Search results for: hospital information system

Authors: Ren Junn Hwang, Chung-Chien Lu, Jain-Shing Wu

Abstract:

Cloud outsource storage is one of important services in cloud computing. Cloud users upload data to cloud servers to reduce the cost of managing data and maintaining hardware and software. To ensure data confidentiality, users can encrypt their files before uploading them to a cloud system. However, retrieving the target file from the encrypted files exactly is difficult for cloud server. This study proposes a protocol for performing multikeyword searches for encrypted cloud data by applying k-nearest neighbor technology. The protocol ranks the relevance scores of encrypted files and keywords, and prevents cloud servers from learning search keywords submitted by a cloud user. To reduce the costs of file transfer communication, the cloud server returns encrypted files in order of relevance. Moreover, when a cloud user inputs an incorrect keyword and the number of wrong alphabet does not exceed a given threshold; the user still can retrieve the target files from cloud server. In addition, the proposed scheme satisfies security requirements for outsourced data storage.

Keywords: fault-tolerance search, multi-keywords search, outsource storage, ranked search, searchable encryption

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Abass Braimah, Maha Hussein Abdallah

Abstract:

The global ascendancy of terrorist attacks on building infrastructure with economic and heritage significance has increased awareness of the possibility of terrorism in Canada. Many structures in Canada that are at risk of terrorist attacks include government buildings, built many years ago of historic stone masonry construction. Although many researchers are investigating ways to retrofit masonry stone buildings to mitigate the effect of blast loadings, lack of knowledge on the dynamic behavior of historic stone masonry structures under blast loads makes it difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of the retrofitting techniques. This paper presents a review of open-source literature for the experimental and numerical stone masonry structures under blast loads. This review yielded very little information of the response of the historic stone masonry structures under blast loads. Thus, a comprehensive study is needed to understand the blast load effects on historic stone masonry buildings. The out-of-plane response of historic masonry structures to blast loads is investigated by using single-degree-of-freedom analysis. This approach presents equations that can be used effectively in the analysis of historic masonry walls to out-of-plane blast loading.

Keywords: blast loads, historical buildings, masonry structure, single-degree-of-freedom analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: Vatsal Patel, Niraj Shah

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a laboratory study on the properties of binary blended High Performance cementitious systems containing blends of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), Porcelain Powder or Marble Powder blend proportions of 100:00, 95:05, 90:10, 85:15, 80:20 for OPC: Porcelain Powder/Marble Powder. Studies on the Engineering Properties of the cementitious concrete, namely compressive strength, flexural strength, sorptivity, rapid chloride penetration test and accelerated corrosion test have been performed and those of OPC concrete. The results show that the inclusion of Porcelain powder or Marble Powder as binary blended cement alters to a great degree the properties of the binder as well as the resulting concrete. In addition, the results show that the Porcelain powder with 85:15 proportions and Marble powder with 90:10 proportions as binary systems to produce high-performance concrete could potentially be used in the concrete construction industry particular in lowering down the volume of OPC used and lowering emission of CO2 produces during manufacturing of cement.

Keywords: accelerated corrosion, binary blended cementitious system, rapid chloride penetration, sorptivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 376

Authors: Ji Min China

Abstract:

The 20th century was the century of globalization. Developed transportation and the progress of information media made the earth into a global village. The differences between regions is increasingly reduced, "cultural convergence" phenomenon intensified, regional specialties and traditional culture has been eroded. In the field of architecture, while experienced orderly rational modernism baptism, it is increasingly recognized that set the expense of cultural differences and forced to follow the universal international-style building has been outdated. At the same time, in the 21st century environmental issues has been paid more and more attention, and the concept of sustainable development and sustainable building have been proposed.This makes the domestic and foreign architects began to explore the possibilities of building and reflect local cultural characteristics of the new vernacular architecture as a viable diversified architectural tendencies by domestic and foreign architects’ favor. The author will use the production and creative process of the new vernacular architecture at home and abroad as the background, and select some outstanding examples of the analysis and discussion, then reinterpret the "new vernacular architecture" in China now. This paper will pay more attention to how to master the true meaning of the here and now "new vernacular" as well as its multiple dimensions of sustainability in the future. It also determines the paper will be a two-way aspect and multi-dimensional understanding and mining of the "new vernacular".

