Search results for: advanced finance

Authors: Rattanan Tippayaphalapholgul, Yasothorn Sapsathiarn

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Composites of piezoelectric materials are widely use in practical applications such as nondestructive testing devices, smart adaptive structures and medical devices. A thorough understanding of coupled electro-elastic response and properties of piezocomposite are crucial for the development and design of piezoelectric composite materials used in advanced applications. The micromechanics analysis is employed in this paper to determine the response and engineering properties of the piezocomposite. A mechanical imperfect interface bonding between piezoelectric inclusion and polymer matrix is taken into consideration in the analysis. The micromechanics analysis is based on the Boundary Element Method (BEM) together with the periodic micro-field micromechanics theory. A selected set of numerical results is presented to investigate the influence of volume ratio and interface bonding condition on effective piezocomposite material coefficients and portray basic features of coupled electroelastic response within the domain of piezocomposite unit cell.

Keywords: effective engineering properties, electroelastic response, imperfect interface, piezocomposite

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Authors: Marwen Ghouil, Jamel Eddine Mkadmi

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Banking performance is the pillar and goal of all banking activity and its impact on economic policy. First, researchers defined the principles for assessing and modeling bank performance, and then theories and models explaining bank performance were developed. The importance of credit as a means of financing businesses in most developing countries has led to questions about the effects of financial liberalisation on increased banking competition. In Tunisia, as in many other countries, the liberalization of financial services in general and of banks' activities has not ceased to evolve. The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants of banking performance for 8 Tunisian banks and their impact on economic policy during the Arab Spring. We used cointegration analysis and the ARDL Panel model, explaining using total assets, bank credits, guarantees, and bank size as performance drivers. The correlation analysis shows that there is a positive correlation relationship between total assets, bank credits, guarantees, and bank size and bank performance. Long-term empirical results show that bank loans, guarantees, bank size, and total assets have a positive and significant impact on bank performance. This means that bank credits, guarantees, bank size, and total assets are very important determinants of bank performance in Tunisia.

Keywords: bank performance, economic policy, finance, economic

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Authors: Jung-Ho Moon, Tae Kwon Ha

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M2 steels, the typical Co-free high speed steel (HSS) possessing hardness level of 63~65 HRc, are most widely used for cutting tools. On the other hand, Co-containing HSS’s, such as M35 and M42, show a higher hardness level of 65~67 HRc and used for high quality cutting tools. In the fabrication of HSS’s, it is very important to control cleanliness and eutectic carbide structure of the ingot and it is required to increase productivity at the same time. Production of HSS ingots includes a variety of processes such as casting, electro-slag remelting (ESR), forging, blooming, and wire rod rolling processes. In the present study, electro-slag rapid remelting (ESRR) process, an advanced ESR process combined by continuous casting, was successfully employed to fabricate HSS billets of M2, M35, and M42 steels. Distribution and structure of eutectic carbides of the billets were analysed and cleanliness, hardness, and composition profile of the billets were also evaluated.

Keywords: high speed tool steel, eutectic carbide, microstructure, hardness, fracture toughness

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Authors: Debasis Sarkar

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This paper aims to apply the Grasshopper-Optimization-Algorithm (GOA) for designing and developing a Net-Zero-Energy residential building for a mega-city like Ahmedabad in India. The methodology implemented includes advanced tools like Revit for model creation and MATLAB for simulation, enabling the optimization of the building design. GOA has been applied in reducing cooling loads and overall energy consumption through optimized passive design features. For the attainment of a net zero energy mission, solar panels were installed on the roof of the building. It has been observed that the energy consumption of 8490 kWh was supported by the installed solar panels. Thereby only 840kWh had to be supported by non-renewable energy sources. The energy consumption was further reduced through the application of simulation and optimization methods like GOA, which further reduced the energy consumption to about 37.56 kWh per month from April to July when energy demand was at its peak. This endeavor aimed to achieve near-zero-energy consumption, showcasing the potential of renewable energy integration in building sustainability.

