Search results for: Degree of cooling

Authors: Joseph Paul Chunga

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The investment universe is awash with a myriad of financial choices that investors have to opt for, which principally culminates into a duality between aggressive or conservative approaches. Howbeit, it is pertinent to emphasize that the investment vehicles with an aggressive approach tend to take on more risk than the latter group in an effort to generate higher future returns for their respective investors. This study examines the conditionality effect that such partiality in financing has on the High-Tech and Public Utility companies listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SSE). Specifically, it examines the significance of the relationship between capitalization ratios of Total Debt Ratio (TDR), Degree of Financial Leverage (DFL) and profitability ratios of Earnings per Share (EPS) and Returns on Equity (ROE) on the Financial Risk of the two industries. We employ a modified version of the Panel Regression Model used by Rahman (2017) to estimate the relationship. The study finds that there is a significant positive relationship between the capitalization ratios on the financial risk of Public Utility companies more than High-Tech companies and a substantial negative relationship between the profitability ratios and the financial risk of the former than the latter companies. This then spells an important insight for prospective investors with regards to the volatility of earnings of such companies.

Keywords: financial leverage, debt financing, conservative firms, aggressive firms

Procedia PDF Downloads 185

Authors: H. Mansor, S.B. Mohd-Noor, N. I. Othman, N. Tazali, R. I. Boby

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This paper presents an improved robust Proportional Derivative controller for a 3-Degree-of-Freedom (3-DOF) bench-top helicopter by using adaptive methodology. Bench-top helicopter is a laboratory scale helicopter used for experimental purposes which is widely used in teaching laboratory and research. Proportional Derivative controller has been developed for a 3-DOF bench-top helicopter by Quanser. Experiments showed that the transient response of designed PD controller has very large steady state error i.e., 50%, which is very serious. The objective of this research is to improve the performance of existing pitch angle control of PD controller on the bench-top helicopter by integration of PD controller with adaptive controller. Usually standard adaptive controller will produce zero steady state error; however response time to reach desired set point is large. Therefore, this paper proposed an adaptive with deadbeat algorithm to overcome the limitations. The output response that is fast, robust and updated online is expected. Performance comparisons have been performed between the proposed self-tuning deadbeat PD controller and standard PD controller. The efficiency of the self-tuning dead beat controller has been proven from the tests results in terms of faster settling time, zero steady state error and capability of the controller to be updated online.

Keywords: adaptive control, deadbeat control, bench-top helicopter, self-tuning control

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Authors: S. S. Patil, R. M. Mhetre, S. V. Patil

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Lisinopril is an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor used in the treatment of hypertension and heart failure in prophylactic treatment after myocardial infarction and in diabetic nephropathy. However, it is very poorly absorbed from gastro-intestinal tract. Intranasal administration is an ideal alternative to the parenteral route for systemic drug delivery. Formulating multiparticulate system with mucoadhesive polymers provide a significant increase in the nasal residence time. The aim of the present approach was to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional dosage forms of lisinopril by formulating intranasal microspheres with Carbopol 974P NF and HPMC K4 M along with film forming polymer ethyl cellulose.The microspheres were prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation method. The prepared microspheres were characterized for encapsulation efficiency, drug loading, particle size, and surface morphology, degree of swelling, ex vivo mucoadhesion, drug release, ex vivo diffusion studies. All formulations has shown entrapment efficiency between 80 to more than 95%, mucoadhesion was more than 80 % and drug release up to 90 %. Ex vivo studies revealed tht the improved bioavailability of drug compared to oral drug administration. Both in vitro and in vivo studies conclude that combination of Carbopol and HPMC based microspheres shown better results than single carbopol based microspheres for the delivery of lisinopril.

Keywords: microspheres, lisinopril, nasal delivery, solvent evaporation method

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Authors: Teesta Dey

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Integrated Transport development with proper traffic management leads to sustainable growth of any urban sphere. Appropriate mass transport planning is essential for the populous cities in third world countries like India. The exponential growth of motor vehicles with unplanned road network is now the common feature of major urban centres in India. Kolkata, the third largest mega city in India, is not an exception of it. The imbalance between demand and supply of unplanned transport services in this city is manifested in the high economic and environmental costs borne by the associated society. With the passage of time, the growth and extent of passenger demand for rapid urban transport has outstripped proper infrastructural planning and causes severe transport problems in the overall urban realm. Hence Kolkata stands out in the world as one of the most crisis-ridden metropolises. The urban transport crisis of this city involves severe traffic congestion, the disparity in mass transport services on changing peripheral land uses, route overlapping, lowering of travel speed and faulty implementation of governmental plans as mostly induced by rapid growth of private vehicles on limited road space with huge carbon footprint. Therefore the paper will critically analyze the extant road network pattern for improving regional connectivity and accessibility, assess the degree of congestion, identify the deviation from demand and supply balance and finally evaluate the emerging alternate transport options as promoted by the government. For this purpose, linear, nodal and spatial transport network have been assessed based on certain selected indices viz. Road Degree, Traffic Volume, Shimbel Index, Direct Bus Connectivity, Average Travel and Waiting Tine Indices, Route Variety, Service Frequency, Bus Intensity, Concentration Analysis, Delay Rate, Quality of Traffic Transmission, Lane Length Duration Index and Modal Mix. Total 20 Traffic Intersection Points (TIPs) have been selected for the measurement of nodal accessibility. Critical Congestion Zones (CCZs) are delineated based on one km buffer zones of each TIP for congestion pattern analysis. A total of 480 bus routes are assessed for identifying the deficiency in network planning. Apart from bus services, the combined effects of other mass and para transit modes, containing metro rail, auto, cab and ferry services, are also analyzed. Based on systematic random sampling method, a total of 1500 daily urban passengers’ perceptions were studied for checking the ground realities. The outcome of this research identifies the spatial disparity among the 15 boroughs of the city with severe route overlapping and congestion problem. North and Central Kolkata-based mass transport services exceed the transport strength of south and peripheral Kolkata. Faulty infrastructural condition, service inadequacy, economic loss and workers’ inefficiency are the most dominant reasons behind the defective mass transport network plan. Hence there is an urgent need to revive the extant road based mass transport system of this city by implementing a holistic management approach by upgrading traffic infrastructure, designing new roads, better cooperation among different mass transport agencies, better coordination of transport and changing land use policies, large increase in funding and finally general passengers’ awareness.

