Search results for: sandwich infill panel

Authors: Negar Miri-Lavasani

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Background: Children with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show fine motor skills difficulties, and it is controversial whether this difficulty is based on problems in their fine motor skills or their executive function impairments. Objectives of Study: The Fine Motor and Executive Function assessment tool (FiM&EF) was developed to answer the question, ‘Do the fine motor skill deficits in children with ADHD come from their fine motor problems or is it caused by their executive function problems?’. This paper describes the development of a new assessment of Fine Motor and Executive Function (FiM &EF) needed by primary school students with ADHD aged 6-12 years with ADHD. Methods: A study on the content validity established through a survey of a panel of nine experts is explained in detail. Findings: Most the experts agreed such an assessment was needed and two items were deleted as a result of experts’ feedback. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Distinguishing the main reason of fine motor problem in these children could help the clinician for their therapy plans. Knowledge on the influence of executive functioning on fine motor ability in selected age children with ADHD would provide a clearer clinical picture of the fine motor capabilities and executive function for these children.

Keywords: children with ADHD, executive function, fine motor, test

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Authors: Oladapo Tolulope Ibitoye

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It has become imperative to harmonize energy poverty alleviation and carbon footprint reduction. This is geared towards embracing independent power generation at local levels to reduce the popular ambiguity in the transmission of generated power. Also, it will contribute towards the total adoption of electric vehicles and direct current (DC) appliances that are currently flooding the global market. Solar power system is gaining momentum as it is now an affordable and less complex alternative to fossil fuel-based power generation. Although, there are many issues associated with solar power system, which resulted in deprivation of optimum working capacity. One of the key problems is inadequate monitoring of the energy pool from solar irradiance, which can then serve as a foundation for informed energy usage decisions and appropriate solar system control for effective energy pooling. The proposed technique utilized Internet of Things (IoT) in developing a system to automate solar irradiance pooling by controlling solar photovoltaic panels autonomously for optimal usage. The technique is potent with better solar irradiance exposure which results into 30% voltage pooling capacity than a system with static solar panels. The evaluation of the system show that the developed system possesses higher voltage pooling capacity than a system of static positioning of solar panel.

Keywords: solar system, internet of things, renewable energy, power monitoring

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Authors: Natalia Strobel, Jan Kratzer

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In this paper, we test whether different types of research and development (R&D) alliances positively impact the radical innovation performance of firms. We differentiate between the R&D alliances without extern R&D orders and embeddedness in knowledge source network. We test the differences between the domestically diversified R&D alliances and R&D alliances diversified abroad. Moreover, we test how non-price competition influences the impact of domestically diversified R&D alliances, and R&D alliance diversified abroad on radical innovation performance. Our empirical analysis is based on the comprehensive Swiss innovation panel, which allowed us to study 3520 firms between the years between 1996 and 2011 in 3 years intervals. We analyzed the data with a linear estimation with Swamy-Aurora transformation using plm package in R software. Our results show as hypothesized a positive impact of R&D alliances diversity abroad as well as domestically on radical innovation performance. The effect of non-price interaction is in contrast to our hypothesis, not significant. This suggests that diversity of R&D alliances is highly advantageous independent of non-price competition.

Keywords: R&D alliances, partner diversity, knowledge source diversity, non-price competition, absorptive capacity

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Authors: Salim Khan

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The attainment of the carbon neutrality objective and Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG-13) target, which pertains to climate actions, received widespread attention in developing and emerging nations. Given the increasing pace of urbanization, technological advancements, and rapid growth, it is imperative to examine the linear and nonlinear effects of urbanization and economic growth and the linear impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on carbon emissions (CO2e). This study employs the Dynamic System GMM (DSGMM) and Panel Quantile Regression (PQR) methodologies to investigate the causal relationship between urbanization, ICT, economic growth, and their interplay on CO2e in 39 BRI countries from 2001 to 2020. The study's findings indicate that the impact of urbanization on CO2e exhibits linear and nonlinear patterns. The specific nonlinear impact of urbanization leads to a decrease in CO2e, hence facilitating the achievement of carbon neutrality and contributing to SDG-13. The study highlights the importance of ICT in achieving SDG-13 by reducing CO2e, emphasizing the need for informatization. Simultaneously, the findings support the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and support the pollution haven theory. Finally, based on empirical findings, significant policy implications are suggested for achieving SGD 13 and carbon neutrality.

