Search results for: central schemes

Authors: Nguyen Viet Tan

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The Bahnar is one of 11 indigenous groups living in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It is one among the four most popular groups in this area, including the Mnong who speak the same language of Mon Khmer family, while both groups of the Jrai and the Rhade belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language family. These groups once captured fertile plateaus, left their cultural and artistic heritage which affected the remaining small groups. Despite the difference in ethnic origins, these groups seem to share similar beliefs, customs and related folk arts after a very long time living beside each other. However, through an in-depth study, this paper points out the fact that the decorative patterns used by the Bahnar are different from the other ethnic groups, especially in color. Based on historical materials from the local museums and some studies in 1980s when all of the ethnic groups in this area had still lived in self-sufficient condition, this paper characterizes the traditional color scheme used by the Bahnar and identifies the difference in decorative motifs of this group compared to the others by pointing out they do not use green in their usual decorative patterns. Moreover, combined with some field surveys recently, through comparative analysis, it also discovers stylistic variations of these patterns in the process of cultural exchange with the other ethnic groups, both in and out of the region, in modern living conditions. This study helps to preserve and promote the traditional values and cultural identity of the Bahnar people in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, avoiding the fusion of styles among groups during the cultural exchange.

Keywords: Bahnar ethnic group, decorative patterns, the central highlands of Vietnam, the traditional color scheme

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Authors: A. Nuchitprasittichai, N. Lerdritsirikoon, T. Khamsing

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Simulation modeling can be used to solve real world problems. It provides an understanding of a complex system. To develop a simplified model of process simulation, a suitable experimental design is required to be able to capture surface characteristics. This paper presents the experimental design and algorithm used to model the process simulation for optimization problem. The CO₂ liquefaction based on external refrigeration with two refrigeration circuits was used as a simulation case study. Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) was purposed to combine with existing Central Composite Design (CCD) samples to improve the performance of CCD in generating the second order model of the system. The second order model was then used as the objective function of the optimization problem. The results showed that adding LHS samples to CCD samples can help capture surface curvature characteristics. Suitable number of LHS sample points should be considered in order to get an accurate nonlinear model with minimum number of simulation experiments.

Keywords: central composite design, CO2 liquefaction, latin hypercube sampling, simulation-based optimization

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Authors: Dimitrios Dimitriou, Maria Sartzetaki

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In the early days of the of civil aviation, airports are totally state-owned companies under the control of national authorities or regional governmental bodies. From that time the picture has totally changed and airports privatisation and airport business commercialisation are key success factors to stimulate air transport demand, generate revenues and attract investors, linked to reliable and resilience of air transport system. Nowadays, airport's corporate strategy deals with policies and actions, affecting essential the business plans, the financial targets and the economic footprint in a regional economy they serving. Therefore, exploring airport corporate strategy is essential to support the decision in business planning, management efficiency, sustainable development and investment attractiveness on one hand; and define policies towards traffic development, revenues generation, capacity expansion, cost efficiency and corporate social responsibility. This paper explores key outputs in airport corporate strategy for different ownership schemes. The airport corporations are grouped in three major schemes: (a) Public, in which the public airport operator acts as part of the government administration or as a corporised public operator; (b) Mixed scheme, in which the majority of the shares and the corporate strategy is driven by the private or the public sector; and (c) Private, in which the airport strategy is driven by the key aspects of globalisation and liberalisation of the aviation sector. By a systemic approach, the key drivers in corporate strategy for modern airport business structures are defined. Key objectives are to define the key strategic opportunities and challenges and assess the corporate goals and risks towards sustainable business development for each scheme. The analysis based on an extensive cross-sectional dataset for a sample of busy European airports providing results on corporate strategy key priorities, risks and business models. The conventional wisdom is to highlight key messages to authorities, institutes and professionals on airport corporate strategy trends and directions.

Keywords: airport corporate strategy, airport ownership, airports business models, corporate risks

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Authors: Khalid Javed, Rashid Mahmood

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The constitution empowers the Federal Government to collect taxes on income other than agricultural income, taxes on capital value, customs, excise duties and sales taxes. The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and its subordinate departments administer the tax system. Each of the three principal taxes has a different history and different set of issues. For a large number of income tax payers the core of the business process is pre-audit and assessment by a tax official. This process gives considerable discretion to tax officials, with potential for abuse. Moreover, this process is also not tenable as the number of taxpayers increase. The report is focused on a total overhaul of the process and organization of income tax. Sales tax is recent and its process and organization is adjusted to the needs of an expanding tax base. These are based on self-assessment and selective audit. Similarly, in customs the accent is on accelerating and broadening the changes begun in recent years. Before long, central excise will be subsumed in sales tax. During the nineties, despite many changes in the tax regime and introduction of withholding and presumptive taxes, Federal Government tax to GDP ratio has varied narrowly around eleven percent. The tax base has grown but still remains narrow and skewed. The number of income tax filers is around one million.

