Search results for: live stock

Authors: Mardin Abdalqadir, Paul Adzakro, Tannaz Pak, Sina Rezaei Gomari

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Climate change and global warming recently became significant concerns due to the massive emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, predominantly CO2 gases. Therefore, it is necessary to find sustainable and inexpensive methods to capture the greenhouse gasses and protect the environment for live species. The application of naturally available and cheap adsorbents of carbon such as clay minerals became a great interest. However, the minerals prone to low storage capacity despite their high affinity to adsorb carbon. This paper aims to explore ways to improve the pore volume and surface area of two selected clay minerals, ‘montmorillonite and kaolinite’ by acid treatment to overcome their low storage capacity. Montmorillonite and kaolinite samples were treated with different sulfuric acid concentrations (0.5, 1.2 and 2.5 M) at 40 °C for 8 hours to achieve the above aim. The grain size distribution and morphology of clay minerals before and after acid treatment were explored with Scanning Electron Microscope to evaluate surface area improvement. The ImageJ software was used to find the porosity and pore volume of treated and untreated clay samples. The structure of the clay minerals was also analyzed using an X-ray Diffraction machine. The results showed that the pore volume and surface area were increased substantially through acid treatment, which speeded up the rate of carbon dioxide adsorption. XRD pattern of kaolinite did not change after sulfuric acid treatment, which indicates that acid treatment would not affect the structure of kaolinite. It was also discovered that kaolinite had a higher pore volume and porosity than montmorillonite before and after acid treatment. For example, the pore volume of untreated kaolinite was equal to 30.498 um3 with a porosity of 23.49%. Raising the concentration of acid from 0.5 M to 2.5 M in 8 hours’ time reaction led to increased pore volume from 30.498 um3 to 34.73 um3. The pore volume of raw montmorillonite was equal to 15.610 um3 with a porosity of 12.7%. When the acid concentration was raised from 0.5 M to 2.5 M for the same reaction time, pore volume also increased from 15.610 um3 to 20.538 um3. However, montmorillonite had a higher specific surface area than kaolinite. This study concludes that clay minerals are inexpensive and available material sources to model the realistic conditions and apply the results of carbon capture to prevent global warming, which is one of the most critical and urgent problems in the world.

Keywords: acid treatment, kaolinite, montmorillonite, pore volume, porosity, surface area

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Maryam Nzari

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Today, with the advancement of Internet technology, one of the tools used by humans is a tool that allows them to do what they need easily. Online platforms in different forms and by providing different services make it possible for users to communicate with each other and users with platforms. Audience communication with mass media is not the same as in the past. Today the conditions are different; With online platforms that provide the latest news minute by minute, he has access to all the content and can choose more quickly and easily. According to professionals Galloway, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google companies create a wide range. They are among the products and services that are connected with the daily life of billions of people all over the planet. Over time, platforms gain high economic value and in this way gain power that will influence the social, cultural, economic and political aspects of people’s lives. As a result of the effects of the process of platformization on all areas of individual and collective life, we now live in a platform society, which communicates It is close to “platform politics”. Nowadays, with social media platforms, users can interact with many people and people can share their data on various topics with others in this space. In this research, what will be investigated is the role of these online platforms in economic growth and the introduction of local culture areas in tourist areas. Tourism in a region is linked with various factors; One of the important factors that attract tourists to a region is its culture, and on the other hand, this culture can also affect economic growth. Without a proper understanding of the culture of these tourist areas, it is not possible to plan properly for the growth of the tourism industry and the subsequent increase in economic growth. The interaction of local people and tourists will have social and cultural effects on each other and will give them the opportunity to get to know each other. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine issues such as the role that online platforms play in cultural interaction in tourist areas and to understand that online platforms are only seeking to show the good aspects of a region and then generate enough extra income or that platforms can They play a role beyond what we imagine and introduce the culture of a region in a proper way so that we don’t see disagreements in the tourism planning of that region. in this article It has been tried by using library and field methods Answer the questions.

Keywords: online platforms, economic growth, culture Indigenous, tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: Tom Farrelly, Yvoonne Kavanagh, Tony Murphy

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In the last 20 years, Ireland has enjoyed an upsurge in the number of international students coming to avail of its well-regarded Higher Education system. While welcome, the influx of international students has posed a number of cultural, social and academic challenges for the Irish HE sector, both at institutional and individual lecturer level. Notwithstanding the challenge to the Irish HE sector, the difficulties that incoming students face needs to be acknowledged and addressed. For students who have never left their home country before the transition can be daunting even if they have not learned the customs and ways of the new country. In 2013, Ireland’s National Forum for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education invited submissions from interested parties to design and implement digital supports aimed at assisting students transitioning into or exiting higher education. Five colleges—the Institute of Technology, Tralee; University College Cork, Institute of Technology, Carlow; Cork Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology—collectively known as the Southern Cluster, were granted funding to research and develop digital objects to support international students' transition into the Irish higher education system. One of the key fundamentals of this project was its strong commitment to incorporating the student voice to help inform the design of the digital objects. The primary research method used to ascertain student views was the circulation of an online questionnaire using SurveyMonkey to existing international students in each of the five participant colleges. The questionnaire sought to examine the experiences and opinions of the students in relation to three main aspects of their living and studying in Ireland (hence the name of the project LiveAndLearnInIreland) (1) the academic environment (2) the social aspects of living in Ireland and (3) the practical aspects of living in Ireland. The response to the survey (n=573), revealed a number of sometimes surprising issues and themes for the digital objects to address. The research, therefore, offers insight into the types of concerns that any college, whether in Ireland or further afield, needs to take into consideration, if it is to genuinely assist what can be a difficult transition for the international student. That said, while there are a number of themes that emerged that have international implications there are other themes that have a particular resonance for the Irish HE sector.

Keywords: international, transition, support, inclusion

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Tesfaye Mengistu

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Power cables play a crucial role in the transmission and distribution of electrical energy. As the electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and storage systems become smarter, there is a growing emphasis on incorporating intelligent approaches to ensure the reliability of power cables. Various types of electrical cables are employed for transmitting and distributing electrical energy, with cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cables being widely utilized due to their exceptional electrical and mechanical properties. However, insulation defects can occur in XLPE cables due to subpar manufacturing techniques during production and cable joint installation. To address this issue, experts have proposed different methods for monitoring XLPE cables. Some suggest the use of interdigital capacitive (IDC) technology for online monitoring, while others propose employing continuous wave (CW) terahertz (THz) imaging systems to detect internal defects in XLPE plates used for power cable insulation. In this study, we have developed models that employ a custom dataset collected locally to classify the physical safety status of individual power cables. Our models aim to replace physical inspections with computer vision and image processing techniques to classify defective power cables from non-defective ones. The implementation of our project utilized the Python programming language along with the TensorFlow package and a convolutional neural network (CNN). The CNN-based algorithm was specifically chosen for power cable defect classification. The results of our project demonstrate the effectiveness of CNNs in accurately classifying power cable defects. We recommend the utilization of similar or additional datasets to further enhance and refine our models. Additionally, we believe that our models could be used to develop methodologies for detecting power cable defects from live video feeds. We firmly believe that our work makes a significant contribution to the field of power cable inspection and maintenance. Our models offer a more efficient and cost-effective approach to detecting power cable defects, thereby improving the reliability and safety of power grids.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, computer vision, defect detection, convolutional neural net

