Search results for: hand spasticity

Authors: Oumaima Lahmar

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This paper aims to define a structured topography for finance researchers seeking to navigate the body of knowledge in their extrapolation of finance phenomena. To make sense of the body of knowledge in finance, a probabilistic topic modeling approach is applied on 6000 abstracts of academic articles published in three top journals in finance between 1976 and 2020. This approach combines both machine learning techniques and natural language processing to statistically identify the conjunctions between research articles and their shared topics described each by relevant keywords. The topic modeling analysis reveals 35 coherent topics that can well depict finance literature and provide a comprehensive structure for the ongoing research themes. Comparing the extracted topics to the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification system, a significant similarity was highlighted between the characterizing keywords. On the other hand, we identify other topics that do not match the JEL classification despite being relevant in the finance literature.

Keywords: finance literature, textual analysis, topic modeling, perplexity

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Authors: Reza Abbasi, Ahmad Hamidi Benam

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Shell structures have many geometrical variables that modify some of these parameters to improve the mechanical behavior of the shell. On the other hand, the behavior of such structures depends on their geometry rather than on mass. Optimization techniques are useful in finding the geometrical shape of shell structures to improve mechanical behavior, especially to prevent or reduce bending anchors. The overall objective of this research is to optimize the shape of concrete shells using the thickness and height parameters along the reference curve and the overall shape of this curve. To implement the proposed scheme, the geometry of the structure was formulated using nonlinear curves. Shell optimization was performed under equivalent static loading conditions using the modified bird community algorithm. The results of this optimization show that without disrupting the initial design and with slight changes in the shell geometry, the structural behavior is significantly improved.

Keywords: concrete shells, shape optimization, spinless curves, modified particle community algorithm

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Authors: Amara Rafik, Mostefa Belhadj Aissa

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Radar data is one of the many data sources used by ATM Air Traffic Management systems. These data come from air navigation radar antennas. These radars intercept signals emitted by the various aircraft crossing the controlled airspace and calculate the position of these aircraft and retransmit their positions to the Air Traffic Management System. For greater reliability, these radars are positioned in such a way as to allow their coverage areas to overlap. An aircraft will therefore be detected by at least one of these radars. However, the position coordinates of the same aircraft and sent by these different radars are not necessarily identical. Therefore, the ATM system must calculate a single position (radar track) which will ultimately be sent to the control position and displayed on the air traffic controller's monitor. There are several techniques for calculating the radar track. Furthermore, the geographical nature of the problem requires the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS), i.e. a geographical database on the one hand and geographical processing. The objective of this work is to propose a GIS for traffic simulation which reconstructs the evolution over time of aircraft positions from a multi-source radar data set and by applying these different techniques.

Keywords: ATM, GIS, radar data, simulation

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Authors: Alireza Taghdiri, Sara Ghanbarzade Ghomi

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Nowadays, steel structures are used for not only common buildings but also high-rise construction and wide span covering. The advanced methods of construction as well as the advanced structural connections have a great effect on architecture. However a better use of steel structural systems will be achieved with the deep understanding of steel structures specifications and their substantial advantages. On the other hand, the steel structures face to the different environmental factors such as air flow which cause erosion and corrosion. With the time passing, the amount of these steel mass damages and also the imposed stress will be increased. In other words, the position of erosion in steel structures related to existing stresses indicates that effective environmental conditions will gradually decrease the structural resistance of steel components and result in decreasing the durability of steel components. In this paper, the durability of different steel structural components is evaluated and on the basis of these stress, architectural strategies for designing the system and the components of steel structures is recognized in order to achieve an optimum life cycle.

