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Authors: J. Thiele

Abstract:

Teachers working at vocational Colleges are often confronted with the problem, that many students graduated from different schools and therefore each had a different education. Especially in mathematics many students lack fundamentals or had different priorities at their previous schools. Furthermore, these vocational Colleges have to provide Graduations for many different working-fields, with different core themes. The Colleges are interested in measuring the different Education levels of their students and providing assistance for those who need to catch up. The Project mathe-meistern was initiated to remedy this problem at vocational Colleges. For this purpose, online-tests were developed. The aim of these tests is to evaluate basic mathematical abilities of the students. The tests are online Multiple-Choice-Tests with a total of 65 Items. They are accessed online with a unique Transaction-Number (TAN) for each participant. The content is divided in several Categories (Arithmetic, Algebra, Fractions, Geometry, etc.). After each test, the student gets a personalized summary depicting their strengths and weaknesses in mathematical Basics. Teachers can visit a special website to examine the results of their classes or single students. In total 5830 students did participate so far. For standardization and optimization purposes the tests are being evaluated, using the classic and probabilistic Test-Theory regarding Objectivity, Reliability and Validity, annually since 2015. This Paper is about the Optimization process considering the Rasch-scaling and Standardization of the tests. Additionally, current results using standardized tests will be discussed. To achieve this Competence levels and Types of errors of students attending vocational Colleges in Nordrheinwestfalen, Germany, were determined, using descriptive Data and Distractorevaluations.

Keywords: diagnostical tests in mathematics, distractor devaluation, test-optimization, test-theory

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Authors: Menonjyoti Kalita, Pradip Baishya

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In recent times, the world has been facing serious environmental concerns and issues, such as sustainability and cost, due to the overproduction of synthetic materials and their participation in degrading the environment by means of industrial waste and non-biodegradable characteristics. As such, biocomposites come in handy to ease such troubles. Bio-based composites are promising materials for future applications for substituting synthetic packaging materials. The challenge of making packaging materials lighter, safer and cheaper leads to investigating advanced materials with desired properties. Also, awareness of environmental issues forces researchers and manufacturers to spend effort on composite and bio-composite materials fields. This paper explores and tests some nature-friendly materials has been done which can replace low-density plastics. The materials selected included sugarcane bagasse, areca palm, and bamboo leaves. Sugarcane bagasse bamboo leaves and areca palm sheath are the primary material or natural fibre for testing. These products were processed, and the tensile strength of the processed parts was tested in Micro UTM; it was found that areca palm can be used as a good building material in replacement to polypropylene and even could be used in the production of furniture with the help of epoxy resin. And for bamboo leaves, it was found that bamboo and cotton, when blended in a 50:50 ratio, it has great tensile strength. For areca, it was found that areca fibres can be a good substitute for polypropylene, which can be used in building construction as binding material and also other products.

Keywords: biodegradable characteristics, bio-composites, areca palm sheath, polypropylene, micro UTM

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Authors: Jalal Khan, Daniyal Ali Sehrai, Shakeel Ahmad

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This paper presents the design and performance evaluation of multiband metamaterial based antenna operating in the 3.6 GHz (4G), 14.33 GHz, and 28.86 GHz (5G) frequency bands, for future mobile and handheld devices. The radiating element of the proposed design is made up of a conductive material supported by a 1.524 mm thicker Rogers-4003 substrate, having a relative dielectric constant and loss tangent of 3.55 and 0.0027, respectively. The substrate is backed by truncated ground plane. The future mobile communication system is based on higher frequencies, which are highly affected by the atmospheric conditions. Therefore, to overcome the path loss problem, essential enhancements and improvements must be made in the overall performance of the antenna. The traditional ground plane does not provide the in-phase reflection and surface wave suppression due to which side and back lobes are produced. This will affect the antenna performance in terms of gain and efficiency. To enhance the overall performance of the antenna, a metamaterial acting as a high impedance surface (HIS) is used as a reflector in the proposed design. The simulated gain of the metamaterial based antenna is enhanced from {2.76-6.47, 4.83-6.71 and 7.52-7.73} dB at 3.6, 14.33 and 28.89 GHz, respectively relative to the gain of the antenna backed by a traditional ground plane. The proposed antenna radiated efficiently with a radiated efficiency (>85 %) in all the three frequency bands with and without metamaterial surface. The total volume of the antenna is (L x W x h=45 x 40 x 1.524) mm³. The antenna can be potentially used for wireless handheld devices and mobile terminal. All the simulations have been performed using the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software.

