Search results for: oxygen reduction

Authors: Hesti Ghassani, Tessa Septiadi

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In the world we live on today, young generation highly influences the future of a nation. We have to concern that the condition of the country in 20 years later depending by the character of young adults these days. Therefore, it is important that we have to support and control the teenagers especially in one of developing countries in which I live in: Indonesia. Indonesia is a home to 240 million people. It diverse in languages, cultures, as well as attitudes. The differences among each individual lead us to think that there is something we have to take care of. It is necessary to pay attention to the nutrition consumed by the nation. We initiate to control the food consumed by young generation as early as a primary students. Nutrition affects the immune of the body, neuron system, and, most importantly brain. One of the nutrition that has to be fulfilled is milk. However, most of the population in Indonesia isn’t aware of the importance of consuming milk as their daily basis. We’ve formed an innovation called the Brilliant Candy which is affordable and rich in nutrition. So that is why the paper made by literature study to solve the problem with effective ways using available resources, practice and cheap. Brilliant Candy consists of Centella asiatica extract mixed with Soy milk. Centella asiatica contains of alkaloid which give the energy to brain and circulate oxygen. Based on the research of Sathya and Ganga, Centella asiatica can increase the intelligence. Indeed, Centella asiatica can relieve stress, and help us in staying focus. Soy milk is a kind of milk which come from extracted soybean. Soybean is rich in flafonoid. It has various advantages for our body. Which can also support child nutrition consumed. Soybean boosts immune system, helps digestive system, and in terms of food, soy bean exists as a source of nutrition. A method to get extraction of Centella asiatica is namely maserasi using ethanol. While making soybean milk with got the pollen of soybean. Both materials get mixed processed into hard candy with congelation of.

Keywords: Indonesia, Centella asiatica, Soy milk, alkaloid, flafonoid

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Authors: Geanderson Eduardo Ambrósio, Dênis Antônio Da Cunha, Marcel Viana Pires

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Historically, human development has been based on economic gains associated with intensive energy activities, which often are exhaustive in the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). It requires the establishment of targets for mitigation of GHGs in order to disassociate the human development from emissions and prevent further climate change. Brazil presents itself as one of the most GHGs emitters and it is of critical importance to discuss such reductions in intra-national framework with the objective of distributional equity to explore its full mitigation potential without compromising the development of less developed societies. This research displays some incipient considerations about which Brazil’s micro-regions should reduce, when the reductions should be initiated and what its magnitude should be. We started with the methodological assumption that human development and GHGs emissions arise in the future as their behavior was observed in the past. Furthermore, we assume that once a micro-region became developed, it is able to maintain gains in human development without the need of keep growing GHGs emissions rates. The human development index and the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e) were extrapolated to the year 2050, which allowed us to calculate when the micro-regions will become developed and the mass of GHG’s emitted. The results indicate that Brazil must throw 300 GT CO2e in the atmosphere between 2011 and 2050, of which only 50 GT will be issued by micro-regions before it’s develop and 250 GT will be released after development. We also determined national mitigation targets and structured reduction schemes where only the developed micro-regions would be required to reduce. The micro-region of São Paulo, the most developed of the country, should be also the one that reduces emissions at most, emitting, in 2050, 90% less than the value observed in 2010. On the other hand, less developed micro-regions will be responsible for less impactful reductions, i.e. Vale do Ipanema will issue in 2050 only 10% below the value observed in 2010. Such methodological assumption would lead the country to issue, in 2050, 56.5% lower than that observed in 2010, so that the cumulative emissions between 2011 and 2050 would reduce by 130 GT CO2e over the initial projection. The fact of associating the magnitude of the reductions to the level of human development of the micro-regions encourages the adoption of policies that favor both variables as the governmental planner will have to deal with both the increasing demand for higher standards of living and with the increasing magnitude of reducing emissions. However, if economic agents do not act proactively in local and national level, the country is closer to the scenario in which emits more than the one in which mitigates emissions. The research highlighted the importance of considering the heterogeneity in determining individual mitigation targets and also ratified the theoretical and methodological feasibility to allocate larger share of contribution for those who historically emitted more. It is understood that the proposals and discussions presented should be considered in mitigation policy formulation in Brazil regardless of the adopted reduction target.