Keywords: durability, bending stress, erosion in steel structure, life cycle

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Authors: M. C. Akay, A. Aybakan, H. Temeltas

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Aerial and ground robots have various advantages of usage in different missions. Aerial robots can move quickly and get a different sight of view of the area, but those vehicles cannot carry heavy payloads. On the other hand, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are slow moving vehicles, since those can carry heavier payloads than unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this context, we investigate the performances of various Similarity Metrics to provide a common map for Heterogeneous Robot Team (HRT) in complex environments. Within the usage of Lidar Odometry and Octree Mapping technique, the local 3D maps of the environment are gathered.  In order to obtain a common map for HRT, informative theoretic similarity metrics are exploited. All types of these similarity metrics gave adequate as allowable simulation time and accurate results that can be used in different types of applications. For the heterogeneous multi robot team, those methods can be used to match different types of maps.

Keywords: common maps, heterogeneous robot team, map matching, informative theoretic similarity metrics

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Authors: K. Tahir, C. Belfedal, T. Allaoui, C. Gerard, M. Doumi

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In this paper, we presented an optimized RST controller using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) meta-heuristic technique of the active and reactive power regulation of a grid connected wind turbine based on a wound field synchronous generator. This regulation is achieved below the synchronous speed, by means of a maximum power point tracking algorithm. The control of our system is tested under typical wind variations and parameters variation, fault grid condition by simulation. Some results are presented and discussed to prove simplicity and efficiency of the WRSG control for WECS. On the other hand, according to simulation results, variable speed driven WRSG is not significantly impacted in fault conditions.

Keywords: wind energy, particle swarm optimization, wound rotor synchronous generator, power control, RST controller, maximum power point tracking

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Authors: Saud Hassan

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This paper shows simulation for the prediction of the flow around the backlight angle of the passenger vehicle. The CFD simulations are carried out on different car models. The Ahmed model “bluff body” used as the stander model to study aerodynamics of the backlight angle. This paper described the airflow over the different car models with different backlight angles and also on the Ahmed model to determine the trailing vortices with the varying backlight angle of a passenger vehicle body. The CFD simulation is carried out with the Ahmed body which has simplified car model mainly used in automotive industry to investigate the flow over the car body surface. The main goal of the simulation is to study the behavior of trailing vortices of these models. In this paper the air flow over the slant angle of 0,5o, 12.5o, 20o, 30o, 40o are considered. As investigating on the rear backlight angle two dimensional flows occurred at the rear slant, on the other hand when the slant angle is 30o the flow become three dimensional. Above this angle sudden drop occurred in drag.

Keywords: aerodynamics, Ahemd vehicle , backlight angle, finite element method

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Authors: Tshaudi Motsima

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Class attendance is key at all levels of education. At tertiary level many students develop a tendency of not attending all classes without being aware of the repercussions of not attending all classes. It is important for all students to attend all classes as they can receive first-hand information and they can benefit more. The student who attends classes is likely to perform better academically than the student who does not. The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between class attendance and academic performance of industrial engineering students. The data for this study were collected through the attendance register of students and the other data were accessed from the Integrated Tertiary Software and the Higher Education Data Analyzer Portal. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 93 students. The results revealed that students with medium predicate scores (OR = 3.8; p = 0.027) and students with low predicate scores (OR = 21.4, p < 0.001) were significantly likely to attend less than 80% of the classes as compared to students with high predicate scores. Students with examination performance of less than 50% were likely to attend less than 80% of classes than students with examination performance of 50% and above, but the differences were not statistically significant (OR = 1.3; p = 0.750).

Keywords: class attendance, examination performance, final outcome, logistic regression

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Authors: Huseyin Canci

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Chlorophylls are green photosynthetic pigment in plants. Therefore, photosynthesis in plants occurs in the leaves. Roles of chlorophylls help plants to get energy from light. The aim of the present study is to compare of chlorophyll contents in some bean species including common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and runner bean (P. coccineous L.) and genotypes. This research was carried out in fields of Faculty of Agriculture, Akdeniz University in Antalya. Species and genotypes were grown in 2 m single row and 50 cm row spacing. A randomized blocks design was used with two replications. Totally, 124 beans species and genotypes which 122 common beans and 2 runner beans were sown on February, 17th 2014 by hand. Chlorophyll a + b (SPAD values) were determined seedling stage, days to flowering 50% and pod setting stage on bean genotypes. Results showed that there were significant differences for genotypes, stages and interaction of genotypes X stages. There was statistically significant relationships between yield and chlorophyll content of bean species and genotypes.

