Search results for: human management

Authors: Aiman Zehra, Sajad Mohd Wani

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Packaging has a vital role as it contains and protects the food that moves from the supply chain to the consumer. Chitosan (CH) has been extensively used in food packaging applications among the plentiful natural macromolecules, including all the polysaccharide class, owing to its easy film-forming capacity, biodegradability, better oxygen and water vapour barrier ability and good mechanical strength. Compared to synthetic films, the films produced from chitosan present poor barrier and mechanical properties. To overcome its deficient qualities, a number of modification procedures are required to enhance the mechanical and physical properties. Various additives such as plasticizers (e.g., glycerol and sorbitol), crosslinkers (e.g.,CaCl₂, ZnO), fillers (nanoclay), and antimicrobial agents (e.g. thyme essential oil) have been used to improve the mechanical, thermal, morphological, antimicrobial properties and emulsifying agents for the stability and elasticity of chitosan-based biodegradable films. Different novel biocomposite films based on chitosan incorporated with thyme essential oil and different additives (ZnO, CaCl₂, NC, and PEG) were successfully prepared and used as packaging material for carrot candy. The chitosan film incorporated with crosslinkers was capable of forming a protective barrier on the surface of the candy to maintain moisture content, water activity, TSS, total sugars, and titratable acidity. ZnO +PEG +NC +CaCl₂ remarkably promotes a synergistic effect on the barrier properties of the film. The combined use of ZnO +PEG +NC +CaCl₂ in CH-TO films was more effective in preventing the moisture gain in candies. The lowest a𝓌 (0.624) was also observed for the candies stored in treatment. The color values L*, a*, b* of the candies were also retained in the film containing all the additives during the 6th month of storage. The value for L*, a*, and b* observed for T was 42.72, 9.89, and 10.84, respectively. The candies packaged in film retained TSS and acidity. The packaging film significantly p≤0.05 conserved sensory qualities and inhibited microbial activity during storage. Carrot candy was found microbiologically safe for human consumption even after six months of storage in all the packaging materials.

Keywords: chitosan, biodegradable films, antimicrobial activity, thyme essential oil, crosslinkers

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Authors: Zsuzsanna Schnell, Francesca Ervas

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Background: Our study aims to clarify how language fosters further cognitive development and how we eventually arrive at the complex human specific skill of pragmatic competence and reveal what levels of mentalization and theory of mind are in place before language. Method: Our experimental pragmatic investigation maps the interaction of mentalization and pragmatic competence. We map the different levels of mentalization that empower different levels of pragmatic meaning construction and evaluate the results with statistical analysis (MannWhitney and ANOVA). Analyzing the comprehension of literal and non-compositional (figurative) utterances, we apply linguistic trials, among them metaphor-, irony-, irony with surface cue-, humor- and the recognition of maxim infringements trial in neurotypical (NT) preschoolers with a coherent and comparative methodology. Results: The findings reveal the relationship and direction of interaction between Language and theory of mind. On the one hand social-cognitive skills enhance, facilitate and provide a basis for language acquisition, and in return linguistic structures (DeVilliers 2000, 2007) provide a framework for further development of mentalizing skills. Conclusions: Findings confirm that this scaffolding becomes a mutually supportive system where language and social cognition develops in interaction. Certain stages in ToM development serve as a precursor of understanding grammatically complex sentences, like embedded phrases which mirror embedded mental states; which, in turn, facilitates the development of pragmatic competence, thus, the social use of language, integrating social, cognitive, linguistic and psychological factors in discourse. Future implications: Our investigation functions as a differential-diagnostic measure, with typically developing results thus serve as a baseline in further empirical research for atypical cases. This enables the study of populations where language and ToM development is disturbed, reveals how language and ToM are acquired and interact, and gives an insight into what this has to do with clinical symptoms. This in turn can reveal the causal link to the syndrome at hand, which can set directions for therapeutic development and training.

Keywords: theory of mind, language development, mentalization, language philosophy, experimental pragmatics

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Authors: D. Avila

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The tourism industry is a phenomenon that has become a growing presence in international socio-economic dynamics, which in most cases exceeds the control parameters in the various environmental regulations and sustainability of existing resources. Because of this, the effects on the natural environment at the regional and national levels represent a challenge, for which a number of strategies are necessary to minimize the environmental impact generated by the occupation of the territory. The hotel tourist building and sustainable development in the coastal zone, have an important impact on the environment and on the physical and psychological health of the inhabitants. Environmental quality associated with the comfort of humans to the sustainable development of natural resources; applied to the hotel architecture this concept involves the incorporation of new demands on all of the constructive process of a building, changing customs of developers and users. The methodology developed provides an initial analysis to determine and rank the different tourist buildings, with the above it will be feasible to establish methods of study and environmental impact assessment. Finally, it is necessary to establish an overview regarding the best way to implement tourism development on the coast, containing guidelines to improve and protect the natural environment. This paper analyzes the parameters and strategies to reduce environmental impacts derived from deployments tourism on the coast, through a series of recommendations towards sustainability, in the context of the Bahia de Banderas, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. The environmental impact caused by the implementation of tourism development, perceived in a coastal environment, forcing a series of processes, ranging from the identification of impacts, prediction and evaluation of them. For this purpose are described below, different techniques and valuation procedures: Identification of impacts. Methods for the identification of damage caused to the environment pursue general purpose to obtain a group of negative indicators that are subsequently used in the study of environmental impact. There are several systematic methods to identify the impacts caused by human activities. In the present work, develops a procedure based and adapted from the Ministry of works public urban reference in studies of environmental impacts, the representative methods are: list of contrast, arrays, and networks, method of transparencies and superposition of maps.

