verified by using the measured data of a certain back bone network released by the MAWI working group in 2018. Compared with the typical time series model, the predicted data of hybrid model is closer to the real traffic data and has a smaller relative root means square error, which is more suitable for a spatial information network.

Keywords: spatial information network, traffic prediction, wavelet decomposition, time series model

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33284 Geopolymerization Methods for Clay Soils Treatment

Authors: Baba Hassane Ahmed Hisseini, Abdelkrim Bennabi, Rabah Hamzaoui, Lamis Makki, Gaetan Blanck

Abstract:

Most of the clay soils are known as problematic soils due to their water content, which varies greatly over time. It is observed that they are used to be subject to shrinkage and swelling, thus causing a problem of stability on the structures of civil engineering construction work. They are often excavated and placed in a storage area giving rise to the opening of new quarries. This method has become obsolete today because to protect the environment, we are leading to think differently and opening the way to new research for the improvement of the performance of this type of clay soils to reuse them in the construction field. The solidification and stabilization technique is used to improve the properties of poor quality soils to transform them into materials with a suitable performance for a new use in the civil engineering field rather than to excavate them and store them in the discharge area. In our case, the polymerization method is used for bad clay soils classified as high plasticity soil class A4 according to the French standard NF P11-300, where classical treatment methods with cement or lime are not efficient. Our work concerns clay soil treatment study using raw materials as additives for solidification and stabilization. The geopolymers are synthesized by aluminosilicates materials like fly ash, metakaolin, or blast furnace slag and activated by alkaline solution based on sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) or a mixture of both of them. In this study, we present the mechanical properties of the soil clay (A4 type) evolution with geopolymerisation methods treatment. Various mix design of aluminosilicates materials and alkaline solutions were carried at different percentages and different curing times of 1, 7, and 28 days. The compressive strength of the untreated clayey soil could be increased from simple to triple. It is observed that the improvement of compressive strength is associated with a geopolymerization mechanism. The highest compressive strength was found with metakaolin at 28 days.

Keywords: treatment and valorization of clay-soil, solidification and stabilization, alkali-activation of co-product, geopolymerization

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33283 Refactoring Object Oriented Software through Community Detection Using Evolutionary Computation

Authors: R. Nagarani

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An intrinsic property of software in a real-world environment is its need to evolve, which is usually accompanied by the increase of software complexity and deterioration of software quality, making software maintenance a tough problem. Refactoring is regarded as an effective way to address this problem. Many refactoring approaches at the method and class level have been proposed. But the extent of research on software refactoring at the package level is less. This work presents a novel approach to refactor the package structures of object oriented software using genetic algorithm based community detection. It uses software networks to represent classes and their dependencies. It uses a constrained community detection algorithm to obtain the optimized community structures in software networks, which also correspond to the optimized package structures. It finally provides a list of classes as refactoring candidates by comparing the optimized package structures with the real package structures.

Keywords: community detection, complex network, genetic algorithm, package, refactoring

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33282 Pythagorean-Platonic Lattice Method for Finding all Co-Prime Right Angle Triangles

Authors: Anthony Overmars, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman

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This paper presents a method for determining all of the co-prime right angle triangles in the Euclidean field by looking at the intersection of the Pythagorean and Platonic right angle triangles and the corresponding lattice that this produces. The co-prime properties of each lattice point representing a unique right angle triangle are then considered. This paper proposes a conjunction between these two ancient disparaging theorists. This work has wide applications in information security where cryptography involves improved ways of finding tuples of prime numbers for secure communication systems. In particular, this paper has direct impact in enhancing the encryption and decryption algorithms in cryptography.

