Search results for: risk factors

Authors: Qasim Kriri, Harsh B. Desai

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Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia is portrayed by difficulties and accomplishments. One of the fundamental difficulties is water shortage. With a specific end goal to beat water shortage, significant ventures have been attempted in sea water desalination, water circulation, sewerage, and wastewater treatment. The motivation behind Statistical Process Control (SPC) is to decide whether the execution of a procedure is keeping up an acceptable quality level [AQL]. SPC is an analytical decision-making method. A fundamental apparatus in the SPC is the Control Charts, which follow the inconstancy in the estimations of the item quality attributes. By utilizing the suitable outline, administration can decide whether changes should be made with a specific end goal to keep the procedure in charge. The two most important quality factors in the distilled water which were taken into consideration were pH (Potential of Hydrogen) and TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). There were three stages at which the quality checks were done. The stages were as follows: (1) Water at the source, (2) water after chemical treatment & (3) water which is sent for packing. The upper specification limit, central limit and lower specification limit are taken as per Saudi water standards. The procedure capacity to accomplish the particulars set for the quality attributes of Berain water Factory chose to be focused by the proposed SPC system.

Keywords: acceptable quality level, statistical quality control, control charts, process charts

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Authors: Wai Ho Darrell Kwok

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Building entities are valuable assets of a society, however, all of them are suffered from the ravages of weather and time. Facilitating onerous maintenance activities is the only way to either maintain or enhance the value and contemporary standard of the premises. By the way, maintenance budget is always bounded by the corresponding threshold limit. In order to optimize the limited resources allocation in carrying out maintenance, there is a substantial need to prioritize maintenance work. This paper reveals the application of Fuzzy AHP in a Facilities Management Company determining the maintenance priorities on the basis of predetermined criteria, viz., Building Status (BS), Effects on Fabrics (EF), Effects on Sustainability (ES), Effects on Users (EU), Importance of Usage (IU) and Physical Condition (PC) in dealing with categorized 8 predominant building components maintenance aspects for building premises. From the case study, it is found that ‘building exterior repainting or re-tiling’, ‘spalling concrete repair works among exterior area’ and ‘lobby renovation’ are the top three maintenance priorities from facilities manager and maintenance expertise personnel. Through the application of the Fuzzy AHP for maintenance priorities decision algorithm, a more systemic and easier comparing scalar linearity factors being explored even in considering other multiple criteria decision scenarios of building maintenance issue.

Keywords: building maintenance, fuzzy AHP, maintenance priority, multi-criteria decision making

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Authors: Andri Hidayat, Zufialdi Zakaria, Raden Irvan Sophian

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Batam city within next five years are expected to experience water crisis. Sei Gong dam which is located in the Sijantung village, Galang District, Batam City, Riau Islands Province is one of 13 dams that will be built to solve the problems of raw water crisis in the Batam city. The purpose of this study are to determine the condition of engineering geology around Sei Gong Dam area, knowing the value of the soil bearing capacity and recommended pile foundation, and knowing the characteristics of the soil consolidation as one of the factors that affect the incidence of soil subsidence. Based on calculations for shallow foundation in general - soil shear condition and local - soil condition indicates that the highest value in ultimate soil bearing capacity (qu) for each depth was in the square foundations at two meters depth. The zonations of shallow foundation of the research area are divided into five zones, they are bearing capacity zone <10 ton/m2, bearing capacity zone 10-15 ton/m2, bearing capacity zone 15-20 ton/m2, bearing capacity zone 20-25 ton/m2, and bearing capacity zone >25 ton/m2. Based on the parameters of soil engineering analysis, Sei Gong Dam areas at the middle part has a higher value for land subsidence.

Keywords: ultimate bearing capacity, type of foundation, consolidation, land subsidence, Batam

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Authors: Behnoush Dousti, Ye Choi, Gil S. Lee

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Microsupercapacitors (MScs) are known as the future of miniaturized energy sources that can be coupled to a battery to deliver stable and constant energy to microelectronics. Among all their counterparts, electrochemical microsupercapacitor have drawn the most research attention due to their higher power density and long cycle life. Designing the microstructure and choosing the electroactive materials are two significant factors that greatly affect the performance of the device. Here, we report successful fabrication and characterization of a microsupercapacitor with interdigitated structure based on Carbon nanotube sheets (CNT sheet). Novel structure of highly aligned CNT sheet as the electrode materials which also offers excellent conductivity and large surface area along with doping with nitrogen, enabled us to develop a device with serval order of magnitude higher electrochemical performance than the pristine CNT in aqueous electrolyte including high specific capacitance and rate capabilities and excellent cycle life over 10000 cycles. Geometric parameters such as finger width and gap size were also studied and it was shown the device performance is much depended on them. Results of this study confirms the potential of CNT sheet for future energy storage devices.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, energy storage systems, microsupercapacitor, nitrogen doping

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Authors: Bernadett Henn, Katalin Tálos, Éva Kováss Széles

