Search results for: global financial crisis

Authors: Oladipo Jimoh Ayanda, Fashagba Mathew Olasehinde

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Pension is a post retirement benefit paid to employees after retirement to cushion the effects of severance from monthly emoluments. It serves the dual purpose of providing financial succour to retired employees as well as motivating employees currently in service to greater performance on duty. However, the scheme, as operated in Nigeria, is prone to some pitfalls such as delayed and irregular payments, inadequate budgetary provisions, employee sufferings and deaths arising from the rigors of verification exercises, among others. This necessitated the replacement of the old scheme with the contributory pension scheme through an enabling law in 2004. The implementation of the new scheme has its own challenges especially in connection with administration. These challenges pose a fundamental problem of establishing a nexus between pension benefits and work performance which represent the focus of the study. The study objectives were to: determine the effect of contributory pension scheme on employees’ performance. The study population consisted of National Universities Commission recognized public and private universities in the South West Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling method involving stratified sampling and systematic sampling was used in selecting 359 respondents while data were collected through questionnaire administration. The procedure for analyzing the data included descriptive statistic, normal distribution test and cross-tabulation (gamma coefficient). The findings of the study showed that the existence of the scheme positively enhances employees’ performance as indicated by normal distribution test with Z-score (10.169) which is greater than the table value (1.96) at 0.05 level. The study concluded that the scope for enhancing employee current job performance can be quite elastic if future retirement benefits are guaranteed through proper and efficient administration and management of the contributory pension scheme. The study recommended that certain factors such as employers’ commitment which account for different levels of confidence between public and private universities should be looked into in order to improve confidence across board while the provisions of the scheme as they affect the PFAs should be properly monitored to ensure compliance.

Keywords: pension, retirement, performance, employees, benefit

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Authors: Maryam Nazari, Majid Karandish, Alihossein Saberi

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Obesity as a global health challenge motivates pharmaceutical industries to produce anti-obesity drugs. However, effectiveness of these agents is remained unclear. Because of popularity of dietary supplements, the aim of this study was tp investigate the effects of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) and L-carnitine (LC) on serum glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol and weight changes in diet induced obese rats. 48 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups: Normal fat diet (n=8), and High fat diet (HFD) (n=32). After eight weeks, the second group which was maintained on HFD until the end of study, was subdivided into four categories: a) 500 mg Corn Oil (as control group), b) 500 mg CLA, c) 200 mg LC, d) 500 mg CLA+ 200 mg LC.All doses are planned per kg body weights, which were administered by oral gavage for four weeks. Body weights were measured and recorded weekly by means of a digital scale. At the end of the study, blood samples were collected for biochemical markers measurement. SPSS Version 16 was used for statistical analysis. At the end of 8^th week, a significant difference in weight was observed between HFD and NFD group. After 12 weeks, LC significantly reduced weight gain by 4.2%. Trend of weight gain in CLA and CLA+LC groups was insignificantly decelerated. CLA+LC reduced triglyceride level significantly, but just CLA had significant influence on total cholesterol and insignificant decreasing effect on FBS. Our results showed that an obesogenic diet in a relative short time led to obesity and dyslipidemia which can be modified by LC and CLA to some extent.

Keywords: conjugated linoleic acid, high fat diet, L-Carnitine, obesity

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Kawthar F. Albasri, Abdullah M. AlHudaithi, Dana B. AlTurairi, Abdullaziz S. AlQuraini, Adoub Y. AlDerazi, Reem A. Hubail, Haitham A. Jahrami

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Several studies have found that medical students have a significant prevalence of anxiety. The purpose of this review paper is to carefully evaluate the current research on anxiety among medical students in the MENA region and, as a result, estimate the prevalence of these disturbances. Multiple databases, including the CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Cochrane Library, Embase, MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), PubMed, PsycINFO (Psychological Information Database), Scopus, Web of Science, UpToDate, ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO Global Health Library, EbscoHost, ProQuest, JAMA Network, and ScienceDirect, were searched. The retrieved article reference lists were rigorously searched and rated for quality. A random effects meta-analysis was performed to compute estimates. The current meta-analysis revealed an alarming estimated pooled prevalence of anxiety (K = 46, N = 27023) of 52.5% [95%CI: 43.3%–61.6%]. A total of 62.0% [95% CI 42.9%; 78.0%] of the students (K = 18, N = 16466) suffered from anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, while 52.5% [95% CI 43.3%; 61.6%] had anxiety before COVID-19. Based on the GAD-7 measure, a total of 55.7% [95%CI 30.5%; 78.3%] of the students (K = 10, N = 5830) had anxiety, and a total of 54.7% of the students (K = 18, N = 12154) [95%CI 42.8%; 66.0%] had anxiety using the DASS-21 or 42 measure. Anxiety is a common issue among medical students, making it a genuine problem. Further research should be conducted post-COVD 19, with a focus on anxiety prevention and intervention initiatives for medical students.

Keywords: anxiety, medical students, MENA, meta-analysis, prevalence

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Authors: Bazla Manzoor, Aqsa Yasin

