Search results for: diurnal temperature cycle model

Authors: Nana Weng

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From 2008, Chinese Foreign Direct Investment flows to the European Union continued its rapid rise. Currently, the industrial structure adjustment in developing countries has also been placed on the international movement of factors of production. Now China economy is in an important period of transformation on industrial structure adjustment. Under the international transfer of industry background, the adjustment of industrial structure upgrading and sophistication are the key elements of a successful economic transformation. In order to achieve a virtuous cycle of foreign investment patterns and optimize the industrial structure of foreign direct investment as well, the research on the positive the role of the EU direct investment and how it impact China’s industrial structure optimization and upgrading is of great significance. In this paper, the author explained how the EU as an investment destination is different with the United States and ASEAN. Then, based on the theory of FDI and industrial structure and combining the four kinds of motives of China’s ODI in EU, this paper explained the impact mechanism which has influenced China domestic industrial structure primarily through the Transfer effect, Correlation effect and Competitive effect. On the premise that FDI activities do affect the home country’s domestic industrial structure, this paper made empirical analysis with industrial panel data. With the help of Gray Correlation Method and Limited Distributed Lags, this paper found that China/s ODI in the EU impacted the tertiary industry strongly and had a significant positive impact, particularly the manufacturing industry and the financial industry. This paper also pointed out that Chinese MNEs should realize several issues, such as pay more attention to high-tech industries so that they can make the best use of reverse technology spillover. When Chinese enterprises ‘go out,' they ought to keep in mind that domestic research and development capital contribution can make greater economic growth. Finally, based on theoretical and empirical analysis results, this paper presents the industry choice recommendations in the future of the EU direct investment, particularly through the development of the proper rational industrial policy and industrial development strategic to guide the industrial restructuring and upgrading.

Keywords: china ODI in european union, industrial structure optimization, impact mechanism, empirical analysis

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Authors: Fangzheng Li, Xiong Li

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Significant differences in urban greening have occurred in Chinese cities, which accompanied with China's rapid urbanization. However, few studies focused on the spatial differentiation of urban greening in China with large amounts of data. The spatial differentiation pattern, spatial correlation characteristics and the distribution shape of urban green space ratio, urban green coverage rate and public green area per capita were calculated and analyzed, using Global and Local Moran's I using data from 289 cities in 2014. We employed Spatial Lag Model and Spatial Error Model to assess the impacts of urbanization process on urban greening of China. Then we used Geographically Weighted Regression to estimate the spatial variations of the impacts. The results showed: 1. a significant spatial dependence and heterogeneity existed in urban greening values, and the differentiation patterns were featured by the administrative grade and the spatial agglomeration simultaneously; 2. it revealed that urbanization has a negative correlation with urban greening in Chinese cities. Among the indices, the the proportion of secondary industry, urbanization rate, population and the scale of urban land use has significant negative correlation with the urban greening of China. Automobile density and per capita Gross Domestic Product has no significant impact. The results of GWR modeling showed that the relationship between urbanization and urban greening was not constant in space. Further, the local parameter estimates suggested significant spatial variation in the impacts of various urbanization factors on urban greening.

Keywords: China’s urbanization, geographically weighted regression, spatial differentiation pattern, urban greening

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Authors: A. Hamam, D. Oukil, A. Dib, L. Makhloufi

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The aim of this work is to synthesize modified Polypyrrole films (PPy) containing nanoparticles of copper oxides onto a non conducting cellulosic substrate. Firstly, the chemical polymerization of polypyrrole onto cellulosic substrate is carried out using FeCl3 as an oxidant and Pyrrole as monomer. Different parameters were optimized (monomer concentration, duration of the experiment, nature of supporting electrolyte, temperature, etc.) in order to obtain films with different thickness and different morphologies. Thickness and topography of different PPy deposits were estimated by a profilometer apparatus. The electrochemical reactivity of the obtained electrodes were tested by cyclic voltammetry technique (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Secondly, the modification of the PPy film surface by incorporation of copper oxide nanonoparticles is conducted by applying a galvanostatic procedure from CuCl2 solution. Surface characterization has been carried out using scanning microscope (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The analysis showed the presence of the copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO) in the polymer films with dimensions less than 50 nm.

Keywords: polypyrrole, modified electrode, cellulosic substrate, copper oxide

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Authors: Maricris I. Abuan

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This assessment of macrobenthic fauna found in the intertidal zone of Brgy. Poblacion, Carmen Agusan del Norte was conducted during the lowest tides of the month of June 2008. Transect-quadrat method was employed during the sampling. Twenty-transect lines were established in the area with lengths depending on the topography of the intertidal zone and were laid perpendicular to the shore, at intervals of fifty meters. Twenty-six (26) macrobenthic species with a total of seventy (70) individuals were identified in the study area. These species belong to the four Phyla -Arthropoda, Mollusca, Echinodermata and Annelida. The three most abundant macrobenthos were hermit crabs (Phylum Arthropoda) , Archaster typicus (Phylum Echinodermata), and Nassarius pullus (Phylum Mollusca). The diversity index value was 2.36. Most species exhibited random distribution And only few species had regular and clumped distribution. The pH, salinity, and sea water temperature readings were within the normal range. Results showed a very scarce macrobenthic species present in the study area.

