Search results for: uncertain and correlated demand

Authors: Yifu Ding, Vijay Avinash, Malcolm McCulloch

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As the proliferation of decentralized energy systems, the UK power system allows small-scale entities such as microgrids (MGs) to tender multiple energy services including energy arbitrage and frequency responses (FRs). However, its operation requires the balance between the uncertain renewable generations and loads in real-time and has to fulfill their provision requirements of contract services continuously during the time window agreed, otherwise it will be penalized for the under-delivered provision. To hedge against risks due to uncertainties and maximize the economic benefits, we propose a stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) framework to optimize its operation for the multi-service provision. Distinguished from previous works, we include a detailed economic-degradation model of the lithium-ion battery to quantify the costs of different service provisions, as well as accurately describe the changing dynamics of the battery. Considering a branch of load and generation scenarios and the battery aging, we formulate a risk-averse cost function using conditional value at risk (CVaR). It aims to achieve the maximum expected net revenue and avoids severe losses. The framework will be performed on a case study of a PV-battery grid-tied microgrid in the UK with real-life data. To highlight its performance, the framework will be compared with the case without the degradation model and the deterministic formulation.

Keywords: model predictive control (MPC), battery degradation, frequency response, microgrids

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Erik Eklund

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Mary Kathleen was a purpose-built company town located in northwest Queensland in Australia. It was created to work on a rich uranium deposit discovered in the area in July 1954. The town was complete by 1958, possessing curved streets, modern materials, and a progressive urban planning scheme. Formed in the minds of corporate executives and architects and made manifest in arid zone country between Cloncurry and Mount Isa, Mary Kathleen was a modern marvel in the outback, a town that tamed the wild country of northwest Queensland, or so it seemed. The town was also a product of the Cold War. In the context of a nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and her allies, and the United States of America (USA) and her Allies, a rapid rush to locate, mine, and process uranium after 1944 led to the creation of uranium towns in Czechoslovakia, Canada, the Soviet Union, USA and Australia of which Mary Kathleen was one such example. Mary Kathleen closed in 1981, and most of the town’s infrastructure was removed. Since then, the town’s ghostly remains have attracted travellers and tourists. Never an officially-sanctioned tourist site, the area has nevertheless become a regular stop for campers and day trippers who have engaged with the site often without formal interpretation. This paper explores the status of this vernacular heritage and asks why it has not gained any official status and what visitors might see in the place despite its uncertain status.

Keywords: uranium mining, planned communities, official heritage, vernacular heritage, Australian history

Procedia PDF Downloads 71

Authors: Anza-Vhudziki Mboyi, Ilunga Kamika, Maggy Momba

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The aim of this study was to ascertain the survival limit and capability of commonly found wastewater protozoan (Aspidisca sp, Trachelophyllum sp, and Peranema sp) and bacterial (Bacillus licheniformis, Brevibacillus laterosporus, and Pseudomonas putida) species to remove COD while exposed to commercial nanomaterials under varying pH conditions. The experimental study was carried out in modified mixed liquor media adjusted to various pH levels (pH 2, 7 and 10), and a comparative study was performed to determine the difference between the cytotoxicity effects of commercial zinc oxide (nZnO) and silver (nAg) nanomaterials (NMs) on the target wastewater microbial communities using standard methods. The selected microbial communities were exposed to lethal concentrations ranging from 0.015 g/L to 40 g/L for nZnO and from 0.015 g/L to 2 g/L for nAg for a period of 5 days of incubation at 30°C (100 r/min). Compared with the absence of NMs in wastewater mixed liquor, the relevant environmental concentration ranging between 10 µg/L and 100 µg/L, for both nZnO and nAg caused no adverse effects, but the presence of 20 g of nZnO/L and 0.65 g of nAg/L significantly inhibited microbial growth. Statistical evidence showed that nAg was significantly more toxic compared to nZnO, but there was an insignificant difference in toxicity between microbial communities and pH variations. A significant decrease in the removal of COD by microbial populations was observed in the presence of NMs with a moderate correlation of r = 0.3 to r = 0.7 at all pH levels. It was evident that there was a physical interaction between commercial NMs and target wastewater microbial communities; although not quantitatively assessed, cell morphology and cell death were observed. Such phenomena suggest the high resilience of the microbial community, but it is the accumulation of NMs that will have adverse effects on the performance in terms of COD removal.

Keywords: bacteria, biological treatment, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nanomaterials, consortium, pH, protozoan

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Farhood Rismanchian, Seong Hyeon Park, Young Hoon Lee

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This paper proposes a method to optimize the layout of an emergency department (ED) based on real executions of care processes by considering several planning objectives simultaneously. Recently, demand for healthcare services has been dramatically increased. As the demand for healthcare services increases, so do the need for new healthcare buildings as well as the need for redesign and renovating existing ones. The importance of implementation of a standard set of engineering facilities planning and design techniques has been already proved in both manufacturing and service industry with many significant functional efficiencies. However, high complexity of care processes remains a major challenge to apply these methods in healthcare environments. Process mining techniques applied in this study to tackle the problem of complexity and to enhance care process analysis. Process related information such as clinical pathways extracted from the information system of an ED. A 0-1 goal programming approach is then proposed to find a single layout that simultaneously satisfies several goals. The proposed model solved by optimization software CPLEX 12. The solution reached using the proposed method has 42.2% improvement in terms of walking distance of normal patients and 47.6% improvement in walking distance of critical patients at minimum cost of relocation. It has been observed that lots of patients must unnecessarily walk long distances during their visit to the emergency department because of an inefficient design. A carefully designed layout can significantly decrease patient walking distance and related complications.