Keywords: greenhouse gases, human development, mitigation, intensive energy activities

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Authors: Akbar Gharbali, Ali Abbasian Ardekani, Afshin Mohammadi

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Introduction: Thyroid nodules have an incidence of 33-68% in the general population. More than 5-15% of these nodules are malignant. Early detection and treatment of thyroid nodules increase the cure rate and provide optimal treatment. Between the medical imaging methods, Ultrasound is the chosen imaging technique for assessment of thyroid nodules. The confirming of the diagnosis usually demands repeated fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). So, current management has morbidity and non-zero mortality. Objective: To explore diagnostic potential of automatic texture analysis (TA) methods in differentiation benign and malignant thyroid nodules by ultrasound imaging in order to help for reliable diagnosis and monitoring of the thyroid nodules in their early stages with no need biopsy. Material and Methods: The thyroid US image database consists of 70 patients (26 benign and 44 malignant) which were reported by Radiologist and proven by the biopsy. Two slices per patient were loaded in Mazda Software version 4.6 for automatic texture analysis. Regions of interests (ROIs) were defined within the abnormal part of the thyroid nodules ultrasound images. Gray levels within an ROI normalized according to three normalization schemes: N1: default or original gray levels, N2: +/- 3 Sigma or dynamic intensity limited to µ+/- 3σ, and N3: present intensity limited to 1% - 99%. Up to 270 multiscale texture features parameters per ROIs per each normalization schemes were computed from well-known statistical methods employed in Mazda software. From the statistical point of view, all calculated texture features parameters are not useful for texture analysis. So, the features based on maximum Fisher coefficient and the minimum probability of classification error and average correlation coefficients (POE+ACC) eliminated to 10 best and most effective features per normalization schemes. We analyze this feature under two standardization states (standard (S) and non-standard (NS)) with Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Non-Linear Discriminant Analysis (NDA). The 1NN classifier was performed to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors. The confusion matrix and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used for the formulation of more reliable criteria of the performance of employed texture analysis methods. Results: The results demonstrated the influence of the normalization schemes and reduction methods on the effectiveness of the obtained features as a descriptor on discrimination power and classification results. The selected subset features under 1%-99% normalization, POE+ACC reduction and NDA texture analysis yielded a high discrimination performance with the area under the ROC curve (Az) of 0.9722, in distinguishing Benign from Malignant Thyroid Nodules which correspond to sensitivity of 94.45%, specificity of 100%, and accuracy of 97.14%. Conclusions: Our results indicate computer-aided diagnosis is a reliable method, and can provide useful information to help radiologists in the detection and classification of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.

Keywords: ultrasound imaging, thyroid nodules, computer aided diagnosis, texture analysis, PCA, LDA, NDA

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Authors: Kumator Taku, Bilkisu Amartey

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This research used Grid indentation technique to investigate the effect of the addition of Coconut Shell Ash (CSA) on the nanomechanical properties of the main phases of the hydrated cement paste. Portland cement was partially replaced with 15% CSA at a water-binder ratio of 0.5 and cubes casted and cured for 28 days after which they were polished to reduce surface roughness to the barest minimum. The result of nanoindentation shows that addition of 15% CSA to cement paste transforms portlandite to C-S-H by the pozzolanic reaction. More so, there is reduced porosity and a reduction in the volume of CH by the addition of the CSA. Even though the addition of 15% CSA does not drastically change the average values of the hardness and elastic modulus of the two phases of the C-S-H, it greatly modifies their relative proportions, leading to the production of more HD C-S-H. Overall, incorporating 15%CSA to cement mortar improves the Nanomechanical properties of the four main phases of the hydrated cement paste.

Keywords: Coconut Shell Ash, Elastic Modulus, Hardness, Nanoindentation, Porosity

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Authors: S. O. Ologe, U. P. Anaidhuno, Duru C. A.

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This research investigated the design and analysis of a rear bumper of an automobile with a hybrid polymer composite of OPEBF/Banana fibre. OPEBF/Banana fibre hybrid polymers composite is of low cost, lightweight, as well as possesses satisfactory mechanical properties. In this research work, hybrid composites have been developed using the hand layup technique based on the percentage combination of OPEBF/Banana fibre at 10:90, 20:80, 30:70, 40:60, 50:50. 60:40, 70:30. 20:80, 90:10, 95:5. The mechanical properties in the context of compressive strength of 65MPa, a flexural strength of 20MPa, and impact strength of 3.25Joule were observed, and the simulation analysis on the induction of 500N load at the factor of safety of 3 was observed to have displayed a good strength suitable for automobile bumper with the advantages of weight reduction.

Keywords: OPEBF, Banana, fibre, hybrid

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Authors: Rina Lee, Chung-Hun Oh, Eunjin Lee, Jeongyun Kim

