Search results for: cost accounting systems

Authors: Rajkumar Ghosh

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Urban flooding is a common occurrence throughout Asia. Almost every city is vulnerable to urban floods in some fashion, and city people are particularly vulnerable. Pluvial and fluvial flooding are the most prominent causes of urban flooding in the Gomti Nagar region of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The pluvial flooding is regarded to be less damaging because it is caused by heavy rainfall, Seasonal rainfall fluctuations, water flows off concrete infrastructures, blockages of the drainage system, and insufficient drainage capacity or low infiltration capacity. However, this study considers pluvial flooding in Lucknow to be a significant source of cumulative damage over time, and the risks of such events are increasing as a result of changes in ageing infrastructure, hazard exposure, rapid urbanization, massive water logging and global warming. As a result, urban flooding has emerged as a critical field of study. The popularity of analytical approaches to project the spatial extent of flood dangers has skyrocketed. To address future urban flood resilience, more effort is needed to enhance both hydrodynamic models and analytical tools to simulate risks under present and forecast conditions. Proper urban planning with drainage system and ample space for high infiltration capacity are required to reduce urban flooding. A better India with no urban flooding is a pipe dream that can be realized by putting household rooftop rainwater collection systems in every structure. According to the current study, domestic RTRWHs are strongly recommended as an alternative source of water, as well as to prevent surface runoff and urban floods in this region of Lucknow, urban areas of India.

Keywords: rooftop rainwater harvesting, urban flood, pluvial flooding, fluvial flooding

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Authors: Ratna Kuswardani

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This paper aims to study the impact of recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on 6 selected emerging Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea). We first figure out the contagion of GFC from the US and Europe to the selected emerging Asian countries by studying the tail dependence of market stock returns between those countries. We apply the concept of Extreme Value Theory (EVT) to model the dependence between multiple returns series of variables under examination. We explore the factors causing the contagion between the regions. We find dependencies between markets that are influenced by their size, especially for large markets in emerging Asian countries that tend to have a higher dependency to the market in the more advanced country such as the U.S. and some countries in Europe. The results also suggest that the dependencies between market returns and bank stock returns in the same region tend to be higher than dependencies between these returns across two different regions. We extend our analysis by studying the impact of GFC on the systemic in the banking system. We also find that larger institution has more dependencies with the market stock, suggesting that larger size bank can cause disruption in the market. Further, the higher probability of extreme loss can be seen during the crisis period, which is shown by the non-linear dependency between the pre-crisis and the post-crisis period. Finally, our analysis suggests that systemic risk appears in the domestic banking systems in emerging Asia, as shown by the extreme dependencies within banks in the system. Overall, our results provide caution to policy makers and investors alike on the possible contagion of the impact of global financial crisis across different markets.

Keywords: contagion, extreme value theory, global financial crisis, systemic risk

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Authors: Hadeer Ibrahiem, Mahmoud Nasr, Masarrat M. M. Migahid, Mohamed A. Ghazy

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The release of textile wastewater loaded with 1,4 dioxane into aquatic ecosystems has been associated with various human health risks and adverse environmental impacts. In parallel, phytoremediation has been recently employed to treat highly polluted wastewater because various plant species tend to produce certain enzymes as a defense mechanism against a toxic environment. To our best knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the ability of phytoremediation using Eichhornia crassipes for the removal of various pollutants, including 1,4 dioxane, from textile wastewater. A phytoremediation system composed of Eichhornia crassipes was acclimatized for 10 d, and then operated in four lab-scale hydroponic systems, viz., negative control, positive control, and two different 1,4 dioxane concentration (400 and 500 mg/L). After 11 d of operation, the phytoremediation system achieved removal efficiencies of 67.5±3.4%, 89.4±4.4%, 83.6±3.8% for 1,4 dioxane (at initial concentration 400 mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (at initial concentration 679 mg/L), and cumulative heavy metals, respectively. The removal of these pollutants was mainly supported by the phyto-sorption and phytodegradation mechanisms. The economic feasibility of this phytoremediation system was validated by estimating the capital and operating costs, requiring 4.6 USD for the treatment of 1 m3 textile wastewater. The study concluded that the phytoremediation process could be used as a practical and economical approach to treat textile wastewater laden with various organic and inorganic pollutants. Due to the observed pollution reduction and human health protection, the study objectives would fulfill the targets of SDG 3 “Good Health and Well-being” and SDG 6 “Clean Water and Sanitation”. Further studies are required to (i) investigate the ability of plant species to withstand higher concentrations of 1,4 dioxane for an extended operation time and (ii) understand the biochemical pathways for the degradation of 1,4 dioxane via the action of plant enzymes and the associated microbial community.

Keywords: 1, 4 dioxane concentrations, hydrophytes, Eichhornia crassipes, phytoremediation effectiveness, SDGs, textile industrial effluent

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Authors: Maria Ledinskaya

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This paper examines the Morris Collection Conservation Project at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in the context of Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management. It is part case study and part literature review. To date, relatively little has been written about non-traditional project management approaches in heritage conservation. This paper seeks to introduce Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management concepts from business, software development, and manufacturing fields to museum conservation, by referencing their practical application on a recent museum-based conservation project. The Morris Collection Conservation Project was carried out in 2019-2021 in Norwich, UK, and concerned the remedial conservation of around 150 Abstract Constructivist artworks bequeathed to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts by private collectors Michael and Joyce Morris. The first part introduces the chronological timeline and key elements of the project. It describes a medium-size conservation project of moderate complexity, which was planned and delivered in an environment with multiple known unknowns – unresearched collection, unknown condition and materials, unconfirmed budget. The project was also impacted by the unknown unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as indeterminate lockdowns, and the need to accommodate social distancing and remote communications. The author, a staff conservator at the Sainsbury Centre who acted as project manager on the Morris Collection Conservation Project, presents an incremental, iterative, and value-based approach to managing a conservation project in an uncertain environment. Subsequent sections examine the project from the point of view of Traditional, Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management. The author argues that most academic writing on project management in conservation has focussed on a Traditional plan-driven approach – also known as Waterfall project management – which has significant drawbacks in today’s museum environment, due to its over-reliance on prediction-based planning and its low tolerance to change. In the last 20 years, alternative Agile, Lean and Hybrid approaches to project management have been widely adopted in software development, manufacturing, and other industries, although their recognition in the museum sector has been slow. Using examples from the Morris Collection Conservation Project, the author introduces key principles and tools of Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management and presents a series of arguments on the effectiveness of these alternative methodologies in museum conservation, as well as the ethical and practical challenges to their implementation. These project management approaches are discussed in the context of consequentialist, relativist, and utilitarian developments in contemporary conservation ethics, particularly with respect to change management, bespoke ethics, shared decision-making, and value-based cost-benefit conservation strategy. The author concludes that the Morris Collection Conservation Project had multiple Agile and Lean features which were instrumental to the successful delivery of the project. These key features are identified as distributed decision making, a co-located cross-disciplinary team, servant leadership, focus on value-added work, flexible planning done in shorter sprint cycles, light documentation, and emphasis on reducing procedural, financial, and logistical waste. Overall, the author’s findings point largely in favour of a Hybrid model which combines traditional and alternative project processes and tools to suit the specific needs of the project.

