Search results for: housing prices index

Authors: Rabab A. El Wahsh, Hatem M. Marey, Maha Yousif, Asmaa M. Ibrahim

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Background: OSA and COPD are associated with microvascular changes. Retinal microvasculature can be directly and non-invasively examined. Aim: to evaluate retinal vascular tortuosity in patients with COPD, OSA, and overlap syndrome. Subjects and method: Sixty subjects were included; 15 OSA patients, 15 COPD patients, 15 COPD-OSA overlap patients, and 15 matched controls. They underwent digital retinal photography, polysomnography, arterial blood gases, spirometry, ESS, and stop-bang questionnaires. Results: Tortuosity of most retinal vessels was higher in all patient groups compared to the control group; tortuosity was more marked in overlap syndrome. There was a negative correlation between tortuosity of retinal vessels and PO2, O2 saturation, and minimum O2 desaturation, and a positive correlation with PCO2, AHI, O2 desaturation index, BMI and smoking index. Conclusion: Retinal vascular tortuosity occurs in OSA, COPD and overlap syndrome. Retinal vascular tortuosity is correlated with arterial blood gases parameters, polysomnographic findings, smoking index and BMI.

Keywords: OSA, COPD, overlap syndrome, retinal vascular tortuosity

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Authors: Khairul Bariah Sulaiman, Tajul Aris Yang

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Malaysian dried cocoa beans have been reported to have low quality flavour and are often sold at discounted prices. Various efforts have been made to improve the Malaysian beans quality. Among these efforts is introduction of the shallow box fermentation technique and pulp preconditioned through pods storage. However, after nearly four decades of the effort was done, Malaysian cocoa farmers still received lower prices for their beans. So, this study was carried out in order to assess the flavour quality of dried cocoa beans produced by shallow box fermentation techniques, combination of shallow box fermentation with pods storage and compared to dried cocoa beans obtained from Ghana. A total of eight samples of dried cocoa was used in this study, which one of the samples was Ghanaian beans (coded with no.8), while the rest were Malaysian cocoa beans with different post-harvest processing (coded with no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7). Cocoa liquor was prepared from all samples in the prescribed techniques and sensory evaluation was carried out using Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) Method with 0-10 scale by Malaysian Cocoa Board trained panelist. Sensory evaluation showed that cocoa attributes for all cocoa liquors ranging from 3.5 to 5.3, whereas bitterness was ranging from 3.4 to 4.6 and astringent attribute ranging from 3.9 to 5.5, respectively. Meanwhile, all cocoa liquors were having acid or sourness attribute ranging from 1.6 to 3.6, respectively. In general cocoa liquor prepared from sample coded no 4 has almost similar flavour profile and no significantly different at p < 0.05 with Ghana, in term of most flavour attributes as compared to the other six samples.

Keywords: cocoa beans, flavour, fermentation, shallow box, pods storage

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Authors: Matthew Brady

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Lack of affordable housing for individuals has the potential to create gaps in society, which result in thousands of people facing homelessness every year in some of the worlds most affluent cities. This paper examines strategies for providing a more economic living environment for single occupants. Focusing on comparisons of successful examples reducing homeless populations around the world, with an emphasis on social inclusion and community living. Practically exploring the architectural considerations of ensuring a suitable living environment for multiple single occupancy residents, as well as selecting the appropriate materials to ensure costs are kept to manageable level for investment from local governments. The aim of this paper is to make some practical recommendations for low cost communal living space, with particular reference to recycled shipping container homes on a potential unused site on the River Clyde in Glasgow. Ideally, the suggestions and recommendations put forward in this paper can be replicable or used for reference in other similar situations. The proposal explored in this paper is sensitive towards addressing people's standard of living and adapting homes to match may be one solution to reducing the number of people being evicted from unaffordable homes as the generally upward global trend for urbanization continues.

Keywords: affordable housing, community living, shipping container, urban regeneration

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Authors: Bi-Huei Tsai

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Previous studies on financial distress prediction choose the conventional failing and non-failing dichotomy; however, the distressed extent differs substantially among different financial distress events. To solve the problem, “non-distressed”, “slightly-distressed” and “reorganization and bankruptcy” are used in our article to approximate the continuum of corporate financial health. This paper explains different financial distress events using the two-stage method. First, this investigation adopts firm-specific financial ratios, corporate governance and market factors to measure the probability of various financial distress events based on multinomial logit models. Specifically, the bootstrapping simulation is performed to examine the difference of estimated misclassifying cost (EMC). Second, this work further applies macroeconomic factors to establish the credit cycle index and determines the distressed cut-off indicator of the two-stage models using such index. Two different models, one-stage and two-stage prediction models, are developed to forecast financial distress, and the results acquired from different models are compared with each other, and with the collected data. The findings show that the two-stage model incorporating financial ratios, corporate governance and market factors has the lowest misclassification error rate. The two-stage model is more accurate than the one-stage model as its distressed cut-off indicators are adjusted according to the macroeconomic-based credit cycle index.

