Search results for: protection of works of art

Authors: Frode van der Laak

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The paper contributes to the feasibility of using a 5G mobile connection as a node for a Proof of Authority (PoA) blockchain, which is used for microtransactions at the same time. It uses the phone number identity of the users that are linked to the crypto wallet address. It also proposed a consensus protocol based on Proof-of-Authority (PoA) blockchain; PoA is a permission blockchain where consensus is achieved through a set of designated authority rather than through mining, as is the case with a Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain. This report will first explain the concept of a PoA blockchain and how it works. It will then discuss the potential benefits and challenges of using a 5G mobile connection as a node in such a blockchain, and finally, the main open problem statement and proposed solutions with the requirements.

Keywords: 5G, mobile, connection, node, PoA, blockchain, microtransaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Foluke Abimbola

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The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child has been signed and ratified by several countries due to the concern about various abuses and crimes committed against children both locally and internationally. It is a shame that in view of the peculiar hardships being experienced by children today, the natural right to childhood has to be protected by a vast array of laws and international conventions. 194 countries have so far acceded to and ratified the convention on the Rights of a Child while some countries such as Nigeria have enacted the convention as a domestic law, yet child abuse is still rampant not only in Nigeria but all over the world. In Nigeria, the Child Rights Act was passed into law in 2003, with its provisions similar to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child. Despite the age of marriage provided in the Nigerian Child’s Rights Act 2003, many communities still practice child marriages to the detriment of the girl-child. Cases where these children have to withdraw from school as a result of these unripe marriages abound. Unfortunately, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 appears to indirectly support early marriages for girls in section 29 (4) where it states that a woman who is married is deemed to be of full age whereas ‘full age’ as a general term in the Constitution is from 18 years old and above. Section 29 (4) may thus be interpreted to mean that a girl of 12 years old, if married, is deemed to be of ‘full-age.’ In view of these discrepancies which continue to justify this unwholesome practice, this paper shall proffer solutions to this unlawful act and make recommendations to existing institutions, using a rights-based approach, on how to prevent and/or substantially reduce this practice. A comparative analysis with other African countries will be adopted in order to conduct a research for effective policies that may be implemented for the protection of these girls. Thus, this paper will further examine the issue of child marriage which is still quite rampant in African countries particularly in Nigeria which also affects the girl-child’s right to an education. Such children are in need of special protection and this paper will recommend ways in which state institutions, particularly in Nigeria, may be able to introduce policies to curb incidences of child marriage and child sexual abuse while proffering strategies for the prevention of these crimes.

Keywords: child abuse, child marriages, child rights, constitutions, child rights, the girl-child

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Authors: Isahakyan Heghine

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Intertextuality, being in the centre of attention of both linguists and literary critics, is vividly expressed in the outstanding British novelist and philosopher J. Fowles' works. 'The Magus’ is a deep psychological and philosophical novel with vivid intertextual links with the Greek mythology and authors from different epochs. The aim of the paper is to show how intertextuality might serve as a dialogue between two authors (J. Fowles and J. Donne) disguised in the dialogue of two protagonists of the novel : Conchis and Nicholas. Contrastive viewpoints concerning man's isolation, loneliness are stated in the dialogue. Due to the conceptual analysis of the text it becomes possible both to decode the conceptual information of the text and find out its intertextual links.

Keywords: dialogue, conceptual analysis, isolation, intertextuality

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Tavee Cheausuwantavee

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: COVID-19 pandemic significantly has impacted everyone’s life. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Thailand have been also effected by COVID-19 situation in many aspects of their lives, while there have been no more appropriate services of the government and providers. Research projects had been only focused on health precaution and protection. Rapid need assessments on populations and vulnerable groups were limited and conducted via social media and an online survey. However, little is known about the real problems and needs of Thai PWDs during the COVID-19 pandemic for an effective plan and integral services for those PWDs. Therefore, this study aims to explore the diverse problems and needs of Thai PWDs in the COVID -19 pandemic. Results from the study can be used by the government and other stakeholders for further effective services. Methods: This study was used a mixed-method design that consisted of both quantitative and qualitative measures. In terms of the quantitative approach, there were 744 PWDs and caregivers of all types of PWDs selected by proportional multistage stratified random sampling according to their disability classification and geographic location. Questionnaires with 59 items regarding participant characteristics, problems, and needs in health, education, employment, and other social inclusion, were distributed to all participants and some caregivers completed questionnaires when PWDs were not able to due to limited communication and/or literacy skills. Completed questionnaires were analyzed by descriptive statistics. For qualitative design, 62 key informants who were PWDs or caregivers were selected by purposive sampling. Ten focus groups, each consisting of 5-6 participants and 7 in-depth interviews from all the groups identified above, were conducted by researchers across five regions. Focus group and in-depth interview guidelines with 6 items regarding problems and needs in health, education, employment, other social inclusion, and their coping during COVID -19 pandemic. Data were analyzed using a modification of thematic content analysis. Results: Both quantitative and qualitative studies showed that PWDs and their caregivers had significant problems and needs all aspects of their life, including income and employment opportunity, daily living and social inclusion, health, and education, respectively. These problems and needs were related to each other, forming a vicious cycle. Participants also learned from negative pandemic to more positive life aspects, including their health protection, financial plan, family cohesion, and virtual technology literacy and innovation. Conclusion and implications: There have been challenges facing all life aspects of PWDs in Thailand during the COVID -19 pandemic, particularly incomes and daily living. All challenges have been the vicious cycle and complicated. There have been also a positive lesson learned of participants from the pandemic. Recommendations for government and stakeholders in the COVID-19 pandemic for PWDs are the following. First, the health protection strategy and policy of PWDs should be promoted together with other quality of life development including income generation, education and social inclusion. Second, virtual technology and alternative innovation should be enhanced for proactive service providers. Third, accessible information during the pandemic for all PWDs must be concerned. Forth, lesson learned from the pandemic should be shared and disseminated for crisis preparation and a positive mindset in the disruptive world.

