Search results for: Global Accuracy Indicator (GAI)

Authors: P. F. Msomi, P. T. Nonjola, P. G. Ndungu, J. Ramontja

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In view of the projected global energy demand and increasing levels of greenhouse gases and pollutants issues have inspired an intense search for alternative new energy technologies, which will provide clean, low cost and environmentally friendly solutions to meet the end user requirements. Alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AAEMFC) have been recognized as ideal candidates for the generation of such clean energy for future stationary and mobile applications due to their many advantages. The key component of the AAEMFC is the anion exchange membrane (AEM). In this report, a series of quaternized poly (2.6 dimethyl – 1.4 phenylene oxide)/ polysulfone (QPPO/PSF) blend anionic exchange membranes (AEM) were successfully fabricated and characterized for alkaline fuel cell application. Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were introduced in the polymer matrix to enhance the intrinsic properties of the AEM. The characteristic properties of the QPPO/PSF and QPPO/PSF-ZnO blend membrane were investigated with X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) scanning electron microscope (SEM) and contact angle (CA). To confirm successful quaternisation, FT-IR spectroscopy and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) were used. Other properties such as ion exchange capacity (IEC), water uptake, contact angle and ion conductivity (IC) were also undertaken to check if the prepared nanocomposite materials are suitable for fuel cell application. The membrane intrinsic properties were found to be enhanced by the addition of ZnO nanoparticles. The addition of ZnO nanoparticles resulted to a highest IEC of 3.72 mmol/g and a 30-fold IC increase of the nanocomposite due to its lower methanol permeability. The above results indicate that QPPO/PSF-ZnO is a good candidate for AAEMFC application.

Keywords: anion exchange membrane, fuel cell, zinc oxide nanoparticle, nanocomposite

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Authors: Glebert C. Dadol, Pamela Mae L. Ucab, Camila Flor Y. Lobarbio, Noel Peter B. Tan

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Water scarcity is a global problem and membrane-based desalination technologies are one of the promising solutions to this problem. In this study, a passive solar-driven membrane distiller was fabricated and tested for its desalination performance. The distiller was composed of a TiNOX plate solar absorber, cellulose-based upper and lower hydrophilic layers, a hydrophobic middle layer, and aluminum heatsinks. The effect of the middle layer material and thickness on the desalination performance was investigated in terms of distillate productivity and salinity. The materials used for the middle layer were a screen mesh (2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm thickness) to generate an air gap, a PTFE membrane (0.3 mm thickness)), and a combination of the screen mesh and the PTFE membrane (2.3 mm total thickness). Salt water (35 g/L NaCl) was desalinated using the distiller at a rooftop setting at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines. The highest distillate productivity of 1.08 L/m2-h was achieved using a 2-mm screen mesh (air gap) but it also resulted in a high distillate salinity of 25.20 g/L. Increasing the thickness of the air gap lowered the distillate salinity but also decreased the distillate productivity. The lowest salinity of 1.07 g/L was achieved using a 6-mm air gap but the productivity was reduced to 0.08 L/m2-h. The use of the hydrophobic PTFE membrane increased the productivity (0.44 L/m2-h) compared to a 6-mm air gap but produced a distillate with high salinity (16.68 g/L). When using a combination of the screen mesh and the PTFE membrane, the productivity was 0.13 L/m2-h and a distillate salinity of 1.61 g/L. The distiller with a thick air gap as the middle layer can deliver a distillate with low salinity and is preferred over a thin hydrophobic PTFE membrane. The use of a combination of the air gap and PTFE membrane slightly increased the productivity with comparable distillate salinity. Modifications and optimizations to the distiller can be done to improve further its performance.

Keywords: desalination, membrane distillation, passive solar-driven membrane distiller, solar distillation

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Authors: Qiongpeng Dan, Xiyao Li, Qiong Zhang, Yongzhen Peng

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The nutrients removal from wastewater is of great significance for global wastewater recycling and sustainable reuse. Traditional nitrogen and phosphorus removal processes are very dependent on the input of aeration and carbon sources, which makes it difficult to meet the low-carbon goal of energy saving and emission reduction. This study reported a proof-of-concept demonstration of integrating anammox and enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) by flocs management in a single-stage hybrid bioreactor (biofilms and flocs) for simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal (SNPR). Excellent removal efficiencies of nitrogen (97.7±1.3%) and phosphorus (97.4±0.7%) were obtained in low C/N ratio (3.0±0.5) municipal wastewater treatment. Interestingly, with the loss of flocs, anammox bacteria (Ca. Brocadia) was highly enriched in biofilms, with relative and absolute abundances reaching up to 12.5% and 8.3×1010 copies/g dry sludge, respectively. The anammox contribution to nitrogen removal also rose from 32.6±9.8% to 53.4±4.2%. Endogenous denitrification by flocs was proven to be the main contributor to both nitrite and nitrate reduction, and flocs loss significantly promoted nitrite flow towards anammox, facilitating AnAOB enrichment. Moreover, controlling the floc's solid retention time at around 8 days could maintain a low poly-phosphorus level of 0.02±0.001 mg P/mg VSS in the flocs, effectively addressing the additional phosphorus removal burden imposed by the enrichment of phosphorus-accumulating organisms in biofilms. This study provides an update on developing a simple and feasible strategy for integrating anammox and EBPR for SNPR in mainstream municipal wastewater.

