Search results for: cultural industry

Authors: Neelima Rashmi Lakra

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India was among one of the highly developed economy up to 1850 due to its cottage industries. During the end of the 18th century, modern industrial enterprises began with the first cotton mill in Bombay, the jute mill near Calcutta and the coal mine in Raniganj. This was counted as the real beginning of industry in 1854 in India. Prior to this period people concentrated only to agriculture, menial service or handicraft, and the introduction of industries exposed them to the disciplines of factory which was very tedious for them. With increasing number of factories been setup adding on to mining and introduction of railway, World War Period (1914-19), Second World War Period (1939-45) and the Great Depression (1929-33) there were visible change in the nature of work for the people, which resulted in outburst of strike for various reasons in these factories. Here, with India’s independence there was emergence of public sector industries and labour legislations were introduced. Meanwhile, trade unions came to notice to the rescue of the oppressed but failed to continue till long. Soon after, with the New Economic Policy organisations came across to face challenges to perform their best, where social justice for the workmen was in question. On these backdrops, studies were found discussing the central human capabilities which could be addressed through Social Security schemes. Therefore, this study was taken up to look at the reforms and legislations mainly meant for the welfare of the labour. This paper will contribute to the large number of Indian population who are serving in public sectors in India since the introduction of industries and will complement the issue of social justice through social security measures among this huge crowd serving the nation. The objectives of the study include; to find out what labour Legislations have already been existing in India, the role of Trade Union Movement, to look at the effects of New Economic Policy on these reforms and its effects and measures taken for the workforce employed in the public sectors and finally, if these measures fulfil the social justice aspects for the larger society on whole. The methodology followed collection of data from books, journal articles, reports, company reports and manuals focusing mainly on Indian studies and the data was analysed following content analysis method. The findings showed the measures taken for Social Security, but there were also reflections of very few particular additions or amendments to these Acts and provisions with the onset of New Liberalisation Policy. Therefore, the study concluded examining the social justice aspects in the context of a developing economy and discussing the recommendations.

Keywords: public sectors, social justice, social security schemes, trade union movement

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Authors: John Christian Lequiron, Gerry Bagtasa, Olivia Cabrera, Leoncio Amadore, Tolentino Moya

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Changes in air surface temperature play an important role in the Philippine’s economy, industry, health, and food production. While increasing global mean temperature in the recent several decades has prompted a number of climate change and variability studies in the Philippines, most studies still focus on rainfall and tropical cyclones. This study aims to investigate the trend and variability of observed air surface temperature and determine its major influencing factor/s in the Philippines. A non-parametric Mann-Kendall trend test was applied to monthly mean temperature of 17 synoptic stations covering 56 years from 1960 to 2015 and a mean change of 0.58 °C or a positive trend of 0.0105 °C/year (p < 0.05) was found. In addition, wavelet decomposition was used to determine the frequency of temperature variability show a 12-month, 30-80-month and more than 120-month cycles. This indicates strong annual variations, interannual variations that coincide with ENSO events, and interdecadal variations that are attributed to PDO and CO2 concentrations. Air surface temperature was also correlated with smoothed sunspot number and galactic cosmic rays, the results show a low to no effect. The influence of ENSO teleconnection on temperature, wind pattern, cloud cover, and outgoing longwave radiation on different ENSO phases had significant effects on regional temperature variability. Particularly, an anomalous anticyclonic (cyclonic) flow east of the Philippines during the peak and decay phase of El Niño (La Niña) events leads to the advection of warm southeasterly (cold northeasterly) air mass over the country. Furthermore, an apparent increasing cloud cover trend is observed over the West Philippine Sea including portions of the Philippines, and this is believed to lessen the effect of the increasing air surface temperature. However, relative humidity was also found to be increasing especially on the central part of the country, which results in a high positive trend of heat index, exacerbating the effects on human discomfort. Finally, an assessment of gridded temperature datasets was done to look at the viability of using three high-resolution datasets in future climate analysis and model calibration and verification. Several error statistics (i.e. Pearson correlation, Bias, MAE, and RMSE) were used for this validation. Results show that gridded temperature datasets generally follows the observed surface temperature change and anomalies. In addition, it is more representative of regional temperature rather than a substitute to station-observed air temperature.

Keywords: air surface temperature, carbon dioxide, ENSO, galactic cosmic rays, smoothed sunspot number

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Authors: Guanyu Jiang, Donghai Xu, Huanteng Liu

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After the Fukushima-Daiichi accident, the development of accident tolerant fuel cladding materials to improve reactor safety has become a hot topic in the field of nuclear industry. ZrO₂ has a satisfactory neutron economy and can guarantee the fission chain reaction process, which enables it to be a promising coating for zirconium alloy cladding. Maintaining a good corrosion resistance in primary coolant loop during normal operations of Pressurized Water Reactors is a prerequisite for ZrO₂ as a protective coating on zirconium alloy cladding. Research on the corrosion performance of ZrO₂ coating in nuclear water chemistry is relatively scarce, and existing reports failed to provide an in-depth explanation for the failure causes of ZrO₂ coating. Herein, a detailed corrosion process of ZrO₂ coating in lithiated water at 360 °C and 18.5 MPa was proposed based on experimental research and molecular dynamics simulation. Lithiated water with different LiOH solutions in the present work was deaerated and had a dissolved oxygen concentration of < 10 ppb. The concentration of Li (as LiOH) was determined to be 2.3 ppm, 70 ppm, and 500 ppm, respectively. Corrosion tests were conducted in a static autoclave. Modeling and corresponding calculations were operated on Materials Studio software. The calculation of adsorption energy and dynamics parameters were undertaken by the Energy task and Dynamics task of the Forcite module, respectively. The protective effect and failure mechanism of ZrO₂ coating on Zry-4 under varied LiOH concentrations was further revealed by comparison with the coating corrosion performance in pure water (namely 0 ppm Li). ZrO₂ coating provided a favorable corrosion protection with the occurrence of localized corrosion at low LiOH concentrations. Factors influencing corrosion resistance mainly include pitting corrosion extension, enhanced Li+ permeation, short-circuit diffusion of O²⁻ and ZrO₂ phase transformation. In highly-concentrated LiOH solutions, intergranular corrosion, internal oxidation, and perforation resulted in coating failure. Zr ions were released to coating surface to form flocculent ZrO₂ and ZrO₂ clusters due to the strong diffusion and dissolution tendency of α-Zr in the Zry-4 substrate. Considering that primary water of Pressurized Water Reactors usually includes 2.3 ppm Li, the stability of ZrO₂ make itself a candidate fuel cladding coating material. Under unfavorable conditions with high Li concentrations, more boric acid should be added to alleviate caustic corrosion of ZrO₂ coating once it is used. This work can provide some references to understand the service behavior of nuclear coatings under variable water chemistry conditions and promote the in-pile application of ZrO₂ coating.

Keywords: ZrO₂ coating, Zry-4, corrosion behavior, failure mechanism, LiOH concentration

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Authors: Mojtaba Eshraghi Arani

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The freight forwarders, who are known as the Architect of Transportation, play a vital role in the supply chain management. The package of various services which they provide has made the legal nature of freight forwarders very controversial, so that they might be qualified once as principal or carrier and, on other occasions, as agent of the shipper as the case may be. They could even be involved in the transportation process as the agent of shipping line, which makes the situation much more complicated. The courts in all countries have long had trouble in distinguishing the “forwarder as agent” from “forwarder as principal” (as it is outstanding in the prominent case of “Vastfame Camera Ltd v Birkart Globistics Ltd And Others” 2005, Hong Kong). It is not fully known that in the case of a claim against the forwarder, what particular parameter would be used by the judge among multiple, and sometimes contradictory, tests for determining the scope of the forwarder liability. In particular, every country has its own legal parameters for qualifying the freight forwarders that is completely different from others, as it is the case in France in comparison with Germany and England. The unpredictability of the courts’ decisions in this regard has provided the freight forwarders with the opportunity to impose any limitation or exception of liability while pretending to play the role of a principal, consequently making the cargo interests incur ever-increasing damage. The transportation industry needs to remove such uncertainty by unifying national laws governing freight forwarders liability. A long time ago, in 1967, The International Institute for Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) prepared a draft convention called “Draft Convention on Contract of Agency for Forwarding Agents Relating to International Carriage of Goods” (hereinafter called “UNIDROIT draft convention”). The UNIDROIT draft convention provided a clear and certain framework for the liability of freight forwarder in each capacity as agent or carrier, but it failed to transform to a convention, and eventually, it was consigned to oblivion. Today, after nearly 6 decades from that era, the necessity of such convention can be felt apparently. However, one might reason that the same grounds, in particular, the resistance by forwarders’ association, FIATA, exist yet, and thus it is not logical to revive a forgotten draft convention after such long period of time. It is argued in this article that the main reason for resisting the UNIDROIT draft convention in the past was pending efforts for developing the “1980 United Nation Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods”. However, the latter convention failed to become in force on due time in a way that there was no new accession since 1996, as a result of which the UNIDROIT draft convention must be revived strongly and immediately submitted to the relevant diplomatic conference. A qualitative method with the concept of interpretation of data collection has been used in this manuscript. The source of the data is the analysis of international conventions and cases.