Keywords: central board of revenue, GDP, sale tax, income tax

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Authors: Selma Sbit, Mohamed Bechir Dadi, Belgacem Chibani Rhaimi

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Incorporating Home eNodeB (HeNB) in cellular networks, e.g. Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A), is beneficial for extending coverage and enhancing capacity at low price especially within the non-line-of sight (NLOS) environments such as homes. HeNB or femtocell is a small low powered base station which provides radio coverage to the mobile users in an indoor environment. This deployment results in a heterogeneous network where the available spectrum becomes shared between two layers. Therefore, a problem of Inter Cell Interference (ICI) appears. This issue is the main challenge in LTE-A. To deal with this challenge, various techniques based on frequency, time and power control are proposed. This paper deals with the impact of carrier aggregation and higher order MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) schemes on the LTE-Advanced performance. Simulation results show the advantages of these schemes on the system capacity (4.10⁹ b/s/Hz when bandwidth B=100 MHz and when applying MIMO 8x8 for SINR=30 dB), maximum theoretical peak data rate (more than 4 Gbps for B=100 MHz and when MIMO 8x8 is used) and spectral efficiency (15 b/s/Hz and 30b/s/Hz when MIMO 4x4 and MIMO 8x8 are applying respectively for SINR=30 dB).

Keywords: capacity, carrier aggregation, LTE-Advanced, MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), peak data rate, spectral efficiency

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Authors: Ali Yasin, Ali Kamran, Muhammad Safdar

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In order to reduce the hefty cost involved in terms of time and project cost, the development and application of advanced numerical tools to address the burn-back analysis problem in solid rocket motor design and development is the need of time. Several advanced numerical schemes have been developed in recent times, but their usage in the design of propellant grain of solid rocket motors is very rare. In this paper, an advanced numerical technique named the Level-Set method has been utilized for the burn-back analysis of star grain to study the effect of geometrical parameters on ballistic performance indicators such as solid loading, neutrality, and sliver percentage. In the level set technique, simple finite difference methods may fail quickly and require more sophisticated non-oscillatory schemes for feasible long-time simulation. For internal ballistic calculations, a simplified equilibrium pressure method is utilized. Preliminary results of the operative conditions, for all the combustion time, of star grain burn-back using level set techniques are compared with published results using CAD technique to test the developed numerical model.

Keywords: solid rocket motor, internal ballistic, level-set technique, star grain

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Authors: Klaudia Muca

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Disability studies as an international movement are still developing, especially in the Central and East European young democratic countries. It is crucial to recognize in what manner this development might lead to create a sustainable social environment. Thanks to disability studies the process of introducing disability studies and its main ideas might become as effective as in the 90s in the USA or other Western countries. In the Central and East Europe lack of activism in favor of the disabled in the early stages of democratic transition (i.e. the 80s and 90s) caused misrepresentation of the disabled and their experience in present political and social sphere of life. People with disabilities were made to hold a minor position in society due to political changes that introduced in fact non-equal democracy. The results of this study indicate that activism in favor of people with disabilities and works of art created by the disabled are tools that influence present disability politics. That suggests that young European democracies need to modify their current political path in order to establish more equal social policies.

Keywords: democratic transformation, disability as minority, misrepresentation of experience, non-equal democracy, sustainability

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Authors: Andre Sanches Siqueira Campos

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Central banks can play a significant role in promoting regional economic and monetary integration by strengthening the payment and settlement systems. However, close coordination and cooperation require facilitating the implementation of reforms at domestic and cross-border levels in order to benchmark with international standards and commitments to the liberal order. This situation reflects the normative power of the regulatory globalization dimension of strong states, which may drive or constrain regional integration. In the MERCOSUR and SAARC regions, central banks have set financial initiatives that could facilitate South America and South Asia regions to move towards convergence integration and facilitate trade and investments connectivities. This is qualitative method research based on a combination of the Process-Tracing method with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This research approaches multiple forms of data based on central banks, regional organisations, national governments, and financial institutions supported by existing literature. The aim of this research is to analyze the decision-making process of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) towards regional financial cooperation by identifying connectivity instruments that foster, gridlock, or redefine cooperation. The BCB and The RBI manage the monetary policy of the largest economies of those regions, which makes regional cooperation a relevant framework to understand how they provide an effective institutional arrangement for regional organisations to achieve some of their key policies and economic objectives. The preliminary conclusion is that both BCB and RBI demonstrate a reluctance to deepen regional cooperation because of the existing economic, political, and institutional asymmetries. Deepening regional cooperation is constrained by the interests of central banks in protecting their economies from risks of instability due to different degrees of development between countries in their regions and international financial crises that have impacted the international system in the 21st century. Reluctant regional integration also provides autonomy for national development and political ground for the contestation of Global Financial Governance by Brazil and India.

