Search results for: impact propagation

Authors: S. L. Tulasi Devi, Shivam Azad

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The primary objective of this study is to analyze the impact of green bond issuance on the stock prices of respective Indian companies. An event study methodology has been employed to study the effect of green bond issuance. For in-depth study and analysis, this paper used different window frames, including 15-15 days, 10-10 days, 7-7days, 6-6 days, and 5-5 days. Further, for better clarity, this paper also used an uneven window period of 7-5 days. The period of study covered all the companies which issued green bonds during the period of 2017-2022; Adani Green Energy, State Bank of India, Power Finance Corporation, Jain Irrigation, and Rural Electrification Corporation, except Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency and Indian Railway Finance Corporation, because of data unavailability. The paper used all three event study methods as discussed in earlier literature; 1) constant return model, 2) market-adjusted model, and 3) capital asset pricing model. For the fruitful comparison between results, the study considered cumulative average return (CAR) and buy and hold average return (BHAR) methodology. For checking the statistical significance, a two-tailed t-statistic has been used. All the statistical calculations have been performed in Microsoft Excel 2016. The study found that all other companies have shown positive returns on the event day except for the State Bank of India. The results demonstrated that constant return model outperformed compared to the market-adjusted model and CAPM. The p-value derived from all the methods has shown an almost insignificant impact of the issuance of green bonds on the stock prices of respective companies. The overall analysis states that there’s not much improvement in the market efficiency of the Indian Stock Markets.

Keywords: green bonds, event study methodology, constant return model, market-adjusted model, CAPM

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Authors: Alexis Dorado, Aralyn Quintos

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This study explores the utilization of natural dyes for wood stains as a transformative agent for wood, encompassing color alteration, grain enhancement, and protection against harm. Commonly, wood stains are petroleum-based and synthetically derived. Notably, commercially accessible wood stains exhibit around 4% greater volatility than the formulated wood stain (FWS), potentially indicating a heightened environmental impact. The application of FWS does not significantly affect the performance of polyurethane varnish. The impact of incorporating an FWS when was applied to Gmelina arborea wood sample, the initial lightness value (L*) of 68.5, a* 7.7, b* 29.2 decreased to 44.36, a* 23.49, b* 32.60, where a* denotes the red/ green value, b* denotes the yellow/ blue, indicating a shift towards darker shades. This alteration in lightness suggests that the FWS contains compounds or pigments that effectively absorb or scatter light, resulting in a change in the perceived color and visual appearance of the wood surface. Moreover, the successful formulation of an eco-friendly natural wood stain is detailed, presenting a promising alternative. This method finds applicability in the domains of furniture and handicraft creation, offering a sustainable choice for creative artisans.

Keywords: formulated wood stain (FWS), natural dyes, wood stains, eco-friendly natural wood stain,

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Authors: Mohammad Hadi Khorashadi Zadeh, Amin Karkon, Hamid Golnari

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This study aimed to investigate the impact of information technology on the quality of accounting information was made in 2014. A survey of 425 executives of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange, using the Cochran formula simple random sampling method, 84 managers of these companies as the sample size was considered. Methods of data collection based on questionnaire information technology some of the questions of the impact of information technology was standardized questionnaires and the questions were designed according to existing components. After the distribution and collection of questionnaires, data analysis and hypothesis testing using structural equation modeling Smart PLS2 and software measurement model and the structure was conducted in two parts. In the first part of the questionnaire technical characteristics including reliability, validity, convergent and divergent validity for PLS has been checked and in the second part, application no significant coefficients were used to examine the research hypotheses. The results showed that IT and its dimensions (timeliness, relevance, accuracy, adequacy, and the actual transfer rate) affect the quality of accounting information of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange influence.

Keywords: information technology, information quality, accounting, transfer speed

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Authors: Andrew Gryguć, Seyed Behzad Behravesh, Hamid Jahed, Mary Wells, Wojciech Macek, Bruce Williams

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This extended abstract investigates the influence of the multiaxial loading on the fatigue behavior of forged magnesium through quantitative analysis of its fracture surface topography and mesoscopic cracking orientation. Fatigue tests were performed on hollow tubular sample geometries extracted from closed-die forged AZ80 Mg components, with three different multiaxial strain paths (axial/shear), proportional, 45° out of phase, and 90° out of phase. Regardless of the strain path, fatigue cracks are initiated at the outer surface of the specimen where the combined stress state is largest. Depending on the salient mode of deformation, distinctive features in the fracture surface manifested themselves with different topographic amplitudes, surface roughness, and mesoscopic cracking orientation in the vicinity of the initiation site. The dominant crack propagation path was in the circumferential direction of the hollow tubular specimen (i.e., cracking transverse to the sample axis, with little to no branching), which is congruent with previous findings of low to moderate shear strain energy density (SED) multiaxial loading. For proportional loading, the initiation zone surface morphology was largely flat and striated, whereas, at phase angles of 45° and 90°, the initiation surface became more faceted and inclined. Overall, both a qualitative and quantitative link was developed between the fracture surface morphology and the level of non-proportionality in the loading providing useful insight into the fracture mechanics of forged magnesium as a relevant focus for future study.