Keywords: freight forwarder, revival, agent, principal, uidroit, draft convention

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Authors: Mirjana Petronijević, Sanja Panić, Aleksandra Cvetanović, Branko Kordić, Nenad Grba

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Enzyme peroxidases are biological catalysts and play a major role in phenolic wastewater treatments and other environmental applications. The most studied species from the peroxidases family is horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In environmental processes, HRP could be used in its free or immobilized form. Enzyme immobilization onto solid support is performed to improve the enzyme properties, prolong its lifespan and operational stability and allow its reuse in industrial applications. One of the enzyme supports of a newer generation is magnetic particles (MPs). Fe₃O₄ MPs are the most widely pursued immobilization of enzymes owing to their remarkable advantages of biocompatibility and non-toxicity. Also, MPs can be easily separated and recovered from the water by applying an external magnetic field. On the other hand, metals and metal oxides are not suitable for the covalent binding of enzymes, so it is necessary to perform their surface modification. Fe₃O₄ MPs functionalization could be performed during the process of their synthesis if it takes place in the presence of plant extracts. Extracts of plant material, such as wild plants, herbs, even waste materials of the food and agricultural industry (bark, shell, leaves, peel), are rich in various bioactive components such as polyphenols, flavonoids, sugars, etc. When the synthesis of magnetite is performed in the presence of plant extracts, bioactive components are incorporated into the surface of the magnetite, thereby affecting its functionalization. In this paper, the suitability of bio-magnetite as solid support for covalent immobilization of HRP across glutaraldehyde was examined. The activity of immobilized HRP at different pH values (4-9) and temperatures (20-80°C) and reusability were examined. Bio-MP was synthesized by co-precipitation method from Fe(II) and Fe(III) sulfate salts in the presence of water extract of the Allium cepa peel. The water extract showed 81% of antiradical potential (according to DPPH assay), which is connected with the high content of polyphenols. According to the FTIR analysis, the bio-magnetite contains oxygen functional groups (-OH, -COOH, C=O) suitable for binding to glutaraldehyde, after which the enzyme is covalently immobilized. The immobilized enzyme showed high activity at ambient temperature and pH 7 (30 U/g) and retained ≥ 80% of its activity at a wide range of pH (5-8) and temperature (20-50°C). The HRP immobilized onto bio-MPs showed remarkable stability towards temperature and pH variations compared to the free enzyme form. On the other hand, immobilized HRP showed low reusability after the first washing cycle enzyme retains 50% of its activity, while after the third washing cycle retains only 22%.

Keywords: bio-magnetite, enzyme immobilization, water extracts, environmental protection

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Authors: Maryam Hasanali, Syed Mohammad Mojtabaei, Iman Hajirasouliha, G. Charles Clifton, James B. P. Lim

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Cold-formed steel (CFS) elements are increasingly being used as main load-bearing components in the modern construction industry, including low- to mid-rise buildings. In typical multi-storey buildings, CFS structural members act as beam-column elements since they are exposed to combined axial compression and bending actions, both in moment-resisting frames and stud wall systems. Current design specifications, including the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI S100) and the Australian/New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS 4600), neglect the beneficial effects of warping-restrained boundary conditions in the design of beam-column elements. Furthermore, while a non-linear relationship governs the interaction of axial compression and bending, the combined effect of these actions is taken into account through a simplified linear expression combining pure axial and flexural strengths. This paper aims to evaluate the reliability of the well-known Direct Strength Method (DSM) as well as design proposals found in the literature to provide a better understanding of the efficiency of the code-prescribed linear interaction equation in the strength predictions of CFS beam columns and the effects of warping-restrained boundary conditions on their behavior. To this end, the experimentally validated finite element (FE) models of CFS elements under compression and bending were developed in ABAQUS software, which accounts for both non-linear material properties and geometric imperfections. The validated models were then used for a comprehensive parametric study containing 270 FE models, covering a wide range of key design parameters, such as length (i.e., 0.5, 1.5, and 3 m), thickness (i.e., 1, 2, and 4 mm) and cross-sectional dimensions under ten different load eccentricity levels. The results of this parametric study demonstrated that using the DSM led to the most conservative strength predictions for beam-column members by up to 55%, depending on the element’s length and thickness. This can be sourced by the errors associated with (i) the absence of warping-restrained boundary condition effects, (ii) equations for the calculations of buckling loads, and (iii) the linear interaction equation. While the influence of warping restraint is generally less than 6%, the code suggested interaction equation led to an average error of 4% to 22%, based on the element lengths. This paper highlights the need to provide more reliable design solutions for CFS beam-column elements for practical design purposes.

Keywords: beam-columns, cold-formed steel, finite element model, interaction equation, warping-restrained boundary conditions

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Authors: James Rigor Camacho, Wansu Lim

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Over the last few years, the development of new wearable and processing technologies has accelerated in order to harness physiological data such as electroencephalograms (EEGs) for EEG-based applications. EEG has been demonstrated to be a source of emotion recognition signals with the highest classification accuracy among physiological signals. However, when emotion recognition systems are used for real-time classification, the training unit is frequently left to run offline or in the cloud rather than working locally on the edge. That strategy has hampered research, and the full potential of using an edge AI device has yet to be realized. Edge AI devices are computers with high performance that can process complex algorithms. It is capable of collecting, processing, and storing data on its own. It can also analyze and apply complicated algorithms like localization, detection, and recognition on a real-time application, making it a powerful embedded device. The NVIDIA Jetson series, specifically the Jetson Nano device, was used in the implementation. The cEEGrid, which is integrated to the open-source brain computer-interface platform (OpenBCI), is used to collect EEG signals. An EEG-based real-time emotion recognition system on Edge AI is proposed in this paper. To perform graphical spectrogram categorization of EEG signals and to predict emotional states based on input data properties, machine learning-based classifiers were used. Until the emotional state was identified, the EEG signals were analyzed using the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) technique, which is a supervised learning system. In EEG signal processing, after each EEG signal has been received in real-time and translated from time to frequency domain, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique is utilized to observe the frequency bands in each EEG signal. To appropriately show the variance of each EEG frequency band, power density, standard deviation, and mean are calculated and employed. The next stage is to identify the features that have been chosen to predict emotion in EEG data using the K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) technique. Arousal and valence datasets are used to train the parameters defined by the KNN technique.Because classification and recognition of specific classes, as well as emotion prediction, are conducted both online and locally on the edge, the KNN technique increased the performance of the emotion recognition system on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano. Finally, this implementation aims to bridge the research gap on cost-effective and efficient real-time emotion recognition using a resource constrained hardware device, like the NVIDIA Jetson Nano. On the cutting edge of AI, EEG-based emotion identification can be employed in applications that can rapidly expand the research and implementation industry's use.

