Search results for: network effect on financial services

Authors: Faith O. Olanrewaju

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Internal displacement and the vulnerability of women are two critical aspects of forced migration that have dominated both global and local discourses. Statistics show that in November 2021, there were over 2.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria. Literature also states that displaced women and girls are more vulnerable than displaced men. They are susceptible to adversative experiences, including various forms of sexual violence and rape. As a result, the displaced women and girls are faced with psychological and physical traumas, including HIV/AIDS as well as unexpected or poorly spaced pregnancies. In addition, the poor condition of living of internally displaced women in IDP camps affects their reproductive health, pregnancy outcomes, and maternal mortality levels. Incontrovertibly, internally displaced women constitute an imperative contributor to the ills of Nigeria's maternal health status, which is the second worse globally and the worst in Africa. World Health Organisation statistics showed that approximately 536,000 girls and women die from pregnancy-related causes globally, and Nigeria accounts for 14% of the global maternal deaths. Undeniably, this supports the claims that maternal mortality remains a challenge in Nigeria and can be exacerbated by internal displacement crises. Therefore, maternal mortality remains a critical impediment to the actualisation of the 3.1 SDG target. Owing to this, concerns arise about the quality of the policy in Nigeria’s health sector. More specifically, this study is concerned with the maternal health care services displaced women receive in IDP camps in the three states affected by internal displacement in north-central Nigeria, an understudied area. The novelty of the study also lies in its comparative investigation of maternal healthcare service delivery in three different camp structures (faith-based, government, and informal IDP camps), a pattern that is absent in literature. Therefore, this study will investigate how the camp structures affect access to maternal health services in the study areas; analyse the successes and challenges in the delivery of maternal health care services to displaced women in the various camps; and recommendation and strategies for reducing maternal healthcare disparities/gaps across IDP camps in Nigeria (should they exist). It will adopt a mixed-method approach and multi-stage sampling technique. A total of 1,152 copies of the study questionnaire will be distributed to displaced pregnant and nursing mothers (PNM); nine focus group discussions will also be held with the displaced PNM; in-depth interviews will be conducted with humanitarian actors, policymakers, and health professionals. The quantitative and qualitative data will be analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 21.0 and thematic analysis, respectively. The findings of the study will be used to develop a model of care that will address the fragmentations in Nigeria's healthcare system. The findings will also inform the development of best policies and practices in the maternal health of displaced women.

Keywords: forced displacement, internally displaced women, maternal healthcare, maternal mortality

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Authors: Maria Pavlova

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In our days, it is possible to put the camera on different vehicles like quadcopter, train, airplane and etc. The camera also can be the input sensor in many different systems. That means the object recognition like non separate part of monitoring control can be key part of the most intelligent systems. The aim of this paper is to focus of the object recognition process during vehicles movement. During the vehicle’s movement the camera takes pictures from the environment without storage in Data Base. In case the camera detects a special object (for example human or animal), the system saves the picture and sends it to the work station in real time. This functionality will be very useful in emergency or security situations where is necessary to find a specific object. In another application, the camera can be mounted on crossroad where do not have many people and if one or more persons come on the road, the traffic lights became the green and they can cross the road. In this papers is presented the system has solved the aforementioned problems. It is presented architecture of the object recognition system includes the camera, Raspberry platform, GPS system, neural network, software and Data Base. The camera in the system takes the pictures. The object recognition is done in real time using the OpenCV library and Raspberry microcontroller. An additional feature of this library is the ability to display the GPS coordinates of the captured objects position. The results from this processes will be sent to remote station. So, in this case, we can know the location of the specific object. By neural network, we can learn the module to solve the problems using incoming data and to be part in bigger intelligent system. The present paper focuses on the design and integration of the image recognition like a part of smart systems.

Keywords: camera, object recognition, OpenCV, Raspberry

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Authors: Parma Chakravartti

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The impact of government spending and taxation on economic growth has remained a central issue of fiscal policy analysis. There is a wide range of opinions over the strength of fiscal policy’s effect on macroeconomic variables. It can be argued that the impact of fiscal policy depends on the structure and economic condition of the economy. This study makes an attempt to examine the effect of fiscal policy shocks on growth in India using the structural vector autoregressive model (SVAR), considering data from 1950 to 2019. The study finds that government spending is an important instrument of growth in India, where the share of revenue expenditure to capital expenditure plays a key role. The optimum composition of total expenditure is important for growth and it is not necessarily true that capital expenditure multiplier is more than revenue expenditure multiplier. The study also finds that the impact of public economic activities on private economic activities for both consumption expenditure and gross capital formation of government crowds in private consumption expenditure and private gross capital formation, respectively, thus indicating that government expenditure complements private expenditure in India.

