Search results for: heterogeneous resource allocation

Authors: Shobha Kumari Yadav, Yubaraj Satyal, Ajaya Dixit

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In addressing groundwater depletion, it is important to develop evidence base so to be used in assessing the state of its degradation. Groundwater data is limited compared to meteorological data, which impedes the groundwater use and management plan. Monitoring of groundwater levels provides information base to assess the condition of aquifers, their responses to water extraction, land-use change, and climatic variability. It is important to maintain a network of spatially distributed, long-term monitoring wells to support groundwater management plan. Monitoring involving local community is a cost effective approach that generates real time data to effectively manage groundwater use. This paper presents the relationship between rainfall and spring flow, which are the main source of freshwater for drinking, household consumptions and agriculture in hills of Nepal. The supply and withdrawal of water from springs depends upon local hydrology and the meteorological characteristics- such as rainfall, evapotranspiration and interflow. The study offers evidence of the use of scientific method and community based initiative for managing groundwater and springshed. The approach presents a method to replicate similar initiative in other parts of the country for maintaining integrity of springs.

Keywords: citizen science, groundwater, water resource management, Nepal

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Authors: Pradip Kumar Das

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India is a developing country and is also one of the most industrialized developing countries of the world. In post-independence period, industry has grown rapidly in India and with industrialization corporate sector in the country has been growing day after day. Nowadays, the investment is not limited to be shareholders alone, apart from the shareholders the common people of the society have also started investing in shares of the corporate sectors. Thus, the responsibilities of the corporate sectors have increased much. Corporate financial reporting refers to a system which provides valuable information to different types of users in the society for taking resourceful decisions with regards to investment policy, organization credit worthiness, profitability, liquidity, provision of taxation etc. The quality of information available to different users fosters the efficient allocation of resources which are very urgent for economic development of a country like India. It is the responsibility of the management of the corporate sector to convey reliable and authentic information with the help of generally accepted accounting principles. Corporate sectors which disclose information through annual reports should be sufficient enough for the purpose of bringing out the salient features relating to business performances and other activities. However, the disclosures practices of the corporate sectors though annual reports have undergone several major changes from time to time. Many a time, these vital changes are in the fashion of presenting information in the annual reports and addition of so many non-statutory disclosures of the company. Very often managements of the corporate sectors are blamed for concealing true picture which is not desirable at all. The corporate financial reporting practice which in the current period has gained a place of prime importance suffers from certain limitations and invites question from the public about its reliability. Thus, the wide gap created by management between the exhibited picture and the real picture sometimes attains to such extent that the purpose of the reporting practice loses its importance. The requirement of full and adequate disclosure of information including information relating to human resources in the annual report in free trade economy of India helps the prospective investors to select the best portfolio of their investments. This paper is a reflection of a modest attempt of the author to highlight the corporate reporting practices followed in India. A cursory glance of the conceptual study shows limitations along with reliability of the reporting practices and suggests measures to overcome the shortcomings of the financial reporting practices.

Keywords: corporate enterprise, cursory glance, portfolio, yawning gap

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Authors: N. Cetinkaya, Y. S. Kuleyin

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The aim of this study was to estimate the digestibility of the fruit internal skin of different varieties of hazelnuts to propose hazelnut fruit skin as an alternative feed source as roughage in ruminant nutrition. In 2015, the fruit internal skins of three different varieties of round hazelnuts (RH), pointed hazelnuts (PH) and almond hazelnuts (AH) were obtained from hazelnut processing factory then their crude nutrients analysis were carried out. Organic matter digestibility (OMD) and metabolisable energy (ME) values of hazelnut fruit skins were estimated from gas measured by in vitro gas production method. Their antioxidant activities were determined by spectrophotometric method. Crude nutrient values of three different varieties were; organic matter (OM): 87.83, 87.81 and 87.78%), crude protein (CP): 5.97, 5.93 and 5.89%, neutral detergent fiber (NDF): 30.30, 30.29 and 30.29%, acid detergent fiber (ADF): 48.68, 48.67 and 48.66% and acid detergent lignin (ADL): 25.43, 25.43 and 25.39% respectively. OMD from 24 h incubation time of RH, PH and AH were 22.04, 22.46 and 22.74%; ME_GP values were 3.69, 3.75 and 3.79 MJ/kg DM; and antioxidant activity values were 94.60, 94.54 and 94.52 IC 50 mg/mL respectively. The fruit internal skin of different varieties of hazelnuts may be considered as an alternative roughage for ruminant nutrition regarding to their crude and digestible nutritive values. Moreover, hazelnut fruit skin has a rich antioxidant content so it may be used as a feed additive for both ruminant and non-ruminant animals.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, hazelnut fruit skin, metabolizable energy, organic matter digestibility

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Authors: Kuek Teik Sheng, Leaw Zee Guan, Lim Wah Kien, Ting Tin Tin

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Educational technology such as YouTube and Kahoot have arisen as an alternative to effective learning among higher education institutions. There are many researches done in carrying out experiments to test different educational technologies and received positive feedback from students. Yet, similar study is hardly found in Malaysia especially study that includes the latest educational technologies. As a developing country, it is crucial to ensure that these emerging technologies are assisting students in learning process before it is widely adopted in institutions. This paper conducted a study to explore the perception of higher education institution students on the current educational technologies in Malaysia which include online educational games, online videos/course, social media, presentation tools and resource management tool. Some of these technologies have not been looked into its potential in effective learning process. An online survey using questionnaire is conducted among a target of 300 university/college. In the survey, the result shows that majority of the target students in Malaysia agree that the current educational technologies help them in learning, understanding and manage their studies. It is necessary to discover students’ perceptions on the educational technologies in order to provide guidelines for the educators/institutions in selecting appropriate technology to conduct the lecture/tutorial efficiently and effectively.