Keywords: Multinomial logit model, corporate governance, company failure, reorganization, bankruptcy

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Authors: Jongsung Kim, Daegun Han, Myungjin Lee, Soojun Kim, Hung Soo Kim

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Recently, the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters are gradually increasing due to climate change. Especially in Korea, large-scale damage caused by heavy rainfall frequently occurs due to rapid urbanization. Therefore, this study proposed a Heavy rain Damage Risk Index (HDRI) using PSR (Pressure – State - Response) structure for heavy rain risk assessment. We constructed pressure index, state index, and response index for the risk assessment of each local government in Gyeonggi-do province, and the evaluation indices were determined by principal component analysis. The indices were standardized using the Z-score method then HDRIs were obtained for 31 local governments in the province. The HDRI is categorized into three classes, say, the safest class is 1st class. As the results, the local governments of the 1st class were 15, 2nd class 7, and 3rd class 9. From the study, we were able to identify the risk class due to the heavy rainfall for each local government. It will be useful to develop the heavy rainfall prediction function by risk class, and this was performed in this issue. Also, this risk class could be used for the decision making for efficient disaster management. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2017R1A2B3005695).

Keywords: natural disaster, heavy rain risk assessment, HDRI, PSR

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Authors: Bobuchi Ken-Opurum

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The impacts of climate change on urban settlements is growing. In the global south, communities are even more vulnerable and suffer there is an increased vulnerability from due to climate change disasters such as flooding and high temperatures. This is primarily due to high intensity rainfall, low-lying coasts, inadequate infrastructure, and limited resources. According to the Emergency Events Database, floods were the leading cause of disaster -based deaths in the global south between 2006 and 2015. This includes deaths from heat stress related health outcomes. Adapting to climate vulnerabilities is paramount in reducing the significant redevelopment costs from climate disasters. Governments and urban planners provide top-down approaches such as evacuation, and disaster and emergency communication. While they address infrastructure and public services, they are not always able to address the immediate and critical day to day needs of poor and vulnerable populations. There is growing evidence that some bottom-up strategies and grassroots initiatives of self-build housing such as in urban informal settlements are successful in coping and adapting to hydroclimatic impacts. However, these research findings are not consolidated and the evaluation of the resilience outcomes of the bottom-up strategies are limited. Using self-build housing as a model for sustainable and resilient urban planning, this research aimed to consolidate the flood and heat stress resilient design solutions, analyze the effectiveness of these solutions, and develop guidelines and methods for adopting these design solutions into mainstream housing in megathermal climates. The methodological approach comprised of analyses of over 40 ethnographic based peer reviewed literature, white papers, and reports between the years 2000 and 2019 to identify coping strategies and grassroots initiatives that have been applied by occupants and communities of the global south. The results of the research provide a consolidated source and prioritized list of the best bottom-up strategies for communities in megathermal climates to improve the lives of people in some of the most vulnerable places in the world.

Keywords: resilient, design, megathermal, climate change

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Authors: Tolga Barisik, Ali Fuat Guneri, K. Dastan

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Major industrial facilities have a high potential for fire risk. In particular, the indices used for the detection of hidden fire are used very effectively in order to prevent the fire from becoming dangerous in the initial stage. These indices provide the opportunity to prevent or intervene early by determining the stage of the fire, the potential for hazard, and the type of the combustion agent with the percentage values of the ambient air components. In this system, artificial neural network will be modeled with the input data determined using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, which is a multi-layer sensor (CAA) (teacher-learning) type, before modeling the modeling methods in the literature. The actual values produced by the indices will be compared with the outputs produced by the network. Using the neural network and the curves to be created from the resulting values, the feasibility of performance determination will be investigated.

Keywords: artifical neural networks, fire, Graham Index, levenberg-marquardt algoritm, oxygen decrease percentage index, risk assessment, Trickett Index

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Anthropometric measurements are essential for obesity studies. Waist circumference (WC) is the most frequently used measure, and along with hip circumference (HC), it is used in most equations derived for the evaluation of obese individuals. Morbid obesity is the most severe clinical form of obesity, and such individuals may also exhibit some clinical findings leading to metabolic syndrome (MetS). Then, it becomes a requirement to discriminate morbid obese children with (MOMetS+) and without (MOMetS-) MetS. Almost all obesity indices can differentiate obese (OB) children from children with normal body mass index (N-BMI). However, not all of them are capable of making this distinction. A recently introduced anthropometric obesity index, waist circumference + hip circumference/2 ((WC+HC)/2), was confirmed to differ OB children from those with N-BMI, however it has not been tested whether it will find clinical usage for the differential diagnosis of MOMetS+ and MOMetS-. This study was designed to find out the availability of (WC+HC)/2 for the purpose and to compare the possible preponderance of it over some other anthropometric or fat-based obesity indices. Forty-five MOMetS+ and forty-five MOMetS- children were included in the study. Participants have submitted informed consent forms. The study protocol was approved by the Non-interventional Ethics Committee of Tekirdag Namik Kemal University. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip circumference (W/H), (WC+HC)/2, trunk-to-leg fat ratio (TLFR), trunk-to-appendicular fat ratio (TAFR), trunk fat+leg fat/2 ((trunk+leg fat)/2), diagnostic obesity notation model assessment index-2 (D2I) and fat mass index (FMI) were calculated for both groups. Study data was analyzed statistically, and 0.05 for p value was accepted as the statistical significance degree. Statistically higher BMI, WC, (WC+HC)/2, (trunk+leg fat)/2 values were found in MOMetS+ children than MOMetS- children. No statistically significant difference was detected for W/H, TLFR, TAFR, D2I, and FMI between two groups. The lack of difference between the groups in terms of FMI and D2I pointed out the fact that the recently developed fat-based index; (trunk+leg fat)/2 gives much more valuable information during the evaluation of MOMetS+ and MOMetS- children. Upon evaluation of the correlations, (WC+HC)/2 was strongly correlated with D2I and FMI in both MOMetS+ and MOMetS- groups. Neither D2I nor FMI was correlated with W/H. Strong correlations were calculated between (WC+HC)/2 and (trunk+leg fat)/2 in both MOMetS- (r=0.961; p<0.001) and MOMetS+ (r=0.936; p<0.001) groups. Partial correlations between (WC+HC)/2 and (trunk+leg fat)/2 after controlling the effect of basal metabolic rate were r=0.726; p<0.001 in MOMetS- group and r=0.932; p<0.001 in MOMetS+ group. The correlation in the latter group was higher than the first group. In conclusion, recently developed anthropometric obesity index (WC+HC)/2 and fat-based obesity index (trunk+leg fat)/2 were of preponderance over the previously introduced classical obesity indices such as W/H, D2I and FMI during the differential diagnosis of MOMetS+ and MOMetS- children.