Keywords: environmental impact, physical health, sustainability, tourist building

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Authors: Malihe Motiei, Nor Hidayati Zakaria, Davide Aloini

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This study aims to present a method to develop the failure measurement model for ERP post-implementation. To achieve this outcome, the study firstly evaluates the suitability of Technology-Organization-Environment framework for the proposed conceptual model. This study explains how to discover the constructs and subsequently to design and evaluate the constructs as formative or reflective. Constructs are used including reflective and purely formative. Then, the risk dimensions are investigated to determine the instruments to examine the impact of risk on ERP failure after implementation. Two construct as formative constructs consist inadequate implementation and poor organizational decision making. Subsequently six construct as reflective construct include technical risks, operational risks, managerial risks, top management risks, lack of external risks, and user’s inefficiency risks. A survey was conducted among Iranian industries to collect data. 69 data were collected from manufacturing sectors and the data were analyzed by Smart PLS software. The results indicated that all measurements included 39 critical risk factors were acceptable for the ERP post-implementation failure model.

Keywords: critical risk factors (CRFs), ERP projects, ERP post-implementation, measurement instruments, ERP system failure measurement model

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Authors: Caglayan Hizal, Kutay Yuceturk, Ertugrul Turker Uzun, Hasan Ceylan, Engin Aktas, Gursoy Turan

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Monitoring concepts for structural systems have been investigated by researchers for decades since such tools are quite convenient to determine intervention planning of structures. Despite the considerable development in this regard, the efficient use of monitoring data in reliability assessment, and prediction models are still in need of improvement in their efficiency. More specifically, reliability-based seismic risk assessment of engineering structures may play a crucial role in the post-earthquake decision-making process for the structures. After an earthquake, professionals could identify heavily damaged structures based on visual observations. Among these, it is hard to identify the ones with minimum signs of damages, even if they would experience considerable structural degradation. Besides, visual observations are open to human interpretations, which make the decision process controversial, and thus, less reliable. In this context, when a continuous monitoring system has been previously installed on the corresponding structure, this decision process might be completed rapidly and with higher confidence by means of the observed data. At this stage, the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) procedure has an important role since it can make it possible to estimate the system reliability based on a recursively updated mathematical model. Therefore, integrating an SHM procedure into the reliability assessment process comes forward as an important challenge due to the arising uncertainties for the updated model in case of the environmental, material and earthquake induced changes. In this context, this study presents a case study on SHM-integrated reliability assessment of the continuously monitored progressively damaged systems. The objective of this study is to get instant feedback on the current state of the structure after an extreme event, such as earthquakes, by involving the observed data rather than the visual inspections. Thus, the decision-making process after such an event can be carried out on a rational basis. In the near future, this can give wing to the design of self-reported structures which can warn about its current situation after an extreme event.

Keywords: condition assessment, vibration-based SHM, reliability analysis, seismic risk assessment

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Authors: Vaida Zemlickiene

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Scientists around the world and practitioners are working to identify the factors that influence the results of technology commercialization and to propose the ideal model for the technology commercialization process. In other words, all stakeholders of technology commercialization seek to find a formula or set of rules to succeed in commercializing technologies in order to avoid unproductive investments. In this article, the process of commercialization technology is understood as the process of transforming inventions into marketable products, services, and processes, or the path from the idea of using an invention to a product that incorporates process from 1 to 9 technology readiness level (TRL). There are many publications in the field of management literature, which are aimed at managing the commercialization process. However, there is an apparent lack of research for communication in decision-making in the process of technology commercialization. Works were done in the past, and the last decade's global research analysis led to the unambiguous conclusion that the methodological framework is not mature enough to be of practical use in business. The process of technology commercialization and the decisions made in the process should be explored in-depth. An archival analysis is performed to find insights into decision-making communication in the process of technologies commercialization, to find out the content of technology commercialization process: decision-making stages and participants, to analyze the internal factors of technology commercialization, to perform their critical analysis, to analyze the concept of successful/unsuccessful technology commercialization.

Keywords: the process of technology commercialization, communication in decision-making process, the content of technology commercialization process, successful/unsuccessful technology commercialization

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Authors: Amiya Kumar Pati, Spandan Sahu, Kishanjit Kumar Khatua

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River is our main source of water which is a form of open channel flow and the flow in the open channel provides with many complex phenomena of sciences that needs to be tackled such as the critical flow conditions, boundary shear stress, and depth-averaged velocity. The development of society, more or less solely depends upon the flow of rivers. The rivers are major sources of many sediments and specific ingredients which are much essential for human beings. A river flow consisting of small and shallow channels sometimes divide and recombine numerous times because of the slow water flow or the built up sediments. The pattern formed during this process resembles the strands of a braid. Braided streams form where the sediment load is so heavy that some of the sediments are deposited as shifting islands. Braided rivers often exist near the mountainous regions and typically carry coarse-grained and heterogeneous sediments down a fairly steep gradient. In this paper, the apparent shear stress formulae were suitably modified, and the Energy Concept Method (ECM) was applied for the prediction of discharges at the junction of a two-flow braided compound channel. The Energy Concept Method has not been applied for estimating the discharges in the braided channels. The energy loss in the channels is analyzed based on mechanical analysis. The cross-section of channel is divided into two sub-areas, namely the main-channel below the bank-full level and region above the bank-full level for estimating the total discharge. The experimental data are compared with a wide range of theoretical data available in the published literature to verify this model. The accuracy of this approach is also compared with Divided Channel Method (DCM). From error analysis of this method, it is observed that the relative error is less for the data-sets having smooth floodplains when compared to rough floodplains. Comparisons with other models indicate that the present method has reasonable accuracy for engineering purposes.