Keywords: healthcare operation management, goal programming, facility layout problem, process mining, clinical processes

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Iman Janghorban Esfahani

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Due to the increased use of irrigation in agriculture, the importance and need for highly reliable water pumping systems have significantly increased. The pumping of the groundwater is essential to provide water for both drip and furrow irrigation to increase the agricultural yield, especially in arid regions that suffer from scarcities of surface water. The most common irrigation pumping systems (IPS) consume conventional energies through the use of electric motors and generators or connecting to the electricity grid. Due to the shortage and transportation difficulties of fossil fuels, and unreliable access to the electricity grid, especially in the rural areas, and the adverse environmental impacts of fossil fuel usage, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the need for renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic systems (PVS) as an alternative way of powering irrigation pumping systems is urgent. Integration of the photovoltaic systems with irrigation pumping systems as the Photovoltaic Powered-Irrigation Pumping System (PVP-IPS) can avoid fossil fuel dependency and the subsequent greenhouse gas emissions, as well as ultimately lower energy costs and improve efficiency, which made PVP-IPS systems as an environmentally and economically efficient solution for agriculture irrigation in every region. The greatest problem faced by integration of PVP with IPS systems is matching the intermittence of the energy supply with the dynamic water demand. The best solution to overcome the intermittence is to incorporate a storage system into the PVP-IPS to provide water-on-demand as a highly reliable stand-alone irrigation pumping system. The water storage tank (WST) is the most common storage device for PVP-IPS systems. In the integrated PVP-IPS with a water storage tank (PVP-IPS-WST), a water storage tank stores the water pumped by the IPS in excess of the water demand and then delivers it when demands are high. The Freshwater pinch analysis (FWaPA) as an alternative to mathematical modeling was used by other researchers for retrofitting the off-grid battery less photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis system. However, the Freshwater pinch analysis has not been used to integrate the photovoltaic systems with irrigation pumping system with water storage tanks. In this study, FWaPA graphical and numerical tools were used for retrofitting an existing PVP-IPS system located in Salahadin, Republic of Iraq. The plant includes a 5 kW submersible water pump and 7.5 kW solar PV system. The Freshwater Composite Curve as the graphical tool and Freashwater Storage Cascade Table as the numerical tool were constructed to determine the minimum required outsourced water during operation, optimal amount of delivered electricity to the water pump, and optimal size of the water storage tank for one-year operation data. The results of implementing the FWaPA on the case study show that the PVP-IPS system with a WST as the reliable system can reduce outsourced water by 95.41% compare to the PVP-IPS system without storage tank.

Keywords: irrigation, photovoltaic, pinch analysis, pumping, solar energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: David P. Horton, Gary Lynch-Wood

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Western populations are aging, prone to various lifestyle health problems, and increasing their demand for health and social care services. This demand has created enormous fiscal and regulatory challenges. In response, government institutions have deployed strategies of behavior modification to encourage people to exercise greater personal responsibility over their health and care needs (i.e., welfare responsibilisation). Policy strategies are underpinned by the assumption that people if properly supported, will make better health and lifestyle selections. Not only does this absolve governments of the responsibility for meeting all health and care needs, but it also enables government institutions to assert fiscal control over welfare spending. Looking at the regulation of health and social care in the UK, the authors identify and outline a suite of regulatory tools that are designed to extract and manage the resources of health and social care services users and to encourage them to make (‘better’) use of these resources. This is important for our understanding of how health and social care regulation is responding to ongoing social and economic challenges. It is also important because there has been a failure to systematically examine the relevance of resources for regulation, which is surprising given that resources are crucial to how and whether regulation succeeds or fails. In particular, drawing from the regulatory welfare state concept, the authors analyse the key legal and regulatory changes and mechanisms that have been introduced since the 2008 financial crisis, focusing on critical measures such as the Health and Social Care Act and regulations introduced under the National Health Service Act. The authors show how three types of user resources (i.e., tangible, labor, and data) are being used to assert fiscal control and increase welfare responsibilisation. Amongst other things, the paper concludes that service users have become more than rule followers and targets of behavioral modification; rather, they are producers of resources that regulatory systems have come to rely on.

Keywords: health care, regulation, resources, social care

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Rama Shanker, Anil Kumar Sachan

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Basic ingredients of concrete are cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. To produce a concrete of certain specific properties, optimum proportion of these ingredients are mixed. The important factors which govern the mix design are grade of concrete, type of cement and size, shape and grading of aggregates. Concrete mix design method is based on experimentally evolved empirical relationship between the factors in the choice of mix design. Basic draw backs of this method are that it does not produce desired strength, calculations are cumbersome and a number of tables are to be referred for arriving at trial mix proportion moreover, the variation in attainment of desired strength is uncertain below the target strength and may even fail. To solve this problem, a lot of cubes of standard grades were prepared and attained 28 days strength determined for different combination of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. An artificial neural network (ANN) was prepared using these data. The input of ANN were grade of concrete, type of cement, size, shape and grading of aggregates and output were proportions of various ingredients. With the help of these inputs and outputs, ANN was trained using feed forward back proportion model. Finally trained ANN was validated, it was seen that it gave the result with/ error of maximum 4 to 5%. Hence, specific type of concrete can be prepared from given material properties and proportions of these materials can be quickly evaluated using the proposed ANN.

