Search results for: random local descriptor (RLD)

Authors: Daleesha M. Viswanathan, Sumam Mary Idicula

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Dynamic hand gestures are an intrinsic component in sign language communication. Extracting spatial temporal features of the hand gesture trajectory plays an important role in a dynamic gesture recognition system. Finding a discrete feature descriptor for the motion trajectory based on the orientation feature is the main concern of this paper. Kalman filter algorithm and Hidden Markov Models (HMM) models are incorporated with this recognition system for hand trajectory tracking and for spatial temporal classification, respectively.

Keywords: orientation features, discrete feature vector, HMM., Indian sign language

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Authors: Samaneh Yavari, Christiane Pferrer, Elisabeth Engelke, Alexander Starke, Juergen Rehage

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Background: Nowadays, bovine limb interventions, especially any claw surgeries, raises selection of the most qualified and appropriate local anesthesia technique applicable for any superficial or deep interventions of the limbs. Currently, two local anesthesia methods of Intravenous Regional Anesthesia (IVRA), as well as Nerve Blocks, have been routine to apply. However, the lack of studies investigating the quality and duration as well as quantity and onset of full (complete) local anesthesia, is noticeable. Therefore, the aim of our study was comparing the onset and quality of both IVRA and our modified NBA at the hind limb of dairy cows. For this abstract, only the onset of full local anesthesia would be consider. Materials and Methods: For that reason, we used six healthy non pregnant non lactating Holestein Frisian cows in a cross-over study design. Those cows divided into two groups to receive IVRA and our modified four-point NBA. For IVRA, 20 ml procaine without epinephrine was injected into the vein digitalis dorsalis communis III and for our modified four-point NBA, 10-15 ml procaine without epinephrine preneurally to the nerves, superficial and deep peroneal as well as lateral and medial branches of metatarsal nerves. For pain stimulation, electrical stimulator Grass S48 was applied. Results: The results of electrical stimuli revealed the faster onset of full local anesthesia (p < 0.05) by application of our modified NBA in comparison to IVRA about 10 minutes. Conclusion and discussion: Despite of available references showing faster onset of foot local anesthesia of IVRA, our study demonstrated that our modified four point NBA not only can be well known as a standard foot local anesthesia method applicable to desensitize the hind limb of dairy cows, but also, selection of this modified validated local anesthesia method can lead to have a faster start of complete desensitization of distal hind limb that is remarkable in any bovine limb interventions under time constraint.

Keywords: IVRA, four point NBA, dairy cow, hind limb, full onset

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Authors: Irene Oluwatosin Uwabor

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Climate change is a global phenomenon which affects the environment and undermines agricultural activities, in particular, cocoa production in Nigeria. This study, therefore, assessed the farmers ‘coping strategies to climate change effects in Ilaro Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used to select twenty-five cocoa farmers from each of the selected six wards to make up 150 cocoa farmers as sample size for this study. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were used for the data analysis. The results showed that the average age of the respondents was 43.8 years and male dominated (80.00%) cocoa production. Most of the respondents had some level of formal education (93.4%). The mean of household and year of experience in cocoa farming were eight people and 11.6 years respectively. Family and Hired labour (41.3%) was the common source of labour to the respondents and majority (86.0%) of the respondents were aware of climate change. The study concluded that respondents experienced low yield and high rate of deformed beans in the pods due to climate change. The adjustment strategies used were planting of diseases and pest resistant cocoa varieties, using of heavy mulching, diversification into other non- agricultural income generating activities and tree crops cultivation to provide shade. Also, significant relationships existed between personal characteristics (χ²= 62.24, df = 6, p = 0.00), adjustment strategies (χ²= 103.1, df = 4, p = 0.00) and effect of climate change. It is hereby recommend that extension service providers should intensify more effort and advocating for improved agronomic practices to increase cocoa productivity in the study area.

