Search results for: data source

Authors: Chunyang Miao, Bingxin Li, Shanglong Ning, Christopher J. B. Ford

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While it is challenging to fabricate electronic devices close to atomic dimensions in conventional top-down lithography, molecular electronics is promising to help maintain the exponential increase in component densities via using molecular building blocks to fabricate electronic components from the bottom up. It offers smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient electronic and photonic systems. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of molecules is a layer of molecules that self-assembles on a substrate. They are mechanically flexible, optically transparent, low-cost, and easy to fabricate. A large-area multi-layer structure has been designed and investigated by the team, where a SAM of designed molecules is sandwiched between graphene and gold electrodes. Each molecule can act as a quantum dot, with all molecules conducting in parallel. When a source-drain bias is applied, significant current flows only if a molecular orbital (HOMO or LUMO) lies within the source-drain energy window. If electrons tunnel sequentially on and off the molecule, the charge on the molecule is well-defined and the finite charging energy causes Coulomb blockade of transport until the molecular orbital comes within the energy window. This produces ‘Coulomb diamonds’ in the conductance vs source-drain and gate voltages. For different tunnel barriers at either end of the molecule, it is harder for electrons to tunnel out of the dot than in (or vice versa), resulting in the accumulation of two or more charges and a ‘Coulomb staircase’ in the current vs voltage. This nanostructure exhibits highly reproducible Coulomb-staircase patterns, together with additional oscillations, which are believed to be attributed to molecular vibrations. Molecules are more isolated than semiconductor dots, and so have a discrete phonon spectrum. When tunnelling into or out of a molecule, one or more vibronic states can be excited in the molecule, providing additional transport channels and resulting in additional peaks in the conductance. For useful molecular electronic devices, achieving the optimum orbital alignment of molecules to the Fermi energy in the leads is essential. To explore it, a drop of ionic liquid is employed on top of the graphene to establish an electric field at the graphene, which screens poorly, gating the molecules underneath. Results for various molecules with different alignments of Fermi energy to HOMO have shown highly reproducible Coulomb-diamond patterns, which agree reasonably with DFT calculations. In summary, this large-area SAM molecular junction is a promising candidate for future electronic circuits. (1) The small size (1-10nm) of the molecules and good flexibility of the SAM lead to the scalable assembly of ultra-high densities of functional molecules, with advantages in cost, efficiency, and power dissipation. (2) The contacting technique using graphene enables mass fabrication. (3) Its well-observed Coulomb blockade behaviour, narrow molecular resonances, and well-resolved vibronic states offer good tuneability for various functionalities, such as switches, thermoelectric generators, and memristors, etc.

Keywords: molecular electronics, Coulomb blokade, electron-phonon coupling, self-assembled monolayer

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Shuai Zhao, Shalendra D. Sharma, Jin Xu

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This research uses advanced machine learning models to learn a number of hypotheses regarding political executives. Specifically, it analyses the impact these powerful leaders have on economic growth by using leaders’ data from the Archigos database from 1835 to the end of 2015. The data is processed by the AutoGluon, which was developed by Amazon. Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) and AutoGluon can automatically extract features from the data and then use multiple classifiers to train the data. Use a linear regression model and classification model to establish the relationship between leaders and economic growth (GDP per capita growth), and to clarify the relationship between their characteristics and economic growth from a machine learning perspective. Our work may show as a model or signal for collaboration between the fields of statistics and artificial intelligence (AI) that can light up the way for political researchers and economists.

Keywords: comparative politics, political executives, leaders’ characteristics, artificial intelligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Fabian Nde Fon

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Decolonisation is one of the hottest topics in most African Universities; this is because many researchers focus on research that does not speak to their immediate community. This research looked at postgraduate research projects that can take students to the community to apply the knowledge that they have learned as an attempt to transform their community. In regards to this, an honours project was designed to try and provide a cheaper and continuous source of protein (egg) using amber-link layers and to investigate the potential of the project to promote postgraduate student development and entrepreneurship. Two ban layer production systems were created: (1) Production system one on a Hill (PS-I) and (2) Production system two in a valley, closer to a dam (PS-II) at Nqutshini, Gingindlovu, KwaZulu-Natal Province. Forty point-of-lay (18 weeks old) amber links were bought at Inverness Rearers and divided into PS-I (20), and PS-II (20), and each of the production systems was further divided into two groups of ten (PS-I-1 and PS-II-1 (partially supplemented) and PS-I-2 and PS-II-2 (supplemented with layer mash)) by a random selection. Birds' weights were balanced in each group to avoid bias. The two groups in each production system were caged separately (1.5x1.5m² for ten birds) and in close proximity. Partially supplemented birds received 0.6 kg of layer mash (60g/per bird/day) and kitchen leftovers daily, and supplemented birds were fed 1.2 kg of layer mash (120g/per bird/day). Egg collection was daily after feeding in the morning while was given ad libitium. The eggs were assessed for internal and external quality after weighing before recording. Egg production from fully supplemented birds (PS-I-2 and PS-II-2) was generally higher (P<0.05) than those of PS-I-1 and PS-II-1. The difference in production was only 6% in the valley while on the Hill, it was only 3%. However, some of the birds in the valley showed signs of respiratory infections, which was not observed with those on the Hill. There are no differences in the internal and external qualities of eggs (york colour and egg shell) determined. This implies that both systems were sustainable. It was suggested members in the community living at the valley or Hill can use these hardy layers as a cheaper source of protein and preferable to the partially supplemented systems because it is relatively cheaper. The smallholder farmers are still pursuing the project long after the students graduate; hence the benefit of the project is reciprocal for both the university and the community (entrepreneurship).

