Search results for: small and medium-sized businesses (SMB)

Authors: Sapan Bhatnagar, Danish Akhtar, Salman Ahmed, Asif Ekbal, Gufran Beig

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Particulates are the solid and liquid droplets present in the atmosphere, they have serious negative effects on human health and environment. PM10 and PM2.5 are so small that they can penetrate deep into our lungs through the respiratory system. Determination of the amount of particulates present in the atmosphere per cubic meter is necessary to monitor, regulate and model atmospheric particulate levels. Air Quality Index is an index tells us how clean or polluted our air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for us. The AQI focuses on health affects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. The quality rating for each pollutant was calculated. The geometric mean of these quality ratings gives the Air Quality Index. The existing concentrations of pollutants were compared with ambient air quality standards.

Keywords: air quality index, particulate, respirable dust sampler, dust sampler

Procedia PDF Downloads 573

Authors: Lei Hou, Xinli Du, Nikolaos Boulgouris

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A cochlear implant, referred to as a CI, is a small electronic device that can provide direct electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve. During cochlear implant surgery, atraumatic electrode array insertion is considered to be a crucial step. However, during implantation, the mechanical behaviour of an electrode array inside the cochlea is not known. The behaviour of an electrode array inside of the cochlea is hardly identified by regular methods. In this study, a CI electrode array capacitive sensor system is proposed. It is able to automatically determine the array state as a result of the capacitance variations. Instead of applying sensors to the electrode array, the capacitance information from the electrodes will be gathered and analysed. Results reveal that this sensing method is capable of recognising different states when fed into a pre-shaped model.

Keywords: cochlear implant, electrode, hearing preservation, insertion force, capacitive sensing

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Claudia Norambuena, Myissa Weiss, Maria Ruiz Maya, Matthew Straley, Elijah Hammond, Benjamin Chesebrough, David Grow

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The purpose of this project is to develop a low-cost, portable sensor device that can be used at home for long-term analysis of gait and balance abnormalities. One area of particular concern involves the asymmetries in movement and balance that can accompany certain types of injuries and/or the associated devices used in the repair and rehabilitation process (e.g. the use of splints and casts) which can often increase chances of falls and additional injuries. This device has the capacity to monitor a patient during the rehabilitation process after injury or operation, increasing the patient’s access to healthcare while decreasing the number of visits to the patient’s clinician. The sensor device may thereby improve the quality of the patient’s care, particularly in rural areas where access to the clinician could be limited, while simultaneously decreasing the overall cost associated with the patient’s care. The device consists of nine interconnected accelerometer/ gyroscope/compass chips (9-DOF IMU, Adafruit, New York, NY). The sensors attach to and are used to determine the orientation and acceleration of the patient’s lower abdomen, C7 vertebra (lower neck), L1 vertebra (middle back), anterior side of each thigh and tibia, and dorsal side of each foot. In addition, pressure sensors are embedded in shoe inserts with one sensor (ESS301, Tekscan, Boston, MA) beneath the heel and three sensors (Interlink 402, Interlink Electronics, Westlake Village, CA) beneath the metatarsal bones of each foot. These sensors measure the distribution of the weight applied to each foot as well as stride duration. A small microntroller (Arduino Mega, Arduino, Ivrea, Italy) is used to collect data from these sensors in a CSV file. MATLAB is then used to analyze the data and output the hip, knee, ankle, and trunk angles projected on the sagittal plane. An open-source program Processing is then used to generate an animation of the patient’s gait. The accuracy of the sensors was validated through comparison to goniometric measurements (±2° error). The sensor device was also shown to have sufficient sensitivity to observe various gait abnormalities. Several patients used the sensor device, and the data collected from each represented the patient’s movements. Further, the sensors were found to have the ability to observe gait abnormalities caused by the addition of a small amount of weight (4.5 - 9.1 kg) to one side of the patient. The user-friendly interface and portability of the sensor device will help to construct a bridge between patients and their clinicians with fewer necessary inpatient visits.

Keywords: biomedical sensing, gait analysis, outpatient, rehabilitation

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: A. Rajabpour, A. Hadizadeh Kheirkhah

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Heat transfer is of great importance to biological systems in order to function properly. In the present study, specific heat capacity as one of the most important heat transfer properties is calculated for a soluble in water Lysozyme protein. Using equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, specific heat capacities of pure water, dry lysozyme, and lysozyme-water solution are calculated at 300K for different weight fractions. It is found that MD results are in good agreement with ideal binary mixing rule at small weight fractions. Results of all simulations have been validated with experimental data.

