Search results for: output factor

Authors: Bright E. Owusu, Nittaya McNeil

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Rainfall is one of the most essential quantities in meteorology and hydrology. It has important impacts on people’s daily life and excess or inadequate of it could bring tremendous losses in economy and cause fatalities. Population increase around the globe tends to have a corresponding increase in settlement and industrialization. Some countries are affected by flood and drought occasionally due to climate change, which disrupt most of the daily activities. Knowledge of trends in spatial and temporal rainfall variability and their physical explanations would be beneficial in climate change assessment and to determine erosivity. This study describes the spatial-temporal variability of daily rainfall in Australia and their corresponding long-term trend during 1950-2013. The spatial patterns were investigated by using exploratory factor analysis and the long term trend in rainfall time series were determined by linear regression, Mann-Kendall rank statistics and the Sen’s slope test. The exploratory factor analysis explained most of the variations in the data and grouped Australia into eight distinct rainfall regions with different rainfall patterns. Significant increasing trends in annual rainfall were observed in the northern regions of Australia. However, the northeastern part was the wettest of all the eight rainfall regions.

Keywords: climate change, explanatory factor analysis, Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope test, rainfall.

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Authors: Nipon Sasithornsaowapa

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This research aims to study the impact of personality and family status on women executives’ career success of the primary education department of Thailand. The independent variable includes three factors, namely family status, personality, and knowledge-skill-experience, while the dependent variable is the career success. The population of this study includes 2,179 female management officials in the department of primary education. A total of 400 female managers is interviewed and utilized as a sample group. A questionnaire is developed and used as a research tool for data collection. Content analysis is performed to get the quantitative data. Descriptive statistics in this research is conducted by SPSS program. The findings revealed that personality and family status of samples have an influence on the overall career success of women executives in terms of their objective career success. However, in terms of specific factors of personality or family status, it is found that there is no relevance of each factor on the women executives’ career success. It can be concluded that the factor affecting the women executives’ career success is subjective career success including the happiness and enjoyment with the job not factor concerning materials. Their success is the result of each individual working experience. However, their personal characteristics do not affect their success.

Keywords: career success, women executives, primary education, knowledge-skill-experience

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Authors: V. Jafari, M. Jafari

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When long-term changes in normal weather patterns happen in a certain area, it generally could be identified as climate change. Concentration of principal's greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone, and water vapor will cause climate change and perhaps climate variability. Main climate factors are temperature, precipitation, air pressure, and humidity. Extreme events may be the result of the changing of carbon dioxide concentration levels in the atmosphere which cause a change in temperature. Extreme events in some ways will affect the productivity of crop and dairy livestock. In this research, the correlation of milk production and temperature as the main climate factor in ChaharMahal and Bakhtiari province in Iran has been considered. The methodology employed for this study consists, collect reports and published national and provincial data, available recorded data on climate factors and analyzing collected data using statistical software. Milk production in ChaharMahal and Bakhtiari province is in the same pattern as national milk production in Iran. According to the current study results, there is a significant negative correlation between milk production in ChaharMahal and Bakhtiari provinces and temperature as the main climate change factor.

Keywords: Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, climate change, impacts, Iran, milk production

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Authors: Emmanuel Dele Balogun

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

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

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Authors: Fuzhang Zhao

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Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is becoming one of the most important swarm intelligent paradigms for solving global optimization problems. Although some progress has been made to improve PSO algorithms over the last two decades, additional work is still needed to balance parameters to achieve better numerical properties of accuracy, efficiency, and stability. In the optimal PSO algorithm, the optimal weightings of (√ 5 − 1)/2 and (3 − √5)/2 are used for the cognitive factor and the social factor, respectively. By the same token, the same optimal weightings have been applied for intensification searches and diversification searches, respectively. Perturbation and constriction effects are optimally balanced. Simulations of the de Jong, the Rosenbrock, and the Griewank functions show that the optimal PSO algorithm indeed achieves better numerical properties and outperforms the canonical PSO algorithm.

Keywords: diversification search, intensification search, optimal weighting, particle swarm optimization

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Authors: Urmi Khatri

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Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) draws a direct relationship between the risk and the expected rate of return. There was a criticism on the beta and the assumptions of CAPM, as they are not applicable in the real world. Fama French Three Factor Model and Fama French Five Factor Model have given different factors, which have an impact on the return of any asset like size, value, investment and profitability. This study proposes to see Capital Asset pricing Model through the lenses of the quality aspect. In the study, the six factors are studied. The Fama French Five Factor Model and addition of the quality dimension are studied. Here, Graham’s seven quality and quantity criteria are measured to determine the score of the sample firms. Thus, this study tries to check the model fit. The beta coefficient of the quality dimension and the R square value is seen to determine validity of the proposed model. The sample is drawn from the firms listed on Indian Stock Exchange (BSE). For the study, only nonfinancial firms are been selected. The time period of the study is from January 1999 to December 2019. Hence, the primary objective of the study is to check how robust the model becomes after giving the quality dimension to the capital asset pricing model in addition to the size, value, profitability and investment.

