Search results for: Industrial policy

Authors: Tin Thongthammachart, Wanida Jinsart

Abstract:

Atmospheric particulate matter particles with a diameter less than 10 microns (PM₁₀) and less than 2.5 microns (PM₂.₅) have adverse health effect. The impact from PM was studied from both health and regulatory perspective. Ambient PM data was collected over ten years in Bangkok and vicinity areas of Thailand from 2007 to 2017. Statistical models were used to forecast PM concentrations from 2018 to 2020. Monitoring monthly data averaged concentration of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ were used as input to forecast the monthly average concentration of PM. The forecasting results were validated by root means square error (RMSE). The predicted results were used to determine hazard risk for the carcinogenic disease. The health risk values were interpolated with GIS with ordinary kriging technique to create hazard maps in Bangkok and vicinity area. GIS-based maps illustrated the variability of PM distribution and high-risk locations. These evaluated results could support national policy for the sake of human health.

Keywords: PM₁₀, PM₂.₅, statistical models, atmospheric particulate matter

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Salman Iqbal

Abstract:

Knowledge management (KM) literature has mainly focused on the antecedents of KM. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of specific human resource management (HRM) practices on employee knowledge sharing and its outcome as individual knowledge capability. Based on previous literature, a model is proposed for the study and hypotheses are formulated. The cross-sectional dataset comes from a sample of 19 knowledge intensive firms (KIFs). This study has run an item parceling technique followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the latent constructs of the research model. Employees’ collaboration and their interpersonal trust can help to improve their knowledge sharing behaviour and knowledge capability within organisations. This study suggests that in future, by using a larger sample, better statistical insight is possible. The findings of this study are beneficial for scholars, policy makers and practitioners. The empirical results of this study are entirely based on employees’ perceptions and make a significant research contribution, given there is a dearth of empirical research focusing on the subcontinent.

Keywords: employees’ collaboration, individual knowledge capability, knowledge sharing, monetary rewards, structural equation modelling

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Jamie Lee Harder

Abstract:

In the context of rapidly changing social and economic circumstances in the developing world, this paper analyses access to public healthcare for poor people with disabilities in Cambodia. Like other countries of South East Asia, Cambodia is developing at rapid pace. The historical past of Cambodia, however, has set former social policy structures to zero. This past forces Cambodia and its citizens to implement new public health policies to align with the needs of social care, healthcare, and urban planning. In this context, the role of people with disabilities (PwDs) is crucial as new developments should and can take into consideration their specific needs from the beginning onwards. This paper is based on qualitative research with expert interviews and focus group discussions in Cambodia. During the field work it became clear that the identification tool for the poorest households (HHs) does not count disability as a financial risk to fall into poverty neither when becoming sick nor because of higher health expenditures and/or lower income because of the disability. The social risk group of poor PwDs faces several barriers in accessing public healthcare. The urbanization, the socio-economic health status, and opportunities for education; all influence social status and have an impact on the health situation of these individuals. Cambodia has various difficulties with providing access to people with disabilities, mostly due to barriers regarding finances, geography, quality of care, poor knowledge about their rights and negative social and cultural beliefs. Shortened budgets and the lack of prioritizations lead to the need for reorientation of local communities, international and national non-governmental organizations and social policy. The poorest HHs are identified with a questionnaire, the IDPoor program, for which the Ministry of Planning is responsible. The identified HHs receive an ‘Equity Card’ which provides access free of charge to public healthcare centers and hospitals among other benefits. The dataset usually does not include information about the disability status. Four focus group discussions (FGD) with 28 participants showed various barriers in accessing public healthcare. These barriers go far beyond a missing ramp to access the healthcare center. The contents of the FGDs were ratified and repeated during the expert interviews with the local Ministries, NGOs, international organizations and private persons working in the field. The participants of the FGDs faced and continue to face high discrimination, low capacity to work and earn an own income, dependency on others and less social competence in their lives. When discussing their health situation, we identified, a huge difference between those who are identified and hold an Equity Card and those who do not. Participants reported high costs without IDPoor identification, positive experiences when going to the health center in terms of attitude and treatment, low satisfaction with specific capacities for treatments, negative rumors, and discrimination with the consequence of fear to seek treatment in many cases. The problem of accessing public healthcare by risk groups can be adapted to situations in other countries.

