Search results for: modern pattern cutting technique

Authors: Smail Boussaadi, Hassina Aliane

Abstract:

With the rapid growth of scientific literature, it is becoming increasingly challenging for researchers to keep up with the latest findings in their fields. Academic, professional networks play an essential role in connecting researchers and disseminating knowledge. To improve the user experience within these networks, we need effective article recommendation systems that provide personalized content.Current recommendation systems often rely on collaborative filtering or content-based techniques. However, these methods have limitations, such as the cold start problem and difficulty in capturing semantic relationships between articles. To overcome these challenges, we propose a new approach that combines BERTopic (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), a state-of-the-art topic modeling technique, with community detection algorithms in a academic, professional network. Experiences confirm our performance expectations by showing good relevance and objectivity in the results.

Keywords: scientific articles, community detection, academic social network, recommender systems, neural topic model

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: Reza Safari, Ali Rajabzadeh Ghatari, Raheleh Hossseinzadeh Mahabadi

Abstract:

In the present world, there are different pressures on firms such as competition, legislations, social etc. these pressures force the firms to follow “survival” as their primary goal and then growth. One of the main factors that helps firms to reach their goals is proper financial performance. To find out about the financial performance, a firm should monitors its financial performance. Financial performance affected by many factors. This research seeks to clear which financial performance indicators are most important according to Environmental situation of a firm and what are their priorities. To do so, environmental indicators specified as presented on OECD Key Environmental Indicators 2008 and so the financial performance indicators such as Profitability, Liquidity, Gearing, Investor ratios, and etc. At this stage, the affections questioned through questionnaires. After gaining the results, data analyzed using Promethee technique. By using decision matrixes extracted from those techniques an expert system designed. This expert system suggests the suitable financial performance indicators and their ranking by receiving the environment situation given environment indicators weight.

Keywords: environment indicators, financial performance indicators, promethee, expert system

Procedia PDF Downloads 430

Authors: M. Karimpour, N. Elkhoury, L. Hitihamillage, S. Moridpour, R. Hesami

Abstract:

There is a necessity among rail transportation authorities for a superior understanding of the rail track degradation overtime and the factors influencing rail degradation. They need an accurate technique to identify the time when rail tracks fail or need maintenance. In turn, this will help to increase the level of safety and comfort of the passengers and the vehicles as well as improve the cost effectiveness of maintenance activities. An accurate model can play a key role in prediction of the long-term behaviour of railroad tracks. An accurate model can decrease the cost of maintenance. In this research, the rail track degradation is predicted using an autoregressive moving average with exogenous input (ARMAX). An ARMAX has been implemented on Melbourne tram data to estimate the values for the tram track degradation. Gauge values and rail usage in Million Gross Tone (MGT) are the main parameters used in the model. The developed model can accurately predict the future status of the tram tracks.

Keywords: ARMAX, dynamic systems, MGT, prediction, rail degradation

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Xiaoxin Ye, Guoyi Tang

Abstract:

The effect of electropulsing ultrasonic shock (EUS) on the surface hardening and microstructure of Ti6Al4V alloy was studied. It was found that electropulsing improved the microhardness dramatically both in the influential depth and maximum value, compared with the only ultrasonic-shocked sample. It’s indicated that refined surface layer with nanocrystalline and improved microhardness were obtained on account of surface severe plastic deformation, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and phase change, which was implemented at relative low temperature and high strain rate/capacity due to the coupling of the thermal and athermal effects of EUS. It’s different from conventional experiments and theory. It’s discussed that the positive contributions of EPT in the thermodynamics and kinetics of microstructure and properties change were attributed to the reduction of nucleation energy barrier and acceleration of atomic diffusion. Therefore, it’s supposed that EUS is an energy-saving and high-efficiency method of surface treatment technique with the help of high-energy electropulses, which is promising in cost reduction of the surface engineering and energy management.

