Search results for: trade in value added

Authors: Ahmed Emad Ahmed, Mostafa El Abd, Ahmed Wakeb, Moahmmed Eissa

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Soil modification and reinforcing aims to increase soil shear strength and stiffness. In this report, different amounts of cement were added to the soil to explore its effect on shear strength and penetration using 3 tests. The first test is proctor compaction test which was conducted to determine the optimal moisture content and maximum dry density. The second test was direct shear test which was conducted to measure shear strength of soil. The third experiment was California bearing ratio test which was done to measure the penetration in soil. Each test was done different amount of times using different amounts of cement. The results from every test show that cement improve soil shear strength properties and stiffness.

Keywords: soil stabilized, soil, mechanical properties of soil, soil stabilized with a portland cement

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: M. E. Ali Mohsin, Agus Arsad, Othman Y. Alothman

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This study explains the influence of secondary filler on the dispersion of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE) nanocomposites (CNT/HDPE). In order to understand the mixed-fillers system, Montmorillonite (MMT) was added to CNT/HDPE nanocomposites. It was followed by investigating their effect on the thermal, mechanical and morphological properties of the aforesaid nanocomposite. Incorporation of 3 wt% each of MMT into CNT/HDPE nanocomposite resulted to the increased values for the tensile and flexural strength, as compared to the pure HDPE matrix. The thermal analysis result showed improved thermal stability of the formulated nanocomposites. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that larger aggregates of CNTs were disappeared upon addition of these two components leading to the enhancement of thermo-mechanical properties for such composites.

Keywords: secondary filler, montmorillonite, carbon nanotube, nanocomposite

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Hatane Semuel, Hartmann H. Ngono, Sautma R. Basana

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The effect of capital structure on profitability is often debated by many financial investigators. The application of the trade-off theory and pecking order theory to analyze this relationship may generate different views. Each company has its own strategies to achieve its objectives and the external environment, such as state policy has a broad impact on the relationship with the capital structure of the company's profitability. Malaysia is the country closest to Indonesia that had a similar growth rate of GDP and industrial production with Indonesia, but Malaysia has lower inflation rate than Indonesia. This study was conducted to compare the performance of manufacturing sector between two countries when entering the era of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The samples for this study were 69 companies in Indonesia and 242 companies in Malaysia that engaged in manufacturing sector. The study uses panel data analysis. The study found that the capital structure have positive effect on profitability of manufacturing company in Indonesia, and it turns to negative effect on manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The results also showed that there are significant differences in short-term debt towards profitability of manufacturing companies in the two countries Indonesia and Malaysia.

Keywords: capital structure, Indonesia, Malaysia, manufacturing, profitability

Procedia PDF Downloads 382

Authors: Ajayi Olusola Olajide, Alonge Olaide Moses

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Predicting the outcome of soccer matches poses an interesting challenge for which it is realistically impossible to successfully do so for every match. Despite this, there are lots of resources that are being expended on the correct prediction of soccer matches weekly, and all over the world. Soccer Match Result Prediction System Model (SMRPSM) is a system that is proposed whereby the results of matches between two soccer teams are auto-generated, with the added excitement of giving users a chance to test their predictive abilities. Soccer teams from different league football are loaded by the application, with each team’s corresponding manager and other information like team location, team logo and nickname. The user is also allowed to interact with the system by selecting the match to be predicted and viewing of the results of completed matches after registering/logging in.

Keywords: predicting, soccer match, outcome, soccer, matches, result prediction, system, model

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Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou, Maria F. Sartzetaki

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Air Transport links markets and individuals, making regions more competitive and promoting social and economic development. The assessment of social contribution is the key objective of this paper, focusing on the definition of the components of social dimension and welfare metrics in the national scale. According to a top-down approach, the key dimensions that affect the social welfare are presented. Conventional wisdom is to provide estimations on added value to social issues caused by the air transport development and present the methodology framework for measuring the contribution of transport development in social value chain. Greece is the case study of this paper, providing results from the contribution of air transport infrastructures in national welfare. The application key findings are essential for managers and decision makers to support actions and plans towards economic recovery of an economy presenting strong seasonal characteristics (because of tourism) and suffering from recession.

