Search results for: aerial parts of Tanacetum balsamita balsamita L.
1203 Rare Earth Elements and Radioactivity of Granitoid Rocks at Abu Marw Area, South Eastern Desert, Egypt
Authors: Adel H.El-Afandy, Abd Alrahman Embaby, Mona A. El Harairey
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Abu Marw area is located in the southeastern part of the Eastern Desert, about 150km south east of Aswan. Abu Marw area is mainly covered by late Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks. These basement rocks are nonconformably overlain by late Cretaceous Nubian sandstones in the western and northern parts of the areas. Abu Marw granitoid batholiths comprises a co-magmatic calc alkaline I type peraluminous suite of rocks ranging in composition from tonalite, granodiorite, monzogranite, syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The studied tonalite and granodiorite samples have ΣREE lower than the average REE values (250ppm) of granitic rocks, while the monzogranite, syenogranite and alkali feldspar granite samples have ΣREE above the average REE values of granitic rocks. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns of the considered granites display a gull-wing shape, characterized by large to moderately fractionated patterns and high LREE relative to the MREE and HREE contents. Furthermore, the studied rocks have a steadily decreasing Eu/Eu* values from the tonalite to the alkali feldspar granite with simultaneous increase in the ΣREE contents. The average U contents in different granitic rocks.Keywords: granite, rare earth element, radioactivity, Abu Marw, south eastern desert
Procedia PDF Downloads 4271202 Securing the Electronic Commerce - The Way Forward: A Comparative Ananlysis
Authors: Sarthak Mishra, Astha Sinha
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There’s no doubt about the convenience of making commercial and business transactions over the Internet under the new business model known as the e-Commerce. The term 'Electronic commerce' or e-Commerce refers to the use of an electronic medium to carry out commercial transactions. E-Commerce is one of the parts of Information Science framework and its uses are gradually becoming popular. Thus, the threat of security issues in Information Science has now become an important subject of discussion amongst the concerned users. These two issues i.e. security and privacy are required to be looked into through social, organizational, technical and economic perspectives. The current paper analyses the effect of these two issues in the arena of e-commerce. Here, no specification has been discussed rather an attempt has been made to provide a general overview. Further, attempts have been made to discuss the security and privacy issues in relation to the E-Commerce financial transactions. We shall also discuss in particular different steps required to be taken before online shopping and also shall discuss the purpose of security and privacy in E-Commerce and why it has currently become the need of the present hour. Lastly, an attempt has been made to discuss the plausible future course of development of this practice and its impact upon the global economy and if any changes should be bought about to ensure a smooth evolution of the practice. This paper has adopted a descriptive methodology to undertake its major area of study, wherein the major source of information has been via the secondary resources. Also, the study is of a comparative nature wherein the position of the various national regimes have compared with regards to the research question.Keywords: business-business transaction (B2B), business-consumer transaction (B2C), e-commerce, online transaction, privacy and security threats
Procedia PDF Downloads 2321201 Performance Evaluation of Adsorption Refrigerating Systems
Authors: Nadia Allouache, Omar Rahli
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Many promising technologies have been developed to harness the sun's energy. These technologies help in economizing energy and environmental protection. The solar refrigerating systems are one of these important technologies. In addition to environmental benefits and energy saving, adsorption refrigerating systems have many advantages such as lack of moving parts, simplicity of construction and low operating costs. The work aimed to establish the main factors that affect the performances of an adsorption refrigerating system using different geometries of adsorbers and different adsorbent-adsorbate pairs. The numerical modeling of the heat and mass transfer in the system, using various working pairs, such as: activated carbon-ammonia, calcium chlorid-ammonia, activated carbon fiber- methanol and activated carbon AC35-methanol, show that the adsorber design can influence the system performances; The thermal performances of system are better in the annular configuration case. An optimal value of generating temperature is observed in annular adsorber case for which the thermal performance of the cooling system is maximal. While in the plate adsorber, above a certain value of generating temperature, the performance of the system remains almost constant. The environmental conditions such as solar radiation and pressure have a great influence in the system efficiency, and the choice of the working pair depends on the environmental conditions and the geometry of the adsorber.Keywords: adsorber geometry, numerical modeling, optimal environmental conditions, working pairs.
