Search results for: market prediction
4701 Clinical Prediction Score for Ruptured Appendicitis In ED
Authors: Thidathit Prachanukool, Chaiyaporn Yuksen, Welawat Tienpratarn, Sorravit Savatmongkorngul, Panvilai Tangkulpanich, Chetsadakon Jenpanitpong, Yuranan Phootothum, Malivan Phontabtim, Promphet Nuanprom
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Background: Ruptured appendicitis has a high morbidity and mortality and requires immediate surgery. The Alvarado Score is used as a tool to predict the risk of acute appendicitis, but there is no such score for predicting rupture. This study aimed to developed the prediction score to determine the likelihood of ruptured appendicitis in an Asian population. Methods: This study was diagnostic, retrospectively cross-sectional and exploratory model at the Emergency Medicine Department in Ramathibodi Hospital between March 2016 and March 2018. The inclusion criteria were age >15 years and an available pathology report after appendectomy. Clinical factors included gender, age>60 years, right lower quadrant pain, migratory pain, nausea and/or vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, fever>37.3°C, rebound tenderness, guarding, white blood cell count, polymorphonuclear white blood cells (PMN)>75%, and the pain duration before presentation. The predictive model and prediction score for ruptured appendicitis was developed by multivariable logistic regression analysis. Result: During the study period, 480 patients met the inclusion criteria; of these, 77 (16%) had ruptured appendicitis. Five independent factors were predictive of rupture, age>60 years, fever>37.3°C, guarding, PMN>75%, and duration of pain>24 hours to presentation. A score > 6 increased the likelihood ratio of ruptured appendicitis by 3.88 times. Conclusion: Using the Ramathibodi Welawat Ruptured Appendicitis Score. (RAMA WeRA Score) developed in this study, a score of > 6 was associated with ruptured appendicitis.Keywords: predictive model, risk score, ruptured appendicitis, emergency room
Procedia PDF Downloads 1654700 Prediction of Mechanical Strength of Multiscale Hybrid Reinforced Cementitious Composite
Authors: Salam Alrekabi, A. B. Cundy, Mohammed Haloob Al-Majidi
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Novel multiscale hybrid reinforced cementitious composites based on carbon nanotubes (MHRCC-CNT), and carbon nanofibers (MHRCC-CNF) are new types of cement-based material fabricated with micro steel fibers and nanofilaments, featuring superior strain hardening, ductility, and energy absorption. This study focused on established models to predict the compressive strength, and direct and splitting tensile strengths of the produced cementitious composites. The analysis was carried out based on the experimental data presented by the previous author’s study, regression analysis, and the established models that available in the literature. The obtained models showed small differences in the predictions and target values with experimental verification indicated that the estimation of the mechanical properties could be achieved with good accuracy.Keywords: multiscale hybrid reinforced cementitious composites, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, mechanical strength prediction
Procedia PDF Downloads 1614699 Comparison of Existing Predictor and Development of Computational Method for S- Palmitoylation Site Identification in Arabidopsis Thaliana
Authors: Ayesha Sanjana Kawser Parsha
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S-acylation is an irreversible bond in which cysteine residues are linked to fatty acids palmitate (74%) or stearate (22%), either at the COOH or NH2 terminal, via a thioester linkage. There are several experimental methods that can be used to identify the S-palmitoylation site; however, since they require a lot of time, computational methods are becoming increasingly necessary. There aren't many predictors, however, that can locate S- palmitoylation sites in Arabidopsis Thaliana with sufficient accuracy. This research is based on the importance of building a better prediction tool. To identify the type of machine learning algorithm that predicts this site more accurately for the experimental dataset, several prediction tools were examined in this research, including the GPS PALM 6.0, pCysMod, GPS LIPID 1.0, CSS PALM 4.0, and NBA PALM. These analyses were conducted by constructing the receiver operating characteristics plot and the area under the curve score. An AI-driven deep learning-based prediction tool has been developed utilizing the analysis and three sequence-based input data, such as the amino acid composition, binary encoding profile, and autocorrelation features. The model was developed using five layers, two activation functions, associated parameters, and hyperparameters. The model was built using various combinations of features, and after training and validation, it performed better when all the features were present while using the experimental dataset for 8 and 10-fold cross-validations. While testing the model with unseen and new data, such as the GPS PALM 6.0 plant and pCysMod mouse, the model performed better, and the area under the curve score was near 1. It can be demonstrated that this model outperforms the prior tools in predicting the S- palmitoylation site in the experimental data set by comparing the area under curve score of 10-fold cross-validation of the new model with the established tools' area under curve score with their respective training sets. The objective of this study is to develop a prediction tool for Arabidopsis Thaliana that is more accurate than current tools, as measured by the area under the curve score. Plant food production and immunological treatment targets can both be managed by utilizing this method to forecast S- palmitoylation sites.Keywords: S- palmitoylation, ROC PLOT, area under the curve, cross- validation score
Procedia PDF Downloads 774698 Measures of Corporate Governance Efficiency on the Quality Level of Value Relevance Using IFRS and Corporate Governance Acts: Evidence from African Stock Exchanges
Authors: Tchapo Tchaga Sophia, Cai Chun
