Search results for: agricultural applications

Authors: G. A. Gevorgyan, K. A. Ghazaryan, T. H. Derdzyan

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The heavy metal pollution of the soils around the mining area near Shamlugh town and related risks to human health were assessed. The investigations showed that the soils were polluted with heavy metals that can be ranked by anthropogenic pollution degree as follows: Cu>Pb>As>Co>Ni>Zn. The main sources of the anthropogenic metal pollution of the soils were the copper mining area near Shamlugh town, the Chochkan tailings storage facility and the trucks transferring are from the mining area. Copper pollution degree in some observation sites was unallowable for agricultural production. The total non-carcinogenic chronic hazard index (THI) values in some places, including observation sites in Shamlugh town, were above the safe level (THI<1) for children living in this territory. Although the highest heavy metal enrichment degree in the soils was registered in case of copper, the highest health risks to humans especially children were posed by cobalt which is explained by the fact that heavy metals have different toxicity levels and penetration characteristics.

Keywords: Armenia, copper mine, heavy metal pollution of soil, health risks

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Authors: Yusuf Yilmaz, Gamze Gediz Ilis

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Gas Nitrogen where has a boiling point of -189.52oC at atmospheric pressure widely used in the industry. Nitrogen that used in the industry should be transported in liquid form to the plant area. Ambient air vaporizer (AAV) generally used for vaporization of cryogenic gases such as liquid nitrogen (LN2), liquid oxygen (LOX), liquid natural gas (LNG), and liquid argon (LAR) etc. AAV is a group of star-shaped fin vaporizer. The design and the effect of the shape of fins of the vaporizer is one of the most important criteria for the performance of the vaporizer. In this study, the performance of AAV working with liquid nitrogen was analyzed numerically in a star-shaped aluminum finned pipe. The numerical analysis is performed in order to investigate the heat capacity of the vaporizer per meter pipe length. By this way, the vaporizer capacity can be predicted for the industrial applications. In order to achieve the validation of the numerical solution, the experimental setup is constructed. The setup includes a liquid nitrogen tank with a pressure of 9 bar. The star-shaped aluminum finned tube vaporizer is connected to the LN2 tank. The inlet and the outlet pressure and temperatures of the LN2 of the vaporizer are measured. The mass flow rate of the LN2 is also measured and collected. The comparison of the numerical solution is performed by these measured data. The ambient conditions of the experiment are given as boundary conditions to the numerical model. The surface tension and contact angle have a significant effect on the boiling of liquid nitrogen. Average heat transfer coefficient including convective and nucleated boiling components should be obtained for liquid nitrogen saturated flow boiling in the finned tube. Fluent CFD module is used to simulate the numerical solution. The turbulent k-ε model is taken to simulate the liquid nitrogen flow. The phase change is simulated by using the evaporation-condensation approach used with user-defined functions (UDF). The comparison of the numerical and experimental results will be shared in this study. Besides, the performance capacity of the star-shaped finned pipe vaporizer will be calculated in this study. Based on this numerical analysis, the performance of the vaporizer per unit length can be predicted for the industrial applications and the suitable pipe length of the vaporizer can be found for the special cases.

Keywords: liquid nitrogen, numerical modeling, two-phase flow, cryogenics

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Authors: Shruti Kohli

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The sophistication and pervasiveness of cyber-attacks are constantly growing, driven partly by technological progress, profitable applications in organized crime and state-sponsored innovation. The modernization of rail control systems has resulted in an increasing reliance on digital technology and increased the potential for security breaches and cyber-attacks. This research track showcases the need for developing a secure reusable scalable framework for enhancing cyber security of rail assets. A cyber security framework has been proposed that is being developed to detect the tell-tale signs of cyber-attacks against industrial assets.

Keywords: cyber security, rail asset, security threat, cyber ontology

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Authors: Quan Gu, Daniel Dimitrov

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BingleSeq was developed as a shiny-based, intuitive, and comprehensive application that enables the analysis of single-Cell RNA-Sequencing count data. This was achieved via incorporating three state-of-the-art software packages for each type of RNA sequencing analysis, alongside functional annotation analysis and a way to assess the overlap of differential expression method results. At its current state, the functionality implemented within BingleSeq is comparable to that of other applications, also developed with the purpose of lowering the entry requirements to RNA Sequencing analyses. BingleSeq is available on GitHub and will be submitted to R/Bioconductor.

