Search results for: home state litigation

Authors: Ayorinde B. Ogunremi, Kehinde A. Adewoyin, Adebamwo Adebayo

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Record of radionuclide concentration in an environment is essential to ensure human safety due to exposure to ionizing radiation. This study aimed at assessing the radionuclide concentration and doses from soil samples in the study area. Twenty soil samples were collected and dried in the oven at 110°C to remove the moisture, pulverized, and sieved. 200 g of each of the samples were sealed in cylindrical sample holders; they were left for four weeks to attain secular equilibrium between ²²⁶Ra and its decay daughters, after which the sample was analyzed using gamma-ray spectrometry. After the well-guided procedure for the calibrations, the analysis of the samples was carried out using a well-calibrated NaI (TI) and well-shielded detector coupled to a computer resident quantum MCA2100 R Multichannel analyzer for 36,000 s. The mean activity concentrations of ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra, and ²³²Th obtained were calculated to be 272.37 ± 33.58, 10.97 ± 3.24, 9.39 ± 2.27 Bqkg-1 respectively. The average absorbed dose obtained was 22.10 nGy/h. The radium equivalent activity (Raeq) was estimated to be 43.27 Bq/kg. The activity concentrations (Bq/kg) were below the recommended values, which are 420, 33, and 45 for ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra, and ²³²Th, respectively. Considering the results, we conclude thus, the radiation level within the estate poses no significant health risk on dwellers and workers.

Keywords: absorbed, effective, multichannel, radionuclide

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Authors: Ghada Elshafei, A. Elazim Negm

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Recently, Green architecture becomes a significant way to a sustainable future. Green building designs involve finding the balance between comfortable homebuilding and sustainable environment. Moreover, the utilization of the new technologies such as artificial intelligence techniques are used to complement current practices in creating greener structures to keep the built environment more sustainable. The most common objectives are green buildings should be designed to minimize the overall impact of the built environment on ecosystems in general and particularly on human health and on the natural environment. This will lead to protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, reducing pollution and sustaining the environmental. In green building design, multiple parameters which may be interrelated, contradicting, vague and of qualitative/quantitative nature are broaden to use. This paper presents a comprehensive critical state of art review of current practices based on fuzzy and its combination techniques. Also, presented how green architecture/building can be improved using the technologies that been used for analysis to seek optimal green solutions strategies and models to assist in making the best possible decision out of different alternatives.

Keywords: green architecture/building, technologies, optimization, strategies, fuzzy techniques, models

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Authors: Reza Mohammadi, Mahmod R. Sahebi, Mehrnoosh Omati, Milad Vahidi

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Classification of high resolution polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images plays an important role in land cover and land use management. Recently, classification algorithms based on Bag of Visual Words (BOVW) model have attracted significant interest among scholars and researchers in and out of the field of remote sensing. In this paper, BOVW model with pixel based low-level features has been implemented to classify a subset of San Francisco bay PolSAR image, acquired by RADARSAR 2 in C-band. We have used segment-based decision-making strategy and compared the result with the result of traditional Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. 90.95% overall accuracy of the classification with the proposed algorithm has shown that the proposed algorithm is comparable with the state-of-the-art methods. In addition to increase in the classification accuracy, the proposed method has decreased undesirable speckle effect of SAR images.

Keywords: Bag of Visual Words (BOVW), classification, feature extraction, land cover management, Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR)

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Authors: H. Chenine, D. Ouinas, Z. Bennaceur

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The thin shell structures like metal are particularly susceptible to buckling or geometric instability. Their sizing is performed by resorting to simplified rules, this approach is generally conservative. Indeed, these structures are very sensitive to the slightest imperfection shape (initial geometrical defects). The design is usually based on the knowledge of the real or perceived initial state. Now this configuration evolves over time, there is usually the addition of new deformities due to operation (accidental loads, creep), but also to loss of material located in the corroded areas. Taking into account these various damage generally led to a loss of bearing capacity. In order to preserve the charge potential of the structure, it is then necessary to find a different material. In our study, we plan to replace the material used for reservoirs found in the company Sonatrach with a composite material made from carbon fiber or glass. 6 to 12 layers of composite are simply stuck. Research is devoted to the study of the buckling of multilayer shells subjected to an imposed displacement, allowed us to identify the key parameters and those whose effect is less. For all results, we find that the carbon epoxy T700E is the strongest, increasing the number of layers increases the strength of the shell.

