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Authors: Omran M. Kenshel, Alan J. O'Connor

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Estimating the service life of Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridge structures located in corrosive marine environments of a great importance to their owners/engineers. Traditionally, bridge owners/engineers relied more on subjective engineering judgment, e.g. visual inspection, in their estimation approach. However, because financial resources are often limited, rational calculation methods of estimation are needed to aid in making reliable and more accurate predictions for the service life of RC structures. This is in order to direct funds to bridges found to be the most critical. Criticality of the structure can be considered either form the Structural Capacity (i.e. Ultimate Limit State) or from Serviceability viewpoint whichever is adopted. This paper considers the service life of the structure only from the Structural Capacity viewpoint. Considering the great variability associated with the parameters involved in the estimation process, the probabilistic approach is most suited. The probabilistic modelling adopted here used Monte Carlo simulation technique to estimate the Reliability (i.e. Probability of Failure) of the structure under consideration. In this paper the authors used their own experimental data for the Correlation Length (CL) for the most important deterioration parameters. The CL is a parameter of the Correlation Function (CF) by which the spatial fluctuation of a certain deterioration parameter is described. The CL data used here were produced by analyzing 45 chloride profiles obtained from a 30 years old RC bridge located in a marine environment. The service life of the structure were predicted in terms of the load carrying capacity of an RC bridge beam girder. The analysis showed that the influence of SV is only evident if the reliability of the structure is governed by the Flexure failure rather than by the Shear failure.

Keywords: Chloride-induced corrosion, Monte-Carlo simulation, reinforced concrete, spatial variability

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Authors: Benjamin Bonsu Bruce, Marian Dorcas Quain David Appiah-Kubi, Gertrude Osei-Diko, Harrison Kwame Dapaah

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Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is a major staple food and remains a significant crop to many cultural and agricultural customs worldwide. In Ghana, taro is mostly propagated using vegetative material, which is conserved in field collection and recycled from their farms to establish new fields. However, this practice promotes the accumulation of systemic pathogens. Prior exposure to pests and subsequent expression of disease symptoms can also be a huge constraint to sustainable conservation and utilization of taro genetic resources. In vitro, slow growth is one of the most promising techniques to be utilized for conservation. The objective of this study was to find a medium-term in vitro conservation protocol for local and exotic taro genotypes. The medium-term conservation study was conducted using actively growing shoots obtained from in vitro cultures. Explants were cultured to full strength in complete Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with Mannitol at different concentrations (0g/l, 20g/l, 25g/l, and 30g/l). Another medium that was tested as an additional treatment is the White’s medium. The highest number of shoots (6.33) and leaves (22.67) occurred on medium containing 20 and 25g/l mannitol in genotype SAO 006 as compared to other genotypes, whereas 30g/l mannitol was the best to restrict growth for the entire 6 months period in terms of shoot height (22.50cm). The study reveals that mannitol supplemented culture media could reduce the growth of Colocasia plantlets, especially in stem height. Culture growth following 6 months of conservation, showed that healthy shoot cultures of Taro were obtained after 6 months of storage in a medium containing 20gl⁻¹ and 25gl⁻¹ mannitol.

Keywords: complete murashige, skoog medium, culture conditions, mannitol, slow growth conservation

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Authors: Giulia Sarego, Lorenzo Olivieri, Andrea Valmorbida, Carlo Bettanini, Giacomo Colombatti, Marco Pertile, Enrico C. Lorenzini

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International guidelines recommend removing any artificial body in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) within 25 years from mission completion. Among disposal strategies, electrodynamic tethers appear to be a promising option for LEO, thanks to the limited storage mass and the minimum interface requirements to the host spacecraft. In particular, recent technological advances make it feasible to deorbit large objects with tether lengths of a few kilometers or less. To further investigate such an innovative passive system, the European Union is currently funding the project E.T.PACK – Electrodynamic Tether Technology for Passive Consumable-less Deorbit Kit in the framework of the H2020 Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Open program. The project focuses on the design of an end of life disposal kit for LEO satellites. This kit aims to deploy a taped tether that can be activated at the spacecraft end of life to perform autonomous deorbit within the international guidelines. In this paper, the orbital performance of the E.T.PACK deorbiting kit is compared to other disposal methods. Besides, the orbital decay prediction is parametrized as a function of spacecraft mass and tether system performance. Different values of length, width, and thickness of the tether will be evaluated for various scenarios (i.e., different initial orbital parameters). The results will be compared to other end-of-life disposal methods with similar allocated resources. The analysis of the more innovative system’s performance with the tape coated with a thermionic material, which has a low work-function (LWT), for which no active component for the cathode is required, will also be briefly discussed. The results show that the electrodynamic tether option can be a competitive and performant solution for satellite disposal compared to other deorbit technologies.

Keywords: deorbiting performance, H2020, spacecraft disposal, space electrodynamic tethers

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Authors: Maria Jose Granero Paris, Ana Isabel Jimenez Zarco, Agustin Pablo Alvarez Herranz

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In the industrial sector the collaboration along the supply chain is key especially in order to develop product, production methods or process innovations. The access to resources and knowledge not being available inside the company, the achievement of cost competitive solutions, the reduction of the time required to innovate are some of the benefits linked with the collaboration with suppliers. The big industrial manufacturers have a long tradition to collaborate with their suppliers to develop new products in the developed countries. Since they have increased their global supply chains and global sourcing activities, the objective of the research is to analyse if the same best practices, way of working, experiences, information technology tools, governance methodologies are applied when collaborating with suppliers in the developed world or in developing countries. Most of the current research focuses to analyse the Supply Chain Collaboration in the developed countries and in recent years the number of publications related to the Supply Chain Collaboration in developing countries has increased, but there is still a lack of research comparing both and analysing the similarities, differences and key success factors among the Supply Chain Collaboration practices in developed and developing countries. With this gap in mind, the research under preparation will focus on the following goals: -Identify the most important elements required for a successful supply chain collaboration in the developed and developing countries. -Set up the optimal governance framework to manage the supply chain collaboration in the developed and developing countries. -Define some recommendations about required improvements in the current supply chain collaboration business relationship practices in place. Following the case methodology we will analyze the way manufacturers and suppliers collaborate in the development of new products, production methods or process innovations and in the set up of new global supply chains in two industries with different level of technology intensity and collaboration history being the automotive and aerospace industries.