Keywords: fatigue, fracture, magnesium, forging, fractography, anisotropy, strain energy density, asymmetry, multiaxial fatigue

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Authors: Yi Huang

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Background: For the development of children, it is important for parents to encourage children not only on academic competence but also on children’s social competence. In the western cultural context, parents emphasize more heavily on female children’s social-behavioral development. However, whether the conclusion is correct in eastern culture and whether the parent’s gender affects such an emphasis remains unclear. And, more valuably, from the perspective of intervention, except for the nature factors - child’s gender and parent’s gender, it is also worth to probe whether the improvable factors, such as parent’s perspective taking, influence parent’s emphasis on child’s social competence. Aim: This study was aimed to investigate the impact of parent’s gender, child’s gender, and parent’s perspective-taking on parent’s attitudes of encouragement of the child’s social competence under the Chinese cultural context. Method: 461 Chinese parents whose children were in the first year of middle school during the research time participated in this study. Among all participants, there were 155 fathers and 306 mothers. The research adopted the self-report of perspective-taking, which is the sub-scale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the self-report of the encouragement on a child’s social communication, which is the sub-scale of the Chinese version of The Children Rearing Practice Report. In this study, 291 parents reported regarding male children, and 170 parents reported regarding female children. Results: Contrary to the traditional western theory, which usually suggests parent puts more attention on social development and competence to girl the instead of the boy, in the Chinese context, parent emphasizes social competence more on the male child. Analogically, in China, compared to mother, father underscores the child’s social competence more heavily. By constructing the hierarchical regression model, the result indicated that after controlling the variables of the gender of child and the gender of parent, parent’s perspective-taking still explains for the variance of parent’s encouragement on child’s social competence, which means, parent’s perspective-taking predicts parent’s encouragement on child’s social competence after excluding the impact of the gender of parent and child. Conclusion: For Chinese parents, the ability of perspective-taking is beneficial to enhance their awareness of encouraging children’s social competence.

Keywords: parent; child, gender differences, perspective-taking, social development

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Authors: Jacques C. Duvenhage

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The use of emoticons or so-called ‘emojis’ has gained much attention, not only in the daily use thereof with friends or family but also within the workplace amongst co-workers and employers. Even though emojis may be seen as a way to express feelings or even ideas, it may present legal challenges in the workplace. With new emojis being created on a daily basis, communicating through emojis, whether via phone, email or social media platforms, can become convoluted, especially within the working environment. The question to be addressed is how and/or whether Australian legislators will regulate the use of emojis (as a form of technology) in the workplace to prevent harassment, discrimination and other forms of prejudice. The emojis sent to co-workers may be interpreted by employees and even employers in different ways depending on their age, sexual orientation, and cultural background. Therefore, Australian courts will need to interpret an emoji’s meaning on a case-by-case basis. This paper will explore the use of emojis in the workplace (drawing on a desktop study), the impact emojis have on the employer-employee relationship as well as co-worker relationships, its legal application through case studies and whether a legal framework should be adopted by Australian legislators on this issue. Furthermore, this paper will reflect on the legal framework and application of emojis in the workplace considering foreign jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America and whether Australia should adopt similar legal approaches to these jurisdictions.

Keywords: emoticons, legal approaches, regulation, workplace

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Authors: Romeo Malik, Yashraj Tripathy, Anup Barai

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Transportation safety is a major concern for vehicle electrification on a large-scale. The failure cost of lithium-ion batteries is substantial and is significantly impacted by higher liability and replacement cost. With continuous advancement on the material front in terms of higher energy density, upgrading safety characteristics are becoming more crucial for broader integration of lithium-ion batteries. Understanding and impeding thermal runaway is the prime issue for battery safety researchers. In this study, a comprehensive comparison of thermal runaway mechanisms for two different cathode types, Li(Ni₀.₃Co₀.₃Mn₀.₃)O₂ and Li(Ni₀.₈Co₀.₁₅Al₀.₀₅)O₂ is explored. Both the chemistries were studied for different states of charge, and the various abuse scenarios that lead to thermal runaway is investigated. Abuse tests include mechanical abuse, electrical abuse, and thermal abuse. Batteries undergo thermal runaway due to a series of combustible reactions taking place internally; this is observed as multiple jets of flame reaching temperatures of the order of 1000ºC. The physicochemical characterisation was performed on cells, prior to and after abuse. Battery’s state of charge and chemistry have a significant effect on the flame temperature profiles which is otherwise quantified as heat released. Majority of the failures during transportation is due to these external short circuit. Finally, a mitigation approach is proposed to impede the thermal runaway hazard. Transporting lithium-ion batteries under low states of charge is proposed as a way forward. Batteries at low states of charge have demonstrated minimal heat release under thermal runaway reducing the risk of secondary hazards such as thermal runaway propagation.