Keywords: challenge, COVID-19, disability, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Pedro Augusto Da Silva E Souza Miranda, Niloofar Jalali, Shweta Mistry

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BACKGROUND: Software developers utilize automated solutions to scrape users’ reviews to extract meaningful knowledge to identify problems (e.g., bugs, compatibility issues) and possible enhancements (e.g., users’ requests) to their solutions. However, most of these solutions do not consider the health risk aspects to users. Recent works have shed light on the importance of including health risk considerations in the development cycle of mHealth apps to prevent harm to its users. PROBLEM: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada (and World) is currently forcing physical distancing upon the general population. This new lifestyle made the usage of mHealth applications more essential than ever, with a projected market forecast of 332 billion dollars by 2025. However, this new insurgency in mHealth usage comes with possible risks to users’ health due to mHealth apps problems (e.g., wrong insulin dosage indication due to a UI error). OBJECTIVE: These works aim to raise awareness amongst mHealth developers of the importance of considering risks to users’ health within their development lifecycle. Moreover, this work also aims to help mHealth developers with a Proof-of-Concept (POC) solution to understand, process, and identify possible health risks to users of mHealth apps based on users’ reviews. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method study design. We developed a crawler to mine the negative reviews from two samples of mHealth apps (my fitness, medisafe) from the Google Play store users. For each mHealth app, we performed the following steps: • The reviews are divided into two groups, before starting the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date before 15 Feb 2019) and during the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date starts from 16 Feb 2019 till Dec 2020). For each period, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model was used to identify the different clusters of reviews based on similar topics of review The topics before and during COVID-19 are compared, and the significant difference in frequency and severity of similar topics are identified. RESULTS: We successfully scraped, filtered, processed, and identified health-related topics in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results demonstrated the similarity between topics before and during the COVID-19.

Keywords: natural language processing (NLP), topic modeling, mHealth, COVID-19, software engineering, telemedicine, health risks

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Pattanapon Kayansamruaj, Ha Thanh Dong, Nopadon Pirarat, Channarong Rodkhum

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Streptococcus iniae (SI) is a devastating pathogenic bacteria causing heavy mortality in farmed fish. The application of commercialized bacterin vaccine has been reported failures as the outbreaks of the new serotype of SI were emerged in farms after vaccination and subsequently caused severe losses. In the present study, we attempted to develop effective DNA vaccines against SI infection using Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) as an animal model. Two monovalent DNA vaccines were constructed by the insertion of coding sequences of cell wall-associated virulence factors-encoding genes, comprised of eno (α-enolase) and mtsB (hydrophobic membrane protein), into cytomegalovirus expression vector (pCI-neo). In the animal trial, 30-g Nile tilapia were injected intramuscularly with 15 µg of each vaccine (mock vaccine group was injected by naked pCI-neo) and maintained for 35 days prior challenging with pathogenic SI at the dosage of 107 CFU/fish. At 13 days post-challenge, the relative percent survival of pEno, pMtsB and mock vaccine were 57%, 45% and 27%, respectively. The expression levels of immune responses-associated genes, namely, IL1β, TNF-α, TGF-β, COX2, IL-6, IL-12 and IL-13, were investigated from the spleen of experimental animal at 7 days post-vaccination (PV) and 7 days post-challenge (PC) using quantitative RT-PCR technique. Generally, at 7 days PV, the pEno vaccinated group exhibited highest level of up-regulation (1.7 to 2.9 folds) of every gene, but TGF-β, comparing to pMtsB and mock vaccine groups. However, at 7 days PC, pEno group showed significant up-regulation (1.4 to 8.5 folds) of immune-related genes as similar as mock vaccine group, while pMtsB group had lowest level of up-regulation (0.7 to 3.3 folds). Summarily, this study indicated that the pEno and pMtsB vaccines could elicit the immune responses of the fish and the magnitude of gene expression at 7 days PV was also consistent with the protection level conferred by the vaccine.

