Search results for: stability and performance

Authors: Aamina B. Hudaa, Rehana Akhtera, Massarat Hassana, Mir Monisab

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Mutton nuggets produced with the addition of apple pomace at the levels of 0% (Control), 5% (Treatment 1), 10% (Treatment 2), and 15% (Treatment 3) were evaluated for emulsion stability, cooking yield, pH, proximate composition, texture analysis and sensory properties. Apple pomace addition resulted in significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) emulsion stability and cooking yield of treatments in comparison to control and pH values were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) for the control as compared to treatments. Among the treatments, the product with 15% apple pomace had significantly (p ≤ 0.05) highest moisture content, and protein, ash and fat contents were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher in control than treatment groups. Crude fiber content of control was found significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower in comparison to nuggets formulated with 5%, 10% and 15% apple pomace and was found to increase significantly (p ≤ 0.05) with the increasing levels of apple pomace. Hardness of the products significantly (p ≤ 0.05) decreased with addition of apple pomace, whereas springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and gumminess showed a non-significant (p ≥ 0.05) decrease with the levels of apple pomace. Sensory evaluation showed significant (p ≤ 0.05) reduction in texture, flavour and overall acceptability scores of treatment products; however the scores were in the range of acceptability and T-1 showed better acceptability among apple pomace incorporated treatments.

Keywords: Mutton nuggets, apple pomace, textural properties, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Vitoldas Vaitkevičius, Evaldas Šerelis

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Silica fume, also known as microsilica (MS) or condensed silica fume is a by-product of the production of silicon metal or ferrosilicon alloys. Silica fume is one of the most effective pozzolanic additives which could be used for ultrahigh performance and other types of concrete. Despite the fact, however is not entirely clear, which amount of silica fume is most optimal for UHPC. Main objective of this experiment was to find optimal amount of silica fume for UHPC with and without thermal treatment, when different amount of quartz powder is substituted by silica fume. In this work were investigated four different composition of UHPC with different amount of silica fume. Silica fume were added 0, 10, 15 and 20% of cement (by weight) to UHPC mixture. Optimal amount of silica fume was determined by slump, viscosity, qualitative and quantitative XRD analysis and compression strength tests methods.

Keywords: compressive strength, silica fume, ultrahigh performance concrete, XRD

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Authors: A. Ghodbane, M. Saad, J. F. Boland, C. Thibeault

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Historically, actuators’ redundancy was used to deal with faults occurring suddenly in flight systems. This technique was generally expensive, time consuming and involves increased weight and space in the system. Therefore, nowadays, the on-line fault diagnosis of actuators and accommodation plays a major role in the design of avionic systems. These approaches, known as Fault Tolerant Flight Control systems (FTFCs) are able to adapt to such sudden faults while keeping avionics systems lighter and less expensive. In this paper, a (FTFC) system based on the Geometric Approach and a Reconfigurable Flight Control (RFC) are presented. The Geometric approach is used for cosmic ray fault reconstruction, while Sliding Mode Control (SMC) based on Lyapunov stability theory is designed for the reconfiguration of the controller in order to compensate the fault effect. Matlab®/Simulink® simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed flight control system against actuators’ faulty signal caused by cosmic rays. The results demonstrate the successful real-time implementation of the proposed FTFC system on a non-linear 6 DOF aircraft model.

Keywords: actuators’ faults, fault detection and diagnosis, fault tolerant flight control, sliding mode control, geometric approach for fault reconstruction, Lyapunov stability

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Authors: Akram Salah Eddine Belaidi, Said Kenai, El-Hadj Kadri, Benchaâ Benabed, Hamza Soualhi

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Self-compacting concrete (SCC) was developed in the middle of the 1980’s in Japan. SCC flows alone under its dead weight and consolidates itself without any entry of additional compaction energy and without segregation. As an integral part of a SCC, self-compacting mortars (SCM) may serve as a basis for the mix design of concrete since the measurement of the rheological properties of SCCs. This paper discusses the effect of using natural pozzolana (PZ) and marble powder (MP) in two alternative systems ratios PZ/MP = 1 and 1/3 of the performance of the SCC. A total of 11 SCC’s were prepared having a constant water-binder (w/b) ratio of 0.40 and total cementitious materials content of 475 kg/m3. Then, the fresh properties of the mortars were tested for mini-slump flow diameter and mini-V-funnel flow time for SCMs and Slumps flow test, L-Box height ratio, V-Funnel flow time and sieve stability for SCC. Moreover, the development in the compressive strength was determined at 3, 7, 28, 56, and 90 days. Test results have shown that using of ternary blends improved the fresh properties of the mixtures. The compressive strength of SCC at 90 days with 30% of PZ and MP was similar to those of ordinary concrete use in situ.

