Search results for: Maximum Entropy Bootstrapping approach

Authors: Azadeh Razzagh Shoar, Hassan Sadeghi Naeini

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There is little doubt that concepts such as space and place have become more common considering that human beings have grown more apart and more than having contact with each other, they are in contact with objects, spaces, and places. Cafés, as a third place which is neither home nor workplace, have attracted these authors’ interests, who are industrial and interior designers. There has been much research on providing suitable cafés, customer behavior, and criteria for spatial sense. However, little research has been carried out on consumerism, desire for variety, and their relationship with changing places, and specifically cafes in term of interior design. In fact, customer’s sense of place has mostly been overlooked. In this case study, authors conducted to challenge the desire for variety and consumerism as well as investigating the addictive factors in cafés. From the designers’ point of view and by collecting data through observing and interviewing café managers, this study investigates and analyzes the customers in two cafes located in a commercial building in northern Tehran (a part of city with above average economic conditions). Since these two cafés are at the same level in terms of interior and spatial design, the question is raised as to why customers patronize the newly built café despite their loyalty to the older café. This study aims to investigate and find the criteria based on the sense of space (café) in a consumerist society, a world where consumption is a myth. Going to cafés in a larger scale than a product can show a selection and finally who you are, where you go, which brand of coffee you prefer, and what time of the day you would like to have your coffee. The results show that since people spend time in cafés more than any other third place, the interaction they have with their environment is more than anything else, and they are consumers of time and place more than coffee or any other product. Also, if there is a sense of consumerism and variety, it is mostly for the place rather than coffee and other products. To satisfy this sense, individuals go to a new place (the new café). It can be easily observed that this sense overshadows the sense of efficiency, design, facilities and all important factor for a café.

Keywords: place, cafe, consumerist society, consumerism, desire for variety

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Authors: Sarra Haouala, Issam Doghri

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In this work, a multiscale computational strategy is proposed for the analysis of structures, which are described at a refined level both in space and in time. The proposal is applied to two-phase viscoelastic-viscoplastic (VE-VP) reinforced thermoplastics subjected to large numbers of cycles. The main aim is to predict the effective long time response while reducing the computational cost considerably. The proposed computational framework is a combination of the mean-field space homogenization based on the generalized incrementally affine formulation for VE-VP composites, and the asymptotic time homogenization approach for coupled isotropic VE-VP homogeneous solids under large numbers of cycles. The time homogenization method is based on the definition of micro and macro-chronological time scales, and on asymptotic expansions of the unknown variables. First, the original anisotropic VE-VP initial-boundary value problem of the composite material is decomposed into coupled micro-chronological (fast time scale) and macro-chronological (slow time-scale) problems. The former is purely VE, and solved once for each macro time step, whereas the latter problem is nonlinear and solved iteratively using fully implicit time integration. Second, mean-field space homogenization is used for both micro and macro-chronological problems to determine the micro and macro-chronological effective behavior of the composite material. The response of the matrix material is VE-VP with J2 flow theory assuming small strains. The formulation exploits the return-mapping algorithm for the J2 model, with its two steps: viscoelastic predictor and plastic corrections. The proposal is implemented for an extended Mori-Tanaka scheme, and verified against finite element simulations of representative volume elements, for a number of polymer composite materials subjected to large numbers of cycles.

Keywords: asymptotic expansions, cyclic loadings, inclusion-reinforced thermoplastics, mean-field homogenization, time homogenization

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Authors: Nancy Samuel Reyad Farhan

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even though international crook law has grown considerably inside the ultimate decades, it still remains fragmented and lacks doctrinal cohesiveness. Its idea is defined within the doctrine as pretty disputable. there is no concrete definition of the term. in the home doctrine, the hassle of crook law troubles that rise up within the worldwide setting, and international troubles that get up in the national crook regulation, is underdeveloped each theoretically and nearly. To the exceptional of writer’s know-how, there aren't any studies describing worldwide elements of crook law in a complete way, taking a more expansive view of the difficulty. This paper provides consequences of a part of the doctoral studies, assignment a theoretical framework of the worldwide crook law. It ambitions at checking out the present terminology on international components of criminal law. It demonstrates differences among the notions of global crook regulation, criminal regulation international and law worldwide crook. It confronts the belief of crook regulation with associated disciplines and indicates their interplay. It specifies the scope of international criminal regulation. It diagnoses the contemporary criminal framework of global components of criminal regulation, referring to each crook law issues that rise up inside the international setting, and international problems that rise up within the context of national criminal law. ultimately, de lege lata postulates had been formulated and route of modifications in global criminal law turned into proposed. The followed studies hypothesis assumed that the belief of international criminal regulation became inconsistent, not understood uniformly, and there has been no conformity as to its location inside the system of regulation, objective and subjective scopes, while the domestic doctrine did not correspond with international requirements and differed from the global doctrine. applied research strategies covered inter alia a dogmatic and legal technique, an analytical technique, a comparative approach, in addition to desk studies.

Keywords: social networks privacy issues, social networks security issues, social networks privacy precautions measures, social networks security precautions measures

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Authors: Helene Eller

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The aim of non-profit organizations (NPO) is to provide services and goods for its clientele, with profit being a minor objective. By having this definition as the basic purpose of doing business, it is obvious that the goal of an organisation is to serve several bottom lines and not only the financial one. This approach is underpinned by the non-distribution constraint which means that NPO are allowed to make profits to a certain extent, but not to distribute them. The advantage is that there are no single shareholders who might have an interest in the prosperity of the organisation: there is no pie to divide. The gained profits remain within the organisation and will be reinvested in purposeful projects. Good governance is mandatory to support the aim of NPOs. Looking for a measure of good governance the principals of corporate governance (CG) will come in mind. The purpose of CG is direction and control, and in the field of NPO, CG is enlarged to consider the relationship to all important stakeholders who have an impact on the organisation. The recognition of more relevant parties than the shareholder is the link to corporate social responsibility (CSR). It supports a broader view of the bottom line: It is no longer enough to know how profits are used but rather how they are made. Besides, CSR addresses the responsibility of organisations for their impact on society. When transferring the concept of CSR to the non-profit area it will become obvious that CSR with its distinctive features will match the aims of NPOs. As a consequence, NPOs who apply CG apply also CSR to a certain extent. The research is designed as a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis. First, the investigation focuses on the theoretical basis of both concepts. Second, the similarities and differences are outlined and as a result the interconnection of both concepts will show up. The contribution of this research is manifold: The interconnection of both concepts when applied to NPOs has not got any attention in science yet. CSR and governance as integrated concept provides a lot of advantages for NPOs compared to for-profit organisations which are in a steady justification to show the impact they might have on the society. NPOs, however, integrate economic and social aspects as starting point. For NPOs CG is not a mere concept of compliance but rather an enhanced concept integrating a lot of aspects of CSR. There is no “either-nor” between the concepts for NPOs.

