Search results for: consumer product

Authors: Lin Chih-Ken

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This paper explores the A Li Shan hotel of Taiwan during the Japanese occupation period, after over a hundred years of time, it has been handed over to the hotel managing enterprise to retain the historic building and the culture. Applying the innovative marketing strategies, coordinate the local government traveling policy then combined local tea agriculture and forestry specialty integrated marketing, to create the special hotel located in the Alishan National Scenic Area with the characteristics of landscape, innovative marketing and history, to attract domestic tourism and visitors around the world. This study interview the hotel owner, managers, employees and guests, in addition to collected message feedback from reservation website, to apply Ambidexterity Marketing Theory and Resource Base Theory to analyze the main impact factors. The conclusion showed that the integration of several key factors and make good use of resource strength generate heterogeneous product characteristics to attracting wider range of visitors.

Keywords: heritage tourism, historic hotel, marketing ambidexterity, resource base theory

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Authors: Olia Kanevskaia

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Standardization has been in the limelight of numerous academic studies. Typically described as ‘any set of technical specifications that either provides or is intended to provide a common design for a product or process’, standards do not only set quality benchmarks for products and services, but also spur competition and innovation, resulting in advantages for manufacturers and consumers. Their contribution to globalization and technology advancement is especially crucial in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and telecommunications sector, which is also characterized by a weaker state-regulation and expert-based rule-making. Most of the standards developed in that area are interoperability standards, which allow technological devices to establish ‘invisible communications’ and to ensure their compatibility and proper functioning. This type of standard supports a large share of our daily activities, ranging from traffic coordination by traffic lights to the connection to Wi-Fi networks, transmission of data via Bluetooth or USB and building the network architecture for the Internet of Things (IoT). A large share of ICT standards is developed in the specialized voluntary platforms, commonly referred to as Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), which gather experts from various industry sectors, private enterprises, governmental agencies and academia. The institutional architecture of these bodies can vary from semi-public bodies, such as European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), to industry-driven consortia, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The past decades witnessed a significant shift of standard setting to those institutions: while operating independently from the states regulation, they offer a rather informal setting, which enables fast-paced standardization and places technical supremacy and flexibility of standards above other considerations. Although technical norms and specifications developed by such nongovernmental platforms are not binding, they appear to create significant regulatory impact. In the United States (US), private voluntary standards can be used by regulators to achieve their policy objectives; in the European Union (EU), compliance with harmonized standards developed by voluntary European Standards Organizations (ESOs) can grant a product a free-movement pass. Moreover, standards can de facto manage the functioning of the market when other regulative alternatives are not available. Hence, by establishing (potentially) mandatory norms, SDOs assume regulatory functions commonly exercised by States and shape their own legal order. The purpose of this paper is threefold: First, it attempts to shed some light on SDOs’ institutional architecture, focusing on private, industry-driven platforms and comparing their regulatory frameworks with those of formal organizations. Drawing upon the relevant scholarship, the paper then discusses the extent to which the formulation of technological standards within SDOs constitutes a private legal order, operating in the shadow of governmental regulation. Ultimately, this contribution seeks to advise whether a state-intervention in industry-driven standard setting is desirable, and whether the increasing regulatory importance of SDOs should be addressed in legislation on standardization.

Keywords: private order, standardization, standard-setting organizations, transnational law

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Authors: Ratna Dewi Kusumaningtyas, Prima Astuti Handayani, Arief Budiman

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Reactive Distillation (RD) is a multifunctional reactor which integrates chemical reaction with in situ separation to shift the equilibrium towards the product formation. Thus, it is suitable for equilibrium limited reaction such as esterification and transesterification to enhance the reaction conversion. In this work, the application of RD for high FFA oil esterification-transterification for biodiesel production using sulphuric acid catalyst has been studied. Crude Jatropha Oil with FFA content of 30.57% was utilized as the feedstock. Effects of the catalyst concentration and molar ratio of the alcohol to oils were also investigated. It was revealed that best result was obtained with sulphuric acid catalyst (reaction conversion of 94.71% and FFA content of 1.62%) at 60C, molar ratio of methanol to FFA of 30:1, and catalyst loading of 3%. After undergoing esterification reaction, jatropha oil was then transesterified to produce biodiesel. Transesterification reaction was performed in the presence of NaOH catalyst in RD column at 60C, molar ratio of methanol to oil of 6:1, and catalyst concentration of 1%. It demonstrated that biodiesel produced in this work agreed with the Indonesian National and ASTM standard of fuel.

Keywords: reactive distillation, biodiesel, esterification, transesterification

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Authors: S. S. L. Andrade, E. A. Souza, L. C. L. Santos, C. Moraes, A. K. C. L. Lobato

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Biodiesel production using membrane reactor has become increasingly studied, because this process minimizes some of the main problems encountered in the biodiesel purification. The membrane reactor tries to minimize post-treatment steps, resulting in cost savings and enabling the competitiveness of biodiesel produced by homogeneous alkaline catalysis. This is due to the reaction and product separation may occur simultaneously. In order to evaluate the production of biodiesel from soybean oils using a tubular membrane reactor, a factorial experimental design was conducted (2³) to evaluate the influence of following variables: temperature (45 to 60 °C), catalyst concentration (0.5 to 1% by weight) and molar ratio of oil/methanol (1/6 to 1/9). In addition, the parametric sensitivity was evaluated by the analysis of variance and model through the response surface. The results showed a tendency of influence of the variables in the reaction conversion. The significance effect was higher for the catalyst concentration followed by the molar ratio of oil/methanol and finally the temperature. The best result was obtained under the conditions of 1% catalyst (KOH), molar ratio oil/methanol of 1/9 and temperature of 60 °C, resulting in an ester content of 99.07%.

