Search results for: macroeconomics models

Authors: Septiany Trisnaningtyas

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Purpose: This research aims to examine the factors affecting the profitability of pharmaceutical company during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia. A sharp decline in the number of patients coming to the hospital for treatment during the pandemic has an impact on the growth of the pharmaceutical sector and brought major changes in financial position and business performance. Pharmaceutical companies that provide products related to the Covid-19 pandemic can survive and continue to grow. This study investigates the factors affecting the profitability of pharmaceutical company during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia associated with the number of Covid-19 cases. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel-data regression models to evaluate the influence of the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases on profitability of ninelisted pharmaceuticalcompanies in Indonesia. This research is based on four independent variables that were empirically examined for their relationship with profitability. These variables are liquidity (current ratio), growth rate (sales growth), firm size (total sales), and market power (the Lerner index). Covid-19 case is used as moderating variable. Data of nine pharmaceutical companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange covering the period of 2018–2021 were extracted from companies’ quarterly annual reports. Findings: In the period during Covid-19, company growth (sales growth) and market power (lerner index) have a positive and significant relationship to ROA and ROE. Total of confirmed Covid-19 cases has a positive and significant relationship to ROA and is proven to have a moderating effect between company’s growth (sales growth) to ROA and ROE and market power (Lerner index) to ROA. Research limitations/implications: Due to data availability, this study only includes data from nine listed pharmaceutical companies in Indonesian Stock exchange and quarterly annual reportscovering the period of 2018-2021. Originality/value: This study focuses onpharmaceutical companies in Indonesia during Covid-19 pandemic. Previous study analyzes the data from pharmaceutical companies’ annual reports since 2014 and focus on universal health coverage (national health insurance) implementation from the Indonesian government. This study analyzes the data using fixed effect panel-data regression models to evaluate the influence of Covid-19 confirmed cases on profitability. Pooled ordinary least squares regression and fixed effects were used to analyze the data in previous study. This study also investigate the moderating effect of Covid-19 confirmed cases to profitability in relevant with the pandemic situation.

Keywords: profitability, indonesia, pharmaceutical, Covid-19

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Authors: A. Hadj Taieb, H. Ennouri

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The current study aimed to investigate the effect that optical illusion garments have on a woman’s self-perception of her own body shape. First, we created different optical illusion garment by using color contrasts. Second, a short survey based on visual perception is addressed to women in order to compare the different optical illusion garments to determine if they met the established 'ideal' body shape. A ‘visual analysis method’ was used to investigate the clothing models with optical illusions. The theories in relation with the optical illusion were used through this method. The effects of the optical illusion of color contrast on body shape in the fashion sector were tried to be revealed.

Keywords: optical illusion, color contrasts, body image perception, self-esteem

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Authors: O. Poleshchuk, E. Komarov

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This paper presents a regression model for interval type-2 fuzzy sets based on the least squares estimation technique. Unknown coefficients are assumed to be triangular fuzzy numbers. The basic idea is to determine aggregation intervals for type-1 fuzzy sets, membership functions of whose are low membership function and upper membership function of interval type-2 fuzzy set. These aggregation intervals were called weighted intervals. Low and upper membership functions of input and output interval type-2 fuzzy sets for developed regression models are considered as piecewise linear functions.

Keywords: interval type-2 fuzzy sets, fuzzy regression, weighted interval

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Authors: Manpreet Kaur

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When legitimate credit card users are mistakenly labelled as fraudulent in numerous financial delated applications, there are numerous ethical problems. The innovative machine learning approach we have suggested in this research outperforms the current models and shows how to model a data set for credit card fraud detection while minimizing false positives. As a result, we advise using random forests as the best machine learning method for predicting and identifying credit card transaction fraud. The majority of victims of these fraudulent transactions were discovered to be credit card users over the age of 60, with a higher percentage of fraudulent transactions taking place between the specific hours.

