Search results for: number system

Authors: Daniela Greven, Kathrin Endres, Shugana Sundralingam

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The use of chatbots has hardly been established in B2B companies to date and involves various challenges. The goal of this paper is to identify the biggest obstacles to the successful implementation of chatbots in B2B companies and to develop measures to overcome them. The obstacles are identified by conducting expert interviews within the framework of Eisenhardt's case study research. These are examined through a socio-technical analysis focusing on people, technology, and organization. By means of systematic literature research and in-depth interviews with German chatbot providers and customers of chatbots, measures for overcoming the obstacles are identified. Using interviews with experts from German chatbot providers, the responsible stakeholders of each measure according to the RASCI Responsibility Matrix are identified. The study shows that there are major obstacles in all areas of a socio-technical system that can cause the implementation of a chatbot to fail. A total of 44 implementation obstacles and 58 measures to overcome these obstacles are identified. The study shows that there are major obstacles in the areas of people, technology, and organization of a socio-technical system that can cause the implementation of a chatbot to fail. A holistic view is therefore essential. The results provide firms with a guideline on how to overcome potential obstacles during chatbot implementation in B2B customer service.

Keywords: chatbots, socio-technical analysis, B2B customer service, implementation success factors

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Authors: Faustina Masocha, Vusani Moyo

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For decades, dividend announcements have been presumed to contain important signals about the future prospects of companies. Similarly, the same has been presumed about management earnings announcements. Despite both dividend and earnings announcements being considered informative, a number of researchers questioned their credibility and found both to contain short-term signals. Pertaining to dividend announcements, some authors argued that although they might contain important information that can result in changes in share prices, which consequently results in the accumulation of abnormal returns, their degree of informativeness is less compared to other signaling tools such as earnings announcements. Yet, this claim in favor has been refuted by other researchers who found the effect of earnings to be transitory and of little value to shareholders as indicated by the little abnormal returns earned during the period surrounding earnings announcements. Considering the above, it is apparent that both dividends and earnings have been hypothesized to have a signaling impact. This prompts one to question which between these two signaling tools is more informative. To answer this question, two follow-up questions were asked. The first question sought to determine the event which results in the most effect on share prices, while the second question focused on the event that influenced trading volume the most. To answer the first question and evaluate the effect that each of these events had on share prices, an event study methodology was employed on a sample made up of the top 10 JSE-listed companies for data collected from 2012 to 2019 to determine if shareholders gained abnormal returns (ARs) during announcement dates. The event that resulted in the most persistent and highest amount of ARs was considered to be more informative. Looking at the second follow-up question, an investigation was conducted to determine if either dividends or earnings announcements influenced trading patterns, resulting in abnormal trading volumes (ATV) around announcement time. The event that resulted in the most ATV was considered more informative. Using an estimation period of 20 days and an event window of 21 days, and hypothesis testing, it was found that announcements pertaining to the increase of earnings resulted in the most ARs, Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) and had a lasting effect in comparison to dividend announcements whose effect lasted until day +3. This solidifies some empirical arguments that the signaling effect of dividends has become diminishing. It was also found that when reported earnings declined in comparison to the previous period, there was an increase in trading volume, resulting in ATV. Although dividend announcements did result in abnormal returns, they were lesser than those acquired during earnings announcements which refutes a number of theoretical and empirical arguments that found dividends to be more informative than earnings announcements.

Keywords: dividend signaling, event study methodology, information content of earnings, signaling theory

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: Julia Burchett

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After France became the target of an increasing number of terrorist attacks committed by people who have been declared ‘radicalized’, the issue of radicalization has become the main component of the national Action Plan for the Prevention of terrorism, thus stressing the need to address the roots causes of this peril. Therefore, the aim of this research paper is to provide a preliminary review of Frances’s strategy in the fight against terrorist radicalization in order to point out the challenges posed by this phenomenon while also highlighting its contemporary version and the understanding the results. In this regard, it should not be forgotten that the process of radicalization does not always lead to a terrorist act. To this end, the French legal framework that applies to radicalization coupled with the judicial response provided by the National Court will be analyzed in the light of the need for a balance between the concern for security and the protection of fundamental freedoms.

Keywords: criminal law, France, fundamental freedoms, radicalization, terrorism

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Authors: Mridula Devi

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Trafficking of women is a slur on human dignity and a shameful act to human civilization and development. Trafficking of women is one of worst brazen abuses which violate the women’s human rights. In India, more particularly in Assam, human trafficking and infringement of human rights of individual includes mainly the women and girl child of the State. Trafficking in North East region of India, more particularly in Assam occurs in two different ways – one is the internal trafficking of women and girl child from conflict affected rural areas of Assam for domestic work and prostitution. Secondly, there is trafficking of women to other south-East Asiatic countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bangkok, Myanmar (Burma) for various purposes such as drug trafficking, labor, bar girl and prostitution.Historically, trafficking in human beings is associated with slavery and bonded or forced labor. Since the period of Roman Civilization, there was the practice of traffic in persons in the form of slave trade among the nations. With the rise of new imperialism, slavery had become an integral part of the colonial system of European Countries. With time, it almost became synonymous with prostitution or commercial sexual exploitation. Finally, the United Nation adopted the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Prostitution of others, 1949 by the G.A.Res.No.-317(iv). The Convention totally denounces the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution. However, it is important to note that, now a days trafficking is not confined to commercial sexual exploitation of women and children alone. It has myriad forms and the number of victims has been steadily on the rise over the past few decades. In Assam, it takes place through and for marriage, sexual exploitation, begging, organ trading, militancy conflicts, drug padding and smuggling, labour, adoption, entertainment, and sports. In this paper, empirical methodology has been used. The study is based on primary and secondary sources. Data’s are collected from different books, publications, newspaper, journals etc. For empirical analysis, some random samples are collected and systematized for better result. India suffers from the ignominy of being one of the biggest hubs of women trafficking in the world. Over the years, Assam: the north east part of India has been bearing the brunt of the rapidly rising evil of trafficking of women which threaten the life, dignity and human rights of women. Though different laws are adopted at international and national level to restore trafficking, still the menace of trafficking of women in Assam is not decreased, rather it increased. This causes a serious violation of women’s human right in Assam. Human trafficking or women’s trafficking is a serious crime against society. To curb this in Assam it is required to take some effective and dedicated measure at state level as well as national and international level.

