Search results for: horizontal earthquake coefficient

Authors: Aime P. Lampad-Dela Pena, Rhodora V. Azanza, Cesar L. Villanoy, Ephrime B. Metillo, Aletta T. Yniguez

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Phytoplankton community changes in relation to environmental parameters were compared between and within, the three interconnected basins. Phytoplankton samples were collected from thirteen stations of Baler Bay and Casiguran Sound, Aurora last May 2013 by filtering 10 L buckets of surface water and 5 L Niskin samples at 20 meters and at 30 to 40 meters depths through a 20um sieve. Duplicate samples per station were preserved, counted, and identified up to genus level, in order to determine the horizontal and vertical spatial variation of different phytoplankton functional groups during the summer ebb and flood flow. Baler Bay, Outer and Inner Casiguran Sound had a total of 89 genera from four phytoplankton groups: Diatom (62), Dinoflagellate (25), Silicoflagellate (1) and Cyanobacteria (1). Non-toxic diatom Chaetoceros spp. bloom (averaged 2.0 x 105 to 2.73 x 106 cells L⁻¹) co-existed with Bacteriastrum spp. at surface waters in Inner and Outer Casiguran. Pseudonitzschia spp. (1.73 x 106 cells L⁻¹) bloomed at bottom waters of the innermost embayment near Casiguran mangrove estuary. Cyanobacteria Trichodesmium spp. significantly increased during ebb tide at the mid-water layers (20 meters depth) in the three basins (ranged from 6, 900 to 15, 125 filaments L⁻¹), forming another bloom. Gonyaulax spp. - dominated dinoflagellate did not significantly change with depth across the three basins. Overall, diatoms and dinoflagellates community assemblages significantly changed between sites (p < 0.001) while diatoms and cyanobacteria varied within Casiguran outer and inner sites (p < 0.001) only. Tidal fluctuations significantly affected dinoflagellates and diatom groups (p < 0.001) in inner and baler sites. Chlorophyll significantly varied between (KW, p < 0.001) and within each basins (KW, p < 0.05), no tidal influence, with the highest value at inner Casiguran and at deeper waters indicating deep chlorophyll maxima. Aurora’s distinct shelf morphology favoring counterclockwise circulation pattern, advective transport, and continuous stratification of the water column could basically affect the phytoplankton assemblages and water quality of Baler Bay and Casiguran inner and outer basins. Observed spatial phytoplankton community changes with multi-species diatom and cyanobacteria bloom at different water layers of the three inter-connected embayments would be vital for any environmental management initiatives in Aurora.

Keywords: aurora fronting Philippines Rise, intermonsoon, multi-species diatom bloom, spatial variability

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Authors: Mohsen Yaghmor, Sima Radmanesh

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Rapid environmental changes have been threatening the life of many organizations. Enabling and productivity of human resource should be considered as the most important issue in order to increase performance and ensure survival of the organizations. In this research, the effectiveness of management factory in productivity and inability of human resource have been identified and reviewed at glance. Afterwards, answers were sought to questions "What are the factors effecting productivity and enabling of human resource?" and "What are the priority order based on effective management of human resource in Fars Poultry Complex?". A specified questionnaire has been designed regarding the priorities and effectiveness of the identified factors. Six factors were specified consisting of: individual characteristics, teaching, motivation, partnership management, authority or power submission and job development that have most effect on organization. Then a questionnaire was specified for priority and effect measurement of specified factors that were reached after collecting information and using statistical tests of Keronchbakh alpha coefficient r = 0.792, so that we can say the questionnaire has sufficient reliability. After information analysis of specified six factors by Friedman test their effects were categorized. Measurement on organization respectively consists of individual characteristics, job development or enrichment, authority submission, partnership management, teaching and motivation. Lastly, approaches has been introduced to increase productivity of manpower.

Keywords: productivity, empowerment, enrichment, authority submission, partnership management, teaching, motivation

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Authors: Samaneh Nabavi, Hadi Shirzad, Arash Ghoorchian, Maryam Shanesaz, Reza Naderi

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Morphine (MO), the most effective painkiller, is considered the reference by which analgesics are assessed. It is very necessary for the biomedical applications to detect and maintain the MO concentrations in the blood and urine with in safe ranges. To date, there are many expensive techniques for detecting MO. Recently, many electrochemical sensors for direct determination of MO were constructed. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is a polymeric material, which has a built-in functionality for the recognition of a particular chemical substance with its complementary cavity.This paper reports a sensor for MO using a combination of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) and differential-pulse voltammetry (DPV). Electropolymerization of MO doped polypyrrole yielded poor quality, but a well-doped, nanostructure and increased impregnation has been obtained in the pH=12. Above a pH of 11, MO is in the anionic forms. The effect of various experimental parameters including pH, scan rate and accumulation time on the voltammetric response of MO was investigated. At the optimum conditions, the concentration of MO was determined using DPV in a linear range of 7.07 × 10−6 to 2.1 × 10−4 mol L−1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.999, and a detection limit of 13.3 × 10-8 mol L−1, respectively. The effect of common interferences on the current response of MO namely ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA) is studied. The modified electrode can be used for the determination of MO spiked into urine samples, and excellent recovery results were obtained. The nanostructured polypyrrole films were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and furrier transforms infrared (FTIR).

Keywords: morphine detection, sensor, polypyrrole, nanostructure, molecularly imprinted polymer

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Authors: B. Białecka, Z. Adamczyk, M. Cempa

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The use of ultrasounds in zeolization of fly ash can increase the efficiency of this process. The molar ratios of the reagents, as well as the time and temperature of the synthesis, are the main parameters determining the type and properties of the zeolite formed. The aim of the work was to create hydrosodalite in a short time (8h), with low NaOH concentration (3 M) and in low temperature (80°C). A zeolite material contained in fly ash from hard coal combustion in one of Polish Power Plant was subjected to hydrothermal alkaline synthesis. The phase composition of the ash consisted mainly of glass, mullite, quartz, and hematite. The dominant chemical components of the ash were SiO₂ (over 50%mas.) and Al₂O₃ (more than 28%mas.), whereas the contents of the remaining components, except Fe₂O₃ (6.34%mas.), did not exceed 4% mas. The hydrothermal synthesis of the zeolite material was carried out in the following conditions: 3M-solution of NaOH, synthesis time – 8 hours, 40 kHz-frequency ultrasounds during the first two hours of synthesis. The mineral components of the input ash as well as product after synthesis were identified in microscopic observations, in transmitted light, using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron scanning microscopy (SEM/EDS). The chemical composition of the input ash was identified by the method of X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The obtained material apart from phases found in the initial fly ash sample, also contained new phases, i.e., hydrosodalite and NaP-type zeolite. The chemical composition in micro areas of grains indicated their diversity: i) SiO₂ content was in the range 30-59%mas., ii) Al₂O₃ content was in the range 24-35%mas., iii) Na₂O content was in the range 6-15%mas. This clearly indicates that hydrosodalite forms hypertrophies with NaP type zeolite as well as relict grains of fly ash. A small amount of potassium in the examined grains is noteworthy, which may indicate the substitution of sodium with potassium. This is confirmed by the high value of the correlation coefficient between these two components.