Keywords: Brazil, central banks, decision-making process, global financial governance, India, MERCOSUR, connectivity, payment system, regional cooperation, SAARC

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Authors: Soyoon Bak, Sunyoung Bu, Philsu Kim

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In this paper, a backward semi-Lagrangian scheme combined with the second-order backward difference formula is designed to calculate the numerical solutions of nonlinear advection-diffusion equations. The primary aims of this paper are to remove any iteration process and to get an efficient algorithm with the convergence order of accuracy 2 in time. In order to achieve these objects, we use the second-order central finite difference and the B-spline approximations of degree 2 and 3 in order to approximate the diffusion term and the spatial discretization, respectively. For the temporal discretization, the second order backward difference formula is applied. To calculate the numerical solution of the starting point of the characteristic curves, we use the error correction methodology developed by the authors recently. The proposed algorithm turns out to be completely iteration-free, which resolves the main weakness of the conventional backward semi-Lagrangian method. Also, the adaptability of the proposed method is indicated by numerical simulations for Burgers’ equations. Throughout these numerical simulations, it is shown that the numerical results are in good agreement with the analytic solution and the present scheme offer better accuracy in comparison with other existing numerical schemes. Semi-Lagrangian method, iteration-free method, nonlinear advection-diffusion equation, second-order backward difference formula

Keywords: Semi-Lagrangian method, iteration free method, nonlinear advection-diffusion equation, second-order backward difference formula

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Authors: Fendouli Ines, Zaafrane Nesrine, Mhamdi Hana, Knani Leila, Ghorbel Mohamed

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Introduction: Ocular infiltration of leukemia can involve orbit, uveal tract, retina and optic nerve. It may result from direct ocular infiltration by leukemic cells or indirect ocular involvement resulting from secondary hematologic changes, opportunistic infections and complications of various modalities of therapy. We here in report a case of central venous retinal occlusion associated to optic nerve infiltration as presenting signs of a relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Case Report: A twelve-year-old male -patient of acute B lymphoblastic leukemia presented with headaches and bilateral blurred vision in the left ee. Ophthalmic examination showed a visual acuity reduced to counting fingers in the right eye and no light perception in the left eye. Funduscopy revealed a voluminous disc edema surrounded by retinal haemorrhages in the right eye, and venous tortusities, papillary edema, and hemorrages suggesting central retinal venous occlusion in the LE. Swept source optical coherence tomography revealed a serous retinal detachment in the RE and .hyperreflective inner layers with macular edema in the left eye. Cerebro-orbital MRI showed bilateral thickened left optic nerve. There were no radiological signs of true papillary edema due to intracranial hypertension secondary to central nervous system involvement. Myelogram and lumbar punction demonstrated blast infiltration and confirmed ocular relapse of the leukemia. Conclusion: Ocular involvement lymphoblastic acute leukemias decreased since the introduction of a systematic prophylactic treatment of central nervous system. Periodic ophthalmic examination is necessary to allow early diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: acute leukemia, optic nerve, infiltration, relapse

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Authors: Pamela Ventola, Laurel Bales, Sara Florczyk

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Background: Fully remote or hybrid administration of clinical outcome measures in rare neurodevelopmental disorders trials is increasing due to the ongoing pandemic and recognition that remote assessments reduce the burden on families. Many assessments in rare neurodevelopmental disorders trials are complex; however, remote/hybrid trials readily allow for the use of centralized raters to administer and score the scales. The use of centralized raters has many benefits, including reducing site burden; however, a specific impact on data quality has not yet been determined. Purpose: The current study has two aims: a) evaluate differences in data quality between administration of a standardized clinical interview completed by centralized raters compared to those completed by site raters and b) evaluate improvement in accuracy of scoring standardized developmental assessments when scored centrally compared to when scored by site raters. Methods: For aim 1, the Vineland-3, a widely used measure of adaptive functioning, was administered by site raters (n= 52) participating in one of four rare disease trials. The measure was also administered as part of two additional trials that utilized central raters (n=7). Each rater completed a comprehensive training program on the assessment. Following completion of the training, each clinician completed a Vineland-3 with a mock caregiver. Administrations were recorded and reviewed by a neuropsychologist for administration and scoring accuracy. Raters were able to certify for the trials after demonstrating an accurate administration of the scale. For site raters, 25% of each rater’s in-study administrations were reviewed by a neuropsychologist for accuracy of administration and scoring. For central raters, the first two administrations and every 10th administration were reviewed. Aim 2 evaluated the added benefit of centralized scoring on the accuracy of scoring of the Bayley-3, a comprehensive developmental assessment widely used in rare neurodevelopmental disorders trials. Bayley-3 administrations across four rare disease trials were centrally scored. For all administrations, the site rater who administered the Bayley-3 scored the scale, and a centralized rater reviewed the video recordings of the administrations and also scored the scales to confirm accuracy. Results: For aim 1, site raters completed 138 Vineland-3 administrations. Of the138 administrations, 53 administrations were reviewed by a neuropsychologist. Four of the administrations had errors that compromised the validity of the assessment. The central raters completed 180 Vineland-3 administrations, 38 administrations were reviewed, and none had significant errors. For aim 2, 68 administrations of the Bayley-3 were reviewed and scored by both a site rater and a centralized rater. Of these administrations, 25 had errors in scoring that were corrected by the central rater. Conclusion: In rare neurodevelopmental disorders trials, sample sizes are often small, so data quality is critical. The use of central raters inherently decreases site burden, but it also decreases rater variance, as illustrated by the small team of central raters (n=7) needed to conduct all of the assessments (n=180) in these trials compared to the number of site raters (n=53) required for even fewer assessments (n=138). In addition, the use of central raters dramatically improves the quality of scoring the assessments.

