Search results for: sport business model

Authors: Eunice Tang

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The main focus of this study is investigating introvert and extrovert university students’ perception of the use of interactive digital tools (such as Padlet and Mentimeter) in a face-to-face English for Specific Purposes (ESP) class after all classes in the university had been switched to online mode for three semesters. The subjects of the study were business students from three ESP classes at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The basic tool for data collection was an anonymous online survey, which included 3 required multiple-choice questions and 3 open questions (2 required; 1 optional) about the effects of interactive digital tools on their amount of contribution to the class discussions, their perception of the role of interactive digital tools to the sharing of ideas and whether the students considered themselves introvert or extrovert. The online survey will be emailed to all 54 students in the three ESP classes and subjected to a three-week data collection period. The survey results will then be analyzed qualitatively, particularly on the effect the use of interactive digital tools had on the amount of contribution to the class among introvert and extrovert students, their perception of a language class with and without digital tools and most importantly, the implication to educators about how interactive digital tools can be used (or not) to cater for the needs of the introvert and extrovert students. The pandemic has given educators various opportunities to use interactive digital tools in class, especially in an online environment. It is interesting for educators to explore the potential of such tools when classes are back face-to-face. This research thus offers the students’ perspective on using interactive digital tools in a face-to-face classroom. While a lot has been said about introverted students responding positively to digital learning online, the student's perception of their own personality collected in the survey and the digital impact tools have on their contribution to class may shed some light on the potential of interactive digital tools in a post-pandemic era.

Keywords: psychology for language learning, interactive digital tools, personality-based investigation, ESP

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Authors: Hasan Çiçekli, Ahmet Gökçen, Uğur Çam

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In this paper, a comparative performance analysis of mostly used four nonlinearity cancellation techniques used to realize the passive resistor by MOS transistors is presented. The comparison is done by using an integrator circuit which is employing sequentially Op-amp, OTRA and ICCII as active element. All of the circuits are implemented by MOS-C realization and simulated by PSPICE program using 0.35 µm process TSMC MOSIS model parameters. With MOS-C realization, the circuits became electronically tunable and fully integrable which is very important in IC design. The output waveforms, frequency responses, THD analysis results and features of the nonlinearity cancellation techniques are also given.

Keywords: integrator circuits, MOS-C realization, nonlinearity cancellation, tuneable resistors

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Authors: Mustafa A. Al-Refai

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This paper investigates the energy storage technologies that can potentially enhance the use of solar energy. Water electrolysis systems are seen as the principal means of producing a large amount of hydrogen in the future. Starting from the analysis of the models of the system components, a complete simulation model was realized in the Matlab-Simulink environment. Results of the numerical simulations are provided. The operation of electrolysis and photovoltaic array combination is verified at various insulation levels. It is pointed out that solar cell arrays and electrolysers are producing the expected results with solar energy inputs that are continuously varying.

Keywords: electrolyzer, simulink, solar energy, storage system

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Authors: Yoshinori Matsuura, Saori Iwanaga

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The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred at 14:46 on Friday, March 11, 2011. It was the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 40.5 meters in height. We focus on the ship’s evacuation from tsunami. Then we analyze about ships evacuation from tsunami using multi-agent simulation and we want to prepare for a coming earthquake. We developed a simulation model of ships that set sail from the port in order to evacuate from the tsunami considering the ship carrying dangerous goods.

Keywords: Ship’s evacuation, multi-agent simulation, tsunami

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Authors: Sophie Lemoussu, Jean-Charles Chaudemar, Robertus A. Vingerhoeds

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Many innovative projects exist in the field of aeronautics, each addressing specific areas so to reduce weight, increase autonomy, reduction of CO2, etc. In many cases, such innovative developments are being carried out by very small enterprises (VSE’s) or small and medium sized-enterprises (SME’s). A good example concerns airships that are being studied as a real alternative to passenger and cargo transportation. Today, no international regulations propose a precise and sufficiently detailed framework for the development and certification of airships. The absence of such a regulatory framework requires a very close contact with regulatory instances. However, VSE’s/SME’s do not always have sufficient resources and internal knowledge to handle this complexity and to discuss these issues. This poses an additional challenge for those VSE’s/SME’s, in particular those that have system integration responsibilities and that must provide all the necessary evidence to demonstrate their ability to design, produce, and operate airships with the expected level of safety and reliability. The main objective of this research is to provide a methodological framework enabling VSE’s/SME’s with limited resources to organize the development of airships while taking into account the constraints of safety, cost, time and performance. This paper proposes to provide a contribution to this problematic by proposing a Model-Based Systems Engineering approach. Through a comprehensive process modeling approach applied to the development processes, the regulatory constraints, existing best practices, etc., a good image can be obtained as to the process landscape that may influence the development of airships. To this effect, not only the necessary regulatory information is taken on board, also other international standards and norms on systems engineering and project management are being modeled and taken into account. In a next step, the model can be used for analysis of the specific situation for given developments, derive critical paths for the development, identify eventual conflicting aspects between the norms, standards, and regulatory expectations, or also identify those areas where not enough information is available. Once critical paths are known, optimization approaches can be used and decision support techniques can be applied so to better support VSE’s/SME’s in their innovative developments. This paper reports on the adopted modeling approach, the retained modeling languages, and how they all fit together.