Keywords: self-compacting mortar, self-compacting concrete, natural pozzolana, marble powder, rheology, compressive strength

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Authors: Netsanet Kebede Hundessa

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Substrate modification of thin film composite (TFC) membranes with various crosslinkers is typically necessary for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) applications. This modification is aimed at enhancing membrane stability and solvent resistance, but it often results in a decline in permeance. This study introduces a distinct approach by developing a coordination-crosslinked polyimide substrate, which differs from the covalently-crosslinked substrates traditionally used. This developed substrate achieves enhanced solvent resistance, improved hydrophilicity, and optimized porous microstructure simultaneously. The study investigates the effects of an alkaline coagulation bath, subsequent ion exchange, and further solvent activation. The resulting TFC membrane successfully overcomes the typical permeability-selectivity trade-off of OSN membranes. It demonstrates significantly improved solvent permeance (1.5–2 times higher than previously reported data) with values of 65.2 LMH/bar for methanol, 33.1 LMH/bar for ethanol, and 59.1 LMH/bar for acetone while maintaining competitive solute rejection (>98% for Rose Bengal). This research is expected to provide a new direction for developing high-performance OSN composite membranes and other separation applications.

Keywords: metal coordinatiom, thin film composite membrane, organic solvent nanofiltration, solvent activation

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Authors: Jun Wang, Ge Zhang

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Machine learning has been used in many areas today. It thrives at reviewing large volumes of data and identifying patterns and trends that might not be apparent to a human. Given the huge potential benefit and the amount of data available in the financial market, it is not surprising to see machine learning applied to various financial products. While future prices of financial securities are extremely difficult to forecast, we study them from a different angle. Instead of trying to forecast future prices, we apply machine learning algorithms to predict the direction of future price movement, in particular, whether a sector Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) would outperform or underperform the market in the next week or in the next month. We apply several machine learning algorithms for this prediction. The algorithms are Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Decision Tree (DT), Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB), and Neural Networks (NN). We show that these machine learning algorithms, most notably GNB and NN, have some predictive power in forecasting out-performance and under-performance out of sample. We also try to explore whether it is possible to utilize the predictions from these algorithms to outperform the buy-and-hold strategy of the S&P 500 index. The trading strategy to explore out-performance predictions does not perform very well, but the trading strategy to explore under-performance predictions can earn higher returns than simply holding the S&P 500 index out of sample.

Keywords: machine learning, ETF prediction, dynamic trading, asset allocation

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Authors: R. A. Moronfolu, I. M. Ndaks, O. E. Ifekoya

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This study investigated Gender Stereotypes in Leadership Behaviour and its consequent effect on Job Performance of Sports Council Personnel in Lagos State. The descriptive research method was adapted in conducting the study, while eighty sports personnel of Lagos State sports council, Lagos, Nigeria were drawn as respondents using the stratified random sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire titled “ Gender- Leader Performance Questionnaire (GLPQ) ”was used for data collection. The GLPQ was face validated by three experts in sports management and was subjected to a pilot test using the test retest method for reliability. A total of eighty copies of the validated GLPQ were administered on selected respondents and retrieved on the spot. The descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages were used in describing the demographic data collected, while the inferential statistics of Chi-square (X2) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used in drawing inferences at a level of significance of 0.05. It was observed that gender stereotypes and behaviours of leaders in Lagos State Sports Council, significantly differ. In addition, gender stereotypes and leadership behavior were observed to significantly influence the job performance of sports council personnel in Lagos State.

Keywords: gender, leadership, stereotype, performance

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Authors: Fally Titikpina, Abderafi Charki, Antoine Caucheteux, David Bigaud

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The building sector is one of the largest energy consumer with about 40% of the final energy consumption in the European Union. Ensuring building energy performance is of scientific, technological and sociological matter. To assess a building energy performance, the consumption being predicted or estimated during the design stage is compared with the measured consumption when the building is operational. When valuing this performance, many buildings show significant differences between the calculated and measured consumption. In order to assess the performance accurately and ensure the thermal efficiency of the building, it is necessary to evaluate the uncertainties involved not only in measurement but also those induced by the propagation of dynamic and static input data in the model being used. The evaluation of measurement uncertainty is based on both the knowledge about the measurement process and the input quantities which influence the result of measurement. Measurement uncertainty can be evaluated within the framework of conventional statistics presented in the \textit{Guide to the Expression of Measurement Uncertainty (GUM)} as well as by Bayesian Statistical Theory (BST). Another choice is the use of numerical methods like Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). In this paper, we proposed to evaluate the uncertainty associated to the use of a simplified model for the estimation of the energy consumption of a given building. A detailed review and discussion of these three approaches (GUM, MCS and BST) is given. Therefore, an office building has been monitored and multiple sensors have been mounted on candidate locations to get required data. The monitored zone is composed of six offices and has an overall surface of 102 $m^2$. Temperature data, electrical and heating consumption, windows opening and occupancy rate are the features for our research work.