Keywords: access, disability, health, inequality, Cambodia

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Majid Farsadrouh Rashti, Alireza Mohammadinejad, Amir Shafiee Kisomi

Abstract:

Lead (Pb²⁺), a cation, is a prime constituent of the majority of the industrial effluents such as mining, smelting and coal combustion, Pb-based painting and Pb containing pipes in water supply systems, paper and pulp refineries, printing, paints and pigments, explosive manufacturing, storage batteries, alloy and steel industries. The maximum permissible limit of lead in the water used for drinking and domesticating purpose is 0.01 mg/L as advised by Bureau of Indian Standards, BIS. This becomes the acceptable 'safe' level of lead(II) ions in water beyond which, the water becomes unfit for human use and consumption, and is potential enough to lead health problems and epidemics leading to kidney failure, neuronal disorders, and reproductive infertility. Superabsorbent hydrogels are loosely crosslinked hydrophilic polymers that in contact with aqueous solution can easily water and swell to several times to their initial volume without dissolving in aqueous medium. Superabsorbents are kind of hydrogels capable to swell and absorb a large amount of water in their three-dimensional networks. While the shapes of hydrogels do not change extensively during swelling, because of tremendously swelling capacity of superabsorbent, their shape will broadly change.Because of their superb response to changing environmental conditions including temperature pH, and solvent composition, superabsorbents have been attracting in numerous industrial applications. For instance, water retention property and subsequently. Natural-based superabsorbent hydrogels have attracted much attention in medical pharmaceutical, baby diapers, agriculture, and horticulture because of their non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Novel superabsorbent hydrogel nanocomposites were prepared by graft copolymerization of acrylamide and itaconic acid in the presence of nanoclay (laponite), using methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) and potassium persulfate, former as a crosslinking agent and the second as an initiator. The superabsorbent hydrogel nanocomposites structure was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, SEM and TGA Spectroscopy adsorption of metal ions on poly (AAm-co-IA). The equilibrium swelling values of copolymer was determined by gravimetric method. During the adsorption of metal ions on polymer, residual metal ion concentration in the solution and the solution pH were measured. The effects of the clay content of the hydrogel on its metal ions uptake behavior were studied. The NC hydrogels may be considered as a good candidate for environmental applications to retain more water and to remove heavy metals.

Keywords: adsorption, hydrogel, nanocomposite, super adsorbent

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Nishimwe Clemence, Mchunu Gugu, Mukamusoni Dariya

Abstract:

Background: Community health workers and extension workers can play an important role in supporting families to adopt health practices, encourage delivery in a health care facility, and ensure time referral of mothers and newborns if needed. Saving the lives of neonates should, therefore, be a significant health outcome in any maternal and newborn health program that is being implemented. Furthermore, about half of a million mothers die from pregnancy-related causes. Maternal and newborn deaths related to the period of postnatal care are neglected. Some authors emphasized that in developing countries, newborn mortality rates have been reduced much more slowly because of the lack of many necessary facility-based and outreach service. The aim of this review was to critically analyze the implementation and integration process of the maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers, into the health care system, in Africa. Furthermore, it aims to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. We addressed the following review question: (1) what process is involved in the implementation and integration of the maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers during antenatal, delivery and postnatal care into health system care in Africa? Methods: The database searched was from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition through academic search complete via EBSCO Host. An iterative approach was used to go through Google scholarly papers. The reviewers considered adapted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance, and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used. Synthesis method in integrative review following elements of noting patterns and themes, seeing plausibility, clustering, counting, making contrasts and comparisons, discerning commons and unusual patterns, subsuming particulars into general, noting relations between variability, finding intervening factors and building a logical chain of evidence, using data–based convergent synthesis design. Results: From the seventeen of studies included, results focused on three dimensions inspired by the literature on antenatal, delivery, and postnatal interventions. From this, further conceptual framework was elaborated. The conceptual framework process of implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers was elaborated in order to ensure the sustainability of community based intervention. Conclusions: the review revealed that the implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health care program require planning. We call upon governments, non-government organizations, the global health community, all stakeholders including policy makers, program managers, evaluators, educators, and providers to be involved in implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health program in updated policy and community-based intervention. Furthermore, emphasis should be placed on competence, responsibility, and accountability of maternal community health workers, their training and payment, collaboration with health professionals in health facilities, and reinforcement of outreach service. However, the review was limited in focus to the African context, where the process of maternal and newborn health care program has been poorly implemented.

Keywords: Africa, implementation of integration, maternal, newborn

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Oyewusi Peter Ayodele, Onipede Ayodeji

Abstract:

Our research focuses on some physicochemical parameters of Moringa Oleifera seed meal and its seed oil to determine its nutritional quality. Proximate, mineral, and vitamin analyses were performed on the defatted seed meal, while fatty acid determination was carried out on the seed oil. The results of the proximate composition show moisture content (3.52 ± 0.01), ash (2.80 ± 0.33), crude fibre (3.92 ± 0.01), protein (42.96 ± 0.05), crude fat (7.04 ± 0.01) and carbohydrate (36.79 ± 0.04). The mineral composition shows that the seed is rich in Ca, K, and Na with 220ppm, 205ppm, and 118ppm, respectively. The seed has vitamins A and C with 2.17 ± 0.01mg/100g and 6.95 ± 0.00 mg/100g respectively. The seed also contains 56.62 %, 38.50 %, and 5.24 % saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, respectively. It could be illustrated that Moringa seeds and their oil can be considered potential sources for both dietary and industrial purposes.