Keywords: Assam, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, India

Procedia PDF Downloads 518

Authors: Guilherme B. B. Vieira, Rafael M. da Silva, Eliana T. P. Senna, Luiz A. S. Senna, Francisco J. Kliemann Neto

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Given the importance of ports as links in the global supply chains and because they are key elements to induce competitiveness in their hinterlands, the number of studies devoted to port governance, management and operations has increased in the last decades. Some of these studies address the port governance model as an element to improve coordination among the actors of the port logistics chain and to generate a better port performance. In this context, the present study analyzes the governance of Port of Santos through individual interviews with port managers, based on a conceptual model that considers the key dimensions associated with port governance. The results reinforce the usefulness of the applied model and highlight some existing improvement opportunities in the port studied.

Keywords: port governance, model, Port of Santos, managers’ perception

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Authors: Evelyn Kropfreiter, Roland Bernhard

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There has been an increased interest in school-based whole-child development in the Austrian education system in the last few years. Although there is a consensus among academics that teachers' beliefs are an essential component of their professional competence, there are hardly any studies in the German-speaking world examining teachers' beliefs about school-based character education. To close this gap, we are conducting a mixed methods study combining qualitative interviews and a questionnaire in Austria (doctoral thesis at the University of Salzburg). In this paper, we present preliminary insights into the quantitative strand of the project. In contrast to German-speaking countries, the Anglo-Saxon world has a long tradition of explicit character education in schools. There has been a rising interest in approaches focusing on a neo-Aristotelian form of character education in England. The Jubilee Centre strongly influences the "renaissance" of papers on neo-Aristotelian character education for Character and Virtues, founded in 2012. The quantitative questionnaire study (n = 264) is an online survey of teachers and school principals conducted in four different federal states in spring 2023. Most respondents (n = 264) from lower secondary schools (AHS-Unterstufe and Mittelschule) believe that character education in schools for 10-14-year-olds is more important for society than good exam results. Many teachers state that they consider themselves prepared to promote their students' personal development and life skills through their education and to attend further training courses. However, there are many obstacles in the education system to ensure that a comprehensive education reaches the students. Many teachers state that they consider themselves prepared to promote their students' character strengths and life skills through their education and to attend further training courses. However, there are many obstacles in the education system to ensure that a comprehensive education reaches the students. Among the most cited difficulties, teachers mention the time factor associated with an overcrowded curriculum and a strong focus on performance, which often leaves them needing more time to keep an eye on nurturing the whole person. The fact that character education is not a separate subject, and its implementation needs to be monitored also makes it challenging to implement it in everyday school life. Austrian teachers prioritize moral virtues such as compassion and honesty as character strengths in everyday school life and resilience and commitment in the next place. Our results are like those reported in other studies on teacher's beliefs about character education. They indicate that Austrian teachers want to teach character in their schools but see systemic constraints such as the curriculum, in which personality roles play a subordinate role, and the focus on performance testing in the school system and the associated lack of time as obstacles to fostering more character development in students.

Keywords: character education, life skills, teachers' beliefs, virtues

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Authors: Hina Verma, Karine Le Guen, Mohammed H. Modi, Rajnish Dhawan, Philippe Jonnard

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Periodic multilayer mirrors have potential application as optical components in X-ray microscopy, particularly working in the water window region. The water window range, located between the absorption edges of carbon (285 eV) and oxygen (530eV), along with the presence of nitrogen K absorption edge (395 eV), makes it a powerful method for imaging biological samples due to the natural optical contrast between water and carbon. We characterized bilayer, trilayer, quadrilayer, and multilayer systems of Mg/Sc with ZrC thin layers introduced as a barrier layer and capping layer prepared by ion beam sputtering. The introduction of ZrC as a barrier layer is expected to improve the structure of the Mg/Sc system. The ZrC capping layer also prevents the stack from oxidation. The structural analysis of the Mg/Sc systems was carried out by using grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity (GIXRR) to obtain non-destructively a first description of the structural parameters, thickness, roughness, and density of the layers. Resonant soft X-ray reflectivity measurements in the vicinity of Sc L-absorption edge were performed to investigate and quantify the atomic distribution of deposited layers. Near absorption edge, the atomic scattering factor of an element changes sharply depending on its chemical environment inside the structure.

Keywords: buried interfaces, resonant soft X-ray reflectivity, X-ray optics, X-ray reflectivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Magdalena Diaka, Paweł Mazierski, Joanna Żebrowska, Michał Winiarski, Tomasz Klimczuk, Adriana Zaleska-Medynska

