Search results for: loading factor performance

Authors: Abass Suara

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Following careful observation of the Bowling Green State University Ice Hockey Arena, it became imperative to study the reason for low racial minority participation in the game of Hockey. Therefore, this research aims to better understand the factors affecting diversity in Hockey. it conducted semi-structured interviews with two unique participants: a former hockey player who is now a coach and administrator while the other is a racial minority student-athlete. Following a content narrative analysis of the data gathered from observations and interviews, three higher-order themes emerged: economic, social, and relationship factors. The administrator's perceptions of low diversity bear heavily on the sport's financial demands while he also harps on how the sport fosters stronger team relationships. The perception of the student-athlete does not differ except that he added racism as a significant factor to the less racial minority participation in Ice Hockey. So, as much as Hockey has proved to be a costly sport to play, society also needs to pay some attention to the other psychological warfare racial minorities battle that has nothing to do with financial capabilities.

Keywords: sport, ice hockey, diversity in sport, ethnography

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Timothy Wale Olaosebikan

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The most active resource in any organization is the manpower. Every other resource remains inactive unless there is competent manpower to handle them. Manpower training is needed to enhance productivity and overall performance of the organizations. This is due to the recognition of the important role of manpower training in attainment of organizational goals. Corporate Compliance conjures visions of an incomprehensible matrix of laws and regulations that defy logic and control by even the most seasoned manpower training professionals. Similarly, corporate compliance can be viewed as one of the most significant problems faced in manpower training process for any organization, therefore, commands relevant attention and comprehension. Consequently, this study investigated the nexus between manpower training and corporate compliance. Collection of data for the study was effected through the use of questionnaire with a sample size of 265 drawn by stratified random sampling. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study show that about 75% of the respondents agree that there is a strong relationship between manpower training and corporate compliance, which brings out the organizational attainment from any training process. The findings further show that most organisation do not totally comply with the rules guiding manpower training process thereby making the process less effective on organizational performance, which may affect overall profitability. The study concludes that formulation and compliance of adequate rules and guidelines for manpower trainings will produce effective results for both employees and the organization at large. The study recommends that leaders of organizations, industries, and institutions must ensure total compliance on the part of both the employees and the organization to manpower training rules. Organizations and stakeholders should also ensure that strict policies on corporate compliance to manpower trainings form the heart of their cardinal mission.

Keywords: corporate compliance, manpower training, nexus, rules and guidelines

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Authors: Zhilin Wang, Zhihao Zheng, Linxin Liu

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This study proposes a low-code model-building approach that aims to simplify the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) models. With an intuitive way to drag and drop and connect components, users can easily build complex models and integrate multiple algorithms for training. After the training is completed, the system automatically generates a callable model service API. This method not only lowers the technical threshold of AI development and improves development efficiency but also enhances the flexibility of algorithm integration and simplifies the deployment process of models. The core strength of this method lies in its ease of use and efficiency. Users do not need to have a deep programming background and can complete the design and implementation of complex models with a simple drag-and-drop operation. This feature greatly expands the scope of AI technology, allowing more non-technical people to participate in the development of AI models. At the same time, the method performs well in algorithm integration, supporting many different types of algorithms to work together, which further improves the performance and applicability of the model. In the experimental part, we performed several performance tests on the method. The results show that compared with traditional model construction methods, this method can make more efficient use, save computing resources, and greatly shorten the model training time. In addition, the system-generated model service interface has been optimized for high availability and scalability, which can adapt to the needs of different application scenarios.

Keywords: low-code, model building, artificial intelligence, algorithm integration, model deployment

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Authors: A. Kaddour, S. M. A. Bekkouche

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Limiting heat losses during ventilation of indoor building spaces has become a basic aim for architects. Much experience has been gained in terms of ventilation of indoor spaces. Nevertheless, due to the complex applications, attempts to create a theoretical base for solving the problems related to the issue are limited, especially determining the minimum ventilation period required within a designated space. In this paper we have approached this matter, both theoretically and computationally. The conclusion we reached was that controlled ventilation of spaces through vent holes that successively open and close at regular time intervals can limit the excessive circulation of air masses, which in turn limits heat losses. Air change rates through open and tilted windows in rooms of residential buildings driven by atmospheric motions are investigated to evaluate natural ventilation concepts. Model of thermal building simulations is used. A separated sample storey and a sample single room in larger scales were used to measure air transport through window openings under the influence of the external pressure distribution.