Keywords: carbon footprint, critical congestion zones, direct bus connectivity, integrated transport development

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Authors: Vishwajit Ghatge, David Looper

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Over the last few decades, oilfield service rolling equipment has significantly increased in weight, primarily because of emissions regulations, which require larger/heavier engines, larger cooling systems, and emissions after-treatment systems, in some cases, etc. Larger engines cause more vibration and shock loads, leading to failure of electronics and control systems. If the vibrating frequency of the engine matches the system frequency, high resonance is observed on structural parts and mounts. One such existing automated control equipment system comprising wire rope mounts used for mounting computers was designed approximately 12 years ago. This includes the use of an industrial- grade computer to control the system operation. The original computer had a smaller, lighter enclosure. After a few years, a newer computer version was introduced, which was 10 lbm heavier. Some failures of internal computer parts have been documented for cases in which the old mounts were used. Because of the added weight, there is a possibility of having the two brackets impact each other under off-road conditions, which causes a high shock input to the computer parts. This added failure mode requires validating the existing mount design to suit the new heavy-weight computer. This paper discusses the modal finite element method (FEM) analysis and experimental modal analysis conducted to study the effects of vibration on the wire rope mounts and the computer. The existing mount was modelled in ANSYS software, and resultant mode shapes and frequencies were obtained. The experimental modal analysis was conducted, and actual frequency responses were observed and recorded. Results clearly revealed that at resonance frequency, the brackets were colliding and potentially causing damage to computer parts. To solve this issue, spring mounts of different stiffness were modeled in ANSYS software, and the resonant frequency was determined. Increasing the stiffness of the system increased the resonant frequency zone away from the frequency window at which the engine showed heavy vibrations or resonance. After multiple iterations in ANSYS software, the stiffness of the spring mount was finalized, which was again experimentally validated.

Keywords: experimental modal analysis, FEM Modal Analysis, frequency, modal analysis, resonance, vibration

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Authors: Luis F. Bianchessi, Gustavo G. Shimamoto, Matthieu Tubino

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The use of biodiesel has been diffused in Brazil and all over the world by the trading of biodiesel (B100). In Brazil, the diesel oil currently being sold is a blend, containing 7% biodiesel (B7). In this context, it is necessary to develop methods capable of identifying this blend composition, especially regarding the biodiesel quality used for making these blends. In this study, hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance spectra (1H-NMR) are proposed as a form of identifying and confirming the quality of type B10 blends (10% of biodiesel and 90% of diesel). Furthermore, the presence of vegetable oils, which may be from fuel adulteration or as an evidence of low degree of transesterification conversion during the synthesis of B100, may also be identified. Mixtures of diesel, vegetable oils and their respective biodiesel were prepared. Soybean oil and macauba kernel oil were used as raw material. The diesel proportion remained fixed at 90%. The other proportion (10%) was varied in terms of vegetable oil and biodiesel. The 1H-NMR spectra were obtained for each one of the mixtures, in order to find a correlation between the spectra and the amount of biodiesel, as well as the amount of residual vegetable oil. The ratio of the integral of the methylenic hydrogen H-2 of glycerol (exclusive of vegetable oil) with respect to the integral of the olefinic hydrogens (present in vegetable oil and biodiesel) was obtained. These ratios were correlated with the percentage of vegetable oil in each mixture, from 0% to 10%. The obtained correlation could be described by linear relationships with R2 of 0.9929 for soybean biodiesel and 0.9982 for macauba kernel biodiesel. Preliminary results show that the technique can be used to monitor the biodiesel quality in commercial diesel-biodiesel blends, besides indicating possible adulteration.