Keywords: diversity index, macrobenthic fauna, macrobenthos, phyla

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Authors: C. R. Danielle, S. Erik, T. Patrick, M. Hugh

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In the last decade there has been an increase in demand for fine grinding due to the depletion of coarse-grained orebodies and an increase of processing fine disseminated minerals and complex orebodies. These ores have provided new challenges in concentrator design because fine and ultra-fine grinding is required to achieve acceptable recovery rates. Therefore, the correct design of a grinding circuit is important for minimizing unit costs and increasing product quality. The use of ball mills for grinding in fine size ranges is inefficient and, therefore, vertical stirred grinding mills are becoming increasingly popular in the mineral processing industry due to its already known high energy efficiency. This work presents a hypothesis of a methodology to predict the product size distribution of a vertical stirred mill using a Bond ball mill. The Population Balance Model (PBM) was used to empirically analyze the performance of a vertical mill and a Bond ball mill. The breakage parameters obtained for both grinding mills are compared to determine the possibility of predicting the product size distribution of a vertical mill based on the results obtained from the Bond ball mill. The biggest advantage of this methodology is that most of the minerals processing laboratories already have a Bond ball mill to perform the tests suggested in this study. Preliminary results show the possibility of predicting the performance of a laboratory vertical stirred mill using a Bond ball mill.

Keywords: bond ball mill, population balance model, product size distribution, vertical stirred mill

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Authors: Svetlana Guryeva, Inna Kornienko, Andrey Usanov, Dmitry Usanov, Elena Petersen

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Every day cells in our organism are exposed to various factors: chemical agents, reactive oxygen species, ionizing radiation, and others. These factors can cause damage to DNA, cellular membrane, intracellular compartments, and proteins. The fate of cells depends on the exposure intensity and duration. The prolonged and intense exposure causes the irreversible damage accumulation, which triggers the permanent cell cycle arrest (cellular senescence) or cell death programs. In the case of low dose of impacts, it can lead to cell renovation and to cell functional state improvement. Therefore, it is a pivotal question to investigate the factors and doses that result in described positive effects. In order to estimate the influence of different agents, the proliferation index and levels of cell death markers (annexin V/propidium iodide), senescence-associated β-galactosidase, and lipofuscin were measured. The experiments were conducted on primary human fibroblasts of the 8th passage. According to the levels of mentioned markers, these cells were defined as senescent cells. The effect of low-frequency magnetic field was investigated. Different modes of magnetic field exposure were tested. The physical agents were compared with chemical agents: metformin (10 mM) and taurine (0.8 mM and 1.6 mM). Cells were incubating with chemicals for 5 days. The highest decrease in the level of senescence-associated β-galactosidase (21%) and lipofuscin (17%) was observed in the primary senescent fibroblasts after 5 days after double treatments with 48 h intervals with low-frequency magnetic field. There were no significant changes in the proliferation index after magnetic field application. The cytotoxic effect of magnetic field was not observed. The chemical agent taurine (1.6 mM) decreased the level of senescence-associated β-galactosidase (23%) and lipofuscin (22%). Metformin improved the activity of senescence-associated β-galactosidase on 15% and the level of lipofuscin on 19% in this experiment. According to these results, the effect of double treatment with 48 h interval with low-frequency magnetic field and the effect of taurine (1.6 mM) were comparable to the effect of metformin, for which anti-aging properties are proved. In conclusion, this study can become the first step towards creation of the standardized system for the investigation of different effects on senescent cells.

Keywords: biomarkers, magnetic field, metformin, primary fibroblasts, senescence, taurine

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Authors: Orose Rugchati, Sarawut Wattanawongpitak

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The Chainat 1 variety (CN1) of rice, which generally has high amylose starch, is distributed in the lower part of Northern Thailand. CN1 rice starch can be used in both food and non-food products. In this research, the CN1 rice starch from the wet-milling process was prepared by Pre-Gelatinization (Heat-Moisture Treatments, HMT) under different conditions: percentage of moisture contents (20% and 30%) and duration time in minutes (0, 30, 60, and 90) at a specific temperature 110°C. The physicochemical characteristics of CN1 rice starch modification, such as amylose content, viscosity, swelling, and solubility property, were evaluated and compared with native CN1 rice starch. The results showed that modification CN1 rice starch tends to have some characteristics better than native starch. The appearance color and starch granule of modified CN1 by HMT have more effective characteristics than native starch when increased duration time. The duration time and moisture content are significant factors to the CN1 starch characteristic by HMT. Moreover, physical modification of CN1 starch by HMT can be described as a modified rice starch providing in many applications and the advantage of biodegradability development.

Keywords: physicochemical characteristics, physical modification, pre-gelatinization, Heat-Moisture Treatments, rice starch, Chainat 1 variety (CN1)

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Authors: N. Hatraf, L. Merabti, Z. Neffah, W. Taane

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The excessive consumption of fossil energies (electrical energy) during summer caused by the technological development involves more and more climate warming. In order to reduce the worst impact of gas emissions produced from classical air conditioning, heat driven solar absorption chiller is pretty promising; it consists on using solar as motive energy which is clean and environmentally friendly to provide cold. Solar absorption machine is composed by four components using Lithium Bromide /water as a refrigerating couple. LiBr- water is the most promising in chiller applications due to high safety, high volatility ratio, high affinity, high stability and its high latent heat. The lithium bromide solution is constitute by the salt lithium bromide which absorbs water under certain conditions of pressure and temperature however if the concentration of the solution is high in the absorption chillers; which exceed 70%, the solution will crystallize. The main aim of this article is to study the phenomena of the crystallization and to evaluate how the dependence between the electric conductivity and the concentration which should be controlled.