Keywords: Pythagorean triples, platonic triples, right angle triangles, co-prime numbers, cryptography

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33281 Neutral Sugars in Two-Step Hydrolysis of Laurel-Leaved and Cryptomeria japonica Forests

Authors: Ayuko Itsuki, Sachiyo Aburatani

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Soil neutral sugar contents in Kasuga-yama Hill Primeval Forest, which is a World Heritage Site in Nara, Japan consisting of lowland laurel-leaved forest where natural conditions have been preserved for more than 1,000 years, were examined using the two-step hydrolysis to clarify the source of the neutral sugar and relations with the neutral sugar constituted the soil organic matter and the microbial biomass. Samples were selected from the soil (L, F, H and A horizons) surrounding laurel-leaved (BB-1) and Carpinus japonica (BB-2 and PW) trees for analysis. The neutral sugars were one factor of increasing the fungal and bacterial biomass in the laurel-leaved forest soil (BB-1). The more neutral sugar contents in the Cryptomeria japonica forest soil (PW) contributed to the growth of the bacteria and fungi than those of in the Cryptomeria japonica forest soil (BB-2). The neutral sugars had higher correlation with the numbers of bacteria and fungi counted by the dilution plate count method than by the direct microscopic count method. The numbers of fungi had higher correlation with those of bacteria by the dilution plate method.

Keywords: forest soil, neutral sugars, soil organic matter, two-step hydrolysis

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33280 Teaching Speaking Skills to Adult English Language Learners through ALM

Authors: Wichuda Kunnu, Aungkana Sukwises

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Audio-lingual method (ALM) is a teaching approach that is claimed that ineffective for teaching second/foreign languages. Because some linguists and second/foreign language teachers believe that ALM is a rote learning style. However, this study is done on a belief that ALM will be able to solve Thais’ English speaking problem. This paper aims to report the findings on teaching English speaking to adult learners with an “adapted ALM”, one distinction of which is to use Thai as the medium language of instruction. The participants are consisted of 9 adult learners. They were allowed to speak English more freely using both the materials presented in the class and their background knowledge of English. At the end of the course, they spoke English more fluently, more confidently, to the extent that they applied what they learnt both in and outside the class.

Keywords: teaching English, audio lingual method, cognitive science, psychology

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33279 The Mediatory Role of Innovation in the Link between Social and Financial Performance

Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Amin Jahangard, Milad Samavat, Saeid Homayoun

Abstract:

In the modern competitive business environment, one cannot overstate the importance of corporate social responsibility. The controversial link between the social and financial performance of firms has become a topic of interest for scholars. Hence, this study examines the social and financial performance link by taking into account the mediating role of innovation performance. We conducted the Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) method on an international sample of firms provided by the ASSET4 database. In this research, to explore the black box of the social and financial performance relationship, we first examined the effect of social performance separately on financial performance and innovation; then, we measured the mediation role of innovation in the social and financial performance link. While our results indicate the positive effect of social performance on financial performance and innovation, we cannot document the positive mediating role of innovation. This possibly relates to the long-term nature of benefits from investments in innovation.

Keywords: ESG, financial performance, innovation, social performance, structural equation modeling

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33278 Sea-Land Segmentation Method Based on the Transformer with Enhanced Edge Supervision

Authors: Lianzhong Zhang, Chao Huang

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Sea-land segmentation is a basic step in many tasks such as sea surface monitoring and ship detection. The existing sea-land segmentation algorithms have poor segmentation accuracy, and the parameter adjustments are cumbersome and difficult to meet actual needs. Also, the current sea-land segmentation adopts traditional deep learning models that use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). At present, the transformer architecture has achieved great success in the field of natural images, but its application in the field of radar images is less studied. Therefore, this paper proposes a sea-land segmentation method based on the transformer architecture to strengthen edge supervision. It uses a self-attention mechanism with a gating strategy to better learn relative position bias. Meanwhile, an additional edge supervision branch is introduced. The decoder stage allows the feature information of the two branches to interact, thereby improving the edge precision of the sea-land segmentation. Based on the Gaofen-3 satellite image dataset, the experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively improve the accuracy of sea-land segmentation, especially the accuracy of sea-land edges. The mean IoU (Intersection over Union), edge precision, overall precision, and F1 scores respectively reach 96.36%, 84.54%, 99.74%, and 98.05%, which are superior to those of the mainstream segmentation models and have high practical application values.