Keywords: animal nutrition, ban layer, production, postgraduate curricula, entrepreneurship

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: H. M. Liman, Y. M. Suleiman A. A. David

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Poor air quality often considered one of the greatest environmental threats facing the world today is caused majorly by the emission of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. The principal air pollutant is carbon monoxide. One prominent source of carbon monoxide emission is the transportation sector. Not much was known about the emission levels of carbon monoxide, the primary pollutant from the road transportation in the study area. Therefore, this study assessed the levels of carbon monoxide emission from road transportation in the Minna, Niger State. The database shows the carbon monoxide data collected. MSA Altair gas alert detector was used to take the carbon monoxide emission readings in Parts per Million for the peak and off-peak periods of vehicular movement at the road intersections. Their Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates were recorded in the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM). Bar chart graphs were plotted by using the emissions level of carbon dioxide as recorded on the field against the scientifically established internationally accepted safe limit of 8.7 Parts per Million of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. Further statistical analysis was also carried out on the data recorded from the field using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software and Microsoft excel to show the variance of the emission levels of each of the parameters in the study area. The results established that emissions’ level of atmospheric carbon monoxide from the road transportation in the study area exceeded the internationally accepted safe limits of 8.7 parts per million. In addition, the variations in the average emission levels of CO between the four parameters showed that morning peak is having the highest average emission level of 24.5PPM followed by evening peak with 22.84PPM while morning off peak is having 15.33 and the least is evening off peak 12.94PPM. Based on these results, recommendations made for poor air quality mitigation via carbon monoxide emissions reduction from transportation include Introduction of the urban mass transit would definitely reduce the number of traffic on the roads, hence the emissions from several vehicles that would have been on the road. This would also be a cheaper means of transportation for the masses and Encouraging the use of vehicles using alternative sources of energy like solar, electric and biofuel will also result in less emission levels as the these alternative energy sources other than fossil fuel originated diesel and petrol vehicles do not emit especially carbon monoxide.

Keywords: carbon monoxide, climate change emissions, road transportation, vehicular

Procedia PDF Downloads 375

Authors: Eyob Seife, Tesfalem Teshome, Bereket Seyoum, Behailu Getachew, Yohans Demis

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Developing countries continue to face preventable communicable diseases, such as vaccine-preventable diseases. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was established by the World Health Organization in 1974 to control these diseases. Health data use is crucial in decision-making, but ensuring data quality remains challenging. The study aimed to assess the accuracy ratio, timeliness, and quality index of regular immunization programme data in the Birkod district of the Somali Region, Ethiopia. For poor data quality, technical, contextual, behavioral, and organizational factors are among contributors. The study used a quantitative cross-sectional design conducted in September 2022GC using WHO-recommended data quality self-assessment tools. The accuracy ratio and timeliness of reports on regular immunization programmes were assessed for two health centers and three health posts in the district for one fiscal year. Moreover, the quality index assessment was conducted at the district level and health facilities by trained assessors. The study found poor data quality in the accuracy ratio and timeliness of reports at all health units, which includes zeros. Overreporting was observed for most facilities, particularly at the health post level. Health centers showed a relatively better accuracy ratio than health posts. The quality index assessment revealed poor quality at all levels. The study recommends that responsible bodies at different levels improve data quality using various approaches, such as the capacitation of health professionals and strengthening the quality index components. The study highlighted the need for attention to data quality in general, specifically at the health post level, and improving the quality index at all levels, which is essential.

Keywords: Birkod District, data quality, quality index, regular immunization programme, Somali Region-Ethiopia

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Authors: Rudi Ryacudu, Edi Artono, Gema Wahyudi Purnama

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Oil and gas consumption in Indonesia is currently on the rise due to its nation economic improvement. Unfortunately, Indonesia’s domestic oil production cannot meet it’s own consumption and Indonesia has lost its status as Oil and Gas exporter. Even worse, our conventional oil and gas reserve is declining. Unwilling to give up, the government of Indonesia has taken measures to invite investors to invest in domestic oil and gas exploration to find new potential reserve and ultimately increase production. Yet, it has not bear any fruit. Indonesia has taken steps now to explore new unconventional oil and gas play including Shale Gas, Shale Oil and Tight Sands to increase domestic production. These new plays require definite parameters to differentiate each concept. The purpose of this paper is to provide ways in defining unconventional hydrocarbon reservoir parameters in Shale Gas, Shale Oil and Tight Sands. The parameters would serve as an initial baseline for users to perform analysis of unconventional hydrocarbon plays. Some of the on going concerns or question to be answered in regards to unconventional hydrocarbon plays includes: 1. The TOC number, 2. Has it been well “cooked” and become a hydrocarbon, 3. What are the permeability and the porosity values, 4. Does it need a stimulation, 5. Does it has pores, and 6. Does it have sufficient thickness. In contrast with the common oil and gas conventional play, Shale Play assumes that hydrocarbon is retained and trapped in area with very low permeability. In most places in Indonesia, hydrocarbon migrates from source rock to reservoir. From this case, we could derive a theory that Kitchen and Source Rock are located right below the reservoir. It is the starting point for user or engineer to construct basin definition in relation with the tectonic play and depositional environment. Shale Play concept requires definition of characteristic, description and reservoir identification to discover reservoir that is technically and economically possible to develop. These are the steps users and engineers has to do to perform Shale Play: a. Calculate TOC and perform mineralogy analysis using water saturation and porosity value. b. Reconstruct basin that accumulate hydrocarbon c. Brittlenes Index calculated form petrophysical and distributed based on seismic multi attributes d. Integrated natural fracture analysis e. Best location to place a well.

