Search results for: high availability

Authors: Sumanta Kumar Saha, Jie Qin

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This study analyzes the impact of financial inclusion on gender inequality in 126 countries belonging to different income groups during the 2005–2019 period. Due to its positive influence on poverty alleviation, economic growth, women empowerment, and income inequality reduction, financial inclusion may help reduce gender equality. This study constructs a novel composite financial inclusion index and applies both fixed-effect panel estimation and instrumental variable approach to examine the impact of financial inclusion on gender inequality. The results indicate that financial inclusion can reduce gender inequality in developing and low- and lower-middle-income countries, but not in higher-income countries. The impact is not always immediate. Past financial inclusion initiatives have a significant influence on future gender inequality. Financial inclusion is also significant if the poverty level is high and women's access to financial services is low compared to men. When the poverty level is low, or women have equal access to financial services, financial inclusion does not significantly affect gender inequality. The study finds that compulsory education and improvement in institutional quality promote gender equality in developing countries apart from financial inclusion. The study proposes that lower-income countries use financial inclusion initiatives to improve gender equality. Other countries need to focus on other aspects such as promoting educational support and institutional quality improvements to achieve gender equality.

Keywords: financial inclusion, gender inequality, institutional quality, women empowerment

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Authors: Mohamed Eftal Bin Mohamed Ebrahim, Alexander Varey

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Aim: Topical negative pressure has been shown to enhance angiogenesis during wound healing, both for open and closed wounds. Since angiogenesis is a key requirement for successful fat grafting, there may be a role for topical negative pressure as a means of enhancing the take rate during autologous fat grafting to breasts. Here we present a systematic review of the literature on this topic. Methods: Ovid and Embase were utilized, with searches ranging between 1960 – 2019. Terms (“Liposculpting” OR “Fat grafting” OR “Lipofilling” OR “Lipograft” OR “Fat transfer”) AND (“Negative Pressure” OR “Brava” OR “Kiwi”) AND (“Breast”) were merged as keywords. Inclusion criteria were females, autologous fat graft to breast with topical negative pressure prior to the procedure. Studies were excluded if there was no primary endpoint or non-original article. Results: Upon reviewing 219 articles, 2 met inclusion criteria. A total of 565 and 46 breasts in each article were treated respectively using the negative pressure device BRAVA®, with each cohort having different pre-and post-operative pressure settings. Khouri et al. cohort had higher graft survival (79%) compared to Del Vecchio et al. cohort (64%); however, the latter had fewer complications compared to Khouri’s cohort, e.g., fat necrosis, pneumothorax and infection. Conclusion: There is limited evidence regarding the use of topical negative pressure for fat grafting to the breasts. However, in the two studies published, the reported rates of success are high, suggesting there may be a benefit. Consequently, a randomized controlled trial on this area is required.

Keywords: fat grafting, lipograft, negative pressure, breast, breast augmentation, brava

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Authors: Monica Kaltenbrunner

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Work-related crime has severe consequences for individual employees and society, and the problem has received widespread attention. For those who work where this type of criminality occurs, it can deteriorate the work environment. The purpose of the systematic literature review is to collate and enhance knowledge about work-related crime and its consequences for the work environment, primarily from an employee perspective. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in three databases, with the final search in May 2024. Grey literature was searched for on relevant websites. Only literature conducted in the EU, Norway, and Canada between 2013 and 2024 was included. Industries represented are land-based industry, hotel and restaurant, health and welfare/domestic work, construction, vehicles and transport, and cleaning. The literature review includes 39 publications, of which 33 are scientific studies. The results show that both men and women work in a work-related crime setting, most from Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. The results demonstrate that, regardless of workers’ gender or industry, workers are being exploited. Their work environment is characterized by high demand, low influence and low support. It is also common for the work environment to involve different risks, such as safety problems and risks of harassment and discrimination. This systematic literature review is one of few that focuses on the employee perspective on the work environment in workplaces where work-related crime occurs and collates existing research within the field.

Keywords: occupational safety and health, undeclared work, migrant, exploitation

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Authors: Yamani Amal, Lazaae Jamila, Elachouri Mostafa

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Plants and their active agents – especially polyphenols – may have a principal role in the treatment of diseases that result from the defect of physiological antioxidant mechanisms. Bryonia dioica is well known in Moroccan traditional medicine for alleviatin pain and traiting many diseases. We have focused on plant belonging to Cucurbitaceae Family from around the world to understand their therapeutic uses and their potential antioxidant activities Although several biological activities and Chemical composition of Bryonia dioica are well characterized, no direct, in vitro study, of this natural product examined the antioxydant effect of the extract from the roots of Bryonia dioica. The aim of this study was to determine in vitro antioxidant activity of the B.dioica root, using antioxidant analysis methods based on determination of Hydroxyradical Scavenging, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazine (DPPH) radical scavenging, Hydrogenperoxide Scavenging and Nitric Oxide Scavenging. In this study, it was demonstrated, that, B. dioica root extract showed excellent antioxidant properties. This investigation showed that the roots of this plant contain potent natural scavengers R. It may represent an interesting source of antioxidant phenolics that may favour the extension of their cultivation as new source of natural antioxidants in addition to containing high quality proteins for human or animal nutrition. Therefore, there is need for all stakeholders on the Morocco to strive towards taking advantage of our enormous biodiversity resources to free our people from diseases, abject poverty and stagnation.