Keywords: asset pricing model, CAPM, Graham’s score, G-score, multifactor model, quality

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Authors: Mohammad Kargar Shouraki, Naji Yazdi, Mohsen Emami

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The environmental and social challenges have caused the organizations to put further attention and emphasis on sustainable growth and developing strategies for sustainability. Since human is both the target of development and the agent of development at the same time, one of the most important factors in the development of the sustainability strategy in organizations is the human factor. In addition, organizations have been facing the new challenge of digital transformation which impacts the human factor, meanwhile, undeniably, the human factor contributes to such transformation. Therefore, organizations are facing the challenge of digital human resource management (HRM). Thus, the present study aims to investigate how an HRM model should be so that it not only can help the consideration and of the business sustainability requirements but also can make the highest and the most appropriate positive, not destructive, utilization of the digital transformations. Furthermore, the success of the HRM regarding the two sustainability and digital transformation challenges requires dynamic human competencies, which are addressed as digital/sustainable human dynamic capabilities in this paper. The present study is conducted using a hybrid methodology consisting of the qualitative methods of meta-synthesis and content analysis and the quantitative method of interpretive-structural model (ISM). Finally, a rotatory model, including 3 approaches, 3 perspectives, and 9 dimensions, is presented.

Keywords: sustainable human resource management, digital human resource management, digital/sustainable human dynamic capabilities, talent management

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Authors: Kelvin Lo

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Nowadays, numerical modelling in geotechnical engineering is very common but sophisticated. Many advanced input settings and considerable computational efforts are required to optimize the design to reduce the construction cost. To optimize a design, it usually requires huge numerical models. If the optimization is conducted manually, there is a potentially dangerous consequence from human errors, and the time spent on the input and data extraction from output is significant. This paper presents an automation process introduced to numerical modelling (Plaxis 2D) of a trench excavation supported by a secant-pile retaining structure for a top-down tunnel project. Python code is adopted to control the process, and numerical modelling is conducted automatically in every 20m chainage along the 200m tunnel, with maximum retained height occurring in the middle chainage. Python code continuously changes the geological stratum and excavation depth under groundwater flow conditions in each 20m section. It automatically conducts trial and error to determine the required pile length and the use of props to achieve the required factor of safety and target displacement. Once the bending moment of the pile exceeds its capacity, it will increase in size. When the pile embedment reaches the default maximum length, it will turn on the prop system. Results showed that it saves time, increases efficiency, lowers design costs, and replaces human labor to minimize error.

Keywords: automation, numerical modelling, Python, retaining structures

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Authors: Belal Mohamadi Kalesar, Raouf Hasanpour

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Proper placement of Distributed Generation (DG) units such as wind turbine generators in distribution system are still very challenging issue for obtaining their maximum potential benefits because inappropriate placement may increase the system losses. This paper proposes Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique for optimal placement of wind based DG (WDG) in the primary distribution system to reduce energy losses and voltage profile improvement with four different wind levels modeling in year duration. Also, wind turbine is modeled as a DFIG that will be operated at unity power factor and only one wind turbine tower will be considered to install at each bus of network. Finally, proposed method will be implemented on widely used 69 bus power distribution system in MATLAB software environment under four scenario (without, one, two and three WDG units) and for capability test of implemented program it is supposed that all buses of standard system can be candidate for WDG installing (large search space), though this program can consider predetermined number of candidate location in WDG placement to model financial limitation of project. Obtained results illustrate that wind speed increasing in some months will increase output power generated but this can increase / decrease power loss in some wind level, also results show that it is required about 3MW WDG capacity to install in different buses but when this is distributed in overall network (more number of WDG) it can cause better solution from point of view of power loss and voltage profile.

Keywords: wind turbine, DG placement, wind levels effect, PSO algorithm

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Authors: H. M. Côrtes, J. I. Da Silva Filho, M. F. Blos, B. S. Zanon

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In a modern society the factor corresponding to the increase in the level of quality in industrial production demand new techniques of control and machinery automation. In this context, this work presents the implementation of a Paraconsistent-Fuzzy Digital PID controller. The controller is based on the treatment of inconsistencies both in the Paraconsistent Logic and in the Fuzzy Logic. Paraconsistent analysis is performed on the signals applied to the system inputs using concepts from the Paraconsistent Annotated Logic with annotation of two values (PAL2v). The signals resulting from the paraconsistent analysis are two values defined as Dc - Degree of Certainty and Dct - Degree of Contradiction, which receive a treatment according to the Fuzzy Logic theory, and the resulting output of the logic actions is a single value called the crisp value, which is used to control dynamic system. Through an example, it was demonstrated the application of the proposed model. Initially, the Paraconsistent-Fuzzy Digital PID controller was built and tested in an isolated MATLAB environment and then compared to the equivalent Digital PID function of this software for standard step excitation. After this step, a level control plant was modeled to execute the controller function on a physical model, making the tests closer to the actual. For this, the control parameters (proportional, integral and derivative) were determined for the configuration of the conventional Digital PID controller and of the Paraconsistent-Fuzzy Digital PID, and the control meshes in MATLAB were assembled with the respective transfer function of the plant. Finally, the results of the comparison of the level control process between the Paraconsistent-Fuzzy Digital PID controller and the conventional Digital PID controller were presented.

