Search results for: water resource management

Authors: Charles Simplice Mbatsogo Mebo

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With growth picking up again, Africa seems increasingly attractive for its own nationals who return home through new opportunities available for them. The purpose of our research paper is to understand the role of the international partners in Cameroon, with regards to their support for the return and reintegration of migrants. We, therefore, questioned the relevance and effectiveness and efficacy of international instruments in reintegrating returnees to Cameroon. After our analysis that was conducted on the basis of a documentary exploration, interviews, and field surveys, it appears that the contribution of the international partners in Cameroon is proven in relation to their participation in the financing and placement of returned experts. However, their contribution remains insufficient due to their low level of deployment and the insignificant impact of their investments on the reintegration of Cameroonian Diasporas. The research also reveals some exogenous and endogenous constraints that hinder international institutions' actions in terms of accompanying migrants returning to Cameroon. Finally, for a better management of the returnees' issue, it is necessary to set up a mechanism to raise awareness and a coordination system of all international actors involved. It is also relevant to reform the migration policy, build institutional capacities, and improve the juridical-administrative and economic environment so as to favor co-development in Cameroon.

Keywords: international partners, returnees, diaspora, migration policy, co-development

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Authors: Hamza Javar Magnier, Leslie V. Woodcock

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We report extensive molecular dynamics (MD) computational investigations into the thermodynamic description of supercritical properties for a model fluid that is the simplest realistic representation of atoms or molecules. The pair potential is a hard-sphere repulsion of diameter σ with a very short attraction of length λσ. When λ = 1.005 the range is so short that the model atoms are referred to as “adhesive spheres”. Molecular dimers, trimers …etc. up to large clusters, or droplets, of many adhesive-sphere atoms are unambiguously defined. This then defines percolation transitions at the molecular level that bound the existence of gas and liquid phases at supercritical temperatures, and which define the existence of a supercritical mesophase. Both liquid and gas phases are seen to terminate at the loci of percolation transitions, and below a second characteristic temperature (Tc2) are separated by the supercritical mesophase. An analysis of the distribution of clusters in gas, meso- and liquid phases confirms the colloidal nature of this mesophase. The general phase behaviour is compared with both experimental properties of the water-steam supercritical region and also with formally exact cluster theory of Mayer and Mayer. Both are found to be consistent with the present findings that in this system the supercritical mesophase narrows in density with increasing T > Tc and terminates at a higher Tc2 at a confluence of the primary percolation loci. The expended plot of the MD data points in the mesophase of 7 critical and supercritical isotherms in highlight this narrowing in density of the linear-slope region of the mesophase as temperature is increased above the critical. This linearity in the mesophase implies the existence of a linear combination rule between gas and liquid which is an extension of the Lever rule in the subcritical region, and can be used to obtain critical parameters without resorting to experimental data in the two-phase region. Using this combination rule, the calculated critical parameters Tc = 0.2007 and Pc = 0.0278 are found be agree with the values found by of Largo and coworkers. The properties of this supercritical mesophase are shown to be consistent with an alternative description of the phenomenon of critical opalescence seen in the supercritical region of both molecular and colloidal-protein supercritical fluids.

Keywords: critical opalescence, supercritical, square-well, percolation transition, critical parameters.

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Authors: Betty Makena, Tsegaye Tadesse, Mark Svoboda

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Global warming has intensified the frequency and intensity of extreme climate disasters and led to unpredictable weather conditions. Consequently, rapid shifts between drought and floods, known as Drought-Flood Abrupt Alteration (DFAA), have become increasingly common. DFAA results in superimposed impacts of drought and floods within a short period, exacerbating the effects of the floods or drought event. Current disaster management plans often overlook DFAA events, as they primarily focus on either floods or drought. Therefore, effectively identifying DFAA events is crucial for developing effective mitigation strategies. This study aims to identify historical DFAA events in Kenya using the Long Cycle Drought-Flood Abrupt Alteration Index (LDFAI). The research will analyze the spatial distribution, temporal variation, and intensity of DFAA events from 1990 to 2023, as well as their socio-economic impacts. Understanding these events is important to develop more effective strategies to address the impacts of DFAA events. Findings from this study will inform decision making to develop coping strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of DFAA in Kenya.

Keywords: abrupt, alteration, drought, floods

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Authors: I. A. Yola

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Impact of poultry dropping, cow dung and rumen content on utilization and proximate composition of Oreochromis niliticus, Clarias gariepinus and Cyprinus capio in a polyculture system were studied. The research was conducted over a period of 52 weeks. Poultry droppings (PD), cow dung (CD) and rumen content (RC) were applied at three levels 30g,60g and 120g/m2/week, 25g,50g and 100g/m2/week and 22g, 44g and 88g/m2/week treatment, respectively. The control only conventional feed with 40% CP without manure application was used. Physicochemical and biological properties measured were higher in manure pond than control. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05) between and within treatments with exception of temperature with a combined mean of 27.900C. The water was consistently alkaline with mean values for pH of 6.61, transparency 22.6cm, conductivity 35.00µhos/cm, dissolved oxygen 4.6 mg/l, biological oxygen demand 2.8mg/l, nitrate and phosphates 0.9mg/l and 0.35mg/l, respectively. The three fish species increase in weight with increased manure rate, with a higher value in PD treatment on C. capio record 340g, O. niloticus weighed 310g and C. gariepinus 280g over the experimental period. Fishes fed supplementary diet (control) grew bigger with highest value on C. capio (685g) O. niloticus (620g) and then C. gariepinus (526g). The differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The result of whole body proximate analysis indicated that various manures and rates had an irregular pattern on the protein and ash gain per 100g of fish body weight gain. The combined means for whole fish carcass protein, lipids, moisture, ash and gross energy were 11.84, 2.43, 74.63, 3.00 and 109.9 respectively. The notable exceptions were significant (p < 0.05) increases in body fat and gross energy gains in all fish species accompanied by decreases in percentages of moisture as manure rates increased. Survival percentage decreases from 80% to 70%. It is recommended to use poultry dropping as manure/feeds at the rate of 120kg/ha/week for good performances in polyculture.