Keywords: aeronautics, certification, process modeling, project management, regulation, SME, systems engineering, VSE

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Authors: Shraddha Palikhe, Sunkuk Kim

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The construction industry is the most labor intensive in Nepal. It is obvious that construction is a major sector and any productivity enhancement activity in this sector will have a positive impact in the overall improvement of the national economy. Previous studies have stated that Nepal has poor labor productivity among other south Asian countries. Though considerable research has been done on productivity factors in other countries, no study has addressed labor productivity issues in Nepal. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to identify and hierarchy the influence factors for poor labor productivity. In this study, a questionnaire approach is chosen as a method of the survey from thirty experts involved in the construction industry, such as Architects, Civil Engineers, Project Engineers and Site Engineers. A survey was conducted in Nepal, to identify the major factors impacting construction labor productivity. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis method was used to understand the underlying relationships among the factors, categorized into five groups, namely (1) Labor-management group; (2) Material management group; (3) Human labor group; (4) Technological group and (5) External group and was divided into 33 subfactors. AHP was used to establish the relative importance of the criteria. The AHP makes pairwise comparisons of relative importance between hierarchy elements grouped by labor productivity decision criteria. Respondents were asked to answer based on their experience of construction works. On the basis of the respondent’s response, weight of all the factors were calculated and ranked it. The AHP results were tabulated based on weight and ranking of influence factors. AHP model consists of five main criteria and 33 sub-criteria. Among five main criteria, the scenario assigns a weight of highest influential factor i.e. 26.15% to human labor group followed by 23.01% to technological group, 22.97% to labor management group, 17.61% material management group and 10.25% to external group. While in 33 sub-criteria, the most influential factor for poor productivity in Nepal are lack of monetary incentive (20.53%) for human labor group, unsafe working condition (17.55%) for technological group, lack of leadership (18.43%) for labor management group, unavailability of tools at site (25.03%) for material management group and strikes (35.01%) for external group. The results show that AHP model associated criteria are helpful to predict the current situation of labor productivity. It is essential to consider these influence factors to improve the labor productivity in the construction industry of Nepal.

Keywords: construction, hierarchical analysis, influence factors, labor productivity

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Authors: Mohammad Javad Mollakazemi, Farhad Asadi, Aref Ghafouri

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Performance of different filtering approaches depends on modeling of dynamical system and algorithm structure. For modeling and smoothing the data the evaluation of posterior distribution in different filtering approach should be chosen carefully. In this paper different filtering approaches like filter KALMAN, EKF, UKF, EKS and smoother RTS is simulated in some trajectory tracking of path and accuracy and limitation of these approaches are explained. Then probability of model with different filters is compered and finally the effect of the noise variance to estimation is described with simulations results.

Keywords: Gaussian approximation, Kalman smoother, parameter estimation, noise variance

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Authors: Fares Senouci, Bachir Imine

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This document provides numerical and experimental optimization of the aerodynamic performance of a drone equipped with three types of horizontal stabilizer. To build this optimal configuration, an experimental and numerical study was conducted on three parameters: the geometry of the stabilizer (horizontal form or reverse V form), the position of the horizontal stabilizer (up or down), and the landing gear position (closed or open). The results show that up-stabilizer position with respect to the horizontal plane of the fuselage provides better aerodynamic performance, and that the landing gear increases the lift in the zone of stability, that is to say where the flow is not separated.

Keywords: aerodynamics, drag, lift, turbulence model, wind tunnel

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Authors: Jaya Mathew

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Many organizations are faced with the challenge of how to analyze and build Machine Learning models using their sensitive telemetry data. In this paper, we discuss how users can leverage the power of R without having to move their big data around as well as a cloud based solution for organizations willing to host their data in the cloud. By using ScaleR technology to benefit from parallelization and remote computing or R Services on premise or in the cloud, users can leverage the power of R at scale without having to move their data around.

