Search results for: North east China

Authors: Yusuf Dawa Sidi, Abdulrahman Bulama Bizi

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The most dependable and precise source of climate data is often gauge observation. However, long-term records of gauge observations, on the other hand, are unavailable in many regions around the world. In recent years, a number of gridded climate datasets with high spatial and temporal resolutions have emerged as viable alternatives to gauge-based measurements. However, it is crucial to thoroughly evaluate their performance prior to utilising them in hydroclimatic applications. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness of NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (NASA POWER) and Climate Research Unit (CRU) datasets in accurately estimating precipitation and temperature patterns within the dry region of Nigeria from 1990 to 2020. The study employs widely used statistical metrics and the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) to effectively capture the monthly variability of precipitation and temperature and inter-annual anomalies in rainfall. The findings suggest that CRU exhibited superior performance compared to NASA POWER in terms of monthly precipitation and minimum and maximum temperatures, demonstrating a high correlation and much lower error values for both RMSE and MAE. Nevertheless, NASA POWER has exhibited a moderate agreement with gauge observations in accurately replicating monthly precipitation. The analysis of the SPI reveals that the CRU product exhibits superior performance compared to NASA POWER in accurately reflecting inter-annual variations in rainfall anomalies. The findings of this study indicate that the CRU gridded product is often regarded as the most favourable gridded precipitation product.

Keywords: CRU, climate change, precipitation, SPI, temperature

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Authors: Djeffal Asma, Zemmouri Noureddine

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In order for building designer to be able to balance environmental concerns with other performance requirements, they need clear and concise information. For certain decisions during the design process, qualitative guidance, such as design checklists or guidelines information may not be sufficient for evaluating the environmental benefits between different building materials, products and designs. In this case, quantitative information, such as that generated through a life cycle assessment, provides the most value. LCA provides a systematic approach to evaluating the environmental impacts of a product or system over its entire life. In the case of buildings life cycle includes the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, transporting and installing building components or products, operating and maintaining the building. By integrating LCA into building design process, designers can evaluate the life cycle impacts of building design, materials, components and systems and choose the combinations that reduce the building life cycle environmental impact. This article attempts to give an overview of the integration of LCA methodology in the context of building design, and focuses on the use of this methodology for environmental considerations concerning process design and optimization. A multiple case study was conducted in order to assess the benefits of the LCA as a decision making aid tool during the first stages of the building design under specific climate conditions of the North East region of Algeria. It is clear that the LCA methodology can help to assess and reduce the impact of a building design and components on the environment even if the process implementation is rather long and complicated and lacks of global approach including human factors. It is also demonstrated that using LCA as a multi objective optimization of building process will certainly facilitates the improvement in design and decision making for both new design and retrofit projects.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, buildings, sustainability, elementary schools, environmental impacts

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Jianing Mi, Cheng Feng

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The patronage of e-government services (demand side of e-government) is vital to the successful implementation of e-government initiatives. The purpose of this study is to explore the predictors determining the willingness of African students in China to adopt and use e-government services. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) will be used as the theoretical foundation for this research. Research instrument will be developed and administered to 500 African students in China. Factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and culture will be investigated to determine its significant impact on the willingness to use e-government services. This study is a research in progress. The outcome of this study will provide valuable recommendations to improve the provision of public services through e-government.

Keywords: e-government, e-government services, predictors, UTAUT

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Authors: Yue Huang, Yiheng Feng

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Due to the global pressure on climate and energy, many countries are vigorously promoting electric vehicles and building charging (public) charging facilities. Faced with the supply-demand gap of existing electric vehicle charging stations and unreasonable space usage in China, this paper takes the central city of Nanjing as an example, establishes a site selection model through multivariate data integration, conducts multiple linear regression SPSS analysis, gives quantitative site selection results, and provides optimization models and suggestions for charging station layout planning.

Keywords: electric vehicle, charging station, allocation optimization, urban mobility, urban infrastructure, nanjing

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Authors: A. Elmethnani, A. Jroud

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This coastal crude oil refinery is situated north of a big city west of Tripoli; the city then could be highly prone to downwind refinery emissions where the NNE wind direction is prevailing through most seasons of the year. Furthermore, due to the absence of an air quality monitoring network and scarce emission data available for the neighboring community, nearby residents have serious worries about the impacts of the oil refining operations on local air quality. In responding to these concerns, a short term survey has performed for three consecutive days where a semi-continues mobile monitoring approach has developed effectively in this study; the monitoring station (Compact AQM 65 AeroQual) was mounted on a vehicle to move quickly between locations, measurements of 10 minutes averaging of 60 seconds then been taken at each fixed sampling point. The downwind ambient concentration of CO, H₂S, NOₓ, NO₂, SO₂, PM₁, PM₂.₅ PM₁₀, and TSP were measured at carefully chosen sampling locations, ranging from 200m nearby the fence-line passing through the city center up to 4.7 km east to attain best spatial coverage. Results showed worrying levels of PM₂.₅ PM₁₀, and TSP at one sampling location in the city center, southeast of the refinery site, with an average mean of 16.395μg/m³, 33.021μg/m³, and 42.426μg/m³ respectively, which could be attributed to road traffic. No significant concentrations have been detected for other pollutants of interest over the study area, as levels observed for CO, SO₂, H₂S, NOₓ, and NO₂ haven’t respectively exceeded 1.707 ppm, 0.021ppm, 0.134 ppm, 0.4582 ppm, and 0.0018 ppm, which was at the same sampling locations as well. Although it wasn’t possible to compare the results with the Libyan air quality standards due to the difference in the averaging time period, the technique was adequate for the baseline air quality screening procedure. Overall, findings primarily suggest modeling of dispersion of the refinery emissions to assess the likely impact and spatial-temporal distribution of air pollutants.

