Search results for: Facility layout problem

Authors: Amit K. Mishra, Jaswant Singh

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The menace of plastic, which significantly pollutes the aquatic environment, has emerged as a global problem. There is an emerging concern about microplastics (MPs) accumulation in aquatic ecosystems. It is familiar to everyone that the ultimate end for most of the plastic debris is the ocean. Rivers are the efficient carriers for transferring MPs from terrestrial to aquatic, further from upstream to downstream areas, and ultimately to oceans. The root cause study can provide an effective solution to a problem; hence, tracing of MPs in the riverine system can illustrate the long-term microplastic pollution. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence and distribution of microplastic contamination in surface water and sediment of the two major river systems of Uttar Pradesh, India. One is the Gomti River, Lucknow, a tributary of the Ganga, and the second is the Saryu River, the lower part of the Ghagra River, which flows through the city of Ayodhya. In this study, the distribution and abundance of MPs in surface water and sediments of two rivers were compared. Samples of water and sediment were collected from different (four from each river) sampling stations in the river catchment of two rivers. Plastic particles were classified according to type, shape, and color. In this study, 1523 (average abundance 254) and 143 (average abundance 26) microplastics were identified in all studied sites in the Gomati River and Saryu River, respectively. Observations on samples of water showed that the average MPs concentration was 392 (±69.6) and 63 ((±18.9) particles per 50l of water, whereas the sediment sample showed that the average MPs concentration was 116 (±42.9) and 46 (±12.5) particles per 250gm of dry sediment in the Gomati River and Saryu River, respectively. The high concentration of microplastics in the Lucknow area can be attributed to human activities, population density, and the entry of various effluents into the river. Microplastics with fibrous shapes were dominated, followed by fragment shapes in all the samples. The present study is a pioneering effort to count MPs in the Gomati and Saryu River systems.

Keywords: freshwater, Gomati, microplastics, Saryu, sediment

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Authors: Souvik Phadikar, Nidul Sinha, Rajdeep Ghosh

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In brainwaves research using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, finding the most relevant and effective feature set for identification of activities in the human brain is a big challenge till today because of the random nature of the signals. The feature extraction method is a key issue to solve this problem. Finding those features that prove to give distinctive pictures for different activities and similar for the same activities is very difficult, especially for the number of activities. The performance of a classifier accuracy depends on this quality of feature set. Further, more number of features result in high computational complexity and less number of features compromise with the lower performance. In this paper, a novel idea of the selection of optimal feature set using a heuristically optimized deep autoencoder is presented. Using various feature extraction methods, a vast number of features are extracted from the EEG signals and fed to the autoencoder deep neural network. The autoencoder encodes the input features into a small set of codes. To avoid the gradient vanish problem and normalization of the dataset, a meta-heuristic search algorithm is used to minimize the mean square error (MSE) between encoder input and decoder output. To reduce the feature set into a smaller one, 4 hidden layers are considered in the autoencoder network; hence it is called Heuristically Optimized Deep Autoencoder (HO-DAE). In this method, no features are rejected; all the features are combined into the response of responses of the hidden layer. The results reveal that higher accuracy can be achieved using optimal reduced features. The proposed HO-DAE is also compared with the regular autoencoder to test the performance of both. The performance of the proposed method is validated and compared with the other two methods recently reported in the literature, which reveals that the proposed method is far better than the other two methods in terms of classification accuracy.

Keywords: autoencoder, brainwave signal analysis, electroencephalogram, feature extraction, feature selection, optimization

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Authors: Tacho Rubby Kong

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Community health workers’ performances are known to influence members’ behaviours and practices while translating policies into service delivery. However, little remains known about the extent to which this remains true within interventions aimed at addressing malaria burden in low-resource settings like Cameroon. The objective of this study was to examine the health workers’ performance and their influence on the adoption of strategies to address the malaria burden at a subnational level health system in Cameroon. A qualitative exploratory design was adopted on a purposively selected sample of 18 key informants. The study was conducted in Konye health district among sub-national health systems, managers, health facility in-charges, and frontline community health workers. Data was collected using semi-structured interview guides in a face-to-face interview with respondents. The analysis adopted a thematic approach utilising journals, credible authors, and peer review articles for data management. Participants acknowledged that workplace networks were influential during the implementation of policies to address malaria. The influence exerted was in form of linkage with other services, caution, and advice regarding strict adherence to policy recommendations, perhaps reflective of the level of trust in providers’ ability to adhere to policy provisions. At the district health management level and among non-state actors, support in perceived areas of weak performance in policy implementation was observed. In addition, timely initiation of contact and subsequent referral was another aspect where community health workers exerted influence while translating policies to address the malaria burden. While the level of support from among network peers was observed to influence community health workers’ adoption and implementation of strategies to address the malaria burden, different mechanisms triggered subsequent response and level of adherence to recommended policy aspects. Drawing from the elicited responses, it was infer that community health workers’ performance influence the direction and extent of success in policy implementation to address the malaria burden at the subnational level.