Keywords: neurodevelopmental disorders, clinical trials, rare disease, central raters, remote trials, decentralized trials

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Authors: Ahmad Javid Habib, Tetsuo Kidokoro

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There is an increasing demand for developing urban land to provide better living conditions for all citizens in Afghanistan. Most of the development will involve the acquisition of land. And the current land acquisition method practiced by central government is expropriation, which is a cash-based transaction method that imposes heavy fiscal burden on local municipalities and central government, and it does not protect ownership rights and social equity of landowners besides it relocates the urban poor to remote areas with limited access to jobs and public services. The questionnaire analysis, backed by observations of different case studies in countries where land readjustment is used as a collaborative land development tool indicates that the method plays a key role in valuing landowners’ rights, giving other community members and stakeholders the opportunity to collaboratively implement urban development projects. The practice of the method is reducing the heavy fiscal burden on the local and central governments and is a better option to deal with the current development challenges in Afghanistan.

Keywords: collaboration, land readjustment, master plan, expropriation

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Authors: Hariyadi, Rili Windiasih

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Halal tourism is a recent global phenomenon that emerged out of the needs of Muslim tourists. However, works on halal tourism rarely discuss the connection of it to the rising religiosity in Indonesia since halal tourism has been mostly studied in the sphere of tourism, business, and management studies. A few works on the increase of Islamic expressions in Indonesia do mention the recent booming of non-mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca and the emergence of sharia compliant accommodation, yet they do not go into details on the issue. To our best knowledge, there is a lack of more critical, cultural political studies on halal tourism in which the paper attempts to fill in. The paper is a result of fieldwork research in Central Java, Indonesia. The study focuses on sacred sites for pilgrimage and sharia-compliant hotels. It combines in-depth interviews and participatory observation methods to gather the data. It is important for us to take a look at the network of halal tourism actors (businessperson, local government, clerics, etc.) in Central Java, how they conceive halal tourism, and how their networking shape halal tourism discourses, policies, and practices. Despite having numerous Islamic pilgrimage places and being designated by the Ministry of Tourism as one of 12 Muslim friendly tourist destinations, the province is not yet widely recognised as the main destination for halal tourism as it is known as the place for more secular, nationalist groups rather than for more Islamic oriented ones. However, in some of its municipalities, there is increasingly more attention to develop halal tourism. In this study, we found out that the development of halal tourism in Central Java connected to dynamics of Islamisation and ideological competition as well as the influence of the more pragmatist businesspersons in a 'nationalist province' in Indonesia.

Keywords: actor networking, halal tourism, Islamisation, Indonesia

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Authors: Dagikhudo Dagiev

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This paper is a thorough contribution to the analysis of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet scholarship on the study of Ismailism in Central Asia. It focuses on the lengthy development of Russian studies on Ismailism from the Russian colonial domination to the entire period of Soviet rule, down to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the last two decades of post-Soviet history. These studies, conducted along the lines of various disciplines in the span of more than one hundred years, have resulted in a large amount of scholarly contributions. This paper aims at probing the virtues and shortcoming of such scholarship. Particularly, our investigation of the specialised fields in the Russian-Soviet Studies has required laborious researches in Russian and Central Asian libraries, which have enabled us to provide a guide through this literature, assessing its ideological leanings and qualities, institutions and level of scholarship. Despite some shortcomings, due to Marxism and the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party over the socio-religious life of the people and religious communities, Soviet studies have produced many positive insights on Ismailis studies. These captured almost every aspects of the life of the Ismaili community from anthropology to archaeology, ethnography, history, philosophy, ritual practice and, most importantly, collection and preservation of Ismaiili manuscripts, which will be examined and assessed in this study.

Keywords: Central Asian Studies, Ismailism, Russian Studies, Soviet Studies

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Authors: N. Maksimentseva

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The issue of public administration in subsoil use, renewal and protection is of high importance for Ukraine since it is strongly linked to energy security of the state as well as it shall facilitate the people of Ukraine to efficiently implement its propitiatory rights towards natural resources and redistribution of national wealth. As it is stipulated in the Article 11 of the Subsoil Code of Ukraine (the Code) the authorities that administer the industry are limited to central executive bodies and local governments. In particular, it is stipulated in the Code that the Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers carries out public administration in geological exploration, production and protection of subsoil. Other state bodies of public administration include central public authority responsible for state environmental protection policies; central public authority in charge of implementation of state geological exploration and efficient subsoil use policies; central authority in charge of state health and safety control policies. There are also public authorities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea; local executive bodies and other state authorities and local self-government authorities in compliance with laws of Ukraine. This article is devoted to the analysis of the legal relations in the area of public administration of subsoil use, renewal and protection in Ukraine. The main approaches to study the essence of legal relations in the named area as well as its tasks, functions and methods are analyzed. It is concluded in this article that legal relationship in the field of public administration of subsoil use, renewal and protection is characterized by specifics of its task (development of natural resources).