Keywords: fuzzy logic, paraconsistent annotated logic, level control, digital PID

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Authors: Ali Ates, Sadık Ata, Kevser Dincer

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In this study, performance of the driver seat‘s localized cooling and heating in a standard car air conditioning system was experimentally investigated and modeled with Rule-Based Mamdani-Type Fuzzy (RBMTF) modeling technique. Climate function at automobile is an important variable for thermal comfort. In the experimental study localized heating and cooling performances have been examined with the aid of a mechanism established to a vehicle. The equipment’s used in the experimental setup/mechanism have been provided and assembled. During the measurement, the status of the performance level has been determined. Input parameters revolutions per minute and time; output parameters car seat cooling temperature, car back cooling temperature, car seat heating temperature, car back heating temperature were described by RBMTF if-the rules. Numerical parameters of input and output variables were fuzzificated as linguistic variables: Very Very Low (L1), Very Low (L2), Low (L3), Negative Medium (L4), Medium (L5), High (L7), Very High (L8) and Very Very High (L9) linguistic classes. The comparison between experimental data and RBMTF is done by using statistical methods like absolute fraction of variance (R2). The actual values and RBMTF results indicated that RBMTF could be successfully used in standard car air conditioning system.

Keywords: air conditioning system, cooling-heating, RMBTF modelling, car seat

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Authors: Soo-Yong Cho, Chong-Hyun Cho, Chae-Whan Rim, Sang-Kyu Choi, Jin-Gyun Kim, Ju-Seok Nam

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Recently, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) have been widely used to produce electricity even in urban. They have several merits such as low sound noise, easy installation of the generator and simple structure without yaw-control mechanism and so on. However, their blades are operated under the influence of the trailing vortices generated by the preceding blades. This phenomenon deteriorates its output power and makes difficulty predicting correctly its performance. In order to improve the performance of VAWT, wind power towers can be applied. Usually, the wind power tower can be constructed as a multi-story building to increase the frontal area of the wind stream. Hence, multiple sets of the VAWT can be installed within the wind power tower, and they can be operated at high elevation. Many different types of wind power tower can be used in the field. In this study, a wind power tower with circular column shape was applied, and the VAWT was installed at the center of the wind power tower. Seven guide walls were used as a strut between the floors of the wind power tower. These guide walls were utilized not only to increase the wind velocity within the wind power tower but also to adjust the wind direction for making a better working condition on the VAWT. Hence, some important design variables, such as the distance between the wind turbine and the guide wall, the outer diameter of the wind power tower, the direction of the guide wall against the wind direction, should be considered to enhance the output power on the VAWT. A numerical analysis was conducted to find the optimum dimension on design variables by using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) among many prediction methods. The CFD could be an accurate prediction method compared with the stream-tube methods. In order to obtain the accurate results in the CFD, it needs the transient analysis and the full three-dimensional (3-D) computation. However, this full 3-D CFD could be hard to be a practical tool because it requires huge computation time. Therefore, the reduced computational domain is applied as a practical method. In this study, the computations were conducted in the reduced computational domain and they were compared with the experimental results in the literature. It was examined the mechanism of the difference between the experimental results and the computational results. The computed results showed this computational method could be an effective method in the design methodology using the optimization algorithm. After validation of the numerical method, the CFD on the wind power tower was conducted with the important design variables affecting the performance of VAWT. The results showed that the output power of the VAWT obtained using the wind power tower was increased compared to them obtained without the wind power tower. In addition, they showed that the increased output power on the wind turbine depended greatly on the dimension of the guide wall.

Keywords: CFD, performance, VAWT, wind power tower

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Authors: Athena Daniilidou, Maria Platsidou

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Resilience is considered to greatly affect the personal and occupational wellbeing and efficacy of individuals; therefore, it has been widely studied in the social and behavioral sciences. Given its significance, several scales have been created to assess resilience of children and adults. However, most of these scales focus on examining only the internal protective or risk factors that affect the levels of resilience. The aim of the present study is to create a reliable scale that assesses both the internal and the external protective factors that affect Greek teachers’ levels of resilience. Participants were 136 secondary school teachers (89 females, 47 males) from urban areas of Greece. Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-Risc) and Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) were used to collect the data. First, exploratory factor analysis was employed to investigate the inner structure of each scale. For both scales, the analyses revealed a differentiated factor solution compared to the ones proposed by the creators. That prompt us to create a scale that would combine the best fitting subscales of the CD-Risc and the RSA. To this end, the items of the four factors with the best fit and highest reliability were used to create the ‘Teachers' resilience scale’. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale assesses the following protective/risk factors: Personal Competence and Strength (9 items, α=.83), Family Cohesion Spiritual Influences (7 items, α=.80), Social Competence and Peers Support (7 items, α=.78) and Spiritual Influence (3 items, α=.58). This four-factor model explained 49,50% of the total variance. In the next step, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 26 items of the derived scale to test the above factor solution. The fit of the model to the data was good (χ2/292 = 1.245, CFI = .921, GFI = .829, SRMR = .074, CI90% = .026-,056, RMSEA = 0.43), indicating that the proposed scale can validly measure the aforementioned four aspects of teachers' resilience and thus confirmed its factorial validity. Finally, analyses of variance were performed to check for individual differences in the levels of teachers' resilience in relation to their gender, age, marital status, level of studies, and teaching specialty. Results were consistent to previous findings, thus providing an indication of discriminant validity for the instrument. This scale has the advantage of assessing both the internal and the external protective factors of resilience in a brief yet comprehensive way, since it consists 26 items instead of the total of 58 of the CD-Risc and RSA scales. Its factorial inner structure is supported by the relevant literature on resilience, as it captures the major protective factors of resilience identified in previous studies.