Keywords: new vernacular architecture, regional culture, multi dimension, sustainable

Procedia PDF Downloads 437

Authors: Esraa Moustafa, Gaetan Rey, Stephane Lavirotte, Jean-Yves Tigli

Abstract:

With the development of Internet of Things and Web of Things, computing becomes more pervasive, invisible and present everywhere. In fact, in our environment, we are surrounded by multiple devices that deliver (web) services that meet the needs of the users. However, the mobility of these devices as the users has important repercussions that challenge software design of these applications because the variability of the environment cannot be anticipated at the design time. Thus, it will be interesting to dynamically discover the environment and adapt the application during its execution to the new contextual conditions. We, therefore, propose a model of a context-aware middleware that can address this issue through a monitoring service that is capable of reasoning and observation channels capable of calculating the context during the runtime. The monitoring service evaluates the pre-defined X-Query predicates in the context manager and uses Prolog to deduce the services needed to respond back. An independent Observation Channel for each different predicate is then dynamically generated by the monitoring service depending on the current state of the environment. Each channel sends its result directly to the context manager which consequently calculates the context based on all the predicates’ results while preserving the reactivity of the self-adaptive system.

Keywords: auto-adaptation, context-awareness, middleware, reasoning engine

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Belayneh Matebie, Michael Melese

Abstract:

The study focuses on addressing the challenges in classifying and ensuring the quality of Eragrostis Teff, a small and round grain that is the smallest cereal grain. Employing a traditional classification method is challenging because of its small size and the similarity of its environmental characteristics. To overcome this, this study employs a machine learning approach to develop a source and quality classification system for Teff cereal. Data is collected from various production areas in the Amhara regions, considering two types of cereal (high and low quality) across eight classes. A total of 5,920 images are collected, with 740 images for each class. Image enhancement techniques, including scaling, data augmentation, histogram equalization, and noise removal, are applied to preprocess the data. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is then used to extract relevant features and reduce dimensionality. The dataset is split into 80% for training and 20% for testing. Different classifiers, including FVGG16, FINCV3, QSCTC, EMQSCTC, SVM, and RF, are employed for classification, achieving accuracy rates ranging from 86.91% to 97.72%. The ensemble of FVGG16, FINCV3, and QSCTC using the Max-Voting approach outperforms individual algorithms.

Keywords: Teff, ensemble learning, max-voting, CNN, SVM, RF

Procedia PDF Downloads 29

Authors: Sennanda Musa, Ahmed Mutunzi Kitunzi, Gerald Kasigwa, Ismail Kintu

Abstract:

This paper is an analysis of the empirical relationship between project financing by Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the poverty trends in the context of countries benefiting from IsDB. Specifically, the study seeks to find out whether there is a statistically significant relationship between the project financing dollar amounts by IsDB (PF) and the GNI Per Capita, PPP of 57 countries for the years 2002 to 2021. The research is a longitudinal, desk-top triangulation of correlation, regression, hypothesis-testing employing the linear dynamic panel data GMM model as an estimator of the empirical relationships between the key variables of the study. The study results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the PF dollar amounts from the IsDB and the GNI Per Capita, PPP in these 57 countries. Therefore, countries that receive higher PF dollar amounts from the IsDB, generally have more GNI Per Capita, PPP (less poverty) than their counterparts. It is, therefore, recommendable for countries to formulate policies that facilitate Islamically financed projects to mitigate poverty. This paper develops policy discussions regarding allocation of political attention to the policy topics on poverty mitigation, and their relation to financing projects Islamically, thus generate information on policy choices regarding the Islamic financing alternative.

Keywords: gross-national-income, IsDB-project-financing, public policy, poverty

Procedia PDF Downloads 70

Authors: Abanoub Rady Shaker Saleb

Abstract:

Nowadays, design and architecture are being affected and underwent change with the rapid advancements in technology, economics, politics, society and culture. Architecture has been transforming with the latest developments after the inclusion of computers into design. Integration of design into the computational environment has revolutionized the architecture and new perspectives in architecture have been gained. The history of architecture shows the various technological developments and changes in which the architecture has transformed with time. Therefore, the analysis of integration between technology and the history of the architectural process makes it possible to build a consensus on the idea of how architecture is to proceed. In this study, each period that occurs with the integration of technology into architecture is addressed within historical process. At the same time, changes in architecture via technology are identified as important milestones and predictions with regards to the future of architecture have been determined. Developments and changes in technology and the use of technology in architecture within years are analyzed in charts and graphs comparatively. The historical process of architecture and its transformation via technology are supported with detailed literature review and they are consolidated with the examination of focal points of 20th-century architecture under the titles; parametric design, genetic architecture, simulation, and biomimicry. It is concluded that with the historical research between past and present; the developments in architecture cannot keep up with the advancements in technology and recent developments in technology overshadow the architecture, even the technology decides the direction of architecture. As a result, a scenario is presented with regards to the reach of technology in the future of architecture and the role of the architect.