Keywords: unconventional hydrocarbon, shale gas, shale oil tight sand reservoir parameters, shale play

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Authors: Dina L. DiSantis

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Strengthening a sense of responsibility while relating global sustainability concepts such as water quality and pollution to a local water system can be achieved by teaching students to conduct and interpret water quality monitoring tests. When students conduct their own research, they become better stewards of the environment. Providing outdoor learning and place-based opportunities for students helps connect them to the natural world. By conducting stream studies and collecting data, students are able to better understand how the natural environment is a place where everything is connected. Students have been collecting physical, chemical and biological data along the West and East Branches of the Brandywine River, in Pennsylvania for over ten years. The stream studies are part of the advanced placement environmental science and aquatic science courses that are offered as electives to juniors and seniors at the Downingtown High School West Campus in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Physical data collected includes: temperature, turbidity, width, depth, velocity, and volume of flow or discharge. The chemical tests conducted are: dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, pH, nitrates, alkalinity and phosphates. Macroinvertebrates are collected with a kick net, identified and then released. Students collect the data from several locations while traveling by canoe. In the classroom, students prepare a water quality data analysis and interpretation report based on their collected data. The summary of the results from longitudinal water quality data collection by students, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of student data collection will be presented.

Keywords: place-based, student data collection, sustainability, water quality monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Tamanna Rimi

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A large body of literature has discussed the determinants of migration decision. However, the potential role of individual risk attitudes on migration decision has so far been overlooked. The research on migration literature has studied how the expected income differential influences migration flows for a risk neutral individual. However, migration takes place when there is no expected income differential or even the variability of income appears as lower than in the current location. This migration puzzle motivates a recent trend in the literature that analyzes how attitudes towards risk influence the decision to migrate. However, the significance of risk attitudes on migration decision has been addressed mostly in a theoretical perspective in the mainstream migration literature. The efficient outcome of labor market and overall economy are largely influenced by migration in many countries. Therefore, attitudes towards risk as a determinant of migration should get more attention in empirical studies. To author’s best knowledge, this is the first study that has examined the relationship between relative risk aversion and migration decision in US market. This paper considers movement across United States as a means of migration. In addition, this paper also explores the network effect due to the increasing size of one’s own ethnic group to a source location on the migration decision and how attitudes towards risk vary with network effect. Two ethnic groups (i.e. Asian and Hispanic) have been considered in this regard. For the empirical estimation, this paper uses two sources of data: 1) U.S. census data for social, economic, and health research, 2010 (IPUMPS) and 2) University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, 2010 (HRS). In order to measure relative risk aversion, this study uses the ‘Two Sample Two-Stage Instrumental Variable (TS2SIV)’ technique. This is a similar method of Angrist (1990) and Angrist and Kruegers’ (1992) ‘Two Sample Instrumental Variable (TSIV)’ technique. Using a probit model, the empirical investigation yields the following results: (i) risk attitude has a significantly large impact on migration decision where more risk averse people are less likely to migrate; (ii) the impact of risk attitude on migration varies by other demographic characteristics such as age and sex; (iii) people with higher concentration of same ethnic households living in a particular place are expected to migrate less from their current place; (iv) the risk attitudes on migration vary with network effect. The overall findings of this paper relating risk attitude, migration decision and network effect can be a significant contribution addressing the gap between migration theory and empirical study in migration literature.

Keywords: migration, network effect, risk attitude, U.S. market

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Authors: Lakshmidevi Rajendran, Bharathidasan Kanniappan, Gopi Raja, Muthukumar Karuppan

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This study investigates the feasibility of fed-batch mixotrophic cultivation of microalgae Scenedesmus sp. in a 3-litre airlift photobioreactor under standard operating conditions. The results of this study suggest the algae species may serve as an excellent feed for aquatic species using organic byproducts. Microalgae Scenedesmus sp., was cultured using a synthetic wastewater by stepwise addition of crude glycerol concentration ranging from 2-10g/l under fed-batch mixotrophic mode for a period of 15 days. The attempts were made with the stepwise addition of crude glycerol as a carbon source in the initial growth phase to evade the inhibitory nature of high glycerol concentration on the growth of Scenedesmus sp. Crude glycerol was chosen since it is readily accessible as byproduct from biodiesel production sectors. Highest biomass concentration was achieved to be 2.43 g/l at the crude glycerol concentration of 6g/l after 10 days which is 3 fold times the increase in the biomass concentration compared with the control medium without the addition of glycerol. Biomass growth data obtained for the microalgae Scenedesmus sp. was fitted well with the modified Logistic equation. Substrate utilization kinetics was also employed to model the biomass productivity with respect to the various crude glycerol concentration. The results indicated that the supplement of crude glycerol to the mixotrophic culture of Scenedesmus sp., enhances the biomass concentration, chlorophyll and lutein productivity. Thus the application of fed-batch mixotrophic cultivation with stepwise addition of crude glycerol to Scenedesmus sp., provides a subtle way to reduce the production cost and improvisation in the large-scale cultivation along with biochemical compound synthesis.