Keywords: Moringa oleifera seed, chemical composition, fatty acid, proximate, minerals and vitamins compositions

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Mahsa Moteshakeri

Abstract:

Morinda citrifolia L., a miracle fruit with common name of Noni, has been widely used as food and traditional medicine in the Polynesians culture. Current scientific evidences have proved the therapeautical and nutritional properties of this fruit so that its extensive production in tropical regions in recent years has emerged a competitive global Noni market mainly as a dietary supplement in the form of juice or tablet. However, there is not much record on the processing method applied on fresh fruit postharvest or even its mechanism of action in controlling diseases. This review aimed to provide a comprehensive data on phytochemicals, technical, and nutritional advances on Noni fruit and recent patents published, as well as medicinal properties of the fruit in order to benefit future investigations on this precious fruit either in industrial or therapeautical section.

Keywords: noni fruit, phytochemicals, therapeautic properties of fruit, nutritional properties of fruit

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Doreen Orishaba, Paul Isaac Musasizi, Richard Madanda, Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa

Abstract:

The world of academia tends to be a very insular place. Consequently, scholars who successfully completed their undergraduate and graduate studies are unpleasantly surprised at how challenging the transition to corporate life can get. This is a global trend even as the students who juggle work with attending some of the most demanding and best graduate programs may not easily adjust to and confirm to the professionalism required for corporate management of the industry. This paper explores the trends in the transition of Kiira EV Project from a predominantly student team to a professional team of a national pride program through mentorship and apprenticeship. The core disciplines within the Kiira EV Project include Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Industrial Design.

Keywords: mentorship, apprenticeship, professional, development

Procedia PDF Downloads 415

Authors: Abdullateef Abdulkarim Jimoh, Muhammad Lawal A., Usman Muhammad, Hamisu Abdullahi, Nuhu Abdullahi Jega

Abstract:

Smart city projects can be aided by urban development policies in public facilities, but economic resources to finance urban system reorganization is an issue to various governments. This is further compounded with the impact of the slowing down of national economies. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the need to prioritize the economic benefits of smart city projects and, specifically, in towns transforming into cities like Birnin kebbi. The smart-city projects can aim at developing a new form of ‘‘modernity and civilization’’ of the productive economy. This study adopts the descriptive statistical approach to identify the key performance indicators (KPI) for tracking the progress of cities and its developmental objectives. It has been established that numerous aspects of the modernization policies can enhance the competitiveness of territories, particular in aspects of social cohesion, the diffusion of knowledge, creativity, accessibility, etc.

Keywords: economy, economic policy, public facilities, smart city, urbanization

Procedia PDF Downloads 110

Authors: Aneri Mehta, Krunal Mehta

Abstract:

Administration is largely based on two sciences: ‘management science’ and ‘political science’. The approach of new public management is more inclined towards the management science. Era of ‘New Public Management’ has affected the developing countries very immensely. Public management reforms are needed to enhance the development of the countries. This reform mainly includes capacity building, control of corruption, political decentralization, debureaucratization and public empowerment. This gives the opportunity to create self-sustaining change in the governance. This paper includes the link of approach of new public management and their effect on building effective democratization in the country. This approach mainly focuses on rationality and effectiveness of governance system. These need to have deep efforts on technological, organizational, social and cultural fields. Bringing citizen participation in governance is main objective of NPM. The shift from traditional public management to new public management have low success rate of reforms. This research includes case study of RTI which is a big step of government towards citizen centric approach of governance. The aspect of ‘publicness’ in the democratic policy implementation is important for good governance in India.

Keywords: public management, development, public empowerment, governance

Procedia PDF Downloads 505

Authors: L. Haddad, Z. Aouachria

Abstract:

The development of transport systems has negative impacts on the environment although it has beneficial effects on society.. The car policy caused many problems such as: - the spectacular growth of fuel consumption hence the very vast increase in urban pollution, traffic congestion in certain places and at certain times, the increase in the number of accidents. The exhaust emissions from cars and weather conditions are the main factors that determine the level of pollution in urban atmosphere. These conditions lead to the phenomenon of heat transfer and radiation occurring between the air and the soil surface of any town. These exchanges give rise, in urban areas, to the effects of heat islands that correspond to the appearance of excess air temperature between the city and its surrounding space. In this object, we perform a numerical simulation of the plume generated by the cars exhaust gases and show that these gases form a screening effect above the urban city which cause the heat island in the presence of wind flow. This study allows us: i. To understand the different mechanisms of interactions between these phenomena. ii. To consider appropriate technical solutions to mitigate the effects of the heat island.