Keywords: gene expression, DNA vaccine, Nile tilapia, Streptococcus iniae

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Authors: Ayala Amir

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The paper presents interdisciplinary research which draws on the literary study and the cultural study of photography to explore a literary genre defined by nostalgia – the photographed book for children. This genre, which was popular in the second half of the 20th century, presents the romantic, nostalgic image of childhood created in the visual arts in the 18th century (as suggested by Ann Higonnet). At the same time, it capitalizes on the nostalgia inherent in the event of photography as formulated by Jennifer Green-Lewis: photography frames a moment in the present while transforming it into a past longed for in the future. Unlike Freudian melancholy, nostalgia is an effect that enables representation by acknowledging the loss and containing it in the very experience of the object. The representation and preservation of the lost object (nature, childhood, innocence) are in the center of the genre of children's photography books – a modern version of ancient pastoral. In it, the unique synergia of word and image results in a nostalgic image of childhood in an era already conquered by modernization. The nostalgic effect works both in the representation of space – an Edenic image of nature already shadowed by its demise, and of time – an image of childhood imbued by what Gill Bartholnyes calls the "looking backward aesthetics" – under the sign of loss. Little critical attention has been devoted to this genre with the exception of the work of Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, who noted the nostalgic effect of the well-known series of photography books by Astrid Lindgren and Anna Riwkin-Brick. This research aims to elaborate Kümmerling-Meibauer's approach using the theories of the study of photography, word-image studies, as well as current studies of childhood. The theoretical perspectives are implemented in the case study of photography books created in one of the most innovative social structures in our time – the Israeli Kibbutz. This communal way of life designed a society where children will experience their childhood in a parentless rural environment that will save them from the fate of the Oedipal fall. It is suggested that in documenting these children in a fictional format, photographers and writers, images and words cooperated in creating nostalgic works situated on the border between nature and culture, imagination and reality, utopia and its realization in history.

Keywords: nostalgia, photography , childhood, children's books, kibutz

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Authors: Rahmi Kopar

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Legitimate expectations principle is considered one of the most dominant elements of the Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard which is today’s most relied upon treaty standard. Since its utilization by arbitral tribunals is relatively new, the contours of the legitimate expectations concept under investment treaty law have not been precisely defined yet. There are various fragmented views arising both from arbitral tribunals and scholarly writings with respect to its limits and use even though the principle is ‘firmly rooted in arbitral practice.’ International energy investments, due to their characteristics, are more prone to certain types of risks, especially the political risks. Thus, there are several mechanisms to protect an energy investment against those risks. Stabilisation is one of these investment protection methods. Stability provisions can be found under domestic legislations, as a contractual clause, or as a separate legal stability agreement. This paper will start by examining the roots of the contentious concept of legitimate expectations with reference to its application in domestic legal systems from where the doctrine under investment treaty law context was transplanted. Then the paper will turn to the investment treaty law and analyse the main contours of the doctrine as understood and applied by arbitral tribunals. 'What gives rise to the investor’s legitimate expectations?' question is answered mainly by three categories of sources: the general legal framework prevalent in a host state, the representations made by the officials or organs of a host state, and the contractual commitments. However, there is no unanimity among the arbitral tribunals and the scholars with respect to the form these sources should take. At this point, the study will discuss the sources of a stability provision and the effect of these stability provisions found in various legal sources in creating a legitimate expectation for the investor. The main questions to be discussed in this paper are as follows: a) Do the stability provisions found under different legal sources create a legitimate expectation on the investor side? b) If yes, what levels of legitimate expectations do they create? These questions will be answered mainly by reference to investment treaty jurisprudence.

Keywords: fair and equitable treatment standard, international energy investments, investment protection, legitimate expectations, stabilization

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Authors: M. Naidoo

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Artificial intelligence often requires large amounts of good quality data. Within important fields, such as healthcare, the training of AI systems predominately relies on health and personal data; however, the usage of this data is complicated by various layers of law and ethics that seek to protect individuals’ privacy rights. This research seeks to establish the challenges AI and data sciences pose to (i) informational rights, (ii) privacy rights, and (iii) data protection. To solve some of the issues presented, various methods are suggested, such as embedding values in technological development, proper balancing of rights and interests, and others.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, data science, law, policy

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Cristina Diaz, Lucia Perez, Simone Visigalli, Giuseppe Di Florio, Gonzalo Fuentes, Roberto Canziani, Paolo Gronchi

