Search results for: exploratory factors analysis

Authors: Zakaria S. G. Hegazy, Walid M. A. Ahmed

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This paper examines the dependence structure of Islamic stock markets on Bitcoin’s realized volatility components in bear, normal, and bull market periods. A quantile regression approach is employed, after adjusting raw returns with respect to a broad set of relevant global factors and accounting for structural breaks in the data. The results reveal that upside volatility tends to exert negative influences on Islamic developed-market returns more in bear than in bull market conditions, while downside volatility positively affects returns during bear and bull conditions. For emerging markets, we find that the upside (downside) component exerts lagged negative (positive) effects on returns in bear (all) market regimes. By and large, the dependence structures turn out to be asymmetric. Our evidence provides essential implications for investors.

Keywords: cryptocurrency markets, bitcoin, realized volatility measures, asymmetry, quantile regression

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Authors: Vicky Khasandi-Telewa, Sinfree Makoni

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This paper examines the lived experiences of Kenyans caught between the two main varieties of English and the communication challenges they often face. The paper aims to provide evidence for the challenges that Kenyan speakers of English have experienced as a result of the confluence between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). The study is explorative thus, qualitative and a descriptive research design was used. The objectives were to describe the communication challenges Kenyans encounter due to the differences in grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and pragmatics between AmE and BrE and, to illuminate these variations to enable the Kenyan English learner to communicate appropriately. The purposive sample consisted of sixty five subjects, all who were from a top girls national high school in Kenya, therefore, many are in high-end positions nationally and internationally and well-travelled; in fact, seven are based in the USA, two in the United Kingdom and one lives in Australia. Using interviews, they were asked about their experiences with the different varieties of English, and their responses recorded. Autoethnography, a qualitative research method that involves introspection and cultural analysis, was also used. Thematic content analysis was used to extract the themes and group them for data analysis. The theoretical framework used is World Englishes by Kachru. The results indicate that there is indeed some communication breakdown due to linguistic varieties, but the differences are largely understood by speakers of the different varieties. Attitude plays a major role in communication challenges between the different Englishes, especially among teachers. The study urges acceptance of different varieties of English so long as communication takes place. This has implications for teaching English to Kenyan and speakers of other languages to whom English is taught as a Second Language or Foreign language.

Keywords: American english, british english, kenyan english, englishes, teaching of english to speakers of other languages (TeSOL)

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Authors: Carlos Oliveira Santiago Filho, Ciro Egoavil, Eduardo Oliveira, Jéferson Galdino, Moises Galileu, Tiago Oliveira Correa

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Transfer of Electrical Energy through resonant inductive magnetic coupling is demonstrated experimentally in a system containing coil primary for transmission and secondary reception. The topology used in the prototype of the Class-E amplifier, has been identified as optimal for power transfer applications. Characteristic of the inductor and the load are defined by the requirements of the resonant inductive system. The frequency limitation the of circuit restricts unloaded “Q-Factor”, quality factor of the coils and thus the link efficiency. With a suitable circuit, copper coil unloaded Q-Factors of over 1,000 can be achieved in the low Mhz region, enabling a cost-effective high Q coil assembly. The circuit is capable system capable of transmitting energy with direct current to load efficiency above 60% at 2 Mhz.

Keywords: magnetic induction, transfer of electrical energy, magnetic coupling, Q-Factor

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Authors: Achmad Buhori, Reza Imam Pratama, Tissa Wiraatmaja, Wanti Megawati

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Data from many countries indicates that there is a marked increase of dental caries. The increases in caries appear to occur in lower socioeconomic groups. It is possible that the benefits of prevention of dental caries are not reaching these groups. However, there is a way to decrease dental caries by adding 5% of bromelain and calcium as an active agent in toothpaste. Bromelain can break glutamine-alanine bond and arginine-alanine bond which is a constituent of amino acid that causes dental plague which is one of the factors of dental caries. Calcium help rebuilds the teeth by strengthening and repairing enamel. Bromelain can be found from the extraction of pineapple (Ananas comosus) cobs (88.86-94.22 % of bromelain recovery during extraction based on the enzyme unit) and calcium can be taken from eggshell (95% of dry eggshell consist of calcium). The aim of this experiment is to make a toothpaste which contains bromelain and calcium as an effective, cheap, and healthy way to decrease dental caries around the world.