Keywords: Morocco, bryoniadioica, in vitro, antioxydant

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Authors: G. S. Thyagaraju, U. P. Kulkarni

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Context-aware computing refers to a general class of computing systems that can sense their physical environment, and adapt their behaviour accordingly. Context aware computing makes systems aware of situations of interest, enhances services to users, automates systems and personalizes applications. Context-aware services have been introduced into mobile devices, such as PDA and mobile phones. In this paper we are presenting a novel approaches used to realize the context aware mobile. The context aware mobile phone (CAMP) proposed in this paper senses the users situation automatically and provides user context required services. The proposed system is developed by using artificial intelligence techniques like Bayesian Network, fuzzy logic and rough sets theory based decision table. Bayesian Network to classify the incoming call (high priority call, low priority call and unknown calls), fuzzy linguistic variables and membership degrees to define the context situations, the decision table based rules for service recommendation. To exemplify and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods, the context aware mobile phone is tested for college campus scenario including different locations like library, class room, meeting room, administrative building and college canteen.

Keywords: context aware mobile, fuzzy logic, decision table, Bayesian probability

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Authors: Peter Kress, Alexander Pflaum, Ulrich Loewen

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The number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) platforms is steadily increasing across various industries, especially for smart factories, smart homes and smart mobility. Also in the manufacturing industry, the number of Industrial-IoT platforms is growing. Both IT players, start-ups and increasingly also established industry players and small-and-medium-enterprises introduce offerings for the connection of industrial equipment on platforms, enabled by advanced information and communication technology. Beside the offered functionalities, the established ecosystem of partners around a platform is one of the key differentiators to generate a competitive advantage. The key question is how platform operators design the business model around their platform to attract a high number of customers and partners to co-create value for the entire ecosystem. The present research tries to answer this question by determining the key characteristics of business models of successful platforms in the manufacturing industry. To achieve that, the authors selected an explorative qualitative research approach and created an inductive comparative case study. The authors generated valuable descriptive insights of the business model elements (e.g., value proposition, pricing model or partnering model) of various established platforms. Furthermore, patterns across the various cases were identified to derive propositions for the successful design of business models of platforms in the manufacturing industry.

Keywords: industrial-internet-of-things, business models, platforms, ecosystems, case study

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Authors: Emil Danehorn, Ulla Peterson, Marie Oscarsson, Goldina Smirthwaite, Katarina Swahnberg

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Swedish students who choose to study abroad are common, but there has been limited research on exchange students. There are indications that some Swedish exchange students have been exposed to violence, but it is not known if they, already before their semester abroad, are more exposed to violence than students who remain on campus. Our aim was to investigate potential differences in exposure to physical, sexual, and emotional violence between prospective exchange students and campus students and between male and female students in general, as well as to determine any associations between mental health and exposure to violence among students in the total sample. Method: Comparative cross-sectional design using an online survey containing the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire 12. A total of 565 participants took part in the study. Results: Prospective exchange students were less exposed to emotional violence compared to campus students. About one-half of all the participating female students had been exposed to sexual violence and about one-third of all the male students had been exposed to physical violence. The results also indicated that exposure to more than one form of violence was associated with poor mental health for students as a group. Conclusion: Prospective exchange students as a group do not report more exposure to physical and sexual violence than campus students but do report less exposure to emotional violence. However, the overall frequency of exposure to violence among the students was high. This highlights the need for proactive efforts for everyone, not least for exchange students who will be staying in a new environment unknown to them.

Keywords: sexual violence, physical violence, emotional violence, exchange students, mental health

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Authors: Yili Chen, Xiaokun Liang, Zhicheng Zhang, Yaoqin Xie

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In an effort to restore visual perception in retinal diseases, an electronic retinal prosthesis with thousands of electrodes has been developed. The image processing strategies of retinal prosthesis system converts the original images from the camera to the stimulus pattern which can be interpreted by the brain. Practically, the original images are with more high resolution (256x256) than that of the stimulus pattern (such as 25x25), which causes a technical image processing challenge to do large-capacity image information reduction. In this paper, we focus on developing an efficient image processing stimulus pattern extraction algorithm by using a single cue saliency map for extracting salient objects in the image with an optimal trimming threshold. Experimental results showed that the proposed stimulus pattern extraction algorithm performs quite well for different scenes in terms of the stimulus pattern. In the algorithm performance experiment, our proposed SCSPE algorithm have almost five times of the score compared with Boyle’s algorithm. Through experiment s we suggested that when there are salient objects in the scene (such as the blind meet people or talking with people), the trimming threshold should be set around 0.4max, in other situations, the trimming threshold values can be set between 0.2max-0.4max to give the satisfied stimulus pattern.