Procedia PDF Downloads 791200 Technological Challenges for First Responders in Civil Protection; the RESPOND-A Solution
Authors: Georgios Boustras, Cleo Varianou Mikellidou, Christos Argyropoulos
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Summer 2021 was marked by a number of prolific fires in the EU (Greece, Cyprus, France) as well as outside the EU (USA, Turkey, Israel). This series of dramatic events have stretched national civil protection systems and first responders in particular. Despite the introduction of National, Regional and International frameworks (e.g. rescEU), a number of challenges have arisen, not only related to climate change. RESPOND-A (funded by the European Commission by Horizon 2020, Contract Number 883371) introduces a unique five-tier project architectural structure for best associating modern telecommunications technology with novel practices for First Responders of saving lives, while safeguarding themselves, more effectively and efficiently. The introduced architecture includes Perception, Network, Processing, Comprehension, and User Interface layers, which can be flexibly elaborated to support multiple levels and types of customization, so, the intended technologies and practices can adapt to any European Environment Agency (EEA)-type disaster scenario. During the preparation of the RESPOND-A proposal, some of our First Responder Partners expressed the need for an information management system that could boost existing emergency response tools, while some others envisioned a complete end-to-end network management system that would offer high Situational Awareness, Early Warning and Risk Mitigation capabilities. The intuition behind these needs and visions sits on the long-term experience of these Responders, as well, their smoldering worry that the evolving threat of climate change and the consequences of industrial accidents will become more frequent and severe. Three large-scale pilot studies are planned in order to illustrate the capabilities of the RESPOND-A system. The first pilot study will focus on the deployment and operation of all available technologies for continuous communications, enhanced Situational Awareness and improved health and safety conditions for First Responders, according to a big fire scenario in a Wildland Urban Interface zone (WUI). An important issue will be examined during the second pilot study. Unobstructed communication in the form of the flow of information is severely affected during a crisis; the flow of information between the wider public, from the first responders to the public and vice versa. Call centers are flooded with requests and communication is compromised or it breaks down on many occasions, which affects in turn – the effort to build a common operations picture for all firstr esponders. At the same time the information that reaches from the public to the operational centers is scarce, especially in the aftermath of an incident. Understandably traffic if disrupted leaves no other way to observe but only via aerial means, in order to perform rapid area surveys. Results and work in progress will be presented in detail and challenges in relation to civil protection will be discussed.Keywords: first responders, safety, civil protection, new technologies
Procedia PDF Downloads 1421199 Influence of Aluminum Content on the Microstructural, Mechanical and Tribological Properties of TiAlN Coatings for Using in Dental and Surgical Instrumentation
Authors: Hernan D. Mejia, Gilberto B. Gaitan, Mauricio A. Franco
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420 steel is normally used in the manufacture of dental and surgical instrumentation, as well as parts in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries, among others, where they must withstand heavy loads and often be in contact with corrosive environments, which leads to wear and deterioration of these steels in relatively short times. In the case of medical applications, the instruments made of this steel also suffer wear and corrosion during the repetitive sterilization processes due to the relatively low achievable hardness of just 50 HRC and its hardly acceptable resistance to corrosion. In order to improve the wear resistance of 420 steel, TiAlN coatings were deposited, increasing the aluminum content in the alloy by varying the power applied to the aluminum target of 900, 1100, and 1300 W. Evaluations using XRD, Micro Raman, XPS, AFM, SEM, and TEM showed a columnar growth crystal structure with an average thickness of 2 microns and consisting of the TiN and TiAlN phases, whose roughness and grain size decrease with a higher Al content. The AlN phase also appears in the sample deposited at 1300W. The hardness, determined by nanoindentation, initially increases with the aluminum content from 9.7 GPa to 17.1 GPa, but then decreases to 15.4 GPa for the sample with the highest aluminum content due to the appearance of hexagonal AlN and a decrease of harder TiN and TiAlN phases. It was observed that the wear coefficient had a contrary behavior, which took values of 2.7; 1.7 and 6.6x10⁻⁶ mm³/N.m, respectively. All the coated samples significantly improved the wear resistance of the uncoated 420 steel.Keywords: hard coatings, magnetron sputtering, TiAlN coatings, surgical instruments, wear resistance
Procedia PDF Downloads 1241198 Antiinflammatory and Wound Healing Activity of Sedum Essential Oils Growing in Kazakhstan
Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina
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The last decade the growth of severe and disseminated forms of inflammatory diseases is observed in Kazakhstan, in particular, septic shock, which progresses on 3-15% of patients with infectious complications of postnatal period. In terms of the rate of occurrence septic shock takes third place after hemorrhagic and cardiovascular shock, in terms of lethality it takes first place. The structure of obstetric sepsis has significantly changed. Currently the first place is taken by postabortive sepsis (40%) that is connected with usage of imperfect methods of artificial termination of pregnancy in late periods (intraamnial injection of sodium chloride, glucose). The second place is taken by postnatal sepsis (32%); the last place is taken by septic complications of caesarean section (28%). In this connection, search for and assessment of effectiveness of new medicines for treatment of postoperative infectious complications, having biostimulating effect and speeding up regeneration processes, is very promising and topical. Essential oil was obtained by the method hydrodistillation air-dry aerial part of Sedum L. plants using Clevenger apparatus. Pilot batch of plant medicinal product based on Sedum essential oils was produced by Chimpharm JSC, Santo Member of Polpharma Group (Kazakhstan). During clinical test of the plant medicinal product based on Sedum L. essential oils 37 female patients at the age from 35 to 57 with clinical signs of complicated postoperative processes and 12 new mothers with clinical signs of inflammatory process on sutures on anterior abdominal wall after caesarean section and partial disruption of surgical suture line on perineum were examined. Medicine usage methods - surgical wound treatment 2 times a day, treatment with other medicines of local action was not performed. Before and after treatment general clinical test, determination of immune status, bacterioscopic test of wound fluid was performed to all women, medical history data was taken into account, wound cleansing and healing time, full granulations, side effects and complications, satisfaction with the used medicine was assessed. On female patients with inflammatory infiltration and partial disruption of surgical suture line anesthetic wound healing effect of plant medicinal product based on Sedum L. essential oils was observed as early as on the second day after beginning of using it, wound cleansing took place, as a rule, within the first row days. Hyperemia in the area of suture line also was not observed for 2-3-d day of usage of medicine, good constant course was observed. The absence of clinical effect on this group of patients was not registered. The represented data give evidence of that clinical effect was accompanied with normalization of changed laboratory findings. No allergic responses or side effects were observed during usage of the plant medicinal products based on Sedum L. essential oils.Keywords: antiinflammatory, bioactive substances, essential oils, isolation, sedum L., wound healing