Keywords: bioinformatics, functional annotation analysis, single-cell RNA-sequencing, transcriptomics

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Authors: Abegunde Linda, Adedeji Oluwatayo, Tope-Ajayi Opeyemi

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Maize constitutes a major agrarian production for use by the vast population but despite its economic importance, it has not been produced to meet the economic needs of the country. Achieving optimum yield in maize can meaningfully be supported by land suitability analysis in order to guarantee self-sufficiency for future production optimization. This study examines land suitability for maize production through the analysis of the physic-chemical variations in soil properties over space using a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. Physic-chemical parameters of importance selected include slope, landuse, and physical and chemical properties of the soil. Landsat imagery was used to categorize the landuse, Shuttle Radar Topographic Mapping (SRTM) generated the slope and soil samples were analyzed for its physical and chemical components. Suitability was categorized into highly, moderately and marginally suitable based on Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) classification using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique of GIS. This result can be used by small scale farmers for efficient decision making in the allocation of land for maize production.

Keywords: AHP, GIS, MCE, suitability, Zea mays

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Authors: Thomas Ousterhout

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In an effort to test the ability of a commercial grade EEG headset to effectively measure the N400 ERP, a replication study was conducted to see if similar results could be produced as that which used a medical grade EEG. Pictures of meaningful and meaningless hand postures were borrowed from the original author and subjects were required to perform a semantic discrimination task. The N400 was detected indicating semantic processing of the meaningfulness of the hand postures. The results corroborate those of the original author and support the use of some commercial grade EEG headsets for non-critical research applications.

Keywords: EEG, ERP, N400, semantics, congruency, gestures, emotiv

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Authors: Apurva Patil, Sujatha Srinivasan

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Reducing actuator loads is important for applications in which human effort is required for actuation. The potential benefit of applying spring balancing to rehabilitation devices which work against gravity on a nonhorizontal plane is well recognized, but practical applications have been elusive. Although existing methods provide exact spring balance, they require additional masses or auxiliary links, or all the springs used originate from the ground, which makes the resulting device bulky and space-inefficient. This paper uses a method of static balancing of mechanisms with conservative loads such as gravity and spring loads using non-zero-free-length springs and no auxiliary links. Application of this method to a manually operated swimming pool lift mechanism which lowers and raises the physically challenged users into or out of the swimming pool is presented here. Various possible configurations using extension and compression springs as well as gas spring in the mechanism are compared. This work involves approximate spring balancing of the mechanism using minimization of potential energy variance. It uses the approach of flattening the potential energy distribution over the workspace and fuses it with numerical optimization. The results show the considerable reduction in actuator torque requirement with practical spring design and arrangement. Although the method provides only an approximate balancing, it is versatile, flexible in choosing appropriate control variables that are relevant to the design problem and easy to implement. The true potential of this technique lies in the fact that it uses a very simple optimization to find the spring constant, free length of the spring and the optimal attachment points subject to the optimization constraints. Also, it uses physically realizable non-zero-free-length springs directly, thereby reducing the complexity involved in simulating zero-free-length springs from non-zero-free-length springs. This method allows springs to be attached inside the mechanism, which makes the implementation of spring balancing practical. Because auxiliary linkages can be avoided, the resultant swimming pool lift mechanism is compact. The cost benefits and reduced complexity can be significant advantages in the development of this user-actuated swimming pool lift for developing countries.