Keywords: global supply chain networks, Supply Chain Collaboration, supply chain governance, supply chain performance

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Authors: Sunday Nathaniel Obasi, Chiamak Chinasa Obasi

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Soil characterization and classification provide the basic information necessary to create a functional evaluation and soil classification schemes. Fertility capability classification (FCC) on the other hand is a technical system that groups the soils according to kinds of problems they present for management of soil physical and chemical properties. This research was carried out in Ebonyi state, southeastern Nigeria, which is an agrarian state and a leading rice producing part of southeastern Nigeria. In order to maximize the soil and enhance the productivity of rice in Ebonyi soils, soil classification, and fertility classification information need to be supplied. The state was grouped into three locations according to their agricultural zones namely; Ebonyi north, Ebonyi central and Ebonyi south representing Abakaliki, Ikwo and Ivo locations respectively. Major rice growing areas of the soils were located and two profile pits were sunk in each of the studied zones from which soils were characterized, classified and fertility capability classification (FCC) developed. Soil classification was done using United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Taxonomy and correlated with World Reference Base for soil resources. Results obtained classified Abakaliki 1 and Abakaliki 2 as Typic Fluvaquents (Ochric Fluvisols). Ikwo 1 was classified as Vertic Eutrudepts (Eutric Vertisols) while Ikwo 2 was classified as Typic Eutrudepts (Eutric Cambisols). Ivo 1 and Ivo 2 were both classified as Aquic Eutrudepts (Gleyic Leptosols). Fertility capability classification (FCC) revealed that all studied soils had mostly loamy topsoils and subsoils except Ikwo 1 with clayey topsoil. Limitations encountered in the studied soils include; dryness (d), low ECEC (e), low nutrient capital reserve (k) and water logging/ anaerobic condition (gley). Thus, FCC classifications were Ldek for Abakaliki 1 and 2, Ckv for Ikwo 1, LCk for Ikwo 2 while Ivo 1 and 2 were Legk and Lgk respectively.

Keywords: soil classification, soil fertility, limitations, modifiers, Southeastern Nigeria

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Authors: Agnieszka Markowska-Radomska, Ewa Dluska

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Maintaining a bioactive substances dense diet is important for the elderly, especially to prevent diseases and to support healthy ageing. Adequate bioactive substances intake can reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative syndromes, diseases of the oral cavity, gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, diabetes, and cancer). This can be achieved by introducing a comprehensive supplementation of components necessary for the proper functioning of the ageing body. The paper proposes the multiple emulsions of the W1/O/W2 (water-in-oil-in-water) type as carriers for effective co-encapsulation and co-delivery of bioactive substances in supplementation of the elderly. Multiple emulsions are complex structured systems ("drops in drops"). The functional structure of the W1/O/W2 emulsion enables (i) incorporation of one or more bioactive components (lipophilic and hydrophilic); (ii) enhancement of stability and bioavailability of encapsulated substances; (iii) prevention of interactions between substances, as well as with the external environment, delivery to a specific location; and (iv) release in a controlled manner. The multiple emulsions were prepared by a one-step method in the Couette-Taylor flow (CTF) contactor in a continuous manner. In general, a two-step emulsification process is used to obtain multiple emulsions. The paper contains a proposal of emulsion functionalization by introducing pH-responsive biopolymer—carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (CMC-Na) to the external phase, which made it possible to achieve a release of components controlled by the pH of the gastrointestinal environment. The membrane phase of emulsions was soybean oil. The W1/O/W2 emulsions were evaluated for their characteristics (drops size/drop size distribution, volume packing fraction), encapsulation efficiency and stability during storage (to 30 days) at 4ºC and 25ºC. Also, the in vitro multi-substance co-release process were investigated in a simulated gastrointestinal environment (different pH and composition of release medium). Three groups of stable multiple emulsions were obtained: emulsions I with co-encapsulated vitamins B12, B6 and resveratrol; emulsions II with vitamin A and β-carotene; and emulsions III with vitamins C, E and D3. The substances were encapsulated in the appropriate emulsion phases depending on the solubility. For all emulsions, high encapsulation efficience (over 95%) and high volume packing fraction of internal droplets (0.54-0.76) were reached. In addition, due to the presence of a polymer (CMC-Na) with adhesive properties, high encapsulation stability during emulsions storage were achieved. The co-release study of encapsulated bioactive substances confirmed the possibility to modify the release profiles. It was found that the releasing process can be controlled through the composition, structure, physicochemical parameters of emulsions and pH of the release medium. The results showed that the obtained multiple emulsions might be used as potential liquid complex carriers for controlled/modified/site-specific co-delivery of bioactive substances in dietary supplementation in the elderly.

Keywords: bioactive substance co-release, co-encapsulation, elderly supplementation, multiple emulsion

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Authors: Mahmoud Abdel Hameed Shahin

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Job demands that are incompatible with an employee's skills, resources, or needs cause unpleasant emotional and physical reactions known as job stress. Nurses offer care in hospital emergency rooms all around the world, and since they operate in such a dynamic and unpredictable setting, they are constantly under pressure. It has been discovered that job stress has harmful impacts on nurses' health as well as their capacity to handle the demands of their jobs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of job stress experienced by the emergency department nurses at King Fahad Specialist Hospital in Buraidah City, Saudi Arabia. In October 2021, a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted. 80 nurses were conveniently selected for the study, the bulk of them worked at King Fahad Specialist Hospital's emergency department. An electronic questionnaire with a sociodemographic data sheet and a job stress scale was given to the participating nurses after ethical approval was received from the Ministry of Health's representative bodies. Using SPSS Version 26, both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze and tabulate the acquired data. According to the findings, the factors that contributed to the most job stress in the clinical setting were having an excessive amount of work to do and working under arbitrary deadlines, whereas the factors that contributed to the least stress were receiving the proper recognition or rewards for good work. In the emergency room of King Fahad Specialist Hospital, nurses had a moderate level of stress (M=3.32 ± 0.567/5). Based on their experience, emergency nurses' levels of job stress varied greatly, with nurses with less than a year of experience notably experiencing the lowest levels of job stress. The amount of job stress did not differ significantly based on the emergency nurses' age, nationality, gender, marital status, position, or level of education. The causes and impact of stress on emergency nurses should be identified and alleviated by hospitals through the implementation of interventional programs.

Keywords: emergency nurses, job pressure, Qassim, Saudi Arabia, job stress

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Authors: Durga Toshniwal, Lokesh Agrawal

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As the web continues to play an increasing role in information exchange, and conducting daily activities, computer users have become the target of miscreants which infects hosts with malware or adware for financial gains. Unfortunately, even a single visit to compromised web site enables the attacker to detect vulnerabilities in the user’s applications and force the downloading of multitude of malware binaries. We provide an approach to effectively scan the so-called drive-by downloads on the Internet. Drive-by downloads are result of URLs that attempt to exploit their visitors and cause malware to be installed and run automatically. To scan the web for malicious pages, the first step is to use a crawler to collect URLs that live on the Internet, and then to apply fast prefiltering techniques to reduce the amount of pages that are needed to be examined by precise, but slower, analysis tools (such as honey clients or antivirus programs). Although the technique is effective, it requires a substantial amount of resources. A main reason is that the crawler encounters many pages on the web that are legitimate and needs to be filtered. In this paper, to characterize the nature of this rising threat, we present implementation of a web crawler on Python, an approach to search the web more efficiently for pages that are likely to be malicious, filtering benign pages and passing remaining pages to antivirus program for detection of malwares. Our approaches starts from an initial seed of known, malicious web pages. Using these seeds, our system generates search engines queries to identify other malicious pages that are similar to the ones in the initial seed. By doing so, it leverages the crawling infrastructure of search engines to retrieve URLs that are much more likely to be malicious than a random page on the web. The results shows that this guided approach is able to identify malicious web pages more efficiently when compared to random crawling-based approaches.