Keywords: government spending, fiscal policy, multiplier, growth

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Authors: Beata Ślusarczyk, Sebastian Kot

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In subjective terms, Polish SME sector occupies a prominent position in the national economic development, in which planning of the management strategies should be primarily based on identifying and meeting the innovation needs. As a research sample, there is chosen a printing sector of industry. SMEs share in printing sector in Poland is estimated at the level of 81% of all enterprises. In recent years, the printing industry achieved one of the highest levels of EU support in Poland. There is a relatively high increase in the development of technological innovations in equipment and the associated significant increase in production capacity. It can be also noticed that on average, every third enterprise belonging to the printing industry has implemented innovations, but not all of them effected in better economic results. Therefore, the aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of the implementation of innovation projects financed from the EU funds for performance of SMEs in the printing industry. As the results of research of EU funds co-financing effects on the development of innovation in the printing industry, it was specified that examined SMEs prefer to implement product innovation to receive a grant to the project at a level between 40% to 60%, the remaining part of the investment is usually covered with equity. The most common type of innovation had indicated a single implementation, related only to the change in process, technology, or organization. The relationship between variables of the EU funds and management of innovative activities was verified. It has been observed that the identified variables arising from the support in a form of the EU funds had a positive effect on the level of earned revenue, the increase in margin and in increase in employment as well. It was confirmed that the implemented innovations supported by the European funds have a positive impact on the performance of the printing companies. Although there is a risk that due to the decreasing demand for printing services such a high level of funding the companies in this sector will significantly increase competition in the long term, that may also contribute to the economic problems of the enterprises belonging to the analyzed branch.

Keywords: innovations, SMEs, performance, results

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Authors: Vinayak Malhotra, Samanyu Raina, Ajinkya Vajurkar

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Enhancing the rocket efficiency by controlling the external factors in solid rockets motors has been an active area of research for most of the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial system operations. Appreciable work has been done, but the complexity of the problem has prevented thorough understanding due to heterogenous heat and mass transfer. On record, severe issues have surfaced amounting to irreplaceable loss of mankind, instruments, facilities, and huge amount of money being invested every year. The coupled effect of an external heat source and external heat sink is an aspect yet to be articulated in combustion. Better understanding of this coupled phenomenon will induce higher safety standards, efficient missions, reduced hazard risks, with better designing, validation, and testing. The experiment will help in understanding the coupled effect of an external heat sink and heat source on the burning process, contributing in better combustion and fire safety, which are very important for efficient and safer rocket flights and space missions. Safety is the most prevalent issue in rockets, which assisted by poor combustion efficiency, emphasizes research efforts to evolve superior rockets. This signifies real, engineering, scientific, practical, systems and applications. One potential application is Solid Rocket Motors (S.R.M). The study may help in: (i) Understanding the effect on efficiency of core engines due to the primary boosters if considered as source, (ii) Choosing suitable heat sink materials for space missions so as to vary the efficiency of the solid rocket depending on the mission, (iii) Giving an idea about how the preheating of the successive stage due to previous stage acting as a source may affect the mission. The present work governs the temperature (resultant) and thus the heat transfer which is expected to be non-linear because of heterogeneous heat and mass transfer. The study will deepen the understanding of controlled inter-energy conversions and the coupled effect of external source/sink(s) surrounding the burning fuel eventually leading to better combustion thus, better propulsion. The work is motivated by the need to have enhanced fire safety and better rocket efficiency. The specific objective of the work is to understand the coupled effect of external heat source and sink on propellant burning and to investigate the role of key controlling parameters. Results as of now indicate that there exists a singularity in the coupled effect. The dominance of the external heat sink and heat source decides the relative rocket flight in Solid Rocket Motors (S.R.M).

Keywords: coupled effect, heat transfer, sink, solid rocket motors, source

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Authors: Safdar Muhammad Usman, Youji Kohda, Katsuhiro Umemoto

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Electronic market place plays an important intermediary role for connecting dealers and retail customers. The main aim of this paper is to design a value co-creation model in used-car auctions. More specifically, the study has been designed in order to describe the process of value co-creation in used-car auctions, to explore the co-created values in used-car auctions, and finally conclude the paper indicating the future research directions. Our analysis shows that economic values as well as non-economic values are co-created in used-car auctions. In addition, this paper contributes to the academic society broadening the view of value co-creation in service science.

Keywords: value co-creation, used-car auctions, non-financial values, service science

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Authors: Sujay Bisht

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The purpose of the study was to evaluate and find out the effect of Hill interval training on VO₂ MAX among field Hockey players. Thirty male field hockey players were selected from LNIPE, Guwahati who were studied in B.P.Ed course. The selected subjects were aged between 18 to 23 years. The VO₂ MAX was calculated and they were divided into two group. One group (N=15) considered as control group that did not participated in any special training apart from regular scheduled/curriculum and another group (N=15) considered as an experimental group which underwent four week Hill Training program. The selected criterion variable such VO₂ Max was measured by the cooper 12min/run/walk test and scores was recorded in ml/kg/min. The subjects were tested on selected criterion variable such as VO₂ Max prior and immediately after the training program. The pretest and posttest data were evaluate by the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to find out the significance difference if any between the experimental and control group on selected criterion variable. The level of significance was set at 0.05 level of confidence. After applied ANCOVA it was revealed that there was a significant different among the experimental and control group on VO₂ Max. Finally it was concluded that 4 week of Hill interval training effect the VO₂ max performance of field hockey players.

