Search results for: dimensional change

Authors: Bensaid A., Mostephaoui T., Nedjai R.

Abstract:

Climatic factors are the subject of considerable research, both methodologically and instrumentally. Under the effect of climate change, the approach to climate parameters with precision remains one of the main objectives of the scientific community. This is from the perspective of assessing climate change and its repercussions on humans and the environment. However, many regions of the world suffer from a severe lack of reliable instruments that can make up for this deficit. Alternatively, the use of empirical methods becomes the only way to assess certain parameters that can act as climate indicators. Several scientific methods are used for the evaluation of evapotranspiration which leads to its evaluation either directly at the level of the climatic stations or by empirical methods. All these methods make a point approach and, in no case, allow the spatial variation of this parameter. We, therefore, propose in this paper the use of three sources of information (network of weather stations of Meteo France, World Databases, and Moodis satellite images) to evaluate spatial evapotranspiration (ETP) using the Turc method. This first step will reflect the degree of relevance of the indirect (satellite) methods and their generalization to sites without stations. The spatial variation representation of this parameter using the geographical information system (GIS) accounts for the heterogeneity of the behaviour of this parameter. This heterogeneity is due to the influence of site morphological factors and will make it possible to appreciate the role of certain topographic and hydrological parameters. A phase of predicting the evolution over the medium and long term of evapotranspiration under the effect of climate change by the application of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios gives a realistic overview as to the contribution of aquatic systems to the scale of the region.

Keywords: climate change, ETP, MODIS, GIEC scenarios

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Davood Yazdani Cherati, Ali Pak, Mehrdad Jafarzadeh

Abstract:

This research contains the formulation of a two-dimensional analytical solution to transient heat, and moisture flow in a semi-infinite unsaturated soil environment under the influence of daily temperature changes. For this purpose, coupled energy conservation and mass fluid continuity equations governing hydrothermal behavior of unsaturated soil media are presented in terms of temperature and volumetric moisture content. In consideration of the soil environment as an infinite half-space and by linearization of the governing equations, Laplace–Fourier transformation is conducted to convert differential equations with partial derivatives (PDEs) to ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The obtained ODEs are solved, and the inverse transformations are calculated to determine the solution to the system of equations. Results indicate that heat variation induces moisture transport in both horizontal and vertical directions.

Keywords: analytical solution, heat conduction, hydrothermal analysis, laplace–fourier transformation, two-dimensional

Procedia PDF Downloads 195

Authors: Drew Fockler

Abstract:

This research examines how to improve an employee’s experience when transferring between departments within an organization. This research includes a historical review of a Canadian retail organization. Based on this historical review, gaps are identified between current and future visions to show where problems with existing training and development practices need to be resolved to reduce front-line employee turnover within an organization. The strategies within this paper support leaders through the LEAD: Listen, Explore, Act and Develop, Change Management Model. The LEAD Change Management Model supports the change process. This research proposes three possible solutions to improve an employee who is transferring between departments. The best solution to resolve the problem of improving an employee moving between departments experience is creating a Training Manager position within the retail store. A Training Manager position could support both employees and leadership with training and development of staff who are moving between departments. Within this research, an implementation plan using the TransX Model was created. The TransX Model is a hybrid of Leader-Member Exchange Theory and Transformational Leadership Theory to facilitate this organizational change within an organization by creating a common vision. Finally, this research provides the next steps as well as future considerations to enhance the training manager role within an organization.

Keywords: employee transfers, employee engagement, human resources, employee induction, TransX model, lead change management model

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Ekrem Erdem, Can Tansel Tugcu

Abstract:

Improved resource efficiency of production is a key requirement for sustainable growth, worldwide. In this regards, by considering the energy and tourism as the extra inputs to the classical Coub-Douglas production function, this study aims at investigating the efficiency changes in the North African countries. To this end, the study uses panel data for the period 1995-2010 and adopts the Malmquist index based on the data envelopment analysis. Results show that tourism increases technical and scale efficiencies, while it decreases technological and total factor productivity changes. On the other hand, when the production function is augmented by the energy input, technical efficiency change decreases, while the technological change, scale efficiency change and total factor productivity change increase. Thus, in order to satisfy the needs for sustainable growth, North African governments should take some measures for increasing the contribution that the tourism makes to economic growth and some others for efficient use of resources in the energy sector.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, economic efficiency, North African countries, sustainable growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: Jen-Te Pai, Jao-Heng Liu, Shin-En Pai

Abstract:

The impact of climate change has intensified in recent years, causing Taiwan to face higher frequency and serious natural disasters. Therefore, it is imperative for industrial parks manufacturers to promote adaptation policies in response to climate change. On the other hand, with the rise of the international anti-terrorism situation, once a terrorist attack occurs, it will attract domestic and international media attention, especially the strategic and economic status of the science park. Thus, it is necessary to formulate adaptation and mitigation strategies under climate change and social economic disasters. After reviewed the literature about climate change, urban disaster prevention, vulnerability assessment, and risk communication, the study selected 62 industrial parks compiled by the Industrial Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan as the research object. This study explored the vulnerability and disaster prevention and disaster relief functional assessment of these industrial parks facing of natural and socio-economic disasters. Furthermore, this study explored planned adaptation of industrial parks management section and autonomous adaptation of corporate institutions in the park. The conclusion of this study is that Taiwan industrial parks with a higher vulnerability to natural and socio-economic disasters should employ positive adaptive behaviours.

Keywords: adaptive behaviours, analytic network process, vulnerability, industrial parks

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Onu Theresa Chinyere

Abstract:

The study evaluates the perceived effect of climate change on nutritional status of women in Nigeria. Five research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a survey and experimental study research design. One thousand two hundred and fifty one (1,250) respondents were selected from different State in Nigeria using multistage sampling technique. The instruments used to collect data were questionnaire and personal interview on socio economic characteristics of respondents, while Anthropometric data (height and weight) were also used. The data was analyzed using t-test statistic, decided at 50% level of significance. The study found that most states in Nigeria experience high winds, warmer and frequent hot days and night over most land areas, droughts and tides during climate change events. The respondent unanimously agree that climate change causes reduction in food yields, decline in food availability/supply, negatively affecting soil quality, carbon fertilization, decreases flexibilities in technology choices to strengthen food production. The Anthropometric analysis shows that out of 1250 women sampled, 560 (44.8%) maintain normal weight, while 405 (32.40%) women were found to be underweight, since their body mass index is less that 18.5. There were few cases of obesity among the surveyed women since only 80 out of 1250 which represent 6.4% of the women were obese. Bases on the findings, the following recommendations were made-local fertilizer should be encouraged to boost foods yield especially during climate change: women should imbibe the culture of preservation or reservoir that will help in mitigating the effects of climate on food intake and nutritional status, especially during the crisis period, among others.

Keywords: climate change, nutrition anthropometric analysis, obesity culture, environment and women among others

Procedia PDF Downloads 403

Authors: Ahmad Zaini, F. Muhammad Reza Hadafi, Surya Sumpeno, Muhtadin, Mochamad Hariadi

Abstract:

The lack of information about museum’s collection reduces the number of visits of museum. Museum’s revitalization is an urgent activity to increase the number of visits. The research's roadmap is building a web-based application that visualizes museum in the virtual form including museum's statue reconstruction in the form of 3D. This paper describes implementation of three-dimensional model reconstruction method based on light-strip pattern on the museum statue using 3D scanner. Noise removal, alignment, meshing and refinement model's processes is implemented to get a better 3D object reconstruction. Model’s texture derives from surface texture mapping between object's images with reconstructed 3D model. Accuracy test of dimension of the model is measured by calculating relative error of virtual model dimension compared against the original object. The result is realistic three-dimensional model textured with relative error around 4.3% to 5.8%.

Keywords: 3D reconstruction, light pattern structure, texture mapping, museum

Procedia PDF Downloads 442

Authors: Santhosh A. K.

Abstract:

This work presents an efficient monolithic finite element strategy for solving thermo-fluid-structure interaction problems involving compressible fluids and linear-elastic structure. This formulation uses displacement variables for structure and velocity variables for the fluid, with no additional variables required to ensure traction, velocity, temperature, and heat flux continuity at the fluid-structure interface. Rate of convergence in each time step is quadratic, which is achieved in this formulation by deriving an exact tangent stiffness matrix. The robustness and good performance of the method is ascertained by applying the proposed strategy on a wide spectrum of problems taken from the literature pertaining to steady, transient, two dimensional, axisymmetric, and three dimensional fluid flow and conjugate heat transfer. It is shown that the current formulation gives excellent results on all the case studies conducted, which includes problems involving compressibility effects as well as problems where fluid can be treated as incompressible.

