Search results for: Management Information Systems (MIS)

Authors: Carla Caiazza, Valentina Preziosi, Giovanna Tomaiuolo, Denis O'Sullivan, Vincenzo Guida, Stefano Guido

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In the last decades, wormlike micellar solutions have been extensively used to tune the rheological behavior of home care and personal care products. This and other successful applications underlie the growing attention that both basic and applied research are devoting to these systems, and to their unique rheological and flow properties. One of the key research topics is the occurrence of flow instabilities at high shear rates (such as shear banding), with the possibility of appearance of flow induced structures. In this scenario, microfluidics is a powerful tool to get a deeper insight into the flow behavior of a wormlike micellar solution, as the high confinement of a microfluidic device facilitates the onset of the flow instabilities; furthermore, thanks to its small dimensions, it can be coupled with optical microscopy, allowing a direct visualization of flow structuring phenomena. Here, the flow of a widely used wormlike micellar solution through a glass capillary has been studied, by coupling the microfluidic device with μPIV techniques. The direct visualization of flow-induced structures and the flow visualization analysis highlight a relationship between solution structuring and the onset of discontinuities in the velocity profile.

Keywords: flow instabilities, flow-induced structures, μPIV, wormlike micelles

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Authors: Bry X., Trottier C., Mortier F., Cornu G., Verron T.

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We address component-based regularization of a Multivariate Generalized Linear Model (MGLM). A set of random responses Y is assumed to depend, through a GLM, on a set X of explanatory variables, as well as on a set T of additional covariates. X is partitioned into R conceptually homogeneous blocks X1, ... , XR , viewed as explanatory themes. Variables in each Xr are assumed many and redundant. Thus, Generalised Linear Regression (GLR) demands regularization with respect to each Xr. By contrast, variables in T are assumed selected so as to demand no regularization. Regularization is performed searching each Xr for an appropriate number of orthogonal components that both contribute to model Y and capture relevant structural information in Xr. We propose a very general criterion to measure structural relevance (SR) of a component in a block, and show how to take SR into account within a Fisher-scoring-type algorithm in order to estimate the model. We show how to deal with mixed-type explanatory variables. The method, named THEME-SCGLR, is tested on simulated data.

Keywords: Component-Model, Fisher Scoring Algorithm, GLM, PLS Regression, SCGLR, SEER, THEME

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Authors: Pei Zhao, Sara Sintonen, Heikki Kynäslahti

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Digital museums and arts galleries have become popular in museum education and management. Museum and arts galleries website is one of the most effective and efficient ways. Google, a corporation specializing in Internet-related services and projects, not only puts high-resolution arts images online, but also uses augmented-reality in digital art gallery. The Google Art Project, Google’s production, provides users a platform in appreciating and learning arts. After Google Art Project, more and more countries released their own museum and arts gallery websites, like British Paining in BBC, and FINNA in Finland. Pedagogical function in these websites is one of the most important functions. In this paper, we use Google Art Project and FINNA as the case studies to investigate what kinds of pedagogical functions exist in these websites. Finally, this paper will give the recommendation to digital museums and websites development, especially the pedagogical functions development, in the future.

Keywords: arts education, cultural-heritage education, education with ICTs, pedagogical functions

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Authors: M. Fry, L. Fitzpatrick, Julie Considine, R. Z. Shaban, Kate Curtis