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During the last 50 years, the worldwide permeation of the nuclear techniques induces several new problems in the environmental and in the human life. Nowadays, due to the increasing of the risk of terrorism worldwide, the potential occurrence of terrorist attacks using also weapon of mass destruction containing radioactive or nuclear materials as e.g. dirty bombs, is a real threat. For instance, the uranium pellets are one of the potential nuclear materials which are suitable for making special weapons. The nuclear forensics mainly focuses on the determination of the origin of the confiscated or found nuclear and other radioactive materials, which could be used for making any radioactive dispersive device. One of the most important signatures in nuclear forensics to find the origin of the material is the determination of the rare earth element patterns (REE) in the seized or found radioactive or nuclear samples. The concentration and the normalized pattern of the REE can be used as an evidence of uranium origin. The REE are the fourteen Lanthanides in addition scandium and yttrium what are mostly found together and really low concentration in uranium pellets. The problems of the REE determination using ICP-MS technique are the uranium matrix (high concentration of uranium) and the interferences among Lanthanides. In this work, our aim was to develop an effective chemical sample preparation process using extraction chromatography for separation the uranium matrix and the rare earth elements from each other following some publications can be found in the literature and modified them. Secondly, our purpose was the optimization of the ICP-MS measuring process for REE concentration. During method development, in the first step, a REE model solution was used in two different types of extraction chromatographic resins (LN® and TRU®) and different acidic media for environmental testing the Lanthanides separation. Uranium matrix was added to the model solution and was proved in the same conditions. Methods were tested and validated using REE UOC (uranium ore concentrate) reference materials. Samples were analyzed by sector field mass spectrometer (ICP-SFMS).

Keywords: extraction chromatography, nuclear forensics, rare earth elements, uranium

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Authors: Ben Clapperton, Daniel Stahl, Kimberley Goldsmith, Trudie Chalder

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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a condition characterised by chronic disabling fatigue and other symptoms that currently can't be explained by any underlying medical condition. Although clinical trials support the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), the success rate for individual patients is modest. Patients vary in their response and little is known which factors predict or moderate treatment outcomes. The aim of the project is to develop a prediction model from baseline characteristics of patients, such as demographics, clinical and psychological variables, which may predict likely treatment outcome and provide guidance for clinical decision making and help clinicians to recommend the best treatment. The project is aimed at identifying subgroups of patients with similar baseline characteristics that are predictive of treatment effects using modern cluster analyses and data mining machine learning algorithms. The characteristics of these groups will then be used to inform the types of individuals who benefit from a specific treatment. In addition, results will provide a better understanding of for whom the treatment works. The suitability of different clustering methods to identify subgroups and their response to different treatments of CFS patients is compared.

Keywords: chronic fatigue syndrome, latent class analysis, prediction modelling, self-organizing maps

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Authors: Aurélie Cassiers

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In this presentation, an overview is given of the freedom of states to legislate concerning abortion. Today, access to safe and legal abortion is still a hot topic in many countries in the world. Abortion policies try to strike a balance between women’s rights to self-determination and private life on the one hand, and the protection of the life of unborn children on the other. Each country has different religious, cultural and political views on abortion, and therefore specific legislations. However, citizens may submit a complaint at international courts when they find their national legislation too restrictive. The study is discussed of the development of the ECtHR, UNCHR, and IACHR case law, regarding the question of the ‘right to abort’ and indirectly of the protection of the unborn children. Each relevant case is analyzed to answer the following questions: Is the unborn child protected, and if so, how? Why does the woman want to abort and how is her interest or right protected? How is a fair balance reached between the different interests? Is the state completely free to write policies that restrict abortion? What are the factors to determine the margin of appreciation of the state? In conclusion, does this specific court recognize a right to abort, and if so, under which conditions? To conclude, this presentation shows that each court has its own perspective on and perception of abortion, and its own criteria to determine whether the state is complying with international norms regarding individual liberty and protection of the children.

Keywords: abortion, international courts, unborn children, women rights

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Authors: Feng Ju Chuang, Yu Wen Wang, Tai Jung Hsieh, Shyh Ming Kuo

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Polylactic acid is a synthetic polymer with good biocompatibility and degradability, is widely used in clinical applications. In this study, we utilized Polylactic acid particles as stimulants for macrophages and the collagen synthesis of co-cultured fibroblasts was evaluated. The results indicated that Polylactic acid particles were nontoxic to cells from 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide. No obvious inflammation effect was observed (under the PLLA concentration of 1 mg/mL) after 24-h co-culture of Raw264.7 and NIH3T3 cells (from TNF-α assay). The addition of PLLA particles to the Raw264.7 and NIH3T3 co-cultures increased the synthesis of collagen, the highest collagen synthesis from the fibroblast was the 0.2 mg/mL (approximately 60% increased as compared with without addition Polylactic acid particles). Moreover, a co-axial atomization delivery device was used to percutaneously introduce Polylactic acid particles into the dermis layer and stimulating macrophages to secrete growth factors promoting fibroblasts to produce collagen. The preliminary results demonstrated the synthesis of collagen was increased mildly after the introduction of Polylactic acid particles for 28-d post implantation. The Polylactic acid particles could be successfully introduced into the dermis layer from H&E staining examination, however, the optimum concentration of Polylactic acid particles and the time-period for collagen synthesis still need to be evaluated.