Keywords: specific heat capacity, molecular dynamics simulation, lysozyme protein, equilibrium

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Atiwat Khatpibunchai, Taweesak Kritjaroen

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A social enterprise is the innovative hybrid organizations where its ultimate goal is to generate revenue and use it as a fund to solve the social and environmental problem. Although the evidence shows the clear value of economic, social and environmental aspects, the limitations of most of the social enterprises are the expanding impact of social and environmental aspects through the normal market mechanism. This is because the major sources of revenues of social enterprises derive from the business advocates who merely wish to support society and environment by using products and services of social enterprises rather than expect the satisfaction and the distinctive advantage of products and services. Thus, social enterprises cannot reach the achievement as other businesses do. The relevant concepts from the literature review revealed that dynamic capability is the ability to sense, integrate and reconfigure internal resources and utilize external resources to adapt to changing environments, create innovation and achieve competitive advantage. The objective of this research is to study the influence of dynamic capability that affects competitive advantage and sustainable performance, as well as to determine important elements of dynamic capability. The researchers developed a conceptual model from the related concepts and theories of dynamic capability. A conceptual model will support and show the influence of dynamic capability on competitive advantage and sustainable performance of social enterprises. The 230 organizations in South-East Asia served as participants in this study. The results of the study were analyzed by the structural equation model (SEM) and it was indicated that research model is consistent with empirical research. The results also demonstrated that dynamic capability has a direct and indirect influence on competitive advantage and sustainable performance. Moreover, it can be summarized that dynamic capability consists of the five elements: 1) the ability to sense an opportunity; 2) the ability to seize an opportunity; 3) the ability to integrate resources; 4) the ability to absorb resources; 5) the ability to create innovation. The study recommends that related sectors can use this study as a guideline to support and promote social enterprises. The focus should be pointed to the important elements of dynamic capability that are the development of the ability to transform existing resources in the organization and the ability to seize opportunity from changing market.

Keywords: dynamic capability, social enterprise, sustainable competitive advantage, sustainable performance

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Authors: Saeid Shahraki, Mohammad Mahdi Kaekha

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1030 steel, a kind of carbon steel used in homogenization, cold-forming, quenching, and tempering conditions, is generally utilized in small parts resisting medium stress, such as connection foundations, hydraulic cylinders, tiny gears, pins, clamps, automotive normal forging parts, camshafts, levers, pundits, and nuts. In this study, AC3 software was used to measure the effect of carbon and manganese percentage, dimensions and geometry of pieces, the type of the cooling fluid, temperature, and time on hardness and the content of 1030 steel phases. Next, the results are compared with the analytical values obtained from the Lumped Capacity Method.

Keywords: 1030Steel, AC3software, heat treatment, lumped capacity method

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Li Hung-Hui, Chen Chi-Chieh, Yang Zon-Yee

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This study aims to explore the impact energy absorption in the fragmented processes of rock samples during the split-Hopkinson-pressure-bar tests. Three kinds of rock samples including granite, marble and sandstone were tested. The impact energy absorptions were calculated according to the incident, reflected and transmitted strain wave histories measured by a oscilloscope. The degree of fragment rocks after tests was quantified by the box dimension of the fractal theory. The box dimension of rock fragments was obtained from the particle size distribution curve by the sieve analysis. The results can be concluded that: (1) the degree of rock fragments after tests can be well described by the value of box dimension; (2) with the impact energy absorption increasing, the degrees of rock fragments are varied from the very large fragments to very small fragments, and the corresponding box dimension varies from 2.9 to 1.2.

Keywords: SHPB test, energy absorption, rock fragments, impact loading, box dimension

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Authors: Nadine Sangster, Akil James, Rondell Duke, Aaron Ameerali, Terrence Lalla

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The market place of the 21st century is evolving into one of merging national markets, fragmented consumer markets, and rapidly changing product technologies. The use of new technologies has become vital to the manufacturing industry for their survival and sustainability. This work focused on the assembly type industry in a small developing country and aimed at identifying the use of advanced manufacturing technologies and their impact on this sector of the manufacturing industry. It was found that some technologies were being used and that they had improved the effectiveness of those companies but there was still quite a bit of room for improvements. Some of the recommendations included benchmarking against international standards, the adoption of a “made in TT” campaign and the effective utilisation of the technologies to improve manufacturing effectiveness and thus improve competitive advantages and strategies.

