Search results for: panel regression techniques

Authors: Panos Xenos, Milton Nektarios, John Yfantopoulos

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Background: Policy makers, professional organizations and payers have introduced a variety of initiatives and reforms for the health systems worldwide, aimed at improving hospital efficiency. Their efforts are concentrated in two main categories: to constrain increasing healthcare costs and to enhance quality of services provided. Research Objectives: This study examines the efficiency of 112 Greek public hospitals for the year 2009, evaluates the importance of bootstrapping techniques and investigates the effect of contextual factors on hospital efficiency. Furthermore, the effect of qualitative evidence, on hospital efficiency is explored using data from 28 large hospitals. Methods: We applied Data Envelopment Analysis, augmented by bootstrapping techniques, to estimate efficiency scores. In order to measure the effect of environmental factors on hospital efficiency we used Tobit regression analysis. The significance of our models is evaluated using statistical tests to compare distributions. Results: The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test between the original and the bootstrap-corrected efficiency indicates that their distributions are significantly different (p-value<0.01). The environmental factors, that seem to influence efficiency, are Occupancy Rating and the ratio between Outpatient Visits and Inpatient Days. Results indicate that the inclusion of the quality variable in DEA modelling generates statistically significant variations in efficiency scores (p-value<0.05). Conclusions: The inclusion of quality variables and the use of bootstrap resampling in efficiency analysis impose a statistically significant effect on the distribution of efficiency scores. As a policy conclusion we highlight the importance of these methods on hospital efficiency analysis and, by implication, on healthcare resource allocation.

Keywords: hospitals, efficiency, quality, data envelopment analysis, Greek public hospital sector

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Authors: Sami Mohamed Sharif

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The current study focuses on the design and construction of a solar tunnel dryer intended for small-scale farmers in Kassala, Sudan. To determine the appropriate dimensions of the dryer, the heat and mass balance equations are used, taking into account factors such as the target agricultural product, climate conditions, solar irradiance, and desired drying time. In Kassala, a dryer with a width of 88 cm, length of 600 cm, and height of 25 cm has been built, capable of drying up to 40 kg of vegetables or fruits. The dryer is divided into two chambers of different lengths. The air passing through is heated to the desired drying temperature in a separate heating chamber that is 200 cm long. From there, the heated air enters the drying chamber, which is 400 cm long. In this section, the agricultural product is placed on a slightly elevated net. The tunnel dryer was constructed using materials from the local market. The paper also examines the solar irradiance in Kassala, finding an average of 23.6 MJ/m2/day, with a maximum of 26.6 MJ/m2/day in April and a minimum of 20.2 MJ/m2/day in December. A DC fan powered by a 160Wp solar panel is utilized to circulate air within the tunnel. By connecting the fan and three 12V, 60W bulbs in series, four different speeds can be achieved using a speed controller. Temperature and relative humidity measurements were taken hourly over three days, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The results demonstrate the promising technology and sizing techniques of solar tunnel dryers, which can significantly increase the temperature within the tunnel by more than 90%.

Keywords: tunnel dryer, solar drying, moisture content, fruits drying modeling, open sun drying

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Authors: Watcharapong Yaowarat, Thanee Kaewthummanukul, Waruntorn Jongrungrotsakul

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Noise-induced hearing loss, the most significant occupational and safety problem among the working population, can be effectively prevented through hearing protection devices (HPDs) use. This study aimed to examine whether the following factors, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived self-efficacy, and interpersonal and situational influences about using hearing protection could predict HPD use among 132 qualified workers in production lines at Kaolin Mineral Dressing factories, Uttaradit and Lampang provinces. Data collection was undertaken from August to September 2020 according to the interview form developed by Yaruang et al. (2010), which was assured by a panel of experts and its reliability value was at an acceptable level. Data analysis was performed using logistic regression analysis. The results revealed that only the situational factor of using hearing protection could predict HPD use, which accounted for 21.80 percent of the total variance for HPD use. It was also found that the study sample who had a score for the situational factors on using hearing protection greater than or equal to the median was 4.16 times more likely to use HPDs than those who had lower median scores. (OR = 4.16, p < .05). The results, thus, indicate that organization policies addressing worker health along with enhancing a supportive environment for HPD use, in particular, the provision of various HPDs, are of great importance. Therefore, occupational health nurses and related health teams should enhance workers’ use of HPDs effectively through knowledge dissemination by adopting strategies appropriate to the workplace context leading to an achievement of worker health policy focusing on work safety.

