Search results for: Mirko Ante

Authors: Ilim Moses Msughter

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The study was carried out to examine the availability of Ante-natal care services and the socio-cultural factors affecting the utilization of these services in Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area of Katsina State. Four specific objectives were outlined as thus to examine the availability of antenatal care services in Dutsin-Ma local government area, to identify the socio-cultural factors affecting the utilisation of ante-natal care services, to ascertain the challenges affecting utilisation of ante-natal care services and suggest strategies to improve efficiency in ante-natal service delivery and utilisation of same services. Data were collected from 110 respondents using a questionnaire and through the use of the interview. Data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings revealed that ante-natal care services are available in the study area, but access to such services is hindered by several factors, which include religious and traditional beliefs, cost of services and poor attitudes of health care workers which has an adverse effect on people’s desire to visit ante-natal centres. The study recommended that Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) need to be trained on how to handle pregnancy-related complications. It is also recommended that essential ante-natal drugs and services should be subsidised or made free by the government, and this must be closely monitored to ensure efficiency. Finally, human relation training should be organised for nurses and midwives to improve their attitudes towards patients during ante-natal visits.

Keywords: utilisation, religion, traditional birth attendant, ante-natal

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Miang Hong Ngerng, Noor Diyana Jasme, May Jin Theong

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Volatile market environment is inevitable. Fund managers are struggling to choose the right strategy to survive and overcome uncertainties and adverse market movement. Therefore, finding certainty in the mist of uncertainty future is one of the key performance objectives for fund managers. Current available theoretical results are not practical due to strong reliance on the investment assumption made. This paper is to identify the component that can be forecasted in Ex-ante setting which is the realistic situation facing a fund manager in the actual execution of asset allocation in portfolio management. Partial lease square method was used to generate an index with 10 years accounting data from 191 companies listed in KLSE. The result shows that the index reflects the inner nature of the business and up to 30% of the stock return can be explained by the index.

Keywords: active portfolio management, asset allocation ex-ante investment, asset class, partial lease square

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Mirko Ante, Şeniz Sörgel, Andreas Bund

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Li-S- (Lithium-Sulfur-) battery systems provide very high specific gravimetric energy (2600 Wh/kg) and volumetric energy density (2800Wh/l). Hence, Li-S batteries are one of the key technologies for both the upcoming electromobility and stationary applications. Furthermore, the Li-S battery system is potentially cheap and environmentally benign. However, the technical implementation suffers from cycling stability, low charge and discharge rates and incomplete understanding of the complex polysulfide reaction mechanism. The aim of this work is to develop an effective electrocatalyst for the polysulfide reactions so that the electrode kinetics of the sulfur half-cell will be improved. Accordingly, the overvoltage will be decreased, and the efficiency of the cell will be increased. An enhanced electroactive surface additionally improves the charge and discharge rates. To reach this goal, functionalized electrocatalytic coatings are investigated to accelerate the kinetics of the polysulfide reactions. In order to determine a suitable electrocatalyst, apparent exchange current densities of a variety of materials (Ni, Co, Pt, Cr, Al, Cu, ITO, stainless steel) have been evaluated in a polysulfide containing electrolyte by potentiodynamic measurements and a Butler-Volmer fit including diffusion limitation. The samples have been examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) after the potentiodynamic measurements. Up to now, our work shows that cobalt is a promising material with good electrocatalytic properties for the polysulfide reactions and good chemical stability in the system. Furthermore, an electrodeposition from a modified Watt’s nickel electrolyte with a sulfur source seems to provide an autocatalytic effect, but the electrocatalytic behavior decreases after several cycles of the current-potential-curve.

Keywords: electrocatalyst, energy storage, lithium sulfur battery, sulfur electrode materials

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: Lilian A. Okeke, I. Okeke, N. Waziri, S. Balogun, P. Nguku, O. Fawole

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Background: Access to ante-natal care services promotes safe motherhood and delivery with improved maternal and neonatal outcome. We conducted this study to identify factors influencing the utilization of antenatal care (ANC) and health delivery services. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study. Households were numbered and a one in three sample was selected using a systematic sampling method. One hundred and ninety eight women who were either pregnant or had previous deliveries were interviewed using pretested structured questionnaires to obtain information on their socio-demographic characteristics, and reasons for non-utilization of ANC and health delivery services. We performed univariate and bivariate analysis using Epi info version 3.5.3. Results: The age of respondents ranged from (17-55 years) with a median age of 29 years. One hundred and ninety two (97%) utilized antenatal care services. Ninety three (47.9%) attended ANC at second trimester. More than half (58.6%) had ≥ 4 visits to ANC. One hundred and thirty one (66.2%) had their last delivery at home by a traditional birth attendant. Factors associated with ANC and health facility delivery services utilization were: age group 45-55 (OR 0.01; 95% CI: 0.00-0.16) and > 55 years (OR 0.03; 95% CI: 0.00-0.60), wife’s educational status (OR 3.17; 95% CI: 1.66-8.30), husband’s permission (OR 11.8; 95% CI 2.19-63.62), and distance ≥ 5km (OR 0.33; 95% CI: 0.16-0.60). Conclusion: ANC services were well utilized. Most women did not book early and had their last delivery at home. Predictors of ANC use and health facility delivery were age, wife’s educational status, husband's permission and long distance from health facility. A one-day health sensitization of the benefits of ANC utilization and the dangers of delivering at home was implemented.