Keywords: air quality, mobil monitoring, oil refinery

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Authors: Qiaoyun Yang

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Organizational scholars have paid enormous attention on how local governments manage their knowledge during the past two decades. Government knowledge management (KM) research recognizes that the management of knowledge flows and networks is critical to reforms on government service efficiency and the effect of administration. When dealing with complex affairs, all the limitations resulting from a lack of KM concept, processes and technologies among all the involved organizations begin to be exposed and further compound the processing difficulty of the affair. As a result, the challenges for individual or group knowledge sharing, knowledge digging and organizations’ collaboration in government's activities are diverse and immense. This analysis presents recent situation of government KM in China drawing from a total of more than 300 questionnaires and highlights important challenges that remain. The causes of the lapses in KM processes within and across the government agencies are discussed.

Keywords: KM processes, KM technologies, government, KM situation

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Authors: Ali Abu Ali, Mohammad Salhab

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Introduction: In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) microfinance struggles to find momentum. The Lebanese economy has been struggling through the years due to domestic and external, political and social instability. Although as of 2014 there are around 23 MFIs that are mainly subsidized by the USAID, operating in the country, the Lebanese microfinance market is mostly dominated by three microfinance institutions: Al Majmoua, Vitas, and Al Quard Al Hassan Association. Methodology: A quantitative approach using a standardized questionnaire would analyse the perception of the average Lebanese towards microfinance. A questionnaire was designed and validated. Results: Almost half of the respondents earn a monthly income ranged between $100 and $600. Almost 52% of the respondents were university graduates, around 25% finished secondary and high school, and 12% hold a masters or MBA degree. Topic understanding towards microfinance differs across Lebanese areas. The highest percentage of respondents who claim that microfinance offers financial services to low income people are the residents of Beirut (35.1%), Bekaa (30.8%), and South of Lebanon (24.7%). Higher levels of topic understanding were associated with lower levels of age range. Al Quard el Hassan foundation was regarded as the most known micro financial institution operating in Lebanon. In general, Lebanese people tend to believe that microfinance can play an important role in reducing unemployment rates and poverty levels in Lebanon. When people were asked what would motivate you to get a loan from MFIs, most of the respondent (57.4%) across all the Lebanese region claimed that it was the need for money to satisfy a need such as paying back a loan, to fix something at home, or for self-consideration like buying a car. Conclusion: Our findings showed that in general Lebanese tend to have a positive perception towards microfinance. However, most Lebanese perceive microfinance as the process of just providing loans without specifying for whom it is intended. We advise that government introduces laws to regulate the microfinance market.

Keywords: microfinance, economics, finance, business, analysis, theory

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Authors: Sanaa Riaz

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The free people, Amazigh (plural Imazighen), often known by the more popular exonym, Berber, are spread across several North African countries with the highest population in Morocco have been substantially misunderstood and differentially showcased by entities from western-school educated scholars to human, health and women’s rights organizations, to the State to the international community. This paper is an examination of the various conceptualization of the Imazighen. With the popularity of the Arab Spring movement to oust monarchical and dictatorial rulers across the Middle East and North Africa in Morocco, the Moroccan monarchy introduced various reform programs to win public favor. These included social, economic and educational reforms to incorporate marginalized groups such as the Imazighen. The monarchy has ushered Amazigh representation in public offices and landscape through Amazigh script, even though theirs has been an oral culture. After the Arab Spring, the Justice and Development party, an Islamist party took over in Morocco due to its accessibility to the masses, In Sept. 2021, unlike the case of Egypt and Tunisia where military and constitutional means were sought, Morocco successfully removed it from power through the ballot, resulting in a real victory for the neutral monarchy and its representation as a moderate, secular and liberal force for the nation. As a result, supporting the perpetuation of Amazigh linguistic identity also became synonymous to making a secular statement as a Muslim. It has led to the telling of Amazigh identity at state museums as one representing the indigenous, pure, diverse, culturally-rich and united Morocco. Reform efforts have also prioritized an amiable look towards the economic and familial links of Moroccan Jews with the few thousand families still left in the country and a showcasing through museums and cultural centers of the Jewish identity as Moroccan first. In that endeavor, it is interesting to note the coverage of Jews as the indigenous of Morocco through the embracing of their “folk” cultural and religious practices, those that are not continued outside Morocco. In this epistemology, the concept of the Moroccan Jew becomes similar to the indigenous Amazigh, both cherished as the oldest peoples of Morocco and symbols of its unity and resilience. In the urban discourse, Amazigh identity is a concept that continues to be part of the deliberations of elites and scholars graduating from French schools on the incorporation of rural and illiterate Morocco in economic and educational advancement. Yet, with the constant influx of migrants from Western Sahara into cities like Fez and Marrakesh, Amazigh has often been described as the umbrella term of those of “mixed” ethnic ancestry who constitute the country’s free population. In sum, Amazigh identity highlights the changing discourse on marginalized communities, human rights, representation, Moroccan nationhood, and regional and transnational politics. The aim of this paper is to analyze perceptions of Amazigh identity in Morocco post-2021 ousting of the Islamist party using data from state-sponsored museum displays and cultural centers collected in Summer 2022 and scholarly analyses of Amazigh identity, representation and rights in Morocco.