Keywords: subnational, community, malaria, strategy

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Authors: Christine Böckmann, Julia Rosemann

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We present an inversion algorithm that is used in the European Aerosol Lidar Network for the inversion of data collected with multi-wavelength Raman lidar. These instruments measure backscatter coefficients at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, and extinction coefficients at 355 and 532 nm. The algorithm is based on manually controlled inversion of optical data which allows for detailed sensitivity studies and thus provides us with comparably high quality of the derived data products. The algorithm allows us to derive particle effective radius, volume, surface-area concentration with comparably high confidence. The retrieval of the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index still is a challenge in view of the accuracy required for these parameters in climate change studies in which light-absorption needs to be known with high accuracy. Single-scattering albedo (SSA) can be computed from the retrieve microphysical parameters and allows us to categorize aerosols into high and low absorbing aerosols. From mathematical point of view the algorithm is based on the concept of using truncated singular value decomposition as regularization method. This method was adapted to work for the retrieval of the particle size distribution function (PSD) and is called hybrid regularization technique since it is using a triple of regularization parameters. The inversion of an ill-posed problem, such as the retrieval of the PSD, is always a challenging task because very small measurement errors will be amplified most often hugely during the solution process unless an appropriate regularization method is used. Even using a regularization method is difficult since appropriate regularization parameters have to be determined. Therefore, in a next stage of our work we decided to use two regularization techniques in parallel for comparison purpose. The second method is an iterative regularization method based on Pade iteration. Here, the number of iteration steps serves as the regularization parameter. We successfully developed a semi-automated software for spherical particles which is able to run even on a parallel processor machine. From a mathematical point of view, it is also very important (as selection criteria for an appropriate regularization method) to investigate the degree of ill-posedness of the problem which we found is a moderate ill-posedness. We computed the optical data from mono-modal logarithmic PSD and investigated particles of spherical shape in our simulations. We considered particle radii as large as 6 nm which does not only cover the size range of particles in the fine-mode fraction of naturally occurring PSD but also covers a part of the coarse-mode fraction of PSD. We considered errors of 15% in the simulation studies. For the SSA, 100% of all cases achieve relative errors below 12%. In more detail, 87% of all cases for 355 nm and 88% of all cases for 532 nm are well below 6%. With respect to the absolute error for non- and weak-absorbing particles with real parts 1.5 and 1.6 in all modes the accuracy limit +/- 0.03 is achieved. In sum, 70% of all cases stay below +/-0.03 which is sufficient for climate change studies.

Keywords: aerosol particles, inverse problem, microphysical particle properties, regularization

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Authors: Sergey Sorokin, Irina Sorokina, Alexander Yazenin

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We present a solution to the Maxmin u/E parameters estimation problem of possibility distributions in m-dimensional case. Our method is based on geometrical approach, where minimal area enclosing ellipsoid is constructed around the sample. Also we demonstrate that one can improve results of well-known algorithms in fuzzy model identification task using Maxmin u/E parameters estimation.

Keywords: possibility distribution, parameters estimation, Maxmin u\E estimator, fuzzy model identification

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Authors: Jayanth Abishek Subramanian, Ramin Dabirian, Ilias Gavrielatos, Ram Mohan, Ovadia Shoham

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Downcomers are important conduits for multiphase flow transfer from offshore platforms to the seabed. Uncertainty in the predictions of the pressure drop of multiphase flow between platforms is often dominated by the uncertainty associated with the prediction of holdup and pressure drop in the downcomer. The objectives of this study are to conduct experimental and theoretical scale-up study of the downcomer. A 4-in. diameter vertical test section was designed and constructed to study two-phase flow in downcomer. The facility is equipped with baffles for flow area restriction, enabling interchangeable annular slot openings between 30% and 61.7%. Also, state-of-the-art instrumentation, the capacitance Wire-Mesh Sensor (WMS) was utilized to acquire the experimental data. A total of 76 experimental data points were acquired, including falling film under 30% and 61.7% annular slot opening for air-water and air-Conosol C200 oil cases as well as gas carry-under for 30% and 61.7% opening utilizing air-Conosol C200 oil. For all experiments, the parameters such as falling film thickness and velocity, entrained liquid holdup in the core, gas void fraction profiles at the cross-sectional area of the liquid column, the void fraction and the gas carry under were measured. The experimental results indicated that the film thickness and film velocity increase as the flow area reduces. Also, the increase in film velocity increases the gas entrainment process. Furthermore, the results confirmed that the increase of gas entrainment for the same liquid flow rate leads to an increase in the gas carry-under. A power comparison method was developed to enable evaluation of the Lopez (2011) model, which was created for full bore downcomer, with the novel scale-up experiment data acquired from the downcomer with the restricted area for flow. Comparison between the experimental data and the model predictions shows a maximum absolute average discrepancy of 22.9% and 21.8% for the falling film thickness and velocity, respectively; and a maximum absolute average discrepancy of 22.2% for fraction of gas carried with the liquid (oil).

Keywords: two phase flow, falling film, downcomer, wire-mesh sensor

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Authors: Ayobami Solomon Popoola

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Yam is majorly a carbohydrate food grown in most parts of the world. It could be boiled, fried or roasted for consumption in a variety of ways. Blanching is an established heat pre-treatment given to fruits and vegetables prior to further processing such as dehydration, canning, freezing etc. Losses of soluble solids during blanching has been a great problem because a reasonable quantity of the water-soluble nutrients are inevitably leached into the blanching water. Without blanching, the high residual levels of reducing sugars after extended storage produce a dark, bitter-tasting product because of the Maillard reactions of reducing sugars at frying temperature. Measurement and prediction of such losses are necessary for economic efficiency in production and to establish the level of effluent treatment of the blanching water. This paper aims at resolving this problem by investigating the effects of cube size and temperature on the rate of diffusional losses of reducing sugars and total sugars during hot water blanching of water-yam. The study was carried out using four temperature levels (65, 70, 80 and 90 °C) and two cubes sizes (0.02 m³ and 0.03 m³) at 4 times intervals (5, 10, 15 and 20 mins) respectively. Obtained data were fitted into Fick’s non-steady equation from which diffusion coefficients (Da) were obtained. The Da values were subsequently fitted into Arrhenius plot to obtain activation energies (Ea-values) for diffusional losses. The diffusion co-efficient were independent of cube size and time but highly temperature dependent. The diffusion coefficients were ≥ 1.0 ×10⁻⁹ m²s⁻¹ for reducing sugars and ≥ 5.0 × 10⁻⁹ m²s⁻¹ for total sugars. The Ea values ranged between 68.2 to 73.9 KJmol⁻¹ and 7.2 to 14.30 KJmol⁻¹ for reducing sugars and total sugars losses respectively. Predictive equations for estimating amount of reducing sugars and total sugars with blanching time of water-yam at various temperatures were also presented. The equation could be valuable in process design and optimization. However, amount of other soluble solids that might have leached into the water along with reducing and total sugars during blanching was not investigated in the study.