Keywords: predictive maintenance, machine learning, big data, cloud based, on premise solution, R

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Authors: Anoop T. R., Otman Basir, Robert F. Hess, Eileen E. Birch, Brooke A. Koritala, Reed M. Jost, Becky Luu, David Stager, Ben Thompson

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Strabismus refers to a misalignment of the eyes. Early detection and treatment of strabismus in childhood can prevent the development of permanent vision loss due to abnormal development of visual brain areas. We developed a two-stage method for strabismus detection and classification based on photographs of the face. The first stage detects the presence or absence of strabismus, and the second stage classifies the type of strabismus. The first stage comprises face detection using Haar cascade, facial landmark estimation, face alignment, aligned face landmark detection, segmentation of the eye region, and detection of strabismus using VGG 16 convolution neural networks. Face alignment transforms the face to a canonical pose to ensure consistency in subsequent analysis. Using facial landmarks, the eye region is segmented from the aligned face and fed into a VGG 16 CNN model, which has been trained to classify strabismus. The CNN determines whether strabismus is present and classifies the type of strabismus (exotropia, esotropia, and vertical deviation). If stage 1 detects strabismus, the eye region image is fed into stage 2, which starts with the estimation of pupil center coordinates using mask R-CNN deep neural networks. Then, the distance between the pupil coordinates and eye landmarks is calculated along with the angle that the pupil coordinates make with the horizontal and vertical axis. The distance and angle information is used to characterize the degree and direction of the strabismic eye misalignment. This model was tested on 100 clinically labeled images of children with (n = 50) and without (n = 50) strabismus. The True Positive Rate (TPR) and False Positive Rate (FPR) of the first stage were 94% and 6% respectively. The classification stage has produced a TPR of 94.73%, 94.44%, and 100% for esotropia, exotropia, and vertical deviations, respectively. This method also had an FPR of 5.26%, 5.55%, and 0% for esotropia, exotropia, and vertical deviation, respectively. The addition of one more feature related to the location of corneal light reflections may reduce the FPR, which was primarily due to children with pseudo-strabismus (the appearance of strabismus due to a wide nasal bridge or skin folds on the nasal side of the eyes).

Keywords: strabismus, deep neural networks, face detection, facial landmarks, face alignment, segmentation, VGG 16, mask R-CNN, pupil coordinates, angle deviation, horizontal and vertical deviation

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Authors: Marius Sebastian Secula, Mihaela Darie, Gabriela Carja

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Persistent organic pollutant discharged by various industries or urban regions into the aquatic ecosystems represent a serious threat to fauna and human health. The endocrine disrupting compounds are known to have toxic effects even at very low values of concentration. The anti-inflammatory agent Ibuprofen is an endocrine disrupting compound and is considered as model pollutant in the present study. The use of light energy to accomplish the latest requirements concerning wastewater discharge demands highly-performant and robust photo-catalysts. Many efforts have been paid to obtain efficient photo-responsive materials. Among the promising photo-catalysts, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) attracted significant consideration especially due to their composition flexibility, high surface area and tailored redox features. This work presents Fe(II) self-supported on ZnMeLDHs (Me =Al3+, Fe3+) as novel efficient photo-catalysts for Fenton-like catalysis. The co-precipitation method was used to prepare ZnAlLDH, ZnFeAlLDH and ZnCrLDH (Zn2+/Me3+ = 2 molar ratio). Fe(II) was self-supported on the LDHs matrices by using the reconstruction method, at two different values of weight concentration. X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG/DTG), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the structural, textural, and micromorphology of the catalysts. The Fe(II)/ZnMeLDHs nano-hybrids were tested for the degradation of a model pharmaceutical agent, the anti-inflammatory agent ibuprofen, by photocatalysis and photo-Fenton catalysis, respectively. The results point out that the embedment Fe(II) into ZnFeAlLDH and ZnCrLDH lead to a slight enhancement of ibuprofen degradation by light irradiation, whereas in case of ZnAlLDH, the degradation process is relatively low. A remarkable enhancement of ibuprofen degradation was found in the case of Fe(II)/ZnMeLDHs by photo-Fenton process. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0405.

Keywords: layered double hydroxide, heterogeneous Fenton, micropollutant, photocatalysis

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Authors: Sonia Ben Hamza, Sabra Habli, Nejla Mahjoub Said, Hervé Bournot, Georges Le Palec

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In this work, we determine the turbulent dynamic structure of pollutant dispersion in two-phase free surface flow. The numerical simulation was performed using ANSYS Fluent. The flow study is three-dimensional, unsteady and isothermal. The study area has been endowed with a rectangular obstacle to analyze its influence on the hydrodynamic variables and progression of the pollutant. The numerical results show that the hydrodynamic model provides prediction of the dispersion of a pollutant in an open channel flow and reproduces the recirculation and trapping the pollutant downstream near the obstacle.