Keywords: battery reliability, lithium-ion batteries, thermal runaway characterisation, tomography

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Authors: Beatrice Wamuyu Muchiri, Monika M. L. Dos Santos

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An increasingly recognised prevention approach for substance use entails reduction in risk factors and enhancement of promotive or protective factors in individuals and the environment surrounding them during their growth and development. However, in order to enhance the effectiveness of this approach, continuous study of risk aspects targeting different cultures, social groups and mixture of society has been recommended. This study evaluated the impact of potential risk and protective factors associated with family management and relations on adolescent substance abuse in South Africa. Exploratory analysis and cumulative odds ordinal logistic regression modelling was performed on the data while controlling for demographic and socio-economic characteristics on adolescent substance use. The most intensely used substances were tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, heroin and alcohol in decreasing order of use intensity. The specific protective or risk impact of family management or relations factors varied from substance to substance. Risk factors associated with demographic and socio-economic factors included being male, younger age, being in lower education grades, coloured ethnicity, adolescents from divorced parents and unemployed or fully employed mothers. Significant family relations risk and protective factors against substance use were classified as either family functioning and conflict or family bonding and support. Several family management factors, categorised as parental monitoring, discipline, behavioural control and rewards, demonstrated either risk or protective effect on adolescent substance use. Some factors had either interactive risk or protective impact on substance use or lost significance when analysed jointly with other factors such as controlled variables. Interaction amongst risk or protective factors as well as the type of substance should be considered when further considering interventions based on these risk or protective factors. Studies in other geographical regions, institutions and with better gender balance are recommended to improve upon the representativeness of the results. Several other considerations to be made when formulating interventions, the shortcomings of this study and possible improvements as well as future studies are also suggested.

Keywords: risk factors, protective factors, substance use, adolescents

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Authors: Alyamama Alsaidi

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This research has been conducted in order to analyse the impact of outsourcing on telecommunication industry in Oman. The research is conducted by collecting qualitative and quantitative data in order to widen the area of comprehension. The data has been collected from genuine sources which showcased that results were reliable and possess validity. The outsourcing is very important because it helps the organisation in saving the cost and efforts of the workers. In Oman, the telecommunication industry largely uses the outsourcing service which is provided by the third party. The third party is responsible for providing outsourcing to the telecommunication companies. This research gives an overall view of the outsourcing in the telecommunication companies of Oman. The IT companies of Oman give their work to the outsourcing services as this will help in reducing the cost the project. Rather employing the experts to do the projects, the organization can easily give their products to the outsourcing services in which they complete the work for a cheaper rate for the telecommunication company of Oman. It will help in reducing the work load on the staffs and management of the telecommunication companies in Oman. The IT outsourcing in Oman is very common because some of the staff are not well experienced to do the IT work. The outsourcing has positive as well as negative impact on the telecommunication industry in Oman. The research has been done while considering ethical aspect in an effective and efficient manner. Furthermore, the literature is adequately reviewed so that views of various specialists can be considered for future guidance.

Keywords: IT outsourcing, client company, services company, telecommunication

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Authors: Anupuma Raina, Ajay P. Balayan, Prateek Pandya, Pankaj Shrivastava, Uma Kanga, Tulika Seth

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DNA fingerprinting analysis aids in personal identification for forensic purposes and has always been a driving motivation for law enforcement agencies in almost all countries since its inception. The introduction of DNA markers (Y-STR) has allowed for greater precision and higher discriminatory power in forensic testing. A criminal/ person committing crime after bone marrow transplantation is a rare situation but not an impossible one. Keeping such a situation in mind, a study was carried out to find out the best biological sample to be used for personal identification, especially in forensic situation. We choose a female patient (recipient) and a male donor. The pre transplant sample (blood) and post transplant samples (blood, buccal swab, hair roots) were collected from the recipient (patient). The same were compared with the blood sample of the donor using DNA FP technique. Post transplant samples were collected at different interval of time (15, 30, 60, and 90 days). The study was carried out using Y-STR kit at 23 loci. The results determined discusses the phenomenon of chimerism and its impact on Y-STR. Hair sample was found the most suitable sample which had no donor DNA profiling up to 90 days.

Keywords: bone marrow transplantation, chimerism, DNA profiling, Y-STR

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Authors: Mohammad Soliman, Mohamed A. Abou-Shouk

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Knowledge management focuses on the development, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information and expertise. It has become an important tool to improve performance in tourism enterprises. This includes improving decision-making, developing customer services, and increasing sales and profits. Knowledge management adoption depends on human, organizational and technological factors. This study aims to explore the concept of knowledge management in travel agents in Egypt. It explores the requirements of adoption and its impact on performance in these agencies. The study targets Category A travel agents in Egypt. The population of the study encompasses Category A travel agents having online presence. An online questionnaire is used to collect data from managers of travel agents. This study is useful for travel agents who are in urgent need to restructure their intermediary role and support their survival in the global travel market. The study sheds light on the requirements of adoption and the expected impact on performance. This could help travel agents identify their situation and the determine the extent to which they are ready to adopt knowledge management. This study is contributing to knowledge by providing insights from the tourism sector in a developing country where the concept of knowledge management is still in its infancy stages.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge management adoption, performance, travel agents

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Authors: G. M. Cappucci, C. Losi, P. Neri, M. Pini, A. M. Ferrari