Keywords: VO₂ max, hill interval training, ANCOVA, experimental group

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Authors: Lokesh Gupta, Rakesh Kumar

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Stabilization of weak subgrade soil is mainly aimed for the improvement of soil strength and its durability. Highway engineers are concerned to get the soil material or system that will hold under the design use conditions and for the designed life of the engineering project. The present study envisages the effect of Recron fibres mixed in different proportion (up to 1% by weight of dry soil) on Atterberg limits, Compaction of the soil, California bearing ratio (CBR) values and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the soil. The present study deals with the influence of varying in length (20 mm, 30mm, 40mm and 50mm) and percentage (0.25 %, 0.50 %, 0.75 % and 1.0 %) of fibre added to the soil samples. The aim of study is to determine the reinforcing effect of randomly distributed fibres on the Compaction characteristics, penetration resistance and unconfined compressive strength of soils. The addition of fibres leads to an increase in the optimum moisture content and decrease in maximum dry density. With the addition of the fibres, the increases in CBR and UCS values are observed. The test result shows higher CBR and unconfined compressive strength value for the soil reinforced with 0.5% Recron fibre, once keeping aspect ratio as 160.

Keywords: soil, recron fiber, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), California bearing ratio (CBR)

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Authors: Anju Vaidya

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Sanitation is concerned with proper disposal of human excreta, waste water and promotion of hygiene. Lack of sanitation impacts our environment affecting our finance, schooling, health, and thus exacerbating poverty, discrimination and exclusion of the marginalized group. Sanitation can be a route and one of the most important factor to reach the goals of all Millennium Development goals. This study aims at exploring what are the rights to sanitation of the people, how it is enacted and what challenges are being faced while implementing the right to sanitation in South-Asian countries (India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka) at government, non-government and international level. This study also aims at finding how right sanitation is interlinked with children rights. The available reports submitted by government and civil society organizations working in South-Asian countries from the website of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights that were submitted under International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights and Convention on rights of the child have been selected and analyzed. The study uses Literature review to analyze these UN documents submitted from 2000 to 2015 in the context of South-Asian countries. Preliminary insight reveals that sanitation is recognized as one of the important factor to attain adequate standard of living. It has been found that inadequate sanitation has been a major factor that affects all aspects of life and one of its devastating impacts is increased child mortality. Many efforts have been made at national and international level in South-Asian countries to improve the state of sanitation and sanitation services. Various approaches such as Community led Total Sanitation, School led Total Sanitation, establishing Open Defecation free zone, water supply services and other sanitation and hygiene awareness programs are being launched. Despite different efforts and programs being implemented, sanitation and hygiene practices and behavior change remains to be a big challenge. Disparity in access and imbalance between urban and rural services and geographical regions, inadequate financing, clear policy framework and fragile functionality are some of the significant challenges faced while implementing these programs. Children are one of the most vulnerable group that are affected to a large extent. The study brings into light varied approaches that are being made and challenges that are being faced by government, non-government and civil society organizations while implementing the programs and strategies related to sanitation. It also highlights the relation of sanitation as a human right with child rights. This can help the stakeholders and policymakers better understand that improving sanitation situation is a process that requires learning, planning and behavior change and achieving sanitation coverage targets and motivating behavior change requires additional tools based on participation, non-discrimination and process approaches for planning and feedback.

Keywords: challenges, child rights, open defecation, sanitation as a human right

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Authors: Wang Xiaoqing, Fang Youyuan, Zheng Yanxing, Gu Tianyang, Zong Jianjian, Tong Jinrong

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Compared with traditional distributed environment, the net-centric environment brings on more demanding challenges for information sharing with the characteristics of ultra-large scale and strong distribution, dynamic, autonomy, heterogeneity, redundancy. This paper realizes an information sharing model and a series of core services, through which provides an open, flexible and scalable information sharing platform.

Keywords: net-centric environment, information sharing, metadata registry and catalog, cross-domain data access control

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Authors: Saeid Sahmani

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Due to size-dependent behavior of nanostrustures, the classical continuum models are not applicable for the analyses at this submicrion size. Surface stress effect is one of the most important matters which make the nanoscale structures to have different properties compared to the conventional structures due to high surface to volume ratio. In the present study, free vibration characteristics of nanoplates are investigated including surface stress effects. To this end, non-classical plate model based on Gurtin-Murdoch elasticity theory is proposed to evaluate the surface stress effects on the vibrational behavior of nanoplates subjected to different boundary conditions. Generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is employed to discretize the governing non-classical differential equations along with various edge supports. Selected numerical results are given to demonstrate the distinction between the behavior of nanoplates predicted by the classical and present non-classical plate models that leads to illustrate the great influence of surface stress effect. It is observed that this influence quite depends on the magnitude of the surface elastic constants which are relevant to the selected material.