Keywords: CFD, free surface, polluant dispersion, turbulent flows

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Authors: Meredith Jones, Susan Catapano, Carol McNulty

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Study abroad experiences create unique learning opportunities for preservice teachers to strengthen their reflective thinking practices through applied learning experiences. Not only do study abroad experiences provide opportunities for students to expand their cultural sensitivity, but incorporating applied learning experiences in study abroad trips creates unique opportunities for preservice teachers to engage in critical reflection on their teaching skills. Applied learning experiences are designed to nurture learning and growth through a reflective, experiential process outside the traditional classroom setting. As students participate in applied learning experiences, they engage in critical reflection independently, with their peers, and with university faculty. Critical reflection within applied learning contexts generates, deepens, and documents learning but must be intentionally designed to be effective. Grounded in Dewey’s model of reflection, this qualitative study examines longitudinal data from various study abroad cohorts from a particular university. Reflective data was collected during the study abroad trip, and follow up data on critical reflection of teaching practices were collected six months and a year after the trip. Dewey’s model of reflection requires preservice teachers to make sense of their experiences by reflecting on theoretical knowledge, experiences, and pedagogical knowledge. Guided reflection provides preservice teachers with a framework to respond to questions and ideas critical to the applied learning outcomes. Prompts are used to engage preservice teachers in reflecting on situations they have experienced and how they can be transferred to their teaching. Findings from this study noted that students with previous field experiences, or work in the field, engaged in more critical reflection on pedagogical knowledge throughout their applied learning experience. Preservice teachers with limited experiences in the field benefited from engaging in critical reflection prompted by university faculty during the applied learning experience. However, they were able to independently engage in critical reflection once they began work in the field through university field placements, internships, or student teaching. Finally, students who participated in study abroad applied learning experiences reported their critical reflection on their teaching practices, and cultural sensitivity enhanced their teaching and relationships with children once they formally entered the teaching profession.

Keywords: applied learning experiences, critical reflection, cultural sensitivity, preservice teachers, teacher education

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Authors: Ali A. Karakhan

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Stakeholders in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry have been always searching for strategies to develop, design, and construct healthy and smart building projects. Healthy and smart building projects require that the building process including design and construction be altered and carefully implemented in order to bring about sustainable outcomes throughout the facility lifecycle. Healthy and smart building projects are expected to positively influence organizational success and facility performance across the project lifecycle leading to superior outcomes in terms of people, economy, and the environment. The present study aims to identify potential strategies that AEC organizations can implement to achieve healthy and smart building projects. Drivers and barriers for healthy and smart building features are also examined. The study findings indicate that there are three strategies to advance the development of healthy and smart building projects: (1) the incorporation of high-quality products and low chemical-emitting materials, (2) the integration of innovative designs, methods, and practices, and (3) the adoption of smart technology throughout the facility lifecycle. Satisfying external demands, achievement of a third-party certification, obtaining financial incentives, and a desire to fulfill professional duty are identified as the key drivers for developing healthy and smart building features; whereas, lack of knowledge and training, time/cost constrains, preference for/adherence to customary practices, and unclear business case for why healthy buildings are advantageous are recognized as the primary barriers toward a wider diffusion of healthy and smart building projects. The present study grounded in previous engineering, medical, and public health research provides valuable technical and practical recommendations for facility owners and industry professionals interested in pursuing sustainable, yet healthy and smart building projects.

Keywords: healthy buildings, smart construction, innovative designs, sustainable projects

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Authors: Alona Faktor

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In this work, we present a NN-based computational model that can perform attention shifts according to high-level instruction. The instruction specifies the type of attentional shift using explicit geometrical relation. The instruction also can be of cognitive nature, specifying more complex human-human interaction or human-object interaction, or object-object interaction. Applying this approach sequentially allows obtaining a structural description of an image. A novel data-set of interacting humans and objects is constructed using a computer graphics engine. Using this data, we perform systematic research of relational segmentation shifts.

Keywords: cognitive science, attentin, deep learning, generalization

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Authors: S. Lecheb, A. Chellil, H. Mechakra, S. Attou, H. Kebir

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Although leaf springs are one of the oldest suspension components they are still frequently used, especially in commercial vehicles. Being able to capture the leaf spring characteristics is of significant importance for vehicle handling dynamics studies. The main function of leaf spring is not only to support vertical load but also to isolate road induced vibrations. It is subjected to millions of load cycles leading to fatigue failure. It needs to have excellent fatigue life. The objective of this work is its use of Abaqus software to locate the most stressed areas and predict the areas in which it occurs in fatigue and crack of leaf spring and calculate the stress and frequencies of this model.