Keywords: advanced manufacturing technology, Trinidad and Tobago, manufacturing, industrial engineering

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Authors: Y. J. Song, Q. S. Xu, X. C. Wang, H. Wang, C. Q. Li

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The catalyst of copper oxide loaded on HZSM-5 was developed for nitrous oxide (N₂O) direct decomposition. The kinetic of nitrous oxide decomposition was studied for CuO/HZSM-5 catalyst prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method. The external and internal diffusion of catalytic reaction were considered in the investigation. Experiment results indicated that the external diffusion was basically eliminated when the reaction gas mixture gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) was higher than 9000h⁻¹ and the influence of the internal diffusion was negligible when the particle size of the catalyst CuO/HZSM-5 was small than 40-60 mesh. The experiment results showed that the kinetic of catalytic decomposition of N₂O was a first-order reaction and the activation energy and the pre-factor of the kinetic equation were 115.15kJ/mol and of 1.6×109, respectively.

Keywords: catalytic decomposition, CuO/HZSM-5, kinetic, nitrous oxide

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Authors: Temur Chilachava

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In work the new nonlinear mathematical model describing assimilation of the people (population) with some less widespread language by two states with two various widespread languages, taking into account demographic factor is offered. In model three subjects are considered: the population and government institutions with the widespread first language, influencing by means of state and administrative resources on the third population with some less widespread language for the purpose of their assimilation; the population and government institutions with the widespread second language, influencing by means of state and administrative resources on the third population with some less widespread language for the purpose of their assimilation; the third population (probably small state formation, an autonomy), exposed to bilateral assimilation from two rather powerful states. Earlier by us it was shown that in case of zero demographic factor of all three subjects, the population with less widespread language completely assimilates the states with two various widespread languages, and the result of assimilation (redistribution of the assimilated population) is connected with initial quantities, technological and economic capabilities of the assimilating states. In considered model taking into account demographic factor natural decrease in the population of the assimilating states and a natural increase of the population which has undergone bilateral assimilation is supposed. At some ratios between coefficients of natural change of the population of the assimilating states, and also assimilation coefficients, for nonlinear system of three differential equations are received the two first integral. Cases of two powerful states assimilating the population of small state formation (autonomy), with different number of the population, both with identical and with various economic and technological capabilities are considered. It is shown that in the first case the problem is actually reduced to nonlinear system of two differential equations describing the classical model "predator - the victim", thus, naturally a role of the victim plays the population which has undergone assimilation, and a predator role the population of one of the assimilating states. The population of the second assimilating state in the first case changes in proportion (the coefficient of proportionality is equal to the relation of the population of assimilators in an initial time point) to the population of the first assimilator. In the second case the problem is actually reduced to nonlinear system of two differential equations describing type model "a predator – the victim", with the closed integrated curves on the phase plane. In both cases there is no full assimilation of the population to less widespread language. Intervals of change of number of the population of all three objects of model are found. The considered mathematical models which in some approach can model real situations, with the real assimilating countries and the state formations (an autonomy or formation with the unrecognized status), undergone to bilateral assimilation, show that for them the only possibility to avoid from assimilation is the natural demographic increase in population and hope for natural decrease in the population of the assimilating states.

Keywords: nonlinear mathematical model, bilateral assimilation, demographic factor, first integrals, result of assimilation, intervals of change of number of the population

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Authors: Hammad Aziz

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Intumescent fire retardant coating (IFRC) is applied on the surface of material requiring fire protection. In this research work, IFRC’s were developed using ammonium polyphosphate, expandable graphite, melamine, boric acid, zinc borate, mica, magnesium oxide, and bisphenol A BE-188 with polyamide polyamine H-4014 as curing agent. Formulations were prepared using nano size MgO and compared with control formulation i.e. without nano size MgO. Small scale hydrocarbon fire test was conducted to scrutinize the thermal performance of the coating. Char and coating were further characterized by using FESEM, FTIR, EDS, TGA and DTGA. Thus, Intumescent coatings reinforced with 2 wt. % of nano-MgO (rod shaped particles) provide superior thermal performance and uniform microstructure of char due to well dispersion of nano particles.

