Search results for: estimation of state of charge

Authors: Yahaya Lasiele Alabi, Odebode Aminat Adeola

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Attitudes of health personnel usually influence the speed of recovery. It is essential that professional counsellors investigate the attitude of health personnel toward patients. In view of this, this study examined attitudes of health personnel towards patients as expressed by literate adults in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State. The study also examined the influence of gender, age, and educational qualification on the respondents’ views. A self designed instrument tittled ‘Attitude of Health Personnel towards Patients Questionnaire (AHPPQ)’ was used to collect data from six hundred respondents, who were selected through a two-stage sampling procedure. Four research questions were constructed while three null hypotheses were formulated and tested using t-test and ANOVA at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study showed that literate adults in Ilorin metropolis expressed that health personnel have negative attitude towards patients. It was also found out that there was no significant difference in the attitude of health personnel towards Patients as expressed by literate adults in Ilorin metropolis on the basis of gender, age, and educational qualification. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations were made that Government should formulate policies and laws that will promote disposition of positive attitudes toward patients by health personnel. Health Counsellors should be employed and involved in organisation of seminars and workshops from time to time in order to encourage health personnel to interract positively with patients.

Keywords: attitude, health personnel, patients, Kwara State

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Authors: Chivon Choeung, Heng Tang, Panha Soth, Vichet Huy

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This paper presents a robust control strategy for a single-phase DC-AC inverter with an output LC-filter. An all-pass filter is utilized to create an artificial β-signal so that the proposed controller can be simply used in dq-synchronous frame. The proposed robust controller utilizes a state feedback control with integral action in the dq-synchronous frame. A linear matrix inequality-based optimization scheme is used to determine stabilizing gains of the controllers to maximize the convergence rate to steady state in the presence of uncertainties. The uncertainties of the system are described as the potential variation range of the inductance and resistance in the LC-filter.

Keywords: single-phase inverter, linear matrix inequality, robust control, all-pass filter

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Authors: Mahmoud Reza Hosseini

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The universe is in a continuous expansion process, resulting in the reduction of its density and temperature. Also, by extrapolating back from its current state, the universe at its early times is studied, known as the big bang theory. According to this theory, moments after creation, the universe was an extremely hot and dense environment. However, its rapid expansion due to nuclear fusion led to a reduction in its temperature and density. This is evidenced through the cosmic microwave background and the universe structure at a large scale. However, extrapolating back further from this early state reaches singularity, which cannot be explained by modern physics, and the big bang theory is no longer valid. In addition, one can expect a nonuniform energy distribution across the universe from a sudden expansion. However, highly accurate measurements reveal an equal temperature mapping across the universe, which is contradictory to the big bang principles. To resolve this issue, it is believed that cosmic inflation occurred at the very early stages of the birth of the universe. According to the cosmic inflation theory, the elements which formed the universe underwent a phase of exponential growth due to the existence of a large cosmological constant. The inflation phase allows the uniform distribution of energy so that an equal maximum temperature can be achieved across the early universe. Also, the evidence of quantum fluctuations of this stage provides a means for studying the types of imperfections the universe would begin with. Although well-established theories such as cosmic inflation and the big bang together provide a comprehensive picture of the early universe and how it evolved into its current state, they are unable to address the singularity paradox at the time of universe creation. Therefore, a practical model capable of describing how the universe was initiated is needed. This research series aims at addressing the singularity issue by introducing a state of energy called a "neutral state," possessing an energy level that is referred to as the "base energy." The governing principles of base energy are discussed in detail in our second paper in the series "A Conceptual Study for Addressing the Singularity of the Emerging Universe," which is discussed in detail. To establish a complete picture, the origin of the base energy should be identified and studied. In this research paper, the mechanism which led to the emergence of this natural state and its corresponding base energy is proposed. In addition, the effect of the base energy in the space-time fabric is discussed. Finally, the possible role of the base energy in quantization and energy exchange is investigated. Therefore, the proposed concept in this research series provides a road map for enhancing our understating of the universe's creation from nothing and its evolution and discusses the possibility of base energy as one of the main building blocks of this universe.