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Introduction: The vast majority of older Australians lives independently and are self-managing at home, despite a growing number living with a chronic illness that requires health intervention. Evidence shows that between 50% and 80% of people presenting to the emergency department (ED) are in pain. Australian EDs manage 7.2 million attendances every year and 1.4 million of these are people aged 65 years or more. Research shows that 28% of ED patients aged 65 years or more have Cognitive impairment (CI) associated with dementia, delirium and neurological conditions. Background: Traditional ED service delivery may not be suitable for older people who present with multiple, complex and ongoing illnesses. Likewise, ED clinical staff often perceive that their role should be focused more on immediate and potential lifethreatening illness and conditions which are episodic in nature. Therefore, the needs of older people and their family/carers may not be adequately addressed in the context of an ED presentation. Aim: We aimed to explore the utilisation and characteristics of older people presenting to four metropolitan EDs. Method: The findings being presented are part of a program of research exploring pain management practices for older persons with long bone fractures. The study was conducted across four metropolitan emergency departments of older patients (65years and over) and involved a 12-month randomised medical record audit (n=255). Results: ED presentations across four ED sites in 2012 numbered 168021, with 44778 (26.6%) patients aged 65 and over. Of the 44778 patients, the average age was 79.1 years (SD 8.54). There were more females 23932 (53.5%). The majority (26925: 85.0%) of older persons self-referred to the ED and lived independently. The majority arrived by ambulance (n=18553: 41.4%) and were allocated triage category was 3 (n=19,507:43.65%) or Triage category 4 at (n=15,389: 34.43%). The top five triage symptom presentations involved pain (n=8088; 18.25%), dyspnoea (n=4735; 10.7%), falls (n=4032; 9.1%), other (n=3984; 9.0%), cardiac (n=2987; 6.7%). The top five system based diagnostic presentations involved musculoskeletal (n=8902; 20.1%), cardiac (n=6704:15.0%), respiratory (n=4933; 11.0%), neurological (n=4909; 11.0%), gastroenterology (n=4321; 9.7%). On review of one tertiary hospital database the vital signs on average at time triage: Systolic Blood Pressure 143.6mmHg. Heart Rate 83.4 beats/minute; Respiratory Rate 18.5 breaths/ minute; Oxygen saturation 97.0% and Tympanic temperature 36.7 and Blood Glucose Level 7.4mmols/litre. The majority presented with a Glasgow Coma Score of 14 or higher. On average the older person stayed in the ED 4:56 (SD 3:28minutes).The average time to be seen was 39 minutes (SD 48 minutes). The majority of older persons were admitted (n=27562: 61.5%), did not wait for treatment (n= 8879: 0.02%) discharged home (n=16256: 36.0%). Conclusion: The vast majority of older persons are living independently, although many require admission on arrival to the ED. Many arrived in pain and with musculoskeletal injuries and or conditions. New models of care need to be considered, which may better support self-management and independent living of the older person and the National Emergency Access Targets.

Keywords: chronic, older person, aged care, emergency department

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Authors: Kate Whitman, Zahra Murad, Joe Cox, Adam Cox

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This study investigates the influence of normative communications on digital piracy intentions. Although descriptive norms are thought to influence behavior, the study examines the potential bias in one's own behavior, leading to false consensus—a phenomenon perpetuating undesirable activities. The research tests the presence of false consensus and the effect of correcting normative predictions on changes in piracy intentions, examining gender differences. Results from a controlled experiment (N = 684) indicate that normative communications, reflecting the "real" norm based on government data (N=5000), increase (decrease) piracy intentions among men (women) underestimating their peers' behavior. Conversely, neither men nor women overestimating their peers' piracy show any notable change in intentions. Considering men consume more illegal content than women, suggesting they pose a higher risk, the study highlights the need for cautious use of normative communications. Therefore, policymakers should minimize the visibility of piracy behavior for effective digital piracy management.

Keywords: digital piracy, false consensus, normative interventions, persuasive messages

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Authors: Zainal Abu Zatim, Hafizah Omar Zaki

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Substantial research had been done on refining employee’s customer service performance. Thus, there were very limited empirical studies that are engage in an inter-organizational climate study in assessing employee’s customer service performance. With the current economic situation as well as emerging needs and requirements, all businesses either from public or private sector serving customers put greater attention on fulfilling those needs and requirements. In this state of affairs, the act of polishing its employees’ skills, knowledge, teamwork and passion is very important in ensuring better performance deliverance. A study conducted in one of the telecommunication service provider company in Malaysia had been done to test its inter-organizational climate study. The Internal Climate Study was done to benchmark opinions and perceptions of its employees. The study had provided baseline information about perceptions that exist in the internal environment and ways forward to improve customer service performance. The approach used is through the use of focus group and qualitative interview.

Keywords: employees, Customer Service Performance, inter-organizational climate study, public and private sector

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Authors: Santoshi Halder, Ranjini Ghosh

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Research on educational stratification suggests that inequality in education between different social strata continues and sometimes even widens in spite of educational growth. The backward classes are the most suppressed classes in society. In India, the Scheduled Castes are found as one of the backward classes. After independence there a lot of provisions were made for their uplift. Still they are facing a lot of problems in perusing education, getting jobs, choosing life style independently etc. The present study was conducted to explore the educational disparities in education with respect to caste. Sample consisted of 1020 students (540 scheduled caste and 540 general caste) from three different universities of West Bengal. Tools selected were General Information Schedule (GIS), socioeconomic status (SES), Achievement motivation scale. Findings indicated significant differences for the selected variables under the study with respect to caste. Findings have significant implication for the advocates, policy makers and educationists and sociologists for appropriate intervention.