Keywords: absorption, crystallization, experimental results, lithium bromide solution

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Authors: Jungyeol Hong, Dongjoo Park

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The urban transit system is a critical part of a solution to the economic, energy, and environmental challenges. Furthermore, it ultimately contributes the improvement of people’s quality of lives. For taking these kinds of advantages, the city of Seoul has tried to construct an integrated transit system including both subway and buses. The effort led to the fact that approximately 6.9 million citizens use the integrated transit system every day for their trips. Diagnosing the current transit network is a significant task to provide more convenient and pleasant transit environment. Therefore, the critical objective of this study is to establish a methodological framework for the analysis of an integrated bus-subway network and to examine the relationship between subway ridership and parameters such as network topology measures, bus demand, and a variety of commercial business facilities. Regarding a statistical approach to estimate subway ridership at a station level, many previous studies relied on Ordinary Least Square regression, but there was lack of studies considering the endogeneity issues which might show in the subway ridership prediction model. This study focused on both discovering the impacts of integrated transit network topology measures and endogenous effect of bus demand on subway ridership. It could ultimately contribute to developing more accurate subway ridership estimation accounting for its statistical bias. The spatial scope of the study covers Seoul city in South Korea, and it includes 243 subway stations and 10,120 bus stops with the temporal scope set during twenty-four hours with one-hour interval time panels each. The subway and bus ridership information in detail was collected from the Seoul Smart Card data in 2015 and 2016. First, integrated subway-bus network topology measures which have characteristics regarding connectivity, centrality, transitivity, and reciprocity were estimated based on the complex network theory. The results of integrated transit network topology analysis were compared to subway-only network topology. Also, the non-recursive approach which is Three-Stage Least Square was applied to develop the daily subway ridership model as capturing the endogeneity between bus and subway demands. Independent variables included roadway geometry, commercial business characteristics, social-economic characteristics, safety index, transit facility attributes, and dummies for seasons and time zone. Consequently, it was found that network topology measures were significant size effect. Especially, centrality measures showed that the elasticity was a change of 4.88% for closeness centrality, 24.48% for betweenness centrality while the elasticity of bus ridership was 8.85%. Moreover, it was proved that bus demand and subway ridership were endogenous in a non-recursive manner as showing that predicted bus ridership and predicted subway ridership is statistically significant in OLS regression models. Therefore, it shows that three-stage least square model appears to be a plausible model for efficient subway ridership estimation. It is expected that the proposed approach provides a reliable guideline that can be used as part of the spectrum of tools for evaluating a city-wide integrated transit network.

Keywords: integrated transit system, network topology measures, three-stage least squared, endogeneity, subway ridership

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Authors: Wighens Ngoie Ilunga, Pamela J. Welz, Olewaseun O. Oyekola, Daniel Ikhu-Omoregbe

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Currently, most sludge from the wastewater treatment plants of edible oil factories is disposed to landfills, but landfill sites are finite and potential sources of environmental pollution. Production of biodiesel from wastewater sludge can contribute to energy production and waste minimization. However, conventional biodiesel production is energy and waste intensive. Generally, biodiesel is produced from the transesterification reaction of oils with alcohol (i.e., Methanol, ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst. Homogeneously catalysed transesterification is the conventional approach for large-scale production of biodiesel as reaction times are relatively short. Nevertheless, homogenous catalysis presents several challenges such as high probability of soap. The current study aimed to reuse wastewater sludge from the edible oil industry as a novel feedstock for both monounsaturated fats and bioethanol for the production of biodiesel. Preliminary results have shown that the fatty acid profile of the oilseed wastewater sludge is favourable for biodiesel production with 48% (w/w) monounsaturated fats and that the residue left after the extraction of fats from the sludge contains sufficient fermentable sugars after steam explosion followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis for the successful production of bioethanol [29% (w/w)] using a commercial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A novel nano-magnetic catalyst was synthesised from mineral processing alkaline tailings, mainly containing dolomite originating from cupriferous ores using a modified sol-gel. The catalyst elemental chemical compositions and structural properties were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and the BET for the surface area with 14.3 m²/g and 34.1 nm average pore diameter. The mass magnetization of the nano-magnetic catalyst was 170 emu/g. Both the catalytic properties and reusability of the catalyst were investigated. A maximum biodiesel yield of 78% was obtained, which dropped to 52% after the fourth transesterification reaction cycle. The proposed approach has the potential to reduce material costs, energy consumption and water usage associated with conventional biodiesel production technologies. It may also mitigate the impact of conventional biodiesel production on food and land security, while simultaneously reducing waste.

Keywords: biodiesel, bioethanol, edible oil wastewater sludge, nano-magnetism

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Authors: M. M. Essa, S. Subash, M. Akbar, S. Al-Adawi, A. Al-Asmi, G. J. Guillemein

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Transgenic (tg) mice which contain an amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene mutation, develop extracellular amyloid beta (Aβ) deposition in the brain, and severe memory and behavioral deficits with age. These mice serve as an important animal model for testing the efficacy of novel drug candidates for the treatment and management of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Several reports have suggested that oxidative stress is the underlying cause of Aβ neurotoxicity in AD. Date palm fruits contain very high levels of antioxidants and several medicinal properties that may be useful for improving the quality of life in AD patients. In this study, we investigated the effect of dietary supplementation of Omani date palm fruits on the memory, anxiety and learning skills along with inflammation in an AD mouse model containing the double Swedish APP mutation (APPsw/Tg2576). The experimental groups of APP-transgenic mice from the age of 4 months were fed custom-mix diets (pellets) containing 2% and 4% Date palm fruits. We assessed spatial memory and learning ability, psychomotor coordination, and anxiety-related behavior in Tg and wild-type mice at the age of 4-5 months and 18-19 months using the Morris water maze test, rota rod test, elevated plus maze test, and open field test. Further, inflammatory parameters also analyzed. APPsw/Tg2576 mice that were fed a standard chow diet without dates showed significant memory deficits, increased anxiety-related behavior, and severe impairment in spatial learning ability, position discrimination learning ability and motor coordination along with increased inflammation compared to the wild type mice on the same diet, at the age of 18-19 months In contrast, PPsw/Tg2576 mice that were fed a diet containing 2% and 4% dates showed a significant improvements in memory, learning, locomotor function, and anxiety with reduced inflammatory markers compared to APPsw/Tg2576 mice fed the standard chow diet. Our results suggest that dietary supplementation with dates may slow the progression of cognitive and behavioral impairments in AD. The exact mechanism is still unclear and further extensive research needed.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, date palm fruits, Oman, cognitive decline, memory loss, anxiety, inflammation