Keywords: anammox process, enhanced biological phosphorus removal, municipal wastewater, sustainable nutrients removal

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Authors: Shreya Poddar

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Legal drafting and revising are recognized as highly demanding tasks for legal professionals. This paper introduces an approach to automate and refine these processes through the use of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI). The method employs Large Language Models (LLMs), with a specific focus on 'Chain of Thoughts' (CoT) and knowledge injection via prompt engineering. This approach differs from conventional methods that depend on comprehensive training or fine-tuning of models with extensive legal knowledge bases, which are often expensive and time-consuming. The proposed method incorporates knowledge injection directly into prompts, thereby enabling the AI to generate more accurate and contextually appropriate legal texts. This approach substantially decreases the necessity for thorough model training while preserving high accuracy and relevance in drafting. Additionally, the concept of guardrails is introduced. These are predefined parameters or rules established within the AI system to ensure that the generated content adheres to legal standards and ethical guidelines. The practical implications of this method for legal work are considerable. It has the potential to markedly lessen the time lawyers allocate to document drafting and revision, freeing them to concentrate on more intricate and strategic facets of legal work. Furthermore, this method makes high-quality legal drafting more accessible, possibly reducing costs and expanding the availability of legal services. This paper will elucidate the methodology, providing specific examples and case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of 'Chain of Thoughts' and knowledge injection in legal drafting. The potential challenges and limitations of this approach will also be discussed, along with future prospects and enhancements that could further advance legal work. The impact of this research on the legal industry is substantial. The adoption of AI-driven methods by legal professionals can lead to enhanced efficiency, precision, and consistency in legal drafting, thereby altering the landscape of legal work. This research adds to the expanding field of AI in law, introducing a method that could significantly alter the nature of legal drafting and practice.

Keywords: AI-driven legal drafting, legal automation, futureoflegalwork, largelanguagemodels

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Authors: Ronald Villamar-Torres, Michael Staudt, Christopher Viot

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Cotton Gossypium hirsutum L. is one of the most important industrial crops, producing the world leading natural textile fiber, but is very prone to arthropod attacks that reduce crop yield and quality. Cotton cultivation, therefore, makes an outstanding use of chemical pesticides. In reaction to herbivorous arthropods, cotton plants nevertheless show natural defense reactions, in particular through volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions. These natural defense mechanisms are nowadays underutilized but have a very high potential for cotton cultivation, and elucidating their genetic bases will help to improve their use. Simulating herbivory attacks by mechanical wounding of cotton plants in greenhouse, we studied by qPCR the changes in gene expression for genes of the terpenoids biosynthesis pathway. Differentially expressed genes corresponded to higher levels of the terpenoids biosynthesis pathway and not to enzymes synthesizing particular terpenoids. The genes were mapped on the G. hirsutum L. reference genome; their global relationships inside the general metabolic pathways and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites were visualized with iPath2. The chromatographic profiles of VOCs emissions indicated first monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes emissions, dominantly four molecules known to be involved in plant reactions to arthropod attacks. As a result, the study permitted to identify potential key genes for the emission of volatile terpenoids by cotton plants in reaction to an arthropod attack, opening possibilities for molecular-assisted cotton breeding in benefit of smallholder cotton growers.

Keywords: biosynthesis pathways, cotton, mechanisms of plant defense, terpenoids, volatile organic compounds

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Authors: Fatemeh Rouhi, Hadi Nassiri

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Earning forecast is a key element in economic decisions but there are some situations, such as conflicts of interest in financial reporting, complexity and lack of direct access to information has led to the phenomenon of information asymmetry among individuals within the organization and external investors and creditors that appear. The adverse selection and moral hazard in the investor's decision and allows direct assessment of the difficulties associated with data by users makes. In this regard, the role of trustees in corporate governance disclosure is crystallized that includes controls and procedures to ensure the lack of movement in the interests of the company's management and move in the direction of maximizing shareholder and company value. Therefore, the earning forecast of companies in the capital market and the need to identify factors influencing this study was an attempt to make relationship between moral hazard and corporate governance with earning forecast quality companies operating in the capital market and its impact on Earnings Forecasts quality by the company to be established. Getting inspiring from the theoretical basis of research, two main hypotheses and sub-hypotheses are presented in this study, which have been examined on the basis of available models, and with the use of Panel-Data method, and at the end, the conclusion has been made at the assurance level of 95% according to the meaningfulness of the model and each independent variable. In examining the models, firstly, Chow Test was used to specify either Panel Data method should be used or Pooled method. Following that Housman Test was applied to make use of Random Effects or Fixed Effects. Findings of the study show because most of the variables are positively associated with moral hazard with earnings forecasts quality, with increasing moral hazard, earning forecast quality companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange is increasing. Among the variables related to corporate governance, board independence variables have a significant relationship with earnings forecast accuracy and earnings forecast bias but the relationship between board size and earnings forecast quality is not statistically significant.

Keywords: corporate governance, earning forecast quality, moral hazard, financial sciences

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Authors: Bijit Kalita, R. Jayaganthan

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Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel manufacturing method which provides more freedom in design, manufacturing near-net-shaped parts as per demand, lower cost of production, and expedition in delivery time to market. Among various metals, AM techniques, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is the most prominent one that provides higher accuracy and powder proficiency in comparison to other methods. Particularly, 17-4 PH alloy is martensitic precipitation hardened (PH) stainless steel characterized by resistance to corrosion up to 300°C and tailorable strengthening by copper precipitates. Additively manufactured 17-4 PH stainless steel exhibited a dendritic/cellular solidification microstructure in the as-built condition. It is widely used as a structural material in marine environments, power plants, aerospace, and chemical industries. The excellent weldability of 17-4 PH stainless steel and its ability to be heat treated to improve mechanical properties make it a good material choice for L-PBF. In this study, the microstructures of martensitic stainless steels in the as-built state, as well as the effects of process parameters, building atmosphere, and heat treatments on the microstructures, are reviewed. Mechanical properties of fabricated parts are studied through micro-hardness and tensile tests. Tensile tests are carried out under different strain rates at room temperature. In addition, the effect of process parameters and heat treatment conditions on mechanical properties is critically reviewed. These studies revealed the performance of L-PBF fabricated 17–4 PH stainless-steel parts under cyclic loading, and the results indicated that fatigue properties were more sensitive to the defects generated by L-PBF (e.g., porosity, microcracks), leading to the low fracture strains and stresses under cyclic loading. Rapid melting, solidification, and re-melting of powders during the process and different combinations of processing parameters result in a complex thermal history and heterogeneous microstructure and are necessary to better control the microstructures and properties of L-PBF PH stainless steels through high-efficiency and low-cost heat treatments.