Keywords: scheduled caste, educational barriers, achievement motivation, socioeconomic status

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Authors: Charmaine Lamiel, Van Hoa Nguyen, Marjorie Baynosa, Jae-Jin Shim

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The depletion of non-renewable sources had led to the continuous development of various energy storage systems in order to cope with the world’s demand in energy. Supercapacitors have attracted considerable attention because they can store more energy than conventional capacitors and have higher power density than batteries. The combination of carbon-based material and metal chalcogenides are now being considered in response to the search for active electrode materials exhibiting high electrochemical performance. In this study, a hierarchical mesoporous carbon sphere@nickel cobalt sulfide (CS@Ni-Co-S) core-shell was synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method. The CS@Ni-Co-S core-shell microstructures exhibited a high capacitance of 724.4 F g−1 at 2 A g−1 in a 6 M KOH electrolyte. Good specific retention of 86.1% and high Coulombic efficiency of 97.9% was obtained after 2000 charge-discharge cycles. The electrode exhibited a high energy density of 58.0 Wh kg−1 (1440 W kg−1) and high power density of 7200 W kg−1 (34.2 Wh kg−1). The reaction involved green synthesis without further sulfurization or post-heat treatment. Through this study, a cost-effective and facile synthesis of CS@Ni-Co-S as an active electrode showed favorable electrochemical performance.

Keywords: carbon sphere, electrochemical, hydrothermal, nickel cobalt sulfide, supercapacitor

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Authors: Yash Goyal, Manish Korde, Juned Siddiqui

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Today online education has gained more popularity so that people can easily complete their curriculum on their own time. Virtual learning has been widely used by many educators, especially in higher education institutions due to its benefits to students and faculty. A good knowledge of teaching theory and instructional design systems is required to experience meaningful learning. However, most educational websites are not designed to adapt to all screen sizes. Making the website accessible on all screen sizes is our main objective, so we have created a website that is readily accessible across all screen sizes and accepts all types of payment methods. And we see generally educational websites interface is simple and unexciting. So, we have made a user interface attractive and user friendly. It is not enough for a website to be user-friendly, but also to be familiar to admins and to reduce the workload of the admin as well. We visited so many popular websites under development that they all had issues like responsiveness, simple interface, security measures, payment methods, etc. To overcome this limitation, we have created a website which has taken care of security issues that is why we have created only one admin id and it can be control from that only. And if the user has successfully done the payment, then the admin can send him a username and password through mail individually so there will no fraud in the payment of the course.

Keywords: responsive, accessible, attractive, interface, objective, security.

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Authors: Guilherme Gorgulho, Carlos Roberto Camello Lima

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Over the past five years between 2011 and 2015, the license plate of cars, light commercial vehicles, trucks and buses have suffered retraction. This sector's decline can be explained by economic and national policy in the Brazilian industry operates. In parallel to the reduction of sales and license plate of vehicles, their suppliers are also affected influencing its results, among these vendors, there is the auto parts sector. The existence of international companies, and featured strongly in Asia and Mexico due to low production costs, encourage companies to constantly seek continuous improvement and operational efficiency. Under this argument, the decision making based on lean manufacturing tools it is essential for the management of operations. The purpose of this article is to analyze between lean practices in Brazilian auto parts industries, through the application of a questionnaire with employees who practice lean thinking in organizations. The purpose is to confront the extracted data in the questionnaires, and debate on which of lean tools help organizations as a competitive advantage.

Keywords: autoparts, brazilian industry, lean practices, survey

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Authors: Elvira Wahyuni

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This study is a classroom action research. The general objective of this study was to find out students’ speaking ability through teaching English by using video and to find out the effectiveness of using video in teaching English to improve students’ speaking ability. The subjects of this study were 34 of the first-year students of SMAN 12 Pekanbaru who were learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Students were given pre-test before the treatment and post-test after the treatment. Quantitative data was collected by using speaking test requiring the students to respond to the recorded questions. Qualitative data was collected through observation sheets and field notes. The research finding reveals that there is a significant improvement of the students’ speaking ability through the use of video in speaking class. The qualitative data gave a description and additional information about the learning process done by the students. The research findings indicate that the use of video in teaching and learning is good in increasing learning outcome.