Keywords: ante natal care, health facility, delivery services, rural area, Plateau state

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Liyu Adhi Kasari Sulung

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Poverty has been a major problem in Indonesia. Islamic micro finance (IMF) named Baitul Maal Wat Tamwil (Bmt) plays a prominent role to eradicate this. Indonesia as the biggest muslim country has many successful applied products such as worldwide adopt group-based lending approach, flexible financing for farmers, and gold pawning. The Problems related to these models are operation risk management and internal control system (ICS). A proper ICS will help an organization in preventing the occurrence of bad financing through detecting error and irregularities in its operation. This study aims to seek a proper risk management scheme of credit system in Bmt and internal control system’s rank for every stage. Risk management variables are obtained at the first In-Depth Interview (IDI) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with Shariah supervisory boards, boards of directors, and operational managers. Survey was conducted covering nationwide data; West Java, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara. Moreover, Content analysis is employed to build the relationship among these variables. Research Findings shows that risk management Characteristics in Indonesia involves ex ante, credit process, and ex post strategies to deal with risk in credit system. Ex-ante control consists of Shariah compliance, survey, group leader reference, and islamic forming orientation. Then, credit process involves saving, collateral, joint liability, loan repayment, and credit installment controlling. Finally, ex-post control includes shariah evaluation, credit evaluation, grace period and low installment provisions. In addition, internal control order sort three stages by its priority; Credit process as first rank, then ex-post control as second, and ex ante control as the last rank.

Keywords: internal control system, islamic micro finance, poverty, risk management

Procedia PDF Downloads 377

Authors: Pankhudi Khandelwal

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The revenue models of digital giants such as Facebook and Google, use targeted advertising for revenues. Such a model requires huge amounts of consumer data. While the data protection law deals with the protection of personal data, however, this data is acquired by the companies on the basis of consent, performance of a contract, or legitimate interests. This paper analyses the role that competition law can play in evading these loopholes for the protection of data and privacy of online consumers. Digital markets have certain distinctive features such as network effects and feedback loop, which gives incumbents of these markets a first-mover advantage. This creates a situation where the winner takes it all, thus creating entry barriers and concentration in the market. It has been also seen that this dominant position is then used by the undertakings for leveraging in other markets. This can be harmful to the consumers in form of less privacy, less choice, and stifling innovation, as seen in the cases of Facebook Cambridge Analytica, Google Shopping, and Google Android. Therefore, the article aims to provide a legal framework wherein the data protection law and competition law can come together to provide a balance in regulating digital markets. The issue has become more relevant in light of the Facebook decision by German competition authority, where it was held that Facebook had abused its dominant position by not complying with data protection rules, which constituted an exploitative practice. The paper looks into the jurisdictional boundaries that the data protection and competition authorities can work from and suggests ex ante regulation through data protection law and ex post regulation through competition law. It further suggests a change in the consumer welfare standard where harm to privacy should be considered as an indicator of low quality.

Keywords: data protection, dominance, ex ante regulation, ex post regulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Robin Molinier

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Industrial symbiosis (I.S) deals with both substitution synergies (exchange of waste materials, fatal energy and utilities as resources for production) and infrastructure/service sharing synergies. The latter is based on the intensification of use of an asset and thus requires to balance capital costs increments with snowball effects (network externalities) for its implementation. Initial investors must specify ex-ante arrangements (cost sharing and pricing schedule) to commit toward investments in capacities and transactions. Our model investigate the decision of 2 actors trying to choose cooperatively a level of infrastructure capacity oversizing to set a plug-and-play offer to a potential entrant whose capacity requirement is randomly distributed while satisficing their own requirements. Capacity cost exhibits sub-additive property so that there is room for profitable overcapacity setting in the first period. The entrant’s willingness-to-pay for the access to the infrastructure is dependent upon its standalone cost and the capacity gap that it must complete in case the available capacity is insufficient ex-post (the complement cost). Since initial capacity choices are driven by ex-ante (expected) yield extractible from the entrant we derive the expected complement cost function which helps us defining the investors’ objective function. We first show that this curve is decreasing and convex in the capacity increments and that it is shaped by the distribution function of the potential entrant’s requirements. We then derive the general form of solutions and solve the model for uniform and triangular distributions. Depending on requirements volumes and cost assumptions different equilibria occurs. We finally analyze the effect of a per-unit subsidy a public actor would apply to foster such sharing synergies.

