Search results for: fixed effect model

Authors: Salah Alrabeei, Mohammad Yousuf

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The goal of option pricing theory is to help the investors to manage their money, enhance returns and control their financial future by theoretically valuing their options. However, most of the option pricing models have no analytical solution. Furthermore, not all the numerical methods are efficient to solve these models because they have nonsmoothing payoffs or discontinuous derivatives at the exercise price. In this paper, we solve the American option under jump diffusion models by using efficient time-dependent numerical methods. several techniques are integrated to reduced the overcome the computational complexity. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm is used as a matrix-vector multiplication solver, which reduces the complexity from O(M2) into O(M logM). Partial fraction decomposition technique is applied to rational approximation schemes to overcome the complexity of inverting polynomial of matrices. The proposed method is easy to implement on serial or parallel versions. Numerical results are presented to prove the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: integral differential equations, jump–diffusion model, American options, rational approximation

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Authors: Sumbul Farhat, Pratyay Vaibhav, Sarah Jain, Kapinder Kumar, Archna Kumar

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The Diamondback Moth, Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus), is a major pest of cole crops that causes approximately 50% loss in global production. The utilization of inorganic pesticides is reflected in the development of resistance to this pest. Thus, there is a great need for an eco-friendly, sustainable strategy for the control of this pest. Although this pest, several natural enemies are reported worldwide, none of them can control it efficiently. Therefore, a proposed study is planned to understand the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) mediated signaling interaction mechanism of the plant, pest, and natural enemy. For VOCs collection during different deployment stages of Cabbage POI, Green Ball, Pusa Cabbage, Cabbage Local, Snowball 16, Kanchan Plus, Pusa Meghna, Farm Sona Hybrid F1, and Samridhi F1 Hybrid, the Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method was employed. Characterization of VOCs was conducted by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The impact of collected VOCs was assessed through Y-Tube Bioassays. The results indicate that the Cabbage variety Green Ball shows maximum repellency for P. xylostella (-100%). The cues present in this variety may be exploited for efficient management of P. xylostella in the cole crop ecosystem.

Keywords: Plutella xylostella, cole crops, volatile organic compounds, GC-MS, Green Ball

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Authors: Nneka N. Uchegbu, Charles N. Ishiwu

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The nutritional composition and hypoglycaemic effect of crackers produced from a blend of sprouted pigeon pea, unripe plantain, and brewers’ spent grain and fed to Alloxan induced diabetic rat was investigated. Crackers were produced from different blends of sprouted pigeon pea, unripe plantain and brewers’ spent grain. The crackers were evaluated for proximate composition, amino acid profile and antinutritional factors. Blood glucose levels of normal and diabetic rats fed with the control sample and different formulations of cracker were measured. The protein content of the samples were significantly different (p < 0.05) from each other with sample A having the lowest value and sample B with the highest value. The values obtained showed that the samples contained most of the amino acids that are found in plant proteins. The levels of antinutritional factor determined were generally low. Administration of the formulated cracker meals led to a significant reduction in the fasting blood glucose level in the diabetic rats. The present study concluded that consumption of crackers produced from this composite flour can be recommended for the diabetics and those who are sceptical about the disease.

Keywords: crackers, diabetics rat, sprouted pigeon pea, unripe plantain and brewers’ spent grain

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Authors: Madhushi Bandara, Dharshana Kasthurirathna, Danaja Maldeniya, Mahendra Piraveenan

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Community detection is an extremely useful technique in understanding the structure and function of a social network. Louvain algorithm, which is based on Newman-Girman modularity optimization technique, is extensively used as a computationally efficient method extract the communities in social networks. It has been suggested that the nodes that are in close geographical proximity have a higher tendency of forming communities. Variants of the Newman-Girman modularity measure such as dist-modularity try to normalize the effect of geographical proximity to extract geographically dispersed communities, at the expense of losing the information about the geographically proximate communities. In this work, we propose a method to extract geographically dispersed communities while preserving the information about the geographically proximate communities, by analyzing the ‘community network’, where the centroids of communities would be considered as network nodes. We suggest that the inter-community link strengths, which are normalized over the community sizes, may be used to identify and extract the ‘overlay communities’. The overlay communities would have relatively higher link strengths, despite being relatively apart in their spatial distribution. We apply this method to the Gowalla online social network, which contains the geographical signatures of its users, and identify the overlay communities within it.

Keywords: social networks, community detection, modularity optimization, geographically dispersed communities

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Authors: Nada Slimane, Foued Theljani, Faouzi Bouani

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The paper addresses the problem of fault diagnosis for systems operating in several modes (normal or faulty) based on states assessment. We use, for this purpose, a methodology consisting of three main processes: 1) sequential data clustering, 2) linear model regression and 3) state filtering. Typically, Kalman Filter (KF) is an algorithm that provides estimation of unknown states using a sequence of I/O measurements. Inevitably, although it is an efficient technique for state estimation, it presents two main weaknesses. First, it merely predicts states without being able to isolate/classify them according to their different operating modes, whether normal or faulty modes. To deal with this dilemma, the KF is endowed with an extra clustering step based fully on sequential version of the k-means algorithm. Second, to provide state estimation, KF requires state space models, which can be unknown. A linear regularized regression is used to identify the required models. To prove its effectiveness, the proposed approach is assessed on a simulated benchmark.