Keywords: bean, chlorophyll, Phaseolus, SPAD values

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Authors: Miramar Damanhouri

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This study examines the relationship between language use in computer-mediated communication and the social identity of the user. The data were collected by surveying 298 Saudi bilingual speakers who are familiar with Arabizi, a blend of Latin characters and Arabic numerals to transliterate Arabic sounds, and then analyzed quantitatively by running tests for statistical confidence in order to determine differences in perceptions between young adults (ages 15-25 years) and middle-aged adults (ages 26-50 years). According to the findings of this study, English is the dominant language among most of the young adults surveyed, and when they do use Arabic, they use Arabizi because of its flexibility, compatibility with modern technology, and its acceptance among people of their age and sociocultural backgrounds. On the other hand, most middle-aged adults surveyed here tend to use Arabic, as they believe that they should show their loyalty to their origin. The results of the study demonstrate a mutual relationship between language use in computer-mediated communication and the user’s social identity, as language is used both to reflect and construct that identity.

Keywords: Arabizi, computer mediated communication, digital communication, language use

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Authors: Abdolsalam Ghaderi

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In this paper, the single-depot capacitated location-routing problem under uncertainty is presented. The problem aims to find the optimal location of a single depot and the routing of vehicles to serve the customers when the parameters may change under different circumstances. This problem has many applications, especially in the area of supply chain management and distribution systems. To get closer to real-world situations, travel time of vehicles, the fixed cost of vehicles usage and customers’ demand are considered as a source of uncertainty. A combined approach including robust optimization and stochastic programming was presented to deal with the uncertainty in the problem at hand. For this purpose, a mixed integer programming model is developed and a heuristic algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search(VNS) is presented to solve the model. Finally, the computational results are presented and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: location-routing problem, robust optimization, stochastic programming, variable neighborhood search

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Authors: Mohammed H. Rady, Mohd Sukri Mustapa, S Shamsudin, M. A. Lajis, A. Wagiman

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The present study is aimed at investigating microhardness and density of aluminium alloy chips when subjected to various settings of preheating temperature and preheating time. Three values of preheating temperature were taken as 450 °C, 500 °C, and 550 °C. On the other hand, three values of preheating time were chosen (1, 2, 3) hours. The influences of the process parameters (preheating temperature and time) were analyzed using Design of Experiments (DOE) approach whereby full factorial design with center point analysis was adopted. The total runs were 11 and they comprise of two factors of full factorial design with 3 center points. The responses were microhardness and density. The results showed that the density and microhardness increased with decreasing the preheating temperature. The results also found that the preheating temperature is more important to be controlled rather than the preheating time in microhardness analysis while both the preheating temperature and preheating time are important in density analysis. It can be concluded that setting temperature at 450 °C for 1 hour resulted in the optimum responses.

Keywords: AA6061, density, DOE, hot extrusion, microhardness

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

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

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

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Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari

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Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.  

Keywords: energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach

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Authors: Harche Rima, Laoufi Nadia Aicha

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This work focuses on the study and modeling of the fouling phenomenon in a vertical pipe. In the first step, milk is one of the fluids obeying the phenomenon of fouling because of the denaturation of these proteins, especially lactoglobulin, which is the active element of milk, and to facilitate its use, we chose to study milk as a fouling fluid. In another step, we consider the test section of our installation as a tubular-type heat exchanger that works against the current and in a closed circuit. A simple mathematical model of Kern & Seaton, based on the kinetics of the fouling resistance, was used to evaluate the influence of the operating parameters (fluid flow velocity and exchange wall temperature) on the fouling resistance. The influence of the variation of the fouling resistance with the operating conditions on the efficiency of the heat exchanger and the importance of the dirty state exchange coefficient as an exchange quality control parameter were discussed and examined. On the other hand, an electronic scanning microscope analysis was performed on the milk deposit in order to obtain its actual image and composition, which allowed us to calculate the thickness of this deposit.