Keywords: web crawler, malwares, seeds, drive-by-downloads, security

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Authors: Esmeralda Hysenbelliu

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The aim of this paper is to present the QoE (Quality of Experience) IPTV SDN-based media streaming server enhanced architecture for configuring, controlling, management and provisioning the improved delivery of IPTV service application with low cost, low bandwidth, and high security. Furthermore, it is given a virtual QoE IPTV SDN-based topology to provide an improved IPTV service based on QoE Control and Management of multimedia services functionalities. Inside OpenFlow SDN Controller there are enabled in high flexibility and efficiency Service Load-Balancing Systems; based on the Loading-Balance module and based on GeoIP Service. This two Load-balancing system improve IPTV end-users Quality of Experience (QoE) with optimal management of resources greatly. Through the key functionalities of OpenFlow SDN controller, this approach produced several important features, opportunities for overcoming the critical QoE metrics for IPTV Service like achieving incredible Fast Zapping time (Channel Switching time) < 0.1 seconds. This approach enabled Easy and Powerful Transcoding system via FFMPEG encoder. It has the ability to customize streaming dimensions bitrates, latency management and maximum transfer rates ensuring delivering of IPTV streaming services (Audio and Video) in high flexibility, low bandwidth and required performance. This QoE IPTV SDN-based media streaming architecture unlike other architectures provides the possibility of Channel Exchanging between several IPTV service providers all over the word. This new functionality brings many benefits as increasing the number of TV channels received by end –users with low cost, decreasing stream failure time (Channel Failure time < 0.1 seconds) and improving the quality of streaming services.

Keywords: improved quality of experience (QoE), OpenFlow SDN controller, IPTV service application, softwarization

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Authors: Muhammad Naveed

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In this paper, flood issues in Gujranwala and Rawalpindi divisions are discussed as a primary importance as these zones are affected continuously from flooding in recent years, provincial variability of the issue, introduce status of the continuous administration measures, their adequacy and future needs in flood administration are secured. Flood issues in these zones are exhibited by Chenab River Basin, Jhelum Rivers Basin. Some unique problems, related to floods in these divisions is lack of major dams on Chenab and Jhelum rivers and also mismanagement of rivers and canal water like dam break stream, and water signing in Tal zones, are additionally mentioned. There are major Nalaas in these regions like Nalaa Lai of Rawalpindi and Nalaa Daik, Nalaa Palkhu, Nalaa Aik of Gujranwala are major cause of floods in these regions other than rivers. Proper management of these Nalaas and moving of nearby population well in time could reduce impacts from flood in these regions. Progress of different flood administration measures, both auxiliary and non-basic, are discussed. Likewise, future needs to accomplish proficient and fruitful flood management measures in Pakistan are additionally brought up. In this paper, we describe different hard and soft engineering techniques to overcome flood situations in these zones as these zones are more vulnerable due to lack of management in canal and river water. Effective management and use of hard and soft techniques are need of time in coming future for controlling greater flooding in flood risk zones to overcome or minimize people’s death as well as agricultural and financial resources as flood and other natural disasters are a major drawback in the economic prosperity of the country.

Keywords: flood management, rivers, major dams, agricultural and financial loss, future management and control

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Authors: Gema M. Rodado, Jose M. Olavarrieta

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Hydrogen fuel cell technologies have experienced a great boost in the last decades, significantly increasing the production of these devices for both stationary and portable (mainly automotive) applications; these are influenced by two main factors: environmental pollution and energy shortage. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy directly into electricity by using hydrogen and oxygen gases as reactive components and obtaining water and heat as byproducts of the chemical reaction. Fuel cells, specifically those of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) technology, are considered an alternative to internal combustion engines, mainly because of the low emissions they produce (almost zero), high efficiency and low operating temperatures (< 373 K). The introduction and use of fuel cells in the automotive market requires the development of standardized and validated procedures to test and evaluate their performance in different environmental conditions including vibrations and freeze-thaw cycles. These situations of vibration and extremely low/high temperatures can affect the physical integrity or even the excellent operation or performance of the fuel cell stack placed in a vehicle in circulation or in different climatic conditions. The main objective of this work is the development and validation of vibration and freeze-thaw cycling test procedures for fuel cell stacks that can be used in a vehicle in order to consolidate their safety, performance, and durability. In this context, different experimental tests were carried out at the facilities of the National Hydrogen Centre (CNH2). The experimental equipment used was: A vibration platform (shaker) for vibration test analysis on fuel cells in three axes directions with different vibration profiles. A walk-in climatic chamber to test the starting, operating, and stopping behavior of fuel cells under defined extreme conditions. A test station designed and developed by the CNH2 to test and characterize PEM fuel cell stacks up to 10 kWe. A 5 kWe PEM fuel cell stack in off-operation mode was used to carry out two independent experimental procedures. On the one hand, the fuel cell was subjected to a sinusoidal vibration test on the shaker in the three axes directions. It was defined by acceleration and amplitudes in the frequency range of 7 to 200 Hz for a total of three hours in each direction. On the other hand, the climatic chamber was used to simulate freeze-thaw cycles by defining a temperature range between +313 K and -243 K with an average relative humidity of 50% and a recommended ramp up and rump down of 1 K/min. The polarization curve and gas leakage rate were determined before and after the vibration and freeze-thaw tests at the fuel cell stack test station to evaluate the robustness of the stack. The results were very similar, which indicates that the tests did not affect the fuel cell stack structure and performance. The proposed procedures were verified and can be used as an initial point to perform other tests with different fuel cells.

Keywords: climatic chamber, freeze-thaw cycles, PEM fuel cell, shaker, vibration tests

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Authors: F. Sahnoune

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The study focuses on the analysis of the Algerian greenhouse gase emissions. In Algeria, as in other countries, the issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change is the subject of great concern. As climate change is a global problem and taking into consideration the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities' as mentioned in the Rio Declaration in 1992, Algeria has initiated a broad program of voluntary reduction of GHG emissions and climate change adaptation. Thus although the contribution of Algeria on global warming is minimal (less than 0.5% of global GHG emissions), the country is, because its geographical position and climatic characteristics, very vulnerable and should integrate mitigation and adaptation into its development policy. Even a small rise in temperature would lead to various socio-economic problems that hinder the development of the country. The models predict that rainfall events are less frequent but more intense, while droughts are more common and longer. The decrease of water resources, declining agricultural yields, encroaching desert, the challenge of planning and the energy consumption for air conditioning are only the initial impacts to which Algeria must find answers supportable economically and socially. The study examines to what extent, Algeria can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We present an analysis of the current situation, trends in CO2 emissions, footprint of Algeria, national climate plan and especially what will be the impact on GHG emissions of the new strategy for promoting renewable energy adopted in 2011 and expects to produce 40% of electricity needs from solar energy. The results show that in 2012 the GHG emissions totaled 153 MT CO2 eq and growing at a rate of over 3%. The Introduction of solar energy in electricity production and implementation of energy efficiency allow to reduce by 2030 more than 300 MT CO2 eq. Avenues of consideration relating to a combination of policies and improved technologies that are able to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate the impacts caused by climate change in the medium term will also be presented.

