Search results for: crisis scenarios cycles

Authors: Kinda AlSamara

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The nineteenth century was characterized by major educational reforms in the Arab World. One of the unintended outcomes of colonization in Arab countries was the initiation of women liberation as well as the introduction of modern education and its application in sensitizing people on the rights of women and their liberation. The reforms were often attributed to various undercurrents that took place at different levels within the Ottoman Empire, and particularly the arrival and influence of the Christian missionaries were supported by the American and European governments. These trends were also significantly attributed to the increase in the presence of Europeans in the region, as well as the introduction of secular ideas and approaches related to the meaning of modernity. Using literary analysis as a method, this paper examines the role of an important male figure like the political activist and writer Qāsim Amīn and the religious reformer Muḥammad ʻAbduh in starting this discourse and shows their impact on the emancipation of women movement (Taḥrīr), and how later women led the movement with their published work. This paper explores Arab Salons and the initiation of women’s literary circles. Women from wealthy families in Egypt and Syria who had studied in Europe or interacted with European counterparts began these circles. These salons acted as central locations where people could meet and hold discussions on political, social, and literary trends as they happened each day. The paper concludes with a discussion of current debates between the Islamist and the secularist branches of the movement today. While the Islamists believe that adhering to the core of Islam with some of its contested position on women is a modern ideology of liberation that fits the current culture of modern time Egypt; the secularists argue that the influence that Islam has on the women’s liberation movement in Egypt has been a threat to the natural success and progress of the movement, which was initiated in the early nineteenth century independent of the more recent trends towards religiosity in the country.

Keywords: educational model, crisis of terminologies, Arab awakening, nineteenth century

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Authors: Rita Alfattal, Maryam Alfarhan, Adeeb M. Algaith, Buthaina Albash, Reem M. Elshafie, Asma Alshammari, Ahmad Alahmad, Fatima Dashti, Rasha Alsafi, Hind Alsharhan

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Defects of respiratory chain complex III (CIII) result in characteristic but rare mitochondrial disorders associated with distinct neuroradiological findings. The underlying molecular defects affecting mitochondrial CIII assembly factors are few and yet to be identified. LYRM7 assembly factor is required for proper CIII assembly where it acts as a chaperone for the Rieske iron‐sulfur (UQCRFS1) protein in the mitochondrial matrix and stabilizing it. We present here the seventeenth individual with LYRM7-associated mitochondrial leukoencephalopathy harboring a previously reported rare pathogenic homozygous LYRM 7 variant, c.2T>C, (p.Met1?). Like previously reported individuals, our 4-year-old male proband presented with recurrent metabolic and lactic acidosis, encephalopathy, and myopathy. Further, he has additional, previously unreported features, including an acute stroke like episode with bilateral central blindness and optic neuropathy, recurrent hyperglycemia and hypertension associated with metabolic crisis. However, he has no signs of psychomotor regression. He has been stable clinically with residual left-sided reduced visual acuity and amblyopia, and no more metabolic crises for 2-year-period while on the mitochondrial cocktail. Although the reported brain MRI findings in other affected individuals are homogenous, it is slightly different in our index, revealing evidence of bilateral almost symmetric multifocal periventricular T2 hyperintensities with hyperintensities of the optic nerves, optic chiasm, and corona radiata but with no cavitation or cystic changes. This report describes new clinical and radiological findings of LYRM7-associated disease. The report also summarizes the clinical and molecular data of previously reported individuals describing the full phenotypic spectrum.

Keywords: LYRM7 gene defect, mitochondrial disease, , lactic acidosis, , genetic disorder

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Authors: Nazli Kazanoglu

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Reconciliation of work and family life has been an area of interest within the academic as well as in the political debate for more than three decades. With the dramatic changes in the extent to which women and men contribute to unpaid domestic work and paid employment, the reconciliation of work and family life issues have become more prominent than ever before. And they have begun to enjoy an increased attention of policy makers both at the EU and national levels. Over the last three decades the EU has initiated numerous equality programs and strategies and roadmaps regarding reconciliation of work and family life, though particularly because of the crisis and increasing willingness of achieving the EUs target of seventy five per cent of men and women in employment by 2020, those programs, strategies and roadmaps emphasized on eradicating womens familial burdens while entering labor market and providing them as equal opportunities as their male counterparts have. Reconciliation of work and family life policies thus bit by bit moved away from the objectives with a strong commitment to ensuring gender equality towards employment objectives. This paper is thus an endeavor to look at the nature of EU reconciliation of work and family life policies from the angle of gender equality. More precisely relying on the feminist literature, this paper rests on the assumption that reconciliation of work and family policies should provide the sufficient measures indeed with a more emphasis on endorsing gender equality rather than economic concerns and prioritizes two inter-related aspects while evaluating the gender equality of reconciliation of work and family life policies. First providing free choice to women in terms of their family and work lives and second challenge the unequal division of labor at home. In that sense, it investigates the nature of the changing uses and meanings of gender equality in reconciliation of work and family life policies in different stages of the EU social policy development particularly after the introduction of European Employment Strategy which gave a tremendous importance to reconciliation of work and family life during their collaborations with other issues on the EU agenda as well as the major rationale behind their development and implementation and locates them in terms of two inter-related parameters mentioned above.

Keywords: European Union, division of unpaid work, gender equality, rhetoric of free choice

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Authors: Sridhar A. Malkaram, Tamer E. Fandy

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Purpose: 5-Azacytidine (5AC) and decitabine (DC) are DNA hypomethylating agents. We recently demonstrated that both drugs increase the enzymatic activity of the histone deacetylase enzyme SIRT6. Accordingly, we are comparing the changes H3K9 acetylation changes in the whole genome induced by both drugs using leukemia cells. Description of Methods & Materials: Mononuclear cells from the bone marrow of six de-identified naive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients were cultured with either 500 nM of DC or 5AC for 72 h followed by ChIP-Seq analysis using a ChIP-validated acetylated-H3K9 (H3K9ac) antibody. Chip-Seq libraries were prepared from treated and untreated cells using SMARTer ThruPLEX DNA- seq kit (Takara Bio, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Libraries were purified and size-selected with AMPure XP beads at 1:1 (v/v) ratio. All libraries were pooled prior to sequencing on an Illumina HiSeq 1500. The dual-indexed single-read Rapid Run was performed with 1x120 cycles at 5 pM final concentration of the library pool. Sequence reads with average Phred quality < 20, with length < 35bp, PCR duplicates, and those aligning to blacklisted regions of the genome were filtered out using Trim Galore v0.4.4 and cutadapt v1.18. Reads were aligned to the reference human genome (hg38) using Bowtie v2.3.4.1 in end-to-end alignment mode. H3K9ac enriched (peak) regions were identified using diffReps v1.55.4 software using input samples for background correction. The statistical significance of differential peak counts was assessed using a negative binomial test using all individuals as replicates. Data & Results: The data from the six patients showed significant (Padj<0.05) acetylation changes at 925 loci after 5AC treatment versus 182 loci after DC treatment. Both drugs induced H3K9 acetylation changes at different chromosomal regions, including promoters, coding exons, introns, and distal intergenic regions. Ten common genes showed H3K9 acetylation changes by both drugs. Approximately 84% of the genes showed an H3K9 acetylation decrease by 5AC versus 54% only by DC. Figures 1 and 2 show the heatmaps for the top 100 genes and the 99 genes showing H3K9 acetylation decrease after 5AC treatment and DC treatment, respectively. Conclusion: Despite the similarity in hypomethylating activity and chemical structure, the effect of both drugs on H3K9 acetylation change was significantly different. More changes in H3K9 acetylation were observed after 5 AC treatments compared to DC. The impact of these changes on gene expression and the clinical efficacy of these drugs requires further investigation.

