Search results for: power systems transient stability improvement

Authors: Sundaresan Soundararajan, Chor Ngee Tan

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Introduction: Pyogenic spondylitis, otherwise treated conservatively with long term antibiotics, would require surgical debridement and reconstruction in about 10% to 20% of cases. The classical approach adopted many surgeons have always been anterior approach in ensuring thorough and complete debridement. This, however, comes with high rates of morbidity due to the nature of its access. Direct lateral retroperitoneal approach, which has been growing in usage in degenerative lumbar diseases, has the potential in treating pyogenic spondylitis with its ease of approach and relatively low risk of complications. Aims/Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and clinical outcome of using lateral approach surgery in the surgical management of pyogenic spondylitis of the lumbar spine. Methods: Retrospective chart analysis was done on all patients who presented with pyogenic spondylitis (lumbar discitis/vertebral osteomyelitis) and had undergone direct lateral retroperitoneal lumbar vertebral debridement and posterior instrumentation between 2014 and 2016. Data on blood loss, surgical operating time, surgical complications, clinical outcomes and fusion rates were recorded. Results: A total of 6 patients (3 male and 3 female) underwent this procedure at a single institution by a single surgeon during the defined period. One patient presented with infected implant (PLIF) and vertebral osteomyelitis while the other five presented with single level spondylodiscitis. All patients underwent lumbar debridement, iliac strut grafting and posterior instrumentation (revision of screws for infected PLIF case). The mean operating time was 308.3 mins for all 6 cases. Mean blood loss was reported at 341cc (range from 200cc to 600cc). Presenting symptom of back pain resolved in all 6 cases while 2 cases that presented with lower limb weakness had improvement of neurological deficits. One patient had dislodged strut graft while performing posterior instrumentation and needed graft revision intraoperatively. Infective markers normalized for all patients subsequently. All subjects also showed radiological evidence of fusion on 6 months follow up. Conclusions: Lateral approach in treating pyogenic spondylitis is a viable option as it allows debridement and reconstruction without the risk that comes with other anterior approaches. It allows efficient debridement, short surgical time, moderate blood loss and low risk of vascular injuries. Clinical outcomes and fusion rates by this approach also support its use as practical MIS option surgery for such infection cases.

Keywords: lateral approach, minimally invasive, pyogenic spondylitis, XLIF

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Authors: V. Karamzadeh, J. Adhvaryu, A. Chandrasekaran, M. Packirisamy

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In Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) microfluidics, the throughput of particle sorting is dependent on the complex interplay between the geometric configuration of the channel, the size of the particles, and the properties of the fluid medium, which therefore calls for a detailed modeling and understanding of the fluid-particle interaction dynamics under an acoustic field, prior to designing the system. In this work, we propose a simplified Bulk acoustophoretic system that can be used for size dependent particle sorting. A Finite Element Method (FEM) based analytical model has been developed to study the dependence of particle sizes on channel parameters, and the sorting efficiency in a given fluid medium. Based on the results, the microfluidic system has been designed to take into account all the variables involved with the underlying physics, and has been fabricated using an additive manufacturing technique employing a commercial 3D printer, to generate a simple, cost-effective system that can be used for size sensitive particle sorting.

Keywords: 3D printing, 3D microfluidic chip, acoustophoresis, cell separation, MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems), microfluidics

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Authors: Luisa Perez-Mujica

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Traditionally, non-compliance in water regulation has been understood to be attributable to lack of information or knowledge of regulations. In other words, it is confusing behavioural change and education with communication or regulations. However, compliance is a complex response to water regulation factors including 1) knowledge and understanding of regulations; 2) perception that resources are overregulated; 3) presence of regulatory officers in the field; 4) accurate communication of what is being protected; 5) time lag between behavioral change projects and observation of outcomes and 6) how success of behavioral change is measured and evaluated. This paper presents a framework for designing education and behavioral change projects by understanding non-compliance in terms of the interaction of its factors, including a process for prioritizing projects, actions, evaluation and monitoring of outcomes. By taking a systemic approach to compliance, a more directed type of actions can be efficiently identified and prioritized, preventing the reactive nature of education and behavioral change projects.

Keywords: water regulation, compliance, behaviour change, systems thinking

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Authors: Qiuhu Shao

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Community home-based care service system, which is based on the family pension, supported by community pension and supplied by institutions pension, is an effective pension system to solve the current situation of China's accelerated aging. However, due to the fundamental realities of our country, the government is not able to bear the unilateral supply of the old-age service of the community. Therefore, based on the theory of welfare pluralism, the participation of social organizations in the home-based care service center has become an important part of the diversified supply of the old-age service for the elderly. Meanwhile, the home-based care service industry is still in the early stage, the management is relatively rough, which resulted in a large number of social resources waste. Thus, scientific, objective and long-term implementation is needed for social organizations to participate in home-based care services to guide its performance management. In order to realize the design of the performance management system, the author has done a research work that clarifies the research status of social organization's participation in home-based care service. Relevant theories such as welfare pluralism, community care theory, and performance management theory have been used to demonstrate the feasibility of data envelopment analysis method in social organization performance research. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the operation mode of the home-based care service center, and hackles the national as well as local documents, standards and norms related to the development of the home-based care industry, particularly studies those documents in Nanjing. Based on this, the paper designed a set of performance management PDCA system for home-based care service center in Nanjing and clarified each step of the system in detail. Subsequently, the research methods of performance evaluation and performance management and feedback, which are two core steps of performance management have been compared and screened in order to establish the overall framework of the performance management system of the home-based care service center. Through a large number of research, the paper summarized and analyzed the characteristics of the home-based care service center. Based on the research results, combined with the practice of the industry development in Nanjing, the paper puts forward a targeted performance evaluation index system of home-based care service center in Nanjing. Finally, the paper evaluated and sub-filed the performance of 186 home-based care service centers in Nanjing and then designed the performance optimization direction and performance improvement path based on the results. This study constructs the index system of performance evaluation of home-based care service and makes the index detailed to the implementation level, and constructs the evaluation index system which can be applied directly. Meanwhile, the quantitative evaluation of social organizations participating in the home-based care service changed the subjective impression in the previous practice of evaluation.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, home-based care, performance management, social organization