Keywords: automated fraud detection, isolation forest method, local outlier factor, ML algorithm, credit card

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Authors: Ehsan Soleymaninejadian

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As the field of immunology is growing day by day, and its chaotic system amazes more people, greed of research in this area is growing; however dealing with human or mammalian cells such as mice make the research expensive. Although there are some differences between higher animals with insects, importance of innate immunity during evolution made it untouched. So, for understanding the innate immunity insects can be good models. They are cheap; reproduction is fast and in the case genetics, less complicated. In this review, we tried to briefly tackle with important factors in insects’ innate immunity such as melanization, encapsulation, JAK-STAT, IMD, and Toll pathways. At the end, we explained how hormones and nerve system also can impact on immune system and make it more beautiful. In concluding remarks, the possibility of taking help from insect immune system to fight against diseases such as cancer has been considered.

Keywords: insects, innate immunity, melanization, intracellular pathways, hormones

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Dmitry Fedoseyev

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The ultimate success of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) depends largely on the effective control of their flight, especially in variable wind conditions. This paper investigates different approaches to selecting the optimal flight level to maximize the range of UAVs. We propose to consider methods based on mathematical models of atmospheric conditions, as well as the use of sensor data and machine learning algorithms to automatically optimize the flight level in real-time. The proposed approaches promise to improve the efficiency and range of UAVs in various wind conditions, which may have significant implications for the application of these systems in various fields, including geodesy, environmental surveillance, and search and rescue operations.

Keywords: drone, UAV, flight trajectory, wind-searching, efficiency

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Authors: S. K. Ashiquer Rahman

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Recently, oil has become more influential in almost every economic sector as a key material. As can be seen from the news, when there are some changes in an oil price or OPEC announces a new strategy, its effect spreads to every part of the economy directly and indirectly. That’s a reason why people always observe the oil price and try to forecast the changes of it. The most important factor affecting the price is its supply which is determined by the number of wildcats drilled. Therefore, a study about the number of wellheads and other economic variables may give us some understanding of the mechanism indicated by the amount of oil supplies. In this paper, we will consider a relationship between the number of wellheads and three key factors: the price of the wellhead, domestic output, and GNP constant dollars. We also add trend variables in the models because the consumption of oil varies from time to time. Moreover, this paper will use an econometrics method to estimate parameters in the model, apply some tests to verify the result we acquire, and then conclude the model.

Keywords: price, domestic output, GNP, trend variable, wildcat activity

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Authors: Yurii Bloshko, Oksana Olar

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This paper presents the analysis of 6 different classes of Petri nets: fuzzy Petri nets (FPN), generalized fuzzy Petri nets (GFPN), parameterized fuzzy Petri nets (PFPN), T2GFPN, flexible generalized fuzzy Petri nets (FGFPN), binary Petri nets (BPN). These classes were simulated in the special software PNeS® for the analysis of its pros and cons on the example of models which are dedicated to the decision-making process of passenger transport logistics. The paper includes the analysis of two approaches: when input values are filled with the experts’ knowledge; when fuzzy expectations represented by output values are added to the point. These approaches fulfill the possibilities of triples of functions which are replaced with different combinations of t-/s-norms.

Keywords: fuzzy petri net, intelligent computational techniques, knowledge representation, triangular norms

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Authors: Tina Wu, Andrew Martin

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The expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) brings a new level of threat. Attacks on IoT are already being used by criminals to form botnets, launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and distribute malware. This opens a whole new digital forensic arena to develop forensic methodologies in order to have the capability to investigate IoT related crimes. However, existing proposed IoT forensic models are still premature requiring further improvement and validation, many lack details on the acquisition and analysis phase. This paper proposes an enhanced theoretical IoT digital forensic model focused on identifying and acquiring the main sources of evidence in a methodical way. In addition, this paper presents a theoretical acquisition framework of the different stages required in order to be capable of acquiring evidence from IoT devices.

Keywords: acquisition, Internet of Things, model, zoning

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Authors: Yusuf S. Dambatta, Ahmed A. D. Sarhan

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Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the most prominent rapid prototyping (RP) technologies which is being used to efficiently fabricate CAD 3D geometric models. However, the process is coupled with many drawbacks, of which the surface quality of the manufactured RP parts is among. Hence, studies relating to improving the surface roughness have been a key issue in the field of RP research. In this work, a technique of modelling the surface roughness in FDM is presented. Using experimentally measured surface roughness response of the FDM parts, an ANFIS prediction model was developed to obtain the surface roughness in the FDM parts using the main critical process parameters that affects the surface quality. The ANFIS model was validated and compared with experimental test results.