Keywords: capacity, cooperation, industrial symbiosis, pricing

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: Adrita Banerjee, Ajeet Kumar Singh

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Antenatal care (ANC) from a skilled provider is important to monitor the pregnancy and reduce the risk of morbidity for mother and baby during pregnancy and delivery. The quality of antenatal care can be monitored through the content of services received and the kind of information mothers are given during their visit. Objective: The paper tries to examine the association between ANC check-ups and size/ birth weight. It also focuses on investigating the relationship between utilization of recommended prenatal care for mothers and its effect on infant survival in Nepal. Data and methods: This paper uses data from Nepal demographic Health Survey 2011. To understand the relationship bi-variate statistical analysis and logistic regressions has been done. Maternal health care utilization include ANC check-ups i.e. the type of ante-natal care providers, the number and timing of the visit. The various components of the check-ups include intake of iron tablets/syrups, intestinal parasitic drugs, etc. Results: The results show that women who had no antenatal care visits about 40% had small sized babies at the time of birth compared to women to had at least 3 ANC check up. Women who had at least 3 check-ups 17% of the babies have a small size. It has also been found that about 50 % of the women prefer ANC check-ups during pregnancies which have resulted in lowering the infant mortality by about 40% during 1996-2011. Conclusion: Ante natal care check is care and monitoring of the pregnant woman and her foetus throughout pregnancy. ANC checks have an effect on the infant health and child survival. A woman who had at least three check-ups the possibilities of adverse effect on infant health and infant survival was significantly lower. The findings argue for a more enhanced focus on ANC check-ups for improving the maternal and child health in Nepal.

Keywords: maternal, health, pregnancy, outcome

Procedia PDF Downloads 208

Authors: Mirko Sailio

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Border crossing automatization reduces required human resources in handling people crossing borders. As technology replaces and augments the work done by border officers, new cyber threats arise to threaten border security. This research analyses the current cyber threat actors and their capabilities. The analysis is conducted by gathering the threat actor data from a wide range of public sources. A model for a general border automatization system is presented, and its most significant cyber-security attributes are then compared to threat actor activity and capabilities in order to predict priorities in securing such systems. Organized crime and nation-state actors present the clearest threat to border cyber-security, and additional focus is given to their motivations and activities.

Keywords: border automation, cyber-security, threat actors, border cyber-security

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Ana Maria Igual-Munoz, Juan Gilabert, Marta Garcia, Alfredo Quijano-Lopez

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Nowadays, several lithium-ion battery technologies are being commercialized. These chemistries present different properties that make them more suitable for different purposes. However, comparative studies showing the advantages and disadvantages of different chemistries are incomplete or scarce. Different non-destructive techniques are currently being employed to detect how ageing affects the active materials of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). For instance, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is one of the most employed ones. This technique allows the user to identify the variations on the different resistances present in LIBs. On the other hand, differential voltage analysis (DVA) has shown to be a powerful technique to detect the processes affecting the different capacities present in LIBs. This technique shows variations in the state of health (SOH) and the capacities for one or both electrodes depending on their chemistry. Finally, incremental capacity analysis (ICA) is a widely known technique for being capable of detecting phase equilibria. It reminds of the commonly used cyclic voltamperometry, as it allows detecting some reactions taking place in the electrodes. In these studies, a set of ageing procedures have been applied to commercial batteries of different chemistries (NCA, NMC, and LFP). Afterwards, results of EIS, DVA, and ICA have been used to correlate them with the processes affecting each cell. Ciclability, overpotential, and temperature cycling studies envisage how the charge-discharge rates, cut-off voltage, and operation temperatures affect each chemistry. These studies will serve battery pack manufacturers, as for common battery users, as they will determine the different conditions affecting cells for each of the chemistry. Taking this into account, each cell could be adjusted to the final purpose of the battery application. Last but not least, all the degradation parameters observed are focused to be integrated into degradation models in the future. This fact will allow the implementation of the widely known digital twins to the degradation in LIBs.