Keywords: 17–4 PH stainless steel, laser powder bed fusion, selective laser melting, microstructure, additive manufacturing

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Authors: Michael Wright, Tiago Costa

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The construction industry in SE Asia has been relying on S355 MPa “as rolled” H-beams for many years now. It is an easily sourced, metallurgically simple, reliable product that all designers, fabricators and constructors are familiar with. However, as the Global demand to better use our finite resources gets stronger, the need for an as-rolled S460 MPa H-Beam is becoming more apparent. The Financial benefits of an “as-rolled” S460 MPa H-beam are obvious. The S460 MPa beam which is currently available and used is fabricated from rolled strip. However, making H-beam from 3 x 460 MPa strips requires costly equipment, valuable welding skills & production time, all of which can be in short supply or better used for other purposes. The Metallurgical benefits of an “as-rolled” S460 MPa H-beam are consistency in the product. Fabricated H-beams have inhomogeneous areas where the strips have been welded together - parent metal, heat affected zone and weld metal all in the one body. They also rely heavily on the skill of the welder to guarantee a perfect, defect free weld. If this does not occur, the beam is intrinsically flawed and could lead to failure in service. An as-rolled beam is a relatively homogenous product, with the optimum strength and ductility produced by delivering steel with as fine as possible uniform cross sectional grain size. This is done by cost effective alloy design coupled with proper metallurgical process control implemented into an existing mill’s equipment capability and layout. This paper is designed to highlight the benefits of bring an “as-rolled” S460 MPa H-beam to the construction market place in SE Asia, and hopefully encourage the current “as-rolled” H-beam producers to rise to the challenge and produce an innovative high quality product for the local market.

Keywords: fine grained, As-rolled, long products, process control, metallurgy

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Authors: Agnieszka Dubiel, Artur Grabowski, Tomasz Przerywacz, Mateusz Roganowicz, Patrycja Zioty

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Food waste is one of the most significant challenges humanity is facing nowadays. Every year, reports from global organizations show the scale of the phenomenon, although society's awareness is still insufficient. One-third of the food produced in the world is wasted at various points in the food supply chain. Wastes are present from the delivery through the food preparation and distribution to the end of the sale and consumption. The first step in understanding and resisting the phenomenon is a thorough analysis of the everyday behaviors of humanity. This concept is understood as finding the correlation between the type of food and the reason for throwing it out and wasting it. Those actions were identified as a critical step in the start of work to develop technology to prevent food waste. In this paper, the problem mentioned above was analyzed by focusing on the inhabitants of Central Europe, especially Poland, aged 20-30. This paper provides an insight into collecting data through dedicated software and an organized database. The proposed database contains information on the amount, type, and reasons for wasting food in households. A literature review supported the work to answer research questions, compare the situation in Poland with the problem analyzed in other countries, and find research gaps. The proposed article examines the cause of food waste and its quantity in detail. This review complements previous reviews by emphasizing social and economic innovation in Poland's food waste management. The paper recommends a course of action for future research on food waste management and prevention related to the handling and disposal of food, emphasizing households, i.e., the last link in the supply chain.

Keywords: food waste, food waste reduction, consumer food waste, human-food interaction

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Authors: Teka Haile, Behailu Hawulte, Solomon Alemayehu

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Background: HIV virological failure still remains a problem in HV/AIDS treatment and care. This study aimed to describe the prevalence and identify the factors associated with viral non-suppression among HIV-positive adult patients on antiretroviral therapy in Woliso Town, Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 424 HIV-positive patient’s attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Woliso Town during the period from August 25, 2020 to August 30, 2020. Data collected from patient medical records were entered into Epi Info version 2.3.2.1 and exported to SPSS version 21.0 for analysis. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify factors associated with viral load non-suppression, and statistical significance of odds ratios were declared using 95% confidence interval and p-value < 0.05. Results: A total of 424 patients were included in this study. The mean age (± SD) of the study participants was 39.88 (± 9.995) years. The prevalence of HIV viral load non-suppression was 55 (13.0%) with 95% CI (9.9-16.5). Second-line ART treatment regimen (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 8.98, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 2.64, 30.58) and routine viral load testing (AOR = 0.01, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.02) were significantly associated with virological non-suppression. Conclusion: Virological non-suppression was high, which hinders the achievement of the third global 95 target. The second-line regimen and routine viral load testing were significantly associated with virological non-suppression. It suggests the need to assess the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs for epidemic control. It also clearly shows the need to decentralize third-line ART treatment for those patients in need.

Keywords: virological non-suppression, HIV-positive, ART, Woliso town, Ethiopia

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Authors: Mei-Fang Wu, Shu-Li Wang, Feng-Tsung Cheng

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Highly developed technology and highly competitive global market highlight the important role of competitive advantages and operation performances in sustainable company operation. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) provides accurate operation cost and operation performance information. Rich literature provide relevant research with cases study on Activity-Based Costing application, and yet, there is no research studying on cause relationship between key success factors of applying Activity-Based Costing and its specific outcomes, such as profitability or share market. These relationships provide the ways to handle the key success factors to achieve the specific outcomes for ensuring to promote the competitive advantages and operation performances. The main purposes of this research are exploring the key success paths by Key Success Paths approach which will lead the ways to apply Activity-Base Costing. The Key Success Paths is the innovative method which is exploring the cause relationships and explaining what are the effects of key success factors to specific outcomes of Activity-Based Costing implementation. The cause relationships between key success factors and successful specific outcomes are Key Success Paths (KSPs). KSPs are the guidelines to lead the cost management strategies to achieve the goals of competitive advantages and operation performances. The research findings indicate that good management system design may impact the good outcomes of Activity-Based Costing application and achieve to outstanding competitive advantage, operating performance and profitability as well by KSPs exploration.