Keywords: fly ash, hydrosodalite, ultrasounds, zeolite

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Authors: E. Isaac, I. Jalo, Y. Alkali, A. Ajani, A. Rasaki, Y. Jibrin, K. Mustapha, S. Charanchi, A. Kudi, H. Danlami

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Introduction: Hepatitis B infection is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, where transmission predominantly occurs in infants and children by perinatal and horizontal routes. The risk of chronic infection peaks when infection is acquired early. Materials and Methods: Records of Hepatitis B surface and envelope antigen results in Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe between May 2000 and May 2015 were retrieved and analyzed. Results: Paediatric outpatient visits and in-patient admissions were 64,193 accounting for 13% of total. Individuals tested for Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia were 23,866. Children aged 0-18 years constituted 11% (2,626). Among children tested, males accounted for 52.8% (1386/2626) and females 47.2% (1240/2626). Infants contributed 65 (2.3%); 1-4 year old children 309 (11.7%); 5-9 year old children 564 (21.4%) and adolescents 1717 (65.1%). HbSAg sero-positivity was 18% (496/2626) among children tested. The highest number of children tested per year was in 2009 (518) and 2014 (569) and the lowest, in the first study year (62). The highest sero-positivity rate was in 2010; 21.7% (54/255). Children aged 0-18years accounted for 10.5% (496/4720) of individuals with Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia. Sero-positivity was 3.1% (2/65); 12.9% (40/309); 18.1% (102/564); and 20.5% (352/1717) in infants, children ages 1-4years, 5-9years and adolescents respectively. 2.5% (1/40) and 4% (1/25) of male and female infants respectively had HbSAg. Among children aged 1-4years, 15.1% (30/198) of males and 9.0% (10/111) of females were seropositive; 14.8% (52/350) and 22% (50/224) of male and female 5-9year old children respectively has HbSAg. 14.3% (138/943) of adolescent females had Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia. Adolescent males demonstrated the highest sero-positivity rate 27.6% (214/774). 97.3% (483/496) of children who demonstrated Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia were tested for dual carriage with the e antigen. Males accounted for 296/483 (63.1%) and females 187/483 (36.9%). Infants constituted 0.97% (4/482); children aged 1-4years, 5-9years and adolescents were 6.8% (33/483); 20.9% (100/483) and 71.3% (342/483) respectively. 17.6% (85/483) of children tested had HBe antigenaemia. Of these, males accounted for 69.4% (59/85). 1.2% (1/85) were infants; 9.4% (8/85%) 1-4years; 22.3% (19/85) 5-9years and 68.2% (58/85) adolescents. 25% (1/4) infants; 24% (8/33) children aged 1-4 years; 19% (19/100) 5-9 year old children and 16.9% (58/342) adolescents had dual carriage. Infants and young children demonstrated the highest rate of dual carriage but were less likely to be tested for dual carriage 37/42 (88%) than their 5-9 year old 98% (100/102) and adolescent 342/352 (97%) counterparts. HB e antigen positivity rate was 45.4% (59/130) males and 36.0% (27/75) in females. Conclusion: Hepatitis B surface antigenaemia is high among adolescent males. Infants and young children who had HBSAg had the highest rate of envelope antigen carriage. Testing in pregnancy, vaccination programmes and prophylaxis need to be strengthened.

Keywords: children, dual carriage, Gombe, hepatitis B

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Authors: Hailekiros Tadesse Tekle, Yemane Tsehaye, Fetien Abay

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Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world, grown for the poor farmers in Tigray with low yield production. The purpose of this research was to estimate the performance of 166 barley genotypes against the quantitative traits with detailed analysis of the variance component, heritability, genetic advance, and genetic usefulness parameters. The finding of ANOVA was highly significant variation (p ≤ 0:01) for all the genotypes. We found significant differences in coefficient of variance (CV of 15%) for 5 traits out of the 12 quantitative traits. The topmost broad sense heritability (H2) was recorded for seeds per spike (98.8%), followed by thousand seed weight (96.5%) with 79.16% and 56.25%, respectively, of GAM. The traits with H2 ≥ 60% and GA/GAM ≥ 20% suggested the least influenced by the environment, governed by the additive genes and direct selection for improvement of such beneficial traits for the studied genotypes. Hence, the 20 outstanding recombinant inbred lines (RIL) barley genotypes performing early maturity, high yield, and 1000 seed weight traits simultaneously were the top ranked group barley genotypes out of the 166 genotypes. These are; G5, G25, G33, G118, G36, G123, G28, G34, G14, G10, G3, G13, G11, G32, G8, G39, G23, G30, G37, and G26. They were early in maturity, high TSW and GYP (TSW ≥ 55 g, GYP ≥ 15.22 g/plant, and DTM below 106 days). In general, the 166 genotypes were classified as high (group 1), medium (group 2), and low yield production (group 3) genotypes in terms of yield and yield component trait analysis by clustering; and genotype parameter analysis such as the heritability, genetic advance, and genetic usefulness traits in this investigation.