Keywords: business ethics, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, non-profit organisations

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Authors: Rohit Agarwal, Mrityunjay K. Singh, Soma Ghosh, Ramesh Shankar, Biswajit Ghosh, Vinay V. Mahashabde

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Thermo-mechanical treatment (TMT) of rebars is a critical process to impart sufficient strength and ductility to rebar. TMT rebars are produced by the Tempcore process, involves an 'in-line' heat treatment in which hot rolled bar (temperature is around 1080°C) is passed through water boxes where it is quenched under high pressure water jets (temperature is around 25°C). The quenching rate dictates composite structure consisting (four non-homogenously distributed phases of rebar microstructure) pearlite-ferrite, bainite, and tempered martensite (from core to rim). The ferrite and pearlite phases present at core induce ductility to rebar while martensitic rim induces appropriate strength. The TMT process is difficult to model as it brings multitude of complex physics such as heat transfer, highly turbulent fluid flow, multicomponent and multiphase flow present in the control volume. Additionally the presence of film boiling regime (above Leidenfrost point) due to steam formation adds complexity to domain. A coupled heat transfer and fluid flow model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been developed at product technology division of Tata Steel, India which efficiently predicts temperature profile and percentage martensite rim thickness of rebar during quenching process. The model has been validated with 16 mm rolling of New Bar mill (NBM) plant of Tata Steel Limited, India. Furthermore, based on the scenario analyses, optimal configuration of nozzles was found which helped in subsequent increase in rolling speed.

Keywords: boiling, critical heat flux, nozzles, thermo-mechanical treatment

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Authors: Poonsook Thatchaopas, Nik Kamariah Nikmat, Nattakarn Eakuru

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Since 2003, the Thai Government has implemented several initiatives to encourage and incubate entrepreneurial skills and motivation among her citizens. One of the initiatives is the “One College One Product” business model or well known as ‘OCOP’, launched by the Vocational Education Commission to encourage partnership between college students to choose at least one product for business venture. In line with this mission, several business enterprises were established such as food products, restaurants, spa, Thai massage, minimart, computer maintenance, karaoke centre, internet café, mini theater etc. Currently, these business incubator projects can be observed at 404 vocational colleges and 21 incubation centres to encourage entrepreneurial small and medium enterprise (SME) development. However, the number of successful OCOP projects is still minimal. Out of the 404 individual OCOP projects at Vocational Colleges around Thailand, very few became successful. The objective of this paper is to identify the critical success factors needed to be a successful OCOP business entrepreneur. This study uses qualitative method by interviewing business partners of an OCOP business called Crispy Roti Krua Acheeva Brand (CRKAB). It is a snack food company that is developed at Pattani Vocational College in South Thailand. This project was initiated by three female entrepreneurs who were alumni student cum owners of the CRKAB. The finding shows that the main critical success factors are self-confidence, creativity or innovativeness, knowledge, skills and perseverance. Additionally, they reiterated that the keys to business success are product quality, perceived price, promotion, branding, new packaging to increase sales and continuous developments. The results implies for a student business SME to be successful, the company should have credible partners and effective marketing plan.

Keywords: student entrepreneurship, business incubator, food industry, qualitative, Thailand

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Authors: Lokesh Harshe

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The building construction sector is using 36% of global energy consumption with 39% of CO₂ emission. Professionals in the Built Environment Sector have long been aware of the industry’s contribution towards CO₂ emissions and are now moving towards more sustainable practices. As a result of this, many organizations have introduced rating systems to address the issue of global warming in the construction sector by ranking construction projects based on sustainability parameters. The pre-construction phase of any building project is the most essential time to make decisions for addressing the sustainability aspects. Traditionally, it is very difficult to collect data from different stakeholders and bring it together to form a decision based on factual data to perform sustainability analyses in the pre-construction phase. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the solution where one single model is the result of the collaborative approach of BIM processes where all the information is shared, extracted, communicated, and stored on a single platform that everyone can access and make decisions based on real-time data. The focus of this research is on the Indian Green Rating System IGBC® with the objective of understanding IGBC® requirements and developing a framework to create the relationship between the rating processes and BIM. A Hypothetical (Architectural) model of a hostel building is developed using AutoCAD 2019 & Revit Arch. 2019, where the framework is applied to generate results on sustainability analysis using Green Building Studio (GBS) and Revit Add-ins. The results of any sustainability analysis are generated within a fraction of a minute, which is very quick in comparison with traditional sustainability analysis. This may save a considerable amount of time as well as cost. The future scope is to integrate Architectural, Structural, and MEP Models to perform accurate sustainability analyses with inputs from industry professionals working on real-life Green BIM projects.

Keywords: sustainability analyses, BIM, green rating systems, IGBC®, LEED

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Authors: Jarmila Štěpánová, Martin Kudláček, Lukáš Jakubec

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The people with spinal cord injury are one of the least sport active members of our society. Their hypoactivity is determined by primary injury, i.e., the loss of motor function, the injured part of the body is connected with health complications and social handicap. Study performs one part of the standardization process of semi-structured interview PARA-SCI.CZ (Czech version of the Physical Activity Recall Assessment for People with Spinal Cord Injury), which measures the type, frequency, duration, and intensity of physical activity of people with spinal cord injury. The study focused on persons with paraplegia who use a wheelchair as their primary mode of mobility. The aim of this study was to perform a process to determine the criterion validity of PARA-SCI.CZ. The actual physical activity of wheelchair users was monitored during three days by using accelerometers Actigraph GT3X fixed on the non-dominant wrist, and semi-structured interview PARA-SCI.CZ. During the PARA-SCI.CZ interview, participants were asked to recall activities they had done over the past 3 days, starting with the previous day. PARA-SCI.CZ captured frequency, duration, and intensity (low, moderate, and heavy) of two categories of physical activity (leisure time physical activity and activities of a usual day). Accelerometer Actigraph GT3X captured duration and intensity (low and moderate + heavy) of physical activity during three days and nights. The study presented three potential recalculations of measured data. Standardization process of PARA-SCI.CZ is essential to critically approach issues of health and active lifestyle of persons with spinal cord injury in the Czech Republic. Standardized PARA-SCI.CZ can be used in practice by physiotherapists and sports pedagogues from the field of adapted physical activities.