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Waste treatment and many production processes cause significant emissions of odors, thus typically leading to intense debate. The introduction of odorimetric units and their units of measurement, i.e., U.O. / m3, with the European regulation UE 13725 of 2003 designates the dynamic olfactometry as the official method for odorimetric analysis. Italy has filled the pre-existing legislative gap on the regulation of odorous emissions only recently, by introducing the Legislative Decree n°183 in 2017. The concentration of the odor to which a perceptive response occurs to 50% of the panel corresponds to the odorimetric unit of the sample under examination (1 U.O. / m3) and is equal to the threshold of perceptibility of the substance (O.T.). In particular, the treatment of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by Mechanical-Biological Treatment (MBT) plants produces odorous emissions, typically generated by aerobic procedures, potentially leading to significant environmental burdens. The quantification of odorous emissions represents a challenge within a LCA study since primary data are often missing. The aim of this study is to present the preliminary findings of an ongoing study whose aim is to identify and quantify odor emissions from the Tre Monti MBT plant, located in Imola (Bologna, Italy). Particularly, the issues faced with odor emissions in the present work are: i) the identification of the components of the gaseous mixture, whose total quantification in terms of odorimetric units is known, ii) the distribution of the total odorimetric units among the single substances identified and iii) the quantification of the mass emitted for each substance. The environmental analysis was carried out on the basis of the amount of emitted substance. The calculation method IMPact Assessment of Chemical Toxics (IMPACT) 2002+ has been modified since the original one does not take into account indoor emissions. Characterization factors were obtained by adopting a preliminary method in order to calculate indoor human effects. The impact and damage assessments were performed without the identification of new categories, thus in accordance with the categories of the selected calculation method. The results show that the damage associated to odorous emissions is the 0.24% of the total damage, and the most affected damage category is Human Health, mainly as a consequence of ammonia emission (86.06%). In conclusion, this preliminary approach allowed identifying and quantifying the substances responsible for the odour impact, in order to attribute them the relative damage on human health as well as ecosystem quality.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, municipal solid waste, odorous emissions, waste treatment

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Authors: Mahmoud Hassan

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Understanding the impact of market- and non-market-based environmental policy instruments on renewable energy consumption (REC) is crucial for the design and choice of policy packages. This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of environmental policy stringency index (EPS) and its components on REC in 27 OECD countries over the period from 1990 to 2015, and then use the results to identify what the appropriate environmental policy mix should look like. By relying on the two-step system GMM estimator, we provide evidence that increasing environmental policy stringency as a whole promotes renewable energy consumption in these 27 developed economies. Moreover, policymakers are able, through the market- and non-market-based environmental policy instruments, to increase the use of renewable energy. However, not all of these instruments are effective for achieving this goal. The results indicate that R&D subsidies and trading schemes have a positive and significant impact on REC, while taxes, feed-in tariff and emission standards have not a significant effect. Furthermore, R&D subsidies are more effective than trading schemes for stimulating the use of clean energy. These findings proved to be robust across the three alternative panel techniques used.

Keywords: environmental policy stringency, renewable energy consumption, two-step system-GMM estimation, linear dynamic panel data model

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Authors: Shola Haruna Adeosun, F. Adebiyi Ajoke, Odedeji Adeoye

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Video billboard advertising by networks and brand switching was conceived out of inquisition at the huge billboard advertising expenditures made by the three major GSM network operators in Nigeria. The study was anchored on Lagos State Metropolis with a current census population over 1,000,000. From this population, a purposive sample of 400 was adopted, and the questionnaire designed for the survey was carefully allocated to members of this ample in the five geographical zones of the city so that each rung of the society was well represented. The data obtained were analyzed using tables and simple percentages. The results obtained showed that subscribers of these networks were hardly influenced by the video billboard advertisements. They overwhelmingly showed that rather than the slogans of the GSM networks carried on the video billboards, it was the incentives to subscribers as well as the promotional strategies of these organizations that moved them to switch from one network to another. These switching lasted only as long as the incentives and promotions were in effect. The results of the study also seemed to rekindle the age-old debate on media effects, by the unyielding schools of the theory of ‘all-powerful media’, ‘the limited effects media’, ‘the controlled effects media’ and ‘the negotiated media influence’.

Keywords: evaluation, impact, video billboard, marketing, services

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Authors: Naritphol Boonyakiat

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This research attempts to investigate the effects of corporate social responsibility and knowledge management factors on students’ learning process of the Silpakorn University. The goal of this study is to fill the literature gap by gaining an understanding of corporate social responsibility and the knowledge management factors that fundamentally relate to students’ learning process within the university context. Thus, this study will focus on the outcomes that derive from a set of quantitative data that were obtained using Silpakorn university’s database of 200 students. The results represent the perceptions of students regarding the impact of corporate social responsibility and knowledge management factors on their learning process within the university. The findings indicate that corporate social responsibility and knowledge management have significant effects on students’ learning process. This study may assist us in gaining a better understanding of the integrated aspects of university and learning environments to discover how to allocate optimally university’s resources and management approaches to gain benefits from corporate social responsibility and knowledge management practices toward students’ learning process within the university bodies. Therefore, there is a sufficient reason to believe that the findings can contribute to research in the area of CSR, KM and students’ learning process as an essential aspect of university’s stakeholder.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, knowledge management, learning process, university’s students

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Authors: Marcus Smith

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DNA profiling has made a valuable contribution to criminal investigations over the past thirty years. Direct matching DNA profiles from a crime scene and suspect, or between a suspect and a database remain of great importance to crimes such as murder, assault, and property theft. As scientific and technological advancement continues, a wide range of new DNA profiling applications has been developed. The application of new techniques involves an interesting balancing act between admitting probative evidence in a criminal trial, evaluating its degree of relevance and validity, and limiting its prejudicial impact. The impact of new DNA profiling applications that have significant implications for law enforcement and the legal system can be evaluated through a review of relevant case law, legislation and the latest empirical evidence from jurisdictions around the world including the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. There are benefits in further examining the implications of these new developments, including how the criminal law can best be adapted to ensure that new technology is used to enhance criminal investigation and prosecution while ensuring it is applied in a measured way that respects individual rights and maintains principles of fairness enshrined in the legal system.