Keywords: project management, conservation, waterfall, agile, lean, hybrid

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Authors: Lawrence Babatunde Ogunsanya

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The university has been in existence, in one form or another, for over a thousand years and has contributed in multiple ways to modern society. It is considered a center of culture, aesthetic direction, and moral forces shaping the civilized society. Universities also contribute in important ways to the economic health and physical landscape of neighborhoods and cities, serving as permanent fixtures of the urban economy and the built environment. Due to the size and location of university campuses, they put demands on the urban character, systems, and infrastructure of the neighboring communities. These demands or impacts have substantial implications for the built environment. It is important to understand the impacts university campuses have on their surrounding communities and urban environments because the destiny of the university is inextricably linked to the destiny of the adjacent neighborhoods. This paper identifies the diverse factors generated by universities in shaping the built environments of their local communities within different spatial contexts such as urban, rural, and township regions situated in South Africa.By applying a mixed methods approach in four university campuses within the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Several data collection instruments were used, such as in-depth interviews, a survey, remote sensing, and onsite observations. The thematic findings revealed numerous factors which influence the morphology of neighbourhood built environments and the myriad of relationships the university has with its local community. This paper also reveals that the university campus is more than a precinct which accommodates buildings and academic endeavours, the role of the university in this century has changed dramatically from its traditional roots of being an elite enclave of academics to a more inclusive and engaged entity that is concerned about providing relevant holistic solutions to society’s current challenges in the built environment.

Keywords: university campus, built environment, architecture, neighborhood planning

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Authors: Radzuan Junin, Dayang Zulaika A. Hasbollah

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The increasing amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere recently has become one of the discussed topics in relation with world’s concern on climate change. Developing countries’ emissions (such as Malaysia) are now seen to surpass developed country’s emissions due to rapid economic development growth in recent decades. This paper presents the potential storage sites suitability and storage capacity assessment for CO2 sequestration in sedimentary basins of Malaysia. This study is the first of its kind that made an identification of potential storage sites and assessment of CO2 storage capacity within the deep saline aquifers in the country. The CO2 storage capacity in saline formation assessment was conducted based on the method for quick assessment of CO2 storage capacity in closed, and semi-closed saline formations modified to suit the geology setting of Malaysia. Then, an integrated approach that involved geographic information systems (GIS) analysis and field data assessment was adopted to provide the potential storage sites and its capacity for CO2 sequestration. This study concentrated on the assessment of major sedimentary basins in Malaysia both onshore and offshore where potential geological formations which CO2 could be stored exist below 800 meters and where suitable sealing formations are present. Based on regional study and amount of data available, there are 14 sedimentary basins all around Malaysia that has been identified as potential CO2 storage. Meanwhile, from the screening and ranking exercises, it is obvious that Malay Basin, Central Luconia Province, West Baram Delta and Balingian Province are respectively ranked as the top four in the ranking system for CO2 storage. 27% of sedimentary basins in Malaysia were evaluated as high potential area for CO2 storage. This study should provide a basis for further work to reduce the uncertainty in these estimates and also provide support to policy makers on future planning of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects in Malaysia.

Keywords: CO₂ storage, deep saline aquifer, GIS, sedimentary basin

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Authors: Aminu Abdullahi Isyaku

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Semi-arid Bornu basin in northeast Nigeria is characterised with flat topography, thick cover sediments and lack of continuous bedrock outcrops discernible for field geology. This paper presents the methodology for the characterisation of neotectonic surface structures and surface lithology in the north-eastern Bornu basin in northeast Nigeria as an alternative approach to field geological mapping using free multispectral Landsat 7 ETM+, SRTM DEM and ASAR Earth Observation datasets. Spectral lithological mapping herein developed utilised spectral discrimination of the surface features identified on Landsat 7 ETM+ images to infer on the lithology using four steps including; computations of band combination images; band ratio images; supervised image classification and inferences of the lithological compositions. Two complementary approaches to lineament mapping are carried out in this study involving manual digitization and automatic lineament extraction to validate the structural lineaments extracted from the Landsat 7 ETM+ image mosaic covering the study. A comparison between the mapped surface lineaments and lineament zones show good geospatial correlation and identified the predominant NE-SW and NW-SE structural trends in the basin. Topographic profiles across different parts of the Bama Beach Ridge palaeoshorelines in the basin appear to show different elevations across the feature. It is determined that most of the drainage systems in the northeastern Bornu basin are structurally controlled with drainage lines terminating against the paleo-lake border and emptying into the Lake Chad mainly arising from the extensive topographic high-stand Bama Beach Ridge palaeoshoreline.

Keywords: Bornu Basin, lineaments, spectral lithology, tectonics

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Authors: Rafiu Babatunde Ibrahim, Richard Oluseyi Taiwo, Abiodun Toheeb Akintunde

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The relationship between road transport infrastructure and commercial activities in Nigeria has been a topical issue and identified as one of the crucial components for economic development in the country. This study examines road transport infrastructure and commercial activities along selected roads in Ede, Nigeria. The study assesses the characteristics of the selected roads, the condition of road infrastructure, the degree of road network connectivity, maintenance culture for the road infrastructure as well as commercial activities along identified roads in the study area. Stratified Sampling Techniques were used to partition the study area into core, Intermediate and Suburb Township zones. Roads were also classified into Major, Distributor and Access Roads. Field observation and measurement, as well as a questionnaire, were used to obtain primary data from 246 systematically sampled respondents along the roads selected, and they were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that most of the roads were characterized by an incidence of potholes. A total of 448 potholes were observed, where Olowoibida Road accounted for (19.0%), Federal Polytechnic Road (17.4%), and Back to Land Road (16.3%). The majority of the selected roads have no street lights and are of open drainage systems. Also, the condition of road surfaces was observed to be deteriorating. Road network connectivity of the study area was found to be poorly connected with 11% using the alpha index and 40% of Gamma index. It was found that the tailoring business (39) is predominant on major roads and Distributor Roads, while petty trading (35) is dominant on the access road. Results of correlation analysis (r = 0.242) show that there is a low positive correlation between road infrastructure and commercial activities; the significant relationships have indeed explained how important it is in influencing commercial activities across the study area. The study concluded by emphasizing the need for the provision of more roads and proper maintenance of the existing ones. This will no doubt improve the commercial activities along the roads in the study area.