Keywords: protective factors, resilience, scale development, teachers

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Authors: Selma Sbit, Mohamed Bechir Dadi, Belgacem Chibani Rhaimi

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Incorporating Home eNodeB (HeNB) in cellular networks, e.g. Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A), is beneficial for extending coverage and enhancing capacity at low price especially within the non-line-of sight (NLOS) environments such as homes. HeNB or femtocell is a small low powered base station which provides radio coverage to the mobile users in an indoor environment. This deployment results in a heterogeneous network where the available spectrum becomes shared between two layers. Therefore, a problem of Inter Cell Interference (ICI) appears. This issue is the main challenge in LTE-A. To deal with this challenge, various techniques based on frequency, time and power control are proposed. This paper deals with the impact of carrier aggregation and higher order MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) schemes on the LTE-Advanced performance. Simulation results show the advantages of these schemes on the system capacity (4.10⁹ b/s/Hz when bandwidth B=100 MHz and when applying MIMO 8x8 for SINR=30 dB), maximum theoretical peak data rate (more than 4 Gbps for B=100 MHz and when MIMO 8x8 is used) and spectral efficiency (15 b/s/Hz and 30b/s/Hz when MIMO 4x4 and MIMO 8x8 are applying respectively for SINR=30 dB).

Keywords: capacity, carrier aggregation, LTE-Advanced, MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), peak data rate, spectral efficiency

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Authors: Akbar Khodavirdizadeh

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Gougerd village landslide with area about 150 hectares is located in southwest of Khoy city in northwest of the Iran. This Landslide was commenced more than 21 years and caused some damages in houses like some fissures on walls and some cracks on ground and foundations. The main mechanism of landslide is rotational with the high different of top and foot is about 230 m. The thickness of slide mass based on geoelectrical investigation is about 16m obtained. The upper layer of slope is silty sand and the lower layer of clayey gravel. In this paper, the stability of landslide are analyzed based in static analysis under different groundwater surface conditions and at slope angle changes with limit eqlibrium method and the simplified Bishop method. The results of the 72 stability analysis showed that the slope stability of Gougerd landslide increased with increasing of the groundwater surface depth of slope crown. And especially when decreased of slope angle, the safety facter more than in previous state is increased. The required of safety factor for stability in groundwater surface depth from slope crown equal 14 m and with decreased of slope angle to 3 degree at decrease of groundwater surface depth from slope crown equal 6.5 m obtained. The safety factor in critical conditions under groundwater surface depth from slope crown equal 3.5 m and at decreased of slope angle to 3 degree equal 0.5 m obtained. At groudwater surface depth from slope crown of 3 m, 7 m and 10 m respectively equal to 0.97, 1.19 and 1.33 obtained. At groudwater surface depth from slope crown of 3 m, 7 m and 10 m with decreased of slope angle to 3 degree, respectively equal to 1.27, 1.54 and 1.72 obtained. According to the results of this study, for 1 m of groundwater level decrease, the safety factor increased by 5%, and for 1 degree of reduction of the slope angle, safety factor increased by 15%. And the effect of slope angle on Gougerd landslide stability was felt more than groundwater effect.

Keywords: Gougerd landslide, stability analysis, slope angle, groundwater, Khoy

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Authors: Soon-Gil Yoon, Min-Ju Choi, Sung-Ho Shin, Junghyo Nah, Jin-Seok Choi, Hyun-A Song, Goeun Choi, Jin-Ho Choy

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Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with positively charged brucite-like layers and negatively charged interlayer anions are considered a critical nanoscale building block with potential for application in catalysts, biological sensors, and optical, electrical, and magnetic devices. LDHs also have a great potential as an energy conversion device, a key component in common modern electronics. Although LDHs are theoretically predicted to be centrosymmetric, we report here the first observations of the flexoelectric nature of LDHs and demonstrate their potential as an effective energy conversion material. We clearly show a linear energy conversion relationship between the output powers and curvature radius via bending with both the LDH nanosheets and thin films, revealing a direct evidence for flexoelectric effects. These findings potentially open up avenues to incorporate a flexoelectric coupling phenomenon into centrosymmetric materials such as LDHs and to harvest high-power energy using LDH nanosheets. In the present study, for enhancement of the output power, Zn-Al:LDH nanosheets were composited with piezoelectric CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) dye films and their enhanced energy harvesting was demonstrated in detail.

Keywords: layered double hydroxides, flexoelectric, piezoelectric, energy harvesting

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Authors: Daruliza Kernain, Shaharum Shamsuddin, See Too Wei Cun

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CTCF is a unique, highly conserved and ubiquitously expressed 11 zinc finger (ZF) transcriptional factor with multiple target sites. It is able to bind to various target sequences to perform different regulatory roles including promoter activation or repression, creating hormone-responsive gene silencing element, and functional block of enhancer-promoter interactions. The binding of CTCF to the essential binding site is through the combination of different ZF domain. On the other hand, BORIS for brother of the regulator of imprinted sites, which expressed only in the testis and certain cancer cell line is homology to CTCF 11 ZF domains. Since both transcriptional factors share the same ZF domains hence there is a possibility for both to bind to the same target sequences. In this study, the interaction of these two proteins to multi-functional Y-box DNA/RNA-binding factor, YB-1 was determined. The protein-protein interaction between CTCF/YB-1 and BORIS/YB-1 were discovered by Co-immuno-precipitation (CO-IP) technique through reciprocal experiment from RGBM total cell lysate. The results showed that both CTCF and BORIS were able to interact with YB-1 in Glioma RGBM cell line. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first findings demonstrating the ability of BORIS and YB-1 to form a complex in vivo.