Keywords: gas spring, rehabilitation device, spring balancing, swimming pool lift

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Authors: Bernard Bladergroen, David Vlotman, Bradley Cerff

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The agricultural sector is one which requires and consumes large amounts of water globally. Commercial wine production, in particular, uses extensive volumes of fresh water and generates significant volumes of wastewater through various processes. The wastewater produced by wineries typically exhibits elevated levels of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), acidic pH and varying salinity and nutrient contents. This study investigates the performance of a shear-enhanced flotation separation (SEFS) pilot plant as a primary treatment stage during winery wastewater processing by modifying a conventional Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system. The SEFS pilot plant achieved a 99% reduction in both turbidity and TSS in comparison to the 97% achieved with the conventional DAF system. The COD was reduced by 66% and 51% for the SEFS and DAF systems, respectively. SEFS shows the advantages of hydrodynamic shear to enhance the coagulation and subsequent flocculation processes with a significant reduction of coagulant and flocculant (36% and 31%, respectively).

Keywords: shear enhanced flotation, suspended solids, primary wastewater treatment, zeta potential

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Authors: Manita Ale, Ganesh P. Shivakoti, Ram C. Bastakoti

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Irrigation system, a system for enhancing agricultural productivity, requires regular maintenance in order to avoid irregular allocation of water. For maintenance of the system in long run, farmers’ participation plays a key role increasing the performance of system. The performance of any irrigation system mainly relies on various factors which affect collective action plus decision making, as well as their shared impacts. The paper consists of system level information that were collected from 12 Irrigation Systems (IS) from three-sampled districts of Nepal and the household information that were collected from 160 irrigation water users. The results reveal that, out of 12 sampled irrigation systems, only 4 systems shows high performance levels. The high performance level of those systems was characterized on the basis of adequate availability of water, good maintenance of system infrastructure, and conformance to existing rules followed. In addition, the paper compares different irrigation systems based on trust, reciprocity, cropping intensity, command area and yield as tools to indicate the importance of collective action in performance of irrigation system.

Keywords: collective action, decision-making, farmers’ participation, performance

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Authors: Wael Ali Mohammed Hadi

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Pseudomonas fluorescens B29B, which has asparaginase enzymatic activity, was isolated from the surface coastal seawater of Trivandrum, India. We report the complete Pseudomonas fluorescens B29B genome sequenced, identified, and annotated from a marine source. We find the genome at most minuscule a 7,331,508 bp single circular chromosome with a GC content of 62.19% and 6883 protein-coding genes. Three hundred forty subsystems were identified, including two predicted asparaginases from the genome analysis of P. fluorescens B29B for further investigation. This genome data will help further industrial biotechnology applications of proteins in general and asparaginase as a target.

Keywords: pseudomonas, marine, asparaginases, Kerala, whole-genome

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Authors: Yaser Miaji, Mohammed Aloryani

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The rise of recent applications in everyday implementation like videoconferencing, online recreation and voice speech communication leads to pressing the need for novel mechanism and policy to serve this steep improvement within the application itself and users‟ wants. This diversity in web traffics needs some classification and prioritization of the traffics since some traffics merit abundant attention with less delay and loss, than others. This research is intended to reinforce the mechanism by analysing the performance in application according to the proposed mechanism implemented. The mechanism used is quite direct and analytical. The mechanism is implemented by modifying the queue limit in the algorithm.

Keywords: traffic classification, IPv6, internet, application categorization

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Authors: Bernstein Ran, Shafir Tal, Tsachor Rachelle, Studd Karen, Schuster Assaf

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Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), developed in the dance community over the past seventy years, is an effective method for observing, describing, notating, and interpreting human movement to enhance communication and expression in everyday and professional life. Many applications that use motion capture data might be significantly leveraged if the Laban qualities will be recognized automatically. This paper presents an automated recognition method of Laban qualities from motion capture skeletal recordings and it is demonstrated on the output of Microsoft’s Kinect V2 sensor.

Keywords: Laban movement analysis, multitask learning, Kinect sensor, machine learning

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Authors: Elizabeth G. Hereford, Geoffrey W. Gearner

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Logan’s Branch, within the Triplett Creek Watershed of Rowan County, Kentucky, is a waterway located near important agricultural and residential areas. Part of Logan’s Branch flows over an exposed black shale formation with elevated radioactivity and heavy metals. Three sites were chosen in relation to the formation and sampled five times over a thirty-day period during the recreational season. A fourth site in North Fork in Rowan County, Kentucky was also sampled periodically as it too has contact with the shale formation. These sites were then sampled monthly. All samples are analyzed for concentrations of Escherichia coli, heterotrophic bacteria, and total coliform bacteria utilizing the membrane filtration method and various culture media. Current data suggests that the radioactivity of the shale formation influences the bacteriological growth present in the waterway; however, further data will be collected and compared with that of my colleagues to confirm this trend.