Keywords: road transport, infrastructure, commercial activities, maintenance culture

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Authors: Laxmi R. Kasaraneni

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The Internet connects all the networks, including the nation’s critical infrastructure that are used extensively by not only a nation’s government and military to protect sensitive information and execute missions, but also the primary infrastructure that provides services that enable modern conveniences such as education, potable water, electricity, natural gas, and financial transactions. It has become the central nervous system for the government, the citizens, and the industries. When it is attacked, the effects can ripple far and wide impacts not only to citizens’ well-being but nation’s economy, civil infrastructure, and national security. As such, these critical services may be targeted by malicious hackers during cyber warfare, it is imperative to not only protect them and mitigate any immediate or potential threats, but to also understand the current or potential impacts beyond the IT networks or the organization. The Nation’s IT infrastructure which is now vital for communication, commerce, and control of our physical infrastructure, is highly vulnerable to attack. While existing technologies can address some vulnerabilities, fundamentally new architectures and technologies are needed to address the larger structural insecurities of an infrastructure developed in a more trusting time when mass cyber attacks were not foreseen. This research is intended to improve the core functions of the Internet and critical-sector information systems by providing a clear path to create a safe, secure, and resilient cyber environment that help stakeholders at all levels of government, and the private sector work together to develop the cybersecurity capabilities that are key to our economy, national security, and public health and safety. This research paper also emphasizes the present and future cyber security threats, the capabilities and goals of cyber attackers, a strategic concept and steps to implement cybersecurity for maximum effectiveness, enabling technologies, some strategic assumptions and critical challenges, and the future of cyberspace.

Keywords: critical challenges, critical infrastructure, cyber security, enabling technologies, national security

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Authors: Farzaneh Bahrami

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Different indicators, such as modal shares in mobility practices or car ownership, may suggest that the century of car dominance - at least in Europe and North America - is already behind us. If the emergence of the car had radical spatial and social consequences, what would be the implications of its gradual disappearance - which could be expected in the context of ecological consciousness, economic and energetic constraints as a result of both urban policies as well as lifestyle choices? To what extend shall urban experts account for this limited but visible transition from car-dominated systems towards alternative models of mobility in which the individual-motorized mobility (car) is not central; what models of urbanity could be imagined to support such a transformation? We have examined a selection of projects at different scales and within different contexts - new planned cities, dense urban areas or territories of dispersion – whose visions involve a significant shift from the current car system. We have been looking into their tools, strategies and different measures of car reduction, as well as their varied approaches to public space as an inevitable corollary to this change. The car’s dominance was formerly questioned by advocates of public space, rather than through interests in ecological urban design or other urban planning concerns. In the 60s already a universal longing for the qualities of traditional urban space led to a critique of the proliferation of fast roads, and thus the car’s colonization of everyday life. Reclamation of public space as the city’s quintessential social territory reappears today in contemporary discourses and reinforces the shift-provoking trends towards a new urbanity freed from car dominance. In a hypothetical process of the progressive phasing-out of the car, we shall expect fundamental transformations in spatial practices of the city, accompanied by the physical configuration of its public spaces. What will be the main characteristics of the new emerging spaces of sociability and where shall we encounter them? This contribution is an ongoing research within the framework of Post-Car World, an interdisciplinary project that explores the future of mobility through the role of the car.

Keywords: mobility, urbanity, future visions, public space

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Authors: Paul Lam, Kevin Wong, Chi Him Chan

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Constant practicing and accurate, immediate feedback are the keys to improving students’ speaking skills. However, traditional oral examination often fails to provide such opportunities to students. The traditional, face-to-face oral assessment is often time consuming – attending the oral needs of one student often leads to the negligence of others. Hence, teachers can only provide limited opportunities and feedback to students. Moreover, students’ incentive to practice is also reduced by their anxiety and shyness in speaking the new language. A mobile app was developed to use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide immediate feedback to students’ speaking performance as an attempt to solve the above-mentioned problems. Firstly, it was thought that online exercises would greatly increase the learning opportunities of students as they can now practice more without the needs of teachers’ presence. Secondly, the automatic feedback provided by the AI would enhance students’ motivation to practice as there is an instant evaluation of their performance. Lastly, students should feel less anxious and shy compared to directly practicing oral in front of teachers. Technically, the program made use of speech-to-text functions to generate feedback to students. To be specific, the software analyzes students’ oral input through certain speech-to-text AI engine and then cleans up the results further to the point that can be compared with the targeted text. The mobile app has invited English teachers for the pilot use and asked for their feedback. Preliminary trials indicated that the approach has limitations. Many of the users’ pronunciation were automatically corrected by the speech recognition function as wise guessing is already integrated into many of such systems. Nevertheless, teachers have confidence that the app can be further improved for accuracy. It has the potential to significantly improve oral drilling by giving students more chances to practice. Moreover, they believe that the success of this mobile app confirms the potential to extend the AI-assisted assessment to other language skills, such as writing, reading, and listening.

Keywords: artificial Intelligence, mobile learning, oral assessment, oral practice, speech-to-text function

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Authors: Alokananda Nath

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Land is an important issue anywhere in the world as it is one of the fundamental elements in human settlements. Since the urban areas are considered to be the drivers of economy for any country across the world and the phenomenon of ‘urbanization’ happening everywhere, there is always a greater pressure on urban land and its management. Many states in India have realized the importance of land as a valuable resource and have implemented certain framework for managing and developing land. But in West Bengal no such statutory framework has been formulated till now and a very out dated model of land acquisition for public purpose is practiced. Due to the lop-sided character of urban growth in the entire eastern region of India, the city of Kolkata continues to bear the burden of excessive growth of population and consequent urbanization of the adjoining areas at a rapid pace. This research tries to look into these conflicts with respect to the present pattern of development in the context of Kolkata and suggest a system for land management in order to implement the planning processes. For this purpose, five case study areas were taken up within the Kolkata Metropolitan Area and subsequent analysis of their present land management and development techniques was done. The findings reveal that there is a lack of political will as well as administrative inefficiency on part of both the development authority and the local bodies. Mostly the local bodies lack the financial resources and technical expertise to work out any kind of land management framework or work out any kind of model in order to manage the development that is happening. All these place undue strain on city infrastructure systems and reduce the potential of cities to contribute as engines of economic growth. The focus of reforms, therefore, ought to be on streamlining the urban planning process, judicious and optimal land use, efficient plan implementation mechanisms, improvement of titling and registration processes.