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During the last years, TiO2 nanotubes have been widely studied due to their unique highly ordered array structure, unidirectional charge transfer and higher specific surface area compared to conventional TiO2 powder. These photoactive materials, in the form of thin layer, can be activated by low powered and low cost irradiation sources (such as LEDs) to remove VOCs, microorganism and to deodorize air streams. This is possible due to their directly growth on a support material and high surface area, which guarantee enhanced photon absorption together with an extensive adsorption of reactant molecules on the photocatalyst surface. TiO2 nanotubes exhibit also lots of other attractive properties, such as potential enhancement of electron percolation pathways, light conversion, and ion diffusion at the semiconductor-electrolyte interface. Pure TiO2 nanotubes were previously used to remove organic compounds from the gas phase as well as in water splitting reaction. The major factors limiting the use of TiO2 nanotubes, which have not been fully overcome, are their relatively large band gap (3-3,2 eV) and high recombination rate of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. Many different strategies were proposed to solve this problem, however titania nanostructures containing incorporated metal oxides like Ag2O shows very promising, new optical and photocatalytic properties. Unfortunately, there is still very limited number of reports regarding application of TiO2/MxOy nanostructures. In the present work, we prepared TiO2/Ag2O nanotubes obtained by anodization of Ti-Ag alloys containing 5, 10 and 15 wt. % Ag. Photocatalysts prepared in this way were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), luminescence spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The activities of new TiO2/Ag2O were examined by photocatalytic degradation of toluene in gas phase reaction and phenol in aqueous phase using 1000 W Xenon lamp (Oriel) and light emitting diodes (LED) as a irradiation sources. Additionally efficiency of bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) removal from the gas phase was estimated. The number of surviving bacteria was determined by the serial twofold dilution microtiter plate method, in Tryptic Soy Broth medium (TSB, GibcoBRL).

Keywords: photocatalysis, antibacterial properties, titania nanotubes, new TiO2/MxOy nanostructures

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Authors: Maha ALjohani, James Blustein

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Communicating users' needs, goals and problems help designers and developers overcome challenges faced by end users. Personas are used to represent end users’ needs. In our research, creating personas allowed the following questions to be answered: Who are the potential user groups? What do they want to achieve by using the service? What are the problems that users face? What should the service provide to them? To develop realistic personas, we conducted a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate students and also interviewed a university librarian. The personas were created to help evaluating the Institutional Repository that is based on the DSpace system. The profiles helped to communicate users' needs, abilities, tasks, and problems, and the task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation were based on these personas. Four personas resulted of a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate students and from interviewing a university librarian. We then used these personas to create focused task-scenarios for a heuristic evaluation on the system interface to ensure that it met users' needs, goals, problems and desires. In this paper, we present the process that we used to create the personas that led to devise the task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation as a follow up study of the DSpace university repository.

Keywords: heuristic evaluation, institutional repositories, user experience, human computer interaction, user profiles, personas, task scenarios, heuristics

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Authors: Muhammad Zikril Hakim Md. Azizi, Norhafizan Ahmad, Raja Ariffin Raja Ghazilla

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Postural stability, attention level of the archer and particularly the vibrations of the bow itself plays a prominent role in determining the athletes performance. Many techniques and systems had been developing to monitor the parameters of the archers during training. In Malaysia, archery coaches tend to use non-scientific ways that they are familiar with, to evaluate archer performance. An approach that provides more affordable yet accurate systems to the masses and relatively easy system deployment procedure need to be proposed. Hence, this project will address to fulfil the needs. Three area of the archer parameter were included for data monitoring sensors. Attention level can be measured using EEG sensor, centre of mass linked to the postural stability can be measured by foot pressure sensor, and the bow vibrations in three axis will be relayed by the vibrations sensors placed directly on the bow using wireless sensors. Arduino based microcontroller used to relay all the data back to the interfacing systems. Interface systems will be using Python language and C++ framework for user interface and hardware interfacing systems. All sensor data can be observed in real time using the in-house applications, and each sessions can be saved to common files so that coach and the team can have a further discussion and comparisons.

Keywords: archery, graphical user interface, microcontroller, wireless sensor, monitoring system

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Authors: Mina Beheshti, Vida Shams, Mojtaba Esfandiari, Farzaneh Abdollahi, Abdolreza Ohadi

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Most of the people who survive a stroke need rehabilitation tools to regain their mobility. The core function of these devices is a brake actuator. The goal of this study is to design and control a magnetorheological brake which can be used as a rehabilitation tool. In fact, the fluid used in this brake is called magnetorheological fluid or MR that properties can change by variation of the magnetic field. The braking properties can be set as control by using this feature of the fluid. In this research, different MR brake designs are first introduced in each design, and the dimensions of the brake have been determined based on the required torque for foot movement. To calculate the brake dimensions, it is assumed that the shear stress distribution in the fluid is uniform and the fluid is in its saturated state. After designing the rehabilitation brake, the mathematical model of the healthy movement of a healthy person is extracted. Due to the nonlinear nature of the system and its variability, various adaptive controllers, neural networks, and robust have been implemented to estimate the parameters and control the system. After calculating torque and control current, the best type of controller in terms of error and control current has been selected. Finally, this controller is implemented on the experimental data of the patient's movements, and the control current is calculated to achieve the desired torque and motion.

Keywords: rehabilitation, magnetorheological fluid, knee, brake, adaptive control, robust control, neural network control, torque control

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Muhammad Tariq A. Chaudhary

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Soil-structure interaction (SSI) in bridges under seismic excitation is a complex phenomenon which involves coupling between the non-linear behavior of bridge pier columns and SSI in the soil-foundation part. It is a common practice in the study of SSI to model the bridge piers as linear elastic while treating the soil and foundation with a non-linear or an equivalent linear modeling approach. Consequently, the contribution of soil and foundation to the SSI phenomenon is disproportionately highlighted. The present study considered non-linear behavior of bridge piers in FEM model of a 4-span, pile-supported bridge that was designed for five different soil conditions in a moderate seismic zone. The FEM model of the bridge system was subjected to a suite of 21 actual ground motions representative of three levels of earthquake hazard (i.e. Design Basis Earthquake, Functional Evaluation Earthquake and Maximum Considered Earthquake). Results of the FEM analysis were used to delineate the influence of pier column non-linearity and SSI on critical design parameters of the bridge system. It was found that pier column non-linearity influenced the bridge lateral displacement and base shear more than SSI for majority of the analysis cases for the class of bridge investigated in the study.