Keywords: activity-based costing, key success factors, key success paths approach, key success paths, key failure paths

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Simiso Fisokuhle Nyandeni

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The environment is one of the major components of intergenerational equity under sustainability; however, this component has been facing a lot of issues/crises, which include those that are caused by natural systems due to the actions of humans. Although some of those environmental issues may occur from natural causes, however, climate change effects have shown to increase rapidly due to human behavior, which led to the increase in greenhouse emissions and the over-exploitation of natural resources that maintain an ecological balance in our environment. Based on the recent projections, the growing population tends to outstrip the environmental resources, and as a result, the rapid depletion of natural resources that maintain ecological balance within the environment has resulted in such environmental issues. This paper has adopted desktop analysis to address the main objective, which seeks to address the effects of population dynamics on environmental issues and what needs to be done to maintain the ecological balance between the growing population and the limited resources that are available; thus, the collective data sources were used to justify the literature in order to get adequate results to influence the potential findings. The major findings postulate that there is an ecological imbalance between limited resources available and the growing population; as a result, the environment is taking action against humanity through climate change impacts. Hence findings further outline that in order to prevent such impacts, there should be drastic interventions by the governments (all stakeholders should be involved in decision-making; Governmental or non-governmental institutions, scientists, researchers, etc.) around the world to maintain this ecological balance and also to prioritize the adaptation measures. Therefore, this paper seeks to examine the implications of population dynamics on the environmental issues and what needs to be done in order to maintain this ecological balance between the growing population and environmental resources; hence, this review will be based on the climate change context.

Keywords: population dynamics, climate change, environment, sustainability

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Authors: Nthabiseng Portia Mahumapelo, Andre van Niekerk, Ndabenhle Sosibo, Nirdesh Singh

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The foundry industry generates large quantities of solid waste in the form of waste foundry sand. The ever-increasing quantities of this type of industrial waste put pressure on land-filling space and its proper management has become a global concern. The South African foundry industry is not different when it comes to this solid waste generation. Utilizing the foundry waste sand in other applications has become an attractive avenue to deal with this waste stream. In the present paper, an evaluation was done on the suitability of foundry waste sand as an additive in clay masonry products. Purchased clay was added to the foundry waste sand sample in a 50/50 ratio. The mixture was named FC sample. The FC sample was mixed with water in a pan mixer until the mixture was consistent and suitable for extrusion. The FC sample was extruded and cut into briquettes. Water absorption, shrinkage and modulus of rupture tests were conducted on the resultant briquettes. Foundry waste sand and FC samples were respectively characterized mineralogically using X-Ray Diffraction, and the major and trace elements were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy. Adding purchased clay to the foundry waste sand positively influenced the workability of the test sample. Another positive characteristic was the low linear shrinkage, which indicated that products manufactured from the FC sample would not be susceptible to cracking. The water absorption values were acceptable and the unfired and fired strength values of the briquette’s samples were acceptable. In conclusion, tests showed that foundry waste sand can be used as an additive in masonry clay bricks, provided it is blended with good quality clay.

Keywords: foundry waste sand, masonry clay bricks, modulus of rupture, shrinkage

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Authors: Tuba Sari

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One of the major transformations caused by the industrial revolution, technological developments and globalization is undoubtedly acceleration of urbanization process. Globalization, in particular, is one of the major factors that trigger this transformation. In this context, as a result of the global metropolitan city system, multifunctional rising structure forms are becoming undeniable fact of the world’s leading metropolises as the manifestation of prestige and power with different life choices, easy accessibility to services related to the era of technology. The scope of research deals with five different urban centers in İstanbul where high-rise housing is increasing dramatically after 2000’s. Therefore, the research regards multi-centered urban residential pattern being created by high-rise housing structures in the city. The methodology of the research is based on two main issue, one of them is related to sampling method of high-rise housing projects in İstanbul, while the other method of the research is based on the model of Semantics. In the framework of research hypothesis, it is aimed to prove that the character of vertical intensive structuring in Istanbul is based on seeking of different forms and images in the expressive quality, considering the production of existing high-rise buildings in residential areas in recent years. In respect to rising discourse of 'World City' in the globalizing world, it is very important to state the place of Istanbul in other developing world metropolises. In the perspective of 'World City' discourse, Istanbul has different projects concerning with globalization, international finance companies, cultural activities, mega projects, etc. In brief, the aim of this research is examining transformation forms of high-rise housing development in Istanbul within the frame of developing world cities, searching and analyzing discourse and image related to these projects.

Keywords: globalization, high-rise, housing, image

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Authors: Geetha Baskaran, Andrzej Barjiela, Rong Qu

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Motivation: Nurse scheduling is a complex combinatorial optimization problem. It is also known as NP-hard. It needs an efficient re-scheduling to minimize some trade-off of the measures of violation by reducing selected constraints to soft constraints with measurements of their violations. Problem Statement: In this paper, we extend our novel approach to solve the nurse scheduling problem by transforming it through Information Granulation. Approach: This approach satisfies the rules of a typical hospital environment based on a standard benchmark problem. Generating good work schedules has a great influence on nurses' working conditions which are strongly related to the level of a quality health care. Domain transformation that combines the strengths of operation research and artificial intelligence was proposed for the solution of the problem. Compared to conventional methods, our approach involves judicious grouping (information granulation) of shifts types’ that transforms the original problem into a smaller solution domain. Later these schedules from the smaller problem domain are converted back into the original problem domain by taking into account the constraints that could not be represented in the smaller domain. An Integer Programming (IP) package is used to solve the transformed scheduling problem by expending the branch and bound algorithm. We have used the GNU Octave for Windows to solve this problem. Results: The scheduling problem has been solved in the proposed formalism resulting in a high quality schedule. Conclusion: Domain transformation represents departure from a conventional one-shift-at-a-time scheduling approach. It offers an advantage of efficient and easily understandable solutions as well as offering deterministic reproducibility of the results. We note, however, that it does not guarantee the global optimum.