Keywords: nanomechanics, surface stress, free vibration, GDQ method, small scale effect

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Authors: Mohammed Russedul Islam, Shah M. Muniruzzaman, M. Kamrul-Al-Masud, Syed Sadat Morshed

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Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. According to scientists it is predicted that temperature will raise 1-3% and precipitation 20% by 2050 in Bangladesh. Increased temperature and precipitation will deteriorate pavement structure in an accelerated rate. The study has found that pavement life will reduce significantly due to rise in temperature and precipitation in in a coastal road in Bangladesh. It will cause to increase the maintenance cost of the road. The study has found that reduction in pavement life will be caused due the decrease in stiffness and strength parameters of the pavement material due to high temperature and precipitation. It has found that use of new material costlier than the existing one will be necessary to prevent the reduction of pavement life. Eventually it will increase the re-construction cost of the road. The study has used mechanistic-empirical analysis method with a software GAMES (General analysis on multi-layered elastic systems) to find out the effect of temperature and precipitation rise on the pavement life. The study will help to guide road engineers of Bangladesh to prepare in advance to fight with the climate change effect.

Keywords: climate change, maintenance cost, mechanistic-empirical method, pavement life

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Authors: Hatem Abou-Senna

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Interstate 4 (I-4) is a primary east-west transportation corridor between Tampa and Daytona cities, serving commuters, commercial and recreational traffic. I-4 is known to have severe recurring congestion during peak hours. The congestion spans about 11 miles in the evening peak period in the central corridor area as it is considered the only non-tolled limited access facility connecting the Orlando Central Business District (CBD) and the tourist attractions area (Walt Disney World). Florida officials had been skeptical of tolling I-4 prior to the recent legislation, and the public through the media had been complaining about the excessive toll facilities in Central Florida. So, in search for plausible mitigation to the congestion on the I-4 corridor, this research is implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of different toll pricing alternatives that might divert traffic from I-4 to the toll facilities during the peak period. The network is composed of two main diverging limited access highways, freeway (I-4) and toll road (SR 417) in addition to two east-west parallel toll roads SR 408 and SR 528, intersecting the above-mentioned highways from both ends. I-4 and toll road SR 408 are the most frequently used route by commuters. SR-417 is a relatively uncongested toll road with 15 miles longer than I-4 and $5 tolls compared to no monetary cost on 1-4 for the same trip. The results of the calibrated Orlando PARAMICS network showed that percentages of route diversion vary from one route to another and depends primarily on the travel cost between specific origin-destination (O-D) pairs. Most drivers going from Disney (O1) or Lake Buena Vista (O2) to Lake Mary (D1) were found to have a high propensity towards using I-4, even when eliminating tolls and/or providing real-time information. However, a diversion from I-4 to SR 417 for these OD pairs occurred only in the cases of the incident and lane closure on I-4, due to the increase in delay and travel costs, and when information is provided to travelers. Furthermore, drivers that diverted from I-4 to SR 417 and SR 528 did not gain significant travel-time savings. This was attributed to the limited extra capacity of the alternative routes in the peak period and the longer traveling distance. When the remaining origin-destination pairs were analyzed, average travel time savings on I-4 ranged between 10 and 16% amounting to 10 minutes at the most with a 10% increase in the network average speed. High propensity of diversion on the network increased significantly when eliminating tolls on SR 417 and SR 528 while doubling the tolls on SR 408 along with the incident and lane closure scenarios on I-4 and with real-time information provided. The toll roads were found to be a viable alternative to I-4 for these specific OD pairs depending on the user perception of the toll cost which was reflected in their specific travel times. However, on the macroscopic level, it was concluded that route diversion through toll reduction or elimination on surrounding toll roads would only have a minimum impact on reducing I-4 congestion during the peak period.

Keywords: congestion pricing, dynamic feedback assignment, microsimulation, paramics, route diversion

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Authors: Md. Akiz Uddin

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This research attempted to identify the determining factors that extensively persuaded customers of the First Security Islamic Bank Limited (FSIBL) to open accounts and their perception and satisfaction level towards it. Initially, a theoretical model was established based on existing literature reviews. After that, a self-administered structured questionnaire was developed, and data were collected from 180 customers of the FSIBL of Bangladesh using purposive sampling technique. The collected data were later analyzed through a statistical software. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to verify the model of the study and test the hypotheses. The study particularly examined the determinants of opening accounts, customers’ perception and their satisfaction level towards the bank on several factors like the bank’s compliance with Shariah law, use of modern technology, assurance, reliability, empathy, profitability, and responsiveness. To examine the impact of religious belief on being FSIBL clients, the study also investigates non-Muslim clients’ perception about FSIBL. The study focused on FSIBL customers only from five branches of Dhaka city. The study found that the religious beliefs is the most significant factors for Muslim customers for considering FSIBL to open an account, and they are satisfied with the services, too. However, for non-Muslim customers, other benefits like E-banking, various user-friendly services are the most significant factors for choosing FSIBL. Their satisfaction level is also statistically significant. Furthermore, even if the non- Muslim customers didn’t consider religious beliefs as determinant factors for choosing FSIBL, the respondents informed that they have trust that people who believe in shariah law are more reliable to keep money with them. These findings open up the avenue for future researchers to conduct more study in this area through employing a larger sample size and more branches and extending the current model by incorporating new variables. The study will be an important addition to the potentials of Islamic banking system, literature of service quality and customer satisfaction level, particularly in the success of Islamic banking system in Bangladesh.