Keywords: natural ventilation, temperature factor, air change rates, air circulation

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Authors: Iga Maliga

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As developing country, Indonesia, retreatment for greywater is an important factor that guaranteeing water sustainability? But, its still not familiar in Indonesian society. Because they still use their old habit for wasting the water without retreatment. Differently, with industry wastewater, effect of domestic wastewater is not directly looked with naked eyes. Domestic wastewater that not gets treatment directly can affect pollution in water body or river. Its affected by accumulation many pollutants that include on water. This paper is trying to analyze the challenges and advantages on greywater treatment system based on Constructed Wetlands (CWs) system in Bandung, one of the biggest cities in Indonesia. Aside that, this paper also is trying to analyze sustainability aspects. There is economic, social and of course environment with two methods. The first, study literature is used to see the advantages and challenges that faced by Indonesia when CWs are applied. Secondly, quantitative method is used to get the society perception about retreatment of greywater. Then, it will get a conclusion that this technique not only good in theoretically but also practically.

Keywords: greywater, constructed wetlands, advantages, challenges, Bandung, sustainability analysis

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Authors: Yelena Mazour-Matusevich, Jean-Robert Ancheta

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This study is based on more than fifteen years of experience of teaching a foreign language, in my case French, to the English-speaking students. It represents a qualitative research on foreign language learners’ reaction and their gains in terms of vocabulary and listening comprehension through repeatedly viewing foreign feature films with the original sountrack but without English subtitles. The initial idea emerged upon realization that the first challenge faced by my students when they find themselves in a francophone environment has been their lack of listening comprehension. Their inability to understand colloquial speech affects not only their academic performance, but their psychological health as well. To remedy this problem, I have designed and applied for many years my own teaching method based on one particular French film, exceptionally suited, for the reasons described in detail in the paper, for the intermediate-advanced level foreign language learners. This project, conducted together with my undergraduate assistant and mentoree J-R Ancheta, aims at showing how the paralinguistic features, such as characters’ facial expressions, settings, music, historical background, images provided before the actual viewing, etc., offer crucial support and enhance students’ listening comprehension. The study, based on students’ interviews, also offers special pedagogical techniques, such as ‘anticipatory’ vocabulary lists and exercises, drills, quizzes and composition topics that have proven to boost students’ performance. For this study, only the listening proficiency and vocabulary gains of the interviewed participants were assessed.

Keywords: comprehension, film, listening, subtitles, vocabulary

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Authors: M. Ahmed, Javed Mallick, Mohammad Abul Hasan

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The flexural tensile strength of concrete is an important parameter for determining cracking behavior of concrete structure and to compute deflection under flexure. Many factors have been shown to influence the flexural tensile strength, particularly the level of concrete strength, size of member, age of concrete and confinement to flexure member etc. Empirical equations have been suggested to relate the flexural tensile strength and compressive strength. Limited literature is available for relationship between flexural tensile strength and compressive strength giving consideration to the factors affecting the flexural tensile strength specially the concrete confinement factor. The concrete member such as slabs, beams and columns critical locations are under confinement effects. The paper presents the experimental study to predict the flexural tensile strength and compressive strength empirical relations using statistical procedures considering the effect of confinement and age of concrete for wide range of concrete strength (from 35 to about 100 MPa). It is concluded from study that due consideration of confinement should be given in deriving the flexural tensile strength and compressive strength proportionality equations.

Keywords: compressive strength, flexural tensile strength, modulus of rupture, statistical procedures, concrete confinement

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Authors: A. G. Gashua, T. T. Bello, I. Alhassan, K. K. Gwiokura

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Weeds are known to interfere seriously with crop growth, thereby affecting the productivity and quality of crops. Crops are also known to compete for natural growth resources if they are not adequately spaced, also affecting the performance of the growing crop. Farmers grow cowpea in mixtures with cereals and this is known to affect its yield. For this reason, a field experiment was conducted at Yobe State College of Agriculture Gujba, Damaturu station in the 2014 and 2015 rainy seasons to determine the appropriate intra row spacing and weeding regime for optimum growth and yield of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) in pure stand in Sudan Savanna ecology. The treatments consist of three levels of spacing within rows (20 cm, 30 cm and 40 cm) and four weeding regimes (none, once at 3 weeks after sowing (WAS), twice at 3 and 6WAS, thrice at 3WAS, 6WAS and 9WAS); arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times. The variety used was the local cowpea variety (white, early and spreading) commonly grown by farmers. The growth and yield data were collected and subjected to analysis of variance using SAS software, and the significant means were ranked by Students Newman Keul’s test (SNK). The findings of this study revealed better crop performance in 2015 than in 2014 despite poor soil condition. Intra row spacing significantly influenced vegetative growth especially the number of main branches, leaves and canopy spread at 6WAS and 9WAS with the highest values obtained at wider spacing (40 cm). The values obtained in 2015 doubled those obtained in 2014 in most cases. Spacing also significantly affected the number of pods in 2015, seed weight in both years and grain yield in 2014 with the highest values obtained when the crop was spaced at 30-40 cm. Similarly, weeding regime significantly influenced almost all the growth attributes of cowpea with higher values obtained from where cowpea was weeded three times at 3-week intervals, though statistically similar results were obtained even from where cowpea was weeded twice. Weeding also affected the entire yield and yield components in 2015 with the highest values obtained with increase weeding. Based on these findings, it is recommended that spreading cowpea varieties should be grown at 40 cm (or wider spacing) within rows and be weeded twice at three-week intervals for better crop performance in related ecologies.