Keywords: bromelain, calcium, dental caries, dental plague, toothpaste

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Authors: Renato Morbidelli, Carla Saltalippi, Alessia Flammini, Marco Cifrodelli, Corrado Corradini

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The trend of magnitude and frequency of extreme rainfalls seems to be different depending on the investigated area of the world. In this work, the impact of climate change on extreme rainfalls in Umbria, an inland region of central Italy, is examined using data recorded during the period 1921-2015 by 10 representative rain gauge stations. The study area is characterized by a complex orography, with altitude ranging from 200 to more than 2000 m asl. The climate is very different from zone to zone, with mean annual rainfall ranging from 650 to 1450 mm and mean annual air temperature from 3.3 to 14.2°C. Over the past 15 years, this region has been affected by four significant droughts as well as by six dangerous flood events, all with very large impact in economic terms. A least-squares linear trend analysis of annual maximums over 60 time series selected considering 6 different durations (1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h) showed about 50% of positive and 50% of negative cases. For the same time series the non-parametrical Mann-Kendall test with a significance level 0.05 evidenced only 3% of cases characterized by a negative trend and no positive case. Further investigations have also demonstrated that the variance and covariance of each time series can be considered almost stationary. Therefore, the analysis on the magnitude of extreme rainfalls supplies the indication that an evident trend in the change of values in the Umbria region does not exist. However, also the frequency of rainfall events, with particularly high rainfall depths values, occurred during a fixed period has also to be considered. For all selected stations the 2-day rainfall events that exceed 50 mm were counted for each year, starting from the first monitored year to the end of 2015. Also, this analysis did not show predominant trends. Specifically, for all selected rain gauge stations the annual number of 2-day rainfall events that exceed the threshold value (50 mm) was slowly decreasing in time, while the annual cumulated rainfall depths corresponding to the same events evidenced trends that were not statistically significant. Overall, by using a wide available dataset and adopting simple methods, the influence of climate change on the heavy rainfalls in the Umbria region is not detected.

Keywords: climate changes, rainfall extremes, rainfall magnitude and frequency, central Italy

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Authors: Hyeon-Kyo Lim, Sang-Hun Byun

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Risk assessment is carried out in most industrial plants for accident prevention, but there exists insufficient data for statistical decision making. It is commonly said that risk can be expressed as a product of consequence and likelihood of a corresponding hazard factor. Eventually, therefore, risk assessment involves human decision making which cannot be objective per se. This study was carried out to comprehend perceptive characteristics of human beings in industrial plants. Subjects were shown a set of illustrations describing scenes of industrial plants, and were asked to assess the risk of each scene with not only linguistic variables but also numeric scores in the aspect of consequence and likelihood. After that, their responses were formulated as fuzzy membership functions, and compared with those of university students who had no experience of industrial works. The results showed that risk level of industrial workers were lower than those of any other groups, which implied that the workers might generally have a tendency to neglect more hazard factors in their work fields.

Keywords: fuzzy, hazard, linguistic variable, risk assessment

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Authors: Theophilus Adjirackor, Frederic Sam, Irene Opoku-Ntim, David Okoh Kpeglo, Prince K. Gyekye, Frank K. Quashie, Kofi Ofori

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Indoor radon concentrations were collected monthly over a period of one year in 10 different levels in an underground goldmine, and the data was analyzed using a four-moving average time series to determine the relationship between the depths of the underground mine and the indoor radon concentration. The detectors were installed in batches within four quarters. The measurements were carried out using LR115 solid-state nuclear track detectors. Statistical models are applied in the prediction and analysis of the radon concentration at various depths. The time series model predicted a positive relationship between the depth of the underground mine and the indoor radon concentration. Thus, elevated radon concentrations are expected at deeper levels of the underground mine, but the relationship was insignificant at the 5% level of significance with a negative adjusted R2 (R2 = – 0.021) due to an appropriate engineering and adequate ventilation rate in the underground mine.

Keywords: LR115, radon concentration, rime series, underground goldmine

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Authors: Narong Anurak

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This study aimed to find out the hair-care purchasing behavior at hypermarkets and to investigate two factors, package design and advertising channels, that influenced hair-care purchasing behavior. The subjects of the study consisted of 100 housewives aged between 20-60 who usually shopped at Big C Tiwanon. They were selected by accidental sampling, and were asked to complete a questionnaire. The main findings of the survey were that the majority of respondents regarding their brand selection of hair-care products, they gave priority to the product quality followed by a reasonable price, and fragrance, respectively. Besides, more than half of the respondents had brand loyalty while the rest were attracted by an attractive package design and advertising promotion campaigns. The respondents who were attracted by the package design said that the information on the labels influenced their purchasing decision the most, and television was a medium that best reached them as well.