Procedia PDF Downloads 2681197 Resort to Religious and Faith Healing Practices in the Pathway to Care for Mental Illness: A Study among Mappila Muslims of Malabar, Kerala
Authors: K. P. Farsana
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Belief in supernatural causation of mental illnesses and resort to religious and faith healing as the method of intervention still continue in many parts of the world. The proposed study intended to find out the belief and causation on health and illness and utilization of religious and faith healing, its implications, and associated socio-cultural and religious factors among Mappila Muslims of Malabar, Kerala, a southern state of India.Thangals are the endogamous community in Kerala, of Yemeni heritage who claim direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed’s family. Because of their sacrosanct status, many Thangal works as religious healers in Malabar, Northern Kerala. Using the case of one Thangal healer as an illustration of the many religious healers in Kerala who engage in the healing practices, it is intended, in this paper to illustrate the religious and ritual healing practices among Mappila Muslims of Malabar. It was found that the majority of the Mappila Muslims believed in supernatural causation on illness, and majority of them consulted religious and faith healers for various health problems before seeking professional help, and a considerable proportion continued to believe in the healing efficiency of the religious and faith healing. A significant proportion of the population found religious and faith healing practices are supportive and more acceptable within the community. Religion and belief system play an important role in the heath seeking behavior of a person.Keywords: religious and faith healing, mental illness, Mappila Muslims, Malabar
Procedia PDF Downloads 2051196 Flood Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Nigeria Using Geographic Information System
Authors: Dinebari Akpee, Friday Aabe Gaage, Florence Fred Nwaigwu
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Natural disasters like flood affect many parts of the world including developing countries like Nigeria. As a result, many human lives are lost, properties damaged and so much money is lost in infrastructure damages. These hazards and losses can be mitigated and reduced by providing reliable spatial information to the generality of the people through about flood risks through flood inundation maps. Flood inundation maps are very crucial for emergency action plans, urban planning, ecological studies and insurance rates. Nigeria experience her worst flood in her entire history this year. Many cities were submerged and completely under water due to torrential rainfall. Poor city planning, lack of effective development control among others contributes to the problem too. Geographic information system (GIS) can be used to visualize the extent of flooding, analyze flood maps to produce flood damaged estimation maps and flood risk maps. In this research, the under listed steps were taken in preparation of flood risk maps for the study area: (1) Digitization of topographic data and preparation of digital elevation model using ArcGIS (2) Flood simulation using hydraulic model and integration and (3) Integration of the first two steps to produce flood risk maps. The results shows that GIS can play crucial role in Flood disaster control and mitigation.Keywords: flood disaster, risk maps, geographic information system, hazards
Procedia PDF Downloads 2271195 Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Allometric Variation in the Hand Morphology of Adults
Authors: Aleksandr S. Ermolenko
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Allometry is an important factor of morphological integration, contributing to the organization of the phenotype and its variability. The allometric change in the shape of the hand is particularly important in primate evolution, as the hand has important taxonomic features. Some of these features are known to parts with the shape, especially the ratio of the lengths of the index and ring fingers (2d: 4d ratio). The hand is a fairly well-studied system in the context of the evolutionary development of complex morphological structures since it consists of various departments (basipodium, metapodium, acropodium) that form a single structure –autopodium. In the present study, we examined the allometric variability of acropodium. We tested the null hypothesis that there would be no difference in allometric variation between the two components. Geometric morphometry based on a procrustation of 16 two-dimensional (2D) landmarks was analyzed using multivariate shape-by-size regressions in samples from 100 people (50 men and 50 women). The results obtained show that men have significantly greater allometric variability for the ring finger (variability in the transverse axis prevails), while women have significantly greater allometric variability for the index finger (variability in the longitudinal axis prevails). The influence of the middle finger on the shape of the hand is typical for both men and women. The influence of the little finger on the shape of the hand, regardless of gender, was not revealed. The results of this study support the hypothesis that allometry contributes to the organization of variation in the human hand.Keywords: human hand, size and shape, 2d:4d ratio, geometric morphometry
Procedia PDF Downloads 1571194 The Semiotic Analysis of Thai Social Contexts in Thai Post’s News Articles
Authors: Pakpoom Hannapha
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This paper investigates the implications of social and political contexts in Thai Post’s news articles written by a columnist, Khon Plai Soy. Samples included twenty eight news articles published between 28th May 2015 and 28th June 2015 selected and analyzed according to Semiotics including implications, connotation, cultural politics, and Thai usage in newspaper articles. The data analysis can be divided into two parts; first, an analysis of signs/signifiers appearing in the articles and second, an analysis of the columnist’s purposes. This study demonstrated representations of signs in the selected articles that were categorized into four groups: events, actions, persons, and organizations. In this study, implications of the news articles were analyzed in two aspects according to Semiotics. It was found that the columnist mostly points out purposes for education, facts, and personal opinions in his works. Also, he offers some solutions to problems discussed in the articles. The writer often explicated knowledge and facts in accordance with either his personal opinions or problem-solutions. According to the research result, studying the implications of news articles in the Thai Post based on the Semiotic approach can help clarify and understand connotative meanings in terms of contents and the writer’s purposes. This paper can enhance readers’ understanding of Semiotic implications through signs and meanings in the texts and thus be used as a model to explore other political news articlesKeywords: semiotic analysis, Thai social contexts, Thai Post’s news, articles
