Search results for: ratio of investment

Authors: Mustafa Metin Donma, Orkide Donma

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Obesity in children particularly draws attention because it may threaten the individual’s future life due to many chronic diseases it may lead to. Most of these diseases, including obesity itself altogether are related to inflammation. For this reason, inflammation-related parameters gain importance. Within this context, complete blood cell counts, ratios or indices derived from these counts have recently found some platform to be used as inflammatory markers. So far, mostly adipokines were investigated within the field of obesity. The liver is at the center of the metabolic pathways network. Metabolic inflammation is closely associated with cellular dysfunction. In this study, hematologic inflammatory markers and two major hepatokines, cytokines produced predominantly by the liver, fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) and fetuin A were investigated in pediatric obesity. Two groups were constituted from seventy-six obese children based on World Health Organization criteria. Group 1 was composed of children whose age- and sex-adjusted body mass index (BMI) percentiles were between 95 and 99. Group 2 consists of children who are above the 99ᵗʰ percentile. The first and the latter groups were defined as obese (OB) and morbid obese (MO). Anthropometric measurements of the children were performed. Informed consent forms and the approval of the institutional ethics committee were obtained. Blood cell counts and ratios were determined by an automated hematology analyzer. The related ratios and indexes were calculated. Statistical evaluation of the data was performed by the SPSS program. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of neutrophil-to lymphocyte ratio, monocyte-to-high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio between the groups. Mean platelet volume and platelet distribution width values were decreased (p<0.05), total platelet count, red cell distribution width (RDW) and systemic immune inflammation index values were increased (p<0.01) in MO group. Both hepatokines were increased in the same group; however, increases were not statistically significant. In this group, also a strong correlation was calculated between FGF-21 and RDW when controlled by age, hematocrit, iron and ferritin (r=0.425; p<0.01). In conclusion, the association between RDW, a hematologic inflammatory marker, and FGF-21, an inflammation-related hepatokine, found in MO group is an important finding discriminating between OB and MO children. This association is even more powerful when controlled by age and iron-related parameters.

Keywords: childhood obesity, fetuin A , fibroblast growth factor-21, hematologic markers, red cell distribution width

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Authors: Zubair Khaliq, M. Bilal Qadir, Amir Shahzad, Zulfiqar Ali, Ahsan Nazir, Ali Afzal, Abdul Jabbar

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Carbon fibers are one of the most demanding materials on earth due to their potential application in energy, high strength materials, and conductive materials. The nanostructure of carbon fibers offers enhanced properties of conductivity due to the larger surface area. The next generation carbon nanofibers demand the porous structure as it offers more surface area. Multiple techniques are used to produce carbon fibers. However, electrospinning followed by carbonization of the polymeric materials is easy to carry process on a laboratory scale. Also, it offers multiple diversity of changing parameters to acquire the desired properties of carbon fibers. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is the most used material for the production of carbon fibers due to its promising processing parameters. Also, cellulose is one of the highest yield producers of carbon fibers. However, the electrospinning of cellulosic materials is difficult due to its rigid chain structure. The combination of PAN and cellulose can offer a suitable solution for the production of carbon fibers. Both materials are miscible in the mixed solvent of N, N, Dimethylacetamide and lithium chloride. This study focuses on the production of porous carbon fibers as a function of PAN/Cellulose blend ratio, solution properties, and electrospinning parameters. These single polymer and blend with different ratios were electrospun to give fine fibers. The higher amount of cellulose offered more difficulty in electrospinning of nanofibers. After carbonization, the carbon fibers were studied in terms of their blend ratio, surface area, and texture. Cellulose contents offered the porous structure of carbon fibers. Also, the presence of LiCl contributed to the porous structure of carbon fibers.

Keywords: cellulose, polyacrylonitrile, carbon nanofibers, electrospinning, blend

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Authors: Najmeh Arabnejad, Mohammad Hossein Yousefi

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The risk of injuring is possible in most sports. These injuries are inevitable in contact sports. Since sports injuries result in financial, physical, physiological and social problems for most athletes and endanger their professional future, studying the happening of sports injuries in sports changes to an important issue. This study can be conducted through different aspects including psychological, pathological, social, managerial, etc. Therefore, the present study was designed and conducted with the aim Survey of Sports Injuries In Ten Sports from 2006 to 2011.This descriptive study was carried out in a documentary form. Thus, data related to sports insurance and sport injuries happened in soccer, volleyball, basketball, handball, badminton, karate, track and field, taekwondo, gymnastics and wrestling was collected from Sports Medical Board of Kerman Province, as the largest province in Iran, and then was analyzed. Data collection method was library one. Furthermore, information related to 210406 insured athletes was analyzed using Descriptive Statistical Indexes in the level mean and SPSS20 Software. The research findings showed that the number of male athletes who injured was higher than female athletes in most sports within various years. Soccer, karate, volleyball, wrestling, handball, taekwondo, gymnastics, basketball, track and field, and badminton had the most injuries, respectively. Moreover, the number of injured athletes and their ratio to insured ones during six years were studied; in general, an increase in ratio of sports injuries was observed. Thus, upward movement of sports injuries in different sports, as the results of this study confirm it, is a warning which results in losing young forces and wasting of sports potential in Iran.