Keywords: cocoa farmers, coping strategies, climate change, ilaro

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Authors: M. L. Anitha, K. A. Radhakrishna Rao

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With the advent of modern computing technology, there is an increased demand for developing recognition systems that have the capability of verifying the identity of individuals. Recognition systems are required by several civilian and commercial applications for providing access to secured resources. Traditional recognition systems which are based on physical identities are not sufficiently reliable to satisfy the security requirements due to the use of several advances of forgery and identity impersonation methods. Recognizing individuals based on his/her unique physiological characteristics known as biometric traits is a reliable technique, since these traits are not transferable and they cannot be stolen or lost. Since the performance of biometric based recognition system depends on the particular trait that is utilized, the present work proposes a fusion approach which combines Inner knuckle print (IKP) trait of the middle, ring and index fingers with the geometrical features of hand. The hand image captured from a digital camera is preprocessed to find finger IKP as region of interest (ROI) and hand geometry features. Geometrical features are represented as the distances between different key points and IKP features are extracted by applying local binary pattern descriptor on the IKP ROI. The decision level AND fusion was adopted, which has shown improvement in performance of the combined scheme. The proposed approach is tested on the database collected at our institute. Proposed approach is of significance since both hand geometry and IKP features can be extracted from the palm region of the hand. The fusion of these features yields a false acceptance rate of 0.75%, false rejection rate of 0.86% for verification tests conducted, which is less when compared to the results obtained using individual traits. The results obtained confirm the usefulness of proposed approach and suitability of the selected features for developing biometric based recognition system based on features from palmar region of hand.

Keywords: biometrics, hand geometry features, inner knuckle print, recognition

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Authors: J. Fryt, K. Pietras, T. Smolen

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Intergenerational similarities in values may be effect of value transmission within families or socio-cultural trends prevailing at a specific point in time. According to salience hypothesis, salient family values may be transmitted more frequently. On the other hand, many value studies reveal that generational shift from social values (conservation and self-transcendence) to more individualistic values (openness to change and self-enhancement) suggest that value transmission and value change are two different processes. The first aim of our study was to describe similarities and differences in values of young women and their parents. The second aim was to determine which value similarities may be due to transmission within families. Ninety seven Polish women aged 19-25 and both their mothers and fathers filled in the Portrait Value Questionaire. Intergenerational similarities in values between women were found in strong preference for benevolence, universalism and self-direction as well as low preference for power. Similarities between younger women and older men were found in strong preference for universalism and hedonism as well as lower preference for security and tradition. Young women differed from older generation in strong preference for stimulation and achievement as well as low preference for conformity. To identify the origin of intergenerational similarities (whether they are the effect of value transmission within families or not), we used the comparison between correlations of values in family dyads (mother-daughter, father-daughter) and distribution of correlations in random intergenerational dyads (random mother-daughter, random father-daughter) as well as peer dyads (random daughter-daughter). Values representing conservation (security, tradition and conformity) as well as benevolence and power were transmitted in families between women. Achievement, power and security were transmitted between fathers and daughters. Similarities in openness to change (self-direction, stimulation and hedonism) and universalism were not stronger within families than in random intergenerational and peer dyads. Taken together, our findings suggest that despite noticeable generation shift from social to more individualistic values, we can observe transmission of parents’ salient values such as security, tradition, benevolence and achievement.

Keywords: value transmission, value change, intergenerational similarities, differences in values

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Authors: Yawen Xia, Rubi Yang, Jing Zhao

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By using the Reputation Risk Index (RRI) to measure company environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities, this research studies firms’ ESG comovement with their industry and local peers. This comovement is attenuated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Further analysis shows that corporate governance plays an important role in comovement decrease. We classify companies by region (city, state, region) and industry and calculate the average RRI of companies of the same type. We run separate regressions to test 1) industry comovement; 2) local comovement; 3) Covid-19 pandemic and reputation risk comovement; 4) corporate governance and reputation risk comovement. Our findings are consistent with previous literature that companies follow their industry and local counterparts in engaging in irresponsible activities and reducing ESG engagement. We speculate Covid shock led to a reduction in social activities and information sharing among enterprise managers, and comovement between enterprises, as a result, decreased during the pandemic.

Keywords: ESG, Covid, peer pressure, local comovement, corporate governance

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Authors: Bharatendra Rai

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Cutting tools are widely used in manufacturing processes and drilling is the most commonly used machining process. Although drill-bits used in drilling may not be expensive, their breakage can cause damage to expensive work piece being drilled and at the same time has major impact on productivity. Predicting drill-bit breakage, therefore, is important in reducing cost and improving productivity. This study uses twenty features extracted from two degradation signals viz., thrust force and torque. The methodology used involves developing and comparing decision tree, random forest, and multinomial logistic regression models for classifying and predicting drill-bit breakage using degradation signals.