Keywords: physical activity, lifestyle, paraplegia, semi-structure interview, accelerometer

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Authors: Kevin R. Wilson, Roger Mantie

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Community arts-based learning and participatory education are pedagogical techniques that serve to be advantageous for students, curriculum development, and local communities. Using an interpretive approach to examine the significance of this arts-informed research in relation to the eight ‘design imperatives’ proposed as the new model for measuring quality in scholarship for Arizona State University as ‘A New American University’, the purpose of this study was to investigate personal, social, and cultural benefits resulting from student engagement in interdisciplinary community-based projects. Students from a graduate level music education class at the ASU Tempe campus (n=7) teamed with students from an undergraduate level community development class at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus (n=14) to plan, facilitate, and evaluate seven community-based projects in several locations around the Phoenix-metro area. Data was collected using photo evidence, student reports, and evaluative measures designed by the students. The effectiveness of each project was measured in terms of their ability to meet the eight design imperatives to: 1) leverage place; 2) transform society; 3) value entrepreneurship; 4) conduct use-inspired research; 5) enable student success; 6) fuse intellectual disciplines; 7) be socially embedded; and 8) engage globally. Results indicated that this community arts-based project sufficiently captured the essence of each of these eight imperatives. Implications for how the nature of this interdisciplinary initiative allowed for the eight imperatives to manifest are provided, and project success is expounded upon in relation to utility of each imperative. Discussion is also given for how this type of service learning project formatted within the ‘New American University’ model for measuring quality in academia can be a beneficial pedagogical tool in higher education.

Keywords: community arts-based learning, participatory education, pedagogy, service learning

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Authors: Biniam Bahiru Tufa, Hana Delil Tesfaye, Seife Demisse Legesse, Manaye Tamire

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The healthcare industry is witnessing a digital transformation, with artificial intelligence (AI) offering potential solutions for challenges in health supply chain management (HSCM). However, the adoption of AI in this field remains limited. This research aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of AI among students and employees in the health supply chain sector in Ethiopia. Using an explanatory case study research design with a concurrent mixed approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously. The study included 153 participants comprising students and employed health supply chain professionals working in various sectors. The majority had a pharmacy background, and one-third of the participants were male. Most respondents were under 35 years old, and around 68.6% had less than 10 years of experience. The findings revealed that 94.1% of participants had prior knowledge of AI, but only 35.3% were aware of its application in the supply chain. Moreover, the majority indicated that their training curriculum did not cover AI in health supply chain management. Participants generally held positive attitudes toward the necessity of AI for improving efficiency, effectiveness, and cost savings in the supply chain. However, many expressed concerns about its impact on job security and satisfaction, considering it as a burden Graduate students demonstrated higher knowledge of AI compared to employed staff, while graduate students also exhibited a more positive attitude toward AI. The study indicated low previous utilization and potential future utilization of AI in the health supply chain, suggesting untapped opportunities for improvement. Overall, while supply chain experts and graduate students lacked sufficient understanding of AI and its significance, they expressed favorable views regarding its implementation in the sector. The study recommends that the Ethiopian government and international organizations consider introducing AI in the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum and promote its integration into the health supply chain field.

Keywords: knowledge, attitude, practice, supply chain, articifial intellegence

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Authors: Alexandre D. Ferraz, Dario H. Alliprandini, Mauro Sampaio

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Companies and other institutions are constantly seeking better organizational performance and greater competitiveness. In order to fulfill this purpose, there are many tools, methodologies and models for increasing performance. However, the Lean Management approach seems to be the most effective in terms of achieving a significant improvement in productivity relatively quickly. Although Lean tools are relatively easy to understand and implement in different contexts, many organizations are not able to transform themselves into 'Lean companies'. Most of the efforts in its implementation have shown single benefits, failing to achieve the desired impact on the performance of the overall enterprise system. There is also a growing perception of the importance of management in Lean transformation, but few studies have empirically investigated and described the 'Lean Management'. In order to understand more clearly the ideas that guide Lean Management and its influence on the maturity level of the production system, the objective of this research is analyze the relationship between the Lean Management principles and the Lean maturity level in the organizations. The research also analyzes the principles of Lean Management and its relationship with the 'Lean culture' and the results obtained. The research was developed using the case study methodology. Three manufacturing units of a German multinational company from industrial automation segment, located in different countries were studied, in order to have a better comparison between the practices and the level of maturity in the implementation. The primary source of information was the application of a research questionnaire based on the theoretical review. The research showed that higher the level of Lean Management principles, higher are the Lean maturity level, the Lean culture level, and the level of Lean results obtained in the organization. The research also showed that factors such as time for application of Lean concepts and company size were not determinant for the level of Lean Management principles and, consequently, for the level of Lean maturity in the organization. The characteristics of the production system showed much more influence in different evaluated aspects. The present research also left recommendations for the managers of the plants analyzed and suggestions for future research.