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The Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment that uses a photosensitizer as a drug to damage and kill cancer cells. After injecting the photosensitizer into the bloodstream, the drug is absorbed by cancer cells selectively. Then the area to be treated is exposed to specific wavelengths of light and the photosensitizer produces a form of oxygen that kills nearby cancer cells. PDT is has an advantage to destroy the tumor with minimized side-effects on normal cells. But, PDT is not a completed method for cancer therapy. Because the mechanism of PDT is quite clear yet and the parameters such as intensity of light and dose of photosensitizer are not optimized for different types of cancers. To optimize these parameters, we suggest a novel microfluidic system to automatically control intensity of light exposure with a personal computer (PC). A polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip is composed with (1) a cell culture channels layer where cancer cells were trapped to be tested with various dosed photofrin (1μg/ml used for the test) as the photosensitizer and (2) a color dye layer as a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce intensity of light which exposes the cell culture channels filled with cancer cells. Eight different intensity of light (10%, 20%, …, 100%) are generated through various concentrations of blue dye filling the ND filter. As a light source, a light emitting diode (LED) with 635nm wavelength was placed above the developed PDMS microfluidic chip. The total time for light exposure was 30 minutes and HeLa and PC3 cell lines of cancer cells were tested. The cell viability of cells was evaluated with a Live/Dead assay kit (L-3224, Invitrogen, USA). The stronger intensity of light exposed, the lower viability of the cell was observed, and vice versa. Therefore, this system was demonstrated through investigating the PDT against cancer cell to optimize the parameters as critical light intensity and dose of photosensitizer. Our results suggest that the system can be used for optimizing the combinational parameters of light intensity and photosensitizer dose against diverse cancer cell types.

Keywords: photodynamic therapy, photofrin, high throughput screening, hela

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Authors: Linh Nguyen Tung, Anh Truong Viet, Nghien Nguyen Ba, Chuong Trinh Trong

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This paper proposes a reconfiguration methodology based on a continuous genetic algorithm (CGA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) for minimizing active power loss and minimizing voltage deviation. Both algorithms are adapted using graph theory to generate feasible individuals, and the modified crossover is used for continuous variable of CGA. To demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed methods, a comparative analysis of CGA with PSO for network reconfiguration, on 33-node and 119-bus radial distribution system is presented. The simulation results have shown that both CGA and PSO can be used in the distribution network reconfiguration and CGA outperformed PSO with significant success rate in finding optimal distribution network configuration.

Keywords: distribution network reconfiguration, particle swarm optimization, continuous genetic algorithm, power loss reduction, voltage deviation

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Authors: Sri Sharath Kulkarni, Pauline Janssen, Alberto Berardi, Bastiaan Dickhoff, Sander van Gessel

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Blending is a common process in the production of pharmaceutical dosage forms where the high shear is used to obtain a homogenous dosage. The shear required can lead to uncontrolled attrition of excipients and affect API’s. This has an impact on the performance of the formulation as this can alter the structure of the mixture. Therefore, it is important to understand the driving mechanisms for attrition. The aim of this study was to increase the fundamental understanding of the attrition behavior of excipients. Attrition behavior of the excipients was evaluated using a high shear blender (Procept Form-8, Zele, Belgium). Twelve pure excipients are tested, with morphologies varying from crystalline (sieved), granulated to spray dried (round to fibrous). Furthermore, materials include lactose, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), di-calcium phosphate (DCP), and mannitol. The rotational speed of the blender was set at 1370 rpm to have the highest shear with a Froude (Fr) number 9. Varying blending times of 2-10 min were used. Subsequently, after blending, the excipients were analyzed for changes in particle size distribution (PSD). This was determined (n = 3) by dry laser diffraction (Helos/KR, Sympatec, Germany). Attrition was found to be a surface phenomenon which occurs in the first minutes of the high shear blending process. An increase of blending time above 2 mins showed no change in particle size distribution. Material chemistry was identified as a key driver for differences in the attrition behavior between different excipients. This is mainly related to the proneness to fragmentation, which is known to be higher for materials such as DCP and mannitol compared to lactose and MCC. Secondly, morphology also was identified as a driver of the degree of attrition. Granular products consisting of irregular surfaces showed the highest reduction in particle size. This is due to the weak solid bonds created between the primary particles during the granulation process. Granular DCP and mannitol show a reduction of 80-90% in x10(µm) compared to a 20-30% drop for granular lactose (monohydrate and anhydrous). Apart from the granular lactose, all the remaining morphologies of lactose (spray dried-round, sieved-tomahawk, milled) show little change in particle size. Similar observations have been made for spray-dried fibrous MCC. All these morphologies have little irregular or sharp surfaces and thereby are less prone to fragmentation. Therefore, products containing brittle materials such as mannitol and DCP are more prone to fragmentation when exposed to shear. Granular products with irregular surfaces lead to an increase in attrition. While spherical, crystalline, or fibrous morphologies show reduced impact during high shear blending. These changes in size will affect the functionality attributes of the formulation, such as flow, API homogeneity, tableting, formation of dust, etc. Hence it is important for formulators to fully understand the excipients to make the right choices.

Keywords: attrition, blending, continuous manufacturing, excipients, lactose, microcrystalline cellulose, shear

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Authors: Nesrine Bouguerra

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Entrepreneurship is seen as a necessary ingredient for stimulating economic growth and employment opportunities in all societies. SMEs account for a wide share of economic activity and development. they are the primary engine of job creation, income growth and poverty reduction. Indeed, government support for entrepreneurship is a strategic option to foster economic growth and females’ input in this regard, is of equal significance not only for employability and productivity but also to narrow the gender gap created by social attitudes and beliefs. This study investigates the impact of socio–cultural factors, among other barriers on female entrepreneurial intention in Algeria. Data will be collected using a mixed method approach (Questionnaires and Interviews) from women intending to become entrepreneurs and those already in the field. This study has conceptual, theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of entrepreneurship which will be unveiled throughout.

