Search results for: cost assessment

Authors: Muqdad Al-Juboori, Bithin Datta

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Hydraulic structures such as gravity dams are classified as essential structures, and have the vital role in providing strong and safe water resource management. Three major aspects must be considered to achieve an effective design of such a structure: 1) The building cost, 2) safety, and 3) accurate analysis of seepage characteristics. Due to the complexity and non-linearity relationships of the seepage process, many approximation theories have been developed; however, the application of these theories results in noticeable errors. The analytical solution, which includes the difficult conformal mapping procedure, could be applied for a simple and symmetrical problem only. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to: 1) develop a surrogate model based on numerical simulated data using SEEPW software to approximately simulate seepage process related to a hydraulic structure, 2) develop and solve a linked simulation-optimization model based on the developed surrogate model to describe the seepage occurring under a concrete gravity dam, in order to obtain optimum and safe design at minimum cost. The result shows that the linked simulation-optimization model provides an efficient and optimum design of concrete gravity dams.

Keywords: artificial neural network, concrete gravity dam, genetic algorithm, seepage analysis

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Authors: Sifatullah Bahij, Safiullah Omary, Francoise Feugeas, Amanullah Faqiri

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Reinforced concrete (RC) is commonly used material in the construction sector, due to its low-cost and durability, and allowed the architectures and designers to construct structural members with different shapes and finishing. Usually, RC members are designed to sustain service loads efficiently without any destruction. However, because of the faults in the design phase, overloading, materials deficiencies, and environmental effects, most of the structural elements will require maintenance and repairing over their lifetime. Therefore, strengthening and repair of the deteriorated and/or existing RC structures are much important to extend their life cycle. Various techniques are existing to retrofit and strengthen RC structural elements such as steel plate bonding, external pre-stressing, section enlargement, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapping, etc. Although these configurations can successfully improve the load bearing capacity of the beams, they are still prone to corrosion damage which results in failure of the strengthened elements. Therefore, many researchers used fiber reinforced cementitious materials due to its low-cost, corrosion resistance, and result in improvement of the tensile and fatigue behaviors. Various types of cementitious materials have been used to strengthen or repair structural elements. This paper has summarized to accumulate data regarding on previously published research papers concerning the torsional behaviors of RC beams strengthened by various types of cementitious materials.

Keywords: reinforced concrete beams, strengthening techniques, cementitious materials, torsional strength, twisting angle

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Authors: Nishita Jaiswal, Apoorv Mohan Satpute

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The increasing demand for efficient, cost-effective motor control systems in the automotive industry has driven the need for advanced, highly optimized control algorithms. Field-Oriented Control (FOC) has established itself as the leading approach for motor control, offering precise and dynamic regulation of torque, speed, and position. However, as energy efficiency becomes more critical in modern applications, implementing FOC on low-power, cost-sensitive microcontrollers pose significant challenges due to the limited availability of computational and hardware resources. Currently, most solutions rely on high-performance 32-bit microcontrollers or Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) equipped with Floating Point Units (FPUs) and Hardware Accelerated Units (HAUs). These advanced platforms enable rapid computation and simplify the execution of complex control algorithms like FOC. However, these benefits come at the expense of higher costs, increased power consumption, and added system complexity. These drawbacks limit their suitability for embedded systems with strict power and budget constraints, where achieving energy and execution efficiency without compromising performance is essential. In this paper, we present an alternative approach that utilizes optimized data representation and computation techniques on a 16-bit microcontroller without FPUs or HAUs. By carefully optimizing data point formats and employing fixed-point arithmetic, we demonstrate how the precision and computational efficiency required for FOC can be maintained in resource-constrained environments. This approach eliminates the overhead performance associated with floating-point operations and hardware acceleration, providing a more practical solution in terms of cost, scalability and improved execution time efficiency, allowing faster response in motor control applications. Furthermore, it enhances system design flexibility, making it particularly well-suited for applications that demand stringent control over power consumption and costs.

Keywords: field-oriented control, fixed-point arithmetic, floating point unit, hardware accelerator unit, motor control systems

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Authors: Mamadou Sileye Niang

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The study is a contribution to the development of a feed for juvenile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, from local raw materials in order to reduce the cost of feeding farmed tilapia in Senegal. Three feeds were formulated from local raw materials. The basic composition of the tested feeds is as follows: A1 (peanut meal, rice bran, millet bran, maize meal and no fish meal); A2 (peanut meal, rice bran, millet bran, maize meal and 10% fish meal) and A3 (peanut meal, rice bran, millet bran, maize meal and 25% fish meal). All feeds contain 31% protein. The trial compared three batches, in 2 replicates, with different diets. The initial weight of the juveniles was 0.37± 0.5g. The daily ration was distributed at 9 am and 4 pm. After 90 days of the experiment, the final mean weights were 2.45 ± 0.5g; 2.75±0.5g; and 4.67 ± 0.5g for A1, A2, and A3, respectively. A performance test, of which the objective was to compare growth parameters, was conducted. The results of the growth parameters of juveniles fed A3 were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those fed A1 and A2. The weight growth study shows similar growth during the first month. However, from this date onwards, juveniles fed A3 show a faster growth, which is maintained throughout the experiment. On the other hand, the Protein Efficiency Coefficient and the Survival Rate showed no significant difference. The zootechnical parameters are not significantly different (p > 0.05) between the two tanks for the same feed treatment.