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This study measures the efficiency level of corporate governance to improve the quality level of value relevance in the resolution of market value efficiency increase issues, transparency problems, risk frauds, agency problems, investors' confidence, and decision-making issues using IFRS and Corporate Governance Acts (CGA). The final sample of this study contains 3660 firms from ten countries' stock markets from 2010 to 2020. Based on the efficiency market theory and the positive accounting theory, this paper uses multiple econometrical methods (DID method, multivariate and univariate regression methods) and models (Ohlson model and compliance index model) regression to see the incidence results of corporate governance mechanisms on the value relevance level under the influence of IFRS and corporate governance regulations act framework in Africa's stock exchanges for non-financial firms. The results on value relevance show that the corporate governance system, strengthened by the adoption of IFRS and enforcement of new corporate governance regulations, produces better financial statement information when its compliance level is high. And that is both value-relevant and comparable to results in more developed markets. Similar positive and significant results were obtained when predicting future book value per share and earnings per share through the determination of stock price and stock return. The findings of this study have important implications for regulators, academics, investors, and other users regarding the effects of IFRS and the Corporate Governance Act (CGA) on the relationship between corporate governance and accounting information relevance in the African stock market. The contributions of this paper are also based on the uniqueness of the data used in this study. The unique data is from Africa, and not all existing findings provide evidence for Africa and of the DID method used to examine the relationship between corporate governance and value relevance on African stock exchanges.Keywords: corporate governance value, market efficiency value, value relevance, African stock market, stock return-stock price
Procedia PDF Downloads 574697 Exploring the Impact of Input Sequence Lengths on Long Short-Term Memory-Based Streamflow Prediction in Flashy Catchments
Authors: Farzad Hosseini Hossein Abadi, Cristina Prieto Sierra, Cesar Álvarez Díaz
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Predicting streamflow accurately in flashy catchments prone to floods is a major research and operational challenge in hydrological modeling. Recent advancements in deep learning, particularly Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, have shown to be promising in achieving accurate hydrological predictions at daily and hourly time scales. In this work, a multi-timescale LSTM (MTS-LSTM) network was applied to the context of regional hydrological predictions at an hourly time scale in flashy catchments. The case study includes 40 catchments allocated in the Basque Country, north of Spain. We explore the impact of hyperparameters on the performance of streamflow predictions given by regional deep learning models through systematic hyperparameter tuning - where optimal regional values for different catchments are identified. The results show that predictions are highly accurate, with Nash-Sutcliffe (NSE) and Kling-Gupta (KGE) metrics values as high as 0.98 and 0.97, respectively. A principal component analysis reveals that a hyperparameter related to the length of the input sequence contributes most significantly to the prediction performance. The findings suggest that input sequence lengths have a crucial impact on the model prediction performance. Moreover, employing catchment-scale analysis reveals distinct sequence lengths for individual basins, highlighting the necessity of customizing this hyperparameter based on each catchment’s characteristics. This aligns with well known “uniqueness of the place” paradigm. In prior research, tuning the length of the input sequence of LSTMs has received limited focus in the field of streamflow prediction. Initially it was set to 365 days to capture a full annual water cycle. Later, performing limited systematic hyper-tuning using grid search, revealed a modification to 270 days. However, despite the significance of this hyperparameter in hydrological predictions, usually studies have overlooked its tuning and fixed it to 365 days. This study, employing a simultaneous systematic hyperparameter tuning approach, emphasizes the critical role of input sequence length as an influential hyperparameter in configuring LSTMs for regional streamflow prediction. Proper tuning of this hyperparameter is essential for achieving accurate hourly predictions using deep learning models.Keywords: LSTMs, streamflow, hyperparameters, hydrology
Procedia PDF Downloads 694696 Gender Differences in Communication Styles: An Analysis of the Language of Earnings Conference Calls
Authors: Chiara De Amicis, Sonia Falconieri, Mesut Tastan
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In this study, we analyze the language employed by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) during earnings conference calls from a gender perspective. We find evidences that conference calls held by female CEOs and/or CFOs exhibit a higher level of optimism compared to conference calls held by male CEOs and/or CFOs. Moreover, female managers tend to present and discuss firm performances with less vagueness as compared to their male colleagues. We then observe the market reaction around each earnings conference call: while manager optimism is perceived as a good signal by investors, manager vagueness significantly dampens the market reaction around the call. Whether the gender of the CEO and/or the CFO delivering the conference call affects investors’ perceptions about the firm performance is still an open question. Some evidences show that the language employed by female managers conveys more valuable information for market participants as compared to the language employed by their male counterparts. This study contributes to a growing literature in finance and accounting that uses textual analysis to assess the informativeness of corporate disclosure. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that aims at answering the question whether the gender of firm’s top managers does matter when it comes to assess the informativeness of corporate spoken communication. We believe that our results will be of relevance for future research in the field. Moreover, our evidence may be used in support of the debate if a larger participation by women in the management of companies should be encouraged or not.Keywords: conference calls, even study, gender, market reaction, textual analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 1944695 Agroecological and Socioeconomic Determinants of Conserving Diversity On-Farm: The Case of Wheat Genetic Resources in Ethiopia