Keywords: CST MWS, fourth generation/fifth generation, 4G/5G, high gain, multiband, metamaterial

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Authors: Magdalena Musiał-Karg

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The expansion of telecommunication and progress of electronic media constitute important elements of our times. The recent worldwide convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) and dynamic development of the mass media is leading to noticeable changes in the functioning of contemporary states and societies. Currently, modern technologies play more and more important roles and filter down to almost every field of contemporary human life. It results in the growth of online interactions that can be observed by the inconceivable increase in the number of people with home PCs and Internet access. The proof of it is undoubtedly the emergence and use of concepts such as e-society, e-banking, e-services, e-government, e-government, e-participation and e-democracy. The newly coined word e-democracy evidences that modern technologies have also been widely used in politics. Without any doubt in most countries all actors of political market (politicians, political parties, servants in political/public sector, media) use modern forms of communication with the society. Most of these modern technologies progress the processes of getting and sending information to the citizens, communication with the electorate, and also – which seems to be the biggest advantage – electoral procedures. Thanks to implementation of ICT the interaction between politicians and electorate are improved. The main goal of this text is to analyze electronic voting (e-voting) as one of the important forms of electronic democracy in terms of security aspects. The author of this paper aimed at answering the questions of security of electronic voting as an additional form of participation in elections and referenda.

Keywords: electronic democracy, electronic voting, security of e-voting, information and communication technology (ICT)

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Authors: Erwin, Cheng-Cheng Chen, Charles J. Salim

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One of the method to solve the lateral torsional buckling (LTB) problem is by using side plates to increased the buckling resistance of the beam. Some modifications in designing the side plates are made in this study to simplify the construction in the field and reduce the cost. At certain region, side plates are not added: (1) At the beam end to preserve some spaces for bolt installation, but the beam is strengthened by adding cover plate at both flanges and (2) at the middle span of the beam where the moment is smaller. Three small scale full span beam specimens are tested under cyclic loading to investigate the LTB resistant and the ductility of the proposed design method. Test results show that the LTB deformation can be effectively suppressed and very high ductility level can be achieved. Following the test, a finite element analysis (FEA) model is established and is verified using the test results. An intensive parametric study is conducted using the established FEA model. The analysis reveals that the length of side plates is the most important parameter determining the performance of the beam and the required side plates length is determined by some parameters which are (1) beam depth to flange width ratio, (2) beam slenderness ratio (3) strength and thickness of the side plates, (4) compactness of beam web and flange, and (5) beam yield strength. At the end of the paper, a design formula to calculate the required side plate length is suggested.

Keywords: cover plate, earthquake resistant design, lateral torsional buckling, side plate, steel structure

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Authors: S. Muogbo Uju, Akpunonu Uju,

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The prevailing harsh environment factors couple with poverty rate and unemployment propels a high rate of entrepreneurial activities in developing countries of the world. Women entrepreneurs operate within gender bias among other constraint that can constitute a threat or create opportunity for women entrepreneurs. This empirical paper investigates and critically examines women entrepreneurship as an inventive approach to sustainable development in Anambra State. The study used descriptive statistics (frequencies, mean, and percentages) to answer the three research questions posed. Hypotheses testing were done with person product moment correlation and multiple regressions were employed in data analysis. SPSS [statistical package for Social Science] software was used to run the analysis. Three hundred and fifty three (353) copies of questionnaires were administered, and one hundred and forty six (146) copies were returned. Consequently, the findings of this study portrayed a significant impact between women entrepreneurship activities, job creation, wealth creation, youth empowerment, poverty reduction, employment generation, and increase in standard of livings of people. Therefore, the findings prescribe that government should ensure that managerial lessons are accompanied with the skill acquisition programs in order for them to understand the rudiment of owing and sustaining a business. The study also recommends that women entrepreneurs that have overcome the inertia of starting a business should come together to create platforms that can help those women who are yet to take a step or kick-start such venture.

Keywords: women entrepreneurship, skill acquisition, sustainability, wealth creation

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Authors: Anisa Luli, Alessandra Santona

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Wanting a child and experiencing the impossibility to conceive is a painful condition that often is linked to infertility and often leads infertile individuals to experience psychological, relational and social problems. In this situation, infertile couples have to review their choices and take into consideration new ones. Few studies have focused on the decision-making style used by infertile individuals to solve their problem and on the factors that influences it. The aim of this paper is to define the style of decision-making used by infertile persons to give a solution to the “problem” and the predictive role of the attachment, of the representations of the relationship with parents in childhood and of the dyadic adjustment. The total sample is composed by 251 participants, divided in two groups: the experimental group composed by 114 participants, 62 males and 52 females, age between 25 and 59 years, and the control group composed by 137 participants, 65 males and 72 females, age between 22 and 49 years. The battery of instruments comprises: General Decision Making Style (GDMS), Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire Revised (ECR-R), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). The results from the analysis of the samples showed a prevalence of the rational decision-making style for both males and females, experimental and control group. There have been founded significant statistical relationships between the attachment scales, the representations of the parenting style, the dyadic adjustment and the decision-making styles. These results contribute to enrich the literature on the subject of decision-making in infertile people and show the relationship between the attachment and decision-making styles, confirming the few results in literature.