Keywords: nutrition, feed, fingerlings, Oreochromis, local raw materials, feed cost

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Authors: S. Bagur, S. Verger, B. Mut

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Early childhood intervention (ECI) is the set of actions aimed at children aged 0-6 years with special needs, the family, and the environment that aim to improve child development and family well-being. Socio-educational intervention with children with disabilities and their families should be understood through the principles of family-centered practice (FCP). The multidisciplinary team of professionals carries out the intake, assessment, and intervention, understanding that families may experience mental health problems, parental role incompetence, or feelings of exclusion. This study examines the relationship between caregivers' levels of anxiety and depression and child development during the fostering and assessment phase. The design is quantitative, non-experimental, and cross-sectional. The sample consisted of 135 family members (78.5% female, 21.5% male) users of child development services in the Balearic Islands (Spain). Three questionnaires were completed: Anxiety and Depression Scale, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1½-5), and sociodemographic questionnaire. The main results show that parents of children with special needs score higher on anxiety than on depression. It should be noted that professional discipline is a variable to be taken into account in relation to parents' perception of the improvement of their child's development. In addition, there is an association between the developmental subscales, where the more the child is affected, the more the parents' mental health is affected. In short, we propose a reflection on the application of FCP during the intervention, understanding the lack of professional training as a predictor of quality in early intervention. Likewise, future lines of research are proposed to improve early care practices.

Keywords: anxiety, depression, early childhood intervention, family

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Authors: Emmanuel Billy

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This work is in the CABRISS project (H2020 projects) which aims at developing innovative cost-effective methods for the extraction of materials from the different sources of PV waste: Si based panels, thin film panels or Si water diluted slurries. Aluminum, silicon, indium, and silver will especially be extracted from these wastes in order to constitute materials feedstock which can be used later in a closed-loop process. The extraction of metals from silicon solar cells is often an energy-intensive process. It requires either smelting or leaching at elevated temperature, or the use of large quantities of strong acids or bases that require energy to produce. The energy input equates to a significant cost and an associated CO2 footprint, both of which it would be desirable to reduce. Thus there is a need to develop more energy-efficient and environmentally-compatible processes. Thus, ‘ionometallurgy’ could offer a new set of environmentally-benign process for metallurgy. This work demonstrates that ionic liquids provide one such method since they can be used to dissolve and recover silver. The overall process associates leaching, recovery and the possibility to re-use the solution in closed-loop process. This study aims to evaluate and compare different ionic liquids to leach and recover silver. An electrochemical analysis is first implemented to define the best system for the Ag dissolution. Effects of temperature, concentration and oxidizing agent are evaluated by this approach. Further, a comparative study between conventional approach (nitric acid, thiourea) and the ionic liquids (Cu and Al) focused on the leaching efficiency is conducted. A specific attention has been paid to the selection of the Ionic Liquids. Electrolytes composed of chelating anions are used to facilitate the lixiviation (Cl, Br, I,), avoid problems dealing with solubility issues of metallic species and of classical additional ligands. This approach reduces the cost of the process and facilitates the re-use of the leaching medium. To define the most suitable ionic liquids, electrochemical experiments have been carried out to evaluate the oxidation potential of silver include in the crystalline solar cells. Then, chemical dissolution of metals for crystalline solar cells have been performed for the most promising ionic liquids. After the chemical dissolution, electrodeposition has been performed to recover silver under a metallic form.

Keywords: electrodeposition, ionometallurgy, leaching, recycling, silver

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Authors: Banu Karasah, Derya Sarı

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Nature changes as a result of human necessities constantly. This change mostly feels in natural water sources which are reconstructed with an effect of dams and motorways. On the other hand, dams and motorways demolish and re-shape nature while the visual quality of landscape gets a new character. Changing and specialization new landscapes will be very important to protection-usage balance to explore sustainable usage facilities. The main cause of the selection of Artvin city is, it has very important geographical location and one of the most attraction points in the World with its biodiversity, conservation areas and natural landscape characteristics. Coruh River is one of the most significant landscape identity element of Artvin. This river begins with Erzurum and falls into the Black Sea in Batumi in Georgia, many dams, and hydroelectric station are located during this basin. Borcka, Muratli and Deriner dams have already been built. Moreover, Deriner is 6th highest dams all over the world. As a result of dams, motorways route were re-shaped and the ways which have already changed because of elevation is directly affected several of natural destruction. In contrast, many different reservoirs in Coruh Basin provide new vista point that has high visual quality. In this study, we would like to evaluate with sustainable landscape design in 76 km river corridor, which is mainly based on Deriner, Borcka and Muratli Dams and determination of their basin-lakes recreational potential and opportunities. Lastly, we are going to give some suggestion about the potential of the corridor.

Keywords: Artvin, dam reservoirs, landscape assessment, river corridor, visual quality

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Authors: Pei-Jung Wu, Ching-Ying Huang, Chih-Chia Lin, Chun-Han Li, Chien-Yuan Wang

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The fuel cell market has considerable development potential, but the cost is still less competitive. Replacing the traditional graphite plate with a stainless steel plate as a bipolar plate can greatly reduce the weight and volume of the stack, and has more cost advantages. However, the passivation layer on the surface of stainless steel makes the contact resistance reach the ohmic level and reduces the performance of the fuel cell. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the interfacial contact resistance through the surface treatment. In this research, the thickness, uniformity, interfacial contact resistance (ICR), and adhesion of the carbon-based layer was analyzed. On the other hand, the effect of coating properties on the performance of the fuel cell was verified through I-V tests. The results show that after coating the contact resistance is greatly reduced by three stages to the microohm level, and as the film thickness is reduced, the contact resistance is reduced from 229~118 mΩ-cm² to 135~73 mΩ-cm² at a general assembly pressure of 1 to 2 MPa., and the current density at 0.6 V increased from 485.7 mA/cm² to 575.7 mA/cm². This study verifies the importance of the uniformity and ICR of the coating on proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), and the surface coating technology is the key to affecting the characteristics of the coating.