Keywords: barley, clustering, genetic advance, heritability, usefulness, variability, yield

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Authors: Sintija Miļuna, Ričards Melderis, Loreta Briuka, Dagnija Rostoka, Ingus Skadiņš, Juta Kroiča

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Objectives Smokeless tobacco products in Latvia become more available and favorable to young adults, especially students and athletes like hockey and floorball players. The aim of the research was to detect visual mucosal changes in the oral cavity in smokeless tobacco users and to evaluate pro - inflammatory and anti - inflammatory cytokine (IL-6, IL-1, IL-8, TNF Alpha) levels in saliva from smokeless tobacco users. Methods A smokeless tobacco group (n=10) and a control group (non-tobacco users) (n=10) were intraorally examined for oral lesions and 5 ml of saliva were collected. Saliva was analysed for Il-6, IL-1, Il-8, TNF Alpha using ELISA Sigma-Aldrich. For statistical analysis IBM Statistics 27 was used (Mann - Whitney U test, Spearman’s Rank Correlation coefficient). This research was approved by the Ethics Committee of Rīga Stradiņš University No.22/28.01.2016. This research has been developed with financing from the European Social Fund and Latvian state budget within the project no. 8.2.2.0/20/I/004 “Support for involving doctoral students in scientific research and studies” at Rīga Stradiņš University. Results IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, TNF Alpha levels were higher in the smokeless tobacco group (IL-1 83.34 pg/ml vs. 74.26 pg/ml; IL-6 195.10 pg/ml vs. 6.16 pg/ml; IL-8 736.34 pg/ml vs. 285.26 pg/ml; TNF Alpha 489.27 pg/ml vs. 200.9 pg/ml), but statistically there is no difference between control group and smokeless tobacco group (IL1 p=0.190, IL6 p=0.052, IL8 p=0.165, TNF alpha p=0.089). There was statistical correlation between IL1 and IL6 (p=0.023), IL6 and TNF alpha (p=0.028), IL8 and IL6 (p=0.005). Conclusions White localized lesions were detected in places where smokeless tobacco users placed sachets. There is a statistical correlation between IL6 and IL1 levels, IL6 and TNF alpha levels, IL8 and IL6 levels in saliva. There are no differences in the inflammatory cytokine levels between control group and smokeless tobacco group.

Keywords: smokeless tobacco, Snus, inflammatory biomarkers, oral lesions, oral pathology

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Authors: Mehmood Ali, Attaullah Khan, Md. Abul Kalam

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Petroleum crude oil reserves are going to deplete in future due to the consumption of fossil fuels in transportation and energy generating sector. Thus, increasing the fossil fuel prices and also causing environmental degradation issues such as climate change and global warming due to air pollution. Therefore, to tackle these issues the environmentally friendly fuels are the potential substitute with lower emissions of toxic gases. A non-edible vegetable oilseed crop, Jatropha curcas, from different origins such as Malaysia, Thailand and India were cultivated in Pakistan. The harvested seeds physical, chemical and mechanical properties were measured, having an influence on the post-harvesting machines design parameters for dehulling, storing bins, drying, oil extraction from seeds with a screw expeller and in-situ transesterification reaction to produce biodiesel fuel. The seed variety from Thailand was found better in comparison of its properties with other varieties from Malaysia and India. The seed yield from these three varieties i.e. Malaysia, Thailand and India were 829, 943 and 735 kg/ acre/ year respectively. While the oil extraction yield from Thailand variety seed was found higher (i.e. 32.61 % by wt.) as compared to other two varieties from Malaysia and India were 27.96 and 24.96 % by wt respectively. The physical properties investigated showed the geometric mean diameter of seeds from three varieties Malaysia, Thailand and India were 11.350, 10.505 and 11.324 mm, while the sphericity of seeds were found 0.656, 0.664 and 0.655. The bulk densities of the powdered seeds from three varieties Malaysia, Thailand and India, were found as 0.9697, 0.9932 and 0.9601 g/cm³ and % passing was obtained with sieve test were 78.7, 87.1 and 79.3 respectively. The densities of the extracted oil from three varieties Malaysia, Thailand and India were found 0.902, 0.898 and 0.902 g/ mL with corresponding kinematic viscosities 54.50, 49.18 and 48.16 mm2/sec respectively. The higher heating values (HHV) of extracted oil from Malaysia, Thailand and India seed varieties were measured as 40.29, 36.41 and 34.27 MJ/ kg, while the HHV of de-oiled cake from these varieties were 21.23, 20.78 and 17.31 MJ/kg respectively. The de-oiled cake can be used as compost with nutrients and carbon content to enhance soil fertility to grow future Jatropha curcas oil seed crops and also can be used as a fuel for heating and cooking purpose. Moreover, the mechanical parameter micro Vickers hardness of Malaysia seed was found lowest 16.30 HV measured with seed in a horizontal position to the loading in comparison to other two varieties as 25.2 and 18.7 HV from Thailand and India respectively. The fatty acid composition of three varieties of seed oil showed the presence of C8-C22, required to produce good quality biodiesel fuel. In terms of physicochemical properties of seeds and its extracted oil, the variety from Thailand was found better as compared to the other two varieties.

Keywords: biodiesel, Jatropha curcas, mechanical property, physico-chemical properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Zong-Xian Qiu, Ta-Wui Cheng, Wei-Hao Lee, Yung-Chin Ding

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The greenhouse effect is an important issue since it has been responsible for global warming. Carbon dioxide plays an important part of role in the greenhouse effect. Therefore, human has the responsibility for reducing CO₂ emissions in their daily operations. Except iron making and power plants, another major CO₂ production industry is cement industry. According to the statistics by EPA of Taiwan, production 1 ton of Portland cement will produce 520.29 kg of CO₂. There are over 7.8 million tons of CO₂ produced annually. Thus, trying to development low CO₂ emission green concrete is an important issue, and it can reduce CO₂ emission problems in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is trying to use marble wastes and slag as the raw materials to fabricate geopolymer green concrete. The result shows the marble based geopolymer green concrete have good workability and the compressive strength after curing for 28 days and 365 days can be reached 44MPa and 53MPa in indoor environment, 28MPa and 40.43MPa in outdoor environment. The acid resistance test shows the geopolymer green concrete have good resistance for chemical attack. The coefficient of permeability of geopolymer green concrete is better than Portland concrete. By comparing with Portland cement products, the marble based geopolymer not only reduce CO₂ emission problems but also provides great performance in practices. According to the experiment results shown that geopolymer concrete has great potential for further engineering development in the future, the new material could be expected to replace the Portland cement products in the future days.