Keywords: biodiesel production, factorial design, membrane reactor, soybean oil

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Authors: Foozhan Gharehkhani

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Global concerns regarding food safety and quality, especially in the wake of industrial development and increasing environmental pollution, are expanding rapidly. One of the primary concerns is the contamination of meat products such as sausages, mortadella, and hamburgers with heavy metals, which may be transferred to these products from various sources, including environmental pollution, metallic equipment, and protective coatings. Protective coatings, such as metal cans and packaging layers, especially under conditions such as corrosion, high temperatures, or long-term storage, can act as primary sources for the transfer of heavy metals to these products. Metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and tin (Sn) are among the contaminants that can enter food products from these sources. This study was conducted to assess the level of heavy metal contamination in 200 samples of sausages, mortadella, and hamburgers produced by various companies. The samples were randomly collected from local markets and production sites and were then processed using an acid digestion method combined with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The concentration of heavy metals was measured using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The results of this study showed that the average concentrations of lead, cadmium, and tin were 0.08, 0.03, and 110 mg/kg, respectively, and in 15% of the samples, the levels of lead and cadmium exceeded the maximum allowable limits set by the WHO (0.1 mg/kg for lead and 0.05 mg/kg for cadmium). The data were analyzed and compared using ANOVA and independent T-tests in SPSS software. Additionally, to assess the health risk for consumers, the Hazard Quotient (HQ) was calculated, which was found to be above the acceptable limit (HQ > 1) in some samples, indicating potential risks to consumer health. These findings emphasize the need for more rigorous monitoring of production processes, packaging, and raw material selection to prevent contamination with heavy metals in food products.

Keywords: heavy metal contamination, health risk assessment, sources of contamination, various Iranian companies

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Authors: Suresh Palla, Kalpna Sharma, Gaurav Bhatnagar, S. K. Chaturvedi, B. N. Mohapatra

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Determining the content of free lime is especially important to judge reactivity of the raw materials and clinker quality. The free lime limit isn’t the same for all cements; it depends on several factors, especially the temperature reached during the cooking and the grain size distribution in cement after grinding. Estimation of free lime by conventional method is influenced by the presence of portlandite and misleads the actual free lime content in the clinker for quality check up conditions. To ensure the product quality according to the standard specifications in terms of within the quality limits or not, a reliable, precise, and very reproducible method to quantify the relative phase abundances in the Portland Cement clinker and Portland Cements is to use X-ray diffraction (XRD) in combination with the Rietveld method. In the present study, a methodology was proposed using XRD to validate the obtained results of free lime by conventional method. The XRD and TG/DTA results confirm the presence of portlandite in the clinker to take the decision on the obtained free lime results through conventional method.

Keywords: free lime, quantitative phase analysis, conventional method, x ray diffraction

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Authors: Liang Fang

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The development of the large suburban residential area is a product of the leap development during the rapid urbanization process in China. On the process of the large-scale development of large settlements in a short time, various problems arose in the suburban residential area, such as spatial layout being disorder, basic facilities construction lagging behind and being unreasonable, residential neighborhood space and street culture missing. Aimed at the contradictions mentioned above, exploring a way is imminent to construct appropriate residential area. We select a typical Liangzhu Culture Village in Hangzhou and put forward functional composite residential area of fine development strategy, along which business promotes and assists community autonomy and then a good community culture is constructed. All in all, the development and construction mode, contributing to an all-people and full-time participation, is beneficial to create a harmonious community of sustainable development, which gives good implication to a single enterprise development city real estate projects.

Keywords: community autonomy, development and construction mode, functional composite, suburban large residential area

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Authors: Nermine A. Harraz, Aliaa Abouali

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The retail stores put up for sale multiple items while the spaces in the backroom and display areas constitute a scarce resource. Availability, volume, and location of the product displayed in the showroom influence the customer’s demand. Managing these operations individually will result in sub-optimal overall retail store’s profit; therefore, a non-linear integer programming model (NLIP) is developed to determine the inventory replenishment and shelf space allocation decisions that together maximize the retailer’s profit under shelf space and backroom storage constraints taking into consideration that the demand rate is positively dependent on the amount and location of items displayed in the showroom. The developed model is solved using LINGO® software. The NLIP model is implemented in a real world case study in a large retail outlet providing a large variety of products. The proposed model is validated and shows logical results when using the experimental data collected from the market.