Keywords: contact resistance, proton exchange membrane fuel cell, PEMFC, SS bipolar plate, spray coating process

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Authors: Ketan N. Bajad, Manisha V. Waghmare

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Earthquakes are the biggest threat to the civil engineering structures as every year it cost billions of dollars and thousands of deaths, around the world. There are various experimental techniques such as pseudo-dynamic tests – nonlinear structural dynamic technique, real time pseudo dynamic test and shaking table test method that can be employed to verify the seismic performance of structures. Shake table is a device that is used for shaking structural models or building components which are mounted on it. It is a device that simulates a seismic event using existing seismic data and nearly truly reproducing earthquake inputs. This paper deals with the use of shaking table test method to check the response of structure subjected to earthquake. The various types of shake table are vertical shake table, horizontal shake table, servo hydraulic shake table and servo electric shake table. The goal of this experiment is to perform seismic analysis of a civil engineering structure with the help of 3 degree of freedom (i.e. in X Y Z direction) shake table. Three (3) DOF shaking table is a useful experimental apparatus as it imitates a real time desired acceleration vibration signal for evaluating and assessing the seismic performance of structure. This study proceeds with the proper designing and erection of 3 DOF shake table by trial and error method. The table is designed to have a capacity up to 981 Newton. Further, to study the seismic response of a steel industrial building, a proportionately scaled down model is fabricated and tested on the shake table. The accelerometer is mounted on the model, which is used for recording the data. The experimental results obtained are further validated with the results obtained from software. It is found that model can be used to determine how the structure behaves in response to an applied earthquake motion, but the model cannot be used for direct numerical conclusions (such as of stiffness, deflection, etc.) as many uncertainties involved while scaling a small-scale model. The model shows modal forms and gives the rough deflection values. The experimental results demonstrate shake table as the most effective and the best of all methods available for seismic assessment of structure.

Keywords: accelerometer, three degree of freedom shake table, seismic analysis, steel industrial shed

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Authors: Y. T. Gebreslassie, Abrha Tadesse, R. C. Saini, Rishi Pal

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Caffeine, known chemically as 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione, is a naturally occurring alkaloid classified as an N-methyl derivative of xanthine. Given its widespread use in coffee and other caffeine-containing products, it is the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in everyday human life. This research aimed to develop a cost-effective, sensitive, and easily manufacturable sensor for the detection of caffeine. Antraquinone-modified carbon paste electrode (AQMCPE) was fabricated, and the electrochemical behavior of caffeine on this electrode was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) in a solution of 0.1M perchloric acid at pH 0.56. The modified electrode displayed enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards caffeine oxidation, exhibiting a two-fold increase in peak current and an 82 mV shift of the peak potential in the negative direction compared to an unmodified carbon paste electrode (UMCPE). Exploiting the electrocatalytic properties of the modified electrode, SWV was employed for the quantitative determination of caffeine. Under optimized experimental conditions, a linear relationship between peak current and concentration was observed within the range of 2.0 x 10⁻⁶ to 1.0× 10⁻⁴ M, with a correlation coefficient of 0.998 and a detection limit of 1.47× 10⁻⁷ M (signal-to-noise ratio = 3). Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the quantitative analysis of caffeine in pharmaceutical formulations, yielding recovery percentages ranging from 95.27% to 106.75%.

Keywords: antraquinone-modified carbon paste electrode, caffeine, detection, electrochemical sensor, quantitative analysis

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Authors: Hameed Rukayat Opeyemi, Pericles Pilidis, Pagone Emanuele

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An infinitesimal increase in performance can have immense reduction in operating and capital expenses in a power generation system. Therefore, constant studies are being carried out to improve both conventional and novel power cycles. Globally, power producers are constantly researching on ways to minimize emission and to collectively downsize the total cost rate of power plants. A substantial spurt of developmental technologies of low carbon cycles have been suggested and studied, however they all have their limitations and financial implication. In the area of carbon abatement in power plants, three major objectives conflict: The cost rate of the plant, Power output and Environmental impact. Since, an increase in one of this parameter directly affects the other. This poses a multi-objective problem. It is paramount to be able to discern the point where improving one objective affects the other. Hence, the need for a Pareto-based optimization algorithm. Pareto-based optimization algorithm helps to find those points where improving one objective influences another objective negatively and stops there. The application of Pareto-based optimization algorithm helps the user/operator/designer make an informed decision. This paper sheds more light on areas that multi-objective optimization has been applied in carbon abatement technologies in the last five years, developments and prospects.