Keywords: building energy performance, uncertainty evaluation, GUM, bayesian approach, monte carlo method

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Authors: Yassine Jadi, Lin Jie

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In order to serve the society in an electronic manner, many developing countries have launched tremendous e-government projects. The strategies of development and implementation e-government system have reached different levels, and to ensure consistency of development, the governments need to evaluate e-government performance. The United nation has design e-government development ranking index (EGDI) that rely on three indexes, Online service index (OSI), Telecommunication Infrastructure index (TII), and human capital index( HCI) which are not reflecting the interaction between a government and their citizens. Based on data envelopment analyses (DEA) technique, we are using E-participating index (EPI) as an output of government effort to evaluate the performance of e-government system. Therefore, the ranking index can be achieved in efficiency manner.

Keywords: e-government, DEA, efficiency measurement, EGDI

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Authors: Rashmi Dubey

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The study aims at investigating the onset of thermal convection in an inclined porous layer saturated with a non-Newtonian fluid. The layer is infinitely extended and has a finite width confined between two boundaries with constant pressure conditions, where the lower one is maintained at a higher temperature. Over the years, this area of research has attracted many scientists and researchers, for it has a plethora of applications in the fields of sciences and engineering, such as in civil engineering, geothermal sites, petroleum industries, etc.Considering the possibilities in a practical scenario, an inclined porous layer is considered, which can be used to develop a generalized model applicable to any inclination. Using the isobaric boundaries, the hydrodynamic boundary conditions are derived for the power-law model and are used to obtain the basic state flow. The convection in the basic state flow is driven by the thermal buoyancy in the flow system and is carried away further due to hydrodynamic boundaries. A linear stability analysis followed by a normal-mode analysis is done to investigate the onset of convection in the buoyancy-driven flow. The analysis shows that the convective instability is always initiated by the non-traveling modes for the Newtonian fluid, but prevails in the form of oscillatory modes, for up to a certain inclination of the porous layer. However, different behavior is observed for the dilatant and pseudoplastic fluids.

Keywords: thermal convection, linear stability, porous media flow, Inclined porous layer

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Authors: Ruchika Malhotra, Megha Khanna

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The development of change prediction models can help the software practitioners in planning testing and inspection resources at early phases of software development. However, a major challenge faced during the training process of any classification model is the imbalanced nature of the software quality data. A data with very few minority outcome categories leads to inefficient learning process and a classification model developed from the imbalanced data generally does not predict these minority categories correctly. Thus, for a given dataset, a minority of classes may be change prone whereas a majority of classes may be non-change prone. This study explores various alternatives for adeptly handling the imbalanced software quality data using different sampling methods and effective MetaCost learners. The study also analyzes and justifies the use of different performance metrics while dealing with the imbalanced data. In order to empirically validate different alternatives, the study uses change data from three application packages of open-source Android data set and evaluates the performance of six different machine learning techniques. The results of the study indicate extensive improvement in the performance of the classification models when using resampling method and robust performance measures.

Keywords: change proneness, empirical validation, imbalanced learning, machine learning techniques, object-oriented metrics

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Authors: Emilia A. Campayo-Munoz, Alberto Cabedo-Mas

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Music students have to face the challenges of musical practice -such as discipline in study, competitiveness, or performance anxiety- that require good emotional management to enable successful performance. However, few rigorous implementations focused on studying the influence of emotional skills in student's musical performance. Responding to this gap in the literature, this study aims to explore the relationship between emotional skills and musical performance in the context of elementary music education in conservatoires. Given the individual nature of the instrumental studies and the difficult availability of teachers to be trained in emotional education, it was decided to conduct a multiple case study in a Spanish music conservatoire. Author 1 carried out the implementation of the research with three 10-year-old students who were selected from her piano class. All of them attended the third year of their piano studies. The research processes consisted of the implementation of a set of specific and cross-sectional activities designed 'ad hoc' to be articulated in the subjects of individual instrument -piano- and ensemble in parallel to the contents of musical nature. The CE-360º questionnaire was used to measure different aspects of the students' emotional skills from a multi-angle perspective, each of the questionnaires being responded by oneself, three teachers and three peers, before and after the implementation. The data from the questionnaire were compared with the grades that the students obtained during the first and last quarter of the school year in the attended subjects. Acknowledging the complexity of emotional development, the results indicate possible relations between emotional skills and musical performance in music education in conservatoires. The results show that for the cases explored; there exists a relationship between emotional skills and musical performance. Although generalizations cannot be made, this study reinforces the need to further explore emotional development in instrumental teaching and suggest the importance of inviting teachers to reflect on the pedagogical practices extended in the conservatoires and to develop and implement those that promote the work of the students' emotions.