Keywords: intra-row spacing, local cowpea, Nigeria, weeding

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Authors: H. Sakamoto, Y. Nakagawara, S. Oguri

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Drought stress is a critical environmental factor that adversely affects crop productivity and quality. Because of their immobile nature, plants have evolved mechanisms to sense and respond to drought stress. We identified a novel locus of Arabidopsis, designated DRA1 (drought responsive ankyrin 1), whose disruption leads to increased drought stress tolerance. DRA1 encodes a transmembrane protein with an ankyrin repeat motif that has been implicated in diverse cellular processes such as signal transduction. RT-PCR analysis revealed that there were at least two splicing variants of DRA1 transcripts in wild type plants. In response to drought stress, the levels of DRA1 transcripts retaining second and third introns were increased, whereas these introns were removed under unstressed conditions. These results suggest that DRA1 protein may negatively regulate plant drought tolerance and that the expression of DRA1 is regulated in response to drought stress by alternative splicing.

Keywords: alternative splicing, ankyrin repeat, Arabidopsis, drought tolerance

Procedia PDF Downloads 329

Authors: Amirhossein Safi

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Internet of things (IOT) is a kind of advanced information technology which has drawn societies’ attention. Sensors and stimulators are usually recognized as smart devices of our environment. Simultaneously, IOT security brings up new issues. Internet connection and possibility of interaction with smart devices cause those devices to involve more in human life. Therefore, safety is a fundamental requirement in designing IOT. IOT has three remarkable features: overall perception, reliable transmission, and intelligent processing. Because of IOT span, security of conveying data is an essential factor for system security. Hybrid encryption technique is a new model that can be used in IOT. This type of encryption generates strong security and low computation. In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid encryption algorithm which has been conducted in order to reduce safety risks and enhancing encryption's speed and less computational complexity. The purpose of this hybrid algorithm is information integrity, confidentiality, non-repudiation in data exchange for IOT. Eventually, the suggested encryption algorithm has been simulated by MATLAB software, and its speed and safety efficiency were evaluated in comparison with conventional encryption algorithm.

Keywords: internet of things, security, hybrid algorithm, privacy

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Authors: Shrestha Sharma, Jasjeet K. Sahni, Javed Ali, Sanjula Baboota

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Introduction: Rutin is a naturally occurring strong antioxidant molecule belonging to bioflavonoid category. Due to its free radical scavenging properties, it has been found to be beneficial in the treatment of various diseases including inflammation, cancer, diabetes, allergy, cardiovascular disorders and various types of microbial infections. Despite its beneficial effects, it suffers from the problem of low aqueous solubility which is responsible for low oral bioavailability. The aim of our study was to optimize and characterize self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) of rutin using Box-Behnken design (BBD) combined with a desirability function. Further various antioxidant, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies were performed for the optimized rutin SNEDDS formulation. Methodologies: Selection of oil, surfactant and co-surfactant was done on the basis of solubility/miscibility studies. Sefsol+ Vitamin E, Solutol HS 15 and Transcutol P were selected as oil phase, surfactant and co-surfactant respectively. Optimization of SNEDDS formulations was done by a three-factor, three-level (33)BBD. The independent factors were Sefsol+ Vitamin E, Solutol HS15, and Transcutol P. The dependent variables were globule size, self emulsification time (SEF), % transmittance and cumulative percentage drug released. Various response surface graphs and contour plots were constructed to understand the effect of different factor, their levels and combinations on the responses. The optimized Rutin SNEDDS formulation was characterized for various parameters such as globule size, zeta potential, viscosity, refractive index , % Transmittance and in vitro drug release. Ex vivo permeation studies and pharmacokinetic studies were performed for optimized formulation. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH and reducing power assays. Anti-inflammatory activity was determined by using carrageenan induced rat paw oedema method. Permeation of rutin across small intestine was assessed using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Major findings:The optimized SNEDDS formulation consisting of Sefsol+ Vitamin E - Solutol HS15 -Transcutol HP at proportions of 25:35:17.5 (w/w) was prepared and a comparison of the predicted values and experimental values were found to be in close agreement. The globule size and PDI of optimized SNEDDS formulation was found to be 16.08 ± 0.02 nm and 0.124±0.01 respectively. Significant (p˂0.05) increase in percentage drug release was achieved in the case of optimized SNEDDS formulation (98.8 %) as compared to rutin suspension. Furthermore, pharmacokinetic study showed a 2.3-fold increase in relative oral bioavailability compared with that of the suspension. Antioxidant assay results indicated better efficacy of the developed formulation than the pure drug and it was found to be comparable with ascorbic acid. The results of anti-inflammatory studies showed 72.93 % inhibition for the SNEDDS formulation which was significantly higher than the drug suspension 46.56%. The results of CLSM indicated that the absorption of SNEDDS formulation was considerably higher than that from rutin suspension. Conclusion: Rutin SNEDDS have been successfully prepared and they can serve as an effective tool in enhancing oral bioavailability and efficacy of Rutin.