Keywords: DNA methylation, leukemia, decitabine, 5-Azacytidine, epigenetics

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Authors: Dimitriya A. Mihaylova, Zlatka V. Valkova-Jarvis, Georgi L. Iliev

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One possible approach for maintaining the security of communication systems relies on Physical Layer Security mechanisms. However, in wireless time division duplex systems, where uplink and downlink channels are reciprocal, the channel estimate procedure is exposed to attacks known as pilot contamination, with the aim of having an enhanced data signal sent to the malicious user. The Shifted 2-N-PSK method involves two random legitimate pilots in the training phase, each of which belongs to a constellation, shifted from the original N-PSK symbols by certain degrees. In this paper, legitimate pilots’ offset values and their influence on the detection capabilities of the Shifted 2-N-PSK method are investigated. As the implementation of the technique depends on the relation between the shift angles rather than their specific values, the optimal interconnection between the two legitimate constellations is investigated. The results show that no regularity exists in the relation between the pilot contamination attacks (PCA) detection probability and the choice of offset values. Therefore, an adversary who aims to obtain the exact offset values can only employ a brute-force attack but the large number of possible combinations for the shifted constellations makes such a type of attack difficult to successfully mount. For this reason, the number of optimal shift value pairs is also studied for both 100% and 98% probabilities of detecting pilot contamination attacks. Although the Shifted 2-N-PSK method has been broadly studied in different signal-to-noise ratio scenarios, in multi-cell systems the interference from the signals in other cells should be also taken into account. Therefore, the inter-cell interference impact on the performance of the method is investigated by means of a large number of simulations. The results show that the detection probability of the Shifted 2-N-PSK decreases inversely to the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio.

Keywords: channel estimation, inter-cell interference, pilot contamination attacks, wireless communications

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Authors: D. Sigirli

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The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve is a commonly used statistical tool for evaluating the diagnostic performance of screening and diagnostic test with continuous or ordinal scale results which aims to predict the presence or absence probability of a condition, usually a disease. When the test results were measured as numeric values, sensitivity and specificity can be computed across all possible threshold values which discriminate the subjects as diseased and non-diseased. There are infinite numbers of possible decision thresholds along the continuum of the test results. The ROC curve presents the trade-off between sensitivity and the 1-specificity as the threshold changes. The empirical ROC curve which is a non-parametric estimator of the ROC curve is robust and it represents data accurately. However, especially for small sample sizes, it has a problem of variability and as it is a step function there can be different false positive rates for a true positive rate value and vice versa. Besides, the estimated ROC curve being in a jagged form, since the true ROC curve is a smooth curve, it underestimates the true ROC curve. Since the true ROC curve is assumed to be smooth, several smoothing methods have been explored to smooth a ROC curve. These include using kernel estimates, using log-concave densities, to fit parameters for the specified density function to the data with the maximum-likelihood fitting of univariate distributions or to create a probability distribution by fitting the specified distribution to the data nd using smooth versions of the empirical distribution functions. In the present paper, we aimed to propose a smooth ROC curve estimation based on the boundary corrected kernel function and to compare the performances of ROC curve smoothing methods for the diagnostic test results coming from different distributions in different sample sizes. We performed simulation study to compare the performances of different methods for different scenarios with 1000 repetitions. It is seen that the performance of the proposed method was typically better than that of the empirical ROC curve and only slightly worse compared to the binormal model when in fact the underlying samples were generated from the normal distribution.

Keywords: empirical estimator, kernel function, smoothing, receiver operating characteristic curve

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Authors: Kensuke Otsuyama

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The United Nation World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction was held in Sendai, Japan, in 2015 and priorities for actions until 2030 were adopted for the next 15 years. Although one of these priorities is to ‘build back better’, there is neither a consensus definition of better recovery, nor indicators to measure better recovery. However, the community is considered as a key driver of recovery nowadays, and participation is a key word for effective recovery. In order to understand more about participatory community recovery, the author investigated recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (GEJET) in Kesennuma, a severely affected city. The research sought to: 1) Identify the elements that contribute to better recovery at the community level, and 2) analyze the role of community volunteers for disaster risk reduction for better recovery. A Participatory Community Recovery Index (PCRI) was created as a tool to measure community recovery. The index adopts seven primary indicators and 20 tertiary indicators, including: socio-economic aspect, housing, health, environment, self-organization, transformation, and institution. The index was applied to nine districts in Kesennuma city. Secondary and primary data by questionnaire surveys with local residents’ organization leaders and interviews with crisis management department officials in city government were also obtained. The indicator results were transformed into scores among 1 to 5, and the results were shown for each district. Based on the result of PCRI, it was found that the s Local Social Welfare Council played an important role in facilitating better recovery, enhancing community volunteer involvement to allow elderly residents to initiate local volunteer work for more affected single-living elderly people. Volunteers for the elderly by the elderly played a crucial role to strengthen community bonding in Kesennuma. In this research, the potential of community volunteers and inter-linkage with DRR activities are discussed.

Keywords: recovery, participation, the great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, community volunteers

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Authors: Alexander Hedlund, Anna-Karin Stengard, Olof Björkqvist

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A step towards reducing greenhouse gases and energy consumption is to collaborate with the energy system between several industries. This work is based on a case study on integration of pulp and paper mills with a district heating system in Sundsvall, Sweden. Present research shows that it is possible to make a significant reduction in the electricity demand in the mechanical pulping process. However, the profitability of the efficiency measures could be an issue, as the excess steam recovered from the refiners decreases with the electricity consumption. A consequence will be that the fuel demand for steam production will increase. If the fuel price is similar to the electricity price it would reduce the profit of such a project. If the paper mill can be integrated with a district heating system, it is possible to upgrade excess heat from a nearby kraft pulp mill to process steam via the district heating system in order to avoid the additional fuel need. The concept is investigated by using a simulation model describing both the mass and energy balance as well as the operating margin. Three scenarios were analyzed: reference, electricity reduction and energy substitution. The simulation show that the total input to the system is lowest in the Energy substitution scenario. Additionally, in the Energy substitution scenario the steam from the incineration boiler covers not only the steam shortage but also a part of the steam produced using the biofuel boiler, the cooling tower connected to the incineration boiler is no longer needed and the excess heat can cover the whole district heating load during the whole year. The study shows a substantial economic advantage if all stakeholders act together as one system. However, costs and benefits are unequally shared between the actors. This means that there is a need for new business models in order to share the system costs and benefits.