Keywords: critical flow, energy concept, open channel flow, sediment, two-flow braided compound channel

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Authors: Carlos Joel Tchawouo Mbiada

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At the back of the apartheid era, South Africa embarked on a democratic drive of all its institution underpinned by a social justice perspective to eradicate past injustices. These democratic values based on fundamental human rights and equality informed all rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This means that all rights are therefore infused by social justice perspective and labour rights are no exception. Labour law is therefore regulated to the extent that it is viewed as too rigid. Hence a call for more flexibility to enhance investment and boost job creation. This view articulated by the Free Market Foundation fell on deaf ears as the opponents believe in what is termed regulated flexibility which affords greater protection to vulnerable workers while promoting business opportunities and investment. The question that this paper seeks to examine is to what extent the regulation of labour law will go to protect employees. This question is prompted by the recent Constitutional Court’s judgment of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa v Trenstar which barred the employer from employing labour replacement in response to the strike action by its employees. The question whether employers may use replacement labour and have recourse to lock-outs in response to strike action is considered in the context of the dichotomy between the Free market foundation and social justice perspectives which are at loggerheads in the South African collective bargaining process. With the current unemployment rate soaring constantly, the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic, the effects of the war in Ukraine and lately the financial burden of load shedding on companies to run their businesses, this paper argues for a policy shift toward deregulation or a lesser state and judiciary intervention. This initiative will relieve the burden on companies to run a viable business while at the same time protecting existing jobs.

Keywords: labour law, replacement labour, right to strike, free market foundation perspective, social justice perspective

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Authors: Pascal Alberti, Mustapha Mouloua

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In today’s global market economy, various companies are often confronted with the dynamic and complex nature of current competitive markets. The dynamics of these markets are becoming more and more fluid, often requiring companies to provide competitive, definite advantages, and technological responses within increasingly shorte time frames. To meet these demands, companies must rely on the cognitive abilities of actors of creativity to provide tangible answers to the current contextual problems. Thus, it is important to provide a variety of instruments and design tools to support this particular stage of innovation, and to meet their demand expectations. For a number of years now, we have been extensively conducting experiments on the use of mind maps in the context of innovative projects with collaborative research teams from various nationalities. Our research findings reported a significant difference between a “Word” Mind Map and “Photographic” Mind Map, a correlation between the different uses of iconic tools and certain types of innovation, and a relationship between the different cognitive logics. In this paper, we will present our new results related to the effect of symmetrical presentation of a Photographic Mind Map" on the production of design solutions. Finally, we will conclude by highlighting the importance of our experimental method, and discussing both the theoretical and practical implications of our research.

Keywords: creativity, innovation, management, mind mapping, design product

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Authors: Giuseppe Timperio, Robert de Souza

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Logistics operations in the context of disaster response are characterized by a high degree of complexity due to the combined effect of a large number of stakeholders involved, time pressure, uncertainties at various levels, massive deployment of goods and personnel, and gigantic financial flow to be managed. It also involves several autonomous parties such as government agencies, militaries, NGOs, UN agencies, private sector to name few, to have a highly collaborative approach especially in the critical phase of the immediate response. This is particularly true in the context of L3 emergencies that are the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. Decision-making processes in disaster management are thus extremely difficult due to the presence of multiple decision-makers involved, and the complexity of the tasks being tackled. Hence, in this paper, we look at applying ICT based solutions to enable a speedy and effective decision making in the golden window of humanitarian operations. A high-level view of ICT based solutions in the context of logistics operations for humanitarian response in Southeast Asia is presented, and their viability in a real-life case about logistics network design is explored.

Keywords: decision support, disaster preparedness, humanitarian logistics, network design

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Authors: R. Dimitri Halley

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The research within Jungian Psychology presented here is on the wave state of Self. What has been discovered via shared dreaming, independently correlating dreams across dreamers, is beyond the Self stage into the deepest layer or the wave state Self: the very quantum ocean, the Self archetype is embedded in. A quantum wave or rhyming of meaning constituting synergy across several dreamers was discovered in dreams and in extensively shared dream work with small groups at a post therapy stage. Within the format of shared dreaming, we find synergy patterns beyond what Jung called the Self archetype. Jung led us up to the phase of Individuation and delivered the baton to Von Franz to work out the next synchronistic stage, here proposed as the finding of the quantum patterns making up the wave state of Self. These enfolded synchronistic patterns have been found in group format of shared dreaming of individuals approximating individuation, and the unfolding of it is carried by belief and faith. The reason for this format and operating system is because beyond therapy and of living reality, we find no science – no thinking or even awareness in the therapeutic sense – but rather a state of mental processing resembling more like that of spiritual attitude. Thinking as such is linear and cannot contain the deepest layer of Self, the quantum core of the human being. It is self reflection which is the container for the process at the wave state of Self. Observation locks us in an outside-in reactive flow from a first-person perspective and hence toward the surface we see to believe, whereas here, the direction of focus shifts to inside out/intrinsic. The operating system or language at the wave level of Self is thus belief and synchronicity. Belief has up to now been almost the sole province of organized religions but was viewed by Jung as an inherent property in the process of Individuation. The shared dreaming stage of the synchronistic patterns forms a larger story constituting a deep connectivity unfolding around individual Selves. Dreams of independent dreamers form larger patterns that come together as puzzles forming a larger story, and in this sense, this group work level builds on Jung as a post individuation collective stage. Shared dream correlations will be presented, illustrating a larger story in terms of trails of shared synchronicity.

Keywords: belief, shared dreaming, synchronistic patterns, wave state of self

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Authors: Turkyh Alotibi, Ghadah Obeid Alrasheed, Afaf Saad Alshaibani, Moneerah Obeid Alrasheed

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This study explores factors that influence MBA enrolment and investigates strategic prerequisites for developing a viable online MBA program at Alfaisal University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It compares students’ perspectives about online MBA against the face-to-face on-site MBA program. With the self-administered online survey tool, we collected data from 52 first- and second-year MBA students enrolled at Alfaisal University for the 2021 Fall Semester. The data from the survey questionnaire, distributed at the university’s College of Business, reports that approximately 60% of MBA students prefer face-to-face, in-person courses. Their preference for considering an online MBA, primarily rests on two factors, the university’s ranking (68% would enroll for an online MBA program offered by Harvard Business School) and 34.07% for the program timing (timetable). Alfaisal University’s outstanding ranking makes it viable to offer an online MBA either independently or in collaboration with other internationally reputed business schools. The paper contains useful insights to set “the strategic agenda for Online MBA program” in no accredited University but with a good reputation. The information from the case study could be useful for supporting the strategic intent to start an Online MBA program in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: online MBA, online education demand, university management, course evaluation, blended learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Jakub Młoźniak, Adam Szymański, Gabriela Stondzik, Dagny Krankowska, Tomasz Mikuła