Keywords: rutin, oral bioavilability, pharamacokinetics, pharmacodynamics

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Authors: Siddhant Sahu, P. James Daniel Paul

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Technical analysis comprised by various technical indicators is a holistic way of representing price movement of stocks in the market. Various forms of indicators have evolved from the primitive ones in the past decades. There have been many attempts to introduce volume as a major determinant to determine strong patterns in market forecasting. The law of demand defines the relationship between the volume and price. Most of the traders are familiar with the volume game. Including the time dimension to the law of demand provides a different visualization to the theory. While attempting the same, it was found that there are different thresholds in the market for different companies. These thresholds have a significant influence on the price. This article is an attempt in determining the thresholds for companies using the three dimensional graphs for optimizing the portfolios. It also emphasizes on the magnitude of importance of volumes as a key factor for determining of predicting strong price movements, bullish and bearish markets. It uses a comprehensive data set of major companies which form a major chunk of the Indian automotive sector and are thus used as an illustration.

Keywords: technical analysis, expert system, law of demand, stocks, portfolio analysis, Indian automotive sector

Procedia PDF Downloads 322

Authors: S. Chee Choy, Pauline Swee Choo Goh, Yow Lin Liew

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the English version and a Malay translation of the 21-item Learner Awareness Questionnaire for its application to assess student learning in higher education. The Learner Awareness Questionnaire, originally written in English, is a quantitative measure of how and why students learn. The questionnaire gives an indication of the process and motives to learn using four scales: survival, establishing stability, approval, and loving to learn. Data in the present study came from 680 university students enrolled in various programs in Malaysia. The Malay version of the questionnaire supported a similar four-factor structure and internal consistency to the English version. The four factors of the Malay version also showed moderate to strong correlations with those of the English versions. The results suggest that the Malay version of the questionnaire is similar to the English version. However, further refinement for the questions is needed to strengthen the correlations between the two questionnaires.

Keywords: student learning, learner awareness, questionnaire development, instrument validation

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Authors: Ye Ling, Ruan Haihui

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Aqueous Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors (AZHSCs) pertain to a new type of electrochemical energy storage device that has received considerable attention. They integrate the advantages of high-energy Zn-ion batteries and high-power supercapacitors to meet the demand for low-cost, long-term durability, and high safety. Nevertheless, the challenge caused by the finite ion adsorption/desorption capacity of carbon electrodes gravely limits their energy densities. This work describes titanium nitride@nitrogen-doped carbon nanocage (TiN@NCNC) composite cathodes for AZHSCs to achieve a greatly improved energy density, and the composites can be facile synthesized based on the calcination of a mixture of tetrabutyl titanate and zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 in argon atmosphere. The resulting composites are featured by the ultra-fine TiN particles dispersed uniformly on the NCNC surfaces, enhancing the Zn2+ storage capabilities. Using TiN@NCNC cathodes, the AZHSCs can operate stably with a high energy density of 154 Wh kg-¹ at a specific power of 270 W kg-¹ and achieve a remarkable capacity retention of 88.9% after 104 cycles at 5 A g-¹. At an extreme specific power of 8.7 kW kg-1, the AZHSCs can retain an energy density of 97.2 Wh kg-1. With these results, we stress that the TiN@NCNC cathodes render high-performance AZHSCs, and the facile one-pot method can easily be scaled up, which enables AZHSCs a new energy-storage component for managing intermitted renewable energy sources.

Keywords: Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors, ion absorption/desorption reactions, titanium nitride, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8

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Authors: Abdulrahman Abdulrahman, Abir Abdulrahman

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Free over-fall is an instrument for measuring discharge in open channels by measuring end depth. A comprehensive researchers investigated theoretically and experimentally brink phenomenon with various approaches for different cross-sectional shapes. Anderson's method, based on Boussinq's approximation and energy approach was used to derive a pressure distribution factor at end depth. Applying the one-dimensional momentum equation and the principles of limit slope analysis, a relevant analytical solution may be derived for brink depth ratio (EDR) in prismatic rectangular channel. Also relationships between end depth ratio and slope ratio for a given non-dimensional normal or critical depth with upstream supercritical flow regime are presented. Simple indirect procedure is used to estimate the end depth discharge ratio (EDD) for subcritical and supercritical flow using measured end depth. The comparison of this analysis with all previous theoretical and experimental studies showed an excellent agreement.