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Jing (Claire) LI

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The topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is significant for pharmaceutical companies in China at this current stage. This is because, as a rapid growth industry in China in recent years, the pharmaceutical industry in China has been undergone continuous and terrible incidents relating to CSR. However, there is limited research and practice of CSR in Chinese pharmaceutical companies. Also, there is an urgent call for more research in an international context to understand the implications of corporate life cycle on CSR performance. To respond to the research need and research call, this study examines the relationship between corporate life cycle and CSR performance of Chinese listed companies in pharmaceutical industry. This research studies Chinese listed companies in pharmaceutical industry for the period of 2010-2017, where the data is available in database. Following the literature, this study divides CSR performance with regards to CSR dimensions, including shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, the government, and the society. This study uses CSR scores of HEXUN database and financial measures of these CSR dimensions to measure the CSR performance. This study performed regression analysis to examine the relationship between corporate life cycle stages and CSR performance with regards to CSR dimensions for pharmaceutical listed companies in China. Using cash flow pattern as proxy of corporate life cycle to classify corporate life cycle stages, this study found that most (least) pharmaceutical companies in China are in maturity (decline) stage. This study found that CSR performance for most dimensions are highest (lowest) in maturity (decline) stage as well. Among these CSR dimensions, performing responsibilities for shareholder is the most important among all CSR responsibilities for pharmaceutical companies. This study is the first to provide important empirical evidence from Chinese pharmaceutical industry on the association between life cycle and CSR performance, supporting that corporate life cycle is a key factor in CSR performance. The study expands corporate life cycle and CSR literatures and has both empirical and theoretical contributions to the literature. From perspective of empirical contributions, the findings contribute to the argument that whether there is a relationship between CSR performance and various corporate life cycle stages in the literature. This study also provides empirical evidence that companies in different corporate life cycles have difference in CSR performance. From perspective of theoretical contributions, this study relates CSR and stakeholders to corporate life cycle stages and complements the corporate life cycle and CSR literature. This study has important implications for managers and policy makers. First, the results will be helpful for managers to have an understanding in the essence of CSR, and their company’s current and future CSR focus over corporate life cycle. This study provides a reference for their actions and may help them make more wise resources allocation decisions of CSR investment. Second, policy makers (in the government, stock exchanges, and securities commission) may consider corporate life cycle as an important factor in formulating future regulations for companies. Future research can explore the "process-based" differences in CSR performance and more industries.

Keywords: China, corporate life cycle, corporate social responsibility, pharmaceutical industry

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Tawatchai Apidechkul

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This operational research was conducted and divided into two phases: the first phase aimed to determine the risk behaviors used a cross-sectional study design, following by the community participatory research design to develop the HIV/AIDS preventive model among the Akha youths. The instruments were composed of completed questionnaires and assessment forms that were tested for validity and reliability before use. Study setting was Jor Pa Ka and Saen Suk Akha villages, Mae Chan District, Chiang Rai, Thailand. Study sample were the Akha youths lived in the villages. Means and chi-square test were used for the statistical testing. Results: Akha youths in the population mobilization villages live in agricultural families with low income and circumstance of narcotic drugs. The average age was 16 (50.00%), 51.52% Christian, 48.80% completed secondary school, 43.94% had annual family income of 30,000-40,000 baht. Among males, 54.54% drank, 39.39% smoked, 7.57% used amphetamine, first sexual intercourse reported at 14 years old, 50.00% had 2-5 partners, 62.50% had unprotected sex (no-condom). Reasons of unprotected sex included not being able to find condom, unawareness of need to use condoms, and dislike. 28.79% never been received STI related information, 6.06% had STI. Among females, 15.15% drank, 28.79% had sexual intercourse and had first sexual intercourse less than 15 year old. 40.00% unprotected sex (no-condom), 10.61% never been received STI related information, and 4.54% had STI. The HIV/AIDS preventive model contained two components. Peer groups among the youths were built around interests in sports. Improving knowledge would empower their capability and lead to choices that would result in HIV/AIDS prevention. The empowering model consisted of 4 courses: a. human reproductive system and its hygiene, b. risk-avoid skills, family planning, and counseling techniques, c. HIV/AIDS and other STIs, d. drugs and related laws and regulations. The results of the activities found that youths had a greater of knowledge and attitude levels for HIV/AIDS prevention with statistical significance (χ2-τεστ= 12.87, p-value= 0.032 and χ2-τεστ= 9.31, p-value<0.001 respectively). A continuous and initiative youths capability development program is the appropriate process to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in youths, particularly in the population who have the specific of language and culture.

Keywords: AIV/AIDS, preventive program, effective, hill tribe

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: Georgios P. Georgiou

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Infants are able to discriminate a number of sound contrasts in most languages. However, this ability is not available in adults who might face difficulties in discriminating accurately second language sound contrasts as they filter second language speech through the phonological categories of their native language. For example, Spanish speakers often struggle to perceive the difference between the English /ε/ and /æ/ because both vowels do not exist in their native language; so they assimilate these vowels to the closest phonological category of their first language. The present study aims to uncover the perceptual patterns of Arabic adult speakers in regard to the vowels of their second language (Greek). Still, there is not any study that investigates the perception of Greek vowels by Arabic speakers and, thus, the present study would contribute to the enrichment of the literature with cross-linguistic research in new languages. To the purpose of the present study, 15 native speakers of Egyptian Arabic who permanently live in Cyprus and have adequate knowledge of Greek as a second language passed through vowel assimilation and vowel contrast discrimination tests (AXB) in their second language. The perceptual stimuli included non-sense words that contained vowels in both stressed and unstressed positions. The second language listeners’ patterns were analyzed through the Perceptual Assimilation Model which makes testable hypotheses about the assimilation of second language sounds to the speakers’ native phonological categories and the discrimination accuracy over second language sound contrasts. The results indicated that second language listeners assimilated pairs of Greek vowels in a single phonological category of their native language resulting in a Category Goodness difference assimilation type for the Greek stressed /i/-/e/ and the Greek stressed-unstressed /o/-/u/ vowel contrasts. On the contrary, the members of the Greek unstressed /i/-/e/ vowel contrast were assimilated to two different categories resulting in a Two Category assimilation type. Furthermore, they could discriminate the Greek stressed /i/-/e/ and the Greek stressed-unstressed /o/-/u/ contrasts only in a moderate degree while the Greek unstressed /i/-/e/ contrast could be discriminated in an excellent degree. Two main implications emerge from the results. First, there is a strong influence of the listeners’ native language on the perception of the second language vowels. In Egyptian Arabic, contiguous vowel categories such as [i]-[e] and [u]-[o] do not have phonemic difference but they are subject to allophonic variation; by contrast, the vowel contrasts /i/-/e/ and /o/-/u/ are phonemic in Greek. Second, the role of stress is significant for second language perception since stressed vs. unstressed vowel contrasts were perceived in a different manner by the Greek listeners.

Keywords: Arabic, bilingual, Greek, vowel perception

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Łukasz Ambroziak

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Although the impact of the production fragmentation on trade flows has been examined many times since the 1990s, the research was not comprehensive because of the limitations in traditional trade statistics. Early 2010s the complex databases containing world input-output tables (or indicators calculated on their basis) has made available. It increased the possibilities of examining the production sharing in the world. The trade statistic in value-added terms enables us better to estimate trade changes resulted from the internationalisation and globalisation as well as benefits of the countries from international trade. In the literature, there are many research studies on this topic. Unfortunately, trade in value added of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) has been so far insufficiently studied. Thus, the aim of the paper is to present changes in value added trade of the CEECs (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) in the period of 1995-2011. The concept 'trade in value added' or 'value added trade' is defined as the value added of a country which is directly and indirectly embodied in final consumption of another country. The typical question would be: 'How much value added is created in a country due to final consumption in the other countries?' The data will be downloaded from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). The structure of this paper is as follows. First, theoretical and methodological aspects related to the application of the input-output tables in the trade analysis will be studied. Second, a brief survey of the empirical literature on this topic will be presented. Third, changes in exports and imports in value added of the CEECs will be analysed. A special attention will be paid to the differences in bilateral trade balances using traditional trade statistics (in gross terms) on one side, and value added statistics on the other. Next, in order to identify factors influencing value added exports and value added imports of the CEECs the generalised gravity model, based on panel data, will be used. The dependent variables will be value added exports and imports. The independent variables will be, among others, the level of GDP of trading partners, the level of GDP per capita of trading partners, the differences in GDP per capita, the level of the FDI inward stock, the geographical distance, the existence (or non-existence) of common border, the membership (or not) in preferential trade agreements or in the EU. For comparison, an estimation will also be made based on exports and imports in gross terms. The initial research results show that the gravity model better explained determinants of trade in value added than gross trade (R2 in the former is higher). The independent variables had the same direction of impact both on value added exports/imports and gross exports/imports. Only value of coefficients differs. The most difference concerned geographical distance. It had smaller impact on trade in value added than gross trade.