Keywords: surface roughness, fused deposition modelling (FDM), adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), orientation

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Authors: Kun-Peng Jin, Jin Liang, Ti-Jun Xiao

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In this work, we are concerned with the dynamic behaviors of solutions to some coupled systems with infinite memory, which consist of two partial differential equations where only one partial differential equation has damping. Such coupled systems are good mathematical models to describe the deformation and stress characteristics of some viscoelastic materials affected by temperature change, external forces, and other factors. By using the theory of operator semigroups, we give wellposedness results for the Cauchy problem for these coupled systems. Then, with the help of some auxiliary functions and lemmas, which are specially designed for overcoming difficulties in the proof, we show that the solutions of the coupled systems decay to zero in a strong way under a few basic conditions. The results in this dynamic analysis of coupled systems are generalizations of many existing results.

Keywords: dynamic analysis, coupled system, infinite memory, damping.

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Authors: Maria R. A. R. Moreira, Francisco R. O. Da Silva, André O. A. Fontenele, Érick A. Ribeiro

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This article deals with the influence of technology in education showing educational robotics as pedagogical method of solution for knowledge building. We are proposing the development and implementation of four robot models that can be used for teaching purposes involving the areas of mechatronics, mechanics, electronics and computing, making it efficient for learning other sciences and theories. One of the main reasons for application of the developed educational kits is its low cost, allowing its applicability to a greater number of educational institutions. The technology will add to education dissemination of knowledge by means of experiments in such a way that the pedagogical robotics promotes understanding, practice, solution and criticism about classroom challenges. We also present the relationship between education, science, technology and society through educational robotics, treated as an incentive to technological careers.

Keywords: education, mecatronics, robotics, technology

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Authors: Sujit K. Basak

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of literature review software on researchers. The aim of this study was achieved by analyzing models in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and acceptance level. Collected data was analyzed using WarpPLS 4.0 software. This study used two theoretical frameworks namely Technology Acceptance Model and the Training Needs Assessment Model. The study was experimental and was conducted at a public university in South Africa. The results of the study showed that acceptance level has a high impact on research workload and productivity followed by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

Keywords: technology acceptance model, training needs assessment model, literature review software, research productivity

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Authors: Rocío González-Sánchez, Sara Alonso-Muñoz

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Food waste implies an inefficient management of the final stages in the food supply chain. Referring to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by United Nations, the SDG 12.3 proposes to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level and to reduce food losses. In the linear system, food waste is disposed and, to a lesser extent, recovery or reused after consumption. With the negative effect on stocks, the current food consumption system is based on ‘produce, take and dispose’ which put huge pressure on raw materials and energy resources. Therefore, greater focus on the circular management of food waste will mitigate the environmental, economic, and social impact, following a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach and consequently the SDGs fulfilment. A mixed methodology is used. A total sample of 311 publications from Web of Science database were retrieved. Firstly, it is performed a bibliometric analysis by SciMat and VOSviewer software to visualise scientific maps about co-occurrence analysis of keywords and co-citation analysis of journals. This allows for the understanding of the knowledge structure about this field, and to detect research issues. Secondly, a systematic literature review is conducted regarding the most influential articles in years 2020 and 2021, coinciding with the most representative period under study. Thirdly, to support the development of this field it is proposed an agenda according to the research gaps identified about circular economy and food waste management. Results reveal that the main topics are related to waste valorisation, the application of waste-to-energy circular model and the anaerobic digestion process towards fossil fuels replacement. It is underlined that the use of food as a source of clean energy is receiving greater attention in the literature. There is a lack of studies about stakeholders’ awareness and training. In addition, available data would facilitate the implementation of circular principles for food waste recovery, management, and valorisation. The research agenda suggests that circularity networks with suppliers and customers need to be deepened. Technological tools for the implementation of sustainable business models, and greater emphasis on social aspects through educational campaigns are also required. This paper contributes on the application of circularity to food waste management by abandoning inefficient linear models. Shedding light about trending topics in the field guiding to scholars for future research opportunities.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, circular economy, food waste management, future research lines

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Authors: Sanju Vaidya, Aihua Li

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Vulnerability measures and topological indices are crucial in solving various problems such as the stability of the communication networks and development of mathematical models for chemical compounds. In 1947, Harry Wiener introduced a topological index related to molecular branching. Now there are more than 100 topological indices for graphs. For example, Hosoya polynomials (also called Wiener polynomials) were introduced to derive formulas for certain vulnerability measures and topological indices for various graphs. In this paper, we will find a relation between the Hosoya polynomials of any graph and its Mycielskian graph. Additionally, using this we will compute vulnerability measures, closeness and betweenness centrality, and extended Wiener indices. It is fascinating to see how Hosoya polynomials are useful in the two diverse fields, cybersecurity and chemistry.