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Pakistan is the country which is progressing by leaps and bounds through agricultural and industrial growth. The main area, which presents the largest income rate through industrial activities, is Faisalabad from the Province of Punjab. Faisalabad’s main occupations include agriculture and industry. As these sectors i.e. agriculture and industry is developing day by day, they are earning much income for the country and generating thousands of job vacancies. On one hand the city, i.e. Faisalabad is on the way of development through industrial growth, while on the other hand this industrial growth is producing a bad impact on the environment. In return, that damaged environment is affecting badly on the people and built environment. This research is chiefly based on one of the above-mentioned factors i.e. adverse environmental impacts on the built structures. Faisalabad is an old city, therefore; it is having many old structures especially from British Era. Many of those structures are still surviving and are functioning as the government, private and public buildings. However, these structures are getting in a poor condition with the passage of time due to bad maintenance and adverse environmental impacts. Bad maintenance is a factor, which can be controlled by financial assistance and management. The factor needs to be seriously considered is the other one i.e. adverse environmental impacts on British Era structures of the city because this factor requires controlled and refined human activities and actions. For this reason, a research was required to conserve the British Era structures of Faisalabad so that these structures can function well. The other reason to conserve them is that these structures are historically important and are the heritage of the city. For doing this research, literature has been reviewed which was present in the libraries of the city. Department of Environment, Town Municipal Administration, Faisalabad Development Authority and Lyallpur Heritage Foundation were visited to collect the existing data available. Various British Era structures were also visited to note down the environmental impacts on them. From all the structures “Clock Tower,” was deeply studied as it is one of the oldest and most important heritage structures of the city because the earlier settlements of the city were planned based on its location by The British Government. The architectural and environmental analyses were done for The Clock Tower. This research study found the deterioration factors of the tower according to which suggestions have been made.

Keywords: lyallpur, heritage, architecture, environment

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Authors: K. Rasool

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Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRBs) induced biofilm formation is a global industrial concern due to its role in the development of microbial-induced corrosion (MIC). Herein, we have developed a biodegradable chitosan/lignosulfonate nanocomposite (CS@LS) as an efficient green biocide for the inhibition of SRBs biofilms. We investigated in detail the inhibition mechanism of SRBs by CS@LS in seawater media. Stable CS@LS-1:1 with 150–200 nm average size and zeta potential of + 34.25 mV was synthesized. The biocidal performance of CS@LS was evaluated by sulfate reduction profiles coupled with analysis of extracted extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assays. As the nanocomposite concentration was increased from 50 to 500 µg/mL, the specific sulfate reduction rate (SSRR) decreased from 0.278 to 0.036 g-sulfate/g-VSS*day showing a relative sulfate reduction inhibition of 86.64% as compared to that of control. Similarly, the specific organic uptake rate (SOUR) decreased from 0.082 to 0.039 0.036 g-TOC/g-VSS*day giving a relative co-substrate oxidation inhibition of 52.19% as compared to that of control. The SRBs spiked with 500 µg/mL CS@LS showed a reduction in cell viability to 1.5 × 106 MPN/mL. To assess the biosafety of the nanocomposite on the marine biota, the 72-hours acute toxicity assays using the zebrafish embryo model revealed that the LC50 for the CS@LS was 103.3 µg/mL. Thus, CS@LS can be classified as environmentally friendly. The nanocomposite showed long-term stability and excellent antibacterial properties against SRBs growth and is thus potentially useful for combating the problems of biofilm growth in harsh marine and aquatic environments.

Keywords: green biocides, chitosan/lignosulfonate nanocomposite, SRBs, toxicity

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Authors: Ngoc-Hieu Vu

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Although dairy production in Vietnam is a relatively new agricultural activity, milk production increased remarkably in recent years. Smallholders are still the main drivers for this development, especially in the southern part of the country. However, information on the farming practices is very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize husbandry practices, educational experiences, decision-making practices, constraints, income and expenses of smallholder dairy farms in Southern Vietnam. A total of 200 farms, located in the regions Ho Chi Minh (HCM, N=80 farms), Lam Dong (N=40 farms), Binh Duong (N=40 farms) and Long An (N=40 farms) were included. Between October 2013 and December 2014 farmers were interviewed twice. On average, farms owned 3.200m2, 2.000m2, and 193m2 of pasture, cropping and housing area, respectively. The number of total, milking and dry cows, heifers, and calves were 20.4, 11.6, 4.7, 3.3, and 2.9 head. The number of lactating dairy cows was higher (p<0.001) in HCM (15.5) and Lam Dong (14.7) than in Binh Duong (6.7) and Long An (10.7). Animals were mainly crossbred Holstein-Friesian (HF) cows with at least 75% HF origin (84%), whereas a higher (P<0.001) percentage of purebred HF was found in HCM and Lam Dong and crossbreds in Binh Duong and Long An. Animals were mainly raised in tie-stalls (94%) and machine-milked (80%). Farmers used their own replacement animals (76%), and both genetic and phenotypic information (67%) for selecting sires. Farmers were predominantly educated at primary school level (53%). Major constraints for dairy farming were the lack of capital (43%), diseases (17%), marketing (22%), lack of knowledge (8%) and feed (7%). Monthly profit per lactating cow was superior in Lam Dong (2,817 thousand VND) and HCM (2,798 thousand VND) compared to other regions in Long An (2,597 thousand VND), and Binh Duong (1,775 thousand VND). Regional differences may be mainly attributed to environmental factors, urbanization, and particularly governmental support and the availability of extension and financial institutions. Results from this study provide important information on farming practices of smallholders in Southern Vietnam that are useful in determining regions that need to be addressed by authorities in order to improve dairy production.

Keywords: dairy farms, milk yield, Southern Vietnam, socio-economics

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Authors: Suraj Mehrotra

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The stock market is a volatile, bustling marketplace that is a cornerstone of economics. It defines whether companies are successful or in spiral. A thorough understanding of it is important - many companies have whole divisions dedicated to analysis of both their stock and of rivaling companies. Linking the world of finance and artificial intelligence (AI), especially the stock market, has been a relatively recent development. Predicting how stocks will do considering all external factors and previous data has always been a human task. With the help of AI, however, machine learning models can help us make more complete predictions in financial trends. Taking a look at the stock market specifically, predicting the open, closing, high, and low prices for the next day is very hard to do. Machine learning makes this task a lot easier. A model that builds upon itself that takes in external factors as weights can predict trends far into the future. When used effectively, new doors can be opened up in the business and finance world, and companies can make better and more complete decisions. This paper explores the various techniques used in the prediction of stock prices, from traditional statistical methods to deep learning and neural networks based approaches, among other methods. It provides a detailed analysis of the techniques and also explores the challenges in predictive analysis. For the accuracy of the testing set, taking a look at four different models - linear regression, neural network, decision tree, and naïve Bayes - on the different stocks, Apple, Google, Tesla, Amazon, United Healthcare, Exxon Mobil, J.P. Morgan & Chase, and Johnson & Johnson, the naïve Bayes model and linear regression models worked best. For the testing set, the naïve Bayes model had the highest accuracy along with the linear regression model, followed by the neural network model and then the decision tree model. The training set had similar results except for the fact that the decision tree model was perfect with complete accuracy in its predictions, which makes sense. This means that the decision tree model likely overfitted the training set when used for the testing set.