Keywords: conservatoires, emotional skills, music education, musical performance

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Authors: Raqiqa Tur Rasool, Ghulam Abbas Ashraf

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This study presents the synthesis and application of Carbon@NiCoFeS nanoparticles as a photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants through peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. The Carbon@NiCoFeS nanoparticles, synthesized via a hydrothermal method, exhibit a highly crystalline and uniformly distributed nanostructure, as confirmed by XRD, SEM, TEM, and FTIR analyses. The photocatalytic performance was tested using ibuprofen (IBU) as a model pollutant under visible light, demonstrating remarkable efficiency across various conditions, including different concentrations of photocatalyst and PMS and a range of pH values. The enhanced activity is attributed to the synergistic effects of Ni, Co, and Fe, promoting effective electron-hole separation and reactive radical generation, primarily SO4•− and •OH. Quenching experiments highlighted sulfate radicals' predominant role in the degradation process. The Carbon@NiCoFeS photocatalyst also showed excellent reusability and stability over multiple cycles, and its versatility in degrading various organic pollutants underscores its potential for practical wastewater treatment applications. This research offers significant insights into multi-metal sulfide photocatalyst design, showcasing Carbon@NiCoFeS nanoparticles' promising role in environmental remediation via efficient PMS activation.

Keywords: NiCoFeS nanoparticles, photocatalytic degradation, peroxymonosulfate activation, organic pollutant removal, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Majid A. AlSayari

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The study reported here investigated social cognitive theory (SCT) in the context of Vocational Rehab (VR) for people with disabilities. The prime purpose was to increase knowledge of VR phenomena and make recommendations for improving VR services. The sample consisted of 242 persons with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) who completed questionnaires. A further 32 participants were Trainers. Analysis of questionnaire data was carried out using factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and thematic analysis. The analysis suggested that, in motivational terms, and consistent with research carried out in other academic contexts, self-efficacy was the best predictor of VR performance. The author concludes that that VR self-efficacy predicted VR training performance.

Keywords: people with physical disabilities, social cognitive theory, self-efficacy, vocational training

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Authors: Ertuğrul Ferhat Yilmaz, Ali Riza Perçin

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In the business enterprises implemented modern business enterprise principles, the most important issues are increasing the performance of workers and getting maximum income. Through the twentieth century, rapid development of the sectors of data processing and communication and because of the free trade politics arising of multilateral business enterprises have canceled the economical borders and changed the local rivalry into the spherical rivalry. In this rivalry conditions, the business enterprises have to work active and productive in order to continue their existences. The employees worked at business enterprises have formed the most important factor of product. Therefore, the business enterprises inferring the importance of the human factors in order to increase the profit have used “the performance evolution system” to increase the success and development of the employees. The evolution of the performance is aimed to increase the manpower productive by using the employees in an active way. Furthermore, this system assists the wage politics implemented in business enterprise, determining the strategically plans in business enterprises through the short and long terms, being promoted and determining the educational needs of employees, making decisions as dismissing and work rotation. It requires a great deal of effort to catch the pace of change in the working realm and to keep up ourselves up-to-date. To get the quality in people,to have an effect in workplace depends largely on the knowledge and competence of managers and prospective managers. Therefore,managers need to use the performance evaluation systems in order to base their managerial decisions on sound data. This study aims at finding whether the organizations effectively use performance evaluation systms,how much importance is put on this issue and how much the results of the evaulations have an effect on employees. Whether the organizations have the advantage of competition and can keep on their activities depend to a large extent on how they effectively and efficiently use their employees.Therefore,it is of vital importance to evaluate employees' performance and to make them better according to the results of that evaluation. The performance evaluation system which evaluates the employees according to the criteria related to that organization has become one of the most important topics for management. By means of those important ends mentioned above,performance evaluation system seems to be a tool that can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of organization. Because of its contribution to organizational success, thinking performance evaluation on the axis of efficiency shows the importance of this study on a different angle. In this study, we have explained performance evaluation system ,efficiency and the relation between those two concepts. We have also analyzed the results of questionnaires conducted on the textile workers in Edirne city.We have got positive answers from the questions about the effects of performance evaluation on efficiency.After factor analysis ,the efficiency and motivation which are determined as factors of performance evaluation system have the biggest variance (%19.703) in our sample. Thus, this study shows that objective performance evaluation increases the efficiency and motivation of employees.