Keywords: degradation signal, drill-bit breakage, random forest, multinomial logistic regression

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Authors: Ahmed Abdolkhalig, Rastko Zivanovic

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This paper evaluates the Total Vector Error of an estimated Phasor as define in IEEE C37.118 standard within different medium access in Local Area Networks (LAN). Three different LAN models (CSMA/CD, CSMA/AMP, and Switched Ethernet) are evaluated. The Total Vector Error of the estimated Phasor has been evaluated for the effect of Nodes Number under the standardized network Band-width values defined in IEC 61850-9-2 communication standard (i.e. 0.1, 1, and 10 Gbps).

Keywords: phasor, local area network, total vector error, IEEE C37.118, IEC 61850

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Authors: M. Palizvan, M. T. Abadi, M. H. Sadr

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Due to variations in damage mechanisms in the microscale, the behavior of fiber-reinforced composites is nonlinear and difficult to model. To make use of computational advantages, homogenization method is applied to the micro-scale model in order to minimize the cost at the expense of detail of local microscale phenomena. In this paper, the effective stiffness is calculated using the homogenization of nonlinear behavior of a composite representative volume element (RVE) containing fiber-matrix debonding. The damage modes for the RVE are considered by using cohesive elements and contacts for the cohesive behavior of the interface between fiber and matrix. To predict more realistic responses of composite materials, different random distributions of fibers are proposed besides square and hexagonal arrays. It was shown that in some cases, there is quite different damage behavior in different fiber distributions. A comprehensive comparison has been made between different graphs.

Keywords: homogenization, cohesive zone model, fiber-matrix debonding, RVE

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Authors: Swathi Ganesan, Nalinda Somasiri, Rebecca Jeyavadhanam, Gayathri Karthick

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The COVID-19 crisis presents a substantial and critical hazard to worldwide health. Since the occurrence of the disease in late January 2020 in the UK, the number of infected people confirmed to acquire the illness has increased tremendously across the country, and the number of individuals affected is undoubtedly considerably high. The purpose of this research is to figure out a predictive machine learning archetypal that could forecast COVID-19 cases within the UK. This study concentrates on the statistical data collected from 31st January 2020 to 31st March 2021 in the United Kingdom. Information on total COVID cases registered, new cases encountered on a daily basis, total death registered, and patients’ death per day due to Coronavirus is collected from World Health Organisation (WHO). Data preprocessing is carried out to identify any missing values, outliers, or anomalies in the dataset. The data is split into 8:2 ratio for training and testing purposes to forecast future new COVID cases. Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forests, and linear regression algorithms are chosen to study the model performance in the prediction of new COVID-19 cases. From the evaluation metrics such as r-squared value and mean squared error, the statistical performance of the model in predicting the new COVID cases is evaluated. Random Forest outperformed the other two Machine Learning algorithms with a training accuracy of 99.47% and testing accuracy of 98.26% when n=30. The mean square error obtained for Random Forest is 4.05e11, which is lesser compared to the other predictive models used for this study. From the experimental analysis Random Forest algorithm can perform more effectively and efficiently in predicting the new COVID cases, which could help the health sector to take relevant control measures for the spread of the virus.

Keywords: COVID-19, machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, linear regression, support vector machine, random forest

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Authors: Margareta Rahayuningsih, Nur Rahayu Utami, Tsabit A. M., Muh. Abdullah

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Mount Ungaran is one area that has remaining natural forest in Central Java, Indonesia. Mount Ungaran consists of several habitats that supporting appropriate areas for flora, fauna, and microorganisms biodiversity, particularly of it is protected by government law and IUCN red list data. Therefore, Mount Ungaran also settled up as AZE (Alliance for Zero Extinction) and IBA (Important Bird Area). The land use for agriculture and plantation reduces forest covered areas. It is serious threat to the existence of biodiversity in Moun Ungaran. This research has been identified community local wisdom that possible to be integrated as ethno-biological research and biodiversity conservation. The result showed at least four local wisdom that possible to be integrated to ethno-biological and biodiversity conservation were Wit Weh Woh (a ceremony of life-giving tree), Grebeg Alas Susuk Wangan (a ceremony for forest protection), Iriban (a ceremony of clean water resource protection), and tingkep tandur (a ceremony for ready-harvested plant protection). It is needed ethno-biological researches of local wisdom-contained values, which essential to be developed as a strategy for biodiversity conservation in Mount Ungaran.