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During the last 50 years, the selection of materials is one of the main decisions in machine design for different industrial applications. It is due to numerous physical, chemical, mechanical and technological factors to consider in it. Corrosion effects are related with all of these factors and impact in the life cycle, machine incidences and the costs for the life of the machine. Corrosion affects the deterioration or destruction of metals due to the reaction with the environment, generally wet. In food industry, dewatering industry, concrete industry, paper industry, etc. corrosion is an unsolved problem and it might introduce some alterations of some characteristics in the final product. Nowadays, depending on the selected metal, its surface and its environment of work, corrosion prevention might be a change of metal, use a coating, cathodic protection, use of corrosion inhibitors, etc. In the vast majority of the situations, use of a corrosion resistant material or in its defect, a corrosion protection coating is the solution. Stainless steels are widely used in machine design, because of their strength, easily cleaned capacity, corrosion resistance and appearance. Typical used are AISI 304 and AISI 316. However, their benefits don’t fit every application, and some coatings are required against corrosion such as some paintings, galvanizing, chrome plating, SiO₂, TiO₂ or ZrO₂ coatings, etc. In this work, some coatings based in a bilayer made of Titanium-Tantalum, Titanium-Niobium, Titanium-Hafnium or Titanium-Zirconium, have been developed used magnetron sputtering configuration by PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) technology, for trying to reduce corrosion effects on AISI 304, AISI 316 and comparing it with Titanium alloy substrates. Ti alloy display exceptional corrosion resistance to chlorides, sour and oxidising acidic media and seawater. In this study, Ti alloy (99%) has been included for comparison with coated AISI 304 and AISI 316 stainless steel. Corrosion tests were conducted by a Gamry Instrument under ASTM G5-94 standard, using different electrolytes such as tomato salsa, wine, olive oil, wet compost, a mix of sand and concrete with water and NaCl for testing corrosion in different industrial environments. In general, in all tested environments, the results showed an improvement of corrosion resistance of all coated AISI 304 and AISI 316 stainless steel substrates when they were compared to uncoated stainless steel substrates. After that, comparing these results with corrosion studies on uncoated Ti alloy substrate, it was observed that in some cases, coated stainless steel substrates, reached similar current density that uncoated Ti alloy. Moreover, Titanium-Zirconium and Titanium-Tantalum coatings showed for all substrates in study including coated Ti alloy substrates, a reduction in current density more than two order in magnitude. As conclusion, Ti-Ta, Ti-Zr, Ti-Nb and Ti-Hf coatings have been developed for improving corrosion resistance of AISI 304 and AISI 316 materials. After corrosion tests in several industry environments, substrates have shown improvements on corrosion resistance. Similar processes have been carried out in Ti alloy (99%) substrates. Coated AISI 304 and AISI 316 stainless steel, might reach similar corrosion protection on the surface than uncoated Ti alloy (99%). Moreover, coated Ti Alloy (99%) might increase its corrosion resistance using these coatings.

Keywords: coatings, corrosion, PVD, stainless steel

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Authors: Ashneel Ajay Singh, Anish Maharaj, Havish Naidu, Michelle Kumar

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Mangrove patches are the foundation species located in the estuarine land areas. These patches provide a nursery, food source and protection for numerous aquatic, intertidal and well as land-based organisms. Mangroves also help in coastal protection, maintain water clarity and are one of the biggest sinks for blue carbon sequestration. In the Pacific Island countries, numerous coastal communities have a heavy socioeconomic dependence on coastal resources and mangroves play a key ecological and economical role in structuring the availability of these resources. Fiji has a large mangrove patch located in the Votua area of the Ba province. Globally, mangrove population continues to decline with the changes in climatic conditions and anthropogenic activities. Baseline information through wetland maps and time series change are essential references for development of effective mangrove management plans. These maps reveal the status of the resource and the effects arising from anthropogenic activities and climate change. In this study, we used remote sensing and GIS tools for mapping and temporal change detection over a period of >20 years in Votua, Fiji using Landsat imagery. Landsat program started in 1972 initially as Earth Resources Technology Satellite. Since then it has acquired millions of images of Earth. This archive allows mapping of temporal changes in mangrove forests. Mangrove plants consisted of the species Rhizophora stylosa, Rhizophora samoensis, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, Lumnitzera littorea, Heritiera littoralis, Excoecaria agallocha and Xylocarpus granatum. Change detection analysis revealed significant reduction in the mangrove patch over the years. This information serves as a baseline for the development and implementation of effective management plans for one of Fiji’s biggest mangrove patches.

Keywords: climate change, GIS, Landsat, mangrove, temporal change

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Authors: Jignesh Patel, Satish K. Joshi

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This paper presents the literature review on the works done so far in the area of stability of power system with high penetration of Wind Power with other conventional power sources. Out of many problems, the voltage and frequency stability is of prime concern as it is directly related with the stable operation of power system. In this paper, different aspects of stability of power system, particularly voltage and frequency, Optimization of FACTS-Energy Storage devices is discussed.

Keywords: small singal stability, voltage stability, frequency stability, LVRT, wind power, FACTS

Procedia PDF Downloads 489

Authors: Remzi Saltoglu, Nazmia Humaira, Gokhan Inalhan

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During aircraft maintenance scheduling, operator calculates the budget of the maintenance. Usually, this calculation includes only the costs that are directly related to the maintenance process such as cost of labor, material, and equipment. In some cases, overhead cost is also included. However, in some of those, downtime cost is neglected claiming that grounding is a natural fact of maintenance; therefore, it is not considered as part of the analytical decision-making process. Based on the normalized data, we introduce downtime cost with its monetary value and add its seasonal character. We envision that the rest of the model, which works together with the downtime cost, could be checked with the real life cases, through the review of MRO cost and airline spending in the particular and scheduled maintenance events.