Keywords: female entrepreneurship, SMEs, women, socio –cultural values, barriers

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Authors: L. Meksem Amara, M. Ferfar, N. Meksem, M. R. Djebar

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The wheat is the cereal the most consumed in the world. In Algeria, the production of this cereal covers only 20 in 25 % of the needs for the country, the rest being imported. To improve the efficiency and the productivity of the durum wheat, the farmers turn to the use of pesticides: weed-killers, fungicides and insecticides. However this use often entrains losses of products more at least important contaminating the environment and all the food chain. Weed-killers are substances developed to control or destroy plants considered unwanted. That they are natural or produced by the human being (molecule of synthesis), the absorption and the metabolization of weed-killers by plants cause the death of these plants. In this work, we set as goal the evaluation of the effect of a weed-killer sulfonylurea, the CossackOD with various concentrations (0, 2, 4 and 9 µg) on variety of Triticum durum: Cirta. We evaluated the plant growth by measuring the leaves and root length, compared with the witness as well as the content of proline and analyze the level of one of the antioxydative enzymes: catalase, after 14 days of treatment. Sulfonylurea is foliar and root weed-killers inhibiting the acetolactate synthase: a vegetable enzyme essential to the development of the plant. This inhibition causes the ruling of the growth then the death. The obtained results show a diminution of the average length of leaves and roots this can be explained by the fact that the ALS inhibitors are more active in the young and increasing regions of the plant, what inhibits the cellular division and talks a limitation of the foliar and root’s growth. We also recorded a highly significant increase in the proline levels and a stimulation of the catalase activity. As a response to increasing the herbicide concentrations a particular increases in antioxidative mechanisms in wheat cultivar Cirta suggest that the high sensitivity of Cirta to this sulfonylurea herbicide is related to the enhanced production and oxidative damage of reactive oxygen species.

Keywords: sulfonylurea, triticum durum, oxydative stress, toxicity

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Authors: Leticia Leandro Rade, Amanda Silva de Sousa, Suman Das, Wesley Generoso, Mayara Chagas Ávila, Plinio Salmazo Vieira, Antonio Bonomi, Gabriela Persinoti, Mario Tyago Murakami, Thomas Michael Makris, Leticia Maria Zanphorlin

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Alkenes have an economic appeal, especially in the biofuels field, since they are precursors for drop-in biofuels production, which have similar chemical and physical properties to the conventional fossil fuels, with no oxygen in their composition. After the discovery of the first P450 CYP152 OleTJE in 2011, reported with its unique property of decarboxylating fatty acids (FA), by using hydrogen peroxide as a cofactor and producing 1-alkenes as the main product, the scientific and technological interest in this family of enzymes vastly increased. In this context, the present work presents a new decarboxylase (OleTRN) with low similarity with OleTJE (32%), its biochemical characterization, and structure elucidation. As main results, OleTRN presented a high yield of expression and purity, optimum reaction conditions at 35 °C and pH from 6.5 to 8.0, and higher specificity for oleic acid. Besides that, structure-guided mutations were performed and according to the functional characterizations, it was observed that some mutations presented different specificity and chemoselectivity by varying the chain-length of FA substrates from 12 to 20 carbons. These results are extremely interesting from a biotechnological perspective as those characteristics could diversify the applications and contribute to designing better cytochrome P450 decarboxylases. Considering that peroxygenases have the potential activity of decarboxylating and hydroxylating fatty acids and that the elucidation of the intriguing mechanistic involved in the decarboxylation preferential from OleTJE is still a challenge, the elucidation of OleTRN structure and the functional characterizations of OleTRN and its mutants contribute to new information about CYP152. Besides that, the work also contributed to the discovery of a new decarboxylase with a different selectivity profile from OleTJE, which allows a wide range of applications.

Keywords: P450, decarboxylases, alkenes, biofuels

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Authors: Wen-Ting Wang, Wei-An Tsai, Rong-Hong Hsieh

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Long term taking high fat diet can lead to over production of energy, result in accumulation of body fat, dyslipidemia and increased lipid metabolism in the body. Over metabolism of lipid results in excessive reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress, may also cause mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death. Krill oil, fish oil and linseed oil are good sources of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The present study investigated the effect of high fat diet and various oil rich of n-3 fatty acids on mitochondrial function and cell membrane composition. Six-weeks old male Spraque-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 8 groups including: control group, high fat diet group, low dosage and high dosage krill oil group, low dosage and high dosage fish oil group, and low dosage and high dosage linseed oil group. After 12 weeks of experimental period, the low dosage krill oil, fish oil group and linseed oil group with different dosage prevented mitochondrial dysfunction caused by high fat diet. The supplementation of different oils increased plasma, erythrocyte and mitochondrial n-3/n-6 ratio and further increased the proportion of PUFA in erythrocyte and mitochondrial membrane. It also decreased serum triglyceride (TG) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentration. However, there was no significant change in serum total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), biomarker of liver function, glucose, insulin, homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and plasma malonadialdehyde (MDA) concentration when compared with high fat diet group. The supplementation of different sources of n-3 PUFA can maintain mitochondrial function and modulate cell membrane fatty acid composition in high fat diet conditions, and there is a positive relationship between mitochondrial function and mitochondrial membrane composition.