Keywords: domain transformation, nurse scheduling, information granulation, artificial intelligence, simulation

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Authors: Hanlei Yang

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As a kind of popular culture in modern China, advice book on intimate relationship is turning into an important and controversial site with conflicts among neoliberalism, authoritative socialism, market-oriented principles, the science of successful sex and relationship, cosmopolitan notions of nuclear families, and the revitalization of Confucian conservatism and patriarchy. Accelerated modernization and marketization has contributed to great changes in China’s culture and social relations, which accordingly reconceptualizes and reconstructs family structures and moral ethics, particularly urban middle-class nuclear families. To comprehend the meaning of advice book fad in moral and social order, this research proposes to (i) understand the implication of Ayawawa through discourse analysis and how she mobilizes rhetorical devices and cultural resources to present a persuasive and scientific method of managing intimate relationship, (ii) examine the critical role of neoliberalism, post-feminism, and Confucian patriarchy assumed by Ayawawa in her books, (iii) explore how Ayawawa and her fans engage in establishing a model of intimate relationship and sexual subjectivity ordered by neoliberalism, class identity and authoritative socialism. Finally, this research argues that such new fad of a cultural phenomenon is gradually completed in the process of cooperation and negotiation of the state, commercial institutions, and intellectual elite agents. It helps to further learn about (i) the routine life under the influence of neoliberalism and modern hegemony, (ii) the perplexing relationship between China's indigenous cultural forms, global socio-economic and cultural influences in the late modern era.

Keywords: cultural study, intimate relationship, culture sociology, gender study

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Authors: Niranjana Soperna, Shivangi Nigam

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Violence against women is linked to their disadvantageous position in the society. It is rooted in unequal power relationships between men and women in society and is a global problem which is not limited to a specific group of women in society. An adolescent girl’s life is often accustomed to the likelihood of violence, and acts of violence exert additional power over girls because the stigma of violence often attaches more to a girl than to her doer. The experience of violence is distressing at the individual emotional and physical level. The field of research and programs for adolescent girls has traditionally focused on sexuality, reproductive health, and behavior, neglecting the broader social issues that underpin adolescent girls’ human rights, overall development, health, and well-being. This paper is an endeavor to address the understated or disguised form of violence which the adolescent girls experience within the social contexts. The parameters exposed under this research had been ignored to a large extent when it came to studying the dimension of violence under the social domain. Hence, the researchers attempted to explore this camouflaged form of violence and discovered some specific parameters such as: Diminished Self Worth and Esteem, Verbal Abuse, Menstruation Taboo and Social Rigidity, Negligence of Medical and Health Facilities and Complexion- A Prime Parameter for Judging Beauty. The study was conducted in the districts of Haryana where personal interviews were taken from both urban and rural adolescent girls (aged 13 to 19 years) based on structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the adolescent girls, both in urban as well as rural areas were quite affected with the above mentioned issues. In urban areas, however, due to the higher literacy rate, which resulted in more rational thinking, the magnitude was comparatively smaller, but the difference was still negligible.

Keywords: adolescent girls, education, social contexts, understated violence

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Authors: Avani Jain, S. Shelley, M. Indirani, Shilpa Kalal, Jaykanth Amalachandran

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Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of gall bladder dysfunction in patients with dyspepsia using In-House fatty meal cholescintigraphy. Materials & Methods: This study is a prospective cohort study. 59 healthy volunteers with no dyspeptic complaints and negative ultrasound and endoscopy were recruited in study. 61 patients having complaint of dyspepsia for duration of more than 6 months were included. All of them underwent 99mTc-Mebrofenin fatty meal cholescintigraphy following a standard protocol. Dynamic acquisitions were acquired for 120 minutes with an In-House fatty meal being given at 45th minute. Gall bladder emptying kinetics was determined with gall bladder ejection fractions (GBEF) calculated at 30minutes, 45minutes and at 60 minutes (30min, 45min & 60 min). Standardization of fatty meal was done for volunteers. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used assess the diagnostic accuracy of 3 time points (30min, 45min & 60 min) used for measuring gall bladder emptying. On the basis of cut off derived from volunteers, the patients were assessed for gall bladder dysfunction. Results: In volunteers, the GBEF at 30 min was 74.42±8.26 % (mean ±SD), at 45 min was 82.61 ± 6.5 % and at 60 min was 89.37±4.48%, compared to patients where at 30min it was 33.73±22.87%, at 45 min it was 43.03±26.97% and at 60 min it was 51.85±29.60%. The lower limit of GBEF in volunteers at 30 min was 60%, 45 min was 69% and at 60 min was 81%. ROC analysis showed that area under curve was largest for 30 min GBEF (0.952; 95% CI = 0.914-0.989) and that all the 3 measures were statistically significant (p < 0.005). Majority of the volunteers had 74% of gall bladder emptying by 30 minutes; hence it was taken as an optimum cutoff time to assess gall bladder contraction. > 60% GBEF at 30 min post fatty meal was considered as normal and < 60% GBEF as indicative of gall bladder dysfunction. In patients, various causes for dyspepsia were identified: GB dysfunction (63.93%), Peptic ulcer (8.19 %), Gastroesophageal reflux disease (8.19%), Gastritis (4.91%). In 18.03% of cases GB dysfunction coexisted with other gastrointestinal conditions. The diagnosis of functional dyspepsia was made in 14.75% of cases. Conclusions: Gall bladder dysfunction contributes significantly to the causation of dyspepsia. It could coexist with various other gastrointestinal diseases. Fatty meal was well tolerated and devoid of any side effects. Many patients who are labeled as functional dyspeptics could actually have gall bladder dysfunction. Hence as an adjunct to ultrasound and endoscopy, fatty meal cholescintigraphy can also be used as a screening modality in characterization of dyspepsia.