Keywords: clustering, diagnosis, Kalman Filtering, k-means, regularized regression

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Veronique Jubera, Guillaume Salek, Manuel Gaudon, Alain Garcia, Alain Demourgues

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Luminescence of transition metal and rare earth elements cover ultraviolet to far infrared wavelengths. Applications of phosphors are numerous. One can cite lighting, sensing, laser, energy, medical or military applications. But regarding each domain, specific criteria are required and they can be achieved with a strong control of the chemical composition. Emission of doped materials can be tailored with modifications of the local environment of the cations. For instance, the increase of the crystal field effect shifts the divalent manganese radiative transitions from the green to the red color. External factor as heat-treatment can induce changes of the doping element location or modify the unit cell crystalline symmetry. By controlling carefully the synthesis route, it is possible to initiate emission shift and to establish the thermal history of a compound. We propose to demonstrate through the luminescence of divalent manganese and trivalent rare earth doped oxide, that it is possible to follow the thermal history of a material. After optimization of the synthesis route, structural and optical properties are discussed. Finally, thermal calibration graphs are successfully established on these doped compounds. This makes these materials promising probe for thermal sensing.

Keywords: emission, thermal sensing, transition metal, rare eath element

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Authors: H. Higashiyama, M. Sano, F. Nakanishi, M. Sugiyama, O. Takahashi, S. Tsukuma

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The heat island phenomenon becomes one of the environmental problems. As countermeasures in the field of road engineering, cool pavements such as water retaining pavements and solar radiation reflective pavements have been developed to reduce the surface temperature of asphalt pavements in the hot summer climate in Japan. The authors have studied on the water retaining pavements with cement–based grouting materials. The cement–based grouting materials consist of cement, ceramic waste powder, and natural zeolite. The ceramic waste powder is collected through the recycling process of electric porcelain insulators. In this study, mixing ratio between the ceramic waste powder and the natural zeolite and a type of cement for the cement–based grouting materials is investigated to measure the surface temperature of asphalt pavements in the outdoor. All of the developed cement–based grouting materials were confirmed to effectively reduce the surface temperature of the asphalt pavements. Especially, the cement–based grouting material using the ultra–rapid hardening cement with the mixing ratio of 0.7:0.3 between the ceramic waste powder and the natural zeolite reduced mostly the surface temperature by 20 °C and more.

Keywords: ceramic waste powder, natural zeolite, road surface temperature, water retaining pavements

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Authors: Payal Patel

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Textile machinery is one of the fastest evolving areas which has an application of mechanical engineering. The modular approach towards the processing right from the stage of cotton to the fabric, allows us to observe the result of each process on its input. Cost and space being the major constraints. The flyer is a component of roving machine, which is used as a part of spinning process. In the present work using the application of Hyper Works, the flyer arm has been modified which saves the material used for manufacturing the flyer. The size optimization of the flyer is carried out with the objective of reduction in weight under the constraints of standard operating conditions. The new design of the flyer is proposed and validated using the module of HyperWorks which is equally strong, but light weighted compared to the existing design. Dynamic balancing of the optimized model is carried out to align a principal inertia axis with the geometric axis of rotation. For the balanced geometry of flyer, air resistance is obtained theoretically and with Gambit and Fluent. Static analysis of the balanced geometry has been done to verify the constraint of operating condition. Comparison of weight, deflection, and factor of safety has been made for different aluminum alloys.

Keywords: flyer, size optimization, textile, weight

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Authors: Shahnaz Ashrafpour, Tahereh Tohidi Moghadam, Bijan Ranjbar

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Identifying the nature of protein-nanoparticle interactions and favored binding sites is an important issue in functional characterization of biomolecules and their physiological responses. Herein, interaction of silver nanoparticles with lysozyme as a model protein has been monitored via fluorescence spectroscopy. Formation of complex between the biomolecule and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) induced a steady state reduction in the fluorescence intensity of protein at different concentrations of nanoparticles. Tryptophan fluorescence quenching spectra suggested that silver nanoparticles act as a foreign quencher, approaching the protein via this residue. Analysis of the Stern-Volmer plot showed quenching constant of 3.73 µM−1. Moreover, a single binding site in lysozyme is suggested to play role during interaction with AgNPs, having low affinity of binding compared to gold nanoparticles. Unfolding studies of lysozyme showed that complex of lysozyme-AgNPs has not undergone structural perturbations compared to the bare protein. Results of this effort will pave the way for utilization of sensitive spectroscopic techniques for rational design of nanobiomaterials in biomedical applications.