Keywords: blanching, kinetics, sugar losses, water yam

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Authors: Solaine Hachem, Frédéric Bourquin, Dominique Siegert

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The brutal collapse of bridges is mainly due to scour. Indeed, the soil erosion in the riverbed around a pier modifies the embedding conditions of the structure, reduces its overall stiffness and threatens its stability. Hence, finding an efficient technique that allows early scour detection becomes mandatory. Vibration analysis is an indirect method for scour detection that relies on real-time monitoring of the bridge. It tends to indicate the presence of a scour based on its consequences on the stability of the structure and its dynamic response. Most of the research in this field has focused on the dynamic behavior of a single pile and has examined the depth of the scour. In this paper, a bridge is fully modeled with all piles and spans and the scour is represented by a reduction in the foundation's stiffnesses. This work aims to identify the vibration modes sensitive to the rigidity’s loss in the foundations so that their variations can be considered as a scour indicator: the decrease in soil-structure interaction rigidity leads to a decrease in the natural frequencies’ values. By using the first-order perturbation method, the expression of sensitivity, which depends only on the selected vibration modes, is established to determine the deficiency of foundations stiffnesses. The solutions are obtained by using the singular value decomposition method for the regularization of the inverse problem. The propagation of uncertainties is also calculated to verify the efficiency of the inverse problem method. Numerical simulations describing different scenarios of scour are investigated on a simplified model of a real composite steel-concrete bridge located in France. The results of the modal analysis show that the modes corresponding to in-plane and out-of-plane piers vibrations are sensitive to the loss of foundation stiffness. While the deck bending modes are not affected by this damage.

Keywords: bridge’s piers, inverse problems, modal sensitivity, scour detection, vibration analysis

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Authors: C. Hernandez-Garcia, P. Adderley, D. Bullard, J. Grames, M. A. Mamun, G. Palacios-Serrano, M. Poelker, M. Stutzman, R. Suleiman, Y. Wang, , S. Zhang

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High-energy nuclear physics experiments performed at the Jefferson Lab (JLab) Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility require a beam of spin-polarized ps-long electron bunches. The electron beam is generated when a circularly polarized laser beam illuminates a GaAs semiconductor photocathode biased at hundreds of kV dc inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. The photocathode is mounted on highly polished stainless steel electrodes electrically isolated by means of a conical-shape ceramic insulator that extends into the vacuum chamber, serving as the cathode electrode support structure. The assembly is known as a dc photogun, which has to simultaneously meet the following criteria: high voltage to manage space charge forces within the electron bunch, ultra-high vacuum conditions to preserve the photocathode quantum efficiency, no field emission to prevent gas load when field emitted electrons impact the vacuum chamber, and finally no voltage breakdown for robust operation. Over the past decade, JLab has tested and implemented the use of inverted geometry ceramic insulators connected to commercial high voltage cables to operate a photogun at 200kV dc with a 10 cm long insulator, and a larger version at 300kV dc with 20 cm long insulator. Plans to develop a third photogun operating at 400kV dc to meet the stringent requirements of the proposed International Linear Collider are underway at JLab, utilizing even larger inverted insulators. This contribution describes approaches that have been successful in solving challenging problems related to breakdown and field emission, such as triple-point junction screening electrodes, mechanical polishing to achieve mirror-like surface finish and high voltage conditioning procedures with Kr gas to extinguish field emission.

Keywords: electron guns, high voltage techniques, insulators, vacuum insulation

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Authors: Abolfazl Zaraki, Yoshikatsu Hayashi, Harry Thorpe, Vincent Strong, Gisle-Andre Larsen, William Holderbaum

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Thanks to the high maneuverability of the cable-driven hyper-redundant manipulators (HRMs), this class of robots has shown a superior capability in highly confined and unstructured space applications. Although the large number of degrees of freedom (DOF) of HRMs enhances the motion flexibility and the robot’s reachability range, it highly increases the complexity of the kinematic configuration which makes the kinematic control problem very challenging or even impossible to solve. This paper presents our current progress achieved on the development of a kinematic-based leader-follower control system which is designed to control not only the robot’s body posture but also to control the trajectory of the robot’s movement in a semi-autonomous manner (the human operator is retained in the robot’s control loop). To obtain the forward kinematic model, the coordinate frames are established by the classical Denavit–Hartenburg (D-H) convention for a hyper-redundant serial manipulator which has a controlled cables-driven mechanism. To solve the inverse kinematics of the robot, unlike the conventional methods, a leader-follower mechanism, based on the sequential inverse kinematic, is followed. Using this mechanism, the inverse kinematic problem is solved for all sequential joints starting from the head joint to the base joint of the robot. To verify the kinematic design and simulate the robot motion, the MATLAB robotic toolbox is used. The simulation result demonstrated the promising capability of the proposed leader-follower control system in controlling the robot motion and trajectory in our confined space application.