Keywords: islamic banking, customers’ satisfaction, customers’ perception, shariah law

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Authors: Mohammad Ghiasvand, Babak Khorsandi, Morteza Kolahdoozan

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Under the influence of waves, oil in the sea is subject to vertical scattering in the water column. Scientists' knowledge of how oil is dispersed in the water column is one of the lowest levels of knowledge among other processes affecting oil in the marine environment, which highlights the need for research and study in this field. Therefore, this study investigates the distribution of oil in the water column in a turbulent environment with zero velocity characteristics. Lack of laboratory results to analyze the distribution of petroleum pollutants in deep water for information Phenomenon physics on the one hand and using them to calibrate numerical models on the other hand led to the development of laboratory models in research. According to the aim of the present study, which is to investigate the distribution of oil in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence caused by the oscillating Grid, after reaching the ideal conditions, the crude oil flow was poured onto the water surface and oil was distributed in deep water due to turbulence was investigated. In this study, all experimental processes have been implemented and used for the first time in Iran, and the study of oil diffusion in the water column was considered one of the key aspects of pollutant diffusion in the oscillating Grid environment. Finally, the required oscillation velocities were taken at depths of 10, 15, 20, and 25 cm from the water surface and used in the analysis of oil diffusion due to turbulence parameters. The results showed that with the characteristics of the present system in two static modes and network motion with a frequency of 0.8 Hz, the results of oil diffusion in the four mentioned depths at a frequency of 0.8 Hz compared to the static mode from top to bottom at 26.18, 57 31.5, 37.5 and 50% more. Also, after 2.5 minutes of the oil spill at a frequency of 0.8 Hz, oil distribution at the mentioned depths increased by 49, 61.5, 85, and 146.1%, respectively, compared to the base (static) state.

Keywords: homogeneous and isotropic turbulence, oil distribution, oscillating grid, oil spill

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Authors: M. Khoshab, M. J. Sedigh

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Dynamic systems, which in mathematical point of view are those governed by differential equations, are much more difficult to study and to predict their behavior in comparison with static systems which are governed by algebraic equations. Economical systems such as market are among complicated dynamic systems. This paper tries to adopt a very simple mathematical model for market and to study effect of supply and demand function on behavior of the market while the supply side experiences a lag due to production restrictions.

Keywords: dynamic system, lag on supply demand, market stability, supply demand model

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Authors: Sami Aboujafar

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Oil recovery in petroleum reservoirs is greatly affected by fluid-rock and fluid-fluid interactions. These interactions directly control rock wettability, capillary pressure and relative permeability curves. Laboratory core-floods and centrifuge experiments were conducted on sandstone and carbonate cores to study the effect of low and high brine salinity and viscosity and oil viscosity on residual saturations and relative permeability. Drainage and imbibition relative permeability in two phase system were measured, refined lab oils with different viscosities, heavy and light, and several brine salinities were used. Sensitivity analysis with different values for the salinity and viscosity of the fluids,, oil and water, were done to investigate the effect of these properties on water/oil relative permeability, residual oil saturation and oil recovery. Experiments were conducted on core material from viscous/heavy and light oil fields. History matching core flood simulator was used to study how the relative permeability curves and end point saturations were affected by different fluid properties using several correlations. Results were compared with field data and literature data. The results indicate that there is a correlation between the oil viscosity and/or brine salinity and residual oil saturation and water relative permeability end point. Increasing oil viscosity reduces the Krw@Sor and increases Sor. The remaining oil saturation from laboratory measurements might be too high due to experimental procedures, capillary end effect and early termination of the experiment, especially when using heavy/viscous oil. Similarly the Krw@Sor may be too low. The effect of wettability on the observed results is also discussed. A consistent relationship has been drawn between the fluid parameters, water/oil relative permeability and residual saturations, and a descriptor may be derived to define different flow behaviors. The results of this work will have application to producing fields and the methodologies developed could have wider application to sandstone and carbonate reservoirs worldwide.

Keywords: history matching core flood simulator, oil recovery, relative permeability, residual saturations

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Authors: Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Sara Miri

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In today's world, competition is one of the essential components of different markets. Therefore, in addition to economic factors, social factors can also affect the development and prosperity of businesses. In this regard, social networks are of particular importance and play a critical role in the flourishing and development of Internet businesses. The purpose of this article is to investigate the effect of different social networks in promoting digital entrepreneurship. The research method is the descriptive survey. The results show that social networks have a positive and significant impact on digital entrepreneurship development. Among the social networks studied, Instagram and Facebook have the most positive effect on digital entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, Facebook, Instagram, social media

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Authors: F. J. Ma, A. K. H. Kwan

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Crack caused by shrinkage movement of concrete is a serious problem especially when restraint is provided. It may cause severe serviceability and durability problems. The existing prediction methods for crack width of concrete due to shrinkage movement are mainly numerical methods under simplified circumstances, which do not agree with each other. To get a more unified prediction method applicable to more sophisticated circumstances, finite element crack width analysis for shrinkage effect should be developed. However, no existing finite element analysis can be carried out to predict the crack width of concrete due to shrinkage movement because of unsolved reasons of conventional finite element analysis. In this paper, crack width analysis implemented by finite element analysis is presented with pseudo-discrete crack model, which combines traditional smeared crack model and newly proposed crack queuing algorithm. The proposed pseudo-discrete crack model is capable of simulating separate and single crack without adopting discrete crack element. And the improved finite element analysis can successfully simulate the stress redistribution when concrete is cracked, which is crucial for predicting crack width, crack spacing and crack number.