Keywords: retinal prosthesis, image processing, region of interest, saliency map, trimming threshold selection

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Authors: Gulnaz Erkomaishvili

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Introduction: There are some of the biggest technological shifts happening in the modern world. The introduction of digital technologies, information, and communication services has given rise to unprecedented global socio-political and economic changes. The role of digital technologies in increasing productivity and national competitiveness is increasing. Today, it is used in almost every area of the economy. E-commerce, organizational process in computerized management, and digital infrastructure's pace of growth is remarkably high and is a key instrument of economic development. Methodology: Different research methods are applied in the presented paper; statistical, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison ones. Works by local and foreign scientists, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, as well as various organizations' studies and reports were used as a theoretical basis for research and variety of laws, government decrees and orders, and the publications of the National Statistics Office of Georgia were used as an informational basis. Conclusions: The paper deals with the processes and challenges in Georgia in the digital economy. Access to current resources in Georgia and current processes are described. Digital technology for the development of the required environmental conditions is described, how the Internet and communications are available for the population in the regions of Georgia. The pros and cons of the digital economy development and its impact on the country's economy are analyzed. The main difficulties of implementation of the digital economy in Georgia, government involvement, and future action plans are presented.

Keywords: digital economy, digital technologies, internet, communications, economic policy

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Authors: Chien-Kuo Chang, Yu-Hsiang Lin, Yi-Yun Tang, Min-Chiu Wu

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With the trend of technological advancement, the harm caused by power outages is substantial, mostly due to problems in the power grid. This highlights the necessity for further improvement in the reliability of the power system. In the power system, gas-insulated switches (GIS) and power cables play a crucial role. Long-term operation under high voltage can cause insulation materials in the equipment to crack, potentially leading to partial discharges. If these partial discharges (PD) can be analyzed, preventative maintenance and replacement of equipment can be carried out, there by improving the reliability of the power grid. This research will diagnose defects by identifying three different defects in GIS and three different defects in straight cable joints, for a total of six types of defects. The partial discharge data measured will be converted through phase analysis diagrams and pulse sequence analysis. Discharge features will be extracted using convolutional image processing, and three different deep learning models, CNN, ResNet18, and MobileNet, will be used for training and evaluation. Class Activation Mapping will be utilized to interpret the black-box problem of deep learning models, with each model achieving an accuracy rate of over 95%. Lastly, the overall model performance will be enhanced through an ensemble learning voting method.

Keywords: partial discharge, gas-insulated switches, straight cable joint, defect identification, deep learning, ensemble learning

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Authors: Nazmul Hussain, Saba Owais

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The paper is an effort to come across the fertility differential by religion and socio-economic characteristic by religion. Religion and Socio-economic characteristic are conceptualised as touching demography in two ways- through its theoretical content, and in terms of the socio-economic ‘characteristics’ of different religious groups. The mean number of children ever born (MCEB) is used to measure fertility. Efficient contrast of Muslims and Non-Muslims shows little difference in their theological positions on demographic issues, with the omission of their position on birth control. The present paper using data from a primary field survey of 2590 households in the Malda district of West Bengal. Older and younger cohorts of women were examined separately for assessing fertility differential. MCEB was found to be high for women with husbands employed as labourers with a low monthly income. This was true for both the cohorts, but fertility levels were much higher among the older cohort. Low MCEB was found with increasing income and for those in regular salaried jobs. The analysis shows that there is a major dissimilarity in the effects of various socio-economic aspects on the number of children-ever-born among the religious groups, suggesting that religious groups may need to be targeted differently by policy-makers in order to influence demographic decision-making.

Keywords: fertility, socio-economic differences, religion, MCEB

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Authors: G. S. Dangayach, Gaurav Gaurav, Alok Bihari Singh

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The popularity of vehicles in both industrialized and developing economies led to a rise in the production of tyres. People have become increasingly concerned about the tyre industry's possible environmental impact in the last two decades. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to assess the environmental impacts of industrial tyres throughout their life cycle, which included four stages: manufacture, transportation, consumption, and end-of-life. The majority of prior studies focused on tyre recycling and disposal. Only a few studies have been conducted on the environmental impact of tyre production process. LCA methodology was employed to determine the environmental impact of tyre manufacture process (gate to gate) at an Indian firm. Comparative analysis was also conducted to identify the environmental hotspots in various stages of tire manufacturing. This study is limited to gate-to-gate analysis of manufacturing processes with the functional unit of a single tyre weighing 50 kg. GaBi software was used to do both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Different environmental impact indicators are measured in terms of CO2, SO2, NOx, GWP (global warming potential), AP (acidification potential), EP (eutrophication potential), POCP (photochemical oxidant formation potential), and HTP (toxic human potential). The results demonstrate that the major contributor to environmental pollution is electricity. The Banbury process has a very high negative environmental impact, which causes respiratory problems to workers and operators.