Keywords: SAR, sea-land segmentation, deep learning, transformer

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33277 Study on Optimization Design of Pressure Hull for Underwater Vehicle

Authors: Qasim Idrees, Gao Liangtian, Liu Bo, Miao Yiran

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In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the pressure hull structure, optimization of underwater vehicle based on response surface methodology, a method for optimizing the design of pressure hull structure was studied. To determine the pressure shell of five dimensions as a design variable, the application of thin shell theory and the Chinese Classification Society (CCS) specification was carried on the preliminary design. In order to optimize variables of the feasible region, different methods were studied and implemented such as Opt LHD method (to determine the design test sample points in the feasible domain space), parametric ABAQUS solution for each sample point response, and the two-order polynomial response for the surface model of the limit load of structures. Based on the ultimate load of the structure and the quality of the shell, the two-generation genetic algorithm was used to solve the response surface, and the Pareto optimal solution set was obtained. The final optimization result was 41.68% higher than that of the initial design, and the shell quality was reduced by about 27.26%. The parametric method can ensure the accuracy of the test and improve the efficiency of optimization.

Keywords: parameterization, response surface, structure optimization, pressure hull

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33276 Sensor Validation Using Bottleneck Neural Network and Variable Reconstruction

Authors: Somia Bouzid, Messaoud Ramdani

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The success of any diagnosis strategy critically depends on the sensors measuring process variables. This paper presents a detection and diagnosis sensor faults method based on a Bottleneck Neural Network (BNN). The BNN approach is used as a statistical process control tool for drinking water distribution (DWD) systems to detect and isolate the sensor faults. Variable reconstruction approach is very useful for sensor fault isolation, this method is validated in simulation on a nonlinear system: actual drinking water distribution system. Several results are presented.

Keywords: fault detection, localization, PCA, NLPCA, auto-associative neural network

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33275 Emotional and Personal Characteristics of Children in Relation to the Parental Attitudes

Authors: Svetlana S. Saveysheva, Victoria E. Vasilenko

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The purpose of the research was to study the emotional and personal characteristics of preschool children in relation to the characteristics of child-parent interaction and deviant parental attitudes. The study involved 172 mothers and 172 children (85 boys and 87 girls) aged 4,5 to 7 years (mean age 6 years) living in St. Petersburg, Russia. Methods used were, demographic questionnaire, projective drawing method 'House-Tree-Man', Test of anxiety (Temml, Dorki, Amen), technique of studying self-esteem 'Ladder', expert evaluation of sociability and aggressiveness, questionnaire for children-parent emotional interaction (E.I. Zaharova) and questionnaire 'Analysis of family relationships' (E.G. Eidemiller, V.V. Yustitsky). Results. The greatest number of links with personal characteristics have received such parental deviant attitudes as overprotection and characteristics of authoritarian style (prohibitions, sanctions). If the mother has such peculiarities of the parental relationship, the child is characterized by lower self-esteem, increased anxiety, distrust of themselves and hostility. Children have more pronounced manifestations of aggression in a conniving and unstable style of parenting. The sensitivity of the mother is positively associated with children’s self-esteem. Unconditional acceptance of the child, the predominance of a positive emotional background, orientation to the state of the child during interaction promote the development of communication skills and reduce of aggressiveness. But the excessive closeness of the mother with the child can make it difficult to develop the communicative skills. Conclusions. The greatest influence on emotional and personal characteristics is provided by such features of the parental relation as overprotection, characteristics of authoritarian style, underdevelopment of the sphere of parental feelings, sensitivity of mother and behavioral manifestations of emotional interaction. Research is supported by RFBR №18-013-00990.