Keywords: aggregate proportions, artificial neural network, concrete grade, concrete mix design

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: Abdullah Al-Mamun, Md. Nuruzzaman, Md. Noor Salleh, Muhammad Abu Eusuf, Ahmad Jalal Khan Chowdhury, Mohd. Zaki M. Amin, Norlida Mohd. Dom

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Identification of pollution sources and determination of pollution loads from all areas are very important for sustainable rehabilitation of any contaminated river. Pusu is a small river which, flows through the main campus of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) at Gombak. Poor aesthetics of the river, which is flowing through the entrance of the campus, gives negative impression to the local and international visitors. As such, this study is being conducted to find ways to rehabilitate the river in a sustainable manner. The point and non-point pollution sources of the river basin are identified. Upper part of the 12.6 km2 river basin is covered with secondary forest. However, it is the lower-middle reaches of the river basin which is being cleared for residential development and source of high sediment load. Flow and concentrations of the common pollutants, important for a healthy river, such as Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Suspended Solids (SS), Turbidity, pH, Ammoniacal Nitrogen (AN), Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) are determined. Annual pollution loading to the river was calculated based on the primary and secondary data. Concentrations of SS were high during the rainy day due to contribution from the non-point sources. There are 7 ponds along the river system within the campus, which are severely affected by high sediment load from the land clearing activities. On the other hand, concentrations of other pollutants were high during the non-rainy days. The main sources of point pollution are the hostels, cafeterias, sewage treatment plants located in the campus. Therefore, both pollution sources need to be controlled in order to rehabilitate the river in a sustainable manner.

Keywords: river pollution, rehabilitation, point pollution source, non-point pollution sources, pollution loading

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Matthew J. Zagumny

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The current study reports an examination of the QUEST-25 (Q-Assessment of Undergraduate Epistemology and Scientific Thinking) online version for assessing the dispositional attitudes toward scientific thinking and intellectual curiosity among undergraduate students. The QUEST-25 consists of scientific thinking (SIQ-25) and intellectual curiosity (ICIQ-25), which were correlated in hypothesized directions with the Religious Commitment Inventory, Curiosity and Exploration Inventory, Belief in Science scale, and measures of academic self-efficacy. Additionally, concurrent validity was established by the resulting significant differences between those identifying the centrality of religious belief in their lives and those who do not self-identify as being guided daily by religious beliefs. This study demonstrates the utility of the QUEST-25 for research, evaluation, and theory development.

Keywords: guided-inquiry learning, intellectual curiosity, psychometric assessment, scientific thinking

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Michele Catalano, Jacopo Di Domenico, Luca Riccetti, Andrea Teglio

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We develop a data-driven agent based model (ABM) for the Italian economy. We calibrate the model for the initial condition and parameters. As a preliminary step, we replicate the Monte-Carlo simulation for the Austrian economy. Then, we evaluate the dynamic properties of the model: the long-run equilibrium and the allocative efficiency in terms of disequilibrium patterns arising in the search and matching process for final goods, capital, intermediate goods, and credit markets. In this perspective, we use a randomized initial condition approach. We perform a robustness analysis perturbing the system for different parameter setups. We explore the empirical properties of the model using a rolling window forecast exercise from 2010 to 2022 to observe the model’s forecasting ability in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We perform an analysis of the properties of the model with a different number of agents, that is, with different scales of the model compared to the real economy. The model generally displays transient dynamics that properly fit macroeconomic data regarding forecasting ability. We stress the model with a large set of shocks, namely interest policy, fiscal policy, and exogenous factors, such as external foreign demand for export. In this way, we can explore the most exposed sectors of the economy. Finally, we modify the technology mix of the various sectors and, consequently, the underlying input-output sectoral interdependence to stress the economy and observe the long-run projections. In this way, we can include in the model the generation of endogenous crisis due to the implied structural change, technological unemployment, and potential lack of aggregate demand creating the condition for cyclical endogenous crises reproduced in this artificial economy.

Keywords: agent-based models, behavioral macro, macroeconomic forecasting, micro data

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: Nadya Patel, Jawn Lim

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Foresight 3.0 is a synergistic methodology that encompasses systems analysis, future studies, capacity building, and forward planning. These components are interconnected, fostering a collective anticipatory intelligence that promotes societal resilience (Ravetz, 2020). However, traditional applications of these strands can often fall short, leading to missed opportunities and narrow perspectives. Therefore, Foresight 3.0 champions a holistic approach to tackling complex issues, focusing on systemic transformations and power dynamics. Businesses are pivotal in preparing the workforce for an increasingly uncertain and complex world. This necessitates the adoption of innovative tools and methodologies, such as Foresight 3.0, that can better equip young employees to anticipate and navigate future challenges. Firstly, the incorporation of its methodology into workplace training can foster a holistic perspective among employees. This approach encourages employees to think beyond the present and consider wider social, economic, and environmental contexts, thereby enhancing their problem-solving skills and resilience. This paper discusses our research on integrating Foresight 3.0's transformative principles with a newly developed Critical Design Futures (CDF) framework to equip organisations with the ability to innovate for the world's most complex social problems. This approach is grounded in 'collective forward intelligence,' enabling mutual learning, co-innovation, and co-production among a diverse stakeholder community, where business transformation and innovation are achieved.