Keywords: predicting factors, hearing protection device, factors predicting hearing protection device use, kaolin mineral dressing factories

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Authors: Seyedehsomayeh Hosseini

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Much attention has been paid over centuries to understanding and solving the problem of minimization of functions. Compared to linear programming and nonlinear unconstrained optimization problems, nonlinear constrained optimization problems are much more difficult. Since the procedure of finding an optimizer is a search based on the local information of the constraints and the objective function, it is very important to develop techniques using geometric properties of the constraints and the objective function. In fact, differential geometry provides a powerful tool to characterize and analyze these geometric properties. Thus, there is clearly a link between the techniques of optimization on manifolds and standard constrained optimization approaches. Furthermore, there are manifolds that are not defined as constrained sets in R^n an important example is the Grassmann manifolds. Hence, to solve optimization problems on these spaces, intrinsic methods are used. In a nondifferentiable problem, the gradient information of the objective function generally cannot be used to determine the direction in which the function is decreasing. Therefore, techniques of nonsmooth analysis are needed to deal with such a problem. As a manifold, in general, does not have a linear structure, the usual techniques, which are often used in nonsmooth analysis on linear spaces, cannot be applied and new techniques need to be developed. This paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for a strict local minimum of extended real-valued, nonsmooth functions defined on Riemannian manifolds.

Keywords: Riemannian manifolds, nonsmooth optimization, lower semicontinuous functions, subdifferential

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Authors: R. N. Jay A. Ablog, M. N. Dyanne R. Del Carmen, Roma Rose A. Dela Cruz, Joselle Dara M. Estrada, Luke Clifferson M. Gagarin, Florence T. Lang-ay, Ma. Dayanara O. Mariñas, Maria Christina S. Nepa, Jahraine Chyle B. Ocampo, Mark Reynie Renz V. Silva, Jenny Lyn L. Soriano, Loreal Cloe M. Suva, Jackelyn R. Torres

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Background: To date, there is dearth of literature as to the effect of relaxation techniques in lowering the stress level of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Aim: To investigate the effectiveness of 4-week relaxation techniques in stress level reduction of mothers of children with ASD. Methods: Quasi experimental design. It included 25 mothers (10-experimental, 15-control) who were chosen via purposive sampling. The mothers were recruited in the different SPED centers in Baguio City and La Trinidad and in the community. Statistics used were T-test and Related T-Test. Results: The overall weighted mean score after 4-week training is 2.3, indicating that the relaxation techniques introduced were moderately effective in lowering stress level. Statistical analysis (T-test; CV=4.51>TV=2.26) shown a significant difference in the stress level reduction of mothers in the experimental group pre and post interventions. There is also a significant difference in the stress level reduction in the control and the experimental group (Related T-test; CV=2.08 >TV=2.07). The relaxation techniques introduced were favorable, cost-effective, and easy to perform interventions to decrease stress level.

Keywords: relaxation techniques, mindful eating, progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercise, autism spectrum disorder

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Authors: Patricia Helena Dos Santos Martins, Mateus Atique, Lucas Oliveira Gomes Ferreira

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There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of bibliometric analysis through the evolutionary nuances of a specific field while shedding light on the emerging areas in that field. Surprisingly, its application in the manufacturing research of vitiviniculture is relatively new and, in many instances, underdeveloped. The aim of this study is to present an overview of the bibliometric methodology, with a particular focus on the Meta-Analytical Approach Theory model – TEMAC, while offering step-by-step results on the available techniques and procedures for carrying out studies about the elements associated with vitiviniculture. Where TEMAC is a method that uses metadata to generate heat maps, graphs of keyword relationships and others, with the aim of revealing relationships between authors, articles and mainly to understand how the topic has evolved over the period study and thus reveal which subthemes were worked on, main techniques and applications, helping to understand that topic under study and guide researchers in generating new research. From the studies carried out using TEMAC, it is possible to raise which are the techniques within the statistical control of processes that are most used within the wine industry and thus assist professionals in the area in the application of the best techniques. It is expected that this paper will be a useful resource for gaining insights into the available techniques and procedures for carrying out studies about vitiviniculture, the cultivation of vineyards, the production of wine, and all the ethnography connected with it.