Keywords: advertising channels, consumer purchasing decisions, hair-care market, package design

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Authors: Eszter Repasi, Akos Koller

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Our genetic information determines our look, physiology, sports performance and all our features. Maximizing the performances of athletes have adopted a science-based approach to the nutritional support. Nowadays genetics studies have blended with nutritional sciences, and a dynamically evolving, new research field have appeared. Nutritional genomics is needed to be used by nutritional experts. This is a recent field of nutritional science, which can provide a solution to reach the best sport performance using correlations between the athlete’s genome, nutritions, molecules, included human microbiome (links between food, microbiome and epigenetics), nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. Nutritional genomics has a tremendous potential to change the future of dietary guidelines and personal recommendations. Experts need to use new technology to get information about the athletes, like nutritional genomics profile (included the determination of the oral and gut microbiome and DNA coded reaction for food components), which can modify the preparation term and sports performance. The influence of nutrients on the genes expression is called Nutrigenomics. The heterogeneous response of gene variants to nutrients, dietary components is called Nutrigenetics. The human microbiome plays a critical role in the state of health and well-being, and there are more links between food or nutrition and the human microbiome composition, which can develop diseases and epigenetic changes as well. A nutritional genomics-based profile of athletes can be the best technic for a dietitian to make a unique sports nutrition diet plan. Using functional food and the right food components can be effected on health state, thus sports performance. Scientists need to determine the best response, due to the effect of nutrients on health, through altering genome promote metabolites and result changes in physiology. Nutritional biochemistry explains why polymorphisms in genes for the absorption, circulation, or metabolism of essential nutrients (such as n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids or epigallocatechin-3-gallate), would affect the efficacy of that nutrient. Controlled nutritional deficiencies and failures, prevented the change of health state or a newly discovered food intolerance are observed by a proper medical team, can support better sports performance. It is important that the dietetics profession informed on gene-diet interactions, that may be leading to optimal health, reduced risk of injury or disease. A special medical application for documentation and monitoring of data of health state and risk factors can uphold and warn the medical team for an early action and help to be able to do a proper health service in time. This model can set up a personalized nutrition advice from the status control, through the recovery, to the monitoring. But more studies are needed to understand the mechanisms and to be able to change the composition of the microbiome, environmental and genetic risk factors in cases of athletes.

Keywords: gene-diet interaction, multidisciplinary team, microbiome, diet plan

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Authors: Hamioud Saida, Khalfallah Salah

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In this study, a spectral element method is employed to predict the free vibration of a Euler-Bernoulli beam resting on a Winkler foundation with elastically restrained ends. The formulation of the dynamic stiffness matrix has been established by solving the differential equation of motion, which was transformed to frequency domain. Non-dimensional natural frequencies and shape modes are obtained by solving the partial differential equations, numerically. Numerical comparisons and examples are performed to show the effectiveness of the SEM and to investigate the effects of various parameters, such as the springs at the boundaries and the elastic foundation parameter on the vibration frequencies. The obtained results demonstrate that the present method can also be applied to solve the more general problem of the dynamic analysis of structures with higher order precision.

Keywords: elastically supported Euler-Bernoulli beam, free-vibration, spectral element method, Winkler foundation

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Authors: Shunichiro Morishita

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This study examines the factors for attracting foreign guests in the Japanese lodging industry and discusses some measures taken for accepting foreign guests. It reviews three different accommodation providers acclaimed highly by foreign guests, Yamashiroya, Sawanoya and Fuji-Hakone Guest House, and identifies their characteristics. The common points for attracting foreign guests were: 1) making the best use of the old facilities, 2) multilingual signs, guidance and websites, 3) necessary and sufficient communication in English, 4) events and opportunities to experience Japanese culture, 5) omotenashi, warm and homely Japanese hospitality. These findings indicate that foreign guests’ dissatisfaction level can be decreased through internationalization utilizing ICT and by offering multilingual support. On the other hand, their satisfaction level can be increased by encouraging interaction with other guests and local Japanese people, providing events and opportunities to experience Japanese culture and omotenashi, home-style Japanese hospitality.

Keywords: hospitality management, foreign guests, Japanese lodging industry, Omotenashi

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Authors: Martina Holenko Dlab, Natasa Hoic-Bozic

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This paper presents an original approach to student and group activity level assessment that relies on certainty factors theory. Activity level is used to represent quantity and continuity of student’s contributions in individual and collaborative e‑learning activities (e‑tivities) and is calculated to assist teachers in assessing quantitative aspects of student's achievements. Calculated activity levels are also used to raise awareness and provide recommendations during the learning process. The proposed approach was implemented within the educational recommender system ELARS and validated using data obtained from e‑tivity realized during a blended learning course. The results showed that the proposed approach can be used to estimate activity level in the context of e-tivities realized using Web 2.0 tools as well as to facilitate the assessment of quantitative aspect of students’ participation in e‑tivities.