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Authors: Yan Zeng, Li Tao, Liujun Han, Tianye Zhang, Yongan Yu, Kaijun Ma, Long Chen

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Mechanical asphyxia is one of the main cause of death; however, death by mechanical asphyxia may be difficult to prove in court, particularly in cases in which corpses exhibit no obvious signs of asphyxia. To identify a credible biomarker of asphyxia, we first examined the expression levels of all the mRNAs in human cardiac tissue specimens subjected to mechanical asphyxia and compared these expression levels with those of the corresponding mRNAs in specimens subjected to craniocerebral injury. A total of 119 differentially expressed mRNAs were selected and the expression levels of these mRNAs were examined in 44 human cardiac tissue specimens subjected to mechanical asphyxia, craniocerebral injury, hemorrhagic shock and other causes of death. We found that DUSP1 and KCNJ2 were up-regulated in tissue specimens of mechanical asphyxia compared with control tissues, with no significant correlation between age, environmental temperature and PMI, indicating that DUSP1 and KCNJ2 may associate with mechanical asphyxia-induced death and can thus serve as useful biomarkers of death by mechanical asphyxia.

Keywords: mechanical asphyxia, biomarkers, DUSP1, KCNJ2, cardiac tissue

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Authors: A. Odoom, A. Salama, H. Ibrahim

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Hydrogen is a clean source of energy for power production and transportation. The main source of hydrogen in this research is biodiesel. Glycerol also called glycerine is a by-product of biodiesel production by transesterification of vegetable oils and methanol. This is a reliable and environmentally-friendly source of hydrogen production than fossil fuels. A typical composition of crude glycerol comprises of glycerol, water, organic and inorganic salts, soap, methanol and small amounts of glycerides. Crude glycerol has limited industrial application due to its low purity thus, the usage of crude glycerol can significantly enhance the sustainability and production of biodiesel. Reforming techniques is an approach for hydrogen production mainly Steam Reforming (SR), Autothermal Reforming (ATR) and Partial Oxidation Reforming (POR). SR produces high hydrogen conversions and yield but is highly endothermic whereas POR is exothermic. On the downside, PO yields lower hydrogen as well as large amount of side reactions. ATR which is a fusion of partial oxidation reforming and steam reforming is thermally neutral because net reactor heat duty is zero. It has relatively high hydrogen yield, selectivity as well as limits coke formation. The complex chemical processes that take place during the production phases makes it relatively difficult to construct a reliable and robust numerical model. Numerical model is a tool to mimic reality and provide insight into the influence of the parameters. In this work, we introduce a finite volume numerical study for an 'in-house' lab-scale experiment of ATR. Previous numerical studies on this process have considered either using Comsol or nodal finite difference analysis. Since Comsol is a commercial package which is not readily available everywhere and lab-scale experiment can be considered well mixed in the radial direction. One spatial dimension suffices to capture the essential feature of ATR, in this work, we consider developing our own numerical approach using MATLAB. A continuum fixed bed reactor is modelled using MATLAB with both pseudo homogeneous and heterogeneous models. The drawback of nodal finite difference formulation is that it is not locally conservative which means that materials and momenta can be generated inside the domain as an artifact of the discretization. Control volume, on the other hand, is locally conservative and suites very well problems where materials are generated and consumed inside the domain. In this work, species mass balance, Darcy’s equation and energy equations are solved using operator splitting technique. Therefore, diffusion-like terms are discretized implicitly while advection-like terms are discretized explicitly. An upwind scheme is adapted for the advection term to ensure accuracy and positivity. Comparisons with the experimental data show very good agreements which build confidence in our modeling approach. The models obtained were validated and optimized for better results.

Keywords: autothermal reforming, crude glycerol, hydrogen, numerical model

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Authors: Misagh Irandoost Shahrestani, Hossein Shokouhmand, Mohammad Kalteh, Behrang Hasanpour

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In this paper, nanofluid conjugate heat transfer through a microtube with viscous dissipation effect is investigated numerically. The fluid flow is considered as a laminar regime. A constant heat flux is applied on the microtube outer wall and the two ends of its wall are considered adiabatic. Conjugate heat transfer problem is solved and investigated for this geometry. It is shown that viscous dissipation effect which is induced by shear stresses can not be neglected in microtubes. Viscous heating behaves as an energy source in the fluid and affects the temperature distribution. The effect of Reynolds number, particle volume fraction and the nanoparticles diameter on the energy source are investigated and an attempt on establishing suitable equations for assessing the value of the energy source based on Re, Dp and Φ is performed and they are depicted as 3D diagrams. Finally, the significance of viscous dissipation and the influence of these parameters on convective heat transfer coefficient are studied.

Keywords: convective heat transfer coefficient, heat transfer, microtube, nanofluid, viscous dissipation

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Authors: Anushree, Chhaya Sharma, Satish Kumar

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Catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) is normally carried out at elevated temperature and pressure. This work investigates the potential of NiO-CeO₂ nano-catalyst in CWAO of paper industry wastewater under milder operating conditions of 90 °C and 1 atm. The NiO-CeO₂ nano-catalysts were synthesized by a simple co-precipitation method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), before and after use, in order to study any crystallographic change during experiment. The extent of metal-leaching from the catalyst was determined using the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The catalytic activity of nano-catalysts was studied in terms of total organic carbon (TOC), adsorbable organic halides (AOX) and chlorophenolics (CHPs) removal. Interestingly, mixed oxide catalysts exhibited higher activity than the corresponding single-metal oxides. The maximum removal efficiency was achieved with Ce₄₀Ni₆₀ catalyst. The results indicate that the CWAO process is efficient in removing the priority organic pollutants from wastewater, as it exhibited up to 59% TOC, 55% AOX, and 54 % CHPs removal.