Keywords: aircraft maintenance, downtime, downtime cost, maintenance cost

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Authors: Vahid Hosseinzadeh

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Salafism is a movement of thought-religion that was born into Sunni Islam and Hanbali sect. However, many groups and different attitudes call themselves Salafis, but they all have common characteristics, the main of which is radical and retrograde interpretation of Islamic sources. Taqi Ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah in the Muslim world was the first thinker who established these thoughts. The authors of this article initially tried to express the meaning of Salafism and its appellation in order to focus on the beliefs and thoughts of Ibn Taymiyyah. In this way, it was tried to extract the intellectual foundations of Ibn Taymiyya from the literature and scientific works of his own using a descriptive-analytical method. Extreme focus on the appearance of Quranic phrases and opposition to any new thing that did not exist in Qur'an, Sunnah and the first 3 centuries of Islam, are among the central feature of his thoughts.

Keywords: Salafism, Ibn Taymiyyah, radical literalism, monotheism, polytheism, takfir

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, S. Hadjiefthymiades, V. Abramea

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During the last decades, the task of engaging governments, communities and citizens to reduce risk and vulnerability of the populations has made variable progress. Experience has demonstrated that lack of awareness, education and preparedness may result in significant material and other losses both on the onset of the disaster. Schools play a vital role in the community and are important elements of values and culture of the society. A proper school education not only teaches children, but also is a key factor in the promotion of a safety culture into the wider community. In Greece School Earthquake Safety Initiative has been undertaken by Earthquake Planning and Protection Ogranization with specific actions (seminars, lectures, guidelines, educational material, campaigns, national or EU projects, drills etc.). The objective of this initiative is to develop disaster-resilient school communities through awareness, self-help, cooperation and education. School preparedness requires the participation of Principals, teachers, students, parents, and competent authorities. Preparation and earthquake readiness involves: a) learning what should be done before, during, and after earthquake; b) doing or preparing to do these things now, before the next earthquake; and c) developing teachers’ and students’ skills to cope efficiently in case of an earthquake. In the above given framework this paper presents the results of a survey aimed to identify the level of education and preparedness of school community in Greece. More specifically, the survey questionnaire investigates issues regarding earthquake protection actions, appropriate attitudes and behaviors during an earthquake and existence of contingency plans at elementary and secondary schools. The questionnaires were administered to Principals and teachers from different regions of the country that attend the EPPO national training project 'Earthquake Safety at Schools'. A closed-form questionnaire was developed for the survey, which contained questions regarding the following: a) knowledge of self protective actions b) existence of emergency planning at home and c) existence of emergency planning at school (hazard mitigation actions, evacuation plan, and performance of drills). Survey results revealed that a high percentage of teachers have taken the appropriate preparedness measures concerning non-structural hazards at schools, emergency school plan and simulation drills every year. In order to improve the action-planning for ongoing school disaster risk reduction, the implementation of earthquake drills, the involvement of students with disabilities and the evaluation of school emergency plans, EPPO participates in E-PreS project. The main objective of this project is to create smart tools which define, simulate and evaluate all hazards emergency steps customized to the unique district and school. The project comes up with a holistic methodology using real-time evaluation involving different categories of actors, districts, steps and metrics. The project is supported by EU Civil Protection Financial Instrument with a duration of two years. Coordinator is the Kapodistrian University of Athens and partners are from four countries; Greece, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria.

Keywords: drills, earthquake, emergency plans, E-PreS project

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Authors: Ahmad Alwosheel, Ahmed Alqaraawi

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This work proposes an unsupervised text-independent probabilistic approach to recognize Quran reciter voice. It is an accurate approach that works on real time applications. This approach does not require a prior information about reciter models. It has two phases, where in the training phase the reciters' acoustical features are modeled using Gaussian Mixture Models, while in the testing phase, unlabeled reciter's acoustical features are examined among GMM models. Using this approach, a high accuracy results are achieved with efficient computation time process.

Keywords: Quran, speaker recognition, reciter recognition, Gaussian Mixture Model

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Authors: Dorra Kallel, Ines Kanoun, Diala Dhouib

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This paper elaborates a Systematic Literature Review SLR) to select the most outstanding studies that address the Menu Planning Problem (MPP) and to classify them according to the to the three following criteria: the used methods, types of patients and the required constraints. At first, a set of 4165 studies was selected. After applying the SLR’s guidelines, this collection was filtered to 13 studies using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as an accurate analysis of each study. Second, the selected papers were invested to answer the proposed research questions. Finally, data synthesis and new perspectives for future works are incorporated in the closing section.