Keywords: business transformation, innovation, foresight, critical design

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: Aicha Assal, El Mostapha Lotfi

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Rapid industrialization and population growth are currently the main causes of energy and environmental problems associated with wastewater treatment. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) aim to treat wastewater before discharging it into the environment, but they are not yet capable of treating non-biodegradable contaminants such as heavy metals. Toxic heavy metals can disrupt biological processes in WWTPs. Consequently, it is crucial to combine additional physico-chemical treatments with WWTPs to ensure effective wastewater treatment. In this study, the authors examined the pretreatment process for urban wastewater generated by the El Jadida WWTP in order to assess its treatment efficiency. Various physicochemical and spatiotemporal parameters of the WWTP's raw and treated water were studied, including temperature, pH, conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The results showed an improvement in treatment yields, with measured performance values of 77% for BOD5, 63% for COD, and 66% for TSS. However, spectroscopic analyses revealed persistent coloration in wastewater samples leaving the WWTP, as well as the presence of heavy metals such as Zn, cadmium, chromium, and cobalt, detected by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). To remedy these staining problems and reduce the presence of heavy metals, a new low-cost, environmentally-friendly eggshell-based solution was proposed. This method eliminated most heavy metals such as cobalt, beryllium, silver, and copper and significantly reduced the amount of cadmium, lead, chromium, manganese, aluminium, and Zn. In addition, the bioadsorbent was able to decolorize wastewater by up to 84%. This adsorption process is, therefore, of great interest for ensuring the quality of wastewater and promoting its reuse in irrigation.

Keywords: WWTP, wastewater, heavy metals, decoloration, depollution, COD, BOD5

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Eric S. Parilla, Marc Edward Abadilla

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The study aims to determine the effect of awareness of business students towards cryptocurrencies and the readiness of universities and colleges to accept cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange, considering the mediation of business students’ attitudes. The research used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and deployed a questionnaire attuned to the awareness and attitudes of business students towards cryptocurrencies and readiness and compatibility of use in universities and colleges in Ilocos Norte. The output of the investigation revealed that awareness of business students is not correlated to the readiness of universities and colleges, which means that even though students understand cryptocurrencies, it is not an assurance that universities and colleges are ready to accept them as the medium of exchange. The study proposes that training and seminars for business students and professionals should be conducted to expand understanding and acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

Keywords: cryptocurrencies, awareness, readiness, attitudes

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Jui Chen Wu, Ming Yi Hsu

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Background and Purpose: Shift work of nursing staff is inevitable in hospital to provide continuing medical care. However, shift work is considered as a health hazard that may cause physical and psychological problems. Serious workplace fatigue of nursing shift work might impact on family, social and work life, moreover, causes serious reduction of quality of medical care, or even malpractice. This study aims to explore relationships among nursing staff’s shift, workplace fatigue and quality of working life. Method: Structured questionnaires were used in this study to explore relationships among shift work, workplace fatigue and quality of working life in nursing staffs. We recruited 590 nursing staffs in different Community Teaching hospitals in Taiwan. Data analysed by descriptive statistics, single sample t-test, single factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression, etc. Results: The overall workplace fatigue score is 50.59 points. In further analysis, the score of personal burnout, work-related burnout, over-commitment and client-related burnout are 57.86, 53.83, 45.95 and 44.71. The basic attributes of nursing staff are significantly different from those of workplace fatigue with different ages, licenses, sleeping quality, self-conscious health status, number of care patients of chronic diseases and number of care people in the obstetric ward. The shift variables revealed no significant influence on workplace fatigue during the hierarchical regression analysis. About the analysis on nursing staff’s basic attributes and shift on the quality of working life, descriptive results show that the overall quality of working life of nursing staff is 3.23 points. Comparing the average score of the six aspects, the ranked average score are 3.47 (SD= .43) in interrelationship, 3.40 (SD= .46) in self-actualisation, 3.30 (SD= .40) in self-efficacy, 3.15 (SD= .38) in vocational concept, 3.07 (SD= .37) in work aspects, and 3.02 (SD= .56) in organization aspects. The basic attributes of nursing staff are significantly different from quality of working life in different marriage situations, education level, years of nursing work, occupation area, sleep quality, self-conscious health status and number of care in medical ward. There are significant differences between shift mode and shift rate with the quality of working life. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis reveal that one of the shifts variables 'shift mode' which does affect staff’s quality of working life. The workplace fatigue is negatively correlated with the quality of working life, and the over-commitment in the workplace fatigue is positively related to the vocational concept of the quality of working life. According to the regression analysis of nursing staff’s basic attributes, shift mode, workplace fatigue and quality of working life related shift, the results show that the workplace fatigue has a significant impact on nursing staff’s quality of working life. Conclusion: According to our study, shift work is correlated with workplace fatigue in nursing staffs. This results work as important reference for human resources management in hospitals to establishing a more positive and healthy work arrangement policy.

Keywords: nursing staff, shift, workplace fatigue, quality of working life

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Authors: L. Oufni, M. Amrane

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In this work, different river water samples have been collected and analyzed from different locations along Oum Er-Rabia River in Morocco. The uranium (238U) and thorium (232Th) concentrations were investigated in the studied river and dam water samples using Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD). Mean activity concentrations of uranium and thorium in water were found to be between 12 – 37 Bq m^-3 and 2-10 Bq m^-3, respectively. The pH measured at all river water samples was slightly alkaline and ranged from 7.5 to 8.75. The electrical conductivity ranged from 2790 to 794 µS cm^-1. It was found that uranium and thorium concentrations were correlated with some chemical parameters in Oum Er-Rabia River water. The uranium concentrations found in river water are insignificant from the radiological point of view. The recommended value for uranium in drinking water based on its toxicity given by the Federal Environment Agency. This corresponds to an activity concentration of 238U of 123.5 mBq L^-1. In none of the samples, the uranium activity exceeds this value.