Keywords: retailing management, inventory replenishment, shelf space allocation, showroom, backroom

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Authors: Shaibu Ali, Sherif Heiman Shaban, Musah Ismaila, Imoro Alhassan, Yusif Ali

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Purpose: Islamic banking and finance is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the global finance industry. Starting with the Dubai Islamic Bank in 1975, the number of Islamic financial institutions worldwide has shot up astronomically, to over three hundred, with operations in seventy-five countries and assets in excess of US$400 billion. The purpose of this study is to explore the prospects and challenges of Islamic banking introduction in a non-Islamic country like Ghana. Design/Methodology: Data for the study was collected via an expert opinion of three Islamic scholars on Islamic banking from Ghana. Findings: Findings from this study indicates some of the benefits of Islamic banking includes connecting financial markets and economic activity, promoting the principle of financial justice, greater stability, avoiding economic bubbles (and bursts) and reducing the impact of harmful products and practices. The study also identified lack of experts in various fields of Islamic banking, product innovation, moral hazard, and need for experienced staff in Islamic banking as some of the challenges to Islamic banking system’s introduction. Contribution: The study contributes to literature on Islamic banking from a non-Islamic country like Ghana.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Shari’ah, Riba, conventional banking

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Authors: T. Hansen

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Many consumers are uncertain of what financial borrowing behavior may serve their interests in the best way. This is important since consumers’ risky financial decisions may not only negatively affect their short-term liquidity but may haunt them for years after they are made. Obviously, this is especially critical for young adults who often carry large amounts of student loans or credit card debt, which in turn may hinder their future ability to obtain financial healthiness. Even though factors such as financial knowledge, attitudes towards risk, gender, and motivations of borrowing, among others, are known to influence consumer borrowing behavior, no existing model comprehensibly describes the mechanisms behind young adults’ risky borrowing behavior. This is unfortunate since a better understanding of the relationships between such factors and young adults’ risky borrowing behavior may be of value to financial service providers and financial authorities aiming to improve young adults’ borrowing behavior. This research extends prior research by developing a conceptual framework for the purpose of understanding young adults’ risky borrowing behavior. The study is based on two survey samples comprising 488 young adults aged 18-25 who have not obtained a risky loan (sample 1) and 214 young adults aged 18-25 who already have obtained a risky loan (sample 2), respectively. The results suggest several psychological, sociological, and behavioral factors that may influence young adults’ intentional risky borrowing behavior, which in turn is shown to affect actualized risky borrowing behavior. We also found that the relationship between intentional risky borrowing behavior and actualized risky borrowing behavior is negatively moderated by perceived risk – but not by perceived complexity. In particular, the results of this study indicate that public policy makers, banks and financial educators should seek to eliminate less desirable social norms on how to behave financially. In addition, they should seek to enhance young adults’ risky borrowing perceived risk, thereby preventing that intentional risky borrowing behavior translates into actualized risky behavior.

Keywords: financial services, risky borrowing behavior, young adults, financial knowledge, social norms, perceived risk, financial trust, public financial policy

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Authors: Yichen Lin, Hsiao-Han Chen, Chi-Chen Jan

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Since 1990, the research area of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) has been presented from a different perspective. With advances in information technology and the rise of consumer consciousness, businesses are in a competitive environment. There is an urgent need to adopt more profitable and effective integrated marketing strategies to increase core competitiveness. The goal of the company's sustainable management is to increase consumers' willingness to purchase and to maximize profits. This research uses six aspects of IMC, which includes awareness integration, unified image, database integration, customer-based integration, stakeholders-based integration, and evaluation integration to examine the role of marketing strategies in the strengths and weaknesses of the six components of integrated marketing communications, their effectiveness, the most important components and the most important components that need improvement. At the same time, social media such as FaceBook, Instagram, Youtube, Line, or even TikTok have become marketing tools which firms adopt them more and more frequently in the marketing strategy. In the end of 2019, the outbreak of COVID-19 did really affect the global industries. Lockdown policies also accelerated closure of brick-mentor stores worldwide. Online purchases rose dramatically. Hence, the effectiveness of online marketing will be essential to maintain the business. This study uses multiple-case studies to extend the effects of social media and IMC. Moreover, the study would also explore the differences of social media and IMC during COVID-19. Through literature review and multiple-case studies, it is found that using social media combined with IMC did really help companies expand their business and make good connections with stakeholders. One of previous studies also used system theory to explore the interrelationship among Integrated Marketing Communication, collaborative marketing, and global brand building. Even during pandemic, firms could still maintain the operation and connect with their customers more tightly.

Keywords: integration marketing communications, multiple-case studies, social media, system theory

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Authors: V. Sathya Narayanan, P. Sidharth, V. R. Sanal Kumar

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The success of any retail business is predisposed by its swift response and its knack in understanding the constraints and the requirements of customers. In this paper a conceptual design model of an automated customer-friendly supermarket has been proposed. In this model a 10-sided, space benefited, regular polygon shaped gravity shelves have been designed for goods storage and effective customer-specific algorithms have been built-in for quick automatic delivery of the randomly listed goods. The algorithm is developed with two main objectives, viz., delivery time and priority. For meeting these objectives the randomly listed items are reorganized according to the critical-path of the robotic arm specific to the identified shop and its layout and the items are categorized according to the demand, shape, size, similarity and nature of the product for an efficient pick-up, packing and delivery process. We conjectured that the proposed automated supermarket model reduces business operating costs with much customer satisfaction warranting a win-win situation.