Keywords: finite element analysis, circular notches, buckling, tank made composite materials

Procedia PDF Downloads 213

Authors: H. Chenine, D. Ouinas, Z. Bennaceur

Abstract:

The thin shell structures like metal are particularly susceptible to buckling or geometric instability. Their sizing is performed by resorting to simplified rules, this approach is generally conservative. Indeed, these structures are very sensitive to the slightest imperfection shape (initial geometrical defects). The design is usually based on the knowledge of the real or perceived initial state. Now this configuration evolves over time, there is usually the addition of new deformities due to operation (accidental loads, creep), but also to loss of material located in the corroded areas. Taking into account these various damage generally led to a loss of bearing capacity. In order to preserve the charge potential of the structure, it is then necessary to find a different material. In our study we plan to replace the material used for reservoirs found in the company Sonatrach with a composite material made from carbon fiber or glass. 6 to 12 layers of composite are simply stuck. Research is devoted to the study of the buckling of multilayer shells subjected to an imposed displacement, allowed us to identify the key parameters and those whose effect is less. For all results, we find that the carbon epoxy T700E is the strongest, increasing the number of layers increases the strength of the shell.

Keywords: Finite Element Analysis, circular notches, buckling, tank made composite materials

Procedia PDF Downloads 358

Authors: Line Massé, Claire Baudry, Claudia Verret, Marie-France Nadeau, Anne Brault-Labbé

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Little research has been conducted on educational services adapted for twice exceptional students. Within an action research, a cluster grouping was set up in an elementary school in Quebec, bringing together gifted or doubly exceptional (2E) students (n = 11) and students not identified as gifted (n = 8) within a multilevel class (3ᵣ𝒹 and 4ₜₕ years). 2E students had either attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 8, including 3 with specific learning disability) or autism spectrum disorder (n = 2). Differentiated instructions strategies were implemented, including the possibility of progressing at their own pace of learning, independent study or research projects, flexible accommodation, tutoring with older students and the development of socio-emotional learning. A specialized educator also supported the teacher in the class for behavioural and socio-affective aspects. Objectives: The study aimed to assess the impacts of the grouping on all students, their academic motivation, and their socio-emotional adaptation. Method: A mixed method was used, combining a qualitative approach with a quantitative approach. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with students (N = 18, 4 girls and 14 boys aged 8 to 9) and one of their parents (N = 18) at the end of the school year. Parents and students completed two questionnaires at the beginning and end of the school year: the Behavior Assessment System for Children-3, children or parents versions (BASC-3, Reynolds and Kampus, 2015) and the Academic Motivation in Education (Vallerand et al., 1993). Parents also completed the Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994, adapted by Fenouillet et al., 2014) comprising three domains (school, friendships, and motivation). Mixed thematic analyzes were carried out on the data from the interviews using the N'Vivo software. Related-samples Wilcoxon rank-sums tests were conducted for the data from the questionnaires. Results: Different themes emerge from the students' comments, including a positive impact on school motivation or attitude toward school, improved school results, reduction of their behavioural difficulties and improvement of their social relations. These remarks were more frequent among 2E students. Most 2E students also noted an improvement in their academic performance. Most parents reported improvements in attitudes toward school and reductions in disruptive behaviours in the classroom. Some parents also observed changes in behaviours at home or in the socio-emotional well-being of their children, here again, particularly parents of 2E children. Analysis of questionnaires revealed significant differences at the end of the school year, more specifically pertaining to extrinsic motivation identified, problems of conduct, attention, emotional self-control, executive functioning, negative emotions, functional deficiencies, and satisfaction regarding friendships. These results indicate that this approach could benefit not only gifted and doubly exceptional students but also students not identified as gifted.

Keywords: Cluster grouping, elementary school, giftedness, mixed methods, twice exceptional students

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Authors: Ezgi Avci-Surucu, Doganbey Akgul

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Turkey’s energy reforms has achieved energy security through a variety of interlinked measures including electricity, gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency legislation; the establishment of an energy sector regulatory authority; energy price reform; the creation of a functional electricity market; restructuring of state-owned energy enterprises; and private sector participation through privatization and new investment. However, current strategies, namely; “Electricity Sector Reform and Privatization Strategy” and “Electricity Market and Supply Security Strategy” has been criticized for various aspects. The present paper analyzes the implementation of the aforementioned strategies in the framework of generation scheduling, transmission constraints, bidding structure and general aspects; and argues the deficiencies of current strategies which decelerates power investments and creates uncertainties. We conclude by policy suggestions to eliminate these deficiencies in terms of price and risk management, infrastructure, customer focused regulations and systematic market development.

Keywords: electricity markets, risk management, regulations, balancing and settlement, bilateral trading, generation scheduling, bidding structure

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Authors: Vimal Kumar Chouksey, S. P. Sharma

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This paper deals with theoretical analysis of performance of solar air collector having its duct packed with blackened wire screen matrices. The heat transfer equations for two-dimensional fully developed fluid flows under quasi-steady-state conditions have been developed in order to analyze the effect of bed depth on performance. A computer programme is developed in C++ language to estimate the temperature rise of entering air for evaluation of performance by solving the governing equations numerically using relevant correlations for heat transfer coefficient for packed bed systems. Results of air temperature rise and thermal efficiency obtained from the analysis have been compared with available experimental results and results have been found fairly in closed agreement. It has been found that there is considerable enhancement in performance with packed bed collector upto a certain total bed depth. Effect of total bed depth on efficiency show that there is an upper limiting value of total bed depth beyond which the thermal efficiency begins to fall again and this type of characteristics behavior is observed at all mass flow rate.