Keywords: hosoya polynomial, mycielskian graph, graph vulnerability measure, topological index

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Authors: Kiyoumars Roushangar, Saeid Sadaghian

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Although accurate sediment load prediction is very important in planning, designing, operating and maintenance of water resources structures, the transport mechanism is complex, and the deterministic transport models are based on simplifying assumptions often lead to large prediction errors. In this research, firstly, two intelligent ANN methods, Radial Basis and General Regression Neural Networks, are adopted to model of total sediment load transport into Madani Dam reservoir (north of Iran) using the measured data and then applicability of the sediment transport methods developed by Engelund and Hansen, Ackers and White, Yang, and Toffaleti for predicting of sediment load discharge are evaluated. Based on comparison of the results, it is found that the GRNN model gives better estimates than the sediment rating curve and mentioned classic methods.

Keywords: sediment transport, dam reservoir, RBF, GRNN, prediction

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Authors: Ahmed Fradi

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In a digital world in perpetual evolution and acceleration, data more and more voluminous, rich and varied, the new software solutions emerged with the Big Data phenomenon offer new opportunities to the company enabling it not only to optimize its business and to evolve its production model, but also to reorganize itself to increase competitiveness and to identify new strategic axes. Design and manufacturing industrial companies, like the others, face these challenges, data represent a major asset, provided that they know how to capture, refine, combine and analyze them. The objective of our paper is to propose a solution allowing geometric and topological information extraction from 3D CAD model (precisely STEP files) databases, with specific algorithm based on the programming paradigm MapReduce. Our proposal is the first step of our future approach to 3D CAD object retrieval.

Keywords: Big Data, MapReduce, 3D object retrieval, CAD, STEP format

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Authors: Tusar Kanti Dash, Ganapati Panda

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The evaluation of speech quality and intelligence is critical to the overall effectiveness of the Speech Enhancement Algorithms. Several intrusive and non-intrusive measures are employed to calculate these parameters. Non-Intrusive Evaluation is most challenging as, very often, the reference clean speech data is not available. In this paper, a novel non-intrusive speech evaluation measure is proposed using audio features derived from the Stockwell transform. These features are used with the Light Gradient Boosting Machine for the effective prediction of speech quality and intelligibility. The proposed model is analyzed using noisy and reverberant speech from four databases, and the results are compared with the standard Intrusive Evaluation Measures. It is observed from the comparative analysis that the proposed model is performing better than the standard Non-Intrusive models.

Keywords: non-Intrusive speech evaluation, S-transform, light GBM, speech quality, and intelligibility

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Authors: Mahtab Abdollahi Sarvi, Siamak Epackachi, Ali Imanpour

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Reinforced concrete shear walls are commonly used as the lateral load-resisting system of mid- to high-rise office or residential buildings around the world. Design of such systems is often governed by wind rather than seismic effects, in particular in low-to-moderate seismic regions. The current design philosophy as per the majority of building codes under wind loads require elastic response of lateral load-resisting systems including reinforced concrete shear walls when subjected to the rare design wind load, resulting in significantly large wall sections needed to meet strength requirements and drift limits. The latter can highly influence the design in upper stories due to stringent drift limits specified by building codes, leading to substantial added costs to the construction of the wall. However, such walls may offer limited to moderate over-strength and ductility due to their large reserve capacity provided that they are designed and detailed to appropriately develop such over-strength and ductility under extreme wind loads. This would significantly contribute to reducing construction time and costs, while maintaining structural integrity under gravity and frequently-occurring and less frequent wind events. This paper aims to investigate the over-strength and ductility capacity of several imaginary office buildings located in Edmonton, Canada with a glance at earthquake design philosophy. Selected models are 10- to 25-story buildings with three types of reinforced concrete shear wall configurations including rectangular, barbell, and flanged. The buildings are designed according to National Building Code of Canada. Then fiber-based numerical models of the walls are developed in Perform 3D and by conducting nonlinear static (pushover) analysis, lateral nonlinear behavior of the walls are evaluated. Ductility and over-strength of the structures are obtained based on the results of the pushover analyses. The results confirmed moderate nonlinear capacity of reinforced concrete shear walls under extreme wind loads. This is while lateral displacements of the walls pass the serviceability limit states defined in Pre standard for Performance-Based Wind Design (ASCE). The results indicate that we can benefit the limited nonlinear response observed in the reinforced concrete shear walls to economize the design of such systems under wind loads.