Keywords: linear thermoelasticity, compressible flow, conjugate heat transfer, monolithic FEM

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Gus Salazar, Jeremy Bekker, Lauren Linford, Jared Warren

Abstract:

Positive psychology practices allow for its principles to be applied to all people, regardless of their current level of functioning. To increase the dissemination of these practices, interventions are being adapted for use with digital technology, such as mobile apps. However, the research regarding positive psychology mobile app interventions is still in its infancy. In an effort to facilitate progress in this important area, we 1) conducted a qualitative review to summarize the current state of the positive psychology mobile app literature and 2) developed research-supported recommendations for positive psychology app development to maximize behavior change. In our literature review, we found that while positive psychology apps varied widely in content and purpose, there was a near-complete lack of research supporting their effectiveness. Most apps provided no rationale for the behavioral change techniques (BCTs) they employed in their app, and most did not develop their app with specific theoretical frameworks or design models in mind. Given this problem, we recommended four steps for effective positive psychology app design. First, developers must establish their app in a research-supported theory of change. Second, researchers must select appropriate behavioral change techniques which are consistent with their app’s goals. Third, researchers must leverage effective design principles. These steps will help mobile applications use data-driven methods for encouraging behavior change in their users. Lastly, we discuss directions for future research. In particular, researchers must investigate the effectiveness of various BCTs in positive psychology interventions. Although there is some research on this point, we do not yet clearly understand the mechanisms within the apps that lead to behavior change. Additionally, app developers must also provide data on the effectiveness of their mobile apps. As developers follow these steps for effective app development and as researchers continue to investigate what makes these apps most effective, we will provide millions of people in need with access to research-based mental health resources.

Keywords: behavioral change techniques, mobile app, mobile intervention, positive psychology

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Ali Asghar Sotoudeh

Abstract:

Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent regime change, internal conflicts between political and ethnic-religious groups have become a hallmark of Iraqi political dynamism. The most important manifestations of these conflicts are the Kurdish-central government conflicts, as well as fundamentalism since 2003. As a result, it seems not only US presence in Iraq under the pretext of fighting terrorism and expanding democracy has not had a positive effect on controlling fundamentalism and political stability in Iraq, but it has paved the way for the formation and continuation of geopolitical crises in the form of disputes over territory and sources of power. In this regard, given the importance of the study, the main purpose of this study is to examine the process of the impact of US regime-change policy on the formation and continuation of geopolitical crises in Iraq. The central question of this study is, what effect has the US regime change policy had on Iraq's domestic political processes? Findings show that regime change and subsequent imposed federalism have widened the gaps in Iraq's sectarian-ethnic system. As a result, the geopolitical crisis in the context of the dispute over geographical territory and sources of power between ethnic-religious groups has become the most important political dynamic in Iraq since the occupation. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical, and the data collection method is library and internet resources.

Keywords: Iraq, united states, geopolitical crisis, ethno-religious conflict, political federalism

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Gulsen Yilmaz

Abstract:

Istanbul’s population has jumped by over 1 million in the past four years, to a level surpassing the overall population of 64 provinces in the country, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). In this paper, Istanbul's population change and migration effects can be examined in detail Tarlabasi neighborhood cultural center of the city of Istanbul, Istiklal Street, which is located a few hundred meters away. Tarlabasi the end of the nineteenth century in the historic district with built in the early twentieth century, there are four or five storey historic buildings. Tarlabasi, here come from southeastern Turkey and the illegal African immigrants living in Roma origin by the Kurds as a residential area is used. In this area to improve the quality of life for urban renewal projects have been initiated. The aim of this paper is to explore the spatial effects of demographic change and migration with Tarlabasi example.

Keywords: migration, immigration, Tarlabaşı, urban transformation

Procedia PDF Downloads 482

Authors: Jia Li, Xing Wei, Yuchen Hong, Yang Lu

Abstract:

Detecting vehicle behavior has always been the focus of intelligent transportation, but with the explosive growth of the number of vehicles and the complexity of the road environment, the vehicle behavior videos captured by traditional surveillance have been unable to satisfy the study of vehicle behavior. The traditional method of manually labeling vehicle behavior is too time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the existing object detection and tracking algorithms have poor practicability and low behavioral location detection rate. This paper proposes a vehicle behavior detection algorithm based on the dual-stream convolution network and the multi-dimensional video dynamic detection network. In the videos, the straight-line behavior of the vehicle will default to the background behavior. The Changing lanes, turning and turning around are set as target behaviors. The purpose of this model is to automatically mark the target behavior of the vehicle from the untrimmed videos. First, the target behavior proposals in the long video are extracted through the dual-stream convolution network. The model uses a dual-stream convolutional network to generate a one-dimensional action score waveform, and then extract segments with scores above a given threshold M into preliminary vehicle behavior proposals. Second, the preliminary proposals are pruned and identified using the multi-dimensional video dynamic detection network. Referring to the hierarchical reinforcement learning, the multi-dimensional network includes a Timer module and a Spacer module, where the Timer module mines time information in the video stream and the Spacer module extracts spatial information in the video frame. The Timer and Spacer module are implemented by Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and start from an all-zero hidden state. The Timer module uses the Transformer mechanism to extract timing information from the video stream and extract features by linear mapping and other methods. Finally, the model fuses time information and spatial information and obtains the location and category of the behavior through the softmax layer. This paper uses recall and precision to measure the performance of the model. Extensive experiments show that based on the dataset of this paper, the proposed model has obvious advantages compared with the existing state-of-the-art behavior detection algorithms. When the Time Intersection over Union (TIoU) threshold is 0.5, the Average-Precision (MP) reaches 36.3% (the MP of baselines is 21.5%). In summary, this paper proposes a vehicle behavior detection model based on multi-dimensional dynamic detection network. This paper introduces spatial information and temporal information to extract vehicle behaviors in long videos. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm is advanced and accurate in-vehicle timing behavior detection. In the future, the focus will be on simultaneously detecting the timing behavior of multiple vehicles in complex traffic scenes (such as a busy street) while ensuring accuracy.

Keywords: vehicle behavior detection, convolutional neural network, long short-term memory, deep learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Krishnamoorthy Shanmugaraj, Malaichamy Ilanchelian

Abstract:

Ascorbic acid is an essential component in the diet of humans, and also is a typical long used pharmaceutical agent. In the present contribution, we have carried out a detailed study on the binding interaction of ascorbic acid (AA) with bovine hemoglobin (BHb) using steady state emission, time resolved fluorescence, UV-Vis absorption, circular dichroism (CD), Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) and three dimensional emission (3D) spectral studies. The results from the emission spectral studies unveiled that the quenching of BHb emission by AA is attributed to the formation of a complex in the ground state (static in nature) after correcting for inner filter effect. The binding parameters calculated from corrected emission quenching data revealed that BHb exhibited a significant binding affinity towards AA. Moreover, AA induced tertiary and secondary conformational changes of BHb were monitored by UV-Vis absorption, CD, FT-IR and 3D emission spectral studies. The results presented here will help to further understand the credible mechanism of BHb-AA system which is expected to provide insights into conformational and microenvironmental changes of BHb.

Keywords: ascorbic acid, bovine hemoglobin, circular dichroism, three dimensional emission spectral studies

Procedia PDF Downloads 945

Authors: Georg Ebner

Abstract:

The National Defence Academy, an element of the Austrian Ministry of Defence, is undergoing a transition process leading the Academy towards a new target structure that is currently being developed. In so doing, in addition to a subject-oriented approach, also an employee-oriented process was introduced. This process was initiated by the Ministry of Defence and should lead the National Defence Academy into a new constellation. During this process, the National Defence Academy worked in very special adapted World Café sessions. The “change manager” dealed with very different issues. They took the data feedback from the sessions and prepared with the feedback and information from the guidance the next session. So they got various information and a very different picture around the academy. It was very helpful to involve most of the employees of the academy during this process and to take their knowledge and wisdom. The process himself started with very different feelings and ended with great consent. A very interesting part of this process was also that the commander and his deputy worked together during all of this sessions and they answered all questions from the employees in time. The adapted World Café phases were necessary to deal with the information of the staff and to implement these absolutely needful data into this process. In cooperation with the responsible Headquarters, the first items resulting from the World Café phases could already be fed back to the employees and be implemented. The staff-oriented process is currently supported via a point of contact, through which the staff can contribute ideas as well, but also by the active information policy on the part of the Headquarters. The described change process makes innovative innovations possible. So far, in the event of change processes staff members have been entrusted only with the concrete implementation plan and tied into the process when the respective workplaces were to be re-staffed. The procedure described here can be seen as food-for-thought for further change processes. The findings of this process are that a staff oriented process can lead an organisation into a new era of thinking and working. This process has shown, that a lot of innovative ideas can also take place in a ministry. This process can be a background for a lot of change management processes in ministries and governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Keywords: both directions approach, change management, knowledge database, transformation process, World Cafe

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Khuram Nawaz Sadozai, Sonia

Abstract:

The agriculture sector is deemed more vulnerable to climate change as its variation can directly affect the crop’s productivity, but farmers’ adaptation strategies play a vital role in climate change-agriculture relationship. Therefore, this research has been undertaken to assess the Climate Change impact on wheat productivity and farmers’ adaptability strategies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. The panel dataset was analyzed to gauge the impact of changing climate variables (i.e., temperature, rainfall, and humidity) on wheat productivity from 1985 to 2015. Amid the study period, the fixed effect estimates confirmed an inverse relationship of temperature and rainfall on the wheat yield. The impact of temperature is observed to be detrimental as compared to the rainfall, causing 0.07 units reduction in the production of wheat with 1C upsurge in temperature. On the flip side, humidity revealed a positive association with the wheat productivity by confirming that high humidity could be beneficial to the production of the crop over time. Thus, this study ensures significant nexus between agricultural production and climatic parameters. However, the farming community in the underlying study area has limited knowledge about the adaptation strategies to lessen the detrimental impact of changing climate on crop yield. It is recommended that farmers should be well equipped with training and advanced agricultural management practices under the realm of climate change. Moreover, innovative technologies pertinent to the agriculture system should be encouraged to handle the challenges arising due to variations in climate factors.

Keywords: climate change, fixed effect model, panel data, wheat productivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Sejin Jung, Dongho Kang, Byungsik Kim

Abstract:

Assessing the impact of climate change requires the use of a multi-model ensemble (MME) to quantify uncertainties between scenarios and produce downscaled outlines for simulation of climate under the influence of different factors, including topography. This study decreases climate change scenarios from the 13 global climate models (GCMs) to assess the impacts of future climate change. Unlike South Korea, North Korea lacks in studies using climate change scenarios of the CoupledModelIntercomparisonProject (CMIP5), and only recently did the country start the projection of extreme precipitation episodes. One of the main purposes of this study is to predict changes in the average climatic conditions of North Korea in the future. The result of comparing downscaled climate change scenarios with observation data for a reference period indicates high applicability of the Multi-Model Ensemble (MME). Furthermore, the study classifies climatic zones by applying the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system to the MME, which is validated for future precipitation and temperature. The result suggests that the continental climate (D) that covers the inland area for the reference climate is expected to shift into the temperate climate (C). The coefficient of variation (CVs) in the temperature ensemble is particularly low for the southern coast of the Korean peninsula, and accordingly, a high possibility of the shifting climatic zone of the coast is predicted. This research was supported by a grant (MOIS-DP-2015-05) of Disaster Prediction and Mitigation Technology Development Program funded by Ministry of Interior and Safety (MOIS, Korea).

Keywords: MME, North Korea, Koppen–Geiger, climatic zones, coefficient of variation, CV

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Ali M. Subyani

Abstract:

The increase in the greenhouse gas emission has had a severe impact on global climate change and is bound to affect the weather patterns worldwide. This climate change impacts are among the future significant effects on any society. Rainfall levels are drastically increasing with flash floods in some places and long periods of droughts in others, especially in arid regions. These extreme events are causes of interactions concerning environmental, socio-economic and cultural life and their implementation. This paper presents the detailed features of dry and wet spell durations and rainfall intensity series available (1971-2012) on daily basis for the Jeddah area, Western, Saudi Arabia. It also presents significant articles for combating the climate change impacts on this area. Results show trend changes in dry and wet spell durations and rainfall amount on daily, monthly and annual time series. Three rain seasons were proposed in this investigation: high rain, low rain, and dry seasons. It shows that the overall average dry spell durations is about 80 continuous days while the average wet spell durations is 1.39 days with an average rainfall intensity of 8.2 mm/day. Annual and seasonal autorun analyses confirm that the rainy seasons are tending to have more intense rainfall while the seasons are becoming drier. This study would help decision makers in future for water resources management and flood risk analysis.

Keywords: climate change, daily rainfall, dry and wet spill, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Procedia PDF Downloads 318

Authors: Chia-Chi Cheng

Abstract:

After the implementation of “the internet plus,” several puzzles emerge as below: why does China impose more regulation and laws on economic development on the Internet? Why does China urge the importance of manufacturing industry? Why does China’s local government passively implement the policy imposed by the central government? What kind of factors can influence China’s local government’s economic preference? In the framework of neo-institutionalism, this research considers China’s local government as changing agents to analyze its preferences and behavior. In general, the interests urged by the local government will decide its preference and behaviors. They will change its counterpart to cooperate if the change will bring more benefits. Thus, they will change its preference and behavior while the external environment alters. While the local government has the same definition on political activity and economic interest, they will prefer to cooperate with the local enterprises in the way of laying symbiont, within the presumption that the institution remains. While the local government has the different positions on political activity and economic interest, they will re-define the existed regulation or create new regulation in the condition of institution vacuum. Sequentially, they will replace the targets, and the policy, which does not fit in the Central government’s policy, will emerge.