Keywords: Mount Ungaran, local wisdom, biodiversity, fragmentation

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Authors: Nchanji Yvonne Kiki, Mala William Armand, Nchanji Eileen Bogweh, Ramcilovik-Suominen Sabaheta, Kotilainen Juha

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The Campo Ma'an National Park was created as part of an environmental and biodiversity compensation for the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project, which was meant to help alleviate poverty and boost the livelihood of rural communities around the area. This paper examines different strategies and coping mechanisms employed by the indigenous people and local communities to deal with the national and internationally driven conservation policies and initiatives in the case of the Campo Ma'an National Park. While most literature on park management/co-management/nature conservation has focused on the negative implications for local peoples’ livelihoods, fewer studies have investigated the strategies of local people to respond to these policies and renegotiate their position in a way that enables them to continue their traditional livelihoods using the existing local knowledge systems. This study contributes to the current literature by zooming into not only the impacts of nature conservation policies but also the local individual and collective strategies and responses to such policies and initiatives. We employ a qualitative research approach using ethnomethodology and a convivial lens to analyze data collected from October to November 2018. We find that conservation policies have worsened some existing livelihoods on the one hand and constrained livelihood improvement of indigenous people and local communities (IPLC) on the other hand. Nonetheless, the IPLC has devised individual and collective coping mechanisms to deal with these conservation interventions and the negative effects they have caused. Upon exploring these mechanisms and their effectiveness, this study proposes a management approach to conservation centered on both people and nature, based on indigenous and local people's knowledge and practices, promoting nature for and by humans and strengthening both livelihood and conservation. We take inspiration from the convivial conservation approach and thinking by Bucher and Fletcher.

Keywords: conservation policies, national park management, indigenous and local people’s experiences, livelihoods, local knowledge, coping strategies, conviviality

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Authors: Surasak Kangkhao, Chaturong Louhapensang

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This research investigates design and cultural heritage interpretations by residential architecture design in World Heritage cities: Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand reflect on the essence of design based on local identity. The research consisted of three thematic foci. First, the studies examined the contextual background that led to the genesis of the building. Second, the investigations concentrated on how its design was developed and implemented. Third, these modes of problematisation lent a basis to argue that a quality of placeness was not confined exclusively to traditional or vernacular structures but could be found from the unconventional aesthetics of Residential Architecture as well.

Keywords: expressions, local identity, residential architecture, practice, world heritage site

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Authors: Won Man Park, Dae Kyung Choi, Kyungsoo Kim, Yoon Hyuk Kim

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Traction therapy has been used in the treatment of spinal pain for decades. However, a case study reported the occurrence of large disc protrusion during motorized traction therapy. In this study, we hypothesized that additional local decompression with a global axial traction could be helpful for risk reduction of intervertebral disc damage. A validated three dimensional finite element model of the lumbar spine was used. Two-step traction therapy using the axial global traction (the first step) with 1/3 body weight and the additional local decompression (the second step) with 7 mm translation of L4 spinal bone was determined for the traction therapy. During two-step traction therapy, the sacrum was constrained in all translational directions. Reduced lordosis angle by the global axial traction recovered with the additional local decompression. Stress on fibers of the annulus fibrosus by the axial global traction decreased with the local decompression by 17%~96% in the posterior region of intervertebral disc. Stresses on ligaments except anterior longitudinal ligaments in all motion segments decreased till 4.9 mm~5.6 mm translation of L4 spinal bone. The results of this study showed that the additional local decompression is very useful for reducing risk of damage in the intervertebral disc and ligaments caused by the global axial traction force. Moreover, the local decompression could be used to enhance reduction of intradiscal pressure.

Keywords: lumbar spine, traction-therapy, biomechanics, finite element analysis

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Authors: Ruedee Niyomrath, Somboon Sarasit, Chaisri Tharaswatpipat

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This research aims to study the potential of local waste material in quantity and quality. The potential for such local forms of waste material used as renewable energy for the production of processed agricultural products. The results of this study are useful to producers of agricultural products to use fuel that in local, reduce production costs, and conservation. The results showed that Samut Songkhram is a small province located in the central Thailand, sea area, and subdivided into 3 districts. This province has a population of 80 percent of farmers and agriculture with 50 percent of the area planted to coconut growing. Productivity of coconut help create value for the primacy of the province. Waste materials from coconut have quantity and quality potentials for processing biomass into charcoal as the renewable energy for the production of processed agricultural products.