Keywords: big bang, cosmic inflation, birth of universe, energy creation, universe evolution

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Authors: Jayanta Kumar Mahato, Partha Sarathi De, Amrita Kundu, P. C. Chakraborti

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Ratcheting is one of the most important phenomena to be considered for design and safety assessment of structural components subjected to stress controlled asymmetric cyclic loading in the elasto-plastic domain. In the present study uniaxial ratcheting behavior of commercially pure annealed OFHC copper and aluminium with two different grain sizes has been investigated. Stress-controlled tests have been conducted at various combinations of stress amplitude and mean stress. These stresses were selected in such a way that the ratio of equivalent stress amplitude (σₐeq) to ultimate tensile strength (σUTS) of the selected materials remains constant. It is found that irrespective of grain size the ratcheting fatigue lives decrease with the increase of both stress amplitude and mean stress following power relationships. However, the effect of stress amplitude on ratcheting lives is observed higher as compared to mean stress for both the FCC metals. It is also found that for both FCC metals ratcheting fatigue lives at a constant ratio of equivalent stress amplitude (σ ₐeq) to ultimate tensile strength (σUTS) are more in case fine grain size. So far ratcheting strain rate is concerned, it decreases rapidly within first few cycles and then a steady state is reached. Finally, the ratcheting strain rate increases up to the complete failure of the specimens due to a very large increase of true stress for a substantial reduction in cross-sectional area. The steady state ratcheting strain rate increases with the increase in both stress amplitude and mean stress. Interestingly, a unique perfectly power relationship between steady state ratcheting strain rate and cycles to failure has been found irrespective of stress combination for both FCC metals. Similar to ratcheting strain rate, the strain energy density decreases rapidly within first few cycles followed by steady state and then increases up to a failure of the specimens irrespective of stress combinations for both FCC metals; but strain energy density at steady state decreases with increase in mean stress and increases with the increase of stress amplitude. From the fractography study, it is found that the void density increases with the increase of maximum stress, but the void size and void density are almost same for any combination of stress parameters considering constant maximum stress.

Keywords: ratcheting phenomena, grain size, stress parameter, ratcheting lives, ratcheting strain rate

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Authors: Luis Alvarado, Victor Poblete, Isaac Gonzalez, Yetzabeth Gonzalez

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In MIREX 2016 (http://www.music-ir.org/mirex), the deep neural network (DNN)-Deep Chroma Extractor, proposed by Korzeniowski and Wiedmer, reached the highest score in an audio chord recognition task. In the present paper, this tool is assessed under acoustic reverberant environments and distinct source-microphone distances. The evaluation dataset comprises The Beatles and Queen datasets. These datasets are sequentially re-recorded with a single microphone in a real reverberant chamber at four reverberation times (0 -anechoic-, 1, 2, and 3 s, approximately), as well as four source-microphone distances (32, 64, 128, and 256 cm). It is expected that the performance of the trained DNN will dramatically decrease under these acoustic conditions with signals degraded by room reverberation and distance to the source. Recently, the effect of the bio-inspired Locally-Normalized Cepstral Coefficients (LNCC), has been assessed in a text independent speaker verification task using speech signals degraded by additive noise at different signal-to-noise ratios with variations of recording distance, and it has also been assessed under reverberant conditions with variations of recording distance. LNCC showed a performance so high as the state-of-the-art Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient filters. Based on these results, this paper proposes a variation of locally-normalized triangular filters called Locally-Normalized Quarter Tone (LNQT) filters. By using the LNQT spectrogram, robustness improvements of the trained Deep Chroma Extractor are expected, compared with classical triangular filters, and thus compensating the music signal degradation improving the accuracy of the chord recognition system.

Keywords: chord recognition, deep neural networks, feature extraction, music information retrieval

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Authors: Igor Pejic

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The main focus of this research will be on analyzing correlative links between terrorism as an asymmetrical threat and the consequences it leaves on conventional security forces. The methodology behind the research will include qualitative research methods focusing on comparative analysis of books, scientific papers, documents and other sources, in order to deduce, explore and formulate the results of the research. With the coming of the 21^st century and the rising multi-polar, new world threats quickly emerged. The realistic approach in international relations deems that relations among nations are in a constant state of anarchy since there are no definitive rules and the distribution of power varies widely. International relations are further characterized by egoistic and self-orientated human nature, anarchy or absence of a higher government, security and lack of morality. The asymmetry of power is also reflected on countries' security capabilities and its abilities to project power. With the coming of the new millennia and the rising multi-polar world order, the asymmetry of power can be also added as an important trait of the global society which consequently brought new threats. Among various others, terrorism is probably the most well-known, well-based and well-spread asymmetric threat. In today's global political arena, terrorism is used by state and non-state actors to fulfill their political agendas. Terrorism is used as an all-inclusive tool for regime change, subversion or a revolution. Although the nature of terrorist groups is somewhat inconsistent, terrorism as a security and social phenomenon has a one constant which is reflected in its political dimension. The state's security apparatus, which was embodied in the form of conventional armed forces, is now becoming fragile, unable to tackle new threats and to a certain extent outdated. Conventional security forces were designed to defend or engage an exterior threat which is more or less symmetric and visible. On the other hand, terrorism as an asymmetrical threat is a part of hybrid, special or asymmetric warfare in which specialized units, institutions or facilities represent the primary pillars of security. In today's global society, terrorism is probably the most acute problem which can paralyze entire countries and their political systems. This problem, however, cannot be engaged on an open field of battle, but rather it requires a different approach in which conventional armed forces cannot be used traditionally and their role must be adjusted. The research will try to shed light on the phenomena of modern day terrorism and to prove its correlation with the state conventional armed forces. States are obliged to adjust their security apparatus to the new realism of global society and terrorism as an asymmetrical threat which is a side-product of the unbalanced world.