Keywords: characteristics of personality, child-parent interaction, children, deviant parental attitudes

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33274 Discrimination of Artificial Intelligence

Authors: Iman Abu-Rub

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This research paper examines if Artificial Intelligence is, in fact, racist or not. Different studies from all around the world, and covering different communities were analyzed to further understand AI’s true implications over different communities. The black community, Asian community, and Muslim community were all analyzed and discussed in the paper to figure out if AI is biased or unbiased towards these specific communities. It was found that the biggest problem AI faces is the biased distribution of data collection. Most of the data inserted and coded into AI are of a white male, which significantly affects the other communities in terms of reliable cultural, political, or medical research. Nonetheless, there are various research was done that help increase awareness of this issue, but also solve it completely if done correctly. Governments and big corporations are able to implement different strategies into their AI inventions to avoid any racist results, which could cause hatred culturally but also unreliable data, medically, for example. Overall, Artificial Intelligence is not racist per se, but the data implementation and current racist culture online manipulate AI to become racist.

Keywords: social media, artificial intelligence, racism, discrimination

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33273 The Role of the University of Zululand in Documenting and Disseminating Indigenous Knowledge, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Authors: Smiso Buthelezi, Petros Dlamini, Dennis Ocholla

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The study assesses the University of Zululand's practices for documenting, sharing, and accessing indigenous knowledge. Two research objectives guided it: to determine how indigenous knowledge (IK) is developed at the University of Zululand and how indigenous knowledge (IK) is documented at the University of Zululand. The study adopted both interpretive and positivist research paradigms. Ultimately, qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The qualitative research approach collected data from academic and non-academic staff members. Interviews were conducted with 18 academic staff members and 5 with support staff members. The quantitative research approach was used to collect data from indigenous knowledge (IK) theses and dissertations from the University of Zululand Institutional Repository between 2009-2019. The study results revealed that many departments across the University of Zululand were involved in creating indigenous knowledge (IK)-related content. The department of African Languages was noted to be more involved in creating IK-related content. Moreover, the documentation of the content related to indigenous knowledge (IK) at the University of Zululand is done frequently but is not readily known. It was found that the creation and documentation of indigenous knowledge by different departments faced several challenges. The common challenges are a lack of interest among indigenous knowledge (IK) owners in sharing their knowledge, the local language as a barrier, and a shortage of proper tools for recording and capturing indigenous knowledge (IK). One of the study recommendations is the need for an indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) policy to be in place at the University of Zululand.

Keywords: knowledge creation, SECI model, information and communication technology., indigenous knowledge

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33272 Infinite Impulse Response Digital Filters Design

Authors: Phuoc Si Nguyen

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Infinite impulse response (IIR) filters can be designed from an analogue low pass prototype by using frequency transformation in the s-domain and bilinear z-transformation with pre-warping frequency; this method is known as frequency transformation from the s-domain to the z-domain. This paper will introduce a new method to transform an IIR digital filter to another type of IIR digital filter (low pass, high pass, band pass, band stop or narrow band) using a technique based on inverse bilinear z-transformation and inverse matrices. First, a matrix equation is derived from inverse bilinear z-transformation and Pascal’s triangle. This Low Pass Digital to Digital Filter Pascal Matrix Equation is used to transform a low pass digital filter to other digital filter types. From this equation and the inverse matrix, a Digital to Digital Filter Pascal Matrix Equation can be derived that is able to transform any IIR digital filter. This paper will also introduce some specific matrices to replace the inverse matrix, which is difficult to determine due to the larger size of the matrix in the current method. This will make computing and hand calculation easier when transforming from one IIR digital filter to another in the digital domain.