Keywords: bridge, FEM model, reinforced concrete pier, pile foundation, seismic loading, soil-structure interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Atabak Rashidian

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In duplex backhaul wireless communication systems, two separate transmit and receive high-gain antennas are required if an antenna switch is not implemented. Although the switch loss, which is considerable and in the order of 1.5 dB at 60 GHz, is avoided, the large separate antenna systems make the design bulky and not cost-effective. To avoid two large reflectors for such a system, transmit and receive antenna feeds with a common phase center are required. The phase center should coincide with the focal point of the reflector to maximize the efficiency and gain. In this work, we present an ultra-compact design in which stacked patch antennas are used as the feeds for a 12-inch reflector. The transmit antenna is a 1 × 2 array and the receive antenna is a single element located in the middle of the transmit antenna elements. Antenna elements are designed as stacked patches to provide the required impedance bandwidth for four standard channels of WiGigTM applications. The design includes three metallic layers and three dielectric layers, in which the top dielectric layer is a 100 µm-thick protective layer. The top two metallic layers are specified to the main and parasitic patches. The bottom layer is basically ground plane with two circular openings (0.7 mm in diameter) having a center through via which connects the antennas to a single input/output Si-Ge Bi-CMOS transceiver chip. The reflection coefficient of the stacked patch antenna is fully investigated. The -10 dB impedance bandwidth is about 11%. Although the gap between transmit and receive antenna is very small (g = 0.525 mm), the mutual coupling is less than -12 dB over the desired frequency band. The three dimensional radiation patterns of the transmit and receive reflector antennas at 60 GHz is investigated over the impedance bandwidth. About 39 dBi realized gain is achieved. Considering over 15 dBm of output power of the silicon chip in the transmit side, the EIRP should be over 54 dBm, which is good enough for over one kilometer multi Gbps data communications. The performance of the reflector antenna over the bandwidth shows the peak gain is 39 dBi and 40 dBi for the reflector antenna with 2-element and single element feed, respectively. This type of the system design is cost-effective and efficient.

Keywords: Antenna, integrated circuit, millimeter-wave, phase center

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Dr.Prabhat Dixit Dr.Sanjay Pandey

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Russian invasion of Ukraine has hogged the limelight in both national and international media. It is expected that the news about the war, which had affected the entire world, especially its economy, will continue to dominate the coverage on TV and newspapers in the next few days, at least until the hostilities come to an end. Although the war still continues, and it is hard to predict its ending, its coverage by the Indian media has raised eyebrows, and it has been observed that the coverage lacks depth, authenticity and a majority of information was sought to be presented in a sensational manner only to attract more number of viewers. It is said that Truth is the first casualty of war. The media should, especially while airing or publishing news about the wars, exercise caution so as not to inflame the already volatile situation in the warring countries. It was also observed that there were differences in the facts and figures presented by different media outlets in the country about the war.

Keywords: economy, media, russia, ukraine, war

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Riccardo Loggia, Francesca Pizzimenti, Francesco Lelli, Luigi Martirano

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Recent air emission regulations point toward the complete electrification of road vehicles. An increasing number of users are beginning to prefer full electric or hybrid, plug-in vehicle solutions, incentivized by government subsidies and the lower cost of electricity compared to gasoline or diesel. However, it is necessary to optimize charging stations so that they can simultaneously satisfy as many users as possible. The purpose of this paper is to present optimization algorithms that enable simultaneous charging of multiple electric vehicles while ensuring maximum performance in relation to the type of charging station.

Keywords: electric vehicles, charging stations, sharing model, fast charging, car park, power profiles

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: I. Irska, S. Paszkiewicz, D. Pawlikowska, E. Piesowicz, A. Linares, T. A. Ezquerra

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Due to the number of advantages such as high tensile strength, sensitivity to hydrolytic degradation, and biocompatibility poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most common polyesters for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. However, PLA is a rigid, brittle polymer with low heat distortion temperature and slow crystallization rate. In order to broaden the range of PLA applications, it is necessary to improve these properties. In recent years a number of new strategies have been evolved to obtain PLA-based materials with improved characteristics, including manipulation of crystallinity, plasticization, blending, and incorporation into block copolymers. Among the other methods, synthesis of aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters has been attracting considerable attention as they may combine the mechanical performance of aromatic polyesters with biodegradability known from aliphatic ones. Given the need for highly flexible biodegradable polymers, in this contribution, a series of aromatic-aliphatic based on poly(butylene terephthalate) and poly(lactic acid) (PBT-b-PLA) copolyesters exhibiting superior mechanical properties were copolymerized with an additional poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTMO) soft block. The structure and properties of both series were characterized by means of attenuated total reflectance – Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H NMR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and dynamic mechanical, thermal analysis (DMTA). Moreover, the related changes in tensile properties have been evaluated and discussed. Lastly, the viscoelastic properties of synthesized poly(ester-ether) copolymers were investigated in detail by step cycle tensile tests. The block lengths decreased with the advance of treatment, and the block-random diblock terpolymers of (PBT-ran-PLA)-b-PTMO were obtained. DSC and DMTA analysis confirmed unambiguously that synthesized poly(ester-ether) copolymers are microphase-separated systems. The introduction of polyether co-units resulted in a decrease in crystallinity degree and melting temperature. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that only PBT blocks are able to crystallize. The mechanical properties of (PBT-ran-PLA)-b-PTMO copolymers are a result of a unique arrangement of immiscible hard and soft blocks, providing both strength and elasticity.