Keywords: automated supermarket, electronic shopping, polygon-shaped rack, shortest path algorithm for shopping

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Authors: Maja S. Todorovic

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This paper aims to promote entrepreneurial storytelling by exploring new ideas and learning practices. An entrepreneur needs to be a ‘storyteller’, an ‘epic hero’, capable of offering an emotional connection to his audience, a character with whom audience can identify with, rejoice, suffer, celebrate, fail – simply experience everything. In other words, a successful entrepreneur is giving tangible experience through his business story and that’s what makes his story and business alive. Use of mythology, eulogy, metaphor, epic, fairytales and cartoons, permeated with humor and sudden twists is a winning recipe for a business story that captures attention. In the business case of the Greenesignit! Card game, (educational and brainstorming tool for development of sustainable products) we will demonstrate how an entrepreneur successfully used visual narrative to communicate his story and at the same time as a vehicle to transmute his message in learning tool and product development.

Keywords: animating narrative, entrepreneur, Greeneisgnit! card game, visual storytelling

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Authors: John Dorrell, Matthew Ambrosia, Abilash

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This paper employs econometric analysis to quantify the potential profit wind farms can receive by allocating excess wind energy to power bitcoin mining machines. Cryptocurrency mining consumes a substantial amount of electricity worldwide, and wind energy produces a significant amount of energy that is lost because of the intermittent nature of the resource. Supply does not always match consumer demand. By combining the weaknesses of these two technologies, we can improve efficiency and a sustainable path to mine cryptocurrencies. This paper uses historical wind energy from the ERCOT network in Texas and cryptocurrency data from 2000-2021, to create 4-year return on investment projections. Our research model incorporates the price of bitcoin, the price of the miner, the hash rate of the miner relative to the network hash rate, the block reward, the bitcoin transaction fees awarded to the miners, the mining pool fees, the cost of the electricity and the percentage of time the miner will be running to demonstrate that wind farms generate enough excess energy to mine bitcoin profitably. Excess wind energy can be used as a financial battery, which can utilize wasted electricity by changing it into economic energy. The findings of our research determine that wind energy producers can earn profit while not taking away much if any, electricity from the grid. According to our results, Bitcoin mining could give as much as 1347% and 805% return on investment with the starting dates of November 1, 2021, and November 1, 2022, respectively, using wind farm curtailment. This paper is helpful to policymakers and investors in determining efficient and sustainable ways to power our economic future. This paper proposes a practical solution for the problem of crypto mining energy consumption and creates a more sustainable energy future for Bitcoin.

Keywords: bitcoin, mining, economics, energy

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Authors: Jeh-Nan Pan, Chung-I Li

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Measurement system analysis (MSA) plays an important role in helping organizations to improve their product quality. Generally speaking, the gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GRR) study is performed according to the MSA handbook stated in QS9000 standards. Usually, GRR study for assessing the adequacy of gauge variation needs to be conducted prior to the process capability analysis. Traditional MSA only considers a single quality characteristic. With the advent of modern technology, industrial products have become very sophisticated with more than one quality characteristic. Thus, it becomes necessary to perform multivariate GRR analysis for a measurement system when collecting data with multiple responses. In this paper, we take the correlation coefficients among tolerances into account to revise the multivariate precision-to-tolerance (P/T) ratio as proposed by Majeske (2008). We then compare the performance of our revised P/T ratio with that of the existing ratios. The simulation results show that our revised P/T ratio outperforms others in terms of robustness and proximity to the actual value. Moreover, the optimal allocation of several parameters such as the number of quality characteristics (v), sample size of parts (p), number of operators (o) and replicate measurements (r) is discussed using the confidence interval of the revised P/T ratio. Finally, a standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) to perform the GRR study for multivariate measurement systems is proposed based on the research results. Hopefully, it can be served as a useful reference for quality practitioners when conducting such study in industries. Measurement system analysis (MSA) plays an important role in helping organizations to improve their product quality. Generally speaking, the gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GRR) study is performed according to the MSA handbook stated in QS9000 standards. Usually, GRR study for assessing the adequacy of gauge variation needs to be conducted prior to the process capability analysis. Traditional MSA only considers a single quality characteristic. With the advent of modern technology, industrial products have become very sophisticated with more than one quality characteristic. Thus, it becomes necessary to perform multivariate GRR analysis for a measurement system when collecting data with multiple responses. In this paper, we take the correlation coefficients among tolerances into account to revise the multivariate precision-to-tolerance (P/T) ratio as proposed by Majeske (2008). We then compare the performance of our revised P/T ratio with that of the existing ratios. The simulation results show that our revised P/T ratio outperforms others in terms of robustness and proximity to the actual value. Moreover, the optimal allocation of several parameters such as the number of quality characteristics (v), sample size of parts (p), number of operators (o) and replicate measurements (r) is discussed using the confidence interval of the revised P/T ratio. Finally, a standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) to perform the GRR study for multivariate measurement systems is proposed based on the research results. Hopefully, it can be served as a useful reference for quality practitioners when conducting such study in industries.