Keywords: asymmetrical warfare, conventional forces, security, terrorism

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Authors: Malini Nandi Majumdar, Avijan Dutta

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The West Police (WBP) is restructured under provisions of the Police Act 1861 during the period of British domination. It is one of the two police forces of the Indian state of west Bengal and is headed by an officer designated as Director General of Police (DG) who directly reports to the State Government. It covers a jurisdiction with eighteen revenue districts of the state and a District Superintendent of Police (SP) controls each district. The purpose of this empirical study is to explore the causes and factors of occupational stress in West Bengal Police officers so that the incumbents can perform their assigned tasks more diligently and the society could be free from evils and devils at a large. Using a self-developed close ended questionnaire that covers 20 critical job-related stressors, the study captures 310 respondents across the organizational hierarchy ranging from Sub Inspectors to the Superintendant of police and covers 5 districts and one commision rate under the jurisdiction of West Bengal Police. The present research has successfully indicated four major occupational stressors such as Organizational Stressors, Hierarchical Stressors, Situational Stressors and Environmental Stressors with 64% of the variance. Further we have employed CFA to determine the goodness of fit indices in terms of i) Absolute Fit Measures like CMIN, FMIN, RMSEA, ECVI ii) Incremental Fit Measures like TLI, NFI, AGFI, CFI(Byne, 2010) demonstrate that value of the measure has passed the requirement criteria and thus fit the model. The major stressors of West Bengal Police have been explored and the ways to deal with these inevitable stressors have been suggested.

Keywords: organizational stressors, hierarchical stressors, situational stressors, environmental stressors

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Authors: Lori W. Gordon, Karen A. Jones

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Today’s high-speed data connectivity depends on a vast global network of infrastructure across space, air, land, and sea, with undersea cable infrastructure (UCI) serving as the primary means for intercontinental and ‘long-haul’ communications. The UCI landscape is changing and includes an increasing variety of state actors, such as the growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Non-state commercial actors, such as hyper-scale content providers including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon, are also seeking to control their data and networks through significant investments in submarine cables. Active investments by both state and non-state actors will invariably influence the growth, geopolitics, and security of this sector. Beyond these hyper-scale content providers, there are new commercial satellite communication providers. These new players include traditional geosynchronous (GEO) satellites that offer broad coverage, high throughput GEO satellites offering high capacity with spot beam technology, low earth orbit (LEO) ‘mega constellations’ – global broadband services. And potential new entrants such as High Altitude Platforms (HAPS) offer low latency connectivity, LEO constellations offer high-speed optical mesh networks, i.e., ‘fiber in the sky.’ This paper focuses on understanding the role of submarine cables within the larger context of the global data commons, spanning space, terrestrial, air, and sea networks, including an analysis of national security policy and geopolitical implications. As network operators and commercial and government stakeholders plan for emerging technologies and architectures, hedging risks for future connectivity will ensure that our data backbone will be secure for years to come.

Keywords: communications, global, infrastructure, technology

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Authors: A. I. Ma’ali, R. B. Adeniyi, A. Y. Badeggi, U. Mohammed

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An error estimation of the integrated formulation of the Lanczos tau method for some class of ordinary differential equations was reported. This paper is concern with the generalization of tau approximants and their corresponding error estimates for some class of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) characterized by m + s =3 (i.e for m =1, s=2; m=2, s=1; and m=3, s=0) where m and s are the order of differential equations and number of overdetermination, respectively. The general result obtained were validated with some numerical examples.

Keywords: approximant, error estimate, tau method, overdetermination

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Authors: Pierre Bauduin, Coralie Pasquier, Alban Jonchere, Luc Girard, Olivier Diat

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Ionic species, such as polyoxometalates (POMs) or (metal-) boron clusters, are at the frontier between ions and (charged-)colloids due to their nm size. We show here that the large size and low charge density of POMs, compared to classical ions, are responsible for a peculiar behavior called “super-chaotropy”. This property refers to the strong propensity of nano-ions to adsorb at neutral polar interfaces, via non-specific interactions. It has strong effects on phase transitions in soft matter and can, for example, stabilize colloidal systems such as surfactant foams. A simple way for evaluating and classifying nano-ions, such as POMs, according to their super-chaotropy is proposed here. The super-chaotropic behavior of nano-ions opens many opportunities in separation science, catalysis, and for the design of nanostructured hybrid materials.