Keywords: grasshopper optimization algorithm, net zero energy, residential building, sustainable design

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Authors: Ayhan Kucukmanisa, Orhan Akbulut, Oguzhan Urhan

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Nowadays, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have become popular, since they enable safe driving. Lane detection is a vital step for ADAS. The performance of the lane detection process is critical to obtain a high accuracy lane departure warning system (LDWS). Challenging factors such as road cracks, erosion of lane markings, weather conditions might affect the performance of a lane detection system. In this paper, 1-D weighted filter based on row filtering to detect lane marking is proposed. 2-D input image is filtered by 1-D weighted filter considering four-pixel values located symmetrically around the center of candidate pixel. Performance evaluation is carried out by two metrics which are true positive rate (TPR) and false positive rate (FPR). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach provides better lane marking detection accuracy compared to the previous methods while providing real-time processing performance.

Keywords: lane marking filter, lane detection, ADAS, LDWS

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Authors: Ajaykumar Kambekar, Nikita Kalantri

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Due to faster urbanization; developing nations will have to look forward towards establishing new planned cities those are environmentally friendly. Due to growth in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), it is evident that the rise of smart cities is witnessed as a promising trend for future growth; however, technology alone cannot make a city as a smart city. Cities must use smart systems to enhance the quality of life of its citizens and to achieve sustainable growth. Recent trends in technology may offer some indication towards harnessing our cities potential as the new engines of sustainable growth. To overcome the problems of mega-urbanization, new concept of smart cities has been introduced. The current research aims to reduce the knowledge gap in urban planning by exploring the concept of smart cities considering sustainability as a major focus. The aim of this paper is to plan for an entire smart city. The paper analyses sustainable development and identifies the key factors for the creation of future smart cities. The study also emphasizes the use of advanced planning and scheduling software such as Microsoft Project (MSP).

Keywords: urbanization, planned cities, information and communication technology, sustainable growth

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Authors: Renjith George Pallivathukal, Preethy Mary Donald

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Asymptomatic oral lesions are often ignored by the patients and usually will be identified only in advanced stages. Early detection of precancerous lesions is important for better prognosis. It is also important for the oral health care person to be aware of the regional prevalence of oral lesions in order to provide early care for the same. We conducted a retrospective study to assess the prevalence of oral lesions based on the information available from patient records in a teaching dental school. Dental records of patients who attended the department of Oral medicine and diagnosis between September 2014 and September 2016 were retrieved and verified for oral lesions. Results: The ages of the patients ranged from 13 to 38 years with a mean age of 21.8 years. The lesions were classified as white (40.5%), red (23%), ulcerated (10.5%), pigmented (15.2%) and soft tissue enlargements (10.8%). 52% of the patients were unaware of the oral lesions before the dental visit. Overall, the prevalence of lesions in dental patients lower to national estimates, but the prevalence of some lesions showed variations.

Keywords: oral mucosal lesion, pre-cancer, prevalence, soft tissue lesion

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Authors: Seyed Habib A. Rahmati, Parsa Fallah Sheikhlari, Morteza Musakhani

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This paper studies the structure of financial investment and efficiency on the subway would be created between Hashtgerd and Qazvin in Iran. Regarding ascending rate of transportation between Tehran and Qazvin which directly air pollution, it clearly implies to public transportation requirement between these two cities near Tehran. The railway transportation like subway can help each country to terminate traffic jam which has some advantages such as speed, security, non-pollution, low cost of public transport, etc. This type of transportation needs national infrastructures which require enormous investment. It couldn’t implement without leading and managing funds and investments properly. In order to response 'needs', clear norms or normative targets have to be agreed and obviously it is important to distinguish costs from investment requirements critically. Implementation phase affects investment requirements and financing needs. So recognizing barrier related to investment and the quality of investment (what technologies and services are invested in) is as important as the amounts of investment. Different investment methods have mentioned as follows loan, leasing, equity participation, Line of financing, finance, usance, bay back. Alternatives survey before initiation and analyzing of risk management is one of the most important parts in this project. Observation of similar project cities each country has the own specification to choose investment method.