Keywords: biodiesel, diesel, biodiesel quality, adulteration

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Authors: Mitchell Gallagher

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This investigation explores the relationship between Chinese government ministers' tweets and publicized anti-US propaganda political cartoons by Chinese state media. Defining "anti-US" tweets as expressions with negative impressions about the United States, its policies, or cultural values, the study considers their context-dependent nature. Analyzing social media's growing role, this research probes the Chinese government's attitudes toward the United States. While China traditionally adhered to a non-interference stance, instances of verbal and visual retorts occurred, driven by efforts to enhance soft power and counter unfavorable portrayals. To navigate global challenges, China embraced proactive image construction, utilizing political cartoons as a messaging tool. As Sino-American political relations continue deteriorating, it has become increasingly commonplace for Chinese officials to circulate anti-US messages and negative impressions of the United States via tweets. The present study is committed to inspecting the nature and frequency of political cartoons casting the United States in an unfavorable light, with the aim of gaining a comprehensive understanding the degree to which the Chinese government and state-affiliated media are aligned in their corresponding messaging.

Keywords: China, political cartoons, propaganda, twitter, social media

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Authors: Yuval Sinai

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As part of the historical, religious and cultural heritage of the Jewish people, Jewish law is part of the legal system in Israel, which is a Jewish and democratic state. The proper degree of use of Jewish law in judicial decisions is an issue that crops up in Israeli law from time to time. This was a burning question in the 1980s in the wake of the enactment of the Foundations of Law Act 1980, which declared Jewish heritage a supplementary legal method to Israeli law. The enactment of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty 1992, which decreed that the basic Israeli legal principles must be interpreted in light of the values of a Jewish and democratic state, marks a significant change in the impact of Judaism in the law created and applied by the courts. Both of these legislative developments revived the initiative to grant a central status to Jewish law within the state law. How should Jewish law be applied in Israel’s secular courts? This is not a simple question. It is not merely a question of identifying the relevant rule of Jewish law or tracing its development from the Talmud to modern times. Nor is it the same as asking how a rabbinic court would handle the issue. It is a matter of delicate judgment to distill out of the often conflicting Jewish law sources a rule that will fit into the existing framework of Israeli law so as to advance a policy that will best promote the interests of Israel’s society. We shall point out the occasional tensions between Jewish religious law and secular law, and introduce opinions as to how reconciliation of the two can best be achieved in light of Jewish legal tradition and in light of the reality in the modern State of Israel.

Keywords: law and politics, law and religion, comparative law, law and society

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Authors: U. Yerlikaya, R. T. Balkan

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In this research, a method is developed to obtain high-dimensional configuration space for path planning problems. In typical cases, the path planning problems are solved directly in the 3-dimensional (D) workspace. However, this method is inefficient in handling the robots with various geometrical and mechanical restrictions. To overcome these difficulties, path planning may be formalized and solved in a new space which is called configuration space. The number of dimensions of the configuration space comes from the degree of freedoms of the system of interest. The method can be applied in two ways. In the first way, the point clouds of all the bodies of the system and interaction of them are used. The second way is performed via using the clearance function of simulation software where the minimum distances between surfaces of bodies are simultaneously measured. A double-turret system is held in the scope of this study. The 4-D configuration space of a double-turret system is obtained in these two ways. As a result, the difference between these two methods is around 1%, depending on the density of the point cloud. The disparity between the two forms steadily decreases as the point cloud density increases. At the end of the study, in order to verify 4-D configuration space obtained, 4-D path planning problem was realized as 2-D + 2-D and a sample path planning is carried out with using A* algorithm. Then, the accuracy of the configuration space is proved using the obtained paths on the simulation model of the double-turret system.

Keywords: A* algorithm, autonomous turrets, high-dimensional C-space, manifold C-space, point clouds

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Authors: Twarakavi Venkata Suresh Kumar, Sailaja Kumar, B. Eswara Reddy

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In a world of tremendous technical developments, effective and efficient higher education has always been a major challenge. The rising number of educational institutions have made it mandatory for healthy competitions among the institutions. To evaluate the qualitative competence of these educations institutions in engineering and technology and related disciplines, an efficient assessment technique in internal and external quality has to be followed. To achieve this, the curriculum is to be developed into courses, and each course has to be presented in the form teaching lesson plan consisting of topics and session outcome known as Course Outcomes (COs), that easily map into different Programme Outcomes (POs). The major objective of these methodologies is to provide quality technical education to its students. Detailed clear weightage in CO-PO mapping helps in proper measurable COs and to devise the POs attainment is an important issue. This ensures in assisting the achievement of the POs with proper weightage to POs, and also improves the successive curriculum development. In this paper, we presented a methodology for mapping CO and PO considering the key elements supported by each PO. This approach is useful in evaluating the attainment of POs which is based on the attainment of COs using the existing data from students' marks taken from various test items. Such direct assessment tools are used to measure the degree to which each student has achieved each course learning outcome by the completion of the course. Hence, these results are also useful in measuring the PO attainment for improving the programme vision and mission.