Keywords: bilinear z-transformation, frequency transformation, inverse bilinear z-transformation, IIR digital filters

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33271 West African Insurgents and Religious Conflict(s), Causes, Crimes and Control: An Evaluation of the Role of Economics Community of West African States

Authors: Ehosa Peter Ogbeni

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Religious conflict and insurgency are staying as growing phenomena globally especially within the West African region: this 'new wars’ in this part of the globe has brought many of its economies to the brink of collapse, creating humanitarian casualties and concerns for the visitors and international community. This ‘ugly’ trend has also affected the social, economic and political life of the West African region. Over the years, various religious and insurgency groups have raised arms against civilians and the government, the most recent extremist group, Boko Haram continues to expand and commit violent acts, such as sporadic suicide bombings and killing of innocent citizens and foreigners within the West African region especially in countries like Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad etc. It would have been expected that academic research focus on investigating the West African region; this is not the situation as most of the research on religious conflict and insurgencies have focused more on other parts of the World. Insurgencies and Religious Conflict studies in West Africa have fallen short of literature and very limited literature covers the activities of Boko Haram arm struggle. This research therefore, aims to fill the gap by investigating the role of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in managing the growing trend of religious conflicts and insurgency in West African States, by using Boko Haram as a case to review. This research adopted the critical theory paradigm using aspects of qualitative research techniques in carrying out its investigation. The findings of this research will help develop a framework that will aid the (ECOWAS) amongst other stakeholders in managing religious and insurgency motivated conflict.

Keywords: religious conflict, insurgencies, Boko haram, ECOWAS (economics community of West African states), peace building, conflict resolution

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33270 Electricity Generation from Renewables and Targets: An Application of Multivariate Statistical Techniques

Authors: Filiz Ersoz, Taner Ersoz, Tugrul Bayraktar

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Renewable energy is referred to as "clean energy" and common popular support for the use of renewable energy (RE) is to provide electricity with zero carbon dioxide emissions. This study provides useful insight into the European Union (EU) RE, especially, into electricity generation obtained from renewables, and their targets. The objective of this study is to identify groups of European countries, using multivariate statistical analysis and selected indicators. The hierarchical clustering method is used to decide the number of clusters for EU countries. The conducted statistical hierarchical cluster analysis is based on the Ward’s clustering method and squared Euclidean distances. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified eight distinct clusters of European countries. Then, non-hierarchical clustering (k-means) method was applied. Discriminant analysis was used to determine the validity of the results with data normalized by Z score transformation. To explore the relationship between the selected indicators, correlation coefficients were computed. The results of the study reveal the current situation of RE in European Union Member States.

Keywords: share of electricity generation, k-means clustering, discriminant, CO2 emission

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33269 The Role of the Indonesian Armed Forces to Combat Terrorism Acts During the COVID 19 Pandemic Era

Authors: Aulia Rosa Nasution

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This research aims to analyze the involvement of the Indonesian Armed Forces in overcoming terrorism acts under legal perspectives based on Acts No. 34 of 2004, which regulates the role and mechanism of the Indonesian Armed Forces in combating terrorism. The main question of this research is, firstly, the military authority in combating terrorism acts, secondly, the implementation of Acts Number 34/2000, and thirdly, law enforcement to combat terrorism under national and international law. The methodology of this research is juridical normative based on the legal instruments and legal principles, and international norms. The result of this study explains the involvement of the Indonesian Army in combating terrorism as a part of the nonmilitary operation which has been implemented in Indonesia as part of national defence and security.

Keywords: acts of terrorism, Indonesian armed forces, legal protection

Procedia PDF Downloads 117
33268 Free Shape Optimisation of Cold Formed Steel Sections

Authors: Mina Mortazavi, Pezhman Sharafi

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Cold-formed steel sections are popular construction materials as structural or non-structural elements. The objective of this paper is to propose an optimisation method for open cross sections targeting the maximum nominal axial strength. The cross sections considered in the optimisation process should all meet a determined critical global buckling load to be considered as a candidate for optimisation process. The maximum dimensions of the cross section are fixed and limited into a predefined rectangular area. The optimisation process is repeated for different available coil thicknesses of 1 mm, 2.5 mm and 3 mm to determine the optimum thickness according to the cross section buckling behaviour. A simple-simple boundary is assumed as end conditions. The number of folds is limited to 20 folds to prevent extra complicated sections. The global buckling load is considered as Euler load and is determined according to the moment of inertia of the cross-section with a constant length. The critical buckling loads are obtained using Finite Strip Method. The results of the optimisation analysis are provided, and the optimum cross-section within the considered range is determined.