Keywords: education, educational technology, Facebook, PowerPoint, YouTube

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Authors: Sumaya Ismail, Aijaz Ahmad Reshi

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The advances in sensor and embedded technologies have led to rapid developments in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Presently researchers focus on the integration of WSNs to the Internet for their pervasive availability to access these network resources as the interoperable subsystems. The recent computing technologies like cloud computing has made resource sharing as a converged infrastructure with required service interfaces for the shared resources over the Internet. This paper presents application architecture for wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANS) following web of things, which allows easy integration of each node to the Internet in order to provide them with web accessibility. The architecture enables the sensors and actuator nodes accessed and controlled using cloud interface on WWW. The application architecture was implemented using existing web and its emerging technologies. In particular, the Representational State Transfer protocol (REST) was extended for the specific requirements of the application. The Cloud computing environment has been used as a development platform for the application to assess the possibility of integrating the WSAN nodes to Cloud services. The mushroom farm environment monitoring and control using WSANs has been taken as a research use case.

Keywords: WSAN, REST, web of things, ZigBee, cloud interface, PaaS, sensor gateway

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Authors: Mohammad Aynal Haque

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Under the international cooperation — Paris Agreement — countries outline their self-determined policy ambition for emissions reduction in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as a key to addressing climate change globally. Although practically all countries commit themselves to reach the Paris landmark (below 20 C) globally, some act as climate leaders, others behave as followers, and others turn out to be climate laggards. As a result, there is a substantial variation in ‘emissions reduction targets’ across countries. Thus, a question emerges: What explains this variation? Or why do some countries opt for higher while others opt for lower ‘emissions reduction targets toward global mitigation efforts? Conceptualizing the ‘emissions reduction targets by 2030’ outlined in NDCs by each country as the climate policy ambition (CPA), this paper explores how certain national political, economic, environmental, and external factors play vital roles in determining climate policy ambition. Based on the cross-country regression analysis among 168 countries, this study finds that democracy, vulnerability to climate change effects, and foreign direct investment have substantial effects on CPA. The paper also finds that resource capacity has a minimal negative effect on CPA across developed countries.

Keywords: climate change, Paris agreement, international cooperation, political economy, environmental politics, NDCs

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Authors: Abraham Castellanos, Christophe Durville, Sophie Echenim

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In this article, a portfolio optimization problem is performed in a Solvency II context: it illustrates how advanced optimization techniques can help to tackle complex operational pain points around the monitoring, control, and stability of Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR). The market SCR of a portfolio is calculated as a combination of SCR sub-modules. These sub-modules are the results of stress-tests on interest rate, equity, property, credit and FX factors, as well as concentration on counter-parties. The market SCR is non convex and non differentiable, which does not make it a natural optimization criteria candidate. In the SCR formulation, correlations between sub-modules are fixed, whereas risk-driven portfolio allocation is usually driven by the dynamics of the actual correlations. Implementing a portfolio construction approach that is efficient on both a regulatory and economic standpoint is not straightforward. Moreover, the challenge for insurance portfolio managers is not only to achieve a minimal SCR to reduce non-invested capital but also to ensure stability of the SCR. Some optimizations have already been performed in the literature, simplifying the standard formula into a quadratic function. But to our knowledge, it is the first time that the standard formula of the market SCR is used in an optimization problem. Two solvers are combined: a bundle algorithm for convex non- differentiable problems, and a BFGS (Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb- Shanno)-SQP (Sequential Quadratic Programming) algorithm, to cope with non-convex cases. A market SCR minimization is then performed with historical data. This approach results in significant reduction of the capital requirement, compared to a classical Markowitz approach based on the historical volatility. A comparative analysis of different optimization models (equi-risk-contribution portfolio, minimizing volatility portfolio and minimizing value-at-risk portfolio) is performed and the impact of these strategies on risk measures including market SCR and its sub-modules is evaluated. A lack of diversification of market SCR is observed, specially for equities. This was expected since the market SCR strongly penalizes this type of financial instrument. It was shown that this direct effect of the regulation can be attenuated by implementing constraints in the optimization process or minimizing the market SCR together with the historical volatility, proving the interest of having a portfolio construction approach that can incorporate such features. The present results are further explained by the Market SCR modelling.