Keywords: attainment, course outcomes, programme outcomes, educational institutions

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Authors: Ju Peng Poh, Jun Yu Charles Lee, Jonathan Chew Hoe Khoo

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The emergence of digital twin technology, a digital replica of physical world, has improved the real-time access to data from sensors about the performance of buildings. This digital transformation has opened up many opportunities to improve the management of the building by using the data collected to help monitor consumption patterns and energy leakages. One example is the integration of predictive models for anomaly detection. In this paper, we use the GAM (Generalised Additive Model) for the anomaly detection of Air Handling Units (AHU) power consumption pattern. There is ample research work on the use of GAM for the prediction of power consumption at the office building and nation-wide level. However, there is limited illustration of its anomaly detection capabilities, prescriptive analytics case study, and its integration with the latest development of digital twin technology. In this paper, we applied the general GAM modelling framework on the historical data of the AHU power consumption and cooling load of the building between Jan 2018 to Aug 2019 from an education campus in Singapore to train prediction models that, in turn, yield predicted values and ranges. The historical data are seamlessly extracted from the digital twin for modelling purposes. We enhanced the utility of the GAM model by using it to power a real-time anomaly detection system based on the forward predicted ranges. The magnitude of deviation from the upper and lower bounds of the uncertainty intervals is used to inform and identify anomalous data points, all based on historical data, without explicit intervention from domain experts. Notwithstanding, the domain expert fits in through an optional feedback loop through which iterative data cleansing is performed. After an anomalously high or low level of power consumption detected, a set of rule-based conditions are evaluated in real-time to help determine the next course of action for the facilities manager. The performance of GAM is then compared with other approaches to evaluate its effectiveness. Lastly, we discuss the successfully deployment of this approach for the detection of anomalous power consumption pattern and illustrated with real-world use cases.

Keywords: anomaly detection, digital twin, generalised additive model, GAM, power consumption, supervised learning

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Authors: Spandan Sahu, Amiya Kumar Pati, Kishanjit Kumar Khatua

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The river is our main source of water which is a form of open channel flow and the flow in the open channel provides with many complex phenomena of sciences that need to be tackled such as the critical flow conditions, boundary shear stress, and depth-averaged velocity. The development of society, more or less solely depends upon the flow of rivers. The rivers are major sources of many sediments and specific ingredients which are much essential for human beings. During floods, part of a river is carried by the simple main channel and rest is carried by flood plains. For such compound asymmetric channels, the flow structure becomes complicated due to momentum exchange between the main channel and adjoining flood plains. Distribution of boundary shear in subsections provides us with the concept of momentum transfer between the interface of the main channel and the flood plains. Experimentally, to get better data with accurate results are very complex because of the complexity of the problem. Hence, CES software has been used to tackle the complex processes to determine the shear stresses at different sections of an open channel having asymmetric flood plains on both sides of the main channel, and the results are compared with the symmetric flood plains for various geometrical shapes and flow conditions. Error analysis is also performed to know the degree of accuracy of the model implemented.

Keywords: depth average velocity, non prismatic compound channel, relative flow depth, velocity distribution

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Authors: Santi Termprasertsakul, Jakkrich Jearviriyaboonya

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This paper studies the market power and pricing behavior of products in iron and steel industry by investigating the impact of vertical product differentiation (VPD) on exchange rate pass-through (ERPT). Vietnam has become one of the major trading partners of Thailand since 2017. The iron and steel export value to Vietnam is more than $300 million a year. Particularly, the average growth rate of importing iron and steel is approximately 30% per year. The VPD is applied to analyze the quality difference of iron and steel between Thailand and Vietnam. The 20 products in iron and steel industry are investigated. The monthly pricing behavior of Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System 4-digit products is observed from 2010 to 2019. The Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag is also used to analyze the asymmetry of ERPT in this paper. The empirical results basically reveal an incomplete pass-through between Thai Baht and Vietnamese Dong. The ERPT also varies with the degree of VPD. The product with higher VPD, indicating higher unit values, has higher ERPT. This result suggests the higher market power of the Thai iron and steel industry. In addition, the asymmetry of ERPT exists.

Keywords: exchange rate pass-through, iron and steel industry, pricing behavior, vertical product differentiation

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Jos Boer, Nynke Boonstra, Bram Sizoo, Sonja Kuipers, Richard Vuijk, Linda Kronenberg

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Background: Eye contact in autism is said to be different than in all other populations worldwide. But despite decades of research on the nature of eye contact in autism, no definitive conclusions can be made. This while more understanding of this phenomenon could help overcome social problems that arise from atypical eye contact. One of the reasons for this lack of understanding could be that the visions and experiences of people with autism are barely taken into account. Aim: Aim is to compare visions and experiences related to eye contact in adults with and without autism in the Netherlands. Method: A descriptive qualitative multicenter study with the use of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. N=15 adults with autism who are getting treatment at different mental health institutions in the Netherlands (region of Zwolle, Rotterdam and Amsterdam) and N=15 adults without autism living all across the Netherlands. Adults with and without autism were matched based on characteristics: nationality, sex, age, educational degree and living situation. Results: Data analysis is almost complete. Preliminary conclusions that can be drawn are that adults with and without autism indeed have different opinions about what eye contact is and how it should be handled. Adults with and without autism also experience eye contact differently. The article is expected to be published early in 2025, after which the views and experiences of adults with and without autism can be explained in more detail. Implications for practice: Insight into the nature of eye contact in autism provides more guidance on how this can best be dealt with in the future. This makes it easier to work towards fewer problems in social interactions as a result of atypical eye contact in this population.