Keywords: criminal procedure, forensic evidence, DNA profiling, familial searching, phenotyping

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Authors: Abdul Matin, Muazzama Akhtar, Shahid Nisar, Saddaf Mazzar, Umer Rashid

Abstract:

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing concern worldwide now a day. Neisseria gonorrhea and Staphylococcus aureus are known to cause major human sexually transmitted and respiratory diseases respectively. Nanotechnology is an emerging discipline and its application in various fields especially in medical sciences is gigantic. In the present study, we synthesized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) using acid oxidation method and solubilized MWNTs were with length predominantly >500 nm and diameters ranging from 40 to 50 nm. The locally synthesized MWNTs were used against gram positive and negative bacteria to determine their impact on bacterial growth. Clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhea (isolate: 4C-11) and Staphylococcus aureus (isolate: 38541) were obtained from local hospital and normally cultured in LB broth at 37°C. Both clinical strains can be obtained on request from University of Gujarat. Spectophometric assay was performed to determine the impact of MWNTs on bacterial growth in vitro. To determine the effect of MWTNs on test organisms, various concentration of MWNTs were used and recorded observation on various time intervals to understand the growth inhibition pattern. Our results demonstrated that MWNTs exhibited toxic effects to Staphylococcus aureus while showed very limited growth inhibition to Neisseria gonorrhea, which suggests the resistant potential of Neisseria against nanoparticles. Our results clearly demonstrate the gradual decrease in bacterial numbers with passage of time when compared with control. Maximum bacterial inhibition was observed at maximum concentration (50 µg/ml). Our future work will include further characterization and mode of action of our locally synthesized MWNTs. In conclusion, we investigated and reported for the first time the inhibitory potential of locally synthesized MWNTs on local clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and Neisseria gonorrhea.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, multi walled carbon nanotubes, Neisseria gonorrhea, spectrophotometer assay, Staphylococcus aureus

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Authors: Farid Rezaei, Zahra Reza Soltani, Behrouz Tavana, Afsaneh Dadarkhah, Masoume Bahrami Asl, S. Alireza Mirghasemi

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Introduction: Fibromyalgia is a syndrome comprised of a group of symptoms. The primary symptom of fibromyalgia is pain propagation is associated by Secondary symptoms include fatigue, cognitive disorders, sleep disorders and hypersensitivity to painful stimuli. Recent studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between fibromyalgia and certain changes in brain activity. Aim: The aim of this study is determining the effect of tDCS in pain and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia. Method: 68 patients with fibromyalgia who had inclusion criterias were randomly divided into two groups of case and control. Groups were matched in terms of gender, age, education, duration of pain and PMS. Patient groups treated with tDCS device manufacture by Enraf company made in Netherlands (M1 anodal stimulation, 2 mA constant current, 20 minutes, for 10 sessions (3 days a week)). Also the protocol was done for control group, in sham mode of tDCS device that had no current, for 10 sessions of 20 minutes. Before treatment, immediately after the end of 10 sessions treatment (short-term) and 10 week later (long-term effect), pain intensity questionnaires (VAS) and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients questionnaire was completed by the patient. Results: Pain intensity were significantly lower in the treatment group than the sham group 2 weeks and 10 weeks after treatment than before treatment (P < 0.001). Although the quality of life of patients 2 weeks after treatment showed no significant change, but ten weeks after treatment were more than sham group (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Our results suggest that tDCS is a safe and effective in treating fibromyalgia patients and an important effect in reducing pain and increasing quality of their life.

Keywords: fibromyalgia, tDCS, quality of life, VAS score

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Authors: Xiao Zhou, Jianlin Cheng

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A single amino acid mutation can have a significant impact on the stability of protein structure. Thus, the prediction of protein stability change induced by single site mutations is critical and useful for studying protein function and structure. Here, we presented a deep learning network with the dropout technique for predicting protein stability changes upon single amino acid substitution. While using only protein sequence as input, the overall prediction accuracy of the method on a standard benchmark is >85%, which is higher than existing sequence-based methods and is comparable to the methods that use not only protein sequence but also tertiary structure, pH value and temperature. The results demonstrate that deep learning is a promising technique for protein stability prediction. The good performance of this sequence-based method makes it a valuable tool for predicting the impact of mutations on most proteins whose experimental structures are not available. Both the downloadable software package and the user-friendly web server (DNpro) that implement the method for predicting protein stability changes induced by amino acid mutations are freely available for the community to use.