Keywords: airlift photobioreactor, crude glycerol, microalgae Scenedesmus sp., mixotrophic cultivation, lutein production

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Ye Wang, Ickjai Lee

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Due to the widespread of mobile sensing, there is a strong need to handle trails of moving objects, trajectories. This paper proposes three visual analytic approaches for higher order information of trajectory data sets based on the higher order Voronoi diagram data structure. Proposed approaches reveal geometrical information, topological, and directional information. Experimental results demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of proposed three approaches.

Keywords: visual analytics, higher order information, trajectory datasets, spatio-temporal data

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Authors: Sean Paulsen, Michael Casey

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In this work we present a self-supervised pretraining framework for transformers on functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data. First, we pretrain our architecture on two self-supervised tasks simultaneously to teach the model a general understanding of the temporal and spatial dynamics of human auditory cortex during music listening. Our pretraining results are the first to suggest a synergistic effect of multitask training on fMRI data. Second, we finetune the pretrained models and train additional fresh models on a supervised fMRI classification task. We observe significantly improved accuracy on held-out runs with the finetuned models, which demonstrates the ability of our pretraining tasks to facilitate transfer learning. This work contributes to the growing body of literature on transformer architectures for pretraining and transfer learning with fMRI data, and serves as a proof of concept for our pretraining tasks and multitask pretraining on fMRI data.

Keywords: transfer learning, fMRI, self-supervised, brain decoding, transformer, multitask training

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Pablo Chico De Guzman, Cesar Sanchez

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Microservice architectures are increasingly in distributed cloud applications due to the advantages on the software composition, development speed, release cycle frequency and the business logic time to market. On the other hand, these architectures also introduce some challenges on the testing and release phases of applications. Container technology solves some of these issues by providing reproducible environments, easy of software distribution and isolation of processes. However, there are other issues that remain unsolved in current container technology when dealing with multiple machines, such as networking for multi-host communication, service discovery, load balancing or data persistency (even though some of these challenges are already solved by traditional cloud vendors in a very mature and widespread manner). Container cluster management tools, such as Kubernetes, Mesos or Docker Swarm, attempt to solve these problems by introducing a new control layer where the unit of deployment is the container (or the pod — a set of strongly related containers that must be deployed on the same machine). These tools are complex to configure and manage and they do not follow a pure immutable infrastructure approach since servers are reused between deployments. Indeed, these tools introduce dependencies at execution time for solving networking or service discovery problems. If an error on the control layer occurs, which would affect running applications, specific expertise is required to perform ad-hoc troubleshooting. As a consequence, it is not surprising that container cluster support is becoming a source of revenue for consulting services. This paper presents i2kit, a deployment tool based on the immutable infrastructure pattern, where the virtual machine is the unit of deployment. The input for i2kit is a declarative definition of a set of microservices, where each microservice is defined as a pod of containers. Microservices are built into machine images using linuxkit —- a tool for creating minimal linux distributions specialized in running containers. These machine images are then deployed to one or more virtual machines, which are exposed through a cloud vendor load balancer. Finally, the load balancer endpoint is set into other microservices using an environment variable, providing service discovery. The toolkit i2kit reuses the best ideas from container technology to solve problems like reproducible environments, process isolation, and software distribution, and at the same time relies on mature, proven cloud vendor technology for networking, load balancing and persistency. The result is a more robust system with no learning curve for troubleshooting running applications. We have implemented an open source prototype that transforms i2kit definitions into AWS cloud formation templates, where each microservice AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is created on the fly using linuxkit. Even though container cluster management tools have more flexibility for resource allocation optimization, we defend that adding a new control layer implies more important disadvantages. Resource allocation is greatly improved by using linuxkit, which introduces a very small footprint (around 35MB). Also, the system is more secure since linuxkit installs the minimum set of dependencies to run containers. The toolkit i2kit is currently under development at the IMDEA Software Institute.

Keywords: container, deployment, immutable infrastructure, microservice

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: Ejikeme Johnson Kanu

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This research explores the environmental justice of host communities in south-eastern Nigeria whose source of livelihood has been destroyed due to oil exploitation. Environmental justice scholarship in the area often adopts Western liberal ideology from a more macro level synthesis (Niger Delta). This study therefore explored the sufficiency or otherwise of the adoption of Western liberal ideology in the framing of environmental justice (EJ) in the area which neglects the impact of colonialism and cultural domination. Mixed archival research supplemented by secondary analysis guided this study. Drawing from data analysis, the paper first argues that micro-level studies are required to either validate or invalidate the studies done at the macro-level (Niger Delta) which has often been used to generalise around environmental injustice done within the host communities even though the communities (South-eastern) differ significantly from (South-south) in terms of language, culture, socio-political and economic formation which indicate that the drivers of EJ may differ among them. Secondly, the paper argues that EJ framing from the Western worldview adopted in the study area is insufficient to understand environmental injustice suffered in the study area and there is the need for environmental justice framing that will consider the impact of colonialism and nonrecognition of the cultural identities of the host communities which breed environmental justice. The study, therefore, concludes by drawing from decolonial theory to consider how the framing of EJ would move beyond the western liberal EJ to Indigenous environmental justice.