Keywords: autism, eye contact, experience, non-verbal

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Authors: Kimi Ueda, Kosuke Sugita, Soma Kawamoto, Hiroshi Shimoda, Hirotake Ishii, Fumiaki Obayashi, Kazuhiro Taniguchi, Ayaka Suzuki

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The authors have focused on the thermal difference between office rooms and break rooms, and proposed an integrated thermal control method to improve workers’ intellectual concentration. First, a trial experiment was conducted to verify the effect of temperature difference on workers’ intellectual concentration with using two experimental rooms; a thermally neutral break room and a cooler office room. As the result of the experiment, it was found that the thermal difference had a significant effect on improving their intellectual concentration. Workers, however, often take a short break at their desks without moving to a break room, so that the thermal difference cannot be given to them. So utilization of airflow was proposed as an integrated thermal control method instead of the temperature difference to realize the similar effect. Concretely, they are exposed to airflow when working in order to reduce their effective temperature while it is weakened when taking a break. Another experiment was conducted to confirm the effect of the airflow control on their intellectual concentration. As the result of concentration index and questionnaire survey, their intellectual concentration was significantly improved in the integrated thermal controlled environment. It was also found that most of them felt more comfortable and had higher motivation and higher degree of concentration in the environment.

Keywords: airflow, evaluation experiment, intellectual concentration, thermal difference

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Authors: Cory Callahan

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Here the author synthesizes findings and implications from two research studies that comprise a continuing line of inquiry into the potential of an innovative professional development program to help in-service teachers understand and implement a complex model of social studies instruction. The paper specifically explores the question: To what degree can a collaborative professional development program centered around innovative curriculum materials help social studies teachers understand and implement a powerful social studies approach? Findings suggest the teachers increasingly incorporated substantive thinking (i.e., second-order historical domain knowledge) into their respective practice and they facilitated students’ use of historical photographs as evidence to begin to answer a compelling question. The teachers also began to effectively support students’ abilities to make claims about the past. Implications include the foregrounding of high-quality questions during planning and the need for explicit guidance in the form of structures and procedures (i.e., scaffolds) to help teachers systematically review students’ work products. The work shared here may contribute to scholarship that posits explanations for why teacher-support is routinely ineffectual and suggests ways to provide substantive collaborative support for in-service social studies teachers.

Keywords: educative curriculum, social studies, professional development, lesson study

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Authors: Richard White, Anne Drabble, Maureen O’Neill

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The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) offers secondary school students in the final two years of school (Years 11 and 12, 16 – 18 years of age) an opportunity to participate in a program which provides an accelerated pathway to tertiary studies. Whilst still at secondary school, the students undertake two first year university subjects that are required subjects in USC undergraduate degree programs. The program is called Integrated Learning Pathway (ILP) and offers a range of disciplines, including business, design, drama, education, and engineering. Between 2010 and 2014, 38% of secondary students who participated in an ILP program commenced undergraduate studies at USC following completion of secondary school studies. The research reported here considers “before and after” literacy and numeracy competencies of students to determine what impact participation in the ILP program has had on their academic skills. Qualitative and quantitative data has been gathered via numeracy and literacy testing of the students, and a survey asking the students to self-evaluate their numeracy and literacy skills, and reflect on their views of these academic skills. The research will enable improved targeting of teaching strategies so that students will acquire not only course-specific learning outcomes but also collateral academic skills. This enhancement of academic skills will improve undergraduate experience and improve student retention.

Keywords: academic skills enhancement, accelerated pathways, improved teaching, student retention

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Authors: Ilham Benali, Nasser Hajji, Nawfel Acha

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The pharmaceutical sector is ongoing different constraints related to the Research and Development (R&D) costs, the patents extinction, the demand pressing, the regulatory requirement and the generics development, which drive leading firms in the sector to undergo technological change and to shift to biotechnological paradigm. Based on a large literature review, we present a background of innovation trajectory in pharmaceutical industry and reasons behind this technological transformation. Then we investigate the role that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing in this revolution. In order to situate pharmaceutical firms in developing countries in this trajectory, and to examine the degree of their involvement in the innovation process, we did not find any previous empirical work or sources generating gathered data that allow us to analyze this phenomenon. Therefore, and for the case of Morocco, we tried to do it from scratch by gathering relevant data of the last five years from different sources. As a result, only about 4% of all innovative drugs that have access to the local market in the mentioned period are made locally which substantiates that the industrial model in pharmaceutical sector in developing countries is based on the 'license model'. Finally, we present another alternative, based on ICT use and big data tools that can allow developing countries to shift from status of simple consumers to active actors in the innovation process.

Keywords: biotechnologies, developing countries, innovation, information and communication technology, pharmaceutical firms

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Authors: Ibrahim Abdel Gadir Malik, Dafalla Siddig Dafalla, Abdelazim Ibrahim

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Jabal Omar is located in the western side of Makkah city in Saudi Arabia. The proposed Jabal Omar Development project includes several multi-storey buildings, roads, bridges and below ground structures founded at various depths. In this study, geological mapping and site inspection which covered pre-selected areas were carried out within the easily accessed parts. Geological features; including rock types, structures, degree of weathering, and geotechnical hazards were observed and analyzed with specified software and also were documented in form of photographs. The presence of joints and fractures in the area made the rock blocks small and weak. The site is full of jointing; it was observed that, the northern side consists of 3 to 4 jointing systems with 2 random fractures associated with dykes. The southern part is affected by 2 to 3 jointing systems with minor fault and shear zones. From the field measurements and observations, it was concluded that, the Jabal Omar intruded by andesitic and basaltic dykes of different thickness and orientation. These dykes made the outcrop weak, highly deformed and made the rock masses sensitive to weathering.