Keywords: machine learning, testing set, artificial intelligence, stock analysis

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Authors: Elisa Silva, Rui Lança, Fátima Farinha, Miguel José Oliveira, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro, Cátia Miguel

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Tourism is one of the global engines of development. With good planning and management, it can be a positive force, bringing benefits to touristic destinations around the world. However, without constrains, boundaries well established and constant survey, tourism can be very harmful and induce destination’s degradation. In the interest of the tourism sector and the community it is important to develop the destination maintaining its sustainability. The OBSERVE project is an instrument for monitoring and evaluating the sustainability of the region of Algarve. Its main priority is to provide environmental, economic, social-cultural and institutional indicators to support the decision-making process towards a sustainable growth. In the pursuit of the objectives, it is being developed a digital platform where the significant indicators will be continuously updated. It is known that the successful development of a touristic region depends from the careful planning with the commitment of central and regional government, industry, services and community stakeholders. Understand the different perspectives of stakeholders is essential to engage them in the development planning. However, actual stakeholders’ engagement process is complex and not easy to accomplish. To create a consistent system of indicators designed to monitor and evaluate the sustainability performance of a touristic region it is necessary to access the local data and the consideration of the full range of values and uncertainties. This paper presents the OBSERVE project and describes the stakeholders´ engagement process highlighting the contributions, ambitions and constraints.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, stakeholders' engagement, OBSERVE project, Algarve region

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Authors: Mariella Pinna

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Sustainable entrepreneurship is an innovative corporate approach to create value combining economic, social and environmental goals over time. In the last two decades, the interest in sustainable entrepreneurship has flourished thanks to its potential to answer the current challenges of sustainable development. As a result, scholars are increasingly interested in understanding the determinants of the intentions to become a sustainable entrepreneur and consistent behavior. To date, prior studies provided empirical evidence for the influence of attitudes, perceived feasibility and desirability, values, and personality traits on the decision-making process of becoming a sustainable entrepreneur. Conversely, scant effort has been provided to understand which factors inhibit sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors. Therefore a global understanding of the sustainable entrepreneurship decision-making process is missing. This paper contributes to the debate on sustainable entrepreneurship by proposing a conceptual model that combines the factors which are predicted to facilitate and hinder the proclivity of individuals to become sustainable entrepreneurs. More in particular, the proposed framework theorizes about the role of the characteristics of the prospective sustainable entrepreneur (e.g., socio-demographic, psychological, cultural), the positive antecedents (e.g., attitude, social feasibility and desirability, among others) and the negative precursors (e.g., neutralization) in influencing sustainable entrepreneurship intentions and subsequent behavior. The proposed framework is expected to shed further light on the decision-making process of becoming a sustainable entrepreneur, which in turn, is of practical relevance for public policy institutions and the society as a whole to enhance the favorable conditions to create new sustainable ventures.

Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial decision-making, antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and behavior

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Authors: James Boag

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The needs of people with a diagnosis of dementia and their carers and families are physical, psychosocial, and psychological and begin at the time of diagnosis. There is frequently a lack of emotional support and counselling. Care- giving support is required from the presentation of the first symptoms of dementia until death. Alzheimer's disease begins decades before the clinical symptoms begin to appear, and in many cases, it remains undiagnosed, or diagnosed too late for any possible interventions to have any effect. However, if an incorrect diagnosis is given, it may result in a person being treated, without effect, for a type of dementia they do not have and delaying the interventions they should have received. Being diagnosed with dementia can cause emotional distress to the person, and physical and emotional support is needed, which will become more important as the disease progresses. The severity of the patient's dementia and their symptoms has a bearing of the impact on the carer and the support needed. A lack of insight and /or a denial of the diagnosis, grief, reacting to anticipated future losses, and coping methods to maximise the disease outcome, are things that should be addressed. Because of the stigma, it is important for carers not to lose contact with family and others because social isolation leads to depression and burnout. The impact on a carer's well- being and quality of life can be influenced by the severity of the illness, its type of dementia, its symptoms, healthcare support, financial and social status, career, age, health, residential setting, and relationship to the patient. Carer burnout due to lack of support leads to people diagnosed with dementia being put into residential care prematurely. Often dementia is not recognised as a terminal illness, limiting the ability of the person diagnosed with dementia and their carers to work on advance care planning and getting access to palliative and other support. Many carers have been satisfied with the physical support they were given in their everyday life, however, it was agreed that there was an immense unmet need for psychosocial support, especially after diagnosis and approaching end of life. Providing continuity and coordination of care is important. Training is necessary for providers to understand that every case is different, and they should understand the complexities. Grief, the emotional response to loss, is suffered during the progression of the disease and long afterwards, and carers should continue to be supported after the death of the person they were caring for.