Keywords: gas turbine, low carbon technology, pareto optimal, multi-objective optimization

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Authors: Jing Jiang, Yuguang Gao, Yang Yu

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Facing increasingly challenging insurance payment pressures, the Chinese healthcare system is undergoing significant transformations, akin to the implementation of DRG payment models by the United States' Medicare. Consequently, there is a pressing need for Chinese hospitals to establish optimizations in departmental operations tailored to the ongoing healthcare payment reforms. This abstract delineates the meticulous construction of a scientifically rigorous and comprehensive index system at the departmental level in China strategically aligned with the evolving landscape of healthcare payment reforms. Methodologically, it integrates key process areas and maturity assessment theories, synthesizing relevant literature and industry standards to construct a robust framework and indicator pool. Employing the Delphi method, consultations with 21 experts were conducted, revealing a collective demonstration of high enthusiasm, authority, and coordination in designing the index system. The resulting model comprises four primary indicators -technical capabilities, cost-effectiveness, operational efficiency, and disciplinary potential- supported by 14 secondary indicators and 23 tertiary indicators with varied coefficient adjustment for department types (platform or surgical). The application of this evaluation system in a Chinese hospital within the northeastern region yielded results aligning seamlessly with the actual operational scenario. In conclusion, the index system comprehensively considers the integrity and effectiveness of structural, process, and outcome indicators and stands as a comprehensive reflection of the collective expertise of the engaged experts, manifesting in a model designed to elevate the operational management of hospital departments. Its strategic alignment with healthcare payment reforms holds practical significance in guiding departmental development positioning, brand cultivation, and talent development.

Keywords: Chinese healthcare system, Delphi method, departmental management, evaluation indicators, hospital operations, weight coefficients

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Authors: L. Edirisinghe, Zhihong Jin, A. W. Wijeratne, R. Mudunkotuwa

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The virtual container yard is an effective solution to the container inventory imbalance problem which is a global issue. It causes substantial cost to carriers, which inadvertently adds to the prices of consumer goods. The virtual container yard is rooted in the fundamentals of container interchange between carriers. If carriers opt to interchange their excess containers with those who are deficit, a substantial part of the empty reposition cost could be eliminated. Unlike in other types of ships, cargo cannot be directly loaded to a container ship. Slots and containers are supplementary components; thus, without containers, a carrier cannot ship cargo if the containers are not available and vice versa. Few decades ago, carriers recognized slot (the unit of space in a container ship) interchange as a viable solution for the imbalance of shipping space. Carriers interchange slots among them and it also increases the advantage of scale of economies in container shipping. Some of these service agreements between mega carriers have provisions to interchange containers too. However, the interchange mechanism is still not popular among carriers for containers. This is the paradox that prevails in the liner shipping industry. At present, carriers reposition their excess empty containers to areas where they are in demand. This research applied factor analysis statistical method. The paper reveals that five major components may influence the virtual container yard namely organisation, practice and culture, legal and environment, international nature, and marketing. There are 12 variables that may impact the virtual container yard, and these are explained in the paper.

Keywords: virtual container yard, shipping, imbalance, management, inventory

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Authors: Ambalika Ekka

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In today’s world, the growing demand for urban built forms has resulted in the production and consumption of building materials i.e. embodied energy in building construction, leading to pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, new buildings will offer a unique opportunity to implement more energy efficient building without compromising on building performance of the building. Embodied energy of building materials forms major contribution to embodied energy in buildings. The paper results in an approach towards designing an energy efficient apartment building through embodied energy assessment. This paper discusses the trend of residential development in Rourkela, which includes three case studies of the contemporary houses, followed by architectural elements, number of storeys, predominant material use and plot sizes using primary data. It results in identification of predominant material used and other characteristics in urban area. Further, the embodied energy coefficients of various dominant building materials and alternative materials manufactured in Indian Industry is taken in consideration from secondary source i.e. literature study. The paper analyses the embodied energy by estimating materials and operational energy of proposed building followed by altering the specifications of the materials based on the building components i.e. walls, flooring, windows, insulation and roof through res build India software and comparison of different options is assessed with consideration of sustainable parameters. This paper results that autoclaved aerated concrete block only reaches the energy performance Index benchmark i.e. 69.35 kWh/m² yr i.e. by saving 4% of operational energy and as embodied energy has no particular index, out of all materials it has the highest EE 23206202.43  MJ.

Keywords: energy efficient, embodied energy, EPI, building materials

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Authors: Ezeabasili Chibuike Patrick

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The complex situation of construction industries in Nigeria and the risk of failures involved includes cost overrun, time overrun, Corruption, Government influence, Subcontractor challenges, Political influence and Instability, Cultural differences, Human resources deficiencies, cash flow Challenges, foreign exchange issues, inadequate design, Safety, low productivity, late payment, Quality control issues, project management issues, Environmental issues, Force majeure Competition amongst others has made the industry prone to risk and failures. Good project management remains effective in improving decision-making, which minimizes these risk events. This study was done to address these project risks and good decision-making to avert them. A mixed-method approach to research was used to do this study. Data collected by questionnaires and interviews on thirty-two (32) construction professionals was used in analyses to aid the knowledge and management of risks that were identified. The study revealed that there is no good risk management expertise in Nigeria. Also, that the economic/political situation and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has added to the risk and poor management strategies. The contingency theory and cost has therefore surfaced to be the most strategic management method used to reduce these risk issues and they seem to be very effective.