Keywords: waste, renewable energy, producing of product, processed agricultural products

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Authors: Semiarto Aji Purwanto, Sutji Shinto

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Over a quarter century, the idea of sustainable development has become a global discussion. In Indonesia, more than five decades since the development of the country took priority over any other matter, a discussion on the need of development is still an intriguing. Far from the enthusiasm of development programs run by the Indonesian government since 1967, the Dayak community in the interior of Kalimantan tropical forest was significantly abandoned from the changes. There were not many programs for the interior because the focus of development mostly was in Java island. Consequently, the Dayak live their life as shifting cultivator that has been practiced for centuries. Our ethnographic observation conducted in April-July 2016, found that today, they still maintain the knowledge and keeping the existence of local variety of rice. While in Java, these varieties have been replaced by more-productive-and-resistant-to-pest varieties, the Dayak still maintain more than 60s varieties. From the biodiversity’s perspective, it is a delightful news; while from the cultural perspective, the persistence of their custom regarding to the practice of traditional cultivation is fascinating as well. The local knowledge of agriculture is well conserved and practice daily. It is revealed that the resilience of those rice varieties is related to the local social structure since the distribution of each variety usually limited to the particular clans in the community. While experiencing the lack of programs for village development, the community has maintained the local leadership and its government structure at the village level. The paper will explore the effect of how a neglected area, which was disregarded by development program, sustains their culture and biodiversity. We would like to discuss the concept of sustainability whether it needed for the development programs, for the changes into a modern civilisation, or for the sake of the local to survive.

Keywords: sustainable development, local knowledge, rice, resilience, Kalimantan, Indonesia

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Authors: Mohammed T. Shukri

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The failure of bridges due to excessive local scour during floods poses a challenging problem to hydraulic engineers. The failure of bridges piers is due to many reasons such as localized scour combined with general riverbed degradation. In this paper, we try to estimate the temporal variation of scour depth at nonuniform cylindrical bridge pier, by experimental work conducted in hydraulic laboratories of Gaziantep University Civil Engineering Department on a flume having dimensions of 8.3 m length, 0.8 m width and 0.9 m depth. The experiments will be carried on 20 cm depth of sediment layer having d₅₀=0.4 mm. Three bridge pier shapes having different scaled models will be constructed in a 1.5m of test section in the channel.

Keywords: scour, local scour, bridge piers, scour depth

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Authors: Nursel Koyuncu, Nihal Ata Tutkun

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Frailty model is a survival model that takes into account the unobserved heterogeneity for exploring the relationship between the survival of an individual and several covariates. In the recent years, proposed survival models become more complex and this feature causes convergence problems especially in large data sets. Therefore selection of sample from these big data sets is very important for estimation of parameters. In sampling literature, some authors have defined new sampling schemes to predict the parameters correctly. For this aim, we try to see the effect of sampling design in semi-parametric frailty model. We conducted a simulation study in R programme to estimate the parameters of semi-parametric frailty model for different sample sizes, censoring rates under classical simple random sampling and ranked set sampling schemes. In the simulation study, we used data set recording 17260 male Civil Servants aged 40–64 years with complete 10-year follow-up as population. Time to death from coronary heart disease is treated as a survival-time and age, systolic blood pressure are used as covariates. We select the 1000 samples from population using different sampling schemes and estimate the parameters. From the simulation study, we concluded that ranked set sampling design performs better than simple random sampling for each scenario.

Keywords: frailty model, ranked set sampling, efficiency, simple random sampling

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Authors: Methembe Mdlalose

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This paper synthesizes the findings of a study that utilized a purposive sampling methodology laced within a grounded theory analytical framework with LED managers, mayors, and traditional leaders representing six municipalities of uThukela District of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The paper critiques the two institution’s micro-relations within local governance and their overall impact on the general development discourse of rural areas. The study is located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, a part of South Africa that experiences extremely low levels of development in rural areas and suffers from high rates of inequality, poverty, and unemployment. The paper unpacks the role of two significant stakeholders in the local sphere. Considered as the two dominant stakeholders at the local level, questions of compatibility between traditional leaders and municipal councillors often surge, as the two institutions (who represent two autonomous entities) that operate within the same operational boarders. The discussion around community development lies very deeply on accountability, which assures citizens that fruitless spending is curbed and good governance is maintained. If development is to be assured, it is vital to monitor accountability within government spheres and its departments. It is further essential to monitor the relations within local government. The findings of this research confirmed how relationships between traditional leaders and councillors can and have contributed to economic development or its stagnation thereof in rural areas. In addition, the findings revealed that there is an extensive need for the two stakeholders to work collectively, as this is a vital move in planning for development. Furthermore, the better accountability of local government and a better understanding of how clear policy and its implementation is may be a valuable asset in the discourse of community economic development in rural areas.