Keywords: design and development the information technology architecture, enterprise architecture, enterprise architecture design result, TOGAF architecture development method (ADM)

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Abdelhadi Adam Salih Denei

Abstract:

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been used in cancer therapy, and the area of nanomedicine has made unheard-of strides in recent years. A thorough summary of the development and assessment of AgNPs for their possible use in the fight against cancer is the goal of this review. Targeted delivery methods have been designed to optimise therapeutic efficacy by using AgNPs' distinct physicochemical features, such as their size, shape, and surface chemistry. Firstly, the study provides an overview of the several synthesis routes—both chemical and green—that are used to create AgNPs. Natural extracts and biomolecules are used in green synthesis techniques, which are becoming more and more popular since they are biocompatible and environmentally benign. It is next described how synthesis factors affect the physicochemical properties of AgNPs, emphasising how crucial it is to modify these parameters for particular therapeutic uses. An extensive analysis is conducted on the anticancer potential of AgNPs, emphasising their capacity to trigger apoptosis, impede angiogenesis, and alter cellular signalling pathways. The analysis also investigates the potential benefits of combining AgNPs with currently used cancer treatment techniques, including radiation and chemotherapy. AgNPs' safety profile for use in clinical settings is clarified by a comprehensive evaluation of their cytotoxicity and biocompatibility.

Keywords: silver nanoparticles, cancer, nanocarrier system, targeted delivery

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Seyedali Seyedkavoosi, Mohammad Obadat, Seantorrion Boyle

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a nontraditional experiential learning strategy in improving the success and interest of mechanical engineering students, using the Kinematics/Dynamics of Machine course as a case study. This upper-division technical course covers a wide range of topics, including mechanism and machine system analysis and synthesis, yet the complexities of ideas like acceleration, motion, and machine component relationships are hard to explain using standard teaching techniques. To solve this problem, a thorough design project was created that gave students hands-on experience developing, manufacturing, and testing their inventions. The main goals of the project were to improve students' grasp of machine design and kinematics, to develop problem-solving and presenting abilities, and to familiarize them with professional software. A questionnaire survey was done to evaluate the effect of this technique on students' performance and interest in mechanical engineering. The outcomes of the study shed light on the usefulness of nontraditional experiential learning approaches in engineering education.

Keywords: experiential learning, nontraditional teaching, hands-on design project, engineering education

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Dadash Huseynov, Elmira Aliyeva, Robert Hoogendoorn, Salomon Kroonenberg

Abstract:

The study of organic material in bottom sediments together with lithologic and biostratigraphic data improves our understanding of the evolution of fluvial and deltaic systems. The modern Kura River delta is located in the Southwest Caspian Sea and is fluvial-dominated. The river distributes its sediment load through three channels oriented North-East, South-East, and South-West. The offshore modern delta consists of thinly bedded or laminated silty clays and dark grey clays. Locally sand and shell-rich horizons occur. Onshore delta is composed of channel-levee sands and floodplain silts and clays. Overall sedimentation rates in the delta determined by the 210Pb method range between 1.5-3.0 cm/yr. We investigated the distribution of organic material in the deltaic sediments in 300 samples selected from 3m deep piston cores. The studies of transparent sections demonstrate that deltaic sediments are enriched in terrestrial debris. It is non-transparent and has an irregular, isometric, or elongated shape, angular edges, black or dark-brown colour, and a clearly expressed fabric. Partially it is dissolved at the edges and is replaced by iron sulphides. Fragments of marine algae have more smooth edges, brown colour. They are transparent; the fabric is rarely preserved. The evidences of dissolution and gelification are well observed. Iron sulphides are common. The recorded third type of organic material has a round, drop-like, or oval shape and belongs to planktonic organisms. Their initial organic material is strongly transformed or replaced by dark organic compounds, probably, neoplasms. The particles are red-brown and transparent. The iron sulphides are not observed. The amount of Corg in the uppermost portion of sediments accumulated in the offshore Kura River delta varies from 0.2 to 1.22%, with median values of 0.6-0.8%. In poorly sorted sediments Corg content changes from 0.24 to 0.97% (average 0.69%), silty-sandy clay - 0.45 to 1.22% (average 0.77%), sandy-silty clay - 0.5 to 0.97% (average 0.67%), silty clay - 0.52 to 0.95% (average 0.70%). The data demonstrate that in sediments deposited during Caspian Sea high stand in 1929, the minimum of Corg content is localised near the mouth of the main south-eastern distributary channel and coincides with the minimum of the clay fraction. At the same time, the maximum of organic matter content locates near the mouth of the eastern channel, which was inactive at that time. In sediments accumulated during the last Caspian Sea low stand in 1977, the area of Corg minimum is attached to the north-eastern distributary’s mouth. It indicates the high activity of this distributary during the Caspian Sea fall. The area of Corg minimum is also recorded around the mouth of the main channel and eastern part of the delta. Maximums of Corg and clay fraction shift towards the basin. During the Caspian high stand in 1995, the minimum of Corg content is again observed in the mouth of the main south-eastern channel. The distribution of organic matter in the modern sediments of the Kura river delta displays the strong time dependence and reflects progradational-retrogradational cycles of evolution of this fluvial-deltaic system.