Keywords: nanocarrier, nanoparticles, surface plasmon resonance, quenching fluorescence

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Authors: H. Alabed, K. Abuzayan, J. Ezarrugh, S. Ali, M. Touba

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Ramadan requires individuals to abstain from food and fluid intake between sunrise and sunset, Physiological considerations predict that poorer mood, Physical performance and mental performance will result. In addition, Any difficulties will be worsened because preparations for fasting and recovery from it often mean that nocturnal sleep is decreased in length and this independently affects mood and performance. A difficulty of interpretation in many studies is that the observed changes could be due to fasting but also to the decreased length of sleep and altered food and fluid intakes before and after the daytime fasting. These factors were separated in this study, Which took place over three separate days and compared the effects of different durations of fasting (4, 8 or 16 h) upon a wide variety of measures (including subjective and objective assessments of performance, body composition, Dehydration and responses to a short bout of exercise) but with an unchanged amount of nocturnal sleep, Controlled supper the previous evening, Controlled intakes at breakfast and daytime naps not being allowed. Many of the negative effects of fasting observed in previous studies were present in this experiment also. These findings indicate that fasting was responsible for many of the changes previously observed, Though some effect of sleep loss, Particularly if occurring on successive days (as would occur in Ramadan) cannot be excluded.

Keywords: Drinking, eating, mental performance, physical performance, social activity, blood, sleepiness

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Authors: I. Sarenkova, I. Ciprovica, I. Cinkmanis

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Lactobionic acid is a disaccharide formed from gluconic acid and galactose, and produced by oxidation of lactose. Productivity of lactobionic acid by microbial synthesis can be affected by various factors, and one of them is a presence of potassium, magnesium and manganese ions. In order to extend lactobionic acid production efficiency, it is necessary to increase the yield of lactobionic acid by optimising the fermentation conditions and available substrates for Pseudomonas taetrolens growth. The object of the research was to determinate the application of K₂HPO₄, MnSO₄, MgSO₄ × 7H₂O salts in different concentration for effective lactose oxidation to lactobionic acid by Pseudomonas taetrolens. Pseudomonas taetrolens NCIB 9396 (NCTC, England) and Pseudomonas taetrolens DSM 21104 (DSMZ, Germany) were used for the study. The acid whey was used as the study object. The content of lactose in whey samples was determined using MilcoScan^TM Mars (Foss, Denmark) and high performance liquid chromatography (Shimadzu LC 20 Prominence, Japan). The content of lactobionic acid in whey samples was determined using the high performance liquid chromatography. The impact of studied salts differs, Mn²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions enhanced fermentation instead of K⁺ ions. Results approved that Mn²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions are necessary for Pseudomonas taetrolens growth. The study results will help to improve the effectiveness of lactobionic acid production with Pseudomonas taetrolens NCIB 9396 and DSM 21104.

Keywords: lactobionic acid, lactose oxidation, Pseudomonas taetrolens, whey

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Authors: Hosein Alimadadi, Fatemeh Farahmand, Ali Jafarian, Nasir Fakhar, Mohammad Hassan Sohouli, Neda Raeesi

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Backgroundsː Regarding the important role of liver transplantation as the only treatment in many cases of end-stage liver disease in children, the aim of this study is to investigate the complications of liver transplantation and their management in children referred to the Children's Medical Center. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study on pediatric patients who have undergone liver transplants in the years 2016 to 2021. The indication for liver transplantation in this population was confirmed by a pediatric gastroenterologist, and a liver transplant was performed by a transplant surgeon. Finally, information about the patient before and after the transplantation was collected and recorded. Results: A total of 53 patients participated in this study, including 25 (47.2%) boys and 28 (52.8%) girls. The most common causes of liver transplantation were cholestatic and metabolic diseases. The most common early complication of liver transplantation in children was acute cellular rejection (ACR) and anastomotic biliary stricture. The most common late complication in these patients was an infection which was observed in 56.6% of patients. Among the drug side effects, neurotoxicity (convulsions) was seen more in patients, and 15.1% of the transplanted patients died. Conclusion: In this study, the most common early complication of liver transplantation in children was ACR and biliary stricture, and the most common late complication was infection. Neurotoxicity (convulsions) was the most common side effect of drugs.

Keywords: liver transplantation, complication, infection, survival rate

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Authors: Abdulquadri Ade Bilau, Richard Ajayi Jimoh, Adejoh Amodu Adaji

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The increasing exposures to natural hazards have continued to severely impair on the built environment causing huge fatalities, mass damage and destruction of housing and civil infrastructure while leaving psychosocial impacts on affected communities. The 2012 flood disaster in Nigeria which affected over 7 million inhabitants in 30 of the 36 states resulted in 363 recorded fatalities with about 600,000 houses and a number of civil infrastructure damaged or destroyed. In Kogi State, over 500 thousand people were displaced in 9 out of the 21 local government affected while Ibaji and Lokoja local governments were worst hit. This study identifies the causes and 2012 flood disasters and its effect on housing and livelihood. Personal observation and questionnaire survey were instruments used in carrying out the study and data collected were analysed using descriptive statistical tool. Findings show that the 2012 flood disaster was aided by the gap in hydrological data, sudden dam failure, and inadequate drainage capacity to reduce flood risk. The study recommends that communities residing along the river banks in Lokoja and Ibaji LGAs must be adequately educated on their exposure to flood hazard and mitigation and risk reduction measures such as construction of adequate drainage channel are constructed in affected communities.