Keywords: China, institutional change, government enterprise relationship, e-commercial policy

Procedia PDF Downloads 216

Authors: Karan Gupta

Abstract:

The floods cause huge loos each year, and their impact gets manifold with the increase of total duration of flood as well as recession time. Moreover, floods have increased in recent years due to climate change in floodplains. In the context of global climate change, the agreement in Paris convention (2015) stated to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2°C and keep it at the limit of 1.5°C. Thus, this study investigates the impact of increasing temperature on the stage, discharge as well as total flood duration and recession time in the Meghna River basin in Bangladesh. This study considers the 100-year return period flood flows in the Meghna river under the specific warming levels (SWLs) of 1.5°C, 2°C, and 4°C. The results showed that the rate of increase of duration of flood is nearly 50% lesser at ∆T = 1.5°C as compared to ∆T = 2°C, whereas the rate of increase of duration of recession is 75% lower at ∆T = 1.5°C as compared to ∆T = 2°C. Understanding the change of total duration of flood as well as recession time of the flood gives a better insight to effectively plan for flood mitigation measures.

Keywords: flood, climate change, Paris convention, Bangladesh, inundation duration, recession duration

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Sonia Zulfiqar, Daniele Mantione, Muhammad Ilyas Sarwar, Alexander Rothenberger, David Mecerreyes

Abstract:

Climate change due to escalating carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is an issue of paramount importance that needs immediate attention. CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS) is a promising route to mitigate climate change and adsorption is the most widely recognized technology owing to possible energy savings relative to the conventional absorption techniques. In this conference, the potential of a new family of solid sorbents for CO2 capture and separation will be presented. Novel pyridinium containing poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) were synthesized with varying anions i.e bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide and hexafluorophosphate. The resulting polymers were characterized using NMR, XRD, TGA, BET surface area and microscopic techniques. Furthermore, CO2 adsorption measurements at two different temperatures were also carried out and revealed great potential of these PILs as CO2 scavengers.

Keywords: climate change, CO2 capture, poly(ionic liquid)s, CO2/N2 selectivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 354

Authors: Amy L. Irvine, Gabriel Reygondeau, Derek P. Tittensor

Abstract:

Marine protected areas (MPAs) within Canada’s exclusive economic zone help ensure the conservation and sustainability of marine ecosystems and the continued provision of ecosystem services to society (e.g., food, carbon sequestration). With ongoing and accelerating climate change, however, MPAs may become undermined in terms of their effectiveness at fulfilling these outcomes. Many populations of species, especially those at their thermal range limits, may shift to cooler waters or become extirpated due to climate change, resulting in new species compositions and ecological interactions within static MPA boundaries. While Canadian MPA management follows international guidelines for marine conservation, no consistent approach exists for adapting MPA networks to climate change and the resulting altered ecosystem conditions. To fill this gap, projected climate-driven shifts in species distributions on Canada’s east coast were analyzed to identify when native species emigrate and novel species immigrate within the network and how high mitigation and carbon emission scenarios influence these timelines. Indicators of the ecological changes caused by these species' shifts in the biological community were also developed. Overall, our research provides projections of climate change impacts and helps to guide adaptive management responses within the Canadian east coast MPA network.

Keywords: climate change, ecosystem modeling, marine protected areas, management

Procedia PDF Downloads 68

Authors: Pei-Ti Hsu, I-Ju Chen, Jeu-Jung Chen, Cheng-Fen Chang, Shiu-Yan Yang

Abstract:

Taiwan now is an aging society Research on the elderly should not be confined to caring for seniors, but should also be focused on ways to improve health and the quality of life. Senior citizens who participate in volunteer services could become less lonely, have new growth opportunities, and regain a sense of accomplishment. Thus, the question of how to get the elderly to participate in volunteer service is worth exploring. Apply the Transtheoretical Model to understand stages of change in regular volunteer service and voluntary service behaviour among the seniors. 1525 adults over the age of 65 from the Renai district of Keelung City were interviewed. The research tool was a self-constructed questionnaire and individual interviews were conducted to collect data. Then the data was processed and analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version) statistical software program. In the past six months, research subjects averaged 9.92 days of volunteer services. A majority of these elderly individuals had no intention to change their regular volunteer services. We discovered that during the maintenance stage, the self-efficacy for volunteer services was higher than during all other stages, but self-perceived barriers were less during the preparation stage and action stage. Self-perceived benefits were found to have an important predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in the previous stage, and self-efficacy was found to have an important predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in later stages. The research results support the conclusion that community nursing staff should group elders based on their regular volunteer services change stages and design appropriate behavioral change strategies.