Keywords: sports, sports injuries, survey, Kerman

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Authors: Yunmi Park, Mahn-Jo Kim

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The purpose of this research is to find out the effect of raising poultry in environment-friendly producing area to fruit quality and crop within chestnut tree yield. This study was conducted on chestnut tree cultivation sites raising poultry at intervals of five to ten days for three years in the mountainous area which was located in the middle corner of Chungcheongbuk-do province, Korea. The quality of chestnut fruit and the control effects of harmful insects have been investigated between the sites raising poultry and control sites for three years. As a result, the harvest yielded were two to five kilograms higher in the chestnut tree cultivation sites raising poultry compared with the control site without poultry. Also, for the purposes of determining the price when selling, the ratio of the biggest fruit is higher by 3% to 14% in the chestnut tree cultivation sites raising poultry. In order to investigate the effects of pest control through raising poultry, the ratio of harmful insect species to treatment sites was relatively low compared to control site. The appreciable result is that the control effect of larvae of the chestnut leaf-cut weevil was higher in the position where raising the poultry of 4 to 5 weeks compared to the position where raising the poultry of 12 weeks. This study found that the spread of poultry in the cultivation of chestnut trees increased the fruit quality by improving the size of fruits and lowering the dosage of harmful insect, chestnut leaf-cut weevil. Also, the eco-friendly chicken produced by these mountainous regions is expected to contribute to enhancing the incomes of the farmers by differentiating themselves from existing products.

Keywords: chestnut tree, environment-friendly, fruit quality, raising poultry

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Authors: Samita Sondhi, Sachin Kumar, Chirag Chopra

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The increase in population has resulted in an excessive feedstock production, which has in return lead to the accumulation of a large amount of waste from different resources as crop residues, industrial waste and solid municipal waste. This situation has raised the problem of waste disposal in present days. A parallel problem of depletion of natural fossil fuel resources has led to the formation of alternative sources of energy from the waste of different industries to concurrently resolve the two issues. The biogas is a carbon neutral fuel which has applications in transportation, heating and power generation. India is a nation that has an agriculture-based economy and agro-residues are a significant source of organic waste. Taking into account, the second largest agro-based industry that is sugarcane industry producing a high quantity of sugar and sugarcane waste byproducts such as Bagasse, Press Mud, Vinasse and Wastewater. Currently, there are not such efficient disposal methods adopted at large scales. According to manageability objectives, anaerobic digestion can be considered as a method to treat organic wastes. Press mud is lignocellulosic biomass and cannot be accumulated for Mono digestion because of its complexity. Prior investigations indicated that it has a potential for production of biogas. But because of its biological and elemental complexity, Mono-digestion was not successful. Due to the imbalance in the C/N ratio and presence of wax in it can be utilized with any other fibrous material hence will be digested properly under suitable conditions. In the first batch of Mono-digestion of Pressmud biogas production was low. Now, co-digestion of Pressmud with Bagasse which has desired C/N ratio will be performed to optimize the ratio for maximum biogas from Press mud. In addition, with respect to supportability, the main considerations are the monetary estimation of item result and ecological concerns. The work is designed in such a way that the waste from the sugar industry will be digested for maximum biogas generation and digestive after digestion will be characterized for its use as a bio-fertilizer for soil conditioning. Due to effectiveness demonstrated by studied setups of Mono-digestion and Co-digestion, this approach can be considered as a viable alternative for lignocellulosic waste disposal and in agricultural applications. Biogas produced from the Pressmud either can be used for Powerhouses or transportation. In addition, the work initiated towards the development of waste disposal for energy production will demonstrate balanced economy sustainability of the process development.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, carbon neutral fuel, press mud, lignocellulosic biomass

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Authors: Hyeonseok Yoo, Kiseok Oh, Jinsub Choi

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Titanium oxide nanotubes have attracted great attention because of its photocatalytic activity and large surface area. For enhancing electrochemical properties, catalysts should be doped into the structure because titanium oxide nanotubes themselves have low electroconductivity and catalytic activity. It has been reported that Ru and Ir doped titanium oxide electrodes exhibit high efficiency and low overpotential in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for water splitting. In general, titanium oxide nanotubes with high aspect ratio cannot be easily doped by conventional complex methods. Herein, two types of facile routes, namely single step anodization and potential shock, for Ru doping into high aspect ratio titanium oxide nanotubes are introduced in detail. When single step anodization was carried out, stability of electrodes were increased. However, onset potential was shifted to anodic direction. On the other hand, when high potential shock voltage was applied, a large amount of ruthenium/ruthenium oxides were doped into titanium oxide nanotubes and thick barrier oxide layers were formed simultaneously. Regardless of doping routes, ruthenium/ ruthenium oxides were homogeneously doped into titanium oxide nanotubes. In spite of doping routes, doping in aqueous solution generally led to incorporate high amount of Ru in titanium oxide nanotubes, compared to that in non-aqueous solution. The amounts of doped catalyst were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The optimum condition for water splitting was investigated in terms of the amount of doped Ru and thickness of barrier oxide layer.