Keywords: crack queuing algorithm, crack width analysis, finite element analysis, shrinkage effect

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Authors: Shrutika Lakshmi

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Gender inequality has been quite evident particularly in the third world economies in different domains like health, education, marriages and personal freedom. Women’s exercise to personal freedom is driven by their financial standing in third world social milieu. However, even after decades of attempt to achieve a socio-economic standing equal to men, their attempts have failed in registering success.This research has been conducted in the national capital of India New Delhi aiming to reflect upon the gendered relations in society on the category of employed women. This particular category of women have been chosen for the study in order to study the gender relations, subordination of such women in household despite having an economic standing of their own, etc. The methodology used for this study is semi-structured interview along with qualitative analysis. Moreover, with the help of direct interaction with these women, we get insight into the kind of gendered relations prevailing inside the household structure which have their roots in age old customs and stereotype of the social milieu. Most importantly, the highlight of the study remains on the point where the hierarchy remains in the subconscious of these women and they never forget their social standing. It has been interesting to note that how even after contributing to the family income successively, their position remains subjugated in front of their male counterparts and thus, they are not ‘free’ in the real sense of the term. Even after attaining an economically stable position, these women did not enjoy the same comfort and freedom of choice as their male counterparts do, this could be gauged from the fact that when asked about ‘time for one’s own self’ they had no sense of it. This is astonishing in today’s world where every individual works and strives for a better livelihood and quality existence. Such findings reflect upon the reality of our society where women are still subjugated and duty bound towards the household even after having the same economic stand as their male counterparts. The burden of household chores and responsibilities fall solely on the shoulders of a women despite being an employed women even in the present times. Cooperation comes primarily from female members of the household and not from males. And thus, we as a society are far away from gender equity. We still suffer from prejudices and stereotypes which prevent us from giving same respect to women which we keep reserved for the man. Given this scenario, it seems, gender equity is a distant goal which we will have to keep striving for even harder even after decades of feminist struggles all over the world.

Keywords: employed women, subjugation in household, gender hierarchy, financial independence,

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Authors: Xi Zhang, Yong Geng

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It is crucial to decouple economic growth from environmental pollution in China. This study aims to evaluate the decoupling degree between PM₂.₅ emissions and economic growth in China from a regional investment perspective. Using the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces for the period of 1998-2016, this study combines decomposition analysis with decoupling analysis to identify the roles of conventional factors and three novel investment factors in the mitigation and decoupling of PM₂.₅ emissions in China and its four sub-regions. The results show that China’s PM₂.₅ emissions were weakly decoupled to economic growth during the period of 1998-2016, as well as in China’s four sub-regions. At the national level, investment scale played the dominant role while investment structure had a marginal effect. In contrast, emission intensity was the largest driver in promoting the decoupling effect, followed by investment efficiency and energy intensity. The investment scale effect in the western region far exceeded those in other three sub-regions. At the provincial level, the investment structure of Inner Mongolia and investment scales of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia had the greatest impacts on PM₂.₅ emission growth. Finally, several policy recommendations are raised for China to mitigate its PM₂.₅ emissions.

Keywords: decoupling, economic growth, investment, PM₂.₅ emissions

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Authors: Ch. Ramreddy, P. Naveen, D. Srinivasacharya

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The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of nonlinear temperature and concentration on the mixed convective flow of micropolar fluid over an inclined flat plate in a non-Darcy porous medium in the presence of convective boundary condition. In order to analyze all the essential features, the transformed nonlinear conservation equations are worked out numerically by spectral method. By insisting the comparison between vertical, horizontal and inclined plates, the physical quantities of the flow and its characteristics are exhibited graphically and quantitatively with various parameters. An increase in the coupling number and inclination of angle tend to decrease the skin friction, mass transfer rate and the reverse change is there in wall couple stress and heat transfer rate. The nominal effect on the wall couple stress and skin friction is encountered whereas the significant effect on the local heat and mass transfer rates are found for high enough values of Biot number.

Keywords: convective boundary condition, micropolar fluid, non-darcy porous medium, non-linear convection, spectral method

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Authors: Nahıd Naderı Anarı, Mojdeh Shafıee

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Languaging has been identified as a contributor to language learning. Compared to oral languaging, written languaging seems to have been less explored. In order to fill this gap, this paper examined the effect of ‘metanotes’, namely metatalk in a written modality to identify whether written languaging actually facilitates language learning. Participants were instructed to take metanotes as they performed a translation task. The effect of metanotes was then analyzed by comparing the results of these participants’ pretest and posttest with those of participants who performed the same task without taking metanotes. The statistical tests showed no evidence of the expected role of metanotes in foreign language learning.