Keywords: flood, hazards, housing, risk reduction, vulnerability

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Authors: Kumaresh Selvakumar, Man Young Kim

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A wet scrubber is an air pollution control device that removes particulate matter and acid gases from waste gas streams found in marine engine exhaust. If the flue gases in the exhaust is employed for CFD simulation, it makes the problem complicate due to the involvement of emissions. Owing to the fact, the scrubber system in this paper is handled with appropriate approach by designing with the flow properties of hot air and water droplet injections to evaluate the flow behavior inside the system. Since the wet scrubber has the capability of operating over wide range of mixture compositions, the current scrubber model with the designing approach doesn’t deviate from the actual behavior of the system. The scrubber design is constructed with engine exhaust pipe with the purpose of measuring the flow properties inside the scrubber by the influence of exhaust pipe characteristics. The flow properties are computed by the thermodynamic variables such as temperature and pressure with the flow velocity. In this work, numerical analyses have been conducted for the flow of fluid in the scrubber system through CFD technique.

Keywords: wet scrubber, water droplet injections, thermodynamic variables, CFD technique

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Modarressi, Mozhgan Mondeali, Khabat Barkhordari, Ali Etemadi

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The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has led to significant concerns worldwide due to its catastrophic effects on public health. The SARS-CoV-2 infection is initiated with the binding of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in its spike protein to the ACE2 receptor in the host cell membrane. Due to the error-prone entity of the viral RNA-dependent polymerase complex, the virus genome, including the coding region for the RBD, acquires new mutations, leading to the appearance of multiple variants. These variants can potentially impact transmission, virulence, antigenicity and evasive immune properties. S477N mutation located in the RBD has been observed in the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1. 529) variant. In this study, we investigated the consequences of S477N mutation at the molecular level using computational approaches such as molecular dynamics simulation, protein-protein interaction analysis, immunoinformatics and free energy computation. We showed that displacement of Ser with Asn increases the stability of the spike protein and its affinity to ACE2 and thus increases the transmission potential of the virus. This mutation changes the folding and secondary structure of the spike protein. Also, it reduces antibody neutralization, raising concern about re-infection, vaccine breakthrough and therapeutic values.

Keywords: S477N, COVID-19, molecular dynamic, SARS-COV2 mutations

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Authors: Kanlaya Ratanasuphakarn, Suttipong Boonphadung

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The research on the development of ability in reading comprehension based on metacognitive strategies aimed to (1) improve the students’development of ability in reading comprehension based on metacognitive strategies, (2) evaluate the students’ satisfaction on using metacognitive strategies in learning as a tool developing the ability in reading comprehension. Forty-eight of Mattayom 3 students who have enrolled in the subject of research for learning development of semester 2 in 2013 were purposively selected as the research cohort. The research tools were lesson plans for reading comprehension, pre-posttest and satisfaction questionnaire that were approved as content validity and reliability (IOC=.66-1.00,0.967). The research found that the development of ability in reading comprehension of the research samples before using metacognitive strategies in learning activities was in the normal high level. Additionally, the research discovered that the students’ satisfaction of the research cohort after applying model in learning activities appeared to be high level of satisfaction on using metacognitive strategies in learning as a tool for the development of ability in reading comprehension.

Keywords: development of ability, metacognitive strategies, satisfaction, reading comprehension

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Authors: Ghazi Faisal Najmuldeen, Wahida Amat-Fadzil, Zulkafli Hassan, Jinan B. Al-Dabbagh

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the optimum fabrication process variables to produce particleboards from oil palm fronds (OPF) particles and empty fruit bunch fiber (EFB). Response surface methodology was employed to analyse the effect of hot press temperature (150–190°C); press time (3–7 minutes) and EFB blending ratio (0–40%) on particleboards modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, internal bonding, water absorption and thickness swelling. A Box-Behnken experimental design was carried out to develop statistical models used for the optimisation of the fabrication process variables. All factors were found to be statistically significant on particleboards properties. The statistical analysis indicated that all models showed significant fit with experimental results. The optimum particleboards properties were obtained at optimal fabrication process condition; press temperature; 186°C, press time; 5.7 min and EFB / OPF ratio; 30.4%. Incorporating of oil palm frond and empty fruit bunch to produce particleboards has improved the particleboards properties. The OPF–EFB particleboards fabricated at optimized conditions have satisfied the ANSI A208.1–1999 specification for general purpose particleboards.

Keywords: empty fruit bunch fiber, oil palm fronds, particleboards, response surface methodology

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Authors: Hamed Sadeghi, Pouya A. Panahi, Hamed Nasiri, Mohammad Sadeghi

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Collapsible soils like loess comprise an important category of problematic soils for construction purposes and sustainable development. As a result, research on both geological and geotechnical aspects of this type of soil have been in progress for decades. However, considerable natural variability in physical properties of in-situ loess strata even in a single block sample challenges the fundamental laboratory investigations. The reason behind this is that it is somehow impossible to remove the effect of a specific factor like void ratio from fair comparisons to come with a reliable conclusion. In order to cope with this limitation, two types of artificially made dispersive and calcareous loess are introduced which can be easily reproduced in any soil mechanics laboratory provided that all its compositions are known and controlled. The collapse potential is explored for a variety of soil water salinity and lime content and comparisons are made against the natural soil behavior. Trends are reported for the influence of pore water salinity on collapse potential under different osmotic flow conditions. The most important advantage of artificial loess is the ease of controlling cementing agent content like calcite or dispersive potential for studying their influence on mechanical soil behavior.