Keywords: doping, potential shock, single step anodization, titanium oxide nanotubes

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Authors: Ambika Roy Bardhan

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Kolkata, the City of Joy, is a greying metropolis not only in respect of its concrete jungle but also because of the largest population of 60-plus residents that it shelters among all other cities in India. Declining birth and death rates and a negative growth of population indicate that the city has reached the last stage of demographic transition. Thus, the obvious consequence has been the ageing of its population. With this background, the present paper attempts to study the demographic and socio-economic status of the elderly population in Kolkata. Analysis and findings have been based on secondary data obtained from Census of India of various years, Sample Registration System Reports and reports by HelpAge India. Findings show that the elderly population is increasing continuously. With respect to gender, the male elderly outnumbers the female elderly population. The percentage of households having one elderly member is more in the city due to the emergence of the nuclear families and erosion of joint family system. With respect to socio-economic status, those elderly who are the heads of the family are lower in percentages than those in the other age groups. Also, male elderly as head of the family are greater in percentage than female elderly. Elderly in the category of currently married records the highest percentage followed by widowed, never married and lastly, separated or divorced. Male elderly outnumber the female elderly as currently married, while female elderly outnumbers the male elderly in the category of widowed. In terms of living status, the percentage of elderly who are living alone is highest in Kolkata and the reason for staying alone as no support from children also happens to be highest in this city. The literacy rate and higher level of education is higher among the male than female elderly. Higher percentages of female elderly have been found to be with disability. Disability in movement and multiple disabilities have been found to be more common among the elderly population in Kolkata. Percentages of male literate pensioners are highest than other categories. Also, in terms of levels of education male elderly who are graduate and above other than technical degree are the highest receivers of pension. Also, in terms of working status, elderly as non-workers are higher in percentages with the population of elderly females outnumbering the males. The old age dependency ratio in the city is increasing continuously and the ratio is higher among females than male. Thus, it can be stated that Kolkata is witnessing continuous and rapid ageing of its population. Increasing dependency ratio is likely to create pressure on the working population, available civic, social and health amenities. This requires intervention in the form of planning, formulation and implementation of laws, policies, programs and measures to safeguard and improve the conditions of the elderly in Kolkata.

Keywords: demographic, elderly, population, socio-economic

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Authors: Garima Singh

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Objectives: Behavioral Crisis Center (BCC) is a community solution to a community problem. There has been an exponential increase in the incidence and prevalence of mental health crises around the world. The effects of the crisis negatively impact our patients and their families and strain the law enforcement and emergency room. The goal of the multi-disciplinary care model is to break the crisis cycle and provide 24-7 rapid access to an acre and crisis stabilization. We initiated our first BCC care center in 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic and have seen a remarkable improvement in patient ‘care and positive financial outcome. Background: Mental illnesses are common in the United States. Nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (52.9 million in 2020). This number represented 21.0% of all U.S. adults. To address some of these challenges and help our community, In May 2020, we opened our first Behavioral crisis center (BCC). Since then, we have served more than 2500 patients and is the first southwest Missouri’s first 24/7 facility for crisis–level behavioral health and substance use needs. It has been proven to be a more effective place than emergency departments, jails, or local law enforcement. Methods: BCC was started in 2020 to serve the unmet need of the community and provide access to behavioral health and substance use services identified in the community. Funding was possible with significant investment from the county and Missouri Foundation for Health, with contributions from medical partners. It is a multi-disciplinary care center consisting of Physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, behavioral technicians, peer support specialists, clinical intake specialists, and clinical coordinators and hospitality specialists. The center provides services including psychiatry care, outpatient therapy, community support services, primary care, peer support and engagement. It is connected to a residential treatment facility for substance use treatment for continuity of care and bridging the gap, which has resulted in the completion of treatment and better outcomes. Results: BCC has proven to be a great resource to the community and the Missouri Health Coalition is providing funding to replicate the model in other regions and work on a similar model for children and adolescents. Overall, 29% of the patients seen at BCC are stabilized and discharged with outpatient care. 50% needed acute stabilization in a hospital setting and 21% required long-term admission, mostly for substance use treatment. The local emergency room had a 42% reduction in behavioral health encounters compared to the previous 3 years. Also, by a quick transfer to BCC, the average stay in ER was reduced by 10 hours and time to follow up behavioral health assessment decreased by an average of 4 hours. Uninsured patients are also provided Medicaid application assistance which has benefited 55% of individuals receiving care at BCC. Conclusions: BCC is impacting community health and improving access to quality care and substance use treatment. It is a great investment for our patients and families.

Keywords: BCC, behvaioral health, community health care, addiction treatment

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Authors: Tatiana Ponomarenko, Oksana Marinina, Marina Nevskaya

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Modern corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a sphere of multilevel responsibility of a company toward society represented by various stakeholders. The relevance of CSR management grows due to the active development of socially responsible investing (principles for responsible investment) taking into account factors of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), growing attention of the investment community in general to the long-term stability of companies and the quality of control of nonfinancial risks. The modern approach to CSR strategic management is aimed at the creation of trustful relationships with stakeholders, on the basis of which a contribution to the sustainable development of companies, regions, and national economics is insured. However, the practical concepts of social responsibility in mining companies are different, which leads to various degrees of application of CSR. A number of companies implement CSR using a traditional (limited) understanding of responsibility toward employees and counteragents, the others understand CSR much wider and try to use leverages of efficient cooperation. As in large mining companies the scope of CSR measures is diverse and characterized by different indices, the study was aimed at evaluating CSR efficiency on the basis of a proprietary methodology and determining the level of development of CSR management in terms of anti-crisis, reactive and proactive development. The methodology of the research includes analysis of integrated global reporting initiative (GRI) reports of large mining companies; choice of most representative sectoral agents by a criterion of the regularity of issuance and publication of reports; calculation of indices of evaluation of CSR level of the selected companies in dynamics. The methodology of evaluation of CSR level is based on a rating score of changes in standard indices of GRI reports by economic, environmental, and social directions. Result. By the results of the analysis, companies of fuel and energy and metallurgic complexes, in overwhelming majority, reflecting three indices out of a wide range of possible indicators of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), were selected for the study. The evaluation of the scopes of CSR of the companies Gazprom, LUKOIL, Metalloinvest, Nornikel, Rosneft, Severstal, SIBUR, SUEK corresponds to the reactive type of development according to a scale of CSR strategic management, which is the average value out of the possible values. The chief drawback is that companies, in the process of analyzing global goals, often choose the goals which relate to their own activities, paying insufficient attention to the interests of the stakeholders inside the country. This fact evidences the necessity of searching for more effective mechanisms of CSR control. Acknowledgment: This article is prepared within grant support of the RFBR, project 19-510-44013 'Development of the concept of mineral resources value formation in the context of sustainable development in resource-oriented economies'.