Keywords: atmospheric pollution, impact on the health, urban transport, heat island

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Hadi Rezghimaleki, Masatoshi Kubouchi, Yoshihiko Arao

Abstract:

The use of natural fiber composites (NFCs) is growing at a fast rate regarding industrial applications and principle researches due to their eco-friendly, renewable nature, and low density/costs. Drilling is one of the most important machining operations that are carried out on natural fiber composites. Delamination is a major concern in the drilling process of NFCs that affects the structural integrity and long-term reliability of the machined components. Flax fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates were prepared by hot press technique. In this research, we evaluated drilling-induced delamination of flax/epoxy composites by X-ray computed tomography (CT), ultrasonic testing (UT), and optical methods and compared the results.

Keywords: natural fiber composites, flax/epoxy, X-ray CT, ultrasonic testing

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: Wallia Majeed

Abstract:

Humidity sensors based on doped ZnO-rGO composites have shown promise due to their sensitivity to humidity changes. Here, it report on the hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO-rGO and doped ZnO-rGO nanocomposites, incorporating cobalt and iron dopants at 2% concentration. X-ray diffraction confirmed successful doping, while scanning electron microscopy revealed the composite's layered structure with embedded ZnO rods. To evaluate their performance, humidity sensors were fabricated by depositing aluminum electrodes on silicon substrates coated with the composites. The Fe-doped ZnO-rGO sensor exhibited rapid response (27 s) and recovery times (24 s) across a wide humidity range (11% to 97% RH), surpassing ZnO-rGO and Co-doped ZnO-rGO variants in sensitivity (2.2k at 100 Hz). These findings highlight Fe-doped ZnO-rGO composites as ideal candidates for humidity sensing applications, offering enhanced performance crucial for environmental monitoring and industrial processes.

Keywords: humidity sensors, nanocomposites, hydrothermal synthesis, sensitivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 34

Authors: Alpana Saini, Sanghamitra Barman

Abstract:

Investigations were carried out to determine whether low cost peanut hull as adsorbent hold promise in removal of thionine dyes in the biomedical industries. Pollution of water due to presence of colorants is a severe socio-environmental problem caused by the discharge of industrial wastewater. In view of their toxicity, non-biodegradability and persistent nature, their removal becomes an absolute necessity. For the removal of Thionine Dye using Peanut Hull, the 10mg/L concentration of dyes, 0.5g/l of adsorbent and 200 rpm agitation speed are found to be optimum for the adsorption studies. The Spectrophotometric technique was adopted for the measurement of concentration of dyes before and after adsorption at ʎmax 598nm. The adsorption data has been fitted well to Langmuir isotherm than to Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The adsorbent was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

Keywords: adsorption, langmuir isotherm, peanut hull, thionine

Procedia PDF Downloads 377

Authors: Ting Shen

Abstract:

Whether resource matters to school has been a topic of intense debate since 1960s. Educational researchers and policy makers have been particularly interested in knowing the return or payoff of Per-Pupil Expenditure (PPE) on improving students’ achievement. However, the evidence on the effect of PPE has been mixed and the size of the effect is also unknown. With regard to the methods, it is well-known that meta-analysis study is superior to individual study and it is also preferred to vote counting method in terms of scientifically weighting the evidence by the sample size. This meta-analysis study aims to provide a synthesized evidence on the correlation between PPE and student academic achievement using recent study data from 1990s to 2010s. Meta-analytical approach of fixed- and random-effects models will be utilized in addition to a meta regression with predictors of year, location, region and school type. A preliminary result indicates that by and large there is no statistically significant relationship between per pupil expenditure and student achievement, but location seems to have a mediating effect.

Keywords: per pupil expenditure, student academic achievement, multilevel model, meta-analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Ahmed Abdullah, Lyndon Murphy, Brychan Thomas

Abstract:

Increasingly, in developed and developing countries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are becoming more important to national economies due to their strategic significance in developing different industrial sectors Worldwide. SMEs play a major role in an economy by significantly contributing to the enhancement of the countries’ gross domestic product and its labor force by creating more job opportunities and developing skilled labor. Rapid development has been witnessed in the World within different aspects of life, especially the technological revolution such as e-business. This has become a feature of this era requiring us to ‘keep-up’ in our daily society, losing the traditional pattern of our daily lives and combining scientific methodology of an analytical and experimental nature. In the past few years the emergence of e-business and e-commerce in the world has been carefully surveyed. There is widespread use of the internet in every aspect and phase of business.