Keywords: economic development, traditional leadership, democratically elected councillors, local governance

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Authors: Yamkela Zitwana

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Soil erosion along the roads and/or road riparian areas has become a norm in the Eastern Cape. Soil erosion refers to the detachment and transportation of soil from one area (onsite) to another (offsite). This displacement or removal of soil can be caused by water, air and sometimes gravity. This will focus on accelerated soil erosion which is the result of human interference with the environment. Engcobo local municipality falls within the Eastern Cape Province in the eastern side of CHRIS HANI District municipality. The focus road is R61 protruding from the Engcobo town outskirts along the Nyanga SSS on the way to Umtata although it will cover few Kilometers away from Engcobo. This research aims at looking at the contribution made by road construction to soil erosion. Steps to achieve the result will involve revisiting the phases of road construction through unstructured interviews, identifying the types of soil erosion evident in the area by doing a checklist, checking the material, utensils and equipment used for road construction and the contribution of road construction through stratified random sampling checking the soil color and texture. This research will use a pragmatic approach which combines related methods and consider the flaws of each method so as to ensure validity, precision and accuracy. Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used. Statistical methods and GIS analysis will be used to analyze the collected data.

Keywords: soil erosion, road riparian, accelerated soil erosion, road construction, sampling, universal soil loss model, GIS analysis, focus groups, qualitative, quantitative method, research, checklist questionnaires, unstructured interviews, pragmatic approach

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Authors: Hong Fan, Lifang Gao, Feng Zhan

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This paper examines the influence of local gambling attitudes on a firm's long-term financial performance. Firms located in gambling-prone regions may be more willing to take risks, thus spending more on innovative projects. However, firms in such regions may also be likely to choose projects impulsively and allocate resources inefficiently. By studying Chinese publicly listed firms from 2010 to 2017, we find that firms in more gambling-prone regions invest more in R&D. Both local gambling attitudes and firms’ R&D spending are positively associated with firms’ long-term financial performance. More importantly, our study reveals that the positive impact of R&D spending on firms’ long-term financial performance is weakened by gambling-friendly attitudes, probably because firms in gambling-prone regions are more likely to overinvest in risky projects. This effect is stronger for larger firms, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), firms with more government subsidies, and firms with weaker internal control.

Keywords: regional gambling attitudes, long-term financial performance, R&D, risk, local bias

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Authors: Peter Lindstrom, Caroline Gyberg, Scott Goodwin

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The Swedish police organisation was fundamentally reorganized in 2015 when 21 regional police forces were combined into one national police authority divided in 7 larger police regions, 35 police areas, and some 100 local police districts. A central theme for the reform was that local crime prevention policing should be more unified in the country. In this paper, we review crime prevention strategies in Sweden from a criminological and policing perspective focusing, among other things, on differences between urban and rural areas. In the crime prevention field, words such as 'knowledge- and evidence-based', 'collaboration', and 'strategies' are common. Our objective is to investigate the relationship between theoretical and practical knowledge in local crime prevention work. Our research indicate that an elaborated and strategic connection between theoretical and practical perspectives is important for successful local crime prevention work. Universities may provide a platform such knowledge exchange.

Keywords: crime prevention, police reform, urban and rural areas, criminological and policing perspectives

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Authors: Taehyun Kim, Hyunjoo Park, Taehyun Kim

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Public deliberation committee on Shin-Gori Nuclear Reactors No. 5 & 6 in South Korea recently suggested policy recommendation in July 2017 including complementary measures for resumption of construction: 1) nuclear power generation reduction, 2) expansion of investment to increase proportion of renewable energy, 3) repositories of spent nuclear fuel. Even when constructing eco-friendly renewable energy facilities such as solar and wind power plants, local residents are opposed to construction of these facilities due to environmental pollution and health impacts. In order to transform eco-friendly energy, it is necessary to convert nuclear energy into renewable energy and to take measures to increase the acceptance of residents through the participation of citizens. Therefore, this study aims to compare the factors of local acceptance of renewable energy facilities and spent nuclear fuel repositories through literature review and in-depth interview. The results show that environmental and economic concerns, risk perceptions, sociality, demographic characteristics and subjective recognition types affect the local acceptance for spent nuclear fuel repository. The factors of local acceptance for renewable energy facilities are partially coincide with those for spent nuclear fuel repository. The results of this study will contribute to improving residents' acceptance and reducing conflicts when determining the location of facilities in the future.