Authors: Bedilu Tafesse
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Conservation of crop genetic resources presents a challenge of identifying specific determinants driving maintenance of diversity at farm and agroecosystems. The objectives of this study were to identify socioeconomic, market and agroecological determinants of farmers’ maintenance of wheat diversity at the household level and derive implications for policies in designing on-farm conservation programs. We assess wheat diversity at farm level using household survey data. A household decision making model is conceptualized using microeconomic theory to assess and identify factors influencing on-farm rice diversity. The model is then tested econometrically by using various factors affecting farmers’ variety choice and diversity decisions. The findings show that household-specific socioeconomic, agroecological and market factors are important in determining on-farm wheat diversity. The significant variables in explaining richness and evenness of wheat diversity include distance to the nearest market, subsistence ratio, modern variety sold, land types and adult labour working in agriculture. The statistical signs of the factors determining wheat diversity are consistent in explaining the richness, dominance and evenness among rice varieties. Finally, the study implies that the cost-effective means of promoting and sustaining on-farm conservation programmes is to target them in market isolated geographic locations of high crop diversity where farm households have more heterogeneity of agroecological conditions and more active family adult labour working on-farm.Keywords: diversity indices, dominance, evenness, on-farm conservation, wheat diversity, richness
Procedia PDF Downloads 3084694 Comparison of Different Machine Learning Algorithms for Solubility Prediction
Authors: Muhammet Baldan, Emel Timuçin
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Molecular solubility prediction plays a crucial role in various fields, such as drug discovery, environmental science, and material science. In this study, we compare the performance of five machine learning algorithms—linear regression, support vector machines (SVM), random forests, gradient boosting machines (GBM), and neural networks—for predicting molecular solubility using the AqSolDB dataset. The dataset consists of 9981 data points with their corresponding solubility values. MACCS keys (166 bits), RDKit properties (20 properties), and structural properties(3) features are extracted for every smile representation in the dataset. A total of 189 features were used for training and testing for every molecule. Each algorithm is trained on a subset of the dataset and evaluated using metrics accuracy scores. Additionally, computational time for training and testing is recorded to assess the efficiency of each algorithm. Our results demonstrate that random forest model outperformed other algorithms in terms of predictive accuracy, achieving an 0.93 accuracy score. Gradient boosting machines and neural networks also exhibit strong performance, closely followed by support vector machines. Linear regression, while simpler in nature, demonstrates competitive performance but with slightly higher errors compared to ensemble methods. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the performance of machine learning algorithms for molecular solubility prediction, highlighting the importance of algorithm selection in achieving accurate and efficient predictions in practical applications.Keywords: random forest, machine learning, comparison, feature extraction
Procedia PDF Downloads 404693 A Strategic Approach for Promoting Renewable Energy Technologies in Developing Countries
Authors: Hanee Ryu
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The supporting policies for renewable energy have been designed to deploy renewable energy technology targeting domestic market. The government encourages market creation through obligations such as FIT or RPS on an energy supplier. With these policy measures, the securing vast market needs to induce technology development. Furthermore, it is crucial that ensuring developing market can make the environment nurture the renewable energy industry. Overseas expansion to countries being in demand is essential under immature domestic market. Extending its business abroad can make the domestic company get the knowledge through learning-by-doing. Besides, operation in the countries to be rich in renewable resources such as weather conditions helps to develop proven track record required for verifying technologies. This paper figures out the factor to hamper the global market entry and build up the strategies to overcome difficulties. Survey conducted renewable energy company having overseas experiences at least once. Based on the survey we check the obstacle against exporting home goods and services. As a result, securing funds is salient fact to proceed to business. It is difficult that only private bank or investment agencies participate in the project under uncertainty which renewable energy development project bears inherently. These uncertainties need public fund such as ODA to encourage private sectors to start a business. Furthermore, international organizations such as IRENA or multilateral development banks as WBG play a role to guarantee the investment including risk insurance against uncertainty. It can also manage excavation business cooperating with developing countries and supplement inadequate government funding involved. With survey results strategies to obtain the order, the international organization places are categorized according to the type of getting a contract. This paper suggests 3 types approaching to the international organization project (going through international competitive bidding, using ODA and project financing) and specifies the role of government to support the domestic firms with running out of funds. Under renewable energy industry environment where hard to being created as a spontaneous market, government policy approach needs to motivate the actors to get into the business. It is one of the good strategies that countries with the low demand of renewable energies participate in the project international agencies order in the developing countries having abundant resources. This provides crucial guidance for the formulation of renewable energy development policy and planning with consideration of business opportunities and funding.Keywords: exporting strategies, multilateral development banks, promoting in developing countries, renewable energy technologies
Procedia PDF Downloads 5184692 Investigation on Remote Sense Surface Latent Heat Temperature Associated with Pre-Seismic Activities in Indian Region
Authors: Vijay S. Katta, Vinod Kushwah, Rudraksh Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Gaur, Priti Dimri, Ashok Kumar Sharma
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The formation process of seismic activities because of abrupt slip on faults, tectonic plate moments due to accumulated stress in the Earth’s crust. The prediction of seismic activity is a very challenging task. We have studied the changes in surface latent heat temperatures which are observed prior to significant earthquakes have been investigated and could be considered for short term earthquake prediction. We analyzed the surface latent heat temperature (SLHT) variation for inland earthquakes occurred in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh (32.5 N, 76.1E, M-4.5, depth-5km) nearby the main boundary fault region, the data of SLHT have been taken from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). In this analysis, we have calculated daily variations with surface latent heat temperature (0C) in the range area 1⁰x1⁰ (~120/KM²) with the pixel covering epicenter of earthquake at the center for a three months period prior to and after the seismic activities. The mean value during that period has been considered in order to take account of the seasonal effect. The monthly mean has been subtracted from daily value to study anomalous behavior (∆SLHT) of SLHT during the earthquakes. The results found that the SLHTs adjacent the epicenters all are anomalous high value 3-5 days before the seismic activities. The abundant surface water and groundwater in the epicenter and its adjacent region can provide the necessary condition for the change of SLHT. To further confirm the reliability of SLHT anomaly, it is necessary to explore its physical mechanism in depth by more earthquakes cases.Keywords: surface latent heat temperature, satellite data, earthquake, magnetic storm
Procedia PDF Downloads 1344691 Prediction of Rolling Forces and Real Exit Thickness of Strips in the Cold Rolling by Using Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: M. Heydari Vini
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There is a complicated relation between effective input parameters of cold rolling and output rolling force and exit thickness of strips.in many mathematical models, the effect of some rolling parameters have been ignored and the outputs have not a desirable accuracy. In the other hand, there is a special relation among input thickness of strips,the width of the strips,rolling speeds,mandrill tensions and the required exit thickness of strips with rolling force and the real exit thickness of the rolled strip. First of all, in this paper the effective parameters of cold rolling process modeled using an artificial neural network according to the optimum network achieved by using a written program in MATLAB,it has been shown that the prediction of rolling stand parameters with different properties and new dimensions attained from prior rolled strips by an artificial neural network is applicable.Keywords: cold rolling, artificial neural networks, rolling force, real rolled thickness of strips
Procedia PDF Downloads 5054690 Prediction of California Bearing Ratio of a Black Cotton Soil Stabilized with Waste Glass and Eggshell Powder using Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Biruhi Tesfaye, Avinash M. Potdar
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The laboratory test process to determine the California bearing ratio (CBR) of black cotton soils is not only overpriced but also time-consuming as well. Hence advanced prediction of CBR plays a significant role as it is applicable In pavement design. The prediction of CBR of treated soil was executed by Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) which is a Computational tool based on the properties of the biological neural system. To observe CBR values, combined eggshell and waste glass was added to soil as 4, 8, 12, and 16 % of the weights of the soil samples. Accordingly, the laboratory related tests were conducted to get the required best model. The maximum CBR value found at 5.8 at 8 % of eggshell waste glass powder addition. The model was developed using CBR as an output layer variable. CBR was considered as a function of the joint effect of liquid limit, plastic limit, and plastic index, optimum moisture content and maximum dry density. The best model that has been found was ANN with 5, 6 and 1 neurons in the input, hidden and output layer correspondingly. The performance of selected ANN has been 0.99996, 4.44E-05, 0.00353 and 0.0067 which are correlation coefficient (R), mean square error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) respectively. The research presented or summarized above throws light on future scope on stabilization with waste glass combined with different percentages of eggshell that leads to the economical design of CBR acceptable to pavement sub-base or base, as desired.Keywords: CBR, artificial neural network, liquid limit, plastic limit, maximum dry density, OMC
Procedia PDF Downloads 1914689 Application of Post-Stack and Pre-Stack Seismic Inversion for Prediction of Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in a Persian Gulf Gas Field
Authors: Nastaran Moosavi, Mohammad Mokhtari
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Seismic inversion is a technique which has been in use for years and its main goal is to estimate and to model physical characteristics of rocks and fluids. Generally, it is a combination of seismic and well-log data. Seismic inversion can be carried out through different methods; we have conducted and compared post-stack and pre- stack seismic inversion methods on real data in one of the fields in the Persian Gulf. Pre-stack seismic inversion can transform seismic data to rock physics such as P-impedance, S-impedance and density. While post- stack seismic inversion can just estimate P-impedance. Then these parameters can be used in reservoir identification. Based on the results of inverting seismic data, a gas reservoir was detected in one of Hydrocarbon oil fields in south of Iran (Persian Gulf). By comparing post stack and pre-stack seismic inversion it can be concluded that the pre-stack seismic inversion provides a more reliable and detailed information for identification and prediction of hydrocarbon reservoirs.Keywords: density, p-impedance, s-impedance, post-stack seismic inversion, pre-stack seismic inversion
Procedia PDF Downloads 3234688 Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Soils at Electronic Waste Activity Sites within the Vicinity of Alaba International Market, Nigeria
Authors: A. A. Adebayo, A. O. Ogunkeyede, A. O. Adeigbe
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Digital globalisation and yarn of Nigeria society to overcome the digital divide have resulted in contamination of soil by heavy metals (HMs) from e-waste activities at Alaba international market, Lagos, Nigeria. The aim of this research was to determine the concentration of various metals {Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), and Lead (Pb)} and identify their ecological and health risks for the people within the study area. A total of 60 soil samples were collected at Alaba market study area. Two types of samples were collected from each sampling points: topsoil (0-15 cm), subsoil (15 -30 cm). The metal concentration results showed that the soils were heavily contaminated by HMs at topsoil and subsoil. The geoaccummulation and ecological risk indices revealed high pollution level from all studied site. The health risk assessment results suggested that there is high possibility of carcinogenic risk to humans because the carcinogenic risk via corresponding exposure pathways exceeded the safety limit of 10-6 (the acceptable level of carcinogenic risk for human). Furthermore, inhalation of soil particles is the main exposure pathway for Cr to enter the human body for all ages. Children in the vicinity are exposed more to ingestion of Pb since they tend to eat earth (pica) and repeatedly suck their fingers. This study provides basic information to create awareness for a need to introduce pollution control measures and the need to protect the ecosystem and human health within the study area at Alaba international market.Keywords: contaminated soil, ecological risk, hazard index, risk factor, exposure pathways, heavy metals
Procedia PDF Downloads 2534687 Behind Egypt’s Financial Crisis: Dollarization
Authors: Layal Mansour
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This paper breaks down Egypt’s financial crisis by constructing a customized financial stress index by including the vulnerable economic indicator “dollarization” as a vulnerable indicator in the credit and exchange sector. The Financial Stress Index for Egypt (FSIE) includes informative vulnerable indicators of the main financial sectors: the banking sector, the equities market, and the foreign exchange market. It is calculated on a monthly basis from 2010 to December 2022, so to report the two recent world’s most devastating financial crises: Covid 19 crisis and Ukraine-Russia War, in addition to the local 2016 and 2022 financial crises. We proceed first by a graphical analysis then by empirical analysis in running under Vector Autoregression (VAR) Model, dynamic causality tests between foreign reserves, dollarization rate, and FSIE. The graphical analysis shows that unexpectedly, Egypt’s economy seems to be immune to internal economic/political instabilities, however it is highly exposed to the foreign and exchange market. Empirical analysis confirms the graphical observations and proves that dollarization, or more precisely debt in foreign currency seems to be the main trigger of Egypt’s current financial crisis.Keywords: egypt, financial crisis, financial stress index, dollarization, VAR model, causality tests
Procedia PDF Downloads 944686 Uncertainty and Volatility in Middle East and North Africa Stock Market during the Arab Spring
Authors: Ameen Alshugaa, Abul Mansur Masih
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This paper sheds light on the economic impacts of political uncertainty caused by the civil uprisings that swept the Arab World and have been collectively known as the Arab Spring. Measuring documented effects of political uncertainty on regional stock market indices, we examine the impact of the Arab Spring on the volatility of stock markets in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordon, United Arab Emirate, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. This analysis also permits testing the existence of financial contagion among equity markets in the MENA region during the Arab Spring. To capture the time-varying and multi-horizon nature of the evidence of volatility and contagion in the eight MENA stock markets, we apply two robust methodologies on consecutive data from November 2008 to March 2014: MGARCH-DCC, Continuous Wavelet Transforms (CWT). Our results indicate two key findings. First, the discrepancies between volatile stock markets of countries directly impacted by the Arab Spring and countries that were not directly impacted indicate that international investors may still enjoy portfolio diversification and investment in MENA markets. Second, the lack of financial contagion during the Arab Spring suggests that there is little evidence of cointegration among MENA markets. Providing a general analysis of the economic situation and the investment climate in the MENA region during and after the Arab Spring, this study bear significant importance for policy makers, local and international investors, and market regulators.Keywords: Portfolio Diversification , MENA Region , Stock Market Indices, MGARCH-DCC, Wavelet Analysis, CWT
Procedia PDF Downloads 2924685 Reburning Characteristics of Biomass Syngas in a Pilot Scale Heavy Oil Furnace
Authors: Sang Heon Han, Daejun Chang, Won Yang
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NOx reduction characteristics of syngas fuel were numerically investigated for the 2MW pilot scale heavy oil furnace of KITECH (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology). The secondary fuel and syngas was fed into the furnace with two purposes- partial replacement of main fuel and reburning of NOx. Some portion of syngas was fed into the flame zone to partially replace the heavy oil, while the other portion was fed into the furnace downstream to reduce NOx generation. The numerical prediction was verified by comparing it with the experimental results. Syngas of KITECH’s experiment, assumed to be produced from biomass, had very low calorific value and contained 3% hydrocarbon. This study investigated the precise behavior of NOx generation and NOx reduction as well as thermo-fluidic characteristics inside the furnace, which was unavailable with experiment. In addition to 3% hydrocarbon syngas, 5%, and 7% hydrocarbon syngas were numerically tested as reburning fuels to analyze the effect of hydrocarbon proportion to NOx reduction. The prediction showed that the 3% hydrocarbon syngas is as much effective as 7% hydrocarbon syngas in reducing NOx.Keywords: syngas, reburning, heavy oil, furnace
Procedia PDF Downloads 4444684 The Organizational Structure of the Special Purpose Vehicle in Public-Private Partnership Projects
Authors: Samuel Capintero
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Public-private partnerships (PPP) arrangements have emerged all around the world as a response to infrastructure deficits and the need to refurbish existing infrastructure. During the last decade, the Spanish companies have dominated the international market of PPP projects in Latin America, Western Europe and North America, particularly in the transportation sector. Arguably, one of the most influential factors has been the organizational structure of the concessionaire implemented by the Spanish consortiums. The model followed by most Spanish groups has been a bundled model, where the concessionaire integrates the functions of concessionaire, construction and operator companies. This paper examines this model and explores how it has provided the Spanish companies with a comparative advantage in the international PPP market.Keywords: PPP, project management, concessionaire, concession, infrastructure, construction
Procedia PDF Downloads 3854683 Current Methods for Drug Property Prediction in the Real World
Authors: Jacob Green, Cecilia Cabrera, Maximilian Jakobs, Andrea Dimitracopoulos, Mark van der Wilk, Ryan Greenhalgh
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Predicting drug properties is key in drug discovery to enable de-risking of assets before expensive clinical trials and to find highly active compounds faster. Interest from the machine learning community has led to the release of a variety of benchmark datasets and proposed methods. However, it remains unclear for practitioners which method or approach is most suitable, as different papers benchmark on different datasets and methods, leading to varying conclusions that are not easily compared. Our large-scale empirical study links together numerous earlier works on different datasets and methods, thus offering a comprehensive overview of the existing property classes, datasets, and their interactions with different methods. We emphasise the importance of uncertainty quantification and the time and, therefore, cost of applying these methods in the drug development decision-making cycle. To the best of the author's knowledge, it has been observed that the optimal approach varies depending on the dataset and that engineered features with classical machine learning methods often outperform deep learning. Specifically, QSAR datasets are typically best analysed with classical methods such as Gaussian Processes, while ADMET datasets are sometimes better described by Trees or deep learning methods such as Graph Neural Networks or language models. Our work highlights that practitioners do not yet have a straightforward, black-box procedure to rely on and sets a precedent for creating practitioner-relevant benchmarks. Deep learning approaches must be proven on these benchmarks to become the practical method of choice in drug property prediction.Keywords: activity (QSAR), ADMET, classical methods, drug property prediction, empirical study, machine learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 814682 Net Interest Margin of Cooperative Banks in Low Interest Rate Environment
Authors: Karolína Vozková, Matěj Kuc
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This paper deals with the impact of decrease in interest rates on the performance of commercial and cooperative banks in the Eurozone measured by net interest margin. The analysis was performed on balanced dataset of 268 commercial and 726 cooperative banks spanning the 2008-2015 period. We employed Fixed Effects estimation panel method. As expected, we found a negative relationship between market rates and net interest margin. Our results suggest that the impact of negative interest income differs across individual banking business models. More precisely, those cooperative banks were much more hit by the decrease of market interest rates which might be due to their ownership structure and more restrictive business regulation.Keywords: cooperative banks, performance, negative interest rates, risk management
Procedia PDF Downloads 1824681 Textile Firms Response to the Restriction of Nonylphenol and Its Ethoxylates: Looking from the Perspectives of Attitude and the Perceptions of Technical and Organizational Adaptabilities, Risks, Benefits, and Barriers
Authors: Hien T. T. Ho, Tsunemi Watanabe
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The regulatory and market pressures on the restriction of nonylphenol and its ethoxylates in textile articles have confronted the textile manufacturers, particularly those in developing countries. This study aimed to examine the tentative behavior of the textile manufacturers in Vietnam from the perspectives of attitude and the perceptions of technical and organizational adaptabilities, risks, benefits, and barriers. Personal interviews were conducted with five technical specialists from four textile firms and one chemical supplier. The environmental regulatory and market situations regarding the chemical use in Vietnam were also described. The findings revealed two main opposing trends of chemical substitution depending on the market orientation of firms that governed the patterns of risk and benefit perception. The indirect influence of perceived adaptabilities on firm tentative behavior through perceived risks was elucidated, which initiated a conceptual model of firm’s behavior combining the organizational-based and the rational-based relationships. The intermediary role of non-governmental textile and garment industrial/ trade associations is highlighted to strengthen private firm’s informative capacity.Keywords: firm behavior, institutional analysis, organizational adaptation, technical adaptation
Procedia PDF Downloads 1644680 The Importance and Role of Sukuk Marketing as an Islamic Bond in the Economy
Authors: Ilhan Keskin, Hasan Bulent Kantarci
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In this study, one of the tools of Islamic financing known as “Sukuk” a non-interest bearing investment which has started to be implemented in Turkey and the world as a whole is discussed. In order to increase the vitality and efficiency of the economy, by taking lessons from the recent economic crisis new developments in the banking and investment sector are being expanded. The purpose of all investors is to obtain more revenue through the use of capital. The inability of traditional investment tools to meet the expectations of investors and the interest based financial system where one investor benefits at the expense of another there has been the need for a different, reliable and non-interest bearing financial market that is consistent with the Islamic rule. As a result an alternative and more reliable interest free financing tool “Sukuk” rental certificates covering people who are sensitive to Islamic rules, appeal to all segments, hidden remaining capital that contributes to the economy, reduce disparities in income distribution, common risk sharing system of profit and loss sharing has emerged. Today, for the structural countries by examining the state of the world market economy the applicability, enactment and future issues associated with this attractive kind of Islamic finance namely the “Sukuk” market has been explained.Keywords: Islamic finance, islamic markets, non-interest bearing, rental certificates
Procedia PDF Downloads 5244679 Regression Model Evaluation on Depth Camera Data for Gaze Estimation
Authors: James Purnama, Riri Fitri Sari
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We investigate the machine learning algorithm selection problem in the term of a depth image based eye gaze estimation, with respect to its essential difficulty in reducing the number of required training samples and duration time of training. Statistics based prediction accuracy are increasingly used to assess and evaluate prediction or estimation in gaze estimation. This article evaluates Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and R-Squared statistical analysis to assess machine learning methods on depth camera data for gaze estimation. There are 4 machines learning methods have been evaluated: Random Forest Regression, Regression Tree, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Linear Regression. The experiment results show that the Random Forest Regression has the lowest RMSE and the highest R-Squared, which means that it is the best among other methods.Keywords: gaze estimation, gaze tracking, eye tracking, kinect, regression model, orange python
Procedia PDF Downloads 5384678 Correlation of the Rate of Imperfect Competition and Profit in Banking Markets
Authors: Jan Cernohorsky
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This article aims to assess the evolution of imperfect competition in selected banking markets, in particular in the banking markets of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Another objective is to assess the evolution of the relationship of imperfect competition and profit development in the banking markets. The article first provides an overview of literature on the topic. It then measures the degree of imperfect competition in individual markets using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The commonly used indicator of total assets was chosen as an indicator. Based on this measurement, the individual banking sectors are categorized into theoretical definitions of the various types of imperfect competition - namely all surveyed banking sectors falling within the theoretical definition of monopolistic competition. Subsequently, using correlation analysis, i.e., the Pearson correlation coefficient, or the Spearman correlation coefficient, the connection between the evolution of imperfect competition and the development of the gross profit on selected banking markets was surveyed. It was found that with the exception of the banking market in Slovenia, where there is a positive correlation; there is no correlation between the evolution of imperfect competition and profit development in the selected markets. This means a recommendation for the regulators that it is not appropriate to rationalize a higher degree of regulation in granting banking licenses on the size of the profits attained in the banking market, as the relationship between the degree of concentration in the banking market and the amount of profit according to our measurements does not exist.Keywords: bank, banking system, imperfect competition, profitability
Procedia PDF Downloads 2834677 Rail Degradation Modelling Using ARMAX: A Case Study Applied to Melbourne Tram System
Authors: M. Karimpour, N. Elkhoury, L. Hitihamillage, S. Moridpour, R. Hesami
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There is a necessity among rail transportation authorities for a superior understanding of the rail track degradation overtime and the factors influencing rail degradation. They need an accurate technique to identify the time when rail tracks fail or need maintenance. In turn, this will help to increase the level of safety and comfort of the passengers and the vehicles as well as improve the cost effectiveness of maintenance activities. An accurate model can play a key role in prediction of the long-term behaviour of railroad tracks. An accurate model can decrease the cost of maintenance. In this research, the rail track degradation is predicted using an autoregressive moving average with exogenous input (ARMAX). An ARMAX has been implemented on Melbourne tram data to estimate the values for the tram track degradation. Gauge values and rail usage in Million Gross Tone (MGT) are the main parameters used in the model. The developed model can accurately predict the future status of the tram tracks.Keywords: ARMAX, dynamic systems, MGT, prediction, rail degradation
Procedia PDF Downloads 2484676 Hyper Tuned RBF SVM: Approach for the Prediction of the Breast Cancer
Authors: Surita Maini, Sanjay Dhanka
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Machine learning (ML) involves developing algorithms and statistical models that enable computers to learn and make predictions or decisions based on data without being explicitly programmed. Because of its unlimited abilities ML is gaining popularity in medical sectors; Medical Imaging, Electronic Health Records, Genomic Data Analysis, Wearable Devices, Disease Outbreak Prediction, Disease Diagnosis, etc. In the last few decades, many researchers have tried to diagnose Breast Cancer (BC) using ML, because early detection of any disease can save millions of lives. Working in this direction, the authors have proposed a hybrid ML technique RBF SVM, to predict the BC in earlier the stage. The proposed method is implemented on the Breast Cancer UCI ML dataset with 569 instances and 32 attributes. The authors recorded performance metrics of the proposed model i.e., Accuracy 98.24%, Sensitivity 98.67%, Specificity 97.43%, F1 Score 98.67%, Precision 98.67%, and run time 0.044769 seconds. The proposed method is validated by K-Fold cross-validation.Keywords: breast cancer, support vector classifier, machine learning, hyper parameter tunning
Procedia PDF Downloads 674675 Evaluation of Short-Term Load Forecasting Techniques Applied for Smart Micro-Grids
Authors: Xiaolei Hu, Enrico Ferrera, Riccardo Tomasi, Claudio Pastrone
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Load Forecasting plays a key role in making today's and future's Smart Energy Grids sustainable and reliable. Accurate power consumption prediction allows utilities to organize in advance their resources or to execute Demand Response strategies more effectively, which enables several features such as higher sustainability, better quality of service, and affordable electricity tariffs. It is easy yet effective to apply Load Forecasting at larger geographic scale, i.e. Smart Micro Grids, wherein the lower available grid flexibility makes accurate prediction more critical in Demand Response applications. This paper analyses the application of short-term load forecasting in a concrete scenario, proposed within the EU-funded GreenCom project, which collect load data from single loads and households belonging to a Smart Micro Grid. Three short-term load forecasting techniques, i.e. linear regression, artificial neural networks, and radial basis function network, are considered, compared, and evaluated through absolute forecast errors and training time. The influence of weather conditions in Load Forecasting is also evaluated. A new definition of Gain is introduced in this paper, which innovatively serves as an indicator of short-term prediction capabilities of time spam consistency. Two models, 24- and 1-hour-ahead forecasting, are built to comprehensively compare these three techniques.Keywords: short-term load forecasting, smart micro grid, linear regression, artificial neural networks, radial basis function network, gain
Procedia PDF Downloads 4684674 Water Leakage Detection System of Pipe Line using Radial Basis Function Neural Network
Authors: A. Ejah Umraeni Salam, M. Tola, M. Selintung, F. Maricar
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Clean water is an essential and fundamental human need. Therefore, its supply must be assured by maintaining the quality, quantity and water pressure. However the fact is, on its distribution system, leakage happens and becomes a common world issue. One of the technical causes of the leakage is a leaking pipe. The purpose of the research is how to use the Radial Basis Function Neural (RBFNN) model to detect the location and the magnitude of the pipeline leakage rapidly and efficiently. In this study the RBFNN are trained and tested on data from EPANET hydraulic modeling system. Method of Radial Basis Function Neural Network is proved capable to detect location and magnitude of pipeline leakage with of the accuracy of the prediction results based on the value of RMSE (Root Meant Square Error), comparison prediction and actual measurement approaches 0.000049 for the whole pipeline system.Keywords: radial basis function neural network, leakage pipeline, EPANET, RMSE
Procedia PDF Downloads 3584673 The Study on the Relationship between Momentum Profits and Psychological Factors: Evidence from Taiwan
Authors: Chih-Hsiang Chang
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This study provides insight into the effects of investor sentiment, excess optimism, overconfidence, the disposition effect, and herding formation on momentum profits. This study contributes to the field by providing a further examination of the relationship between psychological factors and momentum profits. The empirical results show that there is no evidence of significant momentum profits in Taiwan’s stock market. Additionally, investor sentiment in Taiwan’s stock market significantly influences its momentum profits.Keywords: momentum profits, psychological factors, herding formation, investor sentiment
Procedia PDF Downloads 3804672 Gender Discrimination and Pay Gap on Tourism Labor Market
Authors: Alka Obadić
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The research concentrates on the role of tourism in generating female employment and on impact of gender discrimination in tourism sector. Unfortunately, in many countries there are still some barriers to the inclusion of women at all hierarchical levels of tourism labor market. Research analysis focuses on EU countries where tourism is a main employer of women. The analysis shows that women represent over third persons employed in the non-financial business economy and almost two thirds in core tourism activities. Women's gross hourly earnings in accommodation and food services were below those of men in the European Union and only countries who recorded increase of gender pay gap from the beginning of crisis are Bulgaria and Croatia. Women in tourism industry are still overrepresented in lower status jobs with fewer opportunities for career progression and are often treated unequally.Keywords: employment, gender discrimination, tourism, women’s participation
Procedia PDF Downloads 769