Keywords: high and low stands, Kura River delta, South Caspian Sea, organic matter

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Liya Abraham

Abstract:

Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products, either as lifesaving or life maintaining medicines. Studies reveal that more than 25% of modern drugs in the world are derived from plants. The Horn of Africa as a world hotspot; it has more than 1500 endemic plants. Eritrea, a country located in the Horn of Africa, is blessed with medicinal flora and fauna and marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Previous studies of flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea, incomplete species lists, indicate figures ranging between 6000 and 7000 species, with levels of endemism between 12–20%. In the past two decades, there has been growing interest in natural remedy herbal medicines owing to, but not limited to; resistance to antimicrobials, intolerance of side effects of modern drugs, and rise in chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, etc. Hence, owing to the rising demand for nature based health solutions, deforestation, construction purposes, grazing, and agricultural expansion; several medicinal plants in general and the endemic ones, in particular, are in the verge of extinction. Therefore, conservation strategies of endangered and endemic medicinal plants, especially those located in hot spot regions, must be promoted at global level. Thus, the author aims to share certain information regarding the endemic medicinal plants in Eritrea with the international scientific world.

Keywords: endemic, eritrea, horn of Africa, medicinal plants, species

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: John Kong Shan Ho

Abstract:

Senior executives’ remunerations of public companies have aroused much debate and attention in the media. In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), excessive executive pay arrangements were blamed for contributing to excessive risk-taking, which caused the financial meltdown. Since then, regulators and lawmakers around the world have introduced regulations to strengthen the corporate governance of listed companies. A key aspect of such reform is by strengthening regulatory intervention over executives’ remunerations and increasing the transparency of such information. This article is written against such background and examines the recent proposal by the UK BEIS to ask the FRC to amend the UK Corporate Governance Code (UKCGC) to strengthen clawback provisions for directors’ remuneration in listed companies as part of its audit reform. The article examines the background and debates regarding the possible implementation of such a measure in the UK. Contrary to the BEIS’ proposal, it argues that implementing it through the UKCGC is unlikely to enhance overall corporate governance and audit quality. It argues that the UK should follow the footsteps of its US and Dutch counterparts by enacting legislation to claw back directors’ remunerations. It will also provide some recommendations as to the key factors that need to be considered in drafting such a statutory provision.

Keywords: company law, corporate governance, agency problem, directors' remunerations, clawbacks

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Chongsutthamani Sitthiwet, Praphatsorn Plerdsranoy, Palmarin Dansirima, Priew Eiamlamai, Oliver Utke, Rapee Utke

Abstract:

Hydrogen storage tank containing compacted LiNH2-LiH is developed by doping with TiF₄ and multi-walled nanotubes (MWCNTs) to study kinetic properties. Transition metal-based catalyst (TiF₄) provides the catalytic effect on hydrogen dissociation/recombination, while MWCNTs benefit thermal conductivity and hydrogen permeability during de/rehydrogenation process. The Enhancement of dehydrogenation kinetics is observed from the single-step reaction at a narrower and lower temperature range of 150-350 ºC (100 ºC lower than the compacted LiNH₂-LiH without additives) as well as long plateau temperature and constant hydrogen flow rate (50 SCCM) up to 30 min during desorption. Besides, Hydrogen contents de/absorbed during 5-6 cycles increase from 1.90-2.40 to 3.10-4.70 wt. % H₂ (from 29 to up to 80 % of theoretical capacity). In the process, Li₅TiN₃ is detected upon cycling probably absorbs NH₃ to form Li₅TiN₃(NH₃)x, which is favoring hydrogen sorption properties of the LiNH₂-LiH system. Importantly, the homogeneous reaction mechanisms and performances are found at all positions inside the tank of compacted LiNH₂-LiH doped with TiF₄ and MWCNTs.