Keywords: artificial loess, unsaturated soils, collapse potential, dispersive clays, laboratory tests

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Authors: Omolade Adeleke, Jonathan Olusegun Famoroti

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This study empirically examined the monetary policy and economic growth in the classical cycles in 8 member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), using the Markov switching model for the Two-phase Regime, covering the period 1980Q1 to 2020Q4. Our estimates suggest that these countries demonstrate to have similar business cycles, and the economies stay more in an expansion regime than a recession regime. The result further shows that the union has an average duration period of 3.1 and 15.9 quarters for contraction and expansion periods, respectively. The business cycle duration, on average, suggests 19 quarters, varying from country to country. Therefore, the formulation of policies that can enhance aggregate demand by member countries in the union is an antidote for recession and is necessary to drive the economy into equilibrium. Also, a low-interest rate and reduced inflation rate would ginger long-run economic growth.

Keywords: monetary policy, business cycle, economic growth, Markov switching

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Authors: Lina Wu

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The excessive discharge of nitrogen in sewage greatly intensifies the eutrophication of water bodies and threatens water quality. Nitrogen pollution control has become a global concern. The concentration of nitrogen in water is reduced by converting ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen into nitrogen-containing gas through biological treatment, physicochemical treatment and oxidation technology. However, some wastewater containing high ammonia nitrogen including landfill leachate, is difficult to be treated by traditional nitrification and denitrification because of its high COD content. The core process of denitrification is that denitrifying bacteria convert nitrous acid produced by nitrification into nitrite under anaerobic conditions. Still, its low-carbon nitrogen does not meet the conditions for denitrification. Many studies have shown that the natural autotrophic anammox bacteria can combine nitrous and ammonia nitrogen without a carbon source through functional genes to achieve total nitrogen removal, which is very suitable for removing nitrogen from leachate. In addition, the process also saves a lot of aeration energy consumption than the traditional nitrogen removal process. Therefore, anammox plays an important role in nitrogen conversion and energy saving. The short-range nitrification and denitrification coupled with anaerobic ammoX ensures total nitrogen removal. It improves the removal efficiency, meeting the needs of society for an ecologically friendly and cost-effective nutrient removal treatment technology. In recent years, research has found that the symbiotic system has more water treatment advantages because this process not only helps to improve the efficiency of wastewater treatment but also allows carbon dioxide reduction and resource recovery. Microalgae use carbon dioxide dissolved in water or released through bacterial respiration to produce oxygen for bacteria through photosynthesis under light, and bacteria, in turn, provide metabolites and inorganic carbon sources for the growth of microalgae, which may lead the algal bacteria symbiotic system save most or all of the aeration energy consumption. It has become a trend to make microalgae and light-avoiding anammox bacteria play synergistic roles by adjusting the light-to-dark ratio. Microalgae in the outer layer of light particles block most of the light and provide cofactors and amino acids to promote nitrogen removal. In particular, myxoccota MYX1 can degrade extracellular proteins produced by microalgae, providing amino acids for the entire bacterial community, which helps anammox bacteria save metabolic energy and adapt to light. As a result, initiating and maintaining the process of combining dominant algae and anaerobic denitrifying bacterial communities has great potential in treating landfill leachate. Chlorella has a brilliant removal effect and can withstand extreme environments in terms of high ammonia nitrogen, high salt and low temperature. It is urgent to study whether the algal mud mixture rich in denitrifying bacteria and chlorella can greatly improve the efficiency of landfill leachate treatment under an anaerobic environment where photosynthesis is stopped. The optimal dilution concentration of simulated landfill leachate can be found by determining the treatment effect of the same batch of bacteria and algae mixtures under different initial ammonia nitrogen concentrations and making a comparison. High-throughput sequencing technology was used to analyze the changes in microbial diversity, related functional genera and functional genes under optimal conditions, providing a theoretical and practical basis for the engineering application of novel bacteria-algae symbiosis system in biogas slurry treatment and resource utilization.

Keywords: nutrient removal and recovery, leachate, anammox, Partial nitrification, Algae-bacteria interaction

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Authors: Mingbao Chen

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The blue economy is a new comprehensive marine economy integrated with resources, industries, and regions, and is an upgraded version of the marine economy. The blue economy attaches great importance to the coordinated development of the ecological environment and the economy, which is an emerging economic form advocated by all countries in the world. This paper constructs the model including four variables：natural capital, economic capital, intellectual capital, cultural capital. Theoretically, this paper deduces the function mechanism of variables on economic growth, and empirically calculates the driving force and influence of the blue economy on the national economy by using data of China's 2006-2015 year. The results show that natural capital and economic capital remain the main factors of blue growth in the blue economy. And with the development of economic society and technological progress, the role of intellectual capital and cultural capital is bigger and bigger. Therefore, promoting the development of marine science and technology and culture is the focus of the future blue economic development.