Keywords: analytical solution, brink depth, end depth, flow measurement, free over fall, hydraulics, rectangular channel

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Authors: Francesco Colcerasa, Fabio Pisani

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We contribute to the subjective well-being literature testing the relationship between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health, measured through the Human Opportunity Index calculated at the national level using individual socio-economic data from the cross-country European Social Survey sample. We compute several indexes of opportunity inequality in health, each obtained according to a different combination of circumstances (gender, immigrant status, parents’ education). We find a robust and significant relationship where life satisfaction is higher in correspondence with low levels of health opportunity inequality. The result is twofold. On the one hand, the importance of the well-being of other types of inequality than income inequality emerges. On the other hand, the socioeconomic roots of inequality in health are investigated, suggesting that circumstances at birth have a role in future well-being. Several rationales for the nexus between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health are possible, which we investigate by splitting the sample. Among others, we find a prominent role of pro-social preferences – formalized as interest towards own offspring (which can be interpreted as intergenerational justice) – as a mediating factor of the relationship.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity, subjective wellbeing, health, health inequality, inequality of opportunity in health

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Authors: K. Suresh, M. Padmavathi, N. Darga Kumar

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The objective of this study is to investigate the significance of coal mine waste and improved clay soil when used as a fill and for the construction of embankment. To determine the bearing capacities of coal mine waste and improved clay soil, tests are conducted apart from laboratory experiments. PLAXIS 2D software is used to make the analysis simpler. Depending upon the bearing capacities obtained for different cases, a conclusion can be drawn. Load carrying capacities are determined for coal mine waste, clay and by altering their height ratio when clay (H2) is at the bottom, and coal mine waste (H1) is on the top with three different cases (H = 0.25H1 + 0.75H2, 0.5H1 + 0.5H2, 0.75H1 + 0.25H2) in addition to this bearing capacity of improved clay soil (by replacing clay with 10% CMW, 30% CMW and 50% CMW in addition polycom) is also determined. The safe height of the embankment that can be constructed with the improved clay for different slopes, i.e., for 1:1, 1.5: 1, 2: 1 is also determined by using PLAXIS 2D software by limiting the factor of safety to 1.5.

Keywords: cohesion, angle of shearing resistance, elastic modulus, coefficient of consolidation, coal mine waste

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Authors: Karine Pimenta Teixeira, Jessica Flores, Isadora PerdigãO Rocha, Leticia De Sá Carneiro, Mahsa Kamali, Ali Ghahremaninezhad

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The advent of nanotechnology has enabled innovative solutions towards improving the behavior of infrastructure materials. Nanomaterials have the potential to revolutionize the construction industry by improving the performance and durability of construction materials, as well as imparting new functionalities to these materials. Due to variability in the environmental temperature during mixing and curing of cementitious materials in practice, it is important to understand how curing temperature influences the behavior of cementitious materials. In addition, high temperature curing is relevant in applications such as oil well cement and precast industry. Knowledge of the influence of temperature on the performance of cementitious materials modified with nanoparticles is important in the nanoengineering of cementitious materials in applications such as oil well cement and precast industry. This presentation aims to investigate the influence of temperature on the hydration, mechanical properties and durability of cementitious materials modified with TiO2 nanoparticles. It was found that temperature improved the early hydration. The cement pastes cured at high temperatures showed an increase in the compressive strength at early age but the strength gain decreased at late ages. The electrical resistivity of the cement pastes cured at high temperatures was shown to decrease more noticeably at late ages compared to that of the room temperature cured cement paste. SEM examination indicated that hydration product was more uniformly distributed in the microstructure of the cement paste cured at room temperature compared to the cement pastes cured at high temperature.

Keywords: cement paste, nanoparticles, temperature, hydration

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Authors: R. Chouatah, E. G. Filali, B. Zouzou

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It has been well established that there are no differences between microscale and macroscale flows of incompressible liquids. However, surface roughness has been known to impact the transport phenomena. The effect of structured roughness on the dynamics and heat transfer of water flowing through minichannel was numerically investigated in this study. Our study consists in characterizing the dynamic field and heat transfer aspect of a flow in circular minichannel equipped with structured roughness using CFD software, CFX. The study is performed to understand the effect of various roughness elements (rectangular, triangular), roughness height and roughness pitch on the friction factor and heat transfer coefficient. Our work focuses on a water flow inside a circular mini-channel of 1 mm in diameter and 10 cm in length. The speed entry into the mini-channel varies from 0.1 m/s to 25 m/s. The wall of the mini-channel is submitted to a constant heat flux; q=100,000 W/m². The simulations results are compared to those obtained with smooth minichannel and the existing experimental and numerical results in the literature.