Keywords: environmental justice, culture, decolonial, nonrecognition, indigenous environmental justice

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Authors: Abdulmalek Marwan Rajkhan, M. S. Al Ghamdi, Mohammed Damoum, Essam Banoqitah

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This paper is about the Am-Be neutron source irradiation of the InP Quantum Dot Laser diode. A QD LD was irradiated for 24 hours and 48 hours. The laser underwent IV characterization experiments before and after the first and second irradiations. A computer simulation using GAMOS helped in analyzing the given results from IV curves. The results showed an improvement in the QD LD series resistance, current density, and overall ideality factor at all measured temperatures. This is explained by the activation of the QD LD Indium composition to Strontium, ionization of the compound QD LD materials, and the energy deposited to the QD LD.

Keywords: quantum dot laser diode irradiation, effect of radiation on QD LD, Am-Be irradiation effect on SC QD LD

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Authors: Ifeanyichukwu Edeh, Tim Overton, Steve Bowra

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There is increasing interest in utilising low grade or waste biomass for the production of renewable bioenergy vectors i.e. waste to energy. In this study we have chosen to assess, activated sludge, which is a microbial biomass generated during the second stage of waste water treatment as a source of lipid for biodiesel production. To date a significant proportion of biodiesel is produced from used cooking oil and animal fats. It was reasoned that if activated sludge proved a viable feedstock it has the potential to support increase biodiesel production capacity. Activated sludge was obtained at different times of the year and from two different sewage treatment works in the UK. The biomass within the activated sludge slurry was recovered by filtration and the total weight of material calculated by combining the dry weight of the total suspended solid (TSS) and the total dissolved solid (TDS) fractions. Total lipids were extracted from the TSS and TDS using solvent extraction (Folch methods). The classes of lipids within the total lipid extract were characterised using high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) by referencing known standards. The fatty acid profile and content of the lipid extract were determined using acid mediated-methanolysis to obtain fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) which were analysed by gas chromatography and HPTLC. The results showed that there were differences in the total biomass content in the activated sludge collected from different sewage works. Lipid yields from TSS obtained from both sewage treatment works differed according to the time of year (between 3.0 and 7.4 wt. %). The lipid yield varied slightly within the same source of biomass but more widely between the two sewage treatment works. The neutral lipid classes identified were acylglycerols, free fatty acids, sterols and wax esters while the phospholipid class included phosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidycholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol. The fatty acid profile revealed the presence of palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid and stearic acid and that unsaturated fatty acids were the most abundant. Following optimisation, the FAME yield was greater than 10 wt. % which was required to have an economic advantage in biodiesel production.

Keywords: activated sludge, biodiesel, lipid, methanolysis

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Authors: Vitali Kremez

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The researcher monitored an organized ransomware campaign in order to gain significant visibility into the tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by a campaign boss operating a ransomware scheme out of Russia. As the Russian hacking community lowered the access requirements for unsophisticated Russian cybercriminals to engage in ransomware campaigns, corporations and individuals face a commensurately greater challenge of effectively protecting their data and operations from being held ransom. This report discusses two notorious ransomware campaigns. Though the loss of data can be devastating, the findings demonstrate that sending ransom payments does not always help obtain data. Key learnings: 1. From the ransomware affiliate perspective, such campaigns have significantly lowered the barriers for entry for low-tier cybercriminals. 2. Ransomware revenue amounts are not as glamorous and fruitful as they are often publicly reported. Average ransomware crime bosses make only $90K per year on average. 3. Data gathered indicates that sending ransom payments does not always help obtain data. 4. The talk provides the complete payout structure and Bitcoin laundering operation related to the ransomware-as-a-service campaign.

Keywords: bitcoin, cybercrime, ransomware, Russia

Procedia PDF Downloads 195

Authors: Obaid AlOtaibi, Salman Hussain

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Wind energy is associated with many geographical factors including wind speed, climate change, surface topography, environmental impacts, and several economic factors, most notably the advancement of wind technology and energy prices. It is the fastest-growing and least economically expensive method for generating electricity. Wind energy generation is directly related to the characteristics of spatial wind. Therefore, the feasibility study for the wind energy conversion system is based on the value of the energy obtained relative to the initial investment and the cost of operation and maintenance. In Kuwait, wind energy is an appropriate choice as a source of energy generation. It can be used in groundwater extraction in agricultural areas such as Al-Abdali in the north and Al-Wafra in the south, or in fresh and brackish groundwater fields or remote and isolated locations such as border areas and projects away from conventional power electricity services, to take advantage of alternative energy, reduce pollutants, and reduce energy production costs. The study covers the State of Kuwait with an exception of metropolitan area. Climatic data were attained through the readings of eight distributed monitoring stations affiliated with Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). The data were used to assess the daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual available wind energy accessible for utilization. The researchers applied the Suitability Model to analyze the study by using the ArcGIS program. It is a model of spatial analysis that compares more than one location based on grading weights to choose the most suitable one. The study criteria are: the average annual wind speed, land use, topography of land, distance from the main road networks, urban areas. According to the previous criteria, the four proposed locations to establish wind farm projects are selected based on the weights of the degree of suitability (excellent, good, average, and poor). The percentage of areas that represents the most suitable locations with an excellent rank (4) is 8% of Kuwait’s area. It is relatively distributed as follows: Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdeba, Al-Salmi (5.22%), Al-Abdali (1.22%), Umm al-Hayman (0.70%), North Wafra and Al-Shaqeeq (0.86%). The study recommends to decision-makers to consider the proposed location (No.1), (Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdaba, and Al-Salmi) as the most suitable location for future development of wind farms in Kuwait, this location is economically feasible.