Keywords: edge AI device, EEG, emotion recognition system, supervised learning algorithm, sensors

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Authors: M. Bukowski, K. Kreissl

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Social and environmental pressures in our times bear threats that often cross-border in scale, such as climate change, poverty-driven migration, demographic change as well as socio-economic developments. One of the hot topics is prevailing in many societies across Europe and worldwide, concerns 'affordable housing' and poverty-driven international and domestic migration (including displacements through gentrification processes), focusing here on the urban and regional context. The right to adequate housing and shelter is one of the recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and as such considered as a human right of the second generation. The decreasing supply of affordable housing, especially in urban areas, has reached dimensions that have led to an increasing 'housing crisis'. This crisis, which has even reached middle-income homes, has an even more devastating impact on low income and poor households raising poverty levels. Therefore, the understanding of the connection between housing and poverty is vital to integrate and support the different stakeholders in order to tackle poverty. When it comes to issues of inequalities and poverty within the SDG framework, multi-faceted stakeholders with different claims, distribution of resources and interactions with other development goals (spill-over and trade-offs) account for a highly complex context. To contribute to a sustainable and fair society and hence to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the University of Salzburg participates in the Austrian-wide universities' network 'UniNEtZ'. Our joint target is to develop an options report for the Austrian Government regarding the seventeen SDGs, so far hosted by 18 Austrian universities. In this vein, the University of Salzburg; i.e., the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, the departments of Geography and Geology and the Department of Sociology and Political Science are focusing on the SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Our target and research focus is to assess and evaluate the status of SDG 1 and 10 in Austria, to find possible solutions and to support stakeholders' integration. We aim at generating and deducing appropriate options as scientific support, from interdisciplinary research studies to 'Sustainability Developing Goals and their Targets' in action. For this reason, and to deal with the complexity of the Agenda 2030, we have developed a special Model for Inequalities and Poverty Assessment (IPAM). Through the example of 'affordable housing' we provide insight into the situation focusing on sustainable outcomes, including ethical and justice perceptions. The IPAM has proven to be a helpful tool in detecting the different imponderables on the Agenda 2030, assessing the situation, showing gaps and options for ethical SDG actions combining different SDG targets. Supported by expert and expert group interviews, this assessment allows different stakeholders to overview a complex and dynamic SDG challenge (here housing) which is necessary to be involved in an action finding process.

Keywords: affordable housing, inequality, poverty, sustainable development goals

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Authors: Thor Alexis Sazon, Alexander Guzman-Urbina, Yasuhiro Fukushima

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This study outlines the method of how to develop a surrogate life cycle model based on fuzzy logic using three fuzzy inference methods: (1) the conventional Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), (2) the hybrid system of Data Analytics and Fuzzy Inference (DAFIS), which uses data clustering for defining the membership functions, and (3) the Adaptive-Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), a combination of fuzzy inference and artificial neural network. These methods were demonstrated with a case study where the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of solar photovoltaic (PV) were estimated using Solar Irradiation, Module Efficiency, and Performance Ratio as inputs. The effects of using different fuzzy inference types, either Sugeno- or Mamdani-type, and of changing the number of input membership functions to the error between the calibration data and the model-generated outputs were also illustrated. The solution spaces of the three methods were consequently examined with a sensitivity analysis. ANFIS exhibited the lowest error while DAFIS gave slightly lower errors compared to FIS. Increasing the number of input membership functions helped with error reduction in some cases but, at times, resulted in the opposite. Sugeno-type models gave errors that are slightly lower than those of the Mamdani-type. While ANFIS is superior in terms of error minimization, it could generate solutions that are questionable, i.e. the negative GWP values of the Solar PV system when the inputs were all at the upper end of their range. This shows that the applicability of the ANFIS models highly depends on the range of cases at which it was calibrated. FIS and DAFIS generated more intuitive trends in the sensitivity runs. DAFIS demonstrated an optimal design point wherein increasing the input values does not improve the GWP and LCOE anymore. In the absence of data that could be used for calibration, conventional FIS presents a knowledge-based model that could be used for prediction. In the PV case study, conventional FIS generated errors that are just slightly higher than those of DAFIS. The inherent complexity of a Life Cycle study often hinders its widespread use in the industry and policy-making sectors. While the methodology does not guarantee a more accurate result compared to those generated by the Life Cycle Methodology, it does provide a relatively simpler way of generating knowledge- and data-based estimates that could be used during the initial design of a system.

Keywords: solar photovoltaic, fuzzy logic, inference system, artificial neural networks

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Authors: Deepa Shokeen, Bani Tamber Aeri

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Food choice is a complex process influenced by the interplay of multiple factors, including physical, socio-cultural and economic factors comprising macro or micro level food environments. While a clear understanding of the relationship between what we eat and the environmental context in which these food choices are made is still needed; it has however now been shown that food environments do play a significant role in the obesity epidemic and increasing cardio-metabolic risk factors. Evidence in other countries indicates that the food environment may strongly influence the prevalence of obesity and cardio-metabolic risk factors among young adults. Although in the Indian context, data does indicate the associations between sedentary lifestyle, stress, faulty diets but very little evidence supports the role of food environment in influencing cardio-metabolic health among employed adults. Thus, this research is required to establish how different environments affect different individuals as individuals interact with the environment on a number of levels. Methodology: The objective of the present study is to assess the effect of selected food and nutrition environments with emphasis on worksite environment and to analyse its impact on the food choices and dietary behaviour of the employees (25-45 years of age) of the organizations under study. In the proposed study an attempt will be made to randomly select various worksite environments from Delhi and NCR. The study will be conducted in two phases. In phase I, Information will be obtained on their socio-demographic profile and various factors influencing their food choices including most commonly consumed foods and most frequently visited eating outlets in and around the work place. Data will also be gathered on anthropometry (height, weight, waist circumference), biochemical parameters (lipid profile and fasting glucose), blood pressure and dietary intake. Based on the findings of phase I, a list of the most frequently visited eating outlets in and around the workplace will be prepared in Phase II. These outlets will then be subjected to nutrition environment assessment survey (NEMS). On the basis of the information gathered from phase I and phase II, influence of selected food and nutrition environments on food choice, dietary behaviour and prevalence of cardio-metabolic risk factors among employed adults will be assessed. Expected outcomes: The proposed study will try to ascertain the impact of selected food and nutrition environments on food choice and dietary intake of the working adults as it is important to learn how these food environments influence the eating perceptions and health behavior of the adults. In addition to this, anthropometry blood pressure and biochemical assessment of the subjects will be done to assess the prevalence of cardio-metabolic risk factors. If the findings indicate that the work environment, where most of these young adults spend their productive hours of the day, influence their health, than perhaps steps maybe needed to make these environments more conducive to health.

Keywords: food and nutrition environment, cardio-metabolic risk factors, India, worksite environment

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Authors: Vlad Andrei Raducanu, Mariana Lucia Angelescu, Ion Cinca, Vasile Danut Cojocaru, Doina Raducanu

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By using smart digital tools, such as generative design (GD) and digital fabrication (DF), problems of high actuality concerning resources optimization (materials, energy, time) can be solved and applications or products of free-form type can be created. In the new digital technology materials are active, designed in response to a set of performance requirements, which impose a total rethinking of old material practices. The article presents the design procedure key steps of a free-form architectural object - a column type one with connections to get an adaptive 3D surface, by using the parametric design methodology and by exploiting the properties of conventional metallic materials. In parametric design the form of the created object or space is shaped by varying the parameters values and relationships between the forms are described by mathematical equations. Digital parametric design is based on specific procedures, as shape grammars, Lindenmayer - systems, cellular automata, genetic algorithms or swarm intelligence, each of these procedures having limitations which make them applicable only in certain cases. In the paper the design process stages and the shape grammar type algorithm are presented. The generative design process relies on two basic principles: the modeling principle and the generative principle. The generative method is based on a form finding process, by creating many 3D spatial forms, using an algorithm conceived in order to apply its generating logic onto different input geometry. Once the algorithm is realized, it can be applied repeatedly to generate the geometry for a number of different input surfaces. The generated configurations are then analyzed through a technical or aesthetic selection criterion and finally the optimal solution is selected. Endless range of generative capacity of codes and algorithms used in digital design offers various conceptual possibilities and optimal solutions for both technical and environmental increasing demands of building industry and architecture. Constructions or spaces generated by parametric design can be specifically tuned, in order to meet certain technical or aesthetical requirements. The proposed approach has direct applicability in sustainable architecture, offering important potential economic advantages, a flexible design (which can be changed until the end of the design process) and unique geometric models of high performance.