Keywords: financial risk, numerical optimization, portfolio management, solvency capital requirement

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Authors: Geetanjli Rani

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The physical forms and network pattern of the city is expected to be enhanced with the advancement of technology. Reason being, the era of virtualisation and digital urban realm convergence with physical development. By means of comparative Spatial graphics and visuals of cities, the present paper attempts to revisit the very base of efficient physical forms and patterns to sync the emergence of virtual activities. Thus, the present approach to integrate spatial Smartness of Cities and Intelligent Transportation Systems is a brief assessment of smart forms and intelligent transportation network pattern to the dualism of physical and virtual urban activities. Finally, the research brings out that the grid iron pattern, radial, ring-radial, orbital etc. stands to be more efficient, effective and economical transit friendly for users, resource optimisation as well as compact urban and regional systems. Moreover, this paper concludes that the idea of flow and contiguity hidden in such smart forms and intelligent transportation network pattern suits to layering, deployment, installation and development of Intelligent Transportation Systems of Smart Cities such as infrastructure, facilities and services.

Keywords: smart form, smart infrastructure, intelligent transportation network pattern, physical and virtual integration

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Authors: Katarina Lazarević, Mirjana Todosijević, Tijana Vulević, Natalija Momirović, Ranka Erić

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Due to increasing demand, climate change, and world population growth, natural resources are getting exploit fast. One of the most important natural resources is soil, which is susceptible to degradation. Erosion as one of the forms of land degradation is also one of the most global environmental problems. Ecosystem services are often defined as benefits that nature provides to humankind. Soil, as the foundation of basic ecosystem functions, provides benefits to people, erosion control, water infiltration, food, fuel, fibers… This research is using the ecosystem approach as a strategy for natural resources management for promoting sustainability and conservation. The research was done on the Topčiderska River basin (Belgrade, Serbia). The InVEST Sediment Delivery Ratio model was used, to quantify erosion intensity with a spatial distribution output map of overland sediment generation and delivery to the stream. InVEST SDR, a spatially explicit model, is using a method based on the concept of hydrological connectivity and (R) USLE model. This, combined with socio-economic and law and policy analysis, gives a full set of information to decision-makers helping them to successfully manage and deliver sustainable ecosystems.

Keywords: ecosystem services, InVEST model, soil erosion, sustainability

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Authors: Liuhui Zhu, Peng Zeng

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The rural revitalization strategy means to take the country and the city on the same level, and achieve urban-rural integration and comprehensive development of rural areas. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei rural areas have always been the weak links in the region, with prominently uneven development between urban and rural areas. The rural areas need to join the overall regional synergy. Based on the analysis of the characteristics and problems of rural development in the region from the perspective of production-living-ecology space, the paper proposes the township as the basic unit for rural revitalization according to the overall requirements of the rural revitalization strategy. The basic unit helps to realize resource arrangement, functional organization, and collaborative governance organized by the production-living-ecology spatial network. The paper summarizes the planning strategies for the basic unit. Through spatial cognition and spatial reconstruction, the three space is networked through the base, nodes, and connections to improve the comprehensive value of rural areas and achieve the multiple goals of rural revitalization.

Keywords: rural revitalization, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, township level, production-living-ecology spatial network

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Authors: Laura Dembovska, Ina Pundiene, Diana Bajare

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Alkali-activated aluminium-silicate composites (AASC) can be used in the production of innovative materials with a wide range of properties and applications. AASC are associated with low CO₂ emissions; in the production process, it is possible to use industrial by-products and waste, thereby minimizing the use of a non-renewable natural resource. This study deals with the preparation of heat-resistant porous AASC based on chamotte for high-temperature applications up to 1200°C. Different fillers, aluminium scrap recycling waste as pores forming agent and alkali activation with 6M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution were used. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is widely used for the synthesis of AASC compared to potassium hydroxide (KOH), but comparison of using different activator for geopolymer synthesis is not well established. Changes in chemical composition of AASC during heating were identified and quantitatively analyzed by using DTA, dimension changes during the heating process were determined by using HTOM, pore microstructure was examined by SEM, and mineralogical composition of AASC was determined by XRD. Lightweight porous AASC activated with NaOH have been obtained with density in range from 600 to 880 kg/m³ and compressive strength from 0.8 to 2.7 MPa, but for AAM activated with KOH density was in range from 750 to 850 kg/m³ and compressive strength from 0.7 to 2.1 MPa.

Keywords: alkali activation, alkali activated materials, elevated temperature application, heat resistance

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Authors: Younis Elhaddad, Alfonso Ortega

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Oil production by means of gas lift is a standard technique in oil production industry. To optimize the total amount of oil production in terms of the amount of gas injected is a key question in this domain. Different methods have been tested to propose a general methodology. Many of them apply well-known numerical methods. Some of them have taken into account the power of evolutionary approaches. Our goal is to provide the experts of the domain with a powerful automatic searching engine into which they can introduce their knowledge in a format close to the one used in their domain, and get solutions comprehensible in the same terms, as well. These proposals introduced in the genetic engine the most expressive formal models to represent the solutions to the problem. These algorithms have proven to be as effective as other genetic systems but more flexible and comfortable for the researcher although they usually require huge search spaces to justify their use due to the computational resources involved in the formal models. The first step to evaluate the viability of applying our approaches to this realm is to fully understand the domain and to select an instance of the problem (gas lift optimization) in which applying genetic approaches could seem promising. After analyzing the state of the art of this topic, we have decided to choose a previous work from the literature that faces the problem by means of numerical methods. This contribution includes details enough to be reproduced and complete data to be carefully analyzed. We have designed a classical, simple genetic algorithm just to try to get the same results and to understand the problem in depth. We could easily incorporate the well mathematical model, and the well data used by the authors and easily translate their mathematical model, to be numerically optimized, into a proper fitness function. We have analyzed the 100 curves they use in their experiment, similar results were observed, in addition, our system has automatically inferred an optimum total amount of injected gas for the field compatible with the addition of the optimum gas injected in each well by them. We have identified several constraints that could be interesting to incorporate to the optimization process but that could be difficult to numerically express. It could be interesting to automatically propose other mathematical models to fit both, individual well curves and also the behaviour of the complete field. All these facts and conclusions justify continuing exploring the viability of applying the approaches more sophisticated previously proposed by our research group.