Keywords: Kuwait, renewable energy, spatial analysis, wind energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Arie Yanwar Kapriadi

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This research is aiming to develop deeper understanding of the scale of power that shaped the biofuel policy. This research is important for the following reasons. Firstly, this research will enrich the body of literature within the field of political ecology, scale and environmental governance. Secondly, by focussing on energy transition policies, this research offers a critical perspective on how government policy, aimed at delivering low carbon sustainable energy systems, being scaled and implemented through multi variate stakeholders. Finally, the research could help the government of Indonesia as a policy evaluation on delivering low carbon sustainable energy systems at the macro level that (possibility) being unable to be delivered at different scale and instead being perceived differently by different stakeholders. Qualitative method is applied particularly an in depth interview with government officials as well as policy stakeholders outside of government and people in positions of responsibility with regards to policy delivery. There are 4 field study location where interview took place as well as sites visit to some biofuel refining facilities. There are some major companies which involve on the production and distribution of biofuel and its relation with biofuel feedstock industry as the source of data. The research investigates how the government biofuel policies correlated with other policy issues such as land reclassification and carbon emission reduction which also influenced plantations expansion as well as its impact on the local people. The preliminary result shows tension of power between governing authorities caused the Indonesian biofuel policy being unfocused which led to failing to meet its mandatory blending target despite the abundance of its feedstock.

Keywords: biofuel, energy transition, renewable energy, political ecology

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Authors: M.A. Ali, M. Matloob, A. Sahar, M. Yamin, M. Imran, Y.A. Yusof

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Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is known as pseudocereal was originated in South America's Andes. Quinoa is a good source of protein, amino acids, micronutrients and bioactive components. The lack of gluten makes it suitable for celiac patients. Saponins, the leading ant-nutrient, are found in the pericarp, which adheres to the seed and transmits the bitter flavor to the quinoa grain. It is found in varying amounts in quinoa from 0.1% to 5%. This study was planned to design an indigenous machine to remove saponin from quinoa grains at the farm level to promote entrepreneurship. The machine consisted of a feeding hopper, rotating shaft, grooved stone, perforated steel cylinder, V-belts, pulleys, electric motor and mild steel angle iron and sheets. The motor transmitted power to the shaft with a belt drive. The shaft on which the grooved stone was attached rotated inside the perforated cylinder having a clearance of 2 mm and was removed saponin by an abrasion mechanism. The saponin-removed quinoa was then dipped in water to determine the presence of saponin as it produced foam in water and data were statistically analyzed. The results showed that the raw seed feeding rate of 25 g/s and milling time of 135 s completely removed saponin from seeds with minimum grain losses of 2.85% as compared to the economic analysis of the machine showed that its break-even point was achieved after one and half months with 18,000 s and a production capacity of 33 g/s.

Keywords: quinoa seeds, saponin, abrasion mechanism, stone polishing, indigenous machine

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Authors: Ilma Robo, Saimir Heta, Nedja Hysi, Vera Ostreni

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Introduction: Marginal gingivitis is a disease with considerable frequency among patients who present routinely for periodontal control and treatment. In fact, this disease may not have alarming symptoms in patients and may go unnoticed by themselves when personal hygiene conditions are optimal. The aim of this study was to collect retrograde data on the prevalence of marginal gingiva in the respective group of patients, evaluated according to specific periodontal diagnostic tools. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in two patient groups. The first group was with 34 patients, during December 2019-January 2020, and the second group was with 64 patients during 2010-2018 (each year in the mentioned monthly period). Bacterial plaque index, hemorrhage index, amount of gingival fluid, presence of xerostomia and candidiasis were recorded in patients. Results: Analysis of the collected data showed that susceptibility to marginal gingivitis shows higher values according to retrograde data, compared to cross-sectional ones. Susceptibility to candidiasis and the occurrence of xerostomia, even in the combination of both pathologies, as risk factors for the occurrence of marginal gingivitis, show higher values ​​according to retrograde data. The female are presented with a reduced bacterial plaque index than the males, but more importantly, this index in the females is also associated with a reduced index of gingival hemorrhage, in contrast to the males. Conclusions: Cross-sectional data show that the prevalence of marginal gingivitis is more reduced, compared to retrograde data, based on the hemorrhage index and the bacterial plaque index together. Changes in production in the amount of gingival fluid show a higher prevalence of marginal gingivitis in cross-sectional data than in retrograde data; this is based on the sophistication of the way data are recorded, which evolves over time and also based on professional sensitivity to this phenomenon.

Keywords: marginal gingivitis, cross-sectional, retrograde, prevalence

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Authors: Robyn Therese Munnick

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This paper aims to report on a qualitative practice-based research study which explores the notion of nothingness and how it (nothingness) is the conceptual and theoretical foundation for artistic practice. Furthermore, this study explicates how the artist used their mother’s battle with cancer and the subsequent void it created as source material for the artistic expression of nothingness. The diagnosis which was followed by a physical and emotional absence of the matriarch of the artist family led to an emotional trauma that triggered a feeling of nothingness within the artist. The overarching problem in the study is thus: how this ‘nothingness’ could be expressed in visual art? Nothingness, as a product of expectation, is a notion which refers to where something used to be, should be or isn’t anymore, which attempts to grasp what is there by not being there. In attempting to express nothingness, the research aims to build on an exploration of various materials and modes utilized in order to underpin the research objectives. The primary mode of delivery for the art-making process is painting. However, through strengthening the messages and meaning of the hypothesis of nothingness within the art and research, the use of further modes and materials became pivotal. This involves the use of unconventional contrasting modes within a painting such as the cloth doily, thread, tubing, ceramics, food colour, spray paint, polyvinyl acetate paint, plaster, wooden boxes and fragments thereof. These materials and modes were vital in visualising and aestheticising the conceptual underpinnings of the research. As a result, this strengthened and emancipated the art from the traditional bounds of pure painting. Methods of data gathering took the form of artefacts, document analysis, and field notes in the form of photographic journaling. Ultimately the body of work and research validates that the idea of nothingness can be artistically explored.