Keywords: e-business, e-business activities, SMEs, e-adoption ladder

Procedia PDF Downloads 529

Authors: Dongfang Qiu, Yilin Lu

Abstract:

The measurement of enterprise-university-research cooperative efficiency has important meanings in improving the cooperative efficiency, strengthening the effective integration of regional resource, enhancing the ability of regional innovation and promoting the development of regional economy. The paper constructs the DEA method and DEA-Malmquist productivity index method to research the cooperation efficiency of Hubei by making comparisons with other provinces in China. The study found out the index of technology efficiency is 0.52 and the enterprise-university- research cooperative efficiency is Non-DEA efficient. To realize the DEA efficiency of Hubei province, the amount of 1652.596 R&D employees and 638.368 R&D employees’ full time equivalence should be reduced or 137.89 billion yuan of new products’ sales income be increased. Finally, it puts forward policy recommendations on existing problems to strengthen the standings of the cooperation, realize the effective application of the research results, and improve the level of management of enterprise-university-research cooperation efficiency.

Keywords: cooperation ability, DEA method, enterprise-university-research cooperation, Malmquist efficiency index

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: H. Yousefnia, S. Zolghadri, AR. Jalilian, A. Mirzaei, A. Bahrami-Samani, M. Erfani

Abstract:

The objective of this study is the preparation of 111In-DOTMP as a new bone imaging agent. 111In was produced at the Agricultural, Medical and Industrial Research School (AMIRS) by means of 30 MeV cyclotron via natCd(p,x)111In reaction. Complexion of In‐111 with DOTMP was carried out by adding 0.1 ml of the stock solution (50 mg/ml in 2 N NaoH) to the vial containing 1 mCi of 111In. pH of the mixture was adjusted to 7-8 by means of phosphate buffer. The radiochemical purity of the complex at the optimized condition was higher than 98% (by using whatman No.1 paper in NH4OH:MeOH: H2O (0.2:2:4)). Both the biodistribution studies and SPECT imaging indicated high bone uptake. The ratio of bone to other soft tissue accumulation was significantly high which permit to observe high quality images. The results show that 111In-DOTMP can be used as a suitable tracer for diagnosis of bone metastases by SPECT imaging.

Keywords: biodistribution, DOTMP, 111In, SPECT

Procedia PDF Downloads 531

Authors: Fathonah Siti, Ardiana Irma

Abstract:

Indonesia is currently on its track to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2019. The program aims to address issues on disintegration in the implementation and coverage of various health insurance schemes and fragmented fund pooling. Family planning service is covered as one of benefit packages under preventive care. However, little has been done to examine how family planning program are appropriately managed across levels of governments and how family planning services are delivered to the end user. The study is performed through focus group discussion to related policy makers and selected programmers at central and district levels. The study is also benefited from relevant studies on family planning in the UHC scheme and other supporting data. The study carefully investigates some programmatic implications when family planning is integrated in the UHC program encompassing the need to recalculate contraceptive logistics for beneficiaries (eligible couple); policy reformulation for contraceptive service provision including supply chain management; establishment of family planning standard of procedure; and a call to update Management Information System. The study confirms that there is a significant increase in the numbers of contraceptive commodities needs to be procured by the government. Holding an assumption that contraceptive prevalence rate and commodities cost will be as expected increasing at 0.5% annually, the government need to allocate almost IDR 5 billion by 2019, excluded fee for service. The government shifts its focus to maintain eligible health facilities under National Population and Family Planning Board networks. By 2019, the government has set strategies to anticipate the provision of family planning services to 45.340 health facilities distributed in 514 districts and 7 thousand sub districts. Clear division of authorities has been established among levels of governments. Three models of contraceptive supply planning have been developed and currently in the process of being institutionalized. Pre service training for family planning services has been piloted in 10 prominent universities. The position of private midwives has been appreciated as part of the system. To ensure the implementation of quality and health expenditure control, family planning standard has been established as a reference to determine set of services required to deliver to the clients properly and types of health facilities to conduct particular family planning services. Recognition to individual status of program participation has been acknowledged in the Family Enumeration since 2015. The data is precisely recorded by name by address for each family and its members. It supplies valuable information to 15.131 Family Planning Field Workers (FPFWs) to provide information and education related to family planning in an attempt to generate demand and maintain the participation of family planning acceptors who are program beneficiaries. Despite overwhelming efforts described above, some obstacles remain. The program experiences poor socialization and yet removes geographical barriers for those living in remote areas. Family planning services provided for this sub population conducted outside the scheme as a complement strategy. However, UHC program has brought remarkable improvement in access and quality of family planning services.