Keywords: urbanization, land management framework, land development, policy reforms, land-use planning processes

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Authors: Alaa G. M. Osman, Khaled Y. AbouelFadl, Angela Krüger, Werner Kloas

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In Egypt, no previous records are available regarding possible multiple hormonal activities in the aquatic systems and especially the river Nile. In this paper, the in vitro yeast estrogen screen (YES) and yeast androgen screen (YAS) were used to assess the multiple hormonal activities in surface waters and sediment from the Egyptian river Nile for the first time. This study sought to determine if river Nile water caused changes in gonadal histology of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus niloticus). All water samples exhibited extremely low levels of estrogenicity. Estrogenicity was not detected nearly in any of the sediment samples. Unlike the estrogenicity, significant androgenic activities were recorded in the water and sediment samples along the Nile course. The present study reports for the first time quantified anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities with high levels in both water and sediment of the river Nile. The greatest anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities were observed in sample from downstream river Nile. These results indicated that the anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities along the Nile course were great and the pollution of the sites at the downstream was more serious than the upstream sites due to industrial activities at theses sites. Good correlations were observed among some hormonal activities, suggesting coexistence of these contaminants in the environmental matrices. There were no signs of sexual disruption in any of the gonads analysed from either male or female Nile tilapia, demonstrating that any hormonal activity present along the Nile course was not sufficient to induce adverse effects on reproductive development. Further investiga¬tion is necessary to identify the chemicals responsible for the hormonal activities in the river Nile and to examine the effect of very low levels of hormonally active chemicals on gonadal histology, as well as in the development of more sensitive biomarkers.

Keywords: multiple hormonal activities, YES, YAS, river Nile, Nile tilapia, gonadal histology

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Authors: Pradeep Kulshrestha, Maulana Ayoub Ali

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The concept of financial inclusion has been tabled in the whole world where practitioners, academicians, policy makers and economists are working hard to look for the best possible opportunities in order to enable the whole society to be in the banking cycle. The Islamic banking system is considered to be one of the said opportunities. Countries like the United Kingdom, United States of America, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the whole of the United Arab Emirates and many African countries have accommodated the aspect of Islamic banking in the conventional banking system as one of the financial inclusion strategies. This paper tries to analyse the current state of affairs of the Islamic Banking system in Tanzania in order to understand the improvement of the provision of Islamic banking products and services in the said country. The paper discusses the historical background of the banking system in Tanzania, the level of penetration of banking products and services and the coming of the Islamic banking system in the country. Furthermore, the paper discusses banking regulatory bodies, legal instruments governing banking operations as well as number of legal challenges facing Islamic banking operations in the country. Following a critical literature review, the paper discovered that there is no legal instrument which talks about the introduction and provision of Islamic banking system in Tanzania. Furthermore, the Islamic banking system was considered as a banking product which is absolutely incorrect because Islamic banking is considered to be as a banking system of its own. In addition to that, it has been discovered that lack of a proper regulatory system and legal instruments to harmonize the conventional and Islamic banking systems has resulted in the closure of one Islamic window in the country, which in the end affects the credibility of the newly introduced banking system. In its conclusive remarks, the paper suggests that Tanzania should work on all legal challenges affecting the smooth operations of the Islamic banking system. This can be in a way of adopting various Islamic banking legal models which are used in countries like Malaysia and others, or a borrowing legal harmonization process which has been adopted by the UK, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic windows, regulations, banks

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Authors: Rachmat Mauludin, Nurmazidah

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Background and purpose: Famotidine is an H2 receptor blocker. Absorption orally is rapid enough, but famotidine can be degraded by stomach acid causing dose reduction until 35.8% after 50 minutes. This drug also undergoes first-pass metabolism which reduced its bio availability only until 40-50%. To overcome these problems, Solid Lipid Nano particles (SLNs) as alternative delivery systems can be formulated. SLNs is a lipid-based drug delivery technology with 50-1000 nm particle size, where the drug incorporated into the bio compatible lipids and the lipid particles are stabilized using appropriate stabilizers. When the particle size is 200 nm or below, lipid containing famotidine can be absorbed through the lymphatic vessels to the subclavian vein, so first-pass metabolism can be avoided. Method: Famotidine SLNs with various compositions of stabilizer was prepared using a high-speed homogenization and sonication method. Then, the particle size distribution, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, particle morphology and in vitro release profiles were evaluated. Optimization of sonication time also carried out. Result: Particle size of SLN by Particle Size Analyzer was in range 114.6 up to 455.267 nm. Ultrasonicated SLNs within 5 minutes generated smaller particle size than SLNs which was ultrasonicated for 10 and 15 minutes. Entrapment efficiency of SLNs were 74.17 up to 79.45%. Particle morphology of the SLNs was spherical and distributed individually. Release study of Famotidine revealed that in acid medium, 28.89 up to 80.55% of famotidine could be released after 2 hours. Nevertheless in basic medium, famotidine was released 40.5 up to 86.88% in the same period. Conclusion: The best formula was SLNs which stabilized by 4% Poloxamer 188 and 1 % Span 20, that had particle size 114.6 nm in diameter, 77.14% famotidine entrapped, and the particle morphology was spherical and distributed individually. SLNs with the best drug release profile was SLNs which stabilized by 4% Eudragit L 100-55 and 1% Tween 80 which had released 36.34 % in pH 1.2 solution, and 74.13% in pH 7.4 solution after 2 hours. The optimum sonication time was 5 minutes.

Keywords: famotodine, SLN, high speed homogenization, particle size, release study

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Authors: Berna Çalışkan

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The integrated water management is a colloborative approach to planning that brings together institutions that influence all elements of the water cycle, waterways, watershed characteristics, wetlands, ponds, lakes, floodplain areas, stream channel structure. It encourages collaboration where it will be beneficial and links between water planning and other planning processes that contribute to improving sustainable urban development and liveability. Hydraulic considerations can influence the selection of a highway corridor and the alternate routes within the corridor. widening a roadway, replacing a culvert, or repairing a bridge. Because of this, the type and amount of data needed for planning studies can vary widely depending on such elements as environmental considerations, class of the proposed highway, state of land use development, and individual site conditions. The extraction of drainage networks provide helpful preliminary drainage data from the digital elevation model (DEM). A case study was carried out using the Arc Hydro extension within ArcGIS in the study area. It provides the means for processing and presenting spatially-referenced Stream Model. Study area’s flow routing, stream levels, segmentation, drainage point processing can be obtained using DEM as the 'Input surface raster'. These processes integrate the fields of hydrologic, engineering research, and environmental modeling in a multi-disciplinary program designed to provide decision makers with a science-based understanding, and innovative tools for, the development of interdisciplinary and multi-level approach. This research helps to manage transport project planning and construction phases to analyze the surficial water flow, high-level streams, wetland sites for development of transportation infrastructure planning, implementing, maintenance, monitoring and long-term evaluations to better face the challenges and solutions associated with effective management and enhancement to deal with Low, Medium, High levels of impact. Transport projects are frequently perceived as critical to the ‘success’ of major urban, metropolitan, regional and/or national development because of their potential to affect significant socio-economic and territorial change. In this context, sustaining and development of economic and social activities depend on having sufficient Water Resources Management. The results of our research provides a workflow to build a stream network how can classify suitability map according to stream levels. Transportation projects establish, develop, incorporate and deliver effectively by selecting best location for reducing construction maintenance costs, cost-effective solutions for drainage, landslide, flood control. According to model findings, field study should be done for filling gaps and checking for errors. In future researches, this study can be extended for determining and preventing possible damage of Sensitive Areas and Vulnerable Zones supported with field investigations.