Keywords: in-house fatty meal, choescintigraphy, dyspepsia, gall bladder ejection fraction, functional dyspepsia

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Authors: Jackson Niyongabo

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This study addresses a notable gap in the existing literature on the relationship between energy consumption, economic growth, and CO₂ emissions, particularly within the African context. While numerous studies have explored these dynamics globally and regionally across various development levels, few have delved into the nuances of regions and income levels specific to African countries. Furthermore, the evaluation of the interplay between green growth policies, green energy technologies, and their impact on environmental quality has been underexplored. This research aims to fill these gaps by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the transition from conventional economic growth and energy consumption to a paradigm of green growth coupled with green energy utilization across the African continent from 1980 to 2018. The study is structured into three main parts: an empirical examination of the long-term effects of energy intensity, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on CO₂ emissions across diverse African regions and income levels; an estimation of the long-term impact of green growth and green energy use on CO₂ emissions for countries implementing green policies within Africa, as well as at regional and global levels; and a comparative analysis of the impact of green growth policies on environmental degradation before and after implementation. Employing advanced econometric methods and panel estimators, the study utilizes a testing framework, panel unit tests, and various estimators to derive meaningful insights. The anticipated results and conclusions will be elucidated through causality tests, impulse response, and variance decomposition analyses, contributing valuable knowledge to the discourse on sustainable development in the African context.

Keywords: economic growth, green growth, energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, econometric models, green energy

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Authors: Dina L. DiSantis

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Strengthening a sense of responsibility while relating global sustainability concepts such as water quality and pollution to a local water system can be achieved by teaching students to conduct and interpret water quality monitoring tests. When students conduct their own research, they become better stewards of the environment. Providing outdoor learning and place-based opportunities for students helps connect them to the natural world. By conducting stream studies and collecting data, students are able to better understand how the natural environment is a place where everything is connected. Students have been collecting physical, chemical and biological data along the West and East Branches of the Brandywine River, in Pennsylvania for over ten years. The stream studies are part of the advanced placement environmental science and aquatic science courses that are offered as electives to juniors and seniors at the Downingtown High School West Campus in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Physical data collected includes: temperature, turbidity, width, depth, velocity, and volume of flow or discharge. The chemical tests conducted are: dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, pH, nitrates, alkalinity and phosphates. Macroinvertebrates are collected with a kick net, identified and then released. Students collect the data from several locations while traveling by canoe. In the classroom, students prepare a water quality data analysis and interpretation report based on their collected data. The summary of the results from longitudinal water quality data collection by students, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of student data collection will be presented.

Keywords: place-based, student data collection, sustainability, water quality monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Idris M. Olatunde, Kareem B.

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In manufacturing systems, especially job shops, service performance is a key factor that determines customer satisfaction. Service performance depends not only on the quality of the output but on the delivery lead times as well. Besides product quality enhancement, delivery lead time must be minimized for optimal patronage. Quoting accurate due dates is sine quo non for job shop operational survival in a global competitive environment. Quoting accurate due dates in job shops has been a herculean task that nearly defiled solutions from many methods employed due to complex jobs routing nature of the system. This class of NP-hard problems possessed no rigid algorithms that can give an optimal solution. Jobshop operational problem is more complex in developing nations due to some peculiar factors. Operational complexity in job shops emanated from political instability, poor economy, technological know-how, and the non-promising socio-political environment. The mentioned exogenous factors were hardly considered in the previous studies on scheduling problem related to due date determination in job shops. This study has filled the gap created in the past studies by developing a dynamic model that incorporated the exogenous factors for accurate determination of due dates for varying jobs complexity. Real data from six job shops selected from the different part of Nigeria, were used to test the efficacy of the model, and the outcomes were analyzed statistically. The results of the analyzes showed that the model is more promising in determining accurate due dates than the traditional models deployed by many job shops in terms of patronage and lead times minimization.

Keywords: due dates prediction, improved performance, customer satisfaction, dynamic model, exogenous factors, job shops

Procedia PDF Downloads 383

Authors: Charles Amoo, Joshua New, Bill Eckman

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Buildings in the United States account for a significant proportion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and this trend is expected to continue as well as rise in the near future. Low-income households, in particular, bear a disproportionate burden of high building energy consumption and spending due to high energy costs. Energy efficiency improvements need to reach an average of 4% per year in this decade in order to meet global net zero emissions target by 2050, but less than 1 % of U.S. buildings are improved each year. The government has recognized the importance of technology in addressing this issue, and energy efficiency programs have been developed to tackle the problem. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the largest residential whole-house energy efficiency program in the U.S., is specifically designed to reduce energy costs for low-income households. Under the WAP, energy auditors must follow specific audit procedures and use Department of Energy (DOE) approved energy audit tools or software. This article proposes an expanded framework of factors that should be considered in energy audit software that is approved for use in energy efficiency programs, particularly for low-income households. The framework includes more than 50 factors organized under 14 assessment criteria and can be used to qualitatively and quantitatively score different energy audit software to determine their suitability for specific energy efficiency programs. While the tool can be useful for developers to build new tools and improve existing software, as well as for energy efficiency program administrators to approve or certify tools for use, there are limitations to the model, such as the lack of flexibility that allows continuous scoring to accommodate variability and subjectivity. These limitations can be addressed by using aggregate scores of each criterion as weights that could be combined with value function and direct rating scores in a multicriteria decision analysis for a more flexible scoring.

Keywords: buildings, energy efficiency, energy audit, software

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Wahyu Riawanti

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Food safety is the one of a prominent issue for globalization era. The more concern is paid in international food and agriculture trade; the more consumers will consider raising the standard of food safety. For this reason, the role of the issue is not only in term of added value but since then also the main requirement in import export activity, including agriculture products. Unfortunately, Indonesia and other developing countries found it difficult to fulfill some of the technical issues and end it up with the lower export activity. In this case, the technical requirements of food safety become an obstacle rather than challenging. Furthermore for local farmers’ activity, food safety is more or less a threat. The study is aimed to reveal on how Indonesian government had dealt with the certification regulation to face problem on competitiveness of Indonesian products. Local government has conducted the regulation of food certification. The study used the case of Salak Pondoh fruit (Salacca zalacca) certification process on Sleman District- Yogyakarta. Triangulation method was used to analyze the effectiveness of the certification program. The quantitative data series taken from 7 farmer groups during the certification processes were used for the research main data. The supporting qualitative data was obtained from in-depth interview with the members of farmers group. The pre-research result has shown that the impact varied from different groups. Conclusively the certification regulation has partly failed to make a significant change in local farmers’ competitiveness. Even the profit was increased, the highly amount budget of the program did not significantly increase the economic incentives for local farmers.