Procedia PDF Downloads 2411193 Computer-Aided Detection of Simultaneous Abdominal Organ CT Images by Iterative Watershed Transform
Authors: Belgherbi Aicha, Hadjidj Ismahen, Bessaid Abdelhafid
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Interpretation of medical images benefits from anatomical and physiological priors to optimize computer-aided diagnosis applications. Segmentation of liver, spleen and kidneys is regarded as a major primary step in the computer-aided diagnosis of abdominal organ diseases. In this paper, a semi-automated method for medical image data is presented for the abdominal organ segmentation data using mathematical morphology. Our proposed method is based on hierarchical segmentation and watershed algorithm. In our approach, a powerful technique has been designed to suppress over-segmentation based on mosaic image and on the computation of the watershed transform. Our algorithm is currency in two parts. In the first, we seek to improve the quality of the gradient-mosaic image. In this step, we propose a method for improving the gradient-mosaic image by applying the anisotropic diffusion filter followed by the morphological filters. Thereafter, we proceed to the hierarchical segmentation of the liver, spleen and kidney. To validate the segmentation technique proposed, we have tested it on several images. Our segmentation approach is evaluated by comparing our results with the manual segmentation performed by an expert. The experimental results are described in the last part of this work.Keywords: anisotropic diffusion filter, CT images, morphological filter, mosaic image, simultaneous organ segmentation, the watershed algorithm
Procedia PDF Downloads 4401192 Effect of Different Spacings on Growth Yield and Fruit Quality of Peach in the Sub-Tropics of India
Authors: Harminder Singh, Rupinder Kaur
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Peach is primarily a temperate fruit, but its low chilling cultivars are grown quite successfully in the sub-tropical climate as well. The area under peach cultivation is picking up rapidly in the sub tropics of northern India due to higher return on a unit area basis, availability of suitable peach cultivar and their production technology. Information on the use of different training systems on peach in the sub tropics is inadequate. In this investigation, conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (Punjab), India, the trees of the Shan-i-Punjab peach were planted at four different spacings i.e. 6.0x3.0m, 6.0x2.5m, 4.5x3.0m and 4.5x2.5m and were trained to central leader system. The total radiation interception and penetration in the upper and lower canopy parts were higher in 6x3.0m and 6x2.5m planted trees as compared to other spacings. Average radiation interception was maximum in the upper part of the tree canopy, and it decreased significantly with the depth of the canopy in all the spacings. Tree planted at wider spacings produced more vegetative (tree height, tree girth, tree spread and canopy volume) and reproductive growth (flower bud density, number of fruits and fruit yield) per tree but productivity was maximum in the closely planted trees. Fruits harvested from the wider spaced trees were superior in fruit quality (size, weight, colour, TSS and acidity) and matured earlier than those harvested from closed spaced trees.Keywords: quality, radiation, spacings, yield
Procedia PDF Downloads 1881191 The Belt and Road Initiative in a Spiderweb of Conflicting Great Power Interests: A Geopolitical Analysis
Authors: Csaba Barnabas Horvath
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The Belt and Road initiative of China is one that can change the face of Eurasia as we know it. Instead of four major, densely populated subcontinents defined by Mackinder (East Asia, Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Middle East) isolated from each other by vast, sparsely populated and underdeveloped regions, it can at last start to function as a geographic whole, with a sophisticated infrastructure linking its different parts to each other. This initiative, however, happens not in a geopolitical vacuum, but in a space of conflicting great power interests. In Central Asia, the influence of China and Russia are in a setting of competition, where despite the cooperation between the two powers to a great degree, issues causing mutual mistrust emerge repeatedly. In Afghanistan, besides western military presence, even India’s efforts can be added to the picture. In Southeast Asia, a key region regarding the maritime Silk Road, India’s Act East policy meets with China’s Belt and Road, not always in consensus, not to mention US and Japanese interests in the region. The presentation aims to take an overview on how conflicting great power interests are likely to influence the outcome of the Belt and Road initiative. The findings show, that overall success of the Belt and Road Initiative may not be as smooth, as hoped by China, but at the same time, in a limited number of strategically important countries (such as Pakistan, Laos, and Cambodia), this setting is actually a factor favoring China, providing at least a selected number of reliable corridors, where the initiative is actually likely to be successful.Keywords: belt and road initiative, geostrategic corridors, geopolitics, great power rivalry
Procedia PDF Downloads 2191190 Understanding the Nexus between Dengue and Climate Variability
Authors: Edilene Mercedes Mauer Machado, Carolina Hadassa Marques Karoly, Amanda Britz, Claudineia Brazil
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The El Niño phenomenon, characterized by the anomalous warming of surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean, can influence weather patterns in various parts of the world, including the occurrence of extreme events such as droughts or heavy rainfall. Studies have suggested a relationship between El Niño and an increase in the incidence of dengue in certain areas. During El Niño periods, there can be changes in climatic conditions, such as increased temperatures and reduced rainfall in certain tropical and subtropical regions. These conditions can favor the reproduction of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector for dengue transmission. Research aims to investigate how climate events like El Niño and La Niña can influence the incidence and transmission of dengue. The results have shown that, on average, there was a significant increase in dengue cases during La Niña years compared to years of climatic neutrality, contradicting the findings of Hopp et al. (2015). The study also highlighted that regions affected by El Niño exhibited greater variability in dengue incidence. However, it is important to emphasize that the effects of El Niño on dengue transmission can vary depending on the region and local factors, such as socioeconomic context and implemented control measures, as described by Johansson et al. (2009). Not all areas affected by El Niño will necessarily experience an increase in dengue incidence, and the interaction between climate and disease transmission is complex.Keywords: anomalous warming, climatic patterns, dengue incidence, extreme events
Procedia PDF Downloads 1021189 Migrant Workers and the Challenge for Human Security in Southeast Asia since 1997
Authors: Hanen Khaldi