Keywords: urbanization, ICT, CO2 emission, EKC, pollution haven, BRI

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Authors: Hai Chi, Ibrahim Mehmeti, Kirill Ovchinnikov, Hegle Holo, Ingolf F. Nes, Dzung B. Diep

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By using a panel of multiple indicator strains of different bacterial species and genera, we screened a large collection of bacterial isolates (over 1800 isolates) derived from raw milk, for bacteriocin producers with broad inhibition spectra (BIS). Fourteen isolates with BIS were identified, and by 16S rDNA sequencing they were found to belong to Lactococcus garvieae (10 isolates) and Enterococcus feacalis (4 isolates). Further analysis of the ten L. garvieae isolates revealed that they were very similar, if not identical, to each other in metabolic and genetic terms: they had the same fermentation profile on different types of sugars, repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) DNA pattern as well as they all had the same inhibition profile towards over 50 isolates of different species. The bacteriocin activity from one of the L. garvieae isolates was assessed further. The bacteriocin which was termed garvicin KS, was found to be heatstable and proteinase-labile and its inhibition spectrum contained many distantly related genera of Firmicutes, comprising most lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as well as problematic species of Bacillus, Listeria, Streptococcus and Staphylococcus and their antibiotic resistant derivatives (e.g. VRE, MRSA). Taken together, the results indicate that this is a potent bacteriocin from L. garvieae and that its very broad inhibition spectrum can be a very useful property for use in food preservation as well as in infection treatments caused by gram-positive pathogens and their antibiotic-derivatives.

Keywords: bacteriocin, lactic acid bacteria, Lactococcus garvieae, antibiotics resistance

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Authors: Okwan Frank

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Maternal health outcome is one of the major population development challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. The region has the highest maternal mortality ratio, despite the progressive economic growth in the region during the global economic crisis. It has been hypothesized that increase in economic growth will reduce the level of maternal mortality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the existence of the negative relationship between health outcome proxy by maternal mortality ratio and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study used the Pooled Mean Group estimator of ARDL Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the Kao test for cointegration to examine the short-run and long-run relationship between maternal mortality and economic growth. The results of the cointegration test showed the existence of a long-run relationship between the variables considered for the study. The long-run result of the Pooled Mean group estimates confirmed the hypothesis of an inverse relationship between maternal health outcome proxy by maternal mortality ratio and economic growth proxy by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Thus increasing economic growth by investing in the health care systems to reduce pregnancy and childbirth complications will help reduce maternal mortality in the sub-region.

Keywords: economic growth, maternal mortality, pool mean group, Sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: M. Merabet-Khelassi, Z. Houiene, L. Aribi-Zouioueche, O. Riant

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Lipases (EC.3.1.1.3) are efficient biotools widely used for their remarkable chemo-, regio- and enantio-selectivity, especially, in kinetic resolution of racemates. They offer access to a large panel of enantiopure building blocks, such as secondary benzylic alcohols, commonly used as synthetic intermediates in pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Due to the stability of lipases in both water and organic solvents poor in water, they are able to catalyze both transesterifications of arylalkylcarbinols and hydrolysis of their corresponding acetates. The use of enzymatic hydrolysis in aqueous media still limited. In this presentation, we expose a practical methodology for the preparation of optically enriched acetates using a Candida antarctica lipase B-catalyzed hydrolysis in non-aqueous media in the presence of alkaline carbonate salts. The influence of several parameters which can intervene on the enzymatic efficiency such as the impact of the introduction of the carbonates salts, its amount and the nature of the alkaline earth metal are discussed. The obtained results show that the use of sodium carbonate with CAL-B enhances drastically both reactivity and selectivity of this immobilized lipase. In all cases, the resulting alcohols and remaining acetates are obtained in high ee values (up to > 99 %), and the selectivities reach (E > 500).

Keywords: alkaline-hydrolysis, enzymatic kinetic resolution, lipases, arylalkylcarbinol, non-aqueous media

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Authors: Lisa J. Piergallini

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This project uses panel regression analyses to investigate the relationships between geography, institutions, and economic development, as guided by the theories of the 18^th century French philosopher Montesquieu. Contemporary scholars of political economy perpetually misinterpret Montesquieu’s theories on climate, and in doing so they miss what could be the key to resolving the geography vs. institutions debate. There is a conspicuous gap in this literature, in that it does not consider whether geography and institutors might have an interactive, dynamic effect on economic development. This project seeks to bridge that gap. Data are used for all available countries over the years 1980-2013. Two interaction terms between geographic and institutional variables are employed within the empirical analyses, and these offer a unique contribution to the ongoing geography vs. institutions debate within the political economy literature. This study finds that there is indeed an interactive effect between geography and institutions, and that this interaction has a statistically significant effect on economic development. Democracy (as measured by Polity score) and rule of law and property rights (as measured by the Fraser index) have positive effects on economic development (as measured by GDP per capita), yet the magnitude of these effects are stronger in contexts where a low percent of the national population lives in the geographical tropics. This has implications for promoting economic development, and it highlights the importance of understanding geographical context.