Keywords: central and eastern European countries, gravity model, input-output tables, trade in value added

Procedia PDF Downloads 221

Authors: Daniel R. Zeh, Michelle R. Heupel, Mark Hamann, Rhondda Jones, Colin J. Limpus, Helene Marsh

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Marine mammals live in an environment with water temperatures nearly always lower than the mammalian core body temperature of 35 - 38°C. Marine mammals can lose heat at high rates and have evolved a range of adaptations to minimise heat loss. Our project tracked dugongs to examine if there was a discoverable relationship between the animals’ movements and the temperature of their environment that might suggest behavioural thermoregulation. Twenty-nine dugongs were fitted with acoustic and satellite/GPS transmitters in 2012, 2013 and 2014 in Moreton Bay Queensland at the high latitude limit of the species’ winter range in eastern Australia on 30 occasions (one animal was tagged twice). All 22 animals that stayed in the area and had functional transmitters made at least one (and up to 66) return trip(s) to the warmer oceanic waters outside the bay where seagrass is unavailable. Individual dugongs went in and out of the bay in synchrony with the tides and typically spent about 6 hours in the oceanic water. There was a diel pattern in the movements: 85% of outgoing trips occurred between midnight and noon. There were significant individual differences, but the likelihood of a dugong leaving the bay was independent of body length or sex. In Quarter 2 (April – June), the odds of a dugong making a trip increased by about 40% for each 1°C increase in the temperature difference between the bay and the warmer adjacent oceanic waters. In Quarter 3, the odds of making a trip were lower when the outside –inside bay temperature differences were small or negative but increased by a factor of up to 2.12 for each 1°C difference in outside – inside temperatures. In Quarter 4, the odds of making a trip were higher when it was cooler outside the bay and decreased by a factor of nearly 0.5 for each 1°C difference in outside – inside bay temperatures. The activity spaces of the dugongs generally declined as winter progressed suggesting a change in the cost-effectiveness of moving outside the bay. Our analysis suggests that dugongs can thermoregulate their core temperature through the behaviour of moving to water having more favourable temperature.

Keywords: acoustic, behavioral thermoregulation, dugongs, movements, satellite, telemetry, quick fix GPS

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Juariah Salam Suryadi

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North coast (Pantura) line is known as a high-risk area related to reproductive health. This is because along the line, there are many food stalls and entertainment industries that at night the function changed to be sexual transaction areas. This business line also facilitate circulation and transaction of drug and substance abuse. The environment conditions can influence adolescents who live in this area. It is because of adolescence characteristics that has high curiosity and looking for their identities. Therefore, purposes of this study were to explore reproductive health behaviour of early adolescents who lived in Pantura line and to suggest intervention based on the adolescents reproductive health conditions. This study was conducted in November 2016 among the seventh-grade students of Pusakajaya Junior High School 1 and 2, Subang District. Number of respondents were 269 students (Male=135, Female=134). The students were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Some teachers also interviewed to complement the data. The quantitative data was analyzed with univariate analysis, while content analysis was used for the qualitative data. Findings of this study showed that 85,2% of male students were smoker. Most of them started smoking at elementary school. Male students who often drunk alcohol were about 25,2% and all of them initiated to drink at elementary school. There were about 21,5% of male students ever used drug and substance abuse. There were 54,6% of the students that confessed having a lover. Most of them were female students. Sexual behaviour that ever done with their lovers were: holding hands (37,4%), kissing (4%) and embracing (6,8%). Although all of the students claimed to have never had sexual intercourse, but 5,9% of them said that they had friends who have had sexual intercourse. Most of the students also had friends with negative characteristics. Their friends were smoker (82,2%), drinker (53,2%) and drug abuse (42%). Most of the students recognized that they took the risks behaviour to get pleasure with their peers. Information from the teachers indicated that most problem of male students were smoking and drug and substance abuse; while sexuality including unwanted pregnancies were reproductive problems of many female students. Therefore, It is recommended to enhance understanding of the adolescents about risks of unhealthy behaviour through continuing reproductive health education, both in school and out of school. Policy support to create positive social environment and adolescents friendly is also suggested.

Keywords: reproductive health, behaviour, early adolescents, pantura line

Procedia PDF Downloads 258

Authors: Helida Thays Gomes Soares, Conceicao De Maria Pinheiro Correia, Fabiano Maciel Soares, Kleymer Silva

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There is great discussion around populational increase in urban areas of the global south, and, consequently, the growth of inappropriate housing and the different ways humans have found to solve housing problems around the world. Sao Luís, the capital of the state of Maranhao is a good example. The 1.6 million inhabitant metropole is a colonial tropical city that shelters 22% of the population of Maranhão, brazilian state that still carries the scars of slavery in past centuries. In 2016, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistic found that 20% of Maranhão’s inhabitants were living in houses with external walls made of non-durable materials, like recycled wood, cardboard or soil. Out of this problematic, this study aims to propose interventions not only in the physical structure of irregular housing, but also to serve as a guide to intervene in the way eco-friendly, communitarian housing is seen by extreme poor zones inside metropolitan regions around big cities in the global south. The adaptation and reuse of industrial containers from the Harbor of Itaqui for housing is also an aim of the project. The great volume of discarded industrial containers may be an opportunity to solve housing deficit in the city. That way, through field research in São Luís’ neighborhoods mostly occupied by inappropriate housing, the study intends to raise ethnographical and physical values that help to shape new uses of industrial containers and recycled building materials, bringing the community into the process of shaping new-housing for local housing programs, changing the mindset of a concrete/brick model of building. The study used a general feasibility analysis of local engineers regarding strength of the locally used container for construction purposes, and also researched in-loco the current impressions of risky areas inhabitants of housing, traditional housing and the role they played as city shapers, evaluating their perceptions of what means to live and how their houses represent their personality.