Keywords: organic manure, Nile tilapia, African mud fish, common carp, proximate composition

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Authors: Pascal Gliesche, Kathrin Seibert, Christian Kowalski, Dominik Domhoff, Max Pfingsthorn, Karin Wolf-Ostermann, Andreas Hein

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Robotic assistance in nursing care is an increasingly important area of research and development. Facing a shortage of labor and an increasing number of people in need of care, the German Nursing Care Innovation Center (Pflegeinnovationszentrum, PIZ) aims to address these challenges from the side of technology. Little is known about nurses experiences with existing robotic assistance systems. Especially nurses perspectives on starting points for the development of robotic solutions, that target recurring burdensome tasks in everyday nursing care, are of interest. This paper presents findings focusing on robotics resulting from an explanatory mixed-methods study on nurses experiences with and their expectations for innovative technologies in nursing care in stationary and ambulant care facilities and hospitals in Germany. Based on the findings, eight scenarios for robotic assistance are identified based on the real needs of practitioners. An initial system addressing a single use-case is described to show perspectives for the use of robots in nursing care.

Keywords: robotics and automation, engineering management, engineering in medicine and biology, medical services, public health-care

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Authors: Hana Barak, Alex Sivan, Ariel Kushmaro

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Microorganisms are the most diverse and abundant life forms on Earth and account for a large portion of the Earth’s biomass and biodiversity. To date though, our knowledge regarding microbial life is lacking, as it is based mainly on information from cultivated organisms. Indeed, microbiologists have borrowed from astrophysics and termed the ‘uncultured microbial majority’ as ‘microbial dark matter’. The realization of how diverse and unexplored microorganisms are, actually stems from recent advances in molecular biology, and in particular from novel methods for sequencing microbial small subunit ribosomal RNA genes directly from environmental samples termed next-generation sequencing (NGS). This has led us to use NGS that generates several gigabases of sequencing data in a single experimental run, to identify and classify environmental samples of microorganisms. In metagenomics sequencing analysis (both 16S and shotgun), sequences are compared to reference databases that contain only small part of the existing microorganisms and therefore their taxonomy assignment may reveal groups of unknown microorganisms or origins. These unknowns, or the ‘microbial sequences dark matter’, are usually ignored in spite of their great importance. The goal of this work was to develop an improved bioinformatics method that enables more complete analyses of the microbial communities in numerous environments. Therefore, NGS was used to identify previously unknown microorganisms from three different environments (industrials wastewater, Negev Desert’s rocks and water wells at the Arava valley). 16S rRNA gene metagenome analysis of the microorganisms from those three environments produce about ~4 million reads for 75 samples. Between 0.1-12% of the sequences in each sample were tagged as ‘Unassigned’. Employing relatively simple methodology for resequencing of original gDNA samples through Sanger or MiSeq Illumina with specific primers, this study demonstrates that the mysterious ‘Unassigned’ group apparently contains sequences of candidate phyla. Those unknown sequences can be located on a phylogenetic tree and thus provide a better understanding of the ‘sequences dark matter’ and its role in the research of microbial communities and diversity. Studying this ‘dark matter’ will extend the existing databases and could reveal the hidden potential of the ‘microbial dark matter’.

Keywords: bacteria, bioinformatics, dark matter, Next Generation Sequencing, unknown

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Authors: Gizachew Assefa Tessema, Mohammad Afzal Mahmood, Judith Streak Gomersall, Caroline O. Laurence

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Introduction: Improving access to quality family planning services is the key to improving health of women and children. However, there is currently little evidence on the quality and scope of family planning services provided by private facilities, and this compares to the services provided in public facilities in Ethiopia. This is important, particularly in determining whether the government should further expand the roles of the private sector in the delivery of family planning facility. Methods: This study used the 2014 Ethiopian Services Provision Assessment Plus (ESPA+) survey dataset for comparing the structural aspects of quality of care in family planning services. The present analysis used a weighted sample of 1093 primary health care facilities (955 public and 138 private). This study employed logistic regression analysis to compare key structural variables between public and private facilities. While taking the structural variables as an outcome for comparison, the facility type (public vs private) were used as the key exposure of interest. Results: When comparing availability of basic amenities (infrastructure), public facilities were less likely to have functional cell phones (AOR=0.12; 95% CI: 0.07-0.21), and water supply (AOR=0.29; 95% CI: 0.15-0.58) than private facilities. However, public facilities were more likely to have staff available 24 hours in the facility (AOR=0.12; 95% CI: 0.07-0.21), providers having family planning related training in the past 24 months (AOR=4.4; 95% CI: 2.51, 7.64) and possessing guidelines/protocols (AOR= 3.1 95% CI: 1.87, 5.24) than private facilities. Moreover, comparing the availability of equipment, public facilities had higher odds of having pelvic model for IUD demonstration (AOR=2.60; 95% CI: 1.35, 5.01) and penile model for condom demonstration (AOR=2.51; 95% CI: 1.32, 4.78) than private facilities. Conclusion: The present study suggests that Ethiopian government needs to provide emphasis towards the private sector in terms of providing family planning guidelines and training on family planning services for their staff. It is also worthwhile for the public health facilities to allocate funding for improving the availability of basic amenities. Implications for policy and/ or practice: This study calls policy makers to design appropriate strategies in providing opportunities for training a health care providers working in private health facility.