Keywords: fouling, milk, tubular heat exchanger, fouling resistance

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Authors: Justin Byrne, Jose Ramon Cobo

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The growing importance of cross- or intercultural competencies (used here interchangeably) for the business and management professionals is now a commonplace in both academic and professional literature. This reflects two parallel developments. On the one hand, it is a consequence of the increased attention paid to a whole range of 'soft skills', now seen as fundamental in both individuals' and corporate success. On the other hand, and more specifically, the increasing demand for interculturally competent professionals is a corollary of ongoing processes of globalization, which multiply and intensify encounters between individuals and companies from different cultural backgrounds. Business schools have, for some decades, responded to the needs of the job market and their own students by providing students with training in intercultural skills, as they are encouraged to do so by the major accreditation agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Adapting Early and Ang's (2003) formulation of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), this paper aims to help fill the lagunae in the current literature on intercultural training in three main ways. First, it offers an in-depth analysis of the CQ of a little studied group: contemporary Millenial and 'Generation Z' Business School students. The level of analysis distinguishes between the four different dimensions of CQ, cognition, metacognition, motivation and behaviour, and thereby provides a detailed picture of the strengths and weaknesses in CQ of the group as a whole, as well as of different sub-groups and profiles of students. Secondly, by crossing these individual-level findings with respondents' socio-cultural and educational data, this paper also proposes and tests hypotheses regarding the relative impact and importance of four possible antecedents of intercultural skills identified in the literature: prior international experience; intercultural training, foreign language proficiency, and experience of cultural diversity in habitual country of residence. Third, we use this analysis to suggest data-based intercultural training priorities for today's management students. These conclusions are based on the statistical analysis of individual responses of some 300 Bachelor or Masters students in a major European Business School provided to two on-line surveys: Ang, Van Dyne, et al's (2007) standard 20-question self-reporting CQ Scale, and an original questionnaire designed by the authors to collate information on respondent's socio-demographic and educational profile relevant to our four hypotheses and explanatory variables. The data from both instruments was crossed in both descriptive statistical analysis and regression analysis. This research shows that there is no statistically significant and positive relationship between the four antecedents analyzed and overall CQ level. The exception in this respect is the statistically significant correlation between international experience, and the cognitive dimension of CQ. In contrast, the results show that the combination of international experience and foreign language skills acting together, does have a strong overall impact on CQ levels. These results suggest that selecting and/or training students with strong foreign language skills and providing them with international experience (through multinational programmes, academic exchanges or international internships) constitutes one effective way of training culturally intelligent managers of tomorrow.

Keywords: business school, cultural intelligence, millennial, training

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Authors: Sajjad H. Kasanagh, Perviz Ahmedzade, Alexander Fainleib, Taylan Gunay