Keywords: shape optimisation, buckling, cold formed steel, finite strip method

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33267 Sampled-Data Model Predictive Tracking Control for Mobile Robot

Authors: Wookyong Kwon, Sangmoon Lee

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In this paper, a sampled-data model predictive tracking control method is presented for mobile robots which is modeled as constrained continuous-time linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. The presented sampled-data predictive controller is designed by linear matrix inequality approach. Based on the input delay approach, a controller design condition is derived by constructing a new Lyapunov function. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method.

Keywords: model predictive control, sampled-data control, linear parameter varying systems, LPV

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33266 21st Century Provocation: Modern Slavery, the Implications for Individuals on the Autism Spectrum

Authors: Christina Surmei

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined as a diverse range of developmental conditions that affect an individual’s functionality. ASD is not linear, and individuals can present with deficits in social interaction, communication, and demonstrate limited, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities. These characteristics may be observed in a variety of ways and range from mild to severe. ASD may include autism disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, Asperger’s, or other related pervasive developmental disorders. Modern slavery is defined as 'situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, and abuse of power or deception'. A review of the literature investigated the prevalence of research regarding ASD and modern slavery. Two universal search engines and five online journals were used as the apparatuses of inquiry. The results revealed two editorials, one study, and one act, totaling four publications attesting to ASD and modern slavery as a joint entity. This is representative of a vast absence of research. However, as individual entities research on autism and modern slavery is in a general high occurrence. This paper has identified a significant gap in research on ASD and modern slavery, and initiates the dialogue to unpack a significant global issue in society today.

Keywords: autism spectrum, education, modern slavery, support

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33265 Solar Architecture of Low-Energy Buildings for Industrial Applications

Authors: P. Brinks, O. Kornadt, R. Oly

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This research focuses on the optimization of glazed surfaces and the assessment of possible solar gains in industrial buildings. Existing window rating methods for single windows were evaluated and a new method for a simple analysis of energy gains and losses by single windows was introduced. Furthermore extensive transient building simulations were carried out to appraise the performance of low cost polycarbonate multi-cell sheets in interaction with typical buildings for industrial applications. Mainly, energy-saving potential was determined by optimizing the orientation and area of such glazing systems in dependency on their thermal qualities. Moreover the impact on critical aspects such as summer overheating and daylight illumination was considered to ensure the user comfort and avoid additional energy demand for lighting or cooling. Hereby the simulated heating demand could be reduced by up to 1/3 compared to traditional architecture of industrial halls using mainly skylights.

Keywords: solar architecture, Passive Solar Building Design, glazing, Low-Energy Buildings, industrial buildings

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33264 Proposed Organizational Development Interventions in Managing Occupational Stressors for Business Schools in Batangas City

Authors: Marlon P. Perez

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The study intended to determine the level of occupational stress that was experienced by faculty members of private and public business schools in Batangas City with the end in view of proposing organizational development interventions in managing occupational stressors. Stressors such as factors intrinsic to the job, role in the organization, relationships at work, career development and organizational structure and climate were used as determinants of occupational stress level. Descriptive method of research was used as its research design. There were only 64 full-time faculty members coming from private and public business schools in Batangas City – University of Batangas, Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas, Golden Gate Colleges, Batangas State University and Colegio ng Lungsod ng Batangas. Survey questionnaire was used as data gathering instrument. It was found out that all occupational stressors were assessed stressful when grouped according to its classification of tertiary schools while response of subject respondents differs on their assessment of occupational stressors. Age variable has become significantly related to respondents’ assessments on factors intrinsic to the job and career development; however, it was not significantly related to role in the organization, relationships at work and organizational structure and climate. On the other hand, gender, marital status, highest educational attainment, employment status, length of service, area of specialization and classification of tertiary school were revealed to be not significantly related to all occupational stressors. Various organizational development interventions have been proposed to manage the occupational stressors that are experienced by business faculty members in the institution.