Keywords: energy system, cooperation, simulation method, excess heat, district heating

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Authors: Nalluri Lakshmi Ramu, C. Venkat Nihit, Narayana Kumar, Dillep

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Masonry bridges are the iconic heritage transportation infrastructure throughout the world. Continuous increase in traffic loads and speed have kept engineers in dilemma about their structural performance and capacity. Henceforth, research community has an urgent need to propose an effective methodology and validate on real-time bridges. The presented research aims to assess the structural health of an Eighty-year-old masonry railway bridge in India using wireless accelerometer sensors. The bridge consists of 44 spans with length of 24.2 m each and individual pier is 13 m tall laid on well foundation. To calculate the dynamic characteristic properties of the bridge, ambient vibrations were recorded from the moving traffic at various speeds and the same are compared with the developed three-dimensional numerical model using finite element-based software. The conclusions about the weaker or deteriorated piers are drawn from the comparison of frequencies obtained from the experimental tests conducted on alternative spans. Masonry is a heterogeneous anisotropic material made up of incoherent materials (such as bricks, stones, and blocks). It is most likely the earliest largely used construction material. Masonry bridges, which were typically constructed of brick and stone, are still a key feature of the world's highway and railway networks. There are 1,47,523 railway bridges across India and about 15% of these bridges are built by masonry, which are around 80 to 100 year old. The cultural significance of masonry bridges cannot be overstated. These bridges are considered to be complicated due to the presence of arches, spandrel walls, piers, foundations, and soils. Due to traffic loads and vibrations, wind, rain, frost attack, high/low temperature cycles, moisture, earthquakes, river overflows, floods, scour, and soil under their foundations may cause material deterioration, opening of joints and ring separation in arch barrels, cracks in piers, loss of brick-stones and mortar joints, distortion of the arch profile. Few NDT tests like Flat jack Tests are being employed to access the homogeneity, durability of masonry structure, however there are many drawbacks because of the test. A modern approach of structural health assessment of masonry structures by vibration analysis, frequencies and stiffness properties is being explored in this paper.

Keywords: masonry bridges, condition assessment, wireless sensors, numerical analysis modal frequencies

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Authors: L. Sánchez-Abella, I. Loinaz, H-J. Grande, D. Dupin

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Aseptic loosening remains as the principal cause of revision in total hip arthroplasty (THA). For long-term implantations, submicron particles are generated in vivo due to the inherent wear of the prosthesis. When this occurs, macrophages undergo phagocytosis and secretion of bone resorptive cytokines inducing osteolysis, hence loosening of the implanted prosthesis. Therefore, new technologies are required to reduce the wear of the bearing materials and hence increase the life-span of the prosthesis. Our strategy focuses on surface modification of the bearing materials with a hydrophilic coating based on cross-linked water-soluble (meth)acrylic monomers to improve their tribological behavior. These coatings are biocompatible, with high swelling capacity and antifouling properties, mimicking the properties of natural cartilage, i.e. wear resistance with a permanent hydrated layer that prevents prosthesis damage. Cartilage mimicking based coatings may be also used to protect medical device surfaces from damage and scratches that will compromise their integrity and hence their safety. However, there are only a few reports on the mechanical and tribological characteristics of this type of coatings. Clear beneficial advantages of this coating have been demonstrated in different conditions and different materials, such as Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), Polyethylene (XLPE), Carbon-fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone (CFR-PEEK), cobalt-chromium (CoCr), Stainless steel, Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) and Alumina. Using routine tribological experiments, the wear for UHMWPE substrate was decreased by 75% against alumina, ZTA and stainless steel. For PEEK-CFR substrate coated, the amount of material lost against ZTA and CrCo was at least 40% lower. Experiments on hip simulator allowed coated ZTA femoral heads and coated UHMWPE cups to be validated with a decrease of 80% of loss material. Further experiments on hip simulator adding abrasive particles (1 micron sized alumina particles) during 3 million cycles, on a total of 6 million, demonstrated a decreased of around 55% of wear compared to uncoated UHMWPE and uncoated XLPE. In conclusion, CIDETEC‘s hydrogel coating technology is versatile and can be adapted to protect a large range of surfaces, even in abrasive conditions.

Keywords: cartilage, hydrogel, hydrophilic coating, joint

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Authors: Annunziata Albano

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Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Non-Partner Sexual Violence (NPSV) are still the most common forms of interpersonal violence against women today, and numerous studies have shown how they can affect women's physical and psychological well-being, frequently leading to depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse. The primary goal of Italian Anti-Violence Centres (AVCs) is to provide an appropriate context for women to embark on a personalised path out of violence by providing various services such as listening groups, psychological and legal support, housing support in collaboration with shelters, work orientation, and specific support in the case of minor children. However, their physical environment is frequently overlooked, partly because these centres are typically established in pre-existing buildings and have a limited budget. Several studies on healthcare design and mental health, on the other hand, emphasise the potential of the built environment to facilitate healing by providing a restorative setting that aids in coping with stress and traumatic experiences, investigating the positive role of natural features and sensorial qualities such as light, colours, sound, and smell. This research aims to collect and summarise the key evidence-based principles derived from a multidisciplinary literature review about interior design elements that can help women recover after their traumatic experience. Furthermore, the study examines multiple case studies of Italian AVCs through the lens of previously determined principles, to understand how and whether these guidelines have been applied and which outcomes can provide relevant insights for design practice, with an emphasis on sensory qualities, usually overlooked in favour of other requirements. The outlined guidelines may serve as a framework for various typologies of services provided to women who are the victims of interpersonal violence, such as women's crisis centres and shelters.