Keywords: colloids, foams, surfactant, salt effect, colloidal stability, nano-ions

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Authors: Nikolaj Troels Graf Von Malotky, Robin Nicolay, Alke Martens

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There exist a plethora of architectures for ITSs (Intelligent Tutoring Systems). A thorough analysis and comparison of the architectures revealed, that in most cases the architecture extensions are evolutionary grown, reflecting state of the art trends of each decade. However, from the perspective of software engineering, the main aspect of an ITS has not been reflected in any of these architectures, yet. From the perspective of cognitive research, the construction of the teaching process is what makes an ITS 'intelligent' regarding the spectrum of interaction with the students. Thus, in our approach, we focus on a behavior based architecture, which is based on the main teaching processes. To create a new general architecture for ITS, we have to define the prerequisites. This paper analyzes the current state of the existing architectures and derives rules for the behavior of ITS. It is presenting a teaching process for ITSs to be used together with the architecture.

Keywords: intelligent tutoring, ITS, tutoring process, system architecture, interaction process

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Authors: Zohir Nedjar, Djamel Barkat

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Thiols such as alkyl xanthates are commonly used as collectors in the froth flotation of sulfide minerals. Under the concen-tration, pH and Eh conditions relevant to flotation, the thermodynamically favoured reaction between a thiol and a sulfide mineral surface is charge transfechemisorption in which the collector becomes bonded to metal atoms in the outermost layer of the sulfide lattice. The adsorption of potassium isobutyl xanthate (KIBX 3.10-3M) on sphalerite has been also studied using electrochemical potential, FTIR technique and SEM. Non activated minerals and minerals activated with copper sulfate (10-4 M) and copper nitrate (10-4 M) have been investigated at pH = 7.5. Surface species have been identified by FTIR and correlated with SEM. After copper sulfate activation, copper xanthate exists on all of the minerals studied. Neutral pH is most favorable for potassium isobutyl xanthate adsorption on sphalerite.

Keywords: flotation, adsorption, xanthate KIBX, sphalerite

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Authors: Ashish Jaiswal, Ashwin Ramesh Babu, Mohammad Zaki Zadeh, Fillia Makedon, Glenn Wylie

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Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a neuroimaging technique that records neural activations in the brain by capturing the blood oxygen level in different regions based on the task performed by a subject. Given fMRI data, the problem of predicting the state of cognitive fatigue in a person has not been investigated to its full extent. This paper proposes tackling this issue as a multi-class classification problem by dividing the state of cognitive fatigue into six different levels, ranging from no-fatigue to extreme fatigue conditions. We built a spatio-temporal model that uses convolutional neural networks (CNN) for spatial feature extraction and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network for temporal modeling of 4D fMRI scans. We also applied a self-supervised method called MoCo (Momentum Contrast) to pre-train our model on a public dataset BOLD5000 and fine-tuned it on our labeled dataset to predict cognitive fatigue. Our novel dataset contains fMRI scans from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients and healthy controls (HCs) while performing a series of N-back cognitive tasks. This method establishes a state-of-the-art technique to analyze cognitive fatigue from fMRI data and beats previous approaches to solve this problem.

Keywords: fMRI, brain imaging, deep learning, self-supervised learning, contrastive learning, cognitive fatigue

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Authors: J. V. Thanikal, M. Torrijos, Philipe Sousbie, S. M. Rizwan, R. Senthil Kumar, Hatem Yezdi

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Co-digestion is one of the advantages of anaerobic digestion process because; several wastes having complimentary characteristics can be treated in a single process. The anaerobic co-digestion process, which can be defined as the simultaneous treatment of two –or more – organic biodegradable waste streams by anaerobic digestion offers great potential for the proper disposal of the organic fraction of solid waste coming from source or separate collection systems. The results of biogas production for sewage sludge, when used as a single substrate, were low (350ml/d), and also the biodegradation rate was slow. Sewage sludge as a co-substrate did not show much effect on biogas yield. The vegetable substrates (Potato, Carrot, Spinach) with a total charge of 27–36 g VS, with a HRT starting from 3 days and ending with 1 day, shown a considerable increase in biogas yield 3.5-5 l/d.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, co-digestion, vegetable substrate, sewage sludge

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Authors: Chris Nelson

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Quality and excellence are qualitative topics that are usually addressed based on knowledge and past experience from leadership and those in charge of the organization. The significance of this study is to highlight the differences and similarities between these two mindsets and how an operational staff can most appropriately use them in the workplace. Quality and excellence are two words that are talked about a lot in the manufacturing world. Buzzwords such as operational excellence, quality controls, and efficiencies are discussed in the boardroom as well on the shop floor. These terms are used quite frequently and with good reasons. When a person visits their favorite local restaurant, They go because 1) they like the food and 2) the people are some of the greatest individuals to be around. With that in mind, they know they always put out quality food. They do not always go because the quality of the food is far superior than other restaurants. But the quality of ingredients always meets their expectations. When they compare them to the term excellence, they are disappointed. The food never looks like the pictures on the menu. But when have you ever been to a restaurant where the food looks the same as on the menu? For them, when evaluating which buzzword to use as a guiding star, its simple: excellence. The corporation can accomplish these goals by operating at a standard that far exceeds customer’s wants and needs.