Keywords: concrete shear wall, high-rise buildings, nonlinear static analysis, response modification factor, wind load

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Authors: Ahmed Emad Ahmed

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This paper aims to address the concept of human resources information systems (HRIS) and how to link it to new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to be implemented in two human resources processes. A literature view has been collected to cover the main points related to HRIS, AI, and BC. A study case has been presented by generating a random HRIS to apply some AI operations to it. Then, an algorithm was applied to the database to complete some human resources processes, including training and performance appraisal, using a pre-trained AI model. After that, outputs and results have been presented and discussed briefly. Finally, a conclusion has been introduced to show the ability of new technologies such as AI and ML to be applied to the human resources management processes.

Keywords: human resources new technologies, HR artificial intelligence, HRIS AI models, construction AI HRIS

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Authors: Eileen Kim

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As socioeconomic disparities grew in New York during the 1970s, artists represented new values that came with the times. Street art, in particular, was birthed from a distinctly urban, fringe setting to ultimately become one of the most lucrative forms of art today. Examining the economic and psychological reasons behind the rise of street art, this paper delves into the development of the art market as a parallel insight into human behaviors and economic models such as supply and demand. The purpose of this study is to show the role of the increasingly divided socioeconomic classes and the rise of art collecting as an asset-building form. This study concludes that the iconography and market value of street art represented distinct values that came from a series of intertwined social matters such as racial tensions and revolutions in industrial innovation.

Keywords: art industry, cultural representation, ethnicity, markets, public property, social classes, street art

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Authors: Alok Kumar Routa, Priya Ranjan Mohanty

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Complex seismic signatures are generated due to the complexity of the subsurface which is difficult to interpret. In the present study, an attempt has been made to model the complex subsurface using the Ray tracing modeling technique. Add to this, for the imaging of these geological features, Kirchhoff’s prestack depth migration is applied over the synthetic common shot gather dataset. It is found that the Kirchhoff’s migration technique in addition with the Ray tracing modeling concept has the flexibility towards the imaging of various complex geology which gives satisfactory results with proper delineation of the reflectors at their respective true depth position. The entire work has been carried out under the MATLAB environment.

Keywords: Kirchhoff's migration, Prestack depth migration, Ray tracing modelling, velocity model

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Authors: A. Omeiri, A. Djellad, P. O. Logerais, O. Riou, J. F. Durastanti

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With the growing of electrical energy demand, wind power capacity has experienced tremendous growth in the past decade, thanks to wind power’s environmental benefits. Direct driven permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) with a full size back-to-back converter set is one of the promising technologies employed with wind power generation. Wind grid integration brings the problems of voltage fluctuation and harmonic pollution. In the present study, the filter is placed between the wind system and the network to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) and enhance power quality during disturbances. The models of wind turbine, PMSG, power electronic converters and the filter are implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.

Keywords: wind energy conversion system, PMSG, PWM, THD, power quality, passive filter