Keywords: plane collector, solar air heater, solar energy, wire screen packed bed

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Authors: Anyaogu Paul

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The study examines the problem of child labour in respect to National security in Nigeria. The current situation reflects a chronic urban poverty, which can compel parents and guardians to send their children and wards of school age to engage in income yielding activities to augment family income. The study sought to explain the basis of child labour, its causes and its effects on its victim and society at large. A social survey research design was employed to select the respondents. A sample size of 250 respondents was selected from targeted population of children below the age of 18 years. A questionnaire instrument was employed to collect data. An accidental sampling technique was employed to select the respondents. The findings revealed that child labour is on the increase and a serious threat to national security and social cohesion. The study recommends that the Nigerian government should enforce the laws on child labour and provide opportunities for job creation for urban dwellers. More so, government should also provide free and compulsory education at primary and secondary school levels of education.

Keywords: child labour, family income, national security, survey research

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Authors: Carlos Joel Tchawouo Mbiada

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This paper intends to refrain from debating the different meanings of justice, such as its social or moral meaning, nor to discuss the different theories of justice. This paper focuses on the legal understanding of access to justice to mean access to the court. Using the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts as a case study, this paper investigates whether the composition of the bench, the personnel and state mechanisms to promote access to court offer ideal conditions to access to court. The investigation is benchmarked against the South African new constitutional order underpinned by the concept of social justice to eradicate past injustices. To provide justice to all, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 guarantees the right to access to the court. The question that takes centre stage in this paper is whether litigants are denied the right to access the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts. The paper argues that factors such as the status of the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts, the number of judges, and the building structure prevent litigants from accessing these courts. The paper advocates for a legislative overhaul of the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts structure so that litigants may access the courts. Until such time, the paper argues that the right to access the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts would remain far from the reach of many litigants.

Keywords: access to justice, access to court, labour court, labour appeal court

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Authors: Esraa Moustafa, Gaetan Rey, Stephane Lavirotte, Jean-Yves Tigli

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With the development of Internet of Things and Web of Things, computing becomes more pervasive, invisible and present everywhere. In fact, in our environment, we are surrounded by multiple devices that deliver (web) services that meet the needs of the users. However, the mobility of these devices as the users has important repercussions that challenge software design of these applications because the variability of the environment cannot be anticipated at the design time. Thus, it will be interesting to dynamically discover the environment and adapt the application during its execution to the new contextual conditions. We, therefore, propose a model of a context-aware middleware that can address this issue through a monitoring service that is capable of reasoning and observation channels capable of calculating the context during the runtime. The monitoring service evaluates the pre-defined X-Query predicates in the context manager and uses Prolog to deduce the services needed to respond back. An independent Observation Channel for each different predicate is then dynamically generated by the monitoring service depending on the current state of the environment. Each channel sends its result directly to the context manager which consequently calculates the context based on all the predicates’ results while preserving the reactivity of the self-adaptive system.

Keywords: auto-adaptation, context-awareness, middleware, reasoning engine

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Authors: Mohammad Mushir Khan, C. Satyanarayana

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Education is considered as one of the prime bottlenecks in the economic growth of India. The Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India has, therefore, given special attention to this issue and the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education has increased marginally during last five years, with the efforts and various policy decisions like Right to Education (RTE) and other fee reimbursement schemes, initiated by the State Governments. But still this is one of the lowest, if assessed at the global level. It is true that the GER has improved but the survey reveals that the quality has been badly affected. This paper tries to assess the impact of lack of quality education in various sectors that affects Indian Economy and thereby signifies the need of immediate policy decision at the government level. It is to be noted that in higher education, science, management, engineering and technology plays vital role as far as shaping country’s economy is concerned and as such the quality needs to be addressed, particularly, in these streams. The paper, after carefully studying lots of survey reports and other government/ non-government documents recommends measures to be initiated by the Central Government, on priority, for improving quality of education. The quality up-gradation in higher education single handedly provides real fuel to the India’s growth Engine, as it has potential to touch each and every sector that strengthens country’s economy.