Keywords: bacteriological analysis, Escherichia coli, heterotrophic bacteria, radioactive black shale formation, water quality

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Authors: Leong Tatt Loh, Ming Kun Yew, Ming Chian Yew, Lip Huat Saw, Jing Han Beh, Siong Kang Lim, Foo Wei Lee

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Oil palm shell (OPS) is the solid waste product from the palm oil sector of the agricultural industry and can be used as alternative coarse aggregates to substitute depleting conventional raw materials. This research aims to investigate the incorporation of various high-performance polypropylene (HPP) fibres with different geometry to enhance the mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of OPS lightweight concrete. The effect of different volume fractions (Vf) (0.05%, 0.10% and 0.15%) were studied for each fibre. The results reveal that the effectiveness of HPP fibres to increase the compressive strength at later ages was more pronounced than at early age. It is found that the use of HPP fibres reinforced OPS lightweight concrete (LWC) induced the advantageous of improving mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength) and thermal conductivity. Hence, this HPP fibres is a promising alternative solution to compensate lower mechanical properties as well as contribute to energy efficiency building material in the construction industry.

Keywords: oil palm shell, high performance polypropylene fibre, lightweight concrete, mechanical properties, thermal conductivity

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Authors: Shadi Fathi, Moura Mehravar, Mujib Rahman

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Over the years,increased demands on railways, the emergence of high-speed trains and heavy axle loads, ageing, and deterioration of the existing tracks, is imposing costly maintenance actions on the railway sector. The need for developing a fast andcost-efficient non-destructive assessment method for the structural evaluation of railway tracksis therefore critically important. The layer modulus is the main parameter used in the structural design and evaluation of the railway track substructure (foundation). Among many recently developed NDTs, Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test, widely used in pavement evaluation, has shown promising results for railway track substructure monitoring. The surface deflection data collected by FWD are used to estimate the modulus of substructure layers through the back-analysis technique. Although there are different commerciallyavailableback-analysis programs are used for pavement applications, there are onlya limited number of research-based techniques have been so far developed for railway track evaluation. In this paper, the suitability, accuracy, and reliability of the BAKFAAsoftware are investigated. The main rationale for selecting BAKFAA as it has a relatively straightforward user interfacethat is freely available and widely used in highway and airport pavement evaluation. As part of the study, a finite element (FE) model of a railway track section near Leominsterstation, Herefordshire, UK subjected to the FWD test, was developed and validated against available field data. Then, a virtual experimental database (including 218 sets of FWD testing data) was generated using theFE model and employed as the measured database for the BAKFAA software. This database was generated considering various layers’ moduli for each layer of track substructure over a predefined range. The BAKFAA predictions were compared against the cone penetration test (CPT) data (available from literature; conducted near to Leominster station same section as the FWD was performed). The results reveal that BAKFAA overestimatesthe layers’ moduli of each substructure layer. To adjust the BAKFA with the CPT data, this study introduces a correlation model to make the BAKFAA applicable in railway applications.

Keywords: back-analysis, bakfaa, railway track substructure, falling weight deflectometer (FWD), cone penetration test (CPT)

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Authors: Diana Rymuszka, Konrad Terpiłowski, Lucyna Hołysz, Elena Goncharuk, Iryna Sulym