Keywords: strategies, risk management, contingency theory, Nigeria

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Authors: Karthikeyan Srinivasan, Ranjana Singh, Yatin Talwar, Karthikeyan Srinivasan

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Healthcare services play a vital role in the life of human being. The Setup of Hospital varies in wide spectrum of cost, technology, and access. Hospital’s of Public sector satisfies need of a common man to poorer, which can differ at private owned hospitals on cost and treatment. Patient assessing hospital frequently assumes spending time at the hospital is miserable and not aware of what is happening around them. Mostly they are queued up round the clock waiting to be admitted on hospital beds. The idea here is to highlight the role in admitting patient population of Outdoor as well as Emergency entering the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh with available hospital beds. This study emphasizes the trend forecasting and acquiring beds needed. The conception “if patient population increases’ likewise increasing hospital beds advertently perceived. If tend to increase the hospital beds, thereby exploring budget, Manpower, space, and infrastructure make compulsion. This survey ideally draws out planning and forecasting beds to cater patient population in and around neighboring state of Chandigarh for admission at territory healthcare and research institute on available hospital beds. Executing healthcare services for growing population needs to know Roemer’s law indicating "in an insured population, a hospital bed built is a filled bed".

Keywords: admissions, average length of stay, bed days, hospital beds, occupancy rates

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Authors: Elaid Bouchetob, Bouchra Nadji

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This research paper compares the efficiency and reliability (R(t)) of SiC-based and Si-based DC-DC buck converters in thin layer PV systems with an AI-based MPPT controller. Using Simplorer/Simulink simulations, the study assesses their performance under varying conditions. Results show that the SiC-based converter outperforms the Si-based one in efficiency and cost-effectiveness, especially in high temperature and low irradiance conditions. It also exhibits superior reliability, particularly at high temperature and voltage. Reliability calculation (R(t)) is analyzed to assess system performance over time. The SiC-based converter demonstrates better reliability, considering factors like component failure rates and system lifetime. The research focuses on the buck converter's role in charging a Lithium battery within the PV system. By combining the SiC-based converter and AI-based MPPT controller, higher charging efficiency, improved reliability, and cost-effectiveness are achieved. The SiC-based converter proves superior under challenging conditions, emphasizing its potential for optimizing PV system charging. These findings contribute insights into the efficiency, reliability, and reliability calculation of SiC-based and Si-based converters in PV systems. SiC technology's advantages, coupled with advanced control strategies, promote efficient and sustainable energy storage using Lithium batteries. The research supports PV system design and optimization for reliable renewable energy utilization.

Keywords: efficiency, reliability, artificial intelligence, sic device, thin layer, buck converter

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Authors: Han Gul Lee

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When water treatments utilities are designed, an initial construction site risk assessment is conducted. This helps us to understand general safety risks that each utility needs to be complemented in the designing stage. Once it’s built, an additional risk reassessment process secures and supplements its disaster management and response plan. Because of its constantly changing surroundings with city renovation and developments, the degree of various risks that each facility has to face changes. Therefore, to improve the preparedness for spill incidents or disasters, emergency managers should run spill simulations with the available scientific technologies. This research used a two-dimensional flow routing model to simulate its spill disaster scenario based on its digital elevation model (DEM) collected with drone technologies. The results of the simulations can help emergency managers to supplement their response plan with concrete situational awareness in advance. Planning based on this simulation model minimizes its potential loss and damage when an incident like earthquakes man-made disaster happens, which could eventually be a threat in a public health context. This pilot research provides an additional paradigm to increase the preparedness to spill disasters. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through Environmental R&D Project on the Disaster Prevention of Environmental Facilities Program funded by Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (No.202002860001).

Keywords: risk assessment, disaster management, water treatment utilities, situational awareness, drone technologies

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Authors: Justyna Mroczkowska

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Social worker's ability to provide culturally sensitive assistance in child protection is taken for granted; given limited training opportunities and lack of clear guidance, practitioners report working with migrant families more demanding in comparison to working with native families. In this study, the author developed and factor analyzed the Norwegian Cultural Self-Efficacy Scale to describe the level of cultural capability among Norwegian child protection professionals. The study aimed to determine the main influencing factors to cultural efficacy and examine the relationship between self-efficacy and perceived difficulty in working with migrant families. The scale was administered to child protection workers in Norway (N=251), and the reliability of the scale measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .904. The confirmatory factor analysis of social work cultural self-efficacy found support for four separate but correlated subscales: Assessment, Communication, Support Request, and Teamwork. Regression analyses found the experience in working with migrant families, training and support from external agencies, and colleague support to be significant predictors of cultural self-efficacy. Self-efficacy in assessment skills and self-efficacy in communication skills were moderately related to the perceived difficulty to work with migrant families. The findings conclude with previous research and highlight the need for both professional development programs and institutional resources to be provided to support the practitioner's preparation for multicultural practice in child protection.

Keywords: child protection, cultural self-efficacy, cultural competency, migration, resources

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Authors: Wynne De Jong, Robert Miller, Ross Riggs

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Beyond the number of nurses providing care for patients, having nurses with the right skills, experience and education is essential to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients. Research studies continue to link nurse staffing and skill mix with nurse-sensitive patient outcomes; numerous studies clearly show that superior patient outcomes are associated with higher levels of regulated staff. Due to the limited number of tools and processes available to assist nurse leaders with staffing models of care, nurse leaders are constantly faced with the ongoing challenge to ensure their staffing models of care best suit their patient population. In 2009, several hospitals in Ontario, Canada participated in a research study to develop and evaluate an RN/RPN utilization toolkit. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a toolkit for Registered Nurses/Registered Practical Nurses Staff mix decision-making based on the College of Nurses of Ontario, Canada practice standards for the utilization of RNs and RPNs. This paper will highlight how an organization has further developed the Patient Care Needs Assessment (PCNA) questionnaire, a major component of the toolkit. Moreover, it will demonstrate how it has utilized the information from PCNA to clearly identify patient and family care needs, thus providing evidence-based results to assist leaders with matching the best staffing skill mix to their patients.