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Authors: Mahdi Kiani, Hassan Salarieh, Aria Alasty, S. Mahdi Darbandi

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The design and implementation of the hybrid control method for a three-pole active magnetic bearing (AMB) is proposed in this paper. The system is inherently nonlinear and conventional nonlinear controllers are a little complicated, while the proposed hybrid controller has a piecewise linear form, i.e. linear in each sub-region. A state-feedback hybrid controller is designed in this study, and the unmeasurable states are estimated by an observer. The gains of the hybrid controller are obtained by the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) method in each sub-region. To evaluate the performance, the designed controller is implemented on an experimental setup in static mode. The experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently stabilize the three-pole AMB system. The simplicity of design, domain of attraction, uncomplicated control law, and computational time are advantages of this method over other nonlinear control strategies in AMB systems.

Keywords: active magnetic bearing, three pole AMB, hybrid control, Lyapunov function

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Authors: Yapegue Bayogo, Ahmadou Halassi Dicko, Brahima Songore

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In developing countries, the road transportation system occupies an important place because of its flexibility and the low prices of infrastructure and rolling stock. While road transport is necessary for economic development, the movement of people and their goods, it is urgent to use transportation systems that minimize carbon emissions in order to ensure sustainable development. One of the main objectives of OEDC and the Word Bank is to ensure sustainable economic’ development. This paper aims to develop a road transport network taking into account environmental impacts. The methodology adopted consists of formulating a model optimizing the flow of goods and then collecting information relating to the transport of products. Our model was tested with data on product transport in CMDT areas in the Republic of Mali. The results of our study indicate that emissions from the transport sector can be significantly reduced by minimizing the traffic volume. According to our study, optimizing the transportation network, we benefit from a significant amount of tons of CO₂.

Keywords: road transport, transport sustainability, pollution, flexibility, optimized network

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Authors: Abdolsalam Ghaderi

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In this paper, the single-depot capacitated location-routing problem under uncertainty is presented. The problem aims to find the optimal location of a single depot and the routing of vehicles to serve the customers when the parameters may change under different circumstances. This problem has many applications, especially in the area of supply chain management and distribution systems. To get closer to real-world situations, travel time of vehicles, the fixed cost of vehicles usage and customers’ demand are considered as a source of uncertainty. A combined approach including robust optimization and stochastic programming was presented to deal with the uncertainty in the problem at hand. For this purpose, a mixed integer programming model is developed and a heuristic algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search(VNS) is presented to solve the model. Finally, the computational results are presented and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: location-routing problem, robust optimization, stochastic programming, variable neighborhood search

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Authors: Ebuwa Osagie, Vasilije Manovic

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Exergy analysis provides the identification of the location, sources of thermodynamic inefficiencies, and magnitude in a thermal system. Thus, both the qualitative and quantitative assessment can be evaluated with exergy, unlike energy which is based on quantitative assessment only. The main purpose of exergy analysis is to identify where exergy is destroyed. Thus, reduction of the exergy destruction and losses associated with the capture plant systems can improve work potential. Furthermore, thermodynamic analysis of different configurations of the process helps to identify opportunities for reducing the steam requirements for each of the configurations. This paper presents steady-state simulation and exergy analysis of the 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP)-based post-combustion capture (PCC) plant. Exergy analysis performed for the AMP-based plant and the different configurations revealed that the rich split with intercooling configuration gave the highest exergy efficiency of 73.6%, while that of the intercooling and the reference AMP-based plant were 57.3% and 55.8% respectively.

Keywords: 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol, modelling, and simulation, post-combustion capture plant, exergy analysis, flowsheeting configurations

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Authors: Zhenyu Zhang, Hsi-Hsien Wei