Keywords: parametric design, algorithmic procedures, free-form architectural object, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Parimelazhagan Thangaraj

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Natural products serves human kind as a source of all drugs and higher plants provide most of these therapeutic agents. These products are widely recognized in the pharmaceutical industry for their broad structural diversity as well as their wide range of pharmacological activities. Euphorbiaceae is one of the important families with significant pharmacological activities, of which many species has been used traditionally for the treatment of various ailments. Breynia retusa belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae is used to cure ailments like body pain, skin inflammation, hyperglycaemia, diarrhoea, dysentery and toothache. Flowers and young leaves of B. retusa are cooked and eaten, roots are used for meningitis. The juice of the stem is used in conjunctivtis and leaves as poultice to hasten suppuration. Based on the strong evidences of traditional uses of Breynia retusa, the present study was focused on neutraceuticals evaluation of the species with special reference to oxidative stress and diabetes. Both leaves and stem of B. retusa were extracted with different solvents and analyzed for radical scavenging ability wherein ABTS.+ (8396.95±1529.01 µM TEAC/g extract), phosphomolybdenum (17.34±0.08 g AAE/100 g extract) and FRAP (6075.66±414.28 µM Fe (II) E/mg extract) assays showed good radical scavenging activity in stem. Furthermore, leaf extracts showed good radical inhibition in DPPH (2.4 µg/mL), metal ion (27.44±0.09 mg EDTAE/g extract) scavenging methods. The α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors are currently used for diabetic treatment as oral hypoglycemic agents. The inhibitory effects of the B. retusa leaf and stem ethyl acetate extracts showed good inhibition on α-amylase (96.25% and 95.69 respectively) and α-glucosidase (54.50% and 50.87% respectively) enzymes compared to standard acarbose. The proximate composition analysis of B. retusa leaves contains higher amount of total carbohydrates (14.08 g Glucose equivalents/100 g sample), ash (19.04 %) and crude fibre (0.52 %). The examination of mineral profile explored that the leaves was rich in calcium (1891 ppm), sulphur (1406 ppm), copper (2600 ppm) and magnesium (778 ppm). Leaves sample revealed very minimal amount of anti-nutrient contents like trypsin (14.08±0.03 TIU/mg protein) and tannin (0.011±0.001 mg TAE/g sample). The low anti nutritional factors may not pose any serious nutritional problems when these leaves are consumed. In conclusion, it is very clear that dietary compounds from B. retusa are suitable and promising for the development of safe food products and natural additives. Based on the studies, it may be concluded that nutritional composition, antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities this species can be used as future therapeutic medicine.

Keywords: Breynia retusa, nutraceuticals, antioxidant, anti diabetic

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Authors: Benrithung Murry

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This paper highlights the biosocial determinants of health-seeking behavior in tribal population groups of northeast India, focusing on maternal and child health. The northeastern region of India is a conglomeration of several ethnic groups, most of which are scheduled as tribal groups. A total of 750 ever-married women in reproductive ages (15-49 years) were interviewed from three tribal groups of Nagaland, India using pre-tested and modified maternal health schedule. Data pertaining to reproductive performance of the mothers and their children health status were collected from 12 villages of Dimapur district, Nagaland, India. The sample for study comprises 212 Angami women, 267 Ao women, and 271 Sumi women, all of which belonging to tribal populations of Northeast India. Sex ratios of 15-49 years in these three populations are 1018.18, 1086.69, and 1106.92, respectively. 90% of the populations in the study are nuclear families, with about 10% of households falling below the poverty line as per the cutoffs for India. Female literacy level in these population groups is higher than the national average of 65.46%; however, about 30% of all married women are not engaged in any sort of earnings. Total fertility rates of these populations are alarming (Total Fertility Rate ≥ 6) and far from replacement fertility level, while infant mortality rates are found to be much lower than the national average of 34 per 1000. The perception and practice of maternal health in this region is unimpressive despite the availability of medical amenities. Only 3 % of mothers in the study have reported 4 times antenatal checkups during last two pregnancies. Other mothers have reported 1 to 3 times of antenatal checkups, but about 25% of them never visited a doctor during the entire pregnancy period. About 15% of mothers never took tetanus injection, while 40% of mothers never took iron folic supplements during pregnancy. Almost half of all women and their husbands do not use birth control measures even for the spacing of children, which has an immense impact on prenatal mortality mainly due to deliberate abortions: the percentage of prenatal mortality among Angami, Ao and Sumi populations is 44.88, 31.88 and 54.98, respectively per 1000 live births. The steep decline in fertility levels in most countries is a consequence of the increasing use of modern methods of contraception. However, among users of birth control measures in these populations, it is seen that most couples use it only after they have the desired number of children, thus its use having no substantial influence in reducing fertility. It is also seen that the majority of the children were only partially vaccinated. With many child deliveries being done at home, many newborns are not administered with polio at birth. Two-third of all children do not have complete basic immunization against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, bacillus, and hepatitis besides others. Certain adherence to traditional beliefs and customs apart from the socio-economic factors is believed to have been operating in these populations, which determines their health-seeking behavior. While a more in-depth study combining biological, socio-cultural, economic, and genetic factors is suggested, there is an urgent need for intervention in these populations to combat with the poor maternal and child health status.

Keywords: case study, health behavior, mother and child, northeast india

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Authors: Franciele L. Bernard, Felipe Dalla Vecchia, Barbara B. Polesso, Jose A. Donato, Marcus Seferin, Rosane Ligabue, Jailton F. do Nascimento, Sandra Einloft

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The increasing level of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere related to fossil fuels processing and utilization are contributing to global warming phenomena considerably. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies appear as one of the key technologies to reduce CO2 emissions mitigating the effects of climate change. Absorption using amines solutions as solvents have been extensively studied and used in industry for decades. However, solvent degradation and equipment corrosion are two of the main problems in this process. Poly (ionic liquid) (PIL) is considered as a promising material for CCS technology, potentially more environmentally friendly and lesser energy demanding than traditional material. PILs possess a unique combination of ionic liquids (ILs) features, such as affinity for CO2, thermal and chemical stability and adjustable properties, coupled with the intrinsic properties of the polymer. This study investigated new Poly (ionic liquid) (PIL) based on polyurethanes with different ionic liquids cations and its potential for CO2 capture. The PILs were synthesized by the addition of diisocyante to a difunctional polyol, followed by an exchange reaction with the ionic Liquids 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIM Cl); tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) and tetrabutylphosphonium bromide (TBPB). These materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Tensile strength analysis, Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The PILs CO2 sorption capacity were gravimetrically assessed in a Magnetic Suspension Balance (MSB). It was found that the ionic liquids cation influences in the compounds properties as well as in the CO2 sorption. The best result for CO2 sorption (123 mgCO2/g at 30 bar) was obtained for the PIL (PUPT-TBA). The higher CO2 sorption in PUPT-TBA is probably linked to the fact that the tetraalkylammonium cation having a higher positive density charge can have a stronger interaction with CO2, while the imidazolium charge is delocalized. The comparative CO2 sorption values of the PUPT-TBA with different ionic liquids showed that this material has greater capacity for capturing CO2 when compared to the ILs even at higher temperature. This behavior highlights the importance of this study, as the poly (urethane) based PILs are cheap and versatile materials.

Keywords: capture, CO2, ionic liquids, ionic poly(urethane)

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Authors: Bhavana Gulaty, Arshia Chaudhri

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Great civic projects contribute integrally to a city, and every city undergoes a recurring cycle of urban transformations and regeneration by their insertion. The M.I.C.E. (Meetings, Incentives, Convention and Exhibitions) industry is the forbearer of one category of such catalytic civic projects. Through a specific focus on M.I.C.E. destinations, this paper illustrates the multifarious dimensions that urban catalysts impact the city on S.P.U.R. (Seed. Profile. Urbane. Reflections), the theoretical framework of this paper aims to unearth these dimensions in the realm of the COEX (Convention & Exhibition) biosphere. The ‘COEX Biosphere’ is the filter of such catalysts being ecosystems unto themselves. Like a ripple in water, the impact of these strategic interventions focusing on art, culture, trade, and promotion expands right from the trigger; the immediate context to the region and subsequently impacts the global scale. These ripples are known to bring about significant economic, social, and political and network changes. The COEX inventory in the Asian context has one such prominent addition; the proposed India International Convention and Exhibition Centre (IICC) at New Delhi. It is envisioned to be the largest facility in Asia currently and would position India on the global M.I.C.E map. With the first phase of the project scheduled to open for use in the end of 2019, this flagship project of the Government of India is projected to cater to a peak daily footfall of 3,20,000 visitors and estimated to generate 5,00,000 jobs. While the economic benefits are yet to manifest in real time and ‘Good design is good business’ holds true, for the urban transformation to be meaningful, the benefits have to go beyond just a balance sheet for the city’s exchequer. This aspect has been found relatively unexplored in research on these developments. The methodology for investigation will comprise of two steps. The first will be establishing an inventory of the global success stories and associated benefits of COEX projects over the past decade. The rationale for capping the timeframe is the significant paradigm shift that has been observed in their recent conceptualization; for instance ‘Innovation Districts’ conceptualised in the city of Albuquerque that converges into the global economy. The second step would entail a comparative benchmarking of the projected transformations by IICC through a toolkit of parameters. This is posited to yield a matrix that can form the test bed for mapping the catalytic trajectory for projects in the pipeline globally. As a ready reckoner, it purports to be a catalyst to substantiate decision making in the planning stage itself for future projects in similar contexts.