Keywords: evolutionary automatic programming, gas lift, genetic algorithms, oil production

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Authors: M. Srilatha, R. Hemalatha, T. Sri Aditya

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Communication of today world is dominated by wireless technology. This is mainly due to the revolutionary development of new wireless communication system generations. The evolving new generations of wireless systems are accommodating the demand through better resource management including improved transmission technologies with optimized communication devices. To keep up with the evolution of technologies, the communication systems must be designed to optimize transparent insertion of newly evolved technologies virtually at all stages of their life cycle. After the insertion of new technologies, the upgraded devices should continue the communication without squalor in quality. The concern of improving spectrum access and spectrum efficiency combined with both the introduction of Software Defined Radios (SDR) and the possibility of the software application to radios has led to an evolution of wireless radio research. The software defined radio term was coined in the 1970s to overcome the problems in the application of software to wireless radios which eliminates the requirement of hardware changes. SDR has become the prime theme of research since it eliminates the drawbacks associated with conventional wireless communication systems implementation. This paper identifies and discusses key enabling technologies and possibility of research and development in SDRs. In addition transmitter and receiver architectures of SDR are also discussed along with their feasibility for reconfigurable radio application.

Keywords: software defined radios, wireless communication, reconfigurable, reconfigurable transmitter, reconfigurable receivers, FPGA, DSP

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Authors: Laura Piedra-Munoz, Angeles Godoy-Duran, Emilio Galdeano-Gomez, Juan C. Perez-Mesa

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Spain is very sensitive to water management issues due to its climatic characteristics and the deficit of this resource in many areas of its territory. This study examines the characteristics of the family farms that are more efficient in the use of water, focusing on a semi-arid area located in Almeria, southeast of Spain. In the case of irrigated agriculture, water usage efficiency usually indicates water productivity in terms of yield (kg/m³), or in economic terms (euros/m³). These two water usage indicators were considered to analyse water usage efficiency according to other studies on water efficiency in the horticultural area under analysis. This work also takes into account other water usage characteristics such as water supplied, innovative irrigation practices, water-efficient technology, and water-saving practices. The results show that the most water efficient farms have technical advisors and use irrigation on demand, that measures the water needs of the crops and are considered the most technological irrigation system. These farms are more technological and less labor intensive. They are also aware of water scarcity and the need to conserve the environment. This approach allow managers to identify the principal factors and best practices related to water efficiency in order to promote and implement them in inefficient farms and promote sustainability.

Keywords: cluster analysis, family farms, Spain, sustainability, water-use efficiency

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Authors: Batuhan Kocaoglu

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Although using powerful systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), companies still cannot benchmark their processes and measure their process performance easily based on predefined SCOR (Supply Chain Operation References) terms. The purpose of this research is to identify common and corresponding processes to present a conceptual model to model and measure the purchasing process of an organization. The main steps for the research study are: Literature review related to 'procure to pay' process in ERP system; Literature review related to 'sourcing' process in SCOR model; To develop a conceptual model integrating 'sourcing' of SCOR model and 'procure to pay' of ERP model. In this study, we examined the similarities and differences between these two models. The proposed framework is based on the assumptions that are drawn from (1) the body of literature, (2) the authors’ experience by working in the field of enterprise and logistics information systems. The modeling framework provides a structured and systematic way to model and decompose necessary information from conceptual representation to process element specification. This conceptual model will help the organizations to make quality purchasing system measurement instruments and tools. And offered adaptation issues for ERP systems and SCOR model will provide a more benchmarkable and worldwide standard business process.

Keywords: SCOR, ERP, procure to pay, sourcing, reference model

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Authors: Enrique Moliner, Alba Lafarga, Isaac Herraiz, Evelina Castellana, Mihaela Mirea

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NENU2PHAR (GA 887474) is an EU-funded project aimed at the development of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from micro-algae. These biobased and biodegradable polymers are being tested and validated in different high-volume market applications including food packaging, cosmetic packaging, 3D printing filaments, agro-textiles and medical devices, counting on the support of key players like Danone, BEL Group, Sofradim or IFG. At the moment the project has achieved to produce PHAs from micro-algae with a cumulated yield around 17%, i.e. 1 kg PHAs produced from 5.8 kg micro-algae biomass, which in turn capture 11 kg CO₂ for growing up. These algae-based plastics can therefore offer the same environmental benefits than current bio-based plastics (reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and fossil resource depletion), using a 3rd generation biomass feedstock that avoids the competition with food and the environmental impacts of agricultural practices. The project is also dealing with other sustainability aspects like the ecodesign and life cycle assessment of the plastic products targeted, considering not only the use of the biobased plastics but also many other ecodesign strategies. This paper will present the main progresses and results achieved to date in the project.