Keywords: carbon, hydride, kinetics, dehydrogenation

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Terry Liang Khin Teo, Sun Woh Lye, Kai Lun Brendon Goh

Abstract:

As applied to dynamic monitoring situations, the prevailing approach to situation awareness (SA) assumes that the relevant areas of interest (AOI) be perceived before that information can be processed further to affect decision-making and, thereafter, action. It is not entirely clear whether this is the case. This study seeks to investigate the monitoring of dynamic objects through matching eye fixations with the relevant AOIs in boundary-crossing scenarios. By this definition, a match is where a fixation is registered on the AOI. While many factors may affect monitoring characteristics, traffic simulations were designed in this study to explore two factors, namely: the number of inbounds/outbound traffic transfers and the number of entry and/or exit points in a radar monitoring sector. These two factors were graded into five levels of difficulty ranging from low to high traffic flow numbers. Combined permutation in terms of levels of difficulty of these two factors yielded a total of thirty scenarios. Through this, results showed that changes in the traffic flow numbers on transfer resulted in greater variations having match limits ranging from 29%-100%, as compared to the number of sector entry/exit points of range limit from 80%-100%. The subsequent analysis is able to determine the type and combination of traffic scenarios where imperfect matching is likely to occur.

Keywords: air traffic simulation, eye-tracking, visual monitoring, focus attention

Procedia PDF Downloads 44

Authors: Akrem Sellami, Imed Riadh Farah, Basel Solaiman

Abstract:

With the development of HyperSpectral Imagery (HSI) technology, the spectral resolution of HSI became denser, which resulted in large number of spectral bands, high correlation between neighboring, and high data redundancy. However, the semantic interpretation is a challenging task for HSI analysis due to the high dimensionality and the high correlation of the different spectral bands. In fact, this work presents a dimensionality reduction approach that allows to overcome the different issues improving the semantic interpretation of HSI. Therefore, in order to preserve the spatial information, the Tensor Locality Preserving Projection (TLPP) has been applied to transform the original HSI. In the second step, knowledge has been extracted based on the adjacency graph to describe the different pixels. Based on the transformation matrix using TLPP, a weighted matrix has been constructed to rank the different spectral bands based on their contribution score. Thus, the relevant bands have been adaptively selected based on the weighted matrix. The performance of the presented approach has been validated by implementing several experiments, and the obtained results demonstrate the efficiency of this approach compared to various existing dimensionality reduction techniques. Also, according to the experimental results, we can conclude that this approach can adaptively select the relevant spectral improving the semantic interpretation of HSI.

Keywords: band selection, dimensionality reduction, feature extraction, hyperspectral imagery, semantic interpretation

Procedia PDF Downloads 339

Authors: Shobha Kumari Yadav, Yubaraj Satyal, Ajaya Dixit

Abstract:

In addressing groundwater depletion, it is important to develop evidence base so to be used in assessing the state of its degradation. Groundwater data is limited compared to meteorological data, which impedes the groundwater use and management plan. Monitoring of groundwater levels provides information base to assess the condition of aquifers, their responses to water extraction, land-use change, and climatic variability. It is important to maintain a network of spatially distributed, long-term monitoring wells to support groundwater management plan. Monitoring involving local community is a cost effective approach that generates real time data to effectively manage groundwater use. This paper presents the relationship between rainfall and spring flow, which are the main source of freshwater for drinking, household consumptions and agriculture in hills of Nepal. The supply and withdrawal of water from springs depends upon local hydrology and the meteorological characteristics- such as rainfall, evapotranspiration and interflow. The study offers evidence of the use of scientific method and community based initiative for managing groundwater and springshed. The approach presents a method to replicate similar initiative in other parts of the country for maintaining integrity of springs.

Keywords: citizen science, groundwater, water resource management, Nepal

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Mounir Kehal

Abstract:

The post-globalization epoch has placed businesses everywhere in new and different competitive situations where knowledgeable, effective and efficient behavior has come to provide the competitive and comparative edge. Enterprises have turned to explicit - and even conceptualizing on tacit - knowledge management to elaborate a systematic approach to develop and sustain the intellectual capital needed to succeed. To be able to do that, you have to be able to visualize your organization as consisting of nothing but knowledge and knowledge flows, whilst being presented in a graphical and visual framework, referred to as automated organizational cartography. Hence, creating the ability of further actively classifying existing organizational content evolving from and within data feeds, in an algorithmic manner, potentially giving insightful schemes and dynamics by which organizational know-how is visualized. It is discussed and elaborated on most recent and applicable definitions and classifications of knowledge management, representing a wide range of views from mechanistic (systematic, data driven) to a more socially (psychologically, cognitive/metadata driven) orientated. More elaborate continuum models, for knowledge acquisition and reasoning purposes, are being used for effectively representing the domain of information that an end user may contain in their decision making process for utilization of available organizational intellectual resources (i.e. Autocart). In this paper, we present an empirical research study conducted previously to try and explore knowledge diffusion in a specialist knowledge domain.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge maps, knowledge diffusion, organizational cartography

Procedia PDF Downloads 291

Authors: N. Nwachoko, E. B. Essien, E. O. Ayalogu

Abstract:

Owing to the outbreak of different diseases and microbial resistance to some available drugs, proper identification, and evaluation of plants have been encouraged. There have been claims worldwide by the traditional system that some plants possessed medicinal properties. Plants and their components have been said to be source of large amount of drugs which comprise of distinct groups such as antispasmodics, anticancer and antimicrobials. Researchers have reported that chemicals in plants are responsible for the medicinal uses of plants. Thus this study evaluated the protective effect of Aframomun chrysanthum seed aqueous extract in acetaminophen-induced liver toxicity in rats. A suspension of 750 mg/kg acetaminophen was administered once every 72 hours to induce toxicity in the rats. Oral administration of 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg body weight of the extract and 100 mg/kg of silymarin (reference drug) were administered for 10 days. Biochemical analysis showed significant (p < 0.05) increase in the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT)and alkaline phosphatase (ALP)as well as the concentrations of albumin (ALB) and total bilirubin (T.B.) levels in rats administered with acetaminophen only. The levels of these parameters were significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in the groups pretreated with the extract.

Keywords: Aframomun chrysanthum, silymarin, hepatoprotective, toxicity

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Pankaj Verma, Gagandeep Singh Walia, Padma Devi, H. P. Singh

Abstract:

Code Division Multiple Access 2000 operates on various RF channel bandwidths 1.2288 or 3.6864 Mcps. CDMA offers high bandwidth and wireless broadband services but the efficiency gets decreased because of many interfering factors like fading, interference, scattering, diffraction, refraction, reflection etc. To reduce the spectral bandwidth is one of the major concerns in modern day technology and this is achieved by pulse shaping filter. This paper investigates the effect of diversity (MRC), interpolation factor in Root Raised Cosine (RRC) filter for the QPSK and BPSK modulation schemes. It is made possible to send information with minimum inter symbol interference and within limited bandwidth with proper pulse shaping technique. Bit error rate (BER) performance is analyzed by applying diversity technique by varying the interpolation factor for Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) and Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). Interpolation factor increases the original sampling rate of a sequence to a higher rate and reduces the interference and diversity reduces the fading.

Keywords: CDMA2000, root raised cosine, roll off factor, ISI, diversity, interference, fading

Procedia PDF Downloads 460

Authors: Hanan A. Abdulhameed, Huda Y. Alyami

Abstract:

The study presents a new international direction to conduct collaborative educational research. It follows a qualitative and quantitative methodology in investigating the main requirements to build an e-platform for Virtual Research Teams (VRTs). The e-platform considers three main components: First, the human and cultural structure, second, the institutional/organizational structure, and third, the technological structure. The study mainly focuses on the third component, the technological structure (the e-platform), and studies how to incorporate the other components: The human/cultural structure and the institutional/organizational structure in order to build an effective e-platform. The importance of the study is that it presents a comprehensive study about VRTs in terms of definition, types, structure, and main challenges. In addition, it suggests a practical way that benefits from the information and communication technology to conduct collaborative educational research by building and managing virtual research teams through an effective e-platform. The study draws the main framework to build an e-platform for collaborative educational research teams in Arab World. Thus, it tackles mainly the theoretical aspects, the framework of an effective e-platform. Then, it presents the evaluation of 18 Arab educational experts' to the proposed e-platform.

Keywords: collaborative research, educational science, E-platform, social research networks sites (SRNS), virtual research teams (VRTs)

Procedia PDF Downloads 443

Authors: Sonali Agarwal

Abstract:

The investor perception about investment avenues is affected to a great degree by the current happenings, within the country, and on the global stage. The influencing events can range from government policies, bilateral trade agreements, election agendas, to changing exchange rates, appreciation and depreciation of currency, recessions, meltdowns, bankruptcies etc. The current research attempts to discover and unravel the effect of various macroeconomic variables (crude oil price, gold price, silver price and USD exchange rate) on the Indian mutual fund industry in general and the chosen funds (Axis Gold Fund, BSL Gold Fund, Kotak Gold Fund & SBI gold fund) in particular. Cointegration tests and Vector error correction equations prove that the chosen variables have strong effect on the NAVs (net asset values) of the mutual funds. However, the greatest influence is felt from the fund’s own past and current information and it is found that when an innovation of fund’s own lagged NAVs is given, variance caused is high that changes the current NAVs markedly. The study helps to highlight the interplay of macroeconomic variables and their repercussion on mutual fund industry.