Keywords: gauge repeatability and reproducibility, multivariate measurement system analysis, precision-to-tolerance ratio, Gauge repeatability

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Authors: Vignesh Pechiappan Ayyathurai, Mukesh Limbachiya, Hsein Kew

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There is a growing interest in using recycled, secondary use and industrial by product materials in high value commercial applications. Potential high volume applications include use of fine aggregate in flowable fill or as a component in manufactured aggregates. However, there is much scientific, as well as applied research needed in this area due to lack to availability of data on the mechanical and environmental properties of elements or products produced using fine recycled aggregates. The principle objectives of this research are to synthesize existing data on the beneficial reuse of fine recycled materials and to develop extensive testing programme for assessing and establishing engineering and long term durability properties of concrete and other construction products produced using such material for use in practical application widely. This paper is a research proposal for PhD admission. The proposed research aims to supply the necessary technical, as well as practical information on fine recycled aggregate concrete to the construction industry for promoting its wider use within the construction industry. Furthermore, to disseminate research outcomes to the local authorities for consideration of use of fine recycled aggregate concrete in various applications.

Keywords: FRA, fine aggregate, recycling, concrete

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Authors: Arif Ferdiyanto, Fajar Hamida, Arif Hidayat

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Oil palm empty fruit bunches, derived biomass available in Indonesia, is one of the potential biomass to produce biofuels like bio-oil due to its abundant supply and favorable physicochemical characteristics. An interesting alternative of utilising the oil palm empty fruit bunches is in the production of bio-oil by pyrolysis. Pyrolysis of oil palm empty fruit bunches to bio-oil is being considered for national energy security and environmental advantages. The aim of this study was to produce bio-oil by pyrolysis of oil palm empty fruit bunches at various temperature and observe its detailed chemical composition. The biomass was submitted to a pyrolysis in a batch reactor. Experiments were carried out at a temperature range of 450–600°C and heating rate range of 10-20°C/min. The yield of bio-oil was found to be maximum at the temperature of 600°C. The bio-oils detailed compositions were investigated using FTIR and GC-MS. The bio-char produced as a co-product can be a potential soil amendment with multiple benefits including soil fertility and for solid fuel applications that also contributes to the preservation of the environment. The present investigation suggests the suitability of oil palm empty fruit bunches as a potential feedstock for exploitation of energy and biomaterials through pyrolysis process.

Keywords: bio-oil, oil palm empty fruit bunches, pyrolysis, renewable energy

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Authors: Jul Endawati

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The composite element of 20 mm in thickness were manufactured using high volume fly ash, silica fume as alternative hydraulic binders and Portland cement Type II. Pine wood shavel as by product of local small wood working industries were used as the composite filler. The elements were given in situ wet and dry treatment for 9 months. Visually there is no fiber degradation as a result of the interaction of the environment. The assessment were done to the elements bending strength and dimensional properties. Increase in MoR after 180 days of exposure shown that mechanically this degradation is not seen yet. The increment of MoR (213%) compare to that of 28 days might be affected by the formation of calcium hydroxide (CH) or ettringite in the transition zone. The use of pozzolan showed also a delay or minimize degradation of composites while improving the pore structure, and minimize the mineralization of the fiber bond with the cement matrix. The water absorption is 4,22% at 180 days, 7,94% at 120 days and 12,38% at 28 days, in line with the 68% decrease in Thickness Swelling (TS). This unoccured degradation could also be affected by the presence of silica fume in the binder matrix. After 270 days of exposure under tropical condition, the flexural strength started to decrease.

Keywords: durability, fly ash, natural fibre, silica fume

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Authors: Simon Peter Wafula, Ziporah Nakabazzi Kitooke

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Graphene is a carbon allotrope made of a two-dimensional shape. This material has got a number of materials researchers’ interest due to its properties that are special compared to ordinary material. Graphene is thought to enhance a number of material properties in the manufacturing, energy, and construction industries. Many studies consider graphene to be a wonder material, just like plastic in the 21st century. This shows how much should be invested in graphene research. This review highlights the status of graphene extracted from various biomass sources together with their appropriate extraction techniques, including the pretreatment methods for a better product. The functional groups and structure of graphene extracted using several common methods of synthesis are in this paper as well. The review explores methods like chemical vapor deposition (CVD), hydrothermal, chemical exfoliation method, liquid exfoliation, and Hummers. Comparative analysis of the various extraction techniques gives an insight into each of their advantages, challenges, and potential scalability. The review also highlights the pretreatment process for biomass before carbonation for better quality of bio-graphene. The various graphene modes, as well as their applications, are in this study. Recommendations for future research for improving the efficiency and sustainability of bio-graphene are highlighted.