Keywords: hyper-redundant robots, kinematic analysis, semi-autonomous control, serial manipulators

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Authors: Tasha L. Golden

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Girls in the U.S. juvenile justice system are most often arrested for truancy, drug use, or running from home, all of which are symptoms of abuse. In fact, some have called this 'The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline.' Such abuse has consequences for girls' health, education, employment, and parenting, often resulting in significant health disparities. Yet when arrested, girls rarely encounter services designed to meet their unique needs. Instead, they are expected to cope with a system that was historically designed for males. In fact, even literature advocating for increased gender equity frequently fails to include girls’ voices and firsthand accounts. In response to these combined injustices, public health researchers launched a trauma-informed creative writing intervention in a southern juvenile detention facility. The program was designed to improve the health of detained girls, while also establishing innovative methods of both data collection and social justice advocacy. Girls’ poems and letters were collected and coded, adding rich qualitative data to traditional survey responses. In addition, as part of the intervention, these poems are regularly published by international literary publisher Sarabande Books—and distributed to judges, city leaders, attorneys, state representatives, and more. By utilizing a creative medium, girls generated substantial civic engagement with their concerns—thus expanding their influence and improving policy advocacy efforts. Researchers hypothesized that having access to their communities and policy makers would provide its own health benefits for incarcerated girls: cultivating self-esteem, locus of control, and a sense of leadership. This paper discusses the establishment of this intervention, examines findings from its evaluation, and includes several girls’ poems as exemplars. Grounded in social science regarding expressive writing, stigma, muted group theory, and health promotion, the paper theorizes about the application of arts-based advocacy efforts to other social justice endeavors.

Keywords: advocacy, public health, social justice, women’s health

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Authors: Walter M. Millanzi, Stephen M. Kibusi

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Background: Currently, there has been a progressive shortage not only to the number but also the quality of medical practitioners for the most of nursing. Despite that, those who are present exhibit unethical and illegal practices, under standard care and malpractices. The concern is raised in the ways they are prepared, or there might be something missing in nursing curricula or how it is delivered. There is a need for transforming or testing new teaching modalities to enhance competent health workforces. Objective: to investigate the Effect of Facilitation in a Problem-based Environment (FPBE) on metacognition, self-directed learning and learning motivation to undergraduate nurse student in Tanzanian higher learning institutions. Methods: quasi-experimental study (quantitative research approach). A purposive sampling technique was employed to select institutions and achieving a sample size of 401 participants (interventional = 134 and control = 267). Self-administered semi-structured questionnaire; was the main data collection methods and the Statistical Package for Service Solution (v. 20) software program was used for data entry, data analysis, and presentations. Results: The pre-post test results between groups indicated noticeably significant change on metacognition in an intervention (M = 1.52, SD = 0.501) against the control (M = 1.40, SD = 0.490), t (399) = 2.398, p < 0.05). SDL in an intervention (M = 1.52, SD = 0.501) against the control (M = 1.40, SD = 0.490), t (399) = 2.398, p < 0.05. Motivation to learn in an intervention (M = 62.67, SD = 14.14) and the control (n = 267, M = 57.75), t (399) = 2.907, p < 0.01). A FPBE teaching pedagogy, was observed to be effective on the metacognition (AOR = 1.603, p < 0.05), SDL (OR = 1.729, p < 0.05) and Intrinsic motivation in learning (AOR = 1.720, p < 0.05) against conventional teaching pedagogy. Needless, was less likely to enhance Extrinsic motivation (AOR = 0.676, p > 0.05) and Amotivation (AOR = 0.538, p > 0.05). Conclusion and recommendation: FPBE teaching pedagogy, can improve student’s metacognition, self-directed learning and intrinsic motivation to learn among nurse students. Nursing curricula developers should incorporate it to produce 21st century competent and qualified nurses.

Keywords: facilitation, metacognition, motivation, self-directed

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Authors: Abdelhadi Elharfi

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A problem of boundary feedback (exponential) stabilization of an overhead crane model represented by a PDE is considered. For any $r>0$, the exponential stability at the desired decay rate $r$ is solved in semi group setting by a collocated-type stabiliser of a target system combined with a term involving the solution of an appropriate PDE.

Keywords: feedback stabilization, semi group and generator, overhead crane system

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Authors: Michael Ayomoh, Adriaan Roux, Oyindamola Omotuyi

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This paper presents an efficient robot navigation model in a multi-target domain amidst static and dynamic workspace obstacles. The problem is that of developing an optimal algorithm to minimize the total travel time of a robot as it visits all target points within its task domain amidst unknown workspace obstacles and finally return to its initial position. In solving this problem, a classical algorithm was first developed to compute the optimal number of paths to be travelled by the robot amidst the network of paths. The principle of shortest distance between robot and targets was used to compute the target point visitation order amidst workspace obstacles. Algorithm premised on the standard polar coordinate system was developed to determine the length of obstacles encountered by the robot hence giving room for a geometrical estimation of the total surface area occupied by the obstacle especially when classified as a relevant obstacle i.e. obstacle that lies in between a robot and its potential visitation point. A stochastic model was developed and used to estimate the likelihood of a dynamic obstacle bumping into the robot’s navigation path and finally, the navigation/obstacle avoidance algorithm was hinged on the hybrid virtual force field (HVFF) method. Significant modelling constraints herein include the choice of navigation path to selected target points, the possible presence of static obstacles along a desired navigation path and the likelihood of encountering a dynamic obstacle along the robot’s path and the chances of it remaining at this position as a static obstacle hence resulting in a case of re-routing after routing. The proposed algorithm demonstrated a high potential for optimal solution in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Keywords: multi-target, mobile robot, optimal path, static obstacles, dynamic obstacles

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Authors: Mohamad Mohsen Homayouni, Niloofar Taghipour, Ahmad Reza Memar, Niloofar Khalaji, Hamed Kiani, Seyyed Javad Seyyed Tabaei