Keywords: container housing, civil construction, housing deficit, participatory design, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Mahabub Alam, Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan, M. Hasanuzzaman, M. Ahasanul Hoque

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Animals are transported from one place to another for different purposes in Bangladesh. However, the potential effect of long-distance transport on cattle health has not frequently been studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess health conditions of cattle transported from a long distance to Chittagong in Bangladesh. A total of 100 adult cattle, regardless of breed and sex, were selected at Benapole live cattle market in Jessore between August and September 2015 for the study. Blood samples were taken from 50 randomly selected cattle at 0 hours before transportation, just after transportation, at 12-16 hours post-conclusion of transportation, and 24 hours after transportation. The external health conditions and injuries of the cattle were assessed by close inspection, and the trader was interviewed using the structured questionnaire. Images of cattle injuries were taken with a camera. The basic internal health of the cattle was evaluated using standard hemato-biochemical tests. Animals were fasted and remained standing within a small space allocation (8-10 sq feet/animal) in the vehicle during transportation. Animals were provided only with paddy straw and water prior to selling at the destination market. The overall frequency of cattle injuries varied significantly (26% before vs. 47% after transportation; p < 0.001). The frequency of different cattle injuries also significantly varied by types such as abrasion (11% vs. 21%; p < 0.05) and barbed wire injury (9% vs. 18%; p < 0.05). Single cattle injury differed significantly (21% vs. 36%; p < 0.001). Cattle health conditions varied significantly (nasal discharge: 15% vs. 28%; p < 0.05; diarrhea: 15% vs. 23%; p < 0.05 and severe dehydration: 8% vs. 20%; p < 0.001). The values of hemoglobin (Hb), total erythrocyte count (TEC), total leukocyte count (TLC), lymphocyte (L), neutrophil (N) and eosinophil (E) varied significantly (p ≤ 0.01) (Hb: 11.1mg/dl vs. 12.3mg/dl; TEC: 4.7 million/ml vs. 5.7million/ml; TLC: 6.2 thousand/ml vs. 7.3 thousand/ml; L: 61.7% vs. 58.1%; N: 29.7% vs. 32.8%; E: 3.8% vs. 4.7%). The values of serum total protein (TP), creatine kinase (CK), triglyceride (TG), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) significantly differed (p ≤ 0.05) (TP: 6.8g/dl vs. 8.2g/dl; CK:574.9u/l vs. 1288u/l; TG: 104.7mg/dl vs. 127.7mg/dl; Ca: 11.3mg/dl vs. 13mg/dl; P: 7.3mg/dl vs. 7.6mg/dl; ALP: 303u/l vs. 363u/l). The identified status of external and internal health conditions of the cattle for trading purpose due to long-distance transportation in the present study indicates a high degree of transport stress and poor animal welfare.

Keywords: animal welfare, cattle, external and internal health conditions, transportation

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Richard Sogah

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The significance of transport infrastructure investments for economic growth and development has been central to the World Bank’s strategy for poverty reduction. Among the conventional surface transport infrastructures, road infrastructure is significant in facilitating the movement of human capital goods and services. When transport projects (i.e., roads, super-highways) are implemented, they come along with some negative social values (costs), such as increased noise and air pollution for local residents living near these facilities, displaced individuals, etc. However, these projects also facilitate better utilization of existing capital stock and generate other observable benefits that can be easily quantified. For example, the improvement or construction of roads creates employment, stimulates revenue generation (toll), reduces vehicle operating costs and accidents, increases accessibility, trade expansion, safety improvement, etc. Aside from these benefits, travel time savings (TTSs) which are the major economic benefits of urban and inter-urban transport projects and therefore integral in the economic assessment of transport projects, are often overlooked and omitted when estimating the benefits of transport projects, especially in developing countries. The absence of current and reliable domestic travel data and the inability of replicated models from the developed world to capture the actual value of travel time savings due to the large unemployment, underemployment, and other labor-induced distortions has contributed to the failure to assign value to travel time savings when estimating the benefits of transport schemes in developing countries. This omission of the value of travel time savings from the benefits of transport projects in developing countries poses problems for investors and stakeholders to either accept or dismiss projects based on schemes that favor reduced vehicular operating costs and other parameters rather than those that ease congestion, increase average speed, facilitate walking and handloading, and thus save travel time. Given the complex reality in the estimation of the value of travel time savings and the presence of widespread informal labour activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, we construct a “nationally ranked distribution of time values” and estimate the value of travel time savings based on the area beneath the distribution. Compared with other approaches, our method captures both formal sector workers and individuals/people who work outside the formal sector and hence changes in their time allocation occur in the informal economy and household production activities. The dataset for the estimations is sourced from the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, etc.

Keywords: road infrastructure, transport projects, travel time savings, congestion, Sub-Sahara Africa

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Authors: Mohammed E. A. Brixi Nigassa, Nassima Labdelli, Ahmed Slami, Arnaud Pothier, Sofiane Soulimane

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According to the world health organization (WHO), there are almost 285 million people with visual disability, 39 million of these people are blind. Nevertheless, there is a code for these people that make their life easier and allow them to access information more easily; this code is the Braille code. There are several commercial devices allowing braille reading, unfortunately, most of these devices are not ergonomic and too expensive. Moreover, we know that 90 % of blind people in the world live in low-incomes countries. Our contribution aim is to concept an original microactuator for Braille reading, as well as being ergonomic, inexpensive and lowest possible energy consumption. Nowadays, the piezoelectric device gives the better actuation for low actuation voltage. In this study, we focus on piezoelectric (PZT) material which can bring together all these conditions. Here, we propose to use one matrix composed by six actuators to form the 63 basic combinations of the Braille code that contain letters, numbers, and special characters in compliance with the standards of the braille code. In this work, we use a finite element model with Comsol Multiphysics software for designing and modeling this type of miniature actuator in order to integrate it into a test device. To define the geometry and the design of our actuator, we used physiological limits of perception of human being. Our results demonstrate in our study that piezoelectric actuator could bring a large deflection out-of-plain. Also, we show that microactuators can exhibit non uniform compression. This deformation depends on thin film thickness and the design of membrane arm. The actuator composed of four arms gives the higher deflexion and it always gives a domed deformation at the center of the deviceas in case of the Braille system. The maximal deflection can be estimated around ten micron per Volt (~ 10µm/V). We noticed that the deflection according to the voltage is a linear function, and this deflection not depends only on the voltage the voltage, but also depends on the thickness of the film used and the design of the anchoring arm. Then, we were able to simulate the behavior of the entire matrix and thus display different characters in Braille code. We used these simulations results to achieve our demonstrator. This demonstrator is composed of a layer of PDMS on which we put our piezoelectric material, and then added another layer of PDMS to isolate our actuator. In this contribution, we compare our results to optimize the final demonstrator.

Keywords: Braille code, comsol software, microactuators, piezoelectric

Procedia PDF Downloads 339

Authors: Moses Jenkins

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Much of the focus when improving energy efficiency in buildings fall on the raising of standards within new build dwellings. However, as a significant proportion of the building stock across Europe is of historic or traditional construction, there is also a pressing need to improve the thermal performance of structures of this sort. On average, around twenty percent of buildings across Europe are built of historic masonry construction. In order to meet carbon reduction targets, these buildings will require to be retrofitted with insulation to improve their thermal performance. At the same time, there is also a need to balance this with maintaining the ability of historic masonry construction to allow moisture movement through building fabric to take place. This moisture transfer, often referred to as 'breathable construction', is critical to the success, or otherwise, of retrofit projects. The significance of this paper is to demonstrate that substantial thermal improvements can be made to historic buildings whilst avoiding damage to building fabric through surface or interstitial condensation. The paper will analyze the results of a wide range of retrofit measures installed to twenty buildings as part of Historic Environment Scotland's technical research program. This program has been active for fourteen years and has seen interventions across a wide range of building types, using over thirty different methods and materials to improve the thermal performance of historic buildings. The first part of the paper will present the range of interventions which have been made. This includes insulating mass masonry walls both internally and externally, warm and cold roof insulation and improvements to floors. The second part of the paper will present the results of monitoring work which has taken place to these buildings after being retrofitted. This will be in terms of both thermal improvement, expressed as a U-value as defined in BS EN ISO 7345:1987, and also, crucially, will present the results of moisture monitoring both on the surface of masonry walls the following retrofit and also within the masonry itself. The aim of this moisture monitoring is to establish if there are any problems with interstitial condensation. This monitoring utilizes Interstitial Hygrothermal Gradient Monitoring (IHGM) and similar methods to establish relative humidity on the surface of and within the masonry. The results of the testing are clear and significant for retrofit projects across Europe. Where a building is of historic construction the use of materials for wall, roof and floor insulation which are permeable to moisture vapor provides both significant thermal improvements (achieving a u-value as low as 0.2 Wm²K) whilst avoiding problems of both surface and intestinal condensation. As the evidence which will be presented in the paper comes from monitoring work in buildings rather than theoretical modeling, there are many important lessons which can be learned and which can inform retrofit projects to historic buildings throughout Europe.