Keywords: local acceptance, renewable energy facility, spent nuclear fuel repository, interview

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Authors: Halil Ibrahim Demir, Tarık Cakar, Ibrahim Cil, Muharrem Dugenci, Caner Erden

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Conventionally, process planning, scheduling, and due-date assignment functions are performed separately and sequentially. The interdependence of these functions requires integration. Although integrated process planning and scheduling, and scheduling with due date assignment problems are popular research topics, only a few works address the integration of these three functions. This work focuses on the integration of process planning, WMS scheduling, and WPPW due date assignment. Another novelty of this work is the use of a weighted due date assignment. In the literature, due dates are generally assigned without considering the importance of customers. However, in this study, more important customers get closer due dates. Typically, only tardiness is punished, but the JIT philosophy punishes both earliness and tardiness. In this study, all weighted earliness, tardiness, and due date related costs are penalized. As no customer desires distant due dates, such distant due dates should be penalized. In this study, various levels of integration of these three functions are tested and genetic search and random search are compared both with each other and with ordinary solutions. Higher integration levels are superior, while search is always useful. Genetic searches outperformed random searches.

Keywords: process planning, weighted scheduling, weighted due-date assignment, genetic algorithm, random search

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Authors: Azita Ramezani, Atousa Ramezani

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In the ever-escalating landscape of windows malware the necessity for pioneering defense strategies turns into undeniable this study introduces an avant-garde approach fusing the capabilities of clustering random forests and support vector machines SVM to combat the intricate web of cyber threats our fusion model triumphs with a staggering accuracy of 98.67 and an equally formidable f1 score of 98.68 a testament to its effectiveness in the realm of windows malware defense by deciphering the intricate patterns within malicious code our model not only raises the bar for detection precision but also redefines the paradigm of cybersecurity preparedness this breakthrough underscores the potential embedded in the fusion of diverse analytical methodologies and signals a paradigm shift in fortifying against the relentless evolution of windows malicious threats as we traverse through the dynamic cybersecurity terrain this research serves as a beacon illuminating the path toward a resilient future where innovative fusion models stand at the forefront of cyber threat defense.

Keywords: fusion models, cyber threat defense, windows malware, clustering, random forests, support vector machines (SVM), accuracy, f1-score, cybersecurity, malicious code detection

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Authors: K. Appasamy, P. Paul

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Mauritius, a developing small-island-state, is facing a recession which is having a considerable economic impact particularly on its construction sector. Further, the presence of foreign entities, both as companies and workers, within this sector is creating a very competitive environment for local firms. This study investigates the key drivers that allow foreign firms to participate in this sector, in particular looking at the international and local tender processes, and the capacity of local industry to participate. This study also looks at how the current set up may hinder the latter’s involvement. The methodology used included qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with established foreign companies, local companies, and public bodies. Study findings indicate: there is an adequate availability of professional skills and expertise within the Mauritian construction industry but a lack of skilled labour especially at the operative level; projects awarded to foreign firms are either due to their uniqueness and hence lack of local knowledge, or due to foreign firms having lower tender bids; tendering systems and processes are weak, including monitoring and enforcement, which encourages corruption and favouritism; a high level of ignorance of this sector’s characteristics and opportunities exists amongst the local population; local entities are very profit oriented and have short term strategies that discourage long term investment in workforce training and development; but most importantly, stakeholders do not grasp the importance of encouraging youngsters to join this sector, they have no long term vision, and there is a lack of mutual involvement and collaboration between them. Although local industry is highly competent, qualified and experienced, the tendering and procurement systems in Mauritius are not conducive enough to allow for effective strategic planning and an equitable allocation of projects during an economic downturn so that the broadest spread of stakeholders’ benefit. It is of utmost importance that all sector and government entities collaborate to formulate strategies and reforms on tender processes and capacity building to ensure fairness and continuous growth of this sector in Mauritius.