Keywords: leaf spring, crack, stress, natural frequencies

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Authors: Alaa Alateeqi, Sara Aldhulaiee, Sara Alibraheem, Noura Alsaleh

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For the past few decades or so, Kuwait's local food industry has grown remarkably due to increase in demand for processed or semi processed food products in the market. It is important that the ever increasing food manufacturing/processing units maintain the required quality standards as per regional and to some extent international quality requirements. It has been realized that all Kuwait food manufacturing units should understand and follow the international standard practices, and moreover a set of guidelines must be set for quality assurance such that any new business in this area is aware of the minimum requirements. The current study has been undertaken to identify the gaps in Kuwait food industries in following the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in terms of quality planning, control and quality assurance. GMP refers to Good Manufacturing Practices, which are a set of rules, laws or regulations that certify producing products within quality standards and ensuring that it is safe, pure and effective. The present study therefore reports about a ‘case study’ in a reputed food manufacturing unit in Kuwait; starting from assessment of the current practices followed by diagnosis, report of the diagnosis and road map and corrective measures for GMP implementation in the unit. The case study has also been able to identify the best practices and establish a benchmarking data for other companies to follow, through measuring the selected company's quality, policies, products and strategies and compare it with the established benchmarking data. A set of questionnaires and assessment mechanism has been established for companies to identify their ‘benchmarking score’ in relation to the number of non-conformities and conformities with the GMP standard requirements.

Keywords: good manufacturing practices, GMP, benchmarking, Kuwait Food Industries, food quality

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Authors: Jihan Abdulazeez Ahmed, Adnan Mohsin Abdulazeez Brifcani

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This paper suggests a new internal architecture of holon based on feature selection model using the combination of Bees Algorithm (BA) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). BA is used to generate features while ANN is used as a classifier to evaluate the produced features. Proposed system is applied on the Wine data set, the statistical result proves that the proposed system is effective and has the ability to choose informative features with high accuracy.

Keywords: artificial neural network, bees algorithm, feature selection, Holon

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Authors: Mahdi Hamzehei, Seyyed Amin Hakim, Nahid Taherian

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Fins play an important role in increasing the efficiency of compact shell and tube heat exchangers by increasing heat transfer. The objective of this paper is to determine the optimum fin wave angle, as one of the geometric parameters affecting the efficiency of the heat exchangers. To this end, finite volume method is used to model and simulate the flow in heat exchanger. In this study, computational fluid dynamics simulations of wave channel are done. The results show that the wave angle affects the temperature output of the heat exchanger.

Keywords: fin wave angle, tube, intercooler, optimum, performance

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Authors: D. Srinivasacharya, Nidhi Humnekar

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The goal of this research is to numerically investigate the convection of nanofluid flow in an inclined porous channel. Brownian motion and thermophoresis effects are accounted for by nanofluid. In addition, the flow in the porous region governs Brinkman’s equation. The perturbed state of the generalized eigenvalue problem is obtained using normal mode analysis, and Chebyshev spectral collocation was used to solve this problem. For various values of the governing parameters, the critical wavenumber and critical Rayleigh number are calculated, and preferred modes are identified.

Keywords: Brinkman model, inclined channel, nanofluid, linear stability, porous media

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Authors: Wenxue Xu

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Fluid resistance damper is an important damping element to attenuate vehicle vibration. It converts vibration energy into thermal energy dissipation through oil throttling. It is a typical fluid-solid-heat coupling problem. A complete three-dimensional flow-structure-thermal coupling dynamics simulation model of a gas-filled fluid-resistance damper was established. The flow-condition-based interpolation (FCBI) method and direct coupling calculation method, the unit's FCBI-C fluid numerical analysis method and iterative coupling calculation method are used to achieve the damper dynamic response of the piston rod under sinusoidal excitation; the air chamber inflation pressure, spring compression characteristics, constant flow passage cross-sectional area and oil parameters, etc. The system parameters, excitation frequency, and amplitude and other excitation parameters are analyzed and compared in detail for the effects of differential pressure characteristics, velocity characteristics, flow characteristics and dynamic response of valve opening, floating piston response and piston rod output force characteristics. Experiments were carried out on some simulation analysis conditions. The results show that the node-based FCBI (flow-condition-based interpolation) fluid numerical analysis method and direct coupling calculation method can better guarantee the conservation of flow field calculation, and the calculation step is larger, but the memory is also larger; if the chamber inflation pressure is too low, the damper will become cavitation. The inflation pressure will cause the speed characteristic hysteresis to increase, and the sealing requirements are too strict. The spring compression characteristics have a great influence on the damping characteristics of the damper, and reasonable damping characteristic needs to properly design the spring compression characteristics; the larger the cross-sectional area of the constant flow channel, the smaller the maximum output force, but the more stable when the valve plate is opening.