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Background and Objective: Cryptosporidium is a coccidian protozoan parasite; its oocysts in surface water are a global health problem. Due to the low number of parasites in the water resources and the lack of laboratory culture, rapid and sensitive method for detection of the organism in the water resources is necessarily required. We applied modified acid-fast staining and PCR for the detection of the Cryptosporidium spp. and analysed the genotypes in 55 samples collected from surface water. Methods: Over a period of nine months, 55 surface water samples were collected from the five rivers in Tehran, Iran. The samples were filtered by using cellulose acetate membrane filters. By acid fast method, initial identification of Cryptosporidium oocyst were carried out on surface water samples. Then, nested PCR assay was designed for the specific amplification and analysed the genotypes. Results: Modified Ziehl-Neelsen method revealed 5–20 Cryptosporidium oocysts detected per 10 Liter. Five out of the 55 (9.09%) surface water samples were found positive for Cryptosporidium spp. by Ziehl-Neelsen test and seven (12.7%) were found positive by nested PCR. The staining results were consistent with PCR. Seven Cryptosporidium PCR products were successfully sequenced and five gp60 subtypes were detected. Our finding of gp60 gene revealed that all of the positive isolates were Cryptosporidium parvum and belonged to subtype families IIa and IId. Conclusion: Our investigations were showed that collection of water samples were contaminated by Cryptosporidium, with potential hazards for the significant health problem. This study provides the first report on detection and genotyping of Cryptosporidium species from surface water samples in Iran, and its result confirmed the low clinical incidence of this parasite on the community.

Keywords: Cryptosporidium spp., membrane filtration, subtype, surface water, Iran

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Authors: Slavica P. Petrovic

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One of the key dimensions of management problems in organizations refers to the relations between stakeholders. The management problems that are characterized by conflict and coercion, in which participants do not agree on the ends and means, in which different groups, i.e., individuals, strive to – using the power they have – impose on others their favoured strategy and decisions represent the relevant research subject. Creatively managing the coercive problems in organizations, in which the sources of power can be identified, implies the emancipatory paradigm and the use of corresponding systems methodology. The main research aim is to critically reassess the theoretical foundations and methodological and methodical development of Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) – as a valid representative of the emancipatory paradigm – in order to determine the conditions, ways, and achievements of its application in managing the coercive problems in organizations. The basic hypothesis is that CSH, as the emancipatory methodology, given its own theoretical foundations and methodological-methodical development, can be employed in a scientifically based and practically useful manner in creative addressing the coercive problems. The scientific instrumentarium corresponding to this research aim is critical systems thinking with its three key commitments to: a) Critical awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of each research instrument (theory, methodology, method, technique, model) for structuring the problem situations in organizations, b) Improvement of managing the coercive problems in organizations, and c) Pluralism – respect the different perceptions and interpretations of problem situations, and enable the combined use of research instruments. The relevant research result is that CSH – considering its theoretical foundations, methodological and methodical development – enables to reveal the normative content of the proposed or existing designs of organizational systems. Accordingly, it can be concluded that through the use of critically heuristic categories and dialectical debate between those involved and those affected by the designs, but who are not included in designing organizational systems, CSH endeavours to – in the application – support the process of improving position of all stakeholders.

Keywords: coercion and conflict in organizations, creative management, critical systems heuristics, the emancipatory systems methodology

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Authors: Renata Masarova, Bohuslava Juhasova, Martin Juhas, Zuzana Sutova

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In dynamic system theory a mathematical model is often used to describe their properties. In order to find a transfer matrix of a dynamic system we need to calculate an inverse matrix. The paper contains the fusion of the classical theory and the procedures used in the theory of automated control for calculating the inverse matrix. The final part of the paper models the given problem by the Matlab.

Keywords: dynamic system, transfer matrix, inverse matrix, modeling

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Authors: Nino Paresashvili, Nino Abesadze

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The modern world faces huge challenges. Globalization changed the socio-economic conditions of many countries. The current processes in the global environment have a different impact on countries with different cultures. However, an alleviation of poverty and improvement of living conditions is still the basic challenge for the majority of countries, because much of the population still lives under the official threshold of poverty. It is very important to stimulate youth employment. In order to prepare young people for the labour market, it is essential to provide them with the appropriate professional skills and knowledge. It is necessary to plan efficient activities for decreasing an unemployment rate and for developing the perfect mechanisms for regulation of a labour market. Such planning requires thorough study and analysis of existing reality, as well as development of corresponding mechanisms. Statistical analysis of unemployment is one of the main platforms for regulation of the labour market key mechanisms. The corresponding statistical methods should be used in the study process. Such methods are observation, gathering, grouping, and calculation of the generalized indicators. Unemployment is one of the most severe socioeconomic problems in Georgia. According to the past as well as the current statistics, unemployment rates always have been the most problematic issue to resolve for policy makers. Analytical works towards to the above-mentioned problem will be the basis for the next sustainable steps to solve the main problem. The results of the study showed that the choice of young people is not often due to their inclinations, their interests and the labour market demand. That is why the wrong professional orientation of young people in most cases leads to their unemployment. At the same time, it was shown that there are a number of professions in the labour market with a high demand because of the deficit the appropriate specialties. To achieve healthy competitiveness in youth employment, it is necessary to formulate regional employment programs with taking into account the regional infrastructure specifications.

Keywords: unemployment, analysis, methods, tendencies, regulation mechanisms

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Authors: Seember Susan Aondoakura

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This paper examines the international legal framework established to address the challenges women and girls experience in situations of violent conflict. The United Nations (UN) women, peace, and security agenda (hereafter WPS agenda, the Agenda) aspire to make wars safer for women. It recognizes women's agency in armed conflict and their victimization and formulates measures for their protection. The Agenda also acknowledges women's participation in conflict transformation and post-conflict reconstruction. It also calls for the involvement of women in conflict transformation, encourages the protection of women from sex and gender-based violence (SGBV), and provides relief and recovery from conflict-related SGBV. Using Third World Critical Feminist Theory, this paper argues that the WPS agenda overly focus on the protection of women from SGBV occurring in the less developed and conflict-ridden states in the global south, obscures the complicity of western states and economies to the problem, and silences the privileges that such states derive from war economies that continue to fuel conflict. This protectionist approach of the UN also obliterates other equally pressing problems in need of attention, like the high rates of economic degradation in conflict-ravaged societies of the global south. Prioritising protection also 'others' the problem, obliterating any sense of interconnections across geographical locations and situating women in the less developed economies of the global south as the victims and their men as the perpetrators. Prioritising protection ultimately situates western societies as saviours of Third World women with no recourse to their role in engendering and sustaining war. The paper demonstrates that this saviour mentality obliterates chances of any meaningful coalition between the local and the international in framing and addressing the issue, as solutions are formulated from a specific lens—the white hegemonic lens.