Keywords: insulation, condensation, masonry, historic

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Amanda Aliende da Matta

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In different fields, there are people who have something that stands out. In the educational world, for example, it is clear when some teachers have something: they are the best teachers, but this is not directly attributed to their disciplines, methodologies, etc. It is that they have something that captivates, inspires, and motivates. But we also find this something in other contexts. In this thesis, the interest is in something that some marginalized people, such as Ab (fictitious name), have. Ab was born in a rural community and saw the lifestyle of his family change drastically as a consequence of structural changes in his village. The community became impoverished, and together with a group of teenagers, he decided to migrate to Spain in search of opportunities. His best friend drowned during the crossing. After arriving, he lived in indecent conditions and felt unsafe. He now suffers from anxiety and frequently faints from it. Yet, he’s linked to Joves x la pau (a Christian project, although he is a Muslim), distributing food for people who live on the streets every Thursday afternoon. When he asked about what happens on cold and rainy days, he explained simply: "if it rains, I distribute the food, and immediately I get home, take a bath, and sleep warm under my roof. That is when we most have to go." This something he has will be called caring. And one of the general objectives of the thesis is to discover what are the meaning structures of this caring what is the lived experience of this caring. In this communication, preliminary results of an Applied Hermeneutic Phenomenology (AHP) study on the lived experience of caring as a vulnerable person are presented. The research means to answer what is the lived experience of caring as a vulnerable person. That is, to describe and explain what it is like to caregive for a vulnerable person, what it is, essentially, to caregive for a vulnerable person, what makes the lived experience of caregiving for a vulnerable person different from any other. In order to investigate the meaning of the phenomenon of caregiving as a vulnerable person, as already stated, the method used will be Applied Hermeneutic Phenomenology (AHP). We base ourselves, initially, on the proposal of Raquel Ayala-Carabajo and Max Van Manen. As Van Manen (1990) explains, AHP is a method that works essentially through fieldwork, with the collection of data on lived experience (experiential material). It is a phenomenology of practice. We here present the provisional themes we found: caregiving as a vulnerable person is seeing yourself in the other, identifying with the care-receiver; Caregiving as a vulnerable person is putting the other’s need before oneself’s; Caregiving as a vulnerable person is temporarily overcoming your weaknesses to make yourself strong for the other; Caregiving as a vulnerable person is going beyond the conventional approach; and Caregiving as a vulnerable person is taking responsibility even if it’s not yours.

Keywords: applied hermeneutic phenomenology, care ethics, hermeneutics, phenomenology

Procedia PDF Downloads 68

Authors: Mosabbir Pasha, Ijaj Mahmud Chowdhury, M. A. Afrahim Bhuiyann

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With the increasing population and intensive land use, huge traffic demand is generating worldwide both in developing and developed countries. As a developing country, Bangladesh is also facing the same problem in recent years by producing huge numbers of daily trips. As a matter of fact, extensive traffic demand is increasing day by day. Also, transport system in Dhaka is heterogeneous, reflecting the heterogeneity in the socio-economic and land use patterns. As a matter of fact, trips produced here are for different purposes such as work, business, educational etc. Due to the significant concentration of educational institutions a large share of the trips are generated by educational purpose. And one of the major percentages of educational trips is produced by university going students and most of them are travelled by car, bus, train, taxi, rickshaw etc. The aim of the study was to find out the university students’ perception on public transit ridership. A survey was conducted among 330 students from eight different universities. It was found out that 26% of the trips produced by university going students are travelled by public bus service and only 5% are by train. Percentage of car share is 16% and 12% of the trips are travelled by private taxi. From the study, it has been found that more than 42 percent student’s family resides outside of Dhaka, eventually they prefer bus instead of other options. Again those who chose to walk most of the time, of them, over 40 percent students’ family reside outside of Dhaka and of them over 85 percent students have a tendency to live in a mess. They generally choose a neighboring location to their respective university so that they can reach their destination by walk. On the other hand, those who travel by car 80 percent of their family reside inside Dhaka. The study also revealed that the most important reason that restricts students not to use public transit is poor service. Negative attitudes such as discomfort, uneasiness in using public transit also reduces the usage of public transit. The poor waiting area is another major cause of not using public transit. Insufficient security also plays a significant role in not using public transit. On the contrary, the fare is not a problem for students those who use public transit as a mode of transportation. Students also think stations are not far away from their home or institution and they do not need to wait long for the buses or trains. It was also found accessibility to public transit is moderate.

Keywords: traffic demand, fare, poor service, public transit ridership

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Fana Woldetsadik

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Ethiopia has a huge livestock population, including sheep, that has been contributing a considerable portion to the economy of the country and still promising to rally around the economic advancement of the country. However, feed shortage is a limiting factor in the production and productivity of sheep among Ethiopian smallholder farmers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to prove the role of the locally available brewery by-products called dried Atella as a supplement in feed intake, digestibility, live weight gain, carcass yield, and economic benefit in comparison with commercially purchased supplements known as niger seed cake (NSC). This on-station feeding experiment was conducted on the Zenzelma Campus of Bahir Dar University animal farm. The experimental design used for this research was a completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications. The crude protein (CP) content of dried Atella, wheat bran (WB), natural pasture hay (NPH) and NSC were about 25.07%, 16.57%, 4.48% and 38.04%, respectively, while the neutral detergent fibre (NDF),acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) content of dried Atella, WB, NPH and NSC were around 31.75%, 8.31%, 8.14%; 42.05%, 22.64%, 4.04%; 74.21%, 50.81%, 8.66%; 42.31%, 26.95% and 6.9%, respectively. The result depicted that a higher(P < 0.001) feed intake, nutrient intake, and digestibility for lambs supplemented with Atella than those supplemented with NSC. Furthermore, daily body weight gain and carcass characteristics were better (P < 0.05) for the sheep supplemented with dried Atella than NSC. On the other hand, in terms of profitability, although there was no substantial difference (P > 0.05) between T2 (animals fed NPH,NSC and WB) and T3 (animals fed NPH, Atella and WB), slightly better benefit was recorded in T3 groups. However, loss of money was recorded in T1 (animals fed NPH and WB). Hence, from the biological performance of lambs, it was concluded that Atella could be a potential supplementary feed for sheep fattening among smallholder farmers than NSC despite no profitability difference. Nevertheless, further investigation is recommended to examine the consequence of supplementation of NPH with NSC and NPH with Atella on fatty acid profile analysis, the physicochemical composition of meat, and meat composition.