Keywords: collagen synthesis, macrophage, NIH3T3 cells, polylactic acid particles

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Authors: Lauren C. Porter, Andrew Curtis, Eric Jefferis, Susanne Mitchell

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A wealth of research has been generated examining the variation in crime across neighborhoods. However, there is also a striking degree of crime concentration within neighborhoods. A number of studies show that a small percentage of street segments, intersections, or addresses account for a large portion of crime. Not surprisingly, a focus on these crime hot spots can be an effective strategy for reducing community level crime and related ills, such as health problems. However, research is also limited in an important respect. Studies tend to use official data to identify hot spots, such as 911 calls or calls for service. While the use of call data may be more representative of the actual level and distribution of crime than some other official measures (e.g. arrest data), call data still suffer from the 'dark figure of crime.' That is, there is most certainly a degree of error between crimes that occur versus crimes that are reported to the police. In this study, we present an alternative method of identifying crime hot spots, that does not rely on official data. In doing so, we highlight the potential utility of neighborhood-insiders to identify and understand crime dynamics within geographic spaces. Specifically, we use spatial video and geo-narratives to record the crime insights of 36 police, ex-offenders, and residents of a high crime neighborhood in northeast Ohio. Spatial mentions of crime are mapped to identify participant-identified hot spots, and these are juxtaposed with calls for service (CFS) data. While there are bound to be differences between these two sources of data, we find that one location, in particular, a corner store, emerges as a hot spot for all three groups of participants. Yet it does not emerge when we examine CFS data. A closer examination of the space around this corner store and a qualitative analysis of narrative data reveal important clues as to why this store may indeed be a hot spot, but not generate disproportionate calls to the police. In short, our results suggest that researchers who rely solely on official data to study crime hot spots may risk missing some of the most dangerous places.

Keywords: crime, narrative, video, neighborhood

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Authors: Farzad Khajavi

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Studies about the interaction between active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and excipients are so important in the pre-formulation stage of development of all dosage forms. Analytical techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Thermal gravimetry (TG), and Furrier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) are commonly used tools for investigating regarding compatibility and incompatibility of APIs with excipients. Sometimes the interpretation of data obtained from these techniques is difficult because of severe overlapping of API spectrum with excipients in their mixtures. Principal component analysis (PCA) as a powerful factor analytical method is used in these situations to resolve data matrices acquired from these analytical techniques. Binary mixtures of API and interested excipients are considered and produced. Peaks of FTIR, DSC, or TG of pure API and excipient and their mixtures at different mole ratios will construct the rows of the data matrix. By applying PCA on the data matrix, the number of principal components (PCs) is determined so that it contains the total variance of the data matrix. By plotting PCs or factors obtained from the score of the matrix in two-dimensional spaces if the pure API and its mixture with the excipient at the high amount of API and the 1:1mixture form a separate cluster and the other cluster comprise of the pure excipient and its blend with the API at the high amount of excipient. This confirms the existence of compatibility between API and the interested excipient. Otherwise, the incompatibility will overcome a mixture of API and excipient.

Keywords: API, compatibility, DSC, TG, interactions

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Authors: Lizinis Cassendra Frederick Dony, Jirom Jeremy Frederick Dony, Cyril Supain Christopher

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The purpose of this paper is to improve the devotion to leadership through HR practices implementation at the PETRONAS stations. This emphasize the importance of personal grooming and Customer Care hospitality training for their front line working individuals and teams’ at PETRONAS stations in Sabah. Based on Thomas Edison, International Leadership Journal, theory, research, education and development practice and application to all organizational phenomena may affect or be affected by leadership. FINDINGS – PETRONAS in short called Petroliam Nasional Berhad is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. Fortune ranks PETRONAS as the 68th largest company in the world in 2012. It also ranks PETRONAS as the 12th most profitable company in the world and the most profitable in Asia. As of the end of March 2005, the PETRONAS Group comprised 103 wholly owned subsidiaries, 19 partly owned outfits and 57 associated companies. The group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining, marketing and distribution of petroleum products, trading, gas processing and liquefaction, gas transmission pipeline network operations, marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering and property investment. PETRONAS has growing their marketing channel in a competitive market. They have combined their resources to pursue common goals. PETRONAS provides opportunity to carry out Industrial Training Job Placement to the University students in Malaysia for 6-8 months. The effects of the Industrial Training have exposed them to the real working environment experience acting representing on behalf of General Manager for almost one year. Thus, the management education and reward incentives schemes have aspire the working teams transformed to gain their good leadership. Furthermore, knowledge and experiences are very important in the human capital development transformation. SPSS extends the accurate analysis PETRONAS achievement through 280 questionnaires and 81 questionnaires through excel calculation distributed to interview face to face with the customers, PETRONAS dealers and front desk staffs stations in the 17 stations in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Hence, this research study will improve its service quality innovation and business sustainability performance optimization. ORIGINALITY / VALUE – The impact of Transformational Leadership practices have influenced the working team’s behaviour as a Brand Ambassadors of PETRONAS. Finally, the findings correlation indicated that PETRONAS stations needs more HR resources practices to deploy more customer care retention resources in mitigating the business challenges in oil and gas industry. Therefore, as the business established at stiff competition globally (Cooper, 2006; Marques and Simon, 2006), it is crucial for the team management should be capable to minimize noises risk, financial risk and mitigating any other risks as a whole at the optimum level. CONCLUSION- As to conclude this research found that both transformational and transactional contingent reward leadership4 were positively correlated with ratings of platoon potency and ratings of leadership for the platoon leader and sergeant were moderately inter correlated. Due to this identification, we recommended that PETRONAS management should offers quality team management in PETRONAS stations in a broader variety of leadership training specialization in the operation efficiency at the front desk Customer Care hospitality. By having the reliability and validity of job experiences, it leverages diversity teamwork and cross collaboration. Other than leveraging factor, PETRONAS also will strengthen the interpersonal front liners effectiveness and enhance quality of interaction through effective communication. Finally, through numerous CSR correlation studies regression PETRONAS performance on Corporate Social Performance and several control variables.1 CSR model activities can be mis-specified if it is not controllable under R & D which evident in various feedbacks collected from the local communities and younger generation is inclined to higher financial expectation from PETRONAS. But, however, it created a huge impact on the nation building as part of its social adaptability overreaching their business stakeholders’ satisfaction in Sabah.