Keywords: English teaching, fun learning, speaking ability, video

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Authors: Ke Lin, Steve Wu Qing Yang, Zhang Nan

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The medicine and drugs has in the past been manufactured to the final products and then used laboratory analysis to verify their quality. However the industry needs crucially a monitoring technique for the final batch to batch quality check. The introduction of process analytical technology (PAT) provides an incentive to obtain real-time information about drugs on the production line, with the following optical techniques being considered: near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and imaging, mid-infrared spectroscopy with the use of chemometric techniques to quantify the final product. However, presents problems in that the spectra obtained will consist of many combination and overtone bands of the fundamental vibrations observed, making analysis difficult. In this work, we describe a non-destructive system and method for capsule and liquid medicine identification, more particularly, using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and/or designed terahertz portable system for identifying different types of medicine in the package of capsule or in liquid medicine bottles. The target medicine can be detected directly, non-destructively and non-invasively.

Keywords: terahertz, non-destructive, non-invasive, chemical identification

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Authors: M. Ezati Kooshki, A. Abbaszadeh Shahri

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A number of devices used to control seismic structures have been developed during the past decades. One of the effective ways to reduce seismic forces transmitted to the buildings is through the base isolation systems, but the use of these devices is currently limited to large and expensive buildings. This study was an attempt to introduce an effective and low cost way to protect of structures against grand motions by a semi base isolation system. In this new way, structures were not completely decoupled of bases and the natural frequency of structures was changed due to earthquake by changing the horizontal stiffness; therefore, ground excitation energy was dissipated before entering the structures. For analyzing the dynamic behavior, the new method used finite element software (ABAQUS 6-10-1). This investigation introduced a new package of semi base isolation devices with a new material constitutive, but common in automobile industries, seeking to evaluate the effects of additional new devices on the seismic response when compared with structures without additional devises for different ground motions. The proposed semi base isolation devices were applied to a one story frame and the time history analysis was conducted on the record of Kobe earthquake (1995). The results showed that the efficiency reduced the floor acceleration and displacement, as well as velocity.

Keywords: semi base isolation system, finite element, natural frequency, horizontal stiffness

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Authors: Yaw Akoto

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The education of people with disabilities remains one of the major concern of policymakers, advocacy groups and researchers. In Ghana, as in many other countries, there is a policy commitment for the educational inclusion of people with disabilities, including in the context of higher education. This qualitative research investigates how students with disabilities experience equity and accessibility in a Ghanaian university. The study also investigates factors that influence equity and accessibility in a Ghanaian university. The study draws on the views of students with disabilities, on lecturer insight and organisational and national policy documents. The findings specifies that the quality of students with disabilities lived experiences are affected by the physical environment, infrastructure facilities and lack of academic and non-academic information. The study highlights the need for the university to ensure equity in making the university accessible for all students in order to ensure retention and participation of students with disabilities; failure to make the university accessible for students with disabilities compromises the ability of this group of students to realise their academic potentials.

Keywords: accessibility, educational inclusion, equity, students with disabilities

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Authors: Mejbri Sami, Zhani Khalifa, Zarzoum Kamel, Ben Bacha Habib, Koschikowski Joachim, Pfeifle Daniel

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Many places worldwide, especially arid and semi-arid remote regions, are suffering from the lack of drinkable water and the situation will be aggravated in the near future. Furthermore, remote areas are characterised by lack of conventional energy sources, skilled personnel and maintenance facilities. Therefore, the development of small to medium size, stand-alone and robust solar desalination systems is needed to provide independent fresh water supply in remote areas. This paper is focused on experimental studies on compact membrane distillation (MD) solar desalination prototype located at the Mechanical Engineering Department site, Kairouan University, Kairouan, Tunisia. The pilot system is designed and manufactured as a part of a research and development project funded by the MESRS/BMBF. The pilot system is totally autonomous. The electrical energy required to operate the unit is generated through a field of 4 m² of photovoltaic panels, and the heating of feed water is provided by a field of 6 m² of solar collectors. The Kairouan plant performance of the first few months of operation is presented. The highest freshwater production of 150 L/d is obtained on a sunny day in July of 633 W/m²d.