Keywords: life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental impact indicators, tyre manufacturing process, environmental impact assessment

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Authors: Maryam Kiani

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This study focuses on the development of composite nanomaterials based on SiO₂ and carbon black for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts in batteries and fuel cells. The aim was to explore the potential of these composite materials as efficient catalysts for ORR, which is a critical process in energy conversion devices. The SiO₂/carbon black composite nanomaterials were synthesized using a facile and scalable method. The morphology, structure, and electrochemical properties of the materials were characterized using various techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electrochemical measurements. The results demonstrated that the incorporation of SiO₂ into the carbon black matrix enhanced the ORR performance of the composite material. The composite nanomaterials exhibited improved electrocatalytic activity, enhanced stability, and increased durability compared to pure carbon black. The presence of SiO₂ facilitated the formation of active sites, improved electron transfer, and increased the surface area available for ORR. This study contributes to the advancement of battery and fuel cell technology by offering a promising approach for the development of high-performance ORR electrocatalysts. The SiO₂/carbon black composite nanomaterials show great potential for improving the efficiency and durability of energy conversion devices, leading to more sustainable and efficient energy solutions.

Keywords: ORR, fuel cells, batteries, electrocatalyst

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Authors: Khurram Munir, Cuie Wen, Yuncang Li

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Magnesium (Mg) metal matrix composites (MMCs) reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) have been developed by powder metallurgy (PM). In this study, GNPs with different concentrations (0.1-0.3 wt.%) were dispersed into Mg powders by high-energy ball-milling processes. The microstructure and resultant mechanical properties of the fabricated nanocomposites were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (RS), compression and nano-wear tests. The corrosion resistance of the fabricated composites was evaluated by electrochemical tests and hydrogen evolution measurements. Finally, the biological response of Mg-GNPs composites was assessed using osteoblast-like SaOS2 cells. The results indicate that GNPs are excellent candidates as reinforcements in Mg matrices for the manufacture of biodegradable Mg-based composite implants. GNP addition improved the mechanical properties of Mg via synergetic strengthening modes. Moreover, retaining the structural integrity of GNPs during PM processing improved the ductility, compressive strength, and corrosion resistance of the Mg-GNP composites as compared to monolithic Mg. Cytotoxicity assessments did not reveal any significant toxicity with the addition of GNPs to Mg matrices. This study demonstrates that Mg-xGNPs with x < 0.3 wt.%, may constitute novel biodegradable implant materials for load-bearing applications.

Keywords: magnesium-graphene composites, strengthening mechanisms, In vitro cytotoxicity, biocorrosion

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Authors: G. Sridevi, Amalendu Jyotishi, Sushanta Mahapatra, G. Jagadeesh, Satyasiba Bedamatta

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Climate change is a main challenge for agriculture, food security and rural livelihoods for millions of people in India. Agriculture is the sector most vulnerable to climate change due to its high dependence on climate and weather conditions. Among India’s population of more than one billion people, about 68% are directly or indirectly involved in the agricultural sector. This sector is particularly vulnerable to present-day climate variability. In this contest this paper examines the Socio-economic and climate analytical study of the vulnerability index in Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Using secondary data; it examines the vulnerability through five different sub-indicator of socio-demographic, agriculture, occupational, common property resource (CPR), and climate in respective states among different districts. Data used in this paper has taken from different sources, like census in India 2011, Directorate of Economics and Statistics of respective states governments. Rainfall data was collected from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). In order to capture the vulnerability from two different states the composite vulnerability index (CVI) was developed and used. This indicates the vulnerability situation of different districts under two states. The study finds that Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh and Chamarajanagar in Karnataka had highest level of vulnerability while Hyderabad and Bangalore in respective states have least level of vulnerability.

Keywords: vulnerability, agriculture, climate change, global warming

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Authors: Tan Zhang, Zhongjian Wang, Jack Xin, Zhiwen Zhang

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We aim to efficiently compute the spreading speeds of reaction-diffusion-advection (RDA) fronts in divergence-free random flows under the Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (KPP) nonlinearity. We study a stochastic interacting particle method (IPM) for the reduced principal eigenvalue (Lyapunov exponent) problem of an associated linear advection-diffusion operator with spatially random coefficients. The Fourier representation of the random advection field and the Feynman-Kac (FK) formula of the principal eigenvalue (Lyapunov exponent) form the foundation of our method implemented as a genetic evolution algorithm. The particles undergo advection-diffusion and mutation/selection through a fitness function originated in the FK semigroup. We analyze the convergence of the algorithm based on operator splitting and present numerical results on representative flows such as 2D cellular flow and 3D Arnold-Beltrami-Childress (ABC) flow under random perturbations. The 2D examples serve as a consistency check with semi-Lagrangian computation. The 3D results demonstrate that IPM, being mesh-free and self-adaptive, is simple to implement and efficient for computing front spreading speeds in the advection-dominated regime for high-dimensional random flows on unbounded domains where no truncation is needed.