Keywords: subway project, project investment, project contract, project management

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Authors: Amirhossein Safi

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Internet of things (IOT) is a kind of advanced information technology which has drawn societies’ attention. Sensors and stimulators are usually recognized as smart devices of our environment. Simultaneously, IOT security brings up new issues. Internet connection and possibility of interaction with smart devices cause those devices to involve more in human life. Therefore, safety is a fundamental requirement in designing IOT. IOT has three remarkable features: overall perception, reliable transmission, and intelligent processing. Because of IOT span, security of conveying data is an essential factor for system security. Hybrid encryption technique is a new model that can be used in IOT. This type of encryption generates strong security and low computation. In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid encryption algorithm which has been conducted in order to reduce safety risks and enhancing encryption's speed and less computational complexity. The purpose of this hybrid algorithm is information integrity, confidentiality, non-repudiation in data exchange for IOT. Eventually, the suggested encryption algorithm has been simulated by MATLAB software, and its speed and safety efficiency were evaluated in comparison with conventional encryption algorithm.

Keywords: internet of things, security, hybrid algorithm, privacy

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Authors: Zain Khalid

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The paper outlines the trends of cyber financial crimes and frauds – approximating upto – in Pakistan after the enactment of The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act in 2016. The paper elaborates on the newer methods that fraudsters have adopted after tighter preventive and counter measures were employed in Pakistan partly as a result of following the international finance related commitments, particularly the FATF regulations. The paper adopts case studies methods to highlight various aspects of the financial frauds and crimes committed and later investigated jointly by Pakistan’s one of the federal law enforcement agencies, the Federal Investigation Agency, and Mobilink Microfinance Bank , Pakistan’s premier microfinance bank. It additionally enriches the data through expert interviews – with crime investigators and the experts to carry out an in-depth analysis of the various factors involving the crime. This paper emphasizes the structural and situational factors that shape up the cyber financial crimes in Pakistan vis-à-vis digital illiteracy and lack of awareness among the users of financial services. This paper, thus, on the basis of findings and expert interviews, suggests policy reforms to reduce the instances of the financial crimes, especially in the remotest areas of the country.

Keywords: financial crimes, cyber crimes, digital literacy, terrorism financing, banking sector

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Authors: Opata Obinna Johnpaul

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Wastewater is one of the day-to–day concerns of humans and the environment, in general, due to its importance to the environment. This is because of the presence of various contaminants that are involved in waste water. Wastewater treatment can be defined as the proportion of wastewater that is treated, in order to reduce pollutants before being discharged to the environment, by the level of treatment. This work discusses wastewater treatment, its contaminants, as well as the technologies, involved.The major focus is to analyze Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc, their effluent treatment facility. Okomu Oil Palm Company is based in Nigeria, which is one of the developing countries of the world. Okomu Oil Palm Company uses aquatic treatment technology for their effluent treatment and applies the physio-chemical level of advanced chemical treatment of wastewater treatment process. This work will discuss the outcome of the laboratory sample taken on the 30th January, 2015 and analyzed between 30th January- 4th February 2015.

Keywords: wastewater treatment, contaminants, physio-chemical process, Okomu oil palm

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Authors: Patraporn Kaewkhanitarak, Weerawan Marangkun

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The objective of this study was to explore the establishment and to investigate the relationship between the gender (male or female) of SME owner-managers/ entrepreneurs and their risk perception in business activity. The study examines the data by interviewing 76 SME owner-managers/entrepreneurs’ responses (37 males, 39 females) in manufacturing, finance, human resources and marketing sector in the economic regions of Songkhla province, Thailand. This study found that four tools which were operation, cash flow, staff, and new market were perceived by the SME owner-managers/entrepreneurs at high level. However, male and female SME owner-managers/entrepreneurs perceived some factors such as the age of SME owner-managers/entrepreneurs, the duration of firm operation, type of firm, and type of business without significant differences. In contrast, the gender affected the risk perception about increasing cost, fierce competition, leapfrog development of firm, substandard staff, namely that male and female perceived these factors with significant differences. According to the research, SME owner-managers/entrepreneurs should develop their risk management competency to deal with the risk efficiently. Secondly, SME firms should gather into groups. Furthermore, it was shown that the five key tools used to manage these risky situations were the use of managerial competencies and clustering.