Keywords: fish oil, linseed oil, mitochondria, n-3 PUFA

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Authors: Amitabh Das, Yash Jain, Mohammad Rafiq B. Agrewale, K. C. Vora

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Role of wheel and underbody aerodynamics of vehicle in the formation of drag forces is detrimental to the fuel (energy) consumption during the course of operation at high velocities. This paper deals with the CFD simulation of the flow around the wheels of a bus with different wheel housing geometry and pattern. Based on benchmarking a model of a bus is selected and analysis is performed. The aerodynamic drag coefficient is obtained and turbulence around wheels is observed using ANSYS Fluent CFD simulation for different combinations of wheel-housing at the front wheels, at the rear wheels and both in the front and rear wheels. The drag force is recorded and corresponding influence on energy consumption on an electric bus is evaluated mathematically. A comparison is drawn between energy consumption of bus body without wheel housing and bus body with wheel housing. The result shows a significant reduction in drag coefficient and fuel consumption.

Keywords: wheel-housing, CFD simulation, drag coefficient, energy consumption

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Authors: Jan Busch, Maurice Schmidt, Peter Nyhuis

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The change of conditions for production companies in high-wage countries is characterized by the globalization of competition and the transition of a supplier´s to a buyer´s market. The companies need to face the challenges of reacting flexibly to these changes. Due to the significant and increasing degree of automation, assembly has become the most expensive production process. Regarding the reduction of production cost, assembly consequently offers a considerable rationalizing potential. Therefore, an aerodynamic feeding system has been developed at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA), Leibniz Universitaet Hannover. In former research activities, this system has been enabled to adjust itself using genetic algorithm. The longer the genetic algorithm is executed the better is the feeding quality. In this paper, the relation between the system´s setting time and the feeding quality is observed and a function which enables the user to achieve the minimum of the total feeding time is presented.

Keywords: aerodynamic feeding system, batch size, optimisation, setting time

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Authors: Kritsada Pipitthapan

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WO3/SiO2 catalysts were modified by an ion exchange method with sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide solution. The performance of the modified catalysts was tested in the metathesis of ethylene and trans-2-butene to propylene. During ion exchange, sodium and potassium ions played different roles. Sodium modified catalysts revealed constant trans-2-butene conversion and propylene selectivity when the concentrations of sodium in the solution were varied. In contrast, potassium modified catalysts showed reduction of the conversion and increase of the selectivity. From these results, potassium hydroxide may affect the transformation of tungsten oxide active species, resulting in the decrease in conversion whereas sodium hydroxide did not. Moreover, the modification of catalysts by this method improved the catalyst stability by lowering the amount of coke deposited on the catalyst surface.

Keywords: acid sites, alkali metal, isomerization, metathesis

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Authors: Wilaiwan Sornpoon, Sébastien Bonnet, Savitri Garivait

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Open burning of sugarcane fields is recognized to have a negative impact on soil by degrading its properties, especially soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Better understating the effect of open burning on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for documenting the carbon sequestration capacity of agricultural soils. In this study, experiments to investigate soil carbon stocks under burned and unburned sugarcane plantation systems in Thailand were conducted. The results showed that cultivation fields without open burning during 5 consecutive years enabled to increase the SOC content at a rate of 1.37 Mg ha-1y-1. Also it was found that sugarcane fields burning led to about 15% reduction of the total carbon stock in the 0-30 cm soil layer. The overall increase in SOC under unburned practice is mainly due to the large input of organic material through the use of sugarcane residues.

Keywords: soil organic carbon, soil inorganic carbon, carbon sequestration, open burning, sugarcane