Keywords: titanium alloys, electropulsing, ultrasonic shock, microhardness, nanocrystalline

Procedia PDF Downloads 284

Authors: Olga Shapovalova, Vladimir Vinogradov

Abstract:

Among many different sol – gel matrices only alumina can be successfully parenteral injected in the human body. And this is not surprising, because boehmite (aluminium oxyhydroxide) is the metal oxide approved by FDA and EMA for intravenous and intramuscular administrations, and also has been using for a longtime as adjuvant for producing of many modern vaccines. In our earlier study, it has been shown, that denaturation temperature of enzymes entrapped in sol-gel boehmite matrix increases for 30 – 60 °С with preserving of initial activity. It makes such matrices more attractive for long-term storage of non-stable drugs. In current work we present ultrasound-assisted sol-gel synthesis of nano-boehmite. This method provides bio-friendly, very stable, highly homogeneous alumina sol with using only water and aluminium isopropoxide as a precursor. Many parameters of the synthesis were studied in details: time of ultrasound treatment, US frequency, surface area, pore and nanoparticle size, zeta potential and others. Here we investigated the dependence of stability of colloidal sols and textural properties of the final composites as a function of the time of ultrasonic treatment. Chosen ultrasonic treatment time was between 30 and 180 minutes. Surface area, average pore diameter and total pore volume of the final composites were measured by surface and pore size analyzer Nova 1200 Quntachrome. It was shown that the matrices with ultrasonic treatment time equal to 90 minutes have the biggest surface area 431 ± 24 m2/g. On the other had such matrices have a smaller stability in comparison with the samples with ultrasonic treatment time equal to 120 minutes that have the surface area 390 ± 21 m2/g. It was shown that the stable sols could be formed only after 120 minutes of ultrasonic treatment, otherwise the white precipitate of boehmite is formed. We conclude that the optimal ultrasonic treatment time is 120 minutes.

Keywords: boehmite matrix, stabilisation, ultrasound-assisted sol-gel synthesis

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Surita Maini, Sanjay Dhanka

Abstract:

Machine learning (ML) involves developing algorithms and statistical models that enable computers to learn and make predictions or decisions based on data without being explicitly programmed. Because of its unlimited abilities ML is gaining popularity in medical sectors; Medical Imaging, Electronic Health Records, Genomic Data Analysis, Wearable Devices, Disease Outbreak Prediction, Disease Diagnosis, etc. In the last few decades, many researchers have tried to diagnose Breast Cancer (BC) using ML, because early detection of any disease can save millions of lives. Working in this direction, the authors have proposed a hybrid ML technique RBF SVM, to predict the BC in earlier the stage. The proposed method is implemented on the Breast Cancer UCI ML dataset with 569 instances and 32 attributes. The authors recorded performance metrics of the proposed model i.e., Accuracy 98.24%, Sensitivity 98.67%, Specificity 97.43%, F1 Score 98.67%, Precision 98.67%, and run time 0.044769 seconds. The proposed method is validated by K-Fold cross-validation.

Keywords: breast cancer, support vector classifier, machine learning, hyper parameter tunning

Procedia PDF Downloads 60

Authors: Ho Jeong Jin, Chang Won Seo, Choon Sik Cho, Bong Yong Choi, Kwang Kyun Na, Sang Rok Lee

Abstract:

In this paper, a radar signal processing technique using the LFM-FSK (Linear Frequency Modulation-Frequency Shift Keying) is proposed for reducing the false alarm rate based on the compressive sensing. The LFM-FSK method combines FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave) signal with FSK (Frequency Shift Keying). This shows an advantage which can suppress the ghost phenomenon without the complicated CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) algorithm. Moreover, the parametric sparse algorithm applying the compressive sensing that restores signals efficiently with respect to the incomplete data samples is also integrated, leading to reducing the burden of ADC in the receiver of radars. 24 GHz FMCW signal is applied and tested in the real environment with FSK modulated data for verifying the proposed algorithm along with the compressive sensing.

Keywords: compressive sensing, LFM-FSK radar, radar signal processing, sparse algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 463

Authors: Masood Ahmad, Ataul Aziz Ikram, Ishtiaq Wahid

Abstract:

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is the interconnection of mobile wireless nodes with limited energy and memory. These networks can be deployed formany critical applications like military operations, rescue management, fire detection and so on. In flat routing structure, every node plays an equal role of sensor and router. The topology may change very frequently due to the mobile nature of nodes in WSNs. The topology maintenance may produce more overhead messages. To avoid topology maintenance overhead messages, an optimized cluster based mobile wireless sensor network using memetic algorithm is proposed in this paper. The nodes in this network are first divided into clusters. The cluster leaders then transmit data to that base station. The network is validated through extensive simulation study. The results show that the proposed technique has superior results compared to existing techniques.