Keywords: higher education, economy, accreditation, industry, technology

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Authors: David Dolbow, Daniel Credeur, Mujtaba Rahimi, Dobrivoje Stokic, Jennifer Lemacks, Andrew Courtner

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Introduction: Obesity is at epidemic proportions in the spinal cord injury (SCI) population (66-75%), as individuals who suffer from paralysis undergo a dramatic decrease in muscle mass and a dramatic increase in adipose deposition. Obesity is a major public health concern which includes a doubling of the risk of heart disease, stroke and type II diabetes mellitus. It has been demonstrated that physical activity, and especially HIIT, can promote a healthy body composition and decrease the risk cardiometabolic disease in the able-bodied population. However, SCI typically limits voluntary exercise to the arms, but a high prevalence of shoulder pain in persons with chronic SCI (60-90%) can cause increased arm exercise to be problematic. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling has proven to be a safe and effective way to exercise paralyzed leg muscles in clinical and home settings, saving the often overworked arms. Yet, HIIT-FES cycling had not been investigated prior to the current study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the body composition changes with combined HIIT-FES cycling and nutritional counseling on individuals with SCI. Design: A matched (level of injury, time since injury, body mass index) and controlled trail. Setting: University exercise performance laboratory. Subjects: Ten individuals with chronic SCI (C5-T9) ASIA impairment classification (A & B) were divided into the treatment group (n=5) for 30 minutes of HIIT-FES cycling 3 times per week for 8 weeks and nutritional counseling over the phone for 30 minutes once per week for 8 weeks and the control group (n=5) who received nutritional counseling only. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the HIIT-FES group and the control group in mean body fat percentage change (-1.14 to +0.24) respectively, p = .030). There was also a statistically significant difference between the HIIT-FES and control groups in mean change in legs lean mass (+0.78 kg to -1.5 kg) respectively, p = 0.004. There was a nominal decrease in weight, BMI, total fat mass and a nominal increase in total lean mass for the HIIT-FES group over the control group. However, these changes were not found to be statistically significant. Additionally, there was a nominal decrease in the mean blood glucose levels for both groups 101.8 to 97.8 mg/dl for the HIIT-FES group and 94.6 to 93 mg/dl for the Nutrition only group, however, neither were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: HIIT-FES cycling combined with nutritional counseling can provide healthful body composition changes including decreased body fat percentage in just 8 weeks. Future study recommendations include a greater number of participants, a primer electrical stimulation exercise program to better ready participants for HIIT-FES cycling and a greater volume of training above 30 minutes, 3 times per week for 8 weeks.

Keywords: body composition, functional electrical stimulation cycling, high-intensity interval training, spinal cord injury

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Authors: James Katungyi

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The Steady State thermal comfort model which dominates thermal comfort practice and which posits the ideal thermal conditions in a narrow range of thermal conditions does not deliver the expected comfort levels among occupants. Furthermore, the buildings where this model is applied consume a lot of energy in conditioning. This paper reviews significant literature about thermal comfort in dynamic indoor conditions including the adaptive thermal comfort model and alliesthesia. A major finding of the paper is that the adaptive thermal comfort model is part of a trend from static to dynamic indoor environments in aspects such as lighting, views, sounds and ventilation. Alliesthesia or thermal delight is consistent with this trend towards dynamic thermal conditions. It is within this trend that the two fold goal of increased thermal comfort and reduced energy consumption lies. At the heart of this trend is a rediscovery of the link between the natural environment and human well-being, a link that was partially severed by over-reliance on mechanically dominated artificial indoor environments. The paper concludes by advocating thermal conditioning solutions that integrate mechanical with natural thermal conditioning in a balanced manner in order to meet occupant thermal needs without endangering the environment.

Keywords: adaptive thermal comfort, alliesthesia, energy, natural environment

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Authors: Tatsuya Otoshi, Masayuki Murata

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With the development and diversification of applications on the Internet, applications that require high responsiveness, such as video streaming, are becoming mainstream. Application responsiveness is not only a matter of communication delay but also a matter of time required to grasp changes in network conditions. The tradeoff between accuracy and measurement time is a challenge in network control. We people make countless decisions all the time, and our decisions seem to resolve tradeoffs between time and accuracy. When making decisions, people are known to make appropriate choices based on relatively small samples. Although there have been various studies on models of human decision-making, a model that integrates various cognitive biases, called ”quantum decision-making,” has recently attracted much attention. However, the modeling of small samples has not been examined much so far. In this paper, we extend the model of quantum decision-making to model decision-making with a small sample. In the proposed model, the state is updated by value-based probability amplitude amplification. By analytically obtaining a lower bound on the number of samples required for decision-making, we show that decision-making with a small number of samples is feasible.

Keywords: quantum decision making, small sample, MPEG-DASH, Grover's algorithm

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Authors: Jaishree Ranganathan, MuthuPriya Shanmugakani Velsamy, Shamika Kulkarni, Angelina Tzacheva

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Emotions play an important role in everyday life. An-alyzing these emotions or feelings from social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums based on user comments and reviews plays an important role in various factors. Some of them include brand monitoring, marketing strategies, reputation, and competitor analysis. The opinions or sentiments mined from such data helps understand the current state of the user. It does not directly provide intuitive insights on what actions to be taken to benefit the end user or business. Actionable Pattern Mining method provides suggestions or actionable recommendations on what changes or actions need to be taken in order to benefit the end user. In this paper, we propose automatic classification of emotions in Twitter data using Recurrent Neural Network - Gated Recurrent Unit. We achieve training accuracy of 87.58% and validation accuracy of 86.16%. Also, we extract action rules with respect to the user emotion that helps to provide actionable suggestion.