Keywords: aliphatic-aromatic copolymers, multiblock copolymers, phase behavior, thermoplastic elastomers

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Authors: Eugene Y. C. Wong

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The increased market competition, customer expectation, and warehouse operating cost in third-party logistics have motivated the continuous exploration in improving operation efficiency in warehouse logistics. Cargo tracing in ordering picking process consumes excessive time for warehouse operators when handling enormous quantities of goods flowing through the warehouse each day. Internet of Things (IoT) with mobile cargo tracing apps and database management systems are developed this research to facilitate and reduce the cargo tracing time in order picking process of a third-party logistics firm. An operation review is carried out in the firm with opportunities for improvement being identified, including inaccurate inventory record in warehouse management system, excessive tracing time on stored products, and product misdelivery. The facility layout has been improved by modifying the designated locations of various types of products. The relationship among the pick and pack processing time, cargo tracing time, delivery accuracy, inventory turnover, and inventory count operation time in the warehouse are evaluated. The correlation of the factors affecting the overall cycle time is analysed. A mobile app is developed with the use of MIT App Inventor and the Access management database to facilitate cargo tracking anytime anywhere. The information flow framework from warehouse database system to cloud computing document-sharing, and further to the mobile app device is developed. The improved performance on cargo tracing in the order processing cycle time of warehouse operators have been collected and evaluated. The developed mobile voice picking and tracking systems brings significant benefit to the third-party logistics firm, including eliminating unnecessary cargo tracing time in order picking process and reducing warehouse operators overtime cost. The mobile tracking device is further planned to enhance the picking time and cycle count of warehouse operators with voice picking system in the developed mobile apps as future development.

Keywords: warehouse, order picking process, cargo tracing, mobile app, third-party logistics

Procedia PDF Downloads 377

Authors: Heming Yao

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Graphene-based percolative strain gauges could find applications in many places such as touch panels, artificial skins or human motion detection because of its advantages over conventional strain gauges such as flexibility and transparency. These strain gauges rely on a novel sensing mechanism that depends on strain-induced morphology changes. Once a compression or tension strain is applied to Graphene-based percolative strain gauges, the overlap area between neighboring flakes becomes smaller or larger, which is reflected by the considerable change of resistance. Tiny strain change on graphene-based percolative strain sensor can act as an important leverage to tremendously increase resistance of strain sensor, which equipped graphene-based percolative strain gauges with higher gauge factor. Despite ongoing research in the underlying sensing mechanism and the limits of sensitivity, neither suitable understanding has been obtained of what intrinsic factors play the key role in adjust gauge factor, nor explanation on how the strain gauge sensitivity can be enhanced, which is undoubtedly considerably meaningful and provides guideline to design novel and easy-produced strain sensor with high gauge factor. We here simulated the strain process by modeling graphene flakes and its percolative networks. We constructed the 3D resistance network by simulating overlapping process of graphene flakes and interconnecting tremendous number of resistance elements which were obtained by fractionizing each piece of graphene. With strain increasing, the overlapping graphenes was dislocated on new stretched simulation graphene flake simulation film and a new simulation resistance network was formed with smaller flake number density. By solving the resistance network, we can get the resistance of simulation film under different strain. Furthermore, by simulation on possible variable parameters, such as out-of-plane resistance, in-plane resistance, flake size, we obtained the changing tendency of gauge factor with all these variable parameters. Compared with the experimental data, we verified the feasibility of our model and analysis. The increase of out-of-plane resistance of graphene flake and the initial resistance of sensor, based on flake network, both improved gauge factor of sensor, while the smaller graphene flake size gave greater gauge factor. This work can not only serve as a guideline to improve the sensitivity and applicability of graphene-based strain sensors in the future, but also provides method to find the limitation of gauge factor for strain sensor based on graphene flake. Besides, our method can be easily transferred to predict gauge factor of strain sensor based on other nano-structured transparent optical conductors, such as nanowire and carbon nanotube, or of their hybrid with graphene flakes.

Keywords: graphene, gauge factor, percolative transport, strain sensor

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Authors: Zhiqiang Yan, Chen Fan, Yafei Wang, Beicheng Xia

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Urban lakes play an invaluable role in urban water systems such as flood control, water supply, and public recreation. However, over 38% of the urban lakes have suffered from severe eutrophication in China. Chlorine that could remarkably inhibit the growth of phytoplankton in eutrophic, has been widely used in the agricultural, aquaculture and industry in the recent past. However, little information has been reported regarding the effects of chlorine on the lake ecosystem, especially on the main aquatic species.To investigate the ecological response of main aquatic species and system stability to chlorine interference in shallow urban lakes, a mini system dynamic model was developed based on the competition and predation of main aquatic species and total phosphorus circulation. The main species of submerged macrophyte, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos, spiroggra and total phosphorus in water and sediment were used as variables in the model,while the interference of chlorine on phytoplankton was represented by an exponential attenuation equation. Furthermore, the eco-exergy expressing the development degree of ecosystem was used to quantify the complexity of the shallow urban lake. The model was validated using the data collected in the Lotus Lake in Guangzhoufrom1 October 2015 to 31 January 2016.The correlation coefficient (R), root mean square error-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR) and index of agreement (IOA) were calculated to evaluate accuracy and reliability of the model.The simulated values showed good qualitative agreement with the measured values of all components. The model results showed that chlorine had a notable inhibitory effect on Microcystis aeruginos，Rachionus plicatilis, Diaphanosoma brachyurum Liévin and Mesocyclops leuckarti (Claus).The outbreak of Spiroggra.spp. inhibited the growth of Vallisneria natans (Lour.) Hara, leading to a gradual decrease of eco-exergy and the breakdown of ecosystem internal equilibria. This study gives important insight into using chlorine to achieve eutrophication control and understand mechanism process.