Keywords: TEMAC, vitiviniculture, statical control of process, quality

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Authors: Lavanya Madhuri Bollipo, K. V. Kadambari

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Objective: To discuss key issues in the diagnosis of Parkinson disease (PD), To discuss features influencing PD progression, To discuss importance of brain SPECT data in PD diagnosis, and To discuss the essentiality of machine learning techniques in early diagnosis of PD. An accurate and early diagnosis of PD is nowadays a challenge as clinical symptoms in PD arise only when there is more than 60% loss of dopaminergic neurons. So far there are no laboratory tests for the diagnosis of PD, causing a high rate of misdiagnosis especially when the disease is in the early stages. Recent neuroimaging studies with brain SPECT using 123I-Ioflupane (DaTSCAN) as radiotracer shown to be widely used to assist the diagnosis of PD even in its early stages. Machine learning techniques can be used in combination with image analysis procedures to develop computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems for PD. This paper addressed recent studies involving diagnosis of PD in its early stages using brain SPECT data with Machine Learning Techniques.

Keywords: Parkinson disease (PD), dopamine transporter, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), support vector machine (SVM)

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Authors: Ivan Balachin, Geanette Polanco, Jiang Xingliang, Hu Qin

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The problem of global warming raised up interest towards renewable energy sources. To reduce cost of wind energy is a challenge. Before building of wind park conditions such as: average wind speed, direction, time for each wind, probability of icing, must be considered in the design phase. Operation values used on the setting of control systems also will depend on mentioned variables. Here it is proposed a procedure to be include in the evaluation of the performance of a wind turbine, based on the amplitude of wind changes, the number of changes and their duration. A generic study case based on actual data is presented. Data analysing techniques were applied to model the power required for yaw system based on amplitude and data amount of wind changes. A theoretical model between time, amplitude of wind changes and angular speed of nacelle rotation was identified.

Keywords: field data processing, regression determination, wind turbine performance, wind turbine placing, yaw system losses

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Authors: C. M. Mat Isa, H. Mohd Saman, S. R. Mohd Nasir, A. Jaapar

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International market expansion involves a strategic process of market entry decision through which a firm expands its operation from domestic to the international domain. Hence, entry timing choices require the needs to balance the early entry risks and the problems in losing opportunities as a result of late entry into a new market. Questionnaire surveys administered to 115 Malaysian construction firms operating in 51 countries worldwide have resulted in 39.1 percent response rate. Factor analysis was used to determine the most significant factors affecting entry timing choices of the firms to penetrate the international market. A logistic regression analysis used to examine the firms’ entry timing choices, indicates that the model has correctly classified 89.5 per cent of cases as late movers. The findings reveal that the most significant factor influencing the construction firms’ choices as late movers was the firm factor related to the firm’s international experience, resources, competencies and financing capacity. The study also offers valuable information to construction firms with intention to internationalize their businesses.

Keywords: factors, early movers, entry timing choices, late movers, logistic regression model, principal axis factorial analysis, Malaysian construction firms

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Authors: Mohamed Zakaulla, A. R. Anwar Khan

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Al6061 alloy base matrix, reinforced with particles of silicon carbide (10 wt %) and Graphite powder (1wt%), known as hybrid composites have been fabricated by liquid metallurgy route (stir casting technique) and optimized at different parameters like applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance by taguchi method. A plan of experiment generated through taguchi technique was used to perform experiments based on L27 orthogonal array. The developed ANOVA and regression equations are used to find the optimum coefficient of friction and wear under the influence of applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance. On the basis of “smaller the best” the dry sliding wear resistance was analysed and finally confirmation tests were carried out to verify the experimental results.