Keywords: anti-violence centres, environmental psychology, interior design, interpersonal violence, restorative environments

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Authors: Warnakulasuriya Arachichige Malisha Ann Rosary Fernando, Udalamatta Gamage Omila Chalanka Jinadasa, Bihini Pabasara Amandi Amarasinghe, Manul Thisuraka Mandalawatta, Uthpala Samarakoon, Manori Gamage

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The surge in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has become a critical public health crisis demanding urgent attention and action. Like many other nations, Sri Lanka is grappling with a significant increase in STDs due to a lack of education and awareness regarding their dangers. Presently, the available applications for tracking and managing STDs cover only a limited number of easily detectable infections, resulting in a significant gap in effectively controlling their spread. To address this gap and combat the rising STD rates, it is essential to leverage technology and data. Employing technology to enhance the tracking and management of STDs is vital to prevent their further propagation and to enable early intervention and treatment. This requires adopting a comprehensive approach that involves raising public awareness about the perils of STDs, improving access to affordable healthcare services for early detection and treatment, and utilizing advanced technology and data analysis. The proposed mobile application aims to cater to a broad range of users, including STD patients, recovered individuals, and those unaware of their STD status. By harnessing cutting-edge technologies like image detection, symptom-based identification, prevention methods, doctor and clinic recommendations, and virtual counselor chat, the application offers a holistic approach to STD management. In conclusion, the escalating STD rates in Sri Lanka and across the globe require immediate action. The integration of technology-driven solutions, along with comprehensive education and healthcare accessibility, is the key to curbing the spread of STDs and promoting better overall public health.

Keywords: STD, machine learning, NLP, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Frew Yirgalem Mane

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This study has examined Africa’s experiment with authoritarian model of development drawing from the experience of Ethiopia. With the tectonic crisis of neoliberal ideology, the dominant policy agenda in Africa pertains to bringing the state back to development. More concretely, countries epitomized by Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda have been constructing a highly interventionist state with authoritarian character. The central motive appears to facilitate development and salvage people out of appalling and grinding poverty. Each country warrants closer inspection. However, this study focuses on Ethiopia- a country often applauded as ‘Africa’s Great Run’ for delivering socio-economic success over the past two decades. In fact, inspired by East Asia’s including Chinese model of authoritarian development, Ethiopia orchestrated a vanguard party, centralized rent control system with politicized bureaucracy and militaristic mobilization resources for development. This arrangement may explain Ethiopia economic success story as one the fastest growing countries in the world. However, this paper detected, Ethiopia’s attempt to bring the state back in development has precipitated institutionalization of a new breed of authoritarianism and informalization of public institutions. Ethiopia’s model of state-led development may constitute a noticeable shift away from the vengeful adherence to neoliberal policies. However, the manner the model has been practiced proved to be neither smooth nor appears to address Ethiopia’s aspiration for political and economic transformation. Partly, this can be illustrated by recent widespread grievances that fed into the popular uprising and animated opposition against the state. Sources of the grievance are complex, but they are highly ingrained with the way the authoritarian model of development is functioning and also the model’s dis-functioning in terms of benefiting people. In light of these findings, the study has arrived at the following conclusion. Africa’s attempt to emulate development models from other countries is not such a ‘bad’ thing. However, emulation makes sense if it is contextualized and sensitive to complex local socio-economic interests.

Keywords: Africa, authoritarianism, development, Ethiopia, neoliberalism

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Authors: Khaled Hesham Hyari, Amjad Almani

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Construction projects in the public sector are commonly awarded through competitive bidding. In the last decade, the Construction projects environment in the Middle East went through many changes. These changes have been caused by different factors including the economic crisis, delays in monthly payments, international competition and reduced number of projects. These factors had a great impact on the bidding behaviors of contractors and their pricing strategies. This paper examines the competition characteristics in public construction projects through an analysis of bidding results of contractors in public construction projects over a period of 6 years (2006-2011) in Jordan. The analyzed projects include all categories of projects such as infrastructure, buildings, transportation and engineering services (design and supervision contracts). Data for the projects were obtained from the General Tender’s Directorate in Jordan and includes 462 projects. The analysis performed in this projects includes, studying the bid spread in all projects as it is an indication of the level of competition in the analyzed bids. The analysis studied the factors that affect bid spread such as number of bidders, Value of the project, Project category and years. It also studying the “Signal to Noise Ratio” in all projects as it is an indication of the accuracy of cost estimating performed by competing bidders and bidder´s evaluation of project risks. The analysis performed includes the relationship between signal to noise ratio and different parameters such as project category, number of bidders and changes over years. Moreover, the analysis includes determining the bidder´s aggressiveness in bidding as it is an indication of competition level in such projects. This was performed by determining the pack price which can be considered as the true value of the project and comparing it with the lowest bid submitted for each project to determine the level of aggressiveness in submitted bids. The analysis performed in this project should prove to be useful to owners in understanding bidding behaviors of contractors and pointing out areas that needs improvement in preparing bidding documents. Also the project should be useful to contractors in understanding the competitive bidding environment and should help them to improve their bidding strategies to maximize the success rate in obtaining contracts.

Keywords: construction projects, competitive bidding, public construction, competition

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Authors: Mirad Böhm, Diede De Kok

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It goes without saying that for many NGOs a high level of safety and security are crucial issues, which often necessitates the support of military personnel to varying degrees. The relationship between military and NGO personnel is usually a difficult one and while there has been progress, clashes naturally still occur owing to different interpretations of mission objectives amongst many other challenges. NGOs tend to view safety and security as necessary steps towards their goal instead of fundamental pillars of their core ‘business’. The military perspective, however, considers them primary objectives; thus, frequently creating a different vision of how joint operations should be conducted. This paper will argue that internalizing safety and security into the NGO organizational culture is compelling in order to ensure a more effective cooperation with military partners and, ultimately, to achieve their goals. This can be accomplished through a change in perception of safety and security concepts as a fixed and major point on the everyday agenda. Nowadays, there are several training programmes on offer addressing such issues but they primarily focus on the individual level. True internalization of these concepts should reach further by encompassing a wide range of NGO activities, beginning with daily proceedings in office facilities far from conflict zones including logistical and administrative tasks such as budgeting, and leading all the way to actual and potentially hazardous missions in the field. In order to effectuate this change, a tool is required to help NGOs realize, firstly, how they perceive and define safety and security, and secondly, how they can adjust this perception to their benefit. The ‘safety culture ladder’ is a concept that suggests what organizations can and should do to advance their safety. While usually applied to private industrial scenarios, this work will present the concept as a useful instrument to visualize and facilitate the internalization process NGOs ought to go through. The ‘ladder’ allows them to become more aware of the level of their safety and security measures, and moreover, cautions them to take these measures proactively rather than reactively. This in turn will contribute to a rapprochement between military and NGO priority setting in regard to what constitutes a safe working environment.