Keywords: sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, development strategies, efficiency assessment

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Authors: Jiří Kugl

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Typology and specific opportunities of brownfield revitalization are already largely described. Challenges and opportunities that brownfields represent have been adequately studied and presented, as well as specific ways in which these areas can be used or how they are used abroad. In other words, the questions why (revitalize brownfields) and what (we should do with them) are satisfactorily answered, but the question how (we can work with them) is not. This work will focus on answering this question, which will deal with tools that enable the revitalization and rehabilitation projects in the area. Tools can be divided, for example in terms of spatial planning and urban design, from an environmental perspective, from the perspective of cultural heritage protection and from the perspective of investment opportunities. The result is that the issue of brownfields is handled by numerous institutions and instruments. The aim of this paper is to identify, classify and analyze these instruments. Paper will study instruments from other countries with long-term experience with this issue (eg. France, Great Britain, USA, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic) and analyse their contribution and the feasibility of their implementation in other countries.

Keywords: brownfields, revitalization, rehabilitation, tools, urban planning

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Authors: Claudia Marcela Munoz Gonzalez, Diego Fernando Hernandez Losada, Hugo Alberto Herrera Fonseca

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The project owner's role in the public-private investment consists of controlling and verifying the correct execution of the project's objectives and resources. Likewise, it is a discipline little explored in the academic field, whereby this work wishes to contribute with a model of good practices based on the project management methodology proposed by the Project Management Body of Knowledge® Guide. In the same way, highlight what are the controls that an integral project owner should take into account in its exercise and application, through the stages in which its contract runs. This proposal aims to structure its practice and integrate its functions according to a project management methodology. In addition, these practices will be applied in a case study of projects in the agricultural sector, particularly in the construction of irrigation district in Cundinamarca, Colombia.

Keywords: controls, construction of irrigation district, PMBOK®, project owner

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Authors: Elijah Cavan

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In Major League Sports (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL), it is the Front Office Staff (FOS) who make decisions about who plays for their respective team. The FOS bear the brunt of the responsibility for acquiring players through drafting, trading and signing players in free agency while typically contesting with maximum roster salary constraints. The players themselves are volatile assets of these teams- their value fluctuates with age and performance. A simple comparison can be made when viewing players as assets. The problem here is similar to that of optimizing your investment portfolio. The The goal is ultimately to maximize your periodic returns while tolerating a fixed risk (degree of uncertainty/ potential loss). Each franchise may value assets differently, and some may only tolerate lower risk levels- these are examples of factors that introduce additional constraints into the model. In this talk, we will detail the mathematical formulation of this problem as a constrained optimization problem- which can be solved with classical machine learning methods but is also well posed as a problem to be solved on quantum computers

Keywords: optimization, financial mathematics, sports analytics, simulated annealing

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Authors: T. Bouchabchoub, A. Bendahmane, A. Haouriqui, N. Attou

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This paper presents simulation results of Forex predicting model equations in order to give approximately a prevision of interest rates. First, Hall-Taylor (HT) equations have been used with Taylor rule (TR) to adapt them to European and American Forex Markets. Indeed, initial Taylor Rule equation is conceived for all Forex transactions in every States: It includes only one equation and six parameters. Here, the model has been used with Hall-Taylor equations, initially including twelve equations which have been reduced to only three equations. Analysis has been developed on the following base macroeconomic variables: Real change rate, investment wages, anticipated inflation, realized inflation, real production, interest rates, gap production and potential production. This model has been used to specifically study the impact of an inflation shock on macroeconomic director interest rates.

Keywords: interest rate, Forex, Taylor rule, production, European Central Bank (ECB), Federal Reserve System (FED).

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Authors: O. S. Asaolu, A. Bolorunduro

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Background: Unwanted, mistimed and unintended pregnancy is an important public health issue and the most common cause of maternal mortality in developing countries. Unintended pregnancy is a potential hazard for every sexually active woman as it most times ends in unsafe abortion. The study aimed at assessing the pre-conception contraceptive use, prevalence of unintended pregnancies and the non-contraceptive factors associated with unintended pregnancy amongst currently married women in Osun state. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study among randomly selected 341 currently married pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Ilesa town of Osun state was conducted in 5 health facilities. A random selection of 5 of the 22 health facilities in the state was done. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire and all completed questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS. Result: About two-fifth of the currently pregnant women (40%) who has never used an FP method reported that their current pregnancy was unintended. The results indicate that age of women, age at first sex, substance use, total children ever born of children, religion, and extramarital affairs were key predictors of unintended pregnancy. Women who have higher parity are more likely to experience unintended pregnancy compared to women with lower parity (odds ratio, 0.25). Furthermore, those women who don’t engage in extra marital affairs were less likely to experience unintended pregnancy (odds ratio, 0.3) compared to those who do not. Contribution to knowledge: The predicted probability, using logistic regression, has shown that women who engage in extramarital affairs and women with high parity are more likely to have unintended pregnancy. Conclusion: Behaviour change programs should aim to reduce unintended pregnancy by focusing mostly on identified factors so that the need for abortion is decreased and the overall well-being of the family is maintained and enhanced.