Keywords: climate change, co2 mitigation, greenhouse gases, renewable energy, sustainable development

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Authors: Louise Reyntjens

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Where criminal law used to be the traditional response to cope with the terrorist threat, European governments are increasingly relying on administrative paths. The reliance on immigration law fits into this trend. Terrorism is seen as a civilization menace emanating from abroad. In this context, the expulsion of dangerous aliens, immigration law’s core task, is put forward as a key security tool. Governments all over Europe are focusing on removing dangerous individuals from their territory rather than bringing them to justice. This research reflects on the consequences for the expelled individuals’ fundamental rights. For this, the author selected four European countries for a comparative study: Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Sweden. All these countries face similar social and security issues, igniting the recourse to immigration law as a counterterrorism tool. Yet, they adopt a very different approach on this: the United Kingdom positions itself on the repressive side of the spectrum. Sweden on the other hand, also 'securitized' its immigration policy after the recent terrorist hit in Stockholm, but remains on the tolerant side of the spectrum. Belgium and France are situated in between. This paper addresses the situation in Belgium. In 2017, the Belgian parliament introduced several legislative changes by which it considerably expanded and facilitated the possibility to expel unwanted aliens. First, the expulsion measure was subjected to new and questionably definitions: a serious attack on the nation’s safety used to be required to expel certain categories of aliens. Presently, mere suspicions suffice to fulfil the new definition of a 'serious threat to national security'. A definition which fails to respond to the principle of legality; the law, nor the prepatory works clarify what is meant by 'a threat to national security'. This creates the risk of submitting this concept’s interpretation almost entirely to the discretion of the immigration authorities. Secondly, in name of intervening more quickly and efficiently, the automatic suspensive appeal for expulsions was abolished. The European Court of Human Rights nonetheless requires such an automatic suspensive appeal under Article 13 and 3 of the Convention. Whether this procedural reform will stand to endure, is thus questionable. This contribution also raises questions regarding expulsion’s efficacy as a key security tool. In a globalized and mobilized world, particularly in a European Union with no internal boundaries, questions can be raised about the usefulness of this measure. Even more so, by simply expelling a dangerous individual, States avoid their responsibility and shift the risk to another State. Criminal law might in these instances be more capable of providing a conclusive and long term response. This contribution explores the human rights consequences of expulsion as a security tool in Belgium. It also offers a critical view on its efficacy for protecting national security.

Keywords: Belgium, counter-terrorism and human rights, expulsion, immigration law

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Authors: Ja'afar Umar, Salisu Naziru

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Submergence stress in plants refers to the physiological and biochemical challenges that occur when plants are partially or fully submerged in water. This type of stress primarily affects plants in flood-prone areas or regions with heavy rainfall, where oxygen availability and other essential resources are limited. Salicylic acid (SA) is an important plant hormone involved in various physiological processes and responses to environmental stress, particularly in plant defense mechanisms against pathogens. Its role as a signaling molecule in plants is crucial for activating defense pathways, regulating growth, and managing responses to biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) stresses. The study involved using salicylic acid (SA) at concentrations of 1g/L, 2g/L, and 3g/L, dissolved in water, to treat rice plants during submergence stress. The experiment had four treatments: 0g/L (control), 1g/L, 2g/L, and 3g/L of SA, each with four replications. Rice seedlings were submerged in water for 11 days and then desubmerged for 7 days. During the experiment, all plants except the control received a foliar spray of SA solutions, while control plants were sprayed with distilled water. The results indicate a significant difference (P<0.05) between the control and salicylic acid (SA)-treated rice plants. SalicyJalic acid, particularly at concentrations of 1g/L, 2g/L, and 3g/L, generally improved the recovery of all four rice cultivars from submergence stress, as reflected by increased numbers of nodes, longer internodes, taller plants, and longer root lengths compared to untreated controls. Salicylic acid, particularly at concentrations of 1g/L, 2g/L, and 3g/L, generally improved the recovery of all four rice cultivars from submergence stress, as reflected by increased numbers of nodes, longer internodes, taller plants, and longer root lengths compared to untreated controls.

Keywords: submergence, stress, rice, salicylic

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Authors: Nora Kuiper, Candace Rowell, Hugues Preud'Homme, Basem Shomar

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As the global dependence on seawater desalination as a primary drinking water resource increases, a unique class of secondary pollutants is emerging. The presence of bromide salts in seawater may result in increased levels of bromine and brominated byproducts in drinking water. The State of Qatar offers a unique setting to study these pollutants and their impacts on consumers as the country is 100% dependent on seawater desalination to supply municipal tap water and locally produced bottled water. Tap water (n=115) and bottled water (n=62) samples were collected throughout the State of Qatar and analyzed for a suite of inorganic and organic compounds, including 54 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with an emphasis on brominated byproducts. All VOC identification and quantification was completed using a Bruker Scion GCMSMS with static headspace technologies. A risk survey tool was used to collect information regarding local consumption habits, health outcomes and perception of water sources for adults and children. This study is the first of its kind in the country. Dibromomethane, bromoform, and bromobenzene were detected in 61%, 88% and 2%, of the drinking water samples analyzed. The levels of dibromomethane ranged from approximately 100-500 ng/L and the concentrations of bromoform ranged from approximately 5-50 µg/L. Additionally, bromobenzene concentrations were 60 ng/L. The presence of brominated compounds in drinking water is a public health concern specific to populations using seawater as a feed water source and may pose unique risks that have not been previously studied. Risk assessments are ongoing to quantify the risks associated with prolonged consumption of disinfection byproducts; specifically the risks of brominated trihalomethanes as the levels of bromoform found in Qatar’s drinking water reach more than 60% of the US EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level of all THMs.

Keywords: brominated byproducts, desalination, trihalomethanes, risk assessment

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Authors: Paul Rowley, Adam Thirkill, Nick Doylend, Philip Leicester, Becky Gough

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The dynamic performance of all energy generation technologies is impacted to varying degrees by the stochastic properties of the wider system within which the generation technology is located. This stochasticity can include the varying nature of ambient renewable energy resources such as wind or solar radiation, or unpredicted changes in energy demand which impact upon the operational behaviour of thermal generation technologies. An understanding of these stochastic impacts are especially important in contexts such as highly distributed (or embedded) generation, where an understanding of issues affecting the individual or aggregated performance of high numbers of relatively small generators is especially important, such as in ESCO projects. Probabilistic evaluation of monitored or simulated performance data is one technique which can provide an insight into the dynamic performance characteristics of generating systems, both in a prognostic sense (such as the prediction of future performance at the project’s design stage) as well as in a diagnostic sense (such as in the real-time analysis of underperforming systems). In this work, we describe the development, application and outcomes of a new approach to the acquisition of datasets suitable for use in the subsequent performance and impact analysis (including the use of Bayesian approaches) for a number of distributed generation technologies. The application of the approach is illustrated using a number of case studies involving domestic and small commercial scale photovoltaic, solar thermal and natural gas boiler installations, and the results as presented show that the methodology offers significant advantages in terms of plant efficiency prediction or diagnosis, along with allied environmental and social impacts such as greenhouse gas emission reduction or fuel affordability.