Keywords: EFL learners, foreign language learning, language teaching, metanotes

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Authors: H. Vahdani

Abstract:

By the adsorption of polar compounds and/or the deposition of organic material, the wettability of originally water-wet reservoir rock can be altered. The degree of alteration is determined by the interaction of the oil constituents, the mineral surface, and the brine chemistry. Recently improving oil recovery by tuning wettability alteration is believed as a new recovery method. Various researchers have demonstrated that low salt water injection has a significant impact on oil recovery. It has been shown, for instance, that additional oil can be produced from reservoir rock by managing the injection water. Large wettability sensitivity has been observed, indicating that the oil/water capillary pressure profiles play a major role during low saline water injection simulation. Although the exact physics on how this alteration occurs is still a research topic; however, it has been reported that some of its effect can be captured by a relative permeability shift from an oil-wet system to a water-wet system. Modeling of low salt water injection mainly is based on the theory of wettability alteration and is hence strongly dependent on the wettability of the reservoir. In this article, combination of different wettabilities has been simulated and it is observed that the highest recoveries were from the cases were the reservoir initially was water-wet, and the lowest recoveries was from the cases were the reservoir initially was considered oil-wet. However for the cases where the reservoir initially was oil-wet, the effect of low-salinity waterflooding was the largest.

Keywords: low salt water injection, wettability alteration, modelling, relative permeability

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Authors: Wim Hollander, Petrus Louis Nolte

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University sport in South Africa is not isolated from the complexity of globalization and professionalization of sport, as it forms an integral part of the sports development environment in South Africa. In order to align their sports programs with global and professional requirements, several universities opted to develop elite sports programs; recruit specialized personnel such as coaches, administrators, and athletes; provide expert coaching; scientific and medical services; sports testing; fitness, technical and tactical expertise; sport psychological and rehabilitation support; academic guidance and career assistance; and student-athlete accommodation. In addition, universities provide administrative support and high-quality physical resources (training facilities) for the benefit of the overall South African sport system. Although it is not compulsory for universities to develop elite sports programs to prepare their teams for competitions, elite competitions such as the annual Varsity Sport, University Sport South Africa (USSA) and local club competitions and leagues within international university competitions where universities not only compete but also deliver players for representative national netball teams. The aim of this study is, therefore, to describe the perceptions of players of the university elite netball programs they were participating in. This study adopted a descriptive design with a quantitative approach, utilizing a self-structured questionnaire as a research technique. As this research formed part of a national research project for NSA with a population of 172 national and provincial netball players, a sample of 92 university netball players from the population was selected. Content validity of the self-structured questionnaire was secured through a test-retest process, with construct validity through a member of the Statistical Consultation Services (STATCON) of the University of Johannesburg that provided feedback on the structural format of the questionnaire. Reliability was measured utilizing Cronbach Alpha on p < 0.005 level of significance. A reliability score of 0.87 was measured. The research was approved by the Board of Netball South Africa and ethical conduct implemented according to the processes and procedures approved by the Ethics Committees of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the University of Johannesburg with clearance number REC-01-30-2019. From the results, it is evident that university elite netball programs are professional, especially with regards to the employment of knowledgeable and competent coaches and technical officials such as team managers and sport sciences staff. These professionals have access to elite training facilities, support staff, and relatively large groups of elite players, all elements of an elite program that could enhance the national federation’s (Netball South Africa) system. Universities could serve the dual purpose of serving as university netball clubs, as well as providing elite training services and facilities as performance hubs for national players.

Keywords: elite sport programmes, university netball, player experiences, varsity sport netball

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Authors: Samual Ayeni, A. S. Akinbani

Abstract:

At present when the price of petroleum is going down beyond bearable level, there is a need to diversify the economy towards arable crop production since Nigeria is an agrarian country. Yam plays prominent role in solving the problem of hunger in Nigeria. There is scarcity of information on the effect of fertilizers in increasing the yield of yam and maintaining soil properties in South Western Nigeria. This study was therefore set up to determine fertilizer effect on properties and yield of yam. The experiment was conducted at Adeyemi College of Education Teaching and Research Farm to compare the effect of organic, Organomineral and mineral fertilizers on yield of yam. Ten treatments were used 10t/ha Wood Ash, 10t/ha Cattle Dung, 10t/ha Poultry Manure, 10t/ha Manufactured Organic, 10t/ha Organomineral Fertilizer, 400kg/ha NPK, 400kg/ha SSP, 400kg/ha Urea and control with treatment. The treatments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times. Compared with control, Organomineral fertilizer significantly (P < 0.05) increased the soil moisture content, poultry manure, wood ash significantly decreased (< 0.05) the bulk density. Application of 10t/ha Organomineral fertilizer recorded the highest increase in the yield of yam among the treatments.