Keywords: risk perception, owner-managers/entrepreneurs, SME, Songkhla, Thailand

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Authors: Ramiz M. Shubbar, Dong In Lee, Hatem A. Gzar, Arthur S. Rood

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Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental problems in Baghdad, Iraq. The Daura refinery located nearest the center of Baghdad, represents the largest industrial area, which transmits enormous amounts of pollutants, therefore study the gaseous pollutants and particulate matter are very important to the environment and the health of the workers in refinery and the people whom leaving in areas around the refinery. Actually, some studies investigated the studied area before, but it depended on the basic Gaussian equation in a simple computer programs, however, that kind of work at that time is very useful and important, but during the last two decades new largest production units were added to the Daura refinery such as, PU_3 (Power unit_3 (Boiler 11&12)), CDU_1 (Crude Distillation unit_70000 barrel_1), and CDU_2 (Crude Distillation unit_70000 barrel_2). Therefore, it is necessary to use new advanced model to study air pollution at the region for the new current years, and calculation the monthly emission rate of pollutants through actual amounts of fuel which consumed in production unit, this may be lead to accurate concentration values of pollutants and the behavior of dispersion or transport in study area. In this study to the best of author’s knowledge CALPUFF model was used and examined for first time in Iraq. CALPUFF is an advanced non-steady-state meteorological and air quality modeling system, was applied to investigate the pollutants concentration of SO2, NO2, CO, and PM1-10μm, at areas adjacent to Daura refinery which located in the center of Baghdad in Iraq. The CALPUFF modeling system includes three main components: CALMET is a diagnostic 3-dimensional meteorological model, CALPUFF (an air quality dispersion model), CALPOST is a post processing package, and an extensive set of preprocessing programs produced to interface the model to standard routinely available meteorological and geophysical datasets. The targets of this work are modeling and simulation the four pollutants (SO2, NO2, CO, and PM1-10μm) which emitted from Daura refinery within one year. Emission rates of these pollutants were calculated for twelve units includes thirty plants, and 35 stacks by using monthly average of the fuel amount consumption at this production units. Assess the performance of CALPUFF model in this study and detect if it is appropriate and get out predictions of good accuracy compared with available pollutants observation. CALPUFF model was investigated at three stability classes (stable, neutral, and unstable) to indicate the dispersion of the pollutants within deferent meteorological conditions. The simulation of the CALPUFF model showed the deferent kind of dispersion of these pollutants in this region depends on the stability conditions and the environment of the study area, monthly, and annual averages of pollutants were applied to view the dispersion of pollutants in the contour maps. High values of pollutants were noticed in this area, therefore this study recommends to more investigate and analyze of the pollutants, reducing the emission rate of pollutants by using modern techniques and natural gas, increasing the stack height of units, and increasing the exit gas velocity from stacks.

Keywords: CALPUFF, daura refinery, Iraq, pollutants

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Authors: Lassaad Smirani

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In this paper we propose a Neurosymbolic Learning System (NLS) as a channel estimator for Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) uplink. The proposed system main idea based on Neural Network has modules capable of performing bidirectional information transfer between symbolic module and connectionist module. We demonstrate various strengths of the NLS especially the ability to integrate theoretical knowledge (rules) and experiential knowledge (examples), and to make an initial knowledge base (rules) converted into a connectionist network. Also to use empirical knowledge witch by learning will have the ability to revise the theoretical knowledge and acquire new one and explain it, and finally the ability to improve the performance of symbolic or connectionist systems. Compared with conventional SC-FDMA channel estimation systems, The performance of NLS in terms of complexity and quality is confirmed by theoretical analysis and simulation and shows that this system can make the channel estimation accuracy improved and bit error rate decreased.

Keywords: channel estimation, SC-FDMA, neural network, hybrid system, BER, LTE-A

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Authors: Orestis Κ. Efthymiou, Stavros T. Ponis

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In the last decade, a new industrial revolution seems to be emerging, supported -once again- by the rapid advancements of Information Technology in the areas of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication permitting large numbers of intelligent devices, e.g. sensors to communicate with each other and take decisions without any or minimum indirect human intervention. The advent of these technologies have triggered the emergence of a new category of hybrid (cyber-physical) manufacturing systems, combining advanced manufacturing techniques with innovative M2M applications based on the Internet of Things (IoT), under the umbrella term Industry 4.0. Even though the topic of Industry 4.0 has attracted much attention during the last few years, the attempts of providing a systematic literature review of the subject are scarce. In this paper, we present the authors’ initial study of the field with a special focus on the use and applications of Industry 4.0 principles in material handling automations and in-house logistics. Research shows that despite the vivid discussion and attractiveness of the subject, there are still many challenges and issues that have to be addressed before Industry 4.0 becomes standardized and widely applicable.