Keywords: lean management, lean principles, lean maturity level, lean manufacturing

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Authors: Ivan Potapov

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Background: The aim of this paper is to investigate poly code texts in the communication of youth antisocial groups. Nowadays, the notion of a text has numerous interpretations. Besides all the approaches to defining a text, we must take into account semiotic and cultural-semiotic ones. Rapidly developing IT, world globalization, and new ways of coding of information increase the role of the cultural-semiotic approach. However, the development of computer technologies leads also to changes in the text itself. Polycode texts play a more and more important role in the everyday communication of the younger generation. Therefore, the research of functional and pragmatic aspects of both verbal and non-verbal content is actually quite important. Methods and Material: For this survey, we applied the combination of four methods of text investigation: not only intention and content analysis but also semantic and syntactic analysis. Using these methods provided us with information on general text properties, the content of transmitted messages, and each communicants’ intentions. Besides, during our research, we figured out the social background; therefore, we could distinguish intertextual connections between certain types of polycode texts. As the sources of the research material, we used 20 public channels in the popular messenger Telegram and data extracted from smartphones, which belonged to arrested members of antisocial groups. Findings: This investigation let us assert that polycode texts can be characterized as highly intertextual language unit. Moreover, we could outline the classification of these texts based on communicants’ intentions. The most common types of antisocial polycode texts are a call to illegal actions and agitation. What is more, each type has its own semantic core: it depends on the sphere of communication. However, syntactic structure is universal for most of the polycode texts. Conclusion: Polycode texts play important role in online communication. The results of this investigation demonstrate that in some social groups using these texts has a destructive influence on the younger generation and obviously needs further researches.

Keywords: text, polycode text, internet linguistics, text analysis, context, semiotics, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Markus Feufel, Friederike Kendel, Caren Hilger, Selamawit Woldai

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Since the corona pandemic, the use of video consultation has increased remarkably. For vulnerable groups such as oncological patients, the advantages seem obvious. But how does video consultation potentially change the doctor-patient relationship compared to face-to-face consultation? Which barriers may hinder the effective use of this consultation format in practice? We are presenting first results from a mixed-methods field study, funded by Federal Ministry of Health, which will provide the basis for a hands-on guide for both physicians and patients on how to improve the quality of video consultations. We use a quasi-experimental design to analyze qualitative and quantitative differences between face-to-face and video consultations based on video recordings of N = 64 actual counseling sessions (n = 32 for each consultation format). Data will be recorded from n = 32 gynecological and n = 32 urological cancer patients at two clinics. After the consultation, all patients will be asked to fill out a questionnaire about their consultation experience. For quantitative analyses, the counseling sessions will be systematically compared in terms of verbal and nonverbal communication patterns. Relative frequencies of eye contact and the information exchanged will be compared using 𝝌2 -tests. The validated questionnaire MAPPIN'Obsdyad will be used to assess the expression of shared decision-making parameters. In addition, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with n = 10 physicians and n = 10 patients experienced with video consultation, for which a qualitative content analysis will be conducted. We will elaborate the comprehensive methodological approach we used to compare video vs. face-to-face consultations and present first evidence on how video consultations change the doctor-patient interaction. We will also outline possible barriers of video consultations and best practices on how they may be overcome. Based on the results, we will present and discuss recommendations outlining best practices for how to prepare and conduct high-quality video consultations from the perspective of both physicians and patients.

Keywords: video consultation, patient-doctor-relationship, digital applications, technical barriers

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Authors: Marriette Sakah, Samuel Gyamfi, Morkporkpor Delight Sedzro, Christoph Kuhn

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Ghana is experiencing rapid economic development and its cities command an increasingly dominant role as centers of both production and consumption. Cities run on energy and are extremely vulnerable to energy scarcity, energy price escalations and health impacts of very poor air quality. The overriding concern in Ghana and other West African states is bridging the gap between energy demand and supply. Energy efficiency presents a cost-effective solution for supply challenges by enabling more coverage with current power supply levels and reducing the need for investment in additional generation capacity and grid infrastructure. In Ghana, major issues for energy policy formulation in residential applications include lack of disaggregated electrical energy consumption data and lack of thorough understanding with regards to socio-economic influences on energy efficiency investment. This study uses a bottom up approach to estimate baseline electricity end-use as well as the energy consumption of best available technologies to enable estimation of energy-efficiency resource in terms of relative reduction in total energy use for Tema city, Ghana. A ground survey was conducted to assess the probable consumer behavior in response to energy efficiency initiatives to enable estimation of the amount of savings that would occur in response to specific policy interventions with regards to funding and incentives provision targeted at households. Results show that 16% - 54% reduction in annual electricity consumption is reasonably achievable depending on the level of incentives provision. The saved energy could supply 10000 - 34000 additional households if the added households use only best available technology. Political support and consumer awareness are necessary to translate energy efficiency resources into real energy savings.

Keywords: achievable energy savings, energy efficiency, Ghana, household appliances

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Authors: Vineeth G. Kuriakose, Joseph C. Chen, Ye Li

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The research follows a systematic approach to optimize the parameters for parts machined by turning and milling processes. The quality characteristic chosen is surface roughness since the surface finish plays an important role for parts that require surface contact. A tapered cylindrical surface is designed as a test specimen for the research. The material chosen for machining is aluminum alloy 6061 due to its wide variety of industrial and engineering applications. HAAS VF-2 TR computer numerical control (CNC) vertical machining center is used for milling and HAAS ST-20 CNC machine is used for turning in this research. Taguchi analysis is used to optimize the surface roughness of the machined parts. The L₉ Orthogonal Array is designed for four controllable factors with three different levels each, resulting in 18 experimental runs. Signal to Noise (S/N) Ratio is calculated for achieving the specific target value of 75 ± 15 µin. The controllable parameters chosen for turning process are feed rate, depth of cut, coolant flow and finish cut and for milling process are feed rate, spindle speed, step over and coolant flow. The uncontrollable factors are tool geometry for turning process and tool material for milling process. Hypothesis testing is conducted to study the significance of different uncontrollable factors on the surface roughnesses. The optimal parameter settings were identified from the Taguchi analysis and the process capability C_p and the process capability index C_pk were improved from 1.76 and 0.02 to 3.70 and 2.10 respectively for turning process and from 0.87 and 0.19 to 3.85 and 2.70 respectively for the milling process. The surface roughnesses were improved from 60.17 µin to 68.50 µin, reducing the defect rate from 52.39% to 0% for the turning process and from 93.18 µin to 79.49 µin, reducing the defect rate from 71.23% to 0% for the milling process. The purpose of this study is to efficiently utilize the Taguchi design analysis to improve the surface roughness.