Keywords: blue growth, natural capital, intellectual capital, cultural capital

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Authors: Tugrul Oktay, Mehmet Konar, Mohamed Abdallah Mohamed, Murat Aydin, Firat Sal, Murat Onay, Mustafa Soylak

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In this paper, it is aimed to improve autonomous flight performance of a load-carrying (payload: 3 kg and total: 6kg) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) through active wing and horizontal tail active morphing and also integrated autopilot system parameters (i.e. P, I, D gains) and UAV parameters (i.e. extension ratios of wing and horizontal tail during flight) design. For this purpose, a loadcarrying UAV (i.e. ZANKA-II) is manufactured in Erciyes University, College of Aviation, Model Aircraft Laboratory is benefited. Optimum values of UAV parameters and autopilot parameters are obtained using a stochastic optimization method. Using this approach autonomous flight performance of UAV is substantially improved and also in some adverse weather conditions an opportunity for safe flight is satisfied. Active morphing and integrated design approach gives confidence, high performance and easy-utility request of UAV users.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles, morphing, autopilots, autonomous performance

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Authors: Xufei Liu, Shouxiang Lu, Kim Meow Liew

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Because a relatively small fire could potentially cause damage by smoke corrosion far exceed thermal fire damage, it has been realized that the corrosion of metal exposed to smoke atmospheres is a significant fire hazard, except for toxicity or evacuation considerations. For the burning materials in an actual fire may often be the mixture of combustible matters, a quantitative study on the corrosivity of smoke produced by the combustion of mixture is more conducive to the application of the basic theory to the actual engineering. In this paper, carbon steel samples were exposed to smoke generated by polyvinyl chloride and polypropylene, two common combustibles in industrial plants, with different mixing ratios in high humidity for 120 hours. The separate and combined corrosive effects of smoke were examined subsequently by weight loss measurement, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was found that, although the corrosivity of smoke from polypropylene was much smaller than that of smoke from polyvinyl chloride, smoke from polypropylene enhanced the major corrosive effect of smoke from polyvinyl chloride to carbon steel. Furthermore, the corrosion kinetics of carbon steel under smoke were found to obey the power function. Possible corrosion mechanisms were also proposed. All the analysis helps to provide basic information for the determination of smoke damage and timely rescue after fire.

Keywords: corrosion kinetics, corrosion mechanism, mixed combustible, SEM/EDS, smoke corrosivity, XRD

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Authors: Mona Mahmoud Abou Samra, Alaa Hamed Salama, Ghada Awad, Soheir Said Mansy

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Proniosomes are well documented for topical drug delivery and preferred over other vesicular systems because they are biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, possess skin penetration ability and prolong the release of drugs by acting as depot in deeper layers of skin. Proniosome drug delivery was preferred due to improved stability of the system than niosomes. The present investigation aimed at formulation development and performance evaluation of proniosomal gel as a vesicular drug carrier system for antifungal drug tolnaftate. Proniosomes was developed using different nonionic surfactants such as span 60 and span 65 with cholesterol in different molar ratios by the Coacervation phase separation method in presence or absence of either lecithin or phospholipon 80 H. Proniosomal gel formulations of tolnaftate were characterized for vesicular shape & size, entrapment efficiency, rheological properties and release study. The effect of surfactants and additives on the entrapment efficiency, particle size and percent of drug released was studied. The selected proniosomal formulations for topical delivery of tolnaftate was subjected to a microbiological study in male rats infected with Trichophyton rubrum; the main cause of Tinea Pedis compared to the free drug and a market product and the results was recorded.

Keywords: fungal infection, proniosome, tolnaftate, trichophyton rubrum

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Authors: Rajwanlop Kumpoopong, Sukit Yindeesuk, Pornchai Silarom

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On May 5, 2014, an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 Richter hit the Northern part of Thailand. The epicenter was in Phan District, Chiang Rai Province. This earthquake or the so-called 2014-Chiang Rai Earthquake is the strongest ground shaking that Thailand has ever been experienced in her modern history. The 2014-Chiang Rai Earthquake confirms the geological evidence, which has previously been ignored by most engineers, that earthquakes of considerable magnitudes 6 to 7 Richter can occurr within the country. This promptly stimulates authorized agencies to pay more attention at the safety of their assets and promotes the comprehensive review of seismic resistance design of their building structures. The focus of this paper is to summarize the damages of highway bridges as a result of the 2014-Chiang Rai ground shaking, the remedy actions, and the research needs. The 2014-Chiang Rai Earthquake caused considerable damages to nearby structures such as houses, schools, and temples. The ground shaking, however, caused damage to only one highway bridge, Mae Laos Bridge, located several kilometers away from the epicenter. The damage of Mae Laos Bridge was in the form of concrete spalling caused by pounding of cap beam on the deck structure. The damage occurred only at the end or abutment span. The damage caused by pounding is not a surprise, but the pounding by only one bridge requires further investigation and discussion. Mae Laos Bridge is a river crossing bridge with relatively large approach structure. In as much, the approach structure is confined by strong retaining walls. This results in a rigid-like approach structure which vibrates at the acceleration approximately equal to the ground acceleration during the earthquake and exerts a huge force to the abutment causing the pounding of cap beam on the deck structure. Other bridges nearby have relatively small approach structures, and therefore have no capability to generate pounding. The effect of mass of the approach structure on pounding of cap beam on the deck structure is also evident by the damage of one pedestrian bridge in front of Thanthong Wittaya School located 50 meters from Mae Laos Bridge. The width of the approach stair of this bridge is wider than the typical one to accommodate the stream of students during pre- and post-school times. This results in a relatively large mass of the approach stair which in turn exerts a huge force to the pier causing pounding of cap beam on the deck structure during ground shaking. No sign of pounding was observed for a typical pedestrian bridge located at another end of Mae Laos Bridge. Although pounding of cap beam on the deck structure of the above mentioned bridges does not cause serious damage to bridge structure, this incident promotes the comprehensive review of seismic resistance design of highway bridges in Thailand. Given a proper mass and confinement of the approach structure, the pounding of cap beam on the deck structure can be easily excited even at the low to moderate ground shaking. In as much, if the ground shaking becomes stronger, the pounding is certainly more powerful. This may cause the deck structure to be unseated and fall off in the case of unrestrained bridge. For the bridge with restrainer between cap beam and the deck structure, the restrainer may prevent the deck structure from falling off. However, preventing free movement of the pier by the restrainer may damage the pier itself. Most highway bridges in Thailand have dowel bars embedded connecting cap beam and the deck structure. The purpose of the existence of dowel bars is, however, not intended for any seismic resistance. Their ability to prevent the deck structure from unseating and their effect on the potential damage of the pier should be evaluated. In response to this expected situation, Thailand Department of Highways (DOH) has set up a team to revise the standard practices for the seismic resistance design of highway bridges in Thailand. In addition, DOH has also funded the research project 'Seismic Resistance Evaluation of Pre- and Post-Design Modifications of DOH’s Bridges' with the scope of full-scale tests of single span bridges under reversed cyclic static loadings for both longitudinal and transverse directions and computer simulations to evaluate the seismic performance of the existing bridges and the design modification bridges. The research is expected to start in October, 2015.