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Authors: Lorenzo Petrucci

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This paper is intended to give insight into the potential use of small-scale off-grid trigeneration systems powered by biogas generated in a dairy farm. The off-grid plant object of analysis comprises a dual-fuel Genset as well as electrical and thermal storage equipment and an adsorption machine. The loads are the different apparatus used in the dairy farm, a household where the workers live and a small electric vehicle whose batteries can also be used as a power source in case of emergency. The insertion in the plant of an adsorption machine is mainly justified by the abundance of thermal energy and the simultaneous high cooling demand associated with the milk-chilling process. In the evaluated operational scenario, our research highlights the importance of prioritizing specific small loads which cannot sustain an interrupted supply of power over time. As a consequence, a photovoltaic and thermal panel is included in the plant and is tasked with providing energy independently of potentially disruptive events such as engine malfunctioning or scarce and unstable supplies of fuels. To efficiently manage the plant an energy dispatch strategy is created in order to control the flow of energy between the power sources and the thermal and electric storages. In this article we elaborate on models of the equipment and from these models, we extract parameters useful to build load-dependent profiles of the prime movers and storage efficiencies. We show that under reasonable assumptions the analysis provides a sensible estimate of the generated energy. The simulations indicate that a Diesel Generator sized to a value 25% higher than the total electrical peak demand operates 65% of the time below the minimum acceptable load threshold. To circumvent such a critical operating mode, dump loads are added through the activation and deactivation of small resistors. In this way, the excess of electric energy generated can be transformed into useful heat. The combination of PVT and electrical storage to support the prioritized load in an emergency scenario is evaluated in two different days of the year having the lowest and highest irradiation values, respectively. The results show that the renewable energy component of the plant can successfully sustain the prioritized loads and only during a day with very low irradiation levels it also needs the support of the EVs’ battery. Finally, we show that the adsorption machine can reduce the ice builder and the air conditioning energy consumption by 40%.

Keywords: hybrid power plants, mathematical modeling, off-grid plants, renewable energy, trigeneration

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Authors: M. Babul Hasan

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Management sciences (MS), big group of companies and industries or government policies (GP) is affiliated with a huge number of decision ingredients and complicated restrictions. Every factor in MS, every product in Industries or decision in GP is not always bankable in practice. After formulating these models there arises large-scale mixed integer programming (MIP) problem. In this paper, we developed decomposition-based pricing procedure to filter the unnecessary decision ingredients from MIP where the variables in huge number will be abated and the complicacy of restrictions will be elementary. A real life numerical example has been illustrated to demonstrate the methods. We develop the computer techniques for these methods by using a mathematical programming language (AMPL).

Keywords: Lagrangian relaxation, decomposition, sub-problem, master-problem, pricing, mixed IP, AMPL

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Authors: Cherrie Lowe

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The TrendCare Patient Dependency System is currently utilized by a large number of Maternity Services across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2012, 2013, and 2014 validation studies were initiated in all three countries to validate the acuity tools used for Women in Labour, and Postnatal Mothers and Babies. This paper will present the findings of the validation study. Aim: The aim of this study was to; Identify if the care hours provided by the TrendCare Acuity System was an accurate reflection of the care required by Women and Babies. Obtain evidence of changes required to acuity indicators and/or category timings to ensure the TrendCare acuity system remains reliable and valid across a range of Maternity care models in three countries. Method: A non-experimental action research methodology was used across four District Health Boards in New Zealand, two large public Australian Maternity services and a large tertiary Maternity service in Singapore. Standardized data collection forms and timing devices were used to collect Midwife contact times with Women and Babies included in the study. Rejection processes excluded samples where care was not completed/rationed. The variances between actual timed Midwife/Mother/Baby contact and actual Trend Care acuity times were identified and investigated. Results: 87.5% (18) of TrendCare acuity category timings matched the actual timings recorded for Midwifery care. 12.5% (3) of TrendCare night duty categories provided less minutes of care than the actual timings. 100% of Labour Ward TrendCare categories matched actual timings for Midwifery care. The actual times given for assistance to New Zealand independent Midwives in Labour Ward showed a significant deviation to previous studies demonstrating the need for additional time allocations in Trend Care. Conclusion: The results demonstrated the importance of regularly validating the Trend Care category timings with the care hours required, as variances to models of care and length of stay in Maternity units have increased Midwifery workloads on the night shift. The level of assistance provided by the core labour ward staff to the Independent Midwife has increased substantially. Outcomes: As a consequence of this study changes were made to the night duty TrendCare Maternity categories, additional acuity indicators developed and times for assisting independent Midwives increased. The updated TrendCare version was delivered to Maternity services in 2014.

Keywords: maternity, acuity, research, nursing workloads

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Authors: Juraj Beniak, Ľubomír Šooš, Peter Križan, Miloš Matúš

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Within Rapid Prototyping technologies are used many types of materials. Many of them are recyclable but there are still as plastic like, so practically they do not degrade in the landfill. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the special plastic materials which are biodegradable and also available for 3D printing within Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technology. The question is, if the mechanical properties of produced models are comparable to similar technical plastic materials which are usual for prototype production. Presented paper shows the experiments results for tensile strength measurements for specimens prepared with different 3D printer settings and model orientation. Paper contains also the comparison of tensile strength values with values measured on specimens produced by conventional technologies as injection moulding.