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Highway network systems play a vital role in disaster response for disaster-damaged areas. Damaged bridges in such network systems can impede disaster response by disrupting transportation of rescue teams or humanitarian supplies. Therefore, emergency inspection and repair of bridges to quickly collect damage information of bridges and recover the functionality of highway networks is of paramount importance to disaster response. A widely used measure of a network’s capability to recover from disasters is resilience. To enhance highway network resilience, plenty of studies have developed various repair scheduling methods for the prioritization of bridge-repair tasks. These methods assume that repair activities are performed after the damage to a highway network is fully understood via inspection, although inspecting all bridges in a regional highway network may take days, leading to the significant delay in repairing bridges. In reality, emergency repair activities can be commenced as soon as the damage data of some bridges that are crucial to emergency response are obtained. Given that emergency bridge inspection and repair (EBIR) activities are executed simultaneously in the response phase, the real-time interactions between these activities can occur – the blockage of highways due to repair activities can affect inspection routes which in turn have an impact on emergency repair scheduling by providing real-time information on bridge damages. However, the impact of such interactions on the optimal emergency inspection routes (EIR) and emergency repair schedules (ERS) has not been discussed in prior studies. To overcome the aforementioned deficiencies, this study develops a routing and scheduling model for EBIR while accounting for real-time inspection-repair interactions to maximize highway network resilience. A stochastic, time-dependent integer program is proposed for the complex and real-time interacting EBIR problem given multiple inspection and repair teams at locations as set post-disaster. A hybrid genetic algorithm that integrates a heuristic approach into a traditional genetic algorithm to accelerate the evolution process is developed. Computational tests are performed using data from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, based on a regional highway network in Sichuan, China, consisting of 168 highway bridges on 36 highways connecting 25 cities/towns. The results show that the simultaneous implementation of bridge inspection and repair activities can significantly improve the highway network resilience. Moreover, the deployment of inspection and repair teams should match each other, and the network resilience will not be improved once the unilateral increase in inspection teams or repair teams exceeds a certain level. This study contributes to both knowledge and practice. First, the developed mathematical model makes it possible for capturing the impact of real-time inspection-repair interactions on inspection routing and repair scheduling and efficiently deriving optimal EIR and ERS on a large and complex highway network. Moreover, this study contributes to the organizational dimension of highway network resilience by providing optimal strategies for highway bridge management. With the decision support tool, disaster managers are able to identify the most critical bridges for disaster management and make decisions on proper inspection and repair strategies to improve highway network resilience.

Keywords: disaster management, emergency bridge inspection and repair, highway network, resilience, uncertainty

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Authors: Laura Çami (Vorpsi), Xhon Skënderi

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In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, the traditional principles of contract law are facing significant challenges. The emergence of new technologies, such as electronic signatures, smart contracts, and online dispute resolution mechanisms, is transforming the way contracts are formed, interpreted, and enforced. This paper examines the implications of these technological advancements on the constitutional principles of contract law. One of the fundamental principles of contract law is freedom of contract, which ensures that parties have the autonomy to negotiate and enter into contracts as they see fit. However, the use of technology in the contracting process has the potential to disrupt this principle. For example, online platforms and marketplaces often offer standard-form contracts, which may not reflect the specific needs or interests of individual parties. This raises questions about the equality of bargaining power between parties and the extent to which parties are truly free to negotiate the terms of their contracts. Another important principle of contract law is the requirement of consideration, which requires that each party receives something of value in exchange for their promise. The use of digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, has created new challenges in determining what constitutes valuable consideration in a contract. Due to the ambiguity in this area, disagreements about the legality and enforceability of such contracts may arise. Furthermore, the use of technology in dispute resolution mechanisms, such as online arbitration and mediation, may raise concerns about due process and access to justice. The use of algorithms and artificial intelligence to determine the outcome of disputes may also raise questions about the impartiality and fairness of the process. Finally, it should be noted that there are many different and complex effects of technical improvements on the fundamental constitutional foundations of contract law. As technology continues to evolve, it will be important for policymakers and legal practitioners to consider the potential impacts on contract law and to ensure that the principles of fairness, equality, and access to justice are preserved in the contracting process.

Keywords: technological advancements, constitutional principles, contract law, smart contracts, online dispute resolution, freedom of contract

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Authors: Mansouri Nabila, Ben Jemaa Yousra, Motamed Cina, Watelain Eric

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Research and development efforts in intelligent Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) seek to save lives and reduce the number of on-road fatalities. For traffic and emergency monitoring, the essential but challenging task is vehicle detection and tracking in reasonably short time. This purpose needs first of all a powerful dynamic car detector model. In fact, this paper presents an optimized HOG process based on shape and motion parameters fusion. Our proposed approach mains to compute HOG by bloc feature from foreground blobs using configurable research window and pathway in order to overcome the shortcoming in term of computing time of HOG descriptor and improve their dynamic application performance. Indeed we prove in this paper that HOG by bloc descriptor combined with motion parameters is a very suitable car detector which reaches in record time a satisfactory recognition rate in dynamic outside area and bypasses several popular works without using sophisticated and expensive architectures such as GPU and FPGA.

Keywords: car-detector, HOG, motion, computing time

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Authors: Mustafa Taskin, Ozgur Demir, M. Mert Serveren

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The precise study of the impact of underwater explosions on structures is of great importance in the design and engineering calculations of floating structures, especially those used for military purposes, as well as power generation facilities such as offshore platforms that can become a target in case of war. Considering that ship and submarine structures are mostly curved surfaces, it is extremely important and interesting to examine the destructive effects of underwater explosions on curvilinear surfaces. In this study, geometric nonlinear dynamic analysis of cylindrical composite sandwich shells subjected to instantaneous pressure load is performed. The instantaneous pressure load is defined as an underwater explosion and the effects of the liquid medium are taken into account. There are equations in the literature for pressure due to underwater explosions, but these equations have been obtained for flat plates. For this reason, the instantaneous pressure load equations are arranged to be suitable for curvilinear structures before proceeding with the analyses. Fluid-solid interaction is defined by using Taylor's Plate Theory. The lower and upper layers of the cylindrical composite sandwich shell are modeled as composite laminate and the middle layer consists of soft core. The geometric nonlinear dynamic equations of the shell are obtained by Hamilton's principle, taken into account the von Kàrmàn theory of large displacements. Then, time dependent geometric nonlinear equations of motion are solved with the help of generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) and dynamic behavior of cylindrical composite sandwich shells exposed to underwater explosion is investigated. An algorithm that can work parametrically for the solution has been developed within the scope of the study.