Keywords: quality of care, family planning, public-private, Ethiopia

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Authors: Ahasanul Haque, Abdullah Sarwar, Khaliq Ahmed

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Networking is important among students to achieve better understanding. Social networking plays an important role in the education. Realizing its huge potential, various organizations, including institutions of higher learning have moved to the area of social networks to interact with their students especially through Facebook. Therefore, measuring the effectiveness of Facebook as a learning tool has become an area of interest to academicians and researchers. Therefore, this study tried to integrate and propose new theoretical and empirical evidences by linking the western idea of adopting Facebook as an alternative learning platform from a Malaysian perspective. This study, thus, aimed to fill a gap by being among the pioneering research that tries to study the effectiveness of adopting Facebook as a learning platform across other cultural settings, namely Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis and hypothesis testing. This study findings have provided some insights that would likely affect students’ awareness towards using Facebook as an alternative learning platform in the Malaysian higher learning institutions. At the end, future direction is proposed.

Keywords: Learning Management Tool, social networking, education, Malaysia

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Authors: Ramkumar Gunasekaran, John Cater, Vinod Suresh, Haribalan Kumar

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The main objective of this project is to develop a statistical shape model using principal component analysis that could be used for analyzing the shape of the human airway. The ultimate goal of this project is to identify geometric risk factors for diagnosis and management of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). Anonymous CBCT scans of 25 individuals were obtained from the Otago Radiology Group. The airways were segmented between the hard-palate and the aryepiglottic fold using snake active contour segmentation. The point data cloud of the segmented images was then fitted with a bi-cubic mesh, and pseudo landmarks were placed to perform PCA on the segmented airway to analyze the shape of the airway and to find the relationship between the shape and OSA risk factors. From the PCA results, the first four modes of variation were found to be significant. Mode 1 was interpreted to be the overall length of the airway, Mode 2 was related to the anterior-posterior width of the retroglossal region, Mode 3 was related to the lateral dimension of the oropharyngeal region and Mode 4 was related to the anterior-posterior width of the oropharyngeal region. All these regions are subjected to the risk factors of OSA.

Keywords: medical imaging, image processing, FEM/BEM, statistical modelling

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Authors: Ghazwan Al-Haji

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Traffic safety has become a major concern in Southeast Asia due to the increasing number of road accidents resulting in fatalities and injuries. Southeast Asia has one of the highest road traffic fatality rates in the world, in terms of both population and number of cars, nearly six times higher than the EU region. One of the reasons for this concerning trend is the increasing share of motorcycles as a form of transportation throughout Southeast Asia. The purpose of this study is to benchmark traffic safety situations and statistics in six countries in Asia and the EU, which Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. The research will assess the priorities and causes of road accidents in the target nations. Further, the study will analyze the existing practices and promote best practices that can be implemented toward safer roads in Asian target countries. In order to achieve this goal, the study categorizes various factors contributing to traffic accidents and best practices into 4 pillars (Safer Behavior, Safer Roads, Safer Vehicles and Road Safety Management). The result of the study consists of a list of recommendations that can be applied by policymakers to promote safer roads in Asia towards 2030. The study is co-financed by the EU project ASIASAFE.

Keywords: traffic safety, ASIASAFE, Southeast Asia, EU project

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Authors: Sankhanil Das, Arunava Dasgupta, Keya Mitra

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This paper investigates the relationship between natural ecological systems and modern urban morphology. Over years, ecological conditions represented by natural resources such as natural landforms, systems of water, urban geography and land covers have been a significant driving factor of how settlements have formed, expanded and functioned. These have played a pivotal role in formation of the community character and the cultural identity of the urban spaces, and have steered cultural behavior within these settings. Such cultural behaviors have been instrumental in transforming mere spaces to places with meaning and symbolism. The natural process of city formation is principally founded upon the idea of balance and harmony, mostly in a subconscious manner. Reimaging such processes of natural evolution, this paper systematically builds a development model that generates a balance between environment and development, with specific focus on the Urban-Rural fringe areas in the Temple Town of Puri, in Eastern India. Puri represents a unique cross section of ecological landscape, cultural practices and religious symbolism with a very rich history and a vibrant heritage. While the city centre gets more and more crowded by tourists and pilgrims to accommodate related businesses, the original residents of Puri relocate to move towards the urban peripheral areas for better living conditions, gradually converting agricultural lands into non agricultural uses. This rapid spread into the rural hinterland is devoid of any connection with the rich cultural identity of Puri. These past four decades of ‘development’ has been at the cost of 810 Hectares of ecological Lake systems in the region. Invaluable ecological resources at urban rural edges are often viewed as hindrances to development and conceptualized as taking away from the image of the city. This paper attempts to understand the language of development over years on existing natural resources through topo-analysis and proposes a sustainable approach of development using different planning tools, with ecological resources as the pivotal factor of development.