Keywords: air transport, social coherence, resilient business development, socioeconomic impact

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Authors: Vashti Carissa

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The main objective of this study is to examine whether the life-cycle theory of dividends could explain the determinant of an optimal dividend policy in Indonesia. The sample that was used consists of 1,420 non-financial and non-trade, services, investment firms listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange during the period of 2005-2014. According to this finding using logistic regression, firm life-cycle measured by retained earnings as a proportion of total equity (RETE) significantly has a positive effect on the propensity of a firm pays dividend. The higher company’s earned surplus portion in its capital structure could reflect firm maturity level which will increase the likelihood of dividend payment in mature firms. This result provides an additional empirical evidence about the existence of life-cycle theory of dividends for dividend payout phenomenon in Indonesia. It can be known that dividends tend to be paid by mature firms while retention is more dominating in growth firms. From the testing results, it can also be known that majority of sample firms are being in the growth phase which proves the fact about infrequent dividend distribution in Indonesia during the ten years observation period.

Keywords: dividend, dividend policy, life-cycle theory of dividends, mix of earned and contributed capital

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Authors: Tosin Ige

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Ethics must be a condition of the world, like logic. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951). As important as data mining is, it possess a significant threat to ethics, privacy, and legality, since data mining makes it difficult for an individual or consumer (in the case of a company) to control the accessibility and usage of his data. This research focuses on Current issues and the latest research and development on Privacy preserving data mining methods as at year 2022. It also discusses some advances in those techniques while at the same time highlighting and providing a new technique as a solution to an existing technique of privacy preserving data mining methods. This paper also bridges the wide gap between Data mining and the Web Application Programing Interface (web API), where research is urgently needed for an added layer of security in data mining while at the same time introducing a seamless and more efficient way of data mining.

Keywords: data, privacy, data mining, association rule, privacy preserving, mining technique

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Authors: Maryam Kiani

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Non-precious electrocatalysts play a crucial role in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for regenerative fuel cells and rechargeable metal-air batteries. To enhance ORR activity, La (a less active element) is added to modify the activity of Ni. This addition increases the surface contents of Ni2+, N, and S species in LaNi/N-S-C, while still maintaining a substantial specific surface area and hierarchical porosity. Therefore, the additional La is essential for the successful ORR process.In addition, the presence of extra La in the LaNi/N-S-C electrocatalyst enhances the efficiency of charge transfer and improves the surface acid-base characteristics, facilitating the adsorption of oxygen molecules during the ORR process. As a result, this superior and desirable electrocatalyst exhibits significantly enhanced ORR bifunctional activity. In fact, its ORR activity is comparable to that of the 20 wt% Pt/C.

Keywords: fuel cells, batteries, dual-doped carbon black, ORR

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Authors: Renata Hrecska

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This research aims to present today's corporate law reforms in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise sector. The UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) currently deals with emerging issues in the sector in its Working Group I that has specifically focused on possible company law simplifications, including the creation of a fully unique company, the UNCITRAL Limited Liability Organization. However, beyond the work at the UN, the different states has also been focusing on simplification efforts and demands in the sphere of commercial law. We can observe that e.g. Slovakia, Serbia, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and France are undergoing legal reforms aimed at restructuring the sector through simplification of registration or operation. An important objective of the research is to examine where the boundary is for the legal entity to be more transparent and accountable, while the legislator wants to bring the possibility of establishing a company closer to the citizen. The research material presents the advantages and disadvantages of different initiatives with comparative legal instruments and draws conclusions on the possible future vision. The researcher herself attended some of the meetings of the relevant UNCITRAL working group as a national delegated expert, giving her a personal insight into the UNLLO discourse.

Keywords: commercial law, company formation, MSME, UNCITRAL

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Authors: Parminder Kaur Heer, Alexei Lapkin