Keywords: Amazigh identity, Morocco, representation, state politics

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Authors: Upasana Sharma, Jayanti Dutta, Amarjeet Singh

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Background: Ayurveda is a comprehensive natural health care system. It is widely used in India as a system of primary health care, and interest in it is growing worldwide. Objectives: 1) To assess the extent and pattern of use of Ayurvedic medicines/ products by the people of Chandigarh. 2) To assess the perceived impact of use of Ayurvedic medicines/ products among the users. Methods: A cross-sectional community based study was conducted in a city of North India. Overall 371 households were covered from rural, urban and slum areas from December 2010 to April 2011. Respondents were interviewed regarding practices about Ayurveda products. Results: Around 160 (43%; 95% CI= 38.15, 47.85) of the respondents were using Ayurvedic products in one form or the other. Out of them, 91 (57%) had used Ayurvedic medicines in combination with some other system of medicine rather than as a standalone therapy. Most of them (81%) preferred Ayurveda products for chronic digestive system related problems. Conclusion: The present study revealed that respondents had keen interest in Ayurveda. A section of population was taking Ayurvedic treatment for their health ailments. There was a great level of satisfaction among the users but high cost bothered them at times.

Keywords: ayurveda, alternative medicine, chronic diseases, complimentary medicine

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Authors: Bin Wang, Yong Xu, Honggang Qu, Rongmei Liu, Zhenji Gao

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Based on the geodynamic environment, basic geological characteristics of minerals and so on, gold deposits in China are divided into 11 categories, of which tectonic fracture altered rock, mid-intrudes and contact zone, micro-fine disseminated and continental volcanic types are the main prospecting kinds. The metallogenic age of gold deposits in China is dominated by the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. According to the geotectonic units, geological evolution, geological conditions, spatial distribution, gold deposits types, metallogenic factors etc., 42 gold concentration areas are initially determined and have a concentrated distribution feature. On the basis of the gold exploration density, gold concentration areas are divided into high, medium and low level areas. High ones are mainly distributed in the central and eastern regions. 93.04% of the gold exploration drillings are within 500 meters, but there are some problems, such as less and shallower of drilling verification etc.. The paper discusses the resource potentials of gold deposits and proposes the future prospecting directions and suggestions. The deep and periphery of old mines in the central and eastern regions and western area, especially in Xinjiang and Qinghai, will be the future key prospecting one and have huge potential gold reserves. If the exploration depth is extended to 2,000 meters shallow, the gold resources will double.

Keywords: gold deposits, gold deposits types, gold concentration areas, prospecting, resource potentiality

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Authors: Meng-Na Dai, Bao-Fang Wen, Gao-Pei Zhu, Chen-Xi Zhang, Jing Sun, Chang-Hai Tang, Zhi-Qiang Feng, Wen-Qiang Yin

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Based on the analysis of literature in the health emergency management in China with recent 10 years, this paper discusses the Chinese current research hotspots, development trends and shortcomings in this field, and provides references for scholars to conduct follow-up research. CNKI(China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Weipu, and Wanfang were the databases of this literature. The key words during the database search were health, emergency, and management with the time from 2009 to 2018. The duplicate, non-academic, and unrelated documents were excluded. 901 articles were included in the literature review database. The main indicators of abstraction were, the number of articles published every year, authors, institutions, periodicals, etc. There are some research findings through the analysis of the literature. Overall, the number of literature in the health emergency management in China has shown a fluctuating downward trend in recent 10 years. Specifically, there is a lack of close cooperation between authors, which has not constituted the core team among them yet. Meanwhile, in this field, the number of high-level periodicals and quality literature is scarce. In addition, there are a lot of research hotspots, such as emergency management system, mechanism research, capacity evaluation index system research, plans and capacity-building research, etc. In the future, we should increase the scientific research funding of the health emergency management, encourage collaborative innovation among authors in multi-disciplinary fields, and create high-quality and high-impact journals in this field. The states should encourage scholars in this field to carry out more academic cooperation and communication with the whole world and improve the research in breadth and depth. Generally speaking, the research in health emergency management in China is still insufficient and needs to be improved.