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Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are bacterial species that cause diversely manifesting diseases mainly in immunocompromised patients. In people with HIV, NTM infection is an AIDS-defining disease and usually appears when the lymphocyte T CD4 count is below 50 cells/μl. The usage of antiretroviral therapy has decreased the prevalence of NTM among people with HIV, but the disease can still be observed especially among patients with late HIV diagnosis. Common presence in environment, human colonization, clinical similarity with tuberculosis and slow growth on culture makes NTM especially hard to diagnose. The study aimed to analyze the epidemiology and clinical course of NTM among patients with HIV. This study included patients with NTM and HIV admitted to our department between 2017 and 2023. Medical records of patients were analyzed and data on age, sex, median time from HIV diagnosis to identification of NTM infection, median CD4 count at NTM diagnosis, methods of determining NTM infection, type of species of mycobacteria identified, clinical symptoms and treatment course were gathered. Twenty-four patients (20 men, 4 women) with identified NTM were included in this study. Among them, 20 were HIV late presenters. The patients' median age was 40. The main symptoms which patients presented were fever, weight loss and cough. Pulmonary disease confirmed with positive cultures from sputum/bronchoalveolar lavage was present in 18 patients. M. avium was the most common species identified. M. marinum caused disseminated skin lesions in 1 patient. Out of all, 5 people were not treated for NTM caused by lack of symptoms and suspicion of colonization with mycobacterium. Concomitant tuberculosis was present in 6 patients. The median diagnostic time from HIV to NTM infections was 3.5 months. The median CD4 count at NTM identification was 69.5 cells/μl. Median NTM treatment time was 16 months but 7 patients haven’t finished their treatment yet. The most commonly used medications were ethambutol and clarithromycin. Among analyzed patients, 4 of them have died. NTM infections are still an important disease among patients who are HIV late presenters. This disease should be taken into consideration during the differential diagnosis of fever, weight loss and cough in people with HIV with lymphocyte T CD4 count <100 cells/μl. Presence of tuberculosis does not exclude nontuberculous mycobacterium coinfection.

Keywords: mycobacteriosis, HIV, late presenter, epidemiology

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Authors: Mohammadreza Heydariazad

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Productivity growth of wind energy as a clean source needed to achieve improved strategy in production and transmission and management of wind resources in order to increase quality of power and reduce costs. New technologies based on power converters that cause changing turbine speed to suit the wind speed blowing turbine improve extraction efficiency power from wind. This article introduces variable speed wind turbines and optimization of power, and presented methods to use superconducting inductor in the composition of power converter and is proposed the dc measurement for the wind farm and especially is considered techniques available to them. In fact, this article reviews mechanisms and function, changes of wind speed turbine according to speed control strategies of various types of wind turbines and examines power possible transmission and ac from producing location to suitable location for a strong connection integrating wind farm generators, without additional cost or equipment. It also covers main objectives of the dynamic control of wind turbines, and the methods of exploitation and the ways of using it that includes the unique process of these components. Effective algorithm is presented for power control in order to extract maximum active power and maintains power factor at the desired value.

Keywords: wind energy, generator, superconducting inductor, wind turbine power

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Authors: Oluwasefunmi Eunice Irewole, Enrique Armas Arévalos

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Agriculture has played a crucial role in the economy and the development of many countries. Moreover, the basic needs for human survival are; food, shelter, and cloth are link on agricultural production. Most developed countries see that agriculture provides them with food and raw materials for different goods such as (shelter, medicine, fuel and clothing) which has led to an increase in incomes, livelihoods and standard of living. This study aimed at analysing the relationship between International competitiveness of agricultural products, with the area, fertilizer, labour force, economic growth, foreign direct investment, exchange rate and inflation rate in Latin America during the period of 1991-to 2019. In this study, panel data econometric methods were used, as well as cross-section dependence (Pesaran test), unit root (cross-section Augumented Dickey Fuller and Cross-sectional Im, Pesaran, and Shin tests), cointergration (Pedroni and Fisher-Johansen tests), and heterogeneous causality (Pedroni and Fisher-Johansen tests) (Hurlin and Dumitrescu test). The results reveal that the model has cross-sectional dependency and that they are integrated at one I. (1). The "fully modified OLS and dynamic OLS estimators" were used to examine the existence of a long-term relationship, and it was found that a long-term relationship existed between the selected variables. The study revealed a positive significant relationship between International Competitiveness of the agricultural raw material and area, fertilizer, labour force, economic growth, and foreign direct investment, while international competitiveness has a negative relationship with the advantages of the exchange rate and inflation. The economy policy recommendations deducted from this investigation is that Foreign Direct Investment and the labour force have a positive contribution to the increase of International Competitiveness of agricultural products.

Keywords: revealed comparative advantage, agricultural products, area, fertilizer, economic growth, granger causality, panel unit root

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Authors: Huda Zakaria

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The concept of the glass ceiling persists as a barrier to women's advancement in leadership roles, shaped significantly by organizational culture and climate. This study examines the impact of organizational culture on advancing women to top leadership roles in the Egyptian banking sector. The research explores how varying organizational cultures and climates either facilitate or hinder women's progress in breaking through the glass ceiling. Data suggests that women are underrepresented in senior management positions globally, including in Egypt, indicating a barrier to their advancement. Organizational norms often align more with masculine traits, creating challenges for women in leadership. Stereotypes and biases affect how women are treated, leading to limited advancement opportunities and a lack of sponsors advocating for their skills. Female managers also exhibit lower levels of career confidence compared to male counterparts. To address these issues, organizations must tackle cultural biases and provide equal opportunities to promote genuine gender diversity and empower women in leadership roles. Understanding the impact of organizational culture is crucial for creating inclusive workplaces that foster gender equality and provide equal opportunities for women to succeed in leadership roles.