Keywords: uranium, thorium, conductivity, water, SSNTD

Procedia PDF Downloads 345

Authors: Hassane Ouazzani Chahdi, Omar Helli, Bourzgui Nour Eddine, Hassan Maher, Ali Soltani

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The real-time knowledge of the NO, NO₂ concentration at high temperature, would allow manufacturers of automobiles to meet the upcoming stringent EURO7 anti-pollution measures for diesel engines. Knowledge of the concentration of each of these species will also enable engines to run leaner (i.e., more fuel efficient) while still meeting the anti-pollution requirements. Our proposed technology is promising in the field of automotive sensors. It consists of nanostructured semiconductors based on gallium nitride and zirconia dioxide. The development of new technologies for selective detection of NO and NO₂ gas species would be a critical enabler of superior depollution. The current response was well correlated to the NO concentration in the range of 0–2000 ppm, 0-2500 ppm NO₂, and 0-300 ppm NH₃ at a temperature of 600.

Keywords: NOₓ sensors, HEMT transistor, anti-pollution, gallium nitride, gas sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Himanshu Dehra

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This paper presents a paradigm for characterization and checking of human noise behavior. The definitions of ‘Noise’ and ‘Noise Behavior’ are devised. The concept of characterization and examining of Noise Behavior is obtained from the proposed paradigm of Psychoacoustics. The measurement of human noise behavior is discussed through definitions of noise sources and noise measurements. The noise sources, noise measurement equations and noise filters are further illustrated through examples. The theory and significance of solar energy acoustics is presented for life and its activities. Human comfort and health are correlated with human brain through physiological responses and noise protection. Examples of heat stress, intense heat, sweating and evaporation are also enumerated.

Keywords: human brain, noise behavior, noise characterization, noise filters, physiological responses, psychoacoustics

Procedia PDF Downloads 489

Authors: Yi-Wen Chen, Hsueh-Liang Fan

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Evidence shows that start-ups success is positively correlated with innovation speed. However, new ventures are seldom able to acquire abundant resources for new product development (NPD), which means that entrepreneurs may depend on personal creativity instead of physical investments to achieve and accelerate speed of first product launch. This study accentuates the role of entrepreneurial bricolage, which defined as making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities, in the relations of creative self-efficacy and innovation speed. This study uses structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses in a sample of 203 start-ups operating various creative markets. Results reveal that creative self-efficacy is positively and directly associated with innovation speed, whereas entrepreneurial bricolage plays a full mediator. These findings offer important theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: creative self-efficacy, innovation speed, entrepreneurial bricolage, new ventures

Procedia PDF Downloads 513

Authors: N. Ali, S. Nakayama, H. Yamaguchi, M. Nadeem

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Traffic congestion is a matter of prime concern in developing countries. This can be primarily attributed due to poor design practices and biased allocation of resources based on political will neglecting the technical feasibilities in infrastructure design. During the last decade, Lahore has expanded at an unprecedented rate as compared to surrounding cities due to more funding and resource allocation by the previous governments. As a result of this, people from surrounding cities and areas moved to the Lahore city for better opportunities and quality of life. This migration inflow inherited the city with an increased population yielding the inefficiency of the existing infrastructure to accommodate enhanced traffic demand. This leads to traffic congestion on major arterial roads of the city. In this simulation study, a major arterial road was selected to evaluate the performance of the five intersections by changing the geometry of the intersections or signal control type. Simulations were done in two software; Highway Capacity Software (HCS) and Synchro Studio and Sim Traffic Software. Some of the traffic management strategies that were employed include actuated-signal control, semi-actuated signal control, fixed-time signal control, and roundabout. The most feasible solution for each intersection in the above-mentioned traffic management techniques was selected with the least delay time (seconds) and improved Level of Service (LOS). The results showed that Jinnah Hospital Intersection and Akbar Chowk Intersection improved 92.97% and 92.67% in delay time reduction, respectively. These results can be used by traffic planners and policy makers for decision making for the expansion of these intersections keeping in mind the traffic demand in future years.

Keywords: traffic congestion, traffic simulation, traffic management, congestion problems

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Authors: Rene Jimenez, Sonia E. Ruiz, Miguel A. Orellana

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On 09/19/2017, a Mw = 7.1 intraslab earthquake occurred in Mexico causing the collapse of about 40 buildings. Many of these were 5- or 6-story buildings with soft first story; so, it is desirable to perform a structural fragility analysis of typical structures representative of those buildings and to propose a reliable structural solution. Here, a typical 5-story building constituted by regular R/C moment-resisting frames in the first story and confined masonry walls in the upper levels, similar to the collapsed structures on the 09/19/2017 Mexico earthquake, is analyzed. Three different structural solutions of the 5-story building are considered: S1) it is designed in accordance with the Mexico City Building Code-2004; S2) then, the column dimensions of the first story corresponding to S1 are reduced, and S3) viscous dampers are added at the first story of solution S2. A number of dynamic incremental analyses are performed for each structural solution, using a 3D structural model. The hysteretic behavior model of the masonry was calibrated with experiments performed at the Laboratory of Structures at UNAM. Ten seismic ground motions are used to excite the structures; they correspond to ground motions recorded in intermediate soil of Mexico City with a dominant period around 1s, where the structures are located. The fragility curves of the buildings are obtained for different values of the maximum inter-story drift demands. Results show that solutions S1 and S3 give place to similar probabilities of exceedance of a given value of inter-story drift for the same seismic intensity, and that solution S2 presents a higher probability of exceedance for the same seismic intensity and inter-story drift demand. Therefore, it is concluded that solution S3 (which corresponds to the building with soft first story and energy dissipation devices) can be a reliable solution from the structural point of view.