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This paper aims to study the impact of international migration on human security in the Southeastern region of Asia, especially after Asian Financial Crisis 1997-98. International migration has impacts on many dimensions of security: the state security (sovereignty and autonomy); international relationships security (conflicts, terrorism, etc); and immigrants security. The paper aims to improve our comprehension of the impact of international migration on immigrant security in the region of Southeast Asia, particularly “vulnerable workers’’ whose number is growing very fast in the region. The literature review carried out on this matter led us to ask the following two question: 1) Did the creation of ASEAN Community matter on the evolution of immigrants in the region? And How governments try to resolve the gap between economic objectifs and security of immigrants in the region? To answer these two questions, the paper is subdivided in three parts: Firstly, we will show how the creation of the ASEAN Community, especially ASEAN Economic Community, had a significant impact on the pattern of evolution of immigration in this region. Secondly, we will paint a portrait illustrating the vulnerability of immigrants in Southeast Asia, particularly unskilled workers. Finally, using the theories of regional integration, we will assess how governments try to ensure the security and safety of the immigrants. Overall, our analysis illustrate the significant change of the official discourse of the leaders of the ASEAN member states, now more conciliator and especially more open to cooperation, as well as the proliferation of meetings and initiatives between these countries to control mobility flows in the region, and the ensure immigrants security.Keywords: migrant workers, human security, human rights
Procedia PDF Downloads 1681188 Modeling Default Probabilities of the Chosen Czech Banks in the Time of the Financial Crisis
Authors: Petr Gurný
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One of the most important tasks in the risk management is the correct determination of probability of default (PD) of particular financial subjects. In this paper a possibility of determination of financial institution’s PD according to the credit-scoring models is discussed. The paper is divided into the two parts. The first part is devoted to the estimation of the three different models (based on the linear discriminant analysis, logit regression and probit regression) from the sample of almost three hundred US commercial banks. Afterwards these models are compared and verified on the control sample with the view to choose the best one. The second part of the paper is aimed at the application of the chosen model on the portfolio of three key Czech banks to estimate their present financial stability. However, it is not less important to be able to estimate the evolution of PD in the future. For this reason, the second task in this paper is to estimate the probability distribution of the future PD for the Czech banks. So, there are sampled randomly the values of particular indicators and estimated the PDs’ distribution, while it’s assumed that the indicators are distributed according to the multidimensional subordinated Lévy model (Variance Gamma model and Normal Inverse Gaussian model, particularly). Although the obtained results show that all banks are relatively healthy, there is still high chance that “a financial crisis” will occur, at least in terms of probability. This is indicated by estimation of the various quantiles in the estimated distributions. Finally, it should be noted that the applicability of the estimated model (with respect to the used data) is limited to the recessionary phase of the financial market.Keywords: credit-scoring models, multidimensional subordinated Lévy model, probability of default
Procedia PDF Downloads 4561187 Determination of in Situ Degradation Kinetics of Some Legumes Waste Unused for Human Consumption
Authors: Şevket Evci, Mehmet Akif Karsli
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The aim of this study is to determine nutrient contents, in situ ruminal degradation kinetics and protein fractions of screenings bean (B), chick pea (ChP), red lentil (RL) and green lentil (GL) that is used as residue in grain legume packing industry. For this purpose, four samples of each legumes species-a total of 16 samples, collected from different parts of our country were utilized. Feedstuffs used in the experiment were incubated for 0, 2 4, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hours in the rumen of 3 ruminally cannulated Akkaraman rams as duplicate. The nutrient contents, in situ ruminal dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP) degradabilities and fractions, and escape protein contents were evaluated. The highest OM and CP contents were observed in RL (P<0.05). Chick pea had the highest ether extract (EE) content and EE values were 3.47, 6.72, 2.26, 8.66 % for RL, B, GL and ChP, respectively (P<0.05). Crude fiber (CF), ADF, and NDF contents were the highest in RL and the lowest in ChP. CF values were 24.03, 10.80, 4.09 and 3.57 % for RL, GL, B and ChP (P<0.05). Acid detergent insoluble nitrogen content of samples did not differ. Escape protein content was the highest in RL and the lowest in B (P<0.05). After 48 h incubation, the lowest OM and CP degradabilities were observed in RL. While the highest OM degradability was seen in ChP the highest CP degradability was observed in B (P<0.05). The lowest water soluble OM and CP contents were observed in RL whereas the highest potentially degradable OM and CP contents were seen in B and ChP (P<0.05). Both rate of OM and CP degradations (k-1) did not differ among samples (P>0.05). In conclusion, it was noted that feedstuffs (GL, ChP and B) used in the experiment except RL had a greater ruminal degradibilities of both OM and CP and moreover, had a higher escape protein contents, except B. It was thought that these feedstuffs can be substituted with some of common protein sources used in animal nutrition.Keywords: in situ, nutrient contents, ruminant, subsieve
Procedia PDF Downloads 4811186 A Fast Calculation Approach for Position Identification in a Distance Space
Authors: Dawei Cai, Yuya Tokuda
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The market of localization based service (LBS) is expanding. The acquisition of physical location is the fundamental basis for LBS. GPS, the de facto standard for outdoor localization, does not work well in indoor environment due to the blocking of signals by walls and ceiling. To acquire high accurate localization in an indoor environment, many techniques have been developed. Triangulation approach is often used for identifying the location, but a heavy and complex computation is necessary to calculate the location of the distances between the object and several source points. This computation is also time and power consumption, and not favorable to a mobile device that needs a long action life with battery. To provide a low power consumption approach for a mobile device, this paper presents a fast calculation approach to identify the location of the object without online solving solutions to simultaneous quadratic equations. In our approach, we divide the location identification into two parts, one is offline, and other is online. In offline mode, we make a mapping process that maps the location area to distance space and find a simple formula that can be used to identify the location of the object online with very light computation. The characteristic of the approach is a good tradeoff between the accuracy and computational amount. Therefore, this approach can be used in smartphone and other mobile devices that need a long work time. To show the performance, some simulation experimental results are provided also in the paper.Keywords: indoor localization, location based service, triangulation, fast calculation, mobile device
Procedia PDF Downloads 1741185 Parallel Pipelined Conjugate Gradient Algorithm on Heterogeneous Platforms
Authors: Sergey Kopysov, Nikita Nedozhogin, Leonid Tonkov