Keywords: legal relations, public administration, subsoil code of Ukraine, subsoil use, renewal and protection

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Authors: Hazem M. Al-Mofleh

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In this paper, a new four-parameter univariate continuous distribution called the Normal-Generalized Hyperbolic Secant Distribution (NGHS) is defined and studied. Some general and structural distributional properties are investigated and discussed, including: central and non-central n-th moments and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, hazard function, Rényi and Shannon entropies, shapes: skewed right, skewed left, and symmetric, modality regions: unimodal and bimodal, maximum likelihood (MLE) estimators for the parameters. Finally, two real data sets are used to demonstrate empirically its flexibility and prove the strength of the new distribution.

Keywords: bimodality, estimation, hazard function, moments, Shannon’s entropy

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Authors: Yuliya Radanova, Agnė Tvaronavičienė

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With the growing trend for mandating parties of family conflicts to out-of-court processes, the adopted statutory regulations often remain silent on the way the voice of the child is integrated into the procedure. Convention on the Rights of the Child (Art. 12) clearly states the obligation to assure to the child who can form his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting him. This article seeks to explore the way children participate in the mandatory mediation schemes applicable to family disputes in the European Union. A review of scientific literature and empirical data has been conducted on those EU Member States that coerce parties to family mediation to establish that different models of practice are deployed, and there is a lack of synchronicity on how children’s role in mediation is viewed. Child-inclusive mediation processes are deemed to produce sustainable results over time but necessitate professional qualifications and skills for the purpose of mediators to accommodate that such discussions are aligned with the best interest of the child. However, there is no unanimous guidance, standards or protocols on the peculiar characteristics and manner through which children are involved in mediation. Herewith, it is suggested that the lack of such rigorous approaches and coherence in an ever-changing mediation setting transitioning towards mandatory mediation models jeopardizes the importance of children’s voices in the process. Thus, it is suggested that there is a need to consider the adoption of uniform guidelines on the specific role children have in mediation, particularly in its mandatory models.

Keywords: family mediation, child involvement, mandatory mediation, child-inclusive, child-focused

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Authors: Yanni Chang, Dezhi Dai, Albert Y. Tong

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Piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) schemes are widely used in the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to capture interfaces in numerical simulations of multiphase flows. Dynamic overset meshes can be especially useful in applications involving component motions and complex geometric shapes. In the present study, the VOF value of an acceptor cell is evaluated in a geometric way that transfers the fraction field between the meshes precisely with reconstructed interfaces from the corresponding donor elements. The acceptor cell value is evaluated by using a weighted average of its donors for most of the overset interpolation schemes for continuous flow variables. The weighting factors are obtained by different algebraic methods. Unlike the continuous flow variables, the VOF equation is a step function near the interfaces, which ranges from zero to unity rapidly. A geometric interpolation scheme of the VOF field in overset meshes for the PLIC-VOF method has been proposed in the paper. It has been tested successfully in quadrilateral/hexahedral overset meshes by employing several VOF advection tests with imposed solenoidal velocity fields. The proposed algorithm has been shown to yield higher accuracy in mass conservation and interface reconstruction compared with three other algebraic ones.

Keywords: interpolation scheme, multiphase flows, overset meshes, PLIC-VOF method

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Authors: Lucy Ampaw-Asiedu, Terri R. Norton

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In the wake of recent disasters happening around the world such as earthquake in Italy (January, 2017); hurricanes in the United States (US) (September 2016 and September 2017); and compounding disasters in Haiti (September 2010 and September 2016); to our best knowledge, never has the world seen the need to work on preemptive rather than reactionary measures to salvage this situation than now. Tornadoes are natural hazards that mostly affect mid-western and central states in the US. Tornadoes, like all natural hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and others, are very destructive and result in massive destruction to homes, cause billions of dollars in damage and claims many lives. Healthcare facilities in general are vulnerable to disasters, and therefore, the safety of patients, health workers and those who come in to seek shelter should be a priority. The focus of this study is to assess disaster management measures instituted by healthcare facilities. Thus, the sole aim of the study is to examine the vulnerabilities and the design of safe spaces in healthcare facilities in Central US. Objectives that guide the study are to primarily identify the impacts of tornadoes in hospitals and to assess the structural design or specifications of safe spaces. St. John’s Regional Medical Center, now Mercy Hospital in Joplin, is used as a case study. Preliminary results show that the lateral base shear of the proposed design to be 684.24 ton (1508.49kip) for the safe space. Findings from this work will be used to make recommendations about the design of safe spaces for health care facilities in Central US.