Keywords: analysis of variance, dry sliding wear, hybrid composite, orthogonal array, Taguchi technique

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Authors: Tung-Hui Hsu, Wen-Yuh Jywe

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Five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools (three linear and two rotary axes) are ideally suited to the fabrication of complex work pieces, such as dies, turbo blades, and cams. The locations of the axis average line and centerline of the rotary axes strongly influence the performance of these machines; however, techniques to compensate for eccentric error in the rotary axes remain weak. This paper proposes optical (Non-Bar) techniques capable of calibrating five-axis CNC machine tools and compensating for eccentric error in the rotary axes. This approach employs the measurement path in ISO/CD 10791-6 to determine the eccentric error in two rotary axes, for which compensatory measures can be implemented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed techniques can improve the performance of various five-axis CNC machine tools by more than 90%. Finally, a result of the cutting test using a B-type five-axis CNC machine tool confirmed to the usefulness of this proposed compensation technique.

Keywords: calibration, compensation, rotary axis, five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools, eccentric error, optical calibration system, ISO/CD 10791-6

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Authors: Mayank Raj, V. G. Narendra

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Ever since the DARPA challenge on autonomous vehicles in 2005, there has been a lot of buzz about ‘Autonomous Vehicles’ amongst the major tech giants such as Google, Uber, and Tesla. Numerous approaches have been adopted to solve this problem, which can have a long-lasting impact on mankind. In this paper, we have used Deep Learning techniques and TensorFlow framework with the goal of building a neural network model to predict (speed, acceleration, steering angle, and brake) features needed for navigation of autonomous vehicles. The Deep Neural Network has been trained on images and sensor data obtained from the comma.ai dataset. A heatmap was used to check for correlation among the features, and finally, four important features were selected. This was a multivariate regression problem. The final model had five convolutional layers, followed by five dense layers. Finally, the calculated values were tested against the labeled data, where the mean squared error was used as a performance metric.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, deep learning, computer vision, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Wanda Luen-Wun Siu, Xiaowen Zhang

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This paper offered the primary methodical proof on how CSR reporting related to enterprise earnings in listed firms in China in light of most evidence focusing on cross-sectional data or data in a short span of time. Using full economic and business panel data on China’s publicly listed enterprise from 2006 to 2020 over two decades in the China Stock Market and Accounting Research database, we found initial evidence of significant direct relations between CSR reporting and firm corporate performance in both state-owned and privately owned firms over this period, supporting the stakeholder theory. Results also revealed that state-owned enterprises performed as well as private enterprises in the current period. But private enterprises performed better than state-owned enterprises in the subsequent years. Moreover, the release of social responsibility reports had a more significant impact on the financial performance of state-owned and private enterprises in the current period than in the subsequent periods. Specifically, CSR release was not significantly associated with the financial performance of state-owned enterprises on the lag of the first, second, and third periods. But it had an impact on the lag of the first, second, and third periods among private enterprises. Such findings suggested that CSR reporting helped improve the corporate financial performance of state-owned and private enterprises in the current period, but this kind of effect was more significant among private enterprises in the lag periods.

Keywords: China’s listed firms, CSR reporting, financial performance, panel analysis

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Authors: Masood Varshosaz, Kamyar Hasanpour

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In recent years, we have seen growing interest in recognizing humans in drone images for post-disaster search and rescue operations. Deep learning algorithms have shown great promise in this area, but they often require large amounts of labeled data to train the models. To keep the data acquisition cost low, augmentation techniques can be used to create additional data from existing images. There are many techniques of such that can help generate variations of an original image to improve the performance of deep learning algorithms. While data augmentation is potentially assumed to improve the accuracy and robustness of the models, it is important to ensure that the performance gains are not outweighed by the additional computational cost or complexity of implementing the techniques. To this end, it is important to evaluate the impact of data augmentation on the performance of the deep learning models. In this paper, we evaluated the most currently available 2D data augmentation techniques on a standard convolutional network which was trained for recognizing humans in drone images. The techniques include rotation, scaling, random cropping, flipping, shifting, and their combination. The results showed that the augmented models perform 1-3% better compared to a base network. However, as the augmented images only contain the human parts already visible in the original images, a new data augmentation approach is needed to include the invisible parts of the human body. Thus, we suggest a new method that employs simulated 3D human models to generate new data for training the network.