Keywords: water resources management, hydro tool, water protection, transportation

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Authors: Robin V. Cupido

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Online dispute resolution has been identified in many countries as a viable alternative for resolving conflicts which have arisen in the so-called digital age. This system of dispute resolution is developing alongside the Internet, and as new types of transactions are made possible by our increased connectivity, new ways of resolving disputes must be explored. Developed nations, such as the United States of America and the European Union, have been involved in creating these online dispute resolution mechanisms from the outset, and currently have sophisticated systems in place to deal with conflicts arising in a number of different fields, such as e-commerce, domain name disputes, labour disputes and conflicts arising from family law. Specifically, in the field of e-commerce, the Internet’s borderless nature has served as a way to promote cross-border trade, and has created a global marketplace. Participation in this marketplace boosts a country’s economy, as new markets are now available, and consumers can transact from anywhere in the world. It would be especially advantageous for developing nations to be a part of this global marketplace, as it could stimulate much-needed investment in these nations, and encourage international co-operation and trade. However, for these types of transactions to proliferate, an effective system for resolving the inevitable disputes arising from such an increase in e-commerce is needed. Online dispute resolution scholarship and practice is flourishing in developed nations, and it is clear that the gap is widening between developed and developing nations in this regard. The potential for implementing online dispute resolution in developing countries has been discussed, but there are a number of obstacles that have thus far prevented its continued development. This paper aims to evaluate the various political, infrastructural and socio-economic challenges faced in developing nations, and to question how these have impacted the acceptance and development of online dispute resolution, scholarship and training of online dispute resolution practitioners and, ultimately, developing nations’ readiness to participate in cross-border e-commerce.

Keywords: developing countries, feasibility, online dispute resolution, progress

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Authors: Asiya Mahtab, Sushama Talegaonkar

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The research is aimed at developing targeted lipid-based nanocarrier systems of chondroitin sulfate (CS) to deliver an antirheumatic drug to the inflammatory site in arthritic paw. Lipid-based nanoparticle (TEF-lipo) was prepared by using a thin-film hydration method. The coating of prepared drug-loaded nanoparticles was done by the ionic interaction mechanism. TEF-lipo and CS-coated lipid nanoparticle (CS-lipo) were characterized for mean droplet size, zeta potential, and surface morphology. TEF-lipo and CS-lipo were further subjected to in vitro cell line studies on RAW 264.7 murine macrophage, U937, and MG 63 cell lines. The pharmacodynamic study was performed to establish the effectiveness of the prepared lipid-based conventional and targeted nanoparticles in comparison to pure drugs. Droplet size and zeta potential of TEF-lipo were found to be 128. 92 ± 5.42 nm and +12.6 ± 1.2 mV. It was observed that after the coating of TEF-lipo with CS, particle size increased to 155.6± 2.12 nm and zeta potential changed to -10.2± 1.4mV. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed that the nanovesicles were uniformly dispersed and detached from each other. Formulations followed sustained release pattern up to 24 h. Results of cell line studies ind icated that CS-lipo formulation showed the highest cytotoxic potential, thereby proving its enhanced ability to kill the RAW 264.7 murine macrophage and U937 cells when compared with other formulations. It is clear from our in vivo pharmacodynamic results that targeted nanocarriers had a higher inhibitory effect on arthritis progression than nontargeted nanocarriers or free drugs. Results demonstrate that this approach will provide effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and CS served as a potential prophylactic against the advancement of cartilage degeneration.

Keywords: adjuvant induced arthritis, chondroitin sulfate, rheumatoid arthritis, teriflunomide

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Authors: Manuel de Pazos-Liano, Manuel Cifuentes-Antonio, Juan Fisac-Gozalo, Sara Perales-Momparler, Carlos Martinez-Montero

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The first-ever game in the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, the new home of the Club Atletico de Madrid, was played on September 16, 2017, thanks to the work of a multidisciplinary team that made it possible to combine urban development with sustainability goals. The new football ground sits on a 1.2 km² land owned by the city of Madrid. Its construction has dramatically increased the sealed area of the site (transforming the runoff coefficient from 0.35 to 0.9), and the surrounding sewer network has no capacity for that extra flow. As an alternative to enlarge the existing 2.5 m diameter pipes, it was decided to detain runoff on site by means of an integrated and durable infrastructure that would not blow up the construction cost nor represent a burden on the municipality’s maintenance tasks. Instead of the more conventional option of building a large concrete detention tank, the decision was taken on the use of pervious pavement on the 3013 car parking spaces for sub-surface water storage, a solution aligned with the city water ordinance and the Madrid + Natural project. Making the idea a reality, in only five months and during the summer season (which forced to pour the porous concrete only overnight), was a challenge never faced before in Spain, that required of innovation both at the material as well as the machinery side. The process consisted on: a) defining the characteristics required for the porous concrete (compressive strength of 15 N/mm2 and 20% voids); b) testing of different porous concrete dosages at the construction company laboratory; c) stablishing the cross section in order to provide structural strength and sufficient water detention capacity (20 cm porous concrete over a 5 cm 5/10 gravel, that sits on a 50 cm coarse 40/50 aggregate sub-base separated by a virgin fiber polypropylene geotextile fabric); d) hydraulic computer modelling (using the Full Hydrograph Method based on the Wallingford Procedure) to estimate design peak flows decrease (an average of 69% at the three car parking lots); e) use of a variety of machinery for the application of the porous concrete to achieve both structural strength and permeable surface (including an inverse rotating rolling imported from USA, and the so-called CMI, a sliding concrete paver used in the construction of motorways with rigid pavements); f) full-scale pilots and final construction testing by an accredited laboratory (pavement compressive strength average value of 15 N/mm2 and 0,0032 m/s permeability). The continuous testing and innovating construction process explained in detail within this article, allowed for a growing performance with time, finally proving the use of the CMI valid also for large porous car park applications. All this process resulted in a successful story that converts the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium into a great demonstration site that will help the application of the Spanish Royal Decree 638/2016 (it also counts with rainwater harvesting for grass irrigation).