Keywords: disaster management, safe spaces, structural design, tornado, vulnerability

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Authors: S. Raja Mohamed, M. H Shwehdi, D. Devaraj

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This paper is to present and discuss the new planned 380 kV transmission line performance under steady and transient states. Dynamic modeling and analysis of such inter-tie, which is, proposed to transfer energy from west to south and vice versa will be demonstrated and discussed. The west-central-south inter-tie links Al-Aula-Zaba-Tabuk-Tubajal-Jawf-Hail. It is essential to investigate the transient over-voltage to assure steady and stable transmission over such inter-tie. Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has been improving its grid to make the whole country as an interconnected system. Already east, central and west were interconnected, yet mostly each is fed with its local generation. The SEC is planning to establish many inter-ties to strengthen the transient stability of its grid. The paper studies one of the important links of 380 kV, 220 km between Tabouk and Tubarjal, which is a step towards connecting the West with the South region. Modeling and analysis using some softwares will be utilized under different scenarios. Adoption of methods to stabilize and increase its power transmission are also discussed. Improvement of power system transients has been controlled by FACTS elements such the Static Var Compensators (SVC) receiving a wide interest since many technical studies have proven their effects on damping system oscillations and stability enhancement. Illustrations of the transient at each main generating or load bus will be checked in all inter-tie links. A brief review of possible means to solve the transient over-voltage problem using different FACTS element modeling will be discussed.

Keywords: transient stability, static var compensator, central-west interconnected system, damping controller, Saudi Electricity Company

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Authors: Alper Serdar Anli

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Analysis of temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) is important in arid and semi-arid regions where water resources are limited. In this study, temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and meteorological drought analysis through SPEI (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) method have been carried out in provinces of Central Anatolia Region, Turkey. Reference evapotranspiration of concerning provinces in the region has been estimated using Penman-Monteith method and one calendar year has been split up four periods as r1, r2, r3 and r4. Temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration according to four periods has been analyzed through parametric Dickey-Fuller test and non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. As a result, significant increasing trends for reference evapotranspiration have been detected and according to SPEI method used for estimating meteorological drought in provinces, mild drought has been experienced in general, and however there have been also a significant amount of events where moderate and severely droughts occurred.

Keywords: central Anatolia region, drought index, Penman-Monteith, reference evapotranspiration, temporal variation

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Authors: Rajinder Pal Kaur, Amit Sharma, Anuj Kumar Sharma, Govind Prasad Sahu

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The existence of chaos in the marine ecosystems may cause planktonic blooms, disease outbreaks, extinction of some plankton species, or some complex dynamics in oceans, which can adversely affect the sustainable marine ecosystem. The control of the chaotic plankton-fish dynamics is one of the main motives of marine ecologists. In this paper, we have studied the impact of phytoplankton refuge, zooplankton refuge, and fear effect on the chaotic plankton-fish dynamics incorporating phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish biomass. The fear of fish predation transfers the unpredictable(chaotic) behavior of the plankton system to a stable orbit. The defense mechanism developed by prey species due to fear of the predator population can also terminate chaos from the given dynamics. Moreover, the impact of external disturbances like seasonality, noise, periodic fluctuations, and time delay on the given chaotic plankton system has also been discussed. We have applied feedback mechanisms to control the complexity of the system through the parameter noise. The non-feedback schemes are implemented to observe the role of seasonal force, periodic fluctuations, and time delay in suppressing the given chaotic system. Analytical results are substantiated by numerical simulation.

Keywords: plankton, chaos, noise, seasonality, fluctuations, fear effect, prey refuge

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Authors: Guyue Zhu, Liangping Hong

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Chinese overall urban design faces a large number of problems such as the neglect of urban characteristics, generalization of content, and difficulty in implementation. Focusing on these issues, this paper proposes the main points of shaping urban characteristics in overall urban design: focuses on core problems in city function and scale, landscape pattern, historical culture, social resources and modern city style and digs the urban characteristic genes. Then, we put forward “core problem location and characteristic gene enhancement” as a kind of overall urban design technical method. Firstly, based on the main problems in urban space as a whole, for the operability goal, the method extracts the key genes and integrates into the multi-dimension system in a targeted manner. Secondly, hierarchical management and guidance system is established which may be in line with administrative management. Finally, by converting the results, action plan is drawn up that can be dynamically implemented. Based on the above idea and method, a practical exploration has been performed in the case of Xiangyang central city.

Keywords: city characteristics, overall urban design, planning implementation, Xiangyang central city

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Authors: Hui-Chuan Lu

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In a perfect secret-sharing scheme, a dealer distributes a secret among a set of participants in such a way that only qualified subsets of participants can recover the secret and the joint share of the participants in any unqualified subset is statistically independent of the secret. The access structure of the scheme refers to the collection of all qualified subsets. In a graph-based access structures, each vertex of a graph G represents a participant and each edge of G represents a minimal qualified subset. The average information ratio of a perfect secret-sharing scheme realizing a given access structure is the ratio of the average length of the shares given to the participants to the length of the secret. The infimum of the average information ratio of all possible perfect secret-sharing schemes realizing an access structure is called the optimal average information ratio of that access structure. We study the optimal average information ratio of the access structures based on bipartite graphs. Based on some previous results, we give a bound on the optimal average information ratio for all bipartite graphs of girth at least six. This bound is the best possible for some classes of bipartite graphs using our approach.