Keywords: glass ceiling, leadership, banking, bias

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Authors: Nipon Sasithornsaowapa

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This research aims to study the impact of personality and family status on women executives’ career success of the primary education department of Thailand. The independent variable includes three factors, namely family status, personality, and knowledge-skill-experience, while the dependent variable is the career success. The population of this study includes 2,179 female management officials in the department of primary education. A total of 400 female managers is interviewed and utilized as a sample group. A questionnaire is developed and used as a research tool for data collection. Content analysis is performed to get the quantitative data. Descriptive statistics in this research is conducted by SPSS program. The findings revealed that personality and family status of samples have an influence on the overall career success of women executives in terms of their objective career success. However, in terms of specific factors of personality or family status, it is found that there is no relevance of each factor on the women executives’ career success. It can be concluded that the factor affecting the women executives’ career success is subjective career success including the happiness and enjoyment with the job not factor concerning materials. Their success is the result of each individual working experience. However, their personal characteristics do not affect their success.

Keywords: career success, women executives, primary education, knowledge-skill-experience

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Authors: Hesham Osman

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The challenges facing aging urban infrastructure systems require a more holistic and comprehensive approach to their management. The large number of urban infrastructure renewal activities occurring in cities throughout the world leads to social, economic and environmental impacts on the communities in its vicinity. As such, a coordinated effort is required to streamline these activities. This paper presents a framework to enable temporal (time-based) coordination of water, sewer and road intervention activities. Intervention activities include routine maintenance, renewal, and replacement of physical assets. The coordination framework considers 1) Life-cycle costs, 2) Infrastructure level-of-service, and 3) Risk exposure to system operators. The model enables infrastructure asset managers to trade-off options of delaying versus bringing forward intervention activities of one system in order to be executed in conjunction with another co-located system in the right-of-way. The framework relies on a combination of meta-heuristics and goal-based optimization. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the framework, a case study for a major infrastructure corridor in Cairo, Egypt is taken as an example. Results show that the framework can be scaled-up to include other infrastructure systems located in the right-of-way like electricity, gas and telecom, provided that information can be shared among these entities.

Keywords: infrastructure, rehabilitation, construction, optimization

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Authors: Grace O. Akinlade, Danjuma D. Maza, Oluwakemi O. Olawolu, Delight O. Babalola, John A. O. Oyekunle, Joshua O. Ojo

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The Mokuro area of Ile-Ife, South West Nigeria, was well known for gold mining in the past (about twenty years ago). However, the place has since been reclaimed and converted to residential area without any environmental risk assessment of the impact of the mining tailings on the environment. Soil, water, and plant samples were collected from 4 different locations around the mine-turned-residential area. Soil samples were pulverized and sieved into finer particles, while the plant samples were dried and pulverized. All the samples were digested and analyzed for As, Pb, Cd, and Zn using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). From the analysis results, the hazard index (HI) was then calculated for the metals. The soil and plant samples were air dried and pulverized, then weighed, after which the samples were packed into special and properly sealed containers to prevent radon gas leakage. After the sealing, the samples were kept for 28 days to attain secular equilibrium. The concentrations of 40K, 238U, and 232Th in the samples were measured using a cesium iodide (CsI) spectrometer and URSA software. The AAS analysis showed that As, Pb, Cd (Toxic metals), and Zn (essential trace metals) are in concentrations lower than permissible limits in plants and soil samples, while the water samples had concentrations higher than permissible limits. The calculated health indices (HI) show that HI for water is >1 and that of plants and soil is <1. Gamma spectrometry result shows high levels of activity concentrations above the recommended limits for all the soil and plant samples collected from the area. Only the water samples have activity concentrations below the recommended limit. Consequently, the absorbed dose, annual effective dose, and excess lifetime cancer risk are all above the recommended safe limit for all the samples except for water samples. In conclusion, all the samples collected from the area are either contaminated with toxic metals or they pose radiological hazards to the consumers. Further detailed study is therefore recommended in order to be able to advise the residents appropriately.

Keywords: toxic metals, gamma spectrometry, Ile-Ife, radiological hazards, gold mining

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Authors: Mercy Chepkirui, Paul Orina, Robin Abell, Leonard Akwany, Tonny Orina, Mercy Matuma, Rasowo Joseph

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Lake jipe, a shared water resource between Kenya and Tanzania located at the East African Coast, is under multiple pressures. The lake has receded from 30Km2 to 27.32Km2 due to prolonged dry spells and intensified water abstraction for irrigation and re-route to Mungu ya Nyumba Dam in Tanzania. Agricultural activities have significantly (90%) contributed to the lake levels decline and further affected the lakes’ aquatic biodiversity. Among the most affected are the commercially important endemic fish species of the lake, of which Oreochromis jipe has experienced the greatest decline. Overfishing, use of illegal unreported and unregulated fishing gears, intensified fishing along protected fish breeding areas as well as poor management and uncoordinated conservation efforts have significantly contributed to the decline of fish catches from 348 kg of O. jipe in 2016 to 90 kg daily catches in 2022. Therefore, the lake is on the verge of extinction if no action is taken. This calls for awareness of the significance of the L. Jipe ecosystems and its immediate and long-term benefits. Further, there is a need to revive alternative economic activities, including aquaculture and sustainable agriculture, to offer alternative livelihood to local communities.