Keywords: system dynamic model, urban lake, chlorine, eco-exergy

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Authors: Atef Alaaeddine Sarraj, Brendan Jackman, Frank Walsh

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Tomorrow’s car will be more automated and increasingly connected. Innovative and intuitive interfaces are essential to accompany this functional enrichment. For that, today the automotive companies are competing to offer an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) which will be able to provide enhanced navigation, collision avoidance, intersection support and lane keeping. These vision-based functions require an accurately calibrated camera. To achieve such differentiation in ADAS requires sophisticated sensors and efficient algorithms. This paper explores the different calibration methods applicable to vehicle-mounted fish-eye cameras with arbitrary fields of view and defines the first steps towards a self-calibration method that adequately addresses ADAS requirements. In particular, we present a self-calibration method after comparing different camera calibration algorithms in the context of ADAS requirements. Our method gathers data from unknown scenes while the car is moving, estimates the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and corrects the wide-angle distortion. Our solution enables continuous and real-time detection of objects, pedestrians, road markings and other cars. In contrast, other camera calibration algorithms for ADAS need pre-calibration, while the presented method calibrates the camera without prior knowledge of the scene and in real-time.

Keywords: advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), fish-eye, real-time, self-calibration

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Authors: Ching-Feng Chen

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The floating photovoltaic (FPV) system highlights economic benefits and energy performance to carbon dioxide (CO₂) discharges. Due to land resource scarcity and many negligent water territories, such as reservoirs, dams, and lakes in Japan and Taiwan, both countries are actively developing FPV and responding to the pricing of the emissions trading systems (ETS). This paper performs a case study through a synthesis approach to compare the economic indicators between the FPVs of Taiwan’s Agongdian Reservoir and Japan’s Yamakura Dam. The research results show that the metrics of the system capacity, installation costs, bank interest rates, and ETS and Electricity Bills affect FPV operating gains. In the post-Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) phase, investing in FPV in Japan is more profitable than in Taiwan. The former’s positive net present value (NPV), eminent internal rate of return (IRR) (11.6%), and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) above 1 (2.0) at the discount rate of 10% indicate that investing the FPV in Japan is more favorable than in Taiwan. In addition, the breakeven point is modest (about 61.3%.). The presented methodology in the study helps investors evaluate schemes’ pros and cons and determine whether a decision is beneficial while funding PV or FPV projects.

Keywords: carbon border adjustment mechanism, floating photovoltaic, emissions trading systems, net present value, internal rate of return, benefit-cost ratio

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Authors: Sonia Anand Knowlton

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As the use of Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated in virtually every area of life, the need and interest to logically formalize the law and judicial reasoning is growing tremendously. The study of argumentation frameworks (AFs) provides promise in this respect. AF’s provide a way of structuring human reasoning using a formal system of non-monotonic logic. P.M. Dung first introduced this framework and demonstrated that certain arguments must prevail and certain arguments must perish based on whether they are logically “attacked” by other arguments. Dung labelled the set of prevailing arguments as the “preferred extension” of the given argumentation framework. Trevor Bench-Capon’s Value-based Argumentation Frameworks extended Dung’s AF system by allowing arguments to derive their force from the promotion of “preferred” values. In VAF systems, the success of an attack from argument A to argument B (i.e., the triumph of argument A) requires that argument B does not promote a value that is preferred to argument A. There has been thorough discussion of the application of VAFs to the law within the computer science literature, mainly demonstrating that legal cases can be effectively mapped out using VAFs. This article analyses VAFs from a jurisprudential standpoint to provide a philosophical and theoretical analysis of what VAFs tell the legal community about the judicial reasoning, specifically distinguishing between legal and moral reasoning. It highlights the limitations of using VAFs to account for judicial moral reasoning in theory and in practice.

Keywords: nonmonotonic logic, legal formalization, computer science, artificial intelligence, morality

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Authors: Vilasinee Jintalikhitdee, Phusit Phukamchanoad, Sakapas Saengchai

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This research aims to study the level of democratic political culture and the factors that affect the democratic political culture of 5th and 6th graders under the authority of Dusit District Office, Bangkok by using stratified sampling for probability sampling and using purposive sampling for non-probability sampling to collect data toward the distribution of questionnaires to 300 respondents. This covers all of the schools under the authority of Dusit District Office. The researcher analyzed the data by using descriptive statistics which include arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics which are Independent Samples T-test (T-test) and One-Way ANOVA (F-test). The researcher also collected data by interviewing the target groups, and then analyzed the data by the use of descriptive analysis. The result shows that 5th and 6th graders under the authority of Dusit District Office, Bangkok have exposed to democratic political culture at high level in overall. When considering each part, it found out that the part that has highest mean is “the constitutional democratic governmental system is suitable for Thailand” statement. The part with the lowest mean is “corruption (cheat and defraud) is normal in Thai society” statement. The factor that affects democratic political culture is grade levels, occupations of mothers, and attention in news and political movements.

Keywords: democratic, political culture, political movements, democratic governmental system

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Authors: Leon Mortari

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The Metropolitan East region of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, faces a historic water scarcity. Among the alternatives studied to solve this situation, the possibility of adduction of the available water in the reservoir Lagoa de Juturnaíba to supply the region's municipalities stands out. The allocation of a linear engineering project must occur through an evaluation of different aspects, such as altitude, slope, proximity to roads, distance from watercourses, land use and occupation, and physical and chemical features of the soil. This work aims to apply a multi-criteria model that combines geoprocessing techniques, decision-making, and geometric search algorithm to optimize a hypothetical adductor system in the scenario of expanding the water supply system that serves this region, known as Imunana-Laranjal, using the Lagoa de Juturnaíba as the source. It is proposed in this study, the construction of a spatial database related to the presented evaluation criteria, treatment and rasterization of these data, and standardization and reclassification of this information in a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. The methodology involves the integrated analysis of these criteria, using their relative importance defined by weighting them based on expert consultations and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Three approaches are defined for weighting the criteria by AHP: the first treats all criteria as equally important, the second considers weighting based on a pairwise comparison matrix, and the third establishes a hierarchy based on the priority of the criteria. For each approach, a distinct group of weightings is defined. In the next step, map algebra tools are used to overlay the layers and generate cost surfaces, that indicates the resistance to the passage of the adductor route, using the three groups of weightings. The Dijkstra algorithm, a geometric search algorithm, is then applied to these cost surfaces to find an optimized path within the geographical space, aiming to minimize resources, time, investment, maintenance, and environmental and social impacts.