Keywords: conflict, protection, security, SGBV

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Authors: Ahmad Shahin, Fadi Chakik, Walid Moudani

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Our study is about elaborating a potential solution for a search engine that involves semantic technology to retrieve information and display it significantly. Semantic search engines are not used widely over the web as the majorities are still in Beta stage or under construction. Many problems face the current applications in semantic search, the major problem is to analyze and calculate the meaning of query in order to retrieve relevant information. Another problem is the ontology based index and its updates. Ranking results according to concept meaning and its relation with query is another challenge. In this paper, we are offering a light meta-engine (QESM) which uses Google search, and therefore Google’s index, with some adaptations to its returned results by adding multi-query expansion. The mission was to find a reliable ranking algorithm that involves semantics and uses concepts and meanings to rank results. At the beginning, the engine finds synonyms of each query term entered by the user based on a lexical database. Then, query expansion is applied to generate different semantically analogous sentences. These are generated randomly by combining the found synonyms and the original query terms. Our model suggests the use of semantic similarity measures between two sentences. Practically, we used this method to calculate semantic similarity between each query and the description of each page’s content generated by Google. The generated sentences are sent to Google engine one by one, and ranked again all together with the adapted ranking method (QESM). Finally, our system will place Google pages with higher similarities on the top of the results. We have conducted experimentations with 6 different queries. We have observed that most ranked results with QESM were altered with Google’s original generated pages. With our experimented queries, QESM generates frequently better accuracy than Google. In some worst cases, it behaves like Google.

Keywords: semantic search engine, Google indexing, query expansion, similarity measures

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Authors: Min Wei

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Objectives: Experience tourism represents an advanced stage of tourism compared with sightseeing tourism and relaxation tourism. Experience tourism reflects the full respect of experience economy to the human natures. This paper chose one of the most popular ocean tourism products in Zhoushan, as a subject and investigated the constructive elements in tourist experience based on the needs of tourists. Methods: This paper started with the influences of tourism product innovation on tourist experience, then proposed a model of the relationship between tourist experience, tourist satisfaction, and the following behavior of tourists, and concluded that tourist experience improves tourist satisfaction and thereby enhances tourist loyalty based on the developmental pathway of experience tourism. To ensure the accuracy of the collected data of the research results, the sample of this questionnaire survey is chosen by the method of occasional sampling, combined with the judgment of the investigators and the convenience of the questionnaire survey, the survey objects are selected from the scenic spots of Putuo Mountain, Zhujiajian, Taohua Island, waiting room of passenger terminal, etc. Before filling in the questionnaire, the author and the respondents have a short communication. On the premise that the respondents can fully understand the purpose and content of the questionnaire, tourists fill in the questionnaire independently and collect it on the spot. Results: The research results of this paper are mainly embodied in the following aspects: it is concluded that there are many constructive factors of tourists' experience in Zhoushan tourism products. Based on Zhoushan tourism products, this paper explores the constructive factors of tourists' experience in Zhoushan tourism products from three aspects: attracting object experience, facility experience and service experience. At present, there are still big differences between Zhoushan tourism products, tourists’ expectations and tourists' experience, mainly in the aspects of transportation, publicity and tour guide service. Corresponding measures should be taken to improve tourists' experience quality and satisfaction. Conclusions: The influence factors of island tourism products are discriminated, and established a structural model of tourist experience, which includes three basic elements: attractions, facilities, and services. This model was further verified by questionnaires and analyses in Putuo Shan, Zhujia Jian, and Taohua Island. Finally, we combined this model and made some suggestions on boost the satisfaction of Zhoushan islands.

Keywords: experience tourism, tourists’ expectations, tourists' experience, tourism products

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Authors: Xavier Everaert

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Ever since the publication of “The Problem of Social” cost, Coasean insights on externalities, transaction costs, and the reciprocal nature of harms, have been widely debated. What has been largely neglected however, is the role of technological innovation in the mitigation of negative externalities or transaction costs. Incorporating future uncertainty about negligence standards or expected restitution costs and the profit opportunities these uncertainties reveal to entrepreneurs, allow us to frame problems regarding social costs within the reality of rapid technological evolution.

Keywords: environmental law and economics, entrepreneurship, commons, pollution, wildlife

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Authors: N. Messai, A. Boumali

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In this work, we aim to solve the two dimensional Kemmer equation including Dirac oscillator interaction term, in the background space-time generated by a cosmic string which is submitted to an uniform magnetic field. Eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of our problem have been found and the influence of the cosmic string space-time on the energy spectrum has been analyzed.