Keywords: surface roughness, Taguchi parameter design, CNC turning, CNC milling

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Authors: Fiona Gibson

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This study is on sustainable capacity building in tourism management of the touristic destination of forts and castles within the Accra Metropolis, of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, notably, the Christianbough Castle, the James and Ussher Forts. These forts and castle mentioned above have a rich colonial historical past that emerged from the 17th century onwards on the Gulf Coast of Guinea of the West Africa Sub-Region. Unfortunately, apart from the Christianbough Castle, which used to be the seat of government until recently, the environment of James and Ussher Forts are in a deployable state of decay due to years of neglect. Jamestown and Usshertown fishing communities with historical colonial past of a rich touristic heritage sites are predominantly indigenous Gas who speak only the Ga language, one of the languages of the six local languages spoken in Ghana, as a medium for sustainable tourism management. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons for years of decay and neglect, using both qualitative and quantitative research approach for individual interviews, to develop a rich picture of life situational story of the people of James and Ussher Forts environs and finding solutions to their predicaments through internal generated funds for sustainability of tourism management within the communities. The study recommends nation-wide educational campaigns and programmes on culture of maintenance and management for sustainable tourism development and management at all historical heritage sites in the country, specifically with the aim of promoting tourism in Ghana, using the indigenous local languages. The study also recommends formal and informal education for the residents, especially the youth to help them learn skills, either through local training or the formal education and this call for collaboration between the government of Ghana and other local and international bodies.

Keywords: sustainable capacity building, tourism management, forts, castles

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Authors: Cheng Sim Quah, Sandra Phek Lin Sim

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This study examined how individuals in their respective teams contributed to innovation performance besides defining the term of innovation in their own respective views. This study also identified factors that motivated University staff to contribute to the innovation products. In addition, it examined whether there is a significant relationship between professional training level and the length of service among university staff towards innovation and to what extent do the two variables contributed towards innovative products. The significance of this study is that it revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the university staff when contributing to innovation performance. Stratified-random sampling was employed to determine the samples representing the population of lecturers in the study, involving 123 lecturers in one of the local universities in Malaysia. The method employed to analyze the data is through categorizing into themes for the open-ended questions besides using descriptive and inferential statistics for the quantitative data. This study revealed that two types of definition for the term “innovation” exist among the university staff, namely, creation of new product or new approach to do things as well as value-added creative way to upgrade or improve existing process and service to be more efficient. This study found that the most prominent factor that propel them towards innovation is to improve the product in order to benefit users, followed by self-satisfaction and recognition. This implies that the staff in the organization viewed the creation of innovative products as a process of growth to fulfill the needs of others and also to realize their personal potential. This study also found that there was only a significant relationship between the professional training level and the length of service of 4-6 years among the university staff. The rest of the groups based on the length of service showed that there was no significant relationship with the professional training level towards innovation. Moreover, results of the study on directional measures depicted that the relationship for the length of service of 4 - 6 years with professional training level among the university staff is quite weak. This implies that good organization management lies on the shoulders of the key leaders who enlighten the path to be followed by the staff.

Keywords: innovation, length of service, performance, professional training level, motivation

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Authors: Emir Alaca, Hasbi Apaydin, Rohullah Rahmatullah, Necibe Fusun Oyman Serteller

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In recent years, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) have found extensive applications in various industrial sectors, including electric vehicles, wind turbines, and robotics, due to their high performance and low losses. Accurate mathematical modeling of PMSMs is crucial for advanced studies in electric machines. To enhance the effectiveness of graduate-level education, incorporating virtual or real experiments becomes essential to reinforce acquired knowledge. Virtual laboratories have gained popularity as cost-effective alternatives to physical testing, mitigating the risks associated with electrical machine experiments. This study presents a MATLAB-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) for PMSMs. The GUI offers a visual interface that allows users to observe variations in motor outputs corresponding to different input parameters. It enables users to explore healthy motor conditions and the effects of short-circuit faults in the one-phase winding. Additionally, the interface includes menus through which users can access equivalent circuits related to the motor and gain hands-on experience with the mathematical equations used in synchronous motor calculations. The primary objective of this paper is to enhance the learning experience of graduate and doctoral students by providing a GUI-based approach in laboratory studies. This interactive platform empowers students to examine and analyze motor outputs by manipulating input parameters, facilitating a deeper understanding of PMSM operation and control.

Keywords: magnet synchronous motor, mathematical modelling, education tools, winding inter-turn fault

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Authors: Mustafa Tevfik Hebebci, Ismail Sahin, Sirin Kucuk, Ismail Celik, Ahmet Oguz Akturk

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ADDIE is an instructional design model which has the five core elements: analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. The ADDIE approach provides a systematic process for the analysis of instructional needs, the design and development of instructional programs and materials, implementation of a program, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of an instruction. The case-based study is an instructional design model that is a variant of project-oriented learning. Collecting and analyzing stories can be used in two primary ways -perform task analysis and as a learning support during instruction- by instructional designers. Besides, teachers use technology to develop students’ thinking, enriching the learning environment and providing permanent learning. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interactive online case-study library website developed in a national project. The design goal of the website is to provide interactive, enhanced, case-based and online educational resource for educators through the purpose and within the scope of a national project. The ADDIE instructional design model was used in the development of the website for the interactive case-based library. This web-based library contains the navigation menus as the follows: “Homepage”, "Registration", "Branches", "Aim of The Research", "About TPACK", "National Project", "Contact Us", etc. This library is developed on a web-based platform, which is important in terms of manageability, accessibility, and updateability of data. Users are able to sort the displayed case-studies by their titles, dates, ratings, view counts, etc. In addition, they encouraged to rate and comment on the case-studies. The usability test is used and the expert opinion is taken for the evaluation of the website. This website is a tool to integrate technology in education. It is believed that this website will be beneficial for pre-service and in-service teachers in terms of their professional developments.