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Modification of asphalt is a fundamental method around the world mainly on the purpose of providing more durable pavements which lead to diminish repairing cost during the lifetime of highways. Various polymers such as styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) make up the greater parts of the all-over asphalt modifiers generally providing better physical properties of asphalt by decreasing temperature dependency which eventually diminishes permanent deformation on highways such as rutting. However, some waste and low-cost materials such as recycled plastics and ground rubber tire have been attempted to utilize in asphalt as modifier instead of manufactured polymer modifiers due to decreasing the eventual highway cost. On the other hand, the usage of recycled plastics has become a worldwide requirement and awareness in order to decrease the pollution made by waste plastics. Hence, finding an area in which recycling plastics could be utilized has been targeted by many research teams so as to reduce polymer manufacturing and plastic pollution. To this end, in this paper, thermoplastic dynamic vulcanizate (TDV) obtained from recycled post-consumer polyethylene and ground tire rubber (GTR) were used to provide an efficient modifier for asphalt which decreases the production cost as well and finally might provide an ecological solution by decreasing polymer disposal problems. TDV was synthesized by the chemists in the research group by means of the abovementioned components that are considered as compatible physical characteristic of asphalt materials. TDV modified asphalt samples having different rate of proportions of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 wt.% TDV modifier were prepared. Conventional tests, such as penetration, softening point and roll thin film oven (RTFO) tests were performed to obtain fundamental physical and aging properties of the base and modified binders. The high temperature performance grade (PG) of binders was determined by Superpave tests conducted on original and aged binders. The multiple stress creep and recovery (MSCR) test which is relatively up-to-date method for classifying asphalts taking account of their elasticity abilities was carried out to evaluate PG plus grades of binders. The results obtained from performance grading, and MSCR tests were also evaluated together so as to make a comparison between the methods both aiming to determine rheological parameters of asphalt. The test results revealed that TDV modification leads to a decrease in penetration, an increase in softening point, which proves an increasing stiffness of asphalt. DSR results indicate an improvement in PG for modified binders compared to base asphalt. On the other hand, MSCR results that are compatible with DSR results also indicate an enhancement on rheological properties of asphalt. However, according to the results, the improvement is not as distinct as observed in DSR results since elastic properties are fundamental in MSCR. At the end of the testing program, it can be concluded that TDV can be used as modifier which provides better rheological properties for asphalt and might diminish plastic waste pollution since the material is 100% recycled.

Keywords: asphalt, ground tire rubber, recycled polymer, thermoplastic dynamic vulcanizate

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Authors: Asma Ben Yaghlane, Mohamed Naceur Azaiez

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In this paper, we briefly introduce the concept of Poisson attacks in the case of defense/attack strategies where attacks are assumed to be continuous. We suggest a game model in which the attacker will combine both criteria of a sufficient confidence level of a successful attack and a reasonably small size of the estimation error in order to launch an attack. Here, estimation error arises from assessing the system failure upon attack using aggregate data at the system level. The corresponding error is referred to as aggregation error. On the other hand, the defender will attempt to deter attack by making one or both criteria inapplicable. The defender will build his/her strategy by both strengthening the targeted system and increasing the size of error. We will formulate the defender problem based on appropriate optimization models. The attacker will opt for a Bayesian updating in assessing the impact on the improvement made by the defender. Then, the attacker will evaluate the feasibility of the attack before making the decision of whether or not to launch it. We will provide illustrations to better explain the process.

Keywords: attacker, defender, game theory, information

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Authors: Farah Al-Mutairi, Hadeer Al-Jeeraan, Lima Ali, Raya Al-Dabbous, Sarah Baroun

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Lately, within the middle east, development has taken place in the construction area which increased the demand of a crucial component, where without it; stunning views from skyscrapers cannot been experienced, and natural light would not be able to be viewed from an indoor building. Glass has changed the path of living and building. Float glass is a type of glass that is flat and it is the type used in the construction and automobile sector. Facility design on the other hand is a study that improves the efficiency utilization of people, equipment, material and space. Kuwait's governmental future developing plan bears in mind the need of increase in industries to increase the growth domestic product(GDP) of the country. This project studies the feasibility of two designs of a float glass manufacture in Kuwait. The first Alternative, consists of one production line of capacity 500 tons of glass per day. The second alternative, consists of three production lines, each of capacity 500 tons of glass daily.

Keywords: float glass manufacture, Kuwait, feasibility float glass, facility design, float glass production

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Authors: Wahyu Widodo, Imbang Dwi Rahayu, Adi Sutanto

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The purpose of this research was to analyze the effect of the fermented organic feed to dry matter, ash, organic matter, protein, fat and crude fiber contents of kampong chicken meat. The research had conducted at January until June, 2016. One hundreds chickens were used in this research. Experimental method and completely randomized design were used to support this research. We had 4 treatment namely P0: organic feed without fermentation, P1: Organic feed with fermented rice bran, P2: Organic feed with fermented corn, P3: Organic feed with fermented rice bran and corn with 5 replication. The conclusion was the treatment had not a significant effect in the dry matter, ash, organic matter and protein contents of chicken meat. On the other hand, it had a significant effect in the fat and crude fiber contents of chicken meat.