Keywords: assessment, ELARS, e-learning, recommender systems, student model

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Authors: Yuyan Yi, Jingyi Zheng, Nedret Billor

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Independent component analysis (ICA) is one of the most commonly used blind source separation (BSS) techniques for signal pre-processing, such as noise reduction and feature extraction. The main parameter in the ICA method is the number of independent components (IC). Although there have been several methods for the determination of the number of ICs, it has not been given sufficient attentionto this important parameter. In this study, wereview the mostused methods fordetermining the number of ICs and providetheir advantages and disadvantages. Further, wepropose an improved version of column-wise ICAByBlock method for the determination of the number of ICs.To assess the performance of the proposed method, we compare the column-wise ICAbyBlock with several existing methods through different ICA methods by using simulated and real signal data. Results show that the proposed column-wise ICAbyBlock is an effective and stable method for determining the optimal number of components in ICA. This method is simple, and results can be demonstrated intuitively with good visualizations.

Keywords: independent component analysis, optimal number, column-wise, correlation coefficient, cross-validation, ICAByblock

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Authors: Priyanwada I. Singhapathirana

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The public land ownership is a common phenomenon in many countries in the world however, the development approaches and the institutional structures are greatly diverse. The existing scholarship around public land development has been greatly limited to Europe and advanced Asian economies. Inferences of such studies seem to be inadequate and inappropriate to comprehend the peculiarities of public land development in developing Asian economies. The absence of critical inquiry on the public land ownership and the long-established institutional structures which govern the development has restrained these countries from institutional innovations. In this context, this research investigates the issues related to public land development and the institutional responses in Sri Lanka. This study introduces the concept of ‘Institutional Responsiveness’ in Public land development, which is conceptualized as the ability of the institutions to respond to the spatial, market and fiscal stimulus. The inquiry was carried out through in-depth interviews with five key informants from apex public agencies in order to explore the responsiveness of land institutions form decision-makers' perspectives. Further, the analysis of grey literature and recent media reports are used to supplement the analysis. As per the findings, long term abandonment of public lands and high transaction costs are some of the key issues in relation to public land development. The inability of the institutions to respond to the market and fiscal stimulus has left many potential public lands underutilized. As a result, the public sector itself and urban citizens have not been able to relish the benefits of the public lands in cities. Spatial analysis at the local scale is suggested for future studies in order to capture the multiple dimensions of the responsiveness of institutions to the development stimulus.

Keywords: institutions, public land, responsiveness, under-utilization

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Authors: Rabindranath Jana, Biswajit Maity, Keka Rana

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The most promising clean energy source is the fuel cell, since it does not generate toxic gases and other hazardous compounds. Again the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is more user-friendly as it is easy to be miniaturized and suited as energy source for automobiles as well as domestic applications and portable devices. And unlike the hydrogen used for some fuel cells, methanol is a liquid that is easy to store and transport in conventional tanks. The most important part of a fuel cell is its membrane. Till now, an overall efficiency for a methanol fuel cell is reported to be about 20 ~ 25%. The lower efficiency of the cell may be due to the critical factors, e.g. slow reaction kinetics at the anode and methanol crossover. The oxidation of methanol is composed of a series of successive reactions creating formaldehyde and formic acid as intermediates that contribute to slow reaction rates and decreased cell voltage. Currently, the investigation of new anode catalysts to improve oxidation reaction rates is an active area of research as it applies to the methanol fuel cell. Surprisingly, there are very limited reports on nanostructured membranes, which are rather simple to manufacture with different tuneable compositions and are expected to allow only the proton permeation but not the methanol due to their molecular sizing effects and affinity to the membrane surface. We have developed a nanostructured fuel cell membrane from polydimethyl siloxane rubber (PDMS), ethylene methyl co-acrylate (EMA) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The effect of incorporating different proportions of f-MWNTs in polymer membrane has been studied. The introduction of f-MWNTs in polymer matrix modified the polymer structure, and therefore the properties of the device. The proton conductivity, measured by an AC impedance technique using open-frame and two-electrode cell and methanol permeability of the membranes was found to be dependent on the f-MWNTs loading. The proton conductivity of the membranes increases with increase in concentration of f-MWNTs concentration due to increased content of conductive materials. Measured methanol permeabilities at 60oC were found to be dependant on loading of f-MWNTs. The methanol permeability decreased from 1.5 x 10-6 cm²/s for pure film to 0.8 x 10-7 cm²/s for a membrane containing 0.5wt % f-MWNTs. This is due to increasing proportion of f-MWNTs, the matrix becomes more compact. From DSC melting curves it is clear that the polymer matrix with f-MWNTs is thermally stable. FT-IR studies show good interaction between EMA and f-MWNTs. XRD analysis shows good crystalline behavior of the prepared membranes. Significant cost savings can be achieved when using the blended films which contain less expensive polymers.