Keywords: industrial engineering, innovation, management and technology, logistics and scheduling, six sigma

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Authors: Farida Ibrahim

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Right to information is the public's right to know through having access to public information held by state bodies. Recognized as a cornerstone in transparent, participatory and open democracies, the right to information is increasingly perceived today as an emerging human right on the international level. While this right is conceptualized in a range of different contexts, the paper focuses on its conceptualization as a force for socio-economic change for disadvantaged groups. The paper's goal is study the instrumental capacity of this right in empowering the public to access state-held information pertinent to their socio-economic rights. In this regard, the paper views the right to information as an inclusionary tool that is capable of spurring inclusion for individuals excluded from the ambits of both: public participation and social justice. For exploring this, the paper examines the advocacy role played by civil society groups in furthering this instrumental capacity. In particular, the paper presents a focused account on the Egyptian case. While Egypt has recently adopted its constitutional provision on access to information, doubts arise on Egyptian citizens' genuine ability to access information held by state bodies. The politico-economic environment, long term culture of bureaucratic secrecy, and legal framework do not provide promising outcomes on access to public information. Within the particular context of the Egyptian case, this paper questions the extent to which civil society in Egypt is capable of instrumentally employing the political opportunity offered by the constitutional entitlement to information access for pressuring public authorities to disclose information. Through four lawsuits brought by civil society groups in Egypt, the paper argues that the right to information has instrumentally provided civil society actors with new domains of mobilization for furthering the realization of social and economic rights, and ultimately, for renegotiating a new social order lining the relationship between the Egyptian state and its citizens marginalized by socio-economic imbalances.

Keywords: civil society, Egypt, right to information, socio-economic rights

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Authors: Pei-Chen Wu

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Both preexisting cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of personality-depression relationship have suffered from one main limitation: they ignored the stability of the construct of interest (e.g., personality and depression) can be expected to influence the estimate of the association between personality and depression. To address this limitation, the Trait-State-Occasion (TSO) modeling was adopted to analyze the sources of variance of the focused constructs. A TSO modeling was operated by partitioning a state variance into time-invariant (trait) and time-variant (occasion) components. Within a TSO framework, it is possible to predict change on the part of construct that really changes (i.e., time-variant variance), when controlling the trait variances. 750 high school students were followed for 4 waves over six-month intervals. The baseline data (T1) were collected from the senior high schools (aged 14 to 15 years). Participants were given Beck Depression Inventory and Big Five Inventory at each assessment. TSO modeling revealed that 70~78% of the variance in personality (five constructs) was stable over follow-up period; however, 57~61% of the variance in depression was stable. For personality construct, there were 7.6% to 8.4% of the total variance from the autoregressive occasion factors; for depression construct there were 15.2% to 18.1% of the total variance from the autoregressive occasion factors. Additionally, results showed that when controlling initial symptom severity, the time-invariant components of all five dimensions of personality were predictive of change in depression (Extraversion: B= .32, Openness: B = -.21, Agreeableness: B = -.27, Conscientious: B = -.36, Neuroticism: B = .39). Because five dimensions of personality shared some variance, the models in which all five dimensions of personality were simultaneous to predict change in depression were investigated. The time-invariant components of five dimensions were still significant predictors for change in depression (Extraversion: B = .30, Openness: B = -.24, Agreeableness: B = -.28, Conscientious: B = -.35, Neuroticism: B = .42). In sum, the majority of the variability of personality was stable over 2 years. Individuals with the greater tendency of Extraversion and Neuroticism have higher degrees of depression; individuals with the greater tendency of Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientious have lower degrees of depression.

Keywords: assessment, depression, personality, trait-state-occasion model

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Authors: Dong Sang Yoo

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We consider nonlinear uncertain systems such that a priori information of the uncertainties is not available. For such systems, we assume that the upper bound of the uncertainties is represented as a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind and we propose an adaptation law that is capable of estimating the upper bound and design a continuous robust control which renders nonlinear uncertain systems ultimately bounded.