Keywords: health emergency management, research situation, bibliometrics, literature

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Authors: Larry Lai, Evans Leung

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Falun gong is a self-proclaimed religious group that has been under crackdown by Beijing for more than two decades. Diaosi, on the other hand, is an emerging community with members loosely connected on the internet through different online social platforms, centering around the sharing of different hobbies and interests. Diaosi community has been transformed from a potential threat to the Chinese authority for different causes to a pro-government force. This paper seeks to explain the different strategies adopted by the People's Republic of China (PRC) regime in handling these two potential threatening communities. Both communities share some obvious similarities: (1) both have massive nation-wide participation; (2) both have attempted to challenge the PRC's authority through contentious means; (3) both have high level of mobility, online or offline; and (4) both have at first been unnoticed until the threat against the PRC have taken form. But the strategies the PRC endorsed against the communities were, in many ways, different. The question is: if the strategy against Falun Gong has been an effective one, why used other strategies against Diaosi? The authors argue that the main reason for using different strategies lies in the differences between the two communities in terms of (i) the nature of the groups, and (ii) the group dynamics. Lastly, based on this analysis, the authors attempt to explore the possible strategies that the PRC would adopt against the Hong Kong cyber-world political community in light of the latest national security law in Hong Kong.

Keywords: contentious politics, Diaosi, Falun Gong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

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Authors: Yangming Zhu, Mingming Guo, Xiaozan Wang

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Introduction: The purpose of this study is to integrate functional training into physical education to test the effectiveness of functional training in improving the physical fitness (PF) and sport skills (SS) of female college students. Methods: A total of 54 female college students from East China Normal University were selected for this study (27 in the experimental group and 27 in the control group), and 13 weeks of the experimental intervention was conducted during the semester. During the experimental period, the experimental group was functionally trained for 1 hour per week. The control group performed one-hour weekly sports (such as basketball, football, etc.) as usual. Before and after the experiment, the national students' physical fitness test was used to test the PF of the experimental group and the control group, and the SS of the experimental group and the control group were tested before and after the intervention. Then using SPSS and Excel to organize and analyze the data. Results: The independent sample T-test showed that there was no significant difference in the PF and SS between the experimental group and the control group before the experiment (T PF=71.86, p PF> 0.05, Tₛₛ=82.41,pₛₛ > 0.05); After the experiment, the PF of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (T Improve=71.86, p Improve < 0.05); after the experiment, the SS of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (Tₛₛ = 1.31, pₛₛ <0.01) Conclusions: Integrating functional training into physical education can improve the PF of female college students. At the same time, the integration of functional training into physical education can also effectively improve the SS of female college students. Therefore, it is suggested that functional training be integrated into the daily physical education of female college students so as to improve their PF and SS.

Keywords: functional training, physical fitness, sport skills, female college students

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Authors: Kensuke Otsuyama

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The United Nation World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction was held in Sendai, Japan, in 2015 and priorities for actions until 2030 were adopted for the next 15 years. Although one of these priorities is to ‘build back better’, there is neither a consensus definition of better recovery, nor indicators to measure better recovery. However, the community is considered as a key driver of recovery nowadays, and participation is a key word for effective recovery. In order to understand more about participatory community recovery, the author investigated recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (GEJET) in Kesennuma, a severely affected city. The research sought to: 1) Identify the elements that contribute to better recovery at the community level, and 2) analyze the role of community volunteers for disaster risk reduction for better recovery. A Participatory Community Recovery Index (PCRI) was created as a tool to measure community recovery. The index adopts seven primary indicators and 20 tertiary indicators, including: socio-economic aspect, housing, health, environment, self-organization, transformation, and institution. The index was applied to nine districts in Kesennuma city. Secondary and primary data by questionnaire surveys with local residents’ organization leaders and interviews with crisis management department officials in city government were also obtained. The indicator results were transformed into scores among 1 to 5, and the results were shown for each district. Based on the result of PCRI, it was found that the s Local Social Welfare Council played an important role in facilitating better recovery, enhancing community volunteer involvement to allow elderly residents to initiate local volunteer work for more affected single-living elderly people. Volunteers for the elderly by the elderly played a crucial role to strengthen community bonding in Kesennuma. In this research, the potential of community volunteers and inter-linkage with DRR activities are discussed.

Keywords: recovery, participation, the great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, community volunteers

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Authors: Lan Wu

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The declared transformation towards a ‘new electricity system dominated by renewable energy’ by China requires a cleaner electricity consumption mix with high shares of renewable energy sourced-electricity (RES-E). Unfortunately, integration of RES-E into Chinese electricity markets remains a problem pending more robust legal support, evidenced by the curtailment of wind and solar power as a consequence of integration constraints. The upcoming energy law of the PRC (energy law) is expected to provide such long-awaiting support and coordinate the existing diverse sector-specific laws to deal with the weak implementation that dampening the delivery of their desired regulatory effects. However, in the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis, it remains uncertain how this new energy law brings synergies to RES-E integration, mindful of the significant impacts of the pandemic. Through the theoretical lens of the interplay between China’s electricity reform and legislative development, the present paper investigates whether there is a paradigm shift in energy law regarding renewable energy integration compared with the existing sector-specific energy laws. It examines the 2020 draft for comments on the energy law and analyses its relationship with sector-specific energy laws focusing on RES-E integration. The comparison is drawn upon five key aspects of the RES-E integration issue, including the status of renewables, marketisation, incentive schemes, consumption mechanisms, access to power grids, and dispatching. The analysis shows that it is reasonable to expect a more open and well-organized electricity market enabling absorption of high shares of RES-E. The present paper concludes that a period of prosperous development of RES-E in the post-COVID-19 era can be anticipated with the legal support by the upcoming energy law. It contributes to understanding the signals China is sending regarding the transition towards a cleaner energy future.