Keywords: NGO-military cooperation, organisational culture, safety and security awareness, safety culture ladder

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Authors: Rima Zakzouk, Yasushi Shimada, Yasunori Sumi, Junji Tagami

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Background and purpose: The resin composite has become the main material for the restorations of caries in recent years due to aesthetic characteristics, especially with the development of the adhesive techniques. The quality of adhesion to tooth structures is depending on an exchange process between inorganic tooth material and synthetic resin and a micromechanical retention promoted by resin infiltration in partially demineralized dentin. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive diagnostic method for obtaining cross-sectional images that produce high-resolution of the biological tissue at the micron scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate the gap formation at adhesive/tooth interface of two-step self-etch adhesives that are preceded with or without phosphoric acid pre-etching in different regions of teeth using SS-OCT. Materials and methods: Round tapered cavities (2×2 mm) were prepared in cervical part of bovine incisors teeth and divided into 2 groups (n=10): first group self-etch adhesive (Clearfil SE Bond) was applied for SE group and second group treated with acid etching before applying the self-etch adhesive for PA group. Subsequently, both groups were restored with Estelite Flow Quick Flowable Composite Resin and observed under OCT. Following 5000 thermal cycles, the same section was obtained again for each cavity using OCT at 1310-nm wavelength. Scanning was repeated after two months to monitor the gap progress. Then the gap length was measured using image analysis software, and the statistics analysis were done between both groups using SPSS software. After that, the cavities were sectioned and observed under Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM) to confirm the result of OCT. Results: Gaps formed at the bottom of the cavity was longer than the gap formed at the margin and dento-enamel junction in both groups. On the other hand, pre-etching treatment led to damage the DEJ regions creating longer gap. After 2 months the results showed almost progress in the gap length significantly at the bottom regions in both groups. In conclusions, phosphoric acid etching treatment did not reduce the gap lrngth in most regions of the cavity. Significance: The bottom region of tooth was more exposed to gap formation than margin and DEJ regions, The DEJ damaged with phosphoric acid treatment.

Keywords: optical coherence tomography, self-etch adhesives, bottom, dento enamel junction

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Authors: Taha Benarbia

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The advent of automated and connected vehicles has revolutionized the transportation industry, presenting new opportunities for enhancing the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of our transportation networks. This paper explores the integration of automated and connected vehicles into a smart transportation framework, leveraging the power of deep learning techniques to optimize the overall network performance. The first aspect addressed in this paper is the deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) within the transportation system. AVs offer numerous advantages, such as reduced congestion, improved fuel efficiency, and increased safety through advanced sensing and decisionmaking capabilities. The paper delves into the technical aspects of AVs, including their perception, planning, and control systems, highlighting the role of deep learning algorithms in enabling intelligent and reliable AV operations. Furthermore, the paper investigates the potential of connected vehicles (CVs) in creating a seamless communication network between vehicles, infrastructure, and traffic management systems. By harnessing real-time data exchange, CVs enable proactive traffic management, adaptive signal control, and effective route planning. Deep learning techniques play a pivotal role in extracting meaningful insights from the vast amount of data generated by CVs, empowering transportation authorities to make informed decisions for optimizing network performance. The integration of deep learning with automated and connected vehicles paves the way for advanced transportation network optimization. Deep learning algorithms can analyze complex transportation data, including traffic patterns, demand forecasting, and dynamic congestion scenarios, to optimize routing, reduce travel times, and enhance overall system efficiency. The paper presents case studies and simulations demonstrating the effectiveness of deep learning-based approaches in achieving significant improvements in network performance metrics

Keywords: automated vehicles, connected vehicles, deep learning, smart transportation network

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Authors: Lok Yi Joyce Poon

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China's mobile payment market has boomed in the past few years. WeChat (Chinese name as Weixin) owned by Tencent is known as the fastest growing all-in-one social messaging platforms. The company has launched the WeChat Pay in 2013, in which users can link their credit card to their user account and make payments within the app’s built in digital wallet. WeChat Payment is a one-stop payment tool that can provide a seamless online experience for the shoppers to transfer money between WeChat users (peer-to-peer) and make payments online by scanning a QR code, a prominent facilitator for transactions in WeChat, to complete the payment with the app without directing the users to the external websites. The aims of this study are to examine the effectiveness of WeChat mobile payment in China as well as the impacts of the China teen’s online purchasing behavior since the establishment of WeChat Payment. The research method of this study is conducted by both online survey on Sojump, a popular online survey platform in China. A total of 120 respondents among 18 to 25 teens in China completed the survey. Data sources included participants’ response to an end-of-session questionnaire, encompassing with the types of multiple choice, open-ended questions. To have an in-depth analysis, a face-to-face interview with a Chinese teen who is a frequent user of the WeChat Pay. The main finding of the study shows that the majority of the teenagers frequently use the WeChat payment tool because of its convenience, user-friendliness and the scenarios offered within the WeChat Wallet. The respondents claimed that they will settle the bills in their daily lives via WeChat Pay. However, the respondents in the age group of 40 or above will not use the WeChat Pay due to the security concern and they do not see the app as a platform for commercial activities like online shopping. Throughout the study, it is recommended WeChat should put more efforts on the security issue and improve the payment technology by adopting the near-field communication terminals instead of requiring users to scan QR codes before they complete the transaction.

Keywords: digital wallet, mobile payment, online purchasing behavior, WeChat Pay

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: Priyanka Yadav, Rajkumar Ghosh, Alok Saini

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Human civilization cannot exist and thrive in the absence of adequate water. As a result, even in smart cities, water plays an important role in human existence. The key causes of this catastrophic water scarcity crisis are lifestyle changes, over-exploitation of groundwater, water over usage, rapid urbanization, and uncontrolled population growth. Furthermore, salty water seeps into deeper aquifers, causing land subsidence. The purpose of this study on artificial groundwater recharge is to address the water shortage in Gomti Nagar, Lucknow. Submersibles are the most common methods of collecting freshwater from groundwater in Gomti Nagar neighbourhood of Lucknow. Gomti Nagar area has a groundwater depletion rate of 1968 m3/day/km2 and is categorized as Zone-A (very high levels) based on the existing groundwater abstraction pattern - A to D. Harvesting rainwater using roof top rainwater harvesting systems (RTRWHs) is an effective method for reducing aquifer depletion in a sustainable water management system. Rainwater collecting using roof top rainwater harvesting systems (RTRWHs) is an effective method for reducing aquifer depletion in a sustainable water conservation system. Due to a water imbalance of 24519 ML/yr, the Gomti Nagar region is facing severe groundwater depletion. According to the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), the impact of installed RTRWHs (plot area 300 sq. m.) is 0.04 percent of rainfall collected through RTRWHs in Gomti Nagar region of Lucknow. When RTRWHs are deployed in all buildings, their influence will be greater. Bye-laws in India have mandated the installation of RTRWHs on plots greater than 300 sq.m. A better India without any water problem is a pipe dream that may be realized by installing residential and commercial rooftop rainwater collecting systems in every structure. According to the current study, RTRWHs should be used as an alternate source of water to bridge the gap between groundwater recharge and extraction in smart city viz. Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, India.