Keywords: bioinformatics, deep learning, protein stability prediction, biological data mining

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Authors: Etleva Hamzaraj, Eva Kica, Anila Paparisto, Pranvera Lazo

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Worldwide demographic developments of recent decades have been associated with negative environmental consequences. For this reason, there is a growing interest in assessing the state of natural ecosystems or assessing human impact on them. In this respect, this study aims to evaluate the change in water quality of the Mat River for a period of about ten years to highlight human impact. In one year, period of study, several biological and environmental parameters are determined to evaluate river water quality, and the data collected are compared with those of a similar study in 2007. Samples are collected every month in five stations evenly distributed along the river. Total coliform bacteria, the number of heterotrophic bacteria in water, and benthic macroinvertebrates are used as biological parameters of water quality. The most probable number index is used for evaluation of total coliform bacteria in water, while the number of heterotrophic bacteria is determined by counting colonies on plates with Plate Count Agar, cultivated with 0.1 ml sample after series dilutions. Benthic macroinvertebrates are analyzed by the number of individuals per taxa, the value of biotic index, EPT Richness Index value and tolerance value. Environmental parameters like pH, temperature, and electrical conductivity are measured onsite. As expected, the bacterial load was higher near urban areas, and the pollution increased with the course of the river. The maximum concentration of fecal coliforms was 1100 MPN/100 ml in summer and near the most urbanized area of the river. The data collected during this study show that after about ten years, there is a change in water quality of Mat River. According to a similar study carried out in 2007, the water of Mat River was of ‘excellent’ quality. But, according to this study, the water was classified as of ‘excellent’ quality only in one sampling site, near river source, while in all other stations was of ‘good’ quality. This result is based on biological and environmental parameters measured. The human impact on the quality of water of Mat River is more than evident.

Keywords: water quality, coliform bacteria, MPN index, benthic macroinvertebrates, biotic index

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Authors: Maria Luisa T. Uayan

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The global need for qualified nurses to take care of the clients with various health needs is an incessant occurrence that persistently cause migration of nurses from developing to developed countries. The pull-push theory of migration greatly affects health care delivery systems of sending countries which is the same way affects nursing management. The exodus of nurses prepared to provide the much needed leadership at the bedside leaves the country in clusters giving health care institutions limited time to develop the next front-line managers that will assure quality patient care. This paper focuses on the extent and consequences of the massive recurring migration phenomena that is felt ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINE health care arena. It deals with the causes, problems, and effects of the cyclical loss of competent Filipina nurses in terms of emigration. Also, it will highlights the difficulties confronted by nursing service departments and health care teams when more experienced nurses set out for the “greener pastures” and patients are placed under the care of novice nurses. Fundamentally, it will emphasize the impact of suffering the loss of competent nurse managers in the Philippine health care institutions and provide contemporary recommendations on how to responsd accordingly to this very timely issue.

Keywords: Migration, Nurse Manager, Philippines

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Authors: Anna Claudia Pellicelli, Silvia Procacci

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The study aims to demonstrate how different locations, where the same product is unveiled and tested, can provide a different result in terms of perception by the same kind of people. The experiment was done in occasion of the presentation of a new bike. A group of dealers has been invited in Lloret de Mar, two persons from the headquarter were present to run the presentation, together with an outsourced trainer. Half day dedicated to the theoretical presentation and half day to the test of the new bike on the road, including the test of its direct competitors. The same presentation, organized in the same way, has been delivered in Italy, in 4 locations often used to run business meetings with dealers. In the end of all days of the presentation, dealers had to fill a questionnaire regarding the evaluation of the different bikes tested. The result of the questionnaire showed how the group invited in Spain rated much higher the new bike compared with the dealers testing the bike in locations already known and close to their home. So, in terms of business strategy, it is important to take into account how the location and the way of presenting any product or service can have a favourable impact on the people we want to convince. The next step of the experiment will be to cross check the sales of that bike with the dealers and measure if there is a relation between the top sellers and the one that appreciated the bike the most, in Spain. It would mean that they were able to transfer to customers the same good feelings and impressions they had in Spain.

Keywords: product presentation, locations, emotional effect, business strategy

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Authors: Yassamina Berkane, Leila Kloul, Yoann Demoli

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Quality of life, environmental impact, congestion of mobility means, and infrastructures remain significant challenges for urban mobility. Solutions like car sharing, spatial redesign, eCommerce, and autonomous vehicles will likely increase the unit veh-km and the density of cars in urban traffic, thus reducing congestion. However, the impact of such solutions is not clear for researchers. Congestion arises from growing populations that must travel greater distances to arrive at similar locations (e.g., workplaces, schools) during the same time frame (e.g., rush hours). This paper first reviews the research and application cases of urban congestion methods through recent years. Rethinking the question of time, it then investigates people’s willingness and flexibility to adapt their arrival and departure times from workplaces. We use neural networks and methods of supervised learning to apply a new methodology for predicting peoples' intentions from their responses in a questionnaire. We created and distributed a questionnaire to more than 50 companies in the Paris suburb. Obtained results illustrate that our methodology can predict peoples' intentions to reschedule their activities (work, study, commerce, etc.).

Keywords: urban mobility, decongestion, machine learning, neural network

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Authors: Jorge Urrutia-Mosquera, Luz Flórez-Calderón, Yasna Cortés

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We assessed the state of progress in terms of urban sustainability indicators and studied the impact of current land use conditions and the level of spatial accessibility to basic urban amenities on travel patterns and sustainable mobility in Santiago de Chile. We determined the spatial impact of urban facilities on sustainable travel patterns through the statistical analysis, data visualisation, and weighted regression models. The results show a need to diversify land use in more than 60% of the communes, although in 85% of the communes, accessibility to public spaces is guaranteed. The findings also suggest improving access to early education facilities, as only 26% of the communes meet the sustainability standard, negatively impacting travel in sustainable modes. It is also observed that the level of access to urban facilities generates spatial heterogeneity in the city, which negatively affects travel patterns in terms of time over 60 minutes and modes of travel in private vehicles. The results obtained allow us to identify opportunities for public policy intervention to promote and adopt sustainable mobility.