Keywords: immunoprecipitation, CTCF/BORIS/YB-1, transcription factor, molecular medicine

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Authors: Wee Tong Liaw, Elaine Wong Yee Sing

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Since 2001, many companies in Singapore have voluntarily participated in the bi-annual Singapore HEALTH Award initiated by the Health Promotion Board of Singapore (HPB). The Singapore HEALTH Award (SHA), is an industry wide award and assessment process. SHA assesses and recognizes employers in Singapore for implementing a comprehensive and sustainable health promotion programme at their workplaces. The rationale for implementing a sustained health promoting workplace and participating in SHA is obvious when company management is convinced that healthier employees, business productivity, and profitability are positively correlated. However, performing research or empirical studies on the impact of a sustained health promoting workplace on stock returns are not likely to yield any interests in the absence of a systematic and independent assessment on the comprehensiveness and sustainability of a health promoting workplace in most developed economies. The principles of diversification and mean-variance efficient portfolio in Modern Portfolio Theory developed by Markowitz (1952) laid the foundation for the works of many financial economists and researchers, and among others, the development of the Capital Asset Pricing Model from the work of Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965) and Mossin (1966), and the Fama-French Three-Factor Model of Fama and French (1992). This research seeks to support the rationale by studying whether there is a significant relationship or impact of a sustained health promoting workplace on the performance of companies listed on the SGX. The research shall form and test hypotheses pertaining to the impact of a sustained health promoting workplace on company’s performances, including stock returns, of companies that participated in the SHA and companies that did not participate in the SHA. In doing so, the research would be able to determine whether corporate and fund manager should consider the significance of a sustained health promoting workplace as a risk factor to explain the stock returns of companies listed on the SGX. With respect to Singapore’s stock market, this research will test the significance and relevance of a health promoting workplace using the Singapore Health Award as a proxy for non-diversifiable risk factor to explain stock returns. This study will examine the significance of a health promoting workplace on a company’s performance and study its impact on stock price performance and beta and examine if it has higher explanatory power than the traditional single factor asset pricing model CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model). To study the significance there are three key questions pertinent to the research study. I) Given a choice, would an investor be better off investing in a listed company with a sustained health promoting workplace i.e. a Singapore Health Award’s recipient? II) The Singapore Health Award has four levels of award starting from Bronze, Silver, Gold to Platinum. Would an investor be indifferent to the level of award when investing in a listed company who is a Singapore Health Award’s recipient? III) Would an asset pricing model combining FAMA-French Three Factor Model and ‘Singapore Health Award’ factor be more accurate than single factor Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Three Factor Model itself?

Keywords: asset pricing model, company's performance, stock prices, sustained health promoting workplace

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Authors: Voodi Kalandhar, Veera Reddy, Yuva Tejasree

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Researchers have become interested in multilevel inverters (MLI) because of their potential for medium- and high-power applications. MLIs are becoming more popular as a result of their ability to generate higher voltage levels, minimal power losses, small size, and low price. These inverters used in high voltage and high-power applications because the stress on the switch is low. Even though many traditional topologies, such as the cascaded H-bridge MLI, the flying capacitor MLI, and the diode clamped MLI, exist, they all have some drawbacks. A complicated control system is needed for the flying capacitor MLI to balance the voltage across the capacitor and diode clamped MLI requires more no of diodes when no of levels increases. Even though the cascaded H-Bridge MLI is popular in terms of modularity and simple control, it requires more no of isolated DC source. Therefore, a topology with fewer devices has always been necessary for greater efficiency and reliability. A new single-phase MLI topology has been introduced to minimize the required switch count in the circuit and increase output levels. With 3 dc voltage sources, 8 switches, and 13 levels at the output, this new single- phase MLI topology was developed. To demonstrate the proposed converter's superiority over the other MLI topologies currently in use, a thorough analysis of the proposed topology will be conducted.

Keywords: DC-AC converter, multi-level inverter (MLI), diodes, H-bridge inverter, switches

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Authors: Eetedal Alanjem, Majedah Alnajem

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The importance of innovation in entrepreneurship can be seen in the invention of new ways to produce products or improved solutions. A service industry can expand with new or improved types of services to fulfill the ever changing needs of their clients. Manufacturers can come up with new products from raw materials and by-products. Innovation is vital for the durability of any business. Innovation usually begins with a need. Small businesses are generally directly involved in their communities and they know exactly what the communities need and strive to come up with solutions to fulfill those needs. They seize the opportunity to innovate to ease communal problems and make lives more comfortable. And then, these solutions keep getting better, easier and more useful as entrepreneurs and their small businesses come up with improved formulas and solutions. Keeping abreast with current trends and demands is an important factor for entrepreneurs to fuel their creativity and innovation. Manufacturers are constantly innovating to produce more without sacrificing quality. Small businesses should make innovation as a fundamental part of their organisational development since innovation creates business success. Entrepreneurs must not see just one solution to a need. They should come up with ideas for multiple solutions. It is imperative for small businesses to encourage growth of innovation among their employees. Competition is another factor that elevates the importance of innovation in entrepreneurship. It motivates entrepreneurs to come up with better, improved products and services than their competitors for a higher share of the market. In this paper will go in-depth for each factor and will discuss some of cases studies to know how innovation it’s important for entrepreneurs by facts & lessons?