Keywords: unintended pregnancy, factors, pregnant women, Nigeria

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Authors: Nisith K. Datta, Rakesh Bharti

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The purpose of the study was to find out the effects of Aquatic and Land plyometric training on selected physical variables in intercollegiate male handball players. To achieve this purpose of the study, forty five handball players of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat were selected as players at random and their age ranged between 18 to 21 years. The selected players were divided into three equal groups of fifteen players each. Group I underwent Aquatic plyometric training, Group II underwent Land plyometric training and Group III Control group for three days per week for twelve weeks. Control Group did not participate in any special training programme apart from their regular activities as per their curriculum. The following physical fitness variables namely speed; leg explosive power and agility were selected as dependent variables. All the players of three groups were tested on selected dependent variables prior to and immediately after the training programme. The analysis of covariance was used to analyze the significant difference, if any among the groups. Since, three groups were compared, whenever the obtained ‘F’ ratio for adjusted post test was found to be significant, the Scheffe’s test to find out the paired mean differences, if any. The 0.05 level of confidence was fixed as the level of significance to test the ‘F’ ratio obtained by the analysis of covariance, which was considered as an appropriate. The result of the study indicates due to Aquatic and Land plyometric training on speed, explosive power, and agility has been improved significantly.

Keywords: aquatic training, explosive power, plyometric training, speed

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Authors: Tarek Sabri Duzan

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Knowledge of the magnitude of Geo-pressures (Pore, Fracture & Over-burden pressures) is vital especially during drilling, completions, stimulations, Enhance Oil Recovery. Many times problems, like lost circulation could have been avoided if techniques for calculating Geo-pressures had been employed in the well planning, mud weight plan, and casing design. In this paper, we focused on the relationships between Geo-pressures and wave velocities (P-Wave (Vp) and S-wave (Vs)) in shallow Libyan carbonate reservoir in the western part of the Sirte Basin (Dahra F-Area). The data used in this report was collected from four new wells recently drilled. Those wells were scattered throughout the interested reservoir as shown in figure-1. The data used in this work are bulk density, Formation Mult -Tester (FMT) results and Acoustic wave velocities. Furthermore, Eaton Method is the most common equation used in the world, therefore this equation has been used to calculate Fracture pressure for all wells using dynamic Poisson ratio calculated by using acoustic wave velocities, FMT results for pore pressure, Overburden pressure estimated by using bulk density. Upon data analysis, it has been found that there is a linear relationship between Geo-pressures (Pore, Fracture & Over-Burden pressures) and wave velocities ratio (Vp/Vs). However, the relationship was not clear in the high-pressure area, as shown in figure-10. Therefore, it is recommended to use the output relationship utilizing the new seismic data for shallow carbonate reservoir to predict the Geo-pressures for future oil operations. More data can be collected from the high-pressure zone to investigate more about this area.

Keywords: bulk density, formation mult-tester (FMT) results, acoustic wave, carbonate shalow reservoir, d/jfield velocities

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Authors: Daniel Mokatsanyane, Johnny Jansen Van Rensburg

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This paper is a concise introduction of the risk management on the water derivatives market. Water, a new commodity in the market, is one of the most important commodity on earth. As important to life and planet as crops, metals, and energy, none of them matters without water. This paper presents a brief overview of water as a tradable commodity via a new first of its kind futures contract on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index (NQH2O) derivative instrument, TheGeneralised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) statistical model will be the used to measure the water price volatility of the instrument and its performance since it’s been traded. describe the main products and illustrate their usage in risk management and also discuss key challenges with modeling and valuation of water as a traded commodity and finally discuss how water derivatives may be taken as an alternative asset investment class.

Keywords: water derivatives, commodity market, nasdaq veles california water Index (NQH2O, water price, risk management

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Authors: Siriporn Okonogi, Pimpak Phumat, Sakornrat Khongkhunthian

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Piper betle has been extensively reported for various pharmacological effects including antimicrobial activity. 4-Allylpyrocatechol (AC) is a principle active compound found in P. betle. However, AC has a problem of solubility in water. The aims of the present study were to prepare AC loaded polymeric micelles for enhancing its water solubility and to evaluate its anti-biofilm activity against oral phathogenic bacteria. AC was loaded in polymeric micelles (PM) of Pluronic F127 by using thin film hydration method to obtain AC loaded PM (PMAC). The results revealed that AC in the form of PMAC possessed high water solubility. PMAC particles were characterized using a transmission electron microscope and photon correlation spectroscopy. Determination of entrapment efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC) of PMAC was done by using high-performance liquid chromatography. The highest EE (86.33 ± 14.27 %) and LC (19.25 ± 3.18 %) of PMAC were found when the weight ratio of polymer to AC was 4 to 1. At this ratio, the particles showed spherical in shape with the size of 38.83 ± 1.36 nm and polydispersity index of 0.28 ± 0.10. Zeta potential of the particles is negative with the value of 16.43 ± 0.55 mV. Crystal violet assay and confocal microscopy were applied to evaluate the effects of PMAC on Streptococcus mutans biofilms using chlorhexidine (CHX) as a positive control. PMAC contained 1.5 mg/mL AC could potentially inhibit (102.01 ± 9.18%) and significantly eradicate (85.05 ± 2.03 %) these biofilms (p < 0.05). Comparison with CHX, PMAC showed slightly similar biofilm inhibition but significantly stronger biofilm eradication (p < 0.05) than CHX. It is concluded that PMAC can enhance water solubility and anti-biofilm activity of AC.