Keywords: marble, slag, geopolymer, green concrete, CO₂ emission

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Authors: Mehdi Nasr Esfahani, Abdal-Rasool Gholamalian, Abdelfattah A. Dababat

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Wheat, Triticum aestivum L. is one of the most important and strategic crops in the human diet. Several diseases threaten this particular crop. Common root rot disease of wheat by a fungal agent, Bipolaris sorokiniana is one of the important diseases, causing considerable losses worldwide. Resistant sources are the only feasible and effective method of control for managing diseases. In this study, the response of 33 domestic and exotic wheat genotypes, including cultivars and promising lines were screened to B. sorokiniana at greenhouse and field conditions, based on five scoring scale indexes of 0 to 100 severity percentage. The screening was continued on resistant wheat genotypes and repeated several times to confirm the greenhouse and field results. Statistical and cluster analysis of data was performed using SAS and SPSS software, respectively. The results showed that, the response of wheat genotypes to the disease in the greenhouse and field conditions was highly significant. The highest rate of common root rot disease infection, B. sorokiniana in the greenhouse and field, was of CVS. Karkheh and Beck Cross-Roshan with 60.83% and 59.16% disease severity respectively, and the lowest one were in cv. Alvand with 18.33%, followed by cv. Baharan with 19.16% disease severity, with a highly significant difference respectively. The remaining wheat genotypes were located in between these two highest and lowest infected groups to B. sorokiniana significantly. There was a high correlation coefficient between the related statistical groups and cluster analysis.

Keywords: wheat, rot, root, crown, fungus, genotype, resistance

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Authors: Shivalinge Gowda

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The total mass attenuation coefficients m/r, of some halides such as, NaCl, KCl, CuCl, NaBr, KBr, RbCl, AgCl, NaI, KI, AgBr, CsI, HgCl₂, CdI₂ and HgI₂ were determined at photon energies 279.2, 320.07, 514.0, 661.6, 1115.5, 1173.2 and 1332.5 keV in a well-collimated narrow beam good geometry set-up using a high resolution, hyper pure germanium detector. The mass attenuation coefficients and the effective atomic cross sections are found to be in good agreement with the XCOM values. From these mass attenuation coefficients, the effective atomic cross sections s_a, of the compounds were determined. These effective atomic cross section s_a data so obtained are then used to compute the effective atomic numbers Z_eff. For this, the interpolation of total attenuation cross-sections of photons of energy E in elements of atomic number Z was performed by using the logarithmic regression analysis of the data measured by the authors and reported earlier for the above said energies along with XCOM data for standard energies. The best-fit coefficients in the photon energy range of 250 to 350 keV, 350 to 500 keV, 500 to 700 keV, 700 to 1000 keV and 1000 to 1500 keV by a piecewise interpolation method were then used to find the Z_eff of the compounds with respect to the effective atomic cross section s_a from the relation obtained by piece wise interpolation method. Using these Z_eff values, the electron densities N_el of halides were also determined. The present Z_eff and N_el values of halides are found to be in good agreement with the values calculated from XCOM data and other available published values.

Keywords: mass attenuation coefficient, atomic cross-section, effective atomic number, electron density

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Authors: Larbi Belagraa, Miloud Beddar, Abderrazak Bouzid

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The needs of the construction sector still increasing for concrete. However, the shortage of natural resources of aggregate could be a problem for the concrete industry, in addition to the negative impact on the environment due to the demolition wastes. Recycling aggregate from construction and demolition (C&D) waste presents a major interest for users and researchers of concrete since this constituent can occupies more than 70% of concrete volume. The aim of the study here in is to assess the effect of sulfate resistant cement combined with the local mineral addition of marble waste fillers on the mechanical behavior of a recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). Physical and mechanical properties of RAC including the density, the flexural and the compressive strength were studied. The non destructive test methods (pulse-velocity, rebound hammer) were performed . The results obtained were compared to crushed aggregate concrete (CAC) using the normal compressive testing machine test method. The optimal content of 5% marble fillers showed an improvement for both used test methods (compression, flexion and NDT). Non-destructive methods (ultrasonic and rebound hammer test) can be used to assess the strength of RAC, but a correction coefficient is required to obtain a similar value to the compressive strength given by the compression tests. The study emphasizes that these waste materials can be successfully and economically utilized as additional inert filler in RAC formulation within similar performances compared to a conventional concrete.

Keywords: marble waste fillers, mechanical strength, natural aggregate, non-destructive testing (NDT), recycled aggregate concrete

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Authors: Daniel Ferreira, José M. Marques Oliveira, Filipe Oliveira

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Wear phenomena is critical in injection moulding processes, causing failure of the components, and making the parts more expensive with an additional wasting time. When very abrasive materials are being injected inside the steel mould’s cavities, such as polymers reinforced with abrasive fibres, the consequences of the wear are more evident. Maraging steel (1.2709) is commonly employed in moulding components to resist in very aggressive injection conditions. In this work, the wear performance of the SLM produced 1.2709 maraging steel reinforced by ultrafine titanium and tungsten carbide (TiC-WC), was investigated using a pin-on-disk testing apparatus. A polypropylene reinforced with 40 wt.% fibreglass (PP40) disk, was used as the counterpart material. The wear tests were performed at 40 N constant load and 0.4 ms-1 sliding speed at room temperature and humidity conditions. The experimental results demonstrated that the wear rate in the 18Ni300-TiC-WC composite is lower than the unreinforced 18Ni300 matrix. The morphology and chemical composition of the worn surfaces was observed by 3D optical profilometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The resulting debris, caused by friction, were also analysed by SEM and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Their morphology showed distinct shapes and sizes, which indicated that the wear mechanisms, may be different in maraging steel produced by casting and SLM. The coefficient of friction (COF) was recorded during the tests, which helped to elucidate the wear mechanisms involved.