Keywords: Montesquieu, institutions, geography, economic development, political philosophy, political economy

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Authors: Ebru Turgal, Beyza Doganay Erdogan

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Machine learning aims to model the relationship between the response and features. Medical decision-making researchers would like to make decisions about patients’ course and treatment, by examining the repeated measurements over time. Boosting approach is now being used in machine learning area for these aims as an influential tool. The aim of this study is to show the usage of multivariate tree boosting in this field. The main reason for utilizing this approach in the field of decision-making is the ease solutions of complex relationships. To show how multivariate tree boosting method can be used to identify important features and feature-time interaction, we used the data, which was collected retrospectively from Ankara University Chest Diseases Department records. Dataset includes repeated PF ratio measurements. The follow-up time is planned for 120 hours. A set of different models is tested. In conclusion, main idea of classification with weighed combination of classifiers is a reliable method which was shown with simulations several times. Furthermore, time varying variables will be taken into consideration within this concept and it could be possible to make accurate decisions about regression and survival problems.

Keywords: boosted multivariate trees, longitudinal data, multivariate regression tree, panel data

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Authors: Shehu Usman Hassan

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Published accounting information in financial statements are required to provide various users - shareholders, employees, suppliers, creditors, financial analysts, stockbrokers and government agencies – with timely and reliable information useful for making prudent, effective and efficient decisions. The widespread failure in the financial information quality has created the need to improve the financial information quality and to strengthen the control of managers by setting up good firms structures. This paper investigates firm attributes from perspective of structure, monitoring, performance elements of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study adopted correlational research design with balanced panel data of 14 banks as sample of the study using multiple regression as a tool of analysis. The result reveals that firms attributes (leverage, profitability, liquidity, bank size and bank growth) has as significant influence on earnings quality of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria after the adoption of IFRS, while the pre period shows that the selected firm attributes has no significant impact on earnings quality. It is therefore concluded that the adoption of IFRS is right and timely.

Keywords: earnings quality, firm attributes, listed deposit money bank, Nigeria

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Authors: Ahmed Sameer El Khatib

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The aim of the present paper is to examine the revenue efficiency of the Indonesian Islamic banking sector. The study also seeks to investigate the potential internal (bank specific) and external (macroeconomic) determinants that influence the revenue efficiency of Indonesian domestic Islamic banks. We employ the whole gamut of domestic and foreign Islamic banks operating in the Indonesian Islamic banking sector during the period of 2009 to 2018. The level of revenue efficiency is computed by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. Furthermore, we employ a panel regression analysis framework based on the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method to examine the potential determinants of revenue efficiency. The results indicate that the level of revenue efficiency of Indonesian domestic Islamic banks is lower compared to their foreign Islamic bank counterparts. We find that bank market power, liquidity, and management quality significantly influence the improvement in revenue efficiency of the Indonesian domestic Islamic banks during the period under study. By calculating these efficiency concepts, we can observe the efficiency levels of the domestic and foreign Islamic banks. In addition, by comparing both cost and profit efficiency, we can identify the influence of the revenue efficiency on the banks’ profitability.

Keywords: Islamic Finance, Islamic Banks, Revenue Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis

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Authors: F. Nejati, Sh. Dokhani

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Bitterness is a flavor defect encountered in some cheeses, such as Iranian white brined cheese and is responsible for reducing acceptability of the cheeses. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of an adjunct culture on removal of bitterness fro, Iranian white-brined cheese. The chemical and proteolysis characteristics of the cheese were also monitored. Bitter cheeses were made using overdose of clotting enzyme with and without L. helveticus CH-1 as an adjunct culture. Cheese made with normal doses of clotting enzyme was used as the control. Adjunct culture was applied in two different forms: attenuated and non-attenuated. Proteolysis was assessed by measuring the amount of water soluble nitrogen, 12% trichloroacetic acid soluble nitrogen and total free amino acids during ripening. A taste panel group also evaluated the cheeses at the end of ripening period. Results of the statistical analysis showed that the adjunct caused considerable proteolysis and the level of water soluble nitrogen and 12% soluble nitrogen fractions were found to be significantly higher in the treatment involving L. helveticus (respectively P < 0.05 and P < 0.01). Regarding to organoleptic evaluations, the non-shocked adjunct culture caused reduction in bitterness and enhancement of flavor in cheese.