Keywords: pluronic, polymeric micelles, solubility, 4-allylpyrocathecol, Streptococcus mutans, anti-biofilm

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Authors: Koirala Abarodh, Maghaiya Ujjwal, Guragain Phani Raj

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This analysis focuses on defining the spectrum evaluation model for telecom operators in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO). A quantitative approach for specific case analysis research methodology was used for identifying the results. Specific input parameters like target User experience, year on year traffic growth, capacity site limit per year, target additional spectrum type, bandwidth, spectrum efficiency, UE penetration have been used for the spectrum evaluation process and desired outputs in terms of the number of sites, capex in USD and required spectrum bandwidth have been calculated. Furthermore, this study gives a comparison of capex investment for target growth with and without addition spectrum. As a result, the combination of additional spectrum bands of 700 and 2600 MHz has a better evaluation in terms of TCO and performance. It is our recommendation to use these bands for expansion rather than expansion in the current 1800 and 2100 bands.

Keywords: spectrum, capex planning, case study methodology, TCO

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Authors: Reza Behtash, Enayat Enayati

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The pool condenser is in principal a horizontal reactor, containing a bundle of U-tubes for heat exchange, coupling to low pressure steam drum. Condensation of gas takes place in a condensed pool around the tubes of the condenser. The heat of condensation is removed by the generation of low pressure steam on the inner tube side of the bundle. A circulation pump transfers ample boiler feed water to these tubes. The pressure of the steam generated influenced the heat flux. Changing the steam pressure means changing the steam condensate temperature and therefore the temperature difference between the tube side and the shell side. 2NH3 + CO2 ↔ NH2COONH4 + Heat. This reaction is exothermic and according to Le Chatelier's Principle if the heat is not removed enough, it will come back to left side and generate of the gas and so the Urea synthesis pressure will rise. The most principal reasons for high Urea synthesis pressure are non proportional of Ammonia/Dioxide Carbon ratio and too high a pressure in low pressure steam drum. Proportional of Ammonia/Dioxide Carbon ratio is 3.0 and normal pressure for low pressure steam drum is 4.5 bar. As regards these conditions were proportional but we could not control the synthesis pressure the plant endangered, therefore we had to control the steam drum pressure at about 3.5 bar. While we opened the pool condenser, we found the partition plate used to divide inlet and outlet boiler feed water to tubes, was broken partially and so amount of boiler feed water bypass the tubes and the heat was not removed totally and it resulted in the generation of gases and high pressure in synthesis.

Keywords: boiler, pressure, pool condenser, partition plate

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Authors: Katherine Denise Queri

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Around the world, there are many corporations and other business organizations who promote the welfare of the society. They are found inside the communities where they naturally perform work. Their aim is to maximize their respective returns on investment while measuring the impact of their activities on the environment. The Senate in the Philippines formed a bill that seeks to foster sustainable economic and environment development and environment protection, among other things, by institutionalizing the corporate responsibility of corporations, whether domestic and foreign, partnership and other establishment performing business in the country. Under the Senate Bill 1239 or an act institutionalizing corporate social responsibility, providing incentives therefor, and for other purposes, all business organizations are mandated to consider the interest of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, employees, shareholders communities and environment. In return, businesses shall comply with the mandate of this proposed measure shall be entitled to full deductions of the expenses incurred in connection thereto.

Keywords: ateneo, corporate social responsibility (CSR), industrial relations, marketing, up

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Authors: Eyob Seife, Molla Alemayaehu, Tesfalem Teshome, Bereket Seyoum, Behailu Getachew

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Globally, immunization averts between 2 and 3 million deaths yearly, but Vaccine-Preventable Diseases still account for more in Sub-Saharan African countries and takes the majority of under-five deaths yearly, which indicates the need for consistent and on-time information to have evidence-based decision so as to save lives of these vulnerable groups. However, ensuring data of sufficient quality and promoting an information-use culture at the point of collection remains critical and challenging, especially in remote areas where the Ararso district is selected based on a hypothesis of there is a difference in reported and recounted immunization data consistency. Data quality is dependent on different factors where organizational, behavioral, technical and contextual factors are the mentioned ones. A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted on September 2022 in the Ararso district. The study used the world health organization (WHO) recommended data quality self-assessment (DQS) tools. Immunization tally sheets, registers and reporting documents were reviewed at 4 health facilities (1 health center and 3 health posts) of primary health care units for one fiscal year (12 months) to determine the accuracy ratio, availability and timeliness of reports. The data was collected by trained DQS assessors to explore the quality of monitoring systems at health posts, health centers, and at the district health office. A quality index (QI), availability and timeliness of reports were assessed. Accuracy ratios formulated were: the first and third doses of pentavalent vaccines, fully immunized (FI), TT2+ and the first dose of measles-containing vaccines (MCV). In this study, facility-level results showed poor timeliness at all levels and both over-reporting and under-reporting were observed at all levels when computing the accuracy ratio of registration to health post reports found at health centers for almost all antigens verified. A quality index (QI) of all facilities also showed poor results. Most of the verified immunization data accuracy ratios were found to be relatively better than that of quality index and timeliness of reports. So attention should be given to improving the capacity of staff, timeliness of reports and quality of monitoring system components, namely recording, reporting, archiving, data analysis and using information for decisions at all levels, especially in remote and areas.