Keywords: performance, performance evolution system, productivity, Edirne region

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Authors: Soheir Weheida, Amal E. Shehata, Samira E. Aboalizm

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The aim of this study was to examine the effect of surgical safety checklist on surgical team’s knowledge and performance in operating room. Subjects: A convenience sample 151 (48 head nurse, 45 nurse, 37 surgeon and 21 anesthesiologist) which available in operating room at two different hospitals was included in the study. Setting: The study was carried out at operating room in Menoufia University and Shebin Elkom Teaching Hospitals, Egypt. Tools: I: Surgical safety: Surgical team knowledge assessment structure interview schedule. II: WHO surgical safety observational Checklist. III: Post Surgery Culture Survey scale. Results: There was statistical significant improvement of knowledge mean score and performance about surgical safety especially in post and follow up than pre intervention, before patients entering the operating, before induction of anesthesia, skin incision and post skin closure and before patient leaves operating room, P values (P < 0.001). Improvement of communication post intervention than pre intervention between surgical team’s (4.74 ± 0.540). About two thirds (73.5 %) of studied sample strongly agreed on surgical safety in operating room. Conclusions: Implementation of surgical safety checklist has a positive effect on improving knowledge, performance and communication between surgical teams and these seems to have a positive effect on improve patient safety in the operating room.

Keywords: knowledge, operating room, performance, surgical safety checklist

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Authors: Rachmat Mauludin, Irda Fidrianny, Dita Sasri Primaviri, Okti Alifiana

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Natural products such as propolis, green tea and corncob are containing several compounds called antioxidant. Antioxidant can be used in topical application to protect skin against free radical, prevent skin cancer and skin aging. Previous study showed that the extract of propolis that has the highest antioxidant activity was ethanolic extract of propolis (EEP). It is important to make a dosage form that could keep the stability and could protect the effectiveness of antioxidant activity of the extracts. In this research, nanoemulsion (NE) was chosen to formulate those natural products. NE is a dispersion system between oil phase and water phase that formed by mechanical force with a lot amount of surfactants and has globule size below 100 nm. In pharmaceutical industries, NE was preferable for its stability, biodegradability, biocompatibility, its ease to be absorbed and eliminated, and for its use as carrier for lipophilic drugs. First, all of the natural products were extracted using reflux methods. Green tea and corncob were extracted using 96% ethanol while propolis using 70% ethanol. Then, the extracts were concentrated using rotavapor to obtain viscous extracts. The yield of EEP was 11.12%; green tea extract (GTE) was 23.37%; and corncob extract (CCE) was 17.23%. EEP contained steroid/triterpenoid, flavonoid and saponin. GTE contained flavonoid, tannin, and quinone while CCE contained flavonoid, phenol and tannin. The antioxidant activities of the extracts were then measured using DPPH scavenging capacity methods. The values of DPPH scavenging capacity were 61.14% for EEP; 97.16% for GTE; and 78.28% for CCE. The value of IC50 for EEP was 0.41629 ppm. After the extracts were evaluated, NE was prepared. Several surfactants and co-surfactants were used in many combinations and ratios in order to form a NE. Tween 80 and Kolliphor RH40 were used as surfactants while glycerin and propylene glycol were used as co-surfactants. The best NE consists of 26.25% of Kolliphor RH40; 8.75% of glycerin; 5% of rice bran oil; 3% of extracts; and 57% of water. EEP NE had globule size around 23.72 nm; polydispersity index below 0.5; and did not cause any irritation on rabbits. EEP NE was proven to be stable after passing stability test within 63 days at room temperature and 6 cycles of Freeze and Thaw test without separated. Based on TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) test, EEP NE had spherical structure with most of its size below 50 nm. The antioxidant activity of EEP NE was monitored for 6 weeks and showed no significant difference. The value of DPPH scavenging capacity for EEP NE was around 58%; for GTE NE was 96.75%; and for CCE NE was 55.69%.