Keywords: damper, fluid-structure-thermal coupling, heat generation, heat transfer

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Authors: Zakaria Kharbouch, Mustapha Bouchaara, F. Elkouihen, A. Habbal, A. Ratnani, A. Faik

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Solid-state lithium-ion batteries have garnered increasing interest in modern energy research due to their potential for safer, more efficient, and sustainable energy storage systems. Among the critical components of these batteries, the electrolyte plays a pivotal role, with LLZO garnet-based electrolytes showing significant promise. Garnet materials offer intrinsic advantages such as high Li-ion conductivity, wide electrochemical stability, and excellent compatibility with lithium metal anodes. However, optimizing ionic conductivity in garnet structures poses a complex challenge, primarily due to the multitude of potential dopants that can be incorporated into the LLZO crystal lattice. The complexity of material design, influenced by numerous dopant options, requires a systematic method to find the most effective combinations. This study highlights the utility of machine learning (ML) techniques in the materials discovery process to navigate the complex range of factors in garnet-based electrolytes. Collaborators from the materials science and ML fields worked with a comprehensive dataset previously employed in a similar study and collected from various literature sources. This dataset served as the foundation for an extensive data refinement phase, where meticulous error identification, correction, outlier removal, and garnet-specific feature engineering were conducted. This rigorous process substantially improved the dataset's quality, ensuring it accurately captured the underlying physical and chemical principles governing garnet ionic conductivity. The data refinement effort resulted in a significant improvement in the predictive performance of the machine learning model. Originally starting at an accuracy of 0.32, the model underwent substantial refinement, ultimately achieving an accuracy of 0.88. This enhancement highlights the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary approach and underscores the substantial potential of machine learning techniques in materials science research.

Keywords: lithium batteries, all-solid-state batteries, machine learning, solid state electrolytes

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Authors: Fatbardha Kadiu, Nulifer Caliskan

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The value added tax came as a necessity of substituting the old tax on sales. Based on the advantages of this new tax in our days it is used successfully in more than 140 countries around the world. The aim of the paper is to describe the nature of this tax with its advantages and disadvantages. Also it will describe the way how it functions in most of the European countries and the actual challenges of these countries on value added tax. It will be present the types of goods which are exempt from this tax, the reasons and the consequences of those exemptions. The paper will be based on secondary data taken from respective literature. An econometric model will be present in order to identify the dependence of value tax from other parameters. The analyzing most refers to the two main principles of harmonization and billing on the fiscal system and the ways how to restructures the system in order to minimize the fiscal evasion.

Keywords: value added tax, revenues, complexity, legal uncertainty

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Authors: Sergey Chirun

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Using of a combination of institutional analysis and network access has allowed the author to identify the characteristics of the informal institutions of regional political power and political regimes. According to the author, ‘field’ of activity of post-Soviet regimes, formed under the influence of informal institutions, often contradicts democratic institutional regional changes which are aimed at creating of a legal-rational type of political domination and balanced model of separation of powers. This leads to the gap between the formal structure of institutions and the real nature of power, predetermining the specific character of the existing political regimes.

Keywords: authoritarianism, institutions, political regime, social networks, transformation

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Authors: H. Chabalala, A. Grootboom, M. Tang

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The innovative development, production, and clinical utilisation of African natural medicines requires frameworks from systematisation, innovation, registration. Afrika faces challenges when it comes to these sectors. The opposite is the case as is is evident in ancient Asian (Traditional Chinese Medicine and Indian Ayurveda and Siddha) medical systems, which are interfaced into their respective national health and educational systems. Afrikan Natural Medicines (ANMs) are yet to develop systematisation frameworks, i.e. disease characterisation and medicines classification. This paper explores classical medical systems drawn from Afrikan and Chinese experts in natural medicines. An Afrikological research methodology was used to conduct in-depth interviews with 20 key respondents selected through purposeful sampling technique. Data was summarised into systematisation frameworks for classical disease theories, patient categorisation, medicine classification, aetiology and pathogenesis of disease, diagnosis and prognosis techniques and treatment methods. It was discovered that ancient Afrika had systematic medical cosmologies, remnants of which are evident in most Afrikan cultural health practices. Parallels could be drawn from classical medical concepts of antiquity, like Chinese Taoist and Indian tantric health systems. Data revealed that both the ancient and contemporary ANM systems were based on living medical cosmologies. The study showed that African Natural Healing Systems have etiological systems, general pathogenesis knowledge, differential diagnostic techniques, comprehensive prognosis and holistic treatment regimes. Systematisation models were developed out of these frameworks, and this could be used for evaluation of clinical research, medical application including development of curriculum for high-education. It was envisaged that frameworks will pave way towards the development, production and commercialisation of ANMs. This was piloted in inclusive innovation, technology transfer and commercialisation of South African natural medicines, cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals and health infusions. The central model presented here in will assist in curriculum development and establishment of Afrikan Medicines Hospitals and Pharmaceutical Industries.