Keywords: beneficiary, family planning services, national population and family planning board, universal health coverage

Procedia PDF Downloads 189

Authors: Riznaldi Akbar

Abstract:

In this study, we compared the performance of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model with back-propagation algorithm in correctly predicting in-sample and out-of-sample external debt crisis in Indonesia. We found that exchange rate, foreign reserves, and exports are the major determinants to experiencing external debt crisis. The ANN in-sample performance provides relatively superior results. The ANN model is able to classify correctly crisis of 89.12 per cent with reasonably low false alarms of 7.01 per cent. In out-of-sample, the prediction performance fairly deteriorates compared to their in-sample performances. It could be explained as the ANN model tends to over-fit the data in the in-sample, but it could not fit the out-of-sample very well. The 10-fold cross-validation has been used to improve the out-of-sample prediction accuracy. The results also offer policy implications. The out-of-sample performance could be very sensitive to the size of the samples, as it could yield a higher total misclassification error and lower prediction accuracy. The ANN model could be used to identify past crisis episodes with some accuracy, but predicting crisis outside the estimation sample is much more challenging because of the presence of uncertainty.

Keywords: debt crisis, external debt, artificial neural network, ANN

Procedia PDF Downloads 437

Authors: Adriana Radan Ungureanu

Abstract:

The industrial landscape is changing due to the financial crises, poor availability of raw materials, new discoveries and interdisciplinary collaborations. New ideas shape the change through technologies and bring responses for a better life. The process of change is leaded by big players like states and companies, but they cannot keep their places on the market without the help of the small ones. The main tool of change is technology and the entire developed world dedicated efforts for decades in this direction. Even the expectations are not yet met, the research for finding adequate solutions is far from to be stopped. A relevant example is nanotechnology where most of discoveries still remain into laboratory and could not succeed to find the right way to the market. In front of this situation the right question could be: ”Is it worth investing in nanotechnology in the name of an uncertain future but with very little impact on present?” This paper tries to find a positive answer from a three-dimensional approach using a descriptive analyse based on available database supplied by the European case studies, reports, and literature.

Keywords: Europe, KET’s, nanotechnology, technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: G. Petruzzelli, F. Pedron, M. Grifoni, M. Barbafieri, I. Rosellini, B. Pezzarossa

Abstract:

As a result of diverse industrial activities, pollution from numerous contaminant affects both groundwater and soils. Many contaminated sites have been discovered in industrialized countries and their remediation is a priority in environmental legislations. The aim of this paper is to provide the evolution of remediation from consolidated invasive technologies to environmental friendly green strategies. Many clean-up technologies have been used. Nowadays the technologies selection is no longer exclusively based on eliminating the source of pollution, but the aim of remediation includes also the recovery of soil quality. “Green remediation”, a strategy based on “soft technologies”, appears the key to tackle the issue of remediation of contaminated sites with the greatest attention to environmental quality, including the preservation of soil functionality.

Keywords: bioremediation, Green Remediation, phytoremediation, remediation technologies, soil

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: Mirain Rhys, Kevin Smith

Abstract:

In 2017, the Welsh Government introduced an ambitious, new strategy to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wales to 1 million by 2050. The Welsh education system is a vitally important feature of this strategy. All children attending state schools in Wales learn Welsh as a second language until the age of 16 and are assessed at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level. In 2013, a review of Welsh second language instruction in Key Stages 3 and 4 was completed. The report identified considerable gaps in teachers’ preparation and training for teaching Welsh; poor Welsh language ethos at many schools; and a general lack of resources to support the instruction of Welsh. Recommendations were made across a number of dimensions including curriculum content, pedagogical practice, and teacher assessment, training, and resources. With a new national curriculum currently in development, this study builds on this review and provides unprecedented detail into pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of Welsh language instruction. The current research built on data taken from an existing capacity building research project on Welsh education, the Wales multi-cohort study (WMS). Quantitative data taken from WMS surveys with over 1200 pupils in schools in Wales indicated that Welsh language lessons were the least enjoyable subject among pupils. The current research aimed to unpick pupil experiences in order to add to the policy development context. To achieve this, forty-four pupils and four teachers in three schools from the larger WMS sample participated in focus groups. Participants from years 9, 11 and 13 who had indicated positive, negative and neutral attitudes towards the Welsh language in a previous WMS survey were selected. Questions were based on previous research exploring issues including, but not limited to pedagogy, policy, assessment, engagement and (teacher) training. A thematic analysis of the focus group recordings revealed that the majority of participants held positive views around keeping the language alive but did not want to take on responsibility for its maintenance. These views were almost entirely based on their experiences of learning Welsh at school, especially in relation to their perceived lack of choice and opinions around particular lesson strategies and assessment. Analysis of teacher interviews highlighted a distinct lack of resources (materials and staff alike) compared to modern foreign languages, which had a negative impact on student motivation and attitudes. Both staff and students indicated a need for more practical, oral language instruction which could lead to Welsh being used outside the classroom. The data corroborate many of the review’s previous findings, but what makes this research distinctive is the way in which pupils poignantly address generally misguided aims for Welsh language instruction, poor pedagogical practice and a general disconnect between Welsh instruction and its daily use in their lives. These findings emphasize the complexity of incorporating the educational sector in strategies for Welsh language maintenance and the complications arising from pedagogical training, support, and resources, as well as teacher and pupil perceptions of, and attitudes towards, teaching and learning Welsh.