Keywords: accuracy ratio, ararso district, quality of monitoring system, regular immunization program, timeliness of reports, Somali region-Ethiopia

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Authors: K. A. Sudjatmi, Endiah Puji Hastuti, Surip Widodo, Reinaldy Nazar

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Any pretensions to stop the production of TRIGA fuel elements by TRIGA reactor fuel elements manufacturer should be anticipated by the operating agency of TRIGA reactor to replace the cylinder type fuel element with plate type fuel element, that available on the market. This away was performed the calculation on U3Si2Al fuel with uranium enrichment of 19.75% and a load level of 2.96 gU/cm3. Maximum power that can be operated on free convection cooling mode at the BANDUNG TRIGA reactor fuel plate was 600 kW. This study has been conducted thermalhydraulic characteristic calculation model of the reactor core power 2MW. BANDUNG TRIGA reactor core fueled plate type is composed of 16 fuel elements, 4 control elements and one irradiation facility which is located right in the middle of the core. The reactor core is cooled using a pump which is already available with flow rate 900 gpm. Analysis on forced convection cooling mode with flow from the top down from 10%, 20%, 30% and so on up to a 100% rate of coolant flow. performed using the COOLOD-N2 code. The calculations result showed that the 2 MW power with inlet coolant temperature at 37 °C and cooling rate percentage of 50%, then the coolant temperature, maximum cladding and meat respectively 64.96 oC, 124.81 oC, and 125.08 oC, DNBR (departure from nucleate boiling ratio)=1.23 and OFIR (onset of flow instability ratio)=1:00. The results are expected to be used as a reference for determining the power and cooling rate level of the BANDUNG TRIGA reactor core plate types fueled.

Keywords: TRIGA, COOLOD-N2, plate type fuel element, force convection, thermal hydraulic characteristic

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Authors: Furry A. Wilis, Dewi Larasati, Suhendri

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Around 96% of architecture firms in Indonesia are classified as small-medium enterprises (SME). This number shows that the SME firms have an important role in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in Indonesia. Some of them are still using conventional system (2D based) in arranging construction project documents. This system is fragmented and not fully well-coordinated, so causes many changes in the whole project cycle. Building information modeling (BIM), as a new developed system in Indonesian construction industry, has been assumed can decrease changes in the project. But BIM has not fully implemented in Indonesian AEC industry, especially in SME architecture firms. This article identifies the challenges of implementing BIM in SME architecture firms in Indonesia. Quantitative-explorative research with questionnaire was chosen to achieve the goal of this article. The scarcity of skilled BIM user, low demand from client, high investment cost, and the unwillingness of the firm to switch into BIM were found as the result of this paper.

Keywords: architecture consultants, BIM, SME, Indonesia

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Authors: Ahmed Mateen, Zhu Qingsheng, Muhammad Awais, Muhammad Yahya Saeed

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This paper targets the rising factor of entrepreneurship innovation, which lacks in Pakistan as compared to the other countries or the regions like China, India, and Malaysia, etc. This is an exploratory and explanatory study. Major aspects have identified as the direction for the policymakers while highlighting the issues in true spirit. IT needs to be considered not only as a technology but also as itself growing as a new community. IT management processes are complex and broad, so generally requires extensive attention to the collective aspects of human variables, capital and technology. In addition, projects tend to have a special set of critical success factors, and if these are processed and given attention, it will improve the chances of successful implementation. This is only possible with state of the art intelligent decision support systems and accumulating IT staff to some extent in decision processes. This paper explores this issue carefully and discusses six issues to observe the implemented strength and possible enhancement.

Keywords: security and defense forces, IT-incentives, big IT-players, IT-entrepreneurial-culture

Procedia PDF Downloads 220

Authors: Sofia N. Gonçalves, Duarte M. S. Albuquerque, José C. F. Pereira

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The energy transition is spurred by structural changes in energy demand, supply, and prices. Microwave technology was first proposed as a faster alternative for cooking food. It was found that food heated instantly when interacting with high-frequency electromagnetic waves. The dielectric properties account for a material’s ability to absorb electromagnetic energy and dissipate this energy in the form of heat. Many energy-intense industries could benefit from electromagnetic heating since many of the raw materials are dielectric at high temperatures. Limestone sedimentary rock is a dielectric material intensively used in the cement industry to produce unslaked lime. A numerical 3D model was implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics to study the limestone continuous processing under microwave heating. The model solves the two-way coupling between the Energy equation and Maxwell’s equations as well as the coupling between heat transfer and chemical interfaces. Complementary, a controller was implemented to optimize the overall heating efficiency and control the numerical model stability. This was done by continuously matching the cavity impedance and predicting the required energy for the system, avoiding energy inefficiencies. This controller was developed in MATLAB and successfully fulfilled all these goals. The limestone load influence on thermal decomposition and overall process efficiency was the main object of this study. The procedure considered the Verification and Validation of the chemical kinetics model separately from the coupled model. The chemical model was found to correctly describe the chosen kinetic equation, and the coupled model successfully solved the equations describing the numerical model. The interaction between flow of material and electric field Poynting vector revealed to influence limestone decomposition, as a result from the low dielectric properties of limestone. The numerical model considered this effect and took advantage from this interaction. The model was demonstrated to be highly unstable when solving non-linear temperature distributions. Limestone has a dielectric loss response that increases with temperature and has low thermal conductivity. For this reason, limestone is prone to produce thermal runaway under electromagnetic heating, as well as numerical model instabilities. Five different scenarios were tested by considering a material fill ratio of 30%, 50%, 65%, 80%, and 100%. Simulating the tube rotation for mixing enhancement was proven to be beneficial and crucial for all loads considered. When uniform temperature distribution is accomplished, the electromagnetic field and material interaction is facilitated. The results pointed out the inefficient development of the electric field within the bed for 30% fill ratio. The thermal efficiency showed the propensity to stabilize around 90%for loads higher than 50%. The process accomplished a maximum microwave efficiency of 75% for the 80% fill ratio, sustaining that the tube has an optimal fill of material. Electric field peak detachment was observed for the case with 100% fill ratio, justifying the lower efficiencies compared to 80%. Microwave technology has been demonstrated to be an important ally for the decarbonization of the cement industry.