Keywords: biodiversity, ecosystem, conservation, fisheries

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Authors: Heewon Jeong, Seongpyo Kim, Joon Ha Kim

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Over the last few tens of years, the coastal regions of Korea have experienced red tide algal blooms, which are harmful and toxic to both humans and marine organisms due to their potential threat. It was accelerated owing to eutrophication by human activities, certain oceanic processes, and climate change. Previous studies have tried to monitoring and predicting the algae concentration of the ocean with the bio-optical algorithms applied to color images of the satellite. However, the accurate estimation of algal blooms remains problems to challenges because of the complexity of coastal waters. Therefore, this study suggests a new method to identify the concentration of red tide algal bloom from images of geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI) which are representing the water environment of the sea in Korea. The method employed GOCI images, which took the water leaving radiances centered at 443nm, 490nm and 660nm respectively, as well as observed weather data (i.e., humidity, temperature and atmospheric pressure) for the database to apply optical characteristics of algae and train deep learning algorithm. Convolution neural network (CNN) was used to extract the significant features from the images. And then artificial neural network (ANN) was used to estimate the concentration of algae from the extracted features. For training of the deep learning model, backpropagation learning strategy is developed. The established methods were tested and compared with the performances of GOCI data processing system (GDPS), which is based on standard image processing algorithms and optical algorithms. The model had better performance to estimate algae concentration than the GDPS which is impossible to estimate greater than 5mg/m³. Thus, deep learning model trained successfully to assess algae concentration in spite of the complexity of water environment. Furthermore, the results of this system and methodology can be used to improve the performances of remote sensing. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the 'Climate Technology Development and Application' research project (#K07731) through a grant provided by GIST in 2017.

Keywords: deep learning, algae concentration, remote sensing, satellite

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Authors: Rigers Dodaj

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Nowadays, the environment is a critical goal for civil engineers, human activity, construction projects, economic growth, and whole national development. Regarding the development of Albania's economy, people's living standards are increasing, and the requirements for the living environment are also increasing. Under these circumstances, environmental protection and sustainability this is the critical issue. The rising industrialization, urbanization, and energy demand affect the environment by emission of carbon dioxide gas (CO2), a significant parameter known to impact air pollution directly. Consequently, many governments and international organizations conducted policies and regulations to address environmental degradation in the pursuit of economic development, for instance in Albania, the CO2 emission calculated in metric tons per capita has increased by 23% in the last 20 years. This paper analyzes the importance of civil engineering and economic growth in the sustainability of the environment focusing on CO2 emission. The analyzed data are time series 2001 - 2020 (with annual frequency), based on official publications of the World Bank. The statistical approach with vector error correction model and time series forecasting model are used to perform the parameter’s estimations and long-run equilibrium. The research in this paper adds a new perspective to the evaluation of a sustainable environment in the context of carbon emission reduction. Also, it provides reference and technical support for the government toward green and sustainable environmental policies. In the context of low-carbon development, effectively improving carbon emission efficiency is an inevitable requirement for achieving sustainable economic and environmental protection. Also, the study reveals that civil engineering development projects impact greatly the environment in the long run, especially in areas of flooding, noise pollution, water pollution, erosion, ecological disorder, natural hazards, etc. The potential for reducing industrial carbon emissions in recent years indicates that reduction is becoming more difficult, it needs another economic growth policy and more civil engineering development, by improving the level of industrialization and promoting technological innovation in industrial low-carbonization.

Keywords: CO₂ emission, civil engineering, economic growth, environmental sustainability

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Authors: Mohammad Nasb, Muhammad Rehan, Chen Hong

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Background Meniscus defects critically alter knee function and lead to degenerative changes. Regenerative medicine applications including stem cell transplantation have showed a promising efficacy in finding alternatives to overcome traditional treatment limitations. However, stem cell therapy remains limited due to the substantially reduced viability and inhibitory microenvironment. Since tissue growth and repair are under the control of biochemical and mechanical signals, several approaches have recently been investigated (e.g., low intensity pulsed ultrasound [LIPUS]) to promote the regeneration process. This study employed LIPUS to improve growth and osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells to improve the regeneration of meniscus tissue. Methodology: The Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were transplanted into the epicenter of the injured meniscus in rabbits, which were randomized into two main groups: a treatment group (n=32 New Zealand rabbits) including 4 subgroups of 8 rabbits in each subgroup (LIPUS treatment, MSC treatment, LIPUS with MSC and control), and a second group (n=9) to track implanted cells and their progeny using green fluorescence protein (GFP). GFP consists of the MSC and LIPUS-MSC combination subgroups. Rabbits were then subjected to histological, immunohistochemistry, and MRI assessment. Results: The quantity of the newly regenerated tissue in the combination treatment group that had Ultrasound irradiation after mesenchymal stem cells were better at all end points. Likewise, Tissue quality scores were also greater in knees treated with both approaches compared with controls and single treatment at all end points, achieving significance at twelve and twenty-four weeks [p < 0.05], and [p = 0.008] at twelve weeks. Differentiation into type-I and II collagen-expressing cells were higher in the combination group at up to twenty-four weeks. Conclusions: the combination of mesenchymal stem cells and LIPUS showed greater adhering to the sites of meniscus injury, differentiate into cells resembling meniscal fibrochondrocytes, and improve both quality and quantity of meniscal regeneration.

Keywords: stem cells, regenerative medicine, osteoarthritis, knee

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Authors: Benjamin J. Kuo, Silvia D. Vaca, Joao Ricardo Nickenig Vissoci, Catherine A. Staton, Linda Xu, Michael Muhumuza, Hussein Ssenyonjo, John Mukasa, Joel Kiryabwire, Lydia Nanjula, Christine Muhumuza, Henry E. Rice, Gerald A. Grant, Michael M. Haglund