Keywords: construction machinery, permeable carpark, porous concrete, SUDS, sustainable develpoment

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Authors: Abir Dey, Shams Noman

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Introduction: Offshore Island is the remote and isolated area from the terrestrial mainland. They are deprived of their needs. The children from an offshore island are usually underserved in the case of health care because it is a remote area where the health care systems are quite poor compared to mainland. So, the proper information is required for appropriate planning to reduce underlying causes behind visual deprivation among the surviving children of the Offshore Island. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine ocular morbidities, knowledge, and barriers of eye care services among children in an Offshore Island. Methods: The study team visited, and all data were collected from different rural communities at Sandwip Upazila, Chittagong district for screening the children aged 5-16 years old by doing spot examination. The whole study was conducted in both qualitative and quantitative methods. To determine ocular status of children, examinations were done under skilled Ophthalmologists and Optometrists. A focus group discussion was held. The sample size was 490. It was a community based descriptive study and the sampling method was purposive sampling. Results: In total 490 children, about 56.90% were female and 43.10% were male. Among them 456 were school-going children (93.1%) and 34 were non-school going children (6.9%). In this study the most common ocular morbidity was Allergic Conjunctivitis (35.2%). Other mentionable ocular morbidities were Refractive error (27.7%), Blepharitis (13.8%), Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (7.5%), Strabismus (6.3%) and Amblyopia (6.3%). Most of the non-school going children were involved in different types of domestic work like farming, fishing, etc. About 90.04% children who had different ocular abnormalities could not attend to the doctor due to various reasons. Conclusions: The ocular morbidity was high in rate on the offshore island. Eye health care facility was also not well established there. Awareness should be raised about necessity of maintaining hygiene and eye healthcare among the island people. Timely intervention through available eye care facilities and management can reduce the ocular morbidity rate in that area.

Keywords: morbidities, screening, barriers, offshore island, knowledge

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Authors: Chinelle van der Westhuizen

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The introduction of cryptocurrencies as an alternative payment system have placed governments in a challenging position in relation to the regulatory status of cryptocurrencies and the money laundering activities associated with it. In April 2018, the Australian government amended its Anti-Money Laundering laws to regulate digital currency exchanges in an attempt to regulate money laundering activities and the introduction of ‘know-your-customer’ policies within the digital currency sector. Part one of this paper explores the use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering purposes and its significance to money launderers. Part two studies the efficacy of the current Australian Anti-Money Laundering laws and whether more can be done on a regulatory level. This paper will, therefore, highlight recent court decisions and legislation in terms of money laundering activities within these alternative payment systems in Australia and the United Kingdom. Part three of the paper will further analyze recent case studies by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision in the United Kingdom as the regulatory bodies for money laundering activities. The case studies and research will explore the legal disputes and future regulation concerning the use of cryptocurrencies and money laundering on a national as well as international level. This paper intends to highlight that although cryptocurrency is viewed as an innovative global phenomenon and an alternative method of payment, there are a number of legal issues associated with its use that indicate the need for regulatory reform. It is recommended in this paper that the Financial Action Task Force, International Monetary Fund as well as concerned governments have ongoing discussions on these regulatory issues and how to address it appropriately, whether through legislation or universal guidelines. Therefore, the conclusion of this paper will emphasize the benefits of a regulatory regime for money laundering activities within the cryptocurrency space and that the lack of such a regime may be detrimental to countries.

Keywords: cryptocurrency, know-your-customer policy, money laundering, regulation

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Authors: Dassou Nagassou

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Recent increase in frequency and severity of climatic impacts throughout the world has put a particular emphasis on the urgency to address the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The latter, mainly composed of carbon dioxide are responsible for the global warming of planet earth. Despite efforts to transition towards a zero-emission economy, manufacturing industries, electricity generation power plants, and transportation sectors continue to encounter challenges which hinder their progress towards a full decarbonization. The growing energy demand from both developed and under-developed economies exacerbates the situation and as a result, more carbon dioxide is discharged into the atmosphere. This situation imposes a lot of constraints on industries which are involved i.e., manufacturing industries, transportation, and electricity generation which must navigate the stringent environmental regulations in order to remain profitable. Existing solutions such as energy efficiencies, green materials (life cycle analysis), and many more have fallen short to address the problem due to their inadaptation to existing infrastructures, low efficiencies, and prohibitive costs. The proposed technology exploits the synergistic interaction between solar radiation and plasma to boost a direct decomposition of the molecules of carbon dioxide while producing alternative fuels which can be used to sustain on-site high-temperature processes via 100% solar energy harvesting in the form of photons and electricity. The advantages of this technology and its ability to be easily integrated into existing systems make it appealing for the industry which can now afford to fast track on the path towards full decarbonization, thanks to the solar plasma reactor. Despite the promising experimental results which proved the viability of this concept, solar-plasma reactors require further investigations to understand the synergistic interactions between plasma and solar radiation for a potential technology scale-up.

Keywords: solar, non-equilibrium, plasma, reactor, greenhouse-gases, solar-fuels

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Authors: N. Piwpuan, J. Tosalee, N. Phonkerd

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Malachite green (MG), a synthetic dye, is used in industries and aquaculture and also disposed in the effluent. Use of wastewater in irrigation increases due to water shortage. However, wastewater containing dyes, MG, are toxic to biological systems. Therefore, effects of MG on growth of vegetables were evaluated in order to utilize dye-contaminated wastewater for irrigation. In this study, Pak choy (Brassica chinensis) and Chinese convolvulus (Ipomoea aquatica) were grown in growing material (mixture of soil, coconut fiber, and compost) for four weeks and afterward kept watering with 200 ml of tap water containing MG at the concentrations of 0 (control), 1, 2, 10, and 20 mg/L. At harvest, number of leaf and shoot and root dry weight of the treated plants were measured and compared with control. For both species, their biomass values were similar among treatments and did not differ from the control plants (dry weight were 0.6-1.0 and 1.1-1.7 g/plant for B. chinensis and I. aquatica, respectively). B. chinensis treated with 2, 10, and 20 mg/L of MG produced lower number of new leaf and had smaller and shorter leaf compared to control and treatment of 1 mg/L. These results indicate the different responses between plant species, which B. chinensis is more sensitive to contaminant compared to I. aquatica. There was no sign of MG and leucomalachite green (LMG) detected in root and shoot tissues of plants treated with MG at 20 mg/L, tested by thin layer chromatography. After plant harvest, toxicity of the growing material from all treatments was tested on mung beans. Percent germination (83-97%), seedling fresh weight (0.3-0.5 g/plant), and shoot length (11-12.5 cm) were similar to the control. These indicated that contaminant in growing material did not pose detrimental effect on mung beans. Based on these results, the water contaminated with low concentration of MG, such as discharge from aquaculture, may serve as ferti-irrigation water to compensate water shortage.