Keywords: adaptive control, estimation, Fredholm integral, uncertain system

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Authors: Jordan Daud, Satriya Wibawa, Wahyu Wardhana

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In the summer of 2014, the leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria proclaimed the founding of religious-political system known as the caliphate which titled Islamic State (IS). As Caliph, Abu Bakr Baghdadi advocated Jihad from the Ummah (the Muslim community) to defend the Islamic state from unbelievers. This call for Jihad by IS had encouraged some radical organization in Southeast Asia pledge allegiance to IS and established bases for IS operation in Southeast Asia. This development had increased security concern for possible terrorism action in Southeast Asia, which currently not very active due to counterterrorism efforts from ASEAN member states and its cooperation with the world. This paper firstly tries to draw understanding from Ulema (Muslim cleric) about the conception of caliphate and Jihad based on Quran and Hadith. Secondly, this paper will elaborate counterterrorism efforts from ASEAN countries to prevent radicalization and terrorism act in addressing the call for jihad to establish IS in Southeast Asia. The third, this paper will recommend the role of the social community, especially Ulema, in Southeast Asia to prevent the misunderstanding of Jihad which usually used by terrorist to justify their action. Hopefully, this social community role will decrease the radicalization of Muslim community in Southeast Asia alongside with the counterterrorism efforts to create secure and stable ASEAN community based on shared norm and values.

Keywords: caliphate, jihad, ASEAN, counterterrorism, social community

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Authors: Tosin Deborah Akanbi, Adeyemi Oluwaseun Adepoju, Hameed Olusegun Adebambo, Akinloye Fatai Lawal

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Building information modelling (BIM) is a process that starts with the development of a sequential 3D design and encourages data administration, organization, and visualization throughout the life span of a facility (drawings, construction, and supervision). The implementation of building information modelling has been slow in recent years, and this is due to some prominent barriers that hinder its adoption. In this regard, the study aims to examine the significant barriers that influence the adoption of building information modelling in the Lagos state construction industry. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey with 332 construction professionals in the study area. Three online structured interviews were conducted to support and validate the findings of the quantitative analysis. The results revealed that interest (lack of awareness and understanding of BIM, absence of in-house BIM competent professionals, and unavailability of BIM competent professionals in the labour market), legal (lack of policies and regulations on copyright ownership and lack of enforcement from government agencies and industry leaderships) and professional (people’s inability or refusal to learn new technologies and processes, waste in time and human resource and lack of clarity of professional roles in BIM) barriers are the major barriers influencing the adoption of BIM. The results also revealed that six final themes were generated, namely: finance barriers, industry barriers, interest barriers, leadership barriers, legal barriers, and professional barriers. Thus, there is a need for policymakers to design and implement policies (regulatory, economic, and information) to promote financial schemes to support construction firms and professionals and to reduce financial barriers. It is also important for the government to lay down rules and regulations that must be enforced among the construction professionals and firms in the Lagos state construction industry.

Keywords: BIM barriers, BIM adoption characteristics, construction industry, Lagos State Nigeria

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Authors: Vishal D. Bharud, B. J. Patil, S. S. Dahiwale, V. N. Bhoraskar, S. D. Dhole

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Photon induced average reaction cross section of ¹¹¹Cd (γ, γ`) ¹¹¹ᵐCd reaction was experimentally determined for the bremsstrahlung energy spectrum of 6 MeV by utilizing the activation and offline γ-ray spectrometric techniques. The 6 MeV electron accelerator Racetrack Microtron of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune was used for the experimental work. The bremsstrahlung spectrum generated by bombarding 6 MeV electrons on lead target was theoretically estimated by FLUKA code. Bremsstrahlung radiation can have energies exceeding the threshold of the particle emission, which is normally above 6 MeV. Photons of energies below the particle emission threshold undergo absorption into discrete energy levels, with possibility of exciting nuclei to excited state including metastable state. The ¹¹¹Cd (γ, γ`) ¹¹¹ᵐCd reaction cross sections were calculated at different energies of bombarding Photon by using the TALYS 1.8 computer code with a default parameter. The focus of the present work was to study the (γ,γ’) reaction for exciting ¹¹¹Cd nuclei to metastable states which have threshold energy below 3 MeV. The flux weighted average cross section was obtained from the theoretical values of TALYS 1.8 and TENDL 2017 and is found to be in good agreement with the present experimental cross section.