Keywords: dementia, caring, challenges, needs

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Authors: Kang-Hyun Leem, Myung-Gyou Kim, Hye Kyung Kim

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The prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) has a global distribution and have been used for medicinal benefits such as artherosclerosis, diabetes, gastritis, and hyperglycemia. However, very little information is currently available for their mechanism. The prikly pear variety Opuntia ficus-indica var. Saboten (OFS) is widely cultivated in Cheju Island, southwestern region of Korea, and used as a functional food. Present study investigated the effects of OFS on pancreatic β-cell function using pancreatic islet β cells (HIT cell). Alpha-glucosidase inhibition, glucose uptake, insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity, and pancreatic β cell proliferation were determined. The inhibitory effect of ethanol extract of OFS stem on α-glucosidase enzyme was measured in a cell free system. Glucose uptake was determined using fluorescent glucose analogue, 2-NBDG. Insulin secretion was measured by ELISA assay. Cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay. Ethanol extracts of OFS dose-dependently inhibited α-glucosidase activity as well as glucose uptake. Insulinotrophic effect of OFS extract was observed at high glucose media in pancreatic β-islet cells. Furthermore, pancreatic β cell regeneration was also observed.These results suggest that OFS mediates the antidiabetic activity mainly via α-glucosidase inhibition, glucose uptake, and improved insulin sensitivity.

Keywords: prickly pear cactus, Opuntia ficus-indica var. Saboten, pancreatic islet HIT cells, α-glucosidase, glucose uptake, insulinotrophic

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Authors: Zong-Xian Qiu, Ta-Wui Cheng, Wei-Hao Lee, Yung-Chin Ding

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The greenhouse effect is an important issue since it has been responsible for global warming. Carbon dioxide plays an important part of role in the greenhouse effect. Therefore, human has the responsibility for reducing CO₂ emissions in their daily operations. Except iron making and power plants, another major CO₂ production industry is cement industry. According to the statistics by EPA of Taiwan, production 1 ton of Portland cement will produce 520.29 kg of CO₂. There are over 7.8 million tons of CO₂ produced annually. Thus, trying to development low CO₂ emission green concrete is an important issue, and it can reduce CO₂ emission problems in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is trying to use marble wastes and slag as the raw materials to fabricate geopolymer green concrete. The result shows the marble based geopolymer green concrete have good workability and the compressive strength after curing for 28 days and 365 days can be reached 44MPa and 53MPa in indoor environment, 28MPa and 40.43MPa in outdoor environment. The acid resistance test shows the geopolymer green concrete have good resistance for chemical attack. The coefficient of permeability of geopolymer green concrete is better than Portland concrete. By comparing with Portland cement products, the marble based geopolymer not only reduce CO₂ emission problems but also provides great performance in practices. According to the experiment results shown that geopolymer concrete has great potential for further engineering development in the future, the new material could be expected to replace the Portland cement products in the future days.

Keywords: marble, slag, geopolymer, green concrete, CO₂ emission

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Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Adeel Sharif, Tian Li, Changping Li

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Recently, the emission of nitrogen-sulphur oxides (NOₓ, SO₂) has become a global issue and causing serious threats to health and the environment. Catalytic reduction of NOx and SOₓ gases into friendly gases is considered one of the best approaches. However, regeneration of the catalyst, higher bond-dissociation energy for NOx, i.e., 150.7 kcal/mol, escape of intermediate gas (N₂O, a greenhouse gas) with treated flue-gas, and limited activity of catalyst remains a great challenge. Here, a cheap, binderless naturally-extracted bass-wood thin carbon electrode (TCE) is presented, which shows excellent catalytic activity towards NOx reduction. The bass-wood carbonization at 900 ℃ followed by thermal activation in the presence of CO2 gas at 750 ℃. The thermal activation resulted in an increase in epoxy groups on the surface of the TCE and enhancement in the surface area as well as the degree of graphitization. The TCE unique 3D strongly inter-connected network through hierarchical micro/meso/macro pores that allow large electrode/electrolyte interface. Owing to these characteristics, the TCE exhibited excellent catalytic efficiency towards NOx (~83.3%) under ambient conditions and enhanced catalytic response under pH and sulphite exposure as well as excellent stability up to 168 hours. Moreover, a temperature-dependent activity trend was found where the highest catalytic activity was achieved at 80 ℃, beyond which the electrolyte became evaporative and resulted in a performance decrease. The designed electrocatalyst showed great potential for effective NOx-reduction, which is highly cost-effective, green, and sustainable.

Keywords: electrocatalyst, NOx-reduction, bass-wood electrode, integrated wet-scrubbing, sustainable

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Authors: D. G. Badagha, C. D. Modhera, S. A. Vasanwala

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There is a great challenge for civil engineering field to contribute in environment prevention by finding out alternatives of cement and natural aggregates. There is a problem of global warming due to cement utilization in concrete, so it is necessary to give sustainable solution to produce concrete containing waste. It is very difficult to produce designated grade of concrete containing different ingredient and water cement ratio including waste to achieve desired fresh and harden properties of concrete as per requirement and specifications. To achieve the desired grade of concrete, a number of trials have to be taken, and then after evaluating the different parameters at long time performance, the concrete can be finalized to use for different purposes. This research work is carried out to solve the problem of time, cost and serviceability in the field of construction. In this research work, artificial neural network introduced to fix proportion of concrete ingredient with 50% waste replacement for M20, M25, M30, M35, M40, M45, M50, M55 and M60 grades of concrete. By using the neural network, mix design of high performance concrete was finalized, and the main basic mechanical properties were predicted at 3 days, 7 days and 28 days. The predicted strength was compared with the actual experimental mix design and concrete cube strength after 3 days, 7 days and 28 days. This experimentally and neural network based mix design can be used practically in field to give cost effective, time saving, feasible and sustainable high performance concrete for different types of structures.