Keywords: corn, fermented organic feed, nutritive contents, rice bran

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Authors: M. Meftahi, M. Hoseinzadeh, S. A. Naeini

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Selection of soil bearing capacity is an important issue that should be investigated under different conditions. The bearing capacity of foundation around of soil slope is based on the active and passive forces. On the other hand, due to extension of urban structures, it is inevitable to put the foundations together. Concerning the two cases mentioned above, investigating the behavior of adjacent foundations which are constructed besides soil slope is essential. It should be noted that, according to the conditions, the bearing capacity of adjacent foundations can be less or more than mat foundations. Also, soil reinforcement increases the bearing capacity of adjacent foundations, and the amount of its increase depends on the distance between foundations. In this research, based on numerical studies, a method is presented for evaluating ultimate bearing capacity of adjacent foundations at different intervals. In the present study, the effect of foundation width, the center to center distance of adjacent foundations and reinforced soil has been investigated on the bearing capacity of adjacent foundations beside soil slope. The results indicate that, due to interference of failure surfaces created under foundation, it depends on their intervals and the ultimate bearing capacity of foundation varies.

Keywords: adjacent foundation, bearing capacity, reinforcements, settlement, numerical analysis

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Authors: Barkha Ramteke, Sonali Ridhorkar

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An election is an important event in all countries. Traditional voting has several drawbacks, including the expense of time and effort required for tallying and counting results, the cost of papers, arrangements, and everything else required to complete a voting process. Many countries are now considering online e-voting systems, but the traditional e-voting systems suffer a lack of trust. It is not known if a vote is counted correctly, tampered or not. A lack of transparency means that the voter has no assurance that his or her vote will be counted as they voted in elections. Electronic voting systems are increasingly using blockchain technology as an underlying storage mechanism to make the voting process more transparent and assure data immutability as blockchain technology grows in popularity. The transparent feature, on the other hand, may reveal critical information about applicants because all system users have the same entitlement to their data. Furthermore, because of blockchain's pseudo-anonymity, voters' privacy will be revealed, and third parties involved in the voting process, such as registration institutions, will be able to tamper with data. To overcome these difficulties, we apply Ethereum smart contracts into blockchain-based voting systems.

Keywords: blockchain, AMV chain, electronic voting, decentralized

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Authors: Fawzia Mohammed Idris

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Zakat is an Islamic procedure for wealth distribution as a social protection mechanism for needy people. This study aimed to assess the possibility to expand the share of fund for national health insurance fund from zakat funds allocated for poor people by measuring the reduction of poverty that result from the investing on direct payment to the needy or by covering them in social health insurance. This study used stata regression as a statistical analysis tool and the finding clarified that there is no significant relationship between the poverty rate as the main indicator and, the number of poor people covered by national health insurance on one hand and the number of benefits poor people from the distribution of zakat fund. This study experienced many difficulties regarding the quality and the consistency of the data. The study suggested that a joint mission between national health insurance fund and zakat chamber to conduct study to assess the efficient use of zakat fund allocated to poor people.

Keywords: health finance, poverty, social health insurance, zakat

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Authors: Farid Amidi Fazli, Afshin Babazadeh, Farnaz Amidi Fazli

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In contrast with literal meaning of nano, researchers have been achieving mega adventures in this area and every day more nanomaterials are being introduced to the market. After long time application of fossil-based plastics, nowadays accumulation of their waste seems to be a big problem to the environment. On the other hand, mankind has more attention to safety and living environment. Replacing common plastic packaging materials with degradable ones that degrade faster and convert to non-dangerous components like water and carbon dioxide have more attractions; these new materials are based on renewable and inexpensive sources of starch and cellulose. However, the functional properties of them do not suitable for packaging. At this point, nanotechnology has an important role. Utilizing of nanomaterials in polymer structure will improve mechanical and physical properties of them; nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) has this ability. This work has employed a chemical method to produce NCC and starch bio nanocomposite containing NCC. X-Ray Diffraction technique has characterized the obtained materials. Results showed that applied method is a suitable one as well as applicable one to NCC production.