Keywords: earthquake, highway bridge, Thailand, damage, pounding, seismic resistance

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Authors: Lei Ye, Min Liu, Yong-Li Gao, Jun Zhang

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Purpose: The aims of the study are to investigate the status of health-promoting lifestyle and to compare the healthy lifestyle of emergency nurses in different levels of hospitals in Sichuan province, China. The investigation is mainly about the health-promoting lifestyle, including spiritual growth, health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relations, stress management. Then the factors were analyzed influencing the health-promoting lifestyle of emergency nurses in hospitals of Sichuan province in order to find the relevant models to provide reference evidence for intervention. Study Design: A cross-sectional research method was adopted. Stratified cluster sampling, based on geographical location, was used to select the health facilities of 1389 emergency nurses in 54 hospitals from Sichuan province in China. Method: The 52-item, six-factor structure Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP- II) instrument was used to explore participants’ self-reported health-promoting behaviors and measure the dimensions of health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relations, spiritual growth, and stress management. Demographic characteristics, education, work duration, emergency nursing work duration and self-rated health status were documented. Analysis: Data were analyzed through SPSS software ver. 17.0. Frequency, percentage, mean ± standard deviation were used to describe the general information, while the Nonparametric Test was used to compare the constituent ratio of general data of different hospitals. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the scores of health-promoting lifestyle in different levels hospital. A multiple linear regression model was established. P values which were less than 0.05 determined statistical significance in all analyses. Result: The survey showed that the total score of health-promoting lifestyle of nurses at emergency departments in Sichuan Province was 120.49 ± 21.280. The relevant dimensions are ranked by scores in descending order: interpersonal relations, nutrition, health responsibility, physical activity, stress management, spiritual growth. The total scores of the three-A hospital were the highest (121.63 ± 0.724), followed by the senior class hospital (119.7 ± 1.362) and three-B hospital (117.80 ± 1.255). The difference was statistically significant (P=0.024). The general data of nurses was used as the independent variable which includes age, gender, marital status, living conditions, nursing income, hospital level, Length of Service in nursing, Length of Service in emergency, Professional Title, education background, and the average number of night shifts. The total score of health-promoting lifestyle was used as dependent variable; Multiple linear regression analysis method was adopted to establish the regression model. The regression equation F = 20.728, R2 = 0.061, P < 0.05, the age, gender, nursing income, turnover intention and status of coping stress affect the health-promoting lifestyle of nurses in emergency department, the result was statistically significant (P < 0.05 ). Conclusion: The results of the investigation indicate that it will help to develop health promoting interventions for emergency nurses in all levels of hospital in Sichuan Province through further research. Managers need to pay more attention to emergency nurses’ exercise, stress management, self-realization, and conduct intervention in nurse training programs.

Keywords: emergency nurse, health-promoting lifestyle profile II, health behaviors, lifestyle

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Authors: Subzar Ahmad Bhat, Saraswati Setia, V. K.Sehgal

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During the past earthquakes, open ground storey buildings have performed poorly due to the soft storey defect. Indian Standard IS 1893:2002 allows analysis of open ground storey buildings without considering infill stiffness but with a multiplication factor 2.5 in compensation for the stiffness discontinuity. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to check the applicability of the multiplication factor of 2.5 and study behaviour of the structure after the application of the multiplication factor. For this purpose, study is performed on models considering infill stiffness using SAP 2000 (Version 14) by linear static analysis and response spectrum analysis. Total seven models are analysed and designed for the range of multiplication factor ranging from 1.25 to 2.5. The value of multiplication factor equal to 2.5 has been found on the higher side, resulting in increased dimension and percentage of reinforcement without significant enhancement beyond a certain multiplication factor. When the building with OGS is designed for values of MF higher than 1.25 considering infill stiffness soft storey effect shifts from ground storey to first storey. For the analysis of the OGS structure best way to analysis the structure is to analyse it as the frame with stiffness and strength of the infill taken into account. The provision of infill walls in the upper storeys enhances the performance of the structure in terms of displacement and storey drift controls.