Keywords: energy law, energy transition, electricity market reform, renewable energy integration

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Authors: Manijeh Ghahroudi Tali, Ladan Khedri Gharibvand

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Gavkhouni lagoon, in the South East of Isfahan (Iran), is one of the pluvial lakes and legacy of Quaternary era which has emerged during periods with more precipitation and less evaporation. Climate change, lack of water resources and dried freshwater of Zayandehrood resulted in increased entropy and activated a dynamic which in turn is converted to Playa. The morphometry of 61 polygonal clay microforms in wet zone soil, 52 polygonal clay microforms in pediplain zone soil and 63 microforms in sulfate soil, is evaluated by fractal model. After calculating the microforms’ area–perimeter fractal dimension, their turbulence level was analyzed. Fractal dimensions (DAP) obtained from the microforms’ analysis of pediplain zone, wet zone, and sulfate soils are 1/21-1/39, 1/27-1/44 and 1/29-1/41, respectively, which is indicative of turbulence in these zones. Logarithmic graph drawn for each region also shows that there is a linear relationship between logarithm of the microforms’ area and perimeter so that correlation coefficient (R2) obtained for wet zone is larger than 0.96, for pediplain zone is larger than 0.99 and for sulfated zone is 0.9. Increased turbulence in this region suggests morphological transformation of the system and lagoon’s conversion to a new ecosystem which can be accompanied with serious risks.

Keywords: fractal, Gavkhouni, microform, Iran

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Authors: Wei Yang, Xiaohui Cui, Weiping Zhu, Liqun Liu

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The rapid development of the Confucius Institute is attracting more and more attention from mainstream media around the world. Mainstream media plays a large role in public information dissemination and public opinion. This study presents efforts to analyze the correlation and functional relationship between domestic and foreign mainstream media by analyzing the amount of reports on the Confucius Institute. Three kinds of correlation calculation methods, the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), the Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC), and the Kendall rank correlation coefficient (KCC), were applied to analyze the correlations among mainstream media from three regions: mainland of China; Hong Kong and Macao (the two special administration regions of China denoted as SARs); and overseas countries excluding China, such as the United States, England, and Canada. Further, the paper measures the functional relationships among the regions using a regression model. The experimental analyses found high correlations among mainstream media from the different regions. Additionally, we found that there is a linear relationship between the mainstream media of overseas countries and those of the SARs by analyzing the amount of reports on the Confucius Institute based on a data set obtained by crawling the websites of 106 mainstream media during the years 2004 to 2014.

Keywords: mainstream media, Confucius institute, correlation analysis, regression model

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Authors: Essardi Omar, Razzouk Redouane

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The concept of freedom requires notice of countries all over the world to consider welfare and the quality of life. Despite, many economics efforts in the field of development literature, they have often failed to incorporate the ideas of freedom and rights into their theoretical and empirical work. However, with Amartya Sen’s approach of capability and researches, we can provide a basis for moving forward in theory and measure of development. Indeed, with an approach based on the correlation and the analysis of data, particularly on the tool of principle component analysis, we are going to study assessments of World Bank, Freedom House, Fraster institute, and MINEFE experts. Our empirical objective is to reveal the existence of the institutional and freedom characteristics related to the development of the emergent countries. In order to help us to explain the recent performance reached by Central and Eastern Europe and Latine America in compared with the case of countries of North Africa. To do this, first we will try to build indicators based on dilemma liberties /institutions. Second we will introduce institutional variables and freedom variables to make comparisons in freedom, quality of institutions and development in the countries observed.

Keywords: freedoms, institutions, development, approach of capability, principle component analysis

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Authors: Ruan Yi-Chen, Li Wang-Ming, Fang Yuan

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With the rapid growth of urbanization in China in recent years, public services are in short supply because of expanding population and limitation of financial support, which makes delicate configuration of public service facilities to become a trend in urban planning. Besides, the facility configuration standard implemented in China is equal to the whole the urban area without considering internal differences in it. Therefore, this article focuses on population Spatial disparities analysis in order to optimize facility configuration in communities of main city district. The used data, including population of 93 communities during 2010 to 2015, comes from GongShu district, Hangzhou city, PRC. Through the analysis of population data, especially the age structure of those communities, the communities finally divided into 3 types. Obviously, urban public service facilities allocation situation directly affect the quality of residents common lives, which turns out that deferent kinds of communities with deferent groups of citizens will have divergences in facility demanding. So in the end of the article, strategies of facility configuration will be proposed based on the population analysis in order to optimize the quantity and location of facilities with delicacy.

Keywords: delicacy, facility configuration, population spatial disparities, urban area

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Authors: F. Ahwide, Y. Aldali

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This article presents a current and future energy situation in Libya. The electric power efficiency and operating hours in power plants are evaluated from 2005 to 2010. Carbon dioxide emissions in most of power plants are estimated. In 2005, the efficiency of steam power plants achieved a range of 20% to 28%. While, the gas turbine power plants efficiency ranged between 9% and 25%, this can be considered as low efficiency. However, the efficiency improvement has clearly observed in some power plants from 2008 to 2010, especially in the power plant of North Benghazi and west Tripoli. In fact, these power plants have modified to combine cycle. The efficiency of North Benghazi power plant has increased from 25% to 46.6%, while in Tripoli it is increased from 22% to 34%. On the other hand, the efficiency improvement is not observed in the gas turbine power plants. When compared to the quantity of fuel used, the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from electricity generation plants were very high. Finally, an estimation of the energy demand has been done to the maximum load and the annual load factor (i.e., the ratio between the output power and installed power).