Keywords: Industry 4.0, internet of things, manufacturing systems, material handling, logistics

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Authors: Khoi A. Nguyen, Rodney A. Stewart, Hong Zhang

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Advanced metering technologies coupled with informatics creates an opportunity to form digital multi-utility service providers. These providers will be able to concurrently collect a customers’ medium-high resolution water, electricity and gas demand data and provide user-friendly platforms to feed this information back to customers and supply/distribution utility organisations. With the emergence of blockchain technology, a new research area has been explored which helps bring this multi-utility service provider concept to a much higher level. This study aims at introducing a breakthrough system architecture where smart metering technology in water, energy, and gas (WEG) are combined with blockchain technology to provide customer a novel real-time consumption report and decentralized resource trading platform. A pilot study on 4 properties in Australia has been undertaken to demonstrate this system, where benefits for customers and utilities are undeniable.

Keywords: blockchain, digital multi-utility, end use, demand forecasting

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Authors: Rodrigo C. Belleza, Jr., Roselyn A. Maaño, Karl Patrick E. Camota, Darwin Kim Q. Bulawan

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Eyes are an essential and conspicuous organ of the human body. Human eyes are outward and inward portals of the body that allows to see the outside world and provides glimpses into ones inner thoughts and feelings. Inevitable blindness and visual impairments may result from eye-related disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by conventional means. The study emphasizes innovative tools that will serve as an aid to the blind and visually impaired (VI) individuals. The researchers fabricated a prototype that utilizes the Microsoft Kinect for Windows and Arduino microcontroller board. The prototype facilitates advanced gesture recognition, voice recognition, obstacle detection and indoor environment navigation. Open Computer Vision (OpenCV) performs image analysis, and gesture tracking to transform Kinect data to the desired output. A computer vision technology device provides greater accessibility for those with vision impairments.

Keywords: algorithms, blind, computer vision, embedded systems, image analysis

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Authors: Pan Long, Bi Dongjie, Li Xifeng, Xie Yongle

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The near-field synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging is an advanced nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) technique. This paper investigates the complex-valued signal processing related to the near-field SAR imaging system, where the measurement data turns out to be noncircular and improper, meaning that the complex-valued data is correlated to its complex conjugate. Furthermore, we discover that the degree of impropriety of the measurement data and that of the target image can be highly correlated in near-field SAR imaging. Based on these observations, A modified generalized sparse Bayesian learning algorithm is proposed, taking impropriety and noncircularity into account. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm provides performance gain, with the help of noncircular assumption on the signals.

Keywords: complex-valued signal processing, synthetic aperture radar, 2-D radar imaging, compressive sensing, sparse Bayesian learning

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Authors: Mansouri Nabila, Ben Jemaa Yousra, Motamed Cina, Watelain Eric

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Research and development efforts in intelligent Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) seek to save lives and reduce the number of on-road fatalities. For traffic and emergency monitoring, the essential but challenging task is vehicle detection and tracking in reasonably short time. This purpose needs first of all a powerful dynamic car detector model. In fact, this paper presents an optimized HOG process based on shape and motion parameters fusion. Our proposed approach mains to compute HOG by bloc feature from foreground blobs using configurable research window and pathway in order to overcome the shortcoming in term of computing time of HOG descriptor and improve their dynamic application performance. Indeed we prove in this paper that HOG by bloc descriptor combined with motion parameters is a very suitable car detector which reaches in record time a satisfactory recognition rate in dynamic outside area and bypasses several popular works without using sophisticated and expensive architectures such as GPU and FPGA.