Keywords: cylindrical composite sandwich shells, generalized differential quadrature method, geometric nonlinear dynamic analysis, underwater explosion

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Authors: Parampal Kaur, Deepak Aggarwal

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In the computational Grid, fault tolerance is an imperative issue to be considered during job scheduling. Due to the widespread use of resources, systems are highly prone to errors and failures. Hence, fault tolerance plays a key role in the grid to avoid the problem of unreliability. Scheduling the task to the appropriate resource is a vital requirement in computational Grid. The fittest resource scheduling algorithm searches for the appropriate resource based on the job requirements, in contrary to the general scheduling algorithms where jobs are scheduled to the resources with best performance factor. The proposed method is to improve the fault tolerance of the fittest resource scheduling algorithm by scheduling the job in coordination with job replication when the resource has low reliability. Based on the reliability index of the resource, the resource is identified as critical. The tasks are scheduled based on the criticality of the resources. Results show that the execution time of the tasks is comparatively reduced with the proposed algorithm using real-time approach rather than a simulator.

Keywords: computational grid, fault tolerance, task replication, job scheduling

Procedia PDF Downloads 412

Authors: Jae-Il Jeong, Hoon-Jae Park, Jung-Woo Cho, Yang-Gon Kim, Jin-Young Park, Joo-Young Oh, Si-Geun Choi, Seock-Sam Kim, Young Tae Cho, Chan Gyu Kim, Jong-Hyoung Kim

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Bearing component has strongly required to decrease vibration and wear to achieve high durability and life time. In the industry field, bearing durability is improved by surface treatment on the bearing surface by centrifugal casting or gravity casting production method. However, this manufacturing method has caused problems such as long processing time, defect rate, and health harmful effect. To solve this problem, there is a laser cladding deposition treatment, which provides fast processing and food adhesion. Therefore, optimum conditions of white metal laser deposition should be studied to minimize bearing contact axis wear using laser cladding techniques. In this study, we deposit a soft white metal layer on SCM440, which is mainly used for shaft and bolt. On laser deposition process, the laser power and powder feed rate and laser head speed factors are controlled to find out the optimal conditions. We also measure hardness using micro Vickers, analyze FE-SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope) and EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) to study the mechanical properties and surface characteristics with various parameters change. Furthermore, this paper suggests the optimum condition of laser cladding deposition to apply in industrial fields. This work was supported by the Industrial Innovation Project of the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (Research no. 10051653).

Keywords: laser deposition, bearing, white metal, mechanical properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Vijaya K. Narne, Gerard Loquet, Tobias Piechowiak, Dorte Hammershoi, Jesper H. Schmidt

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BEAR, which stands for better hearing rehabilitation is a large-scale project in Denmark designed and executed by three national universities, three hospitals, and the hearing aid industry with the aim to improve hearing aid fitting. A total of 1963 hearing impaired people were included and were segmented into subgroups based on hearing-loss, demographics, audiological and questionnaires data (i.e., the speech, spatial and qualities of hearing scale [SSQ-12] and the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing-Aids [IOI-HA]). With the aim to provide a better hearing-aid fit to individual patients, we applied modern machine learning techniques with traditional audiograms rule-based systems. Results show that age, speech discrimination scores, and audiogram configurations were evolved as important parameters in characterizing sub-population from the data-set. The attempt to characterize sub-population reveal a clearer picture about the individual hearing difficulties encountered and the benefits derived from more individualized hearing aids.

Keywords: hearing loss, audiological data, machine learning, hearing aids

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Authors: Abdur Raheem, Ado Yakub

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Urban violence in the form of ethnic and religious conflicts have been on the increase in many African cities in the recent years of which most of them are the result of intense and bitter competition for political power, the control of limited economic, social and environmental resources. In Nigeria, the emergence of the Boko Haram insurgency in most parts of the north eastern parts have ignited violence, bloodshed, refuge exodus and internal migration. Not only do the persistent attacks of the sect create widespread insecurity and fear, it has also stifled normal processes of trade and investments most especially real property investment which is acclaimed to accelerate the economic cycle, thus the need to evolve strategies for an improved property market in such areas. This paper, therefore, examines the impact of these social crisis on effective and efficient utilization of real properties as a resource towards the development of the economy, using a descriptive analysis approach where particular emphasis was based on trends in residential housing values; volume of estimated property transactions and real estate investment decisions by affected individuals. Findings indicate that social crisis in the affected areas have been a clog on the wheels of property development and investment as properties worth hundreds of millions have been destroyed thereby having great impact on property values. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to include the need to strategically continue investing in property during such times, the need for Nigerian government to establish an active conflict monitoring and management unit for prompt response, encourage community and neighbourhood policing to ameliorate security challenges in Nigeria.