Keywords: power plant, efficiency improvement, carbon dioxide emissions, energy situation in Libya

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Authors: Sudip Kumar Kundu, Charu Singh

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As a great physiographic divide, the Himalayas affecting a large system of water and air circulation which helps to determine the climatic condition in the Indian subcontinent to the south and mid-Asian highlands to the north. It creates obstacles by defending chill continental air from north side into India in winter and also defends rain-bearing southwesterly monsoon to give up maximum precipitation in that area in monsoon season. Nowadays extreme weather conditions such as heavy precipitation, cloudburst, flash flood, landslide and extreme avalanches are the regular happening incidents in the region of North Western Himalayan (NWH). The present study has been planned to investigate the suitable model(s) to find out the rainfall pattern over that region. For this investigation, selected models from Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) and Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) has been utilized in a consistent framework for the period of 1976 to 2000 (historical). The ability of these driving models from CORDEX domain and CMIP5 has been examined according to their capability of the spatial distribution as well as time series plot of rainfall over NWH in the rainy season and compared with the ground-based Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) gridded rainfall data set. It is noted from the analysis that the models like MIROC5 and MPI-ESM-LR from the both CORDEX and CMIP5 provide the best spatial distribution of rainfall over NWH region. But the driving models from CORDEX underestimates the daily rainfall amount as compared to CMIP5 driving models as it is unable to capture daily rainfall data properly when it has been plotted for time series (TS) individually for the state of Uttarakhand (UK) and Himachal Pradesh (HP). So finally it can be said that the driving models from CMIP5 are better than CORDEX domain models to investigate the rainfall pattern over NWH region.

Keywords: global warming, rainfall, CMIP5, CORDEX, NWH

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Authors: Deniz Alca

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This research aims to study the themes of autonomy, democracy and the legitimacy of power under the headline of Arab Spring. After the first wave of Arab Spring, among the frequently mentioned ideals of self-recognition, awakening, democracy, autonomy, freedom etc. main concern of the border neighbors and the western governments was to see a “legitimate power.” Although the metaphor of spring was still pointing at emancipation, the principal focus was mostly not on the people but on the governments. So the question of what makes a government legitimate has come to the forefront. However, democracy and freedom, seems to be the main subject matters of the discussions, this rush about establishment of “legitimate governments” lead other countries, to indulge or worse endorse armed oppositionists. So essence of “power” changed from legitimate to rulership. It seems that the civil initiative or autonomy and clearly democracy are still far away from us. The need to a savior is overpowering. This cultural and traditional and almost hereditary miss orientation of the people, both the ones who are playing the role of god and the ones who believed the inevitable need to be freed by someone else, seems to be leading the Arabs to a new autocracy or worse. Middle East is waiting for the ex machina to operate. But what it gets is a spreading warfare. This darkness falling down on Middle East under the concept of spring may be explained by the confrontation of the concepts of emancipation and liberation. So the question is, if the era of emancipation really over or is there still a chance for autonomy and grassroots democracy operating as constituent power?

Keywords: autonomy, awakening, civil initiative, democracy, emancipation, legitimacy, liberation

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Authors: Yeliz Karaca, Carlo Cattani

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This study focuses on the local Holder exponent as a measure of the function regularity for time series related to finance data. In this study, the attributes of the finance dataset belonging to 13 countries (India, China, Japan, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Mexico, United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, USA) located in 5 different continents (Asia, Europe, Australia, North America and South America) have been examined.These countries are the ones mostly affected by the attributes with regard to financial development, covering a period from 2012 to 2017. Our study is concerned with the most important attributes that have impact on the development of finance for the countries identified. Our method is comprised of the following stages: (a) among the multi fractal methods and Brownian motion Holder regularity functions (polynomial, exponential), significant and self-similar attributes have been identified (b) The significant and self-similar attributes have been applied to the Artificial Neuronal Network (ANN) algorithms (Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) and Cascade Forward Back Propagation (CFBP)) (c) the outcomes of classification accuracy have been compared concerning the attributes that have impact on the attributes which affect the countries’ financial development. This study has enabled to reveal, through the application of ANN algorithms, how the most significant attributes are identified within the relevant dataset via the Holder functions (polynomial and exponential function).

Keywords: artificial neural networks, finance data, Holder regularity, multifractals

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Authors: Zhiwen Yang, Jingyuan Li, Zhenkai Xie, Jian Ling, Jiguang Wang, Mengliang Li

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To reflect the effects of different emission control strategies, such as retrofitting after-treatment system and replacing with natural gas-fueled vehicles, on particle number (PN), particle mass (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions emitted by urban bus, a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) was employed herein to conduct real-world driving emission measurements on a diesel oxidation catalytic converter (DOC) and catalyzed diesel particulate filter (CDPF) retrofitting China IV diesel bus, a China IV diesel bus, and a China V natural gas bus. The results show that both tested diesel buses possess markedly advantages in NOx emission control when compared to the lean-burn natural gas bus equipped without any NOx after-treatment system. As to PN and PM, only the DOC+CDPF retrofitting diesel bus exhibits enormous benefits on emission control relate to the natural gas bus, especially the normal diesel bus. Meanwhile, the differences in PM and PN emissions between retrofitted and normal diesel buses generally increase with the increase in vehicle-specific power (VSP). Furthermore, the differences in PM emissions, especially those in the higher VSP ranges, are more significant than those in PN. In addition, the maximum peak PN particle size (32 nm) of the retrofitted diesel bus was significantly lower than that of the normal diesel bus (100 nm). These phenomena indicate that the CDPF retrofitting can effectively reduce diesel bus exhaust particle emissions, especially those with large particle sizes.