Keywords: economic incentive, food security, government regulation, international trade, local commodity, Salacca zalacca

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Amrutha Kishor

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Today, with the rising global warming and depletion of resources every industry is moving toward sustainability and energy efficiency. As part of this movement, it is nowadays obligatory for architects to play their part by creating energy predictions for their designs. But in a lot of cases, these predictions do not reflect the real quantities of energy in newly built buildings when operating. These can be described as ‘Energy Performance Gaps’. This study aims to determine the underlying reasons for these gaps. Seven houses designed by Allan Joyce Architects, UK from 1998 until 2019 were considered for this study. The data from the residents’ energy bills were cross-referenced with the predictions made with the software SefairaPro and from energy reports. Results indicated that the predictions did not match the actual energy usage. An account of how energy was used in these seven houses was made by means of personal interviews. The main factors considered in the study were occupancy patterns, heating systems and usage, lighting profile and usage, and appliances’ profile and usage. The study found that the main reasons for the creation of energy gaps were the discrepancies in occupant usage and patterns of energy consumption that are predicted as opposed to the actual ones. This study is particularly useful for energy-conscious architectural firms to fine-tune the approach to designing houses and analysing their energy performance. As the findings reveal that energy usage in homes varies based on the way residents use the space, it helps deduce the most efficient technological combinations. This information can be used to set guidelines for future policies and regulations related to energy consumption in homes. This study can also be used by the developers of simulation software to understand how architects use their product and drive improvements in its future versions.

Keywords: architectural simulation, energy efficient design, energy performance gaps, environmental design

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: Javkhlan Nyamjav, Simona Fischer, Lauren Garner, Veronica McCracken

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Current whole building life cycle assessments (LCA) primarily focus on structural and major architectural elements to measure building embodied carbon. Most of the interior finishes and fixtures are available on digital tools (such as Tally); however, furniture is still left unaccounted for. Due to its repeated refreshments and its complexity, furniture embodied carbon can accumulate over time, becoming comparable to structure and envelope numbers. This paper presents a method to calculate the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of furniture elements in commercial buildings. The calculator uses the quantity takeoff method with GWP averages gathered from environmental product declarations (EPD). The data was collected from EPD databases and furniture manufacturers from North America to Europe. A total of 48 GWP numbers were collected, with 16 GWP coming from alternative EPD. The finalized calculator shows the average GWP of typical commercial furniture and helps the decision-making process to reduce embodied carbon. The calculator was tested on MSR Design projects and showed furniture can account for more than half of the interior embodied carbon. The calculator highlights the importance of adding furniture to the overall conversation. However, the data collection process showed a) acquiring furniture EPD is not straightforward as other building materials; b) there are very limited furniture EPD, which can be explained from many perspectives, including the EPD price; c) the EPD themselves vary in terms of units, LCA scopes, and timeframes, which makes it hard to compare the products. Even though there are current limitations, the emerging focus on interior embodied carbon will create more demand for furniture EPD. It will allow manufacturers to represent all their efforts on reducing embodied carbon. In addition, the study concludes with recommendations on how designers can reduce furniture-embodied carbon through reuse and closed-loop systems.

Keywords: furniture, embodied carbon, calculator, tenant improvement, interior design

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Selim M. Khan

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Indoor air quality is strongly influenced by the presence of radioactive radon (222Rn) gas. Indeed, exposure to high 222Rn concentrations is unequivocally linked to DNA damage and lung cancer and is a worsening issue in North American and European built environments, having increased over time within newer housing stocks as a function of as yet unclear variables. Indoor air radon concentration can be influenced by a wide range of environmental, structural, and behavioral factors. As some of these factors are quantitative while others are qualitative, no single statistical model can determine indoor radon level precisely while simultaneously considering all these variables across a complex and highly diverse dataset. The ability of AI- machine (deep) learning to simultaneously analyze multiple quantitative and qualitative features makes it suitable to predict radon with a high degree of precision. Using Canadian and Swedish long-term indoor air radon exposure data, we are using artificial deep neural network models with random weights and polynomial statistical models in MATLAB to assess and predict radon health risk to human as a function of geospatial, human behavioral, and built environmental metrics. Our initial artificial neural network with random weights model run by sigmoid activation tested different combinations of variables and showed the highest prediction accuracy (>96%) within the reasonable iterations. Here, we present details of these emerging methods and discuss strengths and weaknesses compared to the traditional artificial neural network and statistical methods commonly used to predict indoor air quality in different countries. We propose an artificial deep neural network with random weights as a highly effective method for assessing and predicting indoor radon.

Keywords: radon, radiation protection, lung cancer, aI-machine deep learnng, risk assessment, risk prediction, Europe, North America

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: K. S. Suganya, R. Nedunchezhian

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In recent years, blockchain technology has been found to be the most significant discovery in this digital era, after the discovery of the Internet and Cloud Computing. Blockchain is a simple, distributed public ledger that contains all the user’s transaction details in a block. The global copy of the block is then shared among all its peer-peer network users after validation by the Blockchain miners. Once a block is validated and accepted, it cannot be altered by any users making it a trust-free transaction. It also resolves the problem of double-spending by using traditional cryptographic methods. Since the advent of bitcoin, blockchain has been the backbone for all its transactions. But in recent years, it has found its roots and uses in many fields like Smart Contracts, Smart City management, healthcare, etc. Identity management against digital identity theft has become a major concern among financial and other organizations. To solve this digital identity theft, blockchain technology can be employed with existing identity management systems, which maintain a distributed public ledger containing details of an individual’s identity containing information such as Digital birth certificates, Citizenship number, Bank details, voter details, driving license in the form of blocks verified on the blockchain becomes time-stamped, unforgeable and publicly visible for any legitimate users. The main challenge in using blockchain technology to prevent digital identity theft is ensuring the pseudo-anonymity and privacy of the users. This survey paper will exert to study the blockchain concepts, consensus protocols, and various blockchain-based Digital Identity Management systems with their research scope. This paper also discusses the role of Blockchain in COVID-19 pandemic management by self-sovereign identity and supply chain management.