Keywords: exfoliation, nanomaterials, biochar, large-scale, two-dimension

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Authors: Akanle Florence Foluso, Ola Tolulope Monisola, Oludare Abosede Abiola

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The study investigated the attitude of married women toward the prevention of HIV in heterosexual relationships. A population-based survey was conducted using a total number of 1,400 women aged 24-45 years. The women were randomly selected from the general population. Mohamed Talabi and William's attitudinal scale was used to measure the attitude of women towards HIV and its prevention. The questionnaire had a reliability coefficient of 0.85. Frequency contents percentage woe used to describe the data while Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Chi-Square and test were used to test all the hypotheses raised. All hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that the majority of women unknowingly practice risky behaviors, which could promote this transmission. They neither insist on a condom to have sex even when their husband has many other sexual partners apart from them. Others felt they could not be assertive in telling their husband to seek medical HIV testing or get their sex partner to seek medical treatment. Many have never seen a female condom or avoid sex to prevent HIV. Many believe it would be embarrassing to get an HIV antibody test. Many women will not avoid sex if there is a slight chance that their partner might have this and would not be able to insist that a condom be used if they were to have sex. It was recommended that there is a need to understand the HIV risk from a woman’s perspective.

Keywords: women, HIV, men, attitude of women, sexual partner

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Authors: Josef Wolfartsberger, Michael Heiml, Georg Schwarz, Sabrina Egger

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Growing individualization and higher numbers of variants in industrial assembly products raise the complexity of manufacturing processes. Technical assistance systems considering both procedural and human factors allow for an increase in product quality and a decrease in required learning times by supporting workers with precise working instructions. Due to varying needs of workers, the presentation of working instructions leads to several challenges. This paper presents an approach for a multi-modal visualization application to support assembly work of complex parts. Our approach is integrated within an interconnected assistance system network and supports the presentation of cloud-streamed textual instructions, images, videos, 3D animations and audio files along with multi-modal user interaction, customizable UI, multi-platform support (e.g. tablet-PC, TV screen, smartphone or Augmented Reality devices), automated text translation and speech synthesis. The worker benefits from more accessible and up-to-date instructions presented in an easy-to-read way.

Keywords: assembly, assistive technologies, augmented reality, manufacturing, visualization

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Authors: Camelia Vizireanu, Daniela Istrati, Alina Georgiana Profir, Rodica Mihaela Dinica

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Globally, there is a great interest in promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables to improve health. Due to the content of essential compounds such as antioxidants, important amounts of fruits and vegetables should be included in the daily diet. Juices are good sources of vitamins and can also help increase overall fruit and vegetable consumption. Starting from this trend (introduction into the daily diet of vegetables and fruits) as well as the desire to diversify the range of functional products for both adults and children, a fermented juice was made using probiotic microorganisms based on root vegetables, with potential beneficial effects in the diet of children, vegetarians and people with lactose intolerance. The three vegetables selected for this study, red beet, carrot, and celery bring a significant contribution to functional compounds such as carotenoids, flavonoids, betalain, vitamin B and C, minerals and fiber. By fermentation, the functional value of the vegetable juice increases due to the improved stability of these compounds. The combination of probiotic microorganisms and vegetable fibers resulted in a nutrient-rich synbiotic product. The stability of the nutritional and sensory qualities of the obtained synbiotic product has been tested throughout its shelf life. The evaluation of the physico-chemical changes of the synbiotic drink during storage confirmed that: (i) vegetable juice enriched with honey and vegetable pulp is an important source of nutritional compounds, especially carbohydrates and fiber; (ii) microwave treatment used to inhibit pathogenic microflora did not significantly affect nutritional compounds in vegetable juice, vitamin C concentration remained at baseline and beta-carotene concentration increased due to increased bioavailability; (iii) fermentation has improved the nutritional quality of vegetable juice by increasing the content of B vitamins, polyphenols and flavonoids and has a good antioxidant capacity throughout the shelf life; (iv) the FTIR and Raman spectra have highlighted the results obtained using physicochemical methods. Based on the analysis of IR absorption frequencies, the most striking bands belong to the frequencies 3330 cm⁻¹, 1636 cm⁻¹ and 1050 cm⁻¹, specific for groups of compounds such as polyphenols, carbohydrates, fatty acids, and proteins. Statistical data processing revealed a good correlation between the content of flavonoids, betalain, β-carotene, ascorbic acid and polyphenols, the fermented juice having a stable antioxidant activity. Also, principal components analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between the evolution of the concentration of B vitamins and antioxidant activity. Acknowledgment: This study has been founded by the Francophone University Agency, Project Réseau régional dans le domaine de la santé, la nutrition et la sécurité alimentaire (SaIN), No. at Dunarea de Jos University of Galati 21899/ 06.09.2017 and by the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development of the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports trough the Financial Agreement POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132397 ExcelDOC.

Keywords: bioactive compounds, fermentation, synbiotic drink from vegetables, stability during storage

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Authors: Shilpi Tripathi

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India has adopted the policy of economic reforms (Globalization, Liberalization, and Privatization) in 1991 which has reduced the trade barriers and investment restrictions and further increased the economy’s international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. The paper empirically studies the relationship between India’s international trades, GDP, FDI and environment during 1978-2012. The first part of the paper focuses on the background and trends of FDI, GDP, trade, and environment (CO2). The second part focuses on the literature regarding the relationship among all the variables. The last part of paper, we examine the results of empirical analysis like co integration and Granger causality between foreign trade, FDI inflows, GDP and CO2 since 1978. The findings of the paper revealed that there is only one uni- directional causality exists between GDP and trade. The direction of causality reveals that international trade is one of the major contributors to the economic growth (GDP). While, there is no causality found between GDP and FDI, FDI, and CO2 and International trade and CO2. The paper concludes with the policy recommendations that will ensure environmental friendly trade, investment and growth in India for future.