Keywords: nurse staffing models of care, skill mix, nursing health human resources, patient safety

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Authors: Jeffrey M. Catchmark, Parisa Nazema, Caini Chen, Wei-Shu Lin

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Sustainable and environmentally compatible materials are needed for a wide variety of volume commercial applications. Current synthetic materials such as plastics, fluorochemicals (such as PFAS), adhesives and resins in form of sheets, laminates, coatings, foams, fibers, molded parts and composites are used for countless products such as packaging, food handling, textiles, biomedical, construction, automotive and general consumer devices. Synthetic materials offer distinct performance advantages including stability, durability and low cost. These attributes are associated with the physical and chemical properties of these materials that, once formed, can be resistant to water, oils, solvents, harsh chemicals, salt, temperature, impact, wear and microbial degradation. These advantages become disadvantages when considering the end of life of these products which generate significant land and water pollution when disposed of and few are recycled. Agriculturally and biologically derived polymers offer the potential of remediating these environmental and life-cycle difficulties, but face numerous challenges including feedstock supply, scalability, performance and cost. Such polymers include microbial biopolymers like polyhydroxyalkanoates and polyhydroxbutirate; polymers produced using biomonomer chemical synthesis like polylactic acid; proteins like soy, collagen and casein; lipids like waxes; and polysaccharides like cellulose and starch. Although these materials, and combinations thereof, exhibit the potential for meeting some of the performance needs of various commercial applications, only cellulose and starch have both the production feedstock volume and cost to compete with petroleum derived materials. Over 430 million tons of plastic is produced each year and plastics like low density polyethylene cost ~$1500 to $1800 per ton. Over 400 million tons of cellulose and over 100 million tons of starch are produced each year at a volume cost as low as ~$500 to $1000 per ton with the capability of increased production. Cellulose and starches, however, are hydroscopic materials that do not exhibit the needed performance in most applications. Celluloses and starches can be chemically modified to contain positive and negative surface charges and such modified versions of these are used in papermaking, foods and cosmetics. Although these modified polysaccharides exhibit the same performance limitations, recent research has shown that composite materials comprised of cationic and anionic polysaccharides in polyelectrolyte complexation exhibit significantly improved performance including stability in diverse environments. Moreover, starches with added plasticizers can exhibit thermoplasticity, presenting the possibility of improved thermoplastic starches when comprised of starches in polyelectrolyte complexation. In this work, the potential for numerous volume commercial products based on polysaccharide polyelectrolyte complexes (PPCs) will be discussed, including the engineering design strategy used to develop them. Research results will be detailed including the development and demonstration of starch PPC compositions for paper coatings to replace PFAS; adhesives; foams for packaging, insulation and biomedical applications; and thermoplastic starches. In addition, efforts to demonstrate the potential for volume manufacturing with industrial partners will be discussed.

Keywords: biomaterials engineering, commercial materials, polysaccharides, sustainable materials

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Authors: Yosra Ben Mhamed

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Most previous research that investigates the importance of earnings volatility for a firm’s value has focused on the effects of earnings volatility on the cost of capital. Many study illustrate that earnings volatility can reduce the firm’s value by enhancing the cost of capital. However, a few recent studies directly examine the relation between earnings volatility and subsequent earnings levels. In our study, we further explore the role of volatility in forecasting. Our study makes two primary contributions to the literature. First, taking into account the level of current firm’s performance, we provide causal theory to the link between volatility and earnings predictability. Nevertheless, previous studies testing the linearity of this relationship have not mentioned any underlying theory. Secondly, our study contributes to the vast body of fundamental analysis research that identifies a set of variables that improve valuation, by showing that earnings volatility affects the estimation of future earnings. Projections of earnings are used by valuation research and practice to derive estimates of firm value. Since we want to examine the impact of volatility on earnings predictability, we sort the sample into three portfolios according to the level of their earnings volatility in ascending order. For each quintile, we present the predictability coefficient. In a second test, each of these portfolios is, then, sorted into three further quintiles based on their level of current earnings. These yield nine quintiles. So we can observe whether volatility strongly predicts decreases on earnings predictability only for highest quintile of earnings. In general, we find that earnings volatility has an inverse relationship with earnings predictability. Our results also show that the sensibility of earnings predictability to ex-ante volatility is more pronounced among profitability firms. The findings are most consistent with overinvestment and persistence explanations.

Keywords: earnings volatility, earnings predictability, earnings persistence, current profitability

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Authors: Akash Verma, Sujit Kumar Samanta

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This study examines a discrete-time Geo/G/1 queueing-inventory system attached with (s, Q) inventory policy. Assume that the customers follow the Bernoulli process on arrival. Each customer demands a single item with arbitrarily distributed service time. The inventory is replenished by an outside supplier, and the lead time for the replenishment is determined by a geometric distribution. There is a single server and infinite waiting space in this facility. Demands must wait in the specified waiting area during a stock-out period. The customers are served on a first-come-first-served basis. With the help of the embedded Markov chain technique, we determine the joint probability distributions of the number of customers in the system and the number of items in stock at the post-departure epoch using the Matrix Analytic approach. We relate the system length distribution at post-departure and outside observer's epochs to determine the joint probability distribution at the outside observer's epoch. We use probability distributions at random epochs to determine the waiting time distribution. We obtain the performance measures to construct the cost function. The optimum values of the order quantity and reordering point are found numerically for the variety of model parameters.