Keywords: catalysts, COEX, M.I.C.E., urban transformations

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Su Yin Chiam, Zhipeng Ding, Guang Yang, Danny Jian Hang Tng, Peiyi Song, Geok Ing Ng, Ken-Tye Yong, Qing Xin Zhang

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Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) is a ground rich of exploration opportunities where manipulation of neural activity are used for interconnect with myriad form of external devices. These research and intensive development were evolved into various areas from medical field, gaming and entertainment industry till safety and security field. The technology were extended for neurological disorders therapy such as obsessive compulsive disorder and Parkinson’s disease by introducing current pulses to specific region of the brain. Nonetheless, the work to develop a real-time observing, recording and altering of neural signal brain-machine interfaces system will require a significant amount of effort to overcome the obstacles in improving this system without delay in response. To date, feature size of interface devices and the density of the electrode population remain as a limitation in achieving seamless performance on BMI. Currently, the size of the BMI devices is ranging from 10 to 100 microns in terms of electrodes’ diameters. Henceforth, to accommodate the single cell level precise monitoring, smaller and denser Nano-scaled nanowire electrode arrays are vital in fabrication. In this paper, we would like to showcase the fabrication of high aspect ratio of vertical silicon nanowire electrodes arrays using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) method. Nanofabrication of the nanowire electrodes involves in deep reactive ion etching, thermal oxide thinning, electron-beam lithography patterning, sputtering of metal targets and bottom anti-reflection coating (BARC) etch. Metallization on the nanowire electrode tip is a prominent process to optimize the nanowire electrical conductivity and this step remains a challenge during fabrication. Metal electrodes were lithographically defined and yet these metal contacts outline a size scale that is larger than nanometer-scale building blocks hence further limiting potential advantages. Therefore, we present an integrated contact solution that overcomes this size constraint through self-aligned Nickel silicidation process on the tip of vertical silicon nanowire electrodes. A 4 x 4 array of vertical silicon nanowires electrodes with the diameter of 290nm and height of 3µm has been successfully fabricated.

Keywords: brain-machine interfaces, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nanowire, nickel silicide

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Authors: Sharmila Parmanand

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This paper examines dominant media representations of prostitution in the Philippines and interrogates sex workers’ interactions with the media establishment. This analysis of how sex workers are constituted in media, often as both innocent victims and immoral actors, contributes to an understanding of public discourse on sex work in the Philippines, where decriminalisation has recently been proposed and sex workers are currently classified as potential victims under anti-trafficking laws but also as criminals under the penal code. The first part is an analysis of media coverage of two prominent themes on prostitution: first, raid and rescue operations conducted by law enforcement; and second, prostitution on military bases and tourism hotspots. As a result of pressure from activists and international donors, these two themes often define the policy conversations on sex work in the Philippines. The discourses in written and televised news reports and documentaries from established local and international media sources that address these themes are explored through content analysis. Conclusions are drawn based on specific terms commonly used to refer to sex workers, how sex workers are seen as performing their cultural roles as mothers and wives, how sex work is depicted, associations made between sex work and public health, representations of clients and managers and ‘rescuers’ such as the police, anti-trafficking organisations, and faith-based groups, and which actors are presumed to be issue experts. Images of how prostitution is used as a metaphor for relations between the Philippines and foreign nations are also deconstructed, along with common tropes about developing world female subjects. In general, sex workers are simultaneously portrayed as bad mothers who endanger their family’s morality but also as long-suffering victims who endure exploitation for the sake of their children. They are also depicted as unclean, drug-addicted threats to public health. Their managers and clients are portrayed as cold, abusive, and sometimes violent, and their rescuers as moral and altruistic agents who are essential for sex workers’ rehabilitation and restoration as virtuous citizens. The second part explores sex workers’ own perceptions of their interactions with media, through interviews with members of the Philippine Sex Workers Collective, a loose organisation of sex workers around the Philippines. They reveal that they are often excluded by media practitioners and that they do not feel that they have space for meaningful self-revelation about their work when they do engage with journalists, who seem to have an overt agenda of depicting them as either victims or women of loose morals. In their assessment, media narratives do not necessarily reflect their lived experiences, and in some cases, coverage of rescues and raid operations endangers their privacy and instrumentalises their suffering. Media representations of sex workers may produce subject positions such as ‘victims’ or ‘criminals’ and legitimize specific interventions while foreclosing other ways of thinking. Further, in light of media’s power to reflect and shape public consciousness, it is a valuable academic and political project to examine whether sex workers are able to assert agency in determining how they are represented.

Keywords: discourse analysis, news media, sex work, trafficking

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Pantea Salehizadeh, Martin P. Bucknall, Robert Driscoll, Jayashree Arcot, George Srzednicki

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Banana is one of the most important crops produced in large quantities in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Of the total plant material grown, approximately 40% is considered waste and left in the field to decay. This practice allows fungal diseases such as Sigatoka Leaf Spot to develop, limiting plant growth and spreading spores in the air that can cause respiratory problems in the surrounding population. The pseudostem is considered a waste residue of production (60 to 80 tonnes/ha/year), although it is a good source of dietary fiber and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). Strategies to process banana pseudostem into palatable, nutritious and marketable food materials could provide significant social and economic benefits. Extraction of VOC’s with desirable odor from dried and fresh pseudostem could improve the smell of products from the confectionary and bakery industries. Incorporation of banana pseudostem flour into bakery products could provide cost savings and improve nutritional value. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of drying methods and different banana species on the profile of volatile aroma compounds in dried banana pseudostem. The banana species analyzed were Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Fresh banana pseudostem samples were processed by either freeze-drying (FD) or heat pump drying (HPD). The extraction of VOC’s was performed at ambient temperature using vacuum distillation and the resulting, mostly aqueous, distillates were analyzed using headspace solid phase microextraction (SPME) gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Optimal SPME adsorption conditions were 50 °C for 60 min using a Supelco 65 μm PDMS/DVB Stableflex fiber1. Compounds were identified by comparison of their electron impact mass spectra with those from the Wiley 9 / NIST 2011 combined mass spectral library. The results showed that the two species have notably different VOC profiles. Both species contained VOC’s that have been established in literature to have pleasant appetizing aromas. These included l-Menthone, D-Limonene, trans-linlool oxide, 1-Nonanol, CIS 6 Nonen-1ol, 2,6 Nonadien-1-ol, Benzenemethanol, 4-methyl, 1-Butanol, 3-methyl, hexanal, 1-Propanol, 2-methyl- acid، 2-Methyl-2-butanol. Results show banana pseudostem VOC’s are better preserved by FD than by HPD. This study is still in progress and should lead to the optimization of processing techniques that would promote the utilization of banana pseudostem in the food industry.

Keywords: heat pump drying, freeze drying, SPME, vacuum distillation, VOC analysis

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Authors: M. Soubadra Devy, Savitha Swamy, Chethana V. Casiker

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Sustainable smart cities are emerging as an important concept in response to the exponential rise in the world’s urbanizing population. While earlier, only technical, economic and governance based solutions were considered, more and more layers are being added in recent times. With the prefix of 'sustainability', solutions which help in judicious use of resources without negatively impacting the environment have become critical. We present a case study of Bangalore city which has transformed from being a garden city and pensioners' paradise to being an IT city with a huge, young population from different regions and diverse cultural backgrounds. This has had a big impact on the green spaces in the city and the biodiversity that they support, as well as on farming/gardening practices. Edible landscapes comprising farms lands, home gardens and neighbourhood parks (NPs henceforth) were examined. The land prices of areas having NPs were higher than those that did not indicate an appreciation of their aesthetic value. NPs were part of old and new residential areas largely managed by the municipality. They comprised manicured gardens which were similar in vegetation structure and composition. Results showed that NPs that occurred in higher density supported reasonable levels of biodiversity. In situations where NPs occurred in lower density, the presence of a larger green space such as a heritage park or botanical garden enhanced the biodiversity of these parks. In contrast, farm lands and home gardens which were common within the city are being lost at an unprecedented scale to developmental projects. However, there is also the emergence of a 'neo-culture' of home-gardening that promotes 'locovory' or consumption of locally grown food as a means to a sustainable living and reduced carbon footprint. This movement overcomes the space constraint by using vertical and terrace gardening techniques. Food that is grown within cities comprises of vegetables and fruits which are largely pollinator dependent. This goes hand in hand with our landscape-level study that has shown that cities support pollinator diversity. Maintaining and improving these man-made ecosystems requires analysing the functioning and characteristics of the existing structures of governance. Social network analysis tool was applied to NPs to examine relationships, between actors and ties. The management structures around NPs, gaps, and means to strengthen the networks from the current state to a near-ideal state were identified for enhanced services. Learnings from NPs were used to build a hypothetical governance structure and functioning of integrated governance of NPs and edible landscapes to enhance ecosystem services such as biodiversity support, food production, and aesthetic value. They also contribute to the sustainability axis of smart cities.