Keywords: geometric search algorithm, GIS, pipeline, route optimization, spatial multi-criteria analysis model

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Authors: Peizhu Liu

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Dual language education, also known as immersion education, differs from traditional language programs that teach a second or foreign language as a subject. Instead, dual language programs adopt a content-based approach, using both a majority language (e.g., English, in the case of the United States) and a minority language (e.g., Spanish or Chinese) as a medium of instruction to teach math, science, and social studies. By granting each language of instruction equal status, dual language education seeks to educate not only meaningfully but equitably and to foster tolerance and appreciation of diversity, making it essential for immigrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized students. Despite the cognitive and academic benefits of dual language education, recent literature has revealed that English is disproportionately privileged across dual language programs. Scholars have expressed concerns about the unbalanced status of majority and minority languages in dual language education, as favoring English in this context may inadvertently reaffirm its dominance and moreover fail to serve the needs of children whose primary language is not English. Through a year-long study of a Chinese-English dual language program, the extensively disproportionate use of English has also been observed by the researcher. However, despite the fact that Chinese-English dual language programs are the second-most popular program type after Spanish in the United States, this issue remains underexplored in the existing literature on Chinese-English dual language education. In fact, the number of Chinese-English dual language programs being offered in the U.S. has grown rapidly, from 8 in 1988 to 331 as of 2023. Using Norton and Darvin's investment model theory, the current study investigates teachers' language use and investment in teaching Chinese and English in a Chinese-English dual language program at an urban public school in New York City. The program caters to a significant number of minority children from working-class families. Adopting an ethnographic and discourse analytic approach, this study seeks to understand language use dynamics in the program and how micro- and macro-factors, such as students' identity construction, parents' and teachers' language ideologies, and the capital associated with each language, influence teachers' investment in teaching Chinese and English. The research will help educators and policymakers understand the obstacles that stand in the way of the goal of dual language education—that is, the creation of a more inclusive classroom, which is achieved by regarding both languages of instruction as equally valuable resources. The implications for how to balance the use of the majority and minority languages will also be discussed.

Keywords: dual language education, bilingual education, language immersion education, content-based language teaching

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Authors: Ezman Fitriansyah, Lestari Diah Restu, Wawan

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Adaro coal mine in South Kalimantan-Indonesia maintains catchment area of approximately 15,000 Ha for its mine operation. As an open pit surface coal mine with high erosion rate, the mine water in Adaro coal mine contains high TSS that needs to be treated before being released to rivers. For the treatment process, Adaro operates 21 Settling Ponds equipped with combination of physical and chemical system to separate solids and water to ensure the discharged water complied with regional environmental quality standards. However, the sludge created from the sedimentation process reduces the settling ponds capacity gradually. Therefore regular maintenance activities are required to recover and maintain the ponds' capacity. Trucking system and direct dredging had been the most common method to handle sludge in Adaro. But the main problem in applying these two methods is excessive area required for drying pond construction. To solve this problem, Adaro implements an alternative method called Geotube®. The principle of Geotube® method is the sludge contained in the Settling Ponds is pumped into Geotube® containers which have been designed to release water and retain mud flocks. During the pumping process, an amount of flocculants chemicals are injected into the sludge to form bigger mud flocks. Due to the difference in particle size, the mud flocks are settled in the container whilst the water continues to flow out through the container’s pores. Compared to the trucking system and direct dredging method, this method provides three advantages: space required to operate, increasing of overburden waste dump volume, and increasing of water treatment process speed and quality. Based on the evaluation result, Geotube® method only needs 1:8 of space required by the other methods. From the geotechnical assessment result conducted by Adaro, the potential loss of waste dump volume capacity prior to implementation of the Geotube® method was 26.7%. The water treatment process of TSS in well maintained ponds is 16% more optimum.

Keywords: geotube, mine water, settling pond, sludge handling, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Tzu-I Chiang

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A central question for finite-nonfinite distinction in Mandarin Chinese is how does Mandarin encode temporal information without the grammatical contrast between past and present tense. Moreover, how do L2 learners of Mandarin whose native language is English and whose L1 system has tense morphology, acquire the temporal encoding system in L2 Mandarin? The current study reports preliminary findings on the relationship between topic prominence and the temporal encoding in L1 and L2 Chinese. Oral narratives data from 30 natives and learners of Mandarin Chinese were collected via a film-retell task. In terms of coding, predicates collected from the narratives were transcribed and then coded based on four major verb types: n-degree Statives (quality-STA), point-scale Statives (status-STA), n-atom EVENT (ACT), and point EVENT (resultative-ACT). How native speakers and non-native speakers started retelling the story was calculated. Results of the study show that native speakers of Chinese tend to express Topic Time (TT) syntactically at the topic position; whereas L2 learners of Chinese across levels rely mainly on the default time encoded in the event types. Moreover, as the proficiency level of the learner increases, learners’ appropriate use of the event predicates increased, which supports the argument that L2 development of temporal encoding is affected by lexical aspect.