Keywords: selective laser melting, nanocomposites, injection moulding, polypropylene with fibreglass

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Authors: Nicolas Plamondon, Stuart Atkinson, Shuzi Zhou

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The insurance industry is usually not the first topic one has in mind when thinking about applications of data science. However, the use of data science in the finance and insurance industry is growing quickly for several reasons, including an abundance of reliable customer data, ferocious competition requiring more accurate pricing, etc. Among the top use cases of data science, we find pricing optimization, customer segmentation, customer risk assessment, fraud detection, marketing, and triage analytics. The objective of this paper is to present an application of the generalized additive model (GAM) on a commercial automobile insurance product: an individually rated commercial automobile. These are vehicles used for commercial purposes, but for which there is not enough volume to apply pricing to several vehicles at the same time. The GAM model was selected as an improvement over GLM for its ease of use and its wide range of applications. The model was trained using the largest split of the data to determine model parameters. The remaining part of the data was used as testing data to verify the quality of the modeling activity. We used the Gini coefficient to evaluate the performance of the model. For long-term monitoring, commonly used metrics such as RMSE and MAE will be used. Another topic of interest in the insurance industry is to process of producing the model. We will discuss at a high level the interactions between the different teams with an insurance company that needs to work together to produce a model and then monitor the performance of the model over time. Moreover, we will discuss the regulations in place in the insurance industry. Finally, we will discuss the maintenance of the model and the fact that new data does not come constantly and that some metrics can take a long time to become meaningful.

Keywords: insurance, data science, modeling, monitoring, regulation, processes

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Authors: Seyed M. Khatami, H. Naderpour, R. Vahdani, R. C. Barros

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Many previous studies have been carried out to calculate the impact force and the dissipated energy between two neighboring buildings during seismic excitation, when they collide with each other. Numerical studies are an important part of impact, which several researchers have tried to simulate the impact by using different formulas. Estimation of the impact force and the dissipated energy depends significantly on some parameters of impact. Mass of bodies, stiffness of spring, coefficient of restitution, damping ratio of dashpot and impact velocity are some known and unknown parameters to simulate the impact and measure dissipated energy during collision. Collision is usually shown by force-displacement hysteresis curve. The enclosed area of the hysteresis loop explains the dissipated energy during impact. In this paper, the effect of using different types of impact models is investigated in order to calculate the impact force. To increase the accuracy of impact model and to optimize the results of simulations, a new damping equation is assumed and is validated to get the best results of impact force and dissipated energy, which can show the accuracy of suggested equation of motion in comparison with other formulas. This relation is called "n-m". Based on mathematical relation, an initial value is selected for the mentioned coefficients and kinetic energy loss is calculated. After each simulation, kinetic energy loss and energy dissipation are compared with each other. If they are equal, selected parameters are true and, if not, the constant of parameters are modified and a new analysis is performed. Finally, two unknown parameters are suggested to estimate the impact force and calculate the dissipated energy.

Keywords: impact force, dissipated energy, kinetic energy loss, damping relation

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Authors: A. G. Cunha, M. Inácio, M. C. Freitas, C. Antunes, T. Silva, C. Andrade, V. Lopes

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Saltmarshes are essential ecosystems both from an ecological and biological point of view. Furthermore, they constitute an important social niche, providing valuable economic and protection functions. Thus, understanding their rates and patterns of sedimentation is critical for functional management and rehabilitation, especially in an SLR scenario. The Sado estuary is located 40 km south of Lisbon. It is a bar built estuary, separated from the sea by a large sand spit: the Tróia barrier. Caldeira de Tróia is located on the free edge of this barrier, and encompasses a salt marsh with ca. 21,000 m². Sediment cores were collected in the high and low marshes and in the mudflat area of the North bank of Caldeira de Tróia. From the low marsh core, fifteen samples were chosen for ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs determination at University of Geneva. The cores from the high marsh and the mudflat are still being analyzed. A sedimentation rate of 2.96 mm/year was derived from ²¹⁰Pb using the Constant Flux Constant Sedimentation model. The ¹³⁷Cs profile shows a peak in activity (1963) between 15.50 and 18.50 cm, giving a 3.1 mm/year sedimentation rate for the past 53 years. The adopted sea level rise scenario was based on a model built with the initial rate of SLR of 2.1 mm/year in 2000 and an acceleration of 0.08 mm/year². Based on the harmonic analysis of Setubal-Tróia tide gauge of 2005 data, the tide model was estimated and used to build the tidal tables to the period 2000-2016. With these tables, the average mean water levels were determined for the same time span. A digital terrain model was created from LIDAR scanning with 2m horizontal resolution (APA-DGT, 2011) and validated with altimetric data obtained with a DGPS-RTK. The response model calculates a new elevation for each pixel of the DTM for 2050 and 2100 based on the sedimentation rates specific of each environment. At this stage, theoretical values were chosen for the high marsh and the mudflat (respectively, equal and double the low marsh rate – 2.92 mm/year). These values will be rectified once sedimentation rates are determined for the other environments. For both projections, the total surface of the marsh decreases: 2% in 2050 and 61% in 2100. Additionally, the high marsh coverage diminishes significantly, indicating a regression in terms of maturity.

Keywords: ¹³⁷Cs, ²¹⁰Pb, saltmarsh, sea level rise, response model

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Authors: Omid Khaiyat, David Hawkes

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Introduction: There remains a lack of information on sophisticated coordination patterns across shoulder girdle muscles. Considering the stability of the shoulder being heavily dependent on coordinated muscle activity during its wide-ranging movements, it is important that key intermuscular relationships are well-defined for a better understanding of underlying pathology. This study investigated shoulder intermuscular coordination during different planes of shoulder elevation. Materials and Methods: EMG was recorded from 14 shoulder muscles in 20 healthy participants during shoulder flexion, scapula plane elevation, abduction, and extension. Cross-correlation by means of Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) was used to examine the coordination between different muscles and muscle groups. Results: Coordination between rotator cuff and deltoid muscle groups was significantly higher (p =0.020-0.035) during the initial (PCC) = 0.79) and final (PCC = 0.74) phases of elevation compared to the mid-range (PCC = 0.34). Furthermore, a high level of coordination (PCC = 0.89) was noted between the deltoid group and the adductor group (latissimus dorsi and teres major) during the initial stage of shoulder elevation. Conclusion: The destabilising force of the deltoid during the initial stage of shoulder elevation is balanced by coordinated activity of rotator cuff, latissimus dorsi, and teres major. This is also the case for the end-range of movement, where increased demand for stability again leads to higher coordination between the deltoid and rotator cuff muscle groups. Appreciation of the sophistication of normal shoulder function evidence-based rehabilitation strategies for conditions such as subacromial impingement syndrome or shoulder instability can be developed.