Keywords: human resources practices implementation (hrpi), source of competitive advantage in people’s development (socaipd), corporate social responsibility (csr), service quality at front desk stations (sqafd), impacts of petronas leadership (iopl)

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Authors: H. Troudi, M. Ghiss, Z. Tourki, M. Ellejmi

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Packed columns of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consists of separating the liquid mixture of propane and butane to pure gas components by the distillation phenomenon. The flow of the gas and liquid inside the columns is operated by two ways: The co-current and the counter current operation. Heat, mass and species transfer between phases represent the most important factors that influence the choice between those two operations. In this paper, both processes are discussed using computational CFD simulation through ANSYS-Fluent software. Only 3D half section of the packed column was considered with one packed bed. The packed bed was characterized in our case as a porous media. The simulations were carried out at transient state conditions. A multi-component gas and liquid mixture were used out in the two processes. We utilized the Euler-Lagrange approach in which the gas was treated as a continuum phase and the liquid as a group of dispersed particles. The heat and the mass transfer process was modeled using multi-component droplet evaporation approach. The results show that the counter-current process performs better than the co-current, although such limitations of our approach are noted. This comparison gives accurate results for computations times higher than 2 s, at different gas velocity and at packed bed porosity of 0.9.

Keywords: co-current, counter-current, Euler-Lagrange model, heat transfer, mass transfer

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Authors: James Barmby

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Canada’s westernmost provinces of British Columbia and Alberta are similar in many respects as they are both reliant on volatile natural resources for major portions of their economies. The two provinces have banded together to develop mutually beneficial trade, investment and labour market mobility rules, but in terms of developing systems of higher education, the two provinces are attempting to align higher education programs to economic development objectives by means that are quite different. In British Columbia, the recently announced initiative, B.C’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint will “make sure education and training programs are aligned with the demands of the labor market.” Meanwhile in Alberta, the province’s institutions of higher education are enjoying the tenth year of their membership in the Campus Alberta Quality Council, which makes recommendations to government on issues related to post-secondary education, including the approval of new programs. In B.C., public institutions of higher education are encouraged to comply with government objectives, and are rewarded with targeted funds for their efforts. In Alberta, the institutions as a system tell the government what programs they want to offer and government can agree or not agree to fund these programs through a ministerial approval process. In comparing the two higher education systems, the question emerges as to which one is more beneficial to the province: the one where change is directed primarily by financial incentives to achieve economic objectives or the one that makes recommendations to the government for changes in programs to achieve institutional objectives? How is institutional autonomy affected in each strategy? Does institutional autonomy matter anymore? In recent years, much has been written in regard to academic freedom, but less about institutional autonomy, which is seen by many as essential to protecting academic freedom. However, while institutional autonomy means freedom from government control, it does not necessarily mean self-government. In this study, a comparison of the two higher education systems is made using recent government policy initiatives in both provinces, and responses to those actions by the higher education institutions. The findings indicate that the economic needs in both provinces take precedence over issues of institutional autonomy.

Keywords: alberta, British Columbia, institutional autonomy, funding

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Authors: Ajibola O. Akinrinde, Andrew Swanson, Remy Tiako

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There exist significant losses on transmission lines due to distance, as power generating stations could be located far from some isolated settlements. Standalone wind farms could be a good choice of alternative power generation for such settlements that are far from the grid due to factors of long distance or socio-economic problems. However, uncompensated wind farms consume reactive power since wind turbines are induction generators. Therefore, capacitor banks are used to compensate reactive power, which in turn improves the voltage profile of the network. Although capacitor banks help improving voltage profile, they also undergo switching actions due to its compensating response to the variation of various types of load at the consumer’s end. These switching activities could cause transient overvoltage on the network, jeopardizing the end-life of other equipment on the system. In this paper, the overvoltage caused by these switching activities is investigated using the IEEE bus 14-network to represent a standalone wind farm, and the simulation is done using ATP/EMTP software. Scenarios involving the use of pre-insertion resistor and pre-insertion inductor, as well as controlled switching was also carried out in order to decide the best mitigation option to reduce the overvoltage.

Keywords: capacitor banks, IEEE bus 14-network, pre-insertion resistor, standalone wind farm

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Authors: Jennifer E. Lynette

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The purpose of this study is to develop a nation-wide assessment tool to gauge the quality and efficiency of response activities by emergency personnel to fires in Denmark. Current fire incident reports lack detailed information that can lead to breakthroughs in research and improve emergency response efforts. Information generated from the report database is analyzed and assessed for efficiency and quality. By utilizing information collection gaps in the incident reports, an improved, indepth, and streamlined quality gauging system is developed for use by fire brigades. This study pinpoints previously unrecorded factors involved in the response phases of a fire. Variables are recorded and ranked based on their influence to event outcome. By assessing and measuring these data points, quality standards are developed. These quality standards include details of the response phase previously overlooked which individually and cumulatively impact the overall success of a fire response effort. Through the application of this tool and implementation of associated quality standards at Denmark’s fire brigades, there is potential to increase efficiency and quality in the preparedness and response phases, thereby saving additional lives, property, and resources.