Keywords: artificial neural network, high performance concrete, rebound hammer, strength prediction

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Authors: Nicolae Constantin, Ştefan Sorohan

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The small and medium wind turbines are running in quite different conditions as compared to the big ones. Consequently, they need also a different approach concerning the structural health monitoring (SHM) issues. There are four main differences between the above mentioned categories: (i) significantly smaller dimensions, (ii) considerably higher rotation speed, (iii) generally small distance between the turbine and the energy consumer and (iv) monitoring assumed in many situations by the owner. In such conditions, nondestructive inspections (NDI) have to be made as much as possible with affordable, yet effective techniques, requiring portable and accessible equipment. Additionally, the turbines and accessories should be easy to mount, dispose and repair. As the materials used for such unit can be metals, composites and combined, the technologies should be adapted accordingly. An example in which the two materials co-exist is the situation in which the damaged metallic skin of a blade is repaired with a composite patch. The paper presents the inspection of the bonding state of the patch, using portable ultrasonic equipment, able to put in place the Lamb wave method, which proves efficient in global and local inspections as well. The equipment is relatively easy to handle and can be borrowed from specialized laboratories or used by a community of small wind turbine users, upon the case. This evaluation is the first in a row, aimed to evaluate efficiency of NDI performed with rather accessible, less sophisticated equipment and related inspection techniques, having field inspection capabilities. The main goal is to extend such inspection procedures to other components of the wind power unit, such as the support tower, water storage tanks, etc.

Keywords: structural health monitoring, small wind turbines, non-destructive inspection, field inspection capabilities

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Authors: Nuno M. Pereira

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In the last thirty years, European cities have been addressing global climate change and its local impacts by implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies. Lisbon Downtown is no exception with 10 plans under implementation since 2010 with completion scheduled for 2030 valued 1 billion euros of public investment. However, the gap between mitigation and adaptation strategies is not yet sufficiently studied alongside with its nuances- vulnerability and risk mitigation, resilience and adaptation. In Lisbon Downtown, these plans are being implemented separately, therefore compromising the effectiveness of public investment. The research reviewed the common ground of mitigation and adaptation strategies of the theoretical framework and analyzed the current urban development actions in Lisbon Downtown in order to identify potential conflicts and synergies. The empirical fieldwork supported by a sounding board of experts has been developed during two years and the results suggest that the largest public investment in Lisbon on flooding mitigation will conflict with the new Cruise ship terminal and old Downton building stock, therefore increasing risk and vulnerability factors. The study concludes that the Lisbon Downtown blue infrastructure plan should be redesigned in some areas in a trans- disciplinary and holistic approach and that the current theoretical framework on climate change should focus more on mitigation and adaptation synergies articulating the gray, blue and green infrastructures, combining old knowledge tested by resilient communities and new knowledge emerging from the digital era.

Keywords: adaptation, climate change, conflict, Lisbon Downtown, mitigation, synergy

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Authors: Gaurav Kumar Sinha

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The oil and gas industry is a critical component of the global economy, relying heavily on industrial control systems (ICS) to manage and monitor operations. However, these systems are increasingly becoming targets for cyber-attacks, posing significant risks to operational continuity, safety, and environmental integrity. This paper explores comprehensive cybersecurity strategies for protecting oil and gas industrial control systems. It delves into the unique vulnerabilities of ICS in this sector, including outdated legacy systems, integration with IT networks, and the increased connectivity brought by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). We propose a multi-layered defense approach that includes the implementation of robust network security protocols, regular system updates and patch management, advanced threat detection and response mechanisms, and stringent access control measures. We illustrate the effectiveness of these strategies in mitigating cyber risks and ensuring the resilient and secure operation of oil and gas industrial control systems. The findings underscore the necessity for a proactive and adaptive cybersecurity framework to safeguard critical infrastructure in the face of evolving cyber threats.

Keywords: cybersecurity, industrial control systems, oil and gas, cyber-attacks, network security, IoT, threat detection, system updates, patch management, access control, cybersecurity awareness, critical infrastructure, resilience, cyber threats, legacy systems, IT integration, multi-layered defense, operational continuity, safety, environmental integrity

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Authors: Emmanuel Dele Balogun

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This paper analyzes, using descriptive statistics and econometrics data which span the period 1981 to 2014 to gauge the effects of trade policy incentives on economic growth in Nigeria. It argues that the provided incentives penalize economic growth during pre-trade liberalization eras, but stimulated a rapid increase in total factor productivity during the post-liberalization period of 2000 to 2014. The trend analysis shows that Nigeria maintained high tariff walls in economic regulation eras which became low in post liberalization era. The protections were in favor of infant industries, which were mainly appendages of multinationals but against imports of competing food and finished consumer products. The trade openness index confirms the undue exposure of Nigeria’s economy to the vagaries of international market shocks; while banking sector recapitalization and new listing of telecommunications companies deepened the financial markets in post-liberalization era. The structure of economic incentives was biased in favor of construction, trade and services, but against the real sector despite protectionist policies. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates show that the Nigerian economy suffered stagnation in pre-liberalization eras, but experienced rapid growth rates in post-liberalization eras. The regression results relating trade policy incentives to TFP growth rate yielded a significant but negative intercept suggesting that a non-interventionist policy could be detrimental to economic progress, while protective tariff which limits imports of competing products could spur productivity gains in domestic import substitutes beyond factor growth with market liberalization. The main constraint to the effectiveness of trade policy incentives is the failure of benefiting industries to leverage on the domestic factor endowments of the nation. This paper concludes that there is the need to review the current economic transformation strategies urgently with a view to provide policymakers with a better understanding of the most viable options that could make for rapid success.