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Superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit extremely high water repellency. The commonly accepted basic criterion for such surfaces is a water contact angle larger than 150°, low contact angle hysteresis and low sliding angle. These surfaces are of special interest, because properties such as anti-sticking, anti-contamination and self-cleaning are expected. These properties are attractive for many applications such as anti-sticking of snow for antennas and windows, anti-biofouling paints for boats, waterproof clothing, self-cleaning windshields for automobiles, dust-free coatings or metal refining. The various methods for the preparation of superhydrophobic surfaces since last two decades have been reported, such as phase separation, electrochemical deposition, template method, plasma method, chemical vapor deposition, wet chemical reaction, sol-gel processing, lithography and so on. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of modified colloidal silica, used as a filler, on the hydrophobicity of the polymer film deposited on the glass support activated with plasma. On prepared surfaces water advancing (ӨA) and receding (ӨR) contact angles were measured and then their total apparent surface free energy was determined using the contact angle hysteresis approach (CAH). The structures of deposited films were observed with the help of an optical microscope. Topographies of selected films were also determined using an optical profilometer. It was found that plasma treatment influence glass surface wetting and energetic properties that is observed in higher adhesion between polymer/filler film and glass support. Using the colloidal silica particles as a filler for the polymer thin film deposited on the glass support, it is possible to produce strongly adhering layers of superhydrophobic properties. The best superhydrophobic properties were obtained for surfaces of the film glass/polimer + modified silica covered in 89 and 100%. The advancing contact angle measured on these surfaces amounts above 150° that leads to under 2 mJ/m2 value of the apparent surface free energy. Such films may have many practical applications, among others, as dust-free coatings or anticorrosion protection.

Keywords: contact angle, plasma, superhydrophobic, surface free energy

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Authors: Ferdi Sönmez, Başak Buluz

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Agility in Knowledge Management (AKM) tries to capture agility requirements and their respective answers within the framework of knowledge and learning for organizations. Since it is rather a new construct, it is difficult to claim that it has been sufficiently discussed and analyzed in practical and theoretical realms. Like the term ‘agile learning’, it is also commonly addressed in the software development and information technology fields and across the related areas where those technologies can be applied. The organizational perspective towards AKM, seems to need some more time to become scholarly mature. Nevertheless, in the literature one can come across some implicit usages of this term occasionally. This research is aimed to explore the conceptual background of agility in KM, re-conceptualize it and extend it to business applications with a special focus on e-business.

Keywords: knowledge management, agility requirements, agility, knowledge

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Authors: Cláudia Moço, Maria Santos, Carlos Arsénio, Débora Mendes, Miguel Oliveira. José Paulo Da Silva

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Construction industry generates large amounts of waste all over the world. About 450 million tons of construction and demolition wastes (C&DW) are produced annually in the European Union. C&DW are highly heterogeneous materials in size and composition, which imposes strong difficulties on their management. Directive n.º 2008/98/CE, of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November establishes that 70 % of the C&DW have to be recycled by 2020. To evaluate possible applications of these materials, a detailed physical, chemical and environmental characterization is necessary. Multi Triagem, Lda. is a company located in Algarve (Portugal) and was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (grant QREN 30307 Multivalor) to quantify and characterize the received C&DW, in order to evaluate their possible applications. This evaluation, performed in collaboration with the University of Algarve, involves a physical, chemical and environmental detailed characterization of the received C&DW. In this work we report on the amounts, trial procedures and properties of the C&DW received over a period of fifteen month. In this period the company received C&DW coming from 393 different origins. The total amount was 32.458 tons, mostly mixtures containing concrete, masonry/mortar and soil/rock. Most of C&DW came from demodulation constructions and diggings. The organic/inert component, namely metal, glass, wood and plastics, were screened first and account for about 3 % of the received materials. The remaining materials were screened and grouped according to their origin and contents, the latter evaluated by visual inspection. Twenty five samples were prepared and submitted to a detailed physical, chemical and environmental analysis. The C&DW aggregates show lower quality properties than natural aggregates for concrete preparation and unbound layers of road pavements. However, chemical analyzes indicated that most samples are environmentally safe. A continuous monitoring of the presence of heavy metals and organic compounds is needed in order to perform a proper screening of the C&DW. C&DW aggregates provide a good alternative to natural aggregates.