Keywords: WSN, routing, cluster based, meme, memetic algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 475

Authors: Jing Zhang

Abstract:

To reduce the carbon footprint of mankind and become more sustainable is one of the major challenges in our era. Internet of Things (IoT) mainly resolves three problems: Things to Things (T2T), Human to Things, H2T), and Human to Human (H2H). Borrowing the classification of IoT, we can find carbon prints of industries also can be divided in these three ways. Therefore, monitoring the routes of generation and circulation of products may help calculate product carbon print. This paper does not consider any technique used by IoT itself, but the ideas of it look at the connection of products. Carbon prints are like a gene or mark of a product from raw materials to the final products, which never leave the products. The contribution of this paper is to combine the characteristics of IoT and the methodology of network science to find a way to calculate the product's carbon footprint. Life cycle assessment, LCA is a traditional and main tool to calculate the carbon print of products. LCA is a traditional but main tool, which includes three kinds.

Keywords: product carbon footprint, Internet of Things, network science, life cycle assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: A. H. Birniwa, A. A. Salisu, M. Y. Yakasai, A. Sabo, K. Aujara, A. Isma’il

Abstract:

Sisal fibre was extracted from Sisal leaves by enzymatic retting method. A portion of the fibre was subjected to treatment with alkali, benzoyl chloride and silane compounds. Sisal fibre composites were fabricated using unsaturated polyester resin, by hand lay-up technique using both the treated and untreated fibre. Tensile, flexural and water absorption tests were conducted and evaluated on the composites. The results obtained were found to increase in the treated fibre compared to untreated fibre. Surface morphology of the fibre was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the result obtained showed variation in the morphology of the treated and untreated fibre. FT-IR results showed inclusion of benzoyl and silane groups on the fibre surface. The fibre chemical modification improves its adhesion to the matrix, mechanical properties of the composites were also found to improve.

Keywords: composite, flexural strength, matrix, sisal fibre

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Carolina Beres, Laurine Da Silva, Danielle Pereira, Ana Ribeiro, Renata Tonon, Caroline Mellinger-Silva, Karina Dos Santos, Flavia Gomes, Lourdes Cabral

Abstract:

The health benefits of bioactive compounds such as phenolics are well known. The main source of these compounds are fruits and derivates. This study had the objective to study the bioacessibility of phenolic compounds from grape pomace and juçara dried extracts. For this purpose both characterized extracts were submitted to a simulated human digestion and the total phenolic content, total anthocyanins and antioxidant scavenging capacity was determinate in digestive fractions (oral, gastric, intestinal and colonic). Juçara had a higher anthocianins bioacessibility (17.16%) when compared to grape pomace (2.08%). The opposite result was found for total phenolic compound, where the higher bioacessibility was for grape (400%). The phenolic compound increase indicates a more accessible compound in the human gut. The lyophilized process had a beneficial impact in the final accessibility of the phenolic compounds being a more promising technique.

Keywords: bioacessibility, phenolic compounds, grape, juçara

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Dibakar Sahoo, Sridevi Gummadi

Abstract:

The focus of the study is to empirically analyse the climatic impacts on foodgrain yield and its variability across seasons and altitudes in Odisha, one of the most vulnerable states in India. The study uses Just-Pope Stochastic Production function by using two-step Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS): mean equation estimation and variance equation estimation. The study uses the panel data on foodgrain yield, rainfall and temperature for 13 districts during the period 1984-2013. The study considers four seasons: winter (December-February), summer (March-May), Rainy (June-September) and autumn (October-November). The districts under consideration have been categorized under three altitude regions such as low (< 70 masl), middle (153-305 masl) and high (>305 masl) altitudes. The results show that an increase in the standard deviations of monthly rainfall during rainy and autumn seasons have an adversely significant impact on the mean yield of foodgrains in Odisha. The summer temperature has beneficial effects by significantly increasing mean yield as the summer season is associated with harvesting stage of Rabi crops. The changing pattern of temperature has increasing effect on the yield variability of foodgrains during the summer season, whereas it has a decreasing effect on yield variability of foodgrains during the Rainy season. Moreover, the positive expected signs of trend variable in both mean and variance equation suggests that foodgrain yield and its variability increases with time. On the other hand, a change in mean levels of rainfall and temperature during different seasons has heterogeneous impacts either harmful or beneficial depending on the altitudes. These findings imply that adaptation strategies should be tailor-made to minimize the adverse impacts of climate change and variability for sustainable development across seasons and altitudes in Odisha agriculture.