Keywords: groundwater recharge, RTRWHs, harvested rainwater, rainfall, water extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: Priyatma Singh, Manpreet Kaur

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Climate change is progressively being identified as a global crisis and this has immediate repercussions for Fiji Islands due to its geographical location being prone to natural disasters. In the Pacific, it is common to find significant differences between men and women, in terms of their roles and responsibilities. In the pursuit of prudent preparedness before disasters, Fijian women’s engagement is constrained due to socially constructed roles and expectation of women here in Fiji. This vulnerability is aggravated by viewing women as victims, rather than as key people who have vital information of their society, economy, and environment, as well as useful skills, which, when recognized and used, can be effective in disaster risk reduction. The focus of this study on disaster management is to outline ways in which Fijian women can be actively engaged in disaster risk management, articulating in decision-making, negating the perceived ideology of women’s constricted roles in Fiji and unveiling social constraints that limit women’s access to practical disaster management strategic plan. This paper outlines the importance of gender mainstreaming in disaster risk reduction and the ways of mainstreaming gender based on a literature review. It analyses theoretical study of academic literature as well as papers and reports produced by various national and international institutions and explores ways to better inform and engage women for climate change per ser disaster management in Fiji. The empowerment of women is believed to be a critical element in constructing disaster resilience as women are often considered to be the designers of community resilience at the local level. Gender mainstreaming as a way of bringing a gender perspective into climate related disasters can be applied to distinguish the varying needs and capacities of women, and integrate them into climate change adaptation strategies. This study will advocate women articulation in disaster risk management, thus giving equal standing to females in Fiji and also identify the gaps and inform national and local Disaster Risk Management authorities to implement processes that enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment towards a more equitable and effective disaster practice.

Keywords: disaster risk management, climate change, gender mainstreaming, women empowerment

Procedia PDF Downloads 370

Authors: Steven D. Capener

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The 1997 Asian financial crisis was a watershed event in Korea as it necessitated changes that begin an unravelling of many of the norms and traditions that had served to underpin society. Divorce skyrocketed; the era of lifetime employment was over; women came out the home to become, in many cases, the main breadwinners; competitive forces were exacerbated; and traditional sources of authority began to crumble. All of these changes weekend the power to structure human relations of the Confucian Three Bonds and Five Relationships (삼강오륜). Since then, this “de-confucianization” has only become more pronounced with women increasingly refusing to marry, partly in protest to what they perceive as entrenched gender inequality, married couples eschewing childbirth resulting in the lowest birthrate in the world, and diminishing inheritances eroding the traditionally strong sense of filial piety (효) of children toward parents. The result of all this can be seen in the continued weakening or outright crumbling of the hierarchies codified in the Three Bonds and Five Relationship, which have served as a social template in Korea for centuries. In his 2004 work “Oppa Came Back,” writer Kim Yong Ha depicts what he apparently sees as the “post-Confucian” family in a wickedly funny portrayal of what Korean society could look like if traditional bulwarks of prescriptive values suddenly collapse and are not replaced with tenable alternatives. In the short story, Kim subverts all the traditional hierarchies while leaving the desire to dominate these hierarchies intact. This produces the picture of a Korean family governed by the new values of money and physical power. After lying out what can be identified as major cultural changes in what could be called “traditional” society,” the article uses a close reading of Kim’s story for its implications regarding a possible new, dysfunctional version of Korean society. It seems apparent that Kim’s story is a cautionary tale of the pitfalls that lie athwart the late-modern Korean landscape. These changes have important implications in the areas of education and socio-political philosophy. The conclusion focuses on possible alternatives to this post-Confucian conundrum.

Keywords: post-confucian, three bonds and five relationships, traditional society, hierarchies

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Authors: César Coelho, Nikolai Wiegand

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The advancement of nanosatellite technology has opened new avenues for cost-effective and faster space missions. The NanoSat MO Framework (NMF) from the European Space Agency (ESA) provides a modular and simpler approach to the development of flight software and operations of small satellites. This paper presents a methodology using the NMF together with Docker for simulating constellations of satellites. By leveraging Docker containers, the software environment of individual satellites can be easily replicated within a simulated constellation. This containerized approach allows for rapid deployment, isolation, and management of satellite instances, facilitating comprehensive testing and development in a controlled setting. By integrating the NMF lightweight simulator in the container, a comprehensive simulation environment was achieved. A significant advantage of using Docker containers is their inherent scalability, enabling the simulation of hundreds or even thousands of satellites with minimal overhead. Docker's lightweight nature ensures efficient resource utilization, allowing for deployment on a single host or across a cluster of hosts. This capability is crucial for large-scale simulations, such as in the case of mega-constellations, where multiple traditional virtual machines would be impractical due to their higher resource demands. This ability for easy horizontal scaling based on the number of simulated satellites provides tremendous flexibility to different mission scenarios. Our results demonstrate that leveraging Docker containers with the NanoSat MO Framework provides a highly efficient and scalable solution for simulating satellite constellations, offering not only significant benefits in terms of resource utilization and operational flexibility but also enabling testing and validation of ground software for constellations. The findings underscore the importance of taking advantage of already existing technologies in computer science to create new solutions for future satellite constellations in space.

Keywords: containerization, docker containers, NanoSat MO framework, satellite constellation simulation, scalability, small satellites

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Authors: Qiyao Han, Xianhai Meng

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Urban infrastructures refer to the fundamental facilities and systems that serve cities. Due to the global climate change and human activities in recent years, many urban areas around the world are facing enormous challenges from natural and man-made disasters, like flood, earthquake and terrorist attack. For this reason, urban resilience to disasters has attracted increasing attention from researchers and practitioners. Given the complexity of infrastructure systems and the uncertainty of disasters, this paper suggests that studies of resilience could focus on urban functional sustainability (in social, economic and environmental dimensions) supported by infrastructure systems under disturbance. It is supposed that urban infrastructure systems with high resilience should be able to reconfigure themselves without significant declines in critical functions (services), such as primary productivity, hydrological cycles, social relations and economic prosperity. Despite that some methods have been developed to integrate the resilience and sustainability of individual infrastructure components, more work is needed to enable system-level integration. This research presents a conceptual analysis framework for integrating resilience and sustainability based on fractal theory. It is believed that the ability of an ecological system to maintain structure and function in face of disturbance and to reorganize following disturbance-driven change is largely dependent on its self-similar and hierarchical fractal structure, in which cross-scale resilience is produced by the replication of ecosystem processes dominating at different levels. Urban infrastructure systems are analogous to ecological systems because they are interconnected, complex and adaptive, are comprised of interconnected components, and exhibit characteristic scaling properties. Therefore, analyzing resilience of ecological system provides a better understanding about the dynamics and interactions of infrastructure systems. This paper discusses fractal characteristics of ecosystem resilience, reviews literature related to system-level infrastructure resilience, identifies resilience criteria associated with sustainability dimensions, and develops a conceptual analysis framework. Exploration of the relevance of identified criteria to fractal characteristics reveals that there is a great potential to analyze infrastructure systems based on fractal. In the conceptual analysis framework, it is proposed that in order to be resilient, urban infrastructure system needs to be capable of “maintaining” and “reorganizing” multi-scale critical functions under disasters. Finally, the paper identifies areas where further research efforts are needed.