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Due to global challenges of increased competition and demand for more sustainable products/processes, there is a rising pressure on the industry to develop innovative processes. Through Process Intensification (PI) the existing and new processes may be able to attain higher efficiency. However, very few PI options are generally considered. This is because processes are typically analysed at a unit operation level, thus limiting the search space for potential process options. PI performed at more detailed levels of a process can increase the size of the search space. The different levels at which PI can be achieved is unit operations, functional and phenomena level. Physical/chemical phenomena form the lowest level of aggregation and thus, are expected to give the highest impact because all the intensification options can be described by their enhancement. The objective of the current work is thus, generation of numerous process alternatives based on phenomena, and development of their corresponding computer aided models. The methodology comprises: a) automated generation of process options, and b) automated generation of process models. The process under investigation is disintegrated into functions viz. reaction, separation etc., and these functions are further broken down into the phenomena required to perform them. E.g., separation may be performed via vapour-liquid or liquid-liquid equilibrium. A list of phenomena for the process is formed and new phenomena, which can overcome the difficulties/drawbacks of the current process or can enhance the effectiveness of the process, are added to the list. For instance, catalyst separation issue can be handled by using solid catalysts; the corresponding phenomena are identified and added. The phenomena are then combined to generate all possible combinations. However, not all combinations make sense and, hence, screening is carried out to discard the combinations that are meaningless. For example, phase change phenomena need the co-presence of the energy transfer phenomena. Feasible combinations of phenomena are then assigned to the functions they execute. A combination may accomplish a single or multiple functions, i.e. it might perform reaction or reaction with separation. The combinations are then allotted to the functions needed for the process. This creates a series of options for carrying out each function. Combination of these options for different functions in the process leads to the generation of superstructure of process options. These process options, which are formed by a list of phenomena for each function, are passed to the model generation algorithm in the form of binaries (1, 0). The algorithm gathers the active phenomena and couples them to generate the model. A series of models is generated for the functions, which are combined to get the process model. The most promising process options are then chosen subjected to a performance criterion, for example purity of product, or via a multi-objective Pareto optimisation. The methodology was applied to a two-step process and the best route was determined based on the higher product yield. The current methodology can identify, produce and evaluate process intensification options from which the optimal process can be determined. It can be applied to any chemical/biochemical process because of its generic nature.

Keywords: Phenomena, Process intensification, Process models , Process options

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Authors: Munir Tasdemir

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Polymer/clay composites have received great attention in the past three decades owing to their light weight coupled with significantly better mechanical and barrier properties than the corresponding neat polymer resins. An investigation was carried out on the effects of red mud powder size and ratio on the mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene /red mud polymer composites. Red mud, in four different concentrations (0, 10, 20 and 30 wt %) and three different powder size (180, 63 and 38 micron) were added to PP to produce composites. The mechanical properties, including the elasticity modulus, tensile & yield strength, % elongation, hardness, Izod impact strength and the thermal properties including the melt flow index, heat deflection temperature and vicat softening point of the composites were investigated. The structures of the composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and compared to mechanical and thermal properties as a function of red mud powder content and size.

Keywords: polypropylene, powder, red mud, mechanical properties

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Authors: W. Deboucha, M. N. Oudjit, A. Bouzid, L. Belagraa, A.Noui

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The cement manufacturing is the one of the factors that pollutes the atmosphere in the industrial sector. The common way to reduce this pollution is using mineral additions as partial replacement of Portland cement. Particularly, natural pozzolana (NP) is component in which they can be used to decrease the rate of pollution. The main objective of this experimental work is the study of the effect of mineral addition (natural pozzolana) on the capillary water absorption and compressive-flexural strength of cement mortar. The results obtained in the present research showed that the higher dosages of natural pozzolana added could be the principal parameter of such decrease in strength at early and medium term. Further, this increase of incorporated addition has been believed to reduce the capillary water absorption.

Keywords: Natural pozzolana, mortar, strength, capillary absorption

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Ahmed BenSaïda

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This paper investigates the association between financial technology (FinTech) growth and bank performance in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Application is conducted on a panel dataset containing the annual observations of banks covering the period from 2012 to 2021. FinTech growth is set as an explanatory variable on three proxies of bank performance. These proxies are the return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and net interest margin (NIM). Moreover, several control variables are added to the model, including bank-specific and macroeconomic variables. The results are significant as all the proxies of the bank performance are negatively affected by the growth of FinTech startups. Consequently, banks are urged to proactively invest in FinTech startups and engage in partnerships to avoid the risk of disruption.