Keywords: conceptual, nothingness, modes, unconventional

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Authors: Pedro P. Drumond, James E. Ball, Priscilla M. Moura, Márcia M. L. P. Coelho

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In recent decades, On-site Stormwater Detention (OSD) systems have been implemented in many cities around the world. In Brazil, urban drainage source control policies were created in the 1990’s and were mainly based on OSD. The concept of this technique is to promote the detention of additional stormwater runoff caused by impervious areas, in order to maintain pre-urbanization peak flow levels. In Australia OSD, was first adopted in the early 1980’s by the Ku-ring-gai Council in Sydney’s northern suburbs and Wollongong City Council. Many papers on the topic were published at that time. However, source control techniques related to stormwater quality have become to the forefront and OSD has been relegated to the background. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the current regulations regarding OSD, the existing policies were compared in Australian cities, a country considered experienced in the use of this technique, and in Brazilian cities where OSD adoption has been increasing. The cities selected for analysis were Wollongong and Belo Horizonte, the first municipalities to adopt OSD in their respective countries, and Sydney and Porto Alegre, cities where these policies are local references. The Australian and Brazilian cities are located in Southern Hemisphere of the planet and similar rainfall intensities can be observed, especially in storm bursts greater than 15 minutes. Regarding technical criteria, Brazilian cities have a site-based approach, analyzing only on-site system drainage. This approach is criticized for not evaluating impacts on urban drainage systems and in rare cases may cause the increase of peak flows downstream. The city of Wollongong and most of the Sydney Councils adopted a catchment-based approach, requiring the use of Permissible Site Discharge (PSD) and Site Storage Requirements (SSR) values based on analysis of entire catchments via hydrograph-producing computer models. Based on the premise that OSD should be designed to dampen storms of 100 years Average Recurrence Interval (ARI) storm, the values of PSD and SSR in these four municipalities were compared. In general, Brazilian cities presented low values of PSD and high values of SSR. This can be explained by site-based approach and the low runoff coefficient value adopted for pre-development conditions. The results clearly show the differences between approaches and methodologies adopted in OSD designs among Brazilian and Australian municipalities, especially with regard to PSD values, being on opposite sides of the scale. However, lack of research regarding the real performance of constructed OSD does not allow for determining which is best. It is necessary to investigate OSD performance in a real situation, assessing the damping provided throughout its useful life, maintenance issues, debris blockage problems and the parameters related to rain-flow methods. Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Chamada Universal – MCTI/CNPq Nº 14/2014), FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais, and CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior for their financial support.

Keywords: on-site stormwater detention, source control, stormwater, urban drainage

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Authors: Mustafa Aydın, Ali Murat Sunbul

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Hierarchical or nested data structures usually are seen in many research areas. Especially, in the field of education, if we examine most of the studies, we can see the nested structures. Students in classes, classes in schools, schools in cities and cities in regions are similar nested structures. In a hierarchical structure, students being in the same class, sharing the same physical conditions and similar experiences and learning from the same teachers, they demonstrate similar behaviors between them rather than the students in other classes.

Keywords: hierarchical linear modeling, nested data, hierarchical structure, data structure

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Authors: Lethola Tshikose, Munyaradzi Katurura

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a critical role in improving daily healthcare processes. The South African healthcare organizations have adopted Information Systems to integrate their patient records. This has made it much easier for healthcare organizations because patient information can now be accessible at any time. The primary purpose of this research study was to investigate the best practices that can be applied to enhance patient security and confidentiality when using e-health systems in South Africa. Security and confidentiality are critical in healthcare organizations as they ensure safety in EHRs. The research study used an inductive research approach that included a thorough literature review; therefore, no data was collected. The research paper’s scope included patient data and possible security threats associated with healthcare systems. According to the study, South African healthcare organizations discovered various patient data security and confidentiality issues. The study also revealed that when it comes to handling patient data, health professionals sometimes make mistakes. Some may not be computer literate, which posed issues and caused data to be tempered with. The research paper recommends that healthcare organizations ensure that security measures are adequately supported and promoted by their IT department. This will ensure that adequate resources are distributed to keep patient data secure and confidential. Healthcare organizations must correctly use standards set up by IT specialists to solve patient data security and confidentiality issues. Healthcare organizations must make sure that their organizational structures are adaptable to improve security and confidentiality.