Keywords: bremsstrahlung, cross section, FLUKA, TALYS-1.8

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Authors: Noimot A. Bakare, Rotimi S. Olaleye, Bolaji O. Adeniji

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The study examined the effectiveness of selected coping strategies for poverty alleviation among smallholder farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Data were collected with the aid of interview schedule. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 225 respondents from 3 geographical zones in the State. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that majority (83.1%) of the respondents were within the age of 21-50 years, mostly male (76.0%) and married (77.8%). The highest educational level attained was quranic education. Findings showed that coping strategies commonly adopted by the farmers were; use of food stuff (94.2%), money savings(76.6%), reduction in expenditure(74.2%) and food consumption (65.2%). Also, there was high awareness of primary healthcare and fadama development poverty alleviation programmes by Government and non-governmental organizations. Regression model indicated a significant and positive relationship between the educational level of farmers, farm size, contact with extension and effectiveness of poverty coping strategies. Pearson correlation coefficient shows a correlation between coping strategies adopted and their effectiveness(r = 0.599, P < 0.01). However, t- test shows a significant difference between coping strategies adopted by the male and female farmers (t= -2.63, P < 0.01). It is recommended that awareness on poverty alleviation programmes aimed at improving the productivity of farming activities should be intensified while farmers should be involved in the planning and implementation of these programmes.

Keywords: coping strategies, effectiveness, farmers, poverty alleviation.

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Authors: David Alejandro Torres-Lopez , Lilia Albores-Gallo, Ronald Soto-Calderon, Roberto Lagunes-Cordoba

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Autism Screening Questionnaire for Daycare Attendees (ASQ-DAT) is a screening instrument that assesses the risk of autism in children between 12 and 47 months, being the first free observational instrument created according to the criteria of the DSM-5 that can be applied by teachers in nurseries. The people in charge of answering the questionnaires are the daycare assistants. Its application presents a series of previous activities with which daycare assistants are familiar (dance, games, oral narration and breakfast), which are executed with the children and then answer a questionnaire with dichotomous questions "Yes/No" in approximately 3 minutes per child. The instrument was developed with the participation of nurseries according to the protocols of the creation of psychometric instruments of the Classical Test Theory having as a gold standard ADOS-2 Modules T and 1. The results of the investigation show that the use of ASQ-DAT combined with the application of M-CHAT / RF provides more information about the risk of ASD in young children, which allows improvements in the screening.

Keywords: diagnosis, screening, autism, daycare

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Authors: Haruna Abdu Usman, Bashir Usman Mohammed, Mohammed Umar Jamil

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Municipal solid waste management constitutes a serious problem bedeviling environmental protection agencies in many cities of developing countries. Most agencies do not collect the totality of the waste generated in their cities. This study presents the current solid waste management practices and problems in Bauchi metropolis, Bauchi state Nigeria. The general feature is characterized by inefficient, insufficient and irrational collection and improper disposal alternatives. The consequent environmental effects of these problems depict clogged city drains, uncollected heap of waste on road sides of residential areas, vacant plots and uncompleted buildings and highways. This contributes immensely to flooding in the city. The major challenges facing the state environmental protection agency includes; lack of collection and disposal points, technical and institutional arrangements, financial resources and general attitude of the serving public among others. The study suggested a comprehensive and integrated approach to the solid waste management which recognizes and incorporates the interventionist role of the state government, the private formal and informal waste management operators and the serving public.

Keywords: municipal solid waste, bauchi metropolitan area, environmental protection agency, solid waste management, waste disposal

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Authors: Kevin Wongleedee

Abstract:

This research paper was aimed to examine the reasons associated with hotel employees’ loyalty. This was a case study of 200 hotel employees in Bangkok, Thailand. The population of this study included all hotel employees who were working in Bangkok during January to March, 2014. Based on 200 respondents who answered the questionnaire, the data were complied by using SPSS. Mean and standard deviation were utilized in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that the average mean of importance was 4.40, with 0.7585 of standard deviation. Moreover, the mean average can be used to rank the level of importance from each factor as follows: 1) salary, service charge cut, and benefits, 2) career development and possible advancement, 3) freedom of working, thinking, and ability to use my initiative, 4) training opportunities, 5) social involvement and positive environment, 6) fair treatment in the workplace and fair evaluation of job performance, and 7) personal satisfaction, participation, and recognition.

Keywords: hotel employees, loyalty, reasons, case study

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Authors: Zoltan Abram

Abstract:

Background: In the last time it was hardly increased the prevalence of psychical diseases and disorders which reduce work capacity, life quality and life expectancy. Objectives: The aim of our research is to study the psychical health state of the Romanian adults living in the middle part of the country and the role of some economical, psychological and social factors, especially in relationship with depression. Methods: The study is based on a complex anonymous questionnaire, including Beck depressive scale, which was completed by a representative sample among adult population. The applied method was a combination between stratification and more-steps sampling. Results: After our results depression is the most common psychical illness with 9,1% diagnosis, but the tendency to depression, the existence of depressive symptoms is much higher than the treated illness. The percentage of suicide attempt among the studied population was 2,9%. It is analysed how gender, age, professional and social status, living and working conditions and different social factors are influencing the health state. According to Beck score, it was established a significant difference in the favour of female, elderly people, lower educational level, urban population. Conclusions: In our study it is underlined the importance of health promotion and education. It is concluded that improving living standards, modifying in a proper way the lifestyle of the population, we can positively influence the physical and mental health state of the Romanian adult population.