Keywords: heat transfer, laminar and turbulent flow, minichannel, structured roughness

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Authors: Parvin Foroughifar

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The concept of sense of community refers to residents’ sense of attachment and commitment to the other residents in a residential community. It is implicitly indicative of the mental image of a physical environment in which the residents enjoy strong social ties. Sense of community, a crucial factor in improving quality of life and social welfare, leads to life satisfaction in a residential community. Despite the important functions of such a notion, few empirical studies, to the best of the authors' knowledge, have been so far carried out in Iran to investigate the effective factors in sharpening the sense of community in residential communities. This survey research examined sense of community in 360 above 20-year old residents of three residential communities in Tehran, Iran using cluster sampling and questionnaire. The study yielded the result that variables of local social ties, social control and trust, sense of security, length of residence, use of public spaces, and mixed land use have a significant relationship with sense of community.

Keywords: sense of community, local social ties, sense of security, public space, residential community, Tehran

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Authors: Chih-Wen Wu

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This study examines the antecedents of heritage tourism loyalty and its relation to destination image, consumer travel experience, and destination satisfaction in the tourism context. In this respect, a number of important questions concerning how destination image, consumer travel experience, and destination satisfaction impact destination loyalty are raised. This study attempts to identify three key antecedents of loyalty in the heritage context. The author empirically tests predicted relationships by using personal interview data from 475 foreign tourists. The conceptual model investigated the relevant relationships among the constructs by using confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Findings from the research sample support the argument that destination image, consumer travel experience, destination satisfaction are the key determinants of destination loyalty. Destination image and consumer travel experience influence destination satisfaction. The author also discusses theoretical and managerial implications of research findings for marketing the heritage globally.

Keywords: heritage, destination loyalty, destination image, consumer travel experience, destination satisfaction, tourism

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Authors: Orod Zarrin, Mohesn Ramezan Shirazi, Hassan Moniri

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The use of pile foundations technique is developed to support structures and buildings on soft soil. The most important dynamic load that can affect the pile structure is earthquake vibrations. Pile foundations during earthquake excitation indicate that piles are subject to damage by affecting the superstructure integrity and serviceability. During an earthquake, two types of stresses can damage the pile head, inertial load that is caused by superstructure and deformation which caused by the surrounding soil. Soil deformation and inertial load are associated with the acceleration developed in an earthquake. The acceleration amplitude at the ground surface depends on the magnitude of earthquakes, soil properties and seismic source distance. According to the investigation, the damage is between the liquefiable and non-liquefiable layers and also soft and stiff layers. This damage crushes the pile head by increasing the inertial load which is applied by the superstructure. On the other hand, the cracks on the piles due to the surrounding soil are directly related to the soil profile and causes cracks from small to large. However, the large cracks reason have been listed such as liquefaction, lateral spreading, and inertial load. In the field of designing, elastic response of piles is always a challenge for designer in liquefaction soil, by allowing deflection at top of piles. Moreover, absence of plastic hinges in piles should be insured, because the damage in the piles is not observed directly. In this study, the performance and behavior of pile foundations during liquefaction and lateral spreading are investigated. In addition, emphasize on the soil behavior in the liquefiable and non-liquefiable layers by different aspect of piles damage such as ranking, location and degree of damage are going to discuss.

Keywords: pile, earthquake, liquefaction, non-liquefiable, damage

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Authors: Xue Ma, Yang Fu, Dangyuan Lei

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Passive daytime radiative cooling is an emerging technology which has attracted worldwide attention in recent years due to its huge potential in cooling buildings without the use of electricity. Various coating materials with different optical properties have been developed to improve the daytime radiative cooling performance. However, commercial cooling coatings comprising functional fillers with optical bandgaps within the solar spectral range suffers from severe intrinsic absorption, limiting their cooling performance. Fortunately, it has recently been demonstrated that introducing fluorescent materials into polymeric coatings can covert the absorbed sunlight to fluorescent emissions and hence increase the effective solar reflectance and cooling performance. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the key factors for fluorescence-assisted radiative cooling with TiO2-based white coatings. The surrounding TiO2 nanoparticles, which enable spatial and temporal light confinement through multiple Mie scattering, lead to Purcell enhancement of phosphors in the coating. Photoluminescence lifetimes of two phosphors (BaMgAl10O17:Eu2+ and (Sr, Ba)SiO4:Eu2+) exhibit significant reduction of ~61% and ~23%, indicating Purcell factors of 2.6 and 1.3, respectively. Moreover, smaller Stokes shifts of the phosphors are preferred to further diminish solar absorption. Field test of fluorescent cooling coatings demonstrate an improvement of ~4% solar reflectance for the BaMgAl10O17:Eu2+-based fluorescent cooling coating. However, to maximize solar reflectance, a white appearance is introduced based on multiple Mie scattering by the broad size distribution of fillers, which is visually pressurized and aesthetically bored. Besides, most colored pigments absorb visible light significantly and convert it to non-radiative thermal energy, offsetting the cooling effect. Therefore, current colored cooling coatings are facing the compromise between color saturation and cooling effect. To solve this problem, we introduced colored fluorescent materials into white coating based on SiO2 microspheres as a top layer, covering a white cooling coating based on TiO2. Compared with the colored pigments, fluorescent materials could re-emit the absorbed light, reducing the solar absorption introduced by coloration. Our work investigated the scattering properties of SiO2 dielectric spheres with different diameters and detailly discussed their impact on the PL properties of phosphors, paving the way for colored fluorescent-assisted cooling coting to application and industrialization.