Keywords: catalysis, nano-materials, NiO-CeO2, paper mill, wastewater, wet air oxidation

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Authors: N. K. Singh

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In this study the augmentation of heat transfer in a rectangular channel with triangular vortex generators is evaluated. The span wise averaged Nusselt number, mean temperature and total heat flux are compared with and without vortex generators in the channel at a blade angle of 30° for Reynolds numbers 800, 1200, 1600, and 2000. The use of vortex generators increases the span wise averaged Nusselt number compared to the case without vortex generators considerably. At a particular blade angle, increasing the Reynolds number results in an enhancement in the overall performance and span wise averaged Nusselt number was found to be greater at particular location for larger Reynolds number. The total heat flux from the bottom wall with vortex generators was found to be greater than that without vortex generators and the difference increases with increase in Reynolds number.

Keywords: heat transfer, channel with vortex generators, numerical simulation, effect of Reynolds number on heat transfer

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Authors: Desta Brhanu Gebrehiwot

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The purpose of this review was to analyze the overall or combined effect of scholarly studies conducted on the impacts of Food for work (FFW) and Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on farm households’ livelihood (agricultural investment on the adoption of fertilizer, food security, livestock holding, nutrition and its’ disincentive effect) in Ethiopia. In addition, to make a critical assessment of the internal and external validity of the existing studies, the review also indicates the possibility to redesign the program. The method of selecting eligible studies for review was PICOS (Participants, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Settings) framework. The method of analysis was the fixed effects model under Meta-Analysis. The findings of this systematic review confirm the overall or combined positive significant impact of PSNP on fertilizer adoption (combined point estimate=0.015, standard error=0.005, variance=0.000, lower limit 0.004 up to the upper limit=0.026, z-value=2.726, and p-value=0.006). And the program had a significant positive impact on the child nutrition of rural households and had no significant disincentive effect. However, the program had no significant impact on livestock holdings. Thus, PSNP is important for households whose livelihood depends on rain-fed agriculture and are exposed to rainfall shocks. Thus, better to integrate the program into the national agricultural policy. In addition, most of the studies suggested that PSNP needs more attention to the design and targeting issued in order to be effective and efficient in social protection.

Keywords: meta-analysis, fixed effect model, PSNP, rural-livelihood, Ethiopia

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Authors: Mustafa Metin Donma, Orkide Donma

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Childhood obesity is an important clinical problem because it may lead to chronic diseases during the adulthood period of the individual. Obesity is a metabolic disease associated with low-grade inflammation. The liver occurs at the center of metabolic pathways. Adropin, fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21), and fetuin-A are hepatokines. Due to the immense participation of the liver in glucose metabolism, these liver-derived factors may be associated with insulin resistance (IR), which is a phenomenon discussed within the scope of obesity problems. The aim of this study is to determine the concentrations of adropin, FGF-21, and fetuin-A in childhood obesity, to point out possible differences between the obesity groups, and to investigate possible associations among these three hepatokines in obese and morbidly obese children. A total of one hundred and thirty-two children were included in the study. Two obese groups were constituted. The groups were matched in terms of mean ± SD values of ages. Body mass index values of obese and morbidly obese groups were 25.0 ± 3.5 kg/m² and 29.8 ± 5.7 kg/m², respectively. Anthropometric measurements including waist circumference, hip circumference, head circumference, and neck circumference were recorded. Informed consent forms were taken from the parents of the participants. The ethics committee of the institution approved the study protocol. Blood samples were obtained after overnight fasting. Routine biochemical tests, including glucose- and lipid-related parameters, were performed. Concentrations of the hepatokines (adropin, FGF-21, fetuin A) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Insulin resistance indices such as homeostasis model assessment for IR (HOMA-IR), alanine transaminase-to aspartate transaminase ratio (ALT/AST), diagnostic obesity notation model assessment laboratory index, diagnostic obesity notation model assessment metabolic syndrome index as well as obesity indices such as diagnostic obesity notation model assessment-II index, and fat mass index were calculated using the previously derived formulas. Statistical evaluation of the study data as well as findings of the study was performed by SPSS for Windows. Statistical difference was accepted significant when p is smaller than 0.05. Statistically significant differences were found for insulin, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of the groups. A significant increase was observed for FGF-21 concentrations in the morbidly obese group. Higher adropin and fetuin-A concentrations were observed in the same group in comparison with the values detected in the obese group (p > 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the ALT/AST values of the groups. In all of the remaining IR and obesity indices, significantly increased values were calculated for morbidly obese children. Significant correlations were detected between HOMA-IR and each of the hepatokines. The highest one was the association with fetuin-A (r=0.373, p=0.001). In conclusion, increased levels observed in adropin, FGF-21, and fetuin-A have shown that these hepatokines possess increasing potential going from obese to morbid obese state. Out of the correlations found with the IR index, the most affected hepatokine was fetuin-A, the parameter possibly used as the indicator of the advanced obesity stage.

Keywords: adropin, fetuin A, fibroblast growth factor-21, insulin resistance, pediatric obesity

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Authors: Reihaneh Ahmadzadeh Ghavidel

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Free radicals such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) have detrimental effects on human health through several mechanisms. On the other hand, antioxidant molecules reduce free radical generation in biologic systems. Synthetic antioxidants, which are used in food industry, have also negative impact on human health. Therefore recognition of natural antioxidants such as anthocyanins can solve these problems simultaneously. Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) with red leaves is a rich source of anthocyanins compounds. In this study we evaluated the effect of time (10, 20 and 30 min) and temperature (40, 50 and 60° C) on optimization of anthocyanin extraction using surface response method. In addition, the study was aimed to determine maximum extraction for anthocyanin from coleus plant using ultrasound method. The results indicated that the optimum conditions for extraction were 39.84 min at 69.25° C. At this point, total compounds were achieved 3.7451 mg 100 ml⁻¹. Furthermore, under optimum conditions, anthocyanin concentration, extraction efficiency, ferric reducing ability, total phenolic compounds and EC50 were registered 3.221931, 6.692765, 223.062, 3355.605 and 2.614045, respectively.