Keywords: emotion mining, twitter, recurrent neural network, gated recurrent unit, actionable pattern mining

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Authors: Ling Choo Chiew, Yoke Yong Chen, Chuong Hock Ting, Raveca Ak Ridi

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Job frustration become a prevalent issue in many occupational settings and is linked to mental state, which affects workers when they face obstacles that block them from meeting professional objectives and/or the organization's mission. This study examined the relationship between job frustration and mental health among healthcare workers. A cross-sectional design using the Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue test (CSF), Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), and Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire (PFQ) was employed to collect data from a sample of healthcare workers in Sarawak, Malaysia. The results showed that 44.3 % of the healthcare workers experienced compassion fatigue, 9.7% of the healthcare workers had personal burnt out, 3% were work-related burnt out, and 2% were client-related burnt out. On the other hand, the mean of psychological flexibility was 3.55 (SD = 0.838), which was found to be prevalent in the study sample, with varying degrees of severity. The results also indicated a significant association between compassion fatigue and psychological flexibility, F(₄, ₄₈₉) = 5.45, p<.001. Additionally, demographic factors were associated with higher levels of job frustration and burnout. The implications of these findings for developing targeted interventions and support strategies to promote mental well-being among healthcare workers are discussed.

Keywords: compassion fatigue, healthcare worker, job frustration, psychological flexibility

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Authors: Dimitris E. Kontaxis, George Litainas, Dimitris P. Ptochos

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Real-time monitoring of the supply chain conditions and procedures is a critical element for the optimal coordination and safety of the deliveries, as well as for the minimization of the delivery time and cost. Real-time monitoring requires IoT data streams, which are related to the conditions of the products and the means of transport (e.g., location, temperature/humidity conditions, kinematic state, ambient light conditions, etc.). These streams are generated by battery-based IoT tracking devices, equipped with appropriate sensors, and are transmitted to a cloud-based back-end system. Proper handling and processing of the IoT data streams, using predictive and artificial intelligence algorithms, can provide significant and useful results, which can be exploited by the supply chain stakeholders in order to enhance their financial benefits, as well as the efficiency, security, transparency, coordination, and sustainability of the supply chain procedures. The technology, the features, and the characteristics of a complete, proprietary system, including hardware, firmware, and software tools -developed in the context of a co-funded R&D programme- are addressed and presented in this paper.

Keywords: IoT embedded electronics, real-time monitoring, tracking device, sensor platform

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Authors: Miroslav Čulík, Petr Gurný

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This paper is aimed at the financial assessment of the hard coal mining in a given region by real option methodology application. Hard coal mining in this mine makes net loss for the owner during the last years due to the long-term unfavourable mining conditions and significant drop in the coal prices during the last years. Management is going to shut down the operation and abandon the project to reduce the loss of the company. The goal is to assess whether the shutting down the operation is the only and correct solution of the problem. Due to the uncertainty in the future hard coal price evolution, the production might be again restarted if the price raises enough to cover the cost of the production. For the assessment, real option methodology is applied, which captures two important aspect of the financial decision-making: risk and flexibility. The paper is structured as follows: first, current state is described and problem is analysed. Next, methodology of real options is described. At last, project is evaluated by applying real option methodology. The results are commented and recommendations are provided.

Keywords: real option, investment, option to abandon, option to shut down and restart, risk, flexibility

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Authors: Surajo Isa

Abstract:

In as much as mathematics is important to national development, it is regrettable to note that in Nigeria Students academic achievement especially in public examinations remains poor. Among the several factors responsible for such a poor performance is the lack of bringing cultural elements into the conventional school mathematics. The design for this study is triangulation in nature which is set to examined 800 students From 20 School (40 each from male and female schools). Ten (10) male and ten (10) female schools consisting of 400 male and 400 female students to formed the experiment and control groups with a further sub-groping of samples to represent urban and rural settings for both male and female groups. While the experimental groups were taught using ethnomathematics techniques, the control groups were taught using conventional techniques, the results of a t-test for independent samples at p =0.05 level of significance with tcritical = 1.968 showed that (a) boys performed significantly better than girls (b) there is no significantly difference in performance between urban and rural girls (c) significant difference in academic performance was obtained between urban and rural boys. Generally, it was observed that teaching mathematics with ethnomathematics technique would help in great achievement in mathematics.