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Authors: Maria Evnevich

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In modern conditions, in most markets, price competition is becoming less effective. On the one hand, there is a gradual decrease in the level of marginality in main traditional sectors of the economy, so further price reduction becomes too ‘expensive’ for the company. On the other hand, the effect of price reduction is leveled, and the reason for this phenomenon is likely to be informational. As a result, it turns out that even if the company reduces prices, making its products more accessible to the buyer, there is a high probability that this will not lead to increase in sales unless additional large-scale advertising and information campaigns are conducted. Similarly, a large-scale information and advertising campaign have a much greater effect itself than price reductions. At the same time, the cost of mass informing is growing every year, especially when using the main information channels. The article presents generalization, systematization and development of theoretical approaches and best practices in the field of customer focus approach to business management and in the field of relationship marketing in the modern digital economy. The research methodology is based on the synthesis and content-analysis of sociological and marketing research and on the study of the systems of working with consumer appeals and loyalty programs in the 50 largest client-oriented companies in Russia. Also, the analysis of internal documentation on customers’ purchases in one of the largest retail companies in Russia allowed to identify if buyers prefer to buy goods for complex purchases in one retail store with the best price image for them. The cost of attracting a new client is now quite high and continues to grow, so it becomes more important to keep him and increase the involvement through marketing tools. A huge role is played by modern digital technologies used both in advertising (e-mailing, SEO, contextual advertising, banner advertising, SMM, etc.) and in service. To implement the above-described client-oriented omnichannel service, it is necessary to identify the client and work with personal data provided when filling in the loyalty program application form. The analysis of loyalty programs of 50 companies identified the following types of cards: discount cards, bonus cards, mixed cards, coalition loyalty cards, bank loyalty programs, aviation loyalty programs, hybrid loyalty cards, situational loyalty cards. The use of loyalty cards allows not only to stimulate the customer to purchase ‘untargeted’, but also to provide individualized offers, as well as to produce more targeted information. The development of digital technologies and modern means of communication has significantly changed not only the sphere of marketing and promotion, but also the economic landscape as a whole. Factors of competitiveness are the digital opportunities of companies in the field of customer orientation: personalization of service, customization of advertising offers, optimization of marketing activity and improvement of logistics.

Keywords: customer focus, digital economy, loyalty program, relationship marketing

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Authors: X. Gumara Rigol, I. Martínez de Apellaniz Anzuola, A. Garcia Serrano, A. Franzi Cros, O. Vidal Calbet, A. Al Maruf

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Traditional federated architectures for data warehousing work well when corporations have existing regional data warehouses and there is a need to aggregate data at a global level. Schibsted Media Group has been maturing from a decentralised organisation into a more globalised one and needed to build both some of the regional data warehouses for some brands at the same time as the global one. In this paper, we present the architectural alternatives studied and why a custom federated approach was the notable recommendation to go further with the implementation. Although the data warehouses are logically federated, the implementation uses a single database system which presented many advantages like: cost reduction and improved data access to global users allowing consumers of the data to have a common data model for detailed analysis across different geographies and a flexible layer for local specific needs in the same place.

Keywords: data integration, data warehousing, federated architecture, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

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Authors: Thachamon Sinsoongsud, Noppawan Piaseu

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This predictive study was aimed to 1) describe self efficacy for risk reduction and preventive behavior for osteoporosis, and 2) examine factors predicting preventive behavior for osteoporosis in nursing students. Through purposive sampling, the sample included 746 nursing students in a public university in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were collected by a self-reported questionnaire on self efficacy and preventive behavior for osteoporosis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis with stepwise method. Results revealed that majority of the students were female (98.3%) with mean age of 19.86 + 1.26 years. The students had self efficacy and preventive behavior for osteoporosis at moderate level. Self efficacy and level of education could together predicted 35.2% variance of preventive behavior for osteoporosis (p< .001). Results suggest approaches for promoting preventive behavior for osteoporosis through enhancing self efficacy among nursing students in a public university in Bangkok, Thailand.

Keywords: osteoporosis, self-efficacy, preventive behavior, nursing students

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Authors: M. Debieche, F. Kaoua

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This paper deals with the use two locals materials abundant in our country, with the view to use a mixture in the waterproofing the landfills. Our interest comes from the necessity to the environment protection, which has recently considerably grown. The site's waterproofing technique, in the landfills sites, is nowadays a very necessary condition to protect the environment, which requires the use of appropriate materials. To this end, an optimal mixture ensuring good performance in terms of hydraulic conductivity, durability and shear strength, mixtures based of sand at different concentrations of sodium bentonite, at compact state are prepared and studied. This study showed that a low permeability of mixture (sand / bentonite) can be achieved 6% of sodium bentonite. This mixture confers also good mechanical behavior, expressed by the recorded, reduction of friction (φ) and the increase of the cohesion (C). Thus, the selected formulation represents an optimal mixture for waterproofing systems. It guarantees an economical and ecological advantages.

Keywords: hydraulic conductivity, sand, sodium bentonite, sustainability

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Authors: El H. Bouziani, H. A. Reguieg Yssaad

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The phytotoxicity of heavy metals can be expressed on roots and visible part of plants and is characterized by molecular and metabolic answers at various levels of organization of the whole plant. The present study was undertaken on two varieties of broad bean Vicia faba (Sidi Aïch and Super Aguadulce). The device was mounted on a substrate prepared by mixing sand, soil and compost, the substrate was artificially contaminated with three doses of lead nitrate [Pb(NO3)2] 0, 500 and 1000 ppm. Our objective is to follow the behavior of plant opposite the stress by evaluating the physiological parameters. The results reveal a reduction in the parameters of the productivity (chlorophyll and proteins production) with an increase in the osmoregulators (soluble sugars and proline).These results show that the production of broad bean is strongly modified by the disturbance of its internal physiology under lead exposure.