Keywords: bilingual education, language maintenance, language revitalisation, minority languages, Wales

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Dicky R. Munaf, Ayu Bulan Tisna

Abstract:

Competitive intelligence (business intelligence) is the process of observing the external environment which often conducted by many organizations to get the relevant information which will be used to create the organization policy, whereas, security intelligence is related to the function of the officers who have the duties to protect the country and its people from every criminal actions that might harm the national and individual security. Therefore, the intelligence dimension of maritime security is associated with all the intelligence activities including the subject and the object that connected to the maritime issues. The concept of intelligence business regarding the maritime security perspective is the efforts to protect the maritime security using the analysis of economic movements as the basic strategic plan. Clearly, a weak maritime security will cause high operational cost to all the economic activities which uses the sea as its media. Thus, it affects the competitiveness of a country compared to the other countries that are able to maintain the maritime law enforcement and secure their marine territory. So, the intelligence business within the security intelligence is important to conduct as the beginning process of the identification against the opponent strategy that might happen in the present or in the future. Thereby, the scenario of the potential impact of all the illegal maritime activities, as well as the strategy in preventing the opponent maneuver can be made.

Keywords: competitive intelligence, maritime security intelligence, intelligent systems, information technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 498

Authors: Adesina Nathaniel Olanrewaju

Abstract:

The motivation behind this study is the need to see strategic leadership as one of the key driving forces for improving corporate performance. Strategic leadership is seen as a potent source of management development and sustained competitive advantage for both employee and organizational performance. There is currently a charge on leaders as a major cause of organizational failure. Stakeholders give what they can afford, not necessarily what the organization needs and impose operational and financial decisions on the leaders, 200 respondents were fit for the analysis from the six geo-political regions in Nigeria. The selection was done equally among various parastatals through random sampling technique from the south-south, south-east, south-west, north-east, north-west and north-central. A descriptive research of the survey was employed. The data were subjected to t-test analysis and correlation and regression were used for the analysis. The findings revealed that there is a strong relationship and impact between a strategic leader and corporate performance. Recommendations were made based on the findings that strategic leaders should be given the blueprint, company’s policy and the stakeholders’ expectation within a time frame the work is to be carried out.

Keywords: time, strategic, organization, stakeholder, leader, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 304

Authors: G. S. Sudha, Smita Mohanty, S. K. Nayak

Abstract:

Epoxidized oils can replace petroleum derived materials in numerous industrial applications, because of their respectable oxirane oxygen content and high reactivity of oxirane ring. Epoxidized castor oil (ECO) has synthesized in the presence of a sulphonated polystyrene type cation exchange resin. The formation of the oxirane ring was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The epoxidation reaction was evaluated by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies. ECO is used as a toughening phase to increase the toughness of petroleum-based epoxy resin.

Keywords: epoxy resin, epoxidized castor oil, sulphonated polystyrene type cation exchange resin, petroleum derived materials

Procedia PDF Downloads 472

Authors: Aishatu Shuaibu

Abstract:

It is expected that electronic voter registration and verification in Nigeria will enhance the integrity of elections, which is vital for democratic development; it is also expected to enhance efficiency, transparency, and security. However, the reasons for citizens' intentions with respect to behavioral use of such platforms have not been studied in the literature much. This paper, therefore, intends to look into significant characteristics affecting the acceptance and use of e-voter technology among Nigerian residents. Data will be collected using a structured questionnaire from several local government areas (LGAs) around Nigeria to evaluate the influence of demographic characteristics, technology usability, security perceptions, and governmental education on the intention to implement e-voter systems. The results will offer vital insights into the barriers and drivers of voter technology acceptance, aiding in policy suggestions to enhance voter registration and verification processes within Nigeria's electoral framework. This study is designed to aid electoral stakeholders in devising successful strategies for encouraging the broad deployment of e-voter systems in Nigeria.