Keywords: social crisis, property market, economy, resources, north-eastern Nigeria

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Authors: Farzan Gity, Lida Ansari, Ian M. Povey, Roger E. Nagle, James C. Greer

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Titanium nitride (TiN) films have been widely used in variety of fields, due to its unique electrical, chemical, physical and mechanical properties, including low electrical resistivity, chemical stability, and high thermal conductivity. In microelectronic devices, thin continuous TiN films are commonly used as diffusion barrier and metal gate material. However, as the film thickness decreases below a few nanometers, electrical properties of the film alter considerably. In this study, the physical and electrical characteristics of 1.5nm to 22nm thin films deposited by Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PE-ALD) using Tetrakis(dimethylamino)titanium(IV), (TDMAT) chemistry and Ar/N2 plasma on 80nm SiO2 capped in-situ by 2nm Al2O3 are investigated. ALD technique allows uniformly-thick films at monolayer level in a highly controlled manner. The chemistry incorporates low level of oxygen into the TiN films forming titanium oxynitride (TiON). Thickness of the films is characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) which confirms the uniformity of the films. Surface morphology of the films is investigated by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) indicating sub-nanometer surface roughness. Hall measurements are performed to determine the parameters such as carrier mobility, type and concentration, as well as resistivity. The >5nm-thick films exhibit metallic behavior; however, we have observed that thin film resistivity is modulated significantly by film thickness such that there are more than 5 orders of magnitude increment in the sheet resistance at room temperature when comparing 5nm and 1.5nm films. Scattering effects at interfaces and grain boundaries could play a role in thickness-dependent resistivity in addition to quantum confinement effect that could occur at ultra-thin films: based on our measurements the carrier concentration is decreased from 1.5E22 1/cm3 to 5.5E17 1/cm3, while the mobility is increased from < 0.1 cm2/V.s to ~4 cm2/V.s for the 5nm and 1.5nm films, respectively. Also, measurements at different temperatures indicate that the resistivity is relatively constant for the 5nm film, while for the 1.5nm film more than 2 orders of magnitude reduction has been observed over the range of 220K to 400K. The activation energy of the 2.5nm and 1.5nm films is 30meV and 125meV, respectively, indicating that the TiON ultra-thin films are exhibiting semiconducting behaviour attributing this effect to a metal-semiconductor transition. By the same token, the contact is no longer Ohmic for the thinnest film (i.e., 1.5nm-thick film); hence, a modified lift-off process was developed to selectively deposit thicker films allowing us to perform electrical measurements with low contact resistance on the raised contact regions. Our atomic scale simulations based on molecular dynamic-generated amorphous TiON structures with low oxygen content confirm our experimental observations indicating highly n-type thin films.

Keywords: activation energy, ALD, metal-semiconductor transition, resistivity, titanium oxynitride, ultra-thin film

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Authors: Gaurav Kumar, Shilpa

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Digital libraries have been established all over the world to create, maintain and to preserve the digital materials. This paper focuses on operational digital preservation systems specifically in educational organizations in India. It considers the broad range of digital objects including e-journals, technical reports, e-records, project documents, scientific data, etc. This paper describes the main objectives, process and technological issues involved in preservation of digital materials. Digital preservation refers to the various methods of keeping digital materials alive for the future. It includes everything from electronic publications on CD-ROM to Online database and collections of experimental data in digital format maintains the ability to display, retrieve and use digital collections in the face of rapidly changing technological and organizational infrastructures elements. This paper exhibits the importance and objectives of digital preservation. The necessities of preservation are hardware and software technology to interpret the digital documents and discuss various aspects of digital preservation.

Keywords: preservation, digital preservation, digital dark age, conservation, archive, repository, document, information technology, hardware, software, organization, machine readable format

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Authors: Nael Y. Zabel, Maged E. Georgy, Moheeb E. Ibrahim

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A knowledge-based expert system with the acronym RASPE is developed as an application tool to help decision makers in construction companies make informed decisions about managing risks in pipeline construction projects. Choosing to use expert systems from all available artificial intelligence techniques is due to the fact that an expert system is more suited to representing a domain’s knowledge and the reasoning behind domain-specific decisions. The knowledge-based expert system can capture the knowledge in the form of conditional rules which represent various project scenarios and potential risk mitigation/response actions. The built knowledge in RASPE is utilized through the underlying inference engine that allows the firing of rules relevant to a project scenario into consideration. This paper provides an overview of the knowledge acquisition process and goes about describing the knowledge structure which is divided up into four major modules. The paper shows one module in full detail for illustration purposes and concludes with insightful remarks.