Keywords: children, hip circumference, metabolic syndrome, morbid obesity, waist circumference

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Authors: R. Periyasamy, Deepak Joshi, Sneh Anand

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Foot posture assessment is important to evaluate foot type, causing gait and postural defects in all age groups. Although different methods are used for classification of foot arch type in clinical/research examination, there is no clear approach for selecting the most appropriate measurement system. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a system for evaluation of foot type as clinical decision-making aids for diagnosis of flat and normal arch based on the Arch Index (AI) and foot pressure distribution parameter - Power Ratio (PR) data. The accuracy of the system was evaluated for 27 subjects with age ranging from 24 to 65 years. Foot area measurements (hind foot, mid foot, and forefoot) were acquired simultaneously from foot pressure intensity image using portable PedoPowerGraph system and analysis of the image in frequency domain to obtain foot pressure distribution parameter - PR data. From our results, we obtain 100% classification accuracy of normal and flat foot by using the linear discriminant analysis method. We observe there is no misclassification of foot types because of incorporating foot pressure distribution data instead of only arch index (AI). We found that the mid-foot pressure distribution ratio data and arch index (AI) value are well correlated to foot arch type based on visual analysis. Therefore, this paper suggests that the proposed system is accurate and easy to determine foot arch type from arch index (AI), as well as incorporating mid-foot pressure distribution ratio data instead of physical area of contact. Hence, such computational tool based system can help the clinicians for assessment of foot structure and cross-check their diagnosis of flat foot from mid-foot pressure distribution.

Keywords: arch index, computational tool, static foot pressure intensity image, foot pressure distribution, linear discriminant analysis

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Authors: Hidefumi Kawakatsu, Dong Li, Kosuke Kato

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In Japan, meat-type chickens are mainly classified into three categories: (1) Broilers, (2) Branded chickens, and (3) Jidori (Free-range local traditional pedigree chickens). The Jidori chickens are certified by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, whilst, for the Branded chickens, there is no regulation with respect to their breed (genotype) or methods for rearing them. It is, therefore, relatively easy for poultry farmers to introduce Branded than Jidori chickens. The Branded chickens are normally fed a low-calorie diet with ingredients such as herbs, which lengthens their breeding period (compared with that of the Broilers) and increases their market value. In the field of inventory management, fast-growing animals such as broilers are categorised as ameliorating items. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous studies that have explicitly considered smaller sized poultry farmers with limited breeding areas. This study develops an inventory model for a small sized poultry farmer that produces both the Broilers (Product 1) and the Branded chickens (Product 2) with different amelioration rates. The poultry farmer’s total profit per unit of time is formulated as a function of selling prices by using a price-dependent demand function. The existence of a unique optimal selling price for each product, which maximises the total profit, established. It has also been confirmed through numerical examples that, when the breeding area is fixed, the total profit could increase if the poultry farmer reduced the product quantity of Product 1 to introduce Product 2.

Keywords: amelioration, deterioration, small sized poultry farmers, optimal price

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Authors: Chang-Jen Lan

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Current Level of Service (LOS) index adopted in Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) for signalized intersections on surface streets is based on the intersection average delay. The delay thresholds for defining LOS grades are subjective and is unrelated to critical traffic condition. For example, an intersection delay of 80 sec per vehicle for failing LOS grade F does not necessarily correspond to the intersection capacity. Also, a specific measure of average delay may result from delay minimization, delay equality, or other meaningful optimization criteria. To that end, a reliability version of the intersection critical degree of saturation (v/c) as the LOS index is introduced. Traditionally, the level of saturation at a signalized intersection is defined as the ratio of critical volume sum (per lane) to the average saturation flow (per lane) during all available effective green time within a cycle. The critical sum is the sum of the maximal conflicting movement-pair volumes in northbound-southbound and eastbound/westbound right of ways. In this study, both movement volume and saturation flow are assumed log-normal distributions. Because, when the conditions of central limit theorem obtain, multiplication of the independent, positive random variables tends to result in a log-normal distributed outcome in the limit, the critical degree of saturation is expected to be a log-normal distribution as well. Derivation of the risk index predictive limits is complex due to the maximum and absolute value operators, as well as the ratio of random variables. A fairly accurate functional form for the predictive limit at a user-specified significant level is yielded. The predictive limit is then compared with the designated LOS thresholds for the intersection critical degree of saturation (denoted as X

Keywords: reliability analysis, level of service, intersection critical degree of saturation, risk based index

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Authors: Akram Boubakri, Fethi Choubeni, Tan Hoa Vuong, Jacques David