Keywords: land use, urban sustainability, travel patterns, spatial heterogeneity, GWR model, sustainable mobility

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Authors: Azzeddine Atibi, Lamalif latifa, Khadija El Kababi, Salim Ahmed, Mohamed Radid

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This study analyzes the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in modern education, where these tools have become essential. Due to the rapid emergence of new technologies and their increasing adoption in education, it is important to understand how teachers use and perceive these tools. The study pursues three objectives : examining current teacher practices regarding ICT, evaluating their impact on student skills and engagement, and making recommendations for better integration of ICT in education. The study's methodology is based on a quantitative approach, using a questionnaire administered to a sample of 104 teachers. This questionnaire, rigorously validated to ensure its reliability, gathers representative data on perceptions and challenges related to the use of ICT. The results show widespread adoption of ICT by teachers, with the majority reporting an improvement in student skills due to these technologies. However, opinions diverge on their impact on student engagement : some teachers note an increase in engagement, while others remain skeptical. Persistent challenges include insufficient technological infrastructure and the need for ongoing training. The recommendations highlight the importance of improving infrastructures and supporting the professional development of teachers to optimize the integration of ICT.

Keywords: ICT, education, teaching practices, teacher perceptions, continuing education

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Authors: Tarun Kumar Dalakoti, Debajyoti Majumder, Aditya Prasad Das, Samir Chandra Saxena

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India’s ambitious target to achieve a 50 percent share of energy from non-fossil fuels and the 500-gigawatt (GW) renewable energy capacity before the deadline of 2030, coupled with the global pursuit of sustainable development, will compel the nation to embark on a rapid clean energy transition. As a result, electricity market reforms will emerge as critical policy instruments to facilitate this transition and achieve ambitious environmental targets. This paper will present a comprehensive analysis of the various electricity market reforms to be introduced in the Indian Electricity sector to facilitate the integration of clean energy sources and will assess their impact on the overall energy landscape. The first section of this paper will delve into the policy mechanisms to be introduced by the Government of India and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission to promote clean energy deployment. These mechanisms include extensive provisions for the integration of renewables in the Indian Electricity Grid Code, 2023. The section will also cover the projection of RE Generation as highlighted in the National Electricity Plan, 2023. It will discuss the introduction of Green Energy Market segments, the waiver of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for inter-state sale of solar and wind power, the notification of Promoting Renewable Energy through Green Energy Open Access Rules, and the bundling of conventional generating stations with renewable energy sources. The second section will evaluate the tangible impact of these electricity market reforms. By drawing on empirical studies and real-world case examples, the paper will assess the penetration rate of renewable energy sources in India’s electricity markets, the decline of conventional fuel-based generation, and the consequent reduction in carbon emissions. Furthermore, it will explore the influence of these reforms on electricity prices, the impact on various market segments due to the introduction of green contracts, and grid stability. The paper will also discuss the operational challenges to be faced due to the surge of RE Generation sources as a result of the implementation of the above-mentioned electricity market reforms, including grid integration issues, intermittency concerns with renewable energy sources, and the need for increasing grid resilience for future high RE in generation mix scenarios. In conclusion, this paper will emphasize that electricity market reforms will be pivotal in accelerating the global transition towards clean energy systems. It will underscore the importance of a holistic approach that combines effective policy design, robust regulatory frameworks, and active participation from market actors. Through a comprehensive examination of the impact of these reforms, the paper will shed light on the significance of India’s sustained commitment to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

Keywords: renewables, Indian electricity grid code, national electricity plan, green energy market

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Authors: Sayed Amir Hamzeh Mirkheshti

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Offshore wind energy as a strategic renewable energy, has been growing rapidly due to availability, abundance and clean nature of it. On the other hand, budget of this project is incredibly higher in comparison with other renewable energies and it takes more duration. Accordingly, precise estimation of time and cost is needed in order to promote awareness in the developers and society and to convince them to develop this kind of energy despite its difficulties. Occurrence risks during on project would cause its duration and cost constantly changed. Therefore, to develop offshore wind power, it is critical to consider all potential risks which impacted project and to simulate their impact. Hence, knowing about these risks could be useful for the selection of most influencing strategies such as avoidance, transition, and act in order to decrease their probability and impact. This paper presents an evaluation of the feasibility of 500 MV offshore wind project in the Persian Gulf and compares its situation with uncertainty resources and risk. The purpose of this study is to evaluate time and cost of offshore wind project under risk circumstances and uncertain resources by using Monte Carlo simulation. We analyzed each risk and activity along with their distribution function and their effect on the project.