Keywords: occupational stress, business school, organizational development, intervention, stressors, faculty members, assessment, manage

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33263 The Impact of Using Building Information Modeling Technology in Construction Projects Management

Authors: Mohammad Ashraf

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This research links the use of Building Information Modeling technology in constructions and infrastructure projects, starting from the moment when considering the establishment of a project to demolishing or renovating it, going through the design work, planning, procurement and implementation. BIM Software's which used are Revit, Navisworks and Asta Project in the case study for the Atletico Madrid Stadium project (Wanda Stadium). Also, the project improves through various phases of construction (planning - implementation - management). Besides, the level of the details managed within this project advances gradually. In addition, the construction process problems become about 30 % less than before, resulting from high coordination between designing, implementation and follow through that is done by the project management office (PMO). The current disposition in the industry is to tightly manage the detail contained within the planning and coordination phases of construction, but we miss the opportunity to manage that data as it matures and grows into the execution and commissioning phases.

Keywords: construction management, BIM technology, planning, design, procurements, critical path method

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33262 Method for Identification of Through Defects of Polymer Films Applied onto Metal Parts

Authors: Yu A. Pluttsova , O. V. Vakhnina , K. B. Zhogova

Abstract:

Nowadays, many devices operate under conditions of enhanced humidity, temperature drops, fog, and vibration. To ensure long-term and uninterruptable equipment operation under adverse conditions, one applies moisture-proof films on products and electronics components, which helps to prevent corrosion, short circuit, allowing a significant increase in device lifecycle. The reliability of such moisture-proof films is mainly determined by their coating uniformity without gaps and cracks. Unprotected product edges, as well as pores in films, can cause device failure during operation. The work objective was to develop an effective, affordable, and profit-proved method for determining the presence of through defects of protective polymer films on the surface of parts made of iron and its alloys. As a diagnostic reagent, one proposed water solution of potassium ferricyanide (III) in hydrochloric acid, this changes the color from yellow to blue according to the reactions; Feº → Fe²⁺ and 4Fe²⁺ + 3[Fe³⁺(CN)₆]³⁻ → Fe ³⁺4[Fe²⁺(CN)₆]₃. There was developed the principle scheme of technological process for determining the presence of polymer films through defects on the surface of parts made of iron and its alloys. There were studied solutions with different diagnostic reagent compositions in water: from 0,1 to 25 mass fractions, %, of potassium ferricyanide (III), and from 5 to 25 mass fractions, %, of hydrochloride acid. The optimal component ratio was chosen. The developed method consists in submerging a part covered with a film into a vessel with a diagnostic reagent. In the polymer film through defect zone, the part material (ferrum) interacts with potassium ferricyanide (III), the color changes to blue. Pilot samples were tested by the developed method for the presence of through defects in the moisture-proof coating. It was revealed that all the studied parts had through defects of the polymer film coating. Thus, the claimed method efficiently reveals polymer film coating through defects on parts made of iron or its alloys, being affordable and profit-proved.

Keywords: diagnostic reagent, metal parts, polimer films, through defects

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33261 The Research of Weights Identify of Harbin Ecological Security Evaluation Index Based on AHP

Authors: Rong Guo, Mengshi Huang, Yujing Bai

Abstract:

With the rapid development of urbanization, the urban population increases and urban sprawl appeared. And these issues led to a sharp deterioration of the ecological environment. So, the urban ecological security evaluation was imminent. The weights identify of index was a key step of the research of ecological security evaluation. The AHP was widely used in the extensive research of weights identify of ecological security index. The characteristics of authority and quantitative can fully reflect the views of relevant experts. On the basis of building the ecological security evaluation index of Harbin, the paper combed and used the basic principle of the AHP, and calculated the weights of Harbin ecological security evaluation index through the process of the expert opinions “summary-feedback-summary”. And lay a foundation of future study of Harbin ecological security index, and guide the quantitative evaluation of Harbin ecological security.