Keywords: renewable energy, dynamic performance simulation, Bayesian analysis, distributed generation

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Authors: Sarah Ullrich, Juliane Rolle, Christian Beste, Nicole Wolff

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Inhibition and cognitive flexibility are essential parts of executive functions in our daily lives, as they enable the avoidance of unwanted responses or selectively switch between mental processes to generate appropriate behavior. There is growing interest in improving inhibition and response selection through brief mindfulness-based meditations. Arguably, open-monitoring meditation (OMM) improves inhibitory and flexibility performance by optimizing cognitive control and information processing. Yet, the underlying neurophysiological processes have been poorly studied. Using the Simon-Go/Nogo paradigm, the present work examined the effect of a single 15-minute smartphone app-based OMM on inhibitory performance and response selection in meditation novices. We used both behavioral and neurophysiological measures (event-related potentials, ERPs) to investigate which subprocesses of response selection and inhibition are altered after OMM. The study was conducted in a randomized crossover design with N = 32 healthy adults. We thereby investigated Go and Nogo trials in the paradigm. The results show that as little as 15 minutes of OMM can improve response selection and inhibition at behavioral and neurophysiological levels. More specifically, OMM reduces the rate of false alarms, especially during Nogo trials regardless of congruency. It appears that OMM optimizes conflict processing and response inhibition compared to no meditation, also reflected in the ERP N2 and P3 time windows. The results may be explained by the meta control model, which argues in terms of a specific processing mode with increased flexibility and inclusive decision-making under OMM. Importantly, however, the effects of OMM were only evident when there was the prior experience with the task. It is likely that OMM provides more cognitive resources, as the amplitudes of these EKPs decreased. OMM novices seem to induce finer adjustments during conflict processing after familiarization with the task.

Keywords: EEG, inhibition, meditation, Simon Nogo

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Authors: Abdullah Kaya, Muammer Koc

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A levelized cost analysis of solar energy powered seawater desalination in The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is conducted to show that clean and renewable desalination is economically viable. The Emirate heavily relies on seawater desalination for its freshwater needs due to limited freshwater resources available. This trend is expected to increase further due to growing population and economic activity, rapid decline in limited freshwater reserves, and aggravating effects of climate change. Seawater desalination in Abu Dhabi is currently done through thermal desalination technologies such as multi-stage flash (MSF) and multi-effect distillation (MED) which are coupled with thermal power plants known as co-generation. Our analysis indicates that these thermal desalination methods are inefficient regarding energy consumption and harmful to the environment due to CO₂ emissions and other dangerous byproducts. Therefore, utilization of clean and renewable desalination options has become a must for The Emirate for the transition to a sustainable future. The rapid decline in the cost of solar PV system for energy production and RO technology for desalination makes the combination of these two an ideal option for a future of sustainable desalination in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. A Levelized cost analysis for water produced by solar PV + RO system indicates that Abu Dhabi is well positioned to utilize this technological combination for cheap and clean desalination for the coming years. It has been shown that cap-ex cost of solar PV powered RO system has potential to go as low as to 101 million US $ (1111 $/m³) at best case considering the recent technological developments. The levelized cost of water (LCW) values fluctuate between 0.34 $/m³ for the baseline case and 0.27 $/m³ for the best case. Even the highly conservative case yields LCW cheaper than 100% from all thermal desalination methods currently employed in the Emirate. Exponential cost decreases in both solar PV and RO sectors along with increasing economic scale globally signal the fact that a cheap and clean desalination can be achieved by the combination of these technologies.

Keywords: solar PV, RO desalination, sustainable desalination, levelized cost of analysis, Emirate of Abu Dhabi

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Authors: O. A. Adeyemi, M. O. Idris, W. A. Oke, O. T. Olorode, S. O. Alayande, A. E. Adeoye

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of capability building at subsidiary level and the challenges to such process. The relevance of external factors for capability development, have not been explicitly addressed in empirical studies. Though, internal factors, acting as enablers, have been more extensively studied. With reference to external factors, subsidiaries are actively influenced by specific characteristics of the host country, implying a need to become fully immersed in local culture and practices. Specifically, in MNCs, there has been a widespread trend in management practice to increase subsidiary autonomy,  with subsidiary managers being encouraged to act entrepreneurially, and to take advantage of host country specificity. As such, it could be proposed that: P1: The degree at which subsidiary management is connected to the host country, will positively influence the capability development process. Dynamic capabilities reside to a large measure with the subsidiary management team, but are impacted by the organizational processes, systems and structures that the MNC headquarter has designed to manage its business. At the subsidiary level, the weight of the subsidiary in the network, its initiative-taking and its profile building increase the supportive attention of the HQs and are relevant to the success of the process of capability building. Therefore, our second proposition is that: P2: Subsidiary role and HQ support are relevant elements in capability development at the subsidiary level. Design/Methodology/Approach: This present study will adopt the multiple case studies approach. That is because a case study research is relevant when addressing issues without known empirical evidences or with little developed prior theory. The key definitions and literature sources directly connected with operations of western subsidiaries in emerging markets, such as China, are well established. A qualitative approach, i.e., case studies of three western subsidiaries, will be adopted. The companies have similar products, they have operations in China, and both of them are mature in their internationalization process. Interviews with key informants, annual reports, press releases, media materials, presentation material to customers and stakeholders, and other company documents will be used as data sources. Findings: Western Subsidiaries in Emerging Market operate in a way substantially different from those in the West. What are the conditions initiating the outsourcing of operations? The paper will discuss and present two relevant propositions guiding that process. Practical Implications: MNCs headquarter should be aware of the potential for capability development at the subsidiary level. This increased awareness could induce consideration in headquarter about the possible ways of encouraging such known capability development and how to leverage these capabilities for better MNC headquarter and/or subsidiary performance. Originality/Value: The paper is expected to contribute on the theme: drivers of subsidiary performance with focus on emerging market. In particular, it will show how some external conditions could promote a capability-building process within subsidiaries.