Keywords: blockchain, consensus protocols, bitcoin, identity theft, digital identity management, pandemic, COVID-19, self-sovereign identity

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Jocelyn D. Perreault

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An exploratory study has been launched in 2013-2014 in the province of Quebec, the state of Vermont (USA) and the region of Zaer in Morocco. We have realized three first case studies in order to better understand the marketing strategies of starting up vineries, which are defined as having a maximum of five years of operations. The methodology used consisted of visiting the vineyards; conducting semi-directed interviews with owner-managers; visiting points-of-sale of the wines and analysing the web sites using an assessment grid. The results indicate many differences between the three firms in their use of their web sites. More precisely, we have noticed that: -The Quebec vineyard uses its web site in collaboration with the touristic actors of its region and the association of the wine makers of the province of Quebec.Positioning is as a touristic attraction. -In comparison,the Moroccan firm limits the content of the web site to itself and its activities and somehow to the wine industry.Positioning is as a wine specialist. -The american firm associated its web site more to farm markets actors and activities of the region.Positioning is as an agricultural actor. -The positionings of the three vineyards are very different from each others and will be discussed more thoroughly during the presentation to better understand the use of web sites, thus contributing to the «brand image». -Improvements to the three web sites have been identified and suggested by more than a hundred of persons using the same grid and comprising students of bachelor and MBA degrees from our university. In general, the web sites have been considered satisfying but requiring several improvements at different levels. Changes or updates have been observed for the Quebec winery web site but practically no changes have been made to the others in the last months. The assessment grid will be presented in more details as well as the global and the partial scores given by the respondents. In conclusion, we have noticed that only one winery is considered as a «heavy and strategic user» of its web site and of Facebook and Twitter.

Keywords: web site, wineries, marketing, positioning, starting up strategies

Procedia PDF Downloads 284

Authors: Suhaida Salleh, Tee Yei Kheng

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Black pod is the most commonly destructive disease of cacao (Theobroma cacao) which cause major losses to global production of cocoa beans. The genus of Phytophthora is the important pathogen of this disease worldwide. The species of P. megakarya causes black pod disease in West Africa, whereas P. capsici and P. citrophthora cause the incident in Central and South America. In Malaysia, this disease is caused by P. palmivora which infect all stages of pod development including flower cushion, cherelle, immature and mature pods. This pathogen destroys up to 10% of trees yearly through stem cankers and causes 20 to 30% pod damages through black pod rot. Since P. palmivora has a high impact on cocoa yield, it is crucial to identify some of the abiotic factors that can constrain their growth. In an effort to evaluate the effect of different substrates and temperatures to the growth of P. palmivora, a laboratory study was done under a different range of temperatures. Different substrate for the growth of P. palmivora were used which are corn meal agar (CMA) media and detached pod of cocoa. An agar plug of seven days old of P. palmivora growth was transferred on both substrates and incubated at 24, 27, 30, 33 and 36ᵒC, respectively. The diameter of lesion on pod and the cultural growth of pathogen was recorded for 7 consecutive days. The optimum incubation temperature of P. palmivora on both substrates is at 27ᵒC. However, the growth tends to be inhibited as the temperature increases. No lesion developed on pod surface incubated at 36ᵒC and only a small lesion observed at 33ᵒC. The sporulation with the formation of white mycelial growth on pod surface was only visible at optimum temperature, 27ᵒC. On CMA, the pathogen grew over the entire range of temperatures tested. The study is, therefore, concluded that P. palmivora grow the best at temperature of 27ᵒC on both substrates and their growth begin to inhibit when the temperature rises to more than 27ᵒC. The growth pattern of this pathogen is similar on both pod surface and cultural media.

Keywords: cocoa, Phytophthora palmivora, substrate, temperature

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Samitharathana R. Wadigala

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The peace will not be established until the self-consciousness would reveal in the human beings. In this nuclear age, the establishment of a lasting peace on the earth represents the primary condition for the preservation of human civilization and survival of human beings. Nothing perhaps is so important and indispensable as the achievement and maintenance of peace in the modern world today. Peace in today’s world implies much more than the mere absence of war and violence. In the interdependent world of today the United Nations needs to be representative of the modern world and democratic in its functioning because it came into existence to save the generations from the scourge of war and conflict. Buddhism is the religion of peaceful co-existence and philosophy of enlightenment. Violence and conflict from the perspective of the Buddhist theory of interdependent origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) are same with everything else in the world a product of causes and conditions. Buddhism is totally compatible with the congenial and peaceful global order. The canonical literature, doctrines, and philosophy of Buddhism are the best suited for inter-faith dialogue, harmony, and universal peace. Even today Buddhism can resurrect the universal brotherhood, peaceful co-existence and harmonious surroundings in the comity of nations. With its increasing vitality in regions around the world, many people today turn to Buddhism for relief and guidance at the time when peace seems to be a deferred dream more than ever. From a Buddhist point of view the roots of all unwholesome actions (Conflict) i. e. greed, hatred and delusion are viewed as the root cause of all human conflicts. Conflict often emanates from attachment to material things: pleasures, property, territory, wealth, economic dominance or political superiority. Buddhism has some particularly rich resources for deployment in dissolving conflict. Buddhism addresses the Buddhist perspective on the causes of conflict and ways to resolve conflict to realize world peace. The world has enough to satisfy every body’s needs but not every body’s greed.

Keywords: Buddhism, conflict-violence, peace, self-consciousness

Procedia PDF Downloads 186