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Background: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is disproportionally concentrated in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with the odds of dying from TBI in Uganda more than 4 times higher than in high income countries (HICs). The disparities in the injury incidence and outcome between LMICs and resource-rich settings have led to increased health outcomes research for TBIs and their associated risk factors in LMICs. While there have been increasing TBI studies in LMICs over the last decade, there is still a need for more robust prospective registries. In Uganda, a trauma registry implemented in 2004 at the Mulago National Referral Hospital (MNRH) showed that RTI is the major contributor (60%) of overall mortality in the casualty department. While the prior registry provides information on injury incidence and burden, it’s limited in scope and doesn’t follow patients longitudinally throughout their hospital stay nor does it focus specifically on TBIs. And although these retrospective analyses are helpful for benchmarking TBI outcomes, they make it hard to identify specific quality improvement initiatives. The relationship among epidemiology, patient risk factors, clinical care, and TBI outcomes are still relatively unknown at MNRH. Objective: The objectives of this study are to describe the processes of care and determine risk factors predictive of poor outcomes for TBI patients presenting to a single tertiary hospital in Uganda. Methods: Prospective data were collected for 563 TBI patients presenting to a tertiary hospital in Kampala from 1 June – 30 November 2016. Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) was used to systematically collect variables spanning 8 categories. Univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted to determine significant predictors of mortality. Results: 563 TBI patients were enrolled from 1 June – 30 November 2016. 102 patients (18%) received surgery, 29 patients (5.1%) intended for surgery failed to receive it, and 251 patients (45%) received non-operative management. Overall mortality was 9.6%, which ranged from 4.7% for mild and moderate TBI to 55% for severe TBI patients with GCS 3-5. Within each TBI severity category, mortality differed by management pathway. Variables predictive of mortality were TBI severity, more than one intracranial bleed, failure to receive surgery, high dependency unit admission, ventilator support outside of surgery, and hospital arrival delayed by more than 4 hours. Conclusions: The overall mortality rate of 9.6% in Uganda for TBI is high, and likely underestimates the true TBI mortality. Furthermore, the wide-ranging mortality (3-82%), high ICU fatality, and negative impact of care delays suggest shortcomings with the current triaging practices. Lack of surgical intervention when needed was highly predictive of mortality in TBI patients. Further research into the determinants of surgical interventions, quality of step-up care, and prolonged care delays are needed to better understand the complex interplay of variables that affect patient outcome. These insights guide the development of future interventions and resource allocation to improve patient outcomes.

Keywords: care continuum, global neurosurgery, Kampala Uganda, LMIC, Mulago, prospective registry, traumatic brain injury

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Authors: Madhawa Basnayaka, Jouni Paltakari

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Fully passive backscattering chipless RFID tags are an emerging wireless technology with low cost, higher reading distance, and fast automatic identification without human interference, unlike already available technologies like optical barcodes. The design optimization of chipless RFID tags is crucial as it requires replacing integrated chips found in conventional RFID tags with printed geometric designs. These designs enable data encoding and decoding through backscattered electromagnetic (EM) signatures. The applications of chipless RFID tags have been limited due to the constraints of data encoding capacity and the ability to design accurate yet efficient configurations. The traditional approach to accomplishing design parameters for a desired EM response involves iterative adjustment of design parameters and simulating until the desired EM spectrum is achieved. However, traditional numerical simulation methods encounter limitations in optimizing design parameters efficiently due to the speed and resource consumption. In this work, a deep learning neural network (DNN) is utilized to establish a correlation between the EM spectrum and the dimensional parameters of nested centric rings, specifically square and octagonal. The proposed bi-directional DNN has two simultaneously running neural networks, namely spectrum prediction and design parameters prediction. First, spectrum prediction DNN was trained to minimize mean square error (MSE). After the training process was completed, the spectrum prediction DNN was able to accurately predict the EM spectrum according to the input design parameters within a few seconds. Then, the trained spectrum prediction DNN was connected to the design parameters prediction DNN and trained two networks simultaneously. For the first time in chipless tag design, design parameters were predicted accurately after training bi-directional DNN for a desired EM spectrum. The model was evaluated using a randomly generated spectrum and the tag was manufactured using the predicted geometrical parameters. The manufactured tags were successfully tested in the laboratory. The amount of iterative computer simulations has been significantly decreased by this approach. Therefore, highly efficient but ultrafast bi-directional DNN models allow rapid and complicated chipless RFID tag designs.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, chipless RFID, deep learning, machine learning

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Authors: Juan Carlos Quiñones

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Time has passed since the industrial design has put murder on a mass-production basis. The industrial design applies methods from different disciplines with a strategic approach, to place humans at the centers of the design process and to deliver solutions that are meaningful and desirable for users and for the market. This analysis summarizes some of the discussions that occurred in the 6th International Forum of Design as a Process, June 2016, Valencia. The aims of this conference were finding new linkages between systems and design interactions in order to define the social consequences. Through knowledge management we are able to transform the intangible aspect by using design as a transforming function capable of converting intangible knowledge into tangible solutions (i.e. products and services demanded by society). Industrial designers use knowledge consciously as a starting point for the ideation of the product. The handling of the intangible becomes more and more relevant over time as different methods emerge for knowledge extraction and subsequent organization. The different methodologies applied to the industrial design discipline and the evolution of the same discipline methods underpin the cultural and scientific background knowledge as a starting point of thought as a response to the needs; the whole thing coming through the instrument of creativity for the achievement of the proper and necessary balance between intuition and reason, design and science.

Keywords: creative process, creativity, industrial design, intangible

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Authors: Fikru Fentaw Abera

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Climate changes alter regional hydrologic conditions and results in a variety of impacts on water resource systems. Such hydrologic changes will affect almost every aspect of human well-being. The goal of this paper is to assess the impact of climate change on the hydrology of Upper Guder catchment located in northwest of Ethiopia. The GCM derived scenarios (HadCM3 A2a & B2a SRES emission scenarios) experiments were used for the climate projection. The statistical downscaling model (SDSM) was used to generate future possible local meteorological variables in the study area. The down-scaled data were then used as input to the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model to simulate the corresponding future stream flow regime in Upper Guder catchment of the Abay River Basin. A semi distributed hydrological model, SWAT was developed and Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) was utilized for uncertainty analysis. GLUE is linked with SWAT in the Calibration and Uncertainty Program known as SWAT-CUP. Three benchmark periods simulated for this study were 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. The time series generated by GCM of HadCM3 A2a and B2a and Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) indicate a significant increasing trend in maximum and minimum temperature values and a slight increasing trend in precipitation for both A2a and B2a emission scenarios in both Gedo and Tikur Inch stations for all three bench mark periods. The hydrologic impact analysis made with the downscaled temperature and precipitation time series as input to the hydrological model SWAT suggested for both A2a and B2a emission scenarios. The model output shows that there may be an annual increase in flow volume up to 35% for both emission scenarios in three benchmark periods in the future. All seasons show an increase in flow volume for both A2a and B2a emission scenarios for all time horizons. Potential evapotranspiration in the catchment also will increase annually on average 3-15% for the 2020s and 7-25% for the 2050s and 2080s for both A2a and B2a emissions scenarios.