Keywords: Menu Planning Problem (MPP), Systematic Literature Review (SLR), classification, exact and approaches methods

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Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides

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The purpose of this study is to examine the possible link between employee and customer satisfaction. The service provided by employees, help to build a good relationship with customers and can help at increasing their loyalty. Published data for job satisfaction and indicators of customer services were gathered from relevant published works which included data from five different countries. The reviewed data indicate a significant correlation between indicators of customer and employee satisfaction in the Banking sector. There was a significant correlation between the two parameters (Pearson correlation R2=0.52 P<0.05) The reviewed data provide evidence that there is some practical evidence which links these two parameters.

Keywords: job satisfaction, job performance, customer’ service, banks, human resources management

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Authors: Ali Alhajeri, Tarig Makki, Mosa Almutahhar, Mohammed Ahmed, Usman Ali

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Metal powder is the raw material used for laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM). There are many metal materials that can be used in LPBF. The properties of these materials are varied between each other, which can affect the building part. The objective of this paper is to do an overview of the titanium powders available in LBPF. Comparison between different literature works will lead us to study the similarities and differences between the powder properties such as size, shape, and chemical composition. Furthermore, the results of this paper will point out the significant titanium powder properties in order to clearly illustrate their effect on the build parts.

Keywords: LPBF, titanium, Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-5553, metal powder, AM

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Authors: João Coutinho-Rodrigues, Nuno Sousa, Luís Alçada-Almeida

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Transportation infrastructure systems are fundamental in modern society and economy. However, they need modernizing, maintaining, and reinforcing interventions which require large investments. In many countries, accumulated intervention delays arise from aging and intense use, being magnified by financial constraints of the past. The decision problem of managing the renewal of large backlogs is common to several types of important transportation infrastructures (e.g., railways, roads). This problem requires considering financial aspects as well as operational constraints under a multidimensional framework. The present research introduces a linear programming multiobjective model for managing railway infrastructure asset renewal. The model aims at minimizing three objectives: (i) yearly investment peak, by evenly spreading investment throughout multiple years; (ii) total cost, which includes extra maintenance costs incurred from renewal backlogs; (iii) priority delays related to work start postponements on the higher priority railway sections. Operational constraints ensure that passenger and freight services are not excessively delayed from having railway line sections under intervention. Achieving a balanced annual investment plan, without compromising the total financial effort or excessively postponing the execution of the priority works, was the motivation for pursuing the research which is now presented. The methodology, inspired by a real case study and tested with real data, reflects aspects of the practice of an infrastructure management company and is generalizable to different types of infrastructure (e.g., railways, highways). It was conceived for treating renewal interventions in infrastructure assets, which is a railway network may be rails, ballasts, sleepers, etc.; while a section is under intervention, trains must run at reduced speed, causing delays in services. The model cannot, therefore, allow for an accumulation of works on the same line, which may cause excessively large delays. Similarly, the lines do not all have the same socio-economic importance or service intensity, making it is necessary to prioritize the sections to be renewed. The model takes these issues into account, and its output is an optimized works schedule for the renewal project translatable in Gantt charts The infrastructure management company provided all the data for the first test case study and validated the parameterization. This case consists of several sections to be renewed, over 5 years and belonging to 17 lines. A large instance was also generated, reflecting a problem of a size similar to the USA railway network (considered the largest one in the world), so it is not expected that considerably larger problems appear in real life; an average of 25 years backlog and ten years of project horizon was considered. Despite the very large increase in the number of decision variables (200 times as large), the computational time cost did not increase very significantly. It is thus expectable that just about any real-life problem can be treated in a modern computer, regardless of size. The trade-off analysis shows that if the decision maker allows some increase in max yearly investment (i.e., degradation of objective ii), solutions improve considerably in the remaining two objectives.

Keywords: transport infrastructure, asset renewal, railway maintenance, multiobjective modeling

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Authors: Mina Shokry Hanna Saleh Tadros

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The centrality of the Petroleum Industry in the world energy is undoubted. The world economy almost runs and depends on petroleum. Petroleum industry is a multi-trillion industry; it turns otherwise poor and underdeveloped countries into wealthy nations and thrusts them at the center of international diplomacy. Although these developing nations lack the necessary technology to explore and exploit petroleum resources they are not without help as developed nations, represented by their multinational corporations are ready and willing to provide both the technical and managerial expertise necessary for the development of this natural resource. However, the exploration of these petroleum resources comes with, sometimes, grave, concomitant consequences. These consequences are especially pronounced with respect to the environment. From the British Petroleum Oil rig explosion and the resultant oil spillage and pollution in New Mexico, United States to the Mobil Oil spillage along Egyptian coast, the story and consequence is virtually the same. Egypt’s delta Region produces Nigeria’s petroleum which accounts for more than ninety-five percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. Between 1999 and 2007, Egypt earned more than $400 billion from petroleum exports. Nevertheless, petroleum exploration and exploitation has devastated the Delta environment. From oil spillage which pollutes the rivers, farms and wetlands to gas flaring by the multi-national corporations; the consequences is similar-a region that has been devastated by petroleum exploitation. This paper thus seeks to examine the consequences and impact of petroleum pollution in the Egypt Delta with particular reference on the right of the people of Niger Delta to a healthy environment. The paper further seeks to examine the relevant international, regional instrument and Nigeria’s municipal laws that are meant to protect the result of the people of the Egypt Delta and their enforcement by the Nigerian State. It is quite worrisome that the Egypt Delta Region and its people have suffered and are still suffering grave violations of their right to a healthy environment as a result of petroleum exploitation in their region. The Egypt effort at best is half-hearted in its protection of the people’s right.