Keywords: wind energy project, uncertain resources, risks, Monte Carlo simulation

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Authors: Muhammad Shehu Garba

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The financial statements of the firms between the periods of 2013 and 2022 were collected using the secondary method of data collection, and the study aims to investigate the effect of ownership structure on the financial performance of listed industrial goods companies in Nigeria. 10 firms were used as the study's sample size. The study used panel data variables of the study. The ownership structure is measured with managerial ownership, institutional ownership and foreign ownership, while financial performance is measured with return on asset and return on equity; the study made use of control variables leverage and firm size. The result shows a multivariate relationship that exists between variables of the study, which shows ROA has a positive correlation with ROE (0.4053), MO (0.2001), and FS (0.3048). It has a negative correlation with FO (-0.1933), IO (-0.0919), and LEV (-0.3367). ROE has a positive correlation with ROA (0.4053), MO (0.2001), and FS (0.2640). It has a negative correlation with FO (-0.1864), IO (-0.1847), and LEV (-0.0319). It is recommended that firms should focus on increasing their ROA. Firms should also consider increasing their MO, as this can help to align the interests of managers and shareholders. Firms should also be aware of the potential impact of FO and IO on their ROA.

Keywords: firm size, ownership structure, financial performance, leaverage

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Husam Abdulmuttaleb Hashim

Abstract:

The environmental pollution problems represent a great challenge to the world, threatening to destroy all the evolution that mankind has reached, the organizations and associations that cares about environment are trying to warn the world from the forthcoming danger resulted from excessive use of nature resources and consuming it without looking to the damage happened as a result of unfair use of it. Most of the urban centers suffers from the environmental pollution problems and health, economic, and social dangers resulted from this pollution, and while the land use planning is responsible for distributing different uses in urban centers and controlling the interactions between these uses to reach a homogeneous and perfect state for the different activities in cities, the occurrence of environmental problems in the shade of existing land use planning operation refers to the disorder or insufficiency in this operation which leads to presence of such problems, and this disorder lays in lack of sufficient importance to the environmental considerations during the land use planning operations and setting up the master plan, so the research start to study this problem and finding solutions for it, the research assumes that using accurate and scientific methods in early stages of land use planning operation will prevent occurring of environmental pollution problems in the future, the research aims to study and show the importance of the environmental impact assessment method (EIA) as an important planning tool to investigate and predict the pollution ranges of the land use that has a polluting pattern in land use planning operation. This research encompasses the concept of environmental assessment and its kinds and clarifies environmental impact assessment and its contents, the research also dealt with urban planning concept and land use planning, it also dealt with the current situation of the case study (Al-Garma district) and the land use planning in it and explain the most polluting use on the environment which is the industrial land use represented in the tannery industries and then there was a stating of current situation of this land use and explaining its contents and environmental impacts resulted from it, and then we analyzed the tests applied by the researcher for water and soil, and perform environmental evaluation through applying environmental impact assessment matrix using the direct method to reveal the pollution ranges on the ambient environment of industrial land use, and we also applied the environmental and site limits and standards by using (GIS) and (AUTOCAD) to select the site of the best alternative of the industrial region in Al-Garma district after the research approved the unsuitability of its current site location for the environmental and site limitations, the research conducted some conclusions and recommendations regard clarifying the concluded facts and to set the proper solutions.

Keywords: EIA, pollution, tannery industry, land use planning

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Authors: Purushottam P. Khatiwada, Bikash Paudel, Ram B. Rana, Parshuram Biswakarma, Roshan Pudasaini

Abstract:

Nepal has been putting its efforts into securing food and nutrition security for its citizens adopting different models and approaches. Home Garden approach, that integrates vegetables, fruits, small livestock, poultry along with other components like fish, honeybee, mushroom, spices for the promotion of nutritional security of resource-poor and disadvantaged groups was implemented during March 2009 to July 2013 spreading over 16 districts of Nepal covering 115 farmers groups, directly working with 3500 households. Sustained long-term impact of development interventions targeted to the resource-poor and disadvantaged groups has been a recurrent issue for donors, policymakers and practitioners alike. Considering the issue, a post-project evaluation was carried out in a selected project group (Dangibari of Jhapa) after four years of project completion in 2017 in order to evaluate the impact and understand the factors associated with its success. Qualitative information was collected through focus group discussion with group members and associated local institutions. For quantitative information, a quick survey was carried out to the same group members only selecting few indicators. The results are compared with the data obtained from the baseline study conducted by the project in March 2009. The impact of project intervention was evident as compared to the benchmarks established during the baseline, even after four years of project completion. The area under home garden is increased to 729 m² from 386 m² and average food self-sufficiency months increased to 10.22 from 8.11. Seven to eleven fruit species are maintained in the home gardens. An average number of vegetable species grown increased to 15.85 from 9.86. It has resulted in an increase in vegetables self-sufficient month to 8.74 from 4.74 and a huge increase in cash income NPR 6142.8 (USD 59.6) from NPR 385.7 (USD 3.9) from the sale of surplus vegetables. Coaching and mentoring including nutrition sensitization by the project staff at the beginning, inputs and technical support during the project implementation phase and projects effort on the institutional building of disadvantaged farmers were the key drivers of home garden sustainability and expansion. Specifically, package of home garden management trainings provided by the project staff, availability of group funds for buying inputs even after the project, uniting home garden group members in a cooperative, resource leveraging by local institutions through group lobbying, farmers innovations for maintaining home garden diversity and continuous backstopping support by few active members as local resource persons to other members are some additional factors contributing to sustain and/or improve the home garden status by the resource-poor and disadvantaged group.

Keywords: food-based nutrition, home garden, resource-poor and disadvantaged group, sustained impact

Procedia PDF Downloads 145