Keywords: lithium ion batteries, non-destructive analysis, different chemistries, ante-mortem studies, ICA, DVA, EIS

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Nada Bezić, Valerija Dunkić, Rušćić Mirko

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Astragalus monspessulanus L. ssp. illyricus (Bernhardt) Chater is endemic species of Fabaceae family and belongs to hemicryptophyte. This plant grows wild in the sub-Mediterranean area. We analyzed the composition of the essential oil of stems and leaves of A. monspessulanus L. ssp. Illyricus, collected in Tijarica, near Split, Croatia. Water distilled essential oils from aerial parts of investigation plant have been analysed by GC and GC/MS using VF-5ms capillary column. The total yield of oil was 0.08%, based on dry weight of samples. Thirty-eight compounds were representing 88.5% of the total oil. This essential oil was characterized by a high concentration of cis-myrtanol (20.5%), geranyl acetate (9.6%) and phytone (6.6%). Previous research in the species A. monspessulanus have included flavoalkaloids and flavonoids composition. The present study gives additional knowledge about secondary metabolites contents on the genus Astragalus.

Keywords: essential oil, isovaleric acid, Valeriana tuberosa, geranyl acetate, phytone

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Adrian Rettig, Silvan Schneider, Reto Tamburini, Mirko Kleingries, Ulf Christian Muller

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Industrial adsorption processes are, mainly due to si-multaneous heat and mass transfer, characterized by a high level of complexity. The conception of such processes often does not take place systematically; instead scale-up/down respectively number-up/down methods based on existing systems are used. This paper shows how Modelica® can be used to develop a transient model enabling a more systematic design of such ad- and desorption components and processes. The core of this model is a lumped-element submodel of a single adsorbent grain, where the thermodynamic equilibria and the kinetics of the ad- and desorption processes are implemented and solved on the basis of mass-, momentum and energy balances. For validation of this submodel, a fixed bed adsorber, whose characteristics are described in detail in the literature, was modeled and simulated. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results from the literature. Therefore, the model development will be continued, and the extended model will be applied to further adsorber types like rotor adsorbers and moving bed adsorbers.

Keywords: adsorption, desorption, linear driving force, dynamic model, Modelica®, integral equation approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: Md. Abud Darda

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Different options for natural gas production in wide geographic areas may be described through diffusion of innovation models. This type of modeling approach provides an indirect estimate of an ultimately recoverable resource, URR, capture the quantitative effects of observed strategic interventions, and allow ex-ante assessments of future scenarios over time. In order to ensure a sustainable energy policy, it is important to forecast the availability of this natural resource. Considering a finite life cycle, in this paper we try to investigate the natural gas production of Myanmar and Algeria, two important natural gas provider in the world energy market. A number of homogeneous and heterogeneous diffusion models, with convenient extensions, have been used. Models validation has also been performed in terms of prediction capability.

Keywords: diffusion models, energy forecast, natural gas, nonlinear production

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Nada Bezić, Valerija Dunkić, Antonija Markovina, Mirko Rušćić

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Valeriana is a genus of the well-known medicinal plant of Valerianacea family and growing wild in the sub-Mediterranean area. This abstract reports the types and distribution of trichomes and phyto-active composition of the essential oil of the Valeriana tuberosa from mountain Kozjak, near Split, Croatia. Two types of glandular trichomes: peltate (one basal epidermal cell, one short stalk cell and a small head) and capitate trichomes (one basal epidermal cell, one elongated stalk cell) were observed on leaf, using light microscopy. We analyzed the composition of the essential oil of stems and leaves of V. tuberosa species. Water distilled essential oils from aerial parts of investigation plant have been analysed by GC and GC/MS using VF-5ms capillary column. The total yield of oil was 0.2%, based on dry weight of samples. Forty compounds representing 94.1% of the total oil of V. tuberosa. This essential oil was characterized by a high concentration of isovaleric acid (17.2%), geranyl isovalerate (12.2%) and caryophyllene oxide (7.7%). The present study gives additional knowledge about micromorphological traits and secondary metabolites contents on the genus Valeriana.

Keywords: essential oil, isovaleric acid, Valeriana tuberosa, Croatia

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Lorna Goulden, Kai M. Hermsen, Jari Isohanni, Mirko Ross, Jef Vanbockryck

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This article introduces disposable identities, with reference use cases and explores possible technical approaches. The proposed approach, when fully developed as an open-source toolkit, enables developers of mobile or web apps to employ a self-sovereign identity and data privacy framework, in order to rebuild trust in digital services by providing greater transparency, decentralized control, and GDPR compliance. With a user interface for the management of self-sovereign identity, digital authorizations, and associated data-driven transactions, the advantage of Disposable Identities is that they may also contain verifiable data such as the owner’s photograph, official or even biometric identifiers for more proactive prevention of identity abuse. These Disposable Identities designed for decentralized privacy management can also be time, purpose and context-bound through a secure digital contract; with verification functionalities based on tamper-proof technology.