Keywords: financial technology, bank performance, GCC countries, panel regression

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Authors: H. Yousefnia, SJ. Ahmadi, S. Sajadi, S. Zolghadri, A. Bahrami-Samani, M. Bagherzadeh

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Nowadays, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as the multitask agents have showed advantageous characteristics. The aim of this study was the preparation and quality control of 153Sm-DTPA-DA-SPION complex. Samarium-153 was produced by neutron irradiation of the enriched 152Sm2O3 in a research reactor for 5 d. For radiolabeling purposes, 8 mg of the ligand was added to the vial containing 153SmCl3 and the mixture was sonicated 30 min, while pH was adjusted to 7-8. The radiochemical purity of the complex was checked by the ITLC method using NH4OH:MeOH:H2O (0.2:2:4) as the mobile phase. This new radiolabeled complex was prepared with a radiochemical purity of higher than 98% in 30 min at the optimized condition. The complex was kept at room temperature and in human serum at 37 °C for 48 h, showed no loss of 153Sm from the complex. Considering all of these features, this new radiolabeled complex can be considered as a good therapeutic agent; however, further studies on its biological behavior are still needed.

Keywords: iron nanoparticles, preparation, quality control, 153Sm

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Authors: Jinyoung Choi, Tae-Ho Yoon, Sunmook Lee

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Degradation of standard oxygen transfer efficiency (SOTE) with time was observed for the assessment of lifetime of metal-based air-diffuser, which displaced a polymer composite-based air-diffuser in order to attain a longer lifetime in the actual field. The degradation of air-diffuser occurred due to the failure of the formation of small and uniform air bubbles since the patterns formed on the disc of air-diffuser deteriorated and/or changed from their initial shapes while they were continuously exposed to the air blowing condition during the operation in the field. Therefore, the lifetime assessment of metal-based air-diffuser was carried out through an accelerated degradation test by accelerating the air-blowing conditions in 200 L/min, 300 L/min, and 400 L/min and the lifetime of normal operating condition at 120 L/min was predicted. It was found that Weibull distribution was the most proper one for describing the lifetime distribution of metal-based air-diffuser in the present study. The shape and scale parameters indicated that the accelerated blowing conditions were all within the acceleration domain. The lifetime was predicted by adopting inverse power model for a stress-life relationship and estimated to be B10=94,004 hrs with CL=95%. Acknowledgement: This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Grant number: N0001475).

Keywords: accelerated degradation test, air-diffuser, lifetime assessment, SOTE

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Authors: Hamid Reza Goshayeshi

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The effect of ɑ(alpha) Fe2O3 and ɤ(gamma)Fe2O3 particles on the heat transfer performance of an oscillating heat pipe was investigated experimentally. Kerosene was used as the base fluid for the OHP. Six size particles with average diameters of 10 nm, 20 nm, and 30 nm ɑFe2O3 and ɤFe2O3 were investigated, respectively. Experimental results show that the ɤFe2O3 particles added in the OHP significantly affect the heat transfer performance. When the OHP was charged with kerosene and 20 nm ɤ Fe2O3 particles, the OHP can achieve the best heat transfer performance among six particles investigated in this research.

Keywords: copper oscillating heat pipe, heat transfer, flow, comparison of ɑ(alpha)Fe2O3 and ɤ(gamma)Fe2O3, increase heat transfer

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Authors: Ian Marc G. Cabugsa, Zarine M. Hermita

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Phytoextraction capability of T. catappa in contaminated soils was done in the improvised greenhouse. The plant samples were planted to the soil which contained different concentrations of copper. Chelating agent EDTA was added to observe the uptake and translocation of copper in the plant samples. Results showed a significant increase of copper accumulation with the addition of EDTA at 250 and 1250 mgˑkg-1 concentration of copper in the contaminated soils (p<0.05). While translocation of copper was observed in all treatments, translocation of copper is not significantly enhanced by the addition of EDTA (p>0.05). Uptake and translocation were not directly affected the presence of EDTA. Furthermore, this study suggests that the T. catappa is not a hyperaccumulator of copper, and there is no relationship observed between the length of the plant and the copper uptake in all treatments.

Keywords: chelating agent EDTA, hyperaccumulator, phytoextraction, phytoremediation, terminalia catappa

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Mohammad Ali Hasanzadeh, Thierry Vanelslander, Eddy Van De Voorde

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Nowadays maritime transport is a key element in international trade and global supply chain. Economies of scale in transporting goods are one of the most attractive elements of using ships. Without maritime transport, almost no globalization of economics can be imagined. Within maritime transport, ports are the interface between lands and see. Even though using ships help cargo owners to have a competitive margin but an accident in port during loading or unloading or even moving cargoes within the terminal can diminish such margin. Statistics shows that due to the high-speed notion of activities within ports, collision accidents are the most common type of accidents. To mitigate such accidents, the appropriate risk exposures have to be defined and calculate, later on risk probabilities can be determined for each type of accident, i.e. fatal, severe, moderate and minor ones. Having such risk probabilities help managers to define the effectiveness of each collision risk control option. This research defined travelled distance as main collision risk exposure in container terminals, taking all the related items into consideration, it was calculated for Shahid Rajae container terminals. Following this finding, collision risk probabilities were computed.