Keywords: emergency management, fire, preparedness, quality standards, response

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Authors: Z. Miao, Y. Chu, Y. Zhang

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The unique cholesteric phase liquid crystals obtained by mixing nematic liquid crystals with chiral dopants have gained valuable applications in the display field for their selective reflection and circular dichroism properties. The periodic arrangement of the helical structure of cholesteric liquid crystals makes it possible to produce Bragg reflection of circularly polarized light irradiated perpendicularly to the liquid crystals and, therefore, to acquire semi- or fully reflective surfaces or films. If the polymer-liquid crystal composites are combined with polymeric monomers, commercialized reflective broadband films can be fabricated. In this study, the polymer-liquid crystal composites reflecting visible light region (wavelength centered at 550 nm) were studied to analyze the effects of AC electric field at different voltages and frequencies on the optical texture of the composites, as well as the effects of polymerization temperature and ultraviolet (UV) intensity on the polymerization reaction and reflection bandwidth. The optimal sample was finally obtained at 100Hz, 120V, 30℃, 1.00 mW/cm², which provides a research suggestion to solve the influencing factors of visible light reflection bandwidths.

Keywords: cholesteric liquid crystal, reflection bandwidths, negative dielectric anisotropy, planar texture

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Authors: C. Senabre, S. Valero, M. Lopez, E. Velasco, M. Sanchez

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This paper focuses on an application of linear mixed models to short-term load forecasting. The challenge of this research is to improve a currently working model at the Spanish Transport System Operator, programmed by us, and based on linear autoregressive techniques and neural networks. The forecasting system currently forecasts each of the regions within the Spanish grid separately, even though the behavior of the load in each region is affected by the same factors in a similar way. A load forecasting system has been verified in this work by using the real data from a utility. In this research it has been used an integration of several regions into a linear mixed model as starting point to obtain the information from other regions. Firstly, the systems to learn general behaviors present in all regions, and secondly, it is identified individual deviation in each regions. The technique can be especially useful when modeling the effect of special days with scarce information from the past. The three most relevant regions of the system have been used to test the model, focusing on special day and improving the performance of both currently working models used as benchmark. A range of comparisons with different forecasting models has been conducted. The forecasting results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed methodology.

Keywords: short-term load forecasting, mixed effects models, neural networks, mixed effects models

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Authors: Tasneem Imam, Justine S. Gibson, Mohammad Foysal, Shetu B. Das, Rashed Mahmud, Suman D. Gupta, Ahasanul Hoque, Guillaume Fournie, Joerg Henning

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Commercial chicken production is an import livestock industry in Bangladesh. Antimicrobials are commonly used to control and prevent infectious diseases. It was hypothesized that inadequate biosecurity practices might promote antimicrobial usage on commercial chicken farms. A cross-sectional study was carried out to evaluate antimicrobial usage and farm biosecurity practices implemented on 57 layer and 83 broiler farms in eight sub-districts of the Chattogram district in Bangladesh. A questionnaire was used to collect data on antimicrobial usage and biosecurity practices on these farms. A causal framework was used to guide the development of a multi-level mixed-effects logistic regression analysis to evaluate the total and direct effects of practiced biosecurity management on prophylactic and therapeutic administration of antimicrobials. A total of 24 antimicrobials were administered in the current production cycle at the time of the survey. The most administered antimicrobials on layer farms were ciprofloxacin (37.0% of farms), amoxicillin (33.3%), and tiamulin (31.5%); however, on broiler farms, colistin (56.6% of farms), doxycycline (50.6%), and neomycin (38.6%) were most used. Only 15.3% of commercial farmers used antimicrobials entirely for therapeutic purposes, whereas 84.7% administered antimicrobials prophylactically. Inadequate biosecurity practices were more common among commercial broiler farmers compared to layer farmers. For example, only 2.4% of broiler farmers used footbaths before entering sheds compared to 22.2% of the layer farmers (p < 0.001). Farms that used antimicrobials only for therapeutic purposes (vs prophylactic) implemented more frequently adequate disease control measures, such as separating sick birds from healthy birds. This research highlighted that the prophylactic application of antimicrobials is often conducted to substitute poor biosecurity practices on commercial chicken farms. Awareness programs for farmers are crucial to inform them about the risk associated with antimicrobial usage and to highlight the economic benefits of implementing cost-effective biosecurity measures to control infectious poultry diseases.

Keywords: antimicrobial, biosecurity, broiler, layer

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Authors: Elham Fakhrpoor, Daryush Mohammadi Zanjirani, Maziyar Nojaba

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Business process reengineering is one of the most important strategies in banks in recent years that not only it increases customers’ satisfaction, but also it increases performance of banks. The purpose of elementary (initial) business process reengineering is reinforcing banks abilities to obtain new customers and making long-term relationships with existed customers and increasing customers’ satisfaction among service quality in global level. Banks specially the private ones are the main streams of state, because cash flow is necessary to survive a state. What guarantees survival and permanency of financial institutes’ activities is providing favorite, certain, and proper services. Capital market being small and state financial system being bank-oriented needs optimum usage from banks. According to this fact and role and importance of developing banking system, the present study tried to offer a constructed model using Lisrel and also spss software to evaluate effects of business process reengineering on performance of private banks. We have one min hypothesis and four sub-hypotheses. The main hypothesis says reengineering factors have positive effects on bank performances (balanced- scores card aspects). These hypotheses were tested by structural equations modeling.