Keywords: international trade, foreign direct investment, GDP, CO2, co-integration, granger causality test

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Authors: Anita Singh, Richa Naula, Manoj Raghav

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India is a leading producer and consumer of fenugreek for its culinary uses and medicinal application. In India, most of the people are of vegetarian class. In such a situation, a leafy vegetable, such as fenugreek is of chief concern due to its high nutritional property, medicinal values and industrial uses. One of the most important factors restricting their large scale production and development of superior varieties is that very scanty knowledge about their genetic diversity, inter and intraspecific variability and genetic relationship among the species. Improvement of the crop depends upon the magnitude of genetic variability for economic characters. Therefore, the present research work was carried out to analyse the variability parameters for growth and yield character in twenty-eight fenugreek genotypes along with two standard checks Pant Ragini and Pusa Early Bunching. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replication during rabi season 2015-2016 at Pantnagar Centre for Plant Genetic Resources, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among all the genotypes for all traits. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient variation were observed for characters, namely the number of primary branches per plant, number of leaves at 30, 45 and 60 DAS, green leaf yield per plant, green leaf yield q/ha . The genetic advance recorded highest in green leaf yield q/ha (33.93) followed by green leaf yield per plant (21.20g). Highest percent of heritability were shown by 1000 seed weight (99.12%) followed by the number of primary branches per plant (97.18%). Green leaf yield q/ha showed high heritability and high genetic advance. These superior genotypes can be further used in crop improvement programs of fenugreek.

Keywords: genetic advance, genotypic coefficient variation, heritability, phenotypic coefficient variation

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Authors: Florence Malongane, Lyndy J. McGaw, Legesse K. Debusho, Fhatuwani N. Mudau

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Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis (Burm.f.) R.Dahlgren), honeybush (Cyclopia Vent. species), bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC.) and special tea (Monsonia burkeana) are traditionally consumed herbal teas in South Africa. The volatile and sensory qualities of rooibos and honeybush tea have previously been described although there is a dearth of information regarding the sensory attributes and volatile compounds analysis of special tea and bush tea. The objective of this study was to describe the sensory properties, compare the differences in descriptive sensory analysis (DSA) and volatile compounds of bush tea, special, rooibos, honeybush and the blend of bush tea with special, honeybush and rooibos in a 1:1 ratio and subsequently to determine the influence of blending bush tea with other herbal teas. DSA was used to assess the sensory attributes of the teas while gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to quantitatively determine the volatile components of the teas. Rooibos tea and honeybush tea had an overall sweet-caramel, honey-sweet, perfume floral and woody aroma with slight astringency, consistent with the taste and aftertaste attributes. In contrast, bush tea and special tea depicted green-cut grass, dry green herbal, cooked spinach aroma as well as taste and aftertaste characteristics. GC-MS analyses revealed that the seven tea samples had similar major volatiles, including 2-furanmethanol, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, acetic acid, D-limonene terpene and phytol. Cluster analysis revealed that the sweet and woody flavour of honeybush and rooibos were ascribed to the presence of á-myrcene, phenylethyl alcohol, phytol and vanillin. The bitter, medicinal flavour attributes of special tea were attributed to (-)-carvone. Blending of bush tea with rooibos and honeybush tea toned down its aversive flavour components, typically the bitter, green-cut grass and herbal properties, thus minimising the possibility of consumer aversion.

Keywords: bush tea, rooibos tea, honeybush tea, sensory, volatile compounds

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Authors: Omar Alelweet

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Carbon emissions are quantified in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents, generated through a specific activity or accumulated throughout the life stages of a product or service. Given the growing concern about climate change and the role of carbon dioxide emissions in global warming, this initiative aims to create awareness and understanding of the impact of human activities and identify potential areas for improvement regarding the management of the carbon footprint on campus. Given that trees play a vital role in reducing carbon emissions by absorbing CO₂ during the photosynthesis process, this paper evaluated the contribution of each tree to reducing those emissions. Collecting data over an extended period of time is essential to monitoring carbon dioxide levels. This will help capture changes at different times and identify any patterns or trends in the data. By linking the data to specific activities, events, or environmental factors, it is possible to identify sources of emissions and areas where carbon dioxide levels are rising. Analyzing the collected data can provide valuable insights into ways to reduce emissions and mitigate the impact of climate change.

Keywords: sustainability, green building, environmental impact, CO₂

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Authors: Yenni Kurniawati

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Students Prediction Skill in chemistry experiments is an important skill for pre-service chemistry students to stimulate students reflective thinking at each stage of many chemistry experiments, qualitatively and quantitatively. A Virtual Chemistry Laboratory was designed to give students opportunities and times to practicing many kinds of chemistry experiments repeatedly, everywhere and anytime, before they do a real experiment. The Virtual Chemistry Laboratory content was constructed using the Model of Educational Reconstruction and developed to enhance students ability to predicted the experiment results and analyzed the cause of error, calculating the accuracy and precision with carefully in using chemicals. This research showed students changing in making a decision and extremely beware with accuracy, but still had a low concern in precision. It enhancing students level of reflective thinking skill related to their prediction skill 1 until 2 stage in average. Most of them could predict the characteristics of the product in experiment, and even the result will going to be an error. In addition, they take experiments more seriously and curiously about the experiment results. This study recommends for a different subject matter to provide more opportunities for students to learn about other kinds of chemistry experiments design.