Keywords: construction and demolition wastes, waste classification, waste composition, waste screening

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Authors: Christiana Fwenji Zumyil, Toma Maina Antip

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Environmental Science subject is currently not an independent subject taught in secondary schools in Nigeria like Biology, Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Geography and other subjects that students take final exams (West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, National Examination Council, NEC, National Board for Technical Education, NABTED)., on it but its elements/topics/contents are integrated into the curriculum of the subjects mentioned, and because of that, it becomes difficult to know what should be taught and how it should be taught. Currently, it is still difficult to implement student-centered strategies in the classroom. Through this study, we sought to diagnose the difficulties, advantages and perceptions that Environmental Teachers experience when conceiving and implementing Science-Technology-Society (STS) strategies in SS2 classes at the Secondary Education level. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with Secondary School Environmental Teachers. Despite the difficulties found, the advantages, the motivation and the involvement of the students that this teaching perspective enables to lead the teacher to continue developing and implementing STS strategies in the classroom.

Keywords: environment, science, technology, society, science-technology-society, science education, secondary teaching

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Authors: A. Sardi, J. Zbitou, A. Errkik, L. El Abdellaoui, A. Tajmouati, M. Latrach

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This paper presents analysis and design of a wideband Wilkinson power divider for wireless applications. The design is accomplished by transforming the lengths and impedances of the quarter wavelength sections of the conventional Wilkinson power divider into U-shaped sections. The designed power divider is simulated by using ADS Agilent technologies and CST microwave studio software. It is shown that the proposed power divider has simple topology and good performances in terms of insertion loss, port matching and isolation at all operating frequencies (1.8 GHz, 2.45 GHz and 3.55 GHz).

Keywords: ADS agilent technologies, CST microwave studio, microstrip, wideband, wilkinson power divider

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Authors: Vinod Kumar Jaysaval, Prateek Agarwal

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Performance prediction of airborne radar is a challenging and cumbersome task in clutter scenario for different types of targets. A generalized model requires to predict the performance of Radar for air targets as well as ground moving targets. In this paper, we propose a generalized model to bring out the performance of airborne radar for different Pulsed Repetition Frequency (PRF) as well as different type of targets. The model provides a platform to bring out different subsystem parameters for different applications and performance requirements under different types of clutter terrain.

Keywords: airborne radar, blind zone, clutter, probability of detection

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Authors: Ming-Hwi Yao, Su-Szu Yang

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Typhoons are one of the major types of disasters that affect Taiwan each year and that cause severe damage to agriculture. Indeed, the damage exacted during a typical typhoon season can be up to $1 billion, and is responsible for nearly 75% of yearly agricultural losses. However, there is no consensus on how to reduce the damage caused by the strong winds and heavy precipitation engendered by typhoons. One suggestion is the use of windbreak nets, which are a low-cost and easy-to-use disaster mitigation strategy for crop production. In the present study, we conducted an evaluation to determine the optimal conditions of a windbreak net by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. This model may be used as a reference for crop protection. The results showed that CFD simulation validated windbreak nets of different mesh sizes and heights in the experimental area; thus, CFD is an efficient tool for evaluating the effectiveness of windbreak nets. Specifically, the effective wind protection length and height were found to be 6 and 1.3 times the length and height of the windbreak net, respectively. During a real typhoon, maximum wind gusts of 18 m s-1 can be reduced to 4 m s-1 by using a windbreak net that has a 70% blocking rate. In short, windbreak nets are significantly effective in protecting typhoon-affected areas.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, disaster, typhoon, windbreak net

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Authors: Sujata S. Kulkarni

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Effective and efficient texture feature extraction and classification is an important problem in image understanding and recognition. This paper gives a review on effective texture classification method. The objective of the problem of texture representation is to reduce the amount of raw data presented by the image, while preserving the information needed for the task. Texture analysis is important in many applications of computer image analysis for classification include industrial and biomedical surface inspection, for example for defects and disease, ground classification of satellite or aerial imagery and content-based access to image databases.