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The article presents a parallel iterative solver for large sparse linear systems which can be used on a heterogeneous platform. Traditionally, the problem of solving linear systems does not scale well on multi-CPU/multi-GPUs clusters. For example, most of the attempts to implement the classical conjugate gradient method were at best counted in the same amount of time as the problem was enlarged. The paper proposes the pipelined variant of the conjugate gradient method (PCG), a formulation that is potentially better suited for hybrid CPU/GPU computing since it requires only one synchronization point per one iteration instead of two for standard CG. The standard and pipelined CG methods need the vector entries generated by the current GPU and other GPUs for matrix-vector products. So the communication between GPUs becomes a major performance bottleneck on multi GPU cluster. The article presents an approach to minimize the communications between parallel parts of algorithms. Additionally, computation and communication can be overlapped to reduce the impact of data exchange. Using the pipelined version of the CG method with one synchronization point, the possibility of asynchronous calculations and communications, load balancing between the CPU and GPU for solving the large linear systems allows for scalability. The algorithm is implemented with the combined use of technologies: MPI, OpenMP, and CUDA. We show that almost optimum speed up on 8-CPU/2GPU may be reached (relatively to a one GPU execution). The parallelized solver achieves a speedup of up to 5.49 times on 16 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, as compared to one GPU.Keywords: conjugate gradient, GPU, parallel programming, pipelined algorithm
Procedia PDF Downloads 1651184 Incidence of Post Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography Biliary Ascariasis Diagnosed on Ultrasound
Authors: Shehzad Khan, Jehangir Khan, Shah Babar, Rashid Mahmood, Rizwan Khan, Sanya Hadi
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Ascaris lumbricoides are familiar with the roundworm that causes biliary infections in humans. Nevertheless, ascariasis is primarily found in the jejunum and transferred in numerous body parts with the intake of Ascaris lumbricoides present in food and water. These study methods were implemented at the Saidu Teaching Hospital Radiology Department from December 2021 to January 2023. This study includes the participants suffering from biliary ascariasis admitted or visited Saidu Teaching Hospital in that time frame. Clinical assessment of the participants was done based on the appearance of signs and symptoms present in them. The participant's laboratory test was done to determine the level of basic body parameters. After that ultrasonography was used to diagnose the presence and appearance of worms. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) was used to extract worms from biliary channels, and the incidence of post-ERCP biliary ascariasis was accessed with ultrasonography. This study's results show the presence of numerous types of worms in the biliary channels of patients. Also, the level of body parameters, for instance, neutrophil, hemoglobin, and others, were compared at the time of admission and at the time of discharge from the hospital. Furthermore, the incidence of post-ERCP biliary ascariasis was reported as 4% in females, and 1% in males, respectively.Keywords: Ascaris, biliary, ERCP, ultrasound
Procedia PDF Downloads 1011183 Electrokinetic Regulation of Flow in Microcrack Reservoirs
Authors: Aslanova Aida Ramiz
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One of the important aspects of rheophysical problems in oil and gas extraction is the regulation of thermohydrodynamic properties of liquid systems using physical and physicochemical methods. It is known that the constituent parts of real fluid systems in oil and gas production are practically non-conducting, non-magnetically active components. Real heterogeneous hydrocarbon systems, from the structural point of view, consist of an infinite number of microscopic local ion-electrostatic cores distributed in the volume of the dispersion medium. According to Cohen's rule, double electric layers are formed at the contact boundaries of components in contact (oil-gas, oil-water, water-condensate, etc.) in a heterogeneous system, and as a result, each real fluid system can be represented as a complex composition of a set of local electrostatic fields. The electrokinetic properties of this structure are characterized by a certain electrode potential. Prof. F.H. Valiyev called this potential the α-factor and came up with the idea that many natural and technological rheophysical processes (effects) are essentially electrokinetic in nature, and by changing the α-factor, it is possible to adjust the physical properties of real hydraulic systems, including thermohydrodynamic parameters. Based on this idea, extensive research work was conducted, and the possibility of reducing hydraulic resistances and improving rheological properties was experimentally discovered in real liquid systems by reducing the electrical potential with various physical and chemical methods.Keywords: microcracked, electrode potential, hydraulic resistance, Newtonian fluid, rheophysical properties
Procedia PDF Downloads 771182 Blade Runner and Slavery in the 21st Century
Authors: Bülent Diken
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This paper looks to set Ridley Scott’s original film Blade Runner (1982) and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017) in order to provide an analysis of both films with respect to the new configurations of slavery in the 21st century. Both Blade Runner films present a de-politicized society that oscillates between two extremes: the spectral (the eye, optics, digital communications) and the biopolitical (the body, haptics). On the one hand, recognizing the subject only as a sign, the society of the spectacle registers, identifies, produces and reproduces the subject as a code. At the same time, though, the subject is constantly reduced to a naked body, to bare life, for biometric technologies to scan it as a biological body or body parts. Being simultaneously a pure code (word without body) and an instrument slave (body without word), the replicants are thus the paradigmatic subjects of this society. The paper focuses first on the similarity: both films depict a relationship between masters and slaves, that is, a despotic relationship. The master uses the (body of the) slave as an instrument, as an extension of his own body. Blade Runner 2019 frames the despotic relation in this classical way through its triangulation with the economy (the Tyrell Corporation) and the slave-replicants’ dissent (rejecting their reduction to mere instruments). In a counter-classical approach, in Blade Runner 2049, the focus shifts to another triangulation: despotism, economy (the Wallace Corporation) and consent (of replicants who no longer perceive themselves as slaves).Keywords: Blade Runner, the spectacle, bio-politics, slavery, imstrumentalisation
Procedia PDF Downloads 691181 Effects of External Body Movement on Visual Attentional Performance in Children with ADHD
Authors: Hung-Yu Lin