Keywords: experimental, membrane distillation, solar desalination, Permeat gap

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Authors: Ta-Huang Sun, Ming-Hao Hsieh, Min-Chuan Wang, Der-Jun Jan

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Electrochromism refers to the persistent and reversible change of optical properties by an applied voltage pulse. There are many transition metal oxides exhibiting electrochromism, e.g. oxides of W, Ni, Ir, V, Ti, Co and Mo. Organic materials especially some conducting polymers such as poly(aniline), poly(3, 4-propylene- dioxythiophene) also received much attention for electrochromic (EC) applications. Electrochromic materials attract considerable interest because of their potential applications, such as information displays, smart windows, variable reflectance mirrors, and variable-emittance thermal radiators. In this study, the EC characteristics are investigated on an all-solid-state EC device composed of a-WO₃ and Ni(OH)₂ with a Ta₂O₅ protective layer which is prepared by magnetron sputtering. It is found that the transmittance modulation increases with decreasing the film thickness of Ta₂O₅. On the other hand, the transmittance modulation is 57% as the Ni(OH)₂/ITO is prepared by the linear-sweep potential cycling of the sputter-deposited Ta₂O₅/NiO/ITO in a 0.5 M LiClO₄+H₂O electrolyte. However, when Ni(OH)₂/ITO is prepared by a 0.01 M HCl electrolyte, the transmittance modulation of EC device can be improved to 61%.

Keywords: electrochromic device, tungsten oxide, nickel, Ta₂O₅

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Authors: Mauricio Terceros, Jann-Eike Saathoff, Martin Achmus

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In non-cohesive soil, onshore wind turbines are often found on shallow foundations with a circular or octagonal shape. For the current generation of wind turbines, shallow foundations with very large breadths are required. The foundation support costs thus represent a considerable portion of the total construction costs. Therefore, an economic optimization of the type of foundation is highly desirable. A conceivable alternative foundation type would be a pier foundation, which combines the load transfer over the foundation area at the pier base with the transfer of horizontal loads over the shaft surface of the pier. The present study aims to evaluate the load-bearing behavior of a pier foundation based on comprehensive parametric studies. Thereby, three-dimensional numerical simulations of both pier and shallow foundations are developed. The evaluation of the results focuses on the rotational stiffnesses of the proposed soil-foundation systems. In the design, the initial rotational stiffness is decisive for consideration of natural frequencies, whereas the rotational secant stiffness for a maximum load is decisive for serviceability considerations. A systematic analysis of the results at different load levels shows that the application of the typical pier foundation is presumably limited to relatively small onshore wind turbines.

Keywords: onshore wind foundation, pier foundation, rotational stiffness of soil-foundation system, shallow foundation

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Authors: Ahmed Elrewainy

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Mixing in the hyperspectral imaging occurs due to the low spatial resolutions of the used cameras. The existing pure materials “endmembers” in the scene share the spectra pixels with different amounts called “abundances”. Unmixing of the data cube is an important task to know the present endmembers in the cube for the analysis of these images. Unsupervised unmixing is done with no information about the given data cube. Sparsity is one of the recent approaches used in the source recovery or unmixing techniques. The l₁-norm optimization problem “basis pursuit” could be used as a sparsity-based approach to solve this unmixing problem where the endmembers is assumed to be sparse in an appropriate domain known as dictionary. This optimization problem is solved using proximal method “iterative thresholding”. The l₁-norm basis pursuit optimization problem as a sparsity-based unmixing technique was used to unmix real and synthetic hyperspectral data cubes.

Keywords: basis pursuit, blind source separation, hyperspectral imaging, spectral unmixing, wavelets

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Authors: Paul O. Udofot, Emem B. Inyang

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The study investigated the variability in aptitude amidst interactive effects of several social and environmental factors that could influence individual tendencies to engage in entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Consequently, the study targeted a population having similar backgrounds in type and level of higher education that are tailored toward enterprise management and development in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select 67 respondents. Primarily, the study assessed the salient pattern of entrepreneurship aptitude of respondents, and estimated and analyzed the index against their personal characteristics. Male respondents belonged to two extremes of aptitude index ranges (poor and high). Though female respondents did not exhibit a poor entrepreneurship aptitude index, the incidence percentage of the high index range of entrepreneurship aptitude among male trainees was more than the combined incidence percentage of their female counterparts. Respondents’ backgrounds outside gender presented a serious influence on entrepreneurship uptake likelihood if all situations were normal.