Keywords: bitterness, Iranian white brined cheese, Lactobacillus helveticus, ripening

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Authors: Fatemeh Nejati, Shahram Dokhani

Abstract:

Bitterness is a flavor defect encountered in some cheeses, such as Iranian white brined cheese and is responsible for reducing acceptability of the cheeses. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of an adjunct culture on removal of bitterness fro, Iranian white-brined cheese. The chemical and proteolysis characteristics of the cheese were also monitored. Bitter cheeses were made using overdose of clotting enzyme with and without L. helveticus CH-1 as an adjunct culture. Cheese made with normal doses of clotting enzyme was used as the control. Adjunct culture was applied in two different forms: attenuated and non-attenuated. Proteolysis was assessed by measuring the amount of water soluble nitrogen, 12% trichloroacetic acid soluble nitrogen and total free amino acids during ripening. A taste panel group also evaluated the cheeses at the end of ripening period. Results of the statistical analysis showed that the adjunct caused considerable proteolysis and the level of water soluble nitrogen and 12% soluble nitrogen fractions were found to be significantly higher in the treatment involving L. helveticus (respectively P < 0.05 and P < 0.01). Regarding to organoleptic evaluations, the non-shocked adjunct culture caused reduction in bitterness and enhancement of flavor in cheese.

Keywords: Bitterness, Iranian white brined Cheese, Lactobacillus helveticus, Ripening

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Authors: V. Howard, R. Maguire, S. Corrigan

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Background: Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease, typically diagnosed in childhood. T1D puts an enormous strain on families; controlling blood-glucose in children is difficult and the consequences of poor control for patient health are significant. Successful illness management and better health outcomes can be dependent on quality of caregiving. On diagnosis, parent-caregivers face a steep learning curve as T1D care requires a significant level of knowledge to inform complex decision making throughout the day. The majority of illness management is carried out in the home setting, independent of clinical health providers. Parent-caregivers vary in their level of knowledge and their level of engagement in applying this knowledge in the practice of illness management. Enabling researchers to quantify these aspects of the caregiver experience is key to identifying targets for psychosocial support interventions, which are desirable for reducing stress and anxiety in this highly burdened cohort, and supporting better health outcomes in children. Currently, there are limited tools available that are designed to capture this information. Where tools do exist, they are not comprehensive and do not adequately capture the lived experience. Objectives: Development of quantitative tools, informed by lived experience, to enable researchers gather data on parent-caregiver knowledge and engagement, which accurately represents the experience/cohort and enables exploration of questions that are of real-world value to the cohort themselves. Methods: This research employed an engaged approach to address the problem of quantifying two key aspects of caregiver diabetes management: Knowledge and engagement. The research process was multi-staged and iterative. Stage 1: Working from a constructivist standpoint, literature was reviewed to identify relevant questionnaires, scales and single-item measures of T1D caregiver knowledge and engagement, and harvest candidate questionnaire items. Stage 2: Aggregated findings from the review were circulated among a PPI (patient and public involvement) expert panel of caregivers (n=6), for discussion and feedback. Stage 3: In collaboration with the expert panel, data were interpreted through the lens of lived experience to create a long-list of candidate items for novel questionnaires. Items were categorized as either ‘knowledge’ or ‘engagement’. Stage 4: A Delphi-method process (iterative surveys) was used to prioritize question items and generate novel questions that further captured the lived experience. Stage 5: Both questionnaires were piloted to refine wording of text to increase accessibility and limit socially desirable responding. Stage 6: Tools were piloted using an online survey that was deployed using an online peer-support group for caregivers for Juveniles with T1D. Ongoing Research: 123 parent-caregivers completed the survey. Data analysis is ongoing to establish face and content validity qualitatively and through exploratory factor analysis. Reliability will be established using an alternative-form method and Cronbach’s alpha will assess internal consistency. Work will be completed by early 2024. Conclusion: These tools will enable researchers to gain deeper insights into caregiving practices among parents of juveniles with T1D. Development was driven by lived experience, illustrating the value of engaged research at all levels of the research process.

Keywords: caregiving, engaged research, juvenile type 1 diabetes, quantified engagement and knowledge

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Authors: Tang Wei, Yang Xiaofeng, Gui Yewei, Du Yanxia

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Complex lifting entry was selected for precise landing performance during the Mars Science Laboratory entry. This study aims to develop the three-dimensional numerical method for precise computation and the surface panel method for rapid engineering prediction. Detailed flow field analysis for Mars exploration mission was performed by carrying on a series of fully three-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations. The static aerodynamic performance was then discussed, including the surface pressure, lift and drag coefficient, lift-to-drag ratio with the numerical and engineering method. Computation results shown that the shock layer is thin because of lower effective specific heat ratio, and that calculated results from both methods agree well with each other, and is consistent with the reference data. Aerodynamic performance analysis shows that CG location determines trim characteristics and pitch stability, and certain radially and axially shift of the CG location can alter the capsule lifting entry performance, which is of vital significance for the aerodynamic configuration des0ign and inner instrument layout of the Mars entry capsule.