Keywords: altitude, adaptation strategies, climate change, foodgrain

Procedia PDF Downloads 234

Authors: G.Venkatachalam, Gautham Shankar, Dasarath Raghav, Krishna Kuar, Santhosh Kiran, Bhargav Mahesh

Abstract:

Uncertainty in the availability of fossil fuels in the future and global warming increased the need for more environment-friendly materials. In this work, an attempt is made to fabricate a hybrid polymer matrix composite. The blend is a mixture of General Purpose Resin and Cashew Nut Shell Liquid, a natural resin extracted from cashew plant. Palm fiber, which has high strength, is used as a reinforcement material. The fiber is treated with alkali (NaOH) solution to increase its strength and adhesiveness. Parametric study of flexure strength is carried out by varying alkali concentration, duration of alkali treatment and fiber volume. Taguchi L9 Orthogonal array is followed in the design of experiments procedure for simplification. With the help of ANOVA technique, regression equations are obtained which gives the level of influence of each parameter on the flexure strength of the composite.

Keywords: Adhesion, CNSL, Flexural Analysis, Hybrid Matrix Composite, Palm Fiber

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Elena G. Diryugina, Maria A. Dovger, Maria V. Lunkina, Alexandra A. Ianchenko

Abstract:

The personality development and well-being of children have become important focuses of school education and indicators of its quality. The studies show that academic success depends more on personality and motivation than on intelligence and giftedness. Those personality resources that help a person to maintain well-being both here and now and in the future constitute their personality potential. The development of schoolchildrens' personality potential can help them meet the challenges of the modern world and achieve new educational goals. At the same time, it is noted that the pedagogical factor is one of the most significant in relation to schoolchildrens' success and well-being. What is important for teachers to develop in order to make their students feel more competent and maintain well-being? As part of the Developmental Environment Programme of the Charitable Foundation ‘Investment in the Future’, a longitudinal study of the personality potential and well-being of educators and schoolchildren was conducted from 2018 to 2023. More than 2,500 teachers and over 4,000 students from Russia took part. It was found that behind a teacher's communication style, an important construct that influences the motivation of schoolchildren and the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs, is the personal potential of that teacher. Their personality potential correlates with the social-emotional development of schoolchildren in junior grades. A teacher's communication style with adolescents contributes to their academic motivation, self-esteem and satisfaction with life and learning. In addition, child well-being cannot be promoted in isolation from attention to the psychological well-being of teachers. Their social well-being and engagement are higher when they are included in professional learning communities. The results will be helpful for both positive education researchers and practitioners to identify an approach to child personality development and well-being that is achieved primarily through the personality development and well-being of school staff members and mostly teachers.

Keywords: Personality development, personality potential, schoolchildren, teaching style, well-being

Procedia PDF Downloads 16

Authors: Muhammad Ashfaq

Abstract:

Main theme: This prime focus of this study is on the role of digital technology in crime prevention, with special focus on Cellular Forensic Unit, Capital City Police Peshawar-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan. Objective(s) of the study: The prime objective of this study is to provide statistics, strategies, and pattern of analysis used for crime prevention in Cellular Forensic Unit of Capital City Police Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan. Research Method and Procedure: Qualitative method of research has been used in the study for obtaining secondary data from research wing and Information Technology (IT) section of Peshawar police. Content analysis was the method used for the conduction of the study. This study is delimited to Capital City Police and Cellular Forensic Unit Peshawar-KP, Pakistan. information technologies. Major finding(s): It is evident that the old traditional approach will never provide solutions for better management in controlling crimes. The best way to control crimes and promotion of proactive policing is to adopt new technologies. The study reveals that technology have transformed police more effective and vigilant as compared to traditional policing. The heinous crimes like abduction, missing of an individual, snatching, burglaries, and blind murder cases are now traceable with the help of technology. Recommendation(s): From the analysis of the data, it is reflected that Information Technology (IT) expert should be recruited along with research analyst to timely assist and facilitate operational as well as investigation units of police. A mobile locator should be Provided to Cellular Forensic Unit to timely apprehend the criminals. Latest digital analysis software should be provided to equip the Cellular Forensic Unit.