Keywords: rock, slope, stabilization, protection, Makkah

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Authors: Moleseng Claude Moshobane

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Alien species cause considerable negative impacts on biodiversity, economy and public health. Impacts of alien species on public health have received a degree of attention worldwide, largely in developed countries, but scarce in developing countries. Here, we provide a review of human exposures and poisonings cases from native and alien plant species reported to poison information centers. A retrospective review of the Tygerberg Poison Information Centre (TPIC) and Poisons Information Centre (PIC) at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RCWMCH) was conducted over approximately 2-year period (1 June 2015 through to 06 March 2017). Combined, TPIC and PIC handled 626 cases during the 2-year period. Toxicity cases were more abundant in Gauteng (47.1%), followed by Western Cape (29.4%). The primary mechanism of injury was ingestion (96.7%), and all cases were predominantly accidental. Most reported cases involved infants (20.6%), with few fully-grown adults related cases (5.8%). Adults presented minor to moderate toxicity, while infants none to minor toxicity. We conclude that reported toxicity cases on human health are biased towards few alien species and that several cases relate to unknown species of mushrooms. Public awareness is essential to reducing the poisoning incidences.

Keywords: alien species, poisoning, invasive species, public health

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Authors: Harpinder Kaur, Amit Madahar

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The terry fabric is one of the fastest growing and challenging sub-sectors of the textile industry. Terry fabrics are produced using ground weft, ground warp, and pile yarns. The terry fabrics not only finds applications in towels but also in home textile products, sauna dressing- gowns, slippers, jackets, garments, apparels, outerwears, overcoats, sweatshirts, children’s clothes, and hygiene products for babies, beachwear, sleepwear, gloves, scarfs, shawls, etc. In some cases, these wide ranges of applications not only demand a high degree of absorption but also necessitate the due consideration for the handle properties of the fabrics. These fabrics are required to be accessed for their performance in terms of absorbency and comfort characteristics. Since material (yarns, colors, fabrics, fashion, patrons, accessories and fittings) are the core elements of structure of fashion, hence textile and fashion go hand in hand. This paper throws some light on the performance evaluation of terry fabrics. Here, characteristics/features that are required to be achieved for satisfactory performance of the terry fabrics with reference to fashion are discussed. The terry fabrics are being modified over the years in terms of the raw material requirements such as 100% cotton or blends or cotton with other fibers in order to obtain better performance as well as their structural parameters including stitch length and stitch density etc.

Keywords: absorbency, comfort, cotton, performance, terry fabrics, fashion

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Authors: Javad Rahimipour Anaraki, Saeed Samet, Mahdi Eftekhari, Chang Wook Ahn

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Feature selection and attribute reduction are crucial problems, and widely used techniques in the field of machine learning, data mining and pattern recognition to overcome the well-known phenomenon of the Curse of Dimensionality. This paper presents a feature selection method that efficiently carries out attribute reduction, thereby selecting the most informative features of a dataset. It consists of two components: 1) a measure for feature subset evaluation, and 2) a search strategy. For the evaluation measure, we have employed the fuzzy-rough dependency degree (FRFDD) of the lower approximation-based fuzzy-rough feature selection (L-FRFS) due to its effectiveness in feature selection. As for the search strategy, a modified version of a binary shuffled frog leaping algorithm is proposed (B-SFLA). The proposed feature selection method is obtained by hybridizing the B-SFLA with the FRDD. Nine classifiers have been employed to compare the proposed approach with several existing methods over twenty two datasets, including nine high dimensional and large ones, from the UCI repository. The experimental results demonstrate that the B-SFLA approach significantly outperforms other metaheuristic methods in terms of the number of selected features and the classification accuracy.

Keywords: binary shuffled frog leaping algorithm, feature selection, fuzzy-rough set, minimal reduct

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Authors: Yessentayeva K. Y., Berzhanova R. Z., Mukasheva T. D.

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The purpose of this study was to study the microbial diversity of soils with long-standing hydrocarbon pollution in the S. Balgimbayev field (Kazakhstan), where the transformation of meadow coastal soils technogenic solonchak soils, as well as the assessment of the degradation potential of microorganisms perspective for the use for bioremediation. In the present work autochthonous microorganisms of the surface horizon of soils were investigated. In samples with a low degree of pollution the number of microorganisms, was comparable to the number in the uncontaminated soil and was 103 - 104 CFU/g. and one and two orders of magnitude lower in samples with high oil content. A collection of microorganisms was created using different culture media, which made it possible to isolate isolates that play a key role in different successional stages of biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons. The collection included the main bacterial filiiments, Protobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Mycelial fungi andyeast-like fungwere assigned to the Ascomycota division. Studies showed that the percentage of isolates capable of growth in hydrocarbons varied. More than 50 % of the isolates grew on crude oil, a low percentage of less than 10 % of the isolates grew on an anthracene, phenanthrene and naphthalene, more than 20 % of the isolates belonging to different genera Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Rhodococcus, Achromobacter, Gordonia, Microbacterium, and Trichosporon, characterized the growth on two or three different hydrocarbons. The ability to grow using all hydrocarbons, associated with the synthesis of biosurfactants, was detected only in a few isolates.