Keywords: collision accident, container terminal, maritime transport, risk exposure

Procedia PDF Downloads 385

Authors: Hassan Medaghri Alaoui

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The accounting and financial reporting system in use today is over 500 years old and has failed to capture the new knowledge and innovation economy in which intangible assets are becoming increasingly valuable. Yet, there has been a growing acknowledgment among the research community as to the relevance of intellectual capital as a major enhancer of an organization’s well-being. Much of the research provides great support for how the IC is instrumental in determining financial and stock performances. As far as we know, this article is one of the earliest exploratory attempts to examine the intellectual capital impact on the corporate performance of the IT sector in Morocco. The purpose of this study is to verify empirically the influence of intellectual capital on firm performance. We have undertaken, over a fifteen-year period, a longitudinal (2005–2019) case study of a prominent payment-solutions company based in a developing economy with global operations.

Keywords: intellectual capital, IT sector, measuring intellectual capital, modified value added intellectual capital coefficient, Morocco

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Authors: Arnab Roy, P. S. Anil Kumar

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Hall bar magnetic field sensors based on planar hall effect were fabricated from permalloy (Ni¬80Fe20) thin films grown by pulsed laser ablation. As large as 400% planar Hall voltage change was observed for a magnetic field sweep within ±4 Oe, a value comparable with present day TMR sensors at room temperature. A very large planar Hall sensitivity of 1200 Ω/T was measured close to switching fields, which was not obtained so far apart from 2DEG Hall sensors. In summary, a highly sensitive low magnetic field sensor has been constructed which has the added advantage of simple architecture, good signal to noise ratio and robustness.

Keywords: planar hall effect, permalloy, NiFe, pulsed laser ablation, low magnetic field sensor, high sensitivity magnetic field sensor

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Authors: Muhammad Ammar, Talha Ali, Abdul Basit, Bakhtawar Rajput, Zobia Sohail

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Music note detection is an area of study for the past few years and has its own influence in music file generation from sheet music. We proposed a method to detect music notes on sheet music using basic thresholding and blob detection. Subsequently, we created a notes dictionary using a semi-supervised learning approach. After notes detection, for each test image, the new symbols are added to the dictionary. This makes the notes detection semi-automatic. The experiments are done on images from a dataset and also on the captured images. The developed approach showed almost 100% accuracy on the dataset images, whereas varying results have been seen on captured images.

Keywords: music note, sheet music, optical music recognition, blob detection, thresholding, dictionary generation

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Authors: Mohammad Y. Alfaifi

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Methidathion (MTD) (Trade name Supracide®) is a non-systemic organophosphorus insecticide used intensively worldwide including Saudi Arabia. However, there is a lack in published studies about it's genotoxicity. In this study we evaluated MTD toxicity in rat bone marrow cells (in vivo) and in lymphocytes (in vitro) using different doses based on LD50. MNNCE (Micronucleated normocromatic erythrocytes) and MNPCE (Micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes), NDI (Nuclear division index) and NDCI (nuclear division cytotoxicity index), necrotic and apoptotic cells were recorded in rat's bone marrow samples. CA, MI (number of cells undergoing mitosis) necrotic, and apoptotic cells recorded in lymphocytes. Results showed that there was a slight increase in the frequency of micronucleated bone marrow cells. However, no structural chromosomal aberrations were detected in vivo or in vitro. On the other hand, the results showed significant increase in necrotic and apoptotic cells following MTD administration in a dose-dependent manner comparing to positive and negative control groups. In light of these results, MTD can be considered highly cytotoxic and moderate genotoxic, and precaution should be taken when using MTD.