Keywords: KPP front speeds, random flows, Feynman-Kac semigroups, interacting particle method, convergence analysis

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Authors: Robert Smith, Omar Espinoza, Anna Pitta

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In the United States, trees felled in urban areas and wood generated through construction and demolition are primarily disposed of as low-value resources, such as biomass for energy, landscaping mulch, composting, or landfilled. An emerging industry makes use of these underutilized resources to produce high value-added products, with associated benefits for the environment, the local economy, and consumers. For the circular economy to be successful, markets must be created for sustainable, reusable natural materials. Research was carried out to increase the understanding of the marketing practices of urban and reclaimed wood industries. This paper presents the results of a nationwide survey of these companies. The results indicate that a majority of companies in this industry are small firms, operating for less than 10 years, which produce mostly to order and sell their products at comparatively higher prices than competing products made from virgin natural resources. Promotional messages included quality, aesthetics, and customization, conveyed through company webpages, word of mouth, and social media. Distribution channels used include direct sales, online sales, and retail sales. Partnerships are critical for effective raw material procurement. Respondents indicated optimistic growth expectations, despite barriers associated with urban and reclaimed wood materials and production.

Keywords: urban and reclaimed wood, circular economy, marketing, wood products

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Authors: R. Setino, I. M. Ambe, J. A Badenhorst-Weiss

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The South African government supply chain management system is not adequately implemented in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). There are weaknesses in the SOEs SCM enablers, strategies and policies. In addition, top management of SOEs still do not see SCM as strategic enough to deserve their attention, and therefore, there is very little support from top management, thus making it even difficult for SCM practitioners to execute their day to day functions, let alone delivering the letter and spirit of the relevant legislations. Supply chain strategies lack buy in from the top, and as a result senior SCM practitioners has not been involved in the corporate strategy. This has resulted in supply chain and corporate strategies being misaligned. Due to service delivery backlog, high level of corruption and continuous strikes across the country for better services it is inevitable that government leaders be more strategic about how South Africa can use SCM as a tool to improve service delivery. Consequently, there is a need to close the gap between the strategic level dealt by top management and the application of operational SCM concepts: the use of SCM concepts and, therefore, supply chain strategies – should be aligned with the corporate and business strategies in order to ensure the achievement of top level business objectives. This paper aims to explore supply chain practices in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The paper based on a conceptual review provides the status, trends and development and suggests a framework for aligning supply chain strategies and organizational strategies in an SOE environment.

Keywords: alignment, strategies, state owned enterprises, supply chain management, South Africa

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Authors: Thomas Okechukwu Onah, Onyekachi Marcel Egwuagu

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Zero-surface temperature, which controlled the cooling profile, was modeled and used to investigate the effect of process parameters on the hot-rolled steel plates. The parameters include impingement gaps of 40mm to 70mm; pipe diameters of 20mm to 45mm feeding jet nozzle with 30 holes of 8mm diameters each; and flow rates within 2.896x10-⁶m³/s and 3.13x10-⁵m³/s. The developed simulation model of the Zero-Surface Temperature, upon validation, showed 99% prediction accuracy with dimensional homogeneity established. The evaluated Zero-Surface temperature of Controlled Water Jet Impingement Steel plates showed a high cooling rate of 36.31 Celsius degree/sec at an optimal cooling nozzle diameter of 20mm, impingement gap of 70mm and a flow rate of 1.77x10-⁵m³/s resulting in Reynold's number 2758.586, in the turbulent regime was obtained. It was also deduced that as the nozzle diameter was increasing, the impingement gap was reducing. This achieved a faster rate of cooling to an optimum temperature of 300oC irrespective of the starting surface cooling temperature. The results additionally showed that with a tested-plate initial temperature of 550oC, a controlled cooling temperature of about 160oC produced a film and nucleated boiling heat extraction that was particularly beneficial at the end of controlled cooling and influenced the microstructural properties of the test plates.

Keywords: temperature, mechanistic-model, plates, impingements, dimensionless-numbers

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Authors: Abderrahim Cheriguene, Fatiha Arioui

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The experimental study focuses on the extraction of pectin, whey protein and gelatin, and the study of their functional properties. Microbiological, physicochemical and sensory approach integrated has been implanted to study the effect of the incorporation of these natural food additives in the matrix of a fermented milk type set yogurt, to study the stability of the product during the periods of fermentation and post-acidification over a period of 21 days at 4°C. Pectin was extracted in hot HCl solution. Thermo-precipitation was carried out to obtain the whey proteins while the gelatin was extracted by hydrolysis of the collagen from bovine ossein. The fermented milk was prepared by varying the concentration of the incorporated additives. The measures and controls carried performed periodically on fermented milk experimental tests were carried out: pH, acidity, viscosity, the enumeration of Streptococcus thermophilus, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, taste, aftertaste, whey exudation, and odor. It appears that the acidity, viscosity, and number of Streptococcus thermophilus increased with increasing concentration of additive added in the experimental tests. Indeed, it seems clear that the quality of fermented milk and storability is more improved than the incorporation rate is high. The products showed a better test and a firmer texture limiting the whey exudation.