Keywords: crude oil, fire, floating roof tank, lightning protection systemenvironment, exploration, petroleum, pollutionDuvernay petroleum system, oil generation, oil-source correlation, Re-Os

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Authors: Gehad S. Kaseb, Mona F. Ahmed

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Arabic Sentiment Analysis (SA) is one of the most common research fields with many open areas. Few studies apply SA to Arabic dialects. This paper proposes different pre-processing steps and a modified methodology to improve the accuracy using normal Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification. The paper works on two datasets, Arabic Sentiment Tweets Dataset (ASTD) and Extended Arabic Tweets Sentiment Dataset (Extended-AATSD), which are publicly available for academic use. The results show that the classification accuracy approaches 86%.

Keywords: Arabic, classification, sentiment analysis, tweets

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Taliah Foudah, Sana Masri, Jana Al Ghamdi, Rimaz Alzaaqi

Abstract:

This research project explores the creative works of the app Metui, which allows consumers to edit their photos and use the new and popular AI feature, which turns any photo into a cartoon-like animated image with beautified enhancements. Studying this AI app demonstrates the significance of the ability in which AI can develop intricate designs which verily replicate the human mind. Our goal was to investigate the Metui app by asking our audience certain questions about its functionality and their personal feelings about its credibility as well as their beliefs as to how this app will add to the future of the AI generation, both positively and negatively. Their responses were further explored by analyzing the questions and responses thoroughly and calculating the results through pie charts. Overall, it was concluded that the Metui app is a powerful step forward for AI by replicating the intelligence of humans and its creativity to either benefit society or do the opposite.

Keywords: AI Art, Meitu, application, photo editing

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Authors: Lahoucine Zaama, Sanae Douama

Abstract:

In this work, we present the results of a dosimetry study in a Moroccan radiology department . The results are compared with those of a similar study in France. Furthermore, it determines the coefficient of transmission of the lead sheets of different thicknesses depending on the voltage (KV) in a direct exposure. The objective of this study is to choose the thickness of the radiation means to determine the leaf sample sealed with the smallest percentage value radiation transmission, and that in the context of optimization. Thus the comparison among the studies is essential to consider conduct studies and research in this framework to achieve the goal of optimization.

Keywords: radiology, dosimetry, radiation, dose, transmission

Procedia PDF Downloads 499

Authors: M. Barbouche, M. Hajji, H. Ezzaouia

Abstract:

This project is a step to manufacture solar grade silicon. It consists in designing an electrical arc furnace in order to produce metallurgical silicon Mg-Si with mutually carbon and high purity of silica. It concerns, first, the development of a functional analysis, a mechanical design and thermodynamic study. Our study covers also, the design of the temperature control system and the design of the electric diagrams. The furnace works correctly. A Labview interface was developed to control all parameters and to supervise the operation of furnace. Characterization tests with X-ray technique and Raman spectroscopy allow us to confirm the metallurgical silicon production.

Keywords: arc furnace, electrical design, silicon manufacturing, regulation, x-ray characterization

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Authors: M. Bischoff, F. Schmidt, J. Herrmann, J. Mattheß, G. Seide, T. Gries

Abstract:

Crop yields have not increased as dramatically as the demand for food. One method to counteract this is to use pesticides to keep away predators, e.g. several forms of insecticide are available to fight insects. These insecticides and pesticides are both controversial as their application and their residue in the food product can also harm humans. In this study an alternative method to combat insects is studied. A physical insect-killing effect of SiO₂ particles is used. The particles are applied on fibres to avoid erosion in the fields, which would occur when applied separately. The development of such SiO₂ functionalized PP fibres is shown.

Keywords: agriculture, environment, insects, protection, silica, textile

Procedia PDF Downloads 301

Authors: Ricky A. J. Syngkon, Santi Gopal Maji

Abstract:

Decent work and inclusive economic growth, social development, environmental protection, eradication of poverty and hunger as well as clean water and sanitation are the rudiments of 2030 agenda of sustainable development goals of the United Nations. On the other hand, spirituality is deeply entwined in the fabric of daily lives that helps in shaping attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of common people and ensuring quality of lives and overall sustainable development through protection of environment and natural resources. Mawlynnong, a small village in North-Eastern part of India, is a vivid example of how spirituality influences the development of sense of community leading to upliftment of the economic conditions of the people. Mawlynnong as a small hamlet has been in existence for a couple of centuries and it was acknowledged as the cleanest village of Asia in 2004 by BBC and National Geographic and subsequently endorsed by UNESCO in 2006. Consequently, it has attracted large number of tourists over the years from India and other parts of the world. This paper tries to explore how spirituality leads to a sense of community and the economic benefits for the people. Further, this paper also tries to find out the answer whether such an informal collective effort is sustainable or not for achieving solidarity economy. The study is based on both primary and secondary data collected from the local people and the State Government records. The findings of the study indicate that over the last one and a half decade the tourist footfall has increased to a great extent in Mawlynnong and this has brought about a paradigm shift in the occupational structure of its inhabitants from plantation to service sector particularly tourism and tourism related activities. As a result, from the economic standpoint, it is observed that life is much better off now as compared to before. But from the socio-cultural standpoint, the study finds a drift in terms of the cohesiveness and community bonding which was the hallmark of this village. This drift puts a question mark about the sustainability of such practices and consequently the development of solidarity economy.