Keywords: seniors, stages of change in regular volunteer services, volunteer service behavior, self-efficacy, self-perceived benefits

Procedia PDF Downloads 403

Authors: M. Akif Ceviz, Alirıza Kaleli, Erdoğan Güner

Abstract:

LPG pressure regulator is a device which is used to change the phase of LPG from liquid to gas by decreasing the pressure. During the phase change, it is necessary to supply the latent heat of LPG to prevent excessive low temperature. Engine coolant is circulated in the pressure regulator for this purpose. Therefore, pressure regulator is a type of heat exchanger that should be designed for different engine operating conditions. The design of the regulator should ensure that the flow of LPG is in gaseous phase to the injectors during the engine steady state and transient operating conditions. The pressure regulators in the LPG gaseous injection systems currently used can easily change the phase of LPG, however, there is no any control on the LPG temperature in conventional LPG injection systems. It is possible to increase temperature excessively. In this study, a control unit has been tested to keep the LPG temperature in a band. Result of the study showed that the engine performance characteristics can be increased by using the system.

Keywords: temperature, pressure regulator, LPG, PID

Procedia PDF Downloads 493

Authors: Inas S. Khayal, Weiping Zhou, Jonathan Skinner

Abstract:

Healthcare delivery systems around the world are in crisis. The need to improve health outcomes while decreasing healthcare costs have led to an imminent call to action to transform the healthcare delivery system. While Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering have primarily focused on biological level data and biomedical technology, there is clear evidence of the importance of the delivery of care on patient outcomes. Classic singular decomposition approaches from reductionist science are not capable of explaining complex systems. Approaches and methods from systems science and systems engineering are utilized to structure healthcare delivery system data. Specifically, systems architecture is used to develop a multi-scale and multi-dimensional characterization of the healthcare delivery system, defined here as the Healthcare Delivery System Knowledge Base. This paper is the first to contribute a new method of structuring and visualizing a multi-dimensional and multi-scale healthcare delivery system using systems architecture in order to better understand healthcare delivery.

Keywords: health informatics, systems thinking, systems architecture, healthcare delivery system, data analytics

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Kapil Pandey, Vishnu Goyal

Abstract:

Spatial and temporal data analysis is very well known in the field of satellite image processing. When spatial data are correlated with time, series analysis it gives the significant results in change detection studies. In this paper the GIS and Remote sensing techniques has been used to find the change detection using time series satellite imagery of Uttarakhand state during the years of 1990-2010. Natural vegetation, urban area, forest cover etc. were chosen as main landuse classes to study. Landuse/ landcover classes within several years were prepared using satellite images. Maximum likelihood supervised classification technique was adopted in this work and finally landuse change index has been generated and graphical models were used to present the changes.

Keywords: GIS, landuse/landcover, spatial and temporal data, remote sensing

Procedia PDF Downloads 410

Authors: A. Gürses, Z. Eroğlu, E. Şahin, K. Güneş, Ç. Doğar

Abstract:

In recent years, polymer/clay nanocomposites have generated great interest in the polymer industry as a new type of composite material because of their superior properties, which includes high heat deflection temperature, gas barrier performance, dimensional stability, enhanced mechanical properties, optical clarity and flame retardancy when compared with the pure polymer or conventional composites. The investigation of change of the tensile properties of organoclay/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) nanocomposites with the use of Dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP) (as plasticizer) and calcite (as filler) has been aimed. The composites and organoclay synthesized were characterized using the techniques such as XRD, HRTEM and FTIR techniques. The spectroscopic results indicate that platelets of organoclay were well dispersed within the polymeric matrix. The tensile properties of the composites were compared considering the stress-strain curve drawn for each composite and pure polymer. It was observed that the composites prepared by adding the plasticizer at different ratios and a certain amount of calcite exhibited different tensile behaviors compared to pure polymer.

Keywords: linear low density polyethylene, nanocomposite, organoclay, plasticizer

Procedia PDF Downloads 266

Authors: Abdurrahim Guler

Abstract:

Immigrants who came to a new country experience some socio-cultural difficulties which are different from theirs. The study aims to investigate how Syrian Refugees manage their life in Turkey and the relationship between acculturation profiles and demographic background of Syrian refugees who came to Turkey after civil war has intensified in Syria. Data are collected from 280 adult Syrian refugees who were born in Syria. The study adopts bi-dimensional acculturation approach stating that both heritage and dominant host cultures can live together. Results suggest that demographic backgrounds, religion, and religiosity are significantly linked to both heritage and dominant host culture. Syrian refugees who are not affiliated with Islam are found to significantly preserve their ethnic/heritage culture. Generally, Syrian refugees are more willing to integrate Turkish society but not to assimilate. The results also confirmed acculturation process as a bi-dimensional, not a zero-sum game since we found a significant positive correlation between the heritage and the dominant host cultures which assume the independence and orthogonal of involvements in the dominant host and heritage cultures.