Keywords: anthocyanin, antioxidant, coleus, extraction, sonication

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Authors: Rafal Sochaczewski, Marcin Szlachetka, Miroslaw Wendeker

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Increasing requirements to reduce exhaust emissions and fuel consumption while increasing the power factor is increasingly becoming applicable to internal combustion engines intended for aircraft applications. As a result, intensive research work is underway to develop a diesel-powered unit for aircraft propulsion. Due to a number of advantages, such as lack of the head (lower heat loss) and timing system, opposite movement of pistons conducive to balancing the engine, the two-stroke compression-ignition engine with the opposite pistons has been developed and upgraded. Of course, such construction also has drawbacks. The main one is the necessity of using a gear connecting two crankshafts or a complicated crank system with one shaft. The peculiarity of the arrangement of pistons with sleeves, as well as the fulfillment of rigorous requirements, makes it necessary to apply the most modern technologies and constructional solutions. In the case of the fuel supply system, it was decided to use common rail system elements. The paper presents an analysis of the possibility of using a common rail pump to supply an aircraft compression-ignition engine. It is an engine with a two-stroke cycle, three cylinders, opposing pistons, and 100 kW power. Each combustion chamber is powered by two injectors controlled by electromagnetic valves. In order to assess the possibility of using a common rail pump, four high-pressure pumps were tested on a bench. They are piston pumps differing in the number and geometry of the pumping sections. The analysis included the torque on the pump drive shaft and the power needed to drive the pump depending on the rotational speed, pumping pressure and fuel dispenser settings. The research allowed to optimize the engine power supply system depending on the fuel demand and the way the pump is mounted on the engine. Acknowledgment: This work has been realized in the cooperation with The Construction Office of WSK ‘PZL-KALISZ’ S.A.’ and is part of Grant Agreement No. POIR.01.02.00-00-0002/15 financed by the Polish Nation-al Centre for Research and Development.

Keywords: diesel engine, fuel pump, opposing pistons, two-stroke

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Authors: Pilar Gamarra Gamarra, Michele Girotto

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In the expanding field of leaders’ ethical behavior research, little attention has been paid to the association between finance leaders’ ethical traits (beyond personality) and ethical leadership, and more importantly, how these ethical characteristics can be predictors of ethical behavior at the leadership level in the financial sector. In this study, we tested a theoretical model based on uponsocial cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) and the cognitive-developmental model (Piaget, 1932) to examine leaders’ moral identity and moral attentiveness as antecedents of ethical leadership. After the 2008 economic crisis, the marketplace has awakened to the potential dangers of unethical behavior. The unethical behavior of the leaders of the financial sector was identified as guilty of this economic catastrophe. For that reason, it seems increasingly prudent for organizations to have leaders who are cognitively inclined toward ethical behavior. This evidence suggests that moral attentiveness and moral identity is perhaps one way of identifying those kinds of leaders. For leaders who are morally attentive and have a high moral identity, themes of ethics interventions are consistent with their way of seeing the word. As a result, these leaders could become critical components of change in organizations and could provide the energy and skills necessary for these efforts to be successful. Ethical behavior of leader from the financial sector and marketing sectors must be joined to manage the change. In this study, a leader’s moral identity, leader’s moral attentiveness, and self-importance of Ethical Leadership are measured for financial and marketing leaders to be compared to determine the relationship between the three variables in each sector. Other conclusion related to gender, educational level or generation are obtained.

Keywords: ethical leadership, moral identity, moral attentiveness, financial leaders, marketing leaders, ethical behavior

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Authors: Carin Lindskog

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Introduction: Long-term success requires an organizational balance between continuity (exploitation) and change (exploration). The problem of balancing exploitation and exploration is a common issue in studies of organizational learning. In order to better face the tough competition in the face of changes, organizations need to exploit their current business and explore new business fields by developing new capabilities. The purpose of this work in progress is to develop a conceptual framework to shed light on the relevance of 'learning activities', i.e., exploitation and exploration, on different levels. The research questions that will be addressed are as follows: What sort of learning activities are found in the Business Process Management (BPM) field? How can these activities be linked to the individual level, group, level, and organizational level? In the work, a literature review will first be conducted. This review will explore the status of learning activities in the BPM field. An outcome from the literature review will be a conceptual framework of learning activities based on the included publications. The learning activities will be categorized to focus on the categories exploitation, exploration or both and into the levels of individual, group, and organization. The proposed conceptual framework will be a valuable tool for analyzing the research field as well as identification of future research directions. Related Work: BPM has increased in popularity as a way of working to strengthen the quality of the work and meet the demands of efficiency. Due to the increase in BPM popularity, more and more organizations reporting on BPM failure. One reason for this is the lack of knowledge about the extended scope of BPM to other business contexts that include, for example, more creative business fields. Yet another reason for the failures are the fact of the employees’ are resistant to changes. The learning process in an organization is an ongoing cycle of reflection and action and is a process that can be initiated, developed and practiced. Furthermore, organizational learning is multilevel; therefore the theory of organizational learning needs to consider the individual, the group, and the organization level. Learning happens over time and across levels, but it also creates a tension between incorporating new learning (feed-forward) and exploiting or using what has already been learned (feedback). Through feed-forward processes, new ideas and actions move from the individual to the group to the organization level. At the same time, what has already been learned feeds back from the organization to a group to an individual and has an impact on how people act and think.