Keywords: aptitude, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial orientation, gender divide, intention, trainee

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Authors: Saurabh Chanana, Monika Arora

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Demand response is getting increased attention these days due to the increase in electricity demand and introduction of renewable resources in the existing power grid. Traditionally demand response programs involve large industrial consumers but with technological advancement, demand response is being implemented for small residential and commercial consumers also. In this paper, demand response program aims to reduce the peak demand as well as overall energy consumption of the residential customers. Air conditioners are the major reason of peak load in residential sector in summer, so a dynamic model of air conditioning load with thermostat action has been considered for applying demand response programs. A programmable communicating thermostat (PCT) is a device that uses real time pricing (RTP) signals to control the thermostat setting. A new model incorporating PCT in air conditioning load has been proposed in this paper. Results show that introduction of PCT in air conditioner is useful in reducing the electricity payments of customers as well as reducing the peak demand.

Keywords: demand response, home energy management, programmable communicating thermostat, thermostatically controlled appliances

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Authors: Ahmed Jarray, Vanessa Magnanimo, Stefan Luding

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Granular avalanches are ubiquitous in nature and occur in numerous industrial processes associated with particulate systems. When a small amount of liquid is added to a pile of particles, pendular bridges form and the particles are attracted by capillary forces, creating complex structure and flow behavior. We have performed an extensive series of experiments to investigate the effect of capillary force and particle size on wet granular avalanches, and we established a methodology that ensures the control of the granular flow in a rotating drum. The velocity of the free surface and the angle of repose of the particles in the rotating drum are determined using particle tracking method. The capillary force between the particles is significantly reduced by making the glass beads hydrophobic via chemical silanization. We show that the strength of the capillary forces between two adjacent particles can be deliberately manipulated through surface modification of the glass beads, thus, under the right conditions; we demonstrate that the avalanche dynamics can be controlled. The results show that the avalanche amplitude decreases when increasing the capillary force. We also find that liquid-induced cohesion increases the width of the gliding layer and the dynamic angle of repose, however, it decreases the velocity of the free surface.

Keywords: avalanche dynamics, capillary force, granular material, granular flow

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Authors: Mitja Dečman

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The ever-increasing presence and use of information and communication technology (ICT) influences the different social relationships of today's society. Gender differences are especially important from the viewpoint of modern society since ICT can either deepen the existing inequalities or diminish them. In a developed Western world, gender equality has been a well-focused area for decades in many parts of society including education, employment or politics and has led to a decrease in the inequality of women and men in these and other areas. The area of digital equality, or inequality for that matter, is one of the areas where gender differences still exist in many countries of the world. The research presented in this paper focuses on Slovenia, one of the smallest EU member states, being an average achiever in the area of e-society according to the many different European benchmarking indexes. On the other hand, Slovenia is working in an alignment with many European gender equality guidelines and showing good results. The results of our research are based on the analysis of survey data from 2014 to 2017 dealing with Slovenian citizens and their households and the use of ICT. Considering gender issues, the synthesis showed that cultural differences influence some measured ICT indicators but on the other hand the differences are low and only sometimes statistically significant.

Keywords: digital divide, gender inequality, Slovenia, e-society

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Authors: Oliver Echezona Ngwu

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The research was conducted in 2011 cropping season at the Teaching and Research farm of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria to study the effect of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the growth and yield of physic Nut (Jatropha curcas). There were five treatments namely, control, (no application of treatment), NPK 20:10:10, NPK 15:15;15, poultry droppings and goat dung. The treatments were laid out in a Randomized complete Block Design (RCBD) with five replications. The total land area used was 228m2 (19x12m) while the plot size was 3mx2 (6m2). The growth parameters measured were plant height, number of leaves, and leaf area, index (LAI). The results obtained showed that there were significant differences at P=0.05 among the different treatments in 30, to and 90 DAP. Based on the results T4 (poultry droppings) had higher effect at P=0.05 at 30, 60, 90 DAP than the other treatments when compared and is hereby recommended as the best type of fertilizer for the optimum growth and production of physic Nut (Jatropha Curcas) in South Eastern Nigeria.

Keywords: organic, inorganic fertilizers, growth, yield, Jatropha curcas

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Authors: M. Celeska, K. Najdenkoski, V. Dimchev, V. Stoilkov

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Accurate determination of wind turbine performance is necessary for economic operation of a wind farm. At present, the procedure to carry out the power performance verification of wind turbines is based on a standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). In this paper, nonparametric statistical inference is applied to designing a simple, inexpensive method of verifying the power performance of a wind turbine. A statistical test is explained, examined, and the adequacy is tested over real data. The methods use the information that is collected by the SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) from the sensors embedded in the wind turbines in order to carry out the power performance verification of a wind farm. The study has used data on the monthly output of wind farm in the Republic of Macedonia, and the time measuring interval was from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016. At the end, it is concluded whether the power performance of a wind turbine differed significantly from what would be expected. The results of the implementation of the proposed methods showed that the power performance of the specific wind farm under assessment was acceptable.