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The control of electromagnetic waves is a key aim of several researches over the past decade. In this regard, Metamaterials have shown a strong ability to manipulate the electromagnetic waves on a subwavelength scales thanks to its unconventional properties that are not available in natural materials such as negative refraction index, super imaging and invisibility cloaking. Metalenses were used to avoid some drawbacks presented by conventional lenses since focusing with conventional lenses suffered from the limited resolution because they were only able to focus the propagating wave component. Nevertheless, Metalenses were able to go beyond the diffraction limit and enhance the resolution not only by collecting the propagating waves but also by restoring the amplitude of evanescent waves that decay rapidly when going far from the source and that contains the finest details of the image. Metasurfaces have many mechanical advantages over three-dimensional metamaterial structures especially the ease of fabrication and a smaller required volume. Those structures have been widely used for antenna performance improvement and to build flat metalenses. In this work, we showed that a well-designed metasurface lens operating at the frequency of 5.9GHz, has efficiently enhanced the radiation characteristics of a patch antenna and can be used for WLAN applications (IEEE 802.11 a). The proposed metasurface lens is built with a geometrically modified unit cells which lead to a change in the response of the lens at different position and allow the control of the wavefront beam of the incident wave thanks to the gradient refractive index.

Keywords: focusing, gradient index, metasurface, metalens, WLAN Applications

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Authors: Sanjida Ahmed Sinthia

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Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. There are several reasons for this insufficiency and uncontrolled population growth is one of the prime reasons. Others include low economic progress, imbalanced resource management, unemployment and underemployment, urban migration and natural catastrophes etc. As a result, the rate of urban poor is increasing inevitably in every sphere of urban cities in Bangladesh and Dhaka is the most affected one. Besides there is scarcity of urban land, housing, urban infrastructure and amenities which create pressure on urban cities and mostly encroach the open space, wetlands that causes environmental degradation. Government has no or limited control over these due to poor government policy and management, political pressure and lack of resource management. Unfortunately, over centralization and bureaucracy creates unnecessary delay and interruptions in any government initiations. There is also no coordination between government and private sector developer to solve the problem of urban Poor. To understand the problem of these huge populations this paper analyzes one of the single largest slum areas in Dhaka, Korail Slum. The study focuses on socio demographic analysis, morphological pattern and role of different actors responsible for the improvements of the area and recommended some possible steps for determining the potential outcomes.

Keywords: demographic analysis, environmental degradation, government policy, housing and land management policy

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Authors: Sriram Kashyap Prasad, Ionut Florescu

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This study models the intraday asset prices as driven by Markov process. This work identifies the latent states of the Hidden Markov model, using limit order book data (trades and quotes) to continuously estimate the states throughout the day. This work builds a trading strategy using estimated states to generate signals. The strategy utilizes current state to recalibrate buy/ sell levels and the transition between states to trigger stop-loss when adverse price movements occur. The proposed trading strategy is tested on the Stevens High Frequency Trading (SHIFT) platform. SHIFT is a highly realistic market simulator with functionalities for creating an artificial market simulation by deploying agents, trading strategies, distributing initial wealth, etc. In the implementation several assets on the NASDAQ exchange are used for testing. In comparison to a strategy with static buy/ sell levels, this study shows that the number of limit orders that get matched and executed can be increased. Executing limit orders earns rebates on NASDAQ. The system can capture jumps in the limit order book prices, provide dynamic buy/sell levels and trigger stop loss signals to improve the PnL (Profit and Loss) performance of the strategy.

Keywords: algorithmic trading, Hidden Markov model, high frequency trading, limit order book learning

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Authors: Titia Izzati, Pebri Hastuti, Gusti Ayu Arwati

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Based on the program of The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Republic of Indonesia, this study compares the Statistikdata of the educational factors and the number of young people to a survey conducted in the five years, 2009-2013. As a result, significant trends are traced through an era filled with events that deeply affected the lives of young people, such as the peak and the ending of the political issues. Changing values under examination include attitudes toward authority and obligations toward others; social values dealing with attitudes toward the work ethic; marriage, family, and the importance of money in defining the meaning of success; and self-fulfillment. While the largest portion of the sample contains college youth, other people between the ages of 16 and 30 are considered, including high school students, blue collar workers, housewives, and high school dropouts. The report provides an overview and interpretation of the data with the presents the research contrasting the values of the college and non-college youth. In the other hand, the youth education profile data also can be utilized in making arrange the youth development index, especially in educational dimension. In order to the formulation of this youth development index, the basic needs of youth in Indonesia have to be listed as the variables. So that, the indicators of the youth development index are really in accordance withthe actual conditions of Indonesian youth. The indicators are the average number of old-school youth, the rate of youth illiterate people, the numbers of youth who are continuing their studies or who have completed the study in college, the number of youth graduate high school/vocational or college graduates were engaged in the labor fair. The formula for the youth development index is arranged in educational dimension with all actual indicators

Keywords: education, young people, Indonesia, ministry programs, youth index development

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Authors: Dongfang Qiu, Yilin Lu

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The measurement of enterprise-university-research cooperative efficiency has important meanings in improving the cooperative efficiency, strengthening the effective integration of regional resource, enhancing the ability of regional innovation and promoting the development of regional economy. The paper constructs the DEA method and DEA-Malmquist productivity index method to research the cooperation efficiency of Hubei by making comparisons with other provinces in China. The study found out the index of technology efficiency is 0.52 and the enterprise-university- research cooperative efficiency is Non-DEA efficient. To realize the DEA efficiency of Hubei province, the amount of 1652.596 R&D employees and 638.368 R&D employees’ full time equivalence should be reduced or 137.89 billion yuan of new products’ sales income be increased. Finally, it puts forward policy recommendations on existing problems to strengthen the standings of the cooperation, realize the effective application of the research results, and improve the level of management of enterprise-university-research cooperation efficiency.