Keywords: discrete-time queueing inventory model, matrix analytic method, waiting-time analysis, cost optimization

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Authors: Maria M. Calheiros, Carla Silva, Eunice Magalhães

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Professionals working in child protection services (CPS) need to have common and clear criteria to identify cases of maltreatment and to differentiate levels of severity in order to determine when CPS intervention is required, its nature and urgency, and, in most countries, the service that will be in charge of the case (community or specialized CPS). Actually, decision-making process is complex in CPS, and, for that reason, such criteria are particularly important for who significantly contribute to that decision-making in child maltreatment cases. The main objective of this presentation is to describe the Maltreatment Severity Assessment Questionnaire (MSQ), specifically designed to be used by professionals in the CPS, which adopts a multidimensional approach and uses a scale of severity within subtypes. Specifically, we aim to provide evidence of validity and reliability of this tool, in order to improve the quality and validity of assessment processes and, consequently, the decision making in CPS. The total sample was composed of 1000 children and/or adolescents (51.1% boys), aged between 0 and 18 years old (M = 9.47; DP = 4.51). All the participants were referred to official institutions of the children and youth protective system. Children and adolescents maltreatment (abuse, neglect experiences and sexual abuse) were assessed with 21 items of the Maltreatment Severity Questionnaire (MSQ), by professionals of CPS. Each item (sub-type) was composed of four descriptors of increasing severity. Professionals rated the level of severity, using a 4-point scale (1= minimally severe; 2= moderately severe; 3= highly severe; 4= extremely severe). The construct validity of the Maltreatment Severity Questionnaire was assessed with a holdout method, performing an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The final solution comprised 18 items organized in three factors 47.3% of variance explained. ‘Physical neglect’ (eight items) was defined by parental omissions concerning the insurance and monitoring of the child’s physical well-being and health, namely in terms of clothing, hygiene, housing conditions and contextual environmental security. ‘Physical and Psychological Abuse’ (four items) described abusive physical and psychological actions, namely, coercive/punitive disciplinary methods, physically violent methods or verbal interactions that offend and denigrate the child, with the potential to disrupt psychological attributes (e.g., self-esteem). ‘Psychological neglect’ (six items) involved omissions related to children emotional development, mental health monitoring, school attendance, development needs, as well as inappropriate relationship patterns with attachment figures. Results indicated a good reliability of all the factors. The assessment of child maltreatment cases with MSQ could have a set of practical and research implications: a) It is a valid and reliable multidimensional instrument to measure child maltreatment, b) It is an instrument integrating the co-occurrence of various types of maltreatment and a within-subtypes scale of severity; c) Specifically designed for professionals, it may assist them in decision-making processes; d) More than using case file reports to evaluate maltreatment experiences, researchers could guide more appropriately their research about determinants and consequences of maltreatment.

Keywords: assessment, maltreatment, children and youth, decision-making

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Authors: Audrius Dedele, Aukse Miskinyte

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Air pollution is a major problem, especially in large cities, causing a variety of environmental issues and a risk to human health effects. In order to observe air quality, to reduce and control air pollution in the city, municipalities are responsible for the creation of air quality management plans, air quality monitoring and emission inventories. Atmospheric dispersion modelling systems, along with monitoring, are powerful tools, which can be used not only for air quality management, but for the assessment of human exposure to air pollution. These models are widely used in epidemiological studies, which try to determine the associations between exposure to air pollution and the adverse health effects. The purpose of this study was to determine the concentration of particulate matter smaller than 10 μm (PM10) in different districts of Kaunas city during winter season. ADMS-Urban dispersion model was used for the simulation of PM10 pollution. The inputs of the model were the characteristics of stationary, traffic and domestic sources, emission data, meteorology and background concentrations were entered in the model. To assess the modelled concentrations of PM10 in Kaunas districts, geographic information system (GIS) was used. More detailed analysis was made using Spatial Analyst tools. The modelling results showed that the average concentration of PM10 during winter season in Kaunas city was 24.8 µg/m3. The highest PM10 levels were determined in Zaliakalnis and Aleksotas districts with are the highest number of individual residential properties, 32.0±5.2 and 28.7±8.2 µg/m3, respectively. The lowest pollution of PM10 was modelled in Petrasiunai district (18.4 µg/m3), which is characterized as commercial and industrial neighbourhood.