Keywords: attachment, decision-making style, infertility, dyadic adjustment

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Authors: A. Idawaty, O. Mohamed, A. Z. Zuriati

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This paper presents the development of an event based Discrete Event Simulation (DES) for a recovery algorithm known Backward Recovery Global Preemptive Utility Accrual Scheduling (BR_GPUAS). This algorithm implements the Backward Recovery (BR) mechanism as a fault recovery solution under the existing Time/Utility Function/ Utility Accrual (TUF/UA) scheduling domain for multiprocessor environment. The BR mechanism attempts to take the faulty tasks back to its initial safe state and then proceeds to re-execute the affected section of the faulty tasks to enable recovery. Considering that faults may occur in the components of any system; a fault tolerance system that can nullify the erroneous effect is necessary to be developed. Current TUF/UA scheduling algorithm uses the abortion recovery mechanism and it simply aborts the erroneous task as their fault recovery solution. None of the existing algorithm in TUF/UA scheduling domain in multiprocessor scheduling environment have considered the transient fault and implement the BR mechanism as a fault recovery mechanism to nullify the erroneous effect and solve the recovery problem in this domain. The developed BR_GPUAS simulator has derived the set of parameter, events and performance metrics according to a detailed analysis of the base model. Simulation results revealed that BR_GPUAS algorithm can saved almost 20-30% of the accumulated utilities making it reliable and efficient for the real-time application in the multiprocessor scheduling environment.

Keywords: real-time system (RTS), time utility function/ utility accrual (TUF/UA) scheduling, backward recovery mechanism, multiprocessor, discrete event simulation (DES)

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Authors: Shreyas Jayasimha, Suneel Anand Sundharesan, Rohan Tigadi

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In the recent past, the United States of America and Russia were the only two dominant players in the field of space exploration and had a virtual monopoly in the field of space and technology. However, this has changed over the past few years. Many other nation states such as India, China, and the UK have made significant progress in this field. Amongst these nations, the growth and development of the Indian space program have been nothing short of a miracle. Starting recently, India has successfully launched a series of satellites including its much acclaimed Mangalyaan mission, which placed a satellite in Mars’ orbit. The fact that India was able to attain this feat in its attempt demonstrates the enormous growth potential and promise that the Indian space program holds for the coming years. However, unlike other space-faring nations, India does not have a comprehensive and consolidated space insurance policy. In this regard, it is pertinent to note that, the costs and risks involved in a administering a space program are enormous. Therefore, in the absence of a comprehensive space insurance policy, any losses from an unsuccessful will have to be borne by the state exchequer. Thus, in order to ensure that Indian space program continues on its upward trajectory, the Indian establishment should seriously consider formulating a comprehensive insurance policy. This paper intends to analyze the international best practices followed by other space-faring nations in relation to space insurance policy. Thereafter, the authors seek to examine the current regime in India relating to space insurance policy. Finally, the authors will conclude by providing a series of recommendations regarding the essential elements that should be part of any Indian space insurance policy regime.

Keywords: India, space insurance policy, space law, Indian space research organization

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Authors: Akeel Noori Almulla Hwaish

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Architectural design is influenced by the actual thermal behaviour of building components, and this in turn depends not only on their steady and periodic thermal characteristics, but also on exposure effects, orientation, surface colour, and climatic fluctuations at the given location. Design data and environmental parameters should be produced in an accurate way for specified locations, so that architects and engineers can confidently apply them in their design calculations that enable precise evaluation of the influence of various parameters relating to each component of the envelope, which indicates overall thermal performance of building. The present paper will be carried out with an objective of thermal behaviour assessment and characteristics of the opaque and transparent parts of one of the very unique components used as a symbolic distinguished element of building envelope, its thermal behaviour under the impact of solar temperatures, and its role in heat exchange related to a specific U-value of specified construction materials alternatives. The research method will consider the specified Hot-Dry weather and new mosque in Baghdad, Iraq as a case study. Also, data will be presented in light of the criteria of indoor thermal comfort in terms of design parameters and thermal assessment for a“model dome”. Design alternatives and considerations of energy conservation, will be discussed as well using comparative computer simulations. Findings will be incorporated to outline the conclusions clarifying the important role of the dome in heat exchange of the whole building envelope for approaching an indoor thermal comfort level and further research in the future.

Keywords: building envelope, sustainable design, dome impact, hot-climates, heat exchange

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Authors: Sylvanus N. Wosu

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Research shows that factors, such as low motivation, preparation, resources, emotional and social integration, and fears of risk-taking, are the most common barriers to access, matriculation, and retention into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines for underrepresented (URM) students. These factors have been shown to impact students’ attraction and success in STEM fields. Standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT often used as predictor of success, are not always true predictors of success for African and Hispanic American students. Without an adequate academic support environment, even a high SAT score does not guarantee academic success in science and engineering. This paper proposes a model for Academic Coaching for building success and inclusive excellence in STEM education. Academic coaching is framed as a process of motivating students to be independent learners through relational mentorship, facilitating learning supports inside and outside of the classroom or school environment, and developing problem-solving skills and success attitudes that lead to higher performance in the specific subjects. The model is formulated based on best strategies and practices for enriching Academic Performance Impact skills and motivating students’ interests in STEM. A scaled model for measuring the Academic Performance Impact (API) index and STEM is discussed. The study correlates API with state standardized test and shows that the average impact of those skills can be predicted by the Academic Performance Impact (API) index or Academic Preparedness Index.