Keywords: car-detector, HOG, motion, computing time

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Authors: Catherine Heyjung Sonu

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This paper examines the effect of accounting quality on the process in which stock price is determined by focusing on contribution-in-kind valuations using Korean setting. In Korea, a number of chaebol firms have transformed into holding company system starting in 2003. With an attempt to gain as much voting right, management sold shares of subsidiaries to purchase shares of the holding company. In so doing, management of these firms received share issues for the contribution in kind that has been made to obtain additional shares of the holding company. The price of these share issues against contribution in kind is allowed to be discounted up to 30%. Using this interesting setting in Korea, this paper examines whether accounting quality affects the extent of the discount applied to the share issues. If the accounting quality of the firm for which the management is receiving share issues is poor, the extent of discount is likely to be high. The extent of discount is likely lower for firms with superior accounting quality. Using 24 cases, we find that, on average, the extent of discount is larger for share issues in which the accounting quality, proxied by the absolute value of discretionary accruals, is poor. This paper provides insight by examining the effect of accounting quality on the stock market. It sheds light on the intersection between finance and accounting research and should be of interest to researchers and practitioners.

Keywords: Accounting quality, Contribution-in-kind, discount, holding company

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Authors: Mohamed Laamim, Abdelilah Rochd, Aboubakr Benazzouz, Abderrahim El Fadili

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Smart grids have recently sparked a lot of interest in the energy sector as they allow for the modernization and digitization of the existing power infrastructure. Smart grids have several advantages in terms of reducing the environmental impact of generating power from fossil fuels due to their capacity to integrate large amounts of distributed energy resources. On the other hand, smart grid technologies necessitate many field investigations and requirements. This paper focuses on the major difficulties that governments face around the world and compares them to the situation in Morocco. Also presented in this study are the current works and projects being developed to improve the penetration of smart grid technologies into the electrical system. Furthermore, the findings of this study will be useful to promote the smart grid revolution in Morocco, as well as to construct a strong foundation and develop future needs for better penetration of technologies that aid in the integration of smart grid features.

Keywords: smart grids, microgrids, virtual power plants, digital twin, distributed energy resources, vehicle-to-grid, advanced metering infrastructure.

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Authors: Youn-Sung Kim, Mi-Sung Kim, Jae-Kun Lee

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This paper deals with the accelerated life cycle test method of the motor for home appliances that demand high reliability. Life Cycle of parts in home appliances also should be 10 years because life cycle of the home appliances such as washing machine, refrigerator, TV is at least 10 years. In case of washing machine, the life cycle test method of motor is advanced for 3000 cycle test (1cycle = 2hours). However, 3000 cycle test incurs loss for the time and cost. Objectives of this study are to reduce the life cycle test time and the number of test samples, which could be realized by using acceleration factor for the test time and reduction factor for the number of sample.

Keywords: accelerated life cycle test, motor reliability test, motor for washing machine, BLDC motor

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Authors: R. B. Knudsen, O. T. Rasmussen, R. A. Alphinas

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The reason for conducting this research is to develop an algorithm that is capable of classifying news articles from the automobile industry, according to the competitive actions that they entail, with the use of Text Mining (TM) methods. It is needed to test how to properly preprocess the data for this research by preparing pipelines which fits each algorithm the best. The pipelines are tested along with nine different classification algorithms in the realm of regression, support vector machines, and neural networks. Preliminary testing for identifying the optimal pipelines and algorithms resulted in the selection of two algorithms with two different pipelines. The two algorithms are Logistic Regression (LR) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). These algorithms are optimized further, where several parameters of each algorithm are tested. The best result is achieved with the ANN. The final model yields an accuracy of 0.79, a precision of 0.80, a recall of 0.78, and an F1 score of 0.76. By removing three of the classes that created noise, the final algorithm is capable of reaching an accuracy of 94%.

Keywords: Artificial Neural network, Competitive dynamics, Logistic Regression, Text classification, Text mining

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Authors: Zeynep R. Ege, Aydin Akan, Faik N. Oktar, Betul Karademir, Oguzhan Gunduz

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Early detection of cancer could save human life and quality in insidious cases by advanced biomedical imaging techniques. Designing targeted detection system is necessary in order to protect of healthy cells. Electrospun nanofibers are efficient and targetable nanocarriers which have important properties such as nanometric diameter, mechanical properties, elasticity, porosity and surface area to volume ratio. In the present study, indocyanine green (ICG) organic dye was stabilized and encapsulated in polymer matrix which polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan (CHI) multilayer nanofibers via co-axial electrospinning method at one step. The co-axial electrospun nanofibers were characterized as morphological (SEM), molecular (FT-IR), and entrapment efficiency of Indocyanine Green (ICG) (confocal imaging). Controlled release profile of PEO/CHI/ICG nanofiber was also evaluated up to 40 hours.