Keywords: shoulder, coordination, EMG, muscle activity, upper limb

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Authors: Dileep Kumar Gupta, Rajendra Prasad, Pradeep Kumar, Varun Narayan Mishra, Ajeet Kumar Vishwakarma, Prashant K. Srivastava

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An approach was evaluated for the retrieval of soil moisture of bare soil surface using bistatic scatterometer data in the angular range of 200 to 700 at VV- and HH- polarization. The microwave data was acquired by specially designed X-band (10 GHz) bistatic scatterometer. The linear regression analysis was done between scattering coefficients and soil moisture content to select the suitable incidence angle for retrieval of soil moisture content. The 250 incidence angle was found more suitable. The support vector regression analysis was used to approximate the function described by the input-output relationship between the scattering coefficient and corresponding measured values of the soil moisture content. The performance of support vector regression algorithm was evaluated by comparing the observed and the estimated soil moisture content by statistical performance indices %Bias, root mean squared error (RMSE) and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE). The values of %Bias, root mean squared error (RMSE) and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) were found 2.9451, 1.0986, and 0.9214, respectively at HH-polarization. At VV- polarization, the values of %Bias, root mean squared error (RMSE) and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) were found 3.6186, 0.9373, and 0.9428, respectively.

Keywords: bistatic scatterometer, soil moisture, support vector regression, RMSE, %Bias, NSE

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Authors: Naveed Iqbal Chaudhry, Mian Saqib Mehmood, Asif Mehmood

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This study investigates the motivators of foreign direct investment (FDI) which will provide a panacea tool and ground breaking results related to it in case of Pakistan. The study considers exchange rate, market size and human capital as the motivators for attracting FDI. In this regard, time series data on annual basis has been collected for the period 1985–2010 and an Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) and Phillips–Perron (PP) unit root tests are utilized to determine the stationarity of the variables. A bound testing approach to co-integration was applied because the variables included in the model are at I(1) – first level stationary. The empirical findings of this study confirm the long run relationship among the variables. However, market size and human capital have strong positive and significant impact, in short and long-run, for attracting FDI but exchange rate shows negative impact in this regard. The significant negative coefficient of the ECM indicates that it converges towards equilibrium. CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests plots are with in the lines of critical value, which indicates the stability of the estimated parameters. However, this model can be used by Pakistan in policy and decision making. For achieving higher economic growth and economies of scale, the country should concentrate on the ingredients of this study so that it could attract more FDI as compared to the other countries.

Keywords: ARDL, CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests, ECM, exchange rate, FDI, human capital, market size, Pakistan

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Authors: Mohsen Yaghmoor, Sima Radmanesh

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Rapid environmental changes have been threaten the life of many organizations .Enabling and productivity of human resource should be considered as the most important issue in order to increase performance and ensure survival of the organizations. In this research, the effectiveness of management factory in productivity & inability of human resource have been identified and reviewed at glance. Afterward there were two questions they are “what are the factors effecting productivity and enabling of human resource” . And ”what are the priority order based on effective management of human resource in Fars Poultry Complex". A specified questionnaire has been designed in order to priorities and effectiveness of the identified factors. Six factors specify to consist of: Individual characteristics, teaching, motivation, partnership management, authority or power submission and job development that have most effect on organization. Then specify a questionnaire for priority and effect measurement of specified factor that reach after collect information and using statistical tests of keronchbakh alpha coefficient r=0.792 that we can say the questionnaire has sufficient reliability. After information analysis of specified six factors by Friedman test categorize their effect. Measurement on organization respectively consists of individual characteristics, job development or enrichment, authority submission, partnership management, teaching and motivation. At last it has been indicated to approaches to increase making power full and productivity of manpower.

Keywords: productivity, empowerment, enrichment, authority submission, partnership management, teaching, motivation

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Authors: Omar Imine, Mohammed Aounallah, Mustapha Belkadi

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Steady three-dimensional and two free surface waves generated by moving bodies are presented, the flow problem to be simulated is rich in complexity and poses many modeling challenges because of the existence of breaking waves around the ship hull, and because of the interaction of the two-phase flow with the turbulent boundary layer. The results of several simulations are reported. The first study was performed for NACA0012 of hydrofoil with different meshes, this section is analyzed at h/c= 1, 0345 for 2D. In the second simulation, a mathematically defined Wigley hull form is used to investigate the application of a commercial CFD code in prediction of the total resistance and its components from tangential and normal forces on the hull wetted surface. The computed resistance and wave profiles are used to estimate the coefficient of the total resistance for Wigley hull advancing in calm water under steady conditions. The commercial CFD software FLUENT version 12 is used for the computations in the present study. The calculated grid is established using the code computer GAMBIT 2.3.26. The shear stress k-ωSST model is used for turbulence modeling and the volume of the fluid technique is employed to simulate the free-surface motion. The second order upwind scheme is used for discretizing the convection terms in the momentum transport equations, the Modified HRICscheme for VOF discretization. The results obtained compare well with the experimental data.

Keywords: free surface flows, breaking waves, boundary layer, Wigley hull, volume of fluid

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Authors: Outokesh Fatemeh, Jourabchi Keivan, Talebi Maryam, Nikbakht Fatemeh

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Mayamei is a small town in Iran that is located between Shahrud and Sabzevar cities, on the Silk Road. It enjoys a history of approximately 1000 years. An alley entitled ‘Aghayan’ exists in this town that comprises residential buildings of a famous family. Bathhouse, mosque, telegraph center, cistern are all related to this alley. This architectural complex belongs to Sadat Mousavi, who is one of the Mayamei's major grandees and religious household. The alley after construction has been inherited from generation to generation within the family masters. The purpose of this study, which was conducted on Aghayan alley and its associated complex, was to elucidate Iranian vernacular domestic architecture of Qajar era in small towns and villages. We searched for large, medium, and small architectural patterns in the contemplated complex, and tried to elaborate their evolution from past to the present. The other objective of this project was finding a correlation between changes in the lifestyle of the alley’s inhabitants with the form of the building's architecture. Our investigation methods included: literature review especially in regard to historical travelogues, peer site visiting, mapping, interviewing of the elderly people of the Mousavi family (the owners), and examining the available documents especially the 4 meters’ scroll-type testament of 150 years ago. For the analysis of the aforementioned data, an effort was made to discover (1) the patterns of placing of different buildings in respect of the others, (2) finding the relation between function of the buildings with their relative location in the complex, as was considered in the original design, and (3) possible changes of functions of the buildings during the time. In such an investigation, special attention was paid to the chronological changes of lifestyles of the residents. In addition, we tried to take all different activities of the residents into account including their daily life activities, religious ceremonies, etc. By combining such methods, we were able to obtain a picture of the buildings in their original (construction) state, along with a knowledge of the temporal evolution of the architecture. An interesting finding is that the Aghayan complex seems to be a big structure of the horizontal type apartments, which are placed next to each other. The houses made in this way are connected to the adjacent neighbors both by the bifacial rooms and from the roofs.