Keywords: biodiversity support, ecosystem services, edible green spaces, neighbourhood parks, sustainable smart city

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Authors: Marina Chavleishvili

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Introduction: Today, the study of monopolies, including natural monopolies, is topical. In real life, pure monopolies are natural monopolies. Natural monopolies are used widely and are regulated by the state. In particular, the prices and rates are regulated. The paper considers the problems associated with the operation of natural monopolies in Georgia, in particular, their microeconomic analysis, pricing mechanisms, and legal mechanisms of their operation. The analysis was carried out on the example of the power industry. The rates of natural monopolies in Georgia are controlled by the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulation Commission. The paper analyzes the positive role and importance of the regulatory body and the issues of improving the legislative base that will support the efficient operation of the branch. Methodology: In order to highlight natural monopolies market tendencies, the domestic and international markets are studied. An analysis of monopolies is carried out based on the endogenous and exogenous factors that determine the condition of companies, as well as the strategies chosen by firms to increase the market share. According to the productivity-based competitiveness assessment scheme, the segmentation opportunities, business environment, resources, and geographical location of monopolist companies are revealed. Main Findings: As a result of the analysis, certain assessments and conclusions were made. Natural monopolies are quite a complex and versatile economic element, and it is important to specify and duly control their frame conditions. It is important to determine the pricing policy of natural monopolies. The rates should be transparent, should show the level of life in the country, and should correspond to the incomes. The analysis confirmed the significance of the role of the Antimonopoly Service in the efficient management of natural monopolies. The law should adapt to reality and should be applied only to regulate the market. The present-day differential electricity tariffs varying depending on the consumed electrical power need revision. The effects of the electricity price discrimination are important, segmentation in different seasons in particular. Consumers use more electricity in winter than in summer, which is associated with extra capacities and maintenance costs. If the price of electricity in winter is higher than in summer, the electricity consumption will decrease in winter. The consumers will start to consume the electricity more economically, what will allow reducing extra capacities. Conclusion: Thus, the practical realization of the views given in the paper will contribute to the efficient operation of natural monopolies. Consequently, their activity will be oriented not on the reduction but on the increase of increments of the consumers or producers. Overall, the optimal management of the given fields will allow for improving the well-being throughout the country. In the article, conclusions are made, and the recommendations are developed to deliver effective policies and regulations toward the natural monopolies in Georgia.

Keywords: monopolies, natural monopolies, regulation, antimonopoly service

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Authors: Da-Hye Jang, Woo-Jeong Cho

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Marine leisure tourism contributes greatly to the national economy in which the sea is located nearby and many countries are using marine tourism to create value added. The interest and investment of government and local governments on marine leisure tourism growing as a major trend of marine tourism is steadily increasing. But indiscriminate investment in marine leisure tourism such as duplicated business wastes limited resources. In other words, government and local governments need to select and concentrate on the goal they pursue by drawing priority on maritime leisure tourism policies. The purpose of this study is to analyze development strategies on supplier for marine leisure tourism and thus provide a comprehensive and rational framework for developing marine leisure tourism. In order to achieve the purpose, this study is to analyze priorities for each evaluation criterion of marine leisure tourism development policies using Analytic Hierarchy Process. In this study, a questionnaire was used as the survey tool and was developed based on the previous studies, government report, regional report, related thesis and literature for marine leisure tourism. The questionnaire was constructed by verifying the validity of contents from the expert group related to marine leisure tourism after conducting the first and second preliminary surveys. The AHP survey was conducted to experts (university professors, researchers, field specialists and related public officials) from April 6, 2018 to April 30, 2018 by visiting in person or e-mail. This study distributed 123 questionnaires and 68 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis. As a result, 4 factors with 12 detail strategies were analyzed using Excel. Extracted factors of development strategies of marine leisure tourism are consist of 4 factors such as infrastructure, popularization, law & system improvement and advancement. In conclusion, the results of the pairwise comparison of the four major factor on the first class were infrastructure, popularization, law & system improvement and advancement in order. Second, marine water front space maintenance had higher priority than marina facilities expansion and the establishment of marine leisure education center. Third, marine leisure safety·culture improvement had higher priority than strengthening experience·education program and the upkeep and open promotion event. Fourth, specialization·cluster of marine leisure tourism had higher priority than business support system of marine leisure tourism. Fifth, the revision of water-related leisure activities safety act had higher priority than an enactment of marine tourism promotion act and the foster of marina service industry. Finally, marine water front space maintenance was the most important development plan to boost marine leisure tourism.

Keywords: marine leisure tourism, marine leisure, marine tourism, analytic hierarchy process

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Arjun Goutham, Chaitanya Sridhar, Sunita Maheshwari, Robin Uthappa, Prasanna Gopinath

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In alignment with the growth in the sporting industry, a number of people playing and competing in sports are growing exponentially across the globe. However, the number of sports psychology experts are not growing at a similar rate, especially in the Asian and more so, Indian context. Hence, the access to actionable mental training solutions specific to individual athletes is limited. Also, the time constraint an athlete faces due to their intense training schedule makes one-on-one sessions difficult. One of the means to bridge that gap is through technology. Technology makes individualization possible. It allows for easy access to specific-qualitative content/information and provides a medium to place individualized assessments, analysis, solutions directly into an athlete's hands. This enables mental training awareness, education, and real-time actionable solutions possible for athletes in-spite of the limitation of available sports psychology experts in their region. Furthermore, many athletes are hesitant to seek support due to the stigma of appearing weak. Such individuals would prefer a more discreet way. Athletes who have strong mental performance tend to produce better results. The mobile application helps to equip athletes with assessing and developing their mental strategies directed towards improving performance on an ongoing basis. When an athlete understands their strengths and limitations in their mental application, they can focus specifically on applying the strategies that work and improve on zones of limitation. With reports, coaches get to understand the unique inner workings of an athlete and can utilize the data & analysis to coach them with better precision and use coaching styles & communication that suits better. Systematically capturing data and supporting athletes(with individual-specific solutions) or teams with assessment, planning, instructional content, actionable tools & strategies, reviewing mental performance and the achievement of objectives & goals facilitate for a consistent mental skills development at all levels of sporting stages of an athlete's career. The mobile application will help athletes recognize and align with their stable attributes such as their personalities, learning & execution modalities, challenges & requirements of their sport, etc and help develop dynamic attributes like states, beliefs, motivation levels, focus etc. with practice and training. It will provide measurable analysis on a regular basis and help them stay aligned to their objectives & goals. The solutions are based on researched areas of influence on sporting performance individually or in teams.

Keywords: athletes, mental training, mobile application, performance, sports

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Laetitia Lemiere, Marie Gosme, Gerard Subsol, Marc Jaeger

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Agroforestry is recognized as a way of developing sustainable and resilient agriculture that can fight against climate change. However, the number of species combinations, spatial configurations, and management options for trees and crops is vast. These choices must be adapted to the pedoclimatic and socio-economic contexts and to the objectives of the farmer, who therefore needs support in designing his system. Participative design workshops are a good way to integrate the knowledge of several experts in order to design such complex systems. The design of agroforestry systems should take into account both spatial aspects (e.g., spacing of trees within the lines and between lines, tree line orientation, tree-crop distance, species spatial patterns) and temporal aspects (e.g., crop rotations, tree thinning and pruning, tree planting in the case of successional agroforestry). Furthermore, the interactions between trees and crops evolve as the trees grow. However, agroforestry design workshops generally emphasize the spatial aspect only through the use of static tokens to represent the different species when designing the spatial configuration of the system. Augmented reality (AR) may overcome this limitation, allowing to visualize dynamic representations of trees and crops, and also their interactions, while at the same time retaining the possibility to physically interact with the system being designed (i.e., move trees, add or remove species, etc.). We propose an ergonomic digital solution capable of assisting a group of agroforestry experts to design an agroforestry system and to represent it. We investigated the use of web-based marker-based AR that does not require specific hardware and does not require specific installation so that all users could use their own smartphones right out of the pocket. We developed a prototype mobilizing the AR.js, ArToolKit.js, and Three.js open source libraries. In our implementation, we gradually build a virtual agroforestry system pattern scene from the users' interactions. A specific set of markers initialize the scene properties, and the various plant species are added and located during the workshop design session. The full virtual scene, including the trees positions with their neighborhood, are saved for further uses, such as virtual, augmented instantiation in the farmer fields. The number of tree species available in the application is gradually increasing; we mobilize 3D digital models for walnut, poplar, wild cherry, and other popular species used in agroforestry systems. The prototype allows shadow computations and the representation of trees at various growth stages, as well as different tree generations, and is thus able to visualize the dynamics of the system over time. Future work will focus on i) the design of complex patterns mobilizing several tree/shrub organizations, not restricted to lines; ii) the design of interfaces related to cultural practices, such as clearing or pruning; iii) the representation of tree-crop interactions. Beside tree shade (light competition), our objective is to represent also below-ground competitions (water, nitrogen) or other variables of interest for the design of agroforestry systems (e.g., predicted crop yield).