Keywords: Mars entry capsule, static aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, hypersonic

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Authors: Nyoman Wijana, Chandra Arha

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Disclosures of Intellectual Capital (IC) is a presentation of corporate information assets that are not recorded in the financial statements. This disclosures is very helpful because it provides inform corporate assets are intangible. In the new economic era, the company's intangible assets will determine company's competitive advantage. This study aimed to examine the effect of IC disclosures on market capitalization growth. Observational studies conducted over ten years in 2002-2011. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect for last ten years. One hundred samples of the company's largest market capitalization in 2011 traced back to last ten years. Data that used, are in 2011, 2008, 2005, and 2002 Method that’s used for acquiring the data is content analysis. The analytical method used is Ordinanary Least Square (OLS) and analysis tools are e views 7 This software using Pooled Least Square estimation parameters are specifically designed for panel data. The results of testing analysis showed inconsistent expression levels affect the growth of the market capitalization in each year of observation. The results of this study are expected to motivate the public company in Indonesia to do more voluntary IC disclosures and encourage regulators to make regulations in a comprehensive manner so that all categories of the IC must be disclosed by the company.

Keywords: IC disclosures, market capitalization growth, analytical method, OLS

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Authors: M. T. Becerra-Traver, M. Montanero, R. Alejo, A. Antúnez, P. Cañamero, M. J. Fernández, M. Gómez, A. L. Medialdea, J. D. Martínez, A. M. Piquer-Píriz, M. J. Rabazo

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The introduction of new subjects at university level, brought about with the implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), has meant changes for students and lecturers that, in the case of the latter, have also revealed a need for further training. In our context, one of the main changes has been the introduction of Undergraduate Thesis Projects (UTPs) in the degrees taught in our faculty: Pre-Primary and Primary Education. The aim of this paper is to analyze UTPs and to provide some suggestions that can help both students and lecturers in the process. UTPs complete the university training cycle of the Degree Studies and entail the elaboration of a written piece of work, supervised by a professor and presented to a panel in order to ensure that students acquire the required competences of these Degrees to develop an autonomous, responsible and comprehensive activity. In addition, UTPs develop students’ abilities for oral presentations and to defend and argue their own ideas. One of the first difficulties in the supervision of UTPs is that most of the students do not know how to write an academic text. To solve this problem, we propose a three-phase model based on planning, textualization and review. The implementation of this model has enabled us to see a successful evolution in the correct development of the academic dissertations that students submit at the end their degrees.

Keywords: academic task, student, tutoring, university

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Authors: Luqman Afolabi

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This paper measures the impacts of trade and institutions on environmental quality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To examine the direction and the magnitude of the effects, the study employs the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation technique on the panel data obtained from the World Bank’s World Development and Governance Indicators, between 1996 and 2018. The empirical estimates validate the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC) for the region, even though there have been inconclusive results on the environment – growth nexus. Similarly, a positive coefficient is obtained on the impact of trade on the environment, while the impact of the institutional indicators produce mixed results. A significant policy implication is that the governments of the SSA countries pursue policies that tend to increase economic growth, so that pollutants may be reduced. Such policies may include the provision of incentives for sustainable growth-driven industries in the region. In addition, the governance infrastructures should be improved in such a way that appropriate penalties are imposed on the pollutants, while advanced technologies that have the potentials to reduce environmental degradation should be encouraged. Finally, it is imperative from these findings that the governments of the region should promote their trade relations and the competitiveness of their local industries in order to keep pace with the global markets.

Keywords: environmental quality, institutional quality sustainable development goals, trade

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Authors: Sennanda Musa, Ahmed Mutunzi Kitunzi, Gerald Kasigwa, Ismail Kintu

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This paper is an analysis of the empirical relationship between project financing by Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the poverty trends in the context of countries benefiting from IsDB. Specifically, the study seeks to find out whether there is a statistically significant relationship between the project financing dollar amounts by IsDB (PF) and the GNI Per Capita, PPP of 57 countries for the years 2002 to 2021. The research is a longitudinal, desk-top triangulation of correlation, regression, hypothesis-testing employing the linear dynamic panel data GMM model as an estimator of the empirical relationships between the key variables of the study. The study results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the PF dollar amounts from the IsDB and the GNI Per Capita, PPP in these 57 countries. Therefore, countries that receive higher PF dollar amounts from the IsDB, generally have more GNI Per Capita, PPP (less poverty) than their counterparts. It is, therefore, recommendable for countries to formulate policies that facilitate Islamically financed projects to mitigate poverty. This paper develops policy discussions regarding allocation of political attention to the policy topics on poverty mitigation, and their relation to financing projects Islamically, thus generate information on policy choices regarding the Islamic financing alternative.