Keywords: compressed sensing, feature extraction, image classification, texture analysis

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Authors: Jakob Krause

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Past Financial Crisis has shown that contemporary risk management models provide an unjustified sense of security and fail miserably in situations in which they are needed the most. In this paper, we start from the assumption that risk is a notion that changes over time and therefore past data points only have limited explanatory power for the current situation. Our objective is to derive the optimal amount of representative information by optimizing between the two adverse forces of estimator convergence, incentivizing us to use as much data as possible, and the aforementioned non-representativeness doing the opposite. In this endeavor, the cornerstone assumption of having access to identically distributed random variables is weakened and substituted by the assumption that the law of the data generating process changes over time. Hence, in this paper, we give a quantitative theory on how to perform statistical analysis in non-ergodic systems. As an application, we discuss the impact of a paragraph in the last iteration of proposals by the Basel Committee on Banking Regulation. We start from the premise that the severity of assumptions should correspond to the robustness of the system they describe. Hence, in the formal description of physical systems, the level of assumptions can be much higher. It follows that every concept that is carried over from the natural sciences to economics must be checked for its plausibility in the new surroundings. Most of the probability theory has been developed for the analysis of physical systems and is based on the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) assumption. In Economics both parts of the i.i.d. assumption are inappropriate. However, only dependence has, so far, been weakened to a sufficient degree. In this paper, an appropriate class of non-stationary processes is used, and their law is tied to a formal object measuring representativeness. Subsequently, that data set is identified that on average minimizes the estimation error stemming from both, insufficient and non-representative, data. Applications are far reaching in a variety of fields. In the paper itself, we apply the results in order to analyze a paragraph in the Basel 3 framework on banking regulation with severe implications on financial stability. Beyond the realm of finance, other potential applications include the reproducibility crisis in the social sciences (but not in the natural sciences) and modeling limited understanding and learning behavior in economics.

Keywords: banking regulation, non-ergodicity, risk management, semimartingale modeling

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Authors: A. Fakhri Makram, Marwa S. Alwazni, Al-Douri Yarub, Evan T. Salim, Hashim Uda, Chin C. Woei

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Lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) nanostructures are prepared on quartz substrate by the sol-gel method. They have been deposited with different molarity concentration and annealed at 500°C. These samples are characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The measured results showed an importance increasing in molarity concentrations that indicate the structure starts to become crystal, regular, homogeneous, well crystal distributed, which made it more suitable for optical waveguide application.

Keywords: lithium niobate, morphological properties, thin film, pechini method, XRD

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Authors: Sheo K. Mishra, Rajneesh K. Srivastava, R. K. Shukla

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In the present work, we report on the optical properties including UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) of ZnO nanostructures synthesized by sol-gel method. Structural and morphological investigations have been performed by X-ray diffraction method (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD result confirms the formation of hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO nanostructures. The presence of various diffraction peaks suggests polycrystalline nature. The XRD pattern exhibits no additional peak due to by-products such as Zn(OH)2. The average crystallite size of prepared ZnO sample corresponding to the maximum intensity peaks is to be ~38.22 nm. The SEM micrograph shows different nanostructures of pure ZnO. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum shows several emission peaks around 353 nm, 382 nm, 419 nm, 441 nm, 483 nm and 522 nm. The obtained results suggest that the prepared phosphors are quite suitable for optoelectronic applications.

Keywords: ZnO, sol-gel, XRD, PL

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Authors: Sepdiana W. Rahmawati, Santi A. P. Anggraini

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The world of education has made progress with the various new technologies with help of computer. No exception physics education, especially virtual physics practical work. By doing practical work, memory of physics concept will be more advantageous for student and they will understand the essence of actual physics, not only spiked formula. With help of computers, created a variety of applications that can be used by students to perform virtual practical work and students will start thinking systematically to be able find its own concepts and understand the application of physics.