Keywords: expert system, knowledge management, pipeline projects, risk mismanagement

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Authors: Haritha Saranga

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Service quality has become an important driver of competition in manufacturing industries of late, as many products are being sold in conjunction with service offerings. With increase in computational power and data capture capabilities, it has become possible to analyze and estimate various aspects of service quality at the granular level and determine their impact on business performance. In the current study context, dealer level, model-wise warranty data from one of the top two-wheeler manufacturers in India is used to estimate service quality of individual dealers and its impact on warranty related costs and sales performance. We collected primary data on warranty costs, number of complaints, monthly sales, type of quality upgrades, etc. from the two-wheeler automaker. In addition, we gathered secondary data on various regions in India, such as petrol and diesel prices, geographic and climatic conditions of various regions where the dealers are located, to control for customer usage patterns. We analyze this primary and secondary data with the help of a variety of analytics tools such as Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Seasonal ARIMA and ARIMAX. Study results, after controlling for a variety of factors, such as size, age, region of the dealership, and customer usage pattern, show that service quality does influence sales of the products in a significant manner. A more nuanced analysis reveals the dynamics between product quality and service quality, and how their interaction affects sales performance in the Indian two-wheeler industry context. We also provide various managerial insights using descriptive analytics and build a model that can provide sales projections using a variety of forecasting techniques.

Keywords: service quality, product quality, automobile industry, business analytics, auto-regressive integrated moving average

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Authors: Lutaf Ali, Haris Ahmed, Hina Najmi

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Background: Access, better counseling and quality in the provision of family planning services remain big challenges. Sukh Initiative (a project of three different foundations) is a multi-pronged approach, working in one million underserved population residing peri urban slums in Karachi and providing door to door services by lady health workers (LHWs) and community health workers (CHWs) linked with quality family planning and reproductive (FP/RH) services both at public and private health care facilities. Objective: To assess the improvement in family planning and reproductive health behavior among MWRAs by improving access in peri-urban-underserved population of Karachi. Methodology: Using cross sectional study design 3866 married women with reproductive age (MWRAs) were interviewed in peri urban region of Karachi during November 2016 to January 2017. All face to face structured interviews were conducted with women aged 15-49 currently living with their husbands. Based on the project intervention question on reproductive health were developed and questions on contraceptive use were adopted from PDHS- Pakistan 2013. Descriptive and inferential analysis was performed on SPSS version 22. Results: 65% of population sample are literate, 51% women were in young age group- 15–29. On the poverty index, 6% of the population sample living at national poverty line 1.25$ and 52% at 2.50$. During the project years 79% women opted for facility based delivery; private facilities are the priority choice. 61.7% women initiated the contraceptive use in last two years (after the project).Use of family planning was increased irrespective of education level and poverty index- about 55.5% women with no formal education are using any form of contraception and trend of current modern contraceptives across poverty scores strata equally distributed amongst all groups. Age specific modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR)(between 25-34) was found to be 43.8%. About 23% of this contraceptive ascertained from door to door services- short acting, (pills and condoms) are common, 29.5% from public facilities and 47.6% are from public facilities in which long acting and permanent method most received methods. Conclusion: Strategy of expanding access and choice in the form of providing family planning information and supplies at door step and availability of quality family planning services in the peripheries of underserved may improve the behavior of women regarding FP/RH.

Keywords: access, family planning, underserved population, socio-demographic facts

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Authors: Andrés Lara Guillén, José M. Soriano Disla, Gemma Castejón Martínez, David Fernández-Gutiérrez

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The worldwide population is exponentially increasing, which causes a rising demand for food, energy and non-renewable resources. These demands must be attended to from a circular economy point of view. Under this approach, the obtention of strategic products from biowaste is crucial for the society to keep the current lifestyle reducing the environmental and social issues linked to the lineal economy. This is the main objective of the VALUEWASTE project. VALUEWASTE is about valorizing urban biowaste into proteins for food and feed and biofertilizers, closing the loop of this waste stream. In order to achieve this objective, the project validates three value chains, which begin with the anaerobic digestion of the biowaste. From the anaerobic digestion, three by-products are obtained: i) methane that is used by microorganisms, which will be transformed into microbial proteins; ii) digestate that is used by black soldier fly, producing insect proteins; and iii) a nutrient-rich effluent, which will be transformed into biofertilizers. VALUEWASTE is an innovative solution, which combines different technologies to valorize entirely the biowaste. However, it is also required to demonstrate that the solution is greener than other traditional technologies (baseline systems). On one hand, the proteins from microorganisms and insects will be compared with other reference protein production systems (gluten, whey and soybean). On the other hand, the biofertilizers will be compared to the production of mineral fertilizers (ammonium sulphate and synthetic struvite). Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide that biowaste valorization can reduce the environmental impacts linked to both traditional proteins manufacturing processes and mineral fertilizers, not only at a pilot-scale but also at an industrial one. In the present study, both baseline system and VALUEWASTE solution are evaluated through the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA). The E-LCA is based on the standards ISO 14040 and 14044. The Environmental Footprint methodology was the one used in this study to evaluate the environmental impacts. The results for the baseline cases show that the food proteins coming from whey have the highest environmental impact on ecosystems compared to the other proteins sources: 7.5 and 15.9 folds higher than soybean and gluten, respectively. Comparing feed soybean and gluten, soybean has an environmental impact on human health 195.1 folds higher. In the case of biofertilizers, synthetic struvite has higher impacts than ammonium sulfate: 15.3 (ecosystems) and 11.8 (human health) fold, respectively. The results shown in the present study will be used as a reference to demonstrate the better environmental performance of the bio-based products obtained through the VALUEWASTE solution. Other originalities that the E-LCA performed in the VALUEWASTE project provides are the diverse direct implications on investment and policies. On one hand, better environmental performance will serve to remove the barriers linked to these kinds of technologies, boosting the investment that is backed by the E-LCA. On the other hand, it will be a germ to design new policies fostering these types of solutions to achieve two of the key targets of the European Community: being self-sustainable and carbon neutral.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, biofertilizers, circular economy, nutrients recovery