Keywords: NENU2PHAR, Polyhydroxyalkanoates, micro-algae, biopolymer, ecodesign, life cycle assessment

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Authors: Esther Mafunda

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The present study interrogated the lecturer’s skills in supporting visually impaired students during the Covid-19 era at the University of Zimbabwe. It particularly assesses how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the learning experience of visually impaired students and which skills the lecturers possessed in order to assist the visually impaired students during online learning. Data was collected from lecturers and visually impaired students at the University of Zimbabwe Disability Resource Centre. Data was collected through the use of interviews and questionnaires. Using content analysis, it was established that visually impaired students faced challenges of lack of familiarity with the Moodle learning platform, marginalization, lack of professional training, and lack of training for parents and guardians. Lecturers faced challenges of lack of training, the curriculum, access, and technical know-how deficit. It was established that lecturers had to resort to social media platforms in order to assist visually impaired students. Visually impaired students also received assistance from their friends and family members. On the basis of the results of the research, it can be concluded that lecturers needed in-service training to be provided with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach students with visual impairments and provide quality education to students with visual impairments.

Keywords: visual impairment, disability, covid-19, inclusive learning

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Authors: H. Yousefnia, S. Zolghadri, A. Golabi Dezfuli

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Tris (1,10-phenanthroline) lanthanum(III)] trithiocyanate is a new compound that has shown to stop DNA synthesis in CCRF-CEM and Ehrlich ascites cells leading to a cell cycle arrest in G0/G1. One other important property of the phenanthroline nucleus is its ability to act as a triplet-state photosensitizer especially in complexes with lanthanides. In Nowadays, the radiation dose assessment resource (RADAR) method is known as the most common method for absorbed dose calculation. 177Lu was produced by irradiation of a natural Lu2O3 target at a thermal neutron flux of approximately 4 × 1013 n/cm2•s. 177Lu-PL3 was prepared in the optimized condition. The radiochemical yield was checked by ITLC method. The biodistribution of the complex was investigated by intravenously injection to wild-type rats via their tail veins. In this study, the absorbed dose of 177Lu-PL3 to human organs was estimated by RADAR method. 177Lu was prepared with a specific activity of 2.6-3 GBq.mg-1 and radionuclide purity of 99.98 %. The 177Lu-PL3 complex can prepare with high radiochemical yield (> 99 %) at optimized conditions. The results show that liver and spleen have received the highest absorbed dose of 1.051 and 0.441 mSv/MBq, respectivley. The absorbed dose values for these two dose-limiting tissues suggest more biological studies special in tumor-bearing animals.

Keywords: internal dosimetry, Lutetium-177, radar, animals

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Authors: Dhurgham Al-Karawi, Nisreen Polus, Shakir Al-Zaidi, Sabah Jassim

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The management of COVID-19 patients based on chest imaging is emerging as an essential tool for evaluating the spread of the pandemic which has gripped the global community. It has already been used to monitor the situation of COVID-19 patients who have issues in respiratory status. There has been increase to use chest imaging for medical triage of patients who are showing moderate-severe clinical COVID-19 features, this is due to the fast dispersal of the pandemic to all continents and communities. This article demonstrates the development of machine learning techniques for the test of COVID-19 patients using Chest X-Ray (CXR) images in nearly real-time, to distinguish the COVID-19 infection with a significantly high level of accuracy. The testing performance has covered a combination of different datasets of CXR images of positive COVID-19 patients, patients with viral and bacterial infections, also, people with a clear chest. The proposed AI scheme successfully distinguishes CXR scans of COVID-19 infected patients from CXR scans of viral and bacterial based pneumonia as well as normal cases with an average accuracy of 94.43%, sensitivity 95%, and specificity 93.86%. Predicted decisions would be supported by visual evidence to help clinicians speed up the initial assessment process of new suspected cases, especially in a resource-constrained environment.

Keywords: COVID-19, chest x-ray scan, artificial intelligence, texture analysis, local binary pattern transform, Gabor filter

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Authors: Zainal Arifin, Avanti Fontana

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Considering that TOE framework is the most useful instrument for studying technology adoption in firm context, this paper will analyze the influence of technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) factors to the Dynamic capabilities (DCs) associated with technology adoption strategy for improving the firm’s performance. Focusing on the determinant factors of technology adoption at the firm level, the study will contribute to the broader study of resource base view (RBV) and dynamic capability (DC). There is no study connecting directly the TOE factors to the DCs, this paper proposes technology adoption as a functional competence/capability which mediates a relationship between technology adoptions with firm’s performance. The study wants to show a conceptual model of the indirect effects of DCs at the firm level, which can be key predictors of firm performance in dynamic business environment. The results of this research is mostly relevant to top corporate executives (BOD) or top management team (TMT) who seek to provide some supporting ‘hardware’ content and condition such as technological factors, organizational factors, environmental factors, and to improve firm's ‘software ‘ ability such as adaptive capability, absorptive capability and innovative capability, in order to achieve a successful technology adoption in organization. There are also mediating factors which are elaborated at this paper; timing and external network. A further research for showing its empirical results is highly recommended.