Keywords: Iran, Qajar period, vernacular domestic architecture, life style, residential complex

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Authors: Lu Zhao, Yanrong Kang, Lili Guo, Yuan Long, Guidong Xing

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Smart watches, as a handy device with rich functionality, has become one of the most popular wearable devices all over the world. Among the various function, the most basic is health monitoring. The monitoring data can be provided as an effective evidence or a clue for the detection of crime cases. For instance, the step counting data can help to determine whether the watch wearer was quiet or moving during the given time period. There is, however, still quite few research on the analysis of human character based on these data. The purpose of this research is to analyze the health monitoring data to distinguish the drinking state from normal state. The analysis result may play a role in cases involving drinking, such as drunk driving. The experiment mainly focused on finding the figures of smart watch health monitoring data that change with drinking and figuring up the change scope. The chosen subjects are mostly in their 20s, each of whom had been wearing the same smart watch for a week. Each subject drank for several times during the week, and noted down the begin and end time point of the drinking. The researcher, then, extracted and analyzed the health monitoring data from the watch. According to the descriptive statistics analysis, it can be found that the heart rate change when drinking. The average heart rate is about 10% higher than normal, the coefficient of variation is less than about 30% of the normal state. Though more research is needed to be carried out, this experiment and analysis provide a thought of the application of the data from smart watches.

Keywords: character analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, drink state, heart rate, smart watch

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Authors: Sayan Munshi, Subrajit Banerjee, Indrani Chakraborty

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Tourism is a prime sector in the economic development of many countries in particular the Indian sub-continent. Tourism is considered an integral pillar in the Make in India Program under the Government of India. The statistics of tourism in India had evolved from a past with the formation of History. The sector had shown dynamic changes in the statistics since 1980. With the evolving tourism along with destinations, this sector has been converted into the prime industry, as it not only impacts the destination but on the other hand supports the periphery of the destination. Tourism boost revenue and creates varied economic possibilities for the residents. Due to the influx of tourism in the cities, a load on the infrastructure and services can be observed, specifically in the Physical Infrastructure sectors. Due to the floating population in the designated tourism core of the Urban / Peri-Urban area, issues pertaining to Solid waste management and Transportation are highly observed. Thus, a need for capacity building arises for the infrastructure impacted by tourism, which may result in the upgradation of the lifestyle of the city and its permanent users. As tourism of a region has a dependency on the infrastructure, the paper here focuses on the relationship between tourism potential of a region and the infrastructural determinants of the city or region and hence to derive a structural equation supporting the relationship, further determine a coefficient and suggest the domain of in need of upgradation or retrofitting possibilities. The outcome of the paper is to suggest possible recommendations towards the formation of policies on an urban level to support the tourism potential of the region.

Keywords: urban planning, tourism planning, infrastructure, transportation, solid waste management

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Authors: Shivaji M. Sonawane, N. B. Chaure

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ZnTe is direct band gap, the P-type semiconductor with the high absorption coefficient of the order of 104cm-1 is suitable for solar cell development. It can be used as a low resistive ohmic contact to CdS/CdTe or tandem solar cell application. ZnTe and Cu-ZnTe thin film have been electrochemically synthesized on to fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass substrates using three electrode systems containing Ag/AgCl, graphite and FTO as reference, counter and working electrode respectively were used to deposit the thin films. The aqueous electrolytic solution consist of 0.5M TeO2, 0.2M ZnSO4, and 0.1M Na3C6H5O7:2H2O, 0.1MC6H8O7:H2O and 0.1mMCuSO4 with PH 2.5 at room temperature was used. The reaction mechanism is studied in the cyclic voltammetry to identify the deposition potentials of ZnTe and Cu-ZnTe.The potential was optimized in the range -0,9 to -1,1 V. Vs Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The effect of deposition potential on the structural properties was studied by using X-ray diffraction. The X-ray diffraction result reveled cubic crystal structure of ZnTe with preferential (111) orientation with cubic structure. The surface morphology and film composition were analyzed by means of Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Analysis of X- Rays (EDAX). The optical absorption measurement has been analyzed for the band gap determination of deposited layers about 2.26 eV by UV-Visible spectroscopy. The drastic change in resistivity has been observed due to incorporation of copper probably due to the diffusion of Cu into grain boundaries.

Keywords: ohmic back contact, zinc telluride, electrodeposition, photovoltaic devices

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Authors: Pauline Cuenin, Marcelo Leles Romarco Oliveira

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Based on their localities and following their ecological rationality, family-based farmers have experimented, adapted and innovated to improve their production systems continuously for millennia. With the technological package transfer processes of the so-called Green Revolution for agricultural holdings, farmers have become increasingly dependent on ready-made "recipes" built from so-called "universal" and global knowledge to face the problems that emerge in the management of local agroecosystems, thus reducing their creative and experiential capacities. However, the production of novelties within farms is fundamental to the transition to more sustainable agro food systems. In fact, as the fruits of local knowledge and / or the contextualization of exogenous knowledge, novelties are seen as seeds of transition. By presenting new techniques, new organizational forms and epistemological approaches, agroecology was pointed out as a way to encourage and promote the creative capacity of farmers. From this perspective, this theoretical work aims to analyze how agroecology encourages the innovative capacity of farmers, and in general, the production of novelties. For this, an analysis was made of the theoretical and methodological bases of agroecology through a literature review, specifically looking for the way in which it articulates the local with the global, complemented by an analysis of agro ecological Brazilian experiences. It was emphasized that, based on the peasant way of doing agriculture, that is, on ecological / social co-evolution or still called co-production (interaction between human beings and living nature), agroecology recognizes and revalues peasant involves the deep interactions of the farmer with his site (bio-physical and social). As a "place science," practice and movement, it specifically takes into consideration the local and empirical knowledge of farmers, which allows questioning and modifying the paradigms that underpin the current agriculture that have disintegrated farmers' creative processes. In addition to upgrade the local, agroecology allows the dialogue of local knowledge with global knowledge, essential in the process of changes to get out of the dominant logic of thought and give shape to new experiences. In order to reach this articulation, agroecology involves new methodological focuses seeking participatory methods of study and intervention that express themselves in the form of horizontal spaces of socialization and collective learning that involve several actors with different knowledge. These processes promoted by agroecology favor the production of novelties at local levels for expansion at other levels, such as the global, through trans local agro ecological networks.