Keywords: Kemmer oscillator, cosmic string, Dirac oscillator, eigenfunctions

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Authors: Abdullah Bal

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This paper presents a one-class classification (OCC) technique based on Fukunaga-Koontz Transform (FKT) for binary classification problems. The FKT is originally a powerful tool to feature selection and ordering for two-class problems. To utilize the standard FKT for data domain description problem (i.e., one-class classification), in this paper, a set of non-class samples which exist outside of positive class (target class) describing boundary formed with limited training data has been constructed synthetically. The tunnel-like decision boundary around upper and lower border of target class samples has been designed using statistical properties of feature vectors belonging to the training data. To capture higher order of statistics of data and increase discrimination ability, the proposed method, termed one-class FKT (OC-FKT), has been extended to its nonlinear version via kernel machines and referred as OC-KFKT for short. Multiple kernel learning (MKL) is a favorable family of machine learning such that tries to find an optimal combination of a set of sub-kernels to achieve a better result. However, the discriminative ability of some of the base kernels may be low and the OC-KFKT designed by this type of kernels leads to unsatisfactory classification performance. To address this problem, the quality of sub-kernels should be evaluated, and the weak kernels must be discarded before the final decision making process. MKL/OC-FKT and selective MKL/OC-FKT frameworks have been designed stimulated by ensemble learning (EL) to weight and then select the sub-classifiers using the discriminability and diversities measured by eigenvalue ratios. The eigenvalue ratios have been assessed based on their regions on the FKT subspaces. The comparative experiments, performed on various low and high dimensional data, against state-of-the-art algorithms confirm the effectiveness of our techniques, especially in case of small sample size (SSS) conditions.

Keywords: ensemble methods, fukunaga-koontz transform, kernel-based methods, multiple kernel learning, one-class classification

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Authors: A. Natsir, M. Nadir, S. Syahrir, A. Mujnisa

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In tropical countries such as in Indonesia, rice straw plays an important role in fulfilling the needs of feed for ruminant, especially during the dry season in which the availability of forage is very limited. However, the main problem of using rice straw as a feedstuff is low digestibility due to the existence of the links between lignin and cellulose or hemicellulose, and imbalance of its minerals content. One alternative to solve this problem is by application of biodecomposer (BS) derived from rumen bacterial of the ruminant. This study was designed to assess the effects of BS application on the changes of the chemical composition of rice straw. Four adults local buffalo raised under typical feeding conditions were used as a source of inoculum for BS development. The animal was fed for a month with a diet consisted of rice straw and elephant grass before taking rumen fluid samples. Samples of rumen fluid were inoculated in the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) media under anaerobic condition for 48 hours at 37°C. The mixture of CMC media and microbes are ready to be used as a biodecomposer following incubation of the mixture under anaerobic condition for 7 days at 45°C. The effectiveness of BS then assessed by applying the BS on the straw according to completely randomized design consisted of four treatments and three replication. One hundred g of ground coarse rice straw was used as the substrate. The BS was applied to the rice straw substrate with the following composition: Rice straw without BS (P0), rice straw + 5% BS (P1), rice straw +10% BS (P2), and rice straw + 15% BS. The mixture of rice straw and BS then fermented under anaerobic for four weeks. Following the fermentation, the chemical composition of rice straw was evaluated. The results indicated that the crude protein content of rice straw significantly increased (P < 0.05) as the level of BS increased. On the other hand, the concentration of crude fiber of the rice straw was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) as the level of BS increased. Other nutrients such as minerals did not change (P > 0.05) due to the treatments. In conclusion, application of BS developed from rumen bacterial of buffalo has a promising prospect to be used as a biological agent to improve the quality of rice straw as feeding for ruminant.

Keywords: biodecomposer, local buffalo, rumen microbial, chemical composition

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Authors: Chinumani Choudhury

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Heavy metal contamination is an alarming problem, which poses a serious risk to human health and the surrounding geology. Soils get contaminated with heavy metals due to the un-regularized industrial discharge of the toxic metal-rich effluents. Under such a condition, the remediation of the contaminated sites becomes imperative for a sustainable, safe, and healthy environment. Phytoextraction, which involves the removal of heavy metals from the soil through root absorption and uptake, is a viable remediation technique, which ensures extraction of the toxic inorganic compound available in the soil even at low concentrations. The soil present in the Silghat Region of Assam, India, is mostly contaminated with Zinc (Zn) and Lead (Pb), having concentrations as high as to cause a serious environmental problem if proper measures are not taken. In the present study, an extensive experimental study was carried out to understand the effectiveness of two commonly planted trees in Assam, namely, i) Indian Pennywort and ii) Fenugreek, in the removal of heavy metals from the contaminated soil. The basic characterization of the soil in the contaminated site of the Silghat region was performed and the field concentration of Zn and Pb was recorded. Various long-term laboratory pot tests were carried out by sowing the seeds of Indian Pennywort and Fenugreek in a soil, which was spiked, with a very high dosage of Zn and Pb. The tests were carried out for different concentration of a particular heavy metal and the individual effectiveness in the absorption of the heavy metal by the plants were studied. The concentration of the soil was monitored regularly to assess the rate of depletion and the simultaneous uptake of the heavy metal from the soil to the plant. The amount of heavy metal uptake by the plant was also quantified by analyzing the plant sample at the end of the testing period. Finally, the study throws light on the applicability of the studied plants in the field for effective remediation of the contaminated sites of Assam.

Keywords: phytoextraction, heavy-metals, Indian pennywort, fenugreek

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Authors: Mahmoud Y. M. Ahmed, Ahmed Konsowa, Mostafa Sami, Ayman Mosallam

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Fukushima nuclear accident (Japan 2011) has drawn attention to the issue of gas leakage from hazardous facilities through building boundaries. The rapidly increasing investments in nuclear stations have made the ability to predict, and prevent, gas leakage a rather crucial issue both environmentally and economically. Leakage monitoring for underground facilities is rather complicated due to the combination of Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall (RCSW) and soil. In the framework of a recent research conducted by the authors, the gas insulation capabilities of RCSW-soil combination have been investigated via a lab-scale experimental work. Despite their accuracy, experimental investigations are expensive, time-consuming, hazardous, and lack for flexibility. Numerically simulating the gas leakage as a fluid flow problem based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling approach can provide a potential alternative. This novel implementation of CFD approach is the topic of the present paper. The paper discusses the aspects of modeling the gas flow through porous media that resemble the RCSW both isolated and combined with the normal soil. A commercial CFD package is utilized in simulating this fluid flow problem. A fixed RCSW layer thickness is proposed, air is taken as the leaking gas, whereas the soil layer is represented as clean sand with variable properties. The variable sand properties include sand layer thickness, fine fraction ratio, and moisture content. The CFD simulation results almost demonstrate what has been found experimentally. A soil layer attached next to a cracked reinforced concrete section plays a significant role in reducing the gas leakage from that cracked section. This role is found to be strongly dependent on the soil specifications.