Keywords: acculturation, demographic backgrounds, heritage culture, religion, Syrian refugees

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Abdulhakeem Yusuf, Yomi Monday Aiyesimi, Mohammed Jiya

Abstract:

The failure in an ordinary heat transfer fluid to meet up with today’s industrial cooling rate has resulted in the development of high thermal conductivity fluid which nanofluids belongs. In this work, the problem of unsteady one dimensional laminar flow of an incompressible fluid within a parallel wall is considered with one wall assumed to be wavy. The model is presented in its rectangular coordinate system and incorporates the effects of thermophoresis and Brownian motion. The local similarity solutions were also obtained which depends on Soret number, Dufour number, Biot number, Lewis number, and heat generation parameter. The analytical solution is obtained in a closed form via the Adomian decomposition method. It was found that the method has a good agreement with the numerical method, and it is also established that the heat generation parameter has to be kept low so that heat energy are easily evacuated from the system.

Keywords: Adomian decomposition method, Biot number, Dufour number, nanofluid

Procedia PDF Downloads 309

Authors: Wilai Masanga, Chirapha Tannanonta, Sangutid Thongsawad, Sasikarn Chamchod, Todsaporn Fuangrod

Abstract:

The major factors of radiotherapy for head and neck (HN) cancers include patient’s anatomical changes and tumour shrinkage. These changes can significantly affect the planned dose distribution that causes the treatment plan deterioration. A measured transit EPID images compared to a predicted EPID images using gamma analysis has been clinically implemented to verify the dose accuracy as part of adaptive radiotherapy protocol. However, a global gamma analysis dose not sensitive to some critical organ changes as the entire treatment field is compared. The objective of this feasibility study is to evaluate the dosimetric response to patient anatomical changes during the treatment course in HN IMRT (Head and Neck Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy) using a novel comparison method; organ-of-interest gamma analysis. This method provides more sensitive to specific organ change detection. Random replanned 5 HN IMRT patients with causes of tumour shrinkage and patient weight loss that critically affect to the parotid size changes were selected and evaluated its transit dosimetry. A comprehensive physics-based model was used to generate a series of predicted transit EPID images for each gantry angle from original computed tomography (CT) and replan CT datasets. The patient structures; including left and right parotid, spinal cord, and planning target volume (PTV56) were projected to EPID level. The agreement between the transit images generated from original CT and replanned CT was quantified using gamma analysis with 3%, 3mm criteria. Moreover, only gamma pass-rate is calculated within each projected structure. The gamma pass-rate in right parotid and PTV56 between predicted transit of original CT and replan CT were 42.8%( ± 17.2%) and 54.7%( ± 21.5%). The gamma pass-rate for other projected organs were greater than 80%. Additionally, the results of organ-of-interest gamma analysis were compared with 3-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (3D-CBCT) and the rational of replan by radiation oncologists. It showed that using only registration of 3D-CBCT to original CT does not provide the dosimetric impact of anatomical changes. Using transit EPID images with organ-of-interest gamma analysis can provide additional information for treatment plan suitability assessment.

Keywords: re-plan, anatomical change, transit electronic portal imaging device, EPID, head, and neck

Procedia PDF Downloads 199

Authors: Jam Harley

Abstract:

The COVID-19 epidemic accelerated the speed of change in the workplace. Overnight, several individuals shifted from co-location in an office to hybrid or remote work. The pandemic also expedited and intensified the need to address persistent leadership and management concerns, including digital transformation, remote management, leading through fast change, anxiety, and uncertainty. Nonetheless, many leaders have failed to address the problems left behind by the epidemic. In a fundamental work devoted to comprehending what constitutes a human need, Maslow reiterates similar descriptors in his explanation of belongingness as the human need to be accepted, acknowledged, respected, and appreciated by a community of other individuals. This study aims to investigate the lived experiences of dispersed hybrid team members in order to find leadership best practices that improve team performance and retention through an increased individual’s sense of belonging.

Keywords: organizational change, belonging, diversity, equity

Procedia PDF Downloads 40