Keywords: fractal, urban infrastructure, sustainability, system-level resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 255

Authors: Deepti Kohli, Meeta Keswani Mehra

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The paper develops a theoretical model of electoral competition with purely opportunistic candidates and a uni-dimensional policy using the probability voting approach while focusing on the aspect of lobby formation to analyze the inherent complex interactions between centripetal and centrifugal forces and their effects on equilibrium policy platforms. There exist three types of agents, namely, Left-wing, Moderate and Right-wing who comprise of the total voting population. Also, it is assumed that the Left and Right agents are free to initiate a lobby of their choice. If initiated, these lobbies generate donations which in turn can be contributed to one (or both) electoral candidates in order to influence them to implement the lobby’s preferred policy. Four different lobby formation scenarios have been considered: no lobby formation, only Left, only Right and both Left and Right. The equilibrium policy platforms, amount of individual donations by agents to their respective lobbies and the contributions offered to the electoral candidates have been solved for under each of the above four cases. Since it is assumed that the agents cannot coordinate each other’s actions during the lobby formation stage, there exists a probability with which a lobby would be formed, which is also solved for in the model. The results indicate that the policy platforms of the two electoral candidates converge completely under the cases of no lobby and both (extreme) formations but diverge under the cases of only one (Left or Right) lobby formation. This is because in the case of no lobby being formed, only the centripetal forces (emerging from the election-winning aspect) are present while in the case of both extreme (Left-wing and Right-wing) lobbies being formed, centrifugal forces (emerging from the lobby formation aspect) also arise but cancel each other out, again resulting in a pure policy convergence phenomenon. In contrast, in case of only one lobby being formed, both centripetal and centrifugal forces interact strategically, leading the two electoral candidates to choose completely different policy platforms in equilibrium. Additionally, it is found that in equilibrium, while the donation by a specific agent type increases with the formation of both lobbies in comparison to when only one lobby is formed, the probability of implementation of the policy being advocated by that lobby group falls.

Keywords: electoral competition, equilibrium policy platforms, lobby formation, opportunistic candidates

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Ioannis I. Αngeli

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Worldwide and mainly in the European Union, many standards, regulations, models and systems exists for the evaluation and identification of stakeholders’ requirements of individual universities and higher education (HE) in general. All systems are targeting to measure or evaluate the Universities’ Quality Assurance Systems and the services offered to the recipients of HE, mainly the students. Numerous surveys were conducted in the past either by each university or by organized bodies to identify the students’ satisfaction or to evaluate to what extent these requirements are fulfilled. In this paper, the main results of an ongoing 6-year joint research will be presented very briefly. This research deals with an in depth investigation of student’s satisfaction, students personal requirements, a cup analysis among these two parameters and compares different universities. Through this research an attempt will be made to address four very important questions in higher education establishments (HEE): (1) Are there any common requirements, parameters, good practices or questions that apply to a large number of universities that will assure that students’ requirements are fulfilled? (2) Up to what extent the individual programs of HEE fulfil the requirements of the stakeholders? (3) Are there any similarities on specific programs among European HEE? (4) To what extent the knowledge acquired in a specific course program is utilized or used in a specific country? For the execution of the research an internationally accepted questionnaire(s) was used to evaluate up to what extent the students’ requirements and satisfaction were fulfilled in 2012 and five years later (2017). Samples of students and or universities were taken from many European Universities. The questionnaires used, the sampling method and methodology adopted, as well as the comparison tables and results will be very valuable to any university that is willing to follow the same route and methodology or compare the results with their own HHE. Apart from the unique methodology, valuable results are demonstrated from the four case studies. There is a great difference between the student’s expectations or importance from what they are getting from their universities (in all parameters they are getting less). When there is a crisis or budget cut in HEE there is a direct impact to students. There are many differences on subjects taught in European universities.

Keywords: quality in higher education, students' requirements, education standards, student's survey, stakeholder's requirements, mechanical engineering courses

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Paul Holmes, Mike N. G.

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Foundation-year doctors face increased stress, pressure and uncertainty when starting new rotations throughout their first years of work. This research questionnaire resulted in an induction cheat sheet and induction video that enhanced the Junior doctor's understanding of how to work effectively within the plastic surgery department at NHS Tayside. The objectives and goals were to improve the transition between cohorts of junior doctors in ward 26 at Ninewells Hospital. Before this quality improvement project, the induction pack was 74 pages long and over eight years old. With the support of consultant Mike Ng a new up-to-date induction was created. This involved a questionnaire and cheat sheet being developed. The questionnaire covered clerking, venipuncture, ward pharmacy, theatres, admissions, specialties on the ward, the cardiac arrest trolley, clinical emergencies, discharges and escalation. This audit has three completed cycles between August 2022 and August 2023. The cheat sheet developed a concise two-page A4 document designed for doctors to be able to reference easily and understand the essentials. The document format is a table containing ward layout; specialty; location; physician associate, shift patterns; ward rounds; handover location and time; hours coverage; senior escalation; nights; daytime duties, meetings/MDTs/board meetings, important bleeps and codes; department guidelines; boarders; referrals and patient stream; pharmacy; absences; rota coordinator; annual leave; top tips. The induction video is a 10-minute in-depth explanation of all aspects of the ward. The video explores in more depth the contents of the cheat sheet. This alternative visual format familiarizes the junior doctor with all aspects of the ward. These were provided to all foundation year 1 and 2 doctors on ward 26 at Ninewells Hospital at NHS Tayside Scotland. This work has since been adopted by the General Surgery Department, which extends to six further wards and has improved the effective handing over of the junior doctor’s role between cohorts. There is potential to further expand the cheat sheet to other departments as the concise document takes around 30 minutes to complete by a doctor who is currently on that ward. The time spent filling out the form provides vital information to the incoming junior doctors, which has a significant possibility to improve patient care.