Keywords: livability, sustainable development, urbanization, urban-rural edge

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Authors: Jelena Popović, Andrijana Mićanović

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Officially, 60% of Montenegrin territory is covered in forests, but they are continually being destroyed by illegal cutting, concession politics and wildfires. Montenegrin Ecologists Society started the first dendrochronology lab in Montenegro, and data collection began in the Summer of 2021. The cores were taken from 3 localities around the peak Lisac on the mt. Prekornica, where biggest P.heldreichii forests existed until recent huge wildfires. This research is the first step towards comprehensive dendrochronology research in Montenegro. It will show how old certain forest stands of Pinus heldreichii on mountain Prekornica are, that were not destroyed in huge wildfires from the recent years. It will also show how do they correlate between each other. Per locality 15 trees were sampled. Electric sanders (150 - 2000) were used for preparation. Cores were scanned, then measured in CooRecorder. Analysis is done in Cofecha. Process will be repeated with Lintab 6 and TSAP (Time Series Analysis and Presentation for Dendrochronology and Related Applications) - Win Scientific software by Rinntech. Since this is the first dendrochronology research entirely done in Montenegro it is a foundation for the dendroclimatology research. Besides, it’ll contribute to the understanding of the life of these forests in this part of its areal, and in designing good management practices.

Keywords: dendrochronology, bosnian pine, pinus heldreichii, montenegro, forests

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Authors: Rita Sassine, Yassine Hassani, Mohamad Al Omari, Stéphanie Guibert

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the process of creating, managing, and centralizing information during the building lifecycle. BIM can be used all over a construction project, from the initiation phase to the planning and execution phases to the maintenance and lifecycle management phase. For existing buildings, BIM can be used for specific applications such as lifecycle management. However, most of the existing buildings don’t have a BIM model. Creating a compatible BIM for existing buildings is very challenging. It requires special equipment for data capturing and efforts to convert these data into a BIM model. The main difficulties for such projects are to define the data needed, the level of development (LOD), and the methodology to be adopted. In addition to managing information for an existing building, studying the impact of the built environment is a challenging topic. So, integrating the existing terrain that surrounds buildings into the digital model is essential to be able to make several simulations as flood simulation, energy simulation, etc. Making a replication of the physical model and updating its information in real-time to make its Digital Twin (DT) is very important. The Digital Terrain Model (DTM) represents the ground surface of the terrain by a set of discrete points with unique height values over 2D points based on reference surface (e.g., mean sea level, geoid, and ellipsoid). In addition, information related to the type of pavement materials, types of vegetation and heights and damaged surfaces can be integrated. Our aim in this study is to define the methodology to be used in order to provide a 3D BIM model for the site and the existing building based on the case study of “Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publiques (ESTP Paris)” school of engineering campus. The property is located on a hilly site of 5 hectares and is composed of more than 20 buildings with a total area of 32 000 square meters and a height between 50 and 68 meters. In this work, the campus precise levelling grid according to the NGF-IGN69 altimetric system and the grid control points are computed according to (Réseau Gédésique Français) RGF93 – Lambert 93 french system with different methods: (i) Land topographic surveying methods using robotic total station, (ii) GNSS (Global Network Satellite sytem) levelling grid with NRTK (Network Real Time Kinematic) mode, (iii) Point clouds generated by laser scanning. These technologies allow the computation of multiple building parameters such as boundary limits, the number of floors, the floors georeferencing, the georeferencing of the 4 base corners of each building, etc. Once the entry data are identified, the digital model of each building is done. The DTM is also modeled. The process of altimetric determination is complex and requires efforts in order to collect and analyze multiple data formats. Since many technologies can be used to produce digital models, different file formats such as DraWinG (DWG), LASer (LAS), Comma-separated values (CSV), Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and ReViT (RVT) will be generated. Checking the interoperability between BIM models is very important. In this work, all models are linked together and shared on 3DEXPERIENCE collaborative platform.

Keywords: building information modeling, digital terrain model, existing buildings, interoperability

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Authors: Emilio Galdeano-Gómez, Juan C. Pérez-Mesa, Laura Piedra-Muñoz, María C. García-Barranco, Jesús Hernández-Rubio