Keywords: fermented milk, pectin, gelatin, whey proteins, functional properties, quality, conservation, valorization

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Authors: Brahmi Brahim, Mohammad Habibur Rahman, Maarouf Saad, Cristóbal Ochoa Luna

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A repetitive training movement is an efficient method to improve the ability and movement performance of stroke survivors and help them to recover their lost motor function and acquire new skills. The ETS-MARSE is seven degrees of freedom (DOF) exoskeleton robot developed to be worn on the lateral side of the right upper-extremity to assist and rehabilitate the patients with upper-extremity dysfunction resulting from stroke. Practically, rehabilitation activities are repetitive tasks, which make the assistive/robotic systems to suffer from repetitive/periodic uncertainties and external perturbations induced by the high-order dynamic model (seven DOF) and interaction with human muscle which impact on the tracking performance and even on the stability of the exoskeleton. To ensure the robustness and the stability of the robot, a new nonlinear backstepping control was implemented with designed tests performed by healthy subjects. In order to limit and to reject the periodic/repetitive disturbances, an iterative estimator was integrated into the control of the system. The estimator does not need the precise dynamic model of the exoskeleton. Experimental results confirm the robustness and accuracy of the controller performance to deal with the external perturbation, and the effectiveness of the iterative estimator to reject the repetitive/periodic disturbances.

Keywords: backstepping control, iterative control, Rehabilitation, ETS-MARSE

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Authors: Jungkyun Na, Jaesang Lee, Yang Mo Koo

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In this study to find a replacement for expensive secondary recrystallization in GO electrical steel production, effect of heat treatment on the formation of columnar grain and Goss texture is investigated. The composition of the sample is Fe-2.0Si-0.2C. This process involves repeating of cold rolling and decarburization as a replacement for secondary recrystallization. By cold-rolling shear band is made and Goss grain grows from shear band by decarburization. By doing another cold rolling, some Goss texture is newly formed from the shear band, and some Goss texture is retained in microbands. To determine whether additional heat treatment with H2 atmosphere is needed on decarburization process for growth of Goss texture, comparing between decarburization and heat treatment with H2 atmosphere is performed. Also, to find optimum condition for heat treatment, heat treatment with various time and temperature is performed. It was found that increase in the number of cold rolling and heat treatment increases Goss texture. Both high Goss texture and good columnar structure is achieved at 900℃, and this temperature is within a+r phase region. Heat treatment at a temperature higher than a+r phase region caused carbon diffusion and this made layer with Goss grain decrease.

Keywords: electrical steel, Goss texture, columnar structure, normal grain growth

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Authors: Teo Hao Jing, Shane Ho Ken Wae, Lee Jin Yu, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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Current distributed healthcare systems face the challenge of interoperability of health data. Storing electronic health records (EHR) in local databases causes them to be fragmented. This problem is aggravated as patients visit multiple healthcare providers in their lifetime. Existing solutions are unable to solve this issue and have caused burdens to healthcare specialists and patients alike. Blockchain technology was found to be able to increase the interoperability of health data by implementing digital access rules, enabling uniformed patient identity, and providing data aggregation. Consortium blockchain was found to have high read throughputs, is more trustworthy, more secure against external disruptions and accommodates transactions without fees. Therefore, this paper proposes a blockchain-based model for data management applications. In this model, a consortium blockchain is implemented by using a delegated proof of stake (DPoS) as its consensus mechanism. This blockchain allows collaboration between users from different organizations such as hospitals and medical bureaus. Patients serve as the owner of their information, where users from other parties require authorization from the patient to view their information. Hospitals upload the hash value of patients’ generated data to the blockchain, whereas the encrypted information is stored in a distributed cloud storage.