Keywords: CDPF, diesel, natural gas, real-world emissions

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Authors: Li-Jun Zheng

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The use of drums as an accompanying instrument is a common phenomenon in traditional Chinese folk rituals and musical culture. Especially, some folk rituals construct ritual-related sounds and give them ritual-specific symbolic and meaningful systems through the combination and use of multiple percussion instruments. The Yue drum(岳鼓), an asymmetrically shaped thin waist drum, is currently used in Han Chinese Shigong（师公）rituals in Guangxi, China, and is an important ritual instrument in Shigong rituals. This paper examines the use of the Yue drum and other percussion instruments in Han Chinese Shigong rituals in Guangxi, China, and shows the current status of combining instrumental accompaniment forms with human voices in Shigong rituals. Through further analysis of the musical and dance forms of Han Chinese Shigong rituals, this paper shows how Han Chinese Shigong ritual performers construct the ritual field through "sound-human-dance" and further explains the relationship between the existing and fictitious performance fields in the rituals. In addition, this paper demonstrates the relationship between Han Chinese Shigong rituals and the religious beliefs they involve, such as Taoism and Buddhism. And it further explores how performers in Han Chinese Shigong rituals use Yue drums for the dual purpose of "entertaining the gods" and "entertaining the people".

Keywords: sound research, the Han Chinese Shigong ritual, the thin waist drum, folk beliefs, ritual music

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Authors: G. C. Joshi, M. Paul, B. K. Kalita, V. Ranga, J. S. Rawat, P. S. Rawat

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Being a habitat of the global village, every place has established connection through the strength and power of social media piercing through the political boundaries. Social media is a digital platform, where people across the world can interact as it has advantages of being universal, anonymous, easily accessible, indirect interaction, gathering and sharing information. The power of social media lies in the intensity of sharing extreme opinions or feelings, in contrast to the personal interactions which can be easily mapped in the form of Sentiment Mapping. The easy access to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs made unprecedented opportunities for citizens to voice their opinions loaded with dynamics of emotions. These further influence human thoughts where social media plays a very active role. A recent incident of public importance was selected as a case study to map the sentiments of people through Twitter. Understanding those dynamics through the eye of an ordinary people can be challenging. With the help of R-programming language and by the aid of GIS techniques sentiment maps has been produced. The emotions flowing worldwide in the form of tweets were extracted and analyzed. The number of tweets had diminished by 91 % from 25/08/2017 to 31/08/2017. A boom of sentiments emerged near the origin of the case, i.e., Delhi, Haryana and Punjab and the capital showed maximum influence resulting in spillover effect near Delhi. The trend of sentiments was prevailing more as neutral (45.37%), negative (28.6%) and positive (21.6%) after calculating the sentiment scores of the tweets. The result can be used to know the spatial distribution of digital penetration in India, where highest concentration lies in Mumbai and lowest in North East India and Jammu and Kashmir.

Keywords: sentiment mapping, digital literacy, GIS, R statistical language, spatio-temporal

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Authors: Raed El-Khalil, Hussein Zeaiter

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Managing and improving efficiency in the current highly competitive global automotive industry demands that companies adopt leaner and more flexible systems. During the past 20 years the domestic automotive industry in North America has been focusing on establishing new management strategies in order to meet market demands. 98The lean management process also known as Toyota Manufacturing Process (TPS) or lean manufacturing encompasses tools and techniques that were established in order to provide the best quality product with the fastest lead time at the lowest cost. The following paper presents a study that focused on improving labor efficiency at one of the Big Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler LLC) domestic automotive facility in North America. The objective of the study was to utilize several lean management tools in order to optimize the efficiency and utilization levels at the “Pre-Marriage” chassis area in a truck manufacturing and assembly facility. Utilizing three different lean tools (i.e. Standardization of work, 7 Wastes, and 5S) this research was able to improve efficiency by 51%, utilization by 246%, and reduce operations by 14%. The return on investment calculated based on the improvements made was 284%.