Keywords: oil, soil, number of bioremediation, biodegradation, microorganisms, hydrocarbons – oxidizing microorganisms

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Authors: Dwi Wijiastutik, Tarjo, Yuni Rimawati

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The purpose of this empirical study is to analyse how to the market reaction and the conservative degree changes on the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standart (IFRS) through Jakarta Islamic Index. The study also has given others additional analysis on the profitability, capital structure and size company toward IFRS adoption. The data collection methods used in this study reveals as secondary data and deep analysis to the company’s annual report and daily price stock at yahoo finance. We analyse 40 companies listed on Jakarta Islamic Index from 2010 to 2014. The result of the study concluded that IFRS has given a different on the depth analysis to the two of variance analysis: Moderated Regression Analysis and Wilcoxon Signed Rank to test developed hypotheses. Our result on the regression analysis shows that market response and conservatism principle is not significantly after IFRS Adoption in Jakarta Islamic Index. Furthermore, in addition, analysis on profitability, capital structure, and company size show that significantly after IFRS adoption. The findings of our study help investor by showing the impact of IFRS for making decided investment.

Keywords: IFRS, earnings response coefficient, conservatism principle

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Authors: Azene Tesfaye, Yohannes Petros, Habtamu Zeleke

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To evaluate genetic variation among Ethiopian lentil, laboratory experiment were conducted to screen 12 accessions of lentil (Lens culinaris M.) for salt tolerance. Seeds of 12 Lentil accessions were grown at laboratory (Petri dish) condition with different levels of salinity (0, 2, 4, and 8 dSm-1 NaCl) for 4 weeks. The experimental design was completely randomized design (CRD) in factorial combination with three replications. Data analysis was carried out using SAS software. Average germination time, germination percentage, seedling shoot and root traits, seedling shoot and root weight were evaluated. The two way ANOVA for varieties revealed statistically significant variation among lentil accession, NaCl level and their interactions (p<0.001) with respect to the entire parameters. It was found that salt stress significantly delays germination rate and decreases germination percentage, shoot and root length, seedling shoot and root weight of lentil accessions. The degree of decrement varied with accessions and salinity levels. Accessions 36120, 9235 and 36004 were better salt tolerant than the other accessions. As the result, it is recommended to be used as a genetic resource for the development of lentil accession and other very salt sensitive crop with improved germination under salt stress condition.

Keywords: accession, germination, lentil, NaCl, screening, seedling stage

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Authors: Shabana Mohammad, Muhammad Irfan

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The aim of this study was to bring out the facts regarding the effects of gender discrimination in fulfilling the basic needs of females at home. The purpose of the study was to observe whether gender discrimination affects the fulfillment of their basic needs in comparison to male siblings. Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan geographically and has a tribal system. Due to having tribal systems, the women are not treated equally as men at home because males are considered the strength and privilege of tribes; males are more valuable because they support their families economically as well, and females are not allowed to work outside the home. That’s why females are deprived of their basic needs of life. The females (women) are neglected to have better nourishment, health facilities, easy access to get an education, safe house, and self-confidence. The type of research is quantitative, and data was collected from all government girls’ degree colleges of Quetta city (the capital of Balochistan province) under the age of 18. Two hundred (200) Students of all FA arts faculty (first year) were selected through simple random sampling (fishbowl draw). Data were analyzed by SPSS, and a coefficient test was applied to test the hypothesis. The regression of coefficient has a significant association between gender discrimination and basic needs (P-value =.000). The results showed that women are underprivileged from all basic needs (fundamental rights) of life, which are entitled to everyone by their birth because of male preference that creates gender disparity between men and women.

Keywords: basic needs, discrimination, value of women at home, hurdles of women

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Authors: Mitsuyoshi Tomiya, Kentaro Kawamura, Shoichi Sakamoto

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In chaotic billiard systems, scar-like localization has been found on time-evolving wave packet. We may call it the “dynamical scar” to separate it to the original scar in stationary states. It also comes out along the vicinity of classical unstable periodic orbits, when the wave packets are launched along the orbits, against the hypothesis that the waves become homogenous all around the billiard. Then time-evolving wave packets are investigated numerically in phase space. The Wigner function is adopted to detect the wave packets in phase space. The 2-dimensional Poincaré sections of the 4-dimensional phase space are introduced to clarify the dynamical behavior of the wave packets. The Poincaré sections of the coordinate (x or y) and the momentum (Px or Py) can visualize the dynamical behavior of the wave packets, including the behavior in the momentum degree also. For example, in “dynamical scar” states, a bit larger momentum component comes first, and then the a bit smaller and smaller components follow next. The sections made in the momentum space (Px or Py) elucidates specific trajectories that have larger contribution to the “dynamical scar” states. It is the fixed point observation of the momentum degrees at a specific fixed point(x0, y0) in the phase space. The accumulation are also calculated to search the “dynamical scar” in the Poincare sections. It is found the scars as bright spots in momentum degrees of the phase space.