Keywords: spirituality, sense of community, economic welfare, solidarity economy, Mawlynnong village

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Authors: Mohammad Parvaresh, Mahdi Babaee, Bahareh Arghand, Davood Nourmohammadi

Abstract:

Environmental degradation is caused by social inequalities and the inappropriate use of nature and a factor in the violation of human rights. Indeed, the right to a safe, healthy and ecologically-balanced environment is an independent human right. Therefore, the relationship between human rights and environmental protection is crucial for the study of social justice and sustainable development, and environmental problems are a result of the failure to realize social and economic justice. In this regard, 'article 50 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a general principle have many of the concepts of sustainable development, including: the growth and improvement of human life, the rights of present and future generations, and the integrity of the inner and outer generation, the prohibition of any environmental degradation'. Also, Charter on Citizen’s Rights, which was conveyed by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Rouhani refers to the right to a healthy environment and sustainable development. In this regard in 2013, Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Co. defined a plan called 'Tehran’s Health Line' was includes Western and Eastern part by about 26 kilometers of water transferring pipelines varied 1000 to 2000 mm diameters. This project aims to: (1) Transfer water from the northwest water treatment plant to the southwest areas, which suffer from qualitative and quantitative water, in order to mix with the improper wells’ water; (2) Reducing the water consumption provided by harvesting from wells which results in improving the underground water resources, causing the large settlements and stopping the immigrating slums into the center or north side of the city. All of the financial resources accounted for 53,000,000 US$ which is mobilized by Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Co. to expedite the work. The present study examines the Tehran Health Line plan and the purpose of implementation of this plan to achieve environmental protection, environmental justice and citizenship rights for all people who live in Tehran.

Keywords: environmental justice, international environmental law, erga omnes, charter on citizen's rights, Tehran health line

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Feng-Ming Fan, Xiu-Hui Wen, Po-Feng Chen, Yi-Ching Tu

Abstract:

Because of inborn natural conditions and man-made sabotage, the water resources insufficient phenomenon in Taiwan is a very important issue needed to face immediately. The regulations and law of water resources protection and recycling are gradually completed now but still lack of specific water recycling effectiveness checking method. The research focused on the industrial parks that already had been certificated with EIA to establish a professional checking system, carry through and forge ahead to contribute one’s bit in water resources sustainable usage. Taiwan Government Policies of Environmental Impact Assessment established in 1994, some development projects were requested to set certain water recycling ratio for water resources effective usage. The water covers and contains everything because all-inclusive companies enter and be stationed. For control the execution status of industrial park water and waste water recycling ratio about EIA commitment effectively, we invited experts and scholars in this filed to discuss with related organs to formulate the policy and audit plan. Besides, call a meeting to set public version water equilibrium diagrams and recycles parameter. We selected nine industrial parks that were requested set certain water recycling ratio in EIA examination stage and then according to the water usage quantity, we audited 340 factories in these industrial parks with spot and documents examination and got fruitful results – the average water usage of unit area per year of all these examined industrial parks is 31,000 tons/hectare/year, the value is just half of Taiwan industries average. It is obvious that the industrial parks with EIA commitment can decrease the water resources consumption effectively. Taiwan government policies of Environmental Impact Assessment took follow though tracking function into consideration at the beginning. The results of this research verify the importance of the implementing with water recycling to save water resources in EIA commitment. Inducing development units to follow EIA commitment to get the balance between environmental protection and economic development is one of the important EIA value.

Keywords: Taiwan government policies of environmental impact assessment, water recycling ratio of EIA commitment, water resources sustainable usage, water recycling

Procedia PDF Downloads 230

Authors: Moudar H. A. Zgoul, Amin Al Zamer

Abstract:

Adhesive materials and adhesion have been the focal point of multiple research works related to numerous applications, particularly, aerospace, and aviation industries. To enhance the properties of conventional adhesive materials, additives have been introduced to the mix in order to enhance their mechanical and physical properties by creating a hybrid adhesive material. The evaluation of the mechanical properties of such hybrid adhesive materials is thus of an essential requirement for the purpose of properly modeling their behavior accurately. This paper presents an approach/tool to simulate the behavior such hybrid adhesives in a way that will allow researchers to better understand their behavior while in service.

Keywords: adhesive materials, analysis, hybrid adhesives, mechanical properties, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 423