Keywords: economic growth, macroeconomic incentives, total factor productivity, trade policies

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Authors: Rafat Fazeli, Reza Fazeli

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This paper focuses on the study of the welfare state and social wage in the leading liberal economy of the United States. The welfare state acquired a broad acceptance as a major socioeconomic achievement of the liberal democracy in the Western industrialized countries during the postwar boom period. The modern and modified vision of capitalist democracy offered, on the one hand, the possibility of high growth rate and, on the other hand, the possibility of continued progression of a comprehensive system of social support for a wider population. The economic crises of the 1970s, provided the ground for a great shift in economic policy and ideology in several Western countries, most notably the United States and the United Kingdom (and to a lesser extent Canada under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney). In the 1980s, the free market oriented reforms undertaken under Reagan and Thatcher greatly affected the economic outlook not only of the United States and the United Kingdom, but of the whole Western world. The movement which was behind this shift in policy is often called neo-conservatism. The neoconservatives blamed the transfer programs for the decline in economic performance during the 1970s and argued that cuts in spending were required to go back to the golden age of full employment. The agenda for both Reagan and Thatcher administrations was rolling back the welfare state, and their budgets included a wide range of cuts for social programs. The question is how successful were Reagan and Thatcher’s efforts to achieve retrenchment? The paper involves an empirical study concerning the distributive role of the welfare state in the two countries. Other studies have often concentrated on the redistributive effect of fiscal policy on different income brackets. This study examines the net benefit/ burden position of the working population with respect to state expenditures and taxes in the postwar period. This measurement will enable us to find out whether the working population has received a net gain (or net social wage). This study will discuss how the expansion of social expenditures and the trend of the ‘net social wage’ can be linked to distinct forms of economic and social organizations. This study provides an empirical foundation for analyzing the growing significance of ‘social wage’ or the collectivization of consumption and the share of social or collective consumption in total consumption of the working population in the recent decades. The paper addresses three other major questions. The first question is whether the expansion of social expenditures has posed any drag on capital accumulation and economic growth. The findings of this study provide an analytical foundation to evaluate the neoconservative claim that the welfare state is itself the source of economic stagnation that leads to the crisis of the welfare state. The second question is whether the increasing ideological challenges from the right and the competitive pressures of globalization have led to retrenchment of the American welfare states in the recent decades. The third question is how social policies have performed in the presence of the rising inequalities in the recent decades.

Keywords: the welfare state, social wage, The United States, limits to growth

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Authors: Marine Kobalava, Eter Narimanishvili, Nino Grigolaia

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The paper analyzes the contemporary problems of public relations in Georgia. The approaches to public attitudes towards the relationship with the population of the country are studied on a global scale, the importance of forming the concept of public relations in Georgia in terms of globalization is justified. The basic components of public relations are characterized by the RACE system, namely analyzing research, action, communication, evaluation. The main challenges of public relations are identified in the research process; taking into consideration the scope of globalization, the influence of social, economic, and political changes in Georgia on PR development are identified. The article discusses the public relations as the strategic management function that facilitates communication with the society, recognition of public interests, and their prediction. In addition, the feminization of the sector is considered to be the most important achievement of public relations in the modern world. The conclusion is that the feminization indicator of the field is an unconditional increase in the employment rates of women. In the paper, the problems of globalization and public relations in the industrial countries are studied, the directions of improvement of public relations with the background of peculiarities of different countries and globalization process are proposed. Public relations under globalization are assessed in accordance with the theory of benefits and requirements, and the requirements are classified according to informational, self-identification, integration, social interaction, and other types of signs. In the article, conclusions on the current challenges of public relations in Georgia are made, and the recommendations for their solution, taking into consideration globalization processes in the world, are proposed.

Keywords: public relations, globalization, RACE system, public relationship concept, feminization

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Authors: Zama Mahmood

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The increasing demand of food management, monitoring of the crop growth and forecasting its yield well before harvest is very important. These days, yield assessment together with monitoring of crop development and its growth are being identified with the help of satellite and remote sensing images. Studies using remote sensing data along with field survey validation reported high correlation between vegetation indices and yield. With the development of remote sensing technique, the detection of crop and its mechanism using remote sensing data on regional or global scales have become popular topics in remote sensing applications. Punjab, specially the southern Punjab region is extremely favourable for wheat production. But measuring the exact amount of wheat production is a tedious job for the farmers and workers using traditional ground based measurements. However, remote sensing can provide the most real time information. In this study, using the Normalized Differentiate Vegetation Index (NDVI) indicator developed from Landsat satellite images, the yield of wheat has been estimated during the season of 2013-2014 for the agricultural area around Bahawalpur. The average yield of the wheat was found 35 kg/acre by analysing field survey data. The field survey data is in fair agreement with the NDVI values extracted from Landsat images. A correlation between wheat production (ton) and number of wheat pixels has also been calculated which is in proportional pattern with each other. Also a strong correlation between the NDVI and wheat area was found (R2=0.71) which represents the effectiveness of the remote sensing tools for crop monitoring and production estimation.

Keywords: landsat, NDVI, remote sensing, satellite images, yield

Procedia PDF Downloads 326

Authors: Salina Budin, Shaira Ismail

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Students learn effectively in a learning environment with a suitable teaching approach that matches their learning preferences. The main objective of the study is to examine the learning preferences amongst the students in the Science and Technology (S&T), and Social Science (SS) fields of study at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Pulau Pinang. The measurement instrument is based on the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles which measure five elements of learning styles; environmental, sociological, emotional, physiological and psychological. Questionnaires are distributed amongst undergraduates in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Faculty of Business Management. The respondents comprise of 131 diploma students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and 111 degree students of the Faculty of Business Management. The results indicate that, both S&T and SS students share a similar learning preferences on the environmental aspect, emotional preferences, motivational level, learning responsibility, persistent level in learning and learning structure. Most of the S&T students are concluded as analytical learners and the majority of SS students are global learners. Both S&T and SS students are concluded as visual learners, preferred to be in an active mobility in a relaxing and enjoying mode with some light of refreshments during the learning process and exhibited reflective characteristics in learning. Obviously, the S&T students are considered as left brain dominant, whereas the SS students are right brain dominant. The findings highlighted that both categories of students exhibited similar learning preferences except on psychological preferences.