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The situation in which firms engage in simultaneous cooperation and competition with each other is a phenomenon known as co-opetition. This scenario has received increasing attention in business economics and management analyses. In the domain of supply chain networks and for small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, these strategies are of greater relevance given the complex environment of globalization and competition in open markets. These firms face greater challenges regarding technology and access to specific resources due to their limited capabilities and limited market presence. Consequently, alliances and collaborations with both buyers and suppliers prove to be key elements in overcoming these constraints. However, rivalry and competition are also regarded as major factors in successful internationalization processes, as they are drivers for firms to attain a greater degree of specialization and to improve efficiency, for example enabling them to allocate scarce resources optimally and providing incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship. The present work aims to contribute to the literature on SMEs’ internationalization strategies. The sample is constituted by a panel data of marketing firms from the Andalusian food sector and a multivariate regression analysis is developed, measuring variables of co-opetition and international activity. The hierarchical regression equations method has been followed, thus resulting in three estimated models: the first one excluding the variables indicative of channel type, while the latter two include the international retailer chain and wholesaler variable. The findings show that the combination of several factors leads to a complex scenario of inter-organizational relationships of cooperation and competition. In supply chain management analyses, these relationships tend to be classified as either buyer-supplier (vertical level) or supplier-supplier relationships (horizontal level). Several buyers and suppliers tend to participate in supply chain networks, and in which the form of governance (hierarchical and non-hierarchical) influences cooperation and competition strategies. For instance, due to their market power and/or their closeness to the end consumer, some buyers (e.g. large retailers in food markets) can exert an influence on the selection and interaction of several of their intermediate suppliers, thus endowing certain networks in the supply chain with greater stability. This hierarchical influence may in turn allow these suppliers to develop their capabilities (e.g. specialization) to a greater extent. On the other hand, for those suppliers that are outside these networks, this environment of hierarchy, characterized by a “hub firm” or “channel master”, may provide an incentive for developing their co-opetition relationships. These results prove that the analyzed firms have experienced considerable growth in sales to new foreign markets, mainly in Europe, dealing with large retail chains and wholesalers as main buyers. This supply industry is predominantly made up of numerous SMEs, which has implied a certain disadvantage when dealing with the buyers, as negotiations have traditionally been held on an individual basis and in the face of high competition among suppliers. Over recent years, however, cooperation among these marketing firms has become more common, for example regarding R&D, promotion, scheduling of production and sales.

Keywords: co-petition networks, international supply chain, maketing agrifood firms, SMEs strategies

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Authors: Usman Bawa

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Macro-invertebrates have been used to monitor organic pollution in rivers and streams. Several biotic indices based on macro-invertebrates have been developed over the years including the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP). A new biotic index, the Gammarus:Asellus ratio has been recently proposed as an index of organic pollution. This study tested the validity of the Gammarus:Asellus ratio as an index of organic pollution, by examining the relationship between the Gammarus:Asellus ratio and physical-chemical parameters, and other biotic indices such as BMWP and, Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT) from lakes and streams at Markeaton Park, Allestree Park, and Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. Macro invertebrates were sampled using the standard five-minute kick sampling techniques physical and chemical environmental variables were obtained based on standard sampling techniques. Eighteen sites were sampled, six sites from Markeaton Park (three sites across the stream and three sites across the lake). Six sites each were also sampled from Allestree Park and Kedleston Hall lakes. The Gammarus:Asellus ratio showed an opposite significant positive correlations with parameters indicative of organic pollution such as the level of nitrates, phosphates, and calcium and also revealed a negatively significant correlations with other biotic indices (BMWP/ASPT). The BMWP score correlated positively significantly with some water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen and flow rate, but revealed no correlations with other chemical environmental variables. The BMWP score was significantly higher in the stream than the lake in Markeaton Park, also The ASPT scores appear to be significantly higher in the upper Lakes than the middle and lower lakes. This study has further strengthened the use of BMWP/ASPT score as an index of organic pollution. But, additional application is required to validate the use of Gammarus:Asellus as a rapid bio monitoring tool.

Keywords: Asellus, biotic index, Gammarus, macro invertebrates, organic pollution

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Authors: Mohammad Y. Badiee, Saeed Golestani, Mir Saman Pishvaee

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In recent years consumers and governments have been pushing companies to design their activities in such a way as to reduce negative environmental impacts by producing renewable product or threat free disposal policy more and more. It is therefore important to focus more accurate to the optimization of various aspect of total supply chain. Modeling a supply chain can be a challenging process due to the fact that there are a large number of factors that need to be considered in the model. The use of multi-objective optimization can lead to overcome those problems since more information is used when designing the model. Uncertainty is inevitable in real world. Considering uncertainty on parameters in addition to use multi-objectives are ways to give more flexibility to the decision making process since the process can take into account much more constraints and requirements. In this paper we demonstrate a stochastic scenario based robust model to cope with uncertainty in a closed-loop multi-objective supply chain. By applying the proposed model in a real world case, the power of proposed model in handling data uncertainty is shown.

Keywords: supply chain management, closed-loop supply chain, multi-objective optimization, goal programming, uncertainty, robust optimization

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Authors: D. H. Tejavathi

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Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products. Wild populations of many medicinal plants are facing threat of extinction because of their narrow distribution, endemicity, and degradation of specific habitats. Micropropagation is an established in vitro technique by which large number of clones can be obtained from a small bit of explants in a short span of time within a limited space. Mycorrhization can minimize the transient transplantation shock, experienced by the micropropagated plants when they are transferred from lab to land. AM fungal association improves the physiological status of the host plants through better uptake of water and nutrients, particularly phosphorus. Consequently, the growth performance and biosynthesis of active principles are significantly enhanced in AM fungal treated plants. Bacopa monnieri, Andrographis paniculata, Agave vera-curz, Drymaria cordata and Majorana hortensis, important medicinal plants used in various indigenous systems of medicines, are selected for the present study. They form the main constituents of many herbal formulations. Standard in vitro techniques were followed to obtain the micropropagated plants. Shoot tips and nodal segments were used as explants. Explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog, and Phillips and Collins media supplemented with various combinations of growth regulators. Multiple shoots were obtained on a media containing both auxins and cytokinins at various concentrations and combinations. Multiple shoots were then transferred to rooting media containing auxins for root induction. Thus, obtained in vitro regenerated plants were subjected to brief acclimatization before transferring them to land. One-month-old in vitro plants were treated with AM fungi, and the symbiotic effect on the overall growth parameters was analyzed. It was found that micropropagation coupled with mycorrhization has significant effect on the enhancement of biomass and biosynthesis of active principles in these selected medicinal plants. In vitro techniques coupled with mycorrhization have opened a possibility of obtaining better clones in respect of enhancement of biomass and biosynthesis of active principles. Beneficial effects of AM fungal association with medicinal plants are discussed.