Keywords: chitosan, coaxial electrospinning, controlled releasing, drug delivery, indocyanine green, polyethylene oxide

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Authors: Luedech Girdwichai, Witthaya Mekhum

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This research analyses the factors affecting the success and develops a guideline for self- reliance planning of the entrepreneurs for effective implementation. Samples in this study included 42 awarded winners from the 2nd Sufficiency Economics Philosophy (SEP) National Contest arranged by Office of the Royal Development Projects Board. The results revealed 4 main factors affecting the success as follows: 1) there is a need to encourage unity and cooperation in the enterprise in conducting development plan. 2) The entrepreneur must be a knowledge seeker and lead by example on SEP life. 3) The entrepreneur must be able to apply traditional local wisdom with his present experience and knowledge in defining product identity. 4) The entrepreneur should provide career training for the staffs to develop their competencies. The guideline for self-reliance planning consisted of 4 aspects: 1) Human resource development: the enterprise should develop its staffs especially on integrity, honesty, and public minded. 2) Local community development: there should be a clear target for the local community development. 3) Local community economic development: by encouraging additional incomes through experience sharing. 4) Enterprise development planning: by arranging monthly meeting to conduct the development plan including analysing problems and synthesizing data.

Keywords: potential development, SME entrepreneurs, sufficiency economics philosophy, finance, management

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Authors: Azene Zenebe

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Deep learning is a subset of machine learning which incorporates techniques for the construction of artificial neural networks and found to be useful for modeling complex problems with large dataset. Deep learning requires a very high power computational and longer time for training. By aggregating computing power, high performance computer (HPC) has emerged as an approach to resolving advanced problems and performing data-driven research activities. Cyber threat intelligence (CIT) is actionable information or insight an organization or individual uses to understand the threats that have, will, or are currently targeting the organization. Results of review of literature will be presented along with results of experimental study that compares the performance of tree-based and function-base machine learning including deep learning algorithms using secondary dataset collected from darknet.

Keywords: deep-learning, cyber security, cyber threat modeling, tree-based machine learning, function-based machine learning, data science

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Authors: Bilal Ahmad Malik

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With the fall of Soviet Union in 1991 the whole Central Asian region saw a dramatic rise in Muslim identity, a call back to Islamic legacy. Today, many Central Asian Muslims demand, what Islam has termed legal (Halal) and, avoid what Islam has termed illegal (Haram). The process of Islamic resurgence kicked off very quickly soon after the integration of Central Asian republics with other Muslim geographies through the membership of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other similar organizations. This interaction proved to be a vital push factor to the already existing indigenous reviving trends and sentiments. As a result, along with many other requirements, Muslim customer demand emerged as navel trend in the market in general and in banking and financial sector in particular. To get this demand fulfilled, the governments of CIS states like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan introduced Halal banking and financial products in the market. Firstly, the present paper would briefly discuss the core composition of Halal banking and financial products. Then, coming to its major theme, it would try to identify and analyze the causes that lead to the emergence of Islamic banking and finance industry in the Muslim majority Post-Soviet CIS States.

Keywords: causes, Central Asia, interest-free banking, Islamic Revival

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Authors: R. Dakir, J. Zbitou, Ahmed Mouhsen, A. Errkik, A. Tajmouati, M. Latrach

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The design and analysis of a new compact and miniaturized monopole antenna structure for ultra wideband (UWB) wireless applications are presented and suggested in this paper. The proposed antenna structure is based on corner radiator patch with T-shaped slot and fed by mictostrip feed line with a partial ground plane combined a periodic rectangular slot and inverted T-stub tuning to increase the bandwidth. The design parameters and the performance of the suggested antenna are investigated by using 'CST Microwave Studio' and Advanced Design System. The final prototype of the proposed antenna operates from 3GHZ to 25GHz, corresponding to wide input impedance bandwidth around (157.14%) with a size of 16*24mm2 and can be easily integrated with radio-frequency or microwave circuits with low cost manufacturing. Details of the UWB antenna design and both simulated and measured results are described and discussed.