Keywords: cooperation ability, DEA method, enterprise-university-research cooperation, Malmquist efficiency index

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Authors: Ashwini Gowda K. S, Archana M. R, Anjaneyappa V

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This paper presents pavement maintenance and management system (PMMS) to obtain optimum pavement maintenance and rehabilitation strategies and maintenance scheduling for a network using a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). Optimal pavement maintenance & rehabilitation strategy is to maximize the pavement condition index of the road section in a network with minimum maintenance and rehabilitation cost during the planning period. In this paper, NSGA-II is applied to perform maintenance optimization; this maintenance approach was expected to preserve and improve the existing condition of the highway network in a cost-effective way. The proposed PMMS is applied to a network that assessed pavement based on the pavement condition index (PCI). The minimum and maximum maintenance cost for a planning period of 20 years obtained from the non-dominated solution was found to be 5.190x10¹⁰ ₹ and 4.81x10¹⁰ ₹, respectively.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, maintenance and rehabilitation, optimization technique, pavement condition index

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Authors: Ritchie Ann Dionela, Jorilyn Tabuena

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This study measured the economic empowerment of women from small-scale fisheries and agriculture sector of Sebaste, Antique. There were a total of 199 respondents selected using stratified random sampling. The Five Domains of Empowerment (5DE) Index was used in measuring the economic empowerment of study participants. Through this composite index, it was determined how women scored in the five domains of empowerment, namely production, resources, income, leadership, and time. The result of the study shows that women fishers are more economically empowered than women farmers. The two sectors showed high disparity in their scores on input in productive decision; autonomy in production; ownership of assets; control over use of income; group member; speaking in public; workload; and leisure. Group member indicator contributed largely to the disempowered population in both sectors. Although income of women farmers is higher than that of women fishers, the latter are still economically empowered which suggests that economic empowerment is not dependent on income alone. The study recommends that fisheries and agriculture organization for women should be established so that their needs and concerns will be heard and addressed. It is further recommended that government projects focused on enhancing women empowerment should also give importance on other factors such as organization and leisure and not just income to totally promote of women empowerment. Further studies on measuring women’s empowerment using other methods should be pursued to provide more information on women’s well-being.

Keywords: agriculture, composite index, fisheries, women economic empowerment

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Authors: Magdi M. E. Zumrawi, Mohamed Awad

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Determination of Resilient Modulus (M_R) is quite important for characterizing materials in pavement design and evaluation. The main focus of this study is to develop a correlation that predict the resilient modulus of subgrade soils from simple and easy measured soil index properties. To achieve this objective, three subgrade soils representing typical Khartoum soils were selected and tested in the laboratory for measuring resilient modulus. Other basic laboratory tests were conducted on the soils to determine their physical properties. Several soil samples were prepared and compacted at different moisture contents and dry densities and then tested using resilient modulus testing machine. Based on experimental results, linear relationship of M_R with the consistency factor ‘F_c’ which is a combination of dry density, void ratio and consistency index had been developed. The results revealed that very good linear relationship found between the M_R and the consistency factor with a coefficient of linearity (R²) more than 0.9. The consistency factor could be used for the prediction of the M_R of compacted subgrade soils with precise and reliable results.

Keywords: Consistency factor, resilient modulus, subgrade soil, properties

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Authors: Ibrahim Halil Korkmaz, Eren Özceylan, Cihan Çetinkaya

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Logistics function has great potential for increasing sustainable competitive advantage, profitability, productivity, customer satisfaction and decreasing costs in all sectors. The performance of logistics sector, which has such great influence on the overall performance of the economy, attracts more attention of both researchers and sector representatives day by day. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of research and development expenditures which spent by enterprises operating in the transportation and storage sectors on Turkey’s logistic performance index (LPI). To do so, research and development investment expenditure among the years 2009-2015 of Turkish transportation and storage firms data from the Turkish Statistical Institute and Turkeys country points in the World Bank logistics performance index in the same years data were examined. As the result of the parametric evaluation, it is seen that the research and development expenditures made have a positive effect on the logistic performance of Turkey.

Keywords: logistics performance index, R&D investments, transportation, storage, Turkey

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Authors: Mohammad Rahim Rahnama, Lia Shaddel

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Today, along with the development of urbanism, its negative consequences on the health of citizens are emerging. Mental disorders are common in the big cities, while mental health enables individuals to become active citizens. Meanwhile, women have a larger share of mental problems. Depression and anxiety disorders have a higher prevalence rate among women and these disorders affect the health of future generations, too. Therefore, improving women’s mental health through the potentials offered by urban spaces are of paramount importance. The present study aims to first, evaluate the spatial autocorrelation of women’s mental health and walkable spaces and then present solutions, based on the findings, to improve the walkability index. To determine the spatial distribution of women’s mental health in Mashhad, Moran's I was used and 1000 questionnaire were handed out in various sub-districts of Mashhad. Moran's I was calculated to be 0.18 which indicates a cluster distribution pattern. The walkability index was calculated using the four variables pertaining to the length of walkable routes, mixed land use, retail floor area ratio, and household density. To determine spatial autocorrelation of mental health and the walkability index, bivariate Moran’s I was calculated. Moran's I was determined to be 0.37 which shows a direct spatial relationship between variables; 4 clusters in 9 sub-districts of Mashhad were created. In High-Low cluster, there was a negative spatial relationship and hence, to identify factors affecting walkability in urban spaces semi-structures interviews were conducted with 21 women in this cluster. The findings revealed that security is the major factor influencing women’s walking behavior in this cluster. In accordance with the findings, some suggestions are offered to improve the presence of women in this sub-district.