Keywords: case studies, dynamic capability, emerging market, subsidiary

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Authors: M. Arun, A. Kannan

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Textile industries cater to varied customer preferences and contribute substantially to the economy. However, these textile industries also produce a considerable amount of effluents. Prominent among these are the azo dyes which impart considerable color and toxicity even at low concentrations. Azo dyes are also used as coloring agents in food and pharmaceutical industry. Despite their applications, azo dyes are also notorious pollutants and carcinogens. Popular techniques like photo-degradation, biodegradation and the use of oxidizing agents are not applicable for all kinds of dyes, as most of them are stable to these techniques. Chemical coagulation produces a large amount of toxic sludge which is undesirable and is also ineffective towards a number of dyes. Most of the azo dyes are stable to UV-visible light irradiation and may even resist aerobic degradation. Adsorption has been the most preferred technique owing to its less cost, high capacity and process efficiency and the possibility of regenerating and recycling the adsorbent. Adsorption is also most preferred because it may produce high quality of the treated effluent and it is able to remove different kinds of dyes. However, the adsorption process is influenced by many variables whose inter-dependence makes it difficult to identify optimum conditions. The variables include stirring speed, temperature, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage. Further, the internal diffusional resistance inside the adsorbent particle leads to slow uptake of the solute within the adsorbent. Hence, it is necessary to identify optimum conditions that lead to high capacity and uptake rate of these pollutants. In this work, commercially available activated carbon was chosen as the adsorbent owing to its high surface area. A typical azo dye found in textile effluent waters, viz. the monoazo Acid Orange 10 dye (CAS: 1936-15-8) has been chosen as the representative pollutant. Adsorption studies were mainly focused at obtaining equilibrium and kinetic data for the batch adsorption process at different process conditions. Studies were conducted at different stirring speed, temperature, adsorbent dosage and initial dye concentration settings. The Full Factorial Design was the chosen statistical design framework for carrying out the experiments and identifying the important factors and their interactions. The optimum conditions identified from the experimental model were validated with actual experiments at the recommended settings. The equilibrium and kinetic data obtained were fitted to different models and the model parameters were estimated. This gives more details about the nature of adsorption taking place. Critical data required to design batch adsorption systems for removal of Acid Orange 10 dye and identification of factors that critically influence the separation efficiency are the key outcomes from this research.

Keywords: acid orange 10, activated carbon, optimum adsorption conditions, statistical design

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Authors: Alokananda Nath

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Land is an important issue anywhere in the world as it is one of the fundamental elements in human settlements. Since the urban areas are considered to be the drivers of economy for any country across the world and the phenomenon of ‘urbanization’ happening everywhere, there is always a greater pressure on urban land and its management. Many states in India have realized the importance of land as a valuable resource and have implemented certain framework for managing and developing land. But in West Bengal no such statutory framework has been formulated till now and a very out dated model of land acquisition for public purpose is practiced. Due to the lop-sided character of urban growth in the entire eastern region of India, the city of Kolkata continues to bear the burden of excessive growth of population and consequent urbanization of the adjoining areas at a rapid pace. This research tries to look into these conflicts with respect to the present pattern of development in the context of Kolkata and suggest a system for land management in order to implement the planning processes. For this purpose, five case study areas were taken up within the Kolkata Metropolitan Area and subsequent analysis of their present land management and development techniques was done. The findings reveal that there is a lack of political will as well as administrative inefficiency on part of both the development authority and the local bodies. Mostly the local bodies lack the financial resources and technical expertise to work out any kind of land management framework or work out any kind of model in order to manage the development that is happening. All these place undue strain on city infrastructure systems and reduce the potential of cities to contribute as engines of economic growth. The focus of reforms, therefore, ought to be on streamlining the urban planning process, judicious and optimal land use, efficient plan implementation mechanisms, improvement of titling and registration processes.

Keywords: urbanization, land management framework, land development, policy reforms, land-use planning processes

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Authors: Shahril Anuar Bahari, Mohd Azrie Mohd Kepli, Mohd Ariff Jamaludin, Kamarulzaman Nordin, Mohamad Jani Saad

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Formaldehyde release from wood-based panel composites can be very toxicity and may increase the risk of human health as well as environmental problems. A new bio-composites product without synthetic adhesive or resin is possible to be developed in order to reduce these problems. Apart from formaldehyde release, adhesive is also considered to be expensive, especially in the manufacturing of composite products. Natural bonded composites can be termed as a panel product composed with any type of cellulosic materials without the addition of synthetic resins. It is composed with chemical content activation in the cellulosic materials. Pulp and paper making method (chemical pulping) was used as a general guide in the composites manufacturing. This method will also generally reduce the manufacturing cost and the risk of formaldehyde emission and has potential to be used as an alternative technology in fiber composites industries. In this study, the natural bonded bamboo fiber composite was produced from virgin Malaysian bamboo fiber (Bambusa vulgaris). The bamboo culms were chipped and digested into fiber using this pulping method. The black liquor collected from the pulping process was used as a natural binding agent in the composition. Then the fibers were mixed and blended with black liquor without any resin addition. The amount of black liquor used per composite board was 20%, with approximately 37% solid content. The composites were fabricated using a hot press machine at two different board densities, 850 and 950 kg/m³, with two sets of hot pressing time, 25 and 35 minutes. Samples of the composites from different densities and hot pressing times were tested in flexural strength and internal bonding (IB) for strength performance according to British Standard. Modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR) was determined in flexural test, while tensile force perpendicular to the surface was recorded in IB test. Results show that the strength performance of the composites with 850 kg/m³ density were significantly higher than 950 kg/m³ density, especially for samples from 25 minutes hot pressing time. Strength performance of composites from 25 minutes hot pressing time were generally greater than 35 minutes. Results show that the maximum mean values of strength performance were recorded from composites with 850 kg/m³ density and 25 minutes pressing time. The maximum mean values for MOE, MOR and IB were 3251.84, 16.88 and 0.27 MPa, respectively. Only MOE result has conformed to high density fiberboard (HDF) standard (2700 MPa) in British Standard for Fiberboard Specification, BS EN 622-5: 2006. Microstructure characteristics of composites can also be related to the strength performance of the composites, in which, the observed fiber damage in composites from 950 kg/m³ density and overheat of black liquor led to the low strength properties, especially in IB test.

Keywords: bamboo fiber, natural bonded, black liquor, mechanical tests, microstructure observations

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Authors: Muhammad Nouman, Salim Gul, Karim Ullah