Keywords: methidathion, micronucleus, NDI, NDCI, toxicity, chromosomal aberrations

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Authors: Dariusz M. Trzmielak, William Bradley Zehner, Elin Oftedal, Ilona Lipka-Matusiak

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The use of new technologies should create new value for all stakeholders in the healthcare system. The article focuses on demonstrating that technologies or products typically enable new functionality, a higher standard of service, or a higher level of knowledge and competence for clinicians. It also highlights the key benefits that can be achieved through the use of artificial intelligence, such as relieving clinicians of many tasks and enabling the expansion and greater specialisation of healthcare services. The comparative analysis allowed the authors to create a classification of new technologies in e-health according to health needs and benefits for patients, doctors, and healthcare systems, i.e., the main stakeholders in the implementation of new technologies and products in healthcare. The added value of the development of new technologies in healthcare is diagnosed. The work is both theoretical and practical in nature. The primary research methods are bibliographic analysis and analysis of research data and market potential of new solutions for healthcare organisations. The bibliographic analysis is complemented by the author's case studies of implemented technologies, mostly based on artificial intelligence or telemedicine. In the past, patients were often passive recipients, the end point of the service delivery system, rather than stakeholders in the system. One of the dangers of powerful new technologies is that patients may become even more marginalised. Healthcare will be provided and delivered in an increasingly administrative, programmed way. The doctor may also become a robot, carrying out programmed activities - using 'non-human services'. An alternative approach is to put the patient at the centre, using technologies, products, and services that allow them to design and control technologies based on their own needs. An important contribution to the discussion is to open up the different dimensions of the user (carer and patient) and to make them aware of healthcare units implementing new technologies. The authors of this article outline the importance of three types of patients in the successful implementation of new medical solutions. The impact of implemented technologies is analysed based on: 1) "Informed users", who are able to use the technology based on a better understanding of it; 2) "Engaged users" who play an active role in the broader healthcare system as a result of the technology; 3) "Innovative users" who bring their own ideas to the table based on a deeper understanding of healthcare issues. The authors' research hypothesis is that the distinction between informed, engaged, and innovative users has an impact on the perceived and actual quality of healthcare services. The analysis is based on case studies of new solutions implemented in different medical centres. In addition, based on the observations of the Polish author, who is a manager at the largest medical research institute in Poland, with analytical input from American and Norwegian partners, the added value of the implementations for patients, clinicians, and the healthcare system will be demonstrated.

Keywords: innovation, management, medicine, e-health, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Obioma Uche

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Due to the recent volatility in oil & gas prices as well as increased development of non-conventional resources, it has become even more essential to critically evaluate the profitability of petroleum prospects prior to making any investment decisions. Traditionally, simple Monte Carlo (MC) algorithms have been used to randomly sample probability distributions of economic and geological factors (e.g. price, OPEX, CAPEX, reserves, productive life, etc.) in order to obtain probability distributions for profitability metrics such as Net Present Value (NPV). In recent years, second-order MC algorithms have been shown to offer an advantage over simple MC techniques due to the added consideration of uncertainties associated with the probability distributions of the relevant variables. Here, a strategy for the application of the second-order MC technique to a case study is demonstrated to analyze its effectiveness as a tool for portfolio management.

Keywords: Monte Carlo algorithms, portfolio management, profitability, risk analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 334

Authors: Nidal H. Abu-Zahra, Mahmoud Algazzar

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In this research, n-dodecylthiol was added to P3HT/PC70BM polymer solar cells to improve the crystallinity of P3HT and enhance the phase separation of P3HT/PC70BM. The improved crystallinity of P3HT/PC70BM doped with 0-5% by volume of n-dodecylthiol resulted in improving the power conversion efficiency of polymer solar cells by 33%. In addition, thermal annealing of the P3HT/PC70MB/n-dodecylthiolcompound showed further improvement in crystallinity with n-dodecylthiol concentration up to 2%. The highest power conversion efficiency of 3.21% was achieved with polymer crystallites size L of 11.2nm, after annealing at 150°C for 30 minutes under a vacuum atmosphere. The smaller crystallite size suggests a shorter path of the charge carriers between P3HT backbones, which could be beneficial to getting a higher short circuit current in the devices made with the additive.