Keywords: agroecology, creativity, global, local, novelty

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Authors: A. Nicknam, N. Eftekhari, A. Mazarei, M. Ganjvar

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This article presents an alternative collapse capacity intensity measure in the three elements form which is influenced by the spectral ordinates at periods longer than that of the first mode period at near and far source sites. A parameter, denoted by β, is defined by which the spectral ordinate effects, up to the effective period (2T_1), on the intensity measure are taken into account. The methodology permits to meet the hazard-levelled target extreme event in the probabilistic and deterministic forms. A MATLAB code is developed involving OpenSees to calculate the collapse capacities of the 8 archetype RC structures having 2 to 20 stories for regression process. The incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method is used to calculate the structure’s collapse values accounting for the element stiffness and strength deterioration. The general near field set presented by FEMA is used in a series of performing nonlinear analyses. 8 linear relationships are developed for the 8structutres leading to the correlation coefficient up to 0.93. A collapse capacity near field prediction equation is developed taking into account the results of regression processes obtained from the 8 structures. The proposed prediction equation is validated against a set of actual near field records leading to a good agreement. Implementation of the proposed equation to the four archetype RC structures demonstrated different collapse capacities at near field site compared to those of FEMA. The reasons of differences are believed to be due to accounting for the spectral shape effects.

Keywords: collapse capacity, fragility analysis, spectral shape effects, IDA method

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Authors: Fenni Sim

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Objectives: The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between family functioning and level of self-efficacy: how family functioning can potentially affect self-efficacy which will eventually lead to better clinical outcomes. The hypothesis was ‘Patients on haemodialysis with perceived higher family functioning are more likely to have higher perceived level of self-efficacy’. Methods: The study was conducted with a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative data collection of survey and semi-structured interview respectively. The General Self-Efficacy scale and SCORE-15 were self-administered by participants. The data will be analysed with correlation analysis method using Microsoft Excel. 79 patients were recruited for the study through random sampling. 6 participants whose results did not reflect the hypothesis were then recruited for the qualitative study. Interpretive phemenological analysis was then used to analyse the qualitative data. Findings: The hypothesis was accepted that higher family functioning leads to higher perceived self-efficacy. The correlation coefficient of -0.21 suggested a mild correlation between the two variables. However, only 4.6% of the variation in perceived self-efficacy is accounted by the variation in family functioning. The qualitative study extrapolated three themes that might explain the variations in the outliers: (1) level of physical functioning affects perceived self-efficacy, (2) instrumental support from family influenced perceived level of family functioning, and self-efficacy, (3) acceptance of illness reflects higher level of self-efficacy. Conclusion: While family functioning does have an impact on perceived self-efficacy, there are many intrapersonal and physical factors that may affect self-efficacy. The concepts of family functioning and self-efficacy are more appropriately seen as complementing each other to help a patient in managing his illness. Healthcare social workers can look at how family functioning is supporting the individual needs of patients with different trajectory of ESRD and the support we can provide to improve one’s self-efficacy.

Keywords: chronic kidney disease, coping of illness, family functioning, self efficacy

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Authors: O. B. Oriolowo, O. J. John

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Empirical findings have shown insects to be nutritious and good source of food for man. However, human food preferences are not only determined by nutritional values of food consumed but, more importantly, by sociology and economic pressure. This study examined the interrelation between science and sociology in sustaining the acceptance of entomophagy among college students to combat food insecurity. A twenty items five Likert scale, College Students Entomophagy Questionnaire (CSEQ), was used to elucidate information from the respondents. The reliability coefficient was obtained to be 0.91 using Spearman-Brown Prophecy formula. Three research questions and three hypotheses were raised. Also, quantitative nutritional analysis of few insects and some established conventional protein sources were undertaking in order to compare their nutritional status. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of percentages and inferential statistics of correlation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results obtained showed that entomophagy has cultural heritage among different tribes in Nigeria and is an acceptable practice; it cuts across every social stratum and is practiced among both major religions. Moreover, insects compared favourably in term of nutrient contents when compared with the conventional animal protein sources analyzed. However, there is a gradual decline in the practice of entomophagy among students, which may be attributed to the influence of western civilization. This study, therefore, recommended an intensification of research and enlightenment of people on the usefulness of entomophagy so as to preserve its cultural heritage as well as boost human food security.

Keywords: entomophagy, food security, malnutrition, poverty alleviation, sociology

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Authors: Jatindra Lahkar

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The effect of chemical reaction on laminar mixed convection flow and heat and mass transfer along a vertical unsteady stretching sheet is investigated, in the presence of heat generation/absorption with variable viscosity and viscous dissipation. The governing non-linear partial differential equations are reduced to ordinary differential equations using similarity transformation and solved numerically using the fourth order Runge-Kutta method along with shooting technique. The effects of various flow parameters on the velocity, temperature and concentration distributions are analyzed and presented graphically. Skin-friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are derived at the sheet. It is observed that the influence of chemical reaction, the fluid flow along the sheet accelerate with the increase of chemical reaction parameter, on the other hand, temperature of the fluid increases with increase of chemical reaction parameter but concentration of the fluid reduces with it. The boundary layer decreases on the surface of the sheet for all values of unsteadiness parameter, increasing values of the chemical reaction parameter. The increases in the values of Sc cause the species concentration and its boundary layer thickness to decrease resulting in less induced flow and higher fluid temperatures. This is depicted in the decreases in the velocity and species concentration and increases in the fluid temperature as Sc increases.

Keywords: chemical reaction, heat generation/absorption, magnetic number, unsteadiness, variable viscosity

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