Keywords: chaotic billiard, Poincaré section, scar, wave packet

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Authors: Fariba Ebrahimi, Mehdi Ghorbani, Ali Salajegheh

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Comprehensively water management considers economic, environmental, technical and social and also sustainability of water resources for future generations. Grassland management implies cooperative approach and involves all stakeholders and also introduces issues to managers, decision and policy makers. Solving these issues needs integrated and system approach. According to the recognition of actors or key persons in necessary to apply cooperative management of Water. Therefore, based on stakeholder analysis and social network analysis can be used to demonstrate the most effective actors for environmental decisions. In this research, social powers according are specified to social network approach at Water utilizers’ level of Natural in Jirood catchment of Latian basin. In this paper, utilizers of water resources were recognized using field trips and then, trust and collaboration matrix produced using questionnaires. In the next step, degree centrality index were Examined. Finally, geometric position of each actor was illustrated in the network. The results of the research based on centrality index have a key role in recognition of cooperative management of Water in Jirood and also will help managers and planners of water in the case of recognition of social powers in order to organization and implementation of sustainable management of Water.

Keywords: social network analysis, water co-management, social power, centrality index, local stakeholders network, Jirood catchment

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Authors: Lucas Caldas, Pablo Paulse, Karla Hora

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Shipping containers are present in different Brazilian cities, firstly used for transportation purposes, but which become waste materials and an environmental burden in their end-of-life cycle. In the last decade, in Brazil, some buildings made partly or totally from shipping containers started to appear, most of them for commercial and office uses. Although the use of a reused container for buildings seems a sustainable solution, it is very important to measure the thermal and energy aspects when they are used as such. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the thermal and energy performance of an office building totally made from a 12-meter-long, High Cube 40’ shipping container in different Brazilian Bioclimatic Zones. Four different constructive solutions, mostly used in Brazil were chosen: (1) container without any covering; (2) with internally insulated drywall; (3) with external fiber cement boards; (4) with both drywall and fiber cement boards. For this, the DesignBuilder with EnergyPlus was used for the computational simulation in 8760 hours. The EnergyPlus Weather File (EPW) data of six Brazilian capital cities were considered: Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Campo Grande, Teresina and Rio de Janeiro. Air conditioning appliance (split) was adopted for the conditioned area and the cooling setpoint was fixed at 25°C. The coefficient of performance (CoP) of air conditioning equipment was set as 3.3. Three kinds of solar absorptances were verified: 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 of exterior layer. The building in Teresina presented the highest level of energy consumption, while the one in Curitiba presented the lowest, with a wide range of differences in results. The constructive option of external fiber cement and drywall presented the best results, although the differences were not significant compared to the solution using just drywall. The choice of absorptance showed a great impact in energy consumption, mainly compared to the case of containers without any covering and for use in the hottest cities: Teresina, Rio de Janeiro, and Campo Grande. This study brings as the main contribution the discussion of constructive aspects for design guidelines for more energy-efficient container buildings, considering local climate differences, and helps the dissemination of this cleaner constructive practice in the Brazilian building sector.

Keywords: bioclimatic zones, Brazil, shipping containers, thermal and energy performance

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Authors: Sedigheh Samimian, Sadra Ashrafi, Tahereh Khaleghdoost Mohammadi, Mohammad Reza Yeganeh, Ali Ashraf, Hamideh Hakimi, Maryam Dehghani

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Introduction: The recommended position for measuring Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP) is the supine position. However, patients put in this position are prone to Ventilator-associated pneumonia. This study was done to evaluate the relationship between bed head angle and IAP measurements of intubated patients in the intensive care unit. Methods: In this clinical trial, seventy-six critically ill patients under mechanical ventilation were enrolled. IAP measurement was performed every 8 hours for 24 hours using the KORN method in three different degrees of the head of bed (HOB) elevation (0°, 15°, and 30°). Bland-Altman analysis was performed to identify the bias and limits of agreement among the three HOBs. According to World Society of the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome (WSACS), we can consider two IAP techniques equivalent if a bias of <1 mmHg and limits of agreement of - 4 to +4 were found between them. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software (v. 19), and the significance level was considered as 0.05. Results: The prevalence of intra-abdominal hypertension was 18.42%. Mean ± standard deviation (SD) of IAP were 8.44 ± 4.02 mmHg for HOB angle 0°, 9.58 ± 4.52 for HOB angle 15°, and 11.10 ± 4.73 for HOB angle 30o (p = 0.0001). The IAP measurement bias between HOB angle 0◦ and HOB angle 15° was 1.13 mmHg. This bias was 2.66 mmHg between HOB angle 0° and HOB angle 30°. Conclusion: Elevation of HOB angle from 0 to 30 degree significantly increases IAP. It seems that the measurement of IAP at HOB angle 15° was more reliable than 30°.

Keywords: pressure, intra-abdominal hypertension, head of bed, critical care, compartment syndrome, supine position

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