Keywords: secret-sharing scheme, average information ratio, star covering, deduction, core cluster

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Authors: Kuldeep Singh

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The present paper is an attempt for tracing the changes in the welfare state in Indian democracy from the starting point till now and aims to critical analyse the social-welfare programmes in India with respect to welfare state. After getting independence from Britishers, India became a welfare state and is aiming towards the upliftment of its citizens. Indian democracy is considered to be the largest amongst democratic countries, instead of this after forty-five years of independence, Panchayati Raj Institution became one of the branches of democratic decentralization institutions in India by 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1992. Unfortunately, desired purpose of introducing Panchayati Raj Institution is not achieved after all these delayed efforts. The basic problem regarding achievement of welfare state in India in true sense is unawareness and non-implementation of these social-welfare programmes. Presently, Indian government is only focusing on economic growth of the country but lacking from the social point. The doctrinal method of research is used in this research paper. In the concluding remarks, researcher is partly favoring the government in introducing welfare programmes as there are abundant of welfare schemes and programmes, but majority are facing implementation problem. In last, researcher has suggested regarding programmes and schemes that these should be qualitative in nature and power would be given to effective machinery for further check upon their proper implementation and aware the citizens regarding their rights so that welfare state would be achieved.

Keywords: democratic decentralization, Indian democracy, Panchayati Raj institution, social-welfare programmes, welfare state

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Authors: Małgorzata Jakubowska, Monika Michałowska

Abstract:

Since the beginning of the cinematographic industry, there has been a visible interest in two leading themes: death and sexuality. One of the reasons of the unfading popularity of these motives was the fact that death or sex employed as leitmotivs attracted great attention of the viewers, and this guaranteed a financial success. What seems interesting is the fact that the themes of death and sexuality/eroticism seem to be mutually exclusive in the mainstream movies to such extent that they almost never appear together on the screen. As leitmotivs they describe opposite experiences of human life, one refers to affirmation of life, the other points to atrophy and decay. This film paradigm is rarely challenged. Thus, a relatively less attention has been devoted so far to entwining dying and sexuality/eroticism in one movie. In our paper, we wish to have a closer look at the visualizations of dying with focus on the aspect of sexuality/eroticism. Our analysis will concentrate on the contemporary European and American cinema, and especially the recent productions that contribute to the cultural phenomenon of entwining the two realms of human life. We will investigate the main clichés, plot and visual schemes, motives and narrative techniques on the examples of Sweet November (2001), A Little Bit of Heaven (2011) and Now is good (2012). We will also shed some light on the recent film productions that seem to provide a shift in portraying the realms of dying and sexuality concentrating on The Garden of Earthly Delights (2003) as the most paradigmatic example.

Keywords: contemporary cinema, dying and sexuality, narrative techniques, plot and visual schemes

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Authors: Yansong Gao, Damith C.Ranasinghe, Siad F. Al-Sarawi, Omid Kavehei, Derek Abbott

Abstract:

Passive crossbar arrays is in principle the simplest functional electrical circuit, together with memristive device in cross-point, holding great promise in future high-density, non-volatile memories. However, the greatest problem of crossbar array is the sneak path current. In this paper, we investigate one type of memristive device with intrinsic rectification behavior to address the sneak path currents. Firstly, a SPICE behavior model written in Verilog-A language of the memristive device is presented to fit experimental data published in literature. Next, systematic performance simulations including read margin and power consumption of crossbar array, which uses the self-rectifying memristive device as storage element at cross-point, with respect to different crossbar sizes, interconnect resistance, ratio of HRS/LRS (High Resistance State/ Low Resistance State), rectification ratio and different read schemes are conducted. Subsequently, Trade-offs among reading margin, power consumption, and reading schemes are analyzed to provide guidelines for circuit design. Finally, performance comparison between the memristive device with/without intrinsic rectification behavior is given to show the worthiness of this intrinsic rectification behavior.