Keywords: Mashhad, spatial autocorrelation, women’s mental health, walkability index

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Authors: Shagufta Tazin Shathy, Mohammad Imam Hasan Reza

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Fragmentation due to urbanization and agricultural expansion has become the main reason for destruction of forest area and loss of biodiversity particularly in the developing world. At present, the world is experiencing the largest wave of urban growth in human history, and it is estimated that this influx will be mainly taking place in developing world. Therefore, study on urban fragmentation is vital for a sustainable urban development. Landscape fragmentation is one of the most important conservation issues in the last few decades. Habitat fragmentation due to landscape alteration has caused habitat isolation, destruction in ecosystem pattern and processes. Thus, this research analyses the spatial and temporal extent of urban fragmentation using landscape indices in the Kuala Lumpur (KL) – the capital and most populous city in Malaysia. The objective of this study is to examine the urban fragmentation index in KL city. Fragmentation metrics used in the study are: a) Urban landscape ratio (the ratio of urban landscape area and build up area), b) Infill (development that occurred within urbanized open space), and c) Extension (development of exterior open space). After analyzing all three metrics, these are calculated for the combined urban fragmentation index (UFI). In this combined index, all three metrics are given an equal weight. Land cover/ land use maps of the year 1996 and 2005 have been developed from the Landsat TM 30 m resolution satellite image. The year 1996 is taken as a reference year to analyze the changes. The UFI calculated for the year of 1996 and2005 found that the KL city has undergone rapid landscape changes destructing forest ecosystem adversely. Increasing UFI for the year of 1996 compared to 2005 indicates that the developmental activities have been occupying open spaces and fragmenting natural lands and forest. This index can be implemented in other unplanned and rapidly urbanizing Asian cities for example Dhaka and Delhi to calculate the urban fragmentation rate. The findings from the study will help the stakeholders and urban planners for a sustainable urban management planning in this region.

Keywords: GIS, index, sustainable urban management, urbanization

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Authors: A. G. Back

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Urban planning is a relevant tool to address, in a systemic way, several sectoral policies capable of linking the urban agenda with the reduction of socio-environmental risks. The Sao Paulo’s master plan (2014) presents innovations capable of promoting the transition to sustainability in the urban space, with a view to its regulatory instruments related to i) promotion of density in the axes of mass transport involving the mixture of commercial, residential, services, and leisure uses (principles related to the compact city); ii) vulnerabilities reduction based on housing policies including regular sources of funds for social housing and land reservation in urbanized areas; iii) reserve of green areas in the city to create parks and environmental regulations for new buildings focused on reducing the effects of heat island and improving urban drainage. However, its long-term implementation involves distributive conflicts and can undergo changes in different political, economic, and social contexts over time. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to identify and analyze the dynamics of conflicts of interest between social groups in the implementation of Sao Paulo’s urban development policy, particularly in relation to recent attempts at a (re) interpretation of the Master Plan guidelines, in view of the proposals for revision of the urban zoning law. In this sense, we seek to identify the demands, narratives of urban actors, including the real estate market, middle-class neighborhood associations ('not in my backyard' movements), and social housing rights movements. And we seek to analyze the power resources that these actors mobilize to influence the decision-making process, involving five categories: social capital, political access; discursive resource; media, juridical resource. The major findings of this research suggest that the interests and demands of the real estate market do not always prevail in urban regulation. After all, other actors also press for the definition of urban law with interests opposite to those of the real estate market. This is the case of associations of middle-class neighborhoods, which work to protect the characteristics of the locality, acting, in general, to prevent constructive and population densification in neighborhoods well located near the center, in São Paulo. One of the main demands of these “not in my backyard” movements is the delimitation of exclusively residential areas in the central region of the city, which is not only contrary to the interests of the real state market but also contrary to the principles of the compact city. On the other hand, social housing rights movements have also made progress in delimiting special areas of social interest in well-located and valued areas in the city dedicated to building social housing, also contrary to the interests of the real estate market. An urban development that follows the principles of the compact city must take into account the insertion of low-income populations in well-located regions; otherwise, such a development model may continue to push the less favored to the peripheries towards the preservation areas and/or risk areas.