Keywords: gross-national-income, IsDB-project-financing, public policy, poverty

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Authors: Marwen Ghouil, Jamel Eddine Mkadmi

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Banking performance is the pillar and goal of all banking activity and its impact on economic policy. First, researchers defined the principles for assessing and modeling bank performance, and then theories and models explaining bank performance were developed. The importance of credit as a means of financing businesses in most developing countries has led to questions about the effects of financial liberalisation on increased banking competition. In Tunisia, as in many other countries, the liberalization of financial services in general and of banks' activities has not ceased to evolve. The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants of banking performance for 8 Tunisian banks and their impact on economic policy during the Arab Spring. We used cointegration analysis and the ARDL Panel model, explaining using total assets, bank credits, guarantees, and bank size as performance drivers. The correlation analysis shows that there is a positive correlation relationship between total assets, bank credits, guarantees, and bank size and bank performance. Long-term empirical results show that bank loans, guarantees, bank size, and total assets have a positive and significant impact on bank performance. This means that bank credits, guarantees, bank size, and total assets are very important determinants of bank performance in Tunisia.

Keywords: bank performance, economic policy, finance, economic

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Authors: Ijeoma Chinyere Ukonu, Linda Ojeyokan

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This study produced and compared the acceptability of white bean cake (akara) and soy bean cake (akara) through sensory evaluation. Two varieties of beans were used; white (haricot) beans and soy beans; processed in the wet (paste) form and dry (flour) form. They were all used in the production of samples of bean cake (akara) under the same condition. Sensory evaluation was carried out on the products; 100% white beans cake paste was labeled (A1), 50% white bean and 50% soya bean cake paste was (B1), 100% white bean cake flour was (A2); 50% white bean cake flour and 50% soya bean cake flour (B2). A five (5) point hedonic scale rating, very good (5), good (4), fair (3), poor (2) and very poor (1) was administered on the ten panel of judge. 40 questionnaires were administered to the general public to access their knowledge of soya beans akara. Correlation analysis was carried out to determine which product is more acceptable. Table, percentages and mean score were methods employed in analyzing data collected. The analysis revealed that soya bean (akara) is generally acceptable except for sample B1 that was rated poor with 2 points, white beans cake was rated very well with 5 points. It was recommended that the hospitality industry could introduce soya bean cakes in the breakfast menu. Families can also include these products in their breakfast.

Keywords: akara, bean cake, soybean, white bean

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Authors: Innocent Pangapanga, Eric Mungatana

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Fall armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda), an invasive lepidopteran pest, has caused substantial yield loss since its first detection in September 2016, thereby threatening the farm productivity food security and poverty reduction initiatives in Malawi. Several stakeholders, including households, have adopted chemical pesticides to control FAW without accounting for its costs on welfare, health and the environment. Thus, this study has used panel data endogenous switching regression model to investigate the impact of FAW and the integrated pest management (IPM) –related practices on-farm productivity and food security. The study finds that FAW substantively reduces farm productivity by seven (7) percent and influences the adoption of IPM –related practices, namely, intercropping, mulching, and agroforestry, by 6 percent, ceteris paribus. Interestingly, multiple adoptions of the IPM -related practices noticeably increase farm productivity by 21 percent. After accounting for potential endogeneity through the endogenous switching regression model, the IPM practices further demonstrate tenfold more improvement on food security, implying the role of the IPM –related practices in containing the effect of FAW at the household level.

Keywords: hunger, invasive fall army worms, integrated pest management practices, farm productivity, endogenous switching regression

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Authors: Ilham Ihoume, Rachid Tadili, Nora Arbaoui

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This study examines the effects of a solar-based heating system, in a north-‎south oriented agricultural greenhouse on the development of strawberry ‎plants during winter. This system relies on the circulation of water as a heat ‎transfer fluid in a closed circuit installed on the greenhouse roof to store heat ‎during the day and release it inside at night. A comparative experimental ‎study was conducted in two greenhouses, one experimental with the solar ‎heating system and the other for control without any heating system. Both ‎greenhouses are located on the terrace of the Solar Energy and Environment ‎Laboratory of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. The devel-‎oped heating system consists of a copper coil inserted in double glazing and ‎placed on the roof of the greenhouse, a water pump circulator, a battery, and ‎a photovoltaic solar panel to power the electrical components. This inexpen-‎sive and environmentally friendly system allows the greenhouse to be heated ‎during the winter and improves its microclimate system. This improvement ‎resulted in an increase in the air temperature inside the experimental green-‎house by 6 °C and 8 °C, and a reduction in its relative humidity by 23% and ‎‎35% compared to the control greenhouse and the ambient air, respectively, ‎throughout the winter. For the agronomic performance, it was observed that ‎the production was 17 days earlier than in the control greenhouse.‎