Keywords: cultivation, medicinal plants, micropropagation, mycorrhization

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Authors: Ali Hajiesmaeili, Mehdi Rahimi, Ehsan Jaberi, Amir Abbas Hosseini

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The purpose of this study is investigating the influences of logistics performance on organizational performance including both marketing & financial aspects, and showing the financial impacts of selecting the right marketing and logistics priorities in line with their supply chain type, and also giving the practitioners an advance identification of their priorities and participation types of supply chain, and the best combination of their strategies and resources in this regard. We made use of the original model’s questionnaire to gather all expert’s data and also SPSS and AMOS Ver.22 to analyze the gathered data. CFA method was also used to test whether a relationship between observed variables and their underlying latent constructs exists. Supply chain strategy implementation leads to logistics performance improvement, and marketing performance will be affected as well. Logistics service providers should focus on enhancement of supply chain performance, since logistics performance has been considered as a basis of evaluation of supply chain management strategy. Consequently, performance of the organization will be enhanced. This case is the first research made in Iran that analyzes the relationship between Logistics & Organizational performance in Home Appliances and Home Entertainment companies.

Keywords: logistics, organizational, performance, supply chain, strategy

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Authors: Ali Aghazadegan, Ali Shokria, Julia Mullarneya, Jon Tunnicliffe

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River channel confluences are dynamic systems with branching structures that exhibit a high degree of complexity both in natural and man-made open channel networks. Recent and past fields and modeling have investigated the river dynamics modeling of confluent based on a series of over-simplified assumptions (i.e. straight tributary channel with a bend with a 90° junction angle). Accurate assessment of such systems is important to the design and management of hydraulic structures and river engineering processes. Despite their importance, there has been little study of the hydrodynamics characteristics of river confluences, and the link between flow hydrodynamics and confluence morphodynamics in the confluence is still incompletely understood. This paper studies flow structures in confluences, morphodynamics and deposition patterns in 30 and 90 degrees confluences with different flow conditions. The results show that the junction angle is primarily the key factor for the determination of the confluence bed morphology and sediment pattern, while the discharge ratio is a secondary factor. It also shows that super elevation created by mixing flows is a key function of the morphodynamics patterns.

Keywords: helical flow, river confluence, bed morphology , secondary flows, shear layer

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Authors: Saud Al Mahdi

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Traditionally,portfolio managers have been discouraged from timing the market. This means, for example, that equity managers have been forced to adhere strictly to a benchmark with static or relatively stable components, such as the SP 500 or the Russell 3000. This means that the portfolio’s exposures to all risk factors should mimic as closely as possible the corresponding exposures of the benchmark. The main risk factor, of course, is the market itself. Effectively, a long-only portfolio would be constrained to have a beta 1. More recently, however, managers have been given greater discretion to adjust their portfolio’s risk exposures (in particular, the beta of their portfolio) dynamically to match the manager’s beliefs about future performance of the risk factors themselves. This freedom translates into the manager’s ability to adjust the portfolio’s beta dynamically. These strategies have come to be known as smart beta strategies. Adjusting beta dynamically amounts to attempting to "time" the market; that is, to increase exposure when one anticipates that the market will rise, and to decrease it when one anticipates that the market will fall. Traditionally, market timing has been believed to be impossible to perform effectively and consistently. Moreover, if a majority of market participants do it, their combined actions could destabilize the market. The aim of this project is to investigate so-called smart beta strategies to determine if they really can add value, or if they are merely marketing gimmicks used to sell dubious investment strategies.

Keywords: beta, alpha, active portfolio management, trading strategies

Procedia PDF Downloads 355

Authors: Prasad Pokkunuri

Abstract:

Visco-elastic materials combine the stress response properties of both solids and fluids and have found use in a variety of damping applications – both vibrational and acoustic. Defense and automotive applications, in particular, are subject to high impact and shock loading – for example: aircraft landing gear, firearms, and shock absorbers. Field responsive fluids – a class of smart materials – are the preferred choice of energy absorbents because of their controllability. These fluids’ stress response can be controlled by the application of a magnetic or electric field, in a closed loop. Their rheological properties – elasticity, plasticity, and viscosity – can be varied all the way from that of a liquid such as water to a hard solid. This work presents a simplified model to study the impulse response behavior of such fluids for use in recoil damping systems. The well-known Burger’s equation, in conjunction with various visco-elastic constitutive models, is used to represent fluid behavior. The Kelvin-Voigt, Upper Convected Maxwell (UCM), and Oldroyd-B constitutive models are implemented in this study. Using these models in a one-dimensional framework eliminates additional complexities due to geometry, pressure, body forces, and other source terms. Using a finite difference formulation to numerically solve the governing equation(s), the response to an initial impulse is studied. The disturbance is confined within the problem domain with no-inflow, no-outflow boundary conditions, and its decay characteristics studied. Visco-elastic fluids typically involve a time-dependent stress relaxation which gives rise to interesting behavior when subjected to an impulsive load. For particular values of viscous damping and elastic modulus, the fluid settles into a stable oscillatory state, absorbing and releasing energy without much decay. The simplified formulation enables a comprehensive study of different modes of system response, by varying relevant parameters. Using the insights gained from this study, extension to a more detailed multi-dimensional model is considered.