Keywords: criminology-pakistan, crime prevention-KP, digital forensics, digital technology-pakistan

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Wafeek Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed

Abstract:

In the era of globalization and openness informational. Anyone who thinks about innovation in the earth population in Islam in our contemporary reality, he will find that it is not destined to its civilized extension to last. The purpose of the research is a trial to reach a realistic vision for creative, innovative and intellectual thought for the earth population in Islam as an instrument to Confrontation and observe the changes that have affected in the architecture of the land during different eras. Through knowing the controls of the ruling legitimacy(that served as definitions and laws which formulate its features) and using customs, traditions, and conventions as a telescope for the earth population in Islam, It explained the impact of them on features of creative formation for the architecture of the land in our contemporary reality. The study shows a modern vision to identify innovation in the earth population in Islam. As well as reformulating its mental image and monitoring its changes in Islamic heritage cities. This will be done through a two main branches: firstly, set forth a theory represented in studying creative concepts which formulate the population of the earth in Islam. Such as initiative and responsibility for reviving the dead land, the lane [alley] as formation unit and social solidarity,… Etc.. The second branch is preparing a practical, critical vision for innovative conceptual thought for the architecture of the land of Islam, through studying the development of a traditional Islamic city., The conceptual thought of making the birth festival ["Al-Refaee"] and its emulation for governing roles in the traditional city building. The research concludes The necessity of forming the suggested a creative vision for identifying how to re-form the conceptual for our contemporary population of the earth. It poses an important question which is how to return to creativity in the architecture of the land of Islam in our built environments.

Keywords: innovation and creation, architecture, the land in Islam, criticism of design

Procedia PDF Downloads 452

Authors: Sean Taylor, Sayantani Neogi, Julia Budka

Abstract:

The important Egyptian New Kingdom settlement at Sai Island Sudan presents a complex stratigraphic archaeological record. This study takes the theoretic stance that it, not just the archaeological material being retrieved from the deposits but the sediments themselves that reflect human agency. These anthropogenic sediments reflect the use life of the buildings and spaces between and the post-depositional processes which operate to complicate the archaeological record. The application of soil micromorphology is a technique that takes intact block samples of sediment and analyses them in thin section under a petrological microscope. A detailed understanding of site formation processes and a contextualized knowledge of the material culture can be understood through careful and systematic observation of the changing facies. The major findings of the study are that soil and sedimentary information can provide valuable insights to the use of space during the New Kingdom and elucidate the complexities of site formation processes.

Keywords: anthropogenic sediment, New Kingdom, site formation processes, soil micromorphology

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Shubham Jaiswal

Abstract:

During modeling of transport phenomena in porous media, many nonlinear partial differential equations (NPDEs) encountered which greatly described the convection, diffusion and reaction process. To solve such types of nonlinear problems, a reliable and efficient technique is needed. In this article, the numerical solution of NPDEs encountered in porous media is derived. Here Jacobi collocation method is used to solve the considered problems which convert the NPDEs in systems of nonlinear algebraic equations that can be solved using Newton-Raphson method. The numerical results of some illustrative examples are reported to show the efficiency and high accuracy of the proposed approach. The comparison of the numerical results with the existing analytical results already reported in the literature and the error analysis for each example exhibited through graphs and tables confirms the exponential convergence rate of the proposed method.

Keywords: nonlinear porous media equation, shifted Jacobi polynomials, operational matrix, spectral collocation method

Procedia PDF Downloads 430

Authors: Kin On Kwok, Vivian Wei, Benjamin Cowling, Steven Riley, Jonathan Read

Abstract:

Background: The role of social contact behavior measured in different contact constructs in the transmission of respiratory pathogens with acute respiratory illness (ARI) remains unclear. We, therefore, aim to depict the individual pattern of ARI in the community and investigate the association between different contact dimensions and ARI in Hong Kong. Methods: Between June 2013 and September 2013, 620 subjects participated in the last two waves of recruitment of the population based longitudinal phone social contact survey. Some of the subjects in this study are from the same household. They are also provided with the symptom diaries to self-report any acute respiratory illness related symptoms between the two days of phone recruitment. Data from 491 individuals who were not infected on the day of phone recruitment and returned the symptom diaries after the last phone recruitment were used for analysis. Results: After adjusting different follow-up periods among individuals, the overall incidence rate of ARI was 1.77 per 100 person-weeks. Over 75% ARI episodes involve running nose, cough, sore throat, which are followed by headache (55%), malagia (35%) and fever (18%). Using a generalized estimating equation framework accounting for the cluster effect of subjects living in the same household, we showed that both daily number of locations visited with contacts and the number of contacts, explained the ARI incidence rate better than only one single contact construct. Conclusion: Our result suggests that it is the intertwining property of contact quantity (number of contacts) and contact intensity (ratio of subject-to-contact) that governs the infection risk by a collective set of respiratory pathogens. Our results provide empirical evidence that multiple contact constructs should be incorporated in the mathematical transmission models to feature a more realistic dynamics of respiratory disease.