Keywords: intumescent coating, char, SEM, TGA

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Authors: Armen Grigoryan, Milena Arakelyan

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The idea of smart logistics is still quite a complicated one. It can be used to market products to a large number of customers or to acquire raw materials of the highest quality at the lowest cost in geographically dispersed areas. The use of smart contracts in logistics and supply chain management has the potential to revolutionize the way that goods are tracked, transported, and managed. Smart contracts are simply computer programs written in one of the blockchain programming languages (Solidity, Rust, Vyper), which are capable of self-execution once the predetermined conditions are met. They can be used to automate and streamline many of the traditional manual processes that are currently used in logistics and supply chain management, including the tracking and movement of goods, the management of inventory, and the facilitation of payments and settlements between different parties in the supply chain. Currently, logistics is a core area for companies which is concerned with transporting products between parties. Still, the problem of this sector is that its scale may lead to detainments and defaults in the delivery of goods, as well as other issues. Moreover, large distributors require a large number of workers to meet all the needs of their stores. All this may contribute to big detainments in order processing and increases the potentiality of losing orders. In an attempt to break this problem, companies have automated all their procedures, contributing to a significant augmentation in the number of businesses and distributors in the logistics sector. Hence, blockchain technology and smart contracted legal agreements seem to be suitable concepts to redesign and optimize collaborative business processes and supply chains. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the scope of blockchain technology and smart contracts in the field of logistics and supply chain management. This study discusses the research question of how and to which extent smart contracts and blockchain technology can facilitate and improve the implementation of collaborative business structures for sustainable entrepreneurial activities in smart supply chains. The intention is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing research on the use of smart contracts in logistics and supply chain management and to identify any gaps or limitations in the current knowledge on this topic. This review aims to provide a summary and evaluation of the key findings and themes that emerge from the research, as well as to suggest potential directions for future research on the use of smart contracts in logistics and supply chain management.

Keywords: smart contracts, smart logistics, smart supply chain management, blockchain and smart contracts in logistics, smart contracts for controlling supply chain management

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Elahe Zavareian

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Cinema is a powerful medium that can depict and critique sociological and cultural issues, contributing to the expansion of important societal issues and raising awareness. Family crises and challenges are significant concerns faced by societies worldwide. The family serves as the central core for societal formation, and the challenges experienced within this small social group have implications not only for individuals within a country but also for the wider culture. The concept of the family represents the entire society in relation to other countries, shaping ideas and prejudices regarding interpersonal culture and relationships. The representation of society's problems through cinema influences the formation of cultural schemas within the country producing the films and among the societies that view them.

Keywords: interpersonal culture, representation, society, family, cultural schemas

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Maged Assem Soliman Mossallam

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One of the main prospectives on the demand of space exploration is to reduce the costs and efforts for satellite design. Concerning this issue satellite down scaling attracts space scientists and engineers. Picosatellite is the smallest category of satellites. The overall mass is less than 1 kg and dimensions are 10x10x3 cm3. Thermal control target is to keep the Pico-satellite board temperature within the permissible limits of temperature. Thermal design is completely passive which relies mainly on the enhancement of the thermo-optical properties of aluminum using anodization. Transient analysis is given for two different orbits, ISS orbit and 600 km altitude orbit. Results show that board temperature lies within 3 oC to 22 oC using black anodization which is a permissible limit for the satellite internal electronic board.

Keywords: satellite thermal control, small satellites, thermooptical properties , transient orbit analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Natsuki Kishizawa, Keiko Nakano, Hussam Organji, Amer Shaiban, Mohammad Albeirutty