Keywords: interest groups, Sao Paulo, sustainable urban development, urban policies implementation

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Authors: Fajana Sola Isaac

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In the last two decades, we have witnessed an increased interest in exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) in developing economies and emerging markets. This is perhaps due to the acknowledged significance of the pattern of exchange rate pass-through as a key instrument in monetary policy design, principally in retort to a shock in exchange rate in literature. This paper analyzed Exchange Rate Pass-Through by A Model of Oil Prices and Asymmetric Exchange Rate Fluctuations in Selected African Countries. The study adopted A Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach using yearly data on Algeria, Burundi, Nigeria and South Africa from 1986 to 2022. The paper found asymmetry in exchange rate pass-through in net oil-importing and net oil-exporting countries in the short run during the period under review. An ERPT exhibited a complete pass-through in the short run in the case of net oil-importing countries but an incomplete pass-through in the case of the net oil-exporting countries that were examined. An extended result revealed a significant impact of oil price shock on exchange rate pass-through to domestic price in the long run only for net oil importing countries. The Wald restriction test also confirms the evidence of asymmetric with the role of oil price acting as an accelerator to exchange rate pass-through to domestic price in the countries examined. The study found the outcome to be very useful for gaining expansive knowledge on the external shock impact on ERPT and could be of critical value for national monetary policy decisions on inflation targeting, especially for countries examined and other developing net oil importers and exporters.

Keywords: pass through, exchange rate, ARDL, monetary policy

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Authors: Huseyi̇n Das, Bülent Tarim, Sunay Demi̇r, Nurçi̇n Küçükkent, Sevi̇l Cengi̇z, Engi̇n Tülek, Veci̇hi̇ Aksakal

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Atak-S laying hens are a high-performance strain obtained by crossing of the Rhode Island Red (RIR) X the Barred Plymouth Rock (BR) and are being produced in the Ankara Poultry Research Institute since 1997. Phenotypic and genetic improving studies are continued for this strain. In this study, 2 from IGF and 1 from IGFBP2, totally 3 different SNP polymorphisms were examined in 200 Atak-S chickens. Genotypes of SNPs were compared using ANOVA to body weight and egg number thorough 32 weeks of age, body weight at sexual maturity, age at sexual maturity and also egg quality traits such as egg shell breaking strength, shell thickness, Haugh unit, albumen index, yolk index, shape index. Only IGF(a) locus was in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, while, the other loci were not. As a result of the performance comparisons to the 3 SNP loci, it was determined that there has a significant association (P<0.05) between only TC genotypes of the IGF(b) locus and body weight at 32 weeks of age, but there was not any association to the other traits.

Keywords: Atak-S, Igf, Igfbp2, single nucleotide polymorphism

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Authors: Ilknur Tuncer, Nihayet Bizsel

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The studies in bacterial diversity and antimicrobial resistance in coastal areas are important to understand the variability in the community structures and metabolic activities. In the present study, antimicrobial susceptibility and phylogenetic analysis of bacteria isolated from stations with different depths and influenced by terrestrial and marine fluxes in eastern Aegean Sea were illustrated. 51% of the isolates were found as resistant and 14% showed high MAR index indicating the high-risk sources of contamination in the environment. The resistance and the intermediate levels and high MAR index of the study area were 38–60%, 11–38% and 0–40%, respectively. According to 16S rRNA gene analysis, it was found that the isolates belonged to two phyla Firmicutes and Gammaproteobacteria with the genera Bacillus, Halomonas, Oceanobacillus, Photobacterium, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychrobacter, and Vibrio. 47% of Bacillus strains which were dominant among all isolates were resistant. In addition to phylogenetically diverse bacteria, the variability in resistance, intermediate and high MAR index levels of the study area indicated the effect of geographical differences.

Keywords: bacterial diversity, multiple antibiotic resistance, 16S rRNA genes, Aegean Sea

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Authors: Pratap Chandra Pati, Prabina Rajib, Parama Barai

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The traditional finance theory neglects the role of sentiment factor in asset pricing. However, the behavioral approach to asset-pricing based on noise trader model and limit to arbitrage includes investor sentiment as a priced risk factor in the assist pricing model. Investor sentiment affects stock more that are vulnerable to speculation, hard to value and risky to arbitrage. It includes small stocks, high volatility stocks, growth stocks, distressed stocks, young stocks and non-dividend-paying stocks. Since the introduction of Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) volatility index (VIX) in 1993, it is used as a measure of future volatility in the stock market and also as a measure of investor sentiment. CBOE VIX index, in particular, is often referred to as the ‘investors’ fear gauge’ by public media and prior literature. The upward spikes in the volatility index are associated with bouts of market turmoil and uncertainty. High levels of the volatility index indicate fear, anxiety and pessimistic expectations of investors about the stock market. On the contrary, low levels of the volatility index reflect confident and optimistic attitude of investors. Based on the above discussions, we investigate whether market-wide fear levels measured volatility index is priced factor in the standard asset pricing model for the Indian stock market. First, we investigate the performance and validity of Fama and French three-factor model and Carhart four-factor model in the Indian stock market. Second, we explore whether India volatility index as a proxy for fearful market-based sentiment indicators affect the cross section of stock returns after controlling for well-established risk factors such as market excess return, size, book-to-market, and momentum. Asset pricing tests are performed using monthly data on CNX 500 index constituent stocks listed on the National stock exchange of India Limited (NSE) over the sample period that extends from January 2008 to March 2017. To examine whether India volatility index, as an indicator of fear sentiment, is a priced risk factor, changes in India VIX is included as an explanatory variable in the Fama-French three-factor model as well as Carhart four-factor model. For the empirical testing, we use three different sets of test portfolios used as the dependent variable in the in asset pricing regressions. The first portfolio set is the 4x4 sorts on the size and B/M ratio. The second portfolio set is the 4x4 sort on the size and sensitivity beta of change in IVIX. The third portfolio set is the 2x3x2 independent triple-sorting on size, B/M and sensitivity beta of change in IVIX. We find evidence that size, value and momentum factors continue to exist in Indian stock market. However, VIX index does not constitute a priced risk factor in the cross-section of returns. The inseparability of volatility and jump risk in the VIX is a possible explanation of the current findings in the study.