Keywords: acute respiratory illness, longitudinal study, social contact, symptom diaries

Procedia PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Miraç Savaş Turhan, Ali Danişman

Abstract:

Recently scholars of new institutional theory have used institutional logics perspective to explain the contradictory practices in modern western societies. Accordingly, distinct institutional logics are embedded in central institutions such as the market, state, democracy, family, and religion. They guide individual and organizational actors and constraint their behaviors in a particular organizational field. Through this perspective, actors are assumed to have a situated, embedded, boundedly intentional, and adaptive role against the structure in social, cultural and political context. On the other hand, over a decade, there is an emerging attempt focusing on the role of actors on creating, maintaining, and changing the institutions. Such attempts brought out the concept of institutional entrepreneurs to explain the role of individual actors in relation to institutions. Institutional entrepreneurs are individuals, groups of individuals, organizations or groups of organizations that are able to initiate some actions to build, maintain or change institutions. While recent studies on institutional logics perspective have attempted to explain roles of entrepreneurial actors who have resources and skills, little is known about the effects of multiple institutional logics on the ability of institutional entrepreneurs. In this study, we aim to find out that how multiple institutional logics affect the ability of institutional entrepreneurs during the process of institutional change. We examine this issue in the Turkish Education Field. While institutional logics were identified based on the previous studies in the education field, the actions taken by Turkish National Education Ministry from 2003 to 2013 was examined through content analysis The early results indicate that there are remarkable shift and contradictions in the ability of institutional entrepreneur in taking actions to change the field in relationship to balance of power shift among the carriers of institutional logics.

Keywords: institutional theory, institutional logics, institutional entrepreneurs, Turkish national education

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: Muhammad Arsalan

Abstract:

The efficiency of a financial intermediation system is assessed by its ability to achieve allocative efficiency, asset transformation, and the subsequent economic development. Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) was conceived to serve as an alternate financial intermediation system adherent to the injunctions of Islam. A critical appraisal of the state of contemporary IBF reveals that it neither fulfills the aspirations of Islamic rhetoric nor is efficient in terms of asset transformation and economic development. This paper is an intuitive pursuit to explore the economic rationale of established principles of IBF, and the reasons of the persistent divergence of IBF being accused of ruses and sophistry. Disentangling the varying viewpoints, the underdevelopment of IBF has been attributed to misinterpretation of Riba, which has been explicated through a narrow fiqhi and legally deterministic approach. It presents a critical account of how incorrect conceptualization of the key injunction on Riba, steered flawed institutionalization of an Islamic Financial intermediation system. It also emphasizes on the wrong interpretation of the ontological and epistemological sources of Islamic Law (primarily Riba), that explains the perennial economic underdevelopment of the Muslim world. Deeming ‘a collaborative and dynamic Ijtihad’ as the elixir, this paper insists on the exigency of redefining Riba, i.e., a definition that incorporates the modern modes of economic cooperation and the contemporary financial intermediation ecosystem. Finally, Riba has been articulated in an agency theoretic framework to eschew expropriation of wealth, and assure protection of property rights, aimed at realizing the twin goals of a) Shari’ah adherence in true spirit, b) financial and economic development of the Muslim world.

Keywords: agency theory, financial intermediation, Islamic banking and finance, ijtihad, economic development, Riba, information asymmetry

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Pui-Lai To, Chechen Liao, Hen-Yi Huang

Abstract:

Twenty years after Internet development, scholars have started to identify the negative impacts brought by the Internet. Overuse of Internet could develop Internet dependency and in turn cause addiction behavior. Therefore understanding the phenomenon of Internet addiction is important. With the joint efforts of experts and scholars, Internet addiction has been officially listed as a symptom that affects public health, and the diagnosis, causes and treatment of the symptom have also been explored. On the other hand, in the area of smartphone Internet usage, most studies are still focusing on the motivation factors of smartphone usage. Not much research has been done on smartphone Internet addiction. In view of the increasing adoption of smartphones, this paper is intended to find out whether smartphone Internet addiction exists in modern society or not. This study adopted the research methodology of online survey targeting users with smartphone Internet experience. A total of 434 effective samples were recovered. In terms of data analysis, Partial Least Square (PLS) in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used for sample analysis and research model testing. Software chosen for statistical analysis is SPSS 20.0 for windows and SmartPLS 2.0. The research result successfully proved that smartphone users who access Internet service via smartphone could also develop smartphone Internet addiction. Factors including flow experience, depression, virtual social support, smartphone Internet affinity and maladaptive cognition all have significant and positive influence on smartphone Internet addiction. In the scenario of smartphone Internet use, descriptive norm has a positive and significant influence on perceived playfulness, while perceived playfulness also has a significant and positive influence on flow experience. Depression, on the other hand, is negatively influenced by actual social support and positive influenced by the virtual social support.

Keywords: internet addiction, smartphone usage, social support, perceived playfulness

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Elisaveta Doncheva, Jelena Djokikj, Ognen Tuteski, Bojana Hadjieva

Abstract:

In the past decade, additive manufacturing technology or 3D printing has been promoted as an efficient method for fabricating hybrid composite materials and structures with superior mechanical properties and complex shape and geometry. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) process is commonly used additive manufacturing technique for production of polymer products. Therefore, many studies and experiments are focused on investigating the possibilities for improving the obtained results on product properties as a key factor for expanding the spectrum of their application. This article provides an extensive review on recent research advances in FDM and reports on studies that cover the effects of process parameters, material, and design of the product properties. The paper conclusions provide a clear up-to date information for optimum efficiency and enhancement of the mechanical properties of 3D printed samples and recommends further research work and investigations.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, critical parameters, filament, print orientation, 3D printing

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: K. Mehmood, Muhammad Asif Rafiq, A. Nasir Khan, M. Mudassar Rauf

Abstract:

Air plasma spraying system was utilized to deposit Ni3Al coatings on AISI 321 steel samples. After thermal spraying, the nickel aluminide intermetallic coatings were isothermal heat treated at various temperatures. In this regard, temperatures from 500 °C to 800 °C with 100 °C increments were selected. The coatings were soaked for 10, 30, 60 and 100 hours at the mentioned temperatures. These coatings were then tested by a pin on disk method. It was observed that the coatings exposed at comparatively higher temperature experienced lower wear rate. The decrease in wear rate is due to the formation of NiO phase. Further, the as sprayed and heat treated coatings were characterized by other tools such as Microhardness testing, optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction analysis. After isothermal heat treatment, NiO was observed the main phase by X-Ray diffraction technique. Moreover, the surface hardness was also determined higher than cross sectional hardness.

Keywords: air plasma spraying, Ni -20Al, tribometer, intermetallic coating, nickel aluminide

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: J. T. Koininga, J. E. Teigen, A. Wilkinson, D. Kanneh, F. Kanneh, M. Foday, D. S. Grant, M. Leach, L. M. Moses

Abstract:

Lassa fever (LF) is a severe febrile illness endemic to West Africa. While human-to-human transmission occurs, evidence suggests most LF cases originate from exposure to rodents, particularly the Natal multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis. Within West Africa, LF occurs primarily in rural communities where agriculture is the main economic activity. Seasonality of LF has also been linked to agricultural cycles, with peak incidence occurring in the dry season when fields are burned and plowed. To investigate this pattern of seasonality, four agricultural communities were selected for this two-year longitudinal study. Each community was to be sampled four times each year, but this was interrupted by the Ebola virus disease outbreak. Agricultural land use, forested, and fallow areas were identified through participatory mapping. Transects were plotted in each area and Sherman traps were set for four nights. Captured small mammals were identified, ear tagged, and released. Mastomys natalensis abundance was found to be highest in areas of converted fallow land and rice swamps in the dry season and upland mixed crop areas toward the onset of the rainy season. All peak times were associated with heavy perturbation of soil. All ages and genders were present during these time points. These results suggest that peak abundance of the Mastomys natalensis in agricultural areas coincides with peak incidence of LF reported in this region. Although contact with rodents may be higher in villages, our study suggests human behaviors in agricultural areas may increase risk of transmission of Lassa virus.