Keywords: ethnomathematics, achievement, gender, settlement

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Authors: S. M. Al-Salem, G.A. Leeke, H. J. Karam, R. Al-Enzi, A. T. Al-Dhafeeri, J. Wang

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Thermogravimetry has been popularized as a thermal characterization technique since the 1950s. It aims at investigating the weight loss against both reaction time and temperature, whilst being able to characterize the evolved gases from the volatile components of the organic material being tested using an appropriate hyphenated analytical technique. In an effort to characterize and identify the reclaimed waste from an unsanitary landfill site, this approach was initiated. Solid waste (SW) reclaimed from an active landfill site in the State of Kuwait was collected and prepared for characterization in accordance with international protocols. The SW was segregated and its major components were identified after washing and air drying. Shredding and cryomilling was conducted on the plastic solid waste (PSW) component to yield a material that is representative for further testing and characterization. The material was subjected to five heating rates (b) with minimal repeatable weight for high accuracy thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) following the recommendation of the International Confederation for Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (ICTAC). The TGA yielded thermograms that showed an off-set from typical behavior of commercial grade resin which was attributed to contact of material with soil and thermal/photo-degradation.

Keywords: polymer, TGA, pollution, landfill, waste, plastic

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Authors: Michal Stelmach

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The aim of this paper is a critical analysis of the security policy in the field of the fight against transnational criminal groups in Central America in XXI century. We are analyzing all taken issues from several perspectives: political, anthropological, sociological and legal which allows me to confront behavior and the attitudes of the political elites against official legislative changes and declared actions, strategies and policies against practice. In the first part of paper we would like to present the genesis and characteristic of transnational gangs, called maras and next we would like to present their activities and roles within chosen sectors of organized crimes. In the second part we will analyze the government’s policy towards transnational criminal groups. The analysis will be concentrated on public safety policy implemented in specific Central American countries as well as regional international cooperation. The main intention of the author is to present the state of the security in Central America in XXI century by emphasizing failures and successes in the fight against transnational criminal organizations. Additionally we want to present and define the challenges currently facing the region now and to show the prediction of the situation’s development within next future and to define the recommendations on the design of public security policies in Central American countries.

Keywords: maras, public security, human rights, Central America

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Authors: Sajid Hussain

Abstract:

The complex domain approach for image segmentation based on active contour has been designed, which deforms step by step to partition an image into numerous expedient regions. A novel region-based trigonometric complex pressure force function is proposed, which propagates around the region of interest using image forces. The signed trigonometric force function controls the propagation of the active contour and the active contour stops on the exact edges of the object accurately. The proposed model makes the level set function binary and uses Gaussian smoothing kernel to adjust and escape the re-initialization procedure. The working principle of the proposed model is as follows: The real image data is transformed into complex data by iota (i) times of image data and the average iota (i) times of horizontal and vertical components of the gradient of image data is inserted in the proposed model to catch complex gradient of the image data. A simple finite difference mathematical technique has been used to implement the proposed model. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed model have been verified and compared with other state-of-the-art models.

Keywords: image segmentation, active contour, level set, Mumford and Shah model

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Authors: A. Hadjadj, S. Maamir

Abstract:

Since the advent of the law 86/14 concerning the
exploitation of the national territory by foreign companies in
partnership with the Algerian oil and gas company, the problem of
hydrocarbons metering in the sharing production come out.
More generally, good management counting hydrocarbons can
provide data on the production wells, the field and the reservoir for
medium and long term planning, particularly in the context of the
management and field development.
In this work, we are interested in the transactional metering which
is a very delicate and crucial period in the current context of the new
hydrocarbon’s law characterized by assets system between the
various activities of Sonatrach and its foreign partners.
After a state of the art on hydrocarbons metering devices in
Algeria and elsewhere, we will decline the advantages and
disadvantages of each system, and then we describe the problem to
try to reach an optimal solution.

Keywords: transactional metering, flowmeter orifice, heat flow, Sonatrach

Procedia PDF Downloads 360

Authors: Samia Elfekih, Wee Tek Tay, Karl Gordon, Paul De Barro

Abstract:

Invasive species represent an increasing threat to food biosecurity, causing significant economic losses in agricultural systems. An example is the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, which is a complex of morphologically indistinguishable species causing average annual global damage estimated at US$2.4 billion. The Bemisia complex represents an interesting model for evolutionary studies because of their extensive distribution and potential for invasiveness and population expansion. Within this complex, two species, Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean (MED) have invaded well beyond their home ranges whereas others, such as Indian Ocean (IO) and Australia (AUS), have not. In order to understand why some Bemisia species have become invasive, genome-wide sequence scans were used to estimate population dynamics over time and relate these to climate. The Bayesian Skyline Plot (BSP) method as implemented in BEAST was used to infer the historical effective population size. In order to overcome sampling bias, the populations were combined based on geographical origin. The datasets used for this particular analysis are genome-wide SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) called separately in each of the following groups: Sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso), Europe (Spain, France, Greece and Croatia), USA (Arizona), Mediterranean-Middle East (Israel, Italy), Middle East-Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Iran) and Reunion Island. The non-invasive ‘AUS’ species endemic to Australia was used as an outgroup. The main findings of this study show that the BSP for the Sub-Saharan African MED population is different from that observed in MED populations from the Mediterranean Basin, suggesting evolution under a different set of environmental conditions. For MED, the effective size of the African (Burkina Faso) population showed a rapid expansion ≈250,000-310,000 years ago (YA), preceded by a period of slower growth. The European MED populations (i.e., Spain, France, Croatia, and Greece) showed a single burst of expansion at ≈160,000-200,000 YA. The MEAM1 populations from Israel and Italy and the ones from Iran and Turkmenistan are similar as they both show the earlier expansion at ≈250,000-300,000 YA. The single IO population lacked the latter expansion but had the earlier one. This pattern is shared with the Sub-Saharan African (Burkina Faso) MED, suggesting IO also faced a similar history of environmental change, which seems plausible given their relatively close geographical distributions. In conclusion, populations within the invasive species MED and MEAM1 exhibited signatures of population expansion lacking in non-invasive species (IO and AUS) during the Pleistocene, a geological epoch marked by repeated climatic oscillations with cycles of glacial and interglacial periods. These expansions strongly suggested the potential of some Bemisia species’ genomes to affect their adaptability and invasiveness.

Keywords: whitefly, RADseq, invasive species, SNP, climate change

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Authors: Jean Marie Ntaganda, Froduald Minani, Wellars Banzi, Lydie Mpinganzima, Japhet Niyobuhungiro, Jean Bosco Gahutu, Vincent Dusabejambo, Immaculate Kambutse

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In this paper, we present a nonlinear dynamic model for the interactive mechanism of the cardiovascular and respiratory system. The model is designed and analyzed for human during physical exercises. In order to verify the adequacy of the designed model, data collected in Rwanda are used for validation. We have simulated the impact of heart rate and alveolar ventilation as controls of cardiovascular and respiratory system respectively to steady state response of the main cardiovascular hemodynamic quantities i.e., systemic arterial and venous blood pressures, arterial oxygen partial pressure and arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure, to the stabilised values of controls. We used data collected in Rwanda for both male and female during physical activities. We obtained a good agreement with physiological data in the literature. The model may represent an important tool to improve the understanding of exercise physiology.

Keywords: exercise, cardiovascular/respiratory, hemodynamic quantities, numerical simulation, physical activity, sportsmen in Rwanda, system

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Authors: Denys Osipenko, Jonathan Crook

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Because of the variety of the card holders’ behaviour types and income sources each consumer account can be transferred to a variety of states. Each consumer account can be inactive, transactor, revolver, delinquent, defaulted and requires an individual model for the income prediction. The estimation of transition probabilities between statuses at the account level helps to avoid the memorylessness of the Markov Chains approach. This paper investigates the transition probabilities estimation approaches to credit cards income prediction at the account level. The key question of empirical research is which approach gives more accurate results: multinomial logistic regression or multistage conditional logistic regression with binary target. Both models have shown moderate predictive power. Prediction accuracy for conditional logistic regression depends on the order of stages for the conditional binary logistic regression. On the other hand, multinomial logistic regression is easier for usage and gives integrate estimations for all states without priorities. Thus further investigations can be concentrated on alternative modeling approaches such as discrete choice models.

Keywords: multinomial regression, conditional logistic regression, credit account state, transition probability

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Authors: Zaman Jawahar, Anne Rouve-Khiev, Elizabeth Hoban, Joanne Williams

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Ensuring access to timely obstetric care is essential to prevent maternal deaths. Geographical barriers pose significant challenges for women accessing quality reproductive and maternal health services in rural Cambodia. This policy brief affirms the need to address the issue of transportation and cost (direct and indirect) as critical barriers to accessing reproductive and maternal health (RMH) services in four provinces in Northeast Cambodia (Kratie, Ratanak Kiri, Mondul Kiri, Stung Treng). A systemic search of the literature identified 1,116 articles, and only ten articles from low-and-middle-income countries met the inclusion criteria. The ten articles reported on transportation and cost related to accessing RMH services. In addition, research findings from Partnering to Save Lives (PSL) studies in the four provinces were included in the analysis. Thematic data analysis using the information in the ten articles and PSL research findings was conducted, and the findings are presented in this paper. The key findings are the critical barriers to accessing RMH services in the four provinces because women experience: 1) difficulties finding affordable transportation; 2) lack of available and accessible transportation; 3) greater distance and traveling time to services; 4) poor geographical terrain and; 5) higher opportunity costs. Distance and poverty pose a double burden for the women accessing RMH services making a facility-based delivery less feasible compared to home delivery. Furthermore, indirect and hidden costs associated with institutional delivery may have an impact on women’s decision to seek RMH care. Existing health financing schemes in Cambodia such as the Health Equity Fund (HEF) and the Voucher Scheme contributed to the solution but have also shown some limitations. These schemes contribute to improving access to RMH services for the poorest group, but the barrier of transportation costs remains. In conclusion, initiatives that are proven to be effective in the Cambodian context should continue or be expanded in conjunction with the HEF, and special consideration should be given to communities living in geographically remote regions and difficult to access areas. The following strategies are recommended: 1) maintain and further strengthen transportation support in the HEF scheme; 2) expand community-based initiatives such as Community Managed Health Equity Funds and Village Saving Loans Associations; 3) establish maternity waiting homes; and 4) include antenatal and postnatal care in the provision of integrated outreach services. This policy brief can be used to inform key policymakers and provide evidence that can assist them to develop strategies to increase poor women’s access to RMH services in low-income settings, taking into consideration the geographic distance and other indirect costs associated with a facility-based delivery.