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One of the most important tasks in operating desalination plants using a reverse osmosis (RO) method is preventing RO membrane fouling caused by foulants found in seawater. Optimal design of the pre-treatment process of RO process for plants enables the reduction of foulants. Therefore, a quantitative evaluation of the fouling risk in pre-treated water, which is fed to RO, is required for optimal design. Some measurement methods for water quality such as silt density index (SDI) and total organic carbon (TOC) have been conservatively applied for evaluations. However, these methods have not been effective in some situations for evaluating the fouling risk of RO feed water. Furthermore, stable management of plants will be possible by alerts and appropriate control of the pre-treatment process by using the method if it can be applied to the inline monitoring system for the fouling risk of RO feed water. The purpose of this study is to develop a method to evaluate the fouling risk of RO feed water. We applied a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to measure the amount of foulants found in seawater using a sensor whose surface is coated with polyamide thin film, which is the main material of a RO membrane. The increase of the weight of the sensor after a certain length of time in which the sample water passes indicates the fouling risk of the sample directly. We classified the values as “FP: Fouling Potential”. The characteristics of the method are to measure the very small amount of substances in seawater in a short time: < 2h, and from a small volume of the sample water: < 50mL. Using some RO cell filtration units, a higher correlation between the pressure increase given by RO fouling and the FP from the method than SDI and TOC was confirmed in the laboratory-scale test. Then, to establish the correlation in the actual bench-scale RO membrane module, and to confirm the feasibility of the monitoring system as a control tool for the pre-treatment process, we have started a long-term test at an experimental desalination site by the Red Sea in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Implementing inline equipment for the method made it possible to measure FP intermittently (4 times per day) and automatically. Moreover, for two 3-month long operations, the RO operation pressure among feed water samples of different qualities was compared. The pressure increase through a RO membrane module was observed at a high FP RO unit in which feed water was treated by a cartridge filter only. On the other hand, the pressure increase was not observed at a low FP RO unit in which feed water was treated by an ultra-filter during the operation. Therefore, the correlation in an actual scale RO membrane was established in two runs of two types of feed water. The result suggested that the FP method enables the evaluation of the fouling risk of RO feed water.

Keywords: fouling, monitoring, QCM, water quality

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Authors: P. H. Le, J. Molina, S. Hirai

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In this work, we propose the application of Japanese “Origami” art for a floating function of a small aerial vehicle such as a hexarotor. A preliminary experiment was conducted using Origami magic balls mounted under a hexarotor. This magic ball can expand and shrink using an air pump during free flying. Using this interesting and functional concept, it promises to reduce the resistance of wind as well as reduce the energy consumption when the Origami balls are deflated. This approach can be particularly useful in rescue emergency situations. Furthermore, there are many unexpected reasons that may cause the multi-rotor has to land on the surface of water due to problems with the communication between the aircraft and the ground station. In addition, a complementary experiment was designed to prove that the hexarotor can fly maintaining the stability and also, takes off and lands on the surface of water using air balloons.

Keywords: helicopter, Japanese origami ball, floating, aerial robots, rescue

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: Ali H. Daraji, Jack M. Hale, Ye Jianqiao

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With the extensive use of high specific strength structures to optimise the loading capacity and material cost in aerospace and most engineering applications, much effort has been expended to develop intelligent structures for active vibration reduction and structural health monitoring. These structures are highly flexible, inherently low internal damping and associated with large vibration and long decay time. The modification of such structures by adding lightweight piezoelectric sensors and actuators at efficient locations integrated with an optimal control scheme is considered an effective solution for structural vibration monitoring and controlling. The size and location of sensor and actuator are important research topics to investigate their effects on the level of vibration detection and reduction and the amount of energy provided by a controller. Several methodologies have been presented to determine the optimal location of a limited number of sensors and actuators for small-scale structures. However, these studies have tackled this problem directly, measuring the fitness function based on eigenvalues and eigenvectors achieved with numerous combinations of sensor/actuator pair locations and converging on an optimal set using heuristic optimisation techniques such as the genetic algorithms. This is computationally expensive for small- and large-scale structures subject to optimise a number of s/a pairs to suppress multiple vibration modes. This paper proposes an efficient method to determine optimal locations for a limited number of sensor/actuator pairs for active vibration reduction of a flexible structure based on finite element method and Hamilton’s principle. The current work takes the simplified approach of modelling a structure with sensors at all locations, subjecting it to an external force to excite the various modes of interest and noting the locations of sensors giving the largest average percentage sensors effectiveness measured by dividing all sensor output voltage over the maximum for each mode. The methodology was implemented for a cantilever plate under external force excitation to find the optimal distribution of six sensor/actuator pairs to suppress the first six modes of vibration. It is shown that the results of the optimal sensor locations give good agreement with published optimal locations, but with very much reduced computational effort and higher effectiveness. Furthermore, it is shown that collocated sensor/actuator pairs placed in these locations give very effective active vibration reduction using optimal linear quadratic control scheme.