Keywords: solar reflection, infrared emissivity, mie scattering, photoluminescent emission, radiative cooling

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Authors: Hilya Mudrika Arini, Nur Aini Masruroh, Budi Hartono

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There are more than 20 terrorist threats from 2002 to 2012 in Indonesia. Despite of this fact, preventive solution through studies in the field of national security in Indonesia has not been conducted comprehensively. This study aims to provide a preventive solution by developing prediction model of the terrorist threat in Indonesia by using Bayesian network. There are eight stages to build the model, started from literature review, build and verify Bayesian belief network to what-if scenario. In order to build the model, four experts from different perspectives are utilized. This study finds several significant findings. First, news and the readiness of terrorist group are the most influent factor. Second, according to several scenarios of the news portion, it can be concluded that the higher positive news proportion, the higher probability of terrorist threat will occur. Therefore, the preventive solution to reduce the terrorist threat in Indonesia based on the model is by keeping the positive news portion to a maximum of 38%.

Keywords: Bayesian network, decision analysis, national security system, text mining

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Authors: Elvan Ender, Murat Zencirkıran

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One of the most important criteria that increase the success of design in landscape architecture is the visual effect. The characteristics that affect visual appearance in plant design vary depending on the phenological periods of the plants. In plants, although different effects are observed in different periods of the year, this effect is felt most prominently in flowering periods. For this reason, knowing the flowering time, duration and flower characteristics should be considered as a factor increasing the success of plant design. In this study, flower characteristics of natural woody plants with attractive flowers have been examined. Because of the variability of these characteristics of plants in the region, consideration of these criteria in the planting design processes in the region may increase the success of the design. At the same time, when species selection is made considering the obtained data, visuality and sustainability of natural species can be possible in Bursa city with planting design.

Keywords: Bursa, flower characteristics, natural plants, planting design

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Authors: Siobhan O’Shea, Sangeetha Vijaysri Nair, Hee Cheol Kim, Charles Thomas Nugent, Cheuk Yan William Tong, Sam Douthwaite, Andrew Worlock

Abstract:

The Aptima® HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay is a fully automated assay on the Panther system. It is based on Transcription-Mediated Amplification and real time detection technologies. This assay is intended for monitoring HIV-1 viral load in plasma specimens and for the detection of HIV-1 in plasma and serum specimens. Nine-hundred and seventy nine specimens selected at random from routine testing at St Thomas’ Hospital, London were anonymised and used to compare the performance of the Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx assay and Roche COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan® HIV-1 Test, v2.0. Two-hundred and thirty four specimens gave quantitative HIV-1 viral load results in both assays. The quantitative results reported by the Aptima Assay were comparable those reported by the Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test, v2.0 with a linear regression slope of 1.04 and an intercept on -0.097. The Aptima assay detected HIV-1 in more samples than the Roche assay. This was not due to lack of specificity of the Aptima assay because this assay gave 99.83% specificity on testing plasma specimens from 600 HIV-1 negative individuals. To understand the reason for this higher detection rate a side-by-side comparison of low level panels made from the HIV-1 3rd international standard (NIBSC10/152) and clinical samples of various subtypes were tested in both assays. The Aptima assay was more sensitive than the Roche assay. The good sensitivity, specificity and agreement with other commercial assays make the HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay appropriate for both viral load monitoring and detection of HIV-1 infections.

Keywords: HIV viral load, Aptima, Roche, Panther system

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Authors: Mahsa Pishdar

Abstract:

Food traceability through the supply chain is facing increased demand. IoT and blockchain are among the tools under consideration in the Industry 4.0 era that could be integrated to help implementation of the Circular Economy (CE) principles while enhancing food traceability solutions. However, such tools need intellectual system, and infrastructureto be settled as guidance through the way, helping overcoming obstacles. That is why the critical success factors for implementing Industry 4.0 and circular economy principles in food traceability concept are analyzed in this paper by combination of interval type 2 fuzzy Worst Best Method and Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (Interval Type 2 fuzzy WBM-MARCOS). Results indicate that “Knowledge of Industry 4.0 obligations and CE principle” is the most important factor that is the basis of success following by “Management commitment and support”. This will assist decision makers to seize success in gaining a competitive advantage while reducing costs through the supply chain.