Keywords: technology adoption, TOE framework, dynamic capability, resources based view

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Authors: K. Berhanu

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Improper land use results in land degradation and decline in agricultural productivity. Hence, in order to get maximum benefits out of land, proper utilization of its resources is inevitable. The present study was aimed at identifying the landcover changes in the study area in the last 25 years and determines the extent and direction of change that has occurred. The study made use of Landsat TM 1986 and 2011 Remote Sensing Satellite Image for analysis to determine the extent and pattern of rangeland change. The results of the landuse/landcover change detection showed that in the last 25 years, 3 major changes were observed, grassland and open shrub-land resource significantly decreased at a rate of 17.1km2/year and 12 km2/year/, respectively. On the other hand in 25 years dense bushland, open bush land, dense shrubland and cultivated land has shown increment in size at a rate of 0.23km2/year,13.5 km2/year, 6.3 km2/year and 0.2 km2/year, respectively within 25 years. The expansion of unpalatable woody species significantly reduced the rangeland size and availability of grasses. The consequence of the decrease in herbaceous biomass production might result in high risk of food insecurity in the area unless proper interventions are made in time.

Keywords: GIS and remote sensing, Dire District, land use/land cover, land sat TM

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Authors: Zahra Hamedani

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Many wonderful technological developments in recent years has opened up the possibility of using intelligent buildings for a number of important applications, ranging from minimizing resource usage as well as increasing building efficiency to maximizing comfort, adaption to inhabitants and responsiveness to environmental changes. The concept of an intelligent building refers to the highly embedded, interactive environment within which by exploiting the use of artificial intelligence provides the ability to know its configuration, anticipate the optimum dynamic response to prevailing environmental stimuli, and actuate the appropriate physical reaction to provide comfort and efficiency. This paper contains a general identification of the intelligence paradigm and its impacts on the architecture arena, that with examining the performance of artificial intelligence, a mechanism to analyze and finally for decision-making to control the environment will be described. This mechanism would be a hierarchy of the rational agents which includes decision-making, information, communication and physical layers. This multi-agent system relies upon machine learning techniques for automated discovery, prediction and decision-making. Then, the application of this mechanism regarding adaptation and responsiveness of intelligent building will be provided in two scales of environmental and user. Finally, we review the identifications of sustainability and evaluate the potentials of intelligent building systems in the creation of sustainable architecture and environment.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, intelligent building, responsiveness, adaption, sustainability

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Authors: Prakash Singh

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The focus of this study is on the use of the SWEAT analysis approach to determine how effectively a school, as an organization, has implemented its curriculum. To gauge the feelings of the teaching staff, unstructured interviews were employed in this study, asking the participants for their ideas and opinions on each of the three identified aspects of the school: instructional materials, media and technology; teachers’ professional competencies; and the curriculum. This investigation was based on the five key components of the SWEAT model: strengths, weaknesses, expectations, abilities, and tensions. The findings of this exploratory study evoke the significance of the SWEAT achievement model as a tool for strategic analysis to be undertaken in any organization. The findings further affirm the usefulness of this analytical tool for human resource development. Employees have expectations, but competency gaps in their professional abilities may hinder them from fulfilling their tasks in terms of their job description. Also, tensions in the working environment can contribute to their experiences of tobephobia (fear of failure). The SWEAT analysis approach detects such shortcomings in any organization and can therefore culminate in the development of programmes to address such concerns. The strategic SWEAT analysis process can provide a clear distinction between success and failure, and between mediocrity and excellence in organizations. However, more research needs to be done on the effectiveness of the SWEAT analysis approach as a strategic analytical tool.

Keywords: SWEAT analysis, strategic analysis, tobephobia, competency gaps

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Authors: Ruchi Makani, B. V. R. Reddy

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Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) are gaining popularity due to their potential of providing low-cost mobile connectivity solutions to real-world communication problems. Integrating Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) in MANETs is a tedious task by reason of its distinctive features such as dynamic topology, de-centralized authority and highly controlled/limited resource environment. IDS primarily use automated soft-computing techniques to monitor the inflow/outflow of traffic packets in a given network to detect intrusion. Use of machine learning techniques in IDS enables system to make decisions on intrusion while continuous keep learning about their dynamic environment. An appropriate IDS model is essential to be selected to expedite this application challenges. Thus, this paper focused on fuzzy-logic based machine learning IDS technique for MANETs and presented their applicability for achieving effectiveness in identifying the intrusions. Further, the selection of appropriate protocol attributes and fuzzy rules generation plays significant role for accuracy of the fuzzy-logic based IDS, have been discussed. This paper also presents the critical attributes of MANET’s routing protocol and its applicability in fuzzy logic based IDS.