Keywords: business process management, exploitation, exploration, learning activities

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Authors: Prakash Singh

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The question that arises is whether a theory such as the Collegial Leadership Model of Emancipation (COLME) has the potency to introduce leadership change by empowering and emancipating their employees. It is a fallacy to simply assume that experience alone, in the absence of theory, will contribute to this knowledge base to develop collegial leaders. The focus of this study is to therefore ascertain whether the COLME can serve as a conceptual framework to transform traditional bureaucratic management practices (TBMPs) in order to promote shared decision-making in organizations such as schools. All the respondents in this exploratory qualitative study embraced collegiality to transform TBMPs in their organizations. For the positive effects to be sustained, the collegial practices need to be evolutionary and emancipatory in order to evoke the values of collegial leadership as elucidated by the findings of this study. Interviewees affirmed that the COLME provides an astute framework to develop commendable collegial leadership practices as it clearly outlines procedures to develop and use the leadership potential of all the employees in order to foster joint accountability. They acknowledged that when the principles of collegiality are flexibly applied, they contribute to the creation of a holistic milieu in which all employees are able to express themselves freely, without fear of failure, and thus feel that they are part of the democratic decision-making process. Evidently, a conceptual framework such as the COLME can serve as a benchmark for leadership effectiveness because organizational outcomes need to be measured against standards of excellence in meeting both employee and customer expectations.

Keywords: collegial leadership model, employee empowerment, shared decision-making, traditional bureaucratic management practices

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Authors: Christopher Benedikt Jakob

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Human beings are intrigued by luxury watches for decades. It is fascinating that customers pay an enormous amount of money for specific wristwatch models. It is fascinating that customers of the luxury watch industry accept a yearly price increase. This behavior increases their desirability even more. Luxury watches are perceived as status symbols, but they are additionally accepted as a currency without the disadvantage of currency fluctuations. It is obvious that the symbolic value is more important as the functional value with reference to the buying-reasons as regards luxury watches. Nowadays human beings do not need a wristwatch to read the time. Tablets, notebooks, smartphones, the watch in the car and watches on public places are used to inform people about the current time. This is one of the reasons why there is a trend that people do not wear wristwatches anymore. Due to these facts, this study has the intention to give answers to the question why people invest an enormous amount of money on the consumption of luxury watches and why those watches are seen as a status symbol. The study examines why the luxury watch industry records significant growth rates. The self-expression model is used as an appropriate methodology to find reasons why human beings purchase specific luxury watches. This evaluative approach further discusses if human beings are aware of their current self and their ideal self and how they express them. Furthermore, the research critically evaluates the people’s social self and their ideal social self. One of the goals is to identify if customers know why they like specific luxury watches and dislike others although they have the same quality and cost comparable prices.

Keywords: luxury watch, brand awareness, buying-behaviour, consumer, self-expression

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Authors: Farid Arya, Trevor Hyde

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The development of vacuum glazing represents a significant advancement in the area of low heat loss glazing systems with the potential to substantially reduce building heating and cooling loads. Vacuum glazing consists of two or more glass panes hermetically sealed together around the edge with a vacuum gap between the panes. To avoid the glass panes from collapsing and touching each other under the influence of atmospheric pressure an array of support pillars is provided between the glass panes. A high level of thermal insulation is achieved by evacuating the spaces between the glass panes to a very low pressure which greatly reduces conduction and convection within the space; therefore heat transfer through this kind of glazing is significantly lower when compared with conventional insulating glazing. However, vacuum glazing is subject to inherent stresses due to atmospheric pressure and temperature differentials which can lead to fracture of the glass panes and failure of the edge seal. A flexible edge seal has been proposed to minimise the impact of these issues. In this paper, vacuum glazing system with rigid and flexible edge seals is theoretically studied and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.

Keywords: flexible edge seal, stress, support pillar, vacuum glazing

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Authors: Dimakatso Machetele, Kowiyou Yessoufou

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Whilst several studies indicated that road accident events might be more complex than thought, we have a limited scientific understanding of this complexity in South Africa. The present project proposes and tests a more comprehensive metamodel that integrates multiple causality relationships among variables previously linked to road accidents. This was done by fitting a structural equation model (SEM) to the data collected from various sources. The study also fitted the GARCH Model (Generalized Auto-Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity) to predict the future of road accidents in the country. The analysis shows that the number of road accidents has been increasing since 1935. The road fatality rate follows a polynomial shape following the equation: y = -0.0114x²+1.2378x-2.2627 (R²=0.76) with y = death rate and x = year. This trend results in an average death rate of 23.14 deaths per 100,000 people. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the number of crashes could be significantly explained by the total number of vehicles (P < 0.001), number of registered vehicles (P < 0.001), number of unregistered vehicles (P = 0.003) and the population of the country (P < 0.001). As opposed to expectation, the number of driver licenses issued and total distance traveled by vehicles do not correlate significantly with the number of crashes (P > 0.05). Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the number of casualties could be linked significantly to the number of registered vehicles (P < 0.001) and total distance traveled by vehicles (P = 0.03). As for the number of fatal crashes, the analysis reveals that the total number of vehicles (P < 0.001), number of registered (P < 0.001) and unregistered vehicles (P < 0.001), the population of the country (P < 0.001) and the total distance traveled by vehicles (P < 0.001) correlate significantly with the number of fatal crashes. However, the number of casualties and again the number of driver licenses do not seem to determine the number of fatal crashes (P > 0.05). Finally, the number of crashes is predicted to be roughly constant overtime at 617,253 accidents for the next 10 years, with the worse scenario suggesting that this number may reach 1 896 667. The number of casualties was also predicted to be roughly constant at 93 531 overtime, although this number may reach 661 531 in the worst-case scenario. However, although the number of fatal crashes may decrease over time, it is forecasted to reach 11 241 fatal crashes within the next 10 years, with the worse scenario estimated at 19 034 within the same period. Finally, the number of fatalities is also predicted to be roughly constant at 14 739 but may also reach 172 784 in the worse scenario. Overall, the present study reveals the complexity of road accidents and allows us to propose several recommendations aimed to reduce the trend of road accidents, casualties, fatal crashes, and death in South Africa.