Keywords: E-health, EHR, security, confidentiality, healthcare

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Authors: Aly Audu Fada

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The mono-economic structure of Nigerian economy has made it depend on oil for so many years. Apart from the negative effect of its exploitation, relying solely on oil as the major source of revenue for peddling the ship of development is myopic. The crumbling oil price in the world market is one proof of the dangers of this over-dependence. This paper highlights the consequences of the oil-driven economy and explores the various opportunities that are accessible in tourism through a contextual analysis. It is recommended that those at the helm of affairs should initiate collaboration between the public and private sectors to explore and harness the rich tourism resources naturally dispersed across the country to achieve the objectives of economic transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

Keywords: diversifying, economic, tourism, oil

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Authors: Adeoti Adebowale, Abduljaleel, Ejiogu Fidelis Onyekwo

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Form and image development are fundamental to creative expression in visual arts. The form is an element that distinguishes the difference between two-dimension and three-dimension among the branches of visual arts. Particularly, the sculpture is a three-dimensional form, while the textile design is a two-dimensional form of its visual appearance. The visual expression of each of them is embedded in the creative practice of the artist, which is easily understood and interpreted by the viewer. In this research, an attempt is made to explore and analyse sculptural forms adopted as a motif for wax print in textile design, aiming at breeding yet another pattern and motif suitable for various design uses. For instance, the dynamics of sculptural form adaptation into other areas of creativity, such as architecture, pictorial arts and pottery, as well as automobile bodies, is a discernible image everywhere. The research is studio exploratory, while a camera and descriptive analysis were used to process the data. Two sculptural forms were adopted from the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Federal Capital Territory College of Education Zuba-Abuja, in this study due to the uniqueness of their technique of execution. The findings resulted in ten (10) paper designs showing the dexterity of studio practice in the development of design for various fashion and textile uses. However, the paper concludes that sculptural form is a source of inspiration for generating design concepts for a textile designer.

Keywords: exploration, design, motifs, sculptural forms, wax print

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Authors: Anurag Sharma, Dinesh Kumar, Rahul Malhotra, Manoj Kumar

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Fiber based access networks can deliver performance that can support the increasing demands for high speed connections. One of the new technologies that have emerged in recent years is Passive Optical Networks. This paper is targeted to show the simultaneous delivery of triple play service (data, voice and video). The comparative investigation and suitability of various data rates is presented. It is demonstrated that as we increase the data rate, number of users to be accommodated decreases due to increase in bit error rate.

Keywords: BER, PON, TDMPON, GPON, CWDM, OLT, ONT

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Authors: Giang Vu, Duong Nguyen, Yuan-Ling Chen

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Vietnam is a fast developing country with highly economic growth, and Vietnam organizations strive to utilize high performance work system (HPWS) in reinforcing employee in-role performance. HPWS, a bundle of human resource (HR) practices, are composed of eight sets of HR practices, namely selective staffing, extensive training, internal mobility, employment security, clear job description, result-oriented appraisal, incentive reward, and participation. However, whether HPWS stimulate employee extra-role behaviors remains understudied in a booming economic context. In this study, we aim to investigate organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a Vietnam context and, as a central issue, disentangle how HPWS elicits in employee OCB. On the other hand, recently, a deliberation of so-called 'black-box' HPWS issue has explored the role of employee commitment, suggesting that organizational commitment is a compelling source of employee OCB. We draw upon social exchange theory to predict that when employees perceive the organizational investment, like HPWS, in heightening their abilities, knowledge, and motivation, they are more likely to pay back with commitment; consequently, they will take initiatives in OCB. Hence, we hypothesize an individual level framework, in which organizational commitment mediates the positive relationship between HPWS and OCB. We collected data on HPWS, organizational commitment, OCB, and demographic variables, all at line managers of Vietnamese firms in Hanoi and Hochiminh. We conclude with research findings, implications, and future research suggestions.

Keywords: high performance work system, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, Vietnam

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Authors: Nouha Khediri, Mohammed Ben Ammar, Monji Kherallah

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Recently, facial emotion recognition (FER) has become increasingly essential to understand the state of the human mind. Accurately classifying emotion from the face is a challenging task. In this paper, we present a facial emotion recognition approach named CV-FER, benefiting from deep learning, especially CNN and VGG16. First, the data is pre-processed with data cleaning and data rotation. Then, we augment the data and proceed to our FER model, which contains five convolutions layers and five pooling layers. Finally, a softmax classifier is used in the output layer to recognize emotions. Based on the above contents, this paper reviews the works of facial emotion recognition based on deep learning. Experiments show that our model outperforms the other methods using the same FER2013 database and yields a recognition rate of 92%. We also put forward some suggestions for future work.

Keywords: CNN, deep-learning, facial emotion recognition, machine learning

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Authors: Vivian Isaac, A. T. Joteeshwaran, Craig McLachlan

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The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Rural Clinical School has a strategic collaborative focus on chronic disease and public health. Our objectives are to understand rural environmental and biological interactions in vulnerable community populations. The UNSW Rural Clinical School translational model is a spoke and hub network. This spoke and hub model connects rural data and biological specimens with city based collaborative public health research networks. Similar spoke and hub models are prevalent across research centers in India. The Australia-India Council grant was awarded so we could establish sustainable public health and community research collaborations. As part of the collaborative network we are developing strategies around data and biological sharing platforms between Indian Institute of Public Health, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Hyderabad and Rural Clinical School UNSW. The key objective is to understand how research collaborations are conducted in India and also how data can shared and tracked with external collaborators such as ourselves. A framework to improve data sharing for research collaborations, including DNA was proposed as a project outcome. The complexities of sharing biological data has been investigated via a visit to India. A flagship sustainable project between Rural Clinical School UNSW and PHFI would illustrate a model of data sharing platforms.

Keywords: data sharing, collaboration, public health research, chronic disease

Procedia PDF Downloads 450