Keywords: design, ADDIE, case based library, technology integration

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Authors: Yu-Cheng Chen, Tzu-Ping Lin, Feng-Yi Lin, Chih-Yu Chen

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Due to the urban heat island effect caused by highly development of city, the heat stress increased in recent year rapidly. Resulting in a sharp raise of the energy used in urban area. The heat stress during summer time exacerbated the usage of air conditioning and electric equipment, which caused more energy consumption and anthropogenic heat. Therefore, an accurate and simple method to measure energy used in urban area can be helpful for the architectures and urban planners to develop better energy efficiency goals. This research applies the combination of airborne LiDAR data and thermal imager to provide an innovate method to estimate energy consumption. Owing to the high resolution of remote sensing data, the accurate current volume and total floor area and the surface temperature of building derived from LiDAR and thermal imager can be herein obtained to predict energy used. In the estimate process, the LiDAR data will be divided into four type of land cover which including building, road, vegetation, and other obstacles. In this study, the points belong to building were selected to overlay with the land use information; therefore, the energy consumption can be estimated precisely with the real value of total floor area and energy use index for different use of building. After validating with the real energy used data from the government, the result shows the higher building in high development area like commercial district will present in higher energy consumption, caused by the large quantity of total floor area and more anthropogenic heat. Furthermore, because of the surface temperature can be warm up by electric equipment used, this study also applies the thermal image of building to find the hot spots of energy used and make the estimation method more complete.

Keywords: urban heat island, urban planning, LiDAR, thermal imager, energy consumption

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Jayanti De

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Users of any urban road infrastructure may be classified into various categories. The current paper intends to see whether the opinions on different environmental and transportation criteria vary significantly among different types of road users or not. The paper addresses this issue by using a unique survey data that has been collected from Kolkata, a highly populated city in India. Multiple criteria should be taken into account while planning on infrastructure development programs. Given limited resources, a welfare maximizing government typically resorts to public opinion by designing surveys for prioritization of one project over another. Designing such surveys can be challenging and costly. Deciding upon whom to include in a survey and how to represent each group of consumers/road-users depend crucially on how opinion for different criteria vary across consumer groups. A unique dataset has been collected from various parts of Kolkata to statistically test (using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) whether assigning of weights to rank the transportation criteria like congestion, air pollution, noise pollution, and morning/evening delay vary significantly across the various groups of users of such infrastructure. The different consumer/user groups in the dataset include pedestrian, private car owner, para-transit (taxi /auto rickshaw) user, public transport (bus) user and freight transporter among others. Very little evidence has been found that ranking of different criteria among these groups vary significantly. This also supports the hypothesis that road- users/consumers form their opinion by using their long-run rather than immediate experience. As a policy prescription, this implies that under-representation or over-representation of a specific consumer group in a survey may not necessarily distort the overall opinion, since opinions across different consumer groups are highly correlated as evident from this particular case study.

Keywords: multi criteria analysis, project-prioritization, road- users, survey designing

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Authors: Abdullah Alhaqbani

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Purpose: Implementing continuous improvement is a challenge that public sector organisations face in becoming successful. Many obstacles hinder public organisations from successfully implementing continuous improvement. This paper aims to highlight the key core obstacles that face public organisations to implement continuous improvement programmes. Approach: Based on the literature, this paper reviews 66 papers that were published between 2000 and 2013 and that focused on the concept of continuous improvement and improvement methodologies in the context of public sector organisations. The methodologies for continuous improvement covered in these papers include Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, process re-engineering, lean thinking and Kaizen. Findings: Of the 24 obstacles found in the literature, 11 barriers were seen as core barriers that frequently occurred in public sector organisations. The findings indicate that lack of top management commitment; organisational culture and political issues and resistance to change are significant obstacles for improvement programmes. Moreover, this review found that improvement methodologies share some core barriers to successful implementation within public organisations. These barriers as well are common in the different geographic area. For instance lack of top management commitment and training that found in the education sector in Albanian are common barriers of improvement studies in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Spain, UK and US. Practical implications: Understanding these core issues and barriers will help managers of public organisations to improve their strategies with respect to continuous improvement. Thus, this review highlights the core issues that prevent a successful continuous improvement journey within the public sector. Value: Identifying and understanding the common obstacles to successfully implementing continuous improvement in the public sector will help public organisations to learn how to improve in launching and successfully sustaining such programmes. However, this is not the end; rather, it is just the beginning of a longer improvement journey. Thus, it is intended that this review will identify key learning opportunities for public sector organisations in developing nations which will then be tested via further research.

Keywords: continuous improvement, total quality management, obstacles, public sector

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Authors: Sruthi Ramagiri, Rajeev T.

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Free radical damage has been entailed as the major culprit in the ischemic stroke contributing for oxidative damage. Recent investigations on Hydroxy Safflower Yellow A (HSYA) suggested its role in cerebral ischemia and various neurodegenerative disorders with unidentified molecular mechanisms. The current study was designed to investigate putative therapeutic role and possible molecular mechanisms of HSYA administration during the onset of reperfusion in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in cerebral stroke. Cerebral stroke was achieved by focal ischemic model. HSYA (10 mg/kg) was injected intravenously via the tail vein 5 minutes before reperfusion. Losses of sensorimotor abilities were evaluated by neurological scoring, spontaneous locomotor activity, and rotarod performance. Extent of oxidative stress was evaluated by biochemical parameters i.e., malondialdehyde (MDA), Glutathione (GSH), Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD) and catalase levels. The infarct volume of brain was assessed by 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining technique. Increased cerebral injury (I/R) was evidenced by motor impairment, increased infarct volume and elevation of MDA levels along with significant reduction in antioxidant i.e.,MDA levels along with significant reduction in antioxidant i.e., GSH, SOD and catalase levels when compared to sham control. However, post conditioning with HSYA (10 mg/kg, i.v.) at the onset of reperfusion has significantly ameliorated sensorimotor abilities, attenuated MDA levels and reduced the infarct volume as compared with vehicle treated I/R injury group. Moreover, HSYA treatments improved antioxidant enzyme levels as compared with vehicle treated I/R-injury group. In conclusion, it may be suggested that HSYA post conditioning could be novel therapeutic approach against I/R injury in cerebral stroke possibly through its anti-oxidant mechanism.