Keywords: propolis, green tea, corncob, antioxidant, nanoemulsion

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Authors: S. Sundarasen, I. Ibrahim

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This study examines whether the legal origin of a country alters the association between corruption and corporate performance in the East Asia and South East Asia Region. A total of 18,286 companies from 14 countries in the East Asia and South East Asia Region are tested using Generalized Least Square (GLS) panel and pool data analysis with the cross-section being the income level. The data is further analyzed in terms of high income, upper middle income and low-income countries within the East and South Asia region. The empirical results indicate that legal origin positively moderates the relationship between a country’s corruption level and firm performance. As for the sub-analysis, legal origin positively moderates only in the high and upper middle-income countries. As for the low-income countries, no significance is documented in both the common and civil law.

Keywords: corruption, performance, legal origin, East Asia and South East Asia Region

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Authors: Tian Lan

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Arbitrageurs participate in a variety of techniques in response to the existence of fluctuating sentiment, resulting in sparse sentiment exposures. This paper found that Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) funds in the top decile rated by sentiment beta outperformed those in the bottom decile by 0.33% per month on a risk-adjusted basis, with the difference being larger among skilled managers. This paper also discovered that around ten percent of Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) funds could accurately predict market sentiment, which has a positive correlation with fund sentiment beta and acts as a determinant in fund performance. Instead of betting against mispricing, this research demonstrates that a competent manager can achieve remarkable returns by forecasting and reacting to shifts in investor sentiment.

Keywords: investment sentiment, CTA fund, market timing, fund performance

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Authors: A. E. El-Henawey, A. A. El-Kouny, M. M. Abd –El-Halim

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Moving target indication (MTI) which is an anti-clutter technique that limits the display of clutter echoes. It uses the radar received information primarily to display moving targets only. The purpose of MTI is to discriminate moving targets from a background of clutter or slowly-moving chaff particles as shown in this paper. Processing system in these radars is so massive and complex; since it is supposed to perform a great amount of processing in very short time, in most radar applications the response of a single canceler is not acceptable since it does not have a wide notch in the stop-band. A double-delay canceler is an MTI delay-line canceler employing the two-delay-line configuration to improve the performance by widening the clutter-rejection notches, as compared with single-delay cancelers. This canceler is also called a double canceler, dual-delay canceler, or three-pulse canceler. In this paper, a double delay line canceler is chosen for study due to its simplicity in both concept and implementation. Discussing the implementation of a simple digital moving target indicator (DMTI) using FPGA which has distinct advantages compared to other application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the purposes of this work. The FPGA provides flexibility and stability which are important factors in the radar application.

Keywords: FPGA, MTI, double delay line canceler, Doppler Shift

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Authors: Riznaldi Akbar

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In this study, we compared the performance of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model with back-propagation algorithm in correctly predicting in-sample and out-of-sample external debt crisis in Indonesia. We found that exchange rate, foreign reserves, and exports are the major determinants to experiencing external debt crisis. The ANN in-sample performance provides relatively superior results. The ANN model is able to classify correctly crisis of 89.12 per cent with reasonably low false alarms of 7.01 per cent. In out-of-sample, the prediction performance fairly deteriorates compared to their in-sample performances. It could be explained as the ANN model tends to over-fit the data in the in-sample, but it could not fit the out-of-sample very well. The 10-fold cross-validation has been used to improve the out-of-sample prediction accuracy. The results also offer policy implications. The out-of-sample performance could be very sensitive to the size of the samples, as it could yield a higher total misclassification error and lower prediction accuracy. The ANN model could be used to identify past crisis episodes with some accuracy, but predicting crisis outside the estimation sample is much more challenging because of the presence of uncertainty.

Keywords: debt crisis, external debt, artificial neural network, ANN

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Authors: M. Fernández, T. Gómez, J. Fleta

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Although firm innovation is a crucial factor for enhancing their competitive advantage in the current context of globalization, achieving innovations poses a significant challenge because of the degree of expertise required and the associated financial costs. Firms affiliated with business groups can choose whether their purchases of intermediate inputs are domestic (i.e., national source) or from foreign markets (i.e., international source) and whether the supplier firms are affiliated (i.e., internal source) or non-affiliated (i.e., external source). This has led to studies investigating the role of different sources of intermediate inputs in promoting innovation performance. The present study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between the source of intermediate inputs and innovation performance in firms belonging to Spanish non-MNE groups. For this purpose, we will distinguish among three intermediate input sources, international sourcing, domestic external sourcing, and internal sourcing, as their choice could be induced by different causes and have different consequences. Finally, it is analyzed radical and incremental innovation as innovation performance because they are closely related to the concept of technological development and reflect different innovation behavior. The paper includes a sample of around 4,100 firm-year observations of manufacturing firms (non-MNE) belonging to groups located in Spain between 2006 and 2020.