Keywords: innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, organisational development

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Authors: Oluwatosin M. A. Jesuyon

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In order to propose a simpler tool that eliminates the age-long problems associated with the traditional index method for selection of multiple traits in broilers, the Barttlet factor regression equation is being proposed as an alternative selection tool. 100 day-old chicks each of Arbor Acres (AA) and Annak (AN) broiler strains were obtained from two rival hatcheries in Ibadan Nigeria. These were raised in deep litter system in a 56-day feeding trial at the University of Ibadan Teaching and Research Farm, located in South-west Tropical Nigeria. The body weight and body dimensions were measured and recorded during the trial period. Eight (8) zoometric measurements namely live weight (g), abdominal circumference, abdominal length, breast width, leg length, height, wing length and thigh circumference (all in cm) were recorded randomly from 20 birds within strain, at a fixed time on the first day of the new week respectively with a 5-kg capacity Camry scale. These records were analyzed and compared using completely randomized design (CRD) of SPSS analytical software, with the means procedure, Factor Scores (FS) in stepwise Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) procedure for initial live weight equations. Bartlett Factor Score (BFS) analysis extracted 2 factors for each strain, termed Body-length and Thigh-meatiness Factors for AA, and; Breast Size and Height Factors for AN. These derived orthogonal factors assisted in deducing and comparing trait-combinations that best describe body conformation and Meatiness in experimental broilers. BFS procedure yielded different body conformational traits for the two strains, thus indicating the different economic traits and advantages of strains. These factors could be useful as selection criteria for improving desired economic traits. The final Bartlett Factor Regression equations for prediction of body weight were highly significant with P < 0.0001, R2 of 0.92 and above, VIF of 1.00, and DW of 1.90 and 1.47 for Arbor Acres and Annak respectively. These FSR equations could be used as a simple and potent tool for selection during poultry flock improvement, it could also be used to estimate selection index of flocks in order to discriminate between strains, and evaluate consumer preference traits in broilers.

Keywords: alternative selection tool, Bartlet factor regression model, consumer preference trait, linear and body measurements, live body weight

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Authors: Jun Hee Lee, Young Kyu Kim, Seong Jae Hong, Chamroeun Chhorn, Seung Woo Lee

Abstract:

Roller-compacted concrete pavement (RCCP), an environmental friendly pavement of which load carry capacity benefitted from both hydration and aggregate interlock from roller compacting, demonstrated a superb structural performance for a relatively small amount of water and cement content. Even though an excellent structural performance can be secured, it is required to investigate roller-compacted concrete (RCC) under environmental loading and its long-term durability under critical conditions. In order to secure long-term durability, an appropriate internal air-void structure is required for this concrete. In this study, a method for improving the long-term durability of RCCP is suggested by analyzing the internal air-void structure and corresponding durability of RCC. The method of improving the long-term durability involves measurements of air content, air voids, and air-spacing factors in RCC that experiences changes in terms of type of air-entraining agent and its usage amount. This test is conducted according to the testing criteria in ASTM C 457, 672, and KS F 2456. It was found that the freezing-thawing and scaling resistances of RCC without any chemical admixture was quite low. Interestingly, an improvement of freezing-thawing and scaling resistances was observed for RCC with appropriate the air entraining (AE) agent content; Relative dynamic elastic modulus was found to be more than 80% for those mixtures. In RCC with AE agent mixtures, large amount of air was distributed within a range of 2% to 3%, and an air void spacing factor ranging between 200 and 300 μm (close to 250 μm, recommended by PCA) was secured. The long-term durability of RCC has a direct relationship with air-void spacing factor, and thus it can only be secured by ensuring the air void spacing factor through the inclusion of the AE in the mixture.

Keywords: durability, RCCP, air spacing factor, surface scaling resistance test, freezing and thawing resistance test

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Authors: K. Shaji Mon, P. R. John Sreenidhi

Abstract:

In deep-submicrometer CMOS processes, time-domain resolution of a digital signal is becoming higher than voltage resolution of analog signals. This claim is nowadays pushing toward a new circuit design paradigm in which the traditional analog signal processing is expected to be progressively substituted by the processing of times in the digital domain. Within this novel paradigm, digitally controlled delay lines (DCDL) should play the role of digital-to-analog converters in traditional, analog-intensive, circuits. Digital delay locked loops are highly prevalent in integrated systems.The proposed paper addresses the glitches present in delay circuits along with area,power dissipation and signal integrity.The digitally controlled delay lines(DCDL) under study have been designed in a 90 nm CMOS technology 6 layer metal Copper Strained SiGe Low K Dielectric. Simulation and synthesis results show that the novel circuits exhibit no glitches for dual output coarse DCDL with less power dissipation and consumes less area compared to the glitch free NAND based DCDL.