Keywords: diversity, equity, graduate education, inclusion, inclusive excellence, model

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Authors: Joseph Sello Kau, Elias Mashayamombe, Brian Washington Madinkana, Cynthia Ngwane

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This paper presents the results for the statistical (stepwise linear regression and multiple regression) analyses, carried out on a number of crops in order to evaluate how the decision for crop choice affect the level of farm income generated by the farmers participating in the High Value Crop production (referred to as the HVC). The goal of the HVC is to encourage farmers cultivate fruit crops. The farmers received planting material from different extension agencies, together with other complementary packages such as fertilizer, garden tools, water tanks etc. During the surveys, it was discovered that a significant number of farmers were cultivating traditional crops even when their plot sizes were small. Traditional crops are competing for resources with high value crops. The results of the analyses show that farmers cultivating fruit crops, maize and potatoes were generating high income than those cultivating spinach and cabbage. High farm income is associated with plot size, access to social grants and gender. Choice for a crop is influenced by the availability of planting material and the market potential for the crop. Extension agencies providing the planting materials stand a good chance of having farmers follow their directives. As a recommendation, for the farmers to cultivate more of the HVCs, the ARC must intensify provision of fruit trees.

Keywords: farm income, nature of extension services, type of crops cultivated, fruit crops, cabbage, maize, potato and spinach

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Authors: Yiannis Vacanas, Kyriacos Themistocleous, Athos Agapiou, Diofantos Hadjimitsis

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology is considered by construction professionals as a very valuable process in modern design, procurement and project management. Construction professionals of all disciplines can use a single 3D model which BIM technology provides, to design a project accurately and furthermore monitor the progress of construction works effectively and efficiently. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), a technology initially developed for military applications, is now without any difficulty accessible and has already been used by commercial industries, including the construction industry. UAV technology has mainly been used for collection of images that allow visual monitoring of building and civil engineering projects conditions in various circumstances. UAVs, nevertheless, have undergone significant advances in equipment capabilities and now have the capacity to acquire high-resolution imagery from many angles in a cost effective manner, and by using photogrammetry methods, someone can determine characteristics such as distances, angles, areas, volumes and elevations of an area within overlapping images. In order to examine the potential of using a combination of BIM and UAV technologies in construction project management, this paper presents the results of a case study of a typical road construction project where the combined use of the two technologies was used in order to achieve efficient and accurate as-built data collection of the works progress, with outcomes such as volumes, and production of sections and 3D models, information necessary in project progress monitoring and efficient project management.

Keywords: BIM, project management, project monitoring, UAV

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Authors: Mohammed Usman Sani

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Worldwide it is observed that sport plays an important role in our communities and is capable of bringing about the need for peaceful coexistence within and among nations which include tolerating one another, building team spirit, showing loyalty and fair play. In addition, sport builds character and the development of skills, which are necessary in fulfilling a desirable and happy life among nations. Sport builds discipline, endurance, courage and self-motivation among nations. Sports for Peace was set up to answer the question of whether sport can foster common ideals. In sports as a powerful tool in building peace, athletes all over the world come together to promote the core values of sport, such as fair play, tolerance, the Olympic ideal of freedom and intercultural understanding. Sport as a powerful tool is used to address varieties of social issues that is widely accepted in countries mostly affected by poverty, violence and conflict. In building peace through sports among nations, a wide range of individuals and nonprofit organizations which includes the United Nations (UN) and international development agencies have accepted sport as an important social catalyst. This paper therefore seeks to define sports, sports and its fundamental rights, sports as a powerful tool, and ways in which sport may bring about peace building among countries and finally the status of Sport Development and Peace initiatives in Nigeria. It concluded that the international community has acknowledged the importance of sport in peace building efforts among nations. It further recommended that countries should engage in the design and delivery of sports, adhering to generally accepted principles of openness and sustainability through sports collaboration, sports partnerships and coordinated effort.

Keywords: building, peace, powerful tool, sports

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Authors: Antwi Kwaku Dei, Lyford Conrad Power

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This paper investigates the outcome of participating in the government of Ghana block farm program on rural households’ farm productivity, income, food security and nutritional status in Northern Ghana using cross-sectional data. Data analysis was done using the Instrumental Variable and the Heckman Selection Bias procedures. Our analysis indicates that participation in the block farm program significantly increased directly the productivity of maize, rice, and soybean by 21.3 percent, 15.8 percent, and 12.3 percent respectively. Also, the program participation was found to increase households’ farm income by 20 percent in northern Ghana. Furthermore, program participation was found to improve household food security and nutrition by 19 percent and 14 percent respectively through income effect. Based on the benefit-cost ratio of 1.59 the results from the study recommends that the program is expanded to other communities in the northern region. Further analysis indicates that rural households’ decision to participate in food security intervention programs is significantly influenced by factors including the gender of the household head, the age of the household head, and household size. Results of the study further show that gender of household head, household size, household monthly income, household assets, women educational status, the age of women, marital status of women, are significant determinants of food security and nutrition status in Northern Ghana.