Keywords: dentity, trust, self-sovereign, disposable identity, privacy toolkit, decentralised identity, verifiable credential, cybersecurity, data driven business, PETs, GDPRdentity, trust, self-sovereign, disposable identity, privacy toolkit, decentralised identity, verifiable credential, cybersecurity, data driven business, PETs, GDPRI

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Grecco M. Ante, Princess Rochelle O. Gan

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Plants that can absorb greater than 10,000 µg Ni/g dry mass in their stems and leaves are termed as ‘hypernickelophores’. Chelators are chemicals that make the metals in the soil more soluble, making them a potential enhancer for phytoextraction. This study aims to observe the effect of different concentrations of the chelating agent ethylene diamine tetraacetate (EDTA) on the metal uptake (or rate of phytoextraction) of Nickel by Phyllanthus sp. nov. The plant is found to be a hyperickelophore in normal conditions. The addition of EDTA increased the metal uptake of the plant. The increasing amount of the chelating agent causes a decrease in the phytoextraction of the plant but moves the onset of its peak of maximum nickel content in its tissue to an earlier time. The chelator-assisted phytoextraction of nickel by Phyllanthus sp. nov. is proven to be an efficient auxiliary mining operation for nickel laterite mines.

Keywords: phytomining, Phyllanthus sp. nov., EDTA, nickel, laterite

Procedia PDF Downloads 429

Authors: Silvija ŠIljeg, Ante ŠIljeg, Ivan Marić

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Measuring housing quality is being done on objective and subjective level using different indicators. During the research 5 urban and housing indicators formed according to 58 variables from different housing, domains were used. The aims of the research were to measure housing quality based on GIS approach and to detect critical points of housing in the example of Croatian coastal Town Zadar. The purposes of GIS in the research are to generate models of housing quality indexes by standardisation and aggregation of variables and to examine accuracy model of housing quality index. Analysis of accuracy has been done on the example of variable referring to educational objects availability. By defining weighted coefficients and using different GIS methods high, middle and low housing quality zones were determined. Obtained results can be of use to town planners, spatial planners and town authorities in the process of generating decisions, guidelines, and spatial interventions.

Keywords: housing quality, GIS, housing quality index, indicators, models of housing quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: N. N. Pilau, M. S. Abubakar, A. Danmaigoro, P. C. Mshelia, Y. Sani

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A severely debilitated 4months old Caucasian male dog presented dehydration, emaciation, vomiting, icteric ocular and oral mucous membranes, generalized lymphadenopathy, hematuria, anorexia and prolonged recumbency. Clinical workup was done in established protocols for diagnosis based on history, clinical signs and selected laboratory tests. Treatment course were administered over 48hours during which the patient died of overwhelming hepatopathy, nephropathy and pneumonia. Postmortem findings supported by ante mortem laboratory test results tentatively diagnosed leptospirosis, a disease endemic and presenting potentially fatal epidemics and zoonoses in some countries amongst the developing regions of the world. This disease is reviewed and a call for attention on the public health significance of the disease is hereby presented through this case report.

Keywords: canine, endemic, leptospirosis, prevalence

Procedia PDF Downloads 480

Authors: Ahmed Moulay, Mariia Zhuldybina, Mirko Torres, Mike Rozel, Ngoc Duc Trinh, Chloé Bois

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Hybrid printed electronics technology (HPE) provides innovative opportunities to enhance conventional electronics applications, which are often based on printed circuit boards (PCB). By combining the best of both performance from conventional electronic components and the flexibility from printed circuits makes it possible to manufacture HPE at high volumes using roll-to-roll printing processes. However, several challenges must be overcome in order to accurately integrate an electronic component on a printed circuit. In this presentation, we will demonstrate the integration process of electronic components from the lab scale to the industrialization. Both the printing quality and the integration technique must be studied to define the optimal conditions. To cover the parameters that influence the print quality of the printed circuit, different printing processes, flexible substrates, and conductive inks will be used to determine the optimized printing process/ink/substrate system. After the systems is selected, an electronic component of 2.5 mm2 chip size will be integrated to validate the functionality of the printed, electronic circuit. Critical information such as the conductive adhesive, the curing conditions, and the chip encapsulation will be determined. Thanks to these preliminary results, we are able to demonstrate the chip integration on a printed circuit using industrial equipment, showing the potential of industrialization, compatible using roll-to-roll printing and integrating processes.