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Partnership has been understood as the essence of Islamic banking. However, in practice, the non-partnership paradigm dominates the operations of Islamic banks. Islamic banks adopt partnership contracts for the scheme of deposits, especially for term deposit accounts. However, they do not adopt partnership contracts (i.e., Musharakah and Mudarabah) as the main financing scheme. In practice, non-partnership contracts including Murabahah and Ijara are widely used for financing. Many authors have provided different explanations for the less utilization of the partnership contracts as a scheme of financing. However, the typology of constraints remains missing. The extant literature remains scattered, with diverse studies focused on different dimensions of the issue. Therefore, there is no unified understanding of the constraints in the application of the partnership contracts. This paper aims to highlight the major factors hindering the application of partnership contracts, and produce a coherent view by synthesizing different explanations provided in several studies conducted around the globe. The present study employs insights form the extant literature using a systematic review and provides academia, practitioners, and policy makers with a holistic framework to name and make sense of what is making partnership contracts a less attractive option for Islamic banks. A total of 84 relevant publications including 11 books, 14 chapters of edited books, 48 journal articles, 8 conference papers and 3 IMF working papers were selected using a systematic procedure. Analysis of these selected publications followed three steps: i) In the first step of analysis the constraints explicitly appearing in the literature set of 84 articles were extracted, ii) In the second step 27 factors hindering the application of partnership contracts were identified from the constraints extracted in the first step with the overlapping items either eliminated or combined, iii) In the last step the factors identified in the second step were classified into three distinct categories. Our intention was to develop the typology of constraints by connecting the rather abstract concepts into the broader sets of constraints for better conceptualization and policy implications. Our framework highlights that there are mainly three facets of lower preference for partnership contracts of financing. First, there are several factors in the contemporary business settings, prevailing social setting, and the bank’s internal environment that underpin uncertainty in the success of partnership contracts of financing. Second, partnership contracts have lower demand i.e., entrepreneurs prefer to use non-partnership contracts for financing their ventures due to the inherent restraining characteristics of the partnership contracts. Finally, there are certain factors in the regulatory framework that restraint the extensive utilization of partnership contracts of financing by Islamic banks. The present study contributes to the Islamic banking literature in many ways. It provides clarification to the heavily criticized operations of Islamic banks, integrates the scattered literature, and provides a holistic framework for better conceptualization of the key constraints in the application of the partnership contracts and policy implications. Moreover, it demonstrates an application of systematic review in Islamic banking research.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic finance, Mudarabah, Musharakah, partnership, systematic review

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Authors: Mehdi Khaki, Ehsan Forootan, Joseph Awange, Michael Kuhn

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Terrestrial water storage, as a source of freshwater, plays an important role in human lives. Hydrological models offer important tools for simulating and predicting water storages at global and regional scales. However, their comparisons with 'reality' are imperfect mainly due to a high level of uncertainty in input data and limitations in accounting for all complex water cycle processes, uncertainties of (unknown) empirical model parameters, as well as the absence of high resolution (both spatially and temporally) data. Data assimilation can mitigate this drawback by incorporating new sets of observations into models. In this effort, we use multi-mission satellite-derived remotely sensed observations to improve the performance of World-Wide Water Resources Assessment system (W3RA) hydrological model for estimating terrestrial water storages. For this purpose, we assimilate total water storage (TWS) data from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and surface soil moisture data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) into W3RA. This is done to (i) improve model estimations of water stored in ground and soil moisture, and (ii) assess the impacts of each satellite of data (from GRACE and AMSR-E) and their combination on the final terrestrial water storage estimations. These data are assimilated into W3RA using the Ensemble Square-Root Filter (EnSRF) filtering technique over Mississippi Basin (the United States) and Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) between 2002 and 2013. In order to evaluate the results, independent ground-based groundwater and soil moisture measurements within each basin are used.

Keywords: data assimilation, GRACE, AMSR-E, hydrological model, EnSRF

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Authors: Chanda Burrage

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The past half-century has revealed massive structural, geographic, and technological changes in livestock production. The move, for instance, toward expanding export markets, massive feedlots for the fattening of cattle and improved veterinary standards is a global trend in food animal agribusiness and is apparent in both developed and developing regions. In the Horn of Africa, various breeds of cattle that previously were not considered in economic terms are now treated as commodities and branded for numerous export markets. Formerly a culturally significant exchange good within the subsistence pastoral livelihoods, cattle are now identified as a key economic resource and fully connected to global markets. This study incorporates an ethnographic-commodity chain approach to examine critical issues surrounding regional trade, harmonization of standards, import & export legislation, the role of the private sector, and infrastructure development relative to the Boran cattle breed and Borana pastoralists. The specific sites assessed include the cattle production region of Moyale in southern Ethiopia, feedlots and export abattoirs in Adama, Ethiopia, and quarantines and ports in Djibouti and Somaliland. The goal is to evaluate innovation and modernization outcomes and narratives around Boran cattle production and development and the associate livelihood changes for cattle producers in southern Ethiopia and how the smallholder pastoralists are coping with the multitude of global changes. Inevitably, the inherent pressures related to such changes alter, and may even promote the reconfiguration of identity, while inadvertently contribute to the capacity of smallholder cattle producers to act independently and make their own free choices in sustainability. It is through these processes that local Borana groups may appropriate, bypass, or put to new use available and innovative material resources.

Keywords: globalization, global change, commodification, pastoralism, vulnerability, adaptive capacity

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Authors: Marine Hascoet, Valentina Giaconi, Ludivine Jamain

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The aim of our study is to examine if the family socio-economic status (SES) has an influence on students’ academic achievement. We first make the hypothesis that the more their families have financial and social resources, the more students succeed at school. We second make the hypothesis that this family SES has also an impact on parents’ expectations about their children educational outcomes. Moreover, we want to study if that parents’ expectations play the role of mediator between parents’ socio-economic status and the student’ self-concept and academic outcome. We test this model with a longitudinal design thanks to the census-based assessment from the System of Measurement of the Quality of Education (SIMCE). The SIMCE tests aim to assess all the students attending to regular education in a defined level. The sample used in this study came from the SIMCE assessments done three times: in 4th, 8th and 11th grade during the years 2007, 2011 and 2014 respectively. It includes 156.619 students (75.084 boys and 81.535 girls) that had valid responses for the three years. The family socio-economic status was measured at the first assessment (in 4th grade). The parents’ educational expectations and the students’ self-concept were measured at the second assessment (in 8th grade). The achievement score was measured twice; once when children were in 4th grade and a second time when they were in 11th grade. To test our hypothesis, we have defined a structural equation model. We found that our model fit well the data (CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.05). Both family SES and prior achievements predict parents’ educational expectations and effect of SES is important in comparison to the other coefficients. These expectations predict students’ achievement three years later (with prior achievement controlled) but not their self-concept. Our model explains 51.9% of the achievement in the 11th grade. Our results confirm the importance of the parents’ expectations and the significant role of socio-economic status in students’ academic achievement in Chile.

Keywords: Chilean context, parent’s expectations, school achievement, self-concept, socio-economic status