Keywords: biofilm, cellulose, nanocomposite, starch

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Authors: Ahmad Shayeq Azizi, Yuji Toda

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In Afghanistan, floods are the most frequent and recurrent events among other natural disasters. On the other hand, lack of monitoring data is a severe problem, which increases the difficulty of making the appropriate flood countermeasures of flood forecasting. This study is carried out to simulate the flood inundation in Harirud River Basin by application of distributed hydrological model, Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) and 2D hydrodynamic model, International River Interface Cooperative (iRIC) based on satellite rainfall combined with historical peak discharge and global accessed data. The results of the simulation can predict the inundation area, depth and velocity, and the hardware countermeasures such as the impact of levee installation can be discussed by using the present method. The methodology proposed in this study is suitable for the area where hydrological and geographical data including river survey data are poorly observed.

Keywords: distributed hydrological model, flood inundation, hydrodynamic model, ungauged basins

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Authors: Saad Ahmed, Sanjeev Khannaa

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Glass fiber reinforced polymers are widely used in structural systems as load-bearing elements at both high and low temperatures. This investigation presents the evaluation of glass fiber reinforced unsaturated polyurethane under harsh conditions of changing temperature and moisture content. This study Explores how these parameters affect the optical properties of the polymer matrix and the composite. Using the hand layup method, the polyurethane resin was modified by E-glass fibers (15 vol. %) to manufacture fiber-reinforced composite. This work includes the preparation of glass-like polyurethane resin sheets and estimates all light transmittance properties at high and very low temperatures and wet conditions. All-optical properties were retested to evaluate the level of improvement or failure. The results found that when comprising reinforced composite fiber to the unreinforced specimens, the reinforced composite shows a fair optical property at high temperatures and good performance at low temperatures.

Keywords: unsaturated polyurethane, extreme temperatures, light transmittance, haze number

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Authors: Yusuf, S. I., Saba, A., Olaoye, D. O., Ibrahim J. A., Yahaya H. M., Jatto A. O

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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technology has been applied in several ways to provide vital information about petro-physical properties of reservoirs. However, due to the need to study the molecular behaviours of particles of the fluids in different restricted media, diffusion magnetic resonance equation is hereby applied in spherical coordinates and solved analytically using the method of separation of variables and solution of Legendre equation by Frobenius method. The viscous fluid considered in this research work is unused oil while the non-viscous fluid is water. The results obtained show that water begins to manifest appreciable change at radial adjustment value of 10 and Magnetization of 2.31191995400015x1014 and relaxes finally at 2.30x1014 at radial adjustment value of 1. On the other hand, unused engine oil begins to manifest its changes at radial adjustment value of 40 and Magnetization of 1.466557018x1014and relaxes finally at 1.48x1014 at radial adjustment value of 5.

Keywords: viscous and non-viscous fluid, restricted medium, relaxation times, coefficient of diffusion

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Authors: Zeljana Aljinovic Barac, Marina Granic, Tina Vuko

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Study investigates the level and extent of voluntary disclosure practice in Croatia. The research was conducted on the sample of 130 medium and large companies. Findings indicate that two thirds of the companies analysed disclose below-average number of additional information. The explanatory analyses has shown that firm size, listing status and industrial sector significantly and positively affect the level and extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual report of Croatian companies. On the other hand, profitability and ownership structure were found statistically insignificant. Unlike previous studies, this paper deals with level of voluntary disclosure of medium and large companies, as well as companies whose shares are not listed on the organized capital market, which can be found as our contribution. Also, the research makes contribution by providing the insights into voluntary disclosure practices in Croatia, as a case of macro-oriented accounting system economy, i.e. bank oriented economy with an emerging capital market.