Keywords: glitch free, NAND-based DCDL, CMOS, deep-submicrometer

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Authors: M. J. Pourvaghar, M. E. Bahram, Sh. Khoshemehry

Abstract:

Hyperlipidemia or an increase in blood lipids is a condition that has been rising, especially during the last decade, with the advancement of the life-span of the car, as an important disease. In fact, it is one of the complications of industrial life and semi-industrial. Hyperlipidemia alone is not a disease, but it is recognized as an important risk factor for coronary artery disease. The methodology of this review article is the use of research to provide the best solution for physical activity and exercise in relation to lowering blood lipids and lowering blood pressure. Also, factors that contribute to improving the health status of humans should be introduced. Research findings in this article show that physical activity with a specific duration and severity can keep a person away from the cardiovascular disease. The result shows that regular physical activity with low intensity and long periods of time is essential for human health. Physical mobility reduces blood pressure, reduces the harmful fats and does not cause cardiovascular disease. More than half of the patients suffering from cardiovascular problems are afflicted with blood lipids. On the other hand, high blood pressure is one of the serious health hazards in the world today, which causes a large number of cardiovascular problems and mortality in the world. Undoubtedly, the second most common risk factor for heart disease is high blood pressure after cigarette smoking.

Keywords: blood pressure, cardiovascular, hyperlipidemia, risk factor

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Authors: Tareq AlNuaim, Mubashir Alam, Abdulrazaq Aldowesh

Abstract:

The usage of micro-Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) has witnessed an enormous increase recently. Detection of such drones became a necessity nowadays to prevent any harmful activities. Typically, such targets have low velocity and low Radar Cross Section (RCS), making them indistinguishable from clutter and phase noise. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Radars have many potentials; it increases the degrees of freedom on both transmit and receive ends. Such architecture allows for flexibility in operation, through utilizing the direct access to every element in the transmit/ receive array. MIMO systems allow for several array processing techniques, permitting the system to stare at targets for longer times, which improves the Doppler resolution. In this paper, a 2×2 MIMO radar prototype is developed using Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology, and its performance is evaluated against a slow-moving low radar cross section micro-UAV used by hobbyists. Radar cross section simulations were carried out using FEKO simulator, achieving an average of -14.42 dBsm at S-band. The developed prototype was experimentally evaluated achieving more than 300 meters of detection range for a DJI Mavic pro-drone

Keywords: digital beamforming, drone detection, micro-UAV, MIMO, phased array

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Authors: Z. Ezzouine, A. Nakheli

Abstract:

This paper presents a high position electromagnetic sensor system (HPESS) that is applicable for moving object detection. The authors have developed a high-performance position sensor prototype dedicated to students’ laboratory. The challenge was to obtain a highly accurate and real-time sensor that is able to calculate position, length or displacement. An electromagnetic solution based on a two coil induction principal was adopted. The HPESS converts mechanical motion to electric energy with direct contact. The output signal can then be fed to an electronic circuit. The voltage output change from the sensor is captured by data acquisition system using LabVIEW software. The displacement of the moving object is determined. The measured data are transmitted to a PC in real-time via a DAQ (NI USB -6281). This paper also describes the data acquisition analysis and the conditioning card developed specially for sensor signal monitoring. The data is then recorded and viewed using a user interface written using National Instrument LabVIEW software. On-line displays of time and voltage of the sensor signal provide a user-friendly data acquisition interface. The sensor provides an uncomplicated, accurate, reliable, inexpensive transducer for highly sophisticated control systems.

Keywords: electromagnetic sensor, accurately, data acquisition, position measurement

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Authors: Olubunmi S. Shittu, Olufemi J. Ayodele, Augustus O. A. Ilori, Abidemi O. Filani, Adetola T. Afuye

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Indiscriminate refuse dumping in and around Ado-Ekiti combined with improper management of few available dumpsites, such as Ilokun dumpsite, posed the threat of heavy metals pollution in the surrounding soils and underground water that needs assessment using pollution indices. Surface soils (0-15 cm) were taken from the centre of Ilokun dumpsite (0 m) and environs at different directions and distances during the dry and wet seasons, as well as a background sample at 1000 m away, adjacent to the dumpsite at Ilokun, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The concentration of heavy metals used to calculate the pollution indices for the soils were determined using Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer. The soils recorded high concentrations of all the heavy metals above the background concentrations irrespective of the season with highest concentrations at the 0 m except Ni and Fe at 50 m during the dry and wet season, respectively. The heavy metals concentration were in the order of Ni > Mn > Pb > Cr > Cu > Cd > Fe during the dry season, and Fe > Cr > Cu > Pb > Ni > Cd > Mn during the wet season. Using the Contamination Factor (CF), the soils were classified to be moderately contaminated with Cd and Fe to very high contamination with other metals during the dry season and low Cd contamination (0.87), moderate contamination with Fe, Pb, Mn and Ni and very high contamination with Cr and Cu during the wet season. At both seasons, the Pollution Load Index (PLI) indicates the soils to be generally polluted with heavy metals and the Geoaccumulation Index (I_geo) calculated shown the soils to be in unpolluted to moderately polluted levels. Enrichment Factor (EF) implied the soils to be deficiently enriched with all the heavy metals except Cr (7.90) and Cu (6.42) that were at significantly enrichment levels during the wet season. Modified Degree of Contamination (mC_d) recorded, indicated the soils to be of very high to extremely high degree of contamination during the dry season and moderate degree of contamination during the wet season except 0 m with high degree of contamination. The concentration of heavy metals in the soils combined with some of the pollution indices indicated the soils in and around the Ilokun Dumpsite are being polluted with heavy metals from anthropogenic sources constituted by the indiscriminate refuse dumping.