Keywords: AHP, ecological security, evaluation Index, weights identify, harbin

Procedia PDF Downloads 497
33260 Evaluation of Reliability Flood Control System Based on Uncertainty of Flood Discharge, Case Study Wulan River, Central Java, Indonesia

Authors: Anik Sarminingsih, Krishna V. Pradana

Abstract:

The failure of flood control system can be caused by various factors, such as not considering the uncertainty of designed flood causing the capacity of the flood control system is exceeded. The presence of the uncertainty factor is recognized as a serious issue in hydrological studies. Uncertainty in hydrological analysis is influenced by many factors, starting from reading water elevation data, rainfall data, selection of method of analysis, etc. In hydrological modeling selection of models and parameters corresponding to the watershed conditions should be evaluated by the hydraulic model in the river as a drainage channel. River cross-section capacity is the first defense in knowing the reliability of the flood control system. Reliability of river capacity describes the potential magnitude of flood risk. Case study in this research is Wulan River in Central Java. This river occurring flood almost every year despite some efforts to control floods such as levee, floodway and diversion. The flood-affected areas include several sub-districts, mainly in Kabupaten Kudus and Kabupaten Demak. First step is analyze the frequency of discharge observation from Klambu weir which have time series data from 1951-2013. Frequency analysis is performed using several distribution frequency models such as Gumbel distribution, Normal, Normal Log, Pearson Type III and Log Pearson. The result of the model based on standard deviation overlaps, so the maximum flood discharge from the lower return periods may be worth more than the average discharge for larger return periods. The next step is to perform a hydraulic analysis to evaluate the reliability of river capacity based on the flood discharge resulted from several methods. The selection of the design flood discharge of flood control system is the result of the method closest to bankfull capacity of the river.

Keywords: design flood, hydrological model, reliability, uncertainty, Wulan river

Procedia PDF Downloads 294
33259 Adaptive Motion Planning for 6-DOF Robots Based on Trigonometric Functions

Authors: Jincan Li, Mingyu Gao, Zhiwei He, Yuxiang Yang, Zhongfei Yu, Yuanyuan Liu

Abstract:

Building an appropriate motion model is crucial for trajectory planning of robots and determines the operational quality directly. An adaptive acceleration and deceleration motion planning based on trigonometric functions for the end-effector of 6-DOF robots in Cartesian coordinate system is proposed in this paper. This method not only achieves the smooth translation motion and rotation motion by constructing a continuous jerk model, but also automatically adjusts the parameters of trigonometric functions according to the variable inputs and the kinematic constraints. The results of computer simulation show that this method is correct and effective to achieve the adaptive motion planning for linear trajectories.

Keywords: kinematic constraints, motion planning, trigonometric function, 6-DOF robots

Procedia PDF Downloads 271
33258 A Simple Design Procedure for Calculating the Column Ultimate Load of Steel Frame Structures

Authors: Abdul Hakim Chikho

Abstract:

Calculating the ultimate load of a column in a sway framed structure involves, in the currently used design method, the calculation of the column effective length and utilizing the interaction formulas or tables. Therefore, no allowance is usually made for the effects of the presence of semi rigid connections or the presence of infill panels. In this paper, a new and simple design procedure is recommend to calculate the ultimate load of a framed Column allowing for the presence of rotational end restraints, semi rigid connections, the column end moments resulted from the applied vertical and horizontal loading and infill panels in real steel structure. In order to verify the accuracy of the recommended method to predict good and safe estimations of framed column ultimate loads, several examples have been solved utilizing the recommended procedure, and the results were compared to those obtained using a second order computer program, and good correlation had been obtained. Therefore, the accuracy of the proposed method to predict the Behaviour of practical steel columns in framed structures has been verified.

Keywords: column ultimate load, semi rigid connections, steel column, infill panel, steel structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 178