Keywords: broad bean, lead, stress, physiological parameters, phytotoxicity

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Authors: Elizabeth D. Ramos

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Peace education supports a holistic appreciation for the value of life and the interdependence of all living systems. Peace education aims to build a culture of peace. One way of building a culture of peace is through environmental stewardship. This study sought to find out the environmental stewardship practices in selected Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines and how these environmental stewardship practices lead to building a culture of peace. The findings revealed that there is still room for improvement in implementing environmental stewardship in schools through academic service learning. In addition, the following manifestations are implemented very satisfactorily in schools: 1) waste reduction, reuse, and recycling, 2) community service, 3) clean and green surroundings. Administrators of schools in the study lead their staff and students in implementing environmental stewardship. It could be concluded that those involved in environmental stewardship display an acceptable culture of peace, particularly, solidarity, respect for persons, and inner peace.

Keywords: academic service learning, environmental stewardship, leadership support, peace, solidarity

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Authors: Nadhir Al-Ansari, Ammar A. Ali, Sven Knutsson

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Iraq is located in the Middle East. It covers an area of 433,970 square kilometres populated by about 32 million inhabitants. Iraq greatly relies in its water resources on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Recently, Iraq is suffering from water shortage problems. This is due to external and internal factors. The former includes global warming and water resources policies of neighbouring countries while the latter includes mismanagement of its water resources. The supply and demand are predicted to be 43 and 66.8 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) respectively in 2015, while in 2025 it will be 17.61 and 77 BCM respectively. In addition, future prediction suggests that Tigris and Euphrates Rivers will be completely dry in 2040. To overcome this problem, prudent water management policies are to be adopted. This includes Strategic Water Management Vision, development of irrigation techniques, reduction of water losses, use of non-conventional water resources and research and development planning.

Keywords: Iraq, Tigris River, Euphrates River, water scarcity, water resources management

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Authors: Patrizia Barroero, Saliha Yagoubi

Abstract:

Mindfulness meditation practices in the context of higher education are becoming more and more common. Some of the reported benefits of mediation interventions and workshops include: improved focus, general well-being, diminished stress, and even increased resilience and grit. A series of workshops free to students, faculty, and staff was offered twice a week over two semesters at Hudson County Community College, New Jersey. The results of an exploratory study based on participants’ subjective reactions to these workshops will be presented. A qualitative approach was used to collect and analyze the data and a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective served as a framework for the research design and data collection and analysis. The data collected includes three recorded videos of semi-structured interviews and several written surveys submitted by volunteer participants.

Keywords: mindfulness meditation practices, stress reduction, resilience, grit, higher education success, qualitative research

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Authors: Joseph Kwame Sarfo-Adu

Abstract:

Social protection programs have been rolled out by successive governments in the quest of bridging the inequality gap in Ghana. Despite notable positive impacts of these programs across the country, there still remains worrying experience of the exclusion of the poor and vulnerable especially in rural Ghana Notwithstanding the rhetoric of participation within the discussion of social protection programs, less attention has been given to the design of these programs. In view of this, the study seeks to address how social protection programs are designed to address the needs of the poor. This study focused on five selected social protection programs in Ghana because they are programs with nationwide coverage. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to analyze our data with the use of the Nvivo 12 version. We found out that there is a strong link between policy design and poverty alleviation. Our findings revealed that a well-designed program can significantly alleviate poverty, a poorly designed program can create more damage.

Keywords: social protection, poverty alleviation, policy design, effective outcome

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Authors: Mst. Nilufa Sultana, Shatirah Akib, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, Mohamed Roseli Zainal Abidin

Abstract:

Most people today are aware that global Climate change, is not just a scientific theory but also a fact with worldwide consequences. Global climate change is due to rapid urbanization, industrialization, high population growth and current vulnerability of the climatic condition. Water is becoming scarce as a result of global climate change. To mitigate the problem arising due to global climate change and its drought effect, harvesting rainwater from green roofs, an environmentally-friendly and versatile technology, is becoming one of the best assessment criteria and gaining attention in Malaysia. This paper addresses the sustainability of green roofs and examines the quality of water harvested from green roofs in comparison to rainwater. The factors that affect the quality of such water, taking into account, for example, roofing materials, climatic conditions, the frequency of rainfall frequency and the first flush. A green roof was installed on the Humid Tropic Centre (HTC) is a place of the study on monitoring program for urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA), Eco-Hydrological Project in Kualalumpur, and the rainwater was harvested and evaluated on the basis of four parameters i.e., conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and temperature. These parameters were found to fall between Class I and Class III of the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) and the Water Quality Index (WQI). Some preliminary treatment such as disinfection and filtration could likely to improve the value of these parameters to class I. This review paper clearly indicates that there is a need for more research to address other microbiological and chemical quality parameters to ensure that the harvested water is suitable for use potable water for domestic purposes. The change in all physical, chemical and microbiological parameters with respect to storage time will be a major focus of future studies in this field.