Keywords: blockchain technology, data management applications, healthcare, interoperability, delegated proof of stake

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Authors: Ahmed Aboforn

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Butene-1 product is consider effectively raw material in Polyethylene production, however Oxygenates impurities existing will be effected ethylene/butene-1 copolymers synthesized through titanium-magnesium-supported Ziegler-Natta catalysts. Laterally, Petrochemical industries are challenge against poor quality of Butene-1 and other C4 mix – feedstock that reflected on business impact and production losing. In addition, propylene product suffering from contamination by oxygenates components and causing for lose production and plant upset of Polypropylene process plants. However, Multidimensional gas chromatography (MDGC) innovative analytical methodology is a chromatography technique used to separate complex samples, as mixing different functional group as Hydrocarbon and oxygenates compounds and have similar retention factors, by running the eluent through two or more columns instead of the customary single column. This analytical study striving to enhance the quality of Oxygenates analytical method, as monitoring the concentration of oxygenates with accurate and precise analytical method by utilizing multidimensional GC supported by Backflush technique and Flame Ionization Detector, which have high performance separation of hydrocarbon and Oxygenates; also improving the minimum detection limits (MDL) to detect the concentration <1.0 ppm. However different types of oxygenates as (Alcohols, Aldehyde, Ketones, Ester and Ether) may be determined in other Hydrocarbon streams asC3, C4-mix, until C12 mixture, supported by liquid injection auto-sampler.

Keywords: analytical chemistry, gas chromatography, petrochemicals, oxygenates

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Authors: M. Monisha, Sudha D. Kamath

Abstract:

We investigate the optical and photoluminescence properties from Dy³+ singly doped and Dy³+ co-doped with Ce³+alumino borosilicate glasses prepared using high temperature melt-quenching technique. The glass composition formula is 25SiO₂-(40-x-y)B2O₃-10Al₂O₃-15NaF-10ZnO-xDy₂O₃ yCe₂O₃ where, x = 0.5 mol% and y = 0, 0.1, and 0.5 mol%. The XRD study reveals the amorphous nature of both singly doped and co-doped glasses. Absorption study on Dy3+ singly doped glass shows nearly twelve absorption peaks arising from the ground level of Dy³+ ions (⁶H₁₅/₂) to various upper levels, and for Dy³+/Ce³+ co-doped glasses, few of the transitions in the visible region are suppressed. The absorption band edge is shifted towards the higher wavelength region on increasing Ce3+concentration. The decrease in indirect energy bandgap and increase in Urbach energy of the prepared glasses is observed due to codoping with Ce3+ ions. The photoluminescence studies on singly doped glass under 350 nm excitation showed three peaks at the blue (482 nm), yellow (575 nm), and red (663 nm) region. For codoped glasses, the emission peak at 403 nm is raised due to the 4d to 5f transition of Ce3+ ions. Lifetime values (ms) of co-doped glass is found to be higher than singly doped glass. Under 350 nm excitation, CIE coordinates of the co-doped glasses moved towards the bright white light region. The correlated color temperature (CCT) values were obtained in the range 4500 – 4700 K. Thus, the prepared glasses can be used for photonics device applications.

Keywords: absorption spectra, borosilicate glasses, Ce³+, Dy³+, photoluminescence

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Authors: T. Maruyama, T. Saida, S. Naritsuka, S. Iijima

Abstract:

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are generally synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using Fe, Co, and Ni as catalysts. However, due to the Ostwald ripening of metal catalysts, the diameter distribution of the grown SWCNTs is considerably wide (>2 nm), which is not suitable for electronics applications. In addition, reduction in the growth temperature is desirable for fabricating SWCNT devices compatible with the LSI process. Herein, we performed SWCNT growth by alcohol catalytic CVD using platinum-group metal catalysts (Pt, Rh, and Pd) because these metals have high melting points, and the reduction in the Ostwald ripening of catalyst particles is expected. Our results revealed that web-like SWCNTs were obtained from Pt and Rh catalysts at growth temperature between 500 °C and 600 °C by optimizing the ethanol pressure. The SWCNT yield from Pd catalysts was considerably low. By decreasing the growth temperature, the diameter and chirality distribution of SWCNTs from Pt and Rh catalysts became small and narrow. In particular, the diameters of most SWCNTs grown using Pt catalysts were below 1 nm and their diameter distribution was considerably narrow. On the contrary, SWCNTs can grow from Rh catalysts even at 300 °C by optimizing the growth condition, which is the lowest temperature recorded for SWCNT growth. Our results demonstrated that platinum-group metals are useful for the growth of small-diameter SWCNTs and facilitate low-temperature growth.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, chemical vapor deposition, catalyst, platinum, rhodium, palladium

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Authors: Adegbite Bashiru Adeniyi, Olaniyi Akeem Olawale, Ayobamidele Sinatu Juliet

Abstract:

The study was carried out in the 6 South Western states of Nigeria to analyze socio-economic characteristic of garri processors and their anthropometric qualities with respect to modern technologies used in garri processing. About 20 respondents were randomly selected from each of the 6 workstations purposively considered for the study due to their daily processing activities already attracted high patronage of customers. These include Oguntolu village (Ogun State), Igoba-Akure (Ondo State), Imo-Ilesa (Osun State), Odo Oba-Ileri (Oyo State), Irasa village (Ekiti State) and Epe in Lagos state. Interview schedule was conducted for 120 respondents to elicit information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. It was observed from the findings that respondents were in their most productive age range (36-45 years) except Ogun state where majority (45%) were relatively older than 45 years. A fewer processors were much younger than 26 years old. It furthers revealed that not less than 55% have body weight greater than 50.0 kilogram, also not less than 70% were taller than 1.5 meter. So also, the hand length and hand thickness of the majority were long and bulky which are considered suitable for operating some modern and improved technologies in garri-frying process. This information could be used by various technological developers to enhance production of modern equipment and tools for a greater efficiency.