Keywords: canonical correlation analysis, power curve, power performance, wind energy

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Authors: Chenyu Huang, Minrong Cui, Hua Fang, Luqing Zhang, Yunlong Yu

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The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have become a pressing issue in global agricultural production. However, understanding how these ARGs spread across different spatial scales, especially when exposed to both pesticides and antibiotics, has remained a challenge. Here, metagenomic assembly and binning methodologies were used to determine the mechanism of ARG propagation within soil-lettuce systems exposed to both fungicides and antibiotics. The results of our study showed that the presence of fungicide and antibiotic stresses had a significant impact on certain bacterial communities. Notably, we observed that ARGs were primarily transferred from the soil to the plant through plasmids. The selective pressure exerted by fungicides and antibiotics contributed to an increase in unique ARGs present on lettuce leaves. Moreover, ARGs located on chromosomes and plasmids followed different transmission patterns. The presence of diverse selective pressures, a result of compound treatments involving antibiotics and fungicides, amplifies this phenomenon. Consequently, there is a higher probability of bacteria developing multi-antibiotic resistance under the combined pressure of fungicides and antibiotics. In summary, our findings highlight that combined fungicide and antibiotic treatments are more likely to drive the acquisition of ARGs within the soil-plant system and may increase the risk of human ingestion.

Keywords: soil-lettuce system, fungicide, antibiotic, ARG, transmission

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Authors: Liu Yuan-Jian, Chou Fu-Chu

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The study Bible was published in 1825 after Milne’s death, containing large amounts of paraphrasing, exhortations, notes, and commentaries to facilitate readers' scripture engagement. The methodologies employed include text analysis and discourse analysis. This study shows that to enable Chinese readers, uninitiated in the Gospel and deeply influenced by Confucian ethics and paganism, to understand the Bible and apply it to their daily living, Milne not only paraphrased the verses but also used metaphors and rhetorical techniques for explaining the background information of the Bible, teaching biblical doctrine, combating paganism, and exhorting readers to believe in the Gospel. Moreover, Milne also tries to clarify the scripture in the context of Chinese culture, giving the readers a clear way to put the scripture into practice in their daily living. His exposition had successfully made a breakthrough from the British and Foreign Bible Society's “Without Note or Comment” principle and showed a useful instrument for promoting interfaith dialogue.

Keywords: interfaith dialogue, William Milne, Chinese study Bible, exposition, “Without Note or Comment” principle

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Authors: Amthal Al-Gailani, Olujide Sanni, Thibaut Charpentier, Anne Neville

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Formation of inorganic scale on heat transfer surfaces is a serious problem encountered in industrial, commercial, and domestic heat exchangers and systems. Several industries use potable/groundwater sources such as rivers, lakes, and oceans to use water as a working fluid in heat exchangers and steamers. As potable/surface water contains diverse salt ionic species, the scaling kinetics and deposit morphology are expected to be different from those found in artificially hardened solutions. In this work, scale formation on the heat transfer surfaces from potable water has been studied using a once-through open flow cell under atmospheric pressure. The surface scaling mechanism and deposit morphology are investigated at high surface temperature. Thus the water evaporation process has to be considered. The effect of surface temperature, flow rate, and inhibitor deployment on the thermal resistance and morphology of the scale have been investigated. The study findings show how an increase in surface temperature enhances the crystallization reaction kinetics on the surface. There is an increase in the amount of scale and the resistance to heat transfer. The fluid flow rate also increases the fouling resistance and the thickness of the scale layer.