Keywords: Attela, Bahir Dar university, Carcass yield, digestibility, natural pasture hay, Niger seed cake, smallholder farmers, weight gain, Ethiopia

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Authors: Anwar ul Haq

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Muhammad Iqbal was arguably the most significant South Asian Islamic philosopher of the last two centuries. While he is the most revered philosopher of the region, particularly in Pakistan, he is probably the least studied philosopher outside the region. The paper offers a philosophical reconstruction of Iqbal’s view of human agency; it has three sections. Section 1 focuses on Iqbal’s starting point of reflection in practical philosophy (inspired by Kant): our consciousness of ourselves as free agents. The paper brings out Iqbal’s continuity with Kant but also his divergence, in particular his non-Kantian view that we possess a non-sensory intuition of ourselves as free personal causes. It also offer an argument on Iqbal’s behalf for this claim, which is meant as a defense against a Kantian objection to the possibility of intuition of freedom and a skeptic’s challenge to the possibility of freedom in general. Remaining part of the paper offers a reconstruction of Iqbal’s two preconditions of the possibility of free agency. Section 2 discusses the first precondition, namely, the unity of consciousness involved in thought (this is a precondition of agency whether or not it is free). The unity has two aspects, a quantitative (or numerical) aspect and a qualitative (or rational) one. Section 2 offers a defense of these two aspects of the unity of consciousness presupposed by agency by focusing, with Iqbal, on the case of inference.Section 3 discusses a second precondition of the possibility of free agency, that thought and will must be identical in a free agent. Iqbal offers this condition in relief against Bergson’s view. Bergson (on Iqbal’s reading of him) argues that freedom of the will is possible only if the will’s ends are entirely its own and are wholly undetermined by anything from without, not even by thought. Iqbal observes that Bergson’s position ends in an insurmountable dualism of will and thought. Bergson’s view, Iqbal argues in particular, rests on an untenable conception of what an end consists in. An end, correctly understood, is framed by a thinking faculty, the intellect, and not by an extra-rational faculty. The present section outlines Iqbal’s argument for this claim, which rests on the premise that ends possess a certain unity which is intrinsic to particular ends and holds together different ends, and this unity is none other than the quantitative and qualitative unity of a thinking consciousness but in its practical application. Having secured the rational origin of ends, Iqbal argues that a free will must be identical with thought, or else it will be determined from without and won’t be free on that account. Freedom of the self is not a freedom from thought but a freedom in thought: it involves the ability to live a thoughtful life.

Keywords: iqbal, freedom, will, self

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Sami W. Tabsh

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The strength of reinforced concrete depends on the member dimensions and material properties. The properties of concrete and steel materials are not constant but random variables. The variability of concrete strength is due to batching errors, variations in mixing, cement quality uncertainties, differences in the degree of compaction and disparity in curing. Similarly, the variability of steel strength is attributed to the manufacturing process, rolling conditions, characteristics of base material, uncertainties in chemical composition, and the microstructure-property relationships. To account for such uncertainties, codes of practice for reinforced concrete design impose resistance factors to ensure structural reliability over the useful life of the structure. In this investigation, the effects of reductions in concrete and reinforcing steel strengths from the nominal values, beyond those accounted for in the structural design codes, on the structural reliability are assessed. The considered limit states are flexure, shear and axial compression based on the ACI 318-11 structural concrete building code. Structural safety is measured in terms of a reliability index. Probabilistic resistance and load models are compiled from the available literature. The study showed that there is a wide variation in the reliability index for reinforced concrete members designed for flexure, shear or axial compression, especially when the live-to-dead load ratio is low. Furthermore, variations in concrete strength have minor effect on the reliability of beams in flexure, moderate effect on the reliability of beams in shear, and sever effect on the reliability of columns in axial compression. On the other hand, changes in steel yield strength have great effect on the reliability of beams in flexure, moderate effect on the reliability of beams in shear, and mild effect on the reliability of columns in axial compression. Based on the outcome, it can be concluded that the reliability of beams is sensitive to changes in the yield strength of the steel reinforcement, whereas the reliability of columns is sensitive to variations in the concrete strength. Since the embedded target reliability in structural design codes results in lower structural safety in beams than in columns, large reductions in material strengths compromise the structural safety of beams much more than they affect columns.

Keywords: code, flexure, limit states, random variables, reinforced concrete, reliability, reliability index, shear, structural safety

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Authors: Rorick Daniel Tovar Galvan

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The 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees contains a conflict of law rule for the determination of the applicable law to marriage. The wording of this provision leaves much to be desired as it uses the domicile and the residence of the spouses as single main and subsidiary connecting factors. In cases where couples live in different countries, the law applicable to the case is unclear. The same problem arises when refugees are married to individuals outside of the convention’s scope of application. Different interpretations of this legal provision have arisen to solve this problem. Courts in a number of European countries apply the so-called modification doctrine: states should apply their domestic private international rules in all cases involving refugees. Courts shall, however, replace the national connecting factor by the domicile or residence in situations where nationality is used to determine the applicable law. The internal conflict of law rule will then be slightly modified in order to be applied according to the convention. However, this approach excludes these people from using their national law if they so desire. As nationality is, in all cases, replaced by domicile or residence as connecting factor, refugees are automatically deprived of the possibility to choose this law in jurisdictions that include the party autonomy in international marriage law. This contribution aims to shed light on the international legal framework applicable to marriages celebrated by refugees and the unnecessary restrictions to the exercise of the party autonomy these individuals are subjected to. The interest is motivated by the increasing number of displaced people, the significant number of states party to the Refugee Convention – approximately 150 – and the fact that more and more countries allow choice of law agreements in marriage law. Based on a study of German, Spanish and Swiss case law, the current practices in Europe, as well as some incoherencies derived from the current interpretation of the convention, will be discussed. The main objective is showing that there is neither an economic nor a legal basis to deny refugees the right to choose the law of their country of origin in those jurisdictions providing for this possibility to other foreigners. Quite the contrary, after analyzing other provisions contained in the conventions, this restriction would mean a contravention of other obligations included in the text.

Keywords: choice of law, conflict of laws, international marriage law, refugees

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Altab Hossain, Shakerul Islam, Golamur R. Khan, Abu Zafar M. Salahuddin

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An effective identification of breakdowns is of premier importance for the safe and reliable operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) and its associated facilities. A great number of monitoring and diagnosis methodologies are applied and used worldwide in areas such as industry, automobiles, hospitals, and power plant to detect and reduce human disasters. The potential consequences of several hazardous activities may harm the society using nuclear and its associated facilities. Hence, one of the most popular and effective methods to ensure safety and monitor the entire nuclear facility and imply risk-free operation without human interference during the hazardous situation is using a robot. Therefore, in this study, an advanced autonomous robot has been designed and developed that can monitor several parameters in the NPP to ensure the safety and do some risky job in case of nuclear disaster. The robot consisted of autonomous track following unit, data processing and transmitting unit can follow a straight line and take turn as the bank greater than 90 degrees. The developed robot can analyze various parameters such as temperature, altitude, radiation, obstacle, humidity, detecting fire, measuring distance, ultrasonic scan and taking the heat of any particular object. It has an ability to broadcast live stream and can record the document to its own server memory. There is a separate control unit constructed with a baseboard which processes the recorded data and a transmitter which transmits the processed data. To make the robot user-friendly, the code is developed such a way that a user can control any of robotic arm as per types of work. To control at any place and without the track, there is an advanced code has been developed to take manual overwrite. Through this process, administrator who has logged in permission to Dynamic Host Client Protocol (DHCP) can make the handover of the control of the robot. In this process, this robot is provided maximum nuclear security from being hacked. Not only NPP, this robot can be used to maximize the real-time monitoring system of any nuclear facility as well as nuclear material transportation and decomposition system.

Keywords: nuclear power plant, radiation, dynamic host client protocol, nuclear security

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Lakshmi Chebolu

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'War’, the word itself, is so vibrant and handcuffs the entire society. Since the beginning of manhood, the world has been evident in constant struggles. However, along with the growth of communities, relations, on the one hand, and disputes, on the other hand, infinitely increased. When states cannot or will not settle their disputes or differences by means of peaceful agreements, weapons are suddenly made to speak. It does not mean states can engage in war whenever they desire. At an international level, there has been a vast development of the law of war in the 20th century. War, it may be internal or international, in all situations, belligerent actors should follow the principles of warfare. With the advent of technology, the shape of war has changed, and it violates fundamental principles without observing basic norms. Conversely, states' attitudes towards international relationships are also undermined to some extent as state parties are not prioritized the communal interest rather than political or individual interest. In spite of the persistent development of communities, still many people are innocent victims of modern wars. It costs a toll on many lives, liberties, and properties and remains a major obstacle to nations' development. Recent incidents in Afghan are a live example to World Nations. We know that the principles of international law cannot be implemented very strictly on perpetrators due to the lacuna in the international legal system. However, the rules of war are universal in nature. The Geneva Convention, 1949 which are the core element of IHL, has been ratified by all 196 States. In fact, very few international treaties received this much of big support from nations. State’s approach towards Modern International Law, places a heavy burden on States practice towards in implementation of law. Although United Nations Security Council possesses certain powers under ‘Pacific Settlement of Disputes’, (Chapter VI) of the United Nations Charter to prevent disputes in a peaceful manner, conversely, this practice has been overlooked for many years due to political interests, favor, etc. Despite international consensus on the prohibition of war and protection of fundamental freedoms and human dignity, still, often, law has been misused by states’. The recent tendencies trigger questions about states’ willingness towards the implementation of the law. In view of the existing practices of nations, this paper aims to elevate the legal obligations of the international community to save the succeeding generations from the scourge of modern war practices.