Keywords: block farm program, farm productivity, , household food security, Northern Ghana

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Authors: Chin-Pin, Chen, Shi-Chi, Shiao, Ting-Hao, Lin

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Current industry is facing the rapid development of new technology in the world and fierce changes of economic environment in the society so that the industry development trend gradually does not focus on labor, but leads the industry and the academic circle with innovation and creativity. The development trend in machinery industry presents the same situation. Based on the aim of Creativity White Paper, Ministry of Education in Taiwan promotes and develops various creativity contests to cope with the industry trend. Domestic students and enterprises have good performance on domestic and international creativity contests in recent years. There must be important creative elements in such creative works to win the award among so many works. Literature review and in-depth interview with five creativity contest awarded instructors are first proceeded to conclude 15 machinery creative elements, which are further compared with the creative elements of machinery awarded creative works in past five years to understand the relationship between awarded works and creative elements. The statistical analysis results show that IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award) contains the most creative elements among four major international creativity contests. That is, most creativity review focuses on creative elements that are comparatively stricter. Concerning the groups participating in creativity contests, enterprises consider more creative elements of the creative works than other two elements for contests. From such contest works, creative elements of “replacement or improvement”, “convenience”, and “modeling” present higher significance. It is expected that the above findings could provide domestic colleges and universities with reference for participating in creativity related contests in the future.

Keywords: machinery, creative elements, creativity contest, creativity works

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Authors: Abdool Qaiyum Mohabuth, Syed Munir Ahmad

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Assessment enables students to focus on their learning, assessment. It engages them to work hard and motivates them in devoting time to their studies. Student learning is directly influenced by the type of assessment involved in the programme. Summative Assessment aims at providing measurement of student understanding. In fact, it is argued that summative assessment is used for reporting and reviewing, besides providing an overall judgement of achievement. While summative assessment is a well defined process for learning that takes place in the classroom environment, its application within the practice environment is still being researched. This paper discusses findings from a mixed-method study for exploring the effectiveness of summative assessment in practice learning. A survey questionnaire was designed for exploring the perceptions of mentors and students about summative assessment in practice learning. The questionnaire was administered to the University of Mauritius students and mentors who supervised students for their Work-Based Learning (WBL) practice at the respective placement settings. Some students, having undertaken their WBL practice, were interviewed, for capturing their views and experiences about the application of summative assessment in practice learning. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with three experienced mentors who have assessed students on practice learning. The findings reveal that though learning in the workplace is entirely different from learning at the University, most students had positive experiences about their summative assessments in practice learning. They felt comfortable and confident to be assessed by their mentors in their placement settings and wished that the effort and time that they devoted to their learning be recognised and valued. Mentors on their side confirmed that the summative assessment is valid and reliable, enabling them to better monitor and coach students to achieve the expected learning outcomes.

Keywords: practice learning, judgement, summative assessment, knowledge, skills, workplace

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Authors: Bambang Heliyanto, Rully Dyah Purwati, Hasnam, Fadjry Djufry

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Jatropha curcas L., a drought tolerant and monoecious perennial shrub, has received attention worldwide during the past decade. Realizing the facts, the Indonesian government has decided to option for Jatropha and palm oil for in country biofuel production. To support the program development of high yielding jatropha varieties is necessary. This paper reviews Jatropha improvement program in Indonesia using mass selection and hybrid development. To start with, at the end of 2005, in-country germplasm collection was mobilized to Lampung and Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) provinces and successfully collected 15 provenances/sub-provenances which serves as a base population for selection. A significant improvement has been achieved through a simple recurrent breeding selection during 2006 to 2007. Seed yield productivity increased more than double, from 0.36 to 0.97 ton dry seed per hectare during the first selection cycle (IP-1), and then increased to 2.2 ton per hectare during the second cycles (IP-2) in Lampung provenance. Similar result was also observed in NTB provenance. Seed yield productivity increased from 0.43 ton to 1 ton dry seed per hectare in the first cycle (IP-1), and then 1.9 ton in the second cycle (IP-2). In 2008, the population IP-3 resulted from the third cycle of selection have been identified which were capable of producing 2.2 to 2.4 ton seed yield per hectare. To improve the seed yield per hectare, jatropha hybrid varieties was developed involving superior provenances. As a result a Jatropha Energy Terbarukan (JET) variety-2 was released in 2017 with seed yield potential of 2.6 ton per hectare. The use of this high yielding genotypes for biofuel is discussed.

Keywords: Jatropha curcas, provenance, biofuel, improve population, hybrid

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Authors: Kwanele Qonono

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Despite the significance and economic benefits of petrol stations in South Africa, these still pose a huge risk of fire and explosion threatening public safety. This research paper examines the extent to which land-use planning in Stellenbosch, South Africa, considers the fire risk posed by petrol stations and the implications for public safety as well as preparedness for large fires or explosions. To achieve this, the research identified the land-use types around petrol stations in Stellenbosch and determined the extent to which their locations comply with the local, national, and international land-use planning regulations. A mixed research method consisting of the collection and analysis of geospatial data and qualitative data was an applied method, where petrol stations within a six-kilometre radius of Stellenbosch’s town centre were utilised as study sites. The research examined the risk of fires/explosions at these petrol stations. The research investigated Stellenbosch Municipality’s institutional preparedness to respond in the event of a fire/explosion at these petrol stations. The research observed that siting of petrol stations does not comply with local, national, and international good practices, thus exposing the surrounding developments to fires and explosions. Land-use planning practice does not consider hazards created by petrol stations. Despite the potential for major fires at petrol stations, Stellenbosch Municipality’s level of preparedness to respond to petrol station fires appears low due to the prioritisation of more frequent events.