Keywords: effect, business, reengineering, private bank

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Authors: Ahmad Shah Irshad, Naqibullah Kargar, Wais Samadi

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Building an integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system is a new and modern technique for solar energy production in Kandahar. Due to its location, Kandahar has abundant sources of solar energy. People use both monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon solar PV modules for the grid-connected solar PV system, and they don’t know which technology performs better for the BIPV system. This paper analyses the parameters described by IEC61724, “Photovoltaic System Performance Monitoring Guidelines for Measurement, Data Exchange and Analysis,” to evaluate which technology shows better performance for the BIPV system. The monocrystalline silicon BIPV system has a 3.1% higher array yield than the polycrystalline silicon BIPV system. The final yield is 0.2%, somewhat higher for monocrystalline silicon than polycrystalline silicon. Monocrystalline silicon has 0.2% and 4.5% greater yearly yield factor and capacity factors than polycrystalline silicon, respectively. Monocrystalline silicon shows 0.3% better performance than polycrystalline silicon. With 1.7% reduction and 0.4% addition in collection losses and useful energy produced, respectively, monocrystalline silicon solar PV system shows good performance than polycrystalline silicon solar PV system. But system losses are the same for both technologies. The monocrystalline silicon BIPV system injects 0.2% more energy into the grid than the polycrystalline silicon BIPV system.

Keywords: photovoltaic technologies, performance analysis, solar energy, solar irradiance, performance ratio

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Authors: Samar Saadeldin Abdelmotalab Omer, Ikram Mohammed Eltayeb Elsiddig, Amna Beshir Medani Ahmed, Saad Mohammed Hussein Ayoub

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Many herbal medicinal products are considered as potential hypocholesterolemic agents with encouraging safety profiles, however, only a limited amount of clinical research exists to support their efficacy. The present study was designed to compare the antihypercholesterolaemic and antioxidant activities of the crude ethanolic extracts of Citrus reticulata peel, Zingiber officinale rhizome, and Sesamum indicum seeds. Forty-five rats were used throughout the experiment, which were divided into nine groups, five rats in each as follows; normal control group (normal rats fed with standard normal diet), rats fed hypercholesterolemic diet consisting of 1% cholesterol and 10% saturated animal fat, which were further divided into eight groups; hypercholesterolemic control group (rats only fed hypercholesterolemic diet), groups 3,4,5,6,7, and 8 were given Citrus reticulata, Zingiber officinale, and Sesamum indicum ethanolic extracts at doses of (250mg/kg and 500mg/kg, respectively) orally; and group 9 rats were given atorvastatin (0.18mg/kg) orally as a reference antihypercholesterolaemic drug. Blood samples were obtained four weeks following treatment from the retro-orbital venous plexus after fasting overnight from all groups and the lipid profile (serum total cholesterol (TC), high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides levels) was measured and the risk ratio (TC/HDL-C) was assessed. The antioxidant activity of the three plant extracts was determined using DPPH free-radical assay. Results of in vivo and in vitro antihypercholesterolaemic and antioxidant assay, respectively, revealed that the three extracts possess comparable antioxidant and anti-hypercholesterolaemic activities.

Keywords: anti hypercholesterolemic effects, antioxidant activity, HDL, LDL, TC, TGs, citrus reticulata, sesamum indicum, zingiber officinale

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Authors: Kiyoko Yoshimura, Yasunobu Kino

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Focusing on professional call centers where workers with expertise perform services, this study aims to clarify the relationships between emotional labor and job satisfaction and the effects of recognition of customer feedback. Since the professional call center operators consist of professional license holders (qualification holders) and those who do not (non-holders), the following three points are analyzed in the two groups by using covariance structure analysis and simultaneous multi-population analysis: 1) The relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction, 2) customer feedback and job satisfaction, and 3) The intermediation effect between the emotional labor of customer feedback and job satisfaction. The following results are obtained: i) no direct effect is found between job satisfaction and emotional labor for qualification holders and non-holders, ii) for qualification holders and non-holders, recognition of positive feedback and recognition of negative feedback had positive and negative effects on job satisfaction, respectively, iii) for qualification and non-holders, "consideration for colleagues" influences job satisfaction by recognizing positive feedback, and iv) only for qualification holders, the factors "customer-oriented emotional expression" and "emotional disharmony" have a positive and negative effect on job satisfaction, respectively, through recognition of positive feedback and recognition of negative feedback.

Keywords: call center, emotional labor, professional service, job satisfaction, customer feedback

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Authors: Anatoliy Kharkhurin

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This presentation picks up on a widely discussed topic in both multilingualism and creativity research that comes from pedagogical considerations. The research conducted by the author over last 10 years has delivered a solid argument that speaking more than one language facilitates an individual’s creative capacities. The author has expanded the scope of his research and implemented these findings in education. After reviewing the empirical evidence concerning a relationship between multilingual practice and creative behavior, he proposes a new program that includes teaching strategies from both fields, a unified Bilingual Creative Education program. The program is grounded in several conceptual premises. Specifically, it aims at facilitation of the overall linguistic, intellectual and creative competences of young children regardless of their intellectual and creative predispositions thereby meeting the recommendations of a number of governmental policies. It is designed for both migrants who speak their native language and attempt to acquire the language of the migration country and autochthones who want to acquire a foreign language simultaneously with their mother tongue. The purpose of the program is to introduce students to a school curriculum in two languages and to foster four defining aspects of creativity, novelty, utility, aesthetics and authenticity. To accomplish this goal, the program utilizes the holistic approach which combines cognitive, personal and environmental factors in education. The presentation discusses the empirical findings for the implementation of the program.