Keywords: open ground storey, multiplication factor, IS 1893:2002 provisions, static analysis, response spectrum analysis, infill stiffness, equivalent strut

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Authors: Samatha Ss Sutton, Kaouther Kooli

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In recent years social media influences (SMI) have become integrated into many companies marketing strategies to create buzz, target new and younger markets and further expand social media coverage in business (Lim et al 2017). SMI’s can be defined as online personalities with a substantial number of followers, across one or more social media platforms, with influence on their followers (Lou and Yuan 2018). Recently expenditure on influencer marketing has increased exponentially becoming an important area for marketing opportunities and strategies in the future (Lou and Yuan 2018). In order to market products and brands effectively through SMI’s it is important for business to understand the attributes of SMI that effect purchase intention (Lim et al 2017) of their followers and whether or not these attributes vary across generations so to market effectively to their specific segment or target market. The present study involves quantitative research to understand the attributes by which influence differs across generations namely Generation X and Millennials and its effects on purchase intentions of these generational groups. A survey will be conducted using an online questionnaire. Structural Equation Modelling and Multi group analysis will be applied. The study provides insight to marketers/decision makers on how to use influencers accordingly with their target consumer.

Keywords: social media marketing, social media influencers, attitude towards social media influencers, intention to purchase

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Authors: Nikita Koradia

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Hyundai Motor Company, which started off as a small fish in a big sea, paved its way out successfully and established itself as an independent group from the conglomerate. Hyundai, with its officious power across the globe and particularly in South Korea in the automobile industry, has one the most complex yet fascinating governance structure. Being the second largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product of South Korea after Samsung and having a market share of 51.3% domestically in automobile industry, Hyundai has faced its part of criticism owing to its anti-labor union approach and owing to its internalization of supply chain management. The censure has been coming from across jurisdictions like China, India, Canada, the EU, etc. The paper focuses on the growth of Hyundai and its inward and outward investment structure. The paper questions the ability of Hyundai to become a mini-state in itself by focusing on its governance structure. The paper further elaborates on its compliance and disclosure regime in the field of Corporate social responsibility and explores how far the business structure adopted by Hyundai works in its favor to become one of the leading automobile contenders in the market.

Keywords: compliance regime, disclosure regime, Hyundai motor company, supply-chain management

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Authors: Mingxin Li, Liya Ni

Abstract:

Autonomous parking is a valuable feature applicable to many robotics applications such as tour guide robots, UV sanitizing robots, food delivery robots, and warehouse robots. With auto-parking, the robot will be able to park at the charging zone and charge itself without human intervention. As compared to self-driving vehicles, auto-parking is more challenging for a small-scale mobile robot only equipped with a front camera due to the camera view limited by the robot’s height and the narrow Field of View (FOV) of the inexpensive camera. In this research, auto-parking of a small-scale mobile robot with a front camera only was achieved in a four-step process: Firstly, transfer learning was performed on the AlexNet, a popular pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN). It was trained with 150 pictures of empty parking slots and 150 pictures of occupied parking slots from the view angle of a small-scale robot. The dataset of images was divided into a group of 70% images for training and the remaining 30% images for validation. An average success rate of 95% was achieved. Secondly, the image of detected empty parking space was processed with edge detection followed by the computation of parametric representations of the boundary lines using the Hough Transform algorithm. Thirdly, the positions of the entrance point and center of available parking space were predicted based on the robot kinematic model as the robot was driving closer to the parking space because the boundary lines disappeared partially or completely from its camera view due to the height and FOV limitations. The robot used its wheel speeds to compute the positions of the parking space with respect to its changing local frame as it moved along, based on its kinematic model. Lastly, the predicted entrance point of the parking space was used as the reference for the motion control of the robot until it was replaced by the actual center when it became visible again by the robot. The linear and angular velocities of the robot chassis center were computed based on the error between the current chassis center and the reference point. Then the left and right wheel speeds were obtained using inverse kinematics and sent to the motor driver. The above-mentioned four subtasks were all successfully accomplished, with the transformed learning, image processing, and target prediction performed in MATLAB, while the motion control and image capture conducted on a self-built small scale differential drive mobile robot. The small-scale robot employs a Raspberry Pi board, a Pi camera, an L298N dual H-bridge motor driver, a USB power module, a power bank, four wheels, and a chassis. Future research includes three areas: the integration of all four subsystems into one hardware/software platform with the upgrade to an Nvidia Jetson Nano board that provides superior performance for deep learning and image processing; more testing and validation on the identification of available parking space and its boundary lines; improvement of performance after the hardware/software integration is completed.

Keywords: autonomous parking, convolutional neural network, image processing, kinematics-based prediction, transfer learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 127