Keywords: human recognition, deep learning, drones, disaster mitigation

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Authors: Roger L. Goodwin

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This paper presents a rank correlation curve. The traditional correlation coefficient is valid for both continuous variables and for integer variables using rank statistics. Since the correlation coefficient has already been established in rank statistics by Spearman, such a calculation can be extended to the correlation curve. This paper presents two survey questions. The survey collected non-continuous variables. We will show weak to moderate correlation. Obviously, one question has a negative effect on the other. A review of the qualitative literature can answer which question and why. The rank correlation curve shows which collection of responses has a positive slope and which collection of responses has a negative slope. Such information is unavailable from the flat, "first-glance" correlation statistics.

Keywords: Bayesian estimation, regression model, rank statistics, correlation, correlation curve

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Authors: Lee Jeong Min, Lee Mi Hee, Eo Yang Dam

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Geospatial feature extraction is a very important issue in the remote sensing research. In the meantime, the image classification based on statistical techniques, but, in recent years, data mining and machine learning techniques for automated image processing technology is being applied to remote sensing it has focused on improved results generated possibility. In this study, artificial neural network and decision tree technique is applied to classify the high-resolution satellite images, as compared to the MLC processing result is a statistical technique and an analysis of the pros and cons between each of the techniques.

Keywords: remote sensing, artificial neural network, decision tree, maximum likelihood classification

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Authors: Eyibo Ebengeobong Eddie

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Taking advantage of the sun's position to design buildings to ensure human comfort has always been an important aspect in an architectural design. Using cheap and less expensive methods and systems for gaining solar energy, heating and cooling has always been a great advantage to users and occupants of a building. As the years run by, daily techniques and methods have been created and more are being discovered to help reduce the energy demands of any building. Architects have made effective use of a buildings orientation, building materials and elements to achieve less energy demand. This paper talks about the various techniques used in solar heating and passive cooling of buildings and through water techniques and concepts to achieve thermal comfort.

Keywords: comfort, passive, solar, water

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Authors: Uzoma Emmanuel Igboji

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The study investigates the effects of cash flow position on corporate performance in the manufacturing sector of Nigeria, using multiple regression techniques. The study involved a survey of five (5) manufacturing companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The data were obtained from the annual reports of the selected companies under study. The result shows that operating and financing cash flow have a significant positive relationship with corporate performance, while investing cash flow position have a significant negative relationship. The researcher recommended that the regulatory authorities should encourage external auditors of these quoted companies to use cash flow ratios in evaluating the performance of a company before expressing an independent opinion on the financial statement. The will give detailed financial information to existing and potential investors to make informed economic decisions.

Keywords: cash flow, financing, performance, operating

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Authors: Osman Zorbaz, Selen Demirtas-Zorbaz, Ozlem Ulas

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The factors that cause adolescents to drop out school were several. One of the frameworks about school dropout focuses on the contextual factors around the adolescents whereas the other one focuses on individual factors. It can be said that both factors are important equally. In this study, both adolescent’s individual factors (anti-social behaviors, academic success) and contextual factors (parent academic involvement, parent academic support, number of siblings, living with parent) were examined in the term of school dropout. The study sample consisted of 346 high school students in the public schools in Ankara who continued their education in 2015-2016 academic year. One hundred eighty-five the students (53.5%) were girls and 161 (46.5%) were boys. In addition to this 118 of them were in ninth grade, 122 of them in tenth grade and 106 of them were in eleventh grade. Multiple regression and one-way ANOVA statistical methods were used. First, it was examined if the data meet the assumptions and conditions that are required for regression analysis. After controlling the assumptions, regression analysis was conducted. Parent academic involvement, parent academic support, number of siblings, anti-social behaviors, academic success variables were taken into the regression model and it was seen that parent academic involvement (t=-3.023, p < .01), anti-social behaviors (t=7.038, p < .001), and academic success (t=-3.718, p < .001) predicted school dropout whereas parent academic support (t=-1.403, p > .05) and number of siblings (t=-1.908, p > .05) didn’t. The model explained 30% of the variance (R=.557, R2=.300, F5,345=30.626, p < .001). In addition to this the variance, results showed there was no significant difference on high school students school dropout levels according to living with parents or not (F2;345=1.183, p > .05). Results discussed in the light of the literature and suggestion were made. As a result, academic involvement, academic success and anti-social behaviors will be considered as an important factors for preventing school drop-out.