Keywords: fuel cell membrane, polydimethyl siloxane rubber, carbon nanotubes, proton conductivity, methanol permeability

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Authors: Badla Oualid

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A great number of existing buildings are designed without seismic design criteria and detailing rules for dissipative structural behavior. Thus, it is of critical importance that the structures that need seismic retrofitting are correctly identified, and an optimal retrofitting is conducted in a cost effective fashion. Among the retrofitting techniques available, steel braces can be considered as one of the most efficient solution among seismic performance upgrading methods of RC structures. This paper investigates the seismic behavior of RC buildings strengthened with different types of steel braces, X-braced, inverted V braced, ZX braced, and Zipper braced. Static non linear pushover analysis has been conducted to estimate the capacity of three story and six story buildings with different brace-frame systems and different cross sections for the braces. It is found that adding braces enhances the global capacity of the buildings compared to the case with no bracing and that the X and Zipper bracing systems performed better depending on the type and size of the cross section.

Keywords: seismic design, strengthening, RC frames, steel bracing, pushover analysis

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Authors: Kuen-Ming Shu, Jyun-Wei Chen

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Encapsulated O-rings are specifically designed to address the problem of sealing the most hostile chemicals and extreme temperature applications. Ultrasonic vibration hot embossing and ultrasonic welding techniques provide a fast and reliable method to fabricate encapsulated O-ring. This paper performs the design and analysis method of the acoustic horns with double extrusion to process tube double side flange simultaneously. The paper deals with study through Finite Element Method (FEM) of ultrasonic stepped horn used to process a capsulated O-ring, the theoretical dimensions of horns, and their natural frequencies and amplitudes are obtained through the simulations of COMOSOL software. Furthermore, real horns were fabricated, tested and verified to proof the practical utility of these horns.

Keywords: encapsulated O-rings, ultrasonic vibration hot embossing, flange making, acoustic horn, finite element analysis

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Authors: Anjelika Kremer, Irina Nachimov, Dan Justo

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Background: C-reactive protein (CRP) serum levels are commonly measured in hospitalized patients. Elevated admission CRP serum levels and in-hospital mortality has been seldom studied in the general population of elderly patients admitted to the acute Geriatrics department. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary medical center. Included were all elderly patients (age 65 years or more) admitted to a single acute Geriatrics department from the emergency room between April 2014 and January 2015. CRP serum levels were measured routinely in all patients upon the first 24 hours of admission. A logistic regression analysis was used to study if admission CRP serum levels were associated with in-hospital mortality independent of age, gender, functional status, and co-morbidities. Results: Overall, 498 elderly patients were included in the analysis: 306 (61.4%) female patients and 192 (38.6%) male patients. The mean age was 84.8±7.0 years (median: 85 years; IQR: 80-90 years). The mean admission CRP serum levels was 43.2±67.1 mg/l (median: 13.1 mg/l; IQR: 2.8-51.7 mg/l). Overall, 33 (6.6%) elderly patients died during the hospitalization. A logistic regression analysis showed that in-hospital mortality was independently associated with history of stroke (p < 0.0001), heart failure (p < 0.0001), and admission CRP serum levels (p < 0.0001) – and to a lesser extent with age (p = 0.042), collagen vascular disease (p=0.011), and recent venous thromboembolism (p=0.037). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that admission CRP serum levels predict in-hospital mortality fairly with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.694 (p < 0.0001). Cut-off value with maximal sensitivity and specificity was 19.7 mg/L. Conclusions: Admission CRP serum levels may be used to predict in-hospital mortality in the general population of elderly patients admitted to the acute Geriatrics department.

Keywords: c-reactive protein, elderly, mortality, prediction

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Authors: Hossein Askarinejad, Manicka Dhanasekar

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In railway tracks, two adjacent rails are either welded or connected using bolted jointbars. In recent years the number of bolted rail joints is reduced by introduction of longer rail sections and by welding the rails at location of some joints. However, significant number of bolted rail joints remains in railways around the world as they are required to allow for rail thermal expansion or to provide electrical insulation in some sections of track. Regardless of the quality and integrity of the jointbar and bolt connections, the bending stiffness of jointbars is much lower than the rail generating large deflections under the train wheels. In addition, the gap or surface discontinuity on the rail running surface leads to generation of high wheel-rail impact force at the joint gap. These fundamental weaknesses have caused high rate of failure in track components at location of rail joints resulting in significant economic and safety issues in railways. The mechanical behavior of railway track at location of joints has not been fully understood due to various structural and material complexities. Although there have been some improvements in the methods for analysis of track at jointed rails in recent years, there are still uncertainties concerning the accuracy and reliability of the current methods. In this paper the current methods in analysis of track with a rail joint are critically evaluated and the new advances and recent research outcomes in this area are discussed. This research is part of a large granted project on rail joints which was defined by Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Rail Innovation with supports from Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) and Queensland Rail (QR).