Keywords: agro-business, anthromorphic, modernization, proficiency

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Authors: Hamidreza Joodaki, Sara Farzaneh, Jaleh Afshar Qhazvin

Abstract:

Tourism industry is considered as the greatest and most various industry in the world. Most of these countries know this dynamic industry as main source of income, occupation, growth of private sector and development of infrastructure. One of the old methods of investment in countries such as Iran have transitional economy, is buying land and house, sometimes is resulted to high profit and of course for this reason hustler's are very interested in this background. Nowadays buying and selling land in the areas with pleasant climate in our country is considered. Since, Shahmirzad is a city with fair and desired environmental attractions is located in the border of deserted cities, mainly has special climatic position and these conditions are resulted to attraction of passenger, tourist for passing their leisure hours from Semnan and other cities of the area and from other provinces in hot seasons and with regard to these suitable conditions in the city buying land and housing also have been considered by most of residents of Semnan and cities around Shahmirzad by now. The aim of present research is investigation the role of tourism in increasing price of land and housing in Shahmirzad city. By studying on price of land and housing especially in central area, that gardens of the city are located in this area, we have concluded that role of tourism have caused in price of land and housing specially these prices in central and old areas are more expensive than towns around the city.

Keywords: tourism, climate conditions, price of land and housing, Shahmirzad

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Authors: Rahmat Hajimineh, Ebrahim Rezaei Rad

Abstract:

The war between Russia and Ukraine is considered a very important event in international relations, especially after the end of the Cold War, a war that has had wide dimensions since its beginning. Dimensions that, in addition to political issues, have especially affected the world economy and especially the two countries. The most important issue in the field of the economy that was affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine was the issue of energy. Russia is one of the largest producers and suppliers of natural gas for European countries, and 40% of European gas is supplied by Russia. For this reason, it is natural that European countries have problems in this regard. On the other hand, Ukraine is considered the gateway to Europe for Russia regarding the export of natural gas. The war in Ukraine has had severe effects on gas and energy in Europe. From this point of view, European countries are looking to diversify their energy path by switching to renewable energies, and they are also looking at other energy-producing countries like Qatar to meet their energy needs. In this article, we are trying to investigate the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine on Qatar's policies in the field of fossil and renewable energy. The descriptive-analytical method and the theoretical framework of energy security have been used to review this article. Based on this, the article examines the situation of fossil and renewable energies in Qatar and, on the other hand, the effects of the war in Ukraine on both energies in Qatar. The findings of this article also indicate that Qatar has made changes in its energy policies after the war in Ukraine, which seems to be possible due to its high potential, especially in the field of renewable and fossil energy. There is an export of surplus production of this country to other countries, especially European countries.

Keywords: Ukraine War, fossil fuels, renewable energy, energy security, Qatar

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Authors: M. Sunitha, B. Nithyavani, Mathew Yohannan, S. Thiruvieni Balajji, M. A. Rathi, C. Arul Raj, P. Ragavendran, V. K. Gopalkrishnan

Abstract:

Establishment of an early and reliable biomarker for ovarian carcinogenesis whose expression can be monitored through noninvasive techniques will enable early diagnosis of cancer. Carbonic anhydrases (CA) isozymes IX and XII have been suggested to play a role in oncogenic processes. In von Hippel-Lindau (VHL)-defective tumors, the cell surface transmembrane carbonic anhydrase (CA) CA XI and CA XII genes are overexpressed because of the absence of pVHL. These enzymes are involved in causing a hypoxia condition, thereby providing an environment for metastasis. Aberrant expression of the facilitative glucose transporter GLUT I is found in a wide spectrum of epithelial malignancies. Studying the mRNA expression of CA IX, CA XII and Glut I isozymes in ovarian cancer cell lines (OAW-42 and PA-1) revealed the expression of these hypoxia genes. Immunohistochemical staining of carbonic anhydrases was also performed in 40 ovarian cancer tissues. CA IX and CA XII were expressed at 540 bp and 520 bp in OAW42, PA1 in ovarian cancer cell lines. GLUT-1 was expressed at 325bp in OAW 42, PA1 genes in ovarian cancer cell lines. Immunohistochemistry revealed high to moderate levels of expression of these enzymes. The immuostaining was seen predominantly on the cell surface membrane. The study concluded that these genes CA IX, CA XII and Glut I are expressed under hypoxic condition in tumor cells. From the present results expression of CA IX, XII and Glut I may represent potential targets in ovarian cancer therapy.

Keywords: ovarian cancer, carbonic anhydrase IX, XII, Glut I, tumor markers

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