Keywords: agroforestry system design, augmented reality, marker-based AR, participative design, web-based AR

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Authors: S. Gustafsson

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The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between gender, agency, and health on personal and social levels over time. The use of gender as an analytical tool for health research has been shown to be useful to explore thoughts and ideas that are taken for granted, which have relevance for health. The paper highlights the following three issues. There are multiple forms of femininity and masculinity. Agency and social structure are closely related and referred to in this paper as 'gender agency'. Gender is illuminated as a product of history but also treated as a social factor and a producer of history. As a prominent social factor in the process of shaping living conditions, gender is highlighted as being significant for understanding health. To make health explicit as a dynamic and complex concept and not merely the opposite of disease requires a broader alliance with feminist theory and a post-Bourdieusian framework. A personal story, included with other ethnographic material about women’s networking in rural Sweden, is used as an empirical illustration. Ethnographic material was chosen for its ability to illustrate historical, local, and cultural ways of doing gendered and capitalized health. New concepts characterize ethnography, exemplified in this study by 'processes of transformation'. The semi-structured interviews followed an interview guide drafted with reference to the background theory of gender. The interviews lasted about an hour and were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcribed interviews and the author’s field notes formed the basis for the writing up of this paper. Initially, the participants' interests in weaving, sewing, and various handicrafts became obvious foci for networking activities and seemed at first to shape compliance with patriarchy, which generally does the opposite of promoting health. However, a significant event disrupted the stability of this phenomenon. What was permissible for the women began to crack and new spaces opened up. By exploiting these new spaces, the participants found opportunities to try out alternatives to emphasized femininity. Over time, they began combining feminized activities with degrees of masculinity, as leadership became part of the activities. In response to this, masculine enactment was gradually transformed and became increasingly gender neutral. As the tasks became more gender neutral the activities assumed a more formal character and the women stretched the limits of their capacity by enacting gender agency, a process the participants referred to as 'personal growth' and described as health promotion. What was described in terms of 'personal growth' can be interpreted as the effects of a raised status. Participation in women’s networking strengthened the participants’ structural position. More specifically, it was the gender-neutral position that was rewarded. To clarify the connection between gender, agency, and health on personal and social levels over time the concept processes of transformation is used. This concept is suggested as a dynamic equivalent to habitus. Health is thus seen as resulting from situational access to social recognition, prestige, capital assets and not least, meanings of gender.

Keywords: a cross-gender bodily hexis, gender agency, gender as analytical tool, processes of transformation

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Anwesha Pathak

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With the increasing number of satellites and space debris, space traffic management (STM) becomes crucial. AI can aid in STM by predicting and preventing potential collisions, optimizing satellite trajectories, and managing orbital slots. Governance frameworks need to address the integration of AI algorithms in STM to ensure safe and sustainable satellite activities. AI and governance play significant roles in the context of satellite activities in space. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as machine learning and computer vision, can be utilized to process vast amounts of data received from satellites. AI algorithms can analyse satellite imagery, detect patterns, and extract valuable information for applications like weather forecasting, urban planning, agriculture, disaster management, and environmental monitoring. AI can assist in automating and optimizing satellite operations. Autonomous decision-making systems can be developed using AI to handle routine tasks like orbit control, collision avoidance, and antenna pointing. These systems can improve efficiency, reduce human error, and enable real-time responsiveness in satellite operations. AI technologies can be leveraged to enhance the security of satellite systems. AI algorithms can analyze satellite telemetry data to detect anomalies, identify potential cyber threats, and mitigate vulnerabilities. Governance frameworks should encompass regulations and standards for securing satellite systems against cyberattacks and ensuring data privacy. AI can optimize resource allocation and utilization in satellite constellations. By analyzing user demands, traffic patterns, and satellite performance data, AI algorithms can dynamically adjust the deployment and routing of satellites to maximize coverage and minimize latency. Governance frameworks need to address fair and efficient resource allocation among satellite operators to avoid monopolistic practices. Satellite activities involve multiple countries and organizations. Governance frameworks should encourage international cooperation, information sharing, and standardization to address common challenges, ensure interoperability, and prevent conflicts. AI can facilitate cross-border collaborations by providing data analytics and decision support tools for shared satellite missions and data sharing initiatives. AI and governance are critical aspects of satellite activities in space. They enable efficient and secure operations, ensure responsible and ethical use of AI technologies, and promote international cooperation for the benefit of all stakeholders involved in the satellite industry.

Keywords: satellite, space debris, traffic, threats, cyber security.

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Margareta Simina Stanc, Aurel Mototolea, Tiberiu Potarniche

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Sacidava archeological site is located in Dobrudja region, Romania, on a hill on the right bank of the Danube - the Musait point, located at about 5 km north-east from Dunareni village. The place-name documents the fact that, prior to the Roman conquest, in the area, there was a Getic settlement. The location of the Sacidava was made possible by corroborating the data provided by the ancient sources with the epigraphic documents (the milial pillar during the time of Emperor Decius). The tegular findings attest that an infantry unit, cohors I Cilicum milliaria equitata, as well as detachments from Legio V Macedonica and Legio XI Claudia, were confined to Sacidava. During the period of the Dominion, the garrison of the fortification is the host of a cavalry unit: cuneus equitum scutariorum. In the immediate vicinity to the Roman fortress, to the east, were identified two other fortifications: a Getic settlement (4th-1st century B.C.) and an Early Medieval settlement (9th-10th century A.C.). The archaeological material recovered during the research is represented by ceramic forms such as amphoras, jugs, pots, cups, plates, to which are added oil lamps, some of them typologically new at the time of discovery. Local ceramic shapes were also founded, worked by hand or by wheel, considered un-Romanized or in the course of Romanization. During the time of the Principality, Sacidava it represented an important military outpost serving mainly the city of Tropaeum Traiani, controlling also the supply and transport on the Danube limes in the Moesic sector. This role will determine the development of the fortress and the appearance of extramuros civil structures, thus becoming an important landmark during the 5th-6th centuries A.C., becoming a representation of power of the Roman empire in an area of continuous conflict. During recent archaeological researches, faunal remains were recovered, and their analysis allowed to estimate the animal resources and subsistence practices (animal husbandry, hunting, fishing) in the settlement. The methodology was specific to archaeozoology, mainly consisting of anatomical, taxonomical, and taphonomical identifications, recording, and quantification of the data. The remains of domestic mammals have the highest proportion indicating the importance of animal husbandry; the predominant species are Bos taurus, Ovis aries/Capra hircus, and Sus domesticus. Fishing and hunting were of secondary importance in the subsistence economy of the community. Wild boar and the red deer were the most frequently hunted species. Just a few fish bones were recovered. Thus, the ancient city of Sacidava is proving to be an important element of cultural heritage of the south-eastern part of Romania, for whose conservation and enhancement efforts must be made, especially by landscape reconstruction.