Keywords: climate change, Guder sub-basin, GCM, SDSM, SWAT, SWAT-CUP, GLUE

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Authors: Sujesh F. Sujan, Steve W. Jones, Arto Kiviniemi

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The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Architectural-Engineering-Construction (AEC) industry is a form of systemic innovation. Unlike incremental innovation, (such as the technological development of CAD from hand based drawings to 2D electronically printed drawings) any form of systemic innovation in Project-Based Inter-Organisational Networks requires complete collaboration and results in numerous benefits if adopted and utilised properly. Proper use of BIM involves people collaborating with the use of interoperable BIM compliant tools. The AEC industry globally has been known for its adversarial and fragmented nature where firms take advantage of one another to increase their own profitability. Due to the industry’s nature, getting people to collaborate by unifying their goals is critical to successful BIM adoption. However, this form of innovation is often being forced artificially in the old ways of working which do not suit collaboration. This may be one of the reasons for its low global use even though the technology was developed more than 20 years ago. Therefore, there is a need to develop a metric/method to support and allow industry players to gain confidence in their investment into BIM software and workflow methods. This paper departs from defining systemic risk as a risk that affects all the project participants at a given stage of a project and defines categories of systemic risks. The need to generalise is to allow method applicability to any industry where the category will be the same, but the example of the risk will depend on the industry the study is done in. The method proposed seeks to use individual perception of an example of systemic risk as a key parameter. The significance of this study lies in relating the variance of individual perception of systemic risk to how much the team is collaborating. The method bases its notions on the claim that a more unified range of individual perceptions would mean a higher probability that the team is collaborating better. Since contracts and procurement devise how a project team operates, the method could also break the methodological barrier of highly subjective findings that case studies inflict, which has limited the possibility of generalising between global industries. Since human nature applies in all industries, the authors’ intuition is that perception can be a valuable parameter to study collaboration which is essential especially in projects that utilise systemic innovation such as BIM.

Keywords: building information modelling, perception of risk, systemic innovation, team collaboration

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Authors: Judit Manuel-i-Martin, Mechthild Donner, Ivana Radic, Yamna Erraach, Fatima Elhadad, Taoufik Yatribi, Feliu Lopez-i-Gelats

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This paper investigates how small olive farmers and olive oil producers implement circular economy practices to manage olive related waste and how such strategies are perceived by the farmers themselves. While there is a lot of data and research about possible uses of olive oil by-products, the perceptions and related practices of olive oil farmers is a much less investigated domain. A total of 60 semi-structured interviews were conducted in one of the most relevant olive oil producing regions in the Iberian Peninsula -the region of Terres de Ponent (Catalonia – Spain) - to examine the different by-product valorization strategies the olive oil farms develop. We test the hypothesis that the strategies conducted depend on the nature and amount of resources available by the farm. The results obtained point that access to milling infrastructure is a determining factor. We also found that olive tree pruning biomass and olive pomace are the most common by-products valorized by farmers, the first one on-farm and the latter in mills. Results indicate that high value uses for olive oil by-products are rarely implemented by farmers. We conclude that olive farmers tend to perceive by-product valorization strategies as waste management practices rather than as additional sources of value for their farm.

Keywords: circular economy, discourses, Mediterranean region, olive oil by-products, farmers’ strategies, olive pomace

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Authors: Matthew F. Gibson, Narasimha D. Rao, Raphael B. Slade, Joana Portugal Pereira, Joeri Rogelj

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Globally, India’s population is among the most severely impacted by nutrient deficiency, yet millions of tonnes of food are lost before reaching consumers. Across food groups, grains represent the largest share of daily calories and overall losses by mass in India. If current losses remain unresolved and follow projected population rates, we estimate, by 2030, losses from grains for human consumption could increase by 1.3-1.8 million tonnes (Mt) per year against current levels of ~10 Mt per year. This study quantifies energy input to minimise storage losses across India, responsible for a quarter of grain supply chain losses. In doing so, we identify and explore a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) triplet between SDG₂, SDG₇, and SDG₁₂ and provide insight for development of joined up agriculture and health policy in the country. Analyzing rice, wheat, maize, bajra, and sorghum, we quantify one route to reduce losses in supply chains, by modelling the energy input to maintain favorable climatic conditions in modern silo storage. We quantify key nutrients (calories, protein, zinc, iron, vitamin A) contained within these losses and calculate roughly how much deficiency in these dietary components could be reduced if grain losses were eliminated. Our modelling indicates, with appropriate uncertainty, maize has the highest energy input intensity for storage, at 110 kWh per tonne of grain (kWh/t), and wheat the lowest (72 kWh/t). This energy trade-off represents 8%-16% of the energy input required in grain production. We estimate if grain losses across the supply chain were saved and targeted to India’s nutritionally deficient population, average protein deficiency could reduce by 46%, calorie by 27%, zinc by 26%, and iron by 11%. This study offers insight for development of Indian agriculture, food, and health policy by first quantifying and then presenting benefits and trade-offs of tackling food grain losses.

Keywords: energy, food loss, grain storage, hunger, India, sustainable development goal, SDG

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