Keywords: annual report, Croatian companies, disclosure index, voluntary disclosure

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Authors: Olga A. Momot, Boris I. Synzynys, Alla A. Oudalova

Abstract:

Obninsk is situated in the Kaluga region 100 km southwest of Moscow on the left bank of the Protva River. Several enterprises utilizing nuclear energy are operating in the town. A special attention in the region where radiation-hazardous facilities are located has traditionally been paid to radioactive gas and aerosol releases into the atmosphere; liquid waste discharges into the Protva river and groundwater pollution. Municipal intakes involve 34 wells arranged 15 km apart in a sequence north-south along the foot of the left slope of the Protva river valley. Northern and southern water intakes are upstream and downstream of the town, respectively. They belong to river valley intakes with mixed feeding, i.e. precipitation infiltration is responsible for a smaller part of groundwater, and a greater amount is being formed by overflowing from Protva. Water intakes are maintained by the Protva river runoff, the volume of which depends on the precipitation fallen out and watershed area. Groundwater contamination with tritium was first detected in a sanitary-protective zone of the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (SRC-IPPE) by Roshydromet researchers when realizing the “Program of radiological monitoring in the territory of nuclear industry enterprises”. A comprehensive survey of the SRC-IPPE’s industrial site and adjacent territories has revealed that research nuclear reactors and accelerators where tritium targets are applied as well as radioactive waste storages could be considered as potential sources of technogenic tritium. All the above sources are located within the sanitary controlled area of intakes. Tritium activity in water of springs and wells near the SRC-IPPE is about 17.4 – 3200 Bq/l. The observed values of tritium activity are below the intervention levels (7600 Bq/l for inorganic compounds and 3300 Bq/l for organically bound tritium). The risk has being assessed to estimate possible effect of considered tritium concentrations on human health. Data on tritium concentrations in pipe-line drinking water were used for calculations. The activity of 3H amounted to 10.6 Bq/l and corresponded to the risk of such water consumption of ~ 3·10-7 year-1. The risk value given in magnitude is close to the individual annual death risk for population living near a NPP – 1.6·10-8 year-1 and at the same time corresponds to the level of tolerable risk (10-6) and falls within “risk optimization”, i.e. in the sphere for planning the economically sound measures on exposure risk reduction. To estimate the chemical risk, physical and chemical analysis was made of waters from all springs and wells near the SRC-IPPE. Chemical risk from groundwater contamination was estimated according to the EPA US guidance. The risk of carcinogenic diseases at a drinking water consumption amounts to 5·10-5. According to the classification accepted the health risk in case of spring water consumption is inadmissible. The compared assessments of risk associated with tritium exposure, on the one hand, and the dangerous chemical (e.g. heavy metals) contamination of Obninsk drinking water, on the other hand, have confirmed that just these chemical pollutants are responsible for health risk.

Keywords: radiation-hazardous facilities, water intakes, tritium, heavy metal, health risk

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Authors: Reza Mokhtari Malekabadi, Leila Jalalabadi, Zahra Kiyani Ghaleh No

Abstract:

Today, systems of management and urban planning, attempt to reach more sustainable development through monitoring developments, urban development and development plans. Monitoring of changes in the urban places and sustainable urban development accounted a base for the realization of worthy goals urban sustainable development. The importance of women in environmental protection programs is high enough that in 21 agenda has been requested from all countries to allocate more shares to women in their policies. On the other hand, urban waste landfill has become one of the environmental concerns in modern cities. This research assumes that the impact of women on recycling, reduction and proper waste landfill is much more than men. For this reason, three districts; Yousef Abad, Heshmatieh and Nezam Abad are gauged through questionnaire and using the analytical research hypothesis model. This research will be categorized as functional research. The results have shown that noticing the power of women, their participation towards realization of the development objectives and programs can be used in solving their problems.

Keywords: citizens, urban, environmental, sustainability, solid waste, Tehran

Procedia PDF Downloads 350