Keywords: optimisation, plate, sensor effectiveness, vibration control

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Authors: Majharul Talukder, Ali Quazi

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The use of sustainable technology is being increasingly driven by the demand for saving resources, long-term cost savings, and protecting the environment. A transitional economy such as Malaysia is an example where traditional technologies are being replaced by sustainable ones. The antecedents that are driving Malaysian SMEs to integrate sustainable technology into their business operations have not been well researched. This paper addresses this gap in our knowledge through an examination of attitudes and ethics as antecedents of acceptance of sustainable technology among Malaysian SMEs. The database comprised 322 responses that were analysed using the PLS-SEM path algorithm. Results indicated that effective and altruism attitudes have high predictive ability for the usage of sustainable technology in Malaysian SMEs. This paper identifies the implications of the findings, along with the major limitations of the research and explores future areas of research in this field.

Keywords: sustainable technology, innovation management, Malaysian SMEs, organizational attitudes and ethical belief

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Authors: Yufen Qin

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Text sentiment transfer is an important branch of text style transfer. The goal is to generate text with another sentiment attribute based on a text with a specific sentiment attribute while maintaining the content and semantic information unrelated to sentiment unchanged in the process. There are currently two main challenges in this field: no parallel corpus and text attribute entanglement. In response to the above problems, this paper proposed a novel solution: Mask-Prompt-Rerank. Use the method of masking the sentiment words and then using prompt regeneration to transfer the sentence sentiment. Experiments on two sentiment benchmark datasets and one formality transfer benchmark dataset show that this approach makes the performance of small pre-trained language models comparable to that of the most advanced large models, while consuming two orders of magnitude less computing and memory.

Keywords: language model, natural language processing, prompt, text sentiment transfer

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Authors: Jing Zhang, Yongqin Chang, Yongwei Wang, Xiaolin Li, Shaoning Jiang, Farong Wan, Yi Long

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Microstructural and hardening changes of Fe-0.2wt.%V alloy and pure Fe irradiated with 100 keV hydrogen ions at room temperature were investigated. It was found that dislocation density varies dramatically after irradiation, ranging from dislocation free to dense areas with tangled and complex dislocation configuration. As the irradiated Fe-0.2wt.%V samples were annealed at 773 K, the irradiation-induced dislocation loops disappear, while many small precipitates with enriched C distribute in the matrix. Some large precipitates with enriched V were also observed. The hardness of Fe-0.2wt.%V alloy and pure Fe increases after irradiation, which ascribes to the formation of dislocation loops in the irradiated specimens. Compared with pure Fe, the size of the irradiation-introduced dislocation loops in Fe-0.2wt.%V alloy decreases and the density increases, the change of the hardness also decreases.

Keywords: irradiation, Fe-0.2wt.%V alloy, microstructures, hardness

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Authors: Dongshuo Wang, Minjie Xing

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International businesses prefer to hire people who speak more than one language. With the booming of China’s market, industries and trade, business leaders are looking for people who can speak Chinese and operate successfully in a Chinese cultural context, and therefore an increasing number of tertiary students choose a Business Chinese (BC) course. As a result, BC syllabus design is urgently needed. What business knowledge should be included in China’s context? What aspects of BC culture should be included? How much Chinese language should be introduced to conduct business in China? With these research questions, this research explores a syllabus design that integrates the three aspects of subject knowledge of business in communication, business practice including the procedure of and strategies for communicating business in practice and language skills including the disciplinary and professional contexts in which linguistic choices are made. After literature review and consultancy with China-related business professionals, senior staff from business schools and representatives of students, the authors of this paper, together with language tutors drafted a syllabus based on the integrated approach to include subject knowledge, business practice and language skills. Due to the nature of this research which requires trial/test and detailed description for each correction, qualitative methods are adopted. Two in-depth focus group interviews (with 2 staff and 4 students in each group), and 18 individual interviews (8 staff and 10 students) were conducted. QDA was used for systematizing, organizing, and analysing qualitative data. It was discovered that the business knowledge related to a Chinese cultural context, including face value, networking skills, strategic plans for signing a contract, marketing, sales, and after-sale service, should be introduced through lectures and seminars; business practice could be implemented by students setting up their own companies, virtual or real; and language skills would be trained via writing business messages and presenting their companies in fairs and exhibitions. After a longitudinal study of trials and amendments for three years from 2013 to 2016, the syllabus was approved by staff and students and the university. Students appreciated the syllabus, as they could apply the subject knowledge into practice by using it in their own companies and Chinese language was used throughout the process. The syllabus is now ready to be used in universities offering BC, and the designing process can be applied to other new courses as well.