Keywords: AODV, mobile adhoc networks, intrusion detection, anomaly detection, fuzzy logic, fuzzy membership function, fuzzy inference system

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Authors: Ali Alavi, Owen Nguyen, Jiangang Fei, Jafar Sayareh

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The main purpose of this research is to propose a conceptual framework to analyze port logistics integration in general and for the Iranian port sector in particular, including consideration of the challenges, outcomes, and opportunities in implementing port logistics integration. First, a literature review of studies on logistics integration in seaports and terminals is conducted. Second, a new conceptual framework for port logistics integration is proposed to incorporate the role of the new variables emerging from the recent developments in the global business environment. The literature review has found the logistics process and operations, information integration, value-added services, and logistics practices, organizational activities, resource sharing and institutional support being influential to logistics integration. The study used survey method to test the proposed conceptual framework. Both online and self-administrative survey have been used to collect data from ‎port official staffs in Iranian seaports and their associations (internal port ‎stakeholders) as well ‎as other experts in various actors. In the study, the questionnaire was first validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and then by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the EFA and CFA confirmed the finding from the literature review. Research results and conceptual framework shed the lights on port logistics integration concept and suggest guidelines and procedures improve port logistics integration.

Keywords: maritime logistics, logistics integration, port management, EFA, CFA

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Authors: H. Yousefnia, S. Zolghadri

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The measurement of organ radiation exposure dose is one of the most important steps to be taken initially, for developing a new radiopharmaceutical. In this study, the dosimetric studies of a novel agent for SPECT-imaging of the bone metastasis, 111In-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10 tetraethylene phosphonic acid (111In-DOTMP) complex, have been carried out to estimate the dose in human organs based on the data derived from rats. The radiolabeled complex was prepared with high radiochemical purity in the optimal conditions. Biodistribution studies of the complex was investigated in the male Syrian rats at selected times after injection (2, 4, 24 and 48 h). The human absorbed dose estimation of the complex was made based on data derived from the rats by the radiation absorbed dose assessment resource (RADAR) method. 111In-DOTMP complex was prepared with high radiochemical purity of >99% (ITLC). Total body effective absorbed dose for 111In-DOTMP was 0.061 mSv/MBq. This value is comparable to the other 111In clinically used complexes. The results show that the dose with respect to the critical organs is satisfactory within the acceptable range for diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures. Generally, 111In-DOTMP has interesting characteristics and can be considered as a viable agent for SPECT-imaging of the bone metastasis in the near future.

Keywords: In-111, DOTMP, Internal Dosimetry, RADAR

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Authors: Joudia Akil, Stephane Siffert, Laurence Pirault-Roy, Renaud Cousin, Christophe Poupin

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Oxyfuel combustion is a promising method that enables to obtain a CO2 rich stream, with water vapor ( ̴10%), unburned components such as CO and NO, which must be cleaned before the use of CO2. Our objective is then the final treatment of CO and NO by catalysis. Three-way catalysts are well-developed material for simultaneous conversion of NO, CO and hydrocarbons. Pt and/or Rh ensure a quasi-complete removal of NOx, CO and HC and there is also a growing interest in partly replacing Pt with less-expensive Pd. The use of alumina and ceria as support ensures, respectively, the stabilization of such species in active state and discharging or storing oxygen to control the oxidation of CO and HC and the reduction of NOx. In this work, we will compare different metals (Pd, Rh and Pt) supported on Al2O3 and CeO2, for CO2 purification from oxyfuel combustion. The catalyst must reduce NO by CO in an oxidizing environment, in the presence of CO2 rich stream and resistant to water. In this study, Al2O3 and CeO2 were used as support materials of the catalysts. 1wt% M/Support where M = Pd, Rh or Pt catalysts were obtained by wet impregnation on supports with a precursor of palladium [Pd(acac)2], rhodium [Rh(NO3)3] and platinum [Pt(NO2)2(NO3)2]. Materials were characterized by BET surface area, H2 chemisorption, and TEM. Catalytic activity was evaluated in CO2 purification which is carried out in a fixed-bed flow reactor containing 150 mg of catalyst at atmospheric pressure. The flow of the reactant gases is composed of: 20% CO2, 10% O2, 0.5% CO, 0.02% NO and 8.2% H2O (He as eluent gas) with a total flow of 200 mL.min−1, with same GHSV (2.24x104 h-1). The catalytic performances of the samples were investigated with and without water. It shows that the total oxidation of CO occurred over the different materials. This study evidenced an important effect of the nature of the metals, supports and the presence or absence of H2O during the reduction of NO by CO in oxyfuel combustions conditions. Rh based catalysts show that the addition of water has a very positive influence especially on the Rh catalyst on CeO2. Pt based catalysts keep a good activity despite the addition of water on the both supports studied. For the NO reduction, addition of water act as a poison with Pd catalysts. The interesting results of Rh based catalysts with water can be explained by a production of hydrogen through the water gas shift reaction. The produced hydrogen acts as a more effective reductant than CO for NO removal. Furthermore, in TWCs, Rh is the main component responsible for NOx reduction due to its especially high activity for NO dissociation. Moreover, cerium oxide is a promotor for WGSR.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, environmental chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis

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Authors: Dragana R. Stamenov, Simonida S. Djuric, Timea Hajnal Jafari