Keywords: intermediate input source, innovation performance, business group affiliated firms, Spain

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Authors: Bouzaki Mohammed Moustafa, Benyoucef Boumediene, Benouaz Tayeb, Benhamou Amina

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The ambient temperature and the defects density in the Hetero-junction with Intrinsic Thin layers solar cells (HIT) strongly influence their performances. In first part, we presented the bands diagram on the front/back simulated solar cell based on a-Si: H / c-Si (p)/a-Si:h. In another part, we modeled the following layers structure: ZnO/a-Si:H(n)/a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(p)/a-Si:H(p)/Ag where we studied the effect of the ambient temperature and the defects density in the gap of the crystalline silicon layer on the performance of the heterojunction solar cell with intrinsic layer (HIT).

Keywords: heterojunction solar cell, solar cell performance, bands diagram, ambient temperature, defect density

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Authors: S. M. Gupta, Vanita Aggarwal, Som Nath Sachdeva

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The work reported through this paper is an experimental work conducted on High Performance Concrete (HPC) with super plasticizer with the aim to develop some models suitable for prediction of compressive strength of HPC mixes. In this study, the effect of varying proportions of fly ash (0% to 50% at 10% increment) on compressive strength of high performance concrete has been evaluated. The mix designs studied were M30, M40 and M50 to compare the effect of fly ash addition on the properties of these concrete mixes. In all eighteen concrete mixes have been designed, three as conventional concretes for three grades under discussion and fifteen as HPC with fly ash with varying percentages of fly ash. The concrete mix designing has been done in accordance with Indian standard recommended guidelines i.e. IS: 10262. All the concrete mixes have been studied in terms of compressive strength at 7 days, 28 days, 90 days and 365 days. All the materials used have been kept same throughout the study to get a perfect comparison of values of results. The models for compressive strength prediction have been developed using Linear Regression method (LR), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Leave One Out Validation (LOOV) methods.

Keywords: high performance concrete, fly ash, concrete mixes, compressive strength, strength prediction models, linear regression, ANN

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Authors: S. U. Kunya, S. Abdulkadir, M. A. Anas, L. Z. Adam

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Procurement methods is described as systems of contractual arrangements used by the contractor in order to secure the design and construction services based on the stipulated cost and within the required time and quality. Despite that, major projects in the Nigerian construction industry failed because of wrong procurement methods with major consequences leads to cost overrun which needs to find lasting solution. The aim of the study is to evaluate the influence of procurement methods on cost performance of building projects in Gombe State, Nigeria. Study adopts descriptive and explorative design approach. Data were collected through administering of one hundred questionnaire using convenient sampling techniques. Data analyses using percentages, mean value and Anova analysis. Major finding show that more than fifty percent (50%) of procurement methods available are mainly utilized in the study area and the top procurement methods that have high impacts on cost performance as compare with the other methods is project management and direct labour procurement methods. The results of hypothesis’ tests with pvalue 0.12 and 0.07 validated that there was no significant variation in the perception of stakeholders’ on the impacts of procurements methods on cost performance. Therefore, the study concluded that projects management and direct labour are the most appropriate procurement methods that will ensure successful completion of project at stipulated cost in building projects.

Keywords: cost, effects, performance, procurement, projects

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Authors: Tarik Ozmen

Abstract:

The soccer players need good dynamic balance and jumping performance for dribbling, crossing rival, and to be effective in high balls during soccer game. The quadriceps angle (Q-angle) is used to assess biomechanics of the patellofemoral joint in the musculoskeletal medicine. The Q angle is formed by the intersection of two lines drawing from the anterior superior iliac spine to the centre of the patella and to the midline of the tibia tuberosity. Studies have shown that the Q angle is inversely associated with quadriceps femoris strength. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between dynamic balance, jumping performance and Q-angle in soccer players. Thirty male soccer players (mean ± SD: age, 15.23 ± 0.56 years, height, 170 ± 8.37 cm, weight, 61.36 ± 6.04 kg) participated as volunteer in this study. Dynamic balance of the participants were evaluated at directions of anterior (A), posteromedial (PM) and posterolateral (PL) with Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). Each participant was instructed to reach as far as with the non-dominant leg in each of the 3 directions while maintaining dominant leg stance. Leg length was used to normalize excursion distances by dividing the distance reached by leg length and then multiplying the result by 100. The jumping performance was evaluated by squat jump using a contact mat. A universal (standard) goniometer was used to measure the Q angle in standing position. The Q angle was not correlated with directions of SEBT (A: p = 0.32, PM: p = 0.06, PL: p = 0.37). The squat jump height was not correlated with Q-angle (p = 0.21). The findings of this study suggest that there are no significant relationships between dynamic balance, jumping performance and Q-angle in soccer players. Further studies should investigate relationship between balance ability, athletic performance and Q-angle with larger sample size in soccer players.