Keywords: flat bed screen-printing, hybrid printed electronics, integration, large-scale production, roll-to-roll printing, rotary screen printing

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Robin Molinier

Abstract:

Industrial symbiosis (I.S) deals with the exchange of waste materials, fatal energy and utilities as resources for production. While it brings environmental benefits from resource conservation its economic profitability is one of the main barriers to its implementation. I.S involves several actors with their own objectives and resources so that each actor must be satisfied by ex-ante arrangements to commit toward investments and transactions. Regarding I.S Transaction cost economics helps to identify hybrid forms of governance for transactions governance due to I.S projects specificities induced by the need for customization (asset specificity, non-homogeneity). Thus we propose a framework to analyze the best contractual practices tailored to address I.S specific risks that we identified as threefold (load profiles and quality mismatch, value fluctuations). Schemes from cooperative game theory and contracting management are integrated to analyze value flows between actors. Contractual guidelines are then proposed to address the identified risks and to split the value for a set of I.S archetypes drawn from actual experiences.

Keywords: contracts, economics, industrial symbiosis, risks

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: Mariia Zhuldybina, Ahmed Moulay, Mirko Torres, Mike Rozel, Ngoc-Duc Trinh, Chloé Bois

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To reduce the global waste of perishable goods, a solution for monitoring and traceability of their environmental conditions is needed. Temperature is the most controllable environmental parameter determining the kinetics of physical, chemical, and microbial spoilage in food products. To store the time-temperature information, time-temperature indicator (TTI) is a promising solution. Printed electronics (PE) has shown a great potential to produce customized electronic devices using flexible substrates and inks with different functionalities. We propose to fabricate a hybrid printed TTI using environmentally friendly materials. The real-time TTI profile can be stored and transmitted to the smartphone via Near Field Communication (NFC). To ensure environmental performance, Canadian Green Electronics NSERC Network is developing green materials for the ink formulation with different functionalities. In terms of substrate, paper-based electronics has gained the great interest for utilization in a wide area of electronic systems because of their low costs in setup and methodology, as well as their eco-friendly fabrication technologies. The main objective is to deliver a prototype of TTI using small-scale printed techniques under typical printing conditions. All sub-components of the smart labels, including a memristor, a battery, an antenna compatible with NFC protocol, and a circuit compatible with integration performed by an offsite supplier will be fully printed with flexography or flat-bed screen printing.

Keywords: NFC, printed electronics, time-temperature indicator, hybrid electronics

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Ziyu Liu, Martin Buijsen

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Although great achievements have been made since the beginning of the Chinese healthcare system reform in 1978, there still remain unresolved problems. Currently, the two leading social issues are accessibility and affordability of healthcare. Facing those challenges, Chinese government initiated the third round of healthcare system reform, accompanied by an array of measures. The newly launched strategies show a tendency to deliver healthcare as welfare goods, achieving equality through an ex-post perspective instead of an ex-ante view. However, if the reform efforts rely solely on the notion of “welfare”, the wrong idea of the government as the only duty-bearer in healthcare will arise. Several major threats, such as high costs as a result of inefficiencies and free riding then become imminent. Therefore, on the basis of Dworkin’s theory, this paper argues that individual responsibility should be introduced when constructing a sustainable healthcare system. And it should be equally highlighted as the duties of government. Furthermore, the notion of individual responsibility is believed to be necessary for promoting the justice of a healthcare system.

Keywords: Chinese healthcare system reform, individual responsibility, right to healthcare, social justice

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Authors: Ivana Kašparová, Emilie Pecharová

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The experience of radiological contamination of land, especially after the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters have shown the need to explore possibilities to the capture of radionuclides in the area affected and to adapt the landscape management to this purpose ex –ante the considered accident in terms of prevention. The project‚ Minimizing the impact of radiation contamination on land in the emergency zone of Temelin NPP‘ (2012-2015), dealt with the possibility of utilization of wetlands as retention sites for water carrying radionuclides in the case of a radiation accident. A model artificial wetland was designed and adopted as a utility model by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. The article shows the conditions of construction of designed wetlands in the landscape with regard to minimizing the negative effect on agricultural production and enhancing the hydrological functionality of the landscape.

Keywords: artificial wetland, land use/ land cover, old maps, surface-to-water transport of radionuclides

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Authors: E. Kharaishvili, M. Chavleishvili, M. Natsvaladze

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The article presents the trends in Georgian wine market development and evaluates the competitive advantages of Georgia to enter the wine market based on its customs, traditions and historical practices combined with modern technologies. In order to analyze the supply of wine, dynamics of vineyard land area and grape varieties are discussed, trends in wine production are presented, trends in export and import are evaluated, local wine market, its micro and macro environments are studied and analyzed based on the interviews with experts and analysis of initial recording materials. For strengthening its position on the international market, the level of competitiveness of Georgian wine is defined, which is evaluated by “ex-ante” and “ex-post” methods, as well as by four basic and two additional factors of the Porter’s diamond method; potential advantages and disadvantages of Georgian wine are revealed. Conclusions are made by identifying the factors that hinder the development of Georgian wine market. Based on the conclusions, relevant recommendations are developed.