Keywords: HSYA, Ischemia reperfusion injury, oxidative stress, stroke

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Authors: Mateusz Meserszmit, Mariusz Chrabąszcz, Adriana Trojanowska-Olichwer, Zygmunt Kącki

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Semi-natural meadows are valuable communities from the point of view of biodiversity, but their survival is strongly related to human activity. Unfortunately, the current status of preservation of extensively used meadows in Europe is frequently assessed as “unfavorable”. This is due to agricultural activity, in particular the lack of appropriate conservation procedures such as the cutting of meadows or livestock grazing. However, for more effective protective measures, the preservation of the biological diversity of meadows requires an interdisciplinary approach from both scientists and practitioners from many fields. Our research aimed to present the possibility of conservation of semi-natural meadows using cut biomass for the production of bioenergy – biogas, taking into consideration the botanical characteristics of the studied habitat and the chemical properties of biomass. A field study was conducted in Poland, within an area covered by the European Union's nature conservation programme. The samples were collected on four dates (May 24th, July 1st, July 23rd, and September 1st) from a study site established within a Molinion meadow. The biomass collected at the earliest date mostly consisted of plants with flowers in bud or fully open flowers. At the later harvest dates, most plants were at the fruiting or seed shed stage. An earlier stage of plant growth contributed to a lower biomass yield, which also resulted in a lower methane yield per hectare. The methane yield per hectare was at the end of May 482 m3 CH4 ha-1, at the beginning of July 867 m3 CH4 ha-1, at the end of July 759 m3 CH4 ha-1 and at the beginning of September 730 m3 CH4 ha-1. The biomass harvested in May demonstrated a significantly higher content of the elements: N, P, and K, but a lower Ca content compared to later harvested biomass, which may affect the biogas production process. The use of hay as a source of renewable energy can become an important element of conservation adapted for this type of habitat.

Keywords: nature conservation, biomass, bioenergy, grassland

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Authors: Li-hsing Shih, Tzu-hsun Yen

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Because of the long-term commitment to net zero carbon emission, utility companies include more renewable energy supply, which generates electricity with time and weather restrictions. This leads to time-of-use electricity pricing to reflect the actual cost of energy supply. From an end-user point of view, better residential energy management is needed to incorporate the time-of-use prices and assist end users in scheduling their daily use of electricity. This study uses bi-criteria optimization methods to schedule daily energy consumption by minimizing the electricity cost and maximizing the comfort of end users. Different from most previous research, this study schedules users’ activities rather than household appliances to have better measures of users’ comfort/satisfaction. The relation between each activity and the use of different appliances could be defined by users. The comfort level is at the highest when the time and duration of an activity completely meet the user’s expectation, and the comfort level decreases when the time and duration do not meet expectations. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data for establishing regression models that describe users’ comfort levels when the execution time and duration of activities are different from user expectations. Six regression models representing the comfort levels for six types of activities were established using the responses to the questionnaire survey. A computer program is developed to evaluate electricity cost and the comfort level for each feasible schedule and then find the non-dominated schedules. The Epsilon constraint method is used to find the optimal schedule out of the non-dominated schedules. A hypothetical case is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and the computer program. Using the program, users can obtain the optimal schedule of daily energy consumption by inputting the intended time and duration of activities and the given time-of-use electricity prices.

Keywords: bi-criteria optimization, energy consumption, time-of-use price, scheduling

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Authors: Murat Erkoc, Kadir Ertogral

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Maintenance, repair and overhauling (MRO) of high cost equipment used in many industries such as transportation, military and construction are typically subject to regulations set by local governments or international agencies. Aircrafts are prime examples for this kind of equipment. Such equipment must be overhauled at certain intervals for continuing permission of use. As such, the overhaul must be completed by strict deadlines, which often times cannot be exceeded. Due to the fact that the overhaul is typically a long process, MRO companies carry so called rotable inventory for exchange of expensive modules in the overhaul process of the equipment so that the equipment continue its services with minimal interruption. The extracted module is overhauled and returned back to the inventory for future exchange, hence the name rotable inventory. However, since the rotable inventory and overhaul capacity are limited, it may be necessary to carry out some of the exchanges earlier than their deadlines in order to produce a feasible overhaul schedule. An early exchange results with a decrease in the equipment’s cycle time in between overhauls and as such, is not desired by the equipment operators. This study introduces an integer programming model for the optimal overhaul and exchange scheduling. We assume that there is certain number of rotables at hand at the beginning of the planning horizon for a single type module and there are multiple demands with known deadlines for the exchange of the modules. We consider an MRO system with identical parallel processing lines. The model minimizes total earliness by generating optimal overhaul start times for rotables on parallel processing lines and exchange timetables for orders. We develop a fast exact solution algorithm for the model. The algorithm employs full-delay scheduling approach with backward allocation and can easily be used for overhaul scheduling problems in various MRO settings with modular rotable items. The proposed procedure is demonstrated by a case study from the aerospace industry.

Keywords: rotable inventory, full-delay scheduling, maintenance, overhaul, total earliness

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Authors: Deisy Becerra, Nicolas Rios, Miguel Asuaje

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The Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) is one of the most artificial lifting methods used in the last years, which consists of a serial arrangement of centrifugal pumps. One of the main concerns when handling crude oil is the formation of O/W or W/O (oil/water or water/oil) emulsions inside the pump, due to the shear rate imparted and the presence of high molecular weight substances that act as natural surfactants. Therefore, it is important to perform an analysis of the flow patterns inside the pump to increase the percentage of oil recovered using the centrifugal force and the difference in density between the oil and the water to generate the separation of liquid phases. For this study, a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model was developed on STAR-CCM+ software based on 3D geometry of a Franklin Electric 4400 4' four-stage ESP. In this case, the modification of the last stage was carried out to improve the centrifugal effect inside the pump, and a perforated double tube was designed with three different holes configurations disposed at the outlet section, through which the cut water flows. The arrangement of holes used has different geometrical configurations such as circles, rectangles, and irregular shapes determined as grating around the tube. The two-phase flow was modeled using an Eulerian approach with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method, which predicts the distribution and movement of larger interfaces in immiscible phases. Different water-oil compositions were evaluated, such as 70-30% v/v, 80-20% v/v and 90-10% v/v, respectively. Finally, greater recovery of oil was obtained. For the several compositions evaluated, the volumetric oil fraction was greater than 0.55 at the pump outlet. Similarly, it is possible to show an inversely proportional relationship between the Water/Oil rate (WOR) and the volumetric flow. The volumetric fractions evaluated, the oil flow increased approximately between 41%-10% for circular perforations and 49%-19% for rectangular shaped perforations, regarding the inlet flow. Besides, the elimination of the pump diffuser in the last stage of the pump reduced the head by approximately 20%.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamic, CFD, electrical submersible pump, ESP, two phase flow, volume of fluid, VOF, water/oil rate, WOR