Keywords: ferti-irrigation, soil toxicity, triphenylmethane dye, wastewater reuse

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Authors: Liong-Rung Liu, Yu-Hui Chiu, Wen-Han Chang

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Firearm injuries are high-energy injuries. The ballistic pathways could cause severe burns or chemical damages to vessels, musculoskeletal or other major organs. The high mortality rate is accompanied by complications such as sepsis. As laws prohibit gun possession, civilian gunshot wounds (GSW) are relatively rare in Taiwan. Our hospital, Mackay Memorial Hospital, located at the center of Taipei city is surrounded by nightclubs and red-light districts. Due to this unique location, our hospital becomes the first-line trauma center managing gunshot victims in Taiwan. To author’s best knowledge, there are few published research articles regarding this unique situation. We hereby analyze the distinct characteristics and length of stay (LOS) of GSW patients in the emergency room (ER) at Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 6-year retrospective analysis of 27 patients treated for GSW injuries from January 2012 to December 2017 was performed. The patients’ records were reviewed for the following analyses, 1) wound position and the correlated clinical presentations; 2) the LOS in ED of patients receiving emergency surgery for major organ or vascular injuries. We found males (96.3%) were injured by guns more often than females (3.7%) in all age groups. The most common injured site was in the extremities. With regards to the ER LOS, the average time were 72.2 ± 34.5 minutes for patients with triage I and 207.4 ± 143.9 minutes for patients with triage II. The ED LOS of patients whose ISS score were more than 15 was 59.9 ± 25.6 minutes, and 179.4 ± 119.8 minutes for patients whose ISS score were between 9 to 15, respectively. Among these 27 patients, 10 patients had emergency surgery and their average ED stay time was 104.5 ± 33.3 minutes. Even more, the average ED stay time could be shortened to 88.8 ± 32.3 minutes in the 5 patients with trauma team activation. In conclusion, trauma team activation in severe GSW patients indeed shortens the ED LOS and might initially improve the quality of patient care. This is the result of better trauma systems, including advances in care from emergency medical services and acute care surgical management.

Keywords: gunshot, length of stay, trauma, mortality

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Authors: André Python

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To this day, terrorism persists as a worldwide threat, exemplified by the recent deadly attacks in January 2015 in Paris and the ongoing massacres perpetrated by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In response to this threat, states deploy various counterterrorism measures, the cost of which could be reduced through effective preventive measures. In order to increase the efficiency of preventive measures, policy-makers may benefit from accurate predictive models that are able to capture the complex spatial dynamics of terrorism occurring at a local scale. Despite empirical research carried out at country-level that has confirmed theories explaining the diffusion processes of terrorism across space and time, scholars have failed to assess diffusion’s theories on a local scale. Moreover, since scholars have not made the most of recent statistical modelling approaches, they have been unable to build up predictive models accurate in both space and time. In an effort to address these shortcomings, this research suggests a novel approach to systematically assess the theories of terrorism’s diffusion on a local scale and provide a predictive model of the local spatial dynamics of terrorism worldwide. With a focus on the lethal terrorist events that occurred after 9/11, this paper addresses the following question: why and how does lethal terrorism diffuse in space and time? Based on geolocalised data on worldwide terrorist attacks and covariates gathered from 2002 to 2013, a binomial spatio-temporal point process is used to model the probability of terrorist attacks on a sphere (the world), the surface of which is discretised in the form of Delaunay triangles and refined in areas of specific interest. Within a Bayesian framework, the model is fitted through an integrated nested Laplace approximation - a recent fitting approach that computes fast and accurate estimates of posterior marginals. Hence, for each location in the world, the model provides a probability of encountering a lethal terrorist attack and measures of volatility, which inform on the model’s predictability. Diffusion processes are visualised through interactive maps that highlight space-time variations in the probability and volatility of encountering a lethal attack from 2002 to 2013. Based on the previous twelve years of observation, the location and lethality of terrorist events in 2014 are statistically accurately predicted. Throughout the global scope of this research, local diffusion processes such as escalation and relocation are systematically examined: the former process describes an expansion from high concentration areas of lethal terrorist events (hotspots) to neighbouring areas, while the latter is characterised by changes in the location of hotspots. By controlling for the effect of geographical, economical and demographic variables, the results of the model suggest that the diffusion processes of lethal terrorism are jointly driven by contagious and non-contagious factors that operate on a local scale – as predicted by theories of diffusion. Moreover, by providing a quantitative measure of predictability, the model prevents policy-makers from making decisions based on highly uncertain predictions. Ultimately, this research may provide important complementary tools to enhance the efficiency of policies that aim to prevent and combat terrorism.

Keywords: diffusion process, terrorism, spatial dynamics, spatio-temporal modeling

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Authors: Murali Aarthy, Sanjeev Kumar Singh

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High risk human papillomaviruses are highly associated with the carcinoma of the cervix and the other genital tumors. Cervical cancer develops through the multistep process in which increasingly severe premalignant dysplastic lesions called cervical intraepithelial neoplastic progress to invasive cancer. The oncoprotein E7 of human papillomavirus expressed in the lower epithelial layers drives the cells into S-phase creating an environment conducive for viral genome replication and cell proliferation. The replication of the virus occurs in the terminally differentiating epithelium and requires the activation of cellular DNA replication proteins. To date, no suitable drug molecule is available to treat HPV infection whereas identification of potential drug targets and development of novel anti-HPV chemotherapies with unique mode of actions are expected. Hence, our present study aimed to identify the potential inhibitors analogous to EGCG, a green tea molecule which is considered to be safe to use for mammalian systems. A 3D similarity search on the natural small molecule library from natural product database using EGCG identified 11 potential hits based on their similarity score. The structure based docking strategies were implemented in the potential hits and the key interacting residues of protein with compounds were identified through simulation studies and binding free energy calculations. The conformational changes between the apoprotein and the complex were analyzed with the simulation and the results demonstrated that the dynamical and structural effects observed in the protein were induced by the compounds and indicated the dominance to the oncoprotein. Overall, our study provides the basis for the structural insights of the identified potential hits and EGCG and hence, the analogous compounds identified can be potent inhibitors against the HPV 16 E7 oncoprotein.