Keywords: Beck scale, depression, psychological aspects, suicide attempt

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Authors: Po-Kun Tsai

Abstract:

The issue of climate change is essential in the 21st century. State governments have launched types of strategic industrial policies to encourage more widespread R&D in green technology. Research also indicates that technology is an essential tool to mitigate some of extreme situations. However, one could learn from several prominent cases in international trade area that they have been easily argued and disputed by the foreign counterparts. Thus, how to justify the public sector’s R&D measures under the current world trading system and how to promote the transfer of environmentally sound technologies (EST) to developing states are crucial. The study is to undertake a preliminary examination of the current R&D research area in green technology in Taiwan. Through selective interviews and comparative approach, it tries to identify the loopholes under the current legal framework in Taiwan. It would be, as a basis, for further legal and policy recommendations for the benefits of mankind.

Keywords: government, R&D, innovation, environmentally sound technology (EST)

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Authors: Sehrish Qayyum

Abstract:

Active military power contention is shifting to economic and cyberwar to retain hegemony. Attuned Pestle analysis confirms that structural stress of hegemon’s power loss drives a containment approach towards caging actions. Ongoing diplomatic, asymmetric, proxy and direct wars are increasing stress hegemon’s power retention due to tangled military and economic alliances. It creates the condition of catalepsy with defective reflexive control which affects the core warfare operations. When one’s own power is doubted it gives power to one’s own doubt to ruin all planning either done with superlative cost-benefit analysis. Strategically calculated estimation of Hegemon’s power game since the early WWI to WWII, WWII-to Cold War and then to the current era in three chronological periods exposits that Thucydides’s trap became the reason for war broke out. Thirst for power is the demise of imagination and cooperation for better sense to prevail instead it drives ashes to dust. Pestle analysis is a wide array of evaluation from political and economic to legal dimensions of the state matters. It helps to develop the Pacification and Security Policy Plan (PSPP) to avoid hegemon’s structural stress of power loss in fact, in turn, creates an alliance with maximum amicable outputs. PSPP may serve to regulate and pause the hurricane of power clashes. PSPP along with a strategic work plan is based on Pestle analysis to deal with any conceivable war condition and approach for saving international peace. Getting tangled into self-imposed epistemic dilemmas results in regret that becomes the only option of performance. It is a generic application of probability tests to find the best possible options and conditions to develop PSPP for any adversity possible so far. Innovation in expertise begets innovation in planning and action-plan to serve as a rheostat approach to deal with any plausible power clash.

Keywords: alliance, hegemon, pestle analysis, pacification and security policy plan, security

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Authors: Feiyu Fang, Han Wang, Xin Chen, Jun Zeng, Feng Liang, Peixuan Wu

Abstract:

The 'rope coiling' effect is a normal instability phenomenon widespread exists in viscous fluid, elastic rods and polymeric fibers owing to compressive stress when they fall into a moving belt. Near-field electro-spinning is the modified electro-spinning technique has the ability to direct write micro fibers. In this research, we study the “rope coiling” effect in near-field electro-spinning. By changing the distance between nozzle and collector or the speed ratio between the charge jet speed and the platform moving speed, we obtain a pile of different models coils including the meandering, alternating and coiling patterns. Therefore, this instability can be used to direct write micro structured fibers with a one-step process.

Keywords: rope coiling effects, near-field electrospinning, direct write, micro structure

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Authors: Ashish Jain, Shivam Tayal

Abstract:

There has been great interest in the field of Iontophoresis since few years due to its great applications in the field of controlled transdermal drug delivery system. It is an technique which is used to enhance the transdermal permeation of ionized high molecular weight molecules across the skin membrane especially Peptides & Proteins by the application of direct current of 1-4 mA for 20-40 minutes whereas chemical must be placed on electrodes with same charge. Iontophoresis enhanced the delivery of drug into the skin via pores like hair follicles, sweat gland ducts etc. rather than through stratum corneum. It has wide applications in the field of experimental, Therapeutic, Diagnostic, Dentistry etc. Medical science is using it to treat Hyperhidrosis (Excessive sweating) in hands and feet and to treat other ailments like hypertension, Migraine etc. Nowadays commercial transdermal iontophoretic patches are available in the market to treat different ailments. Researchers are keen to research in this field due to its vast applications and advantages.

Keywords: iontophoresis, novel drug delivery, transdermal, permeation enhancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 237