Keywords: adolescents, anti-social behavior, parent academic involvement, parent academic support, school dropout

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Authors: Muhammad Usman

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Pattern extraction has been done in past to extract hidden and interesting patterns from large datasets. Recently, advancements are being made in these techniques by providing the ability of multi-level mining, effective dimension reduction, advanced evaluation and visualization support. This paper focuses on reviewing the current techniques in literature on the basis of these parameters. Literature review suggests that most of the techniques which provide multi-level mining and dimension reduction, do not handle mixed-type data during the process. Patterns are not extracted using advanced algorithms for large datasets. Moreover, the evaluation of patterns is not done using advanced measures which are suited for high-dimensional data. Techniques which provide visualization support are unable to handle a large number of rules in a small space. We present a theoretical model to handle these issues. The implementation of the model is beyond the scope of this paper.

Keywords: association rule mining, data mining, data warehouses, visualization of association rules

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Authors: Smriti Bhatnagar

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This study aims to find if the Transit-oriented planning and development approach benefit the quality of air in neighborhoods of New Delhi. Two methodologies, namely the land use regression analysis and the Transit-oriented development index analysis, are being used to explore this relationship. Land Use Regression Analysis makes use of urban form characteristics as obtained for 33 neighborhoods in Delhi. These comprise road lengths, land use areas, population and household densities, number of amenities and distance between amenities. Regressions are run to establish the relationship between urban form variables and air quality parameters (dependent variables). For the Transit-oriented development index analysis, the Transit-oriented Development index is developed as a composite index comprising 29 urban form indicators. This index is developed by assigning weights to each of the 29 urban form data points. Regressions are run to establish the relationship between the Transit-oriented development index and air quality parameters. The thesis finds that elements of Transit-oriented development if incorporated in planning approach, have a positive effect on air quality. Roads suited for non-motorized transport, well connected civic amenities in neighbourhoods, for instance, have a directly proportional relationship with air quality. Transit-oriented development index, however, is not found to have a consistent relationship with air quality parameters. The reason could this, however, be in the way that the index has been constructed.

Keywords: air quality, land use regression, mixed-use planning, transit-oriented development index, New Delhi

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Authors: Aftab Hameed Memon, Shadab Noor, Muhammad Akram Akhund

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Lean construction is a philosophy adopted in the construction industry to increase the value of a project by reducing waste and improving construction productivity. Lean emphasizes on maximizing the value of a project with less expenditure. Globally, lean philosophy has received wider popularity in construction sector. Lean construction has supported the practitioners with several tools and techniques to implement at various stages of a construction project. Following the global trends, this study has investigated the lean practice in Pakistan. The level of implementation of different lean tools and techniques altogether with potential benefits experienced by its implementation in construction projects of Pakistan is analyzed. To achieve the targets, the opinion was sought by the practitioners involved in handling construction projects representing four stakeholders that are a client, consultant, contractors and material suppliers through a structured questionnaire. A total of 34 completed questionnaires were collected and then statistically analyzed. The findings of the analysis have highlighted that pull approach, work standardization, just in time, increase visualization tools, integrated project delivery method and fail-safe for quality are common lean techniques implemented in the local construction industry. While reduction in waste, client’s satisfaction, improved communication, visual control and proper task management are major benefits of the lean construction application.

Keywords: lean construction, lean tools and techniques, lean benefits, waste reduction, Pakistan

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Authors: Rizwan Ali, Hammad Zafar

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The purpose of this research is to investigate the mediation effect of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service quality, corporate image to customer loyalty, in Pakistan banking sector. The population of this research is banking customers and sample size of 210 respondents. This research uses the SPSS, Correlation, ANOVA and regression analysis techniques along with AMOS methods. The service quality and corporate image applied by the banks are not all variables can directly affect customer loyalty, but must first going through satisfaction. Which means that banks must first need to understand what the customer basic needs through variable service quality and corporate image so that the customers feel loyal when the level of satisfaction is resolved. The service quality provided by the banking industry needs to be improved in order to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty of banking services, especially for banks in Pakistan.