Keywords: fouling, heat exchanger, thermal resistance, crystallization, potable water

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Authors: Nabila Farhin, Israt Jahan

Abstract:

Despite the feminisation of the global health force, women mostly engage in nursing, midwifery and community health workers (HWs), and the posts like surgeons, doctors, and specialists are generally male-dominated. It is also prominent in Bangladesh, where female HWs witness systematic workplace inequalities, discrimination, and underpayment. The Covid-19 pandemic put unsurmountable pressure on HWs as they had to serve in high-risk workplaces as frontliners. The already disadvantaged female HWs shouldered the same burden, were overworked without adequate occupational health and safety measures (OSH) and risked their lives. Acknowledging their vulnerable workplace conditions, the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) circulated a few specialised guidelines amid the peril. Bangladesh tried to adhere to international guidelines while formulating pandemic management strategies. In reality, the already weak and understaffed health sector collapsed with the patient influx and many HWs got infected and died in the line of duty, exposing the high-risk nature of the work. Unfortunately, the gender-segregated data of infected HWs are absent. This qualitative research investigates whether the existing laws of Bangladesh are adequate in protecting female HWs as frontliners in high-risk workplaces during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper first examines international labour laws safeguarding female frontline HWs. It also analyses the specialised Covid-19 pandemic guidelines protecting their interests. Finally, the research investigates the compliance of Bangladesh as per international legal guidance during the pandemic. In doing so, it explores the domestic laws, professional guidelines for HWs and pandemic response strategies. The paper critically examines the primary sources like international and national statutes, rules, regulations and guidelines. Secondary sources like authoritative journal articles, books and newspaper reports are contextually analysed in line with the objective of the paper. The definition of HW is ambiguous in the labour laws of Bangladesh. It leads to confusion regarding the extent of legal protection rendered to female HWs at private hospitals in high-risk situations. The labour laws are not applicable in Public hospitals, as the employees follow the public service rules. Unfortunately, the country has no specialised law to protect HWs in high-risk workplaces, and the professional guidelines for HWs also remain inadequate in this regard. Even though the pandemic management strategies highlight some protective measures in high-risk situations, they only deal with HWs who are pregnant or have underlying health issues. No specialised protective guidelines can be found for female HWs as frontliners. Therefore, the laws are insufficient and failed to render adequate legal protection to female frontline HWs during the pandemic. The country also lacks comprehensive health legislation and uniform institutional and professional guidelines, preventing them from accessing grievance mechanisms. Hence, the female HWs felt victimised while duty-bound to serve in high-risk workplaces without adequate safeguards. Bangladesh should clarify the definition of HWs and standardise the service rules for providing medical care in high-risk workplaces. The research also recommends adequate health legislation and specialised legal protection to safeguard female HWs in future emergencies.

Keywords: female health workers (HWs), high-risk workplaces, Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh

Procedia PDF Downloads 73

Authors: Xiao-Fang Wang

Abstract:

Researchers of educational psychology have proved that students' sense of belonging to school is conducive to their academic achievement, social relations and mental health. However, little attention is paid to undergraduates' sense of belonging, especially, the distinctive student group, i.e., undergraduate students of ethnic minorities. This article utilized a mixed study approach to investigate the perceptions of undergraduates of ethnic minority toward their sense of belonging to school. The findings from qualitative and quantitative data indicate: 1) generally, the sense of belonging to school of ethnic minority undergraduate students was at the middle level. 2) Gender had an important impact on the sense of belonging, and the sense of girls was much larger than boys’. 3) The sense of belonging to school of students who come from city and town was much larger than the one of students who come from the countryside. 4) The category of subjects had significantly effected on the sense of belonging to school, and, the students from social and art science was larger than those from engineer science. The article is concluded with some valuable and relevant suggestions for university' student management activities and teachers' teaching practice.

Keywords: ethnic minority, undergraduate students, sense of belonging, China

Procedia PDF Downloads 442

Authors: Ali Babaei

Abstract:

There is a worldwide growing tendency toward construction of infrastructures with the possibility of private sector participation instead of free exploitation of public infrastructures. The construction and development of roads through private sector participation is performed by different countries because of appropriate results and benefits such as compensation of public budget deficit in road construction and maintenance and responding to traffic growth (demand). Toll is the most definite form of budget provision in road development. There are two issues in the toll rate assignment: A. costing of transport, B. Cost allocation and distribution of cost between different types of vehicles as each vehicle pay its own share. There can be different goals in toll collection and its extent is variable according to the strategy of toll collection. Costing principles in different countries are based on inclusion of the whole transport and not peculiar to the toll roads. For example, fuel tax policy functions where the road network users pay transportation cost (not just users of toll road). Whereas transportation infrastructures in Iran are free, these methods are not applicable. In Iran, different toll freeways have built by public investment and government provides participation in the road construction through encouragement of financial institutions. In this paper, the existing policies about the toll roads are studied and then the appropriate method of costing and cost allocation to different vehicles is introduced.

Keywords: toll allocation, road pricing, transportation, financial and industrial systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 357