Keywords: essence of physics, formation concept, physics concept, virtual practical work

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Authors: Alison C. Essary, Victor Trastek

Abstract:

Introduction: The current state of the health care system in the U.S. is characterized by an unprecedented number of people living with multiple chronic conditions, unsustainable rise in health care costs, inadequate access to care, and wide variation in health outcomes throughout the country. An estimated two-thirds of Americans are living with two or more chronic conditions, contributing to 75% of all health care spending. In 2013, the School for the Science of Health Care Delivery (SHCD) was charged with redesigning the health care system through education and research. Faculty in business, law, and public policy, and thought leaders in health care delivery, administration, public health and health IT created undergraduate, graduate, and executive academic programs to address this pressing need. Faculty and students work across disciplines, and with community partners and employers to improve care delivery and increase value for patients. Methods: Curricula apply content in health care administration and operations within the clinical context. Graduate modules are team-taught by faculty across academic units to model team-based practice. Seminars, team-based assignments, faculty mentoring, and applied projects are integral to student success. Cohort-driven models enhance networking and collaboration. This observational study evaluated two years of admissions data, and one year of graduate data to assess program outcomes and inform the current graduate-level curricula. Descriptive statistics includes means, percentages. Results: Fall 2013, the program received 51 applications. The mean GPA of the entering class of 37 students was 3.38. Ninety-seven percent of the fall 2013 cohort successfully completed the program (n=35). Sixty-six percent are currently employed in the health care industry (n=23). Of the remaining 12 graduates, two successfully matriculated to medical school; one works in the original field of study; four await results on the MCAT or DAT, and five were lost to follow up. Attrition of one student was attributed to non-academic reasons. Fall 2014, the program expanded to include both on-ground and online cohorts. Applications were evenly distributed between on-ground (n=70) and online (n=68). Thirty-eight students enrolled in the on-ground program. The mean GPA was 3.95. Ninety-five percent of students successfully completed the program (n=36). Thirty-six students enrolled in the online program. The mean GPA was 3.85. Graduate outcomes are pending. Discussion: Challenges include demographic variability between online and on-ground students; yet, both profiles are similar in that students intend to become change agents in the health care system. In the past two years, on-ground applications increased by 31%, persistence to graduation is > 95%, mean GPA is 3.67, graduates report admission to six U.S. medical schools, the Mayo Medical School integrates SHCD content within their curricula, and there is national interest in collaborating on industry and academic partnerships. This places SHCD at the forefront of developing innovative curricula in order to improve high-value, patient-centered care.

Keywords: delivery science, education, health care delivery, high-value care, innovation in education, patient-centered

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Vasant Reddy, Shivani A. Singh, Pravin S. More

Abstract:

In the present investigation, we demonstrated the fabrication of few-layers of graphene sheets with alkali metal i.e. Rb-G using chemical route method. The obtained materials were characterized by means of chemical, structural and electrical techniques, using the ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 4 points probe, respectively. The XRD studies were carried out to understand the phase of the samples where we found a sharp peak of Rb-G at 26.470. UV-Spectroscopy of Graphene and Rb-modified graphene samples shows the absorption peaks at ~248 nm and ~318 nm respectively. These analyses show that this modified material can be useful for gas sensing applications and to be used in diverse areas.

Keywords: chemical route, graphene, gas sensing, UV-spectroscopy

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Morfaw Bernice Njinju

Abstract:

The contribution of exporting and small businesses to an economy cannot be overemphasized. However, small firms in developing economies are characterized by resource deficiencies, which hinders their exporting abilities. As a result, export promotion programs are designed by the government as external resources that small firms can access to overcome export barriers and improve their exporting. Nevertheless, doubts still exist as to whether firms are aware of these programs and the extent to which they are utilizing it. To analyse the level of awareness and usage of these programs, the questionnaire was developed from the review of the literature. A pilot study was conducted to determine the ease of completing the questionnaire by respondent before incorporating feedback to produce the final questionnaire. Data were collected from 200 small businesses in Cameroon in the manufacturing and agricultural sector through random sampling and analysed using regression analysis. The results indicated that different programs had different levels of awareness than others. Programs to provide training to improve product quality was found to have the highest level of awareness while those providing findings had low levels of awareness. Despite these different levels of awareness, usage was very low, as firms do not want to open up to government scrutiny of their business. Implications to policy, practice, and direction for further research are also discussed.

Keywords: export promotion programs, exporting, small businesses, Cameroon

Procedia PDF Downloads 103