Keywords: e-governance, e-voting, e-democracy, INEC, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 18

Authors: Lourenco Camnahas, Eileen Willis, Greg Fisher, Jessie Gunson, Pascale Dettwiller, Charlene Thornton

Abstract:

Stock-out of pharmaceuticals is a common issue at all level of health services in Timor-Leste, a small post-conflict country. This lead to the research questions: what are the current methods used to quantify pharmaceutical supplies; what factors contribute to the on-going pharmaceutical stock-out? The study examined factors that influence the pharmaceutical supply chain system. Methodology: Privett and Goncalvez dependency model has been adopted for the design of the qualitative interviews. The model examines pharmaceutical supply chain management at three management levels: management of individual pharmaceutical items, health facilities, and health systems. The interviews were conducted in order to collect information on inventory management, logistics management information system (LMIS) and the provision of pharmaceuticals. Andersen' behavioural model for healthcare utilization also informed the interview schedule, specifically factors linked to environment (healthcare system and external environment) and the population (enabling factors). Forty health professionals (bureaucrats, clinicians) and six senior officers from a United Nations Agency, a global multilateral agency and a local non-governmental organization were interviewed on their perceptions of factors (healthcare system/supply chain and wider environment) impacting on stock out. Additionally, policy documents for the entire healthcare system, along with population data were collected. Findings: An analysis using Pozzebon’s critical interpretation identified a range of difficulties within the system from poor coordination to failure to adhere to policy guidelines along with major difficulties with inventory management, quantification, forecasting, and budgetary constraints. Weak logistics management information system, lack of capacity in inventory management, monitoring and supervision are additional organizational factors that also contributed to the issue. There were various methods of quantification of pharmaceuticals applied in the government sector, and non-governmental organizations. Lack of reliable data is one of the major problems in the pharmaceutical provision. Global Fund has the best quantification methods fed by consumption data and malaria cases. There are other issues that worsen stock-out: political intervention, work ethic and basic infrastructure such as unreliable internet connectivity. Major issues impacting on pharmaceutical quantification have been identified. However, current data collection identified limitations within the Andersen model; specifically, a failure to take account of predictors in the healthcare system and the environment (culture/politics/social. The next step is to (a) compare models used by three non-governmental agencies with the government model; (b) to run the Andersen explanatory model for pharmaceutical expenditure for 2 to 5 drug items used by these three development partners in order to see how it correlates with the present model in terms of quantification and forecasting the needs; (c) to repeat objectives (a) and (b) using the government model; (d) to draw a conclusion about the strength.

Keywords: inventory management, pharmaceutical forecasting and quantification, pharmaceutical stock-out, pharmaceutical supply chain management

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Ting (Grace) Lin, Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia, Todd Robinson

Abstract:

Accessibility analysis, examining people’s ability to access facilities and destinations, is a fundamental assessment for transport planning, policy making, and social exclusion research. Dynamic accessibility which measures accessibility in real-time traffic environment has been an advanced accessibility indicator in transport research. It is also a useful indicator to help travelers to understand travel time daily variability, assists traffic engineers to monitor traffic congestions, and finally develop effective strategies in order to mitigate traffic congestions. This research involved real-time traffic information by collecting travel time data with 15-minute interval via the TomTom^® API. A framework for measuring dynamic accessibility was then developed based on the gravity theory and accessibility dichotomy theory through space and time interpolation. Finally, the dynamic accessibility can be derived at any given time and location under dynamic accessibility spatial analysis framework.

Keywords: dynamic accessibility, hot spot, transport research, TomTom® API

Procedia PDF Downloads 387

Authors: Hilary Rutto

Abstract:

The investigation was aimed at determining the extent at which the zinc will be extracted from secondary sources generated from galvanising process using dilute sulphuric acid under controlled laboratory conditions of temperature, solid-liquid ratio, and agitation rate. The leaching experiment was conducted for a period of 2 hours and to total zinc extracted calculated in relation to the amount of zinc dissolved at a unit time in comparison to the initial zinc content of the zinc ash. Sulphuric acid was found to be an effective leaching agent with an overall extraction of 91.1% when concentration is at 2M, and solid/liquid ratio kept at 1g/200mL leaching solution and temperature set at 65ᵒC while slurry agitation is at 450rpm. The leaching mechanism of zinc ash with sulphuric acid was conformed well to the shrinking core model.

Keywords: leaching, kinetics, shrinking core model, zinc slag

Procedia PDF Downloads 153