Keywords: Burgers Equation, Impulse Response, Recoil Damping Systems, Visco-elastic Fluids

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: Sweta Das

Abstract:

This case report is a 15-year-old male who presented with painless unilateral vision loss from left optic nerve compression due to juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma. JNA is a rare, benign neoplasm that causes intracranial and intraorbital bone destruction and extends aggressively into surrounding soft tissues. It accounts for <1% of all head and neck tumors, is predominantly found in pediatric males and tends to affect indigenous population disproportionately. The most common presenting symptom for JNA is epistaxis and nasal obstruction. However, it can invade orbit, chiasm and pituitary gland, causing loss of vision and field. Visual acuity and function near normalized following surgical excision. Optometry plays an important role in the diagnosis and co-management of JNA with optic nerve compression by closely monitoring afferent optic nerve function and structure, and extraocular motility. Visual function and acuity in patients with short-term compressive neuropathy may drastically improve following surgical resection as this case demonstrates.

Keywords: orbital mass, painless monocular vision loss, compressive optic neuropathy, pediatric tumor

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: Ahmed Amrani, Oussama Allali, Amira Ben Hamida, Felix Defrance, Stephanie Morland, Eva Pineau, Thomas Lacroix

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The energy planning process is a very complex task that involves several stakeholders and requires the consideration of several local and global factors and constraints. In order to optimize and simplify this process, we propose a tool-based iterative approach applied to district heating planning. We build our tool with the collaboration of a French territory using actual district data and implementing the European incentives. We set up an iterative process including data visualization and analysis, identification and extraction of information related to the area concerned by the operation, design of sustainable planning scenarios leveraging local renewable and recoverable energy sources, and finally, the evaluation of scenarios. The last step is performed by a dynamic digital twin replica of the city. Territory’s energy experts confirm that the tool provides them with valuable support towards sustainable energy planning.

Keywords: climate change, data management, decision support, digital twin, district heating, energy planning, renewables, smart city

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Stephen Orimoloye, Jose Horrillo-Caraballo, Harshinie Karunarathna, Dominic E. Reeve

Abstract:

Prediction of wave overtopping is an essential component of coastal seawall designing and management. Not only that excessive overtopping is reported for impermeable seawalls under bimodal waves, but overtopping is also showing a high sensitivity to the peakedness of the random wave propagation patterns. In the present study, we present a comprehensive analysis of the effects of peakedness of bimodal wave patterns of the overtopping of sloping seawalls. An energy-conserved bimodal spectrum with four different spectra peak periods and swell percentages was applied to estimate wave overtopping in both numerical and experimental flumes. Results of incident surface elevations and bimodal spectra were accurately captured across the flume domain using sets of well-positioned resistant-type wave gauges. Peakedness characteristics of the wave patterns were extracted to derive a relationship between the non-dimensional overtopping and the peakedness across the wave groups in the wave series. The full paper will briefly describe the development of the spectrum and present a comprehensive results analysis leading to the derivation of the relationship between dimensionless overtopping and peakedness of bimodal waves.

Keywords: wave overtopping, peakedness, bimodal waves, swell percentages

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: Sirus Mohammadi, Sara Ansari, Darush dehghan, Habib Hoshyari

Abstract:

Batteries for storage of electricity from solar and wind generation farms are a key element in the success of sustainability. In recent years, due to large integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) like wind turbine and photovoltaic unit into the Micro-Grid (MG), the necessity of Battery Energy Storage (BES) has increased dramatically. The BES has several benefits and advantages in the MG-based applications such as short term power supply, power quality improvement, facilitating integration of RES, ancillary service and arbitrage. This paper presents the cost-based formulation to determine the optimal size of the BES in the operation management of MG. Also, some restrictions, i.e. power capacity of Distributed Generators (DGs), power and energy capacity of BES, charge/discharge efficiency of BES, operating reserve and load demand satisfaction should be considered as well. In this paper, a methodology is proposed for the optimal allocation and economic analysis of ESS in MGs on the basis of net present value (NPV). As the optimal operation of an MG strongly depends on the arrangement and allocation of its ESS, economic operation strategies and optimal allocation methods of the ESS devices are required for the MG.

Keywords: microgrid, energy storage system, optimal sizing, net present value

Procedia PDF Downloads 494

Authors: Mengmeng Du, Noboru Noguchi, Hiroshi Okamoto, Noriko Kobayashi

Abstract:

This paper introduced a topographic mapping system with time-saving and simplicity advantages based on integration of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and Post Processing Kinematic Global Positioning System (PPK GPS) data. This topographic mapping system used a low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as a platform to conduct land survey in a low-cost, efficient, and totally autonomous manner. An experiment in a small-scale sugarcane farmland was conducted in Queensland, Australia. Subsequently, we synchronized LiDAR distance measurements that were corrected by using attitude information from gyroscope with PPK GPS coordinates for generation of precision topographic maps, which could be further utilized for such applications like precise land leveling and drainage management. The results indicated that LiDAR distance measurements and PPK GPS altitude reached good accuracy of less than 0.015 m.