Keywords: sustainability, solar energy, thermal energy storage.‎, greenhouse heating

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Authors: Ivanova B. Natalia, Djambova Т. Svetlana, Hristev S. Ivailo

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The acoustic properties of recycled felt panels have been investigated using various methods. Experimentally, the sound insulation of the panels has been evaluated for frequencies in the range of 600 Hz to 4000 Hz, utilizing a small-sized acoustic chamber. Additionally, the sound absorption coefficient for the frequency range of 63 Hz to 4000 Hz was measured according to the EN ISO 354 standard in a laboratory reverberation room. This research was deemed necessary after conducting reverberation time measurements of a university classroom following the EN ISO 3382-2 standard. The measurements indicated values of 2.86 s at 500 Hz, 3.23 s at 1000 Hz, and 2.53 s at 2000 Hz, which significantly exceeded the requirements set by the national regulatory framework (0.6s) for such premises. For this reason, recycled felt panels have been investigated in the laboratory, showing very good acoustic properties at high frequencies. To enhance performance in the low frequencies, the influence of the distance of the panel spacing was examined. Furthermore, the sound insulation of the panels was studied to expand the possibilities of their application, both for the acoustic treatment of educational and multifunctional halls and for sound insulation purposes (e.g., a suspended ceiling with an air gap passing from room to room). As a conclusion, a theoretical acoustic design of the classroom has been carried out with suggestions for improvements to achieve the necessary acoustic and aesthetic parameters for such rooms.

Keywords: acoustic panels, recycled felt, sound absorption, sound insulation, classroom acoustics

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Authors: Meida Laely Ramdani, Earmporn Thongkrajai, Dedy Purwito

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Lifestyle is one of the most important factors affecting health. Measurement of lifestyle behaviors is necessary for the identification of causal associations between unhealthy lifestyle and health outcomes. There was many instruments have been measured for lifestyle, but not specific for stroke recurrence. This study aimed to develop a new questionnaire of Lifestyle Adjustment Scale (LSAS) among recurrent stroke patients in Indonesia and to measure the reliability and validity of LSAS. The instrument consist of 33 items was developed from the responses of 30 recurrent stroke patients with the maximum age 60 years. Data was collected during October to November 2015. The properties of the instrument were evaluated by validity assessment and reliability measures. The content validity was judged adequate by a panel of five experts, with the result of I-CVI was 0.97. The Cronbach’s alpha analysis was carried out to measure the reliability of LSAS. The result showed that Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.819. LSAS were classified under the domains of dietary habit, smoking habit, physical activity, and stress management. The results of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each subscale were 0.60, 0.39, 0.67, 0.65 and 0.76 respectively. LSAS instrument was valid and reliable therefore can be used as research tool among recurrent stroke patients. The development of this questionnaire has been adapted to the socio-cultural context in Indonesia.

Keywords: LSAS, recurrent stroke patients, lifestyle, Indonesia

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Authors: Enemeri George Uweiyohowo

Abstract:

Improved achievement with respect to output control of photovoltaic (PV) systems is one of the major focus of PV in recent times. This is evident to its low carbon emission and efficiency. Power failure or outage from commercial providers, in general, does not promote development to public and private sector, these basically limit the development of industries. The need for a well-structured PV system is of importance for an efficient and cost-effective monitoring system. The purpose of this paper is to validate the maximum power point of an off-grid PV system taking into consideration the most effective tilt and orientation angles for PV's in the southern hemisphere. This paper is based on analyzing the system using a solar charger with MPPT from a pulse width modulation (PWM) perspective. The power conditioning device chosen is a solar charger with MPPT. The practical setup consists of a PV panel that is set to an orientation angle of 0∘N, with a corresponding tilt angle of 36∘, 26∘ and 16∘. Preliminary results include regression analysis (normal probability plot) showing the maximum power point in the system as well the best tilt angle for maximum power point tracking.