Keywords: archaeozoology, landscape reconstruction, limes, military outpost

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Authors: Maria Cristina Tommaso, Maria Das Graças L. Silva, Carlos Jose Pacheco

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Have the advances of the Brazilian legislation reflected or have been consonant with the inclusion of PwD in higher education? In 1990 the World Declaration on Education for All, a document organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), stated that the basic learning needs of people with disabilities, as they were called, required special attention. Since then, legislation in signatory countries such as Brazil has made considerable progress in guaranteeing, in a gradual and increasing manner, the rights of persons with disabilities to education. Principles, policies, and practices of special educational needs were created and guided action at the regional, national and international levels on the structure of action in Special Education such as administration, recruitment of educators and community involvement. Brazilian Education Law No. 3.284 of 2003 ensures inclusion of people with disabilities in Brazilian higher education institutions and also in 2015 the Law 13,146/2015 - Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (Statute of the Person with Disabilities) regulates the inclusion of PwD by the guarantee of their rights. This study analyses data related to people with disability inclusion in High Education in the south region of Rio de Janeiro State - Brazil during the period between 2008 and 2018, based in its correlation with the changes in the Brazilian legislation in the last ten years that were subjected by PwD inclusion processes in the Brazilian High Education Systems. The region studied is composed by sixteen cities and this research refers to the largest one, Volta Redonda that represents 25 percent of the total regional population. The PwD reception process had the dicing data at the Volta Redonda University Center with 35 percent of high education students in this territorial area. The research methodology analyzed the changes occurring in the legislation about the inclusion of people with disability in High Education in the last ten years and its impacts on the samples of this study during the period between 2008 and 2018. It was verified an expressive increasing of the number of PwD students, from two in 2008 to 190 PwD students in 2018. The data conclusions are presented in quantitative terms and the aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of the PwD inclusion in High Education, allowing visibility of this social group. This study verified that the fundamental human rights guarantees have a strong relation to the advances of legislation and the State as a guarantor instance of the rights of the people with disability and must be considered a mean of consolidation of their education opportunities isonomy. The recognition of full rights and the inclusion of people with disabilities requires the efforts of those who have decision-making power. This study aimed to demonstrate that legislative evolution is an effective instrument in the social integration of people with disabilities. The study confirms the fundamental role of the state in guaranteeing human rights and demonstrates that legislation not only protects the interests of vulnerable social groups, but can also, and this is perhaps its main mission, to change behavior patterns and provoke the social transformation necessary to the reduction of inequality of opportunity.

Keywords: high education, inclusion, legislation, people with disability

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Authors: Harriet Koshie Lamptey, Richard Boateng

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Mobile learning (m-learning) is a novel approach to knowledge acquisition and dissemination and is gaining global attention. Steady progress in wireless technologies and the portability of communication devices continue to broaden the scope and use of mobiles. With the convergence of Web functionality onto mobile platforms and the affordability and availability of mobile technology, m-learning has the potential of being the next prevalent channel of education in both formal and informal settings. There is substantive literature on developed countries but the state in developing countries (DCs) however appears vague. This paper is a synthesis of extant literature on mobile learning in DCs. The research interest is based on the fact that in DCs, mobile communication and internet connectivity are popular. However, its use in education is under explored. There are some reviews on the state, conceptualizations, trends and teacher education, but to the authors’ knowledge, no study has focused on mobile learning adoption and integration issues. This study examines issues and gaps associated with its adoption and integration in DCs higher education institutions. A qualitative build-up of literature was conducted using articles pooled from electronic databases (Google Scholar and ERIC). To enable criteria for inclusion and incorporate diverse study perspectives, search terms used were m-learning, DCs, higher education institutions, challenges, benefits, impact, gaps and issues. The synthesis revealed that though mobile technology has diffused globally, its pedagogical pursuit in DCs remains quite low. The absence of a mobile Web and the difficulty of resource conversion into mobile format due to lack of funding and technical competence is a stumbling block. Again, the lack of established design and implementation rules to guide the development of m-learning platforms in DCs is a hindrance. The absence of access restrictions on devices poses security threats to institutional systems. Negative perceptions that devices are taking over faculty roles lead to resistance in some situations. Resistance to change can be a hindrance to the acceptance and success of new systems. Lack of interest for m-learning is also attributed to lower technological literacy levels of the underprivileged masses. Scholarly works on m-learning in DCs is yet to mature. Most technological innovations are handed down from developed countries, and this constantly creates a lag for DCs. Lack of theoretical grounding was also identified which reduces the objectivity of study reports. The socio-cultural terrain of DCs results in societies with different views and needs that have been identified as a hindrance to research. Institutional commitment decisions, adequate funding for the necessary infrastructural development as well as multiple stakeholder participation is important for project success. Evidence suggests that while adoption decisions are readily made, successful integration of the concept for its full benefits to be realized is often neglected. Recommendations to findings were made to provide possible remedies to identified issues.

Keywords: developing countries, higher education institutions, mobile learning, literature review

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Authors: Sidharth Talan, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Eoin Joseph Wallace, Nikita Agrawal

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Underground mining is at the core of rapidly evolving metals and minerals sector due to the increasing mineral consumption globally. Even though the surface mines are still more abundant on earth, the scales of industry are slowly tipping towards underground mining due to rising depth and complexities of orebodies. Thus, the efficient and productive functioning of underground operations depends significantly on the synchronized performance of key elements such as operating site, mining equipment, manpower and mine services. Production drilling is the process of conducting long hole drilling for the purpose of charging and blasting these holes for the production of ore in underground metal mines. Thus, production drilling is the crucial segment in the underground metal mining value chain. This paper presents the process mapping tool to evaluate the production drilling process in the underground metal mining operation by dividing the given process into three segments namely Input, Process and Output. The three segments are further segregated into factors and sub-factors. As per the study, the major input factors crucial for the efficient functioning of production drilling process are power, drilling water, geotechnical support of the drilling site, skilled drilling operators, services installation crew, oils and drill accessories for drilling machine, survey markings at drill site, proper housekeeping, regular maintenance of drill machine, suitable transportation for reaching the drilling site and finally proper ventilation. The major outputs for the production drilling process are ore, waste as a result of dilution, timely reporting and investigation of unsafe practices, optimized process time and finally well fragmented blasted material within specifications set by the mining company. The paper also exhibits the drilling loss matrix, which is utilized to appraise the loss in planned production meters per day in a mine on account of availability loss in the machine due to breakdowns, underutilization of the machine and productivity loss in the machine measured in drilling meters per unit of percussion hour with respect to its planned productivity for the day. The given three losses would be essential to detect the bottlenecks in the process map of production drilling operation so as to instigate the action plan to suppress or prevent the causes leading to the operational performance deficiency. The given tool is beneficial to mine management to focus on the critical factors negatively impacting the production drilling operation and design necessary operational and maintenance strategies to mitigate them. 

Keywords: process map, drilling loss matrix, SIPOC, productivity, percussion rate

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Authors: T. Lydon, A. McNabola, P. Coughlan

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Energy consumption in the water distribution network (WDN) is a well established problem equating to the industry contributing heavily to carbon emissions, with 0.9 kg CO2 emitted per m3 of water supplied. It is indicated that 85% of energy wasted in the WDN can be recovered by installing turbines. Existing potential in networks is present at small capacity sites (5-10 kW), numerous and dispersed across networks. However, traditional turbine technology cannot be scaled down to this size in an economically viable fashion, thus alternative approaches are needed. This research aims to enable energy recovery potential within the WDN by exploring the potential of pumps-as-turbines (PATs), to realise this potential. PATs are estimated to be ten times cheaper than traditional micro-hydro turbines, presenting potential to contribute to an economically viable solution. However, a number of technical constraints currently prohibit their widespread use, including the inability of a PAT to control pressure, difficulty in the selection of PATs due to lack of performance data and a lack of understanding on how PATs can cater for fluctuations as extreme as +/- 50% of the average daily flow, characteristic of the WDN. A PAT prototype is undergoing testing in order to identify the capabilities of the technology. Results of preliminary testing, which involved testing the efficiency and power potential of the PAT for varying flow and pressure conditions, in order to develop characteristic and efficiency curves for the PAT and a baseline understanding of the technologies capabilities, are presented here: •The limitations of existing selection methods which convert BEP from pump operation to BEP in turbine operation was highlighted by the failure of such methods to reflect the conditions of maximum efficiency of the PAT. A generalised selection method for the WDN may need to be informed by an understanding of impact of flow variations and pressure control on system power potential capital cost, maintenance costs, payback period. •A clear relationship between flow and efficiency rate of the PAT has been established. The rate of efficiency reductions for flows +/- 50% BEP is significant and more extreme for deviations in flow above the BEP than below, but not dissimilar to the reaction of efficiency of other turbines. •PAT alone is not sufficient to regulate pressure, yet the relationship of pressure across the PAT is foundational in exploring ways which PAT energy recovery systems can maintain required pressure level within the WDN. Efficiencies of systems of PAT energy recovery systems operating conditions of pressure regulation, which have been conceptualise in current literature, need to be established. Initial results guide the focus of forthcoming testing and exploration of PAT technology towards how PATs can form part of an efficiency energy recovery system.

Keywords: energy recovery, pump-as-turbine, water distribution network, water distribution network

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