Keywords: 3D printing, biodegradable plastic, fused deposition modeling, PLA plastic, rapid prototyping

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Authors: Lin-Han Chiang Hsieh, Hsiao-Yi Lin

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This study aims to determine the impact of the disclosure of flood potential map on housing prices. The disclosure is supposed to mitigate the market failure by reducing information asymmetry. On the other hand, opponents argue that the official disclosure of simulated results will only create unnecessary disturbances on the housing market. This study identifies the impact of the disclosure of the flood potential map by comparing the hedonic price of flood potential before and after the disclosure. The flood potential map used in this study is published by Taipei municipal government in 2015, which is a result of a comprehensive simulation based on geographical, hydrological, and meteorological factors. The residential property sales data of 2013 to 2016 is used in this study, which is collected from the actual sales price registration system by the Department of Land Administration (DLA). The result shows that the impact of flood potential on residential real estate market is statistically significant both before and after the disclosure. But the trend is clearer after the disclosure, suggesting that the disclosure does have an impact on the market. Also, the result shows that the impact of flood potential differs by the severity and frequency of precipitation. The negative impact for a relatively mild, high frequency flood potential is stronger than that for a heavy, low possibility flood potential. The result indicates that home buyers are of more concern to the frequency, than the intensity of flood. Another contribution of this study is in the methodological perspective. The classic hedonic price analysis with OLS regression suffers from two spatial problems: the endogeneity problem caused by omitted spatial-related variables, and the heterogeneity concern to the presumption that regression coefficients are spatially constant. These two problems are seldom considered in a single model. This study tries to deal with the endogeneity and heterogeneity problem together by combining the spatial fixed-effect model and geographically weighted regression (GWR). A series of literature indicates that the hedonic price of certain environmental assets varies spatially by applying GWR. Since the endogeneity problem is usually not considered in typical GWR models, it is arguable that the omitted spatial-related variables might bias the result of GWR models. By combing the spatial fixed-effect model and GWR, this study concludes that the effect of flood potential map is highly sensitive by location, even after controlling for the spatial autocorrelation at the same time. The main policy application of this result is that it is improper to determine the potential benefit of flood prevention policy by simply multiplying the hedonic price of flood risk by the number of houses. The effect of flood prevention might vary dramatically by location.

Keywords: flood potential, hedonic price analysis, endogeneity, heterogeneity, geographically-weighted regression

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Authors: Jafar Khodagholizadeh

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In this talk, we study the tensor mode equation of perturbation in the presence of nonzero $-\Lambda$ as dark energy, whose dynamic nature depends on the Hubble parameter $ H$ and/or its time derivative. Dark energy, according to the total vacuum contribution, has little effect during the radiation-dominated era, but it reduces the squared amplitude of gravitational waves (GWs) up to $60\%$ for the wavelengths that enter the horizon during the matter-dominated era. Moreover, the observations bound on dark energy models, such as running vacuum model (RVM), generalized running vacuum model (GRVM), and generalized running vacuum subcase (GRVS), are effective in reducing the GWs’ amplitude. Although this effect is less for the wavelengths that enter the horizon at later times, this reduction is stable and permanent.

Keywords: gravitational waves, dark energy, GW's amplitude, all stage universe

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Authors: Natalia Efremova, Sergey Tarasenko

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We propose a novel neural network architecture for visual saliency detections, which utilizes neuro physiologically plausible mechanisms for extraction of salient regions. The model has been significantly inspired by recent findings from neuro physiology and aimed to simulate the bottom-up processes of human selective attention. Two types of features were analyzed: color and direction of maximum variance. The mechanism we employ for processing those features is PCA, implemented by means of normalized Hebbian learning and the waves of spikes. To evaluate performance of our model we have conducted psychological experiment. Comparison of simulation results with those of experiment indicates good performance of our model.

Keywords: neural network models, visual saliency detection, normalized Hebbian learning, Oja's rule, psychological experiment

Procedia PDF Downloads 350