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Background: Parts of researchers assert that external hyperactivity behaviors of ADHD children interfere with their abilities to perform internal cognitive tasks; however, there are still other researchers hold the opposite viewpoint, the external high level of activity may serve as the role of improving internal executive function.Objectives: Thisstudy explored the effects of external motor behavior of ADHD on internal visual attentional performance. Methods: A randomized, two-period crossover design was used in this study, a total of 80 children (aged 6-12) were recruited in this study. 40participants have received ADHD diagnosis, and others are children with typically developing. These children were measured through the visual edition of TOVA (The Test of Variables of Attention) when they wore actigraphy, their testing behavior and movement data werecollected through closely observation and the actigraphies under different research conditions. Result: According to the research result, the author found (1) Higherfrequencyof movement under attentional testing condition was found in children with ADHD, comparing to children with typically developing, and (2) Higher frequency of foot movement showed better attentional performance of the visual attentional test in children with ADHD. However, these results were not showed in children with typically developing. Conclusions: The findings support the functional working memory model, which advocated that a positive relation between gross motor activity and attentional performance within the context of attentive behavior in children with ADHD.Keywords: ADHD, movement, visual attention, children
Procedia PDF Downloads 1881180 Planning Quality and Maintenance Activities in a Closed-Loop Serial Multi-Stage Manufacturing System under Constant Degradation
Authors: Amauri Josafat Gomez Aguilar, Jean Pierre Kenné
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This research presents the development of a self-sustainable manufacturing system from a circular economy perspective, structured by a multi-stage serial production system consisting of a series of machines under deterioration in charge of producing a single product and a reverse remanufacturing system constituted by the same productive systems of the first scheme and different tooling, fed by-products collected at the end of their life cycle, and non-conforming elements of the first productive scheme. Since the advanced production manufacturing system is unable to satisfy the customer's quality expectations completely, we propose the development of a mixed integer linear mathematical model focused on the optimal search and assignment of quality stations and preventive maintenance operation to the machines over a time horizon, intending to segregate the correct number of non-conforming parts for reuse in the remanufacturing system and thereby minimizing production, quality, maintenance, and customer non-conformance penalties. Numerical experiments are performed to analyze the solutions found by the model under different scenarios. The results showed that the correct implementation of a closed manufacturing system and allocation of quality inspection and preventive maintenance operations generate better levels of customer satisfaction and an efficient manufacturing system.Keywords: closed loop, mixed integer linear programming, preventive maintenance, quality inspection
Procedia PDF Downloads 861179 The Study and the Use of the Bifunctional Catalyst Pt/Re for Obtaining High Octane Number of the Gasoline
Authors: Menouar Hanafi
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The original function of the process of platforming is to develop heavy naphtha (HSRN), coming from the atmospheric unit of distillation with a weak octane number (NO=44), to obtain a mixture of fuels â number octane raised by catalytically supporting specific groups of chemical reactions. The installation is divided into two sections: Section hydrobon. Section platforming. The rafinat coming from the bottom of column 12C2 to feed the section platforming, is divided into two parts whose flows are controlled and mixed with gas rich in hydrogen. Bottom of the column, we obtain stabilized reformat which is aspired by there pump to ensure the heating of the column whereas a part is sent towards storage after being cooled by the air cooler and the condenser. In catalytic catalyst of reforming, there is voluntarily associated a hydrogenating function-dehydrogenating, brought by platinum deposited, with an acid function brought by the alumina support (Al 2 0 3). The mechanism of action of this bifunctional catalyst depends on the severity of the operation, of the quality of the load and the type of catalyst. The catalyst used in the catalytic process of reforming is a very elaborate bifunctional catalyst whose performances are constantly improved thanks to the experimental research supported on an increasingly large comprehension of the phenomena. The American company Universel 0i1 petroleum (UOP) marketed several series of bimetallic catalysts such as R16, R20, R30, and R62 consisted Platinum/Rhenium on an acid support consisted the alumina added with a halogenous compound (chlorine).Keywords: platforming, amelioration, octane number, catalyst
Procedia PDF Downloads 3861178 Investigating the Pedestrian Willingness to Pay to Choose Appropriate Policies for Improving the Safety of Pedestrian Facilities
Authors: Babak Mirbaha, Mahmoud Saffarzadeh, Fatemeh Mohajeri
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Road traffic accidents lead to a higher rate of death and injury, especially in vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. Improving the safety of facilities for pedestrians is a major concern for policymakers because of the high number of pedestrian fatalities and direct and indirect costs which are imposed to the society. This study focuses on the idea of determining the willingness to pay of pedestrians for increasing their safety while crossing the street. In this study, three different scenarios including crossing the street with zebra crossing facilities, crossing the street with zebra crossing facilities and installing a pedestrian traffic light and constructing a pedestrian bridge with escalator are presented. The research was conducted based on stated preferences method. The required data were collected from a questionnaire that consisted of three parts: pedestrian’s demographic characteristics, travel characteristics and scenarios. Four different payment amounts are presented for each scenario and a logit model has been built for each proposed payment. The results show that sex, age, education, average household income and individual salary have significant effect on choosing a scenario. Among the policies that have been mentioned through the questionnaire scenarios, the scenario of crossing the street with zebra crossing facilities and installing a traffic lights is the most frequent, with willingness to pay 10,000 Rials and the scenario of crossing the street with a zebra crossing with a willingness to pay 100,000 Rials having the least frequency. For all scenarios, as the payment is increasing, the willingness to pay decreases.Keywords: pedestrians, willingness to pay, safety, immunization
Procedia PDF Downloads 1561177 Preliminary Conceptions of 3D Prototyping Model to Experimental Investigation in Hypersonic Shock Tunnels
Authors: Thiago Victor Cordeiro Marcos, Joao Felipe de Araujo Martos, Ronaldo de Lima Cardoso, David Romanelli Pinto, Paulo Gilberto de Paula Toro, Israel da Silveira Rego, Antonio Carlos de Oliveira