Keywords: demand hazard analysis, fragility curves, incremental dynamic analyzes, soft-first story, structural capacity

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Authors: Abdulla Rahil, Rupert Gammon, Neil Brown

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The rapid growth of renewable energy sources and their integration into the grid have been motivated by the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental issues. Unfortunately, the grid is unable to cope with the predicted growth of renewable energy which would lead to its instability. To solve this problem, energy storage devices could be used. Electrolytic hydrogen production from an electrolyser is considered a promising option since it is a clean energy source (zero emissions). Choosing flexible operation of an electrolyser (producing hydrogen during the off-peak electricity period and stopping at other times) could bring about many benefits like reducing the cost of hydrogen and helping to balance the electric systems. This paper investigates the price of hydrogen during flexible operation compared with continuous operation, while serving the customer (hydrogen filling station) without interruption. The optimization algorithm is applied to investigate the hydrogen station in both cases (flexible and continuous operation). Three different scenarios are tested to see whether the off-peak electricity price could enhance the reduction of the hydrogen cost. These scenarios are: Standard tariff (1 tier system) during the day (assumed 12 p/kWh) while still satisfying the demand for hydrogen; using off-peak electricity at a lower price (assumed 5 p/kWh) and shutting down the electrolyser at other times; using lower price electricity at off-peak times and high price electricity at other times. This study looks at Derna city, which is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (32° 46′ 0 N, 22° 38′ 0 E) with a high potential for wind resource. Hourly wind speed data which were collected over 24½ years from 1990 to 2014 were in addition to data on hourly radiation and hourly electricity demand collected over a one-year period, together with the petrol station data.

Keywords: hydrogen filling station off-peak electricity, renewable energy, off-peak electricity, electrolytic hydrogen

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Authors: Saul Estrin, Ute Stephan, Suncica Vujic

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Background and research question: Gender differences in pay are present at all organisational levels, including at the very top. One possible way for women to circumvent organizational norms and discrimination is to engage in entrepreneurship because, as CEOs of their own organizations, entrepreneurs largely determine their own pay. While commercial entrepreneurship plays an important role in job creation and economic growth, social entrepreneurship has come to prominence because of its promise of addressing societal challenges such as poverty, social exclusion, or environmental degradation through market-based rather than state-sponsored activities. This opens the research question whether social entrepreneurship might be a form of entrepreneurship in which the pay of men and women is the same, or at least more similar; that is to say there is little or no gender pay gap. If the gender gap in pay persists also at the top of social enterprises, what are the factors, which might explain these differences? Methodology: The Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition (OBD) is the standard approach of decomposing the gender pay gap based on the linear regression model. The OBD divides the gender pay gap into the ‘explained’ part due to differences in labour market characteristics (education, work experience, tenure, etc.), and the ‘unexplained’ part due to differences in the returns to those characteristics. The latter part is often interpreted as ‘discrimination’. There are two issues with this approach. (i) In many countries there is a notable convergence in labour market characteristics across genders; hence the OBD method is no longer revealing, since the largest portion of the gap remains ‘unexplained’. (ii) Adding covariates to a base model sequentially either to test a particular coefficient’s ‘robustness’ or to account for the ‘effects’ on this coefficient of adding covariates might be problematic, due to sequence-sensitivity when added covariates are correlated. Gelbach’s decomposition (GD) addresses latter by using the omitted variables bias formula, which constructs a conditional decomposition thus accounting for sequence-sensitivity when added covariates are correlated. We use GD to decompose the differences in gaps of pay (annual and hourly salary), size of the organisation (revenues), effort (weekly hours of work), and sources of finances (fees and sales, grants and donations, microfinance and loans, and investors’ capital) between men and women leading social enterprises. Database: Our empirical work is made possible by our collection of a unique dataset using respondent driven sampling (RDS) methods to address the problem that there is as yet no information on the underlying population of social entrepreneurs. The countries that we focus on are the United Kingdom, Spain, Romania and Hungary. Findings and recommendations: We confirm the existence of a gender pay gap between men and women leading social enterprises. This gap can be explained by differences in the accumulation of human capital, psychological and social factors, as well as cross-country differences. The results of this study contribute to a more rounded perspective, highlighting that although social entrepreneurship may be a highly satisfying occupation, it also perpetuates gender pay inequalities.

Keywords: Gelbach’s decomposition, gender gap, returns to social entrepreneurship, values and preferences

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Authors: Fikre Belay Tekulu

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This thesis presents the socio-economic and environmental impacts of urban sprawl in the case of Adigrat city, Tigray Region, Ethiopia. The main objective of this research is to assess major causes, trends and socio-economic and environmental impacts of the urban sprawl of Adigrat city. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods as questionnaires, interviews and observation used for data collection. Simple random sampling has been used to select the participants. The land use and land cover change for agricultural land and forest and grassland resource analysis is done with the aid of GIS. Urban sprawl is mainly caused by the rapid population growth, increase in the living and property cost in the core of the city, land demand and land speculation and the growth of transport and an increase in income of people and demand of more living space. The study indicates 15726.24 hectares (515.49 per cent) of new land added to the city jurisdiction from its adjacent Gantafeshum Wereda between 1986 and 2018. The population of Adigrat city increased by 9.045 per cent per year, while the city expanded 16.01 per cent per annum and the LCR was 0.0233 hectares per person between 1986 and 2018.Built-up area increased by 35.27 per cent per annum, while agricultural land, forests and grassland cover decreased by 1.68 per cent and 1.26 per cent per annum respectively in the last thirty three years. This rapid growth of urban sprawl brought social-economic and environmental change in the city that has been observed by the city residents. Therefore, the city administration should need strong, integrated, effective and efficient work, with its neighbor rural area and also done timely preparation, implementation, supervision, and evaluation of the structural plan of the city to bring out sustainable development of the city.