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Authors: Angela Maria Sarmiento

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Since the end of the 19th century, the Bora people struggled to survive two stages of colonial domination, which resulted in situations of forced contact with the Western world. Their inclusion in global designs altered the configuration of their local spaces and social practices; thus the Bora language was affected and prone to transformation. This descriptive, interpretive study, within the indigenous and minoritized groups’ research field, aimed at analysing the linguistic attitudes as well as the contextual situation of the Bora language in Providencia, an ancestral territory and a speech community contained in the midst of the Colombian Amazon rainforest. Through the inquiry of their sociolinguistic practices, this study also considered the effects of the course of events derived from the rubber exploitation in the late 19th century, and the arrival of the Capuchin’s mission in the early 20th century. The methodology used in this study had an ethnographic approach, which allowed the researcher to study the social phenomena from the perspective of the participants. Fieldwork, diary, field notes, and semi-structured interviews were conducted and then triangulated with participant observations. The findings of this study suggest that there is a transition from current individual bilingualism towards Spanish monolingualism; this is enhanced by the absence of a functional distribution of the three varieties (Bora, Huitoto, and Spanish). Also, the positive attitudes towards the Spanish language are based on its functionality while positive attitudes towards the Bora language mostly refer to pride and identity. Negative attitudes are only directed towards the Bora language. In the search for the roots of these negative attitudes, appeared the traumatic experiences of the rubber exploitation and the indigenous experiences at the capuchin’s boarding school. Finally, the situation of the Bora language can be configured as a social fact strongly connected to previous years of colonial dominations and to the current and continuous incursion of new global-colonial designs.

Keywords: Bora language, language contact, linguistic attitudes, speech communities

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Marwa A. A. Ragab, Hadir M. Maher, Eman I. El-Kimary

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Co-administration of methotrexate (MTX) and aspirin (ASP) can cause a pharmacokinetic interaction and a subsequent increase in blood MTX concentrations which may increase the risk of MTX toxicity. Therefore, it is important to develop a sensitive, selective, accurate and precise method for their simultaneous determination in urine. A new hybrid chemometric method has been applied to the emission response data of the two drugs. Spectrofluorimetric method for determination of MTX through measurement of its acid-degradation product, 4-amino-4-deoxy-10-methylpteroic acid (4-AMP), was developed. Moreover, the acid-catalyzed degradation reaction enables the spectrofluorimetric determination of ASP through the formation of its active metabolite salicylic acid (SA). The proposed chemometric method deals with convolution of emission data using 8-points sin xi polynomials (discrete Fourier functions) after the derivative treatment of these emission data. The first and second derivative curves (D1 & D2) were obtained first then convolution of these curves was done to obtain first and second derivative under Fourier functions curves (D1/FF) and (D2/FF). This new application was used for the resolution of the overlapped emission bands of the degradation products of both drugs to allow their simultaneous indirect determination in human urine. Not only this chemometric approach was applied to the emission data but also the obtained data were subjected to non-parametric linear regression analysis (Theil’s method). The proposed method was fully validated according to the ICH guidelines and it yielded linearity ranges as follows: 0.05-0.75 and 0.5-2.5 µg mL-1 for MTX and ASP respectively. It was found that the non-parametric method was superior over the parametric one in the simultaneous determination of MTX and ASP after the chemometric treatment of the emission spectra of their degradation products. The work combines the advantages of derivative and convolution using discrete Fourier function together with the reliability and efficacy of the non-parametric analysis of data. The achieved sensitivity along with the low values of LOD (0.01 and 0.06 µg mL-1) and LOQ (0.04 and 0.2 µg mL-1) for MTX and ASP respectively, by the second derivative under Fourier functions (D2/FF) were promising and guarantee its application for monitoring the two drugs in patients’ urine samples.

Keywords: chemometrics, emission curves, derivative, convolution, Fourier transform, human urine, non-parametric regression, Theil’s method

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Authors: Kayla Murray, Andrew Green, Gopi Paliyath, Keith Warriner

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Introduction: It is now acknowledged that control of human pathogens associated with fresh produce requires an integrated approach of several interventions as opposed to relying on post-harvest washes to remove field acquired contamination. To this end, current research is directed towards identifying such interventions that can be applied at different points in leafy green processing. Purpose: In the following the efficacy of different gas phase treatments to decontaminate whole lettuce heads during pre-processing storage were evaluated. Methods: Whole Cos lettuce heads were spot inoculated with L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7 or Salmonella spp. The inoculated lettuce heads were then placed in a treatment chamber and exposed to ozone, chlorine dioxide or hydroxyl radicals at different time periods under a range of relative humidity. Survivors of the treatments were enumerated along with sensory analysis performed on the treated lettuce. Results: Ozone gas reduced L. monocytogenes by 2-log10 after ten-minutes of exposure with Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 being decreased by 0.66 and 0.56-log cfu respectively. Chlorine dioxide gas treatment reduced L. monocytogenes and Salmonella on lettuce heads by 4 log cfu but only supported a 0.8 log cfu reduction in E. coli O157:H7 numbers. In comparison, hydroxyl radicals supported a 2.9 – 4.8 log cfu reduction of model human pathogens inoculated onto lettuce heads but required extended exposure times and relative humidity < 0.8. Significance: From the gas phase sanitizers tested, chlorine dioxide and hydroxyl radicals are the most effective. The latter process holds most promise based on the ease of delivery, worker safety and preservation of lettuce sensory characteristics. Although expose times for hydroxyl radicles was relatively long (24h) this should not be considered a limitation given the intervention is applied in store rooms or in transport containers during transit.

Keywords: gas phase sanitizers, iceberg lettuce heads, leafy green processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 408