Keywords: jointed rails, railway mechanics, track dynamics, wheel-rail interaction

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Authors: Emad A. Mohammed

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Utilizing the capabilities of Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence in the prediction of the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) required for multi-contact miscible (MCM) displacement of reservoir petroleum by hydrocarbon gas flooding using Fuzzy Logic models and Artificial Neural Network models will help a lot in giving accurate results. The factors affecting the (MMP) as it is proved from the literature and from the dataset are as follows: XC2-6: Intermediate composition in the oil-containing C2-6, CO2 and H2S, in mole %, XC1: Amount of methane in the oil (%),T: Temperature (°C), MwC7+: Molecular weight of C7+ (g/mol), YC2+: Mole percent of C2+ composition in injected gas (%), MwC2+: Molecular weight of C2+ in injected gas. Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks have been used widely in prediction and classification, with relatively high accuracy, in different fields of study. It is well known that the Fuzzy Inference system can handle uncertainty within the inputs such as in our case. The results of this work showed that our proposed models perform better with higher performance indices than other emprical correlations.

Keywords: MMP, gas flooding, artificial intelligence, correlation

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Authors: Rima T. Alfaraj, Murtadha J. Al Tammar, Khaqan Khan, Khalid M. Alruwaili

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OBJECTIVE/SCOPE (25-75): Caliper logging data provides critical information about wellbore shape and deformations, such as stress-induced borehole breakouts or washouts. Multiarm mechanical caliper logs are often run using wireline, which can be time-consuming, costly, and/or challenging to run in certain formations. To minimize rig time and improve operational safety, it is valuable to develop analytical solutions that can estimate caliper logs using available Logging-While-Drilling (LWD) data without the need to run wireline caliper logs. As a first step, the objective of this paper is to perform statistical analysis using an extensive datasetto identify important physical parameters that should be considered in developing such analytical solutions. METHODS, PROCEDURES, PROCESS (75-100): Caliper logs and LWD data of eleven wells, with a total of more than 80,000 data points, were obtained and imported into a data analytics software for analysis. Several parameters were selected to test the relationship of the parameters with the measured maximum and minimum caliper logs. These parameters includegamma ray, porosity, shear, and compressional sonic velocities, bulk densities, and azimuthal density. The data of the eleven wells were first visualized and cleaned.Using the analytics software, several analyses were then preformed, including the computation of Pearson’s correlation coefficients to show the statistical relationship between the selected parameters and the caliper logs. RESULTS, OBSERVATIONS, CONCLUSIONS (100-200): The results of this statistical analysis showed that some parameters show good correlation to the caliper log data. For instance, the bulk density and azimuthal directional densities showedPearson’s correlation coefficients in the range of 0.39 and 0.57, which wererelatively high when comparedto the correlation coefficients of caliper data with other parameters. Other parameters such as porosity exhibited extremely low correlation coefficients to the caliper data. Various crossplots and visualizations of the data were also demonstrated to gain further insights from the field data. NOVEL/ADDITIVE INFORMATION (25-75): This study offers a unique and novel look into the relative importance and correlation between different LWD measurements and wireline caliper logs via an extensive dataset. The results pave the way for a more informed development of new analytical solutions for estimating the size and shape of the wellbore in real-time while drilling using LWD data.

Keywords: LWD measurements, caliper log, correlations, analysis

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Authors: Mina Latif Ghaly Sawiras

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The difference between Islamic terrorism and human-rights has become a big question in the fight against Islamic terrorism globally. This is was raised on the fact that terrorism and human rights are interrelated to the extent that, when the former starts, the latter is violated. This direct linkage was recognized in the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action as adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna on 25 June 1993 which agreed that acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations are aimed at the destruction of human rights. Hence, Islamic-terrorism constitutes a violation on our most basic human rights. To this end, the first part of this paper will focus on the nexus between terrorism and human rights and endeavors to draw a co-relation between these two concepts. The second part thereafter will analyse the emerging concept of cyber-terrorism and how it takes place. Further, an analysis of cyber counter-terrorism balanced as against human rights will also be undertaken. This will be done through the analysis of the concept of ‘securitization’ of human rights as well as the need to create a balance between counterterrorism efforts as against the protection of human rights at all costs. The paper will then conclude with recommendations on how to balance counter-terrorism and human rights in the modern age.