Keywords: UWB, T-shaped slots, improvement, bandwidth, stub tuning

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Authors: Olanike O. Akinwale, Isiaka S. Adedoyin

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Revenue is a fund realized by the government to meet both current and capital expenditures. The study found out the various ways through which local governments in Nigeria generate revenue or obtain funds and determined whether the people of Boripe local government are paying tax as at when due and also evaluated how the revenue generated is being used by the local government. During the course of this study, research questionnaires were drafted and distributed to respondents in the local government secretariat who supplied the information needed to carry out the research work. Data were collected by using simple random sampling technique where members of the population have been given equal chance of being picked as a member of the sample. Data were analysed using chart table; the chart analyzed the figure of the past two years revenue and expenditure of the local government. It was deduced from the result that revenue generated but this was not up to what one expected for this local government to finance the projected expenditure when the size was considered, its location as well as its natural endowment of this local government. This was due to lack of cooperation of the people and staffs within the local government in the local government jurisdiction as well as fraudulent activities the revenue collectors engaged in. Revenue generation is a fuel for development in any organization whether public or private. The ability of revenue drive of Boripe was not strong enough since the targeted revenue from taxation was not enough to meet the projected expenditure for a particular year as in 2016, the difference was carried forward to the next year.

Keywords: appraisal, expenditure, local government, questionnaire, revenue

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Authors: Hilal Turkoglu Sasmazel, Ozan Ozkan, Seda Surucu

Abstract:

Tissue engineering is the field of treating defects caused by injuries, trauma or acute/chronic diseases by using artificial scaffolds that mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM), the natural biological support for the tissues and cells within the body. The main aspects of a successful artificial scaffold are (i) large surface area in order to provide multiple anchorage points for cells to attach, (ii) suitable porosity in order to achieve 3 dimensional growth of the cells within the scaffold as well as proper transport of nutrition, biosignals and waste and (iii) physical, chemical and biological compatibility of the material in order to obtain viability throughout the healing process. By hybrid scaffolds where two or more different materials were combined with advanced fabrication techniques into complex structures, it is possible to combine the advantages of individual materials into one single structure while eliminating the disadvantages of each. Adding this to the complex structure provided by advanced fabrication techniques enables obtaining the desired aspects of a successful artificial tissue scaffold. In this study, fibroblast compatibility of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/chitosan core-shell electrospun hybrid scaffolds with proper mechanical, chemical and physical properties successfully developed in our previous study was investigated. Standard 7-day cell culture was carried out with L929 fibroblast cell line. The viability of the cells cultured with the scaffolds was monitored with 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) viability assay for every 48 h starting with 24 h after the initial seeding. In this assay, blank commercial tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) Petri dishes, single electrospun PCL and single electrospun chitosan mats were used as control in order to compare and contrast the performance of the hybrid scaffolds. The adhesion, proliferation, spread and growth of the cells on/within the scaffolds were observed visually on the 3rd and the 7th days of the culture period with confocal laser scanning microscopy (CSLM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The viability assay showed that the hybrid scaffolds caused no toxicity for fibroblast cells and provided a steady increase in cell viability, effectively doubling the cell density for every 48 h for the course of 7 days, as compared to TCPS, single electrospun PCL or chitosan mats. The cell viability on the hybrid scaffold was ~2 fold better compared to TCPS because of its 3D ECM-like structure compared to 2D flat surface of commercially cell compatible TCPS, and the performance was ~2 fold and ~10 fold better compared to single PCL and single chitosan mats, respectively, even though both fabricated similarly with electrospinning as non-woven fibrous structures, because single PCL and chitosan mats were either too hydrophobic or too hydrophilic to maintain cell attachment points. The viability results were verified with visual images obtained with CSLM and SEM, in which cells found to achieve characteristic spindle-like fibroblast shape and spread on the surface as well within the pores successfully at high densities.

Keywords: chitosan, core-shell, fibroblast, electrospinning, PCL

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