Keywords: poly-crystalline PV panels, information technology (IT), maximum power point tracking (MPPT), pulse width modulation (PWM)

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Authors: Fernanda Conforto de Oliveira

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a central role in global financial governance as the world’s leading crisis lender. Its practice of conditional lending – conditioning loans on the implementation of economic policy adjustments – is the primary lever by which the institution interacts with and influences the policy choices of member countries and has been a key topic of interest to scholars and public opinion. However, empirical evidence about the economic and (geo)political determinants of IMF lending behavior remains inconclusive, and no model that explains IMF policies has been identified. This research moves beyond panel analysis to focus on financial negotiations for the first IMF programs in Argentina and Brazil in the early post-war period. It seeks to understand why negotiations achieved distinct objectives: Argentinean officials cooperated and complied with IMF policies, whereas their Brazilian counterparts hesitated. Using qualitative and automated text analysis, this paper analyses the hypothesis about whether a differential IMF treatment could help to explain these distinct outcomes. This paper contributes to historical studies on IMF-Latin America relations and the broader literature in international policy economy about IMF policies.

Keywords: international monetary fund, international history, financial history, Latin American economic history, natural language processing, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Aime Philombe Zapji Ymele

Abstract:

Servicing public debt is a significant budgetary burden. In the sense that the payment of interest charges is a liability on the balance sheet of the public budget and affects fiscal policy. Interest charges can sometimes become a burden if they crowd out private activities. In order to analyse and understand the determinants of the debt burden and its impact on the sustainability of public finances, the present work focuses on OECD countries. It is noted from the literature that the factors that determine interest charges are macroeconomic (inflation, GDP growth, and interest rates) and public finances (primary balance and public debt). After analysing a panel of 33 OECD countries and using ordinary least squares (OLS), we find that public debt, inflation, and long-term interest rates are positively correlated with interest charges. An increase in any of these variables leads to an increase in debt charges. On the other hand, a growth in GDP is negatively associated with interest charges. Indeed, an increase in GDP generates enough revenue to meet the repayment of debt charges. According to the empirical analysis, we can say that, despite the large and growing debt-to-GDP ratio of major OECD countries, interest charges are not a threat to the sustainability of public finances. However, it is important for these countries to reduce the ratio of public debt to GDP because, in the face of the many challenges (health, aging population, etc.) that are looming on the horizon, an increase in interest rates could bring with it considerable burdens that would threaten the budgetary balance of these states.

Keywords: interest charges, sustainability, public debt, interest rates

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Authors: Zapji Ymele Aime Philombe

Abstract:

Servicing public debt is a significant budgetary burden in the sense that the payment of interest charges is a liability on the balance sheet of the public budget and affects fiscal policy. Interest charges can sometimes become a burden if they crowd out private activities. In order to analyse and understand the determinants of the debt burden and its impact on the sustainability of public finances, the present work focuses on OECD countries. It is noted from the literature that the factors that determine interest charges are macroeconomic (inflation, GDP growth and interest rates) and public finances (primary balance and public debt). After analysing a panel of 33 OECD countries and using ordinary least squares (OLS), we find that public debt, inflation and long-term interest rates are positively correlated with interest charges. An increase in any of these variables leads to an increase in debt charges. On the other hand, a growth in GDP is negatively associated with interest charges. Indeed, an increase in GDP generates enough revenue to meet the repayment of debt charges. According to the empirical analysis, we can say that, despite the large and growing debt-to-GDP ratio of major OECD countries, interest charges are not a threat to the sustainability of public finances. However, it is important for these countries to reduce the ratio of public debt to GDP because, in the face of the many challenges (health, aging population, etc.) that are looming on the horizon, an increase in interest rates could bring with it considerable burdens that would threaten the budgetary balance of these states.

Keywords: interests charges, public debt, sustainability, interest rates

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Authors: Rachida Ouysse

Abstract:

This paper proposes a constrained principal components (CnPC) estimator for efficient estimation of large-dimensional factor models when errors are cross sectionally correlated and the number of cross-sections (N) may be larger than the number of observations (T). Although principal components (PC) method is consistent for any path of the panel dimensions, it is inefficient as the errors are treated to be homoskedastic and uncorrelated. The new CnPC exploits the assumption of bounded cross-sectional dependence, which defines Chamberlain and Rothschild’s (1983) approximate factor structure, as an explicit constraint and solves a constrained PC problem. The CnPC method is computationally equivalent to the PC method applied to a regularized form of the data covariance matrix. Unlike maximum likelihood type methods, the CnPC method does not require inverting a large covariance matrix and thus is valid for panels with N ≥ T. The paper derives a convergence rate and an asymptotic normality result for the CnPC estimators of the common factors. We provide feasible estimators and show in a simulation study that they are more accurate than the PC estimator, especially for panels with N larger than T, and the generalized PC type estimators, especially for panels with N almost as large as T.

Keywords: high dimensionality, unknown factors, principal components, cross-sectional correlation, shrinkage regression, regularization, pseudo-out-of-sample forecasting

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