Keywords: organomineral fertilizer, organic fertilizer, SSP, bulk density

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Authors: Vivian Isaac, A. T. Joteeshwaran, Craig McLachlan

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The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Rural Clinical School has a strategic collaborative focus on chronic disease and public health. Our objectives are to understand rural environmental and biological interactions in vulnerable community populations. The UNSW Rural Clinical School translational model is a spoke and hub network. This spoke and hub model connects rural data and biological specimens with city based collaborative public health research networks. Similar spoke and hub models are prevalent across research centers in India. The Australia-India Council grant was awarded so we could establish sustainable public health and community research collaborations. As part of the collaborative network we are developing strategies around data and biological sharing platforms between Indian Institute of Public Health, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Hyderabad and Rural Clinical School UNSW. The key objective is to understand how research collaborations are conducted in India and also how data can shared and tracked with external collaborators such as ourselves. A framework to improve data sharing for research collaborations, including DNA was proposed as a project outcome. The complexities of sharing biological data has been investigated via a visit to India. A flagship sustainable project between Rural Clinical School UNSW and PHFI would illustrate a model of data sharing platforms.

Keywords: data sharing, collaboration, public health research, chronic disease

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Authors: Xingyue Yang

Abstract:

This study focused on Chinese social media stars and the relationship between their level of fame on the social media platform Sina Weibo and their sales revenue on the E-commerce platform Taobao/Tmall.com. This was viewed from the perspective of Adler’s superstardom theory and Rosen and MacDonald’s theories examining the economics of celebrities who build their audience using digital, rather than traditional platforms. Theory and empirical research support the assertion that stars of traditional media achieve popular success due to a combination of talent and market concentration, as well as a range of other factors. These factors are also generally considered relevant to the popularisation of social media stars. However, success across digital media platforms also involves other variables - for example, upload strategies, cross-platform promotions, which often have no direct corollary in traditional media. These factors were the focus of our study, which investigated the relationship between popularity, promotional strategy and sales revenue for 15 social media stars who specialised in culinary topics on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. In 2019, these food bloggers made a total of 2076 Sina Weibo posts, and these were compiled alongside calculations made to determine each food blogger’s sales revenue on the eCommerce platforms Taobao/Tmall. Quantitative analysis was then performed on this data, which determined that certain upload strategies on Weibo - such as upload time, posting format and length of video - have an important impact on the success of sales revenue on Taobao/Tmall.com.

Keywords: attention economics, digital media, network effect, social media stars

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Authors: Dishant Shahi, Aradhya Shandilya, Nand Kumar

Abstract:

We study here the impact of the black component referred to as X component in the text on Real estate transactions. The X component involved not only acts as friction in transaction but also leads to dysfunctionality in the capital market of real estate. The effect of the component is presented by using a model of economy which seeks resemblance with that of India involving property deals. The rigidities which hinder smooth transactions in property or land deals are depicted and their impact on the economy as a whole has been modelled. The effect of subprime crisis (2007) on Indian housing capital market and the role which the X component played during it, is also included in one of the sections. In the entire text, we have utilised 4 Quadrant graphs to study supply and demand causalities involved in commercial real estate. At the end we have included the impact of demonetisation as a move to counter the problem of overvaluation in the property assets arising due to the X component. The case of Demonetisation which has been the latest move by the Indian Government to control huge amount of black money in circulation has been included along with its impact on the housing and rent as well as the capital market.

Keywords: X-component, 4Q graph, real estate, capital markets, demonetisation, consumer sentiments

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Authors: Nagendra P. Luitel, Mark J. D. Jordans

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Globally, there is a significant gap between the number of individuals in need of mental health care and those who actually receive treatment. The evidence is accumulating that mental health services can be delivered effectively by primary health care workers through community-based programs and task-sharing approaches. Changing the role of specialist mental health workers from service delivery to building clinical capacity of the primary health care (PHC) workers could help in reducing treatment gap in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). We developed a comprehensive mental health care plan in 2012 and evaluated its feasibility and effectiveness over the past three years. Initially, a mixed method formative study was conducted for the development of mental health care plan (MHCP). Routine monitoring and evaluation data, including client flow and reports of satisfaction, were obtained from beneficiaries (n=135) during the pilot-testing phase. Repeated community survey (N=2040); facility detection survey (N=4704) and the cohort study (N=576) were conducted for evaluation of the MHCP. The resulting MHCP consists of twelve packages divided over the community, health facility, and healthcare organization platforms. Detection of mental health problems increased significantly after introducing MHCP. Service implementation data support the real-life applicability of the MHCP, with reasonable treatment uptake. Currently, MHCP has been implemented in the entire Chitwan district where over 1400 people (438 people with depression, 406 people with psychosis, 181 people with epilepsy, 360 people with alcohol use disorder and 51 others) have received mental health services from trained health workers. Key barriers were identified and addressed, namely dissatisfaction with privacy, perceived burden among health workers, high drop-out rates and continue the supply of medicines. The results indicated that involvement of PHC workers in detection and management of mental health problems is an effective strategy to minimize treatment gap on mental health care in Nepal.

Keywords: mental health, Nepal, primary care, treatment gap

Procedia PDF Downloads 288