Keywords: lean manufacturing, standardized work, operation efficiency, utilization

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Authors: Dishari Rakshit, Mitchell Gallagher

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The global landscape is witnessing a disconcerting surge in democratic backsliding, engendering concerns over the rise of autocratisation. This research demonstrates the intricate relationship between a nation's domestic propensity for autocratic governance and its trade relations with China. Giving prominence to Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments, this study adopts a rigorous neorealist framework to discern the complexities of nations' economic interests amidst an anarchic milieu and how these interests may transcend steadfast adherence to democratic principles. The burgeoning bipolarity in the international political setting serves as a backdrop to our inquiry. To operationalise our hypothesis, we conduct a large-scale 'N' study, encompassing a comprehensive global dataset comprising countries' democracy indicators, total trade volume with China, and cumulative Chinese BRI investments over a substantial temporal expanse. By meticulously examining BRI signatories’, we aim to ascertain the potential accentuation of democratic backsliding among these nations. To test our empirical underpinning, we will validate our findings through cogent case studies. Our analysis adds to the scholarship on multifaceted interactions between trade dynamics and democratic governance within the fabric of the international political landscape. In its culmination, the paper addresses the question- has the erstwhile grandeur of bipolarity resurfaced in the contemporary global panorama? Concurrently, we explore the nexus between the ascendant wave of autocratisation as a by-product of the Beijing Consensus? Pertinent to policymakers, our discoveries stand poised to furnish a comprehensive grasp of the manifold implications arising from the deepening entanglements with China under the auspices of the BRI.

Keywords: democracy, autocracy, china, belt road initiative, international political economy

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Authors: Jenifer Alam, Rima Chatterjee

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Upper Assam sedimentary basin is one of the oldest commercially producing basins of India. Being in a tectonically active zone, estimation of tectonic strain and stress magnitudes has vast application in hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation. This East North East –West South West trending shelf-slope basin encompasses the Bramhaputra valley extending from Mikir Hills in the southwest to the Naga foothills in the northeast. Assam Shelf lying between the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and Naga Thrust area is comparatively free from thrust tectonics and depicts normal faulting mechanism. The study area is bounded by the MBT and Main Central Thrust in the northwest. The Belt of Schuppen in the southeast, is bordered by Naga and Disang thrust marking the lower limit of the study area. The entire Assam basin shows low-level seismicity compared to other regions of northeast India. Pore pressure (PP), vertical stress magnitude (SV) and horizontal stress magnitudes have been estimated from two wells - N1 and T1 located in Upper Assam. N1 is located in the Assam gap below the Bramhaputra river while T1, lies in the Belt of Schuppen. N1 penetrates geological formations from top Alluvial through Dhekiajuli, Girujan, Tipam, Barail, Kopili, Sylhet and Langpur to the granitic basement while T1 in trusted zone crosses through Girujan Suprathrust, Tipam Suprathrust, Barail Suprathrust to reach Naga Thrust. Normal compaction trend is drawn through shale points through both wells for estimation of PP using the conventional Eaton sonic equation with an exponent of 1.0 which is validated with Modular Dynamic Tester and mud weight. Observed pore pressure gradient ranges from 10.3 MPa/km to 11.1 MPa/km. The SV has a gradient from 22.20 to 23.80 MPa/km. Minimum and maximum horizontal principal stress (Sh and SH) magnitudes under isotropic conditions are determined using poroelastic model. This approach determines biaxial tectonic strain utilizing static Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s Ratio, SV, PP, leak off test (LOT) and SH derived from breakouts using prior information on unconfined compressive strength. Breakout derived SH information is used for obtaining tectonic strain due to lack of measured SH data from minifrac or hydrofracturing. Tectonic strain varies from 0.00055 to 0.00096 along x direction and from -0.0010 to 0.00042 along y direction. After obtaining tectonic strains at each well, the principal horizontal stress magnitudes are calculated from linear poroelastic model. The magnitude of Sh and SH gradient in normal faulting region are 12.5 and 16.0 MPa/km while in thrust faulted region the gradients are 17.4 and 20.2 MPa/km respectively. Model predicted Sh and SH matches well with the LOT data and breakout derived SH data in both wells. It is observed from this study that the stresses SV>SH>Sh prevailing in the shelf region while near the Naga foothills the regime changes to SH≈SV>Sh area corresponds to normal faulting regime. Hence this model is a reliable tool for predicting stress magnitudes from well logs under active tectonic regime in Upper Assam Basin.

Keywords: Eaton, strain, stress, poroelastic model

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Authors: Huilei Wang, Yuanfeng Wang

Abstract:

In the early period of China, economy developed rapidly at the cost of environment. Recently, it is generally recognized that the heavily polluted environment not only puts a brake on economic development but also paces negative impact on people’ health as well as probably next decades of generations. Accordingly, the latest Environmental Protection Law revised in 2014 makes a clear-cut division of environmental responsibility and regulates stricter penalties of breaching law. As the new environmental law is enforced gradually, environmental forensic is increasingly required in the process of ascertaining facts in judicial proceedings of environmental cases. Based on the outcomes of documentary analysis for all environmental cases judged on the basis of new environmental law, it is concluded that there still exists problems in present system of environmental forensic. Thus, this paper is aimed to make proposition on improving Chinese environmental forensic system, which involves: (i) promoting capability of environmental forensic system (EFS) to handle professional questions; (ii) develop price mechanism; (iii) multi-departments cooperate to establish unifying and complete EFS system;(iv) enhance the probative value of results of EFS. Such protocol for amending present regulation on environmental forensic is of significant importance because a quality report of environmental forensic will contributes to providing strong probative evidence of culprits’ activity of releasing contaminant into environment, degree of damages for victims and above all, causality between the behavior of public nuisance and damages.

Keywords: China, environmental cases, environmental forensic system, proposition

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