Keywords: petrol stations, technological hazard, drr, land-use planning, risk analysis

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Authors: Gupta Indu

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This paper aims to examine the relationship between foreign direct investment and globalization. Foreign direct investment plays an important role in globalization. It is dramatically increasing in the age of globalization. It has played an important role for economic growth in this global process. It can provide new markets and marketing channels, cheaper production facilities, access to new technology, products to a firm. FDI has come to play a major role in the internationalization of business. FDI has become even more important than trade. Growing liberalization of the national regulatory framework governing investment in enterprises and changes in capital markets profound changes have occurred in the size, scope and methods of FDI. New information technology systems, decline in global communication costs have made management of foreign investments far easier than in the past. FDI provide opportunities to host countries to enhance their economic development and opens new opportunities to home countries to optimize their earnings by employing their ideal resources. Smaller and weaker economies can drive out much local competition. For small and medium sized companies, FDI represents an opportunity to become more actively involved in international business activities. In the past decade, foreign direct investment has expanded its role by change in trade policy, investment policy, tariff liberalization, easing of restrictions on foreign investment and acquisition in many nations, and the deregulation and privatization of many industries. In present competitive scenario, FDI has become a prominent external source of finance for developing countries.

Keywords: foreign direct investment, globalization, economic development, information technology systems new opportunities

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Authors: Amel Graa, Maachou Dani El Kebir

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This paper investigates the impulse buying behavior of Algerian consumer. In that purpose, we try to better understand processes underlying impulsive buying experiences by examining the theoretical framework and using Mehrabian and Russell’s structure. A model is then proposed and tested on a sample of 1500 shoppers who were recruited among customers of food stores. This model aims to explain the role of some situational variables, personal variables, variables linked to the product characteristics and emotional states on the impulse buying behavior. Following to this empirical study, it was possible to conclude that Algerian consumer has a weak tendency toward impulse buying of food products. The results indicate that seller guidance has a significant impact on the impulse buying, whereas the price of the product was negatively related. According to the results; perception of crowding was associated with scarcity and it was positively linked with impulse buying behavior. This study can help marketers determine the in-store factors that impact purely spontaneous purchases of items that otherwise would not end up in the shopping cart. Our research findings offer important information for benchmarking managerial expectations with regard to product selection and merchandising decisions. As futures perspectives, we propose new research areas related to the impulse buying behavior such as studying different types of stores (for example supermarket), or other types of product (clothing), or studying consumption of food products in religious month of Muslims (Ramadan).

Keywords: impulse buying, situational variables, personal variables, emotional states, PAD model of Merhabian and Russell, Algerian consumer

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Authors: Julien Acquadro, Sophie Noel, Frédéric Houze, Philippe Teste, Pascal Chretien, Clément Genet, Edouard Breniaux, Marie-Joël Menu, Florence Ansart, Marie Gressier

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This paper presents the study results of the electrical and tribological properties of nanocomposite hybrid sol-gel coatings developed for industrial applications on electrical connector housings. The electrical properties of coatings are provided by conductive fillers. The coatings presented in this study are formulated with different types of conductive carbon fillers, in this case carbon black and graphite particles. The coatings are deposited on a high-phosphorous nickel substrate by a dip-coating process. The authors have investigated the effects of the carbon black/graphite ratio on the coating's electrical and tribological properties. Electrical characterizations with a 4-probe method and AFM measurements as well as tribological tests by micro-friction shed light on the role of the black carbon/graphite ratio on the final properties of the sol-gel nanocomposite coatings. This study shows that the amount of carbon black mainly drives the coatings' electrical conduction property, while graphite's lubrication properties bring interest to reduce the values of friction coefficients (at a contact pressure of 800 MPa). In the industrial field of electrical connectors, such coatings aim at replacing cadmium and chromium (VI) protection, as recommended by REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment) regulations (Annex XVII of REACH).

Keywords: carbon conductive fillers, electrical conduction, sol-gel coatings, tribology

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Authors: Aparna Radhakrishnan, Jancy Gupta, R. Dileepkumar

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This paper aims at assessing the Socio Economic Vulnerability (SEV) of dairy farmers to Climate Variability and Change (CVC) in 3 states of Western Ghat region in India. For this purpose, a composite SEV index has been developed on the basis of functional relationships amongst sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity using 30 indicators related to dairy farming underlying the principles of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Fussel framework for nomenclature of vulnerable situation. Household level data were collected through Participatory Rural Appraisal and personal interviews of 540 dairy farmers of nine taluks, three each from a district selected from Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, complemented by thirty years of gridded weather data. The data were normalized and then combined into three indices for sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity, which were then averaged with weights given using principal component analysis, to obtain the overall SEV index. Results indicated that the taluks of Western Ghats are vulnerable to CVC. The dairy farmers of Pulpally taluka were most vulnerable having the SEV score +1.24 and 42.66% farmers under high-level vulnerability category. Even though the taluks are geographically closer, there is wide variation in SEV components. Policies for incentivizing the ‘climate risk adaptation’ costs for small and marginal farmers and livelihood infrastructure for mitigating risks and promoting grass root level innovations are necessary to sustain dairy farming of the region.