Keywords: EGCG, oncoprotein, molecular dynamics simulation, analogues

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Authors: Erika De Finis, Paola Gattinoni, Laura Scesi

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Massive rock avalanches formed some of the largest landslide deposits on Earth and they represent one of the major geohazards in high-relief mountains. This paper interprets a very large sedimentary fan (the Sernio fan, Valtellina, Northern Italy), located 20 Km SW from Val Pola Rock avalanche (1987), as the deposit of a partial collapse of a Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation (DSGSD), afterwards eroded and buried by debris flows. The proposed emplacement sequence has been reconstructed based on geomorphological, structural and mechanical evidences. The Sernio fan is actually considered anomalous with reference to the very high ratio between the fan area (about 4.5km2) and the basin area (about 3km2). The morphology of the fan area is characterised by steep slopes (dip about 20%) and the fan apex is extended for 1.8 km inside the small catchment basin. This sedimentary fan was originated by a landslide that interested a part of a large deep-seated gravitational slope deformation, involving a wide area of about 55 km². The main controlling factor is tectonic and it is related to the proximity to regional fault systems and the consequent occurrence of fault weak rocks (GSI locally lower than 10 with compressive stress lower than 20MPa). Moreover, the fan deposit shows sedimentary evidences of recent debris flow events. The best current explanation of the Sernio fan involves an initial failure of some hundreds of Mm3. The run-out was quite limited because of the morphology of Valtellina’s valley floor, and the deposit filled the main valley forming a landslide dam, as confirmed by the lacustrine deposits detected upstream the fan. Nowadays the debris flow events represent the main hazard in the study area.

Keywords: anomalous sedimentary fans, deep seated gravitational slope deformation, Italy, rock avalanche

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Authors: Mehmet Akköse

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Concern about seismic safety of concrete dams have been growing around the world, partly because the population at risk in locations downstream of major dams continues to expand and also because it is increasingly evident that the seismic design concepts in use at the time most existing dams were built were inadequate. Most of the investigations in the past have been conducted on large dams, typically above 100m high. A large number of concrete dams in our country and in other parts of the world are less than 50m high. Most of these dams were usually designed using pseudo-static methods, ignoring the dynamic characteristics of the structure as well as the characteristics of the ground motion. Therefore, it is important to carry out investigations on seismic behavior this category of dam in order to assess and evaluate the safety of existing dams and improve the knowledge for different high dams to be constructed in the future. In this study, size effects on structural performance of concrete gravity dams subjected to near and far-fault ground motions are investigated including dam-water-foundation interaction. For this purpose, a benchmark problem proposed by ICOLD (International Committee on Large Dams) is chosen as a numerical application. Structural performance of the dam having five different heights is evaluated according to damage criterions in USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). It is decided according to their structural performance if non-linear analysis of the dams requires or not. The linear elastic dynamic analyses of the dams to near and far-fault ground motions are performed using the step-by-step integration technique. The integration time step is 0.0025 sec. The Rayleigh damping constants are calculated assuming 5% damping ratio. The program NONSAP modified for fluid-structure systems with the Lagrangian fluid finite element is employed in the response calculations.

Keywords: concrete gravity dams, Lagrangian approach, near and far-fault ground motion, USACE damage criterions

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Authors: John Hardy

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Over the last decade, the increasing utility of extremist narratives to the operational effectiveness of terrorist organizations has been evidenced by the proliferation of inspired or affiliated attacks across the world. Famous examples such as regional al-Qaeda affiliates and the self-styled “Islamic State” demonstrate the effectiveness of leveraging communication technologies to disseminate propaganda, recruit members, and orchestrate attacks. Terrorist organizations with the capacity to harness the communicative power offered by digital communication technologies and effective political narratives have held an advantage over their targets in recent years. Terrorists have leveraged the perceived legitimacy of grass-roots actors to appeal to a global audience of potential supporters and enemies alike, and have wielded a proficiency in profile-raising which remains unmatched by counter terrorism narratives around the world. In contrast, many attempts at propagating official counter-narratives have been received by target audiences as illegitimate, top-down and impersonally bureaucratic. However, the benefits provided by widespread communication and extremist narratives have come at an operational cost. Terrorist organizations now face a significant challenge in protecting their access to communications technologies and authority over the content they create and endorse. The dissemination of effective narratives has emerged as a core function of terrorist organizations with international reach via inspired or affiliated attacks. As such, it has become a critical function which can be targeted by intelligence and security forces. This study applies network targeting principles which have been used by coalition forces against a range of non-state actors in the Middle East and South Asia to the communicative function of terrorist organizations. This illustrates both a conceptual link between functional targeting and operational disruption in the abstract and a tangible impact on the operational effectiveness of terrorists by degrading communicative ability and legitimacy. Two case studies highlight the utility of applying functional targeting against terrorist organizations. The first case is the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda propagandist who crafted a permissive narrative and effective propaganda videos to attract recruits who committed inspired terrorist attacks in the US and overseas. The second is a series of operations against Islamic State propagandists in Syria, including the capture or deaths of a cadre of high profile Islamic State members, including Junaid Hussain, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, Neil Prakash, and Rachid Kassim. The group of Islamic State propagandists were linked to a significant rise in affiliated and enabled terrorist attacks and were subsequently targeted by law enforcement and military agencies. In both cases, the disruption of communication between the terrorist organization and recruits degraded both communicative and operational functions. Effective functional targeting on member recruitment and operational tempo suggests that narratives are a critical function which can be leveraged against terrorist organizations. Further application of network targeting methods to terrorist narratives may enhance the efficacy of a range of counter terrorism techniques employed by security and intelligence agencies.

Keywords: countering violent extremism, counter terrorism, intelligence, terrorism, violent extremism

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Authors: Asrat M.Belachew, Tiago Pereira, Institute of Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Avenida Trabalhador São Carlense, 400, São Carlos, 13566-590, Brazil

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Infectious diseases are among the most prominent threats to human beings. They cause morbidity and mortality to an individual and collapse the social, economic, and political systems of the whole world collectively. Mathematical models are fundamental tools and provide a comprehensive understanding of how infectious diseases spread and designing the control strategy to mitigate infectious diseases from the host population. Modeling the spread of infectious diseases using a compartmental model of inhomogeneous populations is good in terms of complexity. However, in the real world, there is a situation that accounts for heterogeneity, such as ages, locations, and contact patterns of the population which are ignored in a homogeneous setting. In this work, we study how classical an SEIR infectious disease spreading of the compartmental model can be extended by incorporating the mobility of population between heterogeneous cities during an outbreak of infectious disease. We have formulated an SEIR multi-cities epidemic spreading model using a system of 4k ordinary differential equations to describe the disease transmission dynamics in k-cities during the day and night. We have shownthat the model is epidemiologically (i.e., variables have biological interpretation) and mathematically (i.e., a unique bounded solution exists all the time) well-posed. We constructed the next-generation matrix (NGM) for the model and calculated the basic reproduction number R0for SEIR-epidemic spreading model with cities mobility. R0of the disease depends on the spectral radius mobility operator, and it is a threshold between asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium and disease persistence. Using the eigenvalue perturbation theorem, we showed that sending a fraction of the population between cities decreases the reproduction number of diseases in interconnected cities. As a result, disease transmissiondecreases in the population.

Keywords: SEIR-model, mathematical model, city mobility, epidemic spreading

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