Keywords: African Natural Medicines, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Medical Cosmology, Clinical Application

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Authors: Kinnsley Travis, Camerron M. Crowder

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Mapk8ip3 (Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 8 Interacting Protein 3) is a gene that codes for the JIP3 protein, which is a part of the JIP scaffolding protein family. This protein is involved in axonal vesicle transport, elongation and regeneration. Variants in the Mapk8ip3 gene are associated with a rare-genetic condition that results in a neurodevelopmental disorder that can cause a range of phenotypes including global developmental delay and intellectual disability. Currently, there are 18 known individuals diagnosed to have sequenced confirmed Mapk8ip3 genetic disorders. This project focuses on examining the impact of a subset of missense patient variants on the Jip3 protein function by overexpressing the mRNA of these variants in a zebrafish knockout model for Jip3. Plasmids containing cDNA with individual missense variants were reverse transcribed, purified, and injected into single-cell zebrafish embryos (Wild Type, Jip3 -/+, and Jip3 -/-). At 6-days post mRNA microinjection, morphological, behavioral, and microscopic phenotypes were examined in zebrafish larvae. Morphologically, we compared the size and shape of the zebrafish during their development over a 5-day period. Total locomotive activity was assessed using the Microtracker assay and patterns of movement over time were examined using the DanioVision assay. Lastly, we used confocal microscopy to examine sensory axons for swelling and shortened length, which are phenotypes observed in the loss-of-function knockout Jip3 zebrafish model. Using these assays during embryonic development, we determined the impact of various missense variants on Jip3 protein function, compared to knockout and wild-type zebrafish embryo models. Variants in the gene Mapk8ip3 cause rare-neurodevelopmental disorders due to an essential role in axonal vesicle transport, elongation and regeneration. A subset of missense variants was examined by overexpressing the mRNA of these variants in a Jip3 knock-out zebrafish. Morphological, behavioral, and microscopic phenotypes were examined in zebrafish larvae. Using these assays, the spectrum of disorders can be phenotypically determined and the impact of variant location can be compared to knockout and wild-type zebrafish embryo models.

Keywords: rare disease, neurodevelopmental disorders, mrna overexpression, zebrafish research

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Authors: Yu-Wen Lin, Chin-Sheng Tang, Wan-Yi Chen

Abstract:

Various biological specimens, drugs, and chemicals exist in the hospital. The medical staffs and hypersensitive inpatients expose might expose to multiple hazards while they work or stay in the hospital. Therefore, the indoor air quality (IAQ) of the hospital should be paid more attention. Respiratory care wards (RCW) are responsible for caring the patients who cannot spontaneously breathe without the ventilators. The patients in RCW are easy to be infected. Compared to the bacteria concentrations of other hospital units, RCW came with higher values in other studies. This research monitored the IAQ of the RCW and checked the compliances of the indoor air quality standards of Taiwan Indoor Air Quality Act. Meanwhile, the influential factors of IAQ and the impacts of ventilator modules, with humidifier or with filter, were investigated. The IAQ of two five-bed wards and one nurse station of a RCW in a regional hospital were monitored. The monitoring was proceeded for 16 hours or 24 hours during the sampling days with a sampling frequency of 20 minutes per hour. The monitoring was performed for two days in a row and the AIQ of the RCW were measured for eight days in total. The concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxide (NOₓ), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), relative humidity (RH) and temperature were measured by direct reading instruments. The bioaerosol samples were taken hourly. The hourly air change rate (ACH) was calculated by measuring the air ventilation volume. Human activities were recorded during the sampling period. The linear mixed model (LMM) was applied to illustrate the impact factors of IAQ. The concentrations of CO, CO₂, PM, bacterial and fungi exceeded the Taiwan IAQ standards. The major factors affecting the concentrations of CO, PM₁ and PM₂.₅ were location and the number of inpatients. The significant factors to alter the CO₂ and TVOC concentrations were location and the numbers of in-and-out staff and inpatients. The number of in-and-out staff and the level of activity affected the PM₁₀ concentrations statistically. The level of activity and the numbers of in-and-out staff and inpatients are the significant factors in changing the bacteria and fungi concentrations. Different models of the patients’ ventilators did not affect the IAQ significantly. The results of LMM can be utilized to predict the pollutant concentrations under various environmental conditions. The results of this study would be a valuable reference for air quality management of RCW.