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Authors: Ishay Wolf

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In this study, the financial position of pension actors in the market during the pension system transition toward a more funded capitalized scheme is explored, mainly via an option benefit model. This is enabled by not considering the economy as a single earning cohort. We analytically demonstrate a socio-economic anomaly in the funded pension system, which is in favor of high earning cohorts on at the expense of low earning cohorts. This anomaly is realized by a lack of insurance and exposure to financial and systemic risks. Furthermore, the anomaly might lead to pension re-reform back to unfunded scheme, mostly due to political pressure. We find that a minimum pension guarantee is a rebalance mechanism to this anomaly, which increases the probability to of the sustainable pension scheme. Specifically, we argue that implementing the guarantee with an intra-generational, risk-sharing mechanism is the most efficient way to reduce the effect of this abnormality. Moreover, we exhibit the convergence process toward implementing minimum pension guarantee in many countries which have capitalized their pension systems during the last three decades, particularly among Latin America and CEE countries.

Keywords: benefits, pension scheme, put option, social security

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Authors: Yuet Wah Echo Yeung

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Practice learning is an important component of social work education. Practice educators are charged with the responsibility to support and enable learning while students are on placement. They also play a key role in teaching students to integrate theory and practice, as well as assessing their performance. Current literature highlights the structural factors that make it difficult for practice educators to create a positive learning environment for students. Practice educators find it difficult to give sufficient attention to their students because of the lack of workload relief, the increasing emphasis on managerialism and bureaucratisation, and a range of competing organisational and professional demands. This paper reports the challenges practice educators face and how they manage these challenges in this context. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with thirteen practice educators who support students in statutory and voluntary social care settings in the Northwest of England. Interviews were conducted between April and July 2017 and each interview lasted about 40 minutes. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. All practice educators are experienced social work practitioners with practice experience ranging from 6 to 42 years. On average they have acted as practice educators for 13 years and all together have supported 386 students. Our findings reveal that apart from the structural factors that impact how practice educators perform their roles, they also faced other challenges when supporting students on placement. They include difficulty in engaging resistant students, complexity in managing power dynamics in the context of practice learning, and managing the dilemmas of fostering a positive relationship with students whilst giving critical feedback. Suggestions to enhance the practice educators’ role include support from organisations and social work teams; effective communication with university tutors, and a forum for practice educators to share good practice and discuss placement issues.

Keywords: social work education, placement challenges, practice educator, practice learning

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Authors: Moustapha Bande, Hakima Ould-Slimane, Hanifa Boucheneb

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Software development for complex systems requires efficient and automatic tools that can be used to verify the satisfiability of some critical properties such as security ones. With the emergence of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP), considerable work has been done in order to better modularize the separation of concerns in the software design and implementation. The goal is to prevent the cross-cutting concerns to be scattered across the multiple modules of the program and tangled with other modules. One of the key challenges in the aspect-oriented programs is to be sure that all the pieces put together at the weaving time ensure the satisfiability of the overall system requirements. Our paper focuses on this problem and proposes a formal property verification approach for a given property from the woven program. The approach is based on the control flow graph (CFG) of the woven program, and the use of a satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solver to check whether each property (represented par one aspect) is satisfied or not once the weaving is done.

Keywords: aspect-oriented programming, control flow graph, property verification, satisfiability modulo theories

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Authors: Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed, Ashraf Hafez, A. N. Ouda, Hossam Eldin Hussein Ahmed, Hala Mohamed ABD-Elkader

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Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are playing increasingly prominent roles in defense programs and defense strategies around the world. Technology advancements have enabled the development of it to do many excellent jobs as reconnaissance, surveillance, battle fighters, and communications relays. Simulating a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) dynamics and analyzing its behavior at the preflight stage is too important and more efficient. The first step in the UAV design is the mathematical modeling of the nonlinear equations of motion. In this paper, a survey with a standard method to obtain the full non-linear equations of motion is utilized,and then the linearization of the equations according to a steady state flight condition (trimming) is derived. This modeling technique is applied to an Ultrastick-25e fixed wing UAV to obtain the valued linear longitudinal and lateral models. At the end, the model is checked by matching between the behavior of the states of the non-linear UAV and the resulted linear model with doublet at the control surfaces.

Keywords: UAV, equations of motion, modeling, linearization

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Authors: El Korchi Ayoub, Cherif Raef

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Interior noise in vehicles is an essential factor affecting occupant comfort. Over recent decades, much work has been done to develop simulation tools for vehicle NVH. At the medium high-frequency range, the statistical energy analysis method (SEA) shows significant effectiveness in predicting noise and vibration responses of mechanical systems. In this paper, the evaluation of the sound pressure level (SPL) inside an automobile cabin has been performed numerically using the statistical energy analysis (SEA) method. A test car cabin was performed using a monopole source as a sound source. The decay rate method was employed to obtain the damping loss factor (DLF) of each subsystem of the developed SEA model. These parameters were then used to predict the sound pressure level in the interior cabin. The results show satisfactory agreement with the directly measured SPL. The developed SEA vehicle model can be used in early design phases and allows the engineer to identify sources contributing to the total noise and transmission paths.