Keywords: bilingualism, creativity, education, autochthones

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Authors: Marina G. Galitskaya, Svetlana G. Makarova, Andrey P. Fisenko.

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Children on medication-induced immunosuppression are at high risk of developing severe course infectious diseases. Therefore, preventive vaccination is especially important for these children. However, due to the immunosuppressive effects of treatment for the underlying disease, the effectiveness of vaccination may decrease below the protective level. In a multidisciplinary children's medical center, post-vaccination immunity was studied in 79 children aged 4-17 years. The children were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 (38 children) with kidney pathology (Nephrotic Syndrome) and Group 2 (41 children) with inflammatory bowel diseases (Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease). Both groups of children were vaccinated according to the national vaccination calendar and received immunosuppressive therapy (prednisolone, methotrexate, cyclosporine, and other drugs) for at least 1 year. Using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method, specific IgG antibodies to vaccine-preventable infections were determined: measles, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and hepatitis B. The study showed the percentage of children with positive IgG values for vaccine-preventable infections. The highest percentage of children had protective antibody levels to measles (84.2% in children with nephrotic syndrome and 92.6% in those with inflammatory bowel disease) and rubella (71% and 80.4%, respectively). The lowest percentage of children with protective antibodies was for hepatitis B (5.2% and 29.2% respectively). Antibodies to mumps, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus were found not in all children (from 39,4% to 82,9%). The remaining percentage of children did not have detectable IgG antibodies to vaccine-preventable infections. Not all children, despite the previous vaccination, preserved antibodies to vaccine-controlled infections and remained unprotected by specific IgG antibodies. The issue of a booster vaccine dose should be considered in children without contraindications to vaccination. Children receiving long-term immunosuppressive therapy require an individual vaccination approach, including a specific definition of the performed vaccination.

Keywords: immunosuppressive therapy, inflammatory bowel diseases, nephrotic syndrome, post-vaccination immunity, specific antibodies, vaccine-preventable infections.

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Authors: Christina Zourna, Ioanna Papavassiliou-Alexiou

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Drama in Education (DiE) is a dynamic experiential method that can be used in many interdisciplinary contexts. In the Educational and Social Policy Department, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece, DiE is being used as a core method for developing professional competences in pre- and postgraduate courses as well as adult education training programs. In this presentation, an innovative DiE application will be described concerning the development of educational leaders’ skills necessary to meet unprecedented, unexpected challenges in the 21st century schools. In a non-threatening risk-taking no-penalty environment, future educational leaders live-in-role problems, challenges, and dilemmas before having to face similar ones in their profession. Through personal involvement, emotional engagement, and reflection, via individual and group activities, they experience the behaviour, dilemmas, decision-making processes, and informed choices of a recognized leader and are able to make connections with their own life. As pretext serves the life of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian King who defeated the vast Persian empire in the 4th century BC and, by uniting all Greeks, conquered the up-to-date known eastern world thanks to his authentic leadership skills and exceptional personality traits. Since the early years of his education mastered by the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle, Alexander proved his unique qualities by providing the world with the example of an undeniably genuine, inspirational, effective, and most recognizable authentic leader. Through questionnaires and individual interviews, participants in these workshops revealed how they developed active listening, empathy, creativity, imagination, critical strategic and out-of-the-box thinking, cooperation and own vision communicating, crisis management skills, self-efficacy, self-awareness, self-exposure, information management, negotiation and inspiration skills, enhanced sense of responsibility and commitment, and decision-making skills.

Keywords: drama in education method, educational leadership, professional competences, skills’ development

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Authors: Gamze Karanfil Celep, Kevser Dincer

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The effects of polymer concentration and electrospinning process parameters on the average diameters of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were experimentally investigated. Besides, mechanical and thermal properties of PAN nanofibers were examined by tensile test and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. For this purpose, the polymer concentration, solution feed rate, supply voltage and tip-to-collector distance were determined as the control factors. To succeed these aims, Taguchi’s L16 orthogonal design (4 parameters, 4 level) was employed for the experimental design. Optimal electrospinning conditions were defined using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio that was calculated from diameters of the electrospun PAN nanofibers according to "the-smaller-the-better" approachment. In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was evaluated to conclude the statistical significance of the process parameters. The smallest diameter of PAN nanofibers was observed. According to the S/N ratio response results, the most effective parameter on finding out of nanofiber diameter was determined. Finally, the Taguchi design of experiments method has been found to be an effective method to statistically optimize the critical electrospinning parameters used in nanofiber production. After determining the optimum process parameters of nanofiber production, electrical conductivity and fuel cell performance of electrospun PAN nanofibers on the carbon papers will be evaluated.