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Authors: Moira Cordiner

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As a result of an Australian university approving a policy to improve the quality of assessment practices, as an academic developer (AD) with expertise in criterion-referenced assessment commenced in 2008. The four-year appointment was to support 40 'champions' in their Schools. This presentation is based on the experiences of a group of Chemistry academics who worked with the AD to develop and implement an honours dissertation rubric. Honours is a research year following a three-year undergraduate year. If the standard of the student's work is high enough (mainly the dissertation) then the student can commence a PhD. What became clear during the process was that much more was at stake than just the successful development and trial of the rubric, including academics' reputations, university rankings and research outputs. Working with the champion-Head of School(HOS) and the honours coordinator, the AD helped them adapt an honours rubric that she had helped create and trial successfully for another Science discipline. A year of many meetings and complex power plays between the two academics finally resulted in a version that was critiqued by the Chemistry teaching and learning committee. Accompanying the rubric was an explanation of grading rules plus a list of supervisor expectations to explain to students how the rubric was used for grading. Further refinements were made until all staff were satisfied. It was trialled successfully in 2011, then small changes made. It was adapted and implemented for Medicine honours with her help in 2012. Despite coming to consensus about statements of quality in the rubric, a few academics found it challenging matching these to the dissertations and allocating a grade. They had had no time to undertake training to do this, or make overt their implicit criteria and standards, which some admitted they were using - 'I know what a first class is'. Other factors affecting grading included: the small School where all supervisors knew each other and the students, meant that friendships and collegiality were at stake if low grades were given; no external examiners were appointed-all were internal with the potential for bias; supervisors’ reputations were at stake if their students did not receive a good grade; the School's reputation was also at risk if insufficient honours students qualified for PhD entry; and research output was jeopardised without enough honours students to work on supervisors’ projects. A further complication during the study was a restructure of the university and retrenchments, with pressure to increase research output as world rankings assumed greater importance to senior management. In conclusion, much more was at stake than developing a usable rubric. The HOS had to be seen to champion the 'new' assessment practice while balancing institutional demands for increased research output and ensuring as many honours dissertations as possible met high standards, so that eventually the percentage of PhD completions and research output rose. It is therefore in the institution's best interest for this cycle to be maintained as it affects rankings and reputations. In this context, are rubrics redundant?

Keywords: explicit and implicit standards, judging quality, university rankings, research reputations

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Authors: Farahnaz Karami

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Routing is an important, challenging task in mobile ad hoc networks due to node mobility, lack of central control, unstable links, and limited resources. An ant colony has been found to be an attractive technique for routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). However, existing swarm intelligence based routing protocols find an optimal path by considering only one or two route selection metrics without considering correlations among such parameters making them unsuitable lonely for routing real time applications. Fuzzy logic combines multiple route selection parameters containing uncertain information or imprecise data in nature, but does not have multipath routing property naturally in order to provide load balancing. The objective of this paper is to design a routing algorithm using fuzzy logic and ant colony that can solve some of routing problems in mobile ad hoc networks, such as nodes energy consumption optimization to increase network lifetime, link failures rate reduction to increase packet delivery reliability and providing load balancing to optimize available bandwidth. In proposed algorithm, the path information will be given to fuzzy inference system by ants. Based on the available path information and considering the parameters required for quality of service (QoS), the fuzzy cost of each path is calculated and the optimal paths will be selected. NS2.35 simulation tools are used for simulation and the results are compared and evaluated with the newest QoS based algorithms in MANETs according to packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay and routing overhead ratio criterions. The simulation results show significant improvement in the performance of these networks in terms of decreasing end-to-end delay, and routing overhead ratio, and also increasing packet delivery ratio.

Keywords: mobile ad hoc networks, routing, quality of service, ant colony, fuzzy logic

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Authors: Maria I. Nuñez-Hernández, Maria L. Riesco

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Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) up to 6 months old infant have been considered one of the most important factors in the overall development of children. Nevertheless, as resources are scarce, it is essential to identify the most vulnerable groups that have major risk of EBF abandonment, in order to deliver the best strategies. Children of adolescent mothers are within these groups. Aims: To determine the EBF abandonment rate among adolescent mothers and to analyze the associated factors. Methods: Prospective cohort study of adolescent mothers in the southern area of Santiago, Chile, conducted in primary care services of public health system. The cohort was established from 2014 to 2015, with a sample of 105 adolescent mothers and their children at 2 months of life. The inclusion criteria were: adolescent mother from 14 to 19 years old; not twin babies; mother and baby leaving the hospital together after birthchild; correct attachment of the baby to the breast; no difficulty understanding the Spanish language or communicating. Follow-up was performed at 4 and 6 months old infant. Data were collected by interviews, considering EBF as breastfeeding only, without adding other milk, tea, juice, water or other product that not breast milk, except drugs. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics, by Kaplan-Meier estimator and Log-Rank test, admitting the probability of occurrence of type I error of 5% (p-value = 0.05). Results: The cumulative EBF abandonment rate at 2, 4 and 6 months was 33.3%, 52.2% and 63.8%, respectively. Factors associated with EBF abandonment were maternal perception of the quality of milk as poor (p < 0.001), maternal perception that the child was not satisfied after breastfeeding (p < 0.001), use of pacifier (p < 0.001), maternal consumption of illicit drugs after delivery (p < 0.001), mother return to school (p = 0.040) and presence of nipple trauma (p = 0.045). Conclusion: EBF abandonment rate was higher in the first 4 months of life and is superior to the population of women who breastfeed. Among the EBF abandonment factors, one of them is related to the adolescent condition, and two are related to the maternal subjective perception.

Keywords: adolescent, breastfeeding, midwifery, nursing

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Authors: Tso Sheng-Yang, Wang Tien-Ni

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Introduction and Purpose: Previous researchers have documented children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) prefer to escaping internal privates and external privates when they face tough conditions they can’t control or they don’t like.Especially, when children with ASD need to learn challenging tasks, such us Chinese language, their inappropriate behaviors will occur apparently. Recently, researchers apply positive behavior support strategies for children with ASD to enhance their self-efficacy and therefore to reduce their adverse behaviors. Thus, the purpose of this research was to design a series of lecture based on art therapy and to evaluate its effectiveness on the child’s self-efficacy. Method: This research was the single-case design study that recruited a high school boy with ASD. Whole research can be separated into three conditions. First, baseline condition, before the class started and ended, the researcher collected participant’s competencies of self-efficacy every session. In intervention condition, the research used dramatic conventions to teach the child in Chinese language twice a week.When the data was stable across three documents, the period entered to the maintenance condition. In maintenance condition, the researcher only collected the score of self-efficacynot to do other interventions five times a month to represent the effectiveness of maintenance.The time and frequency of data collection among three conditions are identical. Concerning art therapy, the common approach, e.g., music, drama, or painting is to use art medium as independent variable. Due to visual cues of art medium, the ASD can be easily to gain joint attention with teachers. Besides, the ASD have difficulties in understanding abstract objectives Thus, using the drama convention is helpful for the ASD to construct the environment and understand the context of Classical Chinese. By real operation, it can improve the ASD to understand the context and construct prior knowledge. Result: Bassd on the 10-points Likert scale and research, we product following results. (a) In baseline condition, the average score of self-efficacyis 1.12 points, rangedfrom 1 to 2 points, and the level change is 0 point. (b)In intervention condition, the average score of self-efficacy is 7.66 points rangedfrom 7 to 9 points, and the level change is 1 point. (c)In maintenance condition, the average score of self-efficacy is 6.66 points rangedfrom 6 to 7 points, and the level change is 1 point. Concerning immediacy of change, between baseline and intervention conditions, the difference is 5 points. No overlaps were found between these two conditions. Conclusion: According to the result, we find that it is effective that using dramatic conventions a s teaching strategies to teach children with ASD. The result presents the score of self-efficacyimmediately enhances when the dramatic conventions commences. Thus, we suggest the teacher can use this approach and adjust, based on the student’s trait, to teach the ASD on difficult task.

Keywords: dramatic conventions, autism spectrum disorder, slef-efficacy, teaching strategy

Procedia PDF Downloads 82