Keywords: food traceability, industry 4.0, internet of things, block chain, best worst method, marcos

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Authors: Jasbinder Singh, Harjit Pal Singh, S. A. Khan

Abstract:

The work, in this paper, presents the comparison of encoded speech signals by different VoIP narrow-band and wide-band codecs for different modulation schemes. The simulation results indicate that codec has an impact on the speech quality and also effected by modulation schemes.

Keywords: VoIP, coders, modulations, BER, MOS

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Authors: Helene Thieblemont, Fariborz Haghighat

Abstract:

Energy storage systems play a crucial role in decreasing building energy consumption during peak periods and expand the use of renewable energies in buildings. To provide a high building thermal performance, the energy storage system has to be properly controlled to insure a good energy performance while maintaining a satisfactory thermal comfort for building’s occupant. In the case of passive discharge storages, defining in advance the required amount of energy is required to avoid overheating in the building. Consequently, anticipatory supervisory control strategies have been developed forecasting future energy demand and production to coordinate systems. Anticipatory supervisory control strategies are based on some predictions, mainly of the weather forecast. However, if the forecasted hourly outdoor temperature may be found online with a high accuracy, solar radiations predictions are most of the time not available online. To estimate them, this paper proposes an advanced approach based on the forecast of weather conditions. Several methods to correlate hourly weather conditions forecast to real hourly solar radiations are compared. Results show that using weather conditions forecast allows estimating with an acceptable accuracy solar radiations of the next day. Moreover, this technique allows obtaining hourly data that may be used for building models. As a result, this solar radiation prediction model may help to implement model-based controller as Model Predictive Control.

Keywords: anticipatory control, model predictive control, solar radiation forecast, thermal storage

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Authors: Clemens Bulitta, Sasan Sadrizadeh, Sebastian Buhl

Abstract:

Introduction: Ventilation technology in operating theatres (OT)is internationally regulated by dif-ferent standards, which define basic specifications for technical equipment and many times also the necessary operating and performance parameters. This confronts the operators of healthcare facilities with the question of finding the best ventilation and air conditioning system for the OT in order to achieve the goal of a large and robust surgicalworkzone with appropriate air quality and climate for patient safety and occupational health. Additionally, energy consumption and the potential need for clothing that limits transmission of bacteria must be considered as well as the total life cycle cost. However, the evaluation methodology of ventilation systems regarding these matters are still a topic of discussion. To date, there are neither any uniform standardized specifications nor any common validation criteria established. Thus, this study aimed to review data in the literature and add ourown research results to compare and assess the performance of different ventilations systems regarding infection preventive effects, energy efficiency, and staff comfort. Methods: We have conducted a comprehensive literature review on OT ventilation-related topics to understand the strengths and limitations of different ventilation systems. Furthermore, data from experimental assessments on OT ventilation systems at the University of Amberg-Weidenin Germany were in-cluded to comparatively assess the performance of Laminar Airflow (LAF), Turbulent Mixing Air-flow(TMA), and Temperature-controlled Airflow (TcAF) with regards to patient and occupational safety as well as staff comfort including indoor climate.CFD simulations from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden (KTH) were also studied to visualize the differences between these three kinds of ventilation systems in terms of the size of the surgical workzone, resilience to obstacles in the airflow, and energy use. Results: A variety of ventilation concepts are in use in the OT today. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and thus one may be better suited than another depend-ing on the built environment and clinical workflow. Moreover, the proper functioning of OT venti-lation is also affected by multiple external and internal interfering factors. Based on the available data TcAF and LAF seem to provide the greatest effects regarding infection control and minimizing airborne risks for surgical site infections without the need for very tight surgical clothing systems. Resilience to obstacles, staff comfort, and energy efficiency seem to be favourable with TcAF. Conclusion: Based on literature data in current publications and our studies at the Technical Uni-versity of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weidenand the Royal Institute of Technoclogy, LAF and TcAF are more suitable for minimizing the risk for surgical site infections leading to improved clin-ical outcomes. Nevertheless, regarding the best management of thermal loads, atmosphere, energy efficiency, and occupational safety, overall results and data suggest that TcAF systems could pro-vide the economically most efficient and clinically most effective solution under routine clinical conditions.

Keywords: ventilation systems, infection control, energy efficiency, operating theatre, airborne infection risks

Procedia PDF Downloads 101