Keywords: CFD numerical simulations, efficiency optimization, electromagnetic heating, impedance matching, limestone continuous processing

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Authors: Ashkan Ebadi, Andrea Schiffauerova

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Every year, a considerable amount of money is being invested on research, mainly in the form of funding allocated to universities and research institutes. To better distribute the available funds and to set the most proper R&D investment strategies for the future, evaluation of the productivity of the funded researchers and the impact of such funding is crucial. In this paper, using the data on 15 years of journal publications of the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering research Council of Canada) funded researchers and by means of bibliometric analysis, the scientific development of the funded researchers and their scientific collaboration patterns will be investigated in the period of 1996-2010. According to the results it seems that there is a positive relation between the average level of funding and quantity and quality of the scientific output. In addition, whenever funding allocated to the researchers has increased, the number of co-authors per paper has also augmented. Hence, the increase in the level of funding may enable researchers to get involved in larger projects and/or scientific teams and increase their scientific output respectively.

Keywords: bibliometrics, collaboration, funding, productivity

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Authors: Guermache Ahmed Chafik, Khelfellah Ismail, Ait-Ali Takfarines

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The Savonius vertical axis wind turbine is characterized by sufficient starting torque at low wind speeds, simple design and does not require orientation to the wind direction; however, the developed power is lower than other types of wind turbines such as Darrieus. To increase these performances several studies and researches have been developed, such as optimizing blades shape, using passive controls and also minimizing power losses sources like the resisting torque due to friction. This work aims to estimate the performance of a Savonius wind turbine introducing a User Defined Function to the CFD model analyzing resisting torque. This User Defined Function is developed to simulate the action of the wind speed on the rotor; it receives the moment coefficient as an input to compute the rotational velocity that should be imposed on computational domain rotating regions. The rotational velocity depends on the aerodynamic moment applied on the turbine and the resisting torque, which is considered a linear function. Linking the implemented User Defined Function with the CFD solver allows simulating the real functioning of the Savonius turbine exposed to wind. It is noticed that the wind turbine takes a while to reach the stationary regime where the rotational velocity becomes invariable; at that moment, the tip speed ratio, the moment and power coefficients are computed. To validate this approach, the power coefficient versus tip speed ratio curve is compared with the experimental one. The obtained results are in agreement with the available experimental results.

Keywords: resistant torque modeling, Savonius wind turbine, user-defined function, vertical axis wind turbine performances

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Ping Li, Bing Feng, Junpu Zhao, Xudong Xie, Dangpeng Xu, Kuixing Zheng, Qihua Zhu, Xiaofeng Wei

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In laser driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the control of the temporal shape of the laser pulse is a key point to ensure an optimal interaction of laser-target. One of the main difficulties in controlling the temporal shape is the foot part control accuracy of high contrast pulse. Based on the analysis of pulse perturbation in the process of amplification and frequency conversion in high power lasers, an approach of beam spatio-temporal multiplexing is proposed to improve the control precision of high contrast pulse. In the approach, the foot and peak part of high contrast pulse are controlled independently, which propagate separately in the near field, and combine together in the far field to form the required pulse shape. For high contrast pulse, the beam area ratio of the two parts is optimized, and then beam fluence and intensity of the foot part are increased, which brings great convenience to the control of pulse. Meanwhile, the near field distribution of the two parts is also carefully designed to make sure their F-numbers are the same, which is another important parameter for laser-target interaction. The integrated calculation results show that for a pulse with a contrast of up to 500, the deviation of foot part can be improved from 20% to 5% by using beam spatio-temporal multiplexing approach with beam area ratio of 1/20, which is almost the same as that of peak part. The research results are expected to bring a breakthrough in power balance of high power laser facility.

Keywords: inertial confinement fusion, laser pulse control, beam spatio-temporal multiplexing, power balance

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Zhou Yingkun, Xu Guorui, Wei Siming, Huang Yongzhang

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With the increasing of the penetration of renewable energy in power system, the whole inertia of the power system is declining, which will endanger the frequency stability of the power system. In order to enhance the inertia, virtual synchronous generator (VSG) has been proposed. In addition, the motor-generator pair (MGP) system is proposed to enhance grid inertia. Both of them need additional equipment to provide instantaneous energy, so the economic problem should be considered. In this paper, the basic working principle of MGP system and VSG are introduced firstly. Then, the technical characteristics and economic investment of MGP/VSG are compared by calculation and simulation. The results show that the MGP system can provide same inertia with less cost than VSG.

Keywords: high renewable energy penetration, inertia of power system, motor-generator pair (MGP) system, virtual synchronous generator (VSG), techno-economic analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 452