Keywords: land survey, light detection and ranging, post processing kinematic global positioning system, precision agriculture, topographic map, unmanned aerial vehicle

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Wanyi Zhu, Xia Ming, Huafeng Wang, Junda Chen, Lu Liu, Jiangwei Jiang, Guohua Liu

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Anomaly detection is a first and imperative step needed to respond to unexpected problems and to assure high performance and security in large data center management. This paper presents an online anomaly detection system through an innovative approach of ensemble machine learning and adaptive differentiation algorithms, and applies them to performance data collected from a continuous monitoring system for multi-tier web applications running in Alibaba data centers. We evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of this algorithm with production traffic data and compare with the traditional anomaly detection approaches such as a static threshold and other deviation-based detection techniques. The experiment results show that our algorithm correctly identifies the unexpected performance variances of any running application, with an acceptable false positive rate. This proposed approach has already been deployed in real-time production environments to enhance the efficiency and stability in daily data center operations.

Keywords: Alibaba data centers, anomaly detection, big data computation, dynamic ensemble learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: James Pietris

Abstract:

Glaucoma is a collection of irreversible optic neuropathies which, if left untreated, lead to severe visual field loss. These diseases are a leading cause of blindness across the globe and are estimated to affect approximately 80 million people, particularly women and people of Asian descent.1This represents a major burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the potential of nicotinamide (vitamin B3) as a novel option in the management of glaucoma. This review aims to analyse the currently available literature to determine whether there is evidence of an association between nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and glaucomatous optic neuropathy and whether nicotinamide has the potential to prevent or reverse these effects. The literature showed a strong connection between reduced NAD+ levels and retinal ganglion cell dysfunction through multiple different studies. There is also evidence of the positive effect of nicotinamide supplementation on retinal ganglion cell function in models of mouse glaucoma and in a study involving humans. Based on the literature findings, a recommendation has been made that more research into the efficacy, appropriate dosing, and potential side effects of nicotinamide supplementation is needed before it can be definitively determined whether it is appropriate for widespread prophylactic and therapeutic use against glaucoma in humans.

Keywords: glaucoma, nicotinamide, vitamin B3, optic neuropathy

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Cha-ah C. N., Awah N. J., Mouiche M. M. M.

Abstract:

Brucellosis is a neglected zoonotic disease of animals and man caused by bacteria of genus Brucella. Though eradicated in some parts of the world, it remains endemic in sub-Saharan Africa including Cameroon. The aim of this study was to contribute to the epidemiology of brucellosis in the North-West region of Cameroon by detecting the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies in bovine bulk milk as this serves as a route of transmission from animals to man. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Brucella abortus antibodies in bovine bulk milk in the peri-urban zones of Bamenda. One hundred bulk milk samples were collected from 100 herds and tested by milk I-ELISA test. The conducted study revealed the presence of anti-Brucella abortus antibodies in bovine bulk milk. The study revealed that bovine brucellosis is widespread in animal production systems in this area. The animal infection pressure in these systems has remained strong due to movement of livestock in search of pasture, co-existence of animal husbandry, communal sharing of grazing land, concentration of animals around water points, abortions in production systems, locality of production systems and failure to quarantine upon introduction of new animals. The circulation of Brucella abortus antibodies in cattle farms recorded in the study revealed potential public health implication and suggest economic importance of brucellosis to the cattle industry in the Northwest region of Cameroon. The risk for re-emergence and transmission of brucellosis is evident as a result of the co-existence of animal husbandry activities and social-cultural activities that promote brucellosis transmission. Well-designed countrywide, evidence-based studies of brucellosis are needed. These could help to generate reliable frequency and potential impact estimates, to identify Brucella reservoirs, and to propose control strategies of proven efficacy.

Keywords: brucellosis, bulk milk, northwest region Cameroon, prevalence

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Yujin Jeong, Youkyung Son, Myounghwan Choi, Sanghyub Lee, Sangyeol Lee, Changho Hwang, Kyo-in Koo

Abstract:

Dysphasia is difficulty in swallowing food because of oral cavity impairments induced by stroke, muscle damage, tumor. Intermittent oro-esophageal (IOE) tube feeding is one of the well-known feeding methods for the dysphasia patients. However, it is hard to insert at the proper position in esophagus. In this study, we design and fabricate the IOE tube guide using 3-dimensional (3D) printer. The printed IOE tube is tested in a mannequin (Airway Management Trainer, Co., Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark) mimicking human’s esophagus. The gag reflex point is measured as the design point in the mannequin. To avoid the gag reflex, we design various shapes of IOE tube guide. One structure is separated into three parts; biting part, part through oral cavity, connecting part to oro-esophageal. We designed 6 types of IOE tube guide adjusting length and angle of these three parts. To evaluate the IOE tube guide, it is inserted in the mannequin, and through the inserted guide, an endoscopic camera successfully arrived at the oro-esophageal. We had planned to apply this mannequin-based design experience to patients in near future.

Keywords: dysphagia, feeding method, IOE tube guide, 3-D printer

Procedia PDF Downloads 434