Keywords: customer loyalty, service quality, corporate image, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Brian J. Kozak, Joshua D. Shipman, Peng Hao Wang, Blake Shipp

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The unmanned aerial system (UAS) industry is growing at a rapid pace. This growth has increased the demand for low cost, custom made and high strength unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The area of most growth is in the area of 25 kg to 200 kg vehicles. Vehicles this size are beyond the size and scope of simple wood and fabric designs commonly found in hobbyist aircraft. These high end vehicles require stronger materials to complete their mission. Traditional aircraft construction materials such as aluminum are difficult to use without machining or advanced computer controlled tooling. However, by using general aviation composite aircraft homebuilding techniques and materials, a large scale UAV can be constructed cheaply and easily. Furthermore, these techniques could be used to easily manufacture cost made composite shapes and airfoils that would be cost prohibitive when using metals. These homebuilt aircraft techniques are being demonstrated by the researchers in the construction of a 75 kg aircraft.

Keywords: composite aircraft, homebuilding, unmanned aerial system industry, UAS, unmanned aerial vehicles, UAV

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Authors: Priscila A. Bernardes, Marcos E. Buzanskas, Luciana C. A. Regitano, Ricardo V. Ventura, Danisio P. Munari

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Genotype imputation has been used to reduce genomic selections costs. In order to increase haplotype detection accuracy in methods that considers the linkage disequilibrium, another approach could be used, such as combined genotype data from different panels. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the linkage disequilibrium and haplotype blocks in two high-density panels before and after the imputation to a combined panel in Nelore beef cattle. A total of 814 animals were genotyped with the Illumina BovineHD BeadChip (IHD), wherein 93 animals (23 bulls and 70 progenies) were also genotyped with the Affymetrix Axion Genome-Wide BOS 1 Array Plate (AHD). After the quality control, 809 IHD animals (509,107 SNPs) and 93 AHD (427,875 SNPs) remained for analyses. The combined genotype panel (CP) was constructed by merging both panels after quality control, resulting in 880,336 SNPs. Imputation analysis was conducted using software FImpute v.2.2b. The reference (CP) and target (IHD) populations consisted of 23 bulls and 786 animals, respectively. The linkage disequilibrium and haplotype blocks studies were carried out for IHD, AHD, and imputed CP. Two linkage disequilibrium measures were considered; the correlation coefficient between alleles from two loci (r²) and the |D’|. Both measures were calculated using the software PLINK. The haplotypes' blocks were estimated using the software Haploview. The r² measurement presented different decay when compared to |D’|, wherein AHD and IHD had almost the same decay. For r², even with possible overestimation by the sample size for AHD (93 animals), the IHD presented higher values when compared to AHD for shorter distances, but with the increase of distance, both panels presented similar values. The r² measurement is influenced by the minor allele frequency of the pair of SNPs, which can cause the observed difference comparing the r² decay and |D’| decay. As a sum of the combinations between Illumina and Affymetrix panels, the CP presented a decay equivalent to a mean of these combinations. The estimated haplotype blocks detected for IHD, AHD, and CP were 84,529, 63,967, and 140,336, respectively. The IHD were composed by haplotype blocks with mean of 137.70 ± 219.05kb, the AHD with mean of 102.10kb ± 155.47, and the CP with mean of 107.10kb ± 169.14. The majority of the haplotype blocks of these three panels were composed by less than 10 SNPs, with only 3,882 (IHD), 193 (AHD) and 8,462 (CP) haplotype blocks composed by 10 SNPs or more. There was an increase in the number of chromosomes covered with long haplotypes when CP was used as well as an increase in haplotype coverage for short chromosomes (23-29), which can contribute for studies that explore haplotype blocks. In general, using CP could be an alternative to increase density and number of haplotype blocks, increasing the probability to obtain a marker close to a quantitative trait loci of interest.