Keywords: access, barriers, northeast Cambodia, reproductive and maternal health service, transportation and cost

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Authors: M. Shahab Uddin, Pennung Warnitchai

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Currently more than half of the world’s populations are living in cities, and the number and sizes of cities are growing faster than ever. Cities rely on the effective functioning of complex and interdependent critical infrastructures networks to provide public services, enhance the quality of life, and save the community from hazards and disasters. In contrast, complex connectivity and interdependency among the urban critical infrastructures bring management challenges and make the urban system prone to the domino effect. Unplanned rapid growth, increased connectivity, and interdependency among the infrastructures, resource scarcity, and many other socio-political factors are affecting the typical state of an urban system and making it susceptible to numerous sorts of diversion. In addition to internal vulnerabilities, urban systems are consistently facing external threats from natural and manmade hazards. Cities are not just complex, interdependent system, but also makeup hubs of the economy, politics, culture, education, etc. For survival and sustainability, complex urban systems in the current world need to manage their vulnerabilities and hazardous incidents more wisely and more interactively. Coordinated management in such systems makes for huge potential when it comes to absorbing negative effects in case some of its components were to function improperly. On the other hand, ineffective management during a similar situation of overall disorder from hazards devastation may make the system more fragile and push the system to an ultimate collapse. Following the quantum, the current research hypothesizes that a hazardous event starts its journey as an emergency, and the system’s internal vulnerability and response capacity determine its destination. Connectivity and interdependency among the urban critical infrastructures during this stage may transform its vulnerabilities into dynamic damaging force. An emergency may turn into a disaster in the absence of effective management; similarly, mismanagement or lack of management may lead the situation towards a catastrophe. Situation awareness and factual decision-making is the key to win a battle. The current research proposed a contextual decision support system for an urban critical infrastructure system while integrating three different models: 1) Damage cascade model which demonstrates damage propagation among the infrastructures through their connectivity and interdependency, 2) Restoration model, a dynamic restoration process of individual infrastructure, which is based on facility damage state and overall disruptions in surrounding support environment, and 3) Optimization model that ensures optimized utilization and distribution of available resources in and among the facilities. All three models are tightly connected, mutually interdependent, and together can assess the situation and forecast the dynamic outputs of every input. Moreover, this integrated model will hold disaster managers and decision makers responsible when it comes to checking all the alternative decision before any implementation, and support to produce maximum possible outputs from the available limited inputs. This proposed model will not only support to reduce the extent of damage cascade but will ensure priority restoration and optimize resource utilization through adaptive and collaborative management. Complex systems predictably fail but in unpredictable ways. System understanding, situation awareness, and factual decisions may significantly help urban system to survive and sustain.

Keywords: disaster prevention, decision support system, emergency response, urban critical infrastructure system

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Authors: Reza Behboodian

Abstract:

Monitoring the structural health and diagnosing their damage in the early stages has always been one of the topics of concern. Nowadays, research on structural damage detection methods based on vibration analysis is very extensive. Moreover, these methods can be used as methods of permanent and timely inspection of structures and prevent further damage to structures. Non-destructive methods are the low-cost and economical methods for determining the damage of structures. In this research, a non-destructive method for detecting and identifying the failure location in structures based on dynamic responses resulting from time history analysis is proposed. When the structure is damaged due to the reduction of stiffness, and due to the applied loads, the displacements in different parts of the structure were increased. In the proposed method, the damage position is determined based on the calculation of the strain energy difference in each member of the damaged structure and the healthy structure at any time. Defective members of the structure are indicated by the amount of strain energy relative to the healthy state. The results indicated that the proper accuracy and performance of the proposed method for identifying failure in structures.

Keywords: failure, time history analysis, dynamic response, strain energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 131