Keywords: SEA, SPL, DLF, NVH

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Authors: Aziza Barnawi

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Background: Regular exercise reduces risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases. Over the past decade, exercise interventions have been introduced to reduce the risk of and prevent coronary artery disease (CAD). Elevated low-density lipoproteins (LDL) contribute to the formation of atherosclerosis, its manifestations on the endothelial narrow the coronary artery and affect the endothelial function. Therefore, flow-mediated dilation (FMD) technique is used to assess the function. The results of previous studies have been inconsistent and difficult to interpret across different types of exercise programs. The relationship between exercise therapy and lipid levels has been extensively studied, and it is known to improve the lipid profile and endothelial function. However, the effectiveness of exercise in altering LDL levels and improving blood flow is controversial. Objective: This review aims to explore the evidence and quantify the impact of exercise training on LDL levels and vascular function by FMD. Methods: Electronic databases were searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and EBSCO using the keywords: “low and/or moderate aerobic training”, “blood flow”, “atherosclerosis”, “LDL mediated blood flow”, “Cardiac Rehabilitation”, “low-density lipoproteins”, “flow-mediated dilation”, “endothelial function”, “brachial artery flow-mediated dilation”, “oxidized low-density lipoproteins” and “coronary artery disease”. The studies were conducted for 6 weeks or more and influenced LDL levels and/or FMD. Studies with different intensity training and endurance training in healthy or CAD individuals were included. Results: Twenty-one randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (14 FMD and 7 LDL studies) with 776 participants (605 exercise participants and 171 control participants) met eligibility criteria and were included in the systematic review. Endurance training resulted in a greater reduction in LDL levels and their subfractions and a better FMD response. Overall, the training groups showed improved physical fitness status compared with the control groups. Participants whose exercise duration was ≥150 minutes /week had significant improvement in FMD and LDL levels compared with those with <150 minutes/week.Conclusion: In conclusion, although the relationship between physical training, LDL levels, and blood flow in CAD is complex and multifaceted, there are promising results for controlling primary and secondary prevention of CAD by exercise. Exercise training, including resistance, aerobic, and interval training, is positively correlated with improved FMD. However, the small body of evidence for LDL studies (resistance and interval training) did not prove to be significantly associated with improved blood flow. Increasing evidence suggests that exercise training is a promising adjunctive therapy to improve cardiovascular health, potentially improving blood flow and contributing to the overall management of CAD.

Keywords: exercise training, low density lipoprotein, flow mediated dilation, coronary artery disease

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Authors: S. M. Azad, H. Ghodsi Pour, F. Roshannafasa

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In recent years ‘technology management and policymaking’ is one of the most important problems in management science. In this field, different generations of innovation and technology management are presented which the earliest one is Innovation System (IS) approach. In a general classification, innovation systems are divided in to 4 approaches: Technical, sectoral, regional, and national. There are many researches in relation to each of these approaches in different academic fields. Every approach has some benefits. If two or more approaches hybrid, their benefits would be combined. In addition, according to the sectoral structure of the governance model in Iran, in many sectors such as information technology, the combination of three other approaches with sectoral approach is essential. Hence, in this paper, combining two IS approaches (technical and sectoral) and using system dynamics, a generic model is presented for a sample of software industry. As a complimentary point, this article is introducing a new hybrid approach called Techno-Sectoral Innovation System. This TSIS model is accomplished by Changing concepts of the ‘functions’ which came from Technological IS literature and using them into sectoral system as measurable indicators.

Keywords: innovation system, technology, techno-sectoral system, functional indicators, system dynamics

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Authors: Edwina Owusu Panin, Kwame Baah Owusu Panin

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This abstract intends to demonstrate multiple strategies of autism management in Ghana by exploring the possibilities. The advantages of adopting creative art forms as a therapeutic method. Autism is a developmental disorder that includes social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviours. In Ghana, as in many other countries, there is a rising demand for effective intervention and support for people with autism and their families. Creative arts such as music, dance, drama and visual arts have shown promise in promoting communication, social interaction and inclusion of people with autism. These art forms provide alternative channels for self-expression and can be powerful tools for autistic people to interact with the world, their friends and families around them. Creative art forms interventions have been found to improve social skills, improve emotion regulation, promote creativity and increase self-confidence in people with autism. This study examines existing programs and interventions in Ghana involving creative art forms for people with autism through a comparative analysis. It explores the different approaches, methods and results of these interventions. By comparing and evaluating these programs, the study aims to identify best practices, challenges and areas for development in managing autism through the creative arts in Ghana. Although many schools and rehabilitation centres employ various forms in therapeutic approaches for autism. There is no comparative analysis of which type of autism and which creative art forms is suitable. The results of this study will contribute to the development of evidence-based practices for the management of autism in Ghana. It provides valuable information about the effectiveness of creative arts interventions and helps inform policy makers, educators, therapists and other stakeholders involved in autism support. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the well-being and quality of life of people with autism in Ghana and their families by promoting inclusive and accessible interventions that harness the power of creative art forms.

Keywords: autism, therapeutic, creative art, art form

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