Keywords: balance, counter-terrorism, cyber-terrorism, human rights, security, violation

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Authors: Arash Sadeghi, Taimaz Larimian

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This study explores the intricate interplay between community-based social capital (CBSC) and neighbourhood dynamics in enhancing resilience of Iranian SMEs, particularly under the strain of international sanctions. Utilising fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we examine how different dimensions of CBSC—structural, relational, and cognitive—interact with neighbourhood socio-economic and built-environment characteristics to influence SME resilience. Findings reveal four configurations that contribute to the presence of resistance and five configurations associated with the adaptation outcome. Each configuration demonstrates a distinct combination of social capital elements, which vary according to the specific socio-economic and built-environmental characteristics of the neighbourhoods. The first configuration highlights the importance of structural social capital in deprived areas for building resistance, while the second emphasises the role of relational social capital in low-density, minimally deprived areas. Overall, cognitive social capital seems to be less effective in driving economic resilience compared to structural and relational types. This research contributes to the literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the synergistic effects of CBSC dimensions and neighbourhood characteristics on SME resilience. By adopting a configurational approach, we move beyond traditional methodologies, offering a comprehensive view of the complex dynamics of CBSC and neighbourhood characteristics and their impact on SME resilience in varying neighbourhoods.

Keywords: community-based social capital, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), place-based resilience, resistance

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Authors: Baofeng Pan, Heng Liu

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Because of the high strength and large carrying capacity, the semi-rigid base is widely used in modern road engineering. However, hydrodynamic pressure, which is one of the main factors to cause early damage of semi-rigid base, cannot be avoided in the nature environment when pavement is subjected to some loadings such as the passing vehicles. In order to investigating how moisture-induced-damage of semi-rigid base influenced by hydrodynamic pressure, a new and effective experimental research method is provided in this paper. The results show that: (a) The washing action of high hydrodynamic pressure is the direct cause of strength reducing of road semi-rigid base. (b) The damage of high hydrodynamic pressure mainly occurs at the beginning of the scoring test and with the increasing of testing time the influence reduces. (c) Under the same hydrodynamic pressure, the longer the specimen health age, the stronger ability to resist moisture induced damage.

Keywords: semi-rigid base, hydrodynamic pressure, moisture-induced-damage, experimental research

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Authors: Marike Venter de Villiers, Alicia Kruger

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The rapid development of the Internet has facilitated the proliferation of online stores. It has, therefore, become a pertinent issue for online retailers to provide the ultimate experience to customers in an attempt to maintain market share in this competitive landscape. Experiential marketing refers to the sensory dimensions that consumers experience when being faced with a purchase decision, such as getting them to sense, feel, think, act, and relate. The goal of experiential marketing is to provide a holistic experience for customers that allow them to engage in an activity where they may be motivated to purchase the concept behind the product. Creating a unique online experience holds several benefits to brands such as increased customer satisfaction, increased revisit intention, and higher levels of customer loyalty. Although several studies have explored the topic of experiential marketing in an online context, a lack of research exists on South African consumers, an emerging economy that is often overlooked globally. More specifically, the present study focused on professional females and their perceptions of experiential marketing when shopping for fashion products online. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the experiential factors that influence the online purchase intention of fashion products among female professionals. Furthermore, this study aimed to achieve the following objectives: firstly, to gain insight into key website characteristics that consumers value when shopping online for fashion products; secondly, to apply Pine and Gilmore’s (1989) Four Realms of an Experience (entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapism) to ground the study; and thirdly, to gain in-depth insight into the importance of these dimensions and identifying sub-categories that fashion marketers can use to enhance consumers’ online experience. By means of a qualitative study, a focus group was conducted comprising six professional females by using semi-structured questions. Respondents were selected using convenience sampling, and the results were analyzed using thematic analysis. The present research suggests that three of the four realms of experience influence purchase intention of fashion products online, namely, escapism, esthetics, and education. The fourth dimension, pleasure, was present but to a lesser degree. In other words, ‘escapism’ provides online shoppers with a sense of emotional and intellectual pleasure, while ‘esthetics’ refers to the website design, functionality, and product range, and ‘education’ comprises the product information such as the quality, fabric, price and available sizes. The findings of this study provide fashion marketers with insight into how they can maximize on experiential marketing when selling fashion products online. It further provides strategies and techniques for creating an enhanced online experience that ultimately may lead to increased purchase intention.