Keywords: agriculture, land use, Lassa Fever, rodent abundance

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: A. M. H. Shokry, N. S. M. El-Tayeb

Abstract:

The environmental impacts caused by fertilizers call for the adaptation of more sustainable technologies in order to increase agricultural production and reduce pollution due to high nutrient emissions. One particular technique has been to coat urea fertilizer granules with less-soluble chemicals that permit the gradual release of nutrients in a slow and controlled manner. The aim of this research is to develop a biodegradable slow-release fertilizer (SRF) with materials that come from sustainable sources; starch and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The slow-release behavior and water retention capacity of the coated granules were determined. In addition, the aqueous release and absorbency rates were also tested. Results confirmed that the release rate from coated granules was slower than through plain membranes; and that the water absorption capacity of the coated urea decreased as PVA content increased. The SRF was also tested and gave positive results that confirmed the integrity of the product.

Keywords: biodegradability, nitrogen-use efficiency, poly-vinyl alcohol, slow-release fertilizer, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Vaishnavi Shivde, Shrishti Sinha, Trapti Mishra

Abstract:

Traffic light detection from a moving vehicle is an important technology both for driver safety assistance functions as well as for autonomous driving in the city. This paper proposed a deep-learning-based traffic light recognition method that consists of a pixel-wise image segmentation technique and a fully convolutional network i.e., UNET architecture. This paper has used a method for detecting the position and recognizing the state of the traffic lights in video sequences is presented and evaluated using Traffic Light Dataset which contains masked traffic light image data. The first stage is the detection, which is accomplished through image processing (image segmentation) techniques such as image cropping, color transformation, segmentation of possible traffic lights. The second stage is the recognition, which means identifying the color of the traffic light or knowing the state of traffic light which is achieved by using a Convolutional Neural Network (UNET architecture).

Keywords: traffic light detection, image segmentation, machine learning, classification, convolutional neural networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Vithaya Intaraphimol

Abstract:

This research investigates the effect of financial accounting information and non-financial accounting reports on corporate credibility via strength of board of directors and market environment volatility as moderating effect. Data in this research is collected by questionnaire form non-financial companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Multiple regression statistic technique is chosen for analyzing the data. The empirical results find that firms with greater financial accounting information reports and non-financial accounting information reports will gain greater corporate credibility. Therefore, the corporate reporting has the value for the firms. Moreover, the strength of board of directors will positively moderate the financial and non-financial accounting information reports and corporate credibility relationship. Whereas, market environment volatility will negatively moderate the financial and nonfinancial accounting information reports and corporate credibility relationship.

Keywords: corporate credibility, financial and non-financial reports, firms performance, economics

Procedia PDF Downloads 449

Authors: M. Mansouri, P. Jaklitsch, E. Teiniker

Abstract:

SQL injection on web applications is a very popular kind of attack. There are mechanisms such as intrusion detection systems in order to detect this attack. These strategies often rely on techniques implemented at high layers of the application but do not consider the low level of system calls. The problem of only considering the high level perspective is that an attacker can circumvent the detection tools using certain techniques such as URL encoding. One technique currently used for detecting low-level attacks on privileged processes is the tracing of system calls. System calls act as a single gate to the Operating System (OS) kernel; they allow catching the critical data at an appropriate level of detail. Our basic assumption is that any type of application, be it a system service, utility program or Web application, “speaks” the language of system calls when having a conversation with the OS kernel. At this level we can see the actual attack while it is happening. We conduct an experiment in order to demonstrate the suitability of system call analysis for detecting SQL injection. We are able to detect the attack. Therefore we conclude that system calls are not only powerful in detecting low-level attacks but that they also enable us to detect high-level attacks such as SQL injection.

Keywords: Linux system calls, web attack detection, interception, SQL

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Chaudhuri Manoj Kumar Swain, Susmita Das

Abstract:

This paper explores a detailed procedure of predicting a path loss (PL) model and its application in estimating the coverage probability in a WiMAX network. For this a hybrid approach is followed in predicting an empirical PL model of a 2.65 GHz WiMAX network deployed in a suburban environment. Data collection, statistical analysis, and regression analysis are the phases of operations incorporated in this approach and the importance of each of these phases has been discussed properly. The procedure of collecting data such as received signal strength indicator (RSSI) through experimental set up is demonstrated. From the collected data set, empirical PL and RSSI models are predicted with regression technique. Furthermore, with the aid of the predicted PL model, essential parameters such as PL exponent as well as the coverage probability of the network are evaluated. This research work may assist in the process of deployment and optimisation of any cellular network significantly.

Keywords: WiMAX, RSSI, path loss, coverage probability, regression analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 159