Keywords: climate change, dairy, vulnerability, livelihoods, adaptation strategies

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Authors: Djamel Fawzi Hadj Sadok, Marrone Silvério Melo Dantas Pedro Henrique Dreyer, Gabriel Fonseca Reis de Souza, Daniel Bezerra, Ricardo Souza, Silvia Lins, Judith Kelner

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A radio base station (RBS), part of the radio access network, is a particular type of equipment that supports the connection between a wide range of cellular user devices and an operator network access infrastructure. Nowadays, most of the RBS maintenance is carried out manually, resulting in a time consuming and costly task. A suitable candidate for RBS maintenance automation is repairing faulty links between devices caused by missing or unplugged connectors. A suitable candidate for RBS maintenance automation is repairing faulty links between devices caused by missing or unplugged connectors. This paper proposes and compares two deep learning solutions to identify attached RJ45 connectors on network ports. We named connector detection, the solution based on object detection, and connector classification, the one based on object classification. With the connector detection, we get an accuracy of 0:934, mean average precision 0:903. Connector classification, get a maximum accuracy of 0:981 and an AUC of 0:989. Although connector detection was outperformed in this study, this should not be viewed as an overall result as connector detection is more flexible for scenarios where there is no precise information about the environment and the possible devices. At the same time, the connector classification requires that information to be well-defined.

Keywords: radio base station, maintenance, classification, detection, deep learning, automation

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Authors: Ralph Adaimy, Wassim El-Hajj, Ghassen Ben Brahim, Hazem Hajj, Haidar Safa

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Huge amounts of data and personal information are being sent to and retrieved from web applications on daily basis. Every application has its own confidentiality and integrity policies. Violating these policies can have broad negative impact on the involved company’s financial status, while enforcing them is very hard even for the developers with good security background. In this paper, we propose a framework that enforces security-by-construction in web applications. Minimal developer effort is required, in a sense that the developer only needs to annotate database attributes by a security class. The web application code is then converted into an intermediary representation, called Extended Program Dependence Graph (EPDG). Using the EPDG, the provided annotations are propagated to the application code and run against generic security enforcement rules that were carefully designed to detect insecure information flows as early as they occur. As a result, any violation in the data’s confidentiality or integrity policies is reported. As a proof of concept, two PHP web applications, Hotel Reservation and Auction, were used for testing and validation. The proposed system was able to catch all the existing insecure information flows at their source. Moreover and to highlight the simplicity of the suggested approaches vs. existing approaches, two professional web developers assessed the annotation tasks needed in the presented case studies and provided a very positive feedback on the simplicity of the annotation task.

Keywords: web applications security, secure information flow, program dependence graph, database annotation

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Authors: Emna Bahri Hammami, Zammouri Mounira, Tarhouni Jamila

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The Nadhour Saouaf Sisseb El Alem (NSSA) system comprises some of the most intensively exploited aquifers in central Tunisia. Since the 1970s, the growth in economic productivity linked to intensive agriculture in this semiarid region has been sustained by increasing pumping rates of the system’s groundwater. Exploitation of these aquifers has increased rapidly, ultimately causing their depletion. With the aim to better understand the behavior of the aquifer system and to predict its evolution, the paper presents a finite difference model of the groundwater flow and solute transport. The model is based on the Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) and was calibrated using data from 1970 to 2010. Groundwater levels observed in 1970 were used for the steady-state calibration. Groundwater levels observed from 1971 to 2010 served to calibrate the transient state. The impact of pumping discharge on the evolution of groundwater levels was studied through three hypothetical pumping scenarios. The first two scenarios replicated the approximate drawdown in the aquifer heads (about 17 m in scenario 1 and 23 m in scenario 2 in the center of NSSA) following an increase in pumping rates by 30% and 50% from their current values, respectively. In addition, pumping was stopped in the third scenario, which could increase groundwater reserves by about 7 Mm3/year. NSSA groundwater reserves could be improved considerably if the pumping rules were taken seriously.