Keywords: road accidents, South Africa, statistical modelling, trends

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Authors: Zhi Zhang, Liling Cao, Seyedbabak Momenzadeh, Lisa Davey

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Reinforced concrete (RC) flat slab-column systems are commonly used in residential or office buildings, as the flat slab provides efficient clearance resulting in more stories at a given height than regular reinforced concrete beam-slab system. Punching shear of slab-column joints is a critical component of two-way reinforced concrete flat slab design. The unbalanced moment at the joint is transferred via slab moment and shear forces. ACI 318 provides an equation to evaluate the punching shear under the design load. It is important to note that the design code considers gravity and environmental load when considering the design load combinations, while it does not consider the effect from differential foundation settlement, which may be a governing load condition for the slab design. This paper describes how prestressed reinforced concrete slab punching shear is evaluated based on ACI 318 provisions and finite element analysis. A prestressed reinforced concrete slab under differential settlements is studied using the finite element modeling methodology. The punching shear check equation is explained. The methodology to extract data for punching shear check from the finite element model is described and correlated with the corresponding code provisions. The study indicates that the finite element analysis results should be carefully reviewed and processed in order to perform accurate punching shear evaluation. Conclusions are made based on the case studies to help engineers understand the punching shear behavior in prestressed and non-prestressed reinforced concrete slabs.

Keywords: differential settlement, finite element model, prestressed reinforced concrete slab, punching shear

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Authors: Bo Yan, Amy Y. M. Chow

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Bereavement is recognized as a universal challenging experience. It is important to gather research evidence on protective factors in bereavement. Hope is considered as one of the protective factors in previous coping studies. The present study aims to add knowledge by investigating hope at the first month after death to predict psychological symptoms altogether including complicated grief (CG), anxiety, and depressive symptoms at the seventh month. The data were collected via one-on-one interview survey in a longitudinal project with Hong Kong hospice users (sample size 105). Most participants were at their middle age (49-year-old on average), female (72%), with no religious affiliation (58%). Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling (BSEM) analysis was conducted on the longitudinal dataset. The BSEM findings show that hope at the first month of bereavement negatively predicts both CG and anxiety symptoms at the seventh month but not for depressive symptoms. Age and gender are controlled in the model. The overall model fit is good. The current study findings suggest assessing hope at the first month of bereavement. Hope at the first month after the loss is identified as an excellent predictor for complicated grief and anxiety symptoms at the seventh month. The result from this sample is clear, so it encourages cross-cultural research on replicated modeling and development of further clinical application. Particularly, practical consideration for early intervention to increase the level of hope has the potential to reduce the psychological symptoms and thus to improve the bereaved persons’ wellbeing in the long run.

Keywords: anxiety, complicated grief, depressive symptoms, hope, structural equational modeling

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Authors: Kun Qi, Yuman Zhou, Jianxin He

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A facile fabrication strategy via electrospinning and followed by in situ polymerization to fabricate a highly stretchable and conductive Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/Polyurethane (PEDOT/PU) nanofibrous membrane is reported. PU nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning and then PEDOT was coated on the plasma modified PU nanofiber surface via in-situ polymerization to form flexible PEDOT/PU composite nanofibers with conductivity. The results show PEDOT is successfully synthesized on the surface of PU nanofiber and PEDOT/PU composite nanofibers possess skin-core structure. Furthermore, the experiments indicate the optimal technological parameters of the polymerization process are as follow: The concentration of EDOT monomers is 50 mmol/L, the polymerization time is 24 h and the temperature is 25℃. The PEDOT/PU nanofibers exhibit excellent electrical conductivity ( 27.4 S/cm). In addition, flexible sensor made from conductive PEDOT/PU nanofibers shows highly sensitive response towards tensile strain and also can be used to detect finger motion. The results demonstrate promising application of the as-obtained nanofibrous membrane in flexible wearable electronic fields.

Keywords: electrospinning, polyurethane, PEDOT, conductive nanofiber, flexible senor

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Authors: Sabir Khan, Sajjad Hussain, Ademar Wong, Maria Del Pilar Taboada Sotomayor

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The present work aims to develop magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) for determination of a selected pesticide (ametryne) using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Computational simulation can assist the choice of the most suitable monomer for the synthesis of polymers. The (MMIPs) were polymerized at the surface of Fe3O4@SiO2 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) using 2-vinylpyradine as functional monomer, ethylene-glycol-dimethacrylate (EGDMA) is a cross-linking agent and 2,2-Azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) used as radical initiator. Magnetic non-molecularly imprinted polymer (MNIPs) was also prepared under the same conditions without analyte. The MMIPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Pseudo first-order and pseudo second order model were applied to study kinetics of adsorption and it was found that adsorption process followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Adsorption equilibrium data was fitted to Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms and the sorption equilibrium process was well described by Langmuir isotherm mode. The selectivity coefficients (α) of MMIPs for ametryne with respect to atrazine, ciprofloxacin and folic acid were 4.28, 12.32 and 14.53 respectively. The spiked recoveries ranged between 91.33 and 106.80% were obtained. The results showed high affinity and selectivity of MMIPs for pesticide ametryne in the food samples.

Keywords: molecularly imprinted polymer, pesticides, magnetic nanoparticles, adsorption

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