Keywords: cointegration, Granger causality, impulse response, macroeconomic variables, mutual funds, stationarity, unit root test, variance decomposition, VECM

Procedia PDF Downloads 230

Authors: Ana-Marija Stjepić, Luka Sušac, Dalia Suša Vugec

Abstract:

In the last few years, examples from scientific literature and business practices show that the adoption of technological innovations increases enterprises' performance. Recently, when it comes to the field of information technology innovation, business intelligence systems (BISs) have drawn a significant amount of attention of the scientific circles. BISs can be understood as a form of technological innovation which can bring certain benefits to the organizations that are adopting it. Therefore, the aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to define determinants of successful BISs adoption in small and medium enterprises and thus contribute to this neglected research area and (2) to present the current state of BISs adoption in small and medium-sized companies. In order to do so, determinants are defined and classified into three dimensions, according to the Technology – Organization – Environment (TOE) theoretical framework that describes the impact of each dimension on technological innovations adoption. Moreover, paper brings a case study presenting the adoption of BISs in practice within an organization from tertiary (service) industry sector. Based on the results of the study, guidelines for more efficient, faster and easier BISs adoption are presented.

Keywords: adoption, business intelligence, business intelligence systems, case study, TOE framework

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Dong Wei, Wu Jinxiu

Abstract:

As China's urban construction enters a new phase of 'stock optimization,' the key point of urban development has shifted to the development and reuse of existing public space. However, cities still face a series of challenges, such as the shortage of space quantity and insufficient space quality, which indirectly affect urban vitality. A review of the vitality of urban public space will significantly contribute to optimizing the quality of the urban built environment. It firstly analyses the research hotspots of urban vitality at home and abroad, based on a semi-systematic literature review. Then this paper summarizes the theoretical definitions of the vitality of urban public space and sorts out the influencing factors from the perspectives of society, environment, and users. Lastly, the paper concludes with the mainstream quantitative and evaluation methods, such as linear evaluation and integrated evaluation. This paper renders a multi-theoretical perspective to understand the characteristics and evaluation system of the vitality of public space, which helps to acknowledge the dynamic relationship between users, urban environment, and vitality. It also looks forward to providing optimal design strategies for constructing a vigorous public space in future cities.

Keywords: public space, quantification of vitality, spatial vitality, urban vitality

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Bing-Shun Huang, Hung-Ju Chiu, Wen-Kai Hsieh, Hsiu-Chuan Lin, Ming-Lung Hung

Abstract:

Taiwan's solar photovoltaic target in 2025 is 20 GW, of which the fish-electricity symbiosis target is 4 GW. In the future, many solar photovoltaic installations may cause local environmental or social impacts. Therefore, the Taiwan government inspects the fish-electricity symbiosis to reduce the impact of solar photovoltaics on the local environment or society. This stuy takes the symbiosis of fishery and electricity in Kaohsiung City as an example to explore Taiwan's environmental and social inspection practices. It mainly analyzes the two aspects of environmental ecology and social economy. The results show that the environmental inspection is mainly through site surveys, ecological information mapping, on-site interviews, and public consultation meetings. Social inspection mainly includes document analysis, on-site interviews, site surveys, expert discussions, and public consultations to identify possible local problems. Although the government had recognized the local issues, the future status may also change. It is recommended that future photoelectric companies should reconfirm the current situation of development sites when applying for the installation and propose countermeasures to solve the problem.

Keywords: taiwan, fish-electricity symbiosis, environment, society, inspection

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: Sabina Jordan, Marjana Šijanec Zavrl, Miha Tomšič, Friderik Knez

Abstract:

To determine the possibilities for the implementation of sustainable building indicators in Slovenia, testing of the first version of the indicators, developed in the CARE4CLIMATE project and based on the EU Level(s) framework, was carried out in 2022. Invited and interested stakeholders of the construction process were provided with video content and instructions on the Slovenian e-platform of sustainable building indicators. In addition, workshops and lectures with individual subjects were also performed. The final phase of the training and testing procedure included a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information about the participants' opinions regarding the indicators. The analysis of the results of the testing, which was focused on level 2, confirmed the key preliminary finding of the development group, namely that currently, due to the lack of certain knowledge, data, and tools, all indicators for this level are not yet feasible in practice. The research also highlighted the greater need for training and specialization of experts in this field. At the same time, it showed that the testing of the first version itself was a big challenge: only 30 experts fully participated and filled out the online questionnaire. This number seems alarmingly low at first glance, but compared to level(s) testing in the EU member states, it is much more than 50 times higher. However, for the further execution of the indicators in Slovenia, it will therefore be necessary to invest a lot of effort and engagement. It is likely that state support will also be needed, for example, in the form of financial mechanisms or incentives and/or legislative background.