Keywords: modern wars, weapons, prohibition and suspension of war activities, states’ obligations

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Monica Santi, Evita Puspitasari

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International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) has developed the principle based accounting standard. Based on this, IASB then eliminated the conservatism concept within accounting framework. Conservatism concept represents a prudent reaction to uncertainty to try to ensure that uncertainties and risk inherent in business situations are adequately considered. The conservatism concept has two ingredients: conditional conservatism or ex-post (news depending prudence) and unconditional conservatism or ex-ante (news-independent prudence). IFRS in substance disregards the unconditional conservatism because the unconditional conservatism can cause the understatement assets or overstated liabilities, and eventually the financial statement would be irrelevance since the information does not represent the real fact. Therefore, the IASB eliminate the conservatism concept. However, it does not decrease the practice of unconditional conservatism in the financial statement reporting. Therefore, we expected the earnings quality would be affected because of this situation, even though the IFRS implementation was expected to increase the earnings quality. The objective of this study was to provide empirical findings about the unconditional conservatism and the earnings quality before and after the IFRS adoption. The earnings per accrual measure were used as the proxy for the unconditional conservatism. If the earnings per accrual were negative (positive), it meant the company was classified as the conservative (not conservative). The earnings quality was defined as the ability of the earnings in reflecting the future earnings by considering the earnings persistence and stability. We used the earnings response coefficient (ERC) as the proxy for the earnings quality. ERC measured the extant of a security’s abnormal market return in response to the unexpected component of reporting earning of the firm issuing that security. The higher ERC indicated the higher earnings quality. The manufacturing companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) were used as the sample companies, and the 2009-2010 period was used to represent the condition before the IFRS adoption, and 2011-2013 was used to represent the condition after the IFRS adoption. Data was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test and regression analysis. We used the firm size as the control variable with the consideration the firm size would affect the earnings quality of the company. This study had proved that the unconditional conservatism had not changed, either before and after the IFRS adoption period. However, we found the different findings for the earnings quality. The earnings quality had decreased after the IFRS adoption period. This empirical results implied that the earnings quality before the IFRS adoption was higher. This study also had found that the unconditional conservatism positively influenced the earnings quality insignificantly. The findings implied that the implementation of the IFRS had not decreased the unconditional conservatism practice and has not altered the earnings quality of the manufacturing company. Further, we found that the unconditional conservatism did not affect the earnings quality. Eventhough the empirical result shows that the unconditional conservatism gave positive influence to the earnings quality, but the influence was not significant. Thus, we concluded that the implementation of the IFRS did not increase the earnings quality.

Keywords: earnings quality, earnings response coefficient, IFRS Adoption, unconditional conservatism

Procedia PDF Downloads 240

Authors: Michelo Obrey

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Traditionally, mutual funds have long been esteemed as stand-alone entities in the U.S. However, the prevalence of the fund families’ affiliation to financial conglomerates is eroding this striking feature. Mutual fund families' affiliation with financial conglomerates can potentially be an important source of superior performance or cost to the affiliated mutual fund investors. On the one hand, financial conglomerates affiliation offers the mutual funds access to abundant resources, better research quality, private material information, and business connections within the financial group. On the other hand, conflict of interest is bound to arise between the financial conglomerate relationship and fund management. Using a sample of U.S. domestic equity mutual funds from 1994 to 2017, this paper examines whether fund family affiliation to an investment bank help the affiliated mutual funds deliver superior performance through private material information advantage possessed by the investment banks or it costs affiliated mutual fund shareholders due to the conflict of interest. Robust to alternative risk adjustments and cross-section regression methodologies, this paper finds that the investment bank-affiliated mutual funds significantly outperform those of the mutual funds that are not affiliated with an investment bank. Interestingly the paper finds that the outperformance is confined to holding return, a return measure that captures the investment talent that is uninfluenced by transaction costs, fees, and other expenses. Further analysis shows that the investment bank-affiliated mutual funds specialize in hard-to-value stocks, which are not more likely to be held by unaffiliated funds. Consistent with the information advantage hypothesis, the paper finds that affiliated funds holding covered stocks outperform affiliated funds without covered stocks lending no support to the hypothesis that affiliated mutual funds attract superior stock-picking talent. Overall, the paper findings are consistent with the idea that investment banks maximize fee income by monopolistically exploiting their private information, thus strategically transferring performance to their affiliated mutual funds. This paper contributes to the extant literature on the agency problem in mutual fund families. It adds to this stream of research by showing that the agency problem is not only prevalent in fund families but also in financial organizations such as investment banks that have affiliated mutual fund families. The results show evidence of exploitation of synergies such as private material information sharing that benefit mutual fund investors due to affiliation with a financial conglomerate. However, this research has a normative dimension, allowing such incestuous behavior of insider trading and exploitation of superior information not only negatively affect the unaffiliated fund investors but also led to an unfair and unleveled playing field in the financial market.

Keywords: mutual fund performance, conflicts of interest, informational advantage, investment bank

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Zineb Emrane

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This abstract addresses the issue of radicalization of young people in a context with background of radicalization, in North of Morocco, 5 terrorist of Madrid's Attacts on 11th March, were coming from this context. It were developed a study pilot that describing young people perception about the main causes that lead and motivate for radicalization. Whenever we talk about this topic, we obtain information from studies and investigations by specialists in field, but we don’t give voice to the protagonists who in many cases are victims, specifically, young people at social risk because of social factors. Extremist radicalization is an expanding phenomenon, that affect young people, in north of Morocco. They live in a context with radical background and at risk of social exclusion, their social, economic and familiar needs make them vulnerable. The extremist groups take advantage of this vulnerability to involve them in a process of radicalization, offering them an alternative environment where they can found all they are looking for. This study pilot approaches the main causes that lead and motivates young people to become radicals, analyzing their context with emphasis on influencing factors, and bearing in mind the analysis of young people about how the radical background affect them and their opinion this phenomenon. The pilot study was carried out through the following actions: - Group dynamics with young people to analyze the process of violent radicalization of young people. -A participatory workshop with members of organizations that work directly with young people at risk of radicalization. -Interviews with institutional managers -Participant observation. The implementation of actions has led to the conclusion that young people define violent radicalization as a sequential process, depending on the stage, it can be deconstructed. Young people recognize that they stop feeling belonging to their family, school and neighborhood when they see behavior contrary to what they consider good and evil. The emotional rupture and the search for references outside their circle, push them to sympathize with groups that have an extremist ideology and that offer them what they need. The radicalization is a process with different stages, the main causes and the factors which lead young people to use extremist violence are related their low level of belonging feeling to their context, and lack of critical thinking about important issues. The young people are in a vulnerable stage, searching their identity, a space in which they can be accepted, and when they don't find it they are easily manipulated and susceptible to being attracted by extremist groups.