Keywords: learning preferences, Dunn and Dunn learning style, teaching approach, science and technology, social science

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Mohammad Parvaresh, Mahdi Babaee, Bahareh Arghand, Davood Nourmohammadi

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Environmental degradation is caused by social inequalities and the inappropriate use of nature and a factor in the violation of human rights. Indeed, the right to a safe, healthy and ecologically-balanced environment is an independent human right. Therefore, the relationship between human rights and environmental protection is crucial for the study of social justice and sustainable development, and environmental problems are a result of the failure to realize social and economic justice. In this regard, 'article 50 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a general principle have many of the concepts of sustainable development, including: the growth and improvement of human life, the rights of present and future generations, and the integrity of the inner and outer generation, the prohibition of any environmental degradation'. Also, Charter on Citizen’s Rights, which was conveyed by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Rouhani refers to the right to a healthy environment and sustainable development. In this regard in 2013, Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Co. defined a plan called 'Tehran’s Health Line' was includes Western and Eastern part by about 26 kilometers of water transferring pipelines varied 1000 to 2000 mm diameters. This project aims to: (1) Transfer water from the northwest water treatment plant to the southwest areas, which suffer from qualitative and quantitative water, in order to mix with the improper wells’ water; (2) Reducing the water consumption provided by harvesting from wells which results in improving the underground water resources, causing the large settlements and stopping the immigrating slums into the center or north side of the city. All of the financial resources accounted for 53,000,000 US$ which is mobilized by Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Co. to expedite the work. The present study examines the Tehran Health Line plan and the purpose of implementation of this plan to achieve environmental protection, environmental justice and citizenship rights for all people who live in Tehran.

Keywords: environmental justice, international environmental law, erga omnes, charter on citizen's rights, Tehran health line

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Authors: Dimitrios Dimitriou, Maria Sartzetaki

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In the early days of the of civil aviation, airports are totally state-owned companies under the control of national authorities or regional governmental bodies. From that time the picture has totally changed and airports privatisation and airport business commercialisation are key success factors to stimulate air transport demand, generate revenues and attract investors, linked to reliable and resilience of air transport system. Nowadays, airport's corporate strategy deals with policies and actions, affecting essential the business plans, the financial targets and the economic footprint in a regional economy they serving. Therefore, exploring airport corporate strategy is essential to support the decision in business planning, management efficiency, sustainable development and investment attractiveness on one hand; and define policies towards traffic development, revenues generation, capacity expansion, cost efficiency and corporate social responsibility. This paper explores key outputs in airport corporate strategy for different ownership schemes. The airport corporations are grouped in three major schemes: (a) Public, in which the public airport operator acts as part of the government administration or as a corporised public operator; (b) Mixed scheme, in which the majority of the shares and the corporate strategy is driven by the private or the public sector; and (c) Private, in which the airport strategy is driven by the key aspects of globalisation and liberalisation of the aviation sector. By a systemic approach, the key drivers in corporate strategy for modern airport business structures are defined. Key objectives are to define the key strategic opportunities and challenges and assess the corporate goals and risks towards sustainable business development for each scheme. The analysis based on an extensive cross-sectional dataset for a sample of busy European airports providing results on corporate strategy key priorities, risks and business models. The conventional wisdom is to highlight key messages to authorities, institutes and professionals on airport corporate strategy trends and directions.

Keywords: airport corporate strategy, airport ownership, airports business models, corporate risks

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Fangzheng Li, Xiong Li

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Significant differences in urban greening have occurred in Chinese cities, which accompanied with China's rapid urbanization. However, few studies focused on the spatial differentiation of urban greening in China with large amounts of data. The spatial differentiation pattern, spatial correlation characteristics and the distribution shape of urban green space ratio, urban green coverage rate and public green area per capita were calculated and analyzed, using Global and Local Moran's I using data from 289 cities in 2014. We employed Spatial Lag Model and Spatial Error Model to assess the impacts of urbanization process on urban greening of China. Then we used Geographically Weighted Regression to estimate the spatial variations of the impacts. The results showed: 1. a significant spatial dependence and heterogeneity existed in urban greening values, and the differentiation patterns were featured by the administrative grade and the spatial agglomeration simultaneously; 2. it revealed that urbanization has a negative correlation with urban greening in Chinese cities. Among the indices, the the proportion of secondary industry, urbanization rate, population and the scale of urban land use has significant negative correlation with the urban greening of China. Automobile density and per capita Gross Domestic Product has no significant impact. The results of GWR modeling showed that the relationship between urbanization and urban greening was not constant in space. Further, the local parameter estimates suggested significant spatial variation in the impacts of various urbanization factors on urban greening.

Keywords: China’s urbanization, geographically weighted regression, spatial differentiation pattern, urban greening

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Authors: Hichem Sassi

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Pneumonia, being a respiratory infection, has garnered global attention due to its rapid transmission and relatively high mortality rates. Timely detection and treatment play a crucial role in significantly reducing mortality associated with pneumonia. Presently, X-ray diagnosis stands out as a reasonably effective method. However, the manual scrutiny of a patient's X-ray chest radiograph by a proficient practitioner usually requires 5 to 15 minutes. In situations where cases are concentrated, this places immense pressure on clinicians for timely diagnosis. Relying solely on the visual acumen of imaging doctors proves to be inefficient, particularly given the low speed of manual analysis. Therefore, the integration of artificial intelligence into the clinical image diagnosis of pneumonia becomes imperative. Additionally, AI recognition is notably rapid, with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) demonstrating superior performance compared to human counterparts in image identification tasks. To conduct our study, we utilized a dataset comprising chest X-ray images obtained from Kaggle, encompassing a total of 5216 training images and 624 test images, categorized into two classes: normal and pneumonia. Employing five mainstream network algorithms, we undertook a comprehensive analysis to classify these diseases within the dataset, subsequently comparing the results. The integration of artificial intelligence, particularly through improved network architectures, stands as a transformative step towards more efficient and accurate clinical diagnoses across various medical domains.