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Currently, the use of 3D rapid prototyping, also known as 3D printing, has been investigated by some universities around the world as an innovative technique, fast, flexible and cheap for a direct plastic models manufacturing that are lighter and with complex geometries to be tested for hypersonic shock tunnel. Initially, the purpose is integrated prototyped parts with metal models that actually are manufactured through of the conventional machining and hereafter replace them with completely prototyped models. The mechanical design models to be tested in hypersonic shock tunnel are based on conventional manufacturing processes, therefore are limited forms and standard geometries. The use of 3D rapid prototyping offers a range of options that enables geometries innovation and ways to be used for the design new models. The conception and project of a prototyped model for hypersonic shock tunnel should be rethought and adapted when comparing the conventional manufacturing processes, in order to fully exploit the creativity and flexibility that are allowed by the 3D prototyping process. The objective of this paper is to compare the conception and project of a 3D rapid prototyping model and a conventional machining model, while showing the advantages and disadvantages of each process and the benefits that 3D prototyping can bring to the manufacture of models to be tested in hypersonic shock tunnel.Keywords: 3D printing, 3D prototyping, experimental research, hypersonic shock tunnel
Procedia PDF Downloads 4691176 Anti-Anxiety Activity of Ethyl Acetate Extract of Flowers Nerium indicum
Authors: Deepak Suresh Mohale, Anil V. Chandewar
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Anxiety is defined as an exaggerated feeling of apprehension, uncertainty and fear. Nerium indicum is a well-known ornamental and medicinal plant belonging to the family Apocynaceae. A wide spectrum of biological activities has been reported with various constituents isolated from different parts of the plant. This study was conducted to investigate antianxiety activity of flower extract. Flowers were collected and dried in shade and coarsely powdered. Powdered mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate by maceration process. Extract of flowers obtained was subsequently dried in oven at 40-50 °C. This extract is then tested for antianxiety activity at low and high dose using elevated plus maze and light & dark model. Rats shown increased open arm entries and time spent in open arm in elevated Plus maze with treatment low and high dose of extract of Nerium indicum flower as compared to their respective control groups. In Light & dark Model, light box entries and time spent in light box increased with treatment low and high dose of extract of Nerium indicum flower as compared to their respective control groups. From result it is concluded that ethyl acetate extract of flower of Nerium indicum possess antianxiety activity at low and high dose.Keywords: antianxiety, anxiety, kaner, nerium indicum, social isolation
Procedia PDF Downloads 3921175 The Employment of Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Identification and Classification of Helicopter Landing Zones and Airdrop Zones in Calamity Situations
Authors: Marielcio Lacerda, Angelo Paulino, Elcio Shiguemori, Alvaro Damiao, Lamartine Guimaraes, Camila Anjos
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Accurate information about the terrain is extremely important in disaster management activities or conflict. This paper proposes the use of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) at the identification of Airdrop Zones (AZs) and Helicopter Landing Zones (HLZs). In this paper we consider the AZs the zones where troops or supplies are dropped by parachute, and HLZs areas where victims can be rescued. The use of digital image processing enables the automatic generation of an orthorectified mosaic and an actual Digital Surface Model (DSM). This methodology allows obtaining this fundamental information to the terrain’s comprehension post-disaster in a short amount of time and with good accuracy. In order to get the identification and classification of AZs and HLZs images from DJI drone, model Phantom 4 have been used. The images were obtained with the knowledge and authorization of the responsible sectors and were duly registered in the control agencies. The flight was performed on May 24, 2017, and approximately 1,300 images were obtained during approximately 1 hour of flight. Afterward, new attributes were generated by Feature Extraction (FE) from the original images. The use of multispectral images and complementary attributes generated independently from them increases the accuracy of classification. The attributes of this work include the Declivity Map and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For the classification four distinct classes were considered: HLZ 1 – small size (18m x 18m); HLZ 2 – medium size (23m x 23m); HLZ 3 – large size (28m x 28m); AZ (100m x 100m). The Decision Tree method Random Forest (RF) was used in this work. RF is a classification method that uses a large collection of de-correlated decision trees. Different random sets of samples are used as sampled objects. The results of classification from each tree and for each object is called a class vote. The resulting classification is decided by a majority of class votes. In this case, we used 200 trees for the execution of RF in the software WEKA 3.8. The classification result was visualized on QGIS Desktop 2.12.3. Through the methodology used, it was possible to classify in the study area: 6 areas as HLZ 1, 6 areas as HLZ 2, 4 areas as HLZ 3; and 2 areas as AZ. It should be noted that an area classified as AZ covers the classifications of the other classes, and may be used as AZ, HLZ of large size (HLZ3), medium size (HLZ2) and small size helicopters (HLZ1). Likewise, an area classified as HLZ for large rotary wing aircraft (HLZ3) covers the smaller area classifications, and so on. It was concluded that images obtained through small UAV are of great use in calamity situations since they can provide data with high accuracy, with low cost, low risk and ease and agility in obtaining aerial photographs. This allows the generation, in a short time, of information about the features of the terrain in order to serve as an important decision support tool.Keywords: disaster management, unmanned aircraft systems, helicopter landing zones, airdrop zones, random forest
Procedia PDF Downloads 1771174 Analyzing Initial Efficacy of Animal Assisted Therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Case Study
Authors: Georgitta Joseph Valiyamattam
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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a growing phenomenon in India with over 10 million cases being recorded. Children with various levels and forms of ASD can be a major challenge both within the context of regular or special schooling. According to statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in every 88 children today is born with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) against a ratio of one in 110 few years back. The growing number of children with autism spectrum disorders places greater demands on health services and necessitates the roping in of non-traditional modes of treatment to complement or even substitute traditional health care methods when possible. Research evidence, particularly from Western countries, as also some parts of Asia, suggests that animal-assisted therapy, or zootherapy, may be used as an effective individual or complementary therapeutic tool for increasing overall wellbeing and quality of life among children with Autism spectrum disorders. The paper through a case-study format seeks to evaluate the efficacy (initial stage) of animal assisted therapy (canine-therapy with visiting dog: breed-Golden retriever), as a non-conventional treatment modality for improving cognitive functioning and managing the behavioral and psychological symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders. As a pilot study forming the basis for subsequent larger application of AAT, it analyses areas of efficacy as also the challenges faced, both with regard to the mode of therapy, as also particular to the Indian setting.Keywords: animal assisted therapy, autism, canine therapy, analyzing initial efficacy
Procedia PDF Downloads 548