Keywords: exclusion, radicalization, vulnerability, youth

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: A. Fathianpour, M. B. Jelodar, S. Wilkinson

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This paper outlines the approaches taken to assess multi-hazard assessments. There is currently confusion in assessing multi-hazard impacts, and so this study aims to determine which of the available options are the most useful. The paper uses an international literature search, and analysis of current multi-hazard assessments and a case study to illustrate the effectiveness of the chosen method. Findings from this study will help those wanting to assess multi-hazards to undertake a straightforward approach. The paper is significant as it helps to interpret the various approaches and concludes with the preferred method. Many people in the world live in hazardous environments and are susceptible to disasters. Unfortunately, when a disaster strikes it is often compounded by additional cascading hazards, thus people would confront more than one hazard simultaneously. Hazards include natural hazards (earthquakes, floods, etc.) or cascading human-made hazards (for example, Natural Hazard Triggering Technological disasters (Natech) such as fire, explosion, toxic release). Multi-hazards have a more destructive impact on urban areas than one hazard alone. In addition, climate change is creating links between different disasters such as causing landslide dams and debris flows leading to more destructive incidents. Much of the prevailing literature deals with only one hazard at a time. However, recently sophisticated multi-hazard assessments have started to appear. Given that multi-hazards occur, it is essential to take multi-hazard risk assessment under consideration. This paper aims to review the multi-hazard assessment methods through articles published to date and categorize the strengths and disadvantages of using these methods in risk assessment. Napier City is selected as a case study to demonstrate the necessity of using multi-hazard risk assessments. In order to assess multi-hazard risk assessments, first, the current multi-hazard risk assessment methods were described. Next, the drawbacks of these multi-hazard risk assessments were outlined. Finally, the improvements to current multi-hazard risk assessments to date were summarised. Generally, the main problem of multi-hazard risk assessment is to make a valid assumption of risk from the interactions of different hazards. Currently, risk assessment studies have started to assess multi-hazard situations, but drawbacks such as uncertainty and lack of data show the necessity for more precise risk assessment. It should be noted that ignoring or partial considering multi-hazards in risk assessment will lead to an overestimate or overlook in resilient and recovery action managements.

Keywords: cascading hazards, disaster assessment, mullti-hazards, risk assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Harneet Walia, Morteza Zihayat

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Customer acquisition has become one of the critical issues of any business in the 21st century; having a healthy customer base is the essential asset of the bank business. Term deposits act as a major source of cheap funds for the banks to invest and benefit from interest rate arbitrage. To attract customers, the marketing campaigns at most financial institutions consist of multiple outbound telephonic calls with more than one contact to a customer which is a very time-consuming process. Therefore, customized direct marketing has become more critical than ever for attracting new clients. As customer acquisition is becoming more difficult to archive, having an intelligent and redefined list is necessary to sell a product smartly. Our aim of this research is to increase the effectiveness of campaigns by predicting customers who will most likely subscribe to the fixed deposit and suggest the most suitable month to reach out to customers. We design a Time Aware Upsell Prediction Framework (TAUPF) using two different approaches, with an aim to find the best approach and technique to build the prediction model. TAUPF is implemented using Upsell Prediction Approach (UPA) and Clustered Upsell Prediction Approach (CUPA). We also address the data imbalance problem by examining and comparing different methods of sampling (Up-sampling and down-sampling). Our results have shown building such a model is quite feasible and profitable for the financial institutions. The Time Aware Upsell Prediction Framework (TAUPF) can be easily used in any industry such as telecom, automobile, tourism, etc. where the TAUPF (Clustered Upsell Prediction Approach (CUPA) or Upsell Prediction Approach (UPA)) holds valid. In our case, CUPA books more reliable. As proven in our research, one of the most important challenges is to define measures which have enough predictive power as the subscription to a fixed deposit depends on highly ambiguous situations and cannot be easily isolated. While we have shown the practicality of time-aware upsell prediction model where financial institutions can benefit from contacting the customers at the specified month, further research needs to be done to understand the specific time of the day. In addition, a further empirical/pilot study on real live customer needs to be conducted to prove the effectiveness of the model in the real world.

Keywords: customer acquisition, predictive analysis, targeted marketing, time-aware analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Ni Zhenyu

Abstract:

A human settlement is defined as the social activities, social relationships and lifestyles generated within a certain territory, which is also relatively independent territorial living space and domain composed of common people. Along with the advancement of technology and the development of society, the idea, presented in traditional research, that human settlements are deemed as substantial organic integrity with strong autonomy, are more often challenged nowadays. Spatial form of human settlements is one of the most outstanding external expressions with its subjectivity and autonomy, nevertheless, the projections of social, economic activities on certain territories are even more significant. What exactly is the relationship between human beings and the spatial form of the settlements where they live in? a question worth thinking over has been raised, that if a new view, a spatial anthropological one , can be constructed to review and respond to spatial form of human settlements based on research theories and methods of cultural anthropology within the profession of architecture. This article interprets how the typical spatial form of human settlements in the basin area of Bac Giang Province is formed under the collective impacts of local social order, land use condition, topographic features, and social contracts. A particular case of the settlement in Sizhai Village, City of Zhuji, Zhejiang Province is chosen to study for research purpose. Spatial form of human settlements are interpreted as a modeled integrity affected corporately by dominant economy, social patterns, key symbol marks and core values, etc.. Spatial form of human settlements, being a structured existence, is a materialized, behavioral, and social space; it can be considered as a place where human beings realize their behaviors and a path on which the continuity of their behaviors are kept, also for social practice a territory where currant social structure and social relationships are maintained, strengthened and rebuilt. This article aims to break the boundary of understanding that spatial form of human settlements is pure physical space, furthermore, endeavors to highlight the autonomy status of human beings, focusing on their relationships with certain territories, their interpersonal relationships, man-earth relationships and the state of existence of human beings, elaborating the deeper connotation behind spatial form of human settlements.

Keywords: spatial anthropology, human settlement, spatial pattern, spatial structure

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Authors: Suaka Yaro

Abstract:

This article provides an alternative examination of the causes and the ramifications of the Ivorian political conflict from 2002 to 2009. The researcher employed a constructivist epistemology and qualitative study based upon fieldwork in different African cities interviewing Ivorians outside and within Ivory Coast. A purposive sampling of fourteen participants was selected. A purposive sampling was used to select fourteen respondents. The respondents were selected based on their involvement in Ivorian conflict. Their experiences on the causes and effects of the conflict were tapped for analysis. Qualitative methodology was used for the study. The data collection instruments were semi-structured interview questions, open-ended semi-structured questionnaire, and documentary analysis. The perceptions of these participants on the causes, effects and the possible solution to the endemic conflict in their homeland hold key perspectives that have hitherto been ignored in the whole debate about the Ivorian political conflict and its legacies. Finally, from the synthesized findings of the investigation, the researcher concluded that the analysed data revealed that the causes of the conflict were competition for scarce resources, bad governance, media incitement, xenophobia, incessant political power struggle and the proliferation of small firearms entering the country. The effects experienced during the conflict were the human rights violation, destruction of property including UN premises and displaced people both internally and externally. Some recommendations made include: Efforts should be made by the government to strengthen good relationship among different ethnic groups and help them adapt to new challenges that confront democratic developments in the country. The government should organise the South African style of Truth and Reconciliation Commission to revisit the horrors of the past in order to heal wounds and prevent future occurrence of the conflict. Employment opportunities and other income generating ventures for Ivorian should be created by the government by attracting local and foreign investors. The numerous rebels should be given special skills training in other for them to be able to live among the communities in Ivory Coast. Government of national unity should be encouraged in situation like this.

Keywords: displaced, federalism, pluralism, identity politics, grievance, eligibility, greed

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