Keywords: RCSW, gas leakage, Pressure Decay Method, hazardous underground facilities, CFD

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Authors: G. Calleja-Rodriguez, N. Jimenez-Redondo, J. J. Peralta Escalante

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This research work aims at developing a solution to take advantage of the potential energy saving related to occupants behaviour estimated in between 5-30 % according to existing studies. For that purpose, the following methodology has been followed: 1) literature review and gap analysis, 2) define concept and functional requirements, 3) evaluation and feedback by experts. As result, the concept for a tool-box that implements continuous behavior change interventions named as engagement methods and based on increasing energy literacy, increasing energy visibility, using bonus system, etc. has been defined. These engagement methods are deployed through a set of ICT tools: Building Automation and Control System (BACS) add-ons services installed in buildings and Users Apps installed in smartphones, smart-TVs or dashboards. The tool-box called eTEACHER identifies energy conservation measures (ECM) based on energy behavioral change through a what-if analysis that collects information about the building and its users (comfort feedback, behavior, etc.) and carry out cost-effective calculations to provide outputs such us efficient control settings of building systems. This information is processed and showed in an attractive way as tailored advice to the energy end-users. Therefore, eTEACHER goal is to change the behavior of building´s energy users towards energy efficiency, comfort and better health conditions by deploying customized ICT-based interventions taking into account building typology (schools, residential, offices, health care centres, etc.), users profile (occupants, owners, facility managers, employers, etc.) as well as cultural and demographic factors. One of the main findings of this work is the common failure when technological interventions on behavioural change are done to not consult, train and support users regarding technological changes leading to poor performance in practices. As conclusion, a strong need to carry out social studies to identify relevant behavioural issues and to identify effective pro-evironmental behavioral change strategies has been identified.

Keywords: energy saving, behavioral bhange, building users, engagement methods, energy conservation measures

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Authors: J. T. Johnson, R. A. Atule, E. Gbodo

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The widespread problem of infant malnutrition in developing countries has stirred efforts in research, development and extension by both local and international organizations. As a result, the formulation and development of nutritious weaning foods from local and readily available raw materials which are cost effective has become imperative in many developing countries. Thus, local and readily available raw materials where used to compound and develop nutritious new infant formulae. The materials used for this study include maize, millet, cowpea, pumpkin, fingerlings, and fish bone. The materials where dried and blended to powder. The powders were weighed in the ratio of 4:4:4:3:1:1 respectively and were then mixed properly. Analysis of nutritive value was conducted on the formulae and compared with NAN-2 standard and results reveals that the formulae had reasonable amount of moisture, lipids, carbohydrate, protein, and fibre. Although NAN-2 was superior in both carbohydrate and protein, the new infant formula was higher in mineral elements, vitamins, fibre, and lipids. All the essentials vitamins and both macro and micro minerals where found in appreciable quantity capable of meeting the biochemical and physiological demand of the body while the anti-nutrients composition were significantly below FAO and WHO safe limits. Finally, the compounded infant formulae was feed to a set of albino Wistar rats while some other set of rats was feed with NAN-2 for the period of twenty seven (27) days and body weight was measure at three days intervals. The results of body weight changes was spectacular as their body weight over shot or almost double that of those animals that were feed with NAN-2 at each point of measurement. The results suggest that the widespread problem of infant malnutrition in the developing world especially among the low income segment of the society can now be reduced if not totally eradicated since nutritive and cost effective weaning formulae can be prepared locally from common readily available materials.

Keywords: formulation, nutritive value, local, materials

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: Maya Saade, Rafic Younes, Pascal Lafon

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This paper explores the transformative impact of smartphones on pedagogy and presents a smartphone application developed specifically for engineering problem-solving and educational purposes. The widespread availability and advanced capabilities of smartphones have revolutionized the way we interact with technology, including in education. The ubiquity of smartphones allows learners to access educational resources anytime and anywhere, promoting personalized and self-directed learning. The first part of this paper discusses the overall influence of smartphones on pedagogy, emphasizing their potential to improve learning experiences through mobile technology. In the context of engineering education, this paper focuses on the development of a dedicated smartphone application that serves as a powerful tool for both engineering problem-solving and education. The application features an intuitive and user-friendly interface, allowing engineering students and professionals to perform complex calculations and analyses on their smartphones. The smartphone application primarily focuses on beam calculations and serves as a comprehensive beam calculator tailored to engineering education. It caters to various engineering disciplines by offering interactive modules that allow students to learn key concepts through hands-on activities and simulations. With a primary emphasis on beam analysis, this application empowers users to perform calculations for statically determinate beams, statically indeterminate beams, and beam buckling phenomena. Furthermore, the app includes a comprehensive library of engineering formulas and reference materials, facilitating a deeper understanding and practical application of the fundamental principles in beam analysis. By offering a wide range of features specifically tailored for beam calculation, this application provides an invaluable tool for engineering students and professionals looking to enhance their understanding and proficiency in this crucial aspect of a structural engineer.

Keywords: mobile devices in education, solving engineering problems, smartphone application, engineering education

Procedia PDF Downloads 66