Keywords: contamination factor, enrichment factor, geoaccumulation index, modified degree of contamination, pollution load index

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Authors: Ali Mashayekh, Mahdiye Khorasani, Thomas Weyh

Abstract:

The tendency to use the Battery-Electric vehicle (BEV) for the low and medium driving range or even high driving range has been growing more and more. As a result, higher safety, reliability, and durability of the battery pack as a component of electric vehicles, which has a great share of cost and weight of the final product, are the topics to be considered and investigated. Battery aging can be considered as the predominant factor regarding the reliability and durability of BEV. To better understand the aging process, offline battery characterization has been widely used, which is time-consuming and needs very expensive infrastructures. This paper presents the substitute method for the conventional battery characterization methods, which is based on battery Modular Multilevel Management (BM3). According to this Topology, the battery cells can be drained and charged concerning their capacity, which allows varying battery pack structures. Due to the integration of the power electronics, the output voltage of the battery pack is no longer fixed but can be dynamically adjusted in small steps. In other words, each cell can have three different states, namely series, parallel, and bypass in connection with the neighbor cells. With the help of MATLAB/Simulink and by using the BM3 modules, the battery string model is created. This model allows us to switch two cells with the different SoC as parallel, which results in the internal balancing of the cells. But if the parallel switching lasts just for a couple of ms, we can have a perturbation pulse which can stimulate the cells out of the relaxation phase. With the help of modeling the voltage response pulse of the battery, it would be possible to characterize the cell. The Online EIS method, which is discussed in this paper, can be a robust substitute for the conventional battery characterization methods.

Keywords: battery characterization, SoH estimation, RLS, BEV

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Authors: Yanli Qi, Ning Lv, Jing Li

Abstract:

Sub-Nyquist sampling jamming method (SNSJ) is a well known deception jamming method for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR). However, the anti-decoy of the SNSJ method performs easier since the amplitude of the false-target images are weaker than the real-target image; the false-target images always lag behind the real-target image, and all targets are located in the same cross-range. In order to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above, a simple modulation based on SNSJ (M-SNSJ) is presented in this paper. The method first uses amplitude modulation factor to make the amplitude of the false-target images consistent with the real-target image, then uses the down-range modulation factor and cross-range modulation factor to make the false-target images move freely in down-range and cross-range, respectively, thus the capacity of deception is improved. Finally, the simulation results on the six available combinations of three modulation factors are given to illustrate our conclusion.

Keywords: inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR), deceptive jamming, Sub-Nyquist sampling jamming method (SNSJ), modulation based on Sub-Nyquist sampling jamming method (M-SNSJ)

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Authors: Oksana Domkina

Abstract:

According to the modern economic theory, human capital became one of the main production factors and the most promising direction of investment, as such investment provides opportunity of obtaining high and long-term economic and social effects. Informational technology (IT) sector is the representative of this new economy which is most dependent on human capital as the main competitive factor. So the question for this sector is not whether investment in development of personal should be made, but what are the most effective ways of executing it and who has to pay for the education: Worker, company or government. In this paper we examine the IT sector, describe the labor market of IT workers and its development, and analyze the risks that IT companies may face if they invest in the development of their workers and what factors influence it. The main problem and difficulty of quantitative estimation of risk of investment in human capital of a company and its forecasting is human factor. Human behavior is often unpredictable and complex, so it requires specific approaches and methods of assessment. To build a comprehensive method of estimation of the risk of investment in human capital of a company considering human factor, we decided to use the method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), that initially was created and developed. We separated three main group of factors: Risks related to the worker, related to the company, and external factors. To receive data for our research, we conducted a survey among the HR departments of Ukrainian IT companies used them as experts for the AHP method. Received results showed that IT companies mostly invest in the development of their workers, although several hire only already qualified personnel. According to the results, the most significant risks are the risk of ineffective training and the risk of non-investment that are both related to the firm. The analysis of risk factors related to the employee showed that, the factors of personal reasons, motivation, and work performance have almost the same weights of importance. Regarding internal factors of the company, there is a high role of the factor of compensation and benefits, factors of interesting projects, team, and career opportunities. As for the external environment, one of the most dangerous factor of risk is competitor activities, meanwhile the political and economical situation factor also has a relatively high weight, which is easy to explain by the influence of severe crisis in Ukraine during 2014-2015. The presented method allows to take into consideration all main factors that affect the risk of investment in human capital of a company. This gives a base for further research in this field and allows for a creation of a practical framework for making decisions regarding the personnel development strategy and specific employees' development plans for the HR departments.

Keywords: risks, personnel development, investment in development, factors of risk, risk of investment in development, IT, analytic hierarchy process, AHP

Procedia PDF Downloads 290