Keywords: Bos taurus indicus, decay, genotype imputation, single nucleotide polymorphism

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Authors: Reza Sirjani, Nobosse Tafem Bolan

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Many optimization techniques available in the literature have been developed in order to solve the problem of voltage stability enhancement in power systems. However, there are a number of drawbacks in the use of previous techniques aimed at determining the optimal location and size of reactive compensators in a network. In this paper, an Improved Cuckoo Search algorithm is applied as an appropriate optimization algorithm to determine the optimum location and size of a Static Var Compensator (SVC) in a transmission network. The main objectives are voltage stability improvement and total cost minimization. The results of the presented technique are then compared with other available optimization techniques.

Keywords: cuckoo search algorithm, optimization, power system, var compensators, voltage stability

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Authors: Fahad Hanash Alzahrani

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This paper describes some recent advances in a quickly developing area of data storing and processing based on Data Warehouses and Data Mining techniques, which are associated with software, hardware, data mining algorithms and visualisation techniques having common features for any specific problems and tasks of their implementation.

Keywords: data warehouse, data mining, knowledge discovery in databases, on-line analytical processing

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Authors: A. Abdel-Moniem, H. Madkour, K. Farah, A. Abdullah

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The reduction in dapped end beams depth nearby the supports tends to produce stress concentration and hence results in shear cracks, if it does not have an adequate reinforcement detailing. This study investigates numerically the efficiency of applying different external strengthening techniques to the dapped end of such beams. A two-dimensional finite element model was built to predict the structural behavior of dapped ends strengthened with different techniques. The techniques included external bonding of the steel angle at the re-entrant corner, un-bounded bolt anchoring, external steel plate jacketing, exterior carbon fiber wrapping and/or stripping and external inclined steel plates. The FE analysis results are then presented in terms of the ultimate load capacities, load-deflection and crack pattern at failure. The results showed that the FE model, at various stages, was found to be comparable to the available test data. Moreover, it enabled the capture of the failure progress, with acceptable accuracy, which is very difficult in a laboratory test.

Keywords: dapped-end beams, finite element, shear failure, strengthening techniques, reinforced concrete, numerical investigation

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Authors: Si Chen, Le Zhang, Xian He

Abstract:

The research explored the influences of public open space system on housing price through hedonic models, in order to support better open space plans and economic policies. We have three initial hypotheses: 1) public open space system has an overall positive influence on surrounding housing prices. 2) Different public open space types have different levels of influence on motivating surrounding housing prices. 3) Walking and driving accessibilities from property to public open spaces have different statistical relation with housing prices. Cook County, Illinois, was chosen to be a study area since data availability, sufficient open space types, and long-term open space preservation strategies. We considered the housing attributes, driving and walking accessibility scores from houses to nearby public open spaces, and driving accessibility scores to hospitals as influential features and used real housing sales price in 2010 as a dependent variable in the built hedonic model. Through ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, General Moran’s I analysis and geographically weighted regression analysis, we observed the statistical relations between public open spaces and housing sale prices in the three built hedonic models and confirmed all three hypotheses.

Keywords: hedonic model, public open space, housing sale price, regression analysis, accessibility score

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Joel S. Akintayo, Ramat T. Salman

Abstract:

The stakeholders’ pressure on corporate managers to maintain firm’s profitability has created economic incentives for management to engage in earnings management practices. Therefore, this study examines the effects of audit quality and corporate governance on earnings management of quoted deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. This study specifically investigates the influence of audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, and board size on earnings management of DMBs. Explanatory research design was employed in carrying out the study while secondary data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of all the 15 quoted DMBs in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at December 31, 2015 for a period of 10 years covering from 2006 to 2015. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using panel regression analysis approach. The findings reveal that board independence has a negative significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.002), while audit fee has a positive significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.013) and audit tenure has a negative significant effect on earnings management of DMBs at a 5% level of significance (p=0.003). Surprisingly, board size was statistically not significant at a 5% level of significance (p=0.086). The study concludes that high audit quality and sound corporate governance could improve the earnings quality of DMBs. Hence, the study recommends that the authorities saddled with the responsibility of banking supervision in Nigeria such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CBN to advise the National Assembly in Nigeria to pass into law the three years professional requirement for audit tenure.

Keywords: audit quality, audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, corporate governance, earnings management

Procedia PDF Downloads 175