Keywords: cause, , trends, urban sprawl, land use land cover, GIS

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Authors: Fei Chen, Wei Lu, Jun Cai

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During the Twelve Five period, China promulgated industrial policies promoting the relocation of energy-intensive industries to coastal areas in order to utilize marine shipping resources. Consequently, some major state-owned steel and gas enterprises have relocated and resulted in a large-scale coastal area development. However, some land may have been over-exploited with seamless coastline projects. To balance between employment and housing, new industrial coastal towns were constructed to support the industrial-led development. In this paper, we adopt a case-study approach to closely examine the development of several new industrial coastal towns of Liaoning Province situated in the Bohai Bay area, which is currently under rapid economic growth. Our investigations reflect the common phenomenon of long distance commuting and a massive amount of vacant residences. More specifically, large plant relocation caused hundreds of kilometers of daily commute and enterprises had to provide housing subsidies and education incentives to motivate employees to relocate to coastal areas. Nonetheless, many employees still refuse to relocate due to job stability, diverse needs of family members and access to convenient services. These employees averaged 4 hours of commute daily and some who lived further had to reside in temporary industrial housing units and subject to long-term family separation. As a result, only a small portion of employees purchase new coastal residences but mostly for investment and retirement purposes, leading to massive vacancy and ghost-town phenomenon. In contrast to the low demand, coastal areas tend to develop large amount of residences prior to industrial relocation, which may be directly related to local government finances. Some local governments have sold residential land to developers to general revenue to support the subsequent industrial development. Subject to the strong preference of ocean-view, residential housing developers tend to select coast-line land to construct new residential towns, which further reduces the access of marine resources for major industrial enterprises. This violates the original intent of developing industrial coastal towns and drastically limits the availability of marine resources. Lastly, we analyze the co-existence of over-exploiting residential areas and massive vacancies in reference to the demand and supply of land, as well as the demand of residential housing units with the choice criteria of enterprise employees.

Keywords: coastal industry town, commuter traffic, employment-housing space, outer suburb industrial area

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Authors: Florian Monetti, Brett Beamsley, Peter McComb, Simon Weppe

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Land reclamation from the ocean has considerably increased over past decades to support worldwide rapid urban growth. Reshaping the coastline, however, inevitably affects coastal systems. One of the main challenges for coastal oceanographers is to predict the physical and morphological responses for nearshore systems to man-made changes over multiple time-scales. Fully-coupled numerical models are powerful tools for simulating the wide range of interactions between flow field and bedform morphology. Restricted and inconsistent measurements, combined with limited computational resources, typically make this exercise complex and uncertain. In the present study, we investigate the impact of proposed land reclamation within a wave-dominated bay in New Zealand. For this purpose, we first calibrated our morphological model based on the long-term evolution of the bay resulting from land reclamation carried out in the 1950s. This included the application of sedimentological spin-up and reduction techniques based on historical bathymetry datasets. The updated bathymetry, including the proposed modifications of the bay, was then used to predict the effect of the proposed land reclamation on the wave climate and morphology of the bay after one decade. We show that reshaping the bay induces a distinct symmetrical response of the shoreline which likely will modify the nearshore wave patterns and consequently recreational activities in the area.

Keywords: coastal waves, impact of land reclamation, long-term coastal evolution, morphodynamic modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Neslihan Ozman Say, Jim Gilmour, Pratik Desai, William Zimmerman

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Landfill leachate treatment has been attracting researchers recently for various environmental and economical reasons. Leachate discharge to receiving waterbodies without treatment causes serious detrimental effects including partial oxygen depletion due to high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations besides toxicity of heavy metals it contains and high ammonia concentrations. In this study, it is aimed to show microalgal ammonia removal performances of a wild microalgae consortia as an alternative treatment method and determine the dominant leachate tolerant species for this consortia. For the microalgae species identification experiments a microalgal consortium which has been isolated from a local pond in Sheffield inoculated in %5 diluted raw landfill leachate and acclimated to the leachate by batch feeding for a month. In order to determine the most tolerant microalgal consortium, four different untreated landfill leachate samples have been used as diluted in four different ratios as 5%, 10%, 20%, and 40%. Microalgae cell samples have been collected from all experiment sets and have been examined by using 18S rDNA sequencing and specialised gel electrophoresis which are adapted molecular biodiversity methods. The best leachate tolerant algal consortium is being used in order to determine ammonia removal performances of the culture in a microbubble assisted photobioreactor (PBR). A porous microbubble diffuser which is supported by a fluidic oscillator is being used for dosing CO₂ and air mixture in the PBR. It is known that high mass transfer performance of microbubble technology provides a better removal efficiency and a better mixing in the photobioreactor. Ammonia concentrations and microalgal growth are being monitored for PBR currently. It is aimed to present all the results of the study in final paper submission.