Keywords: air pollution, dispersion model, GIS, Particulate matter

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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: Hounyèmè Romuald, Mama Daouda, Argillier Christine

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The present study focused on the use of benthic macrofauna to define the reference state of an anthropized lagoon (Nokoué-Benin) from the responses of relevant metrics to proxies. The approach used is a combination of a joint species distribution model and Bayesian networks. The joint species distribution model was used to select the relevant metrics and generate posterior probabilities that were then converted into posterior response probabilities for each of the quality classes (pressure levels), which will constitute the conditional probability tables allowing the establishment of the probabilistic graph representing the different causal relationships between metrics and pressure proxies. For the definition of the reference thresholds, the predicted responses for low-pressure levels were read via probability density diagrams. Observations collected during high and low water periods spanning 03 consecutive years (2004-2006), sampling 33 macroinvertebrate taxa present at all seasons and sampling points, and measurements of 14 environmental parameters were used as application data. The study demonstrated reliable inferences, selection of 07 relevant metrics and definition of quality thresholds for each environmental parameter. The relevance of the metrics as well as the reference thresholds for ecological assessment despite the small sample size, suggests the potential for wider applicability of the approach for aquatic ecosystem monitoring and assessment programs in developing countries generally characterized by a lack of monitoring data.

Keywords: pressure proxies, bayesian inference, bioindicators, acadjas, functional traits

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Authors: Orogun Daniel Oghenekevhwe

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Africa being an agrarian continent has an abundance of fruits that are both nutritional and medicinal. Regardless of the abundance of these healing elements, Africa leads the statistics of poor healthcare globally. Among others, there are two noticeable challenges in the healthcare system which are ‘Poor access and high cost of medical healthcare’. The effects of both the access and economic implications are (1) Low responsiveness and (2) High mortality rate. While the United Nations and the global health community continue to work towards reduced mortality rates and poor responsiveness to healthcare and wellness, this paper investigates how some Africans use the spiritual symbols of African fruits as responsive catalysts to embrace naturopathy thereby reducing the effects and impacts of poor healthcare challenges in Africa. The main argument is whether there are links between spiritual symbols and fruits that influence Africans' response to naturopathy and low-cost healthcare. Following that is the question of how medical healthcare responds to such development. Bitter Kola (Garcinia) is the case study fruit, and Sunnyside in Pretoria, South Africa, has been spotted as one of the high-traffic selling points of herbal fruits. A mixed research method is applicable with an expected 20 Quantitative data respondents among sellers and nutritionists and 50 Qualitative Data respondents among consumers. Based on the results, it should be clear how spirituality contributes to alternative healthcare and how it can be further encouraged to bridge the gap between the high demand and low supply of healthcare in Africa and beyond.

Keywords: spiritual symbols, naturopathy, African fruits, spirituality, healthcare

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Authors: Allaeddine Athmani, Abdelhacine Gouasmia, Tiago Ferreira, Romeu Vicente

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Seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings is a fundamental issue even for moderate to low seismic hazard regions. This fact is even more important when dealing with old structures such as those located in Annaba city (Algeria), which the majority of dates back to the French colonial era from 1830. This category of buildings is in high risk due to their highly degradation state, heterogeneous materials and intrusive modifications to structural and non-structural elements. Furthermore, they are usually shelter a dense population, which is exposed to such risk. In order to undertake a suitable seismic risk mitigation strategies and reinforcement process for such structures, it is essential to estimate their seismic resistance capacity at a large scale. In this sense, two seismic vulnerability index methods and damage estimation have been adapted and applied to a pilot-scale building area located in the moderate seismic hazard region of Annaba city: The first one based on the EMS-98 building typologies, and the second one derived from the Italian GNDT approach. To perform this task, the authors took the advantage of an existing data survey previously performed for other purposes. The results obtained from the application of the two methods were integrated and compared using a geographic information system tool (GIS), with the ultimate goal of supporting the city council of Annaba for the implementation of risk mitigation and emergency planning strategies.

Keywords: Annaba city, EMS98 concept, GNDT method, old city center, seismic vulnerability index, unreinforced masonry buildings

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Authors: Cagdas Agirdas

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Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered private insurance plans, starting with plan years on or after September 23rd, 2010, to provide certain preventive care services without any cost sharing in the form of deductibles, copayments or co-insurance. This requirement may affect racial and ethnic disparities in preventive care as it provides the largest copay reduction in preventive care. Objectives: We ask whether the ACA’s free preventive care benefits are associated with a reduction in racial and ethnic disparities in the utilization of four preventive services: cholesterol screenings, colonoscopies, mammograms, and pap smears. Methods: We use a data set of over 6,000 individuals from the 2009, 2010, and 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS). We restrict our data set only to individuals who are old enough to be eligible for each preventive service. Our difference-in-differences logistic regression model classifies privately-insured Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians as the treatment groups and 2013 as the after-policy year. Our control group consists of non-Hispanic whites on Medicaid as this program already covered preventive care services for free or at a low cost before the ACA. Results: After controlling for income, education, marital status, preferred interview language, self-reported health status, employment, having a usual source of care, age and gender, we find that the ACA is associated with increases in the probability of the median, privately-insured Hispanic person to get a colonoscopy by 3.6% and a mammogram by 3.1%, compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. Similarly, we find that the median, privately-insured African American person’s probability of receiving these two preventive services improved by 2.3% and 2.4% compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. We do not find any significant improvements for any racial or ethnic group for cholesterol screenings or pap smears. Furthermore, our results do not indicate any significant changes for Asians compared to non-Hispanic whites in utilizing the four preventive services. These reductions in racial/ethnic disparities are robust to reconfigurations of time periods, previous diagnosis, and residential status. Conclusions: Early effects of the ACA’s provision of free preventive care are significant for Hispanics and African Americans. Further research is needed for the later years as more individuals became aware of these benefits.

Keywords: preventive care, Affordable Care Act, cost sharing, racial disparities

Procedia PDF Downloads 153