Keywords: balance, jump height, Q angle, soccer

Procedia PDF Downloads 460

Authors: Rubén Manrique, Delio Balcázar, José Parrado, Sebastián Rodríguez

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Hand in hand with the evolution of technology, education systems have moved to virtual environments to provide increased coverage and facilitate the access to education. However, measuring student performance in virtual environments presents significant challenges to ensure students are acquiring the expected skills. In this study, the confidence and performance of engineering students in virtual environments is analyzed through different evaluation strategies. The effect of the assessment strategy in student confidence is identified using educational data mining techniques. Four assessment strategies were used. First, a conventional multiple choice test; second, a multiple choice test with feedback; third, a multiple choice test with a second chance; and fourth; a multiple choice test with feedback and second chance. Our results show that applying testing with online feedback strategies can influence positively student confidence.

Keywords: assessment strategies, educational data mining, student performance, student confidence

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Authors: Wanda Luen-Wun Siu, Xiaowen Zhang

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This paper offered the primary methodical proof on how CSR reporting related to enterprise earnings in listed firms in China in light of most evidence focusing on cross-sectional data or data in a short span of time. Using full economic and business panel data on China’s publicly listed enterprise from 2006 to 2020 over two decades in the China Stock Market and Accounting Research database, we found initial evidence of significant direct relations between CSR reporting and firm corporate performance in both state-owned and privately owned firms over this period, supporting the stakeholder theory. Results also revealed that state-owned enterprises performed as well as private enterprises in the current period. But private enterprises performed better than state-owned enterprises in the subsequent years. Moreover, the release of social responsibility reports had a more significant impact on the financial performance of state-owned and private enterprises in the current period than in the subsequent periods. Specifically, CSR release was not significantly associated with the financial performance of state-owned enterprises on the lag of the first, second, and third periods. But it had an impact on the lag of the first, second, and third periods among private enterprises. Such findings suggested that CSR reporting helped improve the corporate financial performance of state-owned and private enterprises in the current period, but this kind of effect was more significant among private enterprises in the lag periods.

Keywords: China’s listed firms, CSR reporting, financial performance, panel analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Patcharin Saechan, Isares Dhuchakallaya

Abstract:

Thermoacoustic refrigerator is a cooling device which uses the acoustic waves to produce the cooling effect. The aim of this paper is to explore the experimental and numerical feasibility of a standing-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator. The effects of the stack length, position of stack and operating frequency on the cooling performance are carried out. The circular pore stacks are tested under the atmospheric pressure. A low-cost loudspeaker is used as an acoustic driver. The results show that the location of stack installed in resonator tube has a greater effect on the cooling performance than the stack length and operating frequency, respectively. The temperature difference across the ends of the stack can be generated up to 13.7°C, and the temperature of cold-end is dropped down by 5.3°C from the ambient temperature.

Keywords: cooling performance, refrigerator, standing-wave, thermoacoustics

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Authors: Farzad Doostishoar, Abbas Pardakhty, Abdolreza Hassanzadeh, Sudeh salarpour, Elham Sharif

Abstract:

Background: Sericin is a protein extracted from silk and has antioxidant, antimicrobial, antineoplastic, wound healing and moisturizing properties. Different cosmetic formulation of sericin is available in different countries such as Japan and the other south-eastern Asian countries. We formulated and evaluated the sunscreen properties of topical formulations of sericin by an in vitro method. Method: Niosomes composed of sorbitan palmitate (Span 40), polysorbate 40 (Tween 40) and cholesterol (300 µmol, 3.5:3.5:3 molar ratio) were prepared by film hydration technique. Sericin was dissolved in normal saline and the lipid hydration was carried out at 60°C and the niosomes were incorporated in a Carbomer gel base. A W/O cream was also prepared and the release of sericin was evaluated by using Franz diffusion cell. Particle size analysis, sericin encapsulation efficiency measurement, morphological studies and stability evaluation were done in niosomal formulations. SPF was calculated by using Transpore tape in vitro method for both formulations. Results: Niosomes had high stability during 6 months storage at 4-8°C. The mean volume diameter of niosomes was less than 7 µm which is ideal for sustained release of drugs in topical formulations. The SPF of niosomal gel was 25 and higher than sericin cream with a diffusion based release pattern of active material. Conclusion: Sericin can be successfully entrapped in niosomes with sustained release pattern and relatively high SPF.

Keywords: sericin, niosomes, sun protection factor, cream, gel

Procedia PDF Downloads 505