Keywords: Green roofs, INWQS, MSMA-SME, rainwater harvesting, water treatment, water quality parameter, WQI

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Authors: Lucia Steenkamp, Chris V. D. Westhuyzen, Kgama Mathiba

Abstract:

Ambergris, and more specifically its oxidation product (–)-ambrafuran, is a scarce, valuable, and sought-after perfumery ingredient. The material is used as a fixative agent to stabilise perfumes in formulations by reducing the evaporation rate of volatile substances. Ambergris is a metabolic product of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephatus L.), resulting from intestinal irritation. Chemically, (–)-ambrafuran is produced from the natural product sclareol in eight synthetic steps – in the process using harsh and often toxic chemicals to do so. An overall yield of no more than 76% can be achieved in some routes, but generally, this is lower. A new 'green' route has been developed in our laboratory in which sclareol, extracted from the Clary sage plant, is converted to (–)-ambrafuran in two steps with an overall yield in excess of 80%. The first step uses a microorganism, Hyphozyma roseoniger, to bioconvert sclareol to an intermediate diol using substrate concentrations up to 50g/L. The yield varies between 90 and 67% depending on the substrate concentration used. The purity of the diol product is 95%, and the diol is used without further purification in the next step. The intermediate diol is then cyclodehydrated to the final product (–)-ambrafuran using a zeolite, which is not harmful to the environment and is readily recycled. The yield of the product is 96%, and following a single recrystallization, the purity of the product is > 99.5%. A preliminary LC-MS study of the bioconversion identified several intermediates produced in the fermentation broth under oxygen-restricted conditions. Initially, a short-lived ketone is produced in equilibrium with a more stable pyranol, a key intermediate in the process. The latter is oxidised under Norrish type I cleavage conditions to yield an acetate, which is hydrolysed either chemically or under lipase action to afford the primary fermentation product, an intermediate diol. All the intermediates identified point to the likely CYP450 action as the key enzyme(s) in the mechanism. This invention is an exceptional example of how the power of biocatalysis, combined with a mild, benign chemical step, can be deployed to replace a total chemical synthesis of a specific chiral antipode of a commercially relevant material.

Keywords: ambrafuran, biocatalysis, fragrance, microorganism

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Authors: Prajakta M. Wazat, D. N. Raut

Abstract:

The study consists of a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) beverage company wherein a portion of the supply chain which deals with outbound logistics is taken for improvement in order to reduce its logistics cost by using critical path method (CPM) method. Logistics is a major portion of the supply chain where customers are not willing to pay as it adds cost to product without adding value. In this study, it is necessary to ensure that products are delivered to clients at the right time while preserving high-quality standards from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. CPM is a logical sequencing method where in the most efficient route is achieved by arranging the series of events. CPM enables to identify a critical factor in order to minimize the delays and interruption by providing a feasible solution.

Keywords: FMCG, supply chain, outbound logistics, vehicle turnaround time, critical path method, cost reduction

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Authors: Saeed Rahjoo, Babak H. Mamaqani

Abstract:

Concentric bracing systems have been in practice for many years because of their effectiveness in reducing seismic response. Depending on concept, seismic design codes provide various response modification factors (R), which itself consists of different terms, for different types of lateral load bearing systems but configuration of these systems are often ignored in the proposed values. This study aims at considering the effect of different x-bracing diagonal configuration on values of ductility dependent term in R computation. 51 models were created and nonlinear push over analysis has been performed. The main variables of this study were the suitable location of X–bracing diagonal configurations, which establishes better nonlinear behavior in concentric braced steel frames. Results show that some x-bracing diagonal configurations improve the seismic performance of CBF significantly and explicit consideration of lateral load bearing systems seems necessary.

Keywords: bracing configuration, concentrically braced frame (CBF), push over analyses, response reduction factor

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Authors: Anthony Barker, Roland Jiang

Abstract:

Dupuytren’s contractures are a debilitating condition affecting the palmar fascia of the hand reducing its function. This case series looks at the minimally-invasive technique of Xiaflex injections and the outcome in a public health setting. 15 patients undertook collagenase injection (Xiaflex, C. histolyticum) injection over the period from September 2015 to May 2017 at Fairfield Hospital, NSW. Their reported outcome post injection and in follow-up was recorded as well as their satisfaction and likelihood to request the procedure in the future. Other treatment modalities include percutaneous needle aponeurotomy, limited palmar fasciotomy, and palmar fasciectomy. A literature review of cost-effectiveness was performed to compare Xiaflex suitability for waitlist reduction in a public setting given average waiting times in the public setting extend past 365 days.

Keywords: Dupuytrens Disease, xiaflex, collagenase, plastic surgery

Procedia PDF Downloads 186