Keywords: respiratory care ward, indoor air quality, linear mixed model, bioaerosol

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Authors: Sendy Ghirardi, Pau Rausell Köster

Abstract:

The European Commission increasingly pushes cultural policies towards social outcomes and local and regional authorities also call for culture-driven strategies for local development and prosperity and therefore, the measurement of cultural participation becomes increasingly more significant for evidence-based policy-making processes. Cultural participation involves various kinds of social and economic spillovers that combine social and economic objectives of value creation, including social sustainability and respect for human values. Traditionally, from the economic perspective, cultural consumption is measured by the value of financial transactions in purchasing, subscribing to, or renting cultural equipment and content, addressing the market value of cultural products and services. The main sources of data are the household spending survey and merchandise trade survey, among others. However, what characterizes the cultural consumption is that it is linked with the hedonistic and affective dimension rather than the utilitarian one. In fact, nowadays, more and more attention is being paid to the social and psychological dimensions of culture. The aim of this work is to present a comprehensive approach to measure the impacts of cultural participation and cultural users’ behaviour, combining both socio-psychological and economic approaches. The model combines contingent evaluation techniques with the individual characteristic and perception analysis of the cultural experiences to evaluate the cognitive, aesthetic, emotive and social impacts of cultural participation. To investigate the comprehensive approach to measure the impact of the cultural events on individuals, the research has been designed on the basis of prior theoretical development. A deep literature methodology has been done to develop the theoretical model applied to the web platform to measure the impacts of cultural experience on individuals. The developed framework aims to become a democratic tool for evaluating the services that cultural or policy institutions can adopt through the use of an interacting platform that produces big data benefiting academia, cultural management and policies. The Au Culture is a prototype based on an application that can be used on mobile phones or any other digital platform. The development of the AU Culture Platform has been funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (Government of the Region of Valencia) and it is part of the Horizon 2020 project MESOC.

Keywords: comprehensive approach, cultural participation, economic dimension, socio-psychological dimension

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Authors: Alexander S. Burnasov, Anatoly V. Stepanov, Maria Y. Ilyushkina

Abstract:

In the conditions of transition to the digital economy, the digital environment of the city becomes one of the key factors of its tourism attractiveness. Modern digital environment makes travelling more accessible, improves the quality of travel services and the attractiveness of many tourist destinations. The digitalization of the industry allows to use resources more efficiently, to simplify business processes, to minimize risks, and to improve travel safety. The city promotion as a tourist destination in the foreign market becomes decisive in the digital environment. Information technologies are extremely important for the functioning of not only any tourist enterprise but also the city as a whole. In addition to solving traditional problems, it is also possible to implement some innovations from the tourism industry, such as the availability of city services in international systems of booking tickets and booking rooms in hotels, the possibility of early booking of theater and museum tickets, the possibility of non-cash payment by cards of international payment systems, Internet access in the urban environment for travelers. The availability of the city's digital services makes it possible to reduce ordering costs, contributes to the optimal selection of tourist products that meet the requirements of the tourist, provides increased transparency of transactions. The users can compare prices, features, services, and reviews of the travel service. The ability to share impressions with friends thousands of miles away directly affects the image of the city. It is possible to promote the image of the city in the digital environment not only through world-scale events (such as World Cup 2018, international summits, etc.) but also through the creation and management of services in the digital environment aimed at supporting tourism services, which will help to improve the positioning of the city in the global tourism market.

Keywords: competitiveness, digital environment, travelling, Yekaterinburg

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Authors: Abdul Hamid Mir

Abstract:

Tourism which is considered as the economic bonanza of Jammu and Kashmir plays an important role in the socio-economic development of Jammu and Kashmir. It is considered as a multi-segmented industry which provides different type of jobs like hotel managers, receptionists, guides, tour operators, travel agents, photographers, etc. Kashmir Valley which is one of the three meso regions (Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh) of Jammu and Kashmir State is famous all over the world due to its natural beauty. It attracts tourists from the every corner of the globe that is why it has earned name as ‘Paradise on Earth’ and ‘Switzerland of Asia’. It is full of natural treasure and gratifies the several types of tourists. The tourists are experiences fun, thrilling events and safe experience in Kashmir valley, but on the other hand, the adventure tourists are experiencing the physical risks, dangers and losses (injuries, death etc) too. Kashmir valley has greater potential to become one of the best adventure tourism destinations in the world. It offers immense opportunities to the adventurists to explore the wonderful exotic Himalayan ranges and landscapes, in addition, to facing the challenges of fast flowing rivers. Adventure tourism is at the initial stage of development in Kashmir valley and virgin areas needs to be explored and develop which in result will increase not only tourist arrivals but also enhance the business opportunities and economy of local people in Kashmir. Thus the exploitation of virginity of adventure tourism potentials in Kashmir valley is need of the hour. Therefore the present study highlights the potentials of adventure tourism in Kashmir valley and also focuses on the problems in the development of adventure tourism. Furthermore, the study extends to give various recommendations and suggestions in order to develop adventure tourism and broaden the base of tourist arrivals on one hand and sustained the growth on the other hand.

Keywords: adventure, Kashmir, tourism, tourists, potential, rafting, skiing

Procedia PDF Downloads 230