Keywords: experiential marketing, fashion, online, retail

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Omolara Lade, David Oloke

Abstract:

Ibadan City suffers serious water supply problems; cases of dry taps are common in virtually every part of the City. The scarcity of piped water has made communities find alternative water sources; groundwater sources being a ready source. These wells are prone to pollution due to the close proximity of septic tanks to wells, disposal of solid or liquid wastes in pits, abandoned boreholes or even stream channels and landfills. Storms and floods in Ibadan have increased with consequent devastating effects claiming over 120 lives and displacing 600 people on August 2011 alone. In this study, an analysis of the water demand and sources of supply for the city was carried out through questionnaire survey and collection of data from City’s main water supply - Water Corporation of Oyo State (WCOS), groundwater sources were explored and 30 years rainfall data were collected from Meteorological station in Ibadan. 1067 questionnaire were administered at household level with a response rate of 86.7 %. A descriptive analysis of the survey revealed that 77.1 % of the respondents did not receive water at all from WCOS while 83.8 % depend on groundwater sources. Analysis of data from WCOS revealed that main water supply is inadequate as < 10 % of the population water demand was met. Rainfall intensity is highest in June with a mean value of 188 mm, which can be harvested at community—based level and used to complement the population water demand. Rainwater harvesting if planned, and managed properly will become a valuable alternative source of managing urban flood and alleviating water scarcity in the city.

Keywords: Ibadan, rainwater harvesting, sustainable water, urban flooding

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Saroj Gautam, Ram Lama, Hari Prasad Neopane, Sailesh Chitrakar, Biraj Singh Thapa, Baoshan Zhu

Abstract:

Sediment flowing along with the water in rivers flowing in South Asia erodes the turbine components. The erosion of turbine components is influenced by the nature of fluid flow along with components of typical turbine types. This paper examines two cases of high head Francis turbines with the same speed number numerically. The numerical investigation involves both steady-state and transient analysis of the numerical model developed for both cases. Furthermore, the influence of leakage flow from the clearance gap of guide vanes is also examined and compared with no leakage flow. It presents the added pressure pulsation to rotor-stator-interaction in the turbine runner for both cases due to leakage flow. It was also found that leakage flow was a major contributor to the sediment erosion in those turbines.

Keywords: sediment erosion, Francis turbine, leakage flow, rotor stator interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: M. M. Ali, Ahmed Al- Ani, Derek Eamus, Daniel K. Y. Tan

Abstract:

In this glasshouse study, we developed the new image-based non-destructive technique for detecting leaf P status of different crops such as cotton, tomato and lettuce. Plants were allowed to grow on nutrient media containing different P concentrations, i.e. 0%, 50% and 100% of recommended P concentration (P0 = no P, L; P1 = 2.5 mL 10 L-1 of P and P2 = 5 mL 10 L-1 of P as NaH2PO4). After 10 weeks of growth, plants were harvested and data on leaf P contents were collected using the standard destructive laboratory method and at the same time leaf images were collected by a handheld crop image sensor. We calculated leaf area, leaf perimeter and RGB (red, green and blue) values of these images. This data was further used in the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to estimate leaf P contents, which successfully classified these plants on the basis of leaf P contents. The data indicated that P deficiency in crop plants can be predicted using the image and morphological data. Our proposed non-destructive imaging method is precise in estimating P requirements of different crop species.

Keywords: image-based techniques, leaf area, leaf P contents, linear discriminant analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 361

Authors: Ratun Rahman, Rafid Islam, Akin Ahmed, Kamrul Hasan, Hasan Mahmud

Abstract:

Malware is becoming more prevalent, and several threat categories have risen dramatically in recent years. This paper provides a bird's-eye view of the world of malware analysis. The efficiency of five different machine learning methods (Naive Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbor, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and TensorFlow Decision Forest) combined with features picked from the retrieval of Android permissions to categorize applications as harmful or benign is investigated in this study. The test set consists of 1,168 samples (among these android applications, 602 are malware and 566 are benign applications), each consisting of 948 features (permissions). Using the permission-based dataset, the machine learning algorithms then produce accuracy rates above 80%, except the Naive Bayes Algorithm with 65% accuracy. Of the considered algorithms TensorFlow Decision Forest performed the best with an accuracy of 90%.

Keywords: android malware detection, machine learning, malware, malware analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: M. G. R. S. Perera, B. S. Weerakoon, L. P. G. Sherminie, M. L. Jayatilake, R. D. Jayasinghe, W. Huang

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to measure and evaluate the Longitudinal Relaxation Times (T1) in bone marrow of an Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) patient in order to explore the potential for a prognostic biomarker using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which will be a non-invasive prognostic approach to AML. MR image data were collected in the DICOM format and MATLAB Simulink software was used in the image processing and data analysis. For quantitative MRI data analysis, Region of Interests (ROI) on multiple image slices were drawn encompassing vertebral bodies of L3, L4, and L5. T1 was evaluated using the T1 maps obtained. The estimated bone marrow mean value of T1 was 790.1 (ms) at 3T. However, the reported T1 value of healthy subjects is significantly (946.0 ms) higher than the present finding. This suggests that the T1 for bone marrow can be considered as a potential prognostic biomarker for AML patients.

Keywords: acute myeloid leukaemia, longitudinal relaxation time, magnetic resonance imaging, prognostic biomarker.

Procedia PDF Downloads 510