Keywords: business Chinese, syllabus design, business knowledge, language skills

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Authors: Naveed Ahmad, Farooq Ahmad, Abdul Aal

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The effect of iron contents on the rheological behavior of sPP/iron composites in the melt phase was investigated using a series of syndiotactic polypropylene/iron (sPP/iron) composite samples. Using the Advanced Rheometric Expansion System, studies with small amplitude oscillatory shear were conducted (ARES). It was discovered that the plateau modulus rose along with the iron loading. Also it was found that both entanglement molecular weight and packing length decrease with increase in iron loading.. This finding demonstrates how iron content in polymer/iron composites affects chain parameters and dimensions, which in turn affects the entire chain dynamics.

Keywords: plateau modulus, packing lenght, polymer/iron composites, rheology, entanglement molecular weight

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Authors: Pei-Syuan Ruan, Ya-Chi Yu, Shao-Wen Chen, Jin-Der Lee, Jong-Rong Wang, Chunkuan Shih

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This study investigated the void fraction characteristics under low superficial gas velocity (J_g) and low superficial fluid velocity (J_f) conditions in a 3x3 rod bundle geometry. Three arrangements of conductivity probes were set to measure the void fraction at various cross-sectional regions, including rod-gap, sub-channel and rod-wall regions. The experimental tests were performed under the flow conditions of J_g = 0-0.236 m/s and J_f = 0-0.142 m/s, and the time-averaged void fractions were recorded at each flow condition. It was observed that while the superficial gas velocity increases, the small bubbles started to cluster together and become big bubbles. As the superficial fluid velocity increases, the local void fractions of the three test regions will get closer and the bubble distribution will be more uniform across the cross section.

Keywords: conductivity probes, rod bundles, two-phase flow, void fraction

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Authors: Selami Şahin

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In this paper, in order to achieve sufficient bit error rate (BER) according to zenith angle of the satellite to ground station, SNR requirement is investigated utilizing pulse position modulation (PPM). To realize explicit results, all parameters such as link distance, Rytov variance, scintillation index, wavelength, aperture diameter of the receiver, Fried's parameter and zenith angle have been taken into account. Results indicate that after some parameters are determined since the constraints of the system, to achieve desired BER, required SNR values are in wide range while zenith angle changes from small to large values. Therefore, in order not to utilize high link margin, either SNR should adjust according to zenith angle or link should establish with predetermined intervals of the zenith angle.

Keywords: Free-space optical communication, optical downlink channel, atmospheric turbulence, wireless optical communication

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Authors: Julie Delany

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To thrive in today’s digital climate, it is vital that organisations adopt new technology and prepare for rising digital trends. This proves more difficult in government where, traditionally, people lack change readiness. While individuals may have a desire to work smarter, this does not necessarily mean embracing technology. This paper discusses the rollout of an application into a small department of highly experienced nurses. The goal was to both streamline the department's workflow and provide a platform for gathering essential business metrics. The biggest challenges were adoption and motivating the nurses to change their routines and learn new computer skills. Two-thirds struggled with the change, and as a result, some jeopardised the validity of the business metrics. In conclusion, there are lessons learned and recommendations for similar projects.

Keywords: change ready, information technology, end-user, iterative method, rollout plan, data analytics

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Authors: Lynda Beddek, Nadhir Attaf, Mohamed Salah Aida

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PbS thin films were grown on glass substrates by chemical bath deposition (CBD). The precursor aqueous bath contained 1 mole of lead nitrate, 1 mole of Thiourea and complexing agents (triethanolamine (TEA) and NaOH). Bath temperature and deposition time were fixed at 60°C and 3 hours, respectively. However, the PH of bath was varied from 10.5 to 12.5. Structural properties of the deposited films were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The preferred direction was revealed to be along (111) and the PbS crystal structure was confirmed. Strains and grains sizes were also calculated. Optical studies showed that films thicknesses do not exceed 600nm. Energy band gap values of films decreases with increase in pH and reached a value ~ 0.4eV at pH equal 12.5. The small value of the energy band gap makes PbS one of the most interesting candidate for solar energy conversion near the infrared ray.