Keywords: memristive device, memristor, crossbar, RRAM, read margin, power consumption

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Authors: Ansong Richard Omari, Yosei Oikawa, Yoshiharu Fujii, Dorothea Sonoko Bellingrath-Kimura

Abstract:

Renewed interest in soil management aimed at improving the productive capacity of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) soils has called for the need to analyse the long term effect of different fertilization systems on soil. This study was conducted in two agroecological zones (i.e., Guinea Savannah (GS) and Deciduous forest (DF)) of Ghana to evaluate the impacts of long term (> 5 years) fertilization schemes on soil chemical and microbial properties. Soil samples under four different fertilization schemes (inorganic, inorganic and organic, organic, and no fertilization) were collected from 20 farmers` field in both agroecological zones. Soil analyses were conducted using standard procedures. All average soil quality parameters except extractable C, potential mineralizable nitrogen and CEC were significantly higher in DF sites compared to GS. Inorganic fertilization proved superior in soil chemical and microbial biomass especially in GS zone. In GS, soil deterioration index (DI) revealed that soil quality deteriorated significantly (−26%) under only organic fertilization system whereas soil improvement was observed under inorganic and no fertilization sites. In DF, either inorganic or organic and inorganic fertilization showed significant positive effects on soil quality. The high soil chemical composition and enhanced microbial biomass in DF were associated with the high rate of inorganic fertilization.

Keywords: deterioration index, fertilization scheme, microbial biomass, tropical agroecological zone

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Authors: Akbar Gharbali, Ali Abbasian Ardekani, Afshin Mohammadi

Abstract:

Introduction: Thyroid nodules have an incidence of 33-68% in the general population. More than 5-15% of these nodules are malignant. Early detection and treatment of thyroid nodules increase the cure rate and provide optimal treatment. Between the medical imaging methods, Ultrasound is the chosen imaging technique for assessment of thyroid nodules. The confirming of the diagnosis usually demands repeated fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). So, current management has morbidity and non-zero mortality. Objective: To explore diagnostic potential of automatic texture analysis (TA) methods in differentiation benign and malignant thyroid nodules by ultrasound imaging in order to help for reliable diagnosis and monitoring of the thyroid nodules in their early stages with no need biopsy. Material and Methods: The thyroid US image database consists of 70 patients (26 benign and 44 malignant) which were reported by Radiologist and proven by the biopsy. Two slices per patient were loaded in Mazda Software version 4.6 for automatic texture analysis. Regions of interests (ROIs) were defined within the abnormal part of the thyroid nodules ultrasound images. Gray levels within an ROI normalized according to three normalization schemes: N1: default or original gray levels, N2: +/- 3 Sigma or dynamic intensity limited to µ+/- 3σ, and N3: present intensity limited to 1% - 99%. Up to 270 multiscale texture features parameters per ROIs per each normalization schemes were computed from well-known statistical methods employed in Mazda software. From the statistical point of view, all calculated texture features parameters are not useful for texture analysis. So, the features based on maximum Fisher coefficient and the minimum probability of classification error and average correlation coefficients (POE+ACC) eliminated to 10 best and most effective features per normalization schemes. We analyze this feature under two standardization states (standard (S) and non-standard (NS)) with Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Non-Linear Discriminant Analysis (NDA). The 1NN classifier was performed to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors. The confusion matrix and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used for the formulation of more reliable criteria of the performance of employed texture analysis methods. Results: The results demonstrated the influence of the normalization schemes and reduction methods on the effectiveness of the obtained features as a descriptor on discrimination power and classification results. The selected subset features under 1%-99% normalization, POE+ACC reduction and NDA texture analysis yielded a high discrimination performance with the area under the ROC curve (Az) of 0.9722, in distinguishing Benign from Malignant Thyroid Nodules which correspond to sensitivity of 94.45%, specificity of 100%, and accuracy of 97.14%. Conclusions: Our results indicate computer-aided diagnosis is a reliable method, and can provide useful information to help radiologists in the detection and classification of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.

Keywords: ultrasound imaging, thyroid nodules, computer aided diagnosis, texture analysis, PCA, LDA, NDA

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Authors: Sudhir Kumar, V. R. Sinha

Abstract:

Water in oil topical microemulsions of 5-FU were developed and optimized using face centered central composite design. Topical w/o microemulsion of 5-FU were prepared using sorbitan monooleate (Span 80), polysorbate 80 (Tween 80), with different oils such as oleic acid (OA), triacetin (TA), and isopropyl myristate (IPM). The ternary phase diagrams designated the microemulsion region and face centered central composite design helped in determining the effects of selected variables viz. type of oil, smix ratio and water concentration on responses like drug content, globule size and viscosity of microemulsions. The CCD design exhibited that the factors have statistically significant effects (p<0.01) on the selected responses. The actual responses showed excellent agreement with the predicted values as suggested by the CCD with lower residual standard error. Similarly, the optimized values were found within the range as predicted by the model. Furthermore, other characteristics of microemulsions like pH, conductivity were investigated. For the optimized microemulsion batch, ex-vivo skin flux, skin irritation and retention studies were performed and compared with marketed 5-FU formulation. In ex vivo skin permeation studies, higher skin retention of drug and minimal flux was achieved for optimized microemulsion batch then the marketed cream. Results confirmed the actual responses to be in agreement with predicted ones with least residual standard errors. Controlled release of drug was achieved for the optimized batch with higher skin retention of 5-FU, which can further be utilized for the treatment of many dermatological disorders.

Keywords: 5-FU, central composite design, microemulsion, ternanry phase diagram

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