Keywords: deep learning, computer vision, pneumonia, models, comparative study

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Authors: A. Idawaty, O. Mohamed, A. Z. Zuriati

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This paper presents the development of an event based Discrete Event Simulation (DES) for a recovery algorithm known Backward Recovery Global Preemptive Utility Accrual Scheduling (BR_GPUAS). This algorithm implements the Backward Recovery (BR) mechanism as a fault recovery solution under the existing Time/Utility Function/ Utility Accrual (TUF/UA) scheduling domain for multiprocessor environment. The BR mechanism attempts to take the faulty tasks back to its initial safe state and then proceeds to re-execute the affected section of the faulty tasks to enable recovery. Considering that faults may occur in the components of any system; a fault tolerance system that can nullify the erroneous effect is necessary to be developed. Current TUF/UA scheduling algorithm uses the abortion recovery mechanism and it simply aborts the erroneous task as their fault recovery solution. None of the existing algorithm in TUF/UA scheduling domain in multiprocessor scheduling environment have considered the transient fault and implement the BR mechanism as a fault recovery mechanism to nullify the erroneous effect and solve the recovery problem in this domain. The developed BR_GPUAS simulator has derived the set of parameter, events and performance metrics according to a detailed analysis of the base model. Simulation results revealed that BR_GPUAS algorithm can saved almost 20-30% of the accumulated utilities making it reliable and efficient for the real-time application in the multiprocessor scheduling environment.

Keywords: real-time system (RTS), time utility function/ utility accrual (TUF/UA) scheduling, backward recovery mechanism, multiprocessor, discrete event simulation (DES)

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Authors: Heng Ma

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Third-party warehousing logistics has an important role in the development of external logistics. At present, the third-party logistics in our country is still a new industry, the accounting system has not yet been established, the current financial accounting system of third-party warehousing logistics is mainly in the traditional way of thinking, and only able to provide the total cost information of the entire enterprise during the accounting period, unable to reflect operating indirect cost information. In order to solve the problem of third-party logistics industry cost information distortion, improve the level of logistics cost management, the paper combines theoretical research and case analysis method to reflect cost allocation by building third-party logistics costing model using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing(TDABC), and takes S company as an example to account and control the warehousing logistics cost. Based on the idea of “Products consume activities and activities consume resources”, TDABC put time into the main cost driver and use time-consuming equation resources assigned to cost objects. In S company, the objects focuses on three warehouse, engaged with warehousing and transportation (the second warehouse, transport point) service. These three warehouse respectively including five departments, Business Unit, Production Unit, Settlement Center, Security Department and Equipment Division, the activities in these departments are classified by in-out of storage forecast, in-out of storage or transit and safekeeping work. By computing capacity cost rate, building the time-consuming equation, the paper calculates the final operation cost so as to reveal the real cost. The numerical analysis results show that the TDABC can accurately reflect the cost allocation of service customers and reveal the spare capacity cost of resource center, verifies the feasibility and validity of TDABC in third-party logistics industry cost accounting. It inspires enterprises focus on customer relationship management and reduces idle cost to strengthen the cost management of third-party logistics enterprises.

Keywords: third-party logistics enterprises, TDABC, cost management, S company

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Authors: Mauro Masili, Fernanda O. Duarte, Liliane Ventura

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Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is electromagnetic waves from 100 – 400 nm wavelength. The World Health Organization and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) recommend guidelines on the exposure of the eyes to UV radiation because it is correlated to ophthalmic diseases. Those exposure limits for an 8-h period are 1) UV radiant exposure should not exceed 30 J/m2 when irradiance is spectrally weighted using an actinic action spectrum; 2) unweighted radiant exposure in the UV-A spectral region 315 – 400 nm should not exceed 10 kJ/m2. Sunglasses play an important role in preventing eye injuries related to Sun exposure. We have calculated the direct and diffuse solar UV irradiance in a geometry that refers to an individual wearing a sunglass, in which the solar rays strike on a vertical surface. The diffuse rays are those scattered from the atmosphere and from the local environment. The calculations used the open-source SMARTS2 spectral model, in which we assumed a clear sky condition, aside from information about site location, date, time, ozone column, aerosols, and turbidity. In addition, we measured the spectral transmittance of a typical sunglasses lens and the global solar irradiance was weighted with the spectral transmittance profile of the lens. The radiant exposure incident on the eye’s surface was calculated in the UV and UV-A ranges following the ICNIRP’s recommendations for each day of the year. The tested lens failed the UV-A safe limit, while the UV limit failed to comply with this limit after the aging process. Hence, the ICNIRP safe limits should be considered in the standards to increase the protection against UV radiation on the eye.

Keywords: ICNIRP safe limits, ISO-12312-1, sunglasses, ultraviolet radiation

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Iddrisu Ibrahim, Joseph Atia Ayariga, Junhuan Xu, Daniel Abugri, Boakai Robertson, Olufemi S. Ajayi

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The emergence of multidrug resistance poses a huge risk to public health globally. Yet these recalcitrant pathogens continue to rise in incidence rate, with resistance rates significantly outpacing the speed of antibiotic development. This, therefore, presents an aura of related health issues such as untreatable nosocomial infections arising from organ transplants and surgeries, as well as community-acquired infections that are related to people with compromised immunity, e.g., diabetic and HIV patients, etc. There is a global effort to fight multidrug-resistant pathogens spearheaded by the World Health Organization, thus calling for research into novel antimicrobial agents to fight multiple drug resistance. Previously, our laboratory demonstrated that Cannabidiol (CBD) was an effective antimicrobial against Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium). However, we observed resistance development over time. To understand the mechanisms S. typhimurium uses to develop resistance to Cannabidiol (CBD), we studied the abundance of bacteria lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and membrane sterols of both susceptible and resistant S. typhimurium. Using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), we also analyzed the expression of selected genes known for aiding resistance development in S. typhimurium. We discovered that there was a significantly higher expression of blaTEM, fimA, fimZ, and integrons in the CBD-resistant bacteria, and these were also accompanied by a shift in abundance in cell surface molecules such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and sterols.

Keywords: antimicrobials, resistance, cannabidiol, gram-negative bacteria, integrons, blaTEM, Fim, LPS, ergosterols

Procedia PDF Downloads 93