Keywords: sustainability, building, indicator, implementation, testing, questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Metahri Leyla, Helali Amal, Dali Yahia Mustapha Kamel

Abstract:

Herbal medicine is one of the oldest medicines in the world. It constitutes an interesting alternative to treat and cure without creating new diseases. Despite the progress of medicine, the increase in the number of doctors, the creation of social security, many parents have resorted to herbal medicine for their children; they are increasingly asking for "natural remedies", "without risk" for their children. Herbal tea is a very accessible way to enjoy the benefits of herbal medicine. Accordingly; the objective of our study is to obtain detailed information on the composition and mode of administration of these herbal teas and to identify the different plants used; their beneficial effects, as well as their possible toxicity. The current research work represents an ethnobotanical survey spread over one month (from January 6, 2021 to February 19, 2021) carried out by means of an electronic questionnaire concerning 753 respondents, involving single or multiparous mothers. The obtained results reveal that a total of 684 mothers used herbal teas for their infants, which revealed the use of 55 herbal remedies for several indications, the most sought after are the carminative effect and relief of colic, and which 9% of users noticed undesirable effects linked to the administration of herbal teas to their infants. As a conclusion, it has been asserted that the use of herbal teas as a natural remedy by Algerian mothers is a widely accepted practice, however the "natural" nature of the plants does not mean that they are harmless.

Keywords: Keywords: Herbal medicine, Herbal teas, Children, Mothers, Medicinal plants.

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Sergio S. De Jesus, Aline Santana, Rubens Maciel Filho

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to choose and determine a green solvent system with similar extraction efficiencies as the traditional Bligh and Dyer method. Sunflower seed oil was extracted using Bligh and Dyer method with 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and isoamyl using alcohol ratios of 1:1; 2:1; 3:1; 1:2; 3:1. At the same time comparative experiments was performed with chloroform and methanol ratios of 1:1; 2:1; 3:1; 1:2; 3:1. Comparison study was done using 5 replicates (n=5). Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Office Excel (Microsoft, USA) to determine means and Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference test for comparison between treatments (α = 0.05). The results showed that using classic method with methanol and chloroform presented the extraction oil yield with the values of 31-44% (w/w) and values of 36-45% (w/w) using green solvents for extractions. Among the two extraction methods, 2 methyltetrahydrofuran and isoamyl alcohol ratio 2:1 provided the best results (45% w/w), while the classic method using chloroform and methanol with ratio of 3:1 presented a extraction oil yield of 44% (w/w). It was concluded that the proposed extraction method using 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and isoamyl alcohol in this work allowed the same efficiency level as chloroform and methanol.

Keywords: extraction, green solvent, lipids, sugarcane

Procedia PDF Downloads 361

Authors: Jie Li, Nick Manning

Abstract:

The mass rural-urban migrants in China associated with the urbanization processes bear significant implications on public health, which is an important yet under-researched area. Urban social and built environment, such as noise, air pollution, high population density, and social segregation, has the potential to contribute to mental illness. In China, rural-urban migrants are also faced with institutional discrimination tied to the hukou (household registration) system, through which they are denied of full citizenship to basic social welfare and services, which may elevate the stress of urban living and exacerbate the risks to mental illness. This paper aims to link the sociospatial exclusion, everyday life experiences and its mental health consequences on rural to urban migrants living in the mega-city of Shanghai. More specifically, it asks what the daily experience of being a migrant in Shanghai is actually like, particularly regarding sources of stress from housing, displacement, service accessibility, and cultural conflict, and whether these stresses affect mental health? Secondary data from literature review on migration, urban studies, and epidemiology research, as well as primary data from preliminary field trip observations and interviews are used in the analysis.

Keywords: migration, urbanisation, mental health, China

Procedia PDF Downloads 358

Authors: Yongqi Dong, Zuo Zhang, Rui Fu, Li Li

Abstract:

The records generated by taxicabs which are equipped with GPS devices is of vital importance for studying human mobility behavior, however, here we are focusing on taxi drivers' operation strategies between workdays and weekends temporally and spatially. We identify a group of valuable characteristics through large scale drivers' behavior in a complex metropolis environment. Based on the daily operations of 31,000 taxi drivers in New York City, we classify drivers into top, ordinary and low-income groups according to their monthly working load, daily income, daily ranking and the variance of the daily rank. Then, we apply big data analysis and visualization methods to compare the different characteristics among top, ordinary and low income drivers in selecting of working time, working area as well as strategies between workdays and weekends. The results verify that top drivers do have special operation tactics to help themselves serve more passengers, travel faster thus make more money per unit time. This research provides new possibilities for fully utilizing the information obtained from urban taxicab data for estimating human behavior, which is not only very useful for individual taxicab driver but also to those policy-makers in city authorities.

Keywords: big data, operation strategies, comparison, revenue, temporal, spatial

Procedia PDF Downloads 215