Keywords: induction, junior doctor, handover, plastic surgery

Procedia PDF Downloads 68

Authors: A. Aulinger, A. M. Backes, J. Bieser, V. Matthias, M. Quante

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High concentrations of particles pose a threat to human health. Thus, legal maximum concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in ambient air have been steadily decreased over the years. In central Europe, the inorganic species ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate make up a large fraction of fine particles. Many studies investigate the influence of emission reductions of sulfur- and nitrogen oxides on aerosol concentration. Here, we focus on the influence of ammonia (NH3) emissions. While emissions of sulphate and nitrogen oxides are quite well known, ammonia emissions are subject to high uncertainty. This is due to the uncertainty of location, amount, time of fertilizer application in agriculture, and the storage and treatment of manure from animal husbandry. For this study, we implemented a crop growth model into the SMOKE emission model. Depending on temperature, local legislation, and crop type individual temporal profiles for fertilizer and manure application are calculated for each model grid cell. Additionally, the diffusion from soils and plants and the direct release from open and closed barns are determined. The emission data was used as input for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Comparisons to observations from the EMEP measurement network indicate that the new ammonia emission module leads to a better agreement of model and observation (for both ammonia and ammonium). Finally, the ammonia emission model was used to create emission scenarios. This includes emissions based on future European legislation, as well as a dynamic evaluation of the influence of different agricultural sectors on particle formation. It was found that a reduction of ammonia emissions by 50% lead to a 24% reduction of total PM2.5 concentrations during winter time in the model domain. The observed reduction was mainly driven by reduced formation of ammonium nitrate. Moreover, emission reductions during winter had a larger impact than during the rest of the year.

Keywords: ammonia, ammonia abatement strategies, ctm, seasonal impact, secondary aerosol formation

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Nozar Kishi, Babak Kamrani, Filmon Habte

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Natural hazards such as earthquakes and tropical storms, are very frequent and highly destructive in Japan. Japan experiences, every year on average, more than 10 tropical cyclones that come within damaging reach, and earthquakes of moment magnitude 6 or greater. We have developed stochastic catastrophe models to address the risk associated with the entire suite of damaging events in Japan, for use by insurance, reinsurance, NGOs and governmental institutions. KCC’s (Karen Clark and Company) catastrophe models are procedures constituted of four modular segments: 1) stochastic events sets that would represent the statistics of the past events, hazard attenuation functions that could model the local intensity, vulnerability functions that would address the repair need for local buildings exposed to the hazard, and financial module addressing policy conditions that could estimates the losses incurring as result of. The events module is comprised of events (faults or tracks) with different intensities with corresponding probabilities. They are based on the same statistics as observed through the historical catalog. The hazard module delivers the hazard intensity (ground motion or wind speed) at location of each building. The vulnerability module provides library of damage functions that would relate the hazard intensity to repair need as percentage of the replacement value. The financial module reports the expected loss, given the payoff policies and regulations. We have divided Japan into regions with similar typhoon climatology, and earthquake micro-zones, within each the characteristics of events are similar enough for stochastic modeling. For each region, then, a set of stochastic events is developed that results in events with intensities corresponding to annual occurrence probabilities that are of interest to financial communities; such as 0.01, 0.004, etc. The intensities, corresponding to these probabilities (called CE, Characteristics Events) are selected through a superstratified sampling approach that is based on the primary uncertainty. Region specific hazard intensity attenuation functions followed by vulnerability models leads to estimation of repair costs. Extensive economic exposure model addresses all local construction and occupancy types, such as post-linter Shinand Okabe wood, as well as concrete confined in steel, SRC (Steel-Reinforced Concrete), high-rise.

Keywords: typhoon, earthquake, Japan, catastrophe modelling, stochastic modeling, stratified sampling, loss model, ERM

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Chun Chen Yea, Wen Huei Chou

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Many chemical changes in the atmosphere and the ocean are invisible to the naked eye, but they have profound impacts. These changes not only confirm the phenomenon of global carbon pollution, but also forewarn that more changes are coming. The carbon dioxide gases emitted from the burning of fossil fuels dissolve into the ocean and chemically react with seawater to form carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of the originally alkaline seawater. This gradual acidification is occurring at an unprecedented rate and will affect the effective formation of carapace of some marine organisms such as corals and crustaceans, which are almost entirely composed of calcium carbonate. The carapace of these organisms will become more dissoluble. Acidified seawater not only threatens the survival of marine life, but also negatively impacts the global ecosystem via the food chain. Faced with the threat of ocean acidification, all humans are duty-bound. The industrial sector outputs the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions in Taiwan, and the petrochemical industry is the major contributor. Ever since the construction of Formosa Plastics Group's No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Plant in Yunlin County, there have been many environmental concerns such as air pollution and carbon dioxide emission. The marine life along the coast of Yunlin is directly affected by ocean acidification arising from the carbon emissions. Societal change demands our willingness to act, which is what social advocacy promotes. This study uses digital storytelling for social advocacy and ocean acidification as the subject of a visual narrative in visualization to demonstrate the subsequent promotion of social advocacy. Storytelling can transform dull knowledge into an engaging narrative of the crisis faced by marine life. Digital dissemination is an effective social-work practice. The visualization promoting awareness on ocean acidification disseminated via social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. Social media enables users to compose their own messages and share information across different platforms, which helps disseminate the core message of social advocacy.

Keywords: digital storytelling, visualization, ocean acidification, social advocacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Ochuko K. Overen, Golden Makaka, Edson L. Meyer, Sampson Mamphweli

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Low-cost housing provided for people with small incomes in South Africa are characterized by poor thermal performance. This is due to inferior craftsmanship with no regard to energy efficient design during the building process. On average, South African households spend 14% of their total monthly income on energy needs, in particular space heating; which is higher than the international benchmark of 10% for energy poverty. Adopting energy efficient passive solar design strategies and superior thermal building materials can create a stable thermal comfort environment indoors. Thereby, reducing energy consumption for space heating. The aim of this study is to analyse the thermal behaviour of a low-cost house integrated with passive solar design features. A low-cost passive solar house with superstructure fly ash brick walls was designed and constructed in Somerset East, South Africa. Indoor and outdoor meteorological parameters of the house were monitored for a period of one year. The ASTM E741-11 Standard was adopted to perform ventilation test in the house. In summer, the house was found to be thermally comfortable for 66% of the period monitored, while for winter it was about 79%. The ventilation heat flow rate of the windows and doors were found to be 140 J/s and 68 J/s, respectively. Air leakage through cracks and openings in the building envelope was 0.16 m3/m2h with a corresponding ventilation heat flow rate of 24 J/s. The indoor carbon dioxide concentration monitored overnight was found to be 0.248%, which is less than the maximum range limit of 0.500%. The prediction percentage dissatisfaction of the house shows that 86% of the occupants will express the thermal satisfaction of the indoor environment. With a good operation of the house, it can create a well-ventilated, thermal comfortable and nature luminous indoor environment for the occupants. Incorporating passive solar design in low-cost housing can be one of the long and immediate solutions to the energy crisis facing South Africa.

Keywords: energy efficiency, low-cost housing, passive solar design, rural development, thermal comfort

Procedia PDF Downloads 242