Keywords: virtual chemistry laboratory, chemistry experiments, prediction skill, pre-lab experiences

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Authors: M. H. Nahaisi, N. M. Almaroum

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Laban is a Libyan traditional fermented milk product. This lactic fermentation has been known in many cities of Libya long time ago as stable, nutritious, refreshing drink especially during the summer. 16 naturally fermented milk samples were collected from different cities located in North West of Libya. The average pH, titratable acidity, fat and total solids were 4.16, 0.73%, 1.54% and 8.12 % respectively. Coliform, yeast and mold counts were 21×10⁴, 39×10⁴ and 41 ×10³ cfu/ ml. respectively. The average Lactococcus, Streptococcus, Mesophilic Lactobacillus / Leuconostoc and Thermophilic Lactobacillus counts were 99 ×10⁷, 96 ×10⁷, 93 ×10⁷ and 15 ×10⁷ cfu / ml. respectively. A total of one hundred forty two lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates were identified to the genus level as Lactobacillus (48.59%), Lactococcus (43.66%), Streptococcus (4.93%) and Leuconostoc (2.82%). Sugar fermentation tests have revealed that the most frequently Lactobacillus species was found to be Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. lactis (62.32%) followed by Lactobacillus plantarum (31.88%). Furthermore, other selected LAB isolates were identified by API 50 CH test as Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactics, Lactobacillus pentosus, Lactobacillus brevis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides ssp. cremoris.

Keywords: traditional fermented milk, laban, lactococcus, streptococcus, mesophilic lactobacillus, thermophilic lactobacillus counts

Procedia PDF Downloads 379

Authors: Shanhua Hu

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Social media as a critical propagandizing form of film, video games, and digital products has received substantial research attention, but there exists several critical barriers such as: (1) few studies exploring the internal and external connections of a product as part of the multimodal context that gives rise to readability and commercial return; (2) the lack of study of multimodal analysis in product’s official account of game publishers and its impact on users’ behaviors including purchase intention, social media engagement, and playing time; (3) no standardized ecologically-valid, game type-varying data can be used to study the complexity of official account’s postings within a time period. This proposed research helps to tackle these limitations in order to develop a model of readability study that is more ecologically valid, robust, and thorough. To accomplish this objective, this paper provides a more diverse dataset comprising different visual elements and messages collected from the official Twitter accounts of the Top 20 best-selling games of 2021. Video game companies target potential users through social media, a popular approach is to set up an official account to maintain exposure. Typically, major game publishers would create an official account on Twitter months before the game's release date to update on the game's development, announce collaborations, and reveal spoilers. Analyses of tweets from those official Twitter accounts would assist publishers and marketers in identifying how to efficiently and precisely deploy advertising to increase game sales. The purpose of this research is to determine how official game accounts use Twitter to attract new customers, specifically which types of messages are most effective at increasing sales. The dataset includes the number of days until the actual release date on Twitter posts, the readability of the post (Flesch Reading Ease Score, FRES), the number of emojis used, the number of hashtags, the number of followers of the mentioned users, the categorization of the posts (i.e., spoilers, collaborations, promotions), and the number of video views. The timeline of Twitter postings from official accounts will be compared to the history of pre-orders and sales figures to determine the potential impact of social media posts. This study aims to determine how the above-mentioned characteristics of official accounts' Twitter postings influence the sales of the game and to examine the possible causes of this influence. The outcome will provide researchers with a list of potential aspects that could influence people's judgments in limited-word posts. With the increased average online time, users would adapt more quickly than before in online information exchange and readings, such as the word to use sentence length, and the use of emojis or hashtags. The study on the promotion of official game accounts will not only enable publishers to create more effective promotion techniques in the future but also provide ideas for future research on the influence of social media posts with a limited number of words on consumers' purchasing decisions. Future research can focus on more specific linguistic aspects, such as precise word choice in advertising.

Keywords: engagement, official account, promotion, twitter, video game

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Authors: Worrapol Koranuntachai, Tonkid Chantrasmi, Udomkiat Nontakaew

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Medical latex gloves are made from the latex compound in production lines. Latex dipping is considered one of the most important processes that directly affect the final product quality. In a continuous production line, a chain conveyor carries the formers through the process and partially submerges them into an open channel flow in a latex dipping tank. In general, the conveyor speed is determined by the desired production capacity, and the latex-dipping tank can then be designed accordingly. It is important to understand the flow behavior in the dipping tank in order to achieve high quality in the process. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the flow past an array of formers in a simplified latex dipping process. The computational results showed both the flow structure and the vortex generation between two formers. The maximum shear stress over the surface of the formers was used as the quality metric of the latex-dipping process when adjusting operation parameters.

Keywords: medical latex gloves, latex dipping, dipping tank, computational fluid dynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 138