Keywords: Georgian wine market, competitive advantage, bio wine, export-import, Porter's diamond model

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Authors: Shokofeh Ebrtahimi

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Let G be the chemical graph of a molecule. The matrix D = [dij ] is called the detour matrix of G, if dij is the length of longest path between atoms i and j. The sum of all entries above the main diagonal of D is called the detour index of G.Chemical graph theory is the topology branch of mathematical chemistry which applies graph theory to mathematical modelling of chemical phenomena.[1] The pioneers of the chemical graph theory are Alexandru Balaban, Ante Graovac, Ivan Gutman, Haruo Hosoya, Milan Randić and Nenad TrinajstićLet G be the chemical graph of a molecule. The matrix D = [dij ] is called the detour matrix of G, if dij is the length of longest path between atoms i and j. The sum of all entries above the main diagonal of D is called the detour index of G. In this paper, a new program for computing the detour index of molecular graphs of nanotubes by heptagons is determineded. Some Conjectures about detour index of Molecular graphs of nanotubes is included.

Keywords: chemical graph, detour matrix, Detour index, carbon nanotube

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Authors: Hanee Ryu

Abstract:

The former president Lee Myung-bak's administration of Korea presented “green growth” as a catchphrase from 2008. He declared “low-carbon, green growth” the nation's vision for the next decade according to United Nation Framework on Climate Change. The government designed omnidirectional policy for low-carbon and green growth with concentrating all effort of departments. The structural change was expected because this slogan is the identity of the government, which is strongly driven with the whole department. After his administration ends, the purpose of this paper is to quantify the policy effect and to compare with the value of the other OECD countries. The major target values under direct policy objectives were suggested, but it could not capture the entire landscape on which the policy makes changes. This paper figures out the policy impacts through comparing the value of ex-ante between the one of ex-post. Furthermore, each index level of Korea’s low-carbon and green growth comparing with the value of the other OECD countries. To measure the policy effect, indicators international organizations have developed are considered. Environmental Sustainable Index (ESI) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) have been developed by Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Joint Research Center of European Commission. It has been widely used to assess the level of natural resource endowments, pollution level, environmental management efforts and society’s capacity to improve its environmental performance over time. Recently OCED publish the Green Growth Indicator for monitoring progress towards green growth based on internationally comparable data. They build up the conceptual framework and select indicators according to well specified criteria: economic activities, natural asset base, environmental dimension of quality of life and economic opportunities and policy response. It considers the socio-economic context and reflects the characteristic of growth. Some selected indicators are used for measuring the level of changes the green growth policies have induced in this paper. As results, the CO2 productivity and energy productivity show trends of declination. It means that policy intended industry structure shift for achieving carbon emission target affects weakly in the short-term. Increasing green technologies patents might result from the investment of previous period. The increasing of official development aids which can be immediately embarked by political decision with no time lag present only in 2008-2009. It means international collaboration and investment to developing countries via ODA has not succeeded since the initial stage of his administration. The green growth framework makes the public expect structural change, but it shows sporadic effect. It needs organization to manage it in terms of the long-range perspectives. Energy, climate change and green growth are not the issue to be handled in the one period of the administration. The policy mechanism to transfer cost problem to value creation should be developed consistently.

Keywords: comparing ex-ante between ex-post indicator, green growth indicator, implication for green growth policy, measuring policy effect

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Authors: Mirko Klaric

Abstract:

In different countries, sub-municipal units have different organizational and political positions. In some countries, the role of sub-municipal units is important; in others, it is marginal. That depends on the organization of the local government system in different countries, and the political role of local self-government units, their size, public authorities, and the possibility for managing various local public tasks. This paper attempts to analyze the sub-municipal government as an organizational form of local governance participation of citizens in the local community with a comparative perspective. Secondly, it presents elements that generally format sub-municipal government as a tool for strengthening of democratization processes in local government units. Those elements are crucial for the understanding of the dynamic in relation to local government vs. sub-municipal government. Special focus is put on the sub-municipal government in South-Eastern European countries, which have a common history and institutional framework, with this main question: how can sub-municipal government contribute to strengthening democratic processes in these countries. In centralized countries, the sub-municipal government usually has a reduced role, which relates to managing public tasks connected with local community needs. The purpose of this comparative research methodology is used for analyzing the present organization and role of sub-municipal government in local government systems in Croatia and other significant countries in Europe, with a special focus on the states in South-Eastern Europe and Croatia. Comparative analyses attempt to show that local government systems with bigger local government units have more significant sub-municipal government. On the other hand, local government systems with small local government units don’t have a strong sub-municipal government. Finally, this paper aims to present ideas on how the sub-municipal government can improve decentralization and contribute to better development of the local community and the whole of society.