Keywords: n-dodecylthiol, congugated PSC, P3HT/PCBM, polymer solar cells

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Ostad Ali Naghi Kashani, Esfanji Elia

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Nowadays, the amounts of companies which tend to have an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application are increasing particularly in developing countries like Iran. ERP projects are expensive, time consuming, and complex, in addition the failure rate is high among these projects. It is important to know whether these projects could meet their goals or not. Furthermore, the area which should be improved should be identified. In this paper we made a framework to evaluate ERP projects success implementation. First, based on literature review we made a framework based on BSC model, financial, customer, processes, learning and knowledge, because of the importance of change management it was added to model. Then an organization was divided in three layers. We choose corporate, managerial, and operational levels. Then to find criteria to assess each aspect, we use Delphi method in two rounds. And for the second round we made a questionnaire and did some statistical tasks on them. Based on the statistical results some of them are accepted and others are rejected.

Keywords: ERP, BSC, ERP project evaluation, IT projects

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Authors: S. A. Naeini, M. Ghorbani Tochaee

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The aim of this study is to assess the influence of plastic fines content on sand-clay mixtures on maximum shear modulus and liquefaction resistance using a series of resonant column tests. A high plasticity clay called bentonite was added to 161 Firoozkooh sand at the percentages of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 by dry weight. The resonant column tests were performed on the remolded specimens at constant confining pressure of 100 KPa and then the values of G_max and liquefaction resistance were investigated. The maximum shear modulus and cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) are examined in terms of fines content. Based on the results, the maximum shear modulus and liquefaction resistance tend to decrease within the increment of fine contents.

Keywords: Gmax, liquefaction, plastic fines, resonant column, sand-clay mixtures, bentonite

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Authors: S. Roman

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This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with three Canadian educators to examine peace-based pedagogies used in varied teaching contexts and the degree to which the teaching strategies implemented were aligned with goals of peace-keeping, peace-making or peace-building in the classroom. In this research, the teachers’ peace-oriented pedagogy was influenced by various strands of peace education theory, and as such shaped their conceptualization of ‘peace’. The study’s result shows that when educators implemented government-mandated curriculum, they worked around it and/or added content that increased opportunities for democratic peacebuilding. In addition, all three teachers also strengthened their peace-oriented practice by incorporating conflict resolution skills in and outside the classroom to augment a common social-justice oriented goal for peace-making and peace-keeping and made various distinctions around the conditions necessary for peace-building.

Keywords: citizenship, peace-building education, peace-building curriculum, pedagogy

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Authors: Shun Horikoshi, Tohru Kawabe

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This study presents performance analysis results of SMC (Sliding mode control) with changing the chattering functions applied to slip suppression problem of electric vehicles (EVs). In SMC, chattering phenomenon always occurs through high frequency switching of the control inputs. It is undesirable phenomenon and degrade the control performance, since it causes the oscillations of the control inputs. Several studies have been conducted on this problem by introducing some general saturation function. However, study about whether saturation function was really best and the performance analysis when using the other functions, weren’t being done so much. Therefore, in this paper, several candidate functions for SMC are selected and control performance of candidate functions is analyzed. In the analysis, evaluation function based on the trade-off between slip suppression performance and chattering reduction performance is proposed. The analyses are conducted in several numerical simulations of slip suppression problem of EVs. Then, we can see that there is no difference of employed candidate functions in chattering reduction performance. On the other hand, in slip suppression performance, the saturation function is excellent overall. So, we conclude the saturation function is most suitable for slip suppression sliding mode control.

Keywords: sliding mode control, chattering function, electric vehicle, slip suppression, performance analysis

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Authors: Daomao Yang, Qizhi Wang

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Monoterpenoids are mainly found in plant essential oils and they are ideal substrates for biotransformation into oxygen-containing derivatives with important commercial value due to their low price and simple structure. In this paper, eleven strains of endophytic fungi from Praxelis clematidea were used as test strains to conduct the whole cell biotransformation of the monoterpenoids: (+)-limonene, (-)-limonene and myrcene. The fungi were inoculated in 50 ml Sabouraud medium and incubated at 30 ℃ with the agitation of 150 r/min for 6 d, and then 0.5% (v/v) substrates were added into the medium and biotransformed for further 3 d. Afterwards the cultures were filtered, and extracted using equal volume of ethyl acetate. The metabolites were analyzed by GC-MS technique with NIST database. The Total Ion Chromatogram of the extractions from the eleven strains showed that the main product of (+)- and (-)-limonene biotransformation was limonene-1,2-diol, while it is limonene and linalool oxide for biotransformation of myrcene. This work will help screen the microorganisms to biotransform the monoterpenes.

Keywords: endophytic fungi, (+)–limonene, (-)–limonene, myrcene

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