Keywords: nanofiber, electrospinning, polyacrylonitrile, Taguchi method

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Authors: Maria Krambia-Kapardis, Andreas Kapardis

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The relevant literature has been inundated with arguments for ethics, moral values, honesty, resilience, trust in leadership as well as responsible leadership. In many countries around the globe, and as shown by some recent reports, many political leaders are not role models and do not show best practices by being ethical, responsible, compassionate, and resilient. Journalists, whistleblowers, WikiLeaks, Al Jazeera, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have been brought out from the shadow of political leaders who lack the virtues/attributes outlined above by the UN Global Compact. A number of political leaders who lack ethical and responsible leadership skills will continue to find loopholes to enrich themselves and their close friends and relatives. Some researchers use the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic; however, this test, while it provides helpful and useful insights into the personality of a person who leads or inspire his/her people but does not show if that person is ethical, motivating, and empowers his people with trust and honesty. Thus, it is recommended that political leaders ought to undergo training that encompasses Aristotelian Ethics by embedding the appropriate values and behaviours in their strategies, policies, and decisions, enhancing the change factors that will help in the implementation of a more sustainable development model. Finally, there is a need to develop a pedagogy and a curriculum which enables the development of responsible political leaders.

Keywords: political leaders, corruption, anti-corruption, political corruption

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Authors: Med. A. Djeridane, M. Ferhat, H. A. Benhorma, O. Bouledroua

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This research is dedicated to exploring the failure of a turbine blade within a gas transportation plant, with a primary focus on conducting a comprehensive examination through advanced metallurgical and mechanical analyses of the identified failed blade. Crafted from the nickel superalloy Inconel IN738LC, the turbine engine had accumulated approximately 61,000 operational hours before the blades failed, causing severe damage to the transportation plant and necessitating a prolonged shutdown. The investigative procedure commenced with an in-depth visual inspection of the blade surfaces, succeeded by fractography analysis of the fracture surfaces, microstructural investigations, chemical analysis, and hardness measurements. The findings unveiled distinctive fatigue marks on the fracture surface. Critical microstructural changes were identified as a consequence of the blade's operation at high temperatures. The investigation determined that the crack initiation resulted from coating damage at the leading edge, subsequently propagating through fatigue. Ultimately, due to a reduction in cross-sectional area, the fracture was completed. This comprehensive analysis sheds light on the intricate factors contributing to turbine blade failure and offers valuable insights for enhancing operational reliability in similar environments.

Keywords: gas turbine, blade failure, TCP phases, fatigue, quantitative analysis

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Authors: Elizabeth Perry, Jylana Sheats

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Scholars posit that there is an overlap between the fields of Behavioral Economics (BE) and Behavior Science (BSci)—and that consideration of concepts from both may facilitate a greater understanding of health decision-making processes. For example, the ‘intention-action gap’ is one BE concept to explain sup-optimal decision-making. It is described as having knowledge that does not translate into behavior. Complementary best BSci practices may provide insights into behavioral determinants and relevant behavior change techniques (BCT). Within the context of BSci, this exploratory study aimed to apply a BE concept with demonstrated effectiveness in financial decision-making to a health behavior: influenza (flu) vaccine uptake. Adults aged >18 years were recruited on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a digital labor market where anonymous users perform simple tasks at low cost. Eligible participants were randomized into 2 groups, reviewed a scenario, and then completed a survey on the likelihood of receiving a flu shot. The ‘usual care’ group’s scenario included standard CDC guidance that supported the behavior. The ‘intervention’ group’s scenario included messaging about people who did not receive the flu shot. The framing was such that participants could learn from others’ (strangers) mistakes and the subsequent health consequences: ‘Last year, other people who didn’t get the vaccine were about twice as likely to get the flu, and a number of them were hospitalized or even died. Don’t risk it.’ Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were performed on the sample. There were 648 participants (usual care, n=326; int., n=322). Among racial/ethnic minorities (n=169; 57% aged < 40), the intervention group was 22% more likely to report that they were ‘extremely’ or ‘moderately’ likely to get the flu vaccine (p = 0.11). While not statistically significant, findings suggest that framing messages from the perspective of learning from the mistakes of unknown others coupled with the BCT ‘knowledge about the health consequences’ may help influence flu vaccine uptake among the study population. With the widely documented disparities in vaccine uptake, exploration of the complementary application of these concepts and strategies may be critical.

Keywords: public health, decision-making, vaccination, behavioral science

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Authors: Stanley Yap, Mahadevan Supramaniam, Chong Wei Ying, Fatemeh Kimiyaghalam

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Purpose: The paper shows the framework of financial planning in a different paradigm. It highlights the results from a focus group on retirement planning in the aspect of financial literacy and wealth accumulation in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: A focus group consisted of thirty individuals and divided into six different clusters amongst 25 to 55 years old. The selection of focus group members is pertaining to retirement planning behavior and saving profile from the different level of educations. Findings: Our results show, firstly, the focus group reflects individual capacity on saving attitude, financial literacy and awareness towards financial products. Secondly, availability, accessibility and affordability which are the significant factors that influence saving attitude, financial literacy and awareness on personal retirement planning behavior. Practical implications: The participants express the concerns of retirement planning during their golden years and the current financial products in the Malaysian financial market. Originality/value: This study is a different approach that recognizes the needs of the consumers in the context of retirement planning and wealth accumulation. Therefore, customers should obtain financial services and products from financial providers to achieve financial independence.

Keywords: retirement planning, wealth accumulation, financial literacy, focus group, saving attitude, availability, accessibility, affordability

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