Keywords: public administration, local government, sub-municipal government, decentralization

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Authors: I. Sonia d’Apolito, Bianca Sisinni, Mirko Grimaldi, Barbara Gili Fivela

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The American English contrast /ɑ-ʌ/ (cop-cup) is difficult to be produced by Italian learners since they realize L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ as L1-/ɔ-a/ respectively, due to differences in phonetic-phonological systems and also in grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules. In this paper, we try to answer the following research questions: Can a short training improve the production of English /ɑ-ʌ/ by Italian learners? Is a perceptual training better than an articulatory (ultrasound - US) training? Thus, we compare a perceptual training with an US articulatory one to observe: 1) the effects of short trainings on L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ productions; 2) if the US articulatory training improves the pronunciation better than the perceptual training. In this pilot study, 9 Salento-Italian monolingual adults participated: 3 subjects performed a 1-hour perceptual training (ES-P); 3 subjects performed a 1-hour US training (ES-US); and 3 control subjects did not receive any training (CS). Verbal instructions about the phonetic properties of L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ and L1-/ɔ-a/ and their differences (representation on F1-F2 plane) were provided during both trainings. After these instructions, the ES-P group performed an identification training based on the High Variability Phonetic Training procedure, while the ES-US group performed the articulatory training, by means of US video of tongue gestures in L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ production and dynamic view of their own tongue movements and position using a probe under their chin. The acoustic data were analyzed and the first three formants were calculated. Independent t-tests were run to compare: 1) /ɑ-ʌ/ in pre- vs. post-test respectively; /ɑ-ʌ/ in pre- and post-test vs. L1-/a-ɔ/ respectively. Results show that in the pre-test all speakers realize L2-/ɑ-ʌ/ as L1-/ɔ-a/ respectively. Contrary to CS and ES-P groups, the ES-US group in the post-test differentiates the L2 vowels from those produced in the pre-test as well as from the L1 vowels, although only one ES-US subject produces both L2 vowels accurately. The articulatory training seems more effective than the perceptual one since it favors the production of vowels in the correct direction of L2 vowels and differently from the similar L1 vowels.

Keywords: L2 vowel production, perceptual training, articulatory training, ultrasound

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Authors: Josip Visković, Josip Arnerić, Ante Rozga

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Based on the fact that volatility is time varying in high frequency data and that periods of high volatility tend to cluster, the most successful and popular models in modelling time varying volatility are GARCH type models. When financial returns exhibit sudden jumps that are due to structural breaks, standard GARCH models show high volatility persistence, i.e. integrated behaviour of the conditional variance. In such situations models in which the parameters are allowed to change over time are more appropriate. This paper compares different GARCH models in terms of their ability to describe structural changes in returns caused by financial crisis at stock markets of six selected central and east European countries. The empirical analysis demonstrates that Markov regime switching GARCH model resolves the problem of excessive persistence and outperforms uni-regime GARCH models in forecasting volatility when sudden switching occurs in response to financial crisis.

Keywords: central and east European countries, financial crisis, Markov switching GARCH model, transition probabilities

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Authors: Y. S. Baraya, B. Umar, A. Aliyu, A. A. Raji, K. A. N. Esievo

Abstract:

This study was performed to determine the presence of anaemia in randomly selected apparently healthy camels (Camelus dromedarius) brought for slaughter at the Sokoto metropolitan abattoir, Sokoto State, Nigeria. The camels were derived from both sexes, different age groups, functional usages and kept at various localities within and outside Sokoto town. In the study area, studies involving camels were limited in particular the emphasis on the anaemic status of camels brought daily for human consumption. A total of eighty (80) blood samples were collected once a week from these camels within the period of eight (8) weeks to investigate the haematological variations especially packed cell volume (PCV). The PCV analysis revealed anaemia in more than fifty (50) % of the camels studied. However, the actual cause of the anaemia was not investigated but could be caused by infectious agent like protozoan parasite Trypanosoma specie and non-infectious cause such as nutritional deficiency. The PCV examination as a simple, inexpensive and reliable procedure could be part of the routine ante-mortem assessment to evaluate camels for the existence of anaemia since many of the causes of anaemia besides being affecting the meat quality could also be of zoonotic significance.

Keywords: anaemia, camels, packed cell volume, Sokoto abattoir

Procedia PDF Downloads 343