Keywords: India VIX, Fama-French model, Carhart four-factor model, asset pricing

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Authors: Faustina Masocha, Vusani Moyo

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For decades, dividend announcements have been presumed to contain important signals about the future prospects of companies. Similarly, the same has been presumed about management earnings announcements. Despite both dividend and earnings announcements being considered informative, a number of researchers questioned their credibility and found both to contain short-term signals. Pertaining to dividend announcements, some authors argued that although they might contain important information that can result in changes in share prices, which consequently results in the accumulation of abnormal returns, their degree of informativeness is less compared to other signaling tools such as earnings announcements. Yet, this claim in favor has been refuted by other researchers who found the effect of earnings to be transitory and of little value to shareholders as indicated by the little abnormal returns earned during the period surrounding earnings announcements. Considering the above, it is apparent that both dividends and earnings have been hypothesized to have a signaling impact. This prompts one to question which between these two signaling tools is more informative. To answer this question, two follow-up questions were asked. The first question sought to determine the event which results in the most effect on share prices, while the second question focused on the event that influenced trading volume the most. To answer the first question and evaluate the effect that each of these events had on share prices, an event study methodology was employed on a sample made up of the top 10 JSE-listed companies for data collected from 2012 to 2019 to determine if shareholders gained abnormal returns (ARs) during announcement dates. The event that resulted in the most persistent and highest amount of ARs was considered to be more informative. Looking at the second follow-up question, an investigation was conducted to determine if either dividends or earnings announcements influenced trading patterns, resulting in abnormal trading volumes (ATV) around announcement time. The event that resulted in the most ATV was considered more informative. Using an estimation period of 20 days and an event window of 21 days, and hypothesis testing, it was found that announcements pertaining to the increase of earnings resulted in the most ARs, Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) and had a lasting effect in comparison to dividend announcements whose effect lasted until day +3. This solidifies some empirical arguments that the signaling effect of dividends has become diminishing. It was also found that when reported earnings declined in comparison to the previous period, there was an increase in trading volume, resulting in ATV. Although dividend announcements did result in abnormal returns, they were lesser than those acquired during earnings announcements which refutes a number of theoretical and empirical arguments that found dividends to be more informative than earnings announcements.

Keywords: dividend signaling, event study methodology, information content of earnings, signaling theory

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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A growing list of cancers might be influenced by obesity. Obesity is associated with an increased risk for the occurrence and development of some cancers. Inflammation can lead to cancer. It is one of the characteristic features of cancer and plays a critical role in cancer development. C-reactive protein (CRP) is under evaluation related to the new and simple prognostic factors in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer. Obesity can predict and promote systemic inflammation in healthy adults. BMI is correlated with hs-CRP. In this study, SII index and CRP values were evaluated in children with normal BMI and those within the range of different obesity grades to detect the tendency towards cancer in pediatric obesity. A total of one hundred and ninety-four children; thirty-five children with normal BMI, twenty overweight (OW), forty-seven obese (OB) and ninety-two morbid obese (MO) participated in the study. Age- and sex-matched groups were constituted using BMI-for age percentiles. Informed consent was obtained. Ethical Committee approval was taken. Weight, height, waist circumference (C), hip C, head C and neck C of the children were measured. The complete blood count test was performed. C-reactive protein analysis was performed. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS. The degree for statistical significance was p≤0.05. SII index values were progressively increasing starting from normal weight (NW) to MO children. There is a statistically significant difference between NW and OB as well as MO children. No significant difference was observed between NW and OW children, however, a correlation was observed between NW and OW children. MO constitutes the only group, which exhibited a statistically significant correlation between SII index and CRP. Obesity-related bladder, kidney, cervical, liver, colorectal, endometrial cancers are still being investigated. Obesity, characterized as a chronic low-grade inflammation, is a crucial risk factor for colon cancer. Elevated childhood BMI values may be indicative of processes leading to cancer, initiated early in life. Prevention of childhood adiposity may decrease the cancer incidence in adults. To authors’ best knowledge, this study is the first to introduce SII index values during obesity of varying degrees of severity. It is suggested that this index seems to affect all stages of obesity with an increasing tendency and may point out the concomitant status of obesity and cancer starting from very early periods of life.

Keywords: children, C-reactive protein, systemic immune-inflammation index, obesity

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Authors: Javier Fernandez, Mayte Medina, Rafael Fernandez de Canete, Nuria Alcain, Juan Carlos Ramos-Diaz

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At present, the experimentation of anesthetic drugs on patients requires a regulation protocol, and the response of each patient to several doses of entry drug must be well known. Therefore, the development of pharmacological dose control systems is a promising field of research in anesthesiology. In this paper, it has been developed a non-linear compartmental the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamical model which describes the anesthesia depth effect in a sufficiently reliable way over a set of patients with the depth effect quantified by the Bi-Spectral Index. Afterwards, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) predictive controller has been designed based on the depth of anesthesia model so as to keep the patient in the optimum condition while he undergoes surgical treatment. For the purpose of quantifying the efficiency of the neural predictive controller, a classical proportional-integral-derivative controller has also been developed to compare both strategies. Results show the superior performance of predictive neural controller during BiSpectral Index reference tracking.

Keywords: anesthesia, bi-spectral index, neural network control, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamical model

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