Keywords: ammonia removal from leachate, landfill leachate treatment, microalgae species identification, microbubble assisted photobioreactors

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Authors: Thanawit Buafai, Siyathorn Khunon

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This paper aims to explore the satisfaction levels of tourism product components on the island of Samui by studying the cultural dimension relationships of Hofsted’s classic theory. Both the six Hofsted cultural dimensions and tourism production satisfaction measures have been of interest worldwide. Therefore, the challenge of this study is to re-confirm previous research results in the ever-changing current contexts of the modern globalized business era. Self-rated questionnaires were employed to collect data from six nationalities of tourists in Samui, totaling 386 samples. The reliability of this research methodology was 0.967. Correlation was applied to analyze the relationships. The results indicate that Masculinity is significantly related to tourism destination satisfaction for every factor, while the other five cultural dimensions are related to some factors of tourism satisfaction. Surprisingly, tourist satisfaction toward the bar/restaurant factor is significantly correlated with all six cultural dimensions.

Keywords: cultural dimensions, tourism products, Samui, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 322

Authors: Sandeep Kaur, Jenny Vuong, Marcel Julliard, Sean O'Donoghue

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Time-series data are useful for modelling as they can enable model-evaluation. However, when reconstructing models from phosphoproteomic data, often non-exact methods are utilised, as the knowledge regarding the network structure, such as, which kinases and phosphatases lead to the observed phosphorylation state, is incomplete. Thus, such reactions are often hypothesised, which gives rise to uncertainty. Here, we propose a framework, implemented via a web-based tool (as an extension to Minardo), which given time-series phosphoproteomic datasets, can generate κ models. The incompleteness and uncertainty in the generated model and reactions are clearly presented to the user via the visual method. Furthermore, we demonstrate, via a toy EGF signalling model, the use of algorithmic verification to verify κ models. Manually formulated requirements were evaluated with regards to the model, leading to the highlighting of the nodes causing unsatisfiability (i.e. error causing nodes). We aim to integrate such methods into our web-based tool and demonstrate how the identified erroneous nodes can be presented to the user via the visual method. Thus, in this research we present a framework, to enable a user to explore phosphorylation proteomic time-series data in the context of models. The observer can visualise which reactions in the model are highly uncertain, and which nodes cause incorrect simulation outputs. A tool such as this enables an end-user to determine the empirical analysis to perform, to reduce uncertainty in the presented model - thus enabling a better understanding of the underlying system.

Keywords: κ-models, model verification, time-series phosphoproteomic datasets, uncertainty and error visualisation

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Authors: Fatma Ünal, Hasancan Okutan

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Increasing worldwide population and technological requirements lead to an increase in energy demand every year. The demand has been mainly supplied from fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum due to insufficient natural gas resources. In recent years, the amount of coal reserves has reached almost 21 billion tons in Türkiye. These are mostly lignite (%92,7), that contains high levels of moisture and sulfur components. Underground coal gasification technology is one of the most suitable methods in comparison with direct combustion techniques for the evaluation of such coal types. In this study, the applicability of the underground coal gasification process is investigated in the Eskişehir-Alpu lignite reserve as a pilot region, both technologically and economically. It is assumed that the electricity is produced from the obtained synthesis gas in an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Firstly, an equilibrium model has been developed by using the thermodynamic properties of the gasification reactions. The effect of the type of oxidizing gas, the sulfur content of coal, the rate of water vapor/air, and the pressure of the system have been investigated to find optimum process conditions. Secondly, the parallel and linear controlled recreation and injection point (CRIP) models were implemented as drilling methods, and costs were calculated under the different oxidizing agents (air and high-purity O2). In Parallel CRIP (P-CRIP), drilling cost is found to be lower than the linear CRIP (L-CRIP) since two coal beds simultaneously are gasified. It is seen that CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) technology was the most effective unit on the total cost in both models. The cost of the synthesis gas produced varies between 0,02 $/Mcal and 0,09 $/Mcal. This is the promising result when considering the selling price of Türkiye natural gas for Q1-2023 (0.103 $ /Mcal).

Keywords: energy, lignite reserve, techno-economic analysis, underground coal gasification.

Procedia PDF Downloads 49

Authors: A. Paz, S. Cortés Diéguez, J. M. Cruz, A. B. Moldes, J. M. Domínguez

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Synthetic dyes are extensively used in the paper, food, leather, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and textile industries. Wastewater resulting from their production means several environmental problems. Improper disposal of theirs effluents involves adverse impacts and not only about the colour, also on water quality (Total Organic Carbon, Biological Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand, suspended solids, salinity, etc.) on flora (inhibition of photosynthetic activity), fauna (toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects) and human health. The aim of this work is to optimize the decolourisation process of different types of dyes by Bacillus aryabhattai. Initially, different types of dyes (Indigo Carmine, Coomassie Brilliant Blue and Remazol Brilliant Blue R) and suitable culture media (Nutritive Broth, Luria Bertani Broth and Trypticasein Soy Broth) were selected. Then, a central composite design (CCD) was employed to optimise and analyse the significance of each abiotic parameter. Three process variables (temperature, salt concentration and agitation) were investigated in the CCD at 3 levels with 2-star points. A total of 23 experiments were carried out according to a full factorial design, consisting of 8 factorial experiments (coded to the usual ± 1 notation), 6 axial experiments (on the axis at a distance of ± α from the centre), and 9 replicates (at the centre of the experimental domain). Experiments results suggest the efficiency of this strain to remove the tested dyes on the 3 media studied, although Trypticasein Soy Broth (TSB) was the most suitable medium. Indigo Carmine and Coomassie Brilliant Blue at maximal tested concentration 150 mg/l were completely decolourised, meanwhile, an acceptable removal was observed using the more complicate dye Remazol Brilliant Blue R at a concentration of 50 mg/l.

Keywords: Bacillus aryabhattai, dyes, decolourisation, central composite design

Procedia PDF Downloads 206