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Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a heterogeneous group of bacteria that can be found in the rhizosphere, at root surfaces and in association with roots, enhancing the growth of the plant either directly and/or indirectly. Increased crop productivity associated with the presence of PGPR has been observed in a broad range of plant species, such as raspberry, chickpeas, legumes, cucumber, eggplant, pea, pepper, radish, tobacco, tomato, lettuce, carrot, corn, cotton, millet, bean, cocoa, etc. However, until now there has not been much research about influences of the PGPR on the growth and yield of onion. Onion (Allium cepa L.), of the Liliaceae family, is a species of great economic importance, widely cultivated all over the world. The aim of this research was to examine the influence of plant growth promoting bacteria Pseudomonas sp. Dragana, Pseudomonas sp. Kiš, Bacillus subtillis and Azotobacter sp. on the seed germination and early growth of onion (Allium cepa). PGPR Azotobacter sp., Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas sp. Dragana, Pseudomonas sp. Kiš, from the collection of the Faculty of Agriculture, Novi Sad, Serbia, were used as inoculants. The number of cells in 1 ml of the inoculum was 10⁸ CFU/ml. The control variant was not inoculated. The effect of PGPR on seed germination and hypocotyls length of Allium cepa was evaluated in controlled conditions, on filter paper in the dark at 22°C, while effect on the plant length and mass in semicontrol conditions, in 10 l volume vegetative pots. Seed treated with fungicide and untreated seed were used. After seven days the percentage of germination was determined. After seven and fourteen days hypocotil length was measured. Fourteen days after germination, length and mass of plants were measured. Application of Pseudomonas sp. Dragana and Kiš and Bacillus subtillis had a negative effect on onion seed germination, while the use of Azotobacter sp. gave positive results. On average, application of all investigated inoculants had a positive effect on the measured parameters of plant growth. Azotobacter sp. had the greatest effect on the hypocotyls length, length and mass of the plant. In average, better results were achieved with untreated seeds in compare with treated. Results of this study have shown that PGPR can be used in the production of onion.

Keywords: germination, length, mass, microorganisms, onion

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Authors: Hailemariam Gebremichael Gebretsadik, Abrham Hagos Tesfaslasea

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To satisfy the high need for ICT entrepreneurship and rectify the weak entrepreneurial culture in Ethiopia, the country has established ICT Business incubation centers with the intention of preventing business failures, promoting innovation, and accelerating the growth and success of firms. This study investigates the role of business incubators and social capital on the innovation and growth of firms in Ethiopia. In this research, innovation and growth of firms were considered as dependent variables, whereas business incubation and social capital were treated as independent variables. The researcher employed an e-mail survey among 137 tenant Firms (Firms that joined and/or graduated to/from the Business incubation centers available in Ethiopia) to collect the data and obtained 113 responses that were appropriate for this research. The result of this study reveals that the dimensions of business incubation (physical resource, business support, and networking) have a significant effect on the innovation of Firms, but these dimensions of business incubation do not show a significant effect on the growth of firms. On the other hand, the dimensions of social capital (structural, cognitive, and relational) show a significant positive impact on the likelihood of Firms' growth but not on the innovation of firms. Moreover, the result of this study indicates that the dimensions of business incubation and social capital together have a significant effect on the likelihood of tenant firms innovating and growing.

Keywords: business incubation, innovation, social capital, tenant firms

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Authors: Babak Sadeghi, Rony Snyders, Marie-Paule.Delplancke-Ogletree

Abstract:

Nitrogen fixation (NF) is one of the crucial industrial processes. Many attempts have been made in order to artificially fix nitrogen, and among them, the Haber-Bosch’s (H-B) process is widely used. However, it presents two major drawbacks: huge fossil feedstock consumption and noticeable greenhouse gases emission. It is, therefore, necessary to develop alternatives. Plasma technology, as an inherent “green” technology, is considered to have a great potential for reducing the environmental impacts and improving the energy efficiency of the NF process. In this work, we have studied the catalyst assisted microwave plasma for NF application. Heterogeneous catalysts of MoO₃, with various loads 0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 wt%, supported on γ-alumina were prepared by conventional wet impregnation. Crystallinity, surface area, pore size, and microstructure were obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) adsorption isotherm, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns of calcined alumina confirm the γ- phase. Characteristic picks of MoO₃ could not be observed for low loads (< 20 wt%), likely indicating a high dispersion of metal oxide over the support. The specific surface area along with pores size are decreasing with increasing calcination temperature and MoO₃ loading. The MoO₃ loading does not modify the microstructure. TEM and SEM results for loading inferior to 20 wt% are coherent with a monolayer of MoO₃ on the support as proposed elsewhere. For loading of 20 wt% and more, TEM and Electron diffraction (ED) show nanocrystalline ₃-D MoO₃ particles. The catalytic performances of these catalysts were investigated in the post-discharge of a microwave plasma for NOx formation from N₂/O₂ mixtures. The plasma is sustained by a surface wave launched in a quartz tube via a surfaguide supplied by a 2.45 GHz microwave generator in pulse mode. In-situ identification and quantification of the products were carried out by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in the post-discharge region. FTIR analysis of the exhausted gas reveal NO and NO₂ bands in presence of catalyst while only NO band were assigned without catalyst. On the other hand, in presence of catalyst, a 10% increase of NOₓ formation and of 20% increase in energy efficiency are observed.

Keywords: γ-Al2O₃-MoO₃, µ-waveplasma, N2 fixation, Plasma-catalysis, Plasma diagnostic

Procedia PDF Downloads 159