Keywords: pumping, depletion, groundwater modeling system GMS, Nadhour Saouaf

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Authors: Anju Batta Sehgal

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Climate change is a major challenge in terms of agriculture, food security and rural livelihood for thousands of people especially the poor in Himachal, which falls in North-Western Himalayas. Agriculture contributes over 45 per cent to net state domestic product. It is the main source of income and employment. Over 93 per cent of population is dependent on agriculture which provides direct employment to 71 percent of its people. Area of operation holding is about 9,79 lakh hectares owned by 9.14 lakh farmers. About 80 per cent area is rain-fed and farmers depend on weather gods for rains. Region is a home of diverse ethnic communities having enormous socio-economic and cultural diversities, gifted with range of farming systems and rich resource wealth, including biodiversity, hot spots and ecosystems sustaining millions of people living in the region. But growing demands of ecosystem goods and services are posing threats to natural resources. Climate change is already making adverse impact on the indigenous people. The rural populace is directly dependent for all its food, shelter and other needs on the climate. Our aim should be to shift the focus to indigenous people as primary actors in terms of global climate change monitoring, adaptations and innovations. Objective of this paper is to identify the climate change related threats and vulnerabilities associated with agriculture as a sector and agriculture as people’s livelihood. Broadly it analyses the connections between the nature and rural consumers the ethnic groups.

Keywords: climate change, agriculture, indigenous people, Himachal Pradesh

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Authors: Fabiola Trejo Perez, Rolando Diaz Loving

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Sexual pleasure consists of the positively valued feelings induced by sexual stimuli, but it is also weighed down by pop-psychological baggage, and subjected to cross-cultural and cross-historical variation. Social and individual interpretations of what can or can’t be considered as pleasurable are intertwined with culture’s predominant values, norms and beliefs. For each culture, sexual norms work as a guide to be followed in order to model socially accepted behaviors. Therefore, cultural messages regarding sexuality are usually directed to restrict men and women from enjoyment, sexual satisfaction and specifically orgasm. Given that sexual pleasure hasn’t been recognized as an accepted topic of open discussion, particularly for women, people have to eventually complement their knowledge using their own experience filling in the blanks from what little has been said. Thus, this research aims to identify which are the particular social messages associated with the easing or inhibition of sexual pleasure. Three hundred Mexican men and women ages 25 to 35 years old answered a self-report survey composed by the Inventory of facilitators and inhibitors of sexual pleasure and the Sexual premises questionnaire via pencil-paper and online. Results show a high endorsement to double standard messages associated with higher levels of sexual pleasure inhibitors like feeling pressured to have sexual activity, guilt and inability to reach orgasm, in contrast with people who endorse more permissive norms and beliefs, feeling connected to their sexual partners and confident with themselves. These results illustrate that the shaping of sexuality, from experience to society, is comprised of an important relationship between culture and sexual pleasure.

Keywords: culture, sexual double standard, sexual norms and beliefs, sexual pleasure

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Authors: Harish Krishnamurthy, Anna Lafontant, Ren Yi

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Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have been an interesting topic for most enthusiasts and hence people all over the United States report such findings online at the National UFO Report Center (NUFORC). Some of these reports are a hoax and among those that seem legitimate, our task is not to establish that these events confirm that they indeed are events related to flying objects from aliens in outer space. Rather, we intend to identify if the report was a hoax as was identified by the UFO database team with their existing curation criterion. However, the database provides a wealth of information that can be exploited to provide various analyses and insights such as social reporting, identifying real-time spatial events and much more. We perform analysis to localize these time-series geospatial events and correlate with known real-time events. This paper does not confirm any legitimacy of alien activity, but rather attempts to gather information from likely legitimate reports of UFOs by studying the online reports. These events happen in geospatial clusters and also are time-based. We look at cluster density and data visualization to search the space of various cluster realizations to decide best probable clusters that provide us information about the proximity of such activity. A random forest classifier is also presented that is used to identify true events and hoax events, using the best possible features available such as region, week, time-period and duration. Lastly, we show the performance of the scheme on various days and correlate with real-time events where one of the UFO reports strongly correlates to a missile test conducted in the United States.

Keywords: time-series clustering, feature extraction, hoax prediction, geospatial events

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Authors: Ibrahim A. Al-Sulaihi, Khalid S. Al-Gahtani, Abdullah M. Al-Sugair, Aref A. Abadel

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Achieving environmental sustainability is one of the important issues considered in many countries’ vision. Green/Sustainable building is widely used terminology for describing a friendly environmental construction. Applying sustainable practices has a significant importance in various fields, including construction field that consumes an enormous amount of resource and causes a considerable amount of waste. The need for sustainability is increased in the regions that suffering from the limitation of natural resource and extreme weather conditions such as Saudi Arabia. Since buildings designs are getting sophisticated, the need for tools, which support decision-making for sustainability issues, is increasing, especially in the design and preconstruction stages. In this context, Building Information Modeling (BIM) can aid in performing complex building performance analyses to ensure an optimized sustainable building design. Accordingly, this paper introduces a roadmap towards developing a systematic approach for presenting the sustainability of buildings using BIM. The approach includes set of main processes including; identifying the sustainability parameters that can be used for sustainability assessment in Saudi Arabia, developing sustainability assessment method that fits the special circumstances in the Kingdom, identifying the sustainability requirements and BIM functions that can be used for satisfying these requirements, and integrating these requirements with identified functions. As a result, the sustainability-BIM approach can be developed which helps designers in assessing the sustainability and exploring different design alternatives at the early stage of the construction project.

Keywords: green buildings, sustainability, BIM, rating systems, environment, Saudi Arabia

Procedia PDF Downloads 364