Keywords: construction industry, tender process, international firms, local capacity, Mauritius

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Authors: V. Charaia

Abstract:

From the strategic point of view, not all Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) are always positively benefiting the host economy, i.e. not all Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are promoting local/host economies. FDI could have different impact on different sectors of the economy, based not only on annual investment amount, but MNE motivations and peculiarities of the host economy in particular. FDI analysis based only on its amount can lead to incorrect decisions, it is much more important to understand the essence of investment. Consequently, our research is oriented on MNE’s motivations, answering which sectors are most popular among international investors and why, what motivated them to invest into one or another business. Georgian economy for the last period of time is attracting more and more efficiency seeking investments, which could be translated as - concentrating production in a limited number of locations to supply various markets, while benefiting local economy with: new technologies, employment, exports diversification, increased income for the local economy and so on. Foreign investors and MNEs in particular are no longer and not so much interested in the resource seeking investments, which was the case for Georgia in the last decade of XX century. Despite the fact of huge progress for the Georgian economy, still there is a room for foreign investors to make a local market oriented investments. The local market is still rich in imported products, which should be replaced by local ones. And the last but not the least important issue is that approximately 30% of all FDIs in Georgia according to this research are “efficiency seeking” investments, which is an enormous progress and a hope for future Georgian success.

Keywords: investments, MNE, FDI motivations, Georgian economy

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Authors: Reginawanti Hindersah, Widiya Septiani Perdanawati, Dewi Azizah Sulaksana, Hidiyah Ayu Ma’rufah

Abstract:

Maize in some region in East Nusa Tenggara Indonesia bordering Republic Democratic of Timor Leste is important local food crop and commonly cultivated using conventional method without appropriate plant nutrition system so that productivity is still low. A way to enhance local corn yield is adding biofertilizer containing nitrogen (N2) fixing bacteria such as Azotobacter. The purpose of this research was to determine N2 fixation, cytokinin as well as exopolysachharide production capacity of six indigenous Azotobacter strains in pure culture. The N2 fixation capacities of native 3 day old Azotobacter strains added to Ashby Media varied from 0.01 to 0.39 µM/g/hour. Cytokinin production of these strain in liquid culture of N-free Media was 0.11 to 40.04 ppm while exopolysachharide content in liquid culture of Vermani Media varied from 0.4 to 27.3 g/L. This results demonstrate that some local Azotobacter strains might be used as biofertilizer.

Keywords: azotobacter, local isolate, N fixation, phythohormone, exopolysaccaride

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Authors: Ruedee Niyomrath

Abstract:

This research aimed at surveying the local red clay raw material sources in Samut Songkram province, Thailand to test the physical and chemical properties of the local red clay, including to find the approach to develop the local red clay properties for ceramic production. The findings of this research would be brought to apply in the ceramic production industry of the country all at the upstream level which was the community in the raw material source, at the mid water level which was the ceramic producer and at the downstream level which was the distributor and the consumer as well as the community producer who would apply them to their identity and need of the community business.

Keywords: chemical properties of red clay, physical properties of red clay, ceramic production, red clay product

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Authors: K. C. Kalam Aswathy, M. V. Anil Kumar

Abstract:

The possible failure modes of cold-formed steel (CFS) lipped angle (LA) compression members are yielding, local, flexural-torsional, or flexural buckling, and any possible interaction between these buckling modes. In general, the strength estimated by current design guidelines is conservative for these members when flexural-torsional buckling (FTB) is the first global buckling mode, as the post-buckling strength of this mode is not accounted for in the global buckling strength equations. The initial part of this paper reports the results of an experimental and numerical study of CFS-LA members undergoing independent FTB. The modifications are suggested to global buckling strength equations based on these results. Subsequently, the reduction in the ultimate strength from strength corresponding to independent buckling modes for LA members undergoing interaction between buckling modes such as local-flexural torsional, flexural-flexural torsional, local-flexural, and local-flexural torsional-flexural are studied systematically using finite element analysis results. A simple and more accurate interaction equation that accounts for the above interactions between buckling modes in CFS-LA compression members is proposed.

Keywords: buckling interactions, cold-formed steel, flexural-torsional buckling, lipped angle

Procedia PDF Downloads 54