Keywords: CBD, PbS, pH, thin films, x-ray diffraction

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Authors: Nuran Öze

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Communities and societies have been changing towards computer mediated communication. This paper explores online and offline identities and how relationships are formed and negotiated within internet environments which offer opportunities for people who know each other offline and move into relationships online. The expectations and norms of behavior within everyday life cause people to be embodied self. According to the age categories of Turkish Cypriots, their measurements of attitudes in Facebook will be investigated. Face-to-face field research and semi-structured interview methods are used in the study. Face-to-face interview has been done with Turkish Cypriots who are using Facebook already. According to the study, in constructing a linkage between real and virtual identities mostly affected from societal relations serves as a societal grooming tool for Turkish Cypriots.

Keywords: facebook, identity, social media, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Xu Heng

Abstract:

Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting Great Recession, the number of China’s unemployed college graduate reached over 500 thousand in 2011. Following the severe situation of college graduate employment, there has been growing public concern about college graduates, especially those with the less-privileged background, and their working and living condition in metropolises. Previous studies indicate that well-educated urban migrants with less-privileged background tend to obtain temporary occupation with less financial income and lower social status. Those vulnerable young migrants are described as ‘Ant Tribe’ by some scholars. However, since the implementation of a new urbanization project, together with the relaxed Hukou system and the acceleration of socio-economic development in middle/small cities, some researchers described well-educated urban migrant’s situation and the prospect of upward social mobility in urban areas in an overly optimistic light. In order to shed more lights on the underlying tensions encountered by China’s well-educated urban migrants in their upward social mobility pursuit, this research mainly focuses on 10 well-educated urban migrants’ life trajectories between their university-to-work transition and their current situation. All selected well-educated urban migrants are young adults with rural background who have already received higher education qualification from first-tier universities of Wuhan City (capital of Hubei Province). Drawing on the in-depth interviews with 10 participants and Inspired by Lahire’s Theory of Plural Actor, this study yields the following preliminary findings; 1) For those migrants who move to super-mega cities (i.e., Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou) or stay in Wuhan after college graduation, their inadequacies of economic and social capital are the structural factors which negatively influence their living condition and further shape their plan for career development. The incompatibility between the sub-fields of urban life and the disposition, which generated from their early socialization, is the main cause for marginalized position in the metropolises. 2) For those migrants who move back to middle/small cities located in their hometown regions, the inconsistency between the disposition, which generated from college life, and the organizational habitus of the workplace is the main cause for their sense of ‘fish out of water’, even though they have obtained the stable occupation of local government or state-owned enterprise. On the whole, this research illuminates how the underlying the structural forces shape well-educated urban migrants’ life trajectories and hinder their upward social mobility under the context of new urbanization project.

Keywords: life trajectory, social mobility, urbanization, well-educated urban migrant

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Yu-Shan Hsu

Abstract:

This paper studies a two-sector growth model with a technology of social constant returns and with a utility that features either a zero or a positive income effect on the demand for leisure. The purpose is to investigate how the existence of aggregate instability or equilibrium indeterminacy depends on both the intensity of the income effect on the demand for leisure and the value of the labor supply elasticity. The main finding is that when there is a factor intensity reversal between the private perspective and the social perspective, indeterminacy arises even if the utility has a positive income effect on leisure demand. Moreover, we find that a smaller value of the labor supply elasticity increases the range of the income effect on leisure demand and thus increases the possibility of equilibrium indeterminacy. JEL classification: E3; O41

Keywords: indeterminacy, non-separable preferences, income effect, labor supply elasticity

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Jeryes Danial, Yosi Ben Asher

Abstract:

Algorithms for controlling a swarm of robots is an active research field, out of which cattle herding is one of the most complex problems to solve. In this paper, we derive an independent herding algorithm that is specifically designed for a swarm of quadcopters. The algorithm works by devising flight trajectories that cause the cows to run-away in the desired direction and hence herd cows that are distributed in a given field towards a common gathering point. Unlike previously proposed swarm herding algorithms, this algorithm does not use a flocking model but rather stars each cow separately. The effectiveness of this algorithm is verified experimentally using a simulator. We use a special set of experiments attempting to demonstrate that the herding times of this algorithm correspond to field diameter small constant regardless of the number of cows in the field. This is an optimal result indicating that the algorithm groups the cows into intermediate groups and herd them as one forming ever closing bigger groups.

Keywords: swarm, independent, distributed, algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 174