Keywords: topic prominence, temporal encoding, lexical aspect, L2 acquisition

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Authors: Priscila A. Bernardes, Marcos E. Buzanskas, Luciana C. A. Regitano, Ricardo V. Ventura, Danisio P. Munari

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The best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) is a method commonly used in genetic evaluations of breeding programs. However, this approach can lead to higher inbreeding coefficients in the population due to the intensive use of few bulls with higher genetic potential, usually presenting some degree of relatedness. High levels of inbreeding are associated to low genetic viability, fertility, and performance for some economically important traits and therefore, should be constantly monitored. Unreliable pedigree data can also lead to misleading results. Genomic information (i.e., single nucleotide polymorphism – SNP) is a useful tool to estimate the inbreeding coefficient. Runs of homozygosity have been used to evaluate homozygous segments inherited due to direct or collateral inbreeding and allows inferring population selection history. This study aimed to evaluate runs of homozygosity (ROH) and inbreeding in a population of Nelore beef cattle. A total of 814 animals were genotyped with the Illumina BovineHD BeadChip and the quality control was carried out excluding SNPs located in non-autosomal regions, with unknown position, with a p-value in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium lower than 10⁻⁵, call rate lower than 0.98 and samples with the call rate lower than 0.90. After the quality control, 809 animals and 509,107 SNPs remained for analyses. For the ROH analysis, PLINK software was used considering segments with at least 50 SNPs with a minimum length of 1Mb in each animal. The inbreeding coefficient was calculated using the ratio between the sum of all ROH sizes and the size of the whole genome (2,548,724kb). A total of 25.711 ROH were observed, presenting mean, median, minimum, and maximum length of 3.34Mb, 2Mb, 1Mb, and 80.8Mb, respectively. The number of SNPs present in ROH segments varied from 50 to 14.954. The longest ROH length was observed in one animal, which presented a length of 634Mb (24.88% of the genome). Four bulls were among the 10 animals with the longest extension of ROH, presenting 11% of ROH with length higher than 10Mb. Segments longer than 10Mb indicate recent inbreeding. Therefore, the results indicate an intensive use of few sires in the studied data. The distribution of ROH along the chromosomes showed that chromosomes 5 and 6 presented a large number of segments when compared to other chromosomes. The mean, median, minimum, and maximum inbreeding coefficients were 5.84%, 5.40%, 0.00%, and 24.88%, respectively. Although the mean inbreeding was considered low, the ROH indicates a recent and intensive use of few sires, which should be avoided for the genetic progress of breed.

Keywords: autozygosity, Bos taurus indicus, genomic information, single nucleotide polymorphism

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Authors: M. J. Ponnambalam

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Physics Outreach in Jamaica has nearly tripled the number of students doing Introductory Calculus-based Physics at the University of the West Indies (UWI, Mona) within 5 years, and thus has shown the importance of Physics Teaching & Learning in Informal Settings. In 1899, the first president of the American Physical Society called Physics, “the science above all sciences.” Sure enough, exactly one hundred years later, Time magazine proclaims Albert Einstein, “Person of the Century.” Unfortunately, Physics seems to be losing that glow in this century. Many countries, big and small, are finding it difficult to attract bright young minds to pursue Physics. At UWI, Mona, the number of students in first year Physics dropped to an all-time low of 81 in 2006, from more than 200 in the nineteen eighties, spelling disaster for the Physics Department! The author of this paper launched an aggressive Physics Outreach that same year, aimed at conveying to the students and the general public the following messages: i) Physics is an exciting intellectual enterprise, full of fun and delight. ii) Physics is very helpful in understanding how things like TV, CD player, car, computer, X-ray, CT scan, MRI, etc. work. iii) The critical and analytical thinking developed in the study of Physics is of inestimable value in almost any field. iv) Physics is the core subject for Science and Technology, and hence of national development. Science Literacy is a ‘must’ for any nation in the 21st century. Hence, the Physics Outreach aims at reaching out to every person, through every possible means. The Outreach work is split into the following target groups: i) Universities, ii) High Schools iii) Middle Schools, iv) Primary Schools, v) General Public, and vi) Physics teachers in High Schools. The programmes, tools and best practices are adjusted to suit each target group. The feedback from each group is highly positive. e.g. In February 2014, the author conducted in 3 Primary Schools the Interactive Show on ‘Science Is Fun’ to stimulate 290 students’ interest in Science – with lively and interesting demonstrations and experiments in a highly interactive way, using dramatization, story-telling and dancing. The feedback: 47% found the Show ‘Exciting’ and 51% found it ‘Interesting’ – totaling an impressive 98%. When asked to describe the Show in their own words, the leading 4 responses were: ‘Fun’ (26%), ‘Interesting’ (20%), ‘Exciting’ (14%) and ‘Educational’ (10%) – confirming that ‘fun’ & ‘education’ can go together. The success of Physics Outreach in Jamaica verifies the following words of Chodos, Associate Executive Officer of the American Physical Society: “If we could get members to go to K-12 schools and levitate a magnet or something, we really think these efforts would bring great rewards.”

Keywords: physics education, physics popularization, UWI, Jamaica

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Authors: Bahram Talebjedi, Amirmohammad Sattari, Ahmed Zoher Sihorwala, Mina Hoorfar

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Among different droplet manipulations, controlled droplet-splitting is of great significance due to its ability to increase throughput and operational capability. Furthermore, unequal droplet-splitting can provide greater flexibility and a wider range of dilution factors. In this study, we developed two-dimensional, time-dependent complex fluid dynamics simulations to model droplet formation in a flow focusing device, followed by splitting in a Y-shaped junction with sub-channels of unequal widths. From the results obtained from the numerical study, we correlated the diameters of the droplets in the sub-channels to the Weber number, thereby demarcating the droplet splitting and